LOME, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Ten African countries are meeting hereto explore and work out ways to promote and enhance the access to the deployment and use of fiber optic technologies across parts of West and Central Africa, according to official sources.

    The meeting, which began on Wednesday, will deliberate on ways to spur the implementation of the Agreement for Construction and Maintenance as well as contracts for the supply of the system, approved and signed by the governments of the ten countries.

    The ten countries, all member states of the Interim Committee for the Management Project of Fiber Optic Submarine Cables (WAFS), are scheduled to meet for two days in a bid to address the issue of communications in the sub-region, according to a statement issued by the organizers of the event.

    The WAFS project is intended to lay a series submarine fiber optic cables along the West African coast while passing through ten members, including Togo, Benin, Cameroon, Angola, the Republic of Congo, Gabon , Equatorial Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Botswana and South Africa.

    These cables will be interconnected with other fiber optic cables, which are already existent in the West African sub-region. They will be used to provide the broadband internet services in each of these countries.

    The cables will also provide facilities required for the development of Information and Communication Technologies, enable the implementation of the resolutions of the Geneva plan of action, the Tunis agenda and the Kigali decisions, according to the statement.

    The governments, which are parties to the project, have had to choose a supplier for the construction of the system, sign the Agreement on Construction and Maintenance and also evaluate bids and also choose the administration of the network and the establishment of a central billing system.

    During the Lome meeting, the ten countries will try to tune the finer details of the contract and check to see if all the required mechanisms have been put in place for these contracts to come into force.

    Scheduled to come into service during the second half of 2010, the project will ultimately allow the participating governments to offer very good quality at competitive prices.