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MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) in the Middle East(The Gulf and Eastern Mediterranean regions) & Africa overview |
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In May 2012 'Africa & Middle East Telecom-Week' polled 173 visitors to the www.AfricanTelecomsNews.com Website, and posed a series of questions regarding MVNOs in the Middle East and Africa. The results are shown below.
Despite there only being a handful of MVNOs currently in Africa, 45% of respondents thought that Africa would be the centre of activity for MVNO launches. Given the maturity of the European and North American markets, there regions only polled 8% of the responses, probably an accurate reflection of the likelihood of future activity. The Middle East, with 20%, reflects the current state of affairs, with both Israel and Saudi Arabia actively seeking and encouraging the launch of MVNOs in 2012. The relatively low assessment of the individual Asia-Pacific regions is possibly a surprise, although the region as a whole polled a total of 20%, so putting it on a par with the Middle East. Nonetheless, Africa still trumped all regions, and is obviously the one to watch in the next few years.
 South Africa was voted as the African nation most likely to see another MVNO launched. South Africa already has a number of branded/reseller operations, as well as the classic MVNO in the form of Virgin South Africa. Nigeria is, of course, now the largest mobile market in Africa; and still with relatively low mobile penetration. However, it already has a very competitive mobile network operator sector with four active 'majors', and there is a dormant licence in the form of Nitel's M-Tel waiting for someone to pick it up and breathe new life into the currently moribund network. As well as GSM, there is a small number of CDMA operators still slugging it out, but according to NCC data, are seeing a slow but steadily shrinking share of the market. Egypt has a number of key ingredients, including an Mobile Network Operator currently ranked third by subscriber numbers which would make an ideal host for an MVNO operation.  As to which Middle East market will next launch an MVNO, Richard Branson actually named the UAE a couple of years ago, and then opted for Qatar instead. This was a step-change for Branson as the Virgin operation was a re-brand with Qtel, rather than a classic MVNO operation. Interestingly, its positioning implied full MVNO status, leading to strong complaints by Vodafone, and so forcing a withdrawal by Virgin. The UAE polled 26 percent, and given how du is gnawing into Etisalat's market share, this could well be a good market for an MVNO. Turkey at 18% also makes sense, and again there is the dynamic of three mobile network operators, plus many Turks working overseas, particlularly in Germany. See 'Africa & Middle East Telecom-Week' for further details.  Low ARPU and Regulatory climate are issues: one will have to await a developing market, whereas the other could be dealt with, but requires political will as well. The reasons for Virgin's subdued launch in South Africa are discussed in some detail in 'MVNOs in the Middle East and Africa' which is downloaded from this site without charge.  When asked specifically about Virgin, 24% said lack of government support. ICASA is seen as the villain of the piece - for further details see 'MVNOs in the Middle East and Africa'  In terms of segments that could be exploited by MVNO's, youth is the obvious one - again see 'MVNOs in the Middle East and Africa', but Ethnic communities and overseas workers also polled well. Remember, this latter group can either be people working in Africa from outside, or can be Africans working away from home, so this could see African-orientated MVNO being launched in Europe, as is already happening to a limited extent. 
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