Wireless & Telecommunication

Biography

Biography: Celestine Iwendi

Abstract

The Sub-Saharan Africa according to Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation has succeeded in the last decade in bringing voice services within the reach of some three quarters of the population, but the vast majority of the region is falling further behind the rest of the world in terms of broadband connectivity that will empower Internet of Things. There are two main reasons for this: supply is limited, and prices have been very high. Broadband, which  is  the  delivery  of  Internet  IP  bandwidth  and  all of the content, services and applications which consume this bandwidth. The essential underpinning of broadband therefore is the need for a high capacity transmission backbone network capable of delivering this bandwidth. Providing an entry level 256 Kbps broadband service to hundreds, thousands or millions of customers requires a backbone transmission network with sufficient capacity to do so. And each time an operator increases its broadband service from 256 Kbps to 512 Kbps, 2 Mbps, or even 100 Mbps, this in turn escalates the capacity requirements of the transmission backbone network. Broadband is not just a consequence of economic growth, it is also a cause. This is the problem currently facing most Internet service Providers in Africa.

Many people in Africa still use only landline Internet option, which is a “painfully slow” dial-up service. Cell phone service is erratic because of the thick trees. African consumers need satellite Internet to do their online banking, emailing, bill paying, social media  for example Facebook , and general Internet surfing. Many will also like to watch television shows online and occasionally downloads files for research irrespective of where you are in any part of the country.