Vodacom Targeting Angola, Uganda, Ethiopia

South Africa-based mobile group Vodacom has confirmed that it is ready to expand its operational footprint across Africa, and is on the hunt for small-scale acquisitions. Vodacom, which is majority owned by the UK’s Vodafone Group, currently operates in five countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and chief executive Pieter Uys told Dow Jones Newswires that the company is looking to make a series of acquisitions in the USD100 million range.

Uys noted that Vodacom will focus on countries that offer a stable political environment, have densely populated cities and offer room for growth. As such, the CEO pinpointed Angola, Ethiopia and Uganda as likely targets. Announcing its FY11 results earlier this week, Vodacom noted that the financial year ended March was the first time that its operations outside South Africa have contributed positive cash flow. As a result, Uys told Dow Jones: ‘We feel more comfortable that we have the recipe to be successful outside South Africa’.


In March 2012 Sifiso Dabengwa, CEO of Vodacom’s chief rival MTN Group confirmed that his company was interested in lining up so-called ‘bolt-on’ deals in new African markets, once again naming Angola and Ethiopia. In the former, a third mobile licence has been expected for some time, with state-run incumbent Angola Telecom keen to secure an international partner to assist with its entrance to the sector. Meanwhile, Ethiopia is one of the few countries in Africa still operating a monopoly in the wireless sector, with state-run Ethio Telecom the sole licensee.

Elsewhere, Uganda is overcrowded by comparison, boasting six active wireless operators, with another, Sure Telecom Uganda, waiting in the wings. Of the country’s cellcos, Uganda Telecom Ltd and Warid Telecom Uganda are plausible targets, with the ownership of both companies coming under scrutiny in recent years.

Angola: Movicel Enters Benguela Province

Angolan CDMA-based mobile operator Movicel has launched pilot GSM services in its second area, Benguela Province, following its initial launch of a GSM system in the capital Luanda at the end of November.

Benguela-based customers with compatible devices can now use a GSM SIM card in place of the CDMA equivalent. The company has promised a new range of products and services for GSM users, whilst it is introducing free calls between users of the new network, in which it has so far reportedly invested USD100 million

eFive Choses Alcatel-Lucent For Undersea Cable

South African telco eFive Telecoms has selected Alcatel-Lucent to build a new submarine cable network linking the west coast of Africa to South America, the French/US equipment vendor has announced. The network will consist of two trunks – the first one connecting South Africa to Angola and Nigeria, and a second trunk linking Angola to Brazil.

Alcatel-Lucent has confirmed that it will be in charge of the project end-to-end, with responsibility for the system’s design, manufacture and installation. The cable will be maintained by Alcatel-Lucent through its Atlantic Private Maintenance Agreement (APMA), which currently covers over 100,000km of submarine cable infrastructure from the west coast of Africa to the Caribbean and as far north as Greenland.

Lawrence Mulaudzi, managing director of eFive Telecoms commented: ‘We believe that high-growth areas such as the African continent require the development of new projects. The planned submarine network will also provide cable route diversity to South America, making the most economical and operational sense in the current landscape’. Philippe Dumont, head of Alcatel-Lucent’s submarine network division added: ‘Growth in African internet and mobile telephony is driving service providers’ demand for more connectivity options to ensure higher reliability, as well as increased widespread access to bandwidth.

This project will further position Africa as a major hub for broadband connectivity’.

Angola Telecom Goes Digital In Kwanza SUl Province

Angola Telecom has switched on a new section of its digital fixed line network with fibre-optic backbone in Angola’s central Kwanza Sul province, connecting the eight district headquarters in the region.

The EUR18 million (USD24 million) project was funded by the Italian government in participation with the Angolan state, and has so far increased the number of fixed telephone lines in usage in the province from 2,000 to 10,000, after connecting in a first phase the districts of Sumbe, Porto Amboim, Amboim, Conda, Cela, Seles, Kibala and Libolo.

Three Shortlisted For Mozambique's Third Licence

Three out of 22 interested parties have been shortlisted to become Mozambique's third mobile phone operator, the National Institute of Communications (INCM) has announced. The three in question are TMN (the cellular unit of Portugal Telecom), UNI-Telecom (a joint venture between Angolan cellco Unitel and Mozambique's Energy Capital) and a Vietnam-backed bidder named Movitel.

The ownership of the Vietnamese company was not reported. However, Vietnamese military-run GSM operator Viettel previously announced plans to seek investment opportunities in other developing countries including Mozambique, following its recent takeover of the Haitian operator Teleco.

INCM director Americo Muchanga commented: ‘The three have presented required documents. Technical and financial proposals will be evaluated over the next two months after which we will announce the winning bid’.

Mozambique is currently home to Mcel with an estimated 3.7 million customers in March 2010 and Vodacom with 1.49 million at the same date. Wireless penetration stands at 23.8%, leaving plenty of room for growth.

Korea Inks WiBRO Deal With Angolan

The Korea Herald reports that the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Angola's Institute of Communications (INACOM) to cooperate in rolling out wireless broadband services in Angola based on the Korean-developed WiBro platform.

Choi See-joong, chairman of the KCC, said that state-run incumbent Angola Telecom had already expressed interest in building WiBro networks during a working-level meeting. Choi has visited Angola, Egypt and South Africa to promote Korean technologies including WiBro and Digital Mobile Broadcast (DMB) television. The Korean-Angolan MoU also covers the development of DMB and IPTV, KCC officials said.

