Infrastructure in Infrastructure in AfricaAfrica

ICT Indicators from ITU 2007ICT Indicators from ITU 2007

Main telephone lines – 3.77/100 peopleMobile subscribers – 27.48/100 people Internet users – 5.34/100 peopleAfrica has some 280 million total

telephone subscribers, of which some 260 million (over 85%) are mobile cellular subscribers, representing the continent with the highest ratio of mobile to total telephone subscribers of any region in the world.

(ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators, 2007)

ICT Indicators from ITU 2007ICT Indicators from ITU 2007

It is the region with the highest mobile cellular growth rate. Growth over the past 5 years averages almost 65% year on year.

It accounts for 14% of the world’s population, but for only around 7% of all fixed and mobile subscribers worldwide.

It has some 50 million Internet users, for an Internet penetration of just 5%. Europe’s Internet penetration is 8 times higher.

It has a broadband penetration of more than 1% in only a few countries. Broadband penetration in OECD countries exceeds 18%.

(ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators, 2007)

Bandwidth CostsBandwidth Costs

1997-2001 $ 20 Kbps

2002 $ 13 Kpbs

2003 $ 8.90 Kbps

2004 $ 5.0 Kbps

2004 $ 4.2 Kbps

2005 $ 2.33 Kbps

Future $ 1.00 Kbps or less

1717

22

77

6655

881616

1515

1414

1313

1212

1111

1010

99

33

11

44

1818

oo1919

2020

3131

3030

3232

2121

2222

2323

24242525

2626

2727

2828

2929

33/E2233/E22

3434

36/E2036/E20

37/E1937/E19

38/E1838/E1839/E1539/E15

43/E843/E8

4545

46/E846/E8

4949

4848

51515252

E5E5

Links:Links:

UbuntuNet Medium Term PlanUbuntuNet Medium Term Plan

ActualActual

UAUA

5656

4444

Funded/CostedFunded/Costed

4343

E2E2

4747

E4E4 4343

5050

E3E3E13E13

38/E1838/E18

Alternative/Later

What Does It Mean?What Does It Mean?

The data makes it easy to apply a deficit model to project planning, but we need to start with what we have and how we can build off it

OER projects must work with what is available now, not demonstrate what would be possible if only the constraints were different

BUT paradoxically we must hold in our minds a vision of a radically different future from the one that current trends project – change is always surprising because it takes so much longer to happen than people think it will but happens so much quicker than they expect

What Does it Mean?What Does it Mean?

OER projects will never resolve infrastructure gaps, but they can help to build demand

Given all of the above, the constraint is not infrastructure, it is institutional capacity

OER provides the tools to build that capacity from any starting point, and the problem is not a lack of human capacity, it is a lack of opportunity