Industry News

American Tower inked a deal to acquire Eaton Towers, which owns and operates around 5,500 sites across five African markets, in a $1.85 billion deal.

The US company already has a global portfolio of more than 170,000 sites, including around 41,000 in its home market and 130,000 worldwide. In Africa, it has a presence in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana and South Africa.

Eaton Towers said it is the only infrastructure company in Niger and Burkina Faso. It also claims to be the largest player (by number of towers) in Kenya and second-largest in Uganda and Ghana, meaning there is significant regional overlap with the American Tower portfolio.

Jim Taiclet, American Tower CEO, said: “This transaction will significantly augment our existing footprint in Africa and positions ATC to take even better advantage of the growth opportunity in the region as 4G mobile data technology is deployed to serve millions of Africans over the coming years.”

The acquired assets are expected to generate around $260 million in property revenue and around $165 million in gross revenue, at current exchange rates, in their first full year in the American Tower portfolio.

Early days
Christian Skaanild, director representing Eaton Towers’ majority shareholder Capital Group Private Markets, said: “We are proud of what has been achieved since we made our first investment in Eaton Towers in 2011, when the African telecom towers industry was at a very nascent stage. Since then our investment has contributed to improved coverage and capacity delivering voice and data access for consumers.”

Financial Times reported Eaton Towers was due to list in 2018, but pulled its IPO. It was noted that this may have brought forward bidders for an acquisition.

Another African towers business, Helios Towers, also pulled plans for a float in 2018. Also active in the region is IHS Towers.

The deal sees American Tower taking on existing Eaton Towers debt, which is included in the $1.85 billion figure. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2019, subject to closing conditions and regulatory approval.

Source: mobileworldlive.com

Vietnam’s communications ministry hosted a workshop outlining international success stories in the mobile money sector, in a move to promote the benefits ahead of proposed trial deployments.

During the two day event, the country’s minister of information and communication Nguyen Manh Hung said adoption of a mobile-based payment system would help people in mountainous and other remote regions access a range of banking and online services.

The politician pointed to the abilities of mobile money to not only increase financial inclusion, but expand access to services in the health, education, employment services and social welfare.

The ministry’s event, in Hanoi, brought organisations from countries with experience in the sector to share experiences.

According to Vietnam government statistics, 60 per cent of the country’s 95 million citizens do not have access to a formal bank account, with the majority of those that have concentrated in urban areas.

Last month state media in the country revealed MobiFone, Viettel and Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group were preparing to launch pilots of mobile money services.

Source: mobileworldlive.com

Kumasi, May 29, GNA – MTN Ghana, as part of efforts to bring telecom services closer to its numerous customers, has opened a new service centre at Kejetia in Kumasi, at an impressive ceremony.

The ultra-modern edifice, a replica of its head office in Accra, is located directly opposite the newly- constructed Kejetia Market and is a one-stop centre, where customers could access a wide range of products and services of the leading communication company in the country.

Mr Eric Nsarko, the Head of Sales and Distribution of MTN Ghana, said the opening of the centre formed part of the company’s commitment to reach out to its cherished customer with first class services.

He said there were about 61 service centres across the country aside its distributor and volume management ecosystems, with over 400 shops nationwide and the aim of establishing it to bring world-class customer experience to the doorstep of every Ghanaian.

“Employment is growing at the behest of this giant corporate establishment we call MTN. Today over 500,000 Ghanaians owe their employment and livelihood to what is happening as part of this telecom value chain”, he noted.

He said over 230,000 people on the platform of MTN perform electronic transactions in the form of airtime sales every three months, while in excess of an 120,000 people were mobile money agents.

On daily basis, he said, about 12,000 people sold and registered Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards across the country with thousands of others gainfully employed as suppliers and contractors in the value chain.

Touching on the new service centre, he said it represented MTN’s timeless relevance and a long term impact in Ghana.

The imposing structure, according to him, was aligned with the Company’s vision of a bold new digital world that MTN sought to create.

He expressed the company’s gratitude to the occupant of the Golden Stool, the Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Asantehene and the good people of Asanteman for their loyalty and continuous patronage.

Nana Kwaku Amankwah Sarkodie, the Chief of Sewua, who represented the Asantehene, paid glowing tribute to MTN for the significant impact it was making on the lives of Ghanaians in the areas of health, education and economic empowerment.

He particularly commended the company for its mobile money service, which he touted as a game changer, but was quick to admonish the company to take urgent steps to clamp down the activities of fraudsters.

Source: GNA

Telecom operator AirtelTigo and Huawei have announced a strategic partnership to enable more Ghanaians to get access to smartphone experience they aspire for with reliable internet.

The partnership will give new and existing customers of AirtelTigo a new SIM card, minutes to call AirtelTigo lines and data for the purchase of any Huawei phone in AirtelTigo shops or an authorized Huawei dealer shop nationwide.

According to the partnership, the free data and voice minutes for customers will vary based on the price of the Huawei phone. While enjoying the free data and voice for every month for a year, customers will have to dial *536# to activate the offer for the first month and recharge their lines with GHS2 and above every month.

