Nokia to launch five dual-SIM phones in Africa
Nokia is planning to bring five dual-Sim phones before the end of the year and is counting on Africa to emerge as a lucrative market for the handsets.
According to Chris Braam, Nokia’s Vice President for sales in the Middle East and Africa, it is a given that the market there clearly has got potential and the market is crying out for dual SIM. The company will finally launch its own version of the handset in June.
In Africa, Chinese and Indian original equipment manufacturers currently boast of a major chunk of the dual-Sim handset market, at the expense of Nokia.
Bharti Airtel signs 5-year deal with Comviva (Africa)
Bharti Airtel has signed a five-year deal with Comviva to offer value-added services across Airtel’s operations in 16 African countries.
According to Airtel Africa CEO (International) and Joint Managing Director, Mr Manoj Kohli, by handing over the management of operations to Comviva, they can enhance efficiencies in their operations and bring a closer focus on marketing initiatives that will help drive usage and engagement levels across their customer base.
According to company, in addition to managing all the VAS nodes, Comviva will also manage the complexities associated with the emergence of multiple technologies, different standards, myriad applications and content.
The financial details of the deal were, however, not disclosed.
According to the Comviva CEO, Mr Manoranjan Mohapatra, this is a landmark deal for Comviva, as they will manage all VAS nodes across Airtel operations in 16 countries in Africa.
Meanwhile, Airtel Africa has also outsourced its core customer service functions, including call centres and back office operations, to IBM, Tech Mahindra and Spanco.
MTN teams up with MTV for youth documentary series (Africa)
MTN has joined forces with MTV Networks in a pan-African multimedia campaign designed to inspire African youth by connecting them with some of the world’s most influential personalities.
The companies are partnering to produce MTV Base Meets…with MTN, an eight-part TV series that creates a dialogue between young people and political, business and cultural leaders.
The documentary series will allow Africa’s young minds to put probing questions to influential, inspirational and sometimes controversial individuals.
Among the people who will feature in the series are Liberian President Madame Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (Africa’s first and only elected female head of state), Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda and South African politician Julius Malema (President of the ANC Youth League).
A diverse panel of young people representing different youth interests will be assembled from across the African continent, with participants coming from Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda, among others.
African youth will be encouraged to nominate influencers and submit their proposed questions for the programme via a dedicated MTV base Meets…with MTN website or via their mobile handsets.
MTN, Nokia ink strategic framework agreement (Africa)
Nokia has signed an agreement with MTN Group that will expand their strategic relationship to new key markets within the Middle East and Africa at MTN affiliates.
The framework agreement will permit the large community of MTN customers to benefit from the integration of Nokia devices and solutions. Joint marketing and sales campaigns will be designed on a regional level and will bring consumers the latest Nokia mobile phones and smartphones, combined with value-added services such as orientation and navigation tools.
Building on previous partnerships such as the joint launch of the Nokia C3 with MTN data services in Nigeria, and the launch of the Nokia E7 and business tools for corporate clients in South Africa, the intention is to drive similar bundles, services and experiences in other MTN markets to add value to consumers.
The two companies will also collaborate to create hyper-local applications, such as Ovi Life Tools, which will soon be officially launched in Nigeria, bringing consumers locally relevant data for farming, education and entertainment.
Orange offers two SMS-based e-health projects in Africa
Orange has launched two SMS-based e-health operations in Cameroon, which it intends to spread throughout its footpring on the continent and in the Middle East.
The first, with Dutch NGO Text To Change, uses text messaging to raise awareness and provide an alert system on child exploitation.
Orange and Text to Change will launch a survey on child trafficking and sexual exploitation by sending SMS messages containing facts and questions to around 200,000 Orange subscribers in western Cameroon.
Feedback from the survey will then be used by the International Circle for the protection of creation (CIPCRE) to broadcast a series of educational radio programmes on the issue aimed at challenging taboos surrounding this widespread problem.
In parallel, a free SMS reporting system will be set-up, allowing people to report cases of child abuse anonymously. This initiative, which is awaiting regulatory approval, is due to start up in May 2011.
The second initiative, in partnership with mPedigree and launching in both Cameroon and Kenya, intends to develop an SMS system enabling people to verify the authenticity of their medicines.
MPedigree is a pan-African organisation operating through partnerships in the telecom, pharmaceutical and computing industries. The project involves printing a unique verification code, which is hidden behind a scratchable surface layer, on each packet or bottle of medicine.
Patients can then submit this code via SMS in order to automatically check the authenticity of the drug against a database managed in Europe by mPedigree’s partners.
MTN Swaziland loses court bid to stop SPTC from offering services (Africa)
MTN Swaziland has lost a court bid to stop Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications from offering mobile services in the country.
