Communications Africa 3 2014

Afrique

Issue 3 2014Édition 3 2014

SatComAfrica

Opportunities and innovative

solutions in satellite communications

FinanceUsing mobile technology to promote

financial inclusion

CloudIncreasing productivity through new

technological deployment

SatelliteL’efficacité des applications client

dans les secteurs industriellesEurope m15 - Kenya KSH300 - Nigeria N400 - South Africa R20 - UK £10 - USA $16.50

Satellite service to African agriculturalists

Africawww.communicationsafrica.com

FEATURES: ● Internet ● Mobile ● InfrastructureREGULAR REPORTS: ● Bulletin - Agenda ● Equipment - Équipement

CAF 3 2014 Cover_Layout 1 07/05/2014 14:37 Page 1

S01 CAF 3 2014 Start_Layout 1 07/05/2014 14:41 Page 2

Afrique

Issue 3 2014Édition 3 2014

SatComAfrica

Opportunities and innovative

solutions in satellite communications

FinanceUsing mobile technology to promote

financial inclusion

CloudIncreasing productivity through new

technological deployment

SatelliteL’efficacité des applications client

dans les secteurs industriellesEurope m15 - Kenya KSH300 - Nigeria N400 - South Africa R20 - UK £10 - USA $16.50

Satellite service to African agriculturalists

Africawww.communicationsafrica.com

FEATURES: ● Internet ● Mobile ● InfrastructureREGULAR REPORTS: ● Bulletin - Agenda ● Equipment - Équipement

A note from the EditorTHIS ISSUE EXAMINES how satellitecommunications and broadcastingoperations can boost businesses andeconomies with reference todevelopments at SatCom Africa. It alsoaddresses commerce, industry, anddata connectivity with reference tocloud-based architecture and services.With respect to mobilecommunications, this issue offersinsights into the use of advancedtechnologies to serve both paymentsand health systems across thecontinent.

Main Cover Image: BlackBerryInset: CIAT/Neil PalmerContents Page Image: Terrapinn

Une note du rédacteurCe numéro propose une analyse del'évolution récente dans ledéploiement de communications desatellite, et l’utilisation de l’internet.

Bulletin 4

Events 8

Agenda 10

Equipment 43

FEATURES

Satellite 14SatCom Africa, the continent’s leading satellite and telecommunications industry trade show and conference; noteson satellite service to broadcasters, video service providers, telecom operators, ISPs and government agenciesoperating across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas; and how satellite is transforming African agriculture

Commerce 32How connectivity can serve the next wave of entrepreneurs by improving banking services

Industry 34Improving South African productivity with new mobile technologies for remote working

Data 35Analysis of analytics at work in forthcoming cloud-based strategic scenarios

Mobile 36The rapid rise of mHealth initiatives, with new apps and devices driving delivery of new services

Broadcast 38A comprehensive listing of the key broadcast players - and a report on product convergence

ARTICLES

Satellite 28Une base de données améliorée qui devrait renforcer l’efficacité des applications client dans les secteurs de ladéfense, de l’aviation et des industries pétrolière, gazière et minière

Internet 29Le large bande peut aider à réduire la fracture de développement

CONTENTS

Managing Editor: Andrew Croft - [email protected]

Editorial and Design team: Bob Adams, Prashant AP, Hiriyti Bairu, Lizzie Carroll, David Clancy, Ranganath GS, Rhonita Patnaik, Genaro Santos, Zsa Tebbit, Nicky Valsamakis and Ben Watts

Production: Nathanielle Kumar, Donatella Moranelli, Nick Salt and Sophia White Email: [email protected]

Publisher: Nick Fordham

Advertising Sales Director: Pallavi Pandey

Magazine Sales Manager: Steve Thomas - Tel: +44 (0) 20 7834 7676, Fax: +44 (0) 20 7973 0076, Email: [email protected]

Country Representative Telephone Fax EmailChina Ying Matthieson (86)10 8472 1899 (86) 10 8472 1900 [email protected] Tanmay Mishra (91) 80 656 84483 (91) 80 40600791 [email protected] Bola Olowo (234) 8034349299 [email protected] Africa Annabel Marx (27) 218519017 (27) 46 624 5931 [email protected] Camilla Capece (971) 4 448 9260 (971) 4 448 9261 [email protected] Michael Tomashefsky (1) 203 226 2882 (1) 203 226 7447 [email protected]

Head Office: Middle East Regional Office:Alain Charles Publishing Ltd Alain Charles Middle East FZ-LLCUniversity House Office 215, Loft 2A11-13 Lower Grosvenor Place PO Box 502207London SW1W 0EX, United Kingdom Dubai Media City, UAETelephone: +44 20 7834 7676 Telephone: +971 4 448 9260Fax: +44 20 7973 0076 Fax: +971 4 448 9261

Subscriptions: [email protected]: Derek FordhamPrinted by: Wyndeham Grange Ltd Communications Africa/Afrique is a bi-monthly magazine ISSN: 0962 3841

Audit Bureau ofCirculations -

Business Magazines

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Serving the world of business

Communications Africa Issue 3 2014 3


Communications Africa Issue 3 20144

BULLETIN

Developing a South African ‘Smart City’PCCW GLOBAL, THE Hong Kong-headquartered international operatingdivision of telecommunications service provider HKT, has signed astrategic collaboration agreement with Shanghai Zendai, an urbancomplex developer specialising in commercial real estate from mainlandChina, to provide technology and telecommunications services, skillsand experience to assist in Zendai’s development of a smart city inModderfontein, Johannesburg, South Africa; as the venture’s strategictechnology partner, PCCW Global will provide Zendai with a wide rangeof services including systems development and solutions integration,application development and management, telecommunications andinformation technology services, cloud computing services and e-commerce solutions.

Huawei connects remote rural areas in ZambiaCHINESE COMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT company HuaweiTechnologies has launched the first of a series of 169 base stations thatwill connect rural communities in Zambia to the mobile phone network,to bring the latest mobile voice and data technology to thousands ofpeople in remote locations across the country, enabling them to keep intouch with family and friends, find out what is happening elsewhere inthe nation, and become integrated into the global community; thetowers, of which some 57 will be serviced by Zamtel, 56 by MTN and 56by Airtel, are expected to be completed before the end of October 2014.

MEF Africa reports on mobile content and commerceA TRADE ORGANISATION supporting companies seeking to monetisegoods, services and digital products via mobile connected devices,MEF has launched the second part of a three-country African GrowthMarket Study, which surveys mobile business leaders in the region todeliver an industry snapshot of market confidence and key drivers formobile content and commerce in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa; thestudy indicates that business confidence in mobile content andcommerce revenue growth is high in all markets surveyed with morethan two-thirds of respondents in Kenya (70 per cent) and South Africa(68 per cent) and almost all in Nigeria (93 per cent) stating theiroptimism - with m-commerce, mobile money and social networksidentified as the areas most likely to drive revenue growth.

A gift for the 10 millionth Orange Money customerSTÉPHANE RICHARD, CHAIRMAN and chief executive officer of Orange,gave a bonus to the 10 millionth customer of Orange Money in Dakar,Senegal; Ms Kanny G., who had gone to an Orange Money outlet toopen an account, was surprised to learn that she had won asmartphone with an Orange Money credit of 100,000 FCFA (US$210).

Why size matters for urban communicationWITH INFONETICS PREDICTING that the market for small, powerful 70-80GHzradios will see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 61 per cent from2012-2017 - and with the implication that, for this to happen, there will needto be a change from installing large, highly visible antennas, which often arenot community friendly (due to their aesthetic impact) and long installationtimes - Aviat Networks has launched the market’s smallest and lightest 70-80GHz radio; at one fifth the weight of current radios and needing only halfthe power, Aviat’s latest solution delivers an impressive 1Gbps capacity -with its compact size and integrated antenna meaning that installationtimes are also greatly reduced.

RTI gets new PlayBox titling and TV playout systemRADIODIFFUSION-TÉLÉVISION IVOIRIENNE (RTI), state broadcaster for theIvory Coast, has taken delivery of a new CG titling and television playoutsolution from PlayBox Technology, which manufactures televisionchannel-in-a-box systems - with installation by Brussels-based systemsintegrator Periactes Broadcast Solutions at RTI's production andtransmission centre in Abidjan; "PlayBox Technology equipment isideally suited to the fully tapeless environment in which RTI and mostother modern broadcast networks operate," said Baptiste de Bemels,general manager of Periactes Broadcast Solutions.

PCCW Global improves Namibian accessPCCW GLOBAL, THE Hong Kong-headquartered international operatingdivision of HKT, Hong Kong's premier telecommunications serviceprovider, has signed a MPLS interconnection agreement that willenhance Telecom Namibia’s international network coverage and serviceofferings to the benefit of both companies; the agreement will seeTelecom Namibia’s Ethernet and IP VPN service coverage extended tomeet the needs of its overseas and regional customers via PCCWGlobal’s robust and resilient MPLS network, which covers more than3,000 cities in over 130 countries throughout Asia, Europe, the MiddleEast, Africa and the Americas.

Italtel enables a new age of collaborationA SPECIALIST IN next generation networks, value added services andglobal IP-IP communication, Italtel has launched a new product calledCollaboration At Work, which is aimed at solving interoperabilitychallenges; Stefano Pileri, CEO of Italtel, said, “We have designed andcreated the solution Collaboration At Work to leverage our key valuesand assets; the capacity to design and produce innovative products thatintegrate market solutions, solid partnerships with key technologyleaders, certified engineers and our vast test plants for monitoring andtesting of end-to-end network services.”

Ericsson media delivery network wins award at NABTECHNOLOGY AND SERVICES company Ericsson has been awarded theinaugural ‘Best of Show: TV Technology’ award at the 2014 NAB Show forits Media Delivery Network solution and plug-in media deliveryecosystem; presented by NewBay Media, the award honours a selectgroup of industry-leading products exhibited at the show.

The study indicates that business confidence in mobile content is high


The new PlayBox Technology CG titling and TV playout system in use at RTI




BULLETIN

Orange célèbre le 10 millionième client Orange MoneyA L’OCCASION D’UN voyage à Dakar au Sénégal, Stéphane Richard,Président Directeur Général d’Orange, a récompensé le 10 millionièmeclient Orange Money; Kanny G, venue ouvrir un compte dans un point devente Orange Money, a eu la surprise de gagner un smartphone associéà un compte Orange Money crédité de 100 000 FCFA (152 €).

Le progrès technologique et la crise économiqueLES AVANCÉES TECHNOLOGIQUES et les modèles de gestion innovantsont créé des vecteurs de liberté d'expression dans le monde entier, maisde nouveaux problèmes font également leur apparition, à l'image de lacensure, du filtrage, du blocage et de la surveillance sur Internet, commel'indique un rapport de l'UNESCO; l’étude, intitulée World Trends inFreedom of Expression and Media Development [« Tendances mondialesen matière de liberté d'expression et de développement des médias »],constate que les nouvelles technologies offrent des possibilités inéditesde production, de partage et d'accès à du contenu multimédia surdiverses plateformes.

Téléphonie mobile 4G au BurkinaAIRTEL BURKINA FASO S.A va une fois de plus révolutionner le secteurdes télécommunications, avec le lancement en 1er au Burkina Faso et enAfrique de l’Ouest, d’un réseau de téléphonie 4ème génération ouencore 4G; après avoir ouvert l’ère du haut débit sur le mobile au BurkinaFaso avec l’introduction de la 3.75G en mai dernier, airtel Burkina FasoS.A. a officiellement demandé à l’Autorité de Régulation desCommunications et des Postes (ARCEP), l’obtention d’une licence en vuede déployer un réseau 4G au Burkina Faso, à l’instar de ce qui se faitdans la plupart des grands pays Européens aujourd’hui.

RAD apporte des services et une visibilité illimitésRAD OFFRE DES innovations de pointe qui permettront aux fournisseurstélécoms de prendre de l'avance sur la concurrence en déployant denouveaux services plus rapidement et plus intelligemment, avec un meilleurretour sur investissement; déployée dans les locaux même du client, lasolution innovante de virtualisation des fonctions réseau distribuée (D-NFV,pour Distributed Network Functions Virtualization) de RAD intègre une unitéd'interface réseau (NID) basée FPGA en couche 2/couche 3 et uneinfrastructure informatique équipée d'un serveur x86 standard.

La consommation d’énergie des réseauxALCATEL-LUCENT A DÉVOILÉ une nouvelle application développée parles Bell Labs, son unité de recherche, que les opérateurs de réseaux etautres peuvent utiliser pour évaluer dans quelle mesure l’utilisation destechnologies les plus récentes réduirait la consommation d’énergie, lescoûts et l’empreinte carbone de leurs réseaux; baptisée G.W.A.T.T.(Global ‘What if’ Analyzer of NeTwork Energy ConsumpTion), cetteapplication facile à utiliser permet d’anticiper les tendances en matièrede consommation et d’efficacité énergétiques, sur la base de toute unevariété de scénarios de croissance du trafic et de choix technologiques.

Un programme pour le développement futur des TICLE PLAN D'ACTION de Dubaï, adopté par la Conférence mondiale dedéveloppement des télécommunications de l'UIT, établit le programmedu développement des télécommunications et des technologies del'information et de la communication pour les quatre prochainesannées; la Déclaration de Dubaï affirme ce qui suit: "Un accès universelet financièrement abordable aux télécommunications et technologies del'information et de la communication est essentiel pour ledéveloppement de l'humanité sur les plans économique, social etculturel et contribue à l'édification d'une économie mondiale et d'unesociété mondiale de l'information."

Stéphane Richard, Président Directeur Général d’Orange, arécompensé le 10 millionième client Orange Money. Kanny G


Le Plan d'action de Dubaï établit le programme dudéveloppement des télécommunications et des technologiesde l'information et de la communication

LE MINISTRE DE la Poste et des Technologies de l’Information et de laCommunication, Porte-Parole du Gouvernement, représentant lePremier Ministre, Daniel Kablan Duncan au 10ème Conclave de laConfédération des Industries Indienne et d’Exim Bank Inde, a pris laparole pour faire entendre la voix de la Cote d’Ivoire à cet importantrendez-vous de la coopération internationale Sud-Sud.

Il a d’abord exprimé les regrets du Premier Ministre de n’avoir purépondre à l’invitation du Gouvernement Indien. Ensuite, il a remerciéles investisseurs et industriels indiens pour l’organisation de cetterencontre dans ce grand pays. Il a rappelé à l’assistance la vision etl’ambition légitime du Président de la République, Son ExcellenceAlassane Ouattara de faire de notre pays un pays émergent à l’horizon2020. Et pour ce faire, le Gouvernement s’est fixé des priorités àsavoir, restaurer la Paix et la sécurité sur tout le territoire, réconcilierles ivoiriens et réduire le taux de pauvreté, par une relance de notreéconomie. Ces chantiers sont sur la bonne voie, et notre pays prévoitun taux de croissance à 2 chiffres pour 2014.

La Cote d’Ivoire fait entendre sa voix à New Delhi

VSERV.MOBI, UNE PLATEFORME primée d'échange de publicités mobiles, aannoncé aujourd'hui sa stratégie à succès visant à aider plus de 30 éditeursde médias imprimés de premier plan à « Appifier » leurs contenus sur lesmarchés émergents. L'initiative d'Appification est l'une des principales offresde Vserv.mobi qui permet à des éditeurs encore de rejoindre un public pluslarge grâce aux applications mobiles. Dans le cadre de cette initiative,Vserv.mobi déploiera une centaine d'applications dans diverses langues etcatégories et utilisant plusieurs systèmes d'exploitation.« En début d'année 2013, nous nous sommes rendu compte que le potentiel deconsommation des contenus sur mobile constituait la prochaine étape crucialedans l'industrie. Dans un contexte de migration du lectorat de la presseimprimée, les éditeurs de contenus examinaient diverses méthodes de répondreau virage croissant du public sur les marchés émergents. Compte tenu de lamontée des utilisateurs d'internet mobile, la solution consistait à créer une «apportunité » dont profitera l'ensemble de l'industrie », a déclaré PrashantDixit, Directeur du développement commercial mondial chez Vserv.mobi.

Vserv.mobi permet aux éditeurs sur lesmarchés émergents d'adopter le mobile grâce


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AGENDA

8

JUNE/JUIN2-4 Mobile Network Performance Management London, UK www.mobilenetworkperformanceevent.com

3-4 Oil and Gas Cyber Security Oslo, Norway www.oilandgas-cybersecurity.com

4-5 Broadcast, Film & Music Africa Nairobi, Kenya www.aitecafrica.com

8-11 Connected Cities Middle East Dubai, UAE www.connectedcitiesme.com

10-11 Connecting West Africa Dakar, Senegal www.westafrica.comworldseries.com

11-13 Card, ATM & Mobile Expo Lagos, Nigeria www.intermarc-ng.com

17-19 DISTREE Africa Nairobi, Kenya www.distreevents.com

24-25 Digital Services Africa Johannesburg, South Africa www.vasafrica.comworldseries.com

JULY/JUILLET8-10 Cards & Payments Congress Luanda, Angola www.iirangola.com

9-10 Banking & Mobile Money West Africa Accra, Ghana www.bankingtechmena.com

14 Enterprise Mobility Security Johannesburg, South Africa www.enterprisemobilityafrica.co.za

15-16 Banking & Mobile Money West Africa Lagos, Nigeria www.aitecafrica.com

22-25 Mine Site Automation & Communication Sandton, South Africa www.mineautomationafrica.com

SEPTEMBER/SEPTEMBRE10-11 Banking & Mobile Money COMESA Nairobi, Kenya www.aitecafrica.com

16-17 NigeriaCom Lagos, Nigeria www.nigeria.comworldseries.com

OCTOBER/OCTOBRE21-23 Broadband World Forum Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.broadbandworldforum.com

22-23 East Africa ICT Summit Nairobi, Kenya www.aitecafrica.com

28-29 FTTH Council Africa Conference Johannesburg, South Africa www.ftthcouncilafrica-conference.com

Events/Événements 2014


WYPLAY, CRÉATEUR DE solutions logicielles pour lesprincipaux opérateurs de TV payante, etSTMicroelectronics offrent une version de référencedu middleware open-source pour décodeursnumériques Frog by Wyplay, spécialement adaptée àla diffusion de contenus par satellite. Ce middlewareest destiné à la gamme de système sur pucedéveloppés par ST (Cannes, Liege2, Monaco, et Orly)autour de l’architecture de processeur ARM.L’initiative Frog repose sur des solutions logiciellesdéveloppées par Wyplay et disponibles dans le cadred’un modèle à code source partagé à l’attention d’unecommunauté d’entreprises en plein essor appartenantà l’écosystème de la télévision numérique : fabricantsde circuits intégrés, constructeurs d’appareils,éditeurs de logiciels indépendants, fournisseurs deservices logiciels et opérateurs.Dans le cadre de l’initiative Frog, Wyplay propose auxéquipes de développement des entreprises membresune plateforme matérielle basée sur des composantsST et sur laquelle Wyplay a porté sa solution. Cetexemple de mise en œuvre « clé en main » sert desocle pour la personnalisation avancée de projetslancés par les opérateurs de télévision payante.

