Inside Madagascar’s Internet Revolution: From Mobile Networks to Starlink Skies
Madagascar is connected to four major submarine cables—EASSy, LION/LION2, METISS, and 2Africa—with the 2Africa landing at Mahajanga in February 2023 and becoming operational in late 2023. Fixed broadband penetration is extremely low, at about 0.11 per 100 people in 2023, forcing most of the population to rely on mobile networks. Market shares are Telma about 50%, Orange about 30%, Airtel about 7%, Blueline’s bip about 2%, and SpaceX Starlink around 10% of Madagascar’s internet market as of 2024–2025. 4G coverage reaches roughly 71% of the population, while overall mobile signal availability sits around 92%. Madagascar experimented with 5G early on: