Cameroonian Businessman To Launch First Indigenous Telecom

 Cameroonian businessman and owner of Seme New Beach Hotel, Semme Mineral Water and Climacam, Seme Noungon plans to launch Altylis Seme Telecom, a 7.6 million euro ($10.3 million) lowcost telephony company, into the “uncrowded” Central African market this month.

The first locally-owned telecom operator in the Cameroon, Altylis Seme Telecom said its objective is to “break mobile prices” in the country which has South African telecoms giant MTN and French multinational, Orange as its only mobile network service providers.

Both companies control a combined 11 million subscriber base, which is about half of the country’s population.

In 2012, Vietnamese firm Viettel obtained licences to operate 2G and 3G networks in Cameroon and announced it would go live to the public by March 2014.

According to a study by Pyramid Research, the introduction of 3G services and integrated data could attract more than six million new subscribers in Cameroon by 2017.

source:www.ventures-africa.com

Cameroonian Businessman To Launch First Indigenous Telecom

Cameroonian businessman and owner of Seme New Beach Hotel, Semme Mineral Water and Climacam, Seme Noungon plans to launch Altylis Seme Telecom, a 7.6 million euro ($10.3 million) lowcost telephony company, into the “uncrowded” Central African market this month.

The first locally-owned telecom operator in the Cameroon, Altylis Seme Telecom said its objective is to “break mobile prices” in the country which has South African telecoms giant MTN and French multinational, Orange as its only mobile network service providers.

Both companies control a combined 11 million subscriber base, which is about half of the country’s population.

In 2012, Vietnamese firm Viettel obtained licences to operate 2G and 3G networks in Cameroon and announced it would go live to the public by March 2014.

According to a study by Pyramid Research, the introduction of 3G services and integrated data could attract more than six million new subscribers in Cameroon by 2017.

source: www.cameroon-africa.com

The best route to the African consumer

Africa is ushering in positive indicators across the board. The challenge is how to reach this growing demand in a continent where not everyone has access to financial services, rural areas are still highly populated and the costs of expanding ATMs and bank branches to remote rural areas are prohibitive.

The best solution for Africa seems then to be mobile commerce. Mobile phone penetration in the continent is much higher than bank account penetration. According to a report by TA Telecom it reached 80% in December 2013 of which 63% was 2G, 26% was 2.5G (also called EDGE, adding low-speed data), and only 11% was 3G connections. This sets Africa for diverse payment methods, however the ultimate channel to reach the largest portion of African demand is by SMS (2G) through which M-banking, M-retail, and M-payments are made possible. Business Monitor International estimates that the value of mobile transactions on the continent will move from $12bn in 2011 to $85bn in 2016.

Mobile commerce has proved to be a winning formula in a number of African countries. In Kenya it is a true success story. M-pesa, the largest and most developed mobile money platform in the world, has 19.5m subscribers (cellphone users). The platform has also been adopted by 10 Kenyan banks. Central Bank of Kenya data shows that mobile payments in Kenya grew 21.8% to $13.9bn by the end of August 2013 compared to the same period last year. The government has also found the solution perfectly suited to fulfil its goals of financial inclusion, welfare disbursement and inward international transfer promotion.

source: www.howwemadeitafrica.com

Simmtronics Enters India Smartphone Market

Simmtronics Semiconductors Ltd has said it was foraying into the mobile phone segment with the launch of XPAD smartphones in India, after the successful launches of XPAD tablets. The XPAD range of smartphones would be across all segments starting from entry to high end and would be equipped processors ranging from single core to superior quad cores. The company has already launched these products in UAE market, during GITEX 2013 and says has got overwhelming response from Africa, Egypt, GCC and CIS countries. Simmtronics also claimed that it was the only company both in tablets and smartphone segments to be licensed by Ericsson, and have a licensed access to launch 2G, 3G, 4G LTE products across the globe. The company has also tied up with HCL Care for providing aftermarket services, said a Simmtronics release. Indrrajit Sabharwal, Managing Director, Simmtronics stated, “The smartphone usability is increasing day by day, we decided to foray into the smartphone segment with the launch of XPAD range of smartphones in affordable price range. This innovatively designed device’s is enriched with a high end technology.” Anticipating growth, the company is also gearing up for local production of the same, and is investing Rs 200 crore in the smartphone segment with a revenue target of Rs 500 crore by this financial year end. Currently at a turnover of Rs 550 crore, the company is targeting Rs 800 crore of revenue in the next fiscal.  The smartphone range comprises Fundroid, Amazoid and Smartdroid series of phones.

