Mobile coverage
According to data collected directly from mobile operators and the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, as of April 2019, the total number of active mobile telephone subscribers in the Central African Republic is 1,228,554 for an estimated population of 4.5 million. This represents a penetration rate of about 27 percent. According to this data, Telecel, which covers about 60 cities (the 50 percent of the market share), is the largest mobile network provider with 618,391 active subscribers, followed by Orange with 501,181 (in about 50 cities), Moov with 65,588 and Azur with 43,394.
ART’s technical services state that the low penetration of telephone networks in the interior of the country is partly due to the lack of the electricity network, which only covers the capital Bangui. And so telephone operators must make permanent use of electricity generators to supply their sites in the provinces. This is very costly in financial terms. In addition, the degradation of their installations in the provinces by armed groups considerably weakens them.