Intersec in the press: TechAfrica News

In a discussion with Souad Touil, Regional Sales Director Africa of Intersec, we explored how the company plays a vital role in helping African telcos address evolving challenges, from data monetization to regulatory compliance and geolocation strategies, offering comprehensive solutions to enhance their operations and public safety efforts.

What are the priorities for telcos in Africa? 

Historically, telcos in Africa have focused on increasing market share and Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), leveraging technology to improve data access, and exploring mobile money opportunities. Nowadays, considering their stagnant revenue growth, MNOs are shifting their focus towards new forms of data monetization, resulting from network upgrades to 4G and 5G and improved location accuracy. Data monetization can be both internal – maximizing ARPU through a 360° view of the customer journey, predicting customer behavior to avoid churn, more contextualized marketing campaigns, or added-value roaming services for example – as well as external partnerships with B2B clients – with use cases like location-based advertising or geostatistics at scale. 

In Africa and everywhere else, MNOs are exploring new revenue streams beyond traditional services like voice, SMS, and data. That’s why delivering stellar customer experiences and investing in network upgrades to enhance coverage and quality are crucial to differentiate from competitors. African MNOs face an additional challenge: the lack of data processing and analytics capabilities to run advanced data-driven analysis, such as pattern detection or trend analysis, alongside a heterogenic territorial coverage. 

Is regulatory compliance evolving in Africa?

Yes, it is, and it’s becoming increasingly important. Operators are now required to provide data for various regulatory use cases, for data privacy and security reasons on one hand, and for emergency telecommunications services on the other hand: early warning systems, public alerts, emergency call location services… Government officials understand that partnership with MNOs can help them tremendously to support their public safety obligations: anticipating climate crises, monitoring crowd movements, streamlining search-and-rescue operations, etc. 

At Intersec, we stand at the forefront of data privacy regulations, and we offer a rigorous compliance environment. With approximately 20 customers in Africa and membership in organizations like EENA, ITU, UN’s Early Warnings 4 All initiative, ETSI, or TM Forum, we closely adhere to industry standards, including CAP protocols, 3GPP. 

How does Intersec help MNOs address these requirements?

We play a pivotal role in addressing the challenges faced by our clients in Africa. As experts in fast data and location intelligence, we provide a comprehensive solution that serves regulatory and business use cases, for both authorities and operators.  

For operators, we enable them to harness the full potential of their network data through the collection, storage and analysis of their real-time and historical data, allowing them to gain a comprehensive 360° view of their entire subscriber base. Thanks to AI-driven data analytics, operators can gain a better understanding of their subscriber base and a deeper insight into the geographical dynamics within the territory. By doing so, they are able to extend their understanding to the entire population and make this knowledge available to both private and public stakeholders in the country. For example, providing data on the mobility patterns of city residents and visitors to enhance infrastructure planning. 

As for the authorities, they benefit from the wealth of telco metadata to gain in situational awareness in case of crisis in order take timely action to reduce disaster risks in advance of hazardous events. Our solutions enable them to alert the exposed population, locate people in need and minimize impact on population and infrastructures.  

More specifically, what does Intersec’s geolocation expertise bring to its customers in the region? 

Ultra-precise location is not an end goal in itself; there’s hardly ever the need for meter-level precision.  

However, the magic lies in the seamless fusion of both on-demand and mass location techniques. This approach allows telecom operators to achieve dual objectives:

• Firstly, on-demand location ensures compliance with regulations, allowing telcos to handle emergency calls and preventing fraud effectively.
• Secondly, mass location techniques open doors to more use cases. They empower telecom operators to enhance public safety by providing situational awareness and large-scale alerting solutions, and also pave the way for location-based services such as personalized advertising, contextual marketing and geo-analytics, improving marketing campaigns success ration. 

With our technology, African operators can assess the impact of their actions on revenue, service quality, and marketing campaigns within specific zones. 

To sum it up, Intersec is committed to providing comprehensive solutions to telcos on a wide range of topics, ranging from public safety to monetization opportunities. We are dedicated to being a trusted partner for telcos, and ready to engage in meaningful discussions about the challenges and opportunities telcos face. Whether it’s enhancing network security, optimizing operations, or exploring innovative technologies, Intersec is here to assist, so don’t hesitate to contact us!

To read the Q&A on TechAfrica News's website, please follow this link.

Video interview 

CEO Hakim Benamara sits down with Souad Touil to explore how our geolocation expertise is revolutionizing telecom and public safety in Africa: