Vodacom Launches Africa's First Live 5G Network

South African operator Vodacom announced that it has switched on Africa’s first live 5G mobile network, in the South African cities of Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town. A further rollout is planned to cover other parts of the country. The network will support both mobile and fixed wireless services and is currently available on 20 live 5G sites, 18 of which are in Gauteng and two of which are in Cape Town. Effective immediately, Vodacom customers with 5G-enabled devices and within a 5G coverage area can access the new service. 

Vodacom was recently assigned temporary spectrum by South African regulator ICASA for the duration of the national state of disaster due to the coronavirus pandemic, including 50 MHz in the 3.5 GHz band. The operator said it used the spectrum to fast-track its 5G launch. It also makes Vodacom the first operator in the country to activate temporary spectrum in South Africa. 

The deployment of 5G will help Vodacom manage the 40 percent increase in mobile network traffic and the 250 percent increase in fixed traffic experienced during the coronavirus lockdown. 

The 5G network deployed operates in the same frequency bands that are expected to be permanently assigned through an auction later in the year. Existing 4G/LTE tariffs for mobile and fixed will initially apply to Vodacom’s 5G service offering, with special 5G tariffs to be announced in due course. 

While the pandemic has crippled businesses and entire economies worldwide, mobile telecom is one of the few industries that could be said to be benefiting in any way from the situation. While it certainly does not benefit across the board, as customers’ incomes go down and business clients go out of business, there can be no doubt that in some key respects the coronavirus lockdowns have boosted telecom operators. As we have written recently, the need to work from home and stay home in general has spurred dramatic increases in usage, both of data and voice services, mobile and fixed.

In the case of Vodacom, the increases in consumption—40 percent in network traffic and 250 percent in fixed traffic—have provided the occasion to go live with a planned 5G launch. The increased bandwidth and speed access will help the operator take this burden off its existing capacity.

The operator has been working on 5G for quite a while now, but it took the pandemic for the South African government to decide to allocate spectrum for it, and Vodacom now benefits from first-mover advantage—not only within South Africa but within the African continent itself. In 2018 Vodacom announced that it had begun modernizing its network to prepare for the deployment of 5G technology in South Africa, subject to the allocation of spectrum. In December 2019, Vodacom and Liquid Telecom reached agreements on managed network services and national roaming for a national 5G network. 

What is essential now that the network has launched for the general public is to make sure that barriers to uptake are reduced as much as possible. It is the right thing to do for Vodacom to make existing 4G/LTE tariffs apply to 5G service for the initial period; that reduces the economic barrier for consumers and businesses. The further reduce it, there is a technological barrier to surmount—5G-enabled devices must be gotten into the hands of as many subscribers as possible, and at affordable prices.

Tarifica is a global SaaS company and a market leader in the real-time collection, analysis and delivery of telecom plan and pricing data worldwide. Through a mix of AI, modeling and market expertise, Tarifica tracks hundreds of thousands of plan and pricing data points daily. No other company tracks more. Tarifica's mission is to continuously convert data into the dynamic intelligence that fuels opportunities for its clients, the world's leading operators, regulators and consultants. 

Learn more about Tarifica at www.tarifica.com.

Extra Spectrum Assigned Amid Data Demand Surges in South Africa

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has granted mobile operators MTN, Vodacom and Telkom emergency spectrum to deal with an increase in data demand during the coronavirus lockdown.

ICASA said it considered applications for temporary radio frequency spectrum assignments in the 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2600 MHz and 3500 MHz bands, including the use of television white spaces (TVWS), in an effort to ensure connectivity during the National State of Disaster. 

The aim is to ease network congestion, maintain good quality of broadband services for consumers, and enable service providers to lower cost of access.

While the lockdown has been extremely damaging or even fatal to many businesses, the mobile telecom sector has proved resilient and even has benefited to some extent, due of course to the greatly increased demand for mobile services for remote working, personal communication and entertainment to pass the time while in quarantine.

The benefit, though, would remain potential only if networks were not able to meet the data demands in a timely and efficient manner. So the freeing up and allocation of spectrum by national regulatory authorities is key if congestion is to be avoided or even mitigated.

