For a decade, West Africa's main connection to the Internet has been a single fiber-optic cable in the Atlantic, a tenuous and expensive link for one of the poorest areas of the planet.

But this summer, a second cable snaked along the West African coastline, ending at Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos. It has more than five times the capacity of the old one and is set to bring competition to a market where wholesale Internet access costs nearly 500 times as much as it does in the U.S.

It's the first of a new wave of investment that the U.N.'s International Telecommunications Union says will vastly raise the bandwidth available in West Africa by mid-2012.

Main One Cable Company has announced the launch of its high capacity fibre-optic cable system, which links West Africa to Europe, on time and within budget. The cable spans 7,000km and has landing stations in Nigeria and Ghana with branching units in Morocco, Canary Islands, Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire. Main One said the cable system will deliver 1.92Tbps of much-needed international capacity into West Africa, more than ten times what is currently available; in the past rapid growth in telecoms in the region has been blighted by limited global connectivity. ‘Today is a historic day for West Africa. The arrival of the Main One cable proves that much good can be done by Africans for Africans. We are pleased to realise the fruit of our dedication and commitment in the past 30 months,’ noted Fola Adeola, chairman of Main One Cable Company, adding: ‘More importantly, we are happy to be a channel for driving growth in Africa and changing the status quo for the average African as reliable internet connectivity becomes easily accessible and affordable for all.’ Wholly African-owned, the Main One cable is the first privately-owned submarine cable system in West Africa.

Source: TeleGeography

Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest fixed-line penetration rate in the world. Incumbent operators mainly attribute this to low investments in copper-wire network infrastructure in the past. However, ­a series of fibre-optic cables that are being placed along the east and west coasts of the continent are expected to give a second life to fixed-line telecommunications and cater to the rising demand for data and broadband Internet services.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan finds that the market earned revenues of $6.78 billion in 2008 and estimates this to reach $12.25 billion in 2015. The fixed-line technologies covered in this research include copper-wire network, fibre-optic network, dial-up, asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL), integrated serial digital network (ISDN), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), code division multiple access (CDMA) and multi-protocol label switching (MPLS).

"The key growth drivers for wire-line telecommunications are the increasing demand for data and Internet services, cost-effective deployment of fixed-wireless technologies, and the introduction of fibre-optic cables," says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Jiaqi Sun. "Corporate customers are the major revenue contributor for fixed-line services, particularly data and Internet services and fixed-wireless technologies."

­The mobile communications markets of Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe have all experienced subscriber growth over ten percent in the last five years. This has created a powerful network effect, which continues to drive market growth, albeit at lower levels. Value-added and data services are increasingly becoming revenue drivers, particularly in competitive markets such as Botswana and Namibia, which have high mobile penetration levels.

Analysis from Frost & Sullivan finds that Zambia currently contributes almost half of all revenues in these four countries, followed by Botswana with 26 per cent. This is expected to change by 2015 when Zambia's share will reduce to 38 per cent, but Zimbabwe will contribute one third of the total revenues.

"These countries differ significantly in the state of their mobile communication markets," notes Frost & Sullivan industry analyst Protea Hirschel. "Botswana and Namibia are characterised by high mobile penetration rates, which is more than 100 per cent in the case of Botswana. The small addressable markets in these two countries constrain long-term growth and the average revenue per user (ARPU) for voice is declining due to greater competition. Therefore, mobile operators are focused on retention strategies and extending data offerings to protect their market shares."

­The sub-Saharan Africa telecommunications market will be characterized by regulatory developments and continued investment in broadband infrastructure by various submarine and terrestrial cable operators, according to latest research by IDC, making 2010 a defining year for Africa's telecoms sector. The FIFA 2010 World Cup will be a watershed moment for African infrastructure, determining the robustness and relevance of submarine cable systems, terrestrial backhaul networks, metro networks, and more.

Research for 2009 showed that Africa's telecoms channel accounted for 3-4% of all mobile/portable units shipped. Governments will continue efforts toward higher penetration among citizens, particularly in rural areas, and are likely to see mobile phones as a way of saving money and communicating with citizens. Currently, African mobile penetration rates average 25-45% of the entire population, but the rate for the adult population, with which governments would be interacting, is roughly 70-80%.

As well, operators and vendors will be looking more closely at social networking, news portals, and other content to grow data revenue, which will entail providing relevant content in local languages. As the availability of low-cost devices is an important factor in the adoption of these offerings, telcos will become an increasingly important channel for notebook, netbook, and smartphone vendors.

Source: Cellular News

­A U.S.-based organization that promotes the use of the Internet is urging leaders in east Africa to make the Internet accessible and affordable to all of their citizens. The leaders are gathering in Nairobi for a regional summit due to begin Tuesday.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) says by expanding the reach and affordability of the Internet, African countries can vastly help improve the economic future of the people on the continent. Speaking at an ICANN-hosted Internet conference in Nairobi Monday, CEO Rod Beckstrom noted that Africa, which has 15 percent of the world's population, is home to less than seven percent of Internet users worldwide.

"We hope the African heads of state of IGAD will walk across the hallway and join our meeting because that is a few small steps for them, but a huge leap for Africa - for more visibility and leadership of the heads of state in the Internet policy area - because the Internet is truly the developmental platform for the future," he added. Last July, a fiber optic cable went live off the Kenyan coast, putting the countries of Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda on the global information superhighway for the first time.East Africa had been the only region in the world not connected through fiber optic cables. For years, businesses suffered because they had to rely on expensive satellites to connect to the Internet. Many passed down those costs to consumers, hurting the poor in the region.

This article was originally published by Voice of America.

Source:Cellular News

­South Africa's MTN Group has announced that it had a shade under 108.5 million subscribers at the end of September. This is a 5% increase for the quarter from 103.2 million subscribers recorded at the end of  June 2009 and a 19.6% increase for the year to date.

The South and East Africa (SEA) region increased its subscriber base by a very modest 0.5% for the quarter. This was primarily due to the disappointing negative movement of the South Africa subscriber base which contributes 64% to the region. South Africa's subscriber base declined from 17.23 million at the end of June 2009 to 16.42 million at the end of September. The main reason for the movement is the significantly lower number of gross connections following the implementation of RICA in August, which requires PrePay SIM cards to be registered with the operators. Given the current market uncertainty following the RICA implementation there are challenges with South Africa achieving its revised target of zero net additions for the full year.

Uganda increased its subscriber base by 11% in the quarter following the continued success of MTN Zone which now constitutes 95% of the total prepaid base.

The West and Central Africa (WECA) region increased its subscriber base by 5% for the quarter driven mainly by Nigeria which accounts for 58% of the region's subscribers. Nigeria recorded a 5% increase in its subscriber base to 28.76 million mainly due to continued network rollout, innovative product offerings and the effectiveness of the distribution channels implemented earlier in 2009. Ghana maintained its market share and increased its subscriber base by 2,6% despite aggressive competitor activity. Both Cameroon and Cote d'Ivoire increased their subscriber bases by 4% and 5% to 4.19 million and 4.21 million, respectively.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region recorded a 9% increase in subscribers for the quarter. This was largely due to continued growth from the Iran operation, which contributes 62% to the region's subscribers and increased its base by 8% to 20.7 million. Iran's growth was attributable mainly to expanded network coverage and continued promotional activity. Syria increased its subscriber base by 13% to 4 million, well above expectations. Afghanistan, although a relatively smaller operation, has been steadily contributing positively to the region's growth and has gained No. 1 position in the market from No 3 at the beginning of 2009.

MTN has revised its subscriber net addition guidance for the year for South Africa to zero and for Syria to 550,000 while other individually disclosed country guidance remains the same. MTN expects to achieve the total group subscriber net addition guidance for 2009 of 22.6 million.

Source: Cellular News

Millicom International Cellular (MIC), the telecoms group with operations in twelve countries across Africa and Latin America, has posted revenues of USD856.2 million for the third quarter of 2009, a 7% increase year-on-year.

The growth is partly attributable to strong performance at Amnet, the company’s cable and broadband unit, as well as its African subsidiaries. Net income, however, slipped 11.5% to USD142.7 million on the back of higher interest expense and taxes. The results exclude operations in Cambodia, Laos and Sri Lanka, which Millicom agreed to sell earlier this month. The full divestment of all three subsidiaries is expected to take place by the end of 2009, generating approximately USD565 million in cash for the company.

Chief Financial Officer Francois-Xavier Roger said the company was looking at acquisitions and bidding for new licences in Africa and Latin America. ‘We have nothing well advanced at this stage, but we have a few opportunities that we continue to discuss with third parties,’ he stated.

Source: Telegeography

Mauritius Telecom (MT), which has already connected to the South Africa Far East fibre-optic cable system to increase its international connectivity, has revealed its intention to lay a second cable, the company’s chief executive officer Sarat Lallah said last Friday.

The investment for the Lower Indian Ocean Network (LION) fibre-optic cable is being supported by a consortium made up of Orange Madagascar, MT and France Telecom, Lallah said. For its part, the Mauritian fixed line incumbent has invested around EUR7 million in phase one of the project which is expected to cost a total of EUR37 million. The CEO went on to say the second phase of the LION project will connect the cable with the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa where it will then be connected to the South Africa-East Africa-South Asia-Fibre Optic Cable (SEACOM), a 17,000km cable which reaches up to Marseilles in France. LION will also be connected to the 4,500km fibre-optic cable TEAMS (The East African Marine System), a Kenyan government partnership with the Emirates Telecommunication Establishment which links Mombasa to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. In the future LION is envisaged to be connected to the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy), a 10,000km link which, once completed, will connect some 13 African countries, Lallah said.

Source: Telegeography

Vodafone is expected to use Vodacom as its vehicle to expand into developing markets in Africa now that it has secured control of the company. Vodacom CEO, Pieter Uys said that the company is looking to take advantage of falling prices to increase its footprint.

"If you look at the world there aren't many growth opportunities around; Africa is one of them," Uys told the Bloomberg news agency. "All markets in Africa offer potential for consolidation." Vodafone "has committed to use us" to enlarge its sub-Saharan business and "support us" on potential acquisitions, he said.

Vodafone has just increased its holding in Vodacom from 50% to 65%, while South African landline operator, Telkom floated its 35% stake onto the local stock market earlier this week.

Vodacom has operations in South Africa, Tanzania, Lesotho, DR Congo and Mozambique. Through its Gateway Communications subsidiary, it offers satellite services in 40 African countries.

For a few days last month Maroc Telecom's parent company Vivendi looked like it might pull off one of the most audacious attempts yet to arrest control of one of the Middle East & Africa's largest mobile operations from the now well-entrenched players. However, Zain, whose Celtel unit was the subject of the interest, could not agree on price with the French company and the chance of a deal - however unlikely most commentators, including your author, thought that to be - now looks to be dead and gone. If a transaction had gone ahead it would most likely have had a significant effect on Maroc Telecom's place in the Vivendi group, with the Moroccan incumbent slotting in as part of a much larger overall portfolio.

Source: Cellular News

Atlantic Telecom is reported to be facing the suspension of its network in Togo after failing to renew its operating license. The operator's license expired in June 2008, and has been given until 10th August to pay a 20 billion CFA (US$44 million) renewal fee.

Estimates from the  Mobile World analysts shows that the operator ended Q1 '09 with around 530,000 subscribers. The dominant telco is the state owned Togo Cellular, with around 1.25 million customers. France Telecom's Orange seems to have an operating license but has not started services yet.

Source: Cellular News

The opening of a fiber-optic cable providing broadband to millions of people in Southern and Eastern Africa is part of an ambitious plan to expand Internet access and help spur the continent’s economy and its technology industry. The cable, built by Seacom, a consortium 75 percent controlled by African investors, is the first of about 10 new undersea connections expected to serve Africa before the middle of next year. The expansion will cost about $2.4 billion and will help connect Africa with Europe, Asia and parts of the Middle East at higher speeds and at lower cost.

Right now, Africa has only one submarine fiber-optic cable: the less efficient SAT-3 cable in Western Africa, owned primarily by Telkom, the South African telecom company, and last updated in 2002. Those with no access to that cable are forced to use expensive and slow satellite links.

In a press release, France Telecom has announced that the ACE (Africa Coast to Europe) submarine cable system, which was initially planned to stretch from France to Gabon, will now be extended to South Africa connecting all countries along the West coast of Africa, from Morocco to South Africa. This new cable will provide broadband interconnection to the global telecommunications network to more than 25 countries in Africa and Western Europe.

Source: TeleGeography.

Madagascar’s largest mobile operator by subscribers, Orange Madagascar, has announced that it has completed its submarine cable project, LION, and has connected the cable at Tamatave in the Toamasina region. Funded by Orange Madagascar, France Telecom and Mauritius Telecom, the 1,800km broadband cable links with the existing SAT3/WASC and SAFE cable and has a capacity of 1.3Tbps. It also connects Madagascar with the islands of Reunion and Mauritius, and Orange maintains the new link will contribute to the development of regional cooperation in the Indian Ocean. However, despite the completion of the development, Orange has complained that the Malagasy government has still not completed the necessary legal framework to allow the ‘full exploitation of the cable’. It has called on the state to regulate so that it can begin to offer commercial services. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, incumbent Telecom Malagasy’s (Telma’s) monopoly on the fixed line sector was due to end on 30 June 2008, but regulator OMERT has yet to legislate to officially open the market.

Source: TeleGeography.

­Kuwait based Zain is reported to be considering an offer to sell its African mobile networks to an unnamed French company. The sale of the former Celtel assets is estimated to be worth up to US$12 billion, including debt, reports the Dow Jones Newswire, citing the Al Qabas newspaper.

Celtel was founded by Sudanese-born Mo Ibrahim in 1998 and sold to Kuwiat's MTC (now Zain) in April 2005 for US$3.4 billion.

Zain is waiting for reply from the French company this week and if the deal isn't settled Zain will study bids made by other companies, the newspaper added.

No reason was given for why Zain is looking to sell the African division.

Source: Cellular News.

Zain, the leading mobile operator in Middle East and Africa has brought its Sierra Leone operations under the borderless ‘One Network’. The mobile service will allow the Zain subscribers in the African and Middle East nations to be a part of the mobile community.

Zain subscribers will be able to communicate between these countries and be treated as local subscribers in terms of pricing, while using their home network service.

“Today marks another milestone in the history of Zain as we launch our award winning ‘One Network’ service in another country. Now it covers 18 countries and an area larger than the United States of America and with a population of more than 500 million people,” said Dr. Saad Al Barrak, Zain’s group CEO. He said the introduction of ‘One Network’ mobile service is part of their Drive11 initiative.
The One Network service enables subscribers to make calls and SMS at local rates and will receive incoming calls and SMS for free.

Source: Wireless Federation.

East African submarine fibre-optic cable system SEACOM has announced that it is entering the final stages of construction. According to the SEACOM website, the 15,000km, 1.28Tbps cable system is due to launch operations in early July this year. SEACOM CEO Brian Herlihy said, ‘SEACOM is in its final stretch! With the rapid progress of construction, we will soon be providing cheaper and faster bandwidth to our customers. The site acceptance testing was recently completed in Mombasa, and the terminal installation has also been completed in South Africa.’ MyBroadband.co.za has reported that construction of the physical cable system is completed and testing is due to commence in early June. Angus Hay, chief technology officer of Neotel - SEACOM’s South African ‘anchor tenant’, confirmed that the company is preparing end-to-end testing on the cable system. Hay said that this testing will involve the full system which runs from the Neotel point-of-presence in Midrand, S.A along the East African coast to India and Europe.

