A s expectations for improvedbroadband speeds and online userexperiences increase across developed

and urbanised areas, mobile operators are lookingto rural and unconnected regions as areas of hugepotential and future growth.

People in South Africa and other sub-Saharannations are among the continent’s most connected,yet much untapped promise remains. Infra-structure in many countries is very poor andmobile phones are often the best and only way toconnect and communicate. Yet 36 per cent of allpeople living within Africa’s 25 largest mobilemarkets have no access to mobile services (source:www.africafocus.org). That’s opportunity knocking.

In stark contrast, saturated urban markets pose a host of huge challenges for operators, includingcompetition from other industry players, increasedregulation, and rapid traffic growth, often notreflected in revenues. Terrestrial fibre has arrived inmuch of Africa, especially along the coasts, and atfirst glance it may appear to cut into satellite’spiece of the pie. But in reality, nothing could befurther from the truth. Fibre has introduced fasterservices in the big cities but has so far onlymanaged to whet consumer appetites for suchservices in small towns and communities that areout of its reach. But new satellite technologies, likethose provided by O3b, can deliver fibre-likesolutions even in the remotest of villages.

Mobile backhaul is at the centre of Africa’sgrowth opportunity. Traditionally, this has beenprohibitively expensive to roll out in rural areas,with the building of towers and infrastructuredriving up costs and stamping out possibilities.

Likewise, fixed wireline transmissiontechnologies present similar obstacles. Theyrequire extensive management, entrenching andpower, as well as the population levels andutilities capabilities which are not foundthroughout most rural areas. These are just a fewof the hurdles that have made it difficult foroperators to enhance remote and ruralconnectivity cost-effectively.

MEO will give the MNO acompetitive edgeO3b Networks is on the verge of launching a newmedium earth orbit (MEO) constellation aimed atdelivering a greatly enhanced internet experienceand more affordable solutions in markets outside theprofitable reach of conventional satellite and telecomservice providers. According to a report from InformaTelecoms and Media, MEO-driven backhaul is themost effective technology, especially when comparedwith geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites.

The first of O3b’s new satellites is scheduled forlaunch in May with services available in the thirdquarter of this year. O3b differentiators includefibre-like speed and low latency for a highthroughput backhaul solution ideal for deployingdata services. The MEO satellites are 4.5 timescloser to the Earth than traditional GEO satellites.This reduces launch costs and drastically decreaseslatency from nearly 500 milliseconds to less than150 milliseconds. That spells the end to the delaysand echoes that can make web browsing andphone conversations anything but enjoyable.

In addition, O3b enables operators to deployvoice and data services beyond the reach ofterrestrial circuits without compromising on voicequality, data throughput, or performance. Realbroadband is the result. When the quality of the

22 SOUTHERN AFRICAN WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS January/February 2013

Omar Trujillo, Regional VP Africa and Latin America,O3b Networks

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FEATURE: REMOTE CONNECTIVITY

Moving heaven and earth to bridgethe digital divide2013 will be the year that satellite and fibre really go headto head in Africa. With O3b’s much anticipated launchexpected in the coming months and the ever increasingrollout of submarine cables around the continent, who willwin the battle to connect Africa’s remote and rural areas?

user’s mobile experience improves, MNOs who offerthese MEO-delivered backhaul offerings will have acompetitive edge – an advantage that will be toughto beat as African markets mature. To differentiatethemselves, operators are looking for ways toincrease speeds, reach, and profitability while drivingdown costs. MEO-backhaul provides global reach,low latency, and the ability to extend services to newmarkets and boost market share. In a region wherecommunications is predominantly delivered andconsumed on mobile devices, high-performancemobile broadband is sure to accelerate economicdevelopment and growth, allowing operators to addsubscribers in rural and emerging markets.

Ahead of the curve

Rather than give up on satellite in favour of fibre,many key customers across the region have alreadyspotted the potential of MEO satellite technology.For example, wireless broadband services providerNetcom Africa has secured a chunk of O3b’s capac-ity to deliver high-capacity connectivity to ships anddrilling rigs off the coast of Nigeria. Serviceproviders have really struggled to meet the uniqueneeds of the continent’s oil and gas industry, despitethe arrival and availability of fibre on the coasts. Forthe first time, Netcom’s offshore customers will beable to talk with friends, family and colleagueswithout delays, and large data files can be deliveredto and from shore quickly and seamlessly.

The Etisalat Group already serves more than 100 million customers across Africa, the MiddleEast and Asia, and is poised to meet long-termcapacity demands across these emerging marketstogether with O3b. Armed with cutting-edge satellitebroadband services, each regional Etisalat operationwill have a competitive market advantage. The endresult is reduced costs, increased network efficienciesand broader, connectivity-driven success.

Johannesburg-based ICT solutions providerMavoni Technologies will use O3b capacity todeliver connectivity at fibre-like speeds in Limpopo,Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape, where nearly2,000 schools will be connected in rural areas alone.

