Smartphones Have Potential to Bridge Digital Divide in Sub-Saharan Africa:

Ericsson has released its first regional consumer insight report focusing on trends and analysis of the mobile ecosystem in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The report highlights how mobile phones create and promote connectivity in Sub-Saharan Africa from the consumer perspective, covering topics regarding smartphones, the internet, financial services, and applications.

The mobile phone, more specifically the smartphone, has the potential to bridge the digital divide by providing universal access and connectivity to a wider scope of citizens, regardless of location or economic status.

Though basic and feature phones still dominate the market, the research estimated that the smartphone will be key to enabling internet usage and an essential device in connecting personal and professional lives, as well as society at large. However, growth in the uptake of smartphones, which are presently seen as expensive, is expected to significantly increase, particularly with the anticipated introduction of a smartphone in the USD 50 price range.

While talking about the report, Shiletsi Makhofane, Head of Marketing, Strategy, Government and Industry Relations, Ericsson Sub-Saharan Africa said "Our analysis shows that the entry of low-cost smartphone handsets in the market will allow people from different social classes to benefit from an integrated ecosystem. The smartphone will become key to accessing the internet, which we believe will change the regional status quo and enable a level of connectivity not seen before. Add to this the on-going installation of submarine cables and country/city fiber-optic networks across the continent, and we'll see a significant increase in the potential for connectivity and supporting infrastructure for greater data consumption."

African telecom landscape looks towards high speeds:

A number of factors have contributed to Africa’s increasing adoption of mobile phones for internet use over PCs — cost and lack of ethernet infrastructure for two. The cost of computers versus the lower prices of mobile phones in addition to the lack of physical internet cable implementation has spurred the growth of mobile devices in Africa — a trend that is now of global proportion. But Africa’s mobile scene presents unique challenges, and the recently reported interest in the continent’s digital communications from Mideast and European telcos has spun a larger conversation over the future of the continent’s growth.

MidEast telcos have been developing their presence in North Africa for a while. Etisalat — an Emirates-based telco — took over France’s Vivendi’s stake in Maroc Telecom in July, heightening its presence in West Africa. (Maroc Telecom was also Morocco’s largest operator, according to reports.) And European companies such as Orange have been increasing their investments in various countries to get a foothold in the developing markets. These growing investments from operators have accumulated throughout the year, and made for conversation at AfricaCom 2013 — a telecom conference held in Cape Town, South Africa earlier in November which calls together global technology leaders.

An executive from Gemalto — a digital security company — spoke after the conference and called for operators to take advantage of the unique communications landscape in Africa in order to bypass 3G implementation and escalate quickly to 4G. While attaining high speed wireless seems unlikely in regions that have barely reliable 2G, Sherry Zameer, head of Africa and Middle East telecommunications for the company, described the lack of regulation and restrictive platforms actually make Africa ripe for the buildout of 4G.

Mideast operators join race for African telecoms:

Connecting another billion people to the internet is an ambition for many mobile operators, which see the relatively untapped markets of Africa as the next big opportunity for growth.

With a lack of fixed-line infrastructure in many parts of the continent, people have embraced smartphones as their means of connecting to the web, which has placed mobile operators among the main providers of internet services in Africa.

The number of broadband connections over cellular networks is expected to top 250m by the end of 2015. A fifth of internet traffic in Africa will be carried by mobile broadband by 2015, according to Informa Telecoms and Media, compared with 3 per cent globally.

Demand for telecoms services is high, as parts of the continent are becoming increasingly affluent. However, poorer areas also represent a good opportunity for telecoms operators that offer plans designed to get users connected to social networking sites using mobile devices.

Mobile is at the centre of life in Africa, where it has applications from sending vaccination reminders by text to credit lines for farmers. The M-Pesa mobile payment system is so successful that it acts as a quasi-currency.

Telecoms executives regard Africa as one of the most dynamic regions for an industry facing low growth in more mature markets where many people already have multiple mobile devices.

Kenya: mobile subscriptions up, but voice traffic declines:

Kenya’s regulator says mobile penetration in the country has passed 77 percent, but voice traffic is declining.

In their latest statistics for the communications and postal sector to end June this year, CCK says the level of mobile telephony penetration registered an increase of 2.3 per cent to stand at 77.3 percent (30.5 million subscriptions), up from the previous quarter which recorded a penetration of 75.6 per cent (29.8 million subscriptions). 19.6 million people access the internet mainly through mobile phones, and SMS and instant messaging have contributed to the decline in voice traffic.

Total local mobile traffic declined by 1.1 per cent, recording a total of 7.1 billion minutes compared to 7.18 billion in the previous quarter. The overall mobile voice traffic per subscriber dropped from 81.1minutes recorded in the previous quarter to 78.4 minutes. Conversely, the total number of SMS stood at 4.3 billion up from 4.0 billion posted in the preceding quarter; averaging 47 SMS per subscriber, per month.

Mobile money transfer subscriptions increased from 23.2 million in the previous quarter to 24.8 million in the quarter under review, recording a 6.8 per cent growth, consistent with the positive subscriber growth patterns.

Comparing the Financial Years 2012/13 and 2011/12 the number of mobile money transfer subscriptions rose by 27.3 per cent overall. Similarly, the number of mobile money transfer agents grew significantly to record 88,466 agents during the quarter up from 74,216 registered during the previous quarter, representing a growth of 19.2 per cent.