Blog

Ensuring water and sanitation during the pandemic: The experience of NWSC of Uganda on June 16, 2020

What do telecom operators and water operators have in common during the pandemic? Plenty, if you look at what National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) has been doing in Uganda. NWSC has taken some interesting steps to manage during through COVID-19. NWSC has worked with Mobile Telephone Network (MTN) to finance expansion of water supply. [...]

Big Tech is biased… and that’s a good thing

Big tech is biased. It has to be. Big Tech is in the information industry, where value is created by processing data in meaningful ways. This isn’t to say that all of the accusations are accurate, nor that all biases are valuable. Rather, bias naturally emerges from human biology. The only question is what types [...]

Is broadband now a public utility? A conversation with Scott Wallsten on June 11, 2020

All I can say is, "Wow! I never expected that!" I thought the days of telecommunications being considered a public utility were far behind us. Then came the pandemic! Suddenly broadband seems as important as electricity. And some people believe that hands-on, utility style regulation will do a better job than competition for delivering needed [...]

Next Practices Live: Keeping Customers Connected on June 4, 2020

Ensuring broadband access during and after the pandemic: A conversation with Nneka Chiazor and Frans Vandendries Broadband has proven to be quite important for households and businesses during lockdowns. But making broadband financially viable for operators has proven to be difficult when customers cannot afford broadband. How are countries resolving this challenge? I interviewed Nneka [...]

Next Practices Live: ICT Working Group – Assessing the Impacts of Net Neutrality on May 28, 2020

Lessons from the pandemic are uncovering flaws in some regulatory thinking. Some claim that net neutrality regulations have led to poor network performance. Others think that such constraints on networks are more important than ever. What's the reality? We were excited to talk with two international experts on this topic. Dr. Roslyn Layton has written [...]