The recent carrier pigeon race that proved highly embarrassing to South Africa’s biggest web firm Telekom has also prompted a debate on the state of broadband connections here. A recent UN report on developments in IT and communications had some disheartening news regarding this.

The report states that mobile phone market is witnessing a huge boom in South Africa. In fact, the country has the world’s fastest growing mobile phone market. However, broadband is yet to catch up and remains expensive and very slow even now.

A study of the Information Communications and Technology sectors worldwide showed that Africa and developing nations like India are showing remarkable growth in mobile telephony. The reach of mobile phones has expanded with leaps and bounds, but the same cannot be said for broadband.

In Africa, mobile phone subscriptions have zoomed to 550% from 54 million users to 350 million users over a five-year span ending 2008. With an effective broadband infrastructure in place, this would also have translated into healthy growth in the broadband industry. However, lack of top-of-the-line, high quality fibre optic cabling is stalling progress in this sector.

Broadband is not only sluggish here but also highly expensive, with bills touching an unimaginable $1,300 per month in locations like Burkina Faso and Swaziland. This is for a connection that is demonstrably slower than the carrier pigeon connection.

According to Torbjorn Fredriksson, who heads the ICT Analysis Section at the UNCTD, all is not lost yet. The significant growth of mobile telephony even in non-conducive economic conditions is a heartening fact. It is believed that increased growth here will slowly permeate into broadband also. With liberalisation, economy price handsets and improved mobile services, mobile telephony is poised to grow even further.

In addition, with initiatives being taken to lay international fibre optic cables through Saharan Africa, broadband may soon improve, in terms of both quality and penetration. Here in the UK, the internet has become a basic need for most of us, and with the advent of networks offering unlimited mobile broadband, it can be accessed whenever and wherever a person wants, this makes the thought of people not having access currently extraordinary.