Com in Africa: A Changing Marketplace
Here at the Americom Business Network Blog, we’ve written about expanding telecom needs in Africa and about the role satcom plays in furthering the development of Africa’s oil reserves.
African development continues to be a hot topic in the world of sat- and tele-com, with a debate currently taking place about Telkom’s SAT-3 undersea cable and the countries it does (and doesn’t) serve:
The biggest problem with Telkom’s SAT-3 undersea cable is that it never went bankrupt, said Johan Meyer, Telkom’s group executive for global capacity service.
Meyer, who has been intimately involved in the SAT-3 West Coast cable, which is SA’s primary undersea link for telecommunications and Internet connectivity with the rest of the world, said: “If SAT-3 had gone bankrupt, then we would have had a very different scenario to what we have today, and may even have found ourselves in a similar position to the North Atlantic cables.”
He was responding yesterday to comments made during a debate on pan-African connectivity at the Capacity Africa 2007 Conference, in Cape Town.
Wessel van der Vyver, GM of international business for Telecom Namibia, opened the discussion by saying that Telkom was one of the key impediments to his company lowering its own broadband and interconnectivity costs.
“Essentially, Nambia is a landlocked country in terms of undersea cable because SAT-3 lands in Angola and in SA. We were hoping to get a landing in Namibia, but this hasn’t happened.”
Later, Van der Vyver said Telecom Namibia was also “disappointed” that the proposed undersea cables being planned by the South African government’s new broadband infrastructure supplier, Infraco, was also ignoring his country.
“It would be a pity if another cable is built and it leaves us in the same situation.”
During the discussion, the lack of satellite capacity came under the spotlight.
Pedro Camacho, CEO and owner of Blue Sky Satellite Communications, said satellite capacity was at a premium, with a long waiting list.
Need some background on the SAT-3 cable? Look here:
SAT3/WASC/SAFE is a historic Achievement made possible by the participation of 36 nations, the majority of the landings are in African states. Together they have fully funded the undersea cable system costing more than US$600 million and will own and operate it for the next 25 years. This results in much of the revenue it generates being ploughed back into the continent. This is a major departure from the current scenario, where many African countries rely on foreign operators to route their international traffic which results in revenue generated in Africa, leaving Africa.
Meanwhile, Telkom and HCI are expanding South Africa’s pay TV market:
South Africa’s communications authority granted fixed-line operator Telkom’s media unit, Telkom Media, and leisure and media group Hosken Consolidated Investments licences along with two smaller operators — On Digital Media and Walking on Water.
Entry of new operators is expected to stimulate the market, with more money being pushed to marketing pay-TV services, portfolio manager Khulekani Dlamini at Renaissance Specialist Fund Managers said.
Chief Executive Officer Nolo Letele of Naspers’ local pay-TV operation MultiChoice SA said the unit had been gearing up for competition.
"We will have to fight that much harder for the disposable rand in people’s pockets," Letele said after the announcement of the winning bidders.
With increasing demand continent-wide for better broadband, television, and voice connections, the communications landscape in Africa is sure to remain fluid for many years. We’ll keep you updated on the latest developments.
