— Please read the latest development in the EASSy saga on the APC blog —
French telco giant Alcatel has bagged the tender for the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy), an initiative to connect countries along the eastern coast of Africa, via a high bandwidth fibre optic cable system to the rest of the world. It is considered a milestone in the development of information infrastructure in the region.
But what is really happening on the ground to make sure the important ‘open access model’ is implemented?
News emerging in mid-July said the French firm had won the tender to build the EASSy cable, a project as a whole valued at US$300 million. Media reports were seen to indicate the Nepad e-Africa Commission has begun negotiations with Alcatel regarding the terms of the project.
New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) is an economic development programme of the African Union. The NEPAD was adopted at the 37th session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government in July 2001 in Lusaka, Zambia. NEPAD was met with opposition from some African non governmental organisations (NGOs) and citizens who see it as a tool for strengthening Western domination over Africa.
NEPAD’s four primary objectives are to eradicate poverty, promote sustainable growth and development, integrate Africa in the world economy, and accelerate the empowerment of women.
Is EASSy open access, open access easy or neither or?
Will the EASSy project be based on an open access model? Says Willie Currie of APC: "the protocol supports open access look at the documents on the e-Africa commission website but it’s not clear yet what the price will be. At the same time a private group, Kenya Data Networks, have announced plans to put down their own cable and charge a very low price of, I think, $115 per MegaByte."
The Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), an alliance of internet service providers (ISPs) adds another nuance. "…while the benefits of EASSy are in no doubt, consensus is yet to be reached among telecom operators, government bodies, development agencies and other stakeholders with regard to the model of financing and ownership of this cable system."
CIPESA, in a recent update [1], noted that the view of the World Bank which is ready to provide loan financing to the cable system, as well as some other stakeholders, is that EASSy will deliver better value to users in Eastern and Southern Africa if it is built and run along the open access model.
Under this model, even non-investors in the system can access it at rates comparable to those paid by investors in the system.
"This view is gaining momentum across the region, but the EASSy promoters prefer a consortium to own and control access to the marine cable by charging those that wish to access it a cost-plus-premium fee. Disagreement over this issue currently represents the biggest threat to the management and utilisation of EASSy, yet there are other challenges that must be overcome to ensure the success of this project,"
CIPESA noted.
Where EASSy came from
By way of background, EASSy was first articulated at the first East African Business Summit convened in Nairobi in November 2002 and attended by business leaders from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
As CIPESA explains, according to a ‘Business Manifesto’ adopted at that summit, a fibre-optic maritime cable covering the eastern seaboard of Africa would be installed to benefit countries like Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, Mozambique and Zambia.
Operators who would initiate the project and form the lead consortium were then identified as Telkom Kenya, Tanzania Telecommunications Company (TTCL), Uganda Telecom (UTL), Mobile Telephone Network (MTN Uganda), Zanzibar Telecom, Nation Media Group, and unspecified data operators.
It was envisaged in 2002 that EASSy would cost US$300 million and get completed by June 2005. The project was conceived to be private-sector-led, with public sector involvement and donor assistance.
"The fact that the Eastern Africa seaboard lacked a fibre optic cable system meant it had to rely exclusively on satellite links for voice and data transmission at about ten times the cost and at transmission speeds of less than a quarter those of fibre optic links," says CIPESA.
CIPESA is itself "an initiative to help Africans to better understand the policy-making processes that affect them, especially in the area of information and communication technology (ICT) and development."
Open access versus ‘club’ models
Earlier this year, an informal ‘open access task force’ made up of African NGOs and small and medium sized ISPs was set up to lobby for the implementation of an open access model in internet infrastructure on the continent. The task force, which has been operating since the beginning of March 2006, said it was mobilised to make the EASSy submarine cable ‘easy’, affordable and open.
In May 2006, the NEPAD e-Africa Commission, a body mandated with the development of a continental ICT infrastructure network, took what was seen as a "tough stance" over ownership of the proposed Eastern Africa undersea cable system (EASSy).
BalancingAct-Africa reported: "The Commission appears to be set on a clear collision course with the consortium formed to promote the project, which prefers the ‘Club’ or members-only ownership, against the open access, favoured by the World Bank. For months now, the US$240m project has been marred by controversy over its ownership and financing, with consortium members openly bickering against each other."
NEPAD officials were seen as being critical of the ‘Club’ model, arguing that it is discriminatory and in its form, the model has no incentive to bring down the high telecom prices, seen as an obstacle to growth.
Ethan Zuckerman, a blogger with interests in Africa and its involvement in the cyberspace, comments [2]: "At least two schools of thought developed around EASSy. One suggested that it was important to ensure that universities have a seat at the table to ensure their interests were protected in a cartel situation. This group founded the Ubuntunet Alliance, which seeks high speed broadband connectivity for African universities – Ubuntunet’s plan has been to purchase a stake in the EASSy cable, ensuring affordable broadband for the universities, and increased transparency on the project, as universities would be more likely to share cost and pricing information than private companies.”
2 http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=856
"The other school of thought suggested that pressure be put on international donors not to support the EASSy cable unless any organisation could purchase bandwidth from the cable owners. This ‘open access’ approach argued that connectivity was too important for African development to allow a cartel situation to evolve, and attempted to use World Bank and NEPAD (…) monies to shape the policy. These two schools of thought weren’t necessarily opposed -many people supported open access but thought that Ubuntunet was a wise tactical move…"
Open access winning
Zuckerman cites a recent article by Elias Biryabarema in the Kampala Monitor, to say that the open access folks have won the day. "Any telecom company or institution" will be able to buy into the cable and access bandwidth, not just companies with ‘international gateway licenses’, the license granted by a government to companies to engage in international telephone voice traffic.
But, he points out that the devil is in the details – will this international gateway agreement price access in a way that small telcos can afford it, or will there be large upfront fees? Will dominant telcos pull out of the agreement for fear that they won’t be able to charge enough money?
APC’s policy manager, Currie, says "We’re supporting CIPESA to run national road shows in a number of countries this month. The process around EASSy is supposed to be finalised in a Head of States meeting later this year… to ratify a draft protocol."
— Please read the latest development in the EASSy saga on the APC blog —