- Decline attributed to a 2.7% decrease in mobile Internet subscriptions that went down from 2,844,958 in Q4 ’22 to 2,768,010 in Q1 ’23
GAZETTE REPORTER
Total Internet subscriptions (that is mobile Internet plus fixed Internet subscriptions) declined by 2.4 percent in Q1 2023.
According to a report by Statistics Botswana titled Botswana Information and Communication Technology Stats Brief Q1 2023, the decline was attributable to mobile Internet subscriptions which decreased by 2.7 percent, from 2,844,958 in Q4 2022 to 2,768,010 in the current quarter.
“However, fixed Internet subscriptions rose by 4.5 percent, from 132,887 registered in Q4 2022 to 138,824 in Q1 2023,” the report reads.
“Compared to the same quarter of the previous year, Q1 2023 realised an increase of 14.1 percent in total Internet subscriptions, with both mobile and fixed Internet subscriptions registering increases of 13.7 and 24.1 percent respectively.”
Mobile Money subscriptions
Mobile money is a technology that allows customers to receive, store and spend money using a mobile cellular telephone.
To enjoy the benefits of mobile money, a customer has to register and open an account with a mobile money service provider.
Existing mobile money services in Botswana include Smega of BTC, Orange Money of Orange Botswana, Myzaka of Mascom and Poso Money of Botswana Post.
According to Statistics Botswana, mobile money subscriptions for the period 2019 to Q1 2023 have been fluctuating.
“In Q1 2023, mobile money subscriptions decreased by 7.0 percent, from 1,811,036 registered in Q4 2022 to 1,685,072,” the report says.
“Comparing Q1 2023 to the same quarter of the previous year, mobile money subscriptions went down by 0.2 percent.”
Telephone traffic
Telephone calls traffic comprises Domestic Calls, International Calls and Short Message Service (SMS).
During Q1 2023, Statistics Botswana says On-net fixed telephone domestic calls (Fixed to fixed telephone calls) traffic declined by 1.5 percent, from 14.1 million minutes registered in Q4 2022 to 13.9 million.
“Off net fixed telephone domestic calls (Fixed to mobile telephone calls) traffic, however, increased by 1.7 percent, from 23.7 million minutes in Q4 2022 to 24.1 million minutes,” the report notes.
“With regard to mobile telephone domestic calls traffic, on-net mobile telephone traffic went down by 3.0 percent in Q1 2023, from 2,071.6 million minutes recorded in Q4 2022 to 2,010.2 million.
Off-net mobile telephone traffic as well as mobile to fixed telephone traffic also fell in Q1 2023, registering 11.9 percent and 0.3 percent decreases respectively.”
The government statistics agency says outgoing international fixed telephone calls traffic decreased by 7.7 percent in Q1 2023, from 1.0 million minutes in Q4 2022 to 0.9 million.
“Outgoing international mobile telephone calls traffic also decreased, by 8.9 percent in Q1 2023, from 4.1 million minutes recorded in Q4 2022 to 3.8 million minutes,” says the report.
“On-net short message services (SMS) fell by 10.0 percent and off-net SMS traffic decreased by 8.6 percent in Q1 2023.”