COUNTRY FOCUS: ALGERIA
“We are seeing this in the long-distance transport as well as the city
and metropolitan loops on IP and optics,” said Chaume. “All the
telcos have taken the initiative to modernise their networks, usually
to compete with 4G demands, FTTX projects and to lower latency
with new optic and IP technologies.
“So, the network quality is adapting to the 3G and 4G demand. There
are ongoing ultra-broadband initiatives and service providers now
focusing on customer experience management solutions to better
monetise their data. We believe this is a very positive move for the
Algerian telco market.”
Nokia is also a key player in the core network transformation that
operators are currently going through.
“It is not simply a packet core transformation, but includes a focus on
future use cases, which incorporates cloud platforms and prepares
the network for the Internet of Things (IoT),” added Chaume.
“We are anticipating what will be required of the network in the
future and preparing it to deliver on that.”
There is a lot interest in using IoT to solve real-world problems and
Nokia are observing the same in the Algerian market.
“There are a number of initiatives at the moment, being driven by
either the separate operators, by the government or by some cities,”
explained Chaume.
“This is being driven strongly by the government. I believe this is
a major step in the right direction and is crucial in their drive to
diversify the country’s economy. They are pushing for nationwide
penetration, using fibre and other complimentary technologies where
it has become too difficult to install fibre.”
Operators in Algeria are currently focusing on modernising the
backbone transport of the country.
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“We are seeing different use cases from the different players in the
ecosystem, with a very strong focus on smart cities. These use cases
include smart parking, smart lighting and video analytics.”
Chaume says that, while growth in global revenues for the local service
providers is currently flat, it doesn’t mean that there is no growth.
“On the contrary, there has been significant growth in services,
Internet and data penetrations over the past two years,” he said.
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