In countries like India and Africa, mobile subscription has been on a steady rise for the past few years. A recent report released by the United Nations shows this encouraging trend to be a worldwide phenomenon.

Africa happens to be the fastest growing market for mobile subscriptions. In the period between 2003 and 2008, the number of mobile users increased from approximately 54 million to nearly 350 million, which means a staggering growth of 550%.

This is encouraging news for the industry as a whole. However, the problem is with the speed and price of broadband services. In far off places like Swaziland and Burkina Faso, the connectivity charges are unusually high at one thousand and three hundred dollars per month. Also due to lack of proper network, the speed of broad band services is very slow.

Not only this, the network of fibre optics to connect Africa to the rest of the world is also inadequate. So much so that Sub-Saharan Africa is completely neglected and there is hardly any international network.

Torbjorn Fredriksson, Head of the ICT Analysis Section at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, has struck an optimistic note and commented that the fast rate of growth of mobile subscription is here to stay and that it will further get better because with liberalization and the global market opening up, the price barrier will automatically narrow down.

In addition, the main hindrance in broadband services, which is the absence of fibre optics to connect Africa to the rest of the world, is bound to be removed with new initiatives being adopted recently.

The internet has become a basic need for most of us, we like our laptops deals and our pay as you go dongles, which offer access to mobile broadband networks whenever and wherever. We look upon broadband access as a ‘utility’; this makes the thought of people not having access a difficult concept.