The digital divide in Africa is narrowing. It could do little else, with just under two fixed phone lines per 100 inhabitants in 1995. But the gap is being reduced by mobile phones. New investments by regional carriers are picking up the slack from their counterparts in richer countries that have all but abandoned their commitment to telecommunications development in marginalized nations.

Mobile use in Africa has skyrocketed with cell phone subscribers outnumbering those of fixed lines in countries like Morocco at an astonishing six-to-one rate. Over 90% of all phone users in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Mauritania and Uganda use mobiles. And mobile phone users more than octupled in Nigeria to three million in just over two years. The continent leads the world in mobile phone growth.

That surge suggests that fixed line access is rapidly becoming an outdated measure of telecommunications infrastructure-unless it can manage to exploit new growth areas such as fixed wireless networks-and that follow-on services like Internet access could well focus on the roving handset, instead. In Africa, mobile phone users now outnumber fixed line ones surging to around 500 million in 2003 from 80 000 in 1993.

Internet use is also growing. From 2002 to 2003, Internet users in Africa went up an estimated 30%. Sure, penetration still nudges a tiny 2%, but the burgeoning demand bodes well for future growth.

Enter Pan-Regional Giants

Most remarkable of all is the emergence of pan-regional operators such as MTN, Orascom and Vodacom to supply mobile phone services in Africa, and the hitherto unimaginable levels of investments made by relatively unknown Asian operators and equipment makers in African locales which Western carriers have, by-and-large, avoided. The newcomers see the business case for being there.

That bodes well for accelerated telecommunications take-up and continental solutions to telecommunications shortcomings, and of course, an economic spillover to the country providing the services and gear. Take Mauritius, a French- and English- speaking island off east Africa. The government of India (which falls into the low-income category), is injecting a healthy USD 30 million into the new USD 100 million "Cyber City", the island's answer to Silicon Valley. The project focuses on moving Mauritius beyond its core sugar, tourism, textile and financial services industries into new age markets, like software. Strong ethnic ties (nearly 70% of Mauritians are of Indian descent) were a natural for India, which saw Mauritius as a stepping stone to further business in Africa and Francophone countries. Earlier efforts to diversify Mauritius's economy bore fruit in healthy annual GDP growth of 5.9% between 1973 and 1999, earning the country the nickname "African Tiger" and the fourth-highest per capita income in Africa.

South Africa's aggressive expansion in Africa is noteworthy, as well. South African operator MTN has kick-started mobile telecommunications services in Uganda, Nigeria, Rwanda, Swaziland and Cameroon. Pan-African services include mobile, broadband, fixed and payphone services in the pre- and post-paid categories (one specialized South African application tracks a runner's progress through add-on shoe chips for short-messaging times to others. MTN even has a solar-powered phone in Uganda).

Vodacom, another South African cellular company, has set up mobile service in Africa's third-largest country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and in Tanzania where its total investment tops USD 150 million (its claim to fame is enabling mobile phone calls from Mt. Kilimanjaro).

Both have grabbed lucrative opportunities from giant European carriers in retrenchment following the 3G fiasco and sluggish economic growth and which, with their bloated inventories and soaring debt levels largely stayed away from unsure spots. The newcomers' trump card includes better knowledge of the local culture, plus the extra efforts they provide for deals that would be considered chump change to behemoths.

But those businesses make money. Even in the turmoil of war or economic upheaval, communication is key. Mobile phones continued to grow in the Democratic Republic of Congo despite ongoing civil war.

"They know the environment and how to make profits there," says Michael Minges, head of the Market, Economics and Finance Unit within the Telecommunications Development arm of the ITU, the UN body focused on telecommunications standards, regulation and development. He sees such "South-South" deals driving telecommunications access growth in underserved regions over the coming years. "The developed nations lost the will to invest and are out of touch with local markets. Regional operators are stepping in and filling the gap".

