[Kictanet] Third annual African VoIP Forum to have high educational value

[Alice Wanjira]

( Apologies for Cross Posting)


Third annual African VoIP Forum to have high educational value


With its unique combination of conference presentations and training
workshops, the African VoIP Forum, to be held at
Muson Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos over 21-23 August 2006, offers a
high-powered educational opportunity for Africa’s ISPs, telecom
operators and corporate VoIP users. The following is a sample of the
rich content:

CONFERENCE KEYNOTES

The impact of VoIP on African voice markets
Russell Southwood, CEO, Balancing Act looks at how VoIP impacts on
voice markets:
•	How grey markets operate and the scale and extent of them
•	What legalised VoIP means in different countries and what happens
when VoIP competition is more widely available?
•	The winners and losers in the legalisation process
•	The emergence of a new business model bringing together broadband and
VoIP
•	New potential developments like VoIP peering, eNUM and mobile VoIP

Maximising international connectivity via a virtual service provider
Yossi Barkan, Executive Director, Africa, PCCW Global, Hong Kong

TDMoIP vs VoIP: Which technology is better for your network?
Gaéthan Donlap Kouanga, Video and IP Services Manager, Eutelsat, France

Successful revenue generating VoIP deployments in high-growth markets -
Lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan
Tom Koster, GM, Sky-Stream, United Arab Emirates

 * Market analysis and preparation
 * Partner selection strategies
 * Technical considerations
 * Quality of Service and customer management issues
 * Lessons for Africa

WORKSHOPS

WORKSHOP 1: Corporate Users - Introduction to VoIP An interactive
workshop
Sunday Folayan, MD, Skannet Nigeria
9am – 1pm Monday 21 August 2006

While VoIP is set to change the landscape of the communications
industry, it is already being used by a number of traditional Telephone
companies to connect their regional offices, while on a smaller scale,
it is being used by Small Offices/Home Offices who want to trim their
communications expenses.

The advantages of using VoIP technology includes simplicity,
flexibility, cost savings as well as finally removing the huge
constraint of circuit switched architecture, and taking advantage of
the ubiquitous nature of IP, which is fast becoming a de-facto medium
of world-wide communication.

This hands-on workshop is designed to introduce participants to the
VoIP technology, using the Asterisk Open Source PBX software.
Participants will amongst others be exposed to the following:
•	Introduction to the VoIP technology
•	Basic definitions and building blocks
•	Transpprt protocols and packetization
•	Public Swiched Networks and characteristics
•	Protocols for VoIP call control
•	Introduction to the Asterisk Open Source PBX
•	Configuring simple VoIP Servers
•	Configuring simple VoIP Clients
•	Quality of Service (QoS) Issues
•	Services and implementation issues
•	Overview of large scale implementations and issues

At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to setup and
deploy an Asterisk-based PBX system which will work either via IP or
PSTN and be capable of Least Cost Routing.

WORKSHOP 2: International links for ISPs & Telecom Operators
Mawuli Tse, Sales Director, Africa, iBasis
9am – 12pm, Wednesday 23 August 2006

•	The VoIP landscape - from PC-to-PC to VoB
•	Carrier level interconnections
•	Quality monitoring on a VoIP network
•	Selecting operators - what to consider

WORSHOP 3: VoIP - Survival strategies for telcos, ISPs and cyber-cafes
Russell Southwood, CEO, Balancing Act, UK
2pm – 5pm, Wednesday 23 August 2006

VoIP will change the business model for telcos, ISPs and cyber-cafes.
Beyond the ever-present hype, it will begin to transform business
fundamentals in some of the following way: threatening existing
international revenues; lowering the cost of entry to the voice market;
and creating new opportunities like mobile VoIP. All of this will upset
traditional markets and the question is: will you survive this
shake-out? The workshop has three sessions of just under an hour each
with a coffee break. Each of the sessions will have time for questions
and answers and sessions 2 and 3 will have interactive exercises. The
three sessions deal with the following:

Session 1: The business opportunities VoIP offers
In this session Russell will look at the kinds of business models that
have arisen elsewhere and how things might develop in Nigeria. He will
look at the business models for businesses like Skype and Vonage to
illustrate how the business model for retail VoIP is developing in
North America and Europe.

He will then look in greater detail at the type of opportunities that
might arise in Africa, including:

•	Pre-pay VoIP calling cards
•	IP-payphones
•	Skype/Vonage clones
•	Campus-wide IP-mobility solutions
•	Municipal networks
•	Corporate IP calling via VPNs
•	Push-to-talk
•	Home broadband
•	Triple/Quad play (including mobile TV)
•	Mobile VoIP
•	VoIP peering

He will explain the relationship between these opportunities and the
changes in regulation that will enable them to flourish legally.

Session 2: Assessing investment in new VoIP opportunities
VoIP produces very different types of opportunities. For example, grey
market operators have taken advantage of the price arbitrage
opportunities that exist. In other words, for example, they are able to
compete on price against artificially high international calling
prices.

Once VoIP is more widely legalised, then this level of price arbitrage
opportunity will decline or disappear as prices come down in the
market. It will be important to look at the relationship between
quality and pricing and to understand what latitude exists for
differentiating different service offers.

Some opportunities will allow new players to enter the market
relatively cheaply whereas others will require capital investment in
new infrastructure. The level of capital required – along with an
assessment of the risks inherent in different propositions – will help
clarify where any potential should be made and whether a new
opportunity is suitable for your company.

Lastly the session will examine timing issues and their impact. Some
opportunities – like those related to price-arbitrage – are short or
medium-term. Others like mobile VoIP are longer term because the
technology is not yet available.

All of these factors will be gathered into a simple matrix and scored
so that participants can see where the better opportunities lie in
Africa.

Session 3: VoIP pricing and service strategies in a competitive market
The last session of the workshop will look pricing and service
strategies and how they develop in a competitive market. Russell
Southwood will explain how operators tackle these issues and the way in
which different approaches to service and pricing are reflected in the
service offer to customers. He will examine the relationship between
cost and the price of providing different levels of service.

After this briefing, participants will be split into two groups to
devise pricing and service strategies for two different companies, one
a start-up and the other an existing operator. The two groups will then
come together and show what approaches they have arrived at. The group
will then look at how it is possible to respond to competitor pricing
in ways that differentiate the customer offer.

For further details, contact Sean Moroney Tel: +44(0)1480-880774
seanm at aitecafrica.com

To register as a delegate, log on to www.aitecafrica.com