Telecom Malagasy to triple money-transfer users
Telecom Malagasy’s Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pisal-Hamida expects to triple the number of users of its money-transfer service by the end of this year.
According to Pisal-Hamida, Telma has attracted 200,000 M-Vola users since starting the system in May 2010 and plans to reach 600,000 by the end of December.
The company, which has 60% of the money- transfer market, competes with France Telecom Ltd.’s Orange and Bharti Airtel Ltd.’s local unit in the Indian Ocean island nation, where mobile-phone users have increased to 4.2 million from 1 million in 2007. Madagascar has a population of about 20 million.
He added that if there hadn’t been a crisis, Madagascar would be at 6 million and this is what they are expecting will happen in the two years following its resolution.
Madagascar’s economy contracted 3.7% in 2009 and 2% in 2010, according to the International Monetary Fund, the only one in Africa to shrink last year. The European Union and the U.S. halted non-humanitarian aid to Madagascar after President Andry Rajoelina, a former DJ and mayor of Antananarivo, seized power from his predecessor Marc Ravalomanana with the help of the military in March last year and later reneged on power-sharing agreements.
Pisal-Hamida stated that business is expected to stagnate this year and turnover may rise or fall by 5% depending on the crisis.
Ukraine sets limits on telecoms privatization tender
Ukraine has launched a privatization tender for the country’s fixed-line telephone company but has imposed controversial restrictions that threaten to prohibit leading global telecoms companies from the bidding.
With an expected cost of around US$1.3 billion, the long delayed sale of Ukrtelecom is likely to raise badly needed funds for Ukraine, which was battered by the global financial crisis and is being kept afloat thanks to a $15bn assistance package from the International Monetary Fund.
It is being watched closely to estimate how transparently privatization will be conducted under his leadership. Ukrtelecom controls about 80% of the fixed-line market in Ukraine, a country of 46 million citizens. According to expers, Ukrtelecom has sharply lost value in the past decade, falling decades behind European peers in terms of introducing new telecom technologies.
On Wednesday, Oleksandr Ryabchenko, head of Ukraine’s state property fund, expressed hope that at least $1.5bn would be raised when the winning bid was chosen on December 28. But there are fears that competition could be limited by the tender conditions.
Many top European telecoms companies that have to various degrees expressed interest in Ukrtelecom over the years including Deutsche Telekom and Norway’s Telenor are prohibited from taking part in the tender because they are more than 25% government-owned. Another condition prevents telecoms with more than a 25% share in Ukraine’s telecom market from taking part.
Deutsche Telecom puts big acquisitions on backburner
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The fresh wave of financial problems in Europe has made Deutsche Telecom to put all its major future acquisitions on the backburner. The operator has shifted its focus towards building up cash reserves to guard against a second economic crisis.
The company believes that due to Germany’s national debt, it may have to face another crisis and so the company will avoid any big acquisitions in the near future.
According to company CEO Rene Obermann, Deutsche Telekom remained committed to Greek carrier Hellenic Telecommunications, even though the International Monetary Fund has had to prop up the country’s economy and added that the carrier was an important gateway into other central and eastern European countries, and that it is an important long-term play for Deutsche Telekom.
Telekom sell off to be reviewed by IMF (Serbia)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The business plans of Serbia’s ten largest public companies that may be sold; including Telekom Srbije will be reviewed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). According to Bogdan Lissovolik, the IMF’s top official in Serbia, the market is not strong for privatizations, but case-by-case studies may need to be done for the times when conditions improve.
EUR3 billion (USD4.1 billion) was received by Serbia from IMF for bailout and after agreeing to overhaul pensions, health care and public administration while keeping retirement pay and wages frozen in 2010, it received USD1.6 billion.
The deadline for cutting state jobs and pledge to start them in April has already been missed by the government.
Qtel and Tata Communications collaborate to offer Global Connectivity Services
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Qtel and Tata Communications today announced a strategic alliance that will strengthen both companies’ network reach in the region and internationally.
Under the terms of the agreement, both the companies will align their infrastructures and work together to provide secure, scalable and flexible connectivity solutions including Ethernet, MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) and a wide variety of managed services to their global customers.
Ahmed Al-Derbesti, Executive Director, International Services, said: “Qtel has a clear strategy in place to deliver the strongest possible communications framework for the growth of business in Qatar today. Partnership with companies like Tata Communications, which is a recognized leader in communications solutions, is a core part of that development strategy.”
The agreement complements the ambitious growth strategies of both companies. Qtel looks to provide its clients with world-class communication services and the capacity to expand internationally. Tata Communications continues to build connectivity into emerging markets, to better serve its customers.
With Qatar continuing to show strong growth in spite of global economic conditions – the International Monetary Fund forecasts that nation’s economy will expand by 18 per cent this year – more and more companies are looking to establish a stronger presence in the market.