La toute dernière implémentation de référence dumiddleware Frog repose sur un décodeur hybridesatellite/IPTV réalisé en série et qui intègre lesystème sur puce Orly STiH416 de ST. Cetteplateforme de référence assure également la priseen charge de la technologie de vidéodiffusionnumérique par satellite DVB-S/S2, qui permet dediffuser des programmes vers la majorité desabonnés aux chaînes de télévision à péage dumonde entier.Le portage du logiciel Frog sur cette plateforme deréférence repose sur l’environnement logiciel « SDK2» de ST et constitue une voie de migration simple etnaturelle pour l’ensemble de ses systèmes sur pucebasés sur une architecture ARM, y compris lesfamilles « Cannes » et « Monaco », ainsi que pour lesystème sur puce Liege2 récemment annoncé àl’attention des marchés de la diffusion de contenus.La plate-forme de référence permet aux opérateursd’utiliser Frog, un environnement complet, fiable etbien intégré, pour créer librement leurs propresapplications, ce qui encourage le développementd’innovations permettant d’élargir les fonctionnalitésoffertes aux utilisateurs et d’augmenter les recettes

des opérateurs. La plupart des infrastructures dediffusion étant déjà opérationnelles, les développeurspeuvent se consacrer pleinement à la fourniture denouveaux services.« Les opérateurs pourront travailler sur desplateformes ST avec un niveau de confiance accru,dans la mesure où ils disposeront d’unenvironnement de développement déjà complet », adéclaré Hervé Mathieu, Vice-Président Groupe etDirecteur Général de la Division Plateformes Unifiées(UPD), STMicroelectronics. « Sur un marchédynamique, en croissance rapide et très fragmenté,l’initiative Frog by Wyplay va accroître la popularitéde nos solutions. »« Ce nouvel environnement de référence Frog est latoute dernière étape de notre collaborationfructueuse avec ST », a déclaré JacquesBourgninaud, CEO de Wyplay. « Il fournit uneplateforme de haute performance aux titulairesd’une licence Frog, et permettra aux opérateurs deservices de télévision à péage de déployer desscénarios d’utilisation innovants tels que lesinterfaces utilisateur en 3D, le transcodage ou lestreaming multimédia dans le salon. »

Une plateforme complète de développement middleware open-source pour décodeurs numériques


Reliable, fi ve-bar connectivity for service providers in emerging markets

With EpicNG, Intelsat’s next-generation, high-throughput, backhaul solution, delivering future connectivity in Africa just got easier. Intelsat EpicNG is engineered for mobile operators that need to serve remote customers, across any terrain, regardless of conditions. Best of all, EpicNG works with your existing infrastructure, making it the most cost-eff ective and reliable solution for your network.

Only Intelsat, a company with 50 years of technical and operational expertise, a global fl eet of 50+ satellites, and the next generation satellite platform can promise you epic fl exibility and endless connectivity.

Epic Flexibility, Endless Connectivity

www.intelsat.com/broadband

7044-Cellular_Ad_FINAL.indd 1 5/1/2014 3:01:31 PM


ALCATEL-LUCENT IS EXPANDING its collaboration withIntel Corporation to help operators worldwideimprove their time to market and operationalefficiency, and to drive the creative development ofnew products and services for consumers andbusiness customers with the use of cloudtechnologies. As long-standing partners alreadyworking in the virtualisation space together, Alcatel-Lucent and Intel are committed to accelerating thesejoint efforts and strengthening this relationship.

Both companies believe these are the keyunderlying technologies to apply their combinedresources and expertise and the ones that will drive ahuge leap forward for the industry.

Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) appealsespecially to mobile service providers now because itallows them to innovate more quickly and easily whileproviding the best return on their investments in anall-IP network infrastructure such as LTE. Specificallythe expanded collaboration will focus on three areasto accelerate the development of three Alcatel-Lucentplatforms optimised on Intel architecture to improveperformance and scale:• Virtualised Radio Access Networks (RAN) portfolio,

developing and optimising Alcatel-Lucent’s LTEand LTE-Advanced wireless products. The solutionwill enable operators to use general purposeplatforms in configurations that will reduce TCO

and increase operators’ ability to scale networks tosatisfy mobile data demand with rapidly changingdevices and applications.

• Cloud Platform, developing and optimisingAlcatel-Lucent’s CloudBand NFV platformincluding joint contributions to the Open sourcecommunity and a push to accelerate serviceprovider testing, validation and deployment ofNFV technology and products.

• High-performance Packet Processing for advancedIP/MPLS platforms and functions to enable Alcatel-Lucent’s IP development team the insightsrequired to use the features and capabilities ofIntel architecture to deliver improved performancein virtualised IP/MPLS functions.


AGENDA

10

MTN GROUP HAS been named asthe only South African companyon the World Champions list.The list, compiled by analystsfrom American multinationalfinancial services company, CitiGroup, names globalcompanies dominating theirrespective industries. Companies on the list musthave a market value in excess ofR30bn, be in the top three interms of market share in theirsegment, and have global reachas well as a lasting sustainablebusiness model.“Being named on the WorldChampions list is exciting andhumbling, especially as MTNcommemorates its 20thanniversary this year. Thisglobal recognition signifies thatwe continue to play a vital rolein our industry,” said MTNgroup president and CEO SifisoDabengwa.

INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONSAND media company Millicom hasenabled its Tigo customers inTanzania to be the first people in EastAfrica to enjoy free access toFacebook on their mobile handsets.The partnership means Tigocustomers can now access Facebookand its mobile messagingapplication Messenger through theirhandsets without incurring any datacharges and allowing them toconnect with more than 1.2bn peopleworldwide. Tigo has six millioncustomers in Tanzania.The time-limited free service alsoincludes the launch of a Facebookservice in Kiswahilií, the languagespoken by millions of people acrossEast and Southern Africa.The strategic partnership is part ofFacebook’s efforts to make internetaccess available to the two-thirds ofthe world not yet connected.Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg,highlighted the partnership with TigoParaguay at the 2014 Mobile WorldCongress in Barcelona in February,saying, “We’ve been working with Tigoand they’ve seen the number ofpeople who were using data in the

internet grow by 50% over the courseof the partnership and the number ofpeople who are using data on a dailybasis is growing even more.”Commenting on the new service,Millicom’s president and CEO Hans-Holger Albrecht, said, “Facebook hasbeen a real driver of data on mobilenetworks. By extending this uniquepartnership to Africa, we are givingpeople another reason to connectthrough Tigo and providing manycustomers with their first taste of theinternet and social media, including inKiswahili. This reinforces our strategyto encourage more customers to usedata as part of their dailycommunications activity and takesfurther the digital lifestyle.” Chris Daniels, Internet.org’s vicepresident of product, commented,"We're excited to be working with Tigoagain to bring more people online,giving them exposure to the manybenefits of connectivity. We think thatwidespread access to free basicservices will help accelerate theadoption of the internet and we’recommitted to working with partnerslike Tigo on new models that growsubscribers and revenue.”

Millicom extends Facebook to East Africa

MOBILE SATELLITE SERVICES operator Thuraya TelecommunicationsCompany and global payment services firm The Western UnionCompany are working together to offer top-up services for Thurayaprepaid SIMs for voice and data services using the Western UnionQuick PaySM service. The service is available at participating WesternUnion agent locations in the majority of the 200+ countries andterritories in which the company provides services. This new andconvenient method of payment enables Thuraya customers torecharge their pre-paid SIMs with no extra fee.

Michel Foricher, vice president, service delivery, Middle East, Africa,Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe & CIS, Western Union said, “We are verypleased to collaborate with Thuraya. The Western Union QuickPayservice will provide Thuraya customers the convenience of topping uptheir prepaid SIM cards at participating Western Union agent locationsin our network, a quick and convenient facility for Thuraya customers,particularly those who may be in remote locations.”

“Our agreement with Western Union marks the first time in theworld that a satellite telecoms operator is providing such a service.The service is a great convenience for customers who may be locatedin remote areas such as Sub-Saharan Africa,” said Bilal El Hamoui,vice president of Distribution at Thuraya.

MTN makes it ontoWorld Champions list

Alcatel-Lucent and Intel to speed industry move to cloud

Thuraya works with Western Union


“Thuraya customers can now top up theirprepaid SIM cards easily and efficiently

through Western Union’s global network ofagent locations” - Bilal El Hamoui, vice

president of distribution, Thuraya

“In the last year we have seenan acceleration of innovationand industry changes. This isnothing compared to what wewill see in the next decades,

bringing new possibilities to ourdigital lifestyles.” - Michel

Combes, CEO, Alcatel-Lucent


AMOS-5 IS NOW IN AFRICA

Spacecom, operator of the AMOS-5 satellite located at 17°E, delivers high-power pan-African C-band and Ku-band capacity with access to Europe and the Middle East, enabling services throughout the entire African continent.With AMOS-2 and AMOS-3 co-located at 4˚W and serving Europe & the Middle East, AMOS-4 successfully launched to the 65°E orbital location, serving Asia and Russia,and AMOS-6 with Pan European coverage, scheduled for launch in 2015, Spacecom will further enhance its position as a global satellite operator.

SATCOM 2014May 20-21Johannesburg, South Africa

Booth #15


LE GROUPE DE la Banque africaine de développement (BAD) et le gouvernement duSénégal ont signé le 27 mars 2014, à Dakar, un accord de prêt de 3,38 millions d’UC(soit près de 2,5 milliards de Francs CFA) pour le financement du Projet d’appui àl’université virtuelle du Sénégal (PAUVS).Ce projet vient s’ajouter à la longue liste des opérations financées par la BAD auprofit du Sénégal, portant ainsi le portefeuille à 13 opérations actives pour leguichet public. Ce qui représente un niveau d’engagements nets de plus de 227,7millions d’Unités de compte (UC), soit environ 167,3 milliards de FCFA.Le document a été co-signé par le ministre de l’Economie et des Finances, AmadouBa et Mamadou Lamine N’Dongo, représentant résident de la BAD au Sénégal. PourN’Dongo, « Le PAUVS est une réponse spécifique à la question de la formation desjeunes, en mettant l’accent sur une utilisation intensive des technologies del’information et de la communication, en liaison avec le marché de l’emploi. »En conséquence, le projet vise à contribuer à une croissance plus inclusive, setraduisant par l’égalité de traitement et d’opportunités. Toute chose qui vafavoriser l’accès équitable des jeunes (garçons et filles) bacheliers à une

formation supérieure favorable à leur insertion professionnelle.Les activités du projet consistent à la mise en place de la plateforme de l’UVS, àsavoir la construction du siège de l’Université virtuelle du Sénégal (UVS, lerenforcement des capacités et la construction et l’équipement de cinq (5) espacesnumériques ouverts. Ces infrastructures permettront d’atteindre les jeunes dansla banlieue de Dakar, à Saint Louis (nord), à Thiès (ouest), à Kaolack (centre-ouest)et à Ziguinchor (sud).A terme, le projet permettra d’atteindre les résultats suivants : plus de 6 000étudiants pourront être admis annuellement; un taux de réussite de 75%, dont 77%chez les filles en 2018, en dernière année; 50% des diplômés de l’UVS, dont 60%chez les filles en 2018, pourront trouver un emploi décent, 12 mois après leur sortie.Le montant total des engagements du Groupe de la BAD depuis 1972 à ce jour, s’élèveà environ 1,27 milliard d’unités de compte (UC), soit plus 940 milliards de FCFA.La BAD qui intervient dans le secteur de l’éducation depuis 1986 a financé cinqprojets pour un montant total de 76 millions d’UC, soit 55 milliards de FCFA, avecun impact réel sur les populations bénéficiaires. Entre autres réalisations, oncompte la construction et l’équipement de 12 lycées de proximité, 8 collègesd’enseignement moyen, 123 centres d’alphabétisations fonctionnelles d’adultes et2046 salles de classe.En outre, ont été fournis 850.000 manuels scolaires pour l’enseignementélémentaire, 4460 ouvrages annexes, et 20 bibliothèques scolaires. Cesinfrastructures, équipements et fournitures de manuels ont contribué àaugmenter le taux brut de scolarisation et à améliorer l’environnement scolaireen réduisant les abris provisoires.Par ailleurs, dans le cadre du projet d’Appui au développent rural en Casamance(PADERCA), la Banque a soutenu la construction, la réhabilitation et l’équipementde 180 salles de classes, dans les régions de Ziguinchor et de Kolda, au sud du pays.


AGENDA

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L'UNION DES TÉLÉDIFFUSEURS des Etats arabes (ArabStates Broadcasting Union - ASBU) a conclu uncontrat pluriannuel de location de capacité en bandeKu sur le satellite Eutelsat 21B. Ce dernier offre unecouverture exceptionnelle du Moyen-Orient, del’Afrique du Nord et de l’Europe.La capacité louée sera utilisée pour échanger descontenus audiovisuels entre les télédiffuseursmembres de l'ASBU, au sein d’une région qui s'étendd’est en ouest du Maroc jusqu’au Bahreïn et du nordau sud, de la Méditerranée jusqu’au Yémen, auSoudan et à la Mauritanie. La couverture du satelliteenglobe également l’Europe. Le plan de transmissionen DVB S2 permettra d’opérer trois porteuses en SD,ou une porteuse en HD et deux porteuses en SD.Institution arabe créée en 1969, l'ASBU compte plusde 30 télédiffuseurs membres actifs et 25 membresassociés à qui elle propose une plate-forme radio etTV pour échanger des reportages d’actualité, des

programmes audiovisuels et des contenus sportifs àtravers le monde arabe. Elle soutient activementl'initiative « carrier ID » actuellement menée àl’échelle de ce secteur et dont l’objectif estd’améliorer la qualité du signal satellite.Salaheddine Maaoui, Directeur général de l'ASBU, a

déclaré : « En s’appuyant sur la couvertureexceptionnelle et la performance du satelliteEutelsat 21B, l’ASBU dresse une passerelle entrel'Afrique du Nord, le Moyen-Orient et l'Europe etpermet à notre centre d'échange de programmesbasé à Alger d’assurer une distribution efficace descontenus audiovisuels. »Jean-François Leprince-Ringuet, Directeur commerciald'Eutelsat, a ajouté : « Grâce à la vaste couverture etla diversité de nos ressources en orbite, nous pouvonsproposer une capacité et une couverturecorrespondant précisément aux besoins de nosclients. Nous nous réjouissons d’initier ainsi cetterelation avec l'ASBU. Nous sommes fiers qu’Eutelsat21B corresponde à leurs attentes en termes de qualitéde signal et de couverture, permettant aux membresde cette association de retransmettre en directd’importants événements médiatiques. »

La passerelle pour échanger des contenus audiovisuels entre l'Afrique du Nord, le Moyen-Orient et l’Europe


« Le PAUVS est une réponse spécifique à laquestion de la formation des jeunes, en

mettant l’accent sur une utilisation intensivedes technologies de l’information et de la

communication, en liaison avec le marché del’emploi. » - Mamadou Lamine N’Dongo,

représentant résident de la BAD au Sénégal

La BAD injecte 2,5 milliards FCFA en appui au projet d’université virtuelle du Sénégal


S03 CAF 3 2014 Report 01_Layout 1 07/05/2014 14:50 Page 13

The continent’s leading satellite and telecommunications industry trade showand conference set to return to Johannesburg’s Sandton Convention Centre

SatCom Africato open door of opportunity

SATCOM 2014

SATCOM AFRICA WILL return from 20-21May 2014 and is looking to providestakeholders within the satellite and

telecommunications industry the chance toevaluate the latest technologies from acrossthe sector, as well as offering invaluableinsights into the implementation of initiativesand systems that could aid their operationsacross the continent.

The annual free-to-attend event, which willbe co-located with World Rural Telecoms Congress Africa and will take place at SandtonConvention Centre in Johannesburg, will alsolook to offer exhibitors and visitors alike with ahost of new revenue stream opportunities.

More than 50 exhibitors will be inattendance, while the accompanying two-daysenior level conference will feature 36 on-floorconferences that will include key industryprofessionals from satellite operators andowners to launching and propulsionmanufacturers.

Among the attendees already confirmed toattend will be some of the biggest industrynames working within the satcom sector across the continent, including African UnionCommunications, GlobeCast, SkyVision,Arabsat, GeoStrut Africa, Neotel and Seacom.

The past few editions of the event haveattracted more than 1,200 attendees each year,and this year the SatCom Star Awards will returnfollowing their success at last year's exhibition.

Of the event, David Hartshorn, secretarygeneral of Global VSAT Forum, said, "TheAfrican communications market is massive,but it is complex. SatCom Africa is the go-todestination to understand how to tap into thebusiness. Added to this, the show has great up-sell potential."

Network and knowledgeThe exhibition will be supported by a two-day -long senior level conference that will focuson everything from satcom technology to ruraltelecoms, providing delegates with insightson where the industry currently stands,existing and new projects across thecontinent, and the opportunities on thehorizon within Africa's telecoms sector.

Among those set to speak at the event willbe GVF Forum's David Hartshorn, Alan Knott-

Craig Jr., CEO of Project Isizwe, and AfrISPAexecutive secretary, Eric Osiakwan. Also onhand to impart his experience and knowledgeto conference delegates will be Osama Manzar,new media project specialist at India's DigitalEmpowerment Foundation.

Suveer Ramdani, senior manager ofFevertree Consulting, said of 2013’s event, "Itwas an awesome conference… a lot of peopleprovided positive feedback and of coursedeveloped many opportunities there."

Networking opportunities will also beaplenty at the show, while event organiserTerrapinn has launched a new event app andportal that will enable visitors to plan ahead forthe conference and seminar sessions they wishto attend, as well as identify exhibitors theywant to meet during the two days.

Exhibiting solutionsAmong the companies promoting theirproducts and services at the show will be

Freedomsat, who will be exhibiting itsFreedomsat Satellite Broadband service forhomes and businesses, and will be present todiscuss new opportunities for ka-bandsatellite Internet services across South Africaand beyond.

Bentley Walker, a market leader in theprovision of satellite broadband, will beexhibiting at World Rural Telecoms CongressAfrica and promoting its brand new high-speed Ka-band network over South Africa.The company, which will be looking forchannel partners in the region during the twodays, has hardware partnerships with iDirect, Hughes and Newtec, and delivers C-, Ku- and Ka-band services across the whole of Africawith its satellite partners Avanti, Eutelsat,Telesat and Yahsat.

Screen Africa will look to provideinformation about its print and electronicpublications on the South African professionalbroadcast and production industries, which willcomprise film, TV, commercials, new media andtechnology, while Arabsat, the Arab world'sleading satellite services provider, will also be in attendance. The company from the MiddleEast carries more than 450 TV channels, 160radio stations, four Pay-TV networks and widevariety of HD channels that reach tens ofmillions of homes in more than 80 countries

The 2014 editions of SatCom Africa and World Rural TelecomsCongress Africa will likely attract more than 1,200 attendees

In attendence will besome of the biggest

industry names workingwithin the satcom sector

Communications Africa Issue 3 201414 www.communicationsafrica.com




SATCOM 2014

across Africa, the Middle East and Europe.Speaking after last year's conference, Job

Ndege, managing director of iWay Africa,remarked, "SatCom Africa was a great event. Isee the growth from last year, which reinforcesthat the event guarantees a great offering andbusiness potential."

Rural prospectsWith many telcos shifting their focus from urbanand voice-centric services towards rural mass-market and data services, a number of long-term growth prospects have opened up withinthe market. Looking to address these challengesand opportunities will be World Rural TelecomsCongress Africa, which will be co-located withSatCom Africa 2014, and will focus on thedevelopment of connectivity issues within ruralareas across the African continent.

The event will look to present a host ofopportunities and challenges for telecomsfirms, governments and government partners,and will look to introduce visitors to a host ofinnovative solutions to help develop ruraltelecom network infrastructure.

Visitors will be able to find answers to anumber of key questions, including how toensure quality of service, how to improvesystem reliability and how to build out indifficult and challenging terrain.

Other issues on the agenda during theevent will including working withgovernments to create viable investmentopportunities, assessing investment and pay-back, and raising funding to implement cost-effective technologies. ✆

SatCom Africa and World Rural TelecomsCongress Africa will take place from 20-21 May2014 at Sandton Convention Centre inJohannesburg


BROADBAND REQUIREMENTSTHROUGHOUT Africa are expected tocontinue to increase, driven by theglobalisation of business, thepenetration of wirelesscommunications and the need to beconnected at all times, says GrantMarais, RVP – Africa sales at Intelsat. Satellite remains a key part of meetingthe need for broadband throughoutAfrica, particularly when trying toexpand networks to reach remote andlandlocked areas.One of the business segments most inneed of reliable broadbandconnectivity is small/mediumenterprises (SMEs), viewed as a criticalcomponent in driving job creation andincreasing GDP throughout Africa. Toachieve this economic promise, smalloffice/home office (SOHO) and SMEusers across Sub-Saharan Africa musthave the ability to expand theirbusinesses and access global marketsthrough the Internet. To achieve this,they must have access to robustbroadband services wherever theopportunity exists.Intelsat has been serving Africa since1965 and recently expanded its

relationship with telecommunicationsprovider Vodacom to provide satellite-enabled broadband service to SOHOand SME users across sub-SaharanAfrica. This cements a long-standingrelationship and ensures thatVodacom can introduce new servicesto serve the important and growingSOHO/SME market.When the Intelsat 33e satellite entersservice in 2016, Vodacom will be able to

seamlessly access a high-performanceoverlay that will provide additionalthroughput. The high-throughput,reliable Intelsat EpicNG platform is amajor design breakthrough in satellitecapacity, providing high performanceand increased throughput in C-, Ku- orKa-band frequencies. Intelsat EpicNGwill be integrated with Intelsat’straditional satellite capacity and theIntelsatOneSM terrestrial network, and

combined with its multi-frequencyflexibility, this will allow offerings to becustomised to provide the best solutionfor each application and region.

