Interview with Mrs. Bernice Edande Otye, Permanent Secretary of the Assembly of Telecommunications Regulators of Central Africa (ARTAC). By Nancy Onyango.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Nancy Onyango: Hello Madam, please introduce yourself and tell us about your role at ARTAC?
Ms. Bernice: I'm Ms. Bernice Edande Otye, the Permanent Secretary of ARTAC, the Assembly of Telecommunications Regulators in Central Africa.
Nancy Onyango: Tell us a little about the organization.
Ms. Bernice: ARTAC was created in 2004, and today has 7 members, which are the national regulatory authorities of 7 Central African member states: ART of Cameroon, ARCEP of Gabon, TCHAD, RCA, ARPCE of Congo, ARPTC of the Democratic Republic of Congo, ORTEL of Equatorial Guinea.
Nancy Onyango: What are ARTAC's aims and means of action?
Ms. Bernice: ARTAC aims to reduce the digital divide and accelerate economic and social integration in the sub-region, through cooperation and harmonization of regulatory policies in the field of Information and Communication Technologies. To achieve these objectives, ARTAC carries out a number of activities. It is in charge of harmonizing its regulatory policies; it is also in charge of monitoring and implementing projects in the sub-region. It is responsible for defining a framework for coordinating the frequency spectrum among its member countries. ARTAC makes a point of strengthening the capacities of its members and others in the sector, by sharing experiences and organizing seminars and training workshops. Today, ARTAC has 4 working groups dealing with radio communication, legal and regulatory frameworks, Fin-tech, cybersecurity and governance. We are currently finalizing a flagship project. This involves the effective implementation of “free roaming” between Central African states. We started with the CEMAC member states, and we're going to continue this project with all the states involved.
Integration of the African telecommunications market
In addition to putting in place modern legislative and regulatory structures for the provision of telecommunications services in all the countries of the sub-region, ARTAC has set itself several objectives:
To encourage the separation of roles between political powers, regulatory authorities and licensees/service providers.
Encourage liberalization and competition projects, with a view to reforming networks and improving the efficiency of telecommunications services in the sub region.
Encourage the development of policies to facilitate universal access and telecommunications penetration in rural and underserved areas of the sub region.
Encourage human resources and capacity building to address the shortage of local skilled labor.
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Alexandra Högberg from SPIDER Center interviewed Mbirimuje Ngupandjara - Revenue accountant, Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia, along the sidelines of the Sweden 2023 phase. In this interview, Mbirimuje Ngupandjara weighs in on collaboration and universal access for ICT advancement.
This interview has been edited for clarity and readability.
Mbirimuje Ngupandjara: My name is Mbirimuje Ngupandjara, revenue accountant for the Communications Regulatory Authority in Namibia (CRAN). I'm responsible for everything related to revenue collection, ensuring that the regulator has funds to run all its operations.
AH: During the Spider PTS programme, you managed to work on the Completion of the consumer protection regulations and implementation of QOS regulations - could you recap the project and how it has been of impact to the sector?
MN: Well, this is actually one of the Change Initatives (CI's) I believe that produced really great results. In quality of service, it's something that's quite important. We don't only want our operators to provide services to the people, but then lack service. When we carried out this project, we undertook to find out from consumers in terms of whether they are aware of their rights. Where do they complain if the quality of service is not good or if they feel like they are violated in terms of what is due to them and the end consumers, initially, were not aware, and as a regulator, we took time to do surveys.\, and I must say our communications department did a stellar job. All the trade fairs, they always have consumer awareness.
The awareness is out there. Because initially, consumers were not aware of that, and one particular initiative has to do with our national broadband policy, of which in terms of coverage, CRAN as a regulator was able to ensure that as we meet the minimum entry requirements of ensuring that every user has an internet connection of two megabytes per second. In the coverage rate, the success rate is 80%. So we have actually met our program policy in that. However, that's an entry requirement. But we have set the standard. As a regulator, we dictate to the operators that if you're providing internet, it cannot be less than this. So now we move on to the next part, which is obviously more speed, as we've heard here in Sweden, it's 100 megabits per second. We are quite far from that, but it's still achievable.
As a regulator, we are doing our job, and the market actually responds well, to the regulator. We enforce, they comply, they make it happen in there is actually a very good dialogue between the regulator and the stakeholders, the business operators, so we consult them already in advance. We're thinking about ABC and D, how can we make it possible, involve them in regulations. We have a lot of stakeholder engagements as well. By the time that they need to take this to market, they have already agreed in essence, and when we pass the regulations, particularly when it comes to tariffs, and then you know, the standardisation of technology, they are always important.
