Internet going mobile: internet access and use in 11 African countries

The purpose of this paper is to analyse internet access and use trends in 11 African countries based on household and individual ICT survey data.

The study uses nationally representative data for households and individuals in residential and semi-residential areas, as defined by national census sample frames for 11 African countries.

While the 2007/2008 African ICT access and use survey demonstrated alarmingly little access to the internet on the continent, together with a large-scale absence of computers and smart phones, compounded by the high cost of connectivity, the mobile phone is now the key entry point for internet use. Internet access has increased significantly across all countries, as a result increasing internet penetration to 15.5 per cent across the 11 African countries surveyed by Research ICT Africa in 2011/2012. Mobile internet requires fewer ICT skills, less financial resources and does not rely on electricity at home, compared to computers or laptops. Other findings highlight the unevenness of internet take-up across and within countries. Thus, while the majority of the countries under investigation demonstrate increased mobile internet take-up, in Rwanda, Tanzania and Ethiopia, internet use remains negligible. In those countries where mobile internet is boosting connectivity, this is being driven by social networking applications.

The policy implications of the shift in significant numbers from negligible internet access at public access points serviced primarily by fixed access lines to mobile internet access are significant. Just as traditional reform strategies of increasing competition in the market increased access to voice services more successfully than traditional universal service strategies, mobile again appears to be addressing the internet gap. Competition in mobile markets appears to address the efficiency gap in the market, resulting in an increase in the choice of services and a reduction in prices. Strategies that seek to aggregate users at public access points, funded by complex levies and subsidies again seem to have been overtaken by the increasing availability of mobile internet access, as feature phones and smart phone become more available to individual users.

Understanding prepaid mobile internet further provides a pro-poor dimension to public policies seeking to improve internet access, which historically has been available and affordable to the elite. The rest of the society had to rely on public access points, whether private internet cafés or schools and libraries.

This paper uses primary data that allow a better understanding of internet access and use in Africa. It provides policymakers and regulators with the evidence required for an informed ICT policy and regulation.