Tanzania Looking to Buy Bharti Aitel's 35% Stake in Local Landline Operator:

Tanzania's government is pushing ahead with plans to buy back the 35% stake in a local telecoms network currently owned by India's Bharti Airtel.

Bharti Airtel acquired the 35% stake in TTCL when it bought Zain's African assets in 2010. At the time, the Tanzanian government tried to enforce an option to buy the stake from Zain, but the price being asked was higher than the government wanted to pay.

The government sold the 35% stake in 2001 for US$65 million, and in 2005 agreed to split the company into separate mobile and landline operators.

However, over the past couple of years the government has repeatedly said it wanted to buy back the 35% stake, and take TTCL entirely into state ownership.

"We had talks with our fellow partner on how to buy the shares. We are still working on the financial reports which are update-audited," TTCL Chief Executive Officer Kamugisha Kazaura told The Guardian noting that the move is intended to look at how the situation economically is in Airtel before buying the shares.

The deal does not affect Airtel's mobile network, which it owns a 60% stake in.

Ghana: Last-mile speed-up:

Swiss-based K3 Telecom is partnering with Media Ghana to launch Triple Play services in Ghana. A customised telecoms network will be created with a unique patented wireless technology, which will allow high Internet speeds, Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) and quality television content. Group Chief Executive Officer of K3Telecom, Uros Mlakar said the technology improves last mile fibre delivery. Mike Cooke, CEO of Media Ghana said the partnership will see the 'value lines of content and access become one'. K3 is to embark on a 5-year plan to drive and expand Internet and content access in Africa from headquarters in Ghana.

Liquid Telecom Bought Rwandatel Landline Assets:

Pan-African landine network operator, Liquid Telecom says that it has acquired most of the telecoms network assets belonging to Rwandatel, Rwanda's fixed line network operator for an undisclosed amount.

The deal includes Rwandatel's copper and fibre network and its customer base but excludes most of the land (which remains the property of Rwandatel).

Rwandatel, which is 80% owned by the Libyan investment group - LAP Green filed for bankruptcy in 2011. At the time, it was estimated to have debts of US$89 million against assets of US$50 million. Its mobile towers network was sold to Bharti Airtel last April for US$15.5 million.

Nic Rudnick, CEO of the Liquid Telecom Group, said: "Liquid Telecom is expanding rapidly and this is an important and strategic investment. Rwanda is an outstanding FDI destination and we are very confident in the country's economic future and growth prospects."

Liquid Telecom operates Africa's largest fibre network which runs from the north of Uganda to Cape Town.

This transaction comes four months after Liquid acquired the East African assets of The Altech Group ncluding a controlling interest in Kenya Data Networks.

Huawei and ZTE Won $1.6 Billion Network Upgrade Contract:

Ethiopia's state-owned monopoly telecoms network had awarded a huge US$1.6 billion network expansion contract to be split between Huawei and ZTE.

According to reports, Huawei has been allocated a US$700 million contract, which by inference means that ZTE won a larger share worth US$900 million, although that hasn't been confirmed by either company.

The mobile network also has not issued a statement about the contract at the time of writing.

The contract is to boost capacity on the network to 56 million subscribers, reaching 85% of the population, and also deploy LTE services in the capital city, Addis Ababa.

Talks with potential bidders for the expansion contracts started last December, and were understood to have been reduced to the two Chinese suppliers by last month. It was also recently reported that the contract would include the stripping out of decade old Nokia supplied equipment in the capital city.

The government recently rejected calls to break the state monopoly and allow competition into the market, citing the need for higher profits from the telcoms company to subsidise an unrelated railway project