IO FM The Architects: Atim Akeh-Osu from MTN GlobalConnect

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The Podcast Transcript

This is an edited version of the IO FM The Architects: Atim Akeh-Osu from MTN GlobalConnect

Welcome MNOs, welcome everyone to ARA this is what we’ve always wanted. And this is a good opportunity for us all. It’s a good place to handshake. It’s a good place to share experiences, regardless of our diversities and our cultures and language barriers. We’re here to have a good time and to enjoy what we do.

Atim Akeh-Osu

Jason Bryan:

It’s a real pleasure to be here with Atim. How are you doing today Atim?

Atim Akeh-Osu:

Hello, Jason. I’m very well. Thank you.

Jason Bryan:

That’s great. What’s your role right now in an MTN? Because you work for MTN in Nigeria, right?

Atim Akeh-Osu:

Yes, I do. I work for MTN GlobalConnect but I’m situated in Nigeria. I manage the wholesale negotiations for and on behalf of MTN operations in Africa and the Middle East. I also manage our roaming partners in the APAC region. I’m also responsible for wholesale operations in Nigeria where I oversee roaming, international traffic and A2P messaging. So, I’m multifaceted. I’m here and there.

Jason Bryan:

Wow! Lots of different roles that you have. And important ones. And what’s it like working in MTN Global Connect?

Atim Akeh-Osu:

Oh, it’s wonderful. And what makes it more exciting for me, at least in recent times, is the fact that you get to work with like minds, you know, when you’re working with people who have experience in the industry, who kind of understand what you do, and what the objectives are, and all the end result should be, it makes life a lot easier than when you have to explain the reasons behind certain actions and decisions that you’re taking. So I’m very happy in Global Connect. And the future is just looking bright.

Jason Bryan:

Yeah, that’s, that’s wonderful. It’s always rewarding, isn’t it? When you’re working in the roaming sector, especially I found when nobody around you seems to understand what it is that you do, and then you go to a company, or you go to an event, or you work in a company like MTN where people understand you and they understand what it is that you do. And that’s a very nice feeling.

Atim Akeh-Osu:

No, absolutely, absolutely, it is. And then having colleagues who tend to align with the bigger picture, looking at the future of roaming in the industry, and making efforts to see it grow, makes it very rewarding.

Jason Bryan:

So, we’re gonna get more into your thoughts about roaming. And we’re going to talk more about your new position as the Chair of the ARA group for IO, which is a very exciting new group, which is going to explore all of the challenges which the African operators are facing. But I want to know a little bit more about your background if I may. So, I would like to know, what did you want to do when you were a child?

Atim Akeh-Osu:

This is very interesting. I always find it interesting to talk about my past because where I have found myself today is so different from what I thought in the past. So, growing up at the time, in most African countries, and particularly in Nigeria, I think every parent and every household wanted some serious profession coming out of their homes, whether it was going to be a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer, it had to be something serious, you know, so I grew up wanting to be a lawyer. Unfortunately, at the time, I couldn’t get into law school, you know, in in the universities in Nigeria. So, I opted to read in English. English literature. I didn’t like it at first, I thought I still wanted to be a lawyer. But you know, going down into my second and third year, where I had to explore African literature, Afro-American literature, Caribbean literature, you know, I found those exciting. I didn’t quite like grammar, structure and all the other things that came. I found the Shakespearean literature quite interesting. Yeah. But that’s what I did. And I finished school reading English and literature.

Jason Bryan:

This is amazing to me, because a lot of people don’t realize, but this is also what I studied.

Atim Akeh-Osu:

Oh, well, you did. Nice.

Jason Bryan:

It’s not so important in the UK to have a degree in what you’re going to go on to do. What’s more important is that you have a degree in something, and you’ve been through the process of having a degree. And so yeah, my degree’s in English literature. And so, what happened next, what happened after you studied literature?

