MTN confirms top speakers at AfricaCom

MTN Group, the leading provider of communications services in Africa and sponsor of this year's AfricaCom, has confirmed its top speakers at the event.
Ahmad Farroukh, Vice President for the West and Central Africa Region, will give the Leading Operator Interview in the opening keynote of the event. He will answer questions from the moderator and the audience on MTN's regional strategies for the next stage of growth in Africa: key growth markets, opportunities for expansion and M&A activities, business models, operational strategy, target segments.
Themba Khumalo, CEO of MTN Uganda, will give a presentation in the Mobile Money session, looking more particularly at the mobile money ecosystem in Africa and sharing his experience of such services.
Serame Taukobong, Chief Marketing Officer of MTN South Africa will join the Content Panel in the Value-Added Services session on the second day of the event. He will discuss the impact of the FIFA World Cup on MTN's mobile content services and revenues.
MTN will have a stand in the exhibition and are a sponsor of the AfricaCom Awards as well.

Innovation is key in Africa's telecoms - Hear from leaders on how they foster it within their businesses

As mentioned by my colleague Nick Jotischky, innovation is a crucial part of Africa's telecoms market, and the continent is renowned for having been at the forefront of new technologies and services; mobile financial services are probably the best example of a new service finding its first major market success in Africa.
Despite the continent's status as a developing market, or probably more because of it, companies operating in Africa have to be more innovative than in other parts of the world, because they have to offer attractive services with sometimes little financial support, for a customer base that generally has low spending power.
That is why the programme of this year's AfricaCom includes a keynote session dedicated to innovation. It will start with a 'Leadership Roundtable' on how operators adapt their strategies to changing market conditions, with contributions from Jose dos Santos, CEO of Vodacom Mozambique (whose presentation on 'services for the low-end market' was a great success in 2008, as well as his contribution to the CEO panel last year), Gaurav Anand, VP Africa at Tata Communications (bringing the point of view of a wholesale carrier and owner of dynamic fixed-line operator Neotel), and Hussein Rifai, Chairman and Managing Director of telecom management group MDC (which owns among others Vivacell in Sudan).
The session will also include a perspective from outside Africa, with a presentation from Ashish Thomas, director of Singtel Group Innovation, a division of the pan-Asian operator group dedicated to tackling innovation and creating new opportunities for the group.
And to include the latest company looking to bring a fresh perspective on operations in Africa, the group of speakers will also be joined by a senior representative of Airtel Africa. The speaker will be announced in the days to come so keep an eye on this blog!

Africa Com launches it's record breaking, 13th annual congress agenda

We’ve now been running and growing our flagship event, AfricaCom for 13 years and there has been much excitement surrounding our recent launch of this year’s conference agenda. We’ve taken on board a lot of the requests from last year’s attendees to broaden the list of topics that delegates can choose from, particularly introducing new topics previously not covered in what started as a purely mobile centric event.

Coming under the overarching umbrella of “Driving the Next Stage of Growth in African Telecoms“ we’ve included topics spanning all aspects of the continent’s ecosystem including some new “hot” technologies yet to hit the market. Special Focus sessions include Efficiency and ROI Strategies; LTE; VAS; Marketing, Pricing and Loyalty; Mobile Money; Fibre Optics; Broadband Data Services; WiMAX; and Capacity & Wholesale Africa.

We’ve worked hard to ensure that our speaker panel broadens in step with the congress agenda. The speaker line-up has reached the golden landmark of 100 and new names are coming on board every week. All in all we’re hoping that this is going to be AfricaCom at it’s best yet!

More M&A activity in Africa as the continent's telecoms retain strong growth

According to my colleague Matt Reed, preparing an M&A strategy is one of the top 10 priorities operators should look at to succeed in Africa’s telecoms market. Looking at the news in the past couple of weeks, it seems that the major groups operating on the continent are already actively working on this strategy.
Since Bharti announced its acquisition of the African operations of Zain, the deal hasn’t gone as smoothly as it could have been. In Nigeria, Zain’s operation is still the subject of an ownership battle; this is the continent’s largest market and the main source of revenue among Zain’s African assets, so it is crucial in the group's success. In the smaller markets of Gabon and Congo, government authorities are objecting to the buy-out of one of their leading operators without being consulted and are threatening to suspend the operators’ licences. Are these mere hiccups or will they seriously affect Bharti’s strategy in Africa?
MTN, which Bharti spent most of 2008-2009 in failed discussions with, is still on the expansion trail. The pan-African group is now talking to Egypt-based Orascom about its African operations in Algeria, Tunisia, Burundi, Central African Republic, Namibia and Zimbabwe. This would potentially create the world’s 3rd largest mobile operator, but Algerian authorities are currently opposing the deal. Algeria is one of the most promising markets left in Africa, with a large young population and 3G services which have yet to be licensed. Without Algeria, the MTN-Orascom deal would lose a lot of its appeal.
Orange/France Telecom posted its financial results this week, and despite lower overall revenues, its African operations registered considerable growth. With this in mind, the group’s new CEO Stéphane Richard also announced a plan to invest 7 billion euros in Africa and the Middle East in the next five years. Orange already has a strong presence in French-speaking Africa: its latest launch was a triple play service provider in Tunisia, but its main presence is in West Africa, where it seems it would concentrate most of its efforts.
Saudi group STC has also expressed an interest in Africa for expansion in the last few days, continuing the trend (reversed only by Zain) of Middle Eastern groups eyeing Africa as the next place for growth.
M&A activity and regional groups’ strategies on the continent will continue to be major topics of discussion at events in the Com World Series, with among others interviews from regional group representatives of Zain and MTN at West & Central Africa Com in Senegal in June, an event dedicated to Nigeria’s market in September, a special focus on Algeria’s market at North Africa Com in October, and keynote sessions on investment and operators’ strategies at AfricaCom in November.

