The statistics for the first quarter of 2023 in the mobile telephony sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) reveal interesting and contrasting developments. According to the DRC Telephony Regulatory Authority (ARPTC), mobile Internet traffic increased significantly by 5.7%, from 142.115 billion to 150.222 billion megabytes. This increase testifies to the growing importance of the use of smartphones and online services in the country.
The Observatory of the mobile telephony market in the DRC also highlights certain highlights of this first quarter. First of all, the market share of the operator Africell remained below 10%, which confirms the domination of the three main operators in the country: Airtel, Orange and Vodacom. This market concentration poses challenges in terms of competition and diversity of offers for consumers.
Another notable trend is the number of subscriptions which has grown exponentially, while overall mobile phone revenues have experienced a significant decline. This situation is partly explained by the change in method of accounting for active subscriptions by Vodacom. By integrating subscribers who receive SMS messages, regardless of their acknowledgment of receipt, Vodacom recorded a 24.8% increase in its subscriptions between the fourth quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023. However, this increase did not have any impact. impact on overall revenue, which was down more than 13% due to reduced mobile money revenue.
Furthermore, the number of mobile money subscriptions has increased disproportionately in relation to the associated turnover, which raises questions about the profitability of this service. On the other hand, there has been a significant increase in turnover and Data traffic at the operator Airtel, which generates more revenue despite its relatively low market share in mobile Internet subscriptions.
These statistics for the first quarter of 2023 therefore reveal contrasting trends in the mobile telephony sector in the DRC. While mobile internet traffic continues to grow, with increasing use of online services, there are challenges related to market concentration and the profitability of mobile money services