Second, in Africa, like in the Global South in general, countries rely on foreign investment in internet infrastructure if they wanted to foster the stimulating effect of ICT on economic development (Garbe, 2021; Jin & Cho, 2015). Overall, the telecommunications sector tends to be centralized in African countries, which is typical for the Global South where few ISPs tend to control internet traffic for larger parts of the population (Acharya et al., 2017; Main, 2001). Several of the multinational corporations providing internet access in Africa, including Airtel, Etisalat, 인터넷 가입 현금 사은품 (Full Survey) Ooreedo or Viettel, have subsidiaries in other developing regions as well. TOSCO covers the ownership of commercial ISPs in all 49 independent mainland countries plus Madagascar,Footnote 4 that is 44 sub-Saharan and the five North African countries, from 2000 until 2019. The internet is said to have arrived to Africa (precisely South Africa) in 1991; yet, it is not before the early 2000s that it became accessible to a larger population across the whole continent (Aker & Mbiti, 2010; Commander et al., 2011; Nyirenda-Jere & Biru, 2015). The total number of ISPs included in TOSCO is 196 which amounts to 3,122 company-years over the time period covered, considering that not all companies existed over the whole period.
First, this region of the world is especially marked by economic and political transitions that we expect to drive cross-national variation in ISP ownership over time (Albiman & Sulong, 2016; Hadenius & Teorell, 2007; Levitsky & Way, 2010; Magaloni & Kricheli, 2010; Resnick & Van de Walle 2013). In light of this transforming context, TOSCO allows to investigate crucial questions of economic development and authoritarian survival associated with an increasing internet connectivity that are also relevant in other regions of the Global South. 51 percent of the shares) across the African telecommunications sector over time. It significantly improved speed and range over its predecessors. Range extenders offer a relatively inexpensive way to spread your wireless signal throughout your home. A WiFi extender is a wired or wireless device that extends the range of the signal your WiFi router transmits. A router is a device that forwards data packets between computer networks.
The data determines 699 shareholders in total; 324 at the first level and 375 at the second level. For each ISP in a country, we consider all shareholders and their exact shares (first shareholder level), plus, if applicable, the shareholders owning each of these shareholders and their exact shares (second shareholder level). Throughout his career Rod has maintained a close relationship with Microsoft and was selected as New Zealand’s first representative on the prestigious Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Regional Director programme, holding the role from 1997 to 2000. Rod achieved Microsoft Most Valuable Professional status for his work in the early days of Active Server Pages. The said individuals may occupy powerful positions in the government, have strong ties to influential government officials, or are close allies if not relatives of the incumbent (Arayssi & Jizi, 2019; Djankov et al., 2003). To analytically separate the owner identities, we code them as owned by “individual/family” shareholder. Dispersed owners have less capacity to influence the management individually (Armstrong et al., 2010, 210). Lloyd et al. First, for the concerned countries, (reliable) data tend to be generally scarce; it is an open secret that data on socio-economic indicators in African countries is thin (Przeworski et al., 2000, 117). This holds also true for publicly available information about ownership of individual telecommunications companies.
Second, since in the early 2000s, the internet was only starting to reach the greater public in some African countries, transactions or company reports were neither made public back then nor uploaded ever since. Second, we focus on the extent to which the telecommunications sector of a given country in a given year is dominated by the state. Examples include opaque ownership structures such as the one in Somalia where a functional state government is absent, and part of the public infrastructure, including telecommunications, are allegedly owned by warlords with connections to Al-Shabaab such as Ali Ahmed Nur Jim’ale (Iazzolino, 2015); and, cases in which the state administration lacks the capacity to make all companies register their shareholders, let alone make this information electronically available. In order to ensure data accuracy, we ran several cross checks, and all cases were independently coded by at least two trained research assistants; any discrepancies or uncertainties were discussed in the team at a weekly basis. While we coded the ownership of each company with greatest care, for some cases, the actual ownership situation may be more complex than it appears in our data. Our granulated data at the shareholder level allows researchers to define the thresholds according to their research needs and interests.