The number of mobile broadband connections in Africa will double over the coming five years
Africa will have more than 1 billion mobile broadband connections by 2022
Cape Town, South Africa \ London, United Kingdom
Mobile data will be the main driver of growth in the African telecoms market, with the number of mobile broadband connections on the continent set to more than double over the coming five years, and rise from 419 million at end-2017, to 1.07 billion at end-2022, according to Ovum’s new Forecaster data service.
The growth of mobile broadband in Africa will be facilitated by the further roll-out of 3G W-CDMA and 4G LTE networks, and the increasing affordability of smartphones. In 2019, W-CDMA will become Africa’s biggest mobile technology by subscriptions, and there will be 858 million W-CDMA connections on the continent by end-2022, Ovum forecasts. There will also be 210 million LTE subscriptions in Africa at end-2022.
Ovum expects Africa’s first 5G services to launch in 2021, but initial take-up will be modest, with fewer than 1 million 5G subscriptions on the continent at end-2022.
Click here for an enlarged view of Ovum’s Africa connectivity forecast infographic
Africa mobile subscriptions forecast by technology, 2017-22
