African telecom industry increases investment in fibre to meet broadband demand

LONDON - May 20, 2016 - PRLog -- Telecom infrastructure companies across Africa are increasingly investing in fixed line technology such as fibre to anticipate the growing demand for data and services such as video on Demand (VoD) and mobile banking, according to industry experts attending TMT Finance Africa 2016, in London, June 14. http://www.tmtfinance.com/africa/

Over the past two decades mobile infrastructure has attracted the lion's share of investment in Africa's fast growing telecoms markets, but fixed infrastructure is seen as increasingly important.

"International investors from the enterprise cloud, hosting and datacentre space, are targeting the Africa fixed infrastructure market and will compete with mobile tower infrastructure providers in the coming years", a telecom banker said. "Major players from the Gulf, the US (Google, Facebook), Asia (PCCW, Huawei), Africa itself (Liquid Telecom, SEACOM, WIOCC, Orange Submarine Division), among others, are all battling to provide the best network coverage in Africa and challenge mobile operators such as Vodafone, by investing in terrestrial fibre."

"Using other parties' infrastructure is very costly to telecom operators so investing in your own network is critical to meet the customers growing demand for data," the banker added.

Senior executives from Africa's leading telecom, media and technology companies, private equity investors, investment bankers and advisers will meet to discuss the latest Investment opportunities at the annual TMT Finance Africa Conference in London on June 14.

Broadband investment is a key topic for debate with key speakers from Vodafone, Google, Millicom, Fibersat, PCCW, WIOCC, SEACOM, Avanti Communications, Convergence Partners, IHS, Helios Towers Africa, Eaton Towers, IFC, Every1Mobile, TransferTo, Goldman Sachs, Icolo, Bima, Citi, UBS, GDV,  Access Bank, Connect Africa, Standard Bank, Nokia, Credit Suisse, and others.

"It's a really vibrant time for investment into African broadband infrastructure," commented a senior telecom adviser attending the event. "Numerous international internet backbone projects are springing up connecting the African continent. For instance, the Central Africa Backbone Program run by the Word Bank and assisted by other institutions such as the African Development Bank will provide broadband connectivity to all capital cities, main secondary cities and establishing redundancy linkages in the West Africa region including Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Congo, DRC, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria, Niger, Sao Tome and Principe."

About:

TMT Finance & Investment Africa 2016 is a senior executive networking event bringing together key telecom, media and technology industry decision makers, investors, financiers and advisers. The 2016 programme features 20 sessions with no media to ensure confidentiality.

TMT Finance is the leading news and events provider for telecom, media and tech executives active in mergers and acquisitions, financing strategy and investment globally.

For more information, go to: http://www.tmtfinance.com/africa

Register to attend at http://www.tmtfinance.com/africa/register/