Developers get powerful tools in advance to build apps that deliver highly engaging mobile experiences for users

BlackBerry World 2012 / BlackBerry 10 Jam – Orlando, FL – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today unveiled its vision for the BlackBerry® 10 platform at the BlackBerry World™ conference in Orlando, Florida and released the initial developer toolkit for native and HTML5 software development. The toolkit is available in beta as a free download from http://developer.blackberry.com.

"BlackBerry 10 builds upon the core values and exceptional user experiences that have attracted more than 77 million BlackBerry customers around the world today," said Alec Saunders, Vice President, Developer Relations and Ecosystems Development. "Developers building for BlackBerry 10 will be able to easily create the kind of cutting-edge apps that deliver truly engaging experiences and 'wow' customers, whether through integration with native features and other apps like BBM or by leveraging the new signature design elements of this new and powerful mobile computing platform."

"There is tremendous interest, anticipation and momentum building toward the launch of BlackBerry 10 devices, and today we're extremely excited to release the BlackBerry 10 developer beta tools for general use," said Christopher Smith, Vice President, Handheld Application Platform and Tools at Research In Motion. "Developers can use this first beta of the tools to get started building apps for BlackBerry 10 and as the tools evolve over the coming months, developers will have access to a rich API set that will allow them to build even more integrated apps. The toolkit we are delivering today also meets developers on their own terms. Whether using the powerful Cascades framework, writing direct native code or developing in HTML5, BlackBerry 10 will empower developers to create attractive and compelling apps that excite customers."

The toolkit includes the BlackBerry® 10 Native SDK with Cascades, which allows developers to create graphically rich, high performance native applications in C/C++ or Qt. The Native SDK for BlackBerry 10 has a rich set of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that give developers access to core device features and a range of BlackBerry application services, such as Push and Payment services. Cascades is a powerful native application development toolset that allows developers to easily build visually stunning applications without having to write graphics code.

More details about the NDK for BlackBerry 10 are posted on http://devblog.blackberry.com/2012/05/blackberry-10-native-sdk/ and for Cascades at http://devblog.blackberry.com/2012/05/blackberry-10-cascades-available-now/.

The toolkit also includes support for HTML5 application developers with the BlackBerry 10 WebWorks™ SDK, allowing them to create native-like applications using common web programming technologies. The BlackBerry 10 WebWorks SDK allows developers to use HTML5 and CSS for building apps and provides JavaScript bindings to native device APIs along with RIM's open source UI toolkit, bbUI.js, to create applications with native-like capabilities. In this initial release of the BlackBerry 10 WebWorks SDK, developers have access to a core subset of the full WebWorks APIs, including Identity, Application and App events, System and system events. More details about the BlackBerry 10 WebWorks SDK will soon be posted on http://devblog.blackberry.com/2012/05/blackberry-10-webworks-sdk/.

Applications created with any of the BlackBerry 10 tools will run on BlackBerry 10 smartphones as well as BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets when the new platform becomes available for the PlayBook. All of the SDKs will be updated to give developers access to more of the BlackBerry 10 unique capabilities over the coming months.

To further help developers get started on the BlackBerry 10 platform, BlackBerry 10 Jam attendees are being provided a BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device. This testing unit is a further commitment from RIM to provide the developer community with the tools they need to build successful applications for BlackBerry 10 devices, so that they are ready when the first BlackBerry 10 devices are expected to launch in the latter part of 2012.

The NDK for BlackBerry 10, including Cascades, is available for download at http://developer.blackberry.com/native/download.

The BlackBerry 10 WebWorks SDK is available at http://developer.blackberry.com/html5/download.

Additional Useful Links for Developers:

BlackBerry Jam Zone: http://developer.blackberry.com

@BlackBerryDev: http://www.twitter.com/blackberrydev

Developer Success Stories: https://bdsc.webapps.blackberry.com/devzone/whyblackberry/stories

By Roelof Louw, Cloud expert at T-Systems in South Africa

The ICT industry's very nature is dynamic and evolutionary. It is also these characteristics that make each year exciting, particularly when it comes to the implementation and use of technologies in the enablement of a successful business environment. One such as technology development is Cloud Computing which in 2011 went through an explosion of sorts with many manufacturers and service providers confirming their entry into the marketplace. A competitive and diverse marketplace started forming and South Africa was no different.

2012, exciting but challenging

Therefore, in 2012 Cloud Computing customers have a variety of solutions to choose from that truly optimise the benefits of the cloud, particularly in a hosted private cloud environment. Similarly, service providers have a myriad of technologies and resultant services to offer that enhance their value offering in a competitive marketplace. However, the above and the increasing maturity of the Cloud Computing marketplace also bring its own set of challenges. How does a Cloud Computing service provider successfully apply these technologies while continuing to diversify and differentiate its service delivery to customers? A firm roadmap that addresses the IT stack, from infrastructure to applications is critical to ensure a provider remains a bona fide player and importantly stands out when IT decision-makers move over to Cloud Computing.

Sound, flexible framework

As mentioned the industry is becoming increasingly mature which means an increased focused on Research and Development (R&D) is a must for any Cloud Computing provider that would like to stay one step ahead of the its competitors. At T-Systems, for example, we partner with our various technology providers to optimise our Cloud Computing offering, constantly researching means of providing the best possible solutions to companies and their individual needs. This is crucial if one considers how many technologies are entering the market almost at a monthly rate. However, the R&D not only comprises technology but how services are delivered to customers. A keen sense of how Cloud Computing will impact the business of your client is therefore crucial, and the delivery model must evolve to adapt to changing market (and business) requirements. In light of this, do your research and ensure that you have a sound and modular technology framework in place that allows you to readily add new additions to your existing offering. The same goes for standardisation which should be applied throughout the organisation. The solution you implement in Johannesburg should be the same as the one you implement at all your client's branch offices, locally or abroad.

Commercial viability

With Cloud Computing, the well-known adage of 'it's about the journey' applies. You should not be in the business of selling technology but a product that offers an entire cloud solution that meets the needs companies security, compliance, network and commercial needs - offered at a high level with no disruption. Ultimately, it is about providing a commercial solution that works for your respective clients and the ability to add and remove technologies, evolve your offering and provide a strong overall product is an important competitive advantage. As an existing Cloud Computing player which already features a strong customer base, the key is to mature with it. However, it is also important to enable new clients to readily enter the cloud. This is where market education plays an important role, not all companies – particularly those operating in highly regulated industries - can use Cloud Computing. Dispel the myths and ensure that potential clients know exactly what lies ahead with regards to infrastructure migration and overall operational changes. Ultimately, it will be those players that offer strong industry know-how coupled with a diverse, standardised and flexible offering that will go from strength-to-strength in a market that will continue to undergo exciting changes.

ACCRA, Ghana, April 30, 2012 -- Airtel's mobile commerce product (http://www.airtel.com), Airtel Money, has been adjudged the 'Best Mobile Money Service' in Ghana at the Mobile World Ghana Telecoms Awards. Airtel Money which has been praised by industry players for its innovative features and secured nature has been expanding over the past few months roping in more banks and business outlets in the process.

The organizers of the awards say Airtel Money was found to be the best among similar services deployed on the market and provided a seamless, simple to understand mobile based experience for users while at the same time being reliable, consistent and providing value to the user.

Managing Director at Airtel Ghana, Philip Sowah said "I believe this award gives ample testimony to the innovation and strength of the Airtel Money product. We have developed Airtel Money as a product tailored to meet the needs of our customers. As you may know, Airtel Money is the only mobile commerce product which customers are able to link to their banks and are thus able to undertake banking transactions via their mobile phones". Mr. Sowah added that "the list of partners for Airtel Money is also growing taller every day. We have several banks partnering with us as well as a host of other business outlets". Mr. Sowah revealed that Airtel Money is continuing with its expansion via partnering with a lot more financial and business institutions and through the opening of a lot more outlets for Airtel Money.

Customers in Ecobank, UBA, Standard Chartered Bank; Unibank , UT Bank, GT Bank and Zenith Bank are able to link their bank accounts to their Airtel Money wallets, a service unique to the service.

Airtel Money recently announced new products to further excite their customer

• Free Life Insurance Cover for all Airtel Money Customer with Unibank
• Interest on your mobile wallet with UT Bank

Additionally some of the largest outlets in Ghana including Melcom and Koala and Marx Mart (at A&C), Palace Hypermarket, Sneda Supermarkets, accept payments via Airtel Money. Restaurants – Sunshine, Honeysuckle, Tante Marie, Crossroads, Nibbles etc

The Airtel Money service allows customers to pay utility bills, goods and services, make direct payment for savings and loans contributions, buy airtime, purchase Airtel data bundle, send money from Airtel Money account to other Airtel money customers, send money from Airtel Money account to people on other networks, receive money on Airtel Money account, deposit physical cash for electronic money (e-value), withdraw cash from Airtel money account, send money to and withdraw money from bank account, and use mobile phone to check your bank balance and request for bank mini statement.

Airtel Money is accessible 24 hours, 7 days a week from a phone menu and is secure, convenient, fast and easy to use. All one needs is to register at any Airtel Centre or Airtel Money Agent Point, countrywide with a valid ID card.

For assistance and feedback on our service please call Contact Centre on 222 or (0260000222 for non-Airtel users) 24hours a day/7 days a week for location of our agents and for feedback on the performance of our service.

About Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel Limited (http://www.airtel.com) is a leading integrated telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 5 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include 2G & 3G mobile services, fixed line, high speed broadband through DSL, IPTV, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G & 3G mobile services. Bharti Airtel had over 249 million customers across its operations at the end of March 2012. To know more please visit, http://www.airtel.com

About Airtel in Africa

Airtel in Africa has over 50 million customers while operating in 17 countries across Africa: Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Rwanda. Airtel is driven by the vision of providing affordable and innovative mobile services to all. Airtel International is a Bharti Airtel company. For more information, please visit http://www.airtel.com

The telecom industry has become a prime target of criminal organisations due to the complexity of network infrastructure, and in particular the way in which different networks interact with each other. Indeed the widerange of interconnection equipment between different operators’ networks and the lack of visibility over the exact route that calls take has made it possible for criminals to exploit weaknesses in the system. A particularly well-known example is SIM-box fraud in which international calls are filtered through national SIM cards, allowing companies to illegally bypass the call termination charges. This has now become a global issue that costs the industry billions of dollars every year as increasingly sophisticated techniques are used.

But in addition to threatening operator’s revenue streams, fraud is also causing considerable damage to operators’ reputations by degrading quality of service. This is a particular challenge in a context where the quality of service is a crucial factor in increasing customers’ loyalty regarding traditional services as well as new ones, including payment services.

“Orange believes in the importance of fighting fraud in a cooperative and coordinated manner. Due to the highly interdependent nature of operators in the wholesale market, they must work closely to end this growing phenomenon. Operators need to take collective action to develop both technical and legal means to protect their interconnect revenue” said Alexandre Pébereau, Executive Vice President for International Carriers at Orange.

Orange’s @first offer extends and reinforces the protection of operators’ revenue

Orange has leveraged its experience in both its wholesale and retail activities, along with the expertise of its “Orange Labs” R&D centre, to offer the @first suite, a comprehensive set of technical and professional services to recover traffic and increase revenue streams. The flexibility of this solution allows operators to build the customized protection they need, based on four modules offering various combinations for an optimal level of protection:

• Bypass detection - against fraudulent interconnect
• Quality of service - traffic analysis and interconnect monitoring
• Revenue assurance - securing revenue from leakage and monitoring billing errors
• Security of transactions - controling mobile airtime’s integrity and money transfers

This innovative anti-fraud offer provides a wider scope of protection compared to current market solutions, including the reduction of revenue leakage and the increased integrity of transactions.

