Digital connectivity in figures

In a quarter of a century, mobile phones and then the Internet have become part of daily life in Gabon. World Bank indicators, which largely draw on International Telecommunication Union (ITU) statistics, and the national regulator's publications make it possible to track this path. They show a mature mobile market, Internet use that now reaches a large share of the population, and fixed broadband that is still rare.

Mobile, a mature market

In 2000 Gabon had 9.4 mobile subscriptions per 100 inhabitants. The threshold of 50 was crossed in 2005 and that of 100 in 2011, with 133 subscriptions per 100 people. The peak came in 2014, at 148.2. Since then the ratio has stabilised between 122 and 141, standing at 125.3 in 2024. A ratio above 100 does not mean every resident owns a phone: the count covers active SIM cards, and a single user may hold several.

Figures from the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Posts (ARCEP) confirm this plateau. At the end of the first quarter of 2025, operators reported 3,179,889 mobile subscriptions, practically the same number as in the first quarter of 2024. More than 98% of these lines are prepaid. The market is split between two operators: Moov Africa Gabon Télécom (51.12% of subscriptions) and Airtel Gabon (48.88%).

The penetration rate published by ARCEP, 176.4%, is higher than the World Bank's because it is calculated on the 2013 census population (1,802,728 people), whereas the estimated population now exceeds 2.5 million. The gap shows why the reference population matters when comparing rates.

Internet: from 1% to more than two thirds of the population

The share of the population using the Internet was 1.2% in 2000 and 13% in 2010. It then rose very quickly, to 45.8% in 2015 and 63.9% in 2020. Growth has slowed since: 67.7% in 2022, 68.2% in 2023 and 68.7% in 2024. Nearly a third of the population therefore remains offline, a share that is now falling only slowly.

The available series are not enough to identify the causes of this slowdown. On the network side, ARCEP reports that operators ran 1,246 base stations (BTS) in March 2025, and that the average monthly revenue per prepaid user (ARPU) was 4,243 CFA francs in the first quarter of 2025.

Fixed broadband takes off from a very low base

Fixed broadband subscriptions remain few, but their growth is clear. They did not exceed 0.3 per 100 inhabitants until 2012 and reached 1.07 in 2019. The ratio then more than quadrupled in five years: 1.92 in 2020, 2.65 in 2021, 3.31 in 2022, 3.97 in 2023 and 4.69 in 2024. With a population of about 2.54 million in 2024, this amounts to roughly 120,000 subscriptions.

The country's international connectivity relies on submarine cables. According to TeleGeography's submarine cable map, five cables land in Libreville: SAT-3/WASC (in service since 2002), ACE (Africa Coast to Europe) and the Libreville Port-Gentil cable (2012), Maroc Telecom West Africa (2021) and 2Africa (2024).

Secure servers and accounts: the digital economy takes shape

The number of secure Internet servers, which use encryption certificates and support online commerce among other uses, rose from 2.3 per million people in 2010 to 42.2 in 2020 and 87.0 in 2024, with marked swings from year to year. The share of adults with an account, at a financial institution or with a mobile money provider, has risen sharply: 19.0% in 2011, 33.0% in 2014, 58.6% in 2017, 66.1% in 2021 and 68.2% in 2024, according to the World Bank Global Findex survey.

Key takeaways

• Mobile has reached a plateau: about 125 subscriptions per 100 people in 2024 and a stable base of about 3.18 million lines according to ARCEP.
• Internet use reaches 68.7% of the population in 2024, but its growth is slowing.
• Fixed broadband has been growing fast since 2020, from a very low base.
• Public digital services receive World Bank support: the Digital Gabon project, with 68.5 million dollars announced in January 2024, targets identification, civil registration and data protection.