When you hear of a company that provides service to 185 million cellular customers, your thoughts turn to large international carriers like Vodafone and Telefonica, or maybe a major market giant operating in China or India. In fact, 185 million is the number of subscribers supported by Swedish vendor Ericsson through its portfolio of managed services contracts, according to the firm’s own figures.
For years the ranking of global handset vendors was a fairly predictable exercise. Nokia was a number one, trailed by Motorola in second place and Samsung in third. Then Motorola’s persistent bout of ill health shook things up a bit, allowing Korean manufacturer Samsung to claim second position last year.
The world’s advanced mobile markets, perhaps understandably, draw a majority share of industry attention. In these countries the latest technologies are used to showcase the most sophisticated services on the handset manufacturing community’s most cutting edge products.
Egyptian carrier Orascom Telecom said Thursday it has reached an agreement to sell its remaining shares in Hutchison Whampoa’s emerging markets unit. Orascom will sell its 14.2 per cent holding in Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd (HTIL) for around HK$7.5bn ($960m). Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa will re-acquire 9.2 per cent of the stake and a [...]
The African telecommunication industry is constantly facing new challenges, but is an important channel for the continent as it provides communication pathways at lower rates that are vital for growing democracies and economies. However, there are a number of challenges the industry has to face, in particular, finding the right leadership to deliver extraordinary results [...]
Fixed line infrastructure is largely absent throughout Africa’s rural heartlands, many say this is why cellular stands the greatest chance of delivering internet services to the masses. But 3G network rollouts are rare, sophisticated handsets expensive and ARPU margins so low that the mobile internet will remain the preserve of the wealthy minority. Speaking on [...]
Pan-African operator Celtel International has extended the reach of the ‘borderless’ One Network, giving almost half of Africa’s population the ability to make calls at local rates across 12 countries throughout the continent. Celtel, a subsidiary of the Zain Group, has extended the borderless mobile network to Burkina Faso, Chad, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria and Sudan. [...]
Our underlying identity is now defined by our email address and/or our mobile phone number, this has started an identity revolution, changing the way we interact, according to Corrie Froehlich, senior ICT industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan. Mobile Content in Africa is becoming a high growth industry with 36 per cent of adults in [...]
Pan-African carrier MTN confirmed it interest in WiMAX on Wednesday, tapping kit vendor Redline Communications to build a 12 city WiMAX network in Cameroon. Christian de Faria, MTN’s vice president for the West and Central Africa Region, confessed his interest in the wireless broadband technology earlier this year, telling telcoms.com that the company was looking [...]
The GSM Association announced that the mobile industry plans to invest more than $50bn in sub-Saharan Africa over the next five years to provide more than 90 per cent of the population with mobile coverage. The investment will be used to extend the reach of GSM mobile networks, enhanced with GPRS, EDGE and HSPA technologies, [...]
A group of mobile operators announced a substantial investment drive in the continent’s sub-Saharan region on Monday. The GSM Association revealed that a group of carriers including MTN, Orange, Vodacom and Kuwaiti carrier Zain are to plough more than $50bn into the region over the next five years in a bid to extend mobile coverage [...]
South Africa’s number one operator Vodacom has launched MobileTVPlaya, a live and on-demand multi-channel mobile TV service. The service, enabled by UK-based ROK Entertainment Group, offers Vodacom customers a choice of 10 channels to receive via GPRS enabled handsets from a content portfolio of 22 channels at a monthly cost of SAR29.00 (£3.00). “MobileTVPlaya is [...]
South African carrier Telekom SA has announced that it has opened discussions which could see it sell off its 50 per cent stake in cellular player Vodacom to partner investor Vodafone, according to local press reports. Telekom, which is the largest fixed line player in South Africa, is understood also to be considering a marriage [...]
The number of prepaid mobile subscriptions in the Middle East crossed the 100 million mark in the second quarter, reaching 101.7 million at the end of June. Prepaid services continued to dominate in both the Middle East and Africa, with a combined 321.55 million subscriptions at the end of June, accounting for 84.46 per cent [...]
Over the next five years, social networking services are set to dominate a burgeoning market for mobile user generated content, according to a new report from Juniper Research. Globally, end user generated revenues from social networking, dating and personal content delivery services will increase from $572m in 2007 to more than $5.7bn in 2012, with [...]
Loading ...