An in-depth study of the ICT ecosystem in a South African rural community: unveiling expenditure and communication patterns

There is no doubt of the contributions made by mobile phones and mobile network operators in increasing access to communications in rural areas of developing countries. Yet how affordable is this ubiquitous access in such an ICT ecosystem? Using data from two stratified random surveys conducted in a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Information technology for development 2016-08, Vol.22 (sup1), p.101-120
Main Authors: Rey-Moreno, Carlos, Blignaut, Renette, Tucker, William D., May, Julian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cell phones
Ecosystems
expenditure patterns
Expenditures
Government agencies
ICT ecosystem
Information technology
mobile phone ownership
mobile phone usage
Policies
Rural areas
Rural communities
South Africa
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Summary:There is no doubt of the contributions made by mobile phones and mobile network operators in increasing access to communications in rural areas of developing countries. Yet how affordable is this ubiquitous access in such an ICT ecosystem? Using data from two stratified random surveys conducted in a South African rural community, this paper provides a unique in-depth picture of the expenditure and communication patterns of its dwellers. Results show a high access ratio of people using mobile phone services weekly and a high proportion of disposable income dedicated to a very constrained set of mobile phone services. Factors such as mobile phone charging and the extra charges added by airtime resellers contribute to increase the communication costs. This data and its analysis can be used by the following: regulators and government agencies to better design their policy implementations to provide universal service and access; competing industry players to understand the dynamics within rural communities to better target their products; civil society organizations to use it as a case in their efforts to make affordable communications a constitutional right.
ISSN:0268-1102
1554-0170
DOI:10.1080/02681102.2016.1155145