Cameroonian Businessman To Launch First Indigenous Telecom

Cameroonian businessman and owner of Seme New Beach Hotel, Semme Mineral Water and Climacam, Seme Noungon plans to launch Altylis Seme Telecom, a 7.6 million euro ($10.3 million) lowcost telephony company, into the “uncrowded” Central African market this month.

The first locally-owned telecom operator in the Cameroon, Altylis Seme Telecom said its objective is to “break mobile prices” in the country which has South African telecoms giant MTN and French multinational, Orange as its only mobile network service providers.

Both companies control a combined 11 million subscriber base, which is about half of the country’s population.

In 2012, Vietnamese firm Viettel obtained licences to operate 2G and 3G networks in Cameroon and announced it would go live to the public by March 2014.

According to a study by Pyramid Research, the introduction of 3G services and integrated data could attract more than six million new subscribers in Cameroon by 2017.

source: www.cameroon-africa.com

Bharti Infratel awaiting stronger 3G signals

Expectation of a higher dividend, attractive valuations and growth prospects on the back of an uptick in 3G usage saw the Bharti Infratel stock jump 5% in trade today.  With the Bharti Infratel management clarifying that it will not pursue M&A activities in Africa and aggressive investments in 3G by incumbent operators saw the stock gain 13% over the past month. The recent uptick comes after underperformance over a one year period due to static tenancy ratios which could fall with consolidation and talks of 8% licence fee on tower revenues .

Given the company's stand on Africa acquisition, Goldman Sachs analysts believe that there is a low possibility of any big ticket acquisition, leaving room for Bharti Infratel to return money to shareholders. The research firm estimates that the company is likely to pay a special dividend of Rs 3.5 per share in the March quarter of FY14 taking the total dividend for FY14 to Rs 9 a share. Further, the analysts have increased earnings per share upwards on the back of an expected growth in data traffic. “At current FY14E multiples of 1.9 times its price to book value and return on equity of 7.7%, the risk-reward is balanced with upside potential largely driven by faster 3G deployment and better-than-expected dividend payout,” say Goldman Sachs analysts led by Sachin Salgaonkar.

While regulatory issues and M&A are likely to influence the stock, the key operational parameter would be the company's ability to improve its tenancies which have been stuck in the 1.91 times to 1.93 times range over the last five quarters. Every additional tenant substantially improves profitability as rentals improve with costs increasing only marginally. The major cost for telecom tower companies is power which is a pass through. One of the triggers for the same is the rapid expansion of 3G coverage by operators. 

source: www.bussiness-standard.com

Viettel postponed anticipated cameroon mobile service launch

 Vietnamese mobile telephone operator, Viettel, has postponed its launch into the Cameroonian market till “probably” March 2014.

Viettel, which was supposed to roll out operations in December, needs more time than the 12 months originally agreed with the government in December 2012 when it obtained an operating license.

The delay is due to uncompleted 2G and 3G service networks and instalment of infrastructure in the 10 stipulated in the contracts.

Reports have attributed the “remote” nature of some of the regions for the difficulty.

To favourably compete in the telecom market now dominated by MTN and ORANGE, Viettel wants everything set right. The Vietnamese company has signed-off on the use of 200 billion FCfa ($420 million) to cover the 81 percent launch of 2G and 3G services as well as to increase this coverage to 95 percent in three years.

Currently, Cameroon has some 11 million subscribers, representing a population penetration level of around 50 percent.

 source: www.ventures-africa.com

ooredoo wins best mobile operator at world communication award

10 Dec 2013 Ooredoo Wins "Best Mobile Operator" at World Communication Awards Ooredoo has seen incredible success in a week of award ceremonies in December, winning lead prizes at the "World Communication Awards" in London and the "CommsMEA Awards" in Dubai over two consecutive days.

Ooredoo received the "Best Mobile Operator" award at the 15th Annual World Communication Awards on Tuesday, beating international competition to receive the prestigious trophy.

Previous winners of the award include giants of the industry, demonstrating Ooredoo's rising profile on the international stage.

The following day, the company received "Best Marketing Campaign of the Year" and "Best CSR Initiative" at the CommsMEA Awards.

All three awards paid tribute to the diverse elements of Ooredoo's strategy for promoting human growth, and in particular the company's success in taking its operations to the next level and enhancing the customer experience in 2013.

