The delivery and uptake of broadband services by African businesses and consumers in Africa is gaining momentum, according to research and analysis company BMI-TechKnowledge’s (BMI-T) research report Africa’s Emerging Wireless Access and Broadband Markets.

Global management consulting company Accenture director for comms and high tech Mark Joseph notes that broadband is a necessity for Africa. “The rest of world is starting to work more as a global economy and Africa keeps falling further and further behind. If we want to increase the wealth of Africa we have to be part of the global economy,” says Joseph.

BMI-T report’s co-author Maxwell Chanakira notes, “Access to international capacity has been an inhibiting factor in the overall develop- ment of broadband in Africa. The terrestrial and submarine cables under construction across Africa will, however, boost growing broadband access demands substantially.

” Fixed line operator Neotel’s chief technology officer Dr Angus Hay adds: “Broadband bandwidth per subscriber is rising rapidly globally. This is being driven by content and applications.”

Technology research organisation World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck reports that the number of Internet users in South Africa grew by 12,5% last year and is expected to continue to grow at a similar rate for the next five years, taking the internet user population to 9-million.

BMI-T’s report states that northern African countries Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia as well as South Africa continue to lead the way in the adoption of asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) technology on the continent with the number of subscribers in these regions expected to exceed 4,4-million customers in 2011.

West Africa is increasing its uptake of ADSL with Nigeria and Senegal as leading countries. Central Africa appears to be the region that is lagging behind the rest of the continent in upgrading to ADSL connections.

Hay adds that the growth rate of broadband access in South Africa and Africa remains expo- nential and Internet use is expected to follow a similar trend as that globally supported by competitive availability of bandwidth into the market.

Industry expectations are that the arrival of a new undersea telecommunications cable at the end of June will increase South Africa’s maximum international bandwidth fivefold. International bandwidth prices will be reduced significantly thereby allowing service providers to either reduce their retail prices or offer significantly more bandwidth at the existing prices.

Goldstuck agrees that the undersea cables will gradually bring down the cost and increase the capacity available to consumers and business. He adds, however, that this will not happen overnight.

Hay says: “National and international bulk connectivity prices have dropped since Neotel’s entry into the market, specifically in wholesale international connectivity on submarine optical fibre cable systems, where prices have declined 60% to 80% over the past few years, almost certainly as a direct result of competition.

”He further notes that service providers do not always pass on wholesale price reductions to consumers, but competition is starting to make a difference to some retail prices, such as high-speed Internet access, though others such as mobile voice prices remain high.

BMI-T predicts that by 2011, the dial-up market in Africa will decline to 1,9-million subscribers as the number of ADSL connections rises to the region of 5,4-million, while total wireless (both cellular and fixed wireless) connections rise to 5,2-million. Goldstuck adds: “The South African dial-up market is also plummeting and by 2013 will have almost disappeared.

The BMI-T report anticipates that the total five-year incrementalcumulative capex for broadband infrastructure is expected to reach $1,2-billion by 2011. This excludes underlying transmission network costs and other shared facilities. Chanakira says African states that already have extensive copper networks are expected to develop this investment.

Hay adds, however, that while we are seeing a rapid growth in demand for broadband Internet access, growth will be constrained by the level of computer use and computer literacy. While Joseph concurs that fixed broadband growth will be slow he adds that for Africa, mobile broadband is going to be the relevant technology to make access more available.

Joseph points out that in three years time more than 100 times the capacity that is in exis- tence today will be available, but he questions whether that will be enough.

“If we look at the direction that content is taking in the rest of the world, Africa needs to have plans on how to continue to grow its bandwidth access. The rest of the world is changing and as a continent we’ve got to catch up,” concludes Joseph.

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