AH: Could you please give an overview of the ICT sector in your country? What specific challenges does your country/region face in the current global telecommunication landscape, and how will you change initiative address this?
MN: In terms of Namibia, we are talking about a country that has a population density of three people per square kilometre. We have about 2.6 million inhabitants, but the country is quite fast. We have people that are more or less 40% to 50% that are residing in the capital and that you will consider as an urban area. So, when it comes to connectivity in the urban areas, in terms of our broadband policy, we are on par, we are on track. However, our challenge comes in the rural areas, because we have close to 60% of people that reside in the rural areas. The first challenge that we can say is that people do not have access to digital ICT services, primarily the infrastructure is not there. The second challenge is the language barrier as well, those that will be in rural areas.
Also, most of them do not speak English as their native language. There is that barrier when it comes to participating in ICT services, ecommerce, etc. But addressing the first area of the challenge has to do with rolling out ICT infrastructure to rural areas, and due to a population which is not quite large, in terms of the operators recovering their revenue from the local communities has been a challenge and operators cannot merely just by willpower, even though they want to roll out services because there is no business case. They will not be able to recover this OPEX and CAPEX that is required. Where we come in as a regulator then has to do with universal access regulations in that’s where our CI is mainly focused, because as part of our strategy as CRAN, we want to ensure that you know, in terms of universal access, that everyplace, every child, the Namibian child, even in the rural area, will have access to ICT services. We saw this was a big challenge with the COVID 19 pandemic, where in urban areas we have children that are learning through digital means either on WhatsApp, or on Zoom.
In terms of the rural population, they didn't even have network coverage, let alone access to the internet. Then you have to send them home, and then there'll be a year behind in terms of education. Our CI aims to ensure that we get the operators on board, to roll out infrastructure, and trying to find ways as a regulator hub to support our local stakeholders in making sure that when they put up a site, they can also recover the operational costs because that's the biggest thing, monetising a site ensuring that the local community makes use of the site in that you don't just merely put up a site, and then they don't use it. We have plans and strategies how to do that, and together with management team, and support from our regional body, CRASA will be working urgently as a matter of urgency on this to ensure that we bring a change that nobody in the rural areas should be left behind. That's the crux of our CI: to provide ICT services in rural areas in the underserved area so that all the Namibian population can have access as a matter of life.
AH: How can regulators contribute to the advancement of the ICT sector in Africa?
MN: What we've seen from all the discussions in all the training that we've received, every country has its own unique challenges. The biggest one, or the biggest gap in Africa that we have identified is the lack of collaboration. I can take the EU, for instance, where you have a standard set of regulations which are passed down throughout the whole zone. That can be linked to the advancement or how advanced they are. They all have the different infrastructures and minor variances. But what we can learn from it's really the collaboration between all the different NRAs, the different stakeholders, the MNOs, the different government agencies, and local authorities and then we'll see a change because just trying to push regulations and everybody has to comply doesn't necessarily bring everybody to the table to contribute. But when we take the collaborative approach, then it makes everything so easier. As an example, we have stock up.
A classic example from Sweden, that is where every citizen or operator can actually log in and say, I want to lay fiber in this area, or I want to connect, where is fiber, and everybody has access to this. You don't get multiple people digging along the street, or somebody digging in the street, and then they damage somebody else's fiber, and this is a challenge that we have in Africa, where you have two operators on the same street, one digging on the other side, just to provide fiber, and the end result is the end user has to pay for that cost. But if you have everybody just doing one thing, now you can focus on providing excellent service to the end consumer and then you end up reducing the cost. Even infrastructure sharing, we've learned a lot how different operators share their infrastructure. I believe this is actually key in terms of a rural population, where you might have a backhaul from one operator where everybody can share and collaborate so that they can bring services to the one area.
There is national roaming, for instance, we all know about international roaming, but, you know, different operators, switching networks, particularly in rural areas where there's not a lot of people that will use the sites. So that might be an option as well, but the key is we need harmonised regulations across Africa. We need to learn from what other countries have done. Like taking an example Kenya has done a lot of work on universal access, and we have learned what not to do or what to try, that might yield better results. So just that international cooperation is needed instead of every country just trying to solve their own problems while somebody else might have the solution already.
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Alexandra Högberg from SPIDER Center interviewed Thomas Mohamed Jusu - Manager Frequency Planning and Spectrum Management; National Communications Authority, Sierra Leone (NatCA), along the Sweden 2023 phase. In this interview, Thomas Mohamed Jusu weighs in on spectrum management tools and quality of service instruments.
This interview has been edited for clarity and readability.
