Book contents
- Front Matter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part ITechnology diffusion: The spread of mobile calling and internet
- Prologue (1986–2004)
- 1Mobile voice calling booms (1993–2004)
- 2Bandwidth as the digital economy’s fuel: Getting sub-Saharan Africa connected (1991–2015)
- 3Cheaper mobile internet and low-cost smartphones come together with apps sub-Saharan Africans want to use (2005–18)
- Part IITechnology influences: Uses, behaviours and abuses
- Part IIITaking the long view: Start-up innovation and complex behaviour change
- Appendix A: Glossary
- Appendix B: List of those interviewed
- Select bibliography
- Index
Prologue (1986–2004)
from Part I - Technology diffusion: The spread of mobile calling and internet
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 May 2026
Book contents
- Front Matter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part ITechnology diffusion: The spread of mobile calling and internet
- Prologue (1986–2004)
- 1Mobile voice calling booms (1993–2004)
- 2Bandwidth as the digital economy’s fuel: Getting sub-Saharan Africa connected (1991–2015)
- 3Cheaper mobile internet and low-cost smartphones come together with apps sub-Saharan Africans want to use (2005–18)
- Part IITechnology influences: Uses, behaviours and abuses
- Part IIITaking the long view: Start-up innovation and complex behaviour change
- Appendix A: Glossary
- Appendix B: List of those interviewed
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
This opening section looks at Africa’s first mobile phone operation in Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo). In 1986 the company launching the service – Telecel – was far ahead of its time. The business was very much cast in the ‘old Africa’ mould, it relied on political patronage and became heavily dependent on politicians’ goodwill to keep operating. Its business model was one of selling scarcity expensively to elite customers. The section outlines the considerable difficulties that businesses operated under before telecommunications was more formally regulated.
Information
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- Chapter
- Information
- Africa 2.0Inside a continent’s communications revolution, pp. 15 - 18Publisher: Manchester University PressFirst published in: 2026
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