Mobile Phones: Africa's Success Story
by Suzanne N. Kilolo2005-09-15 00:00:00 | Viewed 1170 times
In less than 20 years, mobile phones have gone from being rare and expensive gadgets to low-cost personal items. And mobile phone penetration is increasing in developing countries, where there is little existing fixed-line infrastructure.
By the end of 1990 there were just 11 million cellular subscribers world-wide; eight years later, that figure had jumped to 320 million and is now forecast to exceed 750 million. China posted an 87 per cent combined annual subscriber growth rate from 1995 to 1998, with other major economies like Brazil (82 per cent) and South Africa (67 per cent) not far behind.
For the world's poorest countries, cellular telephony and wireless local loop systems are their best chance yet of bringing the power of telecommunications to economically disadvantaged or isolated communities. The growth in Africa is nothing short of remarkable. It is a clear success story in commercial terms, and has had a profound impact on the development of the economy and society.
Africa's share of the world mobile market is in the region of 20 per cent and growing. There are now more than 52 million mobile phone users in 19 African countries (compared to about 25 million fixed lines). In 2003 alone, over 13 million new mobile subscribers were added on the continent, a figure equivalent to the total number of telephone (fixed and mobile) subscribers in 1995. And by 2003, mobile penetration stood at 6.2 per 100 inhabitants, twice the fixed rate. In the same period it broke the $10 billion barrier in revenues, with profits estimated at over $1 billion.
This wealth has spread to other stakeholders such as governments, who have collected over $4 billion in license fees, and to equipment manufacturers, who have earned over $5 billion in contracts in Africa since 2000. The industry has been critical for enhancing access to telecommunications in Africa, where fixed lines are limited.
In Nigeria, Africa's most populated country, for example, mobile telephony has increased total telephone penetration from 0.5 to 3.3 per cent in just three years. The number of mobile subscribers passed the number of fixed lines in Africa in 2001. By 2003 almost 70 per cent of all African telephone subscribers used mobile phones; the figure was even higher in the sub-Saharan region, where three out of four telephone subscribers use a mobile.
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