Zambia’s mobile telecommunications subsector has experienced significant growth, expanding over 22% in the last year alone, with revenues reaching US$389.65 million.
These figures were highlighted in the recently released 2023 Annual Market Report for the Information and Communication Technologies Sector by the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA).
The report revealed an increase from US$319.93 million in 2022. This growth was attributed to the continued adoption of ICTs, particularly mobile cellular technology, and is expected to result in higher internet usage and mobile cellular traffic, ultimately leading to further growth in the ICT sector.
The total number of active mobile cellular subscriptions increased by 6.4% to 21.1 million subscribers in 2023, up from 19.8 million in 2022.
ZICTA predicts that the number of mobile cellular subscribers will continue to increase, reaching 21.9 million at the end of 2024, 22.8 million subscriptions at the end of 2025, and 23.6 million subscriptions at the end of 2026. Airtel currently holds the majority of the market share at 48.6%, MTN Zambia is at 32.6%, and Zamtel reported a 1% increase to 18.8%.
The number of telecommunication sites in Zambia increased 8.2% to 12,975 sites in 2023 from 11,987 sites. Among these sites, 5G sites constitute 1.3% of the total, while 2G sites account for nearly 36.8% of the sites.
