The cellphone industry plans to invest more than $50-billion in sub-Saharan Africa over the next five years to provide more than 90% of the population with coverage, the GSM Association (GSMA) announced on Monday.
The investment will be used to extend the reach of GSM mobile networks, enhanced with GPRS, Edge and HSPA technologies, to provide a rich suite of mobile multimedia services, including internet access, the GSA announced at the Connect Africa summit in Kigali.
The GSMA is the global trade association representing more than 700 GSM cellphone operators across 218 countries worldwide.
Since sub-Saharan governments began liberalising telecommunication sectors, the GSMA estimates that the mobile industry has invested $35-billion, providing more than 500-million people — or 67% of the population — in sub-Saharan Africa with coverage.
“This surge in investment by the mobile industry has changed the lives of millions of Africans, catalysing economic development and strengthening social ties,” said Rob Conway, CEO of the GSMA.
MTN, Orange, Vodacom and Zain subsidiary Celtel are among the cellphone operators planning to invest heavily in the expansion and enhancement of their networks.
There are more than 150-million cellphone subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa today. However, a further 350-million people have cellphone coverage and are not yet directly connected. As well as extending coverage, the industry is focused on using its economies of scale to connect these people.
As the number of users grows, so too will economic prosperity, the GSMA said. It estimates that an increase of 10% points in cellphone penetration can increase the annual growth rate of GDP by up to 1,2% points.
In order to create the conditions that will maximise the benefit of this new investment, the GSMA called on governments across sub-Saharan Africa to “urgently remove” the barriers in the path of entrepreneurs.
In particular, African governments need to ensure that sufficient spectrum is available to enable the hundreds of millions of Africans, who live beyond the reach of today’s fixed networks, to gain access to cost-effective broadband services, it said.
The GSMA believes the World Radiocommunication Conference, currently meeting in Geneva, needs to reserve the 750MHz to 862MHz spectrum band for cellphone broadband services in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
In this spectrum band, radio waves can travel significant distances and provide better in-building signals, helping operators to achieve more extensive and cost-effective cellphone broadband coverage, particularly in rural areas.
“The world’s governments have an opportunity to narrow the digital divide between those who enjoy high-speed access to multimedia services today and the many people who can’t yet be economically served by broadband networks,” said Tom Phillips, chief government and regulatory affairs officer of the GSMA.
“It is important that the world’s governments set aside this spectrum in a harmonised way, enabling handset makers to achieve economies of scale, thereby reducing the cost of access devices for consumers,” he said. – I-Net Bridge