Telecom Lead Asia: Ericsson India head Fredrik Jejdling is set to move to Africa as the head of Region for sub-Saharan Africa.
Fredrik Jejdling’s African responsibility will be effective from 1 April this year.
When contacted, Swati Rangachari, head of corporate affairs, Ericsson India, said: “A successor to Fredrik in his current role as the head of Region India will be announced separately.”
Under Fredrik’s leadership Ericsson has extended its strong position as the partner of choice for operators set to capture market opportunities as India continues its strong mobile data development.
Sub-Saharan Africa is now facing similar exciting developments and Fredrik will bring his broad experience to further develop Ericsson’s offering and support to the region.
ALSO READ: Ericsson India has posted 24 percent decrease in revenue in third quarter of 2012 to SEK 1.73 billion from SEK 2.27 billion in the same period last fiscal.
Regulatory uncertainties and decrease in telecom Capex by Indian telecom operators have affected the financial performance of Ericsson India.
Ericsson earlier said that the quarter-on-quarter improvement in networks is driven by operator investments in areas where data traffic is growing. However, investments continued at low levels which are highlighted by the y-o-y comparison where Q3 2011 saw large initial 3G rollouts.
Prior to taking on the role as head of Region India in June 2011, Fredrik held key positions in Ericsson including head of Engagement Practices with responsibility for customer engagements within the region India.
Fredrik will be responsible extending Ericsson’s footprint in Africa where Ericsson has taken the world’s largest multi-country managed services deal. Ericsson is also aggressive in 4G / LTE deals in Africa.
According to Analysys Mason, telecom revenue in the Middle East and North Africa telecoms market will increase from $70.3 billion in 2011 to $96.4 billion in 2017. The fastest growth area during the forecast period will be mobile data services, with handset data revenue set to grow at a CAGR of 17.9 percent between 2012 and 2017.
The penetration rates of active SIMs in Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) already exceed 100 percent of the population, and will surpass 100 percent in Algeria in 2012 and Egypt in 2014. The report argues that any new subscribers will have low incomes and usage, and are therefore very likely to chase deals. Operators in the region will be increasingly pressured to reduce their mobile voice tariffs in the face of over-the-top voice and messaging services.
Krishna Arvind
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