communications africa issue 4 2012

Afrique

Issue 4 2012Édition 4 2012

Call centresUnderstanding the dynamics

underpinnng implementation

BackhaulLeveraging assets to achieve

quality service provision

SatelliteCost-effective coverage

across the continent

CâbleAutour de la capacité de

transmission, et la qualitéde service

Europe m15 - Kenya KSH300 - Nigeria N400 - South Africa R20 - UK £10 - USA $16.50

Rascomstar-QAF and Global Telesat collaborate on provision of end-to-end teleport services across Africa

Africa

FEATURES: ● Internet ● Mobile ● InfrastructureREGULAR REPORTS: ● Bulletin - Agenda ● Equipment - Équipement

www.communicationsafrica.com

CAF 4 2012 Cover_Layout 1 18/06/2012 11:50

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S01 CAF 4 2012 Start_Layout 1 18/06/2012 11:52

Communications Africa Issue 4 2012 3

Afrique

Issue 4 2012Édition 4 2012

Call centresUnderstanding the dynamics

underpinnng implementation

BackhaulLeveraging assets to achieve

quality service provision

SatelliteCost-effective coverage

across the continent

CâbleAutour de la capacité de

transmission, et la qualitéde service

Europe m15 - Kenya KSH300 - Nigeria N400 - South Africa R20 - UK £10 - USA $16.50

Rascomstar-QAF and Global Telesat collaborate on provision of end-to-end teleport services across Africa

Africa

FEATURES: ● Internet ● Mobile ● InfrastructureREGULAR REPORTS: ● Bulletin - Agenda ● Equipment - Équipement

www.communicationsafrica.com

A note from the EditorINNOVATION IN TECHNOLOGICALintegration and service provision must beseamless to develop viable, sustainablebroadcast and telecommunicationsindustries. This issue of CommunicationsAfrica/Afrique represents extensivemanagement experience in broadcast andcommunications technology operations,with a particular focus on engagementwith customers through contact centres,on conenctivity through the air and fromspace, and on optimisation of systemsthat make it all work.

Main Cover Image: TelstraInset: Rascomstar-QAFContents Page Image: IBM

Une note du rédacteurIL Y A plusieurs opportunités derelier des pays aux satellites, etd'améliorer la capacité descommunications en travers lecontinent. Ce sujet est traité dans cenuméro. Auparavant, les servicesdans le nuage sont transformentspour l'Afrique, pour sa capacité àlivrer l'Internet à des vitesses decentre de données et des servicesoptimisés à organisations en Afrique

Bulletin 4

Events 8

Agenda 10

Equipment 31

FEATURES

Internet 18Commercial and technological support for operators adopting the next generation in network technologies

Satellite 20How to address the imperatives driving reductions in infrastructure investment costs whilst maintaining provision of highquality broadcasting and broadband services

Contact Centres 22What it takes to make the contact centre a core element of business operations, requiring investment in skills as well astechnology; and what factors may underpin interaction between customers and organisations

Microwave 26Why terrestrial fibre may be the long-term solution to meet Africa’s demand for more and better connectivity - and,particularly, to provide access to data services, and improve customer experience

Backhaul 28What improving standards and connection speeds means for operators’ backhaul capabilities; and a viable methodology formanaging the introduction of new services in a climate of increasing traffic and decreasing revenues

CONTENTS

Managing Editor: Andrew Croft - [email protected]

Editorial and Design team: Bob Adams, David Clancy, Prabhu Dev, Immanuel Devadoss, Ranganath GS,Prashant AP, Genaro Santos, Zsa Tebbit, Nicky Valsamakis, Julian Walker and Ben Watts

Publisher: Nick Fordham

Advertising Sales Director: Pallavi Pandey

Magazine Sales Manager: Steve Thomas - Tel: +44 (0) 20 7834 7676, Fax: +44 (0) 20 7973 0076, Email: [email protected]

Country Representative Telephone Fax EmailChina Wang Ying (86)10 8472 1899 (86) 10 8472 1900 [email protected] Tanmay Mishra (91) 80 656 84483 (91) 80 40600791 [email protected] Bola Olowo (234) 8034349299 [email protected] Sergei Salov (7495) 540 7564 (7495) 540 7565 [email protected] Africa Annabel Marx (27) 218519017 (27) 46 624 5931 [email protected] Saida Hamad (974) 55745780 [email protected] UAE Camilla Capece (971) 4 448 9260 (971) 4 448 9261 [email protected] Michael Tomashefsky (1) 203 226 2882 (1) 203 226 7447 [email protected]

Head Office: Middle East Regional Office:Alain Charles Publishing Ltd Alain Charles Middle East FZ-LLCUniversity House Office 215, Loft 2A11-13 Lower Grosvenor Place PO Box 502207London SW1W 0EX, United Kingdom Dubai Media City, UAETelephone: +44 20 7834 7676 Telephone: +971 4 448 9260Fax: +44 20 7973 0076 Fax: +971 4 448 9261

Production: Donatella Moranelli, Nasima Osman, Jeremy Walters, Nick Salt and Sophia White - Email: [email protected]

Subscriptions: [email protected]: Derek FordhamPrinted by: Wyndeham Grange Ltd Communications Africa/Afrique is bi-monthly magazine ISSN: 0962 3841

Serving the world of business

AfriqueAfricaCommunicationsCommunications

Audit Bureau ofCirculations -

Business Magazines


6540-Comm-Afrique.indd 1 6/11/2012 4:12:21 PM

Communications Africa Issue 4 20124

BULLETIN

EMC acknowledged for connectivity and servicedelivery to remotely connected organisationsSPEEDNET, FROM EMERGING Markets Communications (EMC), wasnamed the ‘Most Transformative Cloud Service for Africa’ at the 2012Cloud Africa Summit, for its ability to deliver the Internet at datacentre speeds and enhanced services to some of the most remotelyconnected organisations in Africa - with second place in the ‘BestCloud Platform for Africa’ category and third in the ‘Best BusinessProductivity Cloud Solution in Africa’ category; the first ‘zero latency’browser for satellite and terrestrial links, SpeedNet is a virtual cloud-based browser designed to deliver a fast and rich Internet experience,based on multiple patent-pending technologies from EMC,guaranteeing cloud upload and download speeds of 100 Mbps,bringing a true broadband experience to governments, multinationalcorporations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) located inand doing business with emerging markets around the globe.

Libya to have 19.2mn mobile subscriber connections in 2015IE MARKET RESEARCH Corp.'s report on titled ‘4Q11 Libya MobileOperator Forecast, 2012 - 2015’ is now available; predicting that Libyais to have 19.2mn mobile subscriber connections in 2015, the reportprovides key operational and financial metrics for Libya's wirelessmarket, including data on Libyana Mobile Phone, Almadar AljadeedCompany, and Aljeel Aljadeed.

A technological twenty-first anniversaryTHE WORLD'S FIRST GSM call took place on 1 July 1991. It was made byHarri Holkeri, then prime minister of Finland, from Esplanadi Park,Helsinki, Finland. The network was built by Telenokia and Siemens -today's Nokia Siemens Networks - for the Finnish operator Radiolinja,which now operates under the name Elisa.GSM is the fastest growing technology in history. Today, there are over4.4bn GSM mobile subscriptions.

Visual Unity’s new Kenyan operationINTERNATIONAL SYSTEM INTEGRATOR and multiscreen platformprovider, Visual Unity has entered into a joint venture with TelemediaAfrica to establish Visual Unity Africa; the company, based in Nairobi,Kenya, offers system integration and professional services to the localbroadcast, IT and telecommunications industries, along withspecialist R&D capabilities to develop innovative mobile applicationsfor the triple play space.

Viettel launches its first mobile network in AfricaIN MAY 2012, Viettel launched its first African mobile network inMozambique, and is now seeking opportunities to expand investmentin other African countries; since being licensed in January 2011,Viettel has built 12,600 km of fibre optic cable and 1,800 mobilestations in Mozambique, represents 70 per cent of the country’s totalfibre optic cable network, and 50 per cent of the country’s mobilestations, helping triple the density of Mozambique’s telecominfrastructure, increasing the length of fibre optic cable network andnumber of mobile stations per one million inhabitants inMozambique by 2-3 times, making it one of the world’s fastestgrowing telecommunications networks and placing the countryamong the top three nations in Sub-Saharan Africa in terms of fibreoptic cable systems.

SkyVision’s South African VSAT hubSKYVISION GLOBAL NETWORKS Ltd., a provider of IP connectivity oversatellite and fibre optic networks throughout Africa –has launched aiDirect VSAT HUB service for South Africa, operated by SkyVisionNetworks South Africa (Pty) Ltd., the company’s local subsidiary, toenable the company to respond better to Africa's need for high qualitycommunication services over fibre, wireless and satellite; the new iDirectHUB in Johannesburg supports iDX 3.1 iDirect, taking full advantage ofthe Amos 5 satellite with its coverage of southern and sub-SaharanAfrica, allowing SkyVision to offer cost-effective and highly reliable VSATservices for South African companies and organisations.

SES provides satellite capacity for Gateway CommunicationsSES SIGNED CONTRACTS recently with Gateway CommunicationsAfrica for capacity on the SES NSS-703 satellite at 313 degrees Eastand its NSS-5 and NSS-7 satellites positioned at 340 degrees East; theadditional capacity allows Gateway Communications to expand itsbusiness with mobile network operators (MNOs) and Internet serviceproviders (ISPs) on the African continent.

Eutelsat to enhance connectivity between Middle East, Europe, Asia, and AfricaTWO NEW INNOVATIVE and highly flexible satellite programmes havebeen showcased at SatCom Africa in 2012; Eutelsat 70B, due forlaunch end 2012, and Eutelsat 3B, to be launched in early 2014, aredesigned to provide ISPs, telecom and mobile phone operators, videocompanies and government service providers with regional coverageand connectivity between Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and asfar as Australia.

Telecom Malagasy expands GSM services with Hughes Satellite TechnologyBROADBAND SATELLITE SOLUTIONS and services specialist HughesNetwork Systems, LLC has been awarded an expansion contract byTelecom Malagasy SA (Telma) to supply additional HX System remoteterminals and an HX hub to expand Telma’s existing GSM backhaulproject; the network supports GSM 2G/EDGE voice and data, andbroadband data applications throughout Madagascar.

Gilat Satcom’s customers across Africa to benefit from Newtec technologyA COMMUNICATION PROVIDER offering satellite and fibre-basedconnectivity services in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, Gilat Satcomhas deployed Newtec technology to optimise its satellite links forbackhauling in Africa on Measat’s Africasat 1, 46° East; Gilat Satcomupgraded their existing IP trunking network from DVB-S2 CCM/VCMoperation to an adaptive ACM environment seamlessly integratingNewtec’s FlexACM technology (www.newtec.eu/FlexACM).

Harri Holkeri, then prime minister of Finland, makes the world's first GSM callon 1 July 1991 from Esplanadi Park, Helsinki, Finland


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6540-Comm-Afrique.indd 1 6/11/2012 4:12:21 PM



BULLETIN

Nokia Siemens Networks partners with Ruckus Wireless on Wi-Fi solutionsNOKIA SIEMENS NETWORKS has entered a global reseller agreementwith Ruckus Wireless to help operators integrate Wi-Fi networks todeliver cost-effective mobile broadband services - enabling NSN to offereasily deployable and manageable Wi-Fi coverage as part of its smallcells portfolio; NSN will offer operators the complete line of RuckusWireless carrier-class Smart Wi-Fi systems, including indoor and outdooraccess points and controllers - and will also deliver the Ruckus SmartCellGateway 200, a new category of wireless service gateways that allowsoperators to transparently accommodate mobile subscriber devicesusing trusted Wi-Fi access without requiring any client software.

Mobile field service and job dispatch in South AfricaECONZ WIRELESS, WHICH specialises in mobile data collection, providingemployer solutions for time & attendance, employee tracking and wage-hour compliance laws, is now offering EService in South Africa, on standardcell phones, smartphones and tablets, on networks including Vodacom,MTN and Cell C, for field service and job dispatch; “EService is Web-basedsoftware that enables a field service team to receive and respond tocustomer work orders,” said Jay Mills, Director of Sales for Econz Wireless.

Telfree helps business calculate telephone savingsTELECOMMUNICATIONS DEVELOPER TELFREE offers a new tool forbusinesses - the Telecounter - which enables business owners, financialdirectors and accounting officers to calculate whether they are over-paying their telecommunications costs; Telfree launched the Telecounterto underline how much businesses could be saving and adding to theirbottom line if they made the switch to their cloud-based PBX system,Office Connection.

Gemalto acknowledged for R&D in LTEDIGITAL SECURITY SPECIALIST Gemalto has been awarded for the ‘Bestcontribution to R&D for LTE’ at the 2012 LTE World Summit. Gemalto’swinning entry is an acknowledgment of the innovation leadership anddedication to best-in-class research that helps bring operational LTEsolutions to market quickly. This is the third consecutive recognition forGemalto at LTE World Summit, following the “Best contribution to LTEstandards“ and “Best enabling technology“ awards won in 2011. In theU.S., Gemalto also received the “Most Innovative Network Deployment”at 4G World 2011.

Researchers highlight drivers of mHealth modelsMOBILE HEALTH IN Africa and the Middle East (AME) is developing quickly,but there are differences in drivers and characteristics of the mHealthmodels employed in each of these areas, according to Pyramid Research;a new report, ‘Drivers of mHealth Models in Africa & the Middle East’,examines the MNO-backed mobile health services model in the MiddleEast and highlights the best practices that have helped operators in thisregion expand the reach of healthcare access, provides an overview of themHealth model in Africa, supported by two major mHealth servicesexamples that are run in conjunction with mobile network operators, offersanalysis of mobile health service technology developments made in Africa,and how and why innovators and entrepreneurs have helped facilitatedsolutions to pressing needs in healthcare service delivery.

