By Dr Lishan Adam & Dr F F Tusubira

As part of the Master Plan and Strategy development process, UbuntuNet Alliance carried a situational survey of the telecommunications sector policy and regulatory environments covering 22 countries in the membership region.  The specific focus was impact on research and education networking activities.  Our intent in the survey was not simply a data gathering exercise: it informs our strategy for planning, along with the NRENs, approaches for working with policy makers and regulators towards more conducive environments and, like sailing against the wind, creating success despite the challenges.

We found the following to be the key environmental barriers to access to broadband communication:

• Slow reforms in the communication sector
• Inadequate access to backbone infrastructure at affordable prices
• Inadequate policies and regulation with regards to ownership and access to essential infrastructure by universities and research institutions

Slow sector reform: Policies and regulation that govern: access to spectrum; ownership of fiber infrastructure such as dark fiber; and interconnection and tariffs are often unfavourable, and also vary widely. Some governments in the region such as Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda have made progress in reforming their telecommunications sector policy, legal and regulatory environments; and also adopted technology neutral converged regulatory frameworks that promote access to broadband infrastructure.  Others like Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Swaziland still favour monopoly and restrictive regimes that hamper academic institutions’ ownership and operation of broadband fibre and wireless networks.

Access to broadband Infrastructure:  A critical aspect of high speed connectivity is ensuring that national and international fiber access is available and affordable.  Bandwidth to sub-Saharan Africa still comes through a single submarine cable—the South Atlantic Telephony-3/West African Submarine Cable (SAT-3/WASC, or SAFE) or via satellite connection – inherently poor quality and expensive. The price of SAT3 has been kept artificially high because the connection was, until recent limited relaxation, shared by a closed consortium of dominant telephone companies and state monopolies.

The existing backbone infrastructure in the UbuntuNet region is mainly low capacity, wireless-based links designed to carry voice traffic.  Submarine cable projects including SEACOM and The East African Marine Systems (TEAMS) that are expected to be in service in 2009 and the East African Submarine cable System (EASSy) that is expected to be launched in 2010 should, provided they maintain the agreed open access principles, address the international connectivity gaps.   Additional backbone is however required to connect the inland regions and landlocked countries to the landing points: there is a current real likelihood that international fiber with the potential for much cheaper bandwidth will be neutralised to a large extent by the bottlenecks created by the absence of sufficient backhaul and national backbone capacities.

Countries in the region like Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have initiated studies and rollout programs for national backbones in recent years supported by development agencies and the private sector. Others such as Botswana, Ethiopia, Mozambique, South Africa, Sudan and Zambia are rolling out their national backbone networks through existing operators.  Djibouti, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho and Somalia have yet to initiate national backbone projects.

Ownership and access to essential facilities by academic and research institutions: The restriction on academic ownership and operation of network infrastructure is often due to the monopoly of networks by traditional incumbent operators that are regarded as sole owners of the network, including national gateways. In most countries, only the licensed operators and other public utility companies have the Rights of Way, and NRENs would have problems trying to establish their own networks if they so wished.  In countries like Eritrea and Ethiopia the restrictions are extreme, with even the use of VSAT and its operation by academic institutions prohibited.  In most of the countries NRENs can only purchase fiber capacity from existing licensed providers. This denies them the option to consider ownership models that might be more cost effective or to build networks for special research purposes.

Policies and regulations concerning broadband fiber networks are at early stages in most of the countries, and there are therefore no provisions for NRENs to be operators of networks with equal access to essential facilities. In some countries like Kenya, and more recently South Africa, NRENs have formal licenses.

Table 1 summarizes the state of ICT policy and regulatory environment in the UbuntuNet membership region. Click here to access the table.