L I R N E . N E T

Alison Gillwald, director of the Research ICT Africa (RIA!) network, in her article published in South Africa’s Business Day, reports on the significance and implications of the most recent ruling by the Pretoria High Court denying the Communications Minister’s application for an urgent interdict to prevent South Africa regulatory authority (ICASA) from issuing certain licences.

“While those who would finally be able to enter the market unconstrained have been rubbing their hands in glee at these rulings — and those who thought they had got in through the flawed licensing process and closed the door behind them gnashed their teeth — not much has been said about the significance of Judge Norman Davis’s carefully reasoned judgment reasserting a sound institutional and administrative basis for a sector so long paralysed by indecision.”

Click here to read the full Business Day article by Gillwald.

Click here to download the RIA policy brief: South Africa – Policy vs. Performance, ICT Access & Usage in South Africa (in .pdf)

See also: Appeal plunges telecoms sector back into limbo

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Alison Gillwald, director of the Research ICT Africa (RIA!) network, in her article published in Business Day observes “the significance of the communications ministry’s decision to appeal against a recent high court ruling setting aside certain prohibitions in the telecommunications sector and the upholding of the automatic conversion of rights into the new licensing regime may have been lost.”

With the bottom three quintiles of South Africans paying close to 20% of their income on communications, according to a recent national survey by Research ICT Africa!, against 5% in peer economies, consumers and businesses may well ask what drives the continued defence of the policy of “managed liberalisation”, of which high prices and poor access are the outcome.

Click here to read the full Business Day article by Gillwald.

Click here to download the RIA policy brief: South Africa – Policy vs. Performance, ICT Access & Usage in South Africa (in .pdf)

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The Research ICT Africa (RIA!) August 2008 Policy Brief is based on the preliminary analysis of the Individual and Household ICT Survey undertaken by the network.
The policy brief provides a snapshot of ICT development in Ghana, which has not been robust despite the country having been amongst the early reformers of the African ICT sector. In spite of improvements in certain sector segments, others such as household fixed line, internet access and public telephones, need policy support to catalyse their development.

Click here to download the RIA! Policy Brief (PDF format)

For further information about this report, contact:
Dr. Godfred Frempong <gkfrempong [at] stepri.csir.org.gh>

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On 23 June in Ottawa, Canada, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Learning Initiatives on Reforms for Network Economies (LIRNE.NET) network held a meeting with researchers from the Latin American and Caribbean Regional Dialogue on the Information Society (DIRSI), LIRNEasia, the LINK Centre and Research ICT Africa (RIA!), Comunica, and from the LIRNE network in Europe – Center for Communication, Media and Information Technologies (CMI) at Aalborg University, and the Center for Information and Communication Technologies (CICT), at the Technical University of Denmark. The intention of this event, in addition to presenting research, was to have a conversation with the invited participants and amongst ourselves. The four sessions of this day-long event were constructed in such a way as to provide opportunity for dialogue and creative reflection on the work of the network, why we do what we do, how we engage ICT regulatory research effectively and ensure impact.

Continue to the rest of this entry for presentation downloads and meeting information.

Click here to see photos of this event.
Click here to read the LIRNEasia report on this event.

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For World Telecommunications Day, Research ICT Africa! (RIA!) released a South Africa Policy Brief based on the preliminary findings of RIA’s 2008 nationally representative household survey on e-access and usage. The brief details covers issues mitigating access and cost, and summarises findings in a number of figures; and concludes with a set of specific recommendations for moving South Africa towards conditions that are more conducive to investment in the sector.

Click here to download the policy brief (in .pdf format).
Click here to go to the Research ICT Africa! website.

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