Business
SOMALILAND: EASSy cable open for business
August 5, 2010 · 12 Comments
HARGEISA (Somalilandpress) — The days of limited and expensive international bandwidth in South Africa are over as the EASSy cable became the second submarine cable to launch on the East coast of Africa.
MTN’s Trevor Martin’s, who also serves as the EASSy consortium’s chairperson, announced in Sandton this week that the cable had come in ahead of schedule and almost 10% under its $300-million budget.
The 10 000km cable lands in South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, the Comores, Tanzania, Kenya, Somaliland, Djibouti and Sudan.
It connects with multiple Asian and European cables in Djibouti and Sudan.
The commercial launch of the EASSy cable follows the launch of the Seacom cable in July 2009 and Telkom’s SAT-3 cable.
The Seacom cable was privately funded, while EASSy has seen significant investment from governments and major operators along the East Coast of Africa.
Investors include MTN, Neotel, Telkom, Vodacom, British Telecom, Botswana Telecoms, Bharti Airtel, Dalkom Somalia, Comoros Telecom, Mauritius Telecom and France Telecom, among others.
Unlike South Africa, for many African countries the EASSy cable represents their second undersea cable, which is vitally important in stimulating competition, but also in creating backup capacity in case one of the cables has a fault or is damaged on the sea bed.
“We are confident that this is the most reliable system serving the African continent,” said Jacques van der Walt, the chairperson of the EASSy consortium’s procurement committee.
One small hiccup was that the cable does not land in Mogadishu, Somalia, due to the threat of piracy.
Chris Wood, the CEO of WIOCC — an investor in the EASSy cable — said the cable would land in the north of Somaliland and service Somalia through this landing station.
Wood said that the consortium still planned to land in Mogadishu once the threats of piracy had been minimised. He said, however, that this was probably a year or two away.
By Lloyd Gedye
Photo: Telecom Somaliland
Source: Mail & Guardian Online (South Africa) | Thursday, 5 August 2010
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Tags: Berbera, cable, EASSY, Somaliland
Readers Comments (12)
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Major victory for Somaliland but Djibouti is trying to steal the cable by using the multi-millionaire Somalilander Mohamed Aw Saeed Geedi who runs and holds total monopoly on the importation of tabbaco in Djibouti, Somaliland and even parts of Ethiopia. He recently established a firm called SomCable (Somaliland Cable) and wants to invest $35million.
This guy is dirty man and should not be trusted with this sort of project.
I suggest Somaliland government keeps/owns 20% and sells the rest of the 80% in this manner: 40% to Dalkom Somalia (Jama Telkom) and 40% SomCable (Mohamed Aw Saeed).
Djibouti telkom, which is controlled by the government of Djibouti paid him, they use him to buy Somaliland interest like the Salahdin Islands in Awdal, tomorrow they will say Zeilac.
This guy is money hungry and Silaanyo needs to reverse the contract Riyale signed for Mohamed Aw Saeed.
They want to control everything from Djibouti.
My dear keyse your article lacks honesty and is pallid from your baseless information. I happen to be a djiboutian, who lived in northamerica for a periode of 22 year. I have a lot friends from somaliland and I am just back to Djibouti from a trip to Hargeisa. Somaliland people are not people you can fool easly. They know Djibouti very well desipte the political differnces they managed to have a strong relationship for the last 2 yeatrs. It was something they have been working for the past 19 years and the two country share a common value which is peace and not like the lawlessness in putland and Somalia. For your information neither Somaliland,Djibouti or Ethiopia have allocated the tobbaco retailing industry to someone special. You want to talk about dirty, Jama is dirty. He does many laundring for somalia pirates and for that facts opens in a bank who's major activities are the circulation of this unjustly earnings by the somali pirates. What has he done for Somaliland instead just throwing bribe money to some individual to justify his cause. What has he done for Somalilanders and Somaliland. Has he built on single road? Did he pay his taxes, duties legaly in somaliland and justify his major sources of income. I guess not. So don't you dare speak about a patriot who loves his 2 contries(dual nationalitly) and his people. I guess your still in the dark ages my friend I bet you don't even know what dual nationality means. You are talking about Salahdin islands, He is building a resort to attract tourist to come to enjoy Somaliland and as well contribute to the beauty of the breathtaking landscape of his home "Somaliland".
Finaly about Djibouti controling Somaliland? A great, mean uncle of the people of South Somalia could not control Somalilanders. So be carefull about how you choosing your words my friend. "When shit hits the roof some people run and some people stay."
Long live Somaliland.
Peace
Mohamed, Djibouti
Smalilanders settle for no less than gold, not only in international sports competitions, but also in the field of modern media and means of communications. But Arab-dominated Alshabaab wants Somalia to be backward and underdeveloped for ever so that Arab can colonize it and take it over for themselves. That is why the Somali poppets of Alshabaab won't allow any advaanced means of communication to be established in Somalia. Not only that but, these Arab mercenaries and their local collaborators of Alshabaab sent one of their poppets, just the other day, in a suicide mission. He killed scores of Somali women, whose only crime, according to the perversed dogma of this group, is trying to keep some streets of Mugadisho somewhat clean!!!!!. Is there any humanity left in these alien Aarbs, who mastermind all the death and destruction In Somalia?!!! Certainly not. What we witness here is a brutal invasion of Arabs of our land, nationhood and national identity. Somali youth need to wakeup and unit against this Wahabi-fascist Arab invadors, who are determined to occupay our land and eradicate every symbol of Somali nationalism.
