Industry News

Accra, May 31, GNA – MTN Ghana on Thursday launched its new wireless broadband internet device called the “TurboNet” to offer customers more affordable, wide and faster internet services.

The TurboNet designed to be used at different settings especially at homes and offices could be accessed by up to 32 users at a time.

Mr Selorm Adadevoh, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana at the launch, said people wanted to access high speed data in their homes, offices, shops even if they did not have access to fixed broadband connectivity, therefore, ensuring that they met the customers at the point of need was paramount to them.

He said a World Bank report had indicated that an increase in broadband penetration increases GDP per capita growth.

“In view of this, we are excited to introduce onto the market the MTN TurboNet, which is a high speed 4G internet router providing a Fixed Wireless Broadband Service,” he said.

Mr Adadevoh noted that MTN had earmarked an amount of 160 million dollars for network improvements which was still ongoing.

Mr George Andah, the Deputy Minister of Communications, said in the 21st century, broadband had become a critical infrastructure prerequisite as ICT had a considerable impact in the creation of the information society.

Broadband adoption, he explained, was serving as a foundation for economic growth, job creation, global competitiveness and a better way of life.

He noted that usage of such internet services would propel Ghana’s participation in the forth industrial revolution considering the significant impact and opportunities that would be unleashed as government worked towards building a digital economy to establish Ghana as a leader in ICT innovations in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2023.

Mr Andah disclosed that government would be making available spectrum within the 800 megahertz band realised from the migration from analogue to digital terrestrial television to promote the deployment of 4G services to enhance the quality of experience in the provision of data services by the telecom sector.

“We are of the firm belief that the mobile network operators will take advantage of this opportunity to provide high capacity and faster data services in Ghana for all,” he said.

The Deputy Minister said the introduction of the service by MTN would support government’s effort in bridging the digital wide gap for citizens to access digital initiatives of government.

The digital initiatives are the e-payment, generation of digital address, e-procurement, e-justice, e-immigration, e-parliament, and e-passport systems, Mr Andah noted.

He advised the citizenry to protect the investments made by government and the private sector to provide better services for all.

“If we continue to damage and vandalise fibre optic cables, which are belayed, we will be facing severe service interruptions and the experience we are championing might be useless. These damaged cables are repaired at high cost by operators not to talk of the inconvenience consumers and enterprises face in the destructions,” he said.

“I will like to remind MTN of the concern of service quality, availability, reliability, speed and affordability of service when it comes to the delivery of broadband services…,” Mr Andah said.

Source: GNA

MTN is to sell its stakes in investment fund Amadeus and online platform Travelstart, in line with its plan to raise ZAR15 billion ($1 billion) through asset sales over the next three years.

The company, which is holding a Capital Markets Day with investors today (28 May), said it would sell its interests in both companies to global private equity firm HarbourVest for a total of ZAR1.2 billion, BusinessDay reported.

The deals are expected to close in three months, and aside from raising funds, MTN said the move helps it to simplify its portfolio and reduce risk.

In March 2019, the operator group announced intentions to sell ZAR15 billion worth of assets in the period to 2022, following a wider strategic review that will also see it launch a barrage of new services across its markets.

MoMo market place
To that end, the company also revealed plans to build a new app which will allow customers to buy a number of different products and services, such as insurance and washing machines, through its mobile money platform MoMo.

Reuters reported that MTN wants to enable payments to merchants and companies through MoMo, and then expand this by selling third party and MTN’s products through the new app, dubbed “Market Place”.

As part of its ambitions to diversify from traditional telecoms services, MTN has branched out in recent years to music streaming, messaging and fintech.

MTN’s announcements followed news that the company is facing a probe in Nigeria following its listing in the country.

Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission requested additional information and documentation, after MTN held its long-awaited listing on 16 May.

MTN said it had secured all necessary regulatory approval to trade its stock and had not been accused of wrongdoing.

However, Bloomberg reported its head office in Nigeria was raided by the financial crimes agency, in connection with the investigation.

MTN has faced a number of issues with regulators in Nigeria, its biggest market, over the years.

Source: mobileworldlive

AT&T claimed to be the first major US operator to allow its customers to pay their phone bill using cryptocurrency, after inking a deal with BitPay to process the transactions.

Through BitPay, AT&T will be able to accept Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash from customers making payments online or through the myAT&T app. BitPay will handle the actual transaction, displaying customer invoices in cryptocurrency dollars, accepting payment and converting the funds into traditional currency for the operator.

An AT&T representative told Mobile World Live it anticipates “a small percentage” of its customers will choose to use the new feature.

A survey conducted in April by investment company Blockchain Capital determined around 9 per cent of the US population owns Bitcoin, with the highest levels of reported ownership among 18-to-34 year-olds (18 per cent) and 34-to-44 year-olds (12 per cent).

Kevin McDorman, AT&T VP of Finance Business Operations, said in a statement the move is part of the operator’s ongoing effort to “improve and expand our services”.

“We have customers who use cryptocurrency, and we are happy we can offer them a way to pay their bills with the method they prefer.”

Source: mobileworldlive.com

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