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.ventures-africa.com

The widest 3G network in South Africa battle

The Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) has ruled that Vodacom may not claim to have the “widest 3G network” in South Africa. This followed a complaint by MTN.

A Vodacom print advertisement stated that “Get extra data on the widest 3G network … surf more, download more and stay connected 24/7”.

MTN lodged a complaint with the ASA against Vodacom’s “widest 3G network” statement, arguing that the claim is unsubstantiated and misleading.

MTN said that Vodacom may have the widest coverage in some regions, but it does not have the widest coverage across all regions.

MTN further said that coverage methodology needs to be considered when assessing such claims.

Vodacom responded, saying that it has a substantially wider network than MTN. This, the company said, is evident from the published coverage numbers by all networks, and the actual number of towers deployed by each network.

Vodacom showed that it deployed 6,649 3G towers, whereas MTN has 4,768 3G towers. “These published figures also support the published claims of 90.1% (Vodacom) and 67.7% (MTN) 3G coverage respectively,” Vodacom said.

The ASA was not convinced that a higher number of 3G towers automatically translates into wider coverage.

source:mybroadband.co

MTN pushes cheap internet on feature phones

Mobile operator MTN is driving feature phone users to the internet at lower cost.

MTN on Wednesday introduced a SurferLite pilot project that aims to roll out internet access to phones that do not currently access data services.

"The MTN SurferLite application provides an introductory data service to the digital world to customers by delivering an affordable experience that allows non-internet-customers access to content that is otherwise only available on an internet enabled phone," said Peter Malebye, MTN SA general manager.

Feature phone users generally have a poorer internet experience than smartphone users as the devices with smaller displays are not easily able to display mobile web content.

However, some feature phones like the Nokia Asha range are able to produce reasonable access to the internet.

Spectrum

Also, the cost of smartphones continues to decline, especially at lower price points. The Huawei 858 retails for around R399 from an initial retail price of R799.

Samsung's upgraded Galaxy Pocket smartphone is available for around R1 000.

For many users, though, the cost of data remains a stumbling block and junior operator Cell C offers data at 15c per megabyte.

While the expansion of the internet would no doubt enhance the mobile experience for cellphone users, spectrum for true broadband continues to hurt the mobile economy.


source: www.news24.com

DDB wins Best Creative Agency of the Year

It was a day of pomp and glitz as key players in the different industries, such as MTN, Firstbank, Nokia, Guinness, their advertising agencies, brand icons and leading journalists, came together to acknowledge and reward excellence at the 3rd edition of Marketing World Awards which took place at the resplendent Intercontinental Hotel earlier this November.

DDB Lagos topped the list of awardees, walking away with Best Creative Agency of the Year which once again demonstrated how the craftsmen and wordsmiths at the Nigerian office of DDB are dedicated to towing the line of creativity and being enemies of the ordinary.

It was especially a big celebration for DDB Lagos as MTN received the largest number of Awards beginning with the Marketing Campaign of the Year Award for the Mobile Number Portability advertising campaign masterpiece, ‘I don Port’, featuring leading actor and comedian, Hafiz Oyetoro, a.k.a. Saka. Other awards comprised of Telecom Brand of the Year Award, Overall Marketing World Brand of the Year Award and Marketing Team of the Year Award.

Still on the local scene, during the 9th edition of the annual Nigerian Telecom Awards, creative powerhouse DDB Lagos once again carted away both the Best Telecom Advertising Agency of the Year and The Best Telecom Advert of the Year for the same I don Port campaign.

It comes as no surprise that DDB Lagos picked the most coveted advertising awards at both award ceremonies, going by its profile as Nigeria’s leading telecoms marketing company and a reputation for creative excellence nurtured over 26 years. DDB Lagos has created several award-winning campaigns for Nigeria’s leading telecoms company, MTN, whose advertising account it has held since 2006, a record in itself.