Thomas Jusu: I'm Tomas Mohammad Yousuf from Sierra Leonne National Communications Authority. I am the manager for frequency planning and spectrum management.
AH: How can regulators contribute to the advancement of the ICT sector in Africa?
TJ: In terms of the sector, the regulator's the custodian of the market. We regulate all aspects of the ICT sector. For Siera Leone in particular, not only mobile, every sector of the ICT is under our purview. So, regulators determine the code of the markets, because we have our main objective, we have to be very much professional, we have to give respect to operators because they are investing their money, we have to have integrity for ourselves as regulators, then there should be fairness in the markets, and we give room for innovation. At the end of it, it all comes down with transparency.
If the regulator is transparent, then you will see how new entrants will be in the market and how the existing ones will continue to invest in the market, which will bring in a lot of employment to the citizens, good service to the citizens as well our customers at the end of the day, we all make good use of the services they provide, even though we are regulated, where we are all in the market as well. So, having a good regulation as a regulator will encourage the investors who primary operators of the market to invest more and other new entrants to come into the market, which will end up to impact the good citizens. So that is supposed to be the role of the regulator in every country so that we can have a good environment in the ICT sector.
AH: What specific challenges does your country/region face in the current global telecommunication landscape? And how will your change initiatives address this?
TJ: A lot of challenges specifically on our change initiative. We have a lot of gaps in our spectrum regulations, because for example, the 5G that is now coming into the market for us, we have just given some trial resources to operators so that they can do some tests. But we have we don't have any guideline, any policy any strategy on how to license the 5G spectrum. So we are learning from this change initiative so that when we go back we can advise our administration on how we can license or whether we are going to use it but we are going with guidelines for them so that we can all come together and they can agree with us so that we can have the same path in how we go into license the 5G because we expect this 5G to have a good impact on everybody like the government, the consumers and then the operators.
So, we have to have some guidelines and policies, so that we cannot just rush into making the decision, but decisions that can have an economic impact on the country. But in terms of other challenges that we have as a sector, currently in the in the in the engineering department, we lack monitoring vehicles for us to even detect whether operators are using assigned frequency or whether they are using more than what we are assigning to them. We cannot because we don't have the tools that is really lacking right now, almost five years, what we used to have is obsolete. We have not been able to secure any new ones, we are still looking for a better price.
But the biggest thing is lack of resources to get what we need. The resources that we are getting from what we earn from this because we don't have other source of income, the only source of rigor is the regulations, the regulatory fees, we collect from operators. From COVID to now, it has been very challenging, we cannot add prices, because it will negatively impact on the consumers. So, inflation has caught down to our income. What we used to earn $400,000 is more or less like 50% cut down. But we cannot just change it overnight, because it will negatively impact consumers and the markets and that will give a negative signal to the government. So, government is not allowing us as regulators. Whatever we want to change, you have to go to government for approval, go to the parliament. So it is difficult for so our source of income has dropped, and that has caused a lot of challenge for us to acquire some tools which will empower us to regulate the industry very well.
AH: Is there anything else you would like to add?
TJ: For Sierra Leone, basically, if there is a need and there is room for support, we are pleading to any, whether it's regulatory body, whether it is vendors, whether operators, big operators that can help us with spectrum management tools, quality of service tools, which are the primary for any operator. All other departments depend on these two departments. These two departments provide better service for the consumers and the government as well, because if we have tools to monitor, tools to manage the spectrum, then the impact will be very good for everybody. But the market now, more or less the operators, they are free to do everything because we lack the equipment to go after them. It’s just on paper, we just call them talk to them, but how can we go out there and see that what they are doing is within the law. That is what is really challenging for us. So we are asking any good samaritan that will come to our aid, if there is anything they have that they all they are not using, we can make good use of as operator, we are pleading for that.
AH: Okay, thank you so much.
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During November 2023, national regulators from Eswatini, Kenya, Namibia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Zambia took part in a 2.5 weeks training programme in Stockholm, Sweden as part of the European phase of the iPRIS training.
Alexandra Högberg from SPIDER Center interviewed Dr. Emma Otieno from the Communications Authority of Kenya along the Sweden 2023 phase. In this interview, Dr. Emma Otieno weighs in on the important role national regulators play in ensuring affordability and digital inclusion.
This interview has been edited for clarity and readability.
Emma Otieno: My name is Dr. Emma Otieno. I work with the national regulator that is the Communications Authority of Kenya. Communication authority of Kenya is a regulatory body for the ICT industry, in Kenya. Within the regulator, I work in the Universal Service Fund function, where we actually seek to support the country in achieving its digital transformation agenda through running out projects for digital inclusivity.
