Liquid telecom scoops best African wholesale carrier award

It is the second year in succession Liquid Telecom has won the gong, beating off strong competition from WIOCC, Orange and PCCW Global.

According to the panel of judges: “Liquid Telecom has again shown great promise and ambitious plans for development in Africa. It has aggressively targeted expansion of its fibre footprint in the continent and is attempting to access a range of countries where infrastructure maintenance remains the most challenging in the world.”

The judges said Liquid Telecom’s mergers and acquisitions (M&A) strategy was a significant highlight to the company being recognised, with the firm having acquired four companies in 2013.

They also said the company commitment to serving the region’s communications sector was a key highlight, where Liquid Telecom has been diverting traffic as a result of multiple cuts to undersea cables to enable redundancy on a number of routes from Africa to Europe.

Nic Rudnick, Liquid Telecom’s chief executive officer (CEO), said: “At Liquid Telecom we celebrate the people who make it happen. This award is a real team effort and recognises our company’s drive and ambition to provide internet connectivity across the whole of Africa”.

It is the second week in a row Liquid Telecom has been recognised after it bagged Best Connectivity Solution in Africa at last week’s AfricaCom 2013, in Cape Town, for building the longest fibre links in Africa.

Organised by Capacity Magazine and now in its eighth year, the Global Carrier Awards have become the biggest and most prestigious awards event of the wholesale telecoms calendar.

HumanIPO reported last week Liquid Telecom had built the first fibre optic cable into Somalia, connecting the country to undersea cables by fibre for the first time.

“We are providing the people of Somalia with access to the global internet at higher speeds and with more capacity than ever before,” said Rudnick.

source: www.humanipo.com

Nigcom sat boss advocates use of satellite broadband in rural areas

Timasaniyu Ahmed-Rufai, chief executive officer of the Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) has advocated the need to develop requisite policy that encourages the use of satellite broadband as primary source of internet in rural and swampy areas. According to him, satellite technology can serve as redundancy in areas with fibre optics to mitigate against cuts, damages and theft considering Nigeria’s geography, lack of channelised roads, subways, railways and poor urban and regional planning. Ahmed-Rufai made this remark at 2013 e-Nigeria conference on local content hosted by Nigerian Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) recently in Abuja. Ahmed-Rufai said Satellite Communications can indeed deliver efficient and affordable broadband because it has been a major means of broadcast, mass media, free to air television (TV) medical science especially Tele-medicine, e-learning among others.

In his paper entitled, “Satellite based broadband in Nigeria, prospects and challenges”’, the NIGCOMSAT bossm said broadband could improve economies and create a win-win situation for governments. He listed seemingly misgivings and scepticism of policy makers that broadband can actually deliver services and improve the wellbeing of citizens. He asked critical questions about the importance of broadband for socio-economic development. “Why would a nation struggling to provide basic amenities worry about broadband? Will broadband connectivity really drive the nation’s economy or just make internet connections faster?Can broadband create jobs, enhance safety and security and improve healthcare, literacy rate and promote all inclusive democracy?”

source: www.businessdayonline.com