Africa bandwidth feast here
Last
week is particularly an exciting one for Nigeria. Two connectivity
sea cables (Glo 1, Main One) were formally launched in the country
to begin the start of commercial services in what would radically
change the way we connect to ourselves on the continent and the rest
of the world. For Africa, the bandwidth famine is over. The
communication connectivity feast has begun. The current high cost of
connectivity will crash. There will be greater download speed. Most
importantly, the vista for multiple services is here.
Historically, Africa lags behind the rest of the world in
connectivity. Africa’s connectivity was largely based on the very
pricey satellite connections and the only submarine fiber optic
cable, SAT-3/WASC/SAFE owned by government telcos who did everything
possible to ensure the benefits were never optimized. SAT-3
bandwidth in African countries whether in Nigeria through NITEL or
Ghana through GT (Ghana Telecom) came at the price of a piece of the
moon. In all the countries that SAT-3 had a landing, telecom
services were rendered over 50 times the price you could access the
same or better services in Europe and other parts of the world.
But Africa went full circle in the last few years beginning in 2009
to become the hub for various private sector and government backed
consortia set up to deliver new submarine cables that will
reconfigure the delivery of high quality communications
infrastructures. In 2009, the Seacom cable connected eastern and
southern Africa with Asia and the TEAMs cable reached Kenya to
radically begin to alter the African connectivity landscape. 2009
marked the beginning of the end of the narrow pipes. It also marked
the opening of greater possibility for broadband.
Those possibilities are expanding as the sea cables increase. Two
more cables, Glo 1 and Main One have joined the fray in Nigeria.
Both cables link Africa from the western part of the continent to
Europe and the rest of the world. Two more are on the start line
already: The Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) and LION
bring connectivity to the southern and eastern parts of the
continent. The sub-marine fiber optic ring is not complete. Two
more, WACS and ACE should join the competition from 2011 to 2012 to
redraw Africa’s connectivity map in more exciting ways than once
anticipated about 20 years ago.
Main One brings 1.92 terabytes 7400 kilometre long submarine fibre
cable system linking West Africa to Europe. It connects more than 10
West African countries and has an ambitiously expansive outlay to
run to the southern part of the continent. EASSy runs from ‘Mtunzini
in South Africa to Port Sudan in Sudan, with landing points in nine
countries, and connected to at least ten landlocked countries – who
will no longer have to rely on expensive satellite systems to carry
voice and data services.’
The Glo-1 submarine communications cable is no less ambitious and
strategic. The cable system runs along the west coast of Africa
between Nigeria and the UK connecting about 17 countries; its 10,000
km long coverage with a minimum capacity of 640 Gbit/s has landing
points across several West African countries and opens unparallel
communication potentials particularly in those countries where
Globacom, the owner of Glo-1, is already licensed to provide telecom
services.
The ACE (Africa Coast to Europe) submarine cable system is planned
to stretch from France to South Africa, connecting all countries
along the West coast of Africa. The ACE is planned to stretch beyond
14,000 km and will deliver a minimum capacity of 1.92 Tbit/s. The
consortium recently got six new telecommunication operators as joint
owners to help expand its fund-portfolio. In the consortium are
Etisalat Nigeria, Expresso Telecom Group (Mauritania, Senegal,
Ghana, Nigeria), Globalink (Sierra Leone), Mauritius Telecom, Office
Congolais de Poste et Télécommunication (Democratic Republic of
Congo) and Sierratel (Sierra Leone). The list also include Baharicom
Development Company Ltd., supported by the NEPAD’s (New Partnership
for Africa’s Development) eAfrica Commission of the African Union,
which joined ACE as a major partner in October 2009. These seven
join 25 others who originally make up the consortium.
What do all these hold for Africa? Private telecom operators on the
continent are increasingly taking full grip of their own destiny.
They are building a synergy of participatory ownership in what would
help to expand the service window, ginger new levels of
co-competition and broaden the scope of Africa’s participation in
global communications.
Even more significant is the fate of satellite backbone providers.
They will have to seek their fortune elsewhere. The market will
shrink for satellite bandwidth as marine cable providers firm up
their grip with cheaper and more reliable bandwidth infrastructure.
The interior will definitely be the last battle line. But as the
tied-in agreements that bring in many landlocked countries in the
EASSY consortium indicates, there will be little space for satellite
operators to claim the hefty margins they once (and still) claim in
Africa’s connectivity market.
However, not many experts share this viewpoint completely. Many are
convinced that satellite operators will still have a large chunk of
the niche market. Russel Southwood, editor of London based Balancing
Acts notes:
“The overall balance of satellite vs fibre use in Africa’s top
Sub-Saharan markets 20 markets goes from 45.6% vs 54.4% in 2008 to
11.9% to 88.1% in 2014. Of these top 20 markets, the top 5 markets
(South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Angola and Sudan) make up the
majority of bandwidth demand across the continent and are the
countries that will experience the fastest bandwidth growth over the
period. So satellite operators and resellers will not only be
selling into a smaller share of the overall bandwidth market but
will become niche players in many countries. There will be growth
but most of it will be on fibre.” But most writers agree that in the
years that will follow 2015, satellite operators should expect a
shrunk market on the continent.
Broadband will be part of the regular features in Africa’s
telecommunication market and this will help drive e-services in
virtually all sectors from education, health, agriculture,
governance and all what not. The African telecommunications decade
is here. Africa will effectively meet its international traffic
requirements and also drive local services only conceivable in other
continents. Definitely, as many commentators have noted 2009 and
2010 mark an exciting transition for the Internet in Africa. The age
of seamless video conferencing between multiple locations; Business
Process Outsourcing (BPO); and highly managed data centers connected
at different locations across the globe among others is here. In
Nigeria, Glo1 and Main One have opened the floodgate of new services
for a new decade.