Source: TeleGeography.

• Total African telecoms market to grow by >USD40 billion by 2013
• Low service penetration rates will allow for growth beyond five year period

As growth in the global telecoms service markets slows, Africa will be the one region which will see double-digit average annual growth rates over the next five years, according to TeleGeography's GlobalComms Insight. Spurred on primarily by a doubling of its wireless subscriber base, the total African market will grow by well over USD40 billion by 2013. At that point it will still have by far the lowest service penetration rates compared to other regions, indicating the opportunity for continued strong growth over subsequent years. Of course growth will remain in check by under-developed economies and widespread poverty among large sections of the population, a result of which is an ARPU level that will continue to lag way behind the rest of the world. Nonetheless Africa represents a strong business growth opportunity for many service providers.

TeleGeography's newest product - GlobalComms Insight - includes subscriber forecasts for wireless, broadband and fixed line markets in Africa on a country-by-country basis, as well as full analysis of the growth in market value, service penetration rates and ARPU. GlobalComms Insight provides comprehensive market forecasts and forward-looking analysis to help clients track market trends and to identify new opportunities.

Source: TeleGeography.

­The Kenyan market saw some major developments in the second half of 2008: in Q3, fixed operator Telkom Kenya launched a mobile network, and in the last quarter of the year, Econet Wireless finally managed to get up and running, more than five years after it was first awarded a licence. At the end of 2008, there were 15.90m mobile customers in Kenya. Annual net additions stood at 4.55m, up from 4.08m a year earlier, but proportionate growth fell from 56.0% to 40.1%. Fourth-quarter net additions increased from 0.65m in Q4 07 to 1.37 in Q4 08.

Safaricom dominates the Kenyan market, although the launch of Telkom (Orange) and Econet appears to have dented its market share. At the end of 2008 it had 12.39m customers, more than 9m ahead of nearest rival Celtel. However, having lost 2.7pp market share in Q3 08, it dipped a further 4.4pp in Q4 08 to finish the year on 77.9%. By contrast, Celtel does not appear to have suffered at all from the launch of the new networks, adding 4.4pp of market share in the second half of 2008 to finish on 19.4%. It topped the market for net additions in Q4 08 with a gain of 0.52m (compared to 0.43m for Safaricom) and finished the year on 3.08m.

Kenya: Quarterly Net Additions, Q1 08 – Q4 08

Source: Cellular News.

The central African nation of Burundi was home to 480,000 mobile subscribers at the end of 2008, up 78% on the 270,000 reported the previous year, according to data published by the national telecoms regulator, Agence de Regulation et de Controle des Telecom (ARCT). The sharp rise has been attributed to increased competition in the local market and mobile network expansion by the four active operators - U-Com, ONAMOB, Africell and Econet. Two more licensed operators, Lacell and HiTS Telecom are yet to launch services. U-Com claimed the lion’s share with 344,830 users as at 31 December 2008, with the remainder split between its three rivals. ARCT is targeting 700,000 mobile subscribers in the country by 2010. The regulator’s report also highlighted earnings for the four cellcos reached BIF33.2 billion (USD27.31 million) in 2008, up from BIF25 billion the previous year.

Source: TeleGeography.

According to a recent report by Yemeni telecoms company Public Telecommunication Corporation (PTC), the number of internet subscribers in the country rose to 295,215 in 2008, from 216,076 a year earlier. Of the total, dial-up users accounted for 270,773 (205,613 in 2007), while subscribers to the Super Yemen Net (ADSL) service jumped to 24,442 (10,464). The number of internet cafes across the republic rose from 925 in 2007 to 973.

Source: TeleGeography.

POTRAZ has slashed mobile phone tariffs by 40% in order to make mobile services more affordable in Zimbabwe. According to the regulator, the move was prompted by the need there was need to strike a balance between affordability of services by consumers and the viability of operators.

The POTRAZ board reportedly, said, “The strengthening of the United States currency against other regional currencies has resulted in a reduction in regional tariffs.” The hyper inflation and currency devaluation in the Southern African country has made all three mobile network service providers to start billing their subscribers in foreign currency. As per the PORTAZ directive, Econet Wireless has already reduced its tariffs.

Source: Wireless Federation.

"Kenya shows impressive growth rates with significant opportunity," notes Dearbhla McHenry, analyst at Pyramid Research and author of the report. "By the end of 2008, Kenya had more than 15.0 million mobile subscribers, with a mobile penetration rate of 39 percent. The subscriber base is expected to rise to 29.28 million, or 66.7 percent penetration, by year-end 2013."

Increased competition is helping to fuel demand for mobile services in Kenya, McHenry says. "Until 2008, the Kenyan mobile market was a duopoly consisting of Safaricom and Zain. That has now changed with the entry of two new players - Econet and Orange. Since their entry, there has been a fierce price war with operators slashing tariffs and introducing new air time promotions, making their services more affordable for the wider population."

Total revenue of Kenya's telecom market is forecast to grow by 42 percent from $1.39 billion in 2008 to $1.98 billion by 2013, with 78 percent of the total revenue to be generated by the mobile sector. "Mobile data will be the telecom sector's fastest-growing revenue stream, increasing in revenue from $62 million in 2008 to $224 million in 2013, partly due to the launch of 3G services but also to the explosive growth of low-tech, low-margin mobile data services, particularly mobile money transfers," says McHenry.

Source: Cellular News.

Nigeria has outdone South Africa to emerge as the largest mobile telecom market in Africa with more than 61 million mobile subscribers, according to a new report.

The report revealed that a continued growth in the country in the coming five years will trigger prompt further competition among the growing number of network operators.

Nigeria’s telecom market was liberalized in 2003, which paved a way to enormous growth rates and has bought in new operators.

The telecom market grew by 23% a year earlier, taking up $8.4 billion in overall telecom service revenues. The mobile penetration rate, at present, stands at 42%. Nigeria’s total telecom is forecasted to grow at CAGR of 5.7 percent from the existing US$8.42 billion in 2008 to $11.14 billion in 2013. Out of the total, 83% is attributed to mobile service revenue over the next five years.

Moreover, the expected launch of various mobile voice and data services is going to benefit the suppliers of mobile network technologies, while demand for CDMA and GSM base stations will stand strong over the next several years.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Presenting the government’s budget statement to parliament yesterday, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, said the country had 10,522,240 fixed line and mobile users at the end of 2008, with growth attributed to the cellular sector. The total mobile base has increased from 383,000 in 2002 to 10,242,916 at the end of last year he said, whilst the fixed line total dropped from 389,483 to 279,324. Dr Duffuor attributed the fall to the removal of 'dormant' subscribers from Ghana Telecom’s fixed line network, and said that cellular growth was the result of ‘the creation of an enabling environment and the positive sustenance of competition in the sector’.

Dr Duffuor said that in order to promote a wider penetration of ICT services, the Ministry of Communications has facilitated the transformation of Voltacom's fibre-optic assets into a National Communications Backbone Infrastructure network to provide open access broadband connectivity nationwide. Furthermore, 39 Common Telecom Facilities were completed last year which enabled telecom operators to extend their services to about 273 communities under the Ghana Investment Fund for Telecommunication development (GIFTEL).

Source: TeleGeography.

­Nigeria’s telecoms regulator the NCC has reported customer numbers for the fourth quarter of 2008. The total customer base reached 62.99m at the end of the year having increased by 55.9% annually. On a quarterly basis, net additions stood at 7.15m, only just short of the national and continental record of 7.38m, set in Q2 08.

Quarterly Net Additions, Total and CDMA

Source: Cellular News.

Zain Tanzania’s brand new M-Banking service Zap has signed up nearly 1,400 customers in first 10 days of the launch of the service.

Zain also reported that “hundreds” of people have also applied to register themselves as Zap agents.

Zap was launched by Zain across East Africa ten days back.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Trai has cut termination charges by 33%, this reduction will lead to lowered mobile tariffs for consumers. The regulator has slashed the termination charges on local calls to 20 paise a minute from existing 30 paise.

The new incumbents like  Datacom, Unitech, Shyam-Sistema and Loop Telecom among others were insisting on 0-10 paise per minute termination charge whereas the existing GSM operators were opposing any reduction in the charges, as they feared there revenue would be affected.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Bahrain based mo­bile holding firm, Bintel has announced that it has been awarded a 15-year mobile operator license in Gabon - making it the fourth operator in the country. The company is expected to launch its network in the third quarter of 2009.

Source: Cellular News.

The telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Gabon, Artel, has awarded Bintel a 15 -year mobile licence. The incumbent is expected to commence its services in the third quarter of 2009. Bintel estimates its initial investment in 2009 in Gabon to be in excess of USD 50 million. As per the terms of the agreement, the company is licensed to provide the latest voice and data services to customers in Gabon, including high-speed data and video conferencing. The licence acquisition is followed by the appointment of Gilles Villenaut as general manager for its Gabon operations. Gabon has expected mobile penetration rate to reach around 90% and in 2011 it is estimated to reach 120%. At present, Zain holds 58% of the market share, followed by Gabon Telecom with 34% and Moov stands with 8%. Bintel is intending to capture 6-8% of the Gabon Market in the first year and targets 30% share within its first 10 years.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Leading mobile telecommunications provider Zain announced its plans to bring mobile banking to over 100 million people in East Africa with the launch of its new service, Zap. With the most comprehensive and accessible package of mobile banking features currently available on the continent, Zap will be initially available in Kenya and Tanzania and will shortly launch in Uganda. It represents the most comprehensive mobile banking service and will provide millions of people with access to banking for the very first time.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Zain Zambia, posted a rise of 25% in its net profit to ZMK 265 billion for the full year 2008. The company’s revenue grows by 32% to ZMK 1.217 trillion, attributed to the increase in number of subscribers, which grew by 36% during the period. Operating expenses amounted to ZMK 782 billion in comparison to 2007’s ZMK 530 billion, and EBITDA grew by 24% to ZMK 606 billion. The firm continues to dominate the sector with a market share of 73 percent but said 2009 will be a challenging year due to the global financial crisis, Zain Zambia MD David Holliday said. The incumbent reported a subscriber base of 2.7 million customers at the end of December, up from 2.3 million customers in June 2008.

Source: Wireless Federation.

According to Morocco's telecoms regulator ANRT, the country’s mobile phone subscriber base rose by 13.9% year-on-year to 22.816 million by the end of 2008, compared to 20.029 million at end-2007, boosting cellular penetration by eight percentage points to 74%. In terms of market share, Maroc Telecom was attributed 63.4% of mobile subscribers at end-December, compared to 34.7% for Medi Telecom and 1.9% for Wana. Subscribers to 3G internet services grew from 42,729 to 268,131 in the year, an increase of 528%, with all three mobile operators competing in the mobile broadband sector.

The fixed telephony market achieved an annual increase of 25.0% in subscribers, with a total of 2.991 million lines in service at 31 December 2008 (including services with restricted mobility, the majority of which are provided by Wana).

The number of broadband internet subscribers saw a near stagnation in 2008, with annual growth of just 1.3% to 482,791 (compared to growth of 21.9% in 2007 and 57.6% in 2006).

Source: TeleGeography.

Wana, the Moroccan fixed line incumbent, grabs the third GSM licence in the country. Country telecom regulator ANRT reportedly said that Wana’s bid offered a perfect blend of finacial and technical techniques along with coverage, investment and pricing. Wana will operate as a GSM service provider competing against Maroc Telecom and Meditel.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Ugandan ICT Minister said that the number of wireless subscribers rose to 8.2 million at the end of 2008. The mobile penetration stood at around 25%. According to a report, at the end of September 2008 MTN retained a position of strength in the Ugandan wireless arena, with a market share of 42% (3.23 million subscribers), though this was down from 57.6% 18 months earlier. Zain bags second position with 1.86 million customers, where as UTL has an estimated 1.65 million. The new incumbent Warid claimed a laudable million customers at the end of September 2008, 13% of the market, just eight months after launch.

Source: Wireless Federation.

­Nigeria’s Q3 08 growth could not match the record-breaking levels seen in the previous quarter, when 7.38m new connections were added - more than double the best figure recorded in any other African nation. However, its third-quarter boost of 4.11m was the second best figure ever recorded in the market, which is particularly impressive given that one of the top three operators, Glo, suffered a loss of 0.6m customers in the quarter. At the end of Q3, there were 55.8m connections in Nigeria, up 51% year on year with annual net additions of 18.8m.

­The ten fastest growing operators in the MEA region added over 12m new customers in aggregate over the last three months, implying an average gain of over 1.25m. In fact, all but three of the ten managed seven figure gains.

Mobinil in Egypt produced by far the best result in the region, with 2.58m net adds - more than it connected in the first two quarters of the year and nearly one million more than second placed MTN Nigeria managed. The Egyptian market has been booming since the launch of the country’s third network, but as is so often the way, the incumbents have been the main beneficiaries. Vodafone Egypt was the fourth fastest growing company in the quarter, with 1.39m new customers, while Etisalat Egypt, the new entrant, only managed a gain of 310k, for 28th place overall.

An increased competitive threat also lay behind the strong performance by third placed Irancell and fifth placed TCI Iran. These two added 1.55m and 1.15m connections respectively, but this week, a third national mobile licence has been awarded to a consortium led coincidentally (or perhaps not) by Etisalat. This will have exclusive rights to offer 3G services, at least for the moment. Experience shows that agreements of this kind are rarely honoured if there is a licence fee to be had.

­The South African market broke through the 100% penetration barrier during Q3 08 to finish the quarter on 101.8%. The total market reached 44.51m customers. Annual growth slowed from 24.2% for the 12 months ending 30th September 2007 to 10.7% for the subsequent 12 months, the lowest rate since Q2 02. However, this rate was the same as that recorded in Q2 08, and in real terms annual growth rose quarter-on-quarter, from 4.18m to 4.30m.

­Ethiopian Telecommunications Corp (ETC), the country's sole mobile network operator, has launched a prepaid WCDMA 3G mobile phone service in the capital city, Addis Ababa. The company only offers PrePay tariffs to its customers.

Source: Cellular News.

APA-Harare (Zimbabwe) ­Zimbabwe's largest mobile telephone network is phasing out Zimbabwe dollar tariffs and introducing United States denominated recharge cards from Tuesday, APA learns here.

Econet Wireless announced that the move to charge in foreign currency was meant to improve services by enabling the company to invest in new equipment and settle its foreign currency obligations.

“Econet is introducing US dollar recharge cards from 30 December 2008. Please use your Zimbabwe dollar cards by midnight 29 December 2008 as they will expire thereafter," it said in a notice to subscribers.

Local calls would cost around US$0.30 per minute while text messages would cost US$0.15.

Source: Cellular News.

The subscriber base of phone users in Uganda has reached the mark of 7million, reports Minister of Information, Dr Ham Mukasa Mulira. The Minister says the growth is driven by liberalisation of communication sector and then coming of competition among the private entrants to the market.

Dr Mulira commended the government for having liberalised fully the communications sector. “I am pleased to inform you that the policy adopted has yielded extremely positive results with penetration growing from 5 to 6 per cent in 2006 to over 20 per cent in just over two years,”.

Over the years, the rise in numbers has been driven by slashing calling rates, aggressive marketing and product innovation by both the existing and latest phone companies. At the start of the year, there were about 5.4 million subscribers but the number tremendously rose with the commercial entry of Warid Telecom on February 7 this year.

