RECORD OF THE THIRD MEETING OF EACO WORKING GROUP 2 ON INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT, CONNECTIVITY AND DIGITAL INCLUSION, FROM 22 ND TO 24 TH OCTOBER 2014, DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA 1. List of Attendees Refer to Annex 1. 2. Agenda for the Meeting 1. Opening of the meeting. 2. Introduction of members. 3. Appointment of Rapporteurs 4. Adoption of the Agenda 5. Communication from the Liaison Manager 6. Brief Recap on the pre-21st EACO Assemblies held in Arusha, Tanzania 17th June 2014 7. Brief review on the 21 st EACO Regulatory Assembly Report 8. Submission of Reports, Inputs and/or contributions from Working Parties 9. Brief review of the Working Group 2 (WG2) Terms of Reference 10. Discussion of the Action Plan (Activities, time frame and allocation of duties) 11. Proposal on Date and Venue for the next meeting for the WG2 12. Any Other Business 13. Closure of the meeting 3. Opening of the meeting. The third meeting of EACO Working Group 2 on Infrastructure Development, Connectivity and Digital Inclusion began on 22 nd October 2014, with a welcome remark by Mr. Albert Richard, Ag. CEO UCSAF (Universal Communications Service Access Fund) Tanzania, on behalf of the Chairperson of WG 2. Members present were welcomed by the Vice Chair Eng. Jean Baptiste Mutabazi and the absence from the Ugandan delegation was noted. They had communicated that they would not be able to attend the meeting and had hoped to participate on-line. 4. Introduction of members. Members present introduced themselves as indicated in the list of attendees in Annex 1. The contact details of members are contained in the Annex. 5. Appointment of Rapporteurs As the members who had been nominated to be the rapporteurs in previous WG 2 meetings were not present, the members present of WG 2 proposed a temporary replacement of rapporteurs. These were Mr. Thomas Luti from Kenya
as 1 st Rapporteur and Mr. Apollinaire BIGIRIMANA from Burundi as 2 nd Rapporteur for the WG 2 third meeting. 6. Adoption of the Agenda The agenda proposed as shown in item 2 of this report was adopted by the meeting. 7. Communication from the Liaison Manager The Liaison Manager, Mr. Godliving Kessy emphasized that EACO needed to make their presence felt and that there were high expectations by EACO member countries to produce results from the Working Groups. The WG members were told that it was apparent that EACO had adequate resources (expertise in the sector) to extensively impact the East African Community through escalating agendas to the EAC Council of Ministers responsible for Transport, Communications and Meteorology Protocol (TCM). The Liaison Manager emphasized that there is need for diligent follow-up communication with members that may be absent so that all parties make and send their contributions timely in order to facilitate our final report before the 21 st EACO Congress. 8. Brief Recap on the pre-21 st EACO Assemblies held in Arusha, Tanzania 17 th June 2014 The WG 2 members were informed that before the 21 st EACO Assemblies, there was a brief meeting focusing on the WG 2 issues. The meeting had attendance from the Private Sector as well as the other members of WG 2. The members present were taken through the proceedings of the previous WG 2 meetings and agreed. There were representatives from the mobile operators from Tanzania and Burundi. Their discussions centered on provision of infrastructure rollout through PPP (Public Private Partnerships) approach to provide last mile solutions. The Private Sector members were sensitized to be actively participating in the Working Group 2 meetings and deliverables. To utilize the available opportunity of UCSAF (Universal Communication Service Access Fund) to roll out infrastructure timely given the available Government initiatives. 9. Brief review on the 21 st EACO Regulatory Assembly Report The meeting noted that the progress report of the WG 2 was presented to the EACO Assemblies and recommendations had been given. These recommendations were :-
