[BLOG] Wireless Technology in Africa
All my life, I have had great hopes that wireless technologies will be one of the critical ways of advancing the continent to a better status.
To me be clear from the outset I am an ardent free marketer and highly in favor of competitive markets. I am also in favor of speed as a catalyst for change and believe that the worst mistake of policy makers is when they favor analysis over action.
Wireless is clearly a “leapfrog” technology. It permits the ability to easily transmit information across wide geographies with the least amount of cost and capital expenditure. It can be built out according to population densities instead of despite them.
Better information removes distance as a barrier to communication and understanding it allows for better planning and resource allocation. It permits for widespread education of the population in both academic and practical matters.
Overall, better information creates a smarter communities, societies and people.
With all this, the question of how do we get wireless technologies to take root in Africa?
What needs to be done at the policy level to permit the growth of wireless technology and the possibilities it brings for African countries to leapfrog years of infrastructure developments...?
Wireless is by its very nature highly personalized service. As such it permits information flow between individuals and therefore represents threat to any government or system that wants to limit such communication.
Without this very first fundamental change, wireless deployment will always be marginal.
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