Emphasis on a Pan African ICT regulatory environment is a vital ingredient in speeding up broadband infrastructure network deployment across the African continent.
The statement was made by Sami Al-Basheer Al Morshid, director of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Development Bureau, at the recent Connect Africa Summit, in Rwanda. The lack of high-capacity broadband infrastructure in Africa`s capital cities and between cities was under the spotlight at the event.
The summit, organised by the ITU and hosted by the Rwandan government, addressed solutions for connecting all Africa`s capital cities with broadband infrastructure by 2012, as well as interconnecting African capital cities through fibre optic infrastructure by 2015.
He said that, despite considerable growth and investment in voice-carrying infrastructure over the African continent in the past decade, there is a huge deficit in broadband (data and video) carrying infrastructure.
Dr Yury Grin, deputy-director of the ITU Development Bureau and a speaker at the summit, said the existing fibre optic backbone only accounts for 1% of the total communication infrastructure on the continent.
A recent assessment report released by the ITU reveals there is only 68 000km of terrestrial fibre optic backbone on the continent, with a critical deficit of infrastructure linking Africa`s capital cities.
There is a terrestrial fibre optic deficit of around 90 598 route kilometres in Africa at the moment, leaving 33 major cities unconnected to one another and unconnected to a submarine fibre optic cable, explains the report.
Unleashing funding
The biggest issue inhibiting fibre backbone roll-outs are government and regulatory policies within and between African capital cities, explained Mark Williams, senior economist at the World Bank.
Huge financial investment by the private sector is available and is being held back in certain African countries by inhibiting regulatory policies, he noted.
It is apparent that investors are willing to invest in broadband infrastructure, as evidenced by the huge sums of money already being put on the table, he said. "Last month, MTN committed to investing $2 billion in a high carrying broadband fibre network in Nigeria."
To unleash investment by private investors, government and regulators need to work together to create a progressive Pan African regulatory environment, Williams added.
"The deficit will cost a few billion dollars, which is actually not a lot considering that private investors have invested over $25 billion in Africa`s telecommunications infrastructure over the past seven years," said Grin.
Rwanda`s president, Paul Kagame, closed the summit by saying a more liberalised approach towards the African broadband landscape should be a priority for African governments and regulators in order to increase fibre connectivity on the continent.
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