Lagos (Nigeria), May 23, 2017 Experts at the International
Telecoms Week conference in Chicago have highlighted the need to accelerate
investment in Africa to facilitate the continent’s broadband data explosion.
Based on the theme “Achieving A Connected Continent: Leading
The Data Explosion Across Africa”, the expertpanel session with participation
from Google, Facebook, WIOCC, Liquid Telecom and Angola Cables discussed
strategies for achieving improved broadband access across the continent. The
session reviewed the state of broadband infrastructure and data traffic
trajectories in different countries on the continent and made comparisons to
other markets globally. This included areas in which investments had been
made such as submarine cables, data centers, and access networks including 3G4G
and FTTH networks as some of the elements that have accelerated the growth in
data traffic on the continent. The consensus was that the data explosion will
need to be driven by further investment in local networks to reach more end
users rather than new submarine cables. The session revealed that while most
African submarine cable systems had the capability to deliver 100 GBPS
wavelengths, Africa has not utilized near enough capacity to saturate
those systems. According to the panelists, for broadband to become more
pervasive, there is need for continued investment and innovative business
models to aid the rapid deployment of Access networks across the continent.
Facebook’s Regional Head, Africa for Express Wifi,
UcheOfodile shared the company’s experiences working with carriers to jointly
make infrastructure investments and highlighted its initiatives in Uganda,
where it is working with Airtel to deploy fiber backhaul, but noted that demand
and favorable regulatory environments informed their decisions to invest. The
need to go beyond mobile infrastructure was also highlighted by the CEO of
Liquid Telecom, Nic Rudnick, whose company just completed its acquisition of
South African operator, Neotel for $429million. “As consumers in Africa start
to use the internet for content, TV and on-demand services, mobile will have
its limitations, not just in terms of technology, but also in price. We need to
look at other technologies to achieve cost effectiveness”.
The panelists’ assessment of data center growth in Africa
also indicated that uptake is not as rapid as experienced in other parts of the
world and that most of the content consumed in Africa is hosted in Europe.
Data
center operators, MainOne and Liquid shared their experience that initial
demand on the continent has been driven by Enterprises and financial
institutions as against other geographies where OTT players are the biggest
data center players. “We do not see any of these OTTs hosting their services
from Africa. We are not seeing meaningful investments coming into Africa (from
OTT players) and with the sizeable population of the continent, we need to see
them play a larger role in the African ecosystem”, the panel concluded.
For the sixth year in a row, MainOne raised Africa’s profile
as a target for broadband investment at the recently concluded global telecoms
conference, International Telecoms Week in Chicago, USA, where it hosted an
over-subscribed Africa Panel Session. The session which was a gathering of
major international and African carriers, data center operators, mobile
network operators and content distribution companies, provided a platform for
players to share perspectives on the opportunities and challenges across the
region with a global audience. The discussions also focused on infrastructure
challenges as well as regulatory and economic constraints that impede faster
proliferation of broadband access across the continent.
By Blog10TV Staff
