Neotel vs. Telkom SA: Deregulation at a Snails Pace

Duncan Mcelod of the Financial Mail has written an excellent piece at Mybroadband .
it describes the problems of Neotel, The first competitor in South Africa competing against TelKom, which though technically not a monopoly, is still dominating the market. Let me summarize:

• Neoteol intially had problems in licensing stemming from being underfunded
• Telcom is tieing up large businesses with multi year contracts
• Telkom bought significant billboard space adjacent to the Neotel offices before the lease was closed.
• Neotel sells wholesale bandwidth to ISPs based on its concession to stay afloat
• Neotel is laying its own fiber networks, but is 18 Months to two years away from completion
• During this time Telkom has hiked consumer prices try to get its profits now

Neotel's Strategy, based on to Mcleod's interview with Ajay Pandey, is to move from populations centers outward.

"Its consumer-focused network, linked to the main network wirelessly, will initially be built in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, Bloemfontein, Nelspruit, Witbank and other key towns. Those in more outlying areas will have to wait a few years for Neotel's wireless services."

Neotel is also experimenting with new technologies. Neotel is getting read to do a pilot in the city of Gauteng where it is constructing a network of base stations using a wireless system using CDMA2000. The pilot will kick soon have about 20 base stations.

However: Neotel does NOT want to start a price war, ( I'm sure it needs to get profits back to its own investors)

Landey also alludes to the emerging belief that bundling services is the long term answer.

The results to date: It still takes six months to get a phone. Consumers are still waiting.

Vodaphone Fiji

from 2005:

Vodafone has chosen Ericsson's (NASDAQ:ERICY) Mobile Softswitch to expand its network in Fiji. Ericsson will also introduce the first 3G network to the Pacific Ocean nation with a WCDMA upgrade.

Under the five-year agreement, Ericsson will also provide managed services. Vodafone will invest USD 15 million to modernize its core network and introduce a new 3G-radio network, including mobile softswitch.

Read the rest from Looksmart

Fixed Cellular Terminal Router in Ghana

News from Ghana
-Lee

A communications company, Meridian Infotel has launched its new product, fixed cellular terminal router. The product allows customers to channel all their mobile and international phone calls via a GSM gateway using an areeba corporate SIM card.

The total number of national mobile and fixed line subscribers is currently pegged at 4,300,000 and 330, 00 respectively, with companies’ monthly telephone bills predominantly recording landline to mobile phone calls, increasing expenditure.

With the introduction of the fixed cellular terminal router, expenditure can be reduced drastically and the efficiency of the mobile call network maintained.

Read more from Mobil Africa

Budde Communication 2006 Telecom Analysis

There is a useful 2006 Executive Summary of a 119 page analysis on African Telecom Infrastrcuture and Issues From Budde Communications.

Its worth a read.

-Lee

Kenya Starts Over to License a Second National Telecom

The tortuous process to
License a second national operator (SNO) is to start again.

Communication Commissions of Kenya (CCK) on Thursday ordered re-tendering after Reliance Consortium failed to formally apply for the licence as required

read the rest from the East African Standard at AllAfrica

New Satellite @4 degrees east-North Africa

The EUROBIRD™ 4* satellite of Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) has initiated commercial service at the Group’s 4 degrees East position. The satellite’s entry into service at 4 degrees East marks the opening of a new orbital location for Eutelsat, taking to 18 the number of positions currently used by the Group.

EUROBIRD™ 4 provides coverage from 4 degrees East of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and central Asia in Ku-band frequencies.
* HOT BIRD™ 3 during first commercial mission.

the Rest from Webwire

TelKom dropped out of the UTL Bidding to Buy another PAn Africa ISP

Telkom apparently pulled out of the process, and in February announced that it had acquired the pan-African ISP Africa Online from the African Lakes Corporation.

More from Global Insight

Here is Africa Online's web page.