@first is a non-intrusive solution for information systems and network equipment. It allows end-to-end monitoring of rating or billing errors through smart and powerful reconciliation tools. As a result, it can be combined with operators’ existing anti-fraud solutions. In addition, the @first offer also benefits from Orange’s extensive network of probes and its large international footprint, which enables the system to efficiently detect SIM-box fraud. Orange has also developed a range of professional services, including additional technical support, the evaluation of revenue streams at risk from fraud and estimations of the its potential financial impact as well as mitigation strategy.

In today’s context of increased competition in the international voice and data traffic market, the need for wholesale players to protect their revenue is even more crucial. With @first, Orange is well positioned to become the trusted partner of third-party operators in their fight against fraud.

About Orange

France Telecom-Orange is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with 172,000 employees worldwide, including 105,000 employees in France, and sales of 45.3 billion euros in 2011. Present in 35 countries, the Group had a customer base of 226 million customers at 31 December 2011, including 147 million customers under the Orange brand, the Group's single brand for internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries where the company operates. At 31 December 2011, the Group had 167 million mobile customers and 14 million broadband internet (ADSL, fibre) customers worldwide. Orange is one of the main European operators for mobile and broadband internet services and, under the brand Orange Business Services, is one of the world leaders in providing telecommunication services to multinational companies.

With its industrial project, "conquests 2015", Orange is simultaneously addressing its employees, customers and shareholders, as well as the society in which the company operates, through a concrete set of action plans. These commitments are expressed through a new vision of human resources for employees; through the deployment of a network infrastructure upon which the Group will build its future growth; through the Group's ambition to offer a superior customer experience thanks in particular to improved quality of service; and through the acceleration of international development

France Telecom (NYSE:FTE) is listed on Euronext Paris (compartment A) and on the New York Stock Exchange. For more information (on the internet and on your mobile): www.orange.com, www.orange-business.com, www.orange-innovation.tv or to follow us on Twitter: @presseorange

Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trade marks of Orange Brand Services Limited, Orange France or France Telecom.

Press contact:

+33 1 44 44 93 93

Mylène Blin, mylene.blin@orange.com

Tom Wright, tom.wright@orange.com

South African banks and retailers are likely to be slow to adopt near-field communications (NFC) technology for mobile payments because of the high costs of installing point-of-sale terminals and other enabling infrastructure. That's the word from Tim Walter, Executive Head of Marketing at Nashua Mobile, who says that there is little appetite among institutions to drive adoption of yet another new point-of-sale payment technology just as the end of their protracted rollout of the EMV credit card standard is in sight.

NFC is a short-range wireless technology that will eventually allow people to use their mobile phone as a wallet. It will enable consumers to make secure payments to compatible point of sale terminals or to another user's smartphone. NFC has proven itself to be a viable technology in field trials in countries such as the US, and South African banks are reportedly also trialling NFC. But, as yet, there are not enough NFC compatible handsets in the market, nor is there a compelling commercial model for the rollout of the technology in South Africa, says Walter.

"Most of the major handset manufacturers are bringing NFC to market in the latest models of their mid to high-end smartphones," Walter says. "Yet we are still a long way off from the critical mass that would really justify massive investment in the technology by banks and retailers."

Walter notes that despite the many experiments with NFC as a payment technology in the international market, it still is an immature technology far from the mainstream. According to research by Berg Insight, global sales of handsets with NFC increased ten-fold in 2011 to 30 million units. Shipments are forecast to touch 700 million units in 2016.

"With just 30 million NFC handsets sold in 2011, these devices represent a tiny fragment of the overall mobile phone market. The growth is exponential, but even in advanced markets, NFC looks like it could be two to three years away from mainstream adoption," says Walter.

In South Africa, it is the capital-intensive process of rolling out point of sales terminals by stores, hotels, restaurants, services firms and other merchants that will be the big barrier to adoption, believes Walter. It took a good 10 years from when banks first started talking about EMV until it become common in South African shops - and even now the rollout isn't 100% complete.

Says Walter: "Retailers and banks will need to see some clearly defined benefits in security, convenience and cost-reduction before they adopt NFC in a big way. We will need to see big retail groups, mobile operators and banks cooperate closely to nurture an NFC ecosystem based on a sound business model that works for all of them - and that could take some time."

That doesn't mean that we won't see other applications for NFC-enabled phones in the next two to three years, says Walter. The technology can be used for applications such as paring devices to establish Bluetooth or WLAN connections, electronic ticketing, loyalty programs and coupons, parking payment, buying goods for vending machines, and more.

How popular NFC will become for such applications depends on market penetration of enabled devices and the benefits companies see in adopting it. But in the meantime, expect the banks to experiment and investigate NFC very thoroughly during 2012.

Johannesburg, 23 April 2012 – Samsung Electronics recently announced that SAP AG has selected the GALAXY S II and GALAXY Tab 10.1 for internal use. This announcement marks the first time that Android-based smartphones and tablets have been deployed by SAP to help enhance employee productivity.

Workforce can do business securely

"We are very pleased to offer Samsung devices to our global workforce as part of our internal device-agnostic strategy," said Oliver Bussmann, CIO, SAP AG. "It's important for our employees and also our customers to have choices, and SAP software running on Samsung's Android devices will allow our workforce to do business in the moment. Furthermore, it's critical that we can secure our business data on these devices using an extensive range of IT policies with enhanced security and manageability features closely integrated with the SAP Mobile Device Management (SAP MDM) package.

"SAP's selection of Samsung devices for its employees demonstrates the effectiveness of Samsung smart devices in the enterprise space; a firm like SAP demands the best from its mobile fleet, and Samsung delivers this" says Paulo Ferreira, Head of Enterprise Mobility at Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Device Functionality

SAP and Samsung Electronics have worked closely together to optimise security on Samsung's Android devices, providing enhanced IT policies for multiple device management on any scale. The Sybase Afaria 7.0 mobile device management system, available on enterprise class models including GALAXY Note, GALAXY S II, and GALAXY Tablets, offers a large variety of enterprise functions. This helps ensure that businesses can get the most out of their fleet of mobile devices, providing a more flexible and connected workforce.

· Device inventory and tracking allows employers to know where their devices are at all times, delivering peace of mind and helping ensure that any lost devices can be safely reclaimed. If the device cannot be located, this function also enables the remote wiping of the device, meaning that no confidential data will fall into the wrong hands.

· With email and Exchange Account Management, employees can easily access and send emails while out and about and businesses can be sure that confidential information is fully encrypted.

· CTOs (Chief Technology Officer) can also manage the firewalls in place on mobile devices so they can easily match the settings with their own requirements.

· Device managers will be able to determine which apps can and cannot be downloaded onto devices, so they are used efficiently and help ensure that potentially harmful apps are avoided.

· CTOs can also manage restrictions around device functions such as Wi-Fi connectivity, SD Card usage, USB connections, NFC connections, and client certificate management, so that devices are tailored to meet business needs.

· Additional security measures such as Password Policy can be managed, meaning that device managers can set password expiration times and enforce password changes.

Samsung devices also support a wide range of SAP business applications, including the SAP Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM) - this enables the enterprise sales force to stay connected with customers and allows SAP to consistently deliver the products and services customers need.

Samsung has developed robust, durable and powerful devices capable of meeting the security and reliability needs of enterprise users; it has also been working closely with SAP to provide optimal integration of SAP solutions, providing the best all-round solution to enterprise customers.

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2011 consolidated sales of US$143.1 billion. Employing approximately 206,000 people in 197 offices across 72 countries, the company operates two separate organizations to coordinate its nine independent business units: Digital Media & Communications, comprising Visual Display, Mobile Communications, Telecommunication Systems, Digital Appliances, IT Solutions, and Digital Imaging; and Device Solutions, consisting of Memory, System LSI and LED. Recognized for its industry-leading performance across a range of economic, environmental and social criteria, Samsung Electronics was named the world's most sustainable technology company in the 2011 Dow Jones Sustainability Index. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com.

Samsung

SAP, StreamWork and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries. Sybase and Afaria are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sybase, Inc. ® indicates registration in the United States. Business Objects, BusinessObjects and the Business Objects logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects in the United States and/or other countries. Business Objects is an SAP company. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

SAP Forward-looking Statement

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

By Gerrit-Jan Albers, Service Delivery Manager at RDB Consulting

Managed services are becoming increasingly popular in the South African market as many businesses look towards models that eliminate the need for investment in technology whilst outsourcing non-core functions to specialists. However, the typical per hour billing method for consultants means that these costs can spiral out of control if they are not tightly managed. This has resulted in a growing trend towards adopting a fixed service fee approach to managed services. Using this approach, outsourcing costs remain constant throughout the contract duration and service levels and hours are agreed up front, ensuring that the cost of managed services never outweighs the benefits.

Managed services have gained traction largely as a result of increasingly strained IT budgets, combined with the ongoing skills shortage in South Africa. Organisations looking to harness scarce skills for non-core functions that may not warrant full time employment often look towards outsourcing as a way to leverage these skills without paying the salary required to maintain these in-house. However, the traditional model for such a service is to pay per hour, and everything is charged. If the consultant is required after hours, the fee becomes even higher. Ultimately, outsourced services can end up costing a lot more than anticipated, and the cost can outweigh the benefits.

As a result of this, organisations are increasingly looking towards a fixed service fee for managed services, where services are bundled together in an all-inclusive contract. Using this model, all service fees are calculated up front and key performance indicators (KPIs) are laid out to ensure that needs, costs and levels of service are agreed upon from the start. This eliminates hidden costs. The fee structure can also be reviewed should the organisation's needs increase or diminish, ensuring that outsourcers are still delivering optimal levels of service.

This model is particularly appealing to the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of an organisation, since managed services can be more easily factored into the organisation's budget. The result is that there are no surprises or price spikes at month end. It also enables easier, faster access to service, since purchase orders do not need to be signed and approved for after hours work. This then results in better service delivery and faster turnaround on problem resolution.

However, the very nature of bundling all-inclusive services at a fixed cost can prove problematic for both the customer and the service provider. If the customer does not select a reputable service provider with experience in the market, who can provide the correct balance of cost versus service, they may end up paying a far higher price for services they are not using. If the service provider does not accurately estimate the level of service required, the resources required to service the client may prove to be far more than anticipated. This requires sound industry knowledge and experience.

In order to provide the best levels of service for both parties involved, planning is vital. If the organisation does not plan upgrades, migrations and so on, it becomes difficult for the service provider to accurately gauge required service levels, which can lead to compromised service. Ultimately the onus is on both parties to do their homework, assess the situation and ensure value for money is being realised.

For the service provider, it is vital to conduct a thorough evaluation and audit of the environment and take into account that the client's needs often change after the first few months. For example, initially the client may need a full team of resources five days a week for two months, however, once the environment is sustainable and maintainable the requirements may decrease to one resource once a week. This cost needs to be factored into the contract and spread over the duration in order to ensure the service provider is getting value out of the agreement as well.

For the customer, it is vital to choose a service provider with extensive industry experience and expertise to deliver the services required at an acceptable cost, and one with a solid reputation for excellence. This requires investigation, reference checking and all of the usual procedures that should be involved whenever engaging with a new service provider. When it comes to negotiating the contract a clause should also be incorporated to cater for services that can be scaled up or down should the scope of the work and hours fall outside of certain accepted parameters. If market conditions are not monitored organisations can end up paying more for outsourced services than they would have maintaining them in-house.

While a fixed service fee approach has many benefits and can help to prevent outsourcing costs from spiralling out of control, it is important to make sure that the right service provider is engaged to deliver. It is also crucial to ensure that the outsourced service provider is a good 'fit' for your organisation without compromising on quality and service. Always check accreditations, partnerships and certifications and verify their authenticity to avoid being caught by a 'fly-by-night' service provider. The implications of getting it wrong can be catastrophic for any organisation, so as the old saying goes, better safe than sorry.

