Mali Telecoms Market Report

Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

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Last updated: 4 Nov 2024 Update History

Report Status: Current

Report Pages: 151

Mali retrieves majority stake in the key telco Moov Africa Malitel

Mali’s topography includes large tracks of sparsely populated desert, with many settlements being hard to reach and thus rendering it difficult and expensive to provide effective fixed or mobile networks. Security issues have also been a concern, leading to delays in building the national backbone network. Following a coup in 2012 large areas in the north of the country were taken over by Islamic militants. The coup of September 2020 unsettled politics, and was soon followed by a second coup. The promised elections have been suspended indefinitely, which prompted France and other European governments to end their military support against the militants. Russia has partly filled the resulting vacuum, though the relationship with the Malian interim government can be considered predatory rather than supportive since Russia has secured concessions on the productivity of many of the country’s numerous mines, particularly for gold and diamonds.

Compounding these difficulties is the fact that underinvestment in fixed-line networks has meant that telecom infrastructure is barely adequate to serve consumer needs in most towns and is largely absent in most areas of the country. In addition, a combination of poverty, high illiteracy, and low PC use has led to a very low take-up of fixed-line internet services. In common with many other countries in the region, Mali has taken to mobile networks for voice and data services. Mobile networks account for about 98% of all telecom connections.

Orange Mali entered the market as the second mobile and fixed-line operator in 2003, and soon became the dominant provider. The duopoly with the national telco, Sotelma, which was privatised in 2009 when Maroc Telecom secured a 51% interest, continued until late 2017 when Alpha Telecom (after much delay) launched mobile services under the Telecel banner. A fourth mobile licence was secured by Mobilis, owned by Algérie Télécom, at the end of 2019. As part of negotiations to extend Sotelma’s operating licence through to 2039, the state of Mali increased its stake in the operator to 56%, and thus Maroc Telecom became a minority shareholder.

Mali’s landlocked location makes it dependent on neighbouring countries for international bandwidth, which has kept internet prices high. Improvements in this sector can be expected from the recent arrival of several new international submarine cables in the region, while Orange Group has also been engaged in building a terrestrial network linking the capital cities of eight countries in the region, including Bamako.

Key developments:

  • Regulator coordinates 900MHz and 1800MHz spectrum assignment in border areas between Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire.
  • Sotelma’s operating licence renewal charge is set at CFA160 billion.
  • Malian state becomes Sotelma’s largest shareholder.
  • Guinea and Mali interconnect national fibre networks.
  • Report update includes the regulator’s market data for 2022, ITU data updates, telcos’ operating data to Q2 2024, updated Telecom Maturity Index charts and analyses, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

Société des Télécommunications du Mali (Sotelma, Maroc Telecom, Vivendi), Orange Mali (Ikatel, Orange Group), Monaco Telecom, Planor Afrique, Afribone, CEFIB, Datatech

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