Nomosphere, one of the leading French players in the carrier Wi-Fi ecosystem, a division of Nomotech Group, has announced the first step in its planned worldwide expansion – the opening of its first international subsidiary in Johannesburg, South Africa: Nomosphere South Africa.
The growing demand for carrier grade WiFi services in the South African market and the huge growth potential of South Africa and Africa has led Nomosphere to choose the country as the first location for overseas operations.
Nomotech Group is the largest wireless access provider in France, owning approximately 60% of the wireless base stations in the country; its subsidiary wireless ISP Ozone has over 42 000 subscribers, representing a market share of nearly 50%.
Having launched operations less than a year ago, Nomosphere has already achieved over 15% national market share in France, boasting over 30-million users connecting via the network yearly and several thousand hotspots deployed. Key customers and large-scale deployments include the SNCF French train stations, the City of Paris public hotspot network, and the largest exhibition centre in Paris, the Paris Expo.
The Nomosphere solution is powered by carrier-grade Wi-Fi hardware from Xirrus, Ruckus Wireless, and Cisco; and proprietary open-access and network monitoring solutions developed over ten years in the Nomotech R&D and engineering departments.
This enables delivery of large-scale installations and proactive monitoring and maintenance of the installations, all the way down to the individual WiFi routers. Carrier-grade installations are relatively new in South Africa, and Nomosphere believes that its proven track record will enable Nomosphere South Africa to establish itself as a market leader very quickly.
Nomosphere South Africa plans to capture 15% to 20% of the South African market within three years, by acting as a subcontractor for large telecommunications companies and offering value-added solutions for venues such as shopping centres, retailers, restaurants, hotels, and large public venues.
“Bringing high quality infrastructure, network design, and planning to deliver high quality service at the best price is necessary but not sufficient,” states Philippe Le Grand, vice president of Nomosphere “We will differentiate by delivering functionality to enhance the operations of our customers, including online marketing, geo-positioning, geo-fencing, content delivery, M2M utilities and social network interconnections.”
Nomosphere is accelerating its market entry by leveraging local expertise to run its African branch. Ellie Hagopian, deputy chairperson of the Wireless Access Providers’ Association of South Africa (WAPA), co-founder of customer
intelligence software company Viento, and former CEO of Wi-Fi hotspot company Skyrove, has been appointed as CEO of the new entity.
Hagopian has over 10 years’ experience in software product management, was employee #15 at Silicon Valley start-up Ask.com, and holds an MBA from Babson College, which has been ranked number one in the USA for entrepreneurship for 20 consecutive years by US News and World Report.
Neelay Pillay, from the carrier solutions division of Internet Solutions, joins the company as CTO. Pillay has worked in telecommunications for over 10 years, with expertise ranging from network design and optimisation to fibre, wireless, and VSAT.
Says Hagopian: “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.”
“Our focus is on delivering functionality delivered by the network, and we are able to deliver solutions immediately that others are still only talking about. We don’t so much sell Wi-Fi as we sell customer intelligence and location-based mobile marketing solutions. A rock-solid Wi-Fi infrastructure is how we do this,” she adds.
Nomosphere South Africa will be hiring an operational team, including pre-sales engineering, network provisioning, and operational resources. With the guidance of Nomosphere CTO Patrick Antoine and CCO Nicolas Leconte, the best technical and marketing practices from Nomotech and Nomosphere will be implemented in South Africa in order to replicate Nomosphere’s success.
“South Africa is experiencing increased wireless telecom usage and growing demand for data consumption,” says Le Grand. “With mobile SIM card penetration rate exceeding 100% and a growth rate exceeding 5% 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,” Le Grand states.
“Our overseas business is going to be more and more important for Nomosphere over the next year, and should represent more than 40% of our global business over the next five years. New markets are where growth lies for us,” he concludes..
