06 WEDNESDAY 14th NOVEMBER 2012


AFRICACOM DAILY 2012 I http://africa.comworldseries.com/


Vodacom DRC engages satellite backhaul


SOUTH Africa-based carrier Vodacom this week tapped up sat- ellite services firm Intelsat under a multi year capacity agreement for backhaul services in the Demo- cratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Vodacom will purchase capac-


ity on Intelsat’s satellite 906 at 64° East and Intelsat 25 at 328.5° East to support its deployment of cel- lular backhaul. The operator is currently im- plementing a 3G network across


the DRC and this agreement expands the Intelsat-based cellular backhaul infrastructure support- ing wireless services in Tanzania, Mozambique and other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. Although Vodacom only intro-


duced 3G services within the last couple of months, rapid uptake is expected. As of end-September, Vodacom DRC had around 6.7 millions subscribers, putting it in second place behind Bharti Airtel


with 7.8 million. The followers are some way behind, with Oasis Telecom on 2.8 million and CCT on 1.5 million. Informa Telecoms & Media


anticipates that by 2017, around 45 per cent of the operator’s sub- scribers will be using WCDMA. Vodacom already utilises multi-


ple satellites on the Intelsat fleet for international trunking, corporate networking, in-flight broadband and disaster recovery services.


Affordable internet to boost sub-Saharan Africa


SUB-SAHARAN Africa is the fastest-growing mobile market in the world, with an average annual growth rate of 44 per cent since 2000, according to industry body the GSMA. Mobile connections have leapt


to 475 million, compared to just 12.3 million fixed line connec- tions, representing the highest proportion of mobile versus fixed line connections in the world. With necessary spectrum alloca- tions and transparent regula- tion, the mobile industry could fuel the growth of 14.9 million new jobs in sub-Saharan Africa between 2015 and 2020. "Mobile has already revolu-


tionised African society and yet demand still continues to grow by almost 50 per cent a year," said Tom Phillips, chief govern- ment and Regulatory affairs officer, GSMA. "To create an environment that supports and encourages this immense growth, it is imperative that governments work in partnership with mobile operators to enable the industry to thrive throughout the region, ultimately providing affordable options to connect its citizens." The region has some of the


highest levels of mobile internet usage globally. In Zimbabwe and Nigeria, mobile accounts for over half of all web traffic at 58.1 per cent and 57.9 per cent respec- tively, compared to a ten per cent global average. 3G penetration levels are forecast to grow by 46 per cent through 2016 as the use of mobile-specific services develops. The rapid pace of mobile


adoption has delivered huge economic benefits for the region, directly contributing $32bn to the sub-Saharan African economy, or 4.4 per cent of GDP. Approximately 3.5 million full-


Liquid fibre for DRC carriers


WHOLESALE network op- erator Liquid Telecom has ex- tended its fibre network to the Democratic Republic of Congo connecting Lubumbashi, the second largest city in the DRC. This provides Lubumbashi with its first international fibre link and will increase capacity and availability as well as reduce the country’s dependence on satellite. The Econet Wireless owned carrier believes that the West Africa Cable System (WACS) is unlikely to arrive in Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC, until at least March 2013. As a result, Liquid Telecom’s fibre connec- tion will also provide the DRC with a first point connection to WACS via Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.


The company said that it has already signed one of the DRC’s four mobile operators up to its fibre network to backhaul in- ternational traffic from Lubum- bashi, eliminating the satellite double-hops in its network. Nic Rudnick, CEO of Liquid Telecom, said Liquid Telecom will be investing heavily in expanding into new countries to ensure that for the first time all countries and opera- tors in Central and Southern Africa are directly connected. The company claims to have built the largest fibre network in Southern Africa, providing backhaul between most urban areas and last mile connectivity in the main cities of Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and South Africa.


Satellite TV service makes a splash


time jobs are attributed to the mobile industry, which has also spurred a wave of technology and content innovation. More than 50 'innovation hubs', which develop local skills and content in the field of ICT services, have been created, including the Hive Colab in Uganda, the iHub in Kenya, and Limbe Labs in Cameroon. Safaricom's M-PESA mobile money transfer service in Kenya has achieved greater scale than any other service in the world. Today, there are more than 80 mobile money opera- tions for the unbanked across Africa compared to 36 in Asia, the second most popular region for these services. But despite investments of


$16.5bn over the past five years ($2.8bn in 2011 alone) across the five key markets in the region, mainly directed towards the expansion of network capac- ity, sub-Saharan Africa faces a looming 'capacity and coverage crunch' in terms of available mobile spectrum. The current amount of


spectrum allocated to mobile services in sub-Saharan Africa is amongst the lowest world- wide. Some countries apportion as little as 80MHz, compared


to developed markets where allocation for mobile exceeds 500MHz. With mobile internet traffic forecast to grow 25-fold over the next four years, there will be a considerable increase in network congestion unless governments across the region take urgent steps to release new spectrum in line with the recommendations of the ITU's World Radiocommunica- tion Conference (WRC). This includes capacity in the Digital Dividend (700-800MHz) band and the 2.6GHz band, and also liberalising existing licence agreements to allow the deploy- ment of high-speed UMTS and LTE networks in the 900 and 1800MHz bands. The GSMA believes the com-


bined aggregated effect of the spectrum release of the Digital Dividend, 2.6GHz and the re- farming of 1800MHz would have a positive impact on job creation with the potential for an addition- al 14.9 million jobs to be created between 2015 and 2020 in the key six markets in the region. Conversely, failure to harmo-


nise spectrum allocations in the region could add up to $9.30 in increased handset costs for African consumers.


CONSUMERS in Sierra Leone are set to see a broader range of mobile money services after satellite television provider DStv announced that it has joined the Splash Mobile Money ecosystem. As a result of the deal, more than 5,000 DStv customers are now able to make payments immediately from anywhere in the country for their satellite subscriptions directly from their mobile phones. Previously, they had to queue up at a DStv agent location to pay for additional credit and then wait for their account to be updated. The par- ties involved are now exploring opportunities in other markets across Africa, where DStv boasts more than four million subscrib- ers in over 40 countries. In addition, commercial


banks Access Bank and Ecobank Microfinance, have also joined the project, along with the national network of nearly 50 rural banks set up by the United Nations In- ternational Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Ministry of Agriculture. The ecosystem has been set up


by mobile money transfer and payments services provider Splash Mobile Money and MoreMagic Solutions, a wholly owned sub- sidiary of Oberthur Technologies. Splash operates across all mobile


networks in Sierra Leone and aims to bank the unbanked and bring more convenience to the


banked population and established businesses. It uses MoreMagic’s platform, which allows stakehold- ers to interconnect within a mobile commerce ecosystem to enable a secure service that is available to all mobile customers across Sierra Leone, irrespective of their service provider. “The continued expansion of the


Splash ecosystem means a richer experience for our customers” said Daniel Osei-Antwi, managing direc- tor at Splash Mobile Money. “The flexibility of MoreMagic’s platform has not only allowed us to scale, but has also enabled us to expand our portfolio of services by introducing new stakeholders to our ecosystem. Many of these new partners and clients have large regional footprints that present a compelling opportu- nity for growth beyond Sierra Leone in the near future.”


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