National Broadband Network (NBN) for South Africa?

[Scooby_Doo]

Would it not be better to provide tax breaks and subsidies to private operators who choose to roll out the network as long as the company agrees that the network covers x and is open to all at cost + y%.

Example:

For every meter of fibre a an operator puts down in a metro, government will pay for a further 2 meters. For every base station an operator puts down in a rural or under developed area, government will pay for a further 2 stations.

This way the private sector manages and maintains the network, which "should" be better.

[AvatarS]

i have no intention whatsoever to provide or share my input to a bunch of fat lazy a$$ed people who won't be interested in what i, or other people have to say anyway.

[wily me]

funded by the tax paying citizens of this country cerebus. you hit the nail on the head. all this project is is to provide free internet usage to the rural areas as you have so stated.

i have no intention whatsoever to provide or share my input to a bunch of fat lazy a$$ed people who won't be interested in what i, or other people have to say anyway.

Maybe they want to prevent a E-Toll saga where one of the complaints were there was no proper public participation?

[Celine]

Maybe they want to prevent a E-Toll saga where one of the complaints were there was no proper public participation?

wily - this broadband issue could not be anything close to the e-toll saga quite honestly. IMHO this is a case of free riding on the backs of people instead of tendering the job out to proper businesses. what this plan is is to save them money and give the members an i-pad for their efforts. how much input have you already seen here regarding this? lots.

[dominic]

[thread note: will take further posts to 23h59 on Sunday 27 May]

[HavocXphere]

[thread note: will take further posts to 23h59 on Sunday 25 May]

25th May isn't a Sunday.

[Paul Hjul]

The current situation
Currently both Sentech and Broadband Infraco are performing operations which fall within the domain of a national broadband network. While it has been suggested that these two state entities be merged numerous reasons exist why such an exercise might ultimately be more of a poison than a cure. Sentech has commenced operations providing broadband connectivity to various institutions while Broadband Infraco operates an open access fibre backbone which is made available exclusively to other service providers on a wholesale basis. These two features represent major components of a national broadband network (an NBN) as conceptualized in many other countries and therefore any discussion about an NBN needs to consider where Sentech and Broadband Infraco features. Further Telkom is essentially in possession of an NBN as a result of the long term national monopoly held by Telkom and the lack of localized development which occurred in many other jurisdictions and Telkom is heavily investing in its national network.
There is also currently being put together a national research network (SANREN) linking academic (universities) and research institutions on a national basis. This network is essentially being assembled by a skeleton staff and makes use of infrastructure leased from operators – particularly Telkom. The major lesson from SANREN is that a high speed network can be secured without investing billions in building additional physical networks.
The mobile operators are also investing in their national networks and collaboration on backbone network infrastructure has emerged – particularly the Dark Fibre Alliance.
Ultimately it seems that if government plans to physically build an NBN it should simply throw more money to Broadband Infraco who are ultimately building such a network. If government however is wishing to see the emergence of a broadband product available to all (or close thereto) South African’s the focus needs to move away from the laying of building network infrastructure and should rather be placed on building networks using existing infrastructure and facilities.

