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Photo credit: ITU

Highlights from Kampala

Overview

Africa remains the region with the highest mobile growth rate, according to ITU’s latest report “Information Society Statistical Profiles 2009: Africa.” The report was released at the Africa Regional Preparatory Meeting for the forthcoming World Telecommunication Development Conference in 2010 (WTDC-10), held in Kampala, Uganda, on 13–15 July 2009. It says that the fixed-telephone market is stagnating, and this is constraining fixed broadband growth. Between 1998 and 2008, Africa added only 2.4 million fixed-telephone lines, which represent less than 1 per cent of the total number of telephone lines added globally in the same period. Mobile broadband growth has been much stronger than that of fixed broadband. By the end of 2008, there were twelve countries in the region with commercially available mobile broadband networks, with a total of seven million subscriptions, compared with 635 000 fixed broadband subscribers.

All speakers at the opening of the meeting in Kampala observed that despite rapid growth, much remains to be done to spread the benefits of information and communication technologies (ICT) to most of Africa’s 963.68 million people. The meeting was attended by 130 representatives of government and industry from 31 countries across the continent, as well as international and regional organizations. They examined the progress made in implementing the Doha Action Plan issued by WTDC-06, as well as contributions from ITU Member States and Sector Members from Africa, and agreed on priorities to boost ICT development in the region. These priorities will be considered by WTDC-10, which will set the future direction of ITU’s development activities worldwide.

The opening

The participants were welcomed by Chairman of the Uganda Communications Commission Dr A.M.S. Katahoire, and by Minister of Information and Communication Technology Aggrey S. Awori. The meeting was opened by the 2nd Deputy Prime Minister of Uganda, Henry M. Kajura, on behalf of Prime Minister Professor Apolo Nsibambi. Mr Kajura noted that Africa had made significant gains in ICT, but gaps remain. Speaking of Uganda’s experience, he highlighted the important role which the private sector has played in making ICT more widely available. “Private entrepreneurs have invested heavily in Uganda and helped transform the sector,” Mr Kajura said. The country is also developing its human capacity in ICT. A number of its universities are focusing more and more on ICTrelated capacity building programmes. Makerere University, for example, has built the largest computing centre in Africa, with a capacity of 12 000 students at any one time. Mr Kajura called on governments and industry to become more proactive in responding to the rapid changes in the sector. In this regard, he reminded participants of one of the dictums of the modern business world: “adapt or die”.

“ICT have the power to change people’s lives and have become the basic foundation of modern societies, crossing cultural divides, giving access to vital information, facilitating health care and stimulating commerce,” said ITU’s Deputy Secretary-General Houlin Zhao. He added that ITU is committed to ensuring that people in all regions of the world in general, and in Africa in particular, can share these benefits. He then described ITU’s efforts in fostering dialogue on the financial crisis, climate change, emergency communications, and cybersecurity and told participants that a debate on these issues would continue at ITU TELECOM WORLD 2009, to be held in Geneva on 5–9 October.

The Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) Sami Al Basheer Al Morshid emphasized the intrinsic link between ICT development and socio-economic development. He called on countries to invest in ICT and to improve broadband access in the region, despite the current economic downturn. Lack of full liberalization in some markets, limited availability of infrastructure and shortage of international Internet bandwidth are among the challenges facing African countries in increasing their ICT levels. According to the new report, Africa as a whole had around 12Gbit/s of international bandwidth in 2008 — this corresponds to less than one-third of India’s total international connectivity. In addition, high prices are a barrier to further ICT uptake in the region.

The Africa Regional Preparatory Meeting was chaired by the Executive Director of the Uganda Communications Commission, Patrick Masambu. He also underlined the need to narrow the digital divide, develop broadband networks, build human capacity, deal with the issues emerging from the increasing convergence in ICT, and strengthen cybersecurity.

“ICT have the power to change people’s lives and have become the basic foundation of modern societies, crossing cultural divides, giving access to vital information, facilitating health care and stimulating commerce.”

Houlin Zhao, ITU Deputy Secretary-General

Broadband development agreement

Wireless broadband networks will soon be deployed in Burundi, following an agreement signed during the meeting by Mr Al Basheer and Philippe Njoni, that country’s Minister of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications. These networks will deliver free, or low cost, Internet access for schools, hospitals, and underserved communities in the rural areas of selected African countries. The agreement is part of a project being undertaken by ITU and the McCaw Foundation as follow up to the Connect Africa Summit that took place in Kigali, Rwanda, in October 2007. ITU is also working with potential funding partners, including the African Development Bank (see article on page 35), to help meet the growing demand for broadband connectivity.

High-Level Panel focuses on the impact of the financial crisis on ICT development in Africa

Mr Al Basheer chaired a high-level panel, during which participants took stock of the impact of the global financial crisis on ICT development in Africa. They also considered how ICT could help pave the road to recovery. Panellists included the Chief Executive Officer of the Regional African Satellite Communications Organisation (RASCOM) and Chairman of the African Regional Working Party on Private Sector Issues, Dr Jones Killimbe; the Director General of the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority, Professor John S. Nkoma; Uganda’s Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Aggrey S. Awori; Burkina Faso’s Minister of Posts and Information and Communication Technology, Noël Kaboré; and Senior Research Fellow at the United Nations University, Dr Tomasz Janowski.

Taking action to stimulate investment in the ICT sector emerged as a key theme, especially in the broadband networks that are needed to support government and business applications which underpin entire economies. To this end, panellists emphasized the importance of continued reform of ICT policy and regulations, as well as innovative publicprivate partnerships.

