Senegal Communication: Communication

Senegal Communication Profile 2012

Senegal’s mobile telecommunications sector is due for a change following the government’s issuing of a fourth service provider licence in early June, a move that is expected to ramp up an already competitive market. Telecommunications is large business in Senegal, with some estimates putting its contribution to GDP at around 6%, twice that of Nigeria.

Though there are three mobile service operators active in the market, there is still room to grow. The trio include Sonatel, the former national monopoly, now partially privatised and owned by France Telecom and the Senegalese government, with around-fourth of shares free-floating, (around 65% of subscribers); Sentel, owned by Luxembourg-based Millicom International Cellular, a provider of telecoms services in Africa and Central and South America (with 30%); and Sudatel Senegal, the local subsidiary of Sudanese telecoms group Sudatel which launched in early 2009 (with 5%). As of late 2008, the mobile penetration rate stood at around 47%, with some additional recent estimated putting this closer to 53%.

The room for further increase has attracted Nigeria-based Globacom, which signed an agreement with the Senegalese government at the beginning of June that gives the company a full operator’s licence, granting it the right to offer mobile, data-transfer and internet services. In a statement announcing the company’s entry into the Senegalese market, Globacom said it would focus on offering high-speed internet and broadband services in addition to regular mobile coverage. According to local media the licensing fee to be paid by Globacom and the terms of payment were not disclosed by either the company or the government. By gaining access to the Senegalese market, Globacom is well on the way to consolidating its status as a major West African telecoms player. It is already active in Nigeria, Ghana, Benin Republic and Côte d’Ivoire.

While Globacom has large plans for Senegal, and sees market penetration there as a step towards achieving its goal of furthering its expansion, these plans will come at a cost. The company will have to spend a considerable sum to put in place the required infrastructure needed to handle high-speed internet traffic. Quite apart from putting itself in direct competition with the other mobile phone service providers in the market, Globacom will as well be going chief-to-chief in the fixed segment with Sonatel, the national telecoms operator, which up to now has enjoyed a monopoly on the provision of broadband services. Though there will be investment costs, Globacom has additional than iron in the fire when it comes to buying into the Senegalese market. The company plans to bring ashore Glo 1, a massive 640gbit submarine cable that it is building between Nigeria and the UK, which will enable it to carry traffic for other operators, inclunding serve the local community. In addition, by using Senegal as a landfall for the cable, the company will have the potential to expand its network further in the region, with nearby Mali reported to be its next investment target. According to Adewale Sangowawa, Glo Mobile’s executive director for human resources, the cable will link the region with the UK and later to the US of the world’s major data hubs. “The 9800-km cable will enable Globacom have a clear distinction in providing quality services through multiple redundant and high-quality direct links to various nations across the globe,” he said in an interview with Nigerian English-language daily The Country on June 28.

With Globacom set to enter the market, it is expected that the three other service providers will move swiftly to shore up their positions and seek to lock in existing subscribers, particularly in the mobile segment. Sudatel, for example, announced in mid-June that it was cutting its pre-paid voice tariffs by 7%. The Sudan-based Sudatel, which trades in Senegal as Expresso, is looking to additional than double the number of subscribers it has this year, Expresso Senegal CEO El Amir Ahmed El Amir said. “Our market share in mobile is now 5% but is planned to be 12% very soon,” he told media on June 11. In part, this expansion will be based on rolling out new technology and half by offering new services such as mobile internet, TV and video on request, El Amir said. It is quite likely that Sonatel and Sentel will as well take steps to guarantee subscriber loyalty in advance of Globacom’s roll-out. If so, the Senegalese telecoms market will become even additional competitive – a competition in which local subscribers should be the winners.

These past few years, additional than any other Sub-Saharan African country, Senegal has experienced tremendous development in the field of telecommunications.

SONATEL - the national telecommunications company, which is a subsidiary of the France Telecom Group and the Senegalese national- has built a technologically developed telephone network. This network, which covers the whole of the territory is entirely numerical and has additional than 2,200 km of optic fibres. At the international level, Senegal has direct telephone connections, using satellite transmission and transmission by submarine cables.

