One of India’s largest telecommunications operators, the Essar Telecom Business Group has enhanced its presence on the African continent – the fastest growing mobile telecommunications market, by agreeing to buy a stake in Warid Telecom’s Africa operations.
This means that Essar is ahead of rivals Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications. The two cellular giants from India have all made unsuccessful attempts so far to enter the African mobile market.
They both have tried tie-ups with African giant Mobile Telephone Networks (MTN) of South Africa, but something has on all occasions prevented the merger.
The Essar Group, which is the holding company for Essar Telecom has signed definitive agreements with the Dhabi Group, the owners of Warid Telecom for an investment by Essar into the telecom assets of Warid Telecom in Uganda and the Republic of Congo.
Warid Telecom Uganda is a new comer to the telecoms market here but is gaining fast in terms of subscriber numbers on its rivals MTN, Zain and Uganda Telecom.
A press statement said the agreements were signed by His Highness Sheikh Nahyan Mabarak Al Nahayan on behalf of the Dhabi Group and Prashant Ruia, the Group Chief Executive Essar Group in Abu Dhabi on November 15.
The enterprise valuation of the Uganda and Congo operations is collectively valued at
US$318 million. According to the statement, the Essar Group has committed growth capital to both telecom operations to facilitate network expansion and marketing.
Upon completion, the Essar Group will acquire a majority stake (51 percent) in both operations. “The partnership is also expected to bring operational efficiencies to the African operations,” the statement reads in part.
“We are pleased to join hands with a Group that both complements and extends our synergies to expand further into Africa,” Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, the chairman of Dhabi Group said.
“Warid has expanded its greenfield operations to become credible competitors and challengers in the market where it operates; the time is now right for the next stage of its growth and evolution.”
Ruia expressed delight to partner with the Dubai group saying the tie-up is in line with Essar’s plan to be a part of the growing telecom market in Africa.
“This transaction with the Dhabi Group augments our successful launch of telecom services in Kenya under the brand ‘yu’ which was a stepping stone for Essar to expand its telecom footprint to the African continent,” Ruia said.
He said Essar’s investment in Warid Telecom in Africa is a part of its strategic plans to grow its business in Africa and the Middle East as it explores business opportunities by foreign partnerships with prominent business groups.
After the successful launch of mobile services in Kenya under the brand ‘yu’, Essar Telecom is now expanding its footprint in East Africa with Uganda and Republic of Congo operations.
Regarded as one of the fastest growing telecom operators in Kenya, Essar Telecom Kenya has over 600,000 subscribers and expects this number to grow significantly as it completes its rollout across Kenya.
The Dhabi Group transaction is subject to regulatory approvals in Uganda and Republic of Congo.
In its home market, Essar holds a 33 percent interest in Vodafone Essar, a joint venture with the Vodafone Group, and is one of India’s largest cellular service providers, with over 85 million subscribers.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Nokia’s Ovi Mail comes to East Africa
Mobile phone handset maker Nokia has launched its Ovi mail offering in East Africa – the service is available to users in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
The launch in East Africa is part of a global launch in all markets “but especially the emerging markets.”
Ovi Mail is an email identity that Nokia has primarily developed for first-time email users.
The offering will especially be popular with users in developing markets where people do not have an email account or have difficulty accessing a PC, which is usually required to create an email account.
“Ovi Mail gives such users the opportunity to create an email account directly on their devices and start communicating with their family and friends,” Dorothy Ooko, the communications manager for Nokia in Eastern and Southern Africa said via email.
In more developed markets where users have email accounts and find it easier to access PCs, Ooko said Ovi Mail gives them the opportunity to create a new email account that will also give them contextuality, as well as cross access to other Ovi services.
Ovi Mail enables Nokia mobile device users to create and use email accounts (username@ovi.com) directly on their mobile phone.
Last week, Nokia launched the offering in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania and already the response from users has been good.
“We have received mail from consumers telling us how this has transformed how they do business,” Ooko said.
“The most memorable was a woman in Kajiado, Kenya who said she no longer has to travel to a cyber cafe for mail as she can communicate directly with many of her clients.”
Ovi Mail was developed for first-time email users and advanced Email users – the primary targets being users in developing/emerging markets who do not have a pre-existing email account, or who have little or no access to a PC.
The secondary target base according to Ooko includes users who have other email accounts but would like to create another secondary email account that is designed for mobile use.
Ooko said the service so far has local language support for 11 languages with future plans to support over 80 languages.
Ovi Mail can be set up and accessed directly on users’ service-optimized Nokia Series 40 devices.
The service provides the mobile client interface and mobile service that enables users to access their pre-existing email accounts from over 1000 ISPs (including Gmail and Yahoo mail) around the world on their mobile device.
Ooko said the key drivers for a new email account for those who already have web Email include the ease of setup, ease of access, and also the number of access points.
“We are giving users the opportunity to easily create a new email account for themselves, directly on their devices without needing to use a PC first, so that they too can stay connected,” Ooko said.
