those ministers and those decision
makers in emerging markets to
think of things differently, so they
can think about different tools – the
TV white spaces, satellite, the
cheaper versions of 2G technologies,
wifi. So I’m pushing all these
technologies right now on my
continent of Africa, as well as
different emerging markets, because
without these this digital divide has
absolutely no chance of improving.
Do emerging countries need help
from outside?
Yes and no. Obviously the develop-
ment of the country is ultimately an
issue for the country concerned.
But the communications industry is
an incredibly global industry which
requires economies of scale in
terms of devices and other things to
make it work, so no country can be
an island. No country can totally go
it alone. And there’s not only the
digital switchover project
happening – in emerging markets,
a whole range of other projects
should be considered in concert.
You also need to think about
affordability and accessibility as
you do all these projects. Reach
without affordability is completely
futile. Don’t bother to roll out all
this fantastic 4G to my grandmum
in my village, when it’s going to be
costing her $30 to $50 a month. And
at the same time affordability
without reach is also equally
useless. If it’s affordable, but you’ve
only allowed it to go to the urban
areas and not the rural areas as
well, then what’s the point.
For me, broadband is the
absolute oxygen of the digital
economy. For the continents of
Africa and Asia and other
developing countries, we need to
get connectivity right, we need to
get our spectrum policy right and
we need to get our digital
switchover projects right. There’s a
lot of things we need to get right.
It’s not only about digital
switchover – that’s only one of the
projects. Asia needs to think about
all of this in the round, Africa needs
to think about all of this in the
round, before we even have a
chance connecting the next four
billion people.
The UN calls digital connectivity a
basic right.
I’m a big fan of the UN. The UN
has talked about the Millennium
Development Goals. And I wish
them all the luck in the world. I
think some of them will be
achieved. Some of them we have no
chance of achieving in some of the
countries any time soon. But I think
it’s important we have those
milestones, if nothing else, because
it helps keep some of the politicians
who run these countries honest. But
if you look at those four main
development goals, a lot of them
will not be achieved any time soon
on the continent of Africa. One of
THE CHANNEL
|
IN CONVERSATION
TV and for TV white spaces. We
want to release some of those
valuable frequencies for mobile
broadband. Why? Because most of
these countries are going to be
wireless, not fixed. Take my home
country, Cameroon – nobody is
going to be cabling to all the homes
of Cameroon any time soon, I can
promise you that.
4G on its own is not going to do
the trick. In my country, if 4G gets
to more than 30% of the population
then they’ve done well. The
economics of 4G doesn’t allow you
to go beyond that. Look at the
economics of mobile today: it is an
empirical fact that mobile operators
get 50% of their revenues in 10% of
their sites, which are around the
cities. And the last 50% of their sites
only give them 10% of their
revenues. So guess what? 70% of
the emerging markets tend to live
in the rural areas, so that tells you
that those guys are not going to be
getting broadband any time soon
unless you do things differently.
What does the Dynamic Spectrum
Alliance do?
The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance is
a group of companies from around
the world who are trying to close
the digital divide. There’s roughly
four billion people who aren’t
connected, in terms of broadband.
And you can count most Africans
in that number, a big majority of
Indians, hundreds of millions of
Chinese, and also count a lot of
countries in Latin America in that
number as well.
Those numbers are not going to
be connected using fixed lines, like
we do in the United Kingdom. We
do not have this in most emerging
market countries, including Africa,
where fixed is almost nonexistent. I
go around with the Dynamic
Spectrum Alliance advocating
across emerging markets about
why they need to change their
spectrum policy and why they need
to think clearly and openly about
what they’re going to do for those
70% of people in rural areas where
4G is not going to reach. It’s a very
significant piece of advocacy to get
”
Reach
without
afford-
ability is
completely
futile
“
16
|
ISSUE 2 2014
|
THE CHANNEL
