Most of the talks covered how wireless application and innovation is needed to connect the wider African community with Internet, with only about 6% + Internet penetration. In Uganda it is alot lower and it was highlighted that the government are too slow in connecting schools in Uganda which is critical if kids are to be educated and help develop Uganda as they grow older.

SMS the killer application
Interestingly with all the high tech talk going on about 3G, wireless and infrastructure, it was highlighted that SMS is still the killer application in Africa. Good to hear what we have always believed at FMNA, the key focus must be on the 80% of the African market who cannot afford a smart phone or a data contract.

These people need to be connected now and cannot wait for prices to come down or connectivity to improve for this to happen. Thankfully our two way email and chat service on every mobile phone is helping to bridge this digital divide NOW and we look forward to connecting all Africans.

This unique start was then followed by a video address by Dr Hamadoun Toure, the ITU Secretary General who explained the recent growth and also the challenges faced by the African market.

Mobile subscription rates are increasing by up 42% per year in Africa. The African mobile market is one of the fastest growth rates in world, for example….Gambia and Equatorial Guinea, mobile adoption is growing by 50 to 70% per year.

Mobile prices are low and accessible is high, but high cost of broadband is a major bottleneck and broadband it was argued should be recognised as national right for all. Mr Toure added that the moment is now ripe to put together and seek the best way forward to drive African Communications.

The Vice President of Uganda likened the ICT revolution to when in the 1950’s when his family grew a lot of cotton. Other countries found it hard to grow and asked how to do it and Uganda became 3rd largest exporter. Similarly in ICT, he explained that training was needed, at all levels in Africa. Utilisation of mobiles needs to be increased and the industry needs to help to develop strong policy on ICT use to improve in Africa. “This can transform people from poverty to middle class with positive change.”

How can Africa develop?
He explained how e-Health schemes for malaria and disease means these issues can now be resolved without coming to Kampala which is great for Ugandans.

He explained that Africa was not yet ready for this big change now, as economies and governments are fragile, but they need to build strong policies to transform societies, as building a democracy takes time so policies are needed now.

Africa Needs To Now Produce
The Vice President highlighted the plight of Africa clearly by saying historically “Africa receives 99.9% of things but needs to turn this around and find out how to do and build capacity to produce”. Uganda consumes but now needs to produce especially in ICT.

Good food for thought, which highlights just how big the digital divide is in Africa and the work needed. This needs to be addressed by both strong policy and public and private partnerships in Africa. At ForgetMeNot Africa are both happy and proud our eTXT technology will help to empower Africans and in the words of Dr Hamadoun Toure, the ITU Secretary General, fullfilling the “national right” of each African to be part of the digital revolution.

We are looking forward to meeting many of Africa’s leading networks and providers over the coming days and demonstrating the exciting new developments with our eTXT service, which provides internet messaging on every mobile phone in Africa, helping to bridge the digital divide in Africa.

According to local publication Business Daily, the incoming owner might switch Zain’s name to its preferred brand, Airtel, a move that comes just 17 months after the African operator underwent massive rebranding on its own.

“Zain managed to break new ground with its brand because it brought its communication to the local level. Should they re-brand, they would have to maintain that focus or they would lose out to the more localized brands such as Safaricom”, commented Fred Simuyu, the chairman of the Marketing Society of Kenya.

The Indian conglomerate, run by billionaire Sunil Mittal, bid no more than $9 million for the Kenyan operation’s Kuwaiti parent company, Zain Group. If the deal is concluded, the Indian firm will acquire control over Zain’s African operations, including Kenya and expanding further into the African telecoms market.

In 2008, Zain Kenya went through a massive rebranding phase that saw its new brand unveiled in 14 African markets, in an announcement via live satellite. The company then committed to spend Sh25 billion on its rebranded network. However, industry estimates place the cost of the 2008 Zain rebranding exercise at around $28 million.

Surprinsingly, in September last year, Zain was voted first among the top 15 brands in East and Central Africa in an industry survey, alongside Nokia, Omo, Coca-Cola and Colgate, to name a few. The survey was conducted by a panel of SuperBrands independent experts and was based on market dominance, longevity, goodwill, customer loyalty and overall market acceptance criteria.

