Africa is now the fastest-growing region in the world in terms of mobile connections and is expected to show first-quarter growth this year that will see the region total more mobile connections than the US and Canada. The findings are from the latest Wireless Intelligence report that puts Africa at the top of the global growth table, recording a 38 percent growth rate in 2007. This was ahead of the Middle East (33 percent) and Asia Pacific (29 percent). Meanwhile, in the first-quarter 2008, Africa’s connection base is expected to reach more than 280 million, which will overtake the US and Canada (277 million). (more…)

Two announcements from Vodafone and Cisco demonstrate that heavyweight players are taking the market for indoor base stations (femtocells) seriously. Vodafone is taking some very practical and tangible steps to address poor indoor coverage and the potential revenue opportunity. Principal analyst Andrew Parkin-White believes that Vodafone’s femtocell trials “will help to resolve the technical issues associated with large scale femtocell deployment, and allow the operator to evaluate a number of commercial options for femtocells.” (more…)