African telecommunications defy global economic recession

THE African telecommunications sector is defying the global economic recession and continues to boom, driven by privatization, liberalization, new cell-phone services and infrastructure projects, some of which are funded by the World Bank, the African Development Bank and other agencies.

The African cell-phone sector is the fastest growing in the world, with subscription growth between 2007 and 2008 at 41 percent annually while cell phones currently account for 90 percent of telephone subscribers in
the continent.

At the beginning of 2008, Africa boasted more than 300 million mobile phone subscribers.

“Wireless is thus the solution of choice and is making fixed line upgrade projects largely redundant. Mobile network operators have stepped in, providing not only voice communication but, with the launch of third
generation (3G) services in a number of mobile phone markets, playing a considerable role in internet service provision,” said Brian Paxton, director of Mbendi Information Services.

He forecasted growth for the sector next year despite poor cable connections in the continent.

“Although cable connections across many African countries are in a poor state of repair or non-existent, the continent is slowly being connected to the global community through five undersea cable projects, three of
which are due for completion in 2009,” Paxton said.

Mobile subscribers in Africa are also now more evenly distributed as compared to the turn of the century. In 2000, South Africa accounted for more than half of all Africa’s mobile subscribers.

However, at the moment, about 85 per cent were in other countries.

ITNewsAfrica.com Reporter, South Africa