africacom

Africa and the economics of satellites

Last week’s AfricaCom conference had a heavy focus on satellites but how many people actually understand the economics of satellite connectivity? We didn’t, so we asked Intelsat.

Africa can learn from the South American mistakes

Africa is firmly in last place when it comes to the development of the digital society, unless you count the Antarctic, but looking towards the failures of other emerging markets might help things along.

African telcos insist LTE is vital to the region

Day two of AfricaCom 2014 saw a group of the continent’s most influential telecoms companies engaged in a panel discussion around the importance of LTE to Africa’s digital economy. With fixed broadband infrastructure still relatively thin on the ground, mobile broadband represents the only opportunity many Africans have to get online. While 3G may be the entry point for this, LTE offers many advantages, including simplicity, speed and data-optimization.

Telcos, OTTs declare peace at AfricaCom

Peace broke out between telcos and OTT players on the opening day of AfricaCom 2014 in Cape Town, South Africa. The headline discussion panel attempted to tackle the longstanding issue of cooperation between mobile operators, which invest in the infrastructure to provide mobile broadband, and over-the-top (OTT) service providers, which rely on that infrastructure to serve their customers.

African MVNOs should target premium customers, says Cell C

MVNOs in Africa should focus on the premium end of the market rather than offer low-cost ‘no frills’ services, according to Bjorn Florman, chief executive, wholesale business at Cell C. The South African mobile operator is one of the relatively small number of networks in the region that has wholeheartedly opened its network to MVNOs.