Neotel Promisses Cheap Broadband in South Africa After SEACOM Arrives

Jani Meyer
August 19 2007 at 12:04PM

Access to cheap broadband in South Africa is no longer a pipe-dream, after multi-billion-dollar deals were signed to construct underwater cables connecting the East Coast of Africa to India and Italy.

Neotel, the second fixed-line operator in the country, said the project would be up and running by early 2009 and it would slash Telkom’s prices.
Telkom controls the ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) and the local loop that links homes to the telecommunications exchanges in South Africa.

The “connecting” plant of Neotel will be at Mtunzini in Northern KwaZulu-Natal.
The Seacom (Sea Cable System) is being developed at a cost of more than $550-million (R3,8-billion).

The Rest from Telekoms & Providers, South Africa

EASSy Cable costs more per Kilometer the SEACOM

Kenya: Eassy Investors to Pay More for Fibre Optic Cable

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Business Daily (Nairobi)

17 August 2007Posted to the web 16 August 2007

Okuttah Mark

Investors in the South Africa-fronted undersea fibre optic cable will pay the highest price for its construction, signalling the fact that accessing it may cost as much.
Telecommunications experts said construction of the East African Submarine System (EASSy) will cost investors Sh2,000 more per kilometre than the building of East African Marines System (TEAMS) and private sector-driven SEACOM.

People familiar with the matter told the Business Daily that while the laying of the EASSy undersea cable has been priced at $26,161 per kilometre, TEAMS and SEACOM will spend only $23,275 and $23, 076 per kilometre espectively.
The high cost of constructing EASSy is seen to be particularly burdensome to investors because the project managers recently declined a co-building offer from SEACOM- the South African firm that plans to build an undersea cable along the same route.
Such a partnership would have allowed each party to own individual fibre pairs on the desired route while making significant saving through sharing of key facilities such as repeaters, landing and power stations.

Senior telecoms industry officials have previously indicated that it would cost EASSy customers $500 mega bites a month in bandwidth- more than twice the cost of bandwidth in India where the cost stands at $200 mega bites a month.

Simon Olawo of the EASSy secretariat says the cost of laying out cables is mainly determined by the distance covered, equipment installed, the number of landing stations and tax payable to respective governments.

Plans by EASSy initiative to construct and operate a submarine fibre optic cable along the Eastern coast of Africa has faced a number of hurdles, including disagreement over the mode of access.

The cable, which will cover the longest distance, is expected to have an initial equipped capacity of 20 gegabits per second and an ultimate capacity of 320 gegabits/second. It will run from South Africa to Sudan through Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya, Somali and Djibouti.
TEAMS, a partnership between the Kenya government and the United Arab Emirates telecom company Etisalat, will connect Mombasa to Fujairah in the Gulf of Oman. The total cost of the project that is expected to be complete by end of next year is $110 million.

The Government has 40 per cent stake in the project while Etisalat has 20, leaving the other 40 per cent to local private investors. During this year's budget, the Government allocated Sh1billion for the project and has been on an agressive hunt for private investors.

The International submarine cable industry has been growing at unprecedented pace. Several projects are under way, with two being undertaken between US and China while the other is between US and Australia- with three projects for Africa and two from the Caribbean to US.
With ongoing number of projects and taking into account that only three companies have the ability to manufacture and construct the cables, namely Alcatel, NEC and Tyco, meeting aggressive time line for some of the project such as Teams might be difficult.

Business Daily (Nairobi)

Safaricom

Fri 10 Aug 2007, 11:04 GMT

By Helen Nyambura-Mwaura

NAIROBI, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Kenya's leading mobile phone firm expects profit this year to be in line with last year and is targeting 9 million subscribers by the end of March from 7.3 million now, its head said on Friday.

Safaricom, jointly owned by Kenya's government and Britain's Vodafone posted pre-tax profit of 17.19 billion shillings ($258.6 million) in the year to March 31, the highest posted by any company in the east African country.

"We expect this year to be as good as, if not better, than last year," Chief Executive Officer Michael Joseph told Reuters in an interview.

"We have 7.3 million subscribers right now, and we will be over 9 million by the end of our financial year. That's our target."

