04 September 2020

Angola’s state-owned fixed provider Angola Telecom (AT) is scrapping its mobile partnership with Angorascom Telecomunicações, according to reports.

 In November 2019, Angorascom received presidential permission for a ‘sub-concession’ that allowed it to deliver mobile services using AT’s Unified Licence. The partnership was aimed at injecting competition into Angola’s mobile market – breaking the duopoly of Unitel and Movicel – with the partners aiming to launch mobile services by February 2021.

 However, news agency Lusa reported that AT chairman Adilson dos Santos said  that Angola Telecom “will no longer follow up on the authorisation request for the sub-concession of the mobile service”, citing “legal and technical” failures and broader changes to Angola’s economy.

 Angorascom is a startup with the backing of Egypt’s Orascom Investment Holding.

In the same press conference dos Santos announced a new partnership and said that AT would now share infrastructure with Africell, which was recently confirmed as Angola’s fourth recipient of a Unified Global Licence. AT noted that the partnership would avoid the construction of any redundant duplicate tower and fibre assets.

“We are very committed to being an infrastructure sharing company and if it depends on Angola Telecom, Africell will not take long to enter the market, because our infrastructure will be available from a commercial point of view”, said dos Santos.

Angola’s Ministerio das Telecomunicacoes e Technologias de Informacao, MTTI recentl confirmed the government’s selection of Africell to receive the fourth Unified Global licence.