As another eventful year wanes, we’re recalling at the telecom stories that recorded our readers’ attention throughout 2023.
With 5G rollouts, satellite broadband, SIM card registration and mega-mergers all on the program, the CommsUpdate group left no stone unturned in their mission to bring you the greatest day-to-day newspaper article from around the globe.
Continue Reading for our most popular stories of 2023.
Starman: Musk’s Must-Read Mozambique Maneuvers
Our most check out story of 2023 was released in June, when the Elon Musk-backed Starlink satellite broadband service went reside in Mozambique
At the time of its launch, Starlink kept in mind that Mozambique did not yet have a ground station for web alternative and was relying entirely on inter-satellite links, which might lead to durations of periodic service and high latency. The business was formerly granted an operating license in Mozambique in Might 2022.
The universal Starlink has actually shown to be enduringly popular with readers this year, with the business’s headings representing 5 of our leading 10 most seen CommsUpdate posts! Other places of interest were Trinidad & & Tobago, El Salvador, and Zambia
Starlink’s moms and dad business SpaceX presently has around 4,000 satellites in Low Earth Orbit, with strategies to introduce 42,000 in overall.
Starlink’s moms and dad business SpaceX presently has around 4,000 satellites in Low Earth Orbit, with strategies to introduce 42,000 in overall. To date, more than 60 nations are understood to have actually licensed Starlink to provide set broadband connection.
Shaw Thing: Canadian Telecom Landscape Reconfigured as Rogers and Shaw Merge and Videotron Purchases Liberty Mobile
The Canadian telecom landscape was reconfigured previously this year, with a CAD26 billion ($ 19.3 billion) mega-merger.
April saw the conclusion of the long-anticipated merger in between Canadian telcos Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications. The offer– which initially reached arrangement in March 2021– combined Rogers’ across the country mobile network with both operators’ coast-to-coast set networks.
The resulting nationwide cable television, media, and mobile operating business uses fiber-powered cable television web to almost 70% of Canadian families.
Rogers’ CAD26 billion purchase of Shaw– consisting of CAD6 billion financial obligation– proceeded following last federal approval for the requisite transfer of Shaw’s mobile subsidiary, Liberty Mobile, to Videotron. As an outcome of the merger, the Shaw household has actually turned into one of the biggest investors of Rogers.
Running in parallel, Videotron’s moms and dad Quebecor and Shaw independently revealed that the acquisition of Liberty Mobile by Videotron was now total. Liberty Mobile had a business worth of CAD2.85 billion.
Fortunate 13: MTN Nigeria Broadens Its 5G Footprint
For our 3rd most popular story of the year, we travel to Nigeria, for a Might 2023 report on the growth of MTN Nigeria’s 5G network.
The network, which was released on a business basis in September 2022, reached an overall of 13 cities throughout the nation in Might. CTO Mohammed Rufai kept in mind that more than 700 5G websites had actually been presented in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano, Owerri, Ibadan, Maiduguri, Abeokuta, Warri, Enugu, Ifo, Benin City, and Shagamu.
The mobile market leader is intending to increase 5G protection to 10% of the population by the end of the year and 40% by 2025. Rufai included that MTN presently has no strategies to close down its existing 2G and 3G networks: “The truth that we are going to 5G does not imply we need to not accommodate the requirements of the customers on the other innovation.”
MTN completes in the 5G section with long-lasting competing Airtel Nigeria and Mafab Communications, which became one of 2 winners of the 3.5 GHz spectrum auction held by the Nigerian Communications Commission in December 2021.
You have actually Got a Smartfren in Me: Indonesian Mobile Players Poised to Connect
In September 2023, Indonesia’s Ministry of Interaction and Informatics (understood in your area as KemKominfo) stimulated readers’ interest when it validated that 2 of the nation’s significant telecom operators– XL Axiata and Sinar Mas Group-backed Smart Telecom (Smartfren)– had actually participated in conversations about a possible merger
Malaysia-based Axiata Group and Indonesian corporation Sinar Mas started checking out the possibility of a merger back in October 2021, however any amalgamation of XL and Smartfren was anticipated to show difficult provided the latter’s high level of financial obligation.
Any debt-related issues have actually stopped working to hinder the offer, nevertheless, with the proposed merger comprehended to be approaching the goal.
Any debt-related issues have actually stopped working to hinder the offer, nevertheless, with the proposed merger comprehended to be approaching the goal.
XL Axiata, the nation’s third-largest mobile operator by memberships, is anticipated to presume the position as senior partner. The bigger entity is most likely to have a business worth in the area of IDR116.7 trillion ($ 7.5 billion).
The Last Countdown: Ghana’s SIM Card Legend Wanes
To conclude our list of 2023 huge players, readers were on the edge of their seats waiting for the result of Ghana’s long-running SIM registration legend, which started on October 1, 2021.
The project was initially due to end on March 31, 2022. Nevertheless, the due date was later on encompassed July 31, 2022, as a big part of the population had actually not yet gotten the necessary nationwide biometric identity card.
Additional extensions to September 30 and November 30 followed. Lastly, consumers were provided up until Might 31, 2023 to reactivate their accounts by finishing the biometric capture procedure.
In an upgrade following the May 31 due date, the Ministry of Communications exposed that, of the 42.416 million SIMs at the start of the re-registration workout in October 2021, 28.948 million had actually been totally signed up, 7.996 million were unregistered and had actually been obstructed, and an additional 4.473 million delinked and eliminated from the National Communications Authority (NCA) database, while 225,411 obstructed SIMs remained in the procedure of being reactivated.
Nearly a million re-registration exemptions had actually been approved to SIM owners in different classifications, the biggest being residents abroad (332,524) and mobile cash agents/merchants (666,816).
Ghanaians are no complete strangers to SIM registration programs; the NCA has actually staged numerous registration plans going back to 2010.
A Note About CommsUpdate
In 2024, CommsUpdate material will move behind our research study paywall. This suggests it will be offered solely to TeleGeography consumers.
This newsletter has actually been striking inboxes given that 2003. Over those last 20 years, CommsUpdate has actually been powered by a group of market professionals. They have actually produced numerous countless posts on the market, covering more than 240 nations.
All this to state: we do not take this relocation gently. However since this work is a time-intensive labor needing both comprehensive understanding of the market and research study expertise, our company believe it deserves its positioning behind the paywall.
Wish to remain linked?
Check out TeleGeography research study memberships over here