Joseph said he was confident the operator would maintain its lead and expand market share despite the planned entry of a third mobile firm in 2008.

full article from Reuters Africa

Community Wireless Resource Centre (CWRC) Being installed in Uganda

In July 2007, community wireless networks were implemented at telecentres in Lira and Nabweru by the Community Wireless Resource Centre (CWRC).

The CWRC team included CWRC staff and four electrical engineering students who are doing industrial training under CWRC. This intervention arose out of :

• the need to reduce the high cost of internet connectivity at IDRC-supported telecentres in Uganda,
• to explore optimal connectivity models such as sharing the existing bandwidth with neighboring institutions via outdoor wireless networks
• to provide internet access to these partners without need for heavy initial investments in satellite hardware and subscriptions.

It is anticipated that these networks will enhance sustainability of internet access at these telecentres.

In Lira, a total of three partners have been connected to the telecentre wirelessly and can now access the internet at their premises.

In Nabweru, a total of three partners have also been connected.

The CWRC team now heads to Kabale to implement similar wireless networks in Kabale town and Kachwekano (which is located approximately 8 km from Kabale town).

The design of these networks considers the telecentre to be the hub of the network where all other sites are connected. In cases where line of sight links to the telecentre are not possible, connection between the hub and the partner site is accomplished via a repeater. Therefore, in this arrangement, the telecentre acts as a wireless internet access point to its partners.

The Rest @ Telecentre

Neotel Gets Exclusive Seacom Landing Rights

Neotel has secured the exclusive landing rights for the $550 million (R3.8 billion) Sea Cable System (Seacom), which aims to reduce internet costs by 80 percent.Seacom is a privately funded cable that will connect south and east Africa to Europe and India.The Seacom cable system routes will pass along the east coast of Africa and through the Red Sea before terminating in Italy. In addition, it will land in Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates.

Construction starts later this month for the cable to be operational in 2009. - Thabiso Mochiko, Johannesburg

Source: Business Report South Africa

Africa's Own Satellite

The West Africa Development Bank (BOAD), is to partner with RASCOM, Africa's Regional Organisation of Satellite Communication to launch Africa's first satellite in orbit to give coverage to the whole continent.

Up to now all satellite communication in orbit are dominated by the West. The result that African operators of satellite networks to African homes pay exhorbitant prices for such services. According to industry analysts, a satellite giving coverage to the African continent is in line with the migration of all broadcast signals by 2015 from analogue to digital.

The project is expected to cost about 1.6 billion FCFA (1 600 000 000). The partnership was signed on behalf of BOAD and RASCOM by Issa Coulibaly Interim President of BOAD and Jones Killimbe Head of Rascom. RASCOM is expected to contribute finance, design, construction, orbit placement and launching expertise to the project..

"BOAD gives a strong signal to the whole of the African institutions to join and to take their part in a project which challenges any African, to control the communication under technological conditions of point" said Issa Coulibaly during the signing ceremony. .

The project aims at offering modern services of telecommunications to millions of people who currently do not profit from basic telecommunications services. In order to improve accessibility to telecommunications, Africans themselves must invest in these projects. A satellite giving coverage to the African continent will not only improve telecommunication services in the continent but will also make sure that digital satellite broadcasting services are accessible to the majority of Africans.

Established in 1992, RASCOM is made up of forty five member states. Its first PanAfrican system of telecommunications satellite was named RASCOM-1 and will be launched on December 1, 2007 from the space port of Europe in Kourou in French Guiana.RASCOM-1 will contribute to the fight to bridge the communications gap between the rural and the urban areas and also enhance Africa's economic development in general and in particular the integration of Africa.

RASCOM-1 will will be available on Kuband and C band. The satellite will weigh approximately 3.200 kg, and will have a power of 6.4 kw at the end of the lifetime and will be positioned at 2,85 degrees

The Rest @ MY Broadband

CELTEL Malawi says its customer base has surpassed 500,000 mark, meaning that more than half a million Malawians are now switched to the Celtel network.

Speaking Tuesday during a press conference in Lilongwe Managing Director Charles Zouzoua said the company has the largest number of customers compared to their competitors.“From our surveys, what this translates to is that for every 10 people who use a mobile handset in Malawi, six are on the Celtel network,” Zouzoua said.In 2002, he said, three people out of 10 used Celtel network.“The latest development is testimony that Malawi’s telecoms industry has made a major leap forward,” he said.Adding: “We at Celtel are therefore proud to be associated with the development of the country’s telecom sector, which in turn should go a long way to assist in economic growth.”
He said Celtel covers 84 percent of the total population and has pioneered a number of services in the country like Prepaid billing and Me2U airtime sharing.

