Why isn’t the South African Internet liberalised yet? William Stucke SAFNOG 2 Swaziland 7 th – 8 th April 2015

Why isn’t the South African Internet liberalised yet?

William StuckeSAFNOG 2Swaziland

7th – 8th April 2015

© William Stucke 2015 2

Focus Areas

• ISP Association• Licences• Local Peering• International Connectivity• National backbone network• Metro networks• Last Mile networks• A glimpse at Africa


ISP Association• Why is this important?• Gives ISPs a single coherent voice when speaking to Government or Regulator• Lends power to your arguments• Avoids single ISPs from being “punished” for speaking out.• ISPA formed in 1996 in South Africa• Now has some 160 members, and represents the majority of active licensees.• As a more mature market, also has:

• WAPA• SACF• Wi-Fi Forum


Licensing Regime• RSA had a very centralised market• Only 11 “previously advantaged licensees”• Vertically integrated• Government owned a share in 8 out of 11 operators• Others were all VANS – Value Added Network Services• Telecommunications Act gave the Minister of Communications the right to make seven

“Declarations”• In August 2004, she announced five of these, which were properly gazetted and came

into effect early in 2005• In late January 2005, days before they were due to take effect, she published a Press

Release saying, paraphrased: “In order to clarify, I didn’t mean it.”• Although not legally binding, she obstructed ICASA until they withdrew “Self Provision”

for VANS from the new regulations.


Licensing Regime 2• New Electronic Communications Act took effect in 2006• Diametrically opposed to the previous Act. Instead of protecting Telkom’s

monopoly, it fosters competition.• She instructed ICASA to determine if “a few, if any” VANS should get new

licences under the new Act.• August 2008 – Altech won court case against this. Appeals failed• ICASA issued 451 VANS with licences on 19th January 2009• Both iECS and iECNS licenses• All (unless specifically requested otherwise) with full national scope• Identical to the licences held by Telkom and other previously advantaged operators• Except no spectrum

• Today, some 713 licences, including class and broadcasting licences.


Local Peering• JINX operational in 1996• Today, ISPA and NAPAfrica operate six IXPs: Joburg, Cape Town and Durban• GINX (Grahamstown) closed in 2012


International Connectivity• SAT3 /SAFE 2001 800 Gbps

• Managed by Telkom• Expensive. High Cost, Low Volume model

• SEACOM 2009 1280 Gbps• ZA, MZ, KE, TZ and UG• High Volume, Low Cost model.• 35% immediate price improvement for Medium ISPs, growing dramatically after 3 years, when

capital purchase paid off.• Cheaper to peer in London than buy local transit!

Followed by• EASSy 2010 4720 Gbps• WACS 2011 5120 Gbps• Resulted in dramatic reductions in National costs


National Backbone Networks• Now the fun starts!• 2009: R10,000 / Mbps / month for national transit• 2014: ~R1,000 / Mbps / month for national transit• Multiple operators building competing networks• Huge bureaucratic obstacles: Way Leaves, EIAs, etc.• FibreCo took 2 years to get 19,000 permits for 1,600 km of cable – Joburg to

Cape Town• Solution?• Rapid Deployment Guidelines


Rapid Deployment Guidelines• Electronic Communications Act, effective in 2006, obliged the Minister of

Communications to liaise with the Minister of Provincial and Local Government, the Minister of Land Affairs and the Minister of Environmental Affairs to draft these.• Nothing happened• Draft produced by others, but not yet finalised• Now the Department of Communications has been split, and we have two

Ministers arguing about who’s responsible for what• 2014 Amendment of the Act changed the names of the Ministers, and reduced

their role to drafting a Policy• Made it ICASA’s problem to draft the actual Regulations• Still no Policy


National Backbone Networks - 2• Some 19,000 km of fibre required to link all towns in SA with a population

>10,000, as per the 2001 census.• Only Telkom has this, with 104,000 km of backbone fibre• Despite the fibre being laid, we haven’t yet reached the “tipping point” where

connectivity suddenly becomes cheap: The High Volume / Low Cost Model.• Lack of courage?• National networks being built by

• Neotel• FibreCo (Cell C, Convergence Partners and Dimension Data)• Broadband Infraco – doing nothing. 100% Government owned• JV (Vodacom, MTN, Neotel)• DFA Long-haul• SANRAL


National Backbone Networks - 3• Telkom 104,000 km• Neotel 21,000 km• FibreCo 12,000 km• Broadband Infraco 13,000 km• JV 5,000 km• DFA Longhaul• Liquid Telecom

