google translates in more African languages

Google Translate is now available in five more African languages.

Google says in its Africa blog that it has launched nine new languages that span Africa, Asia, and Oceania and have over 200 million native speakers, collectively.

In Africa, Google has added Somali, Zulu, and the three major languages of Nigeria. 

• Hausa (Harshen Hausa), spoken in Nigeria and neighboring countries with 35 million native speakers
• Igbo (Asụsụ Igbo) spoken in Nigeria with 25 million native speakers 
• Yoruba (èdè Yorùbá) spoken in Nigeria and neighboring countries with 28 million native speakers 
• Somali (Af-Soomaali) spoken in Somalia and other countries around the Horn of Africa with 17 million native speakers 
• Zulu (isiZulu) spoken in South Africa and other south-western African countries with 10 million native speakers

This is the largest expansion into African languages to date. Google Translate already  supports Swahili and Afrikaans.

source: www.biztechafrica.com

Africa to attract more ICT investment in 2014, IDC says

Investments in ICT are expect to increase in 20144 in Africa as both public and private spending rises and local content businesses partner with larger operators and tech companies, according to IDC.

Adoption of data analytics and cloud services is expected to be a main driver of growth on the continent, IDC said in a year-end report.

"In the year ahead, business models based on mobility, internet and cloud will grow quickly but local constraints will cause this to be in fits and starts and regional pockets; the most important events in 2014 will continue to cluster around growth and innovation, built on mobile devices, cloud services, social technologies and Big Data analytics," IDC said.

Africa has had massive growth in mobile phone usage and IDC expects mobile technologies to catalyze investment, with mobile enterprise applications a leading priority.

Governments will also invest in fiber-optic cables, public services, content and governance and compliance oversight to ensure the security of transactions online.

Countries such as Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda, Tanzania, South Africa and Nigeria, in cooperation with international developmental agencies, academia and ICT vendors, have made considerable investments in ICT infrastructure and IDC expects this to benefit local startups that have had problems sustaining and running successful businesses.

One mega project is the $14 billion Konza City initiative in Kenya, expected to drive local and international ICT business in East Africa. There are other smaller projects in other countries including Rwanda, Botswana, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Ivory Coast, that IDC expects to gain traction in 2014.

In the last five years, countries have rolled out fiber optic infrastructure and IDC expects a shift in the focus from undersea cable to terrestrial fiber rollout in 2014. Telecom service providers are expected to expand their current fiber infrastructure to offer last mile, high-end connectivity to enterprises.

source: www.newsidg.no

rocket internet partners with MTN group

MTN Group and Rocket Internet announced that they have formed a new joint venture to invest in startups in the Middle East, with a focus on e-commerce. The two companies will each hold a 50% stake in Middle East Internet Holding (MEIH).

The announcement follows another partnership, concluded earlier this week, between MTN, Rocket Internet and Millicom International Cellular, to develop startups in Africa through Africa Internet Holding (AIH). MTN expects to pour 300 million euro (about USD$400 million) into AIH and MEIH, subject to regulatory approval, by the first and second quarter of 2014, respectively.

Based in Johannesburg, MTN is one of Africa’s largest telecom operators. Rocket Internet can potentially leverage MTN’s footprint as it seeks to tap into the continent’sfastest growing Internet markets, including Kenya and Nigeria.

Its agreement with MTN follows several other key partnerships cemented by Rocket Internet. For example, earlier this month Rocket Internet and U.K. retail giant Tesco, the world’s second-largest retailer by revenues after Wal-mart, announced a strategic investment partnership that began with a $250 million lead investment in Lazada. The online marketplace, in which Rocket Internet has invested $486 million so far, operates in Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Back in July, Rocket Internet also said it had raised an additional $500 million from two regular investors, Kinnevik and Access, to fund new and existing ventures with a focus on Latin America and Asia.

source: www.techcrunch.com

Africa’s GDP to hit $300bn on internet expansion, says Mckinsey

Considering the massive financial investment ploughed into the deployment of broadband infrastructure across the continent, the internet, though still in its infancy, could contribute some $300 billion to Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2025, according to a recent report by Mckinsey & Company.

Over the last three years, estimates have shown that about $3.8 billion has been invested in submarine cables across Africa. The report said Internet’s contribution to Africa’s GDP remains low, at a meagre 1.1 percent – just over half the levels seen in other emerging markets and well below the average of 3.7 percent in developed economies.

This figure, analysts said, is a vivid indication that the wealth creation and revenue generation potentials of the internet remains immensely untapped across the African continent.

