- November 14th, 2008
- 5:56 am
Report Buyer has added a new report analysing the telecoms market in Afghanistan as well as in Bangladesh, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
“Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka”, reports that as the political and social rebuilding of Afghanistan proceeds following years of war and civil unrest, the country has been busy putting new national telecommunications infrastructure in place.
The report shows that telecommunication has already started to play a big role in helping repair the Afghanistan economy and society. A properly functioning basic telephone network has been and continues to be a high priority for the Afghani Government. As part of this commitment, an important step was the creation of the Ministry of Communications in 2002, followed by the establishment of a regulator, the Afghanistan Telecom Regulatory Authority in 2005.
Authors of the report note that with ongoing unrest in the country and the recovery from war not yet complete, one of the big challenges for the country has been to attract and manage foreign investment. However, there have been some positive signs in the telecom sector in this regard and, interestingly, for a period the telecom sector was the only one in the country that was attracting any foreign capital.
Furthermore, with two mobile operators already in place, the MoC announced in late 2005 that two more mobile licences had been awarded. In July 2006, the Investcom/Alokozai consortium launched its Areeba Afghanistan service in four provinces and by mid-2007 the new operator already had 500,000 subscribers, as the overall market pushed along at an annual growth rate of around 70%.
In a similar story, UAE’s Etisalat was awarded a GSM licence in May 2006 and beginning its operations in August 2007, launched a network with coverage of the country’s main cities, picking up 200,000 subscribers in the first month
For more information log on to www.reportbuyer.com
About Wireless Federation
Wireless Federation is an industry research conglomerate headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The mandate of the Wireless Federation is to provide its members and customers industry knowledge that can further enhance their understanding of the wireless industry. Wireless Federation conducts bespoke research and produces boxed reports in collabaration with Industry Bodies, Telecom Operators for Issues that revolve around ARPU, CHURN and Loyalty.
They have been associated with more than 225 mobile operators globally to set their Pricing/ Tariff Strategies, Go-To-Market Strategies for Mobile Advertising, Mobile Payments, Cutting VAS among others amongst 59 countries globally.
For more information you can log on to www.wirelessfederation.com
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- August 14th, 2008
- 11:05 am
Local mobile phone provider Telecom Development Company Afghanistan will be given a loan of $55 million from Asian Development Bank (ADB), for coverage expansion to parts of the country that have poor or no telecommunications infrastructure. To support the mobile banking system called M-Paisa, the operator, which operates under the name Roshan, plans to use these funds. Focussinng the country’s unbanked population, M-Paisa enables users to transfer money via their mobile phones, without opening bank accounts. Currently, Roshan network serves more than2 million active subscribers as reported at the end of the june. $175 million is the estimated cost for the expansion including capital expenditure into new districts, upgrading equipment and transforming sites to use solar power. Other investors will be funding balance.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Africa’s largest mobile phone operator MTN reported overall subscribers rose 11% from the last quarter of 2007 to 68.2 million in the first quarter of 2008. The South African-based cellco, saw the greatest increase in the Iranian market where it launched operations in October 2006. In Iran subscribers grew by 50% to 9.02 million, while in its home market, MTN said its subscriber base increased by 3% to 15.2 million and Nigerian subscriptions were up 8% to 17.8 million. In Sudan, subscribers grew 13% and in Afghanistan 22%.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- February 12th, 2008
- 5:08 am
In many poor and emerging countries, the lack of banking infrastructure but widespread use of mobile phones has created a business opportunity that network operators are keen to exploit.
British operator Vodafone announced that it would launch a money transfer service in Afghanistan after the successful introduction of a similar initiative in Kenya.
An estimated 1.6 million people have begun using the Vodafone scheme in Kenya since its launch in March last year. In a country of 10 million mobile phone users, there are only 400 bank outlets and 600 automatic teller machines.
“This is really the early days, but when you see the low banking penetration in emerging markets, compared to rapidly growing mobile penetration, the potential is very big,” said James Moberly, senior manager for payment solutions at Vodafone on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress here.
The GSM Association, the global mobile phone industry body, estimates that about a dozen such schemes involving money transfer services are in operation throughout the world, with 10 million users.
Vodafone plans to launch cash transfer services soon in India and other African countries.
“You can send money, withdraw cash, pay your bills or your loan, and all this is within seconds,” said Aleeda Fazal, head of product development at Afghan group Roshan, which is the partner for Vodafone in the troubled country.
In effect, the network operator acts as a money transfer agent for the subscriber.
The user deposits money and then sends an SMS to a person who can go to a phone shop anywhere in the country and take out the amount stipulated in the text message.
Operators win in three ways, explained a spokesman for the GSM Association, which represents 700 mobile operators.
“The operator gets a small commission, but above all it boosts customer loyalty and it increases traffic on its network”, said David Pringle.
The problem, or opportunity, at the moment is that the cash transfers can only be done within a country, excluding the millions of migrant workers who send money home regularly from abroad.
The GSM Association cites figures that 200 million people work in a country that is not their own, on average sending home 2,000-3,000 dollars per year to their loved ones.
