Telecommunications infrastructure sharing in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) could save in excess of $8 billion over 5 years, which could then be used to help fulfill the World Bank's microfinance goals of enabling access to electronic banking services to help reduce poverty, according to Ed Malkoun, group exhibition director of MECOM 2009. He said infrastructure sharing would also widen the telecommunication's companies' coverage, cost-effectively generating more subscribers for their services. Malkoun was commenting on a recent white paper that said more than $8 billion could be saved by Middle East and Africa telcos over the next five years if they collaborated and started to share their network assets. “If operators shared infrastructure assets, the cost savings could be used to erect more cellular towers, for example, in isolated areas and in the process broaden their reach, grow their customer base and generate more avenue,” he said. “In addition they would also be helping the World Bank to achieve their objectives for expanding their microfinance programme by empowering the region's impoverished allowing them access to online financial services through the use of mobile phones or wireless devices. It is widely recognised that access to financial services is a powerful instrument for reducing poverty,” he added. The report by Delta Partners, a leading management advisory and investment firm, specialized in telecoms, investigated the potential for network sharing in the Middle East and Africa region. It found an extra 100,000 towers were due to be erected over the next five years - a 50 percent increase on the current 200,000 towers already installed and operating. Victor Font, managing partner of Delta Partners, said “we see operators, investors and regulators starting to actively support site sharing and we expect this to become a key trend in 2009/2010 throughout the MENA region.” The World Bank said in many developing countries, less than half the population have an account with a formal financial institution. In MENA it is 32 percent, compared to 20 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa and 25 percent in South Asia. With a goal of universal access to financial services, the World Bank and associated agencies support microfinance initiatives through small business loans and other banking facilities. A major hurdle is that they cannot access these funds or operate a business without direct access to a bank. Therefore the World Bank encourages companies and governments to build telecoms infrastructure in remote areas as a means of accessing this financial support. Infrastructure sharing is one of the key issues to be examined at the MECOM 2009 conference, which takes place at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre on May 25-27. Grahame Maher, CEO of Vodafone, Qatar, the region's latest telecoms company, said: “It is the future for all operators as we move from infrastructure competition to services competition.” He said the size of infrastructure investment no longer automatically leads to competitive advantage. Sharing infrastructure is often the only viable way to service remote areas to give telecoms access to previously unavailable facilities, such as microfinance under the World Bank's program. “Vodafone is the first European international in the region and looking to make a difference. One of these differences is infrastructure sharing,” he said. “As a global player we believe the future will be customers and services.” __
