2011 In Review: Nigeria Telecoms

2011 marked exactly ten years since Nigeria joined the rest of the world in acquiring the Global System for Mobile communications GSM. It was therefore a year full of activities for the period now often referred to as a decade of telecoms revolution. 2011 started on an exciting note for telecoms subscribers as intense competition forced operators to cut prices by about 40% With interconnect rates dropping to as low as 25k per second. The price war which was started by the last Entrat Etisalat saw other operators join in the price slash which was also extended to data packages with about 35 percent drop in internet cost.

Mid way into the year, the Nigerian Communications Commission initiated and facilitated the registration of Subscriber identification Module popularly known as SIM card which hitherto were active upon purchase.

The exercise raised a lot of dust as telecoms analyst claimed that the sum of six point one billion naira approved for the exercise was a waste and added that the NCC had no business in SIM card registration but the operators. However the regulator argued that it was necessary for the commission to get involved to achieve the desired goal. The registration which was aimed at assisting security agencies to fight crimes and ensuring a robust database for the country kicked off amidst criticism. Despite the odds the telecoms companies and the NCC embarked on a massive SIM card registration exercise which eventually led to the ban of the sale of active SIM cards by operators. The exercise which was earlier scheduled to end in September was however not concluded as the commission continued with its sensitization across the nation till the end of the year leaving some Nigerians with unregistered lines.

The controversy that has trailed the privatization of the moribund national carrier NITEL continued as the federal government could not successfully sell the company. Though the president had in October 2010 given approval for the final sale of NITEL following a long delay brought about by controversies that trailed the exercise, The Bureau for Public Enterprise was unable to conclude the transaction.

The New Generation Tele-communications Consortium, made up of about four companies, had in February emerged the preferred bidder for the privatisation of NITEL and M-TEL. But following the emergence of the preferred bidders, an outcry was raised challenging the conduct of the process and this gave rise to controversial denials by some members of the bidders denying any knowledge of the deal.

Following criticisms by analysts on the integrity of the process, the senate ad hoc committee on privatization stepped in to investigate this. And following their investigationsthe committee recommended the removal of the current BPI boss omobolanle onagoruwa for what it termed gross incompetence in the management of the BPE. The failure to successfully privatize NITEL experts say is also hinged on a subsisting court order barring potential investors from acquiring the outfit until the case is resolved the situation which The year making it the fourth failed attempt in eleven years
In the year in review president Goodluck Jonathan created a new ministry of communications technology to develop and harmonise the countries’ ICT policies. This led to the transfer of some agencies from the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of information and Communications to the new ICT ministry. Agencies like the National Information Technology Development Agency, Nigerian Communications Commission, Nigerian Postal service, Galaxy backbone and Nigerian communication satellite NIGCOMSAT were subsequently ceded under the supervision of the new ministry.
As in the previous years there were issues of defiance and non compliance by telecoms and internet service providers which gave the NCC hard times and further posed questions on the agency’s decisiveness to always regulator in performing its oversight functions especially with the major telcos. The big operators were most culpable as globacom was sanctioned more than thrice last year for issues bothering on non compliance and had its base stations and offices shut down by the regulator at intervals. The other two big operators also had their share of the regulators’ big stick as they were sanctioned for poor quality of service amongst other things.
While the GSM operators remain strong in the telecoms field controlling 91.9 per cent of the market share as in the previous year. The code division multiple access division commonly referred to as CDMA’s still struggled to retain their market share of just 6.91 per cent owing to stiff competition and this led to the exit of the major investor in Multilink which was acquired by an infrastructure company. With challenges of the CDMA operators industry analysts predicted more mergers and acquisition in the future.

Importation of telecoms infrastructure, mobile phones and other mobile devices witnessed tremendous rise. Even as Nigeria remains ahead of African countries on telecoms consumption list. While the country has remained a consuming nation without clear and tangible moves by the government to encourage production in the industry.
However quality service was a big gully to cross in the year ended as MTN, Globacom and Airtel continued in their usual poor service quality in voice and data. Subscribers were charged for services not rendered as call drops became more regular, Airtime recharge took undue time to effect and worst of all customer service experience was also rated low by the Nigerian public.

The telecos who are also in the business of internet service have also not lived up to expectation in this regard, as data subscribers were made to change internet cards from one operator to another with various unfulfilled promises.
The year ended with mobile subscriber base growing to about 93 million and analysts say the sector maintained its position as the third largest contributor to Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the non-oil sector, behind agriculture and trade. According to the latest telecoms report Nigerian telecom sector contributed 8.2 per cent to the GDP, which exceeded the combined contributions of manufacturing, banking and solid minerals put at 3 percent, 4 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.

Francisca Nnanna

FG to introduce policy measures to grow local industries

The Federal Government has announced that it will introduce fiscal policy measures that will encourage the purchase and utilisation of locally produced commodities in 2012. This is in a bid to grow the nation's non oil sector and create jobs.

Speaking at the presentation of the 2012 national budget to the National Assembly in Abuja the nation's capital, President Goodluck Jonathan said duty on agriculture machinery and certain specified equipment will be zero effective January 31 2012. While the importation of cassava flour will be prohibited from March 31st

In his words President Jonathan said: “All equipment for processing of high quality cassava flour and composite flour blending will enjoy a duty-free regime as incentive to bakers for composite flour utilisation. Consultations with the sector to ensure a smooth transition are on-going.” Jonathan encourage the substitution of high quality cassava flour for wheat flour in bread-baking, bakeries will get 18 months to transit from wheat to cassava. Besides, they will enjoy a corporate tax incentive of 12 per cent rebate, if they attain 40 per cent blending.

The government “will further look at supportive fiscal policies for the rice and wheat sectors to stimulate domestic production”. 
From next July, wheat flour will attract a levy of 65 per cent to bring the duty to 100 per cent. Wheat grain will attract a 15 per cent levy to bring the duty to 20 per cent. 

“There will be a levy of 25 per cent on brown rice to bring it to 30 per cent,” Dr Jonathan said.
To encourage domestic rice production, a levy of 40 per cent will be placed on imported polished rice, leading to an effective duty rate of 50 per cent. From December 31, next year, all rice millers are expected to “move towards domestic production and milling of rice, as the levy of 50 per cent will be further raised to 100 per cent”.

The President added that the era of waivers and concessions for rice and wheat importation are gone. 

And on power generation he added that consultations and collaborative efforts are ongoing on the implementation of the Power Roadmap, aimed at creating a robust power sector through the privatisation for the generation and distribution of power and the creation of an enabling environment for investment Independent Power. While equipment and machinery in the power sector will attract zero duty from January 31.

Downloads from Mac App Store far slower than the download rate of mobile apps

Apple during the week announced that downloads from its Mac App Store have surpassed the 100 million threshold less than a year after its debut. This makes the Mac App Store “the largest and fastest growing PC software store in the world,” says Apple. Despite this, its popularity still pales in comparison to the iTunes App Store, which saw more than 1 billion downloads only nine months after its launch.

To help boast the importance of the Mac App Store, Apple has released a number of quotes from developers, all of whom tout the online software store as great to reach hundreds of millions of Apple users around the world.

The Mac App Store remains hampered by the fact that you have to have a Mac running Operating System X Snow Leopard 10.6 or later to use any of the 8,500 apps available through the store. Still, the early success of the Mac App Store shows that this type of distribution model getting software through the Internet, rather than buying it in a box, at a physical retail outlet is the future of all software distribution. Whether you like Apple and its products or not, that is a good thing

These statements are presumably not for you, the consumer, but are instead Apple's way of saying, “Hey, developers, please come use the Mac App Store!” Apple also extols the terms of selling app through the Mac App Store, which include giving software makers 70 percent of the revenue, and the lack of marketing and credit card processing fees.

Of course, Apple has had no problem convincing developers to make apps for its mobile devices. According to Apple, the iTunes App Store currently has more than 500,000 apps, and more than 1 billion apps are being downloaded each month. This is, of course, helped by the fact that the iPhone and iPad lines remain the most popular smartphones and tablets in the US and throughout much of the world.

DRIVING & MOBILE PHONES

Stakeholders advocate stiffer penalty for defaulters

There is no doubt that the mobile phone has continued to improve the way we do things from family life to business, education to health and of course virtually all areas of our lives. It's also like the proverbial two sided coin. While the phone has been of tremendous influence in our lives it has also been a source of pain to many.

It is common knowledge that many Nigerians engage in telephone conversations while driving as you notice or perhaps do yourself. This attitude does not only endanger our lives but accounts for a large chunk of the accidents recorded on our roads. As a recent survey reveals that about 49% of drivers in Lagos use their mobile phones while driving. While a recent WHO report on road safety reveals that road traffic injuries is the leading cause of death for ages 15-29 years and this is attributed to distractions.

It was on this note that the telecoms regulator NCC in collaboration with the Arrive Alive road safety initiative organized a stakeholders' forum in Lagos to address the issues and chart intervention strategies for the worrisome trend.

Speaking on how best to curb the menace of using the mobile phone while driving stakeholders advocated more stringent penalty for defaulters as the sum of 4000 currently provided by the national road safety law as fine is said to be too small to check defaulters.

It was also recommended that the telecoms operators take it upon themselves to sensitize their subscribers on the dangers of making use of their mobile phone while driving.

NITDA to create Nigeria IT Monitoring Committee

The need to integrate ICT into mainstream national development was again brought to the front burner by the National Information Technology Development Agency. The Director General of the agency Professor Cleopas Angaye said the agency is keen about technology inclusion with the Nigerian ICT4D plan in place. Speaking to Cyber Africa on some other initiatives of the agency Angaye opined that Information technology will go a long way in solving most of the nation's problems such as insecurity, joblessness and also on.

The ICT4D Plan

The ICT4D plan provides concrete implementation strategies for a period of 5 years for the key sectors of the economy namely health , education , infrastructure , human resource development , agriculture, legal/regulations , private sector/industry , media/community - as part of an integrated approach to achieving national development. Adjudged as the best in sub Saharan Africa, The Nigerian ICT 4D plan was developed by NITDA in collaboration with United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and is scheduled to serve as a reference point and a framework for implementing short to medium term ICT programs targeted at achieving sustainable socio-economic development and a knowledge-based economy.

NITDA organized series of Workshop with stakeholders with focus on Research and development, ICT popularization and awareness and Private Sector Participation in ICT deployment also emphasized the direct link between ICT4D and other national economic programmes such as Vision 20:20202, the National Economic Empowerment Development Programme ( NEEDS ), as well as other socio-economic development programmes and initiatives

EMPLOYMENT CREATION/CAPACITY BUILDING

NITDA has provided capacity building which has generated employment. Over 6,000 unemployed graduates have been equipped with IT skills and last year University lecturers were trained in the Train the Trainer Programme. An initiative aimed at equipping teachers with modern skills required to groom world class IT graduates. Also very dear to the agency is the national IT part, which will actually provide a lot of employment. The needs analysis has also been completed for software development centres which will also generate employment. All these will form part of the IT park as NITDA is currently working with CAPDAN the umbrella body of the computer village in Lagos, together we are exploring the best ways to bring these brilliant and hardworking young people together in an organized.

THE SCAN-ICT

The scan ICT scheme is actually its where we go out to the citizens to see how ICT has influenced their lives in terms of utilization in terms of providing more tools for developing the economy, the challenges and what we need. Already reports are coming in and what we have is a huge leap from what we used to have ten years back and this helps in the formation of proper regulatory policy

The Agency goes into the field to see how various institutions in the private and public sectors are deploying IT to achieve results by so doing challenges and progresses are monitored for evaluation.

SUPPORT FOR LOCAL SOFTWARE

Back in 2006 the agency was able to push through to the government that all MDA's should patronize local industries, though it worked in the Obasanjo, era but frankly this has not been strictly adhered to, but we are trying to see if a law can be passed to support the local software manufacturers to grow. Also the software testing centers will help the Software policy to encourage those who are already in the software industry we provide funds to support them.

ON CASHLESS ECONOMY

Before now NITDA has been on the forefront of ensuring there is protection for online transaction, the bill is still lying in the national assembly.

Francisca Nnanna

Mobile Data Traffic to Grow 10-Fold…Ericsson

New report from Ericsson says mobile data traffic will grow 10-fold between 2011 and 2016, mainly driven by video. In the report, Ericsson also said that mobile broadband subscriptions grew by 60 percent in one year and are expected to grow from 900 million in 2011 to almost 5 billion in 2016.

By 2016, users living on less than 1 percent of the Earth's total land area are set to generate around 60 percent of mobile traffic

In its new Traffic and Market Data report, which provides insights into current trends, Ericsson forecasts a 10-fold increase in mobile data traffic by 2016 while mobile broadband subscriptions will reach almost 5 billion in 2016, up from the expected 900 million by the end of 2011.That would represent 60 percent year-on-year growth, at the same time as the data consumed by smartphone users is surging. Total smartphone traffic is expected to triple

Ericsson sat the report is based on measurements the company recorded over several years in live networks covering all regions of the world.

Hardware Counterfeiting: A Threat To The Economy

In 2010, the nation's economy lost an estimated =N=33.75 Billion to software piracy alone. While the country remains one of the biggest dumping ground for Chinese counterfeit mobile phones, printers, computer motherboards, computer power packs, users of these computer hardware and gadgets have continued to lament on the frequent failure associated with these hardware as it can consequently result to a huge loss in their business, degradation of their health and even loosing their lives.

According to Engr. Adejumo an IT experts counterfeiting is a big threat to the Nigerian economy because they are not engineered with same degree of precision as the original. This, he added, could damage other genuine hardware pairing with the counterfeit hardware. He also Profit making is also identified to also be a key factor responsible for the manufacture of counterfeit IT products, as manufacturers of these products spend less money in manufacturing sub-standard products in mass as against the ideal manufacturing standard.

Reacting to the act of counterfeiting, some school of thought who condemned the act out rightly also added that the fight against counterfeit computer components, computer hardware, phones and other IT products could be better fought through enlightenment. This way, they suggest, cases of early failure of these hardware as well as economic loss in the country will be reduced to its barest minimum.

However, if you don't want to be a victim of health hazard, huge economic and financial loss resulting from counterfeit hardware and accessories, here are some helpful tips that can guarantee safety when using this hardware and the likes for either personal use or for business purposes.

Ensure that you buy your hardware from authorized dealers

Do not buy products without warranty

Examine the visible features and functionality carefully before purchasing

Look out for the warranty seal and ensure that it is not broken before buying.

Visit websites of products to see possible guides before heading to purchase the product.

Get the services of a well trained technician for any necessary installations.

Kenneth Adegoke

Innovation and Quality is an Etisalat Culture- Wael Ameer

Wael Ameer, Chief commercial Officer, Etisalat Nigeria

Etisalat in a recent survey by the Nigerian communications Commission was rated the best GSM network in terms of quality of service. Wael Ameer, Chief Commercial Office of the company in this interview with AIT INFOTECH NETWOK says the recent launch of the company's easy blaze internet is a testament to the innovativeness and commitment to delivery of hi quality of service.

One of the things that have kept you from the bottom level is some of the innovations you came up with that took u to a very competitive level and has sustained, what is the drive

If you know Etisalat before we entered the Nigerian market or any other market what we have seen is that we have always been the late entrant part of the Etisalat culture is innovation using latest technologies and infrastructure. What we found is that most of the countries we have been going people are always on the lookout for Etisalat. So It's part of our entry strategy to any market We bring in those innovation that we telecoms service we bring in those innovations that gave its part of the culture of Etisalat and try to be ahead of others so it is part of us it is our DNA to bring trying to be ahead of other operator by bringing services that make sense to the people and help them in their personal and business life.

Your recently launched easy blaze testing your DNA how is your easy blaze different from your existing 3G service

First of all we didn't have 3G service until we launched easy blaze, we had an existing data product which was called easy net and that product was based on our 2.5G network which was an edge technology, despite the fact that we had this technology which other operator had we played very well in the data field using our expertise and the quality of service we sustain, so we give a lot of attention to quality. Even though we had an edge service people were comfortable with it because it was fast enough and even faster than some of the existing 3G services. We are the first operator in Nigeria to provide data service across its footprint every where in Nigeria where we have coverage they have the data coverage as well, you know we rolled out very fast in the last 2 years, we rolled out in 36 states in 2 years and we are expanding our technology on 2G and now 3G. So we have been able to expand our network that is why we are where we are today. On the other hand, due to the limitation of technology and of course the limitation of international bandwidth, out of Nigeria. Now we have Main 1 and GLO1 come in and so the capacity increased, prices are more affordable for data and so we were able to expand our network to get more bandwidth for our internet backbone at the international level as we deploy the latest technology in 3G which is called the HSPA plus we put it at 3.75G and its speed is up to 42MGB per second which is the most advanced network in Nigeria today. As I told you innovation part of our DNA and the technology advancement and platform we use is going to be the latest as long as the spectrum license allows us to do this tech so we will always be the best to Nigeria as well as every other footprint where we operate and that is what we did with the launch of the easy blaze product.

With emphasis on easy blaze, I want you to shed more light on it as a service that has come to make a difference in the arena.

Easy blaze is a set of data service tawireless internet connection for high speed basically u can connect to internet at very high speed internet using various platforms, whether your PC, laptop, smartphones tablet devices you have a package and service that suits all of these devices and u can have the mobility aspect of it u want to can connect your office in the car your office whether u are not a drive in the Lagos traffic you can sit in your can and use our product and get more productive so what we are doing is enabling services that gives various services to various people whether you are.

Now we go to pricing, what is the subscription package like?

We have different packages that suit different people starting from 200 Mb data package to 6GB and the prices range from 1,500 to 8000 these are the various Volumes pu can ise thuis packages you can use these packages for various packages if you haven't finished a package this month you can roll it over the following month. We have weekend and night plans depending on ur need or browsing experience.

Is there any Promotion on this?

When u buy any of the products e.g the Mi-Fi allows you to share with you, using a single connection this is good for households and small businesses u buy u get 6GB free. These are the type of things we are bringing to the Nigerian market

With the kind of service u are rolling out now, a lot of people and businesses and even mobile businesses are going to go on this network, do u have the backbone infrastructure to support the upsurge you are going to get?

We have put capacity plan in place, because Africa is hungry for data particularly Nigeria with the economy growing with new ways of doing business utilizing data so we have put in place good capacity plan, we have launched easy blaze and at the launch we covered 14 cities so we are going to continue rolling out for the best quality of service.

Stakeholders proffer ways for more IT partnerships for Economic Growth.

In a bid to further strengthen business relationship amongst information and communication Technology (ICT) companies in Nigeria and the world over, the Information Technology Association of Nigeria, ITAN, in partnership with the National Association of Software and Services Companies in India, NASSCOM recently organized a forum aimed at enriching global IT partnership.

Speaking at the forum, the immediate past President of ITAN, Mr. Jimson Olufuyi said it is a duty for ITAN to initiate strategic partnerships and collaborations that will encourage sustainable development in the area of ICT in Nigeria. He said that is why ITAN as partnered with NASSCOM, India's ICT trade association to expand and add more value to the Nigeria ICT Market by way of investment.

“This partnership will expand and add more value to the Nigeria ICT market by paving way for NASSCOM to come into the economy to invest and this will be of economic interest to the Federal Government and also to ITAN”, he said.

The Minister of Communication and Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson in her speech, said the government is committed to helping foreign investors thrive in Nigeria. She went further to stress that there is need for the government to encourage the IT industry by way of partnership.

“It is important for Nigeria because we have a huge domestic market that is ripe for new software's. With the committed support of the Federal Government through this Ministry, development partners like the world bank and other multilateral agencies and organizations that have succeeded in the markets of their home countries, the opportunities in this market can be harnessed for economic gains.” She said.

Speaking with our correspondent at the forum, the senior special assistant to the Vice president on Information and communication Technology, Engr Baba Jibrin Adamu, said the presidency is highly committed to utilizing the tools of ICT for economic transformation, youth empowerment and wealth creation.

“The Federal Government is committed to using ICT as a tool to empower the people of Nigeria and that is why the President has said he wants to use his transformation agenda to create wealth and to reduce poverty to the minimal level.” He said.

Nigeria Seeks Renewable Energy Alternative

To this effect the UNDP, the Bank of Industry and the Lagos State government recently organized a forum on renewable energy aimed at increasing the national capacity to invest and utilize renewable energy resources in order to improve access to modern energy for the Nigerian small and medium enterprise sector. A sector with a capacity of transforming Nigeria's economic landscape but unfortunately bedeviled by myriads of problems ranging from finance to infrastructure, human capital and most saddening under huge spendings on power generation arising from Nigeria's persistent power problems.

Participants were drawn from the public and private sectors and were unanimous in their submission that energy remains the bane of economic growth in the country hence the need to seek alternative energy to grow the SME sector. Nigeria is said to have an abundant renewable energy resource, including solar energy , wind power , geothermal energy , and biomass as well as the ability to manufacture the relatively labour-intensive systems that harness these. However successive governments have failed to harness these potentials as the nation is still dependent on oil for power generation.

Recent trends have revealed the importance of advancing renewable energy among developing countries of the world. As of 2010, global statistics showed that, an estimated 3 million households got power from small solar PV systems. Micro-hydro systems configured into village-scale or county-scale in which mini-grids serve many areas. More than 30 million rural households get lighting and cooking from biogas made in household-scale digesters. This also makes renewable energy an investor's delight as global indices in renewable energy consumption is constantly growing and by 2010, investments in renewable energy reached a record $211 billion -- about one-third more than the $160 billion invested in 2009, and more than five times the amount invested in 2004. 

It is hoped that the partnership project between the United Nations Development Programme and BOI will put Nigeria on the energy grid with her counterparts across the world as such fora will be held across the six geo political zones as Nigeria searches for reliable alternatives to power generation for industrial development.

NOTAP pushes for more Technology Transfer in the Construction Sector

The National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion NOTAP in collaboration with leading construction giants Julius Berger PLC recently in Lagos organized a two day workshop on the theme; Strengthening Technology Transfer Capabilities in the Construction Sector in Nigeria where stakeholders gathered to brainstorm on the status of construction activities in Nigeria with a view to formulating policies that will enhance the technological development of the nations construction industry.

According to the Director General, NOTAP, Dr. Bindir Umar, there is need for technological advancement in all sectors of the economy for the nation to move forward. The challenges experienced in the construction sector are a growing concern; from poor quality of projects that are below international standards to the underdeveloped human capacity building framework in the industry.

“We realize that the training of man power in the construction industry has a limitation. So we bring together stakeholders from the consulting agencies, the construction firms, the tertiary institutions and other relevant agencies to dialogue and facilitate technology transfer by way of partnerships, cooperation and networking.”

Dr Umar explained that the forum is strategic and is fashioned out in such a way that through the coming together of stakeholders in the construction industry, best practices will be identified and ways to encourage technology transfer will be initiated.

“This forum is a strategic one which is going to be a continuous process. It has become important for us to dialogue with stakeholders and initiate the kind of partnerships that will the construction industry in Nigeria to benefit from the flow of Global Technology.” he said.

However, Public Affairs Executive, Julius Berger Nigeria, Mr. Clement Iloba, said in the company's drive to ensure development in the industry, it has partnered with NOTAP to create this kind of forum where construction firms across the nation come together to share their experiences, expertise and proffer solutions to most of the challenges they face.

He added that Julius Berger is making sure that in a bid to further strengthen the face of construction activities in Nigeria with local expertise, more Nigerians are getting involved in their major projects in Nigeria creating an avenue for transfer of expertise, knowledge and on a large scale; technology.

“ We have ensure that 97% of our staff strength are Nigerians and whenever we are undertaken major projects in the country, few expatriate's are involved and more of our indigenous professionals. This we do to encourage Technology transfer.”

With a contribution of about 2.09% to the nation's GDP in the second quarter of 2011, the multi-billion dollar industry is expected to create more jobs, empower youths through Information Technology.

Kenneth Adegoke

Stakeholders Proffer the Way Forward for a Successful Cashless Society in Nigeria

As the subject of a cashless society in Nigeria continues to generate various debates and with banks gearing up to meet the target date ahead of the commencement of the policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Tribe Times Editor , Hilary Damissah reports that though stakeholders have continued to express mixed feelings on the workability of the policy, yet the stage seem set for the pilot scheme in Lagos despite the possible challenges in the Nigerian e-payment system.