Atim Akeh-Osu:

Yes. So traditionally, once you graduate from school, you’re either going on to get a master’s degree, or jump into the labour market. Considering the economy in the country, and the expectations of family and, you know, generally everyone, you just want to get a job. And so I was out of school and trying to get into the banks, I wanted to work in a bank. At the time, there were many banks, the infiltration of banks, was so intense and immense in Nigeria, and most young graduates are getting bank jobs and doing quite well for themselves. So, I was pretty much ready to jump in and find out what was going to happen in the bank. But I couldn’t get into the banks either. You know, I tried, I did the tests on my past, and, you know, somehow, I just couldn’t get in. And just then, the government of the day approved telecoms licenses to major operators in Nigeria and I sent my CV to eConnect Wireless at the time. And I got into customer service. And that was how I made my way into the telecoms industry. Yes, in Nigeria.

Jason Bryan:

So, your first step into telecoms. And how was that?

Atim Akeh-Osu:

I was so excited. I was pretty excited. It was new, not many people had mobile phones at the time, very few, just a handful of people had mobile phones. So, getting into the industry, what the telecommunications industry had to offer, the country was very exciting for me, we felt like the pace setters, you know, we’re the ones launching something new, it’s going to be big. I mean, at the time, we didn’t even know how big it was going to be. But it was just a good experience, a good feeling to be in that environment, and then having to learn from people who had had experience in CDMA, which was the only one available at the time. And then, you know, I didn’t spend too long in customer service. I think I did about a year, you know, and then an opportunity came out in roaming. And I applied into the roaming unit.

Jason Bryan:

Approximately what year was this?

Atim Akeh-Osu:

This was 2002.

Jason Bryan:

Oh, wow.

Atim Akeh-Osu:

So, I mean, imagine what was happening in 2002. Not much was going on, you know, particularly in the roaming world. But I mean, maybe in Africa or in Nigeria, if I may be specific, because the rest of the world was moving on, you know. So yes, I applied into the roaming department. I went online to read, to find out more about roaming, I went to the GSM online, I read because I had no clue what was going to what was going to happen there or what was expected of me there. And we were about 10 people and I made it, I made it to the end, thankfully, you know, and that’s how I started working on roaming as a roaming executive.

Jason Bryan:

So, this must have been around 2G, 2.5G was just coming out this time.

Atim Akeh-Osu:

Absolutely, absolutely. It was nothing beyond that. I mean, everything else that came after we had to learn on the job, you know, we had to go grow with it. But at the time, it was just 2G and that was sufficient. We had voice and SMS and you know, because we had SIM voice launched for the first time on mobile network in the country where the coverage was very limited. We saw it grow. So, when the roaming part came, I expected something similar. You know, it’s going to take us time to grow but we will grow, and it was just 2G, voice and SMS. And once the first roaming call happened, I was over the top with excitement. When you see the roaming partners’ SIM cards, and you know, you’re exchanging SIM cards and testing them, you know, the excitement and fun of all of that. It felt so good.

Jason Bryan:

And do you remember, which was the first roaming partner?

Atim Akeh-Osu:

I’m not quite sure. But I think he was one of the UK operators because we had a lot of requests coming from the UK. So, I think it was one I just can’t remember whether it was BT Cellnet at the time, or T-Mobile. I can’t remember. But I think it was a UK network.

Jason Bryan:

Well, if it was BT Cellnet it may have been from me.

Atim Akeh-Osu:

It’s possible. But if I go to, I can’t find 2002 emails.

Jason Bryan:

Because of course Nigeria and UK are a very important roaming connection. I was working in O2, in which was then Cellnet, BT Cellnet. Doing also the roaming. So that’s great. And so, what happened next? You’re on eConnect, how long did you stay there?

