Pyramid Research – which is owned by the same group as Light Reading – is hosting a free webinar about Telecoms In Africa and the Middle East – unique opportunities in diverse markets.  

Might be worth tuning into. Details on their website and here’s their synopsis:

Today, Africa and the Middle East is the second largest region in the world in terms of mobile subscriptions. This is a foundation which is poised to rise even higher in the future and one upon which new value will be created through improved infrastructures and advanced services. However, capturing the untapped potentials in the region is not an easy task if the diversity of the region is not recognized and the individual markets are not treated with respect to their particular necessities.

In this webinar, we describe some of the unique opportunities and challenges in a region that hosts economies ranging from the wealthy states of the Gulf to the populous sub-Saharan nations.

Findings that will be explored in this upcoming webinar include:

• Mobile Internet revenue will maintain an explosive growth rate in the AME region and it will double in size to represent a $25bn opportunity by 2018.
• Today, there are slightly more than 5 million households with FTTH broadband in AME. By 2018, this figure will have risen to more than 16 million.
• In 2018, one in every two subscriptions will be running either on LTE or on 3G networks. Today, it is one in every four subscriptions.
• Thanks to relatively liberal licensing regimes that partly offset the economic uncertainties of the region, commercial LTE services can be found in close to 10 sub-Saharan countries already.

It is no doubt that AME is a region of high risks and high returns, and therefore in its markets, information is the most valuable resource. That is why we would like to invite you to this webinar, where you will find insights drawn from our AME research, which has expanded to cover 44 countries, corresponding to 95% of the GDP in the region.

We are pleased to be offering this webinar at two separate times:

Dec 3 2013 – 12 midday SA/10am GMT/6pm UTC + 8 hours. Register here:

Dec 3 2013 – 11am EST/8am PST/4pm/6pm SA GMT. Register here.

At TelecomsPR Africa we specialise in helping vendors raise their profile with operators, enterprises and governments throughout Africa as well as consumers. However, that doesn’t mean to say we can’t turn our hand to other continents…

For example, OMC Power is an Indian company which has built solar-powered micropower plants in rural areas in India where the electricity grid will never reach.

It is the first power company to transform the provision of electricity in rural India into a commercially viable, sustainable and scalable business.

We have been working for OMC for almost two years from pre-launch to present day.

Here are some of our highlights:

Huffington Post, November 2012 – Solar in India story.

Forbes India, May 2013 – Four page feature about OMC. 

The Economist, July 2013 – Lighting up rural India.

The Times of India, August 2013 – OMC named as technology pioneer by World Economic Forum.

New York Times, September 2013 – overview of the OMC story.

  An OMC micropower plant in Uttar Pradesh.

What a show!  My favourite images….

My client WTL picking up an award. My client Liquid Telecom picking up an award.