Bharti Airtel contemplates mobile service launch in South Africa and Cameroon (Africa)
India’s leading telecommunications operator Bharti Airtel may be planning to expand its network in South Africa and Cameroon, as learned through industry sources. Airtel is a dominant player in the mobile industry with operations in 19 countries across Asia and Africa.
Mobile penetration has steadily been increasing in African countries, and with most of the global markets being saturated, emerging markets such as Africa provide mobile operators with new opportunities to increase their subscriber base and enhance their revenue.
Currently Airtel offers services in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Madagascar, Niger, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. By adding South Africa and Cameroon, two of Africa’s fastest growing mobile economies to the list, Airtel aims to strengthen its position in Africa.
Airtel is the leading mobile operator in India and is well known for its innovative and competitive tariff pricing. The operator’s entry into these new markets is expected to take the mobile industry by storm and introduce an unprecedented level of competition.
Airtel presently offers services in 15 cities in India and with the population of one Indian city being similar to that of one African country, South Africa and Cameroon have the potential to be extremely lucrative for Bharti Airtel.
Further, sources claim that rival operators currently offering services in these economies such as MTN, Vodacom and Orange are already working on strategies to maintain their market share and offer stiff competition to Airtel.
CWC re-launches African operations
Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) has re-launched its African operations as Afinis Communications, which will be focused on serving the continent’s largest businesses.
Afinis combines the company’s Divona and Connecteo businesses, the two African telecoms businesses owned and operated by Monaco Telecom.
Afinis will provide network services on a regional basis targeting Africa’s largest enterprises. It will focus on five key industries, tailoring products for each: mining, oil & gas, banking, telecoms and international institutions.
Afinis has eight offices across the continent- in Morocco, Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Guinea, Niger and Senegal.
The company will offer African businesses highly resilient satellite and fibre-optic network communications services, from secure internet to fully managed network services. It has access to three ground-based teleports connected to seven satellites and a MPLS network covering 153 countries. It has also set up two resilient network operating centres in Casablanca and Monaco for constant monitoring of client networks.
VWV introduces Airtel brand across Africa
South Africa’s VWV Group, an experiential communications agency, was recently appointed to produce the launch of a new mobile telecommunications network into Africa.
Bharti Airtel commissioned VWV to launch the brand into 16 African countries, through events that ran simultaneously.
Airtel’s launch was conceptualized, produced and managed by VWV. The launch consisted of an interactive production which saw a tie between pre-recorded video and live theatrical presentations.
These events were staged in Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
Teligent wins $1.3m messaging platform upgrade contract (Burkina Faso)
Teligent Telecom has secured a US$1.3 million contract to substantially extend the network messaging capacity for Telmob, a mobile network operator in Burkina Faso.
Teligent will increase the capacity of Telmob’s existing Teligent P90/E messaging and services platform, to accommodate expected demand from an anticipated 1 million new subscribers over the coming year.
The subscriber services supported by the Teligent platform are unified messaging, voice alerts and a range of SMS messaging options including Voice SMS (text to speech conversion). The platform extension project will start immediately, and is expected to complete during the second half of 2011.
According to Teligent CEO, Einar Lindquist, this project is a tremendous endorsement of the flexibility and scalability of their services platform, showing its ability to deliver advanced, future-proofed messaging solutions to MNOs and telcos. It also shows the ongoing value of call completion solutions such as unified messaging and text-based services in helping both fixed-line and mobile operators to drive revenues and add value to users.
Telmob is the leading mobile telecommunications operator in Burkina Faso, with the widest network coverage, the largest market share in terms of turnover and the largest network of distributors. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Onatel, the incumbent telecom operator in Burkina Faso. Onatel is part of the Maroc Telecom group.
Airtel Nigeria stands by its new name
Airtel Nigeria has defended its decision to change the name Zain Nigeria.
According to Chairman and Managing Director, Sunil Bharti Mittal, the new brand identity gives the company the opportunity to present a single, powerful and unified face to customers, stakeholders and partners around the world.
He added that the new brand identity reinforces Airtel’s promise to deliver innovative services and a superior brand experience to their 200 million customers across Asia and Africa. Now the brand is modern, vibrant and friendly.
Apart from Nigeria, Airtel has operations in Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo, Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
‘Airtel – Zain’ lost 6 million subscribers in Africa since Bharti’s acquisition
Zain has lost 6 million of its subscriber’s base from the day it tied knot with Bharti Airtel. Although according to Airtel’s spokesperson, the reporting in Kenya was different from that of other markets where a user is not accounted for if a person did not receive a single call for a month. However, most telcos label a user inactive only if the user has been inactive for anywhere between 3 to 6 months.
After announcing first-quarter results previously this month, Bharti Airtel disclosed Bharti Zain’s subscriber base at 36.3 million as touching over 42 million, the figure peddled at the time of the acquisition.
According to the spokesperson for Bharti Airtel, as good governance and to align the definition of customer reporting of Africa to India, the company reported 36.36 million customers. This represents revenue earning customers only. However, he did not specify if the company was seeing a churn in its African operations.
As part of the $10.7-billion deal, Bharti had agreed to acquire the operations of Zain in Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The company is scheduled to unveil the Airtel brand in these countries by October.
Though the acquisition of Zain may have been responsible for the decline in profits, if Bharti doesn’t ensure customer satisfaction in the African nation, revenues and profits will continue to slide.
Maroc Telecom revenues rises 4.3% (Morocco)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Consolidated revenues of MAD7.437 billion (USD858 million) has been reported by Moroccan telecoms group Maroc Telecom in the first quarter of 2010, reflecting an increase of 4.3% compared to the same period in 2009.
The total customer base of the group stood at 22.4 million, up by 14% year-on-year, across divisions in Morocco, Mauritania (Mauritel), Burkina Faso (Onatel), Gabon (Gabon Telecom), Mali (Sotelma) and Belgium (Mobisud Belgium).
EBITDA reached MAD4.282 billion, up 1.5% y-o-y and consolidated operating income rose 0.5% year-on-year to MAD3.205 billion. Fixed, mobile and broadband operations of the company in Morocco garnered MAD6.095 million, down 0.7% year-on-year. Financial impact of marketing and communications efforts has been attributed the reason behind the gain.
Bharti Airtel & Zain to sign Africa deal on Tuesday
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The much talked about $10.7 bn deal between Kuwait’s Zain telecom and India’s top mobile firm Bharti Airtel, which has been making the rounds of the telecom world is expected to be signed on Tuesday at the headquarters of Zain Africa.
African market was penetrated by Zain in 2005 by the acquisition of the operations of the Dutch Celtel firm for around $3.5 billion. Last week, both the companies stated that they have finalized agreement for the sale of Zain’s operations in 15 African nations. Zain’s operation in Sudan or its investment in Morocco is not included in the sale of the African assets.
$8.3 billion, raised mainly from international banks, will be paid by Bharti on signature of the deal, while the remaining $700 million will be paid a year later. Through the deal, 42 million clients in 15 African countries from Burkina Faso to
Zambia would be gained by Bharti while Zain clients will shrink to 30 million from 72 million.
Etisalat’s stake in Atlantic Telecom rises to 100%
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With an investment of USD 75 million, 18% stake in Atlantique Telecom has been acquired by UAE-based operator Etisalat, thus increasing its shareholding to 100 percent.
82 percent in the African company Atlantique Telecom has already been held by Etisalat while the former holds controlling stakes in telecom operators in Ivory Coast, Benin, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Niger, Togo and Central Africa Republic.
Atlantique Telecom has been operated by Etisalat under the 10-year management contract ending in April 2015.
