Hands off mobile, GSMA body warns

Government officials and policy makers in Africa should resist the temptation to levy the mobile industry because it limits growth on the continent, an industry body has said. “Our objective is to see that those who need the access the most are connected,” Paul Lyons GSMA director for spectrum policy in Africa and the Middle East told News24.

The GSMA represents mobile operators worldwide and recently announced that mobile penetration in Africa is at 65%, making it the world’s second largest mobile market after Asia. Telecommunications firms face regulatory hurdles worldwide and Lyons conceded that the problem was not unique to the continent. “That’s a problem that the telecommunications industry faces globally. It’s not unique to Africa or the Middle East. A lot of my work focuses on raising this issue.

Lyons said sooner or later, populations would have to hold their governments accountable for the decisions made on mobile connections. “I think when we can put in terms that the finance ministers and policy makers really cannot argue with, I think at some point they have to answer to their fellow policy makers and to their own people.”

http://www.news24.com/SciTech/News/Hands-off-mobile-GSMA-body-warns-20111114