This will achieve new economies insatellite communications that areexpected to enable new businessmodels in a variety of segments, andallow developing businesses to meettheir needs at a lower total cost ofownership.The demand for broadband, internetand mobile connectivity requires highquality, reliable and cost-efficienttechnology. The advent of flexible highthroughput satellite platforms willfurther enable satellite providers tomeet customer demands in nearlyevery conceivable application, makingsatellite delivery the most reliable andvalue-added choice for serviceproviders.The growth of entrepreneurship inAfrica and the economy overall canonly be supported if businesses havereliable high-speed Internet access andthe digital tools they need to develop.Satellite does, and will continue to,provide this much needed wide-spreadconnectivity for the continent.

Satellite capacity meets need for expanded broadband infrastructure in Africa

"The event guarantees agreat offering and

business potential"

A host of satellite and telecommunicationscompanies will be in Johennesburg to channelpartners in the region during the two-day event

A recent agreement will see Intelsat provide satellite-enabled broadbandservice to Vodacom for SOHO and SME users across Sub-Saharan Africa




Local content comes to the fore thanks to satellite's role in Africa's fast-developingbroadcasting industry

Satellite providing African customers withbroader content choices

SATCOM 2014

SATELLITE POWER IS providing people across Africa withfurther content options and is enabling a greater voice forlocal content providers across the continent, according toIbrahima Guimba-Saidou, SVP - commercial for SES Africa.

Guimba-Saidou believes that a number of businesses have reason tobe excited, with new opportunities opening up across the Africancontinent.

"Being in the satellite industry, we foresee that we are on the brink ofa tipping point in the broadcast industry, which signals the beginning ofa new era on the continent – and in my opinion, broadcast will eventuallygenerate more revenue than cell phones," Guimba-Saidou remarks.

Describing the development of the mobile industry in Africa as "oneof the success stories of our time", Guimba-Saidou cites Nigeria as agood example of the mobile industry undergoing strong developmentwith customer numbers growing dramatically from the half a millionactive landline subscribers NITEL had at the turn of the millennium, withone million on its waiting list. With a population of approximately 150mnpeople, Nigerian subscriber numbers have rocketed in the 14 yearssince, leading to the creation of a vibrant and evermore diverse mobileindustry.

"During the bidding process for mobile service providers, MTN wasawarded its first licence outside South Africa," notes Guimba-Saidou."Projections showed it would break even after a couple of years, but thishappened within a matter of months. There was quickly a shortage ofSIM cards, and people were queuing to buy them despite a swift costincrease to contain the high demand. This was the starting point ofdemocratising information for the whole population."

Guimba-Saidou points out that the resulting infrastructurerequirements for mobile telecoms has been an area in which satellitehas proved its worth, with demand high and the network requiring fastdeployment – characteristics that mark satellite technology out.

"SES and other operators have deployed supplementary mobilenetworks in many African countries, leading satellite to play aninstrumental role in the exponential growth of mobile in Africa," heremarks.

With the success of the mobile industry and the resultingaccess to information via the deployment of the Internetcreating further content opportunities, customers have begunto demand more locally-relevant information. In manycountries, local TV and radio stations have beenestablished where previously licenses wererestricted to the cities and regional capitals, withthe nature of the information explosioncreating a push to create more local media.

The migration from analogue to digital is having an enabling effect,says Guimba-Saidou, making much more frequencies available.

"For example, in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, a good part of thepopulation speaks the same language," he states. "Here, this locallanguage will create the demand for content and content will be drivenby demand."

Guimba-Saidou says that more accessible technology will allowchannels to be set up, driven by demand.

"There's now a low barrier to entry," he notes. "It's possible tobroadcast from a garage, over the Internet. Small TV stations will grow up

to serve niche markets and while they'llhave limited resources, they will still

play an important role in bringingrelevant content to niche markets.

While this broadcasting willinitially be small, the Guimba-Saidou notes that quality will

play a key role in thesestations' development.

"Content is very importantin the chain of the broadcastbusiness and SES provides

satellite capacity – there isa need for content to fill

the channels,"

SES Africa SVP – commercial Ibrahima Guimba-Saidou

“Local language will create the demandfor content and content will be driven by demand”



SATCOM 2014


he says. "The proliferation of Free-To-Air (FTA) and Free-To-View (FTV)channels being broadcast on the African continent will certainly pushthe creation of local and locally relevant content."

Guimba-Saidou foresees that the roll-out of satellite technology willbe similar to what happened when the Internet first came on stream.

"At first it was only used for browsing websites, but that has nowgrown to permeate all aspects of human activity," he says. "This will bethe same for satellite technology as it is deployed more widely – initiallyit has been used to carry mobile networks and broadcasting, but thiswill grow and develop through innovations such as SAT-IP, whichenables up to eight devices in a home to share the same TV feed."

Guimba-Saidou says that the fields of health, agriculture andeducation could also greatly benefit from satellite technology,providing remote rural areas access to best practice care andinformation.

From satellite to social concernsRecently, SES called on Africa to begin satellite-powered e-school pilotprojects to improve teacher competency on the continent, following aroundtable discussion that was attended by a number of high-levelpoliticians and leaders from across Africa and Europe during the recentEU-Africa Business Forum.

Christine Leurquin, vice-president – institutional relations at SES,chaired the panel 'Creating partnerships to bring e-schools to ruralAfrica: Offering incubator-backed seed and early stage funding', whichdiscussed how a lack of connectivity in Africa remained a keybottleneck to development.

The roundtable's participants concluded that it was vital that e-learning connectivity equipment was made exempt from licensing,customs taxes and fees in order to strengthen education in Africa andboost education and jobs across the continent.

"Access to low-cost satellite based services to schools will beinhibited, and in some cases prevented, unless national and regionalgroups of administrations apply policies and regulations that more

effectively facilitate their use," Leurquin says. "There are newopportunities for ubiquitous deployment of low-cost satellite servicesto small businesses and consumers. However, disproportionatelicensing fees combined with customs fees are unnecessarily thwartingaccess to communications."

Heads of states from across Africa and Europe were also urged to setup a new fast-track pan-African financial instrument to meet ICTinitiatives for e-schools before 2020 to prioritise broadbandinfrastructure deployment for relevant and innovative e-services,starting with e-schools.

SES, meanwhile, has called on African governments to identify majore-school pilot-projects in two to three African countries to improveteacher competency and to deploy them immediately thanks to satellitecoverage. SES and Teachers Media International (TMI) will also partnerto launch an e-learning pilot project in Liberia through an incubatorprogram for education, giving a concrete example of the e-learningschemes SES wants to lead. ✆

WITH SATCOM AFRICA and World Rural TelecomsCongress looking to provide a platform on whichnew revenue streams can be explored, the eventwill feature a host of renowned industry insiders,who will look to impart their knowledge of marketdevelopments and ideas on how to succeed in thischallenging marketplace. Among the speakers set to speak at thesupporting conference will be Kai Wulff, accessfield development director at Google, who will betalking about Google's role in increasing Africa'sconnectivity and removing the digital divide.Platco Digital managing director Maxwell Nonge,meanwhile, will provide an insight into howattendees can stay competitive with free-to-airservices, as well as sharing his ideas arounddigital carriage solutions on various platformsincluding DTH and DTT.Nico Meyer, CEO of MultiChoice Africa, will explorehow companies working in the market can reachnew audiences, exploring areas of opportunitythat have been driving growth for satellite.Osama Manzar, director of India's DigitalEmpowerment Foundation will look to provide aninsight into how rural areas in India are beingtargeted, touching on India's ICT barriers, itsdigital divide and the lessons that can be

transferred to rural markets in India. Otherhighlights will include Econet Wireless CFO PetrosKunze who will discuss budgeting for ruralconnectivity maintenance and development, whilePeter Ulanga, CEO of Universal Service Agency,will talk about promoting universal access toinformation and communications technology inrural communities. The free-to-attend conference, will feature anumber of roundtables on issues such as satelliteand rural telecoms, as well as a number of globalcase studies, while the SatCom Stars Awards willreturn for their seventh annual edition. Set to be held on May 20 during the exhibition, theawards will look to celebrate the continuedgrowth and success of the telecommunicationssector in Africa, focusing on some of theindustry's exceptional performers from the pastyear.Categories will include 'Satellite operator of theyear', 'VSAT provider of the year', Most innovativeproduct/service of the year', 'Best globaltelecoms project', 'Best customer serviceprovider of the year', and 'Backhaul provider ofthe year'.

www.terrapinn.com/2014/satcomafrica/index.stm Winners at last year's SatCom Stars Awards

Workshops and roundtables to provide industry insight at SatCom

SES, who will be the Visitor Lounge Sponsor at SatCom Africa 2014,is a world-leading satellite operator with a fleet of 56 geostationarysatellites, and provides satellite communications services tobroadcasters, content and internet service providers, mobile andfixed-network operators and business and governmentalorganisations.

The company has played a major role in growing the broadcastneighbourhood across Africa, via capacity deals with the likes ofEast-African pay-TV broadcaster Zuku TV (part of Wananchi Group),FTA service from Platco Digital (a sister company of e.tv in SouthAfrica), and StarTimes Communication Network Technology,China's most influential systems integrator, technology providerand network operator and the fastest-growing digital TV operatorin Africa.

About SES...



SATCOM 2014

TELONE, ZIMBABWE’S NATIONAL telecommunications company, has signed asatellite broadband contract with Avanti Communications.

Via Avanti’s HYLAS 2 satellite, TelOne will deliver broadband services tothousands of consumer, enterprise and public sector customers in theregion, Avanti said.

Chipo Mtasa, managing director of TelOne, said, “Our goal at TelOne is toprovide quality broadband services to a diverse customer base in Zimbabwe.With significant unmet demand in terms of service availability and quality, ourpartnership with Avanti enables us to effectively address this need - today.

“We are delighted to work with Avanti on imminent rollout to homes,schools and businesses in Zimbabwe.”

David Williams, chief executive at Avanti Communications, commented,“We are pleased to be working in collaboration with TelOne in Zimbabwe.Avanti’s quality Ka-band satellite technology will support delivery of internetconnectivity to thousands of new customers in the region.”

HYLAS 2 was launched in August 2012 and has quadrupled Avanti’s satellitecapacity, providing new coverage across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Avanti and Universal Communications Service Access Fund (UCSAF) alsorecently announced the deployment of a significant satellite broadbandinstallation programme to schools in Tanzania. Together, the global satelliteoperator and funding body have collaborated to deliver broadband to 25Tanzanian schools. To mark the first installation of the programme, an officialvisit was made to the Buguruni School for the Deaf on 25 April by leadingdelegates, including Dr John Mngodo, deputy permanent secretary ofTanzania’s Ministry of Communication, Science and Technology; Peter Ulanga,CEO of UCSAF; and David Williams.

COMTECH EF DATA Corporation last month announced the introductionof two new entry-level satellite modems, the CDM-570A and CDM-570AL.

According to Comtech EF Data, the next-generation models provideindustry-leading performance and flexibility in a 1RU form factor. Whilethe units are priced competitively, they offer tremendous value via aninnovative feature set, the company said.

The CDM-570A and CDM-570AL are the first Comtech EF Datamodems in the entry-level category to support DoubleTalk Carrier-in-Carrier bandwidth compression, VersaFEC low-latency LDPC advancedForward Error Correction and optimised transmit filter rolloff.

DoubleTalk Carrier-in-Carrier is based on Raytheon Applied SignalTechnology’s patented ‘Adaptive Cancellation’ technology, whichallows transmit and receive carriers of a duplex link to share the sametransponder space.

Also available with the new modems is optimised transmit filterrolloff, specifically five, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 35 per cent. The combinationof technologies enables multi-dimensional optimisation and canprovide bandwidth savings of more than 50 per cent when comparedto legacy modems.

“With the release of the CDM-570A and CDM-570AL, users withlower data rate links can now more cost-effectively leverage the CAPEXand OPEX savings of DoubleTalk Carrier-in-Carrier,” said Daniel Enns,senior vice president of Comtech EF Data.

The CDM-570A and CDM-570AL Satellite Modems are gearedtowards a range of users, including enterprise, ISPs, satellite serviceproviders, offshore, maritime and mobile operators. As the productscontinue to evolve, additional functionality and options to optimisenetworks will be available, the company said.

STRATOSAT DATACOM HAS launched the first MeerKAT radio telescope antennaat the Karoo Array Processor Building at the South African Square KilometreArray (SKA) core site near Carnarvon in the Northern Cape.South Africa’s deputy minister of science and technology, Derek Hanekom,hosted ministers from the SKA African partner countries at the inaugurationevent on 27 March.Stratosat Datacom, a technology company specialising in the supply ofinnovative satellite, wireless communication and astronomy products, hasteamed up with General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies to install 64 MeerKATradio telescope antennas.Stratosat Datacom was awarded the design, build and install contract for theproject by SKA South Africa in 2012.The MeerKAT radio telescope antennas will eventually form part of the largerSKA Phase 1 array, located in South Africa’s Karoo region. The array is atechnologically advanced radio telescope designed to locate radio-frequencysignals coming from the furthest reaches of the universe. The SKA array will bethe largest and most sensitive radio telescope in the southern hemisphere.The Stratosat Datacom and General Dynamics SATCOM teams are workingclosely with multiple South African fabricators, engineers and technicians tobuild and install the MeerKAT antenna array over the next three years.During the execution of the contract, Stratosat Datacom's engineers andtechnicians will be living on site at the 'MEERKAT Camp' to complete the project. One of the key objectives of the project is also to support the development oflocal fabricators into high-quality suppliers as well as uplift the community inand around Carnarvon.Alan Geldenhuys, executive director of Stratosat Datacom, said, “Ourobligation towards the empowerment of the local community, Carnarvon andsurroundings, is going to be a rewarding part of this project and we areexcited about the future developments of small businesses that will fulfil thedemands of our technical team operating on the ground during the

execution of the contract.”Stratosat Datacom’s portfolio includes products from all major satcomequipment manufacturers, which enables them to provide ‘best of class’products and services through its various distribution centres located aroundSub-Saharan Africa.The company offers its customer base complete ‘transmit and receive chain'products together with installation and value-added service offerings. StratosatDatacom customers vary from GSM, to ISP and broadcasting companies.Stratosat Datacom is situated in Johannesburg, South Africa, near OliverTambo International Airport and its facilities also include an engineering andrepair department.

Stratosat Datacom specialises in the supply of satellite, wirelesscommunication and astronomy products (Image: AJ Schuster)

Stratosat Datacom launches first MeerKAT radio telescope antenna

Avanti to extend satellite broadband coverage in Zimbabwe

Comtech introduces two new satellite modems



Eutelsat: Meeting communicationsrequirements in Africa

ADVERTORIAL Eutelsat

MEETING THE COMMUNICATIONSrequirements of markets in Africais of strategic importance toEutelsat. The company has been

providing connectivity to Africans for morethan 15 years and its in-orbit investmentprogramme covering the next 15 years placesthe continent at the epicentre of its newinnovative and high-powered satellites.

During the past 18 months, three new satelliteshave increased Eutelsat’s in-orbit resources overthe continent by more than 30 per cent:• The EUTELSAT 21B satellite, at the

established 21.5° East orbital, has a highperformance beam centred over WesternAfrica and the Gulf of Guinea, combined withdirect interconnectivity with Europe, theMiddle East and Central Asia

• EUTELSAT 70B has more than doubledcapacity at 70.5° East, at the crossroads between Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.

This satellite has four powerful, regionalbeams, enabling single hop interconnectionfrom Nigeria to China, Japan or Australia

• EUTELSAT 3D was launched in May 2013 to 3°East, and has activated additional Ku-bandcapacity with extended coverage of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Capacity at 3° East will be taken a step furtherwith the launch of EUTELSAT 3B in mid-2014.This innovative satellite, Eutelsat’s first tri-bandsatellite in C-, Ku-, and Ka-band, will provideextensive coverage stretching from LatinAmerica, across Africa, and as far east asPakistan. Its sophisticated technology willenable operators to choose the frequency bandmost adapted to their services, whether forbroadcast or data markets.

With seven satellites currently underconstruction for launch between mid-2014 andmid-2016, three of which will boost its resourcesover Africa, Eutelsat is confident about the futureof satellite in the African market.

The broadcast sector represents a vastpotential with significant opportunities forgrowth to support new digital platforms,increase adoption of HD and accelerateanalogue switch-off. Africa’s VSAT marketshould also be one of the fastest-growing inthe world over the next 20 years. The numberof VSAT terminals will be driven by demand forback-up services and reliable high-speedinternet connections from a wide range ofsectors including oil and gas, mining, banking,transportation and distribution, as well asgovernment services. ✆

EUTELSAT 21B launching on Ariane VA 210(Image: Thales Alenia Space)

The broadcast sectorrepresents a vast potential

with significantopportunities for growth

With a fleet of 36 satellites serving broadcasters, video service providers, telecom operators,ISPs and government agencies operating across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas, Eutelsatis one of the leading operators in the commercial satellite business

The EUTELSAT 21B(Image: Thales Alenia Space)




Bringing satellite data to the mobile phones of thousands of farmers across the continent

Revolutionising African agriculture

SATELLITE Agriculture

ANEW PROGRAMME IS bringingtogether scientists within twobranches of NASA’s GoddardSpace Flight Center in Maryland,

USA, as well as an African non-profitorganisation in order to help farmers byproviding them with important satellitedata. The programme, funded by theAdvanced Collaborative Connections forEarth Systems Science programme, willbuild on two technologies developed atGoddard to help scientists collect and trackdata, called LabNotes and FieldNotes.

Molly Brown, a research scientist atGoddard’s Biospheric Sciences Laboratory,said, “Putting the information in the hands ofthe agriculture users is one of the many waysthat we can show that the satellite data hasbenefits to society.”

Brown and her colleagues have alreadydeveloped a 30-year dataset of satelliteinformation on African precipitation rates,vegetation health, soil moisture andevapotranspiration – all indicators of crophealth in a given area.

Alongside researchers from ColumbiaUniversity, New York, Brown is developing asystem that can improve the way insurancecompanies set rates for drought protection.

That data, however, would also be keyinformation for local farmers and fooddistributors who have to determine whichregions have a surplus of maize, millet, riceand more – and therefore which regions theyshould purchase excess food to sell atcentral markets.

“All the background has been done, weneed to write an application that can go on acell phone,” Brown said.

“You put in your latitude and longitude, andit’ll tell you whether or not it rained last week, ifit’s above or below average... The question is,how is this year progressing compared toprevious years. That is exactly the informationpeople want,” she added.

After meeting with a representative of theAfrican-based Alliance for a Green Revolutionin Africa (AGRA) organisation, Brown startedlooking for ways to get satellite data to farmersand distributors through the mFarms platform.mFarms provides agricultural information viamobile phones to 80,000 farmers andthousands of other distributors, warehousesand more in 17 African countries.

According to Matieyedou Konlambigue,programme officer at AGRA, agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa consists mostly of small farms.

The mFarms platform connects farmers withmarketing agents and buyers, creating adatabase of how many acres farmers plant aswell as tracking the productivity of fields, etc.With NASA satellite data, the programme canexpand to include growing conditions forspecific locations and notifications of potentialweather-related problems.

“The collaboration with NASA will berevolutionary. The geo-physical data will beprocessed into useful information andchannelled through [mobile devices] toagricultural value chain actors in order toimprove their planning and decision making,”Konlambigue said.

To make this happen, Brown recruitedGoddard’s Science Data Processing branch towork with mFarms and reach their network offarmers and distributors. Two projects alreadyunder development with Internal Research and

Development (IRAD) funds could help with theeffort, said Tom Flatley, head of the branch.

