Synopsis
While being the world’s most rapidly growing market for mobile telephony and also home to the fastest growing fixed telephony markets in the world, Africa still has the world’s lowest penetration rates. Explosive growth in the mobile sector has meant that by early-2005 mobile users constituted around 80% of all African telephone subscribers. Overall Internet and broadband penetration is very low due to limited fixed-line infrastructures, but demand is high, and the proliferation of new wireless technologies is expected to deliver a major boost. Many African countries are undergoing sectoral reform and foreign investment is flowing in as privatisation and deregulation are progressively being introduced. Overall, Africa’s telecoms future offers great opportunities to service providers, equipment vendors and investors.
