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GSMA Opens Sub Sahara Headquarters in Nairobi(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Mobile subscriptions in Sub Sahara Africa (SSA) now stand at 500 million. Anne Bouverot, the GSM Association (GSMA) Director general however says that it's not just about connections, but about people. She was speaking at the iHub on Wednesday evening at a cocktail event that marked the official opening of GSMA's SSA headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. GSMA is an umbrella body of over 90 percent of mobile operators in the world, 800 in number and 230 other players in the ecosystem. Harmonized spectrum, affordable smartphones, the digital dividend- spectrum freed by migration of TV from analogue broadcasting to digital broadcasting and "win-win" policies are among focus areas for the new office. Anne explained that harmonization of spectrum for various services such as 3G and 4G in the region would benefit consumers through availability of affordable devices due to economies of scale. The office is also expected to have a large focus on mobile for development programs, including financial inclusion through the use of mobile money, use of mobile in agriculture and mobile solution in health. Chris Lockie, GSMA Managing Director, mobile for development said that the association would soon announce a partner who would be involved in an African wide m-health program. Some of the policies the GSMA has been pursuing in other countries is trying to have operators work together on cross industry issues alongside partnering operators with content providers. Such partnerships include Kencall's partnership with Airtel on agricultural solution. The success of mobile money services in some countries require mobile operators to work together, as they normally do not have the same market domination as Safaricom's , which stands at 80 percent of the market. GSMA will also be looking to publish case studies and best use cases on taxation and spectrum policies in the region. Lockie says that the GSMA deliberately chose to host their office in the same building as the iHub as this will enable them to access the best the region has in developers. The association is looking to partner mobile developers with operators and enable them get the best out of mobile operators. Initiatives on the operators side will include the setting up of various application programming interfaces (APIs) such as Network APIs that will allow for devs to access operator billing and Identity and WebRTC (Web Real Time Communication) APIs. Speaking at the event, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communication, Bitange Ndemo lauded GSMA for having their offices in the "birthplace of innovation." He also praised iHub founder, Erik Hersman who assisted GSMA in setting up in the country. "Erik has changed this country in respect to innovation," he added, saying that Hersman had started the content revolution in this country while the government focused on connectivity through undersea cables. To GSMA, he added "Kenya has led in terms of CEO footprint - Google's Eric Schmidt, IBM's Ginni Rometty and Nokia's Stephen Elop all visited the country recently - and companies investing in research and development, especially on the mobile platform. You will see the benefits of you locating in Kenya because you are close to the many multinationals who have set up here." Dennis Mbuvi Dennis Mbuvi has been writing at CIO East Africa Magazine and CIO.co.ke since May 2010. His key focus is the use of technology to solve day to day business challenges and product reviews. Mbuvi has been invited to speak at various IT, Telecom and Media events in the region. He was also a keynote speaker at the inaugural Joomla day in Kenya talking on possibilities of the Joomla Content Management System. Mbuvi holds a B.Sc in Computer Science degree from Kenyatta University. He is on Twitter as @denniskioko Copyright CIO East Africa. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |