Broadband Technology and Development in Africa: How Critical is Access?

Deployment of broadband technology has become the new buzz phrase in the discourse on the impact of information and communication technologies on development. While developing and developed countries alike are singing the praises of broadband technology, they must refrain from assuming that broadband is broadband and therefore one size fits all. The reality is that there exist contextual and ecological factors within developing contexts that must inform the choice, type and timing of deployment of broadband technologies. For Africa, these factors include both infrastructural and human limitations. The prevalence of mobile technologies and their usage in Africa necessitates more focus on mobile broadband rather than on the fixed broadband upon which most African countries are evidently fixated. The paper presents an analysis of these issues against the backdrop of the current status of broadband deployment in Africa, with particular interest in South Africa and Nigeria.