SWC-renewable energy (green ICT) for mobile communications: Policy issues for Africa

Since mobile telephony is becoming ubiquitous, many African countries wish to use mobile telephony and ICT for their economic development. According to International Telecommunication Union (ITU) global mobile statistical report, it is estimated that there are about 5.3 billion mobile subscribers and about 940 million mobile broadband subscribers worldwide (Teltscher, 2010). Out of this figure, 3.8 billion are mobile subscribers coming from the developing countries. The mobile phone penetration in Africa stands at 400 million subscribers as at the end of 2008. From 2009, more and more people who never had access to landline continue to be connected and Africa has now been identified as the fastest growing mobile industry in the world (International Telecommunication Union, 2008), (ITU, 2010). The Africans feel that the mobile phone is good and have positive attributes to their lives. The mobile companies initially were targeting urban and semi urban dwellers for their market; however, the rural communities that are marginalized are overwhelmingly taking advantage of the opportunities to maximize the benefits of the technology. Despite this improvement, Africa still remains the least in terms of mobile telephony use in the world. This is due primarily to the poor telecommunication infrastructures, inadequate planning policies, lack of coordination and linkage with reliable energy supply. Since renewable sources are abundant in Africa, they could offer reliable source of energy supply for the mobile telecommunication operators. Therefore Policy and Regulatory reforms are very necessary in order to open up mobile communication and ICT industry in African countries. By this, much savings can be derived on cost of operation and maintenance. Good policy on the use of renewable energy in the mobile sector will yield environmental gains where the mobile network's carbon foot print could be kept at base while the network expands. This paper therefore examines renewable energy as an alternative source of energy for the mobile industry. The study is based on ITU recommendation.TDAG-4/7-E (International Telecommunication Union, 2000), International research and studies on policy options which will guide the industry.