Mobile telephony access and usage in Africa
Date
2008
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Southern African Journal of Information and Communication (SAJIC), The Edge Institute / Research ICT Africa, Braamfontein, ZA
Abstract
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.
Description
item.page.type
Journal Article (peer-reviewed)
item.page.format
Text
Keywords
ICT, MOBILE ACCESS, MOBILE USAGE, INCOME ELASTICITY ESTIMATION, GENDER, AFRICA, TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION, FINANCIAL RESOURCES, COMPUTER LITERACY