Versatile Amphibian

Nearly $2.4Bn of new investment in African telecoms infrastructure was announced in June 2012, making this the most lucrative month for the continent. Logically, this investment was concentrated on the most populous parts of the continent, with Nigeria (population c. 155Mn) and Democratic Republic of Congo (66Mn) taking $1.3Bn and $0.6Bn respectively for cellular network upgrades. Most investments are currently focused on installation of 3G Node-B infrastructure and smaller - yet still meaningful - investments were announced in Liberia, Mozambique, Botswana, Swaziland, Tanzania and Namibia. But possibly the most significant investment relative to the state of the market was in the world's newest country. ISP iBurst has commited around $1Mn to install fibre and switching in the capital, Juba. All of South Sudan's backbone and much of its access infrastructure was destroyed during the civil war, so this money, however small, is a significant step on the road to recovery. ...

Although Nigeria and South Africa received by far the largest share of the $10.2Bn of investments in African telecoms infrastructure announced in 2011, the biggest winners were citizens of Zimbabwe. In absolute terms, Nigeria ($3.3Bn) and South Africa ($1.8Bn), represent 50% of the total investment, but at $54 per person, Zimbabweans benefited from more than twice as much investment per person as Nigerians ($21) or South Africans ($37.50) and received more than double the continental average ($24). Much of the new $700Mn going into Zimbabwean telecoms was spent on mobile data services, either direct to modem or to 3G handsets, taking advantage of new sub-sea bandwidth - such as that provided by SEACOM - to provide Internet connectivity to consumers. Zimbabwe, it must also be remembered, has been a significant beneficiary of Chinese investment dollars for all manner of infrastructure projects. Worst off of the large nations were citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo ($2.75), whic...