Ooredoo received "Best Mobile Operator" award in recognition of the significant progress the company has achieved in 2013, in addition to its success in transforming its global operations into the Ooredoo brand during the year.

Ooredoo has become the leading provider of 4G services in the GCC, launching 4G mobile broadband networks in Qatar, Oman and Kuwait in 2013, as part of its network enhancement strategy. In addition, its operations in Tunisia have launched 3G services, and Ooredoo is set to launch 3G in Algeria before the end of the year.

In a packed and challenging entry field, Ooredoo was the only operator from the MENA region to be recognised at the World Communication Awards

source: www.4-traders.com

ooredoo wins two major international awards

Ooredoo recently won two major awards at the “World Communication Awards” in London and the “CommsMEA Awards” in Dubai.

Ooredoo received the “Best Mobile Operator” award at the 15th Annual World Communication Awards, beating international competition to receive the prestigious trophy.

Previous winners of the award include giants of the industry, demonstrating Ooredoo’s rising profile on the international stage.

In Dubai, the company received “Best Marketing Campaign of the Year” and “Best CSR Initiative” at the CommsMEA Awards.

All three awards paid tribute to the diverse elements of Ooredoo’s strategy for promoting human growth, and in particular the company’s success in taking its operations to the next level and enhancing the customer experience in 2013.

Ooredoo received “Best mobile operator” award in recognition of the significant progress the company has achieved in 2013, in addition to its success in transforming its global operations into the Ooredoo brand during the year.

Ooredoo has become the leading provider of 4G services in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), launching 4G mobile broadband networks in Qatar, Oman and Kuwait in 2013, as part of its network enhancement strategy. In addition, the firm has launched 3G services Tunisia, and is set to launch 3G in Algeria before the end of the year.

In a packed and challenging entry field, Ooredoo was the only operator from the Mena (Middle East and North Africa) region to be recognised at the World Communication Awards.

CommsMEA’s best marketing campaign of the year award was achieved for the launch of the Ooredoo brand in Qatar in March 2013 and has since achieved 100% brand awareness in its home market. Since the Qatar launch, Ooredoo has also successfully transformed its operations in Algeria to support the new brand, and plans are in place to rebrand one Asian operation by the end of the year.

The award for best CSR initiative was presented for Tunisiana’s “Najjani employment” service, which has provided hundreds of thousands of young Tunisians with up-to-date mobile content about jobs, careers and employability skills. As an important next step, Ooredoo, Silatech and the Applied Innovation Institute have recently launched their first Arab Mobile App Challenge to support entrepreneurship and the development of Arabic applications.

source: www. gulf-times.com

addiis ababa eagerly awaits for 4G rollout

A high speed 4G network, scheduled to be implemented by Huawei, forms a crucial part of the joint venture to expand mobile phone infrastructure nationally.

Abdurahim Ahmed, head of communications at Ethio Telecom, has been quoted as saying, “In terms of allocation, Huawei will be responsible for the expansion of 4G in Addis Ababa, including other mobile services the 2G, 3G, IP and the like.”

Among the expected outcomes of the project are that some 400,000 subscribers stand to benefit, that the country will increase the total number of subscribers and there will be an enhancement of existing 3G services.

In August the acting CEO of Ethio Telecom, Andualem Admassie, was quoted by Ethiopian Radio and Television Agency as saying the Project is important in contributing to efforts to increase telecommunications service access and coverage nationally.

source: www.itnewsafrica.com

voice over LTE (VoLTE) in middle east and Africa

ResearchMoz.us include new market research report"Voice over LTE (VoLTE) in Middle East and Africa: Market Forecast 2013 - 2018"to its huge collection of research reports.

Fourth generation (4G) data services are in the deployment stage, but is will be a few years until there is ubiquitous LTE coverage. Meanwhile, there are competitive threats emerging against incumbent carriers' core voice services. This is coming at a time when all bearer services (voice and data) are becoming marginalized due to market expectations, economic conditions, and a coming supply side expansion in terms of network capacity.

This research assesses the market drivers and outlook for VoLTE as well as carrier opportunities and challenges. The report forecasts VoLTE growth for the Middle East and Africa regions. The report includes conclusions and recommendations for network operators.

