Uganda-Rwanda fibre connection 'on track for 2010'

13 November 2009

The laying of a fibre optic cable from Uganda to Rwanda should be finished by January 2010, it has been reported.

Once completed, the East African Backhaul System - which will connect the land-locked nations of this region to the EASSY cable and offer end-to-end coverage to Uganda - will be much closer to completion.

Chief executive officer of Green Future Fred Sewe explained the solution his company had been hired by Uganda Telecom and Rwandatel to put into effect.

"There was no optic fibre cable connection in Kampala making it purely microwave. As a stop gap measure, Green Future connected Kampala to Kigali through microwave, creating a 30 MG capacity," he was quoted by newspaper New Vision as saying.

In related news, the first phase of the national data transmission backbone infrastructure - which consists of five centres at Mukono, Jinja, Kampala, Entebbe and Bombo - has also been completed.

The Ugandan information and communication technology committee chairperson Nathan Igeme Nabeta was quoted by the news source as saying: "We are now moving in the right direction."

Category: ICT