[Community-Discuss] Spearheading Internet Development in Africa / Late commentary on fee discussion

Fri Sep 28 21:07:11 UTC 2018

Andrew, thanks for your comments.

2018-09-28 14:22 GMT+02:00 Andrew Alston <Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com>:

> Coenraad,
>
>
>
> While personally as a member I don’t have a major issue with something
> like this – there are certain fundamental questions that need to be asked
> from my view point
>
>
>
>    1. How will the annual revenues of these entities be verified – will
>    they be submitting audited financials each and every year to qualify for
>    the discount?  Without audited financials – what is to stop wholesale abuse
>    of a system like this?
>
> Of course this is only workable with audited - or at least financials
reviewed by an industry professional, or whatever AfriNIC would accept as
authoritative.

>
>    1.
>    2. Would we not be better off looking at a flat fee structure across
>    ALL organizations (which would at current levels average out at less than
>    $4.5k per party to achieve current revenue levels with the current
>    membership base)
>
> This is more or less what fees would come to under the current structure.
While this is a negligible amount for a large organization, it is
prohibitive to the ones starting up - whom are in their formative
years and *would
be easier to influence into doing things the right way right from the
start, as part of this community - which would be the ultimate purpose of
this.*

>    1.
>    2. In one line you refer to revenues, it another line you refer to
>    annual profits.  If we are working on revenue levels – that may be workable
>    – if we are working on profit levels – that simply isn’t.  The reality is –
>    there are many LARGE organizations out there that have bad years – and turn
>    a net loss –I can show plenty of listed companies who have shown a net loss
>    come year end.  So – this would need to be clarified as well
>
> My thoughts exactly, revenues is much more workable, although we were
asked to include the other option.

>
>
> Thoughts?
>
>
>
> Andrew
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Coenraad Loubser <coenraad at zenzeleni.net>
> *Sent:* 28 September 2018 13:26
> *To:* community-discuss at afrinic.net
> *Cc:* S Moonesamy <sm+afrinic at elandsys.com>; Bope Christian <
> christianbope at gmail.com>
> *Subject:* [Community-Discuss] Spearheading Internet Development in
> Africa / Late commentary on fee discussion
>
>
>
> Dear AfriNIC community
>
> According to the ITU (2017) Africa has 739 million individuals without
> access to internet infrastructure.
>
> We write to you representing 70 individual community networks from 30
> African countries, most whom are not yet AfriNIC members, but who each have
> part of the solution to making available access to these areas where there
> is very little formal economic activity and where no alternative options
> exist, and where the internet can play a vital enabling role.
>
> This letter has been under discussion during the past 4 months, and has
> been the subject of almost 100 messages on external community networks
> forums.
>
>
>
> There is a class of Internet Service Provider that is not recognized by
> AfriNIC. In order to allow us to draw in their resources to help building
> out the invaluable resource that is the internet, as part of the AfriNIC
> community, we would like to discuss a mutually beneficial proposal that will
> play a huge role in setting up the next generation of ISPs in Africa - and promote
> an excellent platform for ISP- and IPv6 training.
>
>
>
> We first contemplated proposing a definition for a Community Network or
> Non-Profit ISP, but having also worked with many small and competent ISPs,
> we recognize their challenges and the benefits that having them in this
> community can bring.
>
> We would therefore like to propose, in line with simplest change possible,
> the following additional amendment to the fee schedule that has been
> under discussion:
>
>
> 3.6.5 An entity with annual revenues less than USD 350 000 that is
> required to register as an LIR, such as a Wireless User Group, Community
> Network or ISP will qualify for an additional discount of 40%.
>
>
> Basic modelling shows that this can potentially require AfriNIC to give up
> up to $40k annually, but could yield a surplus in excess of $100k annually
> after a few years as these networks mature.
>
> Alternately, a profit based model, which has not been explored as
> thoroughly:
>
>
> 3.6.5 An entity with annual profits of less than USD 100 000 that is
> required to register as an LIR, such as a Wireless User Group, Community
> Network or ISP, will qualify for a discount of 75%.
>
> Regards
>
>
>
> --
>
> Coenraad Loubser
>
> Co Authored by Dr. Carlos Rey-Moreno
>
>
>
> Office: +27 (0)43 555 2028 <+27435552028>
>
> Mobile: +27 (0) 73 772 1223 <+27737721223>
> Skype: coenraad_loubser Twitter: @dagelf
>
>
>
> *Zenzeleni Networks NPC *zenzeleni.net
>
> - Best Innovation with Social Impact Award winner, Innovation Bridge 2017
>
> - Community Favorite, Mozilla Equal Rating Innovation Challenge 2017
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxTPSWMX26M
>

-- 
Coenraad Loubser

Office: <+27435552028> +27 (0)43 555 2028 <+27435552028>
Mobile: +27 (0) 73 772 1223 <+27737721223>
Skype: coenraad_loubser Twitter: @dagelf

*Zenzeleni Networks NPC *zenzeleni.net
- Best Innovation with Social Impact Award winner, Innovation Bridge 2017
- Community Favorite, Mozilla Equal Rating Innovation Challenge 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxTPSWMX26M
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