Telecommunications and Postal Services Deputy Minister, Ms Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams delivered a keynote address at the AfricaCom Conference on Wednesday 8th November 2017.
The presentation focused on the value of ICT and digital connectivity under the theme, “Visions for Africa: ensuring a connected Africa through satellite communication.” This included an analysis of the satellite communication policy interventions, regulatory framework, legislation and collective efforts which are required to build an information society and knowledge economy in Africa, in order to achieve the requisite socio-economic development and modernised standards of living.
David Harrower, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Business Development at iDirect, elaborates on the role that satellite communication plays in driving socio-economic change especially across the business/financial, healthcare and education business sectors, as well as for government services.
iDirect is a leading enterprise TDMA satellite communication provider, whose satellite platform sets the standard in performance and efficiency, and enables high-quality voice, video and data connectivity anywhere in the world.
AfricaCom Awards winners for 2017
The 10th AfricaCom Awards held at The Lookout, overlooking the waters of Granger Bay, Cape Town, proved to be a stellar occasion for not only the entrants to this year’s awards, but for AfricaCom itself, celebrating its 20th anniversary.
As AfricaCom has grown to embrace all aspects of the digi-sphere, so too the Awards. “We are delighted to recognise the sterling works performed by companies and personalities that are developing solutions and products to improve connectivity that will drive Africa into the fourth industrial revolution. Congratulations to all,” said Tom Cuthell, Portfolio Director of KNect365.
Here are the 2017 winners:
- Best Network Improvement – Mauritius Telecom for accelerated FTTH deployment
- Delivering Excellence in Customer Experience – MTN and Huawei for their Customer Experience Management (CEM)
- Best Network Function Virtualisation solution – Ericsson for the Ericsson HDS (Hyperscale Datacenter System)
- Changing Lives Award – UNHCR for the Smart WiFi Kiosk
- Most Innovative LTE Service/ Application Deployment – Parallel Wireless for making LTE deployments as easy and as cost-effective as Wi-Fi
- Best Innovation in Broadcast – Broadband Convergence – Telkom and Huawei for their Telkom LIT_ Service solution
- Most Innovative Service ” The Business of Tomorrow” – Orange for rural electrification
- Outstanding Data Management or Analytics Solution – BWTech International Limited for NetChart
- IoT Product / Service of the Year – Mahindra Comviva and Econet Wireless for EcoCash Diaspora
- CXO of the Year – Ben Cheik Haidara, CEO, Orange, Bukina Faso.
Speaking on behalf of the judges, Matthew Reed, Practice Leader, Middle East and Africa, Ovum said: “The quality of the entries this year was of an exceptional standard, demonstrating innovation and commitment towards ensuring that all Africans can benefit from access to connectivity and the digital realm. It bodes well for the future of the continent.”
The 2017 AfricaCom Awards were sponsored by PCCW Global (a founding sponsor), Intelsat and Orange.
Find out more and bookmark the annual AfricaCom, visit:
https://tmt.knect365.com/africacom/
