Benin’s Minister of Digital and Digitalisation, Aurelie Adam Soule, has held a meeting with local ISPs to address concerns about the low internet penetration rate in the West African country despite the presence of major players and recent government efforts to boost the sector. As reported on the website of the Ministry of Digital & Digitalisation (le Ministere du Numerique et de la Digitalisation [MND]), the ISPs and officials from the regulator – Authority for Regulation of Electronic Communications and Post (l’Autorite de Regulation des Communications Electroniques et de la Poste, ARCEP) – engaged in a ‘working session’ to identify causes and possible solutions to the low internet take-up. The minister stated that the consultation will lead to an ‘action plan’ that will contribute to improving the sector’s indicators.

TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database notes that, in contrast to the mobile sector, fixed broadband subscription take-up remains low in Benin: according to ARCEP the broadband figure reached a recent peak of 38,539 at mid-2020 before plummeting to a low-point of 18,489 in Q1 2021 and recovering only moderately, and in stuttering fashion, to 20,539 at end-March 2022 (latest published figure), estimated by TeleGeography to reach 21,400 by 30 September 2022. This translates to a household penetration of 0.8% compared to average penetration in African countries of 9.6%, according to GlobalComms, which adds that the state-backed Beninese Digital Infrastructure Company (Societe Beninoise d’Infrastructures Numeriques, SBIN) appears to have disconnected inactive or unpaid-for subscriptions following ARCEP’s regulatory approval of SBIN’s retail internet access launch in March 2021, having acquired the licences and infrastructure of legacy incumbent Benin Telecoms. In October 2022 SBIN commercially launched mobile network services under its new Celtiis brand to compete with MTN Benin and Moov Africa Benin, while simultaneously introducing Celtiis-branded fibre broadband services, but despite the rebranding, GlobalComms notes that the available consumer and B2B retail fibre speeds remained unchanged.

The most prominent Beninese ISP competitor, Isocel Telecom, utilises broadband fixed wireless access (BFWA) alongside a fibre access network in Cotonou which it has expanded to span over 500km. According to ARCEP, Isocel is among seven Beninese fixed ISPs – alongside SBIN – actively providing services, mainly based on BFWA.

Source: Commsupdate