As Nigeria prepares to join other global economies towards evolving a cashless society in January, 2012, stakeholders in the Nigerian IT industry, payments system service providers, banks, the Central Bank of Nigeria and other relevant government agencies have continued to express mixed feelings on the workability of the policy amidst the possible challenges inherent in the Nigerian e-payment system.

This was the scenario recently at a forum organized by AIT infotechnetwork and Technology Africa on the theme: “Evolving s Cashless Society in Nigeria: Political Statement or Economic Benefit”. Though some members of the panel of discussants expressed reservations as to the effective take-off of the scheme, however, there was a general sense of optimism on the new cashless scheme. The representative of the CBN governor Ms Eyitope Daniel who is the banks Director of the Cashless Lagos Project posited that the CBN was fully prepared to effectively roll out the programme come next year with mechanism been put in place to tackle the challenges.

However, Bayero Agabi, coordinator of AITinfotechnetwork and co-organizers of the event stressed the need for a better cyber security policy which he said is often associated with e-payments system. Especially given the rapid technological advancements and increasing consumer demand and the need for positive transition towards increased dependable electronic payment systems and channels since the policy when fully implemented is expected to ultimately shift Nigeria to a cashless society in the 21st century knowledge economy.

Some participants at the event however suggested that the CBN and relevant government agencies need to create greater awareness as well as what many consider a less stringent name to “cashless” economy. Other members of the panel included the Minister of Communication Technology Omobola Johnson who was represented by Mrs Lolia Emokpore, Mr David Isiavwe, General Manager United Bank for Africa, Mrs Yvonne Isichei, Executive Director Retail Banking Keystone Bank,Mrs Onajite Regha, CEO E-Payment Providers Association of Nigeria, Mr Sola Bickersteth, CEO One Network Mr Alex Nwuba and Mr Emma Okonji, Communications and E-Business Editor, THISDAY

The event which was the first in the series according to Don Pedro Agambi coordinator of Technology Africa will next be followed by a Town Hall Meeting on a Cashless Nigereia to be held on February 2 nd 2012, at the Lagos City Hall. One of the high point of the event was the presentation of Icon of Finance award to the CBN governor, Lamido Sanusi Lamido for his immense contributions to the development of the Nigerian financial system

CWG Appoints Nkechi Opara New Head, Marketing Communications/Corporate Affairs

Nkechi who previously held senior position in the company's Sales Department steps into the new position having made her mark and proven to be a very innovative and hardworking team player. While meeting with the media, she noted the role of the press in the company's success story and solicited the continued support of the members of the press.

As a team player, Nkechi promised to build on the CWGs image while evolving new strategies to achieving the Groups' corporate objectives. While responding to questions, Nkechi told TribeTimes that she will do all that is possible to cultivate a strong synergy with the press as she will always be willing to promptly respond to issues as situations demanded.

Qualcomm's Snapdragon Processor Powers First Nokia Lumia Smartphones

Qualcomm Incorporated has announced that Qualcomm's Snapdragon mobile processors power the first Nokia Lumia smartphones, the Nokia Lumia 800 and the Nokia Lumia 710.

This marks Nokia's entrance into the Windows Phone ecosystem and is the latest step in the mobile industry's high-speed transition towards mobile computing. The Snapdragon processor's unique engineering enabled Nokia to substantially accelerate the time to market the products.

"We are proud that our deep collaboration with Nokia resulted in smartphones that were developed in only six months based on our Snapdragon platform," said Enrico Salvatori, senior vice president and president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies Europe. “The level of integration in Snapdragon and the optimization for Windows Phone 7, as well as the efforts of two strong teams, delivered these great devices."

The Snapdragon S2 class of processors provides a best-in-class mobile experience, including high-performance mobile computing with prolonged battery life and next-generation graphics for Nokia's Lumia phones. Lumia users will also experience rapid network connections and fast, responsive Web browsing.

“The collaboration between Nokia, Qualcomm and Microsoft has been extremely successful,” said Jo Harlow, head of Nokia's Smart Devices business unit. “Qualcomm played a significant and very active role in helping develop the first Nokia Lumia smartphones, without which we would not have been able to bring the products to market so quickly.”

As one of the largest providers of wireless chipset and software technology in the industry, Qualcomm has one of the most diverse chipset and software product portfolios spanning multiple device classes. Specifically, the S2 processors are optimized to enable HD videos in the browser, a rich gaming experience, top-quality pictures and video.

Breakfast Roundtable with the CBN Governor to Hold in Lagos.

AIT Infotech and Technology Africa, leading information communications technology (ICT) content providers, is set to host a breakfast forum on evolving a cashless society

In a joint statement signed by Bayero Agabi of AIT Infotech and  Don Pedro Aganbi of Technology Africa disclosed that as the Nigerian central bank gets set to implement a measure that will encourage boom in electronic transaction otherwise referred to as cashless society issues of ICT infrastructure, an enabling e-transaction laws and the political will to see it through should be thoroughly addressed. The talking point of the breakfast session with the CBN governor is evolving a cashless society in Nigeria, political or economic statement.

Cash is the blood wire of corruption, bribery and money laundering. Remove cash and these vices will find it difficult to survive. The challenge now is for all Nigerians to brace up for this new era in our economic development and for the deposit money banks to put in place necessary operational infrastructure to cope with the anticipated upsurge in the number of bank customers. The statement said

The theme of the breakfast forum evolving a Cashless Society in Nigeria:  Political Statement or Economic Benefit is apt as it will lend weight to existing efforts to increase awareness of the issues, challenges, opportunities in evolving a cashless society in Nigeria.

The forum would provide a platform for government to present its plans/policies for a cashless society, and the private sector to provide insights into challenges, opportunities, source of funds for infrastructural development, alternatives and enabling Institutional Legal frameworks. In addition, it holds prospect for networking and forging strategic partnerships among key stakeholders in all the sectors.

The breakfast forum on evolving a cashless society is billed to hold in Lagos, November 11 at the prestigious golden gate restaurant Ikoyi Lagos Nigeria   

Burkina Faso President announced as new Chairman of IMPACT Advisory Borad

Blaise Compaoré, President of Burkina Faso, has been appointed Chairman of the International Advisory Board (IAB) of the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats (IMPACT), which serves at the executing arm of the ITU in the area of cyber security.

Mr Compaoré takes over from former Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who served as founding Chairman of the IAB. The handover ceremony was held today at the ITU Telecom World 2011 event in Geneva, in conjunction with the second IAB meeting.

Malaysia's tenure of the IAB chairmanship (2008-2011) coincided with period of rapid growth for IMPACT. Today, with 137 Member States formally part of the ITU-IMPACT coalition and with strong support from global industry leaders and partners from academia, ITU-IMPACT has become the largest cybersecurity alliance of its kind in the world.

As Chairman, President Compaoré will guide the activities and direction of the IMPACT IAB. He brings a vast experience in telecommunications and international relations, and will continue to spearhead global efforts to bring governments, industry, academia and international organizations together in the fight against cyber threats.

“I am delighted to welcome President Compaoré, an active and high-profile advocate of a more global approach to cybersecurity, into the ITU-IMPACT fold. Cybersecurity knows no borders; it is only with a truly coordinated international approach that we will win against the growing tide of malicious hackers and cybercriminals,” said ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré.

An MoU signed by ITU and IMPACT in May 2011 sees IMPACT provide cybersecurity support and services to ITU Member States and other organizations within the UN system. ITU-IMPACT is the first cooperative global venture of its kind offering cybersecurity expertise and resources to governments and organizations to detect, analyze and respond effectively to cyberthreats. Of particular benefit to developing countries and smaller states without the capacity and resources to develop their own sophisticated cyber response centres, the coalition also benefits technically advanced nations by providing them with a global snapshot of potential and real online threats.

Nokia Rolls the Dice with Windows Phones

Troubled cell-phone maker Nokia today made a long anticipated move to recapture a share of the fiercely competitive smart-phone market with the launch of two handsets running Microsoft's Windows mobile software.

The Lumia 800 and the Lumia 710 are the first fruits of the Microsoft-Nokia alliance, a high-stakes gamble in a daunting battle with Apple, Google, and others for relevance in the fast-growing mobile-computing market.

Over the last five years, Nokia has experienced a dramatic reversal in fortunes. The company once dominated the high-end phone market with its Symbian-powered phones, but Apple's iPhone and devices running Google's Android have jumped ahead.

Nokia still sells many low-end phones, especially in developing countries, but this market could disappear as more powerful devices proliferate. Time is also running out. Amid fierce competition, sales of Nokia smart phones fell 34 percent in 2010, but sales of its low-end phones also fell 16 percent. The company's market value has halved since February, and third-quarter results showed its smart-phone sales down 38 percent compared with last year.

The new Windows phones were unveiled during company CEO Stephen Elop's keynote speech at the Nokia World  event in London. "We are signaling our intent right now, here today, to be today's leaders in smart-phone design and craftsmanship," said Elop, a former Microsoft executive who signed the partnership deal with Microsoft in February.

In a swipe at other manufacturers, such as HTC and Samsung, that have already launched Windows phones, he added: "Lumia is the first real Windows phone."

The hardware unveiled by Nokia offered few surprises, however. The Lumia 800 design is identical to that of the Nokia N9 . Inside it is a 1.4-gigahertz processor and 512 megabytes of RAM, which lags behind the dual-core chips boasted by the iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy 5. The Lumia has a 3.7-inch AMOLED 800-by-480 screen that sits under curved glass to give it a raised effect, and an eight-megapixel camera with an f2.2 aperture lens that will let in more light than most other phones, although the lack of a front-facing camera may put off those who use video calling. The phone is 12 millimeters thick, which is bulkier than the latest Android phones.

Airtel, Others Risk Sanction Over Quality Of Service

In a release made available to press men by the NCC the deadline follows a dismal performance by the three operators on quality of service from the result of an independent monitoring exercise carried out by the Commission across the country which showed that all the three operators failed to meet with four key performance indicators that are crucial for quality of service improvements as set by the Commission.

Consequently, the Commission has notified the three operators of its intention to issue a direction that with effect from November 30, 2011, any of the operators that fail to meet the targets will be barred from further sale of its SIM Cards or addition of any new subscriber to its network. Any new SIM card sold, or additional subscriber added to the network in contravention of the direction, will attract a penalty of N1,000,000 ( One Million Naira) per subscriber added.

The Commission in a notice of intention to issue the direction to the operators, communicated to the operators, the Commission also indicated that after the expiration of the 30-day deadline, the Commission will strictly enforce the impending direction whose contravention will attract a penalty of N5,000,000 ( Five Million Naira), and additional N500,000( Five Hundred Thousand Naira)  per day that such contravention persists.

In addition to the above, failure of any of the operators to meet the quality of service targets from November 30, 2011 will attract a fine of N500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) for every month of failure.

The Key Performance indicators measured by the Commission included Call Set Up Success Rate, Call Completion Rate, Stand Alone Dedicated Control Channel and Handover Success Rate.

 Reacting to the this, some subscribers who spoke to our correspondent say this is long overdue as poor quality of service has become the order of the day, according to Abubakar Amir a Lagos based business man “I have come to accept that good quality of service is an impossibility as the operators seem to be in a competition of who will extort the subscribers more” Nonso Obi a Globacom subscriber also lamented the poor quality of service offered by the operator. According to him “Glo charges you when you send SMS even when you get an immediate response that it has failed, it is their system and they know it has not left the network so why charge, they are just extorting us”.

Francisca Nnanna

Egypt's Mobinil posts 96% net profit loss

Mobinil received only 10 million Egyptian pounds (about US $1.6 million) in profits in the previous quarter, the company stated in a press release today, 26 October 2011.

The result is a net loss of nearly 110 million Egyptian pounds from the previous quarter. The reason is the continued economic and political turmoil facing the country after former President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February.

The company also said that it was hit hard by deferred taxes.

“The impact of the new tax regime is limited to current period profits as the hit related to deferred taxes was registered during the second quarter of 2011,” Mobinil said in a statement, but did not give further details.

Mobinil said in the statement that its total subscribers in the quarter increased 3.4 percent quarter-on-quarter to a total of 31.576 million subscribers.

It was also hit by a large number of subscribers who left the company after former CEO Naguib Sawiris posted what many Muslims felt was a blasphemous cartoon depicting Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse as conservative Muslims.

Itnewsafrica.com

How To Get Nigeria On The Internet Bandwagon

The business challenge of Nigeria today is no longer telecommunication but finding the best way to improve internet penetration. Innovation in fiber optic and V-sat have still not put Nigeria at par with her counterparts on the global internet penetration index. In this interview with Francisca Nnanna the Managing Director of Globaltouch West Africa, an indigenous satellite provider he bares his mind on the way forward for Nigeria.

What influenced your choice of citing your Gateway centre in Nigeria?

It was installed here in Nigeria, Kaduna to be precise, so that it can have maximum coverage and also because we are a Nigerian Company. Essentially, this location has coverage of other Networks. So from this centre location, we can now interconnect with the other networks and go as far as Mali, Niger, Cameroun, Benin, Togo, Ghana and Ivory Coast among other places.

What do you think is responsible for the high cost of internet services in Nigeria?

We have been relying on satellite connectivity until the optic cables started coming in. At this point, it seems that these services are offered with high cost because of the various infrastructural constrains experienced in bringing in these cables into the countries. But I believe it will get better as the level of competitors continue to increase.

What is your assessment of the telecoms industry in terms of Quality of Services?

I must say the telecommunication industry has grown to a considerable extent in over a decade now since GSM came into the country. As an organization, we recognize that data services are on the rise.it is with this understanding that we are concentrating on offering innovative data services. I believe there is still a lot that can still be achieved in the telecoms industry. I also expect the land line services to be revived for this will solidify the industry more.

What are your strategies at providing ubiquitous bandwidth?

The satellites are hovering at about 1500km. They cannot be tampered with. This means that there is security. If you have been to our gateway, you will see that there is absolute security. So really, security is not a problem. However, this guarantees that the services will be available at all times. Compared to the GSM operators that have base stations and run cost like fuelling them among others; which affects the cost of their services. So in our own case, there is no such expenditure. This has affected our cost of

What is your coverage network like?

Our coverage is the whole of Nigeria and our data services goes as far as Gabon, Sudan, Cameroun, Ivory Cost and other areas I mentioned earlier on. We provide services to the oil industry, fishing industry, security agencies and many others.

Security remains a major concern in Nigeria, are there innovative technologies you are offering to help Government fight Insecurity?

Our product offerings are strategic for Government to patronize for security objectives. Apart from the general tracker, we have the personal tracker which is of great interest to the security agencies. With this, they will be able to know the where about of their personnel's. Citizens can also use it to track their loved ones or anything that is of interest to them. All of these services specification are internet based. So you can actually access these informations on your computer and we can even send to the party involved via SMS.

Can you tell us more about this Tracking device?

We have a specialize device for Aircraft tracking. We just install a control center for NCAA in Abuja. So NCAA will be able to locate any Aircraft in the Nigeria air space. The issue of an aircraft missing perhaps after an accident will be a thing of the past. We also have the Asset Tracker. With this, Business woman can track their goods from anywhere in the world to Nigeria. This tracker is specialized for different purposes; for personal cars and also for Marine activities especially in the Fishing industry. They want to use this to formulate policies to protect the local fisher men and detect strange entry into our waters.

How would you advice the government in using Technology based security solutions in protecting lives and property in Nigeria?

CCTV is what is available in the developed stations. They monitor strategic locations like the train stations among others. But in Nigeria, Technology is not yet in its advanced stage. For the moment, bandwidth is growing and by the end of this year, our bandwidth will be big enough to be able to provide CCTV so that when the security agencies call us, we will be able to monitor all their sensitive locations and hopefully they will be on top of the security situation in Nigeria to a satisfactory level.

IBM appoints first female CEO in 100 yrs

Samuel Palmisano (left), former IBM CEO who will remain as Chairman of the Board and Virginia Rometty (right), IBM new CEO and President (image source: IBM)

Rometty is currently IBM Senior Vice President and Group Executive for sales, marketing and strategy. She succeeds Samuel J. Palmisano, who currently is IBM Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. Palmisano will remain Chairman of the board.

“Ginni Rometty has successfully led several of IBM's most important businesses over the past decade—from the formation of IBM Global Business Services to the build-out of our Growth Markets Unit,” said Palmisano.

“But she is more than a superb operational executive. With every leadership role, she has strengthened our ability to integrate IBM's capabilities for our clients. She has spurred us to keep pace with the needs and aspirations of our clients by deepening our expertise and industry knowledge. Ginni's long-term strategic thinking and client focus are seen in our growth initiatives, from cloud computing and analytics to the commercialization of Watson. She brings to the role of CEO a unique combination of vision, client focus, unrelenting drive, and passion for IBMers and the company's future. I know the board agrees with me that Ginni is the ideal CEO to lead IBM into its second century.”

“There is no greater privilege in business than to be asked to lead IBM, especially at this moment. Sam had the courage to transform the company based on his belief that computing technology, our industry, even world economies would shift in historic ways. All of that has come to pass. Today, IBM's strategies and business model are correct. Our ability to execute and deliver consistent results for clients and shareholders is strong. This is due to Sam's leadership, his discipline, and his unshakable belief in the ability of IBM and IBMers to lead into the future. Sam taught us, above all, that we must never stop reinventing IBM,” said Rometty.

Itnewsafrica.com

Nigeria's Paradigm Shift Toward Renewable Energy

In tripples they came, soon the hall got filled up by those men and women who are charting a new course for the Nigerian small and medium enterprise sector. A sector with a capacity of transforming Nigeria's economic landscape but unfortunately bedeviled by myriads of problems ranging from finance to infrastructure, human capital and most saddening under huge spendings on power generation and diesel arising from Nigeria's persistent power problems.

Organized in Lagos by the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP and the Bank of Industry in conjunction with the Lagos state government, the one day stakeholders' forum is a flagship of a UNDP/BOI project focused at increasing the national capacity to invest and utilize renewable energy resources to improve the access to modern energy.

Participants drawn from the public and private sectors agreed that energy remains the bane of economic growth in the country hence the need to seek alternative energy to grow the SME sector. Nigeria is said to have an abundant renewable energy resource, including solar energy , wind power , geothermal energy , and biomass , as well as the ability to manufacture the relatively labor-intensive systems that harness these. However succesive governments have failed to harness these potentials as the nation is still dependent on oil for power generation.

Recent trends have revealed the importance of advancing renewable energy among developing countries of the world. As of 2010, global statistics showed that, an estimated 3 million households got power from small solar PV systems. Micro-hydro systems configured into village-scale or county-scale in which mini-grids serve many areas. More than 30 million rural households get lighting and cooking from biogas made in household-scale digesters. This also makes renewable energy an investor's delight as global indices in renewable energy consumption is constantly growing and by 2010, investments in renewable energy reached a record $211 billion -- about one-third more than the $160 billion invested in 2009, and more than five times the amount invested in 2004. 

It is hoped that the partnership project between the United Nations Development Programme and BOI will put Nigeria on the energy grid with her counterparts across the world as such fora will be held across the six geo political zones as Nigeria searches for reliable alternatives to power generation for industrial development.

Francisca Nnanna

Bharti Airtel appoints Salia Gbane as Managing Director for Chad

Nairobi, Kenya , September 27, 2011: Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 19 countries across Asia and Africa , today announced the appointment of Salia Gbane as the Managing Director for Chad

Prior to his appointment as the Managing Director - Chad, Salia was the Commercial Director at Airtel, Gabon. Salia brings a wealth of experience from the telecommunication, Banking, Oil and the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sectors with organizations such as Celtel, Shell, Nestle and Standard Chartered Bank, where he held middle and senior level management positions over a span of 20 years.

Salia Gbane will replace Mbaye Sylla Khouma, who will be relocating to Nairobi to join the Group Francophone Team after two and a half years in Chad. Mr. Khouma, who joined the organization in 2007 as the Chief Commercial Officer in the DRC, has been instrumental in driving the transformation of our business in Chad.

Speaking about the appointments, Mr. Manoj Kohli, CEO (International) and Joint Managing Director, Bharti Airtel, said:  “Our intention to provide affordable and innovative mobile solutions in Africa will be backed by the passion and wealth of experience from the leadership team we are nurturing from within the organization.  Today's appointments are an indication of our commitment to accelerate the transformation of our business in order to provide exceptional services to Chad and our Francophone markets”.

DATAFLEX Is HP's Nigeria Partner Of The Year

At the just concluded 2011 meeting of all HP partners for Middle-East, Mediterranean and Africa in Cape Town South Africa, Dataflex Nigeria Limited was emerged hp Partner of the year for Africa.

This recognition done on DATAFLEX, immediately sets the Company apart from its Contemporaries and further places the organisation at a preferred Position with HP Global and more importantly too at an advantaged position to serve its growing customers better alongside, all other HP users. Receiving the Award, Dataflex's CEO, Andy Nwani expressed his joy and appreciation to HP on this recognition given to Dataflex, ‘I am elated to receive this award on behalf of DATAFLEX as the HP Partner of The Year For Africa. We at Dataflex, are committed to creating more business opportunities in Nigeria and West Africa going forward with innovative solutions and services coming from HP. We are also committed to providing our customers with exceptional service backed by both local and international expertise', says Mr. Nwani.

As one of the foremost Technology Companies in Nigeria, Dataflex has continued to provide technology solutions and services in areas around Emerson Power and precision cooling systems, HP Systems and servers; Storage and Networking devices to large and medium scale organizations; government and other end users. The HP Systems and services deployed and maintained by HP Engineers from Dataflex in these sectors have been tailored to suit preferred customer requirement.

This award to Dataflex was signed by Martin Kuceras, HP Support Director for Middle-East, Mediterranean and Africa (MEMA) and presented by Denise Grobler hp Channel Manager [ Services ] Manager for Africa. The recognition comes on the heels of the company's recent appointment as an hp authorized service partner with responsibility for warranty and non warranty services for personal systems, server systems, networking and commercial printing.

Meg Whitman appointed HP CEO

Electronics and consumable maker HP has announced that Meg Whitman has been appointed as the new president and chief executive officer for HP, replacing Leo Apotheker. The board of directors also moved Ray Lane from non-executive chairman to executive chairman of the board of directors.

“We are fortunate to have someone of Meg Whitman's calibre and experience step up to lead HP,” said Lane. “We are at a critical moment and we need renewed leadership to successfully implement our strategy and take advantage of the market opportunities ahead. Meg is a technology visionary with a proven track record of execution. She is a strong communicator who is customer focused with deep leadership capabilities. Furthermore, as a member of HP's board of directors for the past eight months, Meg has a solid understanding of our products and markets,” he continued.

Whitman added that she was ready to get started, although it is a huge responsibility. “I am honoured and excited to lead HP. I believe HP matters; it matters to Silicon Valley, California, the country and the world.”

While Apotheker was responsible for HP canning their WebOS and TouchPad tablet, Lane thanked him for his contribution. “We very much appreciate Leo's efforts and his service to HP since his appointment last year. The board believes that the job of the HP CEO now requires additional attributes to successfully execute on the company's strategy.”

It is suggested by CNN that Apotheker will leave HP a wealthy man, as he will walk away with $7.2 million in cash as severance and $18 million in stock.

Culled: itnewsafrica

PAGA Rolls out Mobile Money Transfer Service in Nigeria

By Francisca Nnnanna

As Nigeria wheels towards a cashless economy, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued full operating license to 11 mobile payment operators in the country. Pagatech, one of such firms is now set to offer Nigerians, what it described as an easy-to-use and secure money transfer service.

The concept according to the founder of Paga Tony Oviosu allows a customer to use his or her mobile phone to move money quickly, securely and across distances, directly to another mobile phone user. The customer does not need to have a bank account, but registers with Paga for an account. Customers turn cash into e-money by visiting any Paga retail agent across the country, and then follow simple instructions on their phones or an Internet-connected device to make payments through their Paga accounts.

