Forum: Do providers in Africa deliver enough to make the mobile internet a workable reality?

Many African business professionals make use of mobile internet through smartphones. Do internet providers and mobile operators in Africa deliver enough to make the mobile internet a workable reality? Or are there still investments to be made and work to be done?

 

Marvil Scully-Mensah, Villa sankofa - Ghana: 'I am not sure what the level of service is in other African countries but as far as Ghana goes, much more is needed in regards to Mobile and internet providers is concerned. We definately need more investment to speed things up in Ghana. People here would very much like to see better and faster internet connectioins as they wait to engage with the rest of the world.

Investing in Internet and mobile facilities is definately a winner in Africa in terms of profitability as consumers are desperately waiting for this opportunity to join the international communities. However, it needs to be affordable'

 

Robert Marshall, Alacrity Technologies - South Africa: 'Mobile connectivity is probably the primary means of connecting through Africa and as a provider writing applications for phones (mainly business based) I have seen incredible growth since 2005. As application providers, we have been dealing with bandwidth issues for a decade or more, both mobile and terrestrial, so our apps really know how to deal with low bandwidth, far more so than many first world countries.

However, the power that we can deliver to consumers around connectivity can expand exponentially if we can get to levels of real time streaming as is prevalent in the US and other first world countries, and that will need fundamental upgrades in base infrastructure by mobile providers already struggling to keep up with demand'

 

Tirus Muya Maina, Tradesters Kenya Ltd - Kenya: 'The internet and mobile technologies have significantly improved social economic development in Kenya. Despite growing consumer demand, many market uncertainties continue to cloud the future of this sector. The providers of the service are still struggling to capture the larger population to reduce the digital divide amidst influence from political arena, inflation, high cost of operation and stiff competition from foreign investor.

The potential of Africa,  is apparent with the success of applications like M-PESA, a mobile payment service introduced by Safaricom in Kenya in 2007. Development is obstructed in part by the absence of a comprehensive regulatory framework with the kinds of market-based incentives and subsidies needed to encourage investments to rural areas. The potential for Mobile Internet services providers to bypass the lack of a fixed infrastructure is huge and Expansion also is constrained by the lack of content and applications tailored to the interests of local users, limiting the usefulness of Mobile Internet services. Creation of compelling, localized content should be a top priority to service provider in African countries'

 

Roger Stroud, Talk Technical - South Africa: 'I appreciate that this is probably a marketing come-on but hey, here are my views on mobile internet in South Africa. I am a freelance storage network engineer who has worked in the UK, Germany and France, as well
as the Los Angeles area of the US and the Beijing area of China, so I have a good idea of how South Africa’s broadband compares to other mainstream industrialised countries.

I live and work in the Johannesburg suburbs and find broadband fairly slow and very expensive in comparison with other countries. I run on-line demonstrations and conferences that use integrated audio. Given the expense of travel this is a common way for International businesses to work
together, yet only when my broadband is at its best can I successfully do that here.

This is the suburbs of a major South African business city and I pay R600 per month (or more depending on data usage), which compares with R250 in the UK and R200 in the US where the speeds are over eight
times faster. The international cable links are unreliable too with frequent degradations of service and links that fail on a regular basis.

An internet connection that can fail for three days at a time loses orders and frustrates international customers who rely on a 4 to 5 hour turnaround. If South Africa wants to compete we need serious infrastructure upgrade going forward, and reliable, affordable international cable links. Network technology is no longer a frivolity. It’s essential'

 

Gregory L. Brown, Micro GLOBE Holdings - USA: 'Although the deployment of mobile services and mobile networks is on the rise in Africa, the emerging countries of the continent will remain far behind the rest of fully developed countries in quality of life, growth of technological advancements for industry, all IP related true broadband capabilities, and true connectivity to the internet for sustainability.

In order for Internet technologies to be fully appreciated and leveraged, users and industry alike must have the proper infrastructure (wired & wireless):

1. to provide fail-safe measures for continued growth
2. must be able to connect faster and reliably with all other in-country resources
3. must be able to connect and share neighboring countries resources
4. must be able to build for redundancy
5. must have continued scalability
6. must be able to integrate with new technologies
7. must be able to use the Internet and Internet Network Infrastructures for more than surfing
8. must be able to use the infrastructure to enhance there quality of life through all industries served

Africa will never reach it's full potential by continuing to use remote satellite communications services for its base infrastructure.  Mobile communications should be secondary and value adds that compliment well deployed fixed networks that tie resources together for smarter communications that improve governance,
public safety, transportation, security, defense, real-estate, commercial, telecommunications, etc.'

Lerato Lekena-Okoro, LERATO & ADAMS CONSULTING - Nigeria: 'No they don’t and still have a long way to go both in investments and work to be done. The basic problems we have in Nigeria [West Africa] are hinged on network quality and access. For those who have access, the use of the internet is capitalized on and around emails.

Heavy investments are still required for the work to be done which include:

1. Increasing interconnectivity: interconnectivity is mainly through base stations instead of the more efficient and cheaper-in-the-long-run underground fibre links. Even at that, the number of base stations is inadequate; we have just about 14,000 base stations in Nigeria.
2. Increasing down and upload speeds which inhibit the effective use of applications which might be deployed on the system.
3. Enabling a higher maintenance system for installed infrastructure: fibre links are sometimes damaged during road constructions et al and this affects connectivity at sporadic intervals.
4. Garnering an infrastructural development plan which is extensively effective into their business setups to maximize service delivery. For example, alternative energy systems to power up base stations instead of the use of generators'

 

Denise D’Arienzo, IDT Telecom - USA: ' Smartphone penetration in Africa is growing, but the current infrastructure and provider network does not allow for a low cost solution for these smartphone users to make international phone calls.  In emerging markets where internet telephony charges are prohibitive, there exists an opportunity for internet providers and mobile operators to step up their game. Net2Phone had a vision to correct this issue with Mobitalker.

Mobitalker is an application for smartphones that will allow users to make international calls using Voice over IP technology – either via the phone’s internet or 3G connection, via a local access number, or via ringback.  This product makes the mobile internet a workable reality as users can now use the Net2Phone platform to connect calls via the Internet, instead of the costly local providers’ networks'

 

This article was originally posted on Africa ICT & Telecom Network

Are you interested in Market Research, Recruitment and Business Leads?

Join the Africa Business Panel, powered by Africa Business Communities.

www.africabusinesspanel.com.