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Saudi Meetings, Golf Clubs & BICS Africa - Abdel Kader Traoré | Coffee Pump (127)
· 53 min · S1 E127
Episode Saudi Meetings, Golf Clubs & BICS Africa - Abdel Kader Traoré | Coffee Pump (127)
Konnichiwa Fam,
Abdel Kader Traoré is one of the sales guys I look up to in this industry, and this is the first time I've heard his full story. He started as a telecom engineer building 2G networks in Côte d'Ivoire, designed the radio network for Algeria, built the first 10 gig backbone in France, then did an MBA so he could get closer to the people making the decisions. Now he runs Middle East and Africa for BICS, and he's honest about how thin the margins have become and where the money goes next.
This episode was recorded at the Africa Peering and Interconnection Forum (https://www.afpif.org) in collaboration with the African IXP Association (https://www.af-ix.org).
We talk about:
– Growing up in Abidjan, and why Côte d'Ivoire is doing better than its neighbours
– Building 2G networks before data was even the point
– Five years in Algeria and Tunisia with two different weekends
– Moving to France and the shock of process after doing everything by hand
– Seeing the first 10 gig SFP and now selling 400 gig waves
– Why he did an MBA to move from engineer to sales
– Selling a data Centre for less than a Paris apartment
– The Saudi meeting that got pushed two days after he'd already landed
– IP transit to peering to your own submarine cable, how operators grow up
– Why a Red Sea cable cut moves Africa's traffic to the west coast overnight
– Only 1 or 2 percent of Africa's traffic stays in Africa
– Why his wife bought him his first golf lesson
Hope you enjoy the episode.
Best,
Team Coffee Pump
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Find Abdel Kader Traoré:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abdel-kader-traore-5162346/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abdel2302/
AfPIF and AF-IX:
Africa Peering and Interconnection Forum: https://www.afpif.org
African IXP Association: https://www.af-ix.org
Find our host Sajid Vayani:
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/sajvayani
Coffee Pump Spotify, Apple and Socials:
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/sajvayani
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