Atim Akeh-Osu:

There was a lot of evolution in eConnect. I think what happened was that after the initial licenses were given a lot of other investors started to find out that that was a good decision, you know, buy eConnect and MTN who were the first two who came, you know, I think it was something a lot of people shied away from the beginning, not sure of the terrain, you know, but soon after, we started getting more investors. Not too long after, we had Celltel coming to take on from eConnect. Due to some concerns that evolved around that time. There are some challenges in the industry, the eConnect team was having. And Celltel came in and thereafter Celltel left, and then Vodacom, I think came in and after Vodacom, left, and then the indigenous V-mobile, where the Nigerians thought: “Let’s make this one indigenous company, you know, and call it V-Mobile.” And V-Mobile came. Then after a while more investors came, Zain came, and so I evolved with all of that until the point of Zain, and in all this, with each arrival, came a new strategy, new decision, our roaming shouldn’t be in billing and customer service, it should be with revenue assurance.

And so, I moved to revenue assurance, from billing and Customer Care. And then with another arrival, “Oh, no roaming shouldn’t be in revenue assurance, it should actually be in commercial marketing.” And so, I also moved. But you know, with the movement came a lot of experience and exposure, you know, because you couldn’t be in a billing team and not know what was happening in the billing team. I usually like to share my top two experience where we would print out the top file on the piece of paper, and then use a ruler to find each record, you know, line by line, you know, from the IR 24 that was shared with us. So, moving to revenue assurance, you also had to understand the objective of the revenue assurance team, what are we looking at. How do those impact the industry or the organization as a whole? How do those impact your roaming revenues? You know, so that also exposed me to that. Fraud, what kinds of fraud are there in roaming? You know, so I was exposed early to those scenarios. And then this kind of go with you, because as you grow in roaming, you find that they’re all relevant, you know, to every space where you find yourself. And then I went into the commercial space where I started to manage the wholesale alongside the retail, roaming propositions, you know, international traffic as well. And the experience that I had, you know, just kept on coming with me every step of the way.

It’s been a journey. It’s been a ride, and quite an interesting one, you know, the roaming agreements, not to say the least, because at some point, the legal team struggles to take ownership of the roaming agreements. “Oh, why are you the one holding the roaming agreement? They should sit with the legal team.” And so, we give it to them and they were like, “We don’t understand the roaming agreements, take it back.” You know, and then they sent it back. It’s been a ride and it’s been interesting, really.

Jason Bryan:

Why are the roaming agreements based in Swiss law and questions like that?

Atim Akeh-Osu:

Yeah, why do we have 100,000 SDR? You know, what are those doing in the agreements? Why do we have AA.12 and AA.13? Why are they so split? Why don’t we have one full agreement? You know, and all of that. So, we have to explain these at every time. And more often than not, they say, you know, you guys take it back and continue handling and we can’t have them.

Jason Bryan:

It’s maybe even too scientific, how it works with the PRDs and everything.

Atim Akeh-Osu:

And you know, this is one of the things that I find most fascinating and most interesting about roaming, particularly for someone like me who came from a completely different background, humanities. You know, finding myself doing technical things and quirky people doing them as well, seeing the technicalities of roaming and growing through them and seeing things evolve. You know, it does give me a sense of fulfilment, you know, like I’ve been part of something really nice and big, you know, so that’s why I like it so much.

Jason Bryan:

So, what happened with eConnect and when did your career start with MTN?

Atim Akeh-Osu:

Oh, so I spent about eight years with eConnect from 2001 to 2009. So, I left Zain, at the time I left it was Zain. I joined MTN in 2009 as a roaming manager. When I got to MTN I was told that roaming sat in network group and I thought, “Oh well, this is new, I’m making full circle. At this rate, you know, someday I’m going to end up…” You know, where I didn’t think I would, “But I’m not an engineer, what am I going to be doing there?”

And they say, “Oh yeah, this is where our roaming sits.” And I thought, okay, you know, let’s, let’s try this and let’s see how this work. So roaming sits in core network planning, in MTN Nigeria. And so I joined the team and started learning the technical part, the more technical part of roaming, from core network planning to the roaming operations itself, you know, well, we, we send the plan for IMSIs and VLRs, etc.

