ITNewsAfrica.com: Can you give an overview of Alvarion’s recent wireless deployments in Africa?
Winston Smith: As a founder member of WiMAX technology and the largest provider of wireless broadband, we bring 4G solutions to various markets, with 280 WiMAX networks in over 100 countries. Specifically in Africa, we have 70 commercial WiMAX deployments and especially in sub-urban and rural areas, where there is a growing demand to connectivity solutions.
We have observed that even in smaller markets with lower penetration rates, such as Mozambique or Botswana, we are being approached by clients mandated by governments to offer wireless connectivity even in rural areas. This allows rural consumers to move from absolutely no communication to a 4G environment with no transition whatsoever and metropolitan areas to further move away from GSM. As an example of a recent deployment, we have just been selected by 4G Africa to deploy a 4G network in Cameroon, the first mobile WiMAX network in the country’s largest metropolitan areas, serving a population of 5 million.
ITNewsAfrica.com: What is Alvarion’s strategy for the SAN region?
Winston Smith: South Africa and Nigeria are significant markets for Alvarion. Nigeria is particularly a very lucrative market, with a population of 150 million and a continuous growth in the telecoms regulatory policies, which allows a new opening towards new licence spectrum developments. Also, new ISP providers can operate now independently. In Nigeria, most operators rely on DSL/CDMA networks and will have to move forward to 4G, LTE, WiMAX to increase broadband penetration which is very low (in my opinion, under 1%) compared to the mobile penetration rate. We have implemented so far four active WiMAX connections and the demand is increasing.
Also important in Nigeria is the number of large cities that have a similar need of high-end connectivity. We have a solution called BreezeMax Extreme, that allows customers to address these high connectivity demands in between spectrum (4,6 Ghz to 5,9 Ghz), if operators are unable to provide the spectrum. This service meets corporate requirements in the African region.
In South Africa, our biggest challenge is the regulatory environment, with operators desperately wanting to add additional value and meet the growing demands for high broadband connectivity. Overall, there are strong operators in South Africa, but in truth the broadband penetration still remains very low and the 3G services are not sufficient to meet the growing demands from a customer and enterprise-driven point of view.
ITNewsAfrica.com: What will you focus on in 2011?
Winston Smith: That would be how to better serve the municipalities, to have access to a licensed spectrum sooner than the rest of operators. A partnership with qualified network service providers could actually offer joint solutions into municipalities.
By Denisa Oosthuizen
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