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Wireless Federation » archive for 'Senegal'

Sonatel & BICIS together to launch Orange Money (Senegal)

  • November 17th, 2008
  • 11:28 am

Sonatel (Senegalese operator) and banking group BICIS have signed a contract to develop Orange Money as the country’s first mobile bill paying and domestic money transfer service. Sonatel and BICIS have met the regulatory and technical pre-requisites to offer the service next year. To transfer money to other Orange money user, the fund, have to be deposited into their Orange Money account at an accredited partner’s location. At any accredited outlet, customer will be able to withdraw money from their Orange account. For the Validation and Confirmation of transactions and a PIN number for security, SMS can be used. Customers will be able to buy Orange Mobile top-ups from their Orange Money account.

Senegal’s subscriber base totals to 5.01 million at Q3-end

  • November 13th, 2008
  • 4:28 am

Senegal passed the milestone of 5 million mobile customers in September, finishing the third quarter with a total 5.01 million. The market Senegal has crossed the mark of 5 million mobile subscribers in September’08, with the total reaching to 5.01 million in Q3′08. The country added nearly 289,000 subscribers in Q3. The mobile penetration reached to 47.35%. Orange led the Senegal mobile market with a subscriber base of 3.188 million, adding 146,000 new subscribers in Q3. On the other hand Senetel ended Q3 with 1.822 million subscribers adding 143,000 subscribers.
   

Orange Senegal commenced test of HSDPA services in Darkar (Senegal)

  • August 21st, 2008
  • 1:50 pm

According to a media report, Senegalese mobile operator Orange Senegal (formerly Sonatel Mobiles) has begun tests of high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) services in Dakar. First mobile provider of Senegal is Orange Senegal have launched its services in September 1996. Statistics reveals that the operator had 3.042 million subscribers at the end of June this year, a market share of around 67%. Orange Senegal is ahead of the country’s second wireless operator Tigo Senegal with 1.678 million.

Senegal reaches 3.43 million mobile users in September (Senegal)

  • December 13th, 2007
  • 2:41 pm

The number of mobile subscribers in Senegal reached 3.434 million at the end of September, up from 3.320 million in June and 2.641 million a year earlier. According to the figures from market regulator ARTP, mobile penetration reached 32.46 percent and 99 percent of mobile customers were prepaid users. Orange is market leader with 2.443 million customers, up from 2.401 million in June, while Sentel, part of the Millicom group, increased its base to 991,631 in September from 918,830 in June. On the internet market, just 0.33 percent of the population or almost 35,000 people were registered users. Of the total, 96 percent used ADSL. Fixed-line penetration meanwhile was at 2.63 percent, or 278,119 lines, and has been falling for the past six months.

   

Orange launches in Guinea, starts Orange Zone roaming (Guinea)

  • November 6th, 2007
  • 12:50 pm

Orange has launched its latest mobile venture in Guinea. Its regional affiliate Sonatel was awarded a mobile licence earlier this year in Guinea, and the company is now launching commercial services in 11 large cities. By the end of the year, this is expected to reach 25 cities, while by 2008 the company will be present in all eight regional capitals and 33 main regional towns. Orange has committed to investing GNF 1.044 billion (EUR 180 million) in the Guinea market in its first five years. The operator also unveiled a new roaming offer. Customers in Guinea will get calls to the five countries in the Orange Zone - Senegal, Mali, Guinea Bissau, Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire - at GNF 1,000 per minute and can also make calls while roaming there at the same rate. Receiving calls in these countries will be free. Orange expects to later extend the Orange Zone offer to other countries in Africa and Europe. Other services in Guinea include the ability to transfer airtime credit to others, and three shops open already for services. Orange plans to expand the retail network nationwide.

   

Sudatel pays USD 200 mln for Senegalese licence (Sudan)

  • September 11th, 2007
  • 11:25 am

Sudanese operator Sudatel has received a telecommunication licence from Senegalese regulator ARTP, reports Agence de Presse Senegalaise. Sudatel bid USD 200 million compared to Bintel’s USD 152 million and Celtel’s USD 105 million offers to win the global licence, enabling entry to all telecommunication segments, according to ARTP director general Daniel Seck. Belgacom and Comium Africa had also expressed interest. Under the licence terms, the new company must be at least 15 percent owned by local interests. The government has called on Senegalese operators to buy a stake in Sudatel’s local unit. Rothschild and Clifford Chance provided financial and legal advice on the auction process. The last such licence was awarded to Senetel for USD 100,000 in 1998.

   

Orange Senegal fined USD6.7m for poor service (Senegal)

  • September 3rd, 2007
  • 3:20 pm

State authorities in Senegal have upheld a fine of USD6.7 million on one of the country’s mobile operators, Orange Senegal (formerly Sonatel Mobile), for its repeated failure to provide an adequate service on its cellular network. The State Council has endorsed an earlier fine imposed in January this year by the telecoms regulator, the Telecommunication and Postal Regulation Agency (ARTP), after repeated interruptions on its network. Sonatel, Orange Senegal’s parent, had launched an appeal which was rejected by the ARTP which deemed there was ‘no other recourse at this point.’ Orange Senegal was issued with a legal notice in 2006 after customers experienced ‘repeated cellular telephone network interruptions’, and in April this year the regulator threatened to double the fine after the cellco’s users complained of more outages. Orange Senegal has around two million mobile users, but subscribers regularly experience an erratic service which the company blames on ‘ongoing repair work’.

   

 

 

 

Orange UK prepares for TV launch with Disney deal

  • July 27th, 2007
  • 2:44 pm

Orange UK has signed a licencing agreement with Disney-ABC International Television to secure content for its upcoming digital TV service. The multi-year agreement includes video-on-demand selections from Disney for both the PC and digital TV. Orange plans to launch the IPTV service later this year. The company already offers TV over ADSL in France, Spain, Mauritius, Senegal and Poland. Disney content will include films from Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films.