Namibia's Extension

In Namibia an undersea telecoms fiber-optic cable laid along the West African coast went live on Tuesday, allowing high bandwidth connectivity for the country and its neighbors, officials said.   "The 14,900 kilometer West African Cable Systems (WACS) will bring direct connectivity between Namibia, West Africa and the United Kingdom,"  The cable which landed in Swakopmund beach, some 370 kilometers west of capital Windhoek was developed by Telecom Namibia and French partner Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks for $600 million dollars.  The cable will provide an Internet speed of at least 5120 gigabits (= 5.12 Terabits).  Other landing points are in several African countries and in Britain, Portugal and Spain's Canary Islands.  The arrival of the cable which will also be extended to Botswana is expected to bring down prices for Internet users and broadband connectivity.  Marc Gregan, the manager of Internet services provider AfricaOnline Namibia say’s  "The investors would want some return on their investments, so I expect prices to fall only later, not immediately.”