THE battle for territorial superiority in the information and communication technology terrain now shifts to the provision of bandwidth.

The coming of SEACOM in July and the impending landing of two other undersea cables, The East African Marine System (TEAMS) and the East African Submarine System (EASSY), has seen telecoms and service providers rattle and outmaneuver each other with quick monopoly deals in what is seen as a lucrative industry.

But the hopes of an expectant public who looked forward to a sudden decline in bandwidth price rates (from about $3,000 to $100) is being scampered by these exclusive service provider contracts.

While SEACOM has boosted capacity and enhanced speed through more availability of bandwidth, the market still awaits a open declaration of price reductions by service providers.

Last week, WIOCC, a special purpose investment vehicle owned by a group of 12 African telecoms who also own 30% stake in the EASSY set to land at the coast in June 2010, was unveiled again indicating a new ownership paradigm.

Donald Nyakairu, the Uganda telecom chief legal counsel, explained that the convergence of these telecoms under WIOCC was to enable them access bandwidth cheaply from EASSY. utl is the only shareholder in WIOCC in Uganda.

“The more shares you have, the lower the price,” explained Nyakairu.

Experts now believe that when EASSY enters, service providers who want to buy broadband must go through the local shareholders of WIOCC and those who have direct shareholding in EASSY.

Most of the companies that combined to bring undersea fiber optic cables made huge investments into the venture. SEACOM and the upcoming EASSY project have borrowed money from the World Bank.

Market watchers say because these companies need to recoup their monies and pay off the loans, the last mile end user consumer may just have to wait a little longer for cheaper internet.

The issue of actual prices to the end user is also a matter that service providers and investors bringing the undersea fiber cables are dodgy about discussing.

EASSY bandwidth is designed in such a way that users do not pay upfront for the service.

“You will pay as you use, not pay upfront,” said WIOCC chief executive officer, Chris Wood.

Wood believes that in one way or the other, pressure will be exerted on the service providers and end user bandwidth prices will have to come down.

Nyakairu says within a month, utl, which is a market leader in data service, will revise its rates downwards.

In the meantime, uganda telecom has reportedly been forced to buy SEACOM bandwidth direct as a short term solution as it awaits the entry of EASSY in which the telecom has invested.

Information available indicates that because Infocom has a monopoly over cheap SEACOM bandwidth, it has been able to slash prices.

This has in turn forced other service providers who invested in the other cables that have not landed to connect to SEACOM.

“Infocom has been taking away our clients because they have a monopoly over SEACOM,” said a top telecoms executive.

The executive director of Uganda Communications Commission, Patrick Masambu, described the impending entry of EASSY as a major milestone for the industry and the country.

“Their (EASSY) efforts are not a coincidence, they are meant to take our economies forward,” he said.

The monopoly by service providers, the underdeveloped infrastructure, together with the huge financial undertakings of these companies might mean access to cheap internet is a distant dream.

source Individual.com – 3 September 2009

The services — delivered throughout the region via the East African Submarine System (EASSy) and WIOCC shareholders’ terrestrial national networks — will enable African and international telecom service providers to interconnect and provide ICT services that will spur development and growth.

Wholesale operator WIOCC is connecting African countries into the world’s internet through a new cable, EASSy. Chris Wood explains that WIOCC sees a future where Africa will be united through innovative telecommunications that is accessible to all.

WIOCC is a telecommunications carriers’ carrier created to provide its customers with reliable, low cost, high-speed telecommunications services between south, central and eastern Africa to the rest of the world.

The services — delivered throughout the region via the East African Submarine System (EASSy) and WIOCC shareholders’ terrestrial national networks — will enable African and international telecom service providers to interconnect and provide ICT services that will spur development and growth.

WIOCC is a specially created African investment company, jointly owned by a grouping of 12 major telecom operators in east, central and southern Africa — all first or second tier operators in their respective countries and funded by a number of global development finance institutions such as the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the French agency Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the German development bank KFW.

WIOCC is the largest shareholder (29%) in the EASSy submarine cable. EASSy is owned and operated by a group of African (92%) and international (8%) telecom operators.

EASSy incorporates the latest developments in submarine fibre-optic technology — finally making it economical to connect the east coast of Africa into the high-speed global infrastructure.

When fully deployed, EASSy will connect Africa into the global internet, with landing stations in South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Comoros Islands Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti and Sudan — bringing affordable, high-capacity interconnection to nine south and east African seaboard countries.

EASSy has the largest number of landing station for any east coast submarine system.

EASSy is also the highest capacity system being built on the eastern seaboard, with two fibre pairs and carrying data at 1.4 terabits a second. It is designed with scalability to allow bandwidth provisioning from E1 to SMT64 and wavelengths. No other submarine system is designed to provide such scalable service provisioning.

Through its vast shareholder backhaul networks WIOCC and EASSy will interconnect 20 African countries and provide connectivity to many landlocked African countries.

