Eltek
Striking the perfect balance between power and the people Eltek have constantly led the way in high efficiency power electronics in Africa Writer Matt Bone Project manager Donovan Smith For over 40 years, Eltek have led the way in high-efficiency power electronics and energy conversion. Their headquarters are based in Norway and they have over 2400 employees in their company across 40 countries. As a global corporation and market leader, Eltek has customers in more than 100 countries across a variety of industries including telecom, rail and infrastructure, power generation, power distribution and solar energy. Helping customers save energy and money while reducing their environmental impact, Eltek are always looking for new and innovative ways to further this foundation. Bob Hurley, regional President of Eltek in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), spoke about what makes them a market leader. "For me it is our technology that makes us a market leader, especially in the telecommunications power industry. We were the first power manufacturer to come up with a High Efficiency (HE) rectifier, and we changed the market standard by at least 4-5 per cent, in moving from non-HE to HE technology. Also i think our product density from a technology viewpoint is a market leader. We currently have the most dense power supply on the market, which is very important to us and the operators who use it." Regional and local Eltek are very keen to press upon the fact they are not just a European company who has opened offices in Africa. Although their…
Broadcom Communication Networks
Broadening their horizons With a model of excellence in delivering superior and complete ICT solutions, Broadcom strives for a fast response time whilst maintaining a high level of skill and expertise Writer Matt Bone Project manager Donovan Smith Broadband Communication Networks Limited (Broadcom) are a telecommunication solution provider who supply telecommunication network solutions for mobile network operators, fixed network operators and large business customers in Africa. The company is now 13 years old having opened its doors in June 2001. Over these years, Broadcom have seen a strong and steady growth in revenue. This growth has been fuelled by the liberalisation of the mobile industry in Kenya and the East African region, with the rise in mobile communication customers and infrastructure. In order to provide the required solutions, the company work with several reputable manufacturers, providing specific areas of expertise and technology transfer. this has enabled Broadcom to develop capacity to meet the dynamic increase in mobile operators' requirements. The company have three main sectors that they focus on: New telecommunication network installations services, network maintenance services and network testing products. Within these broad sectors are more disciplined and bespoke services including; design, implementation and commissioning of various types of both wireless and wire-line telecommunication products. Broadcom are highly experienced with mobile networks covering all network elements including the infrastructure, radio frequency (RF) systems and transmission network. Missions and Vision Broadcom have a company mission statement that underlines their company ethos, they strive to be the "preferred provider of innovative and superior ICT solutions and managed…
Channel IT Group
Bringing mobile innovation to African communications In this modern era of ever evolving communications and smart phones, one company is helping to bring innovation and value added service to the people of Africa Writer Matt Bone Project manager Donovan Smith The Channel IT Group are a diverse group of companies that plays a major role in bringing infrastructure, technologies and services to emerging markets that shape the way people live, work learn and socialize. From their inception in 2003, Channel Group have grown considerably over the last decade, adding various sectors to their business portfolio including, telecommunications, IT, mobile communications and infrastructure, which has seen them become one of the leading global vendors for communications in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Bassim Haidar, Founder and CEO of the Channel IT Group said of the company "I wanted the company to address the key challenges and issues that other companies had in the Nigerian telecom industry. We combined the best suppliers and operators under one umbrella in order to effectively deliver our services and financial guarantees to the consumer." It is no surprise that the company has seen its service user's rise to an estimated 94 Million in Africa and continuing to rise. The Value Added Service offered by Channel IT to its customers has become a revelation in countries where mobile communication and accessibility is one of the fastest growing markets and a quintessential necessity for the population. The Key to Success Delving into new technological avenues is something that Haidar is keen to embrace…
Digitata
