#Bandwidth speed test in malawi upgrade

'It is clear that they have an advantage,' Schaaper said: 'They have the knowledge, the personnel infrastructure, they know about pricing.' A negative consequence is that they have no difficulties displacing smaller, local competitors: 'Of course, this has a negative effect on prices,' Schaaper said. In the meantime, however, large African providers - such as MTN from Nigeria or Telkom from South Africa - have also established themselves in many countries of the continent. Because the languages of the former colonial powers are widely spoken in Africa, it was easy for European companies like Vodafone, Orange and Altice Portugal or the Indian Airtel to conquer the markets. Businesswoman Tabu Kitta finds cellular prices a challenge Image: Mirriam Kaliza/DW Who are the providers? No private sector competition to the state-owned 'Ethiotelecom' is allowed. Schaaper quotes the low number of competitors in the market as another important factor: 'If there are only one or two providers in a country, they have little incentive to lower prices,' he said.Ī third factor is much more difficult to prove with data: mobile phone prices also depend on the policies of the individual country: 'Is the government willing to help providers? Is the government willing to make access more affordable to the general public and help cover remote areas? And this changes from country to country,' said Martin Schaaper.Įthiopia is an exception because its mobile telephony is in public hands. What is more, in Africa many regions are difficult to access - it is particularly expensive to set up infrastructure there.' 'This calls for constant investment, which has to be refinanced.

#Bandwidth speed test in malawi upgrade

Read more: Africa's Mobile Gender Gap: Millions of African women still offline Many reasons for high pricesĪ major cost factor for providers is the infrastructure: 'They had to upgrade from 2G to 3G to 4G and now 5G,' said UN telecommunications expert Schaaper. There too, mobile internet is many times more expensive than would be appropriate in view of the country's economic power. In Malawi the equivalent cost is 87%.īenin and Chad's pricing also diverges significantly from the UN recommendation. The United Nations recommends that this amount of data should cost no more than 2% of gross national income per capita. One gigabyte of mobile data here costs an average of $27.41, according to Cable UK. Malawi is an extreme example for inflated prices. Read more: How China benefits from Africa's smartphone boom Malawi's extremes 'It's getting more affordable in most parts of Africa, especially if you look at the price of data in comparison to gross national income per capita,' Schaaper said. The tendency is nevertheless for a positive adjustment. By that measure, prices in Africa are thus much higher than in other parts of the world, and especially compared to industrialized countries, he explained. 'Since incomes in Africa are low and the price of mobile prices are generally quite high, if people express that in a ratio, the difference becomes even bigger,' Martin Schaaper from the United Nations agency International Telecom Union (ITU) told DW, whose team regularly analyses developments in the telecommunications market. Only the American continent has higher prices. On average, African providers charge $3.30 per gigabyte, as shown by a worldwide survey by British provider Cable UK.

The costs are a challenge for most Africans. 'The prices for mobile data are indeed a challenge for many Malawians.' Only in America is mobile data more expensive Kitta estimates that she spends a total of about $70 (€56) a month to go online. 'On a good day, I spend about three dollars for a one-day data bundle,' she said. Read more: Ethiopians are dipping into digital wallets Malawi has the most expensive mobile internet rates in Africa. There are days, however, when businesswoman and press officer Kitta has to do without the internet. On a good day, I watch videos online,' Kitta told DW. 'Everything I do revolves around using the internet. The smartphone and the internet play the same crucial role for Tabu Kitta as they do for most Africans in their 30s: