Mobile Phone Handset market in Africa
The mobile phone market in Africa can be amusing if one takes a good look. One might have an initial thinking that Africans would have little or no use for cutting-edge technology. This is however not the case.
The mobile phone industry in Africa is gradually maturing, albeit slowly. The number of subscribers in many countries are rising as the network operators launch more exciting offerings aimed at luring more people to get on board. It can get as high as it is in Nigeria, where number of subscribers double every year and currently stands at about 10 million (March 2005).
All these subscribers require mobile handsets, in other to connect to their mobile phone networks. Very few exceptions are business men and professionals who might have data cards that are inserted into their laptop computers for data connection to the mobile phone operator.
The demand for handsets has created a niche market in Africa. Major mobile equipment manufacturers have seen this, and have chanced on the opportunity to forge alliances with partners in Africa, for the franchise of their wares. Some have actual offices in Africa (Nokia in South Africa, Siemens in Lagos, Nigeria). There was a news report in February 2005 suggesting that Nokia was working on building a mobile phone manufacturing plant in Nigeria.
This is how serious the mobile handset market has got in Africa. Many shops and chain-shops have sprung-up in to serve the market. Much of the mobile phones are imported from Europe, especially the United Kingdom, and France. These two countries are the major former colonizing countries for most countries in Africa, thus most countries speak either English or French. Also, United Kingdom and France are on similar mobile phone platforms: GSM. Popular brands from Europe include Nokia, Siemens, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson.
Other imports are from Asia, especially the well-known brands like Samsung.
Most of Africa's mobile phone networks operate on the GSM 900/1800 band and as a result, most mobile phone handsets are from Europe and Asia.
Phones are hardly imported from America. Most of the networks there, operate on the GSM 800/1900 bands. Some tri-band handsets like Nokia 7250i [800/900/1800 MHz] however might be able to function in Africa, Europe, Asia and America. Quad-band phones like Motorola V600 are also available, though rare and relatively expensive.
It must however be said that some inferior-quality handsets find their way into the market, mainly from the Eastern market despite government regulations about the quality of handsets to be used. Slightly- used handsets are also popular amongst the new entrants into the mobile telephony scene, especially those with limited income.
David Ajao, a web developer writes from Accra, Ghana.
www.web4africa.net
1st April 2005
See Also:
- GSM in Africa
- Mobile Technology spotlight: What is GPRS?
- Technology spotlight: What is EDGE?
- Guide To Wireless Phones
- Mobile Phone Usage In Africa and the future
- Mobile Phone Market in Africa
- Mobile Telephony. Which Way For Africa?
