Re-live the 2013 AfricaCom Awards!

Were you at the awards ceremony? Did you miss it this year? 

Either way you can experience it all again in this handy little video! The AfricaCom Awards was an unforgettable evening of achievements, celebration and inspiration and we've summed up as best we can all the magical highlights from this incredible evening. 

Check out the video below to re-live the 2013 AfricaCom Awards:

Fuel cells offer solution to mobile device energy challenges

By Dr. Jon Moore, Director of Communications, Intelligent Energy 

There is no question; mobile devices are now integral to our daily lives. They are also an essential cog in the economic machinery of individuals and businesses throughout the world. This is especially pronounced in developing economies where mobile has transformed the way consumers and businesses operate, indeed increases in the use of mobile telephony are directly related to increased economic growth. Only this week, the GSMA reported that the mobile ecosystem directly supported 3.3 million jobs and contributed US $21 billion to public funding in the sub-Saharan Africa and is set to double its economic effect by 2020.

With the exciting launch of the Mxit 7 social media app, LTE mobile Internet and m-payments topping the agenda at AfricaCom, it is all too easy to forget that even in South Africa the most important daily function of the mobile phone is for making calls – whether calling family, friends, or conducting the essential transactions that keep businesses growing.  

But, take away the power for mobile devices and suddenly our connected world falls into disarray. The mobile world and all that it enables lasts only as long as its batteries!

There was a time, not so long ago before apps, Internet and super-resolution cameras when the deciding factor when choosing a mobile phone was their talk-time. Today, our phones and other mobile devices are getting smarter and more capable; and this means they are becoming more power hungry which further increases the demand on their batteries.

It would be fair to say that improvements in battery technology have not kept pace with the demands of today’s mobile technology and habits. How often do you have to recharge your phone in a typical working day for example? In fact, a study of South African mobile users conducted by Intelligent Energy showed that 30.4% said “every day” and 5.9% even charge several times a day. 

Even if you have access to mains electricity, it takes time to recharge and you may be competing with colleagues for power outlets. In South Africa, 37m people have access to power, but following a boom in device adoption, there are now 59m mobile devices. That’s a lot of competition for a socket if you’re caught short on battery. We found that an astonishing 83.5% of South African consumers are willing to pay to recharge their phone when it loses power.

It is not acceptable that progress, smarter working and economic growth are endangered because of battery limitations. Quite simply, ways have to be found to put more energy into people’s hands. We can’t afford to wait for a breakthrough in battery technology which may never happen, so what is to be done? Fortunately there is an answer, and it comes in the form of hydrogen fuel cells.

Fuel cells, such as those being commerclialised by Intelligent Energy and our partners, are suitable for a range of sectors. They are a highly efficient and clean way of generating electricity, combining hydrogen with air to produce power with no polluting emissions.  A highly scalable technology, they are being targeted at a wide range of applications, from cars, buses, and motorbikes to back-up and distributed power generation and for providing power to mobile devices.

At Intelligent Energy, we have been working to bring fuel cell technology and its compelling attributes into the world of consumer electronics. This came to fruition yesterday at AfricaCom when we launched Upp, a personal energy device, to charge and power USB-compatible portable electronic devices, such as smartphones, feature phones, eReaders, tablets, portable gaming consoles, as well as digital cameras. 

With billions of USB devices used by consumers worldwide, Upp delivers at least one week of charge even to the most demanding, power-hungry smartphones,  giving mobile consumers the energy freedom and independence to stay connected for longer. Now you can have your own personal and instant energy whenever and wherever you need it, whether you’re at home, work or on the road.

This year, we have carried out successful consumer field deployments in region and are now in the process of expanding and recruiting further mobile partners worldwide.  We believe Upp is a real game changer for Africa and we look forward to working with users and the mobile ecosystem to give Africa freedom from the grid.

For more information please visit www.beupp.com, and join the discussion on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Highlights from the third and final day of another phenomenal AfricaCom...

The final day at AfricaCom goes out with a bang as we bid farewell to Cape Town for another year...

   

Well thats it! Another year, another incredible event. Here's a few snippets of the best bits from day 3. Thanks to all 8000 of you who came along... See you in November 2014!

