(Page 1 of 15) - Rural Connectivity Through WiFi: Regulatory Challenges and Opportunities in Southern Africa authored by van Gorp, Annemijn. and Morris, Chris.

Paper presented at the 57

Annual Conference of the International Communications Association

Rural Connectivity through WiFi: Regulatory Challenges and

Opportunities in Southern Africa

Abstract
WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) technology has become a promising ICT access solution for
rural connectivity in developing countries, due to its relatively low cost that enables local
entrepreneurs to set up networks. However, in many developing countries, regulatory
constraints have been found to impede market entry. In this study we analyze for three
countries in Southern Africa how regulatory restrictions, including licensing application
procedures, affect market entrance. While prior studies have frequently pointed at
licensing requirements as posing the major regulatory constraint, we find that actually
transparency of regulation and information provision on licensing requirements provide
the major challenge to market entrants.

1. Introduction
While many news reports chronicle the problems of Africa, the continent can also be seen
as presenting a myriad of opportunities for social and economic development. In
particular Africa’s information and communication technologies (ICTs) sector holds
promise as a means for socioeconomic development. Through their key role in
communication and information dissemination, ICTs play a significant supporting role
for other economic, social, and political activity (e.g. Courtright, 2004; Wang, 2003).
One of the most promising areas for Africa’s ICT development has long been argued to
be mobile telephony, enabling the continent to leapfrog stages of traditional
telecommunications technologies deployment. Already in 2001 Africa became the first
continent with more mobile subscribers than fixed line subscribers

However, despite this fast growth, a wide gap in terms of coverage between urban and
rural areas continues to persist (Allen, 2003; The Panos Institute, 2004). Even though the
issue of a lack of rural access has gained more attention lately such as can be observed in
an increase of World Bank initiatives aiming to increase rural access (e.g. Courtright,
2004), significantly more effort is needed to enhance wireless coverage. In this regard,
the deployment of WiFi community networks has been posed as a promising solution to
further fill the gaps in telecommunications coverage in rural areas. Many studies have
already reported on successful deployment of WiFi community networks in a variety of
developing countries (e.g. Galperin & Girard, 2005; Martinez et al., 2005; Pentland,

http://www.itu.int/AFRICA2004/media/mobile.html

Last accessed April 30, 2007.

Annemijn van Gorp

College of Information Sciences & Technology

Pennsylvania State University

University Park, PA, USA

## email not listed ##

Chris Morris

Meraka Institute

Council for Scientific and Industrial Research

Pretoria, South Africa

## email not listed ##