Editor’s Note: Here’s a brief of what’s been happening in the Africa mobile telecom industry, courtesy of Global Mobile Daily. With news from telcos such as MTN, Vodacom, and Safaricom in countries like Cameroun, Cote D’Ivoire, South Africa, and Kenya.
MTN sells towers to HIS in Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire
MTN Group and IHS have entered into agreements under which IHS will acquire up to 931 mobile network towers from MTN Cote d’Ivoire for US$141 million and up to 827 towers from MTN Cameroon for US$143 million. IHS will be a 100% shareholder of the tower companies to be set up in each country to manage the towers and other passive infrastructure. MTN will become the anchor tenants in both countries on the towers being purchased for an initial term of ten years. According to MTN, the sale of towers is in line with MTN’s infrastructure sharing strategy aimed at the monetisation of its assets and cost optimisation. The transactions are expected to close during the 1Q13, subject to customary closing conditions.
Vodacom SA in new free talk time promotion
Vodacom South Africa has launched the “Extra Time promotion” whereby subscribers can talk for an hour and only pay for the first three minutes. This promotion will run from October 15 to 31 October 2012. The promotion is available to prepaid and hybrid “Top Up” price plan users. The Vodacom Extra Time promotion is available between 7am and 8pm on weekdays and valid for on-net calls only.
Orange Cameroon becomes platform for agricultural information services
Orange Cameroon and local NGO Agrocom have entered into a partnership whereby the Orange network will be used as a platform to relay information from Agrocom’s information website, Agribis. The partnership will enable Agrocom to send and receive around 50,000 SMS per day to its members. Agribis is a website dedicated to the agricultural industry across Central Africa.
Nigeria NCC reacts to hostile press reports
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has issued a statement following reports in local press alleging frequency racketeering, illegal sale of frequencies belonging to the Nigerian police to a private firm, Open Skys, and issuance of frequencies to Smile Communications without due process. The NCC denied the allegation and clarified that frequencies allocated to Open Skys and Smile Communications followed a due process and that the spectrum allocated to the Police by the Commission is intact and has not been affected by the allocation. Open Skys was allocated frequencies in the 450MHz band in 2009 following a re-farming process during which the Nigerian Police had its frequencies moved. Smile Communications was issued spectrum in the 850MHz band in 2009.
Essar Telecom launches BlackBerry services in Kenya
Essar Telecom Kenya (Yu) has launched BlackBerry services. Yu has also introduced eight BlackBerry plans from which customers can choose to access email, phone, SMS, Internet, organizer and corporate data applications from a single device. The operator will initially offer BlackBerry Bold 9900, Bold 9780, Curve 8520 and Torch 9800 and first-time BlackBerry customers will enjoy two months free services on the ‘BB Complete Plan’.
Safaricom slashes call rates for mobile doctor service
Safaricom has cut to half the cost of using its mobile medical advice service ‘Daktari 1525’. The service will now cost KES10(US$0.16) per minute. Daktari 1525 is an m-health service that was launched by Safaricom in Nov-2011 in partnership with Call-a-Doc Limited to enable customers obtain medical help from qualified doctors by dialling 1525 through their phones. The service sees 2,000 callers per day and has received over 200,000 calls since its launch.
[image via Flickr/rogiro]
