PART I - A Ugandan way to low internet costs

Like many people, I was overwhelmed with the news that for the first time we are going to have a direct link to the rest of the world??

These were not isolated feeling, the whole country was in a media frenzy, we were getting relieved from the pain of slow and expensive internet

Daily Monitor

Ugandans’ thirst to get connected to the world through faster data transfer and website updates without leaving the comfort zone has been quenched by the launch of broadband Internet service in the country.

Seacom’s fibre optic cable that links East and Southern Africa to Asia and Europe through the Middle East, was intended at providing the East and South Africans access to the whole world through fast, affordable and reliable Internet services.
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Mr Herlihy promised us that he would bring down prices of bandwidth by more than 70 per cent. ISPs for instance were paying up to $5000 per MB per second, and this was a cost that was to come down to around $300.

I did my math and at $300 per MB, the company that I work for would now fork out $ 75 for the 256kbps we use. What about an ordinary Ugandan who only needs 64kbps??? a whopping $18 and this would get every tech servy in Kampala connected.

Whats the situation after launch

First things started getting fuzzy when the launch date was approaching. On the seacom blog, twitter and facebook profiles, seacom public relations started holding information an act they have not been doing. Any information on the anchor tenants was not forthcoming and ISPs who had connected or bought capacity from them was a business secret.

The tone of bloggers and journalists who are connected to internet businesses and ISPs started to change to one which was advocating for no price reduction for bandwidth. Information on how international bandwidth does not affect internet cost flooded the internet and this was the begining of a scam masterminded by african ISPs to retain thier margin of profit.

Seacom afraid that SAT-3 would retain its customers if the provided bandwidth prices in the public domain changed to the tune of ISPs. Mr Herlihy him self as a spin doctor held a press conference and informed us how international bandwidth costs had reduced by 50% a year ago when other providers got afraid of seacom's sucess, so at the time of launch, seacom brought down prices by another 40% which brings down the international bandwidth cost to 90%.

My question is have you noticed any reduction in your internet cost in the past year? Surely Mr Herlihy is spinning dumb africans who even don't know what broadband is.