Africa: The Challenge of Rural Telephony

A recent report by the think tank Panos has warned that the growth of mobile phones has been concentrated in urban areas and is creating a widening communication gap between rural and urban communities. The report argues that Universal Access must not slip off government agendas and that service provision must not be left to the market alone, which perceives there to be little profit in spreading the networks to thinly populated rural areas. As one example, the report cites the situation in Malawi in which the teledensity is one in 200 on average for the whole country, but taking out the four major towns, this figure rises to one in 1,250. Other countries covered by the report are Uganda, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Zambia.