IHS

London is the world’s most connected city

A study undertaken by IHS Markit on behalf of the Wireless Broadband Alliance has found that, while much of the world remains unconnected to the internet, London is ahead of the rest.

IHS to take over MTN Nigeria’s towers through joint venture

African tower management specialist IHS Holding (IHS) announced today it has agreed on principle on a joint venture to form a new towers company with operator MTN. Under the deal, which is expected to reduce MTN’s operational cost, boost network efficiency and expand its voice and data capacity, IHS will have full operational control of MTN’s 9,151 mobile network towers in Nigeria.

Etisalat sells Nigerian cell towers

The African telecoms market has long been a pioneer of cell tower sharing and outsourcing and on Friday operator group Etisalat voted in favour of the model with a proposal to sell 2,136 towers in Nigeria to regional tower management specialist IHS Holding.

MTN sells towers in Rwanda and Zambia

African operator group MTN has sold all of its 1,269 mobile network towers in Rwanda and Zambia to independent mobile infrastructure provider IHS Holding for an undisclosed amount. IHS subsidiaries will own and manage 550 towers in Rwanda and 719 towers in Zambia.

Lenovo’s Motorola acquistion a good move for all parties

Lenovo’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility from Google looks like it could be a winning move for both firms. On one hand, handsets appeared to be a peripheral business for Google. The firm has its fingers in so many pies, from mobile operating systems to search, wearables, connected cars and robotics. And the Motorola handset business has been bleeding cash since the acquisition – in the past six quarters reporting operating losses totalling $1.455bn.

MTN Uganda has withdrawn its threat to block connections to rival Uganda Telecom over unpaid interconnect fees

MTN brings LTE to Zambia

MTN Zambia became the first carrier in the country to launch LTE on Friday, as the company introduced the service in Lusaka, Kitwe, Ndola and Livingstone. Phase two of the rollout, which is already underway, will expand LTE coverage within these same towns and cover new territories as well.

Microsoft and Nokia: What the analysts think

Following Microsoft’s announcement that it is to buy Nokia’s Devices & Services business for €5.44bn, industry analysts have had their say about what the future will hold for the two firms.

Orange outsources African tower management

Operator group France Telecom-Orange had signed a deal to allow pan-African tower operator IHS to manage over 2,000 towers across Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon for the next 15 years.

MTN sells towers in Cameroon and Ivory Coast

South African operator group MTN has announced that it will sell 931 mobile network towers from its Ivory Coast operations to infrastructure provider IHS for $141m, as well as 827 towers from MTN Cameroon for $143m.