How Ketraco is building internet supply resilience through power lines

Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) fits electricity transmission lines during construction with fibre optic cables to facilitate communication between power plants and control centres. This role only takes up a fraction of the fibre optic capacity, leaving room for leases.

The company was granted a Network Facility Provider Tier 2 (NFPT2) licence by the Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) in September 2014 to lease excess fibre capacity to local internet service providers at a fee. With the licence, the electricity transmission company can lease out excess fibre either as dark or lit capacity to meet the ever increasing bandwidth demand of voice, data and video.

Through the fibre leases, the company has effectively opened an alternative funding source, utilising existing transmission infrastructure. This is not only a low-cost income stream for the company but equally provides telecommunications operators with extensive and reliable broadband connectivity in the country. This arrangement is a perfect fit for the National Broadband Strategy of 5 Mbps per user in the rural areas and 40 Mbps for those in urban centres. Equally important is the fact that internet providers don’t have to incur costs of building their own terrestrial network with the lease option, translating to lower consumer prices.

Besides, Ketraco network promotes government service delivery through digitised services available to Kenyans.

With the Network Facility Provider Tier 2 (NFPT2) licence, Ketraco has signed the following dark fibre contracts:

• September 11, 2015 – Five-year agreement with Safaricom Ltd for the Rabai – Galu & Rabai – Malindi – Garsen- Lamu transmission lines
• November 13, 2015 –Five-year agreement with Jamii Telecommunications Limited (JTL) for the Kisii – Chemosit transmission line
• November 24, 2016 –Five-year agreement with JTL for the Eldoret-Kitale transmission line
• October 18, 2017 – Ten –year contract with Liquid Telecom Kenya Limited for provision of broadband services

Completed Ketraco lines offer connection across the country and regionally thus availing ubiquitous fibre capacity. With the fibre optic installation being overhead, reliability and security is guaranteed as opposed to those installed underground which are prone to dig ups, theft and vandalism. Currently, Ketraco runs a 1,791.5km electricity transmission network within Kenya, and by 2020, the company expects to complete construction of over 8,000km of high voltage lines with concurrent fibre connectivity.

Amongst these lines is the Ethiopia- Kenya 686 km route which has potential of transit traffic from Djibouti, Ethiopia and the Great Lakes Region. Major local and international carrier service providers have shown keen interest on this line due to the connectivity advantages it holds.

This route is critical for service providers to provide alternate options to their customers and to ensure service uptime. Undersea cables landing in Mombasa and Dar es Salaam will have terrestrial redundancy to the Port of Djibouti and Sudan and vice versa and also serve landlocked countries.

The Mombasa- Nairobi route is equally strategically placed to enhance coverage and provide redundancy for terrestrial fibre network in addition to providing connectivity to different counties the line traverses. Rabai-Malindi-Garsen – Lamu route which will eventually be connected to Kindaruma-Mwingi –Garissa line will create a critical loop to offer connection reliability from Mombasa.

To this end, Ketraco has partnered with Liquid Telecom to design, supply, install, operate, manage and commercialise its fibre network on a revenue sharing arrangement for a period of ten years though provision of lit services.

This partnership will expand Liquid’s network and add resilience to their internet connectivity with a limitless capacity to carry any amounts of data bandwidth. The change from dark fibre only to a hybrid model comprising of dark and lit services makes commercial sense, supports Kenya’s National Broadband Strategy, and is in line with the current global trend.

The partnership will also meet the rising demand for high-bandwidth, video and internet services for businesses and individual consumers across the country and the East African region.

Completion of the other regional interconnectors, Lessos- Tororo and Kenya Tanzania will provide connectivity through major international carriers who will utilize Ketraco’s highly resilient network and extend the submarine capacity to the rest of the African countries through cross-border connectivity arrangements. This is expected to come with benefits such as network stability and reliability even in situations where submarine cables are cut.

The network also provides alternate onward connectivity from Africa to other continents creating an opportunity for increased international traffic through Kenya which further strengthens the country’s positioning as a regional communication hub.

The Writer is the CEO & managing director at Ketraco