Burundi’s Minister of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications Philippe Njoni and the Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau Sami Al Basheer Al Morshid sign agreement for wireless broadband in Burundi, in the presence of ITU Deputy Secretary-General Houlin Zhao.

Photo credit: ITU

Implementing Regional Initiatives from Doha

At WTDC-06 in Doha, five regional initiatives were adopted for Africa covering human and institutional capacity building; strengthening and harmonizing policy and regulatory frameworks for the integration of African ICT markets; development of a broadband infrastructure and achievement of regional interconnectivity; ICT applications and the introduction of new digital broadcasting technologies.

Since Doha, ITU has developed 14 projects in Africa within the scope of these regional initiatives. The projects have been, or are being, carried out with a total of more than USD 16 million in funding from ITU, the private sector, and various donor countries and organizations (see examples in the table on page 29). More activities are planned for 2009, such as the establishment of national Internet exchange points, financed by Spain to the tune of USD 456 500, as well as the construction of multipurpose community telecentres in a number of countries.

A closer look at the issues

Infrastructure

The African Telecommunication Union (ATU) outlined the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), and welcomed ITU’s project with the European Union on Harmonization of the ICT Policies in Sub-Sahara Africa (HIPSSA), launched in December 2008 (see article on page 30).

Senegal stated that the main obstacle to ICT development in Africa “remains the scarcity, and in some cases complete lack of, broadband networks”. It said that BDT “can, and must, play a role” in mobilizing funds and coordinating all players involved in creating the infrastructure that “holds the key to affording our continent genuine access to the information society”.

Because least developed countries cannot achieve broadband connectivity alone, ITU should “design strategies for the development of broadband services for rural communities”, said Ethiopia, and allocate funds for projects and training. Meanwhile, basic infrastructure too needs to be expanded, and Chad pointed out that “nothing can be done without a reliable energy source”.

The Uganda Communications Commission also focused on least developed countries — most of which are in Africa. It said the assistance programme for these countries under the Doha Action Plan has “yielded significant results”. However, “a lot still remains to be done, in view of the… critical role of ICT in the socio-economic development of any country.” The Commission recommended that the assistance programme should be continued following WTDC-10.

Establishing the necessary infrastructure for the future of broadcasting was mentioned by Mali. WTDC-06 set the objective of helping African countries with the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting. Mali said it wants to see this objective pursued in order to boost production of programmes in Africa, for Africans.

Human resources

Many participants emphasized Africa’s need for skilled ICT professionals to maintain infrastructure and the services that use it. This requires “more training sessions, better focused on targeted concerns,” said Senegal. Among those concerns it cited migration to next-generation networks (NGN) and the new version of the Internet protocol IPv6, cybersecurity, and combating climate change. Participants said that the capacity-building programme initiated by WTDC-06 should be continued after 2010, such as through strengthening the ITU Centres of Excellence and other training institutions.

Harmonization

Alongside ICT technicians, Africa also needs people who can effectively implement policies and help to create a harmonized regulatory environment across the continent, with the ultimate aim of establishing an integrated market. ATU pointed to the need to implement the framework for harmonization agreed by the Conference of African ministers in charge of ICT in May 2008 in Cairo, Egypt, and described ITU as a “key partner” in that effort.

Burkina Faso described how it has revised its legal framework “to create the optimum conditions for guaranteeing healthy competition and to promote the convergence of networks and services.” However, because many African countries have not yet followed suit, the meeting proposed that the regional initiative on harmonization should continue following WTDC-10.

It is also important for countries to adopt a coordinated approach to cybersecurity. “Cybercrime… is compounded in African countries, insofar as they are ill-equipped to repress these attacks for lack of suitable legal frameworks and technical and human resources,” said Côte d’Ivoire. It recommended that ITU should continue assisting African countries with training in this area, and in establishing national and regional emergency response teams to deal with cybercrime.

Consensus on future priority areas

After debating the issues, the meeting identified the following as priority areas for the future work of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU–D), if approved by WTDC-10.

Priority areas for programmes

Information and communication infrastructure

• Transition from analogue to digital broadcasting

• Broadband infrastructure

Cybersecurity and ICT applications

• Cybersecurity strategies and consumer protection

• Migration to IPv6

Enabling environment

• Harmonization of regulatory policies in Africa

• Policy, strategies, and financial issues for broadband deployment

Capacity building and other initiatives

• Enhancing human and institutional capacity building, including ITU Centres of Excellence

• Telecommunication/ICT access for people with disabilities

Least developed countries and small island developing States

• Modernization and expansion of networks, including national backbone infrastructure

• Development of rural connectivity

• Introduction of broadband, and migration to next-generation networks

• Provision of ICT facilities in schools, health centres and local government offices and post offices

• Migration to digital broadcasting

• Formulation and implementation of policy and legislative frameworks on cybersecurity

• Establishment of Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERT)

• Creation of converged regulatory authorities.

African Regional initiatives

• Human and institutional capacity building

• Strengthening and harmonizing policy and regulatory frameworks for integration of African telecommunication/ICT markets

• Development of a broadband infrastructure and achievement of regional interconnectivity and universal access

• Introduction of new digital broadcasting technologies

• Implementation of the recommendations of the Connect Africa Summit

Proposed Study Group Questions

• Protection of the environment and preventing harmful radiation from mobile phone masts

• Power supplies for telecommunications and ICT

• Impact of ICT on climate change

• Indicators for consumer satisfaction and quality of service.

Note — USD amounts are approximate because of currency conversions
* ECOWAS is the Economic Community of West African States