Something that We Cannot See Is Holding 5G Back in Africa

For the record, I\’ve had a Telkom South Africa ADSL line in Pretoria for
16+ years. The speed is 1.2Mbps – because of the distance from the
exchange. The cost (you have to pay for the line + voice) for the line
is R229.77, for the ADSL signal, R166.45 and for the actual Internet
data (uncapped @2Mbps) R233.91 – or a sub total of R630.13, then add VAT
– and its R724.65.

I now have Rain 5G – at at cost of R699.00 (VAT included). This is
30Mbps down, 7 Mbps up and is \”uncapped\”.

I can get my existing number ported to a VoIP provider for R50 a month –
and voice calls will be about half the price of Telkom SA.

That\’s more or less a 30 fold speed increase for about the same price.
No brainer.
Plus now everyone in the house has enough bandwidth – so there is no
fighting or blaming others!

My \”ping\” time to Teraco, Joburg (Peering point and where I have
equipment) has improved from a best of 35ms to 10ms.

The results of running a 5G service are great! There is no fibre in my
immediate area as of yet – so I simply love this. I just don\’t know yet
if the base stations have batteries so they can survive Load Shedding –
which is back to bite us in South Africa.

Talking of Huawei, I have no idea if my service is being spied upon –
but all my e-mail, ssh access and majority of my web traffic is
encrypted. I\’d prefer to see more competition. Huawei may have my SSID,
Wifi password and an admin password which is only used for that device.
I\’ve noticed that if an SSH session is idle for 5 or so minutes – its
disconnected. That has never happened before – so there is some
intelligent control going on. No native IPv6 yet.

