Last week, one of the world’s leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators, Ericsson launched anew campaign tagged The Networked Africa in Lagos. With the new campaign, the company said it planned to make the vision for A broadband Networked Africa reality by 2020. This is by ensuring commitment and focus on making mobile broadband a reality for all.

Present at the event were members of Ericsson’s executive leadership, among whom is the Vice President, and Chief Marketing Officer of the company, Johan Bergendahl based in Sweden who offered to speak to Hi-Tech.

Johan Bergendahl

In this interview with Emmanuel Elebeke he spoke on the newly launched Ericsson product “A Networked Africa, the ongoing revolution in internet usage, accessibility of mobile TV, challenges of Voice over, imperative of broadband and the plans of Ericsson for African continent. Excerpts:

Sir, looking at the unfolding trends in the IT industry, the internet is changing from being a mainly transactional platform to a massive social medium. How is Ericsson leading telecom operators to address their vision to this change?

First of all, I will say that we are taking some steps from voice-centric to data-centric. We are creating the enabling broadband network and making sure that not only people with Personal computers are reached but also those on facebook. That is what is happening with te advent of mobile smart phone. We are looking forward to developing smart phones through our handset platform company, with the deployment of mobile network, particularly mobile broadband. With the Networked Africa we launched today, I think mobile broadband deployment is really going to make the system change in a continent like Africa.

We have a number of examples where we have provided communications infrastructure to be able to connect different social sites. By working very close with the telecom operators, as one of the strongest service provider in the infrastructure business, we are moving into social media time.

There was a huge buzz around mobile TV when it was first launched in Nigeria a few years ago, but that buzz has since died down and it would seem that many people have lost interest. What could be responsible? Is mobile TV not the revolutionary application which telecom operators said it was?

I think that the development we are seeing in the way people are watching TV shows that it goes hand in hand with mobile TV. Mobile TV runs in expensive mobile handsets like smart phones. That is why you see it to be more common in Europe and other developed world than what you see in Africa. Mobile TV has actually taken off in the developed world, and again, it is interesting to note that the way people are watching TV has changed a lot. With mobile TV , you can watch programmes on the go. That is what is happening over mobile TV broadband network. This is another reason, mobile TV has not taken of in Africa. For mobile broadband TV to take off in Africa, mobile broadband infrastructure has to be fully deployed. In places like North America, Sweden and Brazil you have mobile Tv services because of the availability of the mobile broadband infrastructure.

Given the pressures which voice continues to face in the telecom industry, do you think that there is a future for voice in the telecom value chain?

I think that Voice call will have a very long future. People are still going to talk with each other. I think, the big question should be , what will be the price tag on voice call. It is gratifying to see what is happening over voice call because people are talking all the time. We are providing network, not necessarily only for the manufacturing sector, but we are also moving into other areas our services are needed,such as voice pop. There has been a lot of discussion about voice over IP network. In the broadband and data-centric world, it is becoming more and more IP network. The main question now should be , how can one provide high quality service, good enough for those using it? Definitely, Voice services have a future.

Even, though voice

remains the killer application in Nigeria and Africa’s telecom industry, all indications point to the fact that revenues from voice are diminishing by the day for operators, especially in the face of serious competition. What can operators do to remain reasonably profitable in the face of dwindling revenues from voice?

I think voice is more integrated in a network, but it has to be something that is in an application.

In the few years to come, the subscription we’r going to have in Ericsson is mainly going to be from broadband subscription, and on top of that, we can direct everything into facebook, banks, cloths making and phone calls. We are all moving into different way of using communication.

A lot has been said about the imperative of broadband and the benefits it portends for the people. How best can a country like Nigeria optimize the benefits of broadband? What role can Ericsson play in this regard?

The most important part of broadband is data and voice. You have to create the coverage so that you can access it anywhere in the country. And I think that if you go into big cities like Lagos, there is a good number of operators and service providers, but if you go into villages, you notice that it is not good to build different networks as some operators are currently doing. Ericsson is building and supporting a network that can be shared among a number of operators. like in Nigeria, that is what we are doing everything to reach out to more people in the country. For instance, you have over 70 percent of the world population living in the rural areas and I think that is going to be a big challenge to countries like Nigeria, reaching out to those in the rural areas.

