In contrast, there are only about 20,000 Internet service subscribers in Ethiopia, and 0 mobile Internet (accessing the Internet on cellphones) users under a policy instituted by the dictatorial regime of Meles Zenawi that is intended to keep the people of Ethiopia in the dark. Other African nations such as South Africa strive to make information technology accessible to ever one as the following report shows.
THE massive growth of internet usage in South Africa will see mobile internet users in South Africa rise to 15 million in the country according to a report released by a leading information and computer technology firm.
BMI-TechKnowledge also projected mobile internet browsing and mobile e-mail access to rise in the next five years.
“There will be 15-million mobile internet users in South Africa by 2013,” said the organization.
The report that BMI-TechKnowledge has released is entitled SA Consumer Handset Model and Cellular Activities.
Ryan Smit, consumer market analyst at BMI- TechKnowledge, and author of the report, said mobile internet browsing and mobile e-mail access are expected to increase rapidly and forecasted that more than 15 million users would access the internet directly or indirectly on their handsets by the same year.
South Africa’s mobile phone industry has grown immensely in recent years.
According to a recent survey, the country is now the world’s fourth fastest growing cellular communications market, accounting for 80 percent of the population, which equals more than 39 million users.
This represents a market value of US$2.4 billion. It is by far the fastest growing such industry in the whole African continent.
Cutthroat competition characterizes the mobile phone industry in South Africa where three mobile networks, Vodacom (the biggest in the country in terms of subscribers), Mobile Telephone Networks (MTN) and Cell C, operate.
Last year, cellphone number portability was introduced across the three networks.
This enables subscribers to change from one network to another while retaining their cellular phone numbers.
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FORUM | 2 Comments
It says “there will be… in 2013″ and not now. So it is pretty premature to make this a story now. How would any body know there will be 0 subscribers in 2013 in Ethiopia. Infact, I wish we remain at 0 by then. This is one technology that we should not be too excited about at least for the next few years. Elias, this is lame.
[Reply]
December 1st, 2008 at 6:07 PM
Dear Editor,
I compeletly agree with your accessment of internet usage in Ethiopia. But I am affraid that your report on “0 mobile Internet” is wrong. I, for one, was using a 3G service provided by ETC during my visit to Ethiopia last September. Actually, the mobile internet connection speed was even better than the dial-up alternative though it is expensive for an average Ethiopian. If I correctly remember, the charge was 1 Ethiopian cent per KB of data received and sent. That is, to watch a 5MB youtube video it costs around 50 ETB, which is quite expensive.
Best,
Dagem
[Reply]
December 1st, 2008 at 6:39 PM