Korea Telecom to review business projects in Africa

Korea Telecom(KT)  plans to review its business projects in Africa as its new CEO Hwang Chang-gyu wants to focus on bolstering the firm’s competitive edge in the domestic telecommunication business, said KT officials who are close to the matter, Thursday.

This means that the company will fold or scale down the company’s business in Rwanda and other countries on the continent, depending on the outcome of the review.

Under the leadership of outgoing Chairman Lee Suk-chae, the nation’s second-largest mobile carrier signed an agreement in March 2013 to invest $140 million in the African country to build a fourth-generation (4G) mobile network that will serve 95 percent of the country’s population. 

After the signing of the agreement, the company has sought to expand business in other countries including Kenya and Uganda.

source:pctechmag.com

2G, 3G & 4G Subscriptions, Deployments and Infrastructure Contracts Database Q4'2013

With over 250 commercial network launches and over a thousand LTE-enabled devices available in the market as of December 2013, LTE adoption has considerably gained momentum throughout the globe. Unique market and operator requirements have driven several early LTE launches. Driven by these early launches global LTE subscriptions reached nearly 130 Million in Q4'2013. From an operator viewpoint U.S. operators dominate the market with a 37% market share thanks to the tremendous coverage footprint of tier 1 operators Verizon Wireless & AT&T. The market share of U.S. operators is followed by Japanese and Korean operators NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, SoftBank, LG Uplus, SK Telecom and KT which represent 38% of all LTE subscriptions worldwide. Going forward, the LTE market is set to grow at a CAGR of 56% over the next 7 years and will eventually represent more than 20% of all mobile connections by 2020. From an infrastructure manufacturer perspective Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel-Lucent are leading the market and account for a combined market share of 85% of all LTE contracts. Ericsson is also leading the market from a technology neutral perspective with a 24% stake in all global 2G/3G/4G contracts.

Covering over 810 operators, 53 infrastructure vendors and 222 countries worldwide the "2G/3G/4G Subscriptions, Deployments and Infrastructure Contracts Database Q4'2013" tracks global cellular network deployments, infrastructure vendor contracts, and subscriptions by technology, data protocol, category (pre-paid, post paid), region, country, and operator.

The report includes: • Infrastructure contracts by technology, data protocol, region, country, vendor and operator • Infrastructure market share by equipment type, region, country and vendor • Network deployments by technology, data protocol, region, country and operator. • Number of cellular network subscriptions (as of Q4'2013) by air interface technology, data protocol, region, country and operator • Five-year subscriptions forecasts by air interface technology, data protocol, region, country and operator • Subscriptions market share data by air interface technology, data protocol, region, country and operator. • Penetration data by region and country • Population data by region and country

source: www.sacbee.com

Huawei, ZTE, Nokia Cleared in Patent Dispute With Interdigital

The U.S. International Trade Commission has ruled against InterDigital in a complaint that alleged Huawei, Nokia, ZTE had infringed the company's patents.

On Thursday, the ITC upheld a previous ruling in June that found Huawei, Nokia and ZTE had not infringed on the seven InterDigital patents named in the complaint. Filed in 2011, the InterDigital case had sought an import ban by the U.S. on older 3G phones from the three handset makers. InterDigital said it was disappointed with the ITC decision, and would appeal it.

It has another petition pending with the ITC that is targeting 3G and 4G products from Huawei, Nokia, ZTE and Samsung. The complaint, filed in January, accuses the four companies of infringing up to seven of its cellular-related patents. InterDigital asked for an import ban into the U.S. on Samsung's Galaxy S III, the Nokia Lumia 920, and other smartphones from the handset makers, which the ITC is authorized to impose in some cases of patent infringement.

InterDigital is a U.S.-based research company that develops wireless standards and holds 20,000 patents. The company, however, has drawn criticism for being a "patent troll," a claim InterDigital rejects, pointing to its 200 engineers that work on new technologies. Not all are convinced. The Chinese government in September launched an anti-monopoly investigation against InterDigital, which the company said was the result of its patent lawsuits targeting Huawei.

