The Bulgarian Broadband Project

Krassi SimonskiProject Manager

TITLE:DEVELOPMENT OF HIGH-SPEED BROADBAND ACCESS IN BULGARIA BY BUILDING A CRITICAL, PROTECTED, SECURED, AND RELIABLE PUBLIC ICT INFRASTRUCTURE

Operational Program “Regional Development”Priority 2: Regional and local accessOperation 2.2: “Information and Communications Network”Call:  BG161PO001/2.2-01/2011

Main Players Beneficiary: Executive Agency for ICT

(a.k.a. as ECNIS) to the Ministry of Transport and ITC (MTITC)

Managing Authority: Operational Program “Regional Development” (OPRD) of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works (MRDPW)

Ministry of Agriculture and Food: OP “Rural Development” – Demand Analysis

Major steps 2009: National Broadband Strategy –

adopted by the Council of Ministers 2012: Update of the Strategy –focus on NGA

networks 2008-2011: Pre-strategy research 2011: Operational Program “Regional

Development” – 20 mln. Euro End of 2011: Pre-investment research - MAF

Project parameters

Budget: 20 mln. Euro (incl. VAT) Timeframe: 24 months 29 locations selected 927 (860+67) km new Fiber-optic cables

planned Active equipment to connect government

and public institutions to the state network - 10 gbs intercity, 1 gbs to institutions

Bulgarian Optical Backhaul Network

Networks:ECNIS Optical Power Grid Optical Railroad Optical Railroad Copper

Contrasts Second to the last in the EU by broadband

penetration However, Sofia is in the Top 10 capitals in the

world by speed and quality of Internet

The gap is due to the lack of aggregation layer!

Only 24 of 264 municipal centers are connected to the core backhaul networks (+57 ready)

High Investment Barrier!

Dual Mission– Catalonia case

Connect municipalities and government institutions to the state network backbone

Provide wholesale access to the extra capacity of the NGA infrastructure – passive and bitstream

Project Development

Demand Analysis funded by the Ministry of Agriculture

Selection of locations - criteria Additional study of the selected

locations Project submission and approval State Aid notification submitted Project under implementation

МИНИСТЕРСТВО НА ТРАНСПОРТА, ИНФОРМАЦИОННИТЕ ТЕХНОЛОГИИ И СЪОБЩЕНИЯТА

Locations Selection – Phase I Pre-research for the National BB Strategy – 2009 to

develop first BB Map: NRA data Research on all Internet providers in Bulgaria related to

schools Consultations within a working group established by

MTITC: ICT Business: ASTEL, BAIT, ICT Cluster Related NGOs Research and Education: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences,

Technical University – Sofia, Federation of the National Scientific Unions

Result: selection of 19 regions including 92 municipalities for intervention

Executive Agency for Electronic Communication Networks and Information Systems

Executive Agency for Electronic Communication Networks and Information Systems

Location selections – Phase II

Pre-Investment study funded by the MAF

Objectives: Review and analysis of existing coverage, both broadband and

ICT, including broadband market analysis; Review and research of potential needs and projected use of the

Internet and related services to the Internet in rural areas; Draw a map of the existing broadband infrastructure using GIS

based information system for integration and visualization of the collected information;

Developing a research and cost-benefit analysis based on the results of the market research

Executive Agency for Electronic Communication Networks and Information Systems

Executive Agency for Electronic Communication Networks and Information Systems

Location Selections – Phase III

Limited budget of € 20 mln. = 900 km Selection criteria:

NGA “white” zones – 34 locations Internet penetration in households Population Distance to be covered

Result: 26 “white” locations + 3 “grey” on the route to white locations

Executive Agency for Electronic Communication Networks and Information Systems

ISP Survey Average of 3.14 ISP per location NGA speeds for the “last mile” access

and shared limited radio links to the backhaul

Result of the survey: 60% will order dark fiber, 20% - 1 gbs

bitstream 94% will do it within a year 85% want to invest in NGA last mile

Impact on the ICT development surveyExecutive Agency for Electronic Communication Networks and

