The lack of data services is still the main obstacle for growth with TCI and MTN aggressively trying to provide data services. However, promotional activity is limited and the operators are not able to provide a varied and attractive range of data services due to their technological constraints. More attractive local content is needed – only local content is allowed and there are very few content providers in Iran. In addition to this, what content is available is not compatible due to low quality (low speeds and lack of infrastructure); therefore the speed of content production is not keeping up with the demand. This situation is mainly due to the lack of 3G services in the market and the delayed launch of Tamin Telcom’s operations.

Faced with various difficulties, Tamin Telecom has been unable to pilot its services and has had to delay its commercial launch until 1Q12. The operator, which has been granted Iran’s only 3G license, has seen its board members replaced four times and is struggling to find the financial backing to launch its 2G and 3G network. It has not been able to secure enough vendors to roll out its network and the sanctions on the country and the lack of foreign investment make it difficult to source the necessary equipment.

Although the regulator is pushing for a launch, it is aware of the difficulties that Tamin Telecom is facing and therefore has not imposed any fines for a late launch. No complaints have been made from the other operators in Iran due to the changes in the exclusivity agreement. The other operators can now look to launch 3G services two years after the provision of the license rather than the launch of commercial services. Due to the delayed launch of WCDMA services, the regulator has started to play more of a role in the development of the country’s ICT industry in order to spur competition in the market. It is considering mobile payment services after a successful pilot by TCI and is studying the possibility of having an MVNO in the Iranian market.

South Africa's MTN has now begun its LTE pilot program

MTN, the South African network operator, has announced that it has activated an LTE pilot program in Gauteng. The network consists of over 100 LTE sites and the operator said that these will all be activated in stages over the next few months.

Huawei and Ericsson are the equipment vendors for the pilot and selected customers will be provisioned with compatible dongles to take advantage of the improved network speeds. The network will use 10MHz of re-farmed 1800Mhz spectrum, and will achieve theoretical speeds of up to 70Mbps with latency of 15ms, which the operator said was twice as fast as what was currently available.

“Kanagaratnam Lambotharan, MTN South Africa’s chief technology officer said in a statement that: “Today’s pilot launch will give our customers a glimpse of what the future looks like. Being the first operator in Africa to launch a LTE pilot network of this scale is a reaffirmation of MTN’s vision to be the leading telecoms operator in emerging markets.” He also said that the pilot trial would enable MTN to gain experience of LTE and gain a competitive advantage over its rivals.

““Full deployment of LTE in future will allow MTN to maximize its infrastructure investment to provide its subscribers with a quality experience that is richer, faster and with significantly more capacity than that provided currently, ” he added.

MTN has invested 18bn RAND ($2.62bn) in infrastructure investment and says it puts up to 6bn RAND ($874m) in upgrading the network each year. MTN is the second largest mobile operator in South Africa, with 35.6 per cent of the market, according to Informa WCIS statistics.

MTN is upgrading 100 base stations in Gauteng, South Africa

MTN South Africa is rolling out a pilot LTE network in Gauteng, the company’s MD, Karel Pienaar, has told South African tech site TechCentral.

As many as 100 base stations are to be upgraded by the end of the year, operating at 1800MHz. The company also hopes to gain access to 2.6GHz and 800MHz frequencies once the industry regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of SA, begins the local spectrum auction. However, the 800MHz spectrum will not be freed until the end of December 2013 when local analogue TV is switched to digital.

We are running big trials on the LTE side,” Pienaar told TechCentral. “The radio technology has to be LTE, because we can get the next level of capacity and speed and efficiency.”

However, Pienaar dampened down consumer expectations somewhat suggesting that phones and dongles were not yet ready for mass market adoption.  “It will take five more years until LTE is truly ready for the average consumer”, he said.

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The Guinean government has seized MTN's assets in a dispute over fees

The Guinean government has seized all assets of MTN subsidiary Areeba. Under the terms of a decree signed by state president Alpha Conde and released to Reuters, the government has requisitioned personnel, equipment, infrastructure and facilities in a row over the payment of €15m in fees. The payment relates to MTN’s acquisition of local operator Areeba in 2007.

The seizure follows a warning to MTN from Guinean authorities last week that Areeba’s licence would be suspended if the dispute was not settled by April 29^th. According to the decree, the government would “provisionally administer” the telco from May 2nd until the dispute is resolved. MTN spokesman Rich Mkhondo said that the telco is in negotiations with the government to “reach an amicable solution that will be in the best interests of all the stakeholders affected.”