Source: Wireless Federation.

APA-Kampala (Uganda) ­Uganda’s ministry of Health has launched a project to equip health centers across the country with techno-labs that will facilitate diagnosis and prescription of treatment for patients without them coming physically to the health facilities.

The project under the Uganda Communication Development Fund (UCDF) of the Uganda Communications Commission will see health centers across the country fitted with computers, digital cameras, scanners and other gadgets to allow doctors to diagnose and prescribe treatment to patients in other health centers.

Source: Cellular News.

Kuwait-based telecoms group Zain yesterday launched a 3.5G network in Ghana, having invested more than USD420 million in the country to realise the speedy deployment of the technology - a first for sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa. Reuters reports that Zain sees potential on the continent where it already has 40 million customers.

Zain rolls out a pilot project of its rebranded mobile money transfer service Zap, which will be operational in Africa and Middle East. The pilot will be rolled out in Madagascar, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

The new money transfer service will allow the subscribers to withdraw and deposit money through Zain outlets and transact international money transfers. Zap will also offer added services to clients in collaboration with local commercial banks.

Main One Cable Company has revealed that it has secured licences from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and Ghana’s National Communications Authority (NCA) allowing it to land its intercontinental undersea fibre-optic cable in the two countries. The company has already begun work on an undersea cable connecting Portugal and southern Africa. The first phase of the project spans 6,900 kilometres from Portugal to Ghana and Nigeria, while the second phase encompasses a 6,000 kilometre extension to Angola and South Africa. Negotiations with other countries along the route for further landing points are said to be ongoing.

Source: TeleGeography.

­Zimbabwe's telecoms regulator, POTRAZ has granted 3G licenses to the incumbent mobile operators - without any evident tender for the licenses. The mobile operators will also be allowed to offer Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services.

“The amendment of licences will enable operators to offer new services which are covered by the current legislation, but restricted by their current licence documents”, the regulator said in a statement.

At the beginning of the year, Econet Wireless said that it had completed the installation of 3G base stations on its network, but was unable to switch on the service as the regulator has failed to release the required radio spectrum. The company has originally made an application for a 3G license in June 2007.

Econet Wireless is the largest operator in the country by subscriber numbers. According to estimates from the Mobile World, the operator ended last September with 977,000 customers and a market share of 64%. The country has a population penetration level of just over 12%.

Source: Cellular News.

Mobinil celebrates its 20 millionth customer and consolidates its leadership position on the Egyptian telecommunications market

Ten years after the launch of commercial activities, Mobinil celebrated yesterday in Cairo its 20 millionth customer in the presence of Olaf Swantee, Senior Executive Vice President, Personal Communication Services, UK, Europe and the Middle East for France Telecom-Orange, and Naguib Sawiris, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Orascom Telecom. Mobinil, which had 15 million customers at the end of 2007, increased its customer base by almost 5 million people in less than one year, a progression of around 35%. This commercial success allows Mobinil, in which France Telecom has a majority stake, to consolidate its leadership position on the Egyptian mobile telecommunications market with approximately 52% of market share.

This performance is essentially due to the high quality of service provided by Mobinil and its capacity to deliver innovative offers. The launch of a new 3G network last September, for example, has provided Egyptians with access to high-speed mobile Internet.

The Orange Foundation also participates in a scholarships programme for girls living in poor districts of Cairo.

Source: Wireless Federation.

­APA-Kigali (Rwanda) Rwanda’s oldest telecommunication operator, Rwandatel, Friday launched the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and 3G network for its mobile telephone, replacing its CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) platform, as it prepares for a cut-throat competition with MTN Rwanda, its main challenger.

Source: Cellular News.

Etisalat Nigeria launches a new mobile phone feature for its ‘Easy Starter’ subscribers which will notify them of a missed call when the phone is out of coverage area or switched off. The service will be provided via SMS which will include the number trying to reach him along with the date and time. The package is activated by default and without charge. According to the telco, the feature will promote better business and personal relationships in Nigeria.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Telkom Kenya, the new entrant to the Kenyan mobile market, has reportedly signed up 300,000 subscribers in the first three months of its launch. Telkom Kenya targets a subscriber base of 400000 by 2008-end, says CEO Dominique Saint-Jean. After launching it services in Nairobi and Mombasa, it further plans a coverage of five more towns by 2008-end.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Nigerian telecoms market looks forward to achieve a tele-density of 100% by 2020 driven by massive telephone and mobile communication improvements, calling for a huge growth in the ICT sector. Nigeria, till today as nearly 140 million people being serviced by 60 phone lines, a 45% success rate in a development wherein it’ll boost the Nigerian economy and infrastructure. Internet installation is one of the most important technological advancement to be addressed. “ICTs are in fact enablers of broad based socio and economic development. ICTs not only contribute to the development of education, health and governance, but are also key enablers of sustainable human development in a more general sense. No modern economy can thrive without an integral information technology and telecommunications infrastructure. This is because ICTs provide the veritable platform for development across the economic and other sectors if well harnessed,” said vice chairman of Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), Ernest Ndukwe. According to Ndukwe, if the goal is achieved, Nigeria would then have as many phone lines which can impressively improve the lives of the local people in as far as communication through telephone, cellphone and internet is concerned. Today the ratio stands at 1:1 implying that a Nigerian individual living in an urban centre owns three communication lines in the sense that at work and home an individual will be serviced by telephone lines and a mobile cellular phone, to make it three gadgets of communication.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Africa’s largest mobile phone company, MTN Group Ltd, is planning to bring handsets with MTN’s brand costing as little as $12 in the first half of next year. MTN’s Vice President of southern and east African region, Tim Lowry, said the handsets would be manufactured in China and may be priced between $12 and $15.

However, MTN lacks infrastructure such as base stations and switches and prices in a move to expand mobile and data services on the African Continent. In Africa, average mobile penetration is assessed to be 25%.

Lowry further said, MTN distributed 100,000 handsets costing about $20 into countries it operated in, including South Africa and Zambia, in a test this year. “They went into the system and just disappeared,” he said. “We couldn’t keep up, they were selling like hot cakes.” MTN will target markets of Zambia, Ghana, Rwanda and South Africa with the low-priced handsets, carrying the MTN brand. The handsets are capable of handling data and voice. It is anticipated that average mobile penetration will rise to 50% in the next three or four years. MTN is working with mobile-phone companies to bring down prices for handsets that can handle data, voice and multimedia services to between $30 and $40, Lowry added.

Source: Wireless Federation.

The evergrowing competition in the Kenyan mobile market is expected to take down Safaricom’s market share which will drop from its dominant 80% to 65% in another four years. The fall will be driven by the launch of rival operators, says Chief Executive Michael Joseph.

“We will have between 65% and 70% market share by 2011,” says Michael. The closest competitor to Safaricom is Zain, which has started offering all new lowered tariffs and products, which targets the lower segment of market, which was earlier captured by Safaricom.

The state owned Telkom Kenya is speedily building up its GSM ntwork under the brand name Orange. In order to stay in competition, Safaricom has invested more in data services and is building a WiMax network, to complement its broadband service launched in August this year.

“We are diversifying our revenue streams, with a shift from the voice market. Which is becoming increasingly unattractive, due to the low tariffs, to data,” says Michael. He additionally said that the operator with its broad network can fight the agressive competition.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Virgin Mobile South Africa, raises its data and SMS tariffs for both its prepaid and post-paid subscribers, eliminating off-peak rates. The rise in tariffs mean that Virgin’s peak-time tariffs are quiet lower than its competitors. On the other hand, it also means that users will not benefit from low off-peak rates. Virgin Mobile’s all-day rate is now 60c/SMS. MMSs are charged at a flat rate of 75c each and its per-MB data rate is set at 60c in contrast with Vodacom’s 4U charging 80c/SMS in peak times and 35c in off-peak times and Pay-as-you-go MTN subscribers are charged 75c/peak-time SMS while off-peak SMSs cost 35c. For data users, Vodacom and MTN charge around R2/MB for out-of-bundle data usage, their in-bundle rates for 2 GB or more drop to R0.19/MB. This is in comparison with Virgin Mobile’s flat rate of R0.60 per megabyte.

Source: Wireless Federation.

The Tanzanian TRCA expects in the number of phone users to reach 13 million by H1�Œ09, a rise of 25% and major rise in mobile subscriber base. According to the numbers by the government, the Tanzanian telecoms market has grown by 20.1% in 2007, in comparison to 19.2% a year earlier. �gHardly four years ago we were less than two million. Towards the middle of 2009, we should easily reach 13 million,�h Tanzania Regulatory Authority (TCRA) Director General John Nkoma said. �gWe do expect that by the end of this year, we should be hitting maybe 10.5 million or 11 million. It�fs largely driven by mobile.�h he added. With the end of 2007 Tanzania stood at 8.48 million subscribers, while by H1�Œ08, it had 10.43 million subscribers. TRCA reports a penetration rate of 25% allowing players to enter the nascent telecom market.

Source: Wireless Federation.

­Tanzania Regulatory Authority (TCRA) Director General, John Nkomasays that he expects the number of mobile phone users in the country will jump by 25% to 13 million by the middle of next year.

"Hardly four years ago we were less than two million. Towards the middle of 2009, we should easily reach 13 million," he said.

The regulator awarded two additional licenses last week - to local firms, MyCell and Egotel for both landline and mobile services. Existing operator, Zain was also granted a licence to install an international gateway. There are now five companies licensed to offer international dialing services in the country.

According to figures from the Mobile World subscriber tracker, the country ended the first half of this year with just under 10.1 million customers - representing a population penetration level of 26%.

On the web: Tanzania Regulatory Authority - Mobile World

Source: Cellular News.

APA-Harare (Zimbabwe) ­A media watchdog on Friday criticised the collapsed state of Zimbabwe’s telecommunications sector following more than a week of erratic coverage by the country’s main service providers.

The sole fixed telephone network run by the state-owned TelOne is in an appalling state of affairs, with erratic coverage in the urban areas and is virtually non-existent in the rural areas.

Problems on the fixed telephone network have also negatively affected Internet traffic in Zimbabwe during the past three weeks.

The three mobile telephone networks – Econet Wireless, Telecel Zimbabwe and the state-owned Net One – have also failed to cope with the market demand for their services in Zimbabwe’s hyperinflationary environment.

Source: Cellular News.

APA - Lomé (Togo) ­The telephone coverage rate remains very low in Togo (4.8%) where 95.2% of the population do not have access to telephone, reliable sources told APA here.

"About 95.2% of people do not have access to telephone, and telephone coverage is particularly very low in rural areas", an official document recently of the Togolese cabinet disclosed recently.

Source: Cellular News.

According to a recent surevey, South Africa has been rated as the world’s fourth fastest and Africa’s fastest growing mobile market, with a coverage on 80% of the total population, nearly 39 million users, representing a market value of US$2.4 billion. The three operators Vodacom, MTN and Cell C, have been in a cutthroat competition against each other since the launch of MNP in the market last year.

“South Africa offers an extraordinary penetration rate in this burgeoning market, one of the highest in the developing world,” said the report.

Source: Wireless Federation.

­Senegal's government has announced that it is to terminate the mobile license of the Tigo mobile phone network - potentially cutting off some 1.8 million customers - at the end of this month. Tigo, which is the trading name of Sentel GSM is a wholy owned subsidiary of Luxembourg based Millicom International Cellular.

Millicom says that the mobile network represents less than 5% of Millicom's world-wide revenues and less than 3% of its EBITDA for the nine months ended September 2008.

Sentel's twenty year license was granted in 1998 by a prior administration, before the enactment in 2002 of Senegal's Telecommunications Act. Although the current Senegalese government has, since 2002, acknowledged the validity of Sentel's license, it has also requested that Sentel renegotiate the terms of the license.

Source: Cellular News.

Operator expands to 15 African markets via launches in Kenya, Uganda and Niger

France Telecom-owned Orange has long had a footprint in the predominantly French-speaking areas of West Africa, but this year has seen the operator push into new African markets and seek to exploit its brand profile in the continent.

Orange entered Kenya - East Africa's largest economy - via its US$390 million acquisition of a 51 percent stake in Telkom Kenya in December 2007. The operator subsequently rebranded the company as 'Orange Kenya' and launched operations last month. Orange is targeting 1.5 million customers within a year and claims to be the first 'integrated' operator in the country by combining mobile, fixed-line and Internet services. It has reportedly invested US$110 million in the subsidiary to date – the majority of investment focused on expanding its GSM network. It is using mobile market-leader Safaricom's network to ensure a nationwide service while it builds-out its own infrastructure but expects to cover the whole country within two years. Orange Kenya is the third mobile operator in the market (after Safaricom and Zain), while a fourth player - Econet Wireless Kenya, a specialist 3G operator - plans to launch in the country soon.

France Telecom (Orange) Africa Mobile Connections: Q2, 2008
Source: Wireless Intelligence, company data 
* Launched 17 September 2008; ** Launched 30 June 2008

Source: Wireless Federation.

Etisalat, Nigeria’s fifth GSM operator has assessed that it will make a monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) of about 10 dollars from its Nigeria operations begin commercially next week. Etislalat’s Group Chairman, Mohammad Omran, outlined his company’s expectations from its Nigerian undertaking. He observed that ARPU levels in Nigeria were higher than in many other African countries and that by its operation in Nigeria Etisalat was “gaining a strategic foothold in Africa’s most exciting market.” With the existing situation in Nigeria like low penetration, large population and strengthening economy, it is anticipated that Nigeria operations will grow quickly. Etisalat’s coverage in Nigeria would be wide spread at launch reaching major population centres and would quickly spread and encompass the entire country, including the under-served hinterland, Omran added. It is at the final stage of testing prior to public launch.

With competition coming in question, Omran said, “creates a healthy environment for the businesses involved, as well as for the customer and when we enter a new market we offer services and telecommunications solutions based on intensive studies and market research relying on our experience as well as the expertise of our long-term partners.” Etisalat is aiming to introduce voice SMS, Etisalat online services, Mobilecam, a wireless camera that can be placed anywhere and accessed from 3G enabled mobile phones services in Nigerian Market.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Vodacom, South Africa, introduces Short Voice Service, SVS, to allow its subscribers to send a 30-second voice message to any other Vodacom subscriber. There is no special subscription or additional provision to enable the service. As an introductory offer, the SVS service will be free of charge until 9 November 2008. SVS messages will later be charged at a flat rate of ZAR0.90 (USD0.08) and available to all Vodacom contract, pre-paid and top-up subscribers.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Following to the 41% year-on-year increase in Econet Wireless subscribers to 910,047 at the end of August, CEO of Econet Wireless, Douglas Mboweni, said that he is confident that the cellco can reach its target of 1.2 million GSM subscribers by the end of February 2009. He further said that firm maintained its grip on the domestic mobile market, claiming an approximate 60% share of all users. It is making a move towards network upgradation with an aim of reaching a capacity of 1.2 million subscribers by the end of 2008. The funding had already been secured for additional expansion and a circular was being prepared for necessary shareholder approvals. The fresh funding would take Econet’s network capacity to almost two million, he added.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Fixed and Mobile Number Portability launches in Romania, enabling the users to switch their operator without having to change their phone number. With the coming of number portability the competition in market will grow as every operator will be running to give out lower tariffs in an effort to grab maximum subscribers with their competitive packages.
According Liviu Nistoran, president of telecoms regulator ANC, it is estimated that in the next two years of number portability approximately 20%-25% of mobile numbers will be ported. The regulator says that operators will have ten days to complete number porting requests.