source: www.lightreading.in

Global Connected Car Market Report 2013-2018

The market presents direct revenue channel from applications, services, and content. Industry experts believe that if it is done right, software updates will become the major revenue generator since people are willing to pay for them if they are reasonably priced. Software can keep the car up-to-date even if it is not the latest model anymore and essentially tied to the regular maintenance of the vehicle.

The future remains to be seen and will depend on how much the automotive companies open up their systems for third party developers. However, car manufacturers need to standardize on common solutions to drive the market and open systems to create the necessary critical mass among app developers.

Key Take-Aways

• The total shipments of connected car in 2012 are expected to grow at an estimated CAGR of 41.2% from 2013 to 2018. This would account for more than 50.0% of total global car shipments by 2018.
• Various connectivity solutions such as LTE, 3G, Wi-Fi, and HSPA are being bundled with OEM manufactured cars, apart from the existing traditional connectivity such as Bluetooth and 2G.
• North America and China would lead the way in LTE adoption, while 3G would get a boost from European countries andIndia.
• Middle East, North Africa, and emerging economies in countries such as Indonesia offer a better opportunity for traditional connectivity solutions.
• Automotive Semiconductor Industry to reach $18 billion by 2018
• The growth of end product market such as display and screen is directly linked to the OEM shipment of the connected car market.
• Aftermarket service is likely to witness the highest CAGR from 2013 to 2018.

source: www.prnewswire.com

2G, 3G & 4G Subscriptions, Deployments and Infrastructure Contracts Database Q4'2013

With over 250 commercial network launches and over a thousand LTE-enabled devices available in the market as of December 2013, LTE adoption has considerably gained momentum throughout the globe. Unique market and operator requirements have driven several early LTE launches. Driven by these early launches global LTE subscriptions reached nearly 130 Million in Q4'2013. From an operator viewpoint U.S. operators dominate the market with a 37% market share thanks to the tremendous coverage footprint of tier 1 operators Verizon Wireless & AT&T. The market share of U.S. operators is followed by Japanese and Korean operators NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, SoftBank, LG Uplus, SK Telecom and KT which represent 38% of all LTE subscriptions worldwide. Going forward, the LTE market is set to grow at a CAGR of 56% over the next 7 years and will eventually represent more than 20% of all mobile connections by 2020. From an infrastructure manufacturer perspective Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel-Lucent are leading the market and account for a combined market share of 85% of all LTE contracts. Ericsson is also leading the market from a technology neutral perspective with a 24% stake in all global 2G/3G/4G contracts.

Covering over 810 operators, 53 infrastructure vendors and 222 countries worldwide the "2G/3G/4G Subscriptions, Deployments and Infrastructure Contracts Database Q4'2013" tracks global cellular network deployments, infrastructure vendor contracts, and subscriptions by technology, data protocol, category (pre-paid, post paid), region, country, and operator.

The report includes: • Infrastructure contracts by technology, data protocol, region, country, vendor and operator • Infrastructure market share by equipment type, region, country and vendor • Network deployments by technology, data protocol, region, country and operator. • Number of cellular network subscriptions (as of Q4'2013) by air interface technology, data protocol, region, country and operator • Five-year subscriptions forecasts by air interface technology, data protocol, region, country and operator • Subscriptions market share data by air interface technology, data protocol, region, country and operator. • Penetration data by region and country • Population data by region and country

source: www.sacbee.com

Bharti and Reliance Jio announce comprehensive telecom infrastructure sharing arrangement

Bharti Airtel Limited (“Bharti”) and Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (“Reliance Jio”) today announced a comprehensive telecom infrastructure sharing arrangement under which they will share infrastructure created by both parties. This will include optic fibre network – inter and intra city, submarine cable networks, towers and internet broadband services and other such opportunities identified in the future.

