Ghana’s Westel to operate a cellular network
Western Telesystems (WESTEL) Ghana Limited has been granted a license by Ghana’s telecom regulator, National Communications Authority (NCA) to operate a mobile phone service.
The entry of Westel into the mobile telecom arena will increase the number of cellular networks in Ghana, to five.
The acting Director-General of the NCA, Major John Tandoh (retd), recently handed over the licence, which formally empowered the company to operate, to the acting Managing Director of WESTEL, Ms Ursula Owusu, at a brief signing ceremony in Accra.
WESTEL, which is already plagued with problems of meeting its targets as far as fixed line service is concerned, comes at a time the mobile sector has become more competitive.
Presently, Scancom Ghana Limited, operators of Areeba, holds the lion share of the market with up to 52.4 per cent of the total number of subscribers of 3,798,096 as of the first quarter of the year.
It is followed by Millicom Ghana Limited’s tiGO GSM mobile service with 770,154 subscribers, GhanaTelecom’s Onetouch with 711,119 and Kasapa Telecom, operators of Kasapa mobile service with 136,823 subscribers.
The company, which is in competition with Ghana Telecom fixed line service, lags behind in the competition, with only a little over 2,816 subscribers, constituting about one per cent of the total market share of 348,397 subscribers nationwide.
Source- mobileafrica
Mobiles, protests and pundits
“Until recently, killers in Burundi found it easy to cover their traces; they just tossed the bodies into a river where crocodiles would eat them up. But in August residents of Muyinga province acted fast when they saw fresh corpses drifting downstream; they used their mobile phones to contact NGOs, who in turn tipped off the United Nations, whose soldiers got to the scene fast enough to recover some forensic evidence.
The use of mobiles as a tool of “empowerment”, even in the poorest and worst-governed parts of the world, is not always so grisly. The cruder kinds of electoral fraud, relying on poor communications between the capital and the boondocks, are now much harder.
Even with minimal resources, monitors can count the voters and conduct exit polls—and then phone their findings to a radio station before the authorities stuff the ballot boxes. Such methods have helped make elections a bit cleaner in places like Ghana and Kenya. ”
Meanwhile, in Europe’s darkest corner, Belarus, text messages call youngsters to surreal acts of resistance, such as (to take a recent example) gathering to eat ice cream.
Chroniclers of cellular people power identify two big landmarks:
“The rallies that toppled President Joseph Estrada of the Philippines in 2001, and South Korea’s presidential election a year later, when text messages among the young brought a surge of support for President Roh Moo-hyun. In both those countries protests are still convened by text message not just at critical times, when national leadership is at stake, but to highlight almost any sort of grievance.
For Europeans mobile democracy??? came of age with the Spanish election of March 2004, immediately after a terrorist attack in Madrid: the Socialists rode to power on a wave of text-driven anger with the ruling conservatives. In America some claim the same happened at the Republican convention in 2004, when text messages helped protesters play cat-and-mouse with the New York police.”
Source- http://www.textually.org
No cheap call for cellular network acquisitions
RAMPANT acquisitions in the cellular network industry have seen four players grow to dominate Africa by serving 40% of all subscribers.
Yet there are still 115 operators on the continent, providing plenty of fuel for the acquisition frenzy. The largest operators are MTN, Vodacom and the Middle East’s MTC and Orascom.
But the price tag for acquisitions is reaching a point where even the richest Africans may have to bow out and let the oil rich Arabs muscle in instead.
Recent takeovers have cost more than $1000 for each subscriber — an anomaly when Africans are among the poorest, lowest-spending users in the world. Africa has 165-million users and an average penetration of 18%. That means the potential for growth is still there, analysts agreed at the GSM Africa forum in Cape Town last week.
Of 472-million new users expected to join networks around the world this year, 48-million would be in Africa, said Devine Kofiloto, a principal analyst for Informa Telecoms. Yet the growth potential cannot be gauged purely by Africa’s population, as the majority are too poor to afford cellphone services and penetration would stabilise at about 32%, he said. The payback for acquisitions is also taking longer, as the average revenue per user is plunging as cellphones reach the poorer echelons of society.
Nigeria, with 140-million people, is the one country where growth appears almost limitless. Nigeria will surpass SA as Africa’s largest cellular market by next year with 43-million users, compared with an expected 39-million in SA. Even then only 32% of Nigerians would have a cellphone, said Kofiloto.
