Charley Lewis, Link Centre on IDRC research on African consumer issues in telecoms and Internet: July 24, 2011

Charley Lewis, Link Centre on IDRC research on African consumer issues in telecoms and Internet at http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=BalancingActAfrica#p/u/6/-Rmb3qzK_Ps

The interview is mostly about things that the researchers found which did not surprise them - but might surprise people who only read the hype about how "mobile phones are available all over Africa" and who therefore assume that "mobile phone services as experienced in other places are available all over Africa". The interview gives a useful overview of the realities of the poor services, such as patchy coverage, dropped callls, and hard to hear conversations. It is well connected with reality and includes mention of the common practice of SIM card swapping (which is done to jump from one network to another as necessary without resorting to owning a separate phone for every eventuality).