Togo Telecom Chooses Xtera For Fibre Network

Togo Telecom has contracted Xtera Communications, a global provider of optical and IP networking solutions, to deploy a high capacity fibre-optic network across Togo. Phase I of the work was completed in January 2010. When completed, the deployment will migrate the current Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) long-distance domestic network to a new optical layer relying on advanced broadband optical amplification technology for higher capacity, providing enhanced network resilience and availability. The new network will also create a high-capacity, reliable backhaul system, connecting landlocked countries in the west sub-Saharan area to international submarine cable systems via Togo Telecom's cable landing station, which is part of the West African Cable System (WACS).

'Togo Telecom's advanced nationwide optical network combined with the WACS infrastructure will offer landlocked countries in the sub-region and Togo access to the rest of the world,' said Sam Bikassam, general manager of Togo Telecom. 'This will free landlocked countries from the exclusive use of microwave radio systems and satellite connectivity for international communications, enabling them to offer more reliable, higher capacity broadband services to their residential and business customers' he added.

Ghana Court Adjourns Vodafone Case

Ghana’s Supreme Court yesterday announced its decision to adjourn to 9 March 2010 the case concerning the sale of national PTO Ghana Telecom (GT) to the UK's Vodafone Group. The decision was taken by a nine-member panel which ruled the High Court, which handed the case to it, had not fully complied with the rules of the court, GNA reports. In a statement the Supreme Court said: ‘We find that the trial High Court did not comply with rule 67 of CI 16. We hereby order the High Court to comply within 14 days.’

In October 2009 CommsUpdate reported that the committee set up to investigate the sale of a 70% stake in GT to Vodafone recommended that the government consider renegotiating the Sale and Purchase Agreement. At the time, Dr Valerie Sawyerr, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the committee said that Ghana’s government should in particular reconsider Parties to the SPA; compliance or otherwise of the SPA with the laws of Ghana, particularly the NCA Regulations and the Internal Revenue Act 592; value for money/ Transaction consideration; retention of the National Fibre Optic by the Government of Ghana as a strategic national asset; decoupling of the Ghana Telecom University from the transaction (already done); and return of GT investments to the Government of Ghana such as the Telecom Emporium.

Earlier the same month a leaked Ghanaian government report claimed that last year’s sale of the incumbent fixed line operator was ‘unconstitutional and illegal', and did not represent good value for money.

Wana Launches Inwi In Morocco

Moroccan fixed-wireless, 3G mobile and broadband operator Wana has launched commercial 2G mobile services over its new GSM network on schedule, under its new Inwi brand.

The GSM network has an initial capacity of two million subscriber connections, whilst at launch the company announced that it had 75% population coverage.

Alongside the GSM launch, Wana is offering 3G mobile broadband services, based on its existing national CDMA2000 1xEV-DO network, but now also rebranded under the Inwi banner, with double-play mobile voice and internet bundles including USB wireless modems offered to pre- and post-paid consumers and business users. Aiming for a basic range of low-cost voice and SMS packages to quickly soak up remaining mobile demand, Inwi's initial GSM-based offerings include pre-paid services with per-second billing and a range of post-paid packages with inclusive on-net calls, as well as BlackBerry services.

Having contracted China's Huawei last year to roll out a GSM/W-CDMA network with at least 1,500 2G/3G base stations, Wana is expected to eventually introduce a range of 3G W-CDMA-based services over the new network such as video calling, videoconferencing, streaming media and HSPA-based mobile internet.

Maroc Telecom Profits Down 1%, Revenues Up 2.8%

Moroccan full-service telco Maroc Telecom, majority-owned by France’s Vivendi, has posted a 1% year-on-year fall in 2009 net income to MAD9.43 billion (USD1.15 billion) on consolidated revenues that climbed by 2.8% to MAD30.34 billion, as it increased spending, especially in the mobile segment. Group EBITDA for the year rose by 2.9% to MAD18.15 billion.


