African telecom market is increasingly grabbing attention because mobile subscription population in the region is only 260 million or 27 percent of the total population.

Korea’s state-invested trade agency, said in a recent report that African nations were focusing on mobile network building instead of costly fixed line network. On top of that, service rates could be cut far more and mobile penetration is low in the region. All in all, the region has every reason to grow fast in the future, said KOTRA.
 
The report said that WCDMA and WiMAX are competing in the region. If WiMAX wins, Korea’s WiBro technology, equipment, device, mobile solution and content will be in high demand, said KOTRA.
 
Wireless carriers around world are heading for the region, too. Not only those global players like Vodafone of U.K., and Etisalat of U.A.E. but also mobile operators from emerging markets such as Reliance Communications of India and China Mobile of China are jumping on the boat.
 
A new phenomenon is the emergence of wireless carriers offering services to not a single country but to the region as a whole to eliminate the inconvenience of international businessmen to carry more than one handset when they move from one to one of the 50 countries in the region. Celtell Kenya and Vodacom, a South African provider, unveiled one network project and pan-Africa wireless communications service plan respectively.  

Source:telecomskorea