Tanzania’s SimbaNet has won the bid to construct a fibre-optic cable that will link Malawi to the undersea cable off the Tanzanian coast.
The project will be financed by the World Bank’s International Development Association as part of the $20-million Regional Communication Infrastructure Programme Malawi Project.
Malawi’s Public–Private Partnership Com-mission, which is coordinating the project, reports that the Tanzanian consortium shrugged off competition from the likes of China International Telecommunication Construction Corporation, a joint venture (JV) involving the US’s GPEC and South Korea’s SK Telecom, a South African consortium bidding under the name Malawi Virtual Landing Point and a JV between South Korea’s SK Broadband and Soliton Telmec, of Kenya.
Malawi Public–Private Partnership Commission CEO Jimmy Lipunga explains that SimbaNet, which also operates in Kenya and Uganda, will lay the underground cable from Malawi’s capital city, Lilongwe, to the Tanzanian boarder. It will then be connected to the undersea cable off the Tanzanian coast.
“At the end of the project, broadband pene-tration is expected to significantly increase in Malawi, thereby improving economywide productivity. It is also expected that the avail-ability of affordable international connectivity will cause the development of new services and business models, including the business process outsourcing subsector,” says Lipunga.
He says he expects SimbaNet’s Internet service charges to be 90% lower than the prevailing charges in Malawi.