Telecommunication Technology: Issues and Trends In West Africa

MOBILE network operators including Nigeria’s four major GSM players, MTN, Globacom, Airtel and Etisalat are among global telecommunications service providers expected to earn about $576 billion as revenues  by 2020.   These revenues are expected to come from a broader ecosystem, including areas of applications, content and advertising, which is going to be a 16 per cent rise in their revenues.   The GSM Association, which disclosed this in a report titled: The Mobile Economy 2014, noted that the trans formative effect of mobile has been made possible by significant capital investment by the mobile operators over recent years, totaling over $1 trillion in the last six years.     It informed that the mobile sector contributed $336 billion to public funding as at 2013, excluding regulatory and spectrum fees and it is projected to hit $465 billion in another six years from now.    While the mobile sector hoped to have created about 15.4 ...

OUT of about 140 countries globally surveyed by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) on household Internet penetration, Nigeria ranked 87 with 7.8 per cent penetration.     Korea Republic ranked number one globally with 98.1 per cent, followed by Qatar and Singapore in second and third position with 96.4 per cent and 86 per cent respectively.   African countries including Morrocco (29 and 46 per cent); South Africa (37 and 39.4 per cent); Egypt (44 and 34.5 per cent); Ghana (46 and 31.8 per cent); Tunisia (65 and 18.2 per cent); Namibia (68 and 16 per cent); Libya (69 and 15.9 per cent); Kenya (72 and 14.2 per cent);  Gabon (84 and 8.8 per cent) and Angola (86 and 7.8 per cent).     Nigeria, which ranked 87 with 7.8 per cent is however, ahead of countries including Indonesia; Gambia; Senegal and Mali among others.     ITU, which had already predicted that half of the world’s population will be online by 2017, noted...

Venture capital ( VC ) is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, and growth startup companies. The venture capital fund earns money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually has a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as biotechnology, IT and software. The typical venture capital investment occurs after the seed funding round as the first round of institutional capital to fund growth (also referred to as Series A round) in the interest of generating a return through an eventual realization event, such as an IPO or trade sale of the company. Venture capital is also associated with job creation accounting for 2% of US GDP. Every year, there are nearly 2 million businesses created in the USA, and 600–800 get venture capital funding. According to the National Venture Capital Association, 11% of private sector jobs come from venture backed companies and venture backed revenue accounts for 21% of US GDP. Histor...