NetOne Plans Money Transfer System

Zimbabwean state-owned cellco NetOne is planning to launch new mobile money transfer services under the ‘OneWallet’ banner, based on a platform supplied by Gemalto. 


The new solution also enables wages to be paid directly into mobile money accounts, and NetOne intends to work with the government to allow OneWallet to be used for automatic pension payments. Gemalto said that the project would help bring banking services to people in even the remotest areas of Zimbabwe.

SEACOM Expands to Five More African Countries

East African submarine cable operator SEACOM has announced that its services are now accessible from five additional African nations: Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. The network expansion is coupled with increasing resilience through its recent acquisition of east and west coast submarine cable capacity. SEACOM’s approach of partnering with established players to provide broadband services will continue as it develops its products and services based on resiliency, service quality and flexibility in line with customers’ evolving needs.

Suveer Ramdhani, SEACOM’s Head of Product Strategy, said: ‘This latest development is integral to the continued development and expansion of the SEACOM network in Africa and in particular to countries that have had limited access to broadband connectivity. We will continue to build relationships to meet our customers’ growing need for resilient and seamless capacity. This is part of SEACOM’s objective to build the African internet.

TelOne Gets GSM Licence

Zimbabwe’s Postal & Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (POTRAZ) has issued state-owned fixed line telco TelOne with the country’s fourth GSM mobile service provider licence, according to a report on AllAfrica.com.

POTRAZ deputy director-general Alfred Marisa revealed that the watchdog granted TelOne the concession late last year in response to a request for GSM frequencies from the telco when its 20-year telecoms licence was due to expire. The regulator added that it had not given TelOne fixed timelines to roll out mobile services, in light of its financially challenged status.

The state already owns a GSM operator, NetOne, the smallest of the country's three cellcos behind Econet and Telecel. NetOne is currently attempting to boost its flagging fortunes under a state-blessed strategy to find a foreign private sector investment partner, with South Africa's MTN the leading candidate. TelOne has also previously been reported to be in partnership talks with prospective foreign partners, chiefly Telkom South Africa, according to TeleGeography's GlobalComms Database, and the addition of a GSM licence could increase the incumbent's attractiveness as an investment.n the matter.

Nigeria Invites Omen International to Bid for NITEL

Nigeria’s Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has invited Omen International Consortium, the reserve bidder for state-run incumbent telco Nigeria Telecommunications (NITEL), to reregister its interest in buying the operator, after preferred buyer New Generation Telecommunications repeatedly failed to meet the payment deadlines. 


The British Virgin Islands-registered Omen consortium, which includes China Unicom and Fiber Home Technologies Limited, submitted a bid of USD956.9 million for a 75% stake in NITEL and it mobile arm M-Tel during the latest attempt to privatise the company, held in February 2010. The government began seeking a buyer for a minimum 75% of NITEL and 100% of M-Tel in July 2009 after previous majority shareholder Transcorp divested its stake earlier in the year.


Reuters reports that the BPE has now written to Omen asking if it would be interested in revalidating its reserve bidder status. ‘If your bid is revalidated, it would give the Federal Government the right to invite your consortium or enter into negotiations to take up the offer,’ the letter said, according to a BPE statement.

New Generation’s bid of USD2.5 billion was approved in October 2010, after an investigation into the bidding process led to an eight-month delay. The New Generation consortium – which comprises Minerva Group of Dubai, Nigeria’s GiCell Wireless and technical partner China Unicom – was asked to pay a bid security of USD750 million within ten days from 25 October and was given 60 days to pay the remaining USD1.75 billion. On 5 November the bid security deadline was extended by 20 working days and subsequently to 23 December 2010, after the consortium failed to come up with the funds in time.


However, New Generation failed to meet its extended payment deadline, and in January 2011 the BPE revoked the sale to New Generation and recommended Omen be invited to acquire NITEL, following approval from the National Council of Privatisation (NCP).

Airtel Zambia Minority Shareholders to Sue Over Delisting

Indian mobile giant Bharti Airtel’s bid to delist its Zambian subsidiary from the Lusaka bourse looks set to face further setbacks following reports that minority shareholders are now suing the company.

According to Reuters, the remaining minority shareholders, which account for around 3% of the total stock of Airtel Zambia, have filed an affidavit stating that they refuse to sell their holdings as they are unhappy with both the terms and price of sale proposed by Bharti.

‘The failure to comply with the Companies Act renders the subsequent acquisition notice impotent and without validity,’ the court document said. One sticking point is understood to be that Bharti has not disclosed the price at which it bought the bulk of its shares in the Zambian cellco, making it difficult for minority stockholders to decide on the matter.

MTN To Cut Links With Uganda Telecom Over Three-Year Debt

A three year dispute over inter-connectivity fees has culminated in MTN Uganda announcing that it is severing interconnectivity with its industry rival Uganda Telecom (UTL), the Daily Monitor reports.

“MTN customers will therefore be unable to place direct calls to UTL subscribers, and vice-versa,” MTN said in a notice on Wednesday. “This action has been necessitated by UTL continuously defaulting on the settlement of its interconnect payments, amounting to about Shs20 billion accumulated over a period of three years,” the statement added.