You know, we would build, we will develop the plans and share with the team some configurations and then we would work with them hand in hand, because they would ask questions, also what IMSI is this? Alongside we’re working with the billing team sharing adequate with them getting everything configured prior to a test.

You know so we go from having individual tests MSEs to having the MSEs imported that we have now you know. So yeah, my journey with MTN started with our network. It was a shock for me because I wasn’t expecting to ever do anything so technical, but I’m very thankful for that time, for that period, because it also exposed me into APNs, IP addresses, the firewall, you know, the whole nine yards of, of roaming. And again, some restructuring happened and the business started roaming should actually sit with the commercial team. So, and this was after about maybe eight years or so, you know, eight or nine years of working with the network team. And we had done so much, from the signalling, the IPX, the signalling, the GRX. We saw all of that grow.

We worked together to make it happen for MTN. And these are opportunities that didn’t come so easy. And many people who would like to have this sort of experience might not get the opportunity. So, I find it quite gratifying that I had the opportunity to do that experience. And so, I ended up in the marketing team again, consumer marketing this time where I was exposed to building propositions for the new consumer.

And because I started my career with customer service, I always have the customer in mind when I’m doing anything for roaming. I’m very conscious of customer experience, what their journey will be like, and being a roamer myself when I travel, I try to wear the customer’s hat. And being back home to say: “Oh, I had this experience, the customer should never have this experience, so let’s fix this and let’s fix that.

So yes, in marketing we have to build roaming propositions, the team and I. I work with other teams to create bundles to also work with the guy, the charging system team to make sure that charging was accurate, and bundles were accurately charged. And then work with customer service to ensure that they’re able to tell the customer exactly what they should be doing.

Educate the customer on roaming services. And we also have the opportunity of, of including our services on the MTN app which made it easier for customers to use. Yeah. And not so long again after that, GlobalConnect came and in the industry, if you would have observed, centralization is becoming more profitable for many organizations, many MNOs. You know, having a centralized platform for a group of MNOs where they can come together and pull resources together to get solutions that work and that is more cost effective and then you end up achieving more. As a roaming manager, you’re a jack of all trades.

You do all the fraud, agreements, you know, everything customer service. Many times, the customer is roaming you’re the first to be called. But with GlobalConnect, submissions are centralized and all the MTN operations in different parts of Africa are gathered into one resource, one pool. And you know, this is more cost effective for us in the long run, and then rather than being a jack of all trades, you can specialize in one area because now you’re going to be doing it on behalf of more than ten MTN operations.

So that’s been my journey right now. I mean, MTN GlobalConnect managing wholesale, but while I sit in Nigeria, I support all the other wholesale mobility services I talked about. Quite a journey, right?

Jason Bryan:

It’s certainly interesting because you really did see a 360, you know, you saw the technology, you saw marketing in your career, you’ve seen it from all angles. And plus, you had this start in customer service. And then with the marketing role, you had in MTN, you’re able to go back and kind of understanding customer service. You’re able to go back and kind of really ensure that customer service was working well in roaming, so that must have been quite a satisfying thing to do.

Atim Akeh-Osu:

It has been honestly. And at no point in the journey have I been bored, you know, it’s always something to do, always a new target, you know, a new goal and new learnings along the journey, you know, I’ve found everything quite interesting. I mean, when I look back on my days in technology, I still have friends and colleagues in the technology space.

And for instance, now I nudge them to say, hey, guys, VoLTE, how are we preparing for this? You know, I’m here to nudge you on the roaming leg of VoLTE. And they smile and say not to worry: “We’re on it, when it’s time we’ll let you in, you know, so we can see things and work, you know, to make it happen.” So yes, it’s been quite interesting and very gratifying as well.

Jason Bryan:

So, it must have also been interesting for you from an MTN Global Connect perspective to have this wider view of roaming across the African region right across the continent of Africa. You, you’ll have been exposed to a lot of different scenarios.

