Africell named as Angola’s fourth operator

Issued the following announcement on May 20.

The Angolan government has revealed that Lebanese owned Africell will become the country’s fourth telecoms operator, according to reports in the press.

The south western African nation had initially awarded the license to Telstar, an Angolan start up, back in late 2019. However, the country’s government cancelled the license award on the grounds that Telstar had failed to meet minimum requirements prescribed in the bidding process.

The revised bidding process began in September 2019 and was completed in January 2020. Africell beat off competition from South Africa’s MTN Group and Angola’s BAI Investimentos to secure the licence. 

Angola is currently served by two major mobile network operators, Unitel and Movicel, and Angola Telecom, who provide fixed line services. The country has around 14 million mobile subscribers.

Africell is already an established player in the African telecoms space, providing mobile network services to customers in The Gambia, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Sierra Leone. The company has more than 14 million subscribers spread across its African operations.