(openPR) - The North African region which consists of five countries (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia) is the most advanced market in terms of mobile telephony adoption compared to the Western, Eastern and even Southern part of the continent. As a matter of fact, according to Dataxis Intelligence’s latest market review, while North Africa accounts for only 13% of the continent’s population in 2009, it proved to be home to just under 30% of its overall 455 million mobile phone users, thus enabling it to have an average penetration rate of 83%, almost a twice that of Africa taken as a whole.

As far as mobile penetration is concerned, It is important to know the regional trend but it is also relevant to highlight the situation at a country level, and as shown in a the figure below, one can notice the steady growth of mobile adoption in the five referred countries.

Among key facts to outline is the fact that Libya had the highest penetration rate at the end of 2009 with 135%, followed by Tunisia that held 95% just ahead of Algeria where mobile adoption stood at 93% of its population. Finally, Morocco and Egypt lag far behind with respective penetration rates of 79% and 73% of their populations.

Looking back to five years earlier, in 2005, for instance the situation was a little bit different, as at that time Tunisia was the most advanced market with 57% of adoption followed by Morocco and Algeria with respectively 42% and 41%. The laggards at that time were Libya and Egypt with only 22% and 18% of their respective populations using mobile phones to communicate.

The graph: dataxisnews.com/?p=15348

DATAXIS, is an international market research and statistical intelligence company that covers 4 play markets worldwide. Our online database: www.dataxis.com contains detailed and up to date data on subscribers, revenues and ARPUs as well as annual forecasts on major operators and technology suppliers. Our news website: www.dataxisnews.com is a great tool to keep telecom professional up to date on the latest developments of the industry. In addition, we also publish our own analyses and Press Releases, under the Dataxis Views Section, that cover different regions worldwide: Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, and Latin America.

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