Vodacom Could Re-brand To Vodafone Colours

According to Times Live, South Africa-based telecoms group Vodacom is poised to unveil its new corporate colours at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto on Friday night.

Although Vodacom has yet to confirm the details, mounting press speculation indicates that the firm will be re-branded in line with the red and white colour scheme used by parent company Vodafone, which secured a controlling stake in Vodacom in May 2009.

Vodacom, which also has operations in Mozambique, Tanzania, Lesotho and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has reportedly budgeted a sum of ZAR200 million (USD29 million) for the re-branding exercise. However, Vodacom is expected to retain its name after the transition, despite Vodafone's global strategy to re-brand all operations in which it has a controlling stake. 

Vodafone, which holds a 65% stake in Vodacom, intends to increase its connection to Vodacom, by rotating executives among its foreign units and allowing Vodacom to leverage its global supply chain as well as introducing in new services pioneered by Vodafone elsewhere.

Telkom Kenya Launches Domestic Broadband Services

Telkom Kenya has confirmed that it has launched fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband services in Muthaiga and Parklands, two of Nairobi’s most affluent suburbs. 

Telkom claimed that transmission speeds of up to 8Mbps are now available to subscribers. The service will reportedly be extended to other areas in due course, with triple-play services mooted by end-2011, pending negotiations with TV content providers. 

New double-play tariffs start at KES2,999 per month (USD34.7), rising incrementally to KES6,500. The premium package includes 2,000 free fixed line minutes, and an additional 3,500 mobile minutes.

Telkom Kenya CEO Mickael Ghossein commented: ‘By integrating our copper and fibre infrastructure, our new bouquet of ‘Orange Double-Play’ offers that we are unveiling today, are undoubtedly set to exceed the voice and data communication expectations of our customers. With speeds of up to 8Mbps, we now have a network easily scalable to transmit video signals, just like in developed countries. We are already in talks with partners that will see Orange introduce triple-play services in the near future. Today, we are launching Orange Double-Play to serve residents and businesses in Muthaiga and its environs; however we will soon roll this out further afield into other areas. We have now achieved our dream of delivering true broadband to Kenyan homes’.

If Orange does launch triple-play as planned, it will go head-to-head with the Wananchi Group which launched its own long-awaited triple-play service in December 2010, under the Zuku brand. The fibre package went live in the districts of Kileleshwa, Kilimani, Lavington and Hurligham. Fibre rollout to the remainder of Nairobi and Mombasa is scheduled to be completed during the second half of 2011, whilst Tanzania and Uganda have been mooted for subsequent connectivity. Wananchi intends to pass one million homes in East Africa by 2015.

Vodacom Tz Signs Management Deal With NSN

Vodacom Tanzania has inked a five-year managed services deal with Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN). 


The vendor will take over complete responsibility for the existing Network Management Centre and operations across the radio, transmission and core networks, as well as network planning and optimisation. Under the terms of the deal, 124 Vodacom Tanzania employees will transfer to NSN. No financial details have been disclosed. 


Vodacom Tanzania ended 2010 with just over seven million active subscribers, giving it a market share of 36%.

Seychelles Gets EUR8 Million For Its International Sub-Marine Cable

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has provided a EUR8 million (USD11 million) loan to the Seychelles Cable Systems Company (SCS) for the installation and operation of the island nation’s first international submarine fibre-optic cable.


The planned 1,930km cable will link the main island of Mahe to the existing Eastern Africa Submarine System (EASSy) in Tanzania, and is expected to be operational by the second half of 2012, according to a report on Afriquejet.com. 


The project will also benefit from a EUR4 million grant from the EU-Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund to support shareholding in the project by the Seychelles government. A statutory dividend from this equity stake will be used to provide free internet access for schools, libraries, hospitals and other social development-related services. 


The EUR27 million overall project cost will be financed through 40% equity and 60% debt, the EIB said. Long-term debt will be co-financed equally by the EIB and the African Development Bank, and equity contributions split between three shareholders – the Government of Seychelles, Cable and Wireless Seychelles and Airtel. 


SCS executive Benjamin Choppy – who is also permanent secretary for ICT in the Seychelles – signed the deal with the EIB, which he called a key milestone for the project, and stressed that the cable will dramatically improve voice telephony and internet access in the Seychelles, with international transmission capacity predicted to be seven times cheaper than current prices.


The EIB previously supported the EASSy project to connect 20 coastal and landlocked countries in East and Southern Africa using a high bandwidth undersea fibre-optic cable and terrestrial links.

