2011 SPECIAL ISSUE AFRIQUE EXPANSION Magazine 3

EDITORIAL BY GERBA MALAM

illnesses, to compensate for the scarcity of medical staff and to avoid needless travel-ling. Finally, ICTs provide a means for effecting political change by enabling users to exert pressure for the dem-ocratization of regimes. An example of this is the role played by social media networks in the recent popular revolt in Tunisia, as participant, supporter and even as causative factor. They were indispensable for boosting the morale of the revolutionaries, by showing them they were not alone and by raising Westerners’ awareness of the situation.

On the other side, detractors believe the effectiveness of the new technologies is overestimated. For them, the penetration of technology is not synonymous with progress. “Technology is a magnifier in that its impact is multiplicative, not additive, with regard to social change,” says Kentaro Toyama, professor at the Berkeley School of Information, in California. After observing telecentres in Asia and Africa over a five-year period, he has come to the conclusion that their successes have been “rare, fleeting and far apart.” While ICTs no doubt provide access to modern resources that can help counter a climate of lack (short-

comings of the higher education system, of medical coverage, and so on), the environment remains fundamentally undevel-oped. Thus, while the African Virtual University enables African students to access quality higher education, it does not for all that solve the problem of the deterioration of African universi-ties with respect to infrastructure and their quality of teaching. Similarly, while telemedicine may enable patients to access the medical services they require, it does not resolve the issues of hospital deterioration and quality of care. In brief, to think that the dissemination of suitable technologies on a large scale can in and of itself remedy poverty and other social ills is nothing short of techno-utopian. For if such an outcome truly were within the power of technology to achieve, how does one explain that the number of poor people continues to rise in Africa?

Does this debate need to be settled one way or the other? Truth be told, according to the side one takes, there will be a ten-dency to emphasize either the successes or the failures of these technologies. Yet in all cases, it cannot be said that technology is useless. Rather, the myth surrounding its omnipotence needs to be put into perspective. Technology is not a panacea, but merely one piece of a larger puzzle. And so, Kentaro Toyama is right to point out that economically developed countries established themselves as economic powers way before the ar-rival of digital technology. Their advanced production tech-niques and consumption of information technologies should therefore be interpreted as a result of economic progress rather than as a primary cause of it.

re we seeing history repeat itself ? In the aftermath of the African independence movement of the 1960s, many communications experts from the West had claimed that the spread of technology in Third World countries would favour, even accelerate, their socioeconomic development. A leading exponent of this view was American Wilbur Schramm, who, in his influential book Mass Media and National

Development, described the hopes embodied by television for the fields of education and development. In the end, television’s impact on development proved well below expectations. Be that as it may, information and communication technologies (ICTs) are today’s new television, bestowed with the power to trans-form a society both economically and socially. Can they succeed where other technologies have failed?

Before answering this question, one must first examine Africa’s situation in terms of the penetration of these new tech-nologies. With respect to the Internet, the African continent is considered the world’s biggest laggard, with users represent-ing only 5.5% of its population and a penetration rate of 7%. On the other hand, mobile telephony has witnessed an explo-sion, with growth exceeding 500% in less than ten years and an average penetration of 37%. Result: between 1998 and

2009, mobile service registrations have risen from two million to more than 450 million. The news is good on the fibre optics front too: Africa’s international Internet bandwidth will grow tremendously by late 2012. Thousands of kilometres of underwater cables are being installed along its coasts. About 15 underground fibre-optic cables, providing a throughput of 32 terabits/second, surround the continent.

In short, then, while the digital divide remains quite pronounced as regards personal computers and the Internet, portable telephones are doing very well indeed. Say what one will, the implementation of infrastructure continues at a brisk pace. Are all these efforts having an impact on development? On this matter, there is a wide divergence of opinion.

On one side, there are those who defend the benefits of the new technologies. In their view, the rapid technological progress experienced by developing countries has contributed to raising revenues and to reducing the level of absolute poverty from 29% in 1990 to 18% in 2004. The World Bank claims, for instance, that 10% growth in mobile penetration results in 1.2% growth for a sub-Saharan country. Other experts estimate that between 2000 and 2012, the telephony sector will generate nearly $71 billion US for the same region. In the field of education, dis-tance teaching has helped bridge the need for teachers, and the African Virtual University, founded in 1997, has trained close to 9,000 scientists, engineers and technicians. Meanwhile, in the health sector, teleradiology and telediagnosis have made it pos-sible to identify those patients requiring monitoring of certain

T H E I M P A C T O F I C T s O N AFR ICA ’S DEVELOPMENT

IT CANNOT BE SAID THAT TECHNOLOGY IS USELESS. RATHER, THE MYTH SURROUNDING ITS OMNIPOTENCE NEEDS TO BE PUT INTO PERSPECTIVE.

A

29Despite the digital divide,

just about everyone is finding

a way to connect to the

Web for information and

communication.

