Howard Earley, COO of Plessey, a Convergence Partners investee says that Plessey has identified the opportunities that exist and need for a next-generation service provider with the ability to build the infrastructure required by the fast growing communications industry.

He says that Plessey is well positioned to fulfill this role due it being able to:

• provide a comprehensive, solution themselves, thereby providing a broad, modular range of telecommunications solutions that keep pace with and can be very precisely mapped to the new opportunities opening up to customers;  and
• call, where relevant, on the global consulting and solutions design experience and capability of their parent company, Dimension Data, and also on the carrier, connectivity, and communications specialisations within Internet Solutions

The result of this unique positioning is that Plessey and Dimension Data are being commissioned to, respectively, project-manage the laying of fibre and provide the equipment to light up the fibre.

Article from ITWeb

FibreCo Telecommunications (“FibreCo”), a partnership between Cell C, Internet Solutions and Convergence Partners, is making excellent progress with its plans for the deployment of its open-access long-haul terrestrial fibre optic broadband network in South Africa.

The project is on track with the geotechnical and environmental studies for the first routes already completed and the tender process moving ahead swiftly. A wide range of other essential elements relating to permitting, engineering, environmental management and development of detailed customer solutions are also ongoing.

Whilst the initial phase of the project focuses on rolling out a 4,500km redundant core ring linking Gauteng, Cape Town and Durban to international cable landing stations by the end of 2012, FibreCo expects partial routes, including the Johannesburg to Cape Town link, to come on stream earlier to assist with the market requirement for additional capacity between the two regions. The subsequent two phases will ultimately see a total distance in excess of 12,000km being covered.

Arif Hussain, CEO of FibreCo, said: “The project is on track, with good progress being made on the key activities supporting the development of FibreCo’s network, including negotiations with local and international network implementation partners, governmental authorities and various other market players. We have also been engaging actively with various role players within the education and research communities to explore ways of helping them to leverage the strong economic benefits of fibre ownership.”

FibreCo is building a state-of-the-art managed network, on an open-access basis, to deliver the most efficient route combinations and services to its customers, through the deployment of its own fibre optic cable and related infrastructure, as well as through partnerships or strategic alliances with other infrastructure providers wherever appropriate.

Cell C’s extensive national wireless network will provide the platform for the co-location of optical transmission equipment at their base stations as well as wireless access solutions for FibreCo’s customers. Through Internet Solutions, FibreCo has access to deep capabilities in the delivery of value-added networking solutions into the enterprise market, including facilities for the hosting of its customers optical termination equipment in urban centres. Convergence Partners contributes unmatched expertise in the development and financial structuring of large scale telecommunications infrastructure projects.

FibreCo Press Release

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Having attended the Mobile World Congress, the largest global telecoms conference (attended by 49,000 visitors from 200 countries) in Barcelona this year, the following 10 key trends and developments came to the fore.

The 10 major developments at MWC were:

1. Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (“GSMA”) and about 15 major operators have signed up to create an application planet where there will be a common platform that will allow application developers in the Symbian world to operate across networks and geographies (i.e. a challenge to Apple’s dominance in the apps space);
2. The affordability of smartphones are becoming a reality, with estimates that by 2015 approximately 50% of mobile phones will be smartphones. This will require larger amounts of backhaul bandwidth for the mobile networks. Once smart phones reach 70% of the market, they will be the single largest access device to the internet;
3. Mobile operators see device-to-device connectivity as the next revenue opportunity in the mobile space. These data flows are viewed as a mechanism to bolster declining voice ARPUs;
4. Green technology, especially in the data centre environment and the growth of cloud computing, is a major trend that will accelerate in the coming years;
5. The growth of smart devices on one side and sophisticated cloud computing on the other will drive growth in “intelligent pipes” in between them. This reinforces the case for increased access to fibre optic networks;
6. Here is a thought, as you go to a restaurant to have coffee or food when you pay with your credit card and you are given a receipt. Use your smartphone with high-resolution camera to take a photo of the receipt and store it or send it to your private data vault. Intelligent systems in the cloud will then collate and reconcile receipts and expense claims automatically.
7. In my view LTE is 3+ years away. No handsets are widely available. While people are talking about LTE trials, large scale deployments are still some way off, however, the hype is here. This is another reason why we need backhaul bandwidth now so that when LTE is implemented there are enough pipes to support this infrastructure;
8. Africa will continue to use mobile devices as the primary means to access the cloud;
9. Africa must develop its own applications that are specific to Africa’s needs. Including its own social network platforms that will address Africa’s unique lifestyles;
10. In conclusion, the communications ecosystem is evolving, but it is not clear which organisations will be absorbed by black holes or collide with each other to create new planets in our ecosystem. The ICT ecosystem at one level and the DNA of organisations and companies at another, will fundamentally change in the next ten years.

