The African mobile industry has been witnessing impressive growth in its mobile subscriber base for the past few years on the back of rising demand for telecommunication services. The top nine African countries mobile subscriber touched the level of 285 Million users at the end of 2009. The subscriber base of the continent reported annual growth rate of around 19% in the calendar year 2009 over the previous year, making it one of the fastest growing regions worldwide. However, the continent still has the lowest penetration rate in the world. Only two countries South Africa and Tunisia have penetration rate over 90% in the African continent.
According to our new research report “African Mobile Market Forecast to 2013”, almost all the countries in Africa use 2G technology, but the trend has been changing with the arrival of 3G and Long Term Evolution. Many countries (Kenya, Tunisia, Zambia, South Africa, Tanzania and Nigeria) have already adopted 3G technology. However, lack of infrastructure is restraining the fast expansion of telecommunication services in the region. African countries are trying to revolutionize their mobile market, but a lot of development measures still need to be implemented. For example - mobile operators are lobbying the governments in order to reduce license fee.
Our research anticipates that the number of mobile subscribers in Nigeria, South Africa, Algeria and Egypt will surpass 131 Million, 61 Million, 40 Million and 87 Million respectively by the end of 2013. The growth will be attributed to the public and private investment, infrastructure development, availability of cheaper handsets and mobile money services. The mobile industry has also leveraged value added services, tariff reduction and mobile number portability to encourage consumers for availing mobile services. However, all these factors will not be present in every country, but together they will support the whole African mobile industry.
The report provides comprehensive research and rational analysis of the African mobile industry, with focus on the current, past and future market trends. It studies strength and weakness of the main telecom operators and handset manufacturers. The report also discusses growth drivers and future outlook of the African mobile Industry to help clients identify growth opportunities in the market. The report also gives an overview of key challenges that restrain the growth of mobile industry.
