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RIVER PUBLISHERS SERIES IN COMMUNICATIONS

Tittle - The African Mobile Story

copyright

Contents

Preface

Introduction

List of Figures

List of Tables

1 Some Policy Considerations in the Light of Mobile Broadband Development in Africa

1.1 Introduction

1.2 More Wireless Broadband Connections than Fixed

1.3 Mobile Broadband Generally Cheaper than Fixed

1.4 Mobile is faster than Fixed Broadband

1.5 Arising Policy Concerns

1.5.1 International Bandwidth, National Backbone and Backhaul Networks

1.5.2 Access Network

1.5.3 Broadband Pricing and Affordability

1.5.4 Quality of Service

1.5.5 Public Private Interplay and Regulatory Interface

1.6 Conclusion

2 The Impact of Liberalization on the Mobile Telephony Market in Africa: the Cases of Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Market Reforms

2.2.1 Short Overview of Market Reforms in Africa

2.2.2 Privatization

2.2.3 Liberalization

2.2.3.1 Pre–Liberalization Level of Mobile Penetrationin Africa

2.2.3.2 Post- Liberalization Level of Mobile Penetration in Africa

2.3 Case Studies

2.3.1 Pre-Regulator Mobile Market in Ghana

2.3.2 Post - Regulator Mobile Market in Ghana

2.3.3 The Ghanaian Mobile Telephony Market Today

2.3.4 Conclusion

2.4 Conclusion

3 Telecommunications in Africa – Regulation, Technologies, and Markets

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Telecommunications Regulatory Trends

3.3 Telecommunications Technology Deployment

3.4 Market Trends

3.5 Summary

4 The Prepaid Mobile Market in Africa

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Advantage and Disadvantages of Prepaid

4.3 Mobile Financials: Africa vs. the Rest ofWorld

4.4 Challenges for the Prepaid Market

4.5 Marketing and Product Development of Prepaid

4.6 Similarities between Europe and Africa

4.7 Competition, Consolidation, and Cooperation

4.8 The Case for Consolidation

4.9 Why not have the Government Provide Mobile Communications?

4.10 Carrier’s Carrier Model

4.11 Investment and Corporate Structure

4.12 Innovation, Devices and the Prepaid Market

4.13 Solutions

4.13.1 Ways for an Operator to Improve the Prepaid Business Case

4.13.2 How to Address the Multi SIMWorld

4.14 Conclusion

4.15 Appendix

5 Mobile Devices Vulnerabilities: Challenges to Mobile Development in Africa

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Mobile Devices and Vulnerabilities

5.3 Applications Vulnerabilities

5.4 Twitter Security

5.5 The Facebook Security

5.6 Security in Mobile Social Media

5.6.1 Mobile Malware

5.6.2 iOS Vulnerabilities

5.7 Possible Solutions

5.8 Conclusion

6 Achieving Scale and Sustainability in M-health Solutions for HIV/AIDS in Africa

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Scaling Up and Sustainability of Health Promotion Programs

6.3 Methodology

6.3.1 Materials

6.4 HIV/AIDS in Africa

6.5 Mobile Phones and M-health in HIV/AIDS Programs in Africa

6.6 Challenges for Scale and Sustainability

6.6.1 Individual Level Barriers

6.6.2 Organisation/Institutional Controls

6.6.3 Community Action

6.6.4 Financial/Technological Constraints

6.7 Suggestions for Achieving Scale and Sustainability In M-Health Solutions for HIV/AIDS in Africa

6.7.1 Individual Level

6.7.2 Organisational/Institutional level

6.7.3 Community Action

6.7.4 Financial/Technological Resources

6.8 Conclusion: Future Directions for Research

7 Mobile ICT and Education Delivery

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Brief Overview of M-Learning in Africa

7.3 The Emergence of Mobile Learning

7.4 Mobile Learning Projects and Initiatives in Ghana

7.4.1 IREAD Ghana Project

7.4.2 The CUC M-Learning Initiative

7.4.3 UGBS MOBILE – A Library Powered by Mobile Devices

7.4.4 Danish IT Ghana LITE Model Project

7.4.5 Ghana Teacher-Mate Trials

7.4.6 Ghana Reads

7.5 Potentials

7.6 Challenges

7.7 Conclusion

8 Dissemination of Climatic Information and Market Driven Extension Services to Smallholder Farmers in Africa Using Mobile Technology:The Case of Esoko Ghana Commodity Index

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Approaches to Extension Service and Agricultural Information Dissemination in Ghana

8.3 The Growth of Mobile Technology and Value Added Mobile Services in Ghana

8.3.1 The Innovative Features of the Esoko Ghana Commodity Index (EGCI)

8.4 Market Price Reporting and Distribution

8.5 Bulk SMS Push

8.6 Automated SMS Alerts

8.7 Field Polling and Data Gathering

8.8 Bids & Offers

8.9 Prices Mapping Services

8.10 Impacts of the Esoko Agricultural Commodity Index

8.11 Challenges of the Esoko Agricultural Commodity Index

8.12 Conclusion

9 Harnessing ICT for Local Government Administration in Africa: A Look at the Push-ICT Theory Approach in Nigeria

9.1 Introduction

9.2 ICT for Administration

9.3 ICT for Administration in Local Government in Nigeria so far/ Initiatives

9.4 The Push-Theory Approach

9.5 Push-ICT Theory and the Local Government

9.6 Conclusion

10 Using Mobile Phones for Environmental Protection in Africa:The Equatorial Africa Deposition Network Case Study

10.1 Introduction

10.2 The African Great Lakes

10.2.1 Lake Victoria

10.2.2 Lake Tanganyika

10.2.3 Lake Malawi

10.3 Equatorial Africa Deposition Network (EADN)

10.3.1 Biomass Burning In Agriculture and Energy Production

10.4 EADN General Description

10.5 Institutional Framework

10.6 Mobile for Development

10.6.1 mEF Definition

10.6.2 Operational Layer

10.6.3 Educational Layer

10.6.4 Monitoring Layer

10.7 Recommendations and Conclusion

cknowledgement

11 Sustainable Energy Generation for ICT Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

11.1 Introduction - Telecom and ICT Growthin Sub – Saharan Africa

11.2 Telecom Architecture being used in DevelopingCountries (2G/3G Architecture)

11.3 Energy Consumption of Telecom Base Station

11.4 Overview of Solar Photovoltaic TechnologyRenewable Energy

11.4.1 Solar Photovoltaic Applications

11.4.2 Considerations for Photovoltaic Applications

11.4.3 Challenges and Advantages Solar Photovoltaic Technology

11.4.4 Solar Photovoltaic as Reliable Alternative Powerfor Telecom System

11.4.5 Solution Design Considerations for Africa (Ghana)

11.5 Case study: Solar Simulation & Results for TelecomBase Transceiver Station

11.6 Conclusions: Future of Solar Photovoltaic Technology for Telecom

Acknowledgement

12 The Role of Mobile Telephony to the Deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems in Africa

12.1 Introduction

12.1.1 Preamble

12.1.2 Chapter Objectives

12.1.3 ITS Defined and Explained

12.2 Status of the Transportation Sectors in Africa Pre-Its Development

12.2.1 General Status of the Transportation Sectors in African Countries

12.2.2 Status of the Transportation Sector in Ghana

12.3 The Current Prominence of ITS Development in Africa

12.3.1 Status of ITS Development in Ghana

12.4 Guidepost to Efficient Development of ITS in Africa

12.4.1 General Guideposts

12.4.2 How ITS can be Efficiently Developed in Ghana

12.5 Conclusions

Bibliography

Acronyms

Index

About the Editor

About the Authors