Plans for a group of African countries to construct an undersea telecommunications cable suffered a setback when only seven out of 23 countries signed an agreement to oversee the running of the East African Submarine System (EASSy).

Analysts say delays in implementing the project were a major concern because Africa's expensive and unreliable telecommunication services were a major hindrance to investment. The project has been held back by squabbles mainly between Kenya and South Africa over financing, ownership and about how much access to the fibre optic cable would cost. Kenya had accused South Africa of trying to dominate the project and for pushing the idea of governments managing the 9,900 km cable that will link the port cities of Durban and Port Sudan. South Africa denies the claims.

At a two-day meeting in Rwanda's capital Kigali, Kenya and other countries said they had not been given enough time to study the accord. Only Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda signed the protocol in Kigali. Bitange Ndemo, from Kenya's Ministry of Communication, said the project organisers had pushed parties to sign the agreement without addressing their concerns.

"There are a lot of issues that had not been sorted out," Ndemo said. "We are not refusing EASSy per se, but we oppose some of the contents."

The telecom operators who will manage the system signed a construction and maintenance agreement in July, in the hopes that construction would start in August. The Ministers meeting in Kigali extended the deadline for signing the accord by three months to get the necessary backing from other participating countries.

Source: Reuters -  WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News