Unleashing MEA's Potential in Telecom Services
The telecommunication market in Middle East and Africa (MEA) is extremely diversified in nature. The region spans across 60+ countries and has an interesting mix of demand, expectations and maturity levels. In current global economy downturn, the MEA telecom market is relatively less impacted. Within some African countries the market is gaining momentum. Privatization and liberalization are visible latest trends and cost effective communication technologies are now becoming available to meet the needs of these diverse group of countries. These new technologies include fixed wireless access, mobile telephony, fiber optics and satellite.
The MEA market is dominated by two types of organizations viz. the conventional national carriers (Govt. owned entities) who are already established players and then the challengers who are generally tend to enter as second/third operators. Some of such leading operators are group companies that have spread their presence in multiple countries. They include MTN, Etisalat, Orascom, Saudi Telecom, Qtel and Zain. Several countries are opening up and offering new licenses, thus creating investment opportunities and making market more competitive.
In terms of technology and services, Broadband services will represent the key growth area during the next few years. In African countries, CDMA technology is also gaining popularity owning to lower costs. The existing operators are gearing up to position themselves to take advantage of this growth. The operators are keen to expand, but they must not lose sight of the importance of their established operations and how to best exploit opportunities in emerging markets.
The awareness and importance of better service levels is growing. Consumers are expecting quick response, accurate information and faster resolution to their service issues. These expectations are driving operators to embrace state of the art business applications. Sophisticated CRM, advanced mediation and converged billing are amongst such applications. An integrated technology stack to cover entire OSS/BSS requirements is also been observed as one of the trends. Such requirements from telecom operators are providing opportunities for leading software product vendors and system integrators. Are such opportunities explored? Are global System integrators ready to take it on?
In terms of technology and services, Broadband services will represent the key growth area during the next few years. In African countries, CDMA technology is also gaining popularity owning to lower costs. The existing operators are gearing up to position themselves to take advantage of this growth. The operators are keen to expand, but they must not lose sight of the importance of their established operations and how to best exploit opportunities in emerging markets.
The awareness and importance of better service levels is growing. Consumers are expecting quick response, accurate information and faster resolution to their service issues. These expectations are driving operators to embrace state of the art business applications. Sophisticated CRM, advanced mediation and converged billing are amongst such applications. An integrated technology stack to cover entire OSS/BSS requirements is also been observed as one of the trends. Such requirements from telecom operators are providing opportunities for leading software product vendors and system integrators. Are such opportunities explored? Are global System integrators ready to take it on?
