By Emma Elebeke
As the biggest African ICT event begins today in Cape Town, South Africa, Ericsson technologies has indicated its intention to showcase the huge benefits Africa stands to gain from four main areas of its ICT programme.

The four areas include: Broadband for all, the cloud, rural connectivity, and connected devices.

According to the company, speakers to deliver the package for the Ericsson include head of its Sub-Saharan Africa and experts on cloud technology and network transformation.

At the event which is schedulled to hold between November 9 and 10 2011, Ericsson said it will present the latest in technology solutions that are redefining the way Africa embraces economic growth and wealth potential.

Head of Ericsson, Sub-Saharan Africa, Lars Lindén, is expected to present the role of mobile broadband in Networking Africa also at the event.

Broadband for all

More people in sub-Saharan Africa today connect to Internet using a mobile device than those using a fixed connection; this implies that future access to broadband Internet in the region will be driven by wireless broadband services.

The cloud

Ericsson’s Cloud Services demonstration will in Cape Town explore the relevance of cloud based solutions and demonstrate how operators can address the opportunity to provide mobile broadband enabled computing to the next billion users through solutions such as PC as a Service, Education Suite and e Health.

Rural connectivity

Unique opportunities exist in Africa for mobile applications that do not exist in more developed markets, for example banking and basic information services.Some of these solutions include Ericsson’s Managed Rural Coverage, a new offering that bundles a managed service with a cost-efficient GSM mini-site solution. This will be showcased in Ericsson’s rural connectivity demonstration.

Connected devices relevant to Africa

On connected devices relevant to Africa, Ericsson said it’s connected devices demonstration will showcase how mobile communication will efficiently support M2M and person-to-machine communication and tools for operators to manage M2M communication.