Informa Telecoms & Media announces latest subscription numbers for the African market using data from its World Cellular Information Service.

Highlights for the African market include:

* A 66% growth rate in 2005 - the highest for any world region

* 150 million milestone exceeded at end of April 2006, only 12

years after the launch of the first GSM mobile network

* 53 markets with a total population of 900 million,

yet a mobile penetration of only 15% at end of 2005

According to Devine Kofiloto, Principal Analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, "Subscriber growth across the region is not consistent.

Southern Africa, North Africa and West Africa alone accounted for an 85% share of the total 134 million mobile subscriptions at end 2005.

This is a reflection of the diversity of the cluster of markets under different stages of demographic and wireless evolution."