Informa Telecoms & Media (ITM) expects Africa to have 250mn broadband connections by 2015 - over cellular networks
By 2015, one fifth of African internet traffic will be carried by cellular networks, compared with a global equivalent of just three per cent. Informa Telecoms & Media (ITM) expects the broadband experience in Africa to become increasingly nomadic with the number of broadband connections over cellular networks exceeding 250 million by the end of 2015, compared with 15 million fixed connections, of which 70 per cent will be DSL.
Results from the survey indicate that enterprise mobility services will play an important part in the future strategies of many operators, and especially in the region’s more developed markets.
Competition
In a competitive marketplace and there are few more competitive telecoms markets in the world than those in Nigeria, Tanzania and South Africa – it is important that carriers can differentiate either in terms of network quality or products. Informa believes that the digitisation of Africa can only become a reality if the customer experience of internet services is good.
A supply of local content is pivotal to this customer experience: The demand for highly-valued and relevant content is a major driver for Internet take-up. But the primary sources of content in Africa remain international and there is a paucity of local content available.
