Outsourcing firms given new lifeline
posted in Outsourcing News and Top Outsourcing deals, Outsourcing to India |Source: www.nationmedia.com
Operators of Business Processing Outsourcing firms (BPO) will soon have the bandwidth charges subsidised to make connection cheaper and competitive.
Players in the industry yesterday said the World Bank initiative, that tentatively should start next week, is a temporary measure to enable the firms in Kenya operate at par with India and Malaysia.
The expected completion of three undersea cables next year will drastically cut the bandwidth charges to march with the two countries that are leaders in business outsourcing.
Teams, EASSy and Seacom undersea fibre optic cables are currently being laid and the project is due to be completed in the last quarter of next year.
Speaking at a media briefing in Jacaranda hotel, Kenya BPO & Contact Centre Society chairman, Ms Gilda Odera, said the firms that will benefit will have their charges drop to $500 from a high of $6500. The firms currently use the satellite for connection, that is more expensive.
She, however, said new entrants would continue to bear the high bandwidth charges adding the problem would be fully solved when the region is covered with fibre optic cable. She said the high bandwidth charges were still a hindrance to accelerated growth of the BPOs.
Fair comparison
“We think its feasible to bring the costs of bandwidth to $100 to compare with other parts of the world,” Ms Odera said.
She said the sector, which has been identified as among the growth areas in the government’s Vision 2030, had the capacity to generate between 10,000 and 15000 direct jobs and three times the number if indirect jobs.
The government, she said, must step up marketing of the country as an ICT hub to attract critical mass of corporates and individuals from the developed world.
