Senegal's national roaming live

National roaming, which allows subscribers to use a competitor's network to make and receive calls and text messages and access the Internet, is now effective in Senegal.

Senegal's Regulation Authority for Telecommunications and Posts (ARTP) has welcomed the implementation of roaming arrangements between the country's mobile network operators.

After verification tests on the effectiveness of switching in Senegal's villages surrounding the Diourbel region, ARTP Director General Abdou Karim Sall said national roaming is now a reality in Senegal.

Even though the initial trials in the Diourbel region saw a 100% success rate for the transferal of calls and SMS between networks, Sall noted that some technical issues remained relating to mobile data traffic.

The country's drive for national roaming was prompted by a request from President Macky Sall to prioritize moves toward nationwide mobile network coverage. The initiative is aimed at enabling service continuity in the event of a network outage as well as extending connectivity to underserved areas.

"National roaming is a regulatory lever that allows subscribers of an operator to use the network of another national operator to automatically make and receive calls if they are in an area not covered by its operator," said the ARTP director general.

Senegal's Internet penetration

It will be interesting to see how the national roaming deal impacts the country's Internet penetration and connects the underserved.

In June 2023, the country cut access to mobile Internet services in certain areas and at certain times, following violent protests. The country's government imposed further restrictions at the beginning of August.

The ARTP said national roaming is aimed at extending connectivity to underserved areas as well as enabling service continuity in the event of a network outage. (Source: Freepik)

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%.

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.

Senegal mobile market mix

National roaming was also agreed upon by the country's three major operators and will surely be welcomed by the country's citizens. Furthermore, national roaming being live is in line with the country's drive to strengthen high-speed connectivity and digital use.

In May 2023, the regulator announced that it would allocate 5G licenses to telecom operators by the end of July; and in June officially called for applications from those interested in obtaining 5G licenses.

The first 5G license was provisionally granted to Sonatel (Orange Senegal) as the country moves forward with plans to launch the fifth-generation technology in July.

Sonatel is the country's biggest mobile operator with around 11.7 million mobile users at the end of March 2023, according to statistics from market research company Omdia. Free Senegal follows with almost 5 million users and Expresso Senegal had over 3.8 million mobile customers.

Smaller operator Promobile had around 448,000 mobile users in the first quarter of 2023, and Hayo Telecom had just 360 subscribers. Omdia estimates that only about 22.5% of Senegal's mobile users were using 4G services at the end of 2022, with 68.6% using 3G and 9% still on 2G.

Analysts forecast that 4G uptake will reach 55% of all Senegalese users by 2028, and 5G uptake could make up 16% of the total by 2028.

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*Top image source: African map photo created by Allexxandar - www.freepik.com

— Matshepo Sehloho, Associate Editor, Connecting Africa