In South Africa, Vodacom for example has recorded a 40 percent surge in data traffic since the start of the coronavirus lockdown in that country three weeks ago. While it is true that some of this growth can be attributed to the fact that Vodacom, MTN and some other operators recently zero-rated a number of websites, including university portals, Vodacom said that working from home and home entertainment drove most of the new demand. The trend may even continue a restrictions are loosened and even after the lockdown ends completely, if usage patterns change due to the change in habits. 

Tarifica is a global SaaS company and a market leader in the real-time collection, analysis and delivery of telecom plan and pricing data worldwide. Through a mix of AI, modeling and market expertise, Tarifica tracks hundreds of thousands of plan and pricing data points daily. No other company tracks more. Tarifica's mission is to continuously convert data into the dynamic intelligence that fuels opportunities for its clients, the world's leading operators, regulators and consultants. 

Learn more about Tarifica at www.tarifica.com.

Vodacom South Africa Offers Smartphone Financing for Prepaid Customers

Vodacom South Africa has launched an offer that will enable prepaid customers to purchase smartphones on a 12-month payment plan with zero interest. To make it available, the operator will communicate directly with customers whose eligibility will be determined based on their current prepaid airtime, data spend and length of time on the Vodacom network. Eligible customers who choose the option will pay a 10 percent deposit on the device, and Vodacom will deliver the handset to them in two or three working days. This payment plan will initially be available on a range of 4G/LTE Samsung phones including the Galaxy J4, A1, and A2, with the lower-end device priced at ZAR 799.00 (US $54.80) and the higher end device ZAR 2,999.00 (US $205.68) over 12 months. The company expects that this offer will be extended to other devices in the future.  As operators expand their networks and available services, one of the obstacles to uptake and traffic maximization, especially in developing markets, is lack of compatible devices due to high prices. Some users may not have devices at all, while others may have basic phones without data. So getting 4G/LTE devices into the hands of as many customers as possible is key for any operator. That could be accomplished with device subsidies or, as in this case with Vodacom, by allowing customers to spread the payments over a period of time, without interest or fees. Payment plans are typically allowed for postpaid plans, since the customers are generally signed on for long-term contracts. However, Vodacom is taking the somewhat unusual step of allowing monthly payments for prepaid users. That is justified in light of the fact that prepaid users are more inclined to be budget-oriented and to find smartphones more difficult to afford. Vodacom has stated that it wants to drive digital and financial inclusion by giving their customers the opportunity to purchase 4G-enabled smartphones, and this offer should go a long way toward fulfilling that goal. Expanding the offer to include a wider range of devices from different manufacturers will make it even more appealing over time.

Tarifica is the global leader in monitoring and analyzing telecom pricing. Covering hundreds of operators in every region of the globe, Tarifica’s databases of mobile and fixed line data and voice tariffs are among the largest and most in-depth in the world. Tarifica is also a leading publisher of benchmark and other pricing reports, and its analysts are recognized authorities in the telecom industry, relied upon by operators and businesses worldwide for pricing insight and guidance.   To learn more about Tarifica, please visit www.tarifica.com

Vodacom Tanzania Launches New Business Unit

Vodacom Tanzania has launched a unit specifically to meet the needs of businesses, including large corporations, small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and small and home offices (SOHOs).

The operator noted that large entities such as banks and public-sector agencies need innovative solutions to simplify their operations, keep them competitive and offer asset security. For these purposes, the new unit offers products such as co-location, cloud computing, data MPLS (multiprotocol label-switching), toll-free lines and M-Pesa mobile money for business. Vodacom’s Managing Director, Hisham Hendi, stated that industrial growth in Tanzania has brought about a mushrooming of small and mid-sized businesses that have complex needs in terms of technology and support yet few or limited resources.

While targeted business offerings by mobile operators are nothing new, and while there has been a great deal of growth in offerings for SMEs as distinct from large enterprises, we find this initiative from Vodacom interesting for its acknowledgement of the small office/home office (so-called SOHO) sector.

More people than ever, in a variety of markets of varying levels of development, are working from home or operating their businesses from home. In fact, the very phenomenon of SOHO has been made possible by the internet and mobile technology. So it makes a great deal of sense for a telecom operator to tailor an offering specifically for SOHOs. While the SOHOs can be and of course have been served by solutions designed by SMEs, a more targeted offering will serve their needs better, given that those needs are specific to businesses operating in buildings that are not wired as an office building would be, that do not have the size to benefit from economies of scale and that likely do have budgets significantly smaller than even the smallest of SMEs.

