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The Affordability Index: Morocco joins the top ten

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The Affordability Index, created by the Alliance for Affordable Internet, measures the value of the Internet in emerging and developing economies. Connectivity, in fact, is universally considered an important reserve of economic growth.

The Affordability Index

The Affordability Index measures the Internet accessibility ranking of 51 countries that are emerging or developing, by analysing national policies on infrastructure investments and economic incentives for broadband. With this data, the Alliance for Affordable Internet drew up a ranking that highlights the best countries. 

The idea behind this is that the Internet is a driver of economic growth; ensuring “low-cost” access to it will thus allow freedom from poverty. Often, however, a lack of money is the main obstacle to Internet use. In the 2015-2016 report, AFAI reported how many countries are still far from the internationally established goal: broadband services should not cost more than 5% of per capita income. Furthermore, there are marked differences by gender, with women having less Internet access than men.

The comparison with 2014

At the top of the AFAI list we see, in order, Colombia and Costa Rica, which have swapped positions with respect to 2014. The top ten list has two new members: Morocco (7th, the first among African countries) and Mexico (9th). Mexico’s success is mainly due to new telecommunications regulations approved in 2014. For Morocco, however, what was most important was infrastructure investments and the effects of a long period of two reforms launched years ago: the establishment of a public guarantee of telecommunications and a plan to privatise the sector.

The biggest jump, however, is that of Myanmar, which leapt from 36th to 27th place, thanks to interventions to open up the telecom sector and the introduction of broadband services.

Algeria, where digital development is in smartphones

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VuBlog’s new infographic focuses on Algeria, one of the nations in VueTel Italia’s area of interest. This North African country has a long way to go to reach good levels in terms of Internet usage and connexion speed. To date, little more than a quarter of the population has access to the web, and broadband only reaches 20% of the residents. Things are destined to change, however, because of a push from the increasing popularity of smartphones. The new generation of mobile devices, often used to surf the web and to send instant messages, is increasing the data traffic and thus the demand for efficient connexions.

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The Liquid Telecom project for connectivity in Kenya

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Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, is at the centre of a development plan by Liquid Telecom, a company very active in Africa that wants to increase the country’s high-speed connections. The expected investment is worth more than a million dollars.

Kenya’s potentials

“We want to continue to contribute to Kenya’s economic development by assuring it of faster, more efficient connectivity.” This is how Ben Roberts, CEO of Liquid Telecom Kenya, summarised the goal of the investment that the company is getting ready to make to strengthen the network in Kenya. Today, Kenya is the leader among African countries in terms of internet and mobile connexions. By the end of 2015, the number of users surfing the web was in the neighbourhood of 30 million and mobile subscribers with data connexions were reported to be just under 20 million, with a leap of more than 5 million in a single quarter. This makes it a real engine, with the hunger for “high speed” being driven by the business sector, especially small and medium-sized companies. And this is the demand that Liquid Telecom would like to meet.

Liquid Telecom’s commitment

The investment that this company will put into action in 2016 is worth about 1 million dollars, and it will follow two routes: the completion of the metropolitan Nairobi network and the strengthening of the Wi-Fi network in that country. To date, Liquid Telecom has built a completely independent network that assures high performance to all the users in this sector. The company brought high-speed connexions to 39 of the 47 provinces in Kenya, and got about 200 Wi-Fi hotspots up and running in some strategic cities. Now, with this new development plan, it intends to work on the network in the capital, increasing the speed up to ten-fold, and for Wi-Fi coverage, installing hundreds of new hot spots throughout the country.

Cisco’s Visual Networking Index, 5.5 billion mobile users in 2020

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It was 2000 when the first cell phone with a camera was introduced. Since then, the number of mobile telephone users has increased up to 5 times and estimates continue to show a prospect of constant and exponential growth. In this sense, the forecast in the tenth edition of Cisco’s Visual Networking Index (VNI) for mobile reports that the growth in smart devices, mobile video and 4G networks will reach an increase of up to 8 times the traffic in mobile data in the next 5 years. This calculation is summarised in the following fact: by 2020, 70% of the world’s population will be mobile users, with an estimated 1.5 connexions per capita.

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ACE, the network fighting the digital divide in Africa

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ACE (Africa Coast to Europe) is one of the cables linking Europe to the African countries adjoining the Atlantic Ocean. This strategic infrastructure, which has been in operation since 2012, has helped to oppose the continental digital divide.

From Africa to Europe on the ACE

The acronym ACE stands for Africa Coast to Europe, one of the most important systems of undersea cables serving Africa. This infrastructure, with a length of more than 17,000 kilometres, extends from South Africa to France along the western coast of the African continent, offering a connection to twenty countries. This range has strategic importance because it highlights an area, Africa, with enormous potential when it comes to telecommunications and Internet operations. In 2015, an implementation project was approved to bring it to Cameroon.

