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Safaricom Appoints New Chief Enterprise Business Officer

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Airtel Africa Coughs Up $40-Million for New Kenyan Spectrum

Sourced from Comms MEA Airtel Africa, one of the continent’s largest telecommunications groups with a presence in 14 countries, today announces that its Kenya subsidiary, Airtel Kenya, has concluded its purchase of additional spectrum in the country. According to the announcement Airtel Kenya has purchased 60 MHz of additional spectrum in the 2600 MHz band from the Communications Authority of Kenya, for a gross consideration of $40-million. The current spectrum license is valid from July 2022 for a period of 15 years. “This additional spectrum will support our 4G network capacity expansion in the market for both mobile data and fixed wireless home broadband capability, and will allow for future 5G rollout, providing significant capacity to accommodate our continued strong data growth in th...

The 15 African Countries with the Most Expensive Data

Image sourced from Iberdrola.com. Countries in Africa generally have some of the most expensive mobile data in the world due to several factors, including the unavailability of telecoms infrastructure and high taxation in the African telecom industry by governments. Many telecom firms may hold key monopolies and simply charge more for data because they can. In 2020, the median price for 1 GB of mobile data in Africa was more than $5 while the price per gig in the European Union (EU) was closer to $3.5 per gig, and while data is getting cheaper, there are still many countries in Africa with incredibly high mobile data prices. Increasing access to the internet is a key target for many developing nations as it promotes access to education and access to financial services, among other benefits...

Telecoms Will Be Africa’s Fastest Growing Industry: New Study

Sourced from the Guardian Nigeria. The telecoms sector will be the fastest-growing industry in Africa over the next five years as internet connectivity improves, new research with business leaders for blockchain-based mobile network operator World Mobile shows. When asked to pick the three sectors that they believe will see the strongest growth over the next five years, three out of four (75%) senior executives selected telecoms in the study. It was comfortably ahead of the healthcare sector which emerged as the second choice selected by 61% of survey respondents as one of three industries that will see the strongest growth ahead of tourism at 44% Senior executives at companies with combined annual revenues of more than $6.75 billion based in Tanzania, Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia,...

Orange Appoints New Leaders for Africa

Sourced from MSNBC. France’s Orange Group yesterday announced the appointment of new leaders across its B2B Africa and Middle East units in order to refocus and capitalise on the regions which have been seeing growth and spurred positive financials for the Group over recent quarters. Africa and the Middle East is currently one of Orange’s “major growth engines” having produced positive results in back to back quarters over recent years. The region contributed a year-on-year growth of 8.7% which equates to a cold $142-million, maintaining the overall Group revenue at a flat rate of 0.7% to $11.3-billion. The Group’s Africa and Middle-East arm continues to be one of the largest telecoms in the entire continent in terms of both revenue and customer spread. “Africa and the Middle East continue...

Airtel Africa Wants to Get Rid of its Towers to Cut Costs

Sourced from Comms MEA Pan-African telecommunications firm Airtel Africa has reportedly stopped investing in new tower infrastructure in Kenya, and other markets across the continent, as it prepares to sell most of its already-existing infrastructure assets. This is in efforts to reduce ownership of infrastructure as Airtel Africa looks towards leasing instead, according to Business Daily Africa. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is funding Airtel Africa, stated in an investment disclosure that Airtel is looking to focus on a cost-saving “asset-light business model” and has “divested most of its telecommunications tower portfolio” with the telecom operator now apparently in the final stages of divesting the majority of its remaining tower portfolio to other tower companies...

Tizeti Partners Microsoft to Boost High-Speed Internet in Nigeria

Sourced from Wikimedia Microsoft, the US-founded tech megacorp, and West African solar-based internet service provider Tizeti have announced a new collaboration to boost high-speed internet in Nigeria with the “Airband initiative”. The initiative will see the rollout of high-speed Airband internet infrastructure in Oyo State, in the southwest of Africa’s most populous country. According to the announcement, the Airband initiative supports both Microsoft and Tizeti’s shared goal of connecting more people to the internet in a cost-efficient way, as well as part of its commitment to empowering more Nigerians, stimulating economic activities, and widening the broadband envelope in Africa with affordable broadband connectivity. Millions of Nigerians Still Facing Digital Exclusion With forty per...

