Unlimited fibre at <$5/month?
It might already be here…
At Africacom last week Nic Rudnick of Liquid Intelligent Technologies presented a key note address on ‘The building blocks for Africa’s 4th industrial revolution’ and set out a case as to why cheap, reliable access to data is key to 4IR in Africa.
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲?
In order for the average person to participate in the digital economy, i.e. 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦, and consume, we need access to cheap, reliable data.
Experience in other markets tells us this needs to be a mix of fixed and mobile data:
🔹 Fixed where we sit and work or create, making the most of the computing and internet power.
🔹 Mobile when we are out and about.
On average:
🔹 In the OECD, 90% of households have fixed broadband.
🔹 In Africa it is ~5%.
Additionally, in the OECD the median fixed uncapped broadband cost is 1.5% of monthly income.
In Africa 1.5% of the median income gets you:
🔹 100MB in half of African countries.
🔹 1GB in only 5 countries.
𝘐𝘧 𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘈𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝟦𝘐𝘙 𝙖𝙨 𝙖 𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙤𝙧 𝘸𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘪𝘹𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘥𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘵𝘰 $𝟧/𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘫𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺.
𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗱𝗼 𝘄𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗽 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮?
Access to cheap, reliable broadband is a key ingredient to ‘creator’ growth as it allows participants to:
🔹 Create and sell content.
🔹 Learn skills on line.
🔹 Experience the power of desktop and cloud computing.
🔹 Build and run a business.
This is best done through fixed broadband and desktop computing.
Access via mobile only makes these task difficult and the user is more likely to be a consumer rather than creator.
How is this being addressed?
LIT is working with UNICEF to connect schools throughout Africa, schools are natural hubs where children and people can come together to learn.
Another example is Vumatel in South Africa, they are a private fibre to the home (FTTH) operator, who have spent the last 7 years rolling our FTTH in SA, mainly in high income bracket areas.
In the last couple of years they have been rolling out to the middle market i.e. where income is R5,000($250)-R35,000($1,750)/month.
They offer an uncapped service starting at R400($20)/month for a 20/10MBps bandwidth uncapped fixed line. Here, the average user is consuming 400GB per month which is 1.5 times the average user in the high income bracket!
They are now running a pilot program for households with an income of <R5,000($250)/month. For R100($5)/month you can get an uncapped 10MBps fixed line.
Which shows that it is possible to provide cheap, reliable data to the majority.
As telco network markets open up and long haul prices come down, I am sure there are more like this popping up across Africa.