Africa Online

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The connection from Europe and Mumbai provides a fibre link for the first time to South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique The completion of the Seacom project is regarded as a major breakthrough for the region, as it has been one of the only pockets of the world that, until now, has remained largely ‘offline’ or has had to rely solely on expensive satellite connectivity.

Traditionally, submarine technology was the bottleneck in the getting Africa connected. Access initiatives have been in place for some time along with some basic backhaul technology. All dependent on satellite links for connectivity, which have been unaffordable for most.

The new under-the-water links have breathed new life into the telecoms architecture. The existing 3G mobile broadband, WiMAX and fixed line technologies can now realise their full potential as they are connected to high-speed fibre networks. And with generous investments now are being ploughed in to extending the fibre links in-land, advancement in connecting Africa is spreading fast.

However, there remains one weakness in the race to get Africa ‘online’. For operators to deliver fast mobile broadband to customers, adequate backhaul architecture needs to be put in place, and fast. In short, operators in the region will be unable to deliver a good service without upgrading their backhaul networks, as the existing architecture will not be able to handle the capacity needed for mass broadband connectivity

“The arrival of submarine cable connectivity represents a major opportunity for African operators by enabling them to provide higher speed and lower cost broadband services. But to make the most of the opportunity, operators need to be deploying high capacity backbone networks quickly.”

says Daniel Jones, of telecoms investment research firm, Onda Analytics.

“Existing backhaul infrastructure across much of Africa is insufficient for supporting high speed broadband access. Some government backed backbone projects are underway, but there is some scepticism surrounding the time they will take to complete. There is an opportunity for private operators to be first to market.”
Point-to-multipoint (PMP) technology is going to be a main contender in the quest to deploy fast, financially viable backhaul that is able to deal with these new capacity levels. Technology unique to VectaStar allows operators to statistically multiplex high capacity data over the air, resulting in quick data transfer speeds with reduced spectrum allocation. PMP is inherently an economical solution, which can be deployed quickly, which will be a key for operator’s immanent requirement.

Why PMP, not fibre?
Operators laying fibre backbone for the first time may encounter problems with rights of way issues that can stop development in its tracks. The rights associated with laying cables close to train lines and roads are not always clear cut and can pose major issues during an already time and cost-hungry project.

So, it seems clear that the progress being made by submarine companies like Seacom, GLO-1, TEAMS and EASSy will mark the beginning of getting Africa online. It’s now up to the region’s operators to move quickly to install the vital backhaul infrastructure needed to provide the service, which is now on offer. This will be a competitive time for operators, but it seems that the decider as to which operators succeed and which fail may centre on which backhaul solution they choose, as the quick deployment, low cost of roll-out and reliability of service will have a direct result on the end-user’s quality of experience.