The ever-increasing demand for Internet connectivity in Africa, where mobile is the “flavour of growth”, necessitates a shift in the role of Seacom, from being that of primarily a cable provider, to that of being an actual network.
This is according to Aidan Baigrie, Seacom's head of business development, who addressed key players in Africa's Internet industry at the Internet Society's Third African Peering and Interconnection Forum last week.
Baigrie says the African cable system now sees its role in achieving an African Internet as all-embracing, “working as a network of cables, providing full IP services over the network, creating partnerships with terrestrial and last mile providers, providing capability for exchange points in selected points of presence, and building a cloud services platform through our subsidiary Pamoja”.
Snowballing demand
Demand is not tapering off - and is not likely to do so in the foreseeable future, says Baigrie, pointing out that Internet penetration in Africa has grown 60% in two years.
He says Africa's mobile data traffic is expected to see a compound annual growth rate of 104% over the period 2011 to 2016 - the highest of any inhabitable continent on the planet. “[In addition to this] by 2013, MTN says more smartphones than normal phones will have been sold.”
In this light, he says, opportunities for bandwidth providers are endless. However, Baigrie emphasises that building an African Internet depends on a number of factors. “While building an African Internet is driven by organic, and often random, growth - there are key ingredients [to consider], like a reliable and pervasive infrastructure, IP-enablement and peering, the building of local content and a well-oiled regulatory environment.”
Local obstacles
Baigrie says the cable company sees a number of hurdles that need to be overcome in creating an African Internet and Seacom's pivotal role in achieving this.
He cites the reliability of subsea and terrestrial fibre as one of the main hurdles. “There needs to be further development on resilient routes and mesh metro networks.” He says furthermore, fibre into enterprises is unaffordable without critical mass - a “chicken and egg” scenario.
“National transit is much more expensive than international transit in many African countries and, while national IP networks exist, there is still need for affordable pan-African regional IP networks.”
Baigrie adds that cloud providers are finding it costly to place equipment in country - and finding it difficult to navigate the “regulatory and sovereign complexity” of delivering a service in Africa.
“We see the future is in sharing as a way to keep costs down, but national policy can work against sharing resources and regional hubs.”
Baigrie says, ultimately, to achieve an African Internet, a clear vision and plan of action is needed - coupled with affordable pricing and a grasp of how large the potential really is.
“We understand the African Internet and see ourselves as not a cable, but a Pan-African network. Let's continue pushing - there is still a lot to be done.”
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