Day 3 Keynote “Next Steps to Connect Africa”
Richard Bell, Vice Chairman at Wananchi, opened the final day of AfricaCom 2013 detailing how fixed broadband networks will be the platform for the next surge in African telecoms. Strong investment in the infrastructure continues, as the explosion of content drives traffic on the internet and promotes economic growth in the region.

The devices discussion continues and panellists from Microsoft and Intelligent-Energy assessed the specific needs of African consumers. Price remains a key factor in the purchase decision, but as smartphone prices continue to fall, consumers are prepared to pay a little more for added functionality.
The keynote session wrapped up with MTN's perspective on how to enhance the quality of connectivity across Africa.

Regulatory Evolution
Africa has a dynamic regulatory space which significantly impacts the whole continent’s communications industry. The take away from today’s Regulatory Evolution stream at AfricaCom was a real toolbox focusing on increasing competition to drive fairness. Speakers discussed the use of market intervention to avoid domination, easing market entry; economies of scale, and mandatory infrastructure sharing were just some.

Infrastructure Sharing
Helios Towers’ hosted Infrastructure Sharing stream today proved that it’s come a long way from mere outsourcing as it was considered years ago. The models to reduce both CapEx and OpEx are varied and the advantages far reaching: from operators and clients to ecological and aesthetic benefits. Infrastructure sharing is also set to grow strongly over the coming years thanks to increasing regulator support.

Wireless Broadband
The third day of AfricaCom featured the extremely popular wireless broadband stream with a turn out proving the continent’s dedication and desires to connect each corner of the vast continent. Topics discussed included current levels of internet penetration, network infrastructure, cost and management issues, as well as human and development factors. Wireless technology is most certainly something which will continue to give the industry much to talk about.

Big Data
AfricaCom took on the buzz of Big Data on Day 3 in the first-ever dedicated session on the topic. A world-class speaker line-up featured Huawei’s Big Data expert delivering the opening keynote, followed by case studies from the City of Cape Town, First National Bank and Deutsche Telekom. Mahindra Comviva and Folup also discussed the future value of Big Data as one of the most promising technologies.

AfricaCast
AfricaCast had a fantastic final day looking at local content and the impact of this content across Africa. Major case studies came from regional stations including Cape Town TV, Channels TV and Umuntu Media. This was mixed in with a special presentation from Stephane Mayoux, Current Affairs Editor for BBC Africa, discussing the future of the BBC in Africa.

AfricApps
AfricApps had a day full of local innovation from local app developers. It continued the themes of the Google workshop the previous day looking at the importance of SDKs and the evolution of User Consumption. Highlights a workshop led by Polymorph, as well as a presentation from local developer Polymorph looking at creating apps that cater to Africans Abroad.

AfricaCom Awards winners announced!


The star-studded AfricaCom Awards took place yesterday evening, the 6th annual ceremony and gala dinner which recognises the most outstanding initiatives in the African telco, media and ICT industries. Among the winners were Huawei, Liquid, Orange and Ericsson who, along with other attendees, enjoyed the surprise flash mob and two live bands while mingling with the industry elite. A special congratulations to Chris Wood from WIOCC who was awarded the coveted Industry Personality of the Year Award.

Informa were proud to support Engineers Without Borders as the official partner charity and celebrate another extremely dynamic and successful year of changing lives through technology in Africa.

Congratulations to all the proud winners! The full list of winners can be found here.

Twitter highlights from day 3...

"Thank you @AllAboutCom for a fantastic show" -@uppspiration
"Great show #AfricaCom and new clients for PMT" -@markusschorn
"What a fantastic third and final day at #AfricaCom" -@Alcatel1TouchSA
"Excellent speakers this afternoon in Monetising Content session #AfricaCom" -@BroderickCom
 "#AfricaCom is huge this year!" -@radwin_ltd

See You Next Year!
To get involved early for the 2014 show, please visit our website.

AfricaCom 2014
11-13 November 2014,  
CTICC, Cape Town, South Africa
Visit our website: www.comworldseries.com/africa

4G in Africa: Where mobile means more

by Howard_Stevens 

The increase in mobile use in Africa is no secret. Currently the fastest growing market for smartphones and accountable for over 60% of the continent’s internet traffic, it is a thriving and dynamic mobile economy. But despite the significant growth in mobile usage and breadth of mobile services available to people in Africa, levels of connectivity still have some progress to make. Operators and network providers are continuously investigating opportunities to introduce faster ways of connecting to the mobile literate continent – a topic we are hearing more about at this year’s AfricaCom event in Cape Town.

