twitteryou tubeacpRSS Feed

Airtel Africa launched its first pan-African smartphone this month, in partnership with US-based mobile chip maker Qualcomm

The launch of Airtel Red aimed to take advantage of market trends, as well as the 3G network which Airtel already has in 17 African countries, the firm said.

The June 2014 sub-Saharan African Mobility report stated that 3G technology is expected to become the dominant technology in sub-Saharan Africa by 2017, and experts suggest that mobile internet traffic across Africa will double between 2014 and 2015, and will see a 20-fold increase by the end of the decade.

The smartphone is currently available in the Seychelles, Uganda and Burkina Faso, with launches also expected in the other 14 Airtel-operating countries over the coming weeks.

The company stated they anticipate high uptake levels within the first six months.

Christian de Faria, CEO of Airtel Africa, said, "Industry research shows that data is playing a vital role in growing the smartphone uptake in sub-Saharan Africa and more so in the 17 countries where we operate.

“We are focused on migrating existing and new customers from the traditional feature phones to android smartphones to take advantage of Airtel's 3G networks and providing data connectivity to everyone.”

Most Read

Latest news