
Telecommunication in Botswana
Compared to the United States, Botswana has a slight downturn in the development of telecommunications. Under the country code +267, there were a total of 4.29 million connections in 2021. Among them were 4.16 million mobile phones, which corresponds to an average of 1.6 per person. In the US, this figure is 1.1 mobile phones per person.With about 1,806 webhosts, Botswana is below the world's average by population. At the end of 2020, 620 of these, or about 34 percent, were secured with SSL or comparable encryption.
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Development of telephone and internet connections
With an average download speed of 6.8 Mbit/second for fixed-network broadband internet, Botswana ranks 166th in an international comparison. The upload rate was only 5.1 Mbit/second (156th place).In mobile internet, i.e., on tablets and smartphones, Botswana comes 47th with a download speed of 43 Mbit/second. The upload speed of around 11 Mbit was only enough for 68th place.
The Speedtest Global Index published regularly by Ookla is based on several million individual measurements in December 2022 from 178 countries.
The following diagrams show the development of the various telephone and internet connections as a percentage of the country's population. Values above 100 percent mean that, on average, every inhabitant has more than one connection.
Access to the internet in Botswana from 1990 - 2020
Broadband internet in Botswana 2005 - 2021

Landlines 1990 - 2021
Mobile phones 1990 - 2021
Distribution in 2021 | Botswana Total | Botswana percent | USA Total | USA percent |
---|---|---|---|---|
Broadband users | 203,020.00 | 7.84 % | 127.03 m | 38.27 % |
Landlines | 132,457.00 | 5.12 % | 97.11 m | 29.26 % |
Mobile cellulars | 4.16 m | 160.74 % | 361.62 m | 108.96 % |