LIVE FROM GSMA MOBILE 360 AFRICA: Anne Bouverot, GSMA director general, predicted a bright future for the mobile internet in Sub-Saharan Africa but only if some significant barriers can be overcome.

She highlighted a new report from GSMA Intelligence that forecasts the region will have the second largest number of mobile connections behind Asia by 2020.

Over the last six years, the industry invested $45 billion in network deployment across the region. Moving forward, the focus will be even greater on delivering mobile internet coverage.

But how to make this happen? There are significant barriers. Another new piece of research from the GSMA highlights four areas which need to be addressed to encourage greater mobile internet usage.

Firstly, network coverage needs to be extended into offgrid locations. Operators are already doing this, said the report, but to do it to faster, measures such as voluntary infrastructure sharing, availability of low-frequency spectrum and greater use of renewable energy are needed.

Another area is removing affordability barriers by cutting out sector-specific expenses that make it tougher for lower income users to justify a connection.

And even when other barriers are removed, some users do not sign up for the internet, for instance because of age and gender.

“It’s important we work with them to ensure they are comfortable for areas such as health and education,” said Bouverot.

Finally, locally sourced content needs to be a priority. “Wikipedia and Facebook are great services but they don’t define the internet because they are in English. We also need local content,” she said. Making more government services available electronically is one way to do this.