{"id":3349,"date":"2021-09-17T18:25:43","date_gmt":"2021-09-17T18:25:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/researchictsolutions.com\/home\/?p=3349"},"modified":"2021-09-17T18:25:43","modified_gmt":"2021-09-17T18:25:43","slug":"weekly-digest-for-17sep-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/researchictsolutions.com\/home\/weekly-digest-for-17sep-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly digest for 17 Sep 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

KEY READING FOR THE WEEK<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n

This week’s main story<\/a> is from Cable.co.uk and its latest ranking of global internet speeds. Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa are ranked the lowest in the world with average speeds of 6.6\u00a0Mbps and 5.68\u00a0Mbps respectively. The leading countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are Reunion (43.6\u00a0Mbps) and South Africa (19.9\u00a0Mbps). The slowest download speed is in Ethiopia at 1.2\u00a0Mbps.\u00a0Equatorial Guinea and\u00a0Guinea-Bissau have just slightly faster download speeds. There are multiple causes for this poor performance for Sub-Saharan Africa, but key issues are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    High taxes and state interference: The state is taking a more prominent role in a lot of African countries. In Namibia<\/a>, for example, the state owns 100% of the telecom sector. Namibia is ranked 185th out of 224 countries for download speeds. Similarly, the state is taking a more prominent role in Tanzania<\/a>. Taxation is high and getting higher, with new, telecom specific taxes introduced across a range of countries (D.R. Congo<\/a>, Uganda<\/a>, Tanzania<\/a>, Kenya<\/a>, Zimbabwe<\/a> are some examples);<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    Spectrum paralysis<\/a>: High Demand Spectrum takes far too long to allocate and is usually allocated to national mobile operators. Governments don’t understand that high prices for spectrum are ultimately fed down into higher prices for consumers.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    But there is good news on both fronts: in Ethiopia,\u00a0a second operator has just been licensed (a consortium led by Safaricom<\/a>) and an RFP issued for the partial privatization<\/a> of Ethio Telecom. This should really shake up the sector. In Botswana, the regulator has issued an Invitation to Apply<\/a> for spectrum that is low-cost, regional and also available to licensees outside of the mobile operators.<\/p>\n

    OTHER WEEKLY NEWS FROM AROUND AFRICA<\/b><\/h6>\n