It's faster, smarter and richer* – Motorola DEFY+ is now equipped with faster Web-browsing and the social networking tools you crave to stay connected wherever you go

Johannesburg, South Africa - April 18, 2012 – Live life to the fullest with the latest smartphone from Motorola Mobility, Inc with life proof qualities. Building on the Motorola DEFY, Motorola DEFY+ offers exceptional protection from whatever life throws your way with its water resistant, scratch resistant and dust proof design1. In addition, Motorola DEFY+ has a 1GHz processor that runs 25 percent faster and is more fun with Android™ 2.3 (Gingerbread) delivering a smarter operating system and better battery life to fully enjoy your experiences. Motorola DEFY+ is now available in South Africa.

Water resistant, dust proof, and featuring scratch resistant Corning® Gorilla® Glass, Motorola DEFY+ can survive a sudden rain shower, a day on the beach, an all-night party – or even a tough workout with the pre-loaded CardioTrainer application, which transforms the device into the perfect running mate. Its brilliant 3.7-inch high-resolution touch-screen display enables you to easily view and track your work out progress. Wherever your days – or nights – take you, Motorola DEFY+ is the life proof device that can keep up with your toughest demands and wildest adventures.

Motorola DEFY+ is faster than ever, keeping up with your on-the-go lifestyle so you can effortlessly browse the Web, stay updated with social networking sites on your home screens, stream and download rich media content more quickly than before. Motorola DEFY+ offers an Adobe® Flash® 10-enabled browser for a rich web experience that allows you to watch your favorite movies or view videos on the Web.

Powered by Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), Motorola DEFY+ is smarter than ever. Motorola DEFY+ boasts a better battery life, a more intuitive user interface and improvements on the features you use most – including enhanced calendar, email features and home screen options. Users can make Motorola DEFY+ their own by organising and personalising their application trays for easy and quick access to their most used tools, games and content.

Boredom proof your life; the richest experiences in entertainment and social media are always within reach with Motorola DEFY+. The Music Player lets you access and share your favorite music. You can also synch your favorite music straight from your desktops at home or work, with Motorola Media Link. Motorola DEFY+ also features Google Talk™ to keep you connected with friends and colleagues, while built in apps like Zinio™ e-magazine service allow you to keep up with favorite publications on-the-go. Entertainment doesn't stop there: Motorola DEFY+ also features a 5-megapixel camera with flash; digital zoom and auto focus, letting users capture the best of their social life and create their very own entertainment whatever the conditions.

"Motorola DEFY+, our latest smartphone with life proof qualities, delivers the endurance and design strength to keep up with even the most demanding lifestyles, along with the social and entertainment capabilities that put friends and fun in easy reach," said Dorothy Matemba, Motorola sub-Saharan Africa head of marketing. "We designed Motorola DEFY+ with all the smartphone features you need for a demanding lifestyle."

Smart Accessories

A suite of smart accessories ensures users get the most from the Motorola DEFY+. Available accessories include Vehicle Dock, Bluetooth®2 Headset, Bluetooth Car Kit and Car Charger.

Key Features and Specifications:

● Powered by Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and features more than 500,000 apps and games available on Google Play™

● 1GHz processor that runs 25 percent faster for efficient Web browsing and multitasking

● Water resistant, scratch resistant and dust proof to withstand all that life throws your way

● Features scratch resistant Corning® Gorilla® Glass

● 3.7-inch high-resolution touch screen display

● Music Player connects you to all your favorite artists

● MOTOBLUR™ lets users stay in touch with friends, providing quick access to social media accounts and live widgets directly from the home screen

● Motorola Media Link allows users to sync their media content from their desktops at home or work

● Loaded with the ability to create group emails and communication to stay in touch with friends

● Adobe Flash Player 10 for uncompromised viewing of applications, content and videos

● 5MP camera with auto focus, flash and digital zoom

● 2GB internal; 2GB microSD card in box, expandable up to 32GB

● Access to Google Mobile™ Services (Google Maps™ 5.0 with Navigation, Google Talk™, browsing)

● 1700 mAH battery3 for 7.1 hours of talk time and 16 days in standby

Availability

Motorola DEFY+, is now available from Nashua Mobile and 8ta. The recommended retail price is from R2899 and it will also be available on contract.

For more information on Motorola DEFY+, please visit www.motorola.com

About Motorola Mobility

Motorola Mobility, Inc. (NYSE: MMI) fuses innovative technology with human insights to create experiences that simplify, connect and enrich people's lives. Our portfolio includes converged mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets; wireless accessories; end-to-end video and data delivery; and management solutions, including set-tops and data-access devices. For more information, please visit: www.motorola.com/mobility.

Media Contact:

Atmosphere Communications

Name: Danielle Square

Email: danielle@atmosphere.co.za

Phone: +27 11 250 7958/ +27 84 596 6886

Certain features, services and applications are regional and network dependent and may not be available in all areas; additional terms, conditions and/or charges may apply. All features, functionality and other product specifications are subject to change without notice or obligation. Contact your service provider for details.

* Comparisons made to the original Motorola DEFY

1 Product meets or exceeds IP67 standard for water and dust.

2This device supports Bluetooth profiles. In order for Bluetooth devices to communicate with one another, they must utilize the same Bluetooth profile. Not all Bluetooth features may be supported by all compatible Bluetooth enabled devices. Visit www.motorola.com/bluetoothconnect or more details.

3All talk and standby times are quoted in Digital Mode, and are approximate. Battery performance depends on network configuration, signal strength, operating temperature, features selected, and voice, data and other application usage patterns.

MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Motorola Trademark Holdings, LLC. Android, Google Play, Google Talk, Google Mobile and Google Maps are trademarks of Google, Inc. The Bluetooth trademarks are owned by their proprietor and used under license. Corning and Gorilla are registered trademarks of Coring Incorporated. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2012 Motorola Mobility, Inc. All rights reserved.

LTE to account for over 10% of French mobile market by 2017 as competition ramps up

France is forecast to hit 10 million LTE connections within five years, accounting for close to one in eight of the country's total connections by 2017, according to new Wireless Intelligence data.

French operators are due to begin rolling out their first LTE networks this summer following the country's LTE spectrum auctions last year, which saw all four players acquire LTE-suitable airwaves in a sale that netted the government over EUR3.5 billion in total.

The market is currently led by Orange France (44 percent share) and SFR (35 percent) and Wireless Intelligence expects these two players to maintain their dominance in LTE, accounting for a combined 80 percent of French LTE connections by 2017.

France Telecom-owned Orange has pledged to roll-out LTE in all its markets in the EU by 2015, and has selected the French city of Marseille as the location for an LTE pilot beginning in June. SFR – owned by Vivendi – has already tested LTE in the southern metropolis with NSN last year and is planning its first LTE deployments in Lyon and Montpellier early next year. The third-largest player, Bouygues Telecom, will pilot its LTE network in Lyon beginning in June and expects 5,000 LTE base stations to be deployed by year end paving the way for an early 2013 launch. By end of next year, Wireless Intelligence expects that all three operators will have covered the major French cities with LTE services.

The LTE plans of Iliad's Free Mobile, the disruptive and fast-growing new market entrant, are not yet known, though it did acquire a chunk of 2.6GHz spectrum at auction last year. Its three larger rivals acquired spectrum at both 2.6GHz and the more expensive 800MHz, the latter band having been freed up via France's switch from terrestrial to digital TV.

In the early years of LTE, the French operators will supplement their high-speed network strategies with on-going investment in dual-carrier HSPA+ technology, which can offer theoretical top speeds of 42Mb/s.

Orange announced recently that it is on track to rollout HSPA+ to 60 percent of the French population by year-end, up from about 50 percent currently, adding new cities such as Bordeaux, Nancy, Metz, Strasbourg, Toulouse and Angouleme. It has also launched a new data tariff family called 'H+' to enable access to the network.

However, SFR claims to have the country's most extensive HSPA+ network covering over 98 percent of the population. It hopes to upgrade 63 percent of users on this network to 42Mb/s speeds by year-end. Bouygues has pledged 50 percent population coverage for its 42MB/s HSPA+ network by June this year.

This renewed focus on high-speed networks and services by the three incumbent players is in part a reaction to the disruptive launch of Free Mobile at the beginning of the year.

According to Wireless Intelligence estimates, Free Mobile's strategy of undercutting its established rivals on price saw the new entrant reach its 3 million customer target three months after launch, giving it a 5 percent market share. Orange announced in February that its French mobile customer base had declined by over 200,000 subscribers (net) following Free's launch on 10 January, with Orange's number portability requests peaking at 150,000 a day in the first 48 hours. There were similar net declines in Q1 at both SFR (-250,000) and Bouygues (-199,000), according to Wireless Intelligence.

Joss Gillet, Senior Analyst, Wireless Intelligence:

The arrival of LTE in France is good news for operators and consumers - but raises concerns about incumbents' ROIs in a market where competitive pressures have recently spiked. Last year, Orange France reported declines in revenue (-5%), higher costs exacerbated by labour expenses (at 21.3% of revenue), declining EBIT (-6%) and a reduction in network investment in the mobile segment (-11%). The French market generates two thirds of the group's cash flow, which puts further pressures on network investments across its footprint (35 countries) in 2012, and profitability. The situation is similar at SFR where mobile revenue and EBITDA declined between 2010-11, by 5.4% and 4.4%, respectively. The operator is expecting a 12% to 15% decrease in EBITDA in 2012, while Bouygues Telecom's outlook for the year anticipates a 10% contraction in sales and a negative impact on EBITDA to the tune of EUR250 million. In order to counter the arrival of Free Mobile and balance required investments for LTE and FTTH network rollouts against a sensitive financial situation, the French mobile incumbents are being forced to implement drastic cost cutting programmes which in Orange's case could quite possibly spark some divestitures in its overseas operations.

About Wireless Intelligence

Wireless Intelligence is the definitive source of mobile operator data, analysis and forecasts, delivering the most accurate and complete set of industry metrics available. Relied on by a customer base of over 700 of the worlds mobile operators, device vendors, equipment manufacturers and leading financial and consultancy firms, the data set is the most scrutinised in the industry. With 8 million individual data points – updated daily – the service provides coverage of the performance of all 950 operators and 780 MVNOs across 3,500 networks, 55 groups and 236 countries worldwide.

The rapid spread of touchscreen computing devices like smartphones and tablets is creating a generation of children that Intel calls the "Touch Generation" – and they're heralding a new era that fundamentally changes the way we interact with computers.

Walk through any shopping mall, and watch how parents soothe their fussy toddlers: no longer do they give them a dummy, but a smartphone. Reared by digitally connected parents, this new uber-connected generation is not only comfortable using touchscreen computers, but they are intuitively touching screens and flipping through apps with ease, says Intel marketing manager Ntombezinhle Modiselle.

"Today's kids are so completely at ease with navigating and flicking their way through my devices to get to the latest game on my smart phone or tablet," says Ms Modiselle. "They just see Mom and Dad on their phones all the time, and they want to play, too."

This innate aptitude to easily use a touch-enabled device, with limited prior instruction, is not limited to personal computing. Touch screen televisions, ATMs and mall information kiosks are already part and parcel of our daily lives, and children are rapidly leap-frogging the older generations as they get to grips with the new interfaces.

"We are at a significant stage in the evolution of how we interact with technology. The rise of the touch generation is not only set to change the way we interact with our technology, but it is also changing the type of technology we will demand in future," says Ms Modiselle.

Application developers are responding to this age group by providing more and more education-rich touch content on smart phones and tablets. Research done by Nielsen in the United States among households with under-12 year olds showed 77% are using it to play games while 57% use it for educational purposes.