So there are significant revenue opportunities for operators in the growing SOHO sector, and targeting them directly instead of just covering them indirectly as ordinary home service is the way to gain that revenue. Giving home-based businesses access to PBX-type solutions, cloud computing and toll-free lines, enabling them to emulate much larger businesses, is bound to be appealing, if the price is affordable. By filling a widening gap in the marketplace, Vodacom stands to benefit in terms of revenue and subscriber growth, and operators that follow this path with their business offerings—both mobile and fixed line—are likely to carve out a value-added niche for themselves.

Tarifica’s products and services are powered by large-scale data from the global telecom industry and a deep level of expertise gained from our singular focus. We leverage these core attributes to help our clients understand their markets and answer their most challenging questions. Our team of analysts, software engineers and data scientists deliver real-time dynamic solutions for the telecom industry. Our software and state of the art data extraction techniques enable our clients to make smart decisions in real-time based on insightful, actionable data.

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 If you have any questions about this article, feel free to contact our Editor-in-chief John Dorfman at jdorfman@tarifica.com

To learn more about Tarifica, please visit www.tarifica.com 

Cell C to Address Concerns Over Data Expiration

South African operator Cell C plans to tackle the problem of expiring mobile data, according to a report. CEO Jose Dos Santos said that the operator is committed to doing the right thing, following proposed changes to national regulator ICASA’s End-User and Subscriber Service Charter Regulations. ICASA (Independent Communications Authority of South Africa) wants mobile operators to warn customers when their data bundles are about to expire, to block automatic out-of-bundle billing for data, and to allow data bundles to last longer.

Under the proposed regulations, mobile operators Vodacom, MTN and Cell C will have to stop customers from continuing to use data and being billed after a bundle is depleted. The operators must also extend the validity of a data bundle if a subscriber loads a new one before their current one has expired, and must warn subscribers before their bundle expires.

As a general principle, it is a good idea for operators to “get out ahead” of impending regulatory changes, voluntarily changing their own behavior before they are actually forced to do so by law. Such an approach serves as a demonstration of goodwill to customers and therefore shores up loyalty and helps with retention. In addition, the operator that makes the change first achieves a kind of first-mover advantage in terms of public images, especially if the change involves something that is particularly dear to customers’ hearts.

Not running out of data and not being charged excessively are certainly in that category. If Cell C in fact implements data-expiration warnings and stops out-of-bundle billing, it will most likely get an image boost. Deferring making changes and waiting for the inevitable cannot genuinely help an operator in the long run. And speaking of the long term, by building customer goodwill on the subject of data use, operators will actually encourage greater data use, which stands to increase revenue more than a strategy that relies on hoping that customers will run out of data unexpectedly and then be charged for it.



Tarifica is the global leader in monitoring and analyzing telecom pricing. Covering hundreds of operators in every region of the globe, Tarifica’s databases of mobile and fixed line data and voice tariffs are among the largest and most in-depth in the world. Tarifica is also a leading publisher of benchmark and other pricing reports, and its analysts are recognized authorities in the telecom industry, relied upon by operators and businesses worldwide for pricing insight and guidance. 

To learn more about Tarifica, please visit www.tarifica.com 

     

Global Trend: OTT Services Taking Away Market Share

Mobile subscribers in Argentina sent a total of 10.11 billion SMS during February 2015, down 7.2 percent compared to the same months the previous year, according to the national statistics bureau Indec. Compared to the previous month, the number of sent SMS decreased 11.1 percent. This is an example of the global trend, visible in both developing and developed markets, of free or very low-cost OTT services taking market share away from mobile operators’ SMS offerings.

Tarifica is the global leader in monitoring and analyzing telecom pricing. Covering hundreds of operators in every region of the globe, Tarifica’s databases of mobile and fixed line data and voice tariffs are among the largest and most in-depth in the world. Tarifica is also a leading publisher of benchmark and other pricing reports, and its analysts are recognized authorities in the telecom industry, relied upon by operators and businesses worldwide for pricing insight and guidance. Tarifica is a division of T3i Group, a diversified telecom information provider. To learn more about Tarifica, please visit www.tarifica.com.