Operations in Morocco generated net revenues of MAD25.76 billion in 2009, up 0.1% versus 2008, EBITDA of MAD16.16 billion, down 1.5%, and earnings from operations of MAD13.08 billion, down 3.5% year-on-year, chiefly due to the impact of promotional initiatives deployed to stimulate the market and maintain its leading position. Maroc Telecom’s domestic mobile subscriber base grew by 5.6% in twelve months to 15.27 million at end-December 2009, whilst it had 1.234 million Moroccan fixed lines in service at year-end, down 5% year-on-year, due mainly to shrinkage in the residential customer base (down 8.8%) resulting from mobile substitution. At end-December the telco had 469,000 ADSL subscribers, down 1.7% compared to the same date in 2008.

However, it also signed up 174,000 3G/3.5G mobile broadband customers on its W-CDMA/HSPA-based cellular network by year-end, up from less than 30,000 a year earlier.

Group-wide, the operator had a total of 21.7 million customers at end-2009, up 12.6% year on year, reflecting the inclusion of Malian operator SOTELMA, the resurgence in domestic mobile growth and continued year-on-year expansion of other subsidiaries’ mobile customer bases in Gabon, Mauritania and Burkina Faso. A statement from the company read: ‘Based on current market conditions, and barring any unforeseen disruptions to the group's operations, Maroc Telecom will achieve moderate growth in revenues in 2010, driven mainly by growth of subsidiaries.’

MTN Silent On Dubai Relocation Claims

No comment has been made by South Africa’s MTN on the rumors regarding the moving of its headquarters from the country to the Middle East. The refusal came after it was reported that the company plans to move its group operations out of the country and eventually delist its shares from the Johannesburg Securities Exchange.

According to MTN executive director Nozipho January-Bardill in late January, the planned relocation of the technical services support team to Dubai is part of the group’s ongoing response to the challenges of the changing global telecommunications industry and it is also intended to address the logistical challenge of supporting the group’s networks in the Middle East in particular, and certain parts of Africa.

Using Dubai as a regional hub offers significant benefits to the company for tax and transport options even though MTN doesn’t have any operations in the UAE.

Zain Launches International Top-Up Service

Zain has unveiled an International Airtime top up service that will enable people living in Europe, USA, and Canada to purchase Zain airtime for friends and family living in countries where Zain operates.

The new service is now live 'to Kenya' with further roll-outs to Uganda and Tanzania, and other countries planned over the coming months. Those using the service will be able to top-up each specified mobile phone with defined airtime values ranging from Kshs 1500 to 3500. Top up will be through credit cards which are functional in the 16 participating countries.

The service will be accessed online through the Zain website. "To buy a top up, users will be required to register on the website and select up to three numbers which they may directly send airtime to," said Rene Meza, Zain Kenya Managing Director. With 30 million members of the African diaspora currently contributing approx $40 billion annually in remittances to Africa, Zain and Mi-Pay anticipate high demand for the service.

Under the contract, Mi-Pay is providing Zain with full-service delivery which includes Zain branded front-end web designs; settlement and reconciliation; merchant acquisition; and system monitoring and reporting.

"We operate in many prime remittance corridors where people living in rural and remote regions rely on family and friends abroad for additional financial support," said Chris Gabriel, CEO, Zain Africa. "We believe this international top-up service will provide a new way to channel this support through the provision of airtime. We chose Mi-Pay, because of its proven expertise and capability," he added.

The scalable and flexible solution will allow Zain to quickly create, implement and roll-out the international top-up facility; creating valuable new revenue streams and vital new services for its customers. Norman Frankel, CEO of Mi-Pay said: "We are delighted that Zain has agreed to work with Mi-Pay on an exclusive basis, using our International Airtime platform to deliver remote airtime top-up. Given the high numbers of Africans now living abroad and their desire to ensure contacts at home have access to crucial mobile communications, we believe this will prove a popular service. Our world class platform is designed to accommodate rapid growth allowing us to 'go-live' in both recipient and sending countries in quick succession - with minimal cost and risk to Zain."

The service is now live and available from the following 16 key sending countries: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America.