According to Steven Evans, CEO Etisalat, the company will grow its network this year by allocating a further $700 million as part of its initial planned budget of $2 billion, reports Nigeria’s publication Daily Trust.

Last year, Etisalat invested about $800 million, raising the total amount invested to $1,5 billion.

The current investment will be channeled towards renting telecoms infrastructure to cut costs and save on resources. Additional resources will be pumped into upgrading existing infrastructure.

“Overtime we hope to acquire a number of customers to generate sufficient income to make a profit”, said Evans, who expects the company to break even by 2011.

He added that the expected increase in Etisalat’s subscribers would also mean attracting existing subscribers from other network users.

Visit our stand where you can trial our technology and understand how we can drive SMS traffic to your network with our Message Optimiser technology.

9-11th of March 2010,
Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort & Speke Conference Centre,
Munyonyo,
Kampala,
Uganda

If you would like to arrange a meeting please email africa@fmnsoft.com.

“The key drivers in these markets include strong gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates, increasing demand for mobile money transfer services and declining handset costs”, said Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Jiaqi Sun.

According to the study, in 2008 Kenya enjoyed the highest number of active subscribers and revenues among the four countries. The technologies covered in the study are code division multiple access (CDMA), global system for mobile communications (GSM), general packet radio service (GPRS), high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) and wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) in each of the countries mentioned.

The analyst added that East African consumers are spending more on mobile communications nowadays due to the low fixed-line network coverage, underdeveloped banking systems, and the current limited availability of inexpensive handsets.

Source: IT NEWS AFRICA

Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph said the launch of managed services will allow companies to share ideas and offer better services to their clients while saving costs.

Mr Joseph said the demand for managed services in the Information Technology (IT) sector was on the rise as companies look for ways of streamlining expenditure.

First up will be the rolling out of a ‘Managed Office in a Box’, which includes connectivity, conferencing and collaboration tools, security and a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

Cisco’s managed services offering will provide Safaricom’s customers with a complete end-to-end system, tailored to meet their individual business needs and get the benefit of better service support.

The Internet Protocol (IP) services will be delivered through Safaricom’s wired and wireless Local Area Networks (LANs) with integrated security features.

“With one stop solutions, business managers do not have to worry about the day-to -ay management of area networks and Internet based applications, freeing up time to concentrate on their core business,” Mr Joseph said.

The ForgetMeNot Africa stand was busy with a lot of interest from African operator’s looking to add value added services to their networks and we look forward to progressing with these in the coming months.

The conference opened with a keynote session looking at market conditions in Africa’s telecoms, in particular the impact of the global economy on the sector. Chris Gabriel, CEO of Zain Africa presented his company as being customer-oriented rather than operating a network. Outsourcing, infrastructure sharing and partnerships are used by Zain to serve customers better and to be “smarter about how to invest”.

His presentation was followed by a debate between Ahmed Cisse (Deputy CEO of West African group Atlantique Telecom) , Ken Aigbinode (CEO of Nigerian CDMA operator Zoom Mobile), and Themba Kumalo (CEO of MTN Uganda). They discussed the impact of the global economic downturn on Africa’s telecoms markets. Mr Cisse said that his business was affected in the first half of 2009, but picked up in the second half of the year, with a 12% growth.

In the afternoon Geoff Goss from Celsys proposed ways to boost ARPU in a difficult climate. He argued rather than going through the pain and effort to save small amounts of OPEX, businesses would be better served focusing their time and energy into maximisng the value from current users. This can be done easily he added, by knowing your customer, innovating and focusing on what users want such as content.

The day finished with the AfricaCom Awards ceremony. ForgetMeNot Africa were nominated in the Best New Entrant category which was won by Dark Fibre and we wish them well on their success.

This is the annual gathering of Africa’s telecommunications leaders and we look forward to hearing the latest trends, meeting our partners and doing further business with networks wishing to provide 2-way email, IM and Social networking applications using the Message Optimiser platform.

We are also very much looking forward to the AfricaCom Awards, recognising excellence in Africa’s telecommunications. ForgetMeNot Africa are delighted to be nominated for the “Best New Entrant” award at this years awards.

We will keep you updated from our blog throughout the week with news from AfricaCom 2009.