Mobile applications offer new revenue streams

While many operators in Africa are still focused on driving voice services, there is an opportunity for players with foresight to capitalise on other applications to create new revenue streams.

Martin Sanne, MD of mobile networks at Siemens Communications, says focusing on applications could be seen as out-of-the-box thinking, although in African terms, perhaps the biggest issue with such services would be how the operator actually collected the revenue.

"When it comes to getting the money from the subscriber it becomes tricky, as in much of Africa just about everything is done in cash because the banking systems simply aren't there," he says. "To solve these issues, operators will definitely need to develop innovative billing and distribution channels, such as prepaid vouchers for these services."

Sanne says more players are beginning to target specific user groups and segment the user by lifestyle, thereby gaining a better understanding of which type of user would want which specific application and or content.

"The growth of applications like SMS (short messaging service) and MMS (multimedia messaging service) is interesting because it has introduced huge flexibility in terms of how we communicate, and is in fact changing the way we communicate," he says. "It is imperative that operators take cognisance of this fact and utilise the applications and technologies available to them to provide better communications services for all of Africa."