"Over the years, it has been is interesting to watch this trend unfold, and marketers and decision-makers of technology companies need to take note," she says. "In 2009, according to market-research firm Gartner, only 2% of devices bought for the under 15-year old market had touch features. In 2015, about 50% of computers that will be bought for that market will feature a touch screen."

As prices drop in future, education will become a huge benefactor of touch-enabled devices. Improvement in user interface, ergonomics and software as well as further price drops will further lead to wider adoption by adult consumers.

"After that phase, I see it gradually being accepted in the workplace. We've seen this happening even here at Intel. Employees are bringing in their own devices to work – many of them touch-enabled – and expect it to be integrated with their office device."

"Within the next 10 to 15 years, the touch generation will have graduated from the school of touch where interaction with technology will seem totally natural and intuitive, just as it is for your two-year old," predicts Ms Modiselle.

"The hype around cloud computing has often tended to obscure an equally important development for enterprise technology strategy: The rise of mobility and the increasing consumerisation of IT," says William Hardie, Executive Head of Enterprise Mobility at the Vox Telecom group.

The two are related: It's precisely because of cloud architectures that consumer devices such as smartphones and tablets have become so powerful, and so rapidly ubiquitous. The average iPad user knows little and cares less about where his applications are served from, and where the data is stored. All that counts, is that it works.

Enterprise users have reacted with enthusiasm to the fact that there's now an app for almost everything, as evidenced by the staggering growth in mobile data usage. The 500MB per month data bundle that sufficed even two years ago now barely lasts a few days. By 2015, Cisco predicts that the average smartphone will generate 1.3GB of traffic a month.

All this is fabulous for users, but a nightmare for the corporate IT managers charged with protecting the integrity of company systems and data.

To take just one example: As devices get smaller and easier to carry around, they also get easier to lose. And when a director leaves his iPad with its copy of the latest board pack on a plane, the data might as well as be posted directly on the company's web site. A recent study found that 96% of people who picked up "lost" smartphones tried to access personal or business data, and 45% tried to access corporate email clients.

Mobile data security and device management need to be front and centre of corporate IT strategies right now. The first challenge is to integrate the wide variety of mobile operating systems – from iOS and Android through to Blackberry and Windows Mobile – into corporate environments, despite the fact that all are proprietary and very different. There's no feasible way to do this oneself, so a platform that handles the interface for you is essential.

Authentication policies need to establish trusted devices and trusted users, and clear guidelines need to be established and enforced around what a user can do with company resources. Downloading email using corporate bandwidth is fine, but most companies will want to make employees pay their own way when it comes to online games and the latest viral video.

Establishing clear boundaries between private and corporate information, and protecting the company turf, is just the start. It should also be possible to remotely access and wipe the device if it is lost or stolen.

It's not all bad news, though. If you have a platform that understands all the mobile operating systems in the market, you can also develop applications for all of them. This is something that more and more organisations are looking to as a source of revenue, a new contact point with their customers or simply a way to streamline their operations.

Mobility, in short, introduces some pain – but there are solutions to the headache. And once those are in place, there is exciting potential to make the entire organisation more productive and profitable.

JOHANNESBURG, 04 April, 2012 - Vodacom customers can expect huge roaming savings when travelling to 6 African countries where Vodacom and Vodafone operate. These countries include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania. Vodacom is leveraging its presence and that of its parent company Vodafone in these African countries, to provide customers who travel to these countries with reduced rates applicable across the Vodacom and Vodafone networks.

The flat rates have resulted in roaming data rates being reduced by more than 70%, from R17,50/MB to only R5/MB. In addition, roaming customers will also enjoy free incoming calls when they travel in these countries.

Rates for Africa Family Roaming are as follows (VAT Inclusive):

Commenting on the new Africa roaming service, Romeo Kumalo, Chief Commercial Officer at Vodacom says, "We know that people want to remain connected whether they are at home or on holiday in Mozambique, and that nobody likes the headache of worrying about roaming bills. What we're launching today is a solution to give our customers peace of mind when travelling. They now have one low roaming rate across our African family of networks and an especially aggressive data rate - just in time for the Easter holidays."

These rates are only applicable when roaming on the Vodacom Lesotho, Vodacom Mozambique, Vodacom Tanzania, Vodacom DRC, Vodafone Ghana and Safaricom Kenya networks. The reduced rates will automatically apply to all customers who are roaming on the networks above. Standard roaming rates will apply if roaming on a non Vodacom or Vodafone network in these countries.

For further information about international roaming customers can visit www.vodacom.co.za/roam or they can contact customer care on 111 from a Vodacom phone or 082 111 from any other phone, or e-mail customercare@vodacom.co.za

Ends

About Vodacom:

Vodacom is an African mobile communications company providing voice, messaging, data and converged services to more than 50 million customers. From our roots in South Africa, we have grown our operations to include networks in Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo ('DRC'), Mozambique and Lesotho.

Vodacom is majority owned by Vodafone, one of the world's largest mobile communications companies by revenue. We're listed on the JSE Limited and our head office is in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Issued on behalf of:

Richard Boorman

Corporate Affairs

Vodacom Group Limited

Tel: +2711 653 5415

Media enquiries:

Bongo Futuse

Corporate Communications

Vodacom Group Limited

Tel: 082 277 7057

Broadband connectivity will be one of the major spurs to the growth of African economies over the next decade, but there is still plenty of work to be done in building the telecommunications backbone that will connect the continent to the global village.

This is according to Aidan Baigrie, Head of Business Development at SEACOM, who was speaking at the Sixth Annual Africa Economic Forum. He says that broadband is to the 21st century what railways were to the last century – the engine of social and economic progress that forges economic links between countries and supercharges trade and transactions.

One World Bank study found a 1.3% increase in GDP for every 10% increase in broadband connectivity – an illustration of just how important connectivity is in Africa's growth path. Though the relationship between GDP and broadband may not be one of simple direct causality, there is no doubt that access to information, communication and education helps countries to grow their economies at a rapid rate.

Baigrie says that new international cables such as SEACOM have helped to boost the performance of the Internet in many African countries while reducing costs for the end-user. In service since July 2009, SEACOM alone has seen more than 10-fold increases in bandwidth penetration in several of Africa's most underserved nations, along with big drops in connectivity prices. Many African operators are also investing in national backhaul links and the last mile.

Yet there is still a long way to go. Africa has less than 0.4 Tbps of international connectivity going into Europe, compared to nearly 5.0 Tbps of capacity between Europe and the US. Demand for connectivity in Africa is still spiking, meaning that there will need to be plenty of investment to keep up. Etforecasts predicts almost another 150 million more internet users in Africa within three years from now. (Source: http://www.etforecasts.com/products/ES_intusersv2.htm)

Demand is being spurred by the availability of mobile broadband and cheaper smartphones, Baigrie says. Users want Internet access via smartphones for entertainment, shopping, social networking and commercial applications, leading to an explosion in mobile data on African telecom networks.

Cisco, for example, predicts that mobile devices will surpass the population by the end of the year and that African mobile data traffic will explode at a compounded annual rate of 104% between 2011-2016. By 2013, MTN expects to have more smartphones than regular phones in South Africa.

SEACOM is growing its capacity to keep up with demand. On one of SEACOM's terrestrial backhaul links, Infinera and SEACOM ran a world first field trial for a 500 Gbps photonic integrated circuit (PIC), proving that although the demand for land-based fibre transmission speeds of 100s of Gigabits per second may still be in the future with projects such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the technology capable of achieving this is already available.

However, African regulators and operators also need to be focusing as much on access networks as they are on submarine cables and backhaul connectivity to drive growth, Baigrie says. African regulators need to make frequency spectrum available in a structured manner, and need to create partnership models that support operators in building and deploying infrastructure rapidly and in an open access manner that helps build an African Internet.

South Africa and Waterloo, ON – Cell C and Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced availability of the new BlackBerry® Bold™ 9790 and BlackBerry® Curve™ 9380 smartphones for Cell C customers in South Africa.

Powered by the new BlackBerry® 7 operating system (OS), these new smartphones extend the range of BlackBerry 7 smartphones available from
Cell C.

"We believe our customers will enjoy the functionality of both the new BlackBerry Bold 9790 and BlackBerry Curve 9380 smartphones," said Karin Fourie, Cell C spokesperson. "The two handsets will make a nice addition to the BlackBerry smartphones we already have on offer."

"We are excited to work with Cell C to bring these two new BlackBerry 7-based smartphones to customers," said Rui Brites, Director of Product Management for Africa at RIM. "These new handsets deliver an outstanding mix of communications, multimedia, productivity and social connectivity features."

BlackBerry Bold 9790 with Touch Display and Keyboard

True to the BlackBerry Bold brand, the new BlackBerry Bold 9790 smartphone is powerful, full-featured and built with premium materials and finishes. It combines a high-resolution and highly responsive touch display with a highly tactile keyboard and a precise optical trackpad, but comes in a narrow design that is easy to carry and exceptionally comfortable to hold. With the BlackBerry 7 OS and powerful 1 GHz processor, the BlackBerry Bold 9790 delivers fast, smooth performance for browsing the web, running apps, working with documents, and enjoying multimedia. It includes 8GB of onboard memory and an expandable memory card slot that supports up to 32 GB of additional storage.

All-Touch BlackBerry Curve 9380

The finely crafted BlackBerry Curve 9380 offers a full touch screen experience and is the first touch screen smartphone in the BlackBerry Curve family. It features a highly responsive and brilliant 3.2" high resolution display and comes with preinstalled social networking apps, including BBM™ (BlackBerry® Messenger), Facebook®, Twitter™ and Social Feeds, that offer a fun, easy and smoothly integrated mobile experience. This compact and stylish handset also features a 5MP camera with flash and video recording, allowing users to easily capture and share their favorite moments with family, friends and colleagues.

Powerful BlackBerry 7 OS

The BlackBerry Bold 9790 and BlackBerry Curve 9380 are both powered by the new BlackBerry 7 OS, which delivers a faster and richer user experience with improved browsing, voice-activated searches, and support for Augmented Reality and NFC (Near Field Communications). BlackBerry 7 also supports the ability to manage personal content separately from corporate content, and comes with a variety of personal and productivity apps out of the box.

For more information about the BlackBerry Bold 9790 and BlackBerry Curve 9380, please visit http://za.blackberry.com/devices/blackberrybold9790 and http://za.blackberry.com/devices/blackberrycurve9380 respectively.

###

About Cell C

Cell C (Pty) Ltd is one of four mobile network operators in South Africa. It offers products and services to 9 million customers. With a network capable of providing voice, data and multimedia communications, the company is committed to delivering to subscribers a full range of services, based on the key principles of affordability, accessibility and value for money. Cell C has invested significantly in its network over the last few years to expand its coverage and provide high-speed broadband access using HSPA+ technologies. For more information, please visit www.cellc.co.za

About Research In Motion

Research In Motion (RIM), a global leader in wireless innovation, revolutionized the mobile industry with the introduction of the BlackBerry® solution in 1999. Today, BlackBerry products and services are used by millions of customers around the world to stay connected to the people and content that matter most throughout their day. Founded in 1984 and based in Waterloo, Ontario, RIM operates offices in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. RIM is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market (NASDAQ: RIMM) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: RIM). For more information, visit www.rim.com or www.blackberry.com.

Committed to adding value to the economy and community

· 83 days to build network from start – fastest Greenfield launch in history of Sub-Saharan Africa

· To invest USD 100 million over the next three years

· Operation to generate direct and indirect employment opportunities in the country

· Airtel to contribute to the Rwandan government's vision of transitioning to a knowledge-based economy

Kigali /New Delhi, 02 April, 2012: Bharti Airtel ("Airtel") today announced the launch of its operation in Rwanda, expanding its footprint on the African continent to 17 countries. Airtel has already said that it will invest over USD 100 million in its operations over the next three years and generate direct and indirect employment opportunities.

