BICS has announced that it has joined the SMART Africa Alliance to support its ‘One Africa Network’ (OAN).
Launched in 2013, by seven African Heads of State, Smart Africa is focused on accelerating sustainable socioeconomic development on the continent and ushering Africa into the knowledge economy through affordable access to broadband and ICT. The Alliance now has 30 member countries, representing over 750 million people.
“We’re delighted to have BICS as a partner for our ongoing flagship project, the One Africa Network, as BICS is a major stakeholder in the value chain of what we’re aiming to achieve – namely free roaming for all Africans, said Lacina Koné, Director General of Smart Africa.
BICS is connected to almost all the mobile networks in Africa and has an extensive and long-standing presence in the market, reaching 95% of African subscribers directly. Its extensive worldwide network includes several submarine cables across Africa, as well as five PoPs in Southern Africa, East and West Africa.
Daniel Kurgan, CEO of BICS commented that his firm were really pleased to be supporting SMART Africa on its mission to reduce roaming charges. “BICS is a leading and neutral carrier, and we already carry a significant proportion of voice, messaging and data roaming traffic within Africa. As such, and thanks to our turn-key ‘free roaming’ solutions, we’re perfectly positioned to help our customers (local mobile operators) to roll out the new initiative affordably, and in a very short timeframe,” he said.