Mobile traffic in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 49 percent.
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 10 – 4G subscriptions will expand tenfold from 30 million in 2017 to 310 million by 2023 in Sub-Saharan Africa.
According to a report by Ericsson, mobile subscriptions in the region are also expected to grow by 6 percent from 700 million to 990 million during the same period.
Mobile traffic in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 49 percent.
At the same time, mobile subscriptions for the total MEA region are expected to grow at four percent CAGR between 2017 and 2023, from 1.59 billion in 2017 to 2.03 billion by 2023.
This equates to three percent growth in the Middle East and North Africa, with 890 million mobile subscriptions to 1.04 billion subscriptions between 2017 and 2023.
The first 5G subscriptions in the Middle East and North Africa are expected from 2020, reaching around 17 million subscriptions by the end of 2023.
Head of Ericsson Middle East and Africa Rafiah Ibrahim says the rapid growth is seeing operators increasingly explore methods of optimizing their networks with more capacity and coverage.
Further, cellular Internet of Things (IoT) subscriptions in the Middle East and Africa are expected to grow from 35 million to 159 million between 2017 and 2023 – a compound annual growth rate of around 30 percent.
“Even though IoT is still in its infancy throughout most parts of the Middle East and Africa, there are still examples of how it has helped improve the livelihood of communities and industries in the region,” reads the report.
The phenomenon is facilitating the digital transformation of industries, and providing mobile operators in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa with opportunities to explore new revenue streams.
