East and Central Africa has experienced exponential mobile growth, despite a number of barriers to entry which are holding back operators.
This is according to Michele Scanlon, a prime consultant at Giraffe Green Communications, who was chairing the opening session of the GSM East and Central Africa conference last week in Nairobi, Kenya.
The conference is part of a world series of GSM events to promote and exhibit mobile technology. It attracted over 30 corporations from the mobile industry.
Barriers
The main focus of the conference was on increasing and sustaining mobile growth in the region by lowering barriers to entry, said Scanlon.
"The GSM Association and local operators, including MTN Uganda, repeatedly highlighted that government taxation was the greatest barrier to entry in East Africa," she said.
Another operational barrier is the unreliable power supply, said Scanlon. "There is not a consistent supply of electricity in many African countries, so most operators work with generators at their radio sites on a 24/7 basis, which adds tremendously to the cost of operations in Africa."
Growth
Despite this, she pointed out, the main difference in the region since last year is an increasing presence and growth of key regional players.
Celtel is a dominant player in East Africa, and is focusing efforts on joint ventures in the region for central and preferred purchasing policies, Scanlon stated. Celtel Africa is a subsidiary of the Kuwait mobile company MTC, which has recently acquired 100% of Sudan`s Mobitel, increasing Celtel`s subscriber numbers by 1.9 million. This is a good base for further growth in the region, added Scanlon.
MTN`s presence in the region has also increased, with its recent acquisition of individual operators in Sudan, which is part of its deal to buy Dubai-based mobile operator Investcom for $5.53 billion, she said.
"Investcom has an East African footprint that covers operations in Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia through the Areeba network," commented Scanlon.
"This acquisition is going to create GSM growth for MTN in East Africa and Africa as a whole. MTN`s footprint will increases from 11 to 21 countries, covering a population under licence that captures about 488 million people, serving more than 28 million subscribers."
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