Telecom operators invest $1.64bn as ‘fibre race’ picks up

The heat is on, a

battle over the control the Internet bandwidth is in the offing as

Globacom, MainOne and MTN have already invested a staggering $1.64

billion on submarine fibre optic cables in readiness for the ‘next big

thing’ to happen to Nigeria and the West African region.

NEXT gathered that

Globacom spent $800 million on the Glo-1 submarine cable, which has

already landed in Nigeria. MainOne Cable Company voted $240 million for

the MainOne submarine cable project, while MTN and its consortium

across Africa are investing $600 million on the West African Cable

System (WACS); which would be ready by next year.

The Glo-1 cable,

with a current capacity of 640 gigabytes per second and final capacity

of 2.5 terabits per second, has landing points in Lagos and Bonny in

Nigeria, Bude in London, Lisbon in Portugal, as well as Ghana and Cote

d’Ivoire.

MainOne is a 14,

000 kilometre cable with 1.92 terabits per second capacity, running

from Portugal into the coast of West Africa, with initial landings in

Nigeria, Ghana and Portugal, from where it will interconnect other

cable systems to London, New York and Asia.

Likewise, WACS is a

14, 000 kilometre cable but with a capacity of 3.8 terabits per second,

and will originate from South Africa, making landings in Cape Town,

Namibia, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, Canary

Islands, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Cape Verde and

Portugal before reaching its final destination in the UK.

Imminent explosion in bandwidth and gains

The landing and

full commencement of operations by these cables promise a ‘bandwidth

gala’ for African countries, and would absolutely transform

communication on the continent, as businesses and personal interactions

will move to the Internet.

Bruce Ayonote, CEO

Suburban Telecom, told NEXT that more bandwidth would be available to

the public at a lower price as the impact of Glo-1 and WACS will reduce

the cost of wholesale bandwidth to the retailers and improve the

quality, as there will be more diversity in case of cable failures.

According to him,

“This will be of benefit to the end customer if the retailers transfer

the cost benefit, and will impact the economy positively as there would

be more adoption and use of ICT. The market might face a glut of

bandwidth when there are 4 cable routes but 3 will surely guarantee

commoditisation but not over capacity.”

Internet in Nigeria

has been slowed by dearth of bandwidth, but this is about to change as

the cables will usher in new technologies able to deliver broadband

access cost effectively.

Lanre Ajayi,

President, Nigeria Internet Group, is optimistic that there will be a

huge increase in the number of Internet users in Nigeria within the

first two years.

“The submarine

cables promise to bring bigger international bandwidth at a lower cost

than we have now. When the supply is available at a low cost, it

follows that there would be more people purchasing it since it falls

within their affordability. With this development, there would be

increase in Internet penetration in Nigeria,” he told NEXT.

According to him,

“The Internet provides the capacity for e-Learning, and we believe that

one of the major factors causing unemployment in Nigeria is people’s

lack of appropriate skills. So, the Internet should provide the

platform for the acquisition of requisite skills for people to become

employable.

“It is also going

to create employment opportunities because apart from people doing more

businesses online, efficiency of businesses will improve, which serves

as an incentive for them to expand and hire more hands.

“It will also create a platform for enterprising individuals to put their services online, as well as find more opportunities.”

Potential trouble spots

Mohammed Rudman,

Managing Director, Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria, warns of the

overwhelming effect excess bandwidth could have on Internet users in

Nigeria, some of whom he said may not be mentally ready for the big

change.

“Are we secure

enough? Can we protect ourselves against cyber war ? We can come under

attack when we have critical infrastructure such as power stations and

water system controlled by networks. Are they going to be protected?

With these huge bandwidth that is coming now, how are we going to

protect ourselves and our cultural heritage?”

He continued: “With

e-Government, all government files and records, including those of the

military and police, can be accessed online. How are confidential

records going to be protected against hacking and viruses? The issue of

scam mails that are constantly originating from Nigeria is

overwhelming, and we have a bad record already. Now with larger

capacity, it means we will have a larger problem as many scammers will

have a field day. How are we going to fight that?”

Mr. Ajayi seems to

agree with Mr. Rudman saying an upsurge in cybercrime is possible.

“Since more people are going to be using the Internet, there is going

to be an upsurge in that. Measures need to be put in place to fight it

so that Nigeria’s Internet crime records do not get out of proportion

as a result of increase in the number of users.”

Warning of legal

issues that may arise from high Internet penetration, Adewale Jones,

Partner, Ashfield and Bowman Attorneys, said that the country may

witness more negative activities than have been documented in the

developed world where Internet usage is very high. This could include

unauthorised downloading, printing or saving in disks or other

websites; of music files, video files, and computer software. “All of

these illicit activities will have profound effect on the market for

the owners of the products. One of such is a reduction in the sale of

the products as a result of copyright theft.”

Light at the end of the tunnel?

In spite of the

plethora of imminent problems, there seems to be hope for Internet

users in Nigeria when the ‘big pipe’ comes. Mr. Rudman says that having

local interconnection since exchange points exist in Nigeria, is a key

solution, and that networks need to be interconnected locally and have

a kind of Private Branch Exchange, so that in case of any mishap along

the West African coast, the country would still have Internet access.

He also recommends

that the government should do local interception to protect people and

businesses against scammers, as well as sensitize citizens, ministries,

departments, agencies and schools on how they can protect themselves.

On how copyright

issues could be dealt with, Mr. Jones says: “We need to create public

awareness of copyright; people should know its underlying principles

and these principles must be in tandem with the requirements of the

digital age.

“Furthermore, there

has been the view that Digital Rights Management (DRM) be used to

complement copyright. DRM sets out to prevent unauthorised access to

the use and transmission of digital works by providing opportunities to

enter into contract which will enable the right holder to be paid for

these online activities.

“The challenge with

this however is that there will likely be defaulters, but the system

can conceive ways to checkmate them as much as possible by holding

those concerned to their contract.”

Currently before

the National Assembly are two bills - Provision of Legal Recognition

Bill, 2008 and Electronic Communications and Transactions Bill, 2009 -

which ,when passed into law, could assist in providing the needed legal

support in respect of online business interactions.