The line graph below delineates the proportion of African subscribing to mobile and fixed line phones from 1994 to 2004. Overall, while the fixed line phones registered a slightly increase in the percentage, the mobile line phones experienced a surge in the percentage.
Regarding the years from 1994 to 2000, when the fixed line phones initially ranked first, presenting 1.7% in 1994, the mobile line phones recorded merely 0.06% in the same year. From 1994 to 1996, both figures witnessed a slightly upward trend in the percentage. Specifically, the fixed line phones saw an uplift from 1.7% to approximately 2% and the mobile line phones increased from 0.06% to around 0.1%. However, from 1996 to 2000, while the fixed line phones still reported a slight increase from approximately 2% to just under 2.8%, the mobile line phones indicated a rise in the proportion, skyrocketing from approximately 0.1% to nearly 2%.
In the case of the following years, due to the significant upward trend of the mobile line phones, they surpassed the fixed line phones in 2001 and subsequently displayed a consistently rise until the end of the period, when they presented precisely 8.8%. In contrast, the fixed line phones still recorded a slight increase in the percentage until 2004, eventually ranked second at merely 3.1%, which was far less than mobile line phones.