By Djamil Benmehidi
Following two tragic civil wars which engulfed the West African state for nearly two decades, Liberia is starting to recover from this dark chapter in its history. However as wounds begin to heal and the rebuilding programme for this nation and its economy which was once the envy of Africa begins, Liberia is not only investing in traditional infrastructure such as roads, schools and hospitals but also a digital infrastructure which Ciata Victor, one of the Directors of the Cable Consortium of Liberia believes will herald a new dawn for this proud, democratic state. She told Djamil Benmehidi about this new chapter in Liberia?s story.
It is a simple, undeniable fact; the world in which we live today is a digital one. If you don?t think so, really, really take a step back for one moment and try to imagine a world without e-mail, Google, instant 24 hour news etc; as I?m sure you?ll agree it really is unthinkable. Since the 1990?s when the internet first started to become accessible to the global population, the world has slowly and steadily become a smaller place in which to live and do business as new markets seemingly opened up overnight, instant communication between people on opposite sides of the globe became affordable as well as easy, and effective methods of transferring large volumes of data became feasible. This is stating the obvious perhaps but the internet has changed everything.
Largely speaking, though the African continent?s population presently lags behind global ICT trends in terms of both the internet penetration rate and the number of internet users, the falling price of technology and improving telecommunications infrastructure on the continent has led to explosive growth in this area. What?s more, Africa?s large population and low user base offers businesses staggering untapped market potential, while increased Internet access and usage will contribute to economic growth. The digital revolution which is fast gathering pace in Africa is a goldmine in terms of the opportunity if offers the continent. The Republic of Liberia, a country which due to civil strife missed earlier chances to connect to the digital world is now seizing this opportunity.
The Cable Consortium of Liberia (CCL), a public-private sector venture involving the Liberian government and the country?s three most prominent telecommunications companies Libtelco, Lonestar Communications and Cellcom, has opened up Liberia to the digital broadband revolution which is sweeping the continent via its investment in the industry leading ACE fibre optic network cable project.
?It all started a few years ago when the Managing Director of LIBTELCO, Ben Wolo, requested assistance from the Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) who paid the $40,000 for Liberia to join at the ACE Consortium table. Ben Wolo understood the potential of this project for Liberia and really went after it .
It took almost a year of meetings and negotiations to agree on who had what stake but in the end it has been a success and a victory for Liberia?
Shortly after this, Liberia?s digital future was set in stone when the Cable Consortium of Liberia met in Paris for the signing of the ACE Construction and Maintenance Agreement contract with France Telecom on Saturday, June 5, 2010 along with the delegates of 20 other African countries such as Sierra Leone, Ghana and Nigeria.
However as a member of the ACE (Africa Coast to Europe) Consortium, a trans-national venture which allows Liberia and 20 other countries to connect to global super-fast broadband networks for the first time via a vast fibre-optic cable network which stretches from the Northern coast of France to the Southern tip of Africa, Cable Consortium of Liberia faced a real challenge in raising the enormous sums required for funding a project of such magnitude.
The total cost of the ACE submarine communications cable project was $700,000 million in total, of which the Cable Consortium of Liberia contributed $25 million. Ciata said:
?It was difficult raising such funds for the project. As well as the contributions by the three telecoms companies, the World Bank also contributed but there were conditions relating to the public-private ownership of CCL. We had to approach the government several times requesting funding and the administration was always helpful. President Sirleaf knew how important this technology was for Liberia.?
In spite of the difficulties, the funding for the venture was secured and since then, the herculean task of laying the 17,000 kilometre long state-of-the-art undersea cable system has been completed and it is now landed to a terminal station in the Liberian capital Monrovia. With construction of the terminal station and installation of its equipment completed between November 2011 and April 2012, its systems have been tested, commissioned and approved by technical staff in Liberia, as have its sister stations and systems in the other 22 member countries in April this year.
To man the terminal station, Cable Consortium of Liberia currently has a small, highly trained team of experts and technicians which is 100% Liberian. Having been trained extensively in Paris by the best in the industry, these technicians are required to operate, monitor and test equipment within the station 24 hours a day which has given them the benefit of gaining continual on the job learning and experience. Until the Government of Liberia completes its distribution network,? the staff number will remain small but CCL inevitable hopes that as demand increases, that the number of staff will increase in the run up to and finally when Liberia?s broadband distribution network is finished and has gone live.
Once the internal distribution network is setup, the Liberian people and businesses will have access to at least 1.92 terabits per second data transfer speeds and Ciata believes that this will act as a great catalyst for the Liberian economy.
?Much of Liberia?s infrastructure was destroyed during the war and replacing and rebuilding it is a priority. The war finished 9 years ago now but there is still so much damage to repair and there are so many priorities; roads, electricity, schools and clinics to name but a few. This fibre optic digital infrastructure is no less a priority.
Imagine what we can do once Liberia is online! Once we have built the distribution network, the internet will improve the life of Liberians in so many ways. We could teach our children through e-tutoring, diagnose medical conditions and provide information about health related issues online, even use e-governance to manage Liberia.
E-commerce and e-banking would also transform business in Liberia. At the moment Liberians wait two to three hours in long lines at local banks to cash a paycheque, withdraw funds or go about other basic transactions. A familiar response to the delay at banks in Liberia, is that the system is down or the system is slow, but imagine if Liberians had access to ATM?s? Where pay cheques could be directly deposited and cash withdrawn, where the verification process will be done electronically. These simple things would take the pressure off the banks and streamline the entire process.?
Other anticipated boosts for business and the Liberian economy would be due to new business opportunities and career opportunities in technology being created, improved access to global markets for Liberian goods and services, and improved access to banking systems and international financial institutions among other things.
The creation of call centres, emergency response centres, data centres and server farms would also become feasible, as would local management of the .LR Domain Name Space that is currently being maintained in the US.
Now that the first task of landing a submarine cable for Liberia?s fibre optic network is complete and nationwide access to super-fast broadband isn?t far away provided Liberia can find the $35 Million Dollars required to construct the full distribution network, what?s next for Cable Consortium of Liberia in 2013? Ciata Victor is insistent that though the first major step towards Liberia reaching its digital future has been achieved, there are still more challenges ahead in the New Year.
?The plan for next year is to get Cable Consortium of Liberia bringing in an income and serving the public. The World Bank is currently supporting us in setting up a business plan which will help us reach our goals as quickly as possible.
For all Liberians to enjoy the full benefit of broadband, our next step will have to be getting Liberia?s distribution network built and my hope is that the government identifies sources of funding for this next project which we estimate would have a maximum build time of around 24 months or so. In other words if the Government of Liberia who also owns a 60% share in CCL, can identify the funding to construct the full distribution network, it would make broadband and all it?s benefits, not only a reality of Liberians living in the capitol Monrovia, but it would provide access to Liberians in all 15 counties, which for Liberia, would be a major leap into the digital age.?
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