Fourth generation (4G) data services are in the deployment stage, but is will be a few years until there is ubiquitous LTE coverage. Meanwhile, there are competitive threats emerging against incumbent carriers' core voice services. This is coming at a time when all bearer services (voice and data) are becoming marginalized due to market expectations, economic conditions, and a coming supply side expansion in terms of network capacity.This research assesses the market drivers and outlook for VoLTE as well as carrier opportunities and challenges. The report forecasts VoLTE growth for the Asia Pac region. The report includes conclusions and recommendations for network operators.  Fourth generation (4G) data services are in the deployment stage, but is will be a few years until there is ubiquitous LTE coverage. Meanwhile, there are competitive threats emerging against incumbent carriers' core voice services. This is coming at a time when all bearer services (voice and data) are becoming marginalized due to market expectations, economic conditions, and a coming supply side expansion in terms of network capacity.There is a technical case to be made for a mass movement to VoLTE. The technology would make roaming easier, alleviate concerns with spectrum, and leverage backhaul. VoLTE is easier on the battery life of phones compared to 3G.

source: www.sbwire.com

SA,s 3G world class , fixed broadband poor : Naspers CEO

Naspers CEO Koos Bekker said that while South Africa’s mobile broadband (3G) services are world class, fixed broadband access remains poor.

Speaking to Talk Radio 702’s Bruce Whitfield, Bekker said that South Africa’s Internet access diverges between mobile phones and PCs.

“Our 3G [mobile broadband] systems are as good as we get anywhere in the world,” said Bekker, adding that fixed broadband [used on a PC] has a problem with a lack of bandwidth.

The bandwidth restraints of fixed broadband access in SA, said Bekker, has a consequence on their pay-TV operations.

Bekker said in an interview with Money web that they are forced to “fake the Internet” using their new DStv Explora decoder to make it possible for users to catch up on news or sporting events when it suits them.

“But we can fake the Internet a bit by putting it on satellite, loading it down into the PVR and then offering it to you as if it were the internet.”

source: www.mybroadband.co

Airtel wins African operator of the year 2013 award

Bharti Airtel, a leading telecommunications service provider with operations in 20 countries across South Asia and Africa, was recognised as the African Operator of the Year at the CommsMEA Awards 2013.

Executives including telecoms CEOs, vendors, ministers and regulators attended the eighth edition of the event at a 300-strong gathering at the Awards gala dinner held at Jumeirah Emirates Towers in Dubai.

The award recognises excellence within the telecoms sector across the Middle East and Africa.

By beating some seriously strong contenders on the shortlist, which were the MTN Group, Vodacom and Nedjma, Airtel has consolidated its position as the best African Operator.

The winners were decided from a record number of nominations by a judging panel consisting of Akshay Lamba, chief architect and head of IT strategy at MTS; Milan Sallaba, managing director at Accenture Middle East; Erik Almqvist, partner and global head of operational consulting, Analysys Mason; Mark Kremers, partner, Oliver Wyman; Riad Hartani, partner at Xona, and Alan Horne, CEO Broadband Pioneer and Special Advisor to Global eHealth Foundation.

Commenting on the achievement, Manoj Kohli, the MD and CEO (International) at Bharti Airtel, said: “We are humbled by this recognition and the trust that the international industry panel, consumers and other stakeholders have placed on Airtel since our entry into Africa in 2010. During the past three years, we have managed to serve more communities within the countries that we operate in and hopefully change their lives through not only the voice but also the data and mobile commerce services that we provide. The latter are increasingly becoming essential in Africa.”

Airtel Africa now has the largest 3G and Mobile Commerce country footprint in sub Saharan Africa. The telecommunications company provides 3G services in 14 African countries and Airtel Money services in 17 countries across the continent.

Airtel Money is positioned to become Africa’s widest financial services provider. With a coverage across Airtel Africa’s operations in the 17 countries, the mobile money platform is poised to serve more diverse communities than any other financial institution in Africa. Currently leveraging a network of over 100,000 agent locations, Airtel Money facilitates access to financial services for the unbanked population.

A recent survey conducted by the African Business magazine indicates that despite only a 3 year presence in Africa, Airtel is one of Africa’s top ten most admired global brands.

source: www.capitalfm.co

Africa's mobile subscription predicted to surpass 1.2 bn in 2018

Informa Telecoms and Media, organisers of the on-going AfricaCom conference in Cape Town, South Africa, has said the mobile subscriptions in Africa will surpass 1.2 billion by the end of 2018.