The I don Port campaign, following with which the agency emerged a force in telecoms advertising across Africa, is arguably Nigeria’s most sensational advertising campaign, with over 100,000 hits on YouTube after just one week of its release. It equally generated an unprecedented amount of debate and discourse in the media, as well as mock videos on the internet. The campaign is now being used as a case study at the School of Marketing Communications of the Pan African University, Lagos.

source: www.businessdayonline.com

African Tech Deal of the Year

Nokia shareholders in November voted in favour of the sale of the company’s devices and services section to Microsoft, at a price tag of US$7.36 billion.  Microsoft is also granted a 10 year non-exclusive licence to Nokia’s patents. The sale is likely to conclude in early 2014 – currently awaiting regulatory approvals – with approximately 32,000 Nokia employees expected to transfer to Microsoft. The deal sees the Windows Phone platform united with its biggest hardware supplier, and paves the way for Windows Phone/Nokia devices to take over the African market, in which Nokia handsets have proven popular to date. With the Windows Phone platform already being touted as a favourable solution for African markets – under Microsoft’s 4Afrika initiative – and Nokia producing a range of low-cost smartphones suited to lower-income environments, the deal sees the beginning of a potential African market titan.

Richard Cutcher: As news broke that MTN had invested US$75 million in Amadeus Capital Partners, a technology fund targeting emerging markets, at first it appeared Africa’s best-known telecommunications brand was giving something back to the industry it profits so immensely from. However, after interviewing the managers of the fund, HumanIPO established MTN is more interested in taking advantage of the growing mobile sector by boosting foreign ventures to serve the African industry rather than any of the continent’s talented developers and entrepreneurs. As a single indicator of the stupidity surrounding moneymen of African telecommunications, this was surely the ‘African’ tech deal of the year.

source:www.humanipo.com

OnMobile bets on 3G boom for VAS push in India

OnMobile Global, one of the world’s largest mobile value-added services (VAS) companies with operations across 55 countries, had taken a beating in India after its CEO Arvind Rao was expelled last year. However, under Mouli Ramanan, its co-founder and managing director, the company has been able to rise again. Ramanan tells Beryl Menezes about OnMobile’s journey ahead. Excerpts from the interview:

OnMobile has been aggressively targeting emerging markets, including India. What is happening on this front?
While caller tunes, which contribute about 70% to our overall revenues, are primary focus, we are now in the process of rolling out other services in the areas of music and sports as well. For example, we acquired Livewire, which offers high quality, personalised service at low cost, in the US in July. We also recently won a large deal with MTN, the largest operator in Middle East and Africa, with 200 million users, and we have a contract to roll out services in 22 countries where MTN is present. Latin America and Africa contributes 26% to revenues, and , in the last 1-1.5 years, besides emerging markets, we are also focusing on rolling out VAS services in Europe and North America.

How do you see growth in India in the coming years?
Out of 120 million users globally, we have 45 million in India. While in the last 1-1.5 years, OnMobile has witnessed a de-growth of 20-22% in India, due to regulatory intervention for promotional services and the downturn in the telecom and VAS industry, this does not reflect the opportunities that lie ahead. With 800 million mobile users in the country, a lot of them first time mobile internet users, we are seeing a lot of demand for VAS services on the mobile in local languages. There are also enough developers who want to provide services to these customers.

The ecosystem being developed for anybody who wants to provide these services. In the next 2-3 years, we will see a lot more services on mobile.

source: www.dnaindia.com

onMobile bets on 3G boom for VAS push in India

OnMobile Global, one of the world’s largest mobile value-added services (VAS) companies with operations across 55 countries, had taken a beating in India after its CEO Arvind Rao was expelled last year. However, under Mouli Ramanan, its co-founder and managing director, the company has been able to rise again. Ramanan tells Beryl Menezes about OnMobile’s journey ahead. Excerpts from the interview:

OnMobile has been aggressively targeting emerging markets, including India. What is happening on this front?While caller tunes, which contribute about 70% to our overall revenues, are primary focus, we are now in the process of rolling out other services in the areas of music and sports as well. For example, we acquired Livewire, which offers high quality, personalised service at low cost, in the US in July. We also recently won a large deal with MTN, the largest operator in Middle East and Africa, with 200 million users, and we have a contract to roll out services in 22 countries where MTN is present. Latin America and Africa contributes 26% to revenues, and , in the last 1-1.5 years, besides emerging markets, we are also focusing on rolling out VAS services in Europe and North America.

