FT 'Planning to Buy Meditel'

Reuters reports that France Telecom (Orange) is in ‘advanced’ talks with the owners of Morocco's second largest mobile operator Medi Telecom (Meditel) to acquire a 40% share in the company.

Moroccan business weekly Acutel wrote over the weekend, ‘It is official. The negotiations between the owners of Meditel, CDG and Finance.com, and Orange are at an advanced stage,’ and went on to speculate that the stake could be priced at around EUR650 million (USD849 million). Spain's Telefonica and Portugal Telecom last year sold their respective stakes of 32.2% each in Meditel to the operator's other shareholders, Moroccan private investment group Finance.com and state investment vehicle Caisse de Depots et de Gestion (CDG) for USD1.15 billion in total.

Whilst the domestic owners have declared they can run the company alone, they have also indicated their openness to a range of options including a stock market listing and a partnership with a new, major player strategic investor. In March 2010 it was rumoured that the UAE’s Etisalat had ‘agreed’ to acquire a 45% interest in Meditel, which offers cellular, broadband and fixed line services, but a deal did not materialise.

TeleGeography's GlobalComms Database notes that France Telecom sold its Moroccan ISP Maroc Connect (Wanadoo) in August 2004 to the CDG and ONA groups, before ONA bought out CDG in 2005; Maroc Connect became Wana, which launched the successful fixed-wireless and cellular brands Bayn and Inwi, along the way attracting a new foreign investor, Kuwait-based Zain Group.

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.

Wana Appoints Huawei to Supply 3G Network

Huawei, a leader in providing next-generation telecommunications network solutions worldwide, today announced that it has been appointed as the sole supplier of Morocco WANA’s GSM/UMTS network. Thanks to that, WANA’s 2 Million subscribers will enjoy abundant 3G services such as video call, video conference, streaming media and mobile internet.

Under a contract signed by Huawei and WANA, Huawei will provide a GSM/UMTS solution with equipment to WANA exclusively, including GSM/UMTS wireless network, core network and value added services (VAS) network, etc.

Huawei’s accurate frequency planning and various anti-disturbance measures are the key to avoiding disturbance problem in the complicated wireless environment and enhancing the usage of spectrum resources whilst protecting telecom provider’s investment. Phase one of the project will utilise over 1500 of Huawei’s industry-leading fourth-generation base stations with the All-IP solution set to be completed by December, 2009.

Mr. Frédéric Debord, General Director of WANA, commented "WANA has the target to become a leading operator in Morocco. And we are delighted to cooperate with Huawei to open a new network of good quality and performance for our subscribers, with best solutions and offers."

Mr. Zuo Defeng, Vice President of West Africa Region, Huawei, said:” This is a significant milestone to Huawei, WANA and WANA’s users. Huawei’s advanced mobile network solution and equipment will help WANA take the lead in mobile telecommunications market in Morocco, and help WANA achieve business success.”

As a core component of its SingleRAN solution, the fourth-generation BTS supports multi-mode radio access networking (GSM, TD-SCDMA, UMTS, LTE, CDMA and WiMAX), and incorporates green optimisation and All-IP technologies, providing a truly convergent solution for network operators. Huawei has shipped over 1.5 million transceivers (TRXs) for its fourth-generation base stations. Huawei’s fourth-generation BTS are being used by more than 20 leading operators in 100 countries.