The FTTH Council Africa has announced that 'cross border' collaboration and partnerships will be an important focal point of this year's conference, to be held in Kigali, Rwanda on 20 and 21 October 2015.

'Despite the abundance of sub-sea cables linking Africa to the rest of the world, most African countries still struggle with a lack of basic broadband services' says Juanita Clark, FTTH Council Africa CEO. 'We need to collaborate, as a continent, to ensure regulatory challenges are addressed – minimising barriers to entry for high-speed fibre networks.'

In a statement the FTTH Council Africa says its fourth Fibre Focussed Conference will be held alongside Transform Africa 2015 – an event hosted by the Government of Rwanda, and focussed on setting a new agenda for Africa by leapfrogging development challenges through the use and uptake of Broadband and related services.

Richard Came, president of the FTTH Council Africa, commented; 'We are excited to bring the message of fibre optic infrastructure; its potential, features and benefits, to the table for high level discussion amongst many visiting Ministers from across Africa. We invite all role players to join us for two days in Kigali where we hope to change the landscape of connectivity for the continent, its people and various economies.'

During last year's conference, hosted in Johannesburg, Pape Ndaw, Africa's general manager for broadband network solutions at TE Connectivity, said Africa needed a mindshift in terms of broadband.

"We have to move away from thinking about speed and megabytes and gigabytes; we have to think about providing services that are required," he said at the event.

Ndaw also highlighted other challenges facing the continent's fibre-network industry, which include the need for a greater fibre optic roll-out, increased affordability, and the feasibility of open access networks.