Alexandra Högberg: What role do you see the regulator's playing in ensuring that Africa takes its share of the digital transformation revolution?
EO: I think the regulator is the most critical institution within the government set up for the development of ICTs. This is because the regulator is the key link between the national discussion and the global discussion, and as we all know, is that ICT development has now become a boundaries, a kind of an undertaking, and we need to have this conversation with partners with collaborators and financiers, with donors, with the technical minds, and it is a conversation that cannot happen in country. So with the regulatory linkage between the association starting from the regional associations, for instance, in East Africa, we have the East Africa community communication organisation. At the African level, we have the Africa Telecommunications Union, then we move on to like institutions like the International Telecommunications Union, that is the ITU. So, these are linkage that the regulator creates between the internal and external is the most critical. Secondly, the regulator has the expertise in terms of the different segments of what we require for digital development of digital transformation. We know about issues over competition management, Universal Service Fund, quality management, making communication services affordable, accessible, and also in terms of ensuring that there is equity. So the regulator is a person or an institution that ensures us this is all happening in a coordinated manner.
AH: What are the challenges and opportunities nationally and regionally that you think you want to highlight in terms of ensuring that we leave no one behind?
EO: There are several challenges, especially in the developing country. One is the affordability of communication services. That is an issue that we really have to address because of competing interests between how to access food, how to access other basic essentials, and communication, which has just joined this segment of what we would call basic necessities. So the cost of communication services, the cost of broadband, the cost of buying airtime, the cost of devices. And this is not being made better by the rate at which the inflation is happening in developing countries, taxation issues, these are really becoming top of the issues causing affordability or access to services. And then of course, the nature of policies that we are adopting in the developing countries and the rate at which these policies have been changed and very slow. So coming up with synergies between the legislation, the executive, and even the judiciary, arms of government so that they can bring synergy to come up with policies and regulations that are working towards enhancing affordability enhancing accessibility, enhancing availability over ICTs is quite an issue that we see, and then there's another issue in terms of like the devices. Other than affording the service itself, access to devices in Africa because we are not a manufacturing segment of the globe, most of the times we import devices. So smart handsets, which are actually the basic of accessing broadband have become quite expensive and with the increase in the exchange rates we are seeing right now the dollar rate is going higher and higher by the day. So that means that whatever is being imported, is actually costing more. So that is really becoming an encumbrance in terms of how we can actually ensure that people have access to device, so they already have a smart device, you cannot access broadband. And also the cost of rolling out broadband is not easy. The government's are competing with budgets. They have many, many interests, education, health. So actually, investing in rolling out infrastructure has also become quite a challenge for the countries in the developing side of this world. So affordability issues or financing, issues of devices, issues of policies and regulations that are actually ensuring that in diversity, equity inclusion, quite some of these things that we must collaboratively look at to ensure that no one is left behind.
AH: Thank you.
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Alexandra Högberg from SPIDER Center interviewed Obioma Benson Kekeocha - Principal Manager, Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC), along the sidelines of the Sweden 2023 phase. In this interview, Obioma Benson Kekeocha weighs in on competition, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
This interview has been edited for clarity and readability.
Alexandra Högberg: Could you please introduce yourself?
Benson Kekeocha: My name is Benson Kekeocha, I work with Nigeria Communications Commission.
AH: How can regulators contribute to the advancement of the ICT sector in Africa,
BK: Regulators in Africa will contribute to the advancement of technology in Africa by ensuring that the policies in their respective countries is such that contributes to the enhancement of technologies. For instance, now that where we are moving towards the new digital era, regulations should be such that is open, that should be kind of develop regulations which ensure that our regulations are such that will not stifle competition, will not stifle innovation, but we enhance development and innovation of the sector. So what we'll do right now is to ensure that all our regulatory instrument are such that if they are not in line they should be reviewed to accommodate issues that will encourage and develop the industrial.
AH: What specific challenges does your country/region face in the current global telecommunication landscape? And how will your change initiative address this?
BK: We have a couple of challenges with respect to the delivery of telecom services. There's so many challenges that ranges from right of way issues, power issues, to competition issues, just abundance and competitive conduct. So, our change initiative has to do with competition, tariff issues in existing and emerging technologies. And talking about the issues related to competition, we have issues to do with identifying such anti-competitive conducts in industry, such as predatory pricing, cost of taxation, margin squeeze discriminatory pricing, identifying agreements or arrangements among operators that has an anti competitive practices. So these are challenges.
In terms of tariff, we have to ensure that every tariff we implement incorporates costs, operational services, it is transparent, and non-discriminative. So our tariffs must be cost effective, and subscriber friendly. So in our change initiatives, we've been able to streamline it to assessing the level of competition in the wholesale broadband and retail data market segment. This segment is not effectively competitive. Because in a vertical integrated market segment where you have an SMP, the SMP carries out certain conduct that lessens the performance of other competitors in the industry. So our change initiative, we aim at identifying those conducts/practices, that lessens competition, and proper solutions, regulatory framework that could be targeted at making sure that every player in industry and choice services.
AH: Part of the iPRIS project, you also have the component of gender diversity, equity and inclusion. What have you taken away from that segment and how you work with your change initiative or how your organisation works with making sure that no one is behind it the digital transformation journey.
BK: With respect to change initiatives and diversity, equity and inclusiveness in my region or in my environment, we ensure that we consult widely, we carry everyone along because for every decision that borders all these stakeholders, which includes both the operator and the subscribers, we must ensure that they are consulted, and then we don't want to leave anyone behind. We try to ensure that we bridge the gap, the digital divide and assure that everyone is inclusive, is always included in assessing services with either aspects of your gender, your age, or your race, you carry everyone along. With respect to our tariffs, you know, we assure that every tariff we implement cuts across the entire country. We do not implement any sectional or discriminatory tariff or services, everyone is being carried around to ensure that there is inclusiveness in our service, irrespective of your gender, or your tribe, or your financial status.
AH: Highlights from the time here in Sweden?
BK: I think the program is well thought out. It has helped to bring in people from various parts of Africa for capacity building. We benchmark or we have knowledge of what happens with other jurisdictions, and we try to pass on this also, and I think it's a good program. From time to time, each MCI will help to develop with other region that identify this as a challenge.
AH: The peer to peer learning is a key component of iPRIS. Are there any specific lessons or opportunities or tips that you have taken on board from any of the other national regulatory authorities that you would like to highlight?
BK: Not quite, because NCC, we have gone ahead, we're far ahead of so many other regulatory agencies in the Sub Saharan Africa. In each of the segments, talking about intact rates, we have been developing over time, computer assessment issues, designated operator in the voice and data segment. We’re foremost, so being with them here, they learn from us. There's no area of regulatory instrument that we have not touched on, from reverse service provision to having a Consumer Affairs Bureau, to pricing, to competition, to licensing, to spectrum issues, where we’re far ahead of them.
When I mentioned that, we have developed a regulation for spectral trading, it sounds strange to them because today, if you don't use the spectrum, you don't lose it. Okay, your spectrum, you can trade it, which means you can transfer it, you can share it, you can lose it, these are things they are learning from us. Okay, we have developed regulation with respect to national roaming. When I told him that look, we have developed national roaming guidelines, and two operators have tested or have a trial period for national roaming, it sounds strange. Talking about regulations on infrastructure, sharing a co-location. So most of Africa countries, they're happy to learn from what Nigeria has with respect to the telecom sector in Nigeria.
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During November 2023, national regulators from Eswatini, Kenya, Namibia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Zambia took part in a 2.5-week training programme in Stockholm, Sweden, as part of the European phase of the iPRIS training.
Alexandra Högberg from SPIDER Center interviewed Murzanatu Talatu Suleiman - Research and Development Department, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), along the sidelines of the Sweden 2023 phase. In this interview, Murzanatu Talatu Suleiman weighs in on enabling environments and competition.
This interview has been edited for clarity and readability.
Alexandra Högberg: Could you please introduce yourself?
Talatu Suleiman: My name is Murzanatu Talatu Suleiman, representative of the Nigerian Communications Commission and CC. I'm one of the three participants here in Sweden. And my background is in mechanical engineering, presently working the research and development departments of NCC.
AH: How can regulators contribute to the advancement of the ICT sector in Africa?
TS: One of the things I would say, majorly, the regulators can play is giving an enabling environment. Because when you have an enabling environment, you'd have innovations come up, you open up the ecosystem for a lot of activities to happen to that major place where I think the regulator in Africa can play by providing an enabling environment.
AH: Is there any specific highlights from your time here in Sweden from the training phase?
TS: Everything has been a highlight, from the core part of the telecom lectures to the project management plan. For me, the project management plan really helped me to put the perspective to my work. The MEAL concepts, it's new, but I appreciated it. You know, I've been struggling with the resetting of my project plan. So when it came, and I was like, okay, I have to look at the impact, the outcome and all those made the work lighter and more interesting. So yeah, there are a lot of highlights, the visit to Ericsson, that's a highlight for me. What can I remember? A lot, the facilitators are good people. You listen, and I like people who listen and solve my problem. So yeah, everything was really highlighted.
AH: What are you hoping that the change initiative that you're working on now, how will it make a change to Nigeria?
