As many as seven mobile operators, including Bharti Airtel are taking the lead in chalking out infrastructure sharing initiatives to offer Internet and mobile broadband access to rural communities across Africa and West Asia.
Apart from Bharti Airtel, Etisalat Group, MTN Group, Ooredoo Group, Orange, Vodafone Group and Zain Group are also part of the initiative. These players are pushing the concept of infrastructure sharing with an aim to help bring down the cost of mobile services for about 506 million customers that they jointly serve.
The companies are collectively operating 76 mobile network operations across 47 countries in Africa and West Asia where potential customers live in rural areas with limited or no connectivity.
Mobile operators? representative body GSM Association (GSMA) is supporting the initiative and has urged governments to come up with telecom regulatory frameworks which would encourage flexible commercial sharing arrangements and facilitate access to government-owned assets at preferential rates. Going forward, supportive regulatory frameworks would help speed up the roll-out of new networks and support the business case to extend mobile networks into rural areas.
GSMA states that at present unique mobile subscriber penetration is only 40 per cent in Africa and West Asia, lower than the global average of 47 per cent, therefore, there is a need for the operators to work together to expand the reach of mobile.
