Brightstar expands global reach into Africa with RIM distribution agreement

On 12.14.10, In Mobile, By Editor

Brightstar Corp., a multi-billion dollar global services company providing solutions to manufacturers, operators, retailers, and enterprises in the telecommunications industry, today announced an expansion of its distribution agreement with Research In Motion (RIM) into Africa.

Brightstar will leverage and expand its presence in Africa and begin distributing BlackBerry® products to seven countries in the Sub Sahara Africa region, including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Cote D’Ivoire, Uganda, Tanzania and Mozambique.

Through its distribution centers and staff in Africa, Brightstar will initially distribute the BlackBerry® Curveâ„¢ 8520 and BlackBerry® Boldâ„¢ 9700 smartphones, in addition to BlackBerry software and accessories. The BlackBerry smartphones will be available from various network operators and retail outlets throughout Sub Sahara Africa.

“This expanded agreement underscores the strategic nature of our alliance with RIM and our growing global presence within the industry,” said Arturo Osorio, President Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa at Brightstar. “We look forward to taking our customized channel solutions and insights and working together to bring a larger portfolio of BlackBerry smartphones into this new market.”

“We are pleased to further our relationship with Brightstar in order to expand our reach in the market. We look forward to working with Brightstar to bring more BlackBerry smartphones to more countries in Africa,” said Deon Liebenberg, Regional Director for Sub Sahara Africa at RIM.

For more than five years, RIM and Brightstar have enjoyed a strong and growing global relationship and, with today’s announcement, the companies have now expanded their collaboration to 67 countries and regions. In addition to Africa, Brightstar currently distributes BlackBerry products to network operators, retailers and Value-Added Resellers (VARs) in the United States, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean.

About Brightstar Corp.

Brightstar is a multi-billion dollar global services company providing solutions to Manufacturers, Operators, Retailers, and Enterprises serving the telecommunications industry. With sales and distribution facilities on six continents, Brightstar offers its customers the largest global reach, enabling the right product to be in the right place, at the right time. For more information on Brightstar, please visit http://www.brightstarcorp.com.

About Research In Motion (RIM)

Research In Motion, a global leader in wireless innovation, revolutionized the mobile industry with the introduction of the BlackBerry® solution in 1999. Today, BlackBerry products and services are used by millions of customers around the world to stay connected to the people and content that matter most throughout their day. Founded in 1984 and based in Waterloo, Ontario, RIM operates offices in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. RIM is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: RIM). For more information, visit www.rim.com or www.blackberry.com.

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Senegal awards 4th mobile license to Globalcom

On 06.04.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Mobile operator’s license in Senegal has been issued to Nigeria-based Globalcom (Glo Mobile) and it is the fourth to be awarded in the West African country. The concession will allow Globacom to land its Glo 1 trans-Atlantic submarine cable in Senegal, with opportunities to extend the infrastructure to Mali.

According to Nigerian firm’s chairman Mike Adenuga Jr, the license would enable the telco to offer ‘world class telecommunications services’ to the government and people of Senegal. It will continue to play a major role in stimulating a new era of prosperity in the sub-continent and build facilities that will offer Africa advanced telecoms services such as teleconferencing, distance learning, disaster recovery, telemedicine, on-line diagnosis and video conferencing during surgery and research.

The operator holds working license in Nigeria, Ghana, Benin Republic and Cote d’Ivoire but has threatened to exit the Ghanaian market citing sabotage as the reason.

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MTN-Orascom will be over twice the size of Airtel & Orange Africa.

On 05.13.10, In Mobile, By Editor

MTN-Orascom’s joint subscriber base will surpass the 100 million mark if the deal goes through. This would mean that it will be over twice the size of Airtel Africa &  Orange. MTN will get a boost of over 20 million subs from the Orascom deal.

That said, if a deal were to happen, here’s a quick analysis of whats for sale in the Orascom portfolio and why 2 assets are particularly interesting:

1. Djezzy in Algeria: Top line of $1.86 billion with a 46% market share (14.6 million subs) and a 57% EBITDA margin! This is the jewel in the crown. However, there is a downside here as well for some key reasons. Orascom’s relationship with the government and the regulator is strained and Q4 2009 results suffered on account of backdated taxes and penalties. Djezzy has actually seen market share decline by 5 percent and ARPU declined by 16% in 2009. Mobile penetration is in excess of 90% and Q-tel owned Njedma has proven to be an aggressive competitor. Numbers are big and exciting but the hay-days might just be getting over pretty soon though.

2. Tunisiana in Tunisia: Orascom owns half of Tunisiana alongside it’s arch rival in Algeria, Q-Tel (Wataniya) which owns the remaining 50 percent. With 53 percent market share (5.2 million subs) and 54% EBITDA margin this is another rock and roll story. However, with Orange launching and that too with an exclusive 3G license, pressures will build up sooner rather than later.

3. CellOne Namibia, Telecel Zimbabwe, Telecel Central African Republic & U-com Burundi together have 1.8 million subscribers and contribute only $81 million to the top line.

If the deal were to go through then Djezzy will be the third largest operation in the MTN-Orascom combine, after Nigeria and South Africa.

Here’s a snapshot of what the MTN-Orascom would look like (Figures are sourced from Wireless Intelligence)

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MTN & IMI announce partnership

On 10.02.09, In Mobile, By Editor

Millions of mobile and online content users across Africa and the Middle East will reap the benefits of a landmark tie-up between MTN and IMImobile – an India-based software and managed services provider linked to 350 content providers worldwide.

The two companies have teamed up in a bold move to address the growing demand for content in emerging markets. This strategic partnership will entail providing MTN’s 21 markets access to a repository of current and globally popular content through enhanced delivery platforms. Content categories will include music (with local and international flavour), sports, games, entertainment, news and much more.

It will also enable MTN to launch new income-generating voice and data services across its global footprint, with revenues from mobile content and services estimated at around US$150.2 billion in 2011, up from US$89,3 billion in 2006, worldwide. (more…)

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