Nigeria’s social space is very active. Indeed the same applies to Africa. Big Brother Africa for instance is a very popular program and only last year, South Africa hosted the World Cup. Given the rapid evolution of the telecom industry to one in which social content is becoming one of the prime differentiations, one would have expected to see Ericsson becoming more active, possibly as a sponsor of some of these popular initiatives, but this does not seem to be the case, why?

In the past, we have mainly been building the infrastructure so that you can run these programmes like the Big brother Africa. We have been in the business of service delivery but have not been in the business of entertainment. We are not into football sponsorship, but we are making sure that we reach out to people anywhere they are in the continent through our network of infrastructure. We are more enabling, so that it can happen.

Could you be more specific sir?

I can give you an example of an operation we run in a TV station in Sweden. Under this operation, we are taking care of all their distribution system. This is in addition to taking care of communication infrastructure. We also take care of the distribution and tasking care of the television infrastructure. What we do not do is providing the content.

Why can’t you replicate this in Africa?

We can repeat it in Africa but, first there still need for someone to license us to run a network and the TV programme. We are really helping people in every area of our operation in the world and the companies working their to make it happen. And so, we can make it happen in Nigeria as well as we did in Sweden.

However, the infrastructure to really do all that are yet to be seen in Nigeria. That is the main focus of our ambition around The Networked Africa. over time. We are going to be part of building all that. We are actual capable of doing that here in Nigeria, so that we can reach out to people everywhere.

There are still concerns by some analysts that total cost of ownership of mobile phones remains too high in Africa. Do you share this view? How can Ericsson help operators to reduce total cost of ownership?

On the ownership of mobile phones. one thing is the phone itself. I think that prices are gradually coming down. If you look at it, Africa is having large rural areas, it is a clear indication that it is quite expensive to afford ownership of mobile phones in these rural areas that in the urban centres. If you look at so many countries in Africa, you have 5-10 people per square kilometer compared to India where you have an average of 400 people per square kilometer in the rural areas. What this means is that the cost level of providing the product in Africa will be higher. So at Ericsson, what we are doing now is to constantly work on how we can reduce the cost level of phones, especially the smart phones for Africa, so that people can have access to network.

How do you see Voice Over Internet Protocol, VOIP, playing out in the years ahead? What lessons do you think that traditional telecom operators can learn from players like Skype?

My own lesson is that whenever you implement an IPO broadband network over a network, you can do the implementation very fast. You can build that in the air. But one thing I know, is that for you to build a voice infrastructure, it takes a long time, it creates a better quality and harmony but it takes a long time. The learning here is to find way to provide services like Skype has done in a similar way. That is why you must provide broadband network. The only way the infrastructure can improve is when you move from voice to data infrastructure (IPO). I think that the traditional operators should look into this direction of providing voice and added services over IPO. The beautiful thing is providing voice over internet protocol and that is what Skype has done.

Traditional operators must provide low cost services for long distant call for them to remain relevant in business. In fact, that will be a smarting opportunity to them.

The debate around outsourcing is still ongoing. Some people share the view that outsourcing is the way to go for telecom operators given the profitability challenges they will continue to face

especially with growing competition. Others, however disagree. What would be your advice

to the typical Nigerian telecom company regarding outsourcing?

Yes, outsourcing is the way to go. It will provide communication to millions of people instead of 100,000. The cost will definitely trickle down with outsourcing. Today, we have outsourcing contract. we operate networks that comprises about 750 million people around the world. What this means is that, we are able to operate at a lower cost with very good quality. I think local operators can leverage on this as well. The only opportunity for the operating companies in Nigeria to tap into outsourcing is by providing services at a very cheaper cost.

How can Africa better keep up with the rest of the world in terms of technology development and what are the key things we should be doing?

As a very big company working in Africa, I think that a company like ours’ with big ambition, we all have to provide

services and latest technology to move the continent forward. A big change is coming, especially now highly educated people are emerging in Africa.

We need to make sure that we build the competencies of the African people for them to keep up with the rest of the world..