The rates of penetration in Africa have a “colossal disparity” between them, says Frost & Sullivan.
Frost & Sullivan, the analyst firm, has recently stated that the mobile technology market in Africa is seeing an exceptionally large penetration rate when compared to that of fixed communications.
The difference between the penetration of these two techs in the continent was described as a “colossal disparity”.
On the side of mobile technology, the penetration is considerable enough that it has nearly reached complete saturation in Africa. On the other hand, there is a serious lack of competition in African countries when it comes to fixed communication. This has caused a lack of innovation for consumers in that second form of communication and has, therefore, reduced the appeal to residents. Mobile devices, on the other hand, have ever improving prices and convenient offerings as a result of competition, which has made it the tech of choice.
Telecommunications markets, such as mobile technology, were recently reviewed by Frost & Sullivan.
The research was conducted through each region of the continent last year and determined that mobile communications had already arrived at 96.4 percent of the subscriber market. Comparatively, that same figure for fixed communications was a tiny 3.6 percent.
According to the firm, as fixed line communications are offered to consumers exclusively through state owned entities, this has severely hindered its ability to grow its share of the market in African countries. Being state owned means that there is no competition and very little funding for the development of infrastructure or for investment. The motivation to improve services is nearly nonexistent due to the fact that there is no competition.
As better prices and far better and broader services are available to consumers through mobile technology, it seems to be the obvious choice for nearly everyone. That said, mobile service providers still have challenges of their own, said Naila Govan Vassen, an information and communication technologies industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan. Since there is near saturations in these markets, it means that network operators are now finding themselves having to seek out new revenue streams.
