As of end 2007, there were approximately 120 million cell phone users in Africa, with mobile phones making up about 90% of the communications market in Africa. The mobile phone market is the fastest growing in the world, increasing at around 50-60% every year, and subscribers could top 300 million as soon as 2011. However, market penetration at just over 20% is still one of the world's lowest.
Africa's poor fixed-line infrastructure has provided a huge opportunity for mobile network operators to not only provide the voice communication service of choice but to also begin to play a considerable role in Internet service provision as well, with the launch third-generation (3G) services in a number of mobile phone markets. New converged licensing has been initiated in several countries and this has caused a rise in competitive pressure in a number of important markets as mobile phone operators to tap into new service segments.
Due to increased privatisation and liberalisation in the Africa's telephony market, foreign investors have been moving quickly to take stakes in the continent's profitable market and this has resulted in a huge boost in the growth of the mobile phone sector. International players invested on the African continent include Etisalat, France Telecom, Millicom, MTN, Orascom, Portugal Telecom, Qatar Telecom, Vodacom, Vodaphone and Zain.
