Finding a reliable fibre provider?
There is more fibre in Africa that many international companies may think. Millions of km of fibre cables connect the major cities (and many towns, business parks, and industrial sites). However, selecting a reliable provider often proves difficult, resulting in an under-utilisation of existing networks, business inefficiencies and higher prices.
In Africa right now, millions of kilometres of fibre optic cables already connect the major cities as well as and many towns, business parks, and industrial sites to the Internet. However, for the largest network users, selecting a reliable network provider often proves difficult, resulting in an under-utilisation of existing networks.
To take advantage of business opportunities in the digital economy as well as in the traditional production sectors, companies need reliable, fast Internet access to support business processes, communication, information sharing, back-ups, and performance monitoring. Reliability is crucial, with over 99.5% uptime on a monthly basis (that is less than four hours of downtime) being a priority.
For the largest international companies, interconnecting their different sites (including data centres) may require a dedicated, scalable transmission network. This can be implemented by renting the physical infrastructure (fibre optic cables) and setting up dedicated transmission equipment between their cloud region(s) and production sites. With this need comes many challenges.
Experience managing fibre networks suggests that a fibre cable may be cut on average three times per month for every 1000km. Given the route distances involved in connecting major cities in Africa (or the nearest subsea landing station with the capital city) and the environmental hurdles to quick repair such as security threats, distance between an operation centre and the break, fuel shortages and even traffic jams (Lagos has a population of about 20 million), reliability targets may require three and sometimes four routes between two network nodes. Intermediary sites (e.g. for optical signal regeneration) also need regular checks for such things as refuelling, replacing faulty power systems or overheated signal boosters.
Fibre network owners responsible for maintenance services have set up extensive field teams and monitoring processes to handle the complexity and continuous nature of the task. Their performance differs in terms of their ability to avoid recurring environmental threats such as building alternative routes while roadworks are ongoing, investing in experienced field maintenance teams in more locations (e.g. reducing time to arrive on site to repair), and orchestrating all moving parts (e.g. customer information, spare management, transportation and logistics, level 2-3 support functions to answer complex situations, etc.).
Selecting the right vendor may prove challenging given the breadth and depth of the work needed to keep the everything working. Analysing RFP submissions with limited information or untested claims may result in future disappointments with a direct impact on the reliability of enterprise communications systems. This could deter investments entirely, when companies are not able to create the operating environment where their business can flourish.
Recognising these challenges, Digital Africa Development Agency studies the performance of suppliers, assessing the most effective and reliable by performing operational audits and real network tests over extended periods. Using this information, Digital Africa Development Agency creates a detailed, fact-based information packages that global network infrastructure buyers can rely on to select the right providers for their organisation, depending on their goals, sensitivities, and budgets.
ABOUT DIGITAL AFRICA DEVELOPMENT AGENCY
The Digital Africa Development Agency helps public and private organisations to maximise the impact of digital services on economic development and their stakeholders, by providing expert advice, market insights and operational support. More information at www.digitalafrica.ai