Broadband

Aug12017 by Lynn WandiaNo Comments

Africa Mobile subscription set to hit the Half a Billion Mark by 2020

Sub-Saharan Africa currently has 420 million unique mobile subscribers with a 43% penetration rate. By 2020, this number is expected to hit over half a billion, making Africa the fastest growing market. This is according to a new GSMA study dubbed ‘The Mobile Economy: Africa 2016’ that was published recently at the GSMA Mobile 360 – Africa event held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The report also highlights the increasing contribution of Africa’s mobile industry to the regional economy, including employment and public funding, and mobile’s role a platform for digital and financial inclusion. “More than half a billion people across Africa are now subscribed to a network, providing them not just connectivity but a gateway to a range of other essential services in areas such as digital

Oct282016 by Alex ReeceNo Comments

Eutelsat sign multi-year capacity agreement for African Broadband Programme

Broadband, Internet

Eutelsat Communications (Paris:ETL) and Yahsat, the Abu Dhabi-based international satellite operator, have signed a multi-year capacity agreement giving Broadband for Africa, Eutelsat’s African broadband venture, access to high-performance commercial Ka-band capacity for broadband services across Sub-Saharan Africa. According to the terms of the agreement Broadband for Africa will use capacity on up to 16 Ka-band spotbeams on the Yahsat 1B satellite in order to roll out broadband services during the first half of 2017. Further expansion will be supported later in the year using capacity on 18 spotbeams on Yahsat’s Al Yah 3 satellite, scheduled for launch in early 2017. Both Yahsat 1B and Al Yah 3 are equipped with high power spotbeams with Sub-Saharan African coverage, ideal for communi

Oct182016 by Alex ReeceNo Comments

South African Government ICT white paper under fire

Broadband, Governance, Internet

South Africa's Government’s radical plan to shake up the way radio frequency spectrum is allocated has been met with universal derision by ICT analysts and experts. Telecommunications & postal service minister Siyabonga Cwele this week took the wraps off the long-awaited national integrated ICT policy white paper, which proposes sweeping changes to the way the sector is governed and regulated. Although some aspects of the policy have been welcomed – such as a chapter that will make it quicker for operators to deploy infrastructure by removing red tape – government’s plan for a wireless wholesale open-access network, to which all new spectrum will be allocated, has drawn intense fire. Not only does government not want to license any more “exclusive-use” spectrum to the mobile o

Oct102016 by editorNo Comments

Liquid Telecom Kenya warns of looming IPv4 Shortage in Africa

Broadband, Internet

Internet service provider Liquid Telecom Kenya has warned that Africa is set to run out of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses as early as next year, potentially slowing down digital growth in the continent. The IP addresses are the website’s equivalent of telephone numbers. They are used behind the scenes anytime data moves online, for example, when a laptop requests a Web page or a smartphone posts an Instagram photo. Africa is currently on the older IPv4 addresses, while the world is migrating to the new Internet Protocol, the IPv6. Africa is the last continent with available IPv4 addresses, according to Liquid Telecom, but it is now also running short. “We are almost eating into the last block of 16 million addresses of the IPv4 space that the regional Internet regist

Oct42016 by Lynn WandiaNo Comments

#DataMustFall: Zimbabwe’s mobile data prices third highest in Africa

Broadband, Internet, Mobile

As the #DataMustFall campaign gains traction in South Africa, data costs in neighbouring Zimbabwe are unlikely to drop - despite the country having the third most expensive mobile data in Africa. According to a Research ICT Africa report on the state of prepared market - cost of communication, Zimbabwe's cheapest monthly 1GB data package is set at US$30. The two most expensive monthly bundles in Africa were from South Sudan (US$90.83) and Swaziland (US$30.33) said Chenai Chair Researcher/Communications & Evaluations Officer for Research ICT Africa. The cheapest 1GB of data is available in Tanzania (US$0.89), Egypt (US$2.82) and Mozambique (US$2.87). At US$5.27 South Africa was placed in 16th position out of the 47 countries recorded. The report made quarterly comparisons on...