5 questions to Robert Aouad, CEO of ISP Isocel Telecom in Benin

Thanks to the launch of several submarine cables connecting it to Europe et the rest of Africa, Western and Central Africa is soon to experience dramatically improved internet access. This will no doubt give a great opportunity for new operators and Internet Service Providers to create a niche in the region's telecoms market. More particularly, it will improve access to communications for all, particularly for underserved segments such as the young and people on low income.
Robert Aouad is one of those entrepreneurs who has spotted the huge potential for alternative service providers to deliver internet access to the region. He is the main promoter of the ISOCEL project, launched in 2004 and which after 4 months became the first private ISP in Benin after the incumbent. ISOCEL is currently in the process of deploying similar wireless networks in six secondary cities in Benin and operate and manage ICT community centers.
Robert will be a panellist at the West & Central Africa Com cognress in Dakar in June, where he will share his thoughts on how fixed-Line, mobile & wireless operators can deliver reliable and affordable broadband services in the region. As an advance preview of the message he will put forward at the event, he answers five questions for us.

What are the key trends in West & Central Africa’s telecommunications market today?
The telecommunications market in West & Central Africa tends towards a radical transformation in the next 10 years, with increased competition among mobile operators, particularly as ARPU is diminishing. This is due to the fact that the vast majority of new subscribers will come from a low-revenue segment living in remote areas. This will push the sector’s stakeholders to make up for this decrease in revenues by offering other value-added services, mainly access to mobile internet.

What are the key markets trends to watch and why?
It would be interesting to observe the arrival of new generation technologies and their adoption in a larger market, such as WiMAX, HSDPA, CDMA EV-DO Rev B etc. After a few years, we will have a better understanding of which of these different technologies are most successful and if they have a sustainable business model.

How has the global economic situation affected your market, and how has your company responded to it?
We are lucky to be in a market which is still largely under-exploited. This means that we haven’t felt the consequences of the global economic situation, which hasn’t affected our growth in terms of subscribers and revenues. On the other hand, we operate in a market where the buying power is among the lowest and this has always forced us to create products and services that are affordable for our target customers.

Which services or technologies are likely to have the biggest impact on the market in the years to come?
It is certain that mobile internet access will have a remarkable growth but the success of 3rd and 4th generation technologies will be confronted with issues of available capacity when the number of users grows exponentially. We also hope that the MVNO model will be adopted massively by countries in West & Central Africa as it represents a win-win partnership for actual and virtual operators.

How important is the West & Central Africa Com congress for the region’s telecoms industry and what do you expect to take out of the event?
Like every year, the West & Central Africa Com congress is an occasion to meet the main stakeholders in the telecommunications market and to hear about the new market trends. The fact that the event is taking place in a French-speaking country will probably encourage more operators from the region to participate.

