As a satellite communications innovator, we think there are a variety of applications worthy of investment, to meet demands for communications, entertainment, mobility, and convenience.

 I believe investments in system-level vectoring will continue to be on many emerging markets agenda for 2014.

Over-the-top content, VoIP over 3G, location-based services and gaming should see a strong year in many emerging markets.

After years of heavy Capital Investment on Infrastructure, customer acquisition and unsustainable price wars, priority is shifting in 2014 towards Business Optimisation to ensure profitability.

The tension within IT on moving to the cloud will resolve as organisations recognise that a hybrid cloud model is needed to serve their application portfolio.

2014 is set to be a watershed year for contextual marketing. We will see service providers continuously engaging with customers and creating long-term goals of customer satisfaction and improving customer loyalty over a number of years.

Over-the-Top (OTT) services should experience strong growth in many emerging markets this year.

This year will be marked by the continuing tide of digital disruption and an accelerating pace of change in the telecom industry. In fact, potentially more of an acceleration than we’ve seen in the past.

Emerging markets are beginning to realize the benefits of IP-centric networks. A single IP network can transport multiple services, including voice, data, and the killer application, video.

Supporting ever-increasing consumer demand for fast and reliable mobile data access, service providers in developing markets are investing heavily in 4G/LTE. Operators continue to focus on ways to generate revenue growth from these significant investments.

Emerging markets are next in line for a data boom, but infrastructure is a big challenge.

Communications service providers (CSPs) in emerging markets achieved double-digit growth in recent years but are facing the ARPU pressures and slowing growth experienced by mature markets over the same timeframe.

South America is experiencing strong growth in the telecoms space, making it the top priority for investment in emerging markets, for 2014.

All mobile network operators face the challenge of improving their customer service without driving up OPEX, but for those in emerging markets this is an even greater priority since customers may be less comfortable with mobile technology than those in more established markets.

If Big Data’s technological potential for new services enablement reached a peak of expectations during last year, 2014’s focus will rely on big data monetization.

This year will certainly be an interesting year – besides the worldwide trend of more bandwidth to users through network densification, from our perspective in Africa the networks will continue their expansions, but place much more emphasis on increasing their return from customers.

2014 will be the year that a number of technologies gain traction in emerging markets.