By Dr. Abiodun Jagun
The Case for “Open Access” Communications Infrastructure
The SAT-3/WASC cable
The possession and control of information offers (at various levels) considerable strategic advantages. This ranges from information that is necessary for survival, and which facilitates the attainment of basic needs and freedoms;1 to more complex combinations of information that can become independent sources of productivity and power (van Dijk 2005). Information has also been described as a source of competitiveness - with respect to the business world the availability of information is said to change the structure of industries and thereby alter the rules of competition. Information bestows, on those that have access to it, new ways of outperforming their rivals; and it can also 39
create new business opportunities, even within existing business operations (Porter and Millar 1985). Could the ‘competitive advantages’ that emanate from having access and the capacity to use information be applicable to non-business entities of varying geographic scope – and especially to nation states? Popular opinion, amongst policy and decision-makers, asserts that affordable and accessible information can help nations to improve their global standing by lowering the cost of economic and social activities. It can also enhance their ability to differentiate themselves in the global marketplace by increasing the scope and range of activities. As a
in Africa:
result, many developing countries have invested extensively in infrastructure and advanced technologies.3 If indeed nations are like “…big corporation(s) competing in the global marketplace” (Clinton cited in Krugman 1994:29), it comes as no surprise that in an information-driven world the extent to which a country is ‘networked’ or ‘connected’ to the rest of the world is defined as critical to its development. Using comparative levels of communication infrastructure as indicators of levels of “connectedness” (see Table 1 and Figure 1), the scale of the infrastructural gap in sub-Saharan Africa and implications for the competitiveness of this region of the world are easily identified.