Africa’s mobile broadband access is superior in the world, a study by International Telecommunication Union (ITU) says.
Mobile broadband in Africa seems to be the highest in the world with statistics showing a coverage of over 95 percent in 2011, followed by the Americas.
This report named, “Trends in Telecommunication Reform 2012”, also shows great growth for Internet and cellular coverage in Africa.
According to the report, globally, the provision of mobile cellular and mobile broadband services remains very competitive at 92 percent of all markets.
The robust penetration rates for mobile cellular and mobile broadband services have particular relevance for the rollout of mobile banking services.
The immense growth, ITU says, has seen innovations such as m-banking, Internet access and application development take the front seat in the continent.
ITU report also reveals that a National broadband plan has worked for Africa — having come third after Europe and Asia-Pacific.
The report highlighted Kenya among the continent’s nations that enable broadband innovation. In the country, Internet growth is heavily attributed to the effort by the government to structure the broadband fibre network.
By the end of 2011, ITU estimated the number of mobile-cellular subscriptions reached close to 6 billion, representing a global penetration of 86.7 percent and a penetration level of 78.8 percent in developing countries. Africa currently has over 600 million mobile phone subscribers.
This reflected on the Trends in Telecommunication Reform report last year that revealed the trend to access the Internet as increasingly becoming mobile-based with over half of the 1 billion people accessing social sites, use mobile device and gadgets.