Vodacom and Tigo Bring Mobile Money Interoperability to Tanzania

Stockholm-based telecommunications and media company Millicom announced this week that the 4 million customers of its Tigo Pesa mobile money service in Tanzania will be the first in Africa to be able to exchange money with the 6 million customers of Vodacom’s M-Pesa mobile money service. A similar launch in 2014 allowed Tigo’s customers to transact similar services with Airtel’s Money and Zantel’s Ezy Pesa customers. “With Tigo Pesa, customers will now have Africa’s first universal mobile money exchange system,” said Millicom Executive Vice President for Africa Arthur Bastings. “They will be able to safely and securely transact with millions more people across the country. It’s another first for Tigo Pesa and Tanzania.” Other Tigo Pesa innovations in the past year include cross-border mobile money exchange with currency conversion included and quarterly returns on Tigo Pesa balances.

Mobile money services offered by the four main MNOs in Tanzania—Airtel, Vodacom, Tigo and Zantel—have been growing steadily for the past five years. In a country where 90 percent of the population do not have bank accounts but cell phone penetration is 75 percent, it is not surprising that roughly half the adult population is already using the mobile money services offered by mobile operators. Last year Tigo, the second-largest operator in Tanzania, was able to broker interoperability deals with the next two smaller operators, Airtel and Zantel, giving their subscribers a wider range for their mobile money transactions. This recent deal with Vodacom, Tanzania’s largest MNO, was brokered after more than a year of negotiations and is a huge win for subscribers.

It is interesting to note that it is the smaller MNOs that stand to gain more from interoperability than the larger ones, as the smaller networks gain access to a proportionately larger subscriber base and the larger ones lose some of their market advantage. However, as we have written before, it is clear that everyone stands to gain from interoperability: the consumers, merchants and government agencies who can make and accept payments more easily, as well as the banks, MNOs and other service providers that can grow revenue by offering more products. So while there will be significant challenges ahead from competing interests in less developed markets, as those mobile money markets mature and MNOs reach the saturation point with their own mobile money users, we expect to see more interoperability deals brokered in other African countries.

The above item appeared in a recent issue of The Tarifica Alert, a weekly resource that analyzes noteworthy developments in the telecoms industry from around the world. To access all of the latest articles and issues or to speak with the research team: http://www.tarifica.com/contactus.aspx

Telkom Ramps Up Support Solutions for SMB Sector

South African operator Telkom has made the delivery of accessible and value-adding functionality for information and communications technology (ICT) systems specifically tailored to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) a priority for 2015. The operator considers the SMB sector to be a leading contributor to the country’s economic growth. Telkom plans to provide converged offerings of fixed, mobile, data, cloud and IT solutions to its business customers. According to Thami Magazi, managing executive of Telkom’s SMB service division, the products that are being developed will go a long way in enhancing efforts aimed at bringing the second economy into the first. In other words, helping these businesses grow will result in less of a disparity between South Africa’s wealthiest and poorest people.

As we have written previously, the telecom industry plays a major role in the economic growth of developing countries. In this environment, Telkom will most likely create new revenue sources with the creation of services for SMBs. As the country’s incumbent fixed line provider, but smallest mobile operator, Telkom is wise to expand its offerings for SMBs. From recent reports, it appears that all of South Africa’s operators have begun to follow a dual strategy of fixed and mobile. Its second-largest national operator, Neotel, has been gaining market share in the fixed line sector, and Vodacom, the country’s largest mobile operator, is awaiting final approval for its planned acquisition of it. The government has created Broadband InfraCo, a national infrastructure company, to provide inexpensive backbone network capacity to service providers. Additionally, Vodacom and MTN have moved into the fixed line and national fiber sector under a converged, service-neutral licensing arrangement, and lastly all of the major players have access to the various international submarine fiber optic cables that are now available in the county. While fixed line is still a small sector in South Africa, these recent events make it a competitive one and Telkom is smart to focus on new services for its business customers, not only to produce new revenue but also as a way to remain as the country’s fixed line leader.

