Over 1500 kilometers of the optic fiber cable out of the 4000 kilometers earmarked for installation countrywide by ZAMTEL has so far been completed.
ZAMTEL Acting Public Relations Manager Rose Mwanza said works to install the modern connectivity cable throughout the country is progressing well with Lusaka and Copperbelt Provinces being the first to have the cable installed.
Ms. Mwanza told ZANIS in Lusaka today that the US$48 million project which started last year is expected to be completed in 2010.
She said despite the project being on course, it has however attracted additional local costs which she attributed to the prevailing global economic meltdown.
Ms. Mwanza said the North Western route is almost complete with 95 percent works done while Southern Province has about 65 percent of the works done.
She said the cable has also been installed on the Eastern and Northern route up to Rufunsa and Serenje districts respectively.
Ms.Mwanza said the Western route will in due course be linked from Western Province in Sesheke to the Southern route in Livingstone.
The installation of the optic fiber network in the country is expected to boost capacity in the communication system.
ZANIS
good news and positive results, congrats zamtel. And what about the asset evaluation exercise ?
That’s some pretty good news.
good stuff there… now dont sell zamtel we can do it on our own..
manje che workmanship… i kno of the poor workmanship that was being done wen laying the cables…
This is great! .. All we need now if the EASY Cable (and other inter-country connections)
to connect to the rest of the Globe. Then we can throw away the satellite dishes!
Ba LT Ms Zimba or Mwanza
That i s great news.Thumbs up to you Zamtel..
It might be great news but after a waste of money. I am saying so because ZESCO has a similar project so there was duplication and wasted resources. I understand that before ZESCO embarked on that project (which they completed sometime back) they approached Zamtel for partnership since ZESCO would only use just about 25% of the fibre capacity. But Zamtel refused and went on to lay their own. If I can recall, someone said thru the separate projects we have a loan of forthy-something million USD while if it was a combined venture we’d have saved a good 15 plus or minus million USD. But knowing how people want to have a cut through shoddy contracts, someone at Zamtel said they needn’t ride on ZESCO’s infrastructure.
Good! does that mean even internet can be accesed from this cable?
Global village
What are zambian anticompetition rules like? will Zamtel hold the monopoly to the fibre optic cable usage or is it under obligation to help other communication firms?
That’s the spirit, we can do it !
Money wasted fellow bloggers. This cable needed ‘spikes’ along its entire length to give service to Cell Z customers. But this is not the case,where there is no signal for Cell Z there shall never be even with this optic fibre in place. Imagine microwave will still be kept, what for? Look at Durban-Joberg, optic fibre its best. Depending on the strenth of your battery for you laptop, you can be on internet the entire distance. Depending on your wallet you can be connected on cellphone for the entire distance. This is what we needed fellow bloggers, but Zamtel will not be offering this at all. Do you think it worth saying congrats? Maybe to pipo that signed the contract and had their cuts!!!
Awesome!
ok…cabota we!!
As an expert in telecommunications I support this move. I will surely come to invest in Telcom. in Zed.
#8 and #13, please don’t mis-lead ignorant bloggers on the issue of telecom. #8 and #13, have you ever heard of Back Bone Network (BB) or Metropolitan Network? #8 who told you that if ZESCO has a fibre network, then ZAMTEL should construct one? Do you even know what are these fibre networks used for? With the rate at which zambia’s telecom is growing, the 2 BB networks are not even enough already. #15 “This cable needed ’spikes’ along its entire length to give service to Cell Z customers”, spikes to all cellz customers?? stop misleading bloggers! Dear bloggers, therez nothing like that. what this fibre optic does is to transmit bulky info from one point to the other. Most of the telecoms (MTN, ZAIN, ZAMNET etc) lease some lines from this line for their long distance…
#17 please give #13 a break. You need a lot of reading to do. Perhaps ask 13 to explain to you properly. His contribution is full of sense. Study Telecomms at its best. Bloggers #13 has a point. #17 needs to be enlightened. He is a newbie in these matters I believe lol!!!!!!
iwe ka #18 or is #13, why are you changing your user name. you think you can fool people by changing your user name, do u want me to expose your email so that all bloggers know who you are? #13 and #18 you are the same ignorant guy, so just shut up and stop these monkey tricks. I have been planning transmission networks for the past 12 yrs, this includes the network in question.
Ok and continue doing everything possible to finish everything on time.
___
Prevention is better than cure
# 17 .
Observer… mmmmmmmmhhhh, you say this Zamtel net work is not enough for Zambia ? do you know the capacity of the network being layed ?. If just 1 strand of fiber can deliver up to 80 Gb/s of Data (each wave length 10G, 4 wave lenghts in each direction) , and 100 fiber strands are being installed, can you imagin the amount of Data ?.. The only reason Zamtel did not want to go with Zesco is because GRZ knew Zamtel is on the way to privertisation and with its own fiber network, its value shoots up.
