Africa Holding (Africatel), a subsidiary of Portugal Telecom created in 2006, incorporates all the operator's assets in sub-Saharan Africa: three fixed-line operators, five mobile operators (plus a management contract for Mascom in Botswana), and a number of other assets.
Portugal Telecom's sub-Saharan African subsidiaries reported a 45.9% increase in subscribers to 5.007 million in the year to 30 June 2008, representing a net increase of 1.576 million subscribers.
Portugal Telecom's assets in Africa, Asia and Latin America stem from its legacy investments as a former colonial power, but the operator has expanded its portfolio beyond lusophone countries over the last few years.
Africatel, the unit created by Portugal Telecom in 2006 for its sub-Saharan African subsidiaries, reported a 16% year-on-year (y/y) increase in revenues from 110.8 million euro (US$138.1 million) to 128.5 million euro and an 11.1% y/y increase in earnings nefore interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) from 63.3 million euro to 70.3 million euro. Of 5.007 million attributable fixed and mobile subscribers in the region, Africatel had 4.927 million GSM subscribers. The majority of this growth continues to be driven by its operations in Angola and Namibia.
* Unitel, the Angolan GSM operator, reported a 50.3% increase in subscribers to 3.762 million, underpinned by strong customer growth both in Luanda (the capital) and the main districts of the country. Unitel is rolling out GPRS nationwide, has started EDGE deployment in selected areas, and awarded a US$45-million contract to Ericsson to deploy W-CDMA in Luanda in June 2007. Unitel currently competes with Movicel, which operates a CDMA network and has rolled out both CDMA 2000 1X and CDMA 2000 1X EV-DO networks.
* In Namibia, Mobile Telecommunications Ltd (MTC) reported overall growth of 32.5% to reach 934,000 subscribers by 30 June 2008, and went on to reach 1 million in the third quarter. This uptake in post-paid subscribers has been driven by mobile data services—MTC launched GPRS, EDGE and HSDPA in December 2006. In March 2007, Namibia's second mobile operator, Cell One, launched services, while fixed-line operator Telecom Namibia is also now offering CDMA mobile voice and data services.
* Cabo Verde Telecom (Cape Verde) reported a 40.1% increase in total subscribers to 269,000 by 30 June 2008. Its mobile subscribers increased by 65.2% to reach 197,000, while the operator faces competition from a second entrant.
* Companhia Santomense de Telecomunicações (CST), the incumbent in Sao Tome and Principe, reported a 35.5% increase in total subscribers to 42,000. CST had 34,000 mobile subscribers by the end of June 2008, an annual increase of 47.6%.
