Mobile Phones and the
regulatory environment
Russell Southwood
Balancing Act
http://www.balancingact-africa.com
http://www.afridigital.net

How it all started
!The strange case of the radical
magazine

Mobile phones as media
North Africa: Most used info sources (%) - daily
Country TV Radio Internet Newspapers SMS
Algeria 71.8 24.7 9 35.5 6.9
Egypt 76.2 31 5 12.7 0.8
Morocco 85 36.8 14.8 12.3 3.3
Tunisia 81 39 2 7 3
Source: African Broadcast and Film Markets

Attitude of Africa!s mobile players
! Interested in Mobile Active ideas- Volume
discounts and CSR brownie points
! Voice as the focus of the business - content
harder to understand (Data as 10% of
revenues?)
! Current content: “Translated” ideas and some
local successes
! We own the subscribers so we need to control
their experience

Media - regulatory fault lines
!Access to market
!Access for ideas
!Ownership and control

Access to market
! Walled gardens vs Open Access
! Proprietary platforms vs open platforms.
Different platforms for different operators?
! Cost of entry?
! M-Pesa example

Access for ideas
! Unpopular or dangerous ideas - Safaricom
and Kenya post-election
! Freedom of expression - who defends or
enforces?
! Link to other media - response mechanisms
and public service slots
! Concessionary pricing for messages of this
type

Ownership and control
!Process of dealing with mobile operators
- platform operators
!Kenya vs South Africa vs Other African
countries
!Distributors or vertically integrated
content operators (TV or mobile
companies?)

The next frontier: Mobile Internet?
!Nigeria: One carrier 800,000 high-end
phones. 20,000 Blackberries
!Kenya: 3 million GPRS/EDGE phones
!All the same issues?