These projects are LabNotes, an app formobile devices that connects to a data-gathering instrument and which can both sendcommands to the instrument, and log andcompile the data it receives; and FieldNotes, anapp that collects and displays information froma variety of pre-set sources – data from fieldinstruments, pictures that others have shared,weather information, and other inputsdepending on user need.

Goddard computer engineers Troy Amesand Carl Hostetter developed the programmes,in which users can also log their ownobservations.

Jeff Hosler, a supervisory computer engineerat Goddard, will work with the mFarms team todetermine which technological capabilitiesand infrastructure their network of farmers anddistributors have and which specific kinds ofinformation will be most useful. The project isalso a way to provide information to countriesthat helped provide the ground validationessential for researchers, Brown said.Researchers in Africa have provided on-the-ground measurements of rain and soilmoisture, but the analysis of the informationoften doesn’t come back to agricultureorganisations and meteorologists.

“It’s really important we do a good jobtransferring the benefits of satellite data topeople in Africa,” Brown concluded. ✆

mFarms provides agricultural information via mobile phones to 80,000 farmers

“It’s really important wedo a good job transferring

the benefits of satellitedata to people in Africa” -

Molly Brown, researchscientist, NASA Goddard

Biospheric SciencesLaboratory




The OC-3/STM-1 and OC-12/STM-4 Analysis and Emulation Platform willenhance transmitting and receiving capabilities of data

LightSpeed1000 uniquely supportschannelised telecom traffic

ADVERTORIAL GL Communications

GL COMMUNICATIONS INC., hasannounced the release of its OC-3/STM-1 and OC-12/STM-4Analysis and Emulation Platform

referred to as LightSpeed1000.Jagdish Vadalia, senior manager for

product development at the company said,“Voice, data, and video traffic is explodingas smartphones, IPTV, video streaming, and‘cloud’ based services takeoff. SONET andSDH continue to be used for conventionalchannelized traffic - carrying many TDM T1,E1, T3, and E3 pipes.

“Our LightSpeed1000 platform has beenenhanced to support channelised traffic in aunique and elegant manner uncommon inthe industry, and an additional optical portfor SONET/SDH/GigE (four optical ports).”

He added that LightSpeed1000hardware platforms (PCIe Card and USBPod) are capable of OC-3/12 and STM-1/4wire-speed processing on quad opticalports for functions such as wire-speedrecording and wire-speed playback of ATM,PoS, RAW, and channelised traffic.

LightSpeed1000 comes with software foroverall monitoring, BERT, emulation, andprotocol analysis with a price tag thatcompares very favourably with similar testinstruments at three times the price.“Normally, the LightSpeed1000 is used forprotocol analysis of ATM, PoS, Rawunchannelised and unframed data. Thehardware can be easilyconfigured/programmed for delaying ofATM Cells or PPP packets,” Vadalia said.

He added that support for channelisedstructures had been recently added in OC-3/STM-1 - eg, all 84 T1s or all 63 E1s can beidentified and processed in transmit andreceive modes.

The card’s multiple connectivity usingPCIe, Gigabit Ethernet (GigE), USB 2.0 andonboard DDR2 memory makes it suitablefor many applications.

Multiple cards are possible in a PC foranalysis of four or more directionssimultaneously. USB 2.0 interface is used to

connect with a Notebook PC for portability.GigE Ethernet ports for testing RAW, BER,RFC2544, RAW SONET/SDH, and Ethernetbridge applications. The hardware isfirmware FPGA based making it easy toupgrade in the field for applicationversatility.

“A unique feature of the card is thecapability to capture, transmit and processat wirespeed to/from applications and harddisk on all interfaces. An API Toolkit allowsusers to develop specialised applications.”

Important Features of LightSpeed1000 platform:• Wirespeed processing of ATM, PoS or

RAW data for Tx and Rx for both ports (*PCIe card only).

• Software selectable OC-3/OC-12, STM-1/STM-4 for unchannelised ATM, PoS or

Transparent Traffic, and Channelized T1,E1, T3, E3 traffic

• Ability to capture/playback to/from diskat full rate in both directions for allports. This permits detailed offlineanalysis that is not possible otherwise.Simultaneous synchronous capture ispossible on all optical ports. Thecaptured files can be played back toreproduce the traffic

• Comprehensive transmit/receive testingcapabilities; transmitting and verifyingdata with incrementing sequencenumbers with each packet/cell

• Industry proven protocol analyser forATM (AAL2, AAL5), UMTS, and PPP (IPand higher layer protocols), channelisedprotocols ISDN, SS7, CAS, etc

• Easy to use and flexible Bit Error RateTest (BERT) application for ATM, POS,and RAW

• Complex and flexible hardware basedfiltering options: 16 128-bitindependently filters with bit masks, forboth ports with include/excludeconditions

• Hardware based precise time stampingof cells/packets with 10 nsec resolution,1 ppm accuracy

• Single mode or multi-mode fibre SFPsupport ✆

LightSpeed1000 by GL Communications

The card’s multipleconnectivity using PCIe,Gigabit Ethernet (GigE),

USB 2.0 and onboardDDR2 memory makes it

suitable for manyapplications




Une base de données améliorée qui devrait renforcer l’efficacité des applications clientdans les secteurs de la défense, de l’aviation et des industries pétrolière, gazière et minière

Une nouvelle référencede modèles d’élévation

SATELLITE Topographie

AIRBUS DEFENCE AND Space procèdeau lancement commercial deWorldDEM. Ce nouveau modèlenumérique d’élévation (MNE) global

offre une couverture d’un pôle à l’autre d’uneprécision sans précédent, qui permettra auxclients d’améliorer la qualité de leursapplications dans de nombreuses industries,notamment la défense et l’aviation, maisaussi les secteurs pétrolier, gazier et minier.

WorldDEM repose sur les données acquisespar les satellites radar allemands de hauterésolution TerraSAR-X et TanDEM-X, dont lamission consiste à produire un MNE global auniveau HRTE3, ce qui représente un immensebond en avant en matière de précision. Entermes de résolution, il établit un nouveauréférentiel en fournissant un maillage de 12 mpour l’ensemble de la planète, contre 90 mpour le modèle existant SRTM (Shuttle RadarTopography Mission).

Une couverture homogèneWorldDEM garantit un MNE global standardisésans démarcation des frontières régionales ounationales. Cette couverture homogène offriraaux clients du secteur de la défense un niveaude précision inédit au profit de l’aviationmilitaire, la planification et le déroulement desmissions et opérations, partout sur Terre.S’agissant du transport aérien commercial, cenouveau modèle fournira des donnéesaméliorées dont bénéfieront de nombreuxsystèmes embarqués.

TerraSAR-X et TanDEM-X ont débuté leuracquisition de données synchronisée endécembre 2010. Mi-2013, ils avaient déjàréalisé deux couvertures de l’intégralité desterres émergées de notre planète. Les troisièmeet quatrième campagnes d’acquisition

permettent aux satellites de revenir sur deszones de terrain plus complexes, afin degarantir la cohérence du niveau de qualité etprécision du produit final. La dernièrecampagne d’acquisition s’achèvera mi-2014.

Au-delà des applications dans les domainesde l’aviation et de la défense, le nouveaumodèle présente également une grande variétéd’utilisations potentielles en matière deprospection pétrolière, gazière et minière, et

servira de base de qualité pourl’orthorectification de l’imagerie aériennne ousatellitaire.

Les missions des satellites radar TerraSAR-X(lancé en 2007) et TanDEM-X (lancé en 2010)sont réalisées dans le cadre d’un partenariatpublic-privé (PPP) conclu entre l’Agencespatiale allemande (DLR) et Airbus Defenceand Space. Le DLR exploite la mission etgénère le MNE global de TanDEM-X, qui faitoffice de base de WorldDEM. Après avoireffectué leurs six et quatre années respectivesen service, les deux satellites affichentd’excellentes performances. Leur durée de viedevrait être étendue de cinq annéessupplémentaires (au-delà de 2018).

Airbus Defence and Space détient les droitsde commercialisation exclusifs des données.L’entreprise est responsable de l’adaptationdu modèle d’élévation selon les besoins desutilisateurs commerciaux dans le mondeentier, et va désormais commencer à créer labase de données WorldDEM mondiale. ✆

WorldDEM - Hedjaz, Arabie Saoudite

“Grâce à ces différentes couvertures de la planète,WorldDEM atteint un niveau de détail si élevé que l’on peut,

dans certains cas, identifier un arbre ou distinguer lanature du sol entre gravier et bitume. Il offre aux clients laprécision nécessaire pour anticiper leur réponse en cas de

future crise et mener des opérations stratégiques dans deszones reculées.” - Bernhard Brenner, Directeur Geo-

Intelligence d’Airbus Defence and Space



Le catalyseur décisif du développement dans le programme de développement durablefixé par les Nations Unies pour l'après-2015

Le large bande peut aider à réduirela fracture de développement

INTERNETDéveloppement

L'ACCÈS AU LARGE bande pourrait bien être le catalyseuruniversel qui fait sortir les pays en développement de lapauvreté et met l'accès aux soins de santé, à l'éducation etaux services sociaux de base à la portée de tous. Telle est la

conclusion à laquelle est parvenue la Commission des Nations Unies"Le large bande au service du développement numérique", qui s'estréunie à Dublin à la fin de la semaine dernière.

La Commission a une nouvelle fois appelé la communautéinternationale à reconnaître que les réseaux haut débit pouvaient aiderà changer la donne et à s'assurer que les cibles à atteindre en matièrede pénétration du large bande figurent bien parmi les Objectifs dedéveloppement durable fixés par les Nations Unies pour l'après-2015.Elle a aussi invité instamment les gouvernements et les organismesinternationaux de financement à s'efforcer de lever les obstacles actuelsà l'investissement. Même si dans le monde, jusqu'à 95% desinfrastructures de télécommunication sont financées par le secteurprivé, il faut d'urgence mettre en place des mesures d'incitation plusefficaces si l'on veut développer l'investissement proportionnellement à

la future croissance exponentielle de la connectivité et des flux dedonnées engendrés par "l'Internet des objets". La Commission, quicompte parmi ses membres certains des plus éminents dirigeants dusecteur des technologies, des pouvoirs publics, des établissementsuniversitaires et des institutions des Nations Unies, s'est réunie à Dublinà l'invitation de Denis O'Brien, Président du Groupe Digicel. ✆

La Commission, qui compte parmi ses membres certains des plus éminentsdirigeants du secteur des technologies, des pouvoirs publics, des établissementsuniversitaires et des institutions des Nations Unies, s'est réunie à Dublin àl'invitation de Denis O'Brien, Président du Groupe Digicel et l'un de ses fondateurs

Communications Africa Issue 3 2014 29www.communicationsafrica.com

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TIMA, SOCIÉTÉ INTERNATIONALE spécialisée dans la production et lalivraison de contenus audiovisuels, a annoncé la signature d’un contrat detrois ans avec Eutelsat Communications. Ce contrat porte sur une locationde capacité sur le satellite Eutelsat 10A pour répondre à la demandecroissante en rapatriement par satellite de reportages tournés en Europe,au Moyen-Orient et en Afrique ainsi que pour assurer la diffusion des projetsaudiovisuels réalisés dans les studios du Groupe, notamment depuis sonsiège situé à Londres.

Disposant de bureaux à Londres, Paris et Washington DC ainsi que desuccursales au Moyen-Orient, TIMA accompagne les groupes de médiasinternationaux grâce à un large panel de services audiovisuels : mise àdisposition de studios et de services de production et mise en place dedispositifs permettant d’assurer la couverture médiatique d’un événement.Ces nouvelles capacités viendront enrichir les ressources dont dispose TIMApour couvrir les nombreux événements qui marqueront l’actualité cesprochains mois, notamment le procès d’Oscar Pistorius et la visite du papeFrançois en Terre sainte, ainsi que d’autres événements majeurs survenantdans ces régions du monde.

« La technologie satellitaire demeure essentielle pour rapatrier descontenus audiovisuels à l’heure où ces derniers sont diffusés en HD sur nosécrans de télévision. Le satellite constitue une technologie fiable, qui offreune qualité d’image inégalée. C’est le moyen le plus rapide et le plus facilepour distribuer un contenu à un large éventail de clients dans le monde entier.Nous sommes impatients de démarrer avec Eutelsat notre collaboration quis’annonce comme une perspective prometteuse », a déclaré Alla Salehian,Directeur général de TIMA.

« Nous sommes ravis que les performances de notre satellite EUTELSAT10A répondent aux attentes de TIMA et nous nous réjouissons de nouer unenouvelle relation avec un groupe qui fait référence dans l’alimentation desmédias internationaux en images et en reportages vidéo d’événementsimportants », a déclaré Nick Daly, Directeur général d’Eutelsat UK.

TIMA choisit le satellite Eutelsat 10A


Breaking the VAS barrier in Africa

ADVERTORIAL Informa

IDT SUPPORTS A strong channel partnerprogramme in Africa which assistssystem integrators, Internet service providers and internet-related VARs that

sell IDT-hosted and branded VoIP solutionsunder the IDT Beyond’s portfolio. Servicesinclude call shops, broadband telephony,mobile apps and SIP trunking.

Talking about key challenges within theAfrican voice market, Fink pointed out threeaspects - commerce, awareness and focus. Hesaid that as ‘cash and carry’ is still thedominant behaviour in African consumercommerce, finding key distribution partnerswith a strong footprint of point of sales isessential. “Awareness of alternate voicesolutions is a key ingredient for both theconsumer and business client. As Africa maybe the leading continent of opportunity, thereis so much to do and focus on. IDT is looking toestablish partnership whose sole focus is voiceand its delivery to their respective markets.Teamwork, collaboration and hands-onworkshops or seminars can help drive theawareness and necessity of IDT Beyond’s Overthe Top Solutions.”

Citing challenges changing in the next threeyears, the senior VP said he believes the singleremedy to the above stated challenges isinternet penetration. “As Africa will continue itsrapid and robust deployment of Internetaround the continent all three of the abovestated challenges will be appeased. Internetwill start enabling POSA networks around theHorn of Africa to produce real time transactionsno matter how the remote a location will be.Internet penetration will allow for real timewebinars and ‘GotoMeetings’ hosted by IDTBeyond to attract key decision makers to joinand learn about alternative voice solutions forthe home, business and enterprise. Thirdly,IDT is prepared, encouraged and motivated toshare best practices with African operators toshowcase case studies that have yielded masssuccess to our key partners around the globe.Gaining such awareness and knowledge willdrive the operator’s confidence in regaining theshare of the market that belongs at home.”

According to Fink, the African market isdifferent from the rest of the world in itsdiversity, topology, demographics and cultureand it requires IDT to study and learn eachcountry as its own entity. He said thatcustomisation is a key ingredient to IDT’s voiceoffers. “One size does not fit all. IDT worksintimately with each and every partner on theirrequirements. IDT listens to the operator’sneed for brand awareness, uniformity andseamless integration of IDT’s solutions intotheir respective portfolios.”

Fink feels that OTT operators such as Skype,Viber and WhatsApp are threats against AfricanTelcos revenues. He said international long-distance is on a decline for most operators inthe region. “In fact, there are many supportive

studies and articles which say that VoIP-originated international traffic has surpassedthe traditional voice minute in key markets inAfrica. At the same time, these applicationshave created a very strong awareness down tothe consumer. As each day goes by, Africanconsumers are embracing new methods ofcommunication. There was an eye openingarticle published some months back whichconducted a survey posing the question: If thelocal operator were to launch its own OTTsolution such as Skype in its market, would theconsumer continue to purchase from Skype orwould they buy directly from their localoperator? And the overwhelming response tothe article was that consumers would buy fromtheir home-based operator. Loyalty,nationalism, brand and a single bill rather thana swivel chair approach to another foreign OTT-based provider is the appeal,” he added.

How can African operators then makemoney from voice when so many calls are nowfree? To this, Fink said the world is all aboutmobility.

“Mobile penetration into Africa is going atlightning speeds. As Africa becomes mobileand customers are taking their lives on the go,off-net traffic is growing. It’s funny, when onethinks about Skype or Viber services, theyimmediately think about P2P (peer to peer freeservices). It is worthy to note that IDT’s flagshipmobile calling solution in the United States justenjoyed its strongest month of Marchproducing tens of millions of dollars ininternational voice revenue. There is certainlySkype and Viber in the USA… So why is IDT’sretail voice business growing? Isn’t everyonetalking for free? Absolutely not! We forget tooeasily, that particularly in the developingmarkets, where international voice corridorsare so important, consumers are either gettingtheir first mobile phone for the very first time,enjoying new cellular networks which arereaching remote communities for the first timeand yes the smartphone is making customerssmart. All of these ingredients mean morebillable minutes which can go in either of twoways – yours or theirs…” ✆

Jonah Fink

“As each day goes by,African consumers are

embracing new methodsof communication”


Jonah Fink, senior vice-president of IDT Telecom Solutions, speaks about key trendsand prospects in the African value-added services (VAS) market


NOTE D’HORUS TELECOM & UTILITIESDANS LE CADRE DE LA PREPARATION DE

ADVERTORIALInforma

Quelle doit être la priorité principale pour améliorerl’accès aux communications en Afrique de l’Ouest?Les 20 dernières années ont été marquées parl’explosion de la téléphonie mobile en Afrique del’Ouest, qui a permis à une majorité de la populationd’accéder aux services de télécommunications quilui était jusqu’alors fermés, puisqu’ils étaient defacto réservés à l’administration, auxentreprises, à une faible partie de leurs salariés(cadres) et aux quelques ménages (moins de 5%)titulaires d’une ligne fixe.

Cette « démocratisation » des services de voix aeu un impact considérable sur les modes de vie etsans aucun doute sur le développementéconomique, et le développement de nouveauxservices comme le M-Paiement devrait continuer àrépondre à des besoins véritablement essentiels et àaméliorer les conditions de vie de chacun.

Trois priorités se dégagent pour les années à venir :• La baisse des coûts des services de voix mobile

entre les réseaux• Le développement de l’accès aux services de

données, notamment auprès des très petitesentreprises

• La couverture des zones rurales en services devoix et de données

1.1. Baisse des coûts des services de voix mobilesentre les réseaux (« Off – Net »)Le niveau élevé des coûts d’interconnexion constitueavant tout un moyen pour les opérateurs dominantsde freiner l’émergence de nouveaux acteurs.

Les tarifs des communications Off – Net sontparfois le double des tarifs On – Net, voire supérieursaux tarifs des communications internationales.

Ce niveau élevé de l’interconnexion procure àcourt terme des revenus importants aux opérateursen place mais ses effets pervers, notamment pourles consommateurs, sont considérables :• Frein à la concurrence (effet club)• Phénomène des « multi – SIM » : selon les pays et

le nombre d’opérateurs, les consommateursfinaux sont incités à s’équiper de 2 à 4 cartes SIMd’opérateurs différents. Le taux réel de pénétration(fondé sur le nombre réel d’utilisateurs) peut êtredeux fois moins élevé que le taux officiel, fondésur le nombre de cartes SIM actives

• Coût finalement élevé pour les consommateursqui consacrent jusqu’à 15% de leur revenu à latéléphonie mobile (contre 2 à 5% dans les paysde l’OCDE)

• ARPU très faible et tendanciellement décroissantpour chacun des opérateursEn règle générale, les pays d’Afrique de l’Ouest

francophones ont du retard dans ce domaine par

rapport aux pays d’Afrique de l’Est et/ouanglophones, dans lesquels (Ghana, Kenya..) lesrégulateurs ont imposé depuis quelques années desbaisses autoritaires des tarifs d’interconnexion.

1.2. Développement de l’accès large bande auxservices de données et à InternetL’accèsdata et internet large bande reste très limité,du fait principalement de la très faible pénétrationde la téléphonie fixe (0,1 à 1,5% de la population) etpartant de l’ADSL.

Le développement relativement rapide de la 3Get bientôt des réseaux LTE permettrad’améliorationl’accès mais ne répondra pas à l’ensemble desbesoins, notamment professionnels :• l’accès data et Internet large bande (> 1 Mbps)

est pour l’instant réservé aux grandes et moyennesentreprises, via le réseau fixe ou le satellite (VSAT)

• l’Internet mobile adresse essentiellement uneclientèle jeune et résidentielle : les sites les plusvisités sont Facebook, Google, Yahoo et YouTubeIl n’existe donc pas ou peu d’offres adaptées aux

besoins et capacités du segment majeur des millionsde très petites entreprises qui assurent l’essentiel del’activité économique et de l’emploi en Afrique.

