ONE FOR THE MONEY, TWO FOR THE SHOW…CABO VERDE TELECOM LAUNCHES IP-TV Telecoms news Internet news Computing news Digital toolbox/In search of the business model On the money Web news People, events, jobs, contracts...

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ISSUE NO 326

One for the money, two for the show…Cabo Verde Telecom launches IP-TV

This week saw Cape Verdean incumbent telco Cabo Verde Telecom launch IP-TV ahead of the new competitor in its market. It also saw the introduction of what is probably the first African push-to-talk service by Maroc Telecom. But why is this happening? African markets are different from elsewhere comes the swelling chorus. Well maybe they are but maybe they aren’t. Russell Southwood looks at the two new services.

Cabo Verde Telecom has set up a new subsidiary CVMultimédia that will be offering 21 television channels, Internet and voice: in other words, a full “triple-play” offer. The move is seen as pre-emptive as a second licence was granted through international tender to Chinese-owned Cabo Verde Digital which will offer 30 channels using DVB-T.

Cabo Verde Digital is a subsidiary of Xiamen Sinonets Electronics, a Chinese company with experience of satellite television in China (see www.chinafujian.com). This licence does not give the operator the right to offer telecoms services.

CVMultimédia’s service will be branded Zap TV and cost CV escudos 2,100 (USD24) per month. This includes the equipment to receive the signal that costs CV escudos 28,000 (USD320) amortised over the period of a 24-month contract. For this the user will get 20 foreign channels and state broadcaster Televisão de Cabo Verde (TCV).

The 20 foreign channels will include: SIC Notícias, TV Record, Rai Uno, BBC World, TV5, TV Galicia, Infinito, Fox Life, Fashion TV, Euronews, Eurosport, Extreme Sport, TVE Internacional, CNBC, MCM, RTP-África, Lusomundo Premium, Lusomundo Gallery and Playboy SportTv, SIC, RTP1 and 2 and TVI.

The two operators will be fighting over a market where the overall population is just over 460,000 people. For Cabo Verde Telecom the full extent of its market is probably circumscribed by the 70,000 fixed lines through which it can deliver DSL services.

Early reports back on IP-TV delivered to African subscribers indicated that there are initial teething problems over stability of picture delivery. Also subscribers will probably take some time to get used to the slow response time on channel changing. Operators may also need to tip off users that it’s not a wise idea to run the TV service and allow another member of the family to use the phone service.

Meanwhile Maroc Telecom has launched what is probably the first push-to-talk service on the continent. Branded as MobiTalkie, it costs DH300 (USD34.50) for unlimited use. Users can create user groups of people they will allow to communicate with them in this way.

However the service is only available if you buy a Motorola L6 (described elsewhere as the “poor man’s RAZR”) or V360 but the company says other compatible handsets will be available shortly. The company has not announced what it’s charging for handsets but the V360 is available elsewhere for USD200 so it is not a low end handset.

Both the tariff and the handset cost inevitably make this a product probably only of interest to corporate buyers. Push-to-talk turns your mobile into a “walkie-talkie” so the greater mystery is who will find it useful to have asynchronous conversations in this way at this cost?

But whatever questions might be raised about these two new services, they both show that technical innovations pioneered elsewhere are going to find themselves coming to Africa. The open question is whether they find a market or whether as the sceptical chorus has it, African markets are simply different.

WAITING FOR THE SENEGALESE SNO – OVER TWO YEARS AND COUNTING

It has been over two years since the Senegalese Government announced that it would licence a second national operator to compete with the national telco incumbent Sonatel. Other than some informal ministerial remarks at a public event a couple of months ago, there has been no licensing tender or any idea of what form the SNO licence will take.

Sources close to both the Government and the regulator ART were saying back in July that an announcement was only two weeks away. But since then there has been no sign of the new competitive entrant.

Meanwhile Senegal remains a market in which Sonatel has really only one competitor of any scale, Sentel. And this situation is further cemented by the President’s ICT advisor (who has said publicly that he will be overseeing the SNO tendering process) sitting on the Board of Sonatel.

Interest was stirred this week by a report in local newspaper Le Messager that rather ambiguously claimed that Swiss-owned Amitelo was a third operator in Senegal. It should be so lucky….but when will the Appel d’Offre for SNO see the light of day? And what’s holding things up?

MALAWI MOBILE LTD LOSES APPEAL CASE ON NETWORK LICENCE 

The Supreme Court of Malawi Friday upheld a High Court ruling that stopped Malawi Mobile Limited (MML), from rolling out after the mobile service provider overstayed its roll out period.

Justice Michael Mtambo, reading the judgement on behalf of his fellow appeal judges, Leonard Unyolo and Michael Mtegha, said the agreement to extend the roll out period for MML was invalid because it was made by a Malawi Communications and Regulatory Authority board which had been dissolved. This he said rendered the agreement between MML and Macra invalid.

The Supreme Court judges said former Macra Abdul Pillane issued the extension after he had already been removed as chairman.“There’s no arguable case here. How can there be a claim to something where there has not been any agreement between the parties?” asked Mtambo.

He added that although the company was registered locally, the majority of shareholders were based outside the country and as such there was need to give security for costs by showing the shareholders’ property in the country, which they did not.

The High Court in June granted an injunction to Macra restraining MML from recruiting staff until the court decided on the network’s licence issue. Last week’s ruling means Macra is now free to revoke the third mobile phone network licence granted to MML which failed to meet the deadline for rolling out the network.

Meanwhile, the trial of Pillane who is facing four counts ranging from uttering a suspended document to extend an agreement for MML, uttering a false document, to obtaining a document by false pretence and perjury, is scheduled to start on October 27, 2007 at Zomba Magistrates court.

