Gateway Communications, a supplier of telecommunications services across Africa, has continued to expand its international reach with the establishment of an office in Beirut, Lebanon. The move is in response to the increasing traffic into and out of locations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and the ongoing demand for connectivity within the region from Gateway’s existing customer base.
The MENA market has seen rapid privatization in the last five years resulting in fierce competition to gain the largest market share in the region. According to Cisco’s Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update (February 2011), the Middle East and Africa will have the strongest mobile data traffic growth of any region (at around 129 percent CAGR) between now and 2015, with voice traffic demonstrating similar trends. As the carrier of choice for many of Africa’s largest mobile network operators (MNOs), the expansion to MENA is a natural progression for Gateway Communications. Leveraging its extensive experience in the African market, Gateway Communications will now also offer the highest quality voice, data and value added services (VAS) to the MENA region.
Gateway Communications has already established relationships with many leading operators in the MENA region in Morocco, Qatar, Sudan, UAE and Egypt. In addition to being the largest satellite provider to Africa, Gateway Communications also offers the advantage of a strong pan-African footprint with on-the-ground local expertise throughout the continent.
“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 fulfill our objective of strengthening our offering in North Africa,” commented Mike Van den Bergh, CEO of Gateway Communications, “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.”
