WIOCC continues African expansion with new staff appointments

Left to right: Darren Bedford, Martin Mutiiria and Jason Tutty

WIOCC is further strengthening its presence in Africa by bringing in three experienced senior telecoms industry professionals: Darren Bedford, from PCCW (formerly Gateway Communications); Martin Mutiiria, from Nokia Siemens Networks; and Jason Tutty from Reliance Globalcom.

In their new roles, Director of Africa Business Development Darren Bedford, Martin Mutiiria, Director, Sales, Africa, and Network Planning and Operations Director Jason Tutty will help carriers, telcos, network operators and ISPs across the continent to exploit WIOCC’s unrivalled African network and end-to-end-managed wholesale connectivity.

Explaining the thinking behind these appointments, WIOCC CEO Chris Wood said: “We are seeing increasing demand from businesses for diversity-rich, high-speed international connectivity to and from Africa. We are expanding our business development and sales teams in Africa to meet this demand.“

“The skills, experience and contacts that Darren, Martin and Jason bring will be invaluable in helping new and existing customers benefit from WIOCC’s award-winning network, which seamlessly links 50,000km of African terrestrial fibre with multiple international submarine cables.”

Darren Bedford – WIOCC Director of Africa Business Development

As Director of Africa Business Development, Darren’s responsibilities include planning and implementing business development strategies and expanding WIOCC’s network coverage across the region.

Prior to joining WIOCC, Darren was Head of Terrestrial and Subsea Expansion at PCCW and was responsible for the expansion of Gateway’s African network. Before that, Darren was Commercial Director for Aerosat, South Africa’s first wireless internet start-up.

Martin Mutiiria – WIOCC Director, Sales, Africa

In this new role, Martin Mutiiria is responsible for growing WIOCC’s customer base through direct and indirect sales of products and services in Africa. As well as prospecting, customer acquisition and retention, customer relationship management of WIOCC’s 14 African telco shareholders will also be an important focus for Martin.

Martin was the Services Sales Manager for Bharti Africa Group at Nokia Siemens Networks before joining WIOCC, and was responsible for service solutions and sales across 16 African countries.

Jason Tutty – Network Planning and Operations Director

Jason has also taken on a new role, in which he is responsible for planning and managing resilient, end-to-end connectivity for WIOCC’s expanding number of carrier customers.

Formerly the Engineering and Operations Support Director at Reliance Globalcom, Jason brings with him a wealth of valuable telecoms industry experience spanning network operations, service and sales support, OSS/BSS development and network deployment. His last 12 years were spent in the submarine and global IP/MPLS industry.

WIOCC’s European cable repaired

Repairs to the submarine cable delivering most of WIOCC’s connectivity to Europe were completed on Wednesday April 17th and WIOCC customer traffic is currently being migrated back to its original routing.

During the outage, Africa’s carriers’ carrier WIOCC was able to provide restoration services to all customers requiring them.

“I am delighted that our cable has been repaired on schedule, enabling us to get customers’ services back to normal as early as possible” said Chris Wood, WIOCC’s CEO.

“I apologise to customers for the impact of these multiple cable cuts in the Mediterranean Sea, which have affected telcos and ISPs worldwide over the last month. WIOCC’s team has made a monumental effort over a sustained period of time, with our Service Delivery and Technical Support teams working 24×7 for almost two weeks to ensure that WIOCC’s customers were restored in the fastest possible time.”

James Wekesa to discuss market growth in West Africa

James Wekesa, WIOCC CCO

Later this month, WIOCC CCO, James Wekesa, will be participating in a panel discussion at the West Africa Connect event in Dakar, Senegal.  Mr. Wekesa will offer expert insight and comments within the ‘building successful regional and international partnerships’ panel session entitled ‘Facilitating market growth through effective cooperation.’

During the session, which will take place on Wednesday 17th April, 2013, Mr. Wekesa will represent WIOCC – together with other industry experts – in discussing a range of significant topics including:

• Evaluating the current status of market collaboration

- Co-operation between the West African markets

- Partnerships with international providers

• International perspective: what are international carriers seeing as key growth drivers in the West African marketplace?
• How are traffic patterns changing between West Africa and Europe vs. West Africa and the rest of the world and what impact is it having on your business?
• What are the criteria for an effective co-operation?  Selecting the right partner to meet your business needs, building mutually beneficial partnerships
• Implementing effective partnerships to facilitate market growth and capitalise on the growth potential of the West African wholesale market

WIOCC is at the forefront of delivering connectivity to/from West Africa including key markets such as Congo, Ghana, Namibia and Nigeria. Other countries expected to come on board soon in West Africa include DRC and Cameroon. WIOCC works closely with customers, developing flexible technical and commercial solutions including:

• Seamless international connectivity
• West Africa origination/termination at

- Customer site

- Carrier PoP

- Cable landing station

• High levels of redundancy

- West & East coast diversity

• Large capacity on WACS

- Meeting carrier-scale requirements

To arrange a meeting at this event with James Wekesa – CCO, Hitesh Desai – Country Manager (S. Africa) or Darren Bedford – Director, Africa Business Development please contact Winnie Karisa Winnie.karisa@wiocc.net or info@wiocc.net.

