Telecom regulators from eleven eastern Africa countries are calling for new joint rules on how radio spectrum is managed, citing that the lack of harmonisation is slowing broadband growth in the region. The issue was raised on the sidelines of the ongoing Mobile World Congress (MWC) Kigali 2025, running through October 23. While the MWC comes at a time when Africa's telecommunications sector is experiencing rapid growth, projected to be worth over $82 billion by 2029, telecommunications experts pointed to the gaps in licenses renewals, valuation, and coordination as barriers to the region’s digital growth. Nearly 400 million people in eastern Africa still lack access to mobile broadband, experts said at the meeting hosted by the East African Community (EAC) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). “The question is no longer whether we need harmonised frameworks, but how quickly we can develop them,” said Gordon Kalema, who leads the Eastern Africa Regional Digital Integration Project (EARDIP). ALSO READ: Rwanda lines up extensive study on the digital economy One of the challenges, Kalema observed, is how licenses are renewed. In many cases, new fees or conditions are added at the last minute, making it hard for companies to plan and invest. Some experts want longer licenses to give investors more certainty, while others warn against copying global models that may not fit local markets. ALSO READ: Why Africa must bet on the digital economy There is also debate over how spectrum should be shared. Some countries use auctions to raise money, but this can hurt smaller players and reduce competition. In some cases, big operators buy large portions of spectrum and don’t use them, blocking others from entering the market. Another concern is that spectrum prices are not the same across the region. Without a common method for setting prices, operators face uncertainty when expanding into other countries. For Daniel Onyango Obam, a Communications Radio Technology expert, short-term national plans also fail to keep up with new technologies like 5G and the Internet of Things. “Efforts to manage cross-border signals have also been uneven. A common tool called the Harmonised Calculation Method for Africa (HCM4A) was created to prevent interference, but many countries have not fully adopted it. The rise of satellite-to-device communication is creating new regulatory challenges as both mobile and satellite networks compete for the same bands.” Obam observed that “many governments” overlook how other sectors, including health, farming, and smart cities, could benefit from better spectrum planning. “At the center of the debate is one big question: should spectrum be seen as a public resource to promote inclusion, or as an asset governments sell to raise money?” he questioned. The latest GSMA report shows that closing the 59 percent usage gap and 11 percent coverage gap in eastern Africa could unlock more than $700 billion in GDP by 2030. But the region still uses far less spectrum than the global average. “We’re not just talking about infrastructure,” Kalema said. “We’re talking about whether half a billion people will have meaningful access to the digital economy in the next decade.” Regional blocs are now working on joint guidelines for license duration, fair pricing, and anti-hoarding measures. The meeting brought together officials from Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, South Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Sudan.