InterDigital now alleges that China is threatening to arrest its employees. This week, the company was scheduled to dispatch staff to the country for talks with China's National Development and Reform Commission. But on Friday, the government body said it could not guarantee the safety of employees sent to the country, according to InterDigital spokesman Patrick Van de Wille.

"There are not a lot of ways to perceive this positively," he said on Tuesday. "Even if the NDRC does back track and guarantees their safety, we don't even know if we would believe them.

source: www.allafrica.com

Bharti and Reliance Jio announce comprehensive telecom infrastructure sharing arrangement

Bharti Airtel Limited (“Bharti”) and Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (“Reliance Jio”) today announced a comprehensive telecom infrastructure sharing arrangement under which they will share infrastructure created by both parties. This will include optic fibre network – inter and intra city, submarine cable networks, towers and internet broadband services and other such opportunities identified in the future.

The cooperation is aimed at avoiding duplication of infrastructure, wherever possible, and to preserve capital and the environment. This will also provide redundancy in order to ensure seamless services to customers of the respective parties.

The arrangement could, in future, be extended to Roaming on 2G, 3G and 4G, and any other mutually benefiting areas relating to telecommunication, including but not limited to jointly laying optic fibre or other forms of infrastructure services. The pricing would be at ‘arm’s length’, based on the prevailing market rates.

high-speed internet hits Arusha

Smile Communications (Tanzania), a company that specialiases in providing high speed Internet services, has opened for business in Arusha. Smile deals in the new 4G LTE.

Arusha, located to the northern part of Tanzania with booming developments and the headquarters of the East African Community, becomes the second place after the initial launch in Dar es Salaam during May this year.

These developments make Tanzania the first country in Africa to gain access to this revolutionary technology of its ultra-high speed broadband Internet access, the Fourth Generation Long Term Evolution (4G LTE) billed as the cutting-edge fourth -generation mobile technology.

Speaking in Arusha recently, Fiona McGloin, the Country Manager for Smile Communications in Tanzania and Uganda, said Smile was confident that providing reliable, high speed Internet will significantly contribute to the success of Arusha. Smile hopes to give Arusha a faster , more reliable and cost effective service.

Arusha is famed for its cosmopolitan city with regional and International Institutions and Organizations such as the EAC, Africa's Human Right Court, Commonwealth Regional Health Secretariat, WWF and more, including institutions of higher learning, corporate businesses, tour and travel agents as well as SMEs, NGOs and residents.

"Smile Communications Tanzania rolls out the high speed Internet to Arusha that is comparable to the speed and quality enjoyed in Europe, said Ms McGloin adding that Tanzania was the first country to be connected with the fastest, most reliable Internet service at a transparent competitive price and high-level customer satisfaction and service".

The Arusha launch came in on the sidelines of the 10 year celebration of the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA), cited by Smile Communications Tanzania as a regulatory authority which factors in conducive investment policies.

McGloin said that the laying of the fiber optic cables has to a greater extent boosted Internet uptake by people for development - all being the motivating factors for Smile to invest in Tanzania.

source: www.allafrica.com

eight regions to get fast ethernet services

AS Tanzania becomes the first country in Africa to roll out the high-speed 4th Generation (4G) internet services, the company behind this data-specific advanced coverage, intends to link six more regions within second quarter of 2014.

Speaking at the launch of the Smile Communications' 4G internet services in Arusha on the backbone of the Long Term Evolution (LTE), Ms Fiona McGloin, the company's country manager for Tanzania and Uganda said the firm will also offer free such services to public schools in each and every region under their coverage.

Before the Arusha launch, Smile Communications dished out a whopping 20 gigabytes of free data to the Arusha Secondary School's computer laboratory with promise to include a few more education institutions in their free service gifts listing.