Nigeria Dispute Could Curtail Bharti Zain Deal

Minority shareholder Broad Communications Ltd, which owns 14% share in Zain Nigeria, will seek to enforce its rights in any potential transfer of ownership in the company. The announcement came after Bharti Airtel entered into exclusive talks with Zain until March 25 to buy most of Kuwait-based Mobile Telecommunications Co. or Zain’s assets in Africa in a deal that could be worth up to $10.7 billion.

According to the largest minority shareholder in Zain Nigeria, Broad, the company has not been formally informed by the Zain Group of its intention to sell its 65% shareholding in the Nigerian entity and the company intend to fully exercise its pre-emption rights as directed by the courts and as guided by the company’s shareholders’ agreements entered into between the company’s shareholders.

The dispute over ownership of the largest unit in Nigeria might disrupt Bharti’s third attempt to enter the African market. Econent Wireless Holdings Ltd., a South African telecommunications company is attempting to overturn a 2006 deal in which Celtel, now known as Zain, bought a controlling 65% of the business that had been founded at the beginning of that decade by a group of government, institutional and private investors.

"The Vodafone Way" Introduced In Ghana to Make Staff More Customer Focused

“The Vodafone Way”, a new business model has been launched by Vodafone Ghana to create a significant shift in the work culture of employees and partners of the telecom giant to make it more customers oriented.
According to Isaac Abraham, Corporate Communications Manager of the Company, new business model was designed to make the company’s customers’ expectations real by investing in programmes that would help it understand what motivated customers and it will ensure that Vodafone, its staff and partners do business with speed, simplicity and trust.

The service is also expected to assist in making the company the number one communications network in the country not only in terms of total mobile numbers but in terms of quality of voice and data services and finding solutions to telecommunications problems.

SingTel Could Buy Into Bharti To Help Finance Zain Acquisition

Shares of Bharti Airtel might be sold to Singapore Telecommunications by the operator to partly fund its purchase of Zain’s African assets and avoid taking on too much debt.
According to SingTel, it is premature to talk about funding as the transaction is subject to ongoing discussions, due diligence and customary regulatory approvals and as a strategic investor, the company has significant governance and shareholder rights besides having involvement in key decisions, including major investments.
Bharti Airtel is in exclusive talks to buy most of the African assets of Kuwaiti telecoms firm Zain for $9 billion.

Angola Mobile Lines Hit 8.7 Million Mark

The mobile market of Angola continued to grow steadily and the number of subscriptions reached 8.7 million at the end of December 2009, up from 6.8 million twelve months previously.
Even the fixed line telephone connections reached a modest total of 303,000 at the end of 2009. This represents a significant growth from a figure of 218,000 at end-2008.

Unicom Now Says It's Interested In Nitel, Maintains It's Not Part of New Generation

After denying any involvement in a consortium which became the preferred buyer for struggling incumbent telco Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL), Reuters reports that China Unicom has now stated it would be interested in joining New Generation Telecommunications, but noted it never entered formal negotiations with the group. In a bid to clarify confusion over reports of its participation in the consortium, Unicom said in a statement its UK-based division Unicom Europe had been in contact with bidders taking part in the privatisation process and indicated an interest in providing technical and managerial support for the bid. The company also said it had expressed a potential interest in taking an equity stake in NITEL if certain conditions were fulfilled.

Nigeria’s Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) announced on 16 February that New Generation Telecommunications had become the preferred buyer for a minimum 75% stake in NITEL after beating four other firms with a bid of USD2.5 billion. Other companies with an interest in New Generation were named by the BPE as Dubai-based Minerva Group and local company GiCell Wireless. The reserve bidder was announced as Omen International (BVI), which offered USD956 million.

Bharti Ratings To Go Down On Zain Acquisition

Fitch Ratings has placed Indian telco Bharti Airtel on Rating Watch Negative (RWN) and expects that the ratings might go down by one mark if its deal with Zain  is completed and substantially debt funded. Bharti has been included in the list following its potential acquisition of Zain’s African assets for around US$10.7 billion.
The potential costs associated with any bid for a 3G license and related CAPEX can further downgrade the rating. The uncertainties surrounding the targeted turnaround of the loss-making operations of Zain’s African assets have been taken into account by RWN.