On 2020/07/15 16:41, Adam Lane via kictanet wrote:
>
> Hi Kathy
>
> Yes I agree there needs to be a better communications effort. I
> believe the CA has this remit, though the operators also undertake
> engagement, especially at sites, as part of the regulatory approvals,
> but more can be done.
>
> Regards
>
> Adam
>
> *From:*Kathy Mwai [mailto:[email protected]]
> *Sent:* Wednesday, July 15, 2020 4:39 PM
> *To:* KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <[email protected]>
> *Cc:* Adam Lane <[email protected]>
> *Subject:* Re: [kictanet] Something that We Cannot See Is Holding 5G
> Back in Africa
>
> You do make a case for 5G in Africa, and Kenya specifically. It was
> only yesterday however that Britain decided to strip Huawei out of its
> 5G network implementation. While I am not indicating this is the trend
> that Kenya should follow, the point I want to make is that I do not
> think we are going to accept 5G infrastructure in our residential
> areas particularly without questioning it.
>
> Yes, they may just be conspiracy theories about the radiation dangers
> of 5G, but if I could use my neighbourhood as an example, the
> residents here have decided to contend with poor network connection
> than have the telecommunications company install a mast.
>
> It is not an easy decision because the emerging technologies do
> require 5G strength to work optimally. I wonder if there are groups
> working to educate people on how to mitigate the radiation effects of
> 5G. There are some I know online and it would help everyone to get
> themselves educated on it so that when the inevitable time of 5G
> rollout comes, then you can protect yourself – to an extent!
>
> Kathy
>
> On Wed, 15 Jul 2020 at 15:47, Adam Lane via kictanet
> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>
> wrote:
>
> blog.huawei.com/2020/07/14/something-that-we-cannot-see-is-holding-5g-back-in-africa/
>
> Something that We Cannot See Is Holding 5G Back in Africa
>
> There is an intangible resource that most people do not know
> exists and cannot be seen or touched. That resource is holding
> Africa back from rolling out high-speed 5G mobile services. If we
> don’t solve managing this resource better, then we won’t get 5G in
> Africa and we’ll be left behind.
>
> Spectrum is of critical importance in Africa. Not necessarily
> because Africans need high-speed mobile phone services, nor
> because they are likely to have tens of thousands packed into
> stadiums or highly dense areas (especially this year). And it’s
> not because self-driving cars will be populating the continent’s
> roads any time soon.
>
> It is of critical importance because so few homes and businesses
> have fiber in Africa.
>
> However, through Fixed Wireless Access (FWA/WTTx) solutions, 5G
> can provide fiber-like services without requiring the expense or
> time needed to install fiber. Upgrading existing base stations and
> deploying a CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) like a mobile router
> or dongle inside or outside an office or home instantly yields the
> fiber-like speeds that are critical for e-commerce and online
> learning. And now more than ever, it is clear how important both are.
>
> Spectrum 101
>
> Most people may think of spectrum as a range of colors in a
> rainbow, or a range on which political opinions belong.
>
> But it also refers to the range of wavelengths of electromagnetic
> radiation. Even though these are generally invisible to the human
> eye, spectrum matters for communications, whether it is radio,
> Wi-Fi, mobile phones, or satellite broadcasts — all use
> electromagnetic waves to travel and reach a user.
>
> The Role of Governments
>
> The use of these intangible wavelengths are regulated by
> governments to prevent multiple users using the same frequencies
> of spectrum, as this would cause interference and nothing would
> reach the user. At a global level, the UN oversees a process for
> all countries to agree on the kind of users for different
> frequencies (such as for Wi-Fi, mobile phones, or meteorological
> use). At the national level, the government decides which specific
> organisations or companies can use that spectrum.
>
> National governments often charge a fee to commercial companies
> for using this — one purpose is to recoup the costs for managing,
> monitoring, and enforcing the regulation of spectrum. Another is
> to generate revenue for the government. And a third (and arguably
> the most important) is to weed out those who may not be serious
> about using the spectrum. In other words, they want companies that
> have the resources to invest in the infrastructure to use it. So
> the thinking goes that if serious players can afford the spectrum,
> they can also afford to pay for the infrastructure.
>
> Regulators want to support existing actors with solid track
> records to deliver infrastructure, but they don’t want to restrict
> new entrants to the market or innovation. So, they face striking a
> balance — to allow new companies to come in even if they do not
> have much in the way of resources yet, but are serious and could
> still make good use of the infrastructure in the future. There is
> also pressure from the treasury to generate as much money as
> possible. This may come from the richest companies, but could in
> turn affect these companies’ finances, so they cannot subsequently
> invest in building networks.
>
> For high-speeds, it is necessary to have large amounts of spectrum
> in a big block. But right now, few companies in Africa have that,
> which means no company can provide it. Lots of companies each have
> small amounts of spectrum, so none can provide a high-speed
> network to lots of people. It is critical that this changes — and
> urgently. Companies, whether big or small, existing or new, must
> be given access to that spectrum. And there must be enough to go
> around, providing it is only given to companies that are really
> serious about using it and are seriously able to make the
> necessary investments.
>
> During COVID-19, South Africa has temporarily made spectrum
> available to its operators. This has resulted in two new operators
> launching 5G (one launched last year with the spectrum it already
> had). With the affordability of Internet data creating such a
> critical challenge in Africa, the prices local operators are
> charging for 5G are telling:
>
>    – Comparing 5G with 4G, one operator will give you 10 times
> more data for only 4 times the price, or 40 times more data for
> only 6 times the price.
>
>     -.Another provides unlimited data and charges by speed
> instead, just like a traditional fiber service, even though they
> are using mobile.
>
> Countries like Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya have strong technology
> sectors, innovative local companies, a significant presence from
> international companies, and a strong focus on creating jobs
> involving technology. They need to move faster with 5G to ensure
> future development.
>
> Future businesses in the technology industry and the profits,
> social impact, and jobs that come with that, rely on having
> high-speed Internet for consumers through FWA. Millions of
> Africans could use that connectivity to get trained online, get
> jobs online, earn money online, and create tech businesses. And
> now is the time to make that happen.
>
> ————————————————–
> M: +254-790985886
> Deputy CEO, Government Affairs
> Huawei Kenya
>
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