Research and Markets: Namibia - Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband and Forecasts

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/b6123b/namibia_telecoms) has announced the addition of the "Namibia - Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband and Forecasts" report to their offering.

Namibia was one of the last countries in Africa to introduce competition in the mobile communications sector when a second network finally launched in 2007. Despite this, the country has achieved a market penetration rate well above the regional average. However, the average revenue per user has more than halved since then. Both operators - MTC (managed by Portugal Telecom) and Cell One (renamed Leo by its new owner, Orascom) - have entered the Internet and broadband market with mobile data services in a bid to create new revenue streams.

Fixed-line services are still a monopoly of Telecom Namibia (TN), but as a member of the WTO the government plans to open the telecom sector to full competition. TN quietly entered the lucrative mobile market as the third player with a CDMA network but was put on hold by the industry regulator until a new Communications law was enacted at the end of 2009 which among other issues addresses fixed-mobile convergence.

Despite being reasonably competitive with seven ISPs, development of Namibia's Internet and broadband sector has been held back by high prices for international bandwidth, caused by the lack of a direct connection to international submarine fibre optic cables. This will change in 2011 when the first such cable is scheduled to land in the country. In the meantime, Namibia is working to diversify its transit access routes via neighbouring countries, but broadband prices on the retail level have gone up recently rather than down.

The country is well prepared for a broadband boom, with national fibre backbone infrastructure being rolled out by at least two companies and the mobile operators upgrading their networks to 3G technology. Several WiMAX and other wireless broadband services offer additional access options and are standing by to bring additional competition to the voice market as well once Internet telephony (VoIP) is deregulated.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Executive summary

2. Key statistics

3. Telecommunications market

4. Regulatory environment

5. Fixed-network operator in Namibia

6. International infrastructure

7. Internet market

8. Broadband market

9. Convergence

10. Mobile communications

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/b6123b/namibia_telecoms

CONTACT:

Research and Markets
Laura Wood, Senior Manager
press@researchandmarkets.com
U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907
Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

KEYWORDS:   Namibia  Africa

INDUSTRY KEYWORDS:   Technology  Internet  Telecommunications

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