The above item appeared in a recent issue of The Tarifica Alert, a weekly resource that analyzes noteworthy developments in the telecoms industry from around the world. To access all of the latest articles and issues or to speak with the research team: http://www.tarifica.com/contactus.aspx

Telkom Expanding Lead in Plans’ Consumer Value

A new Tarifica study shows Telkom expanding its lead over competing mobile operators in terms of providing the most consumer value for contract plans in South Africa. The results are based on value as measured by the Tarifica Score™, a proprietary algorithm that comprehensively weighs every feature of a mobile plan (including usage allotments, geographic coverage, data speeds, value added features and promotional elements) against the plan’s total costs in order to determine its precise consumer value relative to all other offers in the market. Scores range from 0 (worst) to 100 (best). The Tarifica Score™ was first deployed in South Africa in July 2014 and has been used to rank every contract mobile plan on a monthly basis since.  

After scoring is completed, plans are divided into two categories, “With Phone” and “SIM Only”,   then subdivided into five price segments, creating a total of 10 groups. Of these groups, Telkom’s plans led the field in October, achieving Tarifica “Top Value Plan” status in five groups. Cell C rated second best, winning three of the 10 price segments. MTN and Virgin Mobile were each able to earn just one “Top Value Plan” while Vodacom, after offering the top overall SIM Only plan in the market a mere two months ago, was shut out entirely. 

Commenting on the most notable development in the market during October, Melissa Mascarenhas, Tarifica’s South Africa Analyst, stated, “The addition of unlimited on-net data to Telkom’s SmartPlan 100, 200 and 500 plans with the purchase of a phone considerably enhanced the already solid consumer value of these offers. There simply is no similarly priced alternative in South Africa that includes the volume of allowances available with these plans. Given that Telkom already had the top Tarifica Scores in September, this new promotion served to further expand the operator’s lead.” 

“In today’s mobile marketplace, consumers are flooded with hundreds of plan variations and constantly shifting promotions and deals—the majority of which come with different costs and services and access networks of differing strengths. When making a decision that will likely impact them for up to two years, consumers can use Tarifica Scores to cut through the clutter and identify those plans in every market segment that offer the best value for the money,” stated Tarifica Program Manager, Will Watts.

To Contact Tarifica's Research Team:   http://www.tarifica.com/contactus.aspx

Viettel Announces US $1 Billion 3G Investment in Tanzania

During a visit from Tanzanian president Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete to its Vietnamese headquarters, multinational operator Viettel committed to investing US $1 billion to build a 3G network in Tanzania. Viettel won a license to operate in Tanzania in early October, and one of the conditions was connecting the country’s expansive rural areas with mobile service. On awarding the license, Tanzanian deputy communication, science and technology minster January Makamba stated, “They will roll out broadband through fibre-optic cable to rural Tanzania.”  In announcing this sizable investment so soon after winning the license, Viettel appears to be preparing to make good on this commitment.

The strategy stands in contrast to the path Viettel pursued when it expanded into Peru, where a significant amount of time elapsed between acquiring the license and rolling out the network infrastructure. Viettel’s urgency is likely driven by the crowding of the Tanzanian market—there are already four sizable players, all of which are owned in part by major international telecom players—Bharti Airtel, Tigo (part of Millicom), Vodacom Tanzania and Zantel (part of Etisalat), as well as three smaller operators. Even given this volume of competition, there are still significant opportunities in Tanzania; only 64 percent of the country’s 49.25 million citizens have mobile service. Given the rapid uptake of mobile service in developing economies, however, it is unlikely that the penetration rate will stay this low for long.

In the future, there will likely come a point where some market consolidation is needed—we have seen numerous examples of the unsustainability of markets with five operators—however, with many Tanzanians still unconnected and significant opportunities existing to upsell others to higher-cost service packages, this type of M&A activity does not appear imminent. While Viettel may be getting a late start compared to its competition, it would be foolish to count it out, since the company has significant experience building and marketing mobile service in emerging economies from its operations in eight other markets across Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America.

“With telcos in Europe and North America appearing locked in a constant cycle of increasing infrastructure costs and declining ARPU, companies like Viettel and Millicom, which have significant and expanding operations that are exclusively in emerging markets, could be poised to become among the most important international mobile players in the near future. Not only do the countries they operate in have much more room for growth, their success in these rapidly shifting and diverse markets has required operational flexibility and institutional creativity. This cultural difference has enabled these companies to capitalize on new revenue streams—like mobile money—much faster than many of the established telecom heavyweights.”

