ORANGE SHUFFLES MANAGEMENT TO DRIVE TRANSFORMATION

Orange lined up sweeping changes to its management team and business structure, a move CEO Stephane Richard called a decisive step as it moves into new sectors including connected home, finance and cybersecurity.

One of the key changes involves making its business in Spain a standalone unit rather than one of several markets which comprise Orange’s Rest of Europe reporting segment.

After France, Spain was Orange’s second-largest market in Europe in 2017, generating 49 per cent of the Rest of Europe unit’s revenue. The separation comes as Orange promotes it’s Spain division’s CEO Laurent Paillassot to the role of deputy group CEO, albeit with continued responsibility for Spain.

Gervais Pellissier, formerly delegate CEO and head of European operations, moves to a group transformation role. He will be charged with “simplifying the group’s processes and reinforcing the company’s collective agility” in addition to being appointed chairman of Orange Business Services.

Finance and strategy delegate CEO Ramon Fernandez takes charge of Europe excluding France and Spain, and will also become finance and performance executive director.

Diversification
As part of its focus on new business lines, Orange will form a Technology and Global Innovation division led by former innovation SVP Mari-Noelle Jego-Laveissiere. She will also take on the roles of deputy group CEO and CTIO.

To lead its cybersecurity business and oversee its own security, Hugues Foulon will become executive director for group. Chief executive director of Orange France Fabienne Dulac will become deputy group CEO with continued responsibility for its home market.

Alioune Ndiaye replaces Bruno Mettling as CEO of its Africa and Middle East unit: Mettling becomes non-executive chairman of the business.

Discussing the changes, group CEO Stephane Richard said: “This is a decisive step in Orange’s transformation that has been in preparation for a number of years. Together, we have already restored confidence within the Group and returned the business to revenue and EBITDA margin growth in a fiercely competitive environment.”

“Today, we are pushing back the boundaries of digital services by confirming our goals of diversification into financial services, cybersecurity and the connected home. This transformation has been made possible by the continuous drive for excellence in our role as a network operator.”

Source: Mobileworldlive

 

TTLC COMMITTED $ 17 MILLION HOME OPTICAL FIBER SUPPLY PROJECT

The incumbent, Tanzania Telecommunications Corporation Limited, (TTCL), has begun a project to provide fiber optic data to homes. Currently in pilot phase, the service is already available in Mikocheni, Mbezi Beach in the Dar es Salaam region and at the Medeli Estate estate in the Dodoma region. On 27 February 2018, TTCL General Manager Waziri Kindamba, explained that “after the 90 days pilot phase started during this month of February, Phase 1 will be implemented this year in all regional centers of the country.

The technical director of TTCL indicated that after the pilot phase, the “Fiber to Home” project will be fully deployed in Dar es Salaam, Mbeya, Tanga, Arusha and Zanzibar. Home-based fiber optic will enable customers to achieve Internet speeds of up to 50 Mbps. The service will also allow consumers to access Wi-Fi within 200 meters. The investment made by the incumbent for this project is estimated at 40 billion shillings (17 million US dollars). “This is one of our massive investment projects that aims to ensure the profitability of our entity,”said Waziri Kindamba.

Internet services are currently an important growth driver for many telecom companies. At TTCL, data services account for nearly 90% of the company’s revenues.

Source: Agence Ecofin

 

LIQUID, SUDATEL PEN LANDMARK FTTH DEAL

Sudatel Telecom Group and Liquid Telecom have agreed to partner to build fibre networks across Sudan.

Liquid Telecom and Sudatel Telecom Group are partnering to build fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks across Sudan. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the deal at an event at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.

The groups believe the partnership will increase the broadband capacity and speeds available to homes and businesses in Sudan, which are currently reliant on wireless networks to access the Internet.

How much money will be involved is unclear but Liquid Telecom group CEO, Nic Rudnick, told journalists at the signing in Barcelona that it would be a “meaningful and considerable investment” by the two companies.

“Our partnership with Liquid Telecom will enable us to provide a high-quality FTTH network which will help uplift people’s lives through our region’s economic development,” said Tarig Hamza Zain El Abdein, CEO of Sudatel Telecom Group.

Comparable to similar networks deployed in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya and Rwanda by Liquid Telecom, the new FTTH networks in Sudan will deliver speeds initially up to 100Mbps, which is expected to transform the way Sudanese businesses and consumers experience and use the Internet in the country.

“Liquid Telecom has a proven track record of bringing world-class fibre networks to previously underserved regions of Africa. We are delighted to support Sudatel with its efforts to deliver leading FTTH services to more businesses and consumers in Sudan, which will help grow the country’s digital economy,” added Rudnick.

The groups believe that by investing in Sudan’s telecoms infrastructure, Sudatel and Liquid Telecom will help raise the quality of network services in the country while also increasing competition in the local market.

“Sudan really is a country of enormous promise and enormous opportunity and it is at a point in its development where it is emerging as a prominent player in the region.

“We are very proud and pleased to partner a company like Sudatel in order to provide and accelerate the rollout of broadband services across Sudan and also to utilise the capabilities that Sudatel has to further expand Liquid Telecom’s pan-African network across the region,” Rudnick said.

Econet founder and executive chairman, Strive Masiyiwa, said in a statement that the partnership would pave the way to further expand the penetration of broadband services across Africa.

Established in 1993, Sudatel provides both mobile and fixed (voice and data) services to businesses, residents and ISPs across North and West Africa, in addition to the provision of wholesale services to international carriers. Sudatel is partially owned by the Sudanese government and listed on both the Khartoum and Abu Dhabi Stock Exchanges.

Liquid Telecom, a subsidiary of Econet Global, is a pan-African telecoms group and communications services and solutions provider across 13 countries in eastern, central and southern Africa with an independent fibre network spanning over 50 000km.

Source: IT Web Africa

 

GHANA: EXPRESSO, GLO IN DANGER OF LOSING TELECOMS LICENCES

Ghana’s Minister for Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has issued a warning to mobile network operators (MNOs) Expresso and Glo Mobile that they risk losing their licences if they fail to meet a 30-day ultimatum given by the ministry with regards to their poor operational performance. According to Ghana Web, Minister Owusu-Ekuful is convinced that the country’s telecoms watchdog the National Communications Authority (NCA) will revoke the licence held by Expresso, stating in an interview: ‘For Expresso. I think the 30 days will end by next week. The letters have gone out. I have just seen a response that they have sent which doesn’t quite address the issues, so I have no doubt that the NCA will proceed to revoke that licence and clean out that space. If that happens, those frequencies will be available for either interested Ghanaians, or other entrants to also come into the market.’

The minister also expressed her surprise at Glo’s poor performance in Ghana, explaining that the ministry has attempted on several occasions to contact Glo to improve its services or risk losing its licence, but to no avail. Meanwhile, Minister Owusu-Ekuful said that the government will auction the remaining 4G spectrum for telcos in June this year.

Source: Telegeography