Apelby now has its offices in key global markets. From a global perspective, the same products are offered in telecommunications services, but the specificities of the markets are different. We have prepared a mini-series of articles for you in which we ask Apelby's regional managers for their views and experience from the markets where they operate. The scope will be wide, as Apelby operates not only in Europe, America and the Middle East, but also in Asia and Africa.
Today we asked Neill Nortje (Business Development Director for the African market) about the specifics of his market.
Neill, you are currently working on the South and East African markets and before that you worked on the Sub-Saharan African market. What are the main differences in your opinion?
In terms of Geography, Scale and language they differ greatly and obviously each African country will have its own market dynamics, regulatory framework and consumer behavior which will mean some differences on the ground but in terms of wholesale international telecommunications, the markets are fairly similar in terms of the challenges they face and the opportunities that exist.
Which are the most popular Apelby services in this market?
The wholesale voice area of business within the region has seen some serious decrease in traffic volumes, revenues and profits and based on this, operators are understandably unwilling to spend money or resources on this area of their business. Apelby’s flexible commercial offerings are based on voice traffic and as such the voice interconnect remains our most popular product as without it so many of the other value-added products that we provide are not possible.
What are the most important opportunities on the market in your view?
We still see a lot of fraudulent traffic being sent or received in this market. This could be incoming traffic that is terminated through unofficial routes or it could be outgoing traffic sent from a customers hacked PBX. Either way, this type of traffic negatively affects the operator in terms of Revenues, profits and resources. Apelby’s antifraud and market protection services provide complete protection from these issues and combined with the flexible commercial model, I think these services will be very popular in this market moving forward.