New Ka-band International IP Trunking serviceAVANTI COMMUNICATIONS, A satellite operator, has launched the world’sfirst commercial Ka-band International IP Trunking proposition that willtransform international IP trunking across Africa and the Middle East withprices as low as US$500 per Mbps; increases in spectral efficiency aredriven through combining Avanti’s Ka-band technology with NovelSat’slatest NS3 proprietary world leading modulation scheme, resulting in anincrease in spectral efficiency of up to 5bits/HZ, observed in trials

completed in early May 2012 on Avantis Ka-band HYLAS 1 satellite -meaning the new service is capable of delivering high capacity bi-directional data links of up to 365Mbps between transmit and receivesites, using NovelSat modems.

Flexible solutions for future mobile broadband networksACCORDING TO ALCATEL-LUCENT, the Smart-RF research projectundertaken by a consortium of companies led by Bell Labs has achieveda major breakthrough for base station deployment with the developmentof the technical foundation for a new reconfigurable radio frequency (RF)transmitter capable of supporting different wireless standards within asingle radio frequency band; a programmable radio module will helpnetwork operators to deploy their base stations more flexibly - anadvantage when they roll out new wireless standards (such as futuregenerations of long term evolution (LTE) mobile broadband technology)or accommodating new spectrum allocations, providing an effectivesolution for mobile operators as they evolve their networks to meetcustomers’ growing demands for the latest services and applications, ina more cost-efficient manner.

High definition playout and content managementservices for local and international broadcastersSATLINK COMMUNICATIONS LTD., a teleport delivering content globally,is enhancing its service and product offering with a new HD PlayoutCentre based in the broadcast district in Tel Aviv, Israel; the facilityprovides reliable and cost effective playout, content management,digital archival and over the top solutions to connect Asia, Africa, TheMiddle East, Europe and the Americas for broadcasters looking to extendtheir international audience reach - offering the choice of opting for afully managed, remotely controlled, hosted, or co-located service tomanage the playout and distribution of content.

Tiered pricing on real-time GPS trackingLANDAIRSEA SYSTEMS, INC., which manufactures and develops passiveand real-time GPS tracking systems, is offering tiered pricing on itsSilverCloud Global real-time GPS tracking system, at betweenUS$29.95/month and US $59.95/month; the SilverCloud Global can beused virtually anywhere in the world that has cellular data networkcapabilities, with an international SIM card that allows it to roam fromcountry to country.

Report shows evolution of operators' health servicesTHE GSMA REVEALED recently that mobile operators are drivingsignificant value for the healthcare industry by improving access, reachand quality to care across the entire patient pathway, in a new reportlooking at the wider healthcare ecosystem, titled ‘Integrating Healthcare:The Role and Value of Mobile Operators in eHealth’, which was releasedat the Mobile Health Summit in Cape Town, South Africa, in May 2012;"Over the past few years we've seen mobile operators delivering end-to-end healthcare solutions which have typically been provided by thetraditional systems integrator but there is clear evidence supportingoperators' emerging role in eHealth," said Chris Locke, ManagingDirector, GSMA Development Fund.

La plate-forme SpeedNet a nommée « Service dansle nuage le plus transformateur pour l'Afrique »LA PLATE-FORME SPEEDNET, d'Emerging Markets Communications (EMC),a été nommée « Service dans le nuage le plus transformateur pourl'Afrique » au 2012 Cloud Africa Summit - pour sa capacité à livrer l'Internetà des vitesses de centre de données et des services optimisés à certainesdes organisations connectées les plus distantes d'Afrique; la plate-formeSpeedNet s'est également placée seconde dans la catégorie « Meilleureplate-forme dans le nuage pour l'Afrique » et troisième dans la catégorie «Meilleure solution de productivité d'entreprise d'Afrique ».


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S02 CAF 4 2012 Agenda 1_Layout 1 18/06/2012 11:56

GLOBAL TELESAT AND RascomStar-QAF have been engaged in a strongjoint venture for the provision of connectivity services to Africa’s Internetbackbone.Global Telesat, a satellite communications specialist, is collaboratingwith RascomStar-QAF to offer Internet services via Satellite connectivitythroughout Africa. A new teleport in Alicante, Spain will exclusively usethe Rascom-Qafir (RQ1R) satellite in planned C and Ku band frequencies. The joint venture creates a new force and growth for the Africantelecommunications market, offering an enhanced range of fast,responsive and flexible satellite solutions thanks to the RQ1R pan-African coverage, at very competitive prices. This collaboration between Global Telesat and RascomStar-QAF enablesboth firms to deliver more optimised services to all types of customersfrom SMEs to large corporations, telecom operators and ISPs across theAfrican continent including underserved communities. Internet viasatellite is the only solution for communications connectivity for manypeople living in rural areas of the African continent where fiberconnections are not available. Faraj Elamari, CEO of RascomStar-QAF, commented, “Global Telesat’sTeleport will help us to address the connectivity needs of thousands ofour customers on a very cost effective basis in Africa”.

Following the signing of a contract in Paris, France, in February 2012,between RascomStar-QAF (RSQ) and Global Telesat, RSQ is able toprovide IP connectivity services throughout Africa within RASCOMplanned frequencies at competitive prices

RascomStar-QAF works with Global Telesat to provide end-to-end teleport serviceswithin planned frequencies over Africa


AGENDA

8

JULY / JUILLET2-5 Telecoms Loyalty & Churn Cannes, France loyaltyandchurn.com

3-4 VAS Africa Johannesburg, South Africa vasafrica.comworldseries.com

SEPTEMBER / SEPTEMBRE10-13 Content Management World Africa Johannesburg, South Africa www.terrapinn.com

10-13 Digital Advertising World Africa Johannesburg, South Africa www.terrapinn.com

10-13 Internet Show Africa Johannesburg, South Africa www.terrapinn.com

10-13 Social Media World Africa Johannesburg, South Africa www.terrapinn.com

10-13 The Mobile Show Africa Johannesburg, South Africa www.terrapinn.com

10-14 World Satellite Business Week Paris, France www.satellite-business.com

11-12 Cloud Computing World Africa Johannesburg, South Africa www.terrapinn.com

11-12 E-Commerce & Payments World Africa Johannesburg, South Africa www.terrapinn.com

11-12 WiFi 2.0 World Summit Barcelona, Spain www.informatandm.com

11-13 SDP Global Summit Rome, Italy www.sdpsummit.com

12-14 COMSYS VSAT London, UK www.comsys.co.uk

17-19 LTE PMR Summit Barcelona, Spain pmrsummit.com

17-19 NFC World Congress Nice, France www.nfcworldcongress.com

17-20 Carrier Ethernet World Congress Barcelona, Spain carrierethernetworld.com

18-19 Managed Services World Congress Berlin, Germany www.managedservices-world.com

24-25 Carriers World London, UK www.terrapinn.com

24-26 Mobile Broadband World London, UK mobilebroadbandworld.com

24-27 Mobile Broadband World London, UK iir-telecoms.com

25-26 OSS/BSS World Summit London, UK www.ossbssworld.com

26-27 Nigeria Com Lagos, Nigeria nigeria.comworldseries.com

Events / Évènements 2012



AGENDA

10

THERE HAVE BEEN calls recently fromthe International TelecommunicationUnion (ITU) for greater internationalco-operation between governmentsand the ICT industry to tackle theglobal nature of today’s cybersecuritythreats. The recent discovery of thehighly complex Flame malware byKaspersky Lab reinforces the need fora co-ordinated response. Flame wasdiscovered by Kaspersky Lab expertsfollowing a technical analysisrequested by the ITU into an unknownpiece of malware which was deletingsensitive information.International co-operation is a keyelement of ITU’s Global CybersecurityAgenda (GCA). ITU is fully engaging its member states and all the world'splayers in its activities, collaboratingclosely with its partners to identifycurrent challenges, consider emergingand future threats, and propose globalstrategies to meet the goals of the GCA.A core element of GCA is theInternational Multilateral PartnershipAgainst Cyber Threats (IMPACT), aninternational public-private initiative -

whose membership comprises of 142countries - dedicated to enhancing theglobal community’s capacity to prevent,defend and respond to cyberthreats.Commenting on the urgent need forglobal collaboration, ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré said,“Flame is a prime example of whygovernments and industry must worktogether to tackle cybersecurity at theglobal level. Early warning of newthreats is vital and it is critical that bestpractice on required corrective steps isshared in order to best protect theglobal information society. This is thevalue in building a global coalition”.Cybersecurity will be a major agendatheme at ITU Telecom World 2012 (Dubai,14-18 October 2012), supported by keypartners, one of whom is Kaspersky Lab.This agenda will explore issues such asmitigating risks posed by majorcoordinated cyber-attacks at thenational level, the threats posed bymalware such as Flame, andstrengthening internationalcooperation. Kaspersky Lab CEO EugeneKaspersky will deliver a Visionary

Keynote speech at the event, outliningthe magnitude and global nature ofcyberthreats today.Speaking about the ITU Telecom World2012 event, Mr. Kaspersky noted, “Asrecent events have only served tounderline, Cybersecurity is a key globalconcern facing us all, and it is crucialthat we use the international platformprovided by such a top-level event asITU Telecom World 2012 to conduct thefull and proper discussions needed tobest tackle this issue.”

A call for collaboration on cybersecurity

IMIMOBILE, A GLOBAL mobiledata technology infrastructureand solutions provider totelecom operators, mediacompanies and enterprises,today announced that it haswon ‘Multimedia ContentManagement Solution of theYear’ at the Cloud AfricaAwards, hosted inJohannesburg, South Africa, inMay 2012. IMImobile’s DaVinciContent Management System(CMS) powers MTN’s mobilecontent service - ‘MTN Play’ -across 19 countries in Africaand the Middle East.

The Cloud Africa Awardscelebrate exceptional servicesand initiatives in the African cloudservices industry. The awardscommend deployments that haveovercome challenges in thediverse African markets and havedemonstrated outstandinginnovation, coupled with adifferentiated offering.

ROBERT LAMPTEYFOUNDERSAYA

BEN ZAAIMANCEOMLAB, SOUTH AFRICA

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CONTINUED PRESSURE FOR higher-performance mobile devices is causing concern with respect to alternativemethods for battery charging. Freescale Semiconductor recently showcased three reference designs forwireless charging that could change the way consumers power their energy-hungry devices.IMS Research projects that, globally, shipments of devices with wireless power will surpass 100mn in 2015,and the wireless power market will grow to nearly US$5bn by 2016. Electronics manufacturers are studying

ways to implement wireless charging technology and the associated infrastructurenecessary in locations including automobiles, coffee houses, airports

and other public areas to support today’s computing-intensive mobile devices, such as smart phones,

tablets, portable medical devices, gaming andaudio accessories, and much more. “Wireless charging frequently tops the lists of

‘hot’ features for future smart phones,” saidGeoff Lees, vice president and general manager ofFreescale’s Industrial & Multi-Market MCUbusiness. “Our three new reference designs offerwireless charging solutions for a range of battery-powered devices. Once wireless charging isbroadly deployed in the public infrastructure,charging could become an afterthought for users.” Though wireless power is still in its infancy, there ismassive potential for use in consumerapplications,” said Jason dePreaux, researchmanager at IMS Research. “The availability ofspecialised components for wireless power is acritical step in the evolution of this market bymaking the technology easier to implement whilealso driving down cost.”


AGENDA

11

GREENTOUCH, A GLOBALconsortium dedicated toimproving information andcommunications technology(ICT) energy efficiency, recentlydemonstrated a technology toreduce energy consumption infibre-to-the-home (FTTH)networks, as well as otherapplications. When deployed,Bit-Interleaved Passive OpticalNetwork (Bi-PON) technologywill enable a power reduction of30 times over currenttechnologies while improvingperformance and reducing cost.FTTH is expected to nearlydouble over the next five years,reaching 142 millionsubscribers worldwide by 2016,according to ABI Research. WithBi-PON instead of the currentoptical technology in use, theimpact on the carbon footprintis that of taking half a millioncars from the roads.

Reference designs to help redefine battery charging Fibre technology getsthe GreenTouch

Freescale is introducing a wireless charging referencedesign for high-capacity, single- and multi-cell batterypacks. Target applications include power tools, handheldradios and various industrial applications. This referencedesign charges four Li-Ion battery packs simultaneously todeliver a total of 120 watts of power. The design consists oftwo main components: a transmitter mat and a receiverembedded into the battery packs.


MANOJ KOHLI, CEO (International) & Joint MD, Bharti Airtel, met recently with His Excellency the President of Rwandato discuss the telecommunication company’s progress in the country. The courtesy visit follows Airtel’scommencement of operations in Rwanda in March 2012.

During the conversation with H.E. the President in May 2012, Mr. Kohli reinforced the teleco’s commitment towork with the government in supporting the knowledge-based economy. Airtel plans to invest US$100mn in itsoperations between 2012 and 2015 and will work towards generating both direct and indirect employmentopportunities within its ecosystem. The company will also be bringing in partners like IBM and Ericsson to set upand manage world class facilities in the country.

Commenting on the visit, Mr. Kohli explained, “Rwanda is a promising telecommunications market and we aregrateful to the Government and people of Rwanda for the support extended to us since our entry into the country. Ourstrategy for Rwanda is in harmony with the government’s vision to make telecommunications a priority. We plan to workclosely with the government to provide access to affordable telecoms products and services across the country.”

Rwanda is among the fastest growing telecom markets in Africa and, according to the National Statistics Instituteof Rwanda, mobile penetration in the country was at 38.4 per cent as of July 2011. Airtel was awarded a license bythe Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA) late last year to operate 2G and 3G GSM mobile services. Mr. Kohlisaid Airtel’s overall strategy remains in line with that of the government, by ensuring that the Airtel network isextended to rural communities, ensuring convenient access to telecommunication services.

Mr. Kohli also explained that although Kigali is currently operating on a 2G network, the company also plans tolaunch 3G services in the market within the upcoming quarter. The launch of Airtel’s 3G platform will help stimulatechange to how subscribers experience the web on internet-enabled devices technology will be beneficial for avariety of users, which include large corporates, small or medium businesses and the youth. In addition, theorganization is committed to the development of a wireless broadband infrastructure. Wireless broadband istechnology that provides high-speed wireless Internet access or computer networking access over a wide area.

