­Senegal is acknowledged to present huge opportunities for the growth of mobile markets in West Africa. According to sources, at the end of 2010 the mobile services penetration in the country stood at 65% that is forecast to shoot up to 93% by 2016.

Taking the last couple of years into account, Senegal has seen a surge of 56% in terms of mobile subscriptions to register 8.3 million at the end of 2010.

As per sources, mobile revenue is poised to grow at a CAGR of 4% to $1.1 billion in the period 2011-2016. The increase in broadband penetration and increasingly competitive prices amongst the three mobile networks in the country are cited to be instrumental in pushing this growth.

The entry of yet another operator, the fourth one into the market is also attributed to fuel further growth, in addition to pushing operator experimentation with more competitive pricing strategies, innovation in service offerings and development of existing network coverage.

Mobile broadband subscriptions are projected to grow at a CAGR of 7% to reach 13.9 million by 2016.

Telecommunications regulator ARTP has stated that Senegal has added 515,967 mobile phone users in the fourth quarter of 2010, taking the total to 8.34 million at the end of the year for a 68.55 percent penetration.

Only 56,098 mobile phone customers (0.67%) were on postpaid plans at the end of December. At the end of 2009, the country’s overall mobile phone user base was 6.9 million and mobile penetration stood at 56.7 percent.

Orange Senegal (Sonatel Mobile) increased its mobile customers to 5.09 million at the end of December (up from 4.7 mln at the end of September), while Sentel’s slipped to 2.36 million (from 2.42 million) and Expresso’s rose to 898,113 (from 702,023). Their respective market shares were 61 percent, 28.2 percent and 10.8 percent at the end of 2010.

ARTP also reported that Senegal added 10,378 fixed telephony customers in the fourth quarter of 2010, taking the total to 341,857. A year earlier, the country had 278,788 fixed phone customers.

At the end of 2010, 78.76 percent of all fixed phone lines were residential, 20.36 percent were business lines and 0.8 percent were payphones. Fixed penetration rose to 2.81 percent at the end of December 2010 from 2.72 percent at end September and 2.29 percent at the end of 2009.

Senegal had 86,964 internet users at the end of December 2010, 1,685 more than at the end of September and 27,219 more than at the end of 2009.

Internet penetration rose to 0.71 percent from 0.7 percent and 0.49 percent, respectively. Some 89.2 percent of all internet subscribers at the end of 2010 were using ADSL, 9.6 percent 3G mobile and 1.3 percent PSTN.