Fitch expects the combined entity to assume the net debt of US$1.7 billion present at end-September 2009 on Zain’s balance sheet at end-September 2009 relating to its African operations.

Econet Subsidiary Plans Wireless Network

Liquid Telecom, a majority-owned subsidiary of Zimbabwean cellco Econet Wireless, has revealed ambitious plans for building an international and national fibre-optic transmission network. In an interview with BalancingAct, Liquid’s CEO Nic Rudnick listed the company’s aims. These include: building its own links to international submarine fibre-optic cables (with bandwidth allocations on SEACOM and EASSy systems pending); a 7,500km domestic fibre networks linking all major cities; an international fibre network linking to eight other countries (Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia and Namibia in a first phase, and a proposed second phase reaching Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo and Malawi); metro fibre networks in Harare and Bulawayo; and proposed metro networks in two other southern African countries. The network infrastructure is being built by Huawei Technologies of China.

Rudnick indicated that 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. Econet Wireless set up Liquid Telecom in an attempt to achieve lower international transmission rates than those possible via third-party links to South Africa. The cellco’s development plans for Liquid, which currently operates via satellite bandwidth, were put on hold during Zimbabwe’s economic crash.

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe’s internet subsidiary Ecoweb already operates a fibre-optic backbone covering Harare and Bulawayo, whilst the country’s incumbent PSTN operator TelOne is pursuing a project to build a nationwide high speed fibre network, but has faced obstacles raising the necessary funding. Meanwhile the commercial launch of the EASSy consortium international fibre system has suffered delays and is now expected to be operational in August 2010.

Minerva Group Backs Nitel Consortium

News agency Reuters reports that Dubai’s Minerva Group is the main financial backer of New Generation Technology, a consortium selected last week as the preferred buyer for ailing incumbent telco Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) with a bid of USD2.5 billion. After revealing the results of the bidding process, Nigeria’s Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) announced that New Generation was a consortium involving China Unicom, Minerva and local firm GiCell, but the Chinese company was quick to deny any involvement in the bid. GiCell’s managing director, Usman Gumi, told Reuters that China Unicom’s involvement only extended to an interest in offering technical and managerial support. ‘We have a firm commitment from our investors and partners, the Minerva Group, that we are working with. We did not pull all this out of the air,’ Gumi said in a telephone interview, adding, ‘We believe NITEL is worth the amount because of the infrastructure and potential that it has.’

The Nigerian government began seeking a buyer for a minimum 75% of NITEL and 100% of its mobile unit M-Tel in July 2009 after previous majority shareholder Transcorp divested its stake earlier in the year. Prospective investors were invited to acquire either at least 75% equity in the entire NITEL conglomerate or a stake in one or several of its components, including M-Tel, submarine fibre-optic cable division SAT-3, the company’s domestic fixed line infrastructure, its national fibre-optic transmission backbone, and its CDMA network. Financial bids opened on 16 February 2010, but only six of the 14 pre-qualified consortia met the 5 February deadline for the submission of technical and financial proposals: Brymedia; AF21/Spectrum consortium; MTN Nigeria; Globacom Nigeria; Omen International; and New Generation Telecommunications.

MTN "Could Be Planning Move to Dubai"

No confirmation or denial has been given by mobile operator MTN regarding its plans to abandon SA in favor of Dubai, a location closer to its higher revenue earners.


It has been speculated that company plans to move its group operations out of the country and eventually delist from the Johannesburg Securities Exchange. It may leave the local business as a subsidiary of the company, or even up for sale.

MTN is already registered in the Middle Eastern country which is said to be the head office for its Middle East and North African operations.

Several MTN groups operation unit has been quietly moving its operations without making any local splash about the plans.

Zain, Bharti To Sign Letter of Intent

A letter of intent (LoI) will be signed between Bharti Airtel and Zain for the proposed USD 10.7-billion deal for the African assets of the Kuwait-based firm by the end of this week.
An exclusive talk is carried out between the two companies till March 25 for the proposed deal as per which Bharti would buy Zain’s African assets except those in Morocco and Sudan.
USD 9 billion for the assets would be paid by Bharti and the rest would be towards the debt of the Kuwaiti firm.