For communications professionals in north, west, east & central Africa NORTHERN AFRICAN WIRELESSCOMMUNICATIONS DECEMBER 2020/JANUARY 2021 Volume 19 Number 5 l Is Covid-19 a blessing in disguise for mobile money? l Operator focus: what MNOs are doing for communities l Empowering businesses and subcribers Moving wireless forward NAWC 2101 p1 (Cover).indd 1 02/02/2021 17:25 NEWS 4 SOUTHERN AFRICAN WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS January/February 2019 NAWC 2011 p2.indd 4 09/11/2020 18:16 NORTHERN AFRICAN CONTENTS WIRELESSCOMMUNICATIONS DECEMBER 2020/ 5 NEWS 5 NEWS u JANUARY 2021 Kenya: Alphabet’s Loon deflates u ZTE completes Mauritania fibre network Volume 19 u Ooredoo hires Ericsson to modernise network Number 5 u Nigeria ‘confident’ of meeting new deadline u Egyptian trio secure 2,600MHz spectrum u Kenya: militants destroy mast u MTN launches 4.5G network in Abidjan u Energy provider secures $35m funding u Uganda internet restored Mobile Mark is a leading supplier of u Egyptian president airs ‘TIBA-1’ plans innovative, high-performance antennas to wireless companies across the globe. They 13 WIRELESS BUSINESS have been in the wireless industry for Ethio Telecom nets 12% rise in H1 over 36 years and have roots in the early Cellular trials. 18 FEATURE I 18 FEATURE I Many countries in Africa have either stopped 26 FEATURE II The company design and manufacture or limited the circulation of cash in a antennas from 138 MHz-6.0 GHz. bid to slow down the spread of the novel Applications include public transit, coronavirus. Robert Shepherd asks: could this commercial trains, smart highways, be the making of mobile money? mining, utilities, remote monitoring, machine-to-machine (M2M) and the 24 INDUSTRY VIEW Internet of Things (IOT). Africa is seeing steady growth, but there are ways to make it grow faster, writes Clementine Antenna styles include omni-directional 28 WIRELESS Fournier from BICS and directional infrastructure antennas SOLUTIONS for network rollout; multiband mobile 26 FEATURE II antennas for fleet management; low- Ooredoo Algeria becomes the first telecom profile and embedded antennas for M2M/ operator in north Africa to deploy a IOT applications. virtualised telco application as part of its key partnership with Nokia Mobile Mark antennas are manufactured in the USA and UK. Their responsive 31 WORLD NEWS 28 WIRELESS SOLUTIONS manufacturing capabilities and production Base stations designed to serve low populations controls ensure that antennas are delivered on time and to spec. 31 WORLD NEWS u Etisalat launches 4G LTE service Their experienced engineering design u Orange shifts fixed fibre assets group can take a project from initial u Vietnam slaps ban on 2G, 3G smartphones concept through to final production. They u PTCL gets 25-year licence renewal also offer in-house engineering design and RF testing facilities for custom designs. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Visit www.mobilemark.com Northern African Wireless Communications is a controlled circulation bi-monthly magazine. Register now for your free subscription at www.kadiumpublishing.com to find out more Readers who do not qualify under the terms of control can purchase an annual subscription at the cost of £110. For more information and general enquiries please contact Suzanne Thomas at [email protected] or call +44 (0) 1932 886 537. EDITORIAL: ADVERTISEMENT SALES: Editor: Robert Shepherd Sales: Kathy Moynihan Designer: Sean McNamara [email protected] Sub editor: Gerry Moynihan +44 (0) 1932 481731 Moving wireless forward Contributors: Martin Jarrold, Robert Koldys, Clementine Fournier, Production & circulation: Suzanne Thomas Lucky La Riccia, Ahmad Sayed [email protected] Tel: +44 (0) 1932 481728 Editorial enquiries: Publishing director: Kathy Moynihan [email protected] [email protected] Tel: +44 (0) 1932 481729 +44 (0) 1932 481730 ISSN No: 1751-8296 © 2021 Kadium Limited. All rights reserved. 