Buys, PietDasgupta, SusmitaThomas, TimWheeler, David2012-05-252012-05-252008-02https://hdl.handle.net/10986/6436Most discussions of the digital divide treat it as a "North-South" issue, but the conventional dichotomy doesn't apply to cell phones in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although almost all Sub-Saharan countries are poor by international standards, they exhibit great disparities in coverage by cell telephone systems. Buys, Dasgupta, Thomas and Wheeler investigate the determinants of these disparities with a spatially-disaggregated model that employs locational information for cell-phone towers across over 990,000 4.6-km grid squares in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using probit techniques, a probability model with adjustments for spatial autocorrelation has been estimated that relates the likelihood of cell-tower location within a grid square to potential market size (proximate population); installation and maintenance cost factors related to accessibility (elevation, slope, distance from a main road, distance from the nearest large city); and national competition policy. Probit estimates indicate strong, significant results for the supply-demand variables, and very strong results for the competition policy index. Simulations based on the econometric results suggest that a generalized improvement in competition policy to a level that currently characterizes the best-performing states in Sub-Saharan Africa could lead to huge improvements in cell-phone area coverage for many states currently with poor policy performance, and an overall coverage increase of nearly 100 percent.CC BY 3.0 IGOAREAATTRIBUTESBACKBONEBASICBEST PRACTICESBLUEBUSINESS MODELSBUSINESSESCELL PHONECELL PHONESCELL-PHONECELLPHONECENTERCENTRECITY POPULATIONCLUSTER ANALYSISCOMMERCECOMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIESCOMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURECOMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIESCOMMUNITIESCOMPETITION POLICYCOMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENTCOMPETITIVENESSCOMPUTER MEMORYCONNECTIVITYDATA ANALYSISDATA SOURCESDEVELOPING COUNTRIESDIGITALDIGITAL DIVIDEE-DEVELOPMENTE-MAILECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTECONOMIC GROWTHEFFECTIVE POLICIESELECTRONIC MARKETSEXTRAPOLATIONGEOGRAPHIC FACTORSGISGLOBAL COVERAGEGLOBAL DEVELOPMENTICTINDUSTRIAL ECONOMICSINFORMATICSINFORMATION NETWORKINFORMATION SOCIETYINFORMATION TECHNOLOGYINSPECTIONINSTALLATIONINTERNATIONAL STANDARDSLICENSELOCAL GOVERNMENTSLOCAL POPULATIONMAINTENANCE COSTMAINTENANCE COSTSMANDATESMARKET DEMANDMATERIALMOBILE COMMERCEMOBILE COMMUNICATIONSMOBILE PHONESNETWORK SERVICESNETWORK TECHNOLOGYNETWORKSOPERATING SYSTEMOVERLAYPDFPENETRATION RATESPHONE SHOPSPOLICY IMPLICATIONSPOLICY RESEARCHPOLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPERPRIVATE SECTORPROGRAMSPROGRESSPUBLIC ACCESSPUBLIC POLICYPUBLISHINGRADIORADIO SPECTRUMREGIONAL ORGANIZATIONSREGULATORY ENVIRONMENTREGULATORY FRAMEWORKREGULATORY REFORMRESULTSRURAL ACCESSRURAL AREASRURAL CONNECTIVITYRURAL POPULATIONSRURAL TELECOMMUNICATIONSRURAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS DEVELOPMENTRURAL TELEPHONYSCARCE RESOURCESSEA LEVELSERVICE QUALITYSIMULATIONSIMULATION METHODSSITESSLOPESPATIAL AUTOCORRELATIONSPATIAL POPULATION DISTRIBUTIONSUB-SAHARAN AFRICATELECOMTELECOMMUNICATIONTELECOMMUNICATION REFORMTELECOMMUNICATION SECTORTELECOMMUNICATIONSTELECOMMUNICATIONS DEVELOPMENTTELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRYTELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICYTELECOMMUNICATIONS REFORMTELECOMMUNICATIONS REGULATIONTELECOMSTELEPHONETELEPHONE CONNECTIVITYTELEPHONE SYSTEMSTELEPHONYTHE GAMBIATRANSMISSIONUNIVERSAL ACCESSUNIVERSAL SERVICEUNIVERSAL SERVICE FUNDSURBAN DEVELOPMENTUSESWEBWIRELESSWIRELESS COMMUNICATIONSWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-4516