WIOCC Events Shedule 2013

WIOCC will be attending the following events during 2013:

March 19–21: Innovation Africa Digital Summit, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
March 18–20: Premier Annual Broadband Confex, Johannesburg, South Africa
April 16-17: West Africa Connect, Dakar, Senegal
April 22-25: SubOptic 2013, Paris, France
May 10: Zimbabwe’s 1st Broadband Forum, Harare, Zimbabwe
May 13–15: International Telecoms Week, Chicago, USA
May 21–22: East Africa Com, Nairobi, Kenya
May 28–29: Satcom Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa
May 28–29: Submarine Network World Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa
June: 11–12: Connecting West Africa Com, Dakar, Senegal
September 10–12: Submarine Networks World, Singapore
September 17–18: Capacity Africa, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
November 12–14: Africa Com, Cape Town, South Africa
November 18–20: Capacity Europe, Amsterdam, Netherlands

WIOCC will be represented at the various events by Chris Wood – CEO, Ryan Sher – COO, James Wekesa – CCO, Mike Last – Director of Marketing & International Business Development, Martin Mutiiria – Director, Sales Africa, Hitesh Desai – Country Manager (S. Africa), Marcel Bhatti – Sales Manager (S. Africa), Darren Bedford – Director, Africa Business Development, Gillian Koech – Marketing Assistant and Winnie Karisa – Marketing Assistant & PA to CEO.

To book a meeting with WIOCC at any of these events, please contact us at info@wiocc.net.

WIOCC CEO Chris Wood on a panel at Capacity Middle East

WIOCC CEO, Chris Wood, will be participating in a panel discussion on Tuesday 5^th March, 2013 at the Capacity Middle East in Dubai.  Mr. Wood will provide expert insight and comment within the International connectivity panel session titled ‘Understanding capacity requirements and creating stronger international links.’

As capacity becomes more readily available into, within and out of African markets, the panel of industry experts will discuss a range of significant topics including:

1) Evaluate developing connectivity and capacity between the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa

• promoting market competition with new route developments
• anticipating the impact of 100G cables and upgrades

2) Understanding the capacity and connectivity needs of carriers inside and outside the region as well services offered

• measuring increasing demand for connectivity between Middle East and East Africa

3) Terrestrial vs. subsea connectivity – which routes will see the greatest growth

• subsea connectivity
• new and planned cable rollouts and upgrades; ensuring resiliency to maintain connectivity
• terrestrial connectivity: an update on planned alternative routes
• predicting the benefit of alternative routes and understanding the challenges

4) Determining future prospects in Middle Eastern transit route development and potential changes in global connectivity

• what is the business case for a new connection between Middle East and India
• predicting which markets in Asia and Africa will experience the strongest growth

“African telecommunications markets in particular are undergoing fundamental and irreversible change,” said Chris Wood. “Competition is growing, new networks are being deployed and customer demand is escalating particularly for internet and other data-intensive applications. Consequently, carriers and internet service providers in these markets, or evaluating market entry, are increasingly dependent on their ability to source cost-effective and high-quality international connectivity services.”

 “I am looking forward to a lively discussion with my fellow panel members, and hope that this will help those in the audience who are evaluating and implementing solutions to deliver scalable, resilient and cost-effective international links.”

WIOCC shortlisted for Best Pan-African Initiative at AfricaCom

Africa’s carriers’ carrier WIOCC has been shortlisted in the Best Pan-African Initiative at this year’s AfricaCom Awards (www.africacomawards.com), which celebrate and reward excellence in African Telecoms, Media and ICT markets.

WIOCC received this accolade for not only building the first truly seamless, diversity-rich, low latency, high-capacity, international connectivity ‘ring’ around Africa’, but also for its unparalleled 50,000+ km fibre-optic terrestrial network.

The winner will be announced at the 5^th Annual AfricaCom Awards Dinner, which takes place on 14^th November at the Waterfront LookOut, Granger Bay, in Cape Town.

Anyone attending AfricaCom (13^th to 15^th November, in the CTICC in Cape Town) who is  interested in finding out how WIOCC’s international submarine ‘ring around Africa’ and unique terrestrial footprint could help their organisation, should visit our stand, A1, and speak with one of the team. Alternatively, send us an email at info@wiocc.net and we’ll come straight back to you.

Chris Wood interviewed in Capacity magazine

Chris Wood, WIOCC CEO

The chief executive of WIOCC, Africa’s self-styled “carrier’s carrier”, has ruled out any push into the retail market as the provider prepares a new two-pronged expansion drive across the continent.