Jamie Davella,

Research Analyst at Tarifica

The above item appeared in a recent issue of The Tarifica Alert, a weekly resource that analyzes noteworthy developments in the telecoms industry from around the world. To access all of the latest articles and issues:  http://www.tarifica.com/TarificaAlert.aspx

Vodacom and Samsung Create Connected Police Car

Vodacom South Africa, in partnership with Samsung, has created what it calls the “police car of the future.” Each vehicle includes cameras that are capable of license-plate-number recognition. Connectivity is provided by 3G/4G technology via Vodacom’s fiber and microwave network. Information gathered by the cameras and shared via the mobile connection can be cross-referenced with databases such as those administered by South Africa’s Department of Transport and the Department of Home Affairs. Mobile printers will allow officers to issue summonses with information automatically populated from wirelessly linked databases. The cameras can send encrypted video footage, voice communications, instant messages and other data to a police command center in real time. The equipment can also be fitted to existing vehicles. We think it is extremely savvy of Vodacom to partner with Samsung to create this exclusive targeted offering. It combines the connected-car concept, which is gaining ground in many markets around the world, with the special security needs of law enforcement. While police vehicles in general already have computers and other devices on board that connect to mobile networks, the Vodacom-Samsung car comes already connected to one operator’s network in particular. By leveraging the advantages of the cameras and other technology, Vodacom intends to make sure that police departments in South Africa subscribe to its services rather than those of its competitors.

The above item appeared in a recent issue of Tarifica's "The Story of The Week", a weekly report that analyzes noteworthy developments in the telecoms industry from around the world. For past issues or to learn more about The Story of The Week :  Story Of The Week

Vodacom South Africa Launches Voice Biometrics

Vodacom South Africa has launched a voice biometrics security measure, which allows a person’s unique “voiceprint” to be used as a key to provide access to a mobile device. Vodacom customers can register for it via their My Vodacom app or through the customer-care call center. Once a customer has successfully registered and recorded the voiceprint, he or she will need to repeat a pass-phrase for the system to verify it against the recorded voiceprint. Research has shown that 80 percent of consumers view voice biometrics positively.

Security is a major concern that companies are using more frequently as a means of differentiating themselves from the competition. Apple uses fingerprints, SK Telecom has launched Security Box and now Vodacom South Africa is using voice biometrics. The idea of having a secure feature that prevents others from accessing a device—or at least certain features of it—is comforting to consumers. However, there are also concerns that need to be addressed.

The first is that of reliability. It remains to be seen whether the technology Vodacom uses is going to be reliable enough to not only prevent others from accessing the device but also to ensure that those who should have access will always be able to get it. When the iPhone 5S launched with a fingerprint sensor, there were reports of phones not recognizing when a finger was present or not approving fingerprints it should have. We could imagine a voice sensor failing to recognize a voice if the speaker sounds different from usual, due to illness, for example. The other concern is privacy. According to an estimate by the Associated Press, there are around 65 million “voiceprints” stored in corporate and government databases around the world. Members of the public are concerned that having their voices in a database could compromise their privacy, which could have effects not only for daily life but also with regard to services that require anonymity, such as counseling services and crime-tip hotlines. Overall, it seems that Vodacom is releasing this feature as a differentiation tactic. While it may accomplish that goal, it is unclear whether it will have the security impact that is being advertised.

The above item appeared in a recent issue of The Tarifica Alert, a weekly resource that analyzes noteworthy developments in the telecoms industry from around the world. To access all of the latest articles and issues:  http://www.tarifica.com/TarificaAlert.aspx

Notable Regional Developments

Asia/Pacific

Australian operator Telstra has signed a network-to-network interconnection (NNI) agreement with Indian operator Tata Communications to use Tata’s 116 points of presence (PoPs), as a way to extend Telstra’s reach into the country’s tier II and tier III (smaller and minor) cities, such as Jaipur, Surat and Trichy. This agreement increases Telstra’s access to more than 2,000 PoPs in 230 countries and territories and positions it as one of the most scalable networks across the globe. The initiative augments Telstra’s strategy to include NNI agreements in emerging countries that are showing signs of growth and an increased demand for connectivity.

Europe

France mobile operator Orange’s Business Services unit is partnering with electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors to provide wireless connectivity to drivers of Tesla’s Model S cars in France. Through Orange’s mobile network and SIM cards, consumers can experience connected-car features such as interactive navigation services, internet radio, web browsing, seamless remote diagnostics and over-the-air updates of M2M software.

