South Africa is the first country to have a policy that protects smaller players by defining the dominant players and how the big companies interact with smaller content and application providers, which has kept some of the companies in business. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa has a policy, for example, that stipulates that dominant players can't engage in certain services like mobile content. They have to buy content from third-party providers, usually smaller companies.

Syniverse predicts that competition and increased demand will lead to companies investing in newer technologies such as LTE (Long-Term Evolution) and WiMax as well as fixed technology in order to stay ahead of the curve.

Although many countries have second fixed-line operators, GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) has been growing faster, and even the former monopolies that have most of the fixed-line network have preferred to invest in GSM infrastructure, because that is where the major profits are.

"The trend of mobile technology growing faster than fixed line represents the most exciting opportunity with the greatest potential; mobile operators invest heavily in infrastructure and operational support systems, so it would make sense for them to leverage those investments instead of diving afresh into other market categories," added Henegouwen.