Speaking at the formal media launch of the Paga mobile money services, Pagatech disclosed that their services is not tied to either a network or a specific financial institution, but that, they are working with all telecoms service providers and select banks and microfinance institutions in the country. Oviosu remarked that “Simplicity is the great innovation of Paga! Paga is the simplest way for Nigerians to transfer money to anyone in any part of the country. You no longer need to travel with large sums, or give bus driver money to deliver to your family in the rural areas – now with Paga you simply go to any Paga agent to transfer the money or do so by yourself using your phone or Internet enabled device. You don't need a SIM swap, you don't need a special phone, you don't even need to download an application – all you need is a handset that can send text messages. If you can send a text message, you can use Paga”

With the strong backing of investors such as the renowned venture capitalist Tim Draper and Goodwell West Africa, and with strategic relationships across industry sectors in Nigeria, Paga is poised to expand operations nationwide and fundamentally change the way Nigerians think about moving cash.

The Paga CEO said the company has been able to assemble about 250 trustworthy agents across its regional hub of Lagos, Kano and Onitsha, done over 18000 transactions volume worth over N100 million in six months, adding that the firm targets 3000 agents nationwide by 2015.

While acknowledging the challenges of securing online transaction and bandwidth availability which is largely responsible for the poor Quality of service experienced in the Nigerian telecoms industry and online transaction securities in the country, Oviosu said the company has put up a robust technology from its end that will take care of breaches in security and at the same time employed the services of trustworthy agents across its hub.

Paga's Chief Technical Officer, Mr. Eric Chijioke, added that, innovation is at the core of the company and believe strongly in developing “appropriate technology” for customers, “We don't want you to change your behavior to fit the technology but rather we have built Paga to fit your existing lifestyle''.

Africa needs greater emphasis on innovation

South African ICT engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs need to challenge the limits of technological innovation to enable all South Africans to positively benefit from the opportunities that social communications provide.

This is according to Obed Bapela, Deputy Minister of Communications in South Africa.

Bapela was addressing delegates at the Southern Africa Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference (SATNAC) Conference held at the East London International Convention Centre, in East London, South Africa.

“Government is committed to supporting research, development and innovation initiatives in the Information Communications Technologies (ICT's) and satellite sector, which aims to develop a strong base for an information society and knowledge economy,” says Bapela.

“We need to encourage innovation in content development that can address challenges of access to information such as e-government services and eHealth.

Broadband

This year's SATNAC theme is entitled Social Communications – Challenging the limits of Technology Innovation.

Bapela said- in order for the South African government to overcome technology challenges, it needs to invest in the new media age.

“Broadband infrastructure is an access enabler and with a 10% penetration this is not good for the country. We have begun a process of reviewing broadband policy and simultaneously developing an ICT plan to enable us to connect particularly villages and townships,” says Bapela.

Social communications

Bapela says more social communications applications need to be developed in order to begin to assist people to deal with daily challenges.

“We have not moved as a nation to adopt the use of technology in order to provide solutions,” says Bapela

“Facebook has about 750 million social communicators globally,” says Bapela.

“In April 2011, South African users reached 4 million, of which 33% are between the ages of 18 – 24 years.

“Mxit is the largest social network in South Africa with an estimated 19 million subscribers,” says Bapela.

Bapela stressed that Africa needs sufficient skills to develop local content and indigenous games.

Smarphone rise

Smartphones are on the rise in South Africa and has increased Internet access from 2,3 million in 2007 to 10 million plus users.

Bapela acknowledges that every innovation poses new technology threats including cybercrime.

“I have been assigned the portfolio of cyber-security and wish to invite your kind selves as specialists to assist us determine whether we should regulate applications such as BBM within the context of cyber security,” says Bapela.

Bapela praised Telkom for supporting centres of excellence in various African universities and urged other private sector companies to follow suit.

Culled from itnewsafrica.com

‘Launch of NigeriaSat-2, NigeriaSat-X, blessing to Africa'-NCRS

Gajere Nduke, Director of the National Centre for Remote Sensing (NCRS), says the successful launch of NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X is a blessing to Africa. Nduke, in an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday, said Nigeria would reap the benefit of investing in the satellites.

``Being the first satellite in Africa with this kind of high resolution, I am sure the West African Sub-region and Africa will be able to use it for development,'' Nduke said. He added that the satellites would help the country to adequately plan its various sectors and be used to outsource its natural resources. The director promised that the centre would make good use of the satellites for the development of the country.

``Because of the high resolution of the satellites, NCRS is going to use it to map Nigeria into 1:25,000 scale,'' Nduke added. Meanwhile, the Director-General, National Space Research and Development Agency, Dr Seidu Mohammed, has said that the successful launch of the two satellites had consolidated the country's position as a budding space nation.

Mohammed, in a statement signed by Felix Ale, NASRDA's Head of Media and Cooperate Affairs, said that defending the country's sovereignty was not only a political issue, but also scientific. He added that the efforts of young Nigerian engineers and scientists in building NigeriaSat-X had brought a lot of prestige to the country.

NAN

RIM to launch BBM Music service

Blackberry maker Research in Motion will apparently be rolling out a music service similar to iTunes and Spotify, although they won't be directly competing with those companies.

RIM's BlackBerry Torch 9800 (image: RIM)

According to source who spoke to Wall Street Journal, the company is currently engaged in developing the service, which will be called BBM Music, and might release it as early as next week while working in conjunction with Blackberry's BBM service.

“The sources claim that BBM Music isn't meant to compete with dominating services like iTunes or Spotify, while simultaneously pointing out that it will cost “significantly less” than Spotify (which currently offers free, $4.99, and $9.99 monthly tiers). Instead, BBM Music will supposedly allow users to access 50 songs at a time and share those songs over BlackBerry Messenger with friends,” website Ars Technica wrote.

The service is expected to allow young adults to customise their phones through the service, which would include setting the songs as ringtones, ringback tones, and message tones. According to the source, RIM has already signed deals with Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Warner Music Group, and EMI Group and is expected to make an official announcement soon.

Ericsson trials LTE by streaming 4 HD movies

Digital TV Viewing revolution

Speaking to ITNewsAfrica , Lars Lindén, Ericsson Regional Head said the LTE pilot comprises of 52 live pilot sites.
“It is a first of its kind in Africa. The objective is to further develop the MTN 3G mobile broadband network in order to achieve higher speeds,” said Lindén.
“LTE is another part of the future outlook,” said Lindén.

Why is network speed important?

“Users can transmit large volumes of data,” said Lindén.

“LTE is a giant leap. It's a new technology that enables these high speeds.”
Lindén predicts that by 2020 there will be about 50 billion global connections to mobile devices, machines and other technology gadgets.

Networked Society

“ Networked Society is a term used to talk about Ericsson's vision for the future. On planet Earth, everything that is worthwhile to be connected, will be connected,” said Lindén.

Lindén said LTE could possibly be the 6th industrial revolution. “ Everyone is lining up to take advantage of the ICT boom that is about to happen. It is a mind boggling phenomenon.”
“This will fundamentally change the way we live our lives,” said Lindén.

Africa's network
Marius van Wyk, Ericsson Head of Radio Access Networks for the Sub Saharan Africa region believes LTE is the next evolution of data technology that allows higher throughput speeds.

“This is an emerging technology – in the next few months it will be available on mobile devices. At the moment dongles are being used to trial the LTE network,” said van Wyk.

Van Wyk said the LTE network is not commercial yet. “The technology is not fully available in the market for end users.”

LTE opportunity for Africa
“There's so much opportunity in Africa. A real first world experience can be provided anywhere, including rural areas. More people will be permanently connected,” said van Wyk.

“This is another example of how Africa is playing in the world telecommunications stage.”

itnewsafrica.com

Huawei's Cheap Android phones selling fast

When Huawei assistant director for African expansion, Wang Liu, talked about developing a cheap Android phone for the African market, he knew it would be successful. But after the Chinese company launched the IDEOS phone earlier this year via Kenya's Safaricom, the results were better than they could have imagined

“We knew it would be successful and thought it would take some time to get moving, but the statistics coming in are amazing,” Liu said.

According to Safaricom, the $80 Android phone has been sold to over 350,000. That is a staggering statistic considering nearly half of Kenya's population lives on less than two dollars per day.

Liu said the key to Huawei's success was their ability to offer devices at a price-point that is affordable for the average Kenyan.

“We knew that if we could get the price down and make it cheap enough for people to get, lots would get out there because Android and smartphones are the future and people want the latest technology,” Liu said from Shanghai.

Janan Yussif

Visafone Launches Omh Android Dual Sim Phone

Visafone has recorded another landmark in the telecoms industry with its launch of Motorola XT 800 and ZTE R750 dual SIM touch screen smart phones which operate on the Android Operating System.  With the launch, Visafone has achieved the feat of becoming the first CDMA operator in Africa to roll out these devices.

A statement signed by the head, corporate communications, Joseph Ushigiale said the launch of the phone has been widely received with appreciable excitement having recorded over 600 unit sales just within one week of the official launch.
Android, the fastest selling growing mobile operating system in the US, UK and Europe, is an open-source mobile Google operating system with over 300,000 applications stored in the android market.

The device grants access to emails on the go, mobile office (word, excel, power point) applications and others. A report released recently by a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital business analytics, comScore MobiLense, showed that Android OS is currently leading other smart phones with a 38.1 per cent share of the market while Blackberry OS has 24.7 per cent share of the market.

Sailesh Iyer, chief executive officer of Visafone, said at the launch of the android phones that “We are excited to be the first mobile operator to launch the Android dual SIM OMH touch screen phone into the African market. This further empowers corporate organizations and Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) with tool of having a mobile office on the go.”

Iyer explained that the Android Dual-SIM  phones has been designed to enable users to easily access both their work and personal lifestyles via just one device, “The launch of the dual SIM Android Smartphone  also reflects our long term investment to develop high-tech devices which will enable our customers explore various unique applications that satisfy their needs,” he said.

“With the Android phone, Visafone customers can download applications like games, the Bible, Quran and access to social networking sites like YouTube, Face book, Twitter and news websites like CNN,” he pointed out. He said “Customers will also enjoy unique features of using their Visafone SIM and additional GSM SIM on one phone.

It also comes with mobile internet running on Visa Mobile Office (VMO) service, Email (Microsoft Exchange, Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, and AOL), EVDO and WIFI High Speed internet, Android market, Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo Messenger.”
Also available in the phone are tools such as; alarm, calculator, calendar, Google map, 5.0 MP Camera,  WAP 2.0, full browser, FM, Bluetooth 2.1, Office Tools and file manager and 2GB Micro SD among others.

Since its debut, Android has maintained a steady growth. According to recent data from Nielsen, a leading global information and measurement company, Android now commands a 29 per cent market share of Smartphone users in the US, with Blackberry dropping to 27 per cent. The phones are available in all Visafone 75 shops and dealer outlets nationwide.

IHS Partners Visafone on Infrastructure Sharing

A statement by IHS , said the infrastructure sharing arrangement was a long term partnership involving the sale and leaseback of tower assets of Visafone, aimed at optimising operational efficiencies.

The statement read in part, “This strategic partnership shall lead to significant benefits by enabling Visafone to focus on its core business of providing mobile services and solutions, bringing in operational efficiency, and enhanced quality of service to its customers.

“It will also provide IHS the platform of consolidating its telecoms infrastructure business and industry leadership position with more than 800 owned sites under collocation in Nigeria and several thousands of sites under management.”

The arrangement, according to the statement, is in line with global best practice in mobile telephone business.

The statement said such partnership would help telecoms companies increase operational efficiency by leveraging on the sale and leaseback of tower infrastructure, which had led to the rapid growth of telecoms infrastructure companies, resulting in significant synergies between operators.

The statement further said that the new partnership with IHS was part of Visafone's numerous strategic initiatives expected to position the company for attaining a subscriber base of 10 million within the next three years.

IHS is the leading telecoms infrastructure provider in sub-Saharan Africa with operations in Nigeria, Ghana, Sudan and other African countries.

The company manages more than 3,000 towers and is one of the few ICT companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

NFF, Samsung sign $1.5m sponsorship deal

Electronics giants, Samsung, is patnering with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), to move Nigerian football forward. The organisation yesterday in Lagos, signed a three-year deal with the federation valued at $1.5 million. By the agreement, Samsung, for the period will be known as the ‘Official Electronics of the National Teams'.

At the signing ceremony were Nicholas Shin, managing director Samsung West/Africa, Idy Enang, managing director Samsung Nigeria and Donald Etim, head of Marketing Communications of Samsung Nigeria. The NFF was represented by Musa Ahmadu, its acting secretary general and Mike Itemuagbor its consultant on marketing.

Speaking at the occasion, Enang said his organisation was partnering the NFF because it believed Nigerian football has the capacity to soar to the highest heights while he also wishes that Nigerians rallied behind the teams no matter the circumstances.

Ahmadu hailed the deal as one that will be of immense benefit to Nigerian football and called on other organisations to emulate what Samsung had done.

This is the second sponsorship deal the NFF would be entering into in the last one month. Last month, it signed a ? 2 billion agreement with telecommunications company, Globacom, which gave the organisation the rights to sponsor the Nigerian national teams and the amateur leagues

Huawei faces severe competition

A tier-1 carrier possesses a network in which it's the sole operator, meaning it has a direct connection to the Internet and the networks it uses to deliver voice and data services.

Similarly, a tier-2 carrier operates the same way, except it may get a portion of its network from a tier-1 operator by way of a concept known as “peering,” which can be loosely defined as piggybacking onto the network already in place by a tier-1 source.

Huawei said it is able to manage the effects of competition and maintain its position in mobile broadband and home convergence by keeping a watchful eye on the fierce competition in the provision of software solutions and applications.

Huawei Communications Manager for Southern Africa, Shalate Davhana, said in South Africa the company has a huge uptake of the Huawei IDEOS S7 Slim smartphone, which has started penetrating the market due to its value for money.

“In Kenya, the Huawei IDEOS U8150 is the top selling smartphone, dominating the market ahead of Nokia,” said Davhana.

“To date we have sold nearly 100 000 units .  We have launched the same handset in Uganda and are planning to launch in Zambia in August,” said Davhana.

Huawei has operations in Kenya, Zambia, Angola, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Namibia. It provides solutions, applications and software to local mobiles and telecoms companies across Africa.

“We are not only targeting larger telecom's companies, but also local distributors in each country who control the retail space, however we do not sell directly to the public,” said Davhana.

“Our mobile broadband products are still leading the markets throughout Africa.”

Culled from itnewsafrica.com

CAI:Providing Practical ICT solutions to Developing Countries

In order to enhance access to information technology in Africa and other developing countries, Computer Aid International non-profit provider of ICT for development has called for collaborative efforts in the distribution of computers to the less priviledged in the society

Though a sizable number of African countries have already made progress in technology access, the charity organization says more need to be done to put the continent on the global connectivity roadmap.

Having professionally provided refurbished over 175,000 PCs and laptops for use in schools, hospitals and community projects in more than 100 countries. CAI recently concluded its series of similar projects in Nigeria, recounting the progress recorded in donating refurbished PC's to Nigeria Gladys Muhunyo, a CAI representative says the NGO is encouraged by the potentials of Information technology and will do more to bridge the digital divide.

In addition to the provision of PCs, Computer Aid works on numerous initiatives designed to further increase access to ICT among poor and disadvantaged communities including the provision of e-training programmes for nurses and low cost software for partially sighted individuals.

The charity aims to reduce poverty through practical ICT solutions and it has recently begun working on a number of new and exciting projects. In 2010 Computer Aid launched its first solar powered internet café. The café consists of a standard shipping container which converts into a fully functional internet café and can be used by rural communities anywhere in the world. No mains electricity or wired connectivity are needed. To function, it only requires power from the sun and the internet access is acquired through cellular data connection, wifi or VSAT. Computer Aid has so far shipped two to Zambia and one to Kenya and the charity is currently seeking corporate support to ship more.

NITDA: A Decade Of ICT Regulation

STRENGHTENING NIGERIAS IT CAPACITY

The government's agency which is charged with the responsibility of regulating the Nigerian IT space has in the past decade, recorded tremendous success in Information Technology development especially in the areas of capacity building, e-governance, IT policy framework and lots more by encouraging Public private partnership.

EFFECTS ON CAPACITY BUILDING

In other to fill the gap between the academia and the industry in the area of trained manpower, NITDA plays a vital role in ensuring that IT education begins early enough so that pupils develop interest in information technology profession. With the introduction of such initiatives as the ‘Catch Them Young”, Train the Trainer Programme" and the NITDA scholarship scheme, IT education is given priority in order to groom the human capacity required to feed the bourgeoning IT sector. The ongoing train the Trainer programme is aimed at equipping lecturers at tertiary institutions with up to date skills in IT education. In the scheme, professional certification courses like CISCO, Oracle etc are taught to augment the provisions of the current IT curricula which expert say is long outdated.

ICT4D PLAN

Another laudable project of the agency is the national Information and Communications Technology for Development (ICT4D) Plan adjudged by industry watchers as a strategic plan for the actualization of a digital Nigeria. The action plan which was designed in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) presents Nigeria's roadmap for a development of information and knowledge based society and economy as a means of facilitating the realization of national socio-economic development.

The ICT4D plan provides concrete implementation strategies for a period of 5 years for the key sectors – health , education , infrastructure , human resource development , agriculture, legal/regulations , private sector/industry , media/community - as part of an integrated approach to achieving national development within the context of the Federal Government's Seven Point Agenda, the National Economic Empowerment Development Programme ( NEEDS ), as well as other socio-economic development programmes and initiatives. The agency has successfully staged four stakeholders' sectoral workshops to intimate stakeholders in the private and public sectors on the implementation of various ICT programmes and projects. The agency in a bid to measure the impacts of such programmes set up a monitoring group to report annually IT initiatives and activities going on in the industry.

RITCs: Rural Information Technology Centres Project

The deployment of RITCs across the Nation is part of the outlines of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and NITDA's target objective of providing Internet access to the rural communities. The idea behind the RITCs is government's response toward providing access to the rural populace across Nigeria and making them an integral part of the new global economy driven by ICT. Given the fact that over half of the Nigerian populace are rural dwellers and to ensure that these groups are not left out in the digital inclusion NITDA established RITC's in various communities across the nation.

The Director General of NITDA Cleopas Angaye, a professor of…noted that the agency will continue to innovate and support Research and development to ensure Nigeria joins the league of the top world economies. According to him plans are underway for Nigeria's IT park which he says would serve as a grooming ground for new ideas and encourage local content thereby improving Nigeria's GDP with science technology innovation.

Francisca Nnanna

MTN Group to release mid-year results

MTN Group, one of Africa's largest cellular mobile network operators is set to release its 2011 mid-year financial results in two weeks' time, a company spokesman has revealed.

The release is scheduled for 17 August 2011 at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg in South Africa.

The company's CEO Sifiso Dabengwa , will publicly announce their overall African operational performance.

MTN Group Spokesman, Rich Mkhondo, said the results announcement will be for the six months ended 30 June 2011.

The financial statement comes at a time MTN told ITNewsAfrica that the company plans to roll out over 1 000 Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) base stations across SA's rural areas, over the next two years.

Earlier this week MTN Chief Technology Officer, Kanagaratnam Lambotharan said the mobile operator's vision was to provide mobile broadband connectivity throughout South Africa, citing the huge investments in solar powered radio transmission and Base Transceiver Station (BTS) sites.

MTN, which boasts a huge investment in the West Africa Cable System (WACS) and a substantial investment in East Africa Cable System (EASSy) said it would bring the much-needed broadband capacity to millions of its subscribers in the country and its operations across the continent and the Middle East.

“These investments in undersea cables have already decreased the cost of internet connectivity, further giving consumers an enhanced customer experience,” said Lambotharan.

He said MTN's data pricing would gradually decrease as the cellular mobile operator started seeing more fibre links being rolled out across the country as well as undersea.

Lambotharan said Africa was still lagging behind in terms of broadband penetration, but was quick to point out that MTN was confident that when the undersea cables and fibre optic cables were operational they would spur socio-economic development and help the continent address the challenges of underdevelopment.

Culled from itnewsafrica.com

NetApp Named One of the World's Most Innovative Companies

NetApp announced that it was ranked #34 out of 100 on Forbes magazine's "World's Most Innovative Companies" list for 2011. NetApp was recognized for building a culture of innovation that has transformed the foundation of its customers' business and been a catalyst to their success. Most importantly, NetApp® innovation provides its customers with the technology, products, people, and service that allow them to outpace, outinnovate, and outperform their competition to achieve remarkable results for their business.

“NetApp is honored to be identified as a global innovator—this is great recognition of the innovative spirit that is at the core of NetApp's DNA,” said Tom Georgens, president and CEO of NetApp. “NetApp was built on a culture of innovation that has pushed the boundaries of what is possible. We are focused on innovating in all aspects of our business to create a clear competitive advantage. Forbes's recognition is the result of our employees' commitment to creating an environment where innovation thrives and hard work leads to better business outcomes for NetApp, our customers, and our partners.”

Innovation Fueling NetApp's Growth and Success

NetApp's commitment to making its customers successful with breakthrough innovation has resulted in growth that only a select group of companies have achieved. NetApp has historically been recognized throughout the industry for continually pushing the limits of today's technology and being at the forefront of major market shifts by delivering product and technology innovation that has fueled its customers' success. This innovation has continued today as NetApp has delivered unprecedented efficiency and flexibility for customers to respond quickly to their rapidly changing business needs. This stream of new innovations, many of them around new technologies and around new markets, continues to fuel NetApp's growth.

NetApp is also currently ranked as a “Top 10” best place to work around the globe for 2011 by the Great Place to Work Institute, based on a unique corporate culture that values creativity, teamwork, open communication, leadership, adaptability, and trust. This culture drives NetApp's innovative technologies, products, and business strategies. By living these values, NetApp employees are empowered to develop new ideas every day and continue to make breakthroughs happen for its customers.

About the Forbes Most Innovative Companies List

The “World's Most Innovative Companies” list aims to identify which leading-edge corporations are most likely to succeed now and in the future based on an eight-year study by Harvard Business School professor and master of disruptive innovation Clayton M. Christensen, along with colleagues Jeff Dyer, a professor at Brigham Young University, and Hal B. Gregersen, a professor of leadership at INSEAD, and also found in their newly released book, The Innovator's DNA . The methodology relies on investors to identify the companies they expect to be innovative today and in the future.

Embedded in each of these companies is a code for innovation, discernible in their people, processes, and philosophies—what Forbes refers to as a “3P” framework for understanding the DNA of innovative organizations. What does the average company need to achieve in these areas to spark an innovation premium? It needs a fundamental change within senior managers (some mastery of the five discovery skills), changes in how their innovation project teams work (processes that support innovation), and changes in philosophies that foster the belief that innovation really is everyone's job.

Nigeria'e Replacement Satellite Set To Be Launched

by Francisca Nnanna

Come December 25 th this year Nigeria may have another satellite. This is authoritative as it is coming from the MD/CE of the Nigerian Communications Satellite Engr. Ahmed Rufai. This and more were the focus at the NIGCOMSAT1-R pre launch conference held at the Nigeria's Capital City Abuja.

The Nigcomsat 1-R is a replacement of the Nigerian communications satellite 1 that was launched in 2007 but was de-orbited in 2008. NIGCOMSAT 1became the first African communication satellite , when it was launched in May 2007, aboard a Chinese Long March 3B carrier rocket , from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in China. The spacecraft was operated by Nigcomsat and the Nigerian Space Agency, NASRDA . In November 2008, NigComSat-1 failed in orbit after running out of power due to an anomaly in its solar array. And the Nigerian government in its resilience through the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, and Nigcomsat Ltd signed and CGWIC signed a further contract for the in-orbit delivery of the NigComSat-1R satellite.

NigComSat-1R is also a DFH-4 satellite, according to the project manager the satellite has the same features of NIGCOMSAT 1, with a few modifications based on future market trends. It is said to be a supper hybrid geostationary satellite with C, KU,KA and L bands. The Ka band power has been enhanced and the satellite is expected to provide the most optimal and cost effective voice, data, video, internet and application services/solutions.

The NIGCOMSAT 1-R when launched will affect Nigeria's economic landscape as its effect will be felt in areas such as broadcasting, telecommunication, real-time monitoring, telemedicine amongst others. Rufai added that it will further avail Nigerians with more access to the internet as it will complement the services of the fibre optic cables that have landed at the shores of the country.

