{"id":951,"date":"2018-12-05T06:55:35","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T06:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/researchictsolutions.com\/ICT-facts\/?page_id=951"},"modified":"2019-01-10T11:27:10","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T11:27:10","slug":"main","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/researchictsolutions.com\/home\/","title":{"rendered":"Home"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Why More Internet Use Is Not Breaking Broadband Networks<\/h2><\/a>\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/i>by<\/span> Steve Esselaar<\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/i>Digital economy<\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

There is a common claim in telecom policy debates that growing internet traffic is becoming \u201cunsustainable\u201d for network operators. The evidence suggests the opposite.\u00a0The global internet economy has grown rapidly over the last decade. Between 2008 and 2020, the market value of the global internet value chain quadrupled. During the same period, the connectivity sector \u2014 the companies that build and operate broadband networks \u2014 more than tripled in value. This is not a sector in decline. A major reason for this growth is the relationship between content and connectivity. Online content and services drive demand for broadband. People subscribe […]<\/p>\n\t\t\tContinue Reading<\/span><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t

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The network fees folly<\/h2><\/a>\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/i>by<\/span> Steve Esselaar<\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/i>OTT Regulation<\/a>, Weekly News<\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

One of the central themes to the debate on network fees is that telcos are faced with increasing backhaul costs due to the uptake of streaming services. Some telcos claim market failure because they cannot recover these costs from their customers. This could be the case for operators that mostly offer uncapped or high usage cap baskets and that do not have access to domestic content caches. This is, however, a self-made predicament and not a market failure. Regulatory intervention is only warranted when there is market failure. \u00a0 Mobile operators have offered broadband packages with a dedicated data allowance […]<\/p>\n\t\t\tContinue Reading<\/span><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t

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Competition and Investment in the Caribbean<\/h2><\/a>\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
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RIS’s latest report is on the status of competition and investment in the Caribbean. We find that\u00a0Caribbean mobile operators are late to the transition to a data-centric business model and relied for too long on voice revenues. Voice traffic and revenue are rapidly declining, and data revenues have not yet made up for the loss in voice revenues. The key to ICT sector growth in the Caribbean is last-mile fibre connectivity. Mobile prices have declined, but mobile is still expensive compared to other regions. Mobile broadband prices have declined by 50% over the last two years on average, but the […]<\/p>\n\t\t\tContinue Reading<\/span><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t

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Southern Africa Telecom Association (SATA) Conference<\/h2><\/a>\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/i>by<\/span> Steve Esselaar<\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/i>OTT Regulation<\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

Dr. Christoph Stork presented at the 2023 Southern Africa Telecom Association (SATA) Conference in Cape Town on the 27th of April. His presentation gave an overview of how fixed broadband can differentiate itself compared to mobile broadband by offering broadband at faster speeds and lower prices. Download the presentation here. Part of the presentation was benchmarking Southern Africa according to RIS’s Next Generation Internet Index. Mauritius and South Africa score at the top, while Tanzania and Angola are at the bottom of the table.<\/p>\n\t\t\tContinue Reading<\/span><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t

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Impact of Ghana\u2019s mobile money levy<\/h2><\/a>\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/i>by<\/span> Steve Esselaar<\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/i>Taxation<\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

Governments all over Africa have been imposing mobile money levies in an attempt to secure more funds for the fiscus. Cameroon, Uganda, Tanzania, Congo Republic, Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast and Kenya have all imposed mobile money levies. Some countries have imposed levies but withdrawn them because of public outcry, like Malawi. In Cameroon, the IMF warned that a mobile money levy was regressive and would hurt the poor the most. In May 2022, the Ghanian government introduced an e-levy of 1.5% on all mobile money transactions. Transactions that are less than 100 cedis (US$8.1) are excluded from the e-levy. On the […]<\/p>\n\t\t\tContinue Reading<\/span><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t

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African technology sector job losses<\/h2><\/a>\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
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The global technology sector has been shedding jobs at an alarming rate over the past few months. The numbers from the big tech companies have been huge. Amazon has laid off 18,000 employees, but that is a fraction of its 1.5 million staff. Most of these big companies don\u2019t have a large presence in Africa and most of the layoffs have been in Europe and North America. What has the impact been in Africa?\u00a0 Of course, data is hard to find. Layoffs.fyi has collected all the press releases and news articles into one table and sorted it by country. The […]<\/p>\n\t\t\tContinue Reading<\/span><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t

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Quality of service is improving across Africa<\/h2><\/a>\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/i>by<\/span> Steve Esselaar<\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/i>Weekly News<\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

This week\u2019s newsletter is a followup from last week\u2019s post on affordability. \u00a0This week we\u2019re looking at Quality of Service (QoS). Data on QoS is notoriously difficult to get. Regulators that track QoS via randomized testing don\u2019t release the results publicly and sometimes even accessing the data within the regulator can be difficult.\u00a0 Fortunately, Ookla has a publicly available data set as part of its Open Data Initiative. We downloaded the quarterly datasets from Q4 2020 to Q3 2022. The datasets have upload and download speeds, latencies, number of tests and number of devices. We did a spatial join for […]<\/p>\n\t\t\tContinue Reading<\/span><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t

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Affordability in 2022<\/h2><\/a>\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/i>by<\/span> Steve Esselaar<\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/i>Weekly News<\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

Over at Many Possibilities, Steve Song has a great review of telecom developments in 2022 in Africa. It includes many of the standard categories, like undersea cables, spectrum, towers and satellite but also has developments in relatively new categories (for Africa) like fibre-to-the-home and datacentres. One thing we could add to that review is a quick summary of data pricing trends across the continent. Even with the disruption of the economic slowdown of the past couple of quarters, the overall trend of data prices is steadily downward.\u00a0 We used a 20GB basket as the basis for price comparisons because the […]<\/p>\n\t\t\tContinue Reading<\/span><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t

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Telcos and speed tiers<\/h2><\/a>\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/i>by<\/span> Steve Esselaar<\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/i>Weekly News<\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

One of the motivations for the launch of RIS\u2019s Next Generation Internet Index (NGII) in May this year was the bandwidth \/ revenue dilemma that telcos face (there\u2019s a great chart in our July 22 blog). In Europe, bandwidth demand is growing exponentially but revenues have remained stagnant. To overcome this dilemma, telcos need to offer new products to grow the size of the market. If telcos don\u2019t vary their product offerings, especially in saturated markets, they will continue to see declining revenues unless new-use cases are identified and new sets of products are offered.\u00a0 We can telcos doing exactly […]<\/p>\n\t\t\tContinue Reading<\/span><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t

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Spectrum auctions in Nigeria<\/h2><\/a>\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/i>by<\/span> Steve Esselaar<\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/i>Weekly News<\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has confirmed that Airtel Africa is the sole bidder for 100MHz of 3.5GHz spectrum. The license has a 10 year term and a reserve price of USD273 million. It\u2019s a disappointing result for several reasons:\u00a0 Because Airtel is the only bidder, it is not a competitive process and therefore doesn\u2019t meet the economic criteria of efficiency;\u00a0 The reserve price is too high and excludes smaller competitors and, in the medium term, reduces the competitiveness of the Nigerian ICT sector;\u00a0 The high reserve price will also mean lower investment in the sector by diverting resources to […]<\/p>\n\t\t\tContinue Reading<\/span><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t

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