Saving TVWS
How do technologies die? There is no announcement of their demise. Like Homer Simpson, they simply fade back into the bushes. Acronyms like ISDN and WiMAX used to dominate telecoms news headlines but today you…
Africa Telecoms Infrastructure in 2019
Welcome to the 6th annual review of telecommunications infrastructure development in Africa. This review combines my analysis of the last 12 months as well as links to over 270 articles covering a range of African…
Rethinking Affordable Access
Everyone needs affordable access to communication. Affordable access strategies that don’t target everyone end up magnifying the digital divide in a kind of Matthew effect: those with affordable phone/internet services have access to ever increasing…
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…
How to Lower Costs on State-Owned Fibre Networks in Africa
TLDR; Create a vehicle for smaller operators to become part-owners of state-owned fibre backhaul networks “It costs more to get data to the coast than it does to get it the rest of the way…