Bandwidth means business for Kenya

Until recently, East Africa was not well-connected to the global broadband network, and Kenyan internet users had to pay enormous charges for slow satellite links. The arrival of the Seacom and Teams submarine cables has changed everything, however.

The $600 million Seacom cable, which was connected in July, is owned by private investors. It links the East African coast with India. The $110 million Teams cable is part-owned by the Kenyan government and telecommunications companies, including Vodafone and France Telecom. It connects Mombasa with the United Arab Emirates.

Inspired by the low-cost access packages Safaricom is selling, Michael Wanganga has set up his own six-computer cyber café in Kilometre Moja, a collection of concrete shops and wooden kiosks north of Nairobi, surrounded by heaps of burning rubbish and grazing goats. Wanganga takes cash only. Does he keep accounts? "Not really." So how how does he keep track of business? "I check my pocket," he told the Financial Times.

Kenya's biggest internet retailer is OnlineDuka, which sells everything from cars to mobile phones. It had 20,000 visitors a day before the submarine cables were connected, but the figure has since jumped to 50,000, says Joel Amenya, its co-founder.