Here is their Uganda Page

East Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) contract won by Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent, the French telecommunications giant, has won the US$240 million contract for the construction of the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy). The announcement was made last week by a consortium of 23 operators (EASSy parties) from the countries involved in the project.

Kenya has opted to run its own Cable Project called TEAMs

(Much more detail than earlier blog post at this site)
read the rest from Tectonics

CELTEL PRomotion (Uganda)

CELTEL last week launched a new promotion dubbed 'Stock and win' to reward their stockists.
Dan Kaboyo, the marketing manager, consumer and payphone, told reporters in Kampala: "Stockists have been instrumental in ensuring that our customers access the products and services easily.

In more places, traditionally top up cards were only available in authorised dealer outlets which was not convenient for the majority of our customers."

Latest News from Africa Mobil

Onetouch Charges Flat Rate For All Local Network Calls in Ghana
Monday, March 05, 2007, 5:20:44 AM
Onetouch, the mobile arm of state-owned Ghana Telecom now charges a flat rate for calls to all local networks.

Nashua Mobile launches internet division
Monday, March 05, 2007, 5:06:44 AM
Nashua Mobile, the independent cellular service provider in the listed Reunert Group, on Tuesday signalled its intention to become a major player in South Africa's broadband and internet service-provider market by launching its new Nashua Mobile Internet division.

Glo Mobile pioneers Voice SMS in Nigeria
Monday, March 05, 2007, 5:00:44 AM
Glo Mobile has announced the introduction of Voice Messaging Service (Voice-SMS), a package which allows subscribers to record and send a voice message to a recipient. The service, the first of its kind in Nigeria, is a talk and listen messaging alternative to the regular type and read service provided by short messaging service (SMS).

Missed Call Notification feature for Cell C customers
Monday, March 05, 2007, 4:59:44 AM
Cell C subscribers will now be able to access details of callers who did not leave voicemail messages while their phones were switched off, thanks to a recently introduced Missed Call Notification feature.

Celtel wins brand of the year in Nigeria
Monday, March 05, 2007, 4:58:44 AM
Celtel, recently, reaffirmed its leadership position in the Nigerian telecommunications industry when it clinched the Brand of the Year Award at the 2007 Thisday Awards for Excellence and Good Governance.

Cell C Appoints Chief Corporate Officer
Monday, March 05, 2007, 4:00:00 AM
Motshabi will be returning to the company she helped launch in 2001 after an absence of four years. In that time Motshabi successfully led one of the country’s foremost advertising agencies, Lobedu Leo Burnett.

Ugandan President and MTC Managing Director discuss the way forward
Friday, March 02, 2007, 7:35:45 AM
Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni recently held a comprehensive meeting with MTC Group Managing Director Dr Saad Al Barrak in Kampala discussing a range of issues that covered the liberalization of the telecommunications industry; investment opportunities; incentives for foreign investment and recent free trade agreements that have been recently established in Uganda. President Museveni pointed out that such issues are relevant to the future economic prosperity of Uganda, and in return Dr Barrak provided assurances to the President of the commitment and role that MTC’s fully owned subsidiary Celtel Uganda will play in such an important arena.

MTN improves affordability and accessibility of broadband in South Africa through reduction of data rates
Wednesday, February 28, 2007, 5:25:45 AM
MTN has reduced rates on data contracts and data bundles by up to 20% and MTN customers can now also pay as little as 20c per MB when buying the 1GB data contract or data bundle.

Zi Corporation Launches Qix for Windows Mobile; Demo versions available on HTC Qtek 8300 handsets
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 2:09:33 PM
Zi Corporation (NASDAQ: ZICA) (TSX: ZIC), a leading provider of intelligent interface solutions, today announced a new version of its award-winning search and discovery engine, Qix™, launched at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, February 12 – 15. Qix for Windows Mobile 5 (WM5) is now available for operator deployment.

