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Our
Mandate Is To Ensure The Survival Of ISPs
- Rudman |
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| Managing
Director/Chief Executive Officer of Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria,
Mohammed Rudman tells IFEANYI OSUEKE in the following interview
what the interconnection promoting firm is doing and what the future
holds for the Internet in Nigeria…
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What exactly
is the role of Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria?
Internet Exchange point of Nigeria came about during the World
Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in Tunisia in 2005 when
President Obasanjo was in power.
The Internet governance forum came up with the idea of how the
next 1billion people will be connected. It was therefore, realized
that the best way to go forward to connect the next 1billion
people is actually to have an exchange point in all the developing
countries. An Exchange Point is an infrastructure where more
than two service providers can interconnect |
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with each
other so that they can exchange traffic locally within that particular
region or area. It is just like intercom from one office to another
but, if you use a GSM to call that same office even though they
are close to each other, the traffic will go round before it comes
back.
And it is also possible that you might not get a good service even
though you are within the same environment. So creating an exchange
point is also creating a PBS for a country, which means that we
have our own infrastructure where all service providers can interconnect.
What are the benefits derivable by organizations that interconnect
to Internet exchange Point of Nigeria?
Immediately you become a member, you connect to the minimum speed
of 100Mbs; you can also connect at a gigabyte. That means you have
a very high capacity in interconnecting with service providers.
You know that most of the ISPs right now are only buying and selling
Internet while in reality ISPs should have value added services
apart from connecting to the Internet like web hosting, Voice over
IP, video conferencing, surveillance and so on. But they cannot
do these things because the terrain does not afford them the opportunity.
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If you want to run video
conferencing in Nigeria for example, it means that your video
conference has to be somewhere else in the world and anybody
trying to communicate with you will have the traffic, go round
the world just for it to come back. But with the advent of Internet
Exchange Point of Nigeria, every |
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service provider
can now offer these value added services to make more money.
Also, all traffics that emanate locally will go via the exchange point
locally at a cheaper rate, far less than what they could have paid
if that traffic is to go through their international link. The benefit
is not only to the ISPs but to all of us.
A lot of people do not have broadband at home; they cannot afford
it but with the Exchange Point which also encourages content, it means
that everybody can get a broadband because the content is locally
within us, and the cost will be cheaper for all Internet users.
There is also the advantage of security. If we go by Internet Exchange
Point of Nigeria, there will be security for all e-transactions, e-learning,
e-government, everything will |
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be secured. It is an
infrastructure for development and every other thing rides on
it. It means we can have programmers and more jobs in the ICT
sector because the industry will boom based on the Exchange
Point. What does it take to become a registered member?
Membership is limited to Internet Service |
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Providers and
content providers.
So if you are any of those mentioned you are allowed to come and peer
with members already connected to the exchange point and enjoy the
benefits inherent.
How is it funded?
Since the project was initiated by former the President NCC provided
the initial grant, the board member who are industry stakeholder also
played a role, so it is a kind of public private partnership between
government, service and content providers tailored towards the development
of Nigeria Exchange Point. It is not for profit making. What we are
doing is cost recovery. So NCC provided the seed money and we generate
money through connection fees from members who are connected, which
is used for re-current expenditure.|
What is the
level of patronage?
We are a bit happy at the level of patronage compared to the past.
The point is that most of the service providers do not want to be
pioneers. However, some ISPs have to ensure that we interconnect them
through the local traffic in Nigeria. Before now, most of them are
hesitant for security reasons because it was something new. They felt
that their competitors might hack into their network; others just
can't understand why they should peer with their competitor. |
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But the beauty is in
peering with your competitors because whether you like it or
not, traffic will reach your network and that of your competitor;
it can go from your own ISP to the next ISP in Nigeria or it
goes round the world just for it to reach the other party. It
doesn't |
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matter how it
goes, data will find its way to reach its destination. We have to
enlighten them on this. And now we have about 16 members- PTOs, major
service and content providers in Lagos.
We are trying to ensure that ISPs survive, that is why we encourage
them to peer and make use of the opportunity provided by Internet
Exchange Point of Nigeria. The reasons why ISPs are dying are obvious;
the cost of Internet connection is very expensive which has to be
transferred to the customers. There is power issue and all these make
it difficult for ISPs to survive.
But if the cost of Internet is connected to us, they can go into content
development such as web hosting. If an ISP is connected to the Exchange
Point, it can host radio or TV stations. You can do that through the
Exchange Point and you are going to charge those radio and TV stations
for doing that service for them, and so you make more money. We are
actually moving forward.
Are you satisfied with the
level of Internet penetration in Nigeria?
