 ID: 128015
Added: 2008-07-17 9:23
Modified: 2009-05-28 15:39
Refreshed: 2010-03-20 13:44
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| Infrastructure Policy & Indicators |
In the past, development activities have focused on the third and fourth layers of information and communication services, assuming that the market would take care of the development of basic infrastructure. Manifestly, this has not happened, and African content initiatives are failing to deliver on their promise because the basic access does not exist for Africa to take advantage of those services. The demand for better and more efficient services are the main drivers for improved network expansion and upgraded operability from old analogue systems to digital quality lines and transmission equipment. But these demands are likely to remain unserviced because complexity of strategic ICT infrastructure development remains outside the reach of the average citizen. They remain paternalistically managed by well-meaning governments with vested interests in earning high dividends from rapidly changing telecommunications markets. These issues need to be elaborated and debated within the context of public policy agenda setting. Research questions include: - Assuming that supply-side statistics do not tell the full story of ICT use in Africa, what is the real usage and uptake of ICTs in urban, peri-urban, and rural Africa?
- What ICT policies are most effective in enabling African governments to deliver on their universal service commitments?
- How important are access and affordability to micro-economic changes for poor communities?
- What role does the ICT sector play in creating more job opportunities in national economies? To what extent and how is the ICT sector contributing to changes in the structure of national employment?
- How effective are the policy-makers and regulators in Africa in establishing a level playing field for greater across-the-board participation in the ICT sector?
- What are the best mechanisms for positively influencing telecommunications policy and regulatory processes?
- What alternative infrastructures can enable universal access, what policy changes are required, and what regulatory capacities need to be developed in order to create the enabling environments that will attract public, private, and community investments into developing such alternative backbones and access networks in Africa?
- What are the institutional rigidities in the ICT sector (obsolete laws, policies, regulations, unrestrained monopoly power and political interference) inhibit investment in network development?
- How can the resistance to change and cultural lag of incumbent telecom operators be overcome?
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