Unitel and Ericsson demo Africa’s first LTE-Advanced technology

Ericsson and Angola's leading telecommunications provider Unitel, successfully demonstrated LTE Advanced (LTE-A) Carrier Aggregation technology for the first time in Africa.

The demonstration was made on both 1800MHz and 900MHz spectrum bands on a commercial network, using a commercial terminal, and took place on December 18, when Unitel transferred data across its live network in Luanda, Angola carrying commercial traffic.

LTE Carrier Aggregation is the next step in the evolution of high-speed mobile broadband services, enabling operators to make the most of their existing spectrum assets by combining multiple spectrum bands to enable higher mobile broadband download speeds.

Amilcar Safeca, Deputy CEO of Unitel says: “Unitel is always innovating to enhance the customer experience. With the global leap towards higher data access speeds for sophisticated video and mobility services, we are enhancing our network to ensure we continually provide high-quality services to our high demanding subscriber base. With this demo we are well on the way to launching in the near future the most advanced mobile network in Angola and perhaps Africa. We are working with Ericsson to make this happen.”

source: www.telecomtiger.com

telkom to return legacy spectrum to ICASA

Telkom South Africa has confirmed that will return spectrum to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), as it migrates its legacy services to next generation technologies. Previously, in April this year the state-owned enterprise Sentech said it would return its 2600MHz and 3500MHz frequencies to the regulator as demand for spectrum escalates. BusinessTech.co.za quotes a Telkom representative as saying: ‘Telkom is continuously assessing the viability of legacy technologies which have reached their estimated useful life. In the case of wireless technologies, decisions in regard to the future use/or disposition of the frequency bands which they utilise is part of this process’.

The telco noted that it is currently licensed to use the 2400MHz band to provide fixed wireless access (FWA) services, chiefly in rural areas, and commented: ‘Whereas Telkom has identified these technologies for migration, such migration is complex due to, amongst others, lack of suitable sub-1GHz spectrum to be used in the rural areas. A portion of the 2400Mz band has been re-farmed for Telkom’s 2300MHz LTE network. Some parts of the 2400MHz band could eventually be returned to ICASA once migration has been completed’. Telkom added that migrating WiMAX from the 3500MHz band was a business decision, ‘and these services will be replaced with 3G/LTE or satellite’. Meanwhile, the telco stressed that it will not return spectrum in 1800MHz band.

source: www.telegeography.com

Telkom to release spectrum

Telkom has confirmed that will return spectrum to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, Icasa, as it migrates its legacy services to next generation technologies.

South Africa is currently embroiled in a escalating battle for spectrum, as dominant and minor operators claw at Icasa for a piece of the frequency pie – as demand for data and expanding networks push currently-help spectrum capabilities to their limits.

In April, state-owned enterprise Sentech said it would return its 2.6GHz and 3.5GHz spectrum to the regulator for the South African communications sector.

Sentech CEO, Setumo Mohapi, said that fact that the cost of spectrum had grown tenfold was a big consideration in returning the spectrum to Icasa. The telco noted that it is licensed to use the 2.4 GHz band (i.e. 2.3-2.5 GHz) and is using this band to provide FWA services, in particular in rural areas.

“Whereas Telkom has identified these technologies for migration (due also to the negative effect of harmful interference in the ISM band (i.e. 2.4-2.5 GHz)), such migration is complex due to, amongst others, lack of suitable sub-1 GHz spectrum to be used in the rural areas.”

source: www.bussinesstech.co

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

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

Spectrum master plan to be revised next year

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission next year will revise the spectrum master plan to ensure that future mobile broadband services are affordable for all users and to serve the long-term investment of telecom operators.

It also aims to serve surging demand for mobile broadband service, NBTC chairman Thares Punsri told a seminar on time-division long-term evolution (TD-LTE) at the "ITU Telecom World 2013" event, which kicked off yesterday in Bangkok.

The NBTC's revision of the master plan is in line with its plan to auction 1,800MHz spectrum bands next year to provide 4G wireless broadband service. It will take these bands from TrueMove and Digital Phone Co, whose concessions expired in September this year.

Speaking at the same forum, Advanced Info Service (AIS) chief executive officer Wichian Mektrakarn said Thailand needed more bandwidth and new mobile technology to meet rising consumer demand.

He estimated that the market value of overall mobile services in Thailand would reach Bt214 billion this year - a rise of 7 per cent from last year's level. 

The value of the mobile-device market is estimated to be Bt52 billion, some 15 per cent higher year on year.

The watchdog awarded 2.1GHz spectrum licences to each of the three bid winners - AIS's Advanced Wireless Network, DTAC TriNet of Total Access Communication (DTAC), and True Corp's Real Future unit - last December, following which they launched the service early this year. 

Real Future is the only operator currently offering both 3G and 4G service on the 2.1GHz band.

The ITU (International Telecommunications Union) event, which runs until Friday at Impact Muang Thong Thani, has a central theme of "Embracing Change in a Digital World". 

It is jointly being held by the Information and Communications Technology Ministry, the NBTC and the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau.

source : www.nationmultimedia.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

Africa can take advantage of LTE leapfrog

Zameer was speaking after AfricaCom 2013, held in Cape Town earlier this month, and he said depending on how well telecommunications regulators use spectrum, the high-speed mobile data technology could be rolled out quickly and effectively, despite Africa’s LTE penetration rate currently only standing at 0.003 per cent.

“Africa is largely unrestricted by legacy platforms and onerous regulations, and so has the capacity to leapfrog standard 3G migrations, to embrace LTE and all the benefits of better quality service and content possibilities that the next generation platform provides,” Zameer said.

“Africa has a track record of innovation and being first to market in many instances (e.g. M-Pesa and dynamic tariffing) and I expect that the implementation of 4G LTE will be no different.”

HumanIPO reported in July Huawei alone had already built 44 LTE networks across the continent, although the majority were yet to go live as network operators wait for the opportune moment for it to be economically viable.

Many operators point to the unavailability of affordable LTE-enabled devices in the African market, meaning even if the infrastructure and technology is deployed, very few people will be able to access the services.

Dave Geary, president of wireless at Alcatel-Lucent, told HumanIPO earlier this month they were focussing their attention on deploying LTE networks with plans already announced for data-only networks with partners in Ghana and Cameroon.

MTC Namibia have already launched its LTE network in the country, while Smile Communications is already live in Uganda and Tanzania, with a network in Nigeria expected in the next few months.

MTN Nigeria should also be going live with LTE in the West African country during the first quarter of 2014.

source: humanipo.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.