telecom news
SA’s Communication Regulator Names New Acting CEO as Former Boss Jumps to MTN
Advocate Norman Gidi, newly appointed acting CEO of Icasa. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has announced the appointment of Norman Gidi as its acting CEO, effective 1 September 2022. This comes as current boss Willington Ngwepe departs to serve in a top position at MTN Group. According to a statement by Icasa, Gidi will assume leadership of the regulator until the end of November, or until a permanent appointment is made. Former CEO Ngwepe is expected to leave Icasa on 31 August, following his resignation. Ngwepe has been appointed to serve as MTN’s chief of staff in the office of Group CEO Ralph Mupita. He had been at Icasa for the last 8 years, joining first as COO. Incoming boss Gidi has a longer tenure at Icasa under his belt, joining the public regulat...
IT Angola Rebrands, Joins the Paratus Fold
Offices of Paratus Angola in Luanda. Angolan telecommunications service provider, Internet Technologies Angola (ITA), has officially changed its name as part of an extensive rebranding and harmonisation process led by its parent company, the pan-African Paratus Group. ITA will, with immediate effect, operate under the name ‘Paratus Angola’. This identity establishes the company within the group’s broader network and pays homage to its Angolan roots from which a 19-year heritage was born. According to the announcement of the company’s rebranding, synergy of ITA’s brand identity with that of the wider Paratus Group is of strategic importance to the company’s overall vision to deliver efficient, affordable network solutions with the end goal of transforming the continent’s digital landscape. ...
Bboxx & Orange Connect 150,000 People in DRC to Clean Energy
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MTN Named the Number 1 African Brand
MTN Group, with operations in 17 countries across Africa, has been ranked the number one African brand and among the top 10 brands on the continent in the annual Brand Africa 100 survey. At a ceremony in Lagos, Nigeria to mark Africa Day on Wednesday 25 May 2022, Brand Africa said that MTN was the #1 African brand in both the spontaneous recall (where respondents are asked to name a brand across any category and region) and prompted recall (where respondents are guided to recall an African brand) rankings. This is the first time MTN has scooped both awards. MTN was also named the highest-ranking telecoms brand on the continent. “We are humbled by the recognition and remain focused on playing a leading role in building a more digitally inclusive society across Africa,” said MTN Group Presid...
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...
MTN Drives Rural Expansion with 39M Injection in Eastern Cape, SA
MTN SA has today announced that it is investing $39.1-million (R624-million) into the Eastern Cape province of South Africa to drive upgrades and deploy new network infrastructure across the region this year. The company says it is focusing on launching 5G and connectivity services, especially in rural areas. This latest cash injection falls as part of MTN’s “Modernisation of Network South Africa project” (MONZA) project. Last month, the telco invested nearly $57-million in rural Limpopo in the North of South Africa. MTN says this latest investment will expand network reach into rural communities, drive 5G expansion and work to restore vandalised network infrastructure. “We are working across the country to modernise the entire MTN network. Just over 68% has already been completed national...
Liquid Lands Capacity of Subsea Cable Equiano in Nigeria & South Africa
Image sourced from Medium. Liquid Intelligent Technologies, a business of Cassava Technologies, a pan-African technology group, has announced it has acquired a fibre pair on the Equiano subsea cable, allowing Liquid to transport traffic up to 12 Terabits, bringing a much-needed increase in international connectivity in Western and Southern Africa. With older sub-sea cables almost at the end of their lifespan, Liquid through the Equiano cable system will address the growing need for Internet capacity supporting cloud services in both coastal and landlocked countries on the continent. The new Equiano subsea cable will link Africa to Europe via the West Coast of Africa when it is ready for service later in 2022, providing Terabit/s of capacity to meet the growing and varied business needs of ...
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...
MTN SA Invests $46.4-Million in New Infrastructure for KZN, South Africa
Africa’s largest telecom group MTN SA has announced a further investment of $46.4-million (R700-million) in order to modernise existing, and deploy new, network infrastructure across the KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. The $46.4-million investment, which is an addition to the $33.17-million (R500-million) invested in 2021, will go toward MTN’s “Modernisation of Network South Africa project” (MONZA) as well as expanded rural reach, 5G expansion and restoration of vandalised network infrastructure, the company said in a press release. “The KZN investment forms part of plans to modernise the entire MTN network, 68% of which has already been completed nationally, with an additional 1350 sites to be finalised, and around 200 top areas covered across SA, by the end of 2022”, says Matthew...
MTN Group Posts “Strong” 2021 Results – $583M in Profits
South African telecom MTN has released its financial results for the year ended December 2021 and reported “strong financial, operational and sustainability results” through what the group is calling a “tough macro year.” MTN boasts that these very positive results were delivered through “strong strategic execution and sustained commercial momentum across 19 markets.” “We adapted to the extraordinary circumstances brought about by the COVID-19pandemic and started shaping the MTN of the future through the execution ofAmbition 2025,” said MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita. Increased Earnings In constant-currency terms, service revenue grew by 18.3% to $11.4-billion, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 23.7% to $582.6-Million and the EBIT...
Airtel Kenya Agrees to $30-Million Spectrum Settlement
Sourced from Comms MEA Airtel Africa, a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services, with a presence in 14 countries across Africa, today announced that its Kenya subsidiary, Airtel Kenya Networks Limited (‘Airtel Kenya’), has agreed to settlements with the Communications Authority of Kenya regarding its operating and spectrum licences. According to the announcement Airtel Kenya has received approval for the replacement of its temporary licence with a ten-year frequency licence for 2×10 MHz of spectrum in the 2100 MHz band. The agreement will see Airtel Kenya pay a total of $20-million in four instalments over the next three years in respect of settlements regarding the 2015 – 2025 operating and spectrum license. These payments will see the Kenyan telecom settle its du...
