Nigeria is unlikely to follow the Kenyan blueprint for mobile money licensing regulation...

LTE and M2M will be among the technologies that continue to advance in 2013...

The 3 biggest drivers in emerging markets will be the combination of greater availability of low cost smartphones, growth in mobile broadband and a greater urgency around improving the customer experience...

The strongest trends I see for 2013 largely are centered on deepening the connectivity for subscribers around the globe...

A new exclusive strategic partnership between Orange and Chinese search engine specialist Baidu will develop a co-branded internet browser for smartphone customers in Africa, the Middle East and Asia...

Data capacity demand is set to increase across 2013...

3 strongest trends in emerging markets for 2013:

• Big Data
• Location-Based Services
• Customer Experience Management

In many emerging markets, Wi-Fi has become a key complement to mobile broadband. Some markets don't have 3G capability at all, and those that do generally don't have enough capacity to handle the large volume of customers. As a result Wi-Fi is many times the core vehicle to deliver mobile broadband, and this trend will continue in 2013...

Machine-to-machine (M2M) technologies, that allow devices to communicate with each other and with software monitoring and control systems, are expanding into myriad new applications...

2013 will be a year in which many of the emerging trends and technologies from the last few years will become more mainstream...

Kenya’s market-leading operator is expanding coverage to ever-more-remote areas of the country with solar-powered base stations...

Emerging markets cover a vast expanse of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, with many local and regional nuances; yet they are tied together with shared market characteristics...

One of the largest operators in Niger has installed a wireless ‘fronthaul’ solution, providing a connection between the base station and the network antenna through a wireless link...

As 3G becomes more widespread, mobile services will continue to evolve in emerging markets...

In emerging markets mobile phone subscriptions are still growing, high end smartphones are still in high demand and cheaper locally-made smart phones continue to enter the market. This means that innovation in mobile phone use and business models will increasingly originate from the emerging markets and strongly influence trends in other markets...

The strongest trend in emerging markets will be the narrowing gap with ‘developed markets’, particularly in the mobile data market...

Capacity will continue to be a notable expense for ISPs in 2013...

Mobile Network Operators will focus on the core services of voice, SMS and data to the detriment of traditional Value Added Services...

Growth is the biggest trend we are going to see in emerging markets. MNO’s will continue to shift their burden of infrastructure management to third parties, competing head to head with co-tenants on shared towers for millions of new customers...

Mobile payments are set to continue their growth throughout 2013...

Innovative services offered via mobile in emerging markets will continue to flourish in 2013...

Among service providers in emerging markets, there is a steady demand for more bandwidth for access network infrastructure and mobile backhaul...

Unified communications will be a major trend among organisations in 2013, particularly in emerging markets...

According to World Telecom Labs (WTL) there have been a number of recurrent themes among emerging market operators across the last year...

An SMS revival is on the cards for 2013, according to Tyntec...

Spacecom operates its AMOS satellite fleet over Central & Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Among the strongest trends in these markets are the use of satellite to ensure reliable communications for a growing number of enterprise and consumer users who expect high quality service options all the time and everywhere they go...

A richer mobile experience will be a defining trend in emerging markets during 2013...

Mobile will continue to enable innovative new services in emerging markets across 2013...

Increased demand for data-hungry content will be a major trend in 2013.

Mobile congestion will become a major issue in emerging markets during 2013 as smartphones take root...

The first phase of a major submarine cable connecting Africa to Europe is now operational...

In my opinion, the three strongest trends in emerging markets in 2013 are:

• the service innovation that will deliver affordable Internet
• the data growth that will result from a growing user base, and
• the LTE networks that will deliver the data.

LTE compliant solutions will be heavily sought after to enable seamless roaming between 3G and the growing number of LTE networks...