Pillane was being prosecuted together with South Africa-based MML investor Petroklas Tsaperas and lawyer Khuze Kapeta but former Director of Public Prosecutions Ishmael Wadi separated the cases. DPP also discontinued the cases involving Tsaperas and Kapeta to deal with Pillane’s case first.

(SOURCE: Nation Online)

UGANDAN REGULATOR SAYS FIRMS CAN HOOK UP TO KENYAN CABLE

A representative of the Ugandan regulator UCC has given the go ahead to private telecom companies to join the Kenyan Government submarine cable project. This may undercut the credibility of the EASSy project that has been promoting its Government protocol on the cable as the “permission” for investors to roll out.

However, despite the offer, the Uganda government says it is still committed to the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) undersea cable project - the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) that will run from South Africa to Djibouti.

By allowing the telecoms firms to take part in the Kenyan project, Uganda hopes that it will have increased bandwidth by the time of the leaders' meeting in November 2007, since the Nepad cable is only expected to start operating in early 2008.

"Private companies can route their traffic as they wish. It will be a commercial arrangement between the companies and Kenya if they go into the venture, involving the Uganda government," said Patrick Mwesigwa, Uganda Communications Commission technical manager.

Despite the green light, a senior official from Uganda Telecom Ltd said the company was not pulling out of EASSy. "We are still committed to EASSy; we signed a memorandum of understanding - that is all I can say," Hans Paulsen, UTL's commercial manager, told The EastAfrican.

Kenya last month abandoned Nepad's $300 million EASSy project for an alternative project that it hopes will run through Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.

The Uganda government says it has not yet considered that option partly because Kenya has not presented that alternative route officially to it. The country has also already signed on to the EASSy Inter-Governmental protocol in Rwanda two months ago.

Other countries that signed were Tanzania, Rwanda, Lesotho, South Africa, Madagascar and Malawi. However, 16 of the 23 countries involved in the project did not sign and although Kenya originated the project during the first East African Business Summit, its delegation did not show up.

A communique published in The EastAfrican recently by Telkom Kenya said that the fact that some operators and governments did not support the signing of the protocol in Kigali did not mean that they are against the development of the EASSy cable.

"A protocol must promote an enabling regulatory and operating environment. If it does not have the endorsement of all stakeholders it will be counterproductive. The EASSy parties therefore reserve the right to accept or reject any terms and conditions of such a protocol," said the communique signed by John Sihra, the EASSy project co-ordinator.

The progress of the EASSy project is not dependant upon the coming into effect of the Nepad protocol, Mr Sihra said in the communique .

Meanwhile, stakeholders in the industry are wondering how the telecoms companies will raise capital for both ventures if they join Kenya's UAE deal after having signed the MOUs that commit them to EASSy.

MTN Uganda and Uganda Telecom, the country's two national operators, are among the companies that committed themselves to join EASSy two years ago. Maybe Uganda should go the Kenyan way and raise funds for the project through the Uganda Securities Exchange [USE]," said a stakeholder in the telecoms industry. Neither MTN nor UTL are listed on the USE.

Kenya last month said it would raise the money for its $110 million Fujairah telecommunications cable through the Nairobi Stock Exchange. Simon Rutega of the Uganda Securities Exchange said it would be possible for the government, but not for the telecom companies, to raise funds for the project through the local stock market.

(SOURCE: The East African)

NEW INTERCONNECT RATES FAVOURS TELONE, SAY ZIMBABWE MOBILE NETWORKS

Zimbabwe’s telecommunications sector is heading for a bitter dispute with the Post and Telcommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) over proposed new minimum termination rates for fixed and mobile international traffic, which firms say favour the state-run fixed operator, TelOne.

Responding to criticism over delays in bringing the country's termination rates for incoming international calls to viable levels that are also in line with the regional average, POTRAZ has announced that with effect from November 1, calls terminating on the fixed network would be charged at US$0.07, while those terminating on mobile operators will be charged at US$0.20. A US$0.15 charge will apply to calls in the mobile via fixed termination category.

  However, telecommunications operators, while acknowledging the need to lift the termination rates from as low as US$0.03 to levels that would enhance their foreign currency generative capacity, have cried foul at the discrepancy between the termination rate for the fixed network, which is less than half that proposed for the country's three mobile operators, all of which operate their own international gate-ways.

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe chief executive, Douglas Mboweni, whose company is the largest telecommunications operator in the country with about 57 percent share of the whole market, said his company was concerned by the development.

"Our argument is that let us have a single termination rate to avoid dumping of international traffic at cheaper rates, which will continue to prejudice the country the much needed foreign currency. There now seems to be an attempt to give TelOne the monopoly to carry our traffic as well, which is why we are totally against and will vigorously resist because it is illegal according to our licence provisions," Mboweni said.

There is apprehension in the industry, in light of state media reports that recommendations have been made for government to "shut down" all other international gateways operated by TelOne's competitors.

"All operators have the right, conferred by licences granted by POTRAZ, to operate international gateways to carry international traffic originating and terminating on their own networks. That right, unfortunately, is being threatened by this statutory instrument because it is heavily biased and in favour of TelOne and we believe this issue needs to be addressed urgently," Mboweni added.

An industry expert who declined to be named for professional reasons said the regulator should fix a flat minimum termination rate and let operators use their competitiveness to capture a share of the market. "Put simply, it's like saying only TelOne should operate a gateway," the expert said.

"TelOne lost the monopoly to operate an international gateway when the telecoms market was liberalised. Now we seem to be seeing yet another attempt to bring back this scenario, albeit through legislation which can be easily challenged because it is patently unfair, discriminatory and definitely not good for business or for the country," he added.

Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono, who estimates that the country could have earned as much as US$75 million over a two-year period running up to January 2002, has called for a single termination rate in the US$0.20 to US$0.25 range. Current termination rates range between US$0.03 to US$0.12, with TelOne's rate being the lowest in the market.

(SOURCE: Financial Gazette)

NIGERIA’S UMBRELLA OPERATORS FLOURISH ON BOOSTER CARD SALES

Nigeria’s airtime resellers are commonly referred to as business centres, or “umbrella operators,” a moniker that comes from their typical set-up: a table, some chairs, one or more handsets, and an umbrella. In a market in which affordability has remained an issue, umbrella operators have filled a gap, allowing MNOs to maximize the opportunity by empowering umbrella operators to provide incremental traffic.

When initially introduced by MTN Nigeria, the booster card allowed heavy prepaid users to benefit from airtime rates at a discount as high as 50 percent over standard prepaid packages, in exchange for a N4,000 (US$30) upfront fee. The booster card is essentially a monthly fee, its main feature being that it is a prepaid monthly fee, free of any contractual attachment and valid 30 days from purchase.

Current standard prepaid rates stand at about N48 (US$0.37); Booster card rates are about N20–N28 (US$0.16–$0.22). Put simply, the business centers have a wide enough margin to charge their customers anything below the US$0.37 but high enough above the US$0.16 to get the margin desired. These business centers are effectively trading on the wide margin provided by the operators. Initially, all GSM operators introduced various forms of booster cards (monthly, weekly, Super Booster).

While creating value for individual users, the booster card also created an opportunity for individuals who saw the value in trading on the margins between the booster card rates and the standard rates.

(SOURCE: Pyramid Research)

TANZANIA’S TCRA ISSUES NEW WIDER ICT LICENSES

Tanzania has introduced a new type of licence, which allows a licensee to provide to end users a range of electronic communication services including among others payphone services, Internet and videoconference.

The Director General of the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), Professor John Nkoma said that one of the license categories under the Converged Licensing Framework is application service.

"This type of licence allows a licensee to provide to end users a range of electronic communication services including among others payphone services, internet, video conference, voice, data, VoIP, Multi-Media and calling cards to end users," said Prof. Nkoma.

"After evaluating the applications and being satisfied that they have met all requirements including sufficient resources to provide application services, the authority, as required by the TCRA Act, 2003, we consulted the Minister for Infrastructure Development on the issuance of the licences," said Prof. Nkoma at the award ceremony.

He further said that the minister then approved issuance of the licences to the four licensees, "including Benson Informatics Limited who will be migrating from public data communication network and services and three new Application service providers.

Some of the companies that received national application licence included Benson Informatics, Clearline Communications Tanzania Limited, Hotspot Business Solutions Limited and Wavetek Communications Limited.

(SOURCE: East African Business Week)

MOBILE PHONE CHAT ROOM ATTRACTING 20,000 USERS A WEEK

"I'm a 24-year-old trapped in a 47-year-old's body," declares Herman Heunis. But he can escape the trap. Armed with a cellphone equipped with his software, he is one of the 1,85m young South Africans who use MXit, Heunis's pioneering technology.

  In its virtual world, his body is no barrier. Messages rocket between users at almost no cost. Chat rooms thrive with lively, 24-hour conversations. What had previously been possible only on PCs, Heunis has made available to anyone with a cellphone.

Back in the physical world, Heunis covers his excitement with a veneer of reserve as each day proves he has hit on a winning technology. Next door to his office in the corner of a drab Stellenbosch office park, his team of 16 programmers and support staff monitor downloads from servers hosted in Cape Town. They are heartened by the numbers: the rate has spiked to 20,000 since they launched version 5.0 last week.

Most of them are relieved to have reached a plateau after development costs drove the business close to bankruptcy. But there is also a sense of much bigger things to come. Heunis wants a world filled with MXit within the next three years: 50m users around the globe chatting - in text - on their cellphones.

Like most disruptive technologies, MXit happened almost by chance. Heunis spent years, and millions of rand, trying to develop a multiplayer online game for cellphones, but the high cost of communicating with other players made it unfeasible. MXit emerged out of the solution to that problem. Instead of using SMS or voice technology, Heunis would use the cellphone networks' (much cheaper) data capacity. The model was pioneered for online PCs by ICQ in the mid-1990s. PC users could exchange messages with one another instantly, so carrying on a conversation.

Heunis saw the potential for a similar service on cellphones that could connect to the Internet. GPRS - a type of cellphone data network - made that possible. In May last year, the first version of MXit was launched.

For Heunis and his team, it hasn't been an easy ride. Shortly after launching, the company was burning up cash. "It's not easy if you keep on spending money and keep on promising some return on investment in the future," he says.

The costs of developing MXit, while a fraction of what a large IT concern would spend, nearly bankrupted him. Two months after its launch, Heunis called the MXit team together and explained the precarious financial situation to them. "We had to invest in new servers every month and our bandwidth costs went up every month and we had to employ more staff and more and more money was flowing out of fragile bank accounts." But his team stuck with it, despite knowing it could have been a financial disaster. Now, Heunis likes to recite Dire Straits' "Why worry", particularly the words "sunshine after the rain".

MXit has been profitable for the past two months - "a small profit" is all he will tell us - but its potential is becoming obvious. Like most online tech innovations, MXit had to start by attracting the users. Cash comes later.

Like Google once had to, MXit is just now figuring out how to make money, confident that its technology is a winner. To see that, consider the technical barriers MXit had to knock down.

It works to link cellphones not just with each other but also with PCs via different PC-based messenger applications like ICQ, Google Talk and MSN Messenger. Instant messaging has become ubiquitous in the PC world. Users log in to see which of their contacts are online and chat to them with short messages, instantly relayed to other users' screens.

