Across Africa, developers and programmers are coming up with new technologies from mobile banking to mapping software and medical tablets to cloud storage. Now the continent is increasingly relying on its own homegrown innovations.

But this technology revolution is not without its challenges. So what are the obstacles facing the industry, and will this new breed of innovators be able to overcome them?

In this episode of The Stream, we speak to Eric Osiakwan, former director of the African Internet Service Providers Association, and Juliana Rotich (@afromusing), co-founder and executive director of Ushahidi.

Source: The Stream on Aljazeera

The price at which people access the Internet now have also dropped considerably on the back of a reduction in the wholesale prices of international bandwidths while at the same time capacity has improved by about 65 times.

About 18 months ago Internet Service Providers (ISPs) bought e1 bandwidth for US$4,500 but now buy the same bandwidth capacity at less than US$1,000, which Internet providers expect to further fall as competition from other carriers such the West Africa Cable System (WACS) is expected to be operational and available for use this year.

The situation has excited Internet providers who have expressed satisfaction at the impact the entry of additional international bandwidth providers have had on the cost of Internet access in the country.

Overseers of two of the country’s biggest Internet service providers, Busy Internet and IS Internet Solutions Ghana, explained in separate interviews to the B&FT on Friday that new entrants Main One Cable and Glo have helped to boost a surge in the capacity requirements and usage of clients due to bandwidth availability and reduced latencies, including an uptake in cloud computing.

“Due to the emergence of these multiple undersea cable systems, we now have the ability to provide multiple redundancies on international links which hitherto was non- existent due to the nation’s reliance on just the SAT-3 capacity,” said Yvette Adounvo Atekpe, Regional Managing Director of IS Internet Solutions Ghana Limited.

“The new bandwidths that have come into the country have created additional capacity and it has given options and redundancy to end-users and service providers,” added Praveen Sadalage, CEO of Busy Internet Ghana.

Some Internet users argue that the drop in the wholesale price at which the ISPs buy international bandwidth has not reflected in the retail price for end-users.

According to the ISPs, though the retail price of Internet access has not gone down in comparison to the percentage decline in wholesale price, Internet users are now having improved experience from Internet usage and more value for their money.

“The reduction in wholesale pricing has affected the retail pricing of Internet services to a considerable extent. Though prices have reduced, it is not as low as previously touted or expected due to the lack of adequate or extensive last-mile infrastructure in-country to link the capacity to the client site.

“Service providers therefore have to incur additional excessive costs to provision last-mile infrastructure via fibre or wireless to enable clients’ access,” explained Mrs. Atekpe.

Mr. Sadalage added: “Yes, prices have dropped and also users are getting increased capacity in the same price category. The important point to note is that while capacity prices have dropped, other costs have gone up significantly. This has a bearing on the final price to customers.

“Internet-user numbers have increased significantly in the last year and are expected to be increasing in the coming years as more and more business and services go online. A lot needs to be done to increase the user numbers further to reach a critical mass for real price drops to be felt at the end user level.

“The biggest hurdle for Internet penetration is end-user devices like PCs and laptops, which even today cost more than GH¢500 in Ghana. If this can be brought down to say GH¢200-250, the demand for connectivity will increase and the end-user connectivity price can come down significantly.”

The National Communications Authority licenced Nigerian-based Main One Cable and Glo as well as West-Africa Cable Systems to bring competition to the international bandwidth market, which has over the years been monopolised by Vodafone’s SAT3.

For ISPs, the coming of the other fibre-optic cable operators is very timely as it falls within the realm of the Ghana Broadband Strategy document which seeks to reduce broadband cost by 80 percent and also help the government to realise its dream of making Internet access available to about 50 percent of the estimated 23 million Ghanaian population over the next five years.

The drop in wholesale prices reflects projections by industry analysts that the price in international bandwidth and broadband cost will keep dropping to a level that will be cheap enough for all Ghanaians to access the Internet at high-speed.

Eric Osiakwan, the Coordinator of Ghana Connect — an advocacy group dedicated to the promotion of affordable broadband Internet access in the country — told the B&FT that competition among the international bandwidth providers will bring the cost of Internet access down to an internationally acceptable level.

“They have generated competition at the beach which has dropped prices significantly to about US$1,000 a month.

“We expect this price to fall further to about US$200 by the end of the year like in East Africa,” he said.

Mr. Osiakwan re-echoed the position of the ISPs that customers are getting more capacity for the same prices in some cases, even though the terrestrial fibre to reach the customer is limited, adding: “Hopefully that should also change this year, and so those prices will also go down.”

By Evans Boah-Mensah

Source: B&FT

Philip Sowah - Managing Director of Airtel Ghana

The fastest growing network with the most innovative products, Airtel Ghana, has officially launched the upgrade of its 3.5G service to 3.75G.

The upgraded service is to offer world class third generation experience to consumers.

In a speech, the Managing Director of Airtel Ghana, Mr Phillip Sowah, said the newly launched 3.75G technology is a platform that will enable communities to expand their social and commercial horizons.

This he said,was part of the company’s plans to develop new and exciting data bundles to address the data needs of its consumers.

He said the first telecommunication company to launch the 3G service in Ghana, Airtel, and currently operating in all ten regions in the country, now has the 3G capability which allows users to make video calls, watch live TV, send and receive emails and download music from internet enabled devices.

