What have we done?

Examples - Consultancy projects have included:

BROADCAST

• Qualifying the state of the media market in selected countries.
• Reviewing strategies for DTT (digital terrestrial TV) deployment across several African countries.
• Assessing the current state of play with the transition to digital broadcasting by country.
• Producing a business plan for a learning channel for a leading production company.
• Building a PEST and SWOT analysis of audiovisual content piracy across Africa.
• Bullding a strategic plan for private pay TV operators.
• Identifying the market potential for DTH FTA, Pay-TV and VoD solutions.
• Reviewing TV advertising pricing across 40 African countries.
• Reviewing the TV advertising ecosystem in Ghana.
• Supporting and building seminars and conferences on the media sector.

TELECOMS/ICT

• Carrying out a feasibility study of a terrestrial fibre route from Lagos to Accra.
• Identifying the number of base stations and towers used by Africa’s mobile operators and the likely growth over the next 3-5 years.
• Research on the deployment of WiMAX-relevant spectrum in selected African countries.
• Providing consultancy and research to an African carrier on national backbone prices, transmission spectrum prices and new investment opportunities.
• Supporting and building seminars and conferences on the telecoms/ICT/digital startup sectors.
• Advising an African Government on how it might develop its national backbone through creating a separate infrastructure company with the involvement of the country’s private carrier.

• Examining the feasibility of clustering the regional call centres of a well-known multinational.
• Acting as adviser to two well-known North American companies looking to invest in Africa (Telecoms and Media).
• Providing advice on international bandwidth prices, IP networks and wireless delivery at the local loop level to an SNO bidder in Southern Africa.
• Researching mobile operator loyalty programmes for an equipment vendor selling a music player.
• Organising a workshop (with APC and OSIWA) for African regulators from countries that are members of the SAT3 international consortium and presenting information on comparative satellite and fibre prices.
• An investment appraisal of a wireless broadband operator for a South African bank.
• A study to develop Open Access models for internet and telecoms in developing countries (infoDev).
• A study to look at the telecoms interconnection between West African countries (ECOWAS and World Bank).
• A two-stage study implementing an African Internet Exchange Point (IDRC).
• An assessment of investment finance options for African telecoms and Internet infrastructure (DFID).
  
  
• A study of telecommunications infrastructure and development initiatives and projects in Southern and East Africa (e-Africa Commission and World Bank).
• A survey of public sector IT opportunities in three countries.
• A survey of IT opportunities in the private sector in six countries.

• A continent-wide satellite and fibre pricing survey.
• A continent-wide survey of voice minutes and bandwidth data.
• A survey of broadband pricing and implementations across the continent.
• A five country survey of Wi-MAX licensing.
• A survey of demand for an international fibre project.
• A survey of IP backbone implementation for an IP equipment vendor.
• A survey of demand for a “digital village” science park.
• A survey of five ICT country markets for an IT company.

We write clear, jargon-free analysis that helps identify key strategic decisions and always deliver within an agreed timetable to the specified budget.

Publications - Data in depth

Balancing Act seeks to be the primary source for information on the telecoms, Internet and audio-visual media industries in Africa. Outside of South Africa, it has one of the most detailed overview available of telecoms and Internet markets. Below are a selection of the reports we have published:

• Sub-Saharan Africa’s Digital Landscape and its Top 11 Markets – data prices, smartphones, digital content and services and e-commerce.

  Researched over a four year period, this new report is probably the most detailed description yet of online behaviour in Sub-Saharan Africa.

• 4G and 5G in Africa: launches, subscribers, data prices and trends

  The evolution of 4G across the 55 African countries has promised a great deal since the first commercial network went live in 2012.
• Global A2P messaging forecasts by country 2015-2020
  A2P relates to Application-to-person SMS messaging This Databook uncovers the real A2P messaging market opportunity, for the entire A2P ecosystem from mobile operators, to aggregators, service providers, and vendors. Containing forecasts for 200 countries, split out by total, grey, and white messages, and covering revenues, traffic, potential and lost revenues, and including mobile operator spend forecasts on SMS revenue assurance platforms. The Databook also includes forecasts on average messages and revenue per subscription (split out by total, grey and white). To supplement the data, the 60-page market report provides a detailed overview of the market + key findings.

• Analogue to Digital Broadcasting Migration in Africa (Nov 2018)

  The 3^rd edition of “Analogue to Digital Broadcasting Migration in Africa” Report has now been officially released and is available for download. The report, which consists of 132 pages and 35,000 words, gives a true reflection of the status of the digital switchover across 56 African countries and territories. Any professional who has an interest in the future of broadcasting across the continent will find the information and analysis included in the report invaluable.

To see a full list of our publications, click on this link.

Contact us if you need a proposal:
marketing@balancingact-africa.com or call us on +44 (0)207 582 5220 (UK)