The Government of Zambia is set to construct new mobile network towers as an initiative to boost communication infrastructure across the country to spur internet and mobile phone connectivity. The construction of these telecom towers will also help tap on mobile economies since there decreased mobile gadget and higher internet speed connectivity is fueling more usage of mobile phone as browsing tools in the region.
The mobile infrastructure project was announced by the government this week. Zambian President Edgar Lungu has said in a statement that the new telecom towers project will reduce problems related with telephone and Internet connectivity.
According to a survey (Mobile Africa 2015 study) carried out by GeoPoll Survey Company and World Wide Worx organization, there is a rise in the use of mobile phone browsing in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana. Zambia records 10 million subscribers and of these, 6 million have access to internet services. Thus, the new initiative could also help boost the number.
Nigeria is on the lead, followed by South Africa then Kenya. Poor landline infrastructure is making more Africans to use mobile phones for browsing as compared to people in other regions who use laptops or desktops.
According to a report released by Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC), Nigeria has over 140 subscribers for mobile phone services with almost 82 million of the same using the internet.
A Report by Kenya Communication Authority indicated that 34 million kenyas have subscribed to mobile services while Uganda has 19 million subscriptions.
Construction bid for the new telecom towers was won by Huawei Technologies a Chinese Firm and it will be supervised by Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA).
