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For African telecoms news, AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST TELECOM-WEEK is your weekly news service in this fast-moving telecoms market! Never before has Africa and the Middle East offered such a remarkable business opportunity for telecom manufacturers, operators and suppliers.
What do I get?
> 48 weekly issues delivered directly to your Inbox
> 12 Country Reports (published at monthly intervals) + access to all previously published reports
> Access to the Subscriber Archive which contains article search, Country Reports and back-issues, as well as...
> the 2008 MNO Directory Volume 1: Africa & the Middle East
Why Africa?
"...Africa remains Millicom's fastest growing region and an increasing proportion of total Group capex has been invested in the region in 2008 and we expect that this will continue in 2009. The slightly lower growth in new subscribers, 611 thousand in Q4, reflects the more challenging economic conditions across Africa, but we expect to continue to achieve high growth in Africa as, with around 160 million people under license, Africa represents 55% of Millicom's potential market and with the penetration still low in all our markets, there is potential for high growth for many years to come."
Millicom 4Q 2008 Financial Report
Why 'Africa & Middle East Telecom-Week'?
developing-telecoms.blogspot.com - 14 April 2009
"I have, of late, been taking advantage of an excellent newsletter from Blycroft Publishing - Africa & Middle East Telecoms Week."
Acision
"I like your magazine a lot! Very up-to-date and interesting info."
Saudi Telecom
"...it was my pleasure to receive your Africa & Middle east Telecom week, I believe it�s one of the highest standard reports I have seen in terms of coverage to the big news especially in Saudi Arabia where I work."
Globitel
"The title is meaningful, I like it mostly, nothing was bad so far.... It is great news."
Neugroups
"It is an excellent source of information, well compiled and concise. I am indeed interested to continue. Thank You."
See also:
The Africa and Middle East Mobile Telecoms Market in Figures: 4Q 2008
Tanzania Mobile Factbook 2009
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Headlines from issue 375 dated 04 June 2009:
A & ME SUBSCRIBER STATISTICS:
Africa States by Net Additions 1Q 2008 - 4Q 2008
AFRICA:
AFDB approves USD 66 million loan facility for submarine fibre optic cable
Suburban Telecom completes inland fibre optic cable network deployment
ALGERIA:
VoIP development put on hold
BAHRAIN:
Batelco introduces highest speed mobile broadband service
CAMEROON:
Only 7 percent on population online
EGYPT:
Cisco to deploy IP-NGN for MobiNil
CYTA to connect to TEN Cable System
IRAQ:
Cellular service providers fined for faulty service
ISRAEL:
Elovitch eyes increased presence in telecom sector
JORDAN:
Orange Jordan sole bidder for 3G licence tender
KENYA:
Call for lower airtime duty goes unheaded
M-PESA service accounts for 30 percent of money sent to rural areas
LEBANON:
Bassil presents new proposal for telecom privatisation
SEDCO deploys Infotrix solution at mtc touch
MALAWI:
MTL issues pink slips to 575 workers
NIGERIA:
Government cancels NITEL/MTEL sale to Transcorp
OMAN:
Omantel, Dhofar Insurance sign VPN agreement
PALESTINE:
Wataniya Palestine loans for Palestinian network in doubt
QATAR:
Qtel to launch USD 5 billion medium-term bond programme
Vodafone Qatar to connect to GBI�s international submarine network
SENEGAL:
ACE submarine cable to extend to South Africa
SOUTH AFRICA:
Bharti, MTN deal triggers opposition
ICASA plans to launch second round of pay TV licence allocation
UGANDA:
Essar bags mobile phone licence
Uganda launches COMESA VSAT Satellite
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:
du upgrades network to offer data transmission rates of 40Gbps
du vies network sharing with Etisalat
Etisalat withholds USD 799.3 million payment for PTCL stake
Etisalat-Swan receives DoT�s NoC to acquire Allianz Infratech
ZIMBABWE:
Powertel to launch CDMA service by the end of 2009
Telecel plans network expansion
Methodology:
Each quarter the 'Africa & Middle East Telecom-Week' team combs through the official financial reports issued by the mobile phone operators across Africa and the Middle East. This process provides the basis for the subscriber numbers and market share data country-by-country.
