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GSMA
Mobile Contactless Payments Trialled Live at Mobile World Congress 2010
15 February 2010, Barcelona, Spain - GSMA, Samsung, Telefonica and Visa, with Giesecke & Devrient, Ingenico, ITN International and La Caixa, collaborate across industries to give Congress attendees an opportunity to experience NFC.
Here you can find more info on the handset used in the trial and possible solutions to overcome the NFC handset shortage in trials.
GSMA 2010 Conference
Today the GSMA, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Telefónica, and Visa, together with Giesecke & Devrient, Ingenico, ITN International and La Caixa, announced the arrival of contactless mobile payments at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year. The companies unveiled the result of months of collaboration and have brought the first ever SIM-based NFC payments pilot to Mobile World Congress.
The participating companies have provided more than 400 NFC handsets to guests for use at the Congress. The Samsung Star NFC handsets contain Telefónica SIM cards from O2 pre-loaded with €60 airtime credit as well as a La Caixa Visa Mobile Payment Application. Participants can use their NFC phones to pay for food and drink up to a value of €75 at over 30 merchant locations around the Congress.
“It is a fantastic achievement to bring a full payment trial to Mobile World Congress and a testament to the hard work of the partners that this cross-industry collaboration has worked so well,” said Michael O’Hara, Chief Marketing Officer at the GSMA. “Mobile operators have been requesting SIM-based NFC handsets for some time now and it’s great to see such progress in this area. Now that the handsets are coming, we can expect to see a number of commercial launches of mobile SIM-based NFC services this year.”
Participants in the trial will be able to purchase food and drink, simply by holding their Samsung NFC mobile phone against the contactless terminal at the participating merchants to pay for purchases under €10. Purchases above €10 require a passcode which the participant keys into the handset before presenting it to the terminal. The transactions are authorised online, with funds deducted from a La Caixa Visa account.
Global trials have shown a growing demand for mobile transaction services, with particular interest in proximity payments. The partners have worked successfully to bring the NFC experience to Mobile World Congress with the intention of raising awareness of this technology in anticipation of the commercial launch of these SIM based handsets in the very near future. As more of the SIM based handsets become commercially available it will help trigger global adoption and rollout of mobile NFC. Mobile NFC services will change the way people transact with their phones, everything from payments, travelling and ticketing will be transformed to ensure ease and convenience in the lifestyles of consumers around the world.
The project is the result of cross-industry collaboration with contributions from multiple partners:
As project lead, the GSMA has been working closely with the partners to bring the pilot to this year’s Mobile World Congress. This leverages the GSMA’s Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative which, supported by over 50 mobile operators, has been working to make SIM-based NFC payment services a reality.
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. provided the NFC-enabled Samsung Star handsets and offered technical support to ensure the stability of the very first NFC payment trial.
Telefónica provided the user interface enabling display and management of the core payment application on the handset is the “O2 Wallet” provided by Telefónica.
Visa provided the Visa Mobile Payment Application, a made-for-mobile contactless payment application, to La Caixa and Telefónica for use within the O2 SIM cards with €60 preloaded airtime credit. Visa coordinated activities with La Caixa, Telefónica, Ingenico and G&D to ensure that the accounts, O2 Wallet, terminals and SIM cards were Visa-compliant and mobile contactless ready.
La Caixa have issued accounts and have credited them with €75; La Caixa are also serving as the Acquiring bank for the participating merchants.
Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) manufactured the NFC-enabled SIM cards and personalised them with a La Caixa Visa Mobile Payment Application. This allows the Samsung NFC mobile phone to make EMV mobile payments by connecting to the SIM card through the standardised Single Wire Protocol (SWP).
Ingenico provided the participating merchants around the FIRA with the unique colour screen contactless EFT930 G wireless payment terminal, enabling participants to pay for food and drink by simply presenting their mobile phone at the terminal.
ITN International, a mobile data management company for the event marketing industry, was a founding member of the NFC experience at Mobile World Congress.
About the GSMA
The GSMA represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry. Spanning 219 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world’s mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organisations. The GSMA is focused on innovating, incubating and creating new opportunities for its membership, all with the end goal of driving the growth of the mobile communications industry.
For more information, please visit Mobile World Live, the new online portal for the mobile communications industry, at www.mobileworldlive.com or the GSMA corporate website at www.gsmworld.com. www.gsmworld.com/mmm
For more information on the partners please go to their websites:
B-Roll on the NFC trial can also be downloaded here www.mobileworldcongress.com/nfc.zip.
