The 5G revolution in North Africa is proving to be imbalanced, with governments that acted early on spectrum allocation pulling away from their neighbours.
New research from analytics firm Opensignal shows a starkly divided world. Regional performance is now determined by timing; markets that launched in early 2025 benefit from robust infrastructure, whereas latecomers have variable coverage and "low-load" phase constraints.
Tunisia and Egypt are already separating from the pack. These markets are providing a more refined user experience now that initial testing is complete.
In these more mature launches, 5G consistent quality improved even as speeds stabilised, with Tunisia increasing from 76.3% to 82.5% and Egypt from 65.2% to 69.4%, according to the report.
However, the report says, availability remains a challenge in both countries. Users are still only connected to 5G for a fraction of the time due to physical network gaps.
Meanwhile, Morocco and Algeria are in the early phases of their journey.
Morocco's average download speeds have increased from 212.8 Mbps to 228.4 Mbps, but these peaks are generally the result of "low-load" networks with few users sharing the bandwidth.
Algeria remains the outlier: it leads in speed at 300.2 Mbps but falls behind in 5G consistent quality at 57%, indicating a strong experience where 5G is available but a less consistent experience at scale, according to the report.
It goes on to say the mid-band spectrum, notably the 3.5GHz range, has been recognised as the true differentiator. Nations that have been aggressive in assigning and deploying this frequency are better positioned to increase speed and reach. North Africa adopted 5G in stages, and the timing of a deployment remains critical to its success.
As it stands, North Africa remains a region in transition. With investment levels and spectrum access varying wildly by border, the 5G experience is fragmented. Opensignal predicts that these performance gaps will likely widen before the region’s infrastructure eventually finds its feet and stabilises.
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