The recent African Union summit, held in Ethiopia, focussed upon the impact of Information Communication Technology upon Africa.  Few technologies can boast having as positive impact for Africans as the explosion of mobile phones. However, some governments continue to restrict their people from enjoying the benefits mobile technology can bring.

Alec van Gelder and Timothy Cox, writing in the Nigerian Guardian, document the many benefits that proliferation of affordable mobile phones services bring to people in the developing world:
“Life without mobiles would be unthinkable for the Kenyan market traders, farmers and transporters contacting suppliers, haggling over prices or doing their electronic banking. Mama Kim Atieno in Nairobi has halved the travel and transport costs of getting supplies for her small "food joint" called the Executive Canteen. She no longer spends KSh.3,000 a week on travel to the market and KSh.5,500 on transporting the goods: she arranges it all by cell phone for just KSh.4,000...”
Thanks to liberalisation- creating competition for customers- the price of mobile phone services has been driven down allowing more Africans to utilise the technology. In Kenya mobile phone subscriptions have increased by over 800% since the state owned mobile network was privatised in 2000.
Unfortunately, not all African governments have allowed this to happen. The dazzling display of new ICTs on display at the AU summit in Addis Ababa will never be available for the majority of Ethiopians who are forced to rely on the hugely inefficient state owned telecoms company. Only 1.5 per cent of the population can afford mobile phones and even fewer still have access to landlines.
Mobile phones have proven that private companies can provide affordable services that benefit everyone- if only governments get out of their way and allow them to do it.
 

Read the full article here: http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=27617