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