A connected continent can tackle global issues
SMART homes, robots connected to all electrical appliances, 4K video on flat screens, ubiquitous ultra-mobile broadband, digital business transformation, portable cloud computing solutions with enormous database.
All of these were showcased at AfricaCom held in Cape Town last month by China’s telecommunication giant Huawei. These technological advances can be realised in the near future when broadband services become everyday commodities. Yet, it is too early to picture their presence in our life at this stage in Africa because of the lack of access to broadband.
In Africa, only about one out of 10 households is connected to the internet. Comparing to other areas on the globe, broadband coverage in Africa remains low. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), mobile-broadband penetration levels are lowest in Africa (19%), which is only about one third of that in Europe (64%) and the Americas (59%).
For fixed network, 44% of all fixed-broadband subscriptions are in Asia and the Pacific, and 25% are in Europe. In contrast, Africa accounts for less than 0.5% of the world’s fixed-broadband subscriptions.
However, household internet access in Africa continues to grow at a double-digit rate. With its huge population and rapidly growing middle class, Africa’s telecommunication industry has got enormous untapped potential, which has been valued by Chinese firms for decades.
China’s Huawei and ZTE entered the African market in the late 1990s, and now operate in more than 50 countries. To provide better telecom connectivity, Huawei has deployed more than 50% of Africa’s wireless base stations, more than 70% of LTE networks and at least 50,000km of optical fibre. It has reduced the cost of internet access for rural areas, saving about 40% in cost and 80% in time spent online.
“Connectivity is the cornerstone to the development of the digital economy in Africa,” said Charles Ding, senior vicepresident of Huawei.
Besides increasing its network coverage with telecom operators, including MTN and Cell C, to enhance information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and broadband services in Africa, they have also partnered with governments and the private sector to deploy various ICT solutions, including e-government, e-health and e(GDP) education.
These innovative technologies are improving the lives of all Africans. Taking ZTE’s iRail solution as an example, the railway radio broadband communication solution based on LTE (longterm evolution) technology provides broadband applications such as passenger information service, digital advertisement solutions, and patrol alarm systems, which enable railway operations to be more efficient.
As Yang Jun, vice-president of ZTE, says: “ZTE is the first manufacturer in the industry to introduce LTE technology into the railway communication field, going way beyond the standard, and put it into commercial use.”
Ding also highlighted how advanced ICT infrastructure can contribute positively to a country’s gross domestic product and its competitiveness.
According to the Global Connectivity index, a 20% increase in ICT investment will grow a country’s GDP by 1%.
There are more than 50 countries that have invested or committed to invest more than $100bn on the construction of national ICT infrastructure.
Jacob Munodawafa, executive secretary of the Southern Africa Telecommunications Association (Sata), shared the strategy on national broadband deployment: “Broadband network and related ICT applications are regarded as strategic infrastructure which can help tackle the most challenging global issues of the 21st century, such as poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, recession … and healthcare.”
The worldwide Broadband Commission’s Connect 2020 Agenda, announced earlier this year, has set new goals for global ICT development. This initiative has inspired many Southern African Development Community (Sadc) countries to start their own broadband rollouts.
Furthermore, SA’s National Broadband Policy identifies a range of policy interventions necessary to achieve the ambitious but achievable targets. A universal average download speed of 100Mbps by 2030 has been set. Progressive targets have been set for an average user experience speed of 5Mbps to be available to 50% of the population by next year, and to 90% by 2020.
SA also signed a Plan of Action on areas of cooperation in ICT with China in June. The plan covers cyber security, e-government, e-skills professional training as well as broadband strategies for implementation and rural access, electronics manufacturing and technology transfer, and research and development in ICT.
“Chinese telecoms enterprises are welcome because we want strong competition,” Telecommunications and Postal Services Minister Siyabonga Cwele told People’s Daily Online. “We also hope that they partner with some of our small business sector and assist them in training.”
According to Cwele, SA is currently looking at stimulating its ICT manufacturing. “We know China is producing a lot of gadgets — it would be better if we partner up and relocate some of those manufacturing units to this country, so we can supply the whole of Africa.”
He added that SA had put incentives and developed industrial development zones with competitive tax rates.
“We are dedicated to support the regional industry stakeholders in their efforts to drive Africa’s connectivity agenda, by linking up national broadband initiatives to drive country to country broadband connectivity from coast to coast across Africa,” said Xin Dajiang, vicepresident of Huawei. “By linking up national broadband initiatives to drive country to country broadband connectivity from coast to coast across Africa.”
Meanwhile, China Telecom, MTN’s counterpart in China, plans to design and build eight vertically and horizontally laid fibre-optic cable networks across Africa, with a length of 150,000km, covering 48 countries and connecting 82 cities. It has invested $50m in African telecom infrastructure, including submarine cable resources.
However, the continent is neglecting aspects of its telecom industry. Spectrum allocation is one of them. While spectrum is the engine that drives national telecom development, its allocation in Africa is slow.
Antony Chigaazira, executive secretary of the Communications Regulators Association of Southern Africa (Crasa), said: “More spectrum resources can accelerate the adoption of broadband by individuals and households, and support the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart cities.”
All these developments have the power to fuel ICT innovation. “Over the next five years as Africa transitions from analogue to digital television, we are presented with an enormous opportunity: new frequencies are becoming available that can be used to increase high-speed wireless internet access for all Africans,” Chigaazira said. He said Crasa was committed to expediting the revision of Sadc’s Spectrum Allocation Plan as soon as the final acts from the ongoing World Radio Conference were out.
Over the next five years, mobile broadband deployment needs at least 2GHz of spectrum, yet few countries have allocated new LTE spectrums. Many of the required LTE spectrum bands mainly in the 700Mhz and 800Mhz frequency bands will not be available until the finalisation of the digital TV migration that transfers the spectrum occupied by analogue television to telecommunications sector, which in many African countries, including SA, is taking longer than anticipated.
“We are working closely with operators, regulators and all related partners to advise on the importance of early spectrum allocation and we have been doing this at various conferences and forums throughout the year,” said Yang Hongjie, marketing director of Huawei Eastern and Southern Africa. “We have been advising the regulators that spectrum allocation should be consistent with technology and service neutrality, a guarantee of coverage and speed.”
Currently operators are making use of spectrum refarming technology to reuse the existing 2G and 3G spectrum to deploy LTE. Service providers are working on alternatives, using other available spectrum bands such as white spaces and C-Band and unlicensed spectrum for wireless broadband deployment.
Local technicians are in great demand. With seven technology training centres set up by Huawei across Africa, more than 30,000 ICT professionals have been trained to date.
“We also launched our Seeds for the Future programme in Africa. Through this programme, we are working with local governments and universities to send students abroad, to get work experience and training at our Huawei headquarters,” said Ding. The ICT talent cultivation programme has been rolled out in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Angola and is to be implemented in more countries in Africa, estimated to benefit more than 1,000 students in the next five years.