Africa ICT

The government of Gabon has made of the use of IT a priority within its development strategy. Indeed, the Digital Gabon plan aims at creating a digital economy, in order to diversify Gabon’s economic activities away from the traditional exploitation of natural resources.

Despite promising announcements, a number of delays have kept Gabon’s citizens from benefitting from 3G services. Consequently, government mobile services do not exist yet and private mobile services remain very limited, though Airtel has begun initial attempts to introduce mobile payment solutions.

The Ministry of Digital Economy, Communication and Postal Services is responsible for designing Gabon’s strategy for the transition from analogue broadcasting to digital broadcasting, in order to meet the deadline fixed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). UHF analogue TV must be abandoned by 2015, whereas VHF analogue TV (generally...

The launch of Egypt’s first mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) should add new competition to the telecoms market and is likely spur further changes in the sector. Winning the licence could provide new impetus for legacy operator Telecom Egypt (TE), which is expected to be the lead bidder, while encouraging greater sharing of capital-intensive...

Fast-growing, intensely competitive, open to international investment and dominated by the private sector, Egypt’s telecoms industry is one of the country’s great success stories. While mobile penetration is high, a growing population and a larger range of devices and pricing plans mean that subscriptions continue to rise. Competition is driving...

With a large and fast-growing domestic market and a strong export-oriented sector, Egypt’s IT industry is going places. Internet penetration and computer ownership are rising rapidly, as content proliferates and hardware becomes more accessible. With its talent pool, key location, infrastructure and cost advantages, the country is also one of the...