Atim Akeh-Osu:

Oh yes! So in the wholesale team where I work, yes, we have to do this on behalf of all the MTN operations and that gives insight into what’s happening in different people’s countries and in different regions, you know, so when you’re contacting colleagues or having discussions with them, you’re trying to wear their hat to understand the reasons why they’re doing certain things and you’ll, you’ll have to put it into perspective what obtains in that country, what their regulations are and, and how you support them, you know, and they differ so we have MTN representation in South Africa, we have in East Africa, we have in the West Africa and in Central Africa.

So, we must at every point, you know, put this in perspective and bear in mind, yeah, so having experience with all of this also helps me in assisting and supporting the teams. So, when we meet a bottleneck, I’m able to say: “Oh, have you checked this? Have you checked that?” You know, because I’m sure at some point in my journey I have gone through that, you know, whether it’s a device problem or your own configuration, I might have seen it somewhere. So, yes, it does help in many, many ways.

Jason Bryan:

I remember from my Vodafone roaming services days when I helped to centralize the roaming for Vodafone group, it was a similar experience. It was like there’s all kinds of different countries and there’s lots of different regulations. There are different levels of maturity in the operations, you know, and some operators who didn’t have, let’s say, steering of roaming and some operators who, you know, had very advanced steering of roaming solutions. So, it was like a real mix. It must have been very interesting to discover that.

Atim Akeh-Osu:

Yes Jason, you’re absolutely right, for instance, among all of us, some MTN operations are more inbound driven, others are outbound driven. So there’re different markets and you have to meet the different needs, you know, working for a large operation like Nigeria with the customer base that we have and with the population that we have in this country has also helped, you know, in managing pressure and volumes of requests, meeting the demands of the customer and such that when you face this in in other operations, it’s not so much of a hassle.

You know, you’re able to come to terms with them easier and dig up from your past to support your client. So, yes, it is true. And then in the different kinds of steering solutions to speak to the example that you gave in Nigeria, we had several. At some point we had the percentage bearing kind and at another time we didn’t even need a vendor because on the HLR that we have, I don’t want to mention vendors because we’re not doing marketing for them. Under HLRs that we had, there were supporting solutions that would allow us to have the HLR steering so we could do it ourselves.

So, we kind of had visibility to these sorts of things that were available. It was hard for a vendor to just come to us to sell any solution, because we are really grounded on some of the things that we, we had done and needed, so we knew exactly what we needed. And it wasn’t easy to push us over.

Jason Bryan:

You had this very rounded 360 understanding of roaming and now you have this rounded understanding of roaming in Africa. I would say so for me, your chairmanship of this IO ARA group, which is the African Roaming Alliance, is a very strong new opportunity for you, but also for the region to have a person with real expertise to take the chairmanship and, and to make a difference. It’s so exciting to imagine what things we can do.

Atim Akeh-Osu:

Oh yes Jason. Like I mentioned in my inaugural address, if I may call it that, where I expressed quite passionately my delight in IO and how pleased I was, and still am, about IO recognizing the need for different and specific working groups, you know, identifying the need for Africa to have something like that, a platform where we can integrate and collaborate with learnings and trainings and updates of new solutions that are provided.

There’s just so much we can achieve there. And yes, my experience working with Africa and working in roaming as long as I have may have contributed largely to how passionate I am about some of these things. And in conversations I’ve had with other industry colleagues, we have wanted this for so long we just thought it was beyond us. You know, where do we start? Who do we talk to?

How accepting will this be? When I posted it on on one of the social media platforms, I got a response from one of my colleagues saying, finally, you know, this has come. So, it wasn’t just me. Other colleagues who are equally passionate have always wanted something. We see the EU, we see North American networks come together, but in Africa we really haven’t, and Africa is such a large continent with the north so far from the south, so far from the west, and there really isn’t that handshake that we should have that will help us break new grounds as a way or even support each other as much as we would want to, you know.

So, being in ARA, whether I was chair or not, for me is ground-breaking. It is good innovation, very inspiring and I look forward so much and all the things we can achieve with ARA. I’ve had colleagues call in recent times in the last couple of weeks asking questions about the ECOWAS regulations, on what we can do, and then asking questions about how to negotiate ITRs with other African partners and the few I have within my network, I’m able to introduce that one to the other to say, can you guys have this conversation?

And I’ll be on this. You know, I’m somewhat asking, when is the next ARA meeting? I want to network. I want to meet people. I want to ask these questions. I want to see how other people are addressing this particular issue. So, I’m very proud to be with ARA and to support such a great initiative.

Jason Bryan:

So, some of the things that you mentioned are very important. They’re already agenda items, let’s say on the ARA lab agenda. So, regulations you mentioned and also a need to really get together and understand how the industry is evolving from an African perspective. Could you tell us a little bit more about what ARA will be working on?

Atim Akeh-Osu:

Oh, so in the conversations we’ve had lately we have had colleagues talk about the regulations, talk about IOT negotiations, talk about new technology, and I hope we get the time to talk more about new technology and what I really think about them. So, we’ve had colleagues talk about these things and their concerns about what their challenges are across Africa.

So, these are the things that ARA is going to be addressing, ARA will touch base with all the MNOs in Africa, as much as they willing to get information and provide learnings. Provide the different working groups that we have, for VoLTE, for 5G, you know, and then even for personal or more intra African needs, like the regulation issues that we have. ARA is going to build a portal where people can interact easily and without any biases, without any concerns, without prejudices.

Just discuss your current concerns and challenges and support each other. And the structures around ARA make it even more flexible and easy because we have recordings, we have online training that we have access to easily. We have the IO ROCCO Radio where we can listen to new trends and technology. So, ARA is going to provide this platform for all of us in Africa, big or small MNOs.

Everybody is welcome to share information, to support, to build alliances and partnerships and that will grow. We’re hoping that with new technology evolving, even when MNOs are unable to invest as much in infrastructure, there would be a point where we’re able to support each other. With things like network splicing or similar technology, you know, across borders. to ensure that roaming is profitable for every MNO and stays so.

Jason Bryan:

One thing I wanted to ask you, because you have such a wide perspective, is what do you think, or would you say is the biggest challenge which operators in the African continent face with roaming?

Atim Akeh-Osu:

Looking at where we are in 2021 and what our real challenges are, of course COVID 19 has had a huge impact you know on on roaming generally, MNOs are in a hurry to recoup the revenues, but you know that will take its course and we will be back but, other than that, challenges around roaming regulations, Roam Like Home situations, what are our reactions to these concepts and what is the roaming community doing and what is the acceptance of Roam Like Home?

You know, is there enough collaboration? This is a major concern, some MNOs are still looking at the regulations and Roam Like Home as a revenue loss event. You know, they’re looking at how much they have to lose from not charging, for terminating calls or not charging inbound roamers for certain things or charging them like at home, you know, the losses that that might be incurred from there.

So that’s still a challenge, you know, my opinion is a different kettle of fish altogether. But you know, that’s a challenge. The other would be on technology, is VoLTE coming? It’s here already, but not many MNOs have even invested in VoLTE and let alone VoLTE roaming or 5G which is also coming and very much on the radar. There’s still struggle with device penetration, data education because VoLTE and 5G just simply mean more data, more speed.

And you could lose your customers easily if they’re not educated on why they’re spending so much. And this is where wholesale collaborations come in, negotiating IOTs that make it easy for you to offer competitive retail rates such that your customers aren’t suffering bill shock of any kind. Being at home in the last 18 months of the pandemic has also made customers very used to affordable data and local operators were able to offer local data rates to address the work from home situations that a lot of people had.

