Internet Speed Test Survey and Report
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A market research survey to understand the internet A digital eBook and survey report speeds that our CSP partners are experiencing Written by: Nick Botha and Jonathan Hoehler across Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa. Published: February 2021 Let’s Connect: +27 10 596 8558 | [email protected] | www.dynamicsafrica.biz Table of Contents |1 Introduction 03 |2 It is time to enjoy the power of the cloud 05 |3 The internet speed test survey results 10 |4 Quick win solutions for the cloud 21 Let’s Connect: +27 10 596 8558 | [email protected] | www.dynamicsafrica.biz | 2 1 Introduction Let’s Connect: +27 10 596 8558 | [email protected] | www.dynamicsafrica.biz 1 Introduction Introducing our Speed Test Market Research Survey for Africa The COVID-19 global pandemic has decimated economies across the globe; the digital economy however has seen accelerated growth as more and more workers have started working from home. It has become abundantly clear how dependent we all are on the internet, not only to be connected, but to be connected at speeds that could allow us to be productive, entrepreneurial, and forward thinking. Broadband connectivity has been an enabler especially across sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa and connection speeds to data centres together with the speeds provided by local ISP’s all play an integral role in broad market adoption of digital services. To better understand the internet speeds of our partners across the region, we recently conducted an internet speed test survey. We invited our 4Sight Dynamics Africa Microsoft Cloud (CSP) partners to participate in the survey so we can determine: Our partners local internet Our partners connection connection speeds. speed to Azure Data Regions. The goal for the survey is to gain a greater understanding of the internet speeds experienced by our partners, and in turn, their customers across the region. This is particularly important as more and more products and solutions are now cloud hosted. We hope that the results of the survey will go in a small way to further accelerating our partners and their customers journey’s to the cloud. Managing Director at 4Sight Dynamics Africa and Chief Partner Officer at 4Sight Holdings Let’s Connect: +27 10 596 8558 | [email protected] | www.dynamicsafrica.biz | 4 It is time to enjoy the 2 power of the cloud Let’s Connect: +27 10 596 8558 | [email protected] | www.dynamicsafrica.biz 2 It is time to enjoy the power of the cloud The time has never been more apt for organisations across Sub-Saharan This has led many mobile network operators At the same time, the average mobile Africa (SSA), Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to enjoy the power, (MNO’s) to expand and grow both their connection speed will grow 3.6-fold from flexibility, and scalability of the cloud. The key components of high-speed network coverage across the regions but also 2018 to 2023, from 6.9 Mbps in 2018 to 24.8 ensure the rapid growth of mobile data and Mbps by 2023. The growth in speeds is also internet, international connectivity and local hyperscale data centres are internet connectivity services. Massive accelerating the expansion of public Wi-Fi now in place to accelerate workload and business application migration network investments in high speed data hotspots (including home spots) which is and management from the cloud across SSA and MENA. networks (e.g. 4G/LTE networks) has driven up expected to grow 4-fold from 1.9 million in the penetration of mobile internet users as 2018 to 6.8 million by 2023. well as connected devices (e.g. smartphones). In SSA, even though only 9% of total The 4G/LTE & 5G GSM and fixed broadband With a partner network that extends across More so than anywhere else in the world, the connections were 4G enabled in 2019, this is networks are only one part of the ‘connected sub-Saharan African (SSA), North Africa & populations of SSA and MENA have expected to grow to 27% in 2025. The amount ecosystem’ across SSA and MENA. The Middle East (MENA), 4Sight is in a fortunate experienced the greatest impact of mobile of 4G connections is expected to be even landing of high speed undersea cables across position to engage and work with partners telephony and internet connectivity higher in MENA with 48% of all connections in the east and west coasts of Africa is and customers that represent the uniqueness technology. The ubiquitous adoption, social 2025. accelerating Africa’s connectivity to the rest of and diversity of these two regions. With over and economic contribution of mobile services the world. There are 26 active and in- 1.1 billion[1] people in SSA and over 457 and phone devices ranks up there with radio, development undersea internet cables[7] million[2] in MENA, the regions together foreign languages and religion. Investing in connectivity across Africa and the Middle East. represent ±20%[3] of the world’s population. Most people may not be connected