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Integration of ICT sectors key to success

Sibahle Malinga
By Sibahle Malinga, ITWeb senior news journalist.
Johannesburg, 25 Jul 2016
Intergovernmental communications and strategic conversations need to take place between the different ICT spheres, said the panellists.
Intergovernmental communications and strategic conversations need to take place between the different ICT spheres, said the panellists.

Experts in a panel discussion, titled "Industry integration, cooperation and collaboration of fibre, satellite, mobile and wireless sectors", agreed that collaboration between key industry associations and ICT players through infrastructure sharing, campaigns and integrated digital development programmes, will play a key role in the progress and sustainability of the ICT industries within the African continent.

The discussion, which took place at the Huawei Connect to Connect summit in Tshwane last week, was moderated by Mott MacDonald's head of Africa for digital infrastructure, Bora Varliyagci. He asked the panellists how the integration of fibre, satellite, mobile and wireless industries would contribute to a digital Africa and benefit its citizens.

Juanita Clark, CEO of fibre organisation FTTH Council Africa, said the council was formed because there was a huge gap in the legislations and policy direction around fibre optic infrastructure in Africa. Therefore, she continued, there should be better and closer collaboration within the various ICT players as technology has a strong role to fulfil in society.

"If the South African government forms a strategy to connect all citizens with electricity then they should be able to connect all people with fibre optic infrastructure, which is available at an efficient rate.

"Intergovernmental communications and strategic conversations need to take place between the different spheres within governments around the continent. Fibre providers need to communicate and establish relations with telecommunication providers to be able to develop strategic conversations to provide more people with fibre services," she explained.

Geoff Daniel, senior correspondent at Global VSAT Forum, believes we need to better promote the use of satellite connectivity through identifying opportunities where interventions have to take place to roll out new technology.

"The levels of collaboration between the various industry associations are not where they should be; the satellite industry and mobile industry are all fighting for the limited amount of spectrum. What we need to be doing is discussing the effective utilisation of the spectrum and work out how to improve the use of the spectrum in order to create better services for people and allow the various industries to coexist," he asserted.

Technology which should be used to solve certain challenges, he continued, is not used. Therefore mobile, satellite, wireless and fibre industries can collaborate and work together to achieve the ultimate goal, which will allow further penetration of broadband services, he explained.

"Bandwidth in itself doesn't do anything; it's all about what you put on top of it in order to turn it into a valuable component for end-users. We should collaborate as industries and discuss how to provide connectivity to rural areas such as Alexandra instead of fighting over the type of technologies to be deployed there. End-users are not interested in the type of technologies used to provide that connectivity, weather its fibre, satellite, GSM or WiFi network, as long as they get a good quality service," Daniel pointed out.

Ellie Hagopian, chairperson of Wireless Access Providers Association, which focuses on looking after the short- and long-term interests of the wireless industry, explained if we find ways to work together and meet the economic needs and sales targets of all the industry players, we can get great results from collaborations.

"We work in silos and we need to break down those silos. One of the most obvious things is for all of us to focus on our top five priorities and then we will realise that our goals are actually similar and there is an alignment in the work we do.

"Another important thing to remember is nothing happens without resources and leadership, so it's one thing to identify the opportunities to collaborate but it's quite the other to drive that initiative forward, someone has to take ownership of that initiative," she noted.

Mortimer Hope, director for GSMA in Africa, pointed out that the mobile operator association has focused on making efforts to recruit groups in African countries including SA, to communicate and build relationships with the governments of those countries, in order to understand the mobile related issues that affect citizens.

"The Mobile Development Programme of GSMA also looks at industry integration and cooperation within other ICT essential services such as farming and smart grids.

GSMA is also looking into extending solar energy solutions where there is no electricity and the mobile network is used as a platform," he went on to say.

In closing, Varliyagci highlighted the fact that there is a huge gap in addressing issues of big data, net neutrality, Internet and IOT around the continent.

"It is clear, from our experts that there is a great dependence on better collaboration, integration and cooperation between the different digital industries and ICT stakeholders, there is a lot of willingness for industry associations to work together with government, but we need to find a way to bring these conversations closer.

"Some industries need government support, funding and resources and we encourage local companies to become members of these associations and participate in identifying challenges and finding solutions to the pitfalls posed by the deployment of commercial technologies in societies within the African continent," he concluded.

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