The Ghanaian government has issued a warning to would-be start-up Globacom, a Nigeria-based telco with operations in Gambia, Senegal, Nigeria, Benin and Cote d’Ivoire, to launch commercial services in the country by 15 September, or face sanctions. Unconfirmed reports from online news journal Peacefmonline say the ultimatum was delivered by the Minister of Communications, Haruna Iddrisu, in his opening address to the 20th anniversary seminar of the Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG) in Accra last week. The minister reportedly delivered a paper titled ‘The telecom industry in perspective: History, overview and contemporary challenges of the media in Ghana’, in which he noted the government’s ire that Globacom, which was licensed about four years ago and planned to launch under the Glo Mobile banner, has yet to offer any full-blown service. Iddrisu is quoted as saying of the newcomer’s heel-dragging ‘it is about time we take the company on because they have the Ghanaian market space waiting for too long.’

See Press Release 
Source: Telegeography

According to the Times of Swaziland, the government is currently considering applications from four international telecoms operators that are interested in entering the country’s mobile phone market. The four as-yet-unnamed companies – which are collectively based in Israel, Kenya and South Africa – are believed to have submitted proposals to the Swaziland Investment Promotions Authority (SIPA) during the first half of 2011. SIPA director Phiwayinkhosi Ginindza has indicated that, barring regulatory hurdles, Swaziland could have a second operational cellco before the end of 2011. Although the newspaper claims to be aware of the identities of the interested parties, it plans to keep them under wraps until the decision-making process gains momentum.

See Press Release
Source: Telegeography

Niger’s communications ministry has invited telecoms companies to apply for the West African country’s first 3G cellular licences, Reuters reports, citing a statement on state TV. ‘These licences can go to any operator who desires them,’ the statement said, adding: ‘Operators already set up here and who have global licences also have a chance to acquire one.’ According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, the wireless market in Niger is currently home to four operators, none of which have rolled out a third-generation network. In December 2000 telecoms regulator Autorite de Regulation Multisectorielle (ARM) awarded three 15-year GSM licences costing USD5.8 million each to Celtel (now known as Airtel Niger), Telecel (since rebranded Moov Niger, a subsidiary of Etisalat-owned Atlantique Telecom) and SahelCom, a subsidiary of fixed line incumbent Sonitel.

See Press Release
Source: Telegeography

Liberia, one of the poorest countries in Africa has joined in the race to register its mobile users. The process was officially launched on July 18th by the Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA), the local telecoms regulator. The deadline for the completion of the registration process has been set to 90 days from the start day, a very short period to register about 1.6 million mobile subscribers. Isabelle Gross spoke to Avishai Marziano, the CEO of Cellcom, one of the four mobile operators active in Liberia about their initiative to launch a “paperless” registration process and what SIM registration entails for a mobile operator.

See Press Release
Source: Telegeography

South Africa's biggest wireless phone operator, cut off about a million users on Friday for failing to register their SIM cards under a new law in the country. Under the new Regulation of Interception of Communication Act, mobile phone SIM cards must have been registered by 2200 GMT on Thursday to avoid being cut off from the network. Vodacom, a unit of Britain's Vodafone (VOD.L), said fewer than a million subscribers were disconnected from its network but spokesman Richard Boorman said the impact on revenue would be minimal

See Press Release
Source: Reuters

The head of Sierra Leone’s National Commission for Privatization, Abu Bangura, says the country is in discussions with Management Development International Co. (MDIC), a Beirut-based company, over the management of Sierratel. The telco is Sierra Leone’s monopoly fixed line operator, and one of 24 state-owned companies that the commission is seeking to sell. A spokesperson for MDIC confirmed that they are ‘holding discussions’ regarding Sierratel, but provided no further details.

See Press Release
Source: Telegeography

Mobile customers can swap networks, keep number. SIM registration period comes to an end. Ghana will next month allow mobile phone customers to switch network operators but keep their numbers, a move that will increase competition and quality of service, an industry regulator said on Friday. The West African country has some 17 million subscribers able to choose from five networks, including MTN Group Ltd MTN.J, Vodafone Group Plc (VOD.L) and Bharti Airtel Ltd (BRTI.NS). A sixth is due to come on line soon. But tariffs in the country are relatively high and customers frequently complain of poor services. "We believe mobile number portability will revolutionize the mobile sector in terms of competitiveness and quality service delivery," Mawuko Zormelo, a spokesman for the National Communication Authority, said on Friday.

See Press Release
Source: Reuters

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has announced it is focusing its attention on the implementation of mobile number portability (MNP) now that its SIM registration programme is nearing completion, local newspaper Business Day reports. The telecoms regulator has not specified when the service, which allows mobile phone subscribers to keep their number if they switch service provider, will be implemented. It is expected that MNP will increase competition in Nigeria’s wireless market, which is Africa’s largest by subscribers, with over 90 million cellular users at the end of March 2011.

See Press Release 
Source: Total TeleGeography

 

A new draft regulation that will regulate the operations of telecoms service providers in the country and ensure that operators provide quality service and are held accountable if they fail, will be ratified in two weeks by the Board of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission NCC, Dr Eugene Juwah , who disclosed this in a telephone chat with THISDAY stressed that the commission was not folding its arms but had been hampered by a lack of regulation that has made direct action to enforce service quality unlawful.

See Press Release 
Source: BalancingAct-Africa

A fourth mobile concession in Egypt appears less likely following reports that the government may hold off on licensing a new player in the wake of the country’s political upheaval. According to Bloomberg, Egyptian communications minister Magued Osman noted: ‘There are a lot of changes in Egypt now and we are not sure whether launching a new licence at this moment is the right decision from the economic point of view.’ Such a decision, it is suggested, could prompt the country’s fixed line incumbent, Telecom Egypt (TE), to reconsider bidding for an increased holding in local cellco Vodafone Egypt, in which it already has a 45% stake.

See Press Release
Source: Cellular-News

Malawi’s Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) has awarded a public telecommunication services licence to locally-owned company Celcom Limited, The Nation Online reports. The concession allows Celcom to provide both fixed and wireless telephony services in the country. The company, which is required to roll out services by October 2012, beat competition from three other companies, namely Zambezi Africa Telecom, C-Mobile Holdings Limited and Smart Telecom Limited. ‘We are impressed with the confidence MACRA has demonstrated in us by awarding us the licence and we are ready to make a difference,’ commented Celcom’s managing director, Ted Sauti Phiri.

See Press Release 
Source: Total TeleGeography

The Guinean government has threatened to revoke the mobile network license held by South Africa's MTN if it does not make a payment of EUR15 million by the 2nd May to settle a long running dispute. MTN brought the local mobile network, Areeba in 2007 as part of the US$5.53 billion offer for Investcom, which had mobile phone operations in Africa and the Middle East. Since the transaction, the government has claimed that it is owed EUR15 million from the deal. A spokesman for MTN in South Africa told the Reuters news agency that he could not immediately comment on the issue.

See Press Release 
Source: Total Telecom

Kenya's largest mobile network operator, Safaricom has been accused of delaying requests for Mobile Number Portability by the independent holding company managing the service in the country. "The problem lies with Safaricom," Porting Access Kenya Ltd chairman Patrick Musimba said while giving a progress report on the service. "They are not allowing ports to go through."

The MNP service was launched, after many delays at the beginning of last month and in the first month of operations, nearly 44,000 requests to migrate a mobile phone number had been received. However, Musimba said that many requests had been blocked while those that were approved were having problems with SMS messages being routed correctly.

See Press Release 
Source: Total Telecom

Zimbabwe’s three cellular network operators disconnected a combined total of 2.4 million unregistered pre-paid subscriber accounts following the end-February 2011 deadline for registration passing, the regulator POTRAZ has confirmed. Total mobile subscribers declined from around 8.4 million to six million as of this month, as reported by local newspaper ZimDaily. Market leader Econet Wireless Zimbabwe disconnected 1.4 million customer accounts, second-placed Telecel Zimbabwe cut off 692,000 SIM cards and state-run NetOne’s user base shrunk by 300,000 due to non-registration. The cellcos have stressed that all users that have been cut off may re-register with their operator.

See Press Release
Source: Telegeography

Kampala — The Uganda Communications Commission quietly asked Internet service providers to block communication on Facebook and Tweeter messaging platforms for 24 hours during the Walk-to-Work campaign on Thursday last week. However, Internet services carried on without a glitch that day save for subscribers on one network who experienced intermittent interruptions. An April 14 letter signed by Mr Quinto Ojok, who signed in acting capacity for UCC's Executive Director Godfrey Mutabazi, said social networking fora like Tweeter and Facebook, be shut-down for security reasons.

See Press Release
Source: All Africa

According to local press reports, mobile operator Vodacom South Africa has confirmed that it has exceeded 1,000 active 43.2Mbps HSPA+ sites on its network. Although the deployment has taken place over time, Vodacom stressed that it did not want to publicise the improved speeds until they had achieved ‘significant’ HSPA+ coverage. CEO Pieter Uys commented: ‘We have actually had the technology up and running for some time, but we wanted to have a critical mass of at least 1,000 base stations before flipping the switch to allow consumers access at up to double the speed. We wanted to make sure that we had the service available in more than just one city’.

See Press Release 
Source: Telegeography 

National regulator the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) is promising to improve telecoms access in rural areas under the Ministry of Science and Technology’s ‘Equal Opportunity Trust Fund’, The Citizen daily quotes its deputy coastal zone manager Jumanne Ikuja as saying. According to the TCRA official, the agency is exploring all angles to ensure that areas currently without access to services can receive them. ‘The authority continues to receive information and complaints from different areas regarding poor communication services … we are making analysis that will give us the way forward on all these problems,’ said Mr Ikuja. With companies tending to avoid big investment in areas of low or no chance of profitability, the TCRA is providing its equal opportunity trust fund to subsidise the cost of enabling such remote areas.

See Press Release 
Source: Telegeography

­The Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) has cancelled the mobile network operating license held by Rwandatel for allegedly failing to meet its license conditions. The network is to be shut-down on Friday April 8, 2011 at midnight, affecting over half a million customers.

The company was given until this Friday to close its network so that customers could use up outstanding credits on their prepay accounts. The telecom company is partially owned by Libyan investment group - LAP Green - with an 80% stake and the Social Security Fund of Rwanda (SSFR) which has 20 percent. It will continue operating fixed lines, which are mainly used in offices. The move is not related to UN sanctions on Libyan assets held overseas.Rwandatel has over 535,710 subscribers, putting it third behind MTN Rwanda with 2.3 million and Tigo Rwanda with 685,000 users.

See Press Release
Source: Cellular-News

The National Communications Authority (NCA) of Ghana says that around 85% of SIM cards in the country have now been registered with their respective network service provider. However, it went on the say that 2.5 million SIM cards were barred from making calls from the weekend and that those involved have until July to register them before their lines are completely disconnected.

See Press Release
Source: Telegeography

Fibre-To-The-Home is beginning to be announced in Africa’s larger markets: Jamii Telecoms in Kenya (see issue 540), i3Africa in South Africa and Algerie Telecom has been piloting it. But for most telcos, the next stage after fibre metronets is rolling out Fibre-To-The-Cabinet. Both offer a route for fixed line telcos to re-invent themselves and position themselves ahead of the competition but there is a need for a good combination of a strong fibre network investment and content services to deliver over the newly created network. Last week Russell Southwood spoke to Sarat Lallah, CEO of Orange Mauritius about its experience.

See Press Release
Source: BalancingAct-Africa

Mobile network backhaul infrastructure plays a key role in the delivery of services to end users and is likely to be an important spend area for network upgrades during the medium and long terms. Operators will be upgrading backhaul to match the capacity of core and access networks that have been receiving constant attention.

Landing of undersea cables on various African countries' coasts and deployment of enhanced 3G (3G+) and 4G technologies will amplify the increasing demand for data services. Microwave-based backhaul is likely to remain dominant for rural coverage; however, operators are likely to adopt resource sharing to provide higher-capacity backhaul for areas with sustainable high demand.

See this article

Source: Cellular News

Algerie Telecom (AT) has resumed service for 3,700 of the 29,833 phone lines that it deactivated in Oran, the country's second largest city. The fixed line incumbent claims that the reconnected subscribers – who are primarily believed to be corporate customers have agreed to pay off their outstanding debt under the 'Seheli' repayment programme, which was launched in October 2010. According to El Moudjahid, AT has recovered around DZD21.5 million (USD291,743) of an estimated DZD367 million in unpaid bills. The telco has confirmed that the Sehelli programme will remain in operation until 1 March 2011. Any customers who make good their debt will be given the option of opening a broadband subscriber account as an incentive.

See Press Release
Source: TeleGeography

Mobile users in Rwanda will have to wait a little longer to start enjoying Mobile Number Portability (MNP), a service that allows subscribers of one network to migrate to another network while maintaining their original phone number including the network code. Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA) says that it is putting the move on a hold to allow current mobile operators to consolidate themselves in the market. The service was expected to be introduced this year.

See Press Release
Source: BalancingAct-Africa

The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, weekend, said that with effect from yesterday, no new SIM card would work until it was fully registered. Juwah said: "All the decisions taken on SIM card registration were taken by all the interested parties. The forum included all the telecommunications service providers, security services, the police, SSS, NSA, and all other prospective service providers.

See Press Release
Source: All Africa

MTN has had its application for a 3G license in Swaziland rejected by the local telecoms network, the Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC), which also managed the regulatory regime in the country. The phone company come regulator did not say why the license was rejected.

MTN's CEO, Ambrose Dlamini had said last year that the company was at an advanced stage in negotiations for a 3G license and had hoped to be awarded the license by the end of last year. MTN has been lobbying for an independent regulator for some years, saying that the combination of phone company and regulator causes obvious conflicts of interest. MTN dropped its objection to SPTC building a fixed wireless network, in exchange for the government pressing ahead with splitting the phone company from its regulatory role.

See Press Release
Source: Cellular-News

EriTel, Eritrea’s state-owned incumbent telecoms operator, has completed the first phase of its network expansion and upgrade project, local newspaper Shabait reports. According to the company’s head of trade, Tekle Woldeslasie, EriTel has fully renewed its network connections and changed all transmitters in the past two years. To ease mobile network congestion, the company has constructed additional stations in Asmara, Keren, Mendefera and Massawa, among other areas, while new telephone stations have been installed in Merhano, Tsaeda Kristian, Arbaete Asmera, Bisha, Foro and Massawa to accommodate more customers. Additionally, EriTel is rolling out a third-generation mobile network in order to upgrade data and internet services, and is also considering expanding its 2G network nationwide.

See Press Release
Source: Telegeography

South Africa will complete the process of migrating from analogue to digital television by December 2013, Communications Minister Radhakrishna Padayachie announced on Friday. The analogue switch off date was originally set for November 2011 but has since been changed to December 2013 by Cabinet.

The minister also revealed South Africa would adopt the DVB-T2 standard for the process of digital migration. He said South Africa's December 2013 deadline for switching off the analogue signal was in keeping with a global decision to switch off the signal by 2015.

See Press Release
Source: AllAfrica

Mobile phone service providers in the country have settled on 60 cents as the new rate they will be charging each other to terminate short messages from Tuesday next week. The move to reduce the rate from Sh2 per short message service follows a directive by the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) director-general, Mr Charles Njoroge. He had said last year that he considered the current wholesale termination rate negotiated by the operators extremely high. According to the CCK, termination rates are expected to fall to 5 cents by 2013

See Press Release
Source: All Africa

According to Telegeography, Morocco’s Maroc Telecom is in a good position to bid for state-owned Benin Telecoms. The schedule for privatising the PSTN and broadband operator is unclear however. Maroc Telecom has expanded across several African nations and the group is looking at other markets outside the French speaking African countries.

See Article
Source: Telegeography

Responsible spectrum management and reduction of administrative barriers to network expansion will be key enablers of mobile broadband in South Africa, according to Analysys Mason's latest findings published in a report for the GSMA. The GSMA commissioned Analysys Mason to look at the impact of mobile broadband on the South African economy. The report forecasts that mobile broadband and related industries will generate 1.8 percent of South Africa's GDP (ZAR 72 billion) and as many as 28,000 jobs by 2015, highlighting the vital contribution of this sector to the country's growth.

See Press Release
Source: Cellular-news

The President of Senegal Abdoulaye Wade has rescinded a government Decree passed in May this year that proposed a higher tax levy on incoming international calls to the country. The decision to veto plans to raise call taxes should hopefully bring the curtain down on a seven-month dispute between the national regulator, Agence de Regulation des Telecoms et Postes (ARTP), and France Telecom-controlled national operator Sonatel. Local newspaper Le Soleil reports the regulatory agency’s director general, Ndongo Diaw, as saying that the tax increases – which were due to enter into effect from August – would have raised CFA5 billion (USD10.4 million) a month for the authorities. However, unions objected to an August decision to monitor incoming calls passed through the PTO, claiming it would hurt Sonatel’s business and put jobs at risk. In September the monitoring, designed to allow the state to calculate the nature of the taxes it could collect, was temporarily suspended. Wade has now withdrawn the decree on monitoring incoming international calls altogether.

See Press Release
Source: Telegeography

The Communications Commission of Kenya has awarded a 3G license to France Telecom's local subsidiary, making it the third network in the country to hold a 3G license. The company paid US$10 million for the license. France Telecom owns 51% of Telkom Kenya, having paid US$390 million for the stake in 2007. Telkom Kenya, which trades as Orange has already set up a number of 3G sites within all major urban areas and tested them over the past year. The company plans to spend around US$40 million deploying a commercial network and launch the service commercially in the first half of next year.

See Press Release
Source: Cellular-news

The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) in Jamaica and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which will see both organisations exchanging information and expertise. The MOU was signed at the offices of the OUR in Kingston on Monday November 8. Under the terms of the MOU, both parties will be engaged in regulatory study tours and internships as well as sharing regulatory best practices and the provision of technical assistance.

See Press Release
Source: Jamaican Office of Utilities Regulation

After USD29 million bid, Mozambique’s Instituto Nacional das Comunicacoes (INCM) has selected Movitel, a unit of Vietnamese cellco Viettel, as its third mobile phone operator, the country’s head of telecoms regulation has confirmed. Movitel tabled a bid worth USD29 million for the licence, USD4 million less than the USD33 million bid offered by its rival UNI-Telecom. Announcing the decision, Da Silva stressed that the tender process was weighted towards technical (70%) rather than financial considerations (30%). Portugal Telecom’s TMN unit brought up the rear, with a bid of USD25 million.

See Press Release
Source: TeleGeography

ICASA drops call rates bombshell – interconnect rates that favour small market players. It has introduced a wholesale call termination rates regime that benefits smaller market players, including Cell C, Neotel and Telkom’s 8ta. The authority hopes the regulations, which determine how much operators may charge one another to carry calls on their networks, will assist in addressing what it calls “market failure” in South Africa’a’s telecommunications industry.

See Press Release 
Source: Balancing Africa

The Mozambican government has withdrawn its proposal for a new tax on users of mobile phones. On Tuesday, the Minister of Transport and Communications, Paulo Zucula, told reporters that it was not the clients of the mobile phone companies, but the operators themselves, the publicly-owned M-Cel and the local subsidiary of the South African company Vodacom, who were expected to contribute to the new Transport and Communications Development Fund. He thus contradicted a clause in a government decree of 15 September which stated that every client of M-Cel and Vodacom who has a contract with the companies would pay 30 meticais (83 US cents) a month to the fund, while subscribers who use the pre-paid cards would pay five meticais a month. The sums raised by such a tax are far from negligible - they could amount to around 35 million meticais a month.

See Press Release
Source: BalancingAct-Africa

Kampala — UGANDA's telecom industry is one of the most vibrant in Africa. The call rates have drastically dropped. Patrick Mwesigwa, the Uganda Communications Commission industry regulator's boss stated that the interconnection rate that was announced in June 2010 is a default or reference rate that the operators refer to when negotiations fail between two parties. Today, a number of operators have revised their interconnection rates from a high rate of sh151 to now sh131 in line with what we recommended as the default rate proposed by UCC. We will make efforts to review the rates even downwards. But right now, nobody is complaining about the sh131.

