SA Goverment Struggles with Private Investment, like SEACOM

Johannesburg

THE government's attitude to private sector investment in infrastructure is becoming ever more bizarre.

It complains that the private sector is not coming to the infrastructure party. But as soon as private sector operators show their willingness to invest billions of rands in any kind of network infrastructure that SA desperately needs, the government hastens to put obstacles in place that seem aimed at driving private sector investors away. Even more bizarre is that if the private sector comes along with huge sums to invest, in a new fuel pipeline or an undersea telecommunications cable, the government says, in effect: "No, don't you do that, we want it for ourselves." After all, why should local and international financiers pay when SA's taxpayers can be hit for the money instead?

The tangled undersea cable story is the latest instance of this peculiar approach to the world. There can be no question that SA and Africa desperately need more bandwidth to connect to the outside world, or that it needs to be a lot cheaper than what we have now if telecommunications costs in this country are to come down to anything close to an international norm.

And it is urgent: not only is the dearth of international bandwidth holding back the development of industries such as the call-centre industry, but there's also the 2010 Soccer World Cup to contend with, not to mention the prospect that SA may win the tender for the bandwidth-hungry international telescope, SKA ( square kilometre array).

The Rest @ AllAfrica.com

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

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

EaSSy unlikely to land in South Africa

US 700m sea cable to cut Web costs
Thabiso Mochiko Business Report
01 August, 2007
Email


To: Bcc: Your email address: Message:
Print
del.icio.us
Digg this
Like it?


(0 votes)


Adjust font size:
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

South Africa Telecoms Falling Behind

A recent analysis of the the South African Telecom Sector claims that though they once had the most advanced and cost effective systems in Africa, recent technology and market changes have eliminated the advantage. Further, they have not positioned themselves well for the next generation of changes.

Telekom's dominanace of the SAT-3 Landing station and its large margins have not been leveraged to upgrade to new technology or capacity.

-Morrocco already has more broadband capability than South Africa.

-Vast Telecoms capacity is coming into many places in Africa over the next few years.

They may be trusting in political and economic maneuvers to limit access to the new fiber optic submarine cables coming in, but that will just prolong the life of Satellite networks, still cheaper than their retail costs.

When the British 1st Battlation 24th Foot in the Battle of Isandlwana sat still and waited hoped that their better firepower would defeat an overwhelming force of Zulus. It did not. I hope that is not what South African Telecoms are hoping for, again.

-Lee Royal

Neotel vs. Telkom SA: Deregulation at a Snails Pace

Duncan Mcelod of the Financial Mail has written an excellent piece at Mybroadband .
it describes the problems of Neotel, The first competitor in South Africa competing against TelKom, which though technically not a monopoly, is still dominating the market. Let me summarize:

• Neoteol intially had problems in licensing stemming from being underfunded
• Telcom is tieing up large businesses with multi year contracts
• Telkom bought significant billboard space adjacent to the Neotel offices before the lease was closed.
• Neotel sells wholesale bandwidth to ISPs based on its concession to stay afloat
• Neotel is laying its own fiber networks, but is 18 Months to two years away from completion
• During this time Telkom has hiked consumer prices try to get its profits now

Neotel's Strategy, based on to Mcleod's interview with Ajay Pandey, is to move from populations centers outward.

"Its consumer-focused network, linked to the main network wirelessly, will initially be built in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, Bloemfontein, Nelspruit, Witbank and other key towns. Those in more outlying areas will have to wait a few years for Neotel's wireless services."

Neotel is also experimenting with new technologies. Neotel is getting read to do a pilot in the city of Gauteng where it is constructing a network of base stations using a wireless system using CDMA2000. The pilot will kick soon have about 20 base stations.

However: Neotel does NOT want to start a price war, ( I'm sure it needs to get profits back to its own investors)

Landey also alludes to the emerging belief that bundling services is the long term answer.

The results to date: It still takes six months to get a phone. Consumers are still waiting.

South Africa Neotel Aquires Transtel Teleocoms

South African operator Neotel has agreed to acquire Transtel Telecoms for ZAR 230 million. Transtel Telecoms is a spin-off from Transnet, South Africa's national transport company, offering national telecom services, including to customers outside the Trasnet group of companies.

Transtel employs around 500 people, generates around ZAR 400 million in annual revenues and is profitable. The acquisition gives newcomer Neotel expertise in carrier and voice and data services, as well as additional infrastructure and a national presence.

Pending regulatory approvals, the takeover is expected to close in 12-16 weeks. Transnet, which sees the divestment as part of its focus on core activities, will retain certain communications operations key to rail and harbour facilities.