As in other parts of the world, 4G is currently being rolled out across Africa but differences in LTE frequency band adoption and channel bandwidths between operators could hamper interoperability – a valid concern. Combine this, however, with the limited disposable income mobile users have in the continent, and the fact that many mobile devices are shared between individuals, and it’s easy to see how recouping costs for 4G rollout is relatively limited in comparison to other, more developed markets.

That said, new deployment tactics are being introduced more frequently as operators assess the current opportunities to introduce 4G connectivity to countries in Africa. Looking to the future, establishing solid 4G networks could not only provide more for the 800 million mobile subscribers, but could further develop IT services in the continent.

Africa’s largest annual communications exhibition, AfricaCom has returned to Cape Town this week; dubbed to be the biggest of its kind to-date. Demand for faster networks is prevalent across the continent and this event will address many of the issues operators are currently trying to overcome. The event not only highlights that significant development of the mobile economy is currently underway across Africa, but also heralds a bright future for Africa in a data-centric world.

Find out more about AfricaCom here: http://africa.comworldseries.com/

https://community.sapmobileservices.com/t5/Mobile-Blogs/4G-in-Africa-Where-mobile-means-more/ba-p/497

SAP are exhibiting at AfricaCom 2013. Come and meet them at the event today at stand E11. Just turn up with a business card and register for your free exhibition pass onsite.

Announcing the Winners of the 2013 AfricaCom 2013 Awards!

At a glittering gala event held overlooking the picturesque Table Bay, Cape Town, the ICT, Telecommunications and Media industries came together to celebrate and acknowledge some of the industry’s best achievements that have taken place across the African continent over the past 12 months.

A massive congratulations to all the deserving winners of a 2013 AfricaCom Award. This year the competition was tougher than ever and we were delighted to receive so many inspirational entries. 

Download the press release for full details on each winning entry, or see below for the round-up of winners in our 14 prestigious categories.  

See the full press release here.

Press release for the Orange African Social Venture Prize.

Press release for the Etisalat Pan-African Prize for Innovation.

Congratulations to all our worthy 2013 winners:

__________________________________________________________________

Best Network Improvement

Huawei Technologies- Huawei  FMC Solution

 

__________________________________________________________________

Best Quality User Experience

Ericsson- Ericsson Multiscreen Self-care

     

 __________________________________________________________________

Best Cost Efficiency Solution for Africa

Liquid Telecom- Liquid Telecom - the longest fibre links in Africa 

    

 __________________________________________________________________

Rural Telecoms Award

Safaricom limited- VUMA online

  

__________________________________________________________________

Best Connectivity Solution for Africa 

Seacom- Remote Peering 

 

__________________________________________________________________

Best Marketing Campaign

Orange- Orange African Cup of Nations 2013

     

__________________________________________________________________

Best Mobile Marketing Campaign 

Mobitainment- The Excella'nt Competition

 

__________________________________________________________________

Best Digital Music Initiative 

Spice VAS Africa Pte Ltd- MOD360

 

__________________________________________________________________

Best Mobile Money Service 

Mahindra Comviva- Ecocash

 

__________________________________________________________________

Best App-for-Africa

Prezence- Bid or Buy

 

__________________________________________________________________

Most Innovative Service

MTN Swaziland- MTN XtraTime

 

__________________________________________________________________

Best Pan-African Initiative

Seacom- SEACOM's IP Network

 

__________________________________________________________________

Industry Personality of the Year 

WIOCC- Chris Wood

     

__________________________________________________________________

Changing-Lives-Award

Open Idea- Medigraf

 

__________________________________________________________________

Winners of the Etisalat Pan-African Prize for Innovation:

1st prize: Gennii Games

2nd prize: Efiwe Mobile Application

Winners of the Orange African Social Venture Prize

1st prize: QuickDo,

2nd prize: Ivoire Job

3rd prize:Chifco

A round-up of another exciting day at the 16th annual AfricaCom...

The buzz continues for a second day at Africa's largest digital event!

   
More exciting highlights from AfricaCom 2013. Day 2 went off with a bang... Come back tomorrow for the big finale!

