At a press conference in Nairobi Kenya, Ericsson, the world's leading provider of telecommunications technologies and services, advocated the adoption of harmonized spectrum for the 'Digital Dividend' band. This is defined as a band of spectrum which will become available when countries complete their migration from analog to digital terrestrial television. Emphasis was placed on the need for policymakers and regulators to be aware of the integral role played by harmonized spectrum in enabling the uptake of broadband, and the need to work together to ensure the adoption of a uniform band for the region.
Through our partnership with the African Telecommunications Union (ATU), Ericsson will continue to promote ICT development across Africa. Ericsson is well positioned to provide strong thought leadership as experts in connecting Africa by mobilizing the human, financial, and technical resources required to expand the development of ICT. The partnership aims to support the ATU in driving regulatory reform that will help facilitate telecommunications development, and subsequent social and economic growth.
The Secretary General of ATU, Soumaila Abdoulkarim welcomes Ericsson to ATU family as an Associate Member. This is a clear indicator that ATU attaches a lot of importance on the role played by the industry in the development of ICT in Africa. Therefore the signing of this partnership with Ericsson is timely in ensuring that market resources such as technical and financial expertise are tapped for the benefit of the continent.
ATU calls upon all other ICT industry players to take the queue and join the organization. "The Associate Membership allows interactive contacts with Member States in understanding and meeting the ICT needs", says Abdoulkarim.

Shiletsi Makhofane, Head of Marketing, Strategy and Regulatory Affairs for Ericsson in sub Saharan Africa announced the agreement at the ongoing 'ATU Summit on Digital Migration and Spectrum Policy'.

Makhofane spoke about the importance of harmonized spectrum in establishing a Networked Society in Africa. "The Networked Society is Ericsson's vision for a better future in which we are able to interact freely, live more sustainably and work more efficiently by harnessing the power of technology such as mobile broadband," said Makhofane.

"Harmonized spectrum is a key factor in promoting the development of mass mobile broadband access, and a tool for the industry to successfully respond to national policy goals by providing standardized products and services," he added. The announcement of the partnership comes shortly after Ericsson released a report predicting that global mobile data traffic will grow 10- fold in the next five years.

Harmonizing the allocation and use of the Digital Dividend band will ensure that African countries use the same frequency to deploy Long-Term Evolution (LTE), the next-generation Mobile Broadband technology. This will enable economies of scale and can bring other benefits such as cost effective roll-out of networks and devices, thus accelerating the roll out of networks and lowering costs for consumers. Africa is expected to conclude the migration from analog to digital terrestrial television by 2015, freeing up the Digital Dividend spectrum.

This has clear social benefits for Africa in particular given the limited fixed infrastructure, such as improved access to information, education, financial and health services and the wider use of m-government tools. In addition, a recent study conducted jointly by Ericsson, Arthur D. Little and Chalmers University of Technology in 33 OECD countries, shows that in addition to broadband availability, broadband speed is a strong driver in an economy. It is estimated that every 10% point increase in broadband penetration results in a 1% increase in GDP and that doubling the broadband speed for an economy in the measured countries increases GDP by 0.3%.