Mobile Money services, Mobile Music, Social Networks and Apps all covered on the last day of VAS Africa

It was standing room only at the start of the second day of VAS Africa, with an inspirational keynote speech by 18 year old entrepreneur Nadav Ossendryver.  Outlining the ideas behind Latest Sightings, an innovative app tracking wildlife in the Kruger, Nadav detailed his use of social media for building his community and developing activities around the app.

The youth market was a focus of the panel discussion featuring Cell C and Orange as they detailed their strategies for targeting the 16 – 21 year old segment.  What services will they pay for and what is truly relevant to them?

The conference went on to discuss Mobile Money services, Mobile Music, and Social Networks  and Apps in Africa. 

Speakers detailed clear trends on the need for higher speed, top quality networks to deliver the new, innovative content and apps, as well as the requirement for fair and accessible data pricing.  Strong partnerships are paramount, and win-win business models essential.

Arnauld Blondet, Innovation Director for AMEA at Orange, commented on the success of this year’s VAS Africa, and the growth and development on previous years “VAS Africa is definitely the great opportunity for mobile telcos to look at their growth, understand new trends, listen to vendors and seek new business models.  This is the great recipe of VAS Africa.  I am impressed with the bigger agenda, bigger number of people and quality of presentations.  VAS is clearly a big subject”.

We look forward to returning with an even bigger and better VAS Africa on 24^th-25^th June 2015 in Johannesburg.

Simbarashe Mabasha discusses how mobile money services will evolve and more ahead of this year's VAS Africa

Simbarashe Mabasha, CEO, Wabona

Ahead of VAS Africa 2014 we are in conversation with Simbarashe Mabasha, CEO, Wabona

Com World Series: Please describe your company’s position and objectives in Africa

Simbarashe Mabasha: I am the CEO of Wabona and our objectives are to provide an innovative, affordable and unique Video-on-Demand service for Africans via mobile and online.

Com World Series: What do you think are the top 3 major trends affecting your business in the region in 2014?

Simbarashe Mabasha: Data costs, Medium specific content, Somewhat slow smartphone growth

Com World Series: Which do you consider to be the most popular services for African consumers and enterprises?

Simbarashe Mabasha: Music and general entertainment services for consumes. Data management services for enterprises.

Com World Series: What are the main challenges operators need to adapt to in order to deliver attractive services to their customers?

Simbarashe Mabasha: Data prices have to come down.

Com World Series: What is the best way forward for operators and OTT players – competition or partnership?

Simbarashe Mabasha: Partnership.

Com World Series: How are mobile money services likely to evolve in the years to come?

Simbarashe Mabasha: They will surpass conventional banking and credit card services.
Com World Series: How do you see mobile fitting into marketing and advertising campaigns?

Simbarashe Mabasha: Mobile is crucial to growth of the market and Ad-revenues for operators and OTT players as a whole.

Com World Series: Which companies are showing most innovation in the region and what can be learnt from them?

Simbarashe Mabasha: Zuku is offers a Triple-Play approach by providing a PayTV, voice and data solution for consumers. This combination of DTH and OTT is a step in the right direction.

See Simbarashe Mabasha talk on Day 1 of VAS Africa (24th June at 15:10)

Anthony Masunga discusses popular services, main operator challenges and money services, ahead of VAS Africa this June

Anthony Masunga, COO

Botswana Telecom

VAS Africa speaks with Anthony Masunga ahead of VAS Africa this June

VAS Africa: Please describe your company’s position and objectives in Africa

Anthony Masunga: My company (Botswana Telecommunications Corporation including beMOBILE) is evolving from single lines of business (Mobile, Fixed, Internet) into a converged operator. These changes were introduced in 2013 through organisational restructuring and will be supported by massive investment in technology to support the strategy of fixed mobile convergence. In addition to that, changes at shareholding level will involve partial privatisation of the whole company which would see the Government of Botswana listing 49% of the shares in the local Botswana Stock Exchange.

VAS Africa:  What do you think are the top 3 major trends affecting your business in the region in 2014?

