Blog – Page 163 of 164 – Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA)

03Apr

Enabling Open Access ICT Infrastructure Through Universal Access

admin April 3, 2011

Introduction
In view of the ongoing debates about how to reduce bandwidth costs in Africa, and discussions about how the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) should be managed, APC is supporting the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) to develop a series of papers that discuss issues concerning Open Access fibre optic systems and how they can benefit from Universal Access programmes in Africa.
Among other things, this paper:
1)    Addresses the factors that inform Universal Access in Africa;
2)    Makes the case for Open Access infrastructure in addressing the continent’s connectivity headaches;
3)    Examines the flaws that are common in African connectivity programmes, including the shortage of useful content and the failure to create sustainable demand for service;
4)    Presents the case of the Ugandan and Kenyan rural access programmes and scrutinises areas that may fail their Universal Service aspirations; and
5)    Concludes that regional infrastructure undertakings like EASSy require Universal Access to be correctly implemented and to address demand in order for Open Access principles to prevail.
Several African countries have adopted Universal Access principles as part of their efforts to extend modern communication services to disadvantaged areas. The thinking is that Universal Access will help bridge the digital divide within countries, whereby urban areas tend to have better and often more affordable connectivity compared to rural/disadvantaged areas.
Increasingly, the principle of Open Access is also gaining currency for similar reasons: countries seek to lower the cost of extending connectivity and enhance the affordability of ICT services. Some countries are embracing Open Access not only for regional infrastructure backbones, but also promulgating it for national ICT infrastructure.
This paper questions whether Open Access will bear much fruit if Universal Access does not significantly go beyond the mere provision of connectivity, to creating effective demand.
Why Universal Access
Universal Access entails access by all to quality communication services like telephony or the Internet at affordable prices and reasonable distances. In Botswana’s, the definition seems more comprehensive than in most African countries. Its National ICT policy defines Universal Access as “[t]he provision of affordable, reliable, simple to operate, advanced capabilities for new telecommunications and information services, so that they are either available or easily accessible to everyone, with due regard to people with special needs”.
Overall, African Internet penetration is very low at only 2.6 per 100 inhabitants. Comparative figures for Europe are 31.2%, the Americas (north and south) 28.2%, and Asia 8.1%. But even within Africa, penetration levels tend to be lower in some of the East and Southern African countries (as shown in the graph below), where the lack of a link to the international fibre optic system makes connectivity more costly.
Interventions (mainly public sector) are therefore necessary to extend services to regions that are rural, poor, or difficult to connect due to geographical complexities, as they often lag behind in access to ICT. As it is, Universal Access implies having a telephony/Internet access facility within walkable distance for all, but does not necessarily imply that people have the means to use and maximise the benefit of the technology. Issues such as the ability to pay for the service, skills in using the service, and appropriate content, may hinder a person from maximizing the benefit of the ICT services, yet they are often ignored by Universal Service programmes.
Case for Open Access
As can be seen from the illustration above, only a tiny fraction of Africa has access to the Internet. The shortage of infrastructure and the high cost of connectivity are key contributing factors. The advent of fibre optic bandwidth will potentially make it affordable to connect thousands of more users. But if the cable is run along a consortium format, it is likely that the price for connecting will be kept artificially high, resulting in much of the bandwidth available on cables like EASSy staying redundant. This is why Open Access should result in more people accessing ICT services. Open Access requires that owners of assets that are thought to be unique/ costly/ wasteful to duplicate, make them available to others at a competitive price. This mainly applies to what are deemed to be national infrastructural assets. EASSy is probably the best-known African project to adopt Open Access principles, but others like the COMESA Telecommunications Company (COMTEL) are following suit. Countries where exclusivity periods for telecos are ending are requiring all infrastructure providers to allow access to their resources at competitive prices so that the new entrants are not disadvantaged vis-à-vis the existing infrastructure owners. In fact, COMESA at large and the East African Community have endorsed the Open Access principles for ICT infrastructure, though they have not effectively implemented them. Open Access in a way shares the vision of Universal Access since it sees the challenge as being able to extend communications to those at the bottom of the income pyramid by lowering the cost of services. In this sense, Open Access can be viewed as an enabler of Universal Access. Open access encourages small operators, including those that operate in limited geographical areas, to enter the market and service also ‘last mile’ connectivity.
Rural and ‘last mile’ connectivity are crucial in Africa. Because African connectivity is extremely low compared to other parts of the world, connectivity in more deprived parts of the continent is unlikely to be effected by private sector operators whose motives are purely commercial. A person in a high-income country is over 22 times more likely to be an Internet user than someone in a low-income country. And in high-income countries, mobile phones are 29 times more prevalent, and mainline penetration is 21 times that of low-income countries (UNCTAD 2006). Relative to income, the cost of Internet access in a low-income country is 150 times the cost of a comparable service in a high-income country. The disparities in access to ICT are huge in most of Africa, which creates a need for improving ICT connectivity, access and usage. Both Universal Access and Open Access respond to this need.
It is generally agreed that access to reliable and affordable ICT can help to positively transform the lives of those who own them and use them effectively. ICT can be an enabler of development, as they can reward those who use them well with increased income and a better quality of life. Conversely, those who do not use them are left behind, and ICT disparities often tend to worsen the existing inequalities.