How do you see growth in India in the coming years?Out of 120 million users globally, we have 45 million in India. While in the last 1-1.5 years, OnMobile has witnessed a de-growth of 20-22% in India, due to regulatory intervention for promotional services and the downturn in the telecom and VAS industry, this does not reflect the opportunities that lie ahead. With 800 million mobile users in the country, a lot of them first time mobile internet users, we are seeing a lot of demand for VAS services on the mobile in local languages. There are also enough developers who want to provide services to these customers.

The ecosystem being developed for anybody who wants to provide these services. In the next 2-3 years, we will see a lot more services on mobile.

Revenue sharing has always been a matter of concern between VAS players and telcos in India...Since the last one year, operators are beginning to realise the importance of getting more service providers and developers on board to provide services and so are open to giving more revenue share today. From 30-40% earlier, the revenue share is now moving up to 60-65% today. Service providers also have the freedom to provide and market the service themselves, while operators only provide the billing platform.

source: www.dndia.com

vodacom must withdraw 3G speed chain

Vodacom has to withdraw claims that it has South Africa’s “fastest” and “widest” 3G network as these have not been substantiated and are therefore in breach of the code of advertising practice.

These are the findings of the Advertising Standards Authority, which has instructed Vodacom to desist from making the claims until it is able to verify them “unequivocally”. The rulings follow complaints by rival MTN.

A third complaint against Vodacom by MTN — protesting against Vodacom’s claim that it has the “fastest network for smartphones” — was not upheld. The authority found that this claim by Vodacom was substantiated.

In a complaint dated 7 November, Webber Wentzel attorneys, on behalf of MTN, lodged a complaint against a Vodacom television advertisement that includes a voice-over that claims Vodacom has the “fastest 3G network” and the “widest 3G network”.

MTN argued that although there could be regions in South Africa where Vodacom has the fastest 3G speeds, this is not necessarily true for the country in general. According to MTN, tests done by Ericsson, using Ookla, showed that in Gauteng MTN had faster 3G downlink and throughput speeds than Vodacom in certain periods.

In the Western Cape, MTN was faster than Vodacom during January 2013, and had been faster since August 2013 to the end of the reflected period. In KwaZulu-Natal, MTN outperformed Vodacom during November 2012, and was on par with Vodacom during February 2013. MTN also had lower latency in many instances.

The Advertising Standards Authority said that MTN went to great lengths to explain why and how speed tests and results can be manipulated, and why Vodacom would not be able to substantiate its claim of having the fastest 3G network in general.

Vodacom, through ad agency Ireland-Davenport, argued, among other things, that the nature of the Ookla tests ensures that any variable that could affect the test results is inherently included. “MTN is incorrect in alleging that ‘too many variables are at play’,” it said. “In addition, the magnitude and nature of Ookla tests negate any possible attempt at manipulation. Finally, the Ookla results are derived from random sampling as well, which further negates any effort to manipulate the results in the manner that MTN suggests.”

source: www.techcentral.co

the widest 3G network in south africa battle

The Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) has ruled that Vodacom may not claim to have the “widest 3G network” in South Africa. This followed a complaint by MTN.

A Vodacom print advertisement stated that “Get extra data on the widest 3G network … surf more, download more and stay connected 24/7”.

MTN lodged a complaint with the ASA against Vodacom’s “widest 3G network” statement, arguing that the claim is unsubstantiated and misleading.