Press contacts:
Daniel Lowther
+44 7747 636 687
press@gsm.org
First Impression on 2009 Mobile World Congress
The Arrive
Mobile World Congress 2009 - Main Entrance
The arrive in Barcelona (Monday) this year is quite different from the past, in Barcelona and Cannes too. Crisis feeling starts at the entrance, no more free metro tickets available, no more fruit and biscuit in the media lounge …
The first place I attended was the GSMA & Industry CEOs @ Mobile World Congress Press Conference, where was present several CEOs such as:
- Rob Conway, CEO of the GSMA
- Alexander Izosimov, Chairman of the GSMA and CEO of VimpelCom
- Wang Jianzhou, Chairman and CEO of China Mobile
- Jeffrey Sachs, Director of The Earth Institute and Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
- Jon-Fredrik Baksaas, President and CEO of Telenor
- Carl-Henric Svanberg, President and CEO of Ericsson
- Franco Bernabè, CEO of Telecom Italia
The discussion was about how to sustain growth in economic situation, they set out how the wider use of mobile broadband services can stimulate growth and help the world recover from the economic crisis. Wang Jianzhou, CEO of China Mobile, spoke about the investment in mobile infrastructure that his company is making in China and its benefits.
The release of new spectrum for mobile broadband services in 2009 will ultimately add the equivalent of $211 billion to China’s GDP, and could add the equivalent of $95 billion to India’s GDP(1), according to a new report by Professor Leonard Waverman and consultancy LECG for the GSMA, which represents the global mobile industry. The rollout of mobile broadband networks will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, encourage new businesses across the value chain, improve productivity and boost consumer spending.
As the mobile industry is one of the few parts of the private sector currently capable of providing an economic stimulus, governments need to ensure they adopt policies that encourage more investment in mobile services and networks. Wherever possible, governments should seek to create a stable regulatory environment, while licensing spectrum on the right terms to encourage spending on network infrastructure and services, stimulating economic growth.
It is also important that governments allocate the same spectrum as other governments in their region for mobile broadband services – this kind of harmonisation will allow the same devices to be used in many different countries and enable manufacturers to achieve economies of scale and lower prices for end users.
The switchover to digital television will present a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make low-frequency spectrum, in which radio waves travel long distances and better penetrate the walls of buildings, available for mobile broadband services. Of the 400MHz of low-frequency spectrum freed up by the switch-off of analogue television, the GSMA believes 100MHz should be used to enable the roll out of cost-effective mobile broadband networks.
Deploying a mobile broadband network using 700MHz spectrum, for example, can cost 70% less than deploying the same network using the 2100MHz spectrum underpinning most of today’s 3G mobile networks, making rural areas and other “white spots” economically viable to serve. Moreover, providing mobile broadband coverage is far more cost-effective than installing a new fixed-line broadband connection(2).
Supporting Quotes
“For mobile broadband to be a mass-market service worldwide and powerful engine of economic growth, the mobile industry needs both a stable regulatory climate and access to the right spectrum on the right terms,” said Rob Conway, CEO and Member of the Board of the GSMA. “Wherever possible, governments need to allocate the same chunks of spectrum as other countries in their region, enabling equipment manufacturers to gain economies of scale by producing mobile broadband handsets, computers and other devices that will work in many different markets.”
“If the mobile industry can continue to grow and develop at the rate it has over the past 15 years, it could act as one of the few locomotives which can help pull our economies out of the current slump,” said Alexander Izosimov, Chairman of the GSMA and CEO of VimpelCom. “Governments need to adopt policies that nurture this potential, rather than stifling it.”
“The rolling out and operation of 3G networks in China will create 300,000 job opportunities directly and indirectly,” said Wang Jianzhou, Chairman and CEO of China Mobile. “On the one hand, 3G investments will directly boost the development of the telecom manufacturing industry; on the other hand, 3G handsets and 3G applications will drive consumer spending and help companies through the difficulties brought by the financial crisis.”
Franco Bernabe' with the Press
“The evolution of mobile broadband is proof that capital expenditure by operators lays the foundations for the growth of an entire ecosystem,” said Franco Bernabè, CEO of Telecom Italia. “In the currently uncertain economic climate, it is simply unimaginable that we will enter a new phase of European and worldwide growth if we do not have sufficient availability of bandwidth. Bandwidth is the necessary driver for direct investments such as radio access infrastructure and demand for fibre-optic backhauling; it is also a driver of indirect investment, through the emergence of new market players and new services. If we wish to repeat the successes of the past – successes in technology that, from GSM onwards, have made improvements to our lives – this potential may only be realized fully within a harmonious regulatory context.”
