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Only two African countries feature in ITU’s 5G regulatory framework, and neither are SA

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has revealed its 2020 Global ICT Regulatory Outlook. The report also included the Benchmark of Fifth Generation (5G) Collaborative Regulation, which serves as a framework tool for policymakers and regulators to better create collaboration across different sectors.

The tool piqued out interest as the ITU explained that only 16 countries form a vanguard for said 5G regulatory framework. Naturally we wanted to know if South Africa was one of the 16, all of which now have a, “have holistic, forward-looking regulatory frameworks in place set to enable digital transformation across their economies,” according to the ITU.

Unfortunately South Africa is not among the 16, but two African countries are – Kenya and Morocco.

As for the importance of these kinds of reports and tools, director of the ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau, Doreen Bogdan-Martin, says, “The Global ICT Regulatory Outlook 2020 is as a rich, powerful and practical tool to all of us seeking to build a world of meaningful connectivity through regulation that is open, cross-sector, and above all, collaborative,”

“It lays out clearly the trends, the challenges and the opportunities before the regulatory community in 2020 and continues to set out the decades-long ICT regulation story as our industry develops and responds to major world crises like the 2008 financial crash and COVID-19,” the director adds.

In the case of South Africa it looks like spectrum availability remains the biggest hurdle, which we have known for some. We’ve also seen a handful of local networks outline their desire to get commercial 5G operations up and running this year.

As such things are still moving slowly, but if the ITU’s new 5G regulatory framework shows us anything, it is that the country still has some work to do if it plans to leverage the new broadband standard as a cross-industry collaborative infrastructure.

The entire continent is also looking to make strides as far as broadband connectivity goes, with it having the most ground to make up, but also being the most active, according to the ITU.

“Africa is where regulatory frameworks have evolved most over the past ten years. G3 countries have increased steadily in number from five to 52 in a decade. As of 2018, only two countries remain in the G1 category,” the organisation points out.

“Africa’s score has kept apace with the rise in world averages, and has in fact exceeded averages of the Arab States, Asia-Pacific and CIS. While Kenya shines in the lead group of G5 regulators, four more countries now place in the G4 category: Ghana, Malawi, Uganda, Botswana and Tanzania,” in concludes.

Hopefully it is not too long before South Africa is added to the list of 16.

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