“This is yet another step in our ongoing journey to make life simple for our customers. Our partnership with Huawei is part of our long-term plan to partner with multiple smartphone makers to boost our efforts of increasing smartphone usage and ensure millions of Ghanaians have access to the internet,” Chief Operating Officer at AirtelTigo, Murthy Chaganti said.

Mr. Chaganti stated that with AirtelTigo’s wider network coverage and affordable internet connectivity, the company is delighted to support efforts to increase access to the internet through its innovative products such as “Big Time Data Bundles” to make the lives of many Ghanaians simple.

Commenting on the partnership, Simon Liuxinwu, the Country Manager, West African Countries (Huawei – Consumer Business Ghana), said Huawei Consumer Business Ghana aims at rapidly driving growth in the smartphone industry, saying “We simply want to enrich the Ghanaian surfing experience with high technology smartphones and we believe partnering AirtelTigo will help make this a reality.

Huawei moved its way into a clear number two spot as the only smartphone vendor at the top of the market that saw volumes grow during first quarter of 2019. Impressively, the company had year-over-year growth of 50.3% in 1Q19 with volumes of 59.1 million units and a 19.0% market share.

Source: airteltigo.com.gh

Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri said the telecom operator has signed 37 5G commercial contracts including 20 with named customers including T-Mobile, AT&T, STC, and Telia.The comments assume significance because Huawei, the main rival of Nokia, is banned by the United States. Huawei cannot source components for its future 5G and other telecom network products without the approval from the Donald Trump administration.

“We are leading the 5G market. We are winning 5G deals and rolling out some of the world’s first 5G networks. In pretty much every network where Nokia products are deployed, we are the performance leader,” Rajeev Suri said at the company’s annual general meeting in Helsinki, Finland.

The 5G-driven spending cycle that is now building momentum supports Nokia’s end-to-end, full-portfolio strengths. Consequently, end-to-end sales as a percentage of sales pipeline are now at the highest point ever.

Nokia’s strategy is to lead in high-performance end-to-end networks for operators, expand to select vertical markets that need high-performing secure networks, build a strong standalone software business and create new licensing opportunities.

Nokia CEO revealed that it will undertake efforts to eliminate, by July 2019, any statistically significant pay gap in the company that cannot be explained by factors such as performance, experience, job grade, or location.

Nokia recently launched the liquid-cooled base station, emitting 80 percent less CO2 than previous generations of products.

Nokia in January warned of a soft start to 2019 before a better second half for its 5G mobile network technology.

The telecom networks industry faces slowing demand since 4G network sales peaked in the middle of the decade but a new cycle of network upgrades appear to be kicking in as demand for 5G services increases.

Nokia in 2018-end restructured its mobile network business focusing on winning more 5G network deals. Nokia has replaced Marc Rouanne, Nokia’s head of mobile networks, with the appointment of Tommi Uitto, an expert in radio technologies. Nokia earlier lost Ilkka Rahnasto head of its patent business.

Nokia has secured a 500 million euro or $572 million loan from the European Investment Bank to step up development of next-generation 5G technology.

Source: telecomlead.com

Lenovo and Qualcomm unveiled what they described as the first 5G computer powered by a Snapdragon processor, although it is not set to hit the market until 2020.

Debuted at Computex in Taiwan under the banner “Project Limitless”, Johnson Jia, SVP of the PC business group at Lenovo said: “With real 5G in a PC, it’s all about satisfying users’ need for speed: faster file transfers and streaming in 4K, 8K and even AR/VR; faster and higher quality video chats on-the-go; even faster screen refreshes for mobile gaming.”

Qualcomm has been touting its concept of always connected PCs for several years now, with a range of vendors having brought products to market supporting the technology. To date, these have used LTE networks for connectivity.

And while much has been made of the potential of 5G to drive connectivity across form factors, so far smartphones and Wi-Fi hotspots have led the way.

Ahead of the launch, Miquel Nunes, senior director of product management at Qualcomm Technologies, told Mobile World Live: “The capacity improvements, the latency improvements, are going to change the way people use PCs. You have a network without any boundaries.”

He expects the new device to appeal to markets including enterprises, attracted by the flexibility such devices can offer.

“Enterprises today are typically confined to a building or campus. This removes those boundaries: you can work from anywhere and have the same access you would on a local network on a remote network,” he continued.

Project Limitless is powered by Qualcomm’s 8cx platform, which the company said is “the world’s first 7nm platform purpose-built for PCs that offer 5G connectivity”.

It uses the US company’s X55 5G modem, and also includes an X24 LTE modem for areas beyond 5G coverage.

Source: mobileworldlive.com

Airtel Money and Tigo Cash are set to be integrated in Ghana, expanding on an existing joint venture between parent companies Bharti Airtel and Millicom, Modern Ghana reported.

Integration of the two wallet services, set for completion in April, will widen the number of destinations customers can transfer funds to and increase the range of merchants accepting payments.

The service will operate under the new banner AirtelTigo Money – matching the branding of the combined Millicom, Bharti Airtel joint venture in the country.