Recounting the revolution witnessed in the Nigerian telecoms sector the former EVC of the Nigerian Communications Commission Ernest Ndukwe expressed hope that the launch of the NIGCOMSAT-1r will launch Nigeria into a broadband revolution most required for the actualization of a digital Nigeria.

With the expert presentation as this conference, it is clear that when NIGCOMSAT 1R eventually goes into the orbit it is certainly going to make an economic impact and a political statement.

For more details watch AIT INFOTECH NETWORK TV magazine this Friday @ 3:30pm

From the Socket to the Sun…the Samsung Solar Netbook

To survive and thrive in today's economy, it takes a lot more than just clinging to yesterday's strategies and hoping for the best. This is simply real as competition in the technology world is taking its toll on organizations that have refused to get out of the box. Following increased competition in the mobile world, and the growing need for more eco friendly gadgets, manufacturers are trying a great deal to outwit one another in the tech world. One of such innovations is world's first solar-powered netbook by Samsung. The notebook which was has been on sale in Europe, America and South Africa was recently launched in Nigeria. Samsung acclaimed for his built for Africa electronics beat other notebook makers to manufacture a notebook which would not only reduce the pain associated with power inadequacy in Sub Saharan Africa but designed this technology in consideration of the global demand to reduce emission.

The Samsung NC215S is a unique net book with solar panel on the back with a 10'' LCD screen, 1024 by 600-pixel display and weight 1.3kg. an Intel Atom N570 (1.66 GHz) dual-core processor, 1GB RAM and a 250GB or 320nGB drive, integrated Intel graphics, USB ports with sleep-and-charge function which can charge the portable device even if the computer is in sleep mode or turned off. It can also do this, even if the battery is depleted, by using the solar panel. It also includes a webcam, SD card slot, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth are the devices main features. Samsung NC215 net book is equipped with a 6-cell battery which lasts for 15 hours, in addition to the solar panel on the lid that provides two extra hours of battery life.

As the rains continued to hammer Lagos with devastating effects, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) has said that the tsunami-like flood that occurred recently in Lagos would not abet until the water level went down.
Places mostly affected by last week's downpour included Ikeja, Iyana-Ipaja, Ijaye, Egbeda, Surulere, Ijesha, Ebute Meta, Ikosi-Ketu, Mile 12, Agiliti, Agbado, Ikorodu, Apapa,

Amuwo Odofin, Festac Town, Lekki-Ajah, among others.
The flood which led to the death of about 20 residents displaced thousands of people and destroyed properties worth millions of naira. Equally, many workers in the Lagos metropolis could not get to their offices, as movement of vehicules were disrupted, due to the flooded roads.

According to a media report, “a source at the NIMET office at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, who did not want to be quoted said”, “The flooding will continue, because the rains have continued to fall and the water level is very high. It has not gone down. Until we have the August-break, there would be more flooding.”
She stated that the unprecedented flood that had overwhelmed residents of the state may result to serious crisis.
The report added that the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research (NIOMR) said that the 264-millimetre rainfall recorded in Lagos on Sunday was the volume expected for one month.

The assistant director in the institute, Dr. Regina Folorunsho, who stated this advised Nigerians to brace up and be on the alert for more of such occurrence.
“The exact amount of the rain that fell on Sunday was meant for one month, but we had it in just a day. There was no way anyone would have prepared for such amount of rainfall,” she said.

Lagos is said to be experiencing Atlantic waves as tall as six meters, and that flooding of Ikoyi and Victoria Island was only prevented by the construction of a barrier wall close to the Bar Beach.

Also, Experts had warned earlier this year that there would be food shortage occasioned by drought.

Robots to Check Inside the Innards of Nuclear Reactors

As workers continue to grapple with the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear powerplant in Japan, the crisis has shone a spotlight on nuclear reactors around the world. In June, The Associated Press released results from a yearlong investigation, revealing evidence of "unrelenting wear" in many of the oldest-running facilities in the United States

That study found that three-quarters of the country's nuclear reactor sites have leaked radioactive tritium from buried piping that transports water to cool reactor vessels, often contaminating groundwater. According to a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the industry has limited methods to monitor underground pipes for leaks.

"We have 104 reactors in this country," says Harry Asada, the Ford Professor of Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and director of MIT's d'Arbeloff Laboratory for Information Systems and Technology. "Fifty-two of them are 30 years or older, and we need immediate solutions to assure the safe operations of these reactors."

Asada says one of the major challenges for safety inspectors is identifying corrosion in a reactor's underground pipes. Currently, plant inspectors use indirect methods to monitor buried piping: generating a voltage gradient to identify areas where pipe coatings may have corroded, and using ultrasonic waves to screen lengths of pipe for cracks. The only direct monitoring requires digging out the pipes and visually inspecting them -- a costly and time-intensive operation.

Now Asada and his colleagues at the d'Arbeloff Laboratory are working on a direct monitoring alternative: small, egg-sized robots designed to dive into nuclear reactors and swim through underground pipes, checking for signs of corrosion. The underwater patrollers, equipped with cameras, are able to withstand a reactor's extreme, radioactive environment, transmitting images in real-time from within.

The group presented details of its latest prototype at the 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

Cannonball!

At first glance, Asada's robotic inspector looks like nothing more than a small metallic cannonball. There are no propellers or rudders, or any obvious mechanism on its surface to power the robot through an underwater environment. Asada says such "appendages," common in many autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), are too bulky for his purposes -- a robot outfitted with external thrusters or propellers would easily lodge in a reactor's intricate structures, including sensor probes, networks of pipes and joints. "You would have to shut down the plant just to get the robot out," Asada says. "So we had to make [our design] extremely fail-safe."

He and his graduate student, Anirban Mazumdar, decided to make the robot a smooth sphere, devising a propulsion system that can harness the considerable force of water rushing through a reactor. The group devised a special valve for switching the direction of a flow with a tiny change in pressure and embedded a network of the Y-shaped valves within the hull, or "skin," of the small, spherical robot, using 3-D printing to construct the network of valves, layer by layer. "At the end of the day, we get pipelines going in all … directions," Asada says. "They're really tiny."

Depending on the direction they want their robot to swim, the researchers can close off various channels to shoot water through a specific valve. The high-pressure water pushes open a window at the end of the valve, rushing out of the robot and creating a jet stream that propels the robot in the opposite direction.

Robo-patrol

As the robot navigates a pipe system, the onboard camera takes images along the pipe's interior. Asada's original plan was to retrieve the robot and examine the images afterward. But now he and his students are working to equip the robot with wireless underwater communications, using laser optics to transmit images in real time across distances of up to 100 meters.

The team is also working on an "eyeball" mechanism that would let the camera pan and tilt in place. Graduate student Ian Rust describes the concept as akin to a hamster ball.

"The hamster changes the location of the center of mass of the ball by scurrying up the side of the ball," Rust says. "The ball then rolls in that direction."

To achieve the same effect, the group installed a two-axis gimbal in the body of the robot, enabling them to change the robot's center of mass arbitrarily. With this setup, the camera, fixed to the outside of the robot, can pan and tilt as the robot stays stationary.

Asada envisions the robots as short-term, disposable patrollers, able to inspect pipes for several missions before breaking down from repeated radiation exposure.

"The system has a simplicity that is very attractive for deployment in hostile environments," says Henrik Christensen, director of the Center for Robotics and Intelligent Machines at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Christensen, who was not involved in the work, observed that robots such as Asada's could be useful not only for monitoring nuclear reactors, but also for inspecting other tight, confined spaces -- sprawling city sewer pipes, for example. "One would like to have a system that can be deployed at a limited cost and risk, so an autonomous system of minimal size is very attractive," he says.

Culled from Science Daily

Obama tweets for the first time, tweaks Republicans

President Barack Obama took to Twitter to press his economic agenda, using the popular social media site to tweak Republicans and advocate for a deal to reduce the deficit.

In a "town hall" style meeting that lasted about an hour, the president fielded questions posted by users of the Twitter site and sent his first live tweet from a laptop in the White House East Room -- making what he called presidential history.

Sitting on a tall stool with a screen that showed tweeted questions nearby, Obama responded aloud before an audience of 140 invited guests who came to the White House for the event.

That number was a nod to a key part of "tweeting."

Twitter users send short, 140-character messages through the Internet about issues large and small.

The White House has tried using Twitter and other new media outlets to reach American voters, sometimes making announcements that way instead of through more traditional journalistic venues. The White House's @whitehouse account has some 2.25 million followers.

Obama, who is not known for brevity, touched on topics ranging from the weak housing market to NASA to the debate about the U.S. debt ceiling.

He did not stick to concise answers and did not send further tweets himself.

"One last point -- I know Twitter, I'm supposed to be short," he said while answering a question about education, drawing some laughter.

Another funny moment came when Republican John Boehner, Speaker of the House of Representatives, managed to get in a question through a Twitter message of his own.

"After embarking on a record ... spending binge that left us deeper in debt, where are the jobs?" read the moderator, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, from Boehner's tweet.

The tweet had some typos, however.

"First of all, John obviously needs to work on his typing skills," Obama joked.

"Obviously John's the speaker of the House. He's a Republican. And so, this is a slightly skewed question."

Obama went on to say that the United States had not seen fast enough job growth relative to U.S. needs.

Housing Woes

Asked by one Twitter user what mistakes he had made in office, Obama singled out the moribund housing market.

"The continuing decline in the housing market is something that hasn't bottomed out as quickly as we expected," he said.

"We've had to revamp our housing program several times to try to help people stay in their homes and try to start lifting home values up."

Obama is locked in a dispute with congressional Republicans about how to reduce the deficit and raise the debt ceiling, and he used many of his answers during the town hall to press his case for ending tax loopholes while reducing spending.

He said the country could face a second recession or worse if Congress did not raise the borrowing limit and suggested Republicans were using the debate like a gun to the head of the American people to support tax breaks corporate jet owners and the wealthiest Americans.

The Twitter town hall came after hackers took control of a FoxNews.com Twitter account on Monday, sending six false tweets saying Obama had been shot dead and prompting an investigation by the Secret Service.

Obama was at home at the White House on Monday, celebrating the July 4 holiday with his family.

The White House has declined comment on the hacking event.

REUTERS

Facebook launches video chat with Skype

Facebook will add Skype video chat to its pages, aiming to spice up the appeal of the world's No. 1 Internet social networking service while fending off increased competition from Google.

The agreement, announced by Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg at the company's Palo Alto, California, headquarters on Wednesday, deepens the company's cooperation with Microsoft Corp, which is in the process of buying Skype to build up its web presence.

Zuckerberg said Facebook has hit a record 750 million users. The new service, rolling out from Wednesday, could be a huge boost for Skype, which currently has about 145 million regular users.

The partnership comes as competition heats up in the Internet market, with Facebook and Google, as well as fast-growing companies such as Groupon and Twitter, vying for billions of dollars in online advertising revenue.

By incorporating free video chat directly into its service, Facebook will give its members another reason to use the site more often and for longer periods of time, said Gartner analyst Ray Valdes.

"They need to continue to keep their users engaged and coming back everyday," he said of Facebook.

Facebook's Skype service, initially limited to one-to-one video chat, will be free. Financial details of the deal, if any, were not disclosed.

Tony Bates, Skype's chief executive, said Wednesday's deal with Facebook is only the start of a potentially lucrative partnership.

"For us, this makes a lot of business sense," said Bates at the Palo Alto event. "We get huge reach. In the future we're talking about potentially also having Skype paid products available within the web format we saw here today."

In a phone interview later on Wednesday, Neil Stevens, the general manager of Skype's consumer business, said the company was planning on introducing a for-pay service that would allow users on Facebook to place calls to landline and mobile phones.

Stevens said he could not provide a timeframe for when such a service might be available, and said details about whether the service would work with Facebook's so-called Credits currency had yet to be worked out.

Hitting Back At Google

Facebook, which also unveiled a group messaging function, adding to its existing one-to-one text chat, is returning fire from Google, which last week turned up the competitive heat by introducing a social networking service dubbed Google+.

While many of Google+'s social networking features are similar to those already available on Facebook, Google is generating interest with its videoconferencing function, which allows up to 10 people on the service to participate in a video call.

Zuckerberg hinted that video chat for multiple people could eventually be available on Facebook. But he said that most video chats today occur between two people.

"We think this is awesome because we're using the best technology that's out there for doing video chat with the best social infrastructure that's out there to create some really cool new scenarios," said Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg said Wednesday's announcements were the first of several to come in what he described as "launching season 2011."

Facebook's new video offering could benefit Microsoft, which owns 1.6 percent of Facebook and announced its $8.5 billion purchase of Skype in May.

The world's largest software company is investing heavily to muscle in on Google's turf with its Bing search engine, and is hoping Skype -- which it is buying for about 10 times its annual sales -- will help it broaden its portfolio of Web-based properties.

"Clearly you will see more usage (of Skype)," said Sid Parakh, analyst, at McAdams Wright Ragen. "It makes Skype stickier in the consumer mind. That will help Microsoft as it starts to integrate Skype into its products."

Skype, which was founded in 2003, allows people to make Internet phone calls and video calls at no charge and has also developed premium services.

REUTERS

Hackers expose flaw in Apple iPad, iPhone software

Hackers have disclosed a bug in software from Apple Inc that security experts said could be exploited by criminals looking to gain remote control over iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices

The security flaw in Apple's iOS operating system came to light on Wednesday as the website www.jailbreakme.com released code that Apple customers can use to modify the iOS operating system through a process known as "jail breaking."

Some Apple customers choose to jail break their devices so they can download and run applications that are not approved by Apple or use iPhone phones on networks of carriers that are not approved by Apple.

Security experts warned that criminal hackers could download that code, reverse engineer it to identify a hole in iOS security and build a piece of malicious software within a few days.

"If you are a malicious attacker, it is fairly doable," said Patrik Runald, a senior researcher with the Internet security firm Websense.

Apple has yet to release an update to iOS that protects customers against malicious software that exploits the flaw.

Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said the company was aware of the problem.

"We are developing a fix that will be available to customers in an upcoming software update," Muller said.

Apple has long been vocal against jail breaking, which if done voids the warranty on its devices.

Any security flaw in iOS software -- which runs Apple's iPhone, iPad tablet and iPod Touch -- has the potential to affect millions of devices that are at the core of Apple's business.

Apple has sold 25 million iPads since it launched last year. The company sold over 18 million of its popular iPhones in just the first three months of the year.

Hackers can exploit the iOS vulnerability by creating a malicious PDF document file. It would infect Apple devices when users attempt to open that document, according to Runald.

Once the device is infected, hackers could "do anything they want," Runald said. That includes stealing passwords, documents and emails.

Comex, a 19-year-old hacker from New York State who developed the jail-breaking tool, said that Apple might be able to patch the software before criminal hackers develop software that exploits the bug.

Last time he put out a version of his jailbreaking software, Apple was able to issue a patch before anybody exploited the bug for malicious purposes.

He said that Apple might not be able to move quickly enough this time.

"It's not that hard to reverse engineer," he said via telephone.

REUTERS

Internet Growth in Nigeria and the Challenges of Cyber Attacks

Cyber attacks are globally on the rise as individuals, corporations and governments are constantly faced with the challenge of securing their information on the cyberspace. Security experts are finding it increasingly tough to cope with cyber threat as hackers seem to device new tricks by the second.

This gave rise to the question of Nigeria's preparedness to curb cybercrime, considering the recent surge in internet traffic in the country. As more businesses and government activities go on the cyberspace, observers fear it could lead to an uncontrollable rise in cybercrime. In the words of professor Akwule of the digital bridge institute It is a growing concern as major corporations around the world have been hit, Cyber attackers have devised sophisticated methods and it requires an increasingly large effort to block them

Recently, world foremost financial institution the international monetary fund IMF says it has been targeted by a sophisticated cyber attacker. Officials at the fund gave a few details but said the attack earlier this year had been a very major breach of its systems, the New York Times reports. Cyber security officials said the hack was designed to install software to create digital insider presence. The IMF which holds sensitive economic data about many countries said its operations were fully functional. The New York Times said IMF staff had been told of the intrusion by email but that the fund had not made a public announcement. The email warned that suspicious file transfers had been detected and that an investigation had shown a desktop at the Fund had been compromised and used to access some fund systems. The World Bank said it briefly cut its network connection with the fund out as Bloomberg quoted an unnamed security expert as saying hackers were connected to a foreign government and added that, such attacks are very difficult to trace.

In the same vein the US government has been hit by major hackers, which has put security operatives in the country on their toes. Also China amongst other countries have experienced major cyber attacks in recent times. In Nigeria, experts have expressed fear that if concerted efforts are not made by security operatives and the government to secure the cyberspace the nation might loose top national information to hackers who are increasing by the day due to internet expansion. While there are many unreported cases of cyber attacks, a lot of Nigerians have fallen victims of hacking by the popular ‘yahoo yahoo' boys.

Globally Nigeria ranks 4 th in the global cybercrime rating though the Economic and Financial crime commission EFCC have reported some cases of cyber attacks with victims apprehended experts however said there is need for a proactive measures to be established to secure the nations database and online transactions.

The latest Report on Global food Prices released by the Food and Agricultural organization FOA recently showed that the world's food import bill is expected to reach a new record of about 200 trillion dollars this year. This amount represents a 20 percent increase, higher than the global food imports in 2010.

And going by this report, Nigeria is expected to spend about 802 billion naira on the importation of food items in 2011, owing to the spiraling food prices across the world.

Currently Nigeria spends about 400bn on food imports annually. Of this amount 155bn is spent on the importation of rice, the country's most popular food.

Specifically, the FAO stated in international food trade, the global food import bill is expected to reach a new record of 1.29trillion dollars in 2011-21 percent more than in 2010.

The report added that low income food deficit and least developed countries would be hardest hit since they would likely have to spend respectively 27 and 30 per cent more on food imports than last year, the organization noted.

Expenditures on imported foodstuffs for vulnerable countries could account for roughly 18% of their total import bills compared to a world average of 7%. High and volatile agricultural commodity prices are likely to prevail for the rest of the year and into 2012” it said

It further noted that next few months will be critical in determining how the major crops will fare this year. Although prospects are encouraging in some countries, weather conditions, featuring too little and in some cases too much rain could hamper maize and wheat yields in Europe and America. Also in Uganda, the price of maize among other crops is said to have risen by 114 percent over the past year owing to the drought experienced in the east African country.

International food prices which earlier this year soared to levels seen in 2007 and 2008 food crisis, dropped by a modest one percent in may.

However, the director of FAO's Markets and Trade Division, Mr. David Hallam has been reported to say that the rise in global food prices was a great threat to food importing countries such as Nigeria.

With this one may wonder why Nigeria amidst its abundance land and manpower resources with unmatched favorable climate should be counted amongst nations to experience this scarcity. According to Dr. Peter Acholonu, there is need for concerted efforts from government at all levels to make food available in the country.

If the recent warning by the National Emergency Management Agency NEMA is anything to go by then, there is cause for alarm. The Director General of the agency had warned that there will be a lot of flood in the country this year which will result to acute food shortage. This is in a country that largely depends on import to feed its teeming populace.

The question on the lips of many Nigerians remains what can be done to forestall the crises.

SkyVision Global Networks ltd., a leading global provider of IP connectivity over satellite and fiber optic systems, has announced that it has been chosen as broadband fiber connectivity solution provider for Starcomms , Nigeria.

In a release made available to pressmen, said the organisation's end-to-end solution is based on the SkyVision PoP located in Lagos and connected to international submarine cables on the coasts of Nigeria.  By way of international submarine cables, SkyVision provided connectivity solutions for a range of Starcomms' PoPs across Nigeria enabling hundreds of Mbps high quality connectivity to Tier-1 Internet Service Providers through SkyVision's PoP in Lagos.

“SkyVision is pleased to be able to respond to Starcomms' demand for high quality international fiber connectivity for its major PoPs across Nigeria. Additionally, we are honored to support Starcomms' vision to become a premier provider of world-class, fixed and wireless communications solutions throughout Nigeria,” stated SkyVision CEO, Mr. Doron Ben Sira. Through our fully customized, independent and scalable solution, Starcomms is able to provide its customers with high quality internet connectivity and support the increasing demand for superior service in the Nigerian market.

 “As our proven high quality Broadband communication provider over satellite for the past three years, SkyVision's continuous commitment, close attention to company needs and first-class customer service made them the natural choice of provider for this exciting new venture. With SkyVision's international fiber connectivity to Starcomms' PoPs across Nigeria, we can now provide our customers with top of the line Tier-1 internet service,” commented Logan Pather, Chief Commercial Officer at Starcomms Plc. 

About SkyVision

SkyVision provides telecommunication service to emerging markets, offering solutions that combine satellite service platforms with high-capacity fiber optic connections.  Via its gateways in Europe, North America, Africa and the Middle East, the company provides IP connectivity with access to the global Internet backbone, as well as an extensive suite of both customized end-to-end solutions and industry-standard services. With a connectivity network spanning 100 countries, SkyVision's solutions combine global reach with active local presence and support. 

SIM Card: Proxies to register for Minors, Elderly, says NCC

The Nigerian Communications Commission at the weekend in Port Harcourt , Rivers State, said that proxies, who may be relations or guardians of Minors or Elderly persons, can register their SIM Card on their behalf where they are not disposed to do same in the ongoing nationwide SIM registration exercise.

Responding to questions at the 60 th edition of the monthly Telecom Consumer Parliament by the Commission which held in Port Harcourt, Mr. Okechukwu Itanyi, Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management of the telecom regulatory agency, said such situation is allowed where dependable relations of such persons are available for registration.

Mr. Itanyi who represented the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Dr. Eugene Juwah, at the event, said in a situation where minors or senior citizens who have phones are not able to go and register, proxy registration will be allowed and such proxies must be the type who will take full responsibility for such registration.

“A dependable relation can register on behalf of a subscriber which means that the photograph and biometrics of such relation would be taken in place of the phone owner's, which means that persons registering on behalf of any minor or elderly must vouch for them since one of the reasons for SIM registration is to curb crimes perpetrated through use of mobile phones”, he said.

Mr. Itanyi also assured subscribers nationwide that the information given out by subscribers during the registration will be treated with confidence as the facilities being deployed will ensure that such information are safe, secured and kept with utmost confidentiality.

He urged the subscribers to ensure that they are all registered within the period given by the Commission so as to avoid disconnection.

He also listed the Commission's efforts to improve Quality of Service and foster competition and the plan the Commission is also planning to introduce number portability but that a credible central data base of all SIM Cards in the country is important for the take off.

Social Media – popular amongst students

Technology should be used to foster modern learning

We are at the beginning of a fundamental shift in the way that teaching and learning takes place – but this should not be seen as a threat to educators, but rather as an opportunity to take on the new challenges that technology and social media tools offer.

That was the message from the UK-based social media consultant Jane Hart, who was delivering the keynote address at the bi-annual, three-day Intel “ICT in the Classroom” conference at St John's College in Johannesburg on 5 July 2011. The event has drawn teachers from across the country to share their practical experience of utilising technology to foster modern learning.

“The first step to technology will be to understand the changes that are taking place, and then become immersed in the new social media tools that are underpinning this change in order to work smarter as well as help your students learn smarter,” says Hart, who founded the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies.

Intel's head of Corporate Affairs, Parthy Chetty says the event not only highlights the fact that the days of “chalk and talk” are being revolutionised, but that there is clear evidence that technology is having ripple effects throughout entire communities where it is deployed.

“Teachers are increasingly using education tools such as Twitter, Facebook, online networks, Wikipedia, multimedia software and assessment tool applications to further the learner experience in the classroom,” says Chetty.

“What we're seeing is that where schools use these tools, communities embrace them as well, which leads to a general raise in computer literacy and levels of economic activity.”

The event is a joint venture between Intel, which has a long-standing commitment to improving education across the world, and non-profit organisation, SchoolNet SA, which works tirelessly in South Africa to empower learners and teachers alike.

“Today, learners are using technology to learn, and not learning to use technology – a basic concept, since you often find youngsters have no problem grasping new technology while the older generation initially struggles to come to terms with concepts like social media,” says Chetty.

