Moneybiz - Africa: Mobile Market Records 500 Million Subscribers
 
   
moneybiz logo
Powered by Google
 
pic
 pic
Ads
African Business and Technology
Email this article Print this page
Africa: Mobile Market Records 500 Million Subscribers Monday, 15 Nov 2010

Africa: Mobile Market Records 500 Million Subscribers Abuja � The African mobile market exceeded half a billion subscribers during the third quarter of this year, hitting about 506 million at the end of September, according to a research from AfricaCom DailyNews.

The research which was conducted by Informa Telecoms and Media, one of the orgernisers of the ongoing AfricaCom conference in Cape Town, South Africa, said the milestone coincided with the 25th anniversary of mobile telephony in African continent; the first African mobile network went live in 1985 in Tunisia.

LEADERSHIP gathered at the conference that at the end of the first quarter of this year, GSM subscribers in the continent accounted for 10 pre cent of the global subscriber base, with penetration still very low, though it increased by 18 per cent in the first quarter of this year.

It was also gathered that GSM penetration rate in Africa stood at 48.35 per cent at the end of September, and some African markets have since passed saturation point.

"But penetration in other markets is still less than five per cent, and penetration below ten per cent is typical for rural areas," AfricaCom Daily News reported.

According to the report, over the five years, the strongest growth rates in mobile subscription are expected to be recorded mainly in East and Central African markets, adding that Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea and Madagascar are expected to witness increase by more than 100 per cent in 2015.

"Although, the rate of growth in mobile subscription in Africa will be slow as markets mature, the continent continues to offer great opportunities for investors in the voice segment in under penetrated market and also in the non-voice segment with mobile broadband and mobile money services taking off," said Thecla Mbongue, Johannesburg-based senior analyst at Informa and Telecom Media.

According to findings, the landing of a series of new submarine cables on both the East and West coasts of Africa over the past 18 months has given the continent a good level of international connectivity for the first time, and has greatly expanded the opportunities for data services.

It further stated that an increase in data services would cause a bottleneck in terrestrial backhaul networks and that these networks needed to improve if connectivity was going to be made available to more African, particularly those in the rural rears.

" By 2015, there will be 265 million mobile broadband subscription in Africa, a huge increase from the current figure of about 12 million and accounting for 31.5 per cent of the total of 842 million mobile subscriptions that the continent will have in five years' time Mbongue said, adding: "There will be almost 360 million users of mobile-money services on the continent by 2014."

The research further showed that with household broadband in penetration in Africa at just 2.5 per cent, the opportunities for mobile data access services on the continent are significant.

No comments have been posted about this African Business and Technology Article

Comment on this African Business and Technology Article
Full Name:
E-Mail:
Rating: out of 5
Comment:

Previous Columns

 
 

 

 
 
 
bullet African Economic Research & Analysis
bullet Business in Africa
bullet Opinion & Analysis
bullet ICT Opinion & Analysis
bullet Weekend Sport
bullet Currency converter
bullet BEE in the Know
bullet Personal Financial Times
bullet Weather
bullet Blogs
picpic