Infrastructure Policy and Indicators / Politiques et indicateurs en matière d’infrastructures

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Infrastructure Policy and 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.

Politiques et indicateurs en matière d’infrastructures

Auparavant, les activités de développement visaient surtout les troisième et quatrième couches, les services d’information et de communication, puisqu’on présumait que le marché allait prendre en charge le développement des infrastructures de base. Manifestement, cela ne s’est pas produit, et les initiatives visant un contenu africain ne donnent pas les résultats escomptés puisque l’accès de base nécessaire pour que l’Afrique tire parti de ces services est inexistant.

La demande de services de meilleure qualité et plus efficaces est le principal moteur de l’expansion de réseaux plus performants, ainsi que de la mise à niveau et de la transformation des anciens systèmes analogiques en des lignes et de l’équipement de transmission de qualité numérique. Mais ces demandes ont peu de chances d’être satisfaites étant donné la complexité du développement des infrastructures stratégiques pour les TIC, qui demeure hors de portée du citoyen ordinaire. Des gouvernements bien intentionnés et intéressés à tirer des dividendes substantiels de marchés de télécommunications en constante évolution continuent de gérer ces demandes de façon paternaliste. Ces questions devront être approfondies et débattues dans le cadre de l’établissement des priorités des politiques publiques.



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    Namibia gets tough on mobile tariffs
    (TechCentral, 2011) TechCentral
    Namibia has led Southern Africa in cutting call termination rates, the fees the operators charge one another to carry calls between their networks. The rates have been cut to 30c/minute, but MTC (Mobile Telecommunications Limited) rivals claim the company has not passed on the benefits to consumers in the form of lower retail rates.
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    African national regulatory authority benchmarking
    (Southern African Journal of Information and Communication (SAJIC), The Edge Institute / Research ICT Africa, Braamfontein, ZA, 2008) Kerrets-Makau, Monica
    This paper provides an overview of the extent to which regulators are using websites to inform and communicate with the public – including consumers and citizens, the private sector, media and researchers and other governmental and nongovernmental organisations. The study follows a previous regional survey conducted in 2004, (Mahan 2004) that ranked the online component of information provision and facilitation of regulatory processes by National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) in the communications sector. 1 The benchmarking assessment documents the incidence of different aspects that are important for a regulator’s web presence across the categories of basic information and responsiveness, factual information about the national telecom sector, consumer and citizen information including universal service and complaints procedures, business-related information and forms, and information about the regulator and regulatory processes. A country’s inclusion in the assessment was contingent on the country having an independent authority 2 and the authority having a functioning website. Out of a total of 54 countries in Africa, 30 had regulatory institutions that could be classified as independent with websites and 24 did not have websites. The countries were assessed by region (North, South, Central, East and West Africa, and Island countries). The benchmarking results show marked differences across countries and regions. Egypt received the highest score and performed well across all categories. The NRAs of Nigeria, Mauritius, Kenya and South Africa were ranked in the top five. Following closely are Uganda, Algeria, Senegal and Tanzania. The top ten NRAs were considered to have had adequate content in support of users being informed and being able to participate in regulatory processes. Overall, the total African regional average was low, with a benchmark indicating that national regulatory authority websites hover between static and emerging levels of information provision. The analysis provides a summarised overview of the performance of African regulatory websites within the benchmarking criteria. It should be noted that this analysis does not judge websites by their look and feel; the main aim of the analysis rather focuses on the content that is provided and the ease of using or accessing the requisite information. It is hoped that this study will provide African regulators with an insight into what their users will most likely be looking for when searching through their websites. The study also highlights best practices that can be replicated.
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    Charging for computer networks at higher educational institutions in developing countries
    (Southern African Journal of Information and Communication (SAJIC), The Edge Institute / Research ICT Africa, Braamfontein, ZA, 2008) Kumolalo, F. O.; Olajubu, E. A.; Aderounmu, G. A.
    The advantage of the Internet to academia and research cannot be underestimated; nevertheless in developing countries the ability to support this important resource, as a viable tool for teaching and research, is undermined by lack of funding. This makes it necessary to apply a charging mechanism that will make it possible to render this facility available to the higher education system, while encouraging its use primarily for teaching and research. In this paper we present a proposal for a charging system that can be applied to achieve this aim. Our proposal discourages the use of the Academic Network for purposes other than teaching and research.
