Surging mobile internet demand straining African telecom networks

Telecom companies in the Middle East and Africa could face growing quality of service (QoS) issues in future because of a rise in internet usage fueled by more affordable smart mobile devices.

Mahmoud Samy -- area head Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan at Arbor Networks -- told the Trade Arabia publication that the Mideast and Africa could see a 31% traffic leap on consumer internet by 2017 from a 10% growth level in 2012.

Samy added that this could pile pressure on telecommunication companies on the continent to expand their networks and maintain quality services.

He said African telcos’ failure to improve QoS could result in service level agreement credits, damage to brand reputation and customer churn - all of which impact the bottom lines of their business

source: www.itwebafrica.com

GVG-SGS stages workshop for West African telecoms regulators and fiscal authorities

Global Voice Group (GVG) reports that the first regional workshop on new telecoms regulation tools and electronic  fiscal solutions for West African telecoms regulators and tax administrations, staged in Abidjan, was a great success. The event was a joint initiative of GVG and Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS).

The organisers said the event attracted representatives from the Telecoms Regulatory Agencies and Tax Administrations of Ivory Coast, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Niger, and Togo.

For this first workshop of its kind in West Africa, GVG and SGS decided to invite both telecoms regulatory agencies and tax administrations in order to gain a deeper understanding of their common challenges, including control and protection of the telecoms sector's revenue. Issues more specific to each authority were also addressed in details, such as quality of service monitoring tools, telecommunications fraud management, new regulatory tools in the context of IP convergence, and new electronic fiscal systems.

Many of the technological tools presented by GVG and SGS were also demonstrated in order to allow participants to appreciate their potential and effectiveness.

According to M. François Dugué, Senior VP at GVG and one of the workshop's principal organizers and presenters: "Telecommunications are a key growth sector in Africa, strong in some respects and vulnerable in some others, particularly in the context of IP convergence. These workshops give us a great opportunity to take stock of the latest improvements in terms of governance technologies. GVG is an active participant to the ITU's Study Groups and our company also sponsors major events such as the African Telecom People.

source: www.biztechafrica.com

ZICTA threatens operators with more criminal proceedings over QoS

The Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) has threatened continued criminal proceedings against mobile operators if they fail to improve their services.

ZICTA has already sued the operators to seek remedial measures relating to the enforcement of quality service pursuant to Zambia’s Information and Communication Technology law of 2009. According to ZICTA, the law gives it powers to protect the rights and interests of customers where they are being exploited.

ZICTA says the provision of poor services by the operators were criminal in nature because subscribers are being exploited.

The organisation said it has handled over the docket it opened in July this year to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) for perusal and further instructions before the matter goes to court.

ZICTA accuses the three operators, MTN Zamtel and Airtel of failing to meet the minimum standards of quality of service.

source: www.biztechafrica.com

nigerians telecom engineers to get quality of service training

More than 50 engineers from Nigeria’s major telecommunications firms have signed up for training to enable them meet the ‘Quality of Service’ (QoS) mandates of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

Backup Network, a local representative of Switzerland’s Ascom Network Testing, is conducting the training.

Engineers from network operators are planned to be trained on ‘best-in-class’ skills they need to boost service delivery for their company network subscribers.

Speaking at the formal commencement of the training programme in Lagos, Monday Ogbe, chief executive officer at Backup Networks Limited, said the QoS in Nigeria is far behind other countries.

He said that the telecoms operators were doing their best but that more still needed to be done.

Last year, the NCC fined four of the country’s largest mobile operators for poor QoS.

“Operators are doing everything they can to ensure that service is delivered to the subscribers because as long as the subscribers are not happy with the service delivery, it will be difficult for operators to recoup their investment. At the end of the day everybody loses,” he said.

Ogbe added, “The quality of experience tools that we are offering the operators will help them perceive the network exactly the way subscribers are experiencing service on the network and through that, they can see
exactly what the bottlenecks that are affecting the network performance are for them to make strategic adjustments where necessary.”

He said with the integration of new wireless transport technologies such as internet protocol transmission via 3G and LTE into the operator network, the complexity of network end-to-end network visibility has become key to ensuring acceptable customer satisfaction.

source: itwebafrica.com