Zi Corporation Introduces QixLinks
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 9:17:34 AM
Zi Corporation (Nasdaq: ZICA) (TSX: ZIC), a leading provider of intelligent interface solutions, today announced the introduction of QixLinks™ and QixLinks Ads™, two radical new developments of its award-winning on-device search and discovery engine Qix™. These products will offer users direct access to portal content and advertisements, driving greater ARPU for operators.

First Hop Paves the Way for Advertising-Funded Mobile Content Services
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 9:04:44 AM
Today First Hop, the mobile service control company, announced the launch of its Mobile Advertising Solution. This will provide mobile operators and service providers with the infrastructure needed to support an ad-funded content business and enable them to attract additional revenue from advertisers looking to expand into mobile.

Rendez-vous in Paris: Nokia 7373 Special Edition meets Giambattista Valli
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 9:00:34 AM
Drawing upon the accolades of its highly regarded L'Amour Collection, Nokia has joined creative forces with talented fashion designer Giambattista Valli to craft the Nokia 7373 Special Edition. For this one-of-a-kind cooperation between a thriving creator of new designs and the pioneer in mobile fashion accessories, Nokia returns to the style capital of Paris during Fashion Week. Here the efforts to fuse fashion with mobility began in 1999 with the introduction of the Nokia 8210.

Roamware Dials Up The Future Of Mobile Content Sharing With Media Call
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 8:50:34 AM
Roamware, the global leader in roaming and mobile connectivity services, today announced the introduction of Roamware Media Call, a revolutionary media personalization and distribution service which aims to make sharing media by mobile phone as easy as making a phone call. The new service, set for launch in the second quarter of 2007, allows consumers to personalize their calling experience by sharing video, music, and other media content with each other before, during and after a mobile call.

Open-Plug to distribute Jataayu Software products as part of its ELIPS Application Suite
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 8:39:50 AM
Open-Plug a leading supplier of mass market software platforms for the handset industry, and Jataayu Software a leading vendor of mobile terminal and VAS infrastructure solutions, today announced the strengthening of their partnership by finalizing a license agreement. Jataayu’ software products, including browsing and messaging applications, will then be available to handset markers directly from Open-Plug as part of the leading-edge ELIPS open platform for mass market phones.

Research Predicts Seven out of Ten Mobile Professionals Will Use Mobile Email by Year End
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 8:39:49 AM
Visto Corporation, the partner company behind mobile email services from more than 30 of the world’s largest mobile service providers, today announced the findings of a survey the company commissioned to identify and target key drivers for mobile email adoption. Based on the research, Visto predicts that market penetration of mobile email could reach as high as 70 percent of mobile professionals by the end of 2007.

Roamware Technology Proven In New GSM Association Global Roaming Initiative
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 8:39:45 AM
Leading global roaming and mobile connectivity expert Roamware has successfully completed the GSM Association-led proof-of-concept trial for a new hub-based roaming structure for the mobile market. Once tested and installed, the hubs will provide a single point of contact for operators seeking roaming agreements, eliminating the time-consuming individual and bi-lateral agreement approach in use today.

‘Voice SMS’ Usage Grows Rapidly as Bubble Motion Announces Deal with Vodafone Egypt
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 8:37:45 AM
Bubble Motion the world’s first voice short messaging service (voice SMS) provider, today announced an agreement with Vodafone Egypt to launch its Mini Call BubbleTALK voice SMS to the operator’s subscribers. Voice SMS usage has been a recent messaging success story in the Asia-Pacific region with eight mobile operators offering the service to more than 100 million users to date.

Sonus Networks Partners With 3way Networks To Offer Complete System Solution For Its Low Powered GSM Offering
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 8:27:45 AM
Sonus Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: SONS), a leading supplier of service provider Voice over IP (VoIP) infrastructure solutions, announced today at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain that it has partnered with 3Way Networks to develop solutions to deliver voice services and multimedia applications to mobile handsets over an end-to-end low powered GSM network. 3Way Networks will provide femto cells, which enable existing and future 2G and 3G handsets to integrate with Sonus’ IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)-based network infrastructure. Together, the two companies are working to provide network operators with a complete Low Powered GSM (LP GSM) solution that provides new levels of operational efficiency with robust support for the delivery of next generation voice and multimedia services.

