SIERRA LEONE‘S INFRASTRUCTURE: A CONTINENTAL PERSPECTIVE

**Table 10. Sierra Leone’s ICT sector in comparative context**

|||Sierra<br>Leone|Sierra<br>Leone|Low-income<br>group|Sub-Saharan<br>Africa|Sierra<br>Leone|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||Unit|2000|2008|2008|2008|2009|
|GSM coverage|% population under signal|11|72|56|56|76|
|International bandwidth|bits/capita|0.1|—|24|34|—|
|Internet|users/100 people|0.1|2.3|4.6|6.5|3.5|
|Landline|subscribers/100 people|0.4|0.4|4.6|1.5|—|
|Mobile phone|subscribers/100 people|0.1|18.0|28.5|33.3|24.6|
|||2005|2008|2008|2008|2009|
|Price of monthly mobile basket|US dollars|10.5|—|10.0|11.8|7.3|
|Price of monthly fixed line basket|US dollars|—|—|9.0|11.6|—|
|Price of monthly fixed broadband|US dollars|—|240|102.4|100.1|240|
|Price of a call to US per minute|US dollars|—|—|—|0.9|0.3|
|Price of an inter-Africa call per minute|US dollars|—|—|—|1.0|0.3|

Source: AICD and World Bank. Note: — = data not available. Fixed-line operator Sierratel succeeded in rolling out a CDMA (Code Division Multiplex Access) network in 2009. The project, carried out by Chinese equipment vendor Huawei, was financed through a loan from the China Import-Export Bank and complements the operator’s existing infrastructure with an extra 100,000 lines in Freetown and 14 other cities (Bank of Sierra Leone 2009).

# **Challenges**

Sierra Leone‘s ICT sector needs legal and regulatory reform. The ICT legal and regulatory environment in Sierra Leone is relatively new and faces challenges with respect to resources and institutional capacity. The Ministry of Information and Communications is responsible for sector oversight. The National Telecommunications Commission (NATCOM), established in 2006, is the industry regulator. The incumbent operator is government-owned Sierratel, and there are three other mobile operators: Lintel (Aircell), Comium, and Airtel (ex-Zain). Millicom also operated on the market until 2009 when it sold its operations to Lintel. A new fourth mobile operator owned by the investment arm of the Libyan government has been awarded a license but has not yet launched.

The regulatory environment needs additional reform and stimulus to attract needed investment. This includes allocating mobile broadband spectrum, ensuring open access to the planned ACE cable, and transparent administration of the recently established universal-service fund. The latter can be important for helping to extend mobile coverage throughout the country. Several policies inhibit efficient development of the sector and inflate the price of communications. Sierratel lacks resources to compete with the mobile operators but remains government owned despite efforts to privatize it.<sup>8</sup> Sierratel was given a monopoly over international communications in 2007, ending the right of other operators to have their own gateway. License and regulatory fees were also raised. In addition, a service tax was recently introduced. These factors raise the price of communications. The lack of electricity requires diesel generators for powering telecommunications equipment, further adding to costs.<sup>9</sup> Internet penetration is

> 8 ―Sierratel to undergo privatization to boost competitiveness.‖ _TeleGeogrpahy’s CommsUpdate_ , July 28, 2010. 9 Millicom (2008) reported that almost all its base stations were powered by diesel in 2007.

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