Guinea Telecoms Market Report

Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Report Cover Image

Publication Date: November 2024

Report Pages: 150

Lead Analyst: Henry Lancaster

Contributing Analyst: Peter Lange

Guinea aiming to relaunch Guinée Télécom

Guinea’s telecom market is dominated by the international operators MTN and Orange. After the entry of these regional players, and helped by the bankruptcy and market exit of the incumbent telco Sotelgui, the number of mobile subscribers grew strongly. The government since 2019 has sought to secure partners and investors to help launch a replacement operator, Guinée Télécom. Although some funding has been provided, and network trials were undertaken in late 2022, thus far there is no fixed schedule for the operator to launch services.

Fixed broadband services are still very limited and expensive, though there have been some positive developments in recent years. A National Backbone Network was completed in mid-2020, connecting administrative centres across the country, and in 2022 the length of the fibre network was increased by about 26%. A new infrastructure provider, Guinéenne de Fibre Optique, was licensed in March 2023 to provide interconnection services and fibre transport to operators on a wholesale basis, and this is expected to lead to reduced access prices for end-users. The government also secured a $60 million loan from the World Bank to improve internet infrastructure, which will help reduce the digital divide and improve network capacity.

In the mobile sector some changes could develop if MTN Group exits the market and sells its local unit to another telco. Guinea represents only a very small proportion of Group revenue, and the company has had a fallout with the regulator, which at the end of 2023 cited it for failing to pay dues and licence fees.

Key developments:

  • Orange Guinea deploys FDD Massive MIMO technology to boost network capacity by a third.
  • Sotelgui is rebranded as Guinee Telecom, hoping to relaunch services by end-2024 with the financial support of the African Development Bank.
  • Telecom regulator closes MTN Guinea’s headquarters in Conakry due to unpaid fees as the operator looks to sell its local unit.
  • Guinean coup leader dissolves the transition government.
  • Telecom regulator adopts a new strategic development plan for the period 2023-2025.
  • Report update includes the regulator's annual report for 2022, market data to September 2023, operator data to Q3 2023, updated Telecom Maturity Index charts and analyses, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

Société des Télécommunications de Guinée (Sotelgui), Guinée Télécom, MTN (Areeba, Investcom), Orange (Spacetel), Intercel (Télécel Guinea), Cellcom Guinee, MiriNet (Afribone), ETI, Universal Communication (DiscoveryTel), Ristel, Afripa Telecom, Alternet Systems, Broad Telecom, Soguicis, Thucatel, Telekom Malaysia

Related Reports

Share this Report

TMT Intelligence

A platform to scale your intelligence tasks

Monitor critical insights with our AI-powered Market Intelligence Platform gathering and analyzing intelligence in real time. With AI trained to spot emerging trends and detect new strategic opportunities, our clients use TMT Intelligence to accelerate their growth.

If you want to know more about it, please see:

TMT Intelligence Platform

Research Methodology

BuddeComm's strategic business reports contain a combination of both primary and secondary research statistics, analyses written by our senior analysts supported by a network of experts, industry contacts and researchers from around the world as well as our own scenario forecasts.

For more details, please see:

Research Methodology

More than 4,000 customers from 140 countries utilise BuddeComm Research

Are you interested in BuddeComm's Custom Research Service?

News & Views

Have the latest telecommunications industry news delivered to your inbox by subscribing to BuddeComm's weekly newsletter.

Unsubscribe