The excitement about the extension of telecommunications networks and services in countries across the continent over the last few years, particularly in the area of mobile telephony, should be tempered by the fact that these have not been optimal. While gains have clearly been made this review of the telecommunications sector performance across 16 African countries suggests that national policy objectives of pervasive and affordable ICT services are often undermined by many countries’ own policies and practices, market structures and institutional arrangements. While Africa may have the highest growth rate in mobile telephony, this is off a very low base. Large numbers of people still do not have permanent access to basic telephony.

LLU was introduced as a way to overcome the bottleneck control over the last (or first) mile of copper cable owned by incumbent operators which had proved very hard and very expensive to replicate. An alternative approach, discussed by a few countries, would have been structural separation, putting the ownership of the local loops into a different company.

The SPR reports are now available online. More country reports will be posted as they become available. 

Benin Burkina Faso Botswana Cameroon Cote d'Ivoire Ethiopia Ghana Kenya Mozambique Namibia Nigeria Rwanda South Africa Uganda Zambia

                                           

One of the underlying causes of the high costs of telecommunications in Africa has been and continues to be the charges made for international connections between countries and especially to other continents. The cost of making telephone calls and of accessing the Internet remains disproportionately more expensive when compared to countries in the northern hemisphere.