Africa has about 13 per cent of the global population and Nigeria
is the highest in Africa. Nigeria is about the 9th most populous nation
in the world and penetration of Internet in Africa was estimated to
be about 3.6 per cent, so the penetration is still low.
When it comes to voice communication, we have really improved but
the problem lies in data because if you go to some remote areas, you
can make phone calls but you cannot browse. However, the NCC is trying
to see how they can penetrate remote locations; they are doing these
through various programmes like the State Accelerated Broadband Initiative.
We also have Galaxy Backbone doing its best. Government needs to intervene
on SAT-3, so that it can be available from NITEL. And they should
find a way of giving incentives to Internet service providers so that
they can provide Internet at a cheaper rate. The government is trying
but they can do more.
What else do you think government can do to enhance the Internet Exchange
Point of Nigeria?
The Lagos Exchange Point has been done 100 per cent; people are connected
as you can see. What we want to do now is to move to other sites,
at least be in the six geo-political zones so that if somebody from
Maidugiri sends an email to a site that is located in Lagos, his traffic
will go directly from Maidugiri to Lagos instead of going round the
world.
That is why we are trying to partner with some carriers and even the
government to get funds. The lack of content in Nigeria is why we
don't have free emails and everybody is using yahoo. The reason why
no company in Nigeria is providing free email is because if they have
to provide such service, it will go round the world and they have
to pay the Internet pipe which is really expensive. Here, we have
bigger pipe at a very cheaper rate such that they can provide free
email. With the advent of Exchange Point, these things are possible.
Companies should start providing free email services so that people
will stop using some of these sites they don't know their identity.
We are therefore, encouraging those companies who are skeptical about
peering in the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria for whatever reason
to come forward and move the country forward because cooperation with
competitors is key to Internet service provision. Your traffic will
go round and reach you whether you peer with me or not; so it doesn't
make sense to stay away. |
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Harris
Stratex, Telsima Partner For Wimax Solution Deployment |
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Harris Stratex
Network, the leading supplier of advanced wireless transmission
solution has entered into partnership with Telsima Corporation,
a leading organization in the development and provision of Wimax
based Broadband Wireless Access and mobility solutions for media
rich application.
Speaking to journalists at a media briefing in Lagos, the President
and Chief Executive Officer of Harris Stratex, Herald Braun, explained
that the choice of Telsima as a strategic partner was not by accident
but borne out of careful analysis of the best and most experienced
Wimax product players in the world and Telsima was found to be the
best.
The CEO said that Harris Stratex is determined to offer the best
of breed end-to-end solution for wireless broadband for consumers
and companies hence the partnership with Telsima Corporation which
has a track world record of successes and has recorded achievements
in commercial rollouts of Wimax networks to Tier 1 carriers with
a clear understanding of their requirement. The partnership is set
to boost communication in Nigeria as the two companies understand
the needs of world class operators around the world especially in
Nigeria, where operators are faced with numerous challenges ranging
from lack of power, security issues among others.
The CEO said the Nigerian market will find Harris Stratex solutions
very useful because it addresses the very challenges faced by industry
players adding that Harris Stratex has a wide range of services
in its portfolio which include IP Mobile Backhaul, Mobile Security
Surveillance, Power Management and Network Services among others.
Explaining further, he said Harris Stratex will manage the security
of cell site preventing the rampant theft that has almost crippled
network operators and other related service providers, saying that
the company will reduce the cost of power generation through intelligent
power management.
He added that the company is equipped to carry out services like
consulting, system design, commission install and built cell site,
life circular support and management of the network.
The CEO who is also a university lecturer said he is determined
to contribute to human empowerment by engaging the brightest university
students as local manpower, an arrangement which he said would be
concluded soon.
Describing Wimax as most appropriate for Nigeria owing to natural
and human factors, he said Nigeria is a microwave or mobility country
because of the difficulty in laying fibre.
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O3B
Networks Plans Affordable Low Latency Satellite Bandwidth By 2010 |
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O3B Networks
has been quietly preparing itself over the last 12 months for the
moment last week when it announced that it was going to be offering
cheap, low latency satellite bandwidth that can cover any part of
Africa by 2010. It has put in place early finance with Google, Liberty
Global and HSBC. RUSSELL SOUTHWOOD talked to the entrepreneur behind
the project, Greg Wyler…. |
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What's
the overall technical configuration of what you're going to
do?
It's a number of satellites flying over the equatorial area
(of the earth). Because they're approximately five times closer
to the earth than geo-satellites, the latency is reduced by
approximately five times. It's a constellation of satellites.
Why do you think you'll succeed where others have failed with
this approach?
There are two major things that are |
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different (to
previous projects). These other
projects were designed to reach the developed world. It required many
satellites because that had to be inclined to reach these areas. It
would take 840 satellites to cover the whole of the earth in this
way. We only need a minimum of five and therefore, the cost is much
lower.
The second thing is that this is a fully designed system with a fixed
contract for 2010. As a single system designed just for trunking for
telcos and ISPs, we know the costs, the delivery date and the performance.
It's a well thought out and structured process.
What sort of coverage will the constellation of satellites offer Africa?
It will be the whole of the continent eventually. In the first launch,
there are only eight satellites which will give us 30 spots. Each
spot is 500 kilometres in diameter. Each terminal can receive and
transmit 1.25 gbps. The spots can be placed virtually anywhere on
the continent. A spot on fibre is one physical landing station that
then has to be connected to a whole city. Our spots can cover a whole
city immediately or for instance, cover the whole of Nigeria. |
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We're not planning to
cover every square metre but we have the ability to cover any
square metre you might want to specify. The unique beauty of
the system is that it has the speed, latency and cost of fibre
but we can take it immediately to where the customer wants it.
Landlocked countries can get access to cheap international connectivity
(without tackling |
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existing
transit issues). What price is the bandwidth going to sell at?
It will be in the range of US$500 per meg or below. It will be competitive
with fibre but it's not our intention to compete with fibre. Carrier
class telecoms going out over the new fibre routes will require redundancy
and we can complement any fibre network. Bit for bit the system is
the equal of fibre: it's better in some areas and not in others. For
example, we can reach directly to the cell tower where build is needed
for things like WiMax and EV-DO because the spot beam of 500 kilometres
can reach anything from 3 to 100 cell towers.
What do you think the impact will be on the existing satellite business
in Africa?
Existing satellite operators are currently very capacity-constrained.
In discussions we had with them, we see them flipping over their transmission
(customers) to us to free up the geo-satellites to do WANS (multiple
remote stations) and video distribution which is what they do best:
one way applications like video distribution.
What's the latency going to be like on the system?
The path is five times less than for geo-satellites. It's 123 milliseconds
between the African port and some port in Europe connected to the
global Internet. It's comparable to fibre and in some cases will be
quicker. And it's certainly not the 600 milliseconds of geo-satellites.
What markets are you aiming at?
Telcos for transmission backhaul will be the core of our market. FI2
will be our backhaul product and when the telco orders it, we will
drop in a landing station at the telcos' location. If they want a
gigabit, we give them a gigabit. There is no CAPEX involved for the
telco. This allows them to focus on their own network.
The ISP products are similar except the decision to put down a dish
depends on whether the traffic is less than an STM1 or not. If not,
we give a VSAT terminal for direct connectivity. For more than an
STM1 we will give a 3.5 metre dish and a carrier class landing station.
The highest level product is FI2 Cell which illuminate over the whole
500 kilometres of the spot with 250-300 mbps capacity to and from
cell towers.
These will connect with a US$2,000 terminal at the base of a cell
tower or a WiMAX base station. We will share this pool of bandwidth
dynamically. This will allow the telco or WiMAX operator to place
their towers without regard to line of sight. It might save the operator
as much as US$1,000-1,500 a month.
What's your deal with Google? What's their stake?
They are equity partners but they haven't released exact figures because
there are three very large global companies working together as a
team: Google, Liberty Global and HSBC.
How's the overall fundraising going?
The first eight satellites will cost slightly less than US$450 million.
We have about 12% of that in equity so far and we'll be raising another
20% or more. The debt will cover the rest.
What was the market reaction when you announced?
Our web site got over 380,000 hits and there were 400 newspaper articles.
The company name O3B stands for the Other 3 Billion, the people who
are not yet connected. Our task is to support ISPs and telcos reach
directly to these people. |
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| Sky Vision, a global
Internet Service Provider for other ISPs, Carriers, telecoms operators,
enterprises, government bodies, and international operators recently gathered
a cream of the Nigerian press to celebrate its success story as well as
announce a N2 billion investment service that enables Nigerians to enjoy
a reliable, high quality and affordable broadband Internet connectivity.
The company also used the forum to welcome the first 10 new customers
who are now completing the installation of the Sky Vision Combi billed
to deliver service before the end of the year.
Sky Vision Combi will mainly be using the powerful inclined orbit AfricaSat-1
satellite launched in June 2008 and it is already delivering its services
to General Data and Engineering, its first customer in Nigeria and over
10 new customers currently completing their Sky Vision Combi installation. |
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