There are currently an estimated 6 million mobile money customers between the two services, processing a total of 4.5 million transactions per month. The platforms are currently supported by 11 partner banks, a figure the operators to increase to 20.

During Q3 2017, the two companies completed a deal to combine their mobile operations in the country under a 50:50 joint venture branded AirtelTigo. At the time, the companies said the tie-up would provide a strong second player in the market – currently led by MTN.

Source: mobileworldlive.com

The planned IPO of Bharti Airtel’s African unit moved a step closer, as the company filed formal papers with the London Stock Exchange.

According to documents submitted to the National Stock Exchange of India, which presides over Bharti Airtel’s primary listing, the approval process with UK authorities is already underway. It is also mulling a second listing of its African shares in Nigeria.

The company plans to use the proceeds, estimated by Reuters to be at least $1 billion, to cut debt.

Airtel Africa operates mobile services in 14 countries across Africa with each market also offering mobile money services, though some of its finance divisions are in partnership with other operators or banks.

In a statement reported by Times of India, Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of Bharti Airtel, said the subsidiary was in a strong position to “build its own capital market profile”.

CEO of the unit Raghunath Mandava added the company had great potential to grow both its telecommunications and payment businesses across its existing markets.

Listing of Airtel’s Africa division has been expected for some time, with the company announcing its intent last year and subsequently making a number of statements on the issue.

Last year its Africa unit raised a total of $1.25 billion in a funding round from six investors, at the time it said the cash would be used to cut its $5 billion debt pile.

Earlier this year the company raised a further $200 million from the Qatar Investment Authority.

Source: mobileworldlive.com

MTN Ghana has announced a partnership with the International Federation of Skate Soccer (IFSS), to organise a skate soccer league in Ghana. According to the organisers, it is designed to provide clarity on intricate product details and focus on the desired promise to customers, in alignment with the brand.

Skate Soccer is a truly exciting sport and the first of its kind. The sport is played by physically challenged individuals especially polio survivors.

The main focus of this is to get the physically challenged off the streets and better their lives. Skate Soccer create an environment that gives opportunity to the physically challenged to showcase their talent in the game of soccer while brightening their lives.

In this game, polio survivors sit on a slightly larger skateboard and play association football. The ball is controlled by their hands and the rules are very similar to regular association football. Brands that have been leveraging this Event are Binatone, who is the main sponsor supported by some of the Radio and TV stations.

The event, according to MTN, will provide a platform to interact, motivate and reward its existing and potential subscribers through sales activities, brand engagements, public relations activities and CSR.

Source: ghanaiantimes.com

U.K. cell phone network operators EE and Vodafone are temporarily putting the launch of 5G smartphones from Huawei on hold. The news comes as the U.S. places renewed political pressure on the Chinese telecommunications giant.

EE, which is owned by British telco BT, said it would put the launch of Huawei’s 5G devices on pause until it receives the “information and confidence” needed to support its customers.

“When that information changes, then we’ll move forward and hopefully launch them, but for now we’ve put that on pause,” EE CEO Marc Allera said Wednesday.

An EE spokesperson subsequently told CNBC the firm was working with Huawei and Google to “make sure we can carry out the right level of testing and quality assurance.”

Vodafone, meanwhile, subsequently confirmed reports that it would not be accepting pre-orders for Huawei’s 5G-enabled Huawei Mate 20 X in the U.K.

“This is a temporary measure while uncertainty exists regarding new Huawei 5G devices,” a Vodafone spokesperson told CNBC. “We will keep this situation under review.”

A spokesperson for Huawei said it recognized the pressure its partners are facing amid “politically motivated decisions.”

“We are confident this regrettable situation can be resolved and our priority remains to continue to deliver world-class technology and products to our customers around the world.”
EE is set to launch its 5G service in the U.K. next Thursday, meaning it will be the first British cell phone operator to do so.

The race toward 5G has become a massive battleground for major telecommunications companies, with U.S. giant Verizon rolling out its next-generation network for smartphones earlier this year.

That race has been complicated however by increasing pressure from Washington on Huawei, the top telecom equipment maker worldwide. Huawei is considered a leader in 5G, but U.S. officials are concerned its equipment could be used for Chinese espionage, a claim the firm denies.

President Donald Trump’s administration recently added Huawei to a trade blacklist that means it can’t buy U.S. technology before gaining special approval from the government. The U.S. did, however, relax those restrictions temporarily, giving mobile and internet broadband firms a 90-day reprieve to continue working with Huawei.

Google initially decided to stop licensing its Android mobile operating system to Huawei, only to then say it would continue sending software updates to the Shenzhen-based firm’s phones, following the announcement of temporary exemptions.

Francisco Jeronimo, associate vice president for European devices at IDC, said network carriers likely “don’t want to sell a device that will not provide the full Android experience to their customers.”

“If there’s no solution to this case, I wonder if operators and retailers will start taking Huawei devices off the shelves and reduce the investment they are putting into Huawei devices.”

Source: cnbc.com