Another success for Innovation Dinner series

Over 60 senior executives and professionals from the IT industry gathered at the latest “Innovation Dinner” hosted by ITNewsAfrica.com, held on the 27th of October in Johannesburg with the Theme: “Our connected future”. The event was supported by global IT giants HP and Ericsson, and featured presentations and discussions around broadband connectivity in Africa.

Abby Wakama, Publisher ITNewsAfrica.com and Manoj Bhoola, ESSN Country Manager HP, opened the session. Edmund Katiti, Head of the NEPAD e-Africa Commission, Angus Hay, CTO Neotel, Kosta Tsingakis, Head of Innovation at Ericsson Sub-Sahara Africa and Vitalis Ozinayi, Senior ICT Analyst for Frost&Sullivan Africa challenged the audience with presentations on the next innovations and developments in broadband technology.

Participants at the Innovation Dinner included operators and various ISP and network providers (MTN, Ericsson, HP, Huawei), university professors (Wits and UNISA), IT analysts and specialists (Delloite, Frost& Sullivan, Ernst & Young) and other parties with an interest in digital communications.

Among the topics discussed were the recent launches of submarine cables, the emergence of 4G/ LTE technologies, the need for policies and regulations and new initiatives that would further strengthen broadband infrastructure on the continent.

Currently, only 2% of South Africans benefit from a broadband solution and 10% of the population (5 million users) has access to Internet on a regular basis, while broadband penetration is even lower in other African countries, faced with technology monopolies and poor mobile connectivity.

“We need cheap broadband and high-end, affordable wireless Internet for all”, stated Neotel’s CTO. The speaker from Ericsson called for a connected educational environment, more ICT partnerships and CSR initiatives on the continent, focused on providing better communication. While Vitalis Ozianyi from Frost & Sullivan, provided statistics and trends in wireless connectivity.

To download speaker presentations and view photos from the event, visit www.innovationdinner.co.za