State

 of  Telecommunica/ons  in  Sudan  

Khalid M Ali

Sudan  Telecomm  Group  

For  the  ICT  Development  and  Management  

Program  

September  6-­‐  17,  2010  

 Overview  
① Industry  Structure  
② Milestones  
③ WTO  Agreement  on  Telecommunica/on  Services  
④ Internet  Development  
⑤ e-­‐  Readiness  
⑥ Policy  Issues  
⑦ Industry  Challenges  
⑧ Professional  Development  Goals  
 Telecommunica+ons  Industry  Structure    

Council  of  Ministers  -­‐  

Ministry  of  Informa/on   •  Policies  and  Legisla/on  
and  Communica/on  

• Established  under  the  Telecom  Act  of  2001  

Na/onal   • Responsible  for  plans,  policies  and  regula/on,  
Telecommunica/on   regula/ng  tariffs,  licensing  operators,  frequency  management  
and  equipment  approval  
Corpora/on   • Runs  Sudan’s  universal  service  fund  

•  Established  in  1999  and  launched  in  September  2001  under  the  Council  of  
Ministers  in  the  Prime  Minister’s  office.  
Na/onal  Informa/on   •  Primarily  concerned  with  the  use  of  ICT  in  government  
Center   •   50  projects  in  early  stages  of  implementa/on.  
•  Valued  at  $1.5  billion  
•  Objec/ve  is  to  aZain  e-­‐  Government  
 Telecommunica+ons  Industry  Structure    

Sudan  Radio  and   •  Regula/on  of  the  audio-­‐  visual  content  

Television  Authority     •  Provisioning  of  audio-­‐  visual  broadcast  services  

•  Providing  the  necessary  infrastructure  

Operators  and   •  Provisioning  of  landline,  wireless  data  and  voice  services  
Service  Providers  
 Opera+ng  En++es  

Operator   Service  Provided   Ownership  

Sudan  Telecom  Group   • Fixed  line  operator,  data  and   • Publicly  traded  company  
internet  service  provider  
• Mobile  Telecom  Operator  

Canar  Telecom   • Fixed  line  operator,  data  and   • ETISALAT  82  %  

internet  service  provider   • GOS  +  Investors  18%  
• Limited  mobility  

MTN-­‐  Sudan   • Mobile  Telecom  Operator   • MTN  Group  

•   Mobile  Internet  Service  Provider  

Zain-­‐  Sudan   • Mobile  Telecom  Operator   • Zain  Group  

•   Mobile  Internet  Service  Provider  

Gemtel   • Mobile  Telecom  Operator   • LAP  green  networks  80%  

• Limited  opera/ons  in  South  Sudan   • I-­‐  Telecom  20%  

Network  of  the  World-­‐  NOW   • Mobile  Telecom  Operator   • Vivacell  75%  
• Limited  opera/ons  in  South  Sudan   • Wawat  25%  
 Industry  Milestones  
June  2008    establishment  of  Africa’s  first  na/onal  
telecentre  academy-­‐  SuNTA  in  Sudan  

2003  establishment  of  a  universal  

access  fund  

June  2001  Approval  of  the  Na/onal  

Telecommunica/on  Act  

Sep  1996  crea/on  of  the  NTC  

April  1993  priva/sa/on  of  the  Telecomm  sector-­‐  

end  of  government’s  monopoly  
Sudan  and  the  WTO  Agreement  on  Telecomm  

A  working  party  on  the  accession  of  

Sudan  has  been  established,  however,  
Sudan  is  not  yet  a  member  of  the  WTO    

Many  of  the  policies  described  in  the  

WTO  agreement  are  included  in  the  
Na/onal  Telecommunica/on  Act    
 Internet  Development  in  Sudan.    

Operator   Dial-­‐  up   DSL   EVDO/ WiMAX  

3G  
Sudatel   150,000   20,000   15,000   Migra/on  to  3G  wireless  technologies  in  2007  
made  internet  accessibility  both  affordable  and  
Canar   26,250   4,500   available  to  wider  popula/ons  across  the  country.    