MXit uses its own software system to guide communication from other MXit-enabled phones over the cellphone networks. It has also designed software that translates MXit into the various PC-based messenger applications. MXit is easy to install, requiring cellphone users to download and install a small application. They then load up their contacts' cellphone numbers as well as the contact details for people using any of the supported PC-based messenger applications.

By opening MXit on their phones, they can then see when their friends are online and communicate with them by typing messages to them, much like they would using SMS. They can also exchange photos and other files.

But the main drawcard is price. Because MXit uses the cellphone operators' GPRS and 3G data infrastructure, users send messages that cost just a fraction of a cent. Compare that with SMS rates of 40c-80c a message and it's little wonder that children, in particular, are flocking to the service. They can have long conversations with their friends and pay, at most, a couple of cents.

The pricing takes advantage of the fact that, while SA's SMS and call rates are high, data rates of R2/MB (and less) are globally competitive.

The modest revenue figures to date have been earned by charging small sums to users to access chat rooms, virtual dating, news and other content and subscription services such as ringtone downloads. Cash is collected through premium-rate SMSs - users credit their "moola" accounts by sending an SMS to MXit. The cellphone networks also get a bite of this revenue.

But MXit is only just starting to tap into the advertising market, which should form a natural revenue stream.

Each of the 4,8m times that users collectively log in to MXit a day, they could be exposed to an ad on MXit's opening splash screen. MXit is in talks with a number of potential advertisers, particularly youth brands.

The long-term payoff for Heunis may come not from the profits of MXit Lifestyle - the operating company - but from a sale of the business. MXit could attract the attention of a Google, Yahoo or Microsoft, interested in expanding their instant messaging services onto mobile phones. The company could even become the target of local or foreign cellular network operators. It wouldn't be the first time a small Cape company had done it - Mark Shuttleworth sold his online security company, Thawte, to US-based Verisign for US$575m in 2000.

But Heunis says he doesn't want to sell. "I can't see us selling now. We've only just started. There's still so much to be done." But, he adds, "if someone comes along with an outrageous offer, we might think about it, with the emphasis on might".

The offers could well get "outrageous", as Heunis puts it, if MXit delivers on its extensive growth plans, which spread far beyond SA's borders. Any market with the right combination of high SMS and voice prices and low data prices is a natural place for MXit to thrive. Already, 150 000 international users have downloaded the application, despite no promotion or customised software.

The potential is huge - there are twice as many cellphone users globally than Internet users. Heunis says that within the next three years he wants 40m-50m international users, on top of 4m-5m locally. It sounds like a lot, but it's only 2,5% of the global cellphone market. "We try to be conservative," Heunis says. "We'd rather say 40m and get 40m than target 100m and fail."

But a major challenge to MXit's growth ambitions is getting around Telkom's bandwidth fees. Though it's technically feasible to host the global business in Cape Town, the cost of international bandwidth is prohibitive. "We are paying through our necks for bandwidth," he says. "If it were cheap enough, we would consider hosting all our infrastructure here. The fact that telecoms in SA is so expensive is dragging this country down. Telecoms is a catalyst for economic growth but in SA it's way, way too expensive."

As a result, MXit will be setting up infrastructure in other countries. Heunis won't say which, only that nine appropriate "zones" have been identified. The right conditions exist in Europe (chiefly the UK), the US, India, Pakistan and parts of the Middle East. Those markets have high cellphone penetration in the youth segment and widespread cellular data services. MXit won't enter countries that have cheap or even free SMS services.

While some telecom analysts suggest MXit will kill SMS, Heunis disagrees. "It's not an SMS replacement. When I send you an SMS you will be notified immediately. With MXit, and other instant messenger platforms, you have to sign in to get your message."

He adds that MXit has a good relationship with MTN, Vodacom and Cell C. MXit generates more GPRS traffic for the three operators than any other third-party service provider, he says. Because MXit has become popular, it's unlikely one of the mobile operators would dare block its subscribers from accessing it. If one did, it would risk losing customers to its rivals. The alternative strategy would be to slash the price of SMS, but the revenue forgone would still be significant.

For now, MXit maintains an awkward equilibrium with the cellphone providers, much like voice over Internet Protocol providers have with telephone companies. Competitors are also scarce in SA - the cost of development and technical knowledge required will scare many away. It's a good time to thrive.

 (SOURCE: MyADSL)

IN BRIEF:

- Employees of the embattled Nigerian Telecommunication Company Limited (NITEL), have issued a week ultimatum ending October 10, to the Federal Government, asking it to settle all outstanding salaries and allowances or risk a nationwide protest.

- Zimbabwe fixed line operator TelOne announced it had started initiatives to install new software -- Retail Billing System -- which will cut revenue leakages.

TELECOMS, RATES, OFFERS AND COVERAGE

- Glo, the mobile arm of the second national operator, Globacom, introduced what it claims is the lowest pricing in the market while also making it possible for subscribers to make free calls from midnight to 5a.m.Glo also introduced two new products, Glo Classic Plus and Glo Easy Talk, which carry the new price baskets, and reduced international call rate from 90k to 65k per second.

- Namibia’s second mobile phone operator, PowerCom, has unveiled its corporate brand with the logo and slogan.: 'One Cell. My network, my choice'. PowerCom, which was recently granted a licence by the Namibian Communications Commission (NCC), will become competition for the country's current sole cellphone operator, Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC).

- Liberia mobile operator LiberCell will shortly provide a GPRS service to subscribers. This service, it said, would enable subscribers to access wireless internet via the telephone or computer anywhere and at anytime including offices, homes, in the street, on the highways, or at any program or game.

