Libyan-backed Lap Green has acquired 80% of Gemtel, an operator offering mobile services in Southern Sudan.
TelecomFinance first reported last week that Lap, which owns Uganda Telecom, was in talks to acquire the business as part of its plans to expand…
Libyan-backed Lap Green has acquired 80% of Gemtel, an operator offering mobile services in Southern Sudan.
TelecomFinance first reported last week that Lap, which owns Uganda Telecom, was in talks to acquire the business as part of its plans to expand on the continent.
At the time, Lap Green chief commercial officer Hans Paulsen also said that Lap is planning to launch in Sierra Leone and Togo by mid-2010.
Gemtel was set up in 2004 by entrepreneur Augustus Ceasor Mulenga, who also founded I-Tel, a CDMA operator which started services in Uganda last autumn.
Like I-Tel, Gemtel was majority owned and funded by Mulenga and used Huawei as its network partner.
Mulenga will continue to own 20% of Gemtel following the transaction.
According to Mulenga, his decision to launch in Sudan emerged from close business ties between the two countries. Similarly, the deal with Lap was a natural continuation of Gemtel’s close partnership with Uganda Telecom, he says. Indeed, despite acquiring a licence in Sudan in 2004, Gemtel had to use Uganda Telecom’s network to access the international gateway. As a result it uses the Uganda access code – 256 – instead of the Sudanese one.
Following months of negotiations with the Sudanese government, however, Mulenga says that Gemtel is currently migrating its lines and should soon start using the Sudanese country code.
He also says Gemtel may extend services in the rest of the country, but this mainly depends on the political situation, including the upcoming referendum next year, in which South Sudan will determine whether to become independent or not.
“These are important events which will affect Gemtel’s behaviour,” Mulenga explained.
Back in Uganda, I-Tel is continuing to roll out its CDMA network, which is still in beta stage. However, using a CDMA network has made it challenging to obtain handsets, Mulenga says. “Unlike the GSM industry which is very standardised, CDMA companies operate in many different bands, so getting the handsets has proved to be the most challenging part.” On the other hand, he says, CDMA provides better ROI, in part as its greater reach requires fewer towers. The group is also an investor in Eassy, the undersea internet cable scheduled to land in mid-2010.
