Less than 1 million users to buy 5G connections in Africa in 2022

Africa mobile subcription forecast by OvumThe number of mobile broadband connections in Africa telecoms market will increase to 1.07 billion in 2022 from 419 million in 2017, according to Ovum.

The growth of mobile broadband in Africa will be driven by telecom operators’ investment in 3G W-CDMA and 4G LTE networks.

3G W-CDMA will become Africa’s biggest mobile technology by subscriptions in 2019, and there will be 858 million W-CDMA connections on the continent by 2022, Ovum forecasts. The number of LTE subscriptions in Africa will be 210 million in 2022.

Africa’s first 5G services will be launched in 2021. The number of 5G subscriptions in Africa continent will be fewer than 1 million in 2022.

African telecom operators will be generating additional data revenue from data connectivity and digital services. Growth in data connectivity is bringing business opportunities for digital media, mobile financial services, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Social media network Facebook is bigger than MTN Group in Africa in terms of subscribers. Facebook relies on MTN and other telecom operators for its business growth in Africa.

Facebook has 170 million active users in Africa. MTN Group had 165 million mobile subscriptions in Africa in H1 2017.

“As Africa’s TMT market becomes convergent and complex, service providers are under increasing pressure to make the transition from being providers of communications services, and to become providers of digital services,” said Matthew Reed, practice leader Middle East and Africa at Ovum.