Ceragon Expands its Footprint in Africa

At the AfricaCom tradeshow in Cape Town today, Ceragon Networks Ltd, a leading provider of high-capacity wireless backhaul solutions, announced that it is expanding its footprint in Africa by opening two new local offices and a new, $1.5 million dollar order for its high-capacity trunk solutions, FibeAir 3200 to be deployed in Africa by a leading international carrier.

Ceragon strengthens its position in Africa’s two major mobile markets by opening an office in Lagos, Nigeria and another in Johannesburg, South Africa. With local Ceragon employees on the ground, the new offices will serve Ceragon’s expanding list of customers and partners throughout western and southern Africa. Nigeria is one of the continent’s single largest mobile market according to industry research group Wireless Federation, with over 44 million subscribers as of September 2008. Nigerian mobile operators are expected to reach more than 70 million subscribers by 2010. Furthermore, South Africa boasts 43 million users to date, says the Wireless Federation report. Despite an extremely high penetration rate, South Africa’s mobile market continues to demonstrate an annual growth rate of over 10%.

“As one of the leading players in the high-capacity mobile backhaul market, we believe that we should have physical presence in two of the fastest developing mobile countries in the world,” said Ira Palti, President and CEO of Ceragon Networks. “As Africa is a project-oriented region, having local representation allows us to join forces with local partners throughout southern and western Africa. This way we can offer our existing and newest customers, complete turnkey projects with excellent control and close follow-up.”

Ceragon has a long and proven track record in Africa. Along with today’s new customer contract with an International mobile operator in Africa, Ceragon announced in September 2008 the selection of its FibeAir® solutions by a leading national carrier in Eastern Africa. Other African customers for Ceragon’s high-capacity wireless backhaul solutions include: Botswana Telecom, Milicom Tanzania, Neotel, and others.