| African Mobile Market Heading towards a Bright Future |
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| Monday, 26 November 2007 | |
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The African mobile market is one of the fastest growing markets in the world. Eyeing the opportunities, the major international players are heading towards Africa to build up a big and better network there. According to a report by RNCOS, “African Mobile Market Forecast (2007-2011)”, the total number of mobile subscribers in Africa is expected to increase at the rate of over 13% from 2007 to 2011. As a result of this, the total mobile subscriber base is estimated to be around 352 Million by the end of 2011.AllAfrica.com reported that the African mobile market is one of the fastest growing in the world. Almost 17% of the total population in the region owns a mobile phone. This figure becomes noteworthy when compared to the World Bank data, according to which, less than 1% of the population had mobile phones in 1990s. World Bank statistics reveal that today, this market is growing at twice the rate than others in the world with number of mobile subscribers more than five times than that of landlines. Africa had more than 110 Million mobile subscribers by the end of 2006. Prepaid billing is supposed to be a key reason for the fast growth in the subscriber base as the majority of the population lies in the low per capita income group. This has given these people easy access to mobile services as they can now pay as per their wishes. The mobile markets in Africa have undergone dynamic changes in recent years. They were primarily state-run monopolies which have now grown into competitive growth markets. The rapid growth in the last three years can be attributed to liberalization. The growth of these markets has now reach maturation and become controlled. In order to strengthen the mobile revolution, the mobile operators of the GSM Association have announced a $50 Billion investment over the next five years to upgrade and expand networks across Africa. These are aimed at providing mobile coverage to more than 90% of the population. The World Bank has also announced to double its help to ICT on the continent to $2 Billion by 2012. Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications company, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) on October 30, 2007. This agreement is supposed to help in upgrading the connectivity with an special emphasis to the rural areas in Africa.
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