The cooperation is aimed at avoiding duplication of infrastructure, wherever possible, and to preserve capital and the environment. This will also provide redundancy in order to ensure seamless services to customers of the respective parties.

The arrangement could, in future, be extended to Roaming on 2G, 3G and 4G, and any other mutually benefiting areas relating to telecommunication, including but not limited to jointly laying optic fibre or other forms of infrastructure services. The pricing would be at ‘arm’s length’, based on the prevailing market rates.

Viettel postponed anticipated cameroon mobile service launch

 Vietnamese mobile telephone operator, Viettel, has postponed its launch into the Cameroonian market till “probably” March 2014.

Viettel, which was supposed to roll out operations in December, needs more time than the 12 months originally agreed with the government in December 2012 when it obtained an operating license.

The delay is due to uncompleted 2G and 3G service networks and instalment of infrastructure in the 10 stipulated in the contracts.

Reports have attributed the “remote” nature of some of the regions for the difficulty.

To favourably compete in the telecom market now dominated by MTN and ORANGE, Viettel wants everything set right. The Vietnamese company has signed-off on the use of 200 billion FCfa ($420 million) to cover the 81 percent launch of 2G and 3G services as well as to increase this coverage to 95 percent in three years.

Currently, Cameroon has some 11 million subscribers, representing a population penetration level of around 50 percent.

 source: www.ventures-africa.com

Bharti Airtel gains after raising funds via over seas bound

The announcement was made after market hours on Wednesday, 4 December 2013.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 433.52 points or 2.09% at 21,142.23.

On BSE, 4,143 shares were traded in the counter as against average daily volume of 2.12 lakh shares in the past two weeks.

The stock hit a high of Rs 339.45 and a low of Rs 337.50 so far during the day.

Bharti Airtel said that the Notes will be fully and unconditionally guaranteed by Bharti Airtel. The Notes attracted huge investor interest with an order-book aggregating over euro 3.8 billion from high quality investor accounts, Bharti Airtel said in a statement. The Notes have been priced at 300 basis points over the 5-year EUR Mid Swap with a fixed coupon of 4% per annum to yield 4.055%. Bharti will apply the net proceeds to refinance its existing debt.

Commenting on the development, Mr. Harjeet Kohli, Group Treasurer of Bharti, said, "It is heartening to be the first Indian corporate to access the European IG credit market. The overwhelming response from investors across Europe for this inaugural issue highlights the strength of our credit. This transaction helps us continue to diversify sources of funding and the EUR financing also acts as a natural hedge to many of our African businesses where local currency is pegged to Euros".

Bharti Airtel's consolidated net profit declined 29% to Rs 512 crore on 9.9% growth in net sales to Rs 21324.40 crore in Q2 September 2013 over Q2 September 2012.

Bharti Airtel is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 4 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed DSL broadband, IPTV, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had nearly 280 million customers across its operations at the end of September 2013.

source:www.bussiness-standard.com

Airtel reaffirms commitment to chad

Bharti Airtel Limited (“Airtel”), a leading global telecommunications services provider with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, today said that it is committed to continue investing in their operations in Chad and build world-class 3G and fibre optic networks that will support the country’s future economic growth. Airtel is the largest mobile operator in Chad, serving over 2 million customers with 2G and Airtel money services. 

Airtel’s Senior Management Executives, including Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman; Mr. Manoj Kohli, MD & CEO (International); and Tiemoko Coulibaly, CEO Africa Francophone Region, today called on the President H.E. Idriss Deby Itno and underlined their commitment to the country’s telecom sector and contributing to the ICT goals of the African nation. 

