Mobile networks at the centre of infrastructure

Reflecting Northern models, mobile telecommunications in developing countries were initially conceived as secondary to fixed lines. Now, however, mobiles are central to information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and policy:

• Globally, Asia is the largest regional mobile telecommunications market, not only in terms of consumption, but increasingly in terms of production.
• Mobile operators now control 70 percent of the telecommunication network capacity in sub-Saharan Africa, leaving fixed-line monopolies far behind.
• Mobile operators' plans for telecommunications coverage now determine how and when poor and rural populations are reached by the 'digital revolution'.
• Using General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology, mobile networks are now a potentially viable way to deliver Internet services, and avoid costly and protracted fixed-line models.

With mobile operators now taking the lead in ICT policy, however, several issues need to be resolved:

• Interconnection: can the operators be persuaded to allow shared access to their infrastructure, allowing the creation of national and regional networks?
• Technology: can new low-cost Internet devices achieve the type of mass market mobiles phones currently enjoy? Only then can the promise of mobile Internet be realised.
• Affordability: access to mobile networks and services is still far from universal, and advances are needed to reach the poorest people. Can innovations such as micro-prepay (allowing purchase of very small amounts of airtime), combined with low-cost pricing strategies and public policy initiatives like universal service funding schemes be introduced to make this happen?

See also

Internet for Everyone in African GSM Networks, Scanbi-Invest, Stockholm, by Olof Hesselmark and Anders Engvall, 2005 (PDF)
www.scanbi-invest.com/ebc/GPRS_report2.pdf

Telecoms Demand : Measures for Improving Affordability in Developing Countries, Media@LSE, London, by Claire Milne, 2006 (PDF)
www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/
pdf/affordability%20report%2031.01.06.PDF

Options for terrestrial connectivity in sub-Saharan Africa, Scanbi-Invest, Stockholm, by Anders Engvall and Olof Hesselmark, 2007 (PDF)
www.scanbi-invest.com/download/ExSum_OptTe.pdf

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