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Smart devices transform Internet access in Africa

3rd June 2014

By: Natasha Odendaal

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

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As Africa continues to pursue its ambition of becoming a connected continent, mobile phones, particularly smartphones, are likely to become central to consumers accessing the Internet, changing the way business is undertaken.

Communications and technology services giant Ericsson’s latest Mobility Report found that the mobile phone had become the leading communications device in the sub-Saharan consumer market, with phones now used for a variety of activities generally performed on a computer or laptop in more developed regions.

“The rapid global and regional uptake of smartphones has changed the way people communicate and use the Internet … [and] will transform all other industries,” the report pointed out.

Consumers believed that mobile services could enhance activities such as shopping, banking and leisure time, with mobile applications developed to meet any entertainment, communications, utility and productivity needs.

Mobile services were also changing industry roles, improving sectors such as agriculture, education, transportation and healthcare, as well as communications with government and local authorities, while assisting in social improvements in sub-Saharan Africa.

“Sub-Saharan [African] mobile consumers use their devices throughout the day, in different locations and for a range of activities. The growing trend for anytime, anywhere access to services and features is a key driver of mobile broadband use in the region,” the report noted.

Head of Ericsson South Africa Magnus Mchunguzi said a standout trend emerging from the report this year was the ever-increasing uptake in mobile banking and social media.

The financial sector was a key area in which mobile phones had transformed consumers’ behaviours, promoting financial inclusion  – and sub-Saharan Africa was leading the world.

“The growing need to be financially independent and increasing mobile penetration is driving the use of mobile phones as a banking channel … with traditional banking services [in effect] ported into the mobile spectrum,” Mchunguzi said.

Mobile banking had provided consumers with cheaper access to their finances, owing to a reduced need to travel and the lower overall cost of using a mobile phone for financial transactions, while offering additional services such as health insurance and lending, the ability to pay or receive salaries and pay for services online.

Further, mobile banking had moved beyond urban centres to peripheral surroundings and beyond, with significant uptake and use in rural areas, where 75% of the sub-Saharan African population lived.

Further, about 58% of mobile users in the region showed an interest in using mobile banking and mobile wallets in future.

The “rise in sophistication” of social-networking platforms had also played a role in the growth of mobile traffic, with 74% of sub-Saharan Africa social network users sending messages to friends, 62% checking their friends’ updates, 46% uploading photos/videos to social media and 15% streaming content from these platforms.

The broader and increasing access to increasingly low-cost smart devices would have a ripple effect on data traffic, as the smartphone becomes the consumer’s computer, bank, social platform, school, camera and global positioning system, besides others, which would further drive growth in access to Internet and improved networks in the region.

At the end of 2013, sub-Saharan Africa had a 70% mobile penetration rate and was “rapidly closing in” on the global mobile penetration rate of 92%.

By the end of 2014, Ericsson forecast that there would be over 635-million subscriptions in sub-Saharan Africa. This was predicted to rise to about 930-million by the end of 2019.

Smartphone penetration, which was only about 15% currently, was expected to increase to between 30% and 40% within the next three years, Mchunguzi said.

The region’s mobile data traffic was expected to grow about twenty-fold between the end of 2013 and the end of 2019. Globally, mobile data traffic was forecast to jump ten-fold during the same period.

With digital technology fast becoming “a part of everyday life” in sub-Saharan Africa, improved network performance would be “imperative” as increased traffic strained existing networks.

The increase in affordable smartphones in sub-Saharan Africa’s mobile market would contribute to a rise in third-generation (3G) and fourth-generation (4G) technologies, with 75% of mobile subscriptions in sub-Saharan Africa expected to be on 3G- or 4G-enabled networks by the end of 2019.

“With the growing middle-class, low-cost smartphones entering the region’s mobile market and mobility becoming integral to people’s lives, WCDMA/HSPA [wideband code division multiple access/high-speed packet access] and long-term evolution are increasingly the technologies of choice,” the report indicated.

However, the dominance of lower-income consumers using second-generation-enabled handsets in the market meant global system for mobile communications, or GSM, would remain the dominant technology in the region until 2018.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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