Telecoms

Safaricom Ethiopia has announced the arrival of the first batch of 13 telecom towers manufactured locally by Woda, the first company in Ethiopia to produce network towers. This comes a month after the telco revealed plans to invest $1.5 billion in building 5,000 new towers.

Ghana will have access to low-cost mobile broadband services by the end of 2024, thanks to a partnership between Next-Gen Infrastructure Company (NGIC) and Radisys Corporation, a Reliance Industries Limited subsidiary owned by Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani.

MTN Uganda has announced a secondary market purchase of ordinary shares by MTN International (Mauritius) Limited that will be open to the public from Monday, May 27 to Monday, June 10, 2024.

Google has announced Umoja, the first fibre optic route connecting Africa and Australia. The tech giant will also work with Kenya on cybersecurity, digital upskilling, and AI.

Telecom Egypt, a telco majorly owned by the government, will host Huawei Cloud’s new public cloud platform to provide Egypt-based businesses with secure and reliable cloud-based solutions.

PAIX Data Centres has announced the expansion of its Ghana data centre. This comes two years after securing $20 million to fund the company’s data centre capacity expansion and growth plans into new African markets.

TowerCo of Africa Tanzania (TOA Tanzania) has signed a $30 million financing agreement to build approximately 200 additional telecommunications sites across Tanzania.

Liquid Intelligent Technologies has announced a distribution partnership agreement with Eutesalat to provide satellite services in Africa, a month after Seacon launched its satellite service.

Vodacom Group Ltd and France’s Orange SA are in partnership talks to explore infrastructure deals to reduce costs in Africa and enhance connectivity in rural areas.

The Republic of the Congo has unveiled the ongoing construction of a $72.8 million first-of-its-kind data centre to store and process the digital data of the Central African nation.

Nearly a year after licencing 25 operators, the NCC has temporarily suspended the issuance of Mobile Virtual Network Operator, Interconnect Exchange, and Value Added Service Aggregator licences.

Telecom providers in East Africa, like Safaricom in Kenya and Airtel Uganda, have announced restoring Internet connections four days after two submarine Internet cables owned by EASSy and Seacom were damaged.

Over 90 humanitarian organisations have called for the restoration of telecommunications infrastructure across Sudan, citing concerns about the potential shutdown of Starlink, which would affect civilians and aid organisations.

MTN Group has reported an 18.8% fall in Q1 service revenue compared to Q1 2023. The decline in service revenue was contributed by MTN Nigeria’s 52.8% decline, while South Africa grew marginally by 3%. However, its fintech revenue was up by 11.4%.

Only a month after four cables went down near the Ivory Coast, two more cables were severed, causing major disruptions throughout East Africa.

Vodacom has reported an increase in service revenue for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024, with Vodacom South Africa generating $3.36 billion, up 2.6% over the previous year.

Following repeated calls from telcos for tariff increases, the federal government intends to reintroduce telecom taxes and other fiscal policies on Nigerians to secure a new $750 million loan from the World Bank.

Safaricom has announced that it earned KShs 139.9 billion ($1.07 billion) before interest and tax in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024. The earnings exceeded market expectations and the group’s guidance range.

Airtel Africa plans to take its mobile money unit, Airtel Money, public in 2025 while expanding to more countries, with a valuation of $4 billion.

Botswana’s President, Mokgweetsi Masisi, reportedly met with SpaceX executives who expressed an interest in obtaining an operational licence in the country. This comes after Starlink’s application was denied in the region.