PART I - What if we built our own Internet ?

Have you ever thought why internet costs in Africa are astronomically higher than our counterparts in Europe and America ? 

Has it ever occurred to you that almost every internet page you try to access resides some where in Europe but mostly in America.

Other than some corporates with email servers, has it ever occurred to you that most ugandan businesses with websites host them in America.

This has got me thinking, why should we get annoyed with Infocom for cheating us and seacom for encouraging them to cheat us if we can have our own internet from down-up here in Uganda and everybody in the world will scramble to access internet content from us. 

Internet is not all about google, yahoo, youtube name it, it is all about being able to share and access information or data from computer(host) to computer(host). If all computers in Uganda were connected to each other, what would this be. Now if you are a Cisco addict you would say that this is a lie, but I have a question for you: when does a network cease to be a LAN to a WAN to Internet? Another question, what is the difference between a WAN and a LAN?, its all semantics but as a network guru  will always know if his network is growing beyond a LAN to a WAN (connectivity problems crop in and the network become to complex for you to manage without coordination).

Quitters are already saying this is impossible because the have not thought deeply. Take a deep breath, think, imagine and connect. This can be done!!!!!!!!!, yes it can be done!!!!!!!.

Lets take an example of Kampala most specifically the Wandegeya suburb, do you know how many computers are being used for business in this 200 square meter areas? lots of them. But unfortunately, all these computers are disconnected and work as isolated hosts. Setting aside computers being used by secretarial bureaus , music rippers and video libraries, do you now how many internet cafes that exists in Wandegeya ? by the time I left active business in Wandegeya, there existed more than four internet cafes in this hotspot.

Now cowards are already panicking, thinking of KCC, UCC and Kaihura. Welcome to the world of RF ELECTRO-MAGNETICS, the darling ISM band given to us by ITU-R. This is not complex computing lingo or radio physics, you have encountered this technology, used it and could be using it now while reading this post. 

WI-FI !!!!!!! ???? , how do we use it, read PART II of this post, i will be giving detailed information about the ISM band and how we shall be using it to create our own internet

Infocom Slashes Retail Internet Costs

This is not information you could get in the public domain because internet business in Uganda is currently competitive. You need a little bit of social engineering to get this information. By the way Ugandan businesses can be easily penetrated if you are a good social engineer.

First the situation is a little hot because ISPs and big communication service providers like MTN, UTL and ZAIN find it weired to buy capacity from Infocom. Really compared to these Infocom is an under dog and this should be one of the great mistake SEACOM has done in the Ugandan market. How do you expect a company like MTN with more than 3 million customers to buy capacity from infocom which does not even clock 500 "Big business mistake".

Infocom is now dealing in both retail and whole sale business of internet on behalf of seacom. There is a big problem with this because infocom will determine the price other providers get broadband for and definately will make sure it safocates them so as not to meet its retail values. I think UCC should come in and regulate this because this should be one of the problems as to why we are not expeirencing and speed changes here in uganda because ISPs have refused to connect to seacom through infocom.

Back to the reduced internet tarriffs from Infocom

Like most ISPs in Uganda, information on pricing is not easily got in the public domain, i think most ISPs charge prices according to how the percieve a company to be.

I called infocom and the first information the wanted to know before the devulge any information to me was which company I come from. I am pretty sure at the moment if you are an individual the can't tolerate dealing with you. The asked for how many computers we have and I always ask myself why the need this information and I have come to realise that if you give them a small number, the cost is relatively lower.

This is an email I got from thier sales representative

May I take this opportunity to introduce to you our selected service descriptions for your kind perusal and reference.

I am pleased to state that as Uganda’s Internet pioneer, Infocom is today more then ever positioned to offer a full portfolio of Internet and Data Services. We recently introduced WDSL (Wireless DSL) via Wimax connectivity in the exclusive licensed Frequency Band.

Deployment of leading technology in our IT backbone (Uganda’s largest Internet capacity via V-Sat connection into Europe and USA) paired with an unparalleled level of engineering expertise provide the base to meet even the most challenging IT and connectivity requirements of our clients.

Infocom provides direct broadband Internet connectivity via its own gateway, with bandwidth segments offered ranging from 64kbps to 2Mbps, symmetrical or asymmetrical in nature, this means the up and down bandwidth can be any ratio in multiples of 64 Kbps (i.e. 64 Kbps in and 64Kbps out, 128Kbps in and 64Kbps out etc.)

Our mission statement is simply to continue to deliver the very best in data connectivity solutions allowing all Infocom clients to take advantage of all benefits the Internet has to offer.

