Mauritius Telecom Reports 17% Growth In Profits

Mauritius Telecom (MT) said pre-tax profits rose 17% year-on-year to MUR2.4 billion (USD89.1 million) in 2010, driven by strong growth at its mobile division. MT added that net profits rose 16% from MUR1.4 billion to MUR1.7 billion, and revenue climbed 5.6% from MUR7.1 billion to MUR7.5 billion. The company’s chief executive officer Sarat Lallah said the mobile segment grew by 10.4% in FY2010 compared with 6.7% in FY2009, while the internet segment also grew strongly. 

MT, which is 40% owned by France Telecom and is the country’s dominant fixed line and mobile operator, has revealed plans to invest as much as MUR4.3 billion, or 50% of its reserves, in international projects in the short term. It claims to have ‘sufficient reserves’ and that it is in talks with unnamed telecoms providers in Uganda and Vanuatu.

It is also looking to start trading its shares on the Indian Ocean island nation’s bourse, pending approval from the government, Chairman Appalsamy Thomas has said. ‘We are waiting for the decision from the Ministry of Finance,’ he added, ‘Once it’s obtained, it will take us four months before listing.’ Under the plan the government, the State Bank of Mauritius and the National Pension Fund will reduce their stakes in the company through the listing. About 10% to 15% of shares will be traded on the nation’s exchange, CFO Cyprien Mateos said.

France Teelcom In Bid For LION2 Cable

Click For Larger Image - Source France Telecom

France Telecom and the other members of the LION2 consortium have signed an agreement to build a new submarine cable in the Indian Ocean. The agreement comes less than a year after the inauguration of the LION (Lower Indian Ocean Network) submarine cable linking Madagascar to the rest of the world via Reunion Island and Mauritius.

With this latest agreement, France Telecom enters the second phase of its Indian Ocean development plan, pursuing its strategy for the regional expansion of broadband internet.

The 3,000km LION2 cable will extend the LION cable to Kenya via the island of Mayotte. The cable will provide Mayotte with access to a broadband internet network benefiting from a transmission capacity and service quality equivalent to those available in Europe. For Kenya, LION2 is an important project that will strengthen its connectivity to international networks and cover its capacity requirements for years to come. The project is being conducted by a consortium of France Telecom and its subsidiaries Mauritius Telecom, Orange Madagascar and Telkom Kenya, along with carrier companies Emtel, Societe Reunionnaise du Radiotelephone and STOI Internet.

The construction of the LION2 cable represents a total investment of around EUR56.5 million, about EUR31.25 million of which will come from France Telecom. Service is scheduled to begin in the first half of 2012.

LION2 relies on wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), enabling capacity to be increased without additional submarine work. The maximum potential capacity is 1.28Tbps. Two new landing stations will be built, one in Kaweni for Mayotte and the other at Nyali near Mombasa for Kenya. The second of these is doubled up with existing stations and will be used to redirect traffic if needed.

Madagascar Connects To EASSy

Madagascar has been connected to the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy), AfricaNews.com reports. Fixed line incumbent Telecom Malagasy (Telma) has announced that it has already put in place a national backbone that will allow it to connect its subscribers to the cable, and it is expected that the arrival of the link will allow for the development of outsourcing activities, such as call centres. EASSy will supposedly enable the transfer of data at speeds 40 times faster than dial-up connections, and 27 operators from 22 countries across Africa’s eastern coast have invested approximately USD260 million in the deployment of the cable so far.

The arrival of the EASSy connection is the second significant cable landing reported in Madagascar in the last twelve months.  In June 2009 Madagascar’s largest mobile operator by subscribers, Orange Madagascar, announced the completion of its submarine cable project, LION, connecting the cable at Tamatave in the Toamasina region. Funded by Orange Madagascar, France Telecom and Mauritius Telecom, the 1,800km broadband cable links with the existing SAT3/WASC and SAFE cable and has a capacity of 1.3Tbps, and it also connects Madagascar with the islands of Reunion and Mauritius.

Orange Partners With Alca-Lu In Multimedia Deal

Alcatel-Lucent has announced that Mauritius Telecom (MT), an Orange/FT Group partner, has deployed interactive mobile multimedia services (IMMS) powered by the Alcatel-Lucent Mobile Interactive TV (MiTV). MiTV will allow Orange to establish mobile multimedia services throughout East Africa and Indian Ocean, enabling each affiliate to quickly launch its own dedicated content offering and commercial bouquets while sharing the same software platform.

Alcatel-Lucent offers a complete turnkey mobile multimedia package, which provides Mauritius Telecom's customers with a large range of customised services. In total, end-users are able to access 20 live channels, eight near-live channels and eight playlists. With this solution customers can also access program information via an intuitive graphical user interface and can watch TV whenever and wherever they want.

‘With the Alcatel-Lucent mobile interactive TV, Mauritius Telecom has the opportunity to establish a dominant position in the Mauritius mobile TV market and create a new growing revenue stream from their investment in high capacity networks,’ said Amr El Leithy, head of Alcatel-Lucent's activities in Africa and the Middle East. ‘It is the first deployment of the MiTV Compact platform in an emerging country – highlighting this solution's ability to deliver quick market entry at a low cost.’