MTN said that Vodacom may have the widest coverage in some regions, but it does not have the widest coverage across all regions.

MTN further said that coverage methodology needs to be considered when assessing such claims.

Vodacom responded, saying that it has a substantially wider network than MTN. This, the company said, is evident from the published coverage numbers by all networks, and the actual number of towers deployed by each network.

Vodacom showed that it deployed 6,649 3G towers, whereas MTN has 4,768 3G towers. “These published figures also support the published claims of 90.1% (Vodacom) and 67.7% (MTN) 3G coverage respectively,” Vodacom said.

The ASA was not convinced that a higher number of 3G towers automatically translates into wider coverage.

The ASA said that, for a claim of having the widest 3G network to be substantiated, Vodacom needs to show that:

1. It is correct to include all sites that transmit at -100dBm in its “3G” calculations;
2. It is true that Vodacom has more of these sites than any of its competitors; and
3. That these sites are spread wider and more comprehensively across the country than any of its competitors.

“At best, the information shows that Vodacom has more sites transmitting at -100dBm than MTN, but this is as far as it goes,

source: www.mybroadband.co

MTN makes data deal permanent

Mobile data price war continue to benefit South African consumers as the operators drop the cost of connecting smart devices to the internet.

MTN on Wednesday announced that its data promotions were now permanent as the company looked to take on Vodacom in SA.

"We at first extended the data offerings promotion to our customers, but have now decided to make it permanent to provide our customers a bold, new digital world," said Brian Gould Gouldie, chief Marketing Officer at MTN SA.

Junior operator Cell C currently offers data at 15c per megabyte and the price contributed to disrupting the data market. Competitors reacted with a variety of pricing offers to reduce the cost of smartphone data.

MTN's data promotions of R10 for 20MB up to R249 for 2GB are now permanent.

source: www.news24.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

ISPs beat mobile operators to LTE in Africa

WiMAX used to be the technology of choice for data insurgent challengers but now they seem to be shifting to LTE.

West African ISPs Surfline (in Ghana) and YooMee (Cote d’Ivoire) both look like stealing a march on the mobile operators with LTE roll-outs early next year.

Russell Southwood spoke to YooMe Africa’s CEO Dov Bar Gera about what the company is looking at doing.

YooMe is a privately held Swiss company that has two African ISP operations, one in Cameroon and the other to open shortly in Cote d’Ivoire. In the past CEO Dov Bar Gera has set up and sold ISP operations in Eastern Europe before moving his focus to Africa.

Its Cameroon operation has deployed WiMAX 16e and it claims to have covered 85% of the population in the country’s two main cities, Douala and Yaounde with 20 base stations. Its main competitors are the two mobile operators (MTN and Orange) and a handful of smaller ISPs.

It has taken significant market share, having around 20,000 out of the 50,000 broadband subscribers in the country if you define broadband as over 512 kbps download speed. Overall Bar Gera estimates that there are probably around a million Cameroonians who use the Internet at least once a week.

But there is a cap on growth as the monopoly international bandwidth provider Camtel has not yet reduced its wholesale prices:”Because of this monopoly, international bandwidth is 5-7 times more expansive (than in other more competitive countries)”. Obviously higher wholesale prices lead to more expensive retail prices, which in turn means a smaller market.

source: www. bussinesstech.co

MTN bringing e-commerce services to African market

MTN has partnered with Rocket Internet and Millicom International Cellular to develop internet businesses in Africa through Africa Internet Holding (AIH), an exclusive vehicle to develop e-commerce businesses across the continent. MTN, Millicom and Rocket Internet will each become 33.3% shareholders in AIH.

Commenting on the transaction, Sifiso Dabengwa, MTN Group President and CEO, said: “We are excited to engage in a strategic partnership with Rocket Internet and Millicom to develop online ventures across the fast growing internet markets of Africa. Rocket Internet’s proven successful track record, coupled with Millicom and MTN’s leading mobile telecommunications position, will allow the partnership to capture the growth potential of the digital media space across our footprint in the region”.