1.3. La couverture des zones ruralesLa couverture des zones rurales en services de voixet a fortiori de données a toujours été différée parles opérateurs en raison des problèmes techniques(énergie) et financiers qu’elle soulève.

Sous la pression des Autorités Publiques(gouvernements et régulateurs) mais également dufait d’une certaine saturation des marchés urbains,la situation évolue (lentement) grâce à l’émergencede solutions innovantes dans les domaines del’énergie (solaire) et du transport (satellite).

La couverture rurale dans des conditionsrentables requiert de réaliser des analysesgéomarketing assez approfondies permettantd’adapter finement les équipements radios (TRX)auxbesoins réels. Elle devrait d’autre part être facilitéepar le développement assez rapide du partage desites et l’apparition de Tower compagnies.

Quel degré d’amélioration des réseaux est nécessairepour offrir un accès fiable aux services de data?Les principaux problèmes sont :• En ville, la qualité des réseaux fixes filaires (et

leur éligibilité à l’ADSL) dont la réhabilitation esttrès couteuse

• A l’échelle des pays, l’absence ou la saturation desréseaux de transports (backbones) qui ne peuventrépondre aux besoins exponentiels en capacitésinduits par le déploiement des réseaux 3G.

Comment les réseaux LTE se développent-ils dansla région? Qui sont les leaders et qu’est-ce qui faitde leur stratégie un succès?Le développement des réseaux LTE est pour l’instantplus lent en Afrique de l’Ouest qu’en Afrique de l’Estoù existent quelques acteurs majeurs commeSmile. Le Groupe Suisse YouMee Africa, déjàprésent au Cameroun, vient d’annoncer lelancement de ses activités en Côte d’Ivoire.

Comment les opérateurs peuvent-ils contrôler lescoûts pour maximiser leur profitabilité?• Par la mise en commun des infrastructures de

transport (backbones) et des infrastructurespassives des sites radios

• Par la limitation progressive des capacitésd’accès radios (3G/4G) en fonction de laconsommation mensuelle des clients (formulesde « faux illimité »)

Quels développements de satellites vont avoir leplus d’impact sur le secteur des communicationsdans la région?L’apparition des offres satellitaires en bande Ku etsurtout Ka permet une réduction drastique descoûts de bande passante, d’une part pour l’activitéde backhauling, et d’autre part pour ledéveloppement d’offres de services managésd’accès large bande individuels. Ces offresdevraient notamment permettre d’adresser lesegment des TPE dans les petites localités et leszones rurales où le déploiement d’infrastructures detransport terrestre est trop couteux.

Quel est l’impact des technologies de fibre sur lemarché de la région?Cet impact porte essentiellement sur le déploiementde réseaux de transport (backbones) nationaux etinternationaux, terrestres et sous-marins, qui ontdécuplé les capacités de connectivité large bandeau moins le long des côtes de toute l’Afrique et quidevraient en faire baisser le prix si les conditions deconcurrence et d’accès libre s’améliorent.

En termes d’accès, cet impact, pour des raisonsde coût d’investissement, restera limité à court etmoyen termes aux (très) grandes villes pour leraccordement des administrations, des grandesentreprises et éventuellement de grands ensemblesimmobiliers professionnels et résidentiels. ✆



Tine Wollebekk, head of financial services at Telenor Digital, offers her vision of theroad ahead for financial services

Global entrepreneurship – a new era for global banking

COMMERCE Finance

TiNE WOLLEBEKK, HEAD of financialservices at Telenor Digital, plays a keyrole in developing Telenor’s financialservices offerings on a global scale.

Speaking to Communications Africa,Wollebekk said, “I admit, I was reluctant tojoin the headquarters of such a largecorporation at first, as I am used to workingfrom a business unit-perspective.

“But, with the Telenor Group’s new vision,‘Empowering Societies’, financial services trulystarts to make sense. Just imagine that throughbasic financial services, we can increase localmarkets’ GDP between two and five per cent.

“This passion is balanced with my strongcommercial focus, ensuring that our financialservices initiatives are profitable for theTelenor Group, which again will ensure thelongevity of our investments and furtherdevelopment of global financial services. Lastbut not least, I’m motivated by doing things Ihaven’t done before. And Telco globalbanking is truly entrepreneurship on a globalscale,” Wollebekk added.

An important agenda, and theimportance of inclusionWollebekk was asked, then, which are themost exciting trends in financial servicesglobally?

She said, “Financial inclusion is at the top ofthe world economic agenda, recognised byleaders in developing and developedcountries, and emerging as a priority issue onpolitical agendas. It’s also a top priority forTelenor. Operational efficiency and simplifyingcustomer experiences is at the heart of this, notforgetting the transparency aspect, gettingcash into a regulated environment. There is anincredible opportunity worldwide to innovatewithin payment systems as a key driver forfinancial inclusion.

“In addition to this – and perhaps mostimportantly – is the development of the role of

the ‘bank’. Today this industry is changingdrastically. More and more banking activitiesare outsourced, and a lot of the newdevelopment within payment is happeningoutside the bank.

“The banking sector is becoming awholesale industry. They still maintain thecompetence and the consultancy part of thebusiness, and are involved in bigger economicdecisions. But retail, transactions, operationalexcellence, is becoming more efficient withinother structures, such as through a telco. Nowwe have to dare to take these new financialstructures one step further.”

Wollebekk continued, “It’s quite easy math.Globally, 80 to 90 per cent have a mobilephone. Fifteen per cent have a bank account.We have key beneficial assets as a telco,including an enormous customer base, globalconnectivity and structures. The payment logicis in our telco DNA, and there is a large globalcommercial potential.

“Big Data is an important aspect of this,building one of the strongest customerinsights databases possible. Creating apayment and credit history in these marketswill place Telenor in a unique position.Predictive data is also an exciting area withinthis, as we can use our scoring tools to

monitor use of services. In combination withour Global Backend (a single plug-in to reachall business units), this means our partnerswill be able to access an enormous customerbase with 160mn mobile subscribers.

“It is however important to recognise thatfinancial services is a very local exercise. Thereis a global logic for a telco to invest and scalefinancial services, but the actual start of someof our most recent and important businessinitiatives, stems from local needs,opportunities and market gaps,” she added.

There are significant challenges, whichWollebekk recognises. Making productsavailable for customers entailsentrepreneurship within an establishedstructure, a telco structure comprising all of thefirm’s assets and strengths. Moreover, bankingand payment is a very global industry – butwith highly competitive local elements.

The main components in financial servicesportfolios are very similar around the world. Butthere is no global strategy as to how to enterindividual markets. Companies must looklocally. They must look for gaps in each market,and find where there is an unmet need.

Visions and ambitionsWollebekk has a vision as to which financialservices will be provided by Telenor in three tofive years.The company is expected to focus onincreasing services around four main pillars:

• Payment – everything from transactions,billing, payment of digital content throughyour phone, and e-commerce

• Lending – includes products such as smallemergency credits, device loans (to rollout3G you need devices, provide the customerswith the possibility to actually own deviceswhich in turn will ensure quicker adoption of3G) and entrepreneur loans (such as loansto farmers and agents)

• Savings – a lot of societies currently save ingold and the challenge will be to create trustin services, ensuring simple and safesavings products

• Insurance – Telenor already has an ownershiprole in MicroEnsure Asia, which provides arange of insurance products to more than fourmillion people in Africa and Asia. ✆

Telenor Group's headquartersare located in Oslo, Norway

“Financial inclusion is atthe top of the world

economic agenda”


“The payment logic is inour telco DNA, and there is

a large global commercialpotential”


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How the implementation and management of new technologies are helping South Africanworkers to avoid sitting in traffic

Improving productivityfrom anywhere

INDUSTRY Cloud

AS INCREASING NUMBERS of commuters move into cities, theresultant congestion has caused a decline in productivity.The result is that the workplace of the future has had to adaptto this problem while meeting the demands of its employees.

Corporates, specifically some of South Africa's big financialinstitutions in Sandton, are realising they have to offer flexible workingtime and flexible computing in order to attract and retain the besttalent, while ensuring optimum productivity from every employee.

To answer the question about how companies go about retainingstaff, and lessen the impact of unproductive time in traffic, thesimple answer is to allow them the flexibility and accessibility to getthe job done. There’s no real need to ensure employees are sitting inphysical office space any longer, since people can now collaborateand meet virtually. Talented individuals are inevitably moving tocompanies that afford them the work flexibility they demand, andsaving hours everyday in productive and personal time. This raisesanother question about what the future working world will look likeand which technology will be used to streamline the process ofworking from any location and on any device.

The fact is, access to data and applications is more important than thehistorical concerns over available connectivity. Connectivity has becomea commodity in recent years, and its cost is driving down almost as fastas its access is improving. Our current levels of access in metropolitanand outlying areas provide real freedom to access data from anywhere.

We need to redefine the way we work, and rather focus on being

more collaborative with co-workers, sharing and accessingapplications, documents and data when needed. The ability to accessdocuments from anywhere means you’re achieving two things: you’reavoiding sitting in unproductive traffic congestion and you’re gettingmore done in the time available to you.

Cloud-based collaboration, which is available through a number ofoperators locally and internationally, delivers far higher levels ofefficiency because you’re collaborating on the same master document,avoiding the need to send copies of documents back and forthmultiple times. True cloud-based collaboration means you can trackchanges back and forward, for as long as needed, and never fear thepotential loss of critical data.

Users simply have to embrace a new way of working. The positive,tangible benefits are clear: short and long-term productivity gains;considerable cost reductions; and IT departments spend far less timesupporting the mundane, and focus on innovation.

There are more than enough options available to businesses ofvarying sizes to ensure their employees remain productive, are able towork remotely and from any device. We’re no longer constrained by the

desktop PC or laptop computer; modern tablets, smartphones andother handheld devices offer the same functionality, processing powerand a more intuitive interface than antiquated desktop PCs ever have.

Allowing employees to work remotely while connecting via VPN is alegacy approach to remote productivity, and often proves morecumbersome and challenging than it’s worth; that was how we worked10 years ago. More reliable, and readily available connectivity in SouthAfrica, enables users to gain access from anywhere; and newer, lighterand more robust technologies are available on the market…technologies that in many cases, render VPNs unnecessary.

While everyone appears to be fixated on how mobile theiremployees can be, the focus should rather be on how accessible theirapplications and content is. In fact, most ‘mobile’ applications arewatered-down versions of the original, with limited functionality; inreality, fully-fledged applications are already being delivered todevices through any internet connection, allowing corporate networksto be securely accessed from anywhere.

The key criteria to attract and retain talent is to allow employeesflexibility in their work. Make it clear that the location from whichthey work is irrelevant, and provide access to data and applicationsto get the job done.

Once we’ve convinced people to avoid sitting in unproductive trafficjams, we’ll have made some real progress.

If traffic is always bad, many companies now allow employees to workfrom home in the morning to avoid rush-hour. Those who get in very earlyto avoid sitting in traffic, are then entitled to leave early. The question iswhether or not companies can embrace mixing the two, which is the verydefinition of flexibility. One thing is certain: today’s ability to workremotely enables any level of flexibility a business chooses.

There’s a new way of working... start embracing it or risk beingleft behind. ✆

Brian Timperley, managing director, Cloudware

We’re no longer constrained by the desktop PC or laptop computer, with theevolution of modern tablets, smartphones and other handheld devices

”There’s no real need to ensureemployees are sitting in physical officespace any longer, since people can nowcollaborate and meet virtually”




Experts are advising businesses to gear up for one of this year’s most importantand fastest-growing ICT trends

Be prepared forthe Internet of Things

DATACloud

ICT ANALYSTS HAVE emphasised how2014 will see the execution of datamanagement strategies, includinganalytics, volume control and

application. The prediction is thatbusinesses will aggressively begin toextract data on a completely new level - alevel that will involve data streams sourcedfrom various machines, processes,procedures and systems. Welcome to theInternet of Things.

As a fast-growing trend the Internet ofThings is defined by the expandedcombination of networks and the Internet tofacilitate a scenario in which all things/objects are connected and have uniqueidentifiers that enable them to transferdata.

It will force decision makers to reviewtheir data management and applicationstrategies. Today, in order to remainrelevant and enhance the ability tocompete, it is vital that businesses are ableto not only effectively and securely storeand manipulate structured data, but alsoextract the value of readily availableunstructured data.

The fact is that this type of data iseverywhere and, if successfully tapped into,

can add enormous value in terms ofconsumer behaviour, buying patterns andinsight into developing trends.

Analytics of big data will remain relevant,however, there will be a new dimension tothis facet of technology – brought about bythe awareness of businesses to executedata management strategies to gain thesebenefits.

Data analytics, management and strategyapplication are areas that internationaltechnology vendors are highly aware of- andintend to tap into going forward. They arefaced with the reality of not only being ableto help extract and collate streams of data,but be positioned at the network to ensureseamless connectivity – a prerequisite forthe Internet of Things.

One such vendor, Cisco, has put thesituation in perspective and says that fromthe Internet of Things where we are today,

we are just beginning to enter a new realm:the Internet of Everything (IoE), where thingswill gain context awareness, increasedprocessing power, and greater sensingabilities. Add people and information intothe mix and you get a network of networkswhere billions or even trillions ofconnections create unprecedentedopportunities and give things that weresilent a voice. Cisco defines IoE as bringingtogether people, process, data, and thingsto make networked connections morerelevant and valuable than ever before –turning information into actions that createnew capabilities, richer experiences, andunprecedented economic opportunity forbusinesses, individuals, and countries.

In order for businesses to better positionthemselves to take advantage of this trendand utilise both structured andunstructured data to the benefit ofoperations, they will need to be strategic inthe acquisition and implementation oftechnology. This is where partnerships,alliances and consolidation will play amajor in the industry this year. ✆

Bennie Strydom, chief sales officer atIntegr8

Businesses...will need to bestrategic in the acquisition

and implementation of technology



mHealth initiatives are building fast, with new apps and devices being embraced and driven bydedicated individuals and organisations who really are making a difference, reports Tim Guest

Why health systems aregathering strength in Africa

MOBILE Health

FOR SEVERAL MONTHS now people have been dying in Guinea due to an outbreak of the deadly ebola virus. Thankfully, over the past two months an

increasing number of patients have beendischarged from ebola treatment centres,according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF),after successfully beating the disease. Andalthough typical mobile communications havebeen used by staff throughout, where possible,mHealth apps have so far not been involved inthe outbreak.

However, that didn’t stop new technologyfrom having its moment. When MSF reachedGuinea to set up shop in order to help combatthe outbreak, they found themselves in aregion with no accurate maps, and had to turnto digital mapping organisation, HumanitarianOpenStreetMap Team (HOT), to create a map ofthe city of Guéckédou and the surroundingregion, the focal point of the outbreak. Within aday in early April, HOT had populated mapswith more than 100,000 buildings, hundreds ofroads and tracks, all based on satellite imageryof the area.

The use of geographical data and mappinginformation has been incorporated into mobilehealth apps developed at Imperial College,London, where the Department of InfectiousDisease Epidemiology has developed a web-based mobile health (mHealth) solution withcorresponding smartphone apps,Spatialepidemiology.net and EpiCollect.net.These are now being used in Africa for a widerange of epidemiological studies into the spreadof infectious diseases. The android-basedEpiCollect app geotags data and uses GoogleMaps and Google Earth to analyse and displaydata from mHealth projects.

The GSMA has been conducting its mHealthactivities for some years now and has a pan-African mHealth initiative aimed at improvingthe nutrition and health particularly of mothersand children in sub-Saharan Africa. The GSMA’sdirector of health, mobile for development, CraigFriderichs, told Communications Africa that theGSMA’s Pan-African mHealth Initiative (PAMI),launched in 2012, was extended in September2013 after an initial focus on South Africa, toinclude Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi,Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania,Uganda and Zambia.

PAMI aims to support the scale-up of mHealthin the areas of nutrition and maternal/childhealth in sub-Saharan Africa, by developingcommercially sustainable services that meetpublic health needs. Friedrichs said 96 mHealthservices are currently being tracked in SouthAfrica by the GSMA, including the BabyInfo,MAMA and The Baby Club, where pregnantwomen receive messages related to nutrition,stage of pregnancy, wellness tips, and othermatters.

Friedrichs said PAMI was launched to supportthe UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG)4, 5 and 6, where MDG 4 aims to reduce theunder-five child mortality rate by two-thirds toreduce the maternal mortality ratio by three-

quarters and provide universal access toreproductive health; and MDG 6 aims to halt andbegin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, provideuniversal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS andhalt and begin to reverse the incidence ofmalaria and other diseases.

But he added that the GSMA’s mHealthcountry feasibility reports (the first two, Nigeriaand Malawi, are to be published shortly), showthat each country presents a differentlandscape, both in terms of the specifics of thehealth burden and the number of unique mobilesubscribers and mobile affordability.

According to Friedrichs, PAMI is addressingthese obstacles by bringing together the mobileand health industries in each priority country, tocreate sustainable public-private partnershipsthat will launch mHealth services within thespecific product areas of demand generation,registration and data surveillance. One of Europe’s leading mHealth experts basedout of Swizerland’s Università della Svizzeraitaliana, professor Suzanne Suggs, has beeninvolved in the development of mobile-phone-based, clinical-decision support tools forphysicians dealing with paediatriccardiomyopathy and otitis. CommunicationsAfrica took the opportunity to put a range ofquestions to the expert for her insights intowhere mHealth in Africa is headed.

Which areas offer the greatest potential formHealth projects?The answer depends on what you mean bypotential. If designed properly using socialmarketing and systems-thinking approaches,mHealth can be part of the solution to improvinghealth and reducing health disparities. In termsof impact on society, mHealth has greatpotential as a tool in the prevention andmanagement of non-communicable diseases(NCDs). Increasing attention is paid to chronic diseasesin developed countries with programmes thataddress management and prevention of NCDs.With NCDs in Africa and other low and middleincome countries expected to rise dramatically,lifestyle-support mHealth solutions will becomemore common and have potential to be part ofan integrated solution. By supporting healthylifestyle behaviours through mobile devices,through education, cues to action, skill buildingand social support, along with monitoring

The potential for mHealth can only be realisedif policymakers, decision-makers and policiesfacilitate its development and implementation

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PAMI aims to support thescale-up of mHealth in the

areas of nutrition andmaternal/child health in

sub-Saharan Africa



MOBILEHealth

biometrics and behaviours, m-health can be acatalyst for behaviour change and support.

Two ongoing examples include SMSDiabetesin Gabon and Communicating Diabetes inKenya. Both use SMS to exchange educationalmessages, questions and answers betweenproviders and patients. However, the potentialfor mHealth can only be realised if policymakers,decision-makers and policies facilitate itsdevelopment and implementation. Too manyprojects see solutions imposed on problemsand have not taken account of the context inwhich the mHealth solution will exist. Further,we have to be careful not to get caught up inhype about technological products and insteadrely on careful and quality evaluation evidence.

The greatest challenges may be to knowwhich mobile solutions are effective and likely toproduce the greatest positive outcome in thefuture and convincing policymakers and fundersto follow evidence-based planning andevaluation frameworks for ICT health solutions.Thus, we desperately need a process to identifywhat is working and what is not and tounderstand how to communicate such evidenceconvincingly to policy makers and funders andplanners.

We also need to know more about effectivecommunication strategies including themessage, the timing, dosing, and frequency andmessengers, and user experience, in the Africancontext, before smart decisions can be mademoving forward. At the Geneva Health Forum, inthe session on ICT for Global Health promotion,we saw the great potential in mHealth in the

surveillance ability of ebola and in educationabout ebola risks, symptoms, services, andcurrent news.

As for SMS, there are 98 mHealthprogrammes using SMS in low and middleincome countries. Simple SMS communicationis providing access to services, epidemiologicdata through surveillance and monitoring, andimproving health competencies and abilitiesthrough educational programmes byexchanging SMS questions and answers by text,pictures and games. The MoTECH programmefrom Ghana, for example, uses SMS to providepregnant women in remote areas with remindersabout appointments, facts about pregnancy,common issues, myths, and practices. Healthworkers are alerted when a person misses anappointment, and are able to remind womenthrough basic SMS.

