Sudan and its southern neighbouring country have a larger broadband market than Ethiopia, despite the latter having one of Africa’s biggest populations.

This is according to research from Frost & Sullivan on the ‘increasing uptake of broadband services in Ethiopia, Sudan (including South Sudan) and Rwanda.’

The research says that the combined broadband market revenue in these countries is forecast to hit $159.2 million by 2017, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.1% from 2011.

Meanwhile, the total number of broadband subscribers in these countries is expected to hit 2.465 million by 2017, up from 880,000 in 2011.

Key factors driving up the region’s broadband growth include the introduction of more internet service providers (ISPs) and the possibility of Ethiopia breaking the grip that its telecoms monopoly, Ethio Telecom, has on the country.

But what is striking is that both Sudan and South Sudan are forecast to have a 53% share of this region’s broadband market, according to Frost & Sullivan.

This is despite the fact that Ethiopia has a population of 91 million, according to the World Bank, while Sudan and South Sudan have under 50 million people.

Lehlohonolo Mokenela, a research analyst focusing on Africa for Frost & Sullivan, has explained to ITWeb Africa as to why Ethiopia is a broadband underperformer, despite its large population size.

“The Ethiopian market is 100% dominated by the the state-owned Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation, while in Sudan there is at least four major broadband providers, with the largest having no more than a 36% share of the market,” Mokenela has told ITWeb Africa.

“The presence of Zain and MTN is also expected to boost the mobile infrastructure (thus coverage) in Sudan, while the deployment of infrastructure in Ethiopia has fallen almost entirely on ETC.”

Mokenela has also explained to ITWeb Africa that more rapid urbanisation in Sudan and South Sudan is also spurring on greater broadband uptake.

“In contrast to the Ethiopian market, the telecommunications market is not plagued with high rural population and low mobile penetration rates,” Mokenela has told ITWeb Africa.

However, Mokenela has said there are increasing signs of investment in infrastructure to boost the broadband market in Ethiopia.

For example, Ethiopia's state-run Ethio Telecom said on Thursday it had chosen Chinese telecoms maker Huawei Technologies to roll out a high-speed LTE network across the capital Addis Ababa.

More broadly speaking, the Frost & Sullivan report notes that broadband network coverage across the countries is low at an average of 20% geographic coverage.

Other findings of the report include that code division multiple access (CDMA) has fast become a viable alternative to fixed digital subscriber line (DSL) and even the global system for mobile communications standard (GSM) internet services in the country.

WiMax is also proving to be popular in these countries, according to Frost & Sullivan.