See Press Release
Source: All Africa

The National Communication Authority (NCA) has expressed worry about the inadequate registration centres by telecom operators to register SIM cards in the rural areas. Many rural people in the Upper West and Northern Regions, who possessed mobile phones, had the trouble of traveling long distances either to the district capitals or regional capitals at a cost to have their phones registered. Some members in the rural communities were still not also aware of the directive by the NCA to register their phones before June 30, 2011.

See Press Release
Source: Balancing Act

Region overtakes Europe in terms of mobile connections; Wireless Intelligence expects global mobile users to hit 6 billion by first half of 2012. Latin America is now the world's second largest mobile market behind Asia-Pacific after net subscriber additions of nearly 15 million during the second quarter of 2010 saw the region overtake Western Europe. According to new figures published on Friday by Wireless Intelligence, mobile connections across Latin America reached a total of 530 million in Q2, while in Western Europe the number of connections declined sequentially to 515 million from 520 million. "In recent quarters, Latin American mobile operators have increased their marketing and technological investments, which have had a positive impact on connections growth," said Joss Gillet, senior analyst at Wireless Intelligence, in a research note.

See Press Release
Source: Total telecom

The compulsory registration of SIM cards in Mozambique must be funded by Mozambique's two mobile operators, mCel and Vodacom Mozambique, regulatory body the Instituto Nacional das Comunicacoes (INCM) has declared. In a local media briefing, Francisco Chate, director of posts and telecommunications at the INCM insisted that its recently announced SIM card registration scheme must be free of charge to subscribers, with Chate warning the two cellcos that they must not pass on any associated costs to their respective subscribers.

See Press Release
Source: Telegeography

Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA) is planning to lower interconnection fees among telecom operators. Acting director general said that interconnection charges were acting as a bottleneck to the sector’s growth. The regulator has commissioned a study and hopes to adjust wholesale rates within four months. Mr Gatarayiha alos mentioned that plans to licence a fourth mobile operator have been suspended until a formal policy decision is taken.

See article
Source: TeleGeography

Zimbabwe's telecoms regulator, Potraz has announced a new deadline for the registration of prepay SIM cards after the last deadline was suspended indefinitely. Mobile subscribers now have until the end of next February to register their details with the networks or face having their accounts switched off. However, although the formal deadline in the 28th February 2011, the operators will be required to start implementing restrictions from the 1st January to encourage registration. The restrictions will include blocking SMS and voice calls during peak hours, although other measures were not ruled out. Only 3.8 million subscribers have currently registered their SIM cards, out of about 6.5 million mobile phone users in the country.

See Press Release
Source: Cellular News

As previewed in issue 514, Cape Verde’s regulator Agência Nacional das Comunicações (ANAC) is tendering the right to use frequency for three 3G operationsand for one 2G operation: all licences are national. The likely outcome will be that the two existing mobile operators will get a 3G licence and one new entrant (possibly Digicel) will enter the market.

The three 3G licences will use 2x15MHz of paired spectrum in the bands 1920-1980MHz / 2110-2170 MHz and 5 MHz of unpaired spectrum in the 1900-1920 MHz band, for each one of the rights of frequency, and the allocation of one nationwide right of frequency use in the range reserved for GSM.

See Press Release
Source: Balancing Act

Kenya plans to block unregistered SIM cards in Kenya from next month may have to be delayed as the necessary legislation has not been passed by the Parliament. Although the regulator is mandating registration of all PrePay accounts, the laws that would be required to impose punishments on avoiders are currently stalled.
Even if the government were to approve the two bills - the Freedom of Information and the Data Protection Act - they still have to be debated by politicians, who are currently on recess until next month.
Recent figures from the country's largest mobile network, Safaricom show that around 70 percent of its customers have registered their details. Rival operators, Zain, Telkom Kenya and Essar have all registered less than half of their recorded customer base.

See Press Release
Source Cellular-news

Gabon's government has announced a tender to set up and operate a 3G phone network. Tenders have to be submitted to the regulator, Artel by 30th September. "The third generation is a revolutionary tool that will allow the public easier access to information and conduct business transactions over the Internet," said the Minister of Communication, Postal Services and the Digital Economy, Ms Laure Olga Gondjout.
The country currently has four mobile networks, Libertis, Zain, Moov, Azur. According to the Mobile World analysts, the country ended March with 1.93 million subscribers, representing a population penetration level of 126%. Gabon is more prosperous than most nearby countries, with a per capita income of four times the average for Sub-Saharan Africa. This is in large part due to offshore oil production.

See Press Release
Source: Cellular-news

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has withdrawn its offer for telcos to apply for radio frequency spectrum licences in the 2.6GHz and 3.5GHz bands. In May the regulator released a set of guidelines regarding how it intends to grant spectrum licences in cases where there are competing applications, or when insufficient spectrum is available to accommodate demand. The deadline was initially set for 30 June, and later extended to 30 July.

Although no applications have actually been lodged to date, ICASA spokesperson Macia Socikwa explained that the regulator had been ‘inundated with correspondence from stakeholders seeking clarity on the finer details of the licensing processes’ since the publication of the final High Demand Spectrum Licence Regulations. Although the licences will be withdrawn and revised to take into account certain technological considerations, the existing regulations will be implemented as is.

See Press Release 
Source: Balancingact-africa

Nippon Telegraph & Telephone  announced its intention to acquire a South African Dimension Data Holdings PLC for  $3.2 billions. The  acquisition is regarded as a part of its strategy for global expansion.The company expects to complete the acquisition by the end of October 2010. NTT will pay 120 pence for every share of Dimension Data.

See article

Source: CRWE Newswire

A stand-off between the Kenyan government and France Telekom has been resolved after three months of disputes. France Telecom, which purchased 51% of the previously state-owned Telkom Kenya threatened to withdraw its investment after a failure to trace certain assets that were in the books at the time of purchase. The shareholders said they will now focus on enhancing their partnership, in order to make the company a world-class player for the benefit of its customers and other stakeholders.

See Article
Source: TeleGeography

Kenyan mobile operator Zain Kenya has been awarded a 3G licence by the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) for a fee of KES815 million (USD10 million). The CCK cut the price from USD25 million earlier this month in order to boost competition. Zain and rival cellco Orange had sought the reduction for some time.
CCK managing director Charles Njoroge said that the purchase of the 3G concession by Zain would ‘increase competition in the telephony industry, and ultimately benefit the consumers’. Back in 2007 Vodafone associate and Kenya’s largest wireless operator by subscribers Safaricom paid USD25 million for the country’s first 3G licence. Safaricom is now planning to seek a partial refund in the wake of the CCK’s decision.

See Press Release
Source: Balancing Act

The government of Botswana reaffirmed its intention to privatise Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC). Presidential affairs minister Lesego Motsumi told the process was delayed because the government had to carry out lengthy consultation activities with stakeholders in a bid to minimise risks and maximise benefits. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, the privatisation of BTC was first mooted in June 2006, with initial plans envisaging the sale of between 40% and 49% of the telco to a strategic investor and a 5% share to employees.

See Article
Source : Telegeography

Africa is set to receive a significant broadband boost with  France Telecom (FT)  signing a construction agreement with Alcatel-Lucent for the new Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable.  The vendor said its share of the 17,000km fibre-optic link is worth USD500 million and will connect West African countries to the global broadband network.  The ACE consortium is a newly formed group of 20 telecom operators. The ACE cable relies on wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). With WDM, cable capacity can be increased without additional submarine work.

See Article

Source: TeleGeography

An Egyptian court has overturned a regulatory decision regarding the termination fees paid by Telecom Egypt to connect landline calls to mobile phones, reports the Reuters news agency, citing the daily al-Mal newspaper. Telecom Egypt had complained to the telecoms regulator in 2008 that the fees should be lowered. Mobile network operator, Mobinil appealed against the lowered termination rate and an administrative court has ruled in favour of Mobinil. The telecoms regulator would not take further action until it reviewed the details of the ruling, the newspaper added.

Telecom Egypt is expect to have to take a charge of EGP426 million (US$74.5 million) if the higher rate is applied, although Mobinil has been recording its revenues based on the higher figure so wont be able to book a one-off gain.

See Press Release
Source: cellular-news 

Nigerian mobile operator Globacom has won a licence to operate in Senegal. The latest licence was issued by the Government of Senegal on Monday and signed by the country's Ministers of Finance and Telecommunications. A statement from the Office of Globacom's Chairman, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr said the licence would enable the telecommunications giant to offer world class telecommunications services to the government and people of Senegal.
The Senegalese licence will also allow Globacom to land its gigantic trans-Atlantic submarine cable, Glo 1, in the West African country with opportunities to extend the infrastructure to Mali. It will also give the telecoms giant the right to carry traffic for major operators, the government and wholesale customers.

See Press Release 
Source: Balancingact-Africa

Nigeria's tele coms regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has confirmed that the delayed Mobile Number Portability will be introduced in the second-half of this year, confirming earlier statements about the issue. Mr. Stephen Bello, the acting vice-chairman of the Commission, told IT News Africa that it had become necessary to introduce MNP because of the high telecom subscriber base in the country. Mr. Earnest Ndukwe, former CEO of NCC, had set May 2009 as the date for the announcement of a timetable for MNP takeoff. On the mode of implementation, he said that the NCC would engage the services of an independent company to oversee the process. He also revealed that the local operators were on board and ready.

See Press Release
Source: cellular-news

Africa’s regulators are increasingly moving to assert their role as the protector of consumer interests in the ICT space. This week the Commissioner responsible for Consumer Affairs told a meeting held by the Liberian Consumers Action Network that it had established a consumer help desk. But if the landscape for ICT consumers is getting more complicated then the responsibilities of companies within the sector is also becoming more demanding.

See Press Release
Source: BalancingAct-Africa

Telecoms operators which opposed to newly gazetted regulations on competition, got a temporary reprieve after the government promised to open fresh talks with the industry for a possible review of the contentious segments. Information minister, Mr Samuel Poghisio, said the review would aim at fine-tuning certain aspects of the regulations for clarity and to address the feeling among certain operators that they were being unfairly targeted.

See Press Release
Source: Balancingact-Africa

The E ast Timor (Timor-Leste) government has outlined plans to liberalise the telecoms market by the beginning of next year. The Timorese deputy prime minister, José Luís Guterres said that there was a consensus within the Council of Ministers on the matter following the definition of the aim of liberalising telecommunications some time ago . "Now we need to approve specific laws to regulate the entry of other operators and there are at least two companies that have shown interest: Ireland's Digicel and Indonesia's Telecomcel," he told local news media.

See Press Release
Source: cellular-news

The Botswana Telecommunications Authority launched the second phase of its Nteletsa project with a groundbreaking ceremony in Nswazwi last week.
Nteletsa II, as the project is known, is a spawn of the government's Rural Telecommunications Development Programme aimed at providing communities with access to telecommunications services. These include voice, data and Internet services. This phase of the project will see 197 villages in the Chobe, Ghantsi, Kgalagadi, Central, Kgatleng, the North West and Kweneng Districts provided with telecommunications services for the first time. The villages have been divided into four areas.

See Press Release
Source: TeleGeography

Dr. / Tarek Kamel, Minister of Communications and Information Technology welcomed, the offer of "France Telecom" and "Orascom Telecom Holding"  in a meeting with the Minister of Communications and Information Technology of the major basis for a new comprehensive agreement regarding the settlement of disputes between them on Mobinil in Egypt. The Minister noted that the Egyptian government is glad to see the continued partnership between the two prominent Egyptian and French partners in Mobinil, and that this was always consistent position of the Government throughout the conflict, the Minister added, coordination is in progress with the Minister of Investment Dr. / Mahmoud Mohi Eldin. France Telecom and Orascom Telecom Holding presented today the outline of a new and comprehensive agreement on Mobinil and ECMS to the Egyptian Minister of Communications & Information Technology, Dr. Tarek Kamel. The agreement, which has been signed  and will be finalized over the coming weeks, will effectively bring to an end all disputes in relation to their joint investment in Mobinil. The two groups will continue their partnership on a renewed basis going forward, implementing a revised shareholder agreement but with no change to the existing ownership structure or their shareholders’ voting rights. This agreement will allow the two telecoms operators to contribute their respective know-how and added value to the successful and profitable development of Mobinil and ECMS, the country’s leading mobile operator.

See Press Release
Source: France Telecom

Congo-Brazaville complained that it had not been informed of Bharti Airtel's nine billion dollar-deal to buy Kuwaiti telco Zain's African assets.  This might contravene Zain's licence. Telecoms Minister, Thierry Moungalla, said the parties had 30 days to remedy the situation or face sanctions. A Bharti Airtel spokesman in New Delhi declined comment.  Bharti is currently in the process of getting regulatory approval for the accord.

See Press Coverage

(Source: Balancing Act)

The concept of Mobile Number Portability could witness an early implementation as frantic efforts are being made to put it in place. The Minister of Communication, Haruna Iddrisu has stated that the testing of equipment for take off would be done in June, this year, while full implementation would be conducted in 2011, a year short of the implementation date of 2012.

See Press Release
Source: Balancing Act

Vodacom Group Ltd., the African cellphone network operator majority owned by Vodafone Group,  said it would begin arbitration  after failing to resolve a dispute with the minority shareholder in its Congo operation. The shareholders failed to reach agreement  on a number of issues, including capital restructuring to support the continued growth of the business.
Vodacom Congo, which began operations in 2002, is 51% owned by Vodacom and the remainder by Congo Wireless Networks. Vodacom said its relationship with CWN remained "dysfunctional," and that it would defend a threatened legal action by CWN to force Vodacom to invest further in the Congo operation.

See Press Release
Source :  Total Telecom

Tanzania's Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) has given mobile network operating licenses to five more companies, bringing the tally for the country to twelve. The country now has one of the highest ratios of licenses to potential customers in the world, although with a population penetration level of just 43%, there is space for new companies to grow. The five new entrants are MyCell, Egotel, Rural Netco, Smile and ExcellentCom.
They are expected to enter the country's communication industry when the process to give them network facility licensees is completed," TCRA director-general John Nkoma told The Citizen newspaper.

Source: cellular-news
See Press Release

Kenya's government has hinted that it might lower the cost of 3G licenses, as has been called for by the mobile networks. Currently, only Safaricom holds a 3G license after paying Sh1.9 billion (US$25 million) in 2007. Information Permanent Secretary Dr Bitange Ndemo told Capital FM, "We will do everything possible to ensure that we have created the necessary competitive environment, even if it means that we revise the cost to reasonable levels,". He added that the decision should be made in the next three weeks.

See Press Release
Source: cellular-news

Mr. Bernard Forson Jnr, the Director General of the National Communication Authority (NCA) in Ghana, has given subscribers of the country’s various mobile networks have up to 1 July 2011 to register their SIM cards or risk having their line blocked or disconnected. Mr. Emmanuel Owusu Adansi, NCAs Director of Special Projects said ‘all customers should endeavour to register their chips to get their lines activated before 1 July’, adding that registration would improve security for users and also help in the fight against mobile phone-related crime.

See Press Release

Source: TeleGeography

Telecommunications operators are divided over new proposals meant to promote fair competition and guard against abuse of market power. Of particular contention is a clause that calls for a 30-day notice to the Communication Commission of Kenya before any tariff changes, and another one touching on the definition of a dominant operator.

Safaricom raised the issue that the two clauses were specifically targeting the company and would undermine its ability to compete effectively, adding that they should be deleted. Safaricom's head of legal and regulatory affairs Nzioka Waita said the way the regulator defines a dominant operator targets Safaricom as a company.

See Press Release
Source: Balancing Act - Africa

Nigerian operator, Globacom has obtained an operating licence in Cote d'Ivoire. The approval was conveyed to Globacom by the Agence des Telecommunications de Cote d'Ivoire, the telecommunications regulatory authorities of the Francophone country.

The licence will enable Globacom take advantage of its gigantic trans-Atlantic submarine cable, Glo 1, which will branch off to Cote d'Ivoire.  With it, Glo will provide international carrier services for telecoms operators in Cote d'Ivoire, aggregate and carry voice and data traffic into and out of the country. Globacom is in Nigeria and Benin Republic as well as Ghana where it is geared to commercially launch its operations very soon. The telecoms giant is also in the process of securing more licences across the continent.

See Press Release
Source: Balancingact Africa

Nigeria’s Federal High Court has stopped the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) from re-auctioning spectrum in the 2.3GHz frequency range. The court ruled that the process must be put on hold pending the determination of a lawsuit initiated by the previous winner of the spectrum, Mobitel. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, Mobitel, Spectranet and fixed-wireless operator Multilinks beat off around 40 other applications for slots in the 2.3GHz band after each of them paid NGN1.368 billion (USD9.33 million) in May 2009 for the frequency used to support to WiMAX technology. Later that month, Minister of Information and Communications, Dora Akunyili, issued a directive for the cancellation of the licensing and the implementation of a new auction, after operators faulted the commission on how the whole process was conducted, especially the one week timeframe given to pay the necessary fees. Mobitel, alleging contractual breach, has challenged the government’s position in court, saying it had fulfilled the requirements. The matter will be heard in court on 17 November 2009.

See Press Release
Source: TeleGeography

The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) was declared the winner by the investment communications group, Africa Investor in Cape Town, South Africa. CCK won the award for its role in seeking to develop regulations that are aimed at alleviating poverty and improving the investment climate in partnership with the private sector.

See More
Source Capital Business

Côte d’Ivoire proved itself as a potential hub, routing neighbouring countries’ traffic when a submarine fibre cable in Benin was damaged recently. However, what might have been a bright future, is now looking glum as Côte d’Ivoire’s Government has introduced a new tax that applies to all international incoming voice traffic. This includes direct traffic as well as transit traffic and roaming calls.

See More
Source Balancing Act

Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) seem to be the natural next step in service competition, particularly in those markets that are highly competitive. Although they seem to have taken root in South Africa, they are much less popular in other African countries. With it's ability to add business at minimum cost, Brussels based Effortel is looking at Africa for new MVNO growth.

See More
Source Balancing Act

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.

The company is said not to have complied with two decrees spelling out the financial conditions of renewal of its licence. So far, only operators Togo Telecom and Togo Cellular have started carrying out measures in the decrees, the regulator, ARTP reported in a statement on Saturday.

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.

See Press Release
Source: cellular-news

A consortium made up of France Telecom and Divona Telecom has been provisionally awarded the third mobile license in the North African country of Tunisia. The license covers both GSM and 3G services, and includes a landline service.

A statement from the regulator warned that the award is temporary pending the completion of the provisions included in the procedures of the international call for tender. The final decision should be confirmed next week.

There are currently two mobile network operators in the country - the state controlled Tunisie Telcom which is the sole landline operator, and Tunisiana, which just operates a mobile phone network. It is not immediately clear if Tunisiana will be offered a landline license, otherwise it would be commercially at a disadvantage to the other two operators.

See Press Release
Source: cellular-news

Malawi's Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) and the local arm of Zain have clashed over plans to lower phone tariffs in the country. The regulator wants to open the market up to more networks, while Zain blames high taxes and says increased subscribers would lead to lower tariffs.

"We believe more players would increase competition on the market and this will force the companies to reduce their tariffs for them to remain competitive. We are sure that consumers would be the ultimate beneficiaries from the increased numbers of players on the market," Macra Acting Director General Mike Kumtiya told the Daily Times newspaper.

The country currently has two mobile networks, Zain and former incumbent, (Telekom Networks Malawi) TNM - while a two more networks have been licensed. Globally Advanced Integrated Networks (Gain) expects to launch its network within the next couple of months, while G-Mobile is still waiting to announce a launch date.

See Press Release
Source: Cellular-news

There seems to be no end to the crisis generated by the 2.3GHz licensing round. While the Ministry of Information and Communications is standing by the cancellation of the process citing lack of transparency, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) remains adamant, warning of far reaching consequences if the Ministry maintains its stand.

