Head of Africa Region, Nokia Siemens Networks, Dimitri Diliani

Adequate broadband is still an issue in Nigeria. How is NS working to increase it?
“The system itself is capable of providing the best user experience you can ever have because the minimum band we can provide with one carrier is 21 mech. That is best in class compared to others. Today users don’t see that as there is more in the one or two meg usually for a lot of reasons like the 21 meg being shared by a lot of people.  Higher bandwidth needs more carriers which is more added frequency. The second challenge is the weak pipe in-between the powerful base stations and core network. This pipe is the transmission network which is either all microwave or E1 in some places, it needs to be strengthened from simple to advanced microwave or fiber. New technology needs to come in. when this happens the user experience starts going up. That is where we are helping out customers .We have the end solution and are working with them on the transport solution with our internet solutions to allow them transfer data to IP instead of E1. Then of course is the issue of what is done with the data when it comes in.”   

Future of Nigerian telecoms industry
“over the next year or two, once all those projects are complete it will be at par, there is nothing from a technology perspective that is not existing anywhere in the world. The same technology here is being deployed n the US, Europe and elsewhere, the bandwidth and optical to the outside world might be missing but once that is settled, it will be at par. When you go to lots of places in Africa, the 3G spectrums have not been auctioned so they do not know the prospects but that is not the case in Nigeria.”                  

Importance of the Nigerian market?
“Nigeria is probably the largest population market in Africa and an extremely advanced on in terms of telecoms. In terms of penetration there is still an opportunity to serve the population. To my knowledge, penetration in this county is around 64 percent which means a third of the population still does not have mobile service. When it comes to 3G data and services I think it is still at the start up. So we see Nigeria as a country with a great opportunity for growth for operators, suppliers and consumers. It is one of the top markets in African and one of the active ones in telecoms today which makes it extremely attractive for Nokia Siemens to be part of that evolution and revolution.”

Nigerian GSM technology?
“Within Africa, I think Nigeria is one of the most advanced countries. In terms of the availability of 3G and Wi-max, it is the best . This technology is available outside so Nigeria is not behind in anything. The opportunity for growth is still on the broadband side and the data speeds needs to go higher. It will be higher with a function of time. Optical I think is in the country but the demand from the consumers in that space will go higher quarter after quarter and year after year. Operators and the government need to keep up with good legislation and the demand.”

Nokia Siemens distinction from competition?
“where we bring in value is within the wireless space is the software in our equipment  and new technology that we bring in. A base station is a base station but the algorithms and patterns you have on how you service a call and making sure calls are handled is what we have as our software that helps our customers save cost and providing better quality. We also have customer experience solution. We try to spend our energies to ensure the end-customers experience is positive from a network perspective. Not just that the network or box is working. This sees us providing software and hardware to help our customers in monitoring and providing superior service and customer service to their end users. This is where we think we bring in the value. The last one our headquarters which has been build here with a focus on the continent.”

Investment Estimate for Nigeria
“As of today we employ over 400 people.  200 directly report to NSN while the rest are support staff. We are bringing jobs and opportunities to train and expand the knowledge. Most of our employees, I would say 90 percent in this space are Nigerians. We have a model. We bring in expatriates to set things up, transfer the knowledge, go home and expertise is groomed from the talent. On the technology side we are bringing technology and solutions on the wireless side. We are also looking at solutions in the LTE space and with the Motorola acquisition, we have the Wi-max. Between those two we will bring in new services that might be deployed in the few years and we are dialoguing with customers. There is also a great prospect in optical because there is going to be a lot of demand for high speed data. This means more fibre to build it or adding to the existing one to pass more data through it. These are the solutions we are bringing to Nigeria.”

SA's Seacom, Infinera trial world's first 500Gb/s high-speed data network

South Africa-based undersea cable company Seacom and US-based digital optical networking equipment supplier Infinera have achieved a global first by successfully trialling a 500 Gigabits per second transmission over Seacom's newly built network between KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. Seacom CEO Brian Herlihy said in a statement said that, "this event is a landmark achievement and a global first, It also signals the international science research and development community that global projects such as the Square Kilometre Array are well within Africa's reach.

