" ITREALMS: W.Afri.Tel-07 sold out – Organisers

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

W.Afri.Tel-07 sold out – Organisers

Organisers of this year’s West African International Telecommunications and Information Communication Technology Exhibition (W.Afri.Tel-07), the Exhibition Management Service (EMS) and sole Nigeria partner, IT & Telecom Digest, have declared that slots for the event scheduled to hold at the Expo Centre, Eko Hotel and Towers Lagos, next month have been sold out completely.

Just as the second national operator, Globacom, pan-Africa mobile operator, Celtel, telecom equipment manufacturer, Ericsson and Code Division Multiple Access third generation mobile operator, are already gearing up for the event.

“Even before the advertising campaign broke last week, the booths for the event have been completely sold out,” according to the organisers, stressing that it is a reflection of the important role W.Afri.Tel has been playing particularly in the Nigerian ICT sector in the last seven years since the event began.

It was also gathered that efforts by some companies to get stands at the event were unfruitful though many others were lucky having planned early for the show coming up next month.

Announcing this development, the organisers described as unfortunate that they were not able to provide space for companies that could not get stands although they wish they could be of help.

However, Globacom and Celtel Nigeria were reported to be among those successfully in securing a place at this year’s W.AfriTel, even as Sony Ericsson, Samsung and iCell, the Middle East and Africa-wide distributor of mobile phones would be making the expo.

From the Internet provision sector, the organisers said that Netcom Africa, Hyperia, Direct-on-PC, Mweb, Cyberspace, and Cobranet, as well as telephone operators Reliance Telecom and 21st Century Technologies would join others in the show, even as equipment vendors, Accat and Briscoe Companies are to showcase their products and services too.

Nigeria’s largest 3G CDMA network operator, Starcomms, already sitting comfortably at over half a million lines maintained its traditional spot right at the front, while Dizengoff, the two-way radio equipment vendor and leading Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) company cum systems integrator, DCC Satellite and Networks returns to the show full of promises.

W.Afri.Tel is West Africa’s most professional and biggest information and communications technology exhibition, and has maintained a seven-year unbroken lead opening up investment and business opportunities for operators as well as governments in the sub-region. It brings the world of ICT, from manufacturers to professionals, experts to academia, operators to governments to Lagos, Nigeria.

Known as reputable ICT event in the sub-region, W.Afri.Tel often leaves a memorable tale behind after each edition.

And impressed with the growth dimension of telecom in Africa and Nigeria’s leading role, chief executive officer of Events Management Services, Mr. John Thomson, said the continued rise in foreign direct investment (FDI) into Nigeria’s telecom is a “renewed confidence in the country’s economy as a peaceful environment where people- foreigners and indigenes now transact businesses without let or hindrance.”

W.Afri.Tel, he said, is an event aimed at furthering the growth in the nation’s telecom sector.

“Today, Africa’s mobile phone subscriber-base exceeds 100 million but that is only 11 per cent of the continent’s population. The African telecoms market is booming; but the fact is only the surface has been scratched, and Nigeria sure has taken the lead proving that the potential is still immense. We are glad that W.Afri.Tel has contributed in its own way towards this growth in the Nigerian telecom sector,” he said.

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