Africa on ‘cusp of broadband explosion’ despite trailing rest of the world

The fourth Broadband Africa Forum – hosted by Informa Tech and supported by Huawei – took place at the Africa Tech Festival in Cape Town this week.

It comprised of panels, presentations and lively discussions centred around bringing high-performance broadband internet to every African home.

Broadband Africa Forum 2022

The forum was facilitated by Huawei’s Euanne Oberholzer and Marius Engelbrecht, and speakers included:

• Omdia Chief Analyst Matt Reed
• Huawei President for Network Marketing Lu Libo
• Tunisia Telecom CEO Norbert Prihoda
• HOD Of Home Business Department in Keyna Franklin Kano Ocharo
• Director of AU Management Information System, Anderson Amlamba
• and many more

Representatives from the African Union (AU), Africa Telecom Union (ATU) and consultants held in-depth discussions at AfricaCom on how to accelerate broadband adoption, improve broadband quality and promote the broadband service economy.

The consensus of the Broadband Africa Forum was that the continent is on the cusp of a broadband explosion, but several challenges must be addressed first.

Why Africa needs broadband connectivity

John Omo, the General Secretary of the ATU, outlined their commitment to supporting broadband universalisation in all African countries.

The target was to reach 35% broadband penetration in Africa by the year 2035 since broad is “critical for economic development and social stability”.

He said Africa is below the global average in terms of broadband connectivity and it is limiting the continent’s economic development and global trade opportunities.

Important point from @atu_uat SG John Omo at #AfricaTechFestival and the #BroadbandAfricaForum:

"Borders are imaginary".

Trans-boundary efforts must improve in Africa.

State sovereignty delays #broadband development and deployment on the continent.@TheCitizen_News https://t.co/aHzqXeI26f

— Cheryl Kahla 🇿🇦🇵🇸🍉 (@cherylkahla) November 7, 2022

He said it is vital to place the development of broadband at the core of all discussions pertaining to Africa’s digital economy, citing borders as one of the hindrances.

ALSO READ: From IPv4 to IPv6: Africa at risk of ‘being cut off from the world’

How to boost broadband connectivity in Africa

Omo advised countries to create dedicated government-level teams to strategise broadband deployment and ensure the private sector plays a role in its implementation.

In addition, the development of skills must be prioritised to ensure youths in Africa don’t fall by the wayside.

Sadly, the average fixed broadband household penetration rate in Africa was 11.5% as of December 2021, which is the lowest rate among major world regions.

Some countries even give a tax redux.

John Omo said the development of skills must also be prioritised to ensure youth have access and opportunities from an early age, which in turn boosts economy. @TheCitizen_News #AfricaTechFestival #BroadbandAfricaForum

— Cheryl Kahla 🇿🇦🇵🇸🍉 (@cherylkahla) November 7, 2022

According to Omdia’s chief analyst, Matt Reed, the global average was 59%, with North America boasting the highest penetration rate of 96.5%, followed by Western Europe with 92.4%.

If serious action isn’t taken, Reed said “Africa will remain well below the global average […] through to at least 2027”.

Lack of network availability in Africa

Anderson Amlamba, director of the AU’s Management Information System, said the onus falls on governments in Africa to accelerate connectivity on the continent.

When it comes to addressing those challenges, Amlamba stressed the need for cooperation.

She said governments must work with operators “to ensure they’re enhancing and promoting operations, rather than hindering”.

“One of the most obvious challenges in rolling out fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) is network availability. The networks simply aren’t there,” Amlamba said.

Connecting 700 million people

Sunil Piyarlall, a Network Architecture and Modelling executive at Openserve, Telkom’s fibre network, said more than 700 million people across Africa don’t have access to the internet.

“We need to get fibre to a point where it can be combined with other technologies, such as FWA [fixed wireless access], to get unconnected people connected.”

That said, the potential for success is already visible throughout the continent but it’s not going to be an easy journey.

ALSO READ: Africa is transforming its digital economy but more is needed

Africa, a success story in the making

Franklin Ocharo, Head of Fixed Data at Safaricom in Kenya, said their fixed-data customer base has grown five times in the past four years.

“[That is] twice as fast as the industry average,” Ocharo said. The growth has been built on three key pillars:

• network
• proposition
• commercialisation

The panel concluded that Africa is on the cusp of a broadband explosion, but every effort must be made to ensure that it benefits as broad a swathe of the population as possible.

For that to happen, however, private and public sector players operating in the space will need to focus on bringing together full-optical, fixed and wireless broadband synergy; as well as fixed–mobile convergence product introduction and active broadband industry policies.