Apart from my education and other things, there are two significant accomplishments that I have made, living in the United States; I learned how to play golf and I try to speak the Spanish language. Among my Spanish-speaking colleagues, I am famous for two sayings: “Gracias”, meaning “thanks”, and “vaya con Dios”, meaning “God be with you.” To me sometimes a mere “thank you” can suffice for many things, so I like to say “thanks” when I appreciate something. And if you are on a “journey” or have a task to accomplish, I would say “vaya con Dios”. In this article, I would like to publicly say “Gracias” to the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications (henceforth referred to as MoPT) for coming out with a “Policy Framework” on submarine fiber optic cables in Liberia. I would also like to say “vaya con Dios” to the Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) in its efforts to form a “national consortium” to facilitate the connection to the African Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine fiber optic cable. And Bienvenidos (welcome), ACE!

In recent times I have written articles espousing the need for Liberia to connect to a submarine fiber optic cable. My focus has been on the Africa Coast To Europe (ACE) project which gives Liberia more hope than the plethora of submarine cables located within proximity of the country. Fortunately, the Government of Liberia, through the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications has responded with a “Policy Framework” to initiate this exercise. This is a VERY HOPEFUL move and I have to commend the Minister of Post and Telecommunications and his team for taking this step. In addition, I would also like to urge the MoPT to ensure that this initiative does not REMAIN a mere “policy paper” that would fade away, as others have done in the past. This initiative, I hope, will lead to ACTION.

In the “Policy Framework” presented by the MoPT, the Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) has been asked to involve other stakeholders (operators, financial institutions, NGOs, etc) in the formation of a “national consortium”. This is a good move! I have always said that the GoL cannot handle this project alone; it will require an amalgam of those involved in the sector as well as other stakeholders. To achieve this “national consortium”, LTA will need to proceed and act aggressively in order to galvanize stakeholders’ commitment. The bottom line is, simple; LTA needs to show some juice!

There are several submarine fiber optic cables in Africa. Five of those submarine fiber optic cables are within proximity or expected to be within proximity of Liberia. And since Liberia is not landlocked, it has the advantage of connecting directly to one of those cables. The five submarine fiber optic cables include: SAT-3/WASC or SAFE/WASC/SAFE when it reaches South Africa, MainOne, Glo-1, WACS (West African Cable System) and ACE (Africa Coast to Europe). SAT-3 has been in service for a while; MainOne will be ready for service (RFS) in June of this year (2010). Its marine installation is already in progress. Globacom (GLO) has a cable already operational in Ghana and Nigeria and will activate the second one in July of this year (2010). WACS or West African Cable System – a high capacity cable (3.8 Tbps)- has a ready for service (RFS) date set for mid 2011. Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), the only cable system that “includes” Liberia was scheduled to go live in mid 2011. But based on an “intelligent guess” by a colleague who works with the Consortium, the RFS (Ready Fort Service) date is estimated at Q2 of 2012. This is because when I received communication from my colleague (17 March 2010), no memorandum for the construction of the cable had been signed although, it was scheduled to be signed by the end of March 2010. Since a memorandum needs to be signed before contracting the manufacturer of the cable and booking ships for the deployment, then the “estimated” date makes sense. Not to worry though, it’s just an estimated date!

The “Policy Framework” indicates a few things that need to done to facilitate this connection to the ACE cable system. I truly concur with what the document demands/mandates, although, I believe several other things need to be done in concomitance with those in the MoPT “Policy Framework”. One of them is the formation of an INDEPENDENT national ICT body that will centralize expertise, perform a nationwide study of ICT integration in the country, and perform all ICT tasks that are needed to improve ICT in the country. We cannot have a connection to the global community and not have the capacity to participate in it.

Arguably more important, the MoPT’s initiatives should kindle the creation of a National Educational Technology Plan by the Ministry of Education. This plan will serve as a guide to begin a robust national capacity building initiative. Quite frankly, I think the education sector needs to be REVOLUTIONIZED, not REFORMED. The Ministry of Health should also begin making plans on how it can best integrate technology and fully utilize the already matured mobile technology platform to engage in modernized approaches to improve healthcare in Liberia.

Futhermore, the MoPT “move” should also awake LIBTELCO or the business sector to the need for an Internet Exchange Point (IXP) to control data traffic in Liberia. Currently, if a person sends an email to another person on Broad Street, that email has to go through an exchange point outside of Liberia (Africa, Europe, Asia, etc.) before it is routed to the recipient on Randall Street. This is expensive and inefficient and will need to be addressed.

There is more work to be done to integrate ICT in Liberia, hence the need for the agency/team/committee/group that I referred to above. To the Minister Sulunteh and his team, I say, you are in my Hall of Fame. To LIBTELCO, other operators and stakeholders, I say get in ready mode. And to LTA, I say, “Vaya Con Dios”.

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