MTN Q1 subscriber base grows by 4% (South Africa)
MTN Group has recored 147.3 million subscribers at 31 March, an increase of 4% from 141.6 million subscribers on 31 December 2010.
The group continued to perform well despite aggressive competition and heightened political unrest in certain countries in the Middle East and West Africa, MTN said in a trading update. Data, including SMS, continued its strong growth trajectory.
In South Africa, smartphones account now account for 11 percent of the postpaid and 1.5 percent of the prepaid base. Mobile money subscribers also increased by 5 percent to 4.6 million when compared to December 2010. The service is now active in 12 MTN markets, of which five are in pilot phase. In Uganda, mobile money revenues contributed more than 3.5 percent of total country revenue for the quarter.
According to the company, the South and East Africa region increased its subscriber base by 3.2 percent in the quarter. South Africa contributed 58 percent to the region’s subscribers, increasing by 1.9 percent to 19.197 million customers at the end of March.
It added that the growth was slower than expected as a result of higher prepaid disconnections due mainly to seasonality, although some distribution difficulties also contributed. Uganda increased its subscriber base by 6.9 percent to 6.908 million, maintaining its leadership position in an increasingly competitive market.
The West and Central Africa region increased its subscriber base by 3.4 percent for the quarter. Nigeria recorded a 4 percent increase in its subscriber base to 40.2 million as competitor campaigns and promotions stepped up.
MTN responded by introducing new segmented tariff plans and bundled offerings in late January.
Ghana also increased its subscriber base by 4 percent to 9.07 million, maintaining its market share as competition intensified. This was due to competitive offers in the market, improved churn management as well as the introduction of attractive data packages.
Cameroon recorded a loss of 203,000 customers following a regulatory requirement to disconnect 306,000 unregistered subscribers at the end of March. Cote d’Ivoire increased its subscriber base only marginally to 5.406 million, mainly as a result of the political and social instability.
Following a dispute relating to fees allegedly owed to the authorities in Guinea Conakry, a presidential decree has placed the company and its assets under the administration of the regulator. MTN stated that its operations in Guinea Conakry, Areeba, are negotiating in good faith with the government, and the company is confident it will reach an amicable solution.
The MENA region recorded a 5.5 percent increase in subscribers for the quarter. The growth within the region was largely attributable to Iran which contributes 66 percent to the region’s subscribers and which increased its subscribers by 5.5 percent to 31.4 million.
Syria increased its subscribers by less than 1 percent to 4.9 million.
Vodafone Qatar launches international calls at $0.17
Vodafone Qatar’s World Calling Club is offering international call rates to more than 190 countries for US$0.17 a minute.
Calling destinations included in this promotion are Bahrain, Bangladesh, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Iran, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, UK, US and Yemen.
Vodafone is also running a promotion on its International Calling Card 25 that gives customers 46 minutes of talk time to 15 popular destinations at a rate of QAR 0.14 a minute. Both promotions run until the end of May.
Etisalat Nigeria revamps managed services with Alcatel-Lucent
Etisalat Nigeria has selected Alcatel-Lucent to continue providing managed services for its expanding mobile network.
The operator’s subscriber base has grown 120 percent year-over-year to over 7 million subscribers.
The renewed two-year multivendor managed services agreement will significantly reduce operational expenses, while improving service quality for Etisalat Nigeria’s subscribers.
Alcatel-Lucent will be responsible for ensuring the high-quality and reliable performance of the network in the South-west of the country including Lagos by providing services which include network operations, consulting, design, network optimization, spare parts management, maintenance services, and project management.
Etisalat reduces Samsung Galaxy Tab prices (Nigeria)
Etisalat Nigeria has boosted its data offering on the Samsung Galaxy Tab.
The tablet was launched in 2010 for over US$777.12. With the improved pricing, subscribers can now buy the device for US$647.59.
The new package offers customers a free Etisalat SIM card with 360 minutes of voice calls, 360 text messages and 6GB data over a period of 12 months. This breaks down to 30 minutes of voice calls, 30 text messages and 500MB every month for one year.
