The Regulation Authority of Post and Telecoms (Autorite de Regulation des Telecoms et des Postes, ARTP) in Senegal has published its market observatory for the fourth quarter of 2015, illustrating that growth in the country’s mobile sector slowed in 2015 as the market reaches near saturation levels. Senegal was home to more than 14.958 million cellular users at 31 December 2015, up 4% from 14.380 million a year before, although quarterly growth decelerated to 0.82%, 0.60% and just 0.34% in the second, third and fourth quarters, respectively. Marginal gains were reported from Orange and Expresso Telecom in Q4 – the former’s base was up 1.05% quarter-on-quarter to 8.415 million, while Sudatel-backed Expresso edged up 0.41% to 3.188 million – while second-placed Tigo saw accesses fall by 1.46% to 3.356 million from 3.406 million at 30 September.
The fixed line sector, meanwhile, went into reverse. The total number of broadband (i.e. ADSL) connections slumped 1.05% q-o-q and 3% over the year to 100,611 from 103,362, while dial-up usage also stagnated at 18,436 lines and fixed telephony customers dropped to 300,219 from 311,945 previously. Incumbent PTO Sonatel (Orange) controlled 94.3% of all fixed telephone lines at that date, compared to 91.1% at end-2014, and Sudatel had the remainder (5.7%). Sonatel (Orange) also has a monopoly on the ADSL segment.