Experts canvass further investment in underwater cables
By Jonah Iboma
Recent developments have put the Eastern and Southern African regions ahead in the race to link Africa with the rest of the world through cheaper bandwidth. Jonah Iboma highlights what industry experts say on how Nigeria and the West African region should react. Excerpts Bandwidth cost has been one of the main reasons why data services such as Internet are very costly in Nigeria and the entire sub-Saharan Africa. In advanced countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, the cost of broadband Internet access comes at just a fraction of what is paid in most African countries. Broadband Internet offers speed of up to 10 times that of dialup which is widely used in Nigeria. Experts say this is simply due to the high cost of bandwith.
Another point they have established is that the main reason why bandwidth costs so much in Africa is the fact that the number of undersea cables that link the continent to the rest of the world, especially Europe and North America, is very few.
In fact, today, WASC/SAT-3/SAFE is the only commercial undersea cable championed by Telcom South Africa that links Western part of Africa with Europe and Asia.
The situation means that a lot of data communications done in the continent is through the satellite and this comes at a very high cost.
However, a new race is now on to link the continent with the rest of the world through undersea cables and it appears that except more investment is attracted, the Western Africa region and Nigeria might be the biggest loser in the coming bandwidth supply battle. This follows the establishment of plans on three undersea cables in Southern and Eastern Africa.
The three cables –TEAMS, EaSSy and the Seacom undersea cables are all linking mainly Southern and Eastern Africa and leaving West Africa to depend on the SAT-3 and Glo-1, the undersea cable that Nigeria’s national telecom operator, Globacom, plans to bring on stream in 2009.
There is also hope that the region could get one other cable, as a telecoms firm, Mainstreet Technologies, had given indication of also building a similar undersea cable to link the Western Africa with Europe, with Nigeria likely to be the main landing point.
But experts believe that with the revelation of plans by Seacom to bring down bandwidth costs by as much as 80 per cent when its services start in 2009, West Africa and especially Nigeria may still be the only region where high bandwidth cost persists.
According to the details of cost released by Seacom, as from June 17 2009, its bandwidth will cost as little as R267 a month per 1MB, compared to between R3,500 and R11,000 to use Telkom’s bandwidth on the existing Sat-3 cable, or a punishing R231,000 for satellite connectivity.
With the rollout period by Seacom about the same time as that of TEAMS, the possibility of increased competition already looks obvious, raising further hopes for cheaper access in the region.
Commenting on the development, experts in the information technology industry said it showed that the time had come for Nigeria to find ways to attract more investment in that direction.
According to the Managing Director of Kemson Concepts Limited, Mr. Ben Aduli, Nigeria needs to make similar efforts to what is happening in Eastern and Southern Africa if she hopes to achieve a similar fall in bandwidth cost. He said the continuous dependence on SAT-3 and satellite was not in the best interest of the country.
He said, “Until we begin to land multiple cables here, we will not get the benefits of the broadband internet.”
He said the cost of bandwidth SAT-3 was still too high and that this had had very little impact on the quality of service because many people still relied on satellite based means for communications.
According to him, there is high bandwidth demand in Nigeria and this would only increase as third generation mobile services go live, a clear reference to the 3G services that are to be offered by Globacom, MTN, Celtel and Alheri Engineering Limited.
Also speaking on the matter, Publicity Secretary of the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria, Mr. Damian Udeh, said there had always been a need for more investment in the more underwater cables like we are beginning to see now.
He said that operators paid so much for SAT-3 today, noting that this created a business case that the Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited could have exploited rather than if seeking to offer last mile services.
However, Nigeria could yet overtake the rest of sub-Saharan region in terms of delivery of cheaper data services considering the impending conclusion of Globacom’s underwater cable. According to the firm, work on the cable had already passed Senegal and with this, the firm could offer SAT-3 the stiffest competition to date, especially with the fact that Glo-1 is to connect parts of the West African coast with Europe with landing points at Portugal and London.
