Senegal’s Autorite de Regulation des Telecoms et des Postes (ARTP) has published its market development report for the three months ended 30 June 2015, noting that the total number of active mobile users in the country exceeded 14.819 million at that date, up 0.82% (119,817) quarter-on-quarter, and 462,998 higher than the 14.356 million at end-June 2014. Of the total, an overwhelming 14.718 million are pre-paid users, with just 100,466 on contract service plans – broadly unchanged q-o-q. According to the watchdog’s calculations, cellular penetration reached 109.7% at end-June, down slightly from 111.5% a year before.
Orange Senegal continues to hold a dominant position in the mobile sector, with a 56.8% slice of the pie at end-June, although it lost some ground in the three months under review, with its share declining 0.05% despite increasing its base by a net 61,312 users to nearly 8.418 million. Orange’s loss was Millicom International Cellular-owned Tigo’s gain: the Luxembourg-based cellco’s local unit boosted its base to 3.469 million at the end of the second quarter, increasing its market share by 0.07 of a percentage point to 23.41% in the process. Meanwhile, number three operator – Expresso Telecom – closed out the second quarter with 2.932 million subscribers, a net gain of just 20,484, and saw its share of the pie slip marginally from 19.81% to 19.79% in the process.
Further, the ARTP’s report highlighted that monthly outgoing voice traffic reached 4.871 billion minutes in Q2 2015, up 4.73% when compared to 4.656 billion minutes of voice traffic in the prior quarter. However, SMS traffic is following a downward trend; the total number of text messages sent stood at 131 million in June 2015, down from 140 million (June 2014), 132 million (September 2014), 148 million (December 2014) and 131 million (March 2015).
Turning to the fixed line market, ARTP reported that the country was home to 102,623 broadband (ADSL) connections at 30 June 2015, up from 102,410 three months earlier but still below the 105,738 figure reported in June 2014. Incumbent PTO Sonatel is the monopoly provider of fixed broadband services and also controls 100% of the dial-up market, which numbered 18,283 users at the same date. In terms of voice telephony, there were a total of 305,843 main lines in service at end-June, down 0.4% q-o-q, of which Sonatel controlled a 93.6% market share and Expresso, 6.4%. The Sudatel-owned second national operator (SNO) is struggling to make headway in a market dominated by its Orange-backed rival. The SNO had a fixed telephony market share of 11.0% in June 2014.