Source: Wireless Federation.

The popularity of mobile phones in South Africa is helping to tackle HIV and Aids in the nation.

Project Masiluleke will send one million free text messages a day to push people to be tested and treated.

Approximately 350,000 people die of Aids-related diseases in the country every year.

Trials of the system showed that calls to counsellors at the National Aids helpline in Johannesburg increased by 200% when messages were broadcast.

Source: BBC.

­After a poor first quarter in which there was a net loss of 0.63m customers, the South African market managed positive growth in Q2 with a gain of 0.82m. This took the total customer base to 43.15m, equivalent to a penetration rate of 98.5%. In annual terms, growth stood at 10.7%, less than half the 22.5% recorded in the prior twelve months and, moreover, the lowest rate for six years.

Source: Cellular News.

Warid Telecom new participant in Uganda’s highly competitive telecommunications sector has reached the subscriber base of 1 million within eight months of commercial service. Chief Executive of Warid Telecom, Zul Javaid,  believes that the jump in subscribers since March, when the company launched, can be attributed to aggressive marketing. “For us, this is a high milestone”. “We have hit our target three months before we intended to,” added Javaid.

The company aims to hit the subscriber base 10,000,00 after 12 months of it operation. Javaid further said, “We think the success we have had has been driven by giving the Ugandan population what they want, and that is the response that the market has given us in such a short time.” By saying that ‘Giving the population what it wants’, this involves Warid’s US$250 million GSM  network, according to Javaid. Warid Telecom has built the network in order to take on MTN Uganda, Uganda Telecom and Zain Uganda, all of whom having been operating in the country for more than five years.

Javaid accentuates that Warid has only counted active lines in its statistics, as some companies include dormant lines among their subscriber numbers. In 1998, Uganda had just 12,500 phone lines but now it boasts off vivacious mobile market and is anticipateing to reach the subscriber base of 6.8 million by the end of 2008.

Source: Wireless Federation.

The price war in Kenyan mobile market is continuing head high as Telkom Kenya lowers the mobile tariffs to one shilling/minute. The calls made from Orange to Orange will be priced one shilling, whereas, SMS will cost the same across all networks. The offer will be available for two months which likely to increase the Telkom’s subscriber base.

It has now been nearly two months that the kenyan mobile operators have been engaged in the price war, which has significantly reduced the mobile tariffs in the country.

Following the trend Zain Kenya launched the Vuka tariff which charges eight shillings/minute to all networks.
Safaricom has still not joined the league though it slashed the night calling rates to five shillings between 10pm and midnight and two shillings and fifty cents after that till 6am, on Safaricom to Safaricom network.

Source: Wireless Federation.

­Algeria's state owned telecoms operator, Algérie Télécom is now unlikely to be privatized for at least two to three years as the company implements an improvement program to make it more commercial. The company is the country's dominant landline operator, and owns its second largest mobile network operator, Moblis.

Algeria's government has been planning to partially privatize Algérie Télécom for several years. The sale was expected to be take place by end of 2006, with the government selling 35% of the operator in an Initial Public Offering (IPO). However the procedures have not been finalized and the tender was yet not launched, but expected to take place in 2008.

According to figures from the Mobile World database, the country has three operators with the following market shares, Djezzy (39.7%), Moblis (36.4%) and Nedjma with 21.5%. The country itself ended last year with just under 28.2 million subscribers, representing a population penetration level of 84%.

Source: Cellular News.

­The Kenyan government has announced plans to scrap a law which had required foreign firms to have local partners if investing in the telecoms industry. Under the current system, any investor has to allocate at least twenty percent of the company to a local partner, which has caused legal problems in the past.

The Kenyan market is dominated by Safaricom, which has a market share of 86.6% - followed by Zain and Orange. According to figures from the Mobile World, the country had 36.5 million mobile phone subscribers at the end of the first half of this year - although that still represents a population penetration level of just 39%, leaving plenty of space for a third network to enter the market.

Source: Cellular News.

Zain Tanzania targets to grow it’s subscriber base by 15%, raising the total to 3.8 million by the end of 2008. Khaled Muhtadi, MD Zain Tanzania said that the celco has spent nearly USD440 million on its network in last four years and plans to invest more than USD180 million on it next year. ‘We have reached over 3.3 million customers today and our target is to exceed 3.8 million by the end of the year,’ he said. The challenges that Zain Tanzania faces are the falling subscriber revenues, high cost of handsets and the slow movement of equipment and supplies through the port and customs.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Egypt mobile market has reached a total subscriber base of 33.86million as Q2�Œ08 ends, net addition of 3.01million quaterly and 10.99 million yearly. The penetration rose from 28.5% to 41.5%, seeing a rise of 13% on y-to-y basis. The 9.8% growth in Q2 overpowered the Q1 growth of 6.6%. The annual growth rate of Egyptian mobile market fell acutely to 29.2% compared to last year�fs 61.7%.

Mobinil lead the market 16.33million subscribers, adding 1.31million subscribers in the quarter and 4.82million in past one year. Oddly, the market leader Mobinil lost it�fs market share to the upcoming mobile operator Etisalat, and posted it�fs lowest ever market share of 48.2% and annual growth rate of 59.2%.

Following the footprints of Mobinil, Vodafone also lost 2.7pp of it�fs market share coming down to 44.3% by the end of Q2, and this dip came when Vodafone saw a perked up growth of 4.25million in subscriber base, crossing the 15million mark. The operator recorded an annual growth of 25.4%, falling to half since last year.

Etisalat, completing an year in the Egyptian market, had a subscriber base of 2.53million subscribers by the end of Q2, a rise of 94.9% since it�fs launch. The mobile operator earned a market share of 7.5% in past one year, rising from 2.6%.

Source: Wireless Federation.

­Nigeria overtook South Africa to become the MEA region’s largest market in Q1 and it has further stretched its lead in the latest period, passing the 50m milestone and ending the quarter with 51.7m mobile connections. This makes it the 18th largest market in the world. South Africa – which is now nearly 100% penetrated – has less than one third of Nigeria’s population (44m v 138m) and is likely to drop into third place soon. Iran – with a population of more than 70m – has moved from sixth to third over the course of the last year and is adding customers four times as quickly as the RSA.

Egypt retains fourth position, with a total of 30.8m, up from 29.4m in March. The market here has been boosted by the arrival of a third entrant, though as is so often the way, the newcomer’s advertising budget merely serves to strengthen the incumbents. In the 13 months since Etisalat Misr launched, it has built a base of 2.5m customers, but both Vodafone and Mobinil have comfortably exceeded this with additions of 4.25m and 5.62m respectively.

Source: Cellular News.

The Egyptian Company for Mobile Services (Mobinil) has launched its 3G network following several delays, which the company partially put at the door of the telecoms regulator. The company had expected to receive access to the radio spectrum on 17th January, but the radio frequencies were not released until March 27th. The company had hoped to launch its network in July, but again missed its deadline.

According to a statement from the company, Mobinil's 3G coverage Cairo, Alexandria, Sharm El Sheikh, Hurghada, Dahab, Taba, Safaga, Marsa Alam, Luxor and Aswan, in addition to the industrial zones as well as petroleum fields and business districts. It is also planned that the 3G coverage will expand to cover wider areas to achieve comprehensive coverage for almost all regions.

The network also falls back onto EDGE services when out of 3G coverage.

Mobinil is listed on the Cairo stock exchange (29%) - and has two main shareholders, Orascom Telecom (33.1%) and France Telecom (36.3%). The company is the largest operator in the market, and according to figures from the Mobile World database, ended Q1 '08 with just over 15 million subscribers and a market share of 51.5%.

Mobinil recently reported that its first-quarter net profit grew 14% to 451 million Egyptian pounds ($84 million) from EGP397 million a year earlier. The company's revenue also surged 27% to EGP2.3 billion from EGP1.8 billion in the first quarter of 2007.

Source: Cellular News.

APA-Tunis (Tunisia) The number of people using the mobile telephony networks reached 8.1million subscribers in June 2008 in Tunisia i.e. a telephone density of 80 subscribers per 100 inhabitants, revealed data published in Tunis.

This figure increased by 15% compared to the same period in 2007 (7.8 million subscribers) for a 12 million population.

The volume of SMS traffic increased by 30% during the first six months of the current year (80 million SMS) compared to the same period last year (61 million SMS).

These data from the ICT ministries also note an improvement of the quality of services of the mobile telephony, which enabled them to reduce the clutter and the saturation of traffic in peak periods.

This improvement is thanks to the programmes and steps implemented to remarkably ease the clutter which was reduced to 2% whereas it was over 16 % last year.

Reacting to these official figures, observers said that 8 million subscribers is "huge" compared to the Tunisian population and the teenage population.

Tunisians as well as foreign nationals in Tunisia (diplomats, co-operators, businessmen and tourists) often complained about the quality of the GSM and Internet connection, particularly in summer and during peak hours.

Tunisia has two mobile telephone operators, a public one (Tunisia Telecom) and a private one (Tunisiana).

Source: Cellular News.

Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) - the country's monopoly telecoms operator - says that it has completed the installation of the first phase of CDMA 2000 network infrastructure with 625,000-network capacity through vendor financing agreement with China's ZTE and has finalized preparation to make CDMA pre-paid service available to potential customers soon.

ZTE recently added 1.2 million GSM lines to the network capacity to cope with demand and also a surge in usage which occurred during the recent celebration of the Ethiopian millennium. A WCDMA overlay is also planed for some parts of the network. There were several serious network failures during the upgrade work, with the mobile operator blaming ZTE for not refarming radio spectrum correctly during the commission of new base stations.

The state owned monopoly ended Q1 '08 with an estimated 1.6 million subscribers, which according to figures from the Mobile World equates to a population penetration level of just 2%.

Source: Cellular News.

Namibia’s largest cellco MTC said it has invested nearly NAD300 million (USD40 million) in its network infrastructure in the year to date, in projects including raising SMS capacity, the deployment of a transmission backbone across several areas of the country and the replacement of central switching equipment with next generation architecture. The company’s fibre-optic transmission network was extended in areas including the capital Windhoek, coastal regions and in the north, ending MTC's long-standing reliance on renting backbone capacity from Telecom Namibia. The fibre project was implemented by Nera and Ericsson at a cost of NAD76 million this year. MTC also upgraded its radio access network and wireless broadband service capabilities, in partnership with Nokia Siemens Network and Motorola, at a cost of NAD88 million. MTC's investments over the last 13 years total NAD1.6 billion.

Source: TeleGeography.

APA-Banjul (The Gambia) The Gambia has almost a million telephone subscribers, with over 800,000 mobile telephone and about 50,000 fix telephone subscribers, according to a report by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) released here Friday.

The report says that the telephone subscriber list has grown by 86 per cent in 2007, from 73 per cent in 2006. “This surge in growth is as a result of an increased register in the subscriber base of the mobile telephone sector as against the fixed line subscribers, primarily as a result of a competitive environment created by the government,” the report said. The report indicates that despite the stiff competition amongst the mobile telephone providers, they continue to increase their subscriber base. In contrast, the release said the last two years saw stagnation in the number of fixed line subscribers in The Gambia with marginal growth rate of only 20 per cent in 2006 and 9 per cent in 2007.

The report adds that telecommunications in The Gambia “is one of the most highly competitive markets in the sub-region. This is illustrated by an increase in innovative services and pricing schemes such as peak, off peak and free night calls.” The report concludes that the communications sector saw a tremendous growth from 7 percent to 25 percent in 2007, with an estimated investment in the telephone sector of US$26.3 million in 2007.

Source: Cellular News.

South Africa’s Vodacom Group has reported a 6.6% increase in subscriber numbers in the twelve months to the end of June, with the operator claiming 34.6 million customers in South Africa, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho and Mozambique. The company says revenues for the quarter ended 30 June were up 14.5% year-on-year. Full financial results for the period will be released next month. Vodacom is owned by Telkom South Africa and Vodafone, though the UK group is looking to increase its stake.

Source: TeleGeography.

The first mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in Cameroon has been launched under the brand name, Yemba. At a press conference organised by Providence Technologique, the company behind Yemba, General Manger, Michel Nguetsop said that the company had secured an MVNO agreement with CDMA operator, Camtel.

The MVNO has set itself an ambitious target of two million subscribers by 2010.

Camtel was expected to activate an EV-DO upgrade on its Huawei supplied fixed wireless infrastructure last September - although it is not initially clear if this has happened.

According to the Mobile World database, there are currently two active operators in the country - MTN and Orange. The two operators ended the first quarter of this year with a combined 4.9 million subscribers - representing a population penetration level of 27%.

Source: Cellular News.

According to data published by Senegal’s telecoms regulator Agence de Regulation des Telecoms et Postes (ARTP), cellular penetration reached 39.09% by 31 March 2008, up from 31.93% the previous year, as the total number of active SIMs reached 4.135 million. Senegal’s two incumbent mobile operators - Orange Senegal (formerly Sonatel Mobiles/Alize) and Tigo Senegal (formerly SENTELgsm) - collectively added just 12,852 new users in the first quarter of 2008, of which Orange Sonatel, part of the Paris-based Orange group, had 2.803 million users at the end of March, up from 2.464 million a year earlier. Meanwhile, Tigo had 1.332 million clients, from 923,555 twelve months earlier. An overwhelming 99.15% of all users are on pre-paid services, the regulator said.

In the fixed line segment, ARTP said the number of lines in service dipped from 285,774 to 260,493 in the year to 31 March 2008, a teledensity of less than three lines per 100 of population. Residential lines accounted for 66.9% of national PTO Sonatel's total, while business connections made up 28.2% and public payphones 4.9%. The residential fixed line base dipped 3,085 in the first quarter of this year, although this was partially offset by a 13.96% rise (9,464 lines) in business connections to 77,281. The internet market recorded 41,099 subscriptions at the end of the first quarter of which 98% (40,250) were ADSL lines and 2% dial-up.

Source: TeleGeography.

APA-Lilongwe (Malawi) A leading mobile service provider in Malawi, Celtel, on Friday celebrated a milestone of having added one millionth customer to its ever expanding mobile network in the country.

Celtel Managing Director Fayaz King told journalists in Lilongwe that the development places the company ahead of other players as an undisputed leader of the telecoms industry in Malawi.

"We are very proud to be associated with the current development which, in turn, should go a long way to assist in the country’s economic growth," he said.

King said since the company has now surpassed the one million customer base, it is now looking forward to reaching two million customers in years to come.

Malawi is ranked Number 12 in Africa in terms of customer base, with Nigeria’s 10 million customers leading the way.

Celtel Malawi, which was established in 1999, is part of a leading Middle East and African telecoms group, Zain Group.

Source: Cellular News.

Operator-billed service revenues across the Africa & Middle East region are expected to rise to more than $107 billion in 2013, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

The report found that growth would be driven by mobile data services, fuelled by the greater availability and wider variety of rich-media content coupled with lower browsing costs. However, it noted that regional operator-billed voice revenues were likely to peak in 2011 and would subsequently fall away due to increasingly competitive pricing in that sector.

According to Juniper Research report author Dr Windsor Holden, "While the downward trend in regional ARPU will continue as adoption increases amongst lower-usage customers, we expect the decline in voice ARPU to be partially offset by an increase in data revenues, both amongst 2.5G and 3G customers."