After Dar-es-Salaam and Arusha, six more regions (those linked with fiber-optic cabling network) will be included in the Smile high-speed internet network before next June, thus making the number to reach eight and counting.

Speaking via LTE enabled 'Skype' from Dar-es-salaam, Mr Innocent Mungy, the communications manager with the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) said the country is proving to be a leader in innovative technology around the region and Smile's endeavors complements TCRA's ten years of achievements.

Official figures indicate that Arusha, the hub of Tanzania's tourism industry, ranks second after Nairobi when it comes to highest usage of internet services in East and Central African region, beating even Dar-es-Salaam and Kampala.

Arusha City was the first to offer its residents with email services back in 1994 when the concept was still a mystery to most parts of East Africa.

Before Smile Communications Tanzania (Smile) introduced Africa's first high-speed data in Dar-es-Salaam City, back in May, the country's fastest data offering fell back on the regular, but often limited, Third-Generation (3G or 3.5G) being offered by existing telecommunications' companies such as Airtel, Tigo and Vodacom whose data streams have to share with their respective voice channeling.

"But as far as Smile-4G is concerned we are specifically targeting data (internet) services only though in future we plan to roll-out trials for voice calling services," explained the firm's country manager, adding that, the LTE high speed connections will enable online business, video conferencing and faster downloading reaching 60 megabytes per second which is six-times faster 

source:www.alafrica.com

African telecom landscape looks towards high speeds

number of factors have contributed to Africa’s increasing adoption of mobile phones for internet use over PCs — cost and lack of ethernet infrastructure for two. The cost of computers versus the lower prices of mobile phones in addition to the lack of physical internet cable implementation has spurred the growth of mobile devices in Africa — a trend that is now of global proportion. But Africa’s mobile scene presents unique challenges, and the recently reported interest in the continent’s digital communications from Mideast and European telcos has spun a larger conversation over the future of the continent’s growth.

MidEast telcos have been developing their presence in North Africa for a while. Etisalat — an Emirates-based telco — took over France’s Vivendi’s stake in Maroc Telecom in July, heightening its presence in West Africa. ( Maroc Telecom was also Morocco’s largest operator, according to reports.) And European companies such as Orange have been increasing their investments in various countries to get a foothold in the developing markets. These growing investments from operators have accumulated throughout the year, and made for conversation at AfricaCom 2013 — a telecom conference held in Cape Town, South Africa earlier in November which calls together global technology leaders.

An executive from Gemalto — a digital security company — spoke after the conference and called for operators to take advantage of the unique communications landscape in Africa in order to bypass 3G implementation and escalate quickly to 4G. While attaining high speed wireless seems unlikely in regions that have barely reliable 2G, Sherry Zameer, head of Africa and Middle East telecommunications for the company, described the lack of regulation and restrictive platforms actually make Africa ripe for the buildout of 4G.

source: www.blouinnews.com

safaricom buys yu stake in fibre firm to launch 4g grid

Safaricom has acquired the full shareholding of rivalEssar in the undersea fibre optic The East Africa Marine system (TEAMs) for an undisclosed fee.

The Nairobi bourse-listed telecom confirmed it acquired the 10 per cent from Yu mobile to offer faster and more efficient Internet data services as well support the upgrade of its network to 4G.

The deal has pushed Safaricom's ownership of undersea fibre optic network to 32.5 per cent, a share that guarantees the operator additional capacity in Teams, which is offered based on shareholding.

Other shareholders are the Kenya government (20 per cent), Telkom Kenya (20 per cent), Kenya Data Networks (10 per cent) and Jamii Telecom (6.25 per cent).

Essar, which has been looking for a strategic investor to inject cash and stave off a liquidity crisis, says it used proceeds from the deal to sustain operations.

"The stake was sold to Safaricom in September at undisclosed figure. The finances from this sale went towards yuMobile's operations," said Madhur Taneja, the Essar Kenya CEO.