While the dust has yet to settle, the National Frequency Management Council (NFMC) charged with carrying out bulk trans-sectoral allocation of spectrum to authorised statutory bodies has officially released the 2.3GHz frequency spectrum to the NCC to pave the way for the commencement of a new licensing process.

See Press Release
Source: BalancingAct-Africa

It’s good news for locals making international calls as Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC) has announced a discount rate of up to 50%.

International calls made from landlines in Swaziland to cellphones either to South Africa, or any other country in the world will also be discounted same as international calls made from one landline to another.

The discount rates, which will range from 35% to 50% will come into effect from the 1st of July.

See Press Release
Source: BalancingAct-Africa

Seacom and Interoute are going ahead with their deal to create a digital super-highway between East Africa and Europe. The agreement will see the East African undersea cable being connected to Interoute's pan-European fibre-optic network. The value of the deal has not been disclosed.

An Interoute statement says it will also give East Africa access to the European network operator's range of wholesale and enterprise services. Opportunities will be opened up for telcos, and the deal will also support the growing demand for broadband Internet in the region, it adds.

See Press Release
Source: Balancingact-africa

The Tanzanian government has reportedly unveiled plans to introduce new legislation to help local law enforcement agencies curb the illegal usage of mobile phones in the country. According to local newspaper This Day, the government hopes to use various state-of-the-art technologies to track down people using cellphones for criminal purposes. Professor Peter Msolla, the Minister for Communication, Science and Technology, revealed the government will soon table a bill in the National Assembly for the establishment of a Central Equipment Identification Register (CEIR).

See Press Release
Source: Telegeography

Outremer Telecom says it tabled an application for a mobile licence for Mauritius with that island’s regulatory authority, the ICTA, for the deployment of GSM and 3G networks by 2010. The application has been tabled by City Call, a Group subsidiary that has been present in fixed telephony in Mauritius since 2005.

The company said that the application for a licence is part of the development strategy implemented by the Group in the Indian Ocean, after it launched its mobile telephony services in Mayotte in December 2006 and in Reunion in April 2007. ICTA’s decision is expected before summer this year.

See Press Release
Source: Balancingact-africa

The Egyptian authorities have announced plans to loosen the restrictions on the use of GPS devices within the country. The National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) has lifted a ban on civilian use of GPS which had blocked the (official) import of most mid to high end mobile and smartphones.

However, the NTRA will still need to authorise each type of GPS device imported into the country and will control any local manufacturing of the devices, it announced on its website at the weekend.

While GPS devices will be authorised for sale, the use of GPS for vehicle location services, as used in most mapping applications will still be tightly controlled by the regulator.

See Press Release
Source: cellular-news

Burundi plans to privatise its main state-owned telecoms company Onatel this year to make it more competitive, government officials. Onatel runs a landline network, GSM and Internet services. It launched its mobile phone service in 2004.

"The government's wish is that the entire process of privatising the company ends in December 2009," Transport and Telecommunications Minister Philippe Njoni told reporters.

He said the aim was to make Onatel more competitive against other operators within Burundi and across east Africa. "The best way to achieve this ambitious goal is to give more space to private investors in the company," he said, adding the authorities had yet to decide how much of the firm to offload.

See Press Release
Source: Balancingact-africa

One of Africa’s largest countries, the Democratic Republic of Congo, has taken the first towards creating a fibre link to its neighbours and the outside world. A little-noticed announcement was made at the end of last month by the Vice-First Minister for Reconstruction that gave the green light to start construction work on a fibre optic link from the capital Kinshasa to the coastal town of Muanda.

The Vice First-Minister for Reconstruction Emile Bongeli announced at the end of February 2009 the first phase of construction of a national fibre backbone with the building of a Muanda-Kinshasa link in partnership with China.

See Press Release
Source: Balancingact-africa

Incumbent Camtel has cut the price of installation and its monthly charges monthly charges by 25%. In a press statement issued in Yaounde last week, the General Manager of CAMTEL, David Nkoto Emane said that subscribers for private homes will pay CFA 35,775 instead of CFA 47,700. Business customers representing companies, associations, financial institutions, NGOs, etc, will on their part pay CFA 89,440 instead of CFA 119,250.

"To make subscriptions affordable for all Cameroonians, the above charges shall be payable in ten monthly instalments", the statement said, stating that penalty for non-payment of late payment of bills is henceforth fixed at CFA 1,550 instead of CFA 1,789.

See Press Release
Source: Balancingact-africa

In a move that has shades of what happened to the mobile operators in Benin when a new Government came to power, Ghana’s new Government has decided that it will re-open the terms of the contract made under the previous Government with Vodafone International.

This is the worst kind of nightmare for an international investor: you’ve paid the price, you’re in the hole but there’s no control over the cost of the political risk incurred. For the new Government, it risk’s throwing away Ghana’s reputation as one of the most liberal telecoms environments in the sub-region.

The Minister designate for Communications, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu has hinted that his ministry would review the sale of Ghana Telecom to Vodafone International. He said though he would have to contact the Presidency for approval before his Ministry would embark on such a move, he was hopeful that the government would support the idea.

See Press Release
Source: Balancingact-africa

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, announced today that it will support the initial public offering of Onatel, Burkina Faso’s incumbent telecom operator. The IPO, which was launched on December 22, 2008 and will remain open January 31, 2009, is the first by a Burkinabe company. It will attract private investment to the country and develop domestic and regional capital markets. IFC plans to purchase up to a five percent stake in Onatel at the public offering price. The investment will come after IFC earlier this year committed a €7.5 million ($10.5 million equivalent) loan to support the upgrade of Onatel’s fixed and mobile networks. The investments are part of IFC’s commitment to help develop a competitive telecommunications market, increase connectivity, and improve business efficiency in Burkina Faso.  

See press release

Source: IFC

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa has published an Invitation To Apply (ITA) calling for interested individual Electronic Communications Services, Broadcasting Services and Electronic Communications Network Services licensees to apply for frequencies to provide mobile digital video broadcasting services.

See Press Release
Source: Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA)

As the demand for communication technology continues to grow in Africa, incumbent Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL) is intensifying efforts to speed up laying of underground fibre-optic cables throughout the country with a view to boast free flow of information. Malawi is keen to ensure that it is easy to connect and inter-link with the world as far as information technology is concerned, and more importantly to enable the country to compete with the rest of the continent and the world at large.

It is estimated that a total of US$30 million would be required for the ambitious project in Malawi in order to replace its VSAT links. MTL’s Lester Tandwe, said the latest development sought to keep the country moving with the times in the field of information and technology.

“The first part of the capable will be operational by April 2009 while the second part will be operational by 2010 and will connect to international cables to provide international bandwidth,” said Tandwe. Given growing user demand in technology, Malawi is now laying an average of 50 kilometres of underground capable with a view to provide internet and telecommunication services to both urban and the countryside.

See Press Release
Source: Balancingact-africa

The director general of the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), John Nkoma, says he expects the country will be home to 13 million fixed and mobile telephone connections by mid-2009, up 25% on the figure reported in mid-2008, with much of the growth coming from cellular connections. Nkoma notes that telecoms is one of the fastest growing segments in the country, increasing subscribers by 20.1% in 2007, up from 19.2% the previous year. The TCRA official notes that barely four years ago Tanzania could only muster two million fixed and mobile lines. ‘We do expect that by the end of this year, we should be hitting maybe 10.5 million or eleven million [subscribers]. It's largely driven by mobile,’ he said. By 30 June 2008 Tanzania had a total of 10.43 million fixed and mobile users, up from 8.48 million at the start of the year. However, with overall penetration of about 25%, the TCRA says there is still ample room for growth in the market, making it an attractive prospect for new entrants.

See Press Release
Source: Telegeography

Competitive pressure is forcing MTN to eliminate roaming fees for users travelling between different countries, in a move that could noticeably dent its profit . The cellular operator has not yet wiped out roaming fees across its networks, but has tested the feasibility of doing so in Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria.

Last week it said it would introduce free roaming across all 21 countries where it operates in the first half of next year . Benin will be the next country to benefit, joining the trio of pilot countries by the end of this month.

Rival operator Zain demonstrated that free roaming is perfectly possible way back in September 2006 when it launched its "One Network" service, letting users cross between Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda without paying high roaming fees. Nor do they pay to receive incoming calls when they travel -- another favourite way for operators to inflate their profits.

See Press Release
Source: Balancingact-africa

Nigeria's second national carrier, Globacom, has emphasised its readiness to launch its international submarine cable, Glo 1, touted as the solution to Nigeria and West Africa's bandwidth requirements, in March 2009.

Globacom, in a statement last week, said the 9,500 kilometre state-of-the-art cable would enable it to have a clear distinction in providing quality services through multiple and high quality direct links to several countries across the globe. It added that the cable would enable it to interconnect with several international networks and leading traffic carriers all over the world.

See Press Release
Source: Balancingact-africa

France Telecom SA, Europe's third- largest telephone company, said it's in talks to buy a phone license in Togo in western Africa.

France Telecom said about 25 percent of Togolese have a mobile phone. The company expanded in Kenya and Uganda this year as the former French monopoly seeks faster growth than in its home market.

France Telecom last month set up a joint venture in Uganda with Hits Telecom Uganda and plans to invest $200 million in a mobile network there in the next three years. Telkom Kenya Ltd., a joint venture between France Telecom and the Kenyan government, started operations in September.

See Press Release
Source: AllAfrica 

IST-Africa 2009 (6 May 2009 - 8 May 2009 Uganda)  is the fourth in a series of annual technology research conferences that bring together representatives from leading commercial, government and research organisations around the world to bridge the Digital Divide by sharing knowledge, experience, lessons learnt and good practice, and identify opportunities for international research collaboration between Europe and Africa under the ICT Theme and Research Infrastructures (Capacities Programme) of Framework Programme 7 (FP7). A Call for Papers on the following Thematic Priorities has been launched : eHealth - Health Information Systems, eInfrastructures, Technology Enhanced Learning and ICT Skills, Digital Libraries and Intelligent Content, Open Source Software - Applications, ICT for eInclusion and eAccessibility, ICT for Environmental Sustainability, RFID and Networked Enterprise, eGovernment - Services to Citizens & Business. Submission deadline is 9 November 2008

See Conference site
Source: Europa

Millicom International Cellular S.A. (Millicom) MIC last week announced that its subsidiaries Millicom International Operations, B.V. (MIO B.V.) and Sentel GSM S.A (Sentel), have instituted arbitration proceedings with the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) against the Republic of Senegal under provisions of Sentel’s license and international law.

See Press Release
Source: Balancingact Africa

Internet penetration in the country lags behind the take up of other services in the ICT market, the CCK Director-General has said. Mr. Charles J.K. Njoroge said the number of regular Internet users in Kenya remains below three million compared to 15 million mobile subscribers.
 
He attributed the sub-sector’s poor performance to high bandwidth costs, lack of relevant content and limited ICT infrastructure in the rural areas. The Director-General said the completion of the ongoing national and international marine cable projects would make the Internet more affordable to a larger proportion of Kenyans.
 
See Press Release
Source: Kenya - Communications Commission of Kenya

The Digital Migration Pilot project has been officially launched on behalf of the Minister of Communication, Dr Benjamin Aggrey Ntim by the Chief Director of the Ministry. This took place at the Kofi Annan ICT Centre in Accra.

Mr. Kwaku Ofosu-Adarkwa Chief Director of the Ministry of Communications who read the statement on behalf of the minster said the launch of a Pilot Project on the migration to Digital Broadcasting is very timely because the forum is going to serve as a platform to identify practical challenges that lie ahead of Ghana. Adding that the meeting is a step forward to monitor what the technical advantages and challenges will be like from a practical point of view.

He stressed on the need to continue to plan and analyse the implications of the migration, bearing in mind that broadcasting services should reach the populace at affordable cost and impact positively on their lives. The Minister for Communication then called on the Ministry of Communications to facilitate an all inclusive national migration committee to address the task ahead.

See Press Release
Source: Ministry of Communications of Ghana

According to Balancing Act, Senegal's government has threatened to cut off Tigo’s 1.8 million customers if its licence renegotiation with the company is not settled in the way it wants. Tigo (Sentel GSM) is a subsidiary of Millicom International Cellular. Sentel's twenty year license was granted in 1998, before the enactment in 2002 of Senegal's Telecommunications Act.  The current Senegalese government has acknowledged the validity of Sentel's license. However it has  requested that Sentel renegotiate the terms of the license.

See More
Source: Balancing Act

ANACOM - Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações and the ITU - International Telecommunication Union signed an agreement yesterday establishing an ITU Centre of Excellence for Portuguese and Spanish speaking African countries. In addition a memorandum was signed between the national regulator and the regulators of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries together with the statutes establishing the Association of Communications and Telecommunications Regulators of CPLP. These are two important instruments of multilateral cooperation within the framework of telecommunications in general and regulation in particular.

The objective of the Centre of Excellence is the training and qualification of the telecommunications sector in Portuguese and Spanish speaking African countries, whereby it may constitute a key lever for the development of frameworks and create instruments of self-sustainability in training.

See Press Release
Source: Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM)

The banking fraternity is crying foul over what it described as unfair and increasing competition from money transfer operators.

The industry says the operators are enjoying privileges similar to those extended to deposit taking institutions despite not being covered by the same regulatory regime.

"Currently, there is no legal framework within which these entities provide their services despite behaving like current account institutions," says John Wanyela, executive director of the Kenya Bankers Association. "If these operators want to join the financial sector, they have to be properly licensed."

See Press Release
Source: allAfrica.com

According to Balancing Act, the government of Mauritius is establishing a Universal Service Fund (USF) to give citizens in poor regions of the country better access to Internet and communication technologies. Regulations under the Information Communication Technology (ICT) Act of 2001 have been finalized. The fund should come into operation in several weeks time. Operators will contribute to the fund US$2.5 million. With the fund, the authority intends to help public institutions work together to reduce the cost of Internet access and promote broadband Internet in Mauritius.

Source: Balancing Act

The National Telecom Regulatory Authority Board of Directors decided to defer the auction of the second fixed license for a year as a response to the changes taking place in the international markets. The deadline for submitting the offers of the second fixed license was due on 18th September.
According to Dr. Amr Badawi, the Executive President of the NTRA, this decision was issued in the light of the discussions that took place between the NTRA and the twelve companies that bought the specifications handbook. The ICT international markets in Europe and the United States are facing major fluctuations due to the increasing inflation rates and the increasing prices. The ICT investments worldwide are accordingly shrinking. Therefore the decision was taken to postpone the license until a tangible improvement in the international market is witnessed. It is worth mentioning in this regard that the investments of the second fixed license are not expected to be less than one billion dollars during the first years of operation.

See Press Release
Source: Egypt - NTRA National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority

The Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA), acting on behalf of the government, has imposed a daily fine equivalent to five million Rwandan francs 5,000,000 Rwf for two weeks for poor network services.

During that period, MTN Rwandacell shall submit to RURA, a clear roadmap showing the actions to be undertaken to meet the quality of service standards. The road map shall ensure that MTN will be able to solve the problem within a period not exceeding two months. The road map shall be subject to the Regulatory Board approval.

See Press Release / Decision
Source: Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency

The Department of State for Communication, Information and Information Technology, in conjunction with the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, has declared a drastic reduction in interconnection rates between GSM mobile and fixed network operators with effect from October 8.

According to the officials, interconnection rates among all the operators in the country would be reduced from D2.50 (US$0.12)/D2.00 (US$0.10) to D1.00 (US$0.1), by October 8. There will be a second phase to the reduction campaign as the authorities intend to bring the tariffs further down from the revised charge of D1.00 to D0.50 (US$0.025) by April 8, 2009.

See Press Release
Source: Balancing Act

IN line with its objective to further liberalize the market, the Government of Rwanda has decided to select a third national operator through a public tender process. The exclusivity period enjoyed by Rwandatel and MTN Rwandacel was due to expire end of June 2008. The third operator will be issued with and have both fixed and mobile licences for a duration of 15 years. The closing date for submission of technical and financial bids is 30 September 2008. More information on the bidding process can be found on the website of the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA).

Source: Rura

According to Balancing Act, Guinea will soon have a new telecommunication regulation agency.

See Article

Source Balancing Act

In the context of the telecommunications sector reform, the Government of the Republic of Mali has decided to privatize Sotelma (Société des télécommunications du Mali) under the financial advice of the investment bank Linkstone Capital. The privatisation strategy is as follows : A 51% stake will be sold to a Strategic Partner that meets the prequalification criteria;  19% stake will be sold in a public offer ; 10% of the share capital will be reserved for the employees of Sotelma. The Government will hold a 20% share.

See Press Release

Source: Portail du Gouvernement de la République du Mali

According to Afrique en ligne, An African Association of Telecommunications Regulators was created by participants in the eighth African forum of telecommunications regulators and operators. In one year, the General assembly of African regulators will be convened  to propose the legal and statutory framework for the organisation.  The Secretariat of the Association will be located in Senegal for a one-year term.

See more
Source: Afriqueenligne

The International Finance Corporation will support the upgrade of the fixed and mobile infrastructure of Onatel, Burkina Faso’s sole telecoms operator. The investment is part of a broader effort to develop a competitive telecoms market, to increase connectivity and improve business opportunities. In December 2006 the government sold a 51%-stake of Onatel to Maroc Telecom and an additional 20% is set to be sold off. 

Source: TeleGeography

For World Telecommunications Day, Research ICT Africa (RIA) released a South Africa Policy Brief based on the preliminary findings of RIA’s 2008 nationally representative household survey on e-access and usage. The brief details covers issues mitigating access and cost, and summarises findings in a number of figures; and concludes with a set of specific recommendations for moving South Africa towards conditions that are more conducive to investment in the sector.

Source: LIRNE.Net

RIA_PolicyBrief_SouthAfrica.pdf (808,77 KB)

Accordind to Cellular News, Algeria's mobile operators were ordered to shut down three million SIM cards following a deadline for the users to register their identity with the network operators. A security official told the Reuters news agency that several recent bombings had been traced to detonations by mobile phones using unregistered SIM cards. Algeria's telecoms regulator, the Algerian Post and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ARPT) had ordered the clamp-down on the sale of mobile phone connections without proof of identity. The deadline for all SIM cards to be registered was the end of April, but it had been extended to the end of last month at the request of the operators. It had been reported that a raid by Algeria's security services of a terrorist camp had found a cache of hundreds of unregistered SIM cards waiting to be used.

Source: Cellular News

Within the framework of the reform and development of the telecommunications sector in Algeria, the Regulation Authority of Post and Telecommunications (ARPT) is preparing  to launch and application procedure to assign 3rd Generation (3G) mobile communications licenses. The ARPT invites operators wishing to establish and operate a 3G mobile  communications network to let it know by June 30th, 2008. Expressions of interest should  include the name and contact information of the company - telephone and fax numbers, e-mail addresses- and, in case of need, partner companies, the nature of their activities as well as the name and position of a duly entitled representative. 

Source: ARPT

Sollicitation_en.pdf (16,61 KB)

Government will license a fourth mobile operator and a third fixed-line operator in 2009. That's the word from ANC MP and member of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications Khotso Khumalo, who made the announcements at an industry Seminar, in Johannesburg.

In addition to the announcements on new operators, Khumalo also said government wanted VANS to be allowed to self-provide and that the frequency spectrum allocation would be made more efficient. “Things are changing and changing fundamentally,” said Khumalo. “As government, we need to look at better ways to liberalise the telecommunications market.”

See Press Release
Source: Africa - Balancing Act

The Federal Government yesterday approved the issuance of Request For Proposals (RFPs) to eleven consortia (consultants) towards the sale of NITEL/Mtel. This thus puts an end to the controversy over the recent reversal or non reversal of the sale of the Telecommunication companies to Transnational Corporation (Transcorp).

