WIOCC at East Africa Com, 21st – 22nd May

WIOCC be joining 600+ senior level representatives from telecom companies, mobile and fixed-line operators, ISP’s, regulators, investors, telecoms solution vendors, among others at Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya on May 21^st and 22^nd at the East Africa Com conference and exhibition.

Africa’s leading carriers’ carrier will be represented at the event by James Wekesa – CCO; Martin Mutiiria – Director, Africa Sales; Hitesh Desai – Country Manager, South Africa and Gillian Koech – Marketing.

WIOCC will be exhibiting its products and services at the 2-day strategic conference together with local partner Frontier Optical Networks.  If you have any questions for WIOCC or would just like to meet us, please visit our stand (#24) where you will be able to meet the team led by our Chief Commercial Officer.

To arrange a meeting with WIOCC please contact gillian.koech@wiocc.net.

WIOCC at ITW 2013

WIOCC will be present at the International Telecoms Week (ITW ’13) being held in the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Chicago, USA from 13th – 15th May, 2013.

Chris Wood – CEO, Ryan Sher – COO, Mike Last – Director, Marketing and International Business Development and Winnie Karisa – Marketing will represent WIOCC at the event.

Chris Wood will be participating in a panel discussion on Tuesday 14th May, 2013 at East Tower, Gold Level, Columbus CD conference room. Mr. Wood will offer his expertise and comments within the spotlight on Africa panel session titled ‘Driving data demand in Africa’. Some of the topics to be discussed on the panel include:
• Tracking the impact of subsea cable connectivity on nascent markets
- identifying markets with the largest data needs and growth projections
• Determining terrestrial infrastructure needs for quality, redundant and reliable services
- is there sufficient deployment of additional terrestrial infrastructure
- tracking IP growth vs. terrestrial network growth across the continent
- evaluating the opportunity represented by large markets like Libya and Ethiopia if liberalized
• Motivating in-region content development to create data demand
- how can service providers promote content creation and distribution to drive demand across their networks?
- when will Africa live up to its bandwidth promise?
• Driving mobile internet uptake and adoption
- cheaper handsets = more eyeballs?
- LTE timelines and viability
- which content and applicants will drive the proliferation of bandwidth?
• Establishing a roadmap to provoke the explosion

To arrange a meeting with the WIOCC team please contact Winnie Karisa at winnie.karisa@wiocc.net or info@wiocc.net.

WIOCC’s Ryan Sher: one of the 40 most influential under-40 year olds in global telecommunications

Ryan Sher, WIOCC COO

For the third consecutive year, Ryan Sher, Chief Operating Officer at Africa’s carriers’ carrier WIOCC, has been acclaimed1 as one of the 40 most influential people under the age of 40 in the global telecommunications industry.

Ryan has been a key force in the development and commercialisation of WIOCC’s unique international fibre-optic network, which won the Best Pan-African Initiative Award at AfricaCom 2012 and seamlessly links 50,000km of African terrestrial fibre with multiple international submarine cables.

In his citation, Ryan was recognised for ‘his drive, energy and business skills, which have been vital in transforming WIOCC – after less than five years trading – into Africa’s carriers’ carrier. WIOCC leads the way in delivering end-to-end-managed wholesale connectivity to Africa and offers carriers diversity-rich, high-speed international connectivity to and from over 400 locations in 30 African countries.’

Ryan’s achievements include implementing the first truly seamless, diversity-rich, high-speed network between Africa and Europe – linking WIOCC’s strategic investments in EASSy, EIG and WACS – and managing the interconnection of WIOCC shareholder and partner networks to create the largest (over 50,000km) terrestrial fibre footprint in Africa.

WIOCC at SubOptic 2013

WIOCC is attending the SubOptic 2013 conference from 22 – 25 April 2013, at the Paris Marriott Rive Gauche hotel in Paris, France.

WIOCC are represented at the event by John Sihra (Chairman) and Chris Wood (CEO). John Sihra will be presenting in a session on ‘Project Development and Implementation’ chaired by Pierre Trembla, OCI Vice Chairman. John’s presentation, which is scheduled for Tuesday 23rd April at 3:30 – 5:00pm, will discuss ‘The Success of the EASSy Consortium Model’.

To set up a meeting with the John Sihra or Chris Wood, please contact Winnie Karisa at Winnie.karisa@wiocc.net or at info@wiocc.net.

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 wins Best Pan-African Initiative Award at Africa Com 2012

“The winner of the Best Pan-African category is charging ahead with the task of fusing African communication channels, and it could be giving a glimpse of the connected African map in 10 years’ time… The winner is WIOCC.”

