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before starting the practic EASSy Project responds to a need:

The EASSy project offers a solution to infrastructural Internet access problems in Eastern Africa. It
responds to a critical need for an effective and affordable Internet connection in a large region of
Africa. The EASSy project intervenes in a sub-developed market. There are few direct high-capacity
Internet links between and within African countries, and high-capacity transmission lines are mainly
concentrated in the US, Europe and Asia. As a result, about 75% of Internet traffic in Africa first goes
through Europe or the US, and is then routed back, a very costly process. For example, while Benin
and Burkina Faso are neighbors, Internet traffic between them passes through France or Canada.

The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Canada estimates that Africa spends at
least $400 million each year on the use of international bandwidth for national or regional data. In
fact, in many cases, e-mails sent between two Internet service providers in the same country are
sent abroad and then rerouted back because domestic Internet Exchange Points (IXP) are lacking.
Africa is currently dependent on the SAT-3 cable, and on expensive satellite links, the only option in
some Eastern African countries. These satellite connections have inherent delays and do not offer
competitive pricing conditions. The slow pace of Internet development on the continent is reflected in
low levels of use.

Low-speed transmission lines also mean that Internet users in Africa find it much faster and cheaper
to download material rather than to post their own onto the Internet. These conditions consign
Africans to serve primarily as consumers instead of producers of web content. (See Africa Overview:
ICT Trends)

Strengths:

Extra connectivity would reduce Africas dependence on the SAT-3 cable and on expensive
satellite links.

EASSY would provide reliable, fast, and widespread access to international communication
(including Internet). It is expected to bring the costs of international telecommunications and Internet
connectivity down to competitive levels, similar to those found in other developing countries, such as
India.
Weaknesses:

A dispute between governments and operators has been stalling EASSYs implementation. Some
African governments, including South Africa, want the consortium to be owned by a majority of
African companies and to respect regulated, i.e. low, prices. They threaten EASSys operators that
they will block the project if those conditions are not respected. On the other side, the operators
argue that this is an attempt to hijack an existing commercial project and make it a part of the
NEPAD ICT broadband Infrastructure Network, a states- led project benefiting from the UN support.

While governments claim that only a state project would serve the common good and prevent the
risk of a consortium monopoly, the operators assert that their project, although necessary to Eastern
Africas development, has been halted by the public sector. According to them, governments want to
claim paternity for a crucial development project, although the private sector has responded to
pressures from the World Bank and seems to respect its development criteria.

Meanwhile, consumers on Africas East Cost still pay up to 300$ a month for Internet access.
Moshen Khalil, Director for the ICT department of the World Bank Group emphasizes following facts:

The EASSy is already a truly African initiative ( most operators are African) ;

Regulated prices were already imposed on operators as a condition for $30 million in loans by the
World Bank. This was the first time the IFC has asked private companies to adopt developmental
principles for financial support.

Accordingly, critics charge that the governments' position has undermined the EASSy project without
justification.

Opportunities:

Steady funding structure:

The sponsors of the project will comprise up to 28 telecommunication companies. These are
predominantly well-established African carriers. There is an approximately equal mix of government-
owned and private institutions.
The total project cost of the EASSy cable, estimated at $235 million, is to be financed by the SPV
(West Indian Ocean Cable Company Ltd) and Consortium Operators.e session. By using a single
power, Animesh can pick any two problems irrespective of their difficulty from two different contests
and sus times in the past, she granted him K special powers he can use before starting the practice
session. By using a single power, Animesh can pick any two problems irrespective of their difficulty
from two different contests and swap them.wap them.