Latin America

Argentina’s telecoms ministry SeCom announced that the country’s local operators Claro, Personal and Movistar as well as multimedia company Grupo Uno are prequalified to bid on 4G spectrum in the 31 October auction. The government expects to award 90 MHz of spectrum in both the 700 MHz and the 1,700/2,100 MHz bands.

Middle East/Africa

Vodacom Business, a subsidiary of the Vodacom Group that provides connectivity and telecommunications services to businesses, has introduced cloud solutions to its Nigerian customers. Due to security concerns, only a third of businesses in Nigeria are currently using cloud technology. According to Vodacom, its enterprise-class cloud and hosting solutions provide businesses with a secure and reliable IT infrastructure.

North America

U.S. MVNO Kajeet will provide affordable mobile broadband coverage via Sprint’s network to 2,000 additional U.S. school districts, an increase over the 37 districts that Kajeet originally partnered with in the project. Through this connectivity, students are able to access online textbooks, apps, emails, documents and websites. The schools are also providing students with the Kajeet SmartSpot solution, a portable Mi-Fi mobile hotspot to ensure connectivity for students outside of the classroom.

The above item appeared in a recent issue of The Tarifica Alert, a weekly resource that analyzes noteworthy developments in the telecoms industry from around the world. To access all of the latest articles and issues:  http://www.tarifica.com/TarificaAlert.aspx

Telkom Mobile and Vodacom Receive the Highest Tarifica Scores Among South Africa’s Mobile Operators

 Tarifica Scores for all postpaid mobile plans in South Africa are out. The Tarifica Score is an advanced algorithm used to evaluate mobile plans based on the value they offer consumers. Overall, the top two plans were Vodacom’s Smart S (with the +1GB data promotion) and Telkom Mobile’s Completely Unlimited plan, (with-phone version). In the analysis, plans were divided into five segments corresponding to their monthly costs, as follows: under R100, R101-R300, R301-R500, R501-R1000 and more than R1000. Each segment was further split into “With Phone” and “Without Phone” categories – creating 10 segments in all.

“Telkom Mobile’s plans stood well above those from other operators. It offered the best plan in four of the 10 market segments, and had competitive plans in several others. This success was largely driven by the company’s relatively low prices and generous data allowances,” stated Melissa Mascarenhas, Research Analyst at Tarifica.

As for other operators, while Vodacom was able to land one of the top overall spots with its +1GB promotion for the Smart S plan, it was only able to capture one other market segment (under R100 per month without phone). Comparatively, Cell C scored quite well in the mid-priced plans, winning three of the four segments between R301 and R1000, while MTN and Virgin Mobile struggled in most categories. But the latter was at least able to win the honors for best plan that included a phone for under R100 per month.

Tarifica Scores were calculated for every postpaid plan across all the major players in the South African mobile market. These scores provide objective, quantitative comparisons of mobile plans based on a consumer value-oriented approach. The Tarifica Score takes into account factors such as plan allowances (minutes, SMS, MMS and data), network speeds and value added elements, including data sharing, international calling allowances and roaming benefits. It is designed to produce clear apples-to-apples comparisons even in cases where plans appear quite different on their surface, thereby helping consumers understand which plans offer the best value for the money.
Compared to its competitors, MTN’s plans simply did not measure up. Not only did the company fail to win a single market segment, but the majority of its plans were ranked near the bottom of their respective groups. This poor performance was driven by a combination of relatively slow data speeds, high costs, limited features and low allotments. “In analyzing the market, we were surprised that so many plans from the largest operator provided such low value to consumers. We predict that as growing numbers of South Africans adopt more data-heavy usage habits, as is expected in the near future, MTN will either be forced to radically rework its plans or experience significant customer loss,” said Kenneth Dolsky, Tarifica Senior Program Director.

In today’s mobile marketplace, consumers are forced to weigh many factors against cost when purchasing a plan, including allowances for minutes, text messages and data, and the speed and coverage of the operator’s network. Operators are also constantly introducing new offers, special features and promotions that serve to further complicate the decision-making process. The Tarifica Score enables consumers to cut through the clutter and identify those plans in every market segment that offer the best value for the money.
Tarifica Scores were calculated for all the published plans offered by Cell C, MTN, Telkom Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Vodacom. Plan scores are available upon request.