New event NigeriaCom launched at a crucial time for Nigeria's telecoms market

The ash cloud from Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull is still causing a standstill in Northern European airports, and as a result two of my colleagues are extending their stay in Nigeria’s business capital Lagos.
They are there to meet operators and vendors to talk about forthcoming event NigeriaCom, which will take place at the newly built Eko conference centre in Lagos on 28th and 29th September. The event is a new addition to the Com World Series: in 2008 and 2009, the West & Central Africa Com event took place in Nigeria’s administrative capital Abuja, and is now returning to Dakar in Senegal. Feedback from the event concluded that Nigeria was such a booming telecoms market that it required a specific event, while West & Central Africa Com could have a more truly regional feel if located in a relatively smaller market. The idea is proving successful, as both events are attracting high levels of interest from operators, investors, regulators and vendors.
The Dakar event is supported by Senegal’s Minister of Telecommunications, ICT, and Transports Abdourahim Agne, who will preside the opening session. The programme includes representatives from 25 operators, including the major groups investing in the region (MTN, Zain, Orange, Etisalat, Lintel/Africell, Bintel, Intercel), as well as leading telecom solutions vendors (Ericsson, Qualcomm, Corning, Helios Towers, ECI Telecom) and international carriers (Belgacom, Telenor).
The NigeriaCom programme is still being finalised, but it has already received the support of Nigeria’s major operators: already confirmed speakers include the CEOs of MTN Nigeria (Ahmed Farroukh), Starcomms (Maher Qubain), Etisalat Nigeria’s (Steven Evans), Pinet Informatics (Lanre Ajayi) and senior representatives from Zain.
The event will be held at a crucial time in Nigeria’s telecoms market: thanks to the launch of new submarine cables, operators will be able to launch better and more affordable broadband services, which are in great demand. At the same time, they are still to an extent struggling to improve their networks in order to deliver acceptable quality of service and coverage. In addition to these changes, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), will have a new head this year. Ernest Ndukwe, who led the market’s liberalisation and promoted a healthy competitive environment for its stakeholders, came to the end of his 10-year tenure earlier this year. He is currently replaced by Stephen Adedayo Bello as Acting Executive Vice Chairman, and a new head is expected to be announced in the next few months, if not weeks.
NigeriaCom will definitely be a great place to gauge the market’s mood, to discuss its operators' strategies, and hopefully to meet the new executive team at the helm of the NCC.

Acknowledging the importance of cultural factors and face-to-face engagement when doing business in different regions of the world

In today’s world of global networking and instant communication, it is easy to forget the importance of regional or national cultural differences in the way people and companies do business.
Moving from France to the UK provided me my first experience of a different way of working, where hierarchy was less important and individual initiative was more valued. In the last few years, I have worked on events in very different parts of the world, particularly in emerging markets with the Com World Series, and witnessed other approaches to business. In some regions, personal contacts are the only way to do business, and relationships take years to build, while in others people are very open to making new contacts and exchanging ideas from a first conversation. In others still, it is crucial to know the right people in order to make any kind of contact, let alone meaningful conversation.
I was shown an interesting tool to begin to understand how different regions approach social interactions and business: Geert Hofstede's cultural dimensions. The model researches countries and region according to 5 parameters affecting their approach to business: Power Distance Index (the extent to which power and hierarchy is important), Individualism (the degree to which individuals are integrated into groups), Masculinity (the distribution of roles between genders), Uncertainty Avoidance Index (a society's tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity) and Long-Term Orientation. It didn’t come as a surprise to me that societies such as the USA and the UK have high degrees of individualism, low power distance and low long-term orientation, while the opposite is seen in China.
Models such as these are interesting tools to examine when doing business in different regions, but I have to say that not all companies are attuned to these differences. It may be a reason why Chinese and Indian companies are being successful in doing business in Africa for instance, where the cultural dimensions are relatively similar, which is not always the case for Western companies.
There is one common point between all regions though: nothing can replace face-to-face engagement when building business relationships. This is why events such as conferences and exhibitions are still a great way to meet clients. When producing congresses around the world, the Com World Series endeavours to stay tuned to local differences, and to deliver events that provide the right type of interaction in order to facilitate networking and business. Some events such as West & Central Africa Com focus on facilitating discussion; others such as South East Asia Com provide more formal in-depth learning; and others focus more on high-level networking with more VIP features, such as the Middle East Telco World Summit. The fine-tuning of conference programmes and congress experience takes time and research to get right, and the most rewarding thing is to hear participants' feedback on how an event gave them a clearer picture of their market opportunities or helped them develop their business in a region.

Operators focus on return on investment in the recovery from the economic downturn

Last week’s Eurasia Com event in Istanbul was a one of the most enjoyable I’ve been to in the last months. Not only was it hosted in one of the world’s most vibrant cities - Istanbul - but the event itself had the perfect mix of learning from telecoms leaders and of networking.
After final count, over 600 people attended the event over the 2 days, sharing their time between the conference sessions and networking in the exhibition . The interesting point about this number is that different crowds attended each day, making it possible to make new contacts at each break or lunch, or indeed in the drinks reception which took place at the Conrad Hotel's Summit Bar, offering fantastic views over the Bosphorus. The audience was composed of representatives of the whole telecoms ecosystem (operators, vendors, regulators, brands etc.) from Turkey, the CIS, the Black Sea region and neighbouring markets.
The debates covered the key issues that concern all stakeholders in the telecoms market : operators’ strategies, evolution of the telecoms ecosystem, increasing competition, broadband strategies, value-added services, convergence, customer growth and retention. However, it seems that the tone of the discussions has changed in the last year.
In 2009, telecoms players were justly concerned by the global economy and the fall in revenue it caused. As a result, they were looking at cost-reduction strategies to avoid losses. Last week, they put the emphasis on ensuring return on investment instead, possibly a more positive way of approaching the market's challenges. Most of them (particularly the Turkish operators such as Turkcell, Vodafone and Avea) have kept their network investments up during the downturn, and now they are focusing on ensuring that they generate returns. As Ineke Botter, CEO of Bakcell in Azerbaijan summed up: “if an investor invests a quarter of a million dollars in a network, you have to make sure it’s followed up by revenues”. This focus on ROI means operators are looking more closely at addressing new market segments (rural areas, youth, mature customers, enterprises), improving loyalty strategies to up-sell to existing customers, service innovation such as mobile marketing, and joint ventures with other industries such as the banking sector for m-commerce.
The conference included a mix of presentations, case studies and lively discussions, with plenty of opportunities to develop next year’s programme with new topics. If you were there and would like to give some feedback, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Is South East Asia the leading emerging market in terms of LTE opportunities?

