Article
Africa is the first continent to have more mobile phone users than fixed-line subscribers. The continent’s mobile phone use has increased at a rate of 65% annually – about twice the global average. Top providers are MTC (Celtel), MTN, Millicom, Atlantique Telecom, Orascom, Orange, Vodacom, Comium Mobile and Wataniya Telecom. According to Portio Research, approximately 14% of Africans now use mobile phones – amazing, when you consider that John Nasasira, the Ugandan Minister of Works, Housing and Communications, told a group of delegates at a telecom conference that “more than 50% of Africans have never made a phone call”. This general article, with photos, looks at the African mobile boom.