3 December 2008
Maputo — Mozambique's teledensity (the number of telephone subscribers per 100 inhabitants) has jumped from 3.39 in 2004 to 20.6 in 2008, according to the Minister of Transport and Communications, Paulo Zucula.
Answering questions from deputies in the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, Zucula said this was due to the rapid expansion in the number of people owning mobile phones.
In 2004, there were just 610,473 subscribers to mobile phone services (either through contracts or via the pre-paid phone cards), but in the first half of 2008, the figure reached 4,223,911 - an increase of over 3.6 million.
The mobile phone networks now reach 109 of Mozambique's 128 districts, compared with 73 in 2004. Thus over 85 per cent of the country's districts are covered by mobile telephony.
The fixed phone network has also grown, but only by a few thousand new subscribers. Zucula said that in 2004 there were 75,256 subscribers to the network operated by the sole provider, the publicly owned company TDM. The figure rose to 78,324 in the first half of 2008.
This was due mostly to geographical expansion. In 2004, the TDM network covered only 68 districts, but today it reaches 116.
Zucula attributed the huge expansion in the cell phone networks to competition. A second operator, the South African company Vodacom, entered the market in 2005, competing against the pioneer in the field, the Mozambican company M-Cel. A price and advertising war has followed, with the two companies offering clients a bewildering number of packages, each claiming to be cheaper than its rival.
Zucula said "the climate of competition has resulted in the increase in the number of citizens with access to phone services".
The main telecommunications infrastructure in the country is the fibre-optic grid, installation of which began in 2001. Fibre-optic cables now reach most of the country, and Zucula said the grid will be complete in early 2009 when the cables reach the two northernmost provincial capitals, Pemba and Lichinga.
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