A wireless broadband (WiBro) facility is set to make Kigali Africa’s very first “hot-spot.” Early next year, this government-sponsored WiBro will commence its commercial operations, thanks to a US$7.7 million deal. The WiBro’s infrastructure has been taking shape for two years now, and has been built by South Korea’s largest fixed-line operator - and second-largest mobile operator - Korea Telecom (KT).
WiBro is a version of WiMAX technology developed in South Korea. It allows Internet access at broadband speed even when a user is in motion. At the launch of the Kigali facility, government officials said that a total of 46 government institutions are already enjoying the high speed Internet connectivity WiBro affords.
Rwanda Development Board (RDB) Chief Executive John Gara said the project, known as the Kigali Metropolitan Network (KMN) is in line with the country’s Vision 2020 to promote and facilitate modern infrastructure development. He continued, “This technology will cater for data, voice and video transmission, plus other value added services that the market may require. With this type of technology, we will be able to provide connection to homes, businesses and also stimulate the private sector through affordable and reliable service.”
The KMN is meant to extend broadband availability to more than 700 institutions, including schools, health-care centres and local government administrative centres. RDB’s Deputy Chief Executive in charge of information technology, Patrick Nyirishema, said the project would be completed by next year after a trial period of three months, “The completion of this project brings us to a very important step — we are now set to roll out a 2,300-kilometre national backbone connecting the entire country. This will subsequently prepare us to link internationally to more affordable and higher capacity submarine cables at the East African coast.”
The national backbone is expected to link 36 main points in Rwanda’s 30 districts. The government is targeting access to high- speed Internet for more than four million Rwandans within the next two to three years, partly facilitated by the WiBro project.
Rwanda recently benefited from a US$24 million World Bank loan facility to establish its capacity to provide broadband connectivity and access to low-cost international connectivity.
Along with a number of similar projects in Africa, the South Korean company is also undertaking a $40 million project that commenced in 2008 to provide a network for Internet access in Rwanda called the Kigali Metropolitan Network.
* Korea Telecom is an integrated wired and wireless telecommunication services provider, and has developed an information and communications business for the past 25 years. It also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Algerian government in December 2009 to build an Internet network for government offices, and a US$29 million project to install a broadband wireless network in Sidi Abdela, west of Algiers.
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