Which organisations do you see as the mostinnovative and the leaders in driving mHealthuptake in Africa?Various organisations are making importantinnovative contributions in m-Health andultimately their efforts will be a catalyst forimproved global health. The real innovators arethe individuals throughout Africa (and otherparts of the world) who are willing to takechances and change the way in which problemsare solved through ICT. I believe the mostinnovative mHealth programmes orinterventions have yet to be developed and thatthe innovator(s) will not be one of the usualsuspects. I also strongly believe it will not be aninstitution that stands out as making the biggestimpact or greatest innovation, but will be agroup of individuals from various organisationsand perspectives who collaborate to design aprogramme that is truly effective, scalable andfinancially smart.

As for who is driving mHealth uptake inAfrica? That’s easy - the economy. It’s theeconomics of health and the need for efficient,mass-reaching solutions to tackle someprofound health problems. Industry has jumpedin with its large financial resources, innovative

thinking and desire to be a leader, by makinglow-cost mobile devices and networks availablein some of the richest and poorest places in theworld. Thus, the need for improved public healthcombined with the availability of a low-costtechnology provides a solution to the economicsof health and healthcare.

We understand you are involved in animportant mHealth summer school. How canmembers of Africa’s health community/telecomssector can become involved?The Swiss School of Public Health plus (SSPH+)will from 25-31 August 2014 offer the course ‘m-Health: Mobile Communication for PublicHealth’. I teach the six-day course where weexplore, analyse and examine mobile healthtechnologies and strategies used for publichealth communication purposes.The course specifically focuses on the use of m-Health in promoting, facilitating, changing andmaintaining health behaviours. Emphasis isplaced on the planning and developmentprocess in terms of when and why to usemHealth, how to develop mHealth programmesand evaluation of mHealth projects. This is not atechnical course for programmers, but is acourse for public workers and researchers. ✆

The GSMA has a pan-African mHealth initiative aimedat improving the nutrition and health particularly ofmothers and children in sub-Saharan Africa

Ph

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mHealth has great potentialas a tool in the preventionand management of non-communicable diseases(NCDs)” - professorSuzanne Suggs


The need for improvedpublic health combined withthe availability of a low-cost technology provides asolution to the economicsof health and healthcare" -professor Suzanne Suggs

An outbreak of the ebola virus has recently taken hold in Guinea



Guide de l’acheteur

The guide to the major international manufacturers in all areas ofbroadcasting and their agents throughout Africa. Classifieds - Manufacturers listed under typeSuppliers - With Agents’ namesLocal Agents - Index

22001144BROADCAST Buyers’ GuideCe guide contient une liste des principaux fabricants internationaux de

matériel de l’audiovisuelle ainsi que leurs distributeurs en Afrique. Liste des produits avec fabricants par produits

Liste des fabricants avec noms des distributeurs en AfriqueListe des distributeurs locaux

Classifieds

Amplifiers

Comtech EF Data

Kathrein SA (Pty) Ltd.

Antennas - Industrial

Amphenol Corporation

Andrew Wireless Solutions Africa (Pty) Ltd.


Audio - Other

DTL Broadcast Ltd.

Ghielmetti AG

Netia

Automation and Control

Netia

Broadcast Facilities Build &Operation

Ghielmetti AG

Globecast France

PCCW Global Ltd.

Singapore Telecommunications Limited

Telemedia Pty Ltd.

Broadcast Towers & Masts, ChannelCombiner Units & Filters


Cables & Cable Equipment




Colour Correctors

Axon Digital Design

Connectors



Decoders

Harmonic

Digital Glue / Distribution Cabinets

Axon Digital Design

Digital Video Equipment

African Union Communication (Pty) Ltd.

DTL Broadcast Ltd.

Harmonic

Distribution & Links


AFRIKANET Oxford Consultech

Globecast France

MEASAT Satellite Systems Sdn. Bhd.

PCCW Global Ltd.


Down Converters

AnaCom Inc.

Axon Digital Design

Comtech EF Data

Editing Systems

Netia

Encoders/Decoders


DTL Broadcast Ltd.

Harmonic

Telemedia Pty Ltd.

Encryption Equipment

Telemedia Pty Ltd.

Filters


Headend Equipment


Harmonic

Newtec Cy n.v

Telemedia Pty Ltd.

LNBs

AnaCom Inc.

Microwave Links


OB Vans

DTL Broadcast Ltd.

Globecast France

Radiocommunications

Netia

Satellite Communications



Amos-SpaceCom

AnaCom Inc.

Applied Satellite Technology SA (Pty) Ltd

CET Teleport

Cobham

Comtech EF Data

Globecast France

Hellas Sat Consortium Ltd.

Intelsat


Milano Teleport S.p.A.

Newtec Cy n.v

PCCW Global Ltd.


Space Television

Telemedia Pty Ltd.

Thaicom Public Company Ltd.

Satellite Receivers

AnaCom Inc.

Harmonic

Newtec Cy n.v

Rascomstar-QAF

Space Television

Set Top Boxes

Infomir

SMATV - Systems & Components

Space Television

Standards Converters

Axon Digital Design

Studio Furnitures

Ghielmetti AG

Telecommunications


Amos-SpaceCom

AnaCom Inc.



CET Teleport

Cobham

Comtech EF Data

Eutelsat

GL Communications Inc.

Intelsat


Newtec Cy n.v

PCCW Global Ltd.


Space Television

Test & Measurement


Ghielmetti AG


Transmitters and Antennas

AnaCom Inc.


Turnkey Systems




Video - Other

DTL Broadcast Ltd.

Ghielmetti AG

Intelsat


Netia

VSATs


Amos-SpaceCom

AnaCom Inc.


Newtec Cy n.v

PCCW Global Ltd.


Space Television

S08 CAF 3 2014 Broadcast BG_Layout 1 07/05/2014 15:03 Page 38


AAE Systems Inc.

642 North Pastoria AvenueSunnyvale, 94085USATel: +1 408 7321710Fax: +1 408 7323095Web: www.aaesys.comE-mail: [email protected]

African Union Communication(Pty) Ltd.

PO Box 4187, Rietvalleirand, 0174South AfricaTel: +27 12 0018670Fax: +27 12 3474376Web: www.aucom.co.zaE-mail: [email protected]


Oxford Culham Innovation CentreScience Center, Building D5Oxford, England, OX14 3DBUnited KingdomTel: +44 1865 408365Fax: +44 207 9006479Web: www.afrikanet.netE-mail: [email protected]

Our other offices in Africa:AFRIKANET – Cemac OnlineOlembe – Yaounde – CameroonBP: 25240 Yaounde CameroonTel: +237 22 621739E-mail: [email protected]

AIRTI-AFRIKANET – Côte d’Ivoire28 BP 989 ABJ 28Abidjan – Côte d’IvoireTel: +225 24 493779E-mail: [email protected]

CNC – Computer Network Corp –AFRIKANET DRC4765 Avenue colonel Ebeya,Kinshasa – DRCCommune de la Gombe Tel: +243 998 204833E-mail: [email protected]

AFRIKANET Zambia(JBL Global NW & ZambeziTechnologies)Broadway Complex Ndola 7928 Chozi Road Northmead LusakaE-mail: [email protected]

PRESTA-BIST Telecom – AFRIKANETCHADAvenue Charles De Gaulles B.P. 587 N’djamena – ChadTel : +235 66 299378E-mail: [email protected]

MENG-ENGENHARIA, LDA – AFRIKANETANGOLARua Kimpemba, 23-1BCabinda – AngolaTel: +244 913 140075/926 240759E-mail: [email protected]

Alcatel-Lucent

3 av. Octave GréardParis, 75007, FranceTel: +33 1 40761010Fax: +33 1 40761413Web: www.alcatel-lucent.comE-mail: [email protected]

Our other office in Africa:Alcatel-Lucent EgyptPO Box 5, Giza – EgyptPostal Code 12577Tel: +202 3539 5555Fax: +202 3539 2330

Amos-SpaceCom

7 Menachem Begin StreetRamat Gan, 52521IsraelTel: +972 3 7551000Fax: +972 3 7551001Web: www.amos-spacecom.comE-mail: [email protected]:

Cameroon - MDR Space Ltd.Congo DR - NITD Solutions SPRLSenegal - Systemes PVSouth Africa - Eltekon satellite Consulting &ServicesZambia - Network Consultants Limited


358 Hall AvenueWallingford, 06492USATel: +1 203 2658900Fax: +1 203 2658516Web: http://industrial-amphenol.com/markets/broadcast-entertainment/broadcastE-mail: [email protected]

Amphenol provides high performanceconnectors, wire and cable, fibre opticconnectors, custom assemblies andinterconnect products for audio andvideo applications for the commercialand professional broadcast andentertainment markets. Our extensiveportfolio includes RF, DIN, XLR, Power& Lighting, SMPTE304M, expandedbeam and tactical connectors.

Our other office in Africa:Amphenol Africa30 Impala Road, ChislehurstonSandton, 2146South AfricaTel: +27 83 4420514Fax: +27 11 7839519Web: www.amphenolafrica.comEmail: [email protected]

AnaCom Inc.

1996 Lundy Ave, San Jose95131, USATel: +1 571 294 7456Fax: +1 408 716 2538Web: www.anacominc.comE-mail: [email protected]:

South Africa - Stratosat Datacom (Pty) Ltd.

Andrew Wireless Solutions Africa(Pty) Ltd.

PO Box 786117, Sandton, 2146South AfricaTel: +27 11 7196000Fax: +27 11 4482500Web: www.andrew.comwww.commscope.com/andrewE-mail: [email protected]

Applied Satellite Technology SA(Pty) Ltd

Deus Exorno, Block A1Bondev Parkc/o Willem Botha & Wierda RoadEldoraigne, CenturionSouth AfricaTel: +27 12 6585740Fax: +27 82 0656148Web: www.ast-sa.co.zaE-mail: [email protected]

ArabSat

PO Box 1038Diplomatic QuartersRiyadh, 11431Saudi ArabiaTel: +966 11 4820000Fax: +966 11 4887999Web: www.arabsat.comE-mail: [email protected]

Asia Broadcast Satellite Ltd.

PO Box 502129Unit 21701 - 2108Al Thuraya Tower 1Dubai Media CityDubaiUnited Arab EmiratesTel: +971 4 4542677Fax: +971 4 4542655Web: www.absatellite.netE-mail: [email protected]

Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) is one ofthe fastest growing satellite operationsin the world. ABS offers a completerange of solutions including DTH, CATV,

Cellular Backhaul, VSAT and InternetBackbone Services.

Axon Digital Design

Hercules 28RK Gilze5126The NetherlandsTel: +31 16 1850450Fax: +31 16 1850499Web: www.axon.tvE-mail: [email protected]:

Egypt - EtacoSouth Africa - Jasco ICT - Broadcast SolutionsSouth Africa - Neimeyer A.J.

CET Teleport

Bexen 2Aerzen31855GermanyTel: +49 5154 9371500Fax: +49 5154 9371010Web: www.cetteleport.comE-mail: [email protected]

Cobham

Lundtoftegardsvej 93 D2800, LyngbyDenmarkTel: +45 39 558800Fax: +45 39 558888Web: www.thrane.comE-mail: [email protected]

Explorer Bgan Satellite terminals fromCobham are mobile broadband unitsenabling broadcast units enablingbroadcasters to transmit live from anyhotspot in the world from the minutethey arrive, EXPLORE terminalscombined with a low bit-rate videocodec provides a mobile, cost efficientand easy to use solution for mobileSNG.

Comtech EF Data

2114 West 7th StreetTempe, Arizona, 85281, USATel: +1 480 3332200Fax: +1 480 3332540Web: www.comtechefdata.comE-mail: [email protected]

Comtech EF Data - the leader insatellite bandwidth efficiency and linkoptimization. Our solutions encompassAdvanced VSAT Solutions, SatelliteModems, RAN & WAN Optimization,Network & Bandwidth Managementand RF Products. Our offerings enablecommercial and government users toreduce OPEX/CAPEX and increasethroughput for fixed andmobile/transportable satellite-basedapplications.

Suppliers

BROADCAST BUYERS’ GUIDE 2014


Corning Inc.

One Riverfront Plaza, CorningNew York14831USATel: +1 607 9749000Fax: +1 607 9745927Web: www.corning.comE-mail: [email protected]:

Brazil - Corning Brasil Indústria e ComércioLtda.Brazil - Corning InternationalSouth Africa - Corning Products SA (Pty) Ltd.

DTL Broadcast Ltd.

Johnson’s EstateHayes, MiddlesexUB3 3BAUnited KingdomTel: +44 20 88135200Fax: +44 20 88135022Web: www.dtl-broadcast.comE-mail: [email protected]

DTL Broadcast market extensive rangesof rack mount and stand aloneminiature video and audio converters,distributors and audio embedders/de-embedders. If you work with formatssuch as SMPTE SDI, composite andcomponent video, AES and analogueaudio, you’ve come to the right place!Just call +44 20 88135200

Agents:

Brazil - Sterling Do Brazil

Eutelsat

70, Rue Balard, Paris Cedex 15F-75502, FranceTel: +33 1 53 984747Fax: +33 1 53 983700Web: www.eutelsat.comE-mail: [email protected]

Eutelsat is one of the world’s leadingand most experienced operators ofcommunications satellites. Thecompany provides capacity on 36satellites to clients that includebroadcasters and broadcastingassociations, pay-TV operators, video,data and internet service providers,enterprises and government agencies.

African Office:Eutelsat South Africa2nd FloorWest FloorMaude StreetNelson Mandela SquareSandtonJohannesburgTel: +27 11 8815512

Gazprom Space Systems, JSC

Moscowskaya Street, Bld 77BSchelkovo, Moscow Region141112RussiaTel: +7 495 5042906Fax: +7 495 5042911Web: www.gazprom-spacesystems.ruE-mail: [email protected]

Ghielmetti AG

Industriestrasse 6Biberist4562SwitzerlandTel: +41 32 6711313Fax: +41 32 6711314Web: www.ghielmetti.chE-mail: [email protected]:

Morocco - Abchir SARL


818 West Diamond Avenue Third FloorGaithersburg, 20878USATel: +1 301 6704784Fax: +1 301 6709187Web: www.gl.comE-mail: [email protected]

Globecast France

5, allée Gustave EiffelIssy les Moulineaux92136, FranceTel: +33 1 55952600Fax: +33 1 55952741Web: www.globecast.comE-mail: [email protected]

Our other offices in Africa:

Globecast AfricaPHL Mentone Center1 Park RD RichmondJohannesburg Gauteng2092 JohannesburgSouth Africa

Globecast AfricaCVS Plaza - 4th FloorLenana Road, PO Box 10690606 Sarit CentreNairobiKenya Fax: +27 11 4822792

Harmonic

4300 North First StreetSan JoseCalifornia95134USATel: +1 408 5422500Fax: +1 408 5422511Web: www.harmonicinc.comE-mail: [email protected]

Hellas Sat Consortium Ltd.

PO Box 27556Nicosia2435CyprusTel: +357 22 861400Fax: +357 22 861510Web: www.hellas-sat.netE-mail: [email protected]

Hughes Network Systems, LLC

11717 Exploration LaneGermantown20876USATel: +1 301 4285500Fax: +1 301 4281868Web: www.hughes.com

iDirect Technologies

13865 Sunrise Valley DriveSuite 100HerndonVirginia20171USATel: +1 703 6488000Web: www.idirect.net

Infomir

4-D, Marshal Zhukov AvenueOdessa65121UkraineTel: +38 48 7406740Fax: +38 48 7406740Web: www.infomir.euE-mail: [email protected]

Infomir is a European manufacturer ofequipment and software forIPTV/OTT/VOD market, specializing indesign, engineering, manufacturing andmaintenance of equipment and end-user devices for broadband digitalservices and offering cost-effectivesolutions to large and smallerproviders for starting IPTV/OTT/VODprojects with MAG series of STBs andfree Middleware Stalker.

Inmarsat

99 City RoadLondonEC1Y 1AXUnited KingdomTel: +44 20 77281777/20 77281000Fax: +44 20 77281142Web: www.inmarsat.comE-mail:[email protected]

Intelsat

138 West Street SandtonJohannesburgGauteng2146South AfricaTel: +27 11 5354700Fax: +27 11 8847269Web: www.intelsat.com

Intersputnik InternationalOrganization of SpaceCommunications

2nd Smolensky per. 1/4Moscow121099RussiaTel: +7 499 2528333Fax: +7 499 2410784Web: www.intersputnik.comE-mail: [email protected]

The Intersputnik InternationalOrganization of Space Communicationswas established 15 November 1971.Today, Intersputnik has 26 memberstates in practically all parts of theworld, from Latin America to South-East Asia and from Europe to Africa.


Annandale RoadOff R44, Stellenbosch7600South AfricaTel: +27 21 8818200Fax: +27 21 8818203Web: www.kathrein.co.zaE-mail: [email protected]

KATHREIN-Werke is the world’s largestand oldest antenna manufacturingenterprise. Products range from mobileantennas to satellite receptionsystems. ‘Quality leads the way’ is ourphilosophy and key to the success ofthe company.




MEASAT Satellite Systems Sdn.Bhd.

MEASAT Teleport and BroadcastCentreJalan Teknokrat 1/2Cyberjaya, 63000MalaysiaTel: +60 3 82132188Fax: +60 3 82132233Web: www.measat.comE-mail: [email protected]

MEASAT is a premium supplier ofsatellite communication services toleading international broadcasters, DTHplatforms and telecom operators. InAfrica, the AFRICASAT-1a satellite at46.0°E provides high powered state ofthe art satellite capacity across theAfrican continent, with connectivity toEurope, the Middle East and SouthEast Asia.To contact our agent in Africa, pleasecall.Tel: +254 731 434789E-mail: [email protected]

Milano Teleport S.p.A.

Via Cascina Nuova, 1LacchiarellaMilan20084ItalyTel: +39 02 89085000Fax: +39 02 89085050Web: www.milanoteleport.comE-mail: [email protected]@milanotelport.com

Milano Teleport S.p.A. operates thelargest independent teleport in Italy.Founded in 1997 its business spansfrom DTH and DTT TV Broadcasting toBroadband Wireless and Maritimeservices worldwide. For the Media &Broadcast Industry, Milano Teleportprovides Satellite Services Worldwide(DTH, DTT, Contribution Links, TurnAround Services and Video over IPConnections) leveraging its modernUplink Facility and its massive fiberconnections with European maincarriers.

Netia

377 Chemin de FarjouClaret, 34270, FranceTel: +33 4 67590807Fax: +33 4 67590820Web: www.netia.comE-mail: [email protected]

Netia, a globecast company is aleading provider of software solutionsenabling efficient management anddelivery of content to today’s full arrayof media platforms. Relied on by morethan 1,000 users in 200 installationsover 40 countries, Netia solutionsallow content producers to managecontent from ingest to delivery.

Agents:

Belgium - StudiotechEgypt - ETACOEthiopia - Fortune Enterprise PLCEthiopia - USISouth Africa - Soundfusion

Newtec Cy n.v

Laarstraat 5Sint-Niklaas9100BelgiumTel: +32 3 7806500Fax: +32 3 7806549Web: www.newtec.euE-mail: [email protected]

O3b Networks Ltd.

Johan van Oldenbarneveltlaan 5The Hague2582The NetherlandsTel: +31 70 7116500Web: www.o3bnetworks.comE-mail:[email protected]

PCCW Global Ltd.

33rd FloorPCCW TowerTaikoo PlaceQuarry BayHong KongTel: +1 703 6211590Fax: +1 703 3732612Web: www.pccwglobal.comE-mail: [email protected]

PCCW Global is an operating divisionof HKT, Hong Kong’s premiertelecommunications service providerwhich is majority-owned by PCCWLimited. With teams based in theMiddle East, Africa, Europe, Asia andthe Americas, PCCW Global serves thevoice and data needs of multinationalenterprises. Covering more than 1,800cities and 120 countries, the PCCWGlobal network supports a portfolio ofintegrated global communicationssolutions.

To learn more about PCCW Global,please visit www.pccwglobal.com.