Commenting on the launch, Mr. Manoj Kohli, CEO (International) & Joint MD, Bharti Airtel said, "We are delighted to launch our operations and bring Airtel to the people of Rwanda. We believe that Rwanda is an extremely promising market and this launch further strengthens our footprint in eastern Africa. It will be our endeavour to bring world-class and affordable services to our customers in Rwanda and add value to the economy. We would like to thank the Rwandan government for giving us this opportunity, and we are committed to contributing to their aim of bridging the digital divide in the country."

"The government welcomes Airtel into our country. We are looking to partner with the private sector to provide good quality, accessible and affordable telecommunications services," says Right Hon. Dr. Pierre Damien Habumuremyi, Prime Minister, Rwanda.

Hon. Dr. Habumuremyi added: "We are especially excited about the prospect of connecting Rwanda with the rest of the East African region and, indeed, with the rest of Africa. As Rwandans begin engaging in business ventures and looking for regional partners, telecommunications companies – like Airtel – that are able to provide access to a pan-African wireless network, become a crucial part of expansion."

Airtel has also partnered with IBM in a move that will enable the teleco to offer superior customer experience in Rwanda. The partnership will see IBM deploy and manage the information technology (IT) infrastructure and applications to further support Airtel's goal of providing innovative mobile services

"As part of our strategic services agreement, we are happy to assist Airtel with its entry into the Rwandan market and ensure the very highest levels of support," says Steve Martin, IBM Vice President and Senior Project Executive, Airtel Africa. "Rwanda is an important market for IBM and we are actively strengthening our local presence and increasing our ability to serve our customers and partners in the country."

Ericsson, the world's leading provider of services and technology to telecom operators, was selected to manage the network from end-to-end, including OSS/BSS solutions and managed services.

Lars Lindén, head of Region Sub-Saharan Africa for Ericsson, says: "This solution is using the latest Ericsson portfolio, and will be the first Airtel network designed as an all-IP solution. That means Airtel will be able to provide advanced services to its subscribers, expand quickly to accommodate quick growth, and keep operating expenses down."

Additionally, this launch has set a record. Lindén adds: "The inaugural call was placed on the system on March 7. It took just 83 days to build this network from the start – the fastest Greenfield launch in history in Sub-Saharan Africa."

Rwanda is among the fastest growing telecom markets in Africa and, according to the National Statistics Institute of Rwanda, mobile penetration in the country was at 38.4 per cent as of July 2011. The rapidly growing private sector – which includes telecommunications infrastructure and ICT – presents many opportunities for the development of the industry and the country's economy. In fact, according to the World Bank, each 10 per cent of broadband penetration results in a 1.3 per cent increase in per capita GDP growth in developing countries.

Airtel was awarded the license by the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA) last year to operate 2G and 3G GSM mobile services. Currently, the Airtel brand is present in both Francophone and Anglophone markets across the continent, spanning Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

- Ends -

About Bharti Airtel Limited

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading integrated telecommunications company with operations in 19 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 5 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include 2G & 3G mobile services, fixed line, high speed broadband through DSL, IPTV, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G & 3G mobile services. Bharti Airtel had over 246 million customers across its operations at the end of February 2012. To know more please visit, www.airtel.com.

Cost-Effective, Customized UHF Payload for Australian Defence Force

Demonstrates Benefit of Hosted Payload Concept

Luxembourg and Reston, VA, 25 March 2012

Intelsat S.A., the world's leading provider of satellite services, and International Launch Services (ILS) announced today that an ILS Proton M vehicle successfully launched the Intelsat 22 satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Liftoff occurred at 8:10 a.m. EDT (18:10 in Baikonur). After a 15 hour and 30 minute mission, at 11:40 p.m. EDT, the Breeze M successfully released the Intelsat 22 satellite, weighing 6199 kg, into supersynchronous transfer orbit (SSTO) at a 65,000 km apogee.

Built by Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems, the satellite will provide C- and Ku-band capacity for media, government and network services customers in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. In addition, Intelsat 22 will host a specialized UHF communications payload for the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

Once operational in May, it will replace Intelsat 709 at 72° East and is expected to have a useful life of approximately 18 years.

"The launch of Intelsat 22 is a significant milestone in many respects, not the least of which is its role in demonstrating the viability of hosted payloads in delivering customized space solutions for government users. On time and on budget, the delivery of the UHF payload for the Australian Defence Force successfully demonstrates how hosted payloads are embraced by governments seeking cost-efficient access to space," said Intelsat CEO Dave McGlade.

"In addition, as Intelsat 22 enters service, its customized beams will further progress our global mobility broadband fabric, allowing always-on broadband for ships and planes traversing the world's busiest transport routes. Intelsat delivers broadband infrastructure everywhere, and the successful launch of Intelsat 22 delivers enhanced satellite capacity for telecommunications leaders in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe, such as the UAE's Etisalat and Ethio Telecom of Ethiopia." He continued, "I would like to thank the teams of ILS, Khrunichev, Intelsat and Boeing for their tireless work on Intelsat 22, ensuring a timely launch and precise delivery to orbit for this critical mission."

ILS President Frank McKenna said, "From contract signing to delivery to orbit, ILS and Khrunichev were squarely focused on launching the Intelsat 22 satellite on schedule and successfully meeting Intelsat's requirements for this important SSTO mission on ILS Proton. Intelsat is a leader and innovator in the satellite telecommunications industry, having established the first global commercial satellite communications network. It's a true honor to facilitate Intelsat's global mobility network with the ILS Proton launch of Intelsat 22, supporting Intelsat's customers in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, as well as its hosted payload customer, the Australian Defence Force. We look forward to performing our next mission with Intelsat, the Intelsat 23 satellite later this year."

This was the first SSTO mission for ILS Proton and it provided an additional 200 kg of performance for this mission. The launch of the Intelsat 22 satellite marks the second ILS Proton launch of the year and the 71st commercial launch overall for ILS. The Proton Breeze M vehicle is built by Khrunichev State Research and Space Production Center of Moscow, one of the pillars of the aerospace industry and majority owner of ILS. Proton has a heritage of 374 missions since its maiden flight in 1965.

About ILS and Khrunichev

ILS is a world leader in providing launch services for global satellite operators offering a complete array of customized services and support, from contract signing through mission management and on-orbit delivery. ILS has exclusive rights to market the Proton vehicle to commercial satellite operators worldwide and is a U.S. company headquartered in Reston, Va., near Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.ilslaunch.com.

Khrunichev, which holds the majority interest in ILS, is one of the cornerstones of the Russian space industry. Khrunichev manufactures the Proton system and is developing the next generation Angara launch system. The Proton launches from facilities at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and has a heritage of 374 missions since 1965. Khrunichev includes among its branches, a number of key manufacturers of launch vehicle and spacecraft components in Moscow and in other cities of the Russian Federation. For more information, visit www.khrunichev.com.

About Intelsat

Intelsat is the leading provider of satellite services worldwide. For over 45 years, Intelsat has been delivering information and entertainment for many of the world's leading media and network companies, multinational corporations, Internet Service Providers and governmental agencies. Intelsat's satellite, teleport and fiber infrastructure is unmatched in the industry, setting the standard for transmissions of video, data and voice services. From the globalization of content and the proliferation of HD, to the expansion of cellular networks and broadband access, with Intelsat, advanced communications anywhere in the world are closer, by far.

Intelsat Safe Harbor Statement

Some of the statements in this news release constitute "forward-looking statements" that do not directly or exclusively relate to historical facts. The forward-looking statements made in this release reflect Intelsat's intentions, plans, expectations, assumptions and beliefs about future events and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside of Intelsat's control. Known risks include, among others, the risks included in Intelsat's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011 and its other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the political, economic and legal conditions in the markets we are targeting for communications services or in which we operate and other risks and uncertainties inherent in the telecommunications business in general and the satellite communications business in particular. Because actual results could differ materially from Intelsat's intentions, plans, expectations, assumptions and beliefs about the future, you are urged to view all forward-looking statements contained in this news release with caution. Intelsat does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

"Storage capacity will double every 12-13 months"

"Major global players to open platforms in Africa"

Gateway Communications, the leading supplier of African telecommunications services, last week held a high-level industry panel in Johannesburg South Africa, focusing on the 'Future of African Connectivity.' Hosted by Mike van den Bergh, CEO of Gateway Communications, the panel comprised Ibrahima Guimba Saidou, African VP and GM at SES; Chris Wood, CEO of WIOCC; technology entrepreneur, Stafford Masie; Nzioka Waita, Head of Corporate Affairs at Safaricom; and Andile Ngcaba, Chairman of Convergence Partners.

The thought provoking discussion facilitated by Russell Southwood (editor of Balancing Act) addressed topics ranging from rural connectivity and the role telecoms plays in African economies, to pricing for consumers and the future of data use in Africa.

It was emphasised by Saidou that 20-40% of the African population does not have access to voice let alone data and that it is these individuals, mostly in rural areas, that demand connectivity. There are a number of challenges experienced by mobile network operators (MNOs) when looking to expand to remote areas in Africa. Innovative products such as Gateway's Celldirect, a satellite-based cellular backhaul solution, aims to serve part of this 20-40% allowing MNOs to reach these areas; providing mobile communications to thousands of communities who would have otherwise remained unconnected.

Wood asserted that telecoms development in a country can open up large parts of the economy. "The challenge is driving this growth in landlocked countries in Africa that don't have access to sub-sea cables. We need to break down the barriers to cross border roll-out," he said. The way is being paved in this area through a variety of initiatives including Gateway Communications' SADC terrestrial roll-out project, which has brought fibre connectivity to Malawi and Zambia.

Looking at upcoming data trends, Ngcaba acknowledged that pricing structures need to change. In addition, he focused on the fact that much of Africa's telecoms traffic continues to be routed via Europe instead of staying on the continent. A solution to this, according to Ngcaba, would be the construction of a "Telehouse" in Africa: "This will interconnect all the cable and satellite operators so that intra-Africa traffic can be switched and peered within the African continent." He reiterated that the construction of this type of infrastructure would require the relationship between industry players to become cooperative rather than competitive.

With regards to data in Africa, Waita argued that whilst we all aspire to democratise data usage, actually delivering it can be an issue. "In Kenya you have 8-5 sub-sea fibre cuts a day. We need much better geo-mapping to overcome this problem and addressing infrastructure development challenges more broadly must be a priority. " Gateway takes a hybrid approach to connectivity, connecting customers using fibre, wireless and satellite technologies, which allows for back-up should such outages occur.

When asked why prices in Africa were so high, Masie responded by saying that the highest costs come from the consumption of foreign content. "Foreign players could bring themselves, their platforms and their content to the continent." He continued by adding that quality African-based content platforms would be a great opportunity to generate local African content and share it with the world: "Within the next two years we will see major global players opening platforms in Africa," he predicted.

His vision of a post-PC and post-voice world was one where less voice communication will take place. "Voice will be replaced by gesture-based communication through devices." He also added that storage capacity is evolving at such a rapid rate (approximately doubling every 12-13 months) that we will soon be able to get a snapshot of the entire Internet on a single device.

Mike van den Bergh concluded by emphasising that the question industry leaders should be asking: "is not about what to do with all this capacity, but do we have enough?" He concurred with Ngcaba's view on cooperation. "People need to be invested in the solution – I am excited about the future prospects in African connectivity and finding a better way to deliver services and extend access across the continent. Working together will help us move forward. "

Van den Bergh later added, "I am heartened to see that cooperation has been identified as a vital contributor to connecting Africa into the future. Connecting Africa has always been the Gateway mission and is something that requires a collaborative approach to fully realise the continent's immense potential. Cooperation between operators, regulatory collaboration and a combined use of technologies will all play a vital role and at Gateway our hybrid approach to technology certainly places us in an ideal position to embrace this."