Omnifone Collaborates with Musiwave for MusicStation next generation mobile music service
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 8:17:45 AM
Omnifone, a UK-based mobile music company, today announced a collaboration with Musiwave, an Openwave company (NASDAQ: OPWV), the leading provider of mobile music entertainment services to operators and media companies worldwide, to distribute MusicStation, a revolutionary ‘all-you-can-eat’ mobile music service, that works on all major music handsets.

Visto advances simplicity on hot new mobile devices
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 8:07:45 AM
Visto, the leading global provider of easy-to-use mobile email, today announces the full availability of the Visto Mobile™ email services on the new handheld devices launched at this year’s 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona.

Sonus Networks And Ip.access Partner To Drive Fixed/Mobile Convergence Forward
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 8:07:45 AM
Sonus Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: SONS), a leading supplier of service provider Voice over IP (VoIP) infrastructure solutions, and ip.access, the creator of cellular picocell and femtocell technologies, announced today at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain that the two companies have entered into a partnership. Sonus, which recently unveiled its strategy to create new cost-efficient solutions designed to deliver fixed-mobile service over GSM spectrum, will work together with ip.access, which will provide in-building picocell and femtocell solutions. For ip.access, this relationship validates the Company’s IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) roadmap and allows ip.access to work closely with a leading provider of wireless and wireline IP-voice and multimedia infrastructure solutions.

ip.access announces successful further funding round
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 8:00:45 AM
ip.access, the market leader in cellular picocell technologies today announced a further funding round from Amadeus Capital Partners as well as their existing investors to fuel growth. Amadeus Capital Partners will work alongside ip.access’ management and the current VC team of Scottish Equity Partners, Rothschild & Cie Gestion, Intel Capital Corporation and Motorola Ventures to help the company grow its annual turnover from today’s $25m annual run-rate to the target of $100m+

Worldwide SMS revenues to hit $67bn by 2012
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 5:19:45 AM
A new report from Portio Research forecasts a healthy future for SMS, which continues to be the star of the data services show with traffic volumes and revenues that continue to confound predictions. Although the growth of SMS revenues will not be as aggressive as the growth of SMS volumes due to declining prices, by 2012 global SMS revenues are expected to reach 67bn USD, driven by 3.7 trillion messages. The report, ‘Mobile Messaging Futures 2007 – 2012’ outlines an exciting future for other mobile messaging technologies especially instant messaging and mobile e-mail amid continued strong worldwide subscriber growth.

Mobile television: the reality of rollout
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 5:19:45 AM
For some exhibitors at this show, the business model for mobile TV is a lot simpler than for others. Take antenna systems specialist RFS, which, as Dave Thickett, RFS senior systems engineer, told the Show Daily, has experience in DVB-T, the terrestrial cousin of mobile broadcasting contender DVB-H.

Westel vows to revolutionize GSM service in Ghana
Tuesday, February 20, 2007, 12:54:45 AM
Frustrated Ghanaian mobile phone users who may be dissatisfied with the poor quality of service they receive from their network operators will soon have the luxury of choosing to use a new mobile phone network.

GSMA and MasterCard piloting a programme to make it far easier and cost-effective to transfer remittances globally
Monday, February 19, 2007, 7:13:39 AM
The GSM Association has launched a pilot programme aimed at tapping the ubiquity and ease-of-use of mobile communications to enable the world’s 200 million international migrant workers to easily and securely send remittances to their dependents, many of whom don’t have bank accounts. By exploiting the extensive reach of the mobile networks, the programme will complement existing local remittances channels and make transferring money internationally significantly more affordable.

GSM Association aims for global point of sale purchases by mobile phone
Monday, February 19, 2007, 6:53:39 AM
The worldwide use of mobile phones for payments at point of sale is the aim of a new initiative announced today by the GSM Association (GSMA), the global trade organization for mobile operators.

