02 Oct 2013

Participants who attended the Backhaul and Submarine Networks 2013 have called for partnership among operators and services providers for the achievement in interconnecting SADC countries to the submarine cables.

The plea was made at the just-ended regional telecommunications backhaul and submarine networks meeting in Maun recently. They observed that it is critical to understand the needs of others in order to utilise the telecommunication infrastructure effectively.

They said if they could work together, it would be easy for all to adapt to the system and address issues of concern with one voice. Participants observed that backhaul is an important component of the infrastructure as it connects the core network to the rest of the global ICT network hence a need for a strategic partnership.

The meeting had brought together leading telecom professionals to discuss the latest technology solutions and business strategies to cost-effectively optimise the backhaul and expand network capacity. Participants managed to make some recommendation at the end of the meeting and interconnection through strategic partnership was among the recommendations.

Regarding strategic partnership, operators are encouraged to continue working together on a bilateral basis to find the best economical option of getting connected to the rest of the world through submarine cables.

On regional and international connectivity it was agreed that Southern Africa Telecommunication Association (SATA) members and cooperating partners should provide capacity information and statistics to SATA. Operators are encouraged to deploy Network Operations Centres using the appropriate business models unique to the organisation needs.

The executive secretary of SATA, Mr Jacob Munodawafa said Network Operations Center (NOC) rests at the heart of every telecom network or major data center, a place to keep an eye on everything. In addition, he observed that large organisations may operate more than one NOC, either to manage different networks or to provide geographic redundancy in the event of one site being unavailable or offline.

It is recommended that future upgrades and deployments should be based on 40Gbits/s DWDM Technology upgradable to 100Gbits/s for national backbones, regional and international connectivity. Mr Munodawafa said the optical transmission market has been growing dramatically for the last several years, driving up demand for ever high.

DWDM transmission rates and system capacity hence the need to upgrade the system Lastly participants endorsed a recommendation which calls for the backhaul and submarine networks group to consider the development of a wholesale Capacity Web-based Tool to facilitate the sale and purchase of capacity.

It was reported that currently the sale and purchase of capacity and interconnection involves many process and it is the backhaul and submarine networks group to expedite the processes through a repository database and web-based tools.

The Regional Telecommunications/ICT Backhaul and Submarine Networks meetings started in 2005, where the SATA Backhaul Working Group (BHWG) meet annually to address backhaul and cross border connectivity and to the landing stations.

The objective of the meeting is to ensure that intra SADC voice and data/internet traffic remain in the region and SADC national backbones and access networks are developed and connected to the submarine cable landing stations. ENDS