The Best comes from the West?

The best comes from the west so they claim. I am proud to be Ghanaian and West African but I find it difficult to accept the fact that East Africa keeps growing in terms of technology infrastructure whilst we wallow at a dial up pace. Aside the fact that East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, etc.) is rapidly increasing infrastructure, they are also directing a lot global attention to their region .With the presence of good reliable technology infrastructure, you can only expect one thing; Innovation and socio-economic growth. Though people are the lifeblood of the community, people require an enabling environment to strive and innovate for the growth of the societies they live in. Currently we have various groups of people trying to empower people to get creative through Hubs, Incubators BarCamps, Tedx, and other social change communities/forums.

Just before I decided to post this blog, I just read Kenya is now focused on rolling fourth-generation mobile data services network out by 2013, estimated at a cost of $500 million. Fourth Generation 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) networks offer increased speeds compared to 3G, HD video conferencing and are more suited to data services than voice. Phase one, we will go to the counties and leverage off the existing base stations. By the time we have extended coverage nationally, the cost could be up to $500 million. Phase two will involve connecting the country’s mobile phone base stations to fibre optic cable.

Now the questions for our governments, regulatory bodies and service providers here in West Africa are:

What is our focus?

What are our objectives?

What is the plan?  

Are we ever going to get quality and reliable services?

Are we ever going to get nationwide coverage?

Are we ever going to get dynamism in telecommunication infrastructure, where plans and models will be put in place to make us abreast with times?