TS: So for our change initiative from Nigeria, we're trying to assess the level of competition. Competition is good, in any sector, regardless of the sector you're working. For us in telecom sector, where you have an enabling environment, where you have healthy competition, you bring in more innovators, more operators, and your end users will have multiple choices so they can decide which of the operators and providers they want to use. So a change initiative is all about the end users having good options, multiple choices, access, affordability, and for the operators, you have to have their interest at heart. So giving them an enabling environment to thrive, to recoup their investment is also good, Puts operators and end-users in a win-win situation.
AH: Is there anything else you want to add?
TS: One thing that makes me thrive is an enabling environment so you can see Arcia is talking about enabling environment. You the Swedish people give us an enabling environment so I can try. For me that's a major thing.
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Alexandra Högberg from SPIDER Center interviewed Lwando Bbuku - Manager, Markets and Competition, Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA), along the sidelines of the Sweden 2023 phase. In this interview, Lwando Bbuku weighs in on digital inclusion.
This interview has been edited for clarity and readability.
Lwando Bbuku: My name is Lwando Bbuku with the Zambia information and communications technology authority. I represent the department responsible for economic regulation and consumer protection.
AH: How can regulators contribute to the advancement of the ICT sector in Africa?
LB: Looking at the era we're in today of digital transformation and digital adoption, I think African regulators need to come together and collaborate a lot more effectively if we're to address the challenges of an advancing economy and moving into a digital society. What we see as a big challenge obviously comes along in the form of the internationalisation of services, we have digital platforms that are no longer respecters of borders, and that essentially require a concerted and coordinated efforts to address a lot of the topical issues. So if we're looking at issues around consumer protection, if we're looking at issues around economic regulation, and competition management, all those in a digital era, literally do not respect boundaries of traditional relevant markets and delineations of different geographical borders. So we need to do a lot more in form of international collaboration, working both at regional level and at the international level, and I think the SPIDER program really gives us a good platform to basically extend and leverage of those linkages that we have across the different countries. So I would say Key among the issues that we need to do to advance the Digital Agenda Africa, is to really collaborate and coordinate with a common purpose and basically see that we take our space in the digital age.
AH: What specific challenges does your country/region face in the current global telecommunication landscape? And how will you change initiative addresses this?
LB: From a Zambian perspective, we've seen significant amount of investment into infrastructure, we've been working quite extensively towards bridging the coverage gap, we deployed communication towers, we've deployed fiber infrastructure backbone, and we're still working quite significantly towards last mile connectivity. But the big challenge that we see is the fact that we have an extensive and ever-growing usage gap. So while we're closing the coverage gap, we still we still see that people are not actually adopting these digital services, and one of the challenges that comes from is the fact that we do not necessarily have equitable access to services, and we do not have equitable access to infrastructure. While we have deployed significantly in urban areas, we still have a very big digital divide in terms of the urban rural divide.
We've seen that from an infrastructure perspective, while we do have the underlying backbones, and the majority of our population actually live within the footprint of a communication signal, they've had barriers to access ranging from affordability of devices, they've had barriers to access, ranging from digital literacy and skills, and those are critical challenges that we're trying to address as a regulator. So key among our efforts now is to really ensure that we set the tone from a foundational perspective. So we're, we're essentially actively working towards ensuring that we have the right amount of digital infrastructure spread out across the country as effectively as possible. So we see that investments might be duplicated in some cases, and what we're trying to adjust for that change initiative is essentially to make sure that where there's existing infrastructure, let's get the utilisation of that particular infrastructure up.
Why we say that is because it doesn't make sense for us to have two or three lines of fiber passing through the same area where we could easily consolidate into one and channel the additional investments into areas that have traditionally been marginalised and left aside. What our change initiative basically aims to do is to allow us to create a regime and a framework that will incentivise and promote infrastructure sharing. Why we think that's very important is that the digital infrastructure is the foundational pillar of digital transformation. Once we get to a point that we're able to have effective usage and sharing of infrastructure, we then expect to see an increase in the usage and uptake of services, and this is coming from a supply side because we want to make basically make sure that we have more providers, offering innovative services on the market. So that lowers the barriers to entry if we have an equitable framework for sharing of existing infrastructure, and we could then bring in a lot more service-based competition into the market.
So while we have our underlying infrastructure available, we then expect to see an increase in the number of additional players that come on to the market and offer specific and new innovative services that will address a lot of the challenges around inclusivity. So what we love to see as essentially coming from a place where we have the traditional big network and infrastructure providers have been deployed quite significantly, but we're looking at ways to basically optimise the utilisation of existing infrastructure, and that will then drive innovation, and also drive additional penetration and adoption of services.