The Rest @ The Daily Times, Malawi

Bandwidth Cost Estimations Resulting from Seacom

[ Cape Town ITWeb, 6 August 2007 ] - East coast cable company Seacom will charge 80% less for bandwidth compared to Telkom, it says.This, if realised, could knock the socks of SA's incumbent telecommunications operator and government-sponsored rival Infraco.

Seacom, a privately-financed venture, is surveying the planned route for its cable that should connect all countries on the East African seaboard to Sicily, in Europe, and India to the international telecommunications grid.

• It says its cable will have an initial capacity of 1.28Tb, four times as much as planned for rival Eassy (East African Submarine Cable System).
• Working out the exact comparative pricing proposed by Seacom, with potential rivals such as Telkom and Infraco, is difficult because all players keep this a closely guarded secret. However, Seacom representatives have been canvassing local Internet and telecommunications providers to gauge their reaction.

Connectivity Pricing

According to an industry source who has attended one of these briefings, Seacom is offering connectivity from Johannesburg to Sicily on the basis of an indefeasible right of use (IRU) – the exclusive right reserved for a client.

• It also offers a lease for STM-1, the standard telecommunications unit for a 155 Mbps chunk of bandwidth – rising to STM-4, through to STM-64, amounting to 10Gbps.
• “If a client takes the equivalent of STM-64 on an IRU that is based on 20 years of ownership, this works out at R475 per megabit per month,” the source says.
• Telkom's equivalent fee is about R100 000 per megabit per month, but the source cautions this is not an exact comparison.“
• Whatever the rate, it seems as though Seacom will be pegging itself far lower than Telkom and even that of Infraco, which has so far indicated it will be only 20% cheaper than Telkom.
• This should knock socks off,” the source says.
• Seacom has admitted it is looking to supply bandwidth at 80% cheaper than prevailing market rates and says:
• “The Seacom [investors] believe there is a large amount of pent-up demand in the market.
• They expect a fundamental shift in how international bandwidth is procured and expect that the actual volumes will be substantial enough to encourage and support a low and declining bandwidth price.”

SA Government Response

• Industry and government have become increasingly critical of the high bandwidth costs associated with doing business in SA.
• This is the major reason given by the Department of Public Enterprises for the creation of Infraco, which will become a broadband wholesaler to rival Telkom.
• Hearings into the law that will govern Infraco are under way in Parliament. The department's rationale is that the situation is the result of a market failure at the facilities level and that a strategic intervention is required by government to rectify the issue.
• Among Infraco's projects is to lay two 3Tb cables – one to Brazil and one to Europe.“Eighty percent of our Internet costs are because of international connectivity charges,” says Raven Naidoo, chairman of independent telecommunications consultancy Radian.
• “Say an individual subscriber's costs are 10c per megabyte, and Seacom's pricing is right, then the cost should go down to about 4c. Infraco's pricing will mean that it will only go down to 8c.”
• However, whether SA would be allowed to enjoy the benefits of a private cable company is open to question, as the Department of Communications seems to be lukewarm to the idea.
• Communications department director-general Lyndall Shope-Mafole stated last week the country would give priority to the Nepad Broadband Infrastructure Network, that guidelines for landing foreign cables have not been drafted, and that it feels private ventures would not necessarily reduce the cost of telecommunications.
• Seacom believes its model meets the requirements of an open access, non-discriminatory cable system based on a low-cost, high-volume business. Related story: Telkom price cuts take effect

See the rest @ IT Web

Zimbabwe Passes New law: All Media, Phones, Internet to be Monitored

Fri 3 Aug 2007, 14:57 GMT

By Nelson Banya

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has signed into law an act enabling state security agents to monitor phone lines, mail and the Internet, a government notice published on Friday said.

Officials have said the new law is designed to protect national security and prevent crime, but human rights groups fear it will muzzle free speech under a crackdown on dissent.

In the government notice, Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Misheck Sibanda said Mugabe had agreed to the Interception of Communications Act, which was approved by both houses of Zimbabwe's parliament in June.