MTN is enjoying enormous success in Nigeria, and its rival, Celtel, hopes to emulate that after acquiring 65% of V-Mobile for $1,2bn. Celtel CEO Marten Pieters said Celtel was pumping in cash to upgrade V-Mobile’s network, which had stagnated during a legal battle by V-Mobile’s 5% shareholder, Econet, to scupper its sale. We will pump in at least $700m in the next two years. We need at least that much investment to catch up,??? he said.
Nigeria has 30-million subscribers and Pieters believes that will rapidly touch 50-million. In 2011 there will be at least 50 million customers and I think that’s understated. I think customers will at least double in the next three to five years.???
Celtel itself was bought by the Kuwaiti operator MTC for $3,3bn last year, and its oil-rich parent is willing to fund Celtel’s expansion across Africa. Middle Eastern players may be the only ones with the money to continue the merger splurge, Pieters said.
Not only did they have the cash, they also took a longer view on the return on investment, unlike European or African investors that sought a payback in a handful of years.
Even so, the deals were getting crazy, Pieters said, with Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates paying $2,91bn for Egypt’s third cellular licence. A third licence to operate cost more than the market capitalisation of the number-one player there, so you have to ask if that was reasonable,??? Pieters said.
Etisalat bid almost 20% more than the next best offer, prompting MTN to say it would not be goaded into overpaying. Vodacom beat MTN to that conclusion months ago, saying the price of new licences or takeovers was increasingly unrealistic.
Vodacom may soon be allowed to bid for licences or acquisitions north of the equator, as its 50% stakeholder Vodafone is scrapping a restriction that has stymied Vodacom’s expansion. However, its freedom may be too late, given the inflated prices.
Opportunities are bubbling up in Ghana, which may offer a new cellular licence and privatise the state-owned operator. Senegal is issuing a third licence and Angola is also expected to open up to new players.
Meanwhile, delegates to the telecoms conference debated how operators can make more money in poverty-struck markets.
Although watching TV and accessing the internet on a cellphone will gradually become more popular, income from those services will merely offset the declining profits from voice calls.
Operators need to look for revenue from data but let’s not deceive ourselves into thinking data will generate incremental revenue. It will merely offset declining revenue,??? Kofiloto said. He believes most Africans will get their first taste of the internet through mobile handsets. The future of internet access in Africa is definitely wireless,??? he said.
The operators agreed African governments were doing little to help the industry or their people. Rural Africa was not an attractive area to tackle, said Vitalis Olunga, chairman of the GSM Africa interest group. Rolling out services to remote areas needed government participation and regulatory approval to use a mixture of wireless, terrestrial technologies and satellites.
Africa’s cellular networks cover 350-million people who cannot afford to use them, and that would only change when governments removed tax and sales duties on handsets and mobile services, Olunga said.
Increasing the coverage also needed co-operation between rival players, said Gateway Communications CEO Peter Gbedemah. By 2008, calls from one African country to another could be routed directly and not via Europe — as they are now under a legacy of colonial telecoms systems.
Source- http://www.mybroadband.co.za
MTS First Wireless formally recognised as first cellular coy in Nigeria
IT HAS scarcely been denied in the cellular telephone business in Africa’s most populous country, but last fortnight the Federal Government through the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission awarded eight companies pioneer certificates to enable them enjoy tax holidays ranging from three to five years.
A tax holiday is a concession from paying taxes granted by governments to firms in identified special sectors to stimulate their growth.
The beneficiary companies include Nigerian Mobile Telecommunications Limited, MTS First Wireless, Global Infrastructure Nigeria Limited, Vital Gases Limited, Tempo Paper Pulp and Packaging Limited, and Scirrocco Foods Limited.
The first two in the cellular phone business were set up by Mr. Richmond Aggrey, a reclusive Ghanaian resident in Swedru, Ghana, and Atlanta, USA, so low-keyed and self effacing that it was the board chairman of MTS First Wireless, General Wushishi, who picked up the award on his behalf.
Mr. Aggrey was traveling in Northern Nigeria, specifically in Kaduna, when the event took place.
The Investment Centre said the commission had developed a scoring criteria to ensure objectivity and transparency in issuance of tax relief incentives to genuine companies, and these include value addition, employment generation, local content utilization and export potential of their activities and products.
