SADC’S INFRASTRUCTURE: A REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE Africa, Angola, Gabon, Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte D’Ivoire, and Morocco.<sup>8</sup> The equally long ACE submarine cable system will connect all countries along the west coast of Africa (more than 25 countries in Africa and Western Europe), from Morocco to South Africa. Seventeen operators signed a memorandum of understanding in November 2008, and the cable is scheduled for launch in 2011.<sup>9</sup> The West African Cable System (WACS) will link Europe, West Africa, and South Africa.

Countries with access to **Table 4.5a** submarine cables benefit from **with and without access to submarine cables** lower prices for ICT services, Price per and those with _competitive_ minute for a call access benefit even more (table within SubSaharan (US$) 4.5a). Mauritius and South No access to submarine cable 1.34 Africa, after being connected to Access to submarine cable 0.57 an undersea fiber optic cable, Monopoly international gateway 0.7 saw reduced prices for Internet Competitive international gateway 0.48 services. Tanzania, which has _Source:_ AICD calculations. recently obtained access to the cable, has seen a steady decline in prices (table 4.5b) for all critical ICT services.

**Table 4.5a Prices of Internet access and phone calls in Sub-Saharan Africa, with and without access to submarine cables**

||Price per<br>minute for a call<br>within Sub-<br>Saharan (US$)|Price per<br>minute for a call<br>to United<br>States (US$)|Price for 20<br>hours of dial-up<br>Internet access<br>per month ($)|
|---|---|---|---|
|No access to submarine cable|1.34|0.86|67.95|
|Access to submarine cable|0.57|0.48|47.28|
|Monopoly international gateway|0.7|0.72|37.36|
|Competitive international gateway|0.48|0.23|36.62|
|_Source:_AICD calculations.||||

**Table 4.5b Time trend of prices for ICT services in Tanzania (US$)***

||**2005**|**2006**|**2007**|**2008**|**2009**|**2010**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Monthly prepaid mobile basket|13.46|10.40|9.54|—|9.32|9.28|
|Monthly postpaid fixed basket|12.43|10.82|11.28|11.73|—|9.65|
|ADSL monthly service charge||38.87|31.49|32.74|29.74|29.74|

_Source:_ AICD.

_Note:_ *2010 values have been generated using 2009 annual average exchange rate. ADSL = Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line; ICT = information and communications technology.

Access to a submarine cable is a necessary but not sufficient condition for lowering the prices of ICT services. Countries will have to ensure that the international segment of the market is competitive if customers are to see lower prices. In several SADC countries, prices remain high owing to lack of competition in the international gateways.

To attain full intraregional connectivity, the SADC member countries will have to add 5,158 km of new fiber optic links. Achieving the minimum levels of regional connectivity will require investments in several countries. The levels of investment required in each case are very modest in absolute terms (table 4.6). The region as a whole will need to spend a modest $139 million to meet the regional requirements.

The benefits of completing the regional integration of ICT networks would be substantial in relation to the modest costs involved. Experience from other African countries suggests that connecting a country to a submarine cable via a competitive arrangement for landing station can bring down the costs of broadband Internet by as much as 75 percent. Not only would this deliver substantial savings to existing users of broadband, but the price reduction could be expected to induce additional uptake of broadband

> 8 http://www.mainonecable.com.

> 9 http://www.orange.com/en_EN/press/press_releases/cp090609en.jsp.

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