See Press Release
Source: AllAfrica

Within the framework of the implementation of the conditions of healthy and perennial competition between the operators and in order to support the development of telecommunications,  ANRT  approved the technical and tariff offer of contractual interconnection to the fixed network of IAM for the year 2008. The "contractual" model of interconnection makes it possible for an operator to buy a capacity of interconnection for a tariff fixed contractually independently of  use. This model offers a capacity of interconnection for Internet or telephone services, without applying invoicing based on the duration of the calls. It thus gives the possibility to the third operators of proposing competitive and innovating offers.

See Press Release and decision
Source: ANRT 

file_fr1438.pdf (65,49 KB)file_fr1439.pdf ( KB)

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) starts a new joint project with the European Community entitled “Support for the establishment of harmonized policies for the ICT market in the ACP”. This is a four-year project aiming at developing and promoting an harmonized approach to Information and Communication Technology ICT policies in the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of States (ACP), in close collaboration with the regional organizations, through the development of harmonized ICT policies, guidelines and regulations in the area concerned and at building institutional capacity in the field of ICT through a range of targeted training, education and knowledge sharing measures.

In order to customize the project to the specific needs of each region, the project is implemented via three sub-projects:

a) Support for Harmonization of the ICT Policies in Sub-Sahara Africa (HIPSSA),
b) Enhancing competitiveness in the Caribbean through the harmonization of ICT Policies, Legislation and Regulation Procedures (HIPCAR) and
c) Capacity Building and ICT Policy, Regulatory and Legislative Frameworks Support for Pacific Island States (ICB4PIS).

ITU seeks talented people to fill the following job opportunities related to the joint ITU-EC project:

• PPP1-2008 - P5 - Project Manager, Support for the establishment of harmonized policies for the ICT market in the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of States (ACP)
  Duty station: Geneva, Switzerland
• PPP2-2008 - P4 - Senior Project Coordinator, Support for harmonization of the ICT policies in Sub-Sahara Africa” (HIPSSA)
  Duty station: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 
• PPP3-2008 - P3 - Project Coordinator, Enhancing competitiveness in the Caribbean through the harmonization of ICT Policies, Legislation and Regulation Procedures (HIPCAR)
  Duty station: Trinidad

More information about these vacancies can be found in English at the ITU website.   

The deadline for applications is 28 April 2008.

The IPO gives residents of East Africa a chance to own a small piece of the largest company in East Africa. President Mwai Kibaki, while launching the sale invited residents of the East African Community to share in the purchase, saying it would provide an ideal medium of distributing wealth.

This is the second time Kenya has invited East Africans to its capital market after the simultaneous budget readings last year.

See Press Release
Source: allAfrica.com

Africa’s incumbent telco operators are sidling towards offering their customers triple play. This week Ghana Telecom announced the introduction of IP-TV and Mozambique’s cable operator has approached the Mozambique regulator for a voice licence. Coming from the other side of the convergence divide, Nigerian broadcaster AIT is going through an IPO which it says will see it deliver triple play.

See Press Release
Source: Balancing Act - Africa

Alcatel-Lucent  announced the commissioning of its 200^th radio site powered by solar energy. The site - including base station, microwave and all other electrical components - is completely powered by the sun, providing telecom services to remote communities on the island of Bettenty and surrounding Saloum islands that previously had no access to wireless communications services. Alcatel-Lucent’s GSM solution, with its minimal power requirements, has made it possible for the people in these communities to have affordable access to the wireless network.

Residents of remote islands in Senegal now have access to wireless networks because of power efficient Alcatel-Lucent base stations.

See Press Release
Source: Alcatel-Lucent

The interests of consumers of communications services in Kenya will be better protected, following the creation of a Consumer Affairs Division at CCK.

The new division will be responsible for strengthening the Commission's capacity to discharge its consumer protection roles. The creation of the division has been necessitated by the increase in the number of players in the communications sector, incidences of non-compliance to licence conditions and violation of the rights of consumers.

See Press Release
Source: Communications Commision of Kenya (CCK)

The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) plans to introduce a single licensing framework and market structure beginning July 1st 2008. Currently, the regulator said, it is collating views from stakeholders to fine tune the final document, adding that the matter had gone through initial consultations which had yielded a new market structure and a set of guidelines to be used in implementing the new framework. CCK, therefore, said it needed the input of stakeholders in the final outcome. In the new licence regime, CCK has segmented the licenses into three; network, service and content providers.

See article
Source: Balancing Act - Africa

The Ugandan Communications Commission (UCC) has approved the extension of Celtel’s licence; the concession is due to expire on 17 September 2008. According to the original licence, awarded in 1993, Celtel was required, amongst other things, to achieve coverage of 99.9% of the population and pay 1% of its annual gross revenues to the universal access fund. ‘The commission intends to recommend to the Minister of Information and Communication Technology to grant an extension of Celtel's licence…unless there are valid and substantial objections to the proposed extension,’ a UCC spokesperson told local press.

See article
Source: Telegeography

The Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) has said that users of telephones in Nigeria should feel free to hold telecoms operators responsible for the poor quality service being experienced in the country even as the regulatory body revealed that the problem is likely to continue till the third quarter of this year.

According to Engr. Ndukwe, NCC's Executive Vice Chairman, NCC has been doing all things possible to compel the operators to improve on thier services, adding that the operators have been cooperating and have promised to improve on their services.

See News Details
Source: allAfrica.com

ANRT, Morocco's regulator, has decided for full unbundling starting July 2008. Many others are expected to follow in North Africa, in 2008.

file_fr1382.pdf (65,38 KB)

Source: ANRT

In a decision, Moroccan regulator ANRT has decreed partial unbundling starting this month and full unbundling next July. Operators elsewhere in North Africa are beginning to advocate these in their country.

See Decision 

Source: ANRT

The Regulator in Mauritania has confirmed that it had completed the 15th control mission of QoS  of telecommunications operators. In terms of coverage of mobile operators, quality was acceptable, but some concerns arise in relation to other indicators. Operators have one month to take steps to improve QoS.

See Press Release
Source: Autorité de régulation

Algérie Télécom is  first African telecoms operator with a business strategy including Fibre-To-The-Home. Although the price of connecting households to fibre has dropped, it still remains an expensive way to provide a local connection but it creates a large user base for forthcoming triple play offer.

See More
Source: Balancing Act

India's Reliance Communications (RCOM) has announced it has won licences which will allow it to become Uganda's sixth telecom operator. According to reports carried by local newspapers, RCOM has been awarded both public infrastructure provider and public service provider concessions, which will allow it to offer wireless, fixed, internet, national and international long-distance services, in addition to WiMAX and Wi-Fi services.

RCOM plans to launch in the east African country by the third quarter of 2008. The newspaper reports said that RCOM will invest INR8 billion (USD202 million) to roll out fixed and wireless infrastructure capable of allowing it to compete with other Ugandan operators including MTN, Uganda Telecom, HITS Telecom, Celtel and Warid Telecom.

See Press Release

Source: TeleGeography

House of Representatives Committee on Communication, last week in Abuja, threatened to recommend revocation of MTN's operational licence over poor service. Briefing newsmen, Jerry Mamwe, Chairman of the Committee, said MTN had been given three weeks within which to improve its services or have its licence revoked.

Mamwe said the committee had directed MTN to suspend sales of its SIM cards to customers, pending when it improves its roll out capacity, adding that the decision was informed by its refusal to improve its services, in spite of the committee's several official and informal appeals. "While we must agree that GSM operators have enjoyed the benefit of time, the customers have continued to suffer poor services rendered by MTN to be specific," he said. According to him, MTN account for 85 per cent of poor telecommunication services to customers in the country, which was unacceptable to the committee.

See Press Release

Source: Balancing Act - Africa

Nairobi, November 26, 2007—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the European Investment Bank (EIB), Germany’s development bank (KfW), and the development bank of France (AFD) have signed agreements to invest in the East African Submarine Cable System, a landmark fiber-optic cable project that will connect 21 African countries to each other and the rest of the world with high-quality Internet and international communications services. The cable will transform the telecommunications landscape in the region as it improves access for 250 million Africans and substantially reduces costs for consumers and businesses. Construction will begin in mid-December, and the cable, known as EASSy, is expected to be fully operational in time for the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa. The cable will run 10,000 kilometers from the continent’s southern tip to the African horn, connecting South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti, and Sudan. Another 13 adjoining countries will also be linked to the system as terrestrial backbone networks are completed through a broader World Bank Group initiative: these include Botswana, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. 

A short video (available in both English and French) on IFC and the World Bank’s efforts to connect East Africa can be found on www.worldbank.org/rcip/video.

A map showing the gap that the East African Submarine Cable System is filling can be downloaded at http://go.worldbank.org/GKHOFFDJB0.  Use of the map is free of charge.

See Press Release
Source: EASSY
 

Ivory Coast has decided to act in prevention of environmental hazards related to telecommunications antennas.
According to Balancing Act, two projects have been adopted to regulate effects to protect population through norms to be respected by operators.


Source: Balancing Act

Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) decided to require the three operating companies Celtel, MTN, and UTL to suspend the following promotions effective from 24th October 2007.

1. Celtel offer of 50% free airtime between 10.00pm-8.00am
2. MTN offer of 50% extra airtime between 10.00pm -8.00am
3. UTL offer of 100% free telephone calls between 11.00pm-7.00am

The decision of the Commission was based on the concerns of the quality of service experienced on the networks during the time of promotion.

See Press Release

Source: Uganda Communications Commission

With a view to afford a fair hearing to all interested parties and to promote due diligence,
transparency and good governance in the processing and determination of an application for a
licence under section 24 of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Act, the
Authority has decided to lay down the hereunder procedures for the hearing of objections under
section 24 of the ICT Act, for the benefit of all interested persons.

Source : ICTA

obj_hearing.pdf (8,06 KB)

See Press Release

Source: France Telecom Group

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa –ICASA- has published the final standard Terms and Conditions for Broadcasting, Electronic Communications Services and Electronic Communications Network Services Individual licences in Government Gazette No. 30530. This is in terms of the Electronic Communications Act which provides that the Authority must prescribe the terms and conditions to be applied to individual and class licensees.

The publication of the Terms and Conditions is a culmination of an open and consultative process with stakeholders. As part of the process, the Authority published a notice to prescribe the general Terms and Conditions for individual and class licences in August 2007.

See Press Release

Source: Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA)

The government of Niger granted  a fourth telecommunications licence to France Telecom for CFA 30 billion (48 million Euro). The French operator outbid Morocco Telecoms, which proposed CFA 13 billion (20 million Euro).

See more

Source : APA

About sixty telecommunication service operators and providers of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) member-states are discussing the creation of a dialogue platform in telecommunications, aiming to favour coordination and cooperation between telecommunication actors.

See more

Source : APA

The NEPAD e-Africa Commission and 5-P Holdings, LLC signed, 24 October 2007, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in Pretoria, South Africa, to construct the submarine segment of the NEPAD ICT Broadband Infrastructure Network, UHURUNET. The submarine fibre optic network will encircle the entire continent of Africa, with connections to Europe, Brazil, India and the Middle East.

Mr Mool Singhi signed on behalf of 5-P Holdings while Dr Henry Chasia, Executive Deputy Chairperson of NEPAD e-Africa Commission signed on behalf of the Commission.  Others present included Mr Robert Henderson from Phelp Stokes Fund and Mr Bright Amisi from the Commission.

The MOU provides a framework for collaboration between NEPAD and 5-P Holdings in financing, design and speedy implementation of the submarine fiber optic network, and to raise investment for the network so that it will have a shareholding which is majority African owned.

See Press Release

Source : e-Africa Commission

Ministers responsible for information and communication technologies (ICTs) from Eastern and Southern African countries meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa on October 15 endorsed a $2bn submarine cable project to connect Africa, and called for its speedy implementation. This was announced at a press conference after the meeting.

The 50,000 km cable with a capacity of 3.84 Terrabits/sec is designed to provide telecommunications connectivity to Africa and connect the continent to the Americas, India, and Europe.

It is expected that completion of this project will greatly contribute to reduction of telecommunications costs that have been a hindrance to doing business in Africa.

Read more

Source: E-Africa Commission

Nigeria’s Minister of Commerce and Industry has called for the integration of Cetlel’s mobile networks in Nigeria and in Niger. The  integration of infrastructure is expected to boost trade between the two countries and benefit Celtel users in the two countries.

Source: Telegeography

At the Connect Africa summit, the GSM Association announced that the mobile industry plans to invest more than $50 billion* in sub-Saharan Africa over the next five years to provide more than 90% of the population with mobile coverage. The investment will be used to extend the reach of GSM mobile networks, enhanced with GPRS, EDGE and HSPA technologies, to provide a rich suite of mobile multimedia services, including Internet access.

Since sub-Saharan governments began liberalising their telecommunication sectors at the turn of the millennium, the GSMA estimates that the mobile industry has invested $35 billion, providing more than 500 million people (67% of the population) in sub-Saharan Africa with mobile coverage. “This surge in investment by the mobile industry has changed the lives of millions of Africans, catalysing economic development and strengthening social ties,” said Rob Conway, CEO of the GSMA.

See full press release

Source: GMS Association

Amidst the policy of liberalizing telecommunication services in Egypt and according to Egypt’s international commitments with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and based on Law no. 10 for the year 2003, which states that Telecom Egypt’s monopoly over international telephony services must end by the year 2005, the NTRA has agreed to offer the license to international telephony services to any mobile service company that is willing to offer these services only to its clients and customers. Telecom Egypt’s right to offer international telephony services via carrier selection will be maintained, according to its license.

See Press Release

Source : NTRA

This week sees the publication of the first report in Balancing Act's new series African Telecoms and Internet Markets. Part 1 covers 16 countries in West Africa and shows that the sub-region has experienced strong growth in both the mobile and Internet sectors since 2003.
The sixteen countries covered by the report are: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo.

Press release and to order copy of the report

Source : BalancingAct

Prime Minister Dr. Ahmed Nazif witnessed, on the 17th of Oct. 2007, at the Smart Village the agreement signing between the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) and Mobinil on granting the latter a license to offer 3G mobile services. The agreement was signed between both Minister of Communications and Information Technology Dr. Tarek Kamel and NTRA Chairman Dr. Amr Badawy and Mobinil Board Chairman Eng. Naguib Sawiris. The 15-year license identifies Mobinil as the third provider of 3G services in Egypt after Etisalat Misr and Vodafone Egypt with a total fee of LE 3.34 billion and 2.4% of its total annual 3G revenues. The LE 3.34-billion fee will go the public treasury based on law 10 for 2003, which regulates the communications sector. The license allows Mobinil to use UMTS, EDGE, HSUPA and HSDPA technologies and to provide services that include visual communications, video-messaging, high-speed data transfer and internet, MBMS services, Mobile TV, Push-to-View and GPRS, provided that the company has to get permissions for some of the services from the concerned authorities. Mobinil is to acquire a 10 MHz frequency spectrum for broadcasting its 3G services.

See Press Release

Source: NTRA

Morocco opens calls for submissions in relation to licenses for establishing and exploiting radioelectrical shared networks.

See the Press Release and the documents

Source ANRT

On Septemebre 15th, Spacetel and the Government of Benin have reached an agreement allowing Spacetel to go on with its operations and activities. Spacetel's Network was suspended in July 2007 following a dispute aroung the transformation of Spacetel into MTN. Spacetel now adheres to the new licenses framework. The governement is engaged in improving the telecommunications regulatory framework.

See Press Release

Source: Gouvernement du Bénin

L’Autorité de Régulation Multisectorielle (Niger’s telecoms regulator)  announced the planned award of a GSM concession and a technology-neutral mobile telecoms licence. The country currently has three mobile operators — Celtel, Telecel and SahelCom.

Source: Telegeography

Shortly after the Arab Submarine Cable Company had signed a contract for the roll-out, operation and lease of a submarine cable network and an infrastructure for international telecommunications, a consortium headed by Orascom Telecom signed another contract for the rollout, operation and lease of a submarine cable network and an infrastructure for international telecommunications. It will connect Asia and Europe.

See Press Release

Source : NTRA

 

In Morocco, Decision DG/ANRT/N°13/07 (september 11th 2007) set the rules on telecom services promotion strategies. 

Source: ANRT

Two companies have qualified to bid for a 70 percent stake in Rwandatel, a state-owned fixed and mobile phone operator, a government official told Reuters on Thursday. They are Libya's LapGreen Network and South Africa's Vodacom, according to Manasseh Twahirwa, the executive secretary in Rwanda's privatisation unit.

"We are now going to invite each one of these two companies separately for negotiations on both their technical and financial offers," Twahirwa said. "There's need to harmonise their offers with our government's vision. It's from that stage that we will come up with an overall winner." 

Six companies, including Kuwaiti-owned Celtel and Jordan's V-Tel, had shown interest in the operator in the tiny central African country where cellular services have become an indispensable communication tool. In July, Rwanda bought back Rwandatel for $12 million having previously sold it to Terracom for $20 million, saying the new owners had failed to deliver on contractual obligations such as rolling out a new mobile network.

Source: Reuters

In the context of its universal service strategy in the telecommunications sector, Senegal plans a pilot projet in the region of Matam.

Click here for the submission form

Source: ARTP

Decision ANRT/DG/N°12/07 has designated operators with significant market power for the year 2008.

Source: ANRT

The Information and Communication Technologies Authority hereby gives public notice, in accordance with Section 24 of the Information and Communication Technologies Act 2001 (as amended), that it has received applications for licences as set out hereunder:

Name of applicant	Licence	Nature of Application
Emtel	SPL3- Network Spectrum Licence	New
Pekka O. Ahlqvist	RA 25 – Radio Amateur Visitor	New
Bapoo Tejman	E – Dealer’s Licence	New
Eye Call Ltd	C.04 – International Long Distance	New

Any interested person who wishes to object to the said applications may do so in writing, to the Executive Director of the ICT Authority, within 14 days of the present publication.

See Press release

Source: ICTA

The Information and Communication Technologies Authority hereby gives public notice, in accordance with Section 24 of the Information and Communication Technologies Act 2001 (as amended), that it has received applications for licences. Any interested person who wishes to object to the said applications may do so in writing, to the Executive Director of the ICT Authority,  within 14 days of the present publication.

See press release


Source: ACTI

Senegal has upheld a fine of USD6.7 million on one of the country’s mobile operators, Orange Senegal (formerly Sonatel Mobile), for its repeated failure to provide an adequate service on its cellular network. The State Council has endorsed an  fine imposed this year by the Telecommunication and Postal Regulation Agency (ARTP), after repeated interruptions on its network.

Source : Telegeography

Beninese private mobile phone operator "Moov" resumed operation early Friday after being suspended for breaching contract conditions set by the country's Posts and Telecommunications Governing Authority, PANA reported. In July, Moov and Areeba were penalised for making changes without complying with conditions of their contract or the new conditions approved by the cabinet 6 June 2007.

Source: Afriqueenligne

The Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICT Authority) has released the approval of a decrease in the tariffs of the Half-Circuit International Private Lease Circuits, (IPLC), of Mauritius Telecom by 20%. The ICT Authority’s decision is pursuant to the powers conferred upon the national regulator under Section 31 of the ICT Act 2001 and follows an application by Mauritius Telecom Ltd.

See the Press Release

Source: ICTA

Geneva, 4 September 2007 — ITU has released a major publication, Trends in Telecommunication Reform: the Road to NGN. In its 8th edition, Trends reports on the evolution of circuit-switched telecommunication into "next-generation" networks, as operators around the world fight to remain competitive. The Report aims at enabling regulators and policy-makers in developing countries to better understand the changes transforming the ICT sector so they can evolve their policy and regulatory frameworks to leverage today’s technological and market developments.

What does NGN mean for regulators? They have many choices to make. Some view NGN as the intersection of the telecom and Internet worlds. If so, which regulatory regime should apply? The current heavily-regulated telecom regulatory model? The lightly-regulated Internet model? Or some new hybrid model? The migration to NGN affords an opportunity for regulators to analyze current practices and revise them in light of what makes sense going forward. This Trends report offers a detailed discussion of the kinds of measures that are needed to ensure that regulation keeps pace with technological and market developments so that the best of NGN is available to all of the world’s people.