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    MXit up in the media : media discourse analysis on a mobile instant messaging system
    (Southern African Journal of Information and Communication (SAJIC), The Edge Institute / Research ICT Africa, Braamfontein, ZA, 2008) Chigona, Agnes; Chigona, Wallace
    Mobile instant messaging has the potential of providing the youth not only with a social space where they can interact and bond but also with a learning environment. MXit is the most popular mobile instant messaging application in South Africa. Due to its nascency, little academic research has been done on the application. The application has drawn considerable local media interest; however, most of the media coverage has been negative. Media discourse of the application is of academic interest, since media discourse is one of the many ways through which reality is constructed. This means there is a relationship between media discourse and public opinion. Distortions in the media may misinform and engender impaired decision making amongst policymakers as well as members of the public. Discourse analysis can reveal distortions in media communication and counter misinformation. Using critical discourse analysis, we have analysed the media discourse on MXit by employing the Habermasian concept of the ideal speech situation and its validity claims as a conceptual tool. The analysis shows that (i) the media discourse is fraught with distortions; (ii) the media have mainly used the voice of adults to legitimise the discourse and the voices of the youth who are the main users of the application are missing; and (iii) there seems to be a moral panic developing around the use of MXit.
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    Mobile telephony access and usage in Africa
    (Southern African Journal of Information and Communication (SAJIC), The Edge Institute / Research ICT Africa, Braamfontein, ZA, 2008) Chabossou, Augustin; Stork, Christoph; Stork, Matthias; Zahonogo, Pam
    This paper uses data from nationally representative household surveys conducted in 17 African countries to analyse mobile adoption and usage. The paper shows that countries differ in their levels of ICT adoption and usage and also in factors that influence adoption and usage. Income and education vastly enhance mobile adoption but gender, age and membership of social networks have little impact. Income is the main explanatory variable for usage. In terms of mobile expenditure the study also finds linkages to fixed-line, work and public phone usages. These linkages need, however, to be explored in more detail in future. Mobile expenditure is inelastic with respect to income, ie the proportion of mobile expenditure to individual income increases less than 1% for each 1% increase in income. This indicates that people with higher income spend a smaller proportion of their income on mobile expenditure compared to those with less income. The study provides tools to identify policy intervention to improve ICT take-up and usage and defines universal service obligations based on income and monthly usage costs. It helps to put a number to what can be expected from lower access and usage costs in terms of market volume and number of new subscribers. Linking this to other economic data such as national household income and expenditure surveys and GDP calculation would allow forecast of the economic and social impact of policy interventions. Key policy interventions would be regulatory measures to decrease access and usage costs, rural electrification and policies to increase ICT skills of pupils and teachers.
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    Role of institutional design in the conduct of infrastructure industry reforms : an illustration through telecommunications in developing countries
    (Southern African Journal of Information and Communication (SAJIC), The Edge Institute / Research ICT Africa, Braamfontein, ZA, 2008) Gasmi, Farid; Noumba, Paul; Recuero Virto, Laura
    The main findings and policy implications pertain to two issues. The first issue concerns the impact of the quality of political and economic institutions on the function of regulation. This review points to the fact that political accountability of institutional systems, particularly in developing countries, is a key determinant of regulatory performance. The second issue relates to the factors that shape sectoral reforms themselves and the impact of these reforms on industrial development. The main conclusion is that countries’ institutional risk and financial constraints are among the major factors that explain which reforms actually get implemented.
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    Case notes : South Africa's policy incoherence; an update on the Knysna Wi-Fi project
    (Southern African Journal of Information and Communication (SAJIC), The Edge Institute / Research ICT Africa, Braamfontein, ZA, 2007) Esselaar, Steve; Soete, Pieter
    In the past, the main obstacle against building network infrastructure was the cost. Technological advances, however, have meant that building a functional, low-cost network is possible. Knysna is the first municipality in South Africa to achieve this. The problem is not the infrastructure but the connection to the larger networks of the mobile and fixed-line operators. The incumbents’ incentives are to prevent interconnection (or at least to delay it) on the basis of maintaining their dominance. In the telecommunications sector in South Africa, the only way to overcome this problem is via regulation. Yet regulation has to balance two sometimes competing interests – investment in infrastructure and competition. The Knysna Uni-Fi project has operated outside of any enabling regulation for competition and investment and this has negatively impacted upon its commercial success. Any regulatory intervention imposed upon the market has to balance the interests of competition and investment. In the South African market, given the huge dominance by the incumbents, that balance must change to favour new entrants. Until this takes place Knysna is not a replicable model for South Africa.