Many nations also sport an active regulator, many of whom are market-focused and provide good quality analysis and data sets for fixed and mobile operators, as well as also providing detailed snapshots of both Internet and broadcasting activities.
Many of the smaller, independent operators do not publish formal quarterly or annual data, or indeed publicly available financial reports. However, their senior management are often active in the local market and the research team keeps up-to-date by monitoring local newsfeeds and blogs.
Last, but not least, are the correspondents and local operator staff who regularly provide detailed insights directly from market.
Generally, the statistics are 'as published' by the operator, and are intended to represent all active lines that have been used at least once in the previous quarter. However, it is also known that some operators use different criteria, leading to regulators in a number of markets requesting that data be published on recognised criteria, rather than a cumulative-user figure. This was particularly so in Saudi Arabia and Egypt in 2008.
This has led the research team to take greater care when presenting data from these markets to ensure that individual operator data is weighted in line with expected and overall market growth.
In the case of Egypt the regulator has subsequently published quarterly operator values, allowing accurate figures to be provided. In the case of Saudi Arabia the data has been modelled, based on known activity levels of both the operator concerned and its competitors.
It is also worth noting that the requirement to register pre-paid mobile users is growing across the region. The latest to be affected is Bahrain, where the TRA announced its intention to register some 600,000 pre-paid mobile subscribers, or some 45 percent of the mobile population, in a 3-month programme starting September 2008. In late December the TRA extended the deadline to 31 March 2009, as despite the active publicity campaign undertaken by TRA and operators, there were still a significant number of unregistered subscribers. The deadline was not extended for subscribers who had already told their operator that they did not intend to register their details, and these users where disconnected from 1 January 2009.
Batelco's media relations General Manager Ahmed Al Janahi was quoted by the Gulf Daily News as saying that Batelco was fully aware of the Telecommunications Authority (TRA) directive on the suspension of unregistered lines which would be implemented after the latest deadline on registration expired.
Tanzania's Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) has also ordered all the nation's telecom service providers to record the details of pre-paid SIM card users to deal with security threats posed by some GSM subscribers. The regulator stated that the pre-paid subscribers without registration should register with their respective telecom service providers within a period of six months from 1 July 2009.
Morocco had to deal with a million or so unregistered SIM cards, with Meditel accounting for the majority of them. The orginal ANRT sponsored campaign failed leading to the Minister of Industry, Trade and New Technologies, Ahmed Reda Chami telling Parliament that ANRT is developing a plan to limit the number of unregistered subscribers. At one point it was being suggested that as many as 12 million Jawal subscribers were still unregistered - this would have represented a remarkable 82 percent of the subscriber base as at 3Q 2008.
By way of comparison Algeria had more than 11 million unregistered SIM cards. The three month programme which ended in October saw some 2.6 million pre-paid unregistered SIM cards deactivated (9 percent of the 29.2 million active subscribers prior to the start of the operation). According to Algeria's ARPT this operation has given revised subscriber numbers for each operator of Djezzy 14,492,091; Mobilis 7,177,602 and Nedjma 4,998,174. These revised totals are reflected in the 4Q 2008 totals.
Burkina Faso's Regulatory Authority (ARTEL) in September announced steps to identify illegal usage of spectrum, and register SIM card owners. Director General of ARTEL, Eleazar Lankoand� said that there were concerns about misuse of phones. Operators were given a calendar month to update their retail systems, with unregistered SIM cards to be disabled at the end of the period.
Although pre- and post-paid data is available in the bigger and more mature markets, it is lacking or questionable in some of the less well developed markets, and therefore for the purposes of this document has been ignored. However, it can be assumed that pre-paid is the dominant mobile plan across Africa. Likewise, there are now outcrops of 3G usage, notably in South Africa, and along the North African coast. Mobile subscriber data are inclusive of both 2 and 3G users.
The mobile data includes GSM and CDMA networks, but excludes fixed and CDMA-wireless networks, which are classed as an extension of the fixed network.
For full details, please email keithw@cmsinfo.com
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