An Examination of Factors Relating to Telecommunications Development in Africa.

摘要

The focus of this research was to provide a better understanding of the issues facing African telecommunications regulators and policy makers. The problem addressed in this study was the relationship between development in the telecommunications industry in Africa and the factors of technology, investments, size of services areas, deregulation, and competition. The purpose of this nonexperimental quantitative study was to investigate the criterion variable telecommunications development in Africa (teledensity) using five predictors: type of telecommunications technology, type of investments, deregulation decisions, size of the service areas, and competition. A web-based survey was found objectively appropriate for the data collection. Participants were randomly selected from group of telecommunications professionals currently employed in South Africa, Sudan, Egypt, and Nigeria. Based on a power analysis, the minimum sample size for this study was 200 participants per country for a total of 800. Three hundred and ninety-four participants completed the questionnaire. A multiple linear regression analysis showed that there was no significance difference in telecommunications development in Africa between technology types with F(2, 391) = 117.24, p = 0.068. The difference in telecommunication development between investment types F(2, 391) = 10.461, p = 0.223 and the difference in telecommunications development between deregulation decisions F(2, 391) = 34.538, p = 0.124 were both not significant. There was a significant positive correlation between telecommunications development and size of service areas with r(394) = .2618, p <.001. There was also a significant positive correlation between telecommunications development and number of competitors r(394) = .3546, p < .001. Wireless technology is found to be a major factor in the expansion of the telecommunication infrastructure in rural areas in Africa; hence, focusing on this technology will dramatically reduce the digital divide and improve socioeconomic development in Africa. Foreign long-term investment was found to be important in building Africa's poorly engineered infrastructure; thus, it is recommended that Africans should address impediments that face foreign investors with a long-term strategic planning manner in order to benefit from the new technologies. Further qualitative research is recommended to include different countries from different parts of Africa.