Saturday, March 22, 2014
Global voice and data services provider Glocall Telecoms, through its Somali operator subsidiary Sahal Telecoms, has announced it will deploy LTE services in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.
The service is expected to be commercially live in 3Q14 and the operator added that its subsidiaries in East and West Africa will now also look to deploy LTE services to consumers and public and private organisations.
The LTE deployment demonstrates the appetite for next generation mobile services in the poverty-stricken country, which is considered one of the poorest countries in the world.
According to the latest figures from the CIA World Factbook, Somalia is the third poorest country in the world with a GDP per capita of $600, placing it 227th out of the 229 countries monitored. However, the country has a 48.1 per cent mobile penetration as of 1Q13, according to Informa’s WCIS, which places it higher than several other African nations, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (30.91 per cent), Ethiopia (24.63 per cent), Malawi (31.39 per cent) and Djibouti (34.66 per cent).
Rather than build its own network to deliver the technology, Glocall claims to have found a more cost effective approach to deploy the provide LTE services to Somalia’s capital. The firm is using an “LTE-as-a-Service” offering from managed services provider Tazca Connect. Telecoms.com will be speaking with Tazca Connects in the coming weeks to find out more.