Other Major African Mobile Markets: Future Growth Prospects  

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Whilst it would be impossible to list details of every operator in Africa, mention should also go to Investcom Holdings. Investcom is an international telecoms firm with a variety of interests across Africa, the Middle East and Europe, but the core focus of the group is its mobile operations, and these account for the majority of its revenues (approx 88%). Investcom currently operate in 5 countries across Africa, namely Benin, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau and Liberia, and 2 in the Middle East - Syria and Yemen. The group has won further licenses to operate in Guinea in Africa and also in Afghanistan in the Middle East. The group's mobile networks are all GSM networks, and they operate under the Areeba or Spacetel brands, or Lonestar in Liberia. The group also operates in Cyprus, where they launched 3G UMTS services under the Areeba brand in December 2004.

As at mid November 2005 the group reported its combined subscriber base had grown to 4 million, up from 3.7 million at end-September 2005 and 3.3 million at end-June 2005. Third quarter results for end-September 2005 boasted strong performance, with 64% year-on-year subscriber growth, gross revenues up 46% year-on-year and 55% year-on-year increase in EBITDA.

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