An engineering alumnus of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in 1974, ‘Aggrey of Africa’ has been at the forefront of advocacy for support for innovation and funding for the sector, which he identified as the most important cash cow for the private sector and governments and is on record as pushing the Nigerian government that funding the telecommunications industry had become very critical, and that the Federal Government must intervene to improve access to funding if the current gains are to be sustained.
As guest speaker at a recent Dinner/Awards Night of Edo College Old Boys Association at the Lagos Sheraton Hotels and Towers, he said the current situation where most Nigerian banks relied only on non capital-intensive short-term projects did not augur well for the industry.
He said apart from this unpalatable situation, the local banks charge very high interest rates even when such funds are approved, while companies also encounter problems as the banks delay in releasing these funds to meet the business plan of telecom companies. This, he said, has delayed or even stopped some companies from implementing their licenses.
In a related development, The Daily Sun newspaper of Nigeria reported that subscribers on the First Wireless’s Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000 1X network have urged the company to make their pre-paid recharge cards more accessible for easy purchase.
Some of the company’s customers also want the company to expedite action on the building of their network coverage to reach the whole of Lagos State so that they could enjoy their talk.
In the same vein, some of the subscribers who spoke with Daily Sun have appealed to the management of the company to consider the introduction of free net call within the First Wireless network on weekends, as a form of customers’ loyalty bonus.
Dele Fashomi, a journalist, who uses First Wireless tabletop terminal phone, commended the company for introducing the free monthly access regime, the first in the country. MTS charges are considerate, especially with the removal of the monthly access fee.???
But he said the quality of their telephone terminals is suspect. The battery of the box runs out very quickly. Therefore it must remain charged continuously, which may affect the life-span of the charger.???
He also advised the company to make their recharge cards more accessible to their customers.
They should ensure that more vendors are engaged in the sale of their recharge cards.???
Another MTS subscriber who simply gave his name as Okoye said he is particularly delighted with the network’s call clarity, but complained that its network coverage is poor.
I want MTS to introduce free weekend net calls in order to encourage their subscribers to appeal to their friends and siblings to patronise the network so that they could enjoy free calls on weekends.???
Meanwhile, a consumer advocacy group, Telecommunications Services Consumers Organisation of Nigeria, TESCON, has voted MTS as the most affordable and most friendly telecommunications company in the country.
Indeed, your roll-out packages seem to back up your declaration as they contain a basket of attractive features and incentives, which have instantly shot your network to the top of the list of subscriber-friendly networks in Nigeria,??? the organisation said in a congratulatory message sent to the President and CEO of MTRS First Wireless, Engineer Richmond Aggrey, and signed by its President, Mr. John St. Claret Ezeani, a telecoms legal practitioner.
Source- http://www.ghanaian-chronicle.com
Celtel evaluating plans to build mobile network in Ghana
According to a report from Business in Africa Online, pan-African mobile operator Celtel International is considering plans to build a mobile network in Ghana and to that end is conducting a feasibility study regarding the construction of a network in the West African country. The online portal cites a Celtel official as saying that the company is interested in ‘investing substantially’ in Ghana, with the aim of getting a network off the ground within months.
Celtel International already has 15 networks on the continent of which five are in West Africa. It has not clarified whether it plans to introduce its ‘One Network’ service in the country a service that allows Celtel users to make use of networks in neighbouring countries without incurring additional roaming charges but says it is keen to expand its footprint across the entire African continent.
According to Telegeography’s GlobalComms database, Ghana is home to one of the most dynamic mobile markets in Africa. At the last count in June 2006 the number of mobile subscribers stood at over 3.34 million, up from around 2.65 million at the start of the year. By 1 July 2006 GSM operator Spacefon Areeba, backed by Lebanon-based Investcom Holdings, had an impressive 2.018 million subscribers, putting it ahead of Millicom International Cellular’s (MIC’s) Mobitel unit, the oldest of all the providers, which had 737,749 users to its Tigo-branded service. State-owned national PTO Ghana Telecom (GT) claimed an estimated 450,000 subscribers to its GT-OneTouch GSM network, while Kasapa Telecom, the country’s sole CDMA operator, had an estimated 135,700, up from 57,100 at the start of the year.