Rwanda will also benefit from Airtel’s mobile commerce platform – Airtel Money. The service will allowconsumers and communities to take advantage of the mobile commerce reality sweeping through the industry byenabling them to conduct a range of financial transactions quickly and easily. Targeted at both banked andunbanked customers, Airtel Money will enable customers to make affordable, fast and secure financial transactionsincluding direct fund transfers from one user to another, bill payments, top ups and mobile banking.


AGENDA

12

MOBISERVE HOLDING, WHICHprovides solutions fort e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n sinfrastructure and engineeringservices, participated in thisyear’s edition of North AfricaComheld in Tunis, Tunisia,amongst the high level industryplayers, operators, anddecision-makers contributingto knowledge-sharing and deal-making. Mobiserve is activelyengaged in North Africa, with anumber of projects beingimplemented for North Africanoperators. The company owns asignificant market share inNorth Africa, having been in theregion since 2001. It countsseveral North African operatorsincluding (Djezzy), (Nedjma)and (Mobilis) in Algeria, (INWI),(Maroc Telecom) in Morocco,(Tunisiana) and (OrangeTunisie) in Tunisia among itsclient portfolio.

ECONET WIRELESS ZIMBABWE has completed a US$307mn multi-lenderfacility agreement with international financiers expected to see itsnetwork expansion programme targeting marginalised rural communitiesof the country.Multi-lender facility agreements have been completed with Chinese,European, African Multilateral,South African and Zimbabwean banks.According to an Econet spokesperson, the substantial facility is beingused to develop network infrastructure further, and also to enhanceongoing development of relevant products and services.

"The continued network expansion programme will see Econetconnecting more people in more places. lt will also allow for a greaternumber of previously marginalised rural communities to have access toaffordable telecommunication solutions," according to the spokesperson.Econet says that it expects to boost network penetration levels to over100 per cent by 2015. The expansion is also expected to uplift economicgrowth and generate much needed employment, according to thespokesperson.

Wallace Mawire

Econet expansion targets rural communities

AS MICROSOFT RECENTLYannounced the launch ofits So.cl network, EdenZoller, principal analyst atOvum, observed,“Microsoft So.cl is not afully-fledged socialnetwork and it is far tooearly to even suggest itcould be a rival to Google+or Facebook, and thechances are it never willbe. The fact that So.cl istargeted at studentsechoes Facebook’sbeginnings and has made many assume it is a Facebook clone.

“But So.cl is, as Microsoft stresses, an experiment and designed to belayer on existing social networks. Microsoft is being sensible inpositioning So.cl in this way. The opposite approach of Google, whichentered social networking all guns blazing with a full on service, ishaving modest success.”

Eden Zoller added, “So.cl is powered by Bing and is about socialsearch and sharing, with little value add beyond this and no-where nearthe kind of features offered by Facebook or Google+. If So.cl gainssignificant traction, which we think unlikely, then Microsoft might wellramp up the service with additional features, particularly mobile whereMicrosoft can tap into the Windows Phone platform.

“But for now So.cl will most likely remain an experiment at heart,which is no bad thing and Microsoft will still walk away with valuableinsights and experience that can help improve its overall searchcapabilities, which is its major priority.”

Services to supportNorth African growth

Airtel to invest US$100mn in Rwanda

What Ovum sees in So.cl

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe’s continuednetwork expansion programme will see the

operator connecting more people in moreplaces - and will also allow for a greaternumber of previously marginalised rural

communities to have access to affordabletelecommunication solutions

So.cl has been designed for studentsstudying social media to extend theireducational experience and rethink how theylearn and communicate



AGENDA

13

HBZ BANK LIMITED South Africa, a wholly-ownedsubsidiary of Habib Bank AG Zurich, recentlyupgraded its e-mail solution from legacy Microsoft toGoogle Apps. Google secured the deal via its locallybased Enterprise Partner, Grove Group. Google iscontinuing to develop its profile in the enterprisespace with more companies adopting itscollaboration and communication suite called GoogleApps for Business. Google’s recent wins certainly indicate that not onlyare Google’s services ready for large businesses, thesecurity of it's services are being endorsed by the mostsecurity conscious organisations, i.e banks. While HBZBank Limited is the first bank in South Africa to goGoogle, it is not an isolated incident of a bank movingto Google Apps for business. Spanish bank, BBVA,also recently moved its 110,000 employees to GoogleApps, a very large deal by any standard. Nusrat Zaidi, Head of IT at HBZ Bank Limited SouthAfrica, had this to say regarding their reason formoving to Google’s cloud, “For HBZ Bank LimitedSouth Africa, there was only one option when it cameto upgrading our email solution from legacy MicrosoftExchange. This option was Google Apps. Cost saving

was a major factor in our decision. Our head office isalso on Google Apps, so now we are also realizing thesame productivity and collaboration benefits. From acost efficiency perspective there really was no otheroption but to Go Google.” Whilst Nusrat Zaidi makes the point that costreduction was the pivotal factor, he also points outthat productivity and collaboration gains wereimperative in the decision.Chad Bartlett, Head of African Sales at Grove Group,added, "Grove are delighted to have been involvedin assisting the first South African based bank ontothe Google Apps for Business services. In fact whatmakes this even more significant is that HBZ Bankare part of the Habib Bank AG Zurich who operateout of a country with one of the highest bankingprocedures and standards in the world. Grove arehappy that the security and privacy standardsoffered by Google's Enterprise team was enough tomeet the high expectations of HBZ Bank and theirclients. The pure security economies of scale offeredby a global vendor, like Google, cannot beunderestimated when measuring against traditionalin-house security methods."

IN ITS FOURTH annual EMEACTO Roadshow, in May 2012 inVienna, Austria, Teradata chieftechnology officer StephenBrobst and and Martin Willcox,the company’s director ofplatform and solution marketingfor Europe, Middle East andAfrica, discussed the latesttechnological and businesstrends affecting data warehousingand Business Intelligence. The event addressed importanttechnology developments in bigdata analytics and datawarehousing and, in particular,how Teradata enables even themost complex organisations tosupport tactical, time-sensitiveand complex analytic queriesfrom a single copy of their data.By managing all company datawithin a single database,companies dramatically reducethe total cost of ownershipthrough the elimination ofmaintenance and administrationcosts and increase theirorganisational agility inresponding to new demands foranalysis. “We built the industry’s firstmassively parallel ‘sharednothing’ database computer toenable our customers to ask ‘anyquestion, any time’ of their data,no matter how much data theyhave,” said Brobst.

HBZ Bank integrates Google Apps How to do more withbig data analytics


SMILE TELECOM HOLDINGS Ltd (Smile),operateur en télécommunications africain, achoisi la technologie 4G LTE fournie par Alcatel-Lucent pour proposer des services ultrahautdébit mobile tels que le chat vidéo en direct et latélévision en mode streaming à Dar es Salaamen Tanzanie. Le réseau sera le premier d’Afrique à fournir unservice 4G LTE dans la bande de fréquence 800MHz, offrant ainsi aux entreprises et auxparticuliers un accès Internet de haute qualité etultrarapide, initialement dans la capitalecommerciale et le plus grand port maritime de laTanzanie. Avec comme objectif pour Smiled’offrir une couverture universelle dans les plusbrefs délais. Après un premier lancement restreint en avril,Smile propose maintenant ses services 4G LTEdans d’autres quartiers de Dar Es Salaam, parmilesquels Mikocheni, Massani Peninsula,Oysterbay et Sinza. Les entreprises et lesparticuliers bénéficient désormais d’un hautdébit mobile quatre fois supérieur à celui de la3G, suffisamment rapide pour lavisioconférence et les applicationsprofessionnelles, la télévision en modestreaming, les films sans interruption, ainsi queles services de médias sociaux à forte densité

de contenu. L’accès est assuré via des routeurshaut débit installés dans les habitations, lesbureaux et les lieux publics, comme parexemple les centres commerciaux et lescybercafés. Smile prévoit d’étendre sacouverture à travers la Tanzanie en 2012, puisde déployer des services similaires dans lestrois pays où Smile est présent. Tom Allen,Directeur des Operations et Exploitation deSmile, a déclaré : « Smile est toujours en quêted’innovations pour étoffer son offre de services.Le haut débit a un impact considérable sur ledéveloppement économique et social. Par notreprésence dans le pays, nous espérons jouer unrôle majeur pour améliorer le quotidien desTanzaniens. La demande de connectivitéInternet est très forte en Tanzanie. Avec lacollaboration d’Alcatel-Lucent, nous sommesen mesure de fournir à nos clients desconnexions plus rapides et de meilleure qualité,et de leur proposer par conséquent des servicesattractifs répondant à leurs besoins. » Et Daniel Jaeger, directeur des activitésd’Alcatel-Lucent en Afrique, d’ajouter : « Alcatel-Lucent dispose d’un savoir-faire très étendu enmatière de services haut débit mobile completset peut ainsi répondre aux besoins denombreuses communautés. Nous avons

également une connaissance approfondie desbesoins de Smile et de ses clients. Grâce à notretechnologie 4G LTE, beaucoup de gensbénéficient désormais de services haut débitauxquels ils n’avaient pas accès auparavant, cequi contribue au développement économiquede la Tanzanie et à la création de nouvellessources de revenu pour l’opérateur. » Alors que la demande de services Internetcontinue d’augmenter, Alcatel-Lucent proposeaux opérateurs tels que Smile une voied’évolution haut débit claire et efficace. Sonportefeuille innovant lightRadio™ a été élaborédans cet objectif et il apporte aux réseauxmobiles une solution permettant d’atteindredes vitesses de transmission vertigineuses etde réduire à la fois les coûts d’exploitation et laconsommation d’électricité. La plate-forme de routeurs de cœurs de réseaude Smile sera intégrée aux équipements réseaud’Alcatel-Lucent fonctionnant dans la bande defréquence 800 MHz, ce qui entrainera un coûtd’investissement moindre pour ce déploiementpuisque le service est déjà commercialisé etopérationnel en Europe. Il prend donc en chargeune palette de plus en plus large de terminauxLTE, dont les routeurs, les clés (dongles), lestéléphones et les tablettes déjà sur le marché.


AGENDA

14

ZIM, ENTREPRISE DANS le transportmaritime par conteneur, a choisiOrange Business Services pourrenforcer l’optimisation de son réseaumondial MPLS. A travers un contrat deplusieurs années, le réseau denouvelle génération offrira à ZIM desfonctionnalités avancées (routageoptimisé, continuité de service, etc.),des services de communicationsunifiées et de cloud computing, dansle cadre d’une offre différenciéegrâce à la souplesse de contrats dequalité de service (SLA) adaptés àchaque site. ZIM utilisera ce réseaumondial pour optimiser le système decommunication de 100 navires, quitransportent chaque année plus dedeux millions de conteneurs et ses 6000 collaborateurs déployés dans lesdifférents ports localisés dans plusde 120 pays.« Nous recherchions plus qu’unsimple partenaire réseau. Noussouhaitions nous allier à un véritablepartenaire reconnu pour sa fiabilité etsa transparence » résume M. DudiAvni, CIO de ZIM Integrated ShippingServices, Ltd. Orange BusinessServices répond pleinement à ces

critères grâce à une stratégie et à unportefeuille de solutions qui nouspermettront d’aller de l’avant et dedévelopper nos activités avec lacertitude d’avoir à nos côtés unpartenaire qui nous accompagne etsait répondre à nos besoins ».Orange Business Services dispose deprestigieuses références dansl’industrie navale du fret maritimegrâce à sa gamme étendue deservices (communications parsatellite, solutions de télé-présence,etc.) et qui équipe 8 des 10 plusimportantes sociétés de transport deconteneurs au monde. « Nous déploierons en effet pour ZIMun réseau mondial reliant tous sessites critiques, permettant un fortretour sur investissement etrépondant à son objectif deréduction des chargesd’administration. L’extrême fiabilitéde notre réseau nous permet deréduire les délais d’échange etmaximise la disponibilité des sites,ce qui est décisif pour un leader dutransport maritime », ajoute HelmutReisinger, VP Sales et MarketingEurope d’Orange Business Services.

Orange Business Services fournit le réseau mondialde ZIM, spécialiste de transport maritimee

FORT DU SUCCÈS de la première édition en 2011, Orange lanceaujourd’hui la seconde édition du Prix Orange de l’EntrepreneurSocial en Afrique. Le projet a pour but de promouvoir l’innovationsociale en faveur du développement, grâce aux Technologies del’Information et de la Communication (TIC). Avec ce prix, Orangeversera une aide financière et s'engage à accompagner par sonexpertise des projets innovants à fort impact sociétal, portés par dejeunes entreprises.

Les gagnants de la première éditionL’appel à projet a recueilli l’an passé plus de 600 candidatures,reflétant la véritable dynamique entrepreneuriale et le potentiel destélécommunications sur le continent africain. Les trois gagnants de lapremière édition ont été dévoilés en novembre 2011 à l’occasion de lacérémonie des AfricaCom Awards au Cap en Afrique du Sud. Il s’agitdes projets suivants :• Télé-Irrigation Horticole : projet nigérien mettant la technologie

mobile au service des horticulteurs.• Agasha Business Network : plateforme ougandaise de commerce

en ligne communautaire pour la promotion de petites entreprisesafricaines sur le marché mondial.

• Kachile : start-up ivoirienne de commerce en ligne de produitsartisanaux africains.Le Prix récompensera de nouveau cette année trois entrepreneurs

ou nouvelles entreprises proposant des solutions qui s’appuient defaçon innovante sur les TIC pour répondre aux besoins despopulations du continent africain. Les projets proposés lors de lapremière édition couvraient des domaines variés comme la santé,l’agriculture, les services financiers ou encore l’éducation.

www.starafrica.com

Alcatel-Lucent et Smile lancent l’un des premiers réseaux 4G LTE d’Afrique en Tanzanie

Un prix pour l’entrepreneur social en Afrique


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S04 CAF 4 2012 Report A_Layout 1 18/06/2012 12:03

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INTERNET Profile

IN INTERVIEW WITH Communications Africa/Afrique, MobiserveHolding’s CEO, Eng. Sameh Atalla spoke of developments incommunications markets and technological innovation inAfrica and the Middle East.

