Rwandatel Fibre-Optic Line Reaches Kigali By April

The 900km fibre-optic cable of Rwandan fixed line operator Rwandatel is expected to land in the capital Kigali by April this year, local daily New Times reports.

According to the operator’s CTO, Basilio Sadindi, the cable had been slated to land in Kigali by January 2010, but sister telco Uganda Telecom (UTL) has encountered delays in laying the cable from Ugandan capital Kampala to Masaka in the south of the country. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, UTL and Rwandatel, which are both subsidiaries of Libyan government investment vehicle LAP Green Networks, contracted Green Future in September 2009 to deliver SEACOM's fibre connection to Uganda and Rwanda.

After a full connection to the submarine cable, Rwandatel's internet subscriber base is expected to increase by 10% in the first year. After signing a contract in August last year, UTL and Rwandatel also agreed to purchase an additional 155Mbps of capacity from the SEACOM submarine cable.

Warid Acquistion Won't Affect Bharti Ratings

­Fitch Ratings has commented that Bharti Airtel's acquisition of a 70% stake in Bangladesh's Warid Telecom will not have an impact on the former's ratings. Fitch has a Long-term Issuer Default Rating of 'BBB-' with a Stable Outlook on Bharti, and notes that the incremental capex and Warid's existing debt will not materially impact Bharti's credit profile. However, the agency is currently monitoring the negative impact on Bharti's revenues stemming from irrational pricing activity by the operators in India during October-December 2009, and the pending cost of 3G pan-India license fees and its impact on Bharti's credit profile; details of India's 3G auction is expected to be announced sometime in 4QFY10.

Under the agreement with Warid, the acquisition will be partly funded by the purchase of existing shares held in Warid by the Dhabi group for a nominal consideration and the balance by way of an issuance of fresh shares at par. The acquisition will give Bharti the management and board control of the company. Bharti will make a fresh investment of USD300m to expand the network coverage and capacity of Warid in Bangladesh. Although, Bharti has yet to confirm the period over which such capex would be made, Fitch expects the same to occur over a period of 2-3 years. Fitch does not expect the incremental capex to significantly change Bharti's capex plans. Further, Fitch notes that the maximum existing debt on Warid's balance sheet is USD300m, and accordingly the same is unlikely to materially impact Fitch's forecasted net leverage expectations for Bharti.

According to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BRTC), Warid is the fourth-largest telecom operator in Bangladesh, with 2.92 million subscribers and a 5.8% subscriber market share at end-November 2009. It offers mobile services in all 64 districts of the country. At end-November 2009, the total subscriber base in Bangladesh was 50.55 million, with a penetration of 31.6%.

Bharti is one of India's leading private sector telecommunications providers, with integrated and diversified operations across mobile, fixed-line access, consumer broadband, direct-to-home television, long-distance and enterprise services. At end-November 2009, Bharti had a subscriber market share of 22.9% and a revenue market share of 33%. Bharti's FY09 reported revenues, EBITDAR and net income were INR373.5bn, INR170.6bn and INR78.6bn, respectively.

Four Listed For Zamtel Acquistion

Four bidders have been shortlisted to take a 75% stake in the state-owned telco, Zamtel. The bidders who shall proceed to the next round are India's BSNL, Libya's LAP Greencom, Unitel /Angola Cables of Angola and Russia's Altimo Holdings/VimpelCom.

The ZDA Board at meeting held on January 11, 2009 approved the recommended shortlist after detailed analysis conducted by an Evaluation Committee.

Commenting on the shortlist at a press briefing to announce the successful bidders, Mr. Muhabi Lungu, Acting Director General of the ZDA said he was happy with all four participants who have gone through to the next stage of the process. "The bids submitted were compelling, and set the stage for an exciting next phase," he added.

The four bidders will now be invited to participate in the next round of bidding, which is expected to begin during the week commencing 18 January, 2010. At the begining of this phase shortlisted bidders will be given details of the requirements and timing for the next phase of the process. Details of the bids will not be disclosed at this stage as doing so would prejudice future phases of the privatisation process.

Tanzania's Telecoms Industry Is Best Performer

Tanzania’s communications sector was the top performer in terms of the country’s national economic growth in the financial year 2008/09, with a strong increase in the mobile phone user base being the main driver.

Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Mustafa Mkulo, said the overall mobile subscriber base total grew from 9.5 million people in 2008 to 15 million last year, in the process increasing airtime revenues. The communications sector expanded by 19.2% in 2009 he went on to say, eclipsing the next best performance from the mining sector (15.6%), the financial sector (11.9%) and trade and construction, which grew by one percentage point to 10.5%.

Egyptian Court Rules Against France Telecom

With the blocking of France Telecom’s offer for minority stakes in
the Egyptian mobile operator by Egyptian court, all hopes of the
operator to take full control of ECMS were dashed. The decision was
taken after the price of €1.5bn offered by France’s group to for
outstanding stakes in ECMS, due to expire on Thursday was considered to
be too low.
The decision is pronounced as victory of Orascom Telecom, locked in
a lengthy battle with the former French monopoly for control of Egypt’s
largest mobile company. The ownership and strategy of France Telecom,
the largest mobile operator in the Middle East by subscribers will also
loom in uncertainty because of the decision.
ECMS is controlled via Mobinil by France Telecom and Orascom in which France Telecom owns 71.25%, Orascom 28.75% and Mobinil owns 51%.
The two owners have been at loggerheads for years over a strategy for
the Egyptian operator.

Zain Could Be Planning Syria Investment

­Kuwait's Zain is reported to be interested in investing in the Syrian mobile market, either through an acquisition of an operator license, or a stake in an existing operator. The country currently has two networks, locally owned Syriatel and South African owned, MTN Syria.

During 2008, the U.S. Department of the Treasury blacklisted Syriatel due to its links with Rami Makhluf, which the US government has blacklisted due to his connections with the government. Any investment by Zain in the company would have to overcome that political hurdle.

Kuwait's Al Anbaa newspaper reported that officials from Zain have met with the Syrian telecoms ministry to work out a suitable manner for the company to enter the market. However, Zain denied being interested in the market when rumours first emerged early last year.

The Syrian government has also been considering offering a 3rd mobile license for well over a year.

Figures from the Mobile World analysts note that the country ended the first half of this year with an estimated 8.6 million mobile phone users - representing a population penetration level of around 42%.

Kenya To Issue 3G Licences At US$25 million

Kenya's telecoms regulator, the CCK has confirmed that it will hold the fee for 3G licenses at Sh1.9 billion (US$25 million) - despite calls from the mobile networks for the fee to be lowered.

"Please note that the determined 3G license fee is $25 million for any operator who seeks that license," the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) said in an email to Reuters. "It is applicable equally across the board."

Although Safaricom aquired a license in 2007 for the full fee of US$25 million, the other operators have claimed that the fee is too high for the market and been calling for a reduction. Safaricom has said that it would seek a refund on the difference if new operators are offered licenses at a lower rate.

Zain has applied for a license, and is planning a network launch in the first half of this year.

 Safaricom had 13.8 million subscribers at the end of June, compared to 2.4 million for Zain.

MTN Rwanda Deploys Aradial AAA System For Wi-Fi Service

Radius server and billing solutions provider Aradial has announced that Rwandan telecoms operator MTN Rwanda has deployed its Aradial AAA and Policy Control solution to provide Wi-Fi services to the city of Kigali.

The solution integrates with access controllers to manage Wi-Fi base stations and operates with Ericsson's intelligent network over the provisioning infrastructure of MTN to ensure zero charging leakages in the operator's pre-paid billing. ‘As a leading communications provider, we are committed to providing our customers with reliable and affordable services,’ commented Rami Farah, CTO of MTN Rwanda, adding, ‘The new solution will enable us to exercise full control over the usage of our hotspots very cost effectively, while improving our subscribers' service experience.’

The solution will allow the Rwandan operator to offer better internet connectivity to its customers, increasing its profitability while eliminating the overheads associated with customer provisioning, authorisation and accounting.

Ghana Plans To Set Up Clearing House To Monitor IDD Calls

Ghana’s Minister of Communications, Haruna Iddrisu, is quoted by the GNA as saying the country could make an additional USD50 million per annum from incoming international calls if it set up a telephone clearing house to monitor all inbound international calls.

The news agency goes on to say the government intends to establish the clearing house this year, designed to monitor all inbound calls in order to check fraud in the operations of the international gateway system. ‘The National Communications Authority has been legally empowered to effectively collaborate with telecom operators to work towards the development of a reliable telephone clearing house database,’ Iddrisu is quoted as saying.