Source- http://www.telegeography.com
Orascom wants control of HTIL, says Reuters
Egypt’s Orascom Telecom wants to take control of Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd (HTIL), according to a Reuters interview with Orascom chairman Naguib Sawiris. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, Orascom took a 19.3% stake in HTIL for USD1.3 billion in December 2005. HTIL holds stakes in fixed line operations in Hong Kong and mobile businesses in India, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, Israel, Sri Lanka, Ghana, Indonesia and Vietnam. The combined footprint of Orascom and HTIL operations includes important adjoining markets such as Orascom’s operations in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and HTIL’s businesses in India and Sri Lanka. On a combined basis, the pair control wireless operations in 15 countries covering two billion people, approximately a third of the world’s population.
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, Orascom is currently seeking approvals in each of HTIL’s constituent countries to raise its stake in HTIL by 3.7% to 23%, and Sawiris has previously signalled his intent to increase that stake further. As part of the original deal the two companies agreed a two-year standstill period after which both will have right of first refusal on any sale. Orascom also has first call if Hutchison Whampoa chooses to sell more than 10% in HTIL. When asked by Reuters what sized stake he wanted to purchase, the Orascom chairman said simply: ‘All of it,’ before adding that he wanted a controlling stake at the very least. He declined to provide a timeline or indicate how much he would be willing to pay for the shares, but revealed that he was in ‘constant talks’ regarding the price, and looking ‘to come to a price that is fair to both parties’.
Source- http://www.telegeography.com
Celtel to introduce one network in Ghana
Celtel International, a telecommunications group based in the Netherlands, has declared its intention to invest in Ghana, as well the as likelihood of introducing its mobile phone system that networks countries and eliminates roaming charges.
It is currently undertaking investment studies in the country, which will become the sixth West African country it will be operating in and the sixteenth in Africa.
Once operational in the country, the company will study the network system in other West African countries and decide on when to introduce its unique “One Network” service.
The service, which is currently in use in East Africa (Tanzanian, Uganda and Kenya) makes it possible for a user of a Celtel mobile phone to use the same number in another networked country without paying for roaming surcharges.
The “One Network” is automatically activated once a customer crosses over into the geographic border of any other networked countries without prior registration or new cellular phone chip. The customer can also place calls to any of the networked countries without any restriction.
Dave Hagedorn, Business Development Manager of Celtel, and Khaled Al-Anjiri, Mergers and Acquisitions Specialist from Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC), the parent company of Celtel, headquartered in Kuwait, are in the country this week to hold talks with investment partners.
Without mentioning the amount to be invested, Mr. Hagedorn told the Times “we are looking at the opportunities and we will be investing substantially.
“We are hopeful that we will start operations in the coming month that Ghana will be the next country for the group,” Mr. Hagedorn added.
He indicated the expansion of their operations to Ghana was in line with their vision to cover the entire continent. Celtel is also operating in Burkina Faso, Chad, DR Congo, Gabon, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Congo, Sierra Leone, Zambia and Sudan.
The company intends covering the entire Africa with the “One Network” service by implementing it on a regional basis, he said.
Mr. Al-Anjiri, for his part, said the MTC was committed to investing in infrastructure to offer improved services for customers and also taking advantage of opportunities that could be used to remove barriers between populations and make life better.
Source- http://www.andnetwork.com
Arab mobile provider, Nokia launches Sudan operations
Oct 5, 2006 (DUBAI) — i2, the largest and most diverse mobile provider in Africa and the Middle East announced today in a press briefing the launch of its operations in Sudan.
i2 introduces its retail concept and after sales services for the first time in the country.
i2 is the first authorized Nokia distributor and service center in the country as well as being the first to offer mobile subscribers original Nokia devices with matching accessories and a one-year warranty. In Sudan, i2 will be available through its showroom, distribution network and service center.
i2′s operation in Sudan will be managed by Mohamed Osman El Tayyeb, Chairman, and Hussein Raouf Atwi, General Manager.
i2 plans to expand its operation throughout Sudan within the year to include Bahri, Omdurman and Kalaka. i2 has opened a branch in the state of Adbara and plans to expand to Madani and Port Sudan.
Nokia has long recognized Africa as an important market for the company’s business. Since early 1990, Nokia has provided mobile phones, enhancement, telecoms networks and related infrastructure and services to operators and customers throughout Africa.
