Zamnet has now connected to the South Atlantic 3/West Africa Submarine Cable (SAT-3 undersea cable) that runs on the west coast of Africa into Europe (see the visual map here). The link became operational on July 1, with the firm currently running trial internal tests before the services could be extended to its customers. The link set up in partnership with ZESCO and Telecom Namibia, is likely to result in lower end user cost of Internet, better access to multimedia and hosting contents, and use of newer technologies such as video conference. More detail via Xinhua Net .
Update : An important contribution on this at the Zedian on Tech - Internet via Optic Fibre Arrives in Zambia! (Guest Blog)
Update : ZAMNET Notice :
Internet Via Optic Fiber Arrives in Zambia
ZAMNET Communication Systems Limited, the pioneering Internet Service Provider in Zambia is proud to announce that it has successfully set up an Internet gateway into Europe using optic fibre end-to-end. This is the first such connection in Zambia and marks a milestone in the life of the Internet in Zambia.The link became operational on 1st July 2009 and ZAMNET is currently running internal tests before the service becomes available to all ZAMNET customers. The bulk of ZAMNET Internet traffic is expected to be through fibre by 1st August 2009.The link performance has been excellent so far. We have been running various tests and doing some optimization to ensure that when we come fully online, our customers will enjoy the Internet as it is meant to beThe ConnectionThis is an end-to-end optic fibre connection from ZAMNET’s server room to Europe. The link has been set up in partnership with ZESCO and Telecom Namibia through the South Atlantic 3/West Africa Submarine Cable commonly known as SAT-3 undersea cable that runs on the west coast of Africa into Europe. ZAMNET has leveraged on ZESCO’s Optical fibre infrastructure that has a cross-border interconnect with Telecom Nambia at Katimamulilo. Telecom Nambia is part of the SAT-3 consortium that enables them to gain easy access to this facility. They also have bought capacity in the new SEACOM cable that is expected to become functional before the end of this month.State of Connectivity to the Internet in ZambiaCurrently all Internet Service Providers (ISP) in Zambia connect to the core Internet backbone using satellite technology. Despite the inherent latency (delay) that is associated with this technology for Internet traffic, until now Satellite has been the only viable option available to Zambia. Over the last few years, there has been a reduction in the amount of satellite capacity over Africa resulting in the increase in the price of the little available capacity and ultimately contributing to the high cost of delivering Internet to your computers.Fortunately, the last few years has seen increased activity in the area of building optic fibre infrastructure in Africa. A number of projects commenced to interconnect the African continent to the rest of the world using undersea cables. Countries are also building national backbones to interconnect different cities and towns. Further different initiatives have been launched to interconnect different parts of cities into what are being referred to as metropolitan fibre networks.What does this new fibre connection mean for Zambia?Since ZAMNET introduced the Internet in Zambia in 1994, the mode of connectivity to rest of the Internet community has been through Satellite communication which has an inherent latency, making the Internet experience sluggish compared to what is obtaining in other countries that are connected through cable. Some of the benefits that will result from this new connection include:
- Improved access speeds to the Internet. Fibre has lower latency (or delay) compared to Satellite
- Increased uplink and downlink capacities
- Ultimately lower end user cost of Internet in Zambia
- Better access to multimedia content
- Better implementation of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) beyond the borders
- Better hosting of content
- Use of newer technologies such as Video conferencing
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