Africa Telecommunications Infrastructure in 2018: Overview and Policy Recommendations

Abstract

The internet is the single most effective mechanism in human history for promoting global economic prosperity and lifting the world’s population out of poverty. Many of the next billion internet users will come from Africa. While the coverage and speed of mobile services in Africa has improved dramatically in recent years, significant barriers still exist in improving internet coverage across the continent. This paper provides an overview and policy recommendations for the three main areas of Africa's Telecommunications Infrastructure: undersea cable, terrestrial broadband networks, and mobile services. The following are some general policy recommendations for African countries to improve their national telecommunications infrastructure: •All countries should adopt basic legislation ensuring free and unrestricted transfer of commercial data across national boundaries. •Nations should enter into regional broadband agreements, utilizing nearby international cables to decrease access costs for consumers. Often, accessing submarine cable can completely change the growth trajectory of the ICT market in a country. •Every country should construct at least one Internet Exchange Point (IXP) to distribute incoming international traffic. IXP’s decrease international routing fees and can substantially lower local internet prices. •Every regulator or communications ministry on the continent should begin the process of liberalizing the mobile (if it has not been privatized already) and fixed-line sectors. •The future of communications in Africa is mobile. Every country should heavily invest in constructing and expanding national 4G networks while planning for 5G. •While mobile has provided the majority of growth for telecoms, countries cannot neglect their national fixed-line infrastructure as years of decay have limited access rates and stunted overall sector growth. •Countries should adopt legislation that standardizes local access services that connect individual neighborhoods and homes into the national backbone. Currently, many urban households cannot take advantage of increased investment in the national backbone due to predatory pricing schemes and a lack of quality assurance standards. •In most African cities, copper and fiberoptic internet cables are tangled with electrical lines on street lamps, limiting expansion to other areas and making cable repair expensive. Local and national governments must better enforce cable installation regulations to remove the inefficiency. •Internet access in rural areas across Africa remains almost nonexistent. In maturing markets such as Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa, governments should create tax incentives for the large telecoms to extend access to rural villages. •Lastly, each nation should promote ICT skill training and provide subsidized education for communications professions.