GSMA Intelligence, in collaboration with the GSMA’s Disaster Response team, is today publishing a report on disaster response in Middle East and North Africa. This report is part of a series focusing on four key regions: Asia Pacific, Middle East & North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

The number of smartphone connections in Africa has doubled over the past two years, and by mid-2017 will account for a third of total connections. However, varying levels of affordability and network coverage between countries have resulted in uneven rates of smartphone adoption across the region. While smartphone adoption and mobile internet penetration are increasing across all markets, some operators are pushing ahead by implementing innovative data tariffs and investing strongly in infrastructure to drive 3G/4G usage and thus data revenues.

The positive contribution of the mobile sector to the economy is well recognised. However, the tax treatment of the sector is not always aligned with best-practice principles of taxation; this may have a distortive impact on the industry’s development.

GSMA Intelligence is today publishing a report on consumer barriers to mobile internet adoption in Africa. Produced in collaboration with the GSMA’s Connected Society team, this report focusses on understanding the consumer barriers to digital inclusion in the region.

The number of 4G-LTE mobile networks in Africa has doubled over the last 18 months, with coverage now reaching one in five people. Since the beginning of 2015, mobile operators have launched 34 new networks, extending 4G services to 14 more countries, including some of the world’s lowest GDP markets such as Malawi, Burundi and Liberia.

In the GSMA Intelligence - Mobile for Development (M4D) Impact country overview series, we analyse the evolution and outlook of national mobile markets in the developing world. Each report covers a single country, combining data analysis with on-the-ground interviews to understand why that mobile market has developed as it has, and what the future holds.

Only a quarter of developing markets1 have introduced Mobile Number Portability (MNP) to date, according to our research, while only a further 15% are known to be implementing MNP in the future. This suggests that about 60% of regulators in the developing world have either decided against introducing MNP, or have made no progress to date.

Only one in three of the African population is currently subscribed to a mobile service, highlighting a major growth opportunity for regional operators that are able to extend affordable services into rural areas.

Africa is on track to become the world's second-largest mobile market by year-end, but the region remains highly dependent on prepaid voice income and is characterised by pricing wars, low usage and the relatively high cost of device ownership, says GSMA Intelligence.

South African fixed-line operator Telkom returned to the country's mobile market this month amid signs that subscriber growth in the sector could be slowing. Telkom has unveiled a new mobile brand called '8ta' offering "prepaid voice and data products from launch" and postpaid products from next month.