Communications Africa/Afrique: How is Mobiserve helping Africanoperators benefit from the next generation in networktechnologies? Sameh Atalla: As a pioneer in the industry, Mobiserve Holding hasbeen working as a service provider for managed services since1999 in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia with 13 operationaloffices on the three continents.

Mobiserve has deep seated expertise in a range of nextgeneration telecom and connectivity technologies including 4Gand WiMAX, having installed over 12,000 sites throughout thethree continents. Thus we can leverage our expertise and apply itto the needs of a particular project .

Mobiserve also better serves African operators by maintaininga strategy of being close to them on the ground. In Africa alone,we have offices in Egypt, Kenya, Mali, Uganda, Tanzania,Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and South Sudan. Other regions arecovered by our offices in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, andBangladesh. All offices are staffed with local telecom experts.This gives us a strong understanding of the particular needs of alocal operator and market as well as the ability to rapidly deployfield staff to projects.

CA: Egypt has been a leader in Internet deployment and utilisationover the past decade. To what extent could Egypt - and, perhaps,other markets in North Africa and the Middle East - serve as amodel for sub-Saharan Africa's evolution towards a truly mobileInternet? SA: Operators I think in Egypt were instrumental in helping withthe rapid deployment of mobile Internet with flat rate data plans,customised content, and value added services. This is somethingthat sub-Sahara’s operators can emulate, especially in terms ofoffering mobile specific value added services that are attractive toconsumers. Already we are seeing this though with Safaricom’s M-PESA and its Kipokezi service which has really jumped startedmobile Internet usage in Kenya.

CA: How can Mobiserve help operators to reduce costs as theygrow their networks? Do you consider infrastructure-sharing askey to optimised operations? SA: Mobiserve assists operators to reduce costs by enabling themto quickly and cost-effectively roll out networks with our premiumturnkey telecommunications services such as telecominfrastructure build out and telecom engineering. We also helpoperators cost-efficiently maintain networks through our telecomoperations and maintenance services.

Yes, we think network infrastructure sharing is the key tooptimised operations. Already, network sharing is one of the

fastest growing trends in the telecommunications industry,becoming a widely adopted business model in the US, Europe,and Asia. By reducing duplication of the most expensive parts ofan operator's network, cell sites, towers, base station equipment,and transmission network, operators deliver better services morecost-effectively. Savings can be significant for an operator, 20% to50% of an operator's capital or operating costs depending on thelevel of network sharing, without compromising network quality.

In the Middle East, regional operators are increasinglyimplementing this concept with UAE based operators “du” and“Etisalat” signing a network sharing agreement last year. Egypthas also taken a step in this direction, with the signing of acellular network tower sharing agreement between ourselves andEgypt’s National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority(NTRA). Mobiserve’s new license with the NTRA will enableEgyptian operators to bring costs down as they continue to roll outnext generation networks as well as push forward with innovativeservices for customers.

In the case of other parts of Africa, network tower sharing isbeneficial, as it enables operators to expand coverage into ruralareas for instance, as well as continuing to provide new serviceswithout incurring significant capital expenditure. ✆

Sameh Atalla, CEO of Mobiserve

By reducing duplication of the mostexpensive parts of an operator's network,cell sites, towers, base station equipment,and transmission network, operators deliverbetter services more cost-effectively

Established in 1999, Mobiserve Holding is a turnkey solution provider fortelecommunication and engineering services, enabling mobile operators to roll-out and maintain mobile networks quickly and cost-effectively

www.mobiserveholding.com

Eng Sameh Atalla explains how, with increasing demands for Web-based services and te prospect of dynamic broadband markets,telecom providers must adapt and optimise assets to grow

Optimising infrastructurefor Internet operations


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INTERNETCommerce

NIGERIAN FINANCIAL INSTITUTION Diamond Bank’sInternet banking service, DiamondOnline, hasgone live on CR2’s BankWorld internet platform.CR2 is a provider of multichannel bankingsoftware solutions.Diamond Bank ranks amongst the top 50 banks inAfrica with US$4bn in assets, 230 branches, about300 ATMs and 1.8mn account holders. It hasplayed a pioneering role in the development ofelectronic banking products and services, and isthe first bank to use CR2’s latest BankWorldInternet solution, which employs portal-basedtechnology to offer new levels of interactive

customer experience, flexibility and businessfunctionality. The solution builds on a rapid designand customisation capability that allows banks todesign and deploy new online banking strategies,and adjust the services and marketing withinexisting segments through a drag and dropprocess which does not require programming -enabling the bank to present a range of different‘shop windows’ to its customers with eachcustomer segment having immediate access tothe services, product subscriptions,advertisements and offers most relevant to them.BankWorld system currently interfaces with

Diamond Bank’s iFlex core banking system.Announcing the development in Lagos, Head ofCustomer Services & Technology of the Bank,Premier Oiwoh, stated, “We decided to engageCR2 in order to take total ownership of ourinternet banking site. BankWorld internet portalgives us the flexibility we required to deliverdifferent portals to our customers segments androll out new services without relying on anyvendor. We have the capacity to design a bankingsite that adapts to each segment of customers anddeliver relevant products and services which willtranslate into effective cross sales.”

Diamond Bank Nigeria commits to integrated Internet banking

FIRST SERVICE Algeria recently hosted a seminar for business leadersin Algiers, which was attended by senior management from thebanking, insurance, pharmaceutical, automotive, real estate andconsumer goods sectors. The seminar discussed the latest businessprocess outsourcing (BPO) trends and introduced some of First ServiceAlgeria’s most in demand BPO services - including bad debt collectionservices, printing and enveloping, as well as digital archiving.

Present for First Service Algeria were General Manager MohamedSameh, Operations Senior Manager Sherif Ali, and CommercialManager Abderrahmane Merabtine - along with fellow managersand staff.

Although only lately introduced, First Service Algeria’s new digitalarchiving service is gaining strong popularity among companies acrossall industries. The service enables customers to safely archive theirdocuments and ensures easy accessibility. First Service Algeria utilisesthe highest encryption and security levels to guarantee thesafekeeping of clients’ documents.

With its printing and enveloping services, companies can rely onthe highest levels of security as well as the latest advancedtechnology for error free printing and processing. First ServiceAlgeria’s state of the art facilities have an output capacity of animpressive 100,000 envelopes per day.

Algerian seminar highlights business process outsourcing trends and in-demand services



How the strength of demand for quality connections is driving growth for satelliteservices provision throughout Africa

Cost-effectivequality coverage

SATELLITE Digital

BROADCAST SERVICES IN Africa are on the brink of significantgrowth in number of channels and services. This is on theback of growing demand from the increased number of TVhomes, which is set to increase from 93mn in 2010 to 122mn

by 2015 (Dataxis). Digital TV is also expected to surge with thedeadline for digital migration rapidly approaching. At the momentfewer than 10 per cent of African TV homes have access to digital TV,while the number in Europe is 75 per cent.

In terms of broadband connectivity, approximately 300mn peoplein Africa find themselves over 50km from a fibre or cable broadbandconnection (the further from the connection, the worse the broadbandquality). An additional 400mn people on the continent have nointernet access at all, indicating that around 700mn people havelimited or no access to broadband. While there are plans to increasefibre connectivity across the African continent by 2013 or 2014,satellite broadband has the advantage of reach, providing an efficientway of connecting the majority of the 700mn unconnected people.

This is according to Ibrahima Guimba-Saidou, head of Africa forglobal satellite operator SES.

"Satellite offers many benefits to a continent such as Africa, andSES is helping African regulators, governments, broadcasters andnetwork operators to bridge the digital divide using satellitetechnology," said Guimba-Saidou. "SES satellites allow countries toreduce their infrastructure investment costs while providingconsumers with high quality broadcasting and broadband services.Satellite technology provides nationwide coverage; cost-effectivedistribution independent of existing infrastructure and borders; is notlimited to the number of people it reaches and handles all formatsincluding digital, HDTV, 3D TV and IP."

Delivering on digital televisionSES has been collaborating with Samsung to drive digitalbroadcasting via satellite in sub-Saharan Africa by introducing an LEDtelevision set with an integrated free-to-air satellite receiver. The setsare being distributed in Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal,Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon in August 2012. Othercountries on the continent will follow.

The integrated satellite receiver will allow consumers to receivetelevision channels for free without the need for an additional set topbox as the LED screen will be directly connected with the satellitedish. In preparation for the TV's launch, SES and Samsung will jointlyarrange training sessions with distribution partners and installers toensure the proper connection of the TVs to satellite dishes, and beganembarking on marketing campaigns in June 2012.

The TV set has also been designed to withstand the impact ofhumidity, lightning and electricity surges through reduced powerdependency. "This is innovation at its best, designed to helpconsumers in their homes," commented Guimba-Saidou.

A further example of SES innovation is SAT-IP, which is a new IP-based satellite reception technology that demodulates and convertssatellite signals for in-home distribution to any IP-enabled device. TheSAT-IP communications protocol has been established as a newstandard for satellite in-home distribution.

"In servicing more than 40 African countries, SES is well aware ofthe huge demand for greater services, both quality and quantity. Theopportunity lies in providing a growing sophisticated Africanviewership with a significantly increased number of TV channels – afirst for many African countries and broadband services wherepreviously none existed," said Guimba-Saidou. ✆

SES is helping Africanregulators, governments,

broadcasters and networkoperators to bridge the digital

divide using satellite technology(Photo: Loral Space & Communications)

Satellites allow countries to reduce theirinfrastructure investment costs whileproviding consumers with high qualitybroadcasting and broadband services



Le nouveau câble sous-marindans l'Océan Indiene

CÂBLELION2

FRANCE TÉLÉCOM-ORANGE et les autres membres du consortium LION2 – ses filiales Mauritius Telecom, Orange Madagascar et Telkom Kenya,

ainsi que les opérateurs Emtel Ltd et laSociété Réunionnaise du Radiotéléphone -ont célébré aujourd'hui à Mayotte la mise enservice du nouveau câble sous-marin hautdébit LION2. Ce câble apporte pour lapremière fois le haut débit à Mayotte etrenforce la connectivité du Kenya.

Après l'inauguration, fin 2009, du câblesous-marin LION (Lower Indian OceanNetwork), cette mise en service constituel'aboutissement du second volet du plan

d'expansion de l'internet haut débit dansl'Océan Indien mis en œuvre par le Groupe. Lecâble LION, qui relie Madagascar au réseautrès haut débit mondial via La Réunion et l'IleMaurice, a désormais été prolongé par LION2jusqu'au Kenya en desservant Mayotte.

La capacité de transmission, la qualité de serviceGrâce à une station d'atterrissement à Kaweni(Mamoudzou), LION2 permet notamment defournir à Mayotte, pour la première fois, unaccès haut débit au réseau internet mondialavec une capacité de transmission et unequalité de service équivalentes à cellesdisponibles en Europe.

Au Kenya, le câble LION2 est relié à unestation d'atterrissement qui vient d’êtreconstruite à Nyali, près de Mombasa. Ce câblereprésente un projet important pour renforcerla connectivité du Kenya aux réseauxinternationaux et pour couvrir ses besoins encapacité pour les années à venir. Par ailleurs,LION2 constitue également une route

alternative qui permet de sécuriser lestransmissions haut débit passant par l’Europeet l’Asie pour l’ensemble des pays d'Afrique oùle Groupe est implanté. Il offre en effet lapossibilité de rediriger le trafic en cas debesoin vers les trois autres câbles qui relientdéjà le Kenya.

Long de 2 700 km, LION2 bénéficie de latechnologie la plus performante utiliséeactuellement dans le domaine des câblessous-marins en fibre optique : le multiplexagede longueur d’ondes qui permet d’augmenterla capacité en fonction des besoins sansnouvelle intervention sous-marine. Le débitmaximal de LION2, qui s'élève aujourd’hui à1,28 Tbps, pourra être ultérieurementaugmenté grâce à la compatibilité du câbleavec les prochaines générationstechnologiques de transmission.

La construction du câble LION2 représente uninvestissement total d'environ 57 millionsd'euros, dont près de 38 millions ont été financéspar France Télécom S.A. et ses trois filiales. ✆

Le câble LION2 apporte lehaut débit à Mayotte etrenforce la connectivité

du Kenya



Contact centres can be complicated - but often the complications are more a matter ofunderstanding the dynamics behind implementation than anything else

Starting up anAfrican call centre

CONTACT CENTRES Investment

YOU'VE DECIDED THATyour company needs toinstall a call centre tohandle its customer

interactions. What happens now?What does your organisationneed to be aware of? And who doyou need to talk to?

“Before you do anything youneed make sure that the provideryou're engaging with has aproven track record,” says Andrele Roux, Managing Director atATIO, the ICT integrationspecialist that partners withcompanies to implementInteractive Intelligence contactcentres on the continent. “Agood provider will have a clearand verifiable track record – it'sin any company's interests toensure that the track recordexists and is verified by clients.”

Processes to meet needsEvery business is governed bydifferent dynamics and influences– and each contact centresolution must therefore bedeveloped according to theseneeds. There are no one size fitsall answers to contact centrequestions, in other words. But thefirst step in the process shouldalways involve defining exactlywhat the true business needs are.