Airtel to raise $1 bn to cut African debt (India)
Bharti Airtel is planning to raise US$750 million to US$1 billion through a global bond issue to retire its Africa debt and fund expansion there.
The issue will be in the form of debentures and will have tenure of ten years, the official, who has direct knowledge of the development, said on condition of anonymity.
According to the officials, the proposal will be put up before the company’s board on 4 May, when it meets to discuss results for the financial year-ended 11 March. The proposal is expected to be cleared during the meeting. Banks and individuals in the global market will subscribe the debentures.
The official added that the final amount to be raised will depend on the interest rate the company gets and the response from promotional roadshows.
Airtel had earlier stated that it would prepay by March about US$900 million of the US$7.5 billion loan it took from banks to fund its acquisition of the African assets of Zain Telecom.
The buy expanded Airtel’s operations by both customers and revenues to nineteen countries stretching across South Asia to Africa. Airtel’s spokesperson declined to comment on the company’s plans to sell its first overseas bond. An industry executive said that Airtel’s debt included that in several African countries including Nigeria, and that these high inflation economies had high interest rates.
Airtel had set a target of US$5 billion in revenues and US$2 billion in EBIDTA for the year-ended March 2013 for its loss-making Africa businesses, and analysts remain divided if the company can achieve these targets. The telecommunication has cleared regulatory issues such as reduced termination rates in Nigeria, Tanzania and Kenya.
It is also hiving off its towers business into a separate company and plans to form a joint venture with other operators on the lines of Indus Towers, a three-way JV between Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Airtel. Airtel has outsourced the management of its networks to Ericsson, Nokia Siemens and Huawei and has handed over management of its IT functions in Africa to IBM.
Nigeria’s active subscribers reach 90.6 million by February
Nigerian Communications Commission has reported that the total number of active subscribers to telecommunications services in Nigeria reached 90.58 million in February, increased from 89.84 million in January.
GSM lines were 83.45 million as of February, increase from 82.62 million a month earlier, while mobile CDMA lines fell to 6.11 million from 6.19 million in January. Fixed and fixed wireless lines stood at 1.01 million. Teledensity was estimated at 64.70 percent, versus 63.11 percent at the end of 2010.
CBN orders mobile operators to ready mobile payment networks (Nigeria)
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reportedly ordered telecommunication companies which have been licensed to offer mobile money transfer services, to launch their services or risk punishment.
The CBN has granted approval in principle to 16 operators last year to roll out mobile money networks across the country.
According to CBN Director Abayomi Atoloye, the operators were given provisional approvals and four months (January to April) to prove their capacities to roll out mobile money networks in the country.
The approvals that were given to the operators require that they come back after four months for an evaluation to know whether the approvals will become permanent. With the four-month period due to lapse on 31 April, some of the licenses may be revoked if the holders fail to meet the criteria set by the CBN. Only a handful of the licensed operators are ready to roll out services in the near future.
Nokia launches E7 in Nigeria
Nokia has announced that has launched the Nokia E7 in the Nigerian market. The handset is a large 4-inch AMOLED touchscreen display smartphone featuring Nokia’s latest “Clear Black Display” (CBD) technology.
The handset is equipped with a full QWERTY tilt-slider keypad. It is the first touchscreen mobile phone in the Nokia E-series mobiles. It also supports business applications from partners including Microsoft and IBM and comes with an 8-megapixel camera, HDMI adapter and 16GB of on-board flash memory
Nokia E7 is one of the Nokia’s flagship business smartphone and the successor of the Nokia E90 communicator. It also sports high speed connectivity options like 3G and Wi-Fi n. It features Nokia Maps with free GPS navigation, 8 MP camera and HD video, and fully integrated social networks.
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.
Etisalat Nigeria reduces daily rate on Easy Cliq
Etisalat Nigeria has lowered the price on its ‘Cliq 4d day’ package from NGN 0.25 a second to NGN 0.20.
The rate is applicable to calls made to all Etisalat subscribers at any time of the day, for a daily fee of US$0.03.
The option is part of the Easy Cliq tariff plan, which also comes with free night calls to Etisalat numebrs after a minimum top-up of US$0.65 per week. Customers also get one free SMS for every one sent.