Founded in 2012 as a joint venture between Rocket Internet and Millicom International Cellular, AIH is a leading internet group in Africa, with presence in 13 countries on the continent, including South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana. The company has developed several successful e-commerce ventures in the last 18 months, including Jumia, Zando, Kaymu, Jovago, Lamudi, Carmudi, Easytaxi and Hellofood.

Commenting on the agreement today, Millicom President and CEO, Hans-Holger Albrecht said:

“We are pleased to welcome MTN as a strategic partner to accelerate the growth of our online alliance in Africa. It is a significant vote of confidence in its future. Between us we have more than 220 million mobile customers in the continent with very limited overlap. MTN is the leader in Nigeria and South Africa, the largest markets for AIH currently, while Millicom contributes through its leading positions in our markets, combined with one of the most innovative product offerings.”

The investment in AIH is in line with MTN’s strategy of bringing the digital world to customers, adapting to their rapidly changing needs and delivering a consistent end-to-end user experience. The partnership brings together Rocket Internet’s expertise in developing successful global internet business models, and Millicom and MTN’s leadership position and unique knowledge of the local telecom markets.

source: www.spyghana.com

MTN bringing e-commerce services to African markets

MTN has partnered with Rocket Internet and Millicom International Cellular to develop internet businesses in Africa through Africa Internet Holding (AIH), an exclusive vehicle to develop e-commerce businesses across the continent. MTN, Millicom and Rocket Internet will each become 33.3% shareholders in AIH.

Commenting on the transaction, Sifiso Dabengwa, MTN Group President and CEO, said: “We are excited to engage in a strategic partnership with Rocket Internet and Millicom to develop online ventures across the fast growing internet markets of Africa. Rocket Internet’s proven successful track record, coupled with Millicom and MTN’s leading mobile telecommunications position, will allow the partnership to capture the growth potential of the digital media space across our footprint in the region”.

Founded in 2012 as a joint venture between Rocket Internet and Millicom International Cellular, AIH is a leading internet group in Africa, with presence in 13 countries on the continent, including South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana. The company has developed several successful e-commerce ventures in the last 18 months, including Jumia, Zando, Kaymu, Jovago, Lamudi, Carmudi, Easytaxi and Hellofood.

source: www.spyghana.com

the widest 3G network in South Africa battle

The Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) has ruled that Vodacom may not claim to have the “widest 3G network” in South Africa. This followed a complaint by MTN.

A Vodacom print advertisement stated that “Get extra data on the widest 3G network … surf more, download more and stay connected 24/7”.

MTN lodged a complaint with the ASA against Vodacom’s “widest 3G network” statement, arguing that the claim is unsubstantiated and misleading.

MTN said that Vodacom may have the widest coverage in some regions, but it does not have the widest coverage across all regions.

MTN further said that coverage methodology needs to be considered when assessing such claims.

Vodacom responded, saying that it has a substantially wider network than MTN. This, the company said, is evident from the published coverage numbers by all networks, and the actual number of towers deployed by each network.

Vodacom showed that it deployed 6,649 3G towers, whereas MTN has 4,768 3G towers. “These published figures also support the published claims of 90.1% (Vodacom) and 67.7% (MTN) 3G coverage respectively,” Vodacom said.

The ASA was not convinced that a higher number of 3G towers automatically translates into wider coverage.

source: www.mybroadband.co

ISPs beat mobile operators to LTE in Africa

WiMAX used to be the technology of choice for data insurgent challengers but now they seem to be shifting to LTE.

West African ISPs Surfline (in Ghana) and YooMee (Cote d’Ivoire) both look like stealing a march on the mobile operators with LTE roll-outs early next year.

Russell Southwood spoke to YooMe Africa’s CEO Dov Bar Gera about what the company is looking at doing.

