Taxing mobile connectivity in Sub-Saharan Africa - A review of mobile sector taxation and its impact on digital inclusion

As digital infrastructure becomes increasingly central to key economic and social outcomes, policymakers are placing a greater emphasis on security and resilience. A key development in this context is the European Commission’s proposal to strengthen cybersecurity requirements through an updated regulatory framework – Cybersecurity Act 2 (known as CSA2). This includes provisions that require the removal of critical equipment supplied by designated high-risk vendors from telecoms infrastructure within a defined timeframe. GSMA Intelligence has conducted unique research to assess the cost of removing critical components from high-risk vendors from European telecoms networks.

Financially strong operators are essential to improve network quality, expand coverage, support growth in capacity and deliver new network functionality linked to 5G standalone, AI and beyond. However, over the past decade, structural trends have placed increasing pressure on the industry’s financial foundations. This report is the first in a series that seeks to address a critical evidence gap in the understanding of the financial sustainability of the mobile sector and its main drivers.

European mobile markets are undergoing a structural shift: rising data usage, declining revenue per user, saturating subscriber penetration and sustained investment requirements have made operator scale increasingly important. Europe remains the least concentrated major mobile region in the world, with operators being structurally subscale compared to global peers. This gap has widened during precisely the period when scale matters most.