Despite the rise in LTE deployment to cater for high-speed Internet users in parts of West Africa, the CEO of YooMee Africa Dov Bar-Gera maintains that the price of LTE devices is still quite high mainly due to high taxes imposed by countries.

Bar-Gera noted via email that a price drop on LTE smartphones was recorded in the last few months "mainly due to high volume procured mainly by China Mobile, but also by Indian and South American operators" and as a result, "We can see a new type of low cost smartphone on the market which will very well serve the needs of African markets. The target price of China Mobile for its rural customers and some Indian operators is below US$60."

However, he says this development has not translated into an ease for ordinary users due to inhibiting taxes levied on the imported devices, pointing at government policies and the need for a revise to ensure necessary adjustments to would reduce the prices of devices.

"It is all about volume, not hundreds of thousands but tens of millions for specific models," he said. "China Mobile exceeds the 250 million TDD-LTE users and is aiming to the 350 million now. The main problem of a lot of African countries is very high import customs duties on electronic good. Some countries have up to 50% taxes, by that eliminating all the price gains of the large volumes. The results are that we are back to square 1 - making most of the new devices unaffordable."

On how the oligopolistic situation in international bandwidth is affecting operators, business and residential consumers, Bar-Gera noted that there is a need for rigid de-regulation by national regulators to enable them break local monopolies and define fair interconnect pricing.

"In most of the countries it is not allowed to put fiber into the ground mainly because of national regulations protecting the incumbent," he said. "The access to the international bandwidth is still unacceptably expensive (between €40-150 per Mbit/second per month compared to €2-5 in many parts of the world). We believe that the telecommunication regulators should intervene to break the monopoly/duopoly).

He cited that regional 4G/LTE operators like YooMee Africa which has presence in West and Central Africa always have plans to expand even as many regulators are welcoming new players. "At the end, it's always the question of resources and funding," he said, adding that the simple answer to improving service delivery for users based on present circumstances is to "drop customs duties, remove international bandwidth monopolies."

Several African countries including Ghana and South Africa have mooted the idea of removing import duties on smartphones in the past, a move that thwarted indigenous companies, for example in Ghana, to describe it as counterproductive for local manufacturers (especially those that are playing by the rules) as it will impede their growth.