Algeria To Auction 4G Licence

Algeria’s government has announced that it plans to hold a 4G licence tender next year, reports daily newspaper El Khabar.

There are currently three cellcos in operation in the North African nation – state-owned Algerie Telecom Mobile (Mobilis), Egyptian-owned Orascom Telecom Algeria (Djezzy GSM) and Wataniya Telecom Algeria (Nedjima), a subsidiary of Qatar’s Qtel.

Zimbabwe Issues deadline on SIM Registration

The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) has issued the country’s three mobile network operators with an ultimatum to register the personal details of all pre-paid SIM card users by 10 August 2010.

State-backed newspaper The Herald quotes POTRAZ’s director-general Charles Sibanda as saying that the measures were being introduced for security reasons. He added that a penalty schedule would apply to companies that failed to meet the deadline. Econet Wireless Zimbabwe leads the market with approximately three million subscribers followed by Orascom Telecom-owned Telecel with around 650,000 customers and government-owned NetOne with no more than 500,000 subscribers. The vast majority of users are pre-paid.

In a separate announcement, POTRAZ has directed the three mobile operators to make per-second voice call billing available for all subscribers. Per-minute charging remains common in the country at present.

Algerie Telecom Says There's No Need for Privatisation

Algerie Telecom CEO Moussa Benhamadi has announced in a national radio interview that the group had sufficient resources for its development and that it was no longer justified to open up its share capital.

In October last year the executive had said it was the government's decision to make, but that the group may be competitive regionally and internationally in two or three years. Algeria's government has been planning to partially privatise Algerie Telecom for four years. Benhamadi revealed yesterday that the operator would invest EUR 100 million by 2013 to expand the fibre-optic network and to make it accessible to most Algerians, notably in urban areas.

Algerie Telecom aims to have 6 million fixed network subscribers in 2013 and to increase the penetration rate of IPTV. It stood at 10.6 percent in 2008, compared to 5.02 percent in 2000. The operator generated a DZD 60 billion turnover in 2008, and invested DZD 80 billion between 2003-2008, a quarter of which went into upgrading the fixed network, said Benhamadi. He added that the group aimed to provide free local calls from 2013.