Big-hitting Keynotes
An honest, plain-speaking panel discussion was the perfect opening to the second day of AfricaCom. Panellists from MTN, Orange, Intel, Google, Facebook and Mozilla discussed the increasing opportunities for digital services in Africa. Operator billing was a key focus. Surely win-win - but what is holding it up? Putting the customer at the heart of the strategy - if there is not an easy way to pay, the digital ecosystem will fail. The panel agreed on the need to pull together to encourage the development and distribution of content and services with a local flavour,

LTE
Who better to open the LTE stream than Irene Charnley, Group CEO of Smile. Irene presented her experience as the first operator to launch 4G services in Africa.  Irene emphasised Smile's strategy of highlighting the customer experience and making it the main focus of all aspects of the business. Smile's subscribers benefit from the high speed delivery of innovative content over LTE networks, and a transparent system to prevent bill shock following data usage.
Panel speakers identified key challenges preventing the mass take-up of LTE in Africa - device availability, spectrum allocation, Volte not yet available. But Smile remain positive and aim to be delivering LTE to the mass market by this time next year. We look forward to an update at AfricaCom 2014!

Cloud
The Open Data Centre Alliance evening reception kick-started two days of content on Cloud & Big Data, in a musical evening with great networking. The jam-packed morning sessions of Cloud @ AfricaCom featured some of Africa’s leading telcos including Telkom, Vodacom, and Safaricom together with Amazon Web Services discussing the future of telco Cloud in the region.

CEM
Customer Experience Management stream today focused on interaction, new means of creating proximity and communicating with the customer through e-mail, chat, voice, video calls, social media etc. Ways of converting issues into opportunities to provide excellent services were discussed also with intelligence provided on what can be done in CEM to turn it into a distinguishing quality and value adding characteristic for the telco.

Mobile Money
Mobile Money at AfricaCom got off to a philisophical start focusing on what exactly mobile money is and should be, offering a tentative conclusion that “Mobile money is emotional – it should be quick and easy, turning each individual into an agent, into an ATM”. The debate also covered interoperability and customer service, as well as regulation and cross-border transactions.

AfricApps
AfricApps delivered a major developer workshop looking at the future of the Cloud and Google’s role in this. Led by Daniel Acton Technical Account Manager at Google, this looked in detail at the potential opportunities presented by the Android Platform for Sub-Saharan mobile app developers

AfricaCast
Africa’s major broadcast conference reached its peak today with major highlights including a presentation from the CEO of the SABC, Lulama Mokhobo. Contributing presentations included two major presentations from Google; firstly from Brett StClair, discussing the role of YouTube in Africa, secondly from Arno Hart Project Manager at TENET discussing the future of the Google white spaces trial in Africa.

More Twittermonials from day 2...

"Interesting day 2 at the #AfricaCom  #MobileMoneyAfrica conference" -@‏LaylaLaurenLeo

"Buzzing at the #AfricaCom. Some much to see..."
-@innovationville

"Day two at #AfricaCom in full swing"-@alexis_boshoff 
"An Amazing line up of speakers today at #AfricaCom" -@Alcatel1TouchSA


Follow the events as they unfold on our Storify page!


AfricaCom Awards Show
The most eagerly awaited, respected and renowned awards ceremony within the African Telecoms, Media & ICT industries begins tonight at The Waterfront Lookout, Granger Bay in Cape Town, South Africa from 7pm. 

View the full line-up of all the Awards contenders here

With live entertainment and MC Nik Rabinowitz; this will be a night of entertainment, celebration and great networking.

The Awards Ceremony has sold out – so if you failed to secure a seat or table, then make sure you join us at the After Party, which is free and there is an open invitation for all.  It starts at 10.30pm tonight.

We hope to see you there!

Timings

• 19:00 AfricaCom Awards drinks reception
• 19:30 AfricaCom Awards Show begins
• 22:30 PCCW Global AfricaCom Awards Free After party – FREE FOR ALL - (The Waterfront Lookout, Granger Bay)

---

Coming up tomorrow...
Thursday 14th November

AfricaCom Conference Sessions 

•  07:30 AfricaCom Registration opens
•  09:00 AfricaCom Conference Begins – Day 3 Keynote session (Auditorium 2)
• 14:00  Regulatory Evolution (Roof Terrace)
• 12:00  Infrastructure Sharing (Roof Terrace)
• 12:00 Wireless Broadband (Room 1:6)
• 12:15  Monetising Content & Data (Auditorium 2)
• 12:00  Big Data (Room 1:4)
• 12:00  AfricApps (Jasminium Restaurant)
• 14:00  Regulatory Evolution (Roof Terrace)
• 17:15 End of Conference sessions 

