South Africa’s MTN Group has announced the end of a decade-long legal battle centered on its Iranian subsidiary, MTN Irancell.
The second most populous nation in the world, India, also boasts the world’s second-largest mobile market, with almost 1.15 billion subscriptions at the end of June 2022, according to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database.
The country’s mobile customers are getting access to 5G services for the first time this month following the widely anticipated launch.
Hello podcast listeners. It's Tuesday, which means there's a new episode of TeleGeography Explains the Internet hot off the press.
Our latest guest is Waheed Adam, Global Board Director of the Mobile Ecosystem Forum and Executive Chairperson at iTouch Messaging Service. He was a fantastic guest who brought a wealth of knowledge—and some really excellent stories—about mobile adoption as infrastructure in Africa.
Punch the play button below if you'd like to hear his chat with host Greg Bryan and Senior Research Manager Patrick Christian.
Africa’s mobile communications market continues to grow at a steady pace. And take up shows no signs of slowing.
Subscription numbers were up 5% in 2021, following growth of 7% the year before and 6% in 2019.
According to figures from our GlobalComms Database, at the end of 2021 the continent was home to 1.22 billion mobile subscriptions, up from 1.16 billion 12 months earlier.
Last month, it was revealed that South Africa’s MTN Group received a $31 million offer from an unnamed buyer for 100% of the shares in its Afghanistan subsidiary. The deal means that MTN is another step closer to exiting the Middle East.
Today, we take a look at how MTN set about dismantling its Middle Eastern portfolio and examine its exit strategy.
Welcome to Part 2 of our analysis of the regional cellular scene in the United States!
In this installment, we scrutinize some of the most interesting cellcos operating in far-flung corners of rural America.
If you missed Part 1 of our deep dive, you can catch up here.
The U.S. mobile market is notoriously ultra-competitive, and household names like Sprint aren't the only ones to have been squeezed out in recent years.
Since 2020, Verizon Wireless has snapped up regional players such as Chat Mobility, Bluegrass Cellular, Triangle Mobile, and Chariton Valley Communications.
Tellingly, all four operators were participants in the telecom giant’s “LTE in Rural America” program, which leased 700MHz of spectrum to regional players in areas where Verizon had no intention of deploying infrastructure. After going live in 2010, the project was completed in October 2015, when all 21 participants were confirmed to be operational.
At the program’s peak, operators collectively covered more than 2.7 million people across 169 rural counties in 15 states.
Despite Verizon’s low-key takeover spree, dozens of smaller players continue to thrive in the U.S. This week we take a deep dive into the regional cellular scene and uncover the cellcos serving rural America.
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