Key Takeaways from AfricaCom 2015
I really enjoyed these three days of exhibition at AfricaCom 2015 in Cape Town. We got a lot of visitors and had very interesting and productive discussions with mobile and fixed operators, ISPs, broadcasters, content providers, consulting companies, partners and technology vendors.
AfricaCom is really excellent opportunity to meet all relevant people in one place. Demonstrating UniqCast turnkey IPTV and OTT solution, gathering info on latest happening in the industry or chatting with old friends, all these and more was happening on our stand.
IPTV was already warming up on the AfricaCom conference two years ago, but this year it really felt everybody is talking mainly about IPTV and for sure it was one of the most important topics. I can confirm that statement also by looking at number of visitors on our stand, which had doubled compared to two years ago.
First IPTV deployments in Africa are already done and running in production. There are also many ISPs with already build FTTx networks, looking how to provide value added services on top of it, to monetize investment in the FTTx. IPTV and OTT services are perfect to attract new subscribers and to increase ARPU of existing internet users.
ISPs and also operators that were looking for IPTV solution, were all looking for proper content. Actually, this was one of the first questions they asked. Fortunately, we have a good relations with content providers for African market and are able to help, to get Live TV and on demand content.
When content question was solved, next one was how to provide turnkey IPTV or OTT solution. Providing end to end solution with single point of responsibility and consultancy in all project stages, including network analysis, help with business plan or operating the service, is one of our main advantages. Everybody appreciated our eagerness to help, integration services and additional components like DSL line monitoring, backup system or STB monitoring, that extend the turnkey solution and make operators life easier.
Another important aspect, was our flexibility in terms of business models and providing either standalone solution installed for each operator, or wholesale service served from the centralized platform.
Based on discussion at AfricaCom, we strongly believe that we have a perfect solution for this market and are looking forward to continue discussions we started at the conference.
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