VOIP on the rise

Research and Markets has released the Africa - VOIP Telephony report, says Marketwatch.

The report states that Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) continues to gain ground in Africa with growth rates in excess of 100% per year, following steady improvements in Internet bandwidth and deregulation in several key markets.

According to the report, at least 10% of international calls in almost every country on the continent are still carried by unlicensed grey market players, because many operators are not yet passing on the full cost savings from VOIP to their customers.

Vodafone has promoted two directors to run its emerging markets division, states Independent.co.uk.

Earlier this month, Vodafone said it would separate its emerging markets division into two and hire two new bosses to focus on the group's higher growth markets

Morten Lundal, the chief executive of Middle East and Africa within the emerging markets unit, will run Central Europe and Africa while Nick Read will head up the Asia Pacific and Middle East region.

Frost & Sullivan has released an analysis stating that digitisation, increases in data volume and the expansion of e-governance initiatives will drive the uptake of Business Intelligence (BI) tools in sub-Saharan Africa, reports Marketwatch.

The report, titled Business Intelligence Software Tools Market in Sub-Saharan Africa, finds the total value of the BI software tools market for 2007 was $759.0 million and estimates that this will increase at a rate of 10.1% between 2006 and 2013.

SA currently contributes more than 60% of the total revenues, but there is high potential for growth in the rest of the region.