Page1    Page131                                                                        Page133  Page177

While not intending to exclude or deny the important role of VSAT communications, the Alliance

will focus on promoting the deployment of optical fibre in the region and the migration of

research and education traffic to and from Africa to high-speed terrestrial circuits.

With regard to VSAT services, the UbuntuNet Alliance will work with NRENs and, where this

would be helpful, with individual institutions, to assist in the procurement of cost-effective VSAT

services and to enable VSAT-connected institutions to connect to NRENs throughout the World

by negotiating the required peering and transit arrangements in Europe and the USA with the

major VSAT providers.

Governance of the UbuntuNet Alliance:

The Council of Members is the top decision-making body that must sustain the will to collaborate

regionally. At each Annual General Meeting, the Council appoints seven of the nine Directors.

The Association of African Universities nominates the Chairperson of the UbuntuNet Alliance.

The Chairperson is an ex officio Director, as is the CEO. The Board appoints the Deputy

Chairperson from among the non-ex-officio Directors. This structure reflects the ownership of

the Alliance as being imbedded deeply in the universities and research institutions of the region.

The first meeting of council of members was held on 23rd February 2007 in Nairobi. Apart from

the Representative members of the six participating NRENs, the meeting was attended by

observer members representing project teams that are forming NRENs in Botswana, Burundu,

DRC, Lesotho, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia, Zanzibar and Zimbabwe.

Backbone development strategy

The UbuntuNet Alliance is driven by the vision of providing high-speed or broadband

connectivity to Géant and the Internet generally.  The Board has adopted an opportunistic

approach to developing the UbuntuNet African Backbone. The strategy has two major thrusts:

1.

To gain access to optical fibre cables as a spin-off from other general infrastructure

developments, as discussed further below; and

2.

To develop parts of the backbone in different sub-regions, called UbuntuNet backbone

development clusters, as distinct projects.

Fibre cables as a spin-off from general infrastructural development:

To build its African backbone, UbuntuNet needs access to significant bandwidth on optical fibre

cables within sub-Saharan Africa, and especially on cables that cross borders between countries

of the region. UbuntuNet's strategy is to gain access to optical fibre connectivity, at a marginal

cost, as a spin-off from optical fibre deployments along railway lines, power lines, oil and gas

pipelines and other infrastructure development projects.

The idea is simple ­ whenever such an infrastructural development project is undertaken, and the

laying of new optical fibre cables or upgrading of existing ones is contemplated, the opportunity

must be taken, in a systematic way, to add to the UbuntuNet African Backbone. At design stage,

the intending operator of any such cable will offer UbuntuNet an option, at a strictly marginal

cost, of purchasing a long-term Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU) of two or more fibre pairs,

including the required access to terminations at demarcation points where connections can be

made to networks operated by other parties. UbuntuNet will be required to raise the required

investment from its own sources within a specified period of time. Issues of access to the cable

and its maintenance will be addressed as part of the IRU agreement.

132