Kenya's fourth submarine cable, the Lower Indian Ocean Network (LION2), will become fully operation and provide a boost to the country's bandwidth, the country's telecommunications ministry said on Thursday. Orange Kenya, which is involved in laying the cable through its parent company, France Telecom, also confirmed the schedule, adding that the cable arrived in Mombasa in December 2011 and is currently awaiting connection. Orange Kenya's Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Angela Ng'ang'a-Mumo, told reporters in Nairobi that progress on LION 2 “is on target.” Work is continuing to finish the cable's connection at the Mombasa landing station, the company said. The LION2 cable is a 3,000 kilometre-long line that will be extended to Nyali via the island of Mayotte located in the northern Mozambique Channel from Mauritius. According to reports, the cable is part of a bigger project by France Telecom and 12 members of the Lower Indian Ocean Network to build a submarine cable linking Madagascar to the rest of the world via Reunion Island and Mauritius. Orange said the construction of the 1.28 Tbps cable “is expected to cost approximately KES 6.2 billion.” Kenya already enjoys connectivity through The East African Marine System (TEAMS), the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) and SEACOM. Information Mini¬ster Samuel Poghisio said he was confident that “once it is switched on, LION2 will intensify competition in the industry and help further lower Internet connectivity charges.” BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/d0Frg Tags: Africa, Cable, Kenya, Telecom Section: East Africa, Tech
