On Friday, March 23rd 2018, the South African communications regulator (ICASA) formally gazetted Regulations on the Use of Television White Spaces spectrum. This means that, subject to type approval and to authorisation through a geo-location…
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…
Does effective spectrum management make a real difference when it comes to more pervasive and affordable access to communication? In this post I look at the spectrum management regimes in four African countries: Kenya, Nigeria,…
Richard Poplak wrote a great article earlier today in the Daily Maverick about how the balance between what we can know about government versus what they can know about us has gotten “completely out of whack”.…
The release last week of ResearchICTAfrica (RIA)’s report on mobile phone pricing in Africa has provoked a little controversy in South Africa. The facts are quite damning. South Africa has some of the highest mobile costs on the continent. This is odd given South Africa’s comparative wealth and infrastructural advantages. By rights South Africa ought to have the cheapest phone calls and the fastest bandwidth on the continent. We don’t. Why would that be? Well in South Africa we are very good at finger pointing. Industry points to government and the regulator. The regulator points to industry and government. And the government points at the regulator and industry. And so this merry-go-round has gone on since the turn of the century.