Rascomstar-QAF

1 Place du President WilsonToulouse, 31000, FranceTel: +33 5 34572340Fax: +33 5 61298214Web: www.rascomstar.comE-mail: [email protected]

RascomStar-QAF is a pan-Africansatellite operator mandated by thepan-African governmental organizationRASCOM (Regional African SatelliteCommunication Organization), which isa convention of 45 African countriesacting through their TelecommunicationMinistries to support its project.RSQ operates the RASCOM-QAF1R(RQ1R) satellite, successfully launchedin August 2010 and is fully operationalfor an in-orbit lifetime of 18 years.The RQ1R satellite transponders bear

four categories of managed services: GSM Extension Service (R*GES)based on low cost easy to install GSMintegrated site Telephony Extension Service (R*TES)based on low cost easy to install smallKu-band terminals High Speed Internet Service (HSI) isan optional service for R*TES andR*GES to provide broadbandconnectivity Backbone Connectivity Service(R*BCS) connecting gateways (any toany) in AfricaIn addition to Managed Services, RSQcan lease raw capacity: Bandwidth Lease Service (R*BLS) inboth Ku and C-band for customersneeding to deploy their owntelecommunication networks such asVSAT networks, TV contributions, GSMBackhauling, Internet access, etc.

Agents:

Mauritius - Rascomstar-QAF

SES Africa

The PivotBlock E 2nd FloorMonte Casino BoulevardFourwaysJohannesburgSouth AfricaTel: +27 11 0818200Web: www.africa.ses.com

SES Broadband Services

Château de BetzdorfBetzdorf6815LuxembourgTel: +352 7107251Web: www.ses.comE-mail: [email protected]:

South Africa - SES Broadband Services

Signalhorn

Illerstrasse 15Backnang71522GermanyTel: +49 7191 9710Fax: +49 7191 971100Web: www.signalhorn.comE-mail: [email protected]

Singapore TelecommunicationsLimited

31 Exeter Road#26-00 Comcentre, 239732SingaporeTel: +65 67 880022Fax: +65 64 834140Web: www.singtelteleport.comE-mail: [email protected]

With more than 35 years of experiencein fixed satellite services and over 20years of experience in mobile satelliteservices, SingTel Satellite has beenproven to be a leading provider ofcustomised satellite solutions forindustries such as broadcasting,business continuity, remote telephony,data communications, emergency reliefoperations, maritime and offshore.

Soicex Electronique

5, Avenue CrêtesBP 92139, Ramonville St-Agne31520FranceTel: +33 5 61733072Fax: +33 5 61756040Web: www.soicex.comE-mail: [email protected]

Space Television

PO Box 931778 Republic Road FerndaleRandburg, Johannesburg2000South AfricaTel: +27 11 7819900/1/2Fax: +27 11 7819908Web: www.spacetv.co.zaE-mail: [email protected]

Telemedia Pty Ltd.

179th AveRivoniaJohannesburg South AfricaTel: +27 11 8033353Fax: +27 11 8032534Web: www.telemedia.co.zaE-mail: [email protected]






Agents

BELGIUM

StudiotechRue de Ransbeerstraat 218Brussels, 1120Tel: +32 2 2661380Fax: +32 2 2661388Web: www.studiotech.beE-mail: [email protected]

BRAZIL

Corning Brasil Indústria e Comércio

Ltda.Indústria e Comércio Ltda.Rua Dr. Renato Paes de Barros714 - 11° and, Itaim-Bibi, São Paulo04530-001Tel: +55 11 30897380Fax: +55 11 30712263

Corning InternationalRua Dr. Renato de Barros714 - 11° andar, São Paulo, 04530-001Tel: +55 11 30893200

Sterling Do BrazilRua Irineu Ferreira Pinto74 - Unidade 24 - MaricáRio de Janeiro, 24900-000Tel: +55 21 26084544Fax: +55 21 2608-544E-mail: [email protected]

CAMEROON

MDR Space Ltd.Bastos YaoundeB.P 35446Tel: +237 22 208078Fax: +237 73 626468Web: [email protected]

CONGO DR

NITD Solutions SPRLBoulevard du 30 juinresidence Taba Congo App.8,Commune de la GombeTel: +243 0 15102447/991417303E-mail: [email protected]

EGYPT

ETACO15 Nasser Elthawra StreetAl HaramCairo12111Tel: +20 2 5865270Fax: +20 1 22126503/2 7794989E-mail: [email protected]

Etaco15, Nasser El Thawra StreetAl HaramCairoTel: +20 2 3586527Fax: +20 2 7794989

ETHIOPIA

Fortune Enterprise PLCPO Box 1525Adis AbadaTel: +251 91 1233905Fax: +251 11 3715429E-mail: [email protected]

USIPO Box 23626th FloorHaile Gebre-Selassie BuildingAddis Abada110Tel: +25 111 6627303Fax: +25 111 6627302Web: www.usiethiopia.comE-mail: [email protected]

MAURITIUS

Rascomstar-QAFRogers House 5President John Kennedy StreetPort LouisWeb: www.rascomstar.comE-mail: [email protected]

MOROCCO

Abchir SARL15 Angle Bd D’Alexandrie etRue d’ArmenieQuartier des HopitauxTel: +212 22864451Fax: +212 22864450Web: www.abchir.maE-mail: [email protected]

SENEGAL

Systemes PVDakarTel: +221 33 825 97 55Fax: +221 77 569 8017E-mail: [email protected]

SOUTH AFRICA

Corning Products SA (Pty) Ltd.Perseverance Industrial Park25 Kohler RoadPort Elizabeth, 6209Tel: +27 41 4046400Fax: +27 41 4046440

Eltekon satellite Consulting &

ServicesMogale City1746Tel: + 27 83 2836861E-mail: [email protected]

Jasco ICT - Broadcast SolutionsCnr Alexandra Avenue2nd RoadMidrand, Gauteng1685Tel: +27 11 2661500Fax: +27 11 2661532Web: www.jasco.co.za

Neimeyer A.J.PO Box 652374Benmore, 2010Tel: +27 11 7841322Fax: +27 11 7841304Web: www.broadcastequipment.co.za

SES Broadband ServicesThe PivotBlock E 2nd FloorMonte Casino BoulevardFourwaysJohannesburg

SoundfusionPO Box 3073PinegowrieGautengAfrique du Sud2123Tel: +27 11 8380620/21/22/23/24Fax: +27 11 8380625E-mail: [email protected]

Star Network Marketing Services

CompanyUnit 101, The GatehouseCentury WayCentury City7441Cape Town8000Tel: +27 21 5285200Fax: +27 21 5285219E-mail: [email protected]

Stratosat Datacom (Pty) Ltd.24/26 Spartan RoadAeroport Ext. 21 Spartan1619Tel: +27 11 9740006Fax: +27 11 9740068Web: www.stratosat.co.zaE-mail: [email protected]

ZAMBIA

Network Consultants Limited6879 Olympia Park ExtensionPostnet #343 P/Bag E891LusakaTel: +260 211 290674/977 445708E-mail: [email protected]

Thaicom Public Company Ltd.

41/103, Rattanatibet RoadNonthaburi Province, 11000ThailandTel: +66 2 5965060Fax: +66 2 9505058Web: www.thaicom.netwww.africomsat.comE-mail: [email protected]

Thaicom, one of Asia’s leading satelliteoperators, delivers expertise and

technological firsts to customersworldwide. With AFRICOM-1—thepayload mission dedicated to Africa onthe THAICOM-6 satellite—the companywill provide broadcasters and telecomoperators in Africa with a full range ofsatcom end-to-end services via its Pan-African high-power C-band beams.

Thuraya

PO Box 283333United Arab EmiratesTel: +971 4 4488888Fax: +971 4 4488999Web: www.thuraya.comE-mail: [email protected]

Viewsat

Building CH5Normandy Business ParkCobbett Hill RoadGU3 2AAUnited KingdomTel: +44 1483 235400Fax: +44 20 81814591Web: www.viewsat.eu

Yahsat

Al FalahAbu DhabiUnited Arab EmiratesTel: +971 2 5100000Fax: +971 2 5100001Web: www.yahsat.aeE-mail: [email protected]:

South Africa - Star Network MarketingServices Company



SPACECOM, THE OPERATOR of the AMOS satellite fleet, announcedrecently that AMOS-5 at 17°E is now providing a hybrid satellite-cellularcommunications solution in Africa. The hybrid solution delivered onAMOS Ku-band capacity enhances the quality of affordable high speedInternet connectivity to a telecom provider in Africa.

Spacecom's hybrid solution enables the user to take advantage ofsatellite for downloading data while relying on cellular or any otherterrestrial data network for internet upload requests and data offload.Data downloads typically account for between 80-90 per cent of Internettraffic. The solution brings the best of both technologies by connectingthe cellular network and satellite to a central hub hybrid platform on oneside and a hybrid terminal at the customer's location. The customer’scellular modem, together with a small, receive-only, DTH-type antenna forsatellite reception, allows traffic from the Internet to be delivered oversatellite to the customer while traffic from the user to the Internet isdelivered over the cellular network. The setup has optional WiFiconnectivity for PCs, tablets, and other handheld devices.

"The AMOS-5 hybrid solution offers greater access to greaterbandwidth leading to higher quality of service to a larger group ofconsumers who are not necessarily located in urban areas. For operators,our cost-effective hybrid solution expands coverage regions, addsbandwidth, enables introduction of new services to more customers anduses existing network infrastructure and channels," stated Eyal Copitt,Spacecom's senior vice president of sales for Africa and Asia andmarketing.

AMOS-5 was designed and built specifically for the African market witha pan-African C-band beam and three Ku-band beams that cover thecontinent and provide connectivity to Europe and the Middle East. Thesatellite's 17°E position enables its signal to reach every region in Sub-Saharan Africa.

ALCATEL-LUCENT IS EXPANDING its collaboration with IntelCorporation to help operators worldwide improve their timeto market and operational efficiency, and to drive thecreative development of new products and services forconsumers and business customers with the use of cloudtechnologies.As long-standing partners already working in thevirtualisation space together, Alcatel-Lucent and Intel arecommitted to accelerating these joint efforts andstrengthening this relationship.Both companies believe these are the key underlyingtechnologies to apply their combined resources andexpertise and the ones that will drive a huge leap forwardfor the industry.Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) appeals especially tomobile service providers now because it allows them toinnovate more quickly and easily while providing the bestreturn on their investments in an all-IP networkinfrastructure such as LTE. Specifically the expandedcollaboration will focus on three areas to accelerate thedevelopment of three Alcatel-Lucent platforms optimized onIntel architecture to improve performance and scale:• Virtualised Radio Access Networks (RAN) portfolio,

developing and optimizing Alcatel-Lucent’s LTE andLTE-Advanced wireless products. The solution willenable operators to use general purpose platforms inconfigurations that will reduce TCO and increase

operators’ ability to scale networks to satisfy mobiledata demand with rapidly changing devices andapplications.

• Cloud Platform, developing and optimizing Alcatel-Lucent’s CloudBand NFV platform including jointcontributions to the Open source community and a pushto accelerate service provider testing, validation anddeployment of NFV technology and products.

• High-performance Packet Processing for advancedIP/MPLS platforms and functions to enable Alcatel-Lucent’s IP development team the insights required touse the features and capabilities of Intel®architecture to deliver improved performance invirtualized IP/MPLS functions.

Alcatel-Lucent collaborates with Intel to speed industry move to cloud

TALIA WILL NOW be able to provide its customers in the oil and gasindustry across the Middle East and Africa access to Thuraya’s widerange of mobile satellite products and solutions.Talia is a provider of data communications and voice services,recognised as a market-leading network provider in the Middle East,Africa, and Europe. Talia provides global network coverage, and enablebusinesses, enterprises, NGOs, and government customers, throughthe Talia teleport and datacentre, to link remote locations with all themajor regional telecom hubs around the world.Alan Afrasiab, chief executive officer of Talia said, “Our partnership withThuraya allows us to extend a complete portfolio of mobile satelliteservices to our customers. We are pleased to provide our customerswith Thuraya’s wide range of innovative products and solutions whichincludes the IP+, SatSleeve and XT.”Thuraya Telecommunications Company is a mobile satellite servicesoperator and a global telecommunications provider offering innovativecommunications solutions to a variety of sectors including energy,broadcast media, maritime, military and humanitarian NGO. Thuraya’snetwork enables clear communications and uninterrupted coverageacross two thirds of the globe by satellite and across the whole planetthrough its unique GSM roaming capabilities.“Our partnership with Talia demonstrates Thuraya’s commitment toserving our customers through a network of sector-specific servicepartners,” said Bilal El Hamoui, vice president of distribution atThuraya.“Talia’s experience with providing end-to-end satellite solutions for oiland gas customers is complementary to ours and will enable us tobetter serve our customers in this important sector across Thuraya’ssatellite footprint. We are well-positioned to offer VSAT backupsolutions with our Thuraya IP+ or broadband terminals with flexible rateplans for high or low volume usage.”

AFRICAN SOCIAL BUSINESSsoftware (SBS) specialist Wyzetalkhas ‘democratised’ its enterprisecommunication and collaborationsuite with the launch of WyzetalkWorkforce. Originally designed forsmart devices and Web-enabledPCs, the platform now alsosupports feature phones.

Gys Kappers, CEO of Wyzetalk,said Wyzetalk Enterprise hashelped companies including EOH,Protea Hotels, Discovery, DeliSpices, Synchron and CashCrusaders amongst others formhigh-impact communities withtheir staff, customers andpartners.

“It helps organisations retainknowledge, drum up corporatespirit, get new employees up tospeed, collaborate on business-purpose projects, fosterinnovation and improve customerservice by creating highly engagedcommunities.”

Wyzetalk connectsmass workforce

AMOS-5 at 17°E launches hybridsatellite-cellular solution

Talia to work with Thuraya on oil and gas

“In the last year we have seenan acceleration of innovationand industry changes. This isnothing compared to what wewill see in the next decades,bringing new possibilities to

our digital lifestyles.” - MichelCombes, CEO, Alcatel-Lucent

EQUIPMENT



EQUIPMENT

44

FLUKE NETWORKS HAS announced its award-winning Application-AwareNetwork Performance Management solution (AANPM), and its flagshipnetwork analysis tablet, the OptiView XG™, Visual TruView™, have beenintegrated to provide the industry’s first AANPM solution capable of analysingan enterprise’s entire network infrastructure—including wired and wireless,application performance and device interconnectivity, and path analysis allthe way to an end user’s specific device.

Without the back-and-forth checking of separate tools with multiple userinterfaces and sign-ons to find and resolve problems usually carried out,network engineers now have a unified view of wired and wireless performanceacross the entire organisation, including remote sites and applications deliveredacross cloud, carrier and enterprise networks. Using Visual TruView, not onlycan they quickly spot if a problem exists, they can also isolate where in the pathof delivery the problem may be hiding and effectively troubleshoot it.

Over the years, IT has moved towards application-centric, service-orientedoperations, and the need for application awareness within performancemonitoring and management technologies has skyrocketed as a result. Enduser expectations have also increased rapidly, together with their use ofsmart devices, mobile applications and streaming media.

“The new solution from Fluke Networks brings two advanced, best-in-classproducts together to address the challenge of truly effective end-to-endAANPM visibility,” revealed Jim Frey, vice president at EnterpriseManagement Associates.

“Organisations who embrace this newly combined solution stand to gainsubstantial benefits in terms of increased operations effectiveness,shorter Mean Time to Repair, and improved ROI on their networkmanagement tools investments.”

CISCO SYSTEMS AND Citrix Systems will join forces to allow businessesto construct simpler and secure mobile infrastructures.

At the Citrix Synergy 2014 show held in Los Angeles 6 May, the twofirms launched Cisco Mobile Workspace Solution with Citrix, bringingtogether Cisco's computing, networking and security capabilities withCitrix's new Workspace Suite of mobile of virtualization and mobilitytools. The goal is to provide companies an enterprise mobilityinfrastructure offering, both companies revealed.

Citrix launched Workspace Suite during the show, which was partlyfocused on mobility, virtualization and networking.

"This new Cisco Mobile Workspace Solution with Citrix, built on theCitrix Workspace Suite, provides the complete hardware and softwaretechnology stack for delivering all the applications, content, and tools,"stated Prashanth Shenoy, director of enterprise networks at Cisco.

“This new Workspace Solution is excellent for companies movinginto the second stage of their mobility journey—where their focus is onproviding all the applications, content and services their employeesneed on their devices. This solution can help your employees,partners, and consultants work and collaborate on their mobile anddesk devices.”IT departments dealing with bring-your-own-device (BYOD)environments will need to ensure data and the corporate infrastructureis secure.

"Today we are … offering customers a powerful solution thatenhances user experience and productivity while simplifying andsecuring IT infrastructure in a cost-effective manner," stated SudhakarRamakrishna, senior vice president and general manager for Citrix'sEnterprise and Service Provider Division.

AVG, THE ONLINE security company for devices, data and people, offeringintegrated data security, RMM, outsourced helpdesk and IT support launched itsaward winning AVG Managed Workplace®, an open ecosystem RemoteManagement & Monitoring (RMM) application platform at this year’s CeBIT show.The computer expo, which took place between 5-7 May at Australia’s SydneyOlympic Park, provided an opportunity for AVG to showcase its AVG ManagedWorkplace, following its integration with the AVG CloudCare™ cloud securityservices suite late last year. The event welcomed more than 500 exhibitors, fromsmaller businesses to global companies across the world, exhibiting theirinnovations and technologies on the CeBIT Exhibition Show Floor, the largesttechnology exhibition in Australia.AVG Managed Workplace allows Managed Services Providers (MSPs) to improveproductivity and lower the cost of managing their customers’ business IT systems.This provides greater simplicity and tighter integration between the large numberof disparate management tools from different vendors that they use in the courseof their work. This will help to lower their costs down and improve margins. Michael Dowling, channel and corporate sales director at AVG Technologies AU,stated, “With AVG CloudCare and AVG Managed Workplace working together, ourchannel partners can benefit from having everything they need to manage theircustomers from a single trusted vendor. But AVG also allows them to work withany solution of their choice. We believe that having an open ecosystem andvendor-agnostic approach are an important value-add to MSPs and key to thelasting success of AVG Managed Workplace.”The integrated AVG CloudCare service module for AVG Managed Workplace allowsMSPs to remotely monitor their customers’ device security measures from within asingle dashboard and readily identify where protection is missing. This will let partnersimprove most of their customers’ devices, while also protecting their IT environment. AVG CloudCare is a range of data security and protection services with simple cloud-based remote IT management capabilities. It is purpose-built for small businessesand the channel partners (resellers and MSPs) that serve them. With its integratedAntiVirus, Content Filtering, Email Security and Online Backup components, AVG

CloudCare adds up to an essential security services platform for any MSP wantingto serve and protect their small business customers remotely anywhere. AVG also offers channel partners of various sizes the opportunity to outsourcebasic helpdesk or professional IT services support through its Helpdesk (HD) andNetwork Operations Centre (NOC) services. Having access to these services allowsthem to expand and take on more business without the risk or responsibility ofhiring extra in-house staff before their operations are able to sustain them. For channel partners visiting CeBIT, Michael Dowling and his team will be on handto organise trials, explain AVG’s lucrative channel program and demonstrate thevalue of AVG products to individual and business clients, AVG stated. AVG is hosting multiple roadshows around Australia to showcase AVG ManagedWorkplace and AVG CloudCare to its partner community. Mike Foreman, generalmanager SMB, will be attending and will be there to answer questions on thedirection of AVG’s SMB business and product portfolio.

AVG CloudCare is a suite of data security and protection services witheasy-to-use cloud-based remote IT management capabilities.

AVG showcases managed workplace RMM platform

Fluke Networks launches integrated solution Cisco partners with Citrix for mobility


S09 CAF 3 2014 Equipment 02_Layout 1 07/05/2014 15:06 Page 44



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GL COMMUNICATIONS INC has launched its enhanced voice and data testingsolutions VQuad, WebViewer and Mobile Device Controller.

Speaking to reporters, Robert Bichefsky, senior manager for productdevelopment at the company, said, “As advanced technologies such as LTE,Advanced LTE, WiMax, 3G, and Broadband are becoming common, basicvoice/data quality will ultimately determine the fate of carriers and endequipment manufacturers.”