“A lot of the time decisionmakers look at the potentialsolution in terms of what theythink their business can afford,”says le Roux. “This is generally amistake, however. A fullbusiness analysis will reveal thetrue forces at play in terms ofcosts and savings. Putting inplace a six-seat contact centrewhen your business actuallyrequires 20 seats can end upcosting a great deal of time andmoney, and the reverse is alsotrue. The core aim has to be toalign the company's strategy and

its operational reality.”Le Roux also points out that

with technology evolving so fastacross the world, software basedsystems are generally preferableto more modular pieces ofhardware. One of the primaryattractions is that software-based systems allow companiesto ensure easy integration withexisting ICT infrastructure.Conversely, modular hardwaresystems can prove difficult tointegrate and maintain. Andthen there can also bedifficulties in changing the sizeof the contact centre. Softwarebased systems allow for thealmost instant addition orremoval of seats, while withhardware orientated systemsscaling up or down can becomplex, and extended.

And what of companies thatare budget sensitive?

“Some companies strugglewith the primary cost of settingup their own system, especiallywhen they haven't used thetechnology before. The learningcurve and cost involved can beprohibitive,” says Dave Paulding,Interactive Intelligence RegionalSales Manager for Africa, Europeand the Middle East.

Investing and growingHosted or “Pay as you Grow”solutions can be good startingpoint for these companies,offering a low barrier to entry andthe ability to work extensively

with contact centre technologiesand systems before investingdirectly in technology.

“Pay as you grow can be veryvaluable as it eliminates the needto invest up front,” says Paulding.“It can be a good approach if youwant to run short time framecampaigns, or to examine exactlyhow the system works. More andmore mid sized companies followthis route to test out the contactcentre space. Once they arecomfortable and understand theprocess they can transition intoowning their platform.”

Le Roux also points out thatany contact centre solution mustincorporate a strong humanfocus, and that in an idealscenario staff will grow andchange along with thetechnology they are using.

“A contact centre is not a shortterm investment - it's a coreelement of business. It's thereforeessential that a company growsits peoples' skills along with itstechnology,” he says. “Most oftenwe would see a company movingfrom manual processes to a callcentre, and looking to train itsstaff accordingly. They could wellthen evolve from a call centre to acontact centre, and staff would betrained in the use of relevanttechnology once again. The mostimportant principle is to ensurethat the overall evolution takesinto account the company'sbroader business strategy andskills dynamic.” ✆

“A contact centre is not a short terminvestment - it's a core element of business.

It's therefore essential that a companygrows its peoples' skills along with its

technology” - Andre le Roux, ManagingDirector at ATIO

S05 CAF 4 2012 Report B - D_Layout 1 18/06/2012 12:04

All-in-one \adj: all-inclusive. For the contact

centre, Interactive Intelligence defines its all-in-

one IP communications platform this way: All

communications applications running on a single

platform. A single point of administration for

all functionality, meaning less training and less

complexity. Add-on applications activate with simple

license keys, to bypass costly, complex integrations.

Complete fault tolerance and business continuity

for all contact centre applications. A single all-

inclusive solution from a single vendor, including

a single maintenance contract. All redefined by a

lower total cost of ownership. Shouldn’t this be your

definition too?

www.inin.com


Les services d’externalisation pourinfrastructures de communications

CENTRES DE CONTACTSFormation

AVAYA OFFRE UN panoplie deservices administrés conçus pouraider les entreprises à augmenterleurs performances, à réduire

considérablement leurs dépenses et àaccélérer la transformation de leurenvironnement de communications. Aveccette nouvelle offre baptisée CommunicationsOutsourcing Solutions (COS), Avaya prend encharge l’administration de toutes les tâchesde communications — indépendamment deleur âge, de leur localisation et de leurfournisseur —, dans le but de contribuer à lacompétitivité des entreprises à l’aube d’unenouvelle ère de collaboration avancée.

Des solutions personnalisées, del’administration complèteLa solution COS fait partie du portefeuille deservices administrés conçu par Avaya, quipermet aux entreprises de lui confierl’administration de leurs infrastructures et

applications de communications. C’est lapremière offre de services entièrementexternalisés proposée par Avaya qui apporte dessolutions personnalisées et assurel’administration complète de l’environnement decommunications des clients, notamment au seinde leurs applications de communicationsunifiées, centre de contacts, réseaux detransmission de données et moyens decommunications vidéo. La panoplie de servicesCOS propose un niveau accru de servicesadministrés en prenant en charge les

communications du client, en s’intégrantdirectement à ses processus informatiques et engérant l’ensemble de ses outils de communications(production, facturation, opérations, etc.).

« Les sociétés qui disposent d’une expertisevaste et approfondie des technologies decommunications seront bien placées pour lesaider à optimiser leur environnement decommunications, et accroître ainsi leursperformances et leur rentabilité, » a dit EricGoodness, vice-president, recherche en servicesadministrés, Gartner, Inc. ✆

« Avec une solution bâtie sur mesure pour chaque client, lesservices COS d’Avaya permettent aux entreprises d’éliminer

certaines contraintes financières et techniques, ainsi que detirer le meilleur parti possible des investissements qu’elles

consacrent à leur infrastructure de communications. » - Ed Nalbandian, vice-president, Avaya Operations Services.



Essential elements underpinning development of the multimedia contact centre ormultichannel contact centre

Calling allcomms channels

CONTACT CENTRES Multimedia

MULTIMEDIA COVERS THE fullrange of communicationchannels, including voice calls,email, fax, web chat, call backs,

SMS, video calls and Social Mediadiscussions. Leading multimedia contactcentre technologies route all these forms ofcommunication between customers and thebusiness through a single processing engine.The fact that all communication is routedthrough a single engine enablesmeasurement, recording and reportingacross all interaction types, creating a strongunderstanding of the brand's customerservice experience, via a single interface.

Why does it matter?As all the analysts and strategists keep tellingus, the communications landscape haschanged dramatically over the last five to tenyears. But, ultimately whether people want to

use Twitter and MXit to communicate with youis less important than the fact that brands arefacing a strategic context where they can nolonger dictate how consumers speak to them.This is a major shift - only a few years ago wasit acceptable for a brand to demand thatconsumers use a voice-orientated contactcentre. Today, this approach will simply see theconsumer try another company that is moresensitive to his or her individual context.

New opportunitiesA proactive approach to a multimedia contactcentre can open up new business developmentopportunities. Aside from meeting evolving

consumer communication demands, manycompanies are implementing innovative

new channels as well. Instantmessaging offered from the company

website is just one such option. Inthe realm of web-based electronicproduct sales, for example, theability for clients to chat directlywith service agents as theybrowse sites can add significantlyto competitive advantage in avery competitive sector.

The big challenges If it's not executed correctly,the shift to a multimediacontact centre can be chaoticand expensive. It can alsodamage the quality ofcustomer experience.

Integration is a primaryissue that must be addressed.

A multimedia contact centrewill only deliver on the vision of

improved customer service ifit is governed by a

single processingengine. That sounds

basic enough, but

the reality is that many organisations arerunning parallel communications systems. Inaddition to the technical nightmare that isbound to emerge from the parallel mind-set,disparate systems make it inevitable that “Ohdear we must have missed it...” will become apart of the company's service culture.

Conversely, in a singular system everymultimedia interaction has measurableservice levels and minimum response times.All interactions are routed into the sameprocessing engine, queued and routed to theappropriate work group, and then reportedon. Standard service levels can be applied toany interaction customers have with yourorganisation. In this context managers areable to by-pass the impossible task ofmanually collating report-backs from eachchannel, while the detailed strategic view ofall customer interactions that is createdallows decision makers to do their jobs aseffectively as possible.

The bottom lineThe days of the one way communicationstreet are over. Customers want to choosehow they interact with your organisation –they certainly don't want to be told how theywill interact with you.

Multimedia contact centres have thecapacity to meet this primary service challenge.In addition, however, they deliver importantcost and efficiency benefits. The bottom line isthat it is cheaper for organisations to handle awide range of electronic communicationefficiently than to attempt to force allcustomers to use the telephone. Companiesproviding excellent service via multimediainteractions not only reduce call volumes andoperational costs, they also improve customersatisfaction levels in the process. ✆

Karl Reed, Sales and Marketing Director atElingo

Customers want to choose how they interact with yourorganisation – they certainly don't want to be told how theywill interact with you - multimedia contact centres have the

capacity to meet this primary service challenge



Realising the potential of a connected worldand tackle rural inclusion

Alcatel-Lucent to bringfaster, higher-qualityBroadband for Africa

With your experience, so far, what are the major challenges facing thetelecom sector of the West and Central African region? West and Central African economies rely on increasing mobile andinternet penetration to grow. According to World Bank +10 per cent mobilepenetration allow +0.8 per cent GDP and +10 per cent internet penetrationallow +1.4 per cent GDP. Service providers must invest more in newbroadband technologies and modernise their network in a context of achallenge on the ARPU. Today’s service and network providers in theregion are facing three main challenges: 1. they need to master theireconomics, both from cost control as revenue generation point of view; 2.they need to master their end to end network complexity, step out of thesilo/per domain strategy and look at the overall approach; and 3. theyneed to master the future-proofness of their network evolution,implementing only the most innovative products, in other words; theirmain challenge is to guarantee shareholders return on investment whilemastering network complexity and providing good customer experience.

What is your vision for Alcatel-Lucent expansion in Africa in 2012?Alcatel-Lucent is gaining more and more ground on the African continent,service and network providers appreciate the focus of our company on themost cost-effective and innovative products, architectures and businessmodels, mastering the totality of topics related to telecom business.Alcatel-Lucent’s very strong presence in Africa countries a real asset foroperators, our company is ready to engage anywhere in Africa with theaccurate expertise and at any level. We keep in investing in our humancapital in Africa our experts teams are able to address more and morecomplexity in the networks which identified us as the strategic partner fornetwork transformation in Africa.

What is the latest technology from Alcatel-Lucent that is going to bebeneficial to operators in Africa?Alcatel-Lucent has the strong belief that constant technology innovationsin the various domains (wireless with LTE and lightRadio, Wireline withconverged copper/fibre solutions, edge/core with evolution into the 100Gera, etc…) will lead to the optimal end to end network transformationstrategy for the service and network providers community. Alcatel-LucentBell Labs are providing innovation with more capacity, lower footprint andvery significant energy savings. Our latest technologies allow operators tooptimise their Return on Investments and to minimise their OPEX in adecreasing ARPU context.

What role is Alcatel-Lucent playing to connect people in the rural areasin Africa?Connecting people in rural areas is about offering cost-effectivesolutions for scarcely populated areas, it is about responding to theneed of the people in an affordable way. Under these circumstances webelieve our global end to end network architecture encompasses themost advanced wireless technologies with acceptable cost points.Customers want faster and better wireless services at lower prices. Sooperators need a quick, low-risk network evolution strategy. We provideto our customers full turnkey end to end project from civil work tonetwork integration allowing best quality of the network at lowest cost ofownership for service providers.

In today’s competitive market, how confident are you that the Alcatel-Lucent innovation will fly in African market?Knowing Alcatel-Lucent always concentrates on responding to thecustomer’s needs when designing and developing new and innovativeproducts, we are pretty confident above mentioned innovations willdefinitely fly in Africa, they help service and network providers in thesense they are cost-effective, fitting into an end to end strategy andfuture-proof. Exactly what the major players in Africa expect.. Alcatel-Lucent has played a major role in the roll out of most of the 5 submarinecables in operation at end of 2012 including ACE coming in here at Dakar.

What is the future of wireless broadband, especially in Africa?We believe wireless broadband to play a major role in the connectivitygame of the (near) future in Africa. The combination of availability, cost andbandwidth evolution dictates us to do so. Nevertheless, checking theforecasts of wireless traffic for the coming years, ALU believes thatcomplementing wireless broadband with fixed technologies, mainly forbackhauling and offloading the traffic but also in an opportunistic way forthose area’s where fixed infrastructure is available, will definitely optimisethe business case of the service and network providers. Also a certainnumber of 3G roll-out are ongoing in areas one considered hopeless for 2Gservices thanks to adoption of smartphones and usage of usb dongles.Many countries like Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Angola andTanzania are now exploring LTE and 4G. More LTE rollout are to come inmedium term if Africa that can further create attractive Environment forinvestments in term of regulation and taxes. It is very promising to receivegood signs, like the recent ones from Sénégal, in this direction.

ALCATEL-LUCENT, A LEADER in mobile, fixed, IP and Optics technologies, and a pioneer in applications and services. The company brings an unmatched heritage of ideas and execution to the challenge of realizing the potential of a connected world. It includes Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent's world-renowned research and development

arm. With operations in more than 130 countries, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with globalreach. The company is a sponsor of the 9th edition of West and Central AfricaCom conferencewhich focus on ICT in all 24 countries in Africa. Alcatel-Lucent is well represented at thisconference, including Daniel Jaeger, Vice President Africa, Eric Lacombe and Alpin Verlet,Country Managers in West and Central Africa and Eric Festraets, Director Network andBusiness Strategy, who is delivering a key note in the plenary session on June 13th, on thematter of “Addressing traffic explosion by advanced end-to-end network transformation”.

In a discussion with the Alcatel-Lucent delegation

S06 CAF 4 2012 Report C-E-F_Layout 1 18/06/2012 12:06


Terrestrial fibre is considered the long-term solution for Africa’s demand for connectivity- providing access to modern data services, improving the customer experience - buteven with hundreds of thousands of kilometres of deployed fibre, problems remain

The resurgence oflong haul microwave

NETWORK Microwave

WHILE NETWORK DEPLOYMENT in Africa was traditionallythe domain of government-owned public carriers, theseorganisations have declined over the past decade inmost countries. Now, building out telecommunications

networks is typically undertaken by private operators who own theirnetworks. Because there are often several competing operators in acountry, many countries are encumbered with multiple parallelnetworks and replicated infrastructure. Without sharedtelecommunication networks, operators, especially of mobilenetworks, have had to aggressively build their own trunk radio routesproviding capacity mostly for their exclusive use. This is especiallytrue of high-capacity, long-distance networks where each network isan island. Regional interconnection and linkage to theintercontinental subsea cables, necessary for unhindered access tothe valuable Internet, is still inaccessible to most citizens.

