Is it communication?
There isn’t any one app in any region that makes everyone in that region come online, and Africa is no exception. Certainly social networking apps seem to be the most common in Africa and abroad. E-commerce and banking are pretty big as well. Video games are huge in North America and Asia, and I’m banking on games becoming the next big thing in Africa as the quality and local relevance increases (if not, then my dreams will be shattered).
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Thank you so much for your response sir. Still, don’t you think that there is one app that everybody in Africa or everybody in the world must use like 2ice a day? Like people buy phones to communicate, and communicate whether it be through call, messaging or sms at least everyday. Now I know that many people around the world globally use messaging apps, in Africa Whatsapp is king, but what I don’t understand is why not every African is on whatsapp. Is it because of internet penetration? Literacy or not being able how to use it? Or data charges? Like isn’t Whatsapp cheaper and easier to use than Voice and SMS charges, so why isn’t every African on it? N if communication is not Africa’s killer app, than what is?
BIS app for Android. If we can get the old BIS (unlimited) for Android at $3 per month, then we’ll get millions of people would be able to access the full range of the Internet on their $50 Androids.
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First of all, thank you for your input TomiWalker but what is BIS app for Android? Like what is BIS? Can you please elaborate, Im really interested. Thank you for your knowledge and wisdom as well as taking the time and patience to write this.
Internet 
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Internet. Cheaper. Hopefully some adhoc network solution. Damn, I should have done this as MSc.
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Thank you for your response sir. So basically you are telling me that people want to get online and want to be on the internet but it is expensive???
Maybe you and I get do it now? Like are you thinking along the lines of something like Mesh Network Internet? Are you also saying that people want to get online but the internet is expensive? Please I will love to know more about your thoughts and thanks for answering my question.
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Yeah, something like that. I may be wrong but in Africa (especially Nigeria), we’ve been seeing a lot of privately funded infrastructure. No central telephone sys = mobile, no good power = generators/solar. No cheap internet = some peer solution? Most of Nigeria are satisfied with content generated solely within our border. You could hit me up on Twitter: @stigwue.
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Thats a great observation that I never took notice of. Basically you are talking along the lines of mesh networking something like FireChat ~> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.opengarden.firechat&hl=en . This app doesn’t use internet or bluetooth to chat with other people but it has a maximum distance of 100-200 meters. Thanks once again for your knowledge and input as well.
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Make 1GB data = #100 .
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been thinking about a wide area network using telcos masts.
might not even connect to the internet
could host nigerian apps and would be faster
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Will the deal plan out? Will you need a license for such work?
I heard that Tanzania’s data prices are much cheaper than Nigerias.
This is a topic that is so dear to my heart “How do we get Africa online?” What is the killer app? There are many ways that this can happen and I don’t claim to know the one solution. Here’re my thoughts.
The solution lies in infrastructure. Access is still out of the reach of the majority of Africans and going at this pace it will take between 10 to 20 years (if not more) to get every African online. What if there is a solution that would only take 5 years? Folks like @stigwue and @segebee have already hinted at it - community wireless mesh networks. I’ve been working on a project on decentralised (in the sense of management) mesh networks for about two years now and I’m happy to say that it’s yielding results and testing will begin shortly.
The problem with the Internet in most African countries has always been that of transit. Nearly every bit of data sent on the Internet has to transit through an exchange completely outside of the continent; even local traffic (sending data to my neighbour who lives next door) has to go through switches in London before coming back. The round trip is completely unnecessary and makes access really expensive. What if you had a decentralised mesh network that is connected (or not connected, doesn’t really matter) to the larger Internet that enables peers (my neighbour and myself) to communicate without the requirement of a central provider? Our routers will simply exchange those packets and I can send emails, instant messages, video chat, etc. without having to go through a switch at a really distant country - keeping local traffic truly local. As @segebee mentioned, this will also make access faster; costs could go down to zero for local access and then ISPs could provide access for the larger Internet. Local content providers will host their servers locally which will provide faster access for those accessing it locally; a whole new vista of potential applications will be enabled by this network.
Because of the really low costs of deploying wifi routers, access can be provided in communities where people cannot afford to have their own routers. The entire community can now access this network with their laptops, tablets and even mobile phones.
When you solve the problem of access, then the killer app (whatever it is) can flourish.
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Will MainOne’s data center solve this issue?
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To a large extent but then again that’s assuming that every Internet Service Provider uses MainOne as their uplink; if not, we’re back to the same problem - if not worse. I generally recommend that people host their applications in the UK for this same reason. If you had your applications collocated at MainOne then MTN subscribers will first transit to the UK and then back to Nigeria just to access the servers in MainOne. This is counterproductive but will help users who’s ISPs use MainOne.
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Can I please know more about your project? Do you have a paper or website for it? I always wondered what the easiest solution was to send a file to somebody across the street for me without internet or wifi. I think that without the internet the easiest way to communicate with a server is through a text message, however SMS in Nigeria or in Africa in general are very expensive. I would think that the telcos would bring those prices down in order to compete with mobile internet data but they haven’t. Also it seems as if everyone is still using 2G pipes instead of 2.5G, 2.75G, 3G or 4G, which still makes internet access still slow.