"It was an investment made by Essar, which was not being used for operations. This bandwidth had always been idle since we acquired it five years ago."

Teams, which began operations in 2008, offered bandwidth to telecom firms that feed their fibre optic cables that have been laid on land.

Yu, unlike Safaricom, is yet to lay down its own terrestrial fibre-optic cable, prompting the equity sale in Teams.

Safaricom said Friday it was the only shareholder in Teams that showed interest in snapping the Essar share.

"The additional shareholding in Teams entitles Safaricom to have increased capacity on the 1.28 TB/s international cable," said Safaricom.

"It is an integral part of our data strategy to have sufficient international capacity to feed the demands of our growing customer base and to support our terrestrial fibre strategy and LTE (4G network) plans. 

The firm said earlier it was going to spend about Sh8 billion over the next four years to lay down 2,300km of inland fibre-optic cable and support a rising customer base.

source: www. hispanicbussiness.com

bharti, reliance jio to share telecom infra

The Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Jio Infocomm and the Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel — two players that could soon be seen locking horns in the 4G long-term evolution (LTE) space — on Tuesday signed an agreement to share telecom infrastructure.

This includes sharing of inter- and intra-city fibre-optic networks, submarine cable networks, towers and internet broadband services, besides other opportunities identified later. In a joint statement, the two said the cooperation was aimed at avoiding duplication of infrastructure, wherever possible, and to preserve capital and the environment.

“This will... ensure seamless services to customers of both parties. The arrangement could, in future, be extended to roaming on 2G, 3G and 4G, and other mutually-benefitting areas relating to telecommunication, including, but not limited to, jointly laying fibre-optic or other forms of infrastructure services. The pricing would be at ‘arm’s length’, based on prevailing market rates,”
source: www. bussiness-standard.com

Nawras launches state of the art network operation centre in Bausher

Greg Young, Nawras CEO, said, "We would like to extend our gratitude to the Ministry of Communication and Transport and the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) for their support and guidance during this process. The launch of the NOC is a major step forward in the evolution of telecommunications in the Sultanate. It also underpins the huge investment in our newly Turbocharged network."

The new Nawras NOC controls the nationwide network from Musandam to Salalah. The NOC control spans all sites and technologies, mobile and fixed, 2G, 3G, 4G, WiMAX and FTTX. Every single piece of technology in each site (totalling more than 4500) is controlled from the NOC. This extensive network management is mainly undertaken by Huawei our managed service partner. The NOC is situated on top of our Main Data Centre, which is one of our five such centres, which ensure full geographical redundancy. We have invested in the most advanced testing systems, including test robots from Keynote SiGOS. In addition, probing systems from Nexus and Netscout are deployed across our network and systems that perform hourly health checks of all our main services. These best in class systems enable us to conduct extensive root cause investigations for any service impacting, ensuring swift restoration of the impacted service.

Elaborating on the benefits of the new Main Data Centre, Wolfgang Wemhoff, Nawras Chief Technology Officer, said, "The new data centre provides a state-of-the-art home for our business critical systems. It is a technology masterpiece. It meets all international standards and is future-proof. Out of this building we monitor the quality we provide to our customers and can identify issues even before a customer faces a problem. Here, you feel the heartbeat of our Turbocharging programme."

Also speaking, Ahmed Al Abri, Director - Information and Infrastructure at Nawras , commented on some of the impressive technical features of the Data Centre. "The technical specifications and capabilities are very impressive and include things such as having 7 back-up generators, a 4-chiller cooling system, total commercial power of 6 MVA, and separate back-up systems for the telecoms and IT racks. The facility has a total space of 650 square metres for servers."

source: zawya.com

bharti, Reliance jio to share telecom infra

The Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Jio Infocomm and the Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel — two players that could soon be seen locking horns in the 4G long-term evolution (LTE) space — on Tuesday signed an agreement to share telecom infrastructure.

