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Who’s Who in South Sudan’s New ICT Industry?

The interim Government of South Sudan (GoSS) has requested that telecoms companies operating in the region suspend work until the administration publishes new regulations for the sector, with no specific target date for the regulations to be published. Some early regulation methodologies were discussed in February of this year, when leaders in the ICT industry affiliated with South Sudan met with the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) and discussed a possible three-year strategic plan for the new nation.

Photo: CIO East Africa

In October 2010, CTO helped GoSS organize a conference, entitled ICT4D: Southern Sudan. From the conference and a previous ICT strategy report created by Pricewatershouse Coopers LLC in 2008, GoSS and CTO drafted an inception report during the consultation visit in February 2011, but they did not create any official policies. The strategic plan includes involving ICTs in all sectors of Sudan’s infrastructure and economy. CEO Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah of the CTO exclaimed his excitement: “This new nation will have the opportunity to not merely leap-frog, but to cheetah pole-vault over other nations, if it is methodical about its approach in the ICT and other sectors.”

Currently, though, telecommunication companies in South Sudan are in limbo. CEO of Zain telecoms, Hisham Mustafa Allam, said he could not be ‘100 per cent’ sure that the company’s mobile license would be valid in South Sudan after July. ‘There’s potential for South Sudan, but there are big challenges,’ he said, adding: ‘One of the problems we have right now is it costs lots of money to build sites and do a rollout (of fiber) in the south.’ South Sudan will have to rely on fiber from Kenya and Uganda, making the costs potentially quite high. Zain has reportedly invested 20% of its total expenditures in the south of Sudan, including around 150 base stations.

South Sudan carried out a national survey in 2009, but did not include questions regarding Internet access. However, only 15% of households own a phone, including 8% in rural areas and 59% in urban areas (primarily in the capital city, Juba). The lack of households with phones indicates a lack of electricity and connectivity possibilities in general.

Despite these difficulties, broadband connectivity is within reach. There are three current submarine cables that run to Port Sudan, in the north. From Port Sudan, there is a terrestrial backbone network that extends to major urban areas in the north of Sudan. However, no cables have been laid in South Sudan and there are no plans to connect the backhaul cables in the north with the south, as seen in the map pictured. These cables are:

EASSy – (an East Africa Submarine Cable System with endpoints in South Africa and the Sudan)
FLAG FALCON – (FLAG Alcatel-Lucent Optical Network) – (Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, Oman, India, Maldives)
SAS-1 – (Saudi Arabia-Sudan)

Map: Mohamed El Bashir Hiraika

However, there are a series of cable networks near South Sudan that could potentially be expanded into the country:

KDN – Terrestrial cables have been laid and are under-construction in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Discussions are underway to route the cables north to Juba.
Seacom – Involved in the undersea EASSy cables along the coast of East Africa. They announced in June 2011 that they were going to move inland, working with governments of Burundi, Southern Sudan, and Somalia to make a terrestrial cable link in the Somali Cluster (also known as the East African Community – EAC). Most likely, Seacom will partner with KDN and Altech, among other partners.
WIOCC – The largest investor at 29% in the EASSy cable system, the West Indian Ocean Cable Company is comprised of the main telecommunications firms in twelve African countries (listed below). They are constructing East African terrestrial backhaul cables, including a cable line from Kampala, Uganda to Khartoum, Northern Sudan. This line appears to run directly through Southern Sudan, with no plans to land the cable until Khartoum.
- Botswana Telecommunications Corporation
- DALKOM Somalia
- Djibouti Telecom
- Gilat Satcom Nigeria
- Government of Seychelles
- Lesotho Telecommunications Authority
- Onatel Burundi
- TDM Mozambique
- Telkom Kenya
- UCOM Burundi
- Uganda Telecom Limited
- Zantel Tanzania.
INTELSAT – Their satellite New Dawn has alleged potential to cover most of Africa, with the highest bandwidth in West Africa. No private companies in Sudan, nor the Sudanese government, has partnered with them to construct a point of contact.
Umojanet – The African Union program “Nepad” wants to create a terrestrial cable system throughout the African continent, which they call Umojanet. Nepad first expressed this dream in 2000.

