In San Francisco, a “bedouin” is a young urban freelancer, saddled with the latest in laptops and cell-phones, who has traded in the sedentary lifestyle of the office for the nomadism of frequenting wifi cafes. In Mauritania, a sparsely-populated desert country on the Atlantic coast of Northwest Africa, the number of nomads is actually shrinking as drought and urbanization sedentarizes the original bedouins. Those who preserve this ancient way of life, however, are benefiting from their first-ever access to cellular technology.
With telecommunications markets in Europe and North Africa reaching saturation levels of over 100%, providers are looking for growth in sub-Saharan Africa. Phones are rapidly penetrating Africa’s remotest regions, as European and Arab companies compete to tap into one of the world’s last remaining non-wired areas. Improvements in cellular technology have facilitated penetration of these regions, opening them up to communications and information-sharing on an unprecedented level.
A decade ago Mauritanians had to wait, on average, two years for installation of a landline; today, advancing technology and the falling costs of calls and mobile handsets mean that modern forms of communication are more accessible than ever before. The capital Nouakchott’s mobile market features the latest Nokia, Siemens, and Motorola handsets and accessories imported from Europe.
Connecting the economy
Beyond the social and educational benefits of improving communications, the dynamic African telecommunications sector is attracting major foreign investment flows and creating thousands of new jobs in the formal and informal markets. National economies swell by billions of euros through according operating licenses and privatizing state-owned companies.
Industry analysts expect to see the West African market double by 2011 to more than 100 million subscribers. Mauritania’s cellular penetration rate is by far the highest compared to its West African neighbors. A 2003 study uncovered low rates of penetration in Senegal (5.7%), Mali (2.1%), and Burkina Faso (1.9%), while penetration had already reached 13% in Mauritania. Overall, West African penetration is picking up, with the number of GSM users increasing by 58% between 2005 and 2006. Between 2003 and 2007, penetration in Mauritania more than doubled and the most recent study (December 2007) places the rate at 43%.
Noreddine Boumzebra, CEO of Mauritel, attributes the success of mobile communications in Mauritania to the nomadic character of its population. “Mobile services are well adapted to the expectations of the Mauritanian population, who have maintained strong traditions of communication and displacement, which explains the growing success of mobile services in Mauritania,” he said.
Promising potential for growth in the region attracted a series of high bids for operating licenses in Mauritania, three of which have currently been accorded.
Mattel, a Tunisian-Mauritanian subsidiary of Tunisie Telecom, became the country’s first cellular provider in 2000, for a bid of $28 million. Mauritania was the first foreign venture for Tunisie Telecom. “It was a market to conquer,” said Yassine Messai, Director of Services, Offers and Products at Mattel. “Like every mobile operator, we wanted to extend our activity outside of our own country.” The company grew to have 450,000 subscribers by the end of 2007, covering more than 40% of the country’s GSM market. Its strong points are wide network coverage and seniority. Mattel plans to accommodate the nomadic nature of the population by offering ultra mobile services in the future, which will provide customers with a reliable and mobile communications service as they travel between different areas. Mattel currently offers a broad range of pre-paid, post-paid and roaming GSM services.
In 2001, Maroc Telecom became the second provider to enter the market, with its acquisition of 54% of the capital of the historic Mauritanian provider Mauritel in an international bidding process. After ceding part of its capital to the business’s workforce, Maroc Telecom retained control in 2007 of 51% of Mauritel’s capital.
Sector dominance
Mauritel is currently the leading provider, covering 65% of Mauritania’s subscribers and with the greater number of service localities. The company is focusing on streamlining its fixed, internet and mobile technologies. “This fusion will create more synergy between services and a better mutualization of resources, thus optimizing costs, which will allow us to offer services at highly competitive prices to the profit of our clientele,” Boumzebra indicated. Other projects include the construction of transmission dorsals on all the country’s main roads, a fiber-optic liaison between the political capital Nouakchott and economic capital Nouadhibou, and the introduction of 3.5G, the latest generation, into the country. Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology is also in the works, which will pave the way for GPS and transportation logistics in the country’s remotest regions.
In a surprising turn of events, the Mauritanian Regulating Authority awarded a third GSM license in 2006 to Chinguitel, a joint venture between private Mauritanian investors and Sudan’s public telecommunications operator Sudatel. Sudatel’s colossal bid of $101 million US was more than four times what Mattel paid for the first accorded license, and nearly as much more than the next highest bid of $34.8 million US, by France Telecom. After a service delay of eight months, Chinguitel forcefully entered into the competition with its launch of the first 3G services in Mauritania. Emmanuel Hans, Chairman of the Board at Sudatel, said at the time that Chinguitel is meant to promote “an image of Sudan different from the clichés about Darfur, which pains us a lot.”
Currently, there are approximately 800,000 subscribers in Mauritania, which represents a penetration of only 43%. Sudatel’s mammoth bid and the apparent restriction of market entry to Arab-African providers somewhat substantiate rumors of procedural irregularities in the according of licenses. On the other hand, some see telephony’s penetration of Mauritania as a successful example of the benefits of South-South cooperation, both for effectively spreading technology through remote African regions and for generating revenue for developing economies, like those of Morocco, Tunisia, and Sudan.
