The present document represents an achievement of a global activity carried out under the HIPSSA project (“Support to the Harmonization of ICT Policies in Sub-Saharan Africa”) officially launched in Addis Ababa in December 2008.

In response to both the challenges and the opportunities of information and communication technologies’ (ICTs) contribution to political, social, economic and environmental development, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the European Commission (EC) joined forces and signed an agreement aimed at providing “Support for the Establishment of Harmonized Policies for the ICT market in the ACP”, as a component of the Programme “ACP-Information and Communication Technologies (@CP-ICT)” within the framework of the 9th European Development Fund (EDF). i.e., ITU-EC-ACP Project.

This global ITU-EC-ACP project is being implemented through three separate sub-projects customized to the specific needs of each region: Sub-Saharan Africa (HIPSSA), the Caribbean (HIPCAR), and the Pacific Island Countries (ICB4PAC).

ITU would like to thank the focal point delegates from the member states ICT and telecommunications ministries and regulators, from regional organisations’ commissions and secretariats and regulators associations among them the Association of Regulators of Information and Communications Service of Eastern and Southern Africa (ARICEA), Association of African Telecommunications Regulators (ARTAC), Communication Regulators’ Association of Southern Africa (CRASA), East African Community (EAC), EastAfrica Communications Organizations (EACO), Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS), Southern African Development Community (SADC), and West Africa Telecommunications Regulatory Assembly (WATRA), for their hard work and commitment in contributing to the data collection efforts of this unprecedented study. The contributions from the AUC and ATU are gratefully acknowledged.