As one other eventful yr attracts to an in depth, we’re wanting 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 carry you the largest each day information tales from world wide.
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 dwell 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 Might 2022.
The omnipresent Starlink has confirmed to be enduringly standard with readers this yr, with the corporate’s headlines accounting for 5 of our high ten most considered CommsUpdate articles! Different areas of curiosity had been Trinidad & Tobago, El Salvador, and Zambia.
Starlink’s mother or father firm SpaceX at the moment has round 4,000 satellites in Low Earth Orbit, with plans to launch 42,000 in complete.
Starlink’s mother or father firm SpaceX at the moment has round 4,000 satellites in Low Earth Orbit, with plans to launch 42,000 in complete. So far, greater than 60 international locations are recognized to have approved Starlink to supply mounted 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 yr, 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 mounted networks.
The ensuing nationwide cable, media, and cellular working firm presents fiber-powered cable web to almost 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. Because of the merger, the Shaw household has turn out to be one of many largest shareholders of Rogers.
Working in parallel, Videotron’s mother or father 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 yr, we make a journey to Nigeria, for a Might 2023 report on the growth 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 Might. 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 yr and 40% by 2025. Rufai added that MTN at the moment 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 phase with long-term rival Airtel Nigeria and Mafab Communications, which emerged as considered one of two winners of the three.5GHz spectrum public sale held by the Nigerian Communications Fee in December 2021.
You’ve Bought a Smartfren in Me: Indonesian Cellular Gamers Poised to Hook Up
In September 2023, Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Informatics (recognized domestically 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 couple of doable merger.
Malaysia-based Axiata Group and Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas started exploring the potential for 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, nevertheless, with the proposed merger understood to be approaching the end line.
Any debt-related issues have didn’t derail the deal, nevertheless, with the proposed merger understood to be approaching the end line.
XL Axiata, the nation’s third-largest cellular operator by subscriptions, is predicted to imagine the place as senior accomplice. The enlarged entity is more likely to have an enterprise worth within the area of IDR116.7 trillion ($7.5 billion).
The Closing Countdown: Ghana’s SIM Card Saga Attracts to a Shut
To conclude our record 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 because of 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 Might 31, 2023 to reactivate their accounts by finishing the biometric seize course of.
In an replace following the Might 31 deadline, the Ministry of Communications revealed that, of the 42.416 million SIMs in the beginning 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.
Virtually 1,000,000 re-registration exemptions had been granted to SIM house owners in varied classes, the biggest being residents overseas (332,524) and cellular cash brokers/retailers (666,816).
Ghanaians aren’t any strangers to SIM registration applications; the NCA has staged a number of registration schemes courting again to 2010.
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