to the With the investment in both mobile (4G and An example of this type of investment has electricity grid or have access to fresh running 5G) and fixed broadband by MNO’s and other been Facebook[8] which is building a 37,000- water, but they have a mobile device. For service providers, the average mobile and kilometer long undersea cable (a.k.a. 2africa) [4,5] example, according to the GSMA , in 2019, fixed broadband speeds across the regions around Africa to provide the continent with 614m SSA had 477 Million unique mobile has continued to increase. Cisco[6] have shown better internet access. The subsea cable will Unique mobile subscribers (over 816 million sim connections). that across the Middle East and Africa, the interconnect 23 countries in Africa, the Middle subscribers by That is forecasted to grow to 614 Million average fixed broadband speed will grow 4.2- East and Europe. 2025 in SSA unique mobile subscribers and 1.05 billion sim fold from 2018 to 2023, from 9.7 Mbps in connections by 2025. 2018 to 41.2 Mbps. Let’s Connect: +27 10 596 8558 | [email protected] | www.dynamicsafrica.biz | 6 2 It is time to enjoy the power of the cloud The growth potential of SSA and MENA has led An example of this investment has been to many other multi-national technology Microsoft’s Enterprise-grade Datacentre companies investing in Africa’s connected regions in South Africa[9]. Microsoft’s ecosystem. Facebook is just one example of datacentre regions based in Cape Town and this investment with the 2africa undersea cable. Johannesburg enables local companies to However, another critical cog in the connected securely and reliably move their businesses to ecosystem is the investment in local data the cloud while maintaining data residency and centre infrastructure (e.g. hyperscale data compliance requirements, thanks to Microsoft centres) to support the growth of cloud Azure. computing services across Africa to take advantage of increased speeds and connectivity. Figure 1: African Undersea Cables (July 2020)[7] Figure 2: Azure Geographies[10] Let’s Connect: +27 10 596 8558 | [email protected] | www.dynamicsafrica.biz | 7 2 It is time to enjoy the power of the cloud Hyperscale data centres (HDC’s) like the Azure datacentre regions from Microsoft can When the lockdowns and working from home Remote and mobile usage of specific accommodate thousands of services and millions of virtual machines. These data centres act as guidance lines were implemented in many applications and services also changed. Users delivery mechanisms for cloud-powered processes and applications. HDC’s provide massive companies, the companies who were already were using services that would normally be scalability for businesses to take control of all aspects of their infrastructure, workload, and operating from the cloud, had little or no major outside of working hours during the day from business application management. With datacentre regions on both the African continent as well impact on day to day business operations. home. Remote working apps usage increased as the Middle East, local businesses can now benefit first-hand from the power of hyperscale Across many countries, the increased amongst users. This has been highlighted by with Azure. Benefits include: connectivity speeds from their MNO and fixed research conducted by Ericsson[11] who saw that broadband providers allowed them to connect remote working apps usage had increased and engage with co-workers, remotely. compared to other services during the Reduced downtime High-volume traffic pandemic’s lockdown periods. losses management Ability to handle Easier Transition into heavy computing the Cloud workloads. Horizontal scaling by Scalability based on increasing available demand processing power. Taking advantage of speed, connectivity, and cloud Our partners across SSA and MENA are seeing the benefits of improved speed, connectivity, and power of the cloud. This has been highlighted even more during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our world has dramatically changed in 2020 due to the current COVID-19 pandemic and national lockdowns imposed in many countries. This has forced all companies (big and small) across SSA and MENA to pivot and adapt their traditional ways of working and business models. Let’s Connect: +27 10 596 8558 | [email protected] | www.dynamicsafrica.biz | 8 2 It is time to enjoy the power of the cloud Companies who have embraced remote advantage of the benefits of hyperscale data In summary, our partners are in a strong Microsoft is enabling partners to enjoy the working and providing their employees and centres. This has been supported by position across SSA and MENA. The benefits of cloud services thanks to improved customers with the tools to continue improved connectivity speeds thanks to the investments by MNO’s and other multi- speed, connectivity, and availability of operating during the lockdowns have roll out of high speed data networks across national companies like Facebook and hyperscale data centres across the regions.