Telkom, Huawei support SATA on Broadband For All Initiative

The 3rd CEOs, Broadband initiative for Southern Africa (CBI4SA) meeting was held on the sidelines of the recently ended AfricaCom conference in Cape Town. The event focused on the access of broadband for all in Southern Africa and the challenges to be overcome. This initiative is driven and overseen by the Southern Africa Telecommunications Association (SATA).

Representatives from Telkom, Huawei, CRASA, SADC and SATA amongst others saw issues related to Broadband Network Connectivity, Industrialisation and Procurement, Security, mobilization of funding for regional projects and regulatory framework and standards being discussed.

Speaking at the meeting, Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko, said the CEO forum for fixed line players aims to create a dialogue that talks about issues like procurement synergies, standardization, policy and regulatory alignment. He went on to say that Telecommunications operators in Southern Africa need to continue to support SATA in its drive for better broadband connectivity in the region.

The journey for National Broadband plan has long begun for South Africa. It aims to democratise broadband access so that a majority of people can get access to internet services and also to ensure that access to the internet will not be the preserve of the few who are mainly the wealthy and urbanites.

Maseko also spoke of the need for polices, standards and regulations to accommodate a converging technology platform. “there is a bit of asymmetry despite the convergence of technology and we still have differential termination rates for fixed and for mobile. Its still a retrogressive situation where there is a notion that despite the convergence of technology from a policy and regulatory point of view they are still treated as separate”, he said.

On reducing the cost to communicate Maseko said there is a need to look at the ecosystem first and not directly at the service provider.”Telecommunications providers need to apply minds so that they do not get a backlash. It is not just about connectivity but devices and the price of devices and applications and there has not been a holistic approach to this. Every time when there is a release of a new device the price is higher than the previous version yet the cost of the mega byte is coming down all the time and the operators get blamed all the time. Cost of equipment that is used and that is where the dominating factor of procurement comes in to play”.

He rounded off by saying standardizing and working together would make everything much better for all the operators whether large or small and that no one will be left behind as everything will be harmonized. He said, “There is a higher order of solidarity thinking from a regional perspective so that all of us can be able to uplift our people and be able to bring services and products in a way that is affordable and ICT is at the heart of that as it will enable greater access to education, health, and other social services that people have found very difficult to access historically”.

Also speaking at the forum, Daniel Tang Xinbing, Huawei’s Chief Technology Officer for Fixed Network Product line spoke about challenges and opportunities in this part of the world and how Huawei is working in Africa to improve broadband connectivity. Asked what the best solution for Africa was Tang said as “Africa is a huge continent and there is no best solution for connectivity in Sub Saharan Africa region. Huawei thinks about the different scenarios and then deploy a solution.”

“Wireless is convenient and fixed broadband is difficult however when we move to 3G, 4G or 5G, fixed broadband will be more important as part of the infrastructure. It will become the backbone of the wireless broad band.”He said broadband for all is a path to economic growth for emerging countries mainly in Africa and that the focus is now on how much penetration there can be”.

One of the challenges faced is an increase in the cost of infrastructure and Huawei is working with Telkom on how they can gradually develop the broadband industry in South Africa as they have done with other countries in the region. For emerging markets Tang says “where there is a lot of infrastructure roll out, to leverage the infrastructure synergies, will be a very good opportunity to leapfrog even the developed countries”

Tang concluded by saying “today there is a clear digital divide between urban areas and rural areas and developed countries and less developed countries and ICT broadband and internet is a good way for people to overcome a number of challenges”. He also stated how standardization is a very important part of the Telecommunications industry and that is why Huawei has put a lot of effort to try and promote industry standards and only then can one think about pro active procurement.

Majority of investment in the telecom industry is in the maintenance of the copper wires and the laying out of fibre network and also on managing the copper or fibre plants. For the Broadband for all initiative to be a success, there needs to be massive investment as rolling out fibre is costly and most of the cost is incurred through civil work, the digging of the trenches. With the weakening of a number of Southern African currencies it requires players in the Telecommunications industry and governments to fully commit to the cause.

By Vardis Banga