One of the teachers attending the event is Fiona Beal, of Fish Hoek Primary School in the Western Cape, who is a computer teacher, a senior trainer for SchoolNet SA, and a textbook writer for Vivlia Publishers.

“My passion in education is to see ICT integrated with the curriculum in South Africa as it is happening in other countries. We are dealing with digital learners who need to be adequately prepared for their futures in a rapidly changing world,” says Beal.

Chetty believes firmly that technology is a good starting tool to prepare learners for the world teachers prepare their learners for.

“Ultimately, our goal at Intel is to produce articulate, numerate, literate and capable school leavers. And to do that, we need to empower teachers and learners alike, giving them the tools they need to absorb and apply more information.”

Culled from IT News Africa

Expert Opinions Differ On What To Expect On World Ipv6 Day

In preparation for the world internet protocol version 6 day which will be commemorated on Wednesday the 8 th of June, digital sense Africa in partnership with the Nigerian communications commission and the national information technology development agency nitda organized a one day sensitization forum on the migration from the IPV4 to IPV6. In a roundtable which held in Lagos the organizers said the forum became imperative as the whole world is talking about this migration which is necessitated by the depletion of the ipv4. The ipv4 has served the internet community for over 30 years and provides for approximately 4.3 billion addresses.

Experts say the IPv4 can no longer handle the demand for new IP addresses, hence IPv6 is designed to provide enough IP addresses to allow the Internet to expand. However, there are compatibility issues with regard to switching from IPv4 to IPv6.
Google, Facebook, Yahoo, and Akamai, and a number of more companies across the world will offer content over IPv6 for a 24-hour “test flight." This is to motivate ISPs, hardware makers, software makers, and Web companies to prepare their services for IPv6. While some groups have argued that the test flight will disrupt internet access others say there is no cause for alarm as the test flight

Ipv6 is the next generation internet protocol and is central to the continued growth and stability of the internet as the IPV4 is running out of space. With Asia being one of the strongest adopters of IPv6, ISPs, hardware and software makers, and Web companies are preparing their services for IPv6. Internet societies are also working with members and other organizations to promote its deployment by sharing information and helping to build the required operational capability among the internet community. Mr. Oyetomi olujimi who spoke on behalf of the information and communication ministry said government is prepared to work with the private sector in creating awareness and building the required infrastructure for a successful migration.

Experts at the IPV6 roundatble called on Nigerian ISP's and telcos to position themselves to take advantage of the opportunities IPV6 offers to innovative users of the internet and developers of new technologies. The president of the Association of Licenced Telecoms Association of Nigeria Gbenga Adebayo however expressed fear that the eventual migration to IPV6 might further cripple the services of the small operators in the Nigerian tecoms market. Considering the ongoing pressure faced by small telecoms operators in the country.

By Francisca Nnanna

Airtel Donates School To Lagos State

The First Lady of Lagos State, Her Excellency Dame Abimbola Fashola, today commissioned the ultra-modern, multi-million naira primary school built by Telecommunications Services Provider, Airtel Nigeria in Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government Area in Ajegunle, Lagos State.The newly commissioned primary school, Oremeji Primary School 2 was adopted by the Airtel in February this year as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility efforts to uplift underprivileged children.

 Speaking at the commissioning ceremony, the First Lady of Lagos State, Abimbola Fashola commended Airtel Nigeria for being socially responsible and for providing a significant lifeline to uplift underprivileged kids, saying that the company's Adopt-a-School programme is in tandem with the policy of the Lagos State Government, which aims to provide quality education to underprivileged children . “I am particularly pleased with the fact that Airtel committed to this project unsolicited. Acts like this should attract commendation and I want to say a very big thank you to the entire staff, management and shareholders of Airtel in Nigeria. I encourage you to keep up the good work and urge you to never waiver in your avowed commitment to support government in uplifting the standard of education across the country,” she said.

 She also urged Lagosians and Nigerians to adopt the spirit of giving so that everyone can impact positively on the lives of others in the Nigerian society, stressing that “we all surely have something to give; let us keep making the needed sacrifice to make Lagos and Nigeria a better place for everyone.”

Also speaking at the occasion, the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Rajan Swaroop said Airtel Nigeria is committed to partnering with the government in its quest to support the government agenda of transforming the lives of underprivileged children across the country. Swaroop said Airtel is not just motivated by profit maximization and possible returns it can realize from attractive investments but committed to taking appropriate steps to address some of the challenges facing the country.  ”At Airtel Nigeria, we understand that just a little effort, at times, is what is needed to make a significant difference. We have taken that one step in our quest to partner with the Nigerian government in the delivery of quality primary education that will transform the lives, fortunes and future of underprivileged children.

The Airtel Chief also assured that the company will not let –up in its quest to support the government agenda of transforming the lives of underprivileged children even as it strives for leadership in the business of providing innovative telecommunications services, saying that Airtel will keep partnering governments at different levels across the country in ensuring that we safeguard the future of our great nation.

The newly commissioned Oremeji Primary School 2 is a six classroom block with an office for the head teacher and water borehole with lavatory facilities for the boys and girls as well as male and female teachers. As part of the programme, Airtel also provided school uniforms, furniture, books and school bags for the children. All these were accomplished within a record time period of 3 months.

Main One Partners Ghana Isp On Broadband Access

Main One Cable Company has announced the connection of K-NET , one of Ghana's leading internet solutions provider, to its broadband network. According to Joseph Odoi , C ountry Manager, Main One Cable Ghana, “by connecting to the Main One Cable network, K-NET has bolstered its desire to be positioned as a leading provider of internet solutions and network management in Ghana and the West African sub-region ” . 

Since the Main One Cable network went live in July 2010, the company has continued to break ground with its open access, wholesale broadband connectivity. The company currently has a growing list of major telecom service providers in Ghana which include Tigo, BusyInternet, MTN and Airtel. 

Main One Cable offers unmatched broadband telecommunications services which connect Ghana with the rest of the world. It remains unfazed in its quest to provide fast and efficient broadband connectivity to its customers across Africa to ensure that they tap into the benefits of the global market.

Main One Cable is the first submarine cable company offering open access, wholesale broadband capacity in West Africa. With submarine cable system which commenced operations in July 2010 linking West Africa to the rest of the world via Portugal and the United Kingdom.

K-NET, in a reaction to the connection, commended Main One for the quality of its broadband services. K-NET stated that the choice of Main One is a reflection of the company's confidence in Main One's unmatched service quality

K-NET Is a triple-play (Data, Voice, Video) network solution provider   in Ghana which is at the forefront of global voice estate management. It is a pioneer provider of IP networks for multinational companies and is perfect l y placed to help migrate and man age voice capabilities.

K-NET is the one stop shop for all managed network and internet solutions within the West African sub-region, using different products according to the needs, peculiarities, preference and location of clients.

NCC summons operators on Quality of Service

Worried by the continued fall in the quality of services provided by the telecom operators, the Nigerian Communications Commission has reportedly summoned operators to Abuja to explain the reasons for the state of affairs in their networks, and thereafter directed them to take immediate measures that will improve their  quality of services including stoppage of promotions where the capacity is limited.

During the meeting said to have been directed by the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Dr. Eugene Juwah, the Commission's officials expressed worries over the inability of the operators to meet with some of the key performance indicators for ameliorating the challenge of  quality of service.

At the meeting at the Commission's office in Abuja, at the weekend,  the Director, Technical Standards and Network Integrity, Dr. Balarabe Sani, said the monthly data capture and analysis has shown that the network congestion has continued to increase.

“On most of the networks, there are too much drop calls, poor network availability, poor service accessibility and poor voice quality while one way or two way lack of audio in several connections abound”,  he said.

He said the analysis showed that several Base Station Controllers , BSC's are congested in terms of Radio Traffic Channels, RTCH, and Stand Alone Dedicated Control Channels, SDCCH. Another official said where operators are expected to keep this indices below 0.1 percent, the figure stood at about 2.5 per cent in March this year, suggesting a very worrisome trend.

The Commission   said  it has also discovered the presence of “many weak and dead signal zones in major cities through our QoS Drive Test monitoring exercise which is attributable to lack of network optimization and improper radio network planning ”.

Among the interim measures directed by the Commission to arrest the trend include the need to suspend the use of Bulk Short Messaging Service, SMS, for all kinds of campaigns and suspension of all promotions except where adequate capacity were provided on the network to carry the volume of traffic generated from such activity.

It also said that the Commission will henceforth revisit the issue of network roll out obligations when necessary but will also meet with CTOs and network managers of the operators regularly to ensure that appropriate actions are taken to address the issues.

“We urge all the service providers to, in addition to their current efforts,  embark on massive capacity improvement especially in the radio access networks in order to reduce the current network congestion , while optimizing their existing network infrastructure”, he said.

The representatives of the operators who spoke in turns blamed part of the problems on some governments at the local and state levels, as well as individuals who use jammers to dislocate services. They said in some cases, state governments make it impossible for roll out and expansion of services due to excessive taxation and impossible conditions. The operators singled out the Abuja Capital Territory where its administration has made it extremely difficult for the operators to expand services through deployment of the required base stations, and Cross River State where the State Government has brought several difficult  conditions for the operators, including excessive taxes.

Director of Consumer Affairs of the Commission, Mrs. Mary Uduma, while indicating that the Commission will assist in the liaison  with some of these agencies, especially with security agencies to curb the vandalisation of telecom infrastructure, requested the operators to always ensure that consumers are informed about outages whenever they occur, and to improve their customer care centres to respond adequately to the needs of the consumers.

Samsung Demonstrates Commitment to Africa with “Built for Africa Products”

Certainly Africa, the world's second-largest continent - a land of diverse people, cultures and traditions is fast becoming a preferred business destination for leading brands across the world. It is therefore not surprising that Samsung is fully committed to positioning itself as a market leader in Africa with its philosophy of “built in Africa, Built for Africa” products.

Armed with a strategy designed to capitalise on the unique dynamics of the African consumer market, Samsung Electronics has outlined its regional strategy and 2011 product portfolio at the recently held second annual Africa Regional Forum in Nairobi Kenya. Innovations in Internet-connected TVs, consumer-inspired digital cameras and the latest mobile technology, combined with plans for developing Samsung's regional market presence in a bid to growing the market to the size of China's.

S amsung Electronics Africa's President, Mr. K.K. Park, disclosed that as part of the firm's continental growth strategy, Samsung will be focusing on Africa's top 10 economies, which together generate 79% of the continent's wealth and house almost 47% of the population. “Our aim is to promote co-operation, innovation and the exchange of new ideas in technology so that our products and technologies continue to respond to the real needs and conditions of the continent,” he added.

Zinox Institutes Scholarship Scheme for Staff Children

Zinox Group, Africa's most integrated ICT firm and trail-blazing company in computer manufacturing in West Africa reputed for the first ever internationally certified Nigerian branded computers

with the Naira keyboard as demonstrated its goodwill and appreciation to the members of staff by offering scholarships to the children of all staff who earn less than N1m as gross salary P/A under the Staff Children Scholarship Scheme.

The welfare package will cover up to three children of any staff in this category under this scheme through secondary school up to tertiary institution one of which would be trained in a private secondary school. The Staff Children Scholarship Scheme which is a further demonstration of the Zinox belief that only a commitment to the development of a knowledge economy can bring about the anticipated breakthrough in national development.

The gesture according to a statement from the company that has been preaching Digital Knowledge Democracy as a platform to harness her technological capacities for national development has taken the message home to its own staff.

Speaking at the 1st Zinox Group Staff Awards, an event that capped a week of strategizing at staff retreats, the Executive Director Marketing, Technology Distributions, Mrs. Chioma Chimere said that the Awards were instituted to motivate outstanding staff and enhance industry standards. Awards were won in the following categories – Long Service Award, Performance Merit Award and Staff of the Year Award.

Speaking to Tribe Times after the awards, the Group Chairman of Zinox Technologies, Leo S tan Ekeh, said that the emphasis on education is to reinforce his belief that only quality education available to all would lead this nation to greatness. The Chairman revealed that the Zinox Group would increase its CSR in the educational sector through the provision of more digital centers and IT laboratories in tertiary institutions in the six geopolitical zones in the country.

NCC to intensify enlightenment on SIM Registration.

The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, has said that it will intensify the enlightenment campaign on the on-going, nationwide SIM registration exercise.

The general elections which ended last week, has given subscribers a relaxed atmosphere to enable them to register their SIM cards with NCC appointed registration vendors nationwide.

The Commission had on March 28, 2011, flagged off the six-month nationwide SIM registration exercise which will end on 28 September, 2011.

Head, Media and Public Relations of the Commission, Mr. Reuben Muoka, during an interaction with ICT correspondents in Abuja, said the current campaign will include radio jingles in local languages giving subscribers the location of SIM Card registration centres in all the states of the federation as will be published in key national dailies and the Commission's website.

He said SIM Card registration centres will continue to grow in various states of the federation and that some of the registration agents will move around with mobile units to cover areas that may not have fixed registration centres in any particular locations such as markets and other similar locations.

In the NCC SIM registration centres, subscribers are able to register all their SIM cars irrespective of any network, at the same spot. But the Commission said all those who have already registered with their telecom service providers need not come for the registration undertaken by the operators will be collated for the same purpose at the Central data base for all subscribers in the country.

Opinion: Security is not just about preventing malware

As the world becomes more connected via the Internet and the sheer number of threats increase, from viruses to trojans, spyware to phishing attacks, people are becoming increasingly aware of the need to secure their computers, servers and important data against a host of potential attacks awaiting them

However, protecting data is not simply about preventing online attacks, and while protecting data from theft and corruption is important, it is also vital for organisations to protect themselves from data loss itself. Losing the contents of a hard drive can be dire for any business, particularly the smaller business and consultants whose livelihood often depends on the data contained on their computers and other devices. Any comprehensive data security programme needs to have another element to it besides Internet Security, and that is a thorough data backup and retention strategy.

In the past decade the amount of data in existence has increased exponentially, and continues to do so, and as people become more mobile and technology evolves into computing devices that enable us to work on the move from wherever we happen to be, the threat of losing data becomes even more prevalent. If any of these devices get stolen, and theft is something which is an all too common occurrence in South Africa, the data they contain will be lost to the owner forever.

Even without the reality of theft, accidents do happen and data may be wiped out unintentionally, devices may break and natural disasters such as fire and flooding all have the potential to destroy data. Added to this the vast number of cybercrime attacks that can corrupt data and destroy machines and the need to backup data becomes very clear.

The consequences of not adequately backing up data can vary depending on the business, but if business critical data is lost, such as client information, this can cripple a business. Even if the company has insurance against lost data they may never get back on track with where they were, as clients may defect to another business as a result of loss of productivity and it may take days, weeks or months to recover some of the lost information.

While some organisations and people do have backup strategies that include an onsite backup system, or the manual backup of documentation to another device that is then stored in the same location as the machine, this approach can be problematic. In the case of fire or other natural disasters the backup data will also be wiped out, rendering the exercise pointless.

Offsite storage is the best option for protecting data, as this means that all data that is backed up is stored in a separate location to minimise the risk of both copies of the data being lost or destroyed. , this may require data to be backed up to other physical storage devices and then moved to another location, which can be time consuming and expensive, especially for smaller businesses.

Technology has enabled another, more convenient form of offsite storage however, and that is cloud storage, which can easily and conveniently store backup data offsite without the need to physically move storage devices to another location. Online backup facilities also enable you to recover data from wherever you are, even if you are in another city or country to where you normally run your business. This means that if data is backed up online, not only is it useful for recovery, it can also be used to access information that may not necessarily be stored on a physical device on site at the office when the user is out of the office.

Cloud based online storage is also far cheaper than onsite physical storage as the actual storage devices do not need to be purchased, and data is secure and always available should it be needed.

By Bosman Brink, Symantec retail product specialist at Drive Control Corporation

Potentials Of Mobile Commerce In Nigeria

In recent times, the Africa Business environment has witnessed a tremendous change as commercial banks and other financial institutions as well as virtual money services operators are busy seeking reliable technology platforms like mobile devices in the transaction of businesses.

The rate of change and the movement to electronic payment has been accelerated by the explosive growth of payments being made in non face to face transactions .with the internet as an important channel of commerce. Consumers who previously used the internet only for information and research have gradually adopted this channel for their purchase and transactions.

More interesting is how the mobile phone is being used beyond mobile banking to affect the transfer of value from one party to another. There is potential for enormous transaction volume that could be initiated via phone, and this transaction volume could translate into significant revenue opportunities for operators and rub off well on the country's economic potentials. According to Edgar Dunn and company, growth in this market will be driven by several key factors, including: growth in the number of mobile subscribers, the increasing versatility of the mobile device, continued rollout of acceptance terminals, and breath of income segments and geographic locations gaining access to mobile technology.

In Nigeria With mobile subscribers now in excess of 85 million, and over 9,000 ATMs currently transacting businesses to the tune of over N80 billion monthly, According to mobile experts there is ample room for growth of mobile commerce in the country especially when the potential for the deployment of over 55,000 ATMs in the country still exists. The available industry data reveals it will require over 65,000 ATMs to adequately serve over 150 million Nigerians as against the 9,000 currently transacting businesses in the country.

Already the central bank of Nigeria under the leadership of Gov Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has licenced 16 operators to jumpstart mobile payments system in Nigeria. They include UBA group, Monitize,GTBank Stanbic IBTC, Fortis Microfinace and First Bank, others are independent operators whose duty is to provide financial services independent of the banks. This according to experts will have a huge impact on the nations economy as it will drive local and international commerce which Africa is still grappling with.

In many Africa countries where mobile money works, evidence has shown that many of the agent vendors signed up to become agent to explore cross selling opportunities for their existing business like retail store owners, grocery and pharmacies. With large retail chain network like Shoprite, Park and Shop and the rest scarcely spread across the country, the providers in Nigeria will have to settle for eateries, corners hops, pharmacies and local stores outlets. With this, the Nigerian Mobile payment agent's demands will be in excess of 60,000 in the next 24 months according to the country perception survey submitted by Pyramid Research.

Experts however called afor an improved communication infrastructure, a robust regulatory framework and adequate provision of security on enterprise platform. Until these are in place the country may not harness the full potential of mobile commerce.

Orange Tunisia to launch Mobile Money

France Telecom's Tunisian branch, Orange Tunisia, will launch Mobile Money by the end of the year. It comes as banks and the government hope to implement the new mobile technology to make doing business in the country easier.

The announcement came at a microfinance conference in Tunis by Orange's Director of International Relations for Contactless Payment Systems Jean-Christophe Bernard.

He said the operator would account for the fact that less than half of Tunisa's bank account holders are using actual bank cards, which could mean the service would be a welcome addition to the country and make the system of cardless transactions a priority.

According to the company, it first introduced a service it called Orange Money in Senegal, Mali and Madagascar last spring, then in Kenya in the summer.

“In those markets, Orange Money allows mobile customers to deposit, withdraw and transfer money, to easily buy call credit, to pay for goods at certain retail partners and to pay bills,” the company said.

Analysts are optimistic that the move could boost Orange's profile in the country, especially after concerns over alleged corruption began to foment earlier this year following the downfall of the former regime through massive street protests.

By Jonathan Terry

Corruption in Tunisia's telecom sector revealed

Over the past two months since former President Zein al-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted after a massive protest movement set the country into turmoil, a dark history has emerged within the telecommunications industry. France Telecom has been reported to have used corrupt practices to ensure its continued presence in the North African country.

But the company has largely denied the charges, saying it has not participated in illegal activity.

The business community is now attempting to understand and come to terms with that murky past as the country pushes forward.

“We have begun to see the full effects of the government in this country and while it is frustrating to say the least, we believe that by knowing what happened, we will avoid those same mistakes,” said Abdelaziz Omani, an analyst.

Others believe that staying optimistic in the current tumultuous situation is key to the country pushing forward.

“It is not every year we have a revolution,” said Hisham Elloumi of UTICA at the Tunisian employer's association. “It's not even every 10 years. We weren't prepared for this.”

The history of corruption came to light after the fall of Ben Ali when national newspapers began publishing public and private corruption reports.

They reported that the business interests of the former president and his wife “extended from car distribution and importing consumer products to retailing, cement, air transport, property, telecommunications, banking and the media,” the Financial Times reported.

Despite this history, Omani said that the current investment atmosphere is positive and that the telecom industry is rebounding smoothly and is likely to see massive growth this year.

“The revolution came and it was buttressed by the telecom sector greatly, so companies understand and want to be a part of this mass movement online and in mobile tech. It will be a good year,” he added.

By Jonathan Terry

Unistal to expand its operations in Africa

Unistal is looking forward to expand its operations in Africa. “Since African IT market has grown luminously and requirement of data security and recovery products have increased by two folds, African subcontinent plays an important role in today's IT business world” says Alok Gupta, MD of Unistal.

With distribution network in Kenya, Nigeria and Botswana, Unistal is planning to introduce the complete range of Protegent and Quick Recovery Products. Company would initially focus on creating distribution partners in other countries like South Africa, Zimbabwe and Tanzania, and would further strengthen the reseller network in the respective region.

Unistal has also announced an effective restructuring of its product and channel strategy to further strengthen its business in Africa. Unistal has bundled Protegent 360 and PC, well-established and indigenously developed products with BitDefender Total Security to come up with a remarkable range of combination offerings that have been received well by the distribution network as well as end-users

Unistal is the market leader in software product and application development with a global foot print of over five million user licenses spread over 125 countries. Unistal is highly reputed for its superior quality products and services, which are contemporary and cover users ‘almost all the requirements. Over the years, Unistal has accomplished numerous milestones in the data recovery and security industry by constantly producing excellent products and services. Unistal is in fact only brand that offers you such a gigantic array of recovery products and services for desktop, laptop, server, email, database and tape recoveries for all media types and operating systems –anywhere, anytime.

Press Release

South African incumbent fixed-line operator Telkom SA has sold off its CDMA operation at the embattled Nigerian Multi-Links network. The deal, worth $52m, will see the transfer of the network to operator Visafone; Multi-Links' fibre and fixed-line elements are not included in the sale.

Plans for the sell-off first surfaced in November last year, when Etisalat was rumoured to be interested in buying up the network. Telkom SA had bought a 75 per cent stake in Multi-Links in 2007 at a cost of $280 million, taking full ownership of the company in 2009 with a further investment of $130 million. Since then, the Nigerian operator has proved something of a burden, with Telkom writing down the unit by more than $50m.

Former acting CEO of Telkom, Jeffrey Hedberg, said that the telco was “pleased to announce the successful conclusion of realigning our core business model to focus on our core competencies,” adding that Telkom management viewed the sale as “the best option available to our shareholders and Multi-Links' customers.”

Visafone chairman and Multi-Links buyer Jim Ovia said that the deal would solidify his company's place in the Nigerian market.

Visafone launched in 2007 and currently has over 2.5 million subscribers, with a market share of 2.65 per cent. According to Visafone, it passed the one million subscriber mark within six months of its launch; the company claims to have been the fastest growing mobile telco in Nigeria.

Experts have said that this will further heighten the on-going price war in the Nigeria telecom terrain as Visafone has further slashed its call rate.

Francisca Nnanna

Egyptian Cabinet protect the Right to Access Information

The Cabinet of Ministers described the decision to cut mobile communications and internet – taken by the previous regime during the Egyptian revolution – as “inappropriate”

The Cabinet of Ministers has announced a review of the current communications law, and in particular article no. 67 which stipulates that proper authorities of the land can instruct service providers and mobile operators to cut their services in the case of any disaster or situation jeopardizing the national security of the country.

The Cabinet stressed that the process of amending the article will be guided by similar articles in communications laws enacted by democratic and transparent countries and said that the amended article will not be used to curb the rights of citizens to access information or to jeopardize their safety.

Commenting on the announcement Dr. Magued Osman, Egypt's Minister of Communications and Information Technology, said: “The communications and Internet cut will not happen again in the future as the ministry is currently preparing a law draft to amend some of the articles of the telecommunications law no. 10, and especially article no. 67 to prohibit any entity from unilaterally cutting communications and Internet.”

The Cabinet also hailed the improvements of the Egyptian ICT sector since 1999 and the continued programs and initiatives to spread the use of Internet amongst various communities in Egypt which resulted in more than 22 million internet users.

The National Telecommunications Regulation Agency, NTRA, is currently reviewing the article and will suggest the required amendment to be enacted in the coming weeks.

