Thursday, May 06, 2004
French multi-national commits to Africa
Steven Lang, Cairo
French telephone network company, Alcatel, has one of the largest exhibitions at the Telecom Africa 2004 conference in Cairo. The stand is plastered with its continental slogan "Let's connect Africa" and the company made a special effort to court the press and convince reporters that it is truly committed to Africa.
Alcatel's commitment is not at all surprising, and it is not the first multi-national at the Telecom Africa conference to declare allegiance to the development of information technology in Africa – the continent currently boasts the highest telephony growth rate in the world.
As most business people know, the best time to carve out market share is when that very market is experiencing a growth spurt. Alcatel, Nortel, Vodafone, Orascom, Samsung and Ericssons are among the many multi-nationals competing for a chunk of the burgeoning African markets. One third of the participants at Telecom Africa are not from Africa.
At a news conference, Vincenzo Nesci, chairman of Alcatel Egypt declared unequivocally, “For Alacatel, Africa is strategic territory” he then outlined several projects involving his company on the continent.
He cited Alcatel as a partner in the new generation of the Sea-Me-We submarine cable network. The project will deliver a new terabit cable linking 14 countries from France to Singapore via Italy, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia.
The new, 20 000km cable is expected to support 32 times the capacity of the previous Sea-Me-We 3 cable.
Souheil Marine, Alcatel's business development manager for Africa, Middle East and South Asia said, "ICT must be a tool for social and economic development – this is the only way to bridge the digital divide."
Marine also stressed the importance of the profit motive in development, saying that all attempts at universal access to ICTs have failed unless they have a sound business model.
He said, “Universal service will only become a reality if it is profitable.
We need a valid business model to make it profitable"
He cited a case study in Senegal where a team of people visit the fruit and vegetable markets every morning. They note the latest prices for each product and then post the quotes on a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) platform. Farmers in the remotest parts of the country use their cell phones to access the latest prices and can then take an informed business decision on whether to take their crops to market or not.
In this particular case everyone profits from the innovative use of ICTs. The farmer is better equipped to make critical decisions, and the cell phone service provider is happy because more farmers are now using their phones for different reasons.
Marine also mentioned an excellent example of how mobile technology can be used for social development. In this case, also in Senegal, in a huge area where 30 000 children have access to only one paediatrician, helpers collect the weight of babies twice a week. The helpers use cell phones to send the results to a central hospital where the paediatrician works and where the weight of each child can be closely monitored.
If the weight of any individual child appears to deviate from the acceptable norms, then the mother of that child can be asked to bring the child in for a full check up.
Nesci responded to suggestions that the newly found interest in Africa could be seen as an opportunistic new form of imperialism. He said that his company had adopted a "pro-active approach to attract local partners". Nesci said that Alcatel has teamed up with a number of local partners to develop the "Alcatel Digital Bridge" initiative to, "act as incubators to help local people design solutions for the local populations."
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Steven Lang, Cairo
French telephone network company, Alcatel, has one of the largest exhibitions at the Telecom Africa 2004 conference in Cairo. The stand is plastered with its continental slogan "Let's connect Africa" and the company made a special effort to court the press and convince reporters that it is truly committed to Africa.
Alcatel's commitment is not at all surprising, and it is not the first multi-national at the Telecom Africa conference to declare allegiance to the development of information technology in Africa – the continent currently boasts the highest telephony growth rate in the world.
As most business people know, the best time to carve out market share is when that very market is experiencing a growth spurt. Alcatel, Nortel, Vodafone, Orascom, Samsung and Ericssons are among the many multi-nationals competing for a chunk of the burgeoning African markets. One third of the participants at Telecom Africa are not from Africa.
At a news conference, Vincenzo Nesci, chairman of Alcatel Egypt declared unequivocally, “For Alacatel, Africa is strategic territory” he then outlined several projects involving his company on the continent.
He cited Alcatel as a partner in the new generation of the Sea-Me-We submarine cable network. The project will deliver a new terabit cable linking 14 countries from France to Singapore via Italy, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia.
The new, 20 000km cable is expected to support 32 times the capacity of the previous Sea-Me-We 3 cable.
Souheil Marine, Alcatel's business development manager for Africa, Middle East and South Asia said, "ICT must be a tool for social and economic development – this is the only way to bridge the digital divide."
Marine also stressed the importance of the profit motive in development, saying that all attempts at universal access to ICTs have failed unless they have a sound business model.
He said, “Universal service will only become a reality if it is profitable.
We need a valid business model to make it profitable"
He cited a case study in Senegal where a team of people visit the fruit and vegetable markets every morning. They note the latest prices for each product and then post the quotes on a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) platform. Farmers in the remotest parts of the country use their cell phones to access the latest prices and can then take an informed business decision on whether to take their crops to market or not.
In this particular case everyone profits from the innovative use of ICTs. The farmer is better equipped to make critical decisions, and the cell phone service provider is happy because more farmers are now using their phones for different reasons.
Marine also mentioned an excellent example of how mobile technology can be used for social development. In this case, also in Senegal, in a huge area where 30 000 children have access to only one paediatrician, helpers collect the weight of babies twice a week. The helpers use cell phones to send the results to a central hospital where the paediatrician works and where the weight of each child can be closely monitored.
If the weight of any individual child appears to deviate from the acceptable norms, then the mother of that child can be asked to bring the child in for a full check up.
Nesci responded to suggestions that the newly found interest in Africa could be seen as an opportunistic new form of imperialism. He said that his company had adopted a "pro-active approach to attract local partners". Nesci said that Alcatel has teamed up with a number of local partners to develop the "Alcatel Digital Bridge" initiative to, "act as incubators to help local people design solutions for the local populations."
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