
Telecommunication in Madagascar
Compared to the United States, Madagascar is massively lagging behind in the development of telecommunications. Under the country code +261, there were a total of 16.31 million connections in 2021. Among them were 16.28 million mobile phones, which corresponds to an average of 0.56 per person. In the US, this figure is 1.1 mobile phones per person.With about 38,392 webhosts, Madagascar is below the world's average by population. At the end of 2020, 286 of these, or about 1 percent, were secured with SSL or comparable encryption.
Back to overview: Madagascar
Development of telephone and internet connections
With an average download speed of 30.32 Mbit/second for fixed-network broadband internet, Madagascar ranks 109th in an international comparison. The upload rate was 33.41 Mbit/second (55th 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 Madagascar from 1990 - 2019
Broadband internet in Madagascar 2006 - 2021

Landlines 1990 - 2021
Mobile phones 1990 - 2021
Distribution in 2021 | Madagascar Total | Madagascar percent | USA Total | USA percent |
---|---|---|---|---|
Broadband users | 30,933.00 | 0.11 % | 127.03 m | 38.27 % |
Landlines | 26,271.00 | 0.09 % | 97.11 m | 29.26 % |
Mobile cellulars | 16.28 m | 56.30 % | 361.62 m | 108.96 % |