Airtel Africa joins Bridge Alliance

Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications services provider with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, today announced that it will join Bridge Alliance, a leading mobile alliance that is made up of 14 operators, serving over 500 million customers.

The 17 Airtel operations across Africa will join the alliance and gain access to the latest Bridge Alliance enterprise and roaming services. “It is important to be part of a strong alliance which can enhance the efficiency of our business operations,” said Andre Beyers, Chief Marketing Officer at Airtel Africa. “Airtel Africa will benefit from joining the group as the alliance will enhance our provision of corporate solutions and forward-thinking roaming services.”

“We are very pleased to have all of Airtel Africa operations join us: this strategic partnership enables us to achieve another milestone” said Alessandro Adriani, CEO of Bridge Alliance.

“We are deeply committed to help Airtel Africa enhance its market position and gain competitive advantage. Our partnership will enable Airtel Africa to provide tailored solutions to serve enterprises wishing to procure mobile services regionally. Additionally, sharing our expertise, research and empirical evidence gathered from other markets within the Alliance, Airtel Africa will be able to deliver geographically extended, simplified and competitive data roaming and voice services.”

With a presence across 17 African countries, Airtel is the largest telecom service provider across the continent in terms of geographical reach and had over 66 million customers at the end of quarter ended September 30, 2013. Globally, Airtel is ranked as the 4th largest mobile operator in terms of subscribers.

source: www.biztechafrica.com

voice over LTE (VoLTE) in middle east and Africa

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

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

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

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

source: www.sbwire.com

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.