M-Pesa, the mobile payments service launched in Kenya in 2007, has become an African technology success story. It’s estimated that as much as half of Kenya’s GDP flows through the platform and it has expanded to seven other countries on the continent. Importantly, research has shown that it has lifted two per cent of households out of extreme poverty, with a disproportionately positive impact on those headed by women. In his article, Kwame A A Opoku makes the point that the success of M-Pesa owes much to the enabling regulatory environment that Kenya set out to create and that the same approach now is helping Kenya establish a leading role in AI governance. It’s a lesson, he says, for other countries in Africa.
The theme of technology as a socio-economic benefit is taken up by Geusseppe Gonzalez in his article describing the potential of direct-to-device connectivity. As the author memorably says, ‘D2D’s value proposition is not only about coverage; it is also about human progress and resilience, keeping people and systems connected when terrestrial networks fail, are damaged or lacking’. While growing rapidly, the ultimate success of D2D in filling coverage gaps in remote and rural areas will depend on a balanced regulatory framework that is ‘neither laissez-faire nor overly prescriptive’.
Our Q&A is with David Abecassis of Analysys Mason. In his shrewd observations about the regulatory challenges in Europe he makes the excellent point that no amount of legislation can substitute for further European integration.
The success of fibre deployment in France is widely recognised. In their article, Benoît Felten, Vincent Roger-Machart and Tony Shortall set out the regulatory approach that has led to nearly 90 per cent FTTH coverage and one of the highest adoption rates in Europe. At a time when the EU’s Digital Networks Act is under vigorous discussion, France’s experience provides a useful and important model.
Finally, a shout-out for our partners at the Global Media and Internet Concentration Project. For many years now Professor Dwayne Winseck and his team have been making heroic efforts to assemble one of the world’s most comprehensive datasets on global communications markets and it is now accessible via a new interactive dashboard. It’s an invaluable new tool for policymakers and the team is running webinars to explain how to get the most from it. Details are in Professor Winseck’s article in this issue.
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