Gateway Communications, the African telecommunications service provider, has continued to expand its international reach with the establishment of an office in Beirut, Lebanon.
This was in response to the increasing traffic in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and the ongoing demand for connectivity within the region from Gateway's existing customer base.
"The location of our presence in Beirut ensures we are geographically close to Europe, the Middle East and Africa, allowing us to work with operators who are looking for high quality inbound and outbound communications services in the region and across the continent," commented Mike Van den Bergh, CEO of Gateway Communications.
Fierce competition
The MENA market has seen rapid privatisation in the last five years resulting in fierce competition to gain the largest market share in the region. As the carrier of choice for many of Africa's mobile network operators (MNOs), the expansion to MENA is seen as a natural progression for Gateway.
"Expanding our reach into the Middle East is an important step in our mission to connect Africa to the rest of the world, and helps us to fulfil our objective of strengthening our offering in North Africa," said Van den Bergh.
Highest growth
According to Cisco's Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update (February 2011), the Middle East and Africa will have the highest mobile data traffic growth of any region (at around 129 per cent CAGR) between now and 2015, with voice traffic demonstrating similar trends.
In addition to being the largest satellite provider to Africa, Gateway Communications will now offer the highest quality voice, data and value added services (VAS) to the MENA region.
Established relationships
Gateway Communications has already established relationships with many leading operators in the MENA region in Morocco, Qatar, Sudan, UAE and Egypt.
