Eswatini was one of the last countries in the world to abolish an almost complete monopoly in all sectors of its telecommunications market. Until 2011 the state-owned posts and telecommunications operator EPTC also acted as the industry regulator and had a stake in the country’s sole mobile network South African MTN. An independent regulatory authority was established in late 2013 and has since embarked on significant changes to the telecom sector. MTN Eswatini in early 2016 was also awarded spectrum in the 1800MHz band to provide LTE services. In 2017 Eswatini Mobile received a second mobile license and launched operations in July 2018. The arrival of Eswatini Mobile already has had the effect of dramatically lowering prices and improving mobile and data offerings in the country. In 2023 MTN was licensed to trial 5G technology, and 6 months later Eswatini awarded a ISP license to Starlink for their low orbit satelite technology.
The internet sector has been open to competition with twenty one licensed Internet Service Providers (ISPs) licenced in 2023, but prices have remained relatively high and market penetration relatively low outside the urban corridor of Mbabane -Manzini . EPTC continues to have partial exclusivity over national backbone broadband infrastructure, inhibiting performance and cost reduction.
Mobile market penetration in Eswatini is well above the average for the region, though subscriber growth has slowed in recent years. Real competition should provide a welcome boost to take the market to the next level as the technology move away from voice to data based products.
- Total mobile cellular subscriptions are 1,524,629 connections, with total mobile broadband subscriptions being 1,379,526
- Fixed broadband subscriptions are 29,784,whilst Fixed Telephone subscriptions are 38,537.
- The mobile penetration rate is at 107%, with mobile network geographic coverage at 78.2% while population coverage is 99.1%.
Mobile communications services are currently provided by two service providers, MTN Eswatini and Eswatini Mobile, that use 2G, 3G and 4G (LTE) technologies. They have a combined network coverage of over 99% population coverage for 2G, 90% for 3G and almost 60% coverage for 4G/LTE.
Leading Sub-Sectors
- Mobile phone provision
- Next Generation Network Solutions
- Fiber-optic cables
- Main distribution frames
- Equipment manufacturing and maintenance
- Wireless broadband services