CEO of WIOCC gets listed in the 2012 GTB Power 100 listing

Chris Wood is one of four executives from African businesses to appear in this list of the 100 most powerful people in the global telecommunications industry. He led WIOCC's development from initially being simply a single route (East African Submarine Cable System - EASSy) supplier of African connectivity, to its current position as the African wholesaler of reliable, affordable, high-speed, international connectivity into, out of and within Africa.

Global Telecoms Business cited Wood's 'vision for improving the affordability, reliability, reach and diversity of Africa's international links - which saw WIOCC extend high-quality connectivity into many land-locked countries including Burundi, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe'.

He was also recognised for 'creating the first high-capacity, low-latency connectivity 'ring' linking Africa's coasts to Europe' and for 'spearheading WIOCC's evolution into the leading player in Africa's wholesale capacity market and the #1 supplier of end-to-end managed circuits into and out of Africa'.

Wood's strategic investment and partnerships

WIOCC's transformation was achieved as a result of a number of initiatives including strategic investments and partnerships which have given WIOCC an international network footprint that encompasses 40 000km of submarine fibre-optic cable and more than 50 000km of terrestrial fibre.

This enables WIOCC to provide seamless, end-to-end managed service connectivity between 400+ locations in 30 African countries, 100 cities in 29 European countries and more than 700 cities in 70 countries globally.

By using this network, operators in emerging markets such as Botswana, Burundi, Lesotho, Malawi and Zimbabwe are now able to provide their business and consumer customers with faster, more reliable and significantly more affordable, high-speed international connectivity. For example, internet service prices in Lesotho fell by up to 67 per cent as a result of WIOCC delivering lower-cost internet connectivity into the country.

As well as leading WIOCC, Wood has been Chairman of EASSy since August 2011 and was instrumental in securing the January 2012 system upgrade that at the time made EASSy the largest provider of capacity into sub-Saharan Africa.

For the full listing, go to www.globaltelecomsbusiness.com/Stub/Power100.html