Dear CIGAs,

Sir George Kahama, father of Joseph Kahama, has been my personal friend from the first day I found myself in Tanzania. Joseph has written a book about his Dad that will be published soon. It gives me great pleasure to see recognized yet another of Sir George’s many accomplishments.

Jim Sinclair

Broadband To Bring Big Changes to Africa
October 5, 2009

Farmers using the Internet to connect directly with buyers? Doctors operating on patients remotely via telemedicine? This may sound like Silicon Valley, but it could soon be a reality in Africa, thanks to an undersea cable linking the continent to the rest of the world.

The 1.28 Terabyte-per-second submarine fiber optic cable reached the shores of Tanzania from India in July, providing the first high-speed connection between Africa and networks worldwide.

Deployed by operator SEACOM with help from Cisco — which also helped launch the service by building a voice, data and video platform to stream live video over IP to five launch locations — it is of profound significance to Internet connectivity in Africa.

Besides directly contributing to the availability of bandwidth across the continent, it will provide much-needed backhaul capacity for complementary access technologies such as 3rd Generation (3G) mobile and Very Small Aperture Terminal satellite currently in use.

Among those leading the initiative is the chairman of the board of directors of SEACOM Tanzania, George Kahama, popularly known as ‘Sir George.’

A major figure in the Tanzanian government between 1957 and 2005, Sir George held posts that included cabinet minister, ambassador and CEO of Public Commercial/Industrial Corporations. He is one of the main interlocutors between the cable provider and the public sector.

With the cable now entering its second phase of deployment, News@Cisco spoke to him about the project and its value for Africa.

More… http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2009/ts_100509.html