During the 2nd Session of the African ISP Forum at the
ACT Summit held in Pretoria, South Africa on the 1st of August 2001 and subsequent
to the presentation of EuroISPA by Peter Van Roste, the current President
of EuroISPA, the African ISPs and African ISPAs decided to hold a follow-up
meeting to discuss the possibility of establishing an African ISPA body that
would consist of national ISPAs and facilitate International co-operation.
ATTENDEES
David Woolnough, DFID - UK
Birhanu Yifru, Ethiopian Telecomms Corp. - Ethiopia
Martin Brasg, Newskies Satellite - SA
Schuller Habeenzu, UUNET Zambia - Zambia
Eric Osiakwan, GISPA - Ghana
William Stucke, ISPA (SA), ISOC-ZA, ZAnet Internet Services - SA (Acting Chairman)
Joseph Mucheru, TESPOK, Wananchi Online - Kenya
Richard Bell, TESPOK, SwiftKenya - Kenya
Brian Longwe, TESPOK, ISPKenya - Kenya (Acting Secretary)
Maxwell Kadiri, Global Internet Policy Initiative - Nigeria
Olasupo Oyedepo, Kontempory Koncepts Limited - Nigeria
Sean Moroney, AITEC Africa - UK / SA
Peter Van Roste, Euro ISPA
Kyoko Day, APIA
Dennis Jones, Cable & Wireless
Nikki Popoola, Cable & Wireless
Alh. Lamin D Jagne, GAMTEL- Gambia
Following introductions, updates were received from various countries as to
the current status of ISP Associations within the respective countries.
Ghana (GISPA)
The idea to set up an ISP Association grew out of a realised need to exchange
data locally. Heavy handed action by the Government and regulatory authority
in Ghana also prompted the ISPs to get together in order to make formal representations
both to Government and the regulator.
Subsequent to an initial meeting between ISPs a rough consensus was reached.
There were initially 7 ISPs present at the meeting. These formed the initial
members of GISPA, and were recently joined by NCS (Ghana's first ISP). Ghana
has 29 licensed ISPs; 10 are operational, of which 8 are full members of GISPA.
GISPA has since formation established a good dialogue with the Government
of Ghana and has been invited by the Minister to provide input into ongoing
policy and legislative review in the communications industry.
GISPA's primary agenda at the moment is the establishment of an Internet Exchange
Point.
GISPA has been incorporated as a non-profit organisation. Membership is as
follows:
Regular Members
Joining Fee: $1000, Monthly Fee: $50
Associate Members
Joining Fee: $500, Monthly Fee: ?
Nigeria
ISPs in Nigeria started having problems with the PTT; they formed the "Committee
of ISPs" to fight down the costs of Internet access. These efforts were successful.
Initially there were only 8 companies involved in the initiative, in June
a meeting was held at the Sheraton Hotel. This meeting was very well attended
and attracted the majority of ISPs in Nigeria.
An Internet exchange point was discussed but the level of suspicion between
ISPs was very high and so the group at the meeting decided that it would be
necessary to hold a workshop aimed at educating the ISPs on issues of co-operation
and specifically the benefits of Internet Exchange points.
Membership
Joining Fee: $500, Annual Subscription: $200
Gambia
Gambia received Internet access via a UNDP project. There are currently two
ISPs in the country, the PTT and a private company. The regulator recently
licensed a third ISP. There is no ISPA within the country at the present.
South Africa
South Africa's service provider space is varied. Some ISPs have a "Value Added
Network Services" (VANS) license while some do not. The current legislation
is unclear whether a license is required for an ISP. ISPA (SA) was formed
in 1996, in response to a threat from the monopoly state owned PTT, Telkom.
ISPA currently has 48 members and operates two Internet exchange points; one
in Johannesburg (JINX) and the other in Cape Town (CINX).
ISPA is actively involved in regulatory matters especially with regard to
defining legislation to curb child pornography and other illegal use of the
Internet in SA as well as the telecommunications regulatory regime.
Members may choose their membership category: Small, Medium or Large. Large
members may peer at JINX or CINX, and Medium members may peer at CINX.