Airtel also announced that it plans to support a young ICT training and development program that will provide IT training to 6,000 youth in the country, enabling them find employment opportunities.

Mr. Manoj Kohli said, “Airtel will be an inherent part of the vision of the President for a modern and digital Chad. It has been our endeavor to provide world-class services to our customers and we will continue to invest in building 3G broadband networks that contribute to the digital revolution in Chad. The country’s young population is its biggest asset and we would be happy to support initiatives aimed at the development of the country’s youth. Our decision on the young ICT entrepreneurship program is a step in this direction.”

To underline the urgent need for integration of youth into the African growth strategy, it was reiterated that Chad’s population is young; an estimated 47.3% is under 15. Chad aims to have a countrywide digital infrastructure, enabling the development of a wide range of e-services, which will give rise to a major qualitative improvement in social services and create the strong foundations for the country. 

source: www.citifmonline.com

African telecom landscape looks towards high speeds

number of factors have contributed to Africa’s increasing adoption of mobile phones for internet use over PCs — cost and lack of ethernet infrastructure for two. The cost of computers versus the lower prices of mobile phones in addition to the lack of physical internet cable implementation has spurred the growth of mobile devices in Africa — a trend that is now of global proportion. But Africa’s mobile scene presents unique challenges, and the recently reported interest in the continent’s digital communications from Mideast and European telcos has spun a larger conversation over the future of the continent’s growth.

MidEast telcos have been developing their presence in North Africa for a while. Etisalat — an Emirates-based telco — took over France’s Vivendi’s stake in Maroc Telecom in July, heightening its presence in West Africa. ( Maroc Telecom was also Morocco’s largest operator, according to reports.) And European companies such as Orange have been increasing their investments in various countries to get a foothold in the developing markets. These growing investments from operators have accumulated throughout the year, and made for conversation at AfricaCom 2013 — a telecom conference held in Cape Town, South Africa earlier in November which calls together global technology leaders.

An executive from Gemalto — a digital security company — spoke after the conference and called for operators to take advantage of the unique communications landscape in Africa in order to bypass 3G implementation and escalate quickly to 4G. While attaining high speed wireless seems unlikely in regions that have barely reliable 2G, Sherry Zameer, head of Africa and Middle East telecommunications for the company, described the lack of regulation and restrictive platforms actually make Africa ripe for the buildout of 4G.

source: www.blouinnews.com

Africans will benefit from global technology

The 2013 AfricaCom conference and technology exhibition in Cape Town, South Africa, focused on new technologies that will drive development in Africa. It equally uncovered new ways of managing customer experience and how they will benefit from the evolving technologies. Emma Okonji writes
Technology companies from across the globe, last week, gathered in Cape Town, South Africa for the 2013 AfricaCom event to discuss new technologies that will speed up development among African countries.

At the conference, which was organised by Informa Telecoms had Nigeria fully represented at the 2013 conference and exhibition, through Information and Communications Technology  (ICT) companies like Etisalat, MTN, Cisco, Qualcomm, Ericsson, among others that have presence and are currently operating in Nigeria.
Paramount among the new technologies that were discussed and exhibited, were the Long Term Evolution (LTE), including evolving technologies that will drive big data penetration, enhance voice telephony, speed up mobile money penetration, as well as enrich customer experience across African countries.
Etisalat Nigeria used the occasion to announce winners of the software application competition it organised in Nigeria. It presented the winners during the AfricaCom Awards Night, which it co-sponsored with other ICT companies like PCCW Global, MTN, Mahindra Comviva, and Orange.
The LTE Technology
Technology has over time, evolved from 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 3.5G, to the Long Term Evolution technology, otherwise known as 4G LTE technology.
The 4G LTE technology, which is currently being adopted globally, is designed to speed up the broadband technology. The conference advised ICT companies operating in Africa to begin investments in LTE technology, since it is the emerging technology that will drive fast broadband penetration even in remote communities across Africa.

source:www.thisdaylive.com

bharti, reliance jio to share telecom infra

The Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Jio Infocomm and the Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel — two players that could soon be seen locking horns in the 4G long-term evolution (LTE) space — on Tuesday signed an agreement to share telecom infrastructure.

