Abstract
Malawi has a population of about 14 million and currently has 5 telecommunication players and actively being serviced by two mobile network operators, namely TNM and Zain. G-Mobile is yet to roll out its services by January 2011. The country has 2.9 million mobile subscribers, 100,000 people have access to fixed lines and close to 1% of the population has access to Internet backed by 2 fiber optic backbones [1]. In 2009, the telecommunications industry contributed 7% to the country’s GDP. By end of 2010, penetration rates will be at 27% for mobile, fixed at 2.4% and Internet will be at 4.4% [2]. The paper highlights some major strides and other work in progress that the country has embarked upon in its quest towards Mobile for Development initiatives and areas that need to be looked at to meet the estimates as well as the three targets under MDG 8.
Malawi has a population of about 14 million and currently has 5 telecommunication players and actively being serviced by two mobile network operators, namely TNM and Zain. G-Mobile is yet to roll out its services by January 2011. The country has 2.9 million mobile subscribers, 100,000 people have access to fixed lines and close to 1% of the population has access to Internet backed by 2 fiber optic backbones [1]. In 2009, the telecommunications industry contributed 7% to the country’s GDP. By end of 2010, penetration rates will be at 27% for mobile, fixed at 2.4% and Internet will be at 4.4% [2]. The paper highlights some major strides and other work in progress that the country has embarked upon in its quest towards Mobile for Development initiatives and areas that need to be looked at to meet the estimates as well as the three targets under MDG 8.
