| Telephones - main lines in use | total subscriptions: 3,434 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: less than 1 (2019 est.) |
| Telephones - mobile cellular | total subscriptions: 6,729,804 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 103.77 (2019 est.) |
| Telecommunication systems | general assessment: telecom sector is recovering from the decades of war, yet still constrained by inadequate power and pervasive corruption; recently installed terrestrial fiber backbone infrastructure; telephone service improving with the rapid growth of mobile sector; operators increased investment to provide national coverage; LTE available in some parts of the country; construction of 600 km ECOWAS Wide Area Network completed; fiber link to Guinea completed; importer of broadcasting equipment from China (2021) (2020)domestic: fixed-line less than 1 per 100 and mobile-cellular 86 per 100 (2019) international: country code - 232; landing point for the ACE submarine cable linking to South Africa, over 20 western African countries and Europe; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) (2019) note: the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a significant impact on production and supply chains globally; since 2020, some aspects of the telecom sector have experienced downturn, particularly in mobile device production; many network operators delayed upgrades to infrastructure; progress towards 5G implementation was postponed or slowed in some countries; consumer spending on telecom services and devices was affected by large-scale job losses and the consequent restriction on disposable incomes; the crucial nature of telecom services as a tool for work and school from home became evident, and received some support from governments |
| Broadcast media | 1 government-owned TV station; 3 private TV stations; a pay-TV service began operations in late 2007; 1 government-owned national radio station; about two-dozen private radio stations primarily clustered in major cities; transmissions of several international broadcasters are available (2019) |
| Internet country code | .sl |
| Internet users | total: 568,099 percent of population: 9% (July 2018 est.) |
Source: CIA World Factbook
This page was last updated on September 18, 2021
