African mobile subs to reach 211 million

19 Apr 2007 at 18:00 GMT Timo Poropudas

The African mobile market is on the up. According to forecasts by Informa Telecoms & Media’s WCIS, African subscriptions were expected to surpass 211 million at the end of March, an increase of over 8 percent on the previous quarter.

For East & Central Africa, the consequences of this growth are considerable. Kenya, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are now among the 10 largest mobile markets in Africa, with DR Congo’s mobile market forecasted to grow by 200 percent, Tanzania’s by 109 percent and Kenya’s by 87 percent over the five years to December 2011 - all exceeding the forecast rate of 72 percent for the African continent as a whole over the same period.

At the end of 2006, mobile subscriptions for the region had already exceeded 30 million, representing 16 percent of Africa’s total subscriptions, and this is forecasted to rise to 20 percent annually by the end of 2011, when more than 67 million users in this African sub-region are anticipated.