Anthony Masunga: Consumer Demand: Access to Affordable, high quality internet

Capex for Fixed Access Network: Investment in the access network to improve wireline broadband connectivity vs returns

Capex for High Speed Mobile broadband (LTE and 3G): Investments in the mobile networks to improve mobile broadband experience vs. returns

VAS Africa:  Which do you consider to be the most popular services for African consumers and enterprises?

Anthony Masunga: Mobile money transfer for the consumers

VAS Africa: What are the main challenges operators need to adapt to in order to deliver attractive services to their customers?

Anthony Masunga: Truly identifying the needs of the customers (African markets differ from country to country and no single solution is fit-for-all markets)

VAS Africa:  What is the best way forward for operators and OTT players – competition or partnership?

Anthony Masunga: Partnership (Lowers opex for operators and improves time-to-market).

VAS Africa:  How are mobile money services likely to evolve in the years to come?

Anthony Masunga: More public utility companies will embrace the technology and it will be used for purchase of water, power, TV subscription and social payments.

VAS Africa:  How do you see mobile fitting into marketing and advertising campaigns?

Anthony Masunga: It will just be a cheaper and more direct form of marketing and advertising campaigns provided issues of SPAM are addressed

VAS Africa: Which companies are showing most innovation in the region and what can be learnt from them?

Anthony Masunga: First National Bank in partnership with different Mobile Networks for money transfer and payment services (e-wallet, m-wallet and payments)

See Anthony Masunga speak on the 24th June at 12:40! 

Jonah Fink, Senior Vice President of IDT Telecom Solutions talks on key trends and prospects in the African VAS market...

Jonah Fink
Senior Vice President
of IDT Telecom Solutions

Informa Telecoms and Media caught up with Jonah Fink, Senior Vice President of IDT Telecom Solutions, ahead of his presentation at VAS Africa 2014, to find out Jonah’s thoughts on key trends and prospects in the African VAS market...

Com World Series: What business do IDT have in Africa?

Jonah Fink: IDT supports a strong channel partner program in Africa that supports System Integrators, Internet Service Providers and internet-related VARs that sell IDT Hosted and branded Voice over IP Solutions under the IDT Beyond’s portfolio. Services include – call shop, broadband telephony, mobile app and SIP Trunking.

Com World Series: What are the three key challenges for the African Voice Market now?

1. Commerce  2. Awareness  3. Focus

Jonah Fink: As “Cash & Carry” is still the dominant behavior in African consumer commerce, finding key distribution partners with a strong footprint of point of sales is essential.

Awareness of alternate voice solutions is a key ingredient for both the consumer and business client. As Africa may be the leading continent of opportunity, there is so much to do and focus on. IDT is looking to establish partnership whose sole focus is voice and its delivery to their respective markets. Teamwork, Collaboration and Hands on Workshops or seminars can help drive the awareness and necessity of IDT Beyond’s Over the Top Solutions.

Com World Series: How do you see those challenges changing in the next three years?

Jonah Fink: I believe the single remedy to the above stated challenges is internet penetration. As Africa will continue its rapid and robust deployment of Internet around the continent all three of the above stated challenges will be appeased. Internet will start enabling POSA networks around the Horn of Africa to produce real time transactions no matter how the remote a location will be. Internet penetration will allow for real time webinars & “GotoMeetings” hosted by IDT Beyond to attract key decision makers to join and learn about alternative voice solutions for the home, business and enterprise. Thirdly, IDT is prepared, encouraged and motivated to share best practices with African operators to showcase case studies that have yielded mass success to our key partners around the globe. Gaining such awareness and knowledge will drive the Operator’s confidence in regaining the share of the market that belongs at home. 

Com World Series: What makes the African market different from the rest of the world?

Jonah Fink: Its diversity, topology, demographics and culture require IDT to study and learn each country as its own entity. Customization is a key ingredient to IDT’s voice offers. One size does NOT fit all. IDT works intimately with each and every partner on their requirements. IDT listens to the operator’s need for brand awareness, uniformity and seamless integration of IDT’s solutions into their respective portfolios. 