This includes sharing of inter- and intra-city fibre-optic networks, submarine cable networks, towers and internet broadband services, besides other opportunities identified later. In a joint statement, the two said the cooperation was aimed at avoiding duplication of infrastructure, wherever possible, and to preserve capital and the environment.

“This will... ensure seamless services to customers of both parties. The arrangement could, in future, be extended to roaming on 2G, 3G and 4G, and other mutually-benefitting areas relating to telecommunication, including, but not limited to, jointly laying fibre-optic or other forms of infrastructure services. The pricing would be at ‘arm’s length’, based on prevailing market rates,”
source: www. bussiness-standard.com

Africans will benefit from Global technology

The 2013 AfricaCom conference and technology exhibition in Cape Town, South Africa, focused on new technologies that will drive development in Africa. It equally uncovered new ways of managing customer experience and how they will benefit from the evolving technologies. Emma Okonji writes
Technology companies from across the globe, last week, gathered in Cape Town, South Africa for the 2013 AfricaCom event to discuss new technologies that will speed up development among African countries.

At the conference, which was organised by Informa Telecoms had Nigeria fully represented at the 2013 conference and exhibition, through Information and Communications Technology (ICT) companies like Etisalat, MTN, Cisco, Qualcomm, Ericsson, among others that have presence and are currently operating in Nigeria.
Paramount among the new technologies that were discussed and exhibited, were the Long Term Evolution (LTE), including evolving technologies that will drive big data penetration, enhance voice telephony, speed up mobile money penetration, as well as enrich customer experience across African countries.
Etisalat Nigeria used the occasion to announce winners of the software application competition it organised in Nigeria. It presented the winners during the AfricaCom Awards Night, which it co-sponsored with other ICT companies like PCCW Global, MTN, Mahindra Comviva, and Orange.
The LTE Technology
Technology has over time, evolved from 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 3.5G, to the Long Term Evolution technology, otherwise known as 4G LTE technology.
The 4G LTE technology, which is currently being adopted globally, is designed to speed up the broadband technology. The conference advised ICT companies operating in Africa to begin investments in LTE technology, since it is the emerging technology that will drive fast broadband penetration even in remote communities across Africa.

source: www.thisdaylive.com

Qualcomm to make smartphone chips with 64 bit technology

Chipmaker Qualcomm technologies has said it will introduce snapdragon 410 chipset with 4G LTE capability as the company seeks to deliver faster connections to drive growth and adoption of smartphones in emerging regions especially China.

The new snapdragon 410 chipsets use the 28nm process technology that are 64 bit capable along with superior graphics performance with the Adreno 306 GPu, 1080p video playback and up to 13 megapixel camera.

The Snapdragon 410 chipsets will also combine 4G AND 3G cellular connectivity for all major modes and frequency bands worldwide and will support both dual and triple SIM.

Qualcomm further says the chipsets will also have the multiband and multimode support on top of the Qualcomm RF360 front end solution.

Other features to be available on the snapdragon 410 chipsets WiFi, Bluetooth, Fm, NFC functionality as well as support all major navigation constellations: GPS, GLONASS and China's new BeiDou which helps deliver enhanced accuracy and speed of Location data to Snapdragon-enabled handsets.

The chipset that is expected to be available for sampling in the first half of 2014 and is expected to be in commercial devices in the second half of 2014 also supports all the major operating systems including Android, Windows phone and Firefox.

Also available for the first time is the intention by Qualcomm technologies to make 4G LTE available across all of the snapdragon product tiers a move that will ensure that emerging regions are equipped for this transition as they continue to enjoy 2G and 3G technology.

