Broadband Infrastructure in Africa

Fiber Technology

Lishan Adam, Lishan@ictfd.net

Introduction
Domestic Broadband penetration in Africa is very limited
Only five countries have penetration more than 1% (Egypt, Mauritius, Morocco, Senegal and South Africa) 65% domestic broadband is through ASDL The average broadband speed available in Africa is 2.5 Mbps Wireless broadband is increasingly being deployed (CDMA 2000 1x is widely used) There are about 900,000 W-CDMA subscribers in the region in Morocco, Egypt, South Africa and 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

1) Global, 2) regional 3)national backbone, 4) under-served areas
Africa has seen growth in basic telecom but not broadband 280 million total telephone subscribers, of which some 260 million (over 85%) are mobile cellular subscribers 14% of the world's population, around 7% of all fixed and mobile subscribers 50 million Internet users, for an Internet penetration of just 5%. Less than 1% broadband penetration
Huge regional gaps

Central Africa Planned Proposed Total 4,406 4,390 8'796

Eastern Africa 4,367 1,919 6'286

Northern Africa 3,277 3,889 7'166

Southern Africa 14,750 9,478 24'235

Western Africa 14,285 5,329 19'524

TOTAL

41,092 24,915 66,007 25,778 91,785

Submarine Cable Planned Total

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

 Fiber Links -The sum required to build fiber linkage in the west, 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 national backbones varies from $70 million to $500 million depending on the size and complexity.
Tanzania backbone study 2005 estimates the country needs $170 million for its backbone, A study by APC/Alternatives estimates in 2007 that $233 million is needed for DRC national backbone. Uganda national e-gov backbone 2008 US$30 million Others Burundi (IDA), Rwanda (IDA), Burkina Faso (USAID)

How much is needed?

Rural -The amount investment required to extend access to 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, Blackstone Group (supported by VSNL/Neotel); $450 mil FLAG Next-Generation Network (NGN) FLAG Telecom (Reliance Group); $1.5 billion plan to connect 60 countries to FLAG Network TEAMS Proposed by Kenyan government, Etisalat; $110 mil NEPAD Broadband Infrastructure Network $$$

Some lessons from regional broadband infrastructure

There is considerable private and soft loan finance available to fill the infrastructure gap in Africa, but the governments are too slow to move Heavy hand by governments and international development agencies could increase the risk of active private sector participation -as has been seen in fiber projects in recent years It is important to step up efforts to reduce the length and complexity of the planning-toimplementation process of regional infrastructure projects Just 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 to undersea cables by landlocked countries, promotion of public and private partnerships and feasibility studies of southern and northern loops (see fig on 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 feasibility study) West African power interconnection system (under discussion for financing feasibility study)

These studies will generate plans for private investment and PPP

Regional connectivity in the Southern and Northern loops is dependent on the completion of submarine cables like EASSY, TEAMs, SEACOM, NEPAD Focus is mainly on creating Public and Private Partnerships for investing in the regional broadband infrastructure

Sudan

Northern Loop

Eritrea

Ethiopia

Republic of Djibouti

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Uganda Kenya Kenya

Somalia

Rwanda Burundi

Tanzania

Malawi Zambia Zimbabwe Mozambique

Botswana Madagascar South Africa Swaziland Lesotho South Africa Mozambique

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 fiber network including ducts and fiber chambers, analysis of capacity requirements of the transmission equipment, routers, gateways, etc. to meet nationwide coverage and regional demand, redundancy and resiliency of the network, Network Management 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 financing special purpose vehicles, joint venture, revenue sharing model, 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 difficult to get hands on There is a duplication of infrastructure in general 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 risks drives up investment risks in infrastructures, the higher the regulatory risk the lower 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 (spectrum allocation, price caps, cost and tariff standards, etc.) is essential

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

Thank you