Flaws in African Universal Access programmes
Several African countries have set up universal service funds in their national ICT policies. But it is becoming evident that the definition of Universal Access and the implementation of Universal Access programmes in much of Africa tend to be flawed. In most cases, the designation of Universal Access does not go beyond taking connectivity to rural areas. But as will be argued below, for the majority of rural Africans to access and effectively use ICT, more than connectivity is needed: Relevant (including local and adapted) content, building capacity for people to be able to use the ICTs, and for communities to maintain the ‘equipment’, are crucial too. So are access to reliable and affordable electricity to power the connectivity, the use of appropriate technology for the connection, and connectivity services that are sustainable. These are what will create effective demand that will feed Open Access and make it a success.
Content
While some schools of thought hold that the lack of electricity is a leading impediment to the success of Universal Access programmes in Africa, we feel content is a much more fundamental problem. Most of the Universal Access programmes are implemented in rural areas that do not have power, so in cases like Uganda’s Rural Access Programmes, diesel-powered generators are part of the package extended to such initiatives. Like electricity, the development of local content is one of the paramount prerequisites for Africa’s effective uptake of the Internet and associated services. But at the moment, African-generated content is only a tiny fraction of the online content. This means that what is available on the Internet (and associated mediums) is not always relevant to Africans. Without appropriate content, Africa cannot fundamentally boost usage of ICT in disadvantaged areas.
However, the development of content cannot be achieved without empowering people and organisations in Africa to enable them develop and disseminate their content, including indigenous knowledge. The reality is that few Universal Access programmes in Africa prioritise content generation. In some cases where content is mentioned in Universal Access policy documents, it is often a peripheral issue that hardly moves beyond the policy documents to actual implementation.
This could also explain the challenges telecentres in Africa have faced, which have made only a handful of them successful. Quite often they have failed to address critical issues such as the requirements of the beneficiary communities. There tends to be a general assumption that technology brings development and everybody should know this, including rural communities. A telecentre is then dumped in the community whose needs are not well ascertained, and which is unable to use the service. That is a recipe for failure.
The case of CELAC (Collecting and Exchange of Local Agricultural Content, www.celac.or.ug) in Uganda is an instructive one in best practice. It collects local indigenous knowledge from the communities, processes it, and exchanges it between communities in different parts of the country. This is content people can easily associate with, and are comfortable working with. Additionally, CELAC has demonstration gardens where it ‘practices what it preaches’. The farming community then finds it easier to appreciate the practical relevance to improving their livelihoods of the information available at the CELAC resource centre.
Demand
Without a doubt, demand for information carried by modern communication channels exists in rural and under-served Africa. And this demand should rise as new technologies allow for a decrease in costs of bandwidth and of telephony connectivity generally. The telecom operators that are in the consortium that has promoted EASSy over the years, are perceived to want closed control over the cable’s bandwidth so that they can charge for it as they wish. But it is also conceivable that they want the consortium model because demand is not easily predictable, and they need to be in charge of servicing that uncertain demand.
But while the completion of EASSy would obviously result in a possibility for users to get top-grade bandwidth at significantly lower prices, there is no guarantee that under a consortium this will be the case. What is more likely to happen is that the individuals and organisations that already have Internet connectivity, in predominantly urban areas, will upgrade their connectivity; few additional connections outside the currently connected circuits would be made under an arrangement other than Open Access. In turn, by enabling operators, even small ones, to hook onto the cable, and making it possible for them to operate in less-served areas, Open Access would boost demand for Internet services.