‘Nokia’s approach is to develop and support all local distributors and service partners in all countries. Nokia has been working closely with our regional distributor, i2 across most countries in the Middle East and Africa for many years now.
i2 will be able to offer Nokia’s customers authentic Nokia handsets and official Nokia Customer Care Services to ensure that customers in Sudan receive the best possible Nokia experience.” Said Jarmo Santala, General Manager for Nokia Customer and Market Operations North West Africa.
The cost effectiveness of GSM-based services in comparison to fixed-lines has encouraged the fast growth of mobile services in Africa. Nevertheless, mobile penetration levels in Africa remain low.
‘i2 has a big role to play in the development of the mobile market in Africa. We want to make sure that it’s growing market follows international standards of product quality and service’ stated Abdul Hameed Al Sunaid, President and CEO, i2.
Founded in 1993 in Saudi Arabia as Itsalat International, i2 is the region’s largest and most diverse mobile phone provider in the region. i2 operates in: Bahrain, Chad, Egypt, Ghana, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, KSA, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritius, Morocco, Reunion, Senegal, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE and UK.
Source- http://www.sudantribune.com
Ghana: Boost in the Telecom Industry
The telecommunication industry in Ghana is still recorded as one of the fastest growing industry in Ghana and on the African continent as the number of telephone lines have increased significantly over last year.
According to the Minister of Communications, Prof. Mike Oquaye, the number of telephone lines in Ghana surpassed the four million mark, which means the target of reaching the five million mark by the end of the year is on course.
The Minister revealed this at an open forum in Accra yesterday on IP communications organized by Seatec Telecom Services Limited, the sole distributor of Alcatel products in Ghana, to introduce Alcatel IP Communication solutions to Ghanaians.
“Ghana cannot afford to miss ICT revolution if we hope to improve the quality of our citizens’ lives and alleviate the widespread poverty that seriously undermines human development.
“Today, innovation in the field of ICT is driving the global digital economy forward so fast that there is urgent need for businesses, industry and government to work together to nurture policies and programmes that foster the use of cutting edge technologies that will help us to collectively interact to promote free flow of ideas and maintain an increase in the spread of knowledge at all levels,” he said.
Figures available indicate that the second quarter of 2006 recorded a total subscriber base of 4,158,088.
The figures further indicate that the telephone density of Ghana has increased significantly from 1% in 2000 to about 20% now.
The figure for 2005 was over two million after the number of telephone lines had significantly increased from 218,000 in 2000 to 1 million in 2003 and 1.6 million in 2004.
Capital inflows into the telecommunication industry had also increased significantly, especially into the government’s ICT programmes such as the ICT Backbone and the e-Governance projects and the mobile telephone networks in the country.
With all these developments, Africa is still lagging behind in the global transition to an information economy.
He said communications is a way of successfully doing business within the public and private sector.
“The better we communicate, the better our services and the larger our customer base or clientele will become”.
In the instance of government making up-to-date information on all programmes being undertaken accessible to the citizenry no matter where they are through a seamless communication system will improve government’s communication.
He applauded efforts by organizations such as Seatec Telecom to help accelerate the development and growth of ICTs in the country.
Seatec Telecom, through its partnership with technology giants like Alcatel and Bytes Communications, will improve the Ghanaian enterprises’ access to such technologies so that they can be sure of the quality of the solutions as well as the sustained support of these solutions, which are a considerable investment on their part.
He called on organizations and businesses in the Ghanaian economy to take advantage of all opportunities made available to boost their growth. He said IP Communications technologies provide one sure way of increasing the value created by business activities and processes.
“This technology will not only reduce communication cost for organizations, but radically improve the service capabilities with an unprecedented interactivity adapted to business needs for employees and all customers,” he added.
He said this allows all employees to access the same set of communication applications throughout the organization, simplifying the user experience and reducing the need for training and support.
He said the forum has to broaden the knowledge of participants on how they can take full advantage of IP Communications technology at this opportune time when access to the Internet, especially broadband, as well as Wide Area Networks (WAN) are fast becoming a standard feature of the enterprise’s communications infrastructure in Ghana.
Prof. Oquaye said this would no doubt provide more insight into how we can improve our processes and systems to deliver better services and create a safe country for all citizens through access to quality and reliable information.
Ravin Naidu, Voice Sales Specialist of Alcatel – South Africa, made a presentation on IP communications.
He called for the deployment and upgrading of bandwidths and broadband in Ghana for the smooth use of IP facilities.
Source- http://allafrica.com/stories
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