The report also observed that the region was likely to witness a surge in the growth of mobile financial services, with a raft of operator-led payment initiatives such as M-PESA and mobile banking providers such as WIZZIT having already gained substantial user bases.

Other findings from the Juniper Research report include:

• The Middle East/Africa mobile user base is to grow at an average annual rate of 10.5% between 2008 and 2013
• Mobile data services are expected to contribute 24% of operator-billed service revenues in 2013, against just 9% in 2008
• Saudi Arabia will provide the largest share of cumulative regional revenues over the forecast period, followed by Nigeria

Source: Cellular News.

Israel was dumped from third to fifth position in the Middle-East & Africa (MEA) penetration rankings in Q1 2008 as both the Seychelles and Qatar overtook it to line up behind the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which have held the top two places for the last year. If the second quarter even came close to matching the first in the UAE, then that market will have finished June with a penetration rate in excess of 200%, the rate having stood at 192.5% at the end of March.

MEA: Number of markets in each penetration band

The ownership in Bahrain was more than 20pp behind, at 172.2%, although in the last two quarters at least, the rate has been growing noticeably quicker than in the UAE. The rate in Qatar and the Seychelles has been progressing much more steadily, but both overtook Israel as penetration fell for the first time ever from 127.1% to 126.3% in Q1 08. Four other markets - Kuwait, Reunion, Saudi Arabia and Libya - boasted penetration rates in excess of 100% at the end of March 2008.

Libya became the first mainland African market to join this elite club in the quarter, as the quite remarkable rise of mobility in the country continues.

South Africa was the tenth most penetrated market at the end of Q1 08 with a rate of 96.6%, after also suffering a decline in penetration (although in this case not its first) from 97.9% in the quarter. The penetration rates of a further seven markets also lay within the fourth quartile at the end of March, these being Botswana (90%), Algeria (87%), Oman (83%), Gabon (80%), Jordan (79%), Tunisia (78%) and new entrant Mauritius (76%). Perhaps surprisingly, only three markets - Morocco, Gambia and Mauritania - finished Q1 with penetration rates between 50% and 75%. However, Iran joined them just a few days after the end of the quarter, the mobile ownership rate there having stood at 49.6% at the end of March.

Iran breaking the 50% barrier would have taken the total number of markets with penetration rates in excess of 50% to 21, after Mauritania and Gambia took the total from 18 to 20 in the first quarter. Including Iran, 50 of the 70 markets in the MEA region finished Q1 08 with penetration rates below 50%. However, progress is clear to see. At the end of Q1 07, 36 of markets had penetration rates of 25% or below, a number which fell to 25 a year layer.

Source: Cellular News.

A survey carried out in Nigeria's capital, Abuja has indicated a growing demand in the GSM dominated market for CDMA based mobile phones. The survey, carried out by local newspaper The Tide cited the regular problems with network congestion on the GSM networks in the city for the increased interest in CDMA operators. Currently there are four CDMA operators in the city, Multi-links, Visafone, Starcomms and Reltel.

The respondents hinged their optimism on clarity of communication and affordability of CDMA phones, when compared with GSM phones.

"For instance, with as little as N1,500, you can get a phone and a line on the CDMA network, while for a GSM line, a subscriber may need to pay at least twice that amount," claimed respondents to the survey.

Mr Wakili Shehu, a telecommunications consultant said that "the technology also provides the capacity for quicker transmission of data and Internet, unlike the GSM which has limited capacity," but he warned that the use of the CDMA technology in the country was also fraught with challenges, such as limited coverage of cities and towns, unlike the GSM.

According to figures from the Mobile World database, Nigeria ended Q1 '08 with some 567,000 active CDMA subscribers - compared to some 43 million GSM users.

Source: Cellular News.

At the end of Q1 08, there were 42.3m mobile customers in South Africa, meaning it was surpassed by Nigeria as Africa’s largest market. This was mostly due to a strong quarter in Nigeria, but the loss of 0.61m South African customers in Q1 certainly helped. This decline also meant that South Africa failed to break the 100% penetration barrier, having reached 97.9% at the end of 2007; the loss of customers saw it slide to 96.6%.

3G customers: Vodacom and MTN

This still makes it the highest-penetrated sub-Saharan market, although having reached 104.9% at the end of Q1 08, Libya has become the first African market to surpass the 100% mark.

Vodacom suffered the greatest loss in real terms, shedding 0.79m active customers to slide back to 22.27m, lower even than the Q3 07 figure of 22.50m. Year on year it gained 1.70m. It remains the country’s clear market leader with 52.6% of the total, although this is its lowest figure since Q4 04. Cell C also saw a decline in customers - perhaps inevitably, given its dramatic gain in Q4 07. It lost 0.19m to slide back below 5m to 4.91m, with net annual additions totalling 1.68m. In terms of market share, it lost 0.3pp quarter on quarter but still recorded a rise compared to Q1 07, ending Q1 08 on 11.6%. Third player MTN was the only operator to gain customers on a net basis in the first quarter, finishing up 0.37m on 15.17m. Combined with the other operators’ losses, this saw it reach its highest market share figure for three years, with 35.8% of the total.

MTN has also seen its share of the 3G market rise, a 10pp year on year gain taking its Q1 08 figure to 46.2% of the total. It went through the 1m barrier during Q1 to finish on 1.12m thanks to a record-breaking 211k quarterly net additions. Vodacom finished on 1.30m. In total, the number of W-CDMA handsets grew by 163.6% year on year, from 0.9m to 2.4m.

Because of the loss of customers in Q1 - the first such quarterly decline in more than six years - annual growth slumped to 14.4%, the lowest figure since Q2 02.

Source: Cellular News.

The chart shows the fastest growing businesses in the MEA region over a twelve month view. The list includes nine of the names that feature in the Q1 08 list, with Zain Iraq coming in at Algerie Telecom Mobile’s expense. The top two places are the same in the year as they are in the quarter, with TCI’s 9.12m just shading Irancell’s 7.95m. The other really strong performances in the region were spread across five main markets - with Mobily in Saudi Arabia taking third place ahead of two Egyptian companies, three from Nigeria and one each from Iraq and Kenya.

Leading MNOs by Net Additions, year to 31st March 08

Source: Cellular News.

Celtel Malawi has announced that it has reduced the cost of its cheapest handset by 35%, from USD25 to USD16. The move follows the government's eradication of a 25% customs and excise duty on imported handsets and cellular network equipment. According to TeleGeography's GlobalComms database, the cellco is the country's largest company by subscribers, claiming a 69% market share at the end of March 2008, with Telekom Networks Malawi accounting for the remainder.

Source: TeleGeography.

Nigeria based Globacom has sold a staggering 600,000 new SIM cards since it launched its new Glo Mobile branded network in Benin just under two weeks ago. The company says that traffic has been significant at its new retail stores as well as 3rd party outlets.

The company won a GSM operating license in the country last year and has built out its network covering the main cities, with a new switching centre in Cotonou, capital of the country.

Estimates from the Mobile World record that the country ended last year with around 1.4 million subscribers, representing a population penetration level of just 17%. By that measure, the new network has captured some 30% of the enlarged market within just a few days.

The market leader at the end of last year was MTN with just over 54% of the market, followed by Bell Benin with 21.5%. Moov comes third with 24.6%.

Source: Cellular News.

Nigeria based Globacom (Glo Mobile) has won a licence to operate mobile cellular service in the Republic of Ghana - just a week after the company launched its services in Benin. The company won the license  in a tender auction.

Globacom's management expressed gratitude to the telecoms regulator, the NCA for the confidence reposed in the company and promised to “roll out aggressively” in the country “very shortly”.

The company is also currently bidding for a license in Togo.

Last month, the NCA also announced plans to offer number portability on both landline and mobile networks. Joshua Peprah, Director of Regulations and Licensing at NCA said “We’ve also had informal discussions with the telecom operators on this service and in principle, they have no problem with it. Their main concern has to do with the cost associated with the implementation of the service,"

However, he added that “as of now, we have not mandated the telecom operators to implement the service. The market should really be ripe for it and besides, the stakeholder consultation is still ongoing.”

If number portability is introduced, that generally assists new market entrants to take subscribers from the incumbent operators.

The country already has five operators, but according to figures from the Mobile World database, the country only had 7.6 million customers at the end of last year. That figure equates to a population penetration level of just 33%.

The five operators (and market share) are: MTN (53%), Tigo (26.7%), Ghana Telecom (16.8%), Kasapa Telecom (3.5%) & Westel (0%).

Source: Cellular News.

APA-London (United Kingdom) Africa now has 300 million mobile phone subscribers with a penetration rate fast approaching 30 percent, according to the latest marketers’ assessment unveiled on Thursday in London.

As many prefer pay-as-you-go use, mobile phones are attached to bikes and boats and taken to where the business is.

In Uganda these bikes, known locally as boda bodas, are hooked up with spare batteries and desktop mobile devices to create what are affectionately known as ’Bodafones’.

Some mobile phone functions can be more useful in Africa than in Western countries, such as the ability to work as a torch.

Charging phones is more of a problem but the arrival of cheap solar panels should help solve that.

In South Africa, the phone model “Call Me” allows Vodacom subscribers to send up to five messages per day, free of charge, requesting a call back from the receiver.

Services such as these have emerged in response to consumer behaviour, users who would have previously “flashed” the person they wished to speak to by ringing their phone once and hanging up.

“Call Me” formalizes the process, helps minimizes network traffic through fewer prematurely disconnected calls.

Most parents with teenagers are probably familiar with the idea.

Source: Cellular News.

A report dealing with the broader issues of rural connectivity in Africa to be launched next week by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) reveals that a number of novel and multi-stakeholder partnerships, unique business models and innovative technologies are, for the first time, paving the way to connect many of Africa’s rural communities, on a sustainable, profitable basis.

The report provides evidence that contrary to some assumptions that the private sector can lead the effort to connect Africa’s rural populations, the experiences of industrialised countries like Canada, the Unites States and Australia is that governments have had to lead the effort, but in close collaboration with the private sector and local communities. The report calls for Commonwealth African governments to implement their national ICT policies as part of a wider national development strategy and to make faster in-roads into rural ICT rollout through public private peoples partnerships (PPPPs), with local communities playing a more pivotal role.

The report finds that the key to successful partnerships between the public and private sectors and other ICT stakeholders is to encourage local ownership, thereby nurturing the community’s enthusiasm for effective connectivity and ensuring the sustainability of ICT investments.

The CTO study found that whereas Commonwealth countries such as Malaysia and India have made significant in-roads in rural connectivity, Commonwealth African countries like Sierra Leone and Zambia are lagging behind in rural access, leading to poor and overall slow economic growth. The report finds that although recent years have seen dramatic growth in penetration rates in some African countries, especially through mobile networks, the continent’s aggregate penetration rate is still less than 20 percent.

“For Internet access and use, the figures are well below 5 percent for most of Africa. Over 60 percent of Africa’s population lives in unconnected rural areas and represent an untapped market, holding enormous potential for growth for service providers, equipment manufacturers and the entire telecommunications industry”, the report claims.

By way of conclusion the report calls for ICT policy provisions that focus on universal and rural access, in order to affirm the commitment of governments to providing basic ICT services to poor, isolated and marginalised communities . There is also the need for continued incremental and a more methodical process of liberalisation and privatisation of the telecommunications sector in many African countries, and a variety of regulatory safeguards need to be put in place to foster competition and promote a conducive environment for rural connectivity.

Commenting on the initiative the CEO of CTO, Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah said: “The evidence we have accumulated in the course of this 9-month study demonstrates that most of Africa’s rural populations could well be connected over the next decade. This is partly because an unusual confluence of sounder policies, relevant legislation, improving regulatory practices, the establishment of universal access and service agencies and the revenues they have acquired, new technologies and business models, and the availability of funding from a plethora of sources, all make it now possible for most of Africa to be connected wirelessly within the next ten years. According to the CTO CEO, who is a former Minister of Communications of Ghana, “the pilot project models we have found to work best are where a combination of public institutions and private ICT operators or equipment vendors have found it possible to involve local groups or communities in structuring, ownership or management of the ICT assets, to ensure their more effective use and sustainable operation. We hope that more companies will join the CTO as we move to the second phase of this important initiative to replicate and scale-up a number of selected model projects, so that the benefits of ICTs can be enjoyed by millions more in Africa. Connecting the majority of Africans to the Information Super Highway is necessary if African countries are to benefit from the global knowledge revolution,” said the CTO CEO.

The project was undertaken under the auspices of the Commonwealth Connects programme, which involves collaboration with a number of Commonwealth agencies, including the Commonwealth Secretariat. It is supported by the International Telecommunication Union, as part of efforts to help unearth market opportunities, enhance technological advancements, as well as accelerate social development and economic growth by connecting rural communities in the 18 Commonwealth African countries.

The first phase of the project was aimed at discovering how telecommunications regulation, policy, legislation, and operational, technological and financial models affect the potential for cost-effective rural connectivity in the 18 African Commonwealth countries. The research compiled similar information on initiatives and best practices of five selected non-African countries namely USA, Canada, Australia, Malaysia and India, countries that have enjoyed greater success in connecting their rural populations. Subsequently the initiative is to devise effective dissemination channels for the report and identify 10 pilot projects for adaptation and replication to form the basis for the second phase of the project.

The Commonwealth African Rural Connectivity Initiative (COMARCI) has so far received financial support from the Government of Malta, BT Global, Vodacom Group, Telkom of South Africa, Celtel Uganda and from the CTO itself.

Source: Cellular News.

The Information & Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) of Mauritius has forced the country’s telecoms operators adopt new lower rates for mobile and international long-distance (ILD) calls, following the passing of a new directive on 30 April. The new rates, which came into effect last Wednesday, include an MUR87 (USD0.032) reduction in the standard interconnection usage charge (IUC) for fixed and mobile networks, paid by carriers for every minute of communication. The ICTA had asked operators to submit revised retail tariff plans based on the lower IUC rate so that end users could benefit from less expensive calls. In the wake of a poor response, however, it said that it would ‘intervene in the interest of the general public’. To that end, the regulator is understood to have imposed a MUR87 reduction in the cost of making a mobile call to a fixed line, bringing the per-minute charge down from MUR4.35 to MUR3.48 a minute, using a pre-paid card. In the international segment calls have been cut to as little as MUR4 per minute to some destinations. Commenting on the ICTA’s move, Michel Rigot, the managing director of Outremer Telecom, said ‘Liberalisation in the telecommunications sector brings major tariff reductions along. What happened this week is a concrete example. Now, the Authority should think about introducing a real liberalisation process in other segments like internet that is still controlled by one operator, Mauritius Telecom.’

Source: TeleGeography.

Celtel Nigeria has launched a fixed payphone service targeting Nigerians unable to afford mobile phones or who live or work in places where mobile phone use is restricted. The service consists of a fixed payphone terminal and a special SIM card which can be carried about and recharged like a normal pre-paid SIM card. The operator claims the offering will help the government's Universal Access Initiative which is aimed at increasing telecoms access across the country.

Source: TeleGeography.

Local newspaper the Zimbabwean reports that mobile tariffs have gone up by more than 1,500%. Reflecting the rampant inflation being suffered by the beleagured country, NetOne subscribers will now have to part with ZWD58 million per minute for a call to other NetOne users during peak periods – a significant sum to locals but just a tenth of a dollar in US dollar terms – while calls to customers on the Econet and Telecel networks will be charged at ZWD60 million per minute and ZWD72 million per minute respectively. Telecel has also reviewed its tariffs, and calls to users on its own network are now ZWD50 million, while to customers on other networks the figure is ZWD63 million.