But much remains to be done. Africa's robust growth leads that of Latin America and the former Soviet republics, but its jaw-droppingly low penetration rate still leaves a yawning void. Under 6% of all Africans can access telecommunications of any kind with many of those outside urban areas unable to access fixed lines. The Internet is out of reach to the vast majority of Africans.

That's why international organizations like the ITU make communication services everywhere a top priority.

Pushing Forward With Broadband Initiatives

And for most developing countries broadband - which sports single digit penetration in wealthy countries like Japan and the US anyway - remains a distant dream. But the economic benefits of broadband, like speeding small business development, are undisputable.

That's pushing business and international organizations to push for broadband in selected regions like South Africa and Uganda, as well, where fixed phone access demand has posted progress. Tele-medecine, for example, is really only feasible over a high-speed connection so that doctors across the world can work together in real-time. "The gap is today is more one of quality," explains Minges. "Without enough bandwidth you can't send files at high-speed or videoconference for tele-education or tele-medecine."

Telecentres with Internet access, and text messaging over mobile phones allows countries just coming online to get their feet wet on the web, often from devices they already have. As the first to reach the phone customer, mobile operators are eager to leverage that mindshare through feasible and affordable rural offerings that will carry over into follow-on services with higher margins. Revenue per user for broadband services is often much higher than for regular Internet use.

New wireless technologies like Wi-Fi, which are less costly and easier to install than copper now make rural Internet services feasible. Public access points using such infrastructure can be profitable at revenues of as little as USD 5 a day.

The government's role in driving ICT is also a priority for both the private and public sectors. Experience shows that if an administration truly gets behind a project and backs it up with compelling content and resources, demand can be robust.

The Republic of Korea leads the world in broadband penetration, largely because its government spearheaded efforts to boost infrastructure and use through loans and tax cuts for gear makers and spurred the creation of cybercafes to boost Internet literacy.

Developing nation governments realize that Internet use is most likely to come from such centres. ITU members have thus asked the ITU to measure subscribers from such public access points.

In several countries, prepaid cards helped drive mobile phone penetration rates. Such pay-as-you go plans lure in many more users in emerging economies than the monthly subscriptions popular in higher-income countries.

Opening Up Markets to Competition

Liberalization of telecommunication markets also plays a critical role in bridging the digital divide. New entrants can provide sought-after services like Internet access that the government-owned operators have been slow to offer.

Teledensity in Nigeria grew fourfold, for example, when the government gave the green light to three new mobile carriers.

For businesses eyeing the exploding business opportunity in emerging economies, ITU helps pave the way for investment by imparting invaluable information about local laws and regulatory conditions, the key role of involving the community and opportunities and challenges for new carriers.

Equally important for telecommunications development is a regulatory body to oversee those new services, ensure competitive costs and offerings, and resolve disputes when operators overstep.

ITU plays a critical role in spurring such regulatory reform, through guidance in its reports like its well-known series "Trends in Telecommunication Reform" and by bringing the world's regulators together for the annual Global Symposium for Regulators.

The organization also helps spur such growth through seminars and workshops focusing on subjects like tariffs and interconnectivity, appropriate technology and universal access.

While the landscape is still a long way from being level, there is good news: in 1992 only 5 African countries had established separate regulatory agencies. By 2004, this number rose to 40, meaning that more than 75% of African countries now have a regulatory agency in place to promote the development of ICTs for all. Globally there are 124 such regulatory agencies.

In parallel over half of around 200 operators are now fully or partly privatized; in Africa almost two out of five incumbent telecommunication companies have been privatized and many more are slated to be so over the next few years.

Almost 40% of African countries have opened up their markets to some form of competition in basic services (local, long distance and international). The number of African countries with competitive operators active in the mobile sector has grown from 53 per cent in 2001 to 73 per cent in 2003.

The challenge for Africa is to sustain its dizzying mobile growth. There are some concerns that market demand is nearing saturation at current levels of coverage and pricing. However many others believe that demand is nowhere close to being met and forecasting 200 million mobile subscribers by 2010 (or 4 times the existing level).