The growth of cellphone services on the African continent could be slowed by infrastructure, regulatory, fee and fraud issues, says Vitalis Olunga, deputy chairman of GSM Africa.
Opening the GSM In Africa conference in Cape Town yesterday, Olunga said cellular operators faced regulatory pressure to increase service licences and spectrum fees, increase taxation on airtime and attempt to apply rules that were designed for use in the west.
"As a result, operators are facing declining revenues as wholesale tariffs come under regulatory pressure and retail tariffs come under downward commercial pressure, while economic development in Africa continues at a low level," he said.
He told delegates that regulatory sub-groups were achieving some success in southern, eastern, central and western Africa as they lobbied governments on harmonisation of policies and regulations.
Olunga said there is considerable government pressure on the operators to achieve universal service and access targets, to invest more in coverage and capacity to build a telecommunications infrastructure, to help bring e-government to rural areas and so expand offerings beyond voice and SMS, to help bridge the digital divide by building an information- and knowledge-based society, and finally to promote economic empowerment.
He said international roaming between the various networks of African countries was progressing although it still faced a number of challenges. This included poor PSTN infrastructures in many countries that resulted in poor voice quality and delayed completion of roaming testing, and the shortage of technical skills.
The implementation of prepaid roaming was continuing as 85% of GSM subscribers in Africa were on such contracts. A common strategy is also being developed to combat fraud and handset theft problems, Olunga said.
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