Are the developments not merely re-enforcing the digital divide
The reality is that network operators are going to focus their investments where they can secure a return on the investment and make a profit. Government has attempted numerous strategies to influence the investment to favour rural network investment with the Underserviced Area Licence paradigm being a particular failure. The premise of underserviced areas is in my opinion the fatal flaw. As communication service providers build their services in a manner which enables them to secure a return on investment and the generation of a profit any special dispensation for existing operators or to introduce new enterprise operators is bound to confuse business logic with public finance – which is a hostile cocktail.
Instead of trying to determine what is an underserviced area and seeking to direct network operators to specifically cater for those areas the state should seek to ensure that access to a reasonable people supporting broadband product is made available throughout the country. Additionally the creation of economic activity generating nodes in economically depressed (but not necessarily rural) areas is fully in line with transforming South African society.
I therefore propose that a Dedicated National Broadband Network Operator SOE (the NBN Operator) be established on a shoe string budget as a strategic state owned enterprise which through the leasing and acquisition of facilities from players – and as a last recourse the construction of its own provisions – systematically assembles a broadband internet network designed to provide 1Mbs internet access to each household and resells data at a price of R50 per gigabyte – prepaid and with no expiration. (This essentially means that a consumer for R150 has access to 3GB data which is exceptionally well priced but the service becomes less favourable for usage in excess of 15GB where the costing is R750). In constructing the network the NBN Operator will establish network nodes throughout the country which interface between the backbone and the last mile of the NBN network. The capacity planned for each node is proposed to be directly tied to the number of households and it is proposed that 1Mbs of backbone capacity be allocated for each household (a contention ratio of 1/5). Therefore a village or town of 5000 households would be serviced by a 1Gbs network node. This produces a fairly large surplus of capacity at the node which becomes a location where ICT intensive firms could be formed. I propose that the surplus node capacity be resold to SMMEs collocating at the network node and making local employment undertakings. The NBN Operator in many towns can construct an office park for back end business ventures to start up, therefore generating rental income. The proposal for the shoestring budget is premised on the fact that facilities should be leased from other providers where possible and the NBN Operator has access to the proposed broadband financial service provider (which other operators have access to as well – conditional upon their co-operating with the NBN Operator).
Ultimately the network will operate alongside the communication service provider’s networks and provides affordable broadband services to end users in a household setting with surplus connectivity being used to foster a decentralized ICT sector and the concomitant job creation.
[With Grahamstown for example SANREN provides a 1Gb link for the academic institutions and the existent ADSL community is similarly well serviced and the network node should be established for Makana in iRhini, ultimately the business case for digital bridging is inevitable – it is possible in fact that the NBN Operator will construct a 10Gb link from Telkom’s termination point to the needed node in iRhini and that 1Gb will be leased from Telkom’s POP in Port Elizabeth]

Technologies proposed
For obvious reasons fibre would be the main technology leased (and where necessary constructed) for the backbone. WiMax seems particularly well suited as a standard last mile technology, unfortunately the SKA may result in WiMax not being permitted in parts of the Northern Cape. Additional technologies for the last mile should be fully explored.

This proposed service only caters to the poor
Firstly that isn’t a bad thing, secondly it simply isn’t true. If a network is constructed providing network connectivity at R50 per GB the mobile operators will be compelled to re-evaluate their pricing for fixed-wireless services and the pressure to improve more data intensive and costly products will be felt by all operators. Secondly the approach adopted is to use the NBN to provide end users with a cost effective broadband product by leveraging (and supporting) existing infrastructure. Ultimately the network effects of more users are felt by all users. While a certain degree of subsidization underlies the proposal (and government funding – albeit a hopefully shoestring budget) the basic premise of a user pay principle does underlie the proposal.

[Paul Hjul]

The proposed financial services provider
As said in this thread, I am opposed to the government giving money to specific operators or projects to achieve specific tasks for numerous reasons and believe that a loan system is better.
Ultimately it is anticipated that Broadband Infraco will perform a great deal of the building of the physical network infrastructure and will be fairly dependant on loans from the industry development fund. However if Telkom plays ball (as it is with SANREN) it could emerge as a fairly significant provider of backhaul – and if hell freezes over and it actually joins the LLU revolution, Telkom could find a lot of unutilized copper lines being given usage through leasing the lines to the NBN Operator who in turn hook households on the prepaid tariff of R50 per GB for data.
Sentech could similarly emerge as a major provider of capacity in deploying WiMax installations at the nodes for last mile provisioning and cellular operators can if they wish actually play ball. What is ultimately envisaged though is that Class ECN licence holders will play a significant role in providing last mile access, and will use the industry fund.
However it is proposed that co-operation with the NBN Operator is a pre-condition to access to funding through the industry development fund.
Further strategic partnerships between the fund and retailers (with PEP being specifically considered) will be required to ensure that communities are able to acquire user equipment and purchase data bundles. A degree of device subsidization is proposed and what is essentially hoped for is a connection device (such as a dongle) retailing at less than R500 which includes 1Gb of data.

A final caveat
The proposal operates on the basis of connecting households at a fixed point on a technology selected by the NBN Operator to the household according to the local conditions – this could be WiMax, a wired service, 3G or coaxial cable. Mobility is specifically not considered and the network is intended as consumer grade for quality.
Whilst the proposal assumes that the ECA will be applied and enforced on market players the exact role of the NBN Operator has not been fully considered and a blanket exemption for the NBN Operator is probably the simplest approach – requiring a statutory amendment and inevitable constitutional challenge by one of the large operators.

Yes I really do want an iPad , or two because if my reading is correct there could be one for each of the threads ... An Ipad and a Samsung Galaxy 5" Tablet wouldn't be bad either. Its after 11pm humility has already gone to bed

[dominic]

your reading is erroneous but your spirit enthusiatic

[skimread]

Hi Paul.