The ITU press release is available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

More information about the content of the 2007 report is available at the “On the Road to NGN” website.

The publication is available for sale at the ITU bookshop.

MTN said it has been in ongoing discussions with the authorities in Benin to obtain clarity on the status of its current licence to operate in the African state.

On July 12 this year the government of Benin suspended the current licence of MTN Benin - in which the South African group holds a 75% equity stake - as well as that of another mobile operator in the country.

The government has proposed amendments to the licence conditions including a significant increase in licence fees.

"MTN management has been in ongoing discussions with the authorities in Benin to obtain clarity on the status of the current licence. MTN management has obtained positive legal confirmation on the validity of its existing licence," the South African group said.

The value of the net assets of its Benin operation at 30 June 2007 was 1.6 billion rand.

Source: Sunday Times

Tunisia's efforts to spread the benefits of the internet and communications throughout society have received recognition by the International Telecommunications' Union (ITU), which said considerable progress has been made in expanding coverage and liberalising regulations.

See article

Source : OBG

July 30th 2007, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology Dr. Tarek Kamel reviewed fully today the new guidelines and regulations for restructuring the "Broadband Internet Initiative" during a meeting with heads of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and top officials from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and Telecom Egypt (TE).

See Press release

Source: MCIT

The government of Senegal is inviting companies to tender for the licence to a third mobile operator. Deadline is set for 31 August. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, Senegal’s mobile market has 3.37 million mobile users (March 2007).

See more

Source: Telegeography

Algeria’s Post and Telecommunications Regulation Authority (ARPT) denies that it contributed to financial losses at Lacom, the country’s second national fixed line operator. The ARPT has released a statement responding to Egypt Telecom officials who accused the authority of being responsible for the US$ 45 million losses incurred by Lacom.

See article

Source: WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News.

The Namibian government has announced that it will enter a new round of discussions with Botswana and Angola to secure a landing point for Namibia on the SAT-3 international submarine cable. The three countries have had four rounds of discussions on the issue since July last year. Both Namibia and Botswana both proposed an alternative international broadband connectivity route to SAT-3 to address the high costs of communications in the respective countries. ‘The transit costs to route telecommunication calls through Cape Town to the SAT-3 have become unsustainable,’ Namibia’s acting Permanent Secretary of Information, Wilma Deetlefs, said in a statement yesterday. Full Press release

Source: Telegeography

L’Agence de Régulation des Télécommunications et des Postes ARTP) du Sénégal a lancé le 17 août 2007 une procédure d'appel à la concurrence pour l’attribution de la nouvelle licence globale de télécommunications. Voir le Communiqué
Source: ARTP

Rwanda’s government intends to sell as much as 70% Rwandatel. Three weeks ago, Rwanda’s government bought back Rwandatel for US$ 12 million, having sold it to private firm Terracom for $20 million. Terracom was forced to sell due to poor management and failing to deliver on contractual obligations, including the roll-out of a new mobile network.

"Privatisation Secretariat invites internationally recognised and reputable telecommunications operators or consortia to acquire the bidding documents and submit their bids for the acquisition of a majority stake up to 70 percent in Rwandatel/Terracom SA," the bid document said.

Interested bidders are to submit technical and financial proposals by September 5. Bidders are also required to have the financial resources necessary to implement a plan to boost telecommunications in Rwanda.


Source: Reuters - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News.

According to reports from the African Press Agency, from 2008 all Mauritian homes will be able to connect to the internet via a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network being proposed by United Communications Limited (UCL). The company has reportedly presented a USD318 million two-phase project, dubbed Mauritius FiberNet, to the country’s ICT minister, Etienne Sinatambou, which it claims will make Mauritius a ‘pioneer of such infrastructure among island states’.

See article

Source: Telegeography

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa will be conducting workshops on regulations with regard to a Code on People with Disabilities. The workshops were preceded by the publication of draft regulations in June 2007. The draft regulations prescribe a Code of Good Practice that defines the approach that should be adopted by all licensees, in providing services to people with disabilities in the communications industry as provided for by the section 70 of the Electronic Communications Act no. 36 of 2005. Full Press release

Source: ICASA, South Africa

Sonatel failed to have the regulator's penalty cancelled.

See press release

Source: ARTP

Senegal issued a ruling concerning identification of mobile users.

See document (French)

Source : ARTP

Benin’s telecommunications regulator, the Transitional Posts and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ATRPT), will open the country’s GSM mobile sector to interested investors.

An ATRPT statement said the government is calling on all interested investors to apply for licenses to commence operations immediately. This step was taken as a result of the situation created by the July 12 suspension of the operating licenses of Areeba and Telecel. The operators say that they simply changed their names while the government has maintained that the transactions conducted by the two companies involved the unlawful sale of operating licenses. According to laws governing the telecommunications sector in the country, such a move must be sanctioned by the ATRPT.


Source: WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News.

The Nigerian Communications Commission published a Public Notice on its decision to award three (3) Carriers in the 800 MHz spectrum band through an auction process. The decision of the Commission was based on requests by interested Licensed Network Operators that require the spectrum to meet planned roll out of services. Subsequently, an Information Memorandum was issued, in which Bid Applications for the available spectrum slot were invited. 

Source: Nigerian Communication Commission, Nigeria

Note: For visitors of your site, this entry is only displayed for users with the preselected language English (United States)/English (United States) (en-US)

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (“ICASA”) has issued a notice of its intention to make regulations setting out a Code of Conduct for the electronic communications, broadcasting and postal services. The setting out of a code of conduct is in terms of section 69 of the Electronic Communications Act no 36 of 2005.

ICASA would like to call on all interested persons and organisations to submit written comments or representations on the proposed regulations. Comments should be submitted in both the hardcopy and soft copy formats. Such comments and presentations should be forwarded to the following, by no later than 16H00 on 20 July 2007.

Source: ICASA, South Africa

Note: For visitors of your site, this entry is only displayed for users with the preselected language English (United States)/English (United States) (en-US)

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa has issued a notice of its intention to make regulations in respect of the electronic communications, broadcasting and postal sectors to meet the needs of people with disabilities. The purpose of the regulations is to prescribe the Code on people with disabilities to be adhered to by all licence categories. The prescription of Code on people with disabilities is in terms of section 70 of the Electronic Communications Act, no 36 of 2005 as well as section 2 (h) of the Postal Services Act No. 124 of 1998.

Interested parties are therefore invited to submit written representations with regards to the proposed regulations. The representations should reach ICASA by no later than 16h00 on 20 July 2007. They can be posted or delivered to:

Competition Analyst Private Bag x 10002 Sandton 2146

Source: ICASA, South Africa

Celtel International announced on 6 June 2007, that it is expanding its One Network service to more than 160 million people in six African countries, as part of its roll-out plan targeting the entire African continent.

In September 2006, Celtel was the first mobile operator worldwide to offer its customers in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda the opportunity to move freely across geographical borders without roaming call surcharges. Since, Celtel offers its customers the same services abroad that they could access in their home country such as airtime transfer from friends, voicemail and customer service in their local languages.

The One Network service is now available in the Republic of Congo, Gabon and Democratic Republic of Congo. The extension of the service from East Africa into Central Africa, means post- and pre-paid Celtel subscribers within the six countries, will be able to make calls at local rates, receive incoming calls free of charge and top-up their pre-paid phones with locally bought airtime cards.

Source: Celtel International, 6 June 2007

A new project of numbering rules is propsed.  Deadline for contributions is June 15th 2007.

More more informations:
http://www.artp-senegal.org/telecharger/Projet_de_decret_modifiant_le_decret_2004-839_sur_le_PNN-1er_juin_2007.pdf

Note: For visitors of your site, this entry is only displayed for users with the preselected language English (United States)/English (United States) (en-US)

After long negotiations for more than six months with the three mobile operators in Egypt, and after resorting to NTRA in search for a decisive and fair solution for the problem of national roaming, the efforts were finally realized and NTRA successfully managed to devise a fair commercial agreement that works for the benefit of all the stakeholders and that is in alignment with the fair competition concept sought after by the NTRA.

The signing of the agreement and the launch of the national roaming service has been finally realized on Thursday 7/6/2007, in the NTRA premises in the Smart Village.

According to this agreement the two operating mobile operators are required to supply the national roaming service to the third operator in the areas that are not covered by its network. As well as the responsibility of the third operator to do exactly the same for the other two companies in areas which their networks are not covered.
The national roaming agreement has been already included in the three operators’ licenses, which was one of the reasons behind the increase to almost the double of the expected value of the third license.

The importance of such and agreement is basically because it manages to solve a huge dilemma, as it is increasingly hard to find a middle ground agreement that works for the benefit of both the consumer as well as service provider. Therefore this agreement serves in covering a wider geographical area covered by the networks of the companies, without interfering with the quality of service, which on another hand generates higher profits for the service providers.

Source: NTRA, Egypt

As part of its mission to enhance consumers’ awareness regarding all issues related to telecommunication affairs, the NTRA launched an awareness campaign on ADSL line-sharing legality, the campaign focused on the following:

• Permission to share ADSL service through one line is deemed as a re-provision of the service. It is deemed illegal according to Telecom Law # 10 of 2003, which prohibits re-provision of telecommunication services for others than those licensed by the NTRA.

• ADSL line sharing implies utilization of the telephone line by a unit other than the leased one. That is deemed prejudice to the contract made between line holder and Telecom Egypt providing that utilization of line is allowed only for the leased unit. Telecom Egypt is hence entitled to nullify the contract.

• ADSL line sharing negatively impacts the quality of the provided service.


• ADSL line sharing makes line owner vulnerable for being legally liable in case that any participant commits a cyber crime or offence. Investigations will surely lead to the line owner with no liability on the part of any of the participants.

• ADSL line sharing makes line owner liable for paying the bills of any of the Internet services in case any of the participants makes use of like: Video on Demand or VoIP.

This campaign comes within context of the restructuring process of the ADSL initiative launched by Ministry of Communication and Information Technology with the purpose of:

• Spreading the usage of the ADSL service

• Putting an end to all forms of illegal utilization of services like line sharing

The aforementioned goes in line with the NTRA scope of work regarding the determination of consumer protection regulations, in a way that protects privacy, guarantees affordability and quality of services provided.




Source : Egypt NTRA

The third mobile operator launched its 3G mobile services for the first time in Egypt on the 1st of May 2007 by using code (011).

The National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) permitted the third operator to launch its services in Egypt upon completion of the first phase of coverage as set forth in the license. The first phase of the coverage plan includes Greater Cairo, Alexandria, Aswan, Sharm El Sheikh, Hurghada, Luxor, in addition to other governorates.

Dr. Amr Badawi, NTRA Executive President, clarified that the NTRA is also following up the completion of interconnection agreements between the new operator and Telecom Egypt as well as the other two mobile networks   He made it clear that the third mobile operator will continue and complete its coverage of other governorates within the framework of the second and third phases of the coverage plan.
Dr. Badawi also stated that number portability will be available few weeks after launching the service. The number portability service means that a subscriber can shift from one mobile operator to another while keeping the same number.
Etisalat won Egypt’s third mobile network license for both 2G and 3G technologies in May 2006 in return for 16.7 billion Egyptian pounds. The consortium of Etisalat Egypt comprises Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) Etisalat, the National Postal Authority of Egypt, the National Bank of Egypt, and the Commercial International Bank.



Source : NTRA

World Telecommunication and Information Society Day ceremony 
The Secretary-General announced that ITU, InfoDev and the World Bank are working on a Global Capacity Building Initiative for regulators to expand training opportunities for ICT policy-makers and regulators in developing countries, which will be launched at the Connect Africa event in October. This initiative will empower regulators with tools to establish an enabling environment to stimulate investment and innovation and build confidence in the telecommunications and ICT market.

Starting with Africa — and then expanding to other regions — the Global Capacity Building Initiative will build on the highly successful ICT Regulation Toolkit, which ITU and InfoDev launched in 2005 to improve access to training materials on key policy and regulatory issues in the ICT sector. See full press release.

Information and Communications Minister Hon. Mutahi Kagwe officially launched the equipment, known as the Quality of Service Monitoring System (QSMS), at the CCK offices in Nairobi. Other facilities launched together with the QSMS were a specialized ICT library and a Geographic Information System (GIS) for the communication sector.

infoDev and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) announce the beginning of work on the long-awaited universal access module of their collaborative online ICT Regulation Toolkit.

The module will develop a set of definitions for universal service and universal access that will cover the gamut from traditional telephony and mobile phones, to shared public facilities such as payphones, telecenters, and Internet access points in shops, post offices, libraries, and local government offices, to broadband and next-generation networks. It will also encompass the provision of access to underserved groups such as disabled users, women, youth, and indigenous peoples, as well as coverage in urban and rural environments, schools, health facilities, and other public services. The module will highlight the key role that regulatory reform plays in promoting universal access and will provide regulators with an array of both traditional and innovative tools and approaches that they can consider in formulating their own policies, including universal access funds, output-based aid targeted subsidies, incentives for infrastructure sharing, and authorization and interconnection for local operators. The module will be available in October 2007.

The report of the 7th annual Global Symposium for Regulators is now available. ITU’s 7th annual Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR), held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates from 5-7 February 2007, attracted 471 participants, bringing together regulators, policy makers and service providers from 111 countries to identify best practice guidelines that promote regulatory frameworks that foster innovation, investment and affordable access to Next-Generation Networks (NGN) and that facilitate the migration to NGN. The GSR, organized by ITU in collaboration with the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the United Arab Emirates, was chaired by Mr Al Ghanim, Director General of the TRA. The focus of this year’s meeting was the road to next-generation networks: can regulators promote investment and achieve open access? The meeting examined pressing regulatory issues such as NGN investment, competition, interconnection, consumer protection, universal access and international internet interconnection. The first day was open to regulators, policy makers, ITU-D Sector Members and other invited guests. The second and third day was reserved for regulators and policy makers. The 2007 GSR also introduced a new feature, Speed Exchanges, to provide additional opportunities for participants to meet informally and exchange views. A series of nine informal, moderated roundtable discussions was offered, each on a different issue, and participants were invited to spend twenty minutes at the table of their choice before moving to another roundtable discussion. As in the previous GSRs, consensus was reached on an output document, the Best Practice Guidelines for Next-Generation Network (NGNs) Migration. The document was widely consulted and expresses the view of the National Regulatory Authorities (NRA) participating in the GSR that an enabling regulatory regime can foster innovation, investment and affordable access to NGNs and facilitate migration to NGNs. This enabling regime includes, inter alia: • the establishment of an effective regulator separated from the operator; • the adoption of clear and transparent regulatory processes; • regulatory flexibility and technology neutrality to permit technological innovation; • the creation of regulatory certainty for both incumbent and competing/alternative providers in order not to stifle innovation; and • regular reassessments of the framework in order to remove undue regulatory barriers to competition and innovation as well as to allow the framework to evolve with the objective of enabling users and providers to migrate to succeeding generations of networks when the market dictates. Regulators are also urged to adopt investment friendly regulation considered of paramount importance for the success of NGN deployment, while maintaining a level playing field and protecting consumer interests. Because the deployment of NGN will not happen overnight, the best practices encourage regulators to define policies that allow for the co-existence of legacy and IP networks, alternative voice services such as VoIP, and bundled services that provide voice together with TV and Internet access (also called triple play). In doing so, regulators are to consider applying the same rules to all operators and providers of telephony services irrespective of how they are delivered to consumers, under the symmetrical regulatory approach. The best practice guidelines cover all aspects of service provision including authorization, access, interconnection and interoperability, numbering and NGN identification systems, universal access, quality of service, consumer awareness, security and protection. The full report is available here:http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/treg/Events/Seminars/GSR/GSR07/index.html/

Chairperson of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), Paris Mashile summarised the deliberations remarking that the stakeholders in the ICT sector made invaluable contributions and profound insights as evidenced by their written and oral submissions on how scarce frequency spectrum could be equitably assigned. He asserted emphatically that the spectrum should be conceived as the coal which can set ablaze the ICT sector and bring the greatest benefit to the majority of the population.

Mashile said this at the close of three day public hearings into the procedures and criteria for awarding radio frequency spectrum licences held at ICASA offices in Sandton. The hearings were in respect of the Electronic Communications Act of 2005. The Act compels ICASA to prescribe a methodology for the assignment of radio frequency spectrum licences in instances where there exists competing applicants for access to the identical frequency spectrum, and in instances where there is spectrum scarcity relative to the demand for such spectrum. The authority has identified two bands where demand exceeds the available bandwidth and these are the 3400-3600 MHz (3.5GHz) and 2500-2690 MHz (2.6GHz).

The 3.5GHz band has been subdivided in terms of the International Telecommunications Union -ITU-R F1488 and the duplex spacing is 100 MHz. Three operators have been licenced in this bandwidth i.e. Sentech and Telkom and Neotel. These assignments leave a total of 60 MHz available for further assignments.

Currently there are two licensees with access to the 2.6GHz bandwidth and they are Sentech and WBS. This leaves a total of 126 MHz available for further assignments.

Source: ICASA, South Africa

A preliminary information memorandum has been released on the privatization of Telkom Kenya to obtain preliminary feedback on the proposed transaction, and Expressions of Interest from potential investors. Once preliminary feedback from the market is collected, GoK will finalize the transaction structure and issue draft bidding documents, including a Request for Proposal (RFP), an addendum to the Memorandum with updated TKL information, and access to recent transaction due diligence reports on TKL carried out by consultants retained by IFC, covering technical, legal, environmental, human resources and strategic/market issues. An indicative timetable containing the key steps in the transaction is provided later in this report. The indicative bid date is currently estimated to be September 14, 2007, Bid Award on September 25, 2007 and Closing and handover on October 17, 2007. Source: Telkom Kenya, see http://www.telkom.co.ke/Telkom_Privatisation.pdf

Following the introduction of a new licensing framework on 14th March 2007 (for more information, click here), the Botswana Telecommunications Authority (BTA) has today 21 March 2006 granted the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) a new 15 year service neutral licence pursuant to the issuance of a Policy Statement by the Minister of Communications Science and Technology on further liberalisation of the Telecommunications market last year.

The new licence marks the transition from the existing licensing framework which makes distinction between the various telecommunications services to a service-neutral structure with the view of accommodating technological convergence. Therefore it will allow BTC to provide, among others, mobile telephony, fixed telephony and internet services under one licence. It is hoped that the licence will not only address problems associated with blurring distinction between services and technologies but will also facilitate introduction of new services which were otherwise not catered for in the old licensing structure. (Press release)

Source: BTA, Botswana.
 

The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) has cancelled the tender for a second national operator (SNO) awarded to the Vtel Consortium. Commissioner General John Waweru on Friday said wrangling between Dubai-based Palestinian firm Vtel Holdings and local partners had stopped the group from meeting its commitments.

 

"The commission board has resolved to cancel the tender... on the basis of non-compliance with the tender requirements, and to invite the next highest-ranked bidder Reliance to apply," Waweru told a press conference. (…)

 

Source: Balancing Act Africa.

Reliance consortium has lost the opportunity of becoming the Second National Operator (SNO), after failing to apply for the licence within the set deadline of 4.00p.m. yesterday - March 15. The CCK Board today withdrew the licence award to Reliance, and resolved to immediately initiate the SNO tender process afresh. The chance to become Telkom Kenya’s competitor literally fell on the lap of Reliance after the tender winner, Vtel consortium, failed to apply for the licence by the set deadline of January 24. This prompted the Commission to cancel the tender award and to invite Reliance, the second highest bidder, to apply for the licence in line with the provisions of the tender document. The offer was subject to Reliance matching Vtel’s bid price of US$169million. Reliance Communications accepted to take up the offer and was subsequently granted more time to comply with the various formalities in preparation for making the licence application. By the expiry of the deadline, Reliance Communications had not made a formal application for the licence as required. The Commission re-initiated the SNO tendering process in May 2006 in a move geared towards enhancing the level of competition in the telecommunications sector, particularly the fixed market segment. Source: CCK, see http://www.cck.go.ke/telecommunications/

The NCC has added new services to its Class Licence policy in an ongoing bid to increase competition and improve the country’s telecoms market. The new licence types include: Universal Access Service Licence (UASL), Digital Mobile Licence (DML), Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) Licence, Long-distance Operator Licence, National Carrier Licence and Private Network Links Licence. According to the NCC applicants will not be required to submit financial or technical plans in the pre-qualification process, except details of company ownership structure and confirmation of compliance with the rules of the auction. The regulatory body went on to state that in order to participate in the auction, a bidder must be a limited liability company incorporated in Nigeria and must not be involved with any other bidder.

