Victor Mbarika ICT Weblog

Telecommunications Stakeholder Perceptions of Teledensity: A Comparison of Stakeholders in the Latin American Region to those in Sub-Saharan Africa

By Mbarika, V., Meso, P. & Musa, P. (Proceedings of the 40th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2007. Manoa: University of Hawaii)

Abstract:
Prior research has identified specific factors that hinder growth of teledensity in developing countries and specific strategies used to overcome such limitations both in Latin America and in Sub Saharan Africa. Prior research has also reported on the perceptions that telecommunications stakeholders have on how various strategies can inform and assist in the enhancement of teledensity in each of the two continental regions. This study investigates similarities and differences in the telecommunication stakeholders’ perspectives of specific strategies used to address teledensity limitations in Latin America as well as in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Africa Calling

By: Victor W.A. Mbarika and Irene Mbarika (Published in IEEE Spectrum, May 2006)

Eyes could kill me each time I walked about the streets with my handset," says Siri Nchise, a 29-year-old customer service representative for an Internet service provider in the African city of Douala, in the Littoral province of Cameroon. In the past five years, she's had three cellphones stolen. She keeps buying new ones, because they are the only practical way to connect to friends, family, and business associates.

Re-thinking Information and Communications Technology Policy Focus on Internet

By Victor W. A. Mbarika

The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries EJISDC (2002), 9, 1, 1-13.

The digital divide between the West and Africa seems to be drawing closer for many northern and southern African countries in terms of information and communications technology. These countries are experiencing tremendous growth in use of computers, Internet connectivity, wireless communications and many other related technologies. However, the same is not true for Africa’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs) that are still greatly behind other regions of the world in terms of the level of basic telecommunications infrastructure such as teledensity (number of main telephone lines for every one hundred inhabitants).