Zain to invest $200m in Ghana

Mobile operator Zain is to undertake a transformational investment project which officials say will give its subscribers an improved customer experience, reports My Joy Online.

The investment to make this possible is worth $200 million, and will, among other things, be used to expand coverage so subscribers can make calls from all corners of the country on the network.

Manoj Kholi, the Africa chief executive of Bharti Airtel, which now owns Zain, told journalists his company is committed to making telecom services cheap and accessible to all.

Mozambique's telecoms regulator is opening up bids for the country's third mobile licence, and with 22 applications to consider, the contest looks set to be fierce, says Total Telecoms.

Last week, Americo Muchanga, director-general of regulatory body the Instituto Nacional das Comunicac~oes de Mocambique, informed newspaper O Pais that the 22 companies that have submitted entries include both national and international players.

Muchanga said the names of the interested parties will be revealed when the bids are opened.

The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) has commissioned an up-to-date regional ICT and telecommunications system as part of its effort to establish an accurate data base for the region, writes Next.

The new Management and Information System for Telecoms (Sigtel) will help reduce the number of data collection missions for monitoring convergence criteria in the ICT sector, encourage savings in terms of mobilisation of human and financial resources for data collection, and ensure the availability of reliable and real-time data for the sector.

As one of the priority projects of the Ecowas Commission, Sigtel will help inform and provide direction for decision-makers within the region for their development policies on telecoms-ICT, as well as determine the possibilities for market penetration by competitors.