Brian AYRES

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Development of Telecom Networks in Africa

• Brian AYRES
• CEO, GlobalNet Inc.
• bayres_at_globalnet.cm

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Media

• Continuing our discussion of yesterday, there are
  2 main media used by telecom networks in Africa
  that interest us
• Fiber optic cable
• Satellite

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Geographical Availability

• Fiber optic (terrestrial) in certain
  cities/countries.
• Fiber optic (undersea) at coastal locations in
  West Africa.
• Satellite everywhere.
• The two media are generally complementary.

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Bandwidth availabilty

• New Skies
• Virtually none
• Intelsat
• None to Africa on certain satellites
• SAT-3
• Currently used 20 Gbps
• Upgrading to 40 Gbps.
• 120 Gbps is the limit

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Reliability

• Fiber
• Excellent but subject to the response time of the
  PTT in time of outage.
• Satellite
• Excellent but subject to outages of a few minutes
  for a few days during eclipses twice per year.
• This mornings comments on VSAT availability.

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Developments (1)

• Fiber Optic Cable, undersea
• EASSy (NEPAD)
• IWTGC
• Fiber Optic Cable, terrestrial
• Rail, pipeline
• CBG

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EASSy project
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IWTGC

• The submarine cable system will run from Portugal
  to Cameroon along the coast of West Africa and
  will link Nigeria, Benin, Liberia, Senegal, Cote
  d'lvoire and Ghana.

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Developments (2)

• Satellite
• New
• RASCOM (2006)
• NSS-8 (2006)

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RASCOM C Ku band
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RASCOM Ku band
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RASCOM C band
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NSS-8 Transponders

• 36 x Ku-Band
• 56 x C-Band

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NSS-8 C band West Hemi
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NSS-8 Ku band spot beam
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NSS-8 European spot
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• "TRUTH and technology will triumph over BS and
  bureaucracy."
• Rene Anselmo, founder of PanAmSat

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Dog Spot
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Mergers

• Intelsat and PanAmSat
• Fleet of 53 satellites
• 28 from Intelsat, 25 from PanAmSat
• Good news economy of scale
• Better prices

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Fiber Optic vs Satellite

• Is there a choice?
• Not necessarily.
• Maybe only satellite available go satellite.
• Maybe fiber less expensive go fiber.
• They are complementary.

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Fiber Optic vs Satellite (2)

• Is a homogeneous network necessary?
• It is not even possible at the moment, unless it
  is satellite.
• Why should it be necessary?
• Why not use the best of fiber and satellite?

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Fiber Optic vs Satellite (3)

• Pricing
• Is satellite more expensive than fiber?
• SAT-3 Fiber 3.7 / kbps in Cameroon.
• Fiber pricing in other countries?
• Satellite pricing 2 to 6, depending on
  satellite, beam, etc.

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Thank you for your attention!

• Brian Ayres
• currently based at GlobalNet Guinée
• bayres_at_globalnet.cm