Sudanese ICT Market

Development
Impacts on VoIP: The Sudanese
Sudan: Country
Profile
 Where is Sudan?

North East of African (1500 N, 3000 E)

What neighbouring countries?

4
Flag, Emblem, and National Anthem

‫ جند الوطن‬------ ‫نحن جند ال‬

(We Are the Army of God,
the Army of the MotherLand)
Sudan Demographics Profile 2012 (2011 est.)
1) Population: 25,946,220.
2) Age structure:
 (0 – 14) years = 42.1% (as follows):
#(Males= 9,696,726) , (Females=9,286,894).
(15 – 64) years= 55.2% (as follows):
# (Males = 12,282,082) , (Females = 12,571,424).
 65 years and over = 2.7% (as follows):
# (Males = 613,817) , (Females = 596,559)
...Continued …Sudan Demographics
Religions:
* Sunni Muslim, small Christian minority.

Languages:
*Arabic (official),
* English (Second language),
* Nubian, Bedawie, Fur

Urbanization
*Urban population: 40% of total population (2010).
*Rate of urbanization: 3.7% annual rate of change
(2010-15 est.)
ICT Sector Chronicle

8
 Telecom Sector Milestones
1859 – Telecommunications introduced in Sudan:
* First telegraph link between Cairo & Sawaken.
1871–1873 Telegraph line reached Khartoum (Small unit
for Post & Telegraph).
1892 - 1903 First Telephone exchange in Sudan (Eldaba
& Khartoum).
1910 -1971 The service was run by a government body
known as Posts & Telegraphs (P&T)
1971 - 1978 Telecommunication was separated from the
Post service and run as a governmental
Department.
1978 – 93 Sudan Telecommunications Public
Corporation (STPC) formed and operated.
 …Continued …Telecom Sector
Milestones(2)
April1993: privatization of the telecom sector & the
establishment of the Sudan Telecommunications
Company(Sudatel), a Fixed wire-line phone service.
1994: Sudatel starts commercial operation.
1996: The first mobile phone system, a GSM license, is
awarded to the Sudanese Mobile
Telecommunications Company(Mobitel).
1997: Sudan’s first ISP(Sudanet) starts commercial
operation, with 128Kbps Bandwidth capacity.
1997: Sudan’s first GSM system operator, Mobitel,
starts commercial operation.
10
 …Continued
 2001: …Telecom
Establishment Sector
of the National
Milestones(3)
Telecommunications Corporation(NTC), a
new regulatory body for telecom.
 2003: A second mobile-phone (GSM)
license is awarded to Bashair(MTN).
 2004 : A second fixed-wireless
phone(CDMA) license is awarded to
CanarTel.
2005: International gateways are opened
for all operators(telecom sector fully
deregulated).
2006: A third mobile-phone (CDMA) license
is awarded to Sudani, an affiliate of
Sudatel. Sudani later on built an GSM
11
# Telecom Sector Statistics(Q2,
2012)
1) Mobile phone system Subscribers =
26,370,531.
2) Fixed phone system Subscribers =
467,541.
3) Internet users = 11 millions.

4) Internet Broadband users >= 1 millions.

5) Phone density = 70%.

6) Geographical coverage= 35%.

7) Population coverage= 88%.

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Subscribers Growth: Fixed & Mobile
 
(Q1,2012) (Q2, 2012)
Zain(Mobile) 13,309,486 12,611,642
MTN(Mobile) 6,349,356 6,920,560
Sudani(Mobile) 6,426,493 6,838,329
Canar( Fixed
314,959 330,725
Wireless)
Thabit(Fixed
160,469 136,816
Wireline)
Fixed & Mobile Subscribers (2012)
Total 26,560,763 26,838,072
14,000,000

12,000,000

10,000,000

8,000,000

3 1 4 ,9 5 9

1 6 0 ,4 6 9
6,000,000

4,000,000

330,725

136,816
2,000,000
1 3 ,3 0 9 ,4 8 6

6 ,3 4 9 ,3 5 6

6 ,4 2 6 ,4 9 3

0
12,611,642

6,920,560

6,838,329

(Q1,2012) (Q2, 2012)

:- Telecom Operators' Market Share

Coverage: Coverage:
Geographic coverage:35% Geographic coverage: 31%
Population coverage:88%
Technology: GPSR, HSPA
Technology: CDMA 1x EV-DO

Subscribers: 12,697,024 Subscribers: 6,975,145

Coverage:
Coverage:
Geographic coverage:33%
Geographic coverage:8.5%
Population coverage:28%
Population coverage:55.1%
Technology: GSM / UMTS Technology: WLL CDMA

Subscribers: 6,969,019 Subscribers: 314,976

Total Subscribers: 26,956,164

Traffic(Q1 & Q2, 2012):-
Item/Period  (Q1,2012) (Q2, 2012)
Local Traffic(Off net) 849,641,316 843,185,127
International Incoming traffic 365,732,201 453,662,775

International Outgoing traffic 164,280,214 205,908,763

Total(minutes) 1,379,653,731 1,502,756,665

Traffic(2012) in minutes

900,000,000

800,000,000

205,908,763
700,000,000

164,280,214
600,000,000

500,000,000

400,000,000

300,000,000

200,000,000

100,000,000
849,641,316

365,732,201

453,662,775
843,185,127

0
Local Traffic(Off net) International Incoming traffic International Outcoming traffic

(Q1,2012) (Q2, 2012)