INTERNET SOLUTIONS WANTS TO INVEST IN EASSY

Internet Solutions (IS) wants to be part of the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy), despite the uncertainty of the economic model, says Internet Solutions director Hillel Shrock.

The company feels strongly it should be part of the EASSy consortium as it uses more bandwidth and is probably richer than many of the national telecommunications companies that could become part of the project, says Schrock.“We have the bandwidth requirements and we have the funds to become part of the EASSSy,” he says.

IS has not been invited to be part of the EASSy consortium because it was licensed as a value-added network service under the now defunct Telecommunications Act and not as a proper telecommunications utility. However, the new licensing regime that is due to come out of the new Electronic Communications (EC) Act could enable IS to become part of the consortium.

“The whole environment will change under the EC Act, and while we don't yet know what type of licence we will finally get, we do believe it should allow us to become part of Eassy,” Shrock says.

Shrock says the size of the company's bandwidth requirements mean it should have a clear and undisputed right to access the undersea cable, and the change in the South African regulatory environment should facilitate that right. “If the [South African] government wants to send a message that Eassy should be an open access model, then all the more reason for us to be included in the consortium,” he says.

Shrock says IS has been in discussions with a number of parties, including governments and telecommunications operators, about its possible Eassy participation. The company is owned by South African IT group Dimension Data, which has former Department of Communications director-general, Andile Ngcaba, as its chairman.

(SOURCE: http://www.itweb.co.za)

INTERNET BOOMS IN SENEGAL AS INTERNATIONAL BANDWIDTH BREAKS 1 GIG BARRIER

In less than two years, the bandwidth of traffic on Internet services provided by Senegal's telecom Sonatel has doubled. By today, Internet services provided by Sonatel are the most extensive in sub-Saharan Africa, second only to those in South Africa, a country of much bigger resources.

This is reported in a press release by the Senegalese telecom company, which explains that "bandwidth of traffic on the submarine cables of Sonatel by 7 September 2006 has passed the mark of 1.24 gigabyte a second."

This bandwidth of traffic is both a key measure of quantity, but also of the quality of Internet services provided to the public, "because it determines the speed of downloading pages, notably from servers based in Europe or the United States, and at bottom line, as this number is increased, the more comfortable your use of the Internet gets," the Sonatel statement adds.

The company further explains that the current extensions were to offer users in Senegal services that are of a superior quality, that come at a higher speed and that will provide for more comfort on the Internet; including improved flow in the downloading of pages and quicker downloads of information, navigation, reception of e-mails, teleconferences and multi-media services.

Bandwidth of Internet traffic to and from Senegal, as operated by Sonatel, has been increasing at a booming speed ever since 2002. It went from 42 to 53 megabytes a second in June 2002. By November 2004, it had already increased tenfold, reaching the level of 512 megabytes a second. By now, it has again doubled, reaching the benchmark of 1.24 gigabytes a second.

Internet use in Senegal has also been booming for the last years, especially in Dakar, but also beyond the capital, where an impressing telecom infrastructure has been created. As prices for broadband installation and services rapidly are going down, a bigger segment of the population uses the Internet at work and at home. Standard broadband subscriptions cost around euro 80 for installation and euro 40 a month, while even cheaper deals can be found.

The real boom in Internet - reaching a large part of population - is however attributed to Senegal's large and ever-growing number of telecentres or cybercafés, which combine telephone and fax services with Internet renting at a low price. Renting a computer connected to the web normally does not costs more than franc CFA 300 (euro 0.45) an hour. Uses vary from e-mail communication to news reading, chatting, games and multi-media usage, and costumers include almost all social layers.

(SOURCE: afrol News)

ICT EXPERTS CALL FOR THE SETTING UP OF CYBER CRIME UNIT IN GHANA

With the increasing threat of cyber crimes to Ghana's aim of becoming the hub of the information super-highway on the west coast of Africa, Information Communication Technology (ICT) experts in the country have suggested the establishment of a well-equipped and independent national cyber crime unit to fight ICT crimes, especially cyber crimes in the country.

This national body should be given the mandate to investigate and prosecute cyber criminals as well as all ICT crimes.

This conclusion was made at the I-Week 2006 ICT workshop where creative and innovative individuals and teams of ICT origin had discussions on 'the new face of cyber crime - types and tools used' in Accra on Thursday.

The experts included C.K Bruce of Cutting Edge, Techie Mills, an ICT Consultant, and Mr. Quashie of Regent University, as well as participants from all walks of life. The discussions also called for a proper legal framework for the ICT sector. They further called for the creation of a department in the law faculty of universities in Ghana to handle crimes relating to ICT.

The discussions also centered on the fact that the government's drafted Electronic Transactions Bill intended to protect private rights of Internet users and owners' websites be facilitated, as many individuals and corporate entities are suffering from the menace of cyber criminals.

They called on the police to as a matter of urgency establish a department on cyber crime to help enforce cyber laws to the letter.

In his presentation, a lecturer from Regent University College defined cyber crime as crimes committed on the Internet using the computer as either a tool or a targeted victim. "It is very difficult to classify crimes in general into distinct groups as many crimes evolve on a daily basis," he confessed.

He said cyber crimes come in various forms; electronic theft, credit card fraud online auction fraud, pyramid fraud, fraudulent Internet banking sites, ATM fraud, phishing, cyber terrorism and lottery scam. The most prevalent cyber crime in the country is the credit card fraud.

Many Ghanaians perpetrate this type of cyber crime. The most typical example is a group in Nima, a suburb of Accra, called 'Sakawa'. This group is alleged to be selling stolen credit cards numbers as well as using same to order for products from the United States and Europe.

These scammers buy or steal credit card and verification numbers from hotel employees and cashiers of super markets, either in the country or from abroad.

