Tomorrow, over 650 telecom leaders from across East Africa will gather in Nairobi at East Africa Com conference (www.comworldseries.com/eafrica). Their agenda for the 2 days is to establish strategies, set best practice benchmarks and find innovative ways of capitalising on the new networks and services in the fiercely competitive East African market.
Subscription growth remains high in East Africa, but this is not driven by an increase in customers, rather multiple SIM usage as a result of fierce price wars amongst the operators. This has had a negative impact on ARPU which has declined to reach just US$7.13. New players, the imminent introduction of mobile number portability and improved connectivity has forced operators to look beyond price as a winning competitive tool.
New opportunities for operators now lie in the provision of value added services and mobile broadband but services are still evolving and an optimum business model is still to be established. It is for this purpose that 650 telecom leaders will meet tomorrow at East Africa Com conference, 5-6 April. Representatives will include mobile, fixed, satellite and WiMAX operators, ISPs, MVNOs, regulators, ministers, solutions and technology providers, investors and consultants to ensure a truly 360 degree perspective of the market. Attendees will pool their different perspectives, ideas and experiences to set strategies around convergence, broadband, LTE, value added services, telecoms Fraud and connecting rural areas.
The 2 days of discussions will be led by a panel of 45+ speakers representing leaders of the region’s most dynamic operators, from pan-regional investors (Pan-regional players Orange France-Telecom and Airtel Africa, represented by Vice President Michel Barré and Group Director of Networks Bayan Moadjem respectively), incumbent operators (such as Telkom Kenya and their CEO Mikhail Ghossein), competitive mobile operators (with CxOs from Safaricom, Vivacell Southern Sudan, Zantel Tanzania, Airtel Kenya, amongst others), the self proclaimed original triple play provider in Africa, Wananchi (represented by Group CEO Richard Bell, and Kenya’s Country Manager Peter Reinartz), alternative service providers (Jamii Telecom, Roke Telkom Uganda) and more.
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