1. ENABLING TELECOMS COMPANIES TO DELIVER
ACCELERATED UNIVERSAL SERVICES
TO RURAL COMMUNITIES
7TH ANNUAL CRC AFRICA
FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE
JUNE 20-22, 2012
Presented by: Isaac Boateng
ATU Consultant
e-mail : sg@atu-uat.org; isaac.boateng@nca.org.gh
Website: www.atu-uat.org

2. PRESENTATION HIGHLIGHTS
 A BRIEF ABOUT ATU
 UNIVERSAL ACCESS FUND MODELS
 EFFORTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS OF ATU
 ROLES OF GOVERNMENTS, REGULATORS AND OPERATORS
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3.  Creation: PATU created in Addis Ababa in 1977
 Specialised agency of the African Union
 Cape Town, 1999 PATU changed to « ATU »
 restructured to accommodate public and private participation
 ATU boasts of following members
 44 Member States
 16 Associate Members
 Headquarters : Nairobi (Kenya)
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WHO IS ATU

4. VISION AND CORE ACTIVITIES
 Vision
 To make Africa an active participant in the Global Information Society
 Mission
 Promote the rapid development of ICT in Africa
 universal access and service
 Regional connectivity initiatives
 Core Activities
promote the development and adoption of appropriate African
telecom policy and regulatory frameworks
Spearhead the expansion of telecoms services on the continent
Co-ordinate African position to global ICT decision-making
conference
 ensuring equitable share of globally resources
 Bridge the global ICT divide.
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5. UNIVERSAL ACCESS FUNDING,
FACILITATORS AND MANAGEMENT
 ITU defined
 Availability, accessibility and affordability of telephone, internet, broadband and
broadcasting
 Developing countries targets are related to telephony and internet
 Funding
 Traditionally by dominant operators through cross-subsidies
 Current trends are establishment of universal service fund
 Facilitators
 ICT policy and law that encompasses the establishment of the fund.
 National regulatory body that is independent and effective.
 Clear institutional framework for the fund (Separate or as part of the regulatory body).
 Pro-competitive licensing regime.
 A sound infrastructure sharing and facility leasing framework.
 Efficient and effective spectrum management regime.
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6. FUND MANAGEMENT MODELS
 Countries manage universal access funds differently
 Sector Ministries take responsibility of the fund
 Columbia and Korea
 Managed by a Division in regulatory bodies
 Uganda, Sri Lanka and Malaysia
 Establishment of a separate agency to manage
 Ghana, South Africa and Peru
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7. USE CASES
Uganda
At least one public access telephone or payphone to a population
less than 5,000 people
Set up in 1996 and USF was established in 1997
 Operators contribute 1% levy of gross annual revenue
 By 2010, disbursed 85% of the US$3 million accrued to it
The fund has enabled deployment of many projects
 yet analysts believe there was not much investments in network expansion
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8.  South Africa
 Universal Services and Access Agency (USAASA) established in 1996
 Mandate is to promote universal service and access to ICT services for
all South Africans
 Complex institutional framework
 Three government institutions manage the fund in terms of collection and disbursement.
 ICASA is assigned the task of making the appropriate regulations setting out the USAF
contribution and calculates the levies
 National Revenue Fund (Treasury) collects fund.
 Fund manager USAASA, only disburses and initiates project design
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9.  Ghana
 The USF was created in 2004 out of a legal framework in the Electronic
Communications Act 775.
 Act established a Fund known as the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic
Communications (GIFEC)
 Objects
 To provide financial resources for the establishment of universal service and access for
all communities
 Facilitate the provision of basic telephony, internet service, multimedia service,
broadband and broadcasting services to these communities
 Funding
 1% of net revenue payable by operators
 Moneys that may accrue to fund from investment made by the Trustees of the Fund
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10. SNAP-SHOPS OF US PROJECTS IN GHANA
 Disability Connectivity Project
 Disability Employment Project offers
employment to persons with disability
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 A common telecommunications
facility
 Involves siting of telecommunications
masts/towers in selected communities for
operators to co-locate and provide
telecommunication services
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11.  An ICT laboratory
 Educational institutions being provided
with state of the art ICT centres and
internet access
 Rural Pay Phone Project
 Designed to extend network coverage to
rural and under-served areas
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12. EFFORTS OF ATU
 Aware of huge ICT disparities between urban and rural areas
 Developed four year Strategic Plan 2010-2014
 Towards seamless ICT connectivity in Africa
 Implementation of universal service
 Continues to open doors to Private sectors
 Enroll as ATU Associate members
 Gain access to the governments
 Provides platform for Government and Operators to develop modalities to extend coverage to rural areas
 Encourages MS and Operators to participate in global ICT development
 Developed framework for universal service implementation
 Collaborates with ITU in organizing Regulators Fora
 Which addresses Universal service funds and its management
 Advice governments and operators to prioritise Universal access
 Organises training and capacity building programmes in the region
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13. WHAT HAVE WE OBSERVED?
 Most developing economics have established UAFs and have agencies
that manage.
 Availability of bandwith capacity on the international leg
 Countries have licenced under-sea cable operators
 Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria etc…
 Technology and services continue to evolve
 Voice penetration has increased drastically thanks to mobile telephony
 Same cannot be said for broadband
 Current access infrastructure do not support high speed broadband services
 Current licensing regime- single licence regime
 Broadband prices continue to remain high
 Solution lies on implementation of Universal Access Service
 To deploy of high speed transport and access networks
 But come with High cost of deployment
 Yet no incentives to extend coverage
 Policy and Regulatory interventions are needed
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14. POLICY MAKERS, REGULATORS AND
OPERATORS
 Policy Makers
 Implement policies that encourage operators to extend
coverage to rural and under-served areas
 Incentives
 Delibrate involvement of local content
 Ensure full implementation of Universal Access Fund
 Policies to encourage private sector involvement
 Regulators
 Provide regulatory incentives
 Annual fees holiday
 imports
 Assign spectrum at less cost
 Digital divident spectrum opportunity to extend coverage to rural areas
 Licensing process that include universal access and service
obligation
 Regulations that allow easy market entry
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15.  Migrate to Unified Licence Regime
 Allows operators to provide ICT services with any access technology of choice
 Operators
 Priotise universal access and services
 Take advantage of universal access fund
 adopt infrastructure sharing and co-location
 Expand network infrastructure
 Adhere to the roll-out coverage plan
 Set realistic and cost oriented end-user prices
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16. LET’S BRIDGE THE ACCESS GAP
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Pls do visit: www.atu-uat.org

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18. REFERENCES
 Brigitte Linzie. (2009, May 21). Experience in Universal Access Fund. Retrieved December 09,
2011, from itu-int: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/afr/events/FTRA/2009/docs/FTRA%20-
UniversalAccessFunds.pdf
 Ghana ICT Sector Performance Review Researchictafrica.net2009/2010.Godfrempancy.
www.researchictafrica.net/publications
 Universal Access and Rural Communication Development Funds: Success factors World-wide
and Practical Insight from Uganda; Intelecom Resaerch & Consultancy Ltd; Dymond &
Oestman (2002).
 SADC Toolkit on Universal Access Funding and Universal Service Fund Implementation (nd).
www.itu.int/ITU-D/projects/
 Tele-centers a way of achieving universal access-the case of Ghana; Falch M & Anyimadu
A.(2003). http//portal.unessco.org/
 Ghana Universal Service Fund: An Assessment of Fund Administration and Utilization, Henry
Kanor, NCA, Ghana
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