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    How global is the global Internet? : first steps towards a policy-economic analysis of the Internet
    (Southern African Journal of Information and Communication (SAJIC), The Edge Institute / Research ICT Africa, Braamfontein, ZA, 2007) Morganti, Luciano
    Who exactly are the main players behind the technical infrastructure of the Internet? What paths are emerging at a global level about the use of the Internet? Where and by whom is content produced and consumed? To put it more colloquially, who are the ‘spiders’ of the Internet and how are they actually spinning their webs. These aspects, together with the issue of Internet governance, are amongst the most critical and important elements to understand how the Internet’s political economy is articulating itself. In order to start an analysis of the Internet’s political economy, this article concentrates on the first two aspects: a technical analysis, which aims at understanding who is behind the Internet infrastructure, client and server applications, and paths of content production and consumption; and an assessment of which cultures and regions in the world are developing into important Internet players. The two parts are complemented by a critical assessment that aims to clarify why these issues are important in order to establish a first sketch of the Internet political economy. This article presents a multi-level and multi-disciplinary analysis to technology development, very much in line with a socioconstructivist approach, in which technology and infrastructure, players and interests, and models of societal appropriation are considered as equally important. It will hopefully generate a first idea of how to map the main types of shareholders directly and indirectly interested and involved in the issue of Internet governance and what are the most important points of attention for scholars interested in the topic of Internet political economy. This will lead to the formulation of a number of research questions, shaping and building a more articulated and coherent approach into research about the political economy of the Internet.
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    E-tourism : a survey of e-business among South African tour operators
    (Southern African Journal of Information and Communication (SAJIC), The Edge Institute / Research ICT Africa, Braamfontein, ZA, 2007) James, Tina; Marais, Mario; van Audenhove, Leo
    This contribution presents the results of a pilot project on ICT usage by South African SMMEs in the tourism industry. The Electronic Business Survey (EBS) methodology which was tested for applicability in a developing country, in this case South Africa, uses qualitative indicators and quantitative estimations to measure the impacts of e-business practices. The results, based on 40 face-to-face interviews, were substantive and showed that the adapted OECD methodology could be used successfully. In the South African tourism industry, ICT significantly improves the performance of these businesses. Although ICT adoption represents a significant operational cost for the interviewed firms, it also substantially contributes to increased revenue and improved labour productivity. On balance the results are extremely positive: 44.7% of firms report increased profitability, whereas for 50% it remained the same as three years ago. Of the firms that reported increased profitability, 75% indicated ICT as a contributing factor, and 31% considered ICT as the main contributing factor. The most positive effects are attributed to the usage of the Internet to improve customer relations in conjunction with creative product offerings (customisation, product-service bundling). Findings are consistent with research applying the same methodology in Western and Eastern Europe. This includes the finding that positive effects of ICT tend to be bigger for industries in transition, supporting businesses to become internationally competitive.
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    Analysing of sector specificity regarding ICT and broadband usage by SMME businesses
    (Southern African Journal of Information and Communication (SAJIC), The Edge Institute / Research ICT Africa, Braamfontein, ZA, 2007) Pierson, Jo; Baelden, Dorien; Lievens, Bram; Marsigny, Christine
    In the transition of the techno-economic paradigm from a (post) industrial to an information society, it is crucial that ICT and broadband become embedded within the whole of the socio-economic system. However figures show that SMEs and micro-enterprises – the backbone of European economy – are still lagging behind, despite the numerous policy initiatives. In this paper we focus on the specificity of the sector for understanding ICT usage in small business, instead of the common generic SMME approach. In February 2006 a survey was done with 966 Belgian enterprises that answered an online questionnaire. The goal was to better understand how professional activity is linked with ICT usage. The latter was measured by means of four compound indicators (adoption, usage, knowledge and attitude). The three sectors with the lowest degree of ICT usage were identified: construction, retail trade and manufacturing. Within these sectors a thorough study was done by means of interviews with professional organisations and focus group interviews with a carefully selected sample of SMME business owners. This resulted in the identification of sector-specific elements as well as issues that transgress different sectors. These findings are to be integrated in a public initiative by the Federal Ministry of Economy for stimulating ICT usage among Belgian SMMEs.
