Mobile data

In low- and middle-income countries – where fixed broadband penetration is low – 57% of those who used the internet in the previous three months did so exclusively from a handheld mobile device¹³. In many of these countries, fixed broadband infrastructure is poorly developed and its cost is prohibitive. Meanwhile other cities close to the coast are connected to the main submarine cables on the north and west coasts of the continent (SAT3, WASC, ACE and MainOne), with flagship projects such as the “African Fiber Optic Backbone” (BAFO), which lays the foundations for a neutral infrastructure from North to South, East to West across the continent.

It is also interesting to note that the coastal countries connected to the four fibre optic submarine cables (SAT3/WASC, ACE, MainOne, and WACS) are among the best connected on the continent, and the countries with the lowest costs for users (increased competitiveness of operators) despite the low deployment of terrestrial cables.

Countries located on the coastline, close to fibre optic cables, have faster access to a de facto cheaper connection. Since 2010, Africa has been catching up on its access to submarine fibre optic cables. In addition to the four submarine cable projects (CSM) mentioned in the commentary, which link West Africa to the Americas and Europe in particular, other initiatives should be noted. For example, the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) is a 10,000 km fibre optic network link- ing South Africa to Sudan. In operation since 2010, EASSy has expanded internet access to 20 coastal and landlocked African countries and has reduced broadband internet costs by 90%.

Comparatively, the cost and download speeds of mobile data are improving for the African continent, further encouraging its uptake¹⁴. Mobile internet connectivity offers significant potential for economic growth in Africa. The subject of whether an increase in mobile broadband penetration in Africa yields a corresponding  increase of of GDP per capita is under debate. In lower income countries, the impact is weak, but in others it has been cited at up to 2.5% increase in GDP for a 10% increase in mobile penetration¹⁵.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, over the five years up to 2019, mobile operators invested on average $8 billion a year to develop 3G and 4G networks, This is compared with total infrastructure spend of approximately $60 billion per year for the entire African continent¹⁶. Coverage is much more likely to be concentrated in African cities, as they are more likely to be closer to global internet infrastructure and see greater amounts of communications investment.

It is not reasonable to expect 5G technology to be widely deployed in Africa in the near future. Connection of 4G, for example, is still in the early stages of mass-market rollout, where the relatively low adoption is related to price, even where infrastructural investment is high. The development of 5G technology is associated with new types of digital interaction, because it can perform the same functions as 4G, but faster, more reliably, and at a much larger scale. 5G allows for the development of growing data-driven technologies, especially in relation to economies currently powered by 2G or 3G. It can transform the economy and society, and can also be used to leapfrog fixed broadband infrastructure, which is not very well developed in African contexts.

Although it has not yet been formalised, it is antic- ipated that, by 2025, commercial 5G services will be present in at least seven Sub-Saharan African markets, including Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, equivalent to 3% of total mobile connections between them¹⁷. The GSMA argues that such a lag in the adoption of 5G will allow the technology to mature and be fully tested before adoption, as well as allow the price of associated equipment to decrease with scale. It argues that governments should anticipate the development of their digital services with next-generation connectivity in mind¹⁸.