Undersea cable operators set for pricing war

The race to win more customers to the two undersea fibre optic cables has taken a new turn—from who will hit the market first to pricing­­­ —after one of the cable owners on Monday unveiled its charges

Seacom announced it will be charging wholesale buyers Sh8,058 ($100) per megabyte a month to draw potential clients ahead of its competitor, TEAMs.

Both the TEAMs, a public private partnership project and private sector- led Seacom, have set their arrival dates for June, giving neither of them a competitive advantage, especially if both of them were to meet the deadlines.

Although TEAMs is yet to come up with an official price, a senior government official has been on record as saying TEAMs was looking at a range of Sh16,000 ($ 200) or below, depending on uptake and usage. setting the stage for a pricing war between the two operators.

But Mr Michael Joseph, who is the chairman of TEAMs, told Business Daily no decision has been made, but the market should anticipate competitive prices.

“This decision is still to be made by the board and the TEAMs shareholders, but it will be competitive. There is definitely room for both cables”, added Mr Joseph, in reference to the expected competition between the owners of the twin cables for subscribers.

East Africa is the only part of the world that is not connected to the undersea fibre optic cable, making the cost of communication expensive.

Written by Okuttah Mark