This situation has dented the reputation of the country leading to the black listing of Ghana from purchasing items from some commercial sites in the United States and Europe.

"They then go online, place orders and then work in partnership with people in the USA or Europe, whose addresses they ask the illegally purchased goods to be delivered. After delivery, the goods are then sent to them in Ghana," participants revealed.

At one point, an entire container shipment of compact disks arrived in the country.

On the global scene, an Internet retailer, CD Universe, refused to pay $100,000 to a Russian hacker known as Maxim, who stole 300,000 credit card numbers from their web site. In revenge, the hacker posted some 25,000 credit card details on the web for all to see.

The second most prevalent is online auction fraud, which is the number one Internet fraud in the US. Goods often do not arrive. In one case, a Russian fraudster ordered goods using a stolen credit card, then sold them on an online auction at a low price to United States citizens, who then wired money to an untraceable Latvian bank.

At the end of 2005, the US Department of Treasury announced that cyber crime overtook drug trafficking; it cost $180 billion.

While criminal activity via the Internet is still a fairly new phenomenon, the FBI ranks it just behind stopping terrorism and counterintelligence on their list of priorities.

Switzerland's federal cyber crime police unit has reported a further increase in suspected cases of Internet abuse.They received 7,345 notifications of possible Internet abuse in 2005, 100 more per month than in previous years.

In Russia, the Department 'K' (a department fighting hi-tech crimes) revealed 4,295 crimes in the sphere of high technologies for the first 6 months of 2004. The most notorious case discovered by 'computer' investigators involved 7 hackers who stole $21m from credit card holders

Nigerian 419 scam stole the most money off Internet. Americans reported losing an all-time high of $183 million to Internet fraud in 2005, up 169 percent from $68 million in 2004.

(SOURCE: Ghanaian Chronicle)

IN BRIEF:

- The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) last week signed a new agreement with the United States Department of Commerce (DOC) that is a dramatic step forward for full management of the Internet's system of centrally coordinated identifiers through the multi-stakeholder model of consultation that ICANN represents.

- Internet Technologies Namibia (ITN) is proud to announce that its entire backbone network, totalling 11 Points of Presence (POPs) (including a POP in South Africa) is now fully MPLS enabled. After several months of intensive testing, the network has withstood an onslaught of data packets with different labels to test latency on the network. ITN now have a comprehensive list of expected label-switched routing times dependant on customer requirements. Soon ITN should have 13 MPLS enabled POPs throughout Namibia.

HIGH PERFORMANCE CALL-ROUTING AND BILLING ENGINE RELEASED

Yo Uganda Limited, a voice solutions and software development company based in Uganda, East Africa has announced the release of YBS - a high performance call routing and billing engine.  YBS is a high performance call-routing and billing engine which is capable of handling prepaid, postpaid and calling card billing - all in one box. 

YBS will operate with legacy telephone networks, VoIP networks or a hybrid containing  both.  YBS adopts a unique architecture that enables it to scale

to an endlessly large number of concurrent calls.

YBS targets both small and large Internet Service Provders who wish to add voice services to their offering.  "The Telecoms policy in Uganda has undergone historic reform in the last couple of months", says Gerald Begumisa, CTO and Managing

Director of Yo! Uganda Limited. "YBS is a timely and easily accessible product for ISPs with plans to launch voice services".

Traditional telephony-services systems such as Ericsson switches are relatively high-priced and thus out-of-reach for most small, medium or even large ISPs.  YBS is the

soft-switch of choice that enables ISPs in such a position to rapidly roll out voice services in a cost-effective manner. YBS comes with highly competitive pricing plans that suite both small and large ISP. For more detailed information visit http://www.yo.co.ug  YBS, in addition comes with the full source code of the web administration interface – some 10,000 lines of code.

RWANDA OFFICIALLY LAUNCHES NEPAD E-SCHOOLS PROJECT

Rwanda is the fifth country to launch the project after Uganda, Ghana, Lesotho and Kenya, but is the first country to have completed implementation in all the six schools.

"I congratulate all the stakeholders in this pioneering initiative in the education of our children and teachers. There is definitely no doubt about our support for NEPAD e-Schools Project and Rwanda will build on what has been achieved to date to make the project successful', said President Kagame.

  The NEPAD e-Schools Project is led by the NEPAD e-Africa Commission-the NEPAD Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Task Team responsible for developing the NEPAD ICT Programme and implementing related projects. The project focuses on providing end-to-end ICT solutions that will connect schools across Africa to the NEPAD e-Schools Network and the Internet. Solutions also include the provision of content, learning material and the establishment of health points at schools.

Said Dr Henry Chasia, the Executive Deputy Chairperson of the NEPAD e-Africa Commission, "This is the first time that African governments, NEPAD and the private sector are cooperating on an ICT Project of this scale and scope in the NEPAD framework, developed and driven by Africans, and for African people"

"It is through such partnerships that we shall be able to impart modern ICT skills and knowledge to the youth, to enable them face the challenges of the ever changing information society and global economy. This technology will enable the young people, teachers of this school and the wider communities to tap into the global mainstream of information and knowledge, where they will learn, expand their creativity, collaborate with peers across the African continent and across the world, and generally participate in defining the future of their world. In so doing, we shall also be contributing to the attainment of the millennium development goals", he added. The CISCO Systems and Microsoft Consortia, and a number of other private companies are sponsoring the Demonstration Project, consisting of six schools in each of the 16 participating African countries, for a period of 12 months.

The Cisco NEPAD e-Schools Initiative Programme Director, Bill Souders said, "Cisco is proud to be a consortium lead and an active participant in the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative. We are confident that our broad experience and focus in creating next generation teaching and learning solutions can be leveraged effectively to make the NEPAD effort a real success".