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    Municipal broadband : the 'next generation'and the 'last mile'
    (Southern African Journal of Information and Communication (SAJIC), The Edge Institute / Research ICT Africa, Braamfontein, ZA, 2007) Abrahams, Lucienne; Bakker, Brian; Bhyat, Mohammed
    The article raises two related questions, the strategy question of whether South Africa should focus on universal access to the Internet in the next 10 years for all cities and towns and the operational question of how South Africa can migrate to a highspeed, high-bandwidth environment for all citizens and SMEs in the next 10 years. The diffusion of Internet access to South Africa’s cities and towns has been slow and the diffusion of broadband even slower. A number of municipalities, mainly the large metropolitan areas, and a few smaller towns, have been developing models for ‘municipal broadband’ provisioning. The article responds to these two questions by reporting the findings of a series of interviews on municipal broadband in South Africa, comparing lessons from the US and ending with a set of four perspectives on future choices and approaches for municipalities. It argues that the metropolitan Governments surveyed have already embarked along the road of ubiquitous citizen access to the Internet through selecting ‘digital cities’ approaches. The challenge is to identify workable operational and financing models for municipal broadband across varying types of municipalities – metropolitan, smaller cities and towns. This is being digested in the learning experiments currently underway.
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    Government policy and wireless city networks : a comparative analysis of motivations, goals, services and their relation to network structure
    (Southern African Journal of Information and Communication (SAJIC), The Edge Institute / Research ICT Africa, Braamfontein, ZA, 2007) van Audenhove, Leo; Ballon, Pieter; Poel, Martijn; Staelens, Tomas
    Wireless City Networks are a recent, but growing phenomenon. In the United States hundreds of cities are looking into the possibility of rolling out Wi-Fi or WiMax based networks over substantial parts of the city. The underlying rationale is that wireless city networks are cheap and flexible alternatives for fixed broadband networks. Cities more and more see broadband Internet access as a necessary and therefore public utility to be provided to their communities at affordable prices or even free of charge. The deployment of wireless city networks is however more than just infrastructure provision. Initiatives are linked to broader city policies related to digital divide, city renewal, stimulation of innovation, stimulation of tourism, strengthening the economic fabric of the city, etc. In this article we will argue that explicit and implicit goals are directly linked to the coverage and topology of networks, the technology used, price and service modalities, etc. Furthermore we will argue that the differences in context between the US and Europe explain the different infrastructural trajectories taken. Overall and on the basis of empirical findings we caution for the overoptimistic view that Wi -Fi-based wireless city networks are an equal alternative for providing broadband access. There are both financial and technological uncertainties, which could have a serious impact on the performance of these initiatives.
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    Shackling sector development : leased lines in the Republic of South Africa
    (Southern African Journal of Information and Communication (SAJIC), The Edge Institute / Research ICT Africa, Braamfontein, ZA, 2007) Sutherland, Ewan
    Leased lines are basic building blocks of mobile networks, ISPs and virtual private networks. In South Africa they have been provided almost exclusively by Telkom SA, the incumbent operator, at comparatively high prices. Those prices were controlled as part of a general price cap by regulations, but in the absence of either competition or mandatory cost orientation, the level initially rose then declined (but slowly). Attempts to introduce infrastructure competition were badly managed and delayed. The Electronic Communication Act 2005 replaces these schemes, but the implementation is slow and has not yet brought changes
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    Why broadband? : the meaning of broadband for residential users
    (Southern African Journal of Information and Communication (SAJIC), The Edge Institute / Research ICT Africa, Braamfontein, ZA, 2007) Broek, Wendy van den; Lievens, Bram
    In the society we live in today, access to information is crucial. But because of the increased amount of data as well as the nature of the content, a simple Internet connection is no longer sufficient. The EU government, which has followed an Internet access policy for many years (see eEurope programme), has shifted the focus to broadband Internet. Yet, despite these efforts, the uptake of broadband Internet is still quite low. And the situation in developing countries is even more critical. But is access to information the only enabler for users to switch to a broadband connection? With the wide range of Internet services and applications in the domains of entertainment, communication, commerce etc, now more than ever the Internet is a part of people’s everyday life. In this article we will not only look at the benefits and motivations for people to subscribe to a broadband Internet connection, but also at the different barriers to the uptake and usage of such a connection.