“Our industry and the authorities must work together to find sustainable business models for mobile broadband,” said Jon Fredrik Baksaas, President and CEO, Telenor Group. “If we get this right, mobile broadband will have the same deep changing impact on people’s lives as basic mobile services have had.”
“Mobile broadband is essential for socio-economic growth and, with LTE, the industry has, for the first time, a true global standard,” said Carl-Henric Svanberg, President and CEO of Ericsson. “The deployment of mobile broadband is also particularly important for closing the digital divide and the allocation of low frequency spectrum is a prerequisite.”
“Mobile technologies are the most powerful tools we have for combating extreme poverty in the most isolated parts of the world,” said Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute. “By closing the digital divide, mobile connections give the poor access to vital health services and students from all parts of the world a chance to learn through “global classrooms.” Similarly, mobile phones are being deployed to expand agro-business, e-governance, banking, and commerce throughout poor countries. Private companies are taking in the lead in countless creative and path-breaking efforts, and these breakthroughs are being expanded rapidly through public-private partnerships. Digital technologies will play a core role in ending poverty and in enabling the world to join together through markets, social networks, and cooperative efforts to solve our common challenges.”
In the mornig of the day after (Tuesday) three mobile operator leaders faced the question at morning’s opening keynote session at the GSMA Mobile World Congress of whether to put the brakes on any future investments or expansion, or adopt new methods of continuing to grow during these uncertain economic times. The answers from César Alierta, executive chairman of Telefónica, Vittorio Colao, CEO of Vodafone, and Jon Fredrik Baksaas, president and CEO of Telenor were in accord – that mobile telecoms will be a key driver behind the economic recovery and the industry must not slow down its growth plans.
“We are the perfect ally for governments to lead global economic growth,” said Alierta, “and there is an unclear estimation of our ability to improve the economic situation.” Central to this perspective was that mobile operators must deliver what the customer wants. “Our success will come from providing the consumer with a much better experience based upon providing value,” said Alierta. This theme received support from Vodafone’s Colao, who said that operators have many of the essential assets to deliver customer value. “These are a combination of affordability, trust, ease-of-use and relevance, together with speed and ubiquity. We must also be smarter in how we co-operate with content suppliers, device vendors and equipment manufacturers.” Looking at the investment options, Colao warned about putting the brakes on. “We should have a common technology roadmap, and look more closely at sharing towers and possibly fibre.” However, he warned about the need for a level-playing field with regard to competition. “We should not ask for protection, this might lead to short-term gains, but it undermines trust.”
Then Steve Ballmer was participating in the panel discussion on the “open mobile ecosystem”, alongside Nokia chief Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo and AT&T head Ralph de la Vega, who used the occasion to inadvertently announce Dell’s imminent smartphone.
“Open means different things to different people,” Ballmer said. “To some people, open means open source. It means more than that and different than that to me. Open can mean an open platform that people can extend, or it can mean open standards that are baked in. Ultimately the companies that succeed will be open, maybe in different ways and at different times.”
To Ballmer, “open” refers to “the power and success of the partner ecosystem approach [that Microsoft] pioneered at the beginning of the PC revolution”.
NFC & QR Code status
Francesco Iarlori & Nav Bains
NFC and QR Codes remains the most important stuffs on mobile handset next years I had a long interview with Nav Bains (soon podcast on this site) about status of Pay buy Mobile initiative, and then I met Martin Copus, president of 3GVision, he told to me what announced today that its i-nigma code reading solution has been selected by Pannon (owned by leading Norwegian network operator Telenor) and T-Mobile to power their ‘Mobilkod’ mobile code trial project, in collaboration with Hungary’s leading publisher, Sanoma Budapest.
A lot of person did manifest out of the congress during these couple of days, for antennas and electromagnetic pollution, it could exists a more suitable place ?
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Telefonica Workers
and below Telefonica workers …
Telefonica Workers
be in touch.
will.i.am fights for musicians’ role in mobile
Emmy Award-winning musician will.i.am believes mobile will give artists the opportunity to more closely connect with fans on a massive scale – potentially changing the way the world consumes entertainment – as long as their interests are protected. “Mobile is where it’s all going,” he said in an interview with Mobile Business Briefing ahead of his headline appearance at the mobile entertainment-focused ‘Mobile Backstage’ event at the GSMA Mobile World Congress tomorrow. “I feel certain that the music industry is heading this way.”