Halyey Layaqaan,
We all know Alshabaab are pure Somalis. true Somalilanders are rational with their critiques. Singling out the Arabs in whats happening in Somalia is not true and unfair and I just wonder and confused about your biased accusations. I am not here to defend Alshabaab and truly disapprove their activities but your writings not only show imbalanced fabrications but also lack decency!!! Again, I question your identity as Somalilander???
Cheers.
Halyey Layaqaan,
Really I am beginning to question yor Isaaq identity!.
This Marine Cable must be cancelled and re-studied by the New Admin.
That deal was unconstitutional through the Law Makers!!!
Cheers.
That deal was unconstitutional by not going through the
Law Makers!!!
I agree, Riyale got bribed. Rather than getting quick cash from investors such as Mohamed Aw Saeed, the government should instead keep a stock in the cable and use it to deliver better services. If we give one man, its going to become a monopoly like the petrol controlled by Total and other commodities.
Djibouti Dalkom does not want the cable to go to Berbera so they using Mohamed Aw Saeed who will deliver the services from Djibouti by land. This is unacceptable and Somalilanders will never use such services. Berbera or no EASSy.
Dalkom Somalia wants the cable in Berbera, so they deserve 40%, the other 40% can go to Somcable or some foreign firm such as Qatar's Bingtel who already operate in the country.
Ina Aw Saeed Geedi thinks he can throw a trantrum and get his way. No Mr Somaliland has a lot of options and it rather deal with the cable in Mogadishu than Djibouti as the last choice.
All Foreign indirect deals by the previous Regime should be cancelled
and replaced with direct deals benefiting the Somaliland Govt.Treasury and
Somalilanders private sectors inside the country, of course with the full knowledge of the law makers. Dalkom Somalia & Djibouti Dalkom or any other third party must be eliminated/avoided. Somaliland can not afford hanky panky businesses!!!
Cheers.
Telecommunications in DJ use services provided by French companies which are triple more expensive. If French companies were any good, countries such as Senegal and Mali would have seen the benefits.
Monopoly is "normal" to Djiboutian since the French give them no choice. We must not allow them to change our competitive nature.
To the gentlemen above,
Finally I feel we are on the same page. I believe this cable could open a lot of opportunities for Somaliland in particular e-learning, e-commerce and other opportunities as well as having access to information to and from back home.
It could lift not only online activities but also improve telephone calls. Right now its quiet expensive to call Somaliland (AUD$0.74 per minute and more, AUD = Australian Dollar).
The new administration needs to cancel the Somcable agreement signed by the previous regime without getting approval from the Parliament. They also need to suspend the French firm TOTAL from Berbera and bring in new company to run it. TOTAL did not only bribe previous regimes but also took advantage of us during the civil war by convincing us no one was ready to bring in gasoline or petrol to a war torn Somaliland (1991-1994).
But now we have choices and people are ready to do business with us. TOTAL is killing Somaliland economy.
We also need to look into the so called domestic companies that import essential food and materials, such as Indha Deero company, Omar Company, Kaah and others.
We need to give more support to companies such as Dahabshiil, Telesom — who contributed to this country.
Remember SomCable (so called Somaliland Cable) is the wolf in sheep's clothing, it's Dalkom Djibouti. Ina Aw Saeed Geedi just wants to run his businesses in Djibouti and Somaliland and has always been more Djiboutian than Somalilander even though he is from Hargeisa. He used the clan card against Dalkom Somalia.
Silaanyo will make the wise move and suspend this so called SomCable–any foreigner who is thinking about investing with SomCable should not rush.
Hi Keyse and freinds,
My healthy commen sense leads me . I always admire what is right and i neglect what is wrong. I don´t support Somalilands progress with out a REASON. Riyaale and the present Somaliland leaders are not free of corruption they are like any other leader in this mad world.
SALAADIBA SIDA AY KUU QABATAA LOO TUKADAA ! Dad horaa yidhi. Any one regardless from his origen who wants to invest Somaliland is welcome dosen´t mattter if he is from China or Yuroowe. They create JOBS. Don´t forget that! Ina aw saeed is one of them. DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER TOOL MR. KAYSE?
Jama.
marka hure waxaan ahay nin dhaliyaro u dhashay wadanka somalilad kuna nool wadamada qorbaha wadan kamid se waxa magacayga layidhaadaa mustafe noor ahmed waxaan kaluu aan aad ugu farxay cable kaa bada oo soo gadhay wadan kaygii hooyo waxaann se aan daadka masulinta ah aan waydiisanayaa inay isiiyaan xidhista in all somaliland oo dhan anoo ku ah barafishanal fiber optice net muda dheerna kashaqaynayeey in kastoo aan anogu u qalmu oo aan ahay nin muwaadina anu u qalmin nin aan wadanka u dhaln ii maylkayguna waa sidan )(abshir_74@hotmail.com dhamaan tiin waad mahad san tihiin