The Rest @ Telecompaper

New VOIP Service in South Africa

Aiming at becoming the Skype of the mobile VoIP arena, Yeigo is a mobile Voice over IP (VoIP) software solution built and offered by three Cape Town graduates.

The software can be freely downloaded onto many higher end cellphones. After registering, Yeigo account holders can make worldwide VoIP calls free of charge to anyone with a Yeigo account.

All that is paid for is the necessary internet connection costs.Outside of the Yeigo network, the company claims discounts of up to 80 percent on calls to landlines and international destinations. For SMS, discounts of up to 90% are claimed. (see rates) Managing director Rapelang Rabana said that a small margin on the outgoing calls is the only revenue source.

The Rest @ Tectonic

Latest News from Africa Mobil

Onetouch Charges Flat Rate For All Local Network Calls in Ghana
Monday, March 05, 2007, 5:20:44 AM
Onetouch, the mobile arm of state-owned Ghana Telecom now charges a flat rate for calls to all local networks.

Nashua Mobile launches internet division
Monday, March 05, 2007, 5:06:44 AM
Nashua Mobile, the independent cellular service provider in the listed Reunert Group, on Tuesday signalled its intention to become a major player in South Africa's broadband and internet service-provider market by launching its new Nashua Mobile Internet division.

Glo Mobile pioneers Voice SMS in Nigeria
Monday, March 05, 2007, 5:00:44 AM
Glo Mobile has announced the introduction of Voice Messaging Service (Voice-SMS), a package which allows subscribers to record and send a voice message to a recipient. The service, the first of its kind in Nigeria, is a talk and listen messaging alternative to the regular type and read service provided by short messaging service (SMS).

Missed Call Notification feature for Cell C customers
Monday, March 05, 2007, 4:59:44 AM
Cell C subscribers will now be able to access details of callers who did not leave voicemail messages while their phones were switched off, thanks to a recently introduced Missed Call Notification feature.

Celtel wins brand of the year in Nigeria
Monday, March 05, 2007, 4:58:44 AM
Celtel, recently, reaffirmed its leadership position in the Nigerian telecommunications industry when it clinched the Brand of the Year Award at the 2007 Thisday Awards for Excellence and Good Governance.

Cell C Appoints Chief Corporate Officer
Monday, March 05, 2007, 4:00:00 AM
Motshabi will be returning to the company she helped launch in 2001 after an absence of four years. In that time Motshabi successfully led one of the country’s foremost advertising agencies, Lobedu Leo Burnett.

Ugandan President and MTC Managing Director discuss the way forward
Friday, March 02, 2007, 7:35:45 AM
Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni recently held a comprehensive meeting with MTC Group Managing Director Dr Saad Al Barrak in Kampala discussing a range of issues that covered the liberalization of the telecommunications industry; investment opportunities; incentives for foreign investment and recent free trade agreements that have been recently established in Uganda. President Museveni pointed out that such issues are relevant to the future economic prosperity of Uganda, and in return Dr Barrak provided assurances to the President of the commitment and role that MTC’s fully owned subsidiary Celtel Uganda will play in such an important arena.

MTN improves affordability and accessibility of broadband in South Africa through reduction of data rates
Wednesday, February 28, 2007, 5:25:45 AM
MTN has reduced rates on data contracts and data bundles by up to 20% and MTN customers can now also pay as little as 20c per MB when buying the 1GB data contract or data bundle.

Zi Corporation Launches Qix for Windows Mobile; Demo versions available on HTC Qtek 8300 handsets
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 2:09:33 PM
Zi Corporation (NASDAQ: ZICA) (TSX: ZIC), a leading provider of intelligent interface solutions, today announced a new version of its award-winning search and discovery engine, Qix™, launched at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, February 12 – 15. Qix for Windows Mobile 5 (WM5) is now available for operator deployment.

Zi Corporation Introduces QixLinks
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 9:17:34 AM
Zi Corporation (Nasdaq: ZICA) (TSX: ZIC), a leading provider of intelligent interface solutions, today announced the introduction of QixLinks™ and QixLinks Ads™, two radical new developments of its award-winning on-device search and discovery engine Qix™. These products will offer users direct access to portal content and advertisements, driving greater ARPU for operators.

First Hop Paves the Way for Advertising-Funded Mobile Content Services
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 9:04:44 AM
Today First Hop, the mobile service control company, announced the launch of its Mobile Advertising Solution. This will provide mobile operators and service providers with the infrastructure needed to support an ad-funded content business and enable them to attract additional revenue from advertisers looking to expand into mobile.

