Zambia records increase in mobile phone subscribers

Zambia has seen a rapid increase in the number of mobile phone subscribers since 2007, the country's telecommunication and technology regulator said on Tuesday.

The southern African nation recorded an increase in the number of mobile phone subscribers from 2.6 million in 2007 to 10.9 million in 2015, according to the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA).

The telecommunication and technology regulator attributed this to increased investment in the sub-sector by mobile service providers.

Mulenga Chisanga, director for market competition and licenses at the telecommunication and technology regulator said the increase in subscriber base corresponds to an improvement in service penetration, which covered 70.3 percent of the nation's population of 14 million in 2015, compared to only 22.5 percent in 2007.

Zambia has three mobile phone operators namely Airtel, a subsidiary of India's Bharti Airtel, MTN Zambia, a subsidiary of South Africa's headquartered MTN and Cell Z, a subsidiary of state-owned telecommunication firm Zamtel.

The telecommunication and technology regulator further said the country recorded an increase in the number of internet users from 2.3 million in 2012 to 5 million in 2015 with the majority of users being through cellular networks. Endit