Affordable phones, internet will raise data use - report

By David Mugabe

A new report indicates that data usage in sub-Saharan Africa will rise 17 times by 2019.

The mobility Report produced by Ericsson, a Swedish technology firm analyses the subscription and applications development using telecom and data industry intelligence.

“The past 20 years was voice, next 20 years will be about data,” said Fredrick Jejdling during the Sweden-Uganda ICT conference on Tuesday at the Kampala Serena Hotel. He said this growth will be more than the global average which will be about 10 times.

Fredrick Jejdling, Ericsson head for Sub-Saharan Africa region notes that these devices will have to be in the range of 3G enabled devices that allow the user to interact on social media.

“Growing the numbers will need partnerships and good regulation and efficiencies,” noted Jejdling.

The stellar projection for the growth of data across sub-Saharan Africa also resonates with Uganda’s growth where by June 2013, there were 17.2million fixed and mobile connections while there were 6 million users of internet out of a population of 35 million people.

Uganda’s ICT industry has grown exponentially and is currently ranked 22 in Africa and 130 in the world in the global ICT development index. There are now more people using mobile banking than bank account holders, a situation the Swedish ambassador to Uganda observed as “extremely important with knock on effects on a range of other areas.”