ENDS

About Gateway Communications

Gateway Communications is the largest provider of carrier solutions in Africa, providing voice and data services to Africa's leading mobile operators. With more than 60 transponders of satellite capacity over Africa it manages more connectivity over the continent than any other operator. Moreover, with 24 dedicated teleports, access to multiple landing ports, 17 African offices and teams of local experts, it has more on the ground support than any other operator.

Gateway Communications is recognised for setting the standards for tomorrow's communications:

● Satellite Service Provider of the Year, GSM Backhaul Operator of the Year and winner of the First Class Customer Service award, SatCom Star Awards, May 2011

● Best Wholesale Service Innovation, Global Telecoms Business Innovation Awards, June 2011

● Customer Service Excellence Award, AfricaCom Awards, 2011

● Best African Wholesale Offering, Capacity Awards, 2011

To find out more, please visit www.gatewaycomms.com or http://www.linkedin.com/company/gateway-communications

Follow us on Twitter: @Gatewaycomms

Contact Information:

Gateway Communications:

Tom Tudor, Marketing Director

Tom.tudor@gatewaycomms.com

+44 20 7173 1734

africapractice: Shannon Atherfold satherfold@africapractice.com

+27 11 022 6564

Strategic partnership to enhance Smart viewing experiences with fixed-line broadband

CAPE TOWN, MARCH 23rd 2012 – Samsung Electronics SA (Pty) Ltd, today – at the annual Samsung Africa Forum - announced the initiation of a strategic partnership agreement with Telkom South Africa, which aims to drive the interconnected environment between affordable data and the availability of Samsung Smart TVs locally. Through this partnership, Samsung and Telkom will look to collaborate in areas that will drive both the easy access to affordable and bundled data and Samsung's innovative, Smart TV technology which will enable an interconnected home and a superior viewing experience for the consumer.

Innovative products and content

Says Justin Shaw, Business leader for Visual Display at Samsung Electronics SA; "Samsung is committed to providing not only the most innovative TV products, but also are focused on driving locally relevant content and access to the very best viewing experiences through internet based content such as videos, information and games via the Samsung Smart Hub interface – and through this partnership we are able to do so. Our alignment with Telkom will give consumers the opportunity to access broadband as part of their Smart TV purchase. Consumers will benefit from the ability to use their TVs to their full potential – while not incurring additional costs."

Samsung and Telkom promoting bundled packages

This partnership will see Samsung and Telkom cooperate in the marketing of Samsung Smart TVs and fixed-line broadband solutions as bundled packages, thereby ensuring that consumers have access to affordable broadband while enabling Smart viewing experiences through Samsung's latest Smart TV line-up. The new Samsung TV line-up is epitomised by intuitive technologies, those that are underpinned by ease of use and of course, by leading technology innovations. Such innovations can be described as the ability to interact with the TV through motion and voice control as well as face recognition, sharing and management of content through a virtual, cloud based platform and of course – a key differentiator for the Samsung brand - the ability to ensure return on your TV purchase long after it is bought through Smart evolution – the upgradable software available for the longevity of a consumer's TV today, for use tomorrow.

Access to content

"Much of the market debate around Smart TVs recently have been driven around access to these features that are highly dependent on stable, high quality broadband locally - and today, we are very proud that we are able to offer exactly what our market needs; access to affordable broadband that ensures fast, interconnected TV services and entertainment experiences," continues Shaw.

Telkom proud to partner with consumer electronics brand - Samsung

Says Sam Phajane, Telkom's Executive for Consumer Business Support; "We are excited to align ourselves with a consumer electronics brand that also understands market needs. In doing so, we further boost our ability to expand access to high speed ADSL. We know the quality and stability of fixed-line broadband makes it the premium connectivity choice that will maximise the possibilities inherent to Samsung's Smart TV technology."

"We look forward to this partnership agreement and believe that through this we are better able to engage consumers into understanding and utilising the great features and opportunities that lie within the Samsung Smart TV range – a global leading range of technologically advanced TV innovations - and of course, take heed of the innovative technology that is sure to inspire the way in which future technologies are adopted locally," concludes Shaw.

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2011 consolidated sales of US$143.1 billion. Employing approximately 222,000 people in 205 offices across 71 countries, the company operates two separate organizations to coordinate its nine independent business units: Digital Media & Communications, comprising Visual Display, Mobile Communications, Telecommunication Systems, Digital Appliances, IT Solutions, and Digital Imaging; and Device Solutions, consisting of Memory, System LSI and LCD. Recognized for its industry-leading performance across a range of economic, environmental and social criteria, Samsung Electronics was named the world's most sustainable technology company in the 2011 Dow Jones Sustainability Index. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com.

SOUTH AFRICA – March 22nd, 2012 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a market leader and award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, today showcased its diverse array of new, and specifically tailored to the African market, products at the 2012 Samsung Africa Forum held in Cape Town, South Africa. Embracing its new guiding philosophy of "Built for Africa - Inspire the Future" the company shared its strategy to expand its African market and deliver connectivity and content across multiple devices – from TVs, mobile phones, tablets, Notebook PCs, cameras and home appliances.

"At our very first Africa Forum, in 2010, I announced the plan to grow our business in Africa to $10 billion by 2015, as measured by the sales of our partners - and today, I am pleased to announce that we are well on track to meet this objective. This year, not only will we continue to maintain growth in key regions, but so too are focused on targeting growth of 100% in West, East and Southern Africa," says; KK Park, CEO of Samsung Electronics Africa. "Over the next 3 – 4 years this growth will be underpinned by a focus on 3 key premises; Built for Africa research and development; B2B and B2G partnerships supported by key CSR initiatives and of course, growing and strengthening our partner network across Africa to reach our core mission – to inspire the future of Africa!"

1. Built for Africa research and development:

Samsung believes in investing in developing technology that is specifically relevant to the African market - technology that meet the needs of the African people's local environment; to live lives that are easier, healthier, and more connected. In this way, Samsung inspires the future of the African consumer electronics industry, and serves as a signpost towards how it will evolve in the future. Through our Hope for Youth program, we have taken part in activities such as The Samsung Engineering Academies for African students. Furthermore, for younger students, we are building solar-powered Internet schools that can bring advanced education technology to communities. In this way, Samsung inspires future generations of African youth.

2. Business to business and Business to Government partnerships:

Samsung has been at the forefront of the information technology revolution and Africa is a hub for technological innovation and uptake given that in the last few years it has leap-frogged the age of fixed lines, and instead embraced the age of wireless communications. Samsung as a business is prepared to help African businesses and governments build the efficient and technology driven infrastructure that is necessary to succeed in coming years and of course understands the core of these business models in increasing efficiencies while providing solid technological opportunity. In this way, Samsung inspires the whole community with its latest IT technology.

3. Partner network growth and expansion:

Samsung cannot be strong in Africa without strong partners and therefore, we are deeply committed to growing the capacity of our dealers and distributors in Africa. This means we will provide training and the correct tools for our sales channel as well as ensure that our actions guarantee the long-term growth of the Samsung brand in Africa. Furthermore, we have an ambitious retail strategy to increase our market penetration in Africa and to increase Samsung's retail presence, with more branded shops, mobile plazas and service centres. In this way, Samsung inspire a sustainable future for both its partners and itself.

"Through this strategic approach, we will look to fast track growth across the continent and today is yet another step in our approach to delivering innovation on the African continent – displayed through our key technologies and product portfolio," states Park.

Smarter devices for everyone

In 2011, Samsung achieved #1 position in market share in the smartphone category and have continued to expand its device portfolio as well as the GALAXY range. The GALAXY S II set a new record for Samsung, generating more than 20 million sales in 10 months since its launch - quicker than any other mobile device developed by Samsung in its history – and for 2012 the company is aiming to build on this momentum. Furthermore, with devices, particularly derived from the needs of the African consumer, such as the likes of the GALAXY Pocket and Ch@t 222 – Samsung is well positioned to capitalise on the African market – bringing the power of Samsung technology to a wider audience.

Smart TV and AV: Ultimate Quality

For 2012, Samsung has pushed the boundaries of home entertainment to meet the needs and challenges of its consumers. The company unveiled its 2012 international product innovations under three guiding pillars: Smart Interaction, Smart Content and Smart Evolution. The new family of products offers more content, smarter interfaces, intuitive controls, incredible picture quality and stunning design. And all this is coupled into a unique African offering.

Samsung have considerably increased sales year-on-year within the African market, through leading retailers in region, and will continue to demonstrate this type of growth on the continent, by not only providing affordable, quality offerings aligned to the broader brand, but by bringing key features into the African product portfolio – naming SurgeSafe+ for humidity, energy efficiency and lightening protection, as well as Free Satellite TV.

In addition, Samsung release The Afro-POP Home Theatre System - a sound solution that epitomises the undertones of true African musicality. Afro pop mode, a sound built from African sounds, has been developed through the EQ tuning of a sound optimised equaliser - undertaken by leading African celebrity, Don Jazzy.

Smart Camera Technology

The shift from analogue to digital imaging has never been so evident than with today's culture of instantly capturing, uploading and sharing photos with friends and family. To make this process more accessible, convenient and fast, Samsung introduced a full line of Smart cameras and camcorders with the new Smart technology. It's more than just smart technology – it's about inspiring a simpler and more enjoyable camera experience that opens up completely new photographic possibilities to Samsung's customers – those that are tailored to the African market.

New Generation of Home Appliances offering Solutions for Energy Efficiency and Space

For 2012, Samsung will expand the use of innovative features in its home appliances. The company is approaching this by investing in the development and launch of new products that inspire a different mindset about Eco Technology, Space and a Smart Future. It is with this in mind that Samsung have developed a product range that epitomises functional design and technology for African consumers – The Samsung DuraCool range – which boast a range of functions that ensure the preservation of food stuff, both fridge and frozen goods, for much longer periods from that of conventional refrigeration.

Powerful Technology

Enhanced security, accessibility, flexibility and efficiency – all aspects that a business requires from their core technology today. Samsung, in line with the brand's focus on the Business-to-Business segment, is the ideal resource for corporate mobile solutions, offering comprehensive enterprise devices that deliver capabilities above and beyond standard platform features.

In addition to showcasing the company's B2B capabilities, together with Intel, Samsung announced the Samsung Classbook 100N – an integrated hardware and software solution to meet the need of education and continued access to and development of IT skills and infrastructure across Africa.

"Putting our African customers' requirements first, means taking relevant steps – even if one at a time - to ensure the highest level of product compatibility and service is maintained. This is a key business imperative for us and one we will continue to drive into 2012 and beyond. Let me emphasise again Samsung's commitment, and belief in, the African market – it is this kind of passion which recently lead to Samsung being named the most valuable electronics brand in Africa by Brand Africa. The Samsung brand is all about leadership, innovation, relationships and integrity and we are committed to driving each of these pillars into our African outreach – inspiring new directions. Furthermore, we have a long history of doing business in Africa, but we plan on having an even longer future. Let's work together, to make this future as inspired as possible," concludes Park.

About Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2011 consolidated sales of US$143.1 billion. Employing approximately 222,000 people in 205 offices across 71 countries, the company operates two separate organizations to coordinate its nine independent business units: Digital Media & Communications, comprising Visual Display, Mobile Communications, Telecommunication Systems, Digital Appliances, IT Solutions, and Digital Imaging; and Device Solutions, consisting of Memory, System LSI and LCD. Recognized for its industry-leading performance across a range of economic, environmental and social criteria, Samsung Electronics was named the world's most sustainable technology company in the 2011 Dow Jones Sustainability Index. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com.

