Executive summary

Following more than a decade of civil war, Sierra Leone has enjoyed peace, stability and rapid economic growth since 2002. The country's traditional telecommunications infrastructure has suffered damage and neglect, but the mobile sector has experienced excellent growth with competition between five GSM networks. Some consolidation took place in 2009 when the market's number two (Africell) acquired the number four (Tigo, operated by Millicom). The other players are Comium, Zain and Datatel.

Also in 2009, state owned fixed-line incumbent Sierratel entered the mobile market with a CDMA2000 1x network which it also uses to provide fixed-wireless access and broadband Internet services following an upgrade to the EV-DO standard, making it the first 3G mobile network in the country.
Two additional mobile licences were issued in 2008 to Cellcom and Libya's LapGreen which are expected to launch shortly. In addition, two other companies have been holding mobile licences since 2004 but haven't rolled out services.

With assistance from the Indian government, Sierratel started rehabilitating its fixed-line infrastructure in 2009 and took first steps towards the rollout of a national fibre backbone network. In a controversial regulatory move, the company's monopoly on the international gateway had been reinstated in 2007. Despite this competitive advantage, the company is unlikely to be able to compete effectively in the various market sectors without a significant capital injection from a foreign strategic investor, so it is expected to be put up for privatisation in the near future.

Rapidly declining average revenue per user is forcing the mobile operators to improve their services, streamline their operations and create new revenue streams, such as Internet access via mobile data services. In this area they are competing with a large number of wireless broadband network operators that have emerged as providers of converged Internet and VoIP telephony services.

Depending entirely on satellites for international connections, without access to international fibre bandwidth, broadband services in Sierra Leone have remained extremely expensive, but this is expected to change when the first international fibre optic submarine cable reaches the country in 2011, possibly already in 2010.
Key highlights:

2010 estimates for mobile, fixed-line and Internet market;
Profiles of major players in all market sectors;
Sierratel EV-DO launch, fixed-line rehab, national fibre plans;
Privatisation of Sierratel expected;
Africell acquires Tigo;
Dormant mobile licences expected to be revived;
International fibre optic submarine cables to arrive in 2010/11;
Broadband pricing trends 2009.Zain SL subscribers and market share-2003 - 2009
YearSubscribers(thousand)Market share
20039584%
200413684%
200517855%
200624346%
200734943%
200846125%
2009 (Jun)55125%

This annual report provides a comprehensive overview of trends and developments in Sierra Leone's telecommunications market. Subjects covered include:

Key statistics;
Market and industry overviews;
Regulatory environment and structural reform;
Major players (fixed, mobile and broadband);
Infrastructure development;
Mobile voice and data markets;
Average Revenue per User (ARPU);
Internet and broadband development and pricing;
Convergence (voice/data, fixed/wireless/mobile).For those needing high level strategic information and objective analysis on the telecommunications sector in Sierra Leone, this report is essential reading and gives further information on:

Government policies affecting the telecoms industry;
Market liberalisation and regulatory issues;
The impact of the global economic crisis;
Telecoms operators-privatisation, acquisitions, new licences;
Consolidation in the mobile sector;
Internet and broadband development and growth;
Broadband and mobile data services and pricing trends;
Mobile Average Revenue per User (ARPU).

Table of Contents

1. Executive summary
2. Key statistics
2.1 Country overview
3. Telecommunications market
3.1 Overview of Sierra Leone's telecom market
4. Regulatory environment
4.1 Background
4.2 West African common regulatory framework 2005
4.3 Regulatory authority
4.3.1 National Telecommunications Commission (NTC, NATCOM)
4.4 Future regulatory direction
4.5 Telecom sector liberalisation
5. Fixed network operators in Sierra Leone
5.1 Sierratel
5.1.1 Network infrastructure
5.1.2 Wireless Local Loop (WLL), CDMA2000 1x EV-DO
5.1.3 Privatisation
5.2 Other operators
5.3 Fixed-line statistics
6. International infrastructure
6.1 New international submarine fibre optic cables
6.2 International gateways, grey market
7. Internet market
7.1 Overview
7.1.1 Internet statistics
8. Broadband market
8.1 Overview
8.2 VoIP Internet telephony
8.3 ISPs and converged service providers
8.3.1 Access Point Africa
8.3.2 Afcom
8.3.3 AITH
8.3.4 Datatel
8.3.5 FGC
8.3.6 icom.net (Comium)
8.3.7 IPTEL/Sierra-Com
8.3.8 LimeLine
8.3.9 MultiNet
8.3.10 Sierratel
9. Mobile communications
9.1 Overview of Sierra Leone's mobile market
9.1.1 Mobile licensing
9.1.2 Mobile statistics
9.2 Major mobile operators
9.2.1 Zain (formerly Celtel)
9.2.2 Comium
9.2.3 Africell (Lintel)
9.2.4 Tigo (now part of Africell)
9.2.5 Datatel
9.2.6 Sierratel
9.2.7 Cellcom
9.3 Mobile data services
9.4 Mobile content and applications
9.4.1 M-payment
9.5 Satellite mobile
10. Related reports
Table 1-Country statistics Sierra Leone-2010
Table 2-Fixed-line network statistics-2009
Table 3-Internet user statistics-2009
Table 4-Mobile statistics-2009
Table 5-National telecommunications authority
Table 6-Fixed and fixed-wireless lines in service and teledensity-1999-2010
Table 7-Internet users and penetration rate-1999-2010
Table 8-icom.net wireless Internet pricing-January 2010
Table 9-GSM licences issued in Sierra Leone-1998-2009
Table 10-Mobile subscribers, annual change and penetration rate-2000-2010
Table 11-Mobile operators, subscribers and annual change-March 2009
Table 12-Zain SL subscribers and market share-2003-2009
Table 13-Celtel/Zain SL ARPU-2002-2009
Table 14-Zain mobile Internet pricing by data download-January 2010
Exhibit 1-Map of Sierra Leone
Exhibit 2-West African common regulatory framework 2005
Exhibit 3-International submarine fibre optic cables in West Africa-2009-2011