OCTOBER 2016 Last Mile Connectivity In Emerging Markets Sponsored By Contents Last Mile Connectivity in Emerging Markets 3 Foreword: Last Mile Connectivity in Emerging Markets James Barton - Editor, Developing Telecoms 5 Sponsors: Operator Partner: MTN Nigeria Silver Sponsor: Koonsys Article Sponsor: Omoco 6 Interview: Emerging Markets Will Take a Fresh Approach to Last Mile Connectivity Ian Keene - Vice President, Research, Networking & Communications Equipment, Gartner Research 11 Intelligent Planning for Optimisation of Last Mile Connectivity Krisztian Novak - Co-founder & Strategic Business Development Director, Koonsys Radiocommunications 15 Interview: Tackling Last Mile Connectivity from an African Perspective Thecla Mbongue - Senior Telecoms Analyst, Middle East & Africa, Ovum 17 Last Mile Rural Connectivity - Moving Beyond Traditional Network Infrastructure Tim Guest - Communications & Business Writer 21 Fibre - the Ultimate Last Mile, Now Showing Explosive Growth Stefan Stanislawski - Co-Founder, Ventura Team 25 Interview: Connecting Africa: Last Mile from an Operator’s Perspective Tolulope Williams - Senior Manager, Access, Transmission, Planning & Optimisation, MTN Nigeria www.developingtelecoms.com | October 2016 02 Foreword James Barton, Editor, Developing Telecoms The term ‘last mile’ has long been used to describe the #nal hurdle of delivering telecommunications services to end users, and the challenges of delivering connectivity from core network to #nal destination are so well-known that the term has come to refer to an entire raft of solutions aimed at doing exactly that. Practically speaking, network structures make it virtually impossible to deliver the bandwidth available at a landing site intact to a consumer’s home, often due to obsolete technologies or an unworkable number of links. Last Mile seeks to overcome this bottleneck, delivering connectivity without compromise to areas that su!er from a dearth of bandwidth. These solutions are increasingly having a huge impact in James Barton - Developing Telecoms emerging markets, where they can be used to connect remote rural communities with a business case that makes sense for the operator. In addition, as tra"c – and particularly data usage – soars in densely populated cities, solutions for increasing bandwidth availability are in high demand. A further appeal for last mile connectivity in emerging markets is the fact that developing countries are typically unencumbered by outdated legacy architecture – although this of course brings its own challenges in terms of building out infrastructure in a cost e!ective way. www.developingtelecoms.com | October 2016 03 This report focuses on the di"culties faced by operators In addition, I was privileged enough to interview Tolulope in emerging markets looking to deliver data bandwidth Williams of pan-African operator group MTN to discuss cost e!ectively to challenging locations, including remote the #rm’s approach to connectivity challenges across the communities and busy cities. While the challenges are continent; I would like to extend my thanks to him along myriad, improvements in technology are increasingly with all of the contributors to this Special Report. making the business case viable and allowing operators to At Developing Telecoms, we aim to provide the greatest extend their reach to areas that just a few years ago would degree of insight into the technologies that have the have been logistically and #nancially unfeasible to connect. greatest impact in emerging markets, and our series of We have enlisted the help of several experts in this #eld to Special Reports are a key pillar of this mission. They are discuss the most appropriate and e"cient technologies made possible by our sponsors, and I would like to extend for the various use cases of last mile connectivity, and it is my personal thanks to the sponsors of this report, Koonsys my pleasure to be able to o!er our readers the insight of and Omoco, both of which have contributed insightful major analyst #rms Gartner, Ovum and Ventura Next AB. articles to the report. www.developingtelecoms.com | October 2016 04 Sponsors We are grateful to the following sponsors for supporting this Special Report. Koonsys Koonsys is a premium supplier of Radio and Transmission network optimisation and planning services. Koonsys currently supplies Mobile Network Operators across Europe and is expanding globally. For more information, visit www.koonsys.hu Omoco Headquartered in India, Omoco, a global mobile network provider, draws a rich pool of world-class engineering talent and best brains in the world. The team, by the sheer advantage of its lineage powered by Vihaan Networks Ltd. (VNL), has a successful track record in creating innovative wireless solutions. Omoco also translates its expertise to provide agile & stand-alone private mobile networks in rural communities, remote islands, enterprises and the latest IoT (M2M applications) to enable our users become a part of the wireless communication revolution. For more information, visit www.omoco.in www.developingtelecoms.com | October 2016 05 Emerging Markets will take a fresh approach to Last Mile Ian Keene, Vice President of Research, Gartner DT Editor James Barton spoke to Gartner’s Ian Keene to assess the use cases for Last Mile in emerging markets as compared to developed markets, and how cost implications could stymie development. The need for last mile connectivity applies to various use cases. What are the predominant ones? There are three main use cases for last mile connectivity. The most obvious is connecting rural and remote regions, but easing the load on densely populated urban areas is an increasing concern. Finally there are the shoulder areas that fall between these two extremes. In each of these use cases, di!erent technologies may be more appropriate. Ian Keene - Gartner Rural & Remote Regions Which technologies dominate in these areas? In markets that are very underdeveloped such as in Africa, the standard method for last mile connectivity is wireless – 2G or 3G technology – because it gets the coverage, and in these regions coverage is more important than capacity. However, that means that applications have to be very low- bandwidth – this is a limit, but not always a problem. In India for example, we’ve seen that people are adept at getting the most out of very low bandwidth. Plus we’re starting to see things improve – faster technologies from 2G to 3G to 4G, which will begin to provide more capacity as well as just coverage. Obviously coverage is an issue; in rural environments, service rural communities will be the focus rather than covering the entire area, otherwise things will prove too expensive. www.developingtelecoms.com | October 2016 06 How will development progress in comparison to reducing OPEX, and the connection becomes more reliable. developed markets? The shorter the length of copper/COAX at the end there, the higher the bandwidth that can be provided. Of course, in a Developing countries will begin to go the way of developed lot of developing countries people steal copper cable, which countries, where now operators are looking to extend is a problem, so getting rid of as much copper as possible is coverage to small communities and villages rather than positive. It’s a long time before #bre is going to reach into the for example extending 4G coverage over the entire rural communities in many countries, but it’s getting there. country, which is incredibly expensive and o!ers no real business case. In the developing world, the business case is Then of course there’s satellite, which is increasing in paramount – it’s pointless to have a vast amount of capi al bandwidth and – sort of – coming down in price. I was expenditure is there’s going to be no return on investment – recently with NBN, the National Broadband Network in so I think it will happen the same way. Australia, which is one of the few neutral networks in the world. The government has essentially ordered them to While wireless will be signi#cant, we’ve also seen cases supply broadband to all households, which is no mean feat where Wi-Fi has become important; if there’s a #xed given the large number of extremely remote communities in line coming into the community then people can share Australia. The only answer there is satellite, as anything else connectivity through Wi-Fi. The bene#t of this technology is ridiculously costly – in practical terms, it’s the only way of is that it’s in practically all devices that people use, allowing connecting these communities. it to remain low-cost in comparison to cellular, where the price rises incrementally between 2G, 3G and 4G. Wi-Fi can Satellite will therefore always play a part; it’s more expensive also be used on old devices such as older PCs, which is a and doesn’t always provide the performance of a #xed line, signi#cant factor in emerging markets. but it’s often the only way of providing communications to remote environments. Lower income people such as farmers The ubiquity of Wi-Fi makes it a good way of connecting in emerging markets aren’t going to be able to a!ord a communities in tandem with #xed-line backhaul. On that satellite connection; the best they’d likely be able to a!ord side, we’re seeing a similar situation in developing markets is a 2G phone. Putting cellular out in such a remote area isn’t to the one that unfolded in more developed markets, which going to make business sense though, so it has to be funded is that the distance between #bre optic cable and end user is some other way. getting shorter. Fibre is going out to more of the network – it’s not reaching the end user of their remote community by In conclusion, very low cost cellphones and Wi-Fi devices any means, but it is getting closer. In terms of maintenance are going to be crucial for connecting people; satellite costs, if one can run a #bre cable – assuming the right arrays plays a part at connecting communities but in developing for the copper infrastructure are present – a lot of the more countries personal satellite devices will be too una!ordable localised central o"ce-type locations can be disposed of, for working classes.