As the early data services, such as GPRS/EDGE and, later, fixedwireless, accelerated bandwidth consumption, operators decided toinvest in optical fibre, building out point-to-point routes in parallel totheir highest-capacity microwave links. In 2006-2007, when fibre wasbeing planned seriously in many countries, fibre links were perceived tobe the ultimate solution to the increasing demand for bandwidth,crossing borders, connecting regional groups and providingintercontinental connectivity by linking to subsea cables.

At the start of 2010, there were more than 300Gbps of Internetcapacity in place on the African continent with a third going to sub-Saharan countries. By the end of that year, Internet traffic grew by anadditional 70 per cent to more than 500Gbps. The demand driving thisphenomenal growth emanates primarily from the increasing rollout of 3Gmobile networks, HSPA+, Wimax and, now, LTE. This is creating anexpectation among consumers that, once experienced, unhinderedaccess with high capacity and smooth access will be the norm.

In their haste to deploy, it is not uncommon to find two or threeoperators building along the same route at the same time, and evencases where newer fibre deployments damage those just built in thefrantic effort to speed up deployment.

With so many fibre deployment projects planned and undertaken,Africa looks like a fibre continent.

Problems with fibreToday’s reality is not quite so rosy as the dream of unhindered andaffordable connectivity for the majority of citizens remains unrealised.For several years, operators invested almost completely in fibre andneglected microwave. But fibre is expensive to deploy and operate.Furthermore, with little or no microwave deployment, network operatorsare left vulnerable to sudden loss of capacity in cases of fibre breaks.

Fibre breaksWhen a fibre break occurs, the expectations that customers have builtup for accessibility and quality of service are suddenly dashed. After afibre break, in the best cases, severely restricted back-up services tofibre routes are dimensioned to carry only essential voice and signallingtraffic, leaving the growing IP-based data services at risk along with the

revenues they generate. In the worst cases, fibre breaks destroyconnectivity completely for unacceptably long periods of time.

Breaks in the fibre, malicious or accidental, are a daily occurrence. Withvast road construction, poor environmental management and erraticobservance of planning procedures, no country in Africa is immune. InNigeria alone, there are, on average, fourteen fibre breaks per 100km peryear leading to a colossal 2,200 hours of network down-time!

Even the high capacity subsea cables are not immune to breakage.Recently, a ship's anchor was dropped onto a subsea fibre optic cableoff the coast of Kenya severely disrupting the region's Internet access. Asa result, until repairs are completed, Internet connections are expectedto be reduced by 20 per cent in Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania,Ethiopia and South Sudan.

Deployment and operational expensesGreenfield fibre deployment is a time-consuming and expensive activity.The costs for trenching and deploying fibre increase rapidly withdistance. Right of way permits and the labor intensiveness of trenchingadd significantly to the cost and the time required. Fibre requiressignificant supporting equipment. For example, network interface cards(NICs) for fibre cables can cost US$1,000 each and a fibre networkrequires thousands of them.

For connecting highly populated areas, fibre deployment can bejustified. However, as Africa comprises many large countries withpopulation centers separated by vast distances, not to mention numerousremote areas, fibre deployment becomes exceedingly expensive.

Maintaining a fibre network is costly as well. Fibre cables are susceptibleto damage from the environment. Parts break more easily in fibre cablingthan in other cabling systems. A fibre break or equipment failure requireshuman intervention. Remote breaks can be very costly to repair especiallywhen they are in inaccessible areas that take time to reach.

The microwave alternativeAlthough they neglected long-haul microwave in favour of fibre, Africannetwork operators are re-thinking their strategies. Where microwave wasonce considered a less desirable technology than fibre, operators arenow seeing significant advantages.

Microwave is particularly suitable to the African environment dueto technological advances, lower deployment costs, ease ofmaintenance, and practical backup strategies. For example, Celtelhas installed a long-haul microwave link to improve communicationsbetween Uganda and Tanzania. A new microwave link now connectsTangiers, Morocco with Tarifa, Spain.

Microwave is suited to African deployment,for its record of technological advances, lower

deployment costs, ease of maintenance, andpractical backup strategies



NETWORKMicrowave

Advances in capacityToday’s microwave technology provides impressive long-haul capacity.Where outdated routes were previously limited to two or three STM1s,they now carry capacities measured in gigabits. Innovative technologies,like advanced modulation and multi-channel bandwidth controlempower operators to provide true high capacity on long-haul routes.Today’s long-haul microwave provides abundant capacity far in excessof Africa’s current and predicted demand.

Advances in reliabilityWhere inclement weather and other types of interference used to bemitigating factors in microwave link availability, leading microwaveequipment vendors are now able to keep their long-haul transmissionlinks functional even in transient fading conditions. For example,microwave systems such as those of wireless backhaul specialist,Ceragon Networks, sense the quality of the transmission link and canautomatically decrease the modulation technique in case of degradedsignal quality due to interference or other microwave propagationproblems. So, if a microwave transmission is humming along atmaximum capacity and suddenly encounters fading, the Ceragonmicrowave system automatically steps down the modulation to lowerlevels until the transmission network maintains the requisite level ofreliability. The traffic is distributed over all carriers using Multi-carrierAdaptive Bandwidth Control (ABC), so, when one carrier is affected byreduced modulation, the link distributes traffic to the remaining carriers,making the link appear as a single dynamic, high capacity pipe. As thetransient problems disappear, the resilient microwave systemautomatically re-applies more efficient modulation techniques to regainfull capacity. All of this occurs automatically with split-second timing andwithout human intervention.

Many operators must continue to support their legacy TDM systems(SONET/SDH) as they turn to packet technology to provide the latestconvergence capabilities. Advanced microwave systems, like Ceragon’sEvolution Long Haul, are able to support TDM as they supply an easy andinexpensive migration path to all-IP.

Microwave systems boast numerous other technological advancesproviding a good solution to Africa’s connectivity requirements todayand well into the future.

Deployment costs and speedLong-haul microwave links are significantly less expensive and speedierto deploy than fibre. Right-of-way issues and expensive trenching areavoided while complete microwave networks can be employedeconomically in just weeks reducing the operator’s time to serviceprovision and revenue. Unlike fibre, microwave deployment costs do notincrease with distance, and long-distance hops of 20, 50 or even morethan 100 km are practical to implement.

Microwave is an excellent fit for large African countries with vastterritories between population centers.

Maintenance and operationsUnlike fibre which, in the African experience, is prone to breakage andloss of service, microwave is highly reliable. With a microwave site in onesecure location booming traffic over the air to another site tens or evenhundreds of kilometres away, operators need not suffer themaintenance problems associated with a long fibre cable and itsnumerous connections along the way, snaking through remote ordifficult terrain. The mean time between failure (MTBF) of leadingmicrowave systems is now in excess of 100 years!

Advanced microwave systems consume far less power todaythan in the past. With passive cooling and power consumption thatcan be accommodated from solar or wind power, they suit theAfrican ecosystem perfectly.

While fibre, once put in the ground, is static, microwave is flexible. For

example, if a route becomes redundant, microwave equipment can bequickly and inexpensively moved to a new route.

All of these advantages add up to lower costs and easier maintenanceand operations for microwave systems.

BackupLong-haul microwave has generally been considered an expensive andlimited back-up to fibre based on historical solutions built around all-indoor, high-power equipment that requires space, cooling andelectrical power. Today’s microwave solutions can deliver vastimprovements in all of these categories. For example, Ceragon Networksprovides all-outdoor configurations that do not require cooling units,significantly reducing the electrical supply needed to power them.

Microwave is the perfect medium to provide backup for already-deployed fiber networks. Why would anybody want to deploy, as abackup to the fiber network, yet another expensive fiber network?Microwave provides the necessary capacity in most applications,including backhaul, for the rapidly growing mobile networks throughoutthe continent. If the fiber network suffers a break in service, themicrowave network can efficiently carry the capacity so that customerscan enjoy continuity of service. Microwave is the backup medium ofchoice for fiber networks.

Microwave surges aheadMicrowave is enjoying a resurgence in Africa. Superior speed ofdeployment, high capacity, flexibility, ultra-reliability, and low capitaland operating expenses make long-haul microwave a potenttelecommunications solution for the African market. ✆

John Earley, President for the Middle East and Africa, Ceragon

Spectrum Communications is a leading Solution Supplier to Telecom Industry, in the Middle East and Africa Regions, providing Transmission Solutions to Network and GSM mobile Operators and ISP Service Providers and Oil & Gas Industry.

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How future migrations to 4G standards, with the potential of 100 Mbits per mobileconnection, will drive requirements for even greater backhaul capabilities

The increasing need fornew management solutions

NETWORK Backhaul

CONTINUED CELLULAR MARKETpenetration, burgeoning consumerdemand for wireless rich media, andthe promise of even more data-

intensive applications continue to drivebandwidth consumption, fuelling an increasein the global number of cellular basestations. 3G and 4G cellular services, whichrequire very low latency and packet-basedswitching, place additional burdens onexisting infrastructure, taxing backhaulsolutions to their limits, increasingoperational expenditures (OPEX), andincreasingly burdening service providers whocontinue to expand ageing architecture tomeet expanding backhaul needs.

To address these increasing demands andcost pressures, wireless carriers need to evaluatetheir existing assets, identify the ideal solutionsto meet future needs, and implement cost-effective technologies to migrate their existingarchitectures to their ideal design over time.

Within a context of global development ofcommunications infrastructure, the last five yearshave seen Africa’s emerging nations, which havehad with very little existing backhaul architecturein place, account for many new cellular basestation installations over the last five to ten years- in large part due to a continuing upswing incellular subscriptions.

An equally important driver of networkconsumption is the expansion of cellularservices beyond traditional voice and textmessaging. Increasingly, cellular offeringsencompass a more full-featured blend of voice,

data, video, and other rich media. Industryobservers expect continued growth in mobilebroadband access with users demanding thesame types of content provided by homebroadband connections.

Addressing wireless backhaul challengesTo reduce backhaul OPEX to manageablelevels and build truly 3G- and 4G-compliantnetworks, mobile carriers can choose fromsolution portfolios that include a range ofproducts, utilizing fibre transport solutions oremerging RF wireless protocols such as millimetre wave or WiMAX.

As a first step, carriers should project near-term and long-term bandwidth and class ofservice demands based on business goals andmarket conditions. After determining thesetargets, providers should audit and cataloguetheir existing resources, including any planneddecommissions. With a solid understanding oftheir business direction and a firm grasp oftheir current capabilities, carriers can thenmake educated technology selections to meettheir future needs cost effectively. Professionalservices organizations with relevantexperience can often provide helpful

evaluation frameworks and cost-saving adviceduring the planning stage. For example, byprojecting a legacy backhaul architecture’srising percentage of OPEX over time, carrierscan find the point at which the capitalexpenditure (CAPEX) of new higher bandwidthbackhaul solutions would begin to show apositive ROI.

For new installations (e.g., greenfieldapplications), or areas where cable or fibre areeither absent or impractical, wirelesstechnologies, such as WiMAX or millimetrewave, offer economical yet efficient backhaulsolutions. With proper planning, wirelessbackhaul links can provide reliable, highquality transport throughput without theexpense of installing new lines. Wirelesstransmission also allows service providers toretain end-to-end control of their data, withoutthe risk or uncertainty of leasing through a thirdparty. Carriers should also look to extend theefficiency of these investments through cross-connectivity hardware that intelligently routestraffic between devices and providesperformance and reliability statistics allowingcarriers to assess their hardware needs asproactively as possible. ✆

To reduce backhaul OPEX to manageable levels and buildtruly 3G- and 4G-compliant networks, mobile carriers

should project near-term and long-term bandwidth andclass of service demands based on business goals and

market conditions

AIRTEL’S TELECOM NETWORK in the DemocraticRepublic of Congo (DRC) was the first operator tobe visited by the new Telecommunications & ICTMinister in the country – his Excellency TryphonKin-Kiey Mulumba. The visit in May 2012 was partof the newly appointed Minister’s familiarisationprogramme to understand the realities that thetelecom operators are dealing with in the country.DRC, is the largest country in sub Saharan Africaby area since the accession of South Sudan as anindependent country, and the eleventh largestcountry in the world. With a population of over71mn, it is the world’s nineteenth most populousnation, the fourth most populous nation in Africa,

and the most populous officially Francophone country.The Minister learned, during his visit, about the levelof investments made by the Airtel in DRC. More than abillion US dollars has been invested in the network sofar, and Airtel plans to invest an additional US$615mnover the next three years. Commenting on his visit, HisExcellency Kin-Kiey Mulumba said, “Our country isvery large and the potential is huge. Airtel is a bigcompany, and the investments made so far by Airtel inour country are amazing. We, as the Government, areunder the obligation to make available the essentialinfrastructures to enable operators like Airtel andothers to continue investing in our country andimprove the national coverage. "

The continuing commitment to invest in Airtel’s DRC network

New Telecommunications & ICT Minister of the DRC,His Excellency Kin- Kiey Mulumba, duringfamiliarisation tour of Airtel facilities


INCREASINGLY, OPERATORS IN Africa’s emerging markets arepresented with the imperatives to overcome planninguncertainty, acquire greater cost-effective scalability, utilisebandwidth and network assets better, and manage network

performance more effectively. Operations today must bestreamlined and total cost of ownership (TCO) minimised. Greaterflexibility to create new and differentiated services more quicklyand cost-effectively is essential. And, with all this, equallyeffective support for packet-, circuit-, and wavelength-basedservices is required.

How operators can meet today’s challengesAccording to ECI Telecom Ltd, achieving the new scalability,performance, manageability, and revenue objectives which theevolving market environment demands, and doing so cost-effectively, requires that operators adopt a more efficient approachto building and operating networks. A more flexible, efficient,manageable, and automated next-gen (NG) transport solution isneeded, one that integrates packet and optical technology in aninnovative way that provides support for legacy services whilebeing optimised for delivering high-growth services.

