[kictanet] Satement by Brian Longwe from Panel on Access in Main Session of Internet Governance Forum, Hyderabad, India 3rd Dec 2008

[Brian Longwe]

Brian Munyao Longwe – Main Session on Access (Development Perspective)

Traditionally teledensity has been used as a measure of access or the extent
to which communication technologies have pervaded a community.

In the past Africa as a region has recorded extremely low fixed-line
teledensity of below 1% that is less than 1 line per 100 people. Believe it
or not this is still the case!

However, when one incorporates mobile lines in a teledensity analysis - the
results are not only incredible, they are amazing. as of 2007, Africa's
mobile teledensity stood at an impressive 23% or 23 lines per 100 people.
There was a recorded growth in mobile users from 128 million in 2006 to over
215 million subscribers by 2007. This represents an annual growth of over
46%. We have just heard that India's mobile network is growing at an
incredible rate of over 10 million new connections per month!

Given the fact that most operators around Africa have rolled out GPRS/EDGE
coverage across most of their networks as well as deployment of 3G access
across their larger markets it is entirely feasible that mobile, not
broadband may present the opportunity for increased access for developing
countries. MOBILE and not BROADBAND is the silver bullet.

Another key element crucial to the growth of access in developing countries
is a suitable environment for the dispersion of relevant content and
applications that meet the day to day needs of the populace. Internet
Exchange Points are the primary critical ingredient needed to create these
conditions. By keeping all locally originated and requested traffic local,
Internet exchange points serve a crucial role in enhancing the user
experience, lowering operational costs and providing a suitable framework
for the growth and development of the Internet in general.

While many developing countries have adopted policies and regulations that
encourage and promote competition in the mobile sectors, which has resulted
in continued growth in the numbers of users, the establishment of IXPs has
received a relatively low priority - despite the significant impact that
such simple infrastructure presents to the community.

Access enhances the interface between government and the citizen at a
transactional level. The Kenya Revenue Authority last year suggested that
the Kenya Internet Exchange Point receive "critical infrastructure" status
with 24-hour armed guard due to the fact that 100% of all import/export
declarations and documentation transit the IXP via the revenue authority's
web-based platform.

Going back to mobile, Safaricom, a Kenyan mobile operator introduced a money
transfer service called M-Pesa less than two years ago. M-Pesa now has over
4 million subscribers (within 1 year - the service signed up more users than
Kenya's entire banking industry signed up within a century!) Safaricom
reported that over half a Billion US dollar had been transacted over the
platform within less than 18 months.

Key policy lesson? The financial services and communications regulator in
Kenya decided not to subject m-pesa to punitive obligations through
treatment as a bank but rather chose to perceive m-pesa a non-bank payment
service. That decision has today affected and continues to affect millions
of lives. Regulators can either promote innovation, access & development or
hinder it.

In East Africa communications regulators have completely opened up the
communications sector; fully liberalizing every area, but providing
structure through unified licensing regime that separates facilities,
services and content In Kenya this has spurred investments of over half a
Billion USD over the past 2 years.

Key stakeholder lesson: relevant content drives demand - Safaricom's m-pesa
met a basic and everyday need, this has driven the increased use of their
mobile platform by touching the lives & livelihoods of both urban & rural
citizens.


-- 
Brian Munyao Longwe
e-mail: blongwe at gmail.com
cell:  + 254 722 518 744
blog : http://zinjlog.blogspot.com
meta-blog: http://mashilingi.blogspot.com
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