Domestic Market Boosts Vodacom Revenues Up 3.9%

South Africa-based Vodacom Group has reported consolidated revenues of ZAR16.03 billion (USD2.24 billion) for the three months ended 31 December 2010. 


This figure represents an increase of 3.9% year-on-year. Vodacom’s domestic unit, Vodacom South Africa accounted for ZAR14.07 billion in sales, or 87.7% of the group’s total quarterly revenues. 


The telecoms firm has yet to release figures for EBITDA or net profit. Of Vodacom South Africa’s revenues, mobile voice traffic was responsible for the lion’s share of the takings, generating ZAR7.43 billion, whilst mobile interconnection fees contributed ZAR1.78 billion, mobile data ZAR1.75 billion and mobile messaging ZAR644 million. Data exhibited the largest increase year-on-year, growing 50.5%. 

In operational terms, Vodacom South Africa remains the firm’s largest unit by subscribers, although its customer base dropped 6.6% year-on-year, to 25.3 million. However, any losses have been offset by the company’s enlarged post-paid subscriber base which grew 14.8% year-on-year. 


Elsewhere, Vodacom units in Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Lesotho all increased their subscriber bases in the twelve months ended 31 December. Lesotho contributed the largest proportion of growth, increasing its customer base 28.6% to 823,000. Tanzania grew its subscriber base 26%, to end the year with 8.7 million subscribers, whilst Mozambique weighed in with 2.9 million customers (up 27.7%) and Democratic Republic of Congo 3.8 million subscribers (up 9.2%). 


Vodacom Group ended the calendar year with a consolidated wireless subscriber base of 41.6 million. 


Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys commented: ‘Our strategy of focusing on operational delivery and offering increased value to customers has paid off with group customers increasing by more than two million to 41.6 million. 


In South Africa, the data business was a star performer, with growth in mobile connect cards and smartphones driving a 33.8% increase in overall data revenue. The international operations also continued to respond well to management actions with service revenue growth of 13.2%’.

TZ Govt Owes TTCL $501,000

The government of Tanzania reportedly owes state-backed national PTO Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL) more than TZS7.2 billion (USD501,000) in unpaid communication services bills, making it hard for the telco to improve its financial position and roll out services to underserved areas.

The telco’s chief executive officer, Mr Said Said, is quoted as saying that his company needs TZS322 billion (USD230 million) to invest in the equipment necessary for the planned expansion, and to compete with rivals in the domestic market. Mr Said told the country’s minister for communication Prof Makame Mbarawa that payment of its bill would allow TTCL ‘to improve and extend our services and coverage in the country.’ The minister has promised to ‘work’ on the matter.

TTCL has been struggling with its finances for several years. Indeed, in October 2009 the nation’s Parliamentary Committee on Infrastructure requested that the government bail out its ailing national fixed line PTO, arguing the company could be close to collapse.

Bharti and Vodafone Struggle to Make Money In Africa

For Vodafone Group Plc, Bharti Airtel Ltd. and other phone companies with about $90 billion invested in Africa, making more money from each user in the world’s fastest-growing market is becoming the biggest challenge.

The number of operators is prompting a race to the bottom on call rates. In Tanzania, which has seven phone companies, prices have fallen 90 percent over the past 18 months. Companies also face among the world’s highest “churn” rates, with users frequently changing operators, and patchy infrastructure, all of which make returns on investment difficult.

“It is hard,” said Pieter Uys, chief executive officer of Vodacom Group Ltd., which is controlled by Vodafone and is the largest provider of mobile-phone services in South Africa and Tanzania. “You have to do business in a very different way, you have to build data networks, find other ways to grow revenue.”

Phone operators gathered at Africa’s telecommunications conference that began yesterday in Cape Town want to sell services to the 50 percent of the market that doesn’t have mobile phones. They also want to service current customers more cheaply, without losing user loyalty, while stemming declines in average revenue per user, or ARPU, by offering newer services such as mobile Internet, banking and other money transactions.

“We are now dealing with an ecosystem that’s changing very, very fast,” Andile Ngacaba, chairman of Dimension Data and Convergence Partners, said at the conference. “On the one side, we see this subscriber growth and growth in data and data applications. On the other side, we see this decrease in ARPUs. This requires new models of investment such as infrastructure sharing.”

