Connecting the unconnected
According to McKinsey shareholder returns on telecom assets are down 60% over the last 4 years in the Middle East Africa (MEA) region. ( http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/telecommunications/our-insights : Telecommunications industry at Cliffs edge). The main culprit is stagnating growth. MEA includes mature markets like those in the Middle East where (mobile) penetration levels are close to 150% as well as high growth markets like Ethiopia where penetration is below 50%. It is thus not useful to undertake analyses on an aggregate basis. The mature markets are where data revenues are starting to show signs of rapid growth –but the markets are saturated. In many African markets – particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa [1] – the decline in ARPU (average revenue per user) is no longer offset by subscriber growth and there is soon to be a decline in revenues and profitability. In order to profit from the explosion of data services mobile network operat