Telephony
As of April 2010, the CIA factbook described the telephone system as “primitive” with “one of the lowest” telephone densities in the world and “increasing. . . .but meager” use of cell phones. As of 2010, the number of fixed-line telephone connections is far fewer than one per every 100 persons, with about five in use cell phones per 100 persons. The international country code is 257.
In 2008, there were 30,400 main telephone lines in use, making Burundi 178th in the world in terms of countries with the most main telephone lines in use. This was a decrease from 2006 in which 35,000 main telephone lines were in use. In 2005, there had been only 27,000 main telephone lines in use. In 1995, there were 17,000 main telephone lines in use.
In 2008, there were 480,600 cellular phones in use, making Burundi 156th in the world in terms of countries with the most cell phones in use. This was a large increase with the number of cell phones almost doubling from the 250,000 in use in 2006. In 2005, there had been 153,000 cell phones in use. In 1995 there had been 343 cell phones in use.
As of 2010, the domestic telephone system consists of open-wire, raditelephone communications, along with low capacity microwave radio relay.
As of 2008, there was one satellite earth station, operated by Intelsat in the Indian Ocean.
Read more about this topic: Communications In Burundi