The IEEE Communications Society is holding its 2010 flagship conference International Communications Conference (ICC2010) in Cape Town, South Africa from 23-27 May 2010. This is the first time that ICC has been held in Africa. The conference theme is “Communications: Accelerating Growth and Development” and aims to focus on the role that Communications is playing in this development.

Andile Ngcaba, Chairman of Convergence Partners, participated on the business panel after the keynote address by the Minister of Science and Technology. Andile participated alongside Telkom Group CEO, Reuben September and Etisalat, Nigeria CEO, Steven Evans. The panel presented their views on what was required for the communications industry to drive African growth and development. In the panel discussion, Andile highlighted the need to develop the terrestrial and inland infrastructure to meet the increased supply of international bandwidth that is reaching African shores over the next 5 years. This increase in available international capacity required a coordinated and cooperative approach between the various operators of cables to ensure that Africa has access to international points of presence in addition to the landing points of the various cables. In parallel to the deployment of this infrastructure, Africa needs to build data centres to support the growth in services and increased business demand for reliable, affordable and available hosting and managed services. In addition, African content, including the capture of its rich linguistic heritage, needs to be fostered through packaging and delivery to the world and local audiences via satellite, terrestrial and IP networks. Other panellists also argued for appropriate regulation of the industry to facilitate the continued investment in communications infrastructure on the African continent, thereby driving economic growth and development of the Continent.

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Dimension Data Middle East & Africa has acquired a 51% stake in Telcom (Morocco), representing a further step in the establishment of a strong presence across the continent. Telcom will be rebranded Dimension Data Morocco.

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