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Printed in England by The Magazine Printing Company NAWC 2101 p3 (Contents).indd 3 02/02/2021 17:08 NEWS 4 SOUTHERN AFRICAN WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS January/February 2019 NAWC 2009 p2.indd 4 02/10/2020 17:41 NEWS Kenya: Alphabet’s Loon deflates Alphabet’s Loon, the stratospheric The rationale balloon internet access service in was to bring Kenya is to return to earth. internet The project is shutting down access to the across the globe after nine years of next billion in exploration and final pilot. such regions “So we’ve made the difficult with internet decision to close down Loon. In the balloons in the coming months, we’ll begin winding stratosphere down operations and it will no longer that would emit be an Other Bet (Google’s innovative internet signals projects) within Alphabet,” said Astro over a wide area Teller, lead at the Google X lab where the project was born in 2011. “Sadly, despite the team’s ground-breaking technical achievements over the last nine years - doing many things previously thought impossible, like precisely navigating balloons in the stratosphere, creating a mesh network in the sky, or developing bal- loons that can withstand the harsh conditions of the stratosphere for more than a year - the road to com- mercial viability has proven much tainable business. Developing radical given the green light to operate in innovative technologies such as longer and riskier than hoped.” new technology is inherently risky. Kenyan airspace at the onset of Loon, with the aim of filling in the Alastair Westgarth, chairman and The rationale was to bring the Covid-19 induced restrictions. internet access gaps in areas that chief executive officer of Loon, add- internet access to the next billion in Telkom Kenya was selected to were difficult to service,” said Mugo ed: “While we have found a number such regions with internet balloons partner with Loon locally. Kibati, CEO at Telkom Kenya. of willing partners along the way, in the stratosphere that would emit “It was very exciting, therefore, to Balloons were launched over we haven’t found a way to cut costs internet signals over a wide area. partner with like-minded pioneers server countries including New enough to create a long-term sus- In Kenya, the company was in the adoption and usage of Zealand, Peru and Puerto Rico. ZTE completes Mauritania fibre network construction Chinese tech giant ZTE has com- frastructure program in west Africa, and an international network inter- tional network in Mauritania will play pleted construction of Mauritania’s funded by the World Bank. It was connection. In terms of international an essential role in the development national fibre optic network. introduced to help accelerate the network interconnection, Nouakchott, of communication infrastructure The whole of the northwest Afri- country’s digital transformation. the capital and largest city in Mauri- throughout the country, and even in can nation is now crossed by optical The 1,760 km long high-speed tania, serves as the landing point for Africa,” said Li Jianhua, the general fibre, which was deployed as part telecommunications infrastructure is the ACE submarine cable system. manager of the Mauritania national of the regional communications in- a backbone made up of urban loops “The construction of the first na- fibre optic project at ZTE. Ooredoo hires Ericsson to modernise network for 5G Ooredoo Group has hired Ericsson to cloud communication offerings. the timeframe for new services modernise the operator’s networks Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulla to appear on the market will be across its global portfolio, including Al Thani, deputy managing director “significantly” shortened following its operations in Algeria and Tunisia. of Ooredoo Group, said that the the tie-up, while also enhancing In a statement, Ericsson said the agreement with Ericsson will allow Ooredoo’s network performance. five-year-long partnership will let the company “to provide the latest This deal builds on previous collab- Ooredoo use its 5G radio, core and digital solutions enabling communi- oration between the pair, as Ericsson’s transport products and services, a ties to enjoy the best of the Internet, Radio System is already live in several move it said would open the door including by connecting more Ooredoo operations, including for for end-to-end 5G support “to remote areas, supporting startups Qatar’s nationwide 5G coverage. digitally transform and modernise” digitally and providing immersive The agreement also covers the Ooredoo’s mobile networks. experiences for sports fans at up- The agreement also includes group’s units in Qatar, Indonesia, This agreement also includes coming mega sports events ”. Ericsson’s cloud infrastructure and Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Palestine, Ericsson’s cloud infrastructure and The Swedish gear-maker said cloud communication offerings Tunisia, Myanmar and Maldives. December 2020/January 2021 NORTHERN AFRICAN WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS 5 NAWC 2101 p5-11 (News) RS.indd 5 02/02/2021 17:17 NEWS Nigeria