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Vivien Foster & Cecilia Brice ñ o-Garmendia, World Bank. Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic: a multi-stakeholder effort. Key Message #1. ICT developments have been a major boost to African growth in last decade.
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Vivien Foster & Cecilia Briceño-Garmendia, World Bank
Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic: a multi-stakeholder effort
Key Message #1 ICT developments have been a major boost to African growth in last decade
ICT responsible for one percentage point per capita of additional growth in early 2000s
The mobile sector has also proved to be a major fiscal cash cow
The mobile sector has also proved to be a major fiscal cash cow Fiscal revenues generated by ICT industry (via license fees and taxes) amount to 4% of GDP on average
Key Message #2 The ICT revolution is Africa’s big infrastructure success story
Population in range of GSM signal grows tenfold in less than a decade
Dramatic expansion in area served though closely following population centers
And 180 million new subscribers added, almost all of them prepaid
Key Message #3 The market alone can get Africa almost all the way to universal access
Market could viably reach 92% population, many countries currently far off this target
Market could viably reach 92% population, but in many countries falls short of potential The total investment cost of closing the coverage gap for Sub-Saharan Africa would be only US$3 billion
Key Message #4 But the reform is not yet complete and prices for mobile services remain high
Price of mobile services in Africa many times higher than in South Asia
Most African markets could support more than three mobile operators but many have less
Key Message #5 The fixed line segment is stagnant and relatively inefficient
Modest increases in fixed line subscription, market even shrinking in South Africa
Many fixed line incumbents remain public, with low levels of efficiency
Key Message #6 In many countries, the government still owns the fixed operator
Only one country has fully privatized its telco. Half remain fully government-owned
Only one country has fully privatized the incumbent,half remain fully government-owned Public ownership of operators is a drain on public finances and creates conflict of interest within government
Key Message #7 Broadband is the next big challenge for ICT in Africa
Cost of dial-up internet access prohibitively expensive by global standards
Broadband price gap is even greater keeping broadband penetrations rates particularly low
Key Message #8 Reforms are needed to allow broadband companies to compete
Limited capacity public internet access could be provided by market
Limited capacity public broadband access could be provided by market Total investment cost of closing coverage gap for public internet access in Sub-Saharan Africa would be only US$2 bn
Limited capacity public broadband access could be provided by market But mass-market broadband won’t be commercially viable without access to spectrum, access to infrastructure for building fiber networks and low-cost access to submarine cables
Key Message #9 Competitive access to submarine cables can slash cost of international communications
Telephone calls to US very expensive, (and intra-African calls even more so)
Countries with submarine access benefit, and those with competitive access even more so
Privately financed submarine cable networks are growing quickly Planned July 2009 Operational July 2009
Privately financed submarine cable networks are growing quickly Operational July 2009 Planned July 2009 Need to have competing cables and multiple landing stations to avoid monopoly control over access to the cables
Key Message #10 More terrestrial fiber-optic cable infrastructure will also be needed
300.0 249.1 250.0 200.0 Backbone bandwidth per user (kbps) 151.2 150.0 98.1 100.0 50.0 24.9 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.0 PSTN + WLL Mobile Narrowband Broadband PSTN + WLL Narrowband Broadband Access Access Access Access Residential/ Large/Medium Small business business Evolution to fiber networks is essential for mass-market, low-cost broadband
Fiber networks do exist but their impact on the market has historically been limited Many of them are owned by public entities – often too expensive and poor quality
Countries which have fully liberalized have seen a rapid growth in fiber networks
Countries which have fully liberalized have seen a rapid growth in fiber networks Competition will drive investment into fiber on inter-city routes but not small towns and rural areas
Cancombine competition on profitable routes with government support for non-viable routes Multiple competing networks on corridor routes but government network is the only fiber up-country