DS broadband_africa.pdf

7/28/2019 DS broadband_africa.pdf

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Broadband Infrastructure inAfrica

Fiber Technology

Lishan Adam, [email protected]



Introduction

• Domestic Broadband penetration in Africa isvery limited –

– Only five countries have penetration more than1% (Egypt, Mauritius, Morocco, Senegal andSouth Africa)

– 65% domestic broadband is through ASDL– The average broadband speed available in

Africa is 2.5 Mbps

– Wireless broadband is increasingly beingdeployed (CDMA 2000 1x is widely used)

– There are about 900,000 W-CDMA subscribers

in the region in Morocco, Egypt, South Africaand Mauritius



Introduction (Cont)

• International broadband link– Africa as a whole had 43 Gbps of international

bandwidth in 2007– The demand for international broadband link is

high…



Challenges to broadband at all levels

Huge regional gaps

91,785Total

25,778 Submarine Cable Planned 66,007 19'52424'2357'1666'2868'796Total

24,9155,3299,4783,8891,9194,390Proposed

41,09214,28514,7503,2774,3674,406Planned

TOTALWestern

Africa

Southern

Africa

Northern

Africa

Eastern

Africa

Central

Africa

1) Global, 2) regional 3)national backbone, 4) under-served areasAfrica has seen growth in basic telecom but not

broadband

280 million total telephone subscribers, of whichsome 260 million (over 85%) are mobile cellular

subscribers

14% of the world's population, around 7% of all fixedand mobile subscribers

50 million Internet users, for an Internet penetrationof just 5%.

Less than 1% broadband penetration



Ideal connection - but changes since 2005 when this map was darwn



How much is needed?• Fiber Links -The sum required to build fiber linkage in thewest, east and southern coast of Africa is estimated to be

between US$1 to 2 billion.• Regional links- The sum required to link countries

regionally is estimated to be about a half • Backbones- The sum required to extend nationalbackbones varies from $70 million to $500 milliondepending on the size and complexity.

– Tanzania backbone study 2005 estimates the country needs $170million for its backbone,

– A study by APC/Alternatives estimates in 2007 that $233 millionis needed for DRC national backbone.

– Uganda national e-gov backbone 2008 US$30 million– Others – Burundi (IDA), Rwanda (IDA), Burkina Faso (USAID)

• Rural -The amount investment required to extend accessto underserved areas need to be covered by private

sector and through PPP is estimated to about $6 billion.



Optical fiber projects- how much is

being invested• EASSy – consortium; 8,840km, $265 mil

• Seacom – Herakles, Sithe Global, BlackstoneGroup (supported by VSNL/Neotel); $450 mil

• FLAG Next-Generation Network (NGN) – FLAG

Telecom (Reliance Group); $1.5 billion plan toconnect 60 countries to FLAG Network

• TEAMS – Proposed by Kenyan government,Etisalat; $110 mil

• NEPAD Broadband Infrastructure Network $$$



Some lessons from regional broadbandinfrastructure

• There is considerable private and soft loanfinance available to fill the infrastructure gap inAfrica, but the governments are too slow tomove

• Heavy hand by governments and internationaldevelopment agencies could increase the risk of

active private sector participation -as has beenseen in fiber projects in recent years

• It is important to step up efforts to reduce the

length and complexity of the planning-to-implementation process of regional infrastructureprojects

• “J ust build it”...



Some current efforts to expand

connectivity between African countries• East African Backhaul System (EABS) feasibility study to interconnect

Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania completed• Regional Communications Infrastructure Project – a project financed by the

World Bank to look at regulatory, institutional capacity, support access toundersea cables by landlocked countries, promotion of public and privatepartnerships and feasibility studies of southern and northern loops (see figon next slide)

• SATA -Southern Africa missing transmission links – a feasibility study is

underway – financed by ADB• ECOWAN – a feasibility study for building cross-border links in West Africa

is underway – financed by ADB• East African Community Broadband Infrastructure Network (EAC-BIN)

feasibility study (under discussion for financing feasibility study)

• Central African Backbone project (under discussion for financing feasibilitystudy)

• West African power interconnection system – (under discussion forfinancing feasibility study)

These studies willgenerate plans for private investment and PPP



DemocraticRepublicof the Congo

Eritrea

Ethiopia

KenyaRwanda

Uganda

Burundi

Malawi

Zambia

Zimbabwe

Botswana

Mozambique

South Africa

Swaziland

Lesotho

Republic

of Djibouti

Sudan

Somalia

Tanzania

Kenya

Madagascar

South Africa

Mozambique

Northern Loop

DemocraticRepublicof the Congo

Eritrea

Ethiopia

KenyaRwanda

Uganda

Burundi

Malawi

Zambia

Zimbabwe

Botswana

Mozambique

South Africa

Swaziland

Lesotho

Republic

of Djibouti

Sudan

Somalia

Tanzania

Kenya

Madagascar

South Africa

Mozambique

Northern Loop

Regional connectivity in the Southern

and Northern loops is dependent on thecompletion of submarine cables likeEASSY, TEAMs, SEACOM, NEPAD…

Focus is mainly on creating Public andPrivate Partnerships for investing in theregional broadband infrastructure



National backbones are becoming a growing area of interest – Example Tanzanian National Backbone



Example -Uganda e-gov backbone for districts



National Backbones need good plans

and business models + regulations• Requirement analysis – what is existing, what is the gap?

What are the likely e-applications? What is bandwidth

requirements of different operators• Technical and design issues (detailed routes of optical fibernetwork including ducts and fiber chambers, analysis of capacity requirements of the transmission equipment, routers,gateways, etc. to meet nationwide coverage and regionaldemand, redundancy and resiliency of the network, NetworkManagement Systems, power supply systems, civil works,trenching, towers, buildings, etc.)

• Business models, funding and financing options (consortium,

PPP, Market based, public-led, BOT, BTO, vendor financingspecial purpose vehicles, joint venture, revenue sharingmodel, PPP, etc.

• Regulatory interventions to promote interconnection, tariffs

• Uptake plans to make sure that national backbones are used.



Electricity- a substantive challenge

to use broadband effectively



Broadband for academic

community• Some fiber is available in Africa but it is

unlit• Alternative service providers such as

power transmissions and railway

companies have some fiber, but is difficultto get hands on

• There is a duplication of infrastructure ingeneral

• Of course fiber is not everywhere it needs

to be built in most countries



Regulatory to NREN fiber in Africa• Mostly due to policy and regulatory provisions

– Inadequate provision for infrastructure sharing– Lack of business models for leasing dark fibre– No legal frameworks for academic to own and operate fiber networks– Most countries do not have policies and programmes that stimulate

broadband• Inadequate investment - according to Melody, regulatory and legal risksdrives up investment risks in infrastructures, the higher the regulatory risk thelower the investment

• Regulators and legislators should be able to provide operations and

consumers with a degree of confidence fiber to take root in Africa:– Regulatory, judiciary independence and credibility should be earned

through interaction between regulators, governments, courts, etc.– Policy direction should be clear and predictable– Transparency, accountability and efficiency of the regulatory institution is

important– Strategic and technical competence of regulatory and judiciary

institutions to apply substantive regulatory standards (spectrumallocation, price caps, cost and tariff standards, etc.) is essential

Some ongoing work is still needed in the policy and regulatory fronts



Thank you

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