ACE went in service in December of 2012. This achievement cost about 700 million dollars and was assigned to Alcatel Lucent, which guaranteed it would use the most advanced fibre optic technology, WDM (wavelength division multiplexing). The network’s cables, which lie more than 6,000 meters below sea level, have a diameter of 4-5 centimetres and a maximum range of 5.12 Tbps.

Fighting the digital divide

The strategic importance of ACE is best understood by reading through the list of African countries involved, including some that will be connected to the international cable network for the first time. These are Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Liberia, Mauritania, Sao Tome and Principe and Sierra Leone. The infrastructure was designed with a goal of bringing down the cost of broadband in Africa, as part of the fight against the digital divide and to help the social and economic development of the continent. Furthermore, for some of these countries, when they go online, it will be their first connection to the international network that carries internet communications.

Togo, working to close the digital divide

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For Togo the digital divide is still a major obstacle on the road to development. The country has rates of Internet, broadband and mobile penetration among the lowest in the region (West Africa). Broadband is an illusion for almost the entire population:  mobile connections are the preserve of 4.1% of the population, landlines only 0.1%. 

The International Telecommunications Union, in its report “The State of Broadband”, pointed out that to date the government of Togo does not yet have a strategy for the development of broadband, but it is in the planning phase.

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The future is 5G

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The 5G network is the future, and it is closer than ever. The telecommunications big players are preparing to meet the challenge, supported by the principle governments and international institutions. However, there is the question of the cost of this revolution and its real potential.

The features of 5G

What is 5G? What features does it have? How is it different from 4G? A Trusted Review article attempts to answer these questions, presenting a profile of the technology that seems destined to revolutionize (once again) the mobile network world.

The big names of TLC are preparing for the challenge

The major international telecommunications players are preparing themselves to be 5G leaders. The challenge is being played out with partnerships, clusters and joint projects. The CorCom.it portal presents a summary of the state of the art, with an eye to the developments expected in the coming months.

Europe’s moves

In view of the development of the 5G network the European Union has begun work on regulations to make the very high frequency band (700 MHz) available, which is now occupied by the digital terrestrial channels. It should be available by 2020, as pointed out in an article by the Italian press agency ANSA.

The cost of 5G for the USA

Preparation for the advent of the next-generation network will cost the United States around 104 billion dollars. The estimate, taken from a Key4Biz article, was made by iGR Research and includes all the necessary investments for the implementation of all the necessary elements for the future high speed network.

Italy’s moves

Key4Biz again, in an in-depth article on Europe, focuses on Italy’s position in the global framework of preparation for the advent of 5G. The intention is to set up a lab for the study of the new network at ISCOM (Institute for Communications and Technology).

The future of TLC in Europe

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According to experts and analysts, telecommunications in Europe are at a crossroads and a change is required for it to really take off. A recent ETNO report depicts an industry showing signs of recovery. But to regain its international leadership new regulations are required.

The ETNO report

The European Telecommunications Network Operators has produced, as it does every year, a report that analyses the state of telecommunications in Europe, both in terms of network coverage and from a business point of view. The main point is that the decline of the TLC European market has slowed almost to a stop, and from next year it should start to grow again. Investments have injected new life into the sector, and the mobile market, notwithstanding a slight downturn, has performed better than other areas.

America looks to Europe

The Key4Biz Portal reports the opinion of the Wall Street Journal on the TLC sector in Europe. According to the influential American newspaper, European telecommunications should try to achieve a true single market, a goal that has been announced but never pursued. The American experts blame the inconsistent and unclear approach of Brussels that with every change of Commission seems to modify its approach toward the TLC world. 

Single market regulations

The main WSJ criticism of Europe is the lack of a true single market, whereas, CERRE (Centre on Regulation in Europe), points to the fragmentation of the regulations. In fact, on the Key4Biz website there is an article on a study of the centre, according to which the future of TLC in Europe is at risk because of the lack of a single regulatory framework covering internet, audiovisual media and electronic communications. The solution, according to the Centre, is to provide one regulatory framework for digital infrastructures and another regulatory framework for services.

Internet and broadband, the Arab countries are working to bridge the gap

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The Arab countries constitute a very interesting geographical area from the point of view telecommunications. Today the levels of penetration of the Internet and broadband are still low, below the world average and European or North American standards, with some exceptions. At the same time, however, growth rates and development potential are high, if supported by adequate growth strategies and investments. VuBlog presents an infographic that, based on ITU data, summarizes the current level of “connection” in Arab countries.

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