It is a colossal market that is constantly expanding. With a reach of 27% and ever-increasing growth prospects, the mobile internet sector in Africa is the stage for aggressive competition. Five telecom giants are battling it out in this market: Orange, MTN, Maroc Telecom, Vodafone and Airtel. While they are not always transparent with their data, the available figures allow us to identify key trends.

Battle for territories

With 150 million mobile internet users in 15 countries across the continent, MTN takes the top spot in terms of volume. Orange, the French operator that is omnipresent in parts of West Africa, operates in more countries than its competitor MTN but has a significantly lower number of users (90 million) in this segment. In third place is the Indian group Airtel, with 66 million users across 14 countries.

Maroc Telecom, present in 11 countries through its numerous Moov subsidiaries, focuses primarily on West Africa with a few incursions into Central Africa: Gabon, Chad and the Central African Republic.

The British group Vodafone, the majority shareholder of the Safaricom and Vodacom groups, for its part, focuses on the eastern part of the continent.

The Big Five are, however, far from being the only players in this market, which draws in no fewer than 150 operators – some of which even manage to carve out significant market shares in certain territories. This is particularly the case for a Madagascar conglomerate which, through its new telecom brand Yas, operates in five countries – Madagascar, Comoros, Senegal, Togo and Tanzania.

The level of competition is high and some operators implement aggressive pricing policies. “When there is fierce competition, prices are pushed as low as possible, and thus, margins are increasingly thin,” says Antony Virgil Adopo, a telecoms expert in Africa.

This price war has consequences. While it may appear to be a boon for customers, it also hinders investment. “Margins are very low, even negative. And market players are questioning which strategy to adopt,” he said.

In Côte d’Ivoire, the average price of data dropped from $5 per gigabit in 2020 to $2 in 2024. A similar decrease was observed in Nigeria (from $5 to $1 per gigabit) and Cameroon (from $5 to $2). “Between 2020 and 2024, investments in telecom infrastructure, notably fibre optics and 4G/5G networks, stagnated in some African countries due to price pressures and declining margins,” says Wilfried Foalem, a telecoms expert, in an analysis published in October.

In Nigeria, under pressure from operators and amid a sharp depreciation of the naira, the regulator finally gave in at the beginning of January – mobile phone tariffs will increase by an average of no less than 50%. The operators had argued for a 100% increase.

The goal? “To bridge the significant gap between operational costs and current tariffs, while ensuring the continued provision of services,” the Nigerian Communications Commission said.

Growing need driven by video traffic

The issue of investments in infrastructure is critical, especially since the market is expected to grow exponentially, driven by new usage patterns.

“People are using mobile internet to make calls and send direct messages. Some no longer communicate via SMS, but only through private messaging services,” said Adopo, emphasising a profound shift in consumption patterns. “Users are now focused on video. Whether on social media or streaming platforms, video traffic has exploded.”

In their ‘Digital 2024’ report, the creative agency We Are Social and the monitoring company Meltwater document this paradigm shift – 91.8% of the people surveyed claim to watch at least one video per week, with particularly high figures for Ghanaians (99.9%) and Moroccans (97.9%).

The sector is far from being able to meet the demand – current and future.

In sub-Saharan Africa, while 527 million people (out of 1.1 billion) use a mobile phone service and 320 million use mobile internet, the internet adoption rate – mobile or not – is among the lowest in the world: 42.6% of the population in West Africa, 31.8% in Central Africa and up to 26.8% in East Africa. Only North Africa (72.4%) and South Africa (76.7%) exceed the global average (67.5%).

The reasons for this situation are manifold, ranging from the purchasing power of the population to political or security instability, not to mention the lack of infrastructure.

However, the share of high-speed networks in connectivity is expected to explode, according to the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA), which brings together more than a thousand mobile market players worldwide. For example, ECOWAS, the region with the lowest penetration rate, is expected to increase from 26% to 48% for 4G by 2030, and from 1% to 17% for 5G.