Mobile market swells by 24, 000 clients in four months

MBONGENI MGUNI
Staff Writer | Wednesday December 1, 2010 00:00

 

The sharp rise could also be as a result of Botswana Telecommunications Authority's deactivation of nearly 600, 000 SIM cards after the January 31, 2010 deadline for subscriber registration. The move forced some subscribers to re-purchase SIM cards.

Recently released data also indicates that Botswana has approximately 133 mobile subscribers per 100 members of the population, a statistic that is made possible by the fact that many subscribers hold and operate more than one SIM card.

According to the Communications Regulators' Association of Southern Africa (CRASA) country report on Botswana, the number of mobile phone subscribers rose by 60 percent between March 2008 and March 2009.

The third mobile operator, be Mobile, began operations in May 2008 and moved quickly to challenge the two main players that had been active since 1998.

The mobile subscriber base grew by 26.1 percent to 2.36 million users between March 2009 and 2010.     

The Botswana Telecommunications Authority (BTA) estimates that by March 2010, Mascom Wireless accounted for 57 percent or 1.35 million subscribers, Orange Botswana 37 percent or 874, 462 subscribers and be Mobile 141, 804.

Reads the CRASA report: 'Teledensity reached 105 percent in March 2009 based on a population estimate of 1.776 million with 85 percent recorded the previous year. The high teledensity is attributable to a relatively large number of customers with more than one SIM card.

'Prepaid subscribers continue to dominate the mobile market, accounting for 98 percent share of the market as at March 2009, while post-paid subscribers held only two percent.'

According to the BTA, the aggregation of subscribers persisted by March 2010, while teledensity increased to 131 percent in March 2010. Teledensity rose despite the deactivation of SIM cards following the January 31, 2010 deadline.

BTA commissioned an audit of the registration exercise with a view to addressing the ongoing registration of new SIM cards.

Both the BTA and CRASA note that the high penetration of mobile phones in Botswana is largely as a result of their easier availability compared to fixed line phone services, which are solely provided by the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC).

The higher mobile density figures echo global studies showing that Africa leads in growth of the mobile phone market. According to continental investment researchers, AfricaNext, Africa could have approximately 700 million mobile subscribers by 2013, compared to about 150 million in 2005.

Much of this growth is expected in sub-Saharan Africa where market fundamentals from technology, legislation and infrastructure all favour annual growth rates of up to 17 percent up to 2013.

Challenges to the African mobile sector include declining revenues per subscriber and the resultant over-reliance of operators on top tier clientele. In addition, high cost of bandwidth and customer equipment, low literacy levels and small addressable markets are a threat to future growth.

In Botswana, however, the three mobile players are aggressively expanding their networks to rural areas, while the gradual drop in handset prices and emergence of multi-SIM card phones is enhancing connectivity.

In addition, stiff competition has resulted in little room for movement in tariffs, which are generally low compared to regional averages.