Geneva — The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is supportive to the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and its definite commitment has been endorsed through the adoption of resolution 124 of the Plenipotentiary Conference (highest decision making body) in Marrakech in 2001.

In an interview the ITU Regional representative for Africa, Brahima Sanou said that the regional office has been working on concrete actions to implement the resolution. He said a preliminary assistance to NEPAD was prepared with the aim of drafting a bankable project document to achieve the NEPAD information and communication technologies (ICT) objective.

"As a follow up to these developments and after due consultations, the ITU embarked upon the ITU NEPAD Preliminary Assistance Project to define precisely the scope and level of support required by Africa to meet the NEPAD objectives in the ICT sector as part of the global WSIS objectives as well as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)," said Sanou.

The Partnership framework for ICT infrastructure development in Africa needs assessment study was carried out by a team under the supervision of Sanou and Asenath Mpatwa, Coordinator of African Unit. The study proved to be a very important initiative to assess the level of preparation of African countries for their successful integration in the information society. The study stresses the infrastructural aspect and in particular broadband infrastructures, the digital gap in most African countries, especially countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The report represents the first phase of the implementation of the Resolutions mentioned above; the second phase will be to accompany the African countries in mobilising partnership and resources to implement the recommendations with particular emphasis on building the infrastructure.

Infrastructural gaps

The report however observes that African countries must face the challenges of closing two types of infrastructural gaps that exist in the different countries. These gaps are non existent or low capacity national transmission backbones and also non existent or low capacity international links.

Africa still lags behind the other regions of the world in the deployment and exploitation of ICTs. The indicators speak for themselves: Africa with about 13% of the world's population, accounts for only 2.3% of the world?s total number of telephone subscribers, currently estimated at close to 2 billion subscribers.

Teledensity (telephone lines per 100 inhabitants) is 2.62 compared with the world's 17.19; significant variation exists between the sub regions and between urban and rural areas.

The waiting time is as long as 6 years in the Central African sub region contrasting with 2 years in the North African sub region.

The largest towns in each country, with a 12 to 22% of the total population, account for as high as 77% of total main telephone lines. It is apparent, if all the urban centers were included that the picture is much worse.

High Entry Access

Costs connection costs is about 20% of Gloss Development Product (GDP) per capita compared to 1% world average; this situation magnifies the challenge before African countries given the linkage between GDP per capita and economic growth; subscription and 20 hours Internet usage cost per month is US$63 compared with US$29 for the USA.

PC penetration is 9 per 1000 inhabitants compared with Asia 21, Americas 259. Internet penetration is less than 0.5% (0.2% in sub-Saharan Africa). Internet Users per 1000 inhabitants is 8.5 (Asia 42.5, America 216.2, Europe 180.5, Oceania 274.4). Internet hosts per 1000 inhabitants 0.34 in Africa (Oceania 88.1, Asia 2.9, Americas 133.3, Europe 19.2).

Low investments in Africa account for 1.71%of global investments in sector (estimated at US$21bn in 2001 9 Americas 27%, Asia 44%, and Europe 26%). A significant portion of inter- African traffic (70%0 still transits through outside the continent.

The above parameters point to one direction- that appropriate mechanisms be established to ensure that the implementation of the reforms already commenced must now be accelerated and successfully implemented at the country levels. So, it appears clearly, in multiple- operators national broadband backbones will need both Governments and operators to adopt a more flexible approach to how these infrastructures are both owned and operated.

It is instructive to enumerate some of the reasons why these gaps exist. Policy formulation for ICT is usually split amongst different government departments and Ministries with minimal coordination. Poor intra-country interconnectivity and poor IP and inadequate infrastructure are also reasons for gaps.

Television broadcasts cover mainly the capital cities, and therefore addresses areas that are too small to justify the cost of producing high quality programmes; this has resulted in lack of incentives to improve production facilities or production skills. There is also lack of technical and managerial skills for effective development and management of the sector.

Overview of Infrastructure in Africa

Many African countries have in the last decade witnessed a rapid development of their ICT infrastructure, although they are in different stages of development. This has been spurred in most cases by sector reforms and in a limited number of cases, through political will to improve the infrastructure.

Perhaps the most significant is the rapid expansion of mobile networks, which have provided a number of advantages including increase in tele-densities and extension of services to rural areas.

Another major building infrastructure success story is the establishment of SAT3 cable, which has been implemented by a consortium of mainly African operators. Policy and Regulation institutions The main players in the ICT Sector from policy-making and regulatory aspects are mainly respective Ministries and Regulators.

It is clear that in most countries, ICT policy is determined by at least two separate government agencies of Ministries. This is no doubt creates the need for effective coordination amongest all the relevant government agencies.

Most countries have set up their regulatory agencies. However there are still some countries that have not yet set up any regulatory agency and where regulatory functions are carried out within the Ministry. It is not worthy to point out that this does not necessarily result in a negative impact on the growth of the network. In the specific case of Tunisia, it has achieved better growth rate than its neighbours in the same sub region that have established regulatory frameworks.

Infrastructure Providers

The main incumbent operators have lost their position as the main infrastructure providers as more mobile operators have been licensed to provide service. In most countries, competition is mainly amongest two or three mobile operators except countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Nigeria which have four or more operators.

One noticeable development is the emergence of some major operators that are predominately African and that have won licenses in many African countries. These include CELTEL, MTN, Orascom, TELECEL and Vodacom. This development raises the question as to whether there is a risk for the emergence of a new monopoly of regional carriers.

Some countries have licensed fixed wireless operators that provide ICT services within a limited coverage. This best illustrated in Nigeria where about 30 fixed wireless operators. In many countries, the incumbent operator has been privatised and the development of regional infrastructure may not be given the priority it deserves because the new owner (usually a foreign operator) is constrained by its business plan.