(i) To adopt the report of the WG2; Infrastructure Development, Connectivity & Digital Inclusion. (ii) That, WG2 refers to existing reports on infrastructure that had been developed earlier to enhance and enrich their present work; (iii) That, WG2 develops the best practice procedures or applications to resolve issues related to cross border/regional connectivity. (iv) That, the WG2 coordinates and follow up work of the Sector Committee on Transport, Communications and Meteorology of the East African Community Secretariat and facilitate the development of EACO s recommendations or contributions relating to WG2. (v) That, WG02 issue liaison statement to WG1 to address cross cutting issues in order to avoid duplication of efforts. 10. Submission of Reports, Inputs and/or contributions from Working Parties The matrix (statistics data) at the time of production of the report had not been completed and members were still in the process of collecting the statistics relevant to infrastructure development, connectivity and digital inclusion. Members agreed on a deadline of 31 st October 2014, to submit this information to the Rapporteurs with a copy to the EACO Liaison Manager. It was recommended that the EACO Liaison Manager, would remind members from the EACO countries with pending submissions to submit their inputs. Members were informed that there was a challenge in collection of the reports as initially there had been no secretariat but a host country and coordinators hence, with the evolution of the Working Groups some reports could not be traced. Therefore, it was not known what type of reports and who had been responsible for preparing them. Members agreed that these reports needed to be traced in order to avoid duplication of effort. Members present in the WG2 meeting read through the EACO Draft Status report on Infrastructure Connectivity Matrix. (i) It was noted that there was an issue in the cross-border connection of infrastructure which was suspected to be less about geographical challenges or incompatibility of connections but more of there being a lack of procedures, requirements and models that could be adopted especially on laying and interconnection of these infrastructure across noman s land. However, the biggest challenge quoted was the cost incurred and political concerns especially on a country s mobile network subscribers camping
onto the networks of the neighboring country due to adoption of the One Network Area initiative. This was also apparent in broadcasting of television and radio. (ii) On the Coverage section of the matrix, it was agreed to report only on the status of fiber optic cable connection coverage and eliminate reporting wireless coverage (2G, 3G, 4G). The status matrix was updated as of October 2014. It was discussed and agreed that the major cost of fiber optic infrastructure roll out was from civil works and a method should be adopted where governments take up this cost of building way-leaves to reduce the cost and accelerate roll out. It was recommended that a consolidated map for the whole East Africa showing the fiber infrastructure be included in the report to show the interconnectivity between countries. (iii)it was clarified to members that the timeframe for connection completion status for the national backbone needed to be updated with what had been achieved and what was still pending. Also, any barriers and challenges encountered and foreseen that would require liaising with other Working Groups e.g. WG8 (Communications Service Pricing and Industry Analysis) should be enhanced. (iv) Members discussed the challenges faced by the Universal Service Access Funds. For example in a situation where the subsidized towers/ infrastructure are owned by a third party (a Network Facilities Operator), there are economic implications when they roll out into remote areas as they will have a low number of tenants co-locating on their sites due to low mobile network service subscribers in the areas. (v) The WG2 discussed the status on mainstreaming innovative technologies. It was agreed that each member state take further effort to beef up the provided technologies in the 2 nd report of WG2 with enough information with respect to the EAC status, needs and requirements. 11. Brief review of the Working Group 2 (WG2) Terms of Reference The Terms of Reference were discussed in brief and members made to understand what was required from them in an effort to achieve the objectives set out. 12. Discussion of the Action Plan (Activities, time frame and allocation of duties) Members were reminded that there was one physical meeting remaining before presentation of the final report from the Working Group 2. Therefore, all inputs
