A method may be emerging for East African countries to circumvent the mess in telecommunications in the region - and it is rising out of the sea, the BBC Reports.

Developed countries in Europe embraced fibre-optic technology several years ago at which time Electrastar Directors, Brendon Jackson and Lee Harrison spent over 18 months commissioning long haul fibre optic links to most major cities across Europe, and now including North America and Asia, the western world boasts over 500 cables.

Africa currently has no undersea cable links to the rest of the world but East Africa is now poised to have three. The privately funded cable will be the first to launch followed by the East African Marine Cable System (EASSy) - which is being funded by the private-sector arm of the World Bank as well as by regional telecommunications companies. It is expected to be ready in time for the South African World Cup in 2010.

The developing world is far behind Europe; Bangladesh - with a population of over 150 million people - has three fibre-optic cables, while the whole of Africa has just 10. Currently, many African countries rely heavily on satellite connections for internet and telephone calls. Now, many businesses are investing in finger-sized underwater fibre-optic cables that will open doors to the rest of the world.

South Africa is currently connected to Europe and Spain through a single fibre-optic cable that runs up West Africa. But capacity has been insufficient to offer fast broadband - in fact it is 10 times slower than the new cabling.

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