Sounding a warning sign for potential challenges ahead, will.i.am commented that he wants “to represent the music industry so that we don’t get taken advantage of. Everything up to this point has been the service provider or the manufacturer pushing it through; nobody’s done it yet from the artist’s perspective and content maker. They are always borrowing from the content maker. I don’t want to be borrowed. I’m the bank.” The musician is keen to push through such plans on development of forthcoming Black Eyed Peas releases. Last March will.i.am struck a deal with RIM to make his content and online community DipDive available on the BlackBerry. will.i.am and his team are now looking to extend that deal with other device manufacturers and operators worldwide.
WILL.I.AM – Yes We Can lyrics
It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.
Yes we can.
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.
Yes we can. Yes we can.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores
and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.
Yes we can. Yes we can.
It was the call of workers who organized;
women who reached for the ballots;
a President who chose the moon as our new frontier;
and a King who took us to the mountain-top and pointed the way to the Promised Land.
Yes we can to justice and equality.
(yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can…)
Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.
Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.
Yes we can heal this nation.
Yes we can repair this world.
Yes we can. Si Se Puede
(yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can…)
We know the battle ahead will be long,
but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way,
nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.
We want change!
(We want change! We want change! We want change…)
We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics who will only grow louder and more dissonant.
We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check.
We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.
But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. We want change!
(We want change! I want change! We want change! I want change…)
The hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA;
we will remember that there is something happening in America;
that we are not as divided as our politics suggests;
that we are one people;
we are one nation;
and together, we will begin the next great chapter in America’s story with three words that will ring from coast to coast;
from sea to shining sea – Yes. We. Can.
(yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can…)
Mobile Money Summit 2008 in Cairo 14-15 May 2008
Introduction
worldwide organizations looking at rural zones of our planet such as Africa to cover the digital divide using technology, ITU, belonging to UN, held the second phase of The World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis from 16 to 18 November 2005. The UN Millennium Development goal is driving a lot of resources to Madagascar and World Bank is helping National Banks to create or renew system to cooperate with banks present in the territory. Even if Africa doesn’t contain any of the emerging economies such as BRIC countries (Brasil, Russia, India, China) has a lot of law to put in place as well as regulatory amendment in the more interesting scenarios as Mobile Telecommunication and Banks cooperation.
The presence in these areas of World Bank’s advisors helping National Central Banks to develop national central systems jointly with telecommunication companies trying to cover the digital divide within territory (using GPRS, WiMax, WLAN, …) they represents the ideal place where to create and experiment interactions between Financial Institution and Telecommunication companies to serve individuals living in rural areas.
The error we might do is that probably we can think scenarios, business model applicable in these areas are far away from our way to live and never will be applicable in our European or North American countries. This could be a terrible mistake since we have a lot a rural zones in Australia, in USA or in Scandinavia and individuals such as teen agers and our son and daughter, interested on the same problematic. They manage few money, often unbanked, often with the phone bill in red and asking for a recharge to mom.
People on stage
Rob Conway (CEO and Member of the board of GSMA) welcomed the audience and immediately after Farida Khambata (VP of IFC) and Tarek M. Khamel (Minister of communication of Egypt) made the same.
The first day was mainly related to case histories, operators experience and openness, challenges and cooperation with the financial sector. The second was more about regulatory and how to put on the market the models.
About the first day a good panel held late morning about Mobile Money project capabilities.
The session has been introduced by a keynote from Nick Hughes (leftmost) responsible for International Mobile Payment solution in Vodafone, he underlined the Vodafone position and how Vodafone present to the market the offer for emerging countries such as M-Pesa in Kenia and the standard one relative to European countries. M-Pesa is a remittance system and a system to transfer money from person living in cities to relatives living in rural countries. The importance of the local store presence also in rural areas make possible to change funds sent by mobile back to cash again. Even if the system has been invented for remittance is widely used by user to avoid bringing cash during the trip; a traveler starting his trip gives the money to a local store close to his village and then takes back his money when he arrive in the city.
This avoids danger of theft during travelling hours , so presence of local store is an important issues and enough effort need to been directed to recruit agents. M-Pesa agents are:
- Safaricom dealers, operating one or more outlets around Kenya;
- Other retailers with a substantial distribution network like petrol stations, distributors, supermarkets and Registered SMEs;
- Selected Banks and Micro-Finance Institutions.
