Mobile ownership
According to the International Telecommunication Unit (ITU 2018), research estimates indicate that only 12-20 percent of the South Sudan population have access to mobile communication. This data does not account for the drastic reduction in the overall population of the country due to a massive conflict-related exodus. In late 2017, UNHCR estimated that it was receiving close to 2,000 new South Sudanese arrivals a day in neighbouring Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Democratic Republic of Congo, totalling over 2 million refugees. In a country of 12 million, 4 million are displaced. This makes it challenging to access accurate data reflecting the current mobile usage.
Limited data and statistics of the mobile ownership, subscription and Internet usage within the country have also affected the current estimates. The Internews survey We Are Still Listening: Media Landscape survey in the Accessible Areas in South Sudan in 2015, indicates there is a low mobile use and Internet penetration rate but it warns that some South Sudanese in far flung areas own mobile phones and use them intermittently. The survey also indicates that many families in South Sudan share mobile phones, meaning that more people maybe using mobile phones even though they don’t own one.