Why isn’t the South African Internet liberalised yet? William Stucke SAFNOG 2 Swaziland 7 th – 8 th April 2015

Focus Areas ISP Association Licences Local Peering International Connectivity National backbone network Metro networks Last Mile networks A glimpse at Africa © William Stucke 20152

ISP Association Why is this important? Gives ISPs a single coherent voice when speaking to Government or Regulator Lends power to your arguments Avoids single ISPs from being “punished” for speaking out. ISPA formed in 1996 in South Africa Now has some 160 members, and represents the majority of active licensees. As a more mature market, also has: WAPA SACF Wi-Fi Forum © William Stucke 20153

Licensing Regime RSA had a very centralised market Only 11 “previously advantaged licensees” Vertically integrated Government owned a share in 8 out of 11 operators Others were all VANS – Value Added Network Services Telecommunications Act gave the Minister of Communications the right to make seven “Declarations” In August 2004, she announced five of these, which were properly gazetted and came into effect early in 2005 In late January 2005, days before they were due to take effect, she published a Press Release saying, paraphrased: “In order to clarify, I didn’t mean it.” Although not legally binding, she obstructed ICASA until they withdrew “Self Provision” for VANS from the new regulations. © William Stucke 20154

Licensing Regime 2 New Electronic Communications Act took effect in 2006 Diametrically opposed to the previous Act. Instead of protecting Telkom’s monopoly, it fosters competition. She instructed ICASA to determine if “a few, if any” VANS should get new licences under the new Act. August 2008 – Altech won court case against this. Appeals failed ICASA issued 451 VANS with licences on 19 th January 2009 Both iECS and iECNS licenses All (unless specifically requested otherwise) with full national scope Identical to the licences held by Telkom and other previously advantaged operators Except no spectrum Today, some 713 licences, including class and broadcasting licences. © William Stucke 20155

Local Peering JINX operational in 1996 Today, ISPA and NAPAfrica operate six IXPs: Joburg, Cape Town and Durban GINX (Grahamstown) closed in 2012 © William Stucke 20156

International Connectivity SAT3 /SAFE Gbps Managed by Telkom Expensive. High Cost, Low Volume model SEACOM Gbps ZA, MZ, KE, TZ and UG High Volume, Low Cost model. 35% immediate price improvement for Medium ISPs, growing dramatically after 3 years, when capital purchase paid off. Cheaper to peer in London than buy local transit! Followed by EASSy Gbps WACS Gbps Resulted in dramatic reductions in National costs © William Stucke 20157

National Backbone Networks Now the fun starts! 2009:R10,000 / Mbps / month for national transit 2014: ~R1,000 / Mbps / month for national transit Multiple operators building competing networks Huge bureaucratic obstacles: Way Leaves, EIAs, etc. FibreCo took 2 years to get 19,000 permits for 1,600 km of cable – Joburg to Cape Town Solution? Rapid Deployment Guidelines © William Stucke 20158

Rapid Deployment Guidelines Electronic Communications Act, effective in 2006, obliged the Minister of Communications to liaise with the Minister of Provincial and Local Government, the Minister of Land Affairs and the Minister of Environmental Affairs to draft these. Nothing happened Draft produced by others, but not yet finalised Now the Department of Communications has been split, and we have two Ministers arguing about who’s responsible for what 2014 Amendment of the Act changed the names of the Ministers, and reduced their role to drafting a Policy Made it ICASA’s problem to draft the actual Regulations Still no Policy © William Stucke 20159

National Backbone Networks - 2 Some 19,000 km of fibre required to link all towns in SA with a population >10,000, as per the 2001 census. Only Telkom has this, with 104,000 km of backbone fibre Despite the fibre being laid, we haven’t yet reached the “tipping point” where connectivity suddenly becomes cheap: The High Volume / Low Cost Model. Lack of courage? National networks being built by Neotel FibreCo (Cell C, Convergence Partners and Dimension Data) Broadband Infraco – doing nothing. 100% Government owned JV (Vodacom, MTN, Neotel) DFA Long-haul SANRAL © William Stucke

National Backbone Networks - 3 Telkom104,000 km Neotel 21,000 km FibreCo 12,000 km Broadband Infraco 13,000 km JV 5,000 km DFA Longhaul Liquid Telecom © William Stucke

Telkom – February 2012

© William Stucke Neotel

FibreCo 2015 © William Stucke

Broadban d Infraco 2012 / 2015

Liquid Telecom

Metro Networks A bigger problem than national networks – more fibre needed. Joburg Metro has >9,000 km of tarred roads Roads being dug up multiple times Some of those rolling out metro networks include: The Metros themselves Telkom Neotel DFA MTN Vodacom © William Stucke

DFA Gauteng Metro Fibre

Last Mile Networks Only Telkom has a substantial fixed line Access Network ~70,000 km of copper 3.6m out of 8m lines active – and dropping every year Most lines provisioned for ADSL 927,000 ADSL subscribers or 25% LLU? My most significant failure of my time at ICASA FTTH Wireless © William Stucke

High Demand Spectrum ICASA has tried several times to assigned “High Demand” spectrum, via a competitive process, over the last decade. Obstructed by Government Spectrum is “High Demand” because: It’s allocated for PtMP in national plans, Harmonised with other countries in ITU Region User equipment manufactured More spectrum essential to: Facilitate higher throughput on mobile networks, e.g. LTE Provide cost-effective broadband in rural areas © William Stucke

What High Demand Spectrum could be assigned? 310 MHz Nationally 28 MHz x 50 Districts © William Stucke

Progress so far? ISP Association Licences Local Peering International Connectivity National backbone network Rapid Deployment Policy and Regulations Metro networks Last Mile networks LLU Spectrum © William Stucke

African Situation Same issues apply: - ISP Associations Licences Local Peering International Connectivity National backbone network Metro networks Last Mile networks © William Stucke

ISP Associations AfrISPA2001 – 2010 Provided training in ~20 countries Helped increase ISPAs in Africa from ~ 5 to ~20 Died after Brian, Eric and I left Do we still need it? © William Stucke

Liberalisation About half African countries have a liberalised telecommunications, with multiple ISPs operating Cross-boarder connectivity still a problem No consistent mechanism in place to arrange access to “No Man’s Land” and cross-border licensing © William Stucke

Local Peering AfrISPA, KTH, ISOC and NSRC all supported the formation of IXPs During the AfrISPA CATIA project, African IXP countries increased from 5 to 22 Some countries punt the concept of Regional Peering Preconditions: Adequate, cheap national fibre Cross-border connections An operating and significant IXP in the host country See 2006 paper: © William Stucke

IXPs in Africa 2001 © William Stucke

IXPs in Africa 2002 © William Stucke

IXPs in Africa 2006 © William Stucke

IXPs in Africa 2011 © William Stucke

IXPs in Africa 2015 © William Stucke

Why connect to another Country? Local traffic delivered more directly Peering Quality of Service Redundancy

Talk to me about … Updating ISPA data in Africa Updating IXP data in Africa Restarting AfrISPA? Consulting opportunities Becoming Country Representative for BoardPAC Drinking whiskey (During conference) © William Stucke