03
Access
Access and networks
03.1 Mobile
03.1 Mobile
Mobile telephony replaced landline calling very quickly in Africa, due to the lack of quality fixed infrastructure. The continent is expected to be home to more than 1.2 billion mobile subscribers by 2021. As with 2G and 3G technologies, 4G/LTE is developing at a steady pace. If 5G and its promise of ushering in ultrafast mobile services on a large-scale is still a distant prospect, some countries are hoping to be pioneers and have begun trials.
Mobile phone use is booming Suffering from a lack of fixed infrastructures, Africa as a whole was quick to leave behind landline calling and focus instead on mobile. By 2015, there were a billion mobile subscribers on the continent, which is a good sign of how massively African countries embraced cellular technology, even if actual [...]
Smartphone
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Access and networks
03.2 Smartphone
03.2 Smartphone
Africa’s smartphone market continues to grow, with close to 90 million units sold in 2017. The state of competition is rather different from what we find in Western markets, with heavy emphasis on services. And it is Transsion, a Chinese company unknown in the West that has overtaken global leader Samsung for the first time, to rise to top spot.
Smartphone numbers growing, but feature phones still holding their own Close to 90 million smartphones were sold in Africa in 2017, in an overall stable market. If close to 40% of the handsets sold are now smartphones, in tough economic times due in part to wildly fluctuating exchange rates, cheaper feature phones are still a mainstay, [...]
FTTH
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Access and networks
03.3 FTTH
03.3 FTTH
FTTH network rollouts got off to a very slow start in Africa, despite the prevalence of wireless networks. In 2017, there were close to 1 million FTTH subscribers across the continent. The growing use of data services and the development of the middle class, confined largely to cities, have created opportunities to deploy robust and scalable networks capable of delivering superfast services, but also of enabling smart city initiatives.
A region that was slow to commit to FTTH Unlike other parts of the world, such as Asia or the Middle East, where FTTH network rollouts have mushroomed, fibre deployments have only just begun in a few countries in Africa, including Morocco, South Africa, Gabon, Angola and Mauritius, and mainly in major cities. But users [...]
TV
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03.4
TV
Digitisation spurred by satellite, sluggish digital transformation for terrestrial broadcasting
Access and networks
03.4 TV
03.4 TV
Sub-Saharan Africa’s TV market is in dire need of growth outlets. But the lack of concrete plans to engage a digital transition is seriously undermining any growth potential. The situation is especially dire with terrestrial broadcasting networks which are vital, and so penalising national broadcasting industries as well as mobile operators awaiting the digital dividend.
A potentially massive addressable market Very high in North Africa, TV ownership levels are still quite low in Sub-Saharan Africa. The expected rise in the number of TV households naturally means strong growth potential for the TV market. The average percentage of households in Sub-Saharan Africa that own a TV is forecast to rise from [...]
