Kenya withdraws from telecom cable project

NAIROBI, Kenya -- A debate about open access threatens to delay the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System project, which is designed to link the African continent to global telecommunications networks via fiber-optic cable.

Construction is slated to begin by the end of June. But earlier this month, the Kenyan government announced that it is withdrawing its support for the US$200 million project because of wrangling over whether to provide Internet service providers with free access to the fiber-optic link.

In addition, the sponsors of the project have yet to choose a construction company to lay the 9,900-kilometer cable from the Sudanese city of Port Sudan to Durban in South Africa.

"Three years have passed now since the project was envisioned, and nothing has been done apart from holding meetings," Bitange Ndemo, Kenya's permanent secretary for information and communication, said in an e-mail message.