 AfricaCom Exhibition

• 10:00 Exhibition opens
• 11:00 MasterClass Theatre – LTE session (Exhibition Hall)
• 17:00 Exhibition Closing Time

For more information, check out the finalised programme here

The future of Africa’s mobile content delivery

• The mobile multimedia content delivery market represents a key opportunity for Africa’s MNOs, with the music content industry alone predicted to reach $475 million by 2016.
• Africa’s MNOs must deploy a multi-channel strategy to ensure that their multimedia content services are accessible to all customers, regardless of mobile device, channel or connectivity network.

Africa is one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world and is predicted to quadruple in size to a total value of $234 billion by 2020, with an annual growth rate of 44%. The continent is subject to rapidly developing mobile services and entrepreneurship as 3G, mobile broadband and 4G (LTE) coverage spreads across the continent. Mobile is a key part of Africa’s infrastructure with users now paying for a number of services and bills with their mobile device. As many Africans can’t access a PC or a landline telephone, mobile is the technological conduit for a variety of services.

An example of an industry that is benefiting from the increasing mobile capabilities in Africa is the multimedia content delivery industry, especially music content. The music streaming and downloads market in Africa represents an increasingly key opportunity for Africa’s MNOs, with revenue predicted to reach $475 million by 2016. Previously, unlicensed music has been a challenge in Africa, however the mobile channel is opening up distribution channels and is enabling MNOs to deliver guaranteed high quality licensed music to customers. In addition, mobile is benefiting the musicians themselves, by enabling them to reach a wider audience over a legitimate channel and not having to resort to piracy selling.

The African Mobile Music industry signifies of the future of Africa’s data demand, and if it follows the trends of the west, the demand for data and a high quality multimedia content service is only going to increase. With the MNO and data market in Africa far away from reaching saturation the importance of optimising revenue assurance strategies, customer relationship management strategies, multimedia content delivery optimisation and customer experience for the future should be at the forefront of the minds of MNOs. By optimising their infrastructure, services and CRM strategies, African MNOs can start building long lasting and profitable relationship with Africa’s mobile users.

However, the African multimedia content delivery market represents a unique challenge. As the African mobile market is still evolving with multiple devices and networks, a multi-channel approach is needed to ensure all customers can access multimedia content. This approach will enable MNOs to deliver multimedia content to their customers regardless of channel, mobile device or network used, allowing MNOs to unlock a number of financial and customer experience benefits.

How do Africa’s MNOs deliver multimedia content over multiple communication channels to ensure all customers can access content regardless of handset capability and network connectivity (3G, 4G, SMS, etc.)? IMImobile works with the majority of the Mobile Group Operators in Africa deploying our award winning DaVinci Content Management System (CMS) to deliver and manage multimedia content via SMS, USSD, STK, MMS, mobile app, Voice and Web channels, in over 30 countries in Africa. We have seen first-hand the advantages of adopting a multi-channel approach to multimedia content delivery with our clients reporting a significant boost in streaming demands and downloads which has unlocked additional revenue. In addition, they have used IMImobile’s DaVinci Campaign Manager to deliver personalised multi-channel marketing campaigns to customers to strengthen their customer relationship, reinforce loyalty and increase their multi-media service results by using the real time analytics feature to adjust campaigns on the fly for maximum results. Partnered with IMImobile, Africa’s MNOs are able to provide their customer with the multimedia content they want via any channel, any network connectivity, at any location.

Sources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2013/09/16/meet-the-mobile-apps-streaming-music-to-africa/

http://opensignal.com/blog/2013/02/22/africas-mobile-explosion/

http://www.theafricareport.com/North-Africa/spotify-deezer-or-spinlet-africas-music-streaming-choice.html

IMIMobile are be exhibiting at AfricaCom 2013. Come and meet them at the event, at stand B10a. Just turn up with a business card and register for your free exhibition pass onsite.

All the best bits from a fantastic first day at AfricaCom 2013...

Record numbers gather in Cape Town for another jam-packed show...

         

Here are just a few of the highlights from the opening day of AfricaCom 2013... we look forward to seeing you again tomorrow!

