[afnog]Satelite Bandwidth Purchased by ISP's in Africa

["Badru Ntege" <ntegeb at one2net.co.ug>]

Greetings All

During some discussions at Iweek in south africa last week a number of hot
topics were discussed, one that I thought needs to be explored is the price
at which we buy bandwidth on the continent.  With close review the cost of
this bandwidth is in some instances overpriced.

I'm carrying out a small survey to understand how much actual bandwidth is
being purchased by African ISP's, and then how much we are paying for this.
As the price for international bandwidth falls we seem to be paying more for
this relative to the other users arround the world.

One of the discussions or line of thought was what would it take for an
African organisation to become the usptream provider and finally charge the
right prices.

If we gather all the data we could also be in a position to go to the
providers and demand fair and reasonable pricing.  The Fiber debate I know
will also kick in but this seems like it will not be sorted soon and I don't
think we have the time to wait for organisations that have no vision but had
the money to invest in the SAT3 fiber project to wake up.

We need to start acting as a body with an imense buying power.

Please send me your info, I will collate it and present it on this forum,
Those worried about confidentiality please send the data offline and I will
treat it in confidence.



Badru Ntege
One2net Ltd

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