Mobile telephony access and usage in Africa

The study provides tools to identify policy interventions to improve ICT uptake and usage, and to define universal service obligations based on income and monthly usage costs. Results show what can be expected from lower access and usage costs in terms of market volume and new subscribers. Income is the main explanatory variable for usage. In terms of mobile expenditure, it is inelastic with respect to income. The share of mobile expenditure of individual income indicates that people with higher income spend a smaller proportion compared to those with lower income