Africa’s Mobile Boom

After Asia, it seems Africa has the biggest mobile market in the world.  It certainly has the fastest-growing according to an association of worldwide mobile phone operators. 

The number of subscribers on the continent has grown almost 20% each year for the past five years, the GSM Association report on Africa says.  It expects there will be more than 735 million subscribers by the end of 2012.  Analysts believe that the poor and expensive landline service in Africa is the cause for rising mobile phone usage. 

Nigeria has the highest number of mobile phone subscriptions in Africa - more than 93 million, representing 16% of the continent's total mobile subscriptions, GSMA says.

The report says African countries have allocated far less spectrum to mobile services than Europe, the Americas and Asia, which inhibits connectivity to many people in rural areas.  It has been suggested that to take full advantage of the rising interest in mobile connectivity, African countries need to allocate more spectrum for the provision of mobile broadband services, as well as introduce tax cuts for the industry.