A good experience in term of business propositions and how to reach customers instead has been presented by Brian Richardson – Wizzit (second from left) he underlined the policy to put closer the bank to the un-banked instead to try to bank them. To accomplish this target friends and well known person suggest instead a bank account a SIM jointly with a Maestro Card to withdraw cash from standard ATM. The package that the Wizzit-Boy, so are called the younger black person that propose, contains all needed to start to call but also to transfer money, receive salary disbursement, pay their utilities bills.
Even if Wizzit is a non-bank and M-Pesa is a remittance system both need the same thing, the local presence of an agent close to user in order to promote, acquire customers and facilitate transaction and fix possible malfunctions of the system.
Hiroshi Tamano Managing Director of DoCoMo Europe (third from left) put all the conference in the future, every time we try to compare our world with the Japanese one we recognize how there are ahead with business models, unfortunately for us, not easily replicable in other countries. I-mode is an example but also so deeply integrations in transportation system using Sony FeliCa seems far away from rural areas. Hiroshi shown the involvement in NFC that instead represent a reality even if in our longitudes that will have its boost in 2009, as soon as more handset will be available in the mass market, the same that happened with the camera enabled phone.
While all delegates were arguing about how to fix and how to create a good interaction between Financial world and telecommunication companies Naguib Sawiris presented the Orascom vision and plans about how to deliver mobile financial services.
After some joke about Egyptians, he mentioned about people keeping pounds in beds and purchasing cars with suitcases full of cash, he didn’t talk a lot about how to fix the querelle on revenue shares, client ownership and regulations on mobile payments but everybody understood that he had already some solution in mind about in order to fix the problem at the root, acquiring a bank for instance.
He underlined what is happening around India (Pakistan & Bangladesh) where no one operators is looking since the ARPU is under 4 US$ but having 30 Million of users the number anyway start to become interesting. Making the match with his declaration last May in Daka during a press meeting "Mobile aside, we have a big desire to invest in other sectors. But at this moment, our interest is mainly in banking sector …" probably underline an interest in a bank acquisition, he added: “We are very much eager to have banking licence in Bangladesh or to acquire any existing bank," Sawiris, who also met Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed and discussed investment proposals, said, adding, "We would like to introduce mobile banking, money transfer and procurement with the mobile".
The day after started with a Christina Gold (President and CEO of Western Union) keynote where she presented the Money Transfer initiative and the fact that they are working together to develop a commercial and technical framework that mobile operators can use to deploy services that enable consumers to send and receive low-denomination, high-frequency money transfers using their mobile phones.
She also listed the huge presence of their stores World Wide but didn’t mentioned at lot about the commission costs of their transaction specifically for remittance.
After Wester Union operators took the floor saying their position about the topic, from the left after Alaa Fahmy (Egypt Post), Andy Chung (Vodafone), Hans Wijayasuriya (Dialog Telecom) and Mun-Ki Woo (Orange). They all agree to support the money transfer that sometime reside in a bank sometime in a pocket; since that for few person at the top of the pyramid are stored in bank accounts whilst for all person at the bottom of the pyramid often they are stored at homes and are managed by local merchant.
At the end of the day Money resides always in a bank, even if we used a money transfer service for remittance or some other reasons but the most important issue is how to manage cash-in, cash-out and regulate it. For this Mobile Money Transfer and Pay Buy Mobile initiative within GSMA have important duties to do.
The rest of the day has been spent to discuss about how to regulate this topics without to stop initiative or experiment, in late morning at the panel on the left, were present Electronic Money Association, the UK Financial Services Authority, The World Bank and the regulatory Body of GSMA. They underlined of difference between places in the world, for instance what could happen in Europe with SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) and PSD (Payment Services Directive), what could be done in Africa or in Far East and so forth.
For sure using cash is a problem and it is a cost, 85% of transactions across Europe are still in cash, some difference appears for instance in Norway the cash usage is around 70% instead in all EEC is around 98%. But looking the numbers the cash cost to manage such transactions could increase from the actual €Bn 45 to €Bn 70 passing from 0,4% to 0,6% of all European GDP.
Of course using more credit cards and mobile and NFC technology to micropay and small transact could help to reduce this cost.
Companies around
The event was for companies and individuals looking to understand what happened around the globe to replicate the same in proper countries with some ecosystems but different actors, few delegate was looking for product to acquire, the stand was mainly for GSMA, IFC and companies giving answers to help Telecommunication companies or Finance department to implement solutions or piece of business chain value to support M-Finance service creation.
Between those a good idea is the Valimo one, an Helsinki-based provider of mobile signature solutions addressing mobile operators, banks and corporate customers.