Last month Singapore mobile operator MobileOne (M1) announced that it managed to successfully complete a 100 Mbps data call on its trial LTE (Long Term Evolution) network. According to the operator, this made it the first South Asian operator to achieve the milestone while using commercial LTE hardware and software.
LTE is rapidly becoming a hot technology even in emerging markets, and one of the most promising is that of South East Asia. HSPA networks have been deployed in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, and LTE is the next step for operators to deliver better, faster mobile broadband services. That is why this year's South East Asia Com congress (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 20-21 July) will include a whole focus day on LTE.
The session will offer a comprehensive programme of presentations, case studies and discussions. Leading operators and industry players across the ecosystem (including Indar Atmanto, President Director of PT Indosat Mega Media, Indonesia) will share their experience and expertise on how to drive the broadband leadership towards revenue growth in the LTE space.
Key topics include:
- Status Of Next Generation Fixed & Wireless Broadband In Asia Pacific
- Exploring LTE Opportunities For Implementing Next Generation Services & Creating A Successful Business Case For LTE
- Examining LTE Standards, Spectrum Allocation Challenges & Evolution Paths For LTE Development
- Uncovering The Full Commercial Potential of LTE Through New Revenue Streams
- Evaluating Deployment Strategies, Challenges & Timescales In Planning LTE Network & System Architecture
- Paving The Way Towards 4G Vision In South East Asia
We are still looking for case studies and presentations for this session, so don't hesitate to get in touch for more information.

Turkcell financial results are down, but it is still a leader in Eurasia

The announcement of Turkish giant Turkcell’s financial results was met with varying degrees of concern. The results shown were down: the group’s net income dropped by 45% for the fourth quarter, and 25.9% for the full year. Most reports pointed out that this was explained in part by a reimbursement based on previously announced regulatory decisions. But lower operational profitability is another reason. In addition, the various components of the group show different pictures: while ISP Superonline “successfully increased its revenues by 58% to TRY252 million (TRY160 million) and recorded a positive full year EBITDA for the first time” according to Turkcell’s announcement, the contribution of the group’s subsidiaries Astelit in Ukraine and Inteltek in Turkey were the major culprit in the decrease.
The group cited “Intensifying challenges in the macroeconomic, competitive and regulatory environment” to explain its impaired operational and financial performance in 2009, but this wasn't enough to reassure investor TeliaSonera (which owns 37.1% of the group as the main shareholder), as CEO Lars Nyberg is said to have called for a board meeting “to solve this problem”.
However, the situation isn't too bad for Turkcell. It has a presence across Eurasia, and a top position in the dynamic Turkish market, not only in the telecoms market but also as one of the major Turkish brands. In addition, its innovative strategy in terms of technology and services is unrivalled by other operators - Turkcell proudly announced last week(possibly trying to distract from the attention caused by its finances) that it was among the first operators in the world to reach a speed of 42.2Mbps with its 3G technology. All in all, Turkcell isn’t likely to lose its leadership any time soon.
One of the group’s top executives, Tayfun Cataltepe (Chief Corporate Strategy & Regulations Officer), will give a keynote presentation at EurasiaCom in Istanbul later next week, which will give an insight in the group's future strategy. It is part of a new Turkey Focus Day at the event, looking at the opportunities and trends in this very dynamic market. The event will also include contributions from Turkey and Eurasia’s leading operators, from regional groups (MTS, Altimo) to national incumbents (Turk Telekom, RomTelecom, Tajiktelecom, KyrgyzTelecom), competitive mobile operators (Vodafone Turkey, Bakcell Azerbaijan, Vtel Georgia), alternative service providers and ISPs (Altel Kazakhstan, wi-tribe, koç.net, SuperOnline, Borusan Telekom, Doğan Telekom), and more.
This event will be a great occasion to gauge the state of the market in the region and the future opportunities within it, from the point of view of investment, technology and services.