Telephony, Fixed-line, Sudan, Africa: The Sudanese telecoms market is increasingly becoming more competitive in both the fixed and cellular markets.

The fixed services market in Sudan (including fixed voice, Internet and Datacomm services) saw a new operator launch services in late January 2006. Canar, a consortium led by UAE’s Etisalat, launched fixed services based on wireless technologies.

On the cellular side, the market hosts three cellular service providers: Mobitel, MTN Sudan (previously Areeba Sudan), and Sudatel’s new cellular CDMA network. MTN ended the monopoly of Mobitel in July 2005 when it launched its services. Later the same year, Sudatel finalised its CDMA cellular network, commercially named Sudani, and started its operations on a limited basis in late 2005.

A new report, Sudan Communications Projections Report, has been released to Arab Advisors Group subscribers (the report can be purchased for US$950). For key contributor Andrawes Snobar, who is a Senior Research Analyst with Arab Advisors Group: “The fixed line market in Sudan is very small, in both absolute and relative terms. The market had 570,000 fixed line subscribers by end of 2005. With such a status, the Arab Advisors Group believes that the fixed services market has ample room for significant growth…The Sudanese cellular market has been growing at an impressive rate over the past few years. The Arab Advisors Group projects that the cellular market will continue to grow, adding 1 million subscribers per year in the coming few years. This will be spurred by competition between the three operators (two GSM and one CDMA) and the low cellular penetration in the country, which allows for a high growth potential for the three market players.”

The 70-page report, with 67 detailed exhibits, provides a detailed analysis of the Sudanese fixed and cellular markets and profiles the major players in the country. The report includes five-year historical information and five-year projections on fixed and cellular uptake, revenues and CAPEX. Moreover, the report provides a detailed and comprehensive picture of the fixed and cellular markets’ strategies and regulations.

more info: www.arabadvisors.com