Mobile Africa - Mobile Telephony. Which Way For Africa? asks David Ajao

Mobile Telephony. Which Way For Africa? [asks David Ajao]

Nokia 6060 My fingers are getting sore from having to tap the tiny keys on my handset over and over again. I had wanted to call my partner and inform him about the urgent meeting I have to attend. After several failed attempts, I would rather start preparing for the journey ahead. “Dropped calls”, the mobile operators would say.

Come to think of it, I had spent a fortune to acquire this cute and portable handset, loaded with numerous fanciful features (for which I find little or no use) and had to shelve out so much for a SIM pack but it all comes to naught. I can’t make a simple call to my buddy who is on another phone network. This raises a lot of questions about mobile telephony in Africa. Join me as we go into some analysis, albeit briefly.

From time immemorial, technology has kept evolving. Scientist and engineers keep working hard to make the world a better place for us all. There is some much innovation and invention. From bizarre, harmful and relatively useless ones to ones that have been of tremendous use. However, the fact that mobile telephony has been of tremendous benefit to us all can hardly be disputed. I would save the appraisal for a future article.

On unloading your brand new Samsung from the pack, you ignored the sales girl’s instruction that you charge the phone for at least two hours before use. You are too excited to wait that long. You are quick to insert the SIM card, battery and cover case. Having powered the phone, it comes alive with its colour screen displaying beautifully arranged menu options. Your network operator’s name stands out on a cool photo background of the blue sky that is similar to that of Windows XP. You quickly turned the built-in camera towards yourself and took a shot. Your face looks good, though tiny on the screen. In the weeks that follow, you proudly show-off your newly-acquired ‘toy’. You take shots of friends and relatives, and then show them what they look like on your screen.

Nokia What a pity, that’s all you can do. You cannot send the good-looking pictures to your uncle in Germany or to your old school mate in Japan. Why? Your network operator does not support Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) yet! Quite a shame, you have to be contented with snapping pictures and starring back at them on your phone’s little screen. With time, you soon get bored of doing just this.

The above painted scenario is only a figment of the gloomy situation we have been experiencing in this part of the world. It is difficult to decipher a situation whereby we pay more, for less. Is it about the populace not being able to afford technology? The ‘poor’ economy? I doubt it. The vast number of classy handsets in the hands of individuals in Dakar, Lagos, Nairobi, Johannesburg or Dar es Salam should tell you that we are not as poor as the World Bank / IMF wants us to believe. It is not about affordability. It is about the network operators doing what is convenient for them; cutting costs and maximizing profit within the shortest time possible. The governments or relevant authorities do little to enforce the regulations we have in place regarding telecommunications.

Elsewhere in the world, the mobile phone is fast becoming the central technology. It has since evolved from a voice-only device, to a multi-functional communicator capable of transmitting and receiving not only sound, but video, still images, data and text (the good old SMS). The Italians are WAPping happily on their phones, the Japanese chatting with live video and the Americans sending and receiving fax and email on their mobile phones.

Nokia N72 The question arises, “Do we really need these technology in Africa?” In my opinion, we definitely do. Utilizing the data capabilities that we have on our second generation (2G) phones whether GSM or CDMA would go a long way in improving our lot as a people. A farmer somewhere in Yamoussoukro who can check the latest price of cocoa beans in Abidjan using his mobile phone would be in a far better position to negotiate a fair price when selling his produce. Other very useful data applications include: Flight Schedules, Sports Scores, Weather Forecasts, Lottery results, Traffic Reports and News Headlines.

We pay more than our counterparts in other parts of the world, to acquire handsets and phone lines. Don’t we deserve better service? We surely do. A business man should be able to access email via dial-up connection using his cell phone and notebook computer from his hotel suite in Bolgatanga without emptying his business. Subscribers should be able to roam seamlessly from Dakar (Senegal) to Dar es Salam (Tanzania), from Cairo (Egypt) to Cape Town (South Africa) without changing phones. I should be able to receive a video / audio clip of our child’s first, “Ma – Mama” from my wife at home in Namibia whilst I’m at Tunis, pursuing my doctorate degree in French.

The stakeholders – equipment manufacturers, mobile network operators, regulatory bodies, policy makers, and various governments should take this seriously, we deserve and therefore demand better services. A good way to start is ensuring that we can make and receive phone calls with the minimum hitch, irrespective of the network we belong. We can then proceed to enjoying the full features ‘hidden’ in our various handsets like WAP, Fax, Email, EMS etc and perhaps consider more recent technologies like 3G, EDGE, GPRS, GPS in the nearest future. This should not be far.

Mobile network companies should spend less on painting our cities green, yellow, orange, blue, red all in the name of advertising and spend more on improving their services. This would promote them better. When would this be? We can’t wait forever.

What if I tried calling my partner again? Perhaps, I might just be luckier this time!

David Ajao, a Web Developer writes from Accra, Ghana.
8 March 2004 10:39AM