This new solution must offer maximum bandwidth efficiency,provide the ability to dynamically allocate network resources whenand where needed most, take advantage of increased automation,and offer greater awareness and control over the network. But thesavvy operator knows that ongoing success requires more thansimply the better leveraging of network assets and control ofnetwork costs. It also requires the capability to flexibly and rapidlycreate new services and to ensure a differentiated experience forcustomers, so that profitable new revenue streams can be built. Itis necessary to fine-tune control of QoS down to the per-service orindividual customer level, and to correlate management eventsand conditions across network layers.

Integration of network layers into one device has sparked verystrong interest from operators worldwide. It provides potentialsynergies in packaging, power, ports, cabling, and networkmanagement, resulting in expected cost savings and networksimplification. The declining revenue-per-bit yield from bandwidth-intensive packet services has made more efficient use of networkbandwidth a critical objective for operators. This need for greaterefficiency has led to a heightened interest in meshed restoration,since the cost of dedicating bandwidth resources solely to thefunction of protection has become increasingly prohibitive in thisnew market environment.

Cost pressures have also led to increased interest in maximisingthe efficiency of aggregation networks. That, plus the advantagesof service transparency, effective support of legacy SDH/SONETtraffic, and the need for scalability to 100G and beyond, has led tothe creation of a standards-based multiplexing hierarchy and tooffering Layer 1 switching that allows efficient grooming ofelectrical domain services onto wavelengths.


How operators may address the rapid evolution of new packet services, the resultingchanges in traffic mix, and declining revenues

The next generation ofoptimised multi-layer transport

NETWORKBackhaul

www.souknacomnet.com

Dbayé HighwayDbayé , LebanonTelefax: 00961-4-545175Email: [email protected]

Soukna Comnet Power Management System (PMS)Compatible with Multiple Mobile Platform

• Low OPEX => High revenues • Reduce Manpower, Maintenance and Fuel cost

Comnet Power provides an integrated and remotely managed fully power solution combining the existing power sources like: Gel batteries, fuel generators and commercial power with new power source technologies like: Wind Turbine, Solar Panels, Fuel Cells, and more advanced technology which is the Fuel Enrichment System used to reduce the fuel consumption of generators.

The Apollo 9600 OMLT platform



NETWORK Backhaul

The need for more deterministic Ethernet performance hascreated a demand for enhanced OAM. The need for operationalsynergies with the IP/MPLS core has led to the development ofmetro-friendly Layer 2 protocols that streamline MPLS to provide amore cost-effective Layer 2 alternative for the metro. The need forstandardisation has encouraged wide support of MEF-certifiedEthernet services.

The rise of mobile computing and growing interest in Cloudservices have brought about two main changes: bandwidth demandis increasingly dynamic, and the locations and timing of bandwidthuse increasingly uncertain. It is, therefore, increasingly important todynamically allocate network resources when and where needed, afunction of multidegree wavelength-switching capabilities that offergreater flexibility and are non-blocking in nature. At the same time,the need for greater automation, more efficient restorationmechanisms, and a tighter coupling of the optical transport networkwith higher and more intelligent network layers has heightenedoperator interest in a control plane that spans layers, particularlywhen used in conjunction with reconfigurable networks offeringdynamic wavelength-switching capabilities.

The evolution of packet services from “best effort” to anexpanded service portfolio with tiered services that include moredifferentiated and deterministic offerings, has led operators totake greater interest in a better OAM model, one equally applicableto all traffic types. Operators are increasingly focused on growingtheir portfolio of differentiated packet services and on being ableto respond quickly to new service opportunities. Their aim is toensure a good quality of experience for those services whilepotentially supporting some of them with marketable SLAs. Quickfault detection, correlation, and problem resolution are required.For a network offering a mix of packet and circuit services whileleveraging underlying optical transport, a multi-layer networkmanagement solution is needed to help operators correlate serviceperformance to what is going on across multiple network layers.Last but not least, the need to streamline operations has led toincreasing interest in automated provisioning and to strongerlinkages between provisioning and planning tools.

The operator responseAs they examine changing market requirements and the impact ofnew services on their revenue opportunities and network operationsobjectives, an increasing number of service operators are coming toa conclusion: The time is right to integrate network elements (NEs)and associated network management spanning L0, L1, L2, andelements of Layer 3 intelligence, while leveraging the most cost-effective network layer that provides the required functionality.

The operators expect this to achieve both CAPEX and OPEXsavings while meeting “green” initiatives. However, to date, manyoperators have moved cautiously toward this goal. Although it offersmany potential benefits, it also involves potential pitfalls or lostopportunities if not done with the right design approach andarchitecture. So, although operator interest in greater integration ofnetwork layers has remained strong, lessons learned have often leftthem waiting for a solution that better meets their long-term needs.

Offerings to dateWhile much of the technology in the first generations of packet-optical transport platforms was mature, its implementation led torelatively slow uptake. Vendors tried to repurpose existingplatforms and leverage past development expenditures rather thaninnovate in developing the best mix of packaging, architecture,technologies, and operating paradigm. As a result, they developedsuboptimal solutions that better met their needs than solve theoperators’ problems.

The New Solution: Optimised Multi-Layer Transport (OMLT).What operators really need is NG transport infrastructure that fullymarries the scalability, performance, cost, and OAM model ofoptical networks with the adaptability, cost efficiencies, andflexible service-creation opportunities of packet networks.

Operators need a portfolio of products which build a moreintelligent, efficient, and flexible network that integrates packetand optical technology, scales cost-effectively, makes maximumuse of network resources, minimises TCO, and enables the creationof new revenue opportunities while protecting existing revenuestreams. In other words, they need an intelligent, fully integratedmulti-layer transport solution that simplifies operations andoptimises performance and cost for a diverse and changing mix ofpacket-, circuit-, and wavelength-based services.

The architecture must accommodate different network startingpoints and different future objectives. It needs to reduce thenecessity for planning certainty, minimise up-front CAPEX,eliminate the potential stranding of assets, and future proof thenetwork investment. Consistent carrier class OAM applied to alltraffic types in the network must be offered, and operators musthave the ability to transport circuit, packet, and wavelength trafficequally well while supporting tiered service levels and marketableSLAs. The result must be an intelligent multi-layer transportnetwork that can respond to traffic load and network impairments,dynamically allocate bandwidth and reroute traffic when and whererequired, so directing traffic to the most cost-effective networklayer that best meets the functional requirements and costobjectives of each part of the network.

The repurposed packet-optical transport platforms of the pasthave not been the solution. What operators need is a new breed ofinfrastructure, an optimised multilayer transport (OMLT) platform.

Optimised multi-Layer transportThe intelligent NG OMLT solution must be based on mature andproven L0, L1, L2 technologies and management with L3intelligence, and incorporate an innovative design philosophyand modular architecture that enable strategic flexibility andfine-tuned control of the network. It should integrate packet andoptical networks in a way that maximises the full cost-containment and revenue-creation synergies possible, whileproviding the greatest flexibility, performance, control, andmanageability possible. Operators need a low first-in cost, a pay-as-you-grow approach, future proofing, streamlined operations,minimised TCO, and the ability to quickly allocate networkresources when and where needed, as well as the flexibility tomaximise new revenue opportunities. ✆

THE PRODUCT OF ECI’s extensive transport experience together with operatorinput and market-leading optical technology and innovation, the Apollo OMLTcombines ECI’s well-recognised strengths in transport with best-in-classpacket networking technologies and integrated multi-layer management. Themodular design and practical focus of Apollo’s innovative architecture giveoperators the opportunity to build the best solution for their needs today,while ensuring they keep the door open for the right solution in the future.And it incurs no penalty or stranding of assets for the operator, regardless ofthe pace or path with which they choose to address the migration from circuitto packet traffic. For those operators with the eventual goal of convergenceof all packet and circuit traffic onto a single packet network, Apollo providesan ideal, practical, and cost-effective migration path toward that objective,and an optimal solution when the operator gets there.

www.ecitele.com

ECI’s Apollo OMLT



EQUIPMENT

GL COMMUNICATIONS INC. has released to market a portfolioof handheld portable test instruments for TDM and IPnetworks. Speaking recently about the new products, GL's CEOMr. Vijay Kulkarni said, “GL's handheld telecom testinstruments are simple and easy to use and are designed totest almost any network interface including TDM (Analog, T1,E1, T3, and E3) and IP (Ethernet) networks. They are portable,battery operated, rechargeable, and light.” Mr. Kulkarni explained, “GL's PacketShark is a handheld unitthat can tap Packet Networks, and capture Ethernet and IPpackets at wire speed over optical or electrical interfaces upto 1 Gb/s. It selectively filters the captured packets based onspecified criteria. Packets are transmitted through two portswith the packets that are traffic compliant with the filters aresent to a packet analyser, such as GL's PacketScan for detailedpacket analysis. Alternatively, the traffic can be even sent toa memory card (SD) and later analysed offline. GL's IPNetSim - Handheld is a handheld battery operatedinstrument that can simulate real-time IP and Carrier Ethernetnetwork dynamics by means of hardware controlled packet delay, loss, jitter,errors, bandwidth constriction, congestion, and duplication. IPNetSim Handheldsimulates network behaviour of up to 1 Gbps rates with accuracy always betterthan 1ms. IPNetSim Handheld is equipped with a hardware based impairmentsgenerator, and dual GbE ports. GL's LinkTest DualE1 is a handheld dual-port tester for E1 and datacommunications (V.11 / X.24, V.24/RS232, V.35, V.36/RS449, EIA-530, EIA-530A)interfaces. With the support of a large range of software options for E1 servicesand sub rate multiplexing system, this handheld unit provides a scalable test

solution for E1 and data testing. It provides a large, clear screen with a full setof physical layer tests for E1 balanced and unbalanced circuits including BERT, VF,round trip delay and signal level.”Mr.Kulkarni further added, “Our other portable products: LinkTestTM Single,LinkTestTM Single+, and LinkTestTM Dual are sophisticated bit error rate testersin a compact, handheld package and can test a wide variety of communicationsfacilities and equipments.”

www.gl.com

MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS, INC., which provides mission-critical communication solutions, now offers anexpanded portfolio for the TETRA (TerrestrialTrunked Radio) community with the addition ofMTP3000 handheld radio series. Launched at the2012 TETRA World Congress in Dubai, UAE, the threenew models in the MTP3000 series answer core userdemands for increased user safety and reliabilityand set new standards with significantimprovements in audio quality, increased networkcoverage, ruggedness and ease of use. These radioswill increase choices for the differing needs of users,ranging from entry level to advanced, with featuresets that match operational needs.The new MTP3000 radios offer the highest receiversensitivity in the market (a -2db increase on allexisting TETRA radios), which allows a 14 per centrange increase and a 30 per cent boost to networkcoverage, when compared to a EuropeanTelecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)specification radio.The MTP3000 series has been designed to deliversuperior audio quality with an optimum level ofaudio loudness and clarity of voice, coupled witha superior microphone system, ensuring thatusers can hear and be heard clearly, even in thenoisiest environments.Tom Quirke, vice president and general manager,Global TETRA Organization, Motorola Solutions, said,“Government organisations and enterprises needTETRA radios that deliver greater user safety, ease of

use and ruggedness to help their users focus oncritical operations in what are often harsh orchallenging environments. The MTP3000 raises thebar in terms of outright performance whilemaximising the user’s ability to manage differentdevices and accessories in the field. With thesuperiority of built-in safety, enhanced audio qualityand intuitiveness in the new MTP3000 serieshandheld terminals, we are setting new standardswith a choice of radios for a wide range of differentusers. Feedback from different organisations duringbeta trials has already been extremely positive, andwe are very pleased that a user group in theNetherlands has already chosen the MTP3000 seriesas its radio of choice.”Motorola is also highlighting its vision for theUltimate Patrol Vehicle – the result of five years offield research, simulations and usability studies. Thevehicle’s cockpit incorporates the latest technologiesand easy-to-reach integrated controls forstreamlined decision-making and actions by officersinvolved in high-stress pursuits. For streamlinedactions, the car has integrated, easy-to-reachcontrols with key functions tied to single buttonpresses or simple voice commands. Its workstationruns applications such as Automatic Number PlateRecognition (ANPR) and real-time video streamingover LTE and TEDS (TETRA Enhanced Data Services) toempower and protect officers like never before.

www.motorolasolutions.com

The MTP3000 seriesintroduces a new fast andrugged IP55-certified sideconnector, allowing the userto connect and disconnect anaccessory in less than twoseconds. Also, the MTP3000range is fully supported byMotorola’s IntegratedTerminal Management system,which ensures thatorganisations can managetheir radio fleet effectively

Motorola Solutions’ MTP3000 Series TETRA radio, designed for safety and effectiveness

GL offers handheld portable test instruments for TDM and IP networks

S07 CAF 4 2012 Equipment_Layout 1 18/06/2012 12:09


EQUIPMENT

32

GLOBAL INFORMATION AND communications technology (ICT) solutionsprovider Huawei has unveiled eRelay, the industry’s first LTE TDD wirelessbackhaul solution to meet small cell transmission challenges, at the CellularTelecommunications Industry Association’s (CTIA) Wireless 2012 event held inNew Orleans, in the USA, in May. Huawei’s eRelay solution effectively easesconstraints on transmission resources when small cells are deployed.Operators worldwide have begun deploying small cells in hotspot areas toenhance overall network capacity in the face of explosive growth of mobilebroadband network traffic. Many small cell deployments in these hotspotareas, however, are hampered by a lack of transmission resources; and suchis commonly the case with available optical fiber. Operators all over the worldare now focused on meeting these transmission and flexible deploymentchallenges facing small cells. Huawei’s formulation of the eRelay solution wasbased on the analysis of micro base station deployments. It utilisesSingleRAN’s unified hardware platform, advanced LTE technology, 256 high-order QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) and MIMO (Multiple-InputMultiple-Output) technology, and provides wider bandwidth and greatertransmission capacity. A more cost-efficient solution that works the same wayas microwave transmissions, the Huawei eRelay solution uses NLOS (Non-Lineof Sight) transmission and supports PtMP (Point-to-Multipoint) transmission.Deng Taihua, President of Huawei LTE TDD&WiMAX&TDS Wireless Networks,said, "As the best business partner for operators, Huawei is dedicated toproviding customer-centric solutions to help operators deal with thechallenges of mobile broadband era. eRelay solves problems associated withtransmission constraints, promotes small cell deployment ,improves capacityfor hotspot areas and ultimately improves user experience."