The challenges of delivering high-speed internetconnectivity in remote Africa are steep and oftenimpossible for traditional and terrestrial solutions to overcome. Small, rural communities and villagesoften lack the population and economic potential to justify a viable business case for dedicated wirednetworks. O3b was originally created to help solvethe connectivity challenges in such places. Demandis high and the door is wide open to providers whocan deliver high-quality and affordable services inthis relatively untapped region. O3b’s Ka-bandcapacity will soon embark on a global debut that is sure to ignite a new wave of opportunities andconnections in Africa and beyond.

s ince the turn of the century, thedeployment of 12 optical cables withdesign capacity of over 20Tbps along

Africa’s shorelines has gone some way to bridgingthe digital divide between the continent and therest of the world. However, a massive gulf stillexists between the region’s urban and rural areas.

Only 13 per cent of Africa’s population iscurrently connected to the internet and of these,the majority live in urban areas. That means ruralcommunities have very little or no connectivity. Sofar, most attempts at providing broadband access forlandlocked communities have focused on wirelesstechnologies such as mesh or GSM-based solutions.However, the majority of these mobile networks usevery low-capacity satellite links or microwave relays

to connect remote communities. But without high-capacity fibre-optic backbone networks, users inthese locations are unable to take advantage ofemerging broadband services that could improve the quality of their lives. Without this internalconnectivity, the tens of terabytes per second ofcapacity at African shores will be quite irrelevant.

Optical fibre can replace long-distancemicrowave links to ensure profitability foroperators and ultimately deliver the benefits of the continent’s submarine connectivity to thepeople of Africa’s more remote communities.

The current status of AfricanconnectivityIn 2000, the UN issued its Millennium DevelopmentGoals whereby ICT was identified as a key vehiclefor sustained economic development. Subsequently,African leaders and key industry players havefocused on making broadband available to as manypeople on the continent as possible. Yet most of thisis still concentrated in urban areas.

African governments have pushed for ICTprogrammes that support improvements in areaslike health and education; but sadly the peoplewho could benefit most from such initiatives live inrural areas where there is an acute shortage ofessential broadband infrastructure.

In 2000, Africa relied mainly on satellitenetworks, coaxial cable, or microwave relays tocommunicate – the exception being a fewcountries in North Africa and Senegal, which wasserved by undersea cables such as SE-ME-WE-2and Atlantis. By 2002, SAT-3/WASC/SAFE wasconnecting South Africa and the west coast toEurope and the Far East. About a decade later,there were more than 10 fibre-optic networksconnecting the region with a combined designcapacity of more than 20Tbps. It was becomingincreasingly clear that it would take fibre-opticnetworks to bridge the continent’s digital divide.

According to World Bank statistics, 60 per cent of people in sub-Saharan Africa live in rural areaswhere the main and readily-accessible form of

January/February 2013 SOUTHERN AFRICAN WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS 23

Dr Jabulani Dhliwayo,Market developmentmanager, Africa,Corning Optical Fiber

FEATURE: REMOTE CONNECTIVITY

LLeefftt:: O3b’s much anticipated Medium Earth Orbit satellites are expected to begin launching in May. RRiigghhtt:: fibre can be cost effectively and easily deployed inremote and rural areas alongside new infrastructure projects such as electrification, and building roads and railways.

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broadband is very costly satellite connections. Forexample, a 4Mbps connection via VSAT can costmore than USD2,000 per month with downloaddata limited to only 30Gb. This problem could bealleviated by deploying fibre backbone networksdeeper into rural communities, reducing the priceof connectivity.

Africa has seen phenomenal growth in mobilepenetration to over 60 per cent, amounting to 600million subscriptions which prove that a real desirefor connectivity exists. But still, there is abottleneck between these subscribers and the near-unlimited submarine capacity at the shores of thecontinent, with inadequate backbone capacity totransport mobile traffic from one community toanother and to the cables.

Reports have shown dwindling operator revenuesfrom voice services, with data and video servicesoffering greater potential for revenue. By makingmobile subscriptions broadband-capable, operatorscould increase their revenue base and rural inhabi-tants could finally realise Africa’s digital potential.

No need for fibre to connectevery hut and homestead

Perhaps the greatest challenge in deploying terrestriallong-haul networks in Africa is the size of the continent itself, which has an area of approximately30 million square kilometres – that’s larger than theUSA, China, India and Western Europe combined.It also has a low population density of 31 people persquare kilometre, which means that deploymentsrequire significantly more investment per capitacompared to areas with higher densities.

However, the assertion that fibre is required inrural Africa should not be taken to mean that it isneeded to connect each homestead and hut.What it needs to do is provide the backbone formost broadband technologies, including mobile.The notion that fibre cannot be deployed to ruralareas of Africa is erroneous. But it does requireunique approaches and innovative solutions tothe challenges unique to this part of the world.

