LAGOS: According to Frost & Sullivan (F&S), a business research and consulting firm, effective regulatory environments have made Nigeria and Ghana among the most dynamic broadband markets in sub-Saharan Africa with over 150 market participants and massive terrestrial infrastructure development. This is mainly due to the surge in mobile broadband connections in these countries New analysis from F&S's West and Central African Broadband Market finds that the market covering Nigeria, Ghana, DRC and Gabon earned revenues of approximately $1.2 billion in 2010 and estimates that this could reach $2.5 billion in 2017. The low levels of broadband penetration in the four countries indicate that there are significant growth opportunities in the short-to-long term, the firm said. Frost & Sullivan's Information and Communications Technologies Research Analyst, Mervin Miemoukanda said in a statement, “The availability of cost-effective mobile and wireless solutions will be a key market driver.” He added, “At the same time, greater demand for access to social media platforms will emerge as the most important factor for market participants to formulate their strategy for this year.” The introduction of social media platforms, coupled with growing computer-literate societies, has boosted demand for broadband connections across the region, the firm argues and as a result, the number of broadband users in these countries has gone up. The analysis concluded that mobile operators are expected to improve the quality of services through continuous infrastructure investment. It stressed that this includes network capacity upgrade and deployments of new technologies to help sustain their profit margins. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/CHZDU Tags: Broadband, Ghana, Internet, Mobile, Nigeria Section: Nigeria, Tech, West Africa