So, if you’re expecting customers to start roaming again and then hiking roaming pricing, then that’s going to be a struggle. Another challenge I see is identifying M2M or permanent roamers, permanent roaming traffic from partners who want to see what it is. This isn’t Europe and is painful for many operators, but identifying them is key and, you know, still a concern.

So, across the industry, these are the major challenges that I see, particularly for us in Africa. And we still have to be more open minded and embracing to technology. Otherwise, we just will be left behind because the world is moving. VoLTE has come to stay. 5G is coming. I mean, it might take some time to get to the 5G standalone completely, but we have to be gearing up for it.

We have to be open minded. We have to understand it and prepare for it. So those are, I hope that wasn’t too many. There are some of the challenges that you know, I, sitting in my small corner, see approaching Africa.

And you know, regarding the regulations they’re different in different ways from each other, but they are somewhat hoping to achieve the same things. So, yes, whatever is in East Africa, ECOWAS and SADC region is to get a fostering community roaming, making roaming a lot easier and cheaper, you know, across Africa. And I’m hoping that it stays so or grows, and it doesn’t, we don’t take to the path of the UK operators. I’m throwing shade up to you now. Well you’re bringing back roaming rates and bringing back roaming charges. Yes, I’m hoping that we understand this.

Jason Bryan:

It’s not on my watch that roaming charges are coming back but yes, you’re right. But it’s a good point you make because obviously in the EU, EU isn’t all of the operators in Europe it represents, you know, a certain number of markets but it’s not the whole of the countries in Europe. And it’s in a sense it’s a bit similar because in Africa you have how many regulators is it, three or four different regulation bodies?

Atim Akeh-Osu:

About four.

Jason Bryan:

Yeah, you have these four different regulation bodies who you would hope that one day there would be mergers and they would be able to have a consolidated view because I mean, obviously, that would make a lot of sense for groups like MTN or other groups to have, you know, a consistent regulator, which I think pretty much if you look at some of the groups in Europe, they have that approach. But it’s interesting that there’s still these four different regulation bodies to be aware of, especially if you have a large group.

Atim Akeh-Osu:

Absolutely Jason, absolutely. I’m hoping that eventually the AU, which is the African Union, will come to some form of unity around this because before that I even mentioned the major four. I’m just somewhere in Central Africa. There’s some coming and then some were not, you know, so we could continue to have regulations and more and more regulations.

But I do hope that someday telco will find its way in there, you know, and we’ll have something for the African Union. Right now, travelling across ECOWAS is visa free and I think same for East Africa. So, if you’re traveling, if you’re African, West African, travelling in the ECOWAS region, you don’t have to get a visa.

There’s the ECOWAS passport, you know, so gradually we’re going to see these things. I know that West Africa and East Africa might be the first to have some alliance because they’re so close to each other, you know, and then subsequently the rest. I’m hopeful for it. I’m just hopeful that at some point this will happen.

Jason Bryan:

Maybe ARA can be the telecom’s alliance which brings that unity.

Atim Akeh-Osu:

Yes. So, when I said to some colleagues that I’ve spoken about having, at some point, my dream for ARA is that at some point we would have not just telcos in there, but we would have the regulators themselves. And, you know, other people came in to say, oh, what are you guys doing? Can we be involved with this, you know, and just see how we are not reading the rules to the regulators.

We’re not telling them how, but it’s a partnership where the regulators come up with what their plan is and in support and alliance with the MNOs, it’s easier to achieve because then you can hear up front what the MNOs think about that. And, you know, there can be some middle ground rather than the back and forth that goes on before an agreement is made.

So, yes, I’m hoping that ARA can achieve this on behalf of Africa, like every big thing, you start from somewhere. And I dare to say that we have started and even when I know that the economy and the processes around Africa don’t make for very easy associations, we can do it if we put our minds to it, we can.

Jason Bryan:

Yeah. I think the biggest way we can make a substantial difference to people and to companies is by community. And clearly, we started that now. So, it’s feeling incredibly exciting. The last ARA meeting I just loved. I loved it because I was hearing from all sides, all different sides, small operators, large operators, groups, small groups, large groups.