The level of penetration of the internet and cellular phones is very high and electronic transactions are becoming widespread. Cyber cafés have as well helped develop exchanges between Senegal and the rest of the world.

Call centres, teleservices, tele marketing and remote data entry companies are developing rapidly, thus offering new business perspectives. Some teleservice companies have emerged during these past months, which specialise in:

Telemarketing: PCCI (300 jobs), Call-Me (50 jobs), AFRICATEL AVS (50 jobs), etc. ;
Remote data entry: SESI (a company that was initially created in Malagasy) which has created 70 jobs.

The breakthrough in the field of telecommunications, the emergence of teleservices, the privatisation of SONATEL and the prospects of gradual liberalisation of this sector in 2004 are helping build an investment- and partnership-friendly environment. The 1999-2003 investment programme has already been carried out by SONATEL, which has created 250,000 fixed lines in Senegal. This company is as well pursuing its equipment programme for rural zones: 446 villages have been connected, in line with the 31st December specifications, and 77 villages are in the process of being connected.

With amount these advantages, and with the setting up of the Agence de Régulation des Télécommunications (national agency for the regulation of the telecommunications sector), in December 2001, Senegal now offers real investment opportunities in the following services:

* Creation of call centres
* Remote data entry
* Business Process Outsourcing
* Database management
* E-commerce
* Software development
* Computer manufacturing and assembling
* Wireless Internet

Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband

Senegal's economy has grown at 5% p.a. on average since the mid 1990s and has only moderately been affected by the world economic crisis. Representing around 6% of the country's GDP, the telecom sector is dominated by Sonatel, the highly profitable national telco which is now trading under France Telecom's Orange brand following its partial privatisation in 1997.

The government is planning to sell part of its remaining stake to other investors. Sonatel has of the majority efficient telecom networks in West Africa, offering some of the lowest retail and wholesale prices in the region.

It is as well the market leader in the mobile sector which it has shared with Millicom's Sentel GSM (later rebranded Tigo) since 1999. Competition in the fixed-line sector was introduced when Sudan's Sudatel launched as the second national operator (SNO) in early 2009 under the name Expresso. Its licence as well includes the country's third mobile concession and the new entrant has chosen CDMA2000 technology to serve both market segments. Although mobile market penetration has passed the 50% mark, the average revenue per user in Senegal is relatively high.

A wide range of price-added services is available to subscribers, including mobile Internet access. Third generation mobile broadband services are being rolled out. Development of the Internet market has been hampered by Sonatel's monopolistic pricing of bandwidth on the only high-capacity international submarine fibre optic cable serving the country. Despite this, broadband services in the country are relatively advanced, including broadband TV and converged triple-play services. Sonatel has progressively reduced its prices following the arrival of a second international fibre optic submarine cable in 2007, with at least additional scheduled for 2010 and 2011.

Telecommunications is large business in Senegal, with some estimates putting its contribution to GDP at around 6%, twice that of Nigeria. Though there are three mobile service operators active in the market, there is still room to grow. The trio include Sonatel, the former national monopoly, now partially privatised and owned by France Telecom and the Senegalese government, with around-fourth of shares free-floating, (around 65% of subscribers), Sentel, owned by Luxembourg-based Millicom International Cellular, a provider of telecoms services in Africa and Central and South America (with 30%), and Sudatel Senegal, the local subsidiary of Sudanese telecoms group Sudatel which launched in early 2009 (with 5%). As of late 2008, the mobile penetration rate stood at around 47%, with some additional recent estimated putting this closer to 53%.

In a statement announcing the company’s entry into the Senegalese market, Globacom said it would focus on offering high-speed internet and broadband services in addition to regular mobile coverage. According to local media the licensing fee to be paid by Globacom and the terms of payment were not disclosed by either the company or the government.