AH: Any other highlight that you want to add?
LB: So, from the perspective of what we've been able to go through over the last two weeks, I think we've built up a quite robust framework for how we could go about implementing a change initiative. And I think that stems from the extensive focus on the project management methodology. And starting from an impact perspective, I think we see in a lot more broader sense, what we actually are trying to achieve and for us, that specifically aims at improving digital adoption and usage of digital services. So we're tackling it for tackling it from a foundational perspective, and we basically start from a project perspective, looking at what do we intend to achieve, we intend to achieve the fact that we have inclusive and accessible digital services that the majority of Zambians can benefit from, and effectively contribute to our digital transformation agenda.
From an outcome perspective, we basically are looking at ensuring that we lower barriers to entry in the market, and we have an increase in the number of players that can actually participate at a service level. So we're looking at basically streamlining the investment process, lowering the barriers so that new players efficiently roll out their networks, rather roll out their services, and reach more people, and that basically will see us move from a position of having approximately only 25 or so percent of people actually accessing the internet, to hopefully push that towards 50 and 60%. In the medium to short term.
I think that basically will come from the fact that once we have efficient infrastructure sharing, we have more players that are able to now provide fiber to the home services or fixed wireless access services, targeting specific communities that are within the reach of existing infrastructure, but just haven't had the incentive for new players to come on the market, and tap into some of those services. So from that perspective, we basically hope that we can achieve a much broader sort of inclusivity approach towards our rollouts, and our coverage obligations that we set out for our respective licensees. So once we have a framework in place that basically caters to new and emerging types of infrastructure sharing, access things like open access, active sharing, things such as mobile virtual network operators, we think we can then start to target more specific segments of society, be it in a rural setup, be it in a underprivileged school, for instance, that requires a specific private network setup.
Once we have facilities in place to basically facilitate that sort of more designated specific sort of sharing, we then expect to see a much more inclusive approach towards rollout of infrastructure, as well as to the adoption of digital services. The first output that we're looking at developing and delivering from this project will be the revision of our regulatory framework that basically caters for infrastructure sharing, and wholesale access. We believe that by creating this forward looking and responsive regime, we can then address and create the foundation for all the outcomes and impact that we hope to achieve.
The second phase of our project will see us move into a more transparency related focus of the project, and that's where we hope to see the development and deployment of systems and tools that will facilitate the coordination and approval process of infrastructure deployment. We basically hope to learn and leverage of some of the experiences we've had here with the Lebanon, Scotland, for instance, and see that we can implement a similar platform in phase two, which will obviously be in the subsequent months, probably the next year or two. And what we're doing now is laying the foundation for that and allowing for us to move forward in that space.
AH: Is there a specific memory that will stay with you from this very first round of iPRIS 2023?
LB: From a involvement perspective, I think we visited Ericsson. For me, it was quite an inspiring activity that we undertook, the sessions that we had with the team over at Ericsson, were really eye opening and insightful. I think the fact that the company has been in existence for so long basically demonstrates its commitment towards basically digital everything and digital transformation, and facilitation.
I was quite intrigued, actually, by the session that basically looked at the future, and where we're going and how much further we still have to go on the development of technology and the different advancements that are possible. So from a connectivity perspective, I think that they really hit home hard, because I realized that we as a regulator, have a very important role to play in basically making sure that we do not stifle innovation in the way that we regulate, and basically make sure that we enable a lot of the developments that are still yet to come. And I mean, countries in Africa, like we saw are still very far off on the 5G adoption map.
So we think that we need to do a lot more to incentivize the rollout of additional advancements in technology, but also to make sure that our people are not left behind. Because that's primarily a big challenge that we face is that while we may have access to the technology, our people have not equally been upgraded in terms of their digital skills, and literacy levels to basically enjoy and reap the benefits of such technology. So I'm quite excited about that, and I'll take that home as a lesson learned and changing my thinking to be more open and forward looking in terms of what's yet to come in the future.
AH: Anything else you want to add?
LB: Final thoughts for me are really the key takeaway is that the change initiative that based on the model that I present, SPIDER has rolled out for this kind of change initiative, I think is a very innovative approach to addressing a lot of our challenges. It moves us away from theoretical kinds of capacity building, and takes us to a more hands on and practical and impactful sort of way of doing things. So I'm quite keen to see our change initiative executed. And I'm quite keen to see the impacts and outcomes start to roll out even beyond my time and sector and I'll be happy to look back in a few years and say that this was something that I specifically championed and spearheaded and look forward to seeing positive outcomes from that.