This puts the value of the international money transfer market at about 250 billion dollars, with India, China and Mexico the biggest destinations for cash.
International money transfers are long, complicated and are also limited by the lack of banking infrastructure in many developing countries.
With a view to promoting the idea of cross-border money transfers via mobile phones, the GSM Association launched last year a pilot programme with 19 operators in 100 countries and involving Mastercard and international transfer specialist Western Union.
If a solution can be found, the GSM estimates that the flow of funds could increase by four-fold by 2012, reaching 1,000 billion dollars.
For Best Practices/ Case Studies on Mobile Money - Banking, Remittances, Commerce & Payments. Please contact Christina@WirelessFederation.com
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- November 2nd, 2007
- 9:02 am
South Africa’s MTN Group has reported 12% subscriber growth during the three months ended 30 September 2007, to 54.1 million, boosted by a surge in sign-ups in Iran. MTN Irancell, which launched in October 2006 after months of delays, saw its subscriber base increase by 88% to 3.7 million.
MTN said monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) in its home market increased 1% year-on-year to ZAR146 (USD22), while the customer numbers rose 3% in the three months to 14.08 million. ‘There is no doubt that South African operations are becoming mature, but that they (MTN) are still able to show growth tells you there are still growth opportunities,’ said one analyst.
MTN’s south and east Africa region contributed 33% of total subscribers, with west and central Africa, and Middle East and North Africa regions contributing 47% and 20% respectively. Users in its biggest market, Nigeria, rose 7% to 15 million, with monthly ARPU of USD17. MTN Ghana saw growth of 14% in its customer base to 3.9 million, while MTN Cameroon recorded a 15% increase to 2.2 million. MTN’s operations in Afghanistan (66%), Sudan (24%) and Syria (12%) also all made healthy subscriber gains in the three-month period. ‘An aggressive network rollout plan is addressing the quality and capacity issues following the high rate of subscriber acquisitions since the last quarter of 2006,’ MTN said in a statement.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- August 30th, 2007
- 2:38 pm
UAE-based operator Etisalat has launched mobile services in Afghanistan. Mobile penetration is currently estimated at around 8 percent in Afghanistan. Etisalat services are available in Kabul, Herat, Mazar-i-Sherif, Kunduz and Jalalabad. The cities and areas of Kandahar, Ghazni, Poli Khumri.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Afghanistan’s Ministry of Communications has outlined the plans for its CDMA network. H. E. Minister of Communications and IT underlined that now they sign an agreement with two Chinese companies (Huawei and ZTE) and plans to sign another agreement with an American company names GSI to equip and supply Afghan Telecom to facilitate their digital mobile phone services within six months in the country.
This project costs nearly ten million dollars that are funding through developmental budget of the Ministry of Communications and IT.
According to the officials of the Ministry of Communications and IT, by implementing and completing of this important project the inhabitants of Afghanistan can carry his/her digital mobile phone across the country and can receive or make their call everywhere through same SIM Card and phone, and through this system subscribers can purchase their credit cards in the market like prepaid system in GSM mobile phones.
They also expect that the competition among the operators will be increase and the cost of the call will cut down remarkably.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
TeliaSonera AB said it has signed an agreement to acquire up to 100 pct of the outstanding shares in MCT Corp, a US-based company with majority, controlling shareholdings in three Eurasian GSM operators in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and a minority interest in the leading GSM operator in Afghanistan.
The acquisition price was not disclosed.
The four GSM operators are: The Uzbek-American Joint Venture Coscom LLC, the third-largest mobile operator in Uzbekistan, where MCT has a 99.97 pct interest; CJSC Indigo Tajikistan and CJSC Joint Venture Somoncom, which combined is the second-largest mobile operation in Tajikistan and in which MCT has 60.0 pct and 59.4 pct respectively; and Telecom Development Co Afghanistan Ltd (Roshan), the largest mobile operator in Afghanistan, in which MCT has a 12.25 pct interest.
TeliaSonera said it expected the deal to close during the third quarter.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
TeliaSonera has signed an agreement to acquire up to 100 percent of the outstanding shares in MCT, a US based company with majority controlling shareholdings in three Eurasian GSM operators. MCT holds majority stakes in Uzbekistan’s Coscom, Indigo Tajikistan, and Somoncom (Tajikistan), and a minority interest in Afghanistan’s Roshan. The closing of the transaction is pending fulfilment of certain conditions and TeliaSonera estimates that these conditions will be met during the third quarter 2007.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
TeliaSonera said Monday it has signed an agreement to acquire up to 100% of the outstanding shares in MCT Corp., a U.S. based company with majority controlling shareholdings in three Eurasian GSM operators in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and a minority interest in the leading GSM operator in Afghanistan.
The closing of the transaction is pending fulfilment of certain conditions and TeliaSonera estimates that these conditions will be met during the third quarter 2007.
The four GSM operators are:
Uzbek-American Joint Venture “Coscom” LLC (Coscom), the third largest mobile operator in Uzbekistan. MCT has a 99.97% interest in Coscom.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
New Report highlights growth of mobile subscribers in Afghanistan
