Africa is experiencing a shift in the broadband usage paradigm from low to high consumption, driven largely by the rise of smartphones and other mobile-end devices, like iPads, as well as the broad array of products and services from content creators and providers.
Analyst firm Gartner predicts that by 2014, there will be a 56% mobile penetration rate in Africa. Fellow research firm IDC notes that low investment in wired telecommunication infrastructure on the continent has driven increased mobile penetration, creating a user base that supports a rise in mobile innovation and increased interest in content development.
Rufus Andrew, MD of Nokia Siemens Networks SA, in an interview with ITWeb, said the proliferation of mobile devices has also given rise to new media-rich and bandwidth-hungry applications and services such as online gaming, cloud-based services, photo-sharing, social networking and video streaming. He stressed that the devices are all driving the demand for mobile broadband and which operators can start to take advantage of.
Frost & Sullivan senior analyst, Vitalis Ozianyi, says although broadband penetration levels are still low in the majority of countries in Africa, the proliferation of smartphones is key for access to Internet services and applications. However, he points out that there are a number of countries on the continent where operators are already taking advantage of demand for broadband services. These operators have invested in 3G technology and are actively upgrading the capacity of their networks to serve more users, he adds.
“Operators in countries without a 3G offering should deploy the technology to benefit from broadband revenue. This is, especially, necessary considering the ongoing voice service price wars in countries where low cost operators such as Bharti Airtel are operating,” says Ozianyi.
Andrew explains that increased bandwidth enables operators to offer a greater degree of self-provisioning and customisation. “Operators can now also have more real-time access to international bandwidth due to the increased availability of bandwidth. This will cut down the onerous caching requirement that exist.”
He urges operators to keep up with the growing demand for the media-rich applications and maintain an acceptable quality of service with these offerings. He also points out that congestion at the last mile still remains a challenge. “However, the spectrum optimisation exercise, which the government and ICASA will be undertaking shortly, should alleviate some of the challenges for the last mile, as more spectrum at the right frequency band becomes available.”
Andrew also believes the coming of the undersea cables will bring with it more competition, more choice and, therefore, more competitive pricing at the wholesale bandwidth level. “Operators can now also explore the possibilities and make use of international cloud-based services which should be more competitive as a result of global economies of scale.”
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