Africa is set to invest heavily in broadband, with the cumulative investment in ADSL and wireless broadband infrastructure expected to reach US$1.1 billion by 2011. This investment excludes customer equipment costs, says African ICT research house a BMI-TechKnowledge.

"These investment figures exclude investments that GSM and fixed line operators are expected to make in their core networks for the provision of voice and other data services, which will also be leveraged to provide broadband data services," says Richard Hurst, a BMI-T analyst and co-author of the report.

Stephane Tchies, who co-authored the report with Hurst says in general, wireless technologies will dominate broadband connections in Africa, resulting in increased uptake of wireless broadband services.

This is because many African countries traditionally have low penetration of fixed line infrastructure and wireless networks are more cost effective and faster to roll out.

"We expect telecoms operators to prefer investing in wireless technologies because they are significantly cheaper, she says.

Crystal-balling 2011

The report says the number of broadband connections, both fixed and wireless will reach over 7 million by 2011, with DSL subscribers accounting for close to 3.7 million.

By 2011, dial-up connections will dramatically drop from the current base of 76% to 17%, while DSL grows from 26% to 43% of the broadband market share, he says.

Fixed wireless broadband connections (using technologies such as iBurst) will also see a big leap, going from 2% to 18%. Cellular connections will grow from 2% to 21% she says.

Basic Internet access and the ability to deliver voice services will be the driving force of the uptake of broadband services in Africa, Tchies says.

Tchiees adds that North Africa is expected to benefit considerably from the increased uptake of broadband, while the sub-Saharan markets are expected to remain the same due to the current lack of international capacity, Tchies says.

In North Africa we are seeing a healthy uptake of services with Morocco reporting 350,000 ADSL subscribers and Egypt 150,000 while the rest of the continent broadband is starting to gain traction," she says.

South Africa also expects to see quantum leap in broadband adoption by 2010, when the country will host the 2010 FIFA World Cup Soccer.

Currently, there are five undersea cable projects in various stages of development in the African continent. The cable projects are to provide addo provide additional bandwidth to African countries, ensuring cheaper access to bandwidth.