Exploring factors affecting free public Wi-Fi management and implementation in Malawi: A descriptive qualitative study

Frank Makoza

EconStor Preprints from ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics

Abstract: The high cost of internet services remains an inhibiting factor for digital inclusion in the context of African countries. The Government of Malawi and international development partners embarked on a free public Wi-Fi programme to support access to the internet and promote socio-economic development. This study explored the factors that were affecting the management and implementation of free public Wi-Fi. Using a qualitative approach, secondary data was thematically analysed. The findings showed that contextual conditions, management, and services affected the implementation of free public Wi-Fi. There were views that free public Wi-Fi was beneficial to citizens. However, risks related to cybersecurity were highlighted as one of the factors that could affect the use of free public Wi-Fi. The study proposes a conceptual framework that can be verified in similar studies in the context of developing countries.

Keywords: Free public Wi-Fi; Internet; Digital inclusion; Qualitative study; Malawi (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/343983/1/Malawi-FreePublic-Wi-Fi.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:esprep:343983

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in EconStor Preprints from ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().