Recent developments have put the Eastern and Southern African regions ahead in the race to link Africa with the rest of the world through cheaper bandwidth. Jonah Iboma highlights what industry experts say on how Nigeria and the West African region should react. Excerpts Bandwidth cost has been one of the main reasons why data services such as Internet are very costly in Nigeria and the entire sub-Saharan Africa. In advanced countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, the cost of broadband Internet access comes at just a fraction of what is paid in most African countries. Broadband Internet offers speed of up to 10 times that of dialup which is widely used in Nigeria. Experts say this is simply due to the high cost of bandwith.
Another point they have established is that the main reason why bandwidth costs so much in Africa is the fact that the number of undersea cables that link the continent to the rest of the world, especially Europe and North America, is very few.
In fact, today, WASC/SAT-3/SAFE is the only commercial undersea cable championed by Telcom South Africa that links Western part of Africa with Europe and Asia.
The situation means that a lot of data communications done in the continent is through the satellite and this comes at a very high cost.
However, a new race is now on to link the continent with the rest of the world through undersea cables and it appears that except more investment is attracted, the Western Africa region and Nigeria might be the biggest loser in the coming bandwidth supply battle. This follows the establishment of plans on three undersea cables in Southern and Eastern Africa.
The three cables –TEAMS, EaSSy and the Seacom undersea cables are all linking mainly Southern and Eastern Africa and leaving West Africa to depend on the SAT-3 and Glo-1, the undersea cable that Nigeria’s national telecom operator, Globacom, plans to bring on stream in 2009.
There is also hope that the region could get one other cable, as a telecoms firm, Mainstreet Technologies, had given indication of also building a similar undersea cable to link the Western Africa with Europe, with Nigeria likely to be the main landing point.
But experts believe that with the revelation of plans by Seacom to bring down bandwidth costs by as much as 80 per cent when its services start in 2009, West Africa and especially Nigeria may still be the only region where high bandwidth cost persists.
According to the details of cost released by Seacom, as from June 17 2009, its bandwidth will cost as little as R267 a month per 1MB, compared to between R3,500 and R11,000 to use Telkom’s bandwidth on the existing Sat-3 cable, or a punishing R231,000 for satellite connectivity.
With the rollout period by Seacom about the same time as that of TEAMS, the possibility of increased competition already looks obvious, raising further hopes for cheaper access in the region.
Commenting on the development, experts in the information technology industry said it showed that the time had come for Nigeria to find ways to attract more investment in that direction.
According to the Managing Director of Kemson Concepts Limited, Mr. Ben Aduli, Nigeria needs to make similar efforts to what is happening in Eastern and Southern Africa if she hopes to achieve a similar fall in bandwidth cost. He said the continuous dependence on SAT-3 and satellite was not in the best interest of the country.
He said, “Until we begin to land multiple cables here, we will not get the benefits of the broadband internet.”
He said the cost of bandwidth SAT-3 was still too high and that this had had very little impact on the quality of service because many people still relied on satellite based means for communications.
According to him, there is high bandwidth demand in Nigeria and this would only increase as third generation mobile services go live, a clear reference to the 3G services that are to be offered by Globacom, MTN, Celtel and Alheri Engineering Limited.
Also speaking on the matter, Publicity Secretary of the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria, Mr. Damian Udeh, said there had always been a need for more investment in the more underwater cables like we are beginning to see now.
He said that operators paid so much for SAT-3 today, noting that this created a business case that the Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited could have exploited rather than if seeking to offer last mile services.
However, Nigeria could yet overtake the rest of sub-Saharan region in terms of delivery of cheaper data services considering the impending conclusion of Globacom’s underwater cable. According to the firm, work on the cable had already passed Senegal and with this, the firm could offer SAT-3 the stiffest competition to date, especially with the fact that Glo-1 is to connect parts of the West African coast with Europe with landing points at Portugal and London.
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