"We are excited to bring 4G LTE to highly affordable smartphones at a sub $150 ( ̴ 1,000 RMB) price point with the introduction of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor," said Jeff Lorbeck, senior vice president and chief operating officer, Qualcomm Technologies, China. "The Snapdragon 410 chipset will also be the first of many 64-bit capable processors as Qualcomm Technologies helps lead the transition of the mobile ecosystem to 64-bit processing.

source: www.allafrica.com

Africans benefit from Global technology

The 2013 AfricaCom conference and technology exhibition in Cape Town, South Africa, focused on new technologies that will drive development in Africa. It equally uncovered new ways of managing customer experience and how they will benefit from the evolving technologies. Emma Okonji writes
Technology companies from across the globe, last week, gathered in Cape Town, South Africa for the 2013 AfricaCom event to discuss new technologies that will speed up development among African countries.

At the conference, which was organised by Informa Telecoms had Nigeria fully represented at the 2013 conference and exhibition, through Information and Communications Technology (ICT) companies like Etisalat, MTN, Cisco, Qualcomm, Ericsson, among others that have presence and are currently operating in Nigeria.
Paramount among the new technologies that were discussed and exhibited, were the Long Term Evolution (LTE), including evolving technologies that will drive big data penetration, enhance voice telephony, speed up mobile money penetration, as well as enrich customer experience across African countries.
Etisalat Nigeria used the occasion to announce winners of the software application competition it organised in Nigeria. It presented the winners during the AfricaCom Awards Night, which it co-sponsored with other ICT companies like PCCW Global, MTN, Mahindra Comviva, and Orange.
The LTE Technology
Technology has over time, evolved from 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 3.5G, to the Long Term Evolution technology, otherwise known as 4G LTE technology.
The 4G LTE technology, which is currently being adopted globally, is designed to speed up the broadband technology. The conference advised ICT companies operating in Africa to begin investments in LTE technology, since it is the emerging technology that will drive fast broadband penetration even in remote communities across Africa.

source: www.thisdaylive.com

Nawras launches state of the art network operation centre in Bausher

Greg Young, Nawras CEO, said, "We would like to extend our gratitude to the Ministry of Communication and Transport and the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) for their support and guidance during this process. The launch of the NOC is a major step forward in the evolution of telecommunications in the Sultanate. It also underpins the huge investment in our newly Turbocharged network."

The new Nawras NOC controls the nationwide network from Musandam to Salalah. The NOC control spans all sites and technologies, mobile and fixed, 2G, 3G, 4G, WiMAX and FTTX. Every single piece of technology in each site (totalling more than 4500) is controlled from the NOC. This extensive network management is mainly undertaken by Huawei our managed service partner. The NOC is situated on top of our Main Data Centre, which is one of our five such centres, which ensure full geographical redundancy. We have invested in the most advanced testing systems, including test robots from Keynote SiGOS. In addition, probing systems from Nexus and Netscout are deployed across our network and systems that perform hourly health checks of all our main services. These best in class systems enable us to conduct extensive root cause investigations for any service impacting, ensuring swift restoration of the impacted service.

Elaborating on the benefits of the new Main Data Centre, Wolfgang Wemhoff, Nawras Chief Technology Officer, said, "The new data centre provides a state-of-the-art home for our business critical systems. It is a technology masterpiece. It meets all international standards and is future-proof. Out of this building we monitor the quality we provide to our customers and can identify issues even before a customer faces a problem. Here, you feel the heartbeat of our Turbocharging programme."

Also speaking, Ahmed Al Abri, Director - Information and Infrastructure at Nawras , commented on some of the impressive technical features of the Data Centre. "The technical specifications and capabilities are very impressive and include things such as having 7 back-up generators, a 4-chiller cooling system, total commercial power of 6 MVA, and separate back-up systems for the telecoms and IT racks. The facility has a total space of 650 square metres for servers."

source: zawya.com

bharti, Reliance jio to share telecom infra

The Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Jio Infocomm and the Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel — two players that could soon be seen locking horns in the 4G long-term evolution (LTE) space — on Tuesday signed an agreement to share telecom infrastructure.