The law gives police and the departments of national security, defence intelligence and revenue powers to order the interception of communications and provides for the creation of a monitoring centre.

-Postal, telecommunications and internet service providers will be required to ensure that their "systems are technically capable of supporting lawful interceptions at all times".

Critics have said the law is a government ploy to keep tabs on the opposition at a time when political tensions are mounting and Mugabe is deflecting growing criticism from Western powers.

Zimbabwe is suffering a severe economic crisis, marked by the world's highest inflation rate, 80 percent unemployment and persistent food, fuel and foreign currency shortages.

The southern African country, once viewed as a regional bread basket, cannot feed itself and faces severe shortages of basic consumer goods after a government-ordered price freeze in June that has emptied shop shelves.

Mugabe -- Zimbabwe's ruler since independence from Britain in 1980 -- denies controversial policies such as the seizure of white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks have ruined the economy, and blames Western sanctions for the economic turmoil.

The Rest @ Reuters.

World BVank IFC invests in EaSSy Submarine Cable Project

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The World Bank's International Finance Corp. on Thursday said it was investing $32.5 million in a fiber-optic cable project that will provide Internet and international communication services for 21 African countries.

IFC, the private-sector arm of the World Bank that focuses on investing in emerging-market economies, said the cable project should improve telecommunications access for 250 million Africans and cut costs for individuals and businesses.

The project, called the East African Submarine Cable System, is to run 10,000 kilometers from the continent's southern tip to the African horn. It will connect South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti and Sudan.

Another 13 countries will share the system through land links. They are Botswana, Burundi, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Mohsen Khalil, IFC's director of global information and communications technologies, said in an interview the project's total cost will be $235 million and said it is a cooperative effort between private and public interests designed to ensure that prices do not fall under monopoly control and rise.

"Consumers along the east coast of Africa typically pay between $200 and $300 a month for Internet access," the IFC said. "As a result of this project, prices for international connectivity will drop by two-thirds at the outset and the number of subscribers will triple."

Some 26 telecommunications operators will be partners in the cable and most of them are African firms, Khalil said.

Construction is to start within weeks and the cable is scheduled to be in operation by early 2009.

The Rest @ Reuters Africa

EaSSy unlikely to land in South Africa

US 700m sea cable to cut Web costs
Thabiso Mochiko Business Report
01 August, 2007
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SA's new submarine cable could be the answer to bandwidth capacity
South Africa is planning a $700 million (R5 billion) submarine cable to cut the costs of accessing high-speed internet. The cable, to run from Durban to South America and London, will increase international bandwidth capacity.
The initiative is being driven by the department of public enterprises as an international leg of Infraco, the state-owned broadband infrastructure firm formed last year to lease capacity exclusively to Neotel for four years. But the international part of Infraco will be open to other telecoms firms including Telkom, which is said to be interested in a big slice of the project.
Due to the lack of undersea cables, Africa has mainly relied on the Sat3 cable that is partly owned by Telkom.
Sat3 members have exploited this by charging huge fees, which has led to strong criticism from the government as the high costs deterred foreign investments and led to slow internet roll-out in rural areas. Sat3 will compete with Infraco's west coast cable.
With the huge demand of internet bandwidth and the expected demand from the 2010 soccer World Cup, South Africa needs a cable system that offers high capacity as Sat3 could be running out of capacity.
Department director-general Portia Molefe said the goal was to have one leg of the Infraco submarine, likely in Brazil, running by 2009. The project would be funded by the private sector and the government.
Running parallel with the Infraco cable is the controversial Nepad Broadband, focussing on the east region. The Nepad Broadband was established after a fallout between the South African and Kenyan governments when they built the $280 million East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy).
EASSy was expected to run from KwaZulu-Natal to Port Sudan, with landings in seven countries. The tiff, which was over a cost-based model and open access initiated by South Africa, led to Kenya and South Africa forming new cable projects separate from EASSy.

But the EASSy cable is unlikely to land in South Africa. Lyndall Shope-Mafole, director-general at the department of communications, said EASSy was not a priority for the government as it did not contribute to its development. "I am not saying we will bar [EASSy], but we will have guidelines for companies that want to land in South Africa."

The Rest @ My ADSL News