In addition to private sector investments in broadband infrastructure, national governments near in East Africa are also investing in fiber optic cables. Their willingness to politically and financially support national broadband networks makes the possible of public-private partnerships more possible. As reported by Seacom in June 2011:

The governments of the East African Community (EAC) are investing over US$400 million in their respective national backbone infrastructure. The cables cover more than 20,600 km.
Rwanda completed a 2300km cable costing more than $60 million.
Tanzania continues to lay its $170 million, 10,000km plus cable.
Burundi is also laying out the cable of 1300 km with the help of $10.5 million grant from the World Bank.
Uganda, acquired a Chinese loan of about $102 million to implement the 2,000km plus cable.
Kenya is also investing $60 million in the National Optic Fiber Backbone Infrastructure (NOFBI). Some 5,000km of the cable had been laid down by June 2010.

Given these investments, South Sudan will feel pressure to compete with its neighbors in the ICT industry, potentially leading the government to support their own national networks and backhaul system. Yet, given the tremendous financial burdens that the government will have in all of its sectors of development, much of the success regarding the ICT and telecommunications industries will depend on public-private partnerships.

July 8, 2011/by actualize

Business Enabling Environment, Economic Growth & Trade, Enterprise Development, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Workforce Development

Planting CEEDs of Growth in Moldova with ICTs

The ICT sector is one of the most dynamic in Moldova’s economy. Recording a vibrant growth over the past years, today it represents nearly 10% of the national GDP, on par with agriculture production.

There are about 40,000 people employed directly and indirectly in ICT, making the ICT sector one of the major employers in Moldova. It is also one of the highest paying industries, as jobs in ICT pay on par with those in the financial sector, historically the best paying jobs in the country. Most importantly, the ICT industry employs the young generation, offering an exciting, fast-growing and rewarding career for the next generation.

Moldova has already chosen the pathway of ICT. All players – the Government, the business community, the citizens and the ICT industry itself – have acknowledged the importance of information technology as a catalyst for growth, and as a tool of growth enhancement in all other economic sectors.

Technical assistance from USAID Moldova through the Competitiveness Enhancement and Enterprise Development (CEED) project over the past five and a half years has enhanced the competitiveness of the ICT sector through initiatives meant to consolidate the quality of companies, to strengthen ICT education so that it meets the needs of business, and to align the industry towards common goals.

Just last month, USAID Moldova sponsored the Moldova ICT Summit 2011, featuring the Association of Private ICT Companies in Moldova, as well as the recently launched national E- Government Center. The event focused on the e-transformation of the Moldovan economy, and the importance of e-transparency, among other topics.

Since the initiation of the first phase of the CEED project, USAID Moldova has been involved in numerous efforts. They facilitated the formation of the Association of Private ICT Companies in Moldova, established relationships between the national government and the private companies in the ICT sector, helped private firms to become IT-Mark certified ICT companies under CMMI methodology (encouraging foreign investment and trade), and set up talks respecting the formation of a “Cloud-Moldova” e-government system.

Additionally, a need for more trained and educated IT professionals in Moldova has arisen. To meet this need, USAID Moldova connected the Moldovan Minister of Education with large ICT firms. The ministry signed memorandums with Microsoft, Cisco, and i-Carnegie (Carnegie Mellon University). New IT focused courses and degrees are being offered in the Moldovan education system, providing the ICT industry with the professional staff it requires.

A man and a woman watch as a man repairs a computer.

Photo: Sergiu Botezatu

Despite these advancements, a few large boulders block continued development of the ICT sector in Moldova. The national government’s telecommunications company, Moldtelecom, still controls the majority of the market. Additionally, Moldova is unknown in the region as a destination of IT, this holding back investment. Thankfully, however, steps are in place to remove these barriers. The national government is beginning to investigate selling Moldtelecom and a strategy for ICT sector positioning and promotion is underway, which is intended to put Moldova on the regional and global ICT map.

June 29, 2011/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Fiber Optic Cables To Extend to 3 More East African Nations

In today’s headlines, African Telecoms giant Seacom announced that it will be laying fiber optic broadband cables in the coming year in three African nations: Burundi, Somalia, and Southern Sudan. Fiber cables will first be laid in Burundi with the assistance of a $10.1 million dollar grant from the World Bank, and later in Southern Sudan and Somalia.

Attempting to connect all of East Africa together, Seacom has successfully completed fiber construction in Uganda, Djibouti, Rwanda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Kenya, which is the headquarters of the region. East African governments have been key partners with Seacom and other private telecommunications companies, including Korea Telecom in Rwanda. In fact, the East African Community (EAC), a group of five nations, will invest a combined total of $400 million in laying broadband cables in the coming years. With the undersea and terrestrial fiber cables laid, the groundwork will be in place for all of East Africa to be connected directly.

