Mobile connections decrease by 0.6%

Internet speeds lacking
An analysis by Kepios showed that the number of internet users in Namibia increased by 1.5% between January 2023 and January 2024.
Iréne-Mari van der Walt
  • 1 Month Ago
Despite cellular mobile connections amounting to 110.8% (2.91 million connections) of the total Namibian population, only 62.2% (1.63 million users) of Namibians are internet users, according to research published by GSMA Intelligence.

Data showed that the number of mobile connections in Namibia decreased by 0.6% between the start of 2023 and the start of 2024. This figure represents roughly 18 000 connections that were lost, notably before the termination of unregistered mobile numbers by the end of the sim registration campaign.

Of the 1.63 million internet users in Namibia, 703 900 were active social media users in January of this year, accounting for 26.8% of the population. "These headline stats offer a great overview of the 'state of digital' in Namibia, but in order to make sense of how digital trends and behaviours are evolving, we need to dig deeper into the data," a research report by DataReportal - in collaboration with We Are Social and Meltwater - read.

An analysis by Kepios showed that the number of internet users in Namibia increased by 1.5% between January 2023 and January 2024, which amounts to roughly 24 000 users who were connected to the internet over that period. This percentage is in line with the estimated growth of 1.5% in the Namibian population over the same time period.

"However, complexities associated with the collection and analysis of internet user data mean that it can often take several months before research is ready for publication. As a result, the latest published figures for internet use invariably under-represent reality, and actual adoption and growth may be higher than the figures suggest," the report read.

Meanwhile, Ookla reported that the median speed of a mobile internet connection in Namibia was 27.94 megabits per second (mbps) over 12 months ending at the beginning of this year. This is a long shot from the global averages of 55.80 mbps and 11.02 mbps for download and upload respectively.

Namibia ranked 88th in the world on Ookla's ranking list for the speed of mobile internet connection, retaining its position from the previous year.



- irene-mari@nmh-hub.com.na