The Effect of the International Telecommunication Sector on the Formulation of National Telecommunication Policy in Africa: Cases of Ghana, South Africa and Zambia

Mobile cellular telephony revolutionized telecommunications in developed and developing countries and experienced phenomenal growth at a time when it was accepted that telecommunications was essential for development. In country after country the number of mobile cellular subscribers quickly surpassed the number of fixed lines that were available. Mobile cellular seemed ideal for providing universal service in developing countries. Yet many governments in those countries chose the fixed line as the means to provide universal service even as it continued to be rolled out slowly. This study examines why governments in Ghana, South Africa and Zambia did not formulate telecommunication policies that gave mobile cellular equal status to the fixed line with similar rights and responsibilities up to 2005. Equal status would have enabled mobile cellular telephony to play a primary role in the achievement of universal service. The study focuses on how the treatment of mobile cellular telephony as a complementary network and service in the international telecommunication sector became a valued group standard that consequently influenced policymaking in the domestic telecommunication sector. In this study, I used process tracing to examine the policymaking process in the telecommunications sector in order to establish how the interaction of the national and international levels of the telecom sector influences the formulation of telecom policy in the countries studied. The findings are that whilst international influences on the government's policy cannot be ruled out, there were also domestic reasons that influenced the government's policymaking. Governments in developing countries are still in pursuit of universal service but it is clear that mobile cellular telephony is the primary means to provide basic telecommunications. As lower income subscribers join the mobile cellular network the price of the service is burdensome thereby reducing the service's ability to be a means for empowerment. It is now up to governments to devise ways by which mobile cellular service could be made more affordable to lower income consumers.