Further to the comments on mobile, it is also important to differentiate the pre-paid mobile sector, which is increasingly used in developing countries as a stand-in for fixed-line connections.
For Africa, the percentage of mobile users who use prepaid is 85.3%. Generally, the poorer the country, the higher the level of prepaid use. Although increased connectivity is nothing to denigrate, there is nonetheless a clear contrast to countries with well-developed telecom infrastructure, where pre-paid is a choice among various mobile, and indeed, overall telecommunications services. The point is not to argue that mobile should not be used to extend the network – but to argue that if mobile (or more specifically, prepaid mobile) is being used instead of fixed line networks, then attention to social regulation needs to be adjusted; and lessons from mobile market developments need to be considered as a more formal element of the intersection of regulation and development strategies. The ITU Africa Telecommunication Indicators 2004 report notes that the only African countries for which mobile has not surpassed fixed line connections are those that either lack a mobile network or mobile competition. -- Amy Mahan Montevideo, Uruguay <www.lirne.net> <www.regulateonline.org> _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
