Progress has also been made with terrestrial links. Angola Telecom in May 2021 completed an 800km cross-border cable linking Luanda to Cabinda province, bordering the DRC. The cable has onward connectivity across the DRC.Liquid Intelligent Technologies and Facebook have also partnered to build a 2,000km network in the DRC which will serve as a hub for connecting to other cables linking to Atlantic Ocean to East Africa. This creates a digital corridor connecting the DRC with Angola and other countries in the region, with work expected to be completed by late 2023.A separate 600km link connecting Angola and the DRC was completed by Internet Technologies Angola (ITA) in September 2021, providing an additional 200Gb/s of capacity which is expected to result in reduced access prices for end-users. Investment in the cable by Partus Group was stimulated by the strong growth in broadband traffic and connectivity needs resulting from measures adopted by the government during the pandemic.In line with these developments, the government has launched a tender for an operator to manage Angola Telecom’s national backbone and metropolitan networks. The new operator of the company’s network infrastructure is expected to improve the quality of services nationally by extending metro fibre networks.
Key developments:
Africell Angola launches commercial mobile services;
Regulator awards spectrum in the 3.3-3.7GHz range to the MNOs for 5G services;
State takes full control of Unitel;
Angola and the DRC agree to coordinate spectrum at their borders;
New data centre is opened, quadrupling capacity in the country;
Government cancels plans for an IPO for Multitel, deciding instead to offer its 90% stake in the operator via a tender;
Government ITC and Communications ministries merge to form the Ministry of Telecommunications, Information Technology and Social Communication;
Tender for an operator to manage Angola Telecom’s national backbone and metropolitan networks is extended;
AngoSat-2 satellite launch put on hold due to Russia’s war against Ukraine;
INFOSI aiming to connect an additional 160,000 people to free Wi-Fi;
Regulator again cracks down on informal SIM card sales;
Report updates include the regulator's market data updates to September 2021, updated Telecom Maturity Index charts and analyses, recent market developments.
Companies mentioned in this report:
Angola Telecom, Movicel/MoviNet, Unitel, Mercury Telecom (MS Telecom), Telesel, Nexus, Mundo Startel (Telecom Namibia) , Wezacom, Main One, Angola Cable, Angola Communication Systems (ACS), Snet, Multitel, Maxnet, Net One, Internet Technologies Group (ITG), TV Cabo (Visabeira), Portugal Telecom