“While they may use their web-based Ovi Mail accounts to send and receive files (playlists, images, videos, etc.), we don’t expect them to exceed 1GB of web storage space each.”
The Ovi service is available on the new Series 40 devices that Nokia launched this year.
Ooko however was quick to add that there are currently 36 Series 40 device models that are optimized for Ovi Mail.
Ooko said the market need and opportunity for mobile provisioning of new Web-based email accounts lies in developing markets where the Nokia Series 40 devices are extremely popular. It is expected that the same capability will be introduced for Nokia Series 60 devices over time.
Ovi Mail is Web mail, and like all Internet services, mobile access requires a data tariff.
What Nokia has done is it has removed the barrier for users to set-up and start using Ovi Mail on their devices for free.
“However, users will be charged by the local operators based on the amount of data used to send and receive emails,” Ooko said.
To access Ovi Mail, a user simply needs to go to the email setup wizard on their Nokia Series 40 device or Nokia S60 device such as the Nokia N97. Ovi Mail is also available on the web at https://mail.ovi.com/.
Over one million Ovi mail accounts have been activated over the past six months elsewhere the service was introduced.
The top five countries for Ovi Mail subscribers are India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia and South Africa. Since its inception in December 2008, Ovi Mail is available in more than 180 countries and supports 20 languages.
The launch in East Africa is part of a global launch in all markets “but especially the emerging markets.”
Ovi Mail is an email identity that Nokia has primarily developed for first-time email users.
The offering will especially be popular with users in developing markets where people do not have an email account or have difficulty accessing a PC, which is usually required to create an email account.
“Ovi Mail gives such users the opportunity to create an email account directly on their devices and start communicating with their family and friends,” Dorothy Ooko, the communications manager for Nokia in Eastern and Southern Africa said via email.
In more developed markets where users have email accounts and find it easier to access PCs, Ooko said Ovi Mail gives them the opportunity to create a new email account that will also give them contextuality, as well as cross access to other Ovi services.
Ovi Mail enables Nokia mobile device users to create and use email accounts (username@ovi.com) directly on their mobile phone.
Last week, Nokia launched the offering in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania and already the response from users has been good.
“We have received mail from consumers telling us how this has transformed how they do business,” Ooko said.
“The most memorable was a woman in Kajiado, Kenya who said she no longer has to travel to a cyber cafe for mail as she can communicate directly with many of her clients.”
Ovi Mail was developed for first-time email users and advanced Email users – the primary targets being users in developing/emerging markets who do not have a pre-existing email account, or who have little or no access to a PC.
The secondary target base according to Ooko includes users who have other email accounts but would like to create another secondary email account that is designed for mobile use.
Ooko said the service so far has local language support for 11 languages with future plans to support over 80 languages.
Ovi Mail can be set up and accessed directly on users’ service-optimized Nokia Series 40 devices.
The service provides the mobile client interface and mobile service that enables users to access their pre-existing email accounts from over 1000 ISPs (including Gmail and Yahoo mail) around the world on their mobile device.
Ooko said the key drivers for a new email account for those who already have web Email include the ease of setup, ease of access, and also the number of access points.
“We are giving users the opportunity to easily create a new email account for themselves, directly on their devices without needing to use a PC first, so that they too can stay connected,” Ooko said.
“While they may use their web-based Ovi Mail accounts to send and receive files (playlists, images, videos, etc.), we don’t expect them to exceed 1GB of web storage space each.”
The Ovi service is available on the new Series 40 devices that Nokia launched this year.
Ooko however was quick to add that there are currently 36 Series 40 device models that are optimized for Ovi Mail.
Ooko said the market need and opportunity for mobile provisioning of new Web-based email accounts lies in developing markets where the Nokia Series 40 devices are extremely popular. It is expected that the same capability will be introduced for Nokia Series 60 devices over time.
Ovi Mail is Web mail, and like all Internet services, mobile access requires a data tariff.
What Nokia has done is it has removed the barrier for users to set-up and start using Ovi Mail on their devices for free.
“However, users will be charged by the local operators based on the amount of data used to send and receive emails,” Ooko said.
To access Ovi Mail, a user simply needs to go to the email setup wizard on their Nokia Series 40 device or Nokia S60 device such as the Nokia N97. Ovi Mail is also available on the web at https://mail.ovi.com/.
Over one million Ovi mail accounts have been activated over the past six months elsewhere the service was introduced.
The top five countries for Ovi Mail subscribers are India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia and South Africa. Since its inception in December 2008, Ovi Mail is available in more than 180 countries and supports 20 languages.
Uganda’s ICT ministry in hot water over $106m data backbone
Uganda’s young ministry of information and communication technology (ICT) is in hot water over the US$106 million National Data Backbone Infrastructure (NBI) and E-government infrastructure projects.
Legislators investigating the alleged mishandling of the two projects have ordered a forensic audit of the first phase.
The ministry has over the last few months been battling allegations of fraud and mismanagement of the $30 million first phase, which was contracted to Huawei Technologies of China under the terms of the agreement.