YooMe is a privately held Swiss company that has two African ISP operations, one in Cameroon and the other to open shortly in Cote d’Ivoire. In the past CEO Dov Bar Gera has set up and sold ISP operations in Eastern Europe before moving his focus to Africa.

Its Cameroon operation has deployed WiMAX 16e and it claims to have covered 85% of the population in the country’s two main cities, Douala and Yaounde with 20 base stations. Its main competitors are the two mobile operators (MTN and Orange) and a handful of smaller ISPs.

It has taken significant market share, having around 20,000 out of the 50,000 broadband subscribers in the country if you define broadband as over 512 kbps download speed. Overall Bar Gera estimates that there are probably around a million Cameroonians who use the Internet at least once a week.

But there is a cap on growth as the monopoly international bandwidth provider Camtel has not yet reduced its wholesale prices:”Because of this monopoly, international bandwidth is 5-7 times more expansive (than in other more competitive countries)”. Obviously higher wholesale prices lead to more expensive retail prices, which in turn means a smaller market.

YooMee’s next move is to roll out an TDD LTE network in Cote d’Ivoire’s capital Abidjan. It will launch a network of 35 base stations from Alcatel Lucent in the second half of February, which according to Bar Gera will give “good coverage in populated areas. We will also be looking at the lower income segments.”

He’s quite dismissive of WiMAX vs LTE comparisons:”Subscribers don’t care whether it’s WiMAX or LTE, they want to know the speed and price of the service. In Cote d’Ivoire we will be delivering up to 2 mbps.”

source: www.bussinesstech.co

African ISPs steal march on LTE

YooMe is a privately held Swiss company that has two African Internet service provider (ISP) businesses, one in Cameroon and the other to open soon in Côte d’Ivoire. Its CEO, Dov Bar Gera, has set up and sold ISPs in Eastern Europe, but his focus now is Africa.

YooMe’s Cameroon operation has deployed WiMax and it claims to have covered 85% of the population in the country’s two main cities, Douala and Yaounde, with 20 base stations. Its main competitors are the two mobile operators, MTN and Orange, and a handful of smaller ISPs.

It has taken significant market share, having about 20 000 of the 50 000 broadband subscribers in the country if you define broadband as 512kbit/s or faster. Overall, Bar Gera estimates that there are probably around a million Cameroonians who use the Internet at least once a week.

But there is a cap on growth as the monopoly international bandwidth provider, Camtel, has not reduced its wholesale prices. “Because of this monopoly, international bandwidth is five to seven times more expansive [than in other more competitive countries].” Obviously, higher wholesale prices lead to more expensive retail prices, which in turn means a smaller market.

YooMee’s next move is to roll out a time-division duplexing long-term evolution (LTE) network in Côte d’Ivoire’s capital, Abidjan. It will launch a network of 35 base stations from Alcatel Lucent in the second half of February, which, according to Bar Gera, will provide “good coverage in populated areas. We will also be looking at the lower income segments.”

He’s quite dismissive of WiMax vs LTE comparisons: “Subscribers don’t care whether it’s WiMax or LTE. They want to know the speed and price of the service. In Côte d’Ivoire, we will be delivering up to 2Mbit/s.” This speed is significantly less than Smile Telecom’s 6Mbit/s service. Prices have not been finalised yet but are likely to be in the US$32-51/month range, which seems competitive.

source: www.techcentral.co

ISPs beat mobile operators to LTE in Africa

WiMAX used to be the technology of choice for data insurgent challengers but now they seem to be shifting to LTE.

West African ISPs Surfline (in Ghana) and YooMee (Cote d’Ivoire) both look like stealing a march on the mobile operators with LTE roll-outs early next year.

Russell Southwood spoke to YooMe Africa’s CEO Dov Bar Gera about what the company is looking at doing.

