Universal Access or Plunder?

By Thrishni Subramoney

While mobile growth in Africa seems to be riding a wave of enthusiasm at
this year's Africa Telecom 2004 conference, in Cairo Egypt, not everyone is
convinced that it will bring universal access to the continent.

Admittedly most of the keynote speakers (mainly from giant mobile companies
such as Alcatel, Siemens and MTN) at a forum on the subject at the Cairo
conference used their presentations as an advertising platform, however one
of the key views that emerged was that opening up African telecommunications
markets would be a key factor in providing universal access.

MTN CEO in Uganda, Francois Du Plessis said that providing universal access
should not be seen as an exercise in charity. "Universal access should not
be seen as a big black hole that just eats money – it can be a profitably
run business in the community," he told the audience.

He listed a number of projects MTN had started in the east African country
that provided access and brought in revenue. These included initiatives to provide micro-financing for rural women who offer telephone services in the local area. A second initiative provided phone services through community members who constantly moved through communities on tricycles.

Similarly, Alcatel's Souheil Marine pointed out that companies could not take full advantage of the African market if they failed to focus on what the majority of Africans needed.

But will mobile growth provide universal access?

"Not necessarily," says Murali Shanmugavelan from the UK based NGO, Panos.

Shanmugavelan says the much-hyped idea of a mobile revolution needs to be interrogated.

"They talk about a revolution, but whose revolution is it? Who’s going to benefit from this 'revolution'? This mobile revolution in Africa is intended to attract investment from outside the continent, therefore reforms cannot be effective " says Shanmugavelan – the main author of a Panos report: "Completing the Revolution: The Real Challenge of Rural Telephony". The study - being distributed in book form at the conference – questions whether expensive mobile networks will really bring access to the majority of Africans.

He suggests that the idea that mobile growth is about development is a naïve one. "Mobile networks target the urban communities when the majority of people in Africa live in rural areas. I'm not anti-mobile, I think this growth is phenomenal. I just think these questions need to be examined," he adds.

"Nobody's looking at the rural versus urban divide, because this is about making money" he asserts, "The market driven approach can not fulfill development."

He argues that proper regulation and control is impossible in the current climate because African countries can't slap the wrist of investors they rely on.

The EU recently put forward a proposal to the World Trade Organization, calling unanimously for the opening up of mobile markets on the continent. He says if the WTO turns up the heat on the developing world, they will have
no choice but to relent – a move that could be potentially damaging to home grown businesses and a development agenda.

"Look at the situation for many African countries, WTO regulations only allow countries a once-off chance to close their markets to a certain extent, for a fixed period of time. They really have no choice."

He says universal access will only become a reality if the rural communities are looked at and African countries will bridge the divide only if they become players rather than mere consumers in the global telecommunications
sector.

"There are number of complex issues that they need to grasp – like why exactly are mobile tariffs so high? They need to move away from just concentrating on bringing in FDI (foreign direct investment). They need to have some control, or development will not happen."