Cairo plays host to ITU Telecom Africa 2004 and has staged its day of welcome well, writes Gamal Nkrumah President Hosni Mubarak inaugurated the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecom Africa 2004 conference and exhibition at the Cairo International Conference Centre, Nasr City, on Monday. Despite the global telecommunications downturn, prospects for the industry in Africa are looking surprisingly good. Mobile phones now outnumber fixed lines in 30 African countries -- some are among the continent's poorest nations. Internet access is likewise increasing in leaps and bounds. Egypt hosted the ITU Telecom Africa conference in 1994, but this year's event is a far bigger affair. Over 200 foreign companies participated. Some of the major strategic investors at Africa Telecom 2004 included El-Nekhely Electronics Mall, TE Data, Ericsson, Vodafone, MTN, ORASCOM and CELTEL. Africa's information and communications technology (ICT) landscape is fast changing. The insatiable demand for satellite access in Africa has translated into tremendous business opportunities. Africa's mobile growth rate between 2000 and 2003 was 225 per cent. Still, the continent has much ground to cover. Only 75 million of Africa's total population of 850 million are voice telephony subscribers. In India, two million subscribers are added every month. And the respective figure for China is five million. Egypt, which has 6.2 million mobile phone users, is pioneering efforts on the continent to drive telecommunications industry growth, especially in the field of making networks financially viable for low-income groups. Africa is expected to provide the main stimulus for mobile penetration and Egypt is seen as a trendsetter in the Arab and African regions. "Our leading initiatives include the use of ICT in upgrading education standards, improving health services, speeding our efforts towards e-government, and facilitating e-business transactions," President Mubarak explained. "Our efforts have been accelerated by the establishment of an evolving ICT industry as a catalyst in both the Arab and African regions," he stressed. "Egypt is among the most successful countries in the field of telecommunication in this part of the world, especially in allowing operators to run networks profitably," Hani Assal, of Quicktel, told Al-Ahram Weekly. "Even though the Egyptian market itself has not reached saturation point, I believe that our role is to extend our sphere of operations into the neighbouring Arab and African countries," he added. "Africa is virgin territory as far as the telecommunications industry is concerned," Assal said. Other Egyptian telecommunications gurus with an eye on Africa concur. "We have the expertise. We export the know- how," Hossam Salah strategic manager of TE Data told the Weekly. "When we have an event as big as this we look for engagement agreements with companies in other countries," Salah added. One especially promising area for prospective growth and development is the ADSL, or high-speed Internet market. Egypt has taken bold steps in improving access to ADSL. Both the Egyptian government and the private sector are involved in ADSL, and coordinate activities on a national and regional level. Yasser Al-Kady, the Egypt, North Africa and Middle East general manager of Cisco Systems, told the Weekly that he was especially impressed with the high quality of both presentations at the ITU African Telecom 2004 conference and the products and ideas on display at the exhibition. "There is a huge digital divide between the industrially advanced and developing worlds, but the conference was an excellent opportunity to find ways of bridging the gap," he said. "Telecommunication multinationals were well represented." African mobile penetration is expected to reach between 10 and 20 per cent, up from six per cent, in 2003. But there are disparities between the various parts of the continent. Mobile subscriber numbers in Africa have increased by over 1,000 per cent between 1998 and 2003, to stand at approximately 51.8 million at the end of 2003. Egyptian companies are at the moment far more heavily involved in North Africa. The markets of Africa south of the Sahara are not yet fully exploited. The five Maghreb countries -- Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania and Libya -- have more telephone infrastructure than all the 46 countries in Africa south of the Sahara excluding South Africa. The growth of the industry in Africa is inextricably intertwined with "continued market liberalisation" which is "reshaping the regulatory environment, thus creating a more investment friendly climate," explained Prime Minister Atef Ebeid. ITU Secretary-General Yoshio Utsumi expressed his optimism about the future of the telecommunication industry in Africa. "One of Africa's key advantages in the information age is the diversity and richness of its culture," Utsumi said. "Egypt itself represents a crossroads of cultures and regions," he explained. The ITU secretary-general spoke at length about his vision for the telecommunications industry in Africa, particularly how the industry can help speed up the development process. "We need a common understanding, a shared vision and a true meeting of minds," he added. He also pointed out the potential of expanding e-government, a theme that Egyptian officials are warming to. President Mubarak extolled the benefits of e- government, expounding on its potential to improve a wide variety of services in the health and education sectors. Utsumi concurred: "ICT can also be extremely effective in improving governance. It gives a voice to people in developing countries who have been isolated, invisible and silent," he noted. "In Africa's many densely populated urban centres, fixed-line communications still have an important role to play. What strategies should operators adopt to offer broadband? What are the requirements for training and institutional capacity building?" These are some of the pertinent questions pertaining to African telecommunications that the ITU secretary- general posed at Africa Telecom 2004.
