Peplink in Africa

SD-WAN Networking Solutions for Africa's Markets

Digital divide in Africa

The digital divide is the gap between individuals or countries that have access to technology and individuals or countries that do not. This also includes, but is not limited to: access to computers, the internet, information and communications technology (ICT), and information literacy. This means that while the world's population is only composed of fifteen percent of Africans, around six percent subscribe to the internet.

Nigeria

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The cellular market started to develop in Nigeria in 1992. The first cellular network that entered the market was MTS (it stands for Mobile Telecommunications Service).

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There are about 150 million mobile subscribers in Nigeria and many telco companies, e.g 9Mobile (former Etisalat), MTN Nigeria (this company acquired Visafone in 2016), Ntel Airtel

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The Internet is still developing. It is mainly available in big cities with good infrastructure. There were approximately 91 million users of Internet in Nigeria in 2017.

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Currently Nigeria has two telecommunication operators that support the use of eSIM, MTN Nigeria and 9Mobile.

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South Africa

South Africa has four licensed mobile operators: MTN, Vodacom (majority owned by the UK’s Vodafone), Cell C (75% owned by Saudi Oger, an international telecommunications holdings firm), and 8ta, a subsidiary of Telkom.

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In 2019, mobile penetration was estimated to reached 95%.

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In 2020, MTN, Vodacom, and Rain launched a 5G network in South Africa and launched in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

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Although expensive compared to more developed nations, broadband is easily obtainable in South Africa. Fixed line options such as ADSL, ISDN, Diginet and Leased Lines are available from the national operator Telkom.

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