Weekly News

This week’s newsletter looks at the benefits of below 1 GHz (or low-band) spectrum, especially for low population areas or areas with difficult terrain. The focus on low-band spectrum is timely because delays to South Africa’s spectrum auction look, yet again, very likely. Telkom South Africa has just asked the court to delay the proposed spectrum auction. Telkom claims that the Invitation to Apply (ITA), issued in December 2021, has several errors: it is allocating spectrum that eTV (a broadcaster) has refused to give up; that the ITA entrenches the existing anti-competitive structure in the market (i.e., that the market […]

This is the final newsletter for the year, so it’s time to say best wishes for the upcoming new year! The focus of the newsletter this week is a brief summary of our most popular blogs, downloads and policy briefs. I’ll break down what files were downloaded the most and the web pages with the highest visits.  Our ICT evidence portal was easily the most visited page on our website. The portal is divided into three sections: African country rank, country portal and MNO portal. The African rank page shows the ranking for each country in Africa according to basic […]

KEY READING FOR THE WEEK The newsletter this week is a case study on how not to run the mobile sector. Namibia used to have one of the most dynamic sectors in Africa. Its mobile broadband prices were amongst the cheapest in Africa. Over a decade ago, it introduced innovative bundles like the Aweh packages that combined data, minutes and talk time. Then, in 2014, the state started to nationalize the sector. Telecom Namibia purchased Leo, a privately owned operator. In 2018, the state increased its shareholding in MTC to 100%. The state now owns 92% of ICT sector assets. […]

KEY READING FOR THE WEEK The newsletter this week focuses on the incompatibility between the priorities of the National Treasury versus Ministry ICT in Kenya. On the ICT side, Kenya’s Digital Economy Blueprint recognizes the economic benefits of greater broadband penetration and that higher broadband penetration leads to increases in innovation, productivity and competitiveness. The Blueprint says that returns on investment in the ICT sector will be 6.7 times higher than returns in other sectors.  The Blueprint sees one the major constraints to broadband as the high level of sector specific taxation. According to the Blueprint, high taxation leads to […]

KEY READING FOR THE WEEK Last week’s newsletter was on how much Kenya could expect from the OECD tax framework. This week’s newsletter is on what kind of retaliatory measures Kenya could expect. The 2021 version of the DST is clearly discriminatory because only non-resident firms have to pay it. The United States Trade Representative’s Office (USTR) is monitoring the Kenyan DST. The USTR has previously filed Section 301 claims against Austria, India, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974 authorizes the US President to take retaliatory action, such as increasing […]

KEY READING FOR THE WEEK Last week’s newsletter was on Kenya’s Digital Services Tax (DST) and estimated the amount of tax revenues the Kenyan Revenue Agency (KRA) could expect. This week we’re investigating the how much Kenya could expect from the OECD digital tax deal that was signed on the 8th of October. These two tax deals are in competition because one of the conditions of the OECD deal is that all unilateral digital taxes have to be withdrawn. Kenya has participated in the negotiations for the OECD deal but has decided not to sign it. It’s not clear why […]

KEY READING FOR THE WEEK The focus of this week’s newsletter is the Kenyan Digital Service Tax (DST). Formally introduced in 2020, it was set at a rate of 1.5% of gross transaction value on digital platforms for both residents and non-residents. In 2021, the DST was amended to exclude residents so that only non-residents firms (i.e., firms without a physical presence in Kenya) were required to pay the DST. The DST is charged on all electronic services, such as mobile applications, eBooks, software, films and music. It excludes communication services (text messages, phone calls, etc.) and it excludes digital […]

KEY READING FOR THE WEEK On October 8th 2021, the OECD announced a tax deal for the digital age. The new tax deal, signed by 136 out of 140 member states, representing over 90% of global GDP, will allocate around US$125 billion in profits to countries around the world. In the second part of our series on ICT taxes, the focus is on unpacking how the OECD deal will work. The first step is to define the problem. The central issue is that, because Netflix doesn’t have a physical presence in Kenya, Netflix is not liable for any corporate income […]

KEY READING FOR THE WEEK On October 8th 2021, the OECD announced a “ground-breaking” tax deal for the digital age. The new tax deal, signed by 136 out of 140 member states, representing over 90% of global GDP will allocate around US$ 125 billion in profits to countries around the world. As part of our new series on ICT taxes, the focus of this blog is going to be on the bigger picture: is the OECD tax deal going to mean more tax revenues for developing countries or are there other, more effective ways to increase tax revenue? Tanzania is […]

KEY READING FOR THE WEEK The main story this week is from South Africa, where the messaging app Moya is generating lots of interest. It has 3.2 million active monthly users. That’s still pretty small compared to WhatsApp, which has around 25 million active users per month in South Africa. But Moya is growing fast and it has a key selling point: text messages are free even if the users data balance is empty. Moya uses reverse billing technology so that customers don’t face a charge. Of course, there are caveats: images and video’s don’t qualify for free data. The […]