Source: Telegeography

 

Dans le cadre de la privatisation de la Société GABON TELECOM S.A et sa filiale LIBERTIS, la conclusion officielle de l'accord portant cession de 51% des actions du capital des deux entités à MAROC TELECOM est effective depuis le 09 Février 2007. GABON TELECOM S.A et LIBERTIS deviennent: GROUPE GABON TELECOM Le Groupe GABON TELECOM est dirigé par: - M. Thomas SOUAH, Président du Conseil d'Administration et - M. Mostapha LAARABI, Directeur Général

The three-day meeting (5-7 February) will bring together Heads of national regulatory authorities from both developed and developing countries to achieve consensus on the best ways to address the challenges brought about by the migration to NGN networks. 60 heads of regulatory authorities, together with 50 of their commissioners and board members are slated to attend. By 2008, at least 50% of all international telecommunication traffic is expected to be carried on IP networks. IP provides a common language in which different networks (for instance fixed and mobile; local and wide-area) can communicate together. Thus, IP is the touchstone for convergence and a common platform for NGN, while network capacity increases every month. In order to remain strategically competitive in an increasingly converged world of services and content where voice is no longer the sole source of revenue, operators and carriers are migrating from circuit-switched to Internet-Protocol (IP) networks and from there to Next-Generation Networks or NGN, which allow for decoupling the network’s transport and service layers. NGN networks promise to offer full and true convergence of fixed and mobile, voice and data, data and video and IT, telecoms and broadcast sectors. This means that the choice of technology used for infrastructure will no longer have an impact on the kinds and variety of services delivered over that infrastructure. The deployment of NGN networks will also offer ubiquitous access for users of these networks as well as for competing service providers. This shift, while taking place gradually, is already happening in several parts of the world. NGN presents many opportunities but also many complexities and challenges and requires new regulatory thinking to promote investment and ensure that carriers can remain competitive in this new environment while ensuring open access. For more information see: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/treg/Events/Seminars/GSR/GSR07/

The Commission, in a bid to facilitate entry into the telecommunications market in the country and ensure that Nigeria becomes an information rich society, has reviewed its licensing policy by adding new services to its Class licence category. 

Consequently, with effect from date of this advert the following undertakings now fall under the Class Licence category.

1.	Sales and Installation License; including; Mobile Cellular Phones & HF/VHF/UHF Radio
2.	Sales and Installation Permit; including; Fixed Telephone sets, Modem, Cordless phones, Fax machines and PABX and switches not exceeding 30-line capacity.
3.	Repairs and Maintenance; including
		Category A-For an individual technician operating small workshop
		Category B-For companies operating small & medium workshop
		Category C-For companies operating comprehensive workshop
4.	Cabling services; includes;
		Category A-For an individual technician (cabling within premises only)
		Category B-For companies (cabling within premises and/or estate)
		Category C-For companies (including underground cabling)

These are in addition to existing class licenses; Payphone, Cybercafe and Telecenters.

Further information on Class Licence and the terms and conditions to operate as a class licensee are published on the Commission’s Web-site @ www.ncc.gov.ng.

Source: NCC, Nigeria

The government of Botswana has embarked on the first stage of its plan to partly privatise Botswana Telecommunications Corporation by requesting expressions of interest for advisory services. Joshua Galeforolwe, CEO of the country’s Public Enterprise Evaluation and Privatisation Agency, told Engineering News Online that the closing date for applications for the advisory service role is 15 January, and that the government hoped to select a strategic equity partner to take control of between 40% and 49% of the telco by the end of 2007.

Source: Telegeography

In a bilateral agreement, as part of a broader development of economic relations between Nigeria and United Arab Emirates, the Nigerian Government has offered a Unified Access Service Licence to the Mubadala Development Company of the United Arab Emirates. The Licence includes a mobile licence and spectrum in the GSM 1800 and 900 MHz bands at a price of $400million (Four Hundred Million U.S. Dollars). The terms of the offer specify that Mubadala will be required to pay the full license fee on or before 19th January 2007, failing which the offer shall automatically lapse. Mubadala has accepted the terms of the offer in full.  The NCC will carry out its role in implementing this agreement on behalf of the Nigerian government. 

The Board of the NCC is also pleased to announce its intention to continue with the licensing of radio spectrum in the 3G and 450 MHz bands. These new licences will encourage the deployment of advanced technology to build on the positive development of the telecommunications sector in Nigeria. 

Importantly, the release of more spectrum supports the Government's policy of improving access to communication services and extending coverage, especially into rural areas. Subscribers can also expect to receive an increased range of services, improved quality of service and better value for money.

The process for awarding new licences has included the appointment of PA Consulting Group, a leading firm of international management and telecommunications consultants.

Source: NCC, Nigeria

Legal action could see the winner of Kenya’s second national operator (SNO) licence walk away from the deal, which is worth KES12 billion (USD170 million) to the government. The Dubai-based Vtel consortium won its concession in October, allowing it to offer national fixed line, internet and wireless services, but the licence award has been delayed by a legal challenge from cellular licensee Econet Wireless. Econet wants the award halted until it sorts out its own legal problems; it claims that it holds the country’s third GSM licence but has been blocked from launching by telecoms regulator the CCK. Nairobi newspaper the East African Standard reports that the CCK is challenging the action, saying that Econet has failed to meet the requirements of its licence and that its case should not affect the award of the SNO concession. Kenya’s cellular market is currently home to two players, Safaricom and Celtel.

Source: Telegeography

Over the Christmas holiday French media conglomerate Vivendi has headed south into Sub-Saharan Africa with the purchase of Onatel by its North African subsidiary Maroc Telecom. Maroc Telecom paid US$290 million for 51% of Burkina Faso’s fixed line and mobile operator Onatel. The rest of Onatel is owned by: the Government (23%), staff (6%) and others (20%). Onatel has 100,000 fixed line subscribers and and its mobile subsidiary Telmob 400,000 mobile customers (around 40% of the country’s mobile market). Burkina Faso had only a 0.8% fixed line teledensity and 8% mobile penetration at the end of 2006.
Source: Balancing Act, issue n°337.

The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has confirmed that a new licensing regime has finally ended MTN and Uganda Telecom’s (UTL) five-year duopoly on fixed line telephony, paving the way for the entrance of new players. According to the Ugandan press, while a policy governing the new licensing regime is not yet ready, guidelines have been issued by the minister which state that there will be just one type of licence for infrastructure rollout, irrespective of geographical coverage or technology. Three categories of service licences will be available: public service provider licence, infrastructure provider licence and general licence permits.

Source: Telegeography

THE Tanzania Telecommunications Limited (TTCL) will next year install a new generation network in Zanzibar, to improve its telecommunication system in the isles. This was said when the TTCL Board of Directors met President Amani Abeid Karume in Zanzibar yesterday.

The president expressed his satisfaction on the job already done by TTCL in the isles, pointing out that the notable achievements in the sector would be of great assistance to the people. He said that the achievements attained so far were results of good policies put in place by both the union and Zanzibar governments, to ensure that people get sufficient telecommunication services, in support of their efforts to improve the country's economy.

The president further expressed hopes that the connection of "Fibre Optic cable" that would connect key areas in the country would hasten economic developments. According to him, the new thrust of the company should now focus on expansion of the new modern network in order to fulfil current and future needs of customers together with national technology, information and communications.

The Chairman of the TTCL's Board of Directors, Prof. Mapunda, assured the president that the company would continue to improve telecommunications services in the isles. He pointed out that improvement of the Kijangwani station has already been completed.

Improvement of the Chakechake station, according to him, would follow and that there was another project being undertaken at Mkoani side with a view to satisfy the customers' requirements in the country.

Source: DailyNews, Tanzania

The two day Executive Level Training organized by the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) and infoDev, in cooperation with the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA), Hong Kong, China, ended on 3 December 2006. More than 50 Senior Executives from 27 countries gathered in Hong Kong, China to participate in this event.

The training focused on New Technologies, New thinking, ICT Regulation in a Changing World and highlighted how the joint ITU-infoDev ICT regulation toolkit could help regulators and policy makers. The ICT Regulation Toolkit and the training programme were designed to enable regulators and policy makers to identify solutions to their real world challenges. Nearly ninety percent of the participants expressed a high level of satisfaction and the wish to continue such training. The joint ITU infoDev ICT Regulation Toolkit was very well received and generated a lot of positive feedback. To learn more about this event, click here. To access the ICT regulation toolkit, click here.

Kenya has entered into partnership with global telecommunications service provider Etisalat to lay the proposed $110 million (Sh7.9 billion) undersea fibre optic cable, popularly known as The East African Marine Systems (Teams). The cable will connect east and horn of Africa countries to the rest of the world is expected to drastically reduce the cost of telecommunications. It will also offer high quality broadband connections that will enable the region’s industries and business to be competitive in the global economy.

Telkom Kenya has signed a memorandum of understanding with Etisalat of United Arab Emirates to lay, operate and maintain the cable, which will connect Mombasa and Fujairah in the Gulf of Oman. Managing director, Mr Sammy Kirui signed the agreement on behalf of Kenya. Information and Communications minister, Mr Mutahi Kagwe, Permanent Secretary Dr Bitange Ndemo, the Director General of Communications Commission of Kenya Mr John Waweru witnessed the signing in Dubai last Wednesday.

"The two parties are committed to run an aggressive race to enable the cable will be ready for service by November next year. The construction and supply contract will be awarded early next year," a statement from the Information and Communications ministry released yesterday said.

Kenya was among the 16 countries that declined to sign the East African Submarine Cable System, also known as Eassy special vehicle protocol mid this year. Kenya was not happy with the fact that Nepad was taking over ownership of the project. Meanwhile, Kagwe said yesterday the government was only aware of two shareholders in Safaricom.He did not however rule out the fact that other parties, through an internal arrangement, could be holding five per cent of the Vodafone shares. According to a local weekly, Mobitelea Ventures Ltd, said to be associated with prominent figures in the regime of former President Moi, could still hold as much as five per cent of Safaricom.

Source: The East African Standard, Kenya 

Denmark is helping with a fibre-optic deployment in Mozambique, signing an agreement for a EUR15 million grant to help finance the second phase of the country’s National Fibre-Optic Transmission Network. Mozambique’s Agencia de Informaçao reports that the rollout will begin in April or May 2007 and will connect the northern cities of Cuamba, Lichinga, Nampula and Pemba, and will also include a link between the central cities of Chimoio, Tete and Caia. The deployment is being carried out by national PTO Telecomunicações de Moçambique (TDM).

Source: Telegeography

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has warned telecom operators to improve services rather than concentrating solely on generating revenue. The regulator feels that customers have now had enough of paying for unreliable network performance, and it is considering regulation to improve the standard of service in the industry. Operators retorted by saying how much they had achieved in five years, and that subscribers should be more appreciative of their efforts!

Source: Telegeography

Government decision to regulate payment for incoming and outgoing international telephone traffic comes under challenge as Econet Wireless and Telecel, the two private mobile phone service providers, today seek a High Court order blocking control of the gateway system. The Government recently introduced a statutory instrument to stop the multi-gateway system, which allows many avenues for both incoming and outgoing international traffic, to ensure accountability by private operators in the industry. The regulation was supposed to start operating last Wednesday. However, Econet approached the High Court last week seeking an interim order against the Government, pending its application challenging the constitutionality of the new regulation to be filed at the Supreme Court within two weeks.

Source: The Herald. See: http://allafrica.com/stories/200611061165.html.

KCC declared on 27 October that Vtel consortium, a Dubai based firm, has won the bid for the Second National telecommunications Operator (SNO) licence. Vtel’s financial bid of US$169.6m emerged the highest out of the firms that had qualified at the technical stage. Vtel beat Mahanagar Telephone Kenya’ s bid of US$52.1m and Reliance K. consortium’s offer of US$11.03m to bag the SNO tender. Vtel consortium is made up of Unitel Kenya, Kirinyaga Construction Company, Paltel and Vtel Holdings. Vtel CEO Nour Atout commended the Commission for conducting the tender process above board, and assured Kenyans of quality services. Directors of the two other companies also hailed the Commission, saying they were satisfied with how the process had been conducted. CCK Director-General Eng John Waweru said the race for the licence was very competitive with the bidders determining their positions from their financial quotations. He said the winning bidder would be expected to submit a performance bond within the next 21 days. Vtel consortium is also expected to formally apply for the licence using the prescribed application form. “The application should be made by a locally registered company with the structure and composition being similar to what the consortium presented in the initial bid. The licensed company must also be in conformity with the policy direction on investing in the industry; at least 30 per cent shareholding should be Kenyan,” Eng. Waweru said. The licence will be issued in January 2007 after the consortium pays the entire bid amount. See http://www.cck.go.ke/html/news.asp?newsid=191&area=new

Uganda's Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) on 1 Nov. completely liberalised its telecommunications infrastructure provisioning. The UCC said: "For purposes of providing a holistic licensing environment (services and infrastructure), the ministry of ICT has decided to open up the infrastructure market to full competition." The commission said that as part of the liberalising, all players would be issued the same licence. See: Balancing Act

The South African government is proposing to create its own national broadband infrastructure company which it hopes will drive down the price of high speed internet use. Johannesburg newspaper Business Day quotes Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin who says authorities are looking at a plan to link the fibre-optic backbone networks owned by state firms Eskom and Transnet under a new umbrella company, Broadband InfraCo. The new nationwide system would then be used by ISPs and would help push down the cost of long-distance connectivity, which is one of the biggest costs for local internet providers. South African broadband prices are among the highest in the world. Broadband InfraCo could be up and running by early next year says Erwin.

Source: Telegeography

The South African wireless ISP iBurst says it is still considering its options for using its WiMAX spectrum. The firm currently uses proprietary technology to provide wireless broadband services but is also trialling a WiMAX network. Local news website MyADSL reports that iBurst is particularly interested in using WiMAX for backhaul connectivity rather than end-user links. iBurst is one of four 3.5GHz licensees in South Africa along with Telekom, Neotel and Sentech.

Source: Telegeography

The Ugandan regulator UCC has granted a telecoms services licence to local operator TalkTelecom to be able to provide services to both residential and corporate customers. This is the first legal opening for a VoIP service provider in the country that does not operate its own network. See:http://www.balancingact-africa.com

According to afrol News, Senegalese incumbent fixed line operator Sonatel has doubled traffic bandwidth on internet services in less than two years. Today, Sonatel claims to have the second most extensive range of internet access services in sub-Saharan Africa. In a press release Sonatel said that by 7 September 2006, ‘bandwidth of traffic on the submarine cables of Sonatel…passed the mark of 1.24Gbps'.

Sonatel has been increasing internet bandwidth since 2002 when it rose from 42Mbps to 53Mbps in June that year. By November 2004 it had already increased tenfold, to 512Mbps, and today has again doubled again to 1.24Gbps. The growth in internet traffic reflects the boom in the number of internet users in Senegal in recent years. As prices for broadband installation and services decrease, a bigger segment of the population is starting to use the internet at work and at home. Standard broadband subscriptions cost around EUR80 for the installation and EUR40 a month for the service itself, although even cheaper deals can be found. However, the key to the growth has been the upsurge in popularity of cybercafés, which offer a high speed internet line for as little as EUR0.45 per hour.

Source: Telegeography

Malawi Mobile Ltd (MML) has lost its appeal to retain its network licence. After failing to meet its rollout deadline, the country’s High Court granted permission to the Malawi Communications and Regulatory Authority (Macra) to revoke MML’s licence. An appeal was lodged, but in June the High Court granted Macra an injuction preventing MML from recruiting staff until the outcome of the appeal in the Supreme Court. The original High Court ruling was later upheld, and Macra is now free to revoke MML’s licence.

Source: Telegeography

ITU held a Global Seminar on Quality of Service and Consumer Protection on 31 August and 1 September 2006, in Geneva, Switzerland. The meeting attracted more than 115 participants from 43 countries worldwide representing Regulatory Authorities, Policy-makers, the ICT private sector and other stakeholders.

The first day focused on quality of service (QoS) and examined issues such as QoS measuring, monitoring, what regulators do in this field and QoS in a NGN environment. The second day was devoted to consumer protection in the digital age. Presentations and discussions focused on the role of regulators and other specialized bodies in providing consumer protection, handling disputes, addressing specific issues such as mobile roaming charges and consumer portection in a NGN environment. These issues generated active discussions among stakeholders from various regions.

The Chairman's report in now available on the event's webpage at: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/treg/Events/Seminars/2006/QoS-consumer/index.html

BDT will organize an Executive Level Training, jointly with infoDev, on 2-3 December 2006, to be held at the Hotel Kowloon Shangri-La, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China, immediately prior to ITU World Telecom 2006. The Executive Level Training workshop, organized in cooperation with the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA), Hong Kong, China, is designed for the heads of national regulatory authorities and senior executives of national policy-makers. It is based on the joint ITU-infoDev ICT Regulation Toolkit, and will focus on New Technologies, New Thinking: ICT Regulation in a Changing World. More information about this event is available on TREG at http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/treg/Events/Seminars/2006/ceotraining/index.html

Heads of regulatory authorities and senior executives of policy-making bodies are encouraged to attend.

In yet another raid on illegal VoIP operators, five foreign nationals were arrested and the operating equipment seized at Walvis Bay over the weekend. Officials from Telecom Namibia’s Fraud Monitoring Unit, assisted by members of the Namibian Police, raided three Chinese-owned shops at the coastal town on Saturday morning where the owners have been operating illegal VoIP services for a considerable period of time. [...]

The suspects were caught red-handedly while attempting to sell the service to a member of the public. It is evident that for these illegal operators, the provision of VoIP to the public is an opportunity for ill-gotten income rather than an opportunity for better service. The suspects will be charged with violating the Postal and Telecommunication Act of 1992. The Act prohibits the provision of any telecommunications service by any person without a licence. Saturday’s raid led to the discovery of electronic equipment used for VoIP connections, bypassing the switching facilities of Telecom Namibia, the incumbent fixed-line operator. Among the equipment confiscated were IPstars, a device that let you make Internet phone calls without using a computer. By using such devises together with VoIP gateways, Multiplexes, modems and so on to bypass Telecom switches, the illegal operators are undermining the country’s laws as well as the viability of Telecom’s network by not paying Telecom Namibia right compensation. Illegal Net telephone operators are a pivotal challenge confronting not only Telecom Namibia but also the Namibian Government as a whole. These set ups not only put the company’s rate/price structure at risk, but drastically reduces the tax benefits that could be reaped by the Government and the citizens alike. Apart from monetary losses, the illegal networks also raise serious security concerns as these international numbers dialled cannot be easily traced. [...]

Source: Telecom Namibia Limited.

South Africa’s cellular operators are calling for yet another delay in the introduction of mobile number portability (MNP). Business Day reports that technical problems have caused the testing of the new MNP systems to run behind schedule. Cell C is suggesting that the date for the implementation of MNP be changed from 18 September to late October, while MTN and Vodacom want the deadline pushed back to the end of November, giving them more time to ensure that the system will work smoothly. There has been some criticism, however, from the likes of newly launched MVNO Virgin Mobile which says that market leaders MTN and Vodacom are purposefully trying to set back the introduction of MNP, as they fear they will lose market share as subscribers switch to alternative networks.

