Africa

The focus this week is on the impact of tax increases on usage in the ICT sector. Tanzania offers a wonderful opportunity to see exactly how consumers react when the government decides to increases taxes. On the 30th of June 2021, the Government of Tanzania introduced new mobile money levies. The definition of mobile money includes the transfer of mobile money to another account (both bank and mobile money accounts) as well as money transferred using a bank’s mobile phone application but does not include bank to bank transfers.  Initially, the electronic mobile money levies ranged from 10 to 10,000 […]

The newsletter this week is on our recently upgraded ICT Evidence Portal and especially the Tax Impact Calculator. We’re really excited about the ICT Evidence Portal because it gives key information about the telecom sector in Africa quickly and accurately. Regulators can easily benchmark their country against any other country on the continent. Operators can see how they compare against competitors. Any stakeholder can see what the impact of an increase or decrease in excise duties is going to have on tax revenue and the broader economy.   There are four tabs within the portal:  African Ranks – Ranks each country […]

This week’s newsletter looks at the Quality of Service (QoS) rankings released by MyBroadband in South Africa. Download, upload and latency measurements are collected using MyBroadband’s Android Speed App. The methodology has its limitations: measurements are limited to Android users; people that are interested enough in QoS to download the Android app and the cost of access is not a factor in the analysis.  Nevertheless, the data provides interesting insights into the status of broadband in South Africa. MTN is the best network in the country by quite a margin, with an average download speed of nearly 75 Mbps compared […]

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 […]