The forecast, according to Informa Telecoms and Media, is based on the continued increasing growth of mobile subscriptions in Africa, even though its penetration level among major world regions, which is currently put at 68.81 per cent, is still low, when compared with the global average of 90.48 per cent.

Principal Analyst, Middle East and Africa (MEA) at Informa Telecoms and Media, Mr. Matthew Reed, who gave the prediction during a keynote address on Tuesday at the opening session of the 2013 AfricaCom conference, said: "Africa had 745.34 million mobile subscriptions at the end of 2012, representing 15.24 per cent year-on-year increase, the highest rate of growth among major world regions.

Corroborating Informa Telecoms and Media’s prediction, Chairman, Mobile Monday, Mr. Richard Walton, said the Africa mobile subscription growth rate was amazing and encouraging.
According to him, mobile subscriptions in the sub-Saharan Africa, contributed immensely to the Africa's mobile subscription number, attributing the growth to Apps culture, especially in the area mobile banking applications, he said, would be propelled by the adoption of Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology that is gradually spreading across the globe.

He however challenged telecoms operators to turn data growth into revenue growth, while still maintaining cost efficiency in mobile broadband in Africa.

Speaking on some of the challenges on mobile subscriptions, some of the telecoms operators that spoke, identified size of their business, connectivity issues and the drive to discover more markets and business opportunities, using new brands, as some of their major challenges.

According to Reed, "The number of mobile subscriptions in Africa is still growing at a higher rate than in any other major Wot prod region. Mobile data subscriptions and  revenues are rising strongly on the continent, albeit from a low base. The rollout of 3G and 4G networks combined with expanded back haul and submarine capacity, should enable further growth in Africa's data sector."

He explained that big international information technology (IT) companies such as Google, Intel and Microsoft, are targeting Africa's telecoms market because of its growth potential, particularly in data services.

"The story of Africa's telecoms market continues to be about growth, but the emphasis is shifting from basic mobile services to data and internet services, even though the basic mobile services like voice telephony still dominate the market," Reed said.

Giving details of the growth rate, he said Africa's mobile subscriptions as at October 2013 was 800 million but predicted that in 2014, it would rise to 900 million, and at the end of 2015, it would further increase to 1 billion. He also predicted that by the end of 2016, the figure would increase to 1.1 billion and at the end of 2017, it would further rise to 1.18 billion, before surpassing the 1.2 billion mark in 2018.

source: www.thisdaylive.com

Bharti Airtel caters to growing needs of mobile value added services

Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, will be further expanding its 3G foot print (3rd generation mobile telecommunication technology) countrywide to cater to the growing needs of Mobile Value Added Services (MVAS) among Sri Lankans specially the youth, a top official of the company revealed.

Mobile phones have transcended their basic function of providing voice communication to become a multimedia device that complements users’ personality and attitude. Mobile communication subscribers in addition to voice communication are increasingly subscribing to personalised services such as MMS (multimedia messaging service), unified messaging, voicemail, caller ring back tones (CRBT), push-to-talk, news alerts, and mobile Internet browsing, etc.

Airtel Lanka strives to deliver services that are robust, reliable and world class for our customers in Sri Lanka to leverage its 3G mobile broad band’s strong performance,” said Manoj Kohli, Managing Director and CEO (International) Bharti Airtel Ltd in an interview with the Business Times on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Business forum in Colombo last week.

The company also provides reliable island wide coverage via 1600 telecom towers covering all 25 districts. Of these, over 650 towers offer 3G services to each region.

The Airtel subscriber base has increased to 1.7 million active subscribers countrywide in a healthy competition adopting best and ethical practices to become one of the largest telecom operators in the island, Mr. Kohli said.
He paid a compliment to the country’s Telecom regulator, the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) for arranging a level playing field for all telecom service providers controlling call charges.

Rejecting the claims of changes in Airtel ownership, he said that more value for the customers will be provided by his company in the form of affordable data and roaming tariffs, innovative products, world-class networks and customer care.

Mr. Kohli noted that the company has introduced a smart show room concept in Sri Lanka linking up with Samsung towards further enhancing Airtel’s market position in the island.