Dynamic Tariffing™ Systems An insight into Digitata and their Dynamic Tariffing™ System success Writer Emily Jarvis Project manager Nick Norris Digitata Limited boasts a strong mobile telecommunications and revenue management background. Set up in 2008 with the specific purpose of implementing a Dynamic Tariffing™ System (DTS), Digitata has seen revenue double in the past three years. The business is made up of a team dispersed across South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden and their headquarters in Mauritius. Africa Outlook spoke to CEO Ted Bartlett and his CTO Tim Fourie to gain a better grasp of the company's ethos. Since its inception, Digitata has worked closely with African mobile giant MTN. Digitata was also selected by Ericsson AB, a leading provider of telecommunications solutions globally, to provide core technology for Ericsson's Dynamic Discount Solution (DDS). Mr Bartlett states: "We continue to work closely with Ericsson, to extend our customer reach, but increasingly operators are sourcing from the company directly, rather than going through partner channels or larger organisations." Remarkably, Digitata has only 28 members of staff across all countries of operation. "Our core business is to understand operators and their revenue, how consumers respond to pricing, and what needs to be done to apply a yield optimisation tool to the telecoms markets. with our expertise focussed on these factors, we do very little in the way of administration." Digitata outsources other services including second and third line support, software development and code level fixes to their partner company, Rorotika technologies. Mr. Bartlett stresses: "Our business is…
Tecno Group
Smart phones, smarter business Tecno Telecom Limited are bridging the gap between affordability and quality Writer Matt Bone Project manager Donovan Smith Tecno Telecom Limited, established in July 2006 in Hong Kong, is a comprehensive mobile phone manufacturer specializing in R&D and Smartphone manufacturing. In 2008, Tecno decided to focus on Africa as its key market and accordingly launched Tecno Brand Strategy. Through three years of efforts, Tecno has achieved initial success with its outstanding and unique marketing strategy, and has now become one of the most popular mobile phone brands in many countries within Africa. As of 2010, Tecno has become one of the top three mobile phone brands in Africa. Arif Chowdhury, Vice President, believes the key to becoming a top three provider in such a fiercely competitive market is due to Tecno understanding customer needs: "The key reason we are successful is because of our close focus on Africa's market; we may be a global company, but we act locally. In the Africa market, we try to provide what they are looking for, what they wanted and need rather than keep pushing the only models we had. It's more about understanding the need of the market and providing a product that makes customers feel like it is made for them." Long Term Approach With Smartphones becoming the industry standard, more and more people who previously would not have opted to buy one, have begun to see them as not only a must have, but a communication medium that is currently unrivalled. Chowdhury has…
Airtel Kenya
Kenya's champion for communications coverage Airtel aims to connect communities across Kenya by providing affordable, relevant and innovative mobile solutions to all Writer Matt Bone Project manager Donovan Smith Since 2010, Airtel Kenya have gone from strength to strength while maintaining and evolving it strong customer values and competitive services. Airtel Kenya has shown their ambition and drive with a 17% share of the highly competitive and lucrative telecommunications market in Kenya. Shivan Bhargava, the Managing Director of Airtel Kenya since 2012, puts this growth down to two key factors: highly trained staff and competitive products. "We pride ourselves on training our staff to be all that they can be and to give our customers the perfect experience of our products and services. Secondly we offer consumers competitive services and products that will enable them achieve more in their daily lives" High speed Coverage Airtel Kenya's network coverage currently stands at more than 85% of the population and they are targeting a 95% reach in the next 12-15 months. The company have invested over kes8.5 billion in support of network expansion, infrastructure and access in urban and rural Kenya for voice, internet services and mobile commerce, including the launch of Airtel money and the super fast 3.75g data network. Airtel is making mobile communications available and affordable for all and giving people the freedom to achieve their goals; "our customers will experience the same familiar brand and enjoy the same quality of service, reliability, innovation and affordability wherever they live, work or travel." explains Bhargava. With…
Airtel Sierra Leone
Connecting Sierra Leone Africa Outlook talks to Airtel Sierra Leone's boss RVS Bhullar who tells us more about how the telecoms giant is meeting growing demand for data services and why it is deploying high-speed Internet capacity across its network. Writer Ian Armitage Project manager Donovan Smith When Bharti Airtel entered Africa acquiring the Zain portfolio in March 2010 there was a heck of a lot of fanfare, experts eager to see what the new kid on the block would do. They anticipated a major shake-up in the telecoms sector across the continent. In Sierra Leone, Airtel offers "2G, 3G wireless services and mobile commerce" and it is continually improving. "We have the widest coverage, the largest geographic footprints in the country and are number one for bringing innovative products to the people of Sierra Leone," says Airtel SL managing direct RVS Bhullar. The company has grown rapidly in innovation, quality services and other advanced technologies. To match this growth, it moved its headquarters to a sophisticated new building at Hill Station in Freetown. Bhullar says that the company "needed a building that could match the current trend of innovation" and it is another signal of Airtel's commitment to Sierra Leone. "Airtel is leading contributor to the economy. Over and above that, our CSR contributions continue to impact the daily lives of Sierra Leoneans through school adoptions and also Airtel Rising Stars. We've also increased employment by creating self-employed jobs through retail schemes," he says. Of course Sierra Leone represents a challenging environment. Torrential rains during…
