ICTs have the potential to empower communities and in the context of achieving wholesome connectivity or universal access increase local participation in the development process. New and creative enterprises can make rural areas more profitable, affordable and sustainable and served in a way to meet national development objectives.
Mobile broadband particularly offers increased opportunities for rural connectivity given the practical benefits derived from its deployment including internet connectivity and e-services capable of improving the lives of under-served and rural communities.
In Zambia, official statistics from the Zambian regulator show remarkable growth from just 49, 957 mobile subscribers in 2000 representing a penetration rate of 0.505 per one hundred people to 8,164,553 representing a penetration rate of 62.55 as at the end of 2011, while the fixed line only grew marginally from 85,680 subscribers in 2000 representing 0.849 to 85, 727 representing 0.8 lines per one hundred people.
ICTs if used responsibly, and properly facilitated, are therefore a tool that can effectively uplift the lives of people regardless of where they live. It is encouraging to know that the theme adopted by the International Telecommunication Union, of which Zambia is a member state, for this year’s World Telecommunication and Information Society Day falling on May 17 was ‘Women and Girls in ICT’.
Not least because of the gender bias but because it brings to the fore a real need to give special attention to groups of people who have over the ages been known to be traditionally marginalised. It need not be emphasised that this group also traditionally falls in a similar bracket to that of our rural communities and the many living within the high density areas of our urban and peri-urban areas known to be underserved with public amenities.
This part therefore essentially focuses on certain barriers that need to be overcome to ensure connectivity of people traditionally known to have been disadvantaged in rural and other under-served areas in the urban and peri-urban areas.
It is meant to stimulate reflection on how best they can be addressed within the context of identifying the solutions necessary to successfully realise the potential of ICT to transform both our rural communities, other underserved areas and ultimately the country at national level.
It is gratifying to note that the importance of ICT in Zambia’s national development is also demonstrated by its inclusion as a priority sector in the Fifth National Development plan 2006 -2010.
The issues selected which whilst not exhaustive have been deliberately highlighted being pertinent to a subject which generally poses a challenge to developing and least developed countries, the African continent in particular in varying degrees, Zambia included.
Statistics over the years since the ICT bubble emerged do not show much difference in the continent’s status in as far as the ICT development index is concerned. While very impressive strides have been made in the mobile sector, the fixed line remains a daunting challenge for the majority of the countries.
It will be observed, for instance, that according to official ITU statistics in 2006, while Africa accounted for 14 percent of the world population, it only accounted for 5.6 percent of all fixed and mobile subscribers worldwide.
It had the world’s lowest penetration of fixed lines, with a continental average of around three main lines per 100 people, over 20 countries which had a national average of fewer than one main line serving every 100 people, 221 million total telephone subscribers, 198 million of which were mobile cellular subscribers.
The continent had the highest ratio of mobile to total telephone subscribers of any world region, and was dubbed “the least wired region in the world”. Even with this, it had its own digital divide. For example, Egypt had 11 times the fixed line penetration of Nigeria.
While sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa, had an average tele-density of one percent, North Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia) had a comparable average of eleven percent. Almost three quarters of the continent’s fixed lines were found in just six of the continent’s fifty-five countries.
However, it was the region with the highest mobile cellular growth rate. Growth over the previous five years averaged around 50 percent year on year.
The total number of mobile cellular subscribers continent-wide at the end of 2006 was 198 million. It added some 61 million new mobile subscribers – a figure almost equivalent to the total number of telephone subscribers (fixed and mobile) in Africa in 2002.
It had some 22 million Internet users, for an Internet penetration of just 5 percent. Europe’s Internet penetration was seven times higher.
According to the 2007 ITU ICT Development Index, comparisons in 154 countries around the world and progress made between 2002-2007 ranked Sweden first, with Republic of Korea, Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, Norway, Luxemburg, Switzerland, Finland and the UK in the top ten.
Though good progress was generally made by all countries, major differences remained between regions, and between the developed and developing economies. ITU statistics for 2011 show that over the last five years, developing countries have increased their share of the total number of internet users from 44 percent in 2006 to 62 percent in 2011.
Successfully connecting our rural communities and other underserved areas with ICT is dependent on the presence and effectiveness of among others the policy framework, legal and regulatory framework, relevant skills as well as the presence or absence of technical barriers.
As with other sector strategies the policy sets out the direction for the sector and implementation of the policy for national development.
The policy on achieving connectivity or universal service or access policy, as it is usually referred to, has to necessarily be in line with the wider national ICT policy which itself must be reflective of the integrated national policy to take forward the development objective of that policy.
Critical to telecommunication/ICT infrastructure development / network expansion is the need for clarity on the government’s role in the ICT infrastructure development, the role of the private sector, the public private partnership (PPP)initiative, fiscal regime on ICTs (tax on telecoms/ICT equipment), and funding for achieving universal access.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Judith Tembo
Quelle/Source: Zambia Daily Mail, 12.06.2012
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