required to fine-tune the report needed to be submitted in good time. Members of the different Working Parties were encouraged to work together online. New WG 2 members were taken through the allocation of duties and activities. The Action Plan was agreed upon the status and completion timeframe revisited attached here as Annex 2. It was however noted that all Working Parties (WP) were in progress with their schedules albeit at a slower pace than initially envisioned. This was noted as resulting from frequent membership changes, absence and non-attendance of meetings. It was thus called for members of the WPs (1 to 3) as well as their respective Heads to recommit & rededicate to the assignment and to take note that there remained only one physical meeting prior to the 21 st EACO Congress. 13. Proposal on Date and Venue for the next meeting for the WG2 It was proposed that the 4 th WG2 Meeting be held in Kigali, Rwanda in March 2015. The Secretariat will confirm through meeting invitations. 14. Any Other Business 14.1 Site Visit to Submarine Cable Landing Stations During the WG2 meeting, the members had an opportunity to visit the three submarine cables landing stations. These were SEACOM, EASSY and SEAS. Through discussions and explanation, it was noted that: (i) Description: SEACOM carry in their submarine cable 2TB of capacity and the minimum selling capacity to the customers starts from 1xSTM1. The technologies used are DWDM for capacity transport from the submarine cable and SDH to customer. Telecoms operators and ISPs co-locate their equipment at the premises. They provide also the IP transit services to ISPs/operators with such demand. EASSY carry in their submarine cable 0.5 TB of capacity and the minimum selling capacity to the customers starts from 1xSTM1. The technologies used are DWDM for capacity transport from the submarine cable and SDH to customers. Telecoms operators and ISPs co-locate their equipment at the premises. They provide also the IP transit services to ISPs/operators with such demand. (ii) Coverage: SEACOM start from Mtunzini in South African up to Fujairah in UAE EASSY is from South Africa to Port Sudan in Soudan
SEAS cable links Tanzania to Seychelles and is owned by the Seychelles Government. 15. Closure of the meeting There being no further discussions and issues, the Vice Chair closed the meeting on 24 th October 2014 allowing the team to visit Tanzania National ICT Backbone (NICTBB), Dar Es Salaam. Eng. Jean Baptiste Mutabazi Ag. Chairman, WG2. Mr. Thomas Luti Mr. Apollinaire BIGIRIMANA Ag. Rapporteur 1 Ag. Rapporteur 2
Annex 1 Communications for all in East Africa WORKING GROUP 2: Infrastructure Development, Connectivity and Digital Inclusion 22 th - 24 th October 2014 ECSAF HQs, DAR es Salaam., TANZANIA. LIST OF PARTICIPANTS No Names Position & Institution Country Phone No E-mail 1 Mr. Apollinaire Engineer, Monitoring, Burundi +257 79957492 bigirimanaapo@yahoo.fr; Apollinaire.b@arct.gov.bi Bigirimana Planning Spectrum &Frequency Officer-ARCT 2 Mr. Paul Kiage Manager MVE- Monitoring Kenya +254 721574980 kiage@ca.go.ke 3 Mr. Jean Baptiste Mutabazi & evaluation- CAK Head of Department Communication & Media- RURA Rwanda +250 788505779 baptiste.mutabazi@rura.rw 8 Mr. Alexis Rwililiza Tower site inspection& Rwanda +250 788577612 alexis.rwililiza@rura.rw Bigondo Authorization Officer-RURA 9 Mr. Albert Richard Head, Operations, UCSAF Tanzania +255 754710711 albert.richard@ucsaf.go.tz 10 Mr. Madaha Smile Communications Tanzania +255 758811157 madaha.francis@smilecoms.com Francis 11 Dr. Maria Sasabo Manager Central Tanzania +255 784606897 maria.sasabo@tcra.go.tz Zone,TCRA 12 Mr. Thomas Luti Communications Authority of Kenya Kenya +254.703 493464 luti@ca.go.ke
13 Mr. Godliving J. Kessy Liaison Manager/RA EACO Secretariat- Rwanda +250 786874466 gkessy@eaco.int; kessygj@tcra.go.tz Annex 2 TABLE SHOWING SCOPE AND COMPOSITION OF WORKING PARTIES OF WG 2 Working Party One: Infrastructure Development Scope/Guiding Deliverables TORs 1, 6 [2,3,4,5] Status Report March 2014 Partial Analysis June 2014 Draft Report March 2015 Team Composition Chair - Eng Mutabazi (Rwanda) Kenya Tom Buluku Thomas Luti Burundi Jérémie Hageringwe Constaque Hakizimana Uganda Umar Semakula Tanzania Napalite Magingo Madaha Francis Rwanda
Aminadab Bararwerekana Alexis Bigondo Rwililiza Two: 12 Status Report Chair Alexis Bigondo Rwililiza Connectivity [2,3,4,5] March 2014 (Rwanda) Partial Analysis Burundi June 2014 Apollinaire Bigirimana Draft Report Amb. Ferdinand Ngendabanka March 2015 Rwanda Mutabazi Jean Baptiste Tanzania Peter Ulanga Habbi Gunze Madaha Francis Uganda Umar Semakula Three: Digital 7,8,9,10,11 Status Report Chair - Pamela Kadama (Uganda) Inclusion [5] March 2014 Burundi Partial Analysis Constaque Hakizimana June 2014 Jérémie Hageringwe Draft Report Kenya March 2015 Paul Kiage Tanzania
Maria Sasabo Peter Ulanga Rwanda Mutabazi Jean Baptiste Plus One: 13 Status Report Amb. Ferdinand Ngendabanka Innovation [5], March 2014 (Burundi) Partial Analysis All other members June 2014 Draft Report March 2015