Senegal announces national roaming plan

Senegal's Regulation Authority for Telecommunications and Posts (ARTP) has announced plans to introduce national roaming between operators to bolster coverage in the West African country.

According to the regulator's Director-General Abdou Karim Sall talks are underway between the country's telcos Orange, Free and Expresso Telecom to lay the necessary framework.

Speaking to the APS news agency, Sall said an assessment would take place at the end of April to determine whether operators have achieved prior coverage targets stipulated in mobile licenses.

"We will measure obligation by obligation the level of achievement or the level of respect of these obligations by the operators," the director-general continued.

The announcement comes after President Macky Sall called on the Ministry of Telecommunications and Digital Economy to implement an urgent plan to achieve nationwide mobile network coverage as soon as possible.

During the country's ministerial council on March 21, the President asked the Minister of Digital Economy and Telecommunications to take measures to develop Universal Service Funds for Telecommunications.

Senegal's Internet penetration

The regulator's plans should help improve the country's Internet penetration rates by connecting the underserved.

Statistics from Datareportal show there were 10.19 million Internet users in Senegal at the start of 2023, which is an Internet penetration rate of just 58.1%.

Senegal's national roaming plan between mobile operators is set to bolster coverage in the West African country. (Source: Image by Freepik)

Datareportal also recorded that Senegal was home to 20.19 million cellular mobile active connections in January 2023, equating to 114.8% of the total population. Datareportal shows that Senegal's population stood at 17.5 million in January 2023.

Internet users in Senegal increased by 255,000, or by 2.6%, between 2022 and 2023, according to Kepios analysis.

Senegalese mobile ecosystem

The roaming plan will surely be welcomed by Senegalese citizens as it involves the three major operators in the country.

According to statistics from Omdia, a sister company of Connecting Africa, Orange Senegal had the highest number of subscribers at the end of the fourth quarter in 2022 with over 12 million.

The telco is followed by Free Senegal with over 4.6 million subscribers as well as Expresso Senegal with 3.7 million subscribers. Leaving Promobile with 418,000 and Hayo Telecom with the least number of reported subscribers at just 228 during the same period.

The plan comes barely a week after the World Bank granted the country US$150 million in financing to accelerate the West African country's digital economy.

The financing deal is part of Senegal's Digital Economy Acceleration Project and is intended to transform the country into an emerging economy by 2035.

*Top image is of Senegalese flag (Source: Red flag photo created by www.slon.pics - www.freepik.com).

— Matshepo Sehloho, Associate Editor, Connecting Africa