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Convergence & ICT policy Print E-mail
Written by Victor van Reijswoud   
Friday, 22 December 2006
In October 2006, the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) released a new APC Issue Paper: The importance of convergence in the ICT policy environment. The author, Kate Wild, presents an introduction to the importance and challenges of convergence and provides resources for further study. The Issue Paper employs easy to understand language and relevant examples to provide a basic understanding of convergence for policy makers and regulators, and, above all, civil society advocates in Africa.

"...adapting to convergence is a condition for full and effective participation in the global economy and information society."

The message in the paper is clear: adapt to convergence or you'll miss the boat. The definition presented is therefore broad and identifies both a technical and a media side to convergence.

Technical convergence refers to the trend for different technologies to evolve until they overlap in their functions. Multiple products then come together to form one product with the advantages of all of them. Convergence in terms of media refers to the removal of entry barriers across the IT, telecoms, electronic industries, creating one large 'converged' industry.

Wild divided the paper in three parts. The first part of the paper looks at the meaning and the importance of convergence and considers some of the challenges to implementing, along with strategies to overcome these challenges.

The second part provides a global perspective on regulating convergence and broadband from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). It continues to analyze the experiences in North America and Europe as well as regional and country approaches in Africa.

Part three offers a list of some useful information resources. The papers also provides a checklist of convergence issues for regulators and brief chronologies of regulatory reforms in Kenya, South Africa, Mauritius and Tanzania.
 
Convergence is a complex field where technology, policy and regulation in different fields meet. The paper of Wild touches on these complexities, but fails to provide enough ammunition for decision makers to really determine a direction in the maze of complexity. The strategies offered (based on a report on convergence and regulation in West and Central Africa, "Régulation des communications électroniques à l’heure de la convergence : enjeux, état des lieux et perspectives en Afrique de l’Ouest et du Centre" by the Centre sur les politiques internationales des TIC Afrique du Centre en de l'Ouest (CIPACO) are high level and lack tools to make informed decisions. This point is clearly illustrated in Annex 1 where the checklist of issues for regulators vis-a-vis convergence from the infodev/ITU ICT Regulation Toolkit is presented. The questions are raised, but answers are not offered.

In spite of its shortcomings, the paper can be a useful tool to get convergence on the agenda of policy makers and civil society forums in Africa. This is needed in a time where many African countries and regions are in the process of formulating or revising their ICT policies. However, the promise made in the outline, that it will provide strategies for overcoming the challenges for implementing convergence, remains unmet. More in-depth information is needed for informed decision making.

PDF Download the PDF directly from APC's website 

See the WDR 2002 final report Designing Next Generation Telecom Reform: ICT Convergence or Multisector Utility?