In the broadcasting sector, the mainly government owned broadcasting entities still dominate the provision of broadcasting infrastructure. Private FM radio and Television broadcasting networks are emerging such as in Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

Service Providers

In addition to infrastructure providers, several internet Service providers (ISPs) are emerging with increasing competition that is coming from the incumbent operators who are gradually wakening up to the enormous business potential of internet and internet related services such as Voice over IP (VoIP).

In many countries, a separate category of GMPCS service providers exist where they provide mobile satellite service using the Inmarsat, Iridium and Thuraya networks.

Although most of the fixed line operators provide VSAT services, a number of private entities have been licensed in many countries fixed satellite services. The growth of VSAT has however been hampered in a number of countries because of the regulatory framework which limits the provision of service to the main incumbent. One example is Telkom South Africa.

Subscriber numbers

Available data shows clearly how the mobile operators are now the dominant players in the liberalised markets. There are however some exceptions. In Ethiopia where the monopoly incumbent is the mobile operator, subscriber growth is still very low coupled with a long waiting list.

Internet continues to grow in Africa with an increasing number of internet cafes being established in all nooks and corners of the continent.

In Egypt, the effect of a political will, which translated, to the policy of free internet access is mainly responsible for the high number (over 3 million) of internet subscribers, the highest in the region.

Fixed Telephone Networks

Many of the fixed networks in the region use similar switching and transmission technologies and have undergone considerable levels of digitalisation beginning with international switching centers as well as the satellite earth stations.

In general, many of the networks are plagued with inadequate capacities, utilise old and obsolete technology and many instances suffer from network failures.

Under these conditions, operation and maintenance of the networks become very difficult and this results in poor quality of service. These are however few exceptions, such as South Africa, Mauritius and Senegal with well developed backbone networks.

WLL technology is implemented in almost all countries with the attendance advantages of reducing waiting lists for telephone connections.

Mobile Networks

GSM is the dominant standard in mobile networks, a fact that has not only enabled subscribers to migrate from one network to another within the same country, but also makes it possible to purchase a SIM card when visiting a neighbouring country and use it in their mobile phones.

Mobile technology presents its own challenges which include coverage, standards and its impact on the growth of the fixed line. The high growth of mobile subscribers in Africa raises the question as to the future of fixed line.

The high growth of mobile subscribers in Africa raises the question as to the future of fixed networks which have slowed down in growth. This is a dilemma that countries need to address as the fixed line networks have their tremendous advantages, especially in their lower costs for internet access.

One of the major challenges faced by the mobile operators in the apparent lack of transmission infrastructure, and where available, the apparent high cost for leasing such capacity. This has led many of the operators to build their own infrastructure which sometimes results in capacity duplication.

The issue of parallel infrastructure is one that has to be addressed by regulators and one suggestion is for regulators to develop an infrastructure Master Plan that will address this amongest other issues.

Satellite Networks

Most African countries use the Intelsat network for their international fixed links and for domestic networks. Other satellite networks that are being on the continent include Arabsat, Eutelsat, NewSkies and Panamsat.

The Inmarsat and Thuraya satellite network are being used for mobile satellite service.

Some African countries have launched mini satellites including Algeria, Nigeria and South Africa whilst Egypt operates the Nilesat communication satellite used mainly for broadcasting purposes. Nigeria and South Africa are considering the possibility of launching their own communication satellite and following an international tender has awarded the contract for building a communication satellite to a Chinese company.

IP Infrastructure

IP bandwidth usage continues to grow in the region despite the high cost. As at end 2004 only 10 countries had established Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) to stop local Internet traffic from going out on the expensive international links.

Internet Exchange Point (IXPs) are not yet being used for exchange of sub regional and regional traffic, and neither are they being used for consolidation and bulk purchase of expensive international bandwidth.

Basic Internet infrastructure is providing mainly using bandwidth from 1 to 2 Mbps.

IP Technology, on which e-applications/services depend, is not well understood by the sector players, regulators and policy makers. Currently, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) appear to be the technology drivers, yet most ISPs lack the financial muscles required to build appropriate IP infrastructure. The telecom operators who have deep pockets and some basic infrastructure, on which an IP backbone can be developed, are focused on traditional voice services, and view IP technology as a threat rather than an opportunity.

Inter-state IP traffic is still carried to the United States and Europe, since the national IXPs in the various African countries are not directly connected.

There is need for projects aimed at interconnecting the IXPs in the various African countries, so that African traffic can be kept in Africa, and thereby reduce the amount of international bandwidth requirements and associated cost implications.

Broadcasting infrastructure

Broadcasting infrastructure is still predominantly analogue with virtually no series plan to move to digital broadcasting, except in Mauritius where some serious consideration has commenced.

Digital radio broadcasting has been introduced on a very limited scale through the satellite based WorldSpace digital system. The WorldSpace system is a good example of infrastructure sharing as it supports up to 50 channels of digital audio.

It is a reality that in Africa, Terrestrial Digital Broadcasting is almost non existent; however it is nonetheless true that Satellite Digital Broadcasting is widespread enough. It is to be noted that over 20 satellites distribute radio and TV programmes of about 30 African countries in digital format (DVB).

It should be noted that the preference for satellite transmission compared to terrestrial network is often driven by size of the territories to be covered, the low density of the populations.

Regional Infrastructure

There are a number of ongoing and planned national, sub-regional and regional infrastructure projects. These are in different stages of development and include SAT3/WASC/SAFE, Eastern African Submarine Cable System (EASSy), RASCOM, E-Schools project, Southern Region Information Infrastructure (SRII), COMTEL, INTELCOM II, East African Digital Transmission Project (EADTP), COM-7 and the African Virtual University.