Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub-Saharan Africa : A Spatial Econometric Analysis of Cell Phone Coverage
No hay miniatura disponible
Fecha
Título de la revista
ISSN de la revista
Título del volumen
Editor
World Bank, Washington, DC
Resumen
Descripción
Most discussions of the digital divide
treat it as a "North-South" issue, but the
conventional dichotomy doesn't apply to cell phones in
Sub-Saharan Africa. Although almost all Sub-Saharan
countries are poor by international standards, they exhibit
great disparities in coverage by cell telephone systems.
Buys, Dasgupta, Thomas and Wheeler investigate the
determinants of these disparities with a
spatially-disaggregated model that employs locational
information for cell-phone towers across over 990,000 4.6-km
grid squares in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using probit
techniques, a probability model with adjustments for spatial
autocorrelation has been estimated that relates the
likelihood of cell-tower location within a grid square to
potential market size (proximate population); installation
and maintenance cost factors related to accessibility
(elevation, slope, distance from a main road, distance from
the nearest large city); and national competition policy.
Probit estimates indicate strong, significant results for
the supply-demand variables, and very strong results for the
competition policy index. Simulations based on the
econometric results suggest that a generalized improvement
in competition policy to a level that currently
characterizes the best-performing states in Sub-Saharan
Africa could lead to huge improvements in cell-phone area
coverage for many states currently with poor policy
performance, and an overall coverage increase of nearly 100 percent.
Palabras clave
AREA, ATTRIBUTES, BACKBONE, BASIC, BEST PRACTICES, BLUE, BUSINESS MODELS, BUSINESSES, CELL PHONE, CELL PHONES, CELL-PHONE, CELLPHONE, CENTER, CENTRE, CITY POPULATION, CLUSTER ANALYSIS, COMMERCE, COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES, COMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE, COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES, COMMUNITIES, COMPETITION POLICY, COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT, COMPETITIVENESS, COMPUTER MEMORY, CONNECTIVITY, DATA ANALYSIS, DATA SOURCES, DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, DIGITAL, DIGITAL DIVIDE, E-DEVELOPMENT, E-MAIL, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, ECONOMIC GROWTH, EFFECTIVE POLICIES, ELECTRONIC MARKETS, EXTRAPOLATION, GEOGRAPHIC FACTORS, GIS, GLOBAL COVERAGE, GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT, ICT, INDUSTRIAL ECONOMICS, INFORMATICS, INFORMATION NETWORK, INFORMATION SOCIETY, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, INSPECTION, INSTALLATION, INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS, LICENSE, LOCAL GOVERNMENTS, LOCAL POPULATION, MAINTENANCE COST, MAINTENANCE COSTS, MANDATES, MARKET DEMAND, MATERIAL, MOBILE COMMERCE, MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS, MOBILE PHONES, NETWORK SERVICES, NETWORK TECHNOLOGY, NETWORKS, OPERATING SYSTEM, OVERLAY, PDF, PENETRATION RATES, PHONE SHOPS, POLICY IMPLICATIONS, POLICY RESEARCH, POLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPER, PRIVATE SECTOR, PROGRAMS, PROGRESS, PUBLIC ACCESS, PUBLIC POLICY, PUBLISHING, RADIO, RADIO SPECTRUM, REGIONAL ORGANIZATIONS, REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT, REGULATORY FRAMEWORK, REGULATORY REFORM, RESULTS, RURAL ACCESS, RURAL AREAS, RURAL CONNECTIVITY, RURAL POPULATIONS, RURAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS, RURAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS DEVELOPMENT, RURAL TELEPHONY, SCARCE RESOURCES, SEA LEVEL, SERVICE QUALITY, SIMULATION, SIMULATION METHODS, SITES, SLOPE, SPATIAL AUTOCORRELATION, SPATIAL POPULATION DISTRIBUTION, SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA, TELECOM, TELECOMMUNICATION, TELECOMMUNICATION REFORM, TELECOMMUNICATION SECTOR, TELECOMMUNICATIONS, TELECOMMUNICATIONS DEVELOPMENT, TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY, TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICY, TELECOMMUNICATIONS REFORM, TELECOMMUNICATIONS REGULATION, TELECOMS, TELEPHONE, TELEPHONE CONNECTIVITY, TELEPHONE SYSTEMS, TELEPHONY, THE GAMBIA, TRANSMISSION, UNIVERSAL ACCESS, UNIVERSAL SERVICE, UNIVERSAL SERVICE FUNDS, URBAN DEVELOPMENT, USES, WEB, WIRELESS, WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS