* 7th AFRICAN SNO

 The focus of this meeting was to encourage participation in the identification, development and implementation of Network and Service Management activities for Operations as well as disseminate information relating to Network and Service Management Operations techniques and procedures for new technologies. The outcomes of this regional meeting served as a Regional input to the ITU Service and Network Operations (SNO) Conference held from 21 – 24 October 2013 in Ezulwini, Swaziland

The 7th African Service and Network Operations (SNO) Workshop took place from 23 – 26 July 2013 in Windhoek, Namibia hosted by Telecom Namibia.

Participants

 Operators: SATA Secretariat, Telecom Namibia, Telkom South Africa, Telecom Mozambique (TDM), Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC), Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL), TelOne of Zimbabwe, Botswana Telecommunication Corporation Limited (BTCL), Internet Technologies of Namibia, and Telecom Italia Sparkle.Industry: ZTE Corporation, Aria Technologies, iBasis/KPN, Telrad Networks, Eirteic Consulting Africa, IBM, Business Connection, New Telco South Africa and Axesstel.

SATA Cooperating Partners: ITU Consultant, Ghana

Government Officials: Advisor to the Minister of Information and Communication Technology of the Republic of Namibia.

Presentations

 Following the official opening of the workshop, presentations were received from the SATA Secretariat, SATA Membership and from the Industry from which the following Observations, Business Opportunities and Recommendations were drawn

Observations and Business Opportunities

Persons assigned to various regional tasks are not positively responding or are completely failing to attend to the tasks

Suppliers and Vendors come with hidden costs which emerge later especially on maintenance and equipment/software upgrades

End-to-end service management is still a dream in Africa

It is what you do not see that sinks the ship, business too

Electronic compatibility and radiation emitted by the telecommunications equipment poses a great health risk to the users.

Recommendations

 The African Service and Network Operations group to develop a general regional framework on the establishment of quality of service-based Network Operation Centres (NOCs) 

It is recommended to the CEOs to urge SATA Members to provide the necessary support including financial resources to experts appointed to participate in the regional working groups.

As operators migrate to NGN and other technologies there is equipment and spares that will be recovered and is reusable. It is recommended to the CEOs to urge SATA members to advise Secretariat on the availability of this equipment and spares for announcement to members

Recommendations

 African Service and Network Operations group to invite expert(s) on “Electromagnetic Compatibility and Radiation” to make presentationsduring the combined 8th African Service and Network Operation Workshop and the ITU-T Service and Network Operation Conference  

The 8th African Service and Network Operations (SNO) Workshop be combined and held together with the ITU-T Service and Network Operations Conference in Tanzania from 22 – 26 September 2014 hosted by Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL)