According to cp-africa the number of mobile subscriptions in Africa will cross the 750 million mark during the fourth quarter of 2012 and is expected to reach 1 billion before the end of 2015, according to forecasts by Informa Telecoms & Media.
Africa has the world’s second-biggest mobile market region by subscription count, behind Asia-Pacific but ahead of Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America and the Middle East.
With a growth forecast of 17.5%, Africa has the highest rate of growth in mobile subscriptions among major world regions. Nigeria, which crossed the 100 million mobile subscriptions threshold in the second quarter of 2012, will continue to be Africa’s biggest mobile market and is forecast to have 168.99 million subscriptions at the end of 2017, followed by Egypt with 129.4 million.
“Africa’s mobile market continues to grow robustly, driven by competition among mobile operators, the availability of new data services and strong economic growth on the continent,” says Matthew Reed, principal analyst at Informa for Africa and the Middle East.
The number of mobile subscriptions in Africa is expected to reach 761 million at the end of 2012, and will rise to 1.13 billion at the end of 2017, according to Informa Telecoms & Media.