Press Release

Radioactivity rises in sea off Japan nuclear plant

Levels of radioactivity have risen sharply in seawater near a tsunami-crippled nuclear plant in northern Japan, possibly signaling new leaks at the facility, the government said Saturday

The announcement came after a magnitude-5.9 earthquake jolted Japan on Saturday morning, hours after the country's nuclear safety agency ordered plant operators to beef up their quake preparedness systems to prevent a recurrence of the nuclear crisis.

There were no immediate reports of damage from the earthquake, and there was no risk of a tsunami similar to the one last month that crippled the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, causing Japan's worst-ever nuclear plant disaster. Japan has been hit by a string of smaller quakes since the magnitude-9.0 earthquake hit the country March 11.

Since the tsunami flooded the Fukushima plant and knocked out cooling systems, workers have been spraying massive amounts of water to cool the overheated reactors. Some of that water, contaminated with radiation, had leaked into the Pacific. Plant officials said they plugged that leak on April 5 and radiation levels in the sea dropped.

But the government said Saturday that radioactivity in the seawater has risen again in recent days. The level of radioactive iodine-131 spiked to 6,500 times the legal limit, according to samples taken Friday, up from 1,100 times the limit in samples taken the day before. Levels of cesium-134 and cesium-137 rose nearly fourfold. The increased levels are still far below those recorded earlier this month before the initial leak was plugged.

The new rise in radioactivity could have been caused by the installation Friday of steel panels intended to contain radiation which may have temporarily stirred up stagnant waste in the area, Hidehiko Nishiyama of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency told reporters. However, the increase in iodine-131, which has a relatively short eight-day half life, could signal the possibility of a new leak, he said.

"We want to determine the origin and contain the leak, but I must admit that tracking it down is difficult," he said.

Authorities have insisted the radioactivity will dissipate and poses no immediate threat to sea creatures or people who might eat them. Most experts agree.

Regardless, plant workers on Saturday began dumping sandbags filled with zeolite, a mineral that absorbs radioactive cesium, into the sea to combat the radiation leaks.

Meanwhile, the newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported, without citing its sources, that a secret plan to dismantle Tokyo Electric Power Co, which runs the radiation-leaking Fukushima plant, was circulating within the government. The proposal calls for putting TEPCO, the world's largest private electricity company, under close government supervision before putting it into bankruptcy and thoroughly restructuring its assets. Most government offices were closed Saturday, and the report could not be immediately confirmed.

In the wake of the nuclear crisis, the government ordered 13 nuclear plant operators to check and improve outside power links to avoid earthquake-related outages that could cause safety systems to fail as they did at the Fukushima plant, Nishiyama told reporters late Friday. The operators, including TEPCO, are to report back by May 16.

Power outages during a strong aftershock on April 7 drove home the need to ensure that plants are able to continue to operate crucial cooling systems and other equipment despite earthquakes, tsunamis and other disasters, Nishiyama said.

Utility companies were ordered to reinforce the quake resistance of power lines connected to each reactor or to rebuild them. They also must store all electrical equipment in watertight structures. Earlier, the nuclear agency ordered plant operators to store at least two emergency backup generators per reactor and to install fire pumps and power supply vehicles as further precautions.

The massive 46-foot (14-meter) wave that swamped Fukushima Dai-ichi last month knocked out emergency generators meant to power cooling systems. Since then, explosions, fires and other malfunctions have compounded efforts by TEPCO to repair the plant and stem radiation leaks.

TEPCO said Saturday it had moved power sources for some of the reactors at the stricken plant to higher ground by Friday evening in order to avoid another disastrous failure in the event of a tsunami.

Goshi Hosono, an adviser to the prime minister and member of the nuclear crisis management task force, said the damaged reactors were much more stable than they had been earlier in the crisis and TEPCO was preparing to unveil a plan for restoring cooling capacity to the ailing reactors "soon."

"Problems are still piled up and we are far from the end of crisis," he told a TV news program, citing radioactive water as one of the biggest headaches. "I expect there will be more mountains that we have to climb over."

The crisis at the Fukushima plant has forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate the area, while radiation leaks have contaminated crops and left fishermen unable to sell their catches, adding to the suffering of communities already devastated by earthquake and tsunami damage.

Source: chinadaily.com.cn/agencies

OMATEK Launches ‘STYLE ME'

Foremost indigenous company manufacturing company, Omatek Ventures Plc has introduced ‘Style Me', a new range of aesthetic cover designs for its Smartbook and desktop casings, thus making it possible to customize its smartbooks covers and desktop casings from a wide array of choices. At a media launch held in Lagos, recently.

With the new Omatek ‘Style Me' concept, Omatek smartbooks and desktops now have a unique outlook and can identify with the lifestyle of individual customers who have the opportunity to choose different characters ranging from sports/favorite football clubs, love symbols, cartoon characters for children, music icons, personal photographs or whatever gives them pleasure as cover designs on the Omatek 8 & 10 inch smartbooks as well as desktop casings. The design offers customers in every age category a variety of choices.

According to a statement by the Head Marketing, Omatek Ventures Plc, Mr. Kayode Yeku, the idea of the ‘STYLE ME' cover design is borne out of the company's continuous innovation and desire to satisfy the yearnings and expectations of its customers. Omatek he added will be offering the new cover designs as complimentary bonus for every 8/10 inch notebooks and desktop computers sold during Easter Sales Promo designed to reward loyal customers through a 25% price reduction on its 8 and 10 inch smartbooks as well as desktop computers.

The portable, light and powerful Omatek ‘style me' notebooks are unique gift items for young adults and busy professionals

With its strong wi-fi capabilities, in-built Bluetooth and webcam, the Omatek range of computers set the tone for a new era of mobile computing experience.

Francisca Nnanna

All too often of late I see press releases from tech providers who are re-branding their old hosted services as “cloud” services. This strikes me as somewhat disingenuous. There are some important differences between hosted services and a true cloud offering.

What’s a Hosted Service?
Hosted services are technology services offered to you or your company by a provider that hosts the physical servers running that service somewhere else. Access to the service is usually provided through a direct network connection that may or may not run via the Internet.
This isn’t a new idea. Hosted services date back to the early years of commercial computing, when companies would purchase processing time from mainframes hosted by other companies. These days hosted services generally take the form of more generic business applications including website hosting, email servers, off-site backups, data warehousing and that sort of thing.
Odds are, if you’re operating in the corporate space, you’re using at least one hosted service right now.

What’s a Cloud Service?
As the name “cloud” suggests, this is a somewhat nebulous concept. Strictly speaking, a cloud service is a hosted service that’s accessible over the Internet – a subset of hosted services. But is that really all there is to it?
I don’t believe that it is. I submit that a hosted service, even one accessible via the Internet, can’t be considered a real cloud solution unless it’s been built to capitalise on the new range of collaboration and interconnectivity that is inherent in the cloud.
Let’s look at an example: email.
We’re all familiar with the old standards of corporate email solutions like Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus. Although larger corporates will most often run their own instances of these locally in their internal datacentres, mid-size companies will usually outsource email provision on these tools to hosted service providers. The difference between hosted and local is literally just where the physical server sits – essentially there’s no distinction in functionality between the two.
Describing a hosted email solution such as these as a “cloud” service is probably a bit misleading. While it certainly satisfies the literal definition of a cloud service, Exchange and Lotus are essentially designed to run as internal services. Their access via the Internet is clumsy at best (try accessing Microsoft Outlook Webmail through Mozilla Firefox and you’ll see what I mean), and is clearly a tacked-on afterthought added to the tools in response to growing need.
Contrast this with a cloud-based email service like Google’s Gmail – an email solution born in the cloud and built to be accessed via the Internet. Gmail is equally at home on any computer and in any browser. It even supports outdated standards like POP3, allowing users to access their accounts from computers and applications that may be obsolete or less powerful (less-popular smartphone platforms, for example).
In addition to this, Gmail’s default interface is studded with extra connectivity tools like Gtalk (instant messaging) and Buzz (social networking) that are able to effortlessly connect to non-Google services through the use of open standards and APIs. More experienced users can connect their Gmail account up to Google’s other offerings like Docs and Calendar for an integrated cloud experience, allowing for a level of collaboration simply not achievable through old-fashioned hosted services.
And that’s the key-word: collaboration. The most popular cloud-based services are popular because they provide collaboration other tools don’t allow: an extra layer of interconnectivity between users and other systems that’s easy to use and inexpensive (or free) to buy.
These cloud-based tools: Gmail, Google Docs, DropBox, Twitter, Facebook, Google Maps, YouTube and so on, are streaking ahead of their local and hosted predecessors – not only in corporate implementation, but also in adoption by private users – because they are built for the web and designed from the very beginning to work with the user and with each other. These are the tools that make the cloud what it is.
Connecting an internal solution to the web and calling it “cloud” is a bit like waterproofing a truck and calling it a submarine: It might technically fit the description, but it’s clearly not meant for that.

WACS submarine cable nears completion

The West Africa Cable System (WACS), the latest in a new generation of high-capacity submarine communications cables linking Africa to the rest of the world, is set to land at its final destination in Yzerfontein near Cape Town, South Africa in the next couple of weeks. This follows the completion of the Portugal-UK section of the cable in February.

The cable, the product of a consortium of companies including Gateway Communications, Angola Telecom and Telkom South Africa, has a 5.12 Tbit/s capacity, making it substantially faster than the celebrated SEACOM cable with its 1.28 Tbit/s design capacity. The speed of the WACS cable is such that one could theoretically download about eight million MP3 files or over eight thousand DVDs per minute.

“The African continent is definitely one of the continents still yearning for affordable connectivity,” said Kobus Stoeder, Chairman of the WACS Management Committee. “Meeting the needs for increased capacity along the cable route, this network will enable the landing countries to be served by a new system offering greater capacity and lowering the cost of broadband access in support of innovative applications such as e-education and e-health that can positively impact peoples' lives.”

The 14 000km, US$600-million, cable system is being built by Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks, and the construction phase is set to be completed by April 10th. WACS will connect Namibia, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, and Côte d'Ivoire, to Portugal and the United Kingdom. Significantly, this is the first time Togo, Namibia, the Republic of Congo, and the Democratic Republic of Congo will be connected to a global submarine network.

Originally planned for commercial launch in Q3 2011, a delay means WACS will only become operational in Q1 2012. Once the construction phase in completed this month, the testing phase will commence.

NITEL: telecom bidder plays waiting game

Nigeria will have to wait until after the ongoing general elections before a company offering $956.9 million for the country's lowly state-run telecom company revalidates its bid

Managing Director of Omen International Ltd. Mike Nwachukwu said on Wednesday that company investors are concerned over the upcoming elections and have delayed the final purchase on NITEL.

The Bureau of Public Enterprises had given Omen until March 30 to revalidate its bid, but Nwachukwu says the body has not reacted to Omen's extension request made ahead of the deadline. A spokesman of the body declined comment.

The last of a series of crucial elections is to be held on April 26 after suffering postponements. Nigeria has been trying to sell NITEL for over a decade and Omen is the second bidder to be offered the chance to purchase the state-owned operator.

US, Nigeria, Ghana top online fraud list

Nigeria, Ghana & United States rated highest in online fraud (Image: wylio.com)

Nigeria, Ghana and the United States were the top online fraud perpetrators in attacking United Kingdom merchants, payment company CyberSource reported. They also added that fraud levels are at new high levels and have forced many orders from the three countries to be turned down by British enterprises.

The analysis of some 200 companies revealed that 55 percent of all UK companies refused to ship to Nigeria, 34 percent to Ghana and 25 percent to the United States.

The average fraud rate, the company said, was now 1.6 percent of orders, down from 1.8 percent in 2009, with digital retailers suffering the highest rates overall. Rejection rates for online sales are now 5 percent.

Even digital downloads were not being sent, with nearly half of all UK companies saying they would not do business with those located in Nigeria.

“The absence of physical products creates a different eCommerce environment for digital goods merchants and as a result, they experience their own set of fraud management challenges,” said report co-author, CyberSource's Akif Khan.

“Their geographically diverse customer base requires the adoption of more sophisticated tools, like device fingerprinting, to help identify instances of cleaner fraud; ultimately detecting more fraud, first time,” he said.

Mobile subscriber base rise in Algeria

Algeria's Regulatory Authority for Post and Telecommunications (ARPT) said on Sunday that the number of mobile subscribers in Algeria rose to around 33 million compared to only three million fixed telephone users.

The APS quoted communications manager of the ARPT Medjahed Faisal as saying that broadband Internet in the country, through a number of ADSL carriers, rose to approximately 830,000 through February, which gives the country a penetration rate of around 10 percent.

Egypt's OTA (Orascom Telecom Algeria, also known as Djezzy) has maintained its position as the leader in the market, with a 46 percent stake through 2010. The number of subscribers for Djezzy rose by nearly half a million in the past year, Faisal added.

The report said that public operator, Mobilis Telecom Algeria, has seen a decline in light of Djezzy's success. At 28.8 percent of the market, the state-owned company reported a loss of half a million subscribers in 2010.

The country's third operator, Qatari group QTEL Watania Telecom Algeria, saw a 25 percent increase in subscribers in the past year.

Fixed lines continue to remain stagnant, with only three million subscribers in the country (8,3 percent of the market).

Kaspersky Lab releases its forecast of cybercrime for the following decade (image credit: David Orban)

Kaspersky Lab has released its forecast for the IT threat landscape for this decade (2011 – 2020). Kaspersky bases this forecast on an analysis of the main changes and issues in the sphere of IT security over the past decade, as well as emerging trends in the development of personal computers, mobile phones and operating systems.

According to the company's analysts, the most significant trends of the last ten years (2001-2010) were:

The defining feature of the next decade will be the end of Windows' domination of user operating systems. Though Microsoft's brainchild will remain the primary business platform, every day users will have access to an ever-expanding variety of alternative operating systems. Notably, even now the number of devices accessing the Internet via Windows and non-Windows platforms are almost the same, with the latter even occasionally exceeding their Microsoft counterparts.

The growing number of new operating systems will affect the process of threat creation – cybercriminals will not be able to create malicious code for large numbers of platforms. This leaves them with two options: either target multiple operating systems and have many individual devices under their control, or specialise in Windows-based attacks on corporations. The second variant will probably appeal to them more – by 2020, targeting individual users will become much more complex as the emerging trend of making payments electronically and using online banking will continue, however biometric user identification and payment protection systems will become the norm.

The coming changes in operating systems and their specifications will affect virus writing techniques as these new systems evolve. Many cybercriminals who used to target Windows devices will have to become adept at exploiting the new-generation operating systems. To retain their ‘place in the sun', today's cybercriminal will need to enlist the help of members of the younger generation who are capable of writing malicious code for the new platforms. However, this state of affairs cannot prevail forever and we may well see ‘turf wars' between different hackers and hacker groups.

Cybercrime in 2020 will almost assuredly divide into two groups. One group will specialise in attacks on businesses, sometimes to-order. Commercial espionage, database theft and corporate reputation-smearing attacks will be much in demand on the black market. Hackers and corporate IT specialists will confront each other on the virtual battlefield. State anti-cybercrime agencies will probably be involved in the process too and will have to deal predominantly with Windows platforms, in addition to the latest versions of traditional *nix systems.

The second group of cybercriminals will target those things that influence our everyday lives, such as transport systems and other services. Hacking such systems and stealing from them, making free use of them and the removal and changing of personal data about customers' activities will be the main focus of attention of the new generation of hackers, who will make a living this way.

The trend that has seen the Internet become both a popular resource for communication, entertainment and news, and a specially designed tool for Internet commerce and online payments, etc. will continue.  The ‘online user-base' will expand to include many mobile and smart devices capable of using the web to exchange or transfer information without the need for human intervention.

Botnets, one of today's most potent IT threats, will evolve dramatically.  They will incorporate more and more mobile and Internet-enabled devices, and zombie computers as we know them will become a thing of the past.

The tools and technologies used in the field of communications will undergo massive change. These changes will see greatly increased data transfer rates and enhancements that will make the virtual communication experience much closer to that of real-life – by 2020, communication via the Internet with the help of a keyboard will be the stuff of old movies, meaning spammers will need to seek out new ways of delivering their unwanted correspondence to addressees across the globe.  The first step the spammers will take is to change from targeting desktops to mobile devices. The volume of mobile spam will grow exponentially, while the cost of Internet-based communications will shrink due to the intensive development of cellular communication systems. As a result, users will be less likely to worry about unwanted advertising material.

The old adage ‘Knowledge is power' will be more relevant than ever before. The struggle for the means to collect, manage, store and use information, about everything and everybody, will define the nature of threats for the next decade. Therefore the problem of privacy protection will be one of the key issues of the decade.

Culled from ITnewsafrica

‘Nigeria Is Heading To The World Map In The Area Of Software Development' - SYSTEMSPECS MD

The CEO spoke at an award presentation by the Nigerian Computer Society where the company was honoured with the best indigenous software company of the year a recognition that has been accorded the software company twice.

The organization was also honored by Know-How Media, Publishers of IT Edge News Magazine which according to the MD, Mr Segun Oruame selected systemspecs consistent innovation in the Nigeria Software sector. based the se olectionn the economic value that the organization has brought to the county, local in foundation but global in value, he described the company that has tried to sell Nigeria to the world d as a software that can play well in the global software industry.

Responding to the awards Mr Obaro said, “we remain humbled by this recognition and will continue to pursue excellence in order to make our country a worthy name among the major IT nations of the world”. He however expressed his dismay at government's attitude towards indigenous software which he described as disappointing for a nation that should support and promotes her own content and innovations. “And if an indigenous software has saved a country the sum of 12 billion Naira I see no reason why it should award the larger contract to a foreign company” he added

SystemSpecs adjudged one of Nigeria's best software companies, started operations in Nigeria in 1991 and has carved a niche for herself in providing human capital management and financial software solutions for Nigeria and the African continent.

Why Internet Is Stil Expensive In Nigeria Rudman Mohammed

Why is internet cost still expensive in Nigeria despite the presence of fiber optic cables?

Yes! the fiber optic cables Glo 1 and Main 1 capacity have landed in Lagos, they are at the shores of Lagos, The issue now is how to distribute it across the country, Also no inland fiber optic cables connecting the different regions yet, and this is quite expensive. the second problem is that we lack local content, unfortunately for Nigeria with all the huge presence in the internet we do not upload. For instance nearly all our websites are hosted in the UK. There are about two billion people that are connected right now in the world and Nigeria is among the top 10 countries connected, in terms of population. But its unfortunate we don't have the content, most of our content is hosted outside the country. This is one of the reasons for the high cost of internet. The third one is the huge operational cost especially power generation. Companies here spend so much money on power. Government need to improve on the infrastructure especially in power generation.

Some people ISP's are of the opinion that connecting to the exchange will further add to the cost of internet.

Hhm ok! It's adding but it is really negligible maybe like 3%. The advantage far outweighs the cost. As I told you, I don't know how many ISP's are here in Nig as some have closed and new ones are also coming in. The cost of connecting fiber from Kano to Lagos is more expensive than connecting Lagos to London. Sabotages, create alternate routes to evade cyber cuts, right of way is expensive as u have to seek from federal, state and local. It adds to the cost and this makes it really expensive. But localizing traffic will in the long run save the ISP's some money and the country about 40 million dollars

What are your strategies to ensure that all ISP's in Nigeria are connected to the IXPN

Right now we are trying to get the ISP's connected not just the local companies but also foreign ones, like now Google is connected. To ensure that our local contents are made local. IXPN is the only independent operator that connects everybody. We are trying to bring in more services so that it can attract the ISP's

Latest Gamatronics Modular UPS Now Available In Nigeria

Nigerian consumers will now have access to the latest technology in Back-up system. In recent times the trend has been towards the use of much smaller modules to make larger UPS systems.

The Modular UPS is an innovation away from the conventional parallel UPS and is described as highly efficient. And Nigeria's fastest growing ICT Company CWG is making this possible in partnership with Gamatronic an Isreali based electronics industry.

At the energy summit co hosted by the two organization CWG and Gamatronics gave a vivid description of the Modular UPS. That is described as most suitable for the peculiar power need of the Nigerian environment. The Modular UPS is cost saving, easy and cost effective to repair. And has the capacity to function at 96% efficiency rate. The 10-100KVA UPS system is uniquely designed to grow flexibly as power requirements grow. Also has among other features, an easily upgradable on-site through addition of plug-and-play 10KVA modules. This approach provides significant benefits in total cost of investment (TCO), management and security over traditional desktops, says Mahmud Subhi, Africa Sales Manager Gamatronic, at the summit .

On its part, Computer Warehouse Group which has grown to become Nigeria's leading IT integrating company said it will continue to focus on customer satisfaction while yet providing cost effective and efficient services.

Visafone Opens Ultra Modern Shop At Ikoyi

Visafone, has opened an ultra modern shop on Awolowo road, Ikoyi thus expanding its retail presence to 44 shops – comprising 28 mega shops and 16 mini shops nationwide

Visafone, has opened an ultra modern shop on Awolowo road, Ikoyi thus expanding its retail presence to 44 shops – comprising 28 mega shops and 16 mini shops nationwide.

Situated at 60 Awolowo Road, the shop is tastefully designed to incorporate a new interactive retail design inviting customers to experience top of the range services like high speed broad band internet and voice connection in a sleek, full-service environment.

Roomy and easy to locate, the shop is equipped with modern technology and other integrated systems and operational enhancements designed to streamline the sales process and increase customer's satisfaction.

In a statement, the Head of Customer Care Visafone, Lynda Amechi said; “The Awolowo shop is designed to give every customer a feel and touch of world class Customer Service. From our caring professional employees to the shop ambience, each visitor is set for a remarkable experience at every step.”

Staffed by knowledgeable telecoms and customer care professionals, the new shop offers customers a broad range of services and top of the range handsets tailored to meet customers' daily communication needs.

Also customers have access to all Visafone services, such as 3G Superfast Internet and affordable Modems as well as other special packages. The 3G super fast Internet offers customers quick and easy access to the Internet at 300 kbps on the EVDO Gold packages, 150 kbps on the Silver package and 153 kbps on shared basis available on the 1x range of packages.

These packages are suited to meet each customer's need of various time belts like All-time surfer, Day Surfer, Night Surfer and Express Surfer which gives customers access to internet at night on week days and 24 hours access at weekends. Also in the offering are the hourly bundles in which customers can purchase either 100 or 250 hours valid for 30 and 90 days respectively, which are available on both 1x and EVDO bouquet.

Similarly, customers also have the opportunity to enjoy the Visa Mobile Office designed to offer them access to and management of Personal Information like email, calendar and contacts from their mobile device.

The shop, which is already opened for business will be formally launched at a later date.

The wholly owned Nigerian company operates with the service ideals of Quality, Clarity and Coverage and promises to renew the joy of communication and give Nigerians the passport to reach the world.

Ericsson, Partners Mtn Ghana On Broadband Coverage

Ericsson and mobile operator MTN Ghana, have successfully trialled UMTS 900 MHz for the first time on the African continent, aiming at further extending mobile broadband coverage up to 200 km in suburban, rural and offshore areas.

The agreement makes Ericsson responsible for access, transport and transmission of 3G UMTS 900 MHz, with roll-out beginning in the second quarter of 2010.

The trial was completed with legacy 3G RBS 3418 main-remote equipment, previously installed by MTN Ghana.

“By leveraging off their existing installed Ericsson 3G Radio Access Network and enabling UMTS in 900 MHz, not only can voice, video and high speed data calls be carried over the network, but operators benefit from having one network delivering all services with the lowest total cost of ownership”, commented Lars Lindén, President Ericsson sub-Saharan Africa, according to ictnewsafrica.com.

A GSMA report shows that UMTS 900 increases the coverage per Node-B between 44% (in urban areas) and 119% (rural areas), compared to UMTS 2100.

Ericsson has already deployed 3.5G mobile communications and Internet access to rural Ghana, in partnership with the country's operator MTN.

MTN Ghana CTO, Eben Albertyn, said the operator will “continue to grow our network coverage locally as well as into many rural and remote sites – bringing voice and data services to our growing subscribers”.

