There is a lot of good news in Africa, especially in the mobile space, but regulatory and technical challenges remain for both mobile phones and broadband, industry organization the GSM Association (GSMA) said Tuesday.

The number of mobile connections has risen to 282 million, an increase of 70 million, in the last 12 months. Improved coverage has added another 46 million potential customers, according to GSMA.

Currently an average of 66 percent of the continent is covered, but the industry has set the bar higher: in five years that figure should be 90 percent. There are still about 300 million users, in rural areas, not covered.

"Reaching that goal, and serving those communities will be a great challenge", said Tom Phillips, the GSMA's chief government and regulatory affairs officer.

Key to growth on the continent has been increased competition, going from a monopoly to a duopoly, and even more operators battling for market share. But more can be done, Phillips said.

For example, Ethiopia is the only country which still maintains a monopoly for both mobile and fixed voice.

But Phillips' pet peeve is luxury tax -- which is added after regular value-added tax (VAT) -- for both mobile phones and usage in many countries.

Removing the tax will actually increase revenue, since phone sales increase, and usage goes up, the GSMA said, after conducting a survey on the subject.

The ones which have the best feel for the African market are the local carriers. High on Emirates Telecommunications Corp. (Etisalat) Chairman Mohammad Hassan Omran's list is a more stable regulatory environment.

It is common in certain areas for a regulator to accept something one day, only to alter the rules the next, and when there is a change of government there is a change of rules. "Money will not come unless there is confidence," he said.

Omran also said there is a need to relax rules for the use of foreign workers, which is not always allowed, and would ease the roll-out of networks.

Being able to make calls using is a mobile phone an important step, but getting data access at broadband speeds is as important. Only five African countries had broadband penetration of more than 1 percent at the end of last year, according to the ITU (International Telecommunication Union).

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

Whitepapers

• Secure Wireless Printing Options
• Improve Virtual Storage TCO by Comparing Vendors
• Making IT Invisible
• Best Practices for VMware ESX Server
• Virtualizing Storage for VMware Success
• Configuration Assessment: Choosing the Right Solution

View more DATA CENTER whitepapers

Webcasts

• Branch Office Trends and Best Practices
• Best Practices for Deploying WAN Optimization for Disaster Recovery
• Tips and Techniques for Remote Data Backup and Delivery
• WAN Optimization Landscape
• Oracle Database 11g: Advances in Compression, Real Application Testing and Data Guard
• Solutions to the Toughest IT Challenges in Remote Offices

View more DATA CENTER webcasts

Special Reports

• Executive Guide: Storage Heats Up
• Data Centers: At the center of the action
• Executive Guide: Virtualization Reality Check
• Executive Guide: Data Center Decisions
• Get More From Your WAN
• Network World Executive Guide: Perfecting Application Performance Management

View more DATA CENTER special reports