Over the next five years, mobile data is expected to be the main driver of growth in the African telecoms market. The number of mobile broadband connections in the continent is set to more than double from 419 million at the end of 2017 to 1.07 billion by 2022.

A study compiled by London-based research and consulting firm Ovum shows that this increase will be facilitated by the further roll-out of 3G and 4G LTE networks (wholly backed by operators such as MTN, Orange and Bharti Airtel, according to Reuters).

The study also reveals that 3G will become the most adopted mobile technology through subscriptions, with an estimated 858 million connections by 2022. Africa will also have 210 million LTE subscriptions around the same time.

Additionally, the company expects an uptake of 5G – set to launch in 2021 – with just under 1 million subscriptions anticipated by 2022.

14 November 2017
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