In 2025, mobile internet revenue exceeded half of the telecommunications market's total turnover in DRC, confirming a gradual pivot in operators' business models toward data.

According to data from DR Congo's postal and telecommunications regulator, the ARPTC, the sector's overall revenue reached $2.394 billion in 2025, with mobile internet services alone generating $1.287 billion. Data now accounts for roughly 53.8% of market revenue, up from around 14% in 2016.

BDO RDC highlighted the same trend in a sector note published in May 2026, stating that data has become the primary growth driver of the Congolese telecoms sector.

The ARPTC's fourth-quarter 2025 report confirmed this shift in usage patterns. Traditional services such as voice calls and SMS are declining, while consumers are increasingly turning to multimedia content, messaging applications, streaming and digital services.

Average data consumption per subscriber has risen sharply. According to BDO RDC, it increased more than 24-fold between 2016 and 2025, driven by the spread of smartphones, improved connectivity and the expansion of digital applications.

Airtel still leads

In the mobile internet revenue segment, Airtel held the top position with a 43.02% market share in the fourth quarter of 2025, ahead of Orange at 28.44%, Vodacom at 24.63% and Africell at 3.91%. The regulator attributed Airtel's performance to the appeal of its data packages, the strength of its infrastructure and one of the country's most extensive 4G deployments. It also cited a strategy aimed at broadening enterprise access to data services.

The growth of mobile internet has come alongside a significant challenge: service quality. The ARPTC noted deteriorating service as perceived by subscribers across all operators over several quarters, a problem that has become more acute as digital usage increases.

Beyond revenue, the expansion of mobile internet is part of a broader digital transformation dynamic. The DRC had 73.9 million active mobile subscriptions at the end of 2025, for an overall penetration rate of 65.9%. The mobile internet penetration rate reached 33%.

Mobile money continued to advance as well. The ARPTC recorded 34.3 million active mobile money subscriptions in the fourth quarter of 2025, representing a penetration rate of 30.6%. The trend confirms the growing integration of telecommunications into digital financial services.

Boaz Kabeya