YooMe is a privately held Swiss company that has two African ISP operations, one in Cameroon and the other to open shortly in Cote d’Ivoire. In the past CEO Dov Bar Gera has set up and sold ISP operations in Eastern Europe before moving his focus to Africa.

Its Cameroon operation has deployed WiMAX 16e and it claims to have covered 85% of the population in the country’s two main cities, Douala and Yaounde with 20 base stations. Its main competitors are the two mobile operators (MTN and Orange) and a handful of smaller ISPs.

It has taken significant market share, having around 20,000 out of the 50,000 broadband subscribers in the country if you define broadband as over 512 kbps download speed. Overall Bar Gera estimates that there are probably around a million Cameroonians who use the Internet at least once a week.

source: www.bussinesstech.co 

vodacom seeks entry into Ethopia,s telecom sector

South Africa’s Vodacom Group has opened its first office in Ethiopia in an attempt to establish its presence in the country.

The company, which has a strong presence in several African countries including Lesotho, Mozambique, Tanzania, DRC, Nigeria, and of course South Africa, has described Ethiopia as the “most fantastic telecoms market on the continent.”

“We would invest here tomorrow… One operator, 80 million people, the economy growing at 7% – it’s a great market,” Vodacom Group chief executive officer, Romeo Kumalo told Reuters.

The Telecoms firm says it will soon apply for a license to offer value-added services – all other services aside from standard voice calls. This is seen as an attempt to position itself in anticipation of the government’s opening of the country’s telecommunications sector to private investors.

More than 200 Telecoms companies have applied for similar licenses from Ethiopia’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, but only MTN group has been granted the authority to offer value-added services. But MTN is yet to set up shop in the country.

Ethiopia’s state-run Ethio Telecom continues to maintain a monopoly in telecoms and refuses to liberalize the sector saying the USD 321 million generated by the company every year is used to finance infrastructure projects. Foreign investors continue to show great interest in the sector, which Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has described as a “cash cow”.

Ethio Telecom recently made deals with Huawei and ZTE to expand the mobile phone infrastructure throughout the country. The two deals will see the introduction of a 4G network in Addis Ababa and expansion of mobile phone and 3G internet access throughout the rest of the country.

Growth in Ethiopia’s Telecoms sector is indicative of the entire continent, which has seen tremendous growth in recent years with subscribers increasing significantly between 2011 and 2012.

source: www.zegabi.com

Vodacom must withdraw 3G speed chain

Vodacom has to withdraw claims that it has South Africa’s “fastest” and “widest” 3G network as these have not been substantiated and are therefore in breach of the code of advertising practice.

These are the findings of the Advertising Standards Authority, which has instructed Vodacom to desist from making the claims until it is able to verify them “unequivocally”. The rulings follow complaints by rival MTN.

A third complaint against Vodacom by MTN — protesting against Vodacom’s claim that it has the “fastest network for smartphones” — was not upheld. The authority found that this claim by Vodacom was substantiated.

In a complaint dated 7 November, Webber Wentzel attorneys, on behalf of MTN, lodged a complaint against a Vodacom television advertisement that includes a voice-over that claims Vodacom has the “fastest 3G network” and the “widest 3G network”.

MTN argued that although there could be regions in South Africa where Vodacom has the fastest 3G speeds, this is not necessarily true for the country in general. According to MTN, tests done by Ericsson, using Ookla, showed that in Gauteng MTN had faster 3G downlink and throughput speeds than Vodacom in certain periods.

In the Western Cape, MTN was faster than Vodacom during January 2013, and had been faster since August 2013 to the end of the reflected period. In KwaZulu-Natal, MTN outperformed Vodacom during November 2012, and was on par with Vodacom during February 2013. MTN also had lower latency in many instances.

The Advertising Standards Authority said that MTN went to great lengths to explain why and how speed tests and results can be manipulated, and why Vodacom would not be able to substantiate its claim of having the fastest 3G network in general.

source : www.techcentral.co