Burkina Faso: Wi-Fi base stations enable connectivity
February 1: According to a Developing Telecoms article, a new high-speed Wi-Fi service is launching in Burkina Faso. Using base stations provided by Wavion – a subsidiary of Alvarion – the service, offered by GSM operator Telecel, will cover the capital city Ouagadougou.

Africa: UAE’s Etisalat to sell mobile towers
February 1: IT News Africa reports that United Arab Emirates’ telecom provider, Emirate’s Telecommunications, or Etisalat, said on Tuesday that it was looking to off-load mobile phone towers it currently owns in Africa. The goal of the selling is to collect upwards of $600 million, the company said.

Tanzania: Price war hurts smaller operators
February 1: A piece by Budde notes that, with four major operators – Vodacom, Bharti Airtel (formerly Zain), Tigo and Zantel – the mobile market broke the 50% penetration barrier at the end of 2010, but subscriber growth slowed to 20%. The year was characterised by a price war which inflicted heavy subscriber losses on the smaller operators in 2011.

Uganda: Bharti Airtel launches Airtel Money
February 1: According to the Economic Times, Bharti Airtel on Wednesday launched its mobile money platform, christened, 'Airtel Money' in Uganda. The service will provide Airtel customers in Uganda easy access to innovative financial services through mobile phones.

Africa: Transition Away From SMS
February 1: Balancing Act reports that at the end of 2011, there were the first signs of smartphone use on SMS: for the first time in some countries, rather than the volume of SMS growing inexorably, it declined for the first time. Russell Southwood looks at how wider use of mobile Internet may affect SMS volumes in Africa and at two of the new generation of interfaces designed to make it easier for Africans to use the mobile Internet.

See previous industry news items from Intelecon's Research Team.

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