There are four MNOs active in the Angolan telecoms sector, with Africell quickly snapping up market share after launching in 2022 becoming the country’s second largest operator.
Africell is competing with market-leader Unitel, which is currently 100% state-owned after the government seized the shares of Isabel dos Santos, daughter of the president, and a close associate. Both Angola Telecom and Mobicel have small minority shares of the market due to ongoing capital and management process issues.
Investment in tower infrastructure is high, as Africell is expanding its network to remain competitive, while Unitel is preparing to IPO in 2024 to attract foreign investment and raise fresh capital for network expansion, as well as forming part of the government’s wider privatisation strategy in the country.
Angola’s ministry of telecommunications is also looking at expanding Angola Telecom’s network, investing US$188.8mn in rural expansion and working with the Angosat-2 communications satellite launched back in October 2022 to develop a shared infrastructure network for rural internet connectivity.
With market competition intensifying, Unitel is upgrading and expanding its 4G network, and preparing sites for 5G implementation. There is a nascent culture of tower sharing in Angola.
ANTOSC has begun to make progress with Unitel and Africell, but state-owned Movicel’s revolving door of senior executives has meant little institutional understanding of the model. At present local towerco ANTOSC’s expansion is self-financing, and they are seeking US$20-30mn in financing to enable them to expand.
Local MSP Anglobal is providing ESCO services on 2,500 generators while also managing 2,000 sites under a managed services contract, although only their ESCO sites with ANTOSC are on a full energy-as-a-service model. Multiple issues make passive infrastructure management in Angola challenging.
Like other post-communist states land is officially owned by the government so local landowners often lack the required documents for tower permitting, which explains the high numbers of rooftop sites. Energy is also a challenge, both due to the high cost of imported equipment and the poor quality of the grid.
Grid availability is relatively stable and quite good in Luanda, Benguela, Lobito and Lubango, and when available is relatively cheap at 5 US cents per kilowatt hour.
However, especially in summer the grid is unreliable and back-up generators are required, genset cycling is also becoming more common. Land is scarce in Luanda so solar has seen little roll-out, although government subsidies may see uptake increase in less dense areas. Africell has installed back up gensets at most site locations, but run time is minimal.
