3 May 2000
Honourable Chairperson
Distinguished Guests
International Guests
Participants
Ladies and Gentlemen
Introduction
It is a great privilege to welcome you all to the 10th Tel.Com Conference.
This conference has developed over the years to become one of the major telecommunications exchange forums this country has ever known. three years ago during the 9th Tel.Com Conference which was also held at Gallagher Estate, it was proposed that this conference extends its activities to include the participation by countries of the continent to benefit the entire Africa. As a result of such considerations, an all embracing theme was adopted: " Developing Africa's Communications Infrastructure".
The theme captures the essence of the communications challenges facing our continent, creating higher levels of awareness and sensitivity around the issues. The call for the development of Africa's telecommunications infrastructure was echoed in 1998 at the ITU Africa Telecom by our continent's Ministers responsible for Communications. This Conference is likely to be the first one that addresses the question of African connectivity and infrastructure as the main issue.
Infrastructure development Many forums and conferences have been held over the past thirty years to discuss infrastructure development. Numerous studies exist and various infrastructure rollout programmes have been proposed. All or part of this information has been consolidated on a regional basis to form part of the Africa telecommunications regional database. What needs to happen now is the integration of all the different databases. Why this focus? 1. The problem has been lack of infrastructure that is continent-wide which requires resources - financial and human, 2. There has also been a lack of co-ordinated planning between and among countries of the continent.
2. To bridge the so-called digital divide that bars us from being equal citizens in the information society. In February 1998 a meeting of African Telecommunications Ministers was convened to establish an agenda of action for the implementation of a vision for an African Renaissance. This was to make it possible to create a spectrum of opportunities for the delivery of services to the people of Africa.
In August 1998 the Plenipotentiary Conference African Ministers adopted the strategic plan for the Pan-African Telecommunications Conference, the African Connection. The objective was to ensure the development of complimentary telecommunications policy and regulatory frameworks at the continental level.
The Ministers identified the following as urgent areas to be addressed on the continent 1. Policy and regulation 2. Human resource development 3. Funding mechanisms The meeting also identified six key African telecommunications priority projects.
1. Priority Projects
It is not difficult to understand why these are priorities.
All these projects we have identified, are very crucial building blocks for our strategy into the future and are already at varied levels of development throughout the continent.
We all know that Africa is a continent of countries with varied characteristics - such as population density, small and large geographic areas, etc. The development of co-ordinated policy and regulatory framework at the continental level would make possible the kind of economies of scale that would transform the continent from being a 'potential' to being an 'active and vibrant' market.
The African terrestrial infrastructure projects in particular are all at a fairly advanced stage of development. An agreement for an under sea cable system that would provide reliable and state of the art communications linkages for approximately 10 African countries with the rest of the world and potentially 44 African countries was finalised last year in June 1999 between Telkom SA, various African Telecommunications Administrations and several Global Telecommunications entities. The participation of the rest of the African countries that were not party to this Agreement is very crucial and requires facilitation and involvement of the private sector.
Other terrestrial infrastructure project proposals within SADC and COMESA require urgent participation of the private sector. Regional telecommunications conferences are beginning to open up to the possibility of private sector involvement especially in the areas of regional co-operation and project finance. A long outstanding terrestrial project for consideration by interested entities is the famous PANAFTEL link, which used to link most African countries terrestrially and whose technology is now outdated. Two other similar projects: the SADC regional information infrastructure (SRII) and the COMTEL project are still being studied.
The establishment of a proposed Telecom Development Fund will require in addition to government facilitation, the involvement of multilateral organisations, institutional investors across the world, private sector investors and operators amongst others. The fund can also benefit from proper and collective Africa traffic and capacity management coupled with an innovative procurement structure for the regions and the continent.
Today the 10th TEL.COM 2000 conference provides an opportunity for all members of the sector to share information on these industry issues and to contribute towards putting a better argument for the creation of reliable infrastructure for our continent. A sector debate through a non-committal forum such as this one is crucial to raise awareness of the issues and for testing ideas for partnership in technology development. Challenges for South Africa South Africa as a country has a pivotal role to play in these developments both locally and internationally. General and wide spread assumptions are that whilst there is a large and sophisticated commercial sector in this country requiring all types of value added services involving very complex technologies, 80% of our population really only requires access to a basic telephone service. These assumptions constitute the core of what today we call the digital divide.
Many villages lie in remote mountainous and other inaccessible areas, virtually impossible to connect by traditional terrestrial infrastructure to the outside world. These people currently do not even have access to telecommunications for the basic purpose of hearing the voice of a son or a daughter, friend or neighbour in order to keep in touch. It is my ministry's intention to see that this need is fulfilled.
Given the possible economies of scale, it should be possible and affordable to use the best 21st century technologies to meet their health, education, entertainment, commerce and other requirements. It therefore means, that there is an urgent need to roll out communications infrastructure to those remote, under-serviced areas. In South Africa we have opted for a technology that enables us to bypass planting poles and stringing wires or digging expensive trenches for cable networks. The wireless-in-the-local-loop (WLL) technology, such as DECT and satellite technology has made it easier to reach some of these remote areas.
It would be an indictment on all of us here today if those that currently deliver messages by horseback continue to be condemned relying on any this mode of communications. Solving the problem of access however should be seen as one part of growing our economy, the other part is optimising conditions for vibrant commercial activity. To meet these and other varying needs South Africa has used various technologies taking into account their unique advantages. A good example is Wireless in the Local Loop whose installation grew from 40 thousand in six years (1990 to 1996) to 80 thousand.
I have no doubt, that satellite communications will offer the best, most expedient solutions to the dilemma of providing service to under serviced areas.
The growth in the number of satellites and services provided is phenomenal.
It is generally accepted that, over the last three decades, the number of communications satellites launched has increased by roughly 300%.
South Africa has therefore seen it fit to launch a feasibility study to determine the viability of a domestic communications satellite for South Africa and the region.
In the last two years alone, around of 3000 VSAT terminals have been installed, with the main purpose being to alleviate the requirements of small businesses and priority applicants such as schools, clinics and police stations in rural areas. This also enables entrepreneurs to become economically more active and parastatal organisations to provide services more efficiently.
South Africa therefore values such exhibition and exchange of ideas given the possibilities that telecommunications can provide to meet our aspirations for a better life for all. This sector stands poised to be in the forefront of the realisation of our foreign policy objective of the African Renaissance.
We welcome the extension of the Tel.Com Conference to include the entire continent because we believe it could provide a firm platform for the contribution of industry towards this goal As Chairperson of the Ministerial Oversight Committee of the African Connection, we would like to assure you all that the Ministers responsible for communications in Africa are committed to and actively pursuing the vision of being equal citizens in global information society.
Finally, I would like to thank the organisers of this historic event for affording me the opportunity to share our views with you.
On behalf of the government and people of South Africa, I would like to extend a very warm welcome to all our visitors and wish them a pleasant and memorable stay in our beautiful country. I have no doubt that this conference will be able to inform the broader ongoing communications debate for infrastructure development on the continent. I now wish to declare the 10th TEL.COM Conference officially opened.
I thank you.
ISSUED BY THE GCIS FOR MINISTRY COMMUNICATION
BRIAN SOKUTU MINISTER'S SPOKESPERSON (012) 427-8111