Source: TeleGeography.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Board (TRB) has revealed that telephone rates fell by an overall 20% on 1 June 2008 following negotiations between the watchdog and operators. Companies were recommended to put in place 'simplified and homogeneous pricing' in which reductions were not to be merged with other off-peak offerings and regular bonuses. The TRB said that Cameroonian tariffs were above average compared to countries with similar economic profiles.

Source: TeleGeography.

Kenya's new government is considering a new law to require all mobile phone subscribers to register their identities with the network operators. The move, proposed in a private members bill by Yatta MP Charles Kilonzo is reported to be in response to threats sent by SMS during the recent post-election violence in the country.

Source: Cellular News.

Uganda’s newest wireless network operator, Warid Telecom, has announced the launch of a new calling plan that allows customers to place calls to other Warid users and to only pay for the first two minutes of use, no matter how long the call. ‘Effective this month, the first two minutes of a phone call will be chargeable and the rest will be free,’ Zul Javaid, Warid's country general manager, told reporters.

Source: TeleGeography.

The Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria, ATCON has called on the telecoms regulator to formulate plans to force new and existing customers to register their PrePay SIM cards. Citing security issues in a country with limited central services, the association believes that the move would not impact on privacy and would help fight crime.

Source: Cellular News.

A new Arab Advisors Group survey of Egypt’s urban households reveals rampant broadband account sharing between neighbors. A massive 81.9% of households that use shared ADSL lines share them with more than three neighboring households. The Arab Advisors Group projects that around a million Egyptian households have access to broadband, due to the widespread practice of ADSL accounts sharing.

A new major survey, "Egypt Households Telecoms and Media Survey Report 2008" was concluded and released by the Arab Advisors Group on April 24, 2008. This survey report can be purchased from the Arab Advisors Group for US$ 4,500. Subscribers to Arab Advisors Group Strategic Research Services can order the report for US$ 3,500.

The 159-page report, which has 262 detailed exhibits, provides the results of a major comprehensive survey of the telecommunications and media usage patterns and habits of the population across the Egyptian governorates of Greater Cairo, Alexandria, Dakahlia, Gharbia, Sohaj and Minya. The survey fieldwork was conducted during March and April 2008.

63.4% of Egyptian households with an ADSL connection reported sharing the ADSL connection with neighbors. Of those, a massive 81.9% share one ADSL line with more than three neighboring households.

Arab-Advisors-28April2008.doc (94.5 KB)

Source: Arab Advisors Group.

Africa's GSM mobile subscriber base is expected to jump by 20% to 316 million between now and the end of the year. GSM Africa, the African arm of world body GSM Association, said at the conference that penetration was expected to top 34% by the end of the year, from 29% at the end of 2007.

The number of subscribers will rise from 263 million to 316 million this year, Vitalis Olunga, Chairman of GSM Africa, said in a presentation at East Africa Com. Olunga said GSM networks were comprised of a bulk of service providers on the continent, with an average of about 140 live networks at the end of 2007.

Source: Cellular News.

The vast majority of customers in MEA use GSM technology, although the percentage of the total base accounted for by GSM slipped below 95% for the first time in four years. At the end of 2003, 2.2pp of the 5pp remainder was accounted for by analogue networks, 2.4pp by CDMA and 0.3pp by iDEN. At the end of 2007, the handful of remaining analogue services contributed just 0.03% of the overall total, iDEN just 0.18% and CDMA 2.1%, whilst the largest part of the remainder was accounted for by W-CDMA with 3.1% of the total.

Bundling this together with GSM, we find that the GSM family maintained a 97.67% share of the market between the third and fourth quarters of 2007, although it lost 0.11pp of share over the 12 months to 31st December due to the fact that the CDMA connection base grew faster, by 56.1% to the GSM family's 41.1%.

Source: Cellular News.

Several years back, it was a privilege for employees to have their own computer in their work stations. Unfortunately most of them did not know how to fully make use of the machines. A new trend is catching on among some Kenyan firms in their bid to cut down on costs: sharing of the PC. Instead of a PC for every employee, a single PC is being used by up to 10 people.

But what does this really mean for the company as well as the employees? "The concept of having shared PCs is definitely working well for the company, but employees are at a disadvantage," said John Munyiri, IT manager Dyer & Blair.

South Africa has surpassed the 1 Million broadband subscriber mark. South Africa now has more than 1 Million broadband connections, made up mainly of ADSL and HSDPA subscribers.

Telkom currently has in the region of 415 000 ADSL subscribers, and previously indicated that it is on track to hit their 420 000 target by the end of March. Vodacom has 360 000 3G/HSDPA data card users while MTN recently announced that they now have 120 000 3G/HSDPA data card users on their South African network. This brings the total number of ADSL and HSDPA subscribers to 895 000.

Source: Balancing Act.

A novel idea to take voice and data services to the most rural areas could see Vodacom and MTN paid subsidies to do the job. The operators have to promise high-quality services even the poorest people can afford in return for having up to 80% of infrastructure subsidised. But the cost will not hit taxpayers as the cash will come from the Universal Service Fund, to which the operators themselves contribute.

Source: Balancing Act.

MyBroadband.co.za reports that the South African broadband market now has more than one million broadband subscribers, made up mainly from ADSL and HSDPA customers. Dominant telco Telkom South Africa has 415,000 ADSL users and is on track to hit its target of 420,000 by the end of March. The two largest cellcos by customers and revenues, Vodacom and MTN, currently claim 360,000 and 120,000 3G/HSDPA datacard users respectively. Of the remainder, iBurst accounts for 60,000 subscribers via its BFWA/WiMAX networks, and a further 45,000 broadband customers are served by other wireless ISPs around the country.

Source: TeleGeography.

APA-Accra (Ghana) Ghana's parliament on Wednesday passed a controversial bill that will see mobile phone users pay a tax of one US cent for every minute they call.

The bill, introduced by the ruling New Patriotic Party, was described by a section of Ghanaians as obnoxious and calculated to stifle their ability to communicate freely.

The government explained to parliament that the implementation of the bill will enable it generate more revenue for development and also sustain the National Youth Employment Programme, which is near collapse as a result of inadequate funding.

However, the minority in parliament led by the National Democratic Congress party opposed the bill, saying that not all people in the country used mobile phones and the implementation would mean preventing people from talking more on mobile phones.

Parliament has tasked Ghana's National Communication Authority to ensure that mobile phone operators comply with the new legislation.

Source: Cellular News.

Pan-African cellular operator MTN has reported a 42% jump in revenues for 2007 to ZAR73.1 billion (USD10.3 billion). Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 42% to ZAR31.8 billion, though increased finance charges and a higher tax charge saw net profits fall from ZAR12.1 billion in 2006 to ZAR11.9 billion last year. The MTN group recorded 61.4 million subscribers at 31 December 2007, a 53% increase from 40.2 million at end-December 2006. The total includes 14.8 million customers in its domestic market of South Africa and 16.5 million in Nigeria. Average revenues per user have declined across most of MTN’s operations following increases in lower usage pre-paid customer numbers.

Source: TeleGeography.

In 2004, there were only 520 square miles of networked municipal Wi-Fi. However, ABI Research forecasts a nearly sixty-fold increase over the next several years, to more than 30,000 square miles. Varying levels of maturity and acceptance exist within this market, spread across global regions and individual countries. The following is a snapshot of some major variations, according to recent analysis from ABI Research:

• North America: Leads in deployments; but in many cases, the region employs the wrong business plan of free consumer access and free infrastructure; consolidating incumbent service providers view municipal Wi-Fi as a competitive threat.
• Europe: Mobile-oriented rather than PC-oriented; incumbents initially resisted municipal Wi-Fi but now recognize in-building limitations and are incorporating it within service bundles for nomadic broadband Internet access, or as a way to compete out-of-region.
• Asia-Pacific: Status varies widely, but rapid uptake in advanced countries such as South Korea is resulting in innovative applications and the development of new end-user devices to leverage municipal Wi-Fi.
• Emerging Regions: Equipment costs remains prohibitive; there is interest in the technology, but compared with more basic services such as electricity, funding is a challenge; these regions are likely to be late adopters.

Source: Newsletter Analyst Insider from ABI Research.

Over the last ten years, the African broadcast industry has slowly been liberalising and over the last year, the pace of this process has quickened. New Free-To-Air channels are planned in an increasing number of countries and there are new entrants to the Pay-TV market which has begun to grow in size.

The number of registered mobile phones in Ghana topped the seven million-mark by the end of 2007, according to new data published by the regulator, the National Communication Authority (NCA). The watchdog’s figures show that the country recorded quarterly net growth of 8.4% in the last three months of the year, boosting the country total to 7,604,053 by 31 December. Local industry watchers predict, however, that the sector could soon reach saturation levels, leaving the four main cellular operators to slug it out for market share. The NCA reports that MTN Ghana was the market leader by the start of 2008 with 4,016,132 subscribers, ahead of Millicom Ghana (Tigo) with 2,023,091, while GT-OneTouch and Kasapa Telecom took third and fourth place with 1,275,764 and 289,066 subscribers respectively. Tigo topped the list in terms of net subscriber additions in 4Q07, however, signing up a net 426,640 new users compared with 143,743 for MTN and 21,456 for Kasapa Telecom. Meanwhile, Ghana Telecom’s mobile arm OneTouch recorded a net loss of 4,493 users in the last three months of the year, with a proportion of the net decline being attributed to subscribers having their lines cut or deactivated from the network.

Source: Balancing Act.

Safaricom has completed a test run for an HSDPA service that it says will enable subscribers access the Internet faster. HSDPA will be used to deliver the service that will include mobile video conferencing and video phone.
To get connected to the service a subscriber will require a special 3G enabled SIM card plugged into a computer modem. Safaricom chief executive officer, Michael Joseph, said the service would increase access to high speed Internet in the country.

Initially, subscribers will be able to access their data at a speed of 3.6 megabytes per second but this, he said, will be upgraded to 7.2 megabytes per second. Dubbed 'Bambanet,' the service will be available on both prepaid and post paid basis.Through the post-paid system, a subscriber will have to pay Sh5,999 for the modem and a special 3G SIM card, and sign a contract of two years. There will also be a monthly access fee of Sh1, 999 for 700 megabytes and a subscriber will pay a charge of Sh12.60 per megabyte.

On the prepaid mode, a subscriber will have to pay Sh12,500 for the 700 megabytes, receive free 700 megabytes for not more than a month, and pay Sh12.60. The costs could reduce when the company starts using fibre optic. Safaricom has spent US$20 million to roll out the service. So far it has built 75 third generation sites within Nairobi. The company intends to roll out the service first in Nairobi, followed by Mombasa by April then Kisumu.
(Source: Business Daily)

Source: Balancing Act.

As mobile telephone subscribers search for cheaper and affordable call tariffs, scores of people in the eastern province of Rwanda have subscribed to Vodacom Tanzania.

The strong signals the company has and the free airtime the telecom company is offering to all its subscribers has lured some Rwandans near the Tanzania border to subscribe to Vodacom, abandoning their MTN lines. Vodacom has also lowered the calling rates to other networks to give its clients more freedom to talk, according to Kabayija, a 'Vodacom agent' in Kayonza district. Rwandans in districts of Nyagatare, Gatsibo, Kayonza and Rwamagana can now call for four minutes freely. Subscribers on pay standard spend Tzs200 (Frw93)-whereas MTN Rwandacell charges Frw100.

Prices of smuggled Vodacom sim packs have also soared from Frw1,000 to Frw5,000. (about Tzs10,000) There are claims that MTN, with the largest coverage in eastern province is affected negativly, as sales of its products have dropped. "I no longer buy MTN airtime vouchers. Sim pack agents say sales have drastically dropped," a resident of Kabarole who was using a Vodacom line claimed." But The New Times was not able get comment from MTN officials as some could not answer their phones. However, a source close to MTN Rwanda management say Vodacom and MTN are about to enter a roaming deal, where subscribers on the two networks will not have to switch sim cards. In Kayonza and Rwamagana towns, dealers of Vodacom products were openly luring more Rwandans to get connected to the Tanzanian network. An official in Rwandatel said his company 'is not worried about the competition.'
(Source: The New Times)

Source: Balancing Act.

Senegal’s two incumbent mobile operators - Orange Senegal (formerly Sonatel Mobiles/Alize) and Tigo Senegal (formerly SENTELgsm) - collectively added 688,725 new users in the fourth quarter of 2007 to boost the country mobile total to 4.123 million at the end of the year. According to the country’s telecoms regulator Agence de Regulation des Telecoms et Postes (ARTP), cellular penetration reached 38.97% by 31 December 2007, up from 28.19% the previous year. Orange Sonatel, part of the Paris-based Orange group, had 3.004 million users at the end of December 2007, up from 2.443 million in September. Meanwhile, Tigo had 1.118 million clients, from 991,631 three months earlier. An overwhelming 99.17% of all users are on pre-paid services, the regulator said.

In the fixed line segment, ARTP said the number of lines in service dipped from 282,573 to 269,088 in 2007, a teledensity of less than three lines per 100 of population. Residential lines accounted for 69.1% of the total, while business connections made up 24.9% and public payphones 6%. The internet market recorded 39,113 subscriptions at the end of the year of which 97% were ADSL lines and 3% dial-up.

Source: TeleGeography.

The CDMA Development Group (CDG) has announced that CDMA subscribers grew to more than 431 million, and CDMA2000 grew to more than 417 million during last year. The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region added the most net subscribers, and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) grew the fastest by percentage.

CDMA2000 subscribership among the 250 networks worldwide grew 16% in 2007, including strong sales figures for broadband EV-DO devices and services. The EV-DO subscriber base grew from 55 million to 90.5 million in 2007, achieving a compound annual growth rate of more than 64%.

APAC and North America claimed the majority of customers, with 49% and 32% of the global market, respectively. APAC added 6.2 million in Q4 2007 to reach 211 million subscribers, making it the largest net growth region in the world. North America alone has more than 137 million CDMA subscribers. APAC and EMEA saw the greatest year-over-year growth, with 24% and 60%, respectively. Other highly-concentrated regions for CDMA are India with more than 61 million subscribers, China with 42 million, and Indonesia with 14 million. In addition, more and more operators in emerging countries are reaching the one-million CDMA subscriber mark. For example, Angola's Movicel, Morocco's WANA, Starcomms of Nigeria, PTCL in Pakistan, Sudatel and Yemen Mobile all saw subscribership race past this milestone in 2007.

The CDG also noted that 2007 also saw an explosion in the availability of both low- and high-end devices. More than 350 devices were introduced on a commercial basis. Today, more than 82 very low-end (VLE) CDMA2000 handsets (under US$50 wholesale) are available globally from 19 suppliers.

Perhaps most important to the designation of 2007 as a critical year for CDMA is the number of CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Revision A (Rev. A) deployments that took place. At the beginning of the year, only three operators had deployed Rev. A technology. Now, 26 operators worldwide have upgraded to Rev. A and another 31 operators are in the process of upgrading. Operators with working Rev. A networks have witnessed a substantial increase in their data revenue.

