Mali's terrain includes large areas of sparsely populated desert and many settlements are difficult to reach, making it difficult and expensive to provide an effective fixed or mobile network.
Security is also a concern, leading to delays in building the country's backbone network. large areas in the north of the country were occupied by Islamist militants following a coup in 2012. the September 2020 coup destabilized the political situation and was closely followed by a second coup. The coup leaders delayed the promised elections, which in turn prompted France and other European governments to decide to end military support for the militants in February 2022. Many parts of the country remain generally ungovernable.
To compound matters, underinvestment in fixed-line networks means that telecommunications infrastructure barely meets consumer demand in most towns and is largely non-existent in most parts of the country. In addition, poverty, high illiteracy rates and low personal computer usage have resulted in very low usage of fixed-line Internet services. Like many other countries in the region, Mali has adopted mobile networks for voice and data services. Mobile networks account for approximately 98% of all telecommunications connections. Despite these challenges, progress has been made in fixed-line connectivity, particularly during the years 2020 and 2021.
Orange Mali entered the market in 2003 as the second mobile and fixed-line operator and quickly became the dominant provider. The duopoly with national telco Sotelma lasted until the end of 2017, when Alpha Telecom (after a long delay) launched its mobile services. at the end of 2019, Mobilis, owned by Algérie Télécom, received its fourth mobile license.
Mali's landlocked location makes it dependent on international bandwidth from neighboring countries, which keeps internet prices high. The recent arrival of several new international submarine cables in the region is expected to improve this area, while the Orange Group is also working on a terrestrial network connecting the region's eight national capital cities, including Bamako.
