The GSM Affiliation (GSMA), in partnership with six of Africa’s largest cellular operators—Airtel Africa, Axian Telecom, Ethio Telecom, MTN, Orange, and Vodacom—has unveiled a proposal to set minimal specs for reasonably priced entry-level 4G smartphones.
Introduced through the Cellular World Congress 2025 in Kigali, the initiative, a part of the GSMA Handset Affordability Coalition, goals to make internet-enabled gadgets extra accessible to thousands and thousands of Africans who’re nonetheless offline because of the excessive value of smartphones.
Smartphone affordability stays the most important barrier to cellular web adoption throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. In line with the GSMA’s State of Cellular Web Connectivity 2025 Report, over three billion individuals globally stay inside cellular broadband protection however nonetheless don’t use the web, with handset affordability cited because the main impediment. Whereas world smartphone penetration has reached 89% and exceeds 95% in developed economies, it stays beneath 50% in Sub-Saharan Africa, together with Nigeria, highlighting the area’s digital divide.
In line with GSMA Intelligence, a $40 smartphone may join 20 million extra individuals within the area, whereas a $30 handset may prolong entry to as many as 50 million.
The proposed baseline necessities define minimal requirements for key options — together with reminiscence, RAM, digital camera high quality, show measurement, and battery life — to make sure that even essentially the most reasonably priced 4G smartphones ship a dependable, long-lasting consumer expertise.
“Entry to a smartphone isn’t a luxurious, it’s a lifeline to important companies, earnings alternatives and participation within the digital financial system,” GSMA Director Normal Vivek Badrinath stated on the Kigali occasion. “By uniting round a shared imaginative and prescient for reasonably priced 4G gadgets, Africa’s main operators and the GSMA are sending a robust sign to producers and policymakers.”
The GSMA will now have interaction with system makers and expertise companies to refine the specs and rally help for large-scale manufacturing of low-cost 4G handsets. The coalition additionally urged African governments to take away taxes and import duties on entry-level smartphones priced beneath $100 — levies that may add over 30% to client prices. South Africa not too long ago eliminated such taxes, a transfer the GSMA says different nations ought to replicate.
Reasonably priced smartphones, the GSMA famous, are vital to inclusive progress. Cellular connectivity drives entry to schooling, healthcare, and monetary companies, closing the digital utilization hole between 2023 and 2030, projected to generate $3.5 trillion in GDP throughout low- and middle-income nations.
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