A tepid stab at the taxonomy of mobile networking technologies and devices currently available in SSA (Technologies/devices that enable you access the WWW on the go,) would include; laptop computers and Personal digital assistants (PDAs), for devices. Networking technologies would include; Wi-Fi, Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN), WiMax (and the Korean twin, Wibro).

PDAs were traditionally narrow-band but now have available broadband options, enabled via Wi-Fi antennas. They are altogether, very versatile devices that can be used as mobile phones, organizers, camera, video cam -- the whole shebang. The size is both a blessing and a curse -- small enough to fit in your pocket, but too small to hold as much data as a PC, and you can’t work with it comfortably for long periods – gets pretty tedious typing on the tiny keypads. In short, it’s just not designed to replace your PC.

Wi-Fi technology is fairly well known in SSA – major hotels, upscale cafes/coffee shops, etc. However, the major limitation to public access via Wi-Fi? It imposes a pre-condition of laptop computer ownership. And since we are not quite there yet with the "one laptop per child" project, Wi-Fi hotspots for now in SSA, is bourgeois territory.

Then, there’s the WWAN – this service lets you gain Internet access by plugging your mobile phone into your laptop or desktop PC – thus using your mobile phone like a wireless access router. (Don’t try this with any ordinary digital mobile phone – it will blow your laptop modem). While this setup allows a wider coverage radius than Wi-Fi (coverage radius is as wide as wherever you can get service on your mobile phone), it is sadly, narrow band; a mere 115kbps – twice as fast as dial up. Nonetheless, in my mashed-potato-and-gravy opinion, it could potentially gain ground in a fairly ready-made SSA telecom niche market -- all you need is a mobile phone! Lots of people wanting to get on the WWW in SSA already have mobile phones.

Finally, Wimax (fixed and mobile WiMax) -- a big, fat promise. Holds a clear advantage in the area of speed (broadband) compared to narrow band competition such as WWAN, and also trounces Wi-Fi in coverage radius.

So, WiMax supremacy as a mobile networking technology, is a result of 3 main features – broadband capability, "wirelessness" and very wide-range coverage!

A casual assessment of extant ICT infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa suggests WiMax will land pretty hard and operate with severe handicaps at best – why? WiMax, though a wireless technology, operates best on a high QOS wired backbone. Unfortunately, Sub-Saharan African countries are a collective networking nightmare. The bulk of the sub-Saharan region share a dearth of fixed connectivity telecom backbones i.e. in-ground copper grid or fiber-optic channels. And because of the highly prohibitive cost of installing copper and fiber-optic telecom framework, ICT in sub-Saharan Africa subsists, with often annoying QOS trade-offs, on a fragile mish-mash of VSAT, Microwave and RF based protocols and hardware.

But the shortcomings of the African telecom network system, is the beginning of the Wimax promise! Wimax holds the potential of serving as ‘wireless fiber’ – which could be articulated into wireless back-hauls/back-bone (See some gear here and some implementation here.) On the sweet side, this would greatly alleviate the SSA telecom industry shortcomings associated with the deficiencies in ‘wired’ backbone infrastructure, and on the not-so-sweet side, it would extensively redefine the entire SSA telecom back-haul/back-bone politics, as we know it.

Wimax introduces a whole new set of perturbation into the already erratic, but boisterous SSA telecom sector – it flat out threatens existing telecom technologies and business models. Once again, (SSA) telecom comes face to face with her primal albatross -- "disruptive technology".

Key points in a long term /short-term threat analysis for SSA telecom providers are as follows:

Near term threat directed at fixed wireless segment:

Wimax provides an alternative delivery technology for fixed wireless telephone service – which happens to be the most common residential and business telephone system in SSA.

Slightly longer-term threat:

A curve ball aimed at Mobile phone service providers; think of a combination of Skype and mobile WiMax … A ha! See where I’m going with this, eh? Motorola and Netgear are already rolling out Skype mobile phones – these phones allow the user tap into Skype services as available on the Internet – free calls, chat, etc. Mobile WiMax could potentially supplant the mobile phone service subscription model.

There is a whole lot more that can be said for Wimax, pros and cons as well, but in regards to mobile networking – the SSA telecom souk appears to have a huge feast laid out for her. Who gets fat on the feast? Who gets eaten at the feast?? It promises to be another super high-adrenaline event.