CALL FOR A COMPREHENSIVE NATIONAL BROADBAND STRATEGY FOR GHANA
All Ghanaians should have affordable broadband access to the Internet.
“Broadband would be more to an economy in the 21st century what electricity was in the 19th century” – Eric M.K Osiakwan, Director, Internet Research.
The Ghana National Broadband Forum believe that broadband access is a national priority and we therefore invite everyone with this believe to express their support for the development and implementation of a comprehensive National Broadband Strategy for Ghana.
A draft framework has been developed with input from multiple stakeholders at a workshop held on August 29-30thth in Dodowa. We believe that this framework can serve as a basis for building consensus on a comprehensive national broadband strategy.
Click here to voice your support for the framework!
Cost of Internet goes down …capacity goes up 65 times
The entry of two international bandwidth providers has pushed the cost of Internet access in the country significantly downwards, which has resulted in enhanced internet-user experience, B&FT has gathered.
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
Broadband prices drop 50%
Broadband service prices have dropped significantly by 50% as compared to charges in the last two years, according to new figures released by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
According to the ITU, consumers and businesses globally are paying on average 18% less for entry-level information and communication technology (ICT) services.
“Consumers and businesses globally are paying on average 18% less for entry-level information and communication technology (ICT) services than they were two years ago – and more than 50% less for high-speed Internet connections”, the ITU has said.
According to the organisation, “data from its 2010 ICT Price Basket also shows that relative prices for mobile cellular services decreased by almost 22% from 2008 to 2010, while fixed telephony costs declined by an average of 7%.”
Over the same period, the number of mobile cellular subscriptions worldwide grew from 4.0 to 5.3 billion, it said.
Fixed broadband prices also fell steeply, it indicated.
“The overall fall in prices for fixed broadband services is mainly due to price decreases in developing countries, where the fixed broadband sub-basket dropped by 52%, compared to 35% in developed countries”, said the Union.
However, the ITU also said it should be noted that steep price drops often reflect the extremely high cost of broadband in developing countries adding “even at half the price, the service is often still far beyond the pockets of average citizens.”
All the economies at the top of the ICT Price Basket (indicating most affordable ICT services) have high Gross National Income (GNI) per capita, including many small economies, such as Monaco, Macao (China), Liechtenstein, Hong Kong (China) and Singapore, it said.
The cost of ICT services averages 17% of GNI per capita in developing countries, it added.
In Africa, prices also fell.
“The regional price trends highlight that while ICT prices are falling in all regions of the world, the greatest price drops occurred in Africa, where fixed broadband prices fell by over 55% and mobile cellular prices by 25%.”
The ITU said while the drop is mainly due to price decreases in fixed broadband services, in several countries, including Benin, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, mobile tariffs also decreased considerably.
Despite this encouraging trend, the ITU states that Africa continues to stand out for its relatively high prices… “Fixed broadband internet access in particular remains prohibitively high, and, across the region as a whole, still represented almost three times the monthly average per capita income.”
Only one out of ten people in Africa is using the internet, the ITU stated.
“With ICTs now a primary driver of social and economic development, these results are highly encouraging,” said ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré.
He added, “Our next challenge is to find strategies to replicate the ‘mobile miracle’ for broadband, which is fast becoming basic infrastructure. Countries without affordable broadband access risk falling quickly behind.”
Source: GBN
