West and Central Africa Telecommunications Industry Update Quarter 3 2012

• Publication date: June 2012
• Report size: 91 pages

Includes 3 FREE quarterly updates BMI’s Q3 2012 report on the telecommunications industry s of West and Central Africa contains the latest five-year projections for the fixed-line telephony, mobile subscriber and internet segments of seven countries: Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Gabon, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal. Our growth projections for these seven countries, which extend to th...

Includes 3 FREE quarterly updates

BMI’s Q3 2012 report on the telecommunications industry s of West and Central Africa contains the latest
five-year projections for the fixed-line telephony, mobile subscriber and internet segments of seven countries:
Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Gabon, Mali, Mauritania and
Senegal. Our growth projections for these seven countries, which extend to the end of 2016, are based on
YE11 industry data published by the region’s operators and telecoms regulators.
The mobile segment continues to be the most active in West and Central Africa, mainly because of industry
liberalisation and investment from major regional operators, including France’s Orange (present in
Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Senegal), Luxembourg’s Millicom (in Senegal and the DRC) and
Morocco’s Maroc Telecom (in Gabon, Mali and Mauritania). Other regional telecoms investors include
South Africa’s MTN and Vodacom, Sudan’s Sudatel, India’s Bharti Airtel and Atlantique Telecom,
which is owned by Etisalat of the UAE. Towards the end of this report, we publish profiles on Orange,
MTN, Maroc Telecom and Atlantique Telecom, surveying the regional activities of these four operators.
The major market -specific and macroeconomic developments since our last update that are likely to
affect the telecoms industry s of some countries in the region include the award of a 3G licence in Côte
d’Ivoire, the launch of the West Africa Cable System (WACS) and the deterioration of the security
situation in Mali. BMI expects the arrival 3G services in Côte d’Ivoire and other countries in the region,
and access to efficient and cost-effective international bandwidth from submarine cables to boost internet
services in the region. In Mali the worsening security situation should be worrying for existing operators
and the Cable & Wireless-backed consortium, which won the third mobile licence in January 2012.
The rapid growth of 3G and other wireless data networks supports our view that wireless broadband
technologies will be the main form of internet access in Africa. We expect the increasing availability of
low-cost smartphones and the growth of social networking and e-government services to drive take-up of
3G services. We have not significantly upgraded our internet and broadband penetration projection for the
seven countries in our Q312 West and Central Africa report. We do note that the timely deployment of
3G networks poses an upside risks to our projection and will be reflected in our subsequent updates.
Meanwhile, the 17,000km, 5.1Tbps ACE submarine cable system is due to go live in H212 in countries
along the West coast of Africa, including Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire and Cameroon. This will follow the
commercial launch of the 14,000km WACS submarine cable with landing points in Côte’Ivoire,
Cameroon and DRC. Mali is the only country in the region without direct access to a submarine cable
because of its geographic location. We expect it to seek access through terrestrial cable networks running
through its neighbours that have direct access to one or more submarine cables. But as mentioned
previously, the ongoing security challenges in the country could have a negative effect on public and
private funding high-value infrastructure such as fibre-optic networks.

Telecommunication Services Industry in France

Executive Summary .. 7
Industry SWOT Analysis .... 8
West And Central Africa Mobile SWOT . 8
West And Central Africa Fixed-Line And Broadband SWOT .... 9
Risk/Reward Ratings ... 10
Sub-Saharan Africa 10
Data : Sub-Saharan Africa Risk/Reward Ratings, Q312 .... 13
Macroeconomic Environment ... 14
Data : West And Central Africa Macroeconomic Overview.... 14

Market Projection Scenario .. 17
Mobile 17
Data : Telecoms Segment – Mobile Data 17
Fixed Line .... 19
Data : Telecoms Segment – Fixed Line ... 19
Internet.... 21
Data : Telecoms Segment – Internet And Broadband .. 21
Market Data Analysis ... 24
Mobile 24
Cameroon .... 24
Data : Cameroon Mobile Industry, Q411 ... 26
Côte d’Ivoire 27
Data : Côte d’Ivoire Mobile Industry, Q411 .... 29
DRC ... 29
Data : DRC Mobile Industry, Q411 .. 32
Gabon 32
Data : Gabon Mobile Industry, Q411 .... 34
Mali ... 34
Data : Mali Mobile Industry, Q411 .. 36
Mauritania ... 36
Data : Mauritania Mobile Industry, Q411 .. 37
Senegal ... 37
Data : Senegal Mobile Industry, Q411 .. 39
Regional Mobile Content.. 40
Data : Major Players Leverage Footprint In VAS Deployment ... 44
Data : Cameroon Mobile Industry Overview ... 45
Data : Cote d’Ivoice Mobile Industry Overview ... 45
Data : DRC Mobile Industry Overview . 45
Market Data Overview . 46
Data : Gabon Mobile Industry Overview .... 46
Data : Mali Mobile Industry Overview .. 46
Data : Mauritania Mobile Industry Overview . 46
Data : Senegal Mobile Industry Overview .. 47
Fixed Line And Internet ... 47
Cameroon .... 47
Côte d’Ivoire 50
DRC ... 51
Gabon 52
Mali ... 53
Mauritania ... 54
Senegal ... 55
Regulatory Environment And Market Developments ... 58
Data : West And Central Africa Telecoms Regulators .. 58
Cameroon .... 58
Côte d’Ivoire 59
DRC ... 59
Gabon 60
Mali ... 60
Mauritania ... 61
Senegal ... 61
Company Monitor ... 63
ATC Financial Statements (US$mn) .... 65
Company Profiles ... 67
MTN ... 67
Data : MTN .. 67
Data : MTN Group, March 2012 .... 70
France Télécom 71
Data : France Télécom .... 71
Data : France Télécom Internet Subscribers, from 2009 to 2011 (‘000) . 73
Data : France Télécom Africa Subscribers, from 2010 to 2011 (‘000) .... 75
Maroc Telecom . 76
Data : Maroc Telecom 76
Atlantique Telecom 78
Data : Atlantique Telecom .... 78
Data : Atlantique Telecom Mobile Industries’ Mobile Penetration And Population Size .. 79
Regional Telecommunications Penetration Overview .... 81
Fixed Line .... 81
Data : Regional Fixed-Line Penetration Overview .. 81
Mobile 82
Data : Regional Mobile Penetration Overview ... 82
Internet ... 83
Data : Regional Internet Use Penetration Overview 83
Glossary Of Terms .. 84
Data : Glossary Of Terms 84
BMI Methodology .... 86
How We Generate Our Market Projections .... 86
Data : Key Indicators For Telecommunications Market Projections . 86
Telecoms Business Environment Ratings .. 88
Risk/Reward Ratings Methodology . 88
Data : Ratings Indicators . 89
Weighting 90
Data : Weighting Of Indicators.. 90
Sources ... 90