WiMAX-based wireless broadband services are currently offered by Angola Telecom via its business internet subsidiary Multitel, whilst MSTelcom, a unit of Angolan national oil company Sonangol, operates 802.16e (mobile-ready) WiMAX networks in the country, as does another local telco, Mundo Startel.

Angola And Cuba Sign Telecoms Pact

The governments of Angola and Cuba have signed two technical and scientific agreements that formalise cooperation between the countries in the telecoms sector, reports Angolan news agency ANGOP. The documents were signed by the Ministries of Telecommunication and Information Technology, and of Industry, Mines and Geology of Angola, and the Information and Communication Ministry of Cuba.

According to the Computer Science and Communication vice minister of Cuba, Arufe Rodriguez, the agreements strengthen the cooperation between the sectors of both countries, following talks held when the Angolan minister of telecoms and IT, Carvalho da Rocha, paid a visit to Cuba.

Three Remain for Telcos Zamtel Bid

Of the four companies left in the running to acquire a stake in Zambian fixed line incumbent Zambia Telecommunications Company (Zamtel) only three have submitted final binding bids, with Indian state-owned telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) dropping out of the process after conducting due diligence.

According to Reuters, the withdrawal of BSNL leaves Libya’s LAP Green Networks, Unitel of Angola and Russian telecoms investment firm Altimo chasing the up to 75% stake that the Zambian government plans to offer in the operator.

Commenting on the development, Henry Sakala, the privatisation manager at the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA), said: ‘These bids will be subjected to an evaluation by the ZDA and after the evaluation they will be presented to the ZDA board who are going to make a decision as to which ones to shortlist for negotiations.’ In addition Sakala noted that the ZDA board would appoint an independent team to undertake the negotiations with the successful bidder(s).

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.

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.

Angola's Unitel To Carry Out US$1.7billion In Network Upgrade

Ang­olan mobile network operator, Unitel says that it will spend around US$1.7 billion over the next four years upgrading its infrastructure and expanding the mobile network. The government approved the increased capital spending last month.

Earlier this year, Ericsson signed a three-year contract for network performance consulting and continued expansion of Unitel's GSM/WCDMA network.

Henrique da Silva, Unitel's investment director, told Bloomberg News that Unitel's network now covers 138 of the country's 168 municipalities and it expects to reach all of them by 2012. Unitel will also be involved in a project to build the country's first satellite by 2011, he added.

A recent report from Frost&Sullivan expected that revenues in the Angolan mobile communications market would triple by 2015. Angola is expected to license a third operator in 2010.

The company is owned by Portugal Telecom, Angolan state-owned oil company Sonangol and local firms Geni and Vidatel, each hold 25 percent of Unitel.

Angola Phone Users Hit 7.5m mark

At least 7.5 million citizens residing in Angola are mobile phone users and nearly 200.000 people use fixed telephone services.

This was said to ANGOP on Monday by the director of the National Communications Institute (INACOM), Domingos Pedro António.

According to the official, who was speaking in the light of the World Telecommunication Day, marked on Sunday, five million of these users are clients of the mobile phone company Unitel and 2.5 million users belong to the other firm, Movicel.

Regarding the fixed telephone service, over 100,000 customers are customers of the of state-owned company Angola Telecom, overcoming the other operators, namely Mundo Startel, MSTelecom, Nexus and Wezacom, the official said.

Except for Angola Telecom, Domingos Pedro António clarified that the other fixed telephone companies have only recently started operating in the national market.

The official considered as positive the telephone services provided in Angola.

Angola's Unitel Launches New Single Platform

­Comverse has announced that Angola’s largest mobile operator, Unitel SA, has launched its Voice HUB, a single platform for all voice applications that introduces services and new revenue opportunities.

“The rapid expansion of our customer base requires new capabilities and services,” said CEO Amilcar Safeca of Unitel SA, which has more than 4.5 million subscribers. “Partnering with a results-oriented market leader like Comverse enables us to offer our users the best and most advanced services.”

The Comverse Voice HUB makes the most of voice traffic with a single-platform approach that views each call in totality, with revenue opportunities at three key points: the pre-call, call, and post-call periods.

For instance, Unitel SA users now will receive Visual Voicemail, which enhances the traditional voicemail experience. All voicemail messages are displayed in an in-box, whose email-like interface provides such key information as date, time, length of message, caller number and identity, when available. Users can scan the messages, click to hear new and previously heard messages in any order, and then reply, forward, or save messages.

Users also will receive text notification – known as Who Called – every time they miss a call while their phone is unreachable (turned off, out of service range) and can return those calls with a single click. In addition, callers trying to contact unreachable parties now will receive text notification – known as Notify Me – as soon as the party becomes available and can click to connect. This eliminates the need for repeat dialing. Who Called and Notify Me are key elements in Comverse’s Call Completion offering.

"Comverse Voice HUB is a single platform supporting multiple services, designed to increase revenues and reduce costs,” said Urban Gillstrom, President, Global Sales at Comverse, the world's leading supplier of software and systems enabling value-added messaging and content services, converged billing and active customer management, and IP communications.