The last couple of weeks I’ve focused primarily on Europe news, so in fairness, it’s time to focus on other parts of EMEA. Today we will focus on Africa. Highlights from last week’s news for the region show new offers and new challenges being addressed.
LTE coming to the region
Surfline Communications brings LTE to Ghana. Surfline was founded in 2011 as a broadband wireless provider and it has now launched LTE. The company’s goal is to be a regional leader through this technology. During the introductory period, it is offering subscribers who sign up double the data plan they purchase for life. It is also including a free data device for as long as the customer continues to buy service — a MiFi, USB modem or WLAN router. As you can see from the devices, the aim of this service is to support high data speeds to a fixed location, not to mobile devices.
In a similar scenario, Olleh Rwanda Networks (oRn) has been offering an LTE trial in 43 locations also with CPE devices. The service is expected to be launching any day now. The infrastructure is provided in partnership with MTN and Airtel. oRn will act as a wholesale mobile operator in region.
Vodacom is planning to increase its 3G and LTE investment into 2015 in the Guateng region of South Africa. The investment will focus on further upgrades to the existing 3G network and expansion of initial LTE deployment. In July, it announced an increase to 3G sites of an additional 293 locations and 473 LTE locations. This represents an increase to LTE deployment of more than 50%. The goal is to have more then 400 additional 3G and 600 new LTE sites online by April of next year. That will allow for 38% LTE coverage of its network in this region.
A different way of doing things
Movitel claims 80% market share in the rural area of Mozambique. How does it do it? Door-to-door sales. In order to reach the remote customers, help them understand the offers and connect their service, this model has been highly successful. This is a provider that clearly understands the challenges of its target customers and finds a solution to work for their specific situation.
Although Africa isn’t always the leader in deploying new technologies, in my book this region is always a leader in coming up with innovative ways to address the specific challenges of their customers. No one-size-fits-all approach in this region.
EMEA perspectives is a Monday column focused on the identification of regional trends and outcomes of the prior week’s news. Claudia Bacco, Managing Director — EMEA, has spent her entire career in telecom, IT and Security. Having experience at an operator, software and hardware vendors and as a well-known industry analyst, she has many opinions on the market. She’ll be sharing those opinions along with ongoing trend analysis for RCR Wireless through daily contributions going forward.
