Em10

Mobile Phone Subscriptions on the Rise in Africa

November 20th, 2009

Mobile telephony is the most sought after mode of communication in today’s world and the fastest growth in this segment is being experienced by poor and developing countries like India and Africa. Africa has seen a whopping 550% growth in mobile subscription in the period from 2003 to 2008. The total number of mobile subscriptions has increased from 54 million to 350 million during this period.

The above data is documented in a report prepared by the United Nations. The report has attempted to present a broad view of the status of Information Communications and Technology industries worldwide. It shows that the maximum growth in mobile telephony is in the so-called poor and developing countries.

However, the point of concern is that the quality of broadband service is still awful. The connectivity is very slow and in far-flung places of the continent like Swaziland and Burkina Faso etc, the cost of the connections is very high when compared to worldwide rates.

While releasing the said report, Torbjorn Fredriksson did raise the problems persisting in the telecom industry. The major barrier to its further growth is related to the price for the services and the equipments. However, with the present global market trends and the move towards the policy of liberalization, the price barrier will slowly and steadily decrease, and this will stimulate further broadband growth.

Network of optical fibres to connect Africa with the world is another major area of concern. The lack of this is definitely a hurdle in providing international connectivity to Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa is particularly a completely neglected area. Work on this area is yet to begin although some positive steps towards this have been taken.

The internet has become a basic need for most of us, we like our laptops deals and our pay as you go dongles, which offer access to mobile broadband networks whenever and wherever. We look upon broadband access as a ‘utility’; this makes the thought of people not having access a difficult concept.

Tell the community These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.