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…
South Africa has, for the first time, formally earmarked the entire upper 6GHz band for mobile networks, handing operators a potential 700MHz of prime mid-band spectrum and settling – at least directionally – a global tug of war between the cellular industry and Wi-Fi advocates over the most valuable unassigned frequencies in telecommunications. The decision…
Absa CEO Kenny Fihla with home affairs minister Leon Schreiber Absa and the department of home affairs have launched South Africa’s first bank-based mobile unit for smart ID renewals — a vehicle that will take identity services directly into remote, peri-urban and underserved communities, starting in Gauteng. The unit, unveiled at Absa’s Tembisa branch on…
Kampala, Uganda — East Africa’s growing appetite for mobile internet continued to fuel Airtel Africa’s Mobile Services business during the quarter ended June 30, 2026, helping lift mobile services revenue to $607 million, up from $498 million in the same quarter last year. The performance reflects sustained growth in digital adoption across the region, with…
