Mobile Phones: No Longer A Show Of Class
by David Ajao is a Web Developer with Web4Africa.2005-07-06 00:00:00 | Viewed 2604 times
In the early 1990's, in many African countries, mobile phones were very limited in number, and only an exclusive preserve of the rich and powerful. Mobile phone networks were few and limited to the urban areas. In most cases, many African countries had only one mobile phone company, and usually a subset of the state-owned monopoly, telecom company. That was then. Now, fast-forward to 2005, and the situation is different.
Mobile phone networks started out on first generation technologies. Such technologies were analogue in nature. Consequently, the handsets that worked with such networks were bulky and expensive. Being expensive makes it inaccessible to the bulk of African population who are relatively poor. Mobile communication was consequently a limited to top government officials, businessmen / professionals and the rich. It is also important to underscore here that tariffs were exorbitant, and quality of service was poor.
What's more? Coverage was limited in many cases to urban areas thereby cutting out the rest of such countries.
It is important to note at this point that the scenario painted above, still exist in a few African countries, today.
Thanks to improvement in digital electronics, things have changed for the better. First came the second-generation mobile phone networks, that carried voice and data traffic, in a digitally encoded format. This provided improved security and much better sound quality for voice calls.
The digital nature of the new handsets that came with second generation mobile technology meant that they could be manufactured at larger numbers, in smaller sizes, and with much more functionalities.
The most significant reason that brought about the sudden increase in the patronage of mobile communication in many African countries is the liberalization of the communications industry in many African countries. Hitherto, the status quo was the state-owned telecom company setting up a subsidiary to provide mobile telephony and other value added services. Today, many African countries have at least two mobile phone networks that are privately owned/managed.
Privately owned companies are profit-driven. Thus, they tend to maximize profit as much as they could, but the stiff competition that prevails in many African countries today, has forced such mobile telecom companies to drastically reduce their call tariffs, price of SIM packs, and providing more value added services, in a bid to out do their competitors.
In Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and some others, very stiff competition among the players in the industry has brought about low tariffs, generally that were unthinkable a few years ago.
Today, many can afford to buy a brand new, low-end mobile phone, for as low as the equivalent of $50 while fairly used ones even come at a lower rate. Prices of SIM packs also range greatly according to the package and network. SIM packs range from FREE (notably Ghana's OneTouch GSM and Nigeria's Glo Mobile) to the equivalent of $30. Many mobile phone networks have also extended the expiry of call credits. Some (notably Ghana's Buzz GSM) do not disconnect subscribers at all, if they do not reload their phones with credits.
Students, small-scale businesses and low-income earners who hitherto could not even dream of owning a mobile, have now been doing so, and can now be reached with the dial of a number.
Much as mobile phones have become commonplace in many African countries today with some even owning and maintaining as many as four mobile lines, there is still a lot of room for growth. Only a low percentage of national populations have been covered.
Indeed, the race has just began. There is a lot of room for improvement.
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