" The trial made use of five 100 Gigabit per second (100 Gb/s) channels of coherent optical transmission over a distance of 1 732 kilometres on Monday. The trial was run over and looped back across Seacom's newly built 930-kilometre Dark Fibre Africa fibre route, which links the Seacom Mtunzini cable landing station on the coast of South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province to the Teraco data centre in Johannesburg. The live demonstration, news of which has generated huge excitement in the industry, was witnessed by members of the scientific, research and development community at Teraco's data centre in Johannesburg.

"The trial demonstrates Seacom's commitment to increase the pace at which African networks are deploying cutting-edge telecommunications infrastructure technology to support Africa's rise as a primary scientific and business destination," said Herlihy. The trial used Infinera's 500 Gb/s Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs), each of which integrates five 100 Gb/s coherent channels onto a single chip. The PICs were used for both transmitting and receiving the five 100 Gb/s signals during the trial. At the consumer level, the 500Gb/s PIc technology enables the download of 2 400 high-definition Blu-Ray movie files in 60 seconds, or supports the streaming of 320 000 simultaneous high definition video channels over a single fibre pair.

Fibre optic transmission technologies have been developing considerably to satisfy demand for large-capacity digital transmission in public telecommunication networks worldwide. "With internet traffic growing at exponential rates, driven by video, cloud computing, and mobility, the 500G PIC technology is designed to support the required growth in network capacity, while reducing the per-bit cost, space, and power consumption," said Infinera CEO Tom Fallon. "These attributes are in-line with Seacom's vision to providing world-class infrastructure as African traffic continues to increase at record speeds."

Nokia Siemens Networks opens new office in Nigeria .
Nokia Siemens Networks shows its commitment to the Nigerian market with the inauguration of their new office in Lagos, Nigeria

 Lagos, September 9th 2011. Nokia Siemens Networks, the global telecommunications enabler, today announced the opening of their new office in Banana Island of Lagos, Nigeria. The inauguration of their Nigerian office was attended by Dimitri Diliani, Head of Africa Region, Nokia Siemens Networks; Mrs. Lolia Emakpore, Director, Policy & Competition, Nigeria Communication Commission; Mr. Adebiyi F. Mabadeje, Honourable Commissioner, Science & Technology; Mr. Tokunbo Fashola, Consultant to the Governor, ICT; Mr. Walter L. von den Driesch, Consul General, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany; Ms. Arja Koski Representative of Ambassador of Finland; among other dignitaries and company executives.

"Nokia Siemens Networks has a vision in Africa of 'Internet for every African' and Nigeria is an important country in this vision." says Dimitri Diliani, Head of Africa Region, Nokia Siemens Networks. As part of the company's renewed focus on the African continent, Nokia Siemens Networks restructured and separated its Africa operations at the beginning of 2011. “The African market is growing at a strong pace and we felt the need to provide additional focus to support this growth. Our new office in Lagos will serve as an integral part of our strategy to strengthen our operations in the continent and deliver superior services to our customers," says Dimitri.

Dimitri Diliani also announced the new Country Director for Nigeria and the Head of Sales for the MTN Group in Africa , Raphael Udeogu. A Nigerian national with more than 23 years experience and a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering and Business Administration from the United States , Raphael joined Nokia Siemens Networks as part of the company's acquisition of the wireless network infrastructure assets of Motorola Solutions in April 2011. In Motorola Networks, he last served as the Senior Director for Motorola sales for Sub-Sahara Africa region and held multiple leadership positions in sales across the African continent and in the United States of America .

Raphael presented the results of the 2011 Connectivity Scorecard, which is the first study to rank 50 countries worldwide on ICT infrastructure deployment and the extent to which the infrastructure is put to efficient use. "On a benchmark scale of 10, Nigeria scores a low '1.09' and ranks 23rd on the list of developing countries (or resource & efficiency driven economies) measured in the overall study. Even though there is a positive increase in mobile penetration and a strong demand for Internet services, there needs to be a strong improvement in broadband services, literacy rates, business infrastructure and ICT utilization in business and public sectors."
Raphael also emphasized the extensive pool of talented and well-educated human resources in Nigeria as key factors that will drive the growth of telecommunications sector.