Speaking exclusively to Capacity magazine, Chris Wood said: “We’ve got no aspirations or desire to move into the retail space; we’re purely in the wholesale space and aim to stay there as we are doing it extremely effectively.”

Instead, Wood will target terrestrial partnerships in the west and connectivity upgrades in the south and east. Spurred by the significant amount of capacity it owns on the recently launched West Africa Cable System (WACS), WIOCC is looking to broaden its predominantly eastern focussed grid of terrestrial fibre networks through partnerships with operators on the west coast. The group is also rolling out its own western terrestrial networks through a number of suppliers.

Elsewhere WIOCC is looking to expand connectivity from the EASSy cable, on which it owns a 30% stake, inland and is now doing business in Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Lesotho. The company is also working on opportunities in Swaziland, one of the few markets on Africa’s south eastern coast that has so far proven elusive for the company.

“In the next two to three years we are looking to consolidate our position as the leading African carrier’s carrier, add connectivity in west Africa and increase connectivity in eastern and southern Africa,” Wood added.

To cope with increasing bandwidth demand the EASSy cable is likely to be upgraded by as much as a terabit in the next 12 to 18 months, according to Wood. The upgrade would be the second in the cable’s recently history, with 160Gbps of capacity added in January 2012.

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WIOCC’s Hitesh Desai on expert panel at DataCentre Africa 2012

Hitesh Desai, WIOCC’s country manager for South Africa, will be an expert panellist on the opening day (Wednesday, 27^th June) of DataCentre Africa (www.datacentreafrica.com) in Johannesburg.

Responsible for WIOCC business in South Africa and also for providing support into the southern Africa region, Mr Desai will contribute expert insight and comment within the conference session discussing ‘Global Connectivity and Converged Services for Datacentres’¹.

The substantial additional submarine capacity that has been landed in Africa in the past couple of years is positioning the continent increasingly well to exploit the next wave of data centre development.

“The availability of reliable, affordable, high-capacity international connectivity, and the impact of its arrival on domestic markets for capacity, have been fundamental to the current expansion of the Data Centre industry in Africa,” said WIOCC South Africa Country Manager Hitesh Desai.

“I am looking forward to what should be a lively discussion and hope that this will help those in the audience to progress their data centre and outsourcing strategies.”

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¹ DataCentre Africa 2012 – 27-28 June, Hyatt Regency, Johannesburg.

Global Connectivity and Converged Services for Datacentres – Wed 27^th June: 14:00 – 14:45

Panellists: Stafford Masie, Technology Angel Investor, Entrepreneur and ex-Google SA country Manager; Stuart Hardy, Managing Director of Africa-INX; and Hitesh Desai, South Africa Country Manager for WIOCC.

WIOCC CEO Chris Wood on executive roundtable at ITW next week

WIOCC CEO, Chris Wood, will be participating in an executive roundtable on Tuesday 15^th May at the International Telecoms Week in Chicago.

Mr Wood will provide expert insight and comment within the Spotlight on Africa panel session entitled ‘Connectivity and opportunity’^.

As capacity becomes more readily available into, within and out of African markets, the panel of industry experts at this roundtable will discuss a range of important topics including:

1.  The impact on regional development
• enterprise growth – accessing new verticals; impact on broadband
• building backhaul to support last mile delivery
• improving carrier-grade transport

2. The opportunity in-region connectivity to landlocked countries presents for carriers
• expected ROIs and challenges – security issues for personnel and cables
• route diversity – role of radio technology vs. fixed line, regional loops

3. International connectivity – evaluating transport trends and problems
• examine patterns and reasons for traffic going east and west from Africa
• impact and drivers for new subsea cables on route diversity and existing cable capacity expansion
• business case for building to South America

4. Evaluating price compression in the voice and data markets
• oversupply of capacity; monopolistic subsea cables

5. New market opportunities and competition
• track the status of newly de-regulated countries
• a look at which countries are liable to open up in the short and medium term
• impact of increased competition on the wholesale environment

“The importance of international connectivity for Africa cannot be overestimated,” said WIOCC CEO Chris Wood. “Understanding both the opportunities and the challenges presented by African markets is crucial for successful decision-making.”

“I am looking forward to a lively discussion with my fellow panel members, and hope that this will help those in the audience who are developing and refining their strategies for the continent.”

Meet WIOCC at ITW 2012

WIOCC will be attending the International Telecoms Week (ITW) 2012 exhibition and conference from 14 – 16 May 2012 at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago, IL.

WIOCC will be represented at the event by Chris Wood – CEO, Ryan Sher – COO, Mike Last – Director of Marketing & International Business Development, and Winnie Karisa, Marketing Assistant & PA to CEO.

Chris Wood will also be participating in a Spotlight on Africa executive roundtable entitled ‘Connectivity and opportunity’ on the morning of the 15th.

To set up a meeting with the WIOCC team, please contact us at info@wiocc.net.