The African telecommunication sector has grown at the fastest pace in last three years as countries are increasingly concentrating on spreading the services.
According to the United Nations International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the African continent has seen the fastest growth in the communication technology in last three years (2005-07) and will emerge as a vital market for the telecommunication industry, as reported by The Economic Times.
ITU revealed that last year, 65 Million new subscribers were added to the total subscriber base in Africa. Mobile phone subscription has also seen an unprecedented growth with one-third of the population using mobile whereas only one in every 50 people had mobile phone in 2000. In 2001, South Africa alone had over 50% of total subscribers in Arica, but by 2007, 85% of total subscribers were residing in other countries of the continent.
ITU also revealed that the African mobile phone industry proved all predictions wrong. The Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) industry of Africa is rapidly growing and Liberalization and transnational telecommunication services have given operators an opportunity to extend their business dimension and are providing various services.
Most of the African countries have set up their own independent regulatory bodies that are entrusted to maintain fair and competitive environment in the telecom industry. Consequently, people are getting benefits of low prices of quality telecom products.
Furthermore, the mobile communications have seen a huge infrastructure development and service extension. Heavy investments in the African telecommunication market because of vast growth opportunities for investors and extension of wireless and mobile communication technologies have tremendously contributed to the growth of African telecom industry.
However, though all the African countries have population that can purchase handset and have enough infrastructure equipment suppliers, yet they need to form pacts with each other so that the probable problems could be sough out. African telecom industry’s growth could be affected by the maintenance and approach towards extension of services in rural areas; therefore, countries should cooperate with each other.
According to a Research Analyst at RNCOS, “The African mobile market has been growing at a rapid pace in the last few years and has vast growth opportunities for telecom companies. But the African rural landscape is still lying untapped. Operators are slow in extending their services in rural areas due to low acceptance rate. However, African rural landscape might provide good growth opportunities to the telecom industry.”
Related Market Research Reports:
Srilankan ICT Market Analysis
China Telecom Analysis (2008-2012)
European Mobile Market Scenario to 2012
