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EG

ET

SD

KE

UG

Northern TZ

RW

Figure 81: The UbuntuNet East Backbone Development Cluster:

existing and potential broadband links

The UbuntuNet East Backbone Development Cluster has three potential options for broadband

terrestrial connectivity to Europe:

1.

Connectivity through Mombassa using submarine cables already ordered by Kenya Data

Networks. This cable will be a spur connecting to the FLAG submarine cable that

connects various Persian Gulf states to Europe and which passes around the Arabian

peninsula and through the Red Sea. It is expected to launch operations in 2007.

2.

Connectivity along the Nile, via Sudan and Egypt. Such connectivity already exists

between southern Sudan and Cairo, but a gap of some 300 km remains to be closed

between Kenya and southern Sudan. This option is being intensively investigated;

3.

Connectivity via the EASSy cable (or the NEPAD ICT Broadband Infrastructure) via

landing points in Dar-es-Salaam and Mombassa.

The UbuntuNet South Cluster: The UbuntuNet South Backbone Development Cluster is

conceived as comprising countries that have or soon will have broadband access to the SAT-3

submarine cable landing point at Melkbosstrand, near Cape Town, South Africa. These countries

include Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa itself, Swaziland,

southern Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Figure 82 below depicts existing and potential terrestrial links within the UbuntuNet South

Backbone Development Cluster. UbuntuNet's access to these links is being actively pursued.

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