www.huawei.com

SONETEL, A VOIP provider with users in more than 200 countries, hasbegun giving all of its subscribers free iNum numbers from Voxbone. Theagreement to provide iNums expands Sonetel’s relationship withVoxbone, which has provided the certified reseller more than 17,000geographical phone numbers since 2010.iNums are global phone numbers that Voxbone launched in 2008 tosupport IP communications. iNums enable a customer to establish alocal presence in new locations with a single, portable number. Byproviding every customer an iNum, Sonetel will extend the subscriber’srange of free calling to include communications with all other iNumusers, anywhere in the world. Sonetel offers a free hosted PBX solution that is particularly popular withsmall and medium businesses (SMBs) in price-sensitive regions, suchas Africa and Asia. The company then upsells those customers on calltermination and Voxbone-provided premium origination services.Together, Sonetel and Voxbone help business owners cost-effectivelyadd local phone numbers, as well as launch virtual offices in any countrywhere they see a market opportunity. Sonetel is providing iNums to more than 40,000 of its existing usersand will assign them to the 200 to 300 customers that sign up for the service each day.“Sonetel’s decision to provide free iNums to all of its customers is thelatest example of increasing adoption of these flexible, globalnumbers that support IP communications features,” said VoxboneCEO Rod Ullens.

www.sonetel.com

THE NUMBERS SPEAK for themselves: 2950visitors and a total of 106 differentexhibitors make the TETRA World Congress2012 in Dubai, in the UAE, the mostsuccessful event in the history of digitaltrade show. Among the highlights of thisexhibition were the headsets from ImtradexHör-/Sprechsysteme GmbH. From the 15thto the 17th of May, Imtradex demonstratedits intent to meet the demands of thedigital radio age.The hand microphones Aurelis Bluetooth andAurelis Nexus aroused great interest alongwith the OnGuard Bluetooth. The OnGuardBluetooth was designed specifically for usein undercover investigations and with anunobtrusive headset it connects viaBluetooth to a mobile phone, which theinvestigator carry."The wireless design, the inductiveNeckloop, the induction receiver RS7 andwith a silent sending button, the device isabsolutely predestined for the covertoperation," explains Ralf Kudernak,managing director of Imtradex Hör-/Sprechsysteme GmbH.For the success at the trade fair in Dubai also showed the high suitability that theproduct has: A wireless transmitter button ensuresthat it can be hidden for use in the hand. By pressinga button, calls can be assumed, be initiated or

terminated. In the case of normal use the batteryonly need replacement once a year and can bereplaced by the user himself. Also convincing was the

hand microphones from the Aurelis series,specifically designed for modern digitalradio systems. Above all, the AurelisBluetooth: The wireless handheldmicrophone placed with its innovative andhigh quality equipment set new standardsof communication and security. It includesa transmit button, a microphone, high-quality speakers, an emergency button, athree-level volume control, a two-color LEDand a connector for external audioequipment. Like all Aurelis handmicrophones it also has a very robust andsplash- proof plastic housing. Depending onthe digital radio it is possible to integratedifferent data applications.In Dubai, Imtradex presented the newestproducts within the Aurelis family: TheAurelis Nexus. The Aurelus Nexus is anevolution of the successful Aurelis base. Anintegrated Nexus jack in this model, makesit compatibility with all major headsets andInEar-Headets also from other companies."Currently, the Aurelis Nexus is indeed onlyavailable for the Sepura STP8000, but thegreat demand this year at TETRA WorldCongress confirmed the existing plan, toproduce the model for all other wireless

devices," said Ralf Kudernak.

www.imtradex.com

Imtradex reports a positive outcome at TETRA World Congress

Huawei offers eRelay for wireless backhaul Sonetel enhances PBX solution for small and medium businesses



EQUIPMENT

33

ADEPTRA, A GLOBAL expert in customerengagement technologies, in partnership withValidSoft, has developed, tested andimplemented the world's first detection andprevention application to tackle the growingproblem of SIM card fraud for the bankingindustry. The solution combines ValidSoft’sunrivalled fraud detection technology, with therich and robust functionality of the cloud basedAdeptra Risk Intervention Platform. Following a successful pilot project at a long-standing Adeptra client, one of the world’slargest banks is the first to adopt the application.This solution provides the marketplace anopportunity to engage and understand customerdata in a way that protects the banks and theircustomers within a real-time interventiondelivered by Adeptra. This is the first Adeptrapartner to successfully address the issue of SIMcard fraud. The bank’s adoption of theapplication is another stage in its work to secureall transaction channels by using leading edgetechnology and Adeptra’s cloud based RiskIntervention Platform to deliver the process.

Swapping SIMs with increasing frequencySIM swapping is a financial crime that isincreasing in frequency, where fraudsters obtain

and utilise a replacement SIM card to acquiresecurity messages and one-time passwords sentto the consumer by the bank. Criminals are thenable to change details, add beneficiaries andtransfer money out of the account using personalinformation that may have been acquiredthrough phishing attempts. While most types offinancial fraud are recognising reductions due tochip and pin, phone fraud saw a 48 per centincrease in 2011.The deployment at the bank comprises SIM swapprotection provided by ValidSoft’s baselineprocessing system, coupled with its uniquepredictive modeling capabilities. Once asuspected case has been highlighted, Adeptra'sDecision Engine considers all available detectionsources and a wide array of consumer data toascertain the risk level. The system will then

determine whether a communication is requiredand initiates the communication via the mostappropriate channel for that particular customer.

Capitalising on existing investmentAdeptra’s CTO, Tony McGivern, commented,“Once again, Adeptra leads the market into anew territory by engaging and delivering the mostsophisticated anti-fraud solutions in the industrytoday. Without any additional capital investmentand using existing technology, banks can benefitfrom best-in-class fraud detection applicationsthat deliver loss avoidance options to our clients.Adeptra assess and defines the interventionnecessary to prevent further losses based on thecritical data that ValidSoft delivers.” Pat Carroll, CEO of ValidSoft, said, “We are verypleased to see our partnership with Adeptrabearing fruits so quickly. The contract with aglobal leader in the banking industrydemonstrates that ValidSoft's securitytechnology is at the forefront of fraud preventionsolutions. Our partnership with Adeptracombines the market leader in sophisticatedcustomer care with the best of breed in fraudprevention solutions.”

www.adeptra.com

NOKIA SIEMENS NETWORKS a lancé une suite de sécurité pour terminauxintelligents de type smartphones et tablettes. Contrairement aux autres solutionsdu marché, basées sur le terminal et souvent spécifiques au fabricant, la suite desécurité mobile de Nokia Siemens Networks offre une protection totale,indépendamment du type et de la marque du terminal. Particulièrement simple àutiliser, cette suite combine protection sur le terminal et sur le réseau. L’approchede bout en bout de la solution peut ainsi constituer une nouvelle source derevenus pour les opérateurs qui pourront proposer un service de sécuritécomplet à leurs abonnés.Environ 84 % des abonnés mobiles utilisent leur smartphone pouraccéder à leurs données et à divers contenus dans tous leursdéplacements, que ceux-ci soient professionnels ou privés. Pour lespirates et les cybercriminels, ils constituent donc une cible de plus enplus intéressante. Malgré les risques, moins de la moitié des utilisateursconfirment en effet verrouiller leur clavier ou utiliser des mots de passepour protéger leur smartphone ; et 29 % seulement ont envisagé d’installerun antivirus sur leur smartphone.

Des services complets de sécuritéLes opérateurs télécoms sont idéalement positionnés pour proposer à leursabonnés haut débit mobile une solution pratique de sécurité renforcée. Pour lesy aider, Nokia Siemens Networks a lancé une suite de sécurité mobile qui associeprotection du terminal et protection sur le réseau. Grâce à cette solution, lesopérateurs vont pouvoir faire bénéficier les clients, aussi bien les professionnelsque les particuliers, de services complets de sécurité.« Les opérateurs, en qui les clients ont toute confiance, apprécieront cettenouvelle solution pratique et gage d’une sécurité complète. Non seulement lesopérateurs ont un accès privilégié aux systèmes de sécurité du réseau, mais ilspeuvent proposer des solutions de protection compatibles avec tout type determinal, et non ceux d’un constructeur en particulier. Enfin, ils seront en mesured’actualiser les règles de sécurité automatiquement, dès que nécessaire »,

explique Thorsten Schneider, Head of Security Business, Nokia Siemens Networks.En proposant une solution de sécurité en plus des contrats d’abonnement et unenvironnement protégé, incitant à utiliser davantage de services mobiles, lesopérateurs pourront donc proposer ce service et accroître nettement la fidélitéde leurs abonnés.Au-delà, la solution permet de protéger le propre réseau et les systèmes del’opérateur ; cela se traduira par des économies d’assistance client et de supporttechnique, coûts qu’il se doit aujourd’hui d’assumer en cas de faille de sécurité.

nokiasiemensnetworks.com

Une solution de sécurité pour smartphones

World’s first SIM swap fraud solution for banking industry

Increasingly, fraudsters areobtaining and utilising

replacement SIM cards toacquire security messages

and one-time passwordssent to consumers by banks

Nokia Siemens Networks a lancé sa suite de sécurité pour terminauxintelligents de type smartphones et tablettes (Photo: Intel)


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L'UIT SONT ANNONCÉ l'élaboration d'une nouvelle Recommandation quiconstitue une avancée majeure dans le domaine de la radiodiffusiontélévisuelle. Cette Recommandation va révolutionner l'environnement de laradiodiffusion télévisuelle avec l'arrivée de la "télévision ultra hauterésolution" ou TVUHD. Le Secteur des radiocommunications de l'UIT aélaboré cette norme - ou Recommandation - au sein de la Commissiond'études 6, en collaboration avec des experts du secteur de la télévision,des organisations de radiodiffusion et des organismes de réglementation.

Télévision ultra haute définition: un avenir mieux définiLa qualité des images pour le téléspectateur s'est considérablement amélioréedepuis le début de la télévision dans les années 30. La pâle image noir et blancdu téléviseur installé dans le coin de la pièce a laissé la place à l'image couleur"haute définition" d'une netteté éclatante qu'offrent les écrans plats. Mais, la technologie ne cesse d'évoluer. La Commission d'études 6 desradiocommunications a donné son aval à un projet de nouvelleRecommandation relative aux spécifications techniques de la télévisionultra haute définition (TVUHD), lequel est maintenant soumis auxAdministrations pour approbation.Deux niveaux sont définis pour les normes de qualité pour la TVUHD spécifiéesdans la Recommandation de l'UIT-R. A chaque niveau, les avancées en termesde qualité s'apparentent plus ou moins à celles que l'on a connues lors dupassage de l'ancienne télévision à définition normalisée à la télévision hautedéfinition (TVHD). La résolution des images de TVHD est aujourd'hui compriseentre 1 et 2 mégapixels. Le premier des niveaux de la TVUHD offre unerésolution d'image d'environ 8 mégapixels (format d'image 3 840 x 2 160) et leniveau suivant offre une résolution d'image d'environ 32 mégapixels (format

d'image 7 680 x 4 320). Pour faire court, on parle parfois pour décrire cessystèmes de systèmes de TVUHD "4K" ou "8K".La qualité ultra haute définition s'accompagne d'un meilleur rendu de lacouleur et le nombre d'images par seconde est plus élevé que dans lessystèmes de télévision d'aujourd'hui.Le Secrétaire général de l'UIT Dr Hamadoun Touré a rendu hommage à laCommission d'études 6: "La TVUHD va bouleverser le monde la télévision.Regarder un programme de TVUHD sera demain une expérience inoubliableet j'attends ce moment avec impatience."David Wood, Président du Groupe de travail 6C de l'UIT-R (GT 6C), qui aélaboré le projet de nouvelle Recommandation, a déclaré: "Nous entronsdans une nouvelle ère de la télévision: la TVUHD offrira des images d'unréalisme saisissant pour la plus grande satisfaction du téléspectateur. Lemoment est historique. Il faudra attendre encore quelques années avantque les systèmes de TVUHD arrivent dans nos foyers mais ils arriveront belet bien. Le progrès est en marche, grâce aux efforts inlassables des expertsinternationaux participant aux travaux du GT 6C."Le Président de la Commission d'études 6 des radiocommunications,Christoph Dosch, a ajouté "Voilà manifestement un résultat important de laCommission d'études 6 des radiocommunications dont nous pouvons êtrefiers. Avec l'élaboration de cette Recommandation, les organisations dansle monde entier pourront commencer à travailler en confiance pour faire dela TVUHD une réalité."Le Directeur du Bureau des radiocommunications de l'UIT, François Rancy adéclaré: "J'ai vu les images qu'offre un système de TVUHD 8K, la sensationde présence est extraordinaire. Cet accord témoigne du dynamismesoutenu de l'UIT-R et de la Commission d'études 6."

Télévision ultra haute définition: à l'aube d'une nouvelle ère

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Comnet Power..................................................................................29

Comtech EF Data Corp ....................................................................35

Comviva Technologies Limited ..........................................................9

Etihad Airlines ..................................................................................15

GL Communications ........................................................................13

Hellas-Sat Consortium Ltd. ..............................................................21

Informa Telecoms & Media (VAS Africa 2012) ................................10

Intelsat................................................................................................5

Interactive Intelligence ....................................................................23

Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd. ................................................................36

Safran Morpho ..................................................................................11

Samsung Galaxy Note........................................................................7

Spectrum Communications ............................................................27

Telecom Italia Sparkle S.p.A. ............................................................2

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Market-Leading


communications africa issue 4 2012

Documents

capacit detransmission

advanced mobile solutions

business faster

business fluid

provision of hig

comeffective voice solutions

innovative corporate

communications africa