Convergence Wireless Networks (Convergence Wireless), a joint venture between Convergence Partners and Comsol Wireless Solutions (Comsol), today announced that it has acquired a 35% stake in WIA Company Limited (WIA), a Tanzanian wireless connectivity provider focused on the enterprise market segment.

Convergence Wireless will take on an active role in the business by providing high-level support at a strategic and operational level but also facilitate access to resources across the wider Convergence Partners network to accelerate WIA’s evolution into a fully fledged converged communications solutions provider. Comsol will act as WIA’s technology partner bringing significant knowledge and expertise in the deployment of world-class wireless broadband networks.

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SEACOM today announced that its 1,28 Terabytes per second (Tb/s), 17,000 kilometres, submarine fibre optic cable system linking south and east Africa to global networks via India and Europe has been completed and commissioned. Backhauls linking Johannesburg, Nairobi and Kampala with the coastal landing stations have been established and SEACOM is also working with its national partners to commission the final links to Kigali and Addis Ababa shortly.

The launch of SEACOM opens up unprecedented opportunities, at a fraction of the current cost, as government, business leaders and citizens can now use the network as the platform to compete globally, drive economic growth and enhance the quality of life across the continent.

Website: http://www.seacom.mu/
Blog: www.seacomblog.com
SMR: http://www.seacom.socialmediarelease.co.za/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Seacom/100372437436
YouTube: www.youtube.com/seacomlive
Twitter: SeacomLive

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Communication Solutions (Comsol) in partnership with one of its shareholders Convergence Partners is seeking to build a portfolio of wireless broadband data operations across multiple countries in Africa. A new investment company called Convergence Wireless Networks (CWN) has been formed for this purpose.

CWN will investigate opportunities to secure spectrum/licences in high economic growth areas in Africa with a view to participating in the roll-out of networks (as a strategic, minority financial investor) in those markets. “The potential for growth in wireless broadband usage across the continent is massive given the low existing base of penetration,” says Iain Stevenson, CEO of Comsol. Currently the total number of broadband connections in Africa numbers approximately less than 3 million, the majority of which are 3G connections.

Stevenson says that CWN will take up strategic equity interests in and supply value-added services across the entire wireless broadband market in Africa from equipment supply, to network installation, ongoing network maintenance, licensed spectrum acquisition, wholesale network operation and even ultimately to retail network operations. “CWN will work in conjunction with local country partners and existing players either in the technology arena or existing network operators,” says Brandon Doyle MD of Convergence Partners.

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Convergence Partners Investments, a Black Economic Empowerment investment company focusing on the Technology, Media and Telecommunications sector, announced today that it had taken a stake in Integrat, a major South African Wireless Applications Service Provider (WASP) Aggregator with related interests in digital content, online platforms and other ancillary activities.

WASPs are companies that connect to the cellular operators to provide services to the networks’ clients, usually in the form of premium-rated Short Message Services (SMS). As an Aggregator, Integrat supports its WASP customers with best-of-breed, locally developed, solutions offerings to seamlessly connect into SA’s highly regulated mobile networks in a matter of days, rather than months. Integrat’s offerings are globally competitive and have evolved over the years to include various Value Added Services, such as content manager, campaigns manager, mobile payment systems and other mobile handset-focused services. These products allow customers to deliver services within a very short time and without having to take responsibility for any development.

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