As one other eventful 12 months attracts to an in depth, we’re trying again on the telecom tales that captured our readers’ consideration all through 2023.
With 5G rollouts, satellite tv for pc broadband, SIM card registration and mega-mergers all on the agenda, the CommsUpdate group left no stone unturned of their quest to deliver you the most important every day information tales from around the globe.
Learn on for our hottest tales of 2023.
Starman: Musk’s Should-Learn Mozambique Maneuvers
Our most learn story of 2023 was printed in June, when the Elon Musk-backed Starlink satellite tv for pc broadband service went stay in Mozambique.
On the time of its launch, Starlink famous that Mozambique didn’t but have a floor station for web fallback and was relying solely on inter-satellite hyperlinks, which might end in durations of intermittent service and excessive latency. The corporate was beforehand awarded an working license in Mozambique in Could 2022.
The omnipresent Starlink has confirmed to be enduringly well-liked with readers this 12 months, with the corporate’s headlines accounting for 5 of our high ten most seen CommsUpdate articles! Different areas of curiosity had been Trinidad & Tobago, El Salvador, and Zambia.
Starlink’s father or mother firm SpaceX presently has round 4,000 satellites in Low Earth Orbit, with plans to launch 42,000 in complete.
Starlink’s father or mother firm SpaceX presently has round 4,000 satellites in Low Earth Orbit, with plans to launch 42,000 in complete. Thus far, greater than 60 international locations are identified to have licensed Starlink to supply fastened broadband connectivity.
Shaw Factor: Canadian Telecom Panorama Reconfigured as Rogers and Shaw Merge and Videotron Buys Freedom Cellular
The Canadian telecom panorama was reconfigured earlier this 12 months, with a CAD26 billion ($19.3 billion) mega-merger.
April noticed the conclusion of the long-anticipated merger between Canadian telcos Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications. The deal—which first reached settlement in March 2021—mixed Rogers’ nationwide cellular community with each operators’ coast-to-coast fastened networks.
The ensuing nationwide cable, media, and cellular working firm affords fiber-powered cable web to just about 70% of Canadian households.
Rogers’ CAD26 billion buy of Shaw—together with CAD6 billion debt—went forward following remaining federal approval for the requisite switch of Shaw’s cellular subsidiary, Freedom Cellular, to Videotron. On account of the merger, the Shaw household has grow to be one of many largest shareholders of Rogers.
Working in parallel, Videotron’s father or mother Quebecor and Shaw individually introduced that the acquisition of Freedom Cellular by Videotron was now full. Freedom Cellular had an enterprise worth of CAD2.85 billion.
Fortunate 13: MTN Nigeria Expands Its 5G Footprint
For our third hottest story of the 12 months, we make a journey to Nigeria, for a Could 2023 report on the enlargement of MTN Nigeria’s 5G community.
The community, which was launched on a industrial foundation in September 2022, reached a complete of 13 cities throughout the nation in Could. CTO Mohammed Rufai famous that greater than 700 5G websites had been rolled out in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano, Owerri, Ibadan, Maiduguri, Abeokuta, Warri, Enugu, Ifo, Benin Metropolis, and Shagamu.
The cellular market chief is aiming to extend 5G protection to 10% of the inhabitants by the tip of the 12 months and 40% by 2025. Rufai added that MTN presently has no plans to close down its present 2G and 3G networks: “The truth that we’re going to 5G doesn’t imply we should always not cater to the wants of the subscribers on the opposite know-how.”
MTN competes within the 5G section with long-term rival Airtel Nigeria and Mafab Communications, which emerged as one in all two winners of the three.5GHz spectrum public sale held by the Nigerian Communications Fee in December 2021.
You’ve Obtained a Smartfren in Me: Indonesian Cellular Gamers Poised to Hook Up
In September 2023, Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Informatics (identified regionally as KemKominfo) piqued readers’ curiosity when it confirmed that two of the nation’s main telecom operators—XL Axiata and Sinar Mas Group-backed Good Telecom (Smartfren)—had entered into discussions a few doable merger.
Malaysia-based Axiata Group and Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas started exploring the opportunity of a merger again in October 2021, however any amalgamation of XL and Smartfren was anticipated to show difficult given the latter’s excessive degree of debt.
Any debt-related issues have didn’t derail the deal, nonetheless, with the proposed merger understood to be approaching the end line.
Any debt-related issues have didn’t derail the deal, nonetheless, with the proposed merger understood to be approaching the end line.
XL Axiata, the nation’s third-largest cellular operator by subscriptions, is anticipated to imagine the place as senior companion. The enlarged entity is prone to have an enterprise worth within the area of IDR116.7 trillion ($7.5 billion).
The Remaining Countdown: Ghana’s SIM Card Saga Attracts to a Shut
To conclude our listing of 2023 massive hitters, readers had been on the sting of their seats awaiting the end result of Ghana’s long-running SIM registration saga, which commenced on October 1, 2021.
The marketing campaign was initially resulting from finish on March 31, 2022. Nevertheless, the deadline was later prolonged to July 31, 2022, as a big a part of the inhabitants had not but obtained the required nationwide biometric identification card.
Additional extensions to September 30 and November 30 adopted. Lastly, clients got till Could 31, 2023 to reactivate their accounts by finishing the biometric seize course of.
In an replace following the Could 31 deadline, the Ministry of Communications revealed that, of the 42.416 million SIMs at first of the re-registration train in October 2021, 28.948 million had been absolutely registered, 7.996 million had been unregistered and had been blocked, and an extra 4.473 million delinked and faraway from the Nationwide Communications Authority (NCA) database, whereas 225,411 blocked SIMs had been within the strategy of being reactivated.
Nearly 1,000,000 re-registration exemptions had been granted to SIM house owners in numerous classes, the biggest being residents overseas (332,524) and cellular cash brokers/retailers (666,816).
Ghanaians are not any strangers to SIM registration applications; the NCA has staged a number of registration schemes courting again to 2010.
A Observe About CommsUpdate
In 2024, CommsUpdate content material will transfer behind our analysis paywall. This implies it will likely be accessible solely to TeleGeography clients.
This text has been hitting inboxes since 2003. Over these final twenty years, CommsUpdate has been powered by a group of business specialists. They’ve produced lots of of 1000’s of articles on the business, masking greater than 240 international locations.
All this to say: we don’t take this transfer frivolously. However as a result of this work is a time-intensive labor requiring each intensive data of the business and analysis prowess, we imagine it’s worthy of its placement behind the paywall.
Need to keep linked?
Discover TeleGeography analysis subscriptions over right here.