I was hearing from east to west, you know, and for me that was really the first time I got this overview of what was happening in the region. So, I’m very thankful for those discussions and I’m really looking forward to hearing more of those. I think it’s going to be very helpful.

Atim Akeh-Osu:

Yes, it’s going to be very helpful. We’re going to have more and more people feel more comfortable and more confident to speak up and to share their concerns and to share their opinions. You know, and to support, I mean, because we’re in ARA together, I’m not chair of ARA to tell ARA how to run. We’re walking together as a team, you know?

So, I’m very open to getting feedback and support from all the African MNOs where we can chat the cause that we want ourselves, together. Yes. And this is going to be a very good opportunity for MNOs to grow. I’ve heard questions, I’ve had people write me in recent times to ask questions. And many times, I said, oh, this is very interesting, what you ask, and would you mind, could you join the VoLTE lab? You know, which is an opportunity for us to learn technology.

And then you can apply to commercials when the time comes, how you want it to be for your operator, you know, and things like that. So, I’m honestly very excited and very hopeful and interested to know that many of the people who checked in in these calls have been waiting for this. I mean, you could tell from the excitement and the comments, they’re quite happy, you know, quite excited to talk about what the experiences were and to share with each other what they had done in different scenarios.

And that’s one of the things I like about that whole thing. The meeting we had was very interesting. Everybody had an opportunity to speak. We have our own place where we can decide how we want our own trip to be and how we want to run.

Jason Bryan:

So, anything you’d like to say to the operator community in Africa.

Atim Akeh-Osu:

Welcome MNOs, welcome everyone to ARA. This is what we’ve always wanted, and this is a good opportunity for us all. It is a good place to handshake. It’s a good place to share experiences regardless of our diversities and our cultures and language barriers. We’re here to have a good time and to enjoy what we do. There are many opportunities in ARA, there’re opportunities to learn new technology, there’re opportunities to give feedback, there’re opportunities for exchange programs where, you know, you could go from one MNO to the other to learn and to see what happens down there, how the operations are run. So, let’s not lose this opportunity, this is a big thing for us and we can make it grow as big as we want by ourselves.

Jason Bryan:

I couldn’t have said it better Atim. You really are a great public speaker.

Atim Akeh-Osu:

Thank you, Jason, thank you.

Jason Bryan:

So, is there anything that needs to be addressed, you think?

Atim Akeh-Osu:

Oh, well, for now, I think it’s just us paying more attention to the direction that roaming is going. We mustn’t ignore our current situation. I know that roaming is one service that allows customers to receive correspondence from business and non-business-related contacts, you know, from across the globe. And we must continue to see this as an essential service that we provide. The more exciting bit is observing the data trends grow globally and seeing that data roaming is here to stay, and you know, we must be prepared for those and prepared for the challenges that come with it and put more effort into building a community roaming. Making roaming more affordable and, you know, understanding the different models that are evolving and coming, the all you can eat and other business models, you know, without thinking too much of profitability. Rather than that, we focus on customer experience because like I like to say, we’re not building roaming services for the mass, or the radio, we’re building it for the customer, you know, and if you want to make the revenues, the customer has to be happy. With 5G growing and roaming latching onto that, the entire roaming community latching on to that. It’s not going away. So, what partners and MNOs must ensure is the seamlessness that the customers have become accustomed to, you know, and keep this going for them.

Jason Bryan:

Atim, that’s great. It’s been a real pleasure to speak to you. I don’t have any more questions if you’d like to add anything else, you’re welcome. But it’s up to you. Otherwise, I think we’re. We’re done.

Atim Akeh-Osu:

Yeah. Thank you so much, Jason. Just one last thing. Please, African operators, African MNOs, welcome on board. Let’s get this train moving. Let’s keep it pumping, and we’ll get all we want from it. Thank you.

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