MTN’s difficulties are the latest in a series of spats that the Guinean government has had with businesses in the country since president Alpha Conde came to power in December last year. A port deal with France’s Getma international has been cancelled, along with a Brazilian railways project; Rio Tinto has had repeated spats with the government, while Russian mining company RUSAL is also being billed for back taxes and levies.

MTN isn’t the only African telco to fall foul of government decrees; in March, Tunisia’s government took a controlling stake in Orange following a cabinet decree calling for the seizure of all assets held by former president Ben Ali. The Mabrouk Group, owned by the son-in-law of the former president had owned 51 per cent of the company.

MTN bought Areeba in 2007 as part of a $5.5bn merger with Lebanon-based mobile set-up Investcom LLC. According to Informa research, Areeba has over 1.8m subscribers, representing about 3 per cent of the firm’s West and Central African subscriber base, which accounts for 45 per cent of subscriptions.

South Africa's latest mobile carrier, 8ta, has launched Blackberry services

South African incumbent operator Telkom is to offer ‘free’ mobile YouTube streaming to Blackberry devices in an effort to “Shake up the market.” The fixed-line player’s move into the mobile space took place last year, when it launched its 8ta division. Since then, the unit has pursued an aggressive pricing plan in a market previously known for high tariffs, not least for mobile data packages.

The ‘free’ YouTube offering (which is actually capped after 500Mb) coincides with the network’s launch of its Blackberry service and will include free Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) for the first three months as well as free and unlimited calls to a designated, fixed-line Telkom number. Other operators offering Blackberry services in South Africa charge for YouTube access.

The offer is available from April 24 and takes place in the context of an increasingly competitive mobile and data market in South Africa. The past few months have seen rival operators Cell C and Vodacom engaged in a tit-for-tat series of complaints against each other, with each accusing the other of misleading advertising in terms of their 3-and-4G offerings. Third-placed Cell C was forced to change its 4G branding relating to its HSPA+ network following complaints from both MTN and Vodacom. The carrier launched its 42Mbps HSPA+ network in Port Elizabeth this week, four days after rival Vodacom.

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WACS landed in Cape Town on Thursday

A high capacity submarine cable system linking southern Africa with Europe landed at its final destination in Cape Town Tuesday morning. The West African Cable System (WACS), a 14,000km, 5.1Tbps system was brought ashore at Yzerfontein in the Western Cape and will both complement and compete with the 340Gbps Sat-3 system that went into service in the region in 2002.

WACS backers include South African state-owned Telkom, MTN, Vodacom and second national operator (SNO) Neotel. MTN claims to be the biggest single investor in the project, contributing $90m to the $600m+ venture. The cable system is the first of two high-capacity links that will come online in the region over the next two years; WACS is expected to be ready commercially in early 2012 while the Africa Coast to Europe system (ACE), backed by France Telecom is expected later that year.

Construction of the landing station at Yzerfontein has yet to be completed, but is expected to be ready by July this year; backhaul fibre to the station is not yet in place. A date for commercial testing of the system has not been announced but is anticipated for September/October this year. WACS links southern Africa with London and is expected to increase broadband capacity in South Africa by 500Gbps.

ICASA is looking to open up South Africa's spectrum to smaller players

South Africa’s Independent Communications Authority (ICASA) has reintroduced a controversial requirement that companies applying for spectrum must be 30 per cent owned by historically disadvantaged shareholders (HDI).

With the country’s LTE spectrum auction planned for an as-yet unspecified time this year, players such as MTN and Vodacom could find themselves excluded from bidding for access in the 2.6GHz and 3.5GHz bands which form a key component in both telcos’ next-generation, LTE network strategies.

Having introduced the 30 per cent requirement in its initial draft regulations, ICASA then withdrew the requirement in its last draft, released in October last year, following significant pressure from the industry. With few of the bigger players in the South African market capable of satisfying the HDI requirement, many see the regulation as a critical opportunity to extend spectrum ownership to smaller market players. The new regulations are final.

The initial announcement of the HDI requirement saw a flurry of activity in the market as larger places rushed to conclude deals with several “empowerment” partners. MTN kicked off a black economic empowerment share scheme worth in excess of £70m and a range of other projects designed to get it through the compliance doors ahead of the first invitation to apply for spectrum. Business Connexion followed suit with the sale of a 30 per cent stake of its holdings to several empowerment partners.

With many legal experts claiming that the requirements can be challenged, some commentators are pondering the wisdom of these deals, particularly if the sole reason for conducting them was what’s known in South Africa as “window dressing” or “fronting” in order to comply with ownership regulations.

