CTO

Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation - Research and Consultancy

The Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) is the trusted partner of policy makers, regulators, donor agencies, operators, technology and equipment manufacturers for their research, advisory and consultancy needs.

The CTO’s strength lies in its wide resource pool of telecom/ICT professionals and experts, and its rich network of inter-governmental relationships in policy and regulation, across Europe, Africa, Asia, the Pacific, the Caribbean and the Americas. With professional affiliates in each of its member countries, the CTO is uniquely positioned to offer exceptional services on a cost-effective basis. Our recent clients and funding partners include the World Bank, DfID (UK), NEPAD e-Africa Commission, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, Ericsson, Econet Pty and a number of national regulatory authorities.

The CTO’s research arm carried out research, studies, surveys and consultations on topical issues in the field of ICTs. Reports of our previous research work including the two recent studies on local content, an issue of critical importance to leverage mobile communications for governance, commerce and citizen engagement, are available here.

The Commonwealth African Rural Connectivity Initiative (COMARCI) of the CTO studied the status of connectivity in Commonwealth Africa and recommended policy and regulatory adjustments along with potential technological and business solutions to improve rural connectivity. In the second phase of this project the CTO is conducting a series of in-country workshops aimed at building Public Private Peoples Partnerships to facilitate the setting up of new connectivity and leveraging connectivity for the delivery of value added services. More information about this initiative together with the schedule of workshops is available here.

Using ICTs effectively for disaster management (ICT4DM) is a CTO initiative that started in 2006 under which six regional workshops have been held so far to build the capacity of stakeholders and to help them network with experts. Each workshop has generated a Log Frame setting in perspective the potential roles of policy makers, regulators, operators and civil society. The event reports and the Global Log Frame encompassing the outcomes of the events are available here.

For further information on research and consultancy, visit our website.