East Africa telecoms market will have 186 million mobile broadband subscriptions in the next five years to 2022 – powered by 3G and 4G LTE networks, according to a Ovum report.

The report said mobile broadband subscriptions in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda will be 112 million in 2022.

“The growth of mobile broadband in East Africa will be powered by increased deployment and upgrade of 3G and 4G LTE networks, as well as a rise in smartphone penetration due to better affordability,” said Danson Njue, research analyst, Middle East and Africa at Ovum.

Ovum forecasts that there will be 32 million LTE subscriptions in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda by 2022, while smartphone connections will be 108 million.

East African countries include Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda will add 0.9 million Pay-TV subscriptions to reach 3.9 million in 2022 from 3 million in 2017.

Smartphone subscriptions in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda will grow from 38.6 million in 2017 from 108.3 million in 2022.

FTTx subscriptions in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda will increase from 0.1 million in 2017 to 0.4 million in 2022.

Mobile broadband subscriptions in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda will increase from 39.8 million in 2017 to 112 million in 2022.

LTE subscriptions in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda will increase from 3.1 million in 2017 to 32.1 million in 2022.

Mobile annual revenues in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda increased 0.9 percent to $1.11 billion in Q4 2017 from Q4 2016.

The telecom research report from Ovum said Ethio Telecom added 7.5 million mobile users in Q4 2017 against 1.8 million by Safaricom, 1.5 million by Econet Burundi, 1.0 million by Telkom Kenya and 0.7 million by Viettel Burundi.