The african telecommunications sector in 2009

The next growth frontier

2 novembre 2009

Economic activity has slowed worldwide with the onset of the global
economic crisis. Although a number of African countries entered into a
recession in the second quarter of 2009, the global slowdown has had a lesser
impact on African continent than in other parts of the world. Consequently,
international investors are paying increasing attention to Africa as the next
growth frontier.

"Africa is the next global growth frontier and the telecommunications
industry is a key driver of this economic expansion," says Frost & Sullivan
Research Analyst Mpho Moyo. "Key areas that will shape developments over the next few years will be governments’ focus on deregulation and privatisation, infrastructural developments, the provision and adoption of new applications and services."

While the telecommunications infrastructure in many African countries
remains under-developed, several regulatory and infrastructural changes have
taken place to create opportunities for vendors and network operators to
provide new applications and services. For instance, several undersea cable
projects are underway that are expected to increase the availability of
bandwidth, leading to a significant reduction in telecommunications prices.

"In 2009, the SEACOM undersea cable landed, and this will be followed by
the EASSy cable in 2010 and other projects like SAFE," explains Moyo. "In
addition, there is a widespread adoption of next-generation-network IP
technologies that enable advanced communications solutions and services like
unified communications and managed services."

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