Feature Article : "The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Modernghana.com."

A GNA Feature by Samuel Dowuona

Accra, Sept.15, GNA - So much has been said about fibre optics over the last two years, particularly submarine fibre optics communications technology coming to Ghana.

The hype of the fibre optics talk was particularly fuelled by the sale of 70 per cent of the Enlarged Ghana Telecom to Vodafone at a “paltry” $900 million.

The Enlarged GT included the fixed line operations, the mobile phone operations (Onetouch), the call centre (Exzeed), the National Fibre Optics Backbone and the SAT-3 Submarine Fibre Optics landing station.

In simple terms, fibre optics refers to the technology that enables the transmission of information (as light impulses) along a glass-like or plastic-like wire other than the conventional copper wire.

Fibre optic wire carries much more information at a faster speed than conventional copper wire and is far less subject to breaks in communications. It is widely used by telephone companies, around the world, for long-distance lines.

Because fibre optics transmits larger volumes of information (data and voice) at a higher speed, it makes internet and telecommunications more affordable than satellite does.

In fact, the coming of fibre optics has compelled satellite technology companies to slash down their prices by more than 50 per cent, said Karl Keppke, Regional Sales Director for O3b Networks, a satellite company with operations in Africa.

Mr Keppke told this writer, at the just ended Telecom World Africa Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, that he was confident that there would continue to be a fair mix of satellite and fibre optics communication technologies on the African Continent.

The benefits fibre optics promises for Africa are obvious; speed and affordability of electronic communication; this means internet access and data transmission will be cheaper and voice communication could be free.

These are necessary to enable Africa to catch up with the rest of the world at a faster rate.

Another fall out advantage of fibre optics, particularly for those who are concerned about the spread of telecom masts in residential areas across Ghana, is that fibre optics does not need masts and antennae to operate. Satellite technology uses masts but fibre optics is underground technology.

Currently, Africa is virtually inundated in the sea of submarine fibre optic cables; there are at least eight undersea fibre optic cables, with an aggregate of 10.94 terabytes capacity, landing in almost all the coastal countries of Africa; some of the cables also provide connectivity to several inland countries.

The undersea cables available to Africa right now are SAT-3, 120 gigabytes; Main-one, 1.92 terabytes; Glo-one, 640 gigabytes; East African Submarine Cable System (EASSY), 1.3 terabytes; South Asia Telecom Cable (SEACOM), 1.2 terabytes; The Eastern African Marine Systems (TEAMS), 640 gigabytes; and the largest of them all, West Africa Cable System (WACS), 5.12 terabytes.

On the West Coast of Africa, SAT-3 (14,000km), WACS (14,000km) and Main one (14,000 km) connects Europe to South Africa, stretching from Portugal, with several landing stations along the western coast of Africa, including Ghana, down to the south.

Glo1 (9,500km), owned by Nigerian-based Globacom, connects United Kingdom to Nigeria, landing in Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal and Ghana.

Ghana is a beneficiary of at least four submarine cables; SAT-3, which is currently 50 per cent live; Glo1, expected to go live later this year; Main-one due in May 2010 and WACS due 2011.

All things being equal, in less than five years, the whole of Africa should be hooked unto fibre optics technology.

According to Mr Alhassan Umar, Executive Director of Information Technology Enable Service (ITES) Secretariat, with such a huge fibre optic capacity, Ghana stands to benefit in the area of business processes outsourcing (BPO).

He explained that the submarine fibre optics landing stations would provide a huge backup of redundant fibre optics capacity that would trigger investor confidence in the ability of the country's BPO companies to provide reliable, high speed and affordable communications service to their clients around the world.

On the eastern coast of Africa there is EASSY Way, 10,000km long, which connects South Africa to Sudan, with several landing stations along the eastern coast. Twenty other countries in south-eastern and north-eastern Africa are also connected to EASSY.  Continued    Source: GNA - Ghana News Agency

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