In my last post I wrote about the development of broadband infrastructure in Sweden. The same day, I also listened to a government representative from Rwanda, which is not necessarily the country you usually associate with Information Technology (ICT). Although it is definitely still on the bad side of the digital divide, it might also hold some opportunities for substantial ICT-related opportunities in the long run.
Indeed, the almost absent penetration of ICT in sub-Saharan Africa can be an interesting test-bed market for large corporations, like Nokia, Microsoft and Ericsson, who have been operating there for several years and are able to respond to an actual local need through adapted products, support and business models: the Return On Investment (ROI) is of course bound to be very different from what to be expected in a "traditional" OECD environment.
As Ericsson wrote in their 2003 annual report, [o]perators in emerging markets make very different
demands from those in developed markets, so in order to reach the second billion mobile users, companies must look towards emerging markets and adapt their operating conditions, marketing strategy and overall vision radically to meet those markets' needs and capabilities.
On the backbone infrastructure side, there are existing coastline connections from western and north Africa (Sat-3 / SAFE WASC and SEA ME WE-3). For the most part, Eastern Africa is today absent of the major Internet backbone and is the missing link towards connecting the whole Africa to the world. Even with that solved, the major challenge of landline distribution would still remain - and even accentuated by the scattered and rural living of the vast majority of the people. Out there, WiMAX (broadband, long-distance wireless connection) could do wonder: 250 WiMAX base stations would be enough to cover all Rwanda.
Considering the political and economic conditions in this region, ICT cannot be viewed as having the same direct impact on the short term as it has in industrialized countries. However, it does contribute indirectly to the benefit of everyone through a long-time spill-over effect - for instance as being re-injected to poorer areas through governmental policies and international aid (Sweden is very active in this field, thanks to the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, which has among other things funded broadband infrastructure projects in Tanzania, Mozambique and Rwanda).
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