1. Africa Digital
Summit 2013
Inner & Inter Countries
Infrastructure in West Africa
Presented by: Robert AOUAD
CEO
ISOCEL SA

2. Main Facts
Between three to five different
Excess of international capacity in all
submarines cables have landed or
coastal countries
are close to do so
(Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, etc.)
(Main One, GLO 1, WACS, ACE and SAT3)
Except large cities, where the Inner and inter countries still lacks
submarine cables are landing and for infrastructure in the West African
some key secondary cities, very region, especially for the landlocked
limited bandwidth capacity is countries
available in most areas

3. Submarine Cables’ Capacity
15TB WACS
5.12TB Main One
1.92TB
ACE
5.12TB
GLO 1
2.50TB
SAT3
0.34TB

4. The Challenges
 Regulatory issues on National and Regional levels
 Continuous attempts in some countries to preserve the
monopoly on national backbones for declining incumbents
 Other related political and regional governance issues
It is always a hard challenge to find the appropriate ways and
resources to deliver these capacities inland and to non-coastal
countries
Landlocked countries and most remote areas in coastal countries
are still suffering from lack of reliable bandwidth provided at an
affordable price

5. The role of development cooperation and
financial institutions
Initiate and/or support national and regional initiatives that must
necessarily be conducted under Public-Private Partnerships
In order to be achievable, you need to involve the Public sector
while the Private sector role is to ensure the sustainability
These institutions should work together and lobby with the
Governments to make this type of national and regional
infrastructure projects a reality
This will also contribute significantly to the development of the
countries concerned on the mid and long terms

6. IF… the regulatory and political environment
is suitable
The required financing could be partly available from the
operators of submarine cables and Telco groups operating in the
region
These parties would be interested to participate in the required
fundraising to build the terrestrial infrastructure
Donors and development cooperation institutions may also
jointly fund the states and the private operators
This is a win-win situation for all stakeholders

7. BUT…development cooperation and financial
institutions should avoid transposing a state
monopoly into another type of monopoly
Where the private sector also plays a role, and where the aim is
to monopolize bandwidth capacity so discriminatory in excluding
alternative operators of small and medium size, which could still
encounter the same difficulty getting their bandwidth
requirements at acceptable costs
This probability was taken into account in the WARCIP (West
Africa Regional Communication Infrastructure Program) project,
leaded by the World Bank, which was able to provide a fair share
of available capacity to all the parties involved in the landing
stations of ACE submarine cable in west Africa

8. Q & A
Robert AOUAD
CEO
ISOCEL SA
Web: www.isoceltelecom.com
E-Mail: robert@isoceltelecom.com