Rendez-vous in Paris: Nokia 7373 Special Edition meets Giambattista Valli
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 9:00:34 AM
Drawing upon the accolades of its highly regarded L'Amour Collection, Nokia has joined creative forces with talented fashion designer Giambattista Valli to craft the Nokia 7373 Special Edition. For this one-of-a-kind cooperation between a thriving creator of new designs and the pioneer in mobile fashion accessories, Nokia returns to the style capital of Paris during Fashion Week. Here the efforts to fuse fashion with mobility began in 1999 with the introduction of the Nokia 8210.

Roamware Dials Up The Future Of Mobile Content Sharing With Media Call
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 8:50:34 AM
Roamware, the global leader in roaming and mobile connectivity services, today announced the introduction of Roamware Media Call, a revolutionary media personalization and distribution service which aims to make sharing media by mobile phone as easy as making a phone call. The new service, set for launch in the second quarter of 2007, allows consumers to personalize their calling experience by sharing video, music, and other media content with each other before, during and after a mobile call.

Open-Plug to distribute Jataayu Software products as part of its ELIPS Application Suite
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 8:39:50 AM
Open-Plug a leading supplier of mass market software platforms for the handset industry, and Jataayu Software a leading vendor of mobile terminal and VAS infrastructure solutions, today announced the strengthening of their partnership by finalizing a license agreement. Jataayu’ software products, including browsing and messaging applications, will then be available to handset markers directly from Open-Plug as part of the leading-edge ELIPS open platform for mass market phones.

Research Predicts Seven out of Ten Mobile Professionals Will Use Mobile Email by Year End
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 8:39:49 AM
Visto Corporation, the partner company behind mobile email services from more than 30 of the world’s largest mobile service providers, today announced the findings of a survey the company commissioned to identify and target key drivers for mobile email adoption. Based on the research, Visto predicts that market penetration of mobile email could reach as high as 70 percent of mobile professionals by the end of 2007.

Roamware Technology Proven In New GSM Association Global Roaming Initiative
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 8:39:45 AM
Leading global roaming and mobile connectivity expert Roamware has successfully completed the GSM Association-led proof-of-concept trial for a new hub-based roaming structure for the mobile market. Once tested and installed, the hubs will provide a single point of contact for operators seeking roaming agreements, eliminating the time-consuming individual and bi-lateral agreement approach in use today.

‘Voice SMS’ Usage Grows Rapidly as Bubble Motion Announces Deal with Vodafone Egypt
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 8:37:45 AM
Bubble Motion the world’s first voice short messaging service (voice SMS) provider, today announced an agreement with Vodafone Egypt to launch its Mini Call BubbleTALK voice SMS to the operator’s subscribers. Voice SMS usage has been a recent messaging success story in the Asia-Pacific region with eight mobile operators offering the service to more than 100 million users to date.

Sonus Networks Partners With 3way Networks To Offer Complete System Solution For Its Low Powered GSM Offering
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 8:27:45 AM
Sonus Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: SONS), a leading supplier of service provider Voice over IP (VoIP) infrastructure solutions, announced today at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain that it has partnered with 3Way Networks to develop solutions to deliver voice services and multimedia applications to mobile handsets over an end-to-end low powered GSM network. 3Way Networks will provide femto cells, which enable existing and future 2G and 3G handsets to integrate with Sonus’ IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)-based network infrastructure. Together, the two companies are working to provide network operators with a complete Low Powered GSM (LP GSM) solution that provides new levels of operational efficiency with robust support for the delivery of next generation voice and multimedia services.

Omnifone Collaborates with Musiwave for MusicStation next generation mobile music service
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 8:17:45 AM
Omnifone, a UK-based mobile music company, today announced a collaboration with Musiwave, an Openwave company (NASDAQ: OPWV), the leading provider of mobile music entertainment services to operators and media companies worldwide, to distribute MusicStation, a revolutionary ‘all-you-can-eat’ mobile music service, that works on all major music handsets.

Visto advances simplicity on hot new mobile devices
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 8:07:45 AM
Visto, the leading global provider of easy-to-use mobile email, today announces the full availability of the Visto Mobile™ email services on the new handheld devices launched at this year’s 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona.