In addition, CDMA has found a home in new spectrum allocations. China Unicom made a successful bid to operate 3G in Macau and rolled-out its first CDMA2000 1xEV-DO network there in October. PCCW-HKT Telephone won a 15-year license to deploy and operate CDMA2000 in the 800 MHz band in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, several operators in the United States are considering CDMA2000 to offer Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) in the 1.7/2.1 GHz frequency band.

On the 450 and 700 MHz fronts, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) reached a decision to use the two bands for 3G and next-generation mobile services.

Source: Cellular News.

The number of registered mobile phones in Ghana topped the seven million-mark by the end of 2007, according to new data published by the regulator, the National Communication Authority (NCA). The watchdog’s figures show that the country recorded quarterly net growth of 8.4% in the last three months of the year, boosting the country total to 7,604,053 by 31 December. Local industry watchers predict, however, that the sector could soon reach saturation levels, leaving the four main cellular operators to slug it out for market share. The NCA reports that MTN Ghana was the market leader by the start of 2008 with 4,016,132 subscribers, ahead of Millicom Ghana (Tigo) with 2,023,091, while GT-OneTouch and Kasapa Telecom took third and fourth place with 1,275,764 and 289,066 subscribers respectively. Tigo topped the list in terms of net subscriber additions in 4Q07, however, signing up a net 426,640 new users compared with 143,743 for MTN and 21,456 for Kasapa Telecom. Meanwhile, Ghana Telecom’s mobile arm OneTouch recorded a net loss of 4,493 users in the last three months of the year, with a proportion of the net decline being attributed to subscribers having their lines cut or deactivated from the network.

Source: TeleGeography.

The price of international bandwidth will plummet 80% when the Seacom undersea cable goes live on June 17 2009, more or less the same date as the TEAMS cable in Kenya. Construction has already started and Seacom president Brian Herlihy said the project was on track for a "dead-certain delivery date".

Its bandwidth will cost as little as R267 a month per 1MB, compared to between R3,500 and R11,000 to use Telkom's bandwidth on the existing Sat-3 cable, or a punishing R231,000 for satellite connectivity. "It's going to flood international bandwidth into the markets and drop the international component of prices dramatically," Herlihy said.

Source: Balancing Act.

Reliable sources indicate that Vodacom is close to signing a deal with Libyan-owned Lap Green to take over its recently purchased operations in Rwanda and Uganda. A draft of the agreement clearly indicates that Vodacom would take over a majority stake and have technical control, whilst Lap Green would remain a significant minority shareholder.

If the deal comes off, it would make sense of much that so far has not made much sense. Libya’s Lap Green clearly has not lacked for money but has so far only sent in a small number of its own management personnel. As one person in the ISP sector in Uganda observed:"Not much has happened on the practical side and there’s no sign of change yet." From the Vodacom perspective, it would offer them two new territories after a long period of no new acquisitions.

The mobile market in Uganda is clearly the larger prize with an estimated 4.5 million subscribers. Currently, utl is the smallest player after MTN with 1.25 million subscribers and Celtel with 1.2 million subscribers. The Celtel operation, which used to be in poor shape, is now powering ahead and becoming a serious challenger for market leadership.

The latest entrant Warid seems to have acquired 20-30,000 subscribers in its two week existence but does not yet seem to have set the market alight. MTN introduced a pre-emptive 14% drop in its tariffs and Warid opened with slightly lower tariffs. Competitors acknowledge that it has good network coverage but that it has no particular local insight and only a narrow product range. Prices still seem set to fall further and there is the makings of a price war when the fifth operator HITS finally enters the market. Optimistically, this might be in May of this year.

Meanwhile, Uganda is only the latest country to join the 3G arms race. Both Celtel and MTN are installing 3G, although the latter is only likely to have it in Kampala and around Entebbe Airport. MTN has 65,000 subscribers on a combination of its EDGE upgrade and its Wi-MAX fixed broadband locations in 51 Ugandan towns. Achieved download speeds on both are in the region of 250 kbps. It has found that introducing a 3G network has meant finding new sites to ensure sufficient coverage.

As MTN’s CEO Erik van Veene told us:"We are really doing a couple of laps round the track before the fibre cable arrives." It hopes to be able to offer cheaper local pricing so as to encourage local hosting and content.

Source: Balancing Act.

• The AccessKenya Group has made significant progress with respect to its main IPO pledges, in particular 
•  To aggressively increase market share in the core corporate internet sector, where the Group closed the year with 1,950 leased lines – ahead of the IPO projections of 1,720 – and with an estimated market share of about 40% 
•  To enter the IT services market with the acquisition of Openview Business Systems in 2007 and the forthcoming launch of Outsource IT 
• To launch a residential broadband service in 2008 for which technology and marketing plans are complete. This will be a tremendous opportunity for the Group to extend their high levels of broadband service and speed from corporate to residential customers.

Source: Balancing Act.

APA-Maputo (Mozambique) South African-based mobile phone company, Vodacom-Mozambique (VM) has announced a 40 percent share in Mozambique's mobile phone market, five years after entering the market.

The chairman of Mozambique's second cell phone operator, Hermenegildo Gamito, said that by January 2008, VM had reached 1.5 million clients, which is over 40 percent of the estimated 3.3 million cell phone users in the country.

"We now have a market share of 40 percent in Mozambique, that is 3.3 million, and is only 16 percent of the Mozambican population from which we may readily conclude that the penetration of mobile telephony in Mozambique is still regarded as rather weak", he said at a business lunch with Mozambican journalists in Maputo, the country's capital.

"VM is working with government bodies to improve the business environment for mobile telephony, with the aim of allowing greater access to existing services", Gamito added.

Vodacom, a subsidiary of the South African Vodacom Group, was awarded a mobile network license in 2002 to become the second cellular operator in the country after paying U$$15 million for the license to compete with mCel, which is owned by the Mozambican government and a German company Detecon.

India's Reliance Communications has announced acquisition of Uganda based Anupam Global Soft, a company holding Public Infrastructure Provider License (PIPL) and Public Service Provider License (PSPL) issued by Uganda Communications Commission. The company says that following the acquisition - for an unspecified amount - it plans to spend up to US$500 million on building out the telecoms network.

Under the existing Licenses, Reliance Communications targets to offer Mobile, Fixed Line, Internet, National and International Long Distance services, in addition to WiMax and Wi-Fi services in Uganda.

Figures from the Mobile World database note that the population penetration level in Uganda had reached 13.3% at the end of September - compared to the 10% figure reported by Reliance for the end of last March.

Source: Cellular News.

The number of mobile phone subscribers in Egypt reached 30.047 million at the end of 2007, up from 29.368 million in November and 18.001 million at the end of 2006, according to figures from the ICT ministry. Mobile penetration was at 40.62 percent of the population at year-end. Fixed-line density increased marginally to 15.2 percent at the end of 2007 from 15 percent a year earlier, while internet use was at 11.7 out of every 100 inhabitants versus 8.3 in 2006. Internet use rose to 8.62 million users, versus 8.29 million in November. The number of ADSL users increased to 427,085 from 394,875 in November and was more than double the figure at the end of 2006.

Wireless phone company Vodafone has dialed up mobile banking in -- surprise -- developing countries, not rich nations.

Vodafone's VOD service lets cell phone users transfer small sums of money via text messaging.

It's targeting developing countries in Asia and Africa, where most people don't have bank accounts, but cell phone use has soared.

Source: Cellular News.

Users of pre-paid airtime sold by telecommunications providers have been slapped with a 15 percent value added tax (VAT) from February 1st. This follows a 15 percent VAT imposed by the Ministry of Finance, which was originally scheduled for implementation in September last year.

The VAT, said mobile phone operators MTC and Cell One, will be levied on the face value of the pre-paid vouchers and will be deemed to be inclusive of VAT. This means that a pre-paid voucher of N$10 will yield an N$8.10 airtime, with the remaining N$1.30 VAT going to the Receiver of Revenue. Residential users of mobile telephones were excluded from VAT when first implemented in Namibia to promote the use of telecommunications services.

Telecom Namibia has, however, taken a different route, and decided not to pass on the VAT levy onto its customers. "This decision represents an effort to bring relief to the vulnerable groups most susceptible to the increased inflation that the VAT can cause," said Managing Director of Telecom Namibia, Frans Ndoroma.

"Here we have in mind a huge number of prepaid card users, most of whom are students, elderly and non-income earners, for whom the imposition of the VAT would therefore worsen their financial plight. By subsidising this VAT, Telecom Namibia stands to lose "millions" per month, said Manager: Finance and Administrator, Robert Offner.

A study by Nepru indicates that 92 percent of mobile phone users buy prepaid mobile services.

Source: Balancing Act, Issue 391, 08.02.2008 based on Technology Times.

A new research study published by the Center for Global Development has looked at the impact of mobile phones on the prices of farm produce in the African country of Niger - which faced serious food shortages in 2005. In theory, the increasing use of mobile phones should have improved distribution efficiency and hence lower the variations in prices around the country. The study set out to see if that was the case.

Morocco finished 2007 with 20.029 million mobile subscribers, up from 19.188 million in September and 16.005 million at the end of 2006. Mobile penetration has now reached 65.66 percent of the population, versus 53.54 percent a year ago, according to the figures from market regulator ANRT. Out of the total base, only around 800,000 use postpaid services, while the remainder are prepaid. Maroc Telecom has a 66.54 percent share of the market, while Meditel holds 33.46 percent. The number of fixed-line users meanwhile has grown to 2.394 million from 2.266 million in September and 1.266 million at the end of 2006. Fixed penetration rose to 7.85 percent. The number of internet subscribers rose 7.6 percent over the fourth quarter and 31.6 percent over the full year to reach a total 526,080 at the end of 2007. ADSL accounts for 90.6 percent of all subscribers, while plans for 256 Kbps make up 43.6 percent of all ADSL users.

Source: Wireless Federation, from ANRT.

Vodacom Group, the Vodafone associate based in the Republic of South Africa, has announced its December quarter numbers. It's total base has risen by 4.7% in the quarter, to a total of 33m. Using an estimate of the activity level in the main market of South Africa, these numbers would change from 33m to around 32.1m, which would imply a slightly faster growth rate, of 4.8%. South Africa obviously accounts for the majority of this base - 23.3m or 73% of the total on an active basis - with the balance being spread across four other networks, in Tanzania, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Lesotho.

Other than the DRC, which managing only 2.9% growth to 3.27m, all the others outpaced their parent in proportionate terms, with growth rates of 7.3% in Tanzania, 9.9% in Lesotho and 11.9% in Mozambique. The chart below shows the recent trend in the overall base.

Venture Customers, EOP (000s), Q1 05 - Q4 07

Source: Cellular News.

The Government has launched a credit scheme of a cellphone-per-household aimed at bridging the communication gap in rural areas.

Through the efforts of the initiative, the cost of a mobile phone has been slashed from Frw28,000 (US$52.55) to Frw13, 000 (US$24.40). The relaxed credit scheme will enable a person to own a phone and pay only Frw1,000 (US$1.88) per month in a period of 13 months. Over 53,000 handsets have so far been dispatched to 15 out of 30 districts. Celestin Karabayinga, the mayor of Musanze District, described the initiative as milestone in rural development. He appealed to the suppliers to increase the number of phones to meet the increased demand as a result of fruitful agricultural harvests in the Northern Province.

Source: Balancing Act, from The New Times.

Vodacom saw a dip in the pace at which new customers are joining its network in South Africa, with 958,000 signing up in the past three months against 1.5-million just before Christmas a year ago.

The cellular operator is also seeing slower growth in its other operations, adding 519,000 new users in the third quarter to December to the previous December quarter's 870,000. Its biggest slowdown came in the Congo, where its subscribers inched up just 2.9%, well short of the 15% surge enjoyed a year ago. Its networks in Tanzania and Mozambique added fewer customers than they did in the third quarter of last year, with only its tiny network in Lesotho enjoying stronger growth to reach a total of 332,000 customers.

Vodacom is now serving 33-million people, up 4,7% since September, as it connected 4.8-million new users. But that growth is offset by their constant hopping between rival networks, so overall its user base rose by just 600,000 from 31.6-million in September. In South Africa, it now serves 24.2-million users, but its rate of growth fell to 4.1% from 7,3% a year ago.

Yet it remains well ahead of MTN, which claims 14-million users in SA, meaning Vodacom has an estimated 55.6% of South African users. MTN outstrips Vodacom overall, however, with 55 million customers throughout Africa and the Middle East.

Source: Balancing Act, from Business Day.

Namibia’s second mobile operator Cell One has announced that it has rolled out its GSM network to Karasburg, Khorixas and Omaruru, and its services have now reached all 13 regions of the country. According to chief marketing officer, Ivar Talmoen, Cell One covered around 70% of the country by the end of last year and continues to expand its footprint on a weekly basis. Powercom (trading as Cell One) launched commercial mobile services in Windhoek in March 2007, breaking the monopoly of incumbent provider Mobile Telecommunications.

Source: Wireless Federation.

The launch of Etisalat in Egypt in the second quarter of 2007 was much anticipated, not least because more than eight years of duopoly in Egypt had seen the rate of mobile ownership climb to just one-quarter. At first glance, the addition of a third player appears to have energised the market, with net additions topping 3 million for the first time ever in Q2, and Q3 setting a new record of 3.73 million. The size of the total market stood at 26.99m at the end of September 2007, up from 15.87m a year earlier - a growth rate of 70%.

In addition, both Mobinil and Vodafone posted their highest ever figures for net additions since the launch of Etisalat, Vodafone claiming 1.32 million in Q2 and Mobinil 1.82 million in Q3. Of course, Etisalat itself also contributed to the growth of the market, gaining almost 0.7 million customers in Q3 to reach a total of 1.30 million, compared to 11.97 million for Vodafone and 13.72 million for Mobinil.

Egypt: Proportionate Customer Growth, Q4 04 - Q3 07

Etisalat's arrival has undoubtedly had a positive effect on the Egyptian mobile market, but the above figures may exaggerate the level of its impact somewhat. A glance at the proportionate growth rates yields a less dramatic picture. In each of the two quarters since Etisalat's launch, growth has been at around 16%, a respectable figure but not a particularly impressive one given that penetration was just 25.1% at the end of Q1. Moreover, when Etisalat's contribution is factored out the combined growth rate of the other two operators is around 13% in the first three quarters of 2007, which is roughly the same level as in 2005. Of course, there is a strong possibility that quarterly growth would have remained in the single digit figures recorded in Q1 and Q2 06 had a third player not launched, but this does not alter the impression that neither Mobinil or Vodafone has quite shaken off the ‘comfortable duopoly' mindset.

At the end of Q3, penetration in Egypt stood at just 33.5%. This is by far the lowest rate across the five North African nations, with Morocco in fourth place on 57.9% and Libya the most penetrated on 86.2%.

Source: Cellular News.

Morocco's Maroc Telecom has commercially launched a 3G/HSDPA service in the country's main cities the company has announced. The company was originally awarded a 3G license in May 2006, along with competitors, Medi Telecom and Maroc Connect.

The 3G coverage is currently available in the cities of Rabat, Casablanca, Mohammedia, Agadir, Fès, Marrakech, Kenitra, Tetouan, Tanger and Essaouira.

Figures from the Mobile World database reports that Maroc Telecom ended last September with around 12.8 million customers - and a market share of 66%.

Maroc Telecom, a 51% subsidiary of France's Vivendi, with the remainder listed on the Casablanca and Paris stock exchanges. The company also holds 51% of the historic operators in Mauritania (Mauritel), Burkina Faso (Onatel) and Gabon (Gabon Telecom).