Answering a question on the viability of mobile phone number portability, he said that his company has no objection on allowing subscribers to switch networks while using the same number.

source: www.sundaytimes.lk

South Africa slipping in mobile broadband..: smile telecommunications

South Africa is slipping behind some other African markets in providing mobile broadband, Tom Allen, the chief operating officer of Smile Telecommunications, the telecoms operator founded six years ago by former MTN executive Irene Charnley.

Allen, speaking at an Alcatel-Lucent press conference at the annual Africa Com telecoms event in Cape Town, reiterated comments he made at last year’s show that Smile is keen to enter the South African mobile broadband market if it can get access to radio frequency spectrum, particularly in the 800MHz band currently used by analogue terrestrial television broadcasters.

“Smile is very interested in South Africa, if we could get spectrum,” said Allen. “We wouldn’t be interested in 2,5GHz. We have 800MHz everywhere else. If we could get 800MHz here, then we’d be keen to go for that. If there’s a competition, we’ll be there to play.”

The relatively lower frequencies at 800MHz offer better propagation than signals at 2,5GHz, which is seen as more appropriate for use in dense urban areas.

“If the regulator was to realise how far behind South Africa is compared to what’s happening in Tanzania and Uganda, I would have thought they would have moved quicker than they have,” Allen said. “The 3G network in South Africa is not great, to be honest. Compared to Europe, it’s poor.”

Smile Communications operates fourth-generation (4G) broadband networks in Uganda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The company is backed by Saudi Arabian firms Al-Nahla Technology and Atheeb Trading Company.

source: www.techcentral.co

Airtel Ghana donates to state school of deaf

As part of celebration of World Children's Day, Airtel Ghana donated items to the State School for the Deaf at Ashiaman, a suburb of Tema in the Greater Accra Region. The items included a 10kva generator set, football jerseys, student mattresses and funds exclusively raised by Airtel employees towards the upkeep of the pupils of the school. 

Presenting the items on behalf of the Director of Human Resources, Maame Dufie Cudjoe, HR Manager in charge of Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Engagement at Airtel Ghana explained that the gesture was part of the company's pledge to support the under-privileged in the communities in which it operates, especially in the area of education. 

"Airtel Ghana sees education as a key area of development in any society, in particular primary education, and so we are always on the lookout to support any initiative that will make learning easier and fun for children", she stated.

The project was an initiative of one of Airtel Ghana's employees, Benonia Laryea, whose visit to the school last year prompted her to seek the company's support. "I saw such brilliance in the pupils I met. In spite of their obvious challenge, they were studious and ready to make the best out of their situation. I found that very moving and so I decided to get Airtel involved to touch their lives", she explained. 

Accepting the donation, the headmaster of the school, Michael Cudjoe, expressed his appreciation for the support. He was especially grateful for the generator, which he said will help provide constant electricity to the school and so aid teaching and learning.

State School for the Deaf is a public special school for the deaf in the Greater Accra region of Ghana established in 1965 with a pupil population of about 325. 

About Bharti Airtel Limited

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 4 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed DSL broadband, IPTV, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 281 million customers across its operations at the end of October 2013. To know more please visit, www.airtel.com

Growing use of internet in Africa due to 3G services

Internet services have experienced exponential growth in Africa, thanks to the significant investments made in building backbone infrastructure and the roll-out of 3G networks. This has allowed millions of Africans to connect to the internet for the first time.

McKinsey said the continent was now in a better position in terms of international bandwidth, as capacity had been added faster than peak demand had grown.

only 16% of the continent’s 1-billion people are online, but the take-up is rising rapidly as mobile networks are built and as the cost of internet-capable devices continues to fall.

More than 720-million Africans have cellphones, about 167-million already use the internet and 52-million are on Facebook.

"The internet is a catalyst for economic growth," said McKinsey director and co-author of the report Saf Yeboah-Amankwah. "In China, India and Brazil, it has contributed more than 10% of total GDP growth over the past five years.

"Its impact in Africa to date has been much smaller, but is likely to accelerate in the coming decade and could have a transformative effect on the continent’s development."

Governments have placed internet-driven economic growth firmly on the agenda, with several countries pursuing ambitious plans to expand broadband access.

source : bdlive.co.za