Wireless Federation

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Paulo Zucula, Mozambique’s Minister of Transport and Communications, has unveiled plans to partly privatise incumbent mobile operator, mCel. As per the plan, minimum of 5% company’s share will be made exclusively available to Mozambicans, with the possibility of further sales to the international investment community. Zucula said, ‘mCel is working on a proposal that I believe we will have within a month, and afterwards we will submit that proposal for the government’s consideration. The proposal will say how much shares will cost, how many shares will be sold and how we will do the whole process. And from there, the government will have to approve the whole package.’

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Mozambique’s National Institute for Communications (INCM) has delayed the tender to award the country’s third mobile licence. According to a local media report, the INCM based its decision on “financial and technical constraints”. The decision is likely to be influenced by the complaints of the two existing mobile service providers, Mcel and Vodacom.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Mozambique’s telecom regulator has delayed the search for a third national mobile operator due to financial and technical difficulties. The regulators have decided to postpone the launch after the two existing mobile service providers, state-owned mCel and Vodacom Mozambique, raised objections to the proposal.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Vodafone has shown interest in entering the foray of African country’s mobile market. Mozambique reportedly began the search for a new cell phone provider, paving the way for a third mobile communications company to enter the market. Regulators have begun the process to launch a tender for the country’s third mobile operating license. Vodafone Group PLC has expressed interest in buying the third Mozambique license. According to data from the International Telecommunication Union, about 15% of Mozambicans currently have cell phones - well below the average for sub-Saharan Africa.

Mozambique plans to roll out an international tender for the third mobile phone licence in H1′09 as it looks forward to grow the telecommunication market in the country. “There is a market, at the moment we are just putting the bidding documents together, we hope to launch an international tender before June 20, 2009″, said Paulo Zucula, a government minister. “There are 20 million people in Mozambique and only a fraction has access to the mobile phone network, so there is too much space for growth and I’m sure that any company that would get the new license will flourish soon,” Zucula added.
Pan-African incumbents like MTN SA, Zain Kuwait might be interested in making an entry to Mozambique.Two mobile phone firms which are already operating in Mozambique are state-owned mCel and Vodacom Mozambique, with a subscriber base of 3.5 million and 1.3 million respectively.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

AIRCOM International, the leading independent network planning and optimisation consultancy, today announced that it is working with Mozambique operator mcel to support the update of the mcel planning tools for 2G and 3G networks.
In a deal worth USD$ one million, mcel will use AIRCOM’s market-leading network planning and optimisation tools ASSET and OPTIMA to plan and manage its new 3G UMTS network, which is currently being deployed.

Commenting on the new agreement, mcel Chief Operations Officer Luis Mhula said, “We already enjoy a long-standing and productive relationship with AIRCOM for our existing network planning and management needs. Now, as mcel introduces 3G into Mozambique, we’re delighted to once again work with AIRCOM - the quality of its tools and the expertise of its consultants makes AIRCOM the natural partner of choice at this exciting time.”

Using the AIRCOM tools, mcel will not only be able to accurately plan the new network implementation, but also monitor its ongoing performance quickly and easily. In addition, as part of the agreement, AIRCOM will carry out measurement and model-tuning, to identify optimal configurations for specific network traffic requirements and conditions.

AIRCOM will also provide support and training for mcel engineering teams as they make the transition from GPRS to 3G.

“We’re delighted that mcel has once again decided to work with AIRCOM for such a momentous project,” said Graham Kemp, Managing Director, Africa at AIRCOM International. “mcel’s decision to once again use AIRCOM’s tools and consultancy is testament to the high quality of service that we provide to all of our customers around the world.”

About AIRCOM International

AIRCOM is an independent provider of network and data management tools and services. The company specialises in end-to-end network planning, sharing, outsourcing and OSS optimisation for IP and cellular networks.

Headquartered in the UK with offices in 18 countries, AIRCOM has more than 10 years’ experience across 131 countries for over half the world’s mobile operators, including more than 3.5 million man hours working on 3G networks alone. Every day 19 out of the 20 top global operators depend upon AIRCOM’s tools and consultants to improve the coverage and customer experience for more than 1.1 billion subscribers.

AIRCOM continues to grow its customer base each year, offering advice, training and support services, backed by high performance tools designed to deliver real benefits for both subscribers and operators.

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

Accoring to Zain CEO Saad Al Barrak, the company is looking to expand its network in Africa and Middle East by making nearly five acquisitions by 2010, worth US$4 billion.
“We are focusing now on our priority in the Middle East and Africa, where we want to become the absolute number one,” he said.
Zain, which operates in 22 countries plans to expand its roots further to six African nations Cote D’Ivoire, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa and Zimbabwe and Yemen and Syria in the Middle East.
Al Barrak, looking at the global financial crunches, says that Zain will either buy majority stakes or acquire licences.
Al Barrak additionally said that Zain also plans to spend $2.5 billion in 2009 on network upgradation and investments.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Batelco (Bahrain Telecommunications Company) introduces a new service for it’s subscribers, ‘Batelco World Freedom’. This new service will allow it’s subscribers to recieve free incoming calls from across the world in 21 nations. Subscribers who roam in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Algeria, Norway, Luxemburg, Sudan, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Albania, Armenia, Bosnia, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Moldova, Mozambique, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia will be able to use the service.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

The Portugal’s telco, Portugal Telecom is eyeing the mobile market in Mozambique and looking forward for an entry as and when the government decides for the third mobile licence. The operator is in advanced talks with the Mozambican authorities for investment expansion in the country. PT already owns 50% of the country’s main ISP, Teledata, and has a stake in directories publisher LTM. ‘We are negotiating with the government our plans to expand investments in Mozambique, and one of the areas is mobile phone business,’ said PT’s chief executive Zeinal Bava.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

mCel, Mozambique, launches the second issue of bonds worth USD10 million. According to the firm, the main purpose of the bond issue is fund raising to finance the investment plan worth USD70 million, including improved network quality. ‘The bonds have a maturity of five years, with the possibility of early reimbursement after three years,’ mCel announced. An earlier bond issue, also valued at USD10 million, was carried out three months ago. mCel claims around 70% of Mozambique’s cellular market with approximately three million subscribers.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News