Category: Spectrum

Why Are African Operators Still Rolling Out 3G Networks in 2017?
I attended the Telecom Infra Project Summit last week in Santa Clara where the OpenCellular Project (yes, a project within a project) announced a new grants program to make their OpenCellular base stations available for testing and piloting to organisations...

Africa Telecoms Infrastructure in 2016
Welcome to the 3rd annual review of telecommunications infrastructure development in Africa. A bit like my taxes this year, this review is coming a bit late but is still relevant, especially in the context of the previous reviews helping to frame...

The Case for Open Data in Telecoms
The landscape of telecommunications is changing. The mobile revolution is maturing and entering a new phase of slower growth. The rapid spread of fibre optic networks is increasing the ability of existing operators to deliver broadband but is also opening up...

Mapping the Unserved
As connectivity becomes increasingly valuable to everyone, access to communication is becoming as important as access to other kinds of basic infrastructure. As a result there is an increased urgency to make affordable communication infrastructure accessible to ALL citizens. Yet,...

The Failure of Spectrum Auctions in Africa
Spectrum auctions are widely regarded as “best practice” in the assignment of wireless frequencies where demand exceed availability yet, as of 2013 among African countries, only Nigeria had successfully conducted a spectrum auction. This is perhaps not surprising as spectrum...