Managing the mobile explosion in Africa

The wireless market in Africa is well established and continues to grow. A recent Yankee Group report predicts that by the end of 2008 the continent will be home to 125 million mobile subscribers and, with penetration at 13%, it is the world`s fastest growing mobile market. During the same period mobile service revenue is expected to more than double to $25 billion from $12 billion, giving Africa an 11% share of the EMEA regional market.

"The change has been so rapid that it has caught many by surprise," said the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) at the launch of its 2004 report in Cairo earlier this year. At the end of 2003 there were 43 African countries that had more mobile than fixed-line telephone subscribers, compared to just two in 1999.

Why has the mobile market in Africa exploded? Compared to older copper fixed-lines, wireless telephony is cheaper, faster and more flexible to install, operate and manage. The frequent absence of critical infrastructure such as copper lines and reliable electricity supply makes the popularity and uptake of wireless less of a phenomenon and more like common sense.

In regions where resources are scant and the untaxed economy is thriving, infrastructure such as copper wires can become subject to widespread theft, posing an additional security problem to fixed-line operators. Coupled with this, wireless is often easier to bill as many users pay up front for their service.

With penetration of mobile into Africa so high and networks that are increasingly more widespread, wireless phone calls and handsets are being viewed as commodity items, not just a preserve of wealthy techies. As with the explosion of every commodity market there begins a tussle for market share. Thus the real question that network operators should be asking themselves is not how can we convince more people to subscribe to wireless services but how can we make them subscribe to our service? For vendors to differentiate themselves from other players in the wireless market they have to consider one issue: the need to provide a flexible, creative and easily deployable services to their customers.

Says Eric Jorgensen, Micromuse Continent Director - Africa: "To build brand awareness, customer loyalty and competitive advantage, the customer experience must be of a consistently high quality at competitive prices. To further retain customer confidence, service providers need to demonstrate and consistently deliver proactive management and rapid response to service issues as they surface. This is where technology comes in."

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How can mobile service providers employ the right sort of technology in their networks to deliver a flexible high quality service that will satisfy their customer base?

Vodacom, SA`s largest GSM provider and GSM pioneer in Africa and elsewhere, had been looking at how to deliver this. Realising that key to maintaining its market share was the ability to offer new and innovative low cost data services, Vodacom looked for a method of proactive service level management that consolidated its multi-vendor GSM infrastructure into a single view, to enable their operations team to quickly pinpoint and resolve service-affecting faults on their infrastructure.

Jorgensen continues: "By implementing Micromuse`s Netcool service assurance suite, Vodacom was able to monitor the performance of its wireless services - including mobile voice and data communications - and allow real-time, proactive management decisions to be made quickly to ensure maximum service uptime. Consolidating data from the disparate networks, applications and systems, from different equipment providers and from over 5 000 base stations, helped maintain the availability and reliability of Vodacom`s network.

Deploying Micromuse`s Netcool solutions quickly and with minimum consultancy time, as well as having the ability to integrate and manage innovative new services in the future, means that Vodacom`s customers experience a reliable quality of service. This in turn encourages customer loyalty and allows Vodacom to remain open to new technologies and competitive."

Obviously there are many challenging issues surrounding how to best implement customer retention solutions, which will need time and technology to resolve. Finding new and innovative network management configuration that allows service providers to reach a broader and more remote customer base could present a daunting challenge in this quality assurance mission. However, thinking about service provision from a customer viewpoint is the essential tenet and making the best use of the technology available imperative.