Africa's hunger for data sends satellites into orbit
April 18, 2014 · By Staff Writer
JOHANNESBURG, (Reuters) - Africa's demand for bandwidth is doubling
every year, outpacing the laying of terrestrial telecom fibre links
and encouraging commercial satellite operators to launch more units
into orbit.
The arrival of submarine cables on Africa's eastern shore just five
years ago was largely expected to herald the end of satellite
connections, which had been the region's only link to the outside
world for decades.
But the opposite is happening with Africa's political geography -
notably its many landlocked countries, such as Zambia, South Sudan and
Rwanda - bringing undersea cable plans back to earth.
"If you are to provide connectivity to the masses, fibre is not the
way to do it. Do you think that it would make economical sense to take
fibre to every village in Kenya?" said Ibrahima Guimba-Saidou, a
senior executive for Africa at Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES
SA .
"Satellite is still around and will continue to be around because it's
the best medium to extend connectivity to the masses."
Hundreds of millions of people on the continent still have no access
to the Internet, he said.
At least four satellites are planned for launch this year as countries
with no access to the coast have yet to benefit from at least 10
undersea cables now serving the continent.
"There will be times when they compete, but such is the growth in
demand for bandwidth that there is room for plenty of players," said
Mark Newman, chief research officer at industry research company
Informa Telecoms & Media.
"If you are in a landlocked country, it might well be that even though
satellite would seem to be expensive compared to the cost of fibre
capacity that lands on the coast somewhere, by the time you get that
capacity inland, it's no cheaper than satellite," Newman said.
SES, one of the world's largest commercial satellite operators,
expects to launch its Astra2G satellite in 2014 after sending three
others dedicated to Africa into orbit in the last year. Nine of its 56
satellites orbiting the earth are allocated for Africa.
Europe's biggest satellite operator Eutelsat plans to fire off its
tri-band EUTELSAT 3B this month after launching another to extend
sub-Saharan Africa coverage in 2013.
[Graphic: Operational satellites: http://link.reuters.com/bex58v (Best
viewed on external browser such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox)]
MOBILES DRIVE DEMAND
Competition to provide Internet access in Africa is to intensify
further as the continent's rising wealth makes it a target of the
world's biggest service providers.
Google Inc announced plans last year to use solar-powered balloons to
deliver Internet access to remote regions of the world. It has just
acquired solar-powered drone maker Titan Aerospace, which is
developing "stratospheric satellites" that can climb to altitude of
65,000 feet and stay aloft for up to five years.
Facebook Inc, the world's biggest Internet social network, is also
aiming to connect billions of people who do not currently have
Internet access in places such as Africa and Asia and recently
announced plans to build solar-powered drones and satellites as part
of those efforts.
The demand for Internet and data services in Africa has been driven by
affordable mobile broadband connections. Mobile broadband users could
grow by nearly eight times to 806 million by the end of 2018,
according to Informa estimates.
New services such as digital television, onboard Internet connection
for passenger aircraft, and delivering education and health services
electronically will also drive demand.
The private sector has several initiatives to extend the capacity from
submarine cables inland using terrestrial cables.
Liquid Telecom, a subsidiary of Econet Wireless Global, is building a
fibre network across southern Africa covering Botswana, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Lesotho, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
In addition, the Central African Backbone project, which is backed by
the World Bank, is working to connect countries such as Cameroon,
Central African Republic and Chad.
Africa's newest country South Sudan, aims to lay a fibre-optic network
this year to link the capital Juba with submarine cables in east
Africa to cut the high cost of using the Internet.
It is one of the most expensive countries in Africa for Internet use,
with the average retail price bandwidth via satellite currently around
$4,000 per megabit (MB), according to a source familiar with the
industry. The government has said that construction of fibe-optic
cables could more than halve prices and double the speed of Internet
services.
Until capacity bottlenecks are addressed, satellite operators are
innovating to plug the black hole in parts of Africa.
One operator, O3B, or Other 3 Billion, whose investors include SES,
Google and HSBC, has launched four of the next-generation medium earth
orbit (MEO) satellites and plans two other launches in 2014 to make an
orbital constellation of 12.
At a height of 8,000 kms (5,000 miles), the MEO units allow for faster
speeds than traditional stationary satellites at 36,000 kms.
O3B's tests have delivered capacity five times better than what
traditional satellites can manage, making its technology suitable for
both voice and interactive applications, said Omar Trujillo, vice
president for Africa and Latin America.
O3B already has 20 customers signed up and Trujillo expects that
satellite will be the main connection for most of its clients, other
than a fall-back plan for when fibre fails.
"A lot of applications for mining, oil and gas, will continue to be
done by satellite," he said. "The main market may not be international
links for Nairobi or Johannesburg but will be communication for some
of these remote areas that have had very low demand before, but now
have fast-growing demand."
http://www.stabroeknews.com/2014/business/04/18/africas-hunger-data-sends-satellites-orbit/
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