ICASA’s spectrum auction plans have been dogged by delays and controversies, with dates being pushed back for a variety of reasons, including the inability to find a partner to assist with managing the process and a variety of industry-led challenges regarding fine detail. If, as expected, legal challenges are mounted to this final version of the regulations, it seems unlikely that the auction will take place as planned this year.

NetOne Zimbabwe is looking to sell a 49 per cent stake to MTN

Zimbabwe’s state-owned, oldest mobile operator, NetOne, has entered into talks with South Africa’s MTN regarding the sale of a 49 per cent stake in the company. Despite its incumbent status, NetOne is Zimbabwe’s smallest operator, trailing larger telcos Econet Wireless and Egypt’s Orascom Telecom with its subscriber base of just over 1.5 million.

MD Reward Kangai told Reuters on Wednesday that the talks were taking place, but MTN has so far declined to comment. According to Kangai, MTN is just one “among others” interested in buying a stake in a company that Kangai values at $500-800m.

Despite its political and economic woes, Zimbabwe’s comparatively low mobile penetration rate makes it an attractive prospect for operators looking to expand their footprint on the African continent. Kangai has said that Zimbabwe’s telecommunications laws limit sales of shares to 49 per cent but that projected earnings of $200m in 2011 and an anticipated increase in subscribers should still make the telco and attractive prospect for strategic investors.

Following more than a decade of economic chaos, the formation in 2008 of a unity government between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has edged the country towards the beginnings of a recovery.According to Kangai, low mobile penetration in the country “presents an opportunity for the company to grow, which also presents a business opportunity for the strategic partner.”

East Africa Com takes place April 5-6 in Kenya. Speakers include John Barorot, CTO, Safaricom

South Africa's Cell C has been awarded additional spectrum

South Africa’s third cellular operator, Cell C, has had its application for additional spectrum in the 2100MHz band approved. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) approved the application in January but the carrier only went public with the news yesterday, when Cell C’s head of regulatory affairs, Mothibi Ramusi confirmed the allocation of an additional 5MHz to complement its existing 2x10MHz of 3G spectrum.

The additional bandwidth places Cell C on a level playing field with larger competitors MTN and Vodacom and will, according to Ramusi, be used to boost HSPA+ services as part of the telco’s R5 billion expansion plans. Cell C launched its HSPA+ network in September last year and recently upgraded five of its high traffic radio network controllers in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. The upgrades were geared towards addressing problems with its 21Mbps HSPA+ Huawei modems; a software bug meant that the carrier’s new range of high-speed devices were interacting incorrectly with its base stations, causing low throughput and connection problems.

South Africa’s mobile telecoms market has been hotting up in recent months; state provider Telkom launched its 8ta mobile network late last year, sparking some fairly aggressive pricing strategies in a market that, for many years, was not known for its competitive structures.

Orascom is considering taking legal action against the Algerian government

The Algerian government has hired consultants to assess the value of mobile operator Djezzy ahead of its plans to nationalise the lucrative telco.

Owned by Egyptian company Orascom Telecom, Djezzy has become the centre of a diplomatic tit-for-tat between the two countries that is said to have its origins in Orascom’s construction arm’s 2008 decision to sell its Algerian cement business to France’s Lafarge without consulting local officials.

As the Algerian government has taken an increasingly nationalistic approach to economic policy, Djezzy has become something of a focal point for conflict between two countries that aren’t exactly known for their friendly relations. Orascom is locked in a legal dispute over a $597 million tax bill that Algeria claims Djezzy owes. Djezzy is said to account for a third of Orascom’s revenue.

The knock-on effect of the spat has been the hampering of a multi-billion dollar deal between Russian provider Vimplecom and Orascom: the Russian operator is set to purchase the Egyptian company’s assets but uncertainty over how much the Algerian government is prepared to pay for Djezzy and how the proposed nationalisation will pan out is hindering proceedings.

Djezzy has been Orascom Telecom’s biggest revenue generator and the company has threatened international arbitration unless the issue is resolved soon. Algerian telecommunications minister Moussa Benhamadi has said that the consultation work will be completed by the end of May, after which talks on the future of Djezzy can begin.

The past few months have seen the Algerian government applying increasing pressure to nationalise the telco; last year, it blocked Orascom’s effort to sell Djezzy to South Africa’s MTN and a law has been passed giving the state first refusal should the unit be put up for sale. The company has been valued at $6-7 billion and the Algerian government insists that it will pay the market rate; how the ongoing dispute will affect that value remains to be seen. In the event of an open sale, interested parties are said to be Kuwaiti-held Nedjma, and Abu Dhabi-based Etisalat.