Internet Access in Malawi: Infrastructure, Penetration, and Future Outlook
The national fiber-optic backbone, about 1,300 km long, was completed in 2018 by Huawei to connect major cities and border links in Malawi. In July 2023, ESCOM linked Malawi to Tanzania’s national broadband backbone, a move expected to lower international bandwidth costs and extend connectivity to rural areas. In 2023, Liquid Intelligent Technologies launched a new fiber route between Zambia and Malawi to provide faster, more direct access to backbones and data centers. As of early 2025, Malawi had 13.2 million active mobile cellular connections, representing about 60.3% of the population, with more than 90% on 3G or 4G networks.