African Undersea Cables — A History

View more presentations from Steve Song

In Burundi, the reported plans include laying 1,300 kilometers of fiber optic cable, partially funded by the World Bank. The funding for Southern Sudan and Somalia, however, is less concrete at this point, as governments and private sector players are only at the formation stage, with Seacom leading the way.

Seacom’s announcement came despite the spread of land fighting on the border of North and South Sudan this past week, where reportedly more than 53,000 Southern Sudanese citizens fled their homes. Despite the fighting, Seacom spokesman Julius Opio remained optimistic.

However, Mr. Opio has expressed other concerns, including the low portion of the Internet community that is owned and produced by Africans. Establishing broadband infrastructure in Africa, Mr. Opio argues, will increase African ownership and power in the Internet sphere.

“Today, the majority of internet content consumed in Africa is non-African, flowing from Europe and North America into Africa. …We believe that the growth of the African ICT market, including mobile penetration and the eager adoption of social networking, coupled with the development of cloud services will result in a rapid increase in content on African soil.”

Slideshow from Steve Song, and video from Seacom and CreamerMedia.

June 14, 2011/by actualize

Asia, Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Where we work

Indonesia Aims to Have 30% Broadband Penetration by 2014

The Indonesian Ministry of Economy recently publicly announced its goal to increase “meaningful” broadband penetration by 30% by 2014. The goal is optimistic; Internet penetration was 12.3% in 2010, only 18% of which was broadband, making broadband penetration around 2.2% of the population.

In the Jakarta Declaration for Meaningful Broadband released on April 14, 2011, a collection of government and private industry ICT leaders in the Indonesia agreed on the goal to bring “meaningful” broadband access – affordable, usable, and empowering – from under 3% to a ten-fold increase of 30% within three years. This “big push” for broadband penetration is founded on a US$9.2 billion plan. The plan includes $4.3 billion public-private partnership (PPP) funding allocation, linking PT Telecom’s fibre optic cable to “last mile” initiatives to connect rural, more isolated areas. According to estimates, Elizabeth Aris, expert on National Broadband Networks, states that such a PPP would leave costs at “$3 a month per consumer.”

Photo Credit: Digitaldivide.org

Critics of the fund claim that Indonesia has more pressing needs, that broadband should be left entirely to the private sector, and that Indonesia’s goal is implausible. The Meaningful Broadband Working Group is not deterred, however. Craig Smith, former Harvard Professor and current director of the Investment Group Against the Digital Divide, explains that the Indonesian government has set specific goals to minimize the gap in income inequality, but additional goals to increase GDP.

“The problem with GDP growth is that it only benefits the wealthy. So, the government says let’s use broadband that could create equitable growth… The problem is that they did not understand the critical mass of broadband… is important to require the equitable growth,” Smith said. In other words, broadband penetration is an economic equalizer as well as accelerator, but only when large investments into IT infrastructure are made.

June 7, 2011/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Gaining Commitment and Synergy: National ICT Planning

During this last decade, ICTs have increasingly become viewed as having national strategic and tactical importance. Globally this was brought into focus through two World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) events—one held in Geneva in 2003 and the other in Tunis in 2005. At the conclusion of the 2005 Summit, there was worldwide agreement on ten ICT-related WSIS targets for 2015. Collectively these Targets for 2015 link directly to supporting each of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In 2010, an interim report was issued that tracks the progress of these targets Further, both the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the World Economic Forum (WEF) issue annual reports that relate directly to the progress being made in the overall ICT arena.

Virtually every country had high-level Ministry-level participation at these Summits, and agreed to these ten Targets for 2015. Further, this WSIS focus served as a trigger to where the vast majority of the participating countries have subsequently undertaken ICT-related strategic planning initiatives for their respective countries. Often these countries have folded these Targets for 2015 into their national level ICT strategic plans.

While this is extremely encouraging, USAID’s experience in this arena has demonstrated that often it takes more than high-level strategy documents. Often there are three missing components to ensure these national-level planning initiatives are fruitful; 1) there is the need for extensive public-private sector dialog throughout the planning process–and beyond the planning itself, 2) there is the need to drop down into a more tactical level–with public and private sector commitments and implementation targets captured and documented, and 3) there is the need for on-going support through an executive level forum that focuses attention on priority issues, periodically assesses progress being made, and makes needed adjustments.

The focus in developing the National ICT Strategic and Tactical Plan is to heighten the countries’ attention, and to mobilizing ICT-related resources. Having these Plans developed through broad participation of both the public and private sectors, along with international development and donor organizations, ensures there is synergy, prioritization, and integration of the wide-array of ICT-related initiatives being undertaken.