The Microsoft Consortium is providing solutions to half of the NEPAD e-Schools demonstration project in Rwanda. Richard Kiplagat of Microsoft noted that "the broader availability of technology in education is a means to opening doors to economic and social prosperity. This access has been identified as a prerequisite for achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. As such, it needs to be a shared public/private effort". The countries participating in this demonstration project are: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda.

In each country, the project aims to transform all African secondary schools into NEPAD e-Schools within five years of implementation start date and all African primary schools within ten years of implementation start date. In total, more than 600 000 schools across the continent will enjoy the benefits of ICT and connectivity to the NEPAD e-Schools Satellite Network upon completion of the project.

(SOURCE: Highway Africa News Agency)

GHANAIAN GOVERNMENT CONSIDERS ADOPTION OF ELECTRONIC-GOVERNANCE PROGRAMME

The Government of Ghana is considering the adoption of an electronic governance programme as a mechanism to promote lateral and horizontal collaboration among the Metropolitan/Municipal/District Assemblies (MMDAs) to bring information to the citizenry and businesses.

This is to improve efficiency, productivity, speed and comfort in the provision of services to the general public following government's ambition to use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a catalyst for poverty alleviation.

The Deputy Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, Kofi Poku-Adusei, disclosed this at a sensitization workshop for 50 M/DCEs drawn from various District Assemblies in the country. It was under the theme 'Bridging the Digital Divide - the Role of ICT in Poverty Reduction'.

The Minister, who explained the electronic-governance as the use of ICT in public administration and for that matter local governance, indicated that government had recognized that good governance and decentralization depend on easy access to quality and timely information, which forms the base of value-added decision-making at all levels of governance.

According to him, government is encouraging the District Assemblies and their decentralized structures to procure both off-line and on-line facilities for their staff.

"It is in pursuance of this that our government (NPP) is seriously providing computers, photocopiers, printers (off-line equipment), and also facilitating network in all the Assemblies," he stated.

Poku-Adusei believed the provision of access to information and communication services in remote areas of the country was the key to accelerating their socio-economic development.

"There is a strong wave of information revaluation sweeping across the world and every facet, and all government businesses must take advantage of it to improve services delivery," he emphasized.

In his view, since the Local Government has been placed in a unique position of generating and making use of specialized information, the Assemblies should therefore, employ the electronic-governance facility to provide information to the general public.

"Our ability to use information and technology to inform the general public will receive their understanding and cooperation of our efforts at providing development and improving their living standards," the sector's Deputy Minister concluded.

The Minister of Communication, Prof. Mike Oquaye, on his part, told the M/DCEs that the workshop was an affirmation of the government's commitment to the development and exploitation of ICT in Ghana, as well as bridging the digital divide between the served and underserved communities in both rural and urban areas.

"Obviously, this is in line with the policy of the Ministry of Communications to promote the enhancement and integration of ICT infrastructure as a necessary platform for the narrowing of the digital divide and the utilisation of this facility to deploy efficiency in business transaction," he noted.

According to Prof. Oquaye, it was once said that ICT was for the rich and that people needed food, not technology and that technology was a tool solely intended to provide the affluent with luxuries.

He continued further that those countries that were brave enough to challenge this mainstream and neoclassical view today had gained in advancing human development and eradication of poverty largely through technological breakthrough.

The Communications Minister also affirmed that for Ghana to move her industrially weak and subsistent-agriculture-based economy towards a middle-income nation, ICT must be seen as the engine to propel this growth, adding that government has ambitions to use ICT as a catalyst for poverty alleviation.

According to him, currently in Ghana, the so-called digital divide between the rural and urban areas has created a stark disparity between the few Ghanaians with abundant access to ICTs and the vast numbers, especially in the rural areas without any access.

Oquaye observed that information and knowledge were and still are critical components of government's poverty alleviation strategies and ICT offers the promise of easy access to huge amounts of information such as health care, education, capital, shelter, employment and agricultural information that are useful to the country's poor.

(SOURCE: Ghanaian Chronicle)

SOUTH AFRICA PLANS TO TRAIN 30,000 TO WORK IN RURAL CALL CENTRES

Up to 30 000 South Africans will ultimately be trained to work in call centres as government moves to make the country a more competitive destination for business process outsourcing for international companies.

Initially, 1, 000 people will be trained on a programme that has already been designed and a proposal for its funding has been prepared for the Department of Labour, said Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa, briefing the media on government's programme of action through cabinet's economic, investment and employment cluster on Wednesday.

  And the Department of Communications has finalised an incentive package on ICT - information communications technology - to produce 10 "developmental call centres" that government intends locating in rural areas, with the aim of creating employment in economically-depressed areas.

The National Treasury is also involved in incentivising support measures for business process outsourcing and offshoring that has the potential for "massive job creation" in centres designed to produce a world-class service, Mr Mpahlwa said.

Key factors in South Africa's favour for attracting business process outsourcing are its time zone, which falls comfortably within European time zones, as well as the country's English-language capacity.

Success with locating new call centres in rural areas will depend on appropriate mechanisms for connectivity, said the Minister, adding that a Broadband Development Advisory Council had been appointed within the context of bringing down the costs of ICT and that its first report is due at the end of this year.

Related to this work is that of the Local Loop Unbundling Committee, which has also been appointed and which will report in six months' time.

And state-owned IT company Sentech has submitted a business plan to the Department of Communications that is expected to be finalised by the end of this month, said the minister. He added that the rollout of Sentech's wireless broadband network will be included in the integrated infrastructure investment plan to be presented to the January 2007 Cabinet lekgotla.

