Weekly News

KEY READING FOR THE WEEK This week’s main story is about the next technology frontier: augmented reality (AR). In its second quarter earnings call the 28th of July, Facebook said it was spending billions on AR research and development. Facebook’s idea is to create an immersive virtual world where you can “teleport” into different experiences. Of course, AR comes with a set of challenging regulatory issues. In a recent report, Deloitte highlights some of these, mainly around privacy and copyright. For example, if AR glasses are used as you walk down the street, do individuals have the right to refuse to […]

KEY READING FOR THE WEEK This week’s main story is from Speedtest by Ookla comparing mobile broadband speeds around the world. The latest results are up until the end of  June 2021. For Africa, the results are a mixed bag: the highest scoring African country is South Africa at position 56 out of 137. South Africa lost 3 places compared to the previous month. Another African country worth noting is Uganda, which lost 5 places to position 127 out of 137 countries. For Uganda, this shows another aspect of the higher taxes imposed on the sector: higher taxes means higher […]

KEY READING FOR THE WEEK This week’s main story is from a new report issued by the Internet Society on progress towards the goal of 80% of African internet traffic accessed in Africa by 2020. IXPs generate cost savings by reducing the cost of international connectivity and lowering the latency of internet traffic by up to 98%, improving the user experience. South Africa is the only country to have reached the 80% target, with Kenya and Nigeria close behind at 70%. The common feature of the three countries is that their IXPs have at least 50 members. This is the […]

KEY READING FOR THE WEEK This week’s main story is a follow-up from last week on the tax increases in Kenya and Uganda. Tax increases in both countries were effective from the 1st of July. But the difference is that, in Uganda, the major operators (Airtel and MTN) have absorbed the 12% price increase. Smaller operators, like Smile, initially passed the price increase on, but had to change course and absorb the price increase. In Kenya, in contrast, the price increase has been passed immediately onto consumers. Why the different treatment? Part of the explanation is that an airtime tax of […]

KEY READING FOR THE WEEK This week’s main story is about the tax increases on internet data in Kenya and Uganda. In Kenya, the excise duty on data (as well as calls) was increased from 15% to 20%, effective 1 July 2021. In Uganda, the social media tax of 200 shillings per day has been replaced by a 12% excise duty on internet data, also effective on 1 July. Medical and educational services are excluded from the duty, though it’s not clear how the exclusion of medical and educational services would actually work. The increase in excise duties highlights the […]

KEY READING FOR THE WEEK This week’s main story is about the status of 5G in Africa. While plenty of countries are investigating 5G, only two countries offer fully commercial 5G services on the continent – Kenya and South Africa. In Kenya, 5G is offered based on a 1-year trial license. In South Africa, 5G is offered based on the emergency allocation of spectrum due to the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic. That allocation is meant to expire later on this year. The next country that is closest to launching 5G services is Mauritius. Mauritius decided to forego an auction […]

KEY READING FOR THE WEEK This week’s main story is from Tanzania, where the government has announced that it will remove VAT on smartphones, tablets, and modems. The rationale for setting aside VAT is to increase broadband penetration from its current level of 38% to over 80% by 2025. This decision is a welcome development in a continent where most governments’ see the ICT sector as a cash cow and have imposed extremely high taxes. Often taxes are specific to the ICT sector and considerably higher than for other sectors. In Sudan, for example, the VAT rate for the ICT sector […]

KEY READING FOR THE WEEK This week’s main story is an overview of the growth of the submarine cable market. Back in 2012, content providers (such as Amazon, Google, Facebook) accounted for 10% of total capacity. By 2020, that number had grown to 66% of total capacity. As a consequence, content providers are driving submarine cable investments. For example, both Google and Facebook have invested in new submarine cables connecting South East Asia to North America. The growth in data usage for content providers also shows how data is driving access. Content providers drive data usage, which in turn, drives data […]

KEY READING FOR THE WEEK This week’s main story is a brief summary of the status of the global corporate tax negotiations amongst G7 countries that are currently ongoing and expected to conclude on Saturday, June 5. One of the sticking points in the negotiation is the removal of country-specific digital taxes. Britain, Italy, Spain, Turkey, India and Austria have introduced digital taxes that the US sees as discriminatory against US companies. The USA has said it would impose 25% tariffs on a range of goods from these countries if the digital taxes are not removed as part of the current […]

KEY READING FOR THE WEEK This week’s main story is a brief summary of the status of Value Added Tax (VAT) across Africa. Kenya: Non-resident digital businesses are required to pay 16% VAT. For example, Netflix in Kenya increased its prices to account for the payment of VAT. Kenya also has a digital services tax of 1.5% for non-resident businesses, but it’s not clear how that would be collected if the business does not have a physical presence in Kenya. Zimbabwe: e-Commerce services provided outside of Zimbabwe are subject to both VAT and an income tax of 5% on turnover […]