This includes sharing of inter- and intra-city fibre-optic networks, submarine cable networks, towers and internet broadband services, besides other opportunities identified later. In a joint statement, the two said the cooperation was aimed at avoiding duplication of infrastructure, wherever possible, and to preserve capital and the environment.

“This will... ensure seamless services to customers of both parties. The arrangement could, in future, be extended to roaming on 2G, 3G and 4G, and other mutually-benefitting areas relating to telecommunication, including, but not limited to, jointly laying fibre-optic or other forms of infrastructure services. The pricing would be at ‘arm’s length’, based on prevailing market rates,” the joint statement said.

source: www.bussiness-standard.com

Nairobi hosts East African telecom investment summit as sector enters critical phase

The TMT Finance East Africa 2013 Conference will be held in Nairobi amidst unprecedented fixed-line and mobile consolidation and increasing investment in new infrastructure and spectrum predicted for the next 12 months.

Leading executives from companies including Safaricom, Bharti Airtel, Orange Telkom, Eaton Towers, Helios Towers, Standard Bank, Citi and regional government representatives are meeting at the TMT Finance & Investment East Africa 2013 Conference (http://www.tmtfinance.com/eastafrica) on November 26 at the Inter Continental Nairobi to tackle the critical opportunities and challenges for the region.

"Investment opportunities in Africa are immediate, significant, diverse and potentially very lucrative," said Enda Hardiman, Managing Partner, Hardiman Telecommunications, who will be leading a session on infrastructure investment at the conference. "Consolidation is in prospect and the fixed-line vista has changed out of all recognition. Landing of new submarine cables has increased connectivity by several orders of magnitude, while deployment of fibre in access networks is now common."

The conference will also include sessions on Regional Telecom Growth Strategies, Regulating Telecoms, Mergers and Acquisitions, Datacentres and Cloud, Applications and Mobile Banking, and Mobile Infrastructure.

"This is a really critical time for the East Africa region as critical decisions about the framework for investment, particularly regulation and spectrum allocation for 3G and 4G, will have a fantastic impact on regional growth," said Chris Buist, Director, Coleago Consulting, who will be chairing the session on regulation at the conference. "There are a number of important spectrum auctions coming up across the region and operators are looking at how best to use spectrum, infrastructure sharing, new technologies and business models to meet the massive demand for data services."

Mobile tower management and investment will also be an important topic at the conference.

"Specialist tower companies are now active continent-wide – all of which have recently engaged in successful fund-raising. Selloff of towers numbering 80,000 by the five major pan-African operators is now also in prospect," said Hardiman. "The investment vista is developing rapidly. The traditional "Big Five" operators continue to have vibrant investment programmes in place. This is now being complemented by focused interest on the part of the specialist, multi-billion dollar Private Equity funds. Sovereign wealth funds and specialist investors also continue to be active."

source: www.prweb.com

African mobile subscribers to number 930 million by 2019

The number of mobile subscriptions in sub-Saharan Africa could hit 930 million by the end of 2019, says international provider of communications technology and services Ericsson.

Ericsson unveiled the forecasts in its Mobility Report released earlier this week.

Mobile subscriptions in the region currently stand at 560 million, according to sub-Saharan Africa region head at Ericsson, Fredrik Jejdling.

The report is a summary of historical data subscriptions and traffic forecasts from various sources and validated with Ericsson internal data including extensive measurements in customer networks, revealed the company.

The forecasts are estimated based on macro-economic trends, user trends (researched by the Ericsson ConsumerLab), market maturity and technology development expectations.

“The mobile phone is the main device for voice communication and internet access in sub-Saharan Africa. This is primarily driven by the lack of fixed infrastructure in the region, and the device’s relatively low cost,” the report reads.

Also stated in the report is that in Africa there is expected to be 17 times more growth in mobile data traffic between 2013 and 2019.

Youth in countries such as South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria are also expected to be the primary drivers of social networking activity in sub-Saharan Africa.