Chris Wood receiving the award on behalf of WIOCC

WIOCC won the Best Pan-African Initiative Award at Africa Com 2012, for building an unrivalled, high-capacity network that seamlessly integrates more than 50,000km of African terrestrial fibre with 40,000km of international submarine cable – giving carriers diversity-rich, high-speed international connectivity to and from over 400 locations in 30 African countries.

The Best Pan-African Initiative Award recognises an initiative taken to improve telecommunications services at a regional or continental level across Africa, and was presented to WIOCC CEO Chris Wood at the Africa Com 2012 awards dinner – which took place in Cape Town, South Africa on 14th November.

After receiving the award, WIOCC CEO Chris Wood commented, “This award recognises WIOCC’s unique achievement in bringing together the networks of our 14 African telco shareholders and selected partners, together with strategic investments in submarine cables including EIG, WACS and EASSy, to create an unparalleled African network footprint and capability. It clearly demonstrates the power of working together in pursuit of a common goal, resulting in something far greater than the sum of its parts.”

As well as serving Africa’s coastal regions, WIOCC’s network is increasingly enabling businesses and individuals in landlocked countries – such as Botswana, Burundi, Lesotho, Malawi, Uganda and Zimbabwe – to benefit from reliable and affordable international connectivity.

A high-resolution version of the photograph is available on request from info@wiocc.net

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.

WIOCC CEO one of the 100 most powerful people in global telecommunications

Chris Wood, WIOCC CEO

Chris Wood, CEO of WIOCC, has been named as one of the 100 most powerful people in the global telecommunications industry.In the 5^th annual GTB Power 100 listing, Global Telecoms Business magazine ranked Chris Wood at number 79 – making him one of only four executives from African businesses to appear in this list of the 100 most powerful people in the global telecommunications industry.

Chris led WIOCC’s development from initially being simply a single route (East African Submarine Cable System – EASSy) supplier of African connectivity, to its current position as the leading African wholesaler of reliable, affordable, high-speed, international connectivity into, out of and within Africa.

The publication cited Chris’s ‘vision for improving the affordability, reliability, reach and diversity of Africa’s international links – which saw WIOCC extend high-quality connectivity into many land-locked countries including Burundi, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe’. 

He was also recognised for ‘creating the first high-capacity, low-latency connectivity ‘ring’ linking Africa’s coasts to Europe’ and for ‘spearheading WIOCC’s evolution into the leading player in Africa’s wholesale capacity market and the #1 supplier of end-to-end managed circuits into and out of Africa’.

WIOCC’s transformation was achieved as a result of a number of initiatives including strategic investments and partnerships which have given WIOCC a unique international network footprint that encompasses 40,000km of submarine fibre-optic cable and more than 50,000km of terrestrial fibre. This enables WIOCC to provide seamless, end-to-end managed service connectivity between 400+ locations in 30 African countries, 100 cities in 29 European countries and more than 700 cities in 70 countries globally.

By using this network, operators in emerging markets such as Botswana, Burundi, Lesotho, Malawi and Zimbabwe are now able to provide their business and consumer customers with faster, more reliable and significantly more affordable, high-speed international connectivity. For example, internet service prices in Lesotho fell by up to 67 per cent as a result of WIOCC delivering lower-cost internet connectivity into the country.

As well as leading WIOCC, Chris has been Chairman of EASSy since August 2011 and was instrumental in securing the January 2012 system upgrade that at the time made EASSy the largest provider of capacity into sub-Saharan Africa.

WIOCC events in September

This month, WIOCC will be attending both Submarine Networks World Singapore and Capacity Africa.

Between 11th and 13th September, Chris Wood will be representing WIOCC at the Submarine Networks World Singapore event at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. He will be available for meetings throughout the event at WIOCC’s exhibition table (#13), and will be participating in an expert panel session entitled “Upgrade or build: How do you justify cable system investments?” on September 12th.

WIOCC are also Gold Sponsors of Capacity Africa – the  meeting place for carriers active in African wholesale markets.

This event will take place on 13th – 14th September at the Hyatt Regency in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. As well as sponsoring a cocktail event on the first evening, James Wekesa (WIOCC’s CCO) will participate in two panel discussions, entitled “Southern African Coastal & Landlocked Countries” on the first day and ”Data and Content Growth in Africa” on the second day. James, Marcel Bhatti (Sales Manager, South Africa) and our event team will be available at the WIOCC booth (#6) throughout the event.

To arrange meetings with WIOCC’s team at either event, please contact us at info@wiocc.net.

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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