African Growth

Operators have been lured to the continent by its promise. Africa has a mobile-phone population of about 445 million handsets, according to a McKinsey & Co. report. It took 20 years for the size of the mobile-phone population to reach 200 million, and less than three years to get to the next 200 million, according to the report.

Africa has “become the fastest-growing region in the global cellular market, going from fewer than 2 million mobile phones in 1998 to more than 400 million today,” it said.

The mobile value-added services market in Africa was worth $4.5 billion in 2009, and over the next five years is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 20 percent, generating $11.5 billion by 2014, Informa Telecoms & Media, a London-based consultant, said in its Rural Connectivity Report in Africa published this month.

Capture Opportunity

About 80 percent of the sales were from messaging, while mobile Internet contributed 14 percent and mobile entertainment such as music and television 3.5 percent, the report showed.

Internet and broadband penetration is still in single digits, Uys said.

“So the possibilities are still there but it’s what you pay for it to get it, the investment in infrastructure,” he said. “If the tariffs are driven too low for whatever reason then it might also not make sense.”

In order for mobile operators to “capture this opportunity,” the market needs consolidation, McKinsey said. “The industry structure should be rationalized, for example, because many markets, even smaller ones, have four or more players.”

Competition on the continent is fiercer now than it has ever been. In the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania, mobile-phone tariffs plunged between 50 percent and 60 percent in the six months through September.

Tumbling Prices

Prices in Kenya have been slashed to such an extent that Safaricom Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Bob Collymore said India’s Bharti, which bought most of Zain’s African operations last year for $9 billion, is losing money on as much as 50 percent of its voice traffic.

Safaricom has an 86 percent share of the market and is 40 percent held by Newbury, England-based Vodafone. Bharti’s head of African operations, Manoj Kohli, declined to comment on Safaricom’s remarks. “We can’t comment on our competitors’ claims,” Kohli said.

On Aug. 18, Bharti halved tariffs in Kenya to 3 shillings, Les Baillie, a spokesman for Safaricom said. Safaricom “knew that voice was always going to become a commodity,” Baillie said. “It was not expected that it would happen so rapidly though.”

Companies are scrambling to adapt their operations to the new climate.

“We have to review our business model and make it leaner and compete on price and have more quality in our network and to have more data,” said Mickael Ghossein, chief executive officer of Orange Telkom Kenya, which is 51 percent held by France Telecom SA. “We have to enhance our quality of networks.”

Sharing Towers

In South Africa, Vodacom, which is 65 percent owned by Vodafone, is investing in data networks. Data now accounts for more than 50 percent of its traffic and is growing at more than 50 percent a year, Uys said.

The company is also pushing smart devices that are able to browse the Internet to low-end segments with touchscreen phones that retail at 499 rand ($73). Once users have an improved mobile-browsing experience, data consumption increases, Uys said

Operators are also sharing infrastructure, especially to reach sparsely populated rural areas where returns on capital invested in infrastructure are low.

Infrastructure sharing and outsourcing of towers has been punted for years. Now, faced with greater competitive pressure, companies are beginning to act.

‘Good Industry’

Last month, Vodafone signed an agreement with Eaton Towers to manage its 750 towers in Ghana. On Nov. 5, American Tower Corp. agreed to buy 3,200 towers from Cell C Ltd., South Africa’s third-largest mobile phone services provider, in a deal worth $430 million.

“We are going to see more and more of those type of deals happening,” said David Lerche, a telecoms analyst at Johannesburg-based Avior Research. “There are lots of little tower companies running around trying to position themselves as tower outsourcers. It’s quite an interesting development.”

For all its challenges, the market is still attractive, Marc Rennard, vice president of Orange Mobile for Africa, Middle East and Asia, said in an interview.

While investor interest has waned a little, “we are profitable, the big players, the five, six main players are profitable,” he said. “It’s still a good industry.”

-Bloomberg

Tanzania Urges More Investment In Rural Telecommunication

Dr Patrick Makungu, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Communications, Science and Technology in Tanzania, has urged local telecoms operators to increase investment in rural areas rather than concentrating on urban areas.

Local paper the East African Business Week quotes Dr Makungu as saying that operators need to address the problem of a shortfall in affordable services in remote parts of the country.

‘We need high quality telecom services at affordable prices that cover rural areas extensively which have almost 80% of Tanzanians as compared to urban areas population,’ he was quoted as saying.

Telkom SA Prepares to Spread Into the Rest of Africa

SOUTH African Telecommunications operator, Telkom, has secured operating licences in east, south and west Africa, the company revealed on Monday in an interview.

Responding to questions, Telkom spokesman Pynee Chetty said the telecoms giant had secured operating licences in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Swaziland and Namibia.
“Telkom’s ambition is to become a significant Information Communication Technology (ICT) player in Sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on the enterprise market.

“Apart from the satellite-based (SAT3) cable system, Telkom has invested in the new WACS, EASSy and SAFE submarine cables systems to further strengthen its position with regards to connectivity on the African continent,” said Chetty.

He said the operations in those countries consisted of consumer and enterprise solutions within the respective markets.

Chetty said Telkom would continue to service all these markets and acquire capabilities, through partnerships or own assets, to meet the demands of the local African enterprise and global multinational customers.
“The company continues to investigate opportunities in Africa and endeavours to expand into countries where customer demand warrants such actions.
“As far as the specific products and services are concerned, it is logical to utilise existing skills and capabilities acquired in the domestic market as far as possible when entering new markets,” said Chetty.

Kenya's Digital Village Project Gets IBM Boost

Kenya’s Digital Village initiative, which was rolled out in 2008 with the purpose of narrowing the digital divide between rural and urban areas, and accelerating the growth of ICT in Kenya, received a boost when a team of IBM Corporate Service Corps consultants (CSC) from seven different countries arrived in Nairobi for a one month project aimed at defining a rollout strategy for the project.

Under regulations introduced by the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) in 2009, each constituency in Kenya should have at least five digital centres, complete with computers and internet connectivity. IBM’s eleven-strong team will start work in Machakos, joining forces with the ICT Board and the Ministry of Information and Communication.

The IBM-guided initiative will run alongside similar programmes that are currently being rolled out by other Kenyan telcos as they seek to meet new regulatory requirements.

IBM CEO Samuel J. Palmisano commented: ‘People are on the ground in Machakos to help the government realise its aim of extending the reach of digital services to rural areas. This will form part of our drive to boost ICT use in countries like Kenya.

IBM is well known for helping public and private sector organisations around the world to leverage technology to drive innovation and do things smarter. The Kenya initiative is part of a programme in Africa which began in 2008 through which IBM has deployed teams to Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa’.

Bharti Seeks Bids For New Towers

Bharti Airtel, which acquired the African Zain’s African assets a few months ago is seeking bids to set up towers in Nigeria, Kenya and Tanzania. The Business Standard reports that the company would award contracts for infrastructure equipment and turnkey projects to build towers sometime next month. 

Bharti, which acquired Zain’s African assets for $10.7 billion in the largest deal this year, is under pressure to cut costs and turnaround its African assets. It also plans to implement its minute factory model, a success in India. Bharti has outsourced the company’s networking and information technology backbone, and targets low usage customers in addition to high-end customers.

Minute factory model allows the company to add network as and when the user numbers increase. It does not require Bharti to invest heavily in network infrastructure and reduces fixed costs.

“The company says the average minutes of usage (MoUs) per subscriber in Africa are lower than 100 (one-third of Indian MoUs), and there is, therefore, potential for exploring usage elasticity and replicating the minute factory model,” said HSBC in a report released during the Zain acquisition.

Zantel Introduces New Flat Rate Tariff

Tanzanian mobile services provider Zanzibar Telecom Limited (Zantel) has announced the launch of a new uniform call rate plan to other networks, marking a new wave of competition in the cut throat domestic sector.

The East African Business Week newspaper reports that Zantel’s offer called 'Twanga Kote Kote' (call anywhere) gives its subscribers freedom to make calls at any time to any network in Tanzania for only TZS1.99 (USD0.00133) per second, down from TZS5.50 per second previously - a 68% reduction.

The operator’s move is likely to be followed by other market players, while Peter Saluwati, the Executive Director for the national regulator, the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA), welcomed the development, saying that lowering the across network charges was ‘good news’ for end users.

Wananchi Gears to Roll Out in Nine Countries With Cisco Deal

Kenyan ISP Wananchi Online has signed a contract with US technology solutions firm Cisco to rollout triple-play services across nine countries in East Africa. The deal is supported by East Africa Capital Partners and Viscous Capital, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cisco.

Wananchi Online, which claims to be the only triple-play operator in East Africa intends to tap into markets in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Ethiopia, Sudan and Zambia. The contract will see Wananchi Online deploying Cisco's integrated end-to-end network technology solutions - encompassing its ‘Borderless Networks’ and collaboration and data centre virtualization solutions.

