Towards Evidence-based ICT Policy and Regulation Analysis of the Development of Telecommunication, Internet and Broadcasting Markets The telecommunication and ICT sector in Benin is marked by the presence of the following role players: • one fixed-line network operator (Bénin-Télécoms SA). It is a public operator. This company is currently being privatized. For the moment no decision has yet been made on the future market structure. • five GSM operators, of which four are private and one belongs to Bénin-Télécoms SA, the incumbent operator. Modifications to this market structure are not foreseen in the near future. • internet access providers (IAP) • various radio and television channels Despite the law on the liberalization of the telecommunication sector, the fixed line telephone market remains a public monopoly, the only service provider being Bénin-Télécoms SA. However, in spite of its monopoly and the economic investments made by the country, the public company Bénin-Télécoms SA does not manage to properly extend its network across the national territory. Table 2: Evolution in the number of fixed-line subscribers per department. Departments 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 ALIBORI 610 677 761 790 905 866 886 951 ATACORA 846 927 989 1.124 1.235 1.214 1.224 1.100 ATLANTIQUE 4.181 4.596 4.868 6.388 7.290 7.597 7.109 7.021 BORGOU 2.329 2.468 2.783 3.206 3.392 3.349 3.291 3.127 COLLINES 976 1.082 1.266 1.505 1.297 1.659 1.721 1.291 COUFFO 186 204 237 202 434 451 452 387 DONGA 613 706 707 724 695 640 649 651 31.746 32.273 34.257 36.593 38.123 38.559 38.271 34.720 MONO 1.256 1.441 1.682 1.862 1.939 1.884 1.963 1.533 OUEME 6.611 6.602 7.193 8.232 8.785 9.083 9.445 10.330 914 967 994 1.250 1.294 1.320 1.323 1.483 2.717 2.866 3.110 3.643 3.650 3.625 3.468 3.715 TOTAL NUMBER 59.298 62.669 66.511 72.789 76.267 EVOLUTION (%) --- 5,68 6,13 9,44 4,78 1,41 42,55 19,08 0,92 0,93 0,96 1,01 1,03 1,04 1,37 1,63 LITTORAL PLATEAU The Beninese mobile telephone market, which has five competing operators (Libercom, Moov, MTN, Bell Bénin and Glo Mobile Bénin), is an oligopolistic market Years ZOU TELEDENSITY 77.342 110.254 131.286 Source: Compiled from data from Bénin-Télécoms SA An oligopoly is a market structure in which a limited number of companies offer their goods or services to all consumers. The Beninese mobile telephone market, which has five competing operators (Libercom, Moov, MTN, Bell Bénin and Glo Mobile Bénin), is an oligopolistic market. It has to be noted that in the beginning, only the incumbent operator (Bénin-Télécoms SA) intervened in this market (through Libercom) before being joined in 2000 by two other operators (Moov and MTN), which are multinational companies. The fourth operator, Bell Bénin, entered the market in December 2003. Following the suspension of private networks (Moov, MTN and Bell Bénin) in view of the renegotiation of their licences in 2007, the State of Benin allocated a fifth licence to the operator Glo Mobile Bénin, which arrived on the market in 2008. The table below presents the distribution of the number of mobile telephone subscribers from 2003 to 2009. 8