Information Systems

Demand Analysis Scope All Internet providers approached by

the Consortium with a letter from the Minister of MTITC

CRC (Bg NRA) data processed and analyzed

Selected municipalities researched All ISPs from the selected locations

surveyed Statement by the Incumbent about the

NGA coverageМИНИСТЕРСТВО НА ТРАНСПОРТА, ИНФОРМАЦИОННИТЕ

ТЕХНОЛОГИИ И СЪОБЩЕНИЯТА

МИНИСТЕРСТВО НА ТРАНСПОРТА, ИНФОРМАЦИОННИТЕ ТЕХНОЛОГИИ И СЪОБЩЕНИЯТА

Technology – network architecture

Indirect Beneficiaries – local ISPs

Average of 2 to 5 ISPs BTC (the incumbent) – ADSL Mobiltel – HomeBox Other ISPs – LAN technologies with speeds up to

100 mbs Intercity links – 50 mbs radio links, shared among

all local users

NGA local speeds but inadequate Internet speeds!

Categorization for interventionCategory Description Acceptable measure

0No infrastructure for broadband access („white area“ for BA)

All local operators can connect to the established infrastructure.

1There is only one broadband access operator(„grey area“ for BA)

All local operators can connect to the established infrastructure.

2

There is more than one broadband access operator, but nobody has NGA access to the district town(„black area“ for BA, „white area“ for NGA)

All local operators can connect to the established infrastructure, because the speed they offer in the access layer do not correspond to the speed up to the backbone network.

3

There is more than one broadband access operatorAnd only the incumbent has NGA connectivity to the district town (Vivacom), but does not offer NGA last mile and has no capacity to share the long distance NGA infrastructure(„black area“ for BA, „white area“ for NGA)

All local operators can connect to the established infrastructure because the speed they offer in the access layer do not correspond to the speed up to the backbone network and BTC does not plan on constructing NGA last mile.

4

There is more than one broadband access operatorand only one operator has NGA connectivity to the district town and offers NGA last mile(„black area“ for BA, „grey area“ for NGA)

Only local operators which offer NGA last mile can connect.

5There is more than one broadband access operatorAnd more than one operator also has NGA last mile(„black area“ for BA, „black area“ for NGA)

Only local operators which offer NGA access outside the settlement can connect.

State Aid

No State Aid: Building the infrastructure

State Aid: Selecting the operator of the infrastructure No State Aid: Operating the state network State Aid: Wholesale access to the optical

infrastructure including bitstream

Roles IA ECNIS

Owner of the infrastructure State Aid Administrator Beneficiary of the grant

Selected operator Operator of the infrastructure Beneficiary of the state aid

OPRD – Managing Authority of the grantExecutive Agency for Electronic Communication Networks and

Information Systems

Demands to the operator

Restrictions Obligations

Selling only wholesale access to the local ISPs

Banned sales to individual customers

No maintenance or other fees to government and public institutions

No Internet services Accumulated Profit less

than 20%

Maintenance and operation of the new NGA infrastructure and equipment

Free maintenance and operation of the connectivity to state and public institutions

Assistance to local Internet providers

Claw-back mechanism

CostRevenue

Maintenance Operations Sales Administration

Selling: Dark fiber pair Single dark fiber 1 Gbs bitstream access -

Ethernet ports

Profit

Return Claw-backCompetition

Risks

Time frame – 24 months only with heavy tenders (project management, notification, construction, operations)

No operator: along with the ownership, ECNIS should assume the maintenance and operation of the network

Priotities 2020:1. Build the Aggregation Layer in all

264 municipal centers2. Connect Public Institutions – State

Administration, City Halls, Schools, …

3. Broadband in Rural Areas4. Build Access Networks in towns –

FTTH, FTTB, FTTC5. Related Projects – Cybersecurity,

Cloud Services, HotSpots,

Investment€160 mln.

€ 70 mln.

€ 100 mln

€ 90 mln

€ 70 mln

TOTAL: € 490 mln

Roadmap1. Pilot phase: Current BB Project – 2012-20142. Phase One: 2015-2017

Aggregation Layer Public Administration Network Pilots in Satellite Projects

3. Phase Two: 2017-2020 Broadband in Rural Areas Access Network Related Projects

Pilot Phase Phase One Phase Two

Thank you!

Any questions