Liquid Telecom plans new southern African fibre network
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A plan to build an international and national fibre-optic transmission network has been revealed by Liquid Telecom, a majority-owned subsidiary of Zimbabwean cellco Econet Wireless. The company’s aim include building its own links to international submarine fibre-optic cables and a 7,500km domestic fibre networks linking all major cities.
Besides, the Liquid telecom also aims to build fibre networks in Harare and Bulawayo; and proposed metro networks in two other southern African countries. Huawei Technologies of China is building the network infrastructure.
According to Liquid’s CEO Nic Rudnick, most of the traffic on the network would be Econet’s initially, but that third-party traffic could account for the majority in due course.
Broadland to invest US$100 million in Zimbabwe
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: US$100 million would be invested by Broadlands Networks to set up a 4G based wireless network in Zimbabwe, however, the technology platform is not specified which might be WiMAX.
US$30 million has already been invested by company to build its network in Harare, Bulawayo and Gweru, with nationwide coverage expected by the middle of this year. Besides, the operator has also invested in its own fibre base network for backhauling traffic.
The aim of the network is to have a capacity for 10 million subscribers when fully completed.
TelOne scrutinized by African telco, Telkom
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Representatives of South African fixed line operator Telkom has been sent to Zimbabwe to carry out the discussions regarding the possible purchase of a 49 percent stake in Zimbabwe’s state-owned operator TelOne.
The delegation will also determine the investment needed to upgrade TelOne’s old equipment, on top of acquisition costs.
Telecel intends to double its subscriber base by Oct-end, roll-out 3G (Zimbabwe)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Telecel Zimbabwe, third largest operator in terms of subscribers, is reportedly planning to roughly double its base to 700,000 subscribers by the end of October 2009, and said it also intends to roll-out 3G services. Acting chairwoman Jane Mutasa said that Telecel Zimbabwe had 355,000 subscribers at end-July. According to a report, NetOne had less than 400,000 subscribers, where as the market leader Econet Wireless Zimbabwe was ahead with more than 1.25 million SIMs in operation.
Econet rolls-out commercial 3G services (Zimbabwe)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Econet Wireless Zimbabwe has launched commercial 3G services, including mobile internet access via handsets and datacards, in tandem with an expanded nationwide launch of GPRS services. Recently, the firm has installed a satellite earth station to provide uplink services for the new W-CDMA-based network.
A spokesperson for the company said it now expects ‘90% of internet users to migrate to 3G datacards within a few months.’
Alfa organises public auction for 25 new platinum mobile numbers (Lebanon)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Alfa, the mobile operator managed by Orascom Telecom, will be organizing its second public auction on 25 new platinum mobile numbers on Thursday 3rd of September, 2009. The auction will be held under the high patronage of Telecommunications’ Minister, Engineer Gebran Bassil, and upon his request, and will take place in “Dubai Hall” at the Metropolitan Hotel, at 9 pm.
To participate in the auction, one has to visit Alfa’s headquarters at Furn El Chebbak, Beirut in order to submit the 100 USD registration fees (VAT included) starting the 27th of August 2009, up until the 3rd of September 2009, from 8 am until 2 pm and on the 3rd of September at Metropolitan Hotel from 8 am until 9 pm just right before the bidding operation starts. (more…)
Orascom rebrands CellOne Namibia as Leo, other subsidies to follow soon
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Orascom Telecom has reportedly rebranded its Namibian subisidiary Cell One as ‘Leo’ in a process to begin next month. Egypt-based parent Orascom Telecom, which took over the reins of 2G/3G operator Powercom (trading as Cell One) at the start of this year, explained that the name (pronounced ‘lay-o’) was taken from the Swahili word meaning ‘today’, while also representing the Spanish ‘lion’, and would replace a branding that had become too ‘old school’ and did not resonate well with the public.
Orascom further added that the new brand will be soon be adopted by its other subsidiaries like Telecel Globe division in Zimbabwe (Telecel Zimbabwe), Burundi (U-Com Burundi) and the Central African Republic (Telecel Centrafrique). The cost of the rebranding is being shared between the international group and at local level, according to CEO Soban Pasha.
TelOne connects back subscribers (Zimbabwe)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: TelOne, the Zimbabwean telco, has reportedly connected the mobile phones after a month of service failure, bringing relief to its subscribers who had to sought for alternative means of communication. It has been said that TelOne had deliberately discontinued the function of connecting to other networks as it was trying to reduce on costs incurred during interconnectivity. This move was condemned by subscribers as it costed them looking for other means to communicate with those who use NetOne, Econet and Telecel.
Econet & Ericsson ink Zimbabwe network expansion deal
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Econet and Ericsson are in three year expansion deal. The companies said the deal would enable Econet to expand its subscriber base to five million by the end of next year.
Business opportunities exist in a vast number of sectors in Zimbabwe, including information technology,†said Lars Linden, president of Ericsson sub-Saharan Africa.
Ericsson said that the expansion agreement would increase capacity for voice and data traffic in the country.
This type of recapitalisation and expansion is just what the country needs to rebuild and develop,†Linden said.
Econet starts network deployment worth $200Mn (Zimbabwe)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Econet Wireless Zimbabwe has reportedly started employing mobile network equipment worth USD200 million through contracts with Ericsson of Sweden and China’s ZTE. The installation of base station and core network equipment is scheduled to be in July and December, with expansion and upgrades in northern parts of the country being carried out by Ericsson and southern regions the responsibility of ZTE, and the rollout cost split approximately 50/50 between the two vendors.
Econet said that the infrastructure consignment represents only 15% of its planned rollout to take its GSM network capacity to five million users by the end of 2010. Presently, Econet is selling more than 30,000 new pre-paid ‘Buddie’ lines per week, whilst post-paid contracts are freely available on demand.