#17 Observer. Too much of theories from lectures will not help. We need to ask ourselves whether it is justifiable that two State-owned companies cannot join forces for the benefit of a nation. Whatever backbone you have learnt does not justify Zamtel putting up such infrastructure when ZESCO’s will be under-utilised. I am sure you know that Zamtel is limping because of human resource problems, so having a combined entity would have helped in having a critical mass of qualified personnel from the two companies together. That is just one aspect of innovation we lack – combining resources. Infact, as it is it will even work against Zamtel because once ZESCO opens up the network to others like private ISPs it will be hard for Zamtel to tick. Anyway, the beauty is may be it will jack them up.
#20 KC. Thanks. Your explanation of Zamtel going into private hands is at the best understood.
hmmmm, Zamtel’s core business is telecom, Zesco’s is power supply. A telecom company leasing a telecom link from zesco? if you understand telecom business you wouldn’t argue about this. By the way, the first company to have a fibre BB was CEC, and its all used up. There is 3G, HSDPA, HSUPA, HSPA+, WiMax coming up. Do you have any idea how much capacity demand these technologies will bring onto our Metro and BB links?
#20 KC, having learnt of the revelation that GRZ thought unwise for the two companies to join forces because of the eminent sale of Zamtel, on second thought that even makes it more a waste of money becaues whoever is coming to buy Zamtel whether in part or whole will enjoy the fruit of our toil. That company will be busy making profit while we will be busy repaying the loan. So Bwana observer, think through as at grassroot not as at classroom.
#23 Observer, you need to know that what you are diputing here is already happening with ESCOM of South Africa.
# 23 .
Observer, If the SEACOM under sea fiber cables for east africa can re-route all telecom and other data traffic away from satellite for Kenya, Tanzania and uganda combined, all together using fiber, Zambias traffice is maybe 5% of that. Fiber data transmission cabability rates are expanding every month due to advances in Laser technology. In essence once the fiber is layed, you just change the lasers at the ends to suite your requirements, the fiber is just the pipe..
Very soon someone will pop up and say we need to sell Zamtel and most probably IMF and the group. Vultures are circling!
Observer, say something. You were threatening to expose someone’s e-mail address for having a different opinion to yours. You see now. That’s why they say, as you get higher and higher in education, the more you discover that you need to learn more.
I see no harm in two companies laying two separate fiber optic cable infrastructure; the more the better. If ZESCO has more capacity than they need, let themlease out the extra capacity to private businesses and make a bundle off of it. The military definitely would be a good customer for ZESCO’s excess fiber capacity; those guys require a lot of reliable communications in their dealings—a little bit of modernization wouldn’t hurt them either. Also, if the motivation for ZAMTEL to build its own fiber network was the pending partial/full privatization of the company, I say good thinking. Like anyone who knows anything about selling “real state” will tell you; fixing up the house/property b4 you put it on the market helps push up the value of the house. This is good news indeed!!
imwe banthu, the problem we zambians talk too much about things we have little knowledge about. Today, you are saying zesco and zamtel should join hands, yesterday you were complaining about zamtel’s monopoly of the international gateway. Do you know what will be the consquencies of having single fibre network operator? Monopoly. Imagine all operators trying to lease this resource from zesco? we now have three operators with fibre network and they are leasing out these resources to other Operators like zain, mtn, zamnet etc. This has brought in competition and the prices are going down, this is bringing down the price for communication on the zambian market.
yes Observer, it is good to have more networks as prices go down. It would be intreasting to observe, when Zamtel breakes up into its different companies , with the fiber network being a company of its own, who from GRZ will be the main shareholder in this company. This is were all the money will be. If Alibaba and his 40 thieves leaves anything for us, this were to invest.
Just a add on…..By the way Gents, this has been a very informative Blog string. I have learned a few things, like Obersvers last point on monoploys and i hope other bloggers have as well. This is how it should be with pipo in their respective fields sharing ideas. Well done. God guide Zambia one nation.
19 Please don’t halusinate. U don’t know anything. Go ahead and reveal my address. 13 and 18 are two different people holding different opinions. On this one you’re wrong kid. I The R in Rythm&Blues think that you ‘re to shallow to scare people on this blog. What 13 wrote is aimed at utilizing the almost unlimited fibre capacity to some level appreciable. get back to books dude
No.19 Please don’t hallucinate. U don’t know anything. Go ahead and reveal my address. 13 and 18 are two different people holding different opinions and credentials. On this one you’re wrong kid. I The R in Rythm&Blues think that you ‘re to shallow to scare people on this blog.Let me guess now you ‘re a computer wizard…..Lol. What no.13 wrote is aimed at utilizing the almost unlimited fibre capacity to some level appreciable. get back to books dude