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    Between two stools : broadband policy in South Africa
    (Southern African Journal of Information and Communication (SAJIC), The Edge Institute / Research ICT Africa, Braamfontein, ZA, 2007) Gillwald, Alison
    This paper explores the underlying causes of South Africa’s relatively poor broadband penetration despite Government’s acknowledgment of its centrality to a modern economy and information society. South Africa’s broadband policy has emerged from two apparently contradictory policy approaches. Until these are resolved, the sector will remain inert between two strategies, unable to move forward on either. On the one hand, broadband has evolved within the context of “managed liberalisation”, a local adaptation of the international telecommunications reform model. This has created a market structured around a number of vertically integrated operators, fixed and mobile, whose services have evolved to offer broadband. The latest phase of this model is expressed in the Electronic Communications Act which came into force in 2006 and reforms the regulatory and licensing framework to address the challenges of convergence. Within this context, broadband uptake has been relatively poor and costs of ADSL and mobile HSDPA services remain high as a result of limited competition and ineffective regulation. This has prompted Government to adopt another strategy, in parallel with its current reform process. It has initiated a fully stateowned broadband operator, which is also expected to address the high cost of international cable bandwidth currently provided exclusively by the incumbent. This paper examines the underlying reasons for the development of these two potentially contradictory processes and their institutional arrangements to assess the implications for the achievement of national policy objectives on broadband extension.
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    European policy trends towards flexible spectrum management
    (Southern African Journal of Information and Communication (SAJIC), The Edge Institute / Research ICT Africa, Braamfontein, ZA, 2007) Delaere, Simon
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    Comment : reconsidering the pirate nation
    (Southern African Journal of Information and Communication (SAJIC), The Edge Institute / Research ICT Africa, Braamfontein, ZA, 2006) Liang, Lawrence; Prabhala, Achal
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    Model language for exceptions and limitations to copyright concerning access to learning materials in South Africa
    (Southern African Journal of Information and Communication (SAJIC), The Edge Institute / Research ICT Africa, Braamfontein, ZA, 2006) Baude, William; Hofman, Julien; Katz, Eddan; McDaniel, Katherine; Rens, Andrew; Riley, Chris
    South Africa’s current copyright law, the apartheid-era Copyright Act of 1978, remains largely indifferent to development objectives such as increasing public access to educational materials. While it must comply with international copyright law, the Act fails to fully exploit the flexibilities available in the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO’s) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). In this article, we present proposed model language which could be used to incorporate exceptions and limitations to copyright into South African copyright law. We give provisions for fair use/fair dealing in education, adaptation of material for the disabled, and translations of material. Our proposed exceptions would greatly increase public access to learning materials while remaining within the boundaries of the “three-step test” of article 13 of TRIPS governing exceptions to copyright. A comparative analysis of other national copyright solutions is offered for each provision.
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    Implications of the NonCommercial (NC) restriction for educational content licensed under a Creative Commons (cc) Licence
    (Southern African Journal of Information and Communication (SAJIC), The Edge Institute / Research ICT Africa, Braamfontein, ZA, 2006) Keats, Derek
    Individuals and institutions are increasingly making content available under Creative Commons (cc) licences. Creative Commons licences are heterogeneous, even though common discourse often assumes homogeneity. A cc licence that is analogous to the free software licence of the GNU General Public Licence is the cc Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) licence. An informal survey of content on the Internet indicates that less than 24% of educational content uses this licence. Seventy-three per cent of content surveyed uses a cc NonCommercial (NC) restriction on use. Casual conversations with authors who use cc licences indicate that most do not understand the implications of choosing a particular licence. A set of principle-based guidelines for choosing cc licences for educational content is suggested.
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    Future of the first sale doctrine with the advent of licences to govern access to digital content
    (Southern African Journal of Information and Communication (SAJIC), The Edge Institute / Research ICT Africa, Braamfontein, ZA, 2006) Masango, Charles A.
    The article examines the origin of copyright and the first sale doctrine. It exposes the advantages that the doctrine confers to the purchasers of copyright works and how it is possible for purchasers to use the doctrine to advance scholarship. The article also examines whether the advantages that the doctrine confers to the purchasers of printed copyright works has been permanently swept away by the introduction of licences by authors to govern access to digital content. Finally, the article looks at content access models being used in the digital environment that may ultimately serve the same function as that played by the first sale doctrine in the previous offline-only, hard-copy environment.