1. ©Centro de Informática da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane SARUA Fiber Study Américo Muchanga americo@uem.mz

2. ©Centro de Informática da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane SARUA  Association of Universities in the Southern Africa Region  Dedicated to:  Improve collaboration between SADC universities that will improve the quality of education and research.  Founded on February 2005  To date has 43 member universities

3. ©Centro de Informática da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane Study Supported by  IDRC – Canada  WBI - World Bank

4. ©Centro de Informática da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane Growing National Research and Education Networks  TENET – South Africa  KENET - Kenya  TENET – Tanzania  MoRENet – Mozambique  Malawi NREN  RWEdnet - Rwanda  Zambia  Uganda

5. ©Centro de Informática da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane Capacity as a driver for Education and Research Interaction - Motivations  African universities need the same connectvity as their peers in other parts of the world, otherwise they cannot keep up and Africa will loose – This means Gigabit/s rather than Kilobit/s networks  Academic networking is delimited and strictly non-commercial and will not reduce the demand on the commercial market  Society as a whole will gain a lot by the dynamic/external effects triggered by the transformation  Operators will also benefit from a controlled fast transformation - more revenues over a medium term due to injection of donor funds - increasing demand for secondary capacity in the medium to long term - an increasing public sector activity will decrease the required private sector capex and consequently the business risk, which will stimulate action

6. ©Centro de Informática da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane What is the best way to connect?  Copper from Telco  Wireless  Satellite  Fiber  Fiber wins in capacity, latency and reliability

7. ©Centro de Informática da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane SARUA fiber study  So we have decided to carry out a study to find out what fiber exists in the countries and between countries.

8. ©Centro de Informática da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane Objectives of the Study  Survey of fiber inside and between countries  Assess the regulatory environments and their impact on the usage of existing fiber and propose improvements supporting growth  Strengthen the user position by resource sharing and academic procurement consortium  Propose cooperation with fiber owners to develop the market for fiber with added value to all stakeholders

9. ©Centro de Informática da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane Objectives  Draft an action plan towards a SSA regional academic backbone connecting NREN  Using the needs and requirement specs produced by ATICS and PAREN  Adding value both to academia and to NEPAD’s efforts for a general infrastructure  Propose a joint AAU-SARUA-IUCEA and NREN task force to refine and implement the action plan  Draft guidelines for procurement of such a backbone

10. ©Centro de Informática da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane Target groups and messages to be delivered  Policy Makers and regulators (National Governments  Africa needs a fibre infrastructure supporting broadband for all, just as any other continent, to keep up with the global development!  Delay in the enforcement of open policies is the main cause for the increasing digital divide  Require and support industry transform from low- volume/high-cost to high-volume/low-cost business models

11. ©Centro de Informática da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane Target groups and messages to be delivered  Academia (universities and research institutes)  Review your ICT policy vision, objectives, goals and action plans to take advantage of emerging fibre based NRENs and a regional fibre backbone  Contribute to the development of guidelines for joint procurements taking advantage of earlier experiences and large scale integration  Telecom industry  Recognise academia as a neutral non-commercial partner serving all sectors of society that can help spearhead in development phases and provide pilot customers

12. ©Centro de Informática da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane Target groups and messages to be delivered  AAU/SARUA/NEPAD and Donors  Recognize, support and use African academia as an advanced, strong and organized ICT user community that can  Serve society as a user agent articulating user needs and requirements  Develop and provide human resources  Develop new applications and services

13. ©Centro de Informática da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane Report Contents 1.Introduction 2.The Tanzania Benchmark Policies and regulatory framework Value chains and business models 3.Reality check of Regulatory and Business models tested in practice Maputo-Johannesburg-Mbabane connection 4.How to connect central and east SSA Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia,Tanzania, Rwanda 5.How to connect SSA to the world. SAT3-WASC, EASSy, …. 6.Conclusions 7.References.

14. ©Centro de Informática da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane 3 Minute Video Storyboard  Illustrate ICT as the foundation of the Network Society  Emphasize the role of academia in inventing and spreading the Internet all over the world  Illustrate public good uses of the Internet in healthcare, education, supporting entrepreneurship and local adminsitration in rural Africa  Brief descriptions of Internet2, Géant, Edumednet, TEIN2, ALICE, etc  Point out that only SSA is missing an academic backbone  Describe briefly the three parts of the Sarua-fibre project  Deliver the messages agreed on to the target groups