Africa's ICT Infrastructure :Building on the Mobile Revolution

Williams, Mark D. J. ; Mayer, Rebecca ; Minges, Michael

World Bank

关键词: ACCESS TO ELECTRICITY;    ALUMINUM;    ANNUAL CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS;    APPROACH;    AVAILABILITY;   

DOI  :  10.1596/978-0-8213-8454-1
RP-ID  :  63251

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Information and communicationtechnologies (ICTs) have been a remarkable success inAfrica. Across the continent, the availability and qualityof service have gone up and the cost has gone down. In just10 years dating from the end of the 1990s mobile networkcoverage rose from 16 percent to 90 percent of the urbanpopulation; by 2009, rural coverage stood at just under 50percent of the population. Although the performance ofAfrica's mobile networks over the past decade has beenremarkable, the telecommunications sector in the rest of theworld has also evolved rapidly. Many countries now regardbroadband Internet as central to their long-term economicdevelopment strategies, and many companies realize that theuse of ICT is the key to maintaining profitability. Thisbook is about that challenge and others. Chapters two andthree describe the recent history of the telecommunicationsmarket in Africa; they cover such issues as prices, access,the performance of the networks, and the regulatory reformsthat have triggered much of the investment. This part of thebook compares network performance across the region andtries to explain why some countries have moved so much morequickly than others in providing affordabletelecommunications services. Chapter four explores thefinancial side of the telecommunications revolution inAfrica and details how the massive investments have beenfinanced and which companies have most influenced thesector. Chapter five deals with the future of the sector.The final chapter synthesizes the main chapters of the bookand presents policy recommendations intended to drive thesector forward.