The telecentre experience shows that we have to address the demand side at the same time as we address the supply constraint. Creating content that is relevant for education or health, and making communities aware of the uses of ICTs, are ways of generating demand. This why development agencies that support ICT for Development programmes need to ensure that these programmes create requisite demand on a sustainable basis.
Uganda’s Rural Access Fund
In 2001, Uganda set up the Rural Communications Development Fund (RCDF), one of the very first on the continent, to “enable the establishment of an appropriate infrastructure that supports ICT development and at the same time achieves Universal Access in Uganda.” The primary objective was to ensure that basic communication services of acceptable quality were accessible, at affordable prices, and at reasonable distances, by all people. The fund would primarily be used to assist in areas where the provision of commercial services was not feasible, and would be accessed through some form of competition by operators. The initial proposed prioritisation was support for the establishment of access to basic ICT services in sub-counties, which are un-served; support for the introduction of Internet Points of Presence (PoP) in every district headquarters; the promotion of ICT capacity (training, management and maintenance of services established at vanguard institutions); the promotion of content creation; and the establishment of a domestic Internet Exchange Point (IXP).
While the RCDF has funded the establishment of Internet PoPs and the setting up of community access points, with power supply highly erratic (and costly), the centres are often inoperational. Critics say a lack of effective capacity building for operators and beneficiaries of these centres, coupled with a lack of sufficient local and adapted content, also detract from the usefulness of the facilities. At another level, how to sustain these operations beyond the RCDF subsidies has not been properly worked out, which casts doubt on whether this initiative is sustainable in its present format.
Kenya’s Rural Development Fund
In Kenya, telecom operators have opposed the establishment of a special Universal Service Fund (USF) for developing communication infrastructure and services in rural and under-served areas. The USF was to be financed through a tax charged on mobile phone airtime. Telecom operators argue that the fund would inflate the cost of airtime and prevent full use of the emerging mobile phone service. The proposal is for telecom companies, both mobile and landline providers, to contribute 1% of their gross annual revenue to the fund. But operators argue that USF would instead threaten to reduce penetration, as it will increase total levies charged on mobile phone usage to 28% from the current 27%. Celtel has argued that in the past it had connected areas not served by any means of communication, and that telecom companies do not need government prodding to move to these areas. It argues that rather than asking phone companies to contribute 1% of their gross revenue to the fund, government should identify areas it wants to cover, then tell them to use that 1% to cover these areas. The operators’ argument is that the USF by itself cannot create the necessary conditions for running a sustainable service in the areas where government envisages intervening. By extension, it can be posited that Open Access would not be feasible in such areas, unless Universal Access interventions helped create demand in such regions.
Conclusion
Universal Access is designed to take connectivity to areas where it is lacking and is not likely to be made available by commercial operators. While it should ideally develop both infrastructure and content, usually funding for appropriate content is disregarded. Equipment often breaks down and there are no maintenance support facilities; while low levels of literacy also mean that even when services are extended to some rural areas, they will not be useful to many members of the community – unless they are given training. A distinction is often made about ‘necessary conditions’ (which entail bringing the relevant ICT infrastructure to a community, including carriage facilities that store, service or carry information, the actual devices that the people use and the tools to operate); and ‘sufficient conditions’, which refer to conditions that yield maximum usage and benefit of ICT. That is, communities should have the skill to take full advantage of ICT, be able to afford to pay for services, and appropriate content has to be made available. It can be argued then that universal access programmes in Africa may have taken noteworthy strides in the direction of the necessary conditions for Universal Access, but they are far from embarking on the sufficient conditions for Universal Access. Open Access is a means of enabling Universal Access; though, conversely, a comprehensive and well-implemented Universal Access programme is also an aid to the successful operation of an Open Access model. – With www.fibreforafrica.net

