The growth of telecommunications, the potential of which is significant as the penetration rate remains low, is still affected by the country’s challenges (strong inflation, infrastructure deficiency), particularly due to the conflicts that have been known since 2013.
The landlocked Central African Republic’s recent
uncertain institutional situation has constrained
investment in broadband networks and access to
cross-border submarine cables. Mobile, however,
remains a bright spot, with a reasonable level of
competition, given the challenges.
Mobile services
: There are four mobile operators
in the country; MOOV, which launched in 2005 and
is a subsidiary of Morocco Telecom; TELECEL, the
oldest operator in the market, having launched in
1996, a subsidiary of South Africa-headquartered
ECONET WIRELESS; AZUR, which launched in 2004
and is owned by a private Congolese group; and
Orange, the latest market entrant, launched in
2007, a subsidiary of Orange France. Despite the
relatively large number of operators, penetration
is low, challenged by the country’s instability since
2013, which has constrained investment and
coverage expansion. Orange was the first operator
to launch 3G services in 2013, with coverage
mainly limited to urban areas. An inadequate
electricity network and national backbone
infrastructure make the expansion of mobile
networks challenging.
3G coverage of pop 2017 23%.
As mentioned above, the mobile telephone network does not cover the entire territory. According to the country PRSP , only 17 towns have access to mobile telephone services, which represents a population coverage rate of less than 30%. In addition to the limited coverage of the territory, there are regular periods of outage throughout the country.
telephone SIM cards are sold around the town and anyone can purchase them. lowest penetration rate in central africa with 22%
Orange
Orange is the most recent company to join the market, which comprises four operators. Orange has more than 400,000 active mobile subscribers, most of them being prepaid customers. After being the first operator to launch the 3G network in 2013, Orange has provided the four main cities of the country with mobile data services through its positioning in offers to companies, organizations and international military forces. In addition, Orange is the only operator to provide mobile payment services since it launched its Orange Money offer in 2016.
Orange Central African Republic has the second-largest distribution network in the country in terms of scale, with a total of 109 sites, and draws on direct and indirect distribution channels comprising 30 distributors and 8,000 resellers.