Stakeholders who keenly follow the ICT sector first raised the red flags on the problems within the ministry some two months ago when comments were made on a popular mailing list (i-network@dgroups.org).
Members pointed out the problems around the NBI/EGI projects and the controversy surrounding the composition and recruitment of the board members of the newly created National Information Technology Agency (NITA) Uganda – the management arm of the ministry.
Badru Ntege, a technology enthusiast and investor pointed out that the ministry has failed to contract an entity or set up a special purpose vehicle to manage the two projects and as a result sections of the fibre network have been damaged and equipment was stolen.
A recent tour of the two projects by the legislators on the ICT committee confirmed Ntege’s comments.
The legislators discovered that work on the $30 million first phase, which was completed, tested and handed over to the ministry in September 2007 has sections of it that are not operational as a result of the damage and stolen equipment.
A status report from the ministry itself also points out that power generators and air conditioners were stolen from three of the four towns that were connected in the first phase.
Keen watchers of the sector, which is ever taking on a more important role in people’s lives have always wondered why the NBI has never been connected to privately run fibre networks to boost user capacity within the country.
The committee also concluded that the fibre cables that were installed may not be able to support growing internet traffic in the near future as there is not enough provision for future upgrade of the fibre cable.
It was further noted that there was no Network Operating Centre for the first phase, and neither is there a data centre and disaster recovery centre for a project of that magnitude.
It is against this backdrop that the committee has recommended that the first phase be switched on and is operational as the forensic report is awaited.
The members of parliament also called for security of equipment at the transmission sites to avoid further losses.
In 2006, the Uganda government secured a $106 million concessional loan, with a 2% interest rate payable over 20 years, with a grace period of five years, from the Chinese government to undertake the NBI/EGI.
The two projects are meant to allow for an e-government policy, reduction of expenditure in public administration and provide communication to rural communities and improve service delivery in the fields of health, education and agriculture.
The NBI project entails the laying of 2500kms of fibre optic cable countrywide to provide high speed data transmission while the EGI connects government ministries, departments and local governments into an e-government network.
The second phase of implementation, which will commence after the mess that surrounds the first phase, has been sorted. The second phase will link Uganda's borders with those of neighboring countries – taking in those areas that private players consider unviable.
According to a project brief, the backbone is to be built and owned by government, but will be used by both public and private consumers. Once completed, a special purpose vehicle will be created to lease out the lines in the backbone to whoever is interested.
Legislators investigating the alleged mishandling of the two projects have ordered a forensic audit of the first phase.
The ministry has over the last few months been battling allegations of fraud and mismanagement of the $30 million first phase, which was contracted to Huawei Technologies of China under the terms of the agreement.
Stakeholders who keenly follow the ICT sector first raised the red flags on the problems within the ministry some two months ago when comments were made on a popular mailing list (i-network@dgroups.org).
Members pointed out the problems around the NBI/EGI projects and the controversy surrounding the composition and recruitment of the board members of the newly created National Information Technology Agency (NITA) Uganda – the management arm of the ministry.
Badru Ntege, a technology enthusiast and investor pointed out that the ministry has failed to contract an entity or set up a special purpose vehicle to manage the two projects and as a result sections of the fibre network have been damaged and equipment was stolen.
A recent tour of the two projects by the legislators on the ICT committee confirmed Ntege’s comments.
The legislators discovered that work on the $30 million first phase, which was completed, tested and handed over to the ministry in September 2007 has sections of it that are not operational as a result of the damage and stolen equipment.
A status report from the ministry itself also points out that power generators and air conditioners were stolen from three of the four towns that were connected in the first phase.
Keen watchers of the sector, which is ever taking on a more important role in people’s lives have always wondered why the NBI has never been connected to privately run fibre networks to boost user capacity within the country.
The committee also concluded that the fibre cables that were installed may not be able to support growing internet traffic in the near future as there is not enough provision for future upgrade of the fibre cable.
It was further noted that there was no Network Operating Centre for the first phase, and neither is there a data centre and disaster recovery centre for a project of that magnitude.
It is against this backdrop that the committee has recommended that the first phase be switched on and is operational as the forensic report is awaited.
The members of parliament also called for security of equipment at the transmission sites to avoid further losses.
In 2006, the Uganda government secured a $106 million concessional loan, with a 2% interest rate payable over 20 years, with a grace period of five years, from the Chinese government to undertake the NBI/EGI.
The two projects are meant to allow for an e-government policy, reduction of expenditure in public administration and provide communication to rural communities and improve service delivery in the fields of health, education and agriculture.
The NBI project entails the laying of 2500kms of fibre optic cable countrywide to provide high speed data transmission while the EGI connects government ministries, departments and local governments into an e-government network.
The second phase of implementation, which will commence after the mess that surrounds the first phase, has been sorted. The second phase will link Uganda's borders with those of neighboring countries – taking in those areas that private players consider unviable.
According to a project brief, the backbone is to be built and owned by government, but will be used by both public and private consumers. Once completed, a special purpose vehicle will be created to lease out the lines in the backbone to whoever is interested.
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