1... Cost efficient networks
The keynote session highlighted the requirement for increased investment in the networks, to cope with the data explosion. The cost-efficient networks stream identified strategies for increasing the quality of the network to the highest standard without excessive spend.  Delegates in the stream focussed in how to reduce capex and opex in a data hungry environment.

2... Entrepreneurs Incubator Hub
“All entrepreneurs need support and we need to drive education as a basis for fostering entrepreneurs, this is as, if not more, important that financing for an entrepreneur.” This is the message offered by the incubator, investment and start-up experts who shared their insight at today’s Entrepreneurs’ Incubator Hub at AfricaCom.

3... Mobile Money
Mobile Money at AfricaCom got off to a surprising start focusing on what exactly mobile money is and should be, offering a tentative conclusion that “Mobile money is emotional – it should be quick and easy, turning each individual into an agent, into an ATM”. The debate also covered interoperability and customer service, as well as regulation and cross-border transactions.

4... Digital Music Africa
A highlight of the Digital Music stream was the opening panel featuring AfriCori, Spice Africa, Etisalat, X5 Music Group and Warner Music. Moderated by Editor in Chief of Rolling Stone magazine Miles Keylock, panellists debated the level of piracy in the industry, and the revenue split between the key parties in the ecosystem. Is there enough transparency? Is the value add from the labels clear? Do the labels take too big a share of the revenue? Over 120 attendees enjoyed the debate and networking at the first Digital Music Africa event.

5... AfricApps

The first day of this year's AfricApps has been focussed on the impact of mobile advertising and marketing, assessing how this is changing the consumer expe

rience. Central to this is the innovation of major brands with a key case study coming from Andre De Wet, General Manager of Price Check.

6... AfricaCast

The multiplatform focus day has brought fantastic insights into the VOD and OTT opportunities that are growing in the African sub-continent. Central to this has been the rise of two new OTT platforms in Sub-Saharan Africa Buni TV, and iROKOtv.  The two CEOs of these global innovators presented their findings at the show.

With Cloud taking centre stage in many AfricaCom meetings this year, the dedicated Cloud @ AfricaCom stream is bound to attract interest from Africa’s telcos looking to increase their revenues through Cloud services. With the top 5 African ‘Cloud telcos’ presenting their ‘how to’ strategies, this is the right place to get thorough insights on the African sky of Clouds!

A snippet of what everyone's been saying on twitter...

"Africa Com - information overload, loving every second of it!"-  @RM_Borol

"Loving the buzz and liaising with all the #tech gurus" -
@elleminx

"Great debate on the future of mobile banking at #AfricaCom" -@domcollett1  

"A great buzz down at the #AfricaCom event today" -
@paulkroberts

      
Whats coming up over the next 2 days...

 

Wednesday 13th November

AfricaCom Conference Sessions

• 07:15 AfricaCom Registration opens
• 08:00 AfricaCom Conference Begins – Day 2 Keynote session (Auditorium 2)
• 11:45  Africa Cast (Strelitzia Restaurant)
• 11:45  Cloud@AfricaCom (Room 1:4)
• 12:00  AfricApps (Jasminium Restaurant)
• 12:10 Mobile Money Africa (Room 1:6)
• 12:10  LTE@Africa (Auditorium 2)
• 12:30  Customer Experience Management (Roof Terrace)
• 18:00 End of Conference sessions  

AfricaCom Exhibition 

• 10:00 Exhibition opens
• 11:00 MasterClass Theatre - VAS & Content-M-health/Education/Government session (Exhibition Hall)
• 18:00 Exhibition Closing Time
• AfricaCom Awards Show
• 19:00 AfricaCom Awards drinks reception
• 19:30 AfricaCom Awards Show begins
• 22:30 PCCW Global AfricaCom Awards Free After party – FREE FOR ALL - (The Waterfront Lookout, Granger Bay)

For more information, check out the finalised programme here

---

Thursday 14th November

AfricaCom Conference Sessions

• 07:30 AfricaCom Registration opens
• 09:00 AfricaCom Conference Begins – Day 3 Keynote session (Auditorium 2)
• 14:00  Regulatory Evolution (Roof Terrace)
• 12:00  Infrastructure Sharing (Roof Terrace)
• 12:00 Wireless Broadband (Room 1:6)
• 12:15  Monetising Content & Data (Auditorium 2)
• 12:00  Big Data (Room 1:4)
• 12:00  AfricApps (Jasminium Restaurant)
• 14:00  Regulatory Evolution (Roof Terrace)
• 17:15 End of Conference sessions  

AfricaCom Exhibition 

• 10:00 Exhibition opens
• 11:00 MasterClass Theatre – LTE session (Exhibition Hall)
• 17:00 Exhibition Closing Time

For more information, check out the finalised programme here

Meet Pokello Nare at Kirusa Booth P45 at Africacom2013!

