South Sudan government suspends work of telecom companies
* Article
* Comments (18)
email Email
print Print
pdfSave
separation
increase
decrease
separation
separation
*
*
*
*
March 21, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The government of South Sudan (GoSS)
notified telecom companies that it will temporarily suspend their work
while they issue new regulations governing their operations in the
region that is set to become independent next July.
Hesham Mustafa Allam, chief operation officer for Zain, largest mobile
phone operator in Sudan, told Reuters that this decision could force
them to delay some work on cell towers and laying of fibre-optics.
Though he expected the company’s mobile license to be valid in South
Sudan after July, Allam said he could not be "100 percent sure" that
would be the case either.
The South Sudan government last week accused the North of tapping the
phones of its senior through telecom companies officials and produced
documents to prove that. However, the Khartoum-based government denied
the charge.
Zain launched its network in South Sudan five years ago and in 2008
launched a major expansion initiative that saw growth in towers from a
handful to around 150 with a total cost of $300 million. This was made
despite logistical challenges and the lack of information on the
profitability of the market in a region that is just emerging from a
two-decades civil war.
The company’s move south is key after losing its lion’s share of
Sudan’s market in 2007 to fierce competition in the rest of the
country from the part-government owned operator Sudani.
"For Zain, the decision to rollout in South Sudan was purely a
strategic decision; it was not a business decision, because at that
time we had Zain Uganda and Zain Kenya and so to have one network you
couldn’t have it without South Sudan," he said.
"[Having] said this, we believe there is opportunity in South Sudan.
We will not say South Sudan is not good for business. There’s still
opportunity for business in South Sudan when things start to stabilize
and infrastructure is there."
(ST)
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD
info" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
