Category: World View
A Game of Stones
In 2019, the World Bank estimated that it would cost US $100 billion to achieve broadband access for all in Africa. While efforts to understand the cost of connectivity investment are noble, they have the unfortunate side effect of making...
Africa Telecoms Infrastructure in 2022
Welcome to the 9th annual review of telecommunications infrastructure development in Africa. This edition containing links to over 390 articles covering a range of African telecom infrastructure development issues.
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 education resources, opportunities, services, social...
Fibre Feudalism
Rapidly growing demand for broadband is changing the landscape of African telecommunications infrastructure. This change has been enabled by the spread of both undersea and terrestrial fibre optic infrastructure, as well as the proliferation of low-cost smartphones, which can deliver...
The Internet Is U-Shaped
When we think about the problem of achieving affordable access to the Internet for all, the discussion often focuses on broadband targets. These targets are moving goalposts as infrastructure improves. Broadband used to be defined at 256Kbps, now it might be...