MTN Group Selects Etisalat SmartHub to Extend Regional Network Reach

Dubai-UAE, 12 November, 2013: Etisalat, leading telecom operator in the Middle East and Africa today announced its partnership with MTN Group to extend their regional network reach via Etisalat SmartHub.

MTN Group, a leading emerging markets telecommunications provider, will connect through Etisalat’s SmartHub at Fujairah CLS to expand its advanced data network capabilities. The South Africa-based multinational company operates in African, European and Middle Eastern countries.

Etisalat’s SmartHub provides advanced content, IPX, IX and high speed data services for its customers in the UAE and the region. The new partnership will also enable MTN Group to connect via a new route to Europe, beneficial to its large customer base in the Middle East.

Etisalat's SmartHub is a global communications hub facilitating direct routing of traffic between the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe.

Ali Amiri, Executive Vice President, Carrier & Wholesale Services, Etisalat, said: “We are delighted to have such a prestigious telecom group as MTN join the SmartHub community of operators and content providers. SmartHub is designed to provide our partners with a one stop shop for connectivity to the region.

“This partnership with MTN Group showcases the importance of the SmartHub as well as puts UAE in the limelight as the regional hub for telecom services. We look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship and enhancing customer experience.”

Jyoti Desai, Group Chief Technology and Information Officer, MTN said:  “Etisalat’s Smarthub is seen as an important hub in our bid to expand MTN’s world class global multi-services network, as it allows us to provide advanced communication services to our customers in the Middle East and Africa. The rising significance of UAE’s strategic position as the communication network hub for the Middle East and Africa region underpins the importance of this partnership in our expansion plan.”

-End-

About  MTN Group

Launched in 1994, the MTN Group is a leading emerging market operator, connecting subscribers in 22 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The MTN Group is listed on the JSE Securities Exchange in South Africa under the share code: “MTN.” As of 30 June 2013, MTN recorded 201.5 million subscribers across its operations in Afghanistan, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Republic, Iran, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of Congo (Congo Brazzaville), Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia. Visit. Visit us at www.mtn.com , www.mtnbusiness.com , www.mtnmmo.com and for our football fans www.mtnfootball.com

About Smarthub

Etisalat’s Smarthub is the region’s largest capacity, content, internet and data hub in the Middle East. Smarthub provides regional access for global service providers and global access to the region. Smarthub includes the Middle East’s first IPX for mobile operators and includes the region’s largest portfolio of internet content. Smarthub IX (Internet Exchange) will extend the reach of Smarthub content services to the region. Connectivity to Smarthub is provided through a robust and diverse infrastructure of both regional and intercontinental cable systems combined with world class hosting facilities in the Smarthub data center  managed by Etisalat’s Carrier& Wholesale Services www.etisalat.ae/smarthub

About Etisalat

Etisalat is the largest telecommunications operator in the Middle East and North Africa region catering to consumers, businesses, international telecommunication companies, ISPs, content providers and mobile operators.

Servicing over 139 million customers in 15 countries in Middle East, Asia and Africa, Etisalat has achieved more than 20% growth in subscriber base in 2012 across its land line, mobile, and Internet services.

Etisalat is now the highest overall rated telecommunications company in the GCC and the 4th highest rated telecommunications company in the world. It has been rated AA- by Standard & Poor, A+ by Fitch, and Aa3 by Moody's.

Etisalat UAE has pioneered the launch of the region’s first commercial 4G service on its nation-wide LTE network. In September 2012, Etisalat UAE successfully completed the highest 4G LTE speed test in the world, reaching speeds of 300Mbps.

The corporation offers a variety of hi-tech complimentary services to the telecommunications industry including managerial and technical training, SIM card manufacturing, e-payment solutions, clearing house services, peering, voice and data transit, and submarine and land cable services.