
Telecommunication in Lesotho
Compared to the United States, Lesotho is massively lagging behind in the development of telecommunications. Under the country code +266, there were a total of 1.83 million connections in 2021. Among them were 1.82 million mobile phones, which corresponds to an average of 0.80 per person. In the US, this figure is 1.1 mobile phones per person.With about 11,030 webhosts, Lesotho is below the world's average by population. At the end of 2020, 150 of these, or about 1 percent, were secured with SSL or comparable encryption.
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Development of telephone and internet connections
With an average download speed of 19.35 Mbit/second for fixed-network broadband internet, Lesotho ranks 136th in an international comparison. The upload rate was only 14.33 Mbit/second (110th place).The Speedtest Global Index published regularly by Ookla is based on several million individual measurements in February 2023 from 180 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 Lesotho from 1990 - 2021
Broadband internet in Lesotho 2004 - 2021

Landlines 1990 - 2021
Mobile phones 1990 - 2021
► All international calling codes
Distribution in 2021 | Lesotho Total | Lesotho percent | USA Total | USA percent |
---|---|---|---|---|
Internet users | 1.09 m | 47.98 % | 304.52 m | 91.75 % |
Broadband users | 7,998.00 | 0.35 % | 125.89 m | 37.93 % |
Landlines | 9,559.00 | 0.42 % | 97.82 m | 29.47 % |
Mobile cellulars | 1.82 m | 79.83 % | 361.66 m | 108.97 % |