blogs@spacelinx - African, global tech & development issues

Just a few months ago Zain was talking about world domination: “Our Vision: To become a global mobile telecommunications company by the end of the year 2011″.  Accelerate, Consolidate, and Expand

Now it seems the strategy has changed and it’s being broken up in a proposed sell off.  http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5ab0ebfc-1cbe-11df-8d8e-00144feab49a.html 

What does this mean for pan-African networks?  Surely MTN is now in pole position. However Bharti did propose a merger recently that was called off.  It seems perhaps Africa is not such a sure telecoms play after all?  Or is it the apetite for risk that the big players are losing?

Check out this site which gives you IT support in using videos. You may find it useful.

http://www.showuhowto.com

Do you agree? Read Mo Ibrahim’s comments here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8361617.stm

Note that he was apparently talking about economic integration rather than political union.

I for one agree with his sentiments.  How does this fit with the alleged Southern Sudan agenda to secede from the State of Sudan?  If this goes ahead, will the new country really be economically and politically viable.  Paul Collier has talked about the perils of small, landlocked countries in his book the Bottom Billion.

Now let’s see some Sub-Saharan African countries on the list of growing and developing countries:

Read more here

and here

This is one of the awards (is it the only one) given for good governance that focuses on Africa.

Mo Ibrahim Foundation

The four criteria are:

• safety and the rule of law;
• participation and human rights;
• sustainable economic opportunity;
• and human development

Does this award matter?

http://www.economist.com/world/middleeast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14569420

We hear quite a lot about democracy in Africa.  However, something that we don’t hear a lot of, and which some argue matters more than votes and elections is the depth of institutional development in a country - not just elections.  What are the other checks and balances on power in a country that hold excutive power to account,  beyond the electral commissions?  This is a key question if African countries are to be truely democratic?  In a lot of cases, I would argue that these institutional powers are going in reverse and not providing any accountability.  What do you think?

Have a read of this:  http://www.amazon.com/Wars-Guns-Votes-Democracy-Dangerous/dp/0061479632/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257765968&sr=1-1

The Broadbank Quality Score report 2009 was produced by the Said Business School, University of Oxford and University of Oviedo’s Department of Applied Economics.  it shows that a lot of the usual suspects are at the top of the league of countries who lead in terms of broadband quality.  There are also some notable absentees from the very top of the list (US, Finland, Germany, France).  One trend is that the majority of the coutries at the top of the list (with the possible exceptions of Japan and Kore) have small land masses and populations.  In fact Korea has leapfrogged Japan and Sweden in the last year in terms of their quality scope.

Needs are and will changing as shown below

Changing Broadband Requirements

The report does include a category of being Ready for Tomorrow - which to me reads as how ready is the country for the demands of the applications and populations of the future.  This is contrasted with those who are comfortable , or have adequate capacity for today’s needs. This does imply the need for further and continued investment to increase bandwidth and quality for the future.

Here’s the Broadband Quality Score leaders. There are some notable absentees

Broadband Quality Score leaders

and more

Broadband Quality Score 2

The countries in Africa with most broadband quality are some way down the list.  One trusts this will improve quickly.

Broadband Quality Score 4

Why is all this important?  Well, it has been argued in quite a few fora that due to the increase in importance of having access to information by all members of a society - broadband quality will at some stage add significant weight the the general competitiveness of a country.

Who’s the boss?

Riots in Kampala

Pesky opposition parties (and flys)!  They are always around, especially when don’t want them!

Although some nations think that having a large population is a boon - this article shows how much it takes those around the world to buy a standard item:

The Economist Article on Purchasing Power

The image below puts it in even starker contrast. How much do you have to work to buy what you want?

Mac