Mobile instant messaging needs instant action; Report warns of stalled take-off and threat to operators from Internet brands
Monday, February 19, 2007, 6:48:39 AM
The established mobile industry is in danger of missing the boat regarding mobile instant messaging (IM) and community networks warns an in-depth report from analysts BKI Media and fastmobile.

Nokia to expand its 3G radio access network sharing solution for up to four operators
Monday, February 19, 2007, 6:45:39 AM
Nokia will expand its 3G radio access multi-operator solution to enable the sharing of a radio access network (RAN) between as many as four operators. By sharing the base station and radio network controller hardware, the operators can significantly minimize the capital and operational expenditures of their 3G RAN networks and yet maintain control of their network.

Nokia and Vodafone announce key milestones in S60 software collaboration
Monday, February 19, 2007, 6:35:39 AM
Nokia and Vodafone recently announced a significant milestone in their collaboration on the development of S60 software on Symbian OS(TM), with the release of the first Vodafone specific software package to all S60 licensees.

Lowering mobile taxes boosts usage and fuels growth; Study shows 10% rise in mobile penetration adds 1.2% to economic growth
Monday, February 19, 2007, 6:35:39 AM
Usage of mobile communications is a powerful economic growth engine, which governments can fuel by lowering taxes on mobile services and handsets, according to a new study undertaken by Deloitte for the GSM Association. In a developing country, an increase of 10 percentage points in mobile penetration will lift that country’s annual economic growth rate by 1.2 percentage points, the study found. That represents a major uplift - if the proportion of people with a mobile phone in an economy, growing at 4% a year, rises from 10% to 20% that would boost the economic growth rate to 5.2% a year.

Will Cell Phone Internet access replace Internet Cafes in Africa?

TIGO’s IT Network and Operations manager, Dakshit Pandya, said, ”the service enables the mobile phone network customer to browse the Internet right on his palm handset and computers through their GPRS/EDGE platform”.

He told this paper during the launch of the new product in Dar es Salaam on Thursday that his company was not worried about international competition, but was more concerned about providing local customers with satisfactory service.

The term GPRS stands for General Pocket Radio Services, a standard for wireless communication, which runs at the speed of up to 115 kilobytes per second, compared to the current Circuit Switch Data (CSD) system that runs at a speed of 9.6 kilobytes per second.

read the rest from Mobil Africa

Mobil Internet Technology Dominates in Africa

Mobile Internet technologies play a very important role, in making Internet services available to many, in Africa. The role of cellular networks in Africa's telecommunications industry cannot be over-emphasized. In fact, cellular networks dominate in Africa, as a result of the fact that the number of mobile phone subscriptions far exceed those of their fixed-line counterparts. To do this end, it is only expedient that we at Mobile Africa share useful information, about the various Internet service offerings by the cellular networks in every African country where a form of data/Internet access exists, over a cellular network. We are starting the Mobile Internet series, with Ghana in celebration of the west African nation's 50th Independence Anniversary celebration.

Read the Rest from Mobil Africa

MS releases new VOIP Server Software Beta

Microsoft will release a public beta of new VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) server software by the end of this month.The software smoothly integrates with legacy phone networks and its Office application suite, the company said.

On the company's Web site, users can register to download the beta versions of Office Communications Server 2007, as well as Office Communicator 2007, a client application for mobiles and desktops that enables instant messaging, voice, and video.

read the rest from

Vonage found guilty of Infringing on Verizon Patents

A federal jury Thursday found U.S. Internet-phone provider Vonage Holdings Corp. infringed on Verizon Communications Inc. patents.

The jury ordered Vonage to pay $58 million in damages to Verizon plus a 5.5 percent royalty on future sales.