“Simple and effective methods of testing voice and data are basicrequirements - GL's mobile test solution provides this capability with theflexibility of connecting to and between any network, any service, and anyinterface,” Bichefsky added.

VQuad, as well as the NetTest option, supports Data Testing from any PC orfrom any smart phone or tablet which supports Apple, Android and Windows 8operating systems. The Data Tests include TCP, UDP, HTTP, FTP, DNS, VoIP, SMS andemail based tests run automatically or manually or not.

Bichefsky continued, “The VQuad™ software is used for automated callcontrol as well as to automatically send and record voice files from any type ofnetwork (Wireless, VoIP, TDM, & Analog). VQuad™ supports up to 8 telephonydevices simultaneously. A minimum of two telephony nodes are required fortransferring files, either within same VQuad™ Node or between multiplegeographically separated VQuad™ Nodes.

GL’s enhanced WebViewer™ offers node management capability, featuringreal-time status of each node within the network. The WebViewer™ also supportsdistant access of any VQuad™ node within the network. While the company’s newMobile Device Controller (MDC) provides a liaison to all supported Apple/Androidbased mobile devices for conducting data NetTests, according to Bichefsky.

CANNON TECHNOLOGIES AFRICA will launch a new range of smartpower management solutions which are expected to boost theefficiency of data centres as well as reducing wasted manpowerby offering monitoring and control of PDUs. The manufacturer’s ofdata cabinets and metal enclosure systems will create a total of16 PDU, which can be connected together to monitor and controlhundreds of individual sockets using one simple, secure, web-based graphical management interface.

The Cannon Power PDUs offer a complete power managementsolution; each equipped with a 1.8 inch colour LCD displaymaking reading information easier for the strip, such as thecurrent, voltage, power, energy consumption (kWh), power factor,as well as humidity and temperature. The system also features anIP dongle that allows multiple PDUs to be assessed andcontrolled remotely via a single IP address over an Ethernetnetwork; lowering manpower and travel costs as well as assistingwith capacity planning and ensuring the data centre is moreefficient.

The management suite depending on the model can controlindividual power outlets and switch them on and off.Measurements can also be recorded to help with reporting andalerts can be raised when designated thresholds are surpassed.Cannon Technologies Africa will also launch releasing a cost-saving strip for local smart monitoring solution. These stripsconsist of a centrally-mounted, blue LED display to allow trueRMS current monitoring and have the same range of mountingand socket options as Cannon Technologies smart PDUs.

HITACHI DATA SYSTEMS Corporation (HDS), asubsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd, will launch newtechnology to improve customer experience withBusiness Defined IT; bringing together acompany’s business and technology objectives,which requires a more responsive IT foundation.The “Continuous Cloud Infrastructure” is expectedto improve IT efficiency through a responsive,software-rich architecture that can quickly reactto changing needs without continual redesign anddisruption.The Hitachi Storage Virtualisation OperatingSystem (SVOS), Hitachi Virtual Storage PlatformG1000, a new version of the Hitachi CommandSuite management platform and significantenhancements to its Hitachi Unified ComputePlatform converged computing offerings.Combined, these technologies offer thefoundation of an IT infrastructure that can adaptto continuously changing business needs, withoutdisruption.“Our customers across industries have told us forthem to keep up with the fast pace of business,they are aligning the IT and business functionsmore closely than ever,” said Wayne Dick,business development manager, Hitachi DataSystems for sub-Saharan Africa. “IT teams are looking to new infrastructurestrategies to deploy more continuous, adaptableand scalable infrastructure. Businesses needsolutions that don’t require constant and

disruptive changes to the technology theysupport. And that is what we are deliveringtoday,” Dick added.

Deep ecosystem Integration and SolutionReadinessHitachi Data Systems’ technologies come tomarket with integration across virtualisationplatforms, databases and a variety of clusteringand operating systems platforms, and can bequickly adopted to support various workloads.

Deep work with strategic partners such asMicrosoft, SAP and VMware allows SVOS andthe VSP G1000 to be certified in keyprogrammes like MicrosoftPrivate Cloud deployments, SAP HANA’s TailoredData Center Initiative and extended integrationwithin VMware ecosystems.

Hitachi Storage Virtualisation OperatingSystem: Software-Defined WithoutCompromiseHitachi Storage Virtualisation Operating System(SVOS) is the first stand-alone softwareimplementation of Hitachi storage virtualisation.This new storage operating system provides acommon software architecture that will doublethe useful life of hardware architectures. SVOScustomers have improved flexibility and asimplified infrastructure for a future-ready path

to the software defined data center. It delivers theflexibility of software-defined architectures withthe proven capabilities of Hitachi enterprisestorage software. Primary features include flashoptimisation and advanced storage virtualisation.

Hitachi launches the Hitachi StorageVirtualisation Operating System (SVOS) andHitachi Virtual Storage Platform G1000

Hitachi Data Systems offers business-defined approach for IT

GL announces enhanced voice and datatesting solutions

Cannon Technologies Africa launchesPower Management Solution





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AIRBUS DEFENCE AND Space et Sapura Secured Technologies ont signé unaccord de coopération visant à établir un partenariat de long terme entre lesdeux entreprises dans le domaine C4ISR (commandement, contrôle,communication, informatique, renseignement, surveillance etreconnaissance).

Et Zarif Hashim, CEO de Sapura Secured Technologies, d’ajouter : « Cettecollaboration permettra à Sapura de bénéficier de la technologie C4ISRd’Airbus Defence and Space pour développer des solutions C4ISR de classemondiale pour nos clients. Nos activités de développement conjointesrenforceront la position de leader de Sapura dans le secteur des technologiesd’ingénierie avancées ainsi que sa compétence en matière d’intégration desystèmes, qui vise à regrouper de multiples systèmes et informations sur uneseule plate-forme opérationnelle intelligente et interactive. Nous avons pourambition de développer ensemble des solutions capables de répondre auxfutures exigences C4ISR au-delà de nos frontières ».

Airbus Defence and Space est une division du groupe Airbus, née duregroupement des activités de Cassidian, Astrium et Airbus Military. Cettenouvelle division est le numéro un européen de l’industrie spatiale et de ladéfense, le numéro deux mondial de l’industrie spatiale et fait partie des dixpremières entreprises mondiales du secteur de la défense.

Sapura Secured Technologies est un leader de l’innovation dans le domainedes systèmes de missions critiques avec une orientation claire sur lesactivités de R&D. L’entreprise dirige plusieurs programmes nationaux enMalaisie et exporte ses produits et services dans le monde entier. Elle fournitdes solutions et des services aux agences de défense et de sécurité, demaintien de l’ordre, de sécurité publique et de secours.

EN AVRIL 2014, l'EPITA organisait sa traditionnelle semaineinternationale sur son campus. L'occasion pour tous les étudiantsd'assister à des conférences et de participer à différents ateliers plus oumoins dépaysants. Créée en 1984, l'EPITA (Ecole Pour l'Informatique etles Techniques Avancées) est l'école d'ingénieurs qui forme celles etceux qui conçoivent, développent et font progresser les technologies del'information et de la communication (TIC).

Quoi de plus normal pour de futurs ingénieurs que de vouloir assouvirleur curiosité. C'est pour cela que l'EPITA organise désormais chaqueannée sa semaine internationale. « L'idée, c'est de faire toucher lesétudiants à d'autres cultures avec qui ils devront, à un moment ou à unautre, communiquer ou travailler, explique ainsi Christophe Rouvrais,directeur du développement et des relations internationales de l'école.Plus qu'une pause dans leur scolarité - le programme d'ingénieur étantextrêmement soutenu -, cette semaine est pour eux surtout le momentidéal pour se projeter dans l'avenir. »

Une véritable aubaine pour les différentes promotions réunies quipeuvent alors (re)découvrir les différents partenariats entrepris parl'école, ses programmes d'échanges et ce à quoi ressemble un stage àl'étranger grâce aux témoignages d'étudiants actuels, d'Anciens et deprofessionnels ayant déjà vécu une expérience professionnelle endehors de l'Hexagone.

« Dans le métier d'ingénieur informaticien, métier qui va s'appliquerpartout dans le monde, il y a une vraie dimension internationale »,explique Joël Courtois, le directeur général de l'EPITA. C'est pourquoil'école forme ses étudiants afin qu'ils puissent développer unecompétence fondamentale dans le domaine informatique actuel : lemanagement inter-culturel.

POURQUOI FAIRE COMPLIQUÉ quand on peut fairesimple ? C'est la question que posait MartinGörner de Google en insistant sur l'intérêt pour lesstart-ups de faire appel aux technologies cloudpour se concentrer en priorité sur leurs produitsplutôt que sur les infrastructures serveurs. Pourl'intervenant, il semble inconcevable que cesstart-ups-là, qui peuvent être amenées à devoirgérer un flux important, aient encore à se soucierdes « montées en charge ». « Ça, ça ne devraitplus exister aujourd'hui, estimait-il. Si vous voulezvous lancer, concentrez-vous sur ce qui fait lavaleur ajoutée de votre application, pas sur desproblématiques de serveurs que d'autres genssavent très bien résoudre ! »

Le buzz, ce faux-ami Pour étayer ses propos, Martin Görner prenait lesoin de présenter les services proposées parGoogle Cloud Plateform, nourris par un « travail enR&D réalisé depuis quinze ans » qui permet de «faire marcher des centaines de milliers de serveursensemble ». App Engine est l'un de ces services etrésout justement les problèmes de montées encharge. Pourtant, au grand dam de l'intervenant,certaines start-ups n'en ont pas encore comprisl'importance : « Beaucoup de développeurs nes'en rendent pas compte au moment de démarrerleur projet et font tout fonctionner sur un seulserveur. Et, malheureusement, encore trop destart-ups se lancent, ont la chance de faire un bon

buzz, mais (à cause de ce buzz et du traficgénéré) voient leur serveur s'écrouler ! Ilspassent alors deux mois à tout remettre en placepour passer de un à plusieurs serveurs. Ilsessaient ensuite de se relancer mais c'est troptard : le buzz est déjà passé... »

Un atelier pratique pour comprendre App EngineS'il demeure encore des développeurs imprudents,certaines sociétés appliquent déjà les conseilsdonnés par Martin Görner. C'est généralement lecas de celles qui aspirent à « lancer des servicesplanétaires » avec une petite équipe et à êtreremarquées par TechCrunch, le media n°1 des

start-ups et de l'innovation technologique,capable de générer le plus gros trafic de l'histoired'un site ou d'une application quelques minutesaprès en avoir parlé.C'est aussi le cas pour des start-ups dont lesapplications ont une très courte « durée de vie »prévue dès le départ, comme certains jeux vidéo(qui surfent sur une tendance)... ou des sitescensés annoncer un résultat très attendu. C'estjustement cette catégorie-là qui a été utilisée parMartin Görner pour un workshop : un atelierpratique avec des start-ups et développeurs chezGoogle à Paris, France. « On a proposé auxparticipants de faire en deux heures un site quiannonce les résultats de l'élection présidentielle,développe-t-il. C'est un bon exemple car,imaginons qu'au soir de l'élection, la France toutentière se retrouve sur le même site, au mêmemoment. Il faut que le site tienne la charge mais,comme son utilité est très courte, on ne va pasprendre des mois pour construire uneinfrastructure très intelligente qui va tenir cettedernière. On se sert alors de briques existantes. »Pour les étudiants de Ionis-STM et SUP'Internet, ils'agissait d'une belle opportunité pour constater àquel point l'utilisation du cloud pouvait changer ladonne, optimiser le rendement d'une idée etfaciliter la vie des développeurs. Nul doute qu'ilssauront sans souvenir quand ils seront amenés àfaire grandir des start-ups ou quand ils lancerontleur propre projet.

Martin Görner, Google

Le cloud déshabillé par Google

Airbus Defence and Space et Sapura s’engagent

dans un partenariat C4ISR

L'EPITA invite ses étudiants au voyage




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LE MINISTRE MALAISIEN des communications et du multimédia a appelél'UIT à élaborer des normes pour des technologies de pointe destinées àfaciliter la transmission de données de vol en temps réel. Il s'exprimait àl'ouverture de la Conférence mondiale de développement destélécommunications de l'UIT qui se tient à Dubaï.

Cette annonce fait suite à la tragique disparition du vol MH370 deMalaysian Airlines, le 8 mars dernier, lors d'un vol régulier entre KualaLumpur et Beijing. Plusieurs pays se sont associés aux opérations derecherche de l'avion disparu et de ses 239 passagers et membresd'équipage et déploient actuellement des avions et des navires derecherche qui explorent de vastes zones du sud de l'océan Indien.

"Je pense que les données provenant des appareils, y compris cellesde la boîte noire, pourraient être émises en permanence et stockéesdans des centres de données au sol", a dit Ahmad Shabery Cheek,Ministre malaisien des communications et du multimédia. "J'inviteinstamment l'UIT à collaborer avec le secteur privé pour élaborer unemeilleure méthode qui permettrait de surveiller en permanence lesdonnées de vol et la situation dans le poste de pilotage. Grâce auxprogrès des TIC aujourd'hui, nous devrions être en mesure de récupéreret d'analyser ces données, même si nous ne localisons pas la boîtenoire. Selon moi, une mesure aussi simple que cela aurait pu permettred'éviter d'en arriver là aujourd'hui. Dans ce contexte, je ne peux queconstater que, alors que les technologies de communication ontradicalement évolué au cours des cinq dernières années, rien n'achangé depuis trente ans en ce qui concerne les boîtes noires".

"Je tiens à exprimer toute ma sympathie et mon inquiétude face auxincertitudes entourant le sort des nombreux passagers du vol MH370", adéclaré le Secrétaire général de l'UIT Hamadoun I. Touré. "Nous devons

faire en sorte que les avions puissent être localisés en temps réel, pourqu'un accident aussi tragique ne se reproduise plus jamais. L'UITs'engage à élaborer des normes qui tireront parti des "big data" et desderniers progrès de l'informatique en nuage".

Toutes les lignes aériennes commerciales et les avions d'affaires sonttenus d'installer et d'utiliser des "boîtes noires" pour suivre un certainnombre de paramètres de vol. L'enregistreur de données de vol (FDR) estdestiné à enregistrer les données d'exploitation provenant des systèmesd'un aéronef, notamment l'altitude-pression, la vitesse-air,l'accélération verticale, le cap magnétique et la position des systèmesde commande. Les enregistreurs phoniques, ou CVR, enregistrent leséchanges entre les pilotes et l'environnement acoustique du poste depilotage. Tous ces équipements de surveillance fournissent auxenquêteurs de précieuses indications sur les causes d'un accident.

VIBER, LA PLATEFORME de file communication mobilede premier rang qui offre la messagerie gratuite etdes appels téléphoniques de grande qualité, a publiéune nouvelle version de son application pourl’iPhone. Cette nouvelle version est conçue pour l’iOS7, et offre de multiples améliorations aux utilisateursde l’iPhone. La société a publié en même temps unenouvelle application mobile pour BlackBerry 10,offrant pour la première fois au tout dernier systèmed’exploitation de BlackBerry plusieurs des pluspopulaires fonctionnalités de Viber.« La conception de Viber a été revisitée depuis ledébut afin d’offrir simplicité et facilité d’utilisation.Pour cette version pour iPhone, nous nous sommesinspirés de la finition lisse et propre de l’iOS 7 ;l’objectif était de faire de Viber une partie homogènede l’appareil, » a commenté Talmon Marco, PDG deViber. « Notre application pour BlackBerry 10 est unebelle intégration de notre design offrant à nosutilisateurs la meilleure expérience actuelle. »

Les versions iPhone et BlackBerry de l’applicationont toutes deux été améliorées avec de nouvelles etpuissantes fonctions qui permettent d’élargir lesfonctionnalités de la plateforme. Et surtout, Viber 4.2

pour iPhone permet aux utilisateurs d’envoyerplusieurs photos et vidéos en même temps et decréer une liste de blocage pour les numéros ou lescontacts indésirables.Parmi les mises à jour supplémentaires pour l’iPhonefigurent notamment :• Envoi de messages vidéo plus longs• Affichage du statut lorsqu’un utilisateur saisit un

message sur une tablette Android, uneplateforme Linux, Mac, PC ou Windows 8

• Corrections des boguesLes principales fonctionnalités de l’application pourBlackBerry 10 sont Viber Out la boutique ViberSticker, qui fournissent aux utilisateurs des moyensd’utiliser la plateforme, de communiquer avec leursamis, tout en y prenant du plaisir.En outre, cette version offre une multitude defonctions classiques longtemps attendues desutilisateurs de BlackBerry 10 :• Messages textuels dans les conversations

personnelles ou de groupe• Appels gratuits avec une qualité sonore haute

définition• Partage de photos, vidéos, messages vocaux,

géolocalisation, autocollants et émoticônes• Notifications Push afin de ne jamais manquer

un message ou d’un appel, même lorsque Viberest désactivé

• Prise en charge de de l’application Viber Desktopsur Windows et Mac

• Traduction dans 34 langues

Le version BlackBerry de l’application ont toutesdeux été améliorées avec de nouvelles etpuissantes fonctions qui permettent d’élargir lesfonctionnalités de la plateforme

Viber publie un nouveau design pour l’iPhone et fait son apparition sur BlackBerry 10

L'UIT va élaborer des normes pour les futurs enregistreurs de données de vol


H.E. Ahmad Shabery Cheek, Ministre malaisiendes communications et du multimédia

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«Notre application pourBlackBerry 10 est une belleintégration de notre designoffrant à nos utilisateurs la

meilleure expérienceactuelle.» - Talmon Marco,

PDG de Viber



ÉQUIPEMENT

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LES 11, 12 et 13 avril s'est déroulé, à Paris etdans le monde entier, le Space AppsChallenge. Basée sur le principe duhackathon, cette initiative débutée en 2012mobilise les passionnés avec des profilscomplémentaires et un minimum deressources en un minimum de temps enapportant des solutions libres de droit etapplicables immédiatement.

Numa et le Carrefour Numérique ont ainsipermis à 6 équipes de travailler sur deschallenges imaginés par des experts de laNASA, parfois en dupleix avec un autre pays etces mêmes experts. En sont nés des projets

incroyables : solutions open source pour parexemple déployer une serre sur Mars(Hexafield) ou fabriquer un satellite low cost àpartir de son téléphone portable. Ces deuxderniers projets sont sélectionnés pour lasuite du challenge, et seront étudiés par unjury NASA auprès de tous les gagnants deschapitres locaux. Mais cette sélection ne doitpas faire oublier les autres projets de qualitéqui ont été réalisé ce week end : EV32 Mars,Astro 1 et Team Salad.

L’équipe EV32Mars a conçu un roveréducatif muni de capteurs permettant des’intégrer dans son environnement.

L’utilisation de briques Lego Mindstorms lerend utilisable dès l’école primaire.

L’équipe Astro1 a imaginé un vaisseausuffisamment polyvalent pour atterrir sur unastéroide et changer sa trajectoire, ou lepousser. Il serait constitué de deux espaces,un technique l’autre habitable, avec un noyauprincipal et des roues permettant de maintenirune gravité artificielle.

L’équipe Team Salad réalise un jeu decartes sur support informatique Le joueur,incarnant une agence spatiale, doitconstruire son deck pour réaliser desmissions habitées.

Retour sur le Space App Challenge

Company .................................................................................... page

Amos Spacecom ..............................................................................11

Anritsu A/S ........................................................................................7

ArabSat ............................................................................................51

Belintersat........................................................................................25

Eutelsat S.A.......................................................................................15

Gazprom Space Systems, JSC ........................................................27

GL Communications Inc. ..................................................................35

Informa Telecoms & Media (Connecting West Africa 2014)............45

Informa Telecoms & Media (VAS Africa 2014 )................................47

Intelsat................................................................................................9

Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd. ................................................................52

Liquid Telecommunications ..............................................................5

MEASAT Satellite Systems Sdn Bhd ................................................13

RSCC (Russian Satellite Communications Company) ....................17

SES Africa ..........................................................................................2

Telemedia Pty Ltd ............................................................................29

Terrapinn Ltd. (SatCom Africa 2014)................................................23

Thaicom Public Company Ltd ..........................................................21

WIOCC ..............................................................................................33

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Communications Africa 3 2014