According to data published by the Senegalese telecoms regulator L’Agence de Regulation des Telecommunications et des Postes (ARTP), the country was home to 3.434 million mobile subscribers at the end of September 2007, up from 3.319 million in June and 2.982 million at the start of the year, a cellular penetration rate of 32.46%. Of the total, the overwhelming majority (3.40 million) were pre-paid users, signed up to one of Senegal’s two mobile operators Orange Senegal (formerly Sonatel Mobiles/Alize) and Millicom-backed Tigo Senegal (formerly SENTELgsm). Orange had 2.442 million subscribers at the end of the third quarter, up from 2.401 million three months earlier, while Tigo claimed 991,631 users, up from 918,830 in June.
The country’s fixed line market continues to contract, however. By the start of October national PTO Sonatel counted 278,119 main lines in service, down from 283,582 in June and 282,573 at the start of the year. Of the fixed line total, 194,777 lines were residential connections and 65,457 were business lines. The operator also had 17,885 public pay phones in operation, a 16.4% drop quarter-on-quarter. In the internet segment, ARTP reported that there were a total of 34,907 registered internet users by the end of September, of which 33,584 were ADSL subscribers.