{"id":5717,"date":"2014-03-18T09:30:43","date_gmt":"2014-03-18T09:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/?p=5717"},"modified":"2015-05-13T10:43:18","modified_gmt":"2015-05-13T10:43:18","slug":"gsma-and-operators-mobile-access-affordability-across-africa-and-the-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/press-release\/gsma-and-operators-mobile-access-affordability-across-africa-and-the-middle-east\/","title":{"rendered":"GSMA  AND OPERATORS WORK TO IMPROVE MOBILE ACCESS AND AFFORDABILITY ACROSS AFRICA AND  THE MIDDLE EAST"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><em>Initiative Aims to Enhance Use of Network Infrastructure to Connect Underserved  Communities across the Regions<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>London:<\/strong> Further to a high-level solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/public-policy\/regulatory-environment\/mobile-energy-efficiencyting at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, senior leaders from eight major mobile operator groups, covering 551 million mobile connections across Africa and the Middle East, plan to cooperate on network infrastructure sharing initiatives that recognise the profound impact of mobile broadband and Internet services on the citizens of both regions. The participating operators have made this commitment in order to provide Internet and mobile broadband access to unserved rural communities and drive down the cost of mobile services for all sections of the population.<\/p>\n<p> &ldquo;We are  greatly encouraged by the shared vision of mobile operators and the common urgency  to find solutions that will drive down the cost of mobile and Internet services  and help connect the unconnected,&rdquo; said Anne Bouverot, Director General, GSMA.  &ldquo;Unique mobile subscriber penetration is only 40 per cent in Africa and the  Middle East, lower than the global average of 47 per cent, so we need to work  together to expand the reach of mobile.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The initial group of senior leaders from  mobile operator groups who support this initiative includes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Christian de Faria, CEO Africa, Bharti Airtel <\/li>\n<li>Ahmad Julfar, Group CEO, Etisalat Group<\/li>\n<li>Sifiso Dabengwa, CEO and President, MTN Group<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Nasser Marafih, Group CEO, Ooredoo Group<\/li>\n<li>Marc Rennard, Senior Executive Vice President, Africa,  Middle East and Asia, Orange <\/li>\n<li>Abdulaziz A. Alsugair, Chairman and Managing Director, STC Group <\/li>\n<li>Serpil Timuray, CEO, Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific  Region, Vodafone Group<\/li>\n<li>Scott Gegenheimer, CEO, Zain Group<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>They collectively  manage 79 mobile network operations across 47 countries in Africa and the  Middle East, where many of the unconnected population live in rural areas. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This cooperation demonstrates that the industry is committed to innovating in order to  serve the billions living in the rural areas,&rdquo; said Manoj Kohli,  Managing Director, Bharti  Enterprises and Chair of the Public Policy Committee of the GSMA board, who also  supports the initiative. &ldquo;We call on governments to support and encourage the  commercial infrastructure sharing arrangements that we aim to propose.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>The GSMA&rsquo;s  position is that telecom regulatory frameworks should encourage flexible  commercial sharing arrangements and facilitate access to government-owned  assets at preferential rates to help speed up the roll-out of new networks and  support the business case to extend mobile networks into rural areas.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">-ENDS-<\/p>\n<p><strong>Notes to  Editors<\/strong><br \/>\n  GSMA report on Mobile Infrastructure Sharing: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/public-policy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Mobile-Infrastructure-sharing.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/public-policy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Mobile-Infrastructure-sharing.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>About the GSMA<\/strong> <br \/>\n  The GSMA represents the  interests of mobile operators worldwide.&nbsp;Spanning more than 220 countries and territories,  the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world&rsquo;s mobile operators with 250 companies  in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software  companies, equipment providers and Internet companies, as well as organisations  in industry sectors such as financial services, healthcare, media, transport  and utilities. The GSMA also produces industry-leading events such as Mobile  World Congress and Mobile Asia Expo. <\/p>\n<p>For more information, please  visit the GSMA corporate website at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\">www.gsma.com<\/a>.  Follow the GSMA on Twitter: @GSMA. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Media Contacts<\/strong> <br \/>\n  For the GSMA<br \/>\n  Charlie Meredith-Hardy<br \/>\n  +44 7917 298 428 <br \/>\n  <a href=\"mailto:cmeredith-hardy@webershandwick.com\">cmeredith-hardy@webershandwick.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>GSMA Press  Office <br \/>\n  <a href=\"mailto:pressoffice@gsma.com%20\">pressoffice@gsma.com <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Initiative Aims to Enhance Use of Network Infrastructure to Connect Underserved Communities across the Regions London: Further to a high-level solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/public-policy\/regulatory-environment\/mobile-energy-efficiencyting at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, senior leaders from eight major mobile operator groups, covering 551 million mobile connections across Africa and the Middle East, plan to cooperate on network infrastructure sharing initiatives that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":5725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"algolia_discover_state":[6602],"algolia_discover_topic":[],"algolia_discover_region":[],"algolia_discover_type":[6627],"algolia_discover_series":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.0 (Yoast SEO v22.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>GSMA AND OPERATORS WORK TO IMPROVE MOBILE ACCESS AND AFFORDABILITY ACROSS AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST - Newsroom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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