Looking at seeing how thorough you were in your answers I am sure your text can be copied verbatim into a seperate submission document. Sentech must just be removed. They do own spectrum but that must be taken away as they can't manage a Mcdonalds wife network.

Things I really concerned about about the whole talk shop conference is that a mix of solutions will be thrown in for the NBN into a pot and stewed by ICASA to spit out a huge document. We saw how SA butchered COP17 with wanting to talk while the environment was the ultimate victim.

I believe this NBN announced plans is poltically motivated and as a direct result of the WC broadband plans. WC DA goc realizing how government is after having to take over ANC run municipalities have made achievable and step by step promises for high speed broadband. ANC knowing this wants to scupper these plans .

So my solution for NBN.

Split Telkom into wholesale and retail units. Allocate money to provinces and let them manage the rollout using Telkom infrastructure.

[Fudzy]

Hi Paul.

Looking at seeing how thorough you were in your answers I am sure your text can be copied verbatim into a seperate submission document. Sentech must just be removed. They do own spectrum but that must be taken away as they can't manage a Mcdonalds wife network.

Things I really concerned about about the whole talk shop conference is that a mix of solutions will be thrown in for the NBN into a pot and stewed by ICASA to spit out a huge document. We saw how SA butchered COP17 with wanting to talk while the environment was the ultimate victim.

I believe this NBN announced plans is poltically motivated and as a direct result of the WC broadband plans. WC DA goc realizing how government is after having to take over ANC run municipalities have made achievable and step by step promises for high speed broadband. ANC knowing this wants to scupper these plans .

So my solution for NBN.

Split Telkom into wholesale and retail units. Allocate money to provinces and let them manage the rollout using Telkom infrastructure.

Nice idea though I don't see Telkom releasing their assets without controlling it all from a ivory tower cum holding company.

[skimread]

After all theses years of failed this and failed that the elephant in the room is national government. Bringing national government created DoC and ICASA to a room to facilitate, make findings and plan a way forward is counter productive and can't be seen as impartial. Split Telkom, remove any stumbling blocks and let the governments who were elected by their local communities oversee the rollout.

[Paul Hjul]

My hope is to be able to use the posts as is with footnotes for referencing as submissions.

I was actually thinking about starting a thread to ask whether this talk shop is going to have any role in the development of the DoC plans - looking at the costings and the sponsors the corporate screw over appears inevitable.

My view on Sentech is the same is a my view on many harbouring loafes, namely that it is an evil but we should avoid throwing the baby out with the bathtub. I definitely feel that tons of their spectrum should be taken away and I am hugely of the view that any form of DTT is daft because sat renders it redundant and free up all the spectrum (and as I understand it the SKA special areas will need to have no DTT in any event). I can't see Sentech and Broadband Infraco currently being merged but both being subsumed for purpose largely into a broadband providing mission- - I have a big fear that gov wants to give Sentech money to build a failed NBN, particularly if we look at the whole DTT saga.

I am pretty sure that the NBN talk is politically motivated, particularly because of the extent to which a lot of NBN issues are the rational for Broadband Infraco. Currently though getting capacity between major settlements by fibre isn't the problem.

I'd like to see Telkom split but strongly suspect that various secret contract clauses prevent that from being considered and if it is forced Telkom retail would continue to trudge and Telkom Wholesale would flaunt the Facilities Leasing Regulations. One option would actually be for Telkom to view the NBN approach I've set out as an operation for them, but I think hell would sooner freeze over. What I cannot see the logic in though is Telkom holding SAIX - regardless of the misnomer in SAIX.

Giving money to the provinces would be great if the provinces in turn funded rollout through class ECNs but to be quite honest it seems the idea of small network builders at a municipal level needs to take off first. At this stage it seems way to many people are content to misuse the ISM frequency band for commercial exploitation and until a few VANS which slipped in are struck from licences the actual intention of the ECA licencing framework is going to be on the backburner.

[koeksGHT]

I suppose the more networks, the better..

[skimread]

I am still seriously pissed at how SA (&#(*&# up COP17.
The academic approach is the wrong one. It has failed all these years in telecoms going back to the SATRA days.

I see I posed my previous NBN post in the improve broadband thread.

The NBN idea is not an new idea so doesn't need to be discussed from scratch. Other countries are implementing it already. All we do is remove the impediment of Telkom by splitting it up and using its infrastructure to copy the most successful roll outs e.g. Malaysia's High Speed Broadband.