Category: Telecom Policy

Telecommunications and access issues.

SMS Costs in Africa – 2008

Courtesy of the ITU’s Measuring the Information Society Report, here is a list of SMS charges in thirty-eight African countries.  The costs are listed in U.S. dollars and in Purchasing Power Parity dollars.  Interesting to note in the below that...

/ 14 April 2009

African Undersea Cable Update – WACS

It’s looks as though the West African Cable System (WACS) has passed from the realm of the press release into something more concrete.  A consortium of telcos signed a construction and maintenance agreement yesterday (8 April 2009) in Johannesburg. The...

/ 9 April 2009

Municipal Broadband Investment in South Africa

There’s an interesting AFP article on the city of Johannesburg’s 1 billion Rand (~105 million USD) contract with Ericsson to deliver municipal broadband infrastructure.  In it they quote an anonymous “telecoms expert” who says: …that municipalities were already stretched to...

/ 3 April 2009

More on the 1 Cent SMS

Problem solved. You’ll be happy to know that the cost of an SMS has come down to 1 US cent….. if you live in the Philippines.  But the news is even better.  According to this article, the price of SMSes...

/ 26 March 2009

Nathan and the Mobile Operators

Imagine an alternate reality.  You’re an innovative start-up like Twitter or perhaps one of the many “adjacent possible” enterprises that Twitter has spawned.  You’ve designed your new service and are ready to take over the world.   All you need to...

/ 20 March 2009