Botswana Telecommunications Sector: Impressive for a country with less than 3 mil people

The Botswana telecommunications space has healthy competition despite the relatively low population of 2.588 million. There are 3 mobile network operators who all double up as fixed network operators offering both ADSL and Fixed Wireless broadband.

Mobile Operator Space

Over 5 years (2018 - 2022), mobile subscribers grew by 27% from 3.35 million to 4.24 million. Mascom has the largest market share at 43% which is followed by Orange with 38% and Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) with 18%. Mobile broadband subscriptions have experienced a sharp rise in subscriptions in the past 5 years of up to 60%. That is from 1.52 million subscribers in 2022 to 2.435 million subscribers as of March 2022.

The highest driving factors for this according to Botswana Communication Regulatory Authority (BOCRA) are more consumer-friendly mobile internet packages as well as the influx of cheaper smartphones reducing the barrier to entry for mobile internet subscribers.

Fixed Operator Space

The growth in fixed broadband subscriptions grew by 121% between 2018 and 2022. Fixed broadband subscribers stood at 50,154 in 2018 and shot up to 111,851 as of March 2022. Mascom also dominated on fixed broadband with a market share of 43.5%, Orange comes in second at 30.6%, and BTC at 25.9%.