The agreement for Synchronica Mobile Gateway covers all of the Operator’s subsidiaries in Africa and purchase orders have been issued worth $752,000 (U.S.) for professional services and initial licences required for a pilot launch.
Synchronica expects the Operator to launch Mobile Gateway shortly across all subsidiaries and expects expansion orders for further licences in due course. This is Synchronica’s 10th agreement with an African carrier, this time a mobile operator group with subsidiaries across the continent.
“We are very pleased to have finally completed this deal” said Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO of Synchronica. “We look forward to a successful product rollout in Africa and we also have the opportunity to introduce our sought after push email, instant messaging and social networking services across the enlarged group.”
According to the Ernst and Young study, ‘Africa connected – A telecommunications growth story’, the African region is one of the fastest-growing mobile markets in the world. Historical under-investment in telecommunications has rendered fixed line telecommunications largely insignificant, and average mobile penetration across the continent stands at 37 percent, expected to rise to 61 percent by 2012. Demand for mobile data services in the continent will continue to gain in popularity.
Synchronica believes that in emerging markets, where consumers are mostly reliant on internet cafes, the mobile phone is becoming the preferred avenue to accessing digital content. Under-investment in the telecommunications sector in many emerging markets has rendered fixed-line telecommunications largely insignificant. The mobile phone has become the communications lifeline in areas where legacy infrastructure is lacking. In these regions, new customers continue to sign up to mobile services in droves, and an innovative bouquet of value-added services provide a unique selling point to carriers that do not wish to compete on tariffs alone. Mobile Gateway’s extensive handset support is particularly relevant in this market, as low-end mobile phones represent the vast majority of devices in use, while operators are keen to extend advanced value added services which supplement voice and SMS revenues.
