Ease of access to the Internet is taken as a norm in the developed world because of ready access to relevant infrastructure that supports broadband internet access. The same cannot be said of the developing world, especially Africa. In recent times, however, the story is changing.

GSM Networks such as MTN, Glomobile, Zain, and Etisalat have exposed huge swats of rural and urban populations in Nigeria to mobile communications services. Nigeria with over 70 million subscribers is the fastest growing telecommunications market in Africa and the largest.

Broadband Internet access using GPRS and HSDPA-based technology is being aggressively subscribed to by an ever increasing number of mobile phone users. Most use these services to access the Internet on their mobile phones but an ever increasing number are using on their laptops or PCs.

The increasing popularity of GPRS/HSDPA Internet access in Nigeria is fueled in part by the falling cost of IT equipment such as computers and mobile phones but mainly by a fall in data access costs.

Various GPRS/3G data plans are available in the market right now and more are coming out by the day. Some go as low as $3.5 per 50mb to be used up within 24 hours to as high as $70 dollar per month plans with up 3gb of data transfer. There is stiff competition for market share among MTN, Glomobile, Zain and Etisalat. They’ve rolled out competing data plans for their Nigeria users.

There’s no doubt that the digital divide on the African continent is being gradually bridged . Information awareness is deepening thanks to the GSM/CDMA revolution sweeping countries across Africa.

Mobile broadband Internet tariffs will get lower with improving infrastructure and cut-throat competition among the service providers for a rapidly increasing base of Internet users. Africans, especially those in Nigeria, are in for good times.