Telecom Leaders to Meet and Set Strategies for Evolving Networks and Services in Dakar Tomorrow

Tomorrow, over 600 telecom leaders from across West & Central Africa will gather in Dakar at West & Central Africa Com conference.  Their agenda for the 2 days is to establish strategies, set best practice benchmarks and find innovative ways of evolving networks and services to capture growth potential in the fiercely competitive West & Central African market.

The West & Central African telecoms sector has entered a new phase in its evolution.  Thanks to improved connectivity, operators are looking more seriously into upgrading their networks to launch new value added services.  New entrants to the market have made for a more crowded arena, as operators compete fiercely to offer new services that will secure them more market share.

The challenge for Operators, lies in determining what to invest in and understanding the market well enough to deliver new services that the consumer will buy into.  It is for this purpose that 600 telecom leaders will meet tomorrow at West & Central Africa Com conference, 15-16 June.  Representatives will include mobile, fixed, satellite and WiMAX operators, ISPs, regulators, ministers, solutions and technology providers, investors and consultants to ensure a truly 360 degree perspective of the market.  Attendees will pool their different perspectives, ideas and experiences to set strategies around Operator Strategies, Networks and Infrastructure, Value Added Services, Leadership Innovation, Rural Telecoms and more. 

The 2 days of discussions will be led by a panel of 40+ speakers representing leaders of the region’s most dynamic operators, from pan-regional investors (Orange represented by Vice President Bernard Ghillebaert, MTN with Vice President of West & Central Africa Ahmad Farroukh, Airtel Africa with Director for Francophone Markets Tiemoko Coulibaly, and Expresso Telecom with Commercial Director Saiful Alam), incumbent operators (Sonatel with Marketing Director Thérèse Tounkara, Sotelgui with Director of Studies and Development Mohamed Sylla), alternative service providers and more. The conference will be officially opened by the Senegalese Minister for Telecommunications and ITC and spokesperson for the government, Moustapha Guirassy.

www.comworldseries.com/wcafrica

Nigeria: new entrant sees big addressable market in under-served rural regions

On Tuesday this week Global Mobile Daily picked up a story from Nigeria's Daily Trust newspaper, drawn from an interview with the CEO of universal access provider Gicell. The company, founded in 2006 and was awarded a National Unified Access Service Licence by the Nigerian Communications Commissions (NCC), which includes digital mobile services, fixed telephony services, full international gateway services and national long distance services.

Gicell CEO Usman Abubakar Gumi told the Daily Trust that his company is rolling out a CDMA 450 network to provide voice and data services, making its market debut in the five states of Adamawa, Borno, Cross River, Kwara and Oyo, all regions which have been identified as un-served or under-served. Mr Gumi noted that this was a condition of securing funding from a World Bank supported programme. Also, Gumi stated that "as a Unified Access licensee we intend to cover the country within the shortest possible time."

Gumi was asked about the size of the genuinely addressable market and how effectively he expected his company to compete with established GSM MNOs Globacom, MTN Nigeria and Zain Nigeria. Gumi argues that "Nigeria, with a population of over 140 Million, is the most populated country in Africa... [and has] a young and rural–based population with youth under 35 years old occupying the main parts of the population, [which means that] despite the 50 million subscribers, according to the current statistics, there are still additional 55 million addressable markets" (sic).

At our recent GSM>3G Middle East event in Dubai, a notable segment of the exhibitors were from power supply companies keen to showcase solutions to the challenges of providing telecoms services in areas with underdeveloped infrastructure. In the case of Nigeria's rural regions, Gumi says "there are lots of challenges but we would do it the way others are doing it and also as much as possible maximize the use of alternative source of energy such solar panels."

World Bank involvement seems to be an important part of the Gicell funding mix because, as Gumi argues, "the Nigerian banks are short term lenders and the industry is very capital intensive." The role of the World Bank in the project, says Gumi, "is to cushion the cost of the deployment of services in those [rural] areas and to maintain the services for at least five years whether is profitable or not." Mr Gumi feels, however that "based on our study it will be profitable."

Rural communications, bridging the digitial divide, extending service availability to under-served population segments: these are all buzz terms which seem to be resonating ever more persistently at the many Com World Series events covering emerging markets. So I hope my colleagues are able to secure the involvement of Gicell at the Abuja, Nigeria-hosted West & Central Africa Com conference and exhibition in June this year. It is always refreshing to have the established players joined in the panel of speakers by new market entrants.

Ghana: Vodafone commits to $120m network upgrade

It has been impossible of late not to set telecoms news and commentary in the context of these troubled times for the global economy. I find myself looking for signs of our sector's resilience. In that spirit, I am keen to flag up examples of telcos committing to significant items of CAPEX. One such, reported last week in the Global Mobile Daily is Vodafone's selection of network vendor Huawei to upgrade the 2G network of the national incumbent carrier, Ghana Telecom, in which the giant cellco acquired a 70% stake back in July 2008.

At the same time as entering Ghana's mobile market, Vodafone also took over Ghana Telecom's fixed-line and broadband operation, which has around 99% of the total number of lines and around 90% share of the retail ADSL market. Ghana Telecom's mobile arm, One Touch, has been something of an underperformer. The MNO claimed 15.49% of mobile subscriptions by December 2008, according to Informa Telecoms & Media's World Cellular Information Service. This represents a slow, but steady decline in market share, which had stood at 18.29% at the end of 2006. Over this period, market-leading Scancom, a unit of the South Africa's MTN has held onto a solid lead over its four rivals. According to an article in Ghana's Chronicle newspaper last week, Vodafone will be aiming to compete more effectively in this context through a "commitment to deliver on its promise of providing a world class service to Ghanaians and to transform Ghana Telecom to an enviable position in the telecom industry."

Ghana will be among the countries to be represented at our West & Central Africa Com event, which this year will take place in Abuja, Nigeria in mid-June. The event will be a good opportunity to network and do business with all those involved in developing the region's telecoms sector.