The mobile markets in Middle East and Africa are hugely diverse, but each is heading in the same direction: toward greater development and increasing maturity. All markets in the Middle East and Africa are challenging the old, clear, divisions between emerging and developed markets to the extent that they exist no longer.

Countries such as South Africa, Morocco and Tunisia embody this trend. Penetration is 105% in South Africa, 74% in Morocco, and 83% in Tunisia, according to Informa Telecoms & Media research. But it’s not just penetration that points to the development of these markets. It’s the level of service provision. Mobile broadband is maturing in each of these markets, and high-end handsets are commonplace - both key measures of how advanced a market is.

That’s not to say, of course, that all markets in the region are at the same level of development. Some markets, like those in Ethiopia and Eritrea still have only one operator. And in Ethiopia, for example, it costs as much as US$15 to buy a SIM-card - prohibitively high for the majority of potential users, and a sign of how little competition for mobile services there is in the country.

But the vast majority of markets in the region already have a healthy number of operators, as well as a high level of penetration and service development. Indeed, operators have an excellent head-start when it comes to mobile broadband because fixed-line broadband development is so lacking. Penetration in the region was 41.08% at end-June.

While there are few licensing opportunities left for new entrants, M&A is still taking place, albeit at a curtailed rate, because of the global economic downturn. Still, operators such as Bharti, Reliance and Essar are keen to move into the region.

And in the Middle East, where no new licensing opportunities exist, and where penetration stood at 72.79% at end-June, markets are also developing rapidly, in terms of service and competition development.

Indeed, the launch of the first MVNOs in the Middle East are an indication of how far markets have developed, with network operators looking to service providers to tap the few remaining under-served segments of the market.

In both the Middle East and Africa, operators that perform the best in the next 6-12 months will be those who target new services accurately at subscribers; who segment their user bases the best; who put together the most sophisticated marketing campaigns and who can cut costs most efficiently.

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