Immediately following the verdict, attorneys for New York's Verizon requested a permanent injunction barring Vonage from further use of its patented technology, The Wall Street Journal reported.

read the rest from Playfulls

ARABSAT plans to Launch More Satelittes

The Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabsat), in cooperation with Dubai Studio City (DSC), organized a seminar to mark the introduction of the latest generation of Badr satellites and highlight their impact on the regional broadcasting industry

Read more from the AME Press release

Malawi Telecommnications Limited Not rolled out after 1 Year

Information and Tourism Minister Patricia Kaliati on Wednesday accused the Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL) of failing to roll out one year after its privatisation saying many people are still facing communication hiccups due to few telephone lines.

Speaking in Mangochi where she opened a five-day 33rd African Advanced Level Telecommunications Institute (AFRALTI) Governing Council meeting, Kaliati said when MTL was privatised people expected change and that its services should expand to rural areas.

“We are still having problems because you have not yet rolled out. And we ask ourselves why have we privatised. They [MTL] should prove themselves and [if] you will not do it well we may come back and say why can’t we do it,” she said.

MTL head of information technology Ascot Maluwa said in an interview his company has not yet rolled out because it was working on a business plan which has now been approved. He added that when new management took over in February last year it embarked on a project to clean up inefficiencies and rooting out corruption. “What remains now is laying out strategies because we have already installed new equipment. We will meet our targets before four years,” he said without elaborating on the targets.

Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) acting director general Mike Kuntiya said his body was expected to meet MTL to explain how they have faired after a year and would certainly question their licence conditions and get data on their roll out targets. “If they have not [rolled out] they should give reasons to that,” he said. When MTL was privatised it was agreed that it will roll out lines both in urban and rural areas to improve communication. Failure to do so would attract a penalty.

From The Nation

Celtel Kenya Winning the Subscriber Wars

Celtel Kenya has won the first round of what is shaping up to be a bruising battle for subscribers with market leader Safaricom, with the regulatory Communications Commission of Kenya ruling in its favour to place a cap on interconnection rates and a ceiling of Ksh30 (43 US cents) per minute on call charges.


read the rest from AllAfrica.com

CelTel Founder wins award for African Growth

Oroginally poted February 13, 2007 Posted to the web February 17, 2007

Celtel Group's Founder and Chairman earns top industry accolade "For helping the world to hear Africa's voice"

The GSM Association Chairman's Award for 2007 is presented to a remarkably successful mobile entrepreneur, a pioneer of technical achievement and a driving force in the industry's efforts to connect the unconnected of Africa.

This highest annual award - in recognition of outstanding achievement in supporting the growth and vitality of the global mobile community, and the highlight of the Global Mobile Awards - was presented by GSMA Chairman Craig Ehrlich to Dr Mohamed 'Mo' Ibrahim, the founder and chairman of Celtel International, a fully owned subsidiary of MTC, which operates networks in 15 African countries.


read the rest from

Kuwait MTC CEO Group visits their

The CEO and Vice Chairman of Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC) Group Saad Al-Barrak has visited the country to familiarize himself with Celtel Uganda activities. MTC Group purchased Celtel International at $3.5 billion in 2005.
Dr. Saad has been visiting various Pan African Celtel operations. Two weeks ago, Dar-es-Salaam hosted 20 business executives from the Middle East and Africa to discuss the MTC Group's new growth strategy - ACE (Acceleration, Consolidation, Expansion).


Celtel Uganda PRO Justina Ntabgoba confirmed the visit.

Read the Rest from

Privitization of Nigeria Telecom ( from 7/2006)

This is an Archive from July 2006 a

AllAfrica.com English Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Lagos, Jul 12, 2006 (This Day/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX)

"The delay, controversy and uncertainty trailing the privatization of the Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd, (NITEL) after four years of several failed attempts to privatize the company through the Bureau of Public Enterprise, (BPE), was finally brought to an end with the sale of NITEL to Transnational Corporation (TRANSCORP) for 750 million US dollars for 75 percent equity of NITEL in a negotiated deal."

Read the rest