Kenya to extend fibre optic infrastructure by June 2012. Africa Today

Kenya plans to expand its terrestrial fibre optic cable network by the end of June 2012 in order to link the central government with all the counties, Business Daily reported. The national fibre optic infrastructure has reached so far 37 out of a total of 47 counties. “E-Government Secretariat would connect the remaining 10 and work with telecommunication firms to do so before June,” the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communications, Bitange Ndemo, was quoted as saying. “The government fibre optic network will provide the intercity connectivity while the private sector is expected to offer the last mile connection.” The last mile refers to the links between the government Internet grids and the end users and is viewed to be provided through wireless technology such as Wimax, fibre optic connections or 4G. The project is expected to create business opportunities for infrastructure firms such as Jamii Telecoms, Kenya Data Network, Safaricom, Telkom Kenya, Wanainchi online and AccessKenya, among others.