ZICTA threatens operators with more criminal proceedings over QoS

The Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) has threatened continued criminal proceedings against mobile operators if they fail to improve their services.

ZICTA has already sued the operators to seek remedial measures relating to the enforcement of quality service pursuant to Zambia’s Information and Communication Technology law of 2009. According to ZICTA, the law gives it powers to protect the rights and interests of customers where they are being exploited.

ZICTA says the provision of poor services by the operators were criminal in nature because subscribers are being exploited.

The organisation said it has handled over the docket it opened in July this year to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) for perusal and further instructions before the matter goes to court.

ZICTA accuses the three operators, MTN Zamtel and Airtel of failing to meet the minimum standards of quality of service.

source: www.biztechafrica.com

voice calls are dying in South Africa

A report on the state of the mobile ecosystem in South Africa has found that voice is in decline, especially among younger demographics.

According to the Mobility 2014 research study, conducted by World Wide Worx with the backing of First National Bank, people in the 19 - 24 age group are abandoning spending on voice calls in favour of data.

The results show that voice declined to 56% of the group's cellphone expense, down around 10% from 2012, while spending on data increased from 17% to 24%.

But it's not only young people: Spending on voice calls declined to 65% as a share of mobile expense across all demographics, down from 77% in 2010.

Data spend, on the other hand increased from 12% to 16%.

Spectrum

"Older users continue to spend far more overall, but the powerful shift in spend from voice to data will work its way up the age segments in the coming years," said Arthur Goldstuck, managing director of World Wide Worx.

Mobile operators have noticed the shift and there have been a variety of data offers to encourage consumers to utilise the service.

source: www.news24.com

watching television on mobile phones on the increase

Watching television on mobile phones is expected to become common soon as mobile operators increase value added services on their networks. The move is driven by the increasing attempt by various telecommunication companies to grow revenue streams across Sub-Saharan Africa. The growing number of smartphones in the market and deployment of faster networks by mobile operators are aiding the shift in consumption of TV content. Though delivery of TV content on mobile phone seems futuristic especially in Africa, telecommunications infrastructure firm Ericsson says there will be 913 million mobile connections in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2019. It adds that 65 per cent of these connections would be on the third generation (3G) network.

source: www.standardmedia.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 

Gulf groups gets serious in Africa

Etisalat's deal to buy a stake in Maroc Telecom is a sign of renewed commitment to African telecoms, but some players with smaller stakes are continuing to withdraw.

When French group Vivendi decided to sell its 53% stake in Maroc Telecom last year, two Gulf-based mobile operators – Etisalat and Ooredoo – emerged as front- runners.

Middle Eastern telecoms groups are no strangers to the African continent. After a decade of mixed fortunes, including some faltering first steps and a cluster of disparate investments, they are re-engaging in earnest to boost international revenue.

"Middle Eastern markets are getting more competitive, particularly in the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council], so that's created a push factor for Middle Eastern operators to look elsewhere for continued growth, to adjacent less-advanced markets," says Matthew Reed, principal analyst for the Middle East and Africa at Informa Telecoms & Media in Dubai.

In the end, it was United Arab Emirates-based Etisalat that came out top of the Maroc Telecom bidding war, entering into exclusive talks in July with Vivendi and agreeing to pay $ 5.3 bn for the stake in early November.

We call Maroc Telecom a cash machine because it is a very profitable company, thus many bidders were interested," explains Jawad Kerdoudi, director of the Institut Marocain des Relations Internationales.

"But I think Morocco would be happy to see a UAE company buying Vivendi's share as it will reinforce our relations with the Gulf region," he says. A source within Morocco's parliament, who asked not to be named, said the move could be "considered an extra step towards our GCC membership."

Etisalat did not respond to requests for an interview about the deal negotiations.

source: www.theafricareport.com

mobile telecommunication company KSC

Zain Group, a pioneer in mobile telecommunications in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa, is proud to announce the award of the Telecom Operator of the Year accolade to its operation in Iraq at the prestigious Arabian Business Achievement Awards 2013, held in Dubai on 11 November.

Arabian Business is a highly regarded online and print business publication across the Middle East, and its annual Achievement Awards is widely recognized as the premier awards ceremony in the regional business calendar. The black-tie gala ceremony was attended by an elite audience of regional business leaders and international dignitaries including Zain Iraq Chairman, Mohammed Charchafchi and Chief Financial and Operating Officer, Wael Ghanayem.

On announcing the accolade, the editorial team of Arabian Business noted, "The Award confirms the immense contributions Zain Iraq has made to the telecom sector and the country in its 10 years of operation, during which it has become Iraq's leading mobile operator serving over 14.5 million customers reflecting a 48% market share. Zain is one of the most recognizable brands in the country and the operator's exceptional network covers 97% of the population, having invested over US$4.5 billion inIraq since commencing its operations in 2003. Zain Iraq is an important part of Zain Group, contributing 33% of the Group's customer base and 40% of its revenues."

Furthermore, Arabian Business noted, "Zain Iraq's wide-ranging educational, health and cultural programs are all indicative of a company acting with sound sustainable and corporate socially responsible values."

Zain Iraq Chairman, Mohammed Charchafchi commented on the award:"We are wholeheartedly committed to the continual development of the telecom sector in Iraq and playing our role in the revitalization of the country. We have always considered our journey in Iraq as one with the people and for the people, and I dedicate this award to our 14.5 million loyal customers and our committed 3,000-strong workforce."

