Mobile and Telecoms
How to Build a Secure 5G Ecosystem
Powered by the convergence of 5G and industry 4.0, the smart enterprise of the future is now here. The critical performance boost of 5G enables critical smart systems to share and respond to information faster than ever, permitting industrial enterprises to digitise and automate their infrastructures with confidence. 5G offers a unique and valuable set of capabilities that, unlike any previous or current mobile technology, enable and expand the implementation of transformative technologies for organisations, including industrial enterprises. The value of 5G encompasses enhanced bandwidth, ultra-high reliability, low latency, high positioning precision, and native support for machine communications that organisations across a wide range of verticals, including manufacturing, logis...
Airtel Africa Names New Group CEO
Image sourced from Khusoko – East African Markets Airtel Africa has appointed Segun Ogunsanya as the group’s new CEO – effective from 1 October 2021. He is taking over from Raghu Mandava who led the telco for the last five years. “We are delighted to appoint Segun Ogunsanya as the Group’s next Chief Executive Officer. He has displayed significant drive and energy in turning around the Nigeria business by focusing on network modernisation, distribution, and operational efficiency. It is this commitment, together with his industry experience, strategic vision, constant customer focus and proven record of delivery that will enable him to continue to deliver our strategic objectives and to lead the Group in the next stages of its development,” says Airtel Chairman, Sunil Bharti Mittal. He goes...
MTN Ghana Promises $149 Million in Infrastructure Expansion
MTN Ghana has revealed its results for the quarter ended 31 March. The telco’s subscriberbase grew by 0.6 million to 25.0 million, as it improved its network and customerexperience. Continued demand for data and increased adoption of more digital payment services supported the active data subscribers’ growth of 0.4 million to reach 11.2 million and MoMo users growth of 0.1 million to reach 10.7 million. Most notably, MTN Ghana revealed that it would spend around $149 million in total CAPEX in the year to meet the heightened need for reliable and resilient voice, data and digital services. “We remain in line with our medium-term target to improve our margins and prudently manage our costs. EBITDA grew by 24.6%, with a corresponding margin expansion of 1.2 percentage points to 54.6%. Th...
Safaricom Completes Services Upgrade
Sourced from Tech Weez. Safaricom has introduced updates to its airtime top-up, sim swap, tariff migration and activation of new lines services. The updates are expected to increase the telco’s capacity for future innovations. In a tweet, Safaricom says that M-Pesa, calls, data and SMS will all be operational. Customer Notice on Service Upgrade for Saturday 24th April 2021. pic.twitter.com/NCo9j9PUGQ — Safaricom PLC (@SafaricomPLC) April 23, 2021 Safaricom Forced to Split Dividend Payouts by CBK The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has pressured Safaricom into dividing its dividend payouts in order to “shield the weakening shilling when the telecommunications firm seeks dollars for repatriation to foreign investors”, reports Business Daily. Kenya’s local currency has faced immense pressure...
MTN Bids for Ethiopian Telco Licence Alongside Vodacom and Safaricom
MTN Group has reportedly made a bid for an Ethiopian telecommunications licence alongside Vodacom Group and Safaricom. Finance ministry adviser, Brook Taye says that the consortium of bids is led by Safaricom. “We always wanted quality providers and this is what we have received,” adds Taye. “These are two African giants — the Safaricom-led consortium and MTN — either one or two of the operators will get a licence in Ethiopia.” Kenya’s geographical proximity to Ethiopia is expected to be one reason why Safaricom leads the consortium. “I think it will be a very good exposure to Safaricom from the perspective of geographical closeness on the one perspective, but also giving Safaricom additional exposure to more growth areas,” says Vodacom’s chief executive, Shameel Joosub. In an interview wi...
Airtel Africa Refutes Plans to Exit Kenyan Market
Sourced from Comms MEA Airtel Africa has denied reports that it plans to halt operations in Kenya. The rumours were reported by Techweez after Prasanta Das Sarmato, CEO of Airtel Kenya, assessed the viability of the company after The National ICT Policy 2019 was signed. “Equity Participation, a clause in the policy states that only companies with at least 30% substantive Kenyan ownership, either corporate or individual will be licensed to provide ICT services.” The telco, however, has said that it would not be leaving the Kenyan market – “we remain committed to delivering quality and value for money products and services to all our customers whilst ensuring effective, uninterrupted communication is achieved across the entire country.” Airtel goes on to say that it would cont...