There are a number of keyconsiderations for boosting

broadband penetration inthe region:

Regulation:Although the

regulatoryenvironment

in Africa has

changed greatly over the past decade with multiplefirms now licensed to operate mobile networks,development of regulation is needed.

Rights of way to deploy fibre are often difficult to obtain meaning operators with funding to deploynational backbones could have to wait years beforecommencing rollouts. When rights of way areeventually granted in this price-sensitive region,they come at significant cost which is a majordisincentive for operators to connect rural areas.

This environment could be improved if govern-ments were to offer incentives like subsidies or freerights of way to operators willing to deploy backbonenetworks to rural areas. Certain governments suchas Nigeria’s have established such incentiveprogrammes, but these are taking a long time toimplement. Other countries, including South Africa,have established universal services funds whichrequire operators to to make annual contributions to.These funds will then be used to subsidisebroadband rollouts in underserved areas.

While such initiatives can go a long way to boostbroadband deployments, the focus has mainly beenon the access portion of networks. It is now recom-mended that such incentives be extended to backbonenetworks and their implementation expedited.

Concerted approach to infrastructure: Most (ifnot all) African countries have some plan to developinfrastructure in rural areas. Roads and railway lineshave been built, but perhaps the most prominent ofthese projects is rural electrification, giving power topreviously underserved regions.

Electrification projects can be effectively combinedwith rural broadband initiatives by requiring powercompanies to install Optical Ground Wire (OPGW)on all new power lines. OPGW is a composite powergrounding cable with fibre-optic strands embeddedin it, and provides functionality for both powerdistribution and communications. Many powercompanies have installed OPGW with a few fibrestrands for internal SCADA applications, but otherssuch as Kenya Power, ESKOM in South Africa, andZESA in Zimbabwe have deployed further strands to be leased to telecommunications companies.

The additional cost of embedding strands into theground wire is negligible relative to the cost ofdeploying power lines, while the long-term benefitsfor ICT is priceless. It therefore makes sense for allpower distribution companies in Africa to adapt thismodel and deploy OPGW on all new power lines.The same argument applies for underground cablingalong new railways and roads to underserved areas.

Innovation: Bringing broadband to remote partsof Africa is not always as simple as replicating

solutions that have been implemented elsewhere.Conditions in Africa are unique and network engi-neers could be tasked with connecting remote areasseparated by deserts and jungles. Factors such as thisnecessitate careful consideration of the initial cost ofdeployment and overall cost of network ownership.

For example, in a typical network using standardsingle-mode fibre, Erbium-Doped Fibre Amplifiers(EDFAs) and dispersion-compensating modules areinstalled every 80km to 100km in the transmissionlink. The amps are required to boost signals as theirpower fades after propagating over long distances,while the dispersion-compensating modules are usedto correct for distortions caused by dispersion. Ontop of the component price, the capex of a facility tohouse and cool this equipment can reach USD500k.The shortage of electricity in Africa and the use ofdiesel engines to power amplifiers can push opexmuch higher than the global average. Moreover,some amplifiers may even be unreachable in heavyrains due to poor, unpaved roads – further enforcingthe need for development of infrastructure ingeneral. However, by selecting the right combina-tion of optical fibre, transmission equipment andamplification technologies, engineers can eliminatesome or all of the amplifier sites and come up with a lower capex and opex solution.

There are many different types of optical fibre forterrestrial long-haul networks, from standard single-mode fibre to non-zero dispersion-shifted fibre, andoptical attributes differ significantly fibre-to-fibre.With a proper understanding of these properties, aswell as the different transmission systems, amplifiers(including EDFAs and Raman), and other commu-nication modules available to them, engineers candesign a network that overcomes unprecedentedchallenges. For example, working with a system andamplifier vendor, Corning recently demonstrated asolution for connecting two sites around 400kmapart without the need for intermediate amplifiersites. The test used Corning’s ultra-low loss solutionwhich is suitable for many situations in Africa.

Africa’s ICT revolution will be incomplete ifpeople in rural areas – which constitute more thanhalf of the continent’s population – do not havebroadband access. By increasing broadbandpenetration, operators can significantly boost theirrevenue base and offer data and video services tomore customers. With more favourable regulatoryconditions, deep understanding of technicalparameters, and a concerted approach to networksfrom key industry players, the fast and affordablebroadband services needed in rural Africa couldeventually become a reality. �

LLeefftt:: One of the biggest challenges of deploying terrestrial long-haul networks in Africa is the size of the continent itself: it has an area that’s larger than the USA, China, India and Western Europe combined. It is also said to have a lowpopulation density of 31 people per square kilometre. That means deployments require significantly moreinvestment per capita compared to areas with higher populations. RRiigghhtt:: Corning says there are many different types of optical fibre forterrestrial long-haul networks, from standard single-mode fibre tonon-zero dispersion-shifted fibre, and optical attributes differsignificantly fibre-to-fibre. With a proper understanding ofthese properties, engineers can design a network thatovercomes the region’s unprecedented challenges.

24 SOUTHERN AFRICAN WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS January/February 2013