Africa remains the least connected continent in the world, both from the view of the total bandwidth feeding the entire continent and from an Internet penetration perspective.
Restrictive regulatory policies, state monopolies, high costs and a shortage of local skills in information and communication technologies have been responsible for the slow development of African telecoms. However, things are changing.
Many African countries are undergoing sectoral reform and massive amounts of foreign investment are flowing in as privatisation and liberalisation are progressively being introduced.
More than two-thirds of all state telecom companies have already privatised and several more are set to undergo privatisation in the near future. Several markets on the continent have had difficulties with the privatisation of their national telecom company, which could lead to particularly attractive opportunities for investors.
Regional and international players continued to jostle for position in Africa's lucrative mobile market throughout 2007/2008, and 2008 is likely to see more consolidation. Particularly remarkable is the influx of Middle Eastern capital.
By 2010, most of the countries will be open to competition. Now, all sectors of African telecom markets continue to be among the fastest growing in the world, with fixed-line and broadband Internet penetration at little more than 15% and mobile penetration at around 33%. Enormous opportunities continue to exist for telecommunications service providers, equipment vendors and investors.
Compared with other developed markets in Europe and America, Africa started off very late. In most of Africa countries, mobile penetration grows faster than fixed telephony service, just so the number of mobile phones quickly outnumbered fixed lines in most African countries, and mobile users now constitute around 85% of all African telephone subscribers - a higher ratio than on any other continent. GSM is the dominant wireless technology in Africa, and several MTOs such as MTN, Orascom, Vodafone, French Telecom, Etisalat, etc, account for over 80% of the mobile market.
Other wireless solutions are also used to serve as substitutes for inadequate fixed-line infrastructure and Internet access. WiMax frequency band is 2.3G/2.5G/3.5G. The frequency band is much easier to get than 3G frequency and a licence, and the advantages of WiMax technology are obvious compared with other 3G technology, such as very high capacity (up to 134.4Mbps in a 28MHz channel), the ability to travel long distances of 50km or more, no requirement for line of sight and the ability to work at vehicular speeds under 802.16e extension, etc.
More operators and ISPs would like to grasp the opportunities for fast data development in 2008/2009 through WiMax 16e technology. WiMax is an emerging and powerful wireless metropolitan network technology that can give people full mobile access. Amendatory infrastructure construction and transmission resource improvement make it possible to quickly deploy a mobile access network of WiMax 16e technology to deliver broadband service in Africa.
ZTE is active on WiMax. It has signed a partnership agreement with Intel to develop and promote standards and specifications for WiMax networks. It also joined the WiMax Forum as a principal member in 2004, the first China vendor to join this forum. So far, the company has developed pre-WiMax, 802.16-2004, and 802.16e systems and owns a growing patent portfolio in the WiMax field.
As one of the leading players in the global telecom industry, ZTE is well positioned to address the challenges of developing the new wireless broadband technology in Africa. ZTE keeps the technical communication with operators who decline to deploy WiMax networks to improve the network competitiveness in the local market.
A series of workshops were held by ZTE and operators in Africa, named Wi-fond Journey. “Wi” means WiMax, “fond” means affection; it's also the partial tone of Chinese word “Wind”, so Wi-fond Journey means the wind of WiMax blows through Africa to strengthen the understanding of WiMax and enhance communication between ZTE and operators.
The workshops were held in South Africa, Cote d'Ivoire, Congo, etc. In 2008, the WiMax 16e network was deployed in Libya for LTT (Libya Telecom & Technology) and launched at the end of 2008, which is ZTE's first commercial WiMax network in Africa. Some new networks are under construction in Uganda, Mauritania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, etc.
ZTE's WiMax solutions offer a flexible platform for the delivery of advanced applications. It can be integrated with the existing mobile and wireline access networks, allowing operators to develop new services targeting government, security and other vertical industries on top of their existing business model.
As WiMax is ushering us into a new era of wireless broadband communication, ZTE is well-placed for the WiMax market that is gaining momentum with a high-profile WiMax partnership, excellent R&D teams, and reliable end-to-end WiMax deployment solutions.
We believe together with continuous innovation on WiMax technology and fast development of Africa telecom market, ZTE will bring a superb broadband access experience to more and more users in Africa.
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