Investment

Libya’s Prime Minister Abd Alhamid Aldabaiba has stated that his government will aim to open the country’s telecoms sector up to competition, bringing about the end of a longstanding state monopoly.

It’s not been officially confirmed, but a number of African news outlets are reporting that South African operator MTN has made a takeover approach for Telkom.

Continuing a neutral host theme that has been prevalent in infrastructure news in recent months, infrastructure operator Phoenix Tower International (PTI) has signed an exclusivity agreement with Outremer Telecom, a service provider serving Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana, to own and operate tower sites across French West Indies.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), a leading source of long-term financing for economic, social and institutional development in Latin America and the Caribbean, has approved a $100 million loan for a programme to promote internet access and digitization in Argentina.

Yet another example of the growth of the infrastructure leasing model in the telecommunications world comes from Kenya, where a major name is hoping to interest a number of big local operators in its tower offering.

More than $73 million is now expected to change hands after the results of the 5G tender in the Dominican Republic were announced.

In what is said to be a first for Sudan, a local company called alsoug has announced the close of a $5 million fundraising effort to establish a national payments network enabling quick, easy and safe transactions for all Sudanese.

The name of the UK company investing in troubled Gambian operator Comium and, importantly, promising to rid it of its outstanding debts has been revealed. It is Monty Mobile.

Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai confirmed that the tech giant will invest $1 billion into Africa across the next five years.

The Indian government has confirmed that it will be applying two of the reforms to the telecommunications sector that it announced on 15 September.

Turkey Wealth Fund (TWF), the sovereign wealth fund (SWF) of the country, is considering a majority takeover of fixed and mobile operator Turk Telekom or Turk Telekomunikasyon (TT), according to a report by Bloomberg.

As part of its drive to address Africa’s vulnerability to climate risk, Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) has created an independent asset management arm, AFC Capital Partners, with a debut offering: the Infrastructure Climate Resilient Fund (ICRF).

The artificial intelligence (AI) subsidiary of MTS, Russia’s largest telecoms operator, has launched a US$ 100 million venture capital fund to accelerate investments in startups.

As expected, the Ethiopian government has formally announced its proposal for the partial privatisation of state-owned operator Ethio Telecom.

The Angolan government has launched an international public tender offering a concession to manage, operate and expand state-owned operator Angola Telecom’s national and metropolitan transport backbone network.

Greece's Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE) has completed the acquisition of a 30% stake of Telekom Romania Mobile Communications (TRMC) from fixed-line operator Telekom Romania Communications (TKR).

The Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, has submitted an offer to buy a 60% stake in the mobile phone towers unit of the kingdom’s second-largest telecom company, Zain KSA.

Tower sales are back in the news. This time an operator is selling its towers in Russia to a company keen to expand its infrastructure portfolio – and making just under a billion dollars from the deal.

The Colombian ICT minister, Karen Abudinen, has announced the resumption of the installation of digital centres, or connection points, in rural areas of the country, a project that temporarily halted in 2020.

Digicel Fiji has announced plans to invest a further FJD13 million (US$6.2 million) in upgrading its 4G LTE infrastructure to meet the soaring demand resulting from the pandemic.

Chinese tech giant Baidu said its artificial intelligence (AI) voice assistant Xiaodu Technology has raised fresh capital at a valuation of USD 5.1 billion.

India’s Optiemus Electronics, a diversified business group with over two decades of experience in the manufacturing, distribution and retail of global telecom brands across India, is partnering with contract manufacturer Wistron Corp of Taiwan to build products such as smartphones and laptops.

While rival operator Vodafone Idea is still having a tough time, Bharti Airtel appears to have had a fairly good week, at least in financial terms, with the confirmation of a spectrum sale to the third major Indian operator Reliance Jio Infocomm.

Liberty Latin America (LLA) has extended its reach in the Latin American market with the confirmation of its latest acquisition.

It wasn’t too long ago that pan-African operator MTN seemed keen to have another try at the second Ethiopian telecoms licence it failed to win in May. That opportunity has now been offered, but MTN may no longer be as keen to get involved.

MTN Nigeria, the biggest operator in the pan-African MTN Group in terms of subscriber numbers, says it is planning to invest 600 billion naira (about $1.46 billion) over the next three years to expand broadband access.

We reported in early July that Djibouti was planning to open up its telecoms sector to competition. Now the country has set Thursday 16 September as the deadline for investors to express interest in taking a 40 percent stake in the incumbent operator.

Millicom, a leading provider of fixed and mobile services operating under the Tigo brand, has further underlined its enhanced focus on Latin America with the confirmation of a $250 million investment plan for Panama.

The latest African country to attempt to open up its telecoms sector to competition is Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.