Page 73 - SAMENA Trends - March-April 2023

WHOLESALE UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Ukraine Starts Harmonization Of Legislation To Join EU Free Roaming Zone

The Ukraine-EU Association Committee in Trade Configuration Electronic Communications, Radio Frequency Spectrum & Postal
has completed official procedures for amending the Association Services (NCEC) announced. The next step is harmonization of
Agreement to enable Ukraine to join the EU mobile ‘roam like Ukrainian laws with EU legislation on international roaming, with
home’ zone, Ukraine’s National Commission for State Regulation of the country expected to join the roaming zone in 2024.

Vodafone and MTN Expand Roaming Partnership

Vodafone Ghana has announced an expansion of its national
roaming service partnership with MTN to improve connectivity for
customers throughout the country. The initiative, which initially
began with a pilot program last year covering the Volta Region, has
now been extended to cover the entire nation. The agreement is part
of a wider plan by the Ghanaian government to facilitate universal
access and accelerate the country’s digital transformation by
implementing a full national roaming regime among all operators in
the country. Glo, the country’s smallest mobile network operator by
subscriptions, entered a nationwide roaming agreement with rival
AirtelTigo in April 2022 in a bid to provide wider coverage and a
faster mobile broadband experience for its customers. Welcoming
the expanded agreement, Vodafone Ghana CEO Patricia Obo- government, the regulator, and MTN Ghana to pilot the national
Nai said: ‘National roaming offers customers a greater choice of roaming service in the Volta Region. We are excited that this
network providers. In 2022, we successfully collaborated with the partnership has extended to other regions.’

Senegal Reveals National Roaming Plan

Senegal’s telecoms regulator announced plans to introduce end of April to determine whether operators have achieved prior
national roaming between operators to bolster coverage in the coverage targets, stipulated in mobile licenses. Sall said: “We
country. Karim Sall, Director General of L’Autorite de Regulation des will measure obligation by obligation the level of achievement or
Telecommunications et des Postes, ARTP) told news agency APS, the level of respect of these obligations by the operators”. The
talks are underway between Orange, Free and Expresso Telecom announcement follows President Macky Sall calling on the Ministry
to lay the necessary framework for the agreements. The Director of Telecommunications and Digital Economy to bolster efforts to
General also revealed an assessment would take place at the achieve nationwide coverage sooner, reported CommsUpdate.

IFT Permits CFE to Offer Wholesale Services

The Federal Telecommunications Institute (Instituto Federal de Electricity Commission (Comision Federal de Electricidad, CFE)
Telecomunicaciones, IFT) has granted state utility firm the Federal permission to lease network capacity, infrastructure and
telecommunications services to authorized companies as a
wholesale operator. As per the 3 March 2023 decision, the CFE
may not directly offer services to end users. Further, conditions
have been established for the CFE to comply with the principle of
neutrality to competition and non-discriminatory treatment. The
watchdog hopes the measure will encourage operators to leverage
the infrastructure to extend coverage to underserved locations
across Mexico.

73 MARCH-APRIL 2023