Senegal’s two incumbent mobile operators – Orange Senegal (formerly Sonatel Mobiles/Alize) and Tigo Senegal (formerly SENTELgsm) – collectively added 688,725 new users in the fourth quarter of 2007 to boost the country mobile total to 4.123 million at the end of the year. According to the country’s telecoms regulator Agence de Regulation des Telecoms et Postes (ARTP), cellular penetration reached 38.97% by 31 December 2007, up from 28.19% the previous year. Orange Sonatel, part of the Paris-based Orange group, had 3.004 million users at the end of December 2007, up from 2.443 million in September. Meanwhile, Tigo had 1.118 million clients, from 991,631 three months earlier. An overwhelming 99.17% of all users are on pre-paid services, the regulator said.
In the fixed line segment, ARTP said the number of lines in service dipped from 282,573 to 269,088 in 2007, a teledensity of less than three lines per 100 of population. Residential lines accounted for 69.1% of the total, while business connections made up 24.9% and public payphones 6%. The internet market recorded 39,113 subscriptions at the end of the year of which 97% were ADSL lines and 3% dial-up.