Membership
Joining Fee: None, Monthly $25, $125, $625
Kenya
Kenya has over 70 licensed ISPs, of these about 30 are operational. The majority
are members of the Telecommunications Service Providers of Kenya
(TESPOK), which is the local ISPA.
TESPOK's primary agenda upon formation two years ago was the establishment
of an Internet Exchange Point. This objective was pursued keenly by the ISPs
until in November 2000, the Kenya Internet Exchange Point (KIXP) was launched.
Despite having received regulatory approval, KIXP was shut down by the regulator
within a matter of days, primarily due to objections from the PTT, Telkom
Kenya.
TESPOK is lobbying Government and the regulator on various issues including:
- re-opening of KIXP
- liberalisation of Satellite communications (the PTT has a monopoly on International
communications)
TESPOK is registered as a non-profit organization.
Membership:
Joining Fee: $2000 Annual Fee: $300
Following the updates, discussions were held to gauge the level of interest
and determine whether a regional ISPA would be necessary.
Some of points raised with regard to the advantages of a regional ISPA were:
- different regulators and Governments have varied interpretations and understanding
of ISPs. A regional ISPA could lobby at Government levels to promote harmonisation
of policies.
- Many of the policy makers in different countries don't really understand
the issues that affect the growth and stability of the Internet. A regional
ISPA could actively educate the policy makers so that policy would be made
on an informed basis.
- A representative of a company providing satellite bandwidth to Africa and
other parts of the world mentioned that a regional ISPA could also facilitate
bulk bandwidth purchases for the continent or regions on the continent, thus
maximising on the economies of scale and reducing the overall cost of bandwidth
to Africa as a whole.
- Other regional organisations involved in the Internet were discussed in
order to establish whether there would be any conflicts or duplication. The
organisations mentioned were:
AfriNIC - Regional Internet Registry (IP Addresses)
AfNOG - Network Operators Group (training and technical co-operation)
AfTLD - ccTLD Regional body (interaction with ICANN, continental ccTLD issues)
ATU - continental telecommunications union
It was confirmed that there were no conflicts with existing organisations
- It was suggested that similar to Asia/Pacific, which holds AP* meetings
which bring together the different regional Internet organisations, that an
AF* or Afri* could be considered. This would help the different groups get
to know each other and harmonise efforts and initiatives.
- A vote was taken as to whether a continental ISPA should be pursued. The
result was a unanimous YES
- a suggestion was made to model the continental ISPA along the lines of ISOC,
this was discouraged and the EuroISPA model was suggested as the
best.
Peter Van Roste, the President of EuroISPA was asked to say a little about
how EuroISPA is operated. He mentioned that EuroISPA prepares a monthly regulatory
report which is circulated to all members. EuroISPA also makes sure that there
is representation in all continental matters that affect members, such as
EU policy meetings, EC meetings etc...
It was suggest that the Africa continental ISPA start off virtually through
the mailing list as an initial step.
Some suggested objectives were:
* a continental ISPA can direct the minds of the people who are forming policy
in the respective countries by providing reasonable, qualified input.
* a continental ISPA can also give direction to the donor community and facilitate
private sector co-operation and co-ordination for donor projects / funding.
Discussions were held to determine a name, among those suggested were:
- ISPAfrica
- AfriISPA
- AfrISPA
- AFISPA
The matter was left to a vote and AfrISPA was selected
Through the use of mobile technology the domain name AfrISPA.org was immediately
confirmed to be available and registered through the services of ZAnet by
William Stucke.
Eric Osiakwan (GISPA) was nominated as the spokesperson for AfrISPA
TESPOK and AITEC offered and were assigned the task of collecting data on
all existing ISPs and ISPAs across Africa.
Olasupo Oyedepo - volunteered to design and host the website for AfrISPA
DFID offered to assist with sponsorship in the start-up phase of AfrISPA
New Skies offered to take the information about the formation of AfrISPA back
to their Board with a view to raising some contribution towards the establishment
of AfrISPA.
William Stucke of ZAnet offered to set up a Mailing List
Proposed Action Plan