African Safari

Category: International | No Comments | Posted on September 15, 2006

Bharti and MTNL will bid for the second national telecom operator (SNO) licence in Africa’s third largest economy Kenya.

Other qualified bidders include France Telecom, Telkom of South Africa and Emirates Telecommunications Corp.

The successful bidder will be offered one licence for all services – cellular, internet backbone, international voice gateway, commercial VSAT and national and international long-distance services.

There is increasing activity of Indian telcos in Africa. I think Indian telcos are well suited for third world countries because of their experience in running large profitable operations on one of the lowest tariff regimes in the world.

VSNL has a 26% stake in InfraCo, an upcoming telecom infrastructure company in South Africa. VSNL is also the largest shareholder in NeoTel, South Africa’s second SNO which kicked off operations last month.

MTNL already holds a licence to offer fixed line services in Kenya in a joint venture with Telecom Consultants of India and a local partner. The company also has investments in Nepal and Mauritius.

Related:
Bharti considering exapanding in Africa
Tatas to invest in South African telco InfraCo

Source: ET

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