EASSy is also the only eastern Africa system to be based on a collapsed ring architecture that provides resilience against equipment and branch failure. WIOCC and EASSy has the lowest cost base — $260 million — of any east coast system, and unlike the others its funding mechanism embodies developmental objectives that will ensure open access and fair pricing to all.

WIOCC will offer a range of services to African and international carriers, extending the reach of the EASSy network through interconnection agreements with operators of other international submarine cable systems giving access to Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas.

WIOCC will also take advantage of its owners’ extensive national networks to extend services from EASSy’s coastal landing stations to key cities in each country, and for the first time open up access to many landlocked countries in Africa’s interior.

The landlocked countries that will be connected into the EASSy’s network include:

Botswana

Burundi

Ethiopia

Malawi

Rwanda

Swaziland

Uganda

Zambia

Zimbabwe

WIOCC’s carrier customers will be able to take advantage of one-stop shop contracts for cost-effective, reliable and seamless connectivity between numerous city PoPs and landing stations in south, central and east Africa and the world’s key commercial and financial centres and internet exchanges.

Alternatively, they can simply bring their traffic to a WIOCC hub — at Djibouti, Port Sudan or Mtunzini — where international carriers can hand-off traffic for carriage into Africa, and African operators can do the same for onward transfer to international locations.

WIOCC sees a future where Africa will be united through innovative telecommunications that is accessible to all. WIOCC is the future in fibre connectivity for Africa. GTB

United Africa connecting the world

Why WIOCC? WIOCC is the largest shareholder in EASSy and is owned by 12 Africa telcos. The company is solid and has existing and established backhaul infrastructure that will unite Africa connecting the world.

WIOCC key differentiators

1: Scalability: WIOCC has capacity for everyone: From entry level capacity E1 — two megabits a second — to massive STM 64 or 10 gigabits a second wavelengths.

2: Flexible contract terms: WIOCC gives a choice of contracts terms to suit customers’ needs and growth patterns. WIOCC offer contracts from one month up to 10 years for leases or indefeasible right of use for the life of the cable.

3: Price: WIOCC is a development project funded by African telecom operators and global development finance institutions. It has the advantage of economies of scale and can leverage on its shareholders strength to offer significantly lower prices than other competing offers.

4: Non-discriminatory: Services are available to small, medium and large telcos, ISPs or organisations that are licensed to buy from international carriers.

5: Backhaul network: WIOCC has extensive shareholder backhaul networks that interconnect 20 African countries to major business, financial and commercial centres around the world. With WIOCC customers can get to places where no one else can cost-effectively take them.

6. Collapsed ring: The EASSy submarine cable is the only cable along the east African coast based on a collapsed ring design that minimises the impact of cable cuts and equipment failure.

7: Landlocked countries connectivity: Shareholder backhaul network interconnects nine landlocked counties within the region.

8: Simple and straightforward: WIOCC offers one stop shop service to customers: an end-to-end service with a single contract for pricing, customer support, provisioning and maintenance.

9: Onward connectivity: WIOCC offers the most diverse routes for onward connectivity, interconnecting Africa to the world through an extensive backhaul infrastructure and nine landing stations. By partnering with international global carriers, WIOCC has a flexible portfolio of services designed to meet the needs of Africa and international service providers.

10: Network Monitoring: 24×7x365 network monitoring, management and customer support.

source Global Telecoms Bussiness – 20 August 2009

Altech acquires 8.5% share in international submarine cable system.

Altech announced today that it has acquired an 8.5% stake in The East Africa Marine System Limited (TEAMS).

The $11 million (R88 million) deal was brokered through Altech’s subsidiary Kenya Data Networks Limited (KDN) and now gives the company a 10% voting right on the project.

TEAMS is a 500km undersea fibre optic cable project which connects Kenya with the United Arab Emirates and facilitates connectivity in the Eastern African region. It was spearheaded by the Kenyan government and provides for 1.28Tbps of capacity, although upon completion in September it will offer an initial capacity of 128Gbps.

“Africa is in the infancy stages of a sustained growth trajectory in broadband across multiple technologies, services and geographies. The acquisition of a stake in TEAMS compliments KDN’s strategy of being a cross-border, pan African network operator,” said Altech Chief Executive Officer, Craig Venter.

“We have a two pronged approach, the first being ample bandwidth-access via the undersea cable, the second, being our extensive terrestrial network throughout East Africa. Consequently the acquisition will be beneficial to achieving our aim of molding KDN into the primary internet solutions provider throughout the continent,” concluded Venter.

Currently East Africa is the most extensive coastline on the continent without sufficient access to fibre optic cables. Despite this the recently landed SEACOM cable and EASSy, which is set to conclude in June 2010, will significantly increase the total bandwidth capacity delivered to the region.

source MyBroadband – 20 August 2009