The World Bank will support development of a fiber optic backbone infrastructure project in the DRC for an amount of US$33 million, in the context of the broader Energy Rehabilitation Project currently under execution. There is currently no national backbone in DRC and this state of affairs limits the contribution of ICT to economic growth and competitiveness in the country as well as to improving the quality of life in general. The World Bank is providing support for a US$315 million energy rehabilitation project in DRC which includes the provision of fiber optic electronic communications cable to be owned by the Societe Nationale d'Electricite (SNEL). The fiber optic cable will provide broadband backbone capacity along the 2,000 km length of the electricity transmission network of the project with the potential to provide links to other members of the proposed Southern African Energy Pool. SNEL anticipates only using a fraction of the capacity on the backbone for its own purposes and together with other partners is developing options for the optimization of the use of the excess capacity to the benefit of DRC.
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