03Apr

National Workshop Hosted By Cipesa Discusses EASSy

admin April 3, 2011

1.0 Introduction
The Collaboration for International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) is currently running national workshops about
increasing awareness and raising key issues on the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) – the proposed international fiber optic network that seeks to link the eastern and part of southern Africa to the international fiber optic system – in regional African countries to raise awareness and address major concerns about EASSy. The countries targeted include: Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, Rwanda and Uganda. Malawi, Burundi, Lesotho and Zimbabwe are also targeted for similar workshops but with a focus on liberalisation of telecom monopolies in those countries that have signed up to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
This report highlights the major proceedings of the Uganda workshop held on May 2, 2006 in Kampala. It was held in conjunction with the
Association of Progressive Communications (APC) and Balancing Act. CIPESA also teamed up with two local partners namely; I-Network Uganda and Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET).
1.2 Major discussions of the workshop
The workshop focussed on ICT infrastructure with special emphasis on the opportunities that EASSy would provide. The role of the NEPAD e-Africa commission and the cost implications of EASSy and satellite connectivity were also discussed.
1.2.1 ICT Infrastructure in Uganda
The state of the ICT infrastructure in Uganda is no different from that of other African countries. The cost of bandwidth is still high
rendering computer use and Internet access only a preserve for a few, often urban elites. Yet bandwidth is key to development and its
availability depends on the size of the pipe, cost and ownership of the pipe, among other factors. From a private sector perspective, the
management and ownership of EASSy should be left in the hands of the private sector as it is the only that can now stand up to the challenges posed by globalisation and liberalisation. Given
that computing and Internet connectivity is only available to 0.5% – 7% of Africans and Asians compared to 50% – 60% Asians and North Americans, the private sector is in a better position to
provide and manage bandwidth in a way that would lead to better connection in the globalised economy.
1.2.2 The role of NEPAD in EASSy project
NEPAD’s involvement in EASSy is through its e-Africa Commission that is responsible for developing policies, strategies and projects at
the continental level. The commission also manages the structured development of the ICT sector to ensure that all African countries get
connected to the fibre-optic cable system.
Presently, NEPAD is the main continental body spearheading EASSy. It is striving to enable landlocked countries access submarine cable heads and is also involved in the creation of a legal policy and regulatory framework of the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) that can own, develop, operate and maintain the network, including the EASSy cable.
In NEPAD’s view, the ‘Club’ model as fronted by the consortium presents the following disadvantages for EASSy stakeholders:
–       The incentive scheme means that small investors subsidise large investors.
–        Smaller investors could be forced out of the international telecom business in their countries when markets are fully liberalised.
–        It also presents inherent inequalities among EASSy consortium parties i.e. some are wealthy, some have large customer bases and some
have extensive submarine expertise.
At the end of May 2006, regional ministers will meet to discuss, among other things, the shape of the proposed SPV. Once endorsed, it would be in charge of setting EASSy off the ground and seeing it to fruition. The envisaged SPV would adopt an open access model to ensure that EASSy bandwidth is affordable and accessible to all stakeholders.
1.2.3 Rural connectivity
The past eight years have seen a rise in the range of technologies available to rural communities in Uganda. These include; radio,
mobile phone and fax machines. Today, it is estimated that 2% of households in Uganda use mobile phones. But even if rural connectivity
would certainly generate employment and other opportunities for rural communities, it is beset by a number of challenges. These include:
–        Lack of electricity
–        Limited private sector interest in rural areas
–        Inadequate ICT infrastructure
With these challenges therefore, it is prudent for government to extend connectivity to rural areas especially when EASSy becomes a reality. Uganda should also consider a public-private partnership in laying a national infrastructure backbone that will include fibre optics. The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) is spearheading the process while the private sector is set to play the practical role of installing the backbone.
1.2.4 Comparative analysis of cost connectivity
Opinion is sharply divided as to whether EASSy is the panacea to Uganda’s bandwidth problems. Like many other African countries, Uganda lacks adequate ICT infrastructure to support EASSy. It therefore leaves doubt in some people’s minds as whether the cable would meet the expectations of all the stakeholders (especially the mass
market).
Consequently, many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other private sector operators believe that the Open Access model, as
advocated for by NEPAD, cannot work in an African context. Unlike in parts of Europe where it has succeed largely because of infrastructure built by providers as part of their universal service obligations, Africa has no such system in place. One way of circumventing this bottleneck is perhaps devising a hybrid between an SPV that is
favoured by NEPAD and that of the consortium.
1.3 Issues raised during the discussion
–      Representatives of UCC believe that Ugandan operators should be ready to accept an open access model. In this way, they should be
ready to compete not on selling EASSy bandwidth but providing services that will be enabled by the cable.
–      Given that prices for connectivity through VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminals) and satellite are falling progressively, EASSy must offer bandwidth at lower prices than either of the two alternatives. The market, rather than the EASSy cartel should therefore be the key determinant of the prices at which EASSy bandwidth would be sold.
–      The benefits of EASSy would only be realised by ordinary Internet users when fibre optic cables are extended beyond the country’s handful of major towns. The fact that local calls are expensive for the majority of rural mobile phone owners is in itself a disincentive to the extension of fibre beyond Uganda’s major towns.
–      Although opinion is still sharply divided over which model would best suit EASSy, those in favour of closed access believe that government should never return to doing business in national interest as it has proved a failure in other ventures in the past. Government’s intervention should stop at creating a conducive policy regulation environment. In a way, EASSy should be a public good run by the private sector with the aim of making profit.
–      Government should set up a Ministry of ICT to monitor and support ICT innovations in the country since ICT has become part and parcel of all sectors of the economy.
–      Government should also urgently address the issue of corruption that has led to the failure of similar infrastructure projects like Bujagali power project and the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and malaria.
–      Government and private sector also need to harmonise efforts to address the challenges of rural connectivity especially through the management of the Rural Connectivity Development Fund (RCDF).
Report prepared by CIPESA