The scorecard is a landmark study and global ICT index for the 21st century created by Professor Leonard Waverman, Dean, Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, and Fellow, London Business School. Conducted under his direction by consulting firms Berkeley Research Group & Communicea, this study is commissioned by Nokia Siemens Networks. It’s the 1st study to rank 50 countries worldwide on ICT infrastructure deployment and the extent to which the infrastructure is put to efficient use.

Nokia Siemens Networks is a leading global enabler of telecommunications services. With its focus on innovation and sustainability, the company provides a complete portfolio of mobile, fixed and converged network technology, as well as professional services including consultancy and systems integration, deployment, maintenance and managed services. It is one of the largest telecommunications hardware, software and professional services companies in the world.
Back

Nokia Siemens’ New Facebook App Connects Customers to Operators

Nokia Siemens Networks has launched a Facebook app that operators can use to allow people to personally manage their fixed and mobile telecom services. The new app enables customers to check their balance, browse and buy special offers and subscribe to services. In addition, customers can share their experience across their social network and get rewards for recommending services to friends. The app aims to offer an improved service by allowing operators to engage with customers where they spend their time online.

“The beauty of the Facebook app is that it engages with people on their preferred social networking site,” said Rick Centeno, head of business support systems (BSS) at Nokia Siemens Networks. “People spend more time on social networks than individual websites. With this Facebook app, Nokia Siemens Networks helps operators to connect with people in a familiar setting where they already spend their online time. It takes self-care to a new level.”
An April 2011 research report from Ovum, ‘Defining the Rules of Engagement for Customer Service in Social Media’ claimed that “social media represents a significant opportunity for enterprise customer service.”

“Nokia Siemens Networks is presenting a refreshing end-to-end vision of how CSPs can better meet their customers’ needs through self-care, while also reducing their costs and becoming more commercially agile”, said Teresa Cottam, research director and founder, Telesperience. “We’ve seen other companies articulate parts of this vision, but few others – if indeed any others – can deliver this in its entirety today.”

For operators that deliver a superior customer service, Nokia Siemens Networks’ Facebook app can amplify and publicize genuine leadership. People who share their experiences with friends, and also recommend services, can benefit from special rates and incentives from operators. Friends benefit from recommendations that help them to evaluate which service package will best suit their needs. The app can also provide instant access to account information such as prepaid and postpaid balance, recent call duration, cost and contact details – all within the familiar Facebook site.

“This first social network integration will enrich a wide range of existing operator processes such as convergent charging, self-care, campaign management, business analytics and customer experience management to improve customer experience in a very efficient way. The integration is based on Nokia Siemens Networks’ modular charging engine and integration framework,” said Centeno.

The application enhances Nokia Siemens Networks’ range of self-care portals - share@once - that facilitate direct interaction between operators and customers. The new Facebook app complements a mobile self-care app for smartphones and a web-based self-care portal that can already provide a simpler way to manage telecom services.

All three share@once self-care portals – for Facebook, smartphones and the web – are based on Nokia Siemens Networks’ modular and scalable charge@once unified platform. The platform provides a unified view for operators of special offers, and charging and billing for all types of voice and data services in all networks, independent of whether it is a prepaid or postpaid scheme.
Nokia Siemens Networks is a leading global enabler of telecommunications services. With its focus on innovation and sustainability, the company provides a complete portfolio of mobile, fixed and converged network technology, as well as professional services including consultancy and systems integration, deployment, maintenance and managed services. It is one of the largest telecommunications hardware, software and professional services companies in the world. Operating in 150 countries, its headquarters are in Espoo, Finland. www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

Back

"JSP’s superb coordination of the media and its good management of all the pre world cup conferences helped us exceed our set communications objectives for our World Cup activation“ – Coca-Cola strategic marketing manager

"We have found your quality of pr advise and your support in handling our key stakeholders and general public, most valuable. JSP has played a vital role in our success in Nigeria“ – Cotecna CEO