In an earlier separate interview, UTL company Secretary Donald Nyakairu said the company was in the process of settling MTN’s dues. This, however, seems not to have materialised.

The stand-off comes after a row between the two companies, stemming from 2006 over the unpaid interconnectivity fees ended in UTL failing to pay MTN. UTL has also been in dispute with Warid Telecom and Airtel Uganda over unpaid interconnectivity fees all totalling to over Shs12 billion.

The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) is also demanding Shs9 billion in unpaid yearly fees from UTL although its Interim Executive Director Godfrey Mutabazi declined to elaborate on the matter.  “Interconnectivity issues are between telecom subscribers,” Mr Mutabazi said yesterday. “We only encouraged dialogue but we do not interfere.” Yesterday, MTN said UTL had unjustifiably and persistently refused to honour their business obligation and attempts to resolve the matter failed.

MTN last year took UTL to court and secured an order to pay the money in dispute.  Court documents obtained by the Daily Monitor indicated that between November 2008 and 2009, MTN demanded Shs7 billion in outstanding interconnectivity fees.

In February 2008, it issued UTL with another invoice demanding another payment of Shs6 billion, also for interconnection fees for March 2007 to December 2007.  UTL paid Shs3 billion but said it would not pay the balance of Shs3 billion which it said was not as a result of domestic traffic which attracts interconnectivity fees but was international traffic with Sudan.

In 2006, Ms GEMTEL a telecom operator in South Sudan requested Uganda to facilitate its calling code. On May 10, 2006, Works Minister John Nasasira wrote to UTL approving a request to extend its network coverage to South Sudan. UTL notified Gemtel that it will grant it usage of code +256 477.  +256 is the official Uganda country code.

On June 22, 2006 UTL informed MTN that it had set up interconnection with GEMTEL adding that it had been assigned +256477 which is a Ugandan calling code. MTN says this is the source of the accumulated fees.

Bharti To Take Full Control of Airtel Zambia

Having confirmed last month that it would reapply to delist its Zambian subsidiary after its initial attempt was rejected, India’s Bharti Airtel has contacted all of Airtel Zambia’s remaining minority shareholders to inform them of its intentions to forcibly acquire the stake in the cellco it does not currently hold. 


According to All Africa, Bharti has sent a letter to those minority shareholders which declined to sell their shares after it launched a mandatory offer in November 2010, with the communication advising the 2,000 or so remaining stakeholders that Bharti had now met all conditions set in the Companies Act which allow it to press forward with acquiring the holding.


‘Since the conditions have been met Airtel is now proceeding to issue this acquisition notice to the minority shareholders within the two-month period specified in Section 237(2) of the Companies Act,’ noted the letter. Bharti will pay ZMK710 (USD0.15) per share, the same price that it offered back in November last year.

MTN Fight With Swazi Regulator Over 3G Licence Persits

According to the Swazi Observer, MTN Swaziland CEO Ambrose Dlamini has assured the cellco's customers that MTN is poised to introduce its commercial 3G network 'soon'.


The Swaziland Post and Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC) declined to grant MTN Swaziland, the country’s sole mobile network operator, a 3G licence. MTN had hoped to received the concession at the end of 2010.


MTN was believed to have carried out a month long pilot of four UMTS base stations last year. It was then granted a temporary 3G licence to cover several events including the Common Market for Eastern & Southern Africa (COMESA) summit, held last August.


The permit was valid from 16 August to 30 September, with 3G services allowed to be offered to post-paid customers only. 


Dlamini commented: 'Swazi MTN is 3G ready, all we have to do is to press a button and make the service available to the MTN network users. We are ready, what is outstanding at the moment is to be granted the appropriate licence by the regulator. As soon as we get the licence, we advise that our customers will experience an immense improvement on the data speeds and all other benefits which will come with the 3G technology'.

However, according to the Times of Swaziland, the SPTC has broken its silence regarding the decision - claiming that MTN demanded that the regulator grant it a an 'exclusive' 3G licence in a secret meeting dated 24 January.


Chairman of the SPTC board of directors Phanuel Vilakati commented: 'To demand that MTN Swaziland be granted licences without applying for them in terms of the [Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications Corporation Act of 1983] would not only be engaging in wrongful conduct but would undermine the purpose of delegating power to the Director of Communications'. 


Vilakati added that the granting of a self provisioning international gateway licence is a matter of government policy, as it concerns issues of national security. He indicated that no 3G licence will be issued until the government has addressed MTN's demands.

In a retaliatory gesture, MTN Swaziland has now filed a court application to have SPTC managing director Elijah Zwane arrested for continuing to connect new customers to MTN’s new fixed-wireless network, following the termination of the two parties' shareholder agreement; until recently the SPTC held a 41% stake in MTN Swaziland on behalf of the government. 


