Telecommunication Boom: This Time for Africa

There’s an ongoing mobile technology economic boom in Africa that’s bringing in a slew of new enterprises from from banking to agriculture to healthcare

Here is Killian Fox of the Guardian (hat tip Mark Perry)

My survey underlined a simple fact: Africa has experienced an incredible boom in mobile phone use over the past decade. In 1998, there were fewer than four million mobiles on the continent. Today, there are more than 500 million. In Uganda alone, 10 million people, or about 30% of the population, own a mobile phone, and that number is growing rapidly every year. For Ugandans, these ubiquitous devices are more than just a handy way of communicating on the fly: they are a way of life.

It may seem unlikely, given its track record in technological development, but Africa is at the centre of a mobile revolution. In the west, we have been adapting mobile phones to be more like our computers: the smartphone could be described as a PC for your pocket. In Africa, where a billion people use only 4% of the world's electricity, many cannot afford to charge a computer, let alone buy one. This has led phone users and developers to be more resourceful, and African mobiles are being used to do things that the developed world is only now beginning to pick up on.

Read the rest here

Chart from McKinsey Quarterly

What’s even more interesting is that even in stateless and civil strife torn Somalia, the mobile industry has been flourishing. (much of this civil strife are due to foreign intervention, e.g. the US CIA has been exposed for maintaining several prison cells)

According to the BBC.co.uk (bold emphasis mine)

The business success story of the last 20 years has been the growth of the mobile telecommunications sector.

Somali telecoms expert Ahmed Farah says the first mobile telephone mast went up in Somalia in 1994, and now someone can make a mobile call from anywhere in the country.

There are nine networks to choose from and they offer services from texting to mobile internet access.

All this required investment in infrastructure, but, as Mr Farah argues, Somali investors were betting on the need for people to stay in touch in times of crisis.

More from Wikipedia, (bold emphasis mine)

Somalia now offers some of the most technologically advanced and competitively priced telecommunications and Internet services in the world. After the start of the civil war, various new telecommunications companies began to spring up and compete to provide missing infrastructure. Funded by Somali entrepreneurs and backed by expertise from China, Korea and Europe, these nascent telecommunications firms offer affordable mobile phone and Internet services that are not available in many other parts of the continent. Customers can conduct money transfers and other banking activities via mobile phones, as well as easily gain wireless Internet access.

After forming partnerships with multinational corporations such as Sprint, ITT and Telenor, these firms now offer the cheapest and clearest phone calls in Africa. These Somali telecommunication companies also provide services to every city, town and hamlet in Somalia. There are presently around 25 mainlines per 1,000 persons, and the local availability of telephone lines (tele-density) is higher than in neighboring countries; three times greater than in adjacent Ethiopia. Prominent Somali telecommunications companies include Golis Telecom Group, Hormuud Telecom, Somafone, Nationlink, Netco,Telcom and Somali Telecom Group. Hormuud Telecom alone grosses about $40 million a year. Despite their rivalry, several of these companies signed an interconnectivity deal in 2005 that allows them to set prices, maintain and expand their networks, and ensure that competition does not get out of control.

"Investment in the telecom industry is one of the clearest signs that Somalia's economy has continued to grow despite the ongoing civil strife in parts of the southern half of the country". The sector provides important communication services, and in the process thus facilitates job creation and income generation.

Somalia also has several private television and radio networks. Prominent media organizations in the country include the state-run Radio Mogadishu, as well as the privately-owned Horseed Media,Garowe Online and Radio Laascaanood.

Talk about how the free markets in telecoms has thrived and even blossomed under a stateless society. And how the beauty of competition has worked to give African consumers one of the lowest prices at best quality of services.

Filipinos should stop bickering over PLDT-DGTL buyout and study the lessons of Africa. If we want true competition then we should simply get government’s hands off the industry (repeal Congressional franchise, allow 100% foreign ownership and abolish the NTC)

As for the Mobile-telecom boom, Shakira in the music video below has an apropos theme for the mobile revolution boom in Africa: “This Time for Africa”