Cape Town, South Africa, 22 March 2012 - SES (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) announced, at this year's Samsung Africa Forum, its collaboration with Samsung to drive digital broadcasting via satellite in Sub-Saharan Africa by introducing a LED television with an integrated free-to-air satellite receiver. It is anticipated that the TV will first be distributed in Nigeria, Ghana, Cote D'Ivoire, Senegal, Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon in August 2012 and additional countries will follow subsequently.

As a leader in the free-to-air market, SES delivers more than 60 free-to-air channels to more than 40 African countries. The launch of the new affordable Samsung LED TV Free Satellite therefore comes at a time when more free-to-air channels are becoming available in Africa.

Christoph Limmer, SES's Senior Director of Marketing Development and Marketing in Africa believes that this collaboration, being the first of its kind, will not only bring digital content to more African consumers but encourage African broadcasters to launch more free-to-air content in the region.

"In servicing more than 40 African countries we are well aware of the huge demand for greater services, both quality and quantity. Today, one out of three households in Africa has a TV set, although fewer than 10 million homes receive content in digital format. The opportunity lies in providing a growing sophisticated African viewership with a significantly increased number of TV channels – a first for many African countries," says Limmer.

The integrated satellite receiver will allow consumers to receive television channels for free without the need for an additional set top box as the LED screen will be directly connected with the satellite dish. In preparation for the TV's launch, SES and Samsung will jointly arrange training sessions with distribution partners and installers to ensure the proper connection of the TVs to satellite dishes, and will be embarking on marketing campaigns in June 2012.

"The Samsung LED TV Free Satellite is our contribution to the continent's efforts to 'go digital', providing African consumers with greater choice and broadcasters with the opportunity to grow the region's media industry," says Dae Hee Kim, Regional Product Manager at Samsung Africa.

-end-

For further information please contact:

Kirstin Steffen

Market Communication & PR

Tel. +352 710 725 329

kirstin.steffen@ses.com

Follow us on:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SES_Satellites

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SES.YourSatelliteCompany

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/SESVideoChannel

Blog: http://en.ses.com/4243715/blog

About SES

SES is a world-leading satellite operator with a fleet of 50 geostationary satellites. The company provides satellite communications services to broadcasters, content and internet service providers, mobile and fixed network operators and business and governmental organisations worldwide.

SES stands for long-lasting business relationships, high-quality service and excellence in the broadcasting industry. The culturally diverse regional teams of SES are located around the globe and work closely with customers to meet their specific satellite bandwidth and service requirements.

SES (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) holds participations in Ciel in Canada and QuetzSat in Mexico, as well as a strategic participation in satellite infrastructure start-up O3b Networks. Further information under: www.ses.com.

MTN has moved up 12 places to the 188th position in the world's most valuable brand rankings and maintained its position as Africa's only company in the Brand Finance Global 500 grading.

The improvement in MTN's brand value rankings reaffirms the mobile operator's growing prominence and continued relevance in the lives of its 164.6 million subscribers across its 22 markets in Africa and the Middle East.

"We are very pleased with our global ranking accolade. It shines the spotlight on our efforts to grow the MTN brand through differentiated offerings that go beyond merely enabling our subscribers to make a voice call, but to empower them to become active global economic citizens through access to world-class telecommunications services, including data," says Christian de Faria, MTN Group Chief Commercial Officer.

"Being recognised as the only African brand in the top 500 Global Brands for two consecutive years is an inspiration. We have invested a lot in ensuring that MTN is reflective of our customers and our markets and what makes them so unique and special. From our sponsorship of the 2012 FIFA World Cup to our involvement in community projects in each of our markets, we are proud to connect with our customers in a meaningful way and to be recognized on a global stage," says Jennifer Roberti, MTN's Executive for Marketing.

News of MTN's global brand rankings comes hot on the heels of the release of the mobile operator's group results for the period ended 31 December 2011. MTN Group revenue increased by 9.7% to R121, 884 million and subscribers grew to 164.5 million, an increase of 16.2% from 2010.

"MTN's impressive growth numbers, together with our recognition as being among the most valued brands in the world, are a result of the hard work and resourcefulness of the MTN people whose passion for the mobile business and superior customer experience continues to inspire MTN to new global heights every year," said De Faria.

ENDS

- Issued by MTN Group Corporate Affairs

About the MTN Group

Launched in 1994, the MTN Group is a multinational telecommunications group, operating in 21 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The MTN Group is listed on the JSE Securities Exchange in South Africa under the share code: "MTN." As of December 2011, MTN recorded 164.5 million subscribers across its operations in Afghanistan, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Cyprus, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Republic, Iran, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of Congo (Congo Brazzaville), Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia. Visit us at www.mtn.com and www.mtnfootball.com

For more information, please contact:

Silvanus Mabaso on +27 83 222 7613 or silvan_s@mtn.co.za

Zinhle Dlamini on +27 83 212 9436 or email: Dlamin_Z@mtn.co.za

Built for Africa

The Samsung Africa Forum 2012 is currently taking place in Cape Town at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, the proceedings started with an address from KK Park the President and CEO of Samsung Africa was proud to confirm that Samsung was voted the most valuable electronics brand in Africa by Brand Africa.

Park went on to say: "We have an ambitious retail strategy to increase our market penetration in Africa: to increase Samsung's retail presence, with more branded shops, mobile plazas and service centres. Through this strategic approach, we will look to fast-track growth across the continent and today is yet another step in our approach to delivering innovation on the African continent – displayed through our key technologies and product portfolio."

Park went on to discuss Samsung's Vision for Africa that included the following key topics:

1. Built for Africa research and development:

Samsung believes in investing in developing technology that is specifically relevant to the African market - technology that meet the needs of the African people's local environment; to live lives that are easier, healthier, and more connected. In this way, inspiring the future of the African consumer electronics industry, and serves as a signpost towards how it will evolve in the future. Through our Hope for Youth program, we have taken part in activities such as The Samsung Engineering Academies for African students. Furthermore, for younger students, we are building solar-powered Internet schools that can bring advanced education technology to communities. In this way, Samsung inspires future generations of African youth.

2. Business to business and Business to Government partnerships:

To remain at the forefront of the information technology revolution and Africa is a hub for technological innovation and uptake given that in the last few years it has leap-frogged the age of fixed lines, and instead embraced the age of wireless communications. Samsung as a business is prepared to help African businesses and governments build the efficient and technology driven infrastructure that is necessary to succeed in coming years and of course understands the core of these business models in increasing efficiencies while providing solid technological opportunity. In this way, inspire communities with its latest IT technology.

3. Partner network growth and expansion:

Samsung cannot be strong in Africa without strong partners and therefore, we are deeply committed to growing the capacity of our dealers and distributors in Africa, currently, of which 800 partners are currently in this network. This means we will provide training and the correct tools for our sales channel as well as ensure that our actions guarantee the long-term growth of the Samsung brand in Africa. Furthermore, we have an ambitious retail strategy to increase our market penetration in Africa and to increase Samsung's retail presence, with more branded shops, mobile plazas and service centres. In this way, Samsung inspire a sustainable future for both its partners and itself.

Paulo Ferreira Head of Mobile Product & Business Solutions at Samsung South Africa gave an address discussing Samsung's latest wins internationally including reiterating how proud Samsung was on winning the Best Mobile Phone of the Year at the recently held Global Mobile Awards, for the Samsung Galaxy S2.

A wide variety of products and innovative solutions where on display with a number of key product launches being announced.

More in depth coverage of this event will come in the upcoming issue of Africa Telecoms.

BRIC mobile operators adapting strategies to support urban cellular connections growth

Population growth is becoming a largely urban phenomenon concentrated in the developing world, which explains the fast declining rural populations in most BRIC countries. These countries also share a number of other characteristics that are shaping their respective mobile markets, including a burgeoning new middle class, high penetration in urban areas and high instances of multiple SIMs per user.

According to recent figures from the United Nations Population Division (UNPD), urban areas are expected to account for almost all the global population growth expected over the next four decades, while at the same time drawing in much of the rural population. Between 2000-10, the rural population declined by 6.4 million in Brazil, by 1.4 million in Russia and by 95.6 million in China, while India was the exception with its rural population growing by 95.8 million.

Brazil has the lowest share of rural residents at 13.5% in 2010, a rate which is expected to fall to 6.4% by 2050. Large cities in the Southern and Central parts of the country continue to drive cellular connections growth, despite a high level of maturity, and represent two thirds of the Brazilian mobile market in terms of connections. Last year, mobile penetration reached 148% in Brazil's Central-West area, 134% in the South-East and 124% in the Southern states, compared to 110% and 107% in North and North-East Brazil, respectively.

The 16 states across the North and North-East of Brazil added 15 million mobile connections last year - almost as many as were added in the four states that form the country's South-East region (Espirito Santo, Mina Gerais, Rio De Janeiro, Sao Paulo). Nevertheless, Maranhao and Piaui – the two poorest states of Brazil, located in the North - registered the fastest connections growth in the country (33% and 29%, respectively). The former is the only remaining state with mobile penetration below 100% (80%) compared to Distrito Federal at 212%, Matto Grosso Do Sul at 140%, Sao Paulo at 142% and Rio de Janeiro at 135%. Maranhao and Piaui have the country's highest prepaid customer bases at 94% and 91%, respectively.

Russia also has a low rural population at 26.8% of the total in 2010, a figure projected to fall to 17.3% by 2050. Two thirds of Russia's mobile net additions last year came from regional areas outside of Moscow and St Petersburg. The two largest cities in the country represent 22% of the Russian mobile market in terms of connections and have mobile penetration rates of 212% and 215%, respectively. Mobile growth in Russia is coming largely from the hundreds of smaller towns and cities with less than 100,000 inhabitants.

India is the only BRIC country to show an increase in the rural population over the past decade to 850 million inhabitants or 70% of the total population. The UN predicts that India's rural population will start to decline from around 2025, eventually falling to 45.8% of the total by 2050. But despite the large rural population, mobile connections growth in India is being largely driven by demand in cities. Net additions in urban areas reached 85 million last year compared to 57 million in rural areas with mobile penetration increasing by 20 percentage points in urban areas to 161% against a 6.5 percentage point rise in rural areas to 36.6%. This means that rural demand in India is not offsetting high levels of maturity in urban areas as it only represents just over a third of the country's mobile market. At current growth rates, we project that rural mobile penetration – fuelled by multiple SIMs per user - will pass the 50% mark in 2014, getting close to 100% by 2020.

China's rural population currently represents half of its total population (53%) according to the UN and is on course to fall to 26.8% by 2050. The Chinese population is largely concentrated on the Southeast coast of the territory which hosts the country's ten most populated cities. As of November 2011, half of China's mobile market is based in the East of the country while Western and Central areas hold a quarter of the market each. This regional distinction is also true of mobile growth over the last few years. The market in the Eastern (mainly urban area) of China increased by 115 million connections between November 2009 and 2011, almost twice that in the more rural Western and Central areas, which each added 61 million net additions during the same period.

Joss Gillet, Senior Analyst, Wireless Intelligence:

In the BRIC countries, urban cellular demand is twice as high as in rural areas and urbanisation trends are exacerbating this phenomenon. Even though urban markets show signs of saturation in most BRIC countries, they are still driving mobile growth whereas demand in rural areas is growing at a steady, yet slower, pace. Mobile operators in the BRIC markets – and in the developing world in general – are therefore facing a dual challenge: to introduce more affordable products and services to meet price-sensitive demands in rural areas; and to fight high churn in mature urban areas. In Brazil and China, churn stands at around 3% compared to 4% in Russia and 7% in India. During Mobile World Congress last month, America Movil's VAS & International Roaming Director Marco Quatorze mentioned that 80% of its churning customers in Brazil are existing Claro prepaid users moving to new Claro prepaid offers and promotions. Furthermore, in such vast and diverse territories, operators have to adapt services to local demand since what might work in one part of the country might not in another. Operators in these countries – especially in India – are looking for greater clarity of regulations and policies as well as the introduction of cheaper (sub-US$50) smartphones. With over 600 smartphones available in China, the country is well placed to lead handset price erosion, while governments are urged to support operators' network investments by adapting policies (notably regarding taxation) to a rapidly changing mobile environment.

