ATF 2024: MediaTek's Rami Osman on chipsets for Africa

MediaTek Middle East and Africa Director of Business Development Rami Osman spoke to Connecting Africa's Associate Editor Matshepo Sehloho at Africa Tech Festival 2024 in Cape Town, South Africa about MediaTek's partnerships, connectivity and the company's chipsets.

MediaTek is a Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company that designs and sells system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for wireless communications, high-definition televisions, handheld mobile devices, navigation systems, and consumer multimedia products.

The company is known for producing chipsets that power a wide range of devices, including smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. 

Osman said that for the company to reach the African consumer, it needs to make sure that it has a global understanding of the requirements as well as localized insights.

"MediaTek for connectivity looks at the world with different needs, there are some areas in the world that still use DSL [digital subscriber line broadband] while more advanced markets use 5G," he said.

"The African consumer doesn't want to fall behind and wants fast connectivity with affordable prices," he explained.

He said that the company has become well known over the past two decades for its reference design, which is MediaTek's way to simplify the design process.

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MediaTek's work in Africa

"Part of coming to Africa Tech Festival 2024, was to connect with the many telecom operators as well as local technology companies," Osman said.

"Frankly speaking, our success can be secured by working with other global leaders, however, MediaTek has chosen to work and enable local players because some new local players bring excellent ideas," he added.

Osman highlighted that in different parts of the world fixed broadband, fiber-to-the-home and 5G have matured at different rates.

"But since Africa was late to that trend, there is an innovation on the continent called fixed wireless access or fixed wireless broadband. Africa is a wireless continent," he said.

"Therefore, because, the African consumer is totally different from a global consumer, MediaTek's approach needs to be applied," Osman concluded.