Mobile Data Platform Brings Republic of the Congo Up to Speed

Mobile Data Platform Brings Republic of the Congo Up to Speed
Avent Marseau
4/22/2014
Updated:
4/23/2016

Telecommunications company Mahindra Comviva, which provides value-added services (e.g. text messaging, video sharing, data access, etc.) has had its mobile data platform (MDP) go live with the Republic of the Congo’s MTN Congo, the country’s chief mobile phone company. Mahindra Comviva will allow the operator to have an unprecedented number of personalized data plans for all of its subscribers in the Republic of the Congo.

Mahindra Comviva’s MDP is a comprehensive broadband platform that will also assist MTN Congo in managing, optimizing and monetizing its data infrastructure. The advantage of Mahindra Comviva’s MDP is a much more enriched user experience thanks to intelligent bandwidth management systems like dynamic bandwidth throttling. People using this new mobile data platform will be able to receive real time guidance for notifications and credit/usage limits on their phones, as well as notifications for charges to subscribers on home and roaming networks across all communication channels: SMS (short message service), USSD (unstructured supplementary service data) and Web applications. With an expanding population of mobile phone users, MTN Congo needed to address the problem of growing data challenges and also effectively monetize its data infrastructure.

MTN Congo is present in over 476 towns across the Republic of the Congo, covering a little over 80% of the Congolese population. As the leading mobile phone operator in Congo-Brazzaville, MTN Congo has more than 1 million subscribers and provides 300 jobs directly involved in MTN and over 10,000 indirectly. With Mahindra Comviva’s mobile data platform, MTN will really be able to step up its capabilities. It will be able to manage bandwidth much more effectively, optimize user experience and provide differentiated data plans that span 2G, 3G and WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access). It can provide additional features such as traffic shaping, RAN management, policy management, smart caching, converged network management, personalized plans, tiered plans, real time charging and bandwidth on demand.

Telecommunications is an integral part of a modern infrastructure. The Republic of the Congo has been making a sustained and concerted push towards a fully realized, modern infrastructure. In the realm of communications, President Denis Sassou Nguesso and his counterpart in Gabon came to an agreement on interconnecting their nation’s fiber optic networks, CAB3 in the Congo and CAB4 in Gabon. Funding for this communications project is being provided by the World Bank’s Central African Backbone program. These projects are all part of a general advance towards modernity in African infrastructure.

President Nguesso invited African national leaders and over a thousand other participants from private and public financial institutions to Brazzaville for the first BUILD Africa forum. At this summit, President Nguesso hoped to forge a continent-wide movement for infrastructure development based on cooperation and collaboration between not only financial institutions, but also across national lines. Only through international and regional integration can Africa truly develop its incredible economic potential.