Wananchi intends to extend a backhaul and last-mile fibre network across Nairobi and Mombasa in Kenya and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. It will also build a WiMAX wireless network to provide uncapped internet access in smaller urban centres in Kenya.

The company will supplement its WiMAX and fibre offerings with VSAT services for small and medium businesses, particularly in remote locations in East Africa. Its long-term plan is to take fibre to the smallest towns in the region. East Africa Capital Partners’ Richard Bell has admitted that Wananchi is keen to develop a network in South Africa too, but: ‘South Africa is still a very closed and regulated market. East Africa has leapfrogged ahead of South Africa. If we could get a licence to build a cable network in South Africa, we’d be there in a second.’

Mark Schneider, chairman of the Wananchi Group commented: ‘The entertainment market for both home and corporate customers in Africa as a whole continues to be reshaped in light of technological advancements and new industry partnerships. The Wananchi Group's key objective is to expand our portfolio and enhance our commercial proposition, revenues and reputation. Cisco will help us to continuously deliver the necessary technology enhancements to our infrastructure to serve our ever-growing customer needs and remain at the forefront of delivering new and innovative services to our customers.’

Executives at Wananchi and Cisco said that the cost of international bandwidth in the region is now as cheap as it is anywhere in the world - thanks to the recent launches of EASSY, SEACOM and TEAMS submarine cables – making this type of increased investment possible.

EASSy Formally Launched

Seven months after commencing cable installation, West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC), the specially created African investment company jointly owned by 14 African telcos and additionally funded by a number of global development finance institutions, has formally announced the launch of its 1.4Tbps, 10,002km fibre-optic submarine cable system.

East African Submarine System (EASSy) runs along the east coast of Africa, from South Africa to Sudan, and boasts onward connection to global markets. Completed on time and on budget, EASSy promises to enable affordable, reliable delivery of fast internet access for African users and enhanced voice and data services for the international marketplace. EASSy will enhance global connectivity to and from 21 countries in eastern and southern Africa, landing at nine countries: South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, the Comores, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti and Sudan.

WIOCC CEO Chris Wood commented: ‘Not only does our cable system provide the lowest latency internet connections and best ever voice and data service reliability to this region of Africa, but our unique approach to contract capacity and duration also provides businesses with the crucial flexibility they desire’.

Investor Celebrate's EASSy Launch

Seven months after commencing cable installation, West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC), the specially created African investment company jointly owned by 14 African telcos and additionally funded by a number of global development finance institutions, has formally announced the launch of its 1.4Tbps, 10,002km fibre-optic submarine cable system.

East African Submarine System (EASSy) runs along the east coast of Africa, from South Africa to Sudan, and boasts onward connection to global markets. Completed on time and on budget, EASSy promises to enable affordable, reliable delivery of fast internet access for African users and enhanced voice and data services for the international marketplace.

EASSy will enhance global connectivity to and from 21 countries in eastern and southern Africa, landing at nine countries: South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, the Comoros, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti and Sudan. WIOCC CEO Chris Wood commented: ‘Not only does our cable system provide the lowest latency internet connections and best ever voice and data service reliability to this region of Africa, but our unique approach to contract capacity and duration also provides businesses with the crucial flexibility they desire’.

Tanzania Wants To Get Back Control of Zain

Bharti Airtel of India, which recently completed the purchase of the African operations of Kuwait-based Zain Group in a deal valued at USD10.7 billion, could be heading into troubled waters in Tanzania, with the news that the government has an acquisition strategy of its own.

Local press suggest that Bharti has put in place a USD11 million bid to acquire the state’s 40% stake in Zain Tanzania, but the government now maintains it will not sell its holding, and will instead look to buy back the majority of the company that it does not currently own. The Tanzanian government claims that the acquisition of the Zain Tanzania operation by Bharti Airtel contradicted the partnership agreement between Zain Tanzania and national fixed line operator Tanzania Telecommunication Company Limited (TTCL).

Alongside its stake in Zain Tanzania the Kuwait group owned 35% of TTCL. However, an agreement signed in April 2010 saw Zain agree to sell its TTCL stake back to the government in order for TTCL to be wholly owned by the state.

Now, in addition to wanting to reacquire Zain's stake in Zain Tanzania, the Tanzanians want to make TTCL a 100% government-owned firm, hoping the company will be able to compete with private operators in the local market. The permanent secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Ramadhan Khijjah, is on record as saying Zain Tanzania’s management did not fully communicate to the relevant government authorities information about the Bharti Airtel deal.

