Airtel ranked fifth in telecom Capex in Middle East Africa region in 2011

The telecom Capex of service providers in
the Middle-East Africa region has increased by nearly 8 percent in 2011 at
$30.4 billion from $28.2 billion in 2010.

The telecom Capex for the year 2011 was
down by $7.2 billion in comparison to the Capex of 2009, which stood at $37.6
billion.

(Please see the chart of capital
expenditure of telecom players in the Middle-East Africa region at the end of
the article)

Mobile expenditure has gone up from $20.2
billion to $21.8 billion in 2011. Fixed-line expenditure has also amplified
from $8.04 billion to $8.6 billion in 2011. The fixed-line expenditure,
however, decreased from $9.5 billion in 2009 to $8.6 billion in 2011.

In mobile sector, STC tops the Capex chart
in 2011 with $2.5 billion expenditure, followed by GSM network provider MTN,
which shelled out $2.1 billion. Qatar Telecom (QTel) spent $2 billion for the
same year, according to Ovum.

STC also topped in the fixed-line
expenditure, which stood at $1.2 billion in 2011. Turk Telecom was just behind
the STC and invested $859 million for the fixed-line in 2011.

Etisalat’s expenditure in both fixed-line
and mobile stood almost the same. It invested $670 million in the mobile sector
and $657 million in the fixed-line for the year of 2011.

In 2011, Bharti Africa’s mobile expenditure
stood at $1.2 billion, which is almost three times bigger than the expenditure
of 2010. Recently, Bharti Africa achieved more than 50 million customers in
Africa.

Bharti Africa invested vigorously in order
to compete with the well-established operators across African region. Recently,
it launched a 3.75G platform in Zambia to give users high speed broadband
Internet on their mobile phones. Also, few months back, it
launched 3G services in Congo B and Airtel Money in Zambia and Kenya.
To expand its footprint across Africa, it acquired 2G and 3G licence in Rwanda.

With entry of MNC’s like Airtel, Vodafone
and innovative initiatives like M- Pesa by incumbent players African telecom
market will hog the limelight in coming years. Africa, which currently has 735
million subscribers, is poised to reach 911 million subscribers by 2014.

By Danish Khan
editor@telecomlead.com