The government of South Sudan has initiated engagement with Facebook, Google, and Twitter in a move to speed up the development of the network infrastructure and communication sector in the country, a senior official has said.

Napoleon Adok Gai, the Director General at the National Communication Authority says discussions with Facebook were at advance stages while Google and Twitter were yet to respond to communications sent by the government.

“Only Facebook has responded positively to help us establish local cache and improve their current cooperation with Mobile network operators to deliver free Facebook services over mobile data, Adok told City Review exclusively.

The national communication regulators have also embarked on establishing the South Sudan Internet Exchange Point (SSIPX), which will create a local loop and significantly reduce the cost of internet connection and improve the speed of access to global content providers like Google.

“We are aiming to complete this project by Feb 2021 together with world-class datacentre, which should allow the content search engines to cohost their cache servers in the country. This will enable South Sudan to generate its own local contents which will put us on global internet mapping,” Adok said.   

Internet Exchange Point is the physical infrastructure through which internet service providers and content delivery networks exchange internet traffic between their networks.

Once established, it will be easy for big tech to see and verify unique data from South Sudan based on the geographical territory.

The process, according to the senior official, requires constant engagements with big tech as the government also works on gazetting laws that safeguard such infrastructural developments.

In a country with low internet penetration percentage, the government is pushing for the extension of fibre optic cables to reach the ten states of South Sudan and also implement e-services in sectors like education and health.

Adok says media professionals would also be trained by the tech giants on how to manage digital content and eliminate information parodies and hate speech.

Toward the end of October this year, Loon, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet hovered its high-altitude balloons above the capital Juba in a testing debut after two years of engagement with the government of South Sudan through the regional consortium of East Africa communication regulators. 

Adok says the National Communication Authority has not yet requested the implementation of the Loon Project in South Sudan as government awaits test result conducted in the country adding that that they are “keenly following the development and shall engage Loon directly for our interest”. 

With lowest internet ranking currently in the region, South Sudan could benefit greatly once the technology passes its testing phase and verified by local mobile operators who are key stakeholders in such an undertaking.

Loon uses high-altitude balloons in the stratosphere at an altitude of 18 km to 25 km to create an aerial wireless network with up to 1 Mbit/s speeds to deliver internet access to remote areas of the country.

The technology is currently beaming in many sub-Saharan African countries, including Kenya and Mozambique. Its inception into South Sudan would mean improved internet access in the country.