Panelists at the ongoing two-day West and Central Africa Com Conference in Dakar have attributed the sluggish growth of broadband internet in Africa to high cost of bandwidth and unfriendly regulatory environment. The theme for this year's conference is "A new world of opportunities in Western and Central Africa's Digital Market." The panelists took turns to stress the point that while bandwidth cost had fallen drastically along the coastal countries in Africa, it was relatively very high in the inland countries, adding that in some countries, industry regulators also deliberately placed stumbling blocks in the way of operators’ attempt to install broadband infrastructure. Senior Investment Officer at the International Financial Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank, Femi Akinrebiyo set the ball rolling by stating that whereas in the coastal countries, where most of the large submarine fibre optic cables have landed, bandwidth cost had reduced, from over US$10,000 per megabyte a few years back, to less than US$300, its cost still ranged in thousands of dollars in inland countries. “Over the last three years there has been tremendous decline in bandwidth price from US$10,000 per megabyte to below US$300 in Nigeria and other coastal countries, but the decline does not cut across the continent- it is still high in some places in spite of the many submarine cables,” he said Mr. Akinrebiyo noted that the coastal countries were enjoying from bandwidth price decline but connection of fibre optic cables to the inland countries had come up against huge challenges, some from regulators and from local authorities whose communities had to grant right of way. He said in Tanzania, for instance, the government is simply standing in the way of installation of broadband infrastructure, while in Nigeria the regulator charges exorbitant fees for right-of- way, and that had been counterproductive to the spread of bandwidth to inland Africa and even across that country itself. In Ghana, telecom operators had been seeking reduction in fees and charges on the installation of infrastructure to provide affordable broadband and even voice services, but local government agencies have remained adamant on placing relatively very high and arbitrary charges on telcos attempt to install infrastructure. Mr. Akinrebiyo however noted that there was hope in Kenya, where the government itself had actually invested heavily in the installation of broadband infrastructure; in Burundi, where government had constituted all telcos into one consortium to send fibre to that country; and in Rwanda, where the government had spread broadband infrastructure across country. Indeed Ghana government also awarded a US$150 million contract to Huawei in 2010 to install broadband infrastructure across country and make Ghana ready for fibre to the home. Founder and CEO of Millennium Telecom Centrafrique, Souleymane Diallo confirmed that because there was no fibre optic in Central African Republic, bandwidth cost still remained between US$2,000 and US$2,500 per megabyte, adding that the World Bank is doing a fibre optic backbone project for countries within the region, and hopefully bandwidth cost would reduce when that is done. He also noted that in his home country, the government and regulators work on broadband infrastructure at the national level without involving the telecom operators, and that had contributed to the sluggish growth of the sub-sector. Dr. Jabulani Dhiwayo is the Marketing Development Manager of the EMEA region of Corning, a fibre optics vendor, and he said it was not have spreading fibre inland, but there was need to also provide data centres and other complementary facilities that would make the fibre easily accessible to the masses. He also advised telecom operators in Africa to join more than one fibre optic cable consortium so that when there is a fault on one cable, they could easily channel their traffic on the other. “Telecom operators in Africa tend to channel all their traffic on one cable but that is dangerous – it is important to join one cable going west and another going east so when there is damage you have a sure alternative,” he said. Tidjane Deme, Google’s Lead for Franchophone Africa thinks it was time students were introduced to smart devices like smartphones and tablets for academic purpose, instead of computers and laptops, because the former gave students better access to the internet. He said much of the broadband accessibility gap could also be closed by providing affordable smart devices in Africa to enable average citizens own and use them, adding that “it is unfair for the well-to-do on the continent to rather have flexible payment plans for smart devices, while poor people are compelled to either buy ready cash or go without them.” Roland Agambire of RLG Phones, Ghana, was billed to be part of the panel discussion but he did not show. The conference is being attended by over 200 telecom industry players drawn from the two regions and from other parts of the world.