Four ZAMTEL Bidders Submit Bids

Of the eight companies shortlisted in the sale process of a 75% stake in Zambian fixed line incumbent Zambia Telecommunications Company (Zamtel), only three have submitted bids. According to the Times of Zambia the three foreign companies to submit their offers to the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) for the telco are India’s Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), Unitel of Angola and Libya-based LAP Greencom.

A fourth bid, from a consortium of Russia’s Vimpelcom and the telecoms arm of the Alfa Group, Altimo, was understood to have been sent on time, but reportedly arrived at the ZDA offices five minutes after the submission deadline as a result of ‘logistical reasons’. The bid however was still considered, and the ZDA board confirmed that Altimo’s non-binding offer had been accepted today. The four companies that had been shortlisted but chose not to bid were Telkom South Africa, BSNL’s fellow state-owned Indian telco Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), Portugal Telecom and a consortium of Egypt-based Orascom Telecom and its subsidiary Telecel Globe.

ZDA acting director general, Muhabi Lungu, after opening the bids said the ZDA would now study the offers, while also passing the details on to the board of Zamtel for its evaluation. Mr Lungu has stated that the ZDA will announce which of the companies will move on to the next stage in the sale process on 11 January 2010, where another due diligence would be undertaken before the successful bidder is chosen.

NCC Introduces New Interconnection Rates

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has introduced a new set of interconnection rates for voice and SMS termination with the hope that retail tariffs will be cut by as much as NGN4 (USD4.98) per minute, local newspaper This Day reports.

From 31 December 2009 interconnection rates for mobile voice termination provided by new entrants (defined by the commission as companies which have been operating for less than four years) irrespective of originating network, will be set at NGN10.12. The rates will fall to NGN9.48 on 31 December 2010, NGN8.84 on 31 December 2011 and NGN8.20 on 31 December 2012 (from which date all termination rates will be symmetric).

The NCC hopes the revised interconnection rates will encourage new entrants in the sector to offer services at more affordable rates to subscribers. Operators not defined as new entrants must set a mobile voice termination rate of NGN8.20 from 31 December 2009. Fixed voice termination rates have been set at NGN10.12 from 31 December 2009, NGN9.48 from 31 December 2010, NGN8.84 from 31 December 2011 and NGN8.20 from 31 December 2012.

The SMS termination rate of new entrants will start at NGN1.94 from 31 December 2009 and fall gradually to NGN1.02 from 31 December 2012. Other mobile operators will charge NGN1.02 from the start of 2010.

Sudan: Canartel Acquires i-conX Billing System

Interconnect billing solutions provider i-conX Solutions has announced it has successfully deployed its i-conX system to Sudanese fixed line operator Canar Telecommunication Company (Canartel) to rate and bill the operator’s domestic and international interconnect traffic.

Canartel’s CEO, Ali Bin Jarsh, commented: ‘As the Sudanese market becomes more competitive, so the implementation of a modern interconnect billing solution is recognised as a key requirement for Canartel to maintain its leading status. The i-conX solution has been thoroughly tested, and found to provide a capable platform to support the continued growth of our wholesale business.’

Canartel became Sudan's first alternative fixed line operator, after it won the country’s second national operator licence in November 2004 with a bid of EUR45 million (USD64 million). It launched in November 2005 offering voice, data and broadband internet services based on a 3,500km fibre-optic next generation network (NGN), VSAT and wireless in the local loop (WiLL) CDMA technology, with a strong focus on business clients.

Cameron Acts on Internet Fraud As It's Reported to Have the Riskiest Sites

Cameroon starts the new year as home to the world's riskiest Internet sites according to cyber-security firm McAfee. The government says it is drafting new laws to punish Internet fraud.

Cameroon's place atop the Internet fraud list is partly a result of the alphabet.

Criminals are taking advantage of Cameroon's Internet suffix ".cm" to trick careless Web surfers who mistype the popular ".com" suffix. By establishing false ".cm" sites that appear similar to the ".com" Web page people thought they were going to, criminals can acquire personal information for identity theft and spread spyware and malicious downloads.

The U.S. cyber security firm McAfee says more than one-third of Web sites hosted in Cameroon are suspicious, putting the West African nation ahead of China, Samoa, the Philippines and the former Soviet Union as the world's riskiest destination for Internet surfers.

But Cameroon's minister of posts and telecommunications, Jean-Pierre Biyiti Bi Essam, says the McAfee study does not reflect everything that is going on in Cameroon.