Source: Telegeography

Kenya’s government says it expects to have sold a further 9% stake in mobile operator Safaricom before April 2007. The government has a 60% interest in Safaricom which is held via the state-owned fixed line operator Telkom Kenya. It is selling off a 9% share in order to raise funds to help with Telkom’s restructuring. Nairobi-based newspaper The Nation reports that the government plans to split Telkom and Safaricom and then launch a privatisation of the country’s monopoly wireline provider. The remaining 40% of Safaricom is currently held by Vodafone, and the UK group has pre-emptive rights over any shares offered for sale. Safaricom had almost four million subscribers and two-thirds of Kenya’s mobile market at the end of March, according to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database.

Source: Telegeography

 

Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) is to realign tariffs with their underlying costs next month, which will lead to international rates falling and local rates rising. A BTC spokesman said that monthly residential line rentals would increase from BWP35 (USD6) to BWP60 (USD10). According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms, the state-owned monopoly’s fixed line subscriber base decreased by 4,389 to 132,034 in the year ending 31 March 2006.

 

Source: Telegeography

Zimbabwean state-run fixed line operator TelOne is looking for foreign strategic partners to fund investment in infrastructure. ‘We are looking mainly at foreigners for the alliances, as they will bring in foreign currency through equity investments which we need for our equipment and other day-to-day running of TelOne,’ said the company's chief executive officer, Wellington Makamure. TelOne is currently deploying CDMA technology to expand its services throughout the country, at a cost of at least USD15 million. Last month the telco announced it had earmarked USD46 million for network expansion in the border town of Beitbridge, with USD22 million for civil works and USD24 million to purchase copper cables; the expansion is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

Source: Telegeography

Zimbabwe’s second largest mobile operator NetOne is preparing to activate at least 100,000 new GSM connections, aiming to increase its subscriber base to around 340,000 from its current 240,000. Rival Econet Wireless currently claims to have around 500,000 users. NetOne’s managing director Reward Kangai said the lines would be on the market next month when NetOne is expecting a delivery of 50,000 SIM cards, on top of an initial batch of 50,000 already manufactured. Mr Kangai said that the company has channeled USD475,000 into the expansion drive. In addition, he said efforts to reduce network congestion would continue, including the ongoing installation of stand-by generators throughout the country to minimise problems associated with load-shedding. The cellco, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, is also installing a second mobile switching centre in Bulawayo that is expected to raise capacity by a further 60,000 lines and improve the quality of service for pre-paid users of its Easycall brand.

The ICT Eye, the latest innovation of the ITU-D, is a consolidated website that puts at your fingertips the latest data available on ICT trends. From a single entry point, users can get an instant country snapshot that includes ICT indicators, regulatory and policy information, competition levels, tariff policies, operators, and more. Such a unified system will enable ITU to better track the development and use of ICTs, and to measure countries efforts to build the information society.

See http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/icteye/Default.aspx

Egypt's government has announced plans to deploy a trial 3G network to provide broadband fixed wireless access (BFWA) to the country’s schools, writes Cellular News. Lucent Technologies will deliver a combined CDMA2000 1xEV-DO and Wi-Fi network to enable students and teachers will be able to access the internet at high speed via desktop or laptop computers. Further details have not yet been made available. The value of the deal was not disclosed.

 

Source: Telegeography

The Xinhua News Agency reports that ministers from seven countries of eastern and southern Africa (Lesotho, Malawi, Madagascar, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda) have signed the protocol for the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) ICT Broadband Infrastructure Network.

Source: Global Insight.

The Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) kicks off today a Global Seminar on Quality of Service and Consumer Protection in Geneva, Switzerland. The seminar includes distinguised speakers from around the globe representing regulators, operators, and consumers. The focus of the seminar is Quality of Service (QoS) and Consumer Protection that are key components of an enabling environment for ICTs. With the advent and fast roll-out of IP networks paving the way to an all IP (NGN) digital world, the issue of quality of service and consumer protection are not only gaining increased momentum amongst the ICT regulatory community but are of vital interest to all stakeholders worldwide. This seminar provides a unique opportunity to develop a common understanding and provide answers to these timely issues. For more information, and to view the programme and documentation, see: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/treg/Events/Seminars/2006/QoS-consumer/index.html

The Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) project suffered a setback yesterday when less than a third of the participants signed an agreement to oversee the running of the system, reports South Africa's Business Day. Seven out of 23 countries signed the accord for the long-delayed international fibre-optic network, which aims to lower telephony and internet costs across the region. The project has been held back by squabbles over ownership rights, mainly between Kenya and South Africa, as well as the price of access to the 9,900km cable, which will stretch between Durban and Port Sudan. Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda signed the agreement, whilst other countries, including Kenya, said they needed more time to study details of the scheme. It was hoped that construction would start this month, with commercial services to be launched in the first quarter of 2008. Ministers meeting in the Rwandan capital Kigali yesterday extended the deadline for signing the accord by three months to gain backing from more countries. ‘This is not a setback,’ said Lesotho Communications Minister Thomas Thabane, ‘It is a mere challenge for us to convince others to come aboard.

Source: Telegeography

Internet Ghana has revealed that it is to deploy the country’s first pre-mobile WiMAX network using equipment from Navini Networks. Leslie Tamakloe, CEO of Internet Ghana, said that capital city Accra will be covered as part of the first phase of the rollout, followed by the ten largest commercial cities including Tamale, Kumasi and Tema. ‘With high consumer demand, poor DSL access and [a] long [wait for] customer connections, Ghana is absolutely ready for mass market, rapid install, broadband wireless services’ he added.

Source: Telegeography

Kenya’s two cellular operators have been told they are slowing the introduction of lower telephony charges because they will not reduce interconnection fees for internet providers. A report from local newspaper The Standard quotes Jonathan Somen, MD at AccessKenya, who says it is imperative for Safaricom and Celtel to lower the interconnect fees they charge to ISPs for fixed-to-mobile calls so that the price reductions can be passed onto those consumers who use voice-over-IP telephony services. AccessKenya was one of the first firms to receive a VoIP licence from the regulator the CCK in November 2004.

Source: Telegeography

The Liberian Senate has confirmed the Chairman and Board of Commissioners of the newly established Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA). The body is to oversee the scopes and operations of the country's telecommunications industry following years of brutal civil conflict.

The Chairman of the LTA, Saah Adulai Vandi as well as Commissioners Lamina Waritay and Anthony McCrithy were nominated to the Liberian Senate by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. By their confirmation, the regulating roles once played by the Postal Affairs Ministry over the years have ended.

Addressing a news conference over the weekend at the headquarters of the LTA, Vandi, and his two colleagues said their responsibility shall be to facilitate development of the telecommunications sector. The LTA executives noted that the body shall promote efficient and reliable telecommunications services, relying as much as possible on market forces such as competition and private sector investment.

They men said that the establishment of the commission will enhance "appropriate and innovative information and communications technologies" to meet the needs and aspirations of the Liberian people. According to them, the LTA will promote efficient interconnection arrangements between service providers and subscribers. Besides that, the LTA Executives said the regulatory authority will establish and manage a numbering plan and allocate numbers to service providers, resolve dispute between service providers.
Source: Balancing Act (issue 319, from the Analyst).

The government of Ghana has approved the privatisation of Ghana Telecom, the ministry of communications announced. An advisor has been appointed to lead the process, which is expected to include a stock listing for the company and capital-raising to help expand its operations. The government owns 100 percent of Ghana Telecom, although the company is under a Norwegian management contract which ends this year. Ghana Telecom hopes to expand its broadband service launched early this year, with currently has 4,000 subscribers and is expected to reach 10,000 by year-end. The mobile unit One-Touch aims to reach 1 million customers by the end of the year, versus around 700,000 currently.

Source: Wireless Federation.

The National Communications Authority (NCA) has suspended indefinitely the Keta [southeast Ghana]-based Jubilee FM station. The station was closed down after the NCA detected that the station's transmitter was over modulating and spreading across a wider area than authorized.

The NCA has explained that the closure became necessary to compel the station to address technical deficiencies on the station's transmitter which does not meet standard requirement. It stated that the station was assigned a frequency of 96.5 MHz and authorized it to do a test transmission but transmitting with the substandard equipment resulted in it over modulating to 96.7 MHz. The authority said the management was informed about the development but in an attempt to correct the anomaly the station picked up 96.6 MHz instead.

The NCA said this development is very serious and illegal because the International Telecommunications Union, which regulates the world frequency spectrum, has allotted only odd numbers to Ghana.

The management of Jubilee FM has however held talks with the authority indicating their intentions to import a new transmitter in order to resume operation.

 

Source: Radio Ghana, Accra, in English

French

Jul 30, 2006 (La Presse/AllAfrica Global Media via COMTEX) --

Promouvoir l'image de marque de la Tunisie sur la scène internationale

- La Tunisie candidate au poste de S.G. de l'Union internationale des télécommunications

Les travuax de la 18e conférence des chefs des missions diplomatiques et consulaires se poursuivent au siège du ministère des Affaires étrangères.

Après l'ouverture par M. Abdelwaheb Abdallah, ministre des A.E., et les interventions de MM. Hédi M'henni, secrétaire général du RCD et Rafik Belhaj Kacem, ministre de l'Intérieur et du Développement local, vendredi matin, l'après-midi du même jour a été marquée par les allocutions de quatre autres membres du gouvernement.

Attention majeure au secteur des exportations

Dans son intervention, vendredi après-midi, devant la 18e conférence des chefs des missions diplomatiques et consulaires qui se tient actuellement au siège du ministère des Affaires étrangères, M. Mondher Zenaïdi, ministre du Commerce et de l'Artisanat, a mis l'accent sur la contribution éminente du secteur du commerce extérieur dans la promotion de l'image de marque de la Tunisie et le renforcement de son positionnement sur la scène commerciale internationale.

Il a souligné l'attention majeure accordée par le Chef de l'Etat au secteur des exportations, passant en revue les multiples mécanismes et programmes mis en place pour promouvoir le rendement de ce secteur, s'agissant en particulier de l'information économique, du suivi de l'évolution de la demande extérieure, de la facilitation des procédures et de la généralisation du traitement électronique des documents du commerce extérieur.

Il a également mis l'accent sur les efforts consentis pour mieux faire connaître les produits et services tunisiens et pour valoriser l'image de la Tunisie et ses succès économiques à travers la participation, chaque année, à quelque 50 foires et expositions internationales à l'étranger, la création d'un salon international pour l'exportation des services et la modernisation du Salon méditerranéen du textile et de l'habillement, en plus de la mise en oeuvre de plusieurs programmes de promotion intégrés englobant les secteurs du commerce, du tourisme, de l'investissement et de la culture et l'organisation d'une série d'actions de promotion à caractère sectoriel et géographique.

Le ministre a évoqué les importants acquis accomplis sur la voie du renforcement de l'intégration de l'économie nationale dans l'économie mondialisée et dans la consolidation des opportunités d'exportation et de partenariat, passant en revue l'état d'avancement de la mise en oeuvre des accords de partenariat et de libre-échange, notamment à l'échelle du Maghreb, du monde arabe et de la zone euroméditerranéenne.

Il a mis l'accent sur la nécessité de parfaire la concrétisation des objectifs relatifs à l'impulsion des exportations et au enforcement du positionnement de la Tunisie sur la scène commerciale internationale, relevant l'impératif de veiller à préparer au mieux les prochaines échéances relatives aux négociations dans le secteur des services, que ce soit au sein de l'OMC ou dans le cadre des relations de partenariat avec l'Union européenne, en vue d'accroître les chances d'accès aux marchés étrangers et de renforcer les exportations de services outre le développement du partenariat et de l'attraction des investissements étrangers.

Le ministre a, aussi, mis en relief la nécessité de mettre à contribution le réseau de commerçants et d'experts tunisiens à l'étranger pour impulser les exportations et d'explorer les meilleures voies à même de renforcer la présence de la Tunisie sur les marchés extérieurs et de mettre en valeur l'image de la Tunisie en tant que pays qui respecte les normes internationales et les conditions du développement durable.

Pour un taux de croissance du PIB de 6,3% durant la prochaine décennie

Pour sa part, M. Mohamed Nouri Jouini, ministre du Développement et de la Coopération internationale, a analysé les résultats du processus de développement enregistrés durant la décennie écoulée et les perspectives et orientations du XIe Plan de développement et de la prochaine décennie.

Le ministre a souligné que les objectifs majeurs de la prochaine décennie, fixés à la lumière des orientations du programme présidentiel «Pour la Tunisie de demain» et du discours prononcé par le Chef de l'Etat à l'occasion du cinquantenaire de l'Indépendance, consistent notamment en le doublement du revenu annuel par habitant à l'horizon 2016, l'abaissement du taux de chômage de quatre points de 14,2% en 2006 à 10,2% en 2016 et le développement de l'indicateur de rapprochement des pays développés.

Il a ajouté que la mise en oeuvre de ces objectifs nécessite la réalisation d'un taux de croissance du produit intérieur brut (PIB) de 6,3% durant la prochaine décennie (2007/2016) et l'amélioration du taux d'encadrement qui devrait atteindre 24% en 2016.

Le ministre a cité parmi les objectifs de la prochaine étape, l'amélioration de la contribution de la productivité globale des différents éléments de la production, le développement de l'investissement, l'encouragement et l'orientation de l'investissement vers des secteurs à haute valeur ajoutée et la promotion des exportations, outre le renforcement de la participation des secteurs à haute valeur technologique au PIB de qui devrait passer de 20,3% à 35%.

Par ailleurs, le ministre a passé en revue les résultats enregistrés au cours de la décennie écoulée, qui a été marquée par la mise en oeuvre d'une orientation stratégique destinée à favoriser l'intégration de l'économie nationale dans le circuit économique mondial, stratégie qui a été accompagnée d'une série de réformes ayant permis d'asseoir la stabilité de l'économie nationale.

Il a relevé que les résultats de ces orientations peuvent être considérés comme probants, citant notamment la réalisation d'un taux de croissance de 5%, la réduction du taux de chômage de deux points et l'augmentation de 25 à 30% de l'indicateur de rapprochement des pays développés, outre l'amélioration qualitative de la structure de base de l'économie.

Insaturation d'une plate-forme de télécommunications évoluée

D'autre part, l'intervention de M. Montasser Ouaïli, ministre des Technologies de la communication, s'est articulée autour de la candidature de la Tunisie au poste de secrétaire général de l'Union internationale des télécommunications (UIT).

Le ministre a souligné que la candidature de la Tunisie à ce poste est motivée par les réalisations importantes qu'elle a accomplies sur la voie de son intégration dans la révolution scientifique et technologique universelle et par sa réussite dans l'instauration d'une plate-forme de télécommunications évoluée, ainsi que par les échos positifs qu'a eus la réussite éclatante, au plan régional et international, l'organisation par la Tunisie de la seconde phase du Sommet mondial sur la société de l'information (SMSI).

M. Ouaïli a appelé les chefs des missions diplomatiques et consulaires à conjuguer tous les efforts en vue de réunir toutes les chances de succès de la candidature de la Tunisie et de conforter ainsi le rayonnement du pays à l'échelle mondiale.

Amélioration de la qualité du produit touristique pour conquérir de nouveaux marchés

Quant à l'intervention de M. Tijani Haddad, ministre du Tourisme, elle s'est articulée autour de l'évolution que connaît le secteur du tourisme en Tunisie.

Le ministre a passé en revue les différentes composantes de la stratégie nationale visant à promouvoir le secteur touristique et à lui permettre de relever les défis et de gagner les paris face à l'acuité de la concurrence sur le marché mondial, s'agissant en particulier de l'amélioration de la qualité du produit touristique et de la valorisation de ses différents services afin de conquérir de nouveaux marchés.

Il a rappelé les résultats accomplis dans ce secteur, précisant notamment que les recettes touristiques ont augmenté en 2005 de 12% par rapport à 2004 et que cette augmentation se situe entre 7 et 10% durant les six premiers mois de l'année 2006.

Evoquant les nouvelles opportunités qu'offrent certains marchés porteurs, le ministre a cité notamment les marchés chinois, ukrainien et japonais, appelant à redoubler d'effort en vue de conquérir ces nouveaux marchés en tirant le meilleur profit de l'implantation à Tunis de plusieurs compagnies aériennes des pays du Golfe.

Il a annoncé que deux représentations de l'Ontt seront ouvertes prochainement à Pékin et à Kiev.

M. Tijani Haddad a fait également un exposé sur les principales zones touristiques en Tunisie dont notamment de nouvelles zones destinées à accueillir les nouveaux investisseurs et les promoteurs. Il a cité, dans ce contexte, la zone de Salloum à Bouficha, la station touristique de Hergla et la zone touristique de Cap Gammarth.

Utiliser les Ntic pour une meilleure information sur la Tunisie

M. Oussama Romdhani, directeur général de l'Agence tunisienne de communication extérieure (Atce), a fait, de son côté, une intervention, hier. Il a mis l'accent sur le rôle que doit jouer la diplomatie, au niveau de l'information et de la communication, pour promouvoir l'image de marque de la Tunisie, notamment en faisant mieux connaître les réalisations et les acquis du pays dans tous les domaines.

Il a, également, relevé le rôle que peuvent jouer les nouvelles technologies de l'information et de la communication pour une meilleure information sur la Tunisie et pour renforcer les relations extérieures du pays.

 

Source: 2006 AllAfrica

Telular Corporation (WRLS) announced that it has executed an order for its new GSM SX7P-300G fixed cellular deskphone worth $6 million with Wintel Limited a distributor for Worldtel, an investment group created by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to assist in the development of telecoms and internet companies in emerging markets. Worldtel has won a license for a 300,000 line wireless network in Dhaka, the capital and financial center of Bangladesh. The Dhaka urban center has a population of 10 million people with less than 9% of households having access to a telephone.

 

Source: knobia

Regulator ANRT plans to sell three licences.

Four companies have submitted bids for the three third-generation mobile licences up for grabs in Morocco, according to the country's national telecoms regulator.

The ANRT said on its Web site that the four bidders are incumbent operator Maroc Telecom, which is controlled by French media group Vivendi; local company Maroc Connect; Meditel, in which Spain's Telefonica and Portugal Telecom own a combined majority stake; and Nejma Telecom Maroc, a subsidiary of the Kuwaiti Wataniya telecoms group.

"The presence of the four operators in this tender process shows the interest and the potential of the Moroccan telecoms market, as well as the strategy adopted," said ANRT in a release.

The regulator said it will announce the winners as soon as possible. Each 3G licence-holder will have to pay 360 million dirham (US$41.23 million). (…)

Source : Total Telecom.

Chinguitel SA, which is partnered with the Sudanese operator Sudatel, has won the auction for the third Mauritanian GSM licence. Chinguitel won the auction with a bid worth US$101.98 million, according to L’Autorité de Régulation (ART), the Mauritanian regulator, beating rival bids from Orange Mauritanie (France Télécom), Wataniya Télécom Mauritanie, Mauritel, and Access Télécom from Côte d’Ivoire. Orange Mauritanie submitted a bid worth US$34.773 million and Wataniya Telecom Mauritanie a bid worth US$31.246 million. Amongst its neighbours in West Africa, Mauritania has by far the highest cellular penetration rate. In 2003 Mauritania had a cellular penetration rate of 13.0%, compared with 5.7% in Senegal, 2.1% in Mali, and 1.9% in Burkina Faso.

Source: Global Insight.

Kenya’s telecoms regulator the CCK has launched a KES72 million study to review the country’s phone tariffs. According to Business In Africa, the study will run until October and could result in the watchdog pushing through lower retail and interconnect tariffs.

Source: TeleGeography.

