The dawn of fiber optics: Demystifying the myths

By DIANA ODHIAMBO
Published July 19, 2009

‘Bringing fiber to your doorstep’ is a slogan that for the past few months has been screaming in almost all advertising media. In a world where technology is fast changing, Kenya is not one to be left lagging. This year will be remembered as the year the real Internet landed and people begun to communicate and do business in a way never imagined before.

Many questions, however, still stand: what exactly is fiber optics, why is it preferred as opposed to what we have been using as a country? Has it been over-hyped? Who are the big losers and winners? What does this mean for the ordinary Kenyan? And most importantly, how is the undersea cable contributing to the economy of the country?

Fiber optics technology makes use of light to carry digital signals via optical cables. Telecommunication companies prefer this technology because they are cost effective, efficient and convenient.

They cost less compared to copper wires that Kenya is currently using. Fibers are especially efficient because they use light as a mode to carry information; this, in its own has its advantages as we all know that light travels faster than any existing wave, hence the acceleration in data transfer. It is also convenient to use due to efficient materials used in its manufacture. They are thinner, lighter in weight and more flexible than copper wires, which makes it easier to carry, bundle and set up.

As for the hype, the media and the companies involved in this venture have been responsible for this. Sadly, some factors are not being explained to the common man, to enable him understand what the technology portends. The intercontinental fiber has been in existence in the western part of Africa, but nothing much has changed in those years.
Through Very Small Aperture terminals (VSATs), Kenya has been using fiber optics all along, the only difference is that the undersea cable will now link the country to the outside world.

Misconception that fiber is all about Internet abounds among the people, yet most companies, especially banks use only 30 percent of the available bandwidth for Internet. Many of them use it for inter-connectivity between branches. The fiber will mainly improve speed of access to anything outside our borders, but not how efficient it is delivered to us. This will largely depend on the Internet Service Providers (ISP).

A ping (ICMP query) to Yahoo! will give you 650ms currently because it has to move from a Nairobi VSAT dish, go to a satellite gyrating around Africa and get reflected to the VSAT in Europe where the Yahoo! server is located before reverting to you. Considering the many factors affecting the signal in the air, add eclipses to this and you realize users are held at ransom. Fiber is meant to reduce this to maybe 50ms depending on how fast your Local Area Network (LAN) is and how many hops you have to go through. Most likely VSATS will be there to act as redundancy and also serve remote areas.

Cyber café’s are not doomed like most people think. However, the owners of the cafes will have to greatly improve their services. ‘Bringing fiber to your doorstep’ is not exactly true, as it doesn’t mean that every home will have Internet for the obvious reason that this venture is too expensive to make economic sense. So someone has to provide Internet within the estates.

For the ISP, what will spell doom for them is not the coming of the fiber but the decision by the Communications Commission of Kenya to allow Public Data Network Operators (PDNO), who own the infrastructure, to also engage in small supply of Internet. ISP are meant to buy bandwidth from a PDNO and then resell it. But when Kenya Data Network also competes with them in the same area, then the ISP has no chance.

With the coming of the fiber, voice traffic will be very affordable. Big mobile service providers know that profits will not be coming from voice anymore but from data. Data is the next frontier for the companies and the fact that in East Africa we only have a penetration of 5 percent, then there lies a gold mine.

Internet prices, like most people are expecting, will not drop to zero as yet. The companies that will have invested a lot in fiber optics will have to recoup the expenses before they reduce the prices.

Concerning the job market, it is noticeable that the fastest expanding industry now is the telecommunications sector. There are immense opportunities which already exist and more to be added with the coming of fiber, so this will definitely herald new jobs.

Access Kenya, one of the fastest growing Information Communications Technology (ICT) companies in Kenya, recently signed a loan agreement with NIC bank for a 6 1/2-year term facility for about $5 million. With the signing of this facility, together with existing cash and bank facilities, the company has confirmed that the funding for its metro fiber network has been completed.

“In these turbulent times, it is important for all rapidly expanding companies – indeed all companies – to be certain that the funds to fuel their operations are in place and management can focus on growing their business and delivering value and excellent customer service to their customers,” said Jonathan Somen, ICT’s group managing director.

“We are pleased to confirm that with the signing of this long-term debt facility with NIC Bank, we have now completed the essential funding for our new metro fiber network.”
This just goes to show just how serious Kenyans are taking the fiber optics deal and even more so, just how prepared they want to be.

The undersea cable will improve the speed of fiber connections from one end point to another, but ultimately two things will matter: good network setups at the customer end and good support team within the ISP service. For the job market, the trick is to know what the market wants. For starters, a shortage exists on the manpower and experts on various fields of operation such as switching and routing, RF planning and implementation and installation. Doing packages and hoping to be marketable will not be a wise idea. Specialization will be what we need and not to forget re-evaluating what our tertiary institutions teach.

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Tags: Business, fiber obtics