The line graph illustrates the percentage of people in Africa who subscribed to mobile and fixed-line phones between 1994 and 2004.
Overall, there was a steady increase in the proportion of subscribers for both types of phones throughout the period. Fixed-line subscriptions started at a higher percentage in 1994, but mobile subscriptions saw a dramatic surge, overtaking fixed-line usage in 2001 and ending with a significantly larger proportion in 2004.
In 1994, only 0.06% of people subscribed to mobile phones, while fixed-line subscriptions were far more common at 1.7%. Over the next four years, both types of subscriptions grew gradually, with mobile phone usage remaining below 1% until 1998. By this point, fixed-line usage had risen to approximately 2.5%, maintaining its lead.
However, after 1998, mobile phone subscriptions began to climb rapidly, surpassing fixed-line usage at around 3% in 2001. By 2004, mobile phone subscriptions had skyrocketed to 8.8%, more than doubling the percentage of fixed-line users, which had only grown modestly to 3.1%.