According to reports, High Court Judge Bheki Maphalala ruled that there is no conflict of interest in the state-owned telecommunications company which starting services as it is no longer a shareholder in MTN Swaziland. The company’s 41% shareholding in MTN Swaziland was transferred to the ministry of finance.
Maphalala added that Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications is also no longer the industry regulator after that responsibility was taken over by the communications ministry.
MTN Swaziland is the only mobile operator in the southern African nation, and is 30% owned by South Africa’s MTN Group. The country’s King Mswati III owns a 10% stake in the company. According to MTN Swaziland spokesman Mpumelelo Makhubu, the company was dissatisfied with the judgment both in facts and in law.
Indian mobile companies set to enter in Africa
Companies like Micromax, Lava, Karbonn, Spice, Maxx , Olive and Zen are planning to enter the African market.
The Dark Continent, which is on the brink of an explosive growth, quite similar to what India experienced early this decade, resembles the Indian mobile market in many ways-cellphones account for more than 90% of all telephone lines and the mobile penetration is at about 50%, with customer growth at around 15% per annum.
According to Managing Director of Spice Mobility Dilip Modi, there are MNCs and Chinese players (in Africa) leaving a huge gap for us to fill. Spice has been selling value-added services to African mobile carriers for over a year.
So, the leading Indian cell phone maker, Micromax, which started selling its cellphones in Brazil last month, is set to launch operations in Nigeria this June, an executive from the company said on the condition of anonymity.
Micromax is putting a sales team in place in Nigeria, Africa’s largest telecoms market in terms of customers. The handset maker did not comment on these developments since the company has filed for a public listing and is barred by the market regulator from making public announcements on its operations.
For Zen Mobile, which has been selling handsets in Nigeria so far, volumes have been conservative. It has entered into a JV with a marketing and distribution company in the African country and has sold between 20,000 and 30,000 handsets in the price range of $25-$50.
According to Zen Mobile Director Deepesh Gupta, when people want to upgrade, there is not much choice they want music, multimedia, better screen, better sound at a better price.
Airtel appoints Menon as head of IT for India, Africa
If sources are to be believed, Bharti Airtel has appointed its former technology head Jai Menon to a global role as head of IT verticals across India and Africa.
Its finance head Srikanth Balachander, had moved to parent firm Bharti Enterprises to manage the finance divisions of its South Asian and African operations.
According to sources, Menon had quit the firm last September to join Vodafone Essar. In his new role, Menon will report to Sunil Mittal, Bharti group’s founder and chairman, while Balachander will report to group CFO Manik Jhangiani.
Airtel has also hired back its former chief technology officer Jagbir Singh in place of Joachim Horn, who has left the company. Horn joined Airtel in 2009 from T-Mobile USA to enable expand it globally. Singh had left Bharti last year to take over as the president and networks head of Reliance Communications. A spokesman for Airtel confirmed Balachander’s elevation to the group level, the return of Menon and Singh to the company and Horn’s exit.
Sources stated that functions such as networks and shared services will also be integrated across both continents, although the company spokesman denied that the recent changes were part of a sweeping top management reshuffle.
Airtel also denied rumours about the return of former CEO Manoj Kohli, who has been heading the country’s Africa operations for about a year, into a group CEO role. The industry talk is that Kohli will return to Delhi in the next twelve months to oversee the group’s telecommunication operations across both continents.
Nokia Siemens sets up African HQ in Nairobi
Nokia Siemens Networks has reportedly set up its African headquarters in Nairobi to oversee the growth of its business on the continent.
Nokia Siemens’ relocation of its African operations from Dubai appears to be informed by the growing data market on the African continent.
According to Alan Van Hemelen, the Kenya country Director, the company chose to set up the new headquarters in Kenya as the country provides a central location for travel, has a well educated pool of local talent and a sturdy telecommunications infrastructure.
Van Hemelen added that the company had increased its staff count in the country from 109 in 2009 to 220 in 2010 and would add another 30 employees mainly from Kenya. Besides radio equipment for networks, Nokia Siemens will also provide intelligent database management for operator customers.
Dimitri Diliani, the head of African operations stated that the company is wrapping up several deals already. The company is also doing tests for 4G technology in different African countries.
Jinny finalizes new contracts for Ringback Tone Server (Africa)
Jinny Software has announced the finalization of several new contracts with African mobile operators for its Ringback Tone Server.
According to Jinny, its customers in Africa have already achieved impressive revenues simply by marketing paid subscriptions for ringback tones to subscribers.
In one case, an African mobile operator with around 500,000 people using its ringback tone service used SMS and newspaper adverts to communicate the service, which returned a constant monthly growth and revenues estimated at more than US$200,000 on average per month, culminating in more than US$2.4 million for the year.