Ericsson is a leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators, including 2G, 3G and 4G mobile technologies. The company's portfolio comprises of mobile and fixed network infrastructure, telecom services, software, broadband and multimedia solutions for operators, enterprises and the media industry. The Sony Ericsson and ST-Ericsson joint ventures provide consumers with feature-rich personal mobile devices.

MTN is one of the major telecommunications companies in Africa and the Middle East with operations in 21 countries. MTN entered the Ghanaian market in 2006, after acquiring Investcom.

MTN is also the leading mobile operator in Ghana, with a market share of 55% and active subscriber base of over 7 million. The operator covers over 80% of the Ghanaian population, including ten regional capitals as well as many rural and remote sites. MTN Ghana offers prepaid, post-paid voice and data services and recently rolled out its 3.5G network in the country

How Prepared Is Africa For The Surge In Mobile Data Traffick

The global Network giant reported that there has been a surge in mobile data usage in the last decade. For instance Last year's mobile data traffick was three times the size of the entire global interest in 2000. As this was put at 237 petabytes per month which was three times greater than the total global internet usage in 2000. (75 petabytes per month). The ever growing mobile market has created an enormous demand for broadband mobile devices regularly churned out making thereby driving internet traffick like never before. According to the VNI report, worldwide mobile data traffic will increase 26-fold during this time reaching 6.3 exabytes per month or an annual run rate of 75 exabytes by 2015 due to a projected surge in mobile Internet-enabled devices delivering popular video applications and services. Of the 6.3 exabytes per month , 4.2 exabytes will be due to video.

According to the release Mobile video traffic will exceed 50 percent for the first time in 2011. Mobile video traffic was 49.8 percent of total mobile data traffic at the end of 2010, and will account for 52.8 percent of traffic by the end of 2011. “Consumers and business users continue to demonstrate a healthy demand for mobile data services. The fact that global mobile data traffic increased 2.6-fold from 2009 to 2010, nearly tripling for the third year in a row, confirms the strength of the mobile Internet. The seemingly endless bevy of new mobile devices, combined with greater mobile broadband access, more content, and applications of all types — especially video — are the key catalysts driving this remarkable growth.” Said  Reshaad Sha, strategy director at Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group.

The report also added that "By 2015, 4 major regions (Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East) and 40 countries (including India, Indonesia, and Nigeria) will have more people with mobile network access than with access to electricity at home. The off-grid, on-net population will reach 138 million by 2015."

Going by this report one may ask how prepared is Africa for this mobile data traffic as the continent is still plagued with insufficient bandwidth despite the landing of major sea cables across sub Saharan Africa like Glo1 and main1 in Nigeria, Safaricom in Kenya. Recently “Frost & Sullivan West African Broadband Market Tracker, covering Nigeria, Cameroon and Ivory Coast, finds that the market earned revenues of $929.9 million in 2009 and estimates this to reach $1.932 billion in 2016” . With the huge expansion of internet based activities in business and the social circle, there is need for service providers and the government to intensify focus on broadband connectivity in the content if the continent must meet up with the challenges posed by mobile devices and applications.

Francisca Nnanna

NCC Seek Tariff Reduction From Nigerian Operators

Dr. Juwah who led the NCC team to several conference sessions and exhibition stands, said operators in Nigeria will need to invest more resources in their networks to improve on the quality of service being delivered to Nigerians at the moment. In his words “Apart from Quality of Service, we need to see the operators reduce prices far more than they are doing at the moment. It appears the reductions are currently based on special packages. We don't think that is enough. We want to see reductions that affect the subscribers generally, and we think it is about time the operators did something so that we don't have to introduce other measures that will be drastic to achieve that”

He advised Nigerian operators to take a cue on investments from other operators around the world that are present at the Mobile Congress with a view to deepening their investments in the country to achieve desirable solutions of right quality at the right price.

Dr. Juwah who also received the commendations of the Secretary General of the ITU, Dr. Hamadoun Toure, said the Commission is ready to collaborate with the ITU in whatever way possible to ensure that the broadband vision which he announced recently will be realized for the benefit of the Nigeria and its citizens. He said the Commission will need the assistance of the ITU considering its enormous resources.

The NCC boss added “It is something that we want to deploy to change the face of ICT in Nigeria, and to reduce the digital divide between us and the developed world an also to revive our fixed line services”, he said. He informed Dr. Toure that while international consultants are looking at the approaches to this, the Commission is going to adopt the Open Access model which he said may become the African continent model because of its wide acceptance in other parts of the world.

Dr. Toure said that the plan is commendable and that the Union, will come to provide the credibility that is desired to make the programme realizable in Nigeria.

He added that he pleased that the new NCC helmsman has chosen to move broadband to the centre of f development. Broadband will therefore be a tool for all our development, a tool for e-education, a tool for e-health, a tool for e-irrigation, a tool for commerce, a tool for governance. It is not an end on itself but a means to an end. Our challenge is how we move technology to achieve these objectives, for the continent. It demands an effective regulatory framework and I am sure that the Commission has the right approach”, he said.

The 2011 GSMA forum witnessed more than 60,000 visitors from 200 countries in attendance. The four-day conference and exhibition attracted executives from the world's largest and most influential mobile operators, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, media and entertainment organisations, as well as government delegations.

Skyvision Launches Service For Corporate Market In Nigeria

Skyvision global networks ltd, a leading global provider of IP connectivity over satellite and other fiber optic systems has announced the launch of their new services targeted at the corporate and enterprise market in Nigeria.

“with the huge expansion of both national and international corporate activity in the country there is no question that Nigeria is a strategic market for skyvision said Mr. Doron Ben Sira skyvision ceo we are continuing to invest considerable resources in developing our corporate network connectivity solutions for this segment, which is showing steady growth. To meet the ever increasing demand by corporate and enterprise customers in Nigeria. Skyvision established a pop and teleport in Lagos via submarine cables and powerful satellites to improve their connectivity, globally regionally and domestically.

Skyvision's POP is connected to its MPLS backbone network that spans 3 continents and enables connectivity from anywhere in the world to Nigeria using multiple STM-1 cables. The company's comprehensive suite of fiber based services includes skyvision internet transit, skyvision IP-VPN and Skyvision EVPL.

The company has also installed a local hub at its POP to serve enterprise and corporate customers with single hop VSAP VPN connectivity based skyvisions VPN service. Skyvision VPN is a satellite based virtual private network service that allows organizations to connect their WAN sites making it possible to share information and collaborate via voice and data applications.

Skyvisions new connectivity solutions enable both global and local corporate entities to achieve their business goals by improving interaction with their remote locations, raising productivity levels and reducing operational costs” said Mr Ben –Sira

Sky vision is a leading global IP telecommunication service provider to emerging markets, offering solutions that combine satellite service platforms with her capacity platforms with high fiber optic connections. Via its gateways in Europe, north America, middle East, the company provides IP connectivity with access to the global internet backbone as well as an extensive suite of both customized end to end solutions and industry-standard services with a connectivity network spanning 100 countries, skyvisions solutions combine global reach with active local presence and support. Skyvision's customers includes incumbent telecoms, ISP's cellular operators global and local enterprise, government entities an NGO's

Nokia has joined forces with Microsoft in an attempt to regain ground lost to the iPhone and Android-based devices.

The deal will see Nokia use the Windows phone operating system for its smartphones, the company said. It means that Nokia's existing operating systems will be sidelined.

Speaking at the launch of the partnership, Nokia's chief executive Stephen Elop revealed that there would be "substantial" job losses as a result of the tie-up.
Nokia will remain "first and foremost...a Finnish company. Finland is our home and will remain our home," he said.

But job losses around the world, including in Finland, will be inevitable, he added.

Speaking about the new partnership with Microsoft, Mr Elop said that "the game has changed from a battle of devices to a war of ecosystems".
"An ecosystem with Microsoft and Nokia has unrivalled scale around the globe," he said. Microsoft's chief executive Steve Ballmer was also present at the launch, underlining the importance of the deal to the computing giant.
"Nokia and Microsoft working together can drive innovation that is at the boundary of hardware, software and services," he said.

Microsoft's Bing will power Nokia's search services, while Nokia Maps would be a core part of Microsoft's mapping services.

The new strategy means Nokia's existing smartphone operating systems will be gradually sidelined.

Symbian, which runs on most of the company's current devices will become a "franchise platform", although the company expects to sell approximately 150 million more Symbian devices in future.

"It is a transition from Symbian to Windows phone as our primary smartphone platform," said Mr Elop.

Windows may not be the exclusive operating system for Nokia tablets though.

"We reserve the right to introduce tablets using other platforms, including ones we may be working on internally," he said.

There was no specific announcement about when the first Windows-powered Nokia phone will be available.

Mr Elop revealed that the firm did consider a tie-up with Google's Android operating system.

"We spent time with our colleagues at Google and explored the Google ecosystem but we felt we would have difficulty differentiating within that ecosystem," he said.

It was also revealed that talks with Microsoft only began in November, illustrating how quickly the deal has been pushed through.  Continued    Future clashes
The move away from Symbian is a brave decision for Nokia, according to experts.

"This is a clear admission that Nokia's own-platform strategy has faltered," said Ben Wood, an analyst with research firm CCS: Insight.

"Microsoft is the big winner in this deal, but there are no silver bullets for either company given the strength of iPhone and Google's Android," he added.

Nokia's share of the smartphone market fell from 38% to 28% in 2010, according to monitoring firm IDC.

Nokia's upcoming Meego operating system will also be sidelined.

According to the company statement: "MeeGo will place increased emphasis on longer-term market exploration of next-generation devices."

The new platform was expected to form the core of Nokia's future smartphone and tablet strategy.

The company says it still plans to ship one Meego device by the end of 2011.

For Magnus Rehle, the Nordic managing director of research firm Greenwich Consulting, Nokia may have difficulty juggling its three operating systems: Windows, Symbian and MeeGo.

"Three platforms is a lot to work with. I'm not sure there is room for so many platforms," he said.

And, as with any tie-up, there could be clashes between the two firms, he said.

Earlier this week Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop sent a memo to staff warning that the company was in crisis.

The memo, published first by technology website Engadget, said that the mobile giant was standing on a "burning platform".

"Elop has to convince the best people to stay and some people will inevitably be jumping off the burning platform," said Mr Rehle.

BBC News

Huawei Extends License with SPIRIT DSP for HD Voice & Video

World's Second-Largest Telecom Equipment Provider to Use SPIRIT's TeamSpirit Voice&Video Engine in its IMS, UC and FMC Solutions and Applications for Carriers

SHANGHAI, China and MOSCOW, Russia – Feb. 16, 2011 –   SPIRIT DSP , the world's top voice and video over IP engines provider, has announced today that Huawei Technologies, the world's second-largest telecommunications equipment provider , has extended its license with SPIRIT DSP for HD voice and video to carriers.  Huawei's product and services are deployed in over 100 countries and serve 45 of the world's top 50 telecom operators, as well as one third of the world's population.

Under terms of the agreement, Huawei, an existing SPIRIT customer since 2007, will use SPIRIT's TeamSpirit ® Voice&Video Engine PC in its IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem), Unified Communications (UC) and Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) solutions to carriers from the Huawei core network, delivering a PC video softphone to Huawei's carrier customers.

"Today, traditional carriers and service providers are under competitive pressure from the over-the-top providers like Skype, Google, etc., and they need innovative and cost-effective solutions to gain new revenue streams and meet the growing demand for a quality IP communication experience across all devices," said Wind Min, product manager of Huawei's VOIP product.  "We're pleased to be extending our relationship with SPIRIT, a world leading provider of innovative, carrier-grade voice and video over IP software, to deliver this core functionality to carriers, who are well positioned with their managed networks and massive enterprise and consumer customer base to gain majority share of this rapidly growing market."

“We're proud that Huawei as turned to SPIRIT, once again, to deliver this much-needed functionality to its carrier customers,” said SPIRIT's Chairman Andrew Sviridenko . "By leveraging our TeamSpirit Voice&Video Engine, Huawei can quickly offer service providers the highest quality IP communication solution so they can aggressively compete against others, and remain the No. 1 source for voice and video services."

The TeamSpirit Voice&Video Engine is an SDK for real-time communication over IP networks.  The engine includes highly optimized standard voice codecs, such as G.711, G723, G.729, etc. and a patent-free wideband SPIRIT IP-MR TM codec optimized for voice transmission over IP networks.  The engine also includes an H.264 SVC video codec that addresses video packet loss and includes other video quality improvements, including a network adaptation module that compensates for network jitter and packet loss, allowing service providers to offer HD quality voice and video communication services to millions of users.

Nigerian Computer Society on INEC

This is the address of President Professor Charles O. Uwadia FNCS Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) at the Press Conference on the on-going Voters Registration exercise by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)

Protocols: Please recall the Press Conference held on Friday 19 November, 2010 during which we intimated you about our concern in the way and manner INEC was going about the very important task of applying IT for the 2011 elections.

Specifically, we were worried about a number of steps and activities taken by INEC among which were the following:

•  Appointment of an ICT Consultant / Adviser.

•  Contracting three firms to deliver 132, 000 units Direct Data Capture Machines (DDCM) for the forthcoming compilation of fresh voters registers.

•  Conducting of training for personnel who will use the DDCM.

We had observed that the ICT Consultant / Adviser is not a registered member of the Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN).

We had also observed that two of the contracting firms a. AVANTE INTERNATIONAL TECHNOLOGY INC. and b. HAIER ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES CORPS LIMITED

are not registered with the Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN).

With these acts, it was clear to us that INEC had downgraded the critical issue of Computer Professionalism as regulated under Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN) Act 49 of 1993.  

We had in the circumstance demanded the following from INEC:

a. That all personnel carrying out core IT Professional duties in the Commission MUST be registered professionals as stipulated in Act 49 of 1993 .

b. That a ll persons to interface and operate the DDCM MUST be trained and certified by professional institutions registered by CPN.

c. That all contracting firms who are not registered with CPN should have their contracts revoked

d. That subsequently, only registered members of the Computer Profession should be considered for jobs involving computing machinery

e. That INEC redresses the identified lapses within one week of the Press release; failing which legal action would be instituted by us against the Commission.

f. On a more general note, we requested INEC to be transparent and fully unfold its strategies for deploying IT for the entire electoral process so that professionals could offer advice where necessary.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, this is just a recap of our last interaction with the Press on INEC.

We have since consulted our Lawyers on the threat of legal action, and you will be duly informed on the next step.

Events of the last couple of days have proved our fears and concern right. As you are aware, INEC commenced Voters registration nationwide on Saturday 15 January, 2011; the exercise is expected to last for 2 weeks. As Nigerians, we are all living witnesses to the difficulties and challenges many Nigerians are having in participating in the exercise. From the feedback received from our members from different parts of the country, the challenges and difficulties include the following as they relate to the DDC machines:

•  non functioning fingerprint scanners

•  low sensitivity of fingerprint scanners

•  breakdown of the machines due to overheating

•  low level of battery backup

•  inability of INEC officials to properly use the machines or conduct basic troubleshooting in situations where the machines don't work.

•  inadequate DDC machines; we understand one of the Contractors has not fully delivered its quota

•  inadequate printer cartridges

Most of these challenges can be categorized into a. hardware b. software c. operational; these are problems which we believe would have been largely prevented by proper specification of the hardware and software; appropriate testing and certification of the systems; adequate and appropriate training of personnel; and adequate and appropriate contingency and backup arrangement. This situation, we believe, will have been prevented or mitigated if IT professionals have been fully involved in the planning and implementation of the whole exercise.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, for the umpteenth time, let me reiterate the fact that the Voters registration exercise is fully situated within the IT domain and ought to have been treated as such; unfortunately this has not been so. INEC, under the leadership of Professor Attahiru Jega, has so far kept IT professional bodies (NCS and CPN) at bay for reasons best known to it.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, if we are to answer the question which many Nigerians have been asking as to what went wrong in spite of the enormous fund committed to the exercise, the simple answer will be that INEC failed or refused to involve IT professionals in a matter that bothers heavily on professionalism.

On the way forward, we wish to reiterate our earlier recommendation that: INEC should be transparent and fully unfold its strategies for deploying IT for the entire electoral process so that professionals could offer advice and support as deemed necessary and appropriate.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, once again, we thank you most sincerely for honouring our invitation and look forward to wide publicity for the issues covered in this Press release.

Professor Charles O. Uwadia FNCS

President, Nigeria Computer Society (NCS)

FirstBank Launches Nigeria's First Biometric ATM

Nigeria's foremost financial institution, First Bank of Nigeria Plc (FirstBank) has, again blazed the trail in technology-driven banking by introducing bio-metric Automated Teller Machine (ATM), the first in Nigeria's banking sector.

With the introduction of this technology, globally acclaimed as one of the most secure forms of customer identification, the Bank has again demonstrated its preparedness to protect the data resources of its customers. The solution is leveraging on the Customer Identification System (CIS) platform being developed by information technology team of the Bank.

According to Chuma Ezirin, Group Head, eBusiness of FirstBank, the new technology would be available to existing cardholders, who may wish to add biometric authentication as part of their transaction approval process on the Bank's ATMs in addition to PIN selection while new cardholders, especially those who cannot read nor write and the elderly, would be issued cards with only biometric authentication functionality. “This is a great feat for the Bank especially at this period where fraud prevention and building customer confidence on the use of electronic channels are key customer acquisition and retention strategies. This would also drive financial inclusion, a Central Bank initiative to address the banking needs of the unbanked population', he said.

The deployment of the new biometric solution, according to him, is a giant stride for the Bank as it not only provides convenience and security to our diverse customer segments, but also aligns with financial inclusion strategy of the Central Bank of Nigeria to address the unbanked population.

eTranzact improves access to Mobile Banking in Nigeria

In a bid to improve access to mobile banking services to all mobile users in Nigeria, without the limitation of the make and model of their mobile handsets, eTranzact International PLC has introduced its new global USSD platform.

The interactive Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) enables all network and mobile phones to utilize eTranzact menu-generated mobile banking applications by sending a text message to a short code and the application comes up on the mobile phone.

According to Mr. Richard Omoniyi, the Group Head Technology of eTranzact, with the USSD on our platform, GSM subscribers on all network can now enjoy easy mobile banking services because the services is very simple , user-friendly, common and acceptable on all kind of phones. eTranzact is the only e-payment provider in the country that enable payment solution via your mobile phones.

The eTranzact mobile banking and payment solution provides users services such as Funds Transfers to any bank account or ATM cards or mobile phone using the ATM CardlexCash service, Bills payment – any Cable TV bills, PHCN bills, Postpaid bills, Airtime TopUp of any GSM/CDMA network, Check account or card balance etc. With the ATM CardlexCash service, you can send money anytime, anywhere to a third party's mobile phone and the funds can be withdrawn at any ATM machine without the use of a physical ATM card.

Mr. Omoniyi said, “As a mobile banking and payment solution provider we are leveraging on the functionality to provide mobile banking services to all mobile phone users. So, users can simply get their mobile banking applications from their banks. The eTranzact Mobile Banking is a global service and can work outside and within the country. This is in line with the company's vision to be a global leader in providing innovative mobile payment services.”

eTranzact Mobile banking solution currently provides its services to major banks in Nigeria, which includes; United Bank of Africa, First Bank, Intercontinental Bank , Access Bank, Oceanic Bank, First City Monument Bank, Fidelity Bank, Union Bank, Skye Bank, Spring Bank, and Wema Bank.

About eTranzact

eTranzact International PLC is Nigeria's first award winning multi-application and multi-channel electronic switching and payment processing platform. The company has operations in Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Cote d'Ivoire, South Africa and UK and aims to provide Nigerians, Africans and ultimately the world with cutting edge payment solutions.

Ekuwem to preside @ Nigeria Internet Governance forum 2011

The former president of the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) and the Executive Vice Chairman, Teledom Group International, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem would preside over the 2011 edition of the Nigeria Digital Sense Forum taking place between Thursday 24 and Friday 25 March, 2011 at the Golden Gate Paradise, Ikoyi-Lagos, on ‘Internet Governance and Broadband Evolution in Nigeria'.

The Nigeria Digital Sense forum is an annual assembly of the Nigerian Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) with particular reference to the Internet community, offering them a platform to deliberate on how the Internet is governed and its developmental impact to the country as well as contributing to the global Internet Governance Forum (IGF).

The annual forum is organized in collaboration with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and endorsed by the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), ICANN, Nigeria Internet Exchange Point Ltd, Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Nigeria Internet Group (NIG), Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), Joint Action Committee on ICT Awareness and Development (JACITAD) to name a few.

Disclosing the acceptance of Dr. Ekuwem who was until recently the National President of the Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), the Executive Director, DSA, the organizers of the forum, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, said it was an exciting piece of news.

She noted that Ekuwem who is reputed for his doggedness during the nation's country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) controversy would be chairing the Nigeria Digital Sense forum on Internet Governance.

Ekuwem, she said, would use the platform to share critical information from his experiences in moving the ICT industry forward and specifically the .ng domains.

Mrs. Nweke also said that the two-day event has been strategically structured to boost participation of individuals and corporate, especially those offering Internet services that are looking for a meeting point with the ever increasing Internet savvy population in the country.

DigitalSense forum, she said, has become an innovative platform of taking internet offerings and services nearer to the populace.

This, she said, is crucial now that most mobile subscribers have internet embedded on their phones for easy and fast communication.

Promising that the 2011 edition would surpass the previous years, she promised of frequent updates in the coming days as DSA plans to hold the event in both plenary and working-group sessions.

In his reacting on his choice as the chairman of the Nigeria Digital Sense Forum, Ekuwem noted that he has accepted the position due to the importance of the subject, which theme would be on ‘Internet Governance and Broadband Evolution in Nigeria'.

According to him, the passion he has for the Internet development has been of tremendous strength to move ahead and with the broadband evolution expected with the landing of two privately-owned submarine cables, a lot is expected in the market in Nigeria.

He commended the organizers, DSA to keep up the good work in pushing Internet awareness in the country, just as he assured that Teledom Group International and its subsidiaries have sufficient reasons to associate themselves with the Nigeria Digital Sense Forum, especially as a technology company.

It would be recalled that last year, DSA was well represented at the West Africa Internet Governance Forum in Senegal, with its Communiqué forming most position of Nigeria at the event, while the global Internet Governance Forum holding in Vilnius, Lithuania between September 14 and 17, 2010.

The chief executive, Teledom Group, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, has won several professional and international prizes including NTA Man of the Year 2010, Albert Einstein's Centenary award of excellence by the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife.
Additionally, Dr. Ekuwem, has won the National Productivity Order of Merit (NPOM) in 2003 amidst other awards.

New Chief Executive Officer Appointed For Helios Towers Nigeria

Lagos, December 2010 – Helios Towers, Africa’s leading Infrastructure Sharing, Co-location and Managed services provider has announced the appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer for Nigeria. Mr. Inder Bajaj has over 25-year professional experience with leading corporate in the telecom services and office automation sector.

He has performed a wide range of roles with line jobs including leading strategic business units, setting up start-up business in B2C/ B2B space, sales / business operations with direct / indirect channel. He has also done many staff roles in functional areas of corporate strategy planning, product management, total quality management and sales training.

Prior to his current responsibilities, he worked with Reliance Communications Limited (RCOM ) where he was President of Reliance Infratel Ltd, a telecom infrastructure company which he built to be a global leader in telecommunication infrastructure sharing . He led a team of 150 people in functional areas of Technical service project/operations, Finance/Commercial, Business Development, Product Management, Customer care and rolled out over 34,000 new towers, in 2 years post formation of the company and today the company has the highest tenancy per tower in the Industry in India.

