Macedonia Connects
http://www.isp-planet.com/profiles/2006/macedonia_connects.html
It took barely half a year to bring the internet to this nation's schools. We called up the project leader to learn how it happened.
by Alex Goldman
ISP-Planet Managing Editor
[August 29, 2006]
It's morning in New York, afternoon in Skopje, Macedonia (pronounced "scope-e-ya"), and we're talking to Glenn Strachan (on Skype, of course) about the project he leads that has connected Macedonia to the internet, called Macedonia Connects (MK Connects).
He's achieved a great thing. The latest usage report [.pdf] out of Macedonia, which measures internet usage for the first time, shows that 43 percent of the population uses a computer, and 27 percent uses the internet (some of these do not own their own computer or internet connection). That compares favorably, Strachan says, with many other Eastern European nations, which are generally wealthier than the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).
The nation was connected in less than year, using wireless broadband technology.
That is particularly impressive considering FYROM has ethnic tensions between Macedonians and Albanians that nearly precipitated a civil war in 2001. In addition, the company has a quiescent but problematic dispute with Greece over the use of the word "Macedonia".
In addition to the ethnic tensions, Strachan had to contend with a familiar headache to telecom innovators everywhere: the local telecoms monopoly.
The project was able to get the law changed, partly, explains Strachan, because the changes were required by the EU membership process (for more on this process, see the Wikipedia articles on the Accession of the Republic of Macedonia to the European Union and the article on the basis of the agreement between FYROM and the EU: the acquis communautaire).
Writing an RFP
While the law was being changed, Strachan needed to write up an RFP. He says that USAID doesn't work with companies owned by foreign governments, so the RFP specified that the monopoly was not allowed to bid on the project.
In order to ensure that the monopoly couldn't cause the project to fail, he said that no interconnection with the ILEC, MT, was permitted.
The bid was for connectivity. "I didn't want to own any equipment. I wanted to pay a monthly fee for 28 months, with 25 percent upfront, 50 percent on delivery, and 25 percent after 1 year of connectivity."
In order to ensure that bidders were serious about the project, he ensured that bidders would pay half the cost of the buildout, with USAID paying the other half. "We needed to allow whoever won the bid to finance the network, and no banks would loan money to build a network they believed nobody would use."
Building infrastructure
There were four bids. The winning bid was a partnership between local ISP On.net and Motorola Israel, Strachan says.
The network therefore uses Canopy for backhaul. In population centers, it uses mesh equipment from Strix. In Skopje, the capital, On.net has a mesh network covering 15 square kilometers, Strachan says.
The contract was signed on April 25, 2005, and on September 26, 2005, the president proclaimed that FYROM was the world's first all-wireless nation.
So how did they do it so fast?
One big advantage, Strachan says, is that Tito, when he ruled Yugoslavia, built radio towers for surveillance and jamming. In FYROM, those towers were free, and the project uses 190 of them.
Motorola was also very helpful. The company trained the On.net technicians for the buildout.
On.net employed over 300 people for the buildout, Strachan says, and he himself had seven people.
Strachan says he's worked 18 hour days, seven day weeks, for the past 18 months.
Of course, Strachan himself was a key asset. He says he designed and built a 26 city WAN for WorldCom. When Worldcom imploded, he went into non-profit work and has built networks in Uganda and Romania, with projects ongoing in Guatemala and the Republic of Georgia.
Strachan is currently employed by the Academy for Educational Development (AED), which spreads education, citizenship, and democracy throughout the world. AED was founded in 1961 and its first project was in Kansas.
Achievements
For Strachan, the project's greatest achievement is an open, competitive market. Yes, the project connected over 500 schools and brought the internet to people who would never otherwise have had it, but Strachan's goals went beyond the connections. Strachan wanted an open market, key to building an open society for Macedonia, and he feels that his goals have been achieved.
Now that On.net is self-sufficient, it has a peering agreement with the monopoly. There's even a data center in Skopje where companies can interconnect. As a result, Macedonian traffic stays inside the nation instead of taking a hop outside through Herndon, Va. or the Netherlands or Israel.
The price of a metered internet connection has dropped from 120 Euro per month to 10 Euro (for 512/128 Kbps with a 9 GB monthly limit). Unlimited access is 25 Euro per month.
The second bidder for the project, a VAR called NeoCom, built NeoTel, so there are three companies providing internet access, not a duopoly.
On.net was acquired by Telecom Slovenia for 6.8 million Euros.
As to FYROM's ethnic tensions, a story by the Christian Science Monitor notes that there was speculation as to which ethnic group, Albanian or Macedonian, would get the first connected school. The politically adept education minister connected a Roma ("gypsy") school first.
What's next
Now that he's completed a project requiring 18 hour days for 18 months, Strachan is getting ready to start all over again.
By the time you read these words, Strachan will already be in Montenegro, another piece of former Yugoslavia, but one which presents special challenges. Earlier this year, the nation voted in favor of independence from Serbia, but by a very narrow margin, and is only now establishing its identity.
Strachan believes the Montenegro project will only need to use 19 towers, but they will not be free.
On January 1, 2007, the telecom market should liberalize (Montenegro's ILEC is related to Macedonia's), but at present, any company with an internet connection that goes outside the nation must pay a 120,000 Euro fee to per year for an international internet connection and a 5,000 Euro annual fee to be an ISP. "That will stymie the market," says Strachan.
Nevertheless, he knows what success requires. "It took a lot of people working together to get it done in Macedonia. I understand the predatory practices of the phone company, but I take with me the knowledge that it can be accomplished if enough people act together."
