Alternative means

of connecting Africa

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Although penetration has exceeded 80% across the African continent, mobile broadband is lagging significantly behind. A report from Ovum and Connecting Africa sub-titled ‘How service providers are adopting alternative technologies to improve broadband access in Africa’ highlights efforts by stakeholders to connect remote and rural regions and to deliver wireless mobile broadband capabilities in new ways.

Danson Njue

RESEARCH ANALYST, OVUM,MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA TEAM

“Africa still lags behind in broadband penetration despite relatively high mobile penetration,” explains report author Danson Njue. “To bridge the penetration gap, alternative technologies will play a key role especially in connecting the rural areas with broadband services. However, it will require the input from all stakeholders including vendors, regulatory authorities and service providers.”

Africa’s rural regions are often characterized by low population density, low income levels and underdeveloped basic infrastructure. This discourages service providers from investing in broadband networks, in spite of the widespread demand across rural regions. Introducing alternative technologies will play an important role in bridging this ‘digital divide’. However, alternative broadband technologies face regulatory challenges, due to lack of regulatory frameworks to support technology licensing.

Microsoft’s TVWS (TV White Spaces) technology, for example, makes it possible to identify and access unoccupied TV channels to create premium wireless broadband broadcasting. This allows transmission over greater distances with increased coverage, significantly lower power consumption and reduced network and end-user costs. Google’s Project Link uses fibre to connect existing local networks to intercontinental undersea cables. According to Google, this allows internet service providers and mobile operators to improve and expand their services.

The Facebook Telecom Infra Project aims to produce simple, efficient and flexible technologies for both existing and future networks, focusing on access, backhaul, and core and management. Another innovation, World Telecom Lab’s Vivada System, makes flexible rural connectivity sustainable as well as profitable. The report states that partnerships are essential to improving broadband connectivity in rural and underserved Africa.

Request the full report from Ovum and Connecting Africa

According to recent research conducted for ETNO by Accenture Strategy, Europe can gain up to €4bn a day by being at the heart of the digital ecosystem. Europe can enable 11% of the EU population to complete high-quality online courses and leverage digital solutions to reduce the EU’s CO2 emissions by 34% by 2030.

However, all of these advances require the industry and regulators to embrace transformation. Over the past ten years, Europe has lost €100m in telco EBIT every day to digital disruptors and telcos in other regions. Without policy and industry action, Europe may face further value loss to digital disruptors in other regions. More than half of all current jobs in Europe could be affected by digitization.

“Right now, regulation is the main bottleneck to achieving 5G and fibre investment,” says Lise Fuhr, ETNO Director General. “The world’s largest telecoms investors have stated that Europe might be left behind in the race towards new networks. They have warned that proposed European regulations, which are very different from original EU proposals, will deter investment. In my opinion, ongoing discussions on the European Electronic Communications Code are key to unlock the situation.”

“Regulatory reform is now the single most important barrier to increasing investment levels. This is clearly indicated in reports from various analysts. A 2017 Economic Investment Report from the EIB stresses that a lack of infrastructure investment is harming the Continent’s growth potential. “Regulatory pressure on allowed returns” is named as one of the key causes.”

“With the Code and the ePrivacy, EU politicians and policymakers will reshape the digital rulebook for the years to come. As Europe struggles to keep pace with global competition, getting these things wrong is simply not an option. Especially as telecom networks and services are the key infrastructure for the growth of the whole Continent. This matters to an entire range of industrial sectors as well as citizens. Regulation should not make these items into a bottleneck.”

“Eight of the world’s most highly valued companies are technology businesses - but none of these companies are European. If we are to strengthen Europe’s competitive position in these digital times, we need to finally unleash the potential of European telcos. Unfortunately, numbers describe a challenging scenario and regulation is not helping. All of Europe’s businesses, institutions and citizens have a direct interest in a strong telecom sector.”