ITNewsAfrica.com: Can you give us an overview of Omnitele’s mission in Africa?
Tomi Paatsila: Omnitele aims to improve and increase overall operator performance on the continent through telecommunications consultancy that focuses on mobile network planning, development and optimization, strategic and technical consultancy and operator business development.
ITNewsAfrica.com: What are the main challenges faced by African operators today?
Tomi Paatsila: Obviously what operators want is to generate revenue and keep down the costs, which is not as simple as it used to be. Even with the increase in data services, profitability is not necessarily a guarantee. One of the reasons is the disproportion between increasing technological investments and the expected returns. In Nigeria, for example, the customer base needs to be segmented in the right way for different viable business models.
Apart from customer base segmentation, the cost-dimension perspective is very important. Operators in Africa outsource everything from network planning to implementation and we have to make sure that outsourcing is cost-effective and support them in deciding the right parts they need for their networks. Understanding the right frequency/spectrum and optimizing the network for additional capacity are other common challenges.
ITNewsAfrica.com: What are the African operators’ frequent requirements addressed by Omnitele?
Tomi Paatsila: We see similar challenges for multiple operators in multiple countries, regarding networking planning and optimization to allow operators to get the most of their infrastructure. We often perform audit services such as benchmarking a network against the competitor’s and determine the best solutions for the operator to keep up with the growing market demands and provide add-value services. A competitor’s choice of network might not be in the best interest for the operators in cause.
ITNewsAfrica.com: Can you tell us about your most recent consulting projects?
Tomi Paatsila: We have various consulting projects in Southern, Eastern and Western Africa. At the moment we are not active in South Africa, but discussing with operators and presenting them with opportunities to improve their network performance. On the other hand, we will be heading to Angola next weeks to consult on Unitel’s network requirements and strategy. In all our projects the focus is on making sure the networks run at the best possible quality with the lowest costs.
ITNewsAfrica.com: How would you summarize Omnitele’s future strategy in Africa?
Tomi Paatsila: There are various opportunities for Omnitele in Africa to improve rural area coverage, channel the exponential growth in countries like Nigeria and consult operators in terms of profitability. Africa is on a fast pace of change towards the adoption of data services and newer technologies. Compared to other world regions, the reasons behind telecommunication needs are more fundamental to African people and this is a strong reason for Omnitele to get involved.
By Denisa Oosthuizen