By gaining access to the Senegalese market, Globacom is well on the way to consolidating its status as a major West African telecoms player. It is already active in Nigeria, Ghana, Benin Republic and Côte d’Ivoire. While Globacom has large plans for Senegal, and sees market penetration there as a step towards achieving its goal of furthering its expansion, these plans will come at a cost. The company will have to spend a considerable sum to put in place the required infrastructure needed to handle high-speed internet traffic.

Quite apart from putting itself in direct competition with the other mobile phone service providers in the market, Globacom will as well be going chief-to-chief in the fixed segment with Sonatel, the national telecoms operator, which up to now has enjoyed a monopoly on the provision of broadband services.

Though there will be investment costs, Globacom has additional than iron in the fire when it comes to buying into the Senegalese market. The company plans to bring ashore Glo 1, a massive 640gbit submarine cable that it is building between Nigeria and the UK, which will enable it to carry traffic for other operators, inclunding serve the local community. In addition, by using Senegal as a landfall for the cable, the company will have the potential to expand its network further in the region, with nearby Mali reported to be its next investment target.

According to Adewale Sangowawa, Glo Mobile’s executive director for human resources, the cable will link the region with the UK and later to the US of the world’s major data hubs. “The 9800-km cable will enable Globacom have a clear distinction in providing quality services through multiple redundant and high-quality direct links to various nations across the globe,” he said in an interview with Nigerian English-language daily The Country on June 28.

The Sudan-based Sudatel, which trades in Senegal as Expresso, is looking to additional than double the number of subscribers it has this year, Expresso Senegal CEO El Amir Ahmed El Amir said. “Our market share in mobile is now 5% but is planned to be 12% very soon,” he told media on June 11.

In part, this expansion will be based on rolling out new technology and half by offering new services such as mobile internet, TV and video on request, El Amir said.

It is quite likely that Sonatel and Sentel will as well take steps to guarantee subscriber loyalty in advance of Globacom’s roll-out. If so, the Senegalese telecoms market will become even additional competitive – a competition in which local subscribers should be the winners.

Main lines

Year:

2008

Number:

237 800

Comparison to the world:

121

Mobile cellular

Year:

2008

Number:

5.389 million

Comparison to the world:

Telephone system

General assessment:

Telecoms continues to be Senegal’s most developed sector. Profit growth remains attractive in comparison to other African telecoms markets, and despite a high penetration level, the sector is still growing. In 2007 telecoms contributed CFA440bn ($1.012bn) to the national economy, which represented a 7% share of GDP, with an average annual growth rate of 18% over the past five years, much of it coming from the mobile phone segment.

The country’s two telecoms operators Sonatel, known by the brand name Orange, and Senetel, known as Tigo, were joined by a third company, Sudatel, when the company won the tender made in late 2007. Because of France’s equity stake in Sonatel, infrastructure and service offerings are relatively modern and reliable.

There is a solid legislative framework for the sector, overseen by the Regulator Agency for Telecomes and Post, (Agence de Régulation des Télécommunications et des Postes, ARTP), which manages competition, the development of new technologies and the management of radio frequencies.
Although the use of information technology is not widespread, there are a number of initiatives that are being made to increase penetration. As costs continue to drop for both services and hardware, the technology is becoming more accessible. The government has made this expansion a priority and a government intranet is being rolled out across the country.

IT has been identified as a growth segment under the Accelerated Growth Strategy, and it is expected to contribute more than 7% of overall GDP by 2015. To bolster this growth the government will offer a number of services online, including education, health services and passport services, as well as access to information on local municipalities, tourism, culture, tax collection and automated telephone-based procedures.

Domestic:

above-average urban system with a fiber-optic network; nearly two-thirds of all fixed-line connections are in Dakar where a call-center industry is emerging; expansion of fixed-line services in rural areas needed; mobile-cellular service is expanding rapidly; microwave radio relay, coaxial cable and fiber-optic cable in trunk system

International:

country code - 221; the SAT-3/WASC fiber optic cable provides connectivity to Europe and Asia while Atlantis-2 provides connectivity to South America; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio

Value:

AM 8, FM 20, shortwave 1

Year:

2001

Television

Value:

Year:

2008

Internet country code:

.sn

Internet hosts