He was at one time, Reliance Communications Limited (RCOM ) Head of Corporate Planning for the Telecom business where he managed evaluations of Long Term Technology path options, market assessment for inorganic options and leading an acquisition transaction initiative. He was also responsible for the team that secured licence for RCOM’s entry into the Mobile GSM market as well as development of new business strategy and operationalizing of RCOM’s GSM foray, High Speed Data Business and Passive Infrastructure. He was also responsible for developing strategic transformation programs and managing the review process across network, organization, and sales & distribution, customer acquisition / retention

From 1998 to 2003, he was with Bharti Tele Ventures as Chief Operating Officer of Maharashtra Circle, where he led the project team that won the license as 4th operator to set up the company from scratch and launched operations. He also had brief stints at Modi Xerox India as General Manager and Ballarpur Industries as Personnel Executive
Mr.Bajaj brings the experience, expertise, and leadership abilities to position Helios Towers for success in the future and deliver the value expected by its numerous clients and broader constituent communities.
Mr.Bajaj has been appointed to drive the next stage of Helios Towers' growth in Nigeria because of his strong execution skills, his proven ability to lead top performing teams and his track record in driving shareholder value.
Helios Towers has achieved huge success in the Co-location business in recent years and has in particular built an enviable reputation for highest quality of service delivered through leading-edge innovation and backed up by excellent customer service standards. It remains the only Towerco maintaining 99.9% uptime an industry where uptime is a major challenge.
Helios Towers makes operators more successful by providing fully managed tower sites on a lease basis with marked reduction in operating expenses.
HTN commenced commercial operations in 2006 and has demonstrated its ability to operate and compete successfully in Nigeria. It has quickly become the leading shared infrastructure provider and the reference point for quality of service in the industry and is well positioned to remain the dominant provider of co-location infrastructure services in Africa, while adapting its business models to the specific requirements of the environment.

Bayero Agabi emerge African ICT Broadcast ICON

African foremost ICT broadcaster, Bayero Agabi recently added another feather to his cap as he bagged the African Digital Award 2010 for the most outstanding ICT broadcaster in the pastdecade.

Reacting to the award, Bayero who has carved a niche for himself in the area of ICT reportage in Africa expressed appreciation to ICT watch africa, the organizers of the award for the recognition, pointing out that he is particularly thrilled by the award because he bagged it when Nigeria celebrated 50 years of nationhood. Bayero agabi a pan african ict for development promoter remained the only african journalist to have won the prestigious UNEC/AISI MEDIA AWARD twice. This is in addition to over twenty three award both local and international in over a decade.

In addition to pioneering ict on television in west africa agabi is also the executive director of know how media the publishers of the award winning IT publication ITEDGE NEWS.COM in english and french languages, president TRIBE MEDIA COMPANY owners and operators of tribe tv, cyber africa magazine, ait infotech network, and tribe times international magazine. Presenting the plaque to Bayero Dr Emmuel Ekuwem former president of atcon and ceo teledom o described bayero agabi as the most professional and compentent ict journalist he has met in the past ten years. Curently he is the managing editor, Tribe Times Magazine a print medium used to promote Africanity. celebrates the richness of African tribes, her people in Diaspora with distinguishing landmarks the world over. The publication promotes the enormous socio-cultural heritage and natural endowment of the continent and as well connect with her past to celebrate African icons capable of inspiring quality leadership in Africa,

He's also the publisher Cyber Africa magazine and the anchor/ producer of Cyber Africa a TV magazine on the Africa Independent Television Network. Both of which x-rays the development, trends and happenings in the ICT world in Nigeria and beyond with a view to ''Connecting Africa with the New Age''.

BAYERO AGABI journalism career has spanned through over a decade. Starting as a film editor with Channels Television in 1993, Bayero has risen in profile to become Nigeria's leading ict broadcast journalist since joining Africa Independent Television AIT in 1997, where he has coordinated various political programmes that dared the military dictators at that time. So far BAYERO AGABI has won over 26 awards both local and international for his efforts at promoting ICT development in the region. The awards includes; Africa Information Society Initiative / GTZ Media Award for TV (2005) , International Foundation For Excellence (IFEX) Award [Excellent Performance Award (2002)] , Award of Excellence (2005) , RIMA Foundation Award For News Media TV Station 2008, National campaign towards mass Computer/ IT [Award of Honour For Outstanding Contribution to ICT Reporting in Nigeria (2006)] , Best ICT Reporter of the year (Electronic) 2003, IT Reporting media of the year 2009 (Electronic)], ATCON NATION TELECOM MERIT AWARD (2004), An award of THE MOST OUTSTANDING ICT EDITOR OF THE DECADE -electronic, 2010., An award of Excellence (NIGERIA'S FOREMOST BROADCASTER), A TV Video category Award 2007, 2007 AISI (African Information Society Innitiative ) GKP Media Award for TV / Video, Best IT Reporter of the year 2009, Best Software / IT Reporter Electronic, Media (Radio) 2001.

ICT AND NIGERIA AT 50: IMPACTS AND PROPECTS

ICT experts and analyst have said that the impacts of ICT on the Nigerian economy since independence has been enormous and its continuous deployment is very important for the Rapid development of every facet of the country

It has also been stated by stakeholders in the industry that ICT is very key in the timely delivery of MDGs, vision 2020-20 and ICT4D.

Speaking recently at the telecom and ICT evening held recently in Lagos, the president of ATCON, engr titi omo ettu, opined that ‘in order to ensure that Nigeria’s MDG commitments and vision 2020-20 reach their target audience in all the 774 local governments, it will require a substantial completion of fixed broadband infrastructure that gives optimum connectivity within the country and to the global internet’ Experts have also argued that the impacts of ICT over the past years have been huge and it has revolutionalized the ways businesses are done in Nigeria.

Nokia siemens eyes mobile broadband growhth in nigeria

Researches have shown that mobile broadband growth is expected to escalate in Nigeria and nokia siemens is positioning itself to be a huge part of the growth. This was made known by the head, North and West Africa, nokia siemens networks, Mr. Ben Hayen recently at the nigercom congress organized recently in Lagos. While highlighting the company’s views on mobile broadband technology in Nigeria, Mr. Hayen said 3G and LTE were major technologies for emerging markets like Nigeria. He further stressed that almost 80 percent of new mobile subscriber came from emerging markets like Nigeria, thus, it is very important for the company to be well positioned for the coming explosive growth of mobile broadband in the country.

Doubts over second phase of sim registration

Doubts have been expressed over the certainty of the continuation of the Subscriber Identification Module otherwise known as the SIM card registration championed by the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC).

The recently appointed executive vice chairman of the commission, Dr Eugene Juwah has said that he’s not sure that the senate will approve the second phase of the SIM card registration exercise. This was made known at the information communications technology night held recently in Lagos.

According to him, ‘I am just coming from a senate hearing where we have to defend some of the projects we have. One of them is the SIM card registration’. He further said that the bill has to be passed by both the Senate and the House of Representative before any substantial improvement can be made. It should be noted that the former acting executive vice chairman of NCC, Dr Bashir Gwanda had earlier on proposed a 6.1bn budget to the house of representative for the second phase of the SIM card registration but the proposal was not approved.

Airtel launches new global brand across its operations in Africa

• Abuja, Nigeria – 19 November 2010: Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 19 countries across Asia and Africa, today launched the Airtel brand and unveiled the new brand
• New global identity to unify all 16 African operations and cover 200 million customers across Africa and Asia
• Airtel reinforces commitment to extend it mobile networks and bridge the digital divide
• Customers to experience a new brand and enjoy superior quality of service, reliability, innovation and affordability wherever they live, work or travel

Abuja, Nigeria – 19 November 2010: Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 19 countries across Asia and Africa, today launched the Airtel brand and unveiled the new brand identity across its operations in 16 countries in Africa. The new Airtel brand was unveiled in the presence of His Excellency Dr Goodluck Jonathan, the President of Nigeria, along with Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Group CEO, Bharti Enterprises in the capital, Abuja.

With the unveiling of the new brand identity Airtel becomes the master brand for all the group’s 19 operations in Asia and Africa covering over 200 million customers.  In Africa, Airtel replaces the Zain brand and comes with the promise of delivering high quality customer benefits through the power of global Airtel brand.  Going forward all future new products and services will follow the Airtel brand structure.  The ZAP mobile money service will be re-branded Airtel Money with immediate effect.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti, said:  "Bharti began its African journey by promising to deliver world-class and affordable mobile services to customers and delighting them with innovative products.  I believe we are taking a major step towards delivering on this by introducing the heart of our business - the Airtel brand - across our operations in Africa.  Our African customers will now be able to enjoy the same best-in-class brand experience as our customers across India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

He further added:  “We remain committed to taking our network deeper into Africa, ensuring our services touch the common man and bridge the digital divide in the continent.  I am confident that over the coming years Airtel will win the hearts of customers across Africa and emerge as one of most admired brands of the continent.”

The new brand identity
The new Airtel brand comes with a promise to meet the emerging needs of customers with innovative, affordable and relevant solutions to empower consumers, giving them the freedom to do what they choose and provide them with the tools to meet life’s daily challenges.
The red primary colour of the logo reflects the warmth and vibrancy of the African continent.  It is the colour of life and of the African sun at dusk.  These qualities are reflected in Airtel’s brand personality of being brave and bold, sensitive and empathetic.  The new curved addition to the logo is a symbol which will help ensure instant recognition across our diverse international markets.

As part of the celebration of unveiling the new brand, Airtel also announced the launch of a new ultra low cost handset package which effectively provides a mobile phone free of charge to all new subscribers.  The package, launched in conjunction with Nokia, will be priced at approx NGN 3,500 (USD $23) and includes a brand new Nokia 1280 mobile phone, a free SIM card and the equivalent value in free Airtel talk time and SMS text messages.
Over the next couple of months Airtel will launch a number of world leading product innovations which focus on delivering relevant information for customers to enhance their quality of life and provide tools that will help them overcome their daily challenges.

We Need Legal backing to Promote Locally Made Computers - D G, NITDA (Contd...)

What has contributed to this is the awareness in IT and the utilization of computers in almost all spheres of our life. During the last administration, a programme was put in place to promote indigenous technology. The idea was to improve on the production of locally made computers and utilization, which brought a lot of benefits. This year, the statistics has moved even higher. Locally made computers are doing well, but like any other industries; we have a lot of challenges. One of which is power. Let me leave computers for now; let us go to ordinary air conditioners. Just a few days ago, my air conditioner had a fault, because there was frequent power problem. If you look at the component that breaks down more easily now, the power pack is rated number one and secondly, the memory because these cannot really withstand fluctuation in power. These are the areas we need to train our people on because the situation in this country is very dicey. That is why we have to look at environmental training to our own systems.

Would you then say locally made computers have done very well?
Yes, they have statistically considering the environment in which they operate. Many a times if you look at the systems, many of them are built with respect to environmental factors in which they operate; the temperature, pressure, facilities in which they operate and back up. We need properly trained engineers to help achieve this and if you look at the number, they cannot actually cope with the demand right now that is why we have to go back to engineering schools to produce more.

Just about four or five years ago, we had about seven or more locally made computers brands. Today, we can barely say we have three surviving ones. What do you think is responsible for this?
You could look at it from angle of business pressure, because business failure could be part of it. Our banks may not even give them enough loans to back up what they have. You need to be able to withstand a lot of hurdles in the market here unlike in the advanced countries where you can get loans on long term repayment. It could be because of sales as well. If you do not have enough sales, your market may not move very high. Demand and supply is also an issue. If some people in the industry are progressing very well, others may not have enough supply. Also, it may be attributed to financial failures globally.

A few years back, during the Obasanjo administration, government gave directives to agencies and parastatals to buy a certain percentage of locally made computers. Is this still effective.?
It is still effective but is only obligatory. I have had some cases where contractors or manufacturers complained that they are not being patronized by Nigerians. Nigerians would rather go for foreign made products. So my message to them is that we should actually patronize our own computer brands. It is only in this way that we can have higher volume of sales so that we can move from low range to high range of computers. We probably need a law that stipulates that locally made computers must be used.

Are you still going ahead with the re-certification of these locally made computers?
Oh yes, we will. If you have a driving license for instance, you do not have it forever even in other countries. Re-certification does not necessarily mean something is wrong. But the reason is that after some time, things sag, elastic materials too sags after sometimes. So when you certify, you actually go back and look at your production. That is why we have new set of productions coming in. Electronic materials are dynamic products, so re-certification means everybody has to stand up to expectations. That even gives more confidence on the products for consumers. Consumers know this people are on top shape. So re-certification is a normal thing in the electronic industry.

Internet (Contd...)

It had been long in coming, but then in 1996, seven years after it was introduced in the United States, the nation’s telecommunication regulator, the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) did the right.

It licensed thirty-eight internet service providers to sell internet service in Nigeria.  On January 1st the following year, Linkserv Limited immediately began commercial operations in the country, thus, becoming the Very Fast Internet service provider (ISP) in Nigerian The nation, finally stepped into the internet age. Yet today, fourteen years after, the country is still struggling with the infrastructure of this technology.

Nigeria, like every other country in the world on its first encounter with the internet the internet had struggled to understand it seemingly overwhelming power- still is: we dare say. But then, industry watchers and observers who have keenly watched the country take its first baby step in this direction say the growth so far had be phenomenal.
 
Nigerian Internet Group Formed
In 1995, a year before these companies were registered, a body known as the Nigerian Internet Group had been conceived as a non-governmental organization with the responsibility of promoting and facilitating full access to the internet in Nigeria. The Nigeria Internet Group was formed in 1995 after the first internet workshop organized by the Yaba College of Technology in collaboration with  a number of  organizations including the Nigeria Communication, National Data Bank Literacy Training and development Program for Africa ( University of Ibadan) and Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON), with the assistance of the United States Information Services (USIS), Regional Information Network for Africa (RINAF) and the British Council. The workshop was put together in order raise the level of awareness of the benefits of internet in Nigeria and provides a forum for discussing the future of networking.

Four years later, in May 1999, the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) in collaboration with the Nigeria the Nigerian Internet Group (NIG), organized an Africa Internet Summit (AFRINET’’99), hosted by the Federal Ministry of Communication. The summit which took place at the ECOWAS secretariat from 11 to 13 May, 1999 focused on the sustainable development and utilization of the internet in Africa and sought to create a common forum where African Internet Practitioners can come together and discuss policy issues peculiar to Africa. The Nigerian Government then had been supported by the United Nations Development Programmes Agency (UNDPA ) in a one million US dollar project to assist NITEL establish the internet backbone. UNDPA was also strengthening NITEL’s telecommunication training school to become a regional internet training centre              

Growth
A report by the International Telecommunications Union, focused the period 1996-2009 on telecommunications development on nations of the world. According to the data on Nigeria, which the source claimed was last updated on July 16th, 2010, users of the internet in Nigeria in every 100 person interviewed as at 1996 were 0% and it ran this way for four years. The line lifted off the bottom for the first time in at the tail end of the year 2000. But the figure had been so insignificant: a shocking 0.3%. Between the year 2002 and the year 2004, it rose to 1.5%. Three years later in2007, it struck 7% and then it rose speedily in 2008 to touch 15.9%. In comparison, its North African counterpart; Egypt had touched off the 0% ground mark in 1997, striking two percent in 2002, 5% in 2004 and then rising steeply and speedily to twelve percent in 205 to finish at 16.2% in 2008. As at when the World Bank survey in United States in 1993, users of the internet then had already lifted off the bottom line at 2.3%. By 1995,it moved up from 9.4%to 60.1% in 2002. Today, about 76 Americans out of every one hundred have access to the internet. Another study like the one conducted by World Bank was carried out in Nigeria in 1999 by local based analyst. Their data revealed that the nation had a total of about 3,000 internet subscribers in population of about 140 million people. Internet users as that time too had been estimated to be about a 100,000. It was recorded that about 81 internet host sites were ready fully functional in the country. The host sites had been identified to fall into commercial, academic, research, international and government related areas.

CHALLENGES  
Low penetration has been the major issue. The internet basically remains an urban phenomenon in the country. The rural areas have been shut out from this illumination and there seems to be no hope for them soon. Even in villages where GSM is already present and fully functional, some of them cannot still access the internet. Internet service providers have however said that the blame should not be heaped at their doorsteps.  According to Victor Okeke, a system analyst, ‘’ The vast majority of natives in rural areas are poor and cannot afford computers and phones that could give them access to the internet’’.  He said another major problem is illiteracy.

‘’You at least have to be able to read and write to be able to learn to use the internet and majority of these people are stark illiterate’’, he said.
Comments from an online reader had also identified another major challenge crippling the internet growth in the country. He said, ‘’Coverage will remain to remain this low if they continue to charge us as if it is gold. It is only in this country that we just like making simple things seem as if they are meant for the rich. It is so sad’’. Earlier this year, Mr Nyibo Odero, Google’s Office Lead, English speaking West African had at a briefing with ICT news journalists in Lagos that there was a major IT infrastructure problem in the country and it needs to be urgently addressed. ‘’It is important to make internet access easily available to people in this country and then, the prices even for more a simple standard laptop is crazy’’.

Another Google executive, this time, its vice president Technology, English Middle-East, Asia and Africa EMEAA, Nelson Mattos also told ICT news journalists at same briefing that Nigerians and indeed the entire African continents could never become market potential for internet-broadband access as far as he was concerned. He said the continent remains low and poor on internet infrastructures and penetration to be termed a market spot Journalists had been trying to learn from MR Nyibo and Christian Miccio, Google’s Navigable Maps products manager, how much the search giant was investing in the country whose entire corporate working populace and other private individuals constantly log on to the internet and used majority of Google’s tools before NR Mattos interrupted. He did not avoid the question though his answer was a single word. ‘’Significantly’’ He said that though much has been invested in various African countries, yet a lot of development is still needed. ‘’African nations still need to do a lot to grow’’.
MR Rudman, CEO of Internet Exchange point of Nigeria (IXPN), in an encounter with journalists had said that government must work to provide infrastructures to aid the provision of internet services.

‘’Infrastructure is still a major problem for the industry, as the right infrastructures are not available. They have to be made available to aid bandwidth distribution to remote areas. Also, government needs to subsidize the right of way for the operators to pass through. If the government is charging the operators too high, the cost would be passed on to the consumers. Most especially, government must also improve on power supply’’, added MR Rudman.
HOPE

Experts are however optimistic that the recent submarine cable connected would improve internet service in the country. Only recently, Main one launched its open access sub marine cable system which when completed will span 14,000 kilometre and will provide international internet connectivity in the country. ‘’With the coming broadband connection, it is a major opportunity to improve internet penetration ‘’, said Rudman. According to him, the main objective of internet exchange point (IXPs) in the country was to interconnect various internet service providers and network operators to exchange traffic among their networks, generally to as autonomous system by means of mutual pairing agreement which allows traffic to be exchanged at no cost.
‘’We are making sure that the internet connection will remain local, as all links to the internet  can go through  within the country than for the link to connect from outside the country and back’’, Mr. Rudman added.

Main One Company also announced that it will launch its high capacity fibre cable system on July in Ghana and Nigeria and it did.
According to its CEO, Funke Okpeke,phase one of the system spans 6,800km from Seixal in Portugal through the West African coast to Ghana and Nigeria and will deliver 1.93 TBPs of much-needed international capacity into West Africa where rapid growth in telecoms has been blighted by limited global connectivity.

The foundations of the internet had been formed when packet-switching networks came into operation in 1960s in the United States. Transmitted data had been broken up into small packets data, sent to its destination and then, reassembled at the other side.

2011 Elections and the Nigeria ICT Sector: (Contd...)

Since President GoodLuck Jonathan followed the footsteps of Barack Obama, in declaring his intentions for the presidency via facebook, other politicians in the country have since taken to facebook as a veritable tool for campaign. To many ict analysts this is a good omen.

A visit to the social network site will reveal that Lagos State Governor, MR Babatunde Fashola, former Vice president Atiku Abubakar, Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and host of other have made the site their campaign machinery.

This development is no doubt a testimony to the adoption of ICT by the political class which was hitherto docile.
In a bid to ensure that plans for the 2011 election go well, the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has since concluded plan with the intended procurement of Direct Data Capturing Machine (DDC) which according to experts in the ICT industry is to enable INEC to conduct an election that deploys encryption, to enable voters register and cast their votes electronically.

INEC’s decision to go digital in the forth coming election has continued to elicit reactions among local content providers as it was alleged that INEC had pointed out that the local content providers don’t have the required technological know-how to provide the hardware and software for the over 150,000 DDC machines needed for the elections.

However, IT experts in the country and other professional bodies have posited that the country may pay a great price down the line if the nation’s data base is left in the hands of foreign agent.

Speaking with Cyber Africa, the chairman Lagos State Chapter of the Nigeria Computer Society, MR Rogba Adeoye pointed out that indigenous ICT firms are capable of handling the project and they should be given chunk of the job. He added that lack of involvement of professionals in the past accounted for the failure recorded in the previous dealings with indigenous companies.

In a similar vein Nigerians have continued to express their reservations over the award of the contract to foreign companies, describing it as a waste of fund when there are a number of Nigerian companies that have the capacities to deliver same result.

Nigeria pc makers battle over shrinking market share (Contd...)

Fifty years in the life of any nations is to many a celebration time. But for the locally made computer companies, it is a mix grill: A mix of blessings and woes depicting the states of affairs in Africa’s most populous country of about 150 million people.

There was no computer company 50 years ago neither was the computer a common sight. It was not even a common sight a little less than five years ago though local pc makers were already a part of the technology space that has evolved in the IT revolution that came to Nigeria a little over a decade ago.

If having pc assembly company was all that was necessary to define all the success story Africa’s most populous country need to define its success in the last 50 years, Nigeria would be rated on the A+list.

In the last decade, more than seven pc makers, UNITEC, Pragmatic, Balogtek, Brian System, Zinox and Omatek, and the more recent Ganiac and Veda have arrive on the scene. Today about three have completely disappeared from the landscape.

The surviving players are only managing to keep afloat for a mix of factors.

Two players, Zinox and Omatek lead the league. Between them, they dominate the shear of the PC market controlled by the local PC assembly companies. The two combine has less than 35% of the entire sales in 2009. In the words of Florence Seriki ceo of omatek computers the recent crash in the banking sector did not blow a good breez on their business. According to her getting as little as LPO finacing is now a gully to cross.

As it presently the market has expanded in terms of patronage and reach that transcends private and public sectors. But it has remained largely a domain of foreign player leaving a fraction of the margin for the local PC makers to contend with. For every one PC that Omatek or Zinox sells HP and Acer sells between seven and three. The remain margin go to Dell, Mercury, Toshiba, Sony, and other foreign brands. All combined, they controlled about 65% of the market giving them a strong edge over the local players, Zinox and Omatek…

Mindful of the need to promote local PC assembly, the chief Olusegun Obasanjo administration issued a directive that all MDAs (ministries, departments and agencies.) must patronized local PC makers and consider foreign brand only if the local brand could not meet up with the requirement. This Government policy was designed to help generate employment in the PC sub-sector and grow local capacity in the computer assembly.

This helped. The policy drive increase sales for Zinox and Omatek; and was largely responsible for the successful implementation of the local PC solutions in the public sector. During the Obasanjo years, Nigeria witness a phenomenal growth in local computer assembly and manufacture helped by the deliberate and conscious effort of the government to promote the local brands.

The public sector acceptance has not been equaled by the same level of private sector acceptance. The private sector has largely remained the confine of the foreign brands with a level of the consistency that has not helped to properly position the local brands in corporate Nigeria.

And then even those years of market favored in the public sector have been followed by a somewhat level of increasing apathy. There is heightening tendency to reject the local made PCs in favored of the foreign brands. HP and the rest of the offshore brands are beginning to win back open acceptance with dire consequence for the local brand.

The consequence is manifold. Sales have shrunk forcing many of the local companies to either close down or reduce their existing staff strength. Faced with reduced intensives from government, absence of robust support infrastructure, inadequate power supply insufficient technical staff and hyper competition from foreign brands, the market is fast ebbing and may completely disappeared for all the local PC makers.

In an exclusive interview with Dr Armstrong Takang,the managing director of alteq, he said that the way the market is today there is no way the local brands can compete. In his words the foreign brands have larger pockets, better customer care, more robust and reliable back up system that the local ones cannot boost of .

No doubt, government needs to increase its support base for the local PC makers. But the companies also need to get their acts right. Too much attention is paid to getting MDAs patronage and so little is done to target the wider market outside government where there is more rapid deployment of PCs.

Besides, as many users is the public sector revealed, though many local made computers come in good quality but they do not compare favorably with their foreign counterpart in terms of after sales support. Here, their major weakness is exposed. Not many local brands can boast of after sales technical expertise that the foreign brands give their customers thus lowering the value of TCO (total cost of ownership). The onus is therefore on the local PC makers to improve their total market relevance before they could up sales and profit.