Presentation Synopsis – RIPE 66, 13-17 May 2013
Dublin, Ireland
Africa is the 2nd
largest continent, after Asia, in both size and population. With over 1-billion
inhabitants and over 167-million Internet users, it is a significant emerging
market.
Various policy and
regulatory changes across Africa have seen a leap in the slow progression from
Africa’s reliance on satellite connectivity to fibre-optic and even terrestrial
wireless networks. As connectivity providers move further into the continent,
the challenges that have defined Africa’s sluggish Internet growth are
gradually being met. In many instances, cross border and cross continental
internet traffic is still routed via the large exchanges in Europe, resulting
in delayed delivery and increased costs for African users.
In 2013, African Internet
Service Providers are now presented with the ability to join multi-lateral
peering exchanges where connection to major international carriers is
possible. This not only allows them to offer African consumers access to
high speed connections, but the connection is now at a dramatically reduced
cost ultimately opening up connectivity to a much larger market and thus
exposing business opportunities to a larger consumer market.
South Africa as a
springboard to Africa…
Telecommunications is one of the fastest growing
sectors of the South African economy, driven by rapid growth in mobile
telephony and broadband connectivity. With a network that is 99.9% digital and
includes the latest in fixed-line, terrestrial fibre, wireless and satellite
communication, the country has the most developed telecoms network in Africa.
In 2009, South Africa ranked 34th in the world in
terms of fixed-line telephony, with over 4.3-million fixed-line connections.
South Africa is one of the fastest growing mobile communications markets in the
world. As of 2012, there were over 59-million active sim cards in South Africa,
ranking the country 26th in terms of subscriber numbers.
Using the connectivity in
Africa
An increase in the number of undersea data cables
linking Africa to the rest of the world, as well as market liberalisation, has
seen a shake-up in local internet access, with the number of internet users finally
breaking through the 15% mark in internet penetration for the continent.
The Seacom submarine fibre-optic cable system
linking south and east Africa to global networks via India and Europe was
commissioned in July 2009, while the East African Submarine Cable System
(EASSy), that links countries along the continent's eastern coast to the rest
of the world, started service in August 2010.
WACS and ACE, the west African cable system linking
southern and western African countries respectively with Europe were
operational in 2012.
Several other cable systems linking Africa to Asia
and the southern Americas are already under constructions: BRICS, WASACE, SAexpress
and SACS. These cable systems are due to be operational in late 2014. See cable map below:
The challenge…
The challenge for the
industry is to continue to remove distance and cost barriers to Internet growth
and innovation and identify locally relevant methods for content distribution
to be faster and more efficient on the continent.
The case for local
exchanges, specifically those offering free, multi-lateral peering exchanges
have never been stronger. As a driver of reducing transit costs and bringing content closer to the end
user, a major opportunity exists to improve distribution of connectivity in
Africa, drive growth in broadband access and ultimately ‘light-up’ a previously
dark continent.
