Friday, 09 July 2010 13:26
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By Frank Kimboy
The government yesterday expressed its concerns over the country’s continued dependence on one Internet gateway noting that the collapse of such a source posed a serious challenge on national security.
This was said by the minister for Communication, Science and Technology, Prof Peter Msola, following two days of Internet blockade that Tanzania experienced earlier in the week after the collapse of a Seacom cable near Mombasa, Kenya.
Speaking to The Citizen through the phone from Dodoma where he is attending Bunge sessions, Prof Msola said the government has already started talks with other gateways in a bid to get Tanzania connected to alternative cables.
He said that apart from complementing one another, multiple gateways would serve as back-up in case one of them collapsed.
He named the operators of submarine cables that the government has contacted for talks as Uhuru Net and Tills, both from Kenya. Currently the country is connected to two submarine cables namely Seacom and Eassy. The latter is yet to begin its operations.
“We are very concerned with the abrupt Internet disruptions that have largely been caused by relying solely on Seacom… As a result we are seeking partnerships with other companies that operate submarine cables,” Prof Msola told The Citizen.
Early in the week, Tanzania suffered its second major Internet connection breakdown in three months after a submarine fibre-optic cable experienced a serious technical problem off the coast of Mombasa.
The breakdown that occurred on Monday disrupted communication in the country, forcing big businesses to seek alternatives that have proven very expensive. The problem also affected mobile phone money transfer services in the country.
The connection was restored on Wednesday after Seacom connected its clients to an alternative gateway.
However, the minister could not establish in monetary terms the loss caused by the breakdown, only describing it as a ‘big loss to the nation’.
He also urged Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to make sure they are connected to more than one gateway, to stem losses in the event of a collapse of one of them.
The Monday Internet breakdown was caused by a cable outage near the coast of Mombasa that caused a ‘Repeater’ to fail to improve Internet signals.
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