Specific elements of network and telecommunications infrastructure make the infrastructure prohibitively expensive for individual companies, but operating infrastructure on open access models enables these networks to be constructed using funding from many companies and organisations in a country.

The capabilities of modern networks, specifically Internet protocol-based and virtualisation capabilities, mean that service providers can still differentiate themselves in terms of customer experience and services, despite sharing the infrastructure, says communications infrastructure services company NewTelco South Africa business development manager Eckart Zollner.

“Deploying infrastructure using an operational expense (opex) model means that it is not an expensive burden, as the costs are shared by the service providers. Since the model is focused on revenue and income, linked to a pay-per-port model, small to large service providers can share the infrastructure within their financial budgets.”

The most significant benefit of such an opex model is providing connectivity for all people in Africa, including the poorest, owing to the efficiency of open access infrastructure compared with monopolised and duplicated private networks, explains Zollner.

“We need new thinking, a new paradigm to connect all the people of Africa at a price they can afford. The old model of privately owned infrastructure, which required large capital expenditure to build and operational expenditure to maintain, cannot provide the environment required for the new age of digital services and the digital economy.”

More service providers, including small and niche providers, must be able to provide services over networks at a price point suitable to encourage use. This improved access will drive the growth of digital services and transactions, as well as provide the backbone for better civil and financial services on the continent.

Zollner notes that existing network operators can make their networks accessible to third-party traffic by offering wholesale rates to service providers who can, in turn, provide services to customers.

Network operators have significant assets to amortise, but the growth of demand is uneven and unpredictable; however, these operators can supply capacity to service providers to augment their existing revenue, with the pay-per-use model encouraging uptake from smaller or start-up companies and existing larger service providers.

Sharing network elements such as the access layer and the backhaul links enable the roll-out of networks to be scaled according to broad demand and then upgraded as demand increases, owing to the continuous revenue from service providers and the reduced need for large sums of capital expenditure.

NewTelco operates as an open access infrastructure network company, where customers buy ports between virtualised points of presence. This has led to the company gaining small and large service providers as customers, subsequently enabling them to provide their clients with a competitive price for their services, owing to the low costs of such networks.

“Our goal is simple: to connect all the people on the African continent at a price that they can afford, which should be less than 10% of $2 a day. This seems to be a difficult task, but open access infrastructure can provide the efficiency necessary to reach this goal, which will boost access to information and the economies of the African continent,” he concludes.