Telkom – February 2012


Neotel - 2011


FibreCo 2015

Broadband Infraco 2012 / 2015

Liquid Telecom


Metro Networks

• A bigger problem than national networks – more fibre needed.• Joburg Metro has >9,000 km of tarred roads• Roads being dug up multiple times• Some of those rolling out metro networks include:• The Metros themselves• Telkom• Neotel• DFA• MTN• Vodacom

DFA Gauteng Metro Fibre


Last Mile Networks

• Only Telkom has a substantial fixed line Access Network• ~70,000 km of copper• 3.6m out of 8m lines active – and dropping every year• Most lines provisioned for ADSL• 927,000 ADSL subscribers or 25%

• LLU?• My most significant failure of my time at ICASA

• FTTH• Wireless


High Demand Spectrum

• ICASA has tried several times to assigned “High Demand” spectrum, via a competitive process, over the last decade.• Obstructed by Government• Spectrum is “High Demand” because:• It’s allocated for PtMP in national plans, • Harmonised with other countries in ITU Region• User equipment manufactured

• More spectrum essential to:• Facilitate higher throughput on mobile networks, e.g. LTE• Provide cost-effective broadband in rural areas


What High Demand Spectrum could be assigned?• 310 MHz Nationally• 28 MHz x 50 Districts

Freq FDD/TDD DL ULAvail BW

MHz

Package 1

Reserved

Package 2

Reserved

Package 3

Reserved

Package 4 Wholesale

Only - Open

Package 5 Open

Package 6 Open

Package 7 Open

Package 8 Open

No Package

Yet

700 MHz FDD 758-788 703-733 2 x 30 MHz* 2x10 MHz 2x10 MHz 2x10 MHz700 MHz TDD 1 x 25 MHz 25800 MHz FDD 791-821 832-862 2 x 30 MHz 2x10 MHz 2x10 MHz 2x10 MHz800 MHz TDD 1 x 11 MHz 112.1 GHz TDD 1 x 5 MHz 52.3 GHz TDD 1 x 100 MHz 1 x 20 MHz 1002.6 GHz FDD 2620-2690 2500-2570 2 x 70 MHz 2x20 MHz 2x20 MHz 2x10 MHz 2x20 MHz2.6 GHz TDD 1 x 50 MHz 1 x 30 MHz 203.5 GHz

Total FDD Bandwidth 130 260 20 30 20 30 10 10 10Total TDD Bandwidth 150 191 30 161

2010-20152300-2400

2570-2620

733 - 758

822 - 831


Progress so far?• ISP Association• Licences• Local Peering• International Connectivity• National backbone network• Rapid Deployment Policy and Regulations

• Metro networks• Last Mile networks• LLU• Spectrum


African Situation

• Same issues apply: -• ISP Associations• Licences• Local Peering• International Connectivity• National backbone network• Metro networks• Last Mile networks


ISP Associations

• AfrISPA 2001 – 2010• Provided training in ~20 countries• Helped increase ISPAs in Africa from ~ 5 to ~20• Died after Brian, Eric and I left• Do we still need it?


Liberalisation

• About half African countries have a liberalised telecommunications, with multiple ISPs operating• Cross-boarder connectivity still a problem• No consistent mechanism in place to arrange access to “No Man’s Land” and

cross-border licensing


Local Peering

• AfrISPA, KTH, ISOC and NSRC all supported the formation of IXPs• During the AfrISPA CATIA project, African IXP countries increased from

5 to 22• Some countries punt the concept of Regional Peering• Preconditions:• Adequate, cheap national fibre• Cross-border connections• An operating and significant IXP in the host country

• See 2006 paper:http://www.afrispa.org/dpages/PositionPapers/RegionalExchanges.pdf

http://www.afrispa.org/dpages/PositionPapers/RegionalExchanges.pdf


IXPs in Africa2001


IXPs in Africa2002


IXPs in Africa 2006


IXPs in Africa 2011


IXPs in Africa 2015

Why connect to another Country?• Local traffic delivered more directly• Peering• Quality of Service• Redundancy


Talk to me about …Updating ISPA data in AfricaUpdating IXP data in Africa

Restarting AfrISPA?Consulting opportunities

Becoming Country Representative for BoardPACDrinking whiskey

[email protected]+27 79 501 0850

+268 78 713 733 (During conference)

mailto:[email protected]

Documents

Why isn’t the South African Internet liberalised yet? William Stucke SAFNOG 2 Swaziland 7 th – 8 th April 2015