03Apr

E-ready for what? E-readiness in developing countries: Current status and prospects toward the Millennium Development Goals

admin April 3, 2011

View: Executive summary | Public announcement
Jump to: Table of contents | Acknowledgements
Table of contents
Executive summary
Acknowledgements
Acronyms used in this report
1 Introduction
2 Background
2.1 E-readiness assessment as a tool for ICT-based development
2.1.1 What do e-readiness assessments actually do?
2.1.2 E-readiness assessment: who

03Apr

COUNTRY CODE TLDs: KEY TO AFRICA'S INTERNET FUTURE, BUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THERE IS A PROBLEM?

admin April 3, 2011

The Domain Name System is divided up into a number of Top-Level Domains (TLDs), including generic domains like .com, .org, and .edu, and Country Code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs) like .za for South Africa, .cm for Cameroon, and .ug for Uganda. ICANN designates who operates a particular ccTLD and sets general technical policies regarding ccTLDs. However, beyond the act of recognition, the ICANN role ends and decisions are made at the country level; ICANN does not have authority over the local policies or distribution of domain names within the ccTLD space.
ICANN (or its predecessors in the early years of the Domain Name System) has assigned the responsibility to administer a particular ccTLD to a company, university, government agency or individual in the country that is technically competent to manage the system. (The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority maintains “Root-Zone Whois Information” that lists the sponsoring organization for the ccTLD of each country, including the administrative and technical contacts and URL for registration services; see http://www.iana.org/cctld/cctld-whois.htm)
Many experts make a strong case for why building an effective ccTLD registry should be a high priority for African countries that want to grow their Internet industry. If implemented effectively, a ccTLD is a valuable national resource that can give a local identity to websites on the Internet. And a well-run ccTLD institution that is sustained as part of a local market can also bring other benefits, such as providing a home for the local technical community to get trained and build businesses.
However, there are a number of questions around the selection of the ccTLD managers, what should happen if things go wrong at the country level, and who decides when something has “gone wrong” that requires intervention. The bottom line is that capable and reliable institutions are needed to run the ccTLDs, and there must be mechanisms in place for dealing with disputes when they arise.
This is the kind of scenario that can lead to problems… A ccTLD manager may have been picked long ago, for what seemed like good reasons at the time. But now the system has outgrown their capacity, and other capable actors apply to take their place (sometimes more than one). A dispute arises between the designated manager and the new applicants, and no one has the clear authority to resolve the matter because many governments have no rules about the management of the ccTLD resource.
Because ICANN endeavors to work by consensus, this can mean the discussion goes on and on with no clear decision-making. Eventually ICANN faces numerous requests to reallocate the ccTLD registry. Everyone involved has a different view. The situation stalls and nothing happens.
Even where governments do have policies for dealing with their ccTLD, some commentators worry that divergent national agendas could fracture the global network, so they call for agreed principles to help harmonize the system across countries. In Africa, the management of ccTLDs varies widely, from the highly-structured .za system in South Africa, to the .so domain of Somalia that at present is not operational.
ICANN currently lacks the institutional competence to handle these kinds of issues. Setting up an international treaty organization to handle these kinds of matters has been proposed, but even if that goes forward it can be expected to take a long time to realize. In the meantime, ICANN needs sensible policies that can be followed that will lead to implementable decisions. And to be good at this ICANN must have local representation on its staff and in its committees to develop and review such policies and processes.