Advantages and Benefits Include, no telephone cost implication, its a flat rate and the Speeds are Fast.

We have also introduced different solutions with INFOCOM VoIP Service ‘Talk Lite’ which gives access to cheap international call rates, unlimited FREE Voice calls
within our network and our peering partners in Kenya.

Looking forward to your quick response.

I have alot of questions I asked my self regarding this email, Is infocom still providing thier capacity through V-sat yet on the seacom launch they told use thier link is worthy 10Gbs,
If you move around Kampala infocom has advertised heavily and from implication the lowest whole sale price the have is STM-1 which is equal to 155Mbps, a value which is 100 times morethan what the are giving to retail customers. The email implies you can not get capacity which is more than 2Mbps.

By the way in all this the did not let me decide which capacity I wanted, I guess the should be having an algorithm the use to decide what customers need from the number of computers you have at your premises. I think this is wrong since I my have one computer which acts as a VOIP server to 100 clients and this will consume bandwidth in execess of 2Mbps if you are to deliver HD voice.

Any way these are how the new costs compare to the old prices. Thier internet is claimed to be symetric in nature which I doubt in cases for all ISPs in Uganda, the cheat customers on the uplink. So price are given basing on the downlink the provided, you could double the bandwidth if you think the uplink values the give are true

Old pricing

These prices were got from the UCC website

32/32 Monthly Subscription $481
64/32 Monthly Subscription $694
64/64 Monthly subscription $963

New pricing

The below prices include $1400 as connection fees

64/64kbps Monthly Subscription $300
128/128kbps Monthly Subscription $600
256/256kbps Monthly Subscription $1200
512/512kbps Monthly Subscription $2400

So from the information in the public domain we see that a 64kbps link "ISPs call it 128kbps if symentric" the cost has dropped from $963 to $300 dollars which is a significant drop in price but still expensive since seacom prices in the public domain go for $300 per 1Mbps which is more than 200% profit for Infocom.

What about if you wanted to get 1Mbps (512kbps) link from them, this will be the initial cost
Connection fee = $1400
Monthly Subscription $2400 X 3 = $7200 since you must pay quarterly
Total cost = 7200+1400 = $8600

$8600 for a 512kbps link to the consumer after purchaing it for $900 for a quarter (3 month). Infocom only needs one customer to sustain thier business I think UCC should do something which I doubt otherwise SEACOM to Uganda is a gangerin

PART I - A Ugandan way to low internet costs

Like many people, I was overwhelmed with the news that for the first time we are going to have a direct link to the rest of the world??

These were not isolated feeling, the whole country was in a media frenzy, we were getting relieved from the pain of slow and expensive internet

Daily Monitor

Ugandans’ thirst to get connected to the world through faster data transfer and website updates without leaving the comfort zone has been quenched by the launch of broadband Internet service in the country.

Seacom’s fibre optic cable that links East and Southern Africa to Asia and Europe through the Middle East, was intended at providing the East and South Africans access to the whole world through fast, affordable and reliable Internet services.
more....

Mr Herlihy promised us that he would bring down prices of bandwidth by more than 70 per cent. ISPs for instance were paying up to $5000 per MB per second, and this was a cost that was to come down to around $300.

I did my math and at $300 per MB, the company that I work for would now fork out $ 75 for the 256kbps we use. What about an ordinary Ugandan who only needs 64kbps??? a whopping $18 and this would get every tech servy in Kampala connected.

Whats the situation after launch

First things started getting fuzzy when the launch date was approaching. On the seacom blog, twitter and facebook profiles, seacom public relations started holding information an act they have not been doing. Any information on the anchor tenants was not forthcoming and ISPs who had connected or bought capacity from them was a business secret.

The tone of bloggers and journalists who are connected to internet businesses and ISPs started to change to one which was advocating for no price reduction for bandwidth. Information on how international bandwidth does not affect internet cost flooded the internet and this was the begining of a scam masterminded by african ISPs to retain thier margin of profit.

Seacom afraid that SAT-3 would retain its customers if the provided bandwidth prices in the public domain changed to the tune of ISPs. Mr Herlihy him self as a spin doctor held a press conference and informed us how international bandwidth costs had reduced by 50% a year ago when other providers got afraid of seacom's sucess, so at the time of launch, seacom brought down prices by another 40% which brings down the international bandwidth cost to 90%.

My question is have you noticed any reduction in your internet cost in the past year? Surely Mr Herlihy is spinning dumb africans who even don't know what broadband is.