Malawi and Mozambique embark on cross-border telecoms survey

The Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL) and Mozambique’s Telecommunicacoes de Mozambique (TDM) said Monday that they had jointly embarked on a cross-border fibre optic cable interconnection survey to identify the possibility of boost interconnectivity between the two neighbours.

MTL Chief Technology Officer Peter Boll said the Mwanza-Zobue Telecommunications Project which will cost 3.6 billion kwacha (US$25 million) to connect the two countries and eventually the rest of the world.

Boll said the implementation of the project and the main construction work would start towards the end of 2007.

"The project will improve the capacity and quality of communication, and therefore allow Malawi to connect through the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSY)

Boll said once completed, the network would cut the cost of telecommunication services and television operators would also benefit from the quality signals.

Mozambique’s TDM Head of Technical Planning Division Moises Alexandre Nhabanga said the project was a welcome idea as it would form part of the broadband network.

Other connections include the capital Lilongwe line to Malawi’s western district of Mchinji linking with Zambia, and the Malawi northern city of Mzuzu to connect with the northern district of Karonga on border with Tanzania for connections to Dar-es-Salaam, the latter’s commercial city.