The efforts deployed by Africa to extend Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) access are bearing fruit, with more and more African nations embracing full-scale regulatory reform. Market liberalization and regulatory reform are designed to attract a surge of investment in the ICT sector and exploit the potential of low-cost technologies to provide affordable access to ICTs.

A glance at the ICT policy landscape across Africa shows real signs of pioneering and innovation. For many African policy-makers it is clear that market reform will take the leading role in the continent's development. Africa is the fastest growing region for mobile communications and may well present one of the most fertile grounds for ICT investment anywhere in the world.

Going mobile

The number of voice telephony subscribers (fixed and mobile combined) in Africa has more than doubled in the last three years. In 2003, Africa had 73 million total voice telephony subscribers (22 million fixed and 51 million mobile, up from a total of 35.4 million in 2000 (19.7 million fixed and 15.7 million mobile)!

Policy and regulatory reforms are the primary reason for this phenomenal growth that has been highest in the mobile sector, where 90 per cent of African nations authorize competition in the provision of mobile services according to ITU's annual telecommunications regulatory survey. However, only 73 per cent of the countries actually had competitive operators active in the mobile sector in 2003. Helping to ensure a level playing field for the new competitors, the number of African countries that have established a regulatory authority has risen from 5 in 1992 to 40 in 2004 with a 21% increase in the last four years alone.

Yet, despite spectacular growth ratesthere remains plenty of room for further market growth. Only 73 million of Africa's total population of 842 million inhabitants are voice telephony subscribers. And the number of Internet users is far smaller, making connecting Africa both a challenge and a great opportunity.

If Africa were to reach the kind of mobile penetration rates enjoyed in some Western European countries, nearing 90 per cent, it would represent a potential market of over 690 million subscribers. While few experts would set this as a short-term goal, Africa may nevertheless be ripe for more ambitious ICT development goals than have been identified in the past.

Policy vision

Increasingly, African policy-makers and regulators are implementing pro-growth practices. Ernest Ndukwe, Executive Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is unabashedly pro-market, crediting regulatory reform with his country's telecommunication successes in the past two years. "Africa must embrace market liberalization to prosper," Nigeria's maverick regulator said in a recent presentation published on NCC's website. Mr Ndukwe outlined how the African policy and regulatory model has transformed over the years.

Africa's traditional policy model concerned itself only with telecommunications. Typically, a government ministry charged with telecommunication services oversaw a State-owned monopoly operator that received government funding to expand the basic telecommunications network. Much of the income earned from the national telecommunications network operator was folded into general government coffers, rather than dedicated to sector development. The result of this model is slow network roll-out, a lack of competition, the inability of governments to attract investors, losses incurred in the local service segment, virtually no private sector involvement and a huge pent-up demand among the large number of underserved users - especially in rural areas. Those few telephone subscribers were largely fixed-line users living in major cities.

The new African policy and regulatory environment is dramatically different. First, the emphasis is no longer solely on telecommunications but on ICT, given their goal of improving Internet access and joining the information society. In many countries, the government's role is focused on policy development and sector regulation aimed at promoting competition and championing consumer interests. And the main service providers are no longer the government-sponsored fixed-line operators but the privately owned mobile operators. There are 121 African mobile operators active today and forty-three African countries have more mobile than fixed-line subscribers.

Can countries build on these initial successes in the mobile sector to implement a range of policies to promote access to ICTs?

Business strategies designed by mobile operators for the African market are key to Africa's mobile miracle. Regional roaming agreements will lead to greater affordability for cross-border communications. Prepaid cards and the use of mobile phones for public access will enable more Africans to access a phone. Public access can also come in a variety of ways; for example, informal resellers offer mobile services on the streets of Lagos; nomads in Mauritania sell services to other itinerants; postal workers carrying mobile phones sell minutes when they deliver the mail.

Local involvement in ICT development is also crucial. In Niger, for example, rural communities administer their own telephone booths and telecentres.

And the Internet?

More than growing the mobile sector, Africa is setting its sights on improved Internet access. What will this take? Liberalization of international gateways, creation of national and regional Internet Exchange Points (IXP) so that regional Internet traffic need not transit through Europe or North America, adoption of low-cost wireless broadband technologies and licensing practices designed to create a level playing field as well as attract both local and foreign investment. Progress on IXPs is being made, with national IXPs operational in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

Already, Africa is pioneering a number of important Internet-related policies. For example, Egypt is subsidizing free Internet service provider (ISP) subscriptions to encourage greater Internet use. It has also launched an initiative to provide low-cost PCs to home users through a loan programme in which subscribers pay off the cost of the PC through their monthly telephone bills.

Uganda is partnering with ITU to test packet-based wireless IP technology to extend the services offered by the ITU/UNESCO/IDRC Multipurpose Community Telecentre to rural and remote areas. The project, funded by the ITU TELECOM Surplus Fund, is being undertaken in conjunction with the Ugandan Communications Commission (UCC). Now UCC seeks both to implement its rural communications policy and to test the use of voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) - it is considering changes to its VoIP regulations.

Senegal's SONATEL is offering special e-rates to Senegalese schools and universities to enable low-cost Internet use among students.

Strength through cooperation

Increasingly, African policy and regulatory visionaries realize they need not work alone. Regulators across Africa are teaming up to share their experiences in regional regulatory organizations and through other international and regional organizations. The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), for example, has developed model ICT Policy and Legislation. COMESA is also supporting one of Africa's most recent regional regulatory associations, the Association of Regulators of Information and Communications For Eastern and Southern Africa (ARICEA). The Telecommunications Regulators' Association of Southern Africa (TRASA), one of the world's first regional regulatory associations, has recently published a host of model regulations and guidelines.

Africa faces many challenges in achieving its ICT development goals. Many of these are linked to the larger challenges facing the continent with the highest number of least developed countries: war, poverty, disease and the need for good governance. With visionaries leading the way in the ICT sector, and with the support of ITU and its Telecommunication Development Bureau, hope for large-scale development is on the horizon.