Optic fibre backbone project on course—Minister

Minister of Information and Communications Technology Nicholas Dausi says the construction of the ongoing national optic fibre backbone network is progressing well.

Dausi made the remarks on Thursday in an interview on the progress of the project which started in August this year and is being implemented by a Chinese-based telecommunications and internet firm, Huawei Technologies.

“The national optic fibre backbone network project is impressively progressing. Huawei Technologies, who are mounting fibre cables on existing Escom poles to ensure that the whole nation gets connected to the Internet, is doing a very good job,” Dausi said.

The minister said the initiative seeks to speed up Internet connectivity and enhance service delivery in the country.

However, Dausi said the undertaking faced some hurdles at the start such as adequate personnel and unnecessary delays in shipping of cables. He was however quick to point out that Huawei had since rectified some of the challenges.

Speaking in a separate interview, the ministry’s director of information Gedion Munthali added that cables and distribution points have been installed in Blantyre, Chiradzulu, Zomba and Machinga in just under two weeks.

Meanwhile, the project has covered a distance of 45 kilometres in the four districts and it is estimated to cover a distance of 1 320 kilometres nationwide upon completion. It has a budget of $23 million (about K165 billion). n