Sonus Networks And Ip.access Partner To Drive Fixed/Mobile Convergence Forward
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 8:07:45 AM
Sonus Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: SONS), a leading supplier of service provider Voice over IP (VoIP) infrastructure solutions, and ip.access, the creator of cellular picocell and femtocell technologies, announced today at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain that the two companies have entered into a partnership. Sonus, which recently unveiled its strategy to create new cost-efficient solutions designed to deliver fixed-mobile service over GSM spectrum, will work together with ip.access, which will provide in-building picocell and femtocell solutions. For ip.access, this relationship validates the Company’s IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) roadmap and allows ip.access to work closely with a leading provider of wireless and wireline IP-voice and multimedia infrastructure solutions.

ip.access announces successful further funding round
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 8:00:45 AM
ip.access, the market leader in cellular picocell technologies today announced a further funding round from Amadeus Capital Partners as well as their existing investors to fuel growth. Amadeus Capital Partners will work alongside ip.access’ management and the current VC team of Scottish Equity Partners, Rothschild & Cie Gestion, Intel Capital Corporation and Motorola Ventures to help the company grow its annual turnover from today’s $25m annual run-rate to the target of $100m+

Worldwide SMS revenues to hit $67bn by 2012
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 5:19:45 AM
A new report from Portio Research forecasts a healthy future for SMS, which continues to be the star of the data services show with traffic volumes and revenues that continue to confound predictions. Although the growth of SMS revenues will not be as aggressive as the growth of SMS volumes due to declining prices, by 2012 global SMS revenues are expected to reach 67bn USD, driven by 3.7 trillion messages. The report, ‘Mobile Messaging Futures 2007 – 2012’ outlines an exciting future for other mobile messaging technologies especially instant messaging and mobile e-mail amid continued strong worldwide subscriber growth.

Mobile television: the reality of rollout
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 5:19:45 AM
For some exhibitors at this show, the business model for mobile TV is a lot simpler than for others. Take antenna systems specialist RFS, which, as Dave Thickett, RFS senior systems engineer, told the Show Daily, has experience in DVB-T, the terrestrial cousin of mobile broadcasting contender DVB-H.

Westel vows to revolutionize GSM service in Ghana
Tuesday, February 20, 2007, 12:54:45 AM
Frustrated Ghanaian mobile phone users who may be dissatisfied with the poor quality of service they receive from their network operators will soon have the luxury of choosing to use a new mobile phone network.

GSMA and MasterCard piloting a programme to make it far easier and cost-effective to transfer remittances globally
Monday, February 19, 2007, 7:13:39 AM
The GSM Association has launched a pilot programme aimed at tapping the ubiquity and ease-of-use of mobile communications to enable the world’s 200 million international migrant workers to easily and securely send remittances to their dependents, many of whom don’t have bank accounts. By exploiting the extensive reach of the mobile networks, the programme will complement existing local remittances channels and make transferring money internationally significantly more affordable.

GSM Association aims for global point of sale purchases by mobile phone
Monday, February 19, 2007, 6:53:39 AM
The worldwide use of mobile phones for payments at point of sale is the aim of a new initiative announced today by the GSM Association (GSMA), the global trade organization for mobile operators.

Mobile instant messaging needs instant action; Report warns of stalled take-off and threat to operators from Internet brands
Monday, February 19, 2007, 6:48:39 AM
The established mobile industry is in danger of missing the boat regarding mobile instant messaging (IM) and community networks warns an in-depth report from analysts BKI Media and fastmobile.

Nokia to expand its 3G radio access network sharing solution for up to four operators
Monday, February 19, 2007, 6:45:39 AM
Nokia will expand its 3G radio access multi-operator solution to enable the sharing of a radio access network (RAN) between as many as four operators. By sharing the base station and radio network controller hardware, the operators can significantly minimize the capital and operational expenditures of their 3G RAN networks and yet maintain control of their network.

Nokia and Vodafone announce key milestones in S60 software collaboration
Monday, February 19, 2007, 6:35:39 AM
Nokia and Vodafone recently announced a significant milestone in their collaboration on the development of S60 software on Symbian OS(TM), with the release of the first Vodafone specific software package to all S60 licensees.

Lowering mobile taxes boosts usage and fuels growth; Study shows 10% rise in mobile penetration adds 1.2% to economic growth
Monday, February 19, 2007, 6:35:39 AM
Usage of mobile communications is a powerful economic growth engine, which governments can fuel by lowering taxes on mobile services and handsets, according to a new study undertaken by Deloitte for the GSM Association. In a developing country, an increase of 10 percentage points in mobile penetration will lift that country’s annual economic growth rate by 1.2 percentage points, the study found. That represents a major uplift - if the proportion of people with a mobile phone in an economy, growing at 4% a year, rises from 10% to 20% that would boost the economic growth rate to 5.2% a year.

SA Communications Minister pushes for unbundling

Feb 7th, 2007

In this morning's Business Day there is an article that quotes the minister of communications, Ivy Matsepe Casaburri, saying that there is a need to "'twist the arm of the private sector to participate in unbundling the local loop now owned by Telkom" to bring down telecommunications costs in South Africa. The local loop is the final portion of the telecoms network that connects customers to the networks.

Read the rest from Alastair Otter at Tectronics