Furthermore, the report found that although the Middle East and Africa had 80% of 2G subscriptions this year, the same figure would be for 3G/4G subscriptions in the year 2019.

The company’s mobility report also predicts that global mobile subscriptions are to reach 9.3 billion by 2019, with 5.6 billion being smartphone subscriptions.

source: itwebafrica.com

Huawei to roll out 4G service in Ethopia's capital Addis ababa

Ethiopia's Ethio Telecom said has selected  Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, launch a high-speed 4G network across the Ethiopia's capital city Addis Ababa. Early this year Ethio Telecom had signed a $1.6 billion deal with Chinese frims Huawei and ZTE to expand mobile phone infrastructure across Ethiopia. Reuters has quoted Abdurahim Ahmed, Ethio Telecom's head of communications 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.” More than 400,000 subscribers are likely to benefit from the 4G roll-out which will be completed in eight months. The rapid growth of Africa's telecoms industry is being linked with its economic growth. The continent’s telecom subscriber base was 650 million last year.

source: www.telecomtiger.com

African telecom landscape looks towards landscape

number of factors have contributed to Africa’s increasing adoption of mobile phones for internet use over PCs — cost and lack of ethernet infrastructure for two. The cost of computers versus the lower prices of mobile phones in addition to the lack of physical internet cable implementation has spurred the growth of mobile devices in Africa — a trend that is now of global proportion. But Africa’s mobile scene presents unique challenges, and the recently reported interest in the continent’s digital communications from Mideast and European telcos has spun a larger conversation over the future of the continent’s growth.

MidEast telcos have been developing their presence in North Africa for a while. Etisalat — an Emirates-based telco — took over France’s Vivendi’s stake in Maroc Telecom in July, heightening its presence in West Africa. (Maroc Telecom was also Morocco’s largest operator, according to reports.) And European companies such as Orange have been increasing their investments in various countries to get a foothold in the developing markets. These growing investments from operators have accumulated throughout the year, and made for conversation at AfricaCom 2013 — a telecom conference held in Cape Town, South Africa earlier in November which calls together global technology leaders.

An executive from Gemalto — a digital security company — spoke after the conference and called for operators to take advantage of the unique communications landscape in Africa in order to bypass 3G implementation and escalate quickly to 4G. While attaining high speed wireless seems unlikely in regions that have barely reliable 2G, Sherry Zameer, head of Africa and Middle East telecommunications for the company, described the lack of regulation and restrictive platforms actually make Africa ripe for the buildout of 4G.

Naturally, this lofty goal still seems out of reach given the general lack of connectivity around the continent in the face of obstacles like cable theft and the availability of spectrum. But some regions have made more hefty moves in the 4G direction than others; Rwanda made significant progress in late October signing a deal with Korea Telecom to deliver 4G to its citizenry over the next three years. And Alcatel-Lucent just partnered with YooMee Africa to bring LTE to Cameroon and other countries.

As foreign investors and native companies alike band together to develop high-speed wireless in Africa — despite the tangible results from work in 2013 likely being years away — the continent will still see increasing web traffic as more mobile devices connect to the internet through these new, spreading networks.

blogs.bloiun.com

mobile broadband

It is marketing term for wireless internet access through a portable modem, mobile phone , USB wireless modem , tablet or other mobile devices.

The first wireless internet access became available in 1991 as a part of the 2G of mobile phone technology. Its higher speed became available in 2001 and as a part of 3G and 4G in 2006.

It is the marketing term for wireless internet access delivered through mobile phone towers to computers , mobile phones and other devices using portable modems. The bit rates available with mobile broadband devices support voice and video as well as other data access. The devices that provide mobile broadband to mobile computers include:

1.      PC cards known as PC data cards and express cards.

2.      USB and mobile broadband also known as connect cards

3.      Portable devices with built in support for mobile broadband such as laptop computers, netbook computers etc.