More than half of the population across the Arab States of the Middle East and North Africa have a mobile service, said telecom industry association GSMA today.
There were 195 million unique mobile subscribers in the region at the end of 2013, a penetration rate of 53 percent. Total mobile connections in the region stood at 404 million at year-end.
Anne Bouverot, director general, GSMA, said: “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 telecom infrastructure is in place to support global business hubs such as Dubai.”
A number of Gulf States, including Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), already have unique mobile subscriber penetration rates above 75 percent.
By contrast, 16 percent 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 in 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.
Arab States, Unique Mobile Subscriber Penetration, 2013 (% of Population)
| Algeria | 48% |
| Bahrain | 76% |
| Egypt | 53% |
| Iraq | 60% |
| Jordan | 71% |
| Kuwait | 77% |
| Lebanon | 51% |
| Libya | 61% |
| Morocco | 51% |
| Oman | 72% |
| Palestine | 46% |
| Qatar | 73% |
| Saudi Arabia | 74% |
| South Sudan | 16% |
| Sudan | 41% |
| Syria | 42% |
| Tunisia | 53% |
| United Arab Emirates | 83% |
| Yemen | 45% |
| Arab States (total) | 53% |
Source: GSMA Intelligence
The mobile industry in the Arab States has grown faster than the global average over the last five years. Unique mobile subscribers grew by 9.5 percent per year (CAGR) between 2008 and 2013, compared to a global average growth of 8.2 percent; mobile connections grew by 13.2 percent per year over the same period, compared to an 11 percent growth rate globally.
The lack of fixed-line infrastructure in the region means that mobile is already the primary means of communication and increasingly also the primary means of accessing the Internet. Mobile has played an active role in addressing the digital divide and delivering financial inclusion to previously underserved populations, particularly in parts of North Africa.
Mobile broadband (3G/4G) accounts for well over a third of total connections in the Gulf States today and is as high as 60 percent of the total connections in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Two of these markets – Qatar and the UAE – also have the highest smartphone adoption rates in the world (80 percent of connections).
Countries such as Morocco are seeing growth in 3G connections. For the vast majority of local operators, mobile data now accounts for a significant and fast-growing portion of total service revenue.
The mobile industry contributed $122 billion to the region’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2013, accounting for 4.4 per cent of the total. In 2013, the industry directly employed nearly one million people, while an additional 600,000 jobs were supported across the rest of the economy as a result of activity generated by the mobile sector.
Mobile operators in the region grew mobile revenue by 7 percent per year (CAGR) over the last five years, significantly above the global average of 4.6 percent. Operators have invested $75 billion over the last six years on improving network coverage, increasing network capacity and deploying mobile broadband networks.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com