Wireless Intelligence is the definitive source of mobile operator data, analysis and forecasts, delivering the most accurate and complete set of industry metrics available. Relied on by a customer base of over 700 of the worlds mobile operators, device vendors, equipment manufacturers and leading financial and consultancy firms, the data set is the most scrutinised in the industry. With 8 million individual data points – updated daily – the service provides coverage of the performance of all 950 operators and 780 MVNOs across 3,500 networks, 55 groups and 236 countries worldwide.

Paramus, New Jersey, March 12, 2012 - Ceragon Networks Ltd. (NASDAQ: CRNT), the #1 wireless backhaul specialist, today announced a new $6 million USD contract with Globacom Nigeria (Glo) for Ceragon’s high-capacity wireless backhaul solutions and professional services in Nigeria. Ceragon will manage the end-to-end deployment of its field-proven FibeAir IP-10 and Evolution IP Long-Haul systems throughout Nigeria, expanding upon the original network Ceragon developed for Glo in 2010. Glo is the second largest mobile operator in Nigeria serving approximately 25 million subscribers, and is Africa’s fastest-growing telecommunications company.

As part of the Glo deployment, Ceragon will provide backhaul for Glo’s 2G/3G infrastructure network in Lagos. The network modernization will expand the traffic capacity of Glo’s 3G network, while providing legacy 2G TDM support. Subscribers that have had limited or no mobile access will now be able to connect to the expanded network through the Ceragon wireless backhaul deployment.

“Ceragon has always provided us with the optimum mix of great solutions, superior professional services and fast time to market,” said Mike Jitubo, Executive Director of Special Projects at Globacom. “When selecting a vendor for this expanded network coverage, it was a natural choice for us to continue working closely with Ceragon. We look forward to an ongoing successful relationship as we continue our network expansion throughout Africa.”

“Our experience and expertise as the #1 wireless specialist teaches us that it’s not just about the radios and antennas but also about lowering our customer’s total cost of ownership (TCO) and facilitating a faster time to new revenue (TTR),” said Ira Palti, Press Release Ceragon Networks Wins $6 Million Globacom Contract for Wireless Backhaul Deployment in Nigeria – March 12, 2012 President and CEO of Ceragon. “With this approach, Ceragon is able to offer operators more capacity under any given network scenario for any network budget. We’re honored to partner with a leading telecom provider like Globacom to serve the connectivity needs of the Nigerian market.”

About Globacom Limited

Globacom Limited is Africa's fastest growing telecommunications company. Glo is currently the second largest mobile operator in Nigeria serving approximately 25 million subscribers. Owned by the Mike Adenuga Group, Globacom is the market leading mobile service provider in Nigeria. Globacom also operates in the Republic of Benin and has recently acquired licenses to operate in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. It has a reputation as one of the fastest growing mobile service providers in the world. Globacom Limited aims to be recognized as the biggest and best mobile network in Africa.

About Ceragon Networks Ltd.

Ceragon Networks Ltd. (NASDAQ: CRNT) is the #1 wireless backhaul specialist. Ceragon’s high capacity wireless backhaul solutions enable cellular operators and other wireless service providers to deliver 2G/3G and LTE/4G voice and data services that enable smart-phone applications such as Internet browsing, music and video. With unmatched technology and cost innovation, Ceragon’s advanced point-to-point microwave systems allow wireless service providers to evolve their networks from circuit-switched and hybrid concepts to all IP networks. Ceragon solutions are designed to support all wireless access technologies, delivering more capacity over longer distances under any given deployment scenario. Ceragon’s solutions are deployed by more than 230 service providers of all sizes, and hundreds of private networks in more than 130 countries. Visit Ceragon at www.ceragon.com.

Ceragon Networks® is a registered trademark of Ceragon Networks Ltd. in the United States and other countries. Other names mentioned are owned by their respective holders.

New products and technologies bring Samsung's 2012 strategy to life

March 15, 2012 – Johannesburg: Cape Town is preparing to host the 2012 Samsung Africa Forum, a four-day spectacular where Samsung showcases the latest innovations across all of its product categories including audio visual and home appliances, mobile phones, digital cameras and IT solutions. The strategy behind the Africa Forum is geared to allow consumers, business partners and associates, media and government as well as consumers to experience the brand and appreciate the company's leadership position both locally and across Africa.

Showcasing Samsung's Comprehensive Product Portfolio

"As one of the largest and most comprehensive product showcases in Africa, we are certainly very excited to host our 3rd annual Samsung Africa Forum and share the company's strategy to expand the African market and deliver connectivity and content across multiple devices and product portfolios," said George Ferreira, Vice President and COO of Samsung Electronics Africa. "More than ever, consumers are leading dynamic lifestyles that require technology to enrich their lives and Samsung are looking to achieve this through new product innovations, continued investment in research and development, and by driving corporate and social responsibility programs in the broader African region."

Inspiring new directions

The Forum will be taking place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from the 22nd March to 25th and will focus on demonstrating new technologies that inspire new directions and that are built on the felt needs and demands of the people across the African continent.

"The digital age has brought revolutionary change – and opportunity – to African business, and Samsung as a result has responded with advanced technologies, competitive products, and constant innovation to meet this change. We are certainly excited about the future and as we build on our previous accomplishments, we look forward to exploring new territories, maintaining innovative standards and of course delivering on what our customers expect from us – world-class products adapted for the local market in 2012," said Ferreira.

Connecting Cape Town

In addition to the formal partner days, the Samsung Africa Forum will also feature an open public event, Samsung Connect Cape Town, for consumers on the last day of the conference - 25 March - to give consumers first-hand exposure to the latest innovative technology products from Samsung and insight into key trends within the consumer electronics space. The key technologies and products Samsung will showcase will closely match the products showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas during January this year. Aside from Samsung's Smart Technology, which ensures easy and flexible connectivity for all its products, Samsung will also announce new products for South Africa.

The Samsung Connect Cape Town event will deliver the ultimate connection between music, technology, lifestyle and people. Bringing the latest smart technology to life, Samsung will immerse consumers in live music performances, from the likes of Tumi and the Volume, Aking and Auriol Hays, art shows by Michael Edwards and Julian Goldswain and international chef demos to show how technology can enhance how we live, work and play. Additionally, there will be a T-shirt design printing area where consumers can get selected designs from artist, Jaco Haasbroek, printed out.

Samsung Connect Cape Town will expose people to the future of technology innovation in an uniquely entertaining way. Entry into the Samsung Connect Cape Town event is free.

Follow the Forum on Twitter with the official hashtag - #SamsungAfricaForum

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2011 consolidated sales of US$143.1 billion. Employing approximately 222,000 people in 205 offices across 71 countries, the company operates two separate organizations to coordinate its nine independent business units: Digital Media & Communications, comprising Visual Display, Mobile Communications, Telecommunication Systems, Digital Appliances, IT Solutions, and Digital Imaging; and Device Solutions, consisting of Memory, System LSI and LCD. Recognized for its industry-leading performance across a range of economic, environmental and social criteria, Samsung Electronics was named the world's most sustainable technology company in the 2011 Dow Jones Sustainability Index. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com.

Luxembourg, 7 March 2012 - SES (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) announced today that it has signed a capacity and uplink agreement with Netherlands-based Scope Media TV for the free-to-air distribution of African Television (AFTV) via its ASTRA satellite at the 23.5 degrees East orbital position (12,168 MHz vertical polarisation) covering Europe.

Supported by various African broadcasters and embassies, AFTV aims to promote Africa, ranging from culture and lifestyle to business and current affairs. AFTV will use the ASTRA satellites of SES for the distribution for both direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting and delivery to cable and IPTV operators throughout Europe. AFTV will commence its transmissions on 1 April 2012.

Larry Omodia, Director of Operations at AFTV: "Africa is in many respects a beautiful continent, undergoing a very rapid economic development. Our aim is to show and demonstrate this to as many people outside Africa as possible. The launch of a dedicated television channel is therefore a logical step. We have selected SES as our satellite distribution partner in Europe because of its high quality distribution and wide European household reach. Moreover, SES demonstrated a strong belief and support towards our mission and vision."

Bill Wijdeveld, Managing Director at SES for the Benelux market, said: "We are delighted to distribute AFTV via our satellite system. As a worldwide operating satellite company, we have been active in Africa for years and see this as a highly dynamic and promising market. We fully support AFTV in its goal to promote Africa in the rest of the world and look forward to the launch of this new channel."

For further information please contact:

Markus Payer

Market Communication & PR

Tel. +352 710 725 500

Markus.Payer@ses.com

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Blog: http://en.ses.com/4243715/blog

Find pictures and videos under: http://www.ses.com/4245221/library

About SES

SES is a world-leading satellite operator with a fleet of 50 geostationary satellites. The company provides satellite communications services to broadcasters, content and internet service providers, mobile and fixed network operators and business and governmental organisations worldwide.

SES stands for long-lasting business relationships, high-quality service and excellence in the broadcasting industry. The culturally diverse regional teams of SES are located around the globe and work closely with customers to meet their specific satellite bandwidth and service requirements.

SES (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) holds participations in Ciel in Canada and QuetzSat in Mexico, as well as a strategic participation in satellite infrastructure start-up O3b Networks. Further information under: www.ses.com.

Remember the classic comedy show of the late ’70s to mid- ’80s called Benson, starring the supremely talented Robert Guillaume? As you may recall, Benson was the sharp-tongued director of household affairs – aka the butler – for the widowed scatterbrain, Governor Eugene Gatling, played by James Noble. The story was a spinoff from the series called Soap that preceded Benson. Interestingly, Benson was more popular, running for six seasons, with Soap only managing four seasons. Another interesting item of trivia is that Benson might have contained the first reference to the Internet on an American television network. This occurred in an episode aired on 22 February 1985 in which the characters were accessing the ARPANET, the first functioning packet switching network, the core of which eventually became the Internet as we know it. The series was also notoriously unlucky enough to fire – citing “creative differences” – a rookie comedian named Jerry Seinfeld, who took the role of a courier for three episodes in 1980. Ask yourself how fictional character Benson would have reacted to two of our app imitators of His Butlership: virtual PA Siri or eatery advisor Alfred. Can you not picture the quizzical look on Benson’s face as he studies his iPhone for Siri’s responses to his queries? Although Android’s ‘personal robot’ Alfred is fixated on food and can’t even speak to Benson, I bet the old-school butler would prefer the name Alfred over Siri any day. Would Benson have appreciated, or even understood, these brilliant Siri questions and answers collected by a motley bunch of “researchers” on the Internet?

How much wood can a woodchuck chuck? 42 cords of wood, to be exact. Everyone knows that.

Who’s your daddy? You are. Can we get back to work now?

Who is your mother? No comment.

Why? I don’t know. Frankly, I’ve wondered that myself.

Talk dirty to me. The carpet needs vacuuming.

What do you think of Android? I think differently.

I love you Oh, stop ...

Will you marry me? Let’s just be friends, OK?

Although Android users have been promised voice integration in the future, for now it looks as though Siri is the only feasible alternative for people who yearn for their very own Benson to butle for them. A sobering footnote is now in order. As amazing as the Siri technology is, there is a major downside for millions of would-be users. In developing economies, where data is still a somewhat slow and costly commodity, the recommendation is to steer clear of Siri. A recent report by Arieso shows that the iPhone 4S uses three times more data than previous iPhones. Operators may be salivating at the possibility of that much more data revenue but I would caution our African mobile operators to watch their networks: this much additional data usage could put an intolerable strain on already ailing networks.