Mobile penetration in Arab States passes 50%

Enterprise Innovation editors
14 Oct 2014
00:00

Mobile penetration in the Arab States of the Middle East and North Africa are has now exceeded 50%.

The new GSMA report shows that there were 195 million unique mobile subscribers in the region at the end of 2013, a penetration rate of 53% of the total population.

“Mobile has scaled dramatically in the Arab States over the last five years, delivering significant socio-economic benefits in every country across this diverse region,” said Anne Bouverot, Director General, GSMA. “As regional operators continue to invest in mobile broadband networks and services, we call on governments in the region to collaborate with the mobile industry to deliver on a range of goals, from rolling out networks to under-served areas in North Africa to ensuring that the right infrastructure is in place to support global business hubs such as Dubai.

The 19 markets that form the Arab States comprise both the advanced Gulf States and many populous emerging markets in North Africa. These two sub-regions vary widely in terms of socioeconomics, mobile penetration, technology maturity and regulatory environments.

A number of Gulf States, including Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), already have unique mobile subscriber penetration rates above 75%. By contrast, just 16% of the population in South Sudan is subscribed to a mobile service.

Egypt is the largest market in the region with 44 million unique mobile subscribers at the end of 2013, accounting for 23 percent of the region’s total. The five largest markets, in order of size, are Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Algeria and Morocco, which together account for just under two-thirds of the region’s total unique mobile subscriber base.

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