Google has a global ambition to get Internet access available more widely. This week it announced the launch of a Metronet in Kampala designed to open up the market.<\/p>\n
Russell Southwood spoke to Google\u2019s Access Field Director, Kai Wulff about what it\u2019s setting out to achieve.<\/p>\n
Google has been looking at the supply chain in Sub-Saharan Africa and wanting to find a way of intervening that would break down market blockages and ultimately reduce retail prices for users.<\/p>\n
However, it\u2019s always been very clear that it did not want to get into direct provision of retail bandwidth:\u201dWe wanted to do something where we put our money where our mouth was that could really influence the ecosystem of the Internet.\u201d<\/p>\n
So why did they choose Uganda and Kampala in particular?:\u201dWe wanted to start somewhere where other problems had been sorted. Uganda has an international fibre connection and vibrant competition and I have to express my own bias. I love Kampala.\u201d<\/p>\n
Google will probably invest somewhere between US$12-14 million in a 6-700 kilometre fibre Metronet that covers most of Greater Kampala, stretching from Entebbe towards Jinja across one axis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe aim is to connect every building or base station ISPs or operators want to get to. The number of kilometres laid increases every day as we keep extending the network.\u201d The network is being built by a local sub-contractor and supervised by a regional partner familiar with building fibre networks.<\/p>\n
The network is being operated by a 100% Google owned subsidiary that is either selling capacity or dark fibre:\u201d We want to be profitable but we are not extracting the most we could out of the asset.\u201d<\/p>\n
The capacity offer is very different from buying by the Mbps. You buy a connection and according to Wulff, the amount of capacity on that connection will grow as the customer\u2019s demand grows but there will be no extra payment. Also, the connections provide uncontended wholesale capacity.<\/p>\n
That said, Google is being a little cagey about the exact price of the connection port:\u201dI can say that it is substantially cheaper than doing it on a cheap microwave network and we expect it to go lower.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s important to understand it\u2019s not a retail play. It\u2019s a high capacity Metronet network designed to ensure that CAPEX is not an issue for Internet providers.\u201d It says that it has sold thousands of connection ports, some where Google is providing the connection equipment and others where it is dark fibre.The clients for the network are a mixture of new entrants, existing large operators and ISPs.<\/p>\n
But isn\u2019t this competing directly with things like MTN\u2019s own Metronet?:\u201dOur proposition is totally different. We\u2019re only selling to other operators and we try and avoid unnecessary duplication. We look at how we can achieve synergy with other networks. Where we can, we make use of existing infrastructure that is available at the right cost and quality.\u201d<\/p>\n
So will we see Google building more of these kinds of Metronets?:\u201dWe\u2019re very busy with the project here in Kampala and we have to prove it first. Also there are different groups in Google looking at other forms of access.\u201d<\/p>\n
From our own work on Internet value chains last year, it is clear that three significant market blockages remain, even in very liberalised countries: local access (including metronets), national access and quite often transit access for landlocked countries.<\/p>\n
It will be interesting to see whether Google\u2019s Metronet in Kampala delivers the magic combination of both faster and cheaper bandwidth for end-users.<\/p>\n
By Balancing Act<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n The fast and slow lane for fibre in Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Fibre-to-wherever in Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Reaching Africa\u2019s fragmented mobile users<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Mobile giants tackle the all-data future<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nMore by Balancing Act<\/h3>\n