By 2011, Africa will have eight international fibre cables connecting it to the rest of the world. New infrastructure is already delivering an eight to ten fold reduction in the prices formerly charged by the satellite companies. But the old African mindset of “selling shortage at the highest price” is not changing quickly enough to keep up with the new future of plentiful bandwidth. A number of blockages are emerging that need to be overcome if Africa is to take full advantage of its new fibre assets:
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With the arrival of the Glo One cable in Ghana and Nigeria, the two biggest bandwidth markets in West Africa, both countries will have two landing stations and by the end of 2011, a staggering 5 landing stations each. This plethora of landing stations and the bandwidth they bring will remain under-utilised and only be able to serve the coastal areas (including the majority of African capital cities in West Africa). The construction and strengthening of national and cross-border networks is the order of day of this massive amount of bandwidth is to be used. The recent decision of the World Bank to finance a network to connect Central Africa is an important step in this direction. Isabelle Gross spoke to Yann Burtin, Senior Operations Officer, Information and Communication Technologies Department of the World Bank about the proposed Central African Backbone.
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The Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria's leading telecommunication company, MTN, Mr Ahmad Farroukh has predicted a challenging, yet very promising year for operators and users of telecommunications services in Nigeria. Farroukh made the forecast on the second day of the Economist magazine-organised CEO Agenda Nigeria, held at the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island , Lagos , recently. Farroukh was one of the three panellists, including the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Mr. Ernest Ndukwe.
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National Communications Commission (NCC) has said the charges are reasonable and comparable to any price regime in Africa.The Executive Secretary National Communications Commission (NCC) Mr Ernest Ndukwe told delegates at the Economists Conference which ended yesterday in Lagos that he does not believe the current charges on calls by telecoms operators in Nigeria is too high. "I don't agree that the cost of call in Nigeria is too high. Subscribers in Nigeria are paying market rates comparable elsewhere in Africa," he said, adding that the prices in Nigeria is within the middle range.
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THE collapse last year of merger talks between MTN and Bharti Airtel had not sapped investors' interest in Africa, where both cellular and fixed-line telephone penetration rates are low, telecommunications analysts Informa said this week. Far from being discouraged by the collapse of the 24bn MTN- Bharti deal over regulatory concerns and the decision by France's Vivendi to walk away from a deal to buy the African assets of Kuwait-based Zain, Informa said investors were planning either to fly their flags on the continent for the first time or to expand existing businesses. Cash-flush operators such as China Mobile, the world's largest based on subscriber numbers, could not be ruled out from making a big acquisition, said Informa principal analyst Nick Jotischky.
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