Helios Towers Nigeria
Towering above the rest Helios Towers Nigeria provides fully-managed tower sites for the telecoms industry in Nigeria. We spoke to CEO Inder Bajaj about keeping Nigeria connected. Writer Hannah Eiseman-Reynard Project manager Donovan Smith Helios Towers Nigeria puts up and maintains telecoms towers for the telecoms industry, providing an impressive guaranteed 99.99 percent uptime to clients, despite an average of just two hours grid time per day. Founded in 2006, this Nigeria-based company builds, manages and rents tower infrastructure structures to mobile network operators (MNOs) and internet service providers (ISPs) to host their antennas, base stations and transmission equipment. Helios Towers Nigeria's management of towers includes security, the supply of power, batteries, air-conditioned equipment shelters and rectifiers, as well as on-site support in the event of any problems to ensure the guaranteed uptime. Clients – telecoms companies – use the towers on a rental and lease basis and Helios Towers Nigeria has achieved an impressive average 2.8 clients per tower referred to as Colo Ratio. "Essentially we are a telecoms infrastructure company and we invest in and manage our own infrastructure," says CEO Inder Bajaj. Helios Towers Nigeria commenced operations in 2006 and is the oldest and largest independent tower company in the country. Key customers include global system for mobile (GSM) companies MTN, Airtel and EMTS. The sector is growing and moving fast. "Nigeria has around 25,000 towers and the number is growing by three to four thousand every year," Mr Bajaj says. Helios Towers Nigeria owns and runs around 1,300 and is putting up…
Airtel Sierra Leone
Connecting Sierra Leone Africa Outlook talks to Airtel Sierra Leone's boss RVS Bhullar who tells us more about how the telecoms giant is meeting growing demand for data services and why it is deploying high-speed Internet capacity across its network. Writer Ian Armitage Project manager Donovan Smith When Bharti Airtel entered Africa acquiring the Zain portfolio in March 2010 there was a heck of a lot of fanfare, experts eager to see what the new kid on the block would do, anticipating a major shake-up in the telecoms sector across the continent. In Sierra Leone, Airtel off ers "2G, 3G wireless services and mobile commerce," says Airtel SL managing director RVS Bhullar. "We have the widest coverage, the largest geographic footprints in the country and are number one for bringing innovative products to the people of Sierra Leone," he says. Airtel SL has grown rapidly in innovation, quality services and other advanced technologies. To match this growth, the fi rm recently moved its headquarters to a sophisticated new building at Hill Station in Freetown. Bhullar explains that the company "needed a building that could match the current trend of innovation" and it is another signal of Airtel's commitment to Sierra Leone, whose government has done much to create a conducive business environment, while the company has aligned itself with the country's Agenda for Prosperity. "Airtel is leading contributor to the economy. Over and above that, our CSR contributions continue to impact the daily lives of Sierra Leoneans through school adoptions and also Airtel Rising Stars. We've…
Safaricom
Q&A: Safaricom Safaricom is one of the leading integrated communications companies in Africa with over 17 million subscribers, as well as sponsoring concerts, sporting events and not to mention the Safaricom Foundation which is ten years old this year. It is also expanding into financial services to aid financial inclusion and when you're already the biggest mobile network operator in Kenya, there's only one way to grow: outwards. Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore tells us more. Writer Ian Armitage Project manager Donovan Smith Give me a brief introduction to Safaricom? Safaricom started off as a department of Kenya Posts & Telecommunications Corporation, the former monopoly operator, which was a government parastatal. Safaricom Limited was officially launched in October 2000 and was converted into a public company with limited liability. Vodafone plc held 40 percent of the company's share. By virtue of the 60 percent shareholding held by the Government of Kenya (GoK), Safaricom was a state corporation. Until 20 December 2007, the GoK shares were held by Telkom Kenya Limited ("TKL"), which was a state corporation. Following the offer and sale of 25 percent of the issued shares in Safaricom held by the GoK to the public in March 2008, the GoK ceased to have a controlling interest in Safaricom. How is that ownership structure advantageous? Through the partnership with Vodafone we have access to best in class processes, practices and technology. We also benefit from economies of scale enjoyed by Vodafone group of companies. Your position in the market is a strong one – 66 percent…
