Someone invented the telephone,
And interrupted a nation's slumbers,
Ringing wrong but similar numbers – Ogden Nash.
Airtel stuck gold when they announced that they had closed the deal to buy the African assets of Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Company or Zain Telecom. Sunil Bharthi Mittal toiled hard to tie up with MTN but more than MTN, I think Zain telecom makes more sense. An important thing here is that a majority of the regions of Africa is a book of untapped potential secrets in the telecommunication sector. Even though the Tata – Corus deal is right up there in terms of the value, I personally feel, the amount of benefits Airtel will make out of this deal is going to be tremendous. Airtel would have already spent millions in their 3G spectrum auction in India and the acquisition of Zain would come as a significant relief. The important thing here is that this will mean more revenues for Airtel from Africa as it will try to penetrate deep into the markets. Now Airtel will be up against the arms of Vivendi, Orange, Vodafone, Orascom and MTN. In the past decade, these companies have invested in total a sum of more than $22 billion in Africa to tap unmapped potential. It will have to make sure that the marketing strategies are in place to work out wonders in Africa and also ensure that they introduce lower tariffs to gain significant share of the major pie. The present financial crisis is likely to see consolidation in the telecommunication industry which is taking place at a faster rate.
Africa is the fastest growing cellular market in the world. It represents around 10% of the total cellular connections worldwide and around 450 million connections are expected by the end of this year. The majority of the fastest growing markets are in Northern and Western Africa which represent altogether 63% of the total connections in the region. The majority of the competitive markets are in Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, Congo, Kenya, Algeria, Tunisia, Ghana and South Africa. These markets are facing stiff competition from Vodafone, Orange, Zain(Now Airtel) and MTN and these are companies that benefit from larger economies of scale and substantial liquidity, enabling them to face short term challenges. This is really not surprising as even Steve Jobs has made it clear that Apple is expanding the sales of IPhone 4G on the global scale by September, 2010.
May be this is just a start from Sunil Mittal. Who knows, Airtel might even next year jump on to Latin American markets? With Airtel, it’s very clear in India – Low Tariffs, Higher Usage (Sometimes, even no network). Some of the most probable constraints are that Airtel needs to get the tower deals, base stations and network expansion strategies in place and will need to build on existing paths created by Zain.
In India, even though there has been a high growth rate in the telecommunication sector, we tend to pay higher rates for data on the go rather than voice. With 3G set to get in, the rates might get controlled but in regions of Africa, there has been a very high growth rate with several players entering the field. Now Airtel might also need to plan strategically for every country under its belt as the regulations and other barriers might differ. May be this is not the real picture. May be the picture has just begun and we are drawing conclusions only with the telecom sector where as Airtel would want to explore the wealth of Africa in other areas such as retail, real estate, manufacturing, food and financial services. So the first step should always be the safe and the most secure bet. Hence they landed with their telecommunication arm rather than any other. May be Airtel is on its way to achieve “One Voice, One Nation, One Africa”.
And interrupted a nation's slumbers,
Ringing wrong but similar numbers – Ogden Nash.
Airtel stuck gold when they announced that they had closed the deal to buy the African assets of Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Company or Zain Telecom. Sunil Bharthi Mittal toiled hard to tie up with MTN but more than MTN, I think Zain telecom makes more sense. An important thing here is that a majority of the regions of Africa is a book of untapped potential secrets in the telecommunication sector. Even though the Tata – Corus deal is right up there in terms of the value, I personally feel, the amount of benefits Airtel will make out of this deal is going to be tremendous. Airtel would have already spent millions in their 3G spectrum auction in India and the acquisition of Zain would come as a significant relief. The important thing here is that this will mean more revenues for Airtel from Africa as it will try to penetrate deep into the markets. Now Airtel will be up against the arms of Vivendi, Orange, Vodafone, Orascom and MTN. In the past decade, these companies have invested in total a sum of more than $22 billion in Africa to tap unmapped potential. It will have to make sure that the marketing strategies are in place to work out wonders in Africa and also ensure that they introduce lower tariffs to gain significant share of the major pie. The present financial crisis is likely to see consolidation in the telecommunication industry which is taking place at a faster rate.
Africa is the fastest growing cellular market in the world. It represents around 10% of the total cellular connections worldwide and around 450 million connections are expected by the end of this year. The majority of the fastest growing markets are in Northern and Western Africa which represent altogether 63% of the total connections in the region. The majority of the competitive markets are in Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, Congo, Kenya, Algeria, Tunisia, Ghana and South Africa. These markets are facing stiff competition from Vodafone, Orange, Zain(Now Airtel) and MTN and these are companies that benefit from larger economies of scale and substantial liquidity, enabling them to face short term challenges. This is really not surprising as even Steve Jobs has made it clear that Apple is expanding the sales of IPhone 4G on the global scale by September, 2010.
May be this is just a start from Sunil Mittal. Who knows, Airtel might even next year jump on to Latin American markets? With Airtel, it’s very clear in India – Low Tariffs, Higher Usage (Sometimes, even no network). Some of the most probable constraints are that Airtel needs to get the tower deals, base stations and network expansion strategies in place and will need to build on existing paths created by Zain.
In India, even though there has been a high growth rate in the telecommunication sector, we tend to pay higher rates for data on the go rather than voice. With 3G set to get in, the rates might get controlled but in regions of Africa, there has been a very high growth rate with several players entering the field. Now Airtel might also need to plan strategically for every country under its belt as the regulations and other barriers might differ. May be this is not the real picture. May be the picture has just begun and we are drawing conclusions only with the telecom sector where as Airtel would want to explore the wealth of Africa in other areas such as retail, real estate, manufacturing, food and financial services. So the first step should always be the safe and the most secure bet. Hence they landed with their telecommunication arm rather than any other. May be Airtel is on its way to achieve “One Voice, One Nation, One Africa”.
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