Mali has a population of 16.0 million1 and is served by 2 mobile network operators: Orange and Sotelma-Malitel2. A third operator, Planor, received a 15 year license in January 2013 for which it paid $105M. With 13.5 million subscribers3, penetration is estimated at 85%, up from 10.8M in 20114. When one considers that almost 48% of the population is 14 years old or younger then this penetration must be considered very high indeed. Orange introduced 3G services in May 20105 and Sotelma-Malitel offers a 3G data service in specified areas.