2011 SPECIAL ISSUEISSUE AFRIQUE EXPANSION Magazine4

At a time when the number

of development projects

is constantly growing on

the continent, Africa must

regain sovereignty over its

frequency spectrums.

9

A CONNECTED

AFRICA

DIGITAL AFRICA

With more than 350

million subscribers in a

population just over a

billion, the cell phone’s

progress on the African

continent is downright

dizzying.

18 MOBILEAFRICAGOES WILD FOR THE

PHONE

52011 SPECIAL ISSUEISSUE AFRIQUE EXPANSION Magazine

CONTENTS

11The continent has embraced the new information technologies and now represents an important market for international operators.

22While the digital divide is slow to be bridged, the bulk of digital technology is in place on a continent in step with the times.

42Africans have taken a shine to these new communication centres, although sometimes for dubious reasons.

AFRICA

THE NEW

OF TELECOMMUNICATIONSELDORADO

PROVIDERSMOBILE

COMPETITION IS FIERCE

INTERNET CAFÉS THE NEWADDICTION

3 EDITORIAL BY GERBA MALAM

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

10 INFRASTRUCTURE

AFRICA LOOKS TO SATELLITES

12 DIGITAL AFRICA

THE BATTLE FOR SOVEREIGNTY OVER ITS FREQUENCY SPECTRUM

14 AFRICA

THE NEW ELDORADO OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

16 INFRASTRUCTURE

THE SWITCH TO DIGITAL IS SLUGGISH

TELEPHONY

18 AFRICA GOES WILD FOR THE MOBILE PHONE

20 CONSUMPTION

THE FIXED PHONE CAPITULATES TO MOBILE TECHNOLOGY

22 MOBILE PROVIDERS

COMPETITION IS FIERCE

24 DIASPORA

AFRICA, MORE THAN EVER JUST A PHONE CALL AWAY

CYBERNETICS

30 DIGITAL DIVIDE

AFRICA AND THE « GLOBAL VILLAGE » KILOMETRES APART

32 FIBRE OPTICS

ON THE DIGITAL FRONT LINES

34 INTERNET CAFÉS

THE NEW ADDICTION

36 MULTIMEDIA

AFRICA’S SHIFT TOWARD CONVERGENCE

38 GOVERNMENT

THE DEMATERIALIZATION OF PUBLIC SERVICES

40 AUDIOVISUAL

AFRICAN RADIO AND TELEVISION ON THE ROAD TO DIGITAL

42 AFRICA’S INTERNET PRESS TAKING BABY STEPS

DIGITAL

Lagging behind developmentally on several fronts, the African continent seems to be catching up as far as new technologies go.

Although metrics and trends tend to minimize the extent of development, much groundwork is being done and is meeting with some degree of success thanks to the fertile business climate.

The communications sector, particularly mobile telephony, is experiencing a heretofore unseen clamour for its products, from farmers in the most backward rural regions to the trendiest urban sophisticates, and infrastructure is rapidly coming together to meet the numerous local needs.

According to experts, this comes as no surprise, as the accelerated spread of networks in the least advanced countries has been a strategic priority for lenders since the G7 summit in Brussels in 1995 and the G8 summit in Okinawa in 2000.

The World Bank, the IMF and other major inter-national organizations, with the support of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), aim to liberalize the sector through the development of a universal telecommunications service, thereby reinvigorating struggling economies.

This multifaceted information society is the subject of this special issue.

92011 SPECIAL ISSUEISSUE AFRIQUE EXPANSION Magazine

DIGITAL AFRICA

A CONNECTED

Long subject to the whims of traditional communications operators, the African continent

has seen the use of new information and communication technologies skyrocket.

Although a gap remains between the various social strata when it comes to access to

computers or computer terminals, everyone or close to it is henceforth able to connect to the

Web, whether to get informed or to stay in touch.

Today, private operators and governments are bound by performance agreements that make

it mandatory for them to equip and modernize themselves for high-speed data transfer. A boon

to users, who feel less and less cut off from the world and who are increasingly broadening

their horizons thanks to the magic of a plasma screen.

A recently published report on mobile Web use shows that the number of users in Africa

has leapt 124% since 2010, a trend in step with the rest of the world. This situation is a far

cry from the anachronistic stereotypes, often the focus of media attention, that have long held

Africa to be a land outside modernity.

AFRICA

292011 SPECIAL ISSUEISSUE AFRIQUE EXPANSION Magazine

45

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Editorial Staff Gerba MalamDidier OtiLéopold NsékéFlorent BonnardClaude GervaisVitraulle Mboungou

Correspondents

France : Isaac EbwéléUnited States : Aziza Albou Traoré Jean-Marie WatonsiCameroon : Marc Omboui Badjang ba Nken Parfait N. SikiCongo : Thierry Sylvane NoungouGabon : Antoine Lawson Alexis KoumbaIvory Coast : Jean Samuel KondoSouth Africa : Amadou Touré

English translation:Nazzareno Bulette

AFRIQUE EXPANSION MAGAZINE is edited byGERAM COMMUNICATIONS INC

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