East Africa is fast emerging to become one of the most vibrant regions in Africa, with regulatory frameworks being put in place to facilitate the wholesale development of the telecommunications sector. Uganda is a prime example of the changes sweeping through the region, with its five-strong mobile market leading to heavy innovation and the improvement of services in the market

Uganda is a telecoms market ablaze with competition, in complete contrast to the situation just a few years ago. In 2006, the national regulator, Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), redefined universal access targets, with a new licensing regime introduced in order to increase competition.

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Nokia is the undisputed market leader in mobile handsets and is making serious headway into the Internet services realm. Michelle Mills travelled to Finland where the manufacturer’s Agenda 2015 was revealed, showcasing Nokia’s strategic ambitions in the years to come, which it hopes will keep it at the top of the pile

The Morph is Nokia’s vision for a future personal device that uses nanotechnology to create a stretchable, transparent and adaptable form factor

If we look seven years into the future and try to project what the world of mobility and the Internet will look like, we believe there are at least eight elements that will be pivotal,” declared Nokia’s former chief technology officer Bob Iannucci. “From our vision of the future, which we call Agenda 2015, we ask ourselves what are the key technology problems that have to be solved to make that happen, and then look to how we can accelerate those ideas into the rest of the company.”

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As telecoms networks converge around IP, software companies with the know-how to organise the complexity thrown up by this shift are doing a roaring business. US software company Telcordia Technologies is one such organisation, and not satisfied with dominating its local market with software solutions such as caller ID, wireless number portability, and tollfree traffic, CEO Mark Greenquist talks to Comm. about expansion into international markets and the growing importance of intelligent software

Telcordia’s CEO, Mark Greenquist is keen to see the company’s US-centric approach becoming globalised. Currently international activities account for 15-20 per cent of overall revenues

The world of operating and business support systems (OSS and BSS) has for a long time been an unglamorous one, dismissed as a back office function that was necessary, but hardly the stuff of moulding and inspiring services in the telecoms space. However as competition grows around the world and networks evolve to adopting IP as the core building blocks of their networks, software companies such as Telcordia are finding themselves en vogue – helping service operators draw closer to end-users while improving network efficiencies.

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Nawras is expected to be awarded Oman’s second fixed-line licence following confirmation in September that a consortium including the UK’s Vodafone Group had won Qatar’s second fixed-line telephone licence.

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A senior telecoms executive from the Gulf region told me a few months ago that geographic expansion by service providers from the region was not a challenge in itself. He pointed out that the real challenge came in exercising constraint and pursuing such a programme in an economically efficient manner, ensuring that value could be maintained and created through the investment.

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