Africa's ICT infrastructure : building on the mobile revolution / Mark D.J. Williams, Rebecca Mayer, and Michael Minges.

Author
Williams, Mark D. J., 1972- [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
Washington, D.C. : World Bank, 2011.
Description
xxv, 279 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm.

Availability

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
Firestone Library - Stacks HC800.Z9 I5537 2011 Browse related items Request

    Details

    Subject(s)
    Series
    • Directions in development (Washington, D.C.). Infrastructure [More in this series]
    • Directions in development, infrastructure
    Summary note
    • Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been a remarkable success in Africa. In just 10 years, dating from the end of the 1990's, mobile network coverage rose from 16 percent to 90 percent of the urban population and by 2009 nearly half of Africa's rural population was also living within range of a mobile network. Large-scale investment in the sector across the continent has transformed telecommunications from a luxury enjoyed by a privileged few to a mass-market, low-cost service, used in villages and cities alike.
    • Africa's ICT Infrastructure: Building on the Mobile Revolution charts this ICT revolution, reviewing the rapid growth in networks and the emergence of the mobile phone as a part of everyday life in Africa. It also tracks the policy and regulatory changes that have driven this growth: the liberalization of markets, the establishment of effective competition, and the emergence of institutions to regulate the sector.
    • Africa's ICT Infrastructure reviews how the investment in the sector has been financed and how the structure of the market has changed since the liberalization process started. It looks at the role of both private and public institutions as sources of financing for the sector and charts the emergence of investors from developing countries in leading the expansion of the sector across the region.
    • In the context of these successful sector reforms, Africa's ICT Infrastructure addresses one of the key questions facing regulators and policy makers: how far will this process go in delivering universal access to telecommunications services? By adopting an innovative new spatial modeling approach, the authors have mapped existing mobile network coverage in Sub-Saharan Africa and estimated the limits of commercially viable network expansion.
    • But at the same time as voice networks are expanding across the region, the focus of sector policy makers is turning to the Internet, which is becoming increasingly important in the global economy. The authors use a similar spatial approach to analyze the commercial viability of wireless broadband networks in Africa and review the development of the region's fiber-optic network infrastructure that lies at the heart of broadband service delivery. --Book Jacket.
    Notes
    "Vivien Foster and Cecilia Briceño-Garmendia, Series Editors."
    Bibliographic references
    Includes bibliographical references and index.
    Contents
    • Introduction
    • Access to Communications
    • Institutions and Market Reform
    • Financing
    • Future Investment Needs
    • Policy Analysis and Conclusions
    • Notes
    • References
    • Access to Telecommunications in Africa
    • Access: Burgeoning, at Least for Mobile Telephony
    • Prices: Falling, Where Competition Is the Rule
    • Quality: Reliability Is a Problem
    • Infrastructure: Bottlenecks Impede Growth
    • Conclusion
    • Market Reform and Regulation
    • Market Liberalization and the Development of Competition
    • Private Sector Participation
    • Regulation
    • Reform and Performance
    • Financing Telecommunications in Africa
    • Private Financing of ICT Investment
    • Public Financing of ICT Investment
    • The Cost of Providing Basic Voice Network Coverage
    • Wireless Broadband Infrastructure
    • Policy Analysis
    • Recommendations
    • References.
    Other title(s)
    Africa's information and communication technologies infrastructure
    ISBN
    • 9780821384541 ((pbk.))
    • 0821384546 ((pbk.))
    • 9780821386767 ((eISBN))
    • 082138676X ((eISBN))
    LCCN
    2011283722
    OCLC
    654303613
    Other standard number
    • 40019697708
    Statement on language in description
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