Diplomacy, Technology and Finance: ESCAP’S Way Forward to Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway Expert Consultation on the Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway and Regional Connectivity Thimphu, Bhutan. October 2, 2014 Abu Saeed Khan Senior Policy Fellow LIRNEasia

Unique mobile users are 50% of connections being sold Source: GSMA, The Mobile Economy, ASIA PACIFIC 2014.

Asia is a diverse market Source: GSMA, The Mobile Economy, ASIA PACIFIC 2014.

The great Asian broadband divide Source: GSMA, The Mobile Economy, ASIA PACIFIC 2014.

Median IP transit prices per Mbps per month on Q Prices exclude local access and installation fees. Source: TeleGeography. Publication: Global Internet Geography Prohibitive wholesale internet bandwidth in Asia

Meshed and resilient telecoms ROW Connecting 32 Eurasian countries with EU through 141,000 km of standardized roadways.

IntegratedIntegrated map of highway & railway Roads are red.

Each country’s share in Asian Highway (There are 10 LLDCs)

Submarine networks = Terrestrial networks Landlocked countries = Coastal countries Courtesy: Ciena

Roadblocks to affordable Internet Source: The state of Broadband 2012: Achieving digital inclusion for all. ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission.

Costs of civil works in fiber deployment FranceApproximately 80% United KingdomBetween 70% and 80% Republic of KoreaBetween 80% and 90% European UnionApproximately 80% MENAApproximately 80% OECD average (2008)Between 50% and 80% Source: “Harnessing cross-sectoral infrastructure synergies.” ESCAP. August 27, Right-of-way (ROW) = ?%

“Anytime a roadway is opened up for any purpose, conduit is installed, which cuts the cost for later deployment of fiber by 90 percent or more in some cases. The conduit itself costs almost nothing; it’s the labor cost to open up the street and then close it up later that is the bulk of the cost. By installing conduit any time construction is going on, the cost of that construction is amortized over all projects that later utilize the conduit, reducing costs dramatically and minimizing disruption to drivers.” Milo Medin, Vice President of Access Services, Google Inc. April 18, 2011 Conduit of fortune

“Anytime a roadway is opened up for any purpose, conduit is installed, which cuts the cost for later deployment of fiber by 90 percent or more in some cases. The conduit itself costs almost nothing; it’s the labor cost to open up the street and then close it up later that is the bulk of the cost. By installing conduit any time construction is going on, the cost of that construction is amortized over all projects that later utilize the conduit, reducing costs dramatically and minimizing disruption to drivers.” Milo Medin, Vice President of Access Services, Google Inc. April 18, 2011 Conduit of fortune

“Noting that some states were levying hefty RoW charges, equivalent to Rs 1.27 crore (US$ 208,000) per km, DoT has urged states to scrap such practices, failing which NOFN project costs would shoot up and scuttle the Centre's ambitions of delivering affordable broadband services. DoT has reached out to states as there has scarcely been any progress in laying down optic fibre over the past three years.” Lesson from India: ROW up to $208,000/km.

Lessons from Africa’s terrestrial projects Fiber not being buried deep enough – Frequent physical damage (accidental and deliberate). Poor quality splicing – Intermittent faults and reduction in throughput Poor maintenance of manholes – Leads to flooding and cable damage. Poor systems and processes for fault management – Sometimes the maintenance companies deliberately sabotage cables to create work for themselves. Source: Philip Bates, Analysys Mason, April 2014

Asian Information Superhighway: Core objectives Creating a cross-border telecoms consortium of 32 countries being linked through the Asian Highway. – Example: Intelsat (Past) and SEA-ME-WE3/4/5 (Present). Using Asian Highway’s right-of-way (ROW) for open-access optical fiber transmission networks. – Highways are preferred ROW for long distance telecoms. Each country’s road authorities will own the fiber. – State-ownership and open-access guaranteed. No payment is required for ROW. Only the licensed operators will have access to it. – No regulatory disruption.

Suggested way forward for ESCAP Internal activities 1.Conduct route survey of Asian Information Superhighway. 2.Design the network and assess the costs of C&M. 3.AH members endorse the concept of Asian Info Superhighway and approve the C&M Agreement. 4.Finalize C&MA and award the project. External activities 1.Get engaged with partners (World Bank, ADB, ITU, APT, SATRC, BIMSTEC etc.) 2.Make the long distance telecoms carriers on board. 3.Effectively disseminate the status of Asian Information Superhighway.