NAIROBI: The undersea cables that are connecting African countries include the East Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy), The East African Marine Systems (TEAMS), SEACOM, Lower Indian Ocean Network (LION) and the West African Cable System (WACS) need to have harmonized policies that ensure equal access and also shared costs. Andrew Rugege, the Director of ITU regional office for Africa made a remark concerning this harmonization stating, “in Africa, we are connected to a number of submarine cables, it would be very vital for ITU member countries to have harmonized policies towards access to sub-marine cables in terms of price fixing, regulatory policies and internet bandwidth redundancy.” He urged ISP's and telecoms to back each other up in the event that one ISP is affected in a submarine cable cut. According to Raphael Koffi, Head of ICT division at ECOWAS; bandwidth is essential for a country so as to retain their competitiveness in this ever changing economy. He added, “Harmonized guidelines will help African nations most especially the regulators and operators to access affordable and quality international internet connection.” Patrick Nyirishema, Head of ICT at Rwanda Development Board (RDB) commented, “having the same policies promises greater international Internet bandwidth, faster Internet access, more reliable connectivity and a reduction in prices for communication services.”