MTN   1,000   EVDO  and  UMTS  technologies  enabled  

students,  researchers,  small  and  medium  
Other   >5,000   <2,000   size  companies  and  the  public  to  access  the  
internet  at  rela/vely  reasonable  prices.  
Total   181,250   20,000   20,500   2000  
Connec/ng  to  FLAG-­‐  and  now  EASSy-­‐  submarine  
cables  significantly  increased  bandwidth  and  
21  licensed  ISPs,  major  players  are  Sudatel,   capacity  for  ISPs.  Lowered  costs  are  expected  as  
satellites  usage  diminishes    
CANAR  plus  the  four  wireless  ISPs  
Despite  the  rela/vely  affordable  prices  and  
Internet  services  were  first  offered  by   availability  of  services,  internet  penetra/on  rates  
Sudatel  in  1998  via  dial-­‐  up  networks  (28-­‐   in  Sudan  are  on  the  lower  side  compared  to  other  
56k)   countries  in  the  region  

Wireless  operators  offered  accessibility  via  

2.5G  technology  to  limited  popula/on.    
 e-­‐  Readiness  

The  NIC  conducted  an  ICT  readiness  survey  in   Sudatel  owns  and  operates  a  7000  km  fibre  
2007.  Results  were  used  to  build  an  ICT  strategy  
focusing  mainly  on  government   backbone  connec/ng  13  major  ci/es  

NIC  also  created  the  ICT  component  of  the   EASSy  has  a  landing  sta/on  in  Port  Sudan  
country’s  na/onal  strategy  owned  by  the  Na/onal   connec/ng  the  country  directly  to  Europe  
Council  for  Strategic  Planning   and  North  America  through  mul/ple  
interna/onal  submarine  cable  networks  
These  effort  stopped  short  of  formula/ng  a  clear  
ICT  strategy  that  spells  out  what  both  
government  and  the  private  sectors  should  do  to   EASSy  is  the  highest  capacity  system  
develop  the  ICT  sector  in  the  country       serving  sub-­‐Saharan  Africa,  with  a  
3.84  Tbit/s,  2  fibre-­‐pair  configura/on  
 Eastern  Africa  Submarine  Cable  System  
Landing  Points  
Sudan   Port  Sudan  
Djibou/   Djibou/  
Somalia   Mogadishu  
Kenya   Mombasa  
Tanzania   Dar  es  Salaam  
Madagascar   Toliary  
Mozambique   Maputo  
South  Africa   Mtunzini  

Land-­‐  Locked  Countries  Served  

Uganda   Rwanda  
Burundi   Malawi  
Zambia   Zimbabwe  
Botswana   Swaziland  
Lesotho  
e-­‐  Commerce,  e-­‐  government  and  e-­‐  Literacy  

Lesser  efforts  have  been  

Shy  aZempts  resulted  in  POS  
exerted  by  the  government  in  
and  a  few  other  basic  e  
formula/ng  a  legal  
commerce  applica/on  roll  
framework  to  support  e-­‐
outs.  
commerce  

Only  a  few  governmental   Hundreds  of  university  students  

agencies/  ministries  have  put   graduate  from  ICT-­‐  related  
services  online   disciplines  every  year  
e  government  is  a  major  NIC   Government  and  the  private  
ini/a/ve,  however  with   sector  offer  limited  training  and  
conflic/ng  government  priori/es,   employment  opportuni/es  
this  does  not  seem  to  receive  the  
needed  aZen/on  nor  funding  
Legal  &  Policy  Issues    Impac+ng  ICT  Ac+vi+es  in  Sudan  

Conflic/ng  ownership  and  priori/es  

• Four  governmental  agencies  are  tasked  with  planning,  execu/ng  and  
regula/ng  ICT  ini/a/ves  in  Sudan  
• Minimal  horizontal  integra/on  across  agencies  

Lack  of  a  comprehensive  legal  framework  to  regulate  the  sector  

• Central  Bank  of  Sudan-­‐  for  example-­‐  refuses  to  allow  telecomm  operators  to  
deliver  money-­‐  transfer  applica/ons  by  denying  them  access  to  the  na/onal  
exchange  
• None  of  the  regula/ng  agencies  is  able  to  reverse  CBoS’  posi/on      
Challenges  Facing  The  Telecommunica+on  Sector  

UN  and  USA  economic  sanc/ons  on  Sudan  

1 • Impeded  research  and  development  work  

• Made  it  difficult  to  finance  expansion  programs          

Na/onal  infrastructure  coverage  and  high  prices  

2 • Limited  access  to  electricity  and  reliable  roads  impedes  expanding  coverage  
• Modest  price  compe//on  between  the  two  na/onal  backbone  operators  

3 Lack  of  private  sector  engagement  in  policy  formula/on  and  

development  

4 Lack  of  investment  in  human  capital    

Professional  Development  Goals    

1 Capacity  building  

2 Exchanging  experience  

3
Exposure  to  policy-­‐making  
and  regulatory  issues  
 Thank  You.  

khalid@expressotelecom.com