This includes sharing of inter- and intra-city fibre-optic networks, submarine cable networks, towers and internet broadband services, besides other opportunities identified later. In a joint statement, the two said the cooperation was aimed at avoiding duplication of infrastructure, wherever possible, and to preserve capital and the environment.

“This will... ensure seamless services to customers of both parties. The arrangement could, in future, be extended to roaming on 2G, 3G and 4G, and other mutually-benefitting areas relating to telecommunication, including, but not limited to, jointly laying fibre-optic or other forms of infrastructure services. The pricing would be at ‘arm’s length’, based on prevailing market rates,” the joint statement said.

source: www.bussiness-standard.com

Alcatel-Lucent focusing on LTE, divesting in 2G and 3G

Alcatel-Lucent is focusing its investment on LTE and cutting the money it puts into 2G and 3G, as it looks to be first to market to gain a larger market share.

Dave Geary, president of wireless at Alcatel-Lucent, told the Alcatel-Lucent Technology Symposium in New Jersey, United States, that LTE networks were “growing in unanticipated ways” and the company was focusing its attention on LTE in order to beat its competitors to a larger share of the growing market.

“Operators are investing in ultra broadband to get a competitive advantage,” he said. To those of us that use LTE it is undeniable that the quality of service is much better. It is undeniable that the adoption of the technology is growing and is exceeding expectations.”

He said that this translated into the opportunity for profitable growth, with a particular opportunity for those that are first to market. For this reason, he said Alcatel-Lucent was cutting investment in 2G and 3G and looking to the future.

You don’t want to be spending money on old technology, you want to be spending it on the future,” Geary told HumanIPO on the sidelines of the conference. “2G and 3G have not been strongholds for us. It is in our advantage to cut investment there as soon as we can. Why invest in something that is well through its growth phase?”

The manufacturer and network specialists launched West Africa’s first commercially available LTE network in Ghana in July this year, in partnership with Surfline Communications, while it has also been working on 4G services with Smile Communications in Tanzania and completed superfast broadband trials with Tunisie Telecom in North Africa.

HumanIPO reported last week Alcatel-Lucent had partnered with data-only specialists YooMee to provide Cameroon with its first LTE network in the first quarter of 2014.

Geary said these investments formed part of Alcatel-Lucent’s broader strategy.

“Opportunities are moving to LTE and whoever gets there first has the opportunity to do very well,” he said. “We have single purpose on this, and that is around LTE, and scaling 

source: www. humanipo.com

US company to launch powerful solar charges for electric poor south African and other countries

Many countries in the world suffer from the lack of widespread electricity. I know of several missionaries who carried small solar-powered chargers that powered their iPod so they could play some music for an hour or two in the evening. A day-long charge only yielded that amount of power.

World Panel 500 used at a school to attract parent helpers – they get phone charged for free!

With the availability of cellular communications in some remote areas with 2G, 3G and 4G cell towers fed by satellite connections, the problem for the people in South Africa and other areas is the lack of electricity. In fact, some businesses have sprung up that are using generators and collect money for a one-time charge for a cell phone. Depending on the availability and demand solar chargers for cell phones and other small electronic devices are sold with pricing ranging from $24 (U.S.) to over $200, which is beyond what the majority of the people can afford.

The people at World Panel have developed a high-power solar charger that will be sold for a nominal cost by the cellular providers in the remote areas.  Their World Panel 500 and 1000 phone chargers will be revealed at AfricaCom in the next few days (November 12th through the 14th of November. This marketing strategy it to give the providers branding on the rechargers and increased revenue. They are betting that the longer the cell phone can remain charged, the greater number of minutes they will be able to bill.

A proliferation of these affordable, portable solar charging stations can also be a great thing for the environment. It could even help charging businesses serve more customers and reduce the emissions from gasoline-powered generators. The World Panel 1000 can charge two devices at the same time. Furthermore, the World Panels can even operate when wet or under water!

World Panel claims their solar charging technology can charge a phone just as fast as a traditional wall charger. Surprisingly, a test showed the World Panel 500 actually charged the phone faster.

source: www.greenpacks.org