Scott Gegenheimer, Zain Group CEO said: "Zain Iraq is in the final stages of preparing for a stock market listing, which will result in more Iraqis gaining ownership of a mobile operator serving their own country. Zain Group will continue to support the local management team whose solid track record is marked by continuing revenue growth and improving profitability over the years, maintaining Zain's undisputed market leadership in Iraq. We appreciate the Zain Iraq team's efforts being recognized at such an important time in the mobile operator's development."

source: www.4-traders.com

mobile operators draw a new small cell order in 2014

Mobile operators are frequently described to be under pressure to upgrade the capacity of their networks in response to unrelenting demand for mobile data services.  Small cells are one such technology deemed indispensible for operators. As a case in point, AT&T announced that it will aggressively push to deploy 40,000 small cells by the end of 2015 under its Project Velocity IP (VIP). In the meantime, Verizon Wireless expressed the desire to deploy small cells but only if they are inexpensive.

What the two leading North American operators are saying is that inexpensive small cells, specifically outdoor carrier deployed compact base stations, makes possible for high-volume deployments. However, small cells remain to date an object of great debate with operators actively engaged in field trials during 2013 while promises of deployments are deferred into the future. This begs the question: how do we map the current state into the deployment cycle of a new technology? What do operators see as the challenges holding up small cell deployments? What are their key requirements for small cell deployments? What type of small cells will be deployed and how do the different backhaul solutions stack up

source: fiercewireless.com

Cell C subscriber base hits 13 million

South Africa mobile operator Cell C said that its subscriber base has passed 13 million for the first time. Acting CEO Jose Dos Santos said that Cell C had achieved more than 1.2 million gross connections in October, with 400,000 net additions. The operator earlier said it signed up 1 million gross customers in September and in July. The company told BusinessTech that it fell marginally short of reaching that target in August. 

Cell C also announced that it has exceeded its target of 100 new sites in Gauteng before the end of November, adding 110 in the province as part of an effort to alleviate its under-pressure network. Santos said that 110 new sites were on air, taking total sites on the group's network to 4,040. Of the 4,040 sites, 198 are 2G-only, with the rest (3,842) being 3G. Santos said that he expected an additional 340-360 sites to be on air by May-June 2014. 

source: www.telecompaper.com

google,s project link the first nail in the African,s telcos coffin

Google recently announced its first infrastructural project in Africa, called Project Link. This initiative, through the building of a fibre-optic network in Kampala (Uganda), enables internet service providers (ISPs) and mobile operators to provide faster connections to their users than ever before. This announcement, which has not really been picked up by the African tech media so far, can be a real game changer for the African digital space.
source: memeburn.com

africa's mobile boom : huge opportunities

Sub-Saharan Africa's mobile industry has been the fastest growing region in the world for mobile users in the past five years, according to a report published  by the GSMA, the body representing mobile operators worldwide.

The region's mobile subscriber base has grown by 18% a year over the past five years to 253-million unique users and 502-million connections. GSMA forecasts in their report, "Sub-Saharan Africa Mobile Economy 2013", that mobile users in the region will be closer to 346-million within the next five years.

Despite the high figures, there is still ample room for growth. "With unique subscriber penetration rates still less than 33%, this opens up a major opportunities for growth in the next five years," the GSMA said.

At 65.7%, South Africa has the highest penetration rate, while Niger represents the lower end at 20%.

Economic effect

The mobile industry currently contributes more than 6% of Sub-Saharan Africa's gross domestic product (GDP) - higher than any other comparable region globally, according to the report. This contribution is expected to rise from $60-billion in 2012 to $119-billion, or more than 8% of GDP, by 2020.

Last year, the mobile ecosystem directly supported 3.3-million jobs and contributed $21-billion to public funding in the region, including licence fees, the study shows.

By 2020, mobile is set to double its economic effect, employing 6.6-million people in the region and contributing $42-billion to public funding.

Fixed-line penetration rates in many countries in the region are less than 5%. "Mobile has emerged as the main medium for accessing the internet across sub-Saharan Africa. While 2G connections still dominate, 3G and 4G networks are gaining scale and smartphone ownership is on the rise," the GSMA said.

"Despite the significant impact of the mobile industry in sub-Saharan Africa in recent years, even greater opportunities are ahead," said Tom Phillips, GSMA's chief regulatory officer. "Beyond further growth for voice services, the region is starting to see an explosion in the uptake of mobile data."

However, Phillips said, a short-term focus by some countries on generating high spectrum fees and maximising tax revenue risks "constrains the potential of the mobile internet.

Mideast operators join race for African telecoms

Connecting another billion people to the internet is an ambition for many mobile operators, which see the relatively untapped markets of Africa as the next big opportunity for growth.

With a lack of fixed-line infrastructure in many parts of the continent, people have embraced smartphones as their means of connecting to the web, which has placed mobile operators among the main providers of internet services in Africa.

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The number of broadband connections over cellular networks is expected to top 250m by the end of 2015. A fifth of internet traffic in Africa will be carried by mobile broadband by 2015, according to Informa Telecoms and Media, compared with 3 per cent globally.

Demand for telecoms services is high, as parts of the continent are becoming increasingly affluent. However, poorer areas also represent a good opportunity for telecoms operators that offer plans designed to get users connected to social networking sites using mobile devices.

Mobile is at the centre of life in Africa, where it has applications from sending vaccination reminders by text to credit lines for farmers. The M-Pesa mobile payment system is so successful that it acts as a quasi-currency.