Sierra Leone’s mobile market showing continuing fluidity. Sierra Leone has enjoyed sustained political stability in recent years, following a decade of civil war. The departure of the UN’s local mission in March 2014 marked the end of more than 15 years of international peacekeeping operations in the country. The exceptional economic growth seen in 2012 and 2013 has slowed but remains strong, and this has encouraged international companies to invest in the country.
Nevertheless, the telecommunications infrastructure is only gradually recovering from the destruction caused during the war years, and the theft of equipment and cabling. These difficult operating conditions have been compounded by neglect, mismanagement and underinvestment, factors which have seen the demise of some telcos, including Comium and Smart Mobile. The telecom regulator continues with its efforts to improve the market, including the liberalisation of the international gateway and regulator checks on quality of services. It has not shied from fining miscreant operators for providing poor services, or for promoting packages deemed to be disadvantageous to consumers.
Given the poor state of the fixed-line infrastructure, the mobile sector has been the main driver of overall telecom revenue. There continues to be movement in the market, with Orange Group in mid-2016 having completed its acquisition of Bharti Airtel’s local unit and the Gambian telco QCell being awarded a licence to operate mobile services.
The state-owned fixed-line incumbent Sierratel has entered the mobile market, which it uses to provide fixed-wireless access and broadband services. It briefly had a monopoly on 3G mobile services before other operators launched their own services based on HSPA technology in 2011 and 2012. More recently network operators have invested in LTE upgrades: Africell was the first network operator to launch LTE services in Sierra Leone, followed by Sierratel in January 2018.
Key developments:
Sierratel launches LTE services; QCell hoping to launch mobile services later in 2018; Regulator approves 27% price increase for mobile voice calls; MNOs increase investment to provide national mobile coverage; Regulator selects Subah Infosolutions Ghana to manage the international gateway; Construction of 600km ECOWAS Wide Area Network completed; Airtel completes rebranding as Orange Sierra Leone; Sierratel relaunches a fixed-telephony network following $30 million investment; Report update includes recent market developments, operator data to June 2017.
Companies mentioned in this report:
Sierra Leone Telecommunications Company (Sierratel), Bharti Airtel (Zain, Celtel), Comium, Africell (Lintel), Millicom (Tigo), Cellcom, LapGreen (Ambitel, GreenN), Access Point Africa, Afcom, African Information Technology Holdings (AITH), Onlime (LimeLine).
WiseGuyReports.com “Angola - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses” report has been added to its Research Database. Scope of the Report: Angola’s new offshore cable system to service the crucial oil and gas sector Following the end of a decades-long civil war in 2002, foreign investment in Angola has intensified. This has had a knock-on effect in the telecoms sector, where there has been considerable interest in national infrastructure upgrades, as well as in developing addition international capacity. The mobile market remains vibrant despite a continued duopoly between Unitel and Angola Telecom’s Movicel. There has been particularly good progress in LTE network development into 2016. A new unified licensing regime should accelerate growth in the mobile sector in coming years. The government has aimed to develop telecom infrastructure in a bid to diversify the country’s economy and lessen its dependence on offshore crude oil production, whi...
WiseGuyReports.com “Laos - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses” report has been added to its Research Database. Scope of the Report: The Laos telecoms market finally gains some momentum The telecom sector in Laos still has numerous issues to address. For a number of years, the rate of regulatory reform has been well behind wider industry development. However, Laos has started to make significant progress in strengthening of its telecommunications infrastructure. As a result, it attracted more foreign investment into the sector. The Laos economy continues to perform well. In the last decade there certainly has been a noticeable shift in the economic and social outlook for Laos. Most importantly, a significant number of hydro-electric power projects and mining ventures have become a reality, with even more possible projects in the pipeline. The provision of fixed internet services has been slow, this being a major concern in...
WiseGuyReports.com “Guinea - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses” report has been added to its Research Database. Scope of the Report: Guinea’s Sotelgui not ready for a relaunch. Guinea’s telecommunications sector was given a tremendous boost following the market entry of MTN Group and Orange Group. For the following three years the number of subscribers grew strongly while revenue also increased steadily, a trend which has continued unabated since then. The mobile market now has four competing networks, and though the number of subscribers dipped slightly in 2016 this was due to the removal of dormant SIM cards among operators. The debt-stricken incumbent fixed-line operator Sotelgui operated its Lagui mobile unit before it closed down in late 2012. Sotelgui was declared bankrupt in 2013, and though there have been several announcements regarding its revival the government in late 2017 confirmed that there was no prospect of its return without a publ...
Comments
Post a Comment