[Kictanet] Africa's a Mobile Phone Oasis, But You Can't Live on Water Alone

[innovativelawyer at wananchi.com]

NYTimes.com has a cover story today about the rapid deployment of mobile
phones in Africa.

Africa's a Mobile Phone Oasis, But You Can't Live on Water Alone

...The Africa-as-mobile-phone-oasis story is hardly new, but it's
important nonetheless. African countries generally have some of the
lowest Internet penetration rates in the world, so mobile phone growth
raises the likelihood that more and more mobile providers will begin
providing data access. It's the classic leapfrog story: why try to dig
up the entire continent to deploy Internet cables when you can get
access through the airwaves?

However, it's also worth noting that we shouldn't see mobile phones as a
silver bullet for wiping out Africa's digital divide. Internet access
via mobile phones is wonderful - I go crazy when my phone gets out of
data service range - but it's not a replacement for affordable computers
with cheap Internet access, as was argued by The Economist and the World
Bank earlier this year. It would be very tempting for us to say, "No
need to worry about Africa's digital divide - they've got cell phones,
don't they?" but the fact of the matter is that none of us who take
Internet access for granted would want to be relegated to using mobile
phones as our sole source of access. Try going about your day-to-day
business for a week with your computer shut off, using only your phone,
and you'll quickly see what I mean....

...Different development challenges require different tools. No doubt,
mobile phones will be near the top of the list -- but that list also
includes $100 laptops, wind-up electricity generators, low-cost
community radio transmitters, and the timeless ham radio....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/25/international/africa/25africa.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1125036063-JsTQJrfjCv/R17+KfHtR7w