Airtel Africa’s Gopal Vittal, Vodafone Group’s Margherita Della Valle and MTN Group’s Ralph Mupita The three people at the top of the GSMA, the global mobile industry body, all run operators with large African businesses. The GSMA’s board has re-elected Gopal Vittal as chair for a second term, which runs until December 2028. It also…
DJ Zinhle DJ Zinhle, one of South Africa’s best-known DJs, is launching her own mobile network. Bestie Connect is a prepaid mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that runs on MTN’s infrastructure and is aimed squarely at her followers. The venture is being built with BlueStream Mobile, an MVNO advisory business run by Hymie Marnewick, who…
SpaceX is reportedly evaluating options to launch its own consumer mobile carrier service through potential transaction structures involving Boost Mobile, according to a report by The Washington Post. The Elon Musk-led aerospace company has held preliminary discussions with Boost Mobile’s parent company, EchoStar, as it seeks to expand its direct-to-cell satellite capabilities into a full-scale…
Mobile operators in Africa have about a quarter less spectrum than their peers elsewhere, and pay 24% more for each unit of it relative to their revenue, according to a new report from the GSMA, the industry body that represents mobile operators. The report, Spectrum Policy in Africa, published this month by GSMA Intelligence, found…
Starlink satellites being blasted into space aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in a file photograph SpaceX struck a deal on Thursday to acquire a nationwide portfolio of low-band spectrum, moving Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite company closer to mounting a direct challenge from orbit to America’s established mobile operators. SpaceX will pay about US$8-billion…
Mission Mobile co-founder and CEO Timothy Strike Most of the up to R500-million that investment group DNI has committed to Mission Mobile, a Johannesburg start-up that sells smartphones on repayment terms through mobile operators’ stores, is debt, co-founder and CEO Timothy Strike told TechCentral. The package is “majority debt”, with DNI also taking an equity…
Adam and Tim Strike, co-founders of Mission Mobile. Mission Mobile has secured R500 million in funding from South African investment holding company DN Invest (DNI), as the mobile technology start-up prepares to scale its work with mobile network operators (MNOs). The Johannesburg-based company says it secured the funding from DNI’s own resources and ring-fenced debt…
Communications regulator Icasa has retracted a suggestion by one of its councillors that South Africa’s mobile operators may be colluding over new data expiry rules, an embarrassing climbdown for the authority three days after the claim was aired in parliament. In a statement late on Friday, Icasa said it had received “numerous requests for clarification”…
SpaceX plans to build ground-based network infrastructure and turn Starlink into a full mobile service, president Gwynne Shotwell said on Tuesday — a shift that knocked shares in the largest US wireless carriers and puts the satellite operator on a collision course with terrestrial mobile networks. The company bought 65MHz of wireless spectrum licences from…
MTN Ghana said the proceedings do not affect its operations, services or Mobile Money business. MTN Group and fintech firm Clydestone Ghana are locked in a legal dispute over the alleged unauthorised use of intellectual property linked to the West African country’s mobile money sector. Clydestone this week filed a writ of summons and statement…