The ICT Team, through the GBI Program, provides support in this arena. The following two examples reflect earlier engagements:

Armenia—in 2001 USAID/Armenia, in partnership with the World Bank, supported the development of a National ICT Strategic and Tactical Plan. This initiative was supported by the then President of Armenia and led by the Minister of Economic Development. A critical component in this planning was the establishment of a ICT-related Council chaired by the Prime Minister, with both public and private sector members on the Council. The Council was supported by a Secretariat. After a year and a half, a local review as to progress was undertaken, again with support from USAID/Armenia. This led to refreshing the National ICT Plan to address priority areas where insufficient progress was being made.

Georgia—in 2008 USAID/Georgia requested ICT consultation with one of the findings being that even though Georgia was focusing on ICT, there was no unifying National Plan in place. This led to discussions at the Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development level, along with a key private sector advisory group, and other donors with active ICT engagements. The team mapped out an initial construct for a National ICT Strategic and Tactical Plan that was subsequently pursued by the local public and private sector entities.

These National ICT Planning efforts are at times the result of an initial ICT Assessment, where the need is identified and local support for such an initiative surfaces. Most often these initiatives are undertaken through a cost-sharing arrangement between the GBI Program and the Mission.

May 3, 2011/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Launching Pad: National ICT Assessments

Increasingly Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are becoming recognized as critical components of international development programs. Yet at times the USAID Missions lack staff resources that can sort through the current in-country situation and local opportunities, and assess how ICTs can be embedded for maximum benefit within their development portfolios.

One of the common ICT-related services provided by EGAT’s ICT Team has been support to the Missions through a one or two week ICT Assessment. These are typically undertake by a small team of two ICT professionals either from the ICT Team itself and/or made available through existing PASA or contractor resources. Ideally this small team is supported by Mission Staff to ensure efficient and effective use of their time on-the-ground.

These ICT Assessments vary in scope depending on the requirements of the Mission. The focus of these Assessments is to assist the Mission program staff to first gain a better understanding of the current in-country status, including; what other donors are doing in this arena, what the government is doing or planning to do, what the private sector is doing and possibly inhibitors they are experiencing, how the education is meeting the ICT challenges, etc. Then upon gaining these insights, the Assessment Team then works with Mission Program personnel to determine if there are rich opportunities for possibly expanding or imbedding ICT-related elements within the program and projects. Typically these ICT Assessments are carried out at two levels:

Countrywide ICT Assessments—a number of these assessments have been undertaken at a broad, countrywide level that includes all things ICT in nature. These Assessments look at both the public and private sectors–including the government’s ICT-related plans, policies as well as their use of ICT (e-government). It includes a look across the private sector’s use of ICTs, but also includes a special focus on the local IT private sector. The Assessment also looks at education relative to the use of ICT as well as ICT within its curriculum. Another focus within this countrywide snapshot is gaining insights into what other donors are supporting in the ICT arena.

The approach taken for these broad ICT Assessments is to gain a fresh insight into “what is” and put forward to the Mission, ideas as to “what may be of value for consideration” relative to matching the assessment findings with the Mission’s development portfolio. In virtually all of these past efforts, a number of potential opportunities surface, with the Missions often pursuing one or more ICT-related engagements as new initiatives, or as new components embedded within existing projects.

Targeted Sector ICT Assessments—another form of the ICT Assessment is that of a more narrow-targeted focus to a specific theme, topic, or sector. Examples here include scopes such as: exploring the potential for telecom market liberalization; setting up or strengthening a Universal Service Fund; establishing an ICT-user training program; examining the potential for embedding ICTs into the country’s education program, or into an existing education project; exploring the potential for launching an e-Government initiative; launching a rural connectivity initiative such as the earlier Last Mile Initiatives; exploring m-Banking, etc.

The approach taken for these more targeted ICT Assessments is to assist the Mission in gaining insights into specific opportunities that are within their current or planned development portfolio. At times these assessments result in the development of SOWs/PWS that are subsequently worked into future RFPs. In other situations this preliminary work is aimed at establishing ICT-related public-private partnerships (PPPs) for embedding into future Mission projects.

Both forms of ICT Assessments are offered through the GBI Program in support of Missions that have a sense of ICTs potential, but may not have the in-house resources or expertise required for this more detailed examination. Depending on the requirement, these ICT Assessments may be undertaken through a cost-sharing arrangement between the GBI Program and the Mission requesting the service.

May 2, 2011/by actualize

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