United Nations — The beleaguered African continent continues to lag far behind the rest of the world in battling poverty, hunger and HIV/AIDS, but it is making dramatic progress in the field of information and communications technologies (ICTs).

The technological advances, however, are limited primarily to mobile phones.

"The African mobile (telephone) market has been the fastest-growing market of all regions, growing at twice the rate of the global market," says a new U.N. report released here.

The number of subscribers leaped from 16 million in 2000 to a staggering 250 million last year, according to the latest available figures.

Mobile now outnumbers fixed (phone) lines by nearly five to one in Africa, although it may not be evenly spread across the large continent.

The study, which will go before the upcoming month-long meeting of the U.N.'s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), beginning Jun. 30, points out that investment in ICTs infrastructure in Africa has also "improved dramatically", totaling 8.0 billion dollars in 2005: up from 3.5 billion dollars in 2000.

"These figures reflect an increasingly vibrant private sector investment environment which has been stimulated by the opening of most African telecommunications markets, coupled with the establishment of independent regulators in almost 90 percent of the countries in the region," the report notes.

Still, according to the Geneva-based International Telecommunication Union (ITU), fewer than four out of every 100 Africans have internet access while broadband penetration is below one percent.

As a result, Africa's 900 million inhabitants -- nearly 14 percent of the world's population -- have access to less than a fifth of one percent of the world's international connectivity.

In contrast, Ireland's four million people have better international connectivity than the entire African continent.

The ITU, a specialised agency of the United Nations, believes that ICTs are essential for creating new skills, generating growth and technological change, and are also critical for Africa's overall economic growth.

The theme of the high-level segment of the ECOSOC meeting is "Promoting an integrated approach to rural development in developing countries for poverty eradication and sustainable development, taking into account current challenges."

Asked about the striking progress of ICTs in Africa, Sanjay Acharya, ITU's chief of media relations and public information, described the spread of mobile telephony as one of the big "success stories in Africa".

Africa's mobile market, he said, has been the fastest-growing of any region over the last five years, and has grown twice as fast as the global market. It has also been a significant contributor to expanding access opportunities to a vast majority of its population.

Mobile phones overtook fixed lines in 2001 and now account for over 90 percent of all telephones, with over 250 million mobile cellular subscribers in 2007.

"The growth has been fuelled by factors such as market liberalisation and increased levels of national and international competition," Acharya said.

Broadband, too, is expected to make the connectivity leap across Africa, leading to increased convergence and migration to next-generation networks.

"The primary reason for this unprecedented growth in Africa is the establishment of effective regulatory frameworks which have created an enabling environment driven by competition for new business investment in the ICT sector," Acharya told IPS.

Many African countries have demonstrated they are open for business. Africa remains the region with the highest annual growth rate in mobile subscribers.

Mobile subscribers are also now more evenly distributed. In 2000, South Africa accounted for over half of all Africa's mobile subscribers, but by 2007, almost 85 percent were in other countries.

Asked if the average African could afford mobile phones, Acharya said competition has led to lower prices, especially in the mobile sector.

"The fact that more and more Africans are subscribing to mobile phones indicates it is becoming increasingly affordable. It is also seen as an investment to enhance business opportunities and increase incomes," he added.

While mobile services have become more accessible and affordable, Internet access has generally not, he pointed out.

It is estimated that there were some 50 million Internet users in Africa in 2007, translating into around one person among 20. Over half of the region's Internet users are estimated to be located in North African countries and South Africa.

In sub-Saharan Africa, Acharya said, only three percent of the population is online.

The scarcity of international Internet bandwidth and lack of Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) drives up prices. "Africa, the poorest region in the world, has the most expensive Internet prices."

The average monthly Internet subscription is almost 50 dollars in Africa, close to 70 percent of average per capita income.

Broadband penetration is low across the continent. There were around two million fixed broadband subscribers in Africa in 2007, less than a quarter of the population of metropolitan Lagos, the former capital of Nigeria, he added.

Only five African countries had a broadband penetration of more than one per 100 inhabitants in 2007.

In comparison, the average broadband penetration in the industrial countries, which are members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), was 18.8 in June 2007 and the lowest ranked country was Mexico, with a penetration of 4.6, or some 38 times more than the average for Africa.

Acharya also said that fixed broadband access is mostly limited to urban centres. The low availability, poor condition and lack of competition in the public switched telephone network market constrains the deployment of fixed broadband access.

Broadband prices remain very high compared to income levels although average prices for Africa disguise significant underlying variability.

Morocco, for example, has not only one of the highest broadband penetration rates in Africa, but also the lowest broadband prices, at 18 dollars per month for a 256 kbps package.

Broadband has proven so popular in Morocco that by the end of 2007, over 95 percent of all Internet subscribers had a high-speed connection, Acharya said.