The Nigerian Federal Government last week sold 75 per cent of national carrier, Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and its mobile arm, MTel to Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp) for $750 million (N1.1 billion) through negotiated sale process. Source: Balancing Act (Issue No 313)

The government of Botswana announced its decision to further liberalize the telecom industry in order to increase competition with enhanced quality of service at reduced costs. The following measures will be instituted: - lift the restriction on the provision of VoIP by value-added network service providers (Aug. 2006); - mobile operators start self providing (transmission links) (Aug 2006); - current fixed line and cellular operators may apply for service-neutral licenses (Sept. 2006); - new entrants may tender for service-neutral rural/district level licenses (Sept. 2006) - liberalization of the international voice gateway (Oct. 2006) - BTC attains a satisfactory level of tariff rebalancing (Dec. 2007) - new entrants may tender for service-neutral national licenses (Dec. 2009) A decision has also been taken to privatize Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC). This will be done by selling off a portion of about 40% of the equity to a strategic equity partner, 5% of the shares would be allotted to citizen employees of BTC, another portion of shares in a privatization trust fund (15-20%), and 25-30% would be retained for a future stock market listing.

Source: Press statement by Minister of Communications, Science and Technology

Safaricom, Kenya's leading mobile operator, has reportedly erected a satellite earth station in Nairobi, according to the East African Standard newspaper. This would allow the operator to route its own international traffic, in addition to linking with base stations in remote locations by VSAT. Following the end of fixed-line incumbent Telkom Kenya's monopoly on 30 June 2004, the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) issued a forthright new licensing framework on 8 September 2004, which was to allow cellular mobile operators (GSM) to construct and operate their own international gateways if they choose to do so. On 7 April 2006 the CCK issued a notice saying that it will issue the licences by mid-2006, and gave the statutory 60-day notice period within which interested parties could submit objections. Safaricom also uses the microwave transmission network of Telkom Kenya to route its own traffic into northern Kenya, but said that it will start using VSAT to connect base stations in Daadab, Maralal, Marsabit, El Wak and Lamu. It already uses VSAT to connect base stations beyond the reach of Telkom's network.

Source : Global Insight.

Delegates from 101 nations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East signed a treaty on Friday to replace traditional radio and TV broadcasts with a standard digital system by 2015, officials said. "This agreement is a big epoch-making decision," said Yoshio Utsumi, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations agency that organized the negotiations.

Listeners and viewers in the 119-nation region will have a greater choice of radio and television programs which will be available in top quality images and sound, and they will have better telecommunications and mobile technology, said Utsumi. He said it will be possible to have 70,500 digital broadcasting stations in the region, compared with about 5,000 under the European analog system that was adopted in 1961. The treaty is based on the adoption of the European digital standard, as opposed to competitors from the United States and Japan, but the whole world will benefit because other regions will see a big drop in cost of receivers and other equipment and will be able to use the complicated agreement as a model even though they use a different system, officials said.

It will be of special benefit to Africa because "the digital switchover will leapfrog existing technologies to connect the unconnected in underserved and remote communities and close the digital divide," ITU said. The addition of digital broadcasting has already begun in the United States, Japan and some other countries, but the new treaty is the first multiregional accord that that has set a deadline for dropping the old analog system. It involved complex negotiations between neighbors such as Israel and Arab states to avoid interference between frequencies so that analog and digital broadcasts could coexist during the transition period, officials said. Consumers and broadcasters will have to replace their traditional equipment to use the new system. Utsumi said the treaty allows for an additional five years for African nations to convert their VHF transmissions to digital, but that all other broadcasts in the region should be switched over by June 17, 2015.

Source: Alexander G. Higgins, Associated Press Newswires.

Glenayre Messaging, a division of Glenayre Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:GEMS), a global leader in providing next-generation messaging solutions, announced it has completed the migration of more than five million MTN mobile subscribers to its next generation voice and video messaging platform, Versera ICE™.

The new platform not only enables millions of South African mobile users to benefit from the latest next generation messaging technology, but according to MTN, should bring considerable reductions in operational costs. For example, MTN has replaced more than 90 legacy system cabinets with just 14 next generation voice mail platform cabinets, delivering more than twice the capacity of the legacy platforms.

“We set out to do what the industry thought was impossible and achieved it in great time,” said Ashraff Paruk, Head: Strategy and Product Innovation at MTN South Africa. “A huge migration such as this one has not been easy, but Glenayre has been responsive and totally committed. Glenayre’s ability to address technical issues rapidly has been a key to the success of this ambitious project.”

The Next Generation platform is now enabling MTN to provide its subscribers with advanced video and voice application capabilities. For example, integration with the MTNLoaded web portal allows subscribers to have greater control over their messaging and mailbox features online. In addition, the Glenayre Versera ICE video platform allows MTN to offer 3G users new ways to access information very rapidly and conveniently through a rich mobile graphic experience.

“Glenayre continues to work with MTN on improving and refining the subscriber experience,” explained Andy Minnaar, Glenayre’s regional sales director in South Africa. “One of the preeminent features of Versera ICE is that it enables many new applications that give MTN’s subscribers the services they want and expect from Africa’s leading mobile operator.”

As one of the industry’s first true next-generation messaging solutions, Versera ICE enables the deployment of multiple applications on a single, open platform while providing carrier-grade quality for both circuit-switched and IP networks. Through its compatibility with IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), Versera ICE is the future-proofed application environment for mobile operators.

Source: Total telecom.

As agreed in Maputo, in 2005, the CEOs of African Regulatory bodies, Telecom and other Services Providers, and Policy Makers from Ministries got together in Yaoundé 7-8 June to discuss the challenges of IP Networks and related services to the African Regulators including the Voice over IP (VoIP). See the agenda and documents of the Forum on Telecommunication Regulation in Africa (FTRA-2006) (English -  French).

Uganda Telecom has completed the first phase of the rollout of a USD5 million IP-based Next Generation Network (NGN). The deployment is being jointly undertaken by Huawei Technologies and Cisco Systems. The second phase is due to be finished by July 2006. Source: TeleGeography.

Uganda Telecom has completed the first phase of the rollout of a USD5 million IP-based Next Generation Network (NGN). The deployment is being jointly undertaken by Huawei Technologies and Cisco Systems. The second phase is due to be finished by July 2006. Source: TeleGeography.

Tanzania’s telecoms regulator, the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA), has issued licences to five new operators and ten existing operators migrating to the new converged licensing framework, according to reports on AllAfrica.com. Four firms – Datacom Africa Tanzania Limited, Cel Solutions Limited, Impaktel Limited and Benson Informatics – have been given concessions for national applications services, allowing them to offer facilities like earth stations, fixed links and cables payphone services. The licence categories in the converged licensing framework include: network facility, network service and content service. The other licensed firms are Afsat Communications Tanzania Limited, Stacom Network Africa Limited, Allden Satellite Networks, Africa Online Tanzania Limited, Atma Electronics and Software Limited, CATS Net Limited, Jua Limited, Kicheko Limited and University Computing Centre. Source: TeleGeography.

Uganda's Ministry of Works, Housing and Communications has issued new guidelines to bring the duopoly of MTN Uganda and Uganda Telecom to an end. John Nasasira, the relevant minister, told reporters that other operators would be allowed to apply for licences to provide the whole range of telecommunications services such as VoIP, long-distance services, and international gateway services. The government is particularly keen on operators investing in the internet backbone infrastructure to bring such connectivity to a greater part of the country.

The new regulations should allow, amongst other things, Uganda's third mobile operator Celtel to broaden the range of services, including internet, it offers to end-users. The government has also indicated that it will offer a fourth mobile licence and a unified licence. Source: Global Insight.

Nigeria's telecoms regulator has awarded so-called ‘unified’ telecoms licences to four local telcos, under a new system designed to further open up the sector to competition. According to a statement by the Nigerian Communications Commission it has awarded the unified licences to Multilinks, Starcomms, Intercellular, Prest Cable and Satellite Communications. The four operators will each pay NGN260 million (USD2.11 million) for the ten-year licences.

The unified licence system was introduced in February 2006 at the end of a five-year exclusivity deal given to GSM firms to operate nationwide mobile networks for which they paid $285 million. Under the new regime, operators providing CDMA services, which were previously limited by their concessions to operating in specific geographic areas, will be able to offer roaming facilities across regions. The new licences were introduced despite fierce opposition by the GSM companies, who had wanted to protect their shared exclusivity. Source: TeleGeography.

The Government of Kenya intends to further liberalize the communications market through the introduction of a Second National Operator(SNO). This will stimulate competition and encourage expansion in the communications sector. Consequently, the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) invites experienced telecommunications operators to participate in a pre-qualification process, which will result in the issuance of a licence encompassing the following systems and services (for full Expression of Interest, click here). Source:Communications Commission of Kenya.

The ICT environment is changing rapidly and keeping the policy and regulatory frameworks in line with the constant evolution of technologies, applications and services is a challenge for governments and regulators around the World. The harmonized ICT regulatory decisions recently adopted by the 6th Meeting of the ECOWAS Ministers in charge of Telecommunications and ICT, held in Abuja Nigeria on 11th May 2006, were developed within the spirit of addressing this challenge and providing for an ICT enabling environment for the Region.

The Ministerial meeting, which was preceded by a three day preparatory meeting of national experts, marked the entrance of this regional project into the adoption and implementation phase and is expected to culminate in the adoption of the texts by ECOWAS Council of Ministers and the Authority of Heads of States and Government in June 2006. ECOWAS Member States will then embark on the challenging transposition path that will led to the translation of these decisions into their national legal frameworks by end of 2007, and the creation of a common ICT market in the region (more).

The ITU/BDT Regulatory Reform Unit (RRU) has just released its latest newsletter. The electronic version can be found here.

Neneh Macdouall-Gaye, Secretary of State for Communication Information and Technology, has returned from Abuja, Niegeria, where she joined the experts preparatory meeting to the sixth meeting of the Ecowas ministers of Telecommunications, and ICT for the establishment of the Common Market for ICT in West Africa.

Convened by the Ecowas Executive Secretariat, in collaboration with the government of Niegria, and the International Telecommunications Union, the meeting validated the legislative and regulatory texts for the establisment of the Common Market for ICT in the sub-region (full article). By Ebrima Jaw Manneh, Source: Daily Observer, The Gambia. 

Teledata de Moçambique is in the process of deploying the first certified WiMAX network in Africa, according to MyADSL quoting Mike Ansley, vice president for wireless broadband equipment vendor Redline Communications. Mr Ansley says that ‘Teledata Mozambique has moved to roll out WiMAX for the Maputo metropolitan area. The decision is based on the availability of WiMAX Forum’s certified Redline RedMAX product.’ Redline is exploring opportunities to roll out 802.16 2004/d certified WiMAX technology for telcos across Southern Africa. Source: TeleGeography.

"Last year I wrote a column suggesting that, in general, telecom regulators seem to slow down the rollout of new technologies and services rather than hastening their entry. It was a call for "de-regulators" rather than regulators. Little did I know that one country is already putting this into practice, even if it is largely unintentional. Apparently the African nation of Somalia is one of the few telecom markets in the world that is making do without regulations - and is doing just fine at that. It's been noted recently by The Economist and even the CIA, which writes in its Factbook that despite the country's seeming "anarchy", services generally, including telecoms, are not just surviving but growing healthily...I'm sure it's not perfect - interconnection was a problem until some of the operators got together to voluntarily link their networks - but it does show the possibilities. Contrast that with Bangkok, one of the fastest growing economic zones in Asia, where it's still a problem to get a decent broadband connection in large swathes of the city..." Full text by Geoff Long, source: Bangkok Post.

For the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, 3G is here. The regulator which confirmed expression of interest in the technology by industry operators Monday, said it was seeking the right regulatory approach for its introduction. Speaking at a Consultative Forum, Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Engr Ernest Ndukwe who observed that the service has been in the wings for sometimes explained that the introduction of services in different parts of Europe, the expression of interests by Nigerian operators and the advantages that the subscribers stand to benefit are the reasons the NCC is moving in that direction. But he stated the position of the Commission straight away. "As a regulator NCC has adopted a technology neutral approach. We don't license it. What we license is spectrum." For the full article see, source: http:\\www.allafrica.com

WiMAX is commercially available in Algeria, while several operators in other Arab countries have started testing the service. Smart Link Communication (SLC) has deployed WiMAX to provide broadband wireless services in Algeria. SLC's goal is to build a wireless broadband backbone covering the national territory, to develop the metropolitan broadband networks, and to set up an independent new generation telecom infrastructure. On July 25, 2005, SLC launched the first national multi-services network. The deployment of this network makes it possible to develop services based on Broadband Wireless Access (BWA), VoIP, Virtual Private Network (VPN-IP MPLS). Algeria's tough and mountainous terrain makes it an ideal candidate for wireless connectivity solutions. More
Source: Balancing Act, Issue 302.

The Federal Government is to actively support the establishment of Internet Exchange Points, IXPs around the country in order to encourage the proliferation of the technology among the Nigerian people.

To this end, the board of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC has recently approved a proposal to fund the setting-up of Internet eXchange Points, IXPs, in Nigeria and the collaboration of NCC with the ISP Industry under the umbrella of Internet Service Providers Association of Nigeria (ISPAN) to achieve this objective. The proposed IXPs will operate on a not-for-profit basis. More 
Source: Balancing Act, Issue 302.

President Thabo Mbeki has signed the Electronic Communications Act (EC Act), formerly the Convergence Bill. A notice that he has assented to the Act was published in Government Gazette number 28743 and is available on the Department of Communications' Web site. The Act provides a regulatory framework for the convergence of broadcasting, broadcasting signal distribution and the telecommunications sectors. The Act also repeals the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Independent Broadcasting Authority Act and portions of the Broadcasting Act. However, there are other legal processes that have to take place before it becomes operational law. Source: Balancing Act (issue 302)

With more people in the rural Africa getting access to telecommunication, indications have emerged that calls within the West African Sub-region will be treated as local calls going by plans by different regional governments in the region. The Executive Vice- Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Engr. Ernest Ndukwe who dropped this hint during the Telecom Consumer Parliament held last month in Lagos, noted that such common tariff has become necessary for the purpose of harmonization of ICT regulation and standards across Africa. "Calls within the West African Sub-region should be treated as local calls. Plans are underway as meetings are being held by different regional governments to actualize a common tariff. There is need for common regional tariff to be established immediately within the region," Ndukwe pointed out. Source: Balancing Act http://www.balancingact-africa.com/

Neneh Macdouall-Gaye, the Secretary of State for Communication, Information and Technology (CIT), has provided justifications for granting licences to private operators to operate and compete in the international telecommunications environment. The Government decided to issue licences to two private operators in the telecommunications environment so as to promote operational efficiency and to meet capacity requirements to satisfy an increasing customer demand for low-cost services and better quality of services. SoS Macdouall-Gaye affirmed that the issuance of licences to new operators is expected to bring dynamism and increase the revenue potential of Gamtel. "New operators would have to access the Gamtel network to terminate international services and incumbent operators, with well developed domestic networks, have also realized that competition in international telecommunications services have resulted in significant operational efficiency to manage costs for reinvestment. This change in policy is considered more sustainable than monopoly profits to develop national networks," she said. Source: Balancing Act http://www.balancingact-africa.com/

The Algerian regulator ARPT took the brave step of allowing 24 ISPs an experimental licence at the end of April 2004. After the revision its licensing framework, the first VoIP operator (EEPAD) was granted authorization to operate a year later in April 2005. Russell Southwood reports on how this legalisation has begun to transform the market. See Issue No 300,  http://www.balancingact-africa.com

The raised issues are limiting these bands for private use, guaranteeing quality, and establishing technical standards, among others. [related website] 

Trends in Telecommunications Reform - Chapter 7:

"The anti-spam laws enacted around the world so far have been largely unsuccessful in stopping spam. In almost every instance, anti-spam statutes have been directed at sanctioning spammers for their bad acts. An increasing number of countries and other jurisdictions have created such laws or applied to spam their existing, generally applicable laws concerning data protection, consumer protection, and protection against fraud. Yet, in many cases, these laws have missed their target entirely, with no perceptible impact on actual spammers. Even worse, the laws have often had negative side effects, in the form of transaction costs, ad min is trative costs, and a chilling effect on legitimate senders of e-mail." [see full Chapter]

ITU/BDT is pleased to present the seventh edition of Trends in Telecommunication Reform, an integral part of our dialogue with the world’s information and communications technology (ICT) policymakers and regulators. This 7th edition has been released at a time of remarkable transformation of the information and communication technology (ICT) sector, fueled by a combination of technological, market, policy and regulatory developments. These changes include unparalleled numbers of voice telephone subscribers, the rise of IPenabled networks and Voice over IP (VoIP) services, initial—yet promising—deployment of fixed line broadband and broadband wireless access (BWA) services and intelligent radio devices. At the same time that developed countries are busy planning for the deployment of next generation networks and visualize a world of ubiquitous networks, most developing countries have expanded their continuing quest to provide universal access to basic voice services to include universal access to broadband internet services. Are developing countries making any progress in this quest? How can regulators harness the potential of new technologies and innovative business models to foster ICT sector development?... Summary

The Unified Service License will cover fixed telephony, mobile services, international gateway services and national/regional long distance services. In addition, all Unified Licensees will be able to provide ISP, VAS and Payphone services. [See more] 

The ICT Authority has received several expressions of interest and requests for type approval for broadband wireless access equipment operating in different frequency bands. These requests have been received from:

• Operators to offer broadband wireless access services to the public;
• Dealers to commercialise broadband wireless access equipment in Mauritius

Decision of 12 January 2006 on Spectrum Allocation for Broadband Wireless Access Services in Mauritius

.

The Commission has issued guidelines on the provision of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services in Kenya.

Releasing the guidelines today, CCK Director-General Eng. John Waweru said the guidelines had incorporated stakeholder views gathered during a two-month public consultation process carried out early this year. The Commission also carried out an international benchmark on the situation obtaining in selected countries and in different parts of the world.

"The consultative process together with the international benchmark confirmed that provision of VoIP was desirable and that guidelines needed to be provided for its deployment for the benefit of consumers," he added.

The Director-General said the guidelines would be published in the Kenya Gazette on 12th of this month in keeping with statutory requirements to provide a 60-day period within which stakeholders and the public could make representations to the Commission on the guidelines.  [Full article]

Guidelines

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) proposes regulatory guidelines for VoIP and International Access/Gateway

Following the notice of the Regulation Council of the Telecommunications Regulation Authority (ART) of the Republic of Senegal on 23 April 2004, the Director General of ART has signed seven decisions drawn up in pursuance with the Code of Telecommunications which come into effect as of 28 April 2004.

These decisions aim to govern procedures, modalities, and conditions of implementation for the following legal regulations:

• authorization of independent networks;
• approval of terminal equipment, radioelectric devices, and the technicians installing this equipment;
• declaration of value-added services;
• category of low power and short range devices which must compose the radioelectric installations whose exploitation is not subject to constraints.

The seven decisions are:

• Decision defining approval preconditions of terminal equipment, radioelectric installations, and the technicians installing this equipment (N° 2004-002 ART/DG/DRC/D.Rég)
• Decision defining deposit conditions and modalities of the declarations of value-added services (N° 2004-003 ART/DG/DRC/D.Rég)
• Decision fixing the list of value-added services (N° 2004-004 ART/DG/DRC/D.Rég)
• Decision determining the characteristics and technical conditions for using the networks and radioelectric installations exclusively composed of low power and short range devices (N° 2004-005 ART/DG/DRC/D.Rég)
• Decision fixing the expenses and royalties for exploiting independent networks and deposits of value-added services declaration (N°2004-006 ART/DG/DRC/D.Rég)
• Decision fixing the royalties relating to approvals and some services provided by ART (N°2004-007 ART/DG/DRC/D.Rég)

The decisions, in French only, are available on ART Web site of the Republic of Senegal.

Caroline Simard
GREX Advisor

Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) has launched a strategy to license more Local Loop Operators (LLO) in an effort aimed at increasing access to fixed telephone lines. The Director General of CCK recently announced that the Commission had reduced barriers to the granting of local loop licenses. LLOs are expected to satisfy part of Kenya’s significant unmet demand for services (it is estimated that only 10% of Kenyans have access to fixed telephone lines) by complementing the efforts of facilities-based carriers in the provision of local services.

This initiative is in line with Kenya’s undertaking to establish a policy and strategy for universal access to information and communications, announced in early March.

Julio R. Montero
G-REX Advisor
Adapted from: Computer Society of Kenya – Newsletter. March 2004