Earlier this month, the country's minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology, Prof Peter Msolla, told the National Assembly that the government was still in talks with Bharti Airtel concerning the sale. In a debate on the country’s budget for the 2010/11 financial year, Msolla said: ‘We met with the company’s officials on 21 June to discuss the sale… We have told them to finalise the evaluation of the assets so that we can determine whether the payment made to us is satisfactory.’

The minister went on to add: ‘Since the government has shares in the company, it is imperative that it be involved in transactions regarding the sale. The shares we hold in the company are assets that ensure our role is not underestimated.’

Tanzania Retains 40pc Stake In Zain

The government of Tanzania is set to receive TZS15.4 billion (USD11.2 million) and to hold on to its 40% stake in fixed and mobile operator Zain Tanzania following the sale of the telco to India’s Bharti Airtel.

Last month the Indians finalised the acquisition of the African assets of Kuwait-based Zain Group, with the deal valued at USD10.7 billion. Under the terms of the deal, first announced in March 2010, Bharti will pay USD8.3 billion upfront, followed by a further cash payment of USD700 million after one year, while it will also take over approximately USD1.7 billion of Zain’s debt.

The Citizen now reports that the country's minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology, Prof Peter Msolla, told the National Assembly that the government is still in talks with Bharti Airtel concerning the sale. In a debate on the country’s budget for the 2010/11 financial year, Msolla said: ‘We met with the company’s officials on 21 June to discuss the sale… We have told them to finalise the evaluation of the assets so that we can determine whether the payment made to us is satisfactory.’ The minister went on to add: ‘Since the government has shares in the company, it is imperative that it be involved in transactions regarding the sale. The shares we hold in the company are assets that ensure our role is not underestimated.’

Bharti has taken over Zain’s operations in 15 countries: Burkina Faso, Chad, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The Kuwaiti company’s subsidiaries in Morocco and Sudan were not included in the sale.

KDN Expands Into Six Countries

Kenya Data Networks (KDN) has expanded its network reach to six major countries in sub-Saharan Africa, enabling it to deliver cost effective services to Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon and Malawi. This year KDN is expanding its subscriber base which is prevalent in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, and Eldoret to provide high-quality broadband services to customers in the cities and rural areas of Kenya.

KDN has said that it aims to reach 80% of Kenyans with its data networks by the end of 2010.

Kenya Begins Mobile SIM Registration

Kenya has started to register all mobile phone numbers in a bid to cut crime.Users will have to supply identity documents and proof of address before they get a number.
Any numbers still unregistered at the end of July will be disconnected, the government says.
According to a BBC correspondent in Nairobi, many people support the move, hoping it will make life more difficult for criminals.
Kidnapping gangs often use unregistered mobile numbers to text ransom demands, he says.
Police commissioner Mathew Iteere says that mobile phones must be registered because they could now be used like computers."It has become a tool of banking, it can be used to steal data, [to] transmit unauthorised information and perpetrates huge frauds."
Information ministry official Bitange Ndemo last week said registering the numbers would help the authorities tackle terrorism, drugs-trafficking and money-laundering, as well as the sending of hate messages.
Neighbouring Tanzania has already started a similar exercise, so it is not controversial.

Kenya has about 20 million mobile-phone users - about half the population - and has a well developed mobile-phone banking network.
Between 97-99% of mobile-phone users in Africa use pre-paid vouchers, reports the news agency Reuters.
It is easier to use pre-paid vouchers without registering an address.  However, some analysts say registering people in some African countries may be difficult if they do not live in a house with an official address.

-BBC Online

Cel C Joins Zain's One Network

Zain has announced the expansion of its ‘One Network’ platform to South Africa in a strategic partnership with Cell C, the country’s smallest cellco. Over 41 million Zain customers across Zain Africa’s 15 mobile operations may now benefit from ‘One Network’ services when visiting South Africa. The ‘One Network’ borderless mobile phone platform enables pre-paid and post-paid Zain customers when travelling to another 'One Network’ partner country to be treated as a local customer in terms of pricing, while retaining home country service functionalities. Now, in South Africa, Zain customers will be able to make calls, send SMS and access the internet (data) at local rates of the visited country and to receive incoming calls at a minimal charge.

The 15 Zain countries that benefit from this service with Cell C in South Africa are: Burkina Faso, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.