Telecom Lead Africa: West and Central African broadband
markets covering Nigeria, Ghana, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Gabon
have earned revenues of approximately $1.2 billion in 2010. The revenue is
likely to reach $2.5 billion in 2017.
The low levels of broadband penetration in the four
countries indicate that there are significant growth opportunities in the
short-to-long term.
With the deployment of advanced technologies, such as 3G
networks in DRC and Gabon, mobile broadband subscribers are expected to outpace
fixed broadband connections in these two countries over the next 5 years.
The availability of cost-effective mobile and wireless solutions will be a key
market driver. At the same time, greater demand for access to social media
platforms will emerge as the most important factor for market participants to
formulate their strategy for this year,” said Frost & Sullivan’s Information
and Communications Technologies Research Analyst Mervin Miemoukanda.
Increasing demand for broadband services in the region has helped reduce the
cost of customer-premises equipment, as well as smartphones. Internet service
providers (ISPs) have introduced affordable Chinese customer-premises equipment
to render broadband services to consumers.
Broadband providers are expected to increase partnerships with equipment
vendors to reduce the cost of customer-premises equipment. The impact of this
driver is expected to be high throughout the forecast period, as mobile
operators are shifting focus on growing their data offerings.
Emergence of social media platforms, coupled with computer-literate societies,
has boosted demand for broadband connections.
The increase in broadband users has been because mobile operators have deployed
advanced technology networks. As consumers are becoming more aware of the
benefits of social media platforms, this driver is expected to remain high.
With decreased bandwidth costs in the region, the uptake of broadband services
is expected to increase significantly. More and more households, and small and
medium companies, are expected to sign up for broadband services. As voice
revenues have been declining, mobile operators are expected to shift focus on
broadband services to maintain profit margins.
Mobile operators are expected to improve the quality of services through
continuous infrastructure investment, such as network capacity upgrade and
deployments of new technologies; develop innovative solutions such as cyber
cafés for broadband services targeting the mass market and focus on enterprise
solutions.
