Article submitted by Alvaro Oliveira. Do you want to share knowledge with the other followers of MenosFios? Follow the steps.
For professional and personal reasons I have always been an internet user in Angola. Whichever operator is used, internet access is indeed expensive in this country. I often thought how difficult it would be for low-income citizens to afford this access. And how it could have a negative impact on their lives.
A A4AI organization ("Alliance for Affordable Internet") in its 2017 report defines "internet accessible" when someone does not pay more than 2% of their income to have 1GB of internet traffic. The so-called "1 by 2" rule. Looking at the tariffs available in the Angolan market, 1 GB of internet traffic will cost around 22 USD, above the African average (17,5 USD in 2015). Crossing GDP per capita with the rule "1 for 2", 1GB should not cost more than 10 USD / month. Therefore the challenge will be to bring the tariffs closer to the real financial capacity of Angolans.
The "ICT White Paper" published by the Government of Angola in 2011 unequivocally identifies access to the Internet as an accelerator of social development by reducing poverty and exclusion. But how to make this a reality?
The solution involves a balanced combination of competition and cooperation among the various stakeholders in the Telecom markets in Angola. Contradictory? Maybe not!
Competition should mean creating conditions for smaller operators or entrants to broaden their customer base without forcing cannibalizing the existing base but bringing in new customers.
Tax incentives can be an efficient mechanism for those moving their services to more remote areas of the country. Transmission and interconnection costs will allow smaller operators to have viable business plans. Likewise, these Operators consume a large part of their capital investment in infrastructures, when they already exist.
Recently the Current Government, through its Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technologies, gave explicit instructions to the Operators regarding the need to to share infrastructures (physics, fiber optic networks, energy) as a way to monetize available investment capital and accelerate the arrival of services to rural areas of the country.
Cooperation between Operators must be effective. Angola now has different national fiber optic networks that must be shared by limiting new redundant investments and optimizing maintenance costs. Shared WIFI networks in locations such as university campuses, public utilities and underserved districts allow faster expansion of these networks, making Internet users affordable.
Angola's commitment to the introduction of 4G / LTE networks should be intensified. Despite the associated investment costs, LTE has a "cost per bit" lower than other technologies in the long run.
The reduction of international connection charges must continue the path started when the WACS submarine cable began offering its services. By the way, Angola Cables is an excellent example of cooperation between operators. A new cable will soon be put into service, linking Angola to Brazil and the USA. These investments in conjunction with IXP services already available will certainly make a decisive contribution to an internet and content more accessible to all Angolans.
Not to mention the importance of the Angolan satellite, Angosat, which will soon be launched and which will provide Angola with its own means in this technological segment for the broadcasting of broadcasting and internet services.
Despite a still unfavorable economic environment, there are reasons to believe that ICT in Angola will continue its expansion and bring its benefits to more and more Angolans.