Source: Cellular News.

After a comparatively quiet second quarter, the mobile market in the Middle East and Africa has bounced back with a record number of new customers. Over 32 million net additions were made in the three months to end September, some 2 million more than were connected in the previous best quarter, Q4 2006. As has been the case for most of this year, the bulk of the growth has come from Africa, rather than the Middle East, with Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa producing the strongest gains. The most notable exception to this generality is Iran, where additional competition is spurring growth.

Since the last review of the region, there have been a number of adjustments to the data, most notably in Nigeria where the regulator has supplied new data on the market. The result is that Glo Mobile, the independently owned operator, is now credited with a larger share of the national total and in fact, market leadership. Its Q2 numbers have been revised upwards to just over 15 million, enough to give it fourth place in the region last quarter, ahead of MTN Nigeria. As a result of this, the proportion of the region’s customers connected to the ten market leaders has risen from around 43% to 47%. However, the regulator’s numbers show that there is a growing issue with inactivity in the country: of the 46.2m connections at the end of September, nearly 8m – or 17% - were inactive.

Top 10 MNOs by Customers

The list of the ten largest companies in the region is, once again, unchanged as far as constituents are concerned. However, there are several positional changes. The top two are not affected - Vodacom SA remains the market leader in the region, with 22.5 million active customers, ahead of TCI of Iran – but third and fourth have swapped places and last quarter’s seventh has dropped to ninth this time. Vodacom has undertaken a major cull of inactive connections in the last quarter, severing some 2.9 million from its list. In the light of this, it is no surprise that the registered base has dropped by some 1.3 million (to 23.3m) though of course, the activity rate has improved from 88.6% to almost 96%.

Second placed TCI continues to grow rapidly, encouraged by the arrival of genuine national competition in the shape of MTN Iran. TCI added 1.7 million new connections in the quarter to take its total to 19.5 million. On the face of it, this looks like a good result, but it has to be seen in context: this is in fact TCI’s slowest quarter for a year and MTN Iran bettered its 1.71 million total by the best part of 0.25 million, taking a majority of net additions for the first time. Third place in the region goes to Glo Mobile, which was sixth at the start of the year but has apparently now overtaken MTN Nigeria as the market leader. This move leaves STC, the Saudi number one, down in fourth place, with 15.8 million customers.

MTN subsidiaries take both fifth and sixth place this quarter, as they did last. MTN Nigeria is now the largest single unit within the group, ahead of MTN South Africa. The Nigerian company added nearly one million new connections to end the quarter with 14.99 million subscribers, while the South African company added 0.67 million, to reach a total of 14.1 million. The four remaining companies on the list are all in North Africa. Mobinil, the FT/Orascom joint venture in Egypt, has risen from eighth to seventh after adding 1.8 million new connections, while Maroc Telecom has also moved up one place and now has a total of 12.8 million. This leaves it marginally ahead of Orascom Algeria, which, despite adding over 700k new connections had fallen from seventh to ninth, with 12.7 million customers. The final place on the list goes to Vodafone Egypt, which, although it failed to match the pace set by Mobinil, nonetheless added an impressive 1.2 million new customers to close the quarter with 12.2 million.

Mobile ownership continues to spread across the region. At the end of June there were over 60 networks with more than one million customers; three months later that number has risen to over 70, with many of these being multi-million operations. All of the top 15 operators have more than six million customers and the three of these in 11th, 12th and 13th places overall - Algeria Telecom Mobile, Celtel Nigeria and Safaricom Kenya – have over nine million. At their current growth rates, all three will pass the ten million mark in the current quarter.

Source: Cellular News.

The number of mobile connections in Nigeria finished just 10k shy of 44m at the end of Q3 07, and penetration broke through 30% to finish on 32.4%. Net additions totaled 16.90m in the 12 months ending 30th September 2007 and annual growth stood at 62.4%, only marginally below the 63.6% rate recorded a year earlier.

In quarterly terms, the market grew by 14.6%, with a record 5.62m net additions.

Glo Mobile overtook MTN to become the Nigerian market leader in Q2 07, although it had edged ahead briefly in Q4 06 with a lead of 4k at the end of the year. At the end of June 2007 its lead was 1.1m, and three months later it had grown to 3.0m, with 18.01m customers to MTN’s 14.99m. In terms of market share, Glo posted a figure of 40.9% at the end of Q3, giving it a 6.8pp lead over MTN. Glo achieved this result through two excellent quarters with net additions of 2.77m in Q2 and 2.87m - its best ever result - in Q3. In total, it added over 8.55m new connections in the year, compared to 4.61m for MTN.

Nigeria: Quarterly Net Additions

In fact, as the above chart shows, Celtel has also had an excellent quarter, claiming a clear second place for net additions with 1.91m to finish the quarter with a total customer base of 9.88m. In proportionate terms, it posted a quarterly growth rate of 24.0%. The fastest growing operator in Q3, however, was CDMA operator Starcomms, which launched at the end of March. Although it has yet to make a significant impact on the market with just 0.9% market share at the end of Q3, it did claim top spot for quarterly growth with a rate of 28.9%. It finished Q3 just short of 0.4m customers. The fifth operator in the market is Nigerian Mobile Telecommunications (Nitel), which has been in decline for some time with three successive quarterly losses. At the end of Q3 07, it had 0.72m customers, having lost over 0.55m in the year. However, with new owners in place at Nitel, there is finally a glimmer of hope for this business and we will follow developments with a keen interest in 2008.

Source: Cellular News.

Algeria's fixed and cellular revenues are projected to exceed US$4.7 billion in 2011, growing from around US$ 4.1 billion in 2007 reports the Arab Advisors Group. The expected privatization of Algérie Telecom in 2008 should also enhance growth in the massive Algerian cellular and fixed market.

Algeria's government is planning to partially privatize Algérie Télécom. The sale was expected to be take place by end of 2006, with the government selling 35% of the operator in an Initial Public Offering (IPO). However the procedures have not been finalized and the tender was yet not launched, but expected to take place in 2008. The ARPT had announced that the process has arrived at a point of maturity and the file is currently with the hands of the Algerian government. Algérie Telecom remained the monopoly fixed operator till 2005. The monopoly status ended in May 2005, when the ARPT awarded the Consortium Algérien des Telecommunication (CAT) a 15-year renewable license to provide fixed, international and rural services.

Algeria's mainlines market grew at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.9% during the period from 2002 to 2006. The fixed line network has a relatively low penetration rate, which reached 9.1% by end of September 2007. The total number of fixed line subscribers reached 3.109 million subscribers in the third quarter of 2007.

Source: Cellular News, based on report by Arab Advisors Group.

APA – Douala (Cameroon). Over five million Cameroonians or more than 40 percent of the population have access to fixed and mobile telephony, the Telecoms regulatory agency (ART) revealed Thursday.

These are the aggregated figures as of 31 December 2007 from the country's three telecoms operators - the state-owned fixed and cellular operator Cameroon Telecommunication (CAMTEL), as well as French Orange and South Africa's Mobile Telephon Network (MTN), two multinational outfits specialising in mobile telephony.

ART director Jean-Louis Beh Mengue said "the migration to 8-digit numbers six months ago opened new prospects for the development of telecommunications in Cameroon."

The new numbering scheme, which has a capacity of 80 million lines, is expected remain operational until 2030.

ART said other entrants could join the markets, especially in the mobile sector.

The regulator aims at streamlining the market with sanctions on illegal V-SAT operators.

A 2008 action plan prioritises the launch of a space segment, infrastructure mutualisation, as well as reduced costs of telecoms.

Currently, a minute's call costs an average 180 CFA francs, with 200 CFA francs in peak hours and 160 CFA francs during low traffic, while SMS messages remain unchanged at 60 CFA francs.

Sources said the number of cellular subscribers is 5 million, against 400,000 fixed line registered users.

Source Cellular News.

Source: Cellular News and the Chronicle.

APA-Bangui (Central African Republic) At least three mobile telephone operators provide services in each member-state of the Central Africa Telecoms Regulations Association (ARTAC) and telephone penetration has reached 13.2 percent.

ARTAC chairman Valeri Saï said in Bangui on Thursday that about 93.3 percent of the telephone owners are mobile telephone consumers and 1.7 percent fix telephone users.

He was speaking at the second general assembly of the ARTAC, which opened on Wednesday in Bangui.

The island nation of Cape Verde is due to get a second GSM network next week when T+ launches its services on the main island of Santiago - with national coverage due by the second half of 2008. The country currently has a monopoly operator, Cabo Verde Telecom.

The chairman of the board of the company, Marco Bento, told MacauHub that T+ would offer "competitive prices" and would be an alternative for mobile communications.

T+'s shareholders are Teylium Telecom (70%), Alexander group Telecommunications (15%) and Marco Bento (15%). Ericsson provided the network infrastructure.

T+ plans to invest US$50 million over the next three years, including US$15 million for 2007-2008 and plans to create 100 direct jobs and 500 indirect jobs.

The Mobile World reports that the incumbent operator, Cabo Verde Telecom had 134,000 subscribers at the end of September 2007 - which equates to a population penetration level of 32%.

Most of the nation's GDP comes from the service industry. Cape Verde's economy has grown since the late 1990s, and it is now considered a country of average development. Cape Verde has significant cooperation with Portugal at every level of the economy, leading it to link its currency first to the Portuguese escudo and, in 1999, to the euro.

Map of Cape Verde

The number of mobile subscribers in Senegal reached 3.434 million at the end of September, up from 3.320 million in June and 2.641 million a year earlier. According to the figures from market regulator ARTP, mobile penetration reached 32.46 percent and 99 percent of mobile customers were prepaid users. Orange is market leader with 2.443 million customers, up from 2.401 million in June, while Sentel, part of the Millicom group, increased its base to 991,631 in September from 918,830 in June. On the internet market, just 0.33 percent of the population or almost 35,000 people were registered users. Of the total, 96 percent used ADSL. Fixed-line penetration meanwhile was at 2.63 percent, or 278,119 lines, and has been falling for the past six months.

Source: Wireless Federation, based on figures of ARTP.

ALGIERS (AFP)--Algeria has 25 million mobile phone subscribers, compared with just 54,000 seven years ago, the minister for the post and telecommunication services said Monday.

The penetration rate has now reached 75% of the population, according to a tally compiled at the end of September by industry-sector firms. In 2000, before the liberalization of the state monopoly in the telecommunications sector, the figure stood at 0.26%.

The blossoming of the industry is a result of fierce competition between the three operators in the country, which spent $47 million promoting their products, according to the minister, Boudjemaa Hiachour.

Those three competing operators are Mobilis, subsidiary of the former state operator Algeria-Telecom; Djezzy, subsidiary of the Egyptian conglomerate Orascom; and Nedjma, subsidiary of the Kuwaiti firm Watanya.

Djezzy claims more than 12 million network subscribers, with Nedjma on around four million. Mobilis currently has 9.5 million users, its commercial and marketing director, Lounis Belharath, told AFP.

Meanwhile, according to Hiachour, Algeria now has around three million fixed-line telephone subscribers, compared with 1.6 million in 2000.

By the end of September nearly 120,000 Algerians had high-speed Internet connections, with a total of four million being connected to the Web.

Algérie Télécom is the first African telecoms operator to put together a business strategy that includes Fibre-To-The-Home. Although the price of connecting households to fibre has dropped considerably elsewhere, it still remains an expensive way to provide a local connection. However, the prize it is seeking to create is a large user base for its forthcoming triple play offer. Russell Southwood looks at what it’s up to.

The operator is deploying an FTTH network from French vendor Sagem Communication and on15 December it will be launching a triple play offer with voice, broadband Internet and television. The triple play service will initially be offered in Oran, Alger, Sétif  and Constantine before being rolled nationally in 2008.

According to Malik Hachelef, the Manager overseeing the FTTH roll-out:"The service will consist of a modem that can connect to the fibre network that will give very high capacities allowing either triple or quadruple play."

Algérie Télécom has 500,000 ADSL lines in place and is on its way to 3 million lines by the end of 2009. According to CEO Slimane Kheiredine, a WiMAX service will fill in gaps in the company's service where it does not offer ADSL and allow it to consider new services such as IP-TV. The Algerian national operator is working with foreign partners like BT and Korea Telecom on developing new services and is also planning to launch digital terrestrial TV trials.

By 30th September 2007, about 7.7 millions Tanzanians had a telephone service according to figures published by the regulator, the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA). This is an increase of about 12% from June 2007. Mobile telecommunication is by far the largest part of the market (98%) compared to fixed line services (2%).

While the population of Tanzania is growing at the rate of 2.7% annually, the annual number of Tanzanian buying a telephone service is growing at an average rate of 47%. However, at least 80.6% of Tanzanians still do not have a telephone service.

Market share amongst operators has remained broadly stable. Vodacom is leading the market in terms of number of subscribers with 48% of all subscribers (50% last June). Celtel ranks the second with 29% (28% last June) followed by Tigo with 13%, (12% last June), Zantel (7%, the same as in June) and TTCL with 3% (2% last June).

Source: Balancing Act 383, 07.12.2007.

According to figures published by the regulator, the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), the number of Tanzanians with mobile phones reached 7.562 million by 30 September 2007, up from 6.720 million at the end of the previous quarter. Vodacom led the way with 3.693 million customers, ahead of Celtel with 2.251 million, Tigo (992,036) and Zantel (553,975). In the fixed line sector the incumbent, Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL), reported a drop in the number of main lines in service from 169,135 to 160,964 in the same period.

The TCRA said that while the population of Tanzania is growing at the rate of 2.7% per annum, the annual number of Tanzanians subscribing for a telephone line is currently rising by around 47% per year. Nonetheless, it notes there is still a huge gap in terms of universal telecoms access, and says that at least 80.6% of the population do not have a telephone line at all – either fixed or mobile.

Source : Telegeography, based on the figures of TCRA.

ITU data suggest that the number of mobile cellular subscribers surpassed the 3 billion mark – close to 50 percent of the world’s population – in August 2007. Mobile growth rates have been high across almost all regions and the number of subscribers has grown between 20 to 30 percent globally since 2000, when they stood at 12 percent. In many developing regions, including Africa, where fixed lines remain very limited, the mobile success story has been critical for enhancing access to telecommunications. During 2006 alone, Africa added over 60 million mobile cellular subscribers to its subscriber base and the continent’s mobile growth rate has been close to 50 percent annually over the last years.

At current growth rates, global mobile penetration is expected to reach 50 percent by early 2008. While in theory this would imply that every second person owns or uses a mobile phone, the statistic needs some clarification. Indeed, double counting takes place when consumers subscribe to multiple services. Also, operators’ methods for counting active prepaid subscribers vary, often inflating the actual number of people that use a mobile phone. On the other hand, some subscribers, particularly in developing countries, share their mobile phone with others, thus spreading its benefits. Finally, and despite high growth rates in the mobile sector, major differences in mobile penetration rates still exist between regions and within countries.

A look at the BRIC economies, shows that Brazil, Russia, India and China – four economies that are expected to have an increasingly important impact in terms of population, resources and global GDP share – alone represent almost one billion mobile subscribers in 2007; that is almost one third of the world’s total. Add the mobile subscribers in the USA, Japan and Indonesia, and the total number of subscribers in these seven countries add up to half of the world’s total.

Source: ITU.