Telecom Operators

Huawei and Tunisia have agreed to strengthen cooperation on ICT talents cultivation, digital economy development and public safety. Vice president for Huawei public relations Xue Man met with Tunisian President Mr. Béji Essebsi to exchange views on how to better promote digital transformation of Tunisian industry. In July 31st 2018, Huawei had the meeting with Tunisian Prime Minister, and the meeting this time with Mr. President is a good following-up to the agreement of deepening cooperation in digital economy and local ICT talents.

Nokia and Telecom Egypt announced they will build the first cloud infrastructure in Egypt exclusively for Internet of Things (IoT) services. Telecom Egypt will use Nokia's Worldwide IoT Network Grid (WING) as a Service as the platform to launch IoT services for the enterprise segment later this year.

Liquid Telecom Kenya, part of the leading pan-African telecoms group Liquid Telecom, and Nokia announced a two-year partnership to upgrade their existing fiber network to support OTN/DWDM technology with an initial network capacity of 500G. This will result in a faster and more reliable connection along the route from the Indian Ocean to datacenters in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and neighboring countries.

Telecom Egypt and Ericsson have announced their collaboration at the Mobile World Congress 2019 on the upgrade of Telecom Egypt’s Cloud Core Network and the deployment of Artificial intelligence.

Out There Media (OTM), a global leader in mobile advertising and data monetization, continues its expansion in Africa and the Middle East, by being awarded the tender to build a digital advertising super hub for MTN Group.

Uganda has deported the Belgian head of South African telecoms giant MTN's local branch, making him the fourth employee to be kicked out of the country this year. Police spokesman Fred Enanga said that MTN Uganda's chief executive Wim Vanhelleputte had been deported on “over national security”. Gordian Kyomukama, currently chief technology officer, had been appointed acting chief executive “to ensure business continuity”.

MTN and BICS announced that they have extended their long-term commercial partnership, effective 1 March 2019 (subject to MTN Group Board ratification). This extension to their current partnership comes as a natural next step following a long journey of strategic cooperation, initiated in 2009 and renewed in 2014.

Telecom Egypt and Orange Data announced the signing of a new agreement on bitstream access services. Orange Data is the first operator to sign this agreement aiming to provide its customers with higher speed internet services. The agreement avails the use of new technologies including fiber to the home (FTTH) and VDSL raising the maximum speed to 100Mbps from 16Mbps previously.

Ericsson announced the signing of two new contracts with Etisalat Misr to expand the latter’s 4G network capabilities and extend the Managed Services deal. These contracts are part of Etisalat and Ericsson’s strategic partnership to ensure the best network availability in Egypt.

Airtel Kenya, subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, has signed an agreement with Telkom Kenya to merge their respective mobile, enterprise and carrier services businesses to create a new joint entity, Airtel Telkom. This move will likely increase competition in the Kenyan market with telecom leader Safaricom.