The need for connectivity has accelerated around the world from 2020. In several countries, the Internet is now considered a basic service , in the same way as drinking water and electricity. electricity. In Africa, this perception is driving many changes in the telecom market .
Swedish technology company Ericsson says sub-Saharan Africa will see 78% mobile broadband internet subscriptions over the next five years. In its June 2022 mobility report, it explains that this will be due to 4G subscriptions which will continue to increase , We Are Tech reports . In 2021 alone, the number of mobile subscriptions in this technology grew by 26%.
For Ericsson, this strong growth in 4G should continue in 2022, driven by the migration of consumers to suitable devices. ” 3G mobile data traffic continues to grow, but the majority of traffic growth is expected to be in 4G ,” the company said. But it should be noted that 3G will still record the majority of mobile subscriptions in 2027, i.e. 40% against 28% for 4G. As for 5G, ultra-high speed, it will represent 10% of mobile Internet subscriptions in 2027.
Source: Ericsson.
In some markets such as South Africa and Kenya, where recent frequency allocations have been made, service providers have been able to expand 3G/4G network coverage and capacity, resulting in increased subscriptions to mobile broadband. With the change in Internet consumption habits brought about by the Covid-19 crisis, Ericsson estimates that the average data traffic per smartphone in sub-Saharan Africa should reach 11 gigabytes per month by 2027.
Africa will be the only global market where 2G will still have a significant presence in 2027. The technology will represent nearly 20% of mobile subscriptions against an average of around 7% on all the other continents.