BBWN Bites: Connecting Africa to Cost $100B – World Bank Report
Also today, Sparklight Business brightens enterprise WiFi, Eir bites into Apple TV, UK's small businesses suffer with poor broadband, Vatican on demand and CityFibre inks deal with DWS.
Achieving affordable, universal and quality Internet access across Africa by 2030 will require a $100 billion investment, on top of the public and private investments already made across the continent, according to a report the Broadband for All Working Group delivered at the annual meetings of the World Bank Group this week. African countries must bring approximately 1.1 billion more people online to reach ubiquitous access, the report said.
Sparklight Business launched Enterprise Wi-Fi, a WiFi service delivered over its fiber-optic network that's designed to provide corporate customers with fast, secure connections. Businesses get personalized design, professional installation and customization, along with a cloud-based portal and app, Sparklight Business said.
Set-Top Box Change Ahead at Eir
The Irish operator will adopt Apple's TV platform as its own. (Photo: Apple)
Irish operator Eir plans to use Apple TV as its main set-top box and supplement its original channels with those available on Apple's gear, including Netflix, Now TV, RTE Player and Apple's own service, according to The Irish Times. About one third of Eir's customers are triple- or quad-play subscribers, the provider said in its September 2019 annual report.
Across the Irish Sea, UK firms suffer from poor broadband and mobile services, according to new research by the Federation of Small Businesses. In "Lost Connection," its digital infrastructure study, 33% of small companies say download speeds are less than 10 Mbit/s and do not meet current needs, while 40% say speeds will not meet future requirements.
The Vatican will debut its VatiVision streaming service, chock-full of religious content, in spring 2020. Production company Officina della Comunicazione has 75% of the capital of VatiVision and the remaining 25% is held by Vetrya, an international firm specializing in the development of digital services and cloud computing platforms. They worked closely with Vatican Media, founded in 1983 by Pope John Paul II.
Digital Wholesale Solutions will use UK wholesaler CityFibre's full-fiber network to deliver its portfolio of Ethernet products and newly launched Fibre Flex service to its channel partners, the two companies announced today. Fibre Flex guarantees speeds of between 200 Mbit/s symmetric and 1 Gbit/s to channel customers in 27 cities (and growing).
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— Alison Diana, Editor, Broadband World News. Follow us on Twitter or @alisoncdiana.
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Here's where you can find episode links for 'The Divide,' Light Reading's podcast series featuring conversations with broadband providers and policymakers working to close the digital divide.
As we have for the past two years, Light Reading will present our Cable Next-Gen Europe conference as a free digital symposium on June 21.
Charter has sparked RDOF work in all 24 states where it won bids. The cable op booked about $19 million in RDOF revenues in Q1, and expects to have about $9 million per month come in over the next ten years.
As we have for the past two years, Light Reading will stage the Cable Next-Gen Technologies & Strategies conference as a free digital event over two half-days in mid-March.
Launch of 2-Gig and 5-Gig FTTP tiers in 70-plus markets puts more pressure on cable ops to enhance their existing DOCSIS 3.1 network or accelerate their upgrade activity centered on the new DOCSIS 4.0 specs.
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