The document discusses the growth of undersea fibre optic networks connecting Africa to the rest of the world, and how this catalyzed terrestrial fibre buildouts across Africa beginning in 2009. It notes that existing fibre maps often lack detail, accuracy, or transparency. The document advocates for more open access to comprehensive and up-to-date fibre maps in order to prevent duplication of efforts, promote further investment, and identify coverage gaps. It also discusses challenges around regulating technologies that are developing more rapidly than regulations can keep pace with.

1. Steve Song (NSRC)
Next Generation Optical Networks
14 Feb 2017
Fibre To The Continent

2. Undersea
Fibre
The growth of
undersea fibre optic
capacity has been a
catalyst for change.
The impact of
technological change
often takes years to
manifest

3. https://afterfibre.nsrc.org
The arrival of undersea
capacity to African shores
in 2009 triggered a wave
of terrestrial fibre build-
out in Africa

4. Available
fibre
maps
lack
detail

5. Or
where
detailed
they
lack
physical
routes

6. Or they
are in
Chinese

7. Or they
may have
been
edited
once to
often

8. Access to
comprehensive fibre
maps can prevent
duplication, promote
investment, identify
coverage gaps

9. Good Practice Exists!
Here in South
Africa, Dark Fibre
Africa publishes a
comprehensive
map of their fibre
network.

10. https://afterfibre.nsrc.org
AfTerFibre map
represents five
years of
scrounging data

11. Open Telecom Data
There is a need for
more transparency
and openness in
telecom data

12. Fibre As Infrastructure
Treating fibre as
infrastructure
will lead us to
different
decisions about
investment.

13. What Does Open Access Mean?
• Competition in all layers of the IP network allowing a wide
variety of physical networks and applications to interact in
an open architecture.
• It seeks to build on the characteristics of the IP network to
allow devolved local solutions rather than centralised ones.
• It encourages market entry from smaller, local companies
and seeks to ensure that no one entity can take a position
of dominant market power.
• It requires transparency to ensure fair trading within and
between the layers based on clear, comparative information
on market prices and services.

14. State-Owned Infrastructure Paradox
The private sector is
better at managing
the asset but cannot
be relied on to push
prices down
Government-run
networks tend to be
inefficient and less
responsive to the
market

15. Diversifying Investment and
Ownership
• Could the EASSy/WIOCC
model work for state-
owned terrestrial
networks?
• If governments sold off
a percentage of
capacity to an SPV with
financing support for
small investors

16. Fibre has
turned up the
pressure on
regulators to
make more
wireless
spectrum
available

17. 2006 Digital Switchover Decision
2007
2007
2010

18. Regulation Struggles to Keep Pace
With wireless in
particular there is
a need for more
diverse strategies
Unlicensed
Dynamic
Set-asides

19. Growth of Unlicensed Spectrum Use

20. WiFi in Africa
2016

21. New Generation of Rural GSM

22. The Internet is made of
and made by people
NSRC has been
building the
capacity of
Internet engineers
in more than 120
countries since
1992.
More
investment
is needed!

23. Thank you
Steve Song
@stevesong
https://nsrc.org