French carrier grade Wi-Fi provider Nomospere has announced the opening of its first international subsidiary in South Africa in order to address the booming market in the country.
Nosmosphere is owned by the Nomotech Group, one of the largest wireless access provider in France, and owns approximately 60 per cent of the wireless base stations in the country.
The company controls 15 per cent of the market share in France after just under a year of operation and has over 30 million users connecting through 7,000 hotspots around the country.
The company’s South African subsidiary will be headed up by Ellie Hagopian, deputy chairperson of the Wireless Access Providers’ Association of South Africa (WAPA) and former chief executive officer (CEO) of Wi-Fi hotspot firm Skyrove.
Neelay Pillay, from the carrier solutions division of Internet Solutions, will join the company as chief technical officer (CTO).
“I am excited to be able to bring Nomosphere’s proven, market-leading solutions to South Africa. There are very few players in the Wi-Fi space that can credibly claim to have experience delivering carrier-grade Wi-Fi networks that are properly designed, installed, and actively monitored; and even fewer that have the expertise and technology to deliver open-access wireless solutions, ” said Hagopian.
The company will be hiring an operational team, and under the guidance of Nomosphere CTO Patrick Antoine and chief commercial officer (CCO) Nicolas Leconte hope to mimic the success of its French operation.
“South Africa is experiencing increased wireless telecom usage and growing demand for data consumption,” said group vice president (VP) Philippe Le Grand.
“With mobile SIM card penetration rate exceeding 100 per cent and a growth rate exceeding five per cent this year, South Africa is one of the most promising markets for telecommunications services on the continent. The usage of mobile internet is growing, and the expectation is that Wi-Fi will shift from a ‘best-effort nice-to-have’ service to a fast, reliable, seamless, carrier-grade solution that not only enables connectivity but value-added services.”
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
