From: Brian Longwe <blongwe@gmail.com>
To: j.maina@ymail.com
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Sent: Wednesday, December 3, 2008 3:15:20 PM
Subject: [kictanet] Satement by Brian Longwe from Panel on Access in Main Session of Internet Governance Forum, Hyderabad , India 3rd Dec 2008


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@gmail.com
cell:  + 254 722 518 744
blog : http://zinjlog.blogspot.com
meta-blog: http://mashilingi.blogspot.com