Geospatial sustainability assessment of universal Fiber-To-The-Neighborhood (FTTnb) broadband infrastructure strategies for Sub-Saharan Africa

TL;DR

This study evaluates the environmental and economic impacts of fiber-to-the-neighborhood broadband infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting cost and emission differences based on population density and identifying regions where FTTnb is feasible within a decade.

Contribution

It introduces a geospatial assessment framework for FTTnb infrastructure, employing spatial optimization algorithms to analyze costs and emissions in low-income regions.

Findings

Higher emissions in low-density areas (0.18-9.6 kg CO2 eq./user) compared to high-density areas (0.015-0.12 kg CO2 eq./user).

Total cost per user is significantly lower in high-density regions, 12-90 times less.

Approximately 48% of Sub-Saharan Africa's population could benefit from FTTnb within ten years.

Abstract

Broadband Internet access is an important way to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Currently, fixed fiber infrastructure is essential for providing universal broadband, but has received relatively little research attention in low-income countries compared to other more cost-efficient wireless technologies. Yet, pushing out fiber broadband network to local areas is essential, even if the final access network is still wireless. Here, we design least-cost Fiber-To-The-Neighborhood (FTTnb) architectures using two spatial optimization Steiner Tree algorithms to jointly determine investment costs, environmental emissions, and Social Carbon Costs. We find that the average annualized per user emissions in low population density areas (<9 people per km2) range from 0.18-9.6 kg CO2 eq./user, compared to 0.015-0.12 kg CO2 eq./user for high population density areas (>958 people per km2). Moreover, Annualized Total Cost of Ownership per user is 12-90 times lower in high population density areas (>958 people per km2) compared to sparsely populated regions (<9 people per km2). Thus, 48% (about 550 million) of the total Sub-Saharan African population live in areas where FTTnb is viable within the next ten years.