21ST AFRICA CENTURY

Africa's Has the Worlds Fastest Growing Mobile Phone Sector, Could this be the Turning Point for africa.

A look at the Stats in 2002
World & Africa
GSM as % of total 70% , 95.61
12 month % growth 52.49 , 101.85
3 month % growth 10.74 , 21.22
% Pre-paid 18.57 , 26.67
12 month % growth (f’cast) 33.65% , 60.13%

Mobile growth 'fastest in Africa' (Courtesy BBC 2005)
Many businesses in Africa rely on mobile phones, the report says
Mobile phone use in Africa is growing faster than anywhere else in the world, according to a report.
The study, backed by the UK mobile phone giant Vodafone, said African countries with greater mobile use had seen a higher rate of economic growth.

The report, supported by the Centre for Economic Policy Research, studied the social and economic impact of mobiles.

Small businesses in South Africa rely on mobiles, the report said, while Nigeria's market is doubling annually.

The report's positive findings come despite separate figures which show the proportion of people using mobile phones in much of Africa remains low in international terms, averaging about 6% in 2004.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/Africa_girl_with_mobile_phone.jpg/800px-Africa_girl_with_mobile_phone.jpg
Business boost
Mobile and land line networks - in addition to the openness of an economy, GDP growth and infrastructure - are positively linked with foreign inward investment, according to the report.

The report also said:
More than 85% of small businesses run by black people, surveyed in South Africa, rely solely on mobile phones for telecommunications.

62% of businesses in South Africa, and 59% in Egypt, said mobile use was linked to an increase in profits - despite higher call costs.

97% of people surveyed in Tanzania said they could access a mobile phone, while just 28% could access a land line phone.

A developing country which has an average of 10 more mobile phones per 100 population between 1996 and 2003 had 0.59% higher GDP growth than an otherwise identical country.

Income, gender, age, education - and even the absence of regular electricity supplies - do not create barriers to mobile access in rural areas, the report said. Handsets are often shared by smaller communities.

'Explosive growth'
Stephen Yeo, chief executive of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, which hosted the launch of the report on Wednesday, said mobile phones had enabled developing countries to "leapfrog" old technologies.

Kiosks selling pre-pay vouchers for mobile phones are common
"The result is explosive growth - 5,000% in Africa between 1998 and 2003," he said. "This research... provides the first empirical evidence of a link between social and economic development and the establishment of mobile phone networks."

Diane Coyle, of consultancy Enlightenment Economics, and author of the report's overview, said many people were finding ways to overcome the cost of making mobile calls.

"Even in very poor communities, a lot of people share mobile phones," she told the BBC's World Business Report. "In Tanzania, for example, there were as many people using somebody else's mobile phone as actually owned one."
Currently, there are more than 82 million mobile phone users in Africa.
http://www.mobileafrica.net/images/Ogo-CT-17%20Black.jpg http://whiteafrican.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/mobile-reporters.jpg

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This is good for Africa and greater information excange can only help africa develop. its a shame that ethiopias cel phone market is non existant due to the government. The government owned Ethiopian telephone company has been around for over a 100 years but you cant make a phonecall to nairobi for under $1.70, if you could even get one :lol: :. This shows that the ethiopian government is a hinderance to development :ohno: . Government ownership is tyranny and poverty in africa. Somalia has the lowest mobile rates and service fees because the incompetents of government werent there to screw it up. The lesson here kiddies is privatize as much as you can in Africa :cheers: .

I think is normal for Africa to be the fastest growing mobile phone sector. For example, in Angola nearly every one has 2 or 3 mobile phones. And the keep buying more and more...

we must not remain the fastest growing. we als have to strive to be a leader in this area.

We are on our way to becoming Africas no. 1 Adenuga 5/7/2007

Chairman of Globacom, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jnr, says the Second National Operator is moving towards becoming the biggest telecommunications company in Africa. Speaking shortly after signing a $600-million-network-expansion contract with Alcatel- Lucent recently, Adenuga said the deal would greatly enhance Globacoms quest to become the number one network on the continent. We made it clear from the outset that our vision was to be the largest, most successful entertainment, information and telecommunications solutions provider, both in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. Every step we take is a movement in that direction, Adenuga declared. What we intend to do under the new project is to increase Globacoms national mobile network capacity from 12 million to 35 million subscribers by the end of this year. This will position Globacom as the network with the largest capacity in Africa. The project will also strengthen our operations, boost network performance and support delivery of advanced multimedia, converged services such as triple play, Adenuga stated. Our optical network will cover 40 cities in Nigeria and will be the largest DWDM and IP/MPLS nationwide fibre backbone network to be rolled out by any telecom company in Africa, added Adenuga. Globacom had in 2003 become the only operator in Africa to launch its operations on the superior 2.5G network which enables the convergence of voice, data and multimedia technologies. Globacom has now concluded plans to launch the 3G technology which enables a much faster transmission of data, voice, broadband internet and multimedia services over a range of frequencies. Its gateway subsidiary, Glo Gateway, is now one of the largest carriers of voice traffic in Africa, carrying over 1.3 billion International Minutes annually. Locally it is the gateway for most network operators in Nigeria and the surrounding African countries. The 8,600 km submarine cable network for Globacom which Alcatel-Lucent is deploying in another contract will connect Lagos to London, England. The project will allow Globacom to connect with the US via the UK, thereby expanding Nigerias international connectivity and contributing to West Africas economic development. The submarine cable which is along the West African coastline en-route England, will also be deployed in the West African countries along its route to enhance their international connectivity.

Mobile phone popularity is definitely on the rise in Africa. Last I checked, South Africa's mobile penetration was at 89%! Another nice thing is that Vodacom and MTN, the two biggest operators are building fixed-line fibreoptic networks in South Africa too, which will help lower internet costs enormously.

true plus the fact that nitel nigeria's first national telecoms carrier is being revived and also gearing up their fibre optics for internet penetration and other services there is gonna be cheaper and better internet penetration in nigeria which i know will spread to the rest of west africa

i still say having foreign countries owning most of the lines in naija is a problem. a potential national security issue

i still say having foreign countries owning most of the lines in naija is a problem. a potential national security issue

I agree, I have always thought that if a foreign country got a contract in telecomunications or other key industries, the contrcts should have local participation as a key point in determining the company the gets the contract.

I agree, I have always thought that if a foreign country got a contract in telecomunications or other key industries, the contrcts should have local participation as a key point in determining the company the gets the contract.

Yes, local participation is important. We can not allow the evils of colonial capitalism come to haunt us again. Where foreign business interests comes to rip africa apart and we watch them take everything only to go begging with bowls. So indigenous ownership of our own assets etc is key.

The biggest mobile service provider in kenya is safaricom owened by the govt of kenya and about to be listed in the nairobi stock exchange by next month and in either london exchange or wallstreet coz its too big for the nairobi stock xchange. kenya needs two more kenyan cellphone companies to push up penetration levels