Biyiti Bi Essam says Cameroon is still at the beginning of its Internet development, and it is at this moment that McAfee is making its judgment. He says President Paul Biya's government has read the report and is responding, first by moving to improve security.

Biyiti Bi Essam says Cameroon is working with South Korea on a project to improve Internet security. He says the study has been completed and action will soon be taken to boost Internet security, electronic commerce, and electronic banking in Cameroon. The minister says the government is also drafting laws against cyber criminality.

Tougher criminal penalties are a big part of solving the problem as McAfee says cyber-criminals target regions that pose the least risk of being caught and where registering sites is cheap and convenient.

Cameroon's government has its own problems with computer hackers as official government sites were crashed several times last year, preventing people from accessing on-line information. Web sites for Cameroonian newspapers have also been hacked, sometimes to place advertisements for the sale of protected species.

McAfee's third annual report on worldwide Internet security says the countries with the safest domains are Japan, Ireland, and Croatia.

 - Voice of America.

Tunisian Market Prepares for Shake-up As France Telecom Enters

The Tunisian telecoms market is to gain additional competition with the entry of France Telecom in early 2010. However, Onda Analytics believes the dynamics of the Tunisian telecoms market could change further, with many parties interested in the 35% stake in Tunisie Télécom held by EIT, a holding company for telecoms investments made by Dubai Holdings. The increasingly competitive environment in Tunisia may prompt EIT to consider listening to offers from operators interested in joining the market. Meanwhile, the other 65% shareholding is owned by the Tunisian government, which this week announced a privatisation drive for 2010.

As a result of the pressure from both France Telecom and existing mobile operator Tunisiana, Tunisie Télécom must pursue measures to defend its current market position. Report lead author, Daniel Jones, says "many MENA operators have experience of defending against strong competition and are looking for attractive acquisition targets. As a result of the benefits this experience could bring to Tunisie Télécom, these parties' valuations may provoke EIT's interest."

Onda Analytic's latest report, assesses this potential investment opportunity, as well as forecasting fixed line, broadband and mobile markets.

The incumbent, Tunisie Télécom, is likely to suffer most from the entry of France Telecom, given that the new entrant will be present in fixed line, broadband and mobile markets. Tunisie Télécom's mobile market share is forecast to decline from 50% in 2009 to 34% by 2018. Its fixed line business is also set to be put under pressure from France Telecom, with Tunisie Télécom's fixed share to fall from a current monopoly position to 77% of fixed lines by 2018.

Tunisian mobile operators generated total mobile revenues of US$1.6 billion in 2009. As a result of relatively high mobile penetration and with tariffs set to fall with the entry of the third mobile operator, total mobile revenue is forecast to grow modestly over the coming years. Fixed line growth is expected to buck the trend of many markets with a forecast increase in lines of 30% to 2018, from 1.4 million in 2009, driven by the adoption of broadband services.

Orascom Loses Appeal In Case Against France Telecom

An Egyptian regulator has turned down an appeal by Orascom Telecom against its previous ruling that could allow a France Telecom subsidiary to buy up Egypt's biggest mobile services provider.

The Egyptian Financial Services Authority said in a statement published on Sunday that it has upheld its earlier decision approving an offer by Orange Participations to buy up OT's shares in the Egyptian Company for Mobile Services for 245 Egyptian pounds ($45.40) per share.

The dispute stems from an arbitration court ruling in March in favor of the French company. The Paris-based company holds a 71.25 percent stake in Mobinil. The court authorized it to acquire Orascom's 28.75 percent stake in Mobinil.

- AP News

TNM Launches W-CDMA/HSDPA Network

Malawian telecoms operator Telekom Networks Malawi (TNM) has launched its W-CDMA/HSDPA network enabling subscribers to access services such as videocalling, mobile TV and high speed internet offering download speeds of up to 3.6Mbps, local daily Nyasa Times reports.

Charles Kamoto, head of TNM's Commercial Services division, said the service is initially only available to post-paid subscribers but pre-paid customers will soon have access to the service. Kamoto added: 'Most less developed nations do not have this service on board for their customers but in Malawi we are very aggressive, we believe that our customers need quality, they need top-notch services and that is why we had to bring [them] this 3.5G technology.'

TNM is Malawi's second largest cellco by subscribers with a market share of 32% at 30 September 2009. The company's sole rival in the market, Zain Malawi, took the remaining 68% share of customers at the same date, and was awarded a 3G concession last month.

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