[kictanet] Fwd: Financial Times - Kenya: turning radio links into broadband for the countryside

[Andrea Bohnstedt]

>From the lovely Ms Manson/FT. Apologies if anyone has sent the article
round already.

Have a fab day,
Andrea

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Katrina Manson
Date: 6 February 2013 10:16
Subject: Financial Times - Kenya: turning radio links into broadband for
the countryside


Kenya: turning radio links into broadband for the countryside

from beyondbrics: on.ft.com/14P77Oi

Feb 5, 2013 3:24pm by Katrina Manson


Pupils at a school on the green slopes of Mount Kenya no longer have
eyes for the blackboard. Instead they are transfixed by a $500 tablet.

Belinda, 19, touches the screen gingerly and is amazed to discover an
icon that allows her to film herself within seconds of her first touch
of a computer. So speedy is the take-up of tech know-how in Kenya’s
first “white space” rural broadband pilot scheme, its backers hope the
idea could one day be copied throughout the continent.

“It’s absolutely mind-blowing, it’s like turning garbage into gold,”
says Pete Henderson chairman of Indigo Telecom, describing white space
technology. Together with Microsoft and the Kenyan government, the
British telecoms group is running the trial, with a view to scaling up
nationwide. “It can work in hard-to-reach areas where it is not
economically viable for mobile phones — we are trying to reach the
‘not-spots’.”

The innovative technology works by teaming old with new — converting
analogue radio waves from unused radio and television spectrum (termed
“white space”) into broadband and delivering it at cheap prices.

It draws on work from fellow Indigo Telecom teammate Malcolm Brew, a
can-do man who heaves up a radio mast behind the school. He helped
trial ‘white space’ last year among the most remote of not-spots — the
mountainous Isle of Bute on the west Scottish coast. In line with
guidance from UK regulator Ofcom, Kenya too has decided to offer the
white space spectrum for free rather than auction it.

“We want to be able to guarantee every citizen at least 1MB broadband
for free, as Finland, Singapore are doing,” says Bitange Ndemo,
permanent secretary at Kenya’s ministry of information and
communications.

Ndemo believes the pilot may help provide a solution for African
countries that have for years struggled with the “last mile” of
connectivity. While Kenya has access to four undersea cables that
deliver hi-speed broadband, getting it beyond cities and towns has
proved much harder. Despite being one of Africa’s most technologically
innovative countries, and continental headquarters for companies
including IBM and Google, 66 per cent of Kenyans still have no
internet access. Those who do mostly go online via mobile phones.

Kenya’s dominant mobile phone operator Safaricom says white space
“does theoretically pose a [competitive] challenge”, but argues “the
threat is more long-term and not one of an immediate disruptive
nature.” The group is proceeding with its own plans to roll out rural
internet access via mobile phones.

It says white space would likely play a more “complementary role”
given the technology offers small bandwidths that can’t support high
speeds in urban areas.

Henderson says his team can deliver internet for a tenth the price of
mobile phone companies thanks mostly to a cheap network of radio masts
with great range. They can be powered by solar or wind power rather
than costly diesel, avoiding the need for expensive security to
protect fuel from theft.

The team will need to hit on a commercial model that charges some of
the country’s poorest people affordable rates if it is to make a
profit within two years as Henderson predicts.

He says 6,000 masts could connect the whole country. They also need to
make sure the technology does not interfere with existing broadcast
signals, and speed up Kenya’s own switchover from analogue television
to digital, which was due for completion at the end of last year but
has been delayed, to free up more spectrum.

As children in schools around Mount Kenya begin to learn to swipe and
press screens rather than cradle chalk, Henderson is in no doubt about
the potential impact.
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