Original telecommunications market research and telecommunications sector trend analysis for the national telecommunications industry.

Competitive intelligence, regional telecommunications company rankings and SWOT analyses on international and domestic telecommunications companies.

The Report provides industry professionals and researchers, operators, equipment suppliers and vendors, corporate and financial services analysts and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on the national telecommunications industry.

" The Asia Telecommunications Report is used for benchmarking industry views against BMI's independent forecasts; for market research and analysis of industry trends. It also provides competitive intelligence on leading companies. "
Chi-Wen Tsai, Managing Director, ROHDE & SCHWARZ Taiwan Ltd

Key Benefits of Report

-Benchmark BMI's Independent 5-Year Telecommunications Industry Forecast to test other views - a key input for successful budgeting and strategic business planning in the national telecommunications market.
-Target Business Opportunities & Risks in the Telecommunications Sector through our reviews of latest industry trends, regulatory changes, and major deals, projects and investments.
-Exploit Latest Competitive Telecommunications Intelligence & company SWOTS on your competitors and peers through company rankings by sales, market share, investments and leading products and services.

Executive Summary
Summary of BMI's key industry forecasts and trend analysis, covering ICT, fixed-line, mobile and internet markets, and headline news of key industry events from the latest quarter.

Market Overview
At-a-glance outlook of the structure, size and value of the industry, including an overview of key players and a snapshot of regional penetration rates for fixed-line, mobile and internet markets.

Business Environment Rankings
BMI provides a cross-border analysis of telecoms regulatory systems across regional markets, and their investor prospects, discussing the merits and downfalls of each country's business environment, and ranking them in order of competitiveness. The rankings take into account industry factors, such as Market Maturity, Growth Potential, Competitive Environment and Licensing Framework in addition to BMI's political and economic risk ratings.

BMI 5-Year Industry Forecast
Historic data series and 5-year forecasts to end-2012 for all key industry indicators (see list below), supported by explicit assumptions, plus analysis of key downside risks to the main forecast.

Fixed-Line Telephony - Telephone Lines ('000); Telephone Lines/100 Inhabitants;
Cellular Telephony - Phone Subscribers ('000); Mobile Phone Subscribers/ 100 Inhabitants; Mobile Phone Subscribers/100 Fixed Line Subscribers;
Internet Markets - Internet Users ('000); Internet Users/100 Inhabitants; Broadband Internet Subscribers ('000); Broadband Internet Subscribers/100 Inhabitants;
Multimedia Markets - PCs ('000); PCs/100 Inhabitants; TV households ('000s); Pay-TV subscribers ('000s); Pay-TV subscribers/100 inhabitants; Cable TV subscribers ('000s); Direct-to-Home Subscribers ('000s)
BMI 5-Year Macroeconomic Forecast
BMI forecasts for all headline macroeconomic indicators, including real GDP growth, inflation, fiscal balance, trade balance, current account and external debt.

Competitive Landscape & Rankings
Commentary on key operators highlighting ownership structures, latest available revenue figures, market share analysis and ARPU counts.

Company Profiles & SWOTS
Company profiles, including SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analyses, fully researched senior executives and contact details, business activity, leading products and services, and a record of all recent foreign direct investments and projects.

The Sector At A Glance

Key Insights On The Telecomunications Sector of West & Central Africa

BMI's latest West & Central Africa Telecommunications Report retains its focus on the mobile market. Although many regulatory developments and new investments are beginning to take place in the fixedline market, the mobile sector accounts for the vast majority of telephone subscriptions in the region, a situation that is unlikely to change. Furthermore, the majority of fixed-line markets remain dominated by incumbent operators, with little or no competition from new entrants. By contrast, all countries in this report have at least two, and usually more, mobile operators fighting for market share, making for a far more dynamic market.

At the end of 2006, the seven countries in this report - Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal - had an average mobile penetration rate of 27%. However, this figure hides significant variation, with individual rates ranging from just 10% in Mali to 58% in Gabon. It was therefore unsurprising that Gabon recorded one of the slowest growth rates in Q107, with subscriber numbers rising by just 6.2%. However, this nevertheless exceeded our expectations - we had previously forecast that growth would slow down more quickly as the market approached saturation. We have therefore upgraded our forecasts for Gabon's market and now project that penetration could exceed 80% by the end of our forecast period. We also believe that this rate is possible in Cote d'Ivoire, where strong competition between three internationally-owned operators - MTN, Orange and Etisalat unit Moov - is fuelling rapid growth. During the first quarter of 2007, the number of subscribers in Cote d'Ivoire grew by 14%. Across the board, quarterly growth of 10-13% was the norm, suggesting that 2007 will be another year of steady, if not explosive, growth in the region.

As well as comparing performance between these seven regional markets, this report includes BMI's business environment rankings for Africa, which assess 21 African markets from an investor-friendliness point of view. West and Central Africa's performance in this regard is mixed. The highest ranking country is Senegal in sixth place. Senegal scores highly in terms of growth potential and competitive environment; despite only having two operators, both are controlled by major foreign operators. At the bottom of our table is Mauritania. The country suffers from a low score for economic risk, and its low incomes hamper its future growth potential. Meanwhile, licensing and regulatory functions are still largely controlled by the government.