Com World Series: Are OTT operators’ a threat or an opportunity for African Telcos?

Jonah Fink: Cleary, OTT operators such as Skype, Viber and WhatsApp are threats against African Telcos revenues. In particular, international long distance is on a decline for most operators in the region. In fact, there are many supportive studies and articles which say that VOIP originated international traffic has surpassed the traditional voice minute in key markets in Africa. At the same time, these applications have created a very strong awareness down to the consumer. As each day goes by, African consumers are embracing new methods of communication. There was an eye opening article published some months back which conducted a survey posing the question: If the local operator would launch its own OTT solution such as Skype in their market, would the consumer continue to purchase from Skype or would they buy directly from their local Operator…. And the overwhelming response to the article was the consumers would buy from their home based operator. Loyalty, nationalism, brand and a single bill rather than a swivel chair approach to another foreign OTT based provider is the appeal.

Com World Series: How can African operators make money from voice when so many calls are free now?

Jonah Fink: The world is all about mobility. Mobile penetration into Africa is going at lightning speeds. As Africa, becomes mobile and customers are taking their lives on the go, off-net traffic is growing. It’s funny, when one thinks about Skype or Viber services, they immediately think about P2P (Peer to Peer free services). It is worthy to note that IDT’s flagship mobile calling solution in the United States just enjoyed its strongest month of March producing tens of millions of dollars in international voice revenue. There is certainly Skype and Viber in the USA… So why is IDT’s retail voice business growing? Isn’t everyone talking for free? Absolutely not! We forget too easily, that particularly in the developing markets, where international voice corridors are so important, consumers are either getting their first mobile phone for the very first time, enjoying new cellular networks which are reaching remote communities for the first time and yes the smartphone is making customers smart. All of these ingredients mean more billable minutes which can go in either of two ways – yours or theirs…

Hear more from Jonah at 14.20 on 24th June, in his presentation at VAS Africa! Download the full agenda here!

Mobile Money and Content the Major Talking Points at VAS Africa Yesterday

The first VAS Africa event closed yesterday in Johannesburg after two days of rich debate, best practice sharing and networking between over 250 VAS specialists: mobile operators, solutions vendors, content owners and aggregators, applications developers, consultants and more.

All participants agreed that such an event was long needed in Africa: as the market is developing, it is crucial that all stakeholders get together and discuss how to make it work for everyone, and in particular for the end-user.

The service that dominated the debates was mobile money. Mayank Sharma of Comviva compared Africa to a Silicon Valley in terms of its leadership in mobile financial services.  Content was a major talkingpoint on the second day: speakers discussed partnerships between operators, content providers and applications developers, as well as the optimum pricing and revenue sharing models. The need for relevant local content was highlighted by most speakers, and of course social networking was mentioned as a great opportunity.

However speakers pointed out that the success of value-added services will not be down only to the attractiveness of the services: affordability and simplicity of use will be crucial to seize the potential of value-added services in Africa.

The event was attended by VAS specialists from the major players in Africa: pan-african operator groups (Airtel, MTN, Orange, Vodacom, Econet Wireless, Etisalat), local operators (Cell C, TNM, Mcell, 8ta and more), content providers (BBC, SABC, Multimesh), VAS solutions suppliers (Comviva, Ericsson, Huawei, GandD, SSD-Tech, DSG, Buongiorno), and many more companies or individuals with an interest in sharing ideas and networking with their peers.

This was the first event dedicated to value-added services in the Com World Series, and it met a need in the market. "The atmosphere throughout the event was very inspiring", says Julie Rey, Research Director at organisers Informa Telecoms and Media; "what we saw was a community of like-minded professionals getting together to ensure the success of their market".  

VAS Africa will return in 2012 with an expanded programme of discussion to make the debates most fruitful for all the players in the market. Before then, VAS specialist can meet at AfricaCom in Cape Town on 9-10 November, where the programme includes special sessions on VAS, innovation, social media, mobile money and marketing and pricing.

Find out more about attending next year: www.comworldseries.com/vasafrica