Bandwidth and backbone:-
(3) Why is ICT so important?
# ICT provides numerous benefits &
advantages resulting in considerably
better:
Time, effort & cost utilization &saving,
Financial leveraging,
Human capacity training, allocation & re-
organization,
Safety measures standardization, &
implementation, and
Environment protection & preservation

17
The VoIP
Case

18
Q. What is VoIP(Voice over internet protocol)?
(1) The routing of a voice conversation over the
internet or through an IP based network.
(2) “VoIP Services” cover a range of services:
1) Voice over broadband (VoB), i.e. international
private lease circuits.
2) Voice over digital subscriber loop (DSL).
3) Voice over Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN).
4) IP telephony or voice over IP-based networks.

(3) VoIP is also integrated with other services

( data, video) that are available on the internet.

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 VoIP Regulation Status: the
Sudan
(1) A number of presentations were given
highlighting the Regulatory and Technical
aspects of voice over internet
protocol(VoIP) at the NTC quarters.
(2)A set of amendments was proposed to
the Law & Regulation of telecom services ,
to include VoIP , and to be “formulated
textually” and put to open &
comprehensive discussion .
(3)A “public consultancy” was formulated
and presented to interested parties, post
approval from the NTC Consultancy Council.
(4) Responses were received some
Operators, while others asked for an 20
Continued …VoIP Regulation Status: the
Sudan
5. Documents Currently available
are:-
VoIP Signaling Protocol,
Regulating telephone calls over Internet
Protocol
Public Consultancy “Regulations of
telephone-call services over Internet
Protocol”(Arabic/English).
Operators’ Responses.

21
 Telecom Sector Overview
1) Operators &
ISP’s:-
 2 Fixed-phone Operators(Sudatel &CanarTel).
 3 Mobile-telephone Operators(Zain, MTN,
Sudani)
2 ISP(Vision Valley, Suddern)
2) VoIP Status:-
 VoIP is not officially Regulated.
 Current policy does not officially ban VOIP in
Operators’
 core networks.
Permitted in private networks.
 Wide-spread gray market.

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 Telecom Sector Overview
1) Problem of Grey Market:-
 Appreciable international traffic volume routed via
VOIP.
 Telecom sector income (hard cash) drops
significantly.
International calls Prices are low compared to
legacy calls, depriving the national economy
from sizable hard-currency revenues.
Presumably will have an affect on NTC
reputation in local, regional and international
organizations and institutions.

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Recommendation
s

24
 VoIP Policy/regulation for Sudan
# The
Proposal:-
1) Issue 2 types of licenses for VoIP Gateways:-
 Intra-gateway(Individual-authorization
license), and
2)  Inter-gateway(General-authorization
Intra-gateway license.
to be licensed only to ISP’s
with proven record of adherence to NTC laws
3) & regulations.
VoIP QoS to be specified in comparison with toll
quality.
4) VoIP Tariff to be specified for both toll quality
and below toll quality.
5) All agreements between Operators & ISP’s to
be under supervision of NTC.

25
… Continued…VoIP Policy/regulation for
Sudan:-
# Recommendations:-
1) Terms of Reference(TOR) for General
Authorization and Individual Authorization be
clearly stated & immediately issued.
2) VoIP license should be restricted to ISP’s
only.
3) Intra-gateway license should not be awarded to
Mobile & Fixed phone operators, to ensure
government attains its full share of telecom
4) revenues.
Inter-gateway license may be awarded to
Mobile & Fixed phone operators, to access
international VoIP gateways via their own
networks. This allows their customers the
use of their own devices to make low-rate
VoIP ILD calls.
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 : Actions to be Taken
# Regulating phone calls via Internet protocol
(VoIP) requires concerted, relentless efforts by
all stakeholders.
# A few steps to be taken are below:
1. 1 Brain Storming meeting:(NTC Staff).
st

2. 2nd Brain Storming meeting :(Operators,

ISP’s,…).
3. Assistance
4. VoIP request:
Regulatory (ITU, ATU,VoIP
commission: Experts in Law,
experts).
Economics& Eng.,
5.VoIP commission mission is as follows:
* Device a VoIP Regulatory Framework.
* Put clear rules for VoIP Interconnection.
* Recommend a globally-proven Tariff Model.
# Indicators for evaluating “ VoIP Status ”
must be periodically gathered, analyzed
and recommendations forwarded about
them to NTC Directorate.
 : Actions to be Taken
1. Institute neutral consortia for VoIP
development.
2. Clearly define VoIP service & service
models.
3. Measure the impact of grey traffic.
4. Determine desired market outcome.
5. Develop policy.
6.
# Enforce policy.
IP technology will become the
future network architecture. All
proper measures must be taken
for the benefit of all
stakeholders. 28
Conclusion

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# The key regulatory challenges
include:-
(1)Regulating the internet, especially
voice calls transported via the
internet,
(2) defining a minimum criterion for
legal VoIP for equivalence to
traditional voice,
(3) measuring the financial and
social impact of illegal VoIP traffic
on licensed telecoms operators and
economies in general.
THANK YOU