MTN Nigeria Launches Unlimited Music Streaming Data Bundles
Sourced from TheTechieGuy (https://thetechieguy.com/) MTN Nigeria has partnered with Audiomack to offer subscribers tailored data bundles for streaming unlimited music and accessing content on Audiomack free of data charges. The partnership is expected to see MTN subscribers gain free access to Audiomack’s streaming service via their mobile devices on weekly and monthly subscriptions. The weekly plan offers 1.2GB + Free Audiomack while the monthly plan offers 2.5GB + Free Audiomack. “At Audiomack, we recognise the importance of access to quality music, and this coupled with Nigeria’s vibrant music industry has influenced this partnership,” says Dave Macli, CEO and Co-Founder of Audiomack Africa. “This relationship not only allows us to create shared value for MTN subscribers by delivering ...
Cell C Reports R5.5 Billion Loss
Image sourced from Town Press Cell C has reported a loss of R5.5 billion after tax following the announcement of its annual financial performance for the 12 months ending December 2020. The telco revealed that total revenue was down by 8% to R13.8-billion (2019: R15.1-billion), with the largest part of the revenue contribution from its prepaid base at R6.2-billion (2019: R6.9-billion). CFO of Cell C, Zaf Mahomed believes that even though the telco made a full-year loss, the latter six months of 2020 was encouraging as it had shown a R2.1 billion profit in the second half. Mahomed says “our results reflect a business in transition. We are starting to see the impact of our changes which included a focus on more profitable subscribers and through the reduction in costs a shift to revenue-gene...
Safaricom Forced to Split Dividend Payouts by CBK
Image sourced from Techweez The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has pressured Safaricom into dividing its dividend payouts in order to “shield the weakening shilling when the telecommunications firm seeks dollars for repatriation to foreign investors”, reports Business Daily. Kenya’s local currency has faced immense pressure in recent months following the collapse of the tourism sector due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to people familiar with the matter, the CBK’s push is one of the “key factors for the firm to break its tradition of making a single dividend payment in August or September” – this comes after the telco announced its first-ever interim dividend of Sh0.45 in February. “Safaricom has to buy dollars from the market then repatriate the dividends. The dollar demand associated w...
Millicom Sells Operations in Tanzania and Ghana
Millicom has signed agreements for the sale of its operations in Tanzania and for its stake in the AirtelTigo joint venture in Ghana. Once closed, the transactions will complete Millicom’s multi-year plan to divest its African operations and focus on its Latin American markets. In Tanzania, Millicom has agreed to sell its entire operations to a consortium led by Axian, a pan-African group that was part of the consortium that acquired Millicom’s operations in Senegal in 2018. In Ghana, Millicom along with its joint venture partner, Bharti Airtel Limited, have signed a definitive agreement for the transfer of AirtelTigo to the Government of Ghana. Millicom will take a $25 million charge as a result of this agreement. “Today Tigo is a leading provider of broadband services to consumers, busin...
Calls for Safaricom to Share Telco Infrastructure by Kenya Competition Authority
Image sourced from Techweez The Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) has approached Parliament with new laws that would require the country’s telco’s – mainly Safaricom – to share their private infrastructure on a commercial basis. “The authority’s view is that ab initio infrastructure provisions in the sector should have been separated from the mobile network operators. Primarily regulations should have been developed to ensure that third parties provide the infrastructure. Unfortunately, this did not happen,” says CAK Director-General, Francis Wang’ombe Kariuki. “It is with this reality that we opine regulations should be promulgated and enforced in regard to infrastructure sharing on a commercial basis and in case of dispute, the sector regulator [Communications Authority of Kenya] may ...
Safaricom is Testing a Digital Health Passport Programme
Image sourced from Techweez Safaricom has begun testing Afya Moja – a mobile health records system – in partnership with Nakuru County. The initial pilot programme will see over 100,000 people be part of the integrated electronics medical records program. According to TechIsh, Afya Moja is a simple mobile-based Digital Health Passport that receives and securely stores patient information. With the platform, users can access a copy of their health information, and share it with trusted healthcare providers. “So, a doctor can for example, upon receiving consent from a user, have access to their medical background, helping them effectively handle whatever [medical] situation is at hand.” Steve Chege, Chief of Corporate Affairs at Safaricom, says “what we aim to do through Afya Moja, is to mak...