03Apr

Joining the dots: Issues ‘Connect Africa’ should consider

admin April 3, 2011

CIPESA Briefing Paper, November 2007
The ‘Connect Africa’ Summit will take place in Kigali, Rwanda on October 29-30 2007, under the auspices of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID). The ITU has labelled the Summit a ‘Marshall Plan for ICT infrastructure development in Africa’ which underlines the recognition by the Connect Africa initiative of the critical importance of developing ICT infrastructure to enable Africa to join the Information Society.
Among the key concerns of Connect Africa are that Internet services needed for business, government and consumer applications continue to be either very expensive or not available due to limited broadband network infrastructure; and that rural connectivity and access remain inadequate as does the availability of locally relevant content, applications and services.
This paper outlines some of the issues that need to be addressed for the vision of boosting connectivity in Africa to be realised.

Africa’s connectivity nightmare
A person in a high-income country is over 22 times more likely to be an Internet user than someone in a low-income country. And in high-income countries, mobile phones are 29 times more prevalent, and mainline penetration is 21 times that of low-income countries (UNCTAD 2006). The few Internet users in Africa pay exorbitant charges for a service that tends to be slower than elsewhere in the world owing to low bandwidth problems. The penetration of broadband stands at just about 2% of total Internet usage, and the continent boasts 0.1% of the world’s broadband connections, compared to its share of the global mobile connections of 4%. This in turn makes the Internet less useful for those Africans that have access to it than it is for their counterparts in America, Asia, and Europe.
Consequently, it becomes especially difficult for the majority of Africans with access to the Internet to engage in any meaningful trade and business using the Internet, implying for instance that they can hardly take advantage of the numerous Business Process Outsourcing Opportunities from which other countries such as India, Thailand and the Philippines are reaping huge benefits. Some argue that with the current Internet costs and usage levels in Africa, and the low penetration of broadband connectivity, it remains a big challenge to meaningfully employ the Internet to promote trade and agriculture, or education and health services delivery, in Africa.
In 2006, the mobile phone became the first communications technology to have more users in developing countries than in developed ones, with more than 800 million mobile phones sold in developing countries in the preceding three years. African countries have been a key contributor to this achievement, as they have registered the world’s highest mobile phone growth, ranging from 50% to 400% in the last three years. But as ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré has pointed out, Africa’s goal should be to replicate the success of the mobile phone in broadband capability, with the aim of achieving “Internet access in every village, every school, every university, every hospital.”
Here below we examine some of the issues we consider need to be addressed so as to realise the aspirations of the Connect Africa initiative:
Open Access in relation to demand for connectivity
Whereas supply may create demand, this may not always be the case with ICT as has been evidenced at several telecentres; many have been established but the local communities hardly use them. Quite likely, fibre initiatives will enable individuals and organisations that already have Internet connectivity, in predominantly urban areas, to upgrade their connectivity, but enable few additional connections outside the currently connected circuits – unless effective demand is created for the fibre. This means if business continues the way it is conducted in the majority of African countries, the rural dwellers, who make up more than 85% in many countries, are likely to remain unconnected even if fibre is built.
Africa needs Open Access ICT backbone infrastructure. This need is informed by the desire to assure affordable access for users, and a multiplicity of service providers that operate in a level-playing field. Affordability remains a critical issue in having more Africans using the Internet, so Open Access would boost Internet usage by enabling even small operators to tap into regional/national fibre networks and offer services, including in areas the big players would ignore because their return on investment would be perceived to be low. Ideally, the low start-up capital would enable a myriad of operators to come up. They would access high-quality bandwidth, charge low prices, and then several thousands, maybe millions more Africans would be able to afford and start using the Internet.
Open Access requires that owners of assets that are thought to be unique/ costly/ wasteful to duplicate, make them available to others at a competitive price. Countries where exclusivity periods for telecos are ending are requiring all infrastructure providers to allow access to their resources at competitive prices so that new entrants are not disadvantaged vis-à-vis the existing infrastructure owners. It still has to be seen whether these requirements will be efficiently enforced.
How Government should help in creating demand
Governments should raise demand for ICT services by becoming bigger consumers and by offering online services. This should go a long way in creating demand for ICT goods and services. Governments should therefore provide services online, to enable electronic public supply delivery with all its attendant benefits. The idea is that while telecom companies and others are working on supplying fibre, efforts should at the same time be underway to boost demand for the bandwidth.
Electronic Government entails the public sector’s use of information and communication technologies to improve information and service delivery, encouraging citizen participation in the decision-making process and making government more accountable, transparent and effective. But so many factors are stacked against the effective working of eGovernment in East Africa. These range from lack of infrastructure to both run the services and access the services; shortage of skills among users and public servants; lack of a culture (sometimes mechanisms) for sharing information; lack of requisite legislation; and the tendency for public information to be kept out of the public. African governments need to address these issues as part of an holistic focus on the connectivity challenge.
Content matters – a lot!
In addition to Governments’ role in creating demand, content will drive demand for services. Initiatives that create infrastructure, and which seek to enable an IT usage revolution in Africa, should also address the issue of creating content that is useful to African users. This content should address the known and expected needs of African users in the areas of agriculture, education, health, governance, among others – and it should include foreign languages (French/ English/ Portuguese/ Arabic …) as well as content in local languages.
Currently, African-generated content is only a tiny fraction of the online content. This means that what is available on the Internet (and associated mediums) is not always relevant to Africans.
However, the development of content cannot be achieved without empowering people and organisations in Africa to enable them to develop and disseminate this content.
Address the Power problem
The lack of access to electricity (and the high costs incurred by those who have access) must be addressed comprehensively if any meaningful improvements in ICT connectivity are to occur. More than 75% of Africans do have access to electricity, and the majority of them remain effectively locked out of the Information Society. Percentages of the population are very low – Rwanda (<5%), Lesotho (6.5%), Uganda (6%), Kenya (15%), Tanzania (7%), Zambia (20%), Malawi (6%). Power shortages have made it impossible for private operators to extend services to some areas; and in other localities where they offer services they have to run costly diesel-powered generators which heavily push up their costs. The World Bank says the “energy poor” in Africa spend about $17 billion a year on fuel-based lighting sources – such as kerosene lamps, which are costly, inefficient, and provide poor quality light while polluting and posing fire hazards.