Here’s How Much MTN Spent During the ICASA Spectrum Auction

MTN announced on Thursday that it had secured the high-demand spectrum required for its 4G and 5G network expansion drive from the highly anticipated ICASA spectrum auction. ICASA announced that MTN had successfully secured the following spectrum bands: 2 x 10 MHz in 800 MHz – R2,933 billion ($195.7-million) 40 MHz of 2600 MHz – R1,093 billion ($73-million) 40 MHz of 3500 MHz – R1,127 billion ($75.2-million) The Group spent a total of $347-million on securing the spectrum it requires. “This is a significant milestone, not only for MTN and the telecommunication industry at large but also for South Africa’s digital future. Spectrum is the lifeblood of our industry and is key to reliable and extensive connectivity for our customers across the country,” said MTN SA’s CEO, Charles Molapisi. “Ou...

Paratus Connects East Angola to the Rest of the World

Henriques Manuel (left) – Director of the Office of Administrative Modernization of Luena. Internet Technologies Angola (ITA), part of the Paratus Group, launched its first broadband internet service in Moxico, Angola’s largest province in the east of the country. The new service is a significant intervention to unlock the potential for both the private and public sectors in the province, which spans 223,000 km2 and has a population of close to a million people. In line with the ITA/Paratus strategy to expand its quality network coverage, this new connectivity further consolidates the company’s commitment to the Government’s national telecommunications strategy to deliver inclusive fibre and digital services across Angola. Covering more than 1,000 kilometres, the new link begins in L...

MTN Rwanda Taps Ericsson to Deploy New Operations Centre

Sourced from TheTechieGuy (https://thetechieguy.com/) MTN Rwanda has selected its longtime partner, Ericsson, to deploy a Network Operations Centre (NOC). The five-year contract will support MTN Rwanda to focus on enhancing consumer experience through Ericsson’s Managed Services solution that will deliver an automation-driven Information Technology (IT) operation. Ericsson will provide NOC for a range of MTN Rwanda’s applications and the corresponding IT Infrastructure to support critical business segments and enhance operational efficiency. The new agreement is an important milestone in MTN Rwanda’s modernisation and digital transformation journey, the company says. Through the NOC, MTN Rwanda’s Network Operations Centre and the Incidents Management tools will be automated enabling furthe...

Paratus & MTN Namibia Sign Country’s First Roaming Agreement

(L to R) MTN MD Elia Tsouros and Paratus Namibia MD Andrew Hall. Paratus Namibia and MTN Namibia announce that they have signed a national roaming agreement, a first of its kind in the Southern African country. The agreement signals that Paratus and MTN customers throughout the country will benefit from the integration of two networks to deliver better and increased national coverage for all. By collaborating, this agreement allows both Paratus and MTN Namibia to expand their own networks and neither operator needs to duplicate mobile coverage in certain areas of the country. This infrastructure sharing deal marks a milestone in Namibian telecommunications history because the cooperation between two operators will provide not only a better mobile LTE service to customers but also a very at...

SEACOM Boosts Its Fibre Network After Acquiring This Kenyan Telecom

Image sourced from the Design Quarter. Pan-African telecommunications services provider SEACOM has announced that it has completed the 100% acquisition of Hirani Telecom’s metro fibre network. Hirani Telecom is one of Kenya’s fastest-growing triple-play service providers, and the largest last-mile provider in the region. The network will be incorporated into SEACOM’s existing metro network in the capital of Kenya, Nairobi and will be under its full control. According to a release, the acquisition is part of SEACOM’s ongoing strategy in the region to grow its on-net capabilities, and provide its enterprise customers with world-class connectivity. Steve Briggs, SEACOM CSMO, expands on what the acquisition will mean for the region: “This is a first step towards ensuring we can provide end-to-...

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