WORLDWIDE MARKET RESEARCH REPORT - CISE

EC/IST FP6 Project No 026920
Work Package: 6
Type of document: Report
Date: 20.12.2007
File name: OP_WP6_D37_V1.0.doc Version: 1.0
Title: Worldwide Market Research Report 198 / 356
[A35] It is important to remember that the average total telephone penetration across the
African countries is over 11% for households with fixed line phones and over 12% for
households with pre-paid mobile phones. This means that vast numbers of Africans still do
not have access to affordable communications. The relative rarity of internet usage is
indicative of a world where access to the internet is low and expensive, and people continue
to rely largely on traditional information sources (popular press, magazines, radio and
television) for information. The figure from the table below gives an indication of the state of
e-access and usage in the most representatives African countries.
Figure 5-25 Do you have a household phone?
Botswana has the highest fixed line household penetration at 22.4%, followed closely by
South Africa at 22.1%. Zambia is next at 18.6%, with Namibia at 14%. Tanzania has a fixed
line penetration of 6.1%, Ethiopia just over 5% and Rwanda 4.4%. Uganda trails far behind
the rest, with penetration under 1%. Unsurprisingly, penetration is far higher in metro areas
than their urban and rural counterparts. Ethiopia is particularly notable in that it does not
have any rural fixed line phones at all and Uganda has a miniscule amount of rural fixed line
access.
Of those people with fixed access, 46% had mobile phones as well and 34% had internet
access. Of those with mobile phones, 45% had fixed access as well. Of those who had
internet access, 80% had mobile phones and 100% had fixed access. Clearly, in many of the
low fixed penetration countries, mobile is being used to compensate for the lack of fixed