In recent years, the African telephony market has been dominated by the phenomenal growth of wireless services. Many fixed line operators have had to shift to wireless after suffering continual copper cable thefts and vandalism. Now the future of telephony on the continent has turned to a race to lay fibre to meet growing demand for broadband services. No-where is this more evident than on the streets of key South African cities where government and telecoms providers are pushing ahead with infrastructure plans ahead of football tournaments in 2009 (Confederations Cup) and 2010 (FIFA’s World Cup).

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Many believe that the mobile industry is one of the most dynamic businesses in the world, but is that really the case? In reality, isn’t the mobile industry’s biggest threat all the taboos that lurk just behind the achievements people often talk about?

John Strand, founder and CEO of Strand Consult

It is one thing to talk about the many possibilities in the mobile industry, but if you do not also talk about the challenges the industry is facing, the lack of debate will become a divide that will prevent the dynamic development of the industry. We have spent a number of years identifying and analysing the 10 largest taboos in the mobile industry, in order to be able to help our customers increase their future success. We know the industry’s possibilities very well – but we also believe it is very important to focus on the industry’s taboos.

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The world is innovating around us at a rapid pace, and nowhere is it more evident than in Dubai. Large, medium and small organisations are innovating to compete with an increasingly competitive environment, with technological advancements ranging from the Palm Island development to the latest customer feedback terminals installed within taxis.

Akshay Lamba is the head of strategic businesses and new initiatives at Al-Futtaim Technologies

Innovation is undoubtedly the key to success today. In the ICT arena, innovation is perhaps best presented in the words of P Evans and TS Wurster – A fundamental shift in the economics of information is under way – a shift that is less about any specific new technology than about the fact that a new behaviour is reaching critical mass. We believe this new behaviour is the demand from business leaders in the region to demystify technology and have it delivered based on sound financial and business reasoning rather than on purely technology-driven considerations.

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Almost every market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has at least two mobile network operators, and fixed-network markets are becoming increasingly liberalised. However, the region is idling in value-to-market development by competing facilities-based operators, and new competitive development may be reinforced by service-based operators, found a new study by Booz & Company.

Increased competition has driven market players to be more efficient, offer better services, an improved product portfolio, better pricing, better customer care, and an improved customer experience. However Booz & Co. has identified the absence of service-based competition, and describes why it ought to be introduced.

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The phenomenal subscription growth across the Middle East over recent years has seen with it an acceleration in network rollout and coverage as operators rush to meet the capacity needs of their growing subscriber base.

Devine Kofiloto is a senior consultant with Teleplan Consulting.

The subsequent increase in voice traffic and the take-up of wireless broadband will see backhaul, transmission and core networks come under further strain. In a region where many of the operators do not have adequate wireline infrastructure in place to backhaul cellular traffic, this bottleneck will become all the more pronounced with the current focus on data centric networks and the move towards converged service offerings. Continue reading →