MTN has alleged that the SPTC is unlawfully connecting customers to its network. SPTC's affidavit stated: 'The first respondent (SPTC) admits that it has been operating as a fixed line operator, in addition to other telecommunication services which it is authorised to provide in terms of the [Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications Corporation Act of 1983]. It is incorrect to limit the respondent's interest in mobile telephone services to the joint venture (JV) with the second applicant (MTN)'.

Telecel Says NetOne Is Not Sharing Towers

Orascom-backed mobile operator Telecel Zimbabwe’s CEO Aimable Mpore has accused state-owned rival NetOne of refusing to share cellular tower infrastructure, according to a report in Zimbabwean newspaper The Herald.

In the course of responding to questions on Telecel’s ownership structure from the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Media, Information and Communication Technology, Mpore disclosed that Telecel has had no problems sharing infrastructure with the country’s largest cellco Econet or incumbent PSTN operator TelOne, but claimed that NetOne has dismantled Telecel's equipment ‘because the facilities belong to them.’

Mpore called for state enforcement of site-sharing principles.

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.

Telecom Namibia Ready to Join WACS

Telecom Namibia says it is ‘ready’ to connect the country to the West African Cable System (WACS), a consortium high speed submarine system linking Africa to Europe, which it hopes will lead to higher-bandwidth, cheaper data and voice services for all end-users. The USD600 million fibre-optic cable has reached the shores of Namibia, whilst Telecom has already deployed infrastructure to link its landing station at Swakopmund to its domestic network and expects that commercial services could be launched by the second quarter of this year, reports local newspaper New Era. The project will give Namibia its first direct access to global submarine cable networks.

The WACS consortium consists of twelve companies: Angola Cables, Broadband Infraco, Cable & Wireless, Congo Telecom, MTN, Office Congolais des Postes et Telecommunications, Portugal Telecom/Cabo Verde Telecom, Tata Communications/Neotel, Telecom Namibia, Telkom SA, Togo Telecom and Vodacom. The main contractor is Alcatel-Lucent.

CV Movel Plans to Acquire 3G Licence

Portuguese newspaper Diario Economico reports that Portugal Telecom-backed CV Movel is bidding for a 3G licence in Cape Verde.

An official source from Portugal Telecom told the paper that the bid on the tender was submitted on 31 January, but declined to disclose the value of the planned investments in the island nation. 


Portugal Telecom has a 40% stake in CV Movel. Other bidders taking part in the 3G auction are T+ and Cabo TLC de Sao Vicente. Cape Verde's telecommunications regulator ANAC will announce the result of the tender in March.

Rwanda Government MTN Shares to Be Listed

The government of Rwanda plans to list its shareholding in MTN Rwanda on the newly launched Rwanda Stock Exchange (RSE) by the end of this year, local news paper Business Times reports.


The state holds a 10% stake in the telecoms operator, which is 55%-owned by South African company MTN Group, with Tristar Investments owning the remaining 35% stake. At the launch of the RSE earlier this week, Finance Minister John Rwangombwa said: ‘We are in the process of discussing with MTN South Africa; we have 10% of government shares and there is also another investor [Tristar] that wants to divest from this company, so we might have 45% shares from MTN coming on the market soon this year.’


The move forms part of the government's broader strategy to privatise companies in to facilitate development of capital markets and increase alternative sources of long-term capital for businesses.

Tunisie IPO Plans Suspended

Reuters reports that Tunisia has suspended plans to launch an initial public offering (IPO) for state-owned telecoms company Tunisie Telecom, citing the communications minister.

Secretary of State for Communication Technologies Sami Zaoui said a final decision would be taken in consultation with Tunisia's strategic partners within days over whether to go ahead with the IPO.

Tunisia's government holds a 65% stake in Tunisie Telecom, with the rest held jointly by Dubai's TECOM Investments and Dubai Investment Group. 

It had planned to list the company on both Tunis and Paris stock exchanges in what would have been the first offering by a Tunisian company on a European bourse. 

Tunisia has had two changes of government since former president Zine Al Abdine Ben Ali was driven out by popular revolt on 14 January this year. Many officials have been replaced, leaving plans for the IPO in limbo.

LAP To Launch In Sierra Leone This April

GreenN Sierra Leone, a subsidiary of LAP Green Network, itself 100% owned by Libyan government-owned investment vehicle Libyan Africa Portfolio (LAP), will launch commercial operations in Sierra Leone’s wireless market in April this year, local newspaper Awoko reports.


Earlier this week Information and Communications Minister Alhaji Ibrahim Ben Kargbo made the first official call over the company’s GSM network to President Koroma. The minister said that GreenN Sierra Leone is part of efforts to strengthen the bilateral ties between Sierra Leone and Libya. 


According to GreenN Sierra Leone’s CEO, Elmabruk S. Elgembari, the company plans to invest USD50 million in the next three years, adding that the operator has so far constructed a total of 128 cell sites, including 42 in the provinces. 


The CEO also revealed that GreenN will provide quality and affordable voice, data and internet services. As well as Sierra Leone, LAP holds telecoms licences in six other African countries, including Rwanda, Uganda, Niger, Ivory Coast and Togo.

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%’.