This figure however varies widely across individual countries, from 0.6 percent in Ethiopia to 3.3 percent in Senegal. According to the report entitled, ‘Lions go digital: The Internet’s transformative potential in Africa’, the Internet is likely to take hold on a much larger scale in the coming decade, with previous research showing that its impact is magnified in emerging countries.

Mobile telephony has already had an outsized effect in Africa, connecting people who hitherto had little or no access to telecommunications due to the scarcity of fixed-line infrastructure. If the Internet matches or exceeds that level of impact, according to analysts at Mckinsey, the result could be a leap forward in Africa’s economic growth and development.

Following a decade of rapid urbanisation and strong economic growth, Africa is gradually transiting into a digital economy, according to Mckinsey. While just 16 percent of the continent’s 1 billion people are online, that picture is changing quite rapidly. This is evident in the rise of greater disposable income of consumers in major African cities.

More than half of them have Internet-capable devices, and 3G networks are up and running. Significant investments in network expansion initiatives has increased access to mobile broadband, fibre connection to households and businesses – combined with the rapid spread of low-cost smartphones and tablets, has enabled millions of Africans to connect to the cyberspace for the first time,

source: www.bussinessdayonline.com

Airtel invests Rs. 2bn in 3G

Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, today announced the launch of the initial phase of a comprehensive network expansion exercise across 250 plus sites in urban, sub-urban and rural pockets across all districts of the island.

This project would thereby see Airtel Lanka increasing its 3G presence beyond 1,000 towers and 2G presence beyond 1,800 towers across the island. As part of this extensive expansion project that includes the expansion of transmission network, Airtel will continue to deploy robust and world-class network infrastructure and equipment to strengthen its customers’ high speed data connectivity and mobile internet experience.

Commenting on this latest milestone, Bharti Airtel Lanka’s Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director Suren Goonewardene stated, “At Airtel, it is our ethos of changing Sri Lanka’s telecom landscape and in which businesses operate in Sri Lanka. While we have changed the way mobile communications work in the country through the introduction of several innovative services which includes the concept of no hidden costs, we are now geared to change the language of the telecom business – from a mobile to a mobile internet organization. With this in mind, we have now invested heavily in our 3G network.”

Along with the commitment towards enhancing Airtel’s network presence across Sri Lanka and continuing to work towards new ways of delivering a seamless network experience to customers, Goonewardene further stated, “When it comes to Mobile Internet, Airtel will be the brand loved by all Sri Lankans whether they are prepaid or post-paid customers residing in any part of the country. We have launched customized internet packages and tailor-made handset bundle offers (HBOs), which all Sri Lankans will have the propensity to use. We have also started increasing the number of customer touch points thus giving our customer accessibility to the range of data services which is fresh, youthful, current and innovative”.

Bharti Airtel Lanka commenced commercial operations of services in Sri Lanka on January 12, 2009, and was the fastest operator to reach one million customers in Sri Lanka.

source: www.nation.lk

Orange - Dragged Again Into A Mobile Price War

Orange (ORAN) is the largest telecommunications group in France, and one of the largest in the world, with more than 232 million customers (a year-on-year increase of 2.1% at the end of September 2013) located in roughly 32 countries. The group's 3rd quarter results were announced on October 23, 2013. These results were less bad than previous quarters, confirming the slow stabilization of the company.

On the Road to Recovery?

Orange gained 1.1 million customers during the 3rd quarter, its revenues dropped by "only" 4% year-on-year (compared to 4.3% during 2nd quarter), and the EBITDA margin remained a healthy 33.1% (only 1.1% below the margin of 3rd quarter 2012). Compared to the record 50.4% EBITDA margin reported by Verizon Wireless in April 2013, this might sound tame, but it compares favorably to the 30% reported at the end of September by giant Vodafone. Revenues of Orange increased in Spain, Africa and the Middle-East. The ARPU --- average revenues per user --- continued its drop, at -12% year-on-year in France, but this was in line with expectations. No surprise here. The group headcount was decreased by 2.8% over 9 months, which helped reduce costs. Additionally, Orange pursued its 4G deployment, with 40% of French population expected to be covered by 4G wireless service before the end of this year. In short, 3rd quarter results were far from stellar, but they confirmed the slow improvement started during the 2nd quarter. That positive trend, and the hope that Orange will benefit from an improvement in the European Union economy, conspired to raise the share price by 32% (at the close of December 18), from its trough of July 2013, as can be seen in the following chart 

source: www.seekingalpha.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