Mr Sowah noted that the latest 3.75G technology championed by the company is the latest global HSPA+ technology with 21mbps, also being rolled out in Europe and the USA.

The head of Corporate Communications and External Affairs of Airtel Ghana, Donald Gwira, said the 3.75G platform will enable subscribers to combine the vast potential of the internet with the convenience of other devices including cellular phones.

“For the small and medium business, it will enable the entrepreneur to embrace a highly mobile way of working with high speed access to email and internet, and it will allow large companies to increase productivity through vastly enhanced mobile internet speeds and access to record and allow for communication via video calls on handsets,” he noted, explaining that the availability of the 3.75G has deepened Airtel’s coverage and speed level.

Source : Myjoyonline

According to Glo, the rescheduling has arisen due to logistics constraints.

GLOBACOM had earlier indicated plans to finally launch its operations in Ghana as the sixth mobile phone service provider on November 17, 2011.

This was to follow the commercial launch of its GLO-1 submarine cable officially last August.

However, officials of Glo met with journalists this morning to announce that its launch has been rescheduled.

Checks with developments in the telecom industry also say that Glo’s new move could be a way of outwitting its competitors but Mr. Obesitan, the Events and Promotions director of Glo, downplayed such assertions.

He said “We are confident that with the infrastructure we have deployed and the amount of work we have put in to this, we will meet the expectation of Ghanaians.

“They [Ghanaians] have been waiting and we are doing a great job; it’s not a joke to build one thousand six hundred towers because we don’t intend to be a regional network but a national telecom operator from day one. ”

He added that technically, the company was ready to take off by way of receiving calls on the network, thus could cater for about ten million subscribers.

Meanwhile responding to concerns that the seemingly overstretched heightened expectation of Glo’s launch could work against the company, Mr. Obesitan said the delay was not deliberate and assured that the company was eager to begin operations.

Glo has, on another hand, commissioned an ultra-modern Call-centre at Spintex in Accra.

The fully built-in Call-centre has the capacity to handle close to 10 million customers and is also expandable. The facility operates in 4 languages; English, Twi, Ga and Hausa.

There are already test runs from various regions of the country through the call-centre to ascertain the operators’ readiness for the market.

GLOBACOM was granted the country’s sixth mobile license in June 2008 and has since been working tirelessly to launch its operations.

Source: Citifmonline

He was speaking at a ceremony to mark the 10millionth customer of mobile telecoms market leader, MTN Ghana.

He said “government will no longer tolerate the slightest disruption of telecom service because of its implication for life and businesses and therefore the regulator will sanction all other activities that will lead to the disruption of telecom services to the Ghanaian consumer and it is in this context that I say that we will no longer tolerate any excuses.”

The minister’s statement comes in the wake of recent heavy fines on all five GSM operators in Ghana for sloppy services.

The National Communication Authority (NCA) slapped a total fine of GHC1.2 million on the operators for failing on key performance indicators, but the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications questioned the fine because the NCA ignored on-going negotiations between it and the operators and announced the fines.

The GCT also raised questions about the basis for the allegation of poor services, pointing to fibre cuts, cable and fuel theft, and stumbling blocks in the way of operators’ efforts to get permit and space to erect masts and provide quality service among other things as some of the reasons the NCA should have considered.

But the NCA insisted the operators should have communicated those challenges to the subscribers and also taken the necessary steps to deal with those responsible for the fibre cuts, as well as cable and fuel theft.

Mr. Iddrisu noted that the government’s new policy position on telecom was that telecom was no more a pleasurable and a luxury but a major essential service that had serious implications for businesses and life in general.

“Can you imagine if you are an armed robbery victim and you needed immediate services of law enforcement…your most reliable tool will be telecom services – Can you imagine if you were a bank and a customer was in urgent need of money which is not available at your branch…your best bet is telecom services.

“Can you imagine if a pregnant woman is in need of emergency care for purposes of delivery and even need an ambulance service…your most reliable and potent tool is telecom services. Can you imagine if there was a fire outbreak or floods and you needed to draw the attention of law enforcement or media…your most reliable tool is telecoms service,” the minister said.

He therefore pointed out that for the reasons above it would be too dear for government to allow telecom operators to get away with the slightest hint of sloppy services.

Mr. Iddrisu also noted that the telecom operators had raised issues with high taxes and challenges with business operating permits and fibre cuts, but he said nothing much could be done about taxes because government fed on taxes to fulfill its obligations to the people of Ghana.

He however assured the telecom operators that the ministry will set up an inter-sectoral committee to look into the issues of permits with the view to addressing the issue of road constructors who cut telecom cables and fibres.

On the issue of multiple taxes and levies by the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), the minister told Adom News a consultant has been appointed to look into it, promising to follow it up to ensure that the consultant started work.

But Adom News is reliably informed that the consultant, in the person of Professor Kwamena Ahwoi, was supposedly appointed months ago, but has not been given a formal letter of appointment and no terms of reference.

Mr. Iddrisu also promised that from 2012 government will start giving tax incentives to telecom operators who extend voice and data services to the remotest and deprived communities of the country.

He also assured them that government will announce the abolishment of the stabilization levy in the 2012 Budget to ease the tax burden on the telecom operators and other businesses in country.

Source: My joyonline