Telecoms Services Used in Africa Tends to Get Solely Mobile, Says BuddeComm in Its New Report Available at MarketPublishers.com

01 Dec 2016 • by Natalie Aster

LONDON – The mobile telecom infrastructure across Africa is considerably diverse in the availability and capability. Extensive tracks of the continent, especially in the desert areas of northern Africa, lack sufficient network coverage. Nevertheless, intense investment programmes initiated by a few pan-regional operators in the past few years have been indicative of excellent population coverage in most countries.

The dearth of fixed-line alternatives has led to a considerable hike in the use of mobile voice and data services. Some twenty years ago, when most established telcos were state-owned enterprises, there was little commercial initiative to put capital into infrastructure, and in tandem with a lack of regulatory supervision, ineffective management and government neglect, fixed-line connection penetration levels remained extremely low by world standards.

Thus, in many nations in the region the take-up of telecoms services is transforming from being predominantly mobile to being exclusively mobile. Operators are now mainly investing in spectrum, specifically in the 700MHz band that is set to be released during 2017-2018 They are also fortifying the robustness of their networks by shifting from 3G to LTE-based data services.

The increased use of smartphones is being encouraged by a host of less expensive units produced locally. The surging take-up of such devices is, in its turn, fuelling a colossal growth in m-commerce, m-banking and m-money services. With the majority of Africa’s population being unbanked, m-payment systems are prospering in most markets where they have been rolled out. 

Over three quarters of mobile subscribers in Africa are set to subscribe to broadband services by 2020-end, as against nearly a fifth in early 2016.

Topical research report “Africa - Mobile Infrastructure and Mobile Broadband” created by BuddeComm gives all-round insights into the telecom market performance on the continent. It covers a general review of the sector, mobile infrastructure, related statistical figures, and regulatory issues. For each of the countries discussed, the report provides a national market analysis shedding light on the specific sectors’ current state and historical development; mobile statistics including forecast data on mobile subscribers through to 2016, 2018, and 2021; mobile data and mobile broadband; mobile infrastructure; regulatory themes; mobile content and applications, and more.

Other topical market research studies by our partner are available at BuddeComm page.

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