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Alexandra Högberg from SPIDER Center interviewed Patricia Kemei - Deputy Director Administration; Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK), along the Sweden 2023 phase. In this interview, Patricia Kemei weighs in on digital inclusion.
This interview has been edited for clarity and readability.
Alexandra Högberg: What are some of your highlights from the previous project before iPRIS
Patricia Kemei: That was a very interesting project, we used SPIDER, the Stockholm University ICT department. We also had funding from SIDA, from the government of Sweden. And it was a collaborative approach. Initially, when we started our change initiative, we hadn't looked at the whole impact-outcome-output. We were so focused on the output in the first change initiative, but we improved and one memorable change initiative that we had was an incentive for rollout of infrastructure in the unserved and underserved areas, and with time, when we were able to measure the impact, we actually got 886 schools fitted with broadband, and it came in so handy during COVID-19 period, because we’re able to do online programs, we’re able to handle administrative functions for the school easily. So that was an impact in our local public, secondary schools.
Another project that came up from SPIDER, we had initially wanted to do a spectrum trading framework, and then we also wanted to do spectrum transfer, and we decided to amalgamate them to be a spectrum management policy. So right now in the country, we have Spectrum Management Policy, which helps us to know how to do trading. In fact, when trading was done underground, now it's coming out in the open, there are transfer guidelines. If you're not going to use your spectrum, how can it be utilised back instead of lying idle. So it's really helped us especially we also have another project, which was on the 5G regulatory sandbox. That's a good one, and it's brought in innovators. And it's really good because it's bringing a trial on how 5G can be harnessed, and we have a framework now on how participants can take part. So that's really been remarkable.
AH: Can you please weigh in more on the deployment of mobile cellular infrastructure in several parts of the country?
PK: We have something called the Universal Service Fund, where it does not make business sense sometimes for operators to go to the rural areas. We've been using the Universal Service Fund, to roll out broadband, even if it's 3G or 2G in those rural areas, and we learn some lessons that in the communities, we must involve them, we must involve the stakeholders. Sometimes they're just interested in water or borehole water. So you do it in terms of our CSR, where you do collaboration, so that you meet their needs, and you also show them the importance of having broadband, we are moving towards meaningful connectivity.
AH: Give an overview of the ICT sector in Kenya. What specific challenges does your country/region face in the current global telecommunications landscape?
PK: Currently, as I've already began speaking, we have a challenge on infrastructure deployment, in terms of the connectivity, and also the supporting infrastructure, like energy, not everywhere has electricity. We don't have solar in all places. So that's a challenge in rolling out that infrastructure in the rural areas, we also have a challenge of digital literacy, and not everybody has digital skills, the need for digital content, network security, and resilience has also been a challenge, especially in the northern parts of the country, where there has been inaccessible road structure, and even general physical security also. So those are challenges that are there lack of enough funding and budget for these things are expensive, and we require more capital investment in the same.
AH: How will your change initiative address this?
PK: Our current change initiative is on developing a framework on fiber deployment. So currently, we do not know how much fiber as such is spread out and where exactly it is. The Government of Kenya has a commitment on the government's digital transformation agenda to roll out 100,000 kilometer of fiber, so the communications authority as the regulator, we are charged with providing an enabling environment for the country for ICT, and we are planning to do 2,500 kilometers. So this change initiative will help us, first of all come out with a framework, how will fiber be deployed, we do a mapping where exactly do we want this fiber to be placed out, we also need to do a cost modeling pricing so that it can be affordable, but it can encourage our operators to roll up the fiber. And in the long run, we expect that it will result in meaningful connectivity where people will be able to use the devices, will be able to have internet will be able to have connectivity at an affordable price. You know, when we talk about access, we're thinking of the availability and also the affordability. At the same time, it needs to be secure, and safe.
AH: How can regulators contribute to the advancement of the ICT sector in Africa?
PK: Regulators have an important part because they begin with policymaking? You know, if you start with the end in mind, what kind of policies do you have to encourage people to take part in the ICT in the digital transformation agenda? So we can come up even with curricula that that encourages digital literacy, that encourages innovation. There is a need to balance the risk of innovation and regulatory control, so that you balance out how much innovation can go on and what's the regulatory control that is required in terms of having safety as you roll out your digital infrastructure. So we have a role as the regulators to seek for collaboration and partnership, and to fulfill the government agenda on digital transformation.
AH: Anything else you want to add?
PK: I just want to appreciate the European Union in this new face of the iPRIS, still the University of Stockholm, Luxembourg, and Sweden for still supporting this agenda for Africa as developing nations. It is a good opportunity, and I know in the long run when we'll measure the impact, there will be digital transformation in the whole world, even in Africa and in Kenya. Thank you so much.
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