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’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 successes at Africa Leadership Awards 2012

Both WIOCC and its CEO have been successful at the recent 2^nd Africa Leadership Awards. These awards, which are “all about recognizing Super Achievers, Future Business Leaders and the greatest brands in various sectors”, were announced on December 12^th 2012 in Mauritius.

Chris Wood was selected jointly as “African CEO of the Year”. The award recognises that he has been integral to the successful establishment of WIOCC and its evolution into its current form. He is credited with spearheading WIOCC’s evolution into a leading player in Africa’s wholesale bandwidth markets and supplier of end-to-end managed capacity into and out of the continent. Chris’s vision for improving the affordability, reach and diversity of Africa’s connections to the world has seen WIOCC extend high-quality connectivity inland from the coast into many land-locked countries. The award also acknowledges that his energy, leadership and determination continue to be instrumental in securing and improving Africa’s connectivity to the world.

WIOCC was also awarded the “Industry Leadership award” for its African connectivity, based on its end-to-end managed service offerings over an unrivalled, diversity-rich, high-capacity, connectivity network, which seamlessly incorporates more than 50,000km of terrestrial fibre in Africa and 40,000km of submarine fibre-optic connectivity.

These awards bring to an end a very successful year of recognition for WIOCC, complementing the recent Africa Com 2012 award for “Best Pan-African Initiative” and the Global Telecoms Business “Power100” and “40 Under 40” placings achieved by Chris and Ryan Sher.

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.