In the near future solutions embedded on SIM to permit to sign documents or transactions will be the future as well as mobile OTP systems and midlet to crypt text messages.
Conclusions
Huge masses of un-banked and un-connected people in developing countries could easily obtain a connection and the ability to make transaction just with a mobile phone. From the other side banks are able to reach more customers in the urban and rural areas without compromising the quality of service and products in either region. The technology phenomenon enables to achieve one goal: to put closer bank to the un-banked; there are people who have not accessed the benefits of a bank because one is not physically available in their region but probably they don’t need a physical branch to cover their needs.
In East Asia 50% of the population: almost 840 million people live on less than 2USD (PPP) per day, these represents the un-bankable, just over there is a lot of mass-unbanked persons and then the mass banked. In Pakistan mass banked are 32.5 Millions and in Algeria they are 7.5 Millions, of course they could be easily reached by M-Finance propositions.
Mostly of what discussed in Cairo is replicable elsewhere we need only to select the right customers and right places of our territory where we can replicate it, this is the challenge.
The closer retailer represents the new crossing road between phone and good it sells knowing better spending & usage behavior of our future customers.
Critical success factors to re(create) such business are:
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Good regulation (a payment service is not a Deposit Taking account);
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Only need based services & simplicity (Moving money is not a mobile banking functionality);
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Use of agents (Distribution is a key success factor;
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Security concern, AMC/CFT (Anti Money Laundering /Combating Financing of Terrorism), Fraud, KYC (Know Your Customer), Controlled risk matrix etc.
Seventy Million more african now connected to GSM networks
GSM coverage extended by an area the size of France in just 12 months
Cairo: The GSMA, the global trade body for the mobile industry, announced today that the number of mobile connections in Africa has risen 70 million in the past 12 months to 282 million. Mobile operators have ramped up investment in the region extending GSM coverage to reach an additional 550,000 square kilometres occupied by 46 million people. The broadening coverage and the falling cost of mobile communications is enabling tens of millions of Africans to become connected for the first time in their lives. Africa has only 35 million fixed-lines.
“Africa’s mobile industry is delivering on its promise to blanket the continent’s inhabitants with coverage giving tens of thousands of rural communities their first opportunity to realise the substantial social and economic benefits of mobile communications,” said Tom Phillips, Chief Government & Regulatory Affairs Officer of the GSMA, speaking at the ITU Telecom Africa event in Cairo. “However, over 300 million rural Africans do not yet have mobile coverage. They live in an area the size of China, India and the USA combined. Developing sustainable business models to serve these communities is a great challenge, which requires the mobile industry and African governments to work together.”
At the ITU’s Connect Africa summit in Kigali in October, the GSMA announced that mobile operators plan to invest more than $50 billion in sub-Saharan Africa over the next five years to provide more than 90% of the population with mobile coverage. To realise the full social and economic benefits of this investment, African governments need to ensure that sufficient spectrum is available, particularly for mobile broadband services. Governments also need to tackle mobile-specific taxes, high license fees, international gateway monopolies and other regulatory bottlenecks that constrain the competitiveness of African business.
Supporting quotes:
“With capital expenditure investment levels reaching over US $2 billion in 2007, MTN is one of the most significant investors in many markets in which it operates. Approved capital expenditure investment for 2008 is almost twice that amount,” said Phuthuma Nhleko, MTN Group President and CEO.
“We have created a new subsidiary “Telecel Globe” which will reinvest in Africa’s smaller countries. Telecel Globe will be fully staffed on its own. Orascom Telecom will only support its procurement power and commercial know how. We call on African governments to reduce the taxation and regulatory burden on mobile users so we can maximise the positive impact of this investment,” said Naguib Sawiris, Chairman and CEO, Orascom Telecom.
“Around 75% of the population is covered in most African countries where Orange operates and we intend to reach 90% coverage with the same level of quality by 2010 to serve untapped areas,” said Marc Rennard, Executive Vice President, Orange – France Telecom Group.
”In 2007 alone, our capital expenditure additions in our Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Lesotho operations totalled R1.6 billion. This investment includes building high-speed data networks in most of these countries,” said Alan Knott-Craig, CEO of Vodacom Group.
“Zain will build its own fibre capacity backbones, where necessary, to speed up delivery and increase affordability of telecom services. Zain believes that such investments across sub-Saharan Africa will also have a positive economic and social impact,” said Dr. Saad Al Barrak, CEO of Zain Group.