London — An estimated 20,000 plus people came together last week for the World Summit on the Information Society. Despite many passionate speeches and the usual turn from Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, not much actually happened. WSIS was always destined to disappoint. Its agenda and the accompanying rhetoric always obscured rather than clarified issues that would change the balance of the digital divide or indeed the balance of wealth in the world.

Even if internet governance had been changed according to the noisy demands of some developing countries, it would not have changed the circumstances of a single citizen in a poor country. The political fights over the digital solidarity fund were also on the basis that more money (rather than radical reform) was all that was needed. So the Summit ended with a bland declaration meaning all things to everyone and nothing to anyone. But at least the commas were in the right place. The follow-up vehicle for all these hopes? The UN Science and Technology Commission which meets on an annual basis and has not yet covered itself in glory in terms of delivering anything to anyone.

But despite this failure of the official agenda, WSIS did produce some surprises for those working on its fringes. Russell Southwood covers three of them: The World Bank offer of financing to EASSy; the creation of an African Universities bandwidth consortium; and the challenges to freedom of expression posed by holding the event in Tunisia, oner of the internet's gated communities.

WORLD BANK OFFERS EAST AFRICAN FIBRE CONSORTIUM EASSY FUNDING

At a meeting organised by NEPAD's e-Africa Commission on Thursday morning last week, the World Bank's Pierre Guislain outlined the financing offer the Bank has made to the East African fibre project EASSy. The offer has been under negotiation since November 2004 and this was the first public outing for the Bank's proposal. The offer is conditional on consortium members accepting Open Access principles, an idea that seems to be gathering momentum with Africa's Governments and regulators.

The consortium has a financing shortfall as a number of its incumbent members are unable to raise the required capital from their own resources. The offer has split the consortium members down the middle. The larger members who have the capital to make their contribution see the offer as "a diversion" that will prevent them from raising the rest of the money quickly. They maintain that the shortfall will be made up by other members like VSNL, the main shareholder in the South African SNO.

At which point, the smaller, less well-off members will either have to leave the consortium or their donor backers will have to accept the terms offered by the consortium. However this route undoubtedly contains a number of political dangers for the larger members as it may place them in conflict with their governments and regulators. The talk of landing stations as "essential facilities" has already quickened the pulse of some of those involved. The smaller members, particularly the landlocked countries, are keen to see this project built on a different basis to the club consortium route used to build SAT3. It is a game of poker whose outcome will probably only become clear in the spring of 2006.

The Bank's offer forms part of its Africa Action Plan and is a joint IFC/World Bank programme to support NEPAD's Africa ICT connectivity initiative. The World Bank's Guislain started by describing to those attending the shortcomings of the "closed club consortium structure". The club consortium route means that members have an exclusive right to capacity and that non-members pay "an excessive premium for access". In each country it would create a monopoly or duopoly in terms of access. The result would be that the new fibre would have a limited impact on the high prices paid by Africa for international fibre access and thus on the wider development of the continent.

The Open Structure proposed by the Bank would be funded through a mixture of commercial debt (DFI's, commercial banks) and equity (financial investors). Capacity would be accessible to all market players (including landlocked countries): fixed line operators, mobile operators, ISPs etc. Capacity pricing would be fair, the same for all and determined by market forces. Pricing would be set low to grow traffic as quickly as possible. As with oil pipeline special purpose vehicles, the profits will be made by those using the capacity, not the operating vehicle for the capacity. Guislain said he believed the Open Access SPV route made the project bankable because it controlled the assets and the capacity.

He said the IDA would be able to offer: credits for the development of national backbone and regional networks and capacity building technical assistance for supporting reforms. The IFC can offer debt, equity and mezzanine financing for the SPV and direct financing of private operators.

A lively debate followed a number of speeches but there were few voices raised in opposition to the proposal, which does not mean opposition does not exist. One voice opposing this route was consortium member Telkom Kenya's General Manager Joseph Ogutu who said that the SPV would take too long to arrange and that landlocked countries could always use satellite if they were unhappy with the eventual fibre price. The last comment is perhaps the African telco equivalent of Marie Antoinette's famous reported comment when told the French people were starving:"Let them eat cake."

Political support is beginning to grow for the Open Access route. A meeting of SADC ICT Ministers held in Johannesburg on 7 November issued a communiqué that stated:

1. The urgent need to build broadband ICT infrastructure for terrestrial and submarine cable networks for East and Southern Africa.

2. The application of open, non-discriminatory and affordable access to these networks.

3. Acceptance that cross-border terrestrial and submarine cable segments of these networks can be developed, owned and maintained, as appropriate, by special purpose vehicles.

4. Agreement on the application of the principle of public private partnerships for these networks.

5. Governments should create regulatory and policy frameworks conducive to the development of these networks.

A plan of action was tabled that will lead to proposals and recommendations going to Ministers in the first quarter of 2006. Countries attending the meeting were: Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, Uganda, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar and the DRC.

The larger members of the consortium appear already to be offering a number of concessions which they clearly hope will "buy off" the growing momentum for the Open Access approach. It says the club consortium route is more financially secure and it would make its prices transparent. Also in an effort to reassure the landlocked countries it is saying that transit to the landing station would be on the basis of a cost-based leased line. The wholesale price being discussed (in other words the price paid by club consortium members) would be just over US$1,000 per mbps per month.

AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES COME TOGETHER TO SET UP NRENS AND BUY INTERNATIONAL BANDWIDTH

Africa's universities took a step nearer joining their developed world colleagues when a group of them decided that they would bid for international fibre capacity in the EASSy fibre project and that they would seek to encourage the setting up of National Research and Education Networks (NRENs). This is the first time users have come together at this level in a bid to lower the price of their connectivity.The vision of delivering very high speed - gigabits per second (Gb/s) connectivity instead of the current kilobits per second (kb/s)between African Universities and Research Institutions is driving the Alliance forward at a rapid pace.

In February 2005, at the Association of African Universities Conference in Cape Town, two important events occurred: one was the identification of connectivity constraints as a major hindrance to rapid development of member universities. The second was the birth of SARUA, the Southern African Regional Universities Association, which is an association of Vice-Chancellors of all universities in the SADC region. The counterpart organisation for the east African region is IUCEA - the Inter-University Council of East Africa.

Historically, for various reasons, bandwidth to African Universities costs many times what Universities elsewhere expect to pay. As Professor Bjorn Pehrson of KTH, Sweden, says, "The Universities of Africa are now making an entirely reasonable appeal, namely to have same connectivity with global research networks and the Internet as is enjoyed by Universities in every other continent."

By seeking to become an EASSy consortium member, the UbuntuNet Alliance is setting out to provide affordable intra-regional and international connectivity to enable its member NRENs to give universities and research institutions the ability to exchange content and collaborate on research and education activities both within the region and with world-wide partners. Access to EASSy will allow Alliance members to get access to the European NREN, Geant and to the Internet. The Alliance has the backing of several donors and it is seeking EU assistance for feasibility work on the setting up of the NRENs. The development of the Alliance has been facilitated by Canada's IDRC and KTH.

The UbuntuNet Alliance will shortly be incorporated as a private, non-profit foundation whose Members are representatives nominated by established national NRENs) of countries in the eastern and southern regions of Africa.

African universities have along been the poor relation in their own countries, although they have often played a key role in producing the leaders and expertise needed. Cheap access to the internet and to learning materials available from other NRENs will not transform them overnight but it has a significant role to play in enhancing their future potential.

According to Americo Muchanga, Director of the Computer Centre, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane:"The connectivity obtained will allow us to exchange research between different countries and connect us to networks in other countries including: Geant (pan-European); Internet2 (North America); Tein2 (Asia); Ciara (Latin America) and EU Med (Europe, Middle East and 4 countries in North Africa). It will allow our member universities access to digital libraries containing research and publications as well as being able to offer distance learning materials effectively."

The founding members of the UbuntuNet Alliance are: Kenya (KENET), Malawi (MALICO/MAREN), Mozambique (Eduadro Mondlane University, Rwanda (National University of Rwanda) and South Africa (TENET). Discussions are under way with the following countries who may also join: DRC, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

FEAR AND LOATHING IN TUNIS - WELCOME TO FLIC CITY, THE GATED COMMUNITY OF THE INFORMATION SOCIETY

The security for WSIS and the ITU's Global Symposium of Regulators follows the popular tradition of saturation policing that follows large-scale international events these days. It seemed almost as if no corner did not contain two or three police and the road to Hammamet (about an hour from Tunis) had them at regular intervals along the route. There were even horse-mounted police and helicopters around the WSIS perimeter. (Although the police and potential terrorists clearly keep regular hours as there were few police in evidence in the rainy, early hours of one morning.)

Plain clothes police were also much in evidence. There seemed also to be a virtual cordon as various people reported that their blogs and web-sites had been blocked. Some of this was self-reinforcing paranoia but there were enough instances to lend credence to these allegations (see also report below in Internet News).

More worrying were the difficulties encountered by those organising the Citizens Summit on the Information Society. The organising group had difficulty finding a room in Tunis but eventually found one and booked it ahead of the event. At the last minute they were informed that the room was closed for maintenance and that the hire fee had been refunded.

To overcome this difficulty the group were offered a room in the Goethe Institute. Some were able to enter but a large plain clothes police cordon informed others who arrived that they could not go in and that they must disperse. The plain clothes police then started pushing people forcefully off the pavement and seized a local journalist.

According to one eyewitness:"We followed to see where he was being taken and once they were round the corner, they started slapping him around the face. I remonstrated with them and this distracted them so he was able to slip way into the traffic and catch a taxi. Afterwards we went to a local café with the German Ambassador who was asking what had happened. While we were talking to him, the café owner approached us and said we had to leave or the police would close the café down."

The next day there was a press conference called to protest at what had happened attended by around 200 people, including several ambassadors. This time about 30 plain clothes were stationed "unobtrusively" on a nearby corner. When approached by someone with a video camera, they fled off down the street. But as one person who attended said:"This feels like a small victory for freedom of expression but I don't know what will happen to local people who participated.'

The organisers of the HIVOS meeting on Expression under Repression were first told that they must change the title of the meeting or it would be cancelled. The Tunisian authorities relented but arranged for a notice saying it had been cancelled to be posted. However, it went ahead as planned. Another participant told us that he had turned up for a meeting only to be told that it was full by the plain clothes police outside. When he insisted on going in, he found that there were only 10 people in the room.