According to September 2012 figures from the NCC, Nigeria has over 107m active mobile subscribers, with teledensity of 76.7%. Networks have become so congested in Nigeria that the NCC recently issued a ban on promotions and lotteries.
Meanwhile, South African publication Tech Central ran a quote from MTN’s Managing Director Karel Pienaar in August 2012, saying: “The reality is, if you look at the infrastructure on the ground, it’s not our core focus, so we don’t leverage it to the extent that perhaps we could. If you put it into an entity that can leverage it, then you have improved efficiencies.” Meanwhile, Vodacom has increased the number of LTE-enabled base stations on its network from less than 70 at launch in October 2012, to over 200 in Johannesburg.
Amid rumors that Egypt could add a fourth license in Q1 2013, check out the interview with Tony Dolton, CTO of Vodafone Egypt here for hints of intent to form a carve-out joint venture towerco in this high penetration country.
