Internet in Africa

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Internet in Africa

• Present Status Future Prospects
• quaynor_at_ghana.com
• www.ghana.com

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Areas

• Regulatory Framework
• International Connectivity
• Terrestrial Connectivity
• Info-structures
• Content Applications

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Regulatory Framework

• Weak Regulators
• Fixed Line operator market NOT competitive
• ISPs are licensed
• Cellular Services not beneficial to Internet

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International Connectivity

• High Priced
• 2 mbps duplex costs 28,000/month
• Operator pays both 1/2 circuits
• pay ones way to connect
• international users use link for free
• 30 traffic goes to hotmail yahoo
• Few IXPs

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SAT-3

• Landing countries South Africa, Portugal,
  Angola, Gabon, Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin, Ghana,
  Ivory Coast, Senegal, Canary Islands,
• Spain Purchasers Marconi, Sonatel, Cote
  d'Ivoire Telecom, Ghana Telecom, OPT Benin,
  Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd, Camtel, OPT
  Gabon, Angola Telecom, Telkom SA Ltd, BT, Cable
  and Wireless, Teleglobe (USA), ATT, Telefonica

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Basic Connectivity Achieved

• All Countries have connectivity (2001)
• small pipes
• NCS has one of biggest pipe
• 6 mbps IN
• 4 mbps OUT

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Terrestrial Connectivity

• Fixed Line penetration in 1-2
• Secondary Cities have PoPs
• Low Inter-city connectivity Bandwidth (128K)
• Rural remains a challenge
• Universal Access ( Cyber Cafes), a boom

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Info-Structures (1)

• ccTLDs
• most Tech POC outside country
• gTLDs (7 new )
• none in Africa, attempt to claim .africa
• Registrars (gt 150)
• none in Africa
• UDRP Resolution Providers(5 accredited)
• 5 approved (1-Asia, 0-Africa)

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Info-Structures (2)

• Regional Address Registries (RIR)
• one per region
• ARIN, RIPE, APNIC, LACNIC (provisional)
• AfriNIC is in formation
• Root Servers
• very difficult

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Content Applications

• New Frontier
• NCS Examples
• commerce
• media

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Network Computer Systems

• Founded in 1988, Turnover of 2.5m
• Has 80 Employees (incl. 51 Engineers)
• IT areas
• Computer Science Research, product sales/support,
  Intelligent Building, Software Development/Export,
  Operate Networks/Telecoms, Integration,
  Consulting and Training
• operate 3 BGP satellite links

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E-Commerce Card (local currency - cedi)
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E-Publication Online News paper - Network Herald
- Biweekly News - Requires Registration -
HTML/PDF - Downloadable - 3500 online
Subscribers - 2850 hits per hour
Physical look of Network Herald - click on the
Link below Video
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Newsinghana.com in GA
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Graphical Representation of Radio and Television
Stations using Internet Broadcast technology-
Courtesy NCS
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Subscribers by Countries
Total Number of Countries - 45 USA - 5105 Uk -
3036 CANADA - 1209 SOUTH AFRICA - 910 Rest of the
countries - Total Number of Subscribers - 16,821
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Radio and TV Broadcast demo
Listen and Watch to GTV
Encoding GTV
- Peak Time for GTV around 1900 hrs GMT - Total
Number of Connections- 50 per view - Total Number
of Concurrent Connections in a day (GTV) - 180
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Conclusion

• Africa has come a long way
• Have shown we can do it (have capacity)
• Does not SCALE
• See South-South cooperation as medium