Set regulations and promote competition
Governments need to set policies, rules and regulations to guide fibre development and use, but these should be developed through a multistakeholder process with active representation from telecom companies, ISPs, civil society, regulatory agencies, and academic and research institutions, among others. As has been seen from the experience of telecoms in Africa, monopoly providers curtail development of services, while keeping prices artificially high and unaffordable to the majority of citizens.
Regulators will therefore need to put in place competitive safeguards to enable new/smaller providers to access infrastructure that may be developed by the big, often incumbent, providers. As the WTO has noted, easy and non-discriminatory access to unbundled services; non-discriminatory, transparent, and cost-oriented interconnection terms for competing service providers; preventing cross-subsidies from services or facilities provided on an exclusive or dominant basis, as well as protecting the genuine business interests of those who invest in infrastructure, are all key to boosting affordability and connectivity.
Infrastructure Sharing
African policy makers, development workers and telecom operators need to ask themselves what role infrastructure sharing can play in improving/lowering costs of connectivity. A lot of resources are being wasted in a duplication of efforts, which in turn renders connectivity more costly. Many African states’ ICT policies have recently recognised the role of supporting infrastructure in improving connectivity. The Kenyan ICT policy, for instance, requires that physical infrastructure providers – for example roads, railways, pipelines, property developers and power providers – should make provision for future installation of ICT facilities. In Zambia, power companies are delivering or selling bandwidth to telecom companies.
Complement fibre with wireless to deliver last mile connectivity
Among the key enablers of universal access are affordable interconnection arrangements and bandwidth costs. The Wireless Local Loop (WLL), the use of a wireless communication link as the ‘last mile’ connection for delivering telephone and broadband Internet services to end users, is increasingly being seen as a convenient technological contributor to universal access in Africa. It has good quality voice and high-speed broadband capabilities, good access speed and relatively low cost of deployment. But there are challenges, including high interconnection rates, high cost of bandwidth, locating base stations, and consumer understanding of the technology.
Without a doubt, wireless technologies offer affordable means of reaching less isolated rural customers without laying cable or stringing copper wire. Consideration should therefore be given to employing them to compliment fibre, as well as other technologies, in extending connectivity across the last mile and to other users that are difficult to connect.
Conclusion
African countries need to adopt and implement Open Access for ICT backbone infrastructure. They also need to build on ongoing universal access initiatives to improve connectivity, and this should include rethinking the Community Multipurpose Communication centres. But as cables are being laid, efforts need to be made to create demand for connectivity, as well as relevant content, and governments should play a pivotal role in this.

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