Connectivity Providers Database

Date Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2002 3:45 AM From: Pepito <esilva@zebra.uem.mz> To: mlizarza@darkwing.uoregon.edu Subject: RE: Update of the Internet in Mozambique >1) Could you please provide a brief technical description of the >Mozambique's external connectivity to the Internet - including upstream provider(s), >international bandwidth of the link(s), etc. ? As far as I know, there are around 6-8 ISPs in the country. Most of them small and get bandwidth from the national PTT, I think they have a 512/1Mbps to the US. One ISP (Tropical Net) gets its downlink via satellite using Interpacket (now Verestar). These are focused on dial-up access. There is another ISP called Virconn (Virtual Connection) which has its own satellite link to US, I guess via Lightband. I think their bandwidth is 512k/1Mbps. Virconn offers Dial-up access @ USD ~$30 as well as low speed dedicated access @ USD 400 for 33.6K. Virconn is spreading into the country, while most ISPs are operating only in Maputo, the Capital City of Mozambique. There is Teledata another ISP that is 50% PTT owned and the 50% from a Portuguese PTT (Portugal Telecom). They claim to have 50% percent of market. This was initially a company deployed for domestic data communications, like banking, etc. Approx. 5 years ago they started the Internet service, and since they had comunications (POPs) nationwide they now are the only company offering internet connectivity in all capital cities of all provinces. Teledata have their own link via satellite, I'm not sure the exact bandwidth but it should be approx 512K/2Mbps. They do dial-up @ USD ~$30 and dedicated access @ USD ~$800 for 128K nationwide. Recently the cable TV company (50% owned by the PTT - Telecomunicacoes de Mocambique, TDM) and another 50% owned by a multi- sectoral Portuguese company, Grupo Visabeira, started Internet service (NetCabo) via bidirectional cable modem service. They offer cable access at 33K/128K to home users @ USD $75. The cable TV gets bandwidth from the PTT for their uplink around 256k and they use DVB for their downlink via IPPlanet now they have 1.5Mbps but they are increasing it every week. They should have around 300 clients. Finally, the first ISP in MZ, CIUEM, Centro de Informatica da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane. They're now more dedicated as an ISP for the academic people and acting as TLDC, our main DNS for .mz . They have 384K link via satellite, via UUNET I think. They provide dial-up and dedicated access but mostly for the academic community and staff as well as Ministeries and state institutions. They also provide wireless access, most departments of the University are connected via wireless links as well as some Ministeries. Recently the PTT started to offer ISDN, but still no news for the Internet service. ISP in MZ Link Type Bandwidth Upstream ISP POP location(s) =========== =========== =========== ================ =============== Tropical Leased line/ 256K TDM Maputo only Satellite Teledata Satellite 512k/2M Marconi/MCI Nationwide, all provinces Virconn Satellite 512k/1M Lightband Maputo and 2-3 provinces Garp Leased line 128K TDM Maputo Only C. Solutions Leased line 64K TDM Maputo Only Netcabo Leased line/ 256k/1.5M TDM/IPPlanet Maputo Only Satellite Emil Leased line 128/256K TDM/Lightband Maputo Only (estimate) CIUEM Satellite 384K UUNET? Maputo Only. > 2) Please also list the URLs for each ISP, and the name and email address > for the appropriate contact for service. - www.tropical.co.mz - www.teledata.mz - www.virconn.com - www.garp.co.mz - www.tvcabo.co.mz - www.emilmoz.com - www.ci.uem.mz Tropical - admin@tropical.co.mz Teledata - admin@teledata.mz Virconn - support@virconn.com Garp - sergio@garp.co.mz Netcabo - tvcabo@tvcabo.co.mz CIUEM antonio@nambu.uem.mz, david@nambu.uem.mz > 3)What do you see as the prospects for Internet growth in Mozambique; > what would help it, and what are currently the major obstacles? In my opinion Internet in Mozambique will grow like in any other 3rd world country, slowly but surely, we hope. Probably with minor differences due to geographic and political situations and decisions. One of the current obstacles is the hard access to bandwidth, bandwidth is very hard to get, very expensive in this corner of the world, and still since the only way to get it is via satellite, the infrastructure is expensive and you can't escape from the minimum 600ms delay. Proper regulation, incentives, access to financing, training & political will, is probably the best help this country needs for Internet growth. Cheers, Pepito da Silva <esilva@zebra.uem.mz>