Tarifica, a unit of T3i Group, has been the leading provider of telecom pricing information for close to four 
decades. It maintains the most robust, in-depth and up-to-date pricing database in the industry, which 
includes mobile and fixed line rates from over 400 operators in 85 countries, as well as historical data 
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One Area Network Across East African Community

At a regional telecom meeting held in Kigali, Rwanda, various Ministers from four East African Community (EAC) countries—Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan—signed an agreement that will require operators in these countries to adopt and implement the framework for a One Area Network in the region by 31 December 2014. The launch of the One Area Network will abolish roaming charges among the four countries, and subscribers traveling there will be charged as local users on the visited country’s network. Additionally, calls that originate in any of the member countries will no longer be charged at international rates but at lower local rates. According to reports, Tanzania and Burundi did not participate in the meetings.

Before August 2012, when a US $0.22 per minute tax on all incoming calls was introduced by the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority and a subsequent surge of similar taxes on international calls took place across the region, operators such as Safaricom in Kenya and MTN in Uganda and Rwanda had entered into mutual agreements that allowed their subscribers to make calls at no extra cost when traveling within the EAC. Vodacom Tanzania also had a comparable deal during that time. It mimicked the borderless network innovation that was spearheaded by Airtel’s predecessors Celtel and Zain in December 2006 across its operations in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. However, once taxes were levied, the cost of calling across East Africa greatly increased, with operators raising their prices to pay for operating costs and realize profits.

With One Area Network, the current trend in the EAC is to reduce the high costs of making calls across borders, which according to subscribers is higher in some cases than the cost of calls to China, the U.S. or the U.K. While we have written several times about the abolition of roaming charges in the EU, it is likely that we will begin to see roaming charges reduced or eliminated in other regions such as the EAC and Russia and its Eastern European and Central Asian neighbors. We believe that this will have a positive impact not only on subscribers but on operators, as well, since the elimination of roaming rates will most likely result in increased phone use by customers while traveling.

  In the EAC, the regional economy is also likely to benefit, because lower calling rates will result in lower operating costs for businesses, and the end of roaming should help the mobile money industry, in particular. Mobile money is very much a way of life in the EAC, and it is a steady revenue stream for operators. One Area Network is just one of the initiatives to reduce roaming and international call charges that have emerged in the Middle East and Africa since 2013. Airtel and MTN both offer “roam like home” prices to their subscribers who are traveling in countries in which they operate, and we expect to see this trend expand even further.

The above item appeared in a recent issue of The Tarifica Alert, a weekly resource that analyzes noteworthy developments in the telecoms industry from around the world. To access all of the latest articles and issues:  http://www.tarifica.com/TarificaAlert.aspx

EU Confirms Roaming Rate Cuts Starting in July

The European Commission has confirmed its new cuts in mobile roaming rates, which will take effect starting 1 July 2014. The cost of making a call when traveling in the EU drops 21 percent to €0.19 (US $0.26) per minute; the cost of receiving a call falls by 28.5 percent to €0.05 (US $0.06) per minute; SMS costs decrease 25 percent to €0.06 (US $0.08) per text and data services fall by 55.5 percent to €0.20 (US $0.27) per MB. (All prices exclude VAT.) The rates are now down 80 to 90 percent from when the EU first started regulating prices in 2007. Proposed legislation would see roaming surcharges eliminated entirely beginning next year; operators would be required to charge the same prices as they do in their home markets.

The size of these cuts shows that the EU is serious about dialing down roaming within its borders. The rate reduction for data use, at 55.5 percent, is particularly significant, not only for the generosity of the amount but because of the increasing importance of data services for those traveling abroad. The falling rates may have the effect of increasing subscribers’ use of roaming services and thereby offset mobile operators’ losses to some extent. However, the writing on the wall could not be clearer: Now is the time for MNOs to find replacements for a revenue stream that will almost certainly run dry in the near future.

The above item appeared in a recent issue of Tarifica's "The Story of The Week", a weekly report that analyzes two noteworthy developments in the telecoms industry from around the world. For past issues or to learn more about The Story of The Week :  http://www.tarifica.com/storyoftheweek.aspx