(SOURCE: BuaNews)

BRINGING OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE TO SCHOOLS

Metropolitan, together with the Shuttleworth Foundation, Inkululeko Technologies and the KZN Department of Education, has installed an Open Source computer centre, known as a tuXlab, at the ZamaZulu Secondary School in Pietermaritzburg.

The tuXlabs installation includes twenty new computers, hardware, operating system, application software and curriculum content for the school.

  "Many of our learners come from very poor backgrounds and cannot afford tertiary education. However, with this new installation, they can focus on maths and science, which will help them become employed one day," says Phumzile Ngcobo, principal of the school.

  The project uses Open Source software and open content to drive capacity amongst educators, imparting basic computer skills to both educators and learners. This means that users may freely copy and distribute the software.

  Hilton Theunissen, corporate affairs and business development manager at Inkululeko, says this makes the tuXlabs an ideal platform to provide cost-effective access to IT and educational Maths and Science content.

  Says Theunissen: "Schools nationally will have the freedom to replicate the tuXlab model without requiring authorisation, which means that teachers and learners can install the software and content at home or neighbouring schools."

  Theunissen says Inkululeko, with support from its funders, hopes to implement a tuXlab in every Dinaledi school in KwaZulu-Natal by 2007. The tuXlab model is designed to involve community members and learners in setting up the systems.

 (SOURCE: ICT World)

IN BRIEF:

- Kampala International University will soon launch it's digital library (literally, an electronic bookstore) fondly referred to as the e-granary. According to the university's IT director Alex Mbaziira, the facility will make available over six million books to students in its Kampala campus; and in future, after an inter campus virtual private network has been implemented, students in the Ishaka campus in Western Uganda will also benefit from the resources.

TELKOM KENYA UNVEILS CALENDAR FOR SALE OF DIVISION

Telkom Kenya will go into a joint venture with the firm that wins a tender to buy a stake in its subsidiary, Gilgil Telecommunications Industries (GTI). The winner will be announced in early December. The bidding will be on October 25, to allow for evaluation to begin immediately.

Last week, six bidding firms were pre-qualified for the sale. These include KPLC, Timber Treatment International, Muringa Holdings, Electronic Tech Company, Treated Timber Products and Sao Hill Industries.

The six bidders expressed interest for the pole plant, the factory complex as independent business units or a combination of both.

Telkom Kenya would not divest completely from the subsidiary, but will go for a joint venture with the winner. The objective is to ensure that the factory upgrades to the manufacture of computers, electronic equipment including television and radios, in addition to telephone handsets.

The facility should also serve as a technology transfer centre. GTI facilities will require investments in new and modern technology.

The sale is part of the ongoing restructuring approved by the Government in February this year, aimed at making the company a viable telco in the more liberalized and competitive market for eventual privatization.

In May this year, Telkom announced that it would divest from loss making subsidiaries including the Gilgil Telecommunications Institute (GTI) and the Kenya College of Communications Technology (KCCT) - which are non-core business units.

(SOURCE: The Nation)

MTN GROUP RAISES STAKE IN NIGERIA SUBSIDIARY

  Thus increasing its shareholding in MTN Nigeria to 81.87 per cent from initial 74.89 per cent, and promised to inject additional fund to boost its operations in Nigeria.

Chief executive and President of the MTN Group, Phuthuma Nhleko, disclosed in a press statement made available to Highway Africa News Agency (HANA) that the new investment increases the total purchase consideration of MTN Nigeria to US$348.9 million (N44310.3) and would be funded through a cash payment of US$287.8 million.

This, he said would translate to an issue of 6,093,463 ordinary shares in MTN Nigeria. The purchase would be affected via MTN's wholly-owned subsidiary, MTN International.

Nhleko noted that it would bring the MTN Group's shareholding in MTN Nigeria to 81.87 per cent, and said that the acquisition would make easy the realisation of the group's investment in Nigeria.

"The acquisition will enable the minority shareholders to realise a portion of their investment in MTN Nigeria," he declared.

He also pointed out that the acquisition is part of a process to facilitate a broader spectrum of Nigerians to participate in the performance of MTN Nigeria.

It would be recalled that MTN Nigeria launched operations in 2001 and is the leading Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) operator in the country, with a subscriber base of 9.6 million as at June 30, 2006.

MTN Nigeria's GSM network comprises over 2,336 base stations and an extensive transmission infrastructure, providing access to approximately 73 per cent of Nigeria's population.

On the other hand, the MTN Group is a multinational telecommunications group that commenced operations in 1994 and has its presence in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East. MTN is also listed on the J'burg Stock Exchange (JSE).

The group as at June 30, 2006, recorded more than 31 million subscribers across its operations, including those of the newly acquired Investcom LLC, and is expected to launch commercial operations in Iran before the end of this year, if its bid to purchase 49 per cent of Irancell is successful.

MTN Group operations include Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Republic of Congo (Congo Brazzaville), Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda and Zambia. The acquisition of Investcom adds the following countries of operation to MTN's portfolio - Afghanistan, Benin, Cyprus, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Republic, Liberia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

(SOURCE: Highway Africa News Agency)

SUN MICROSYSTEMS LOOKS TO SELL 30 PERCENT TO BLACK INVESTORS

The CEO of hardware and software company Sun Microsystems is being asked to approve an empowerment policy likely to see it sell 30% of its South African branch to black investors.

Few hi-tech multinationals have sold any local equity to black partners, but customers had made it clear that was what they expected, said Crawford Beveridge, its vice-president for Europe.

Beveridge is in SA this week to meet government officials, local staff and key customers to better understand the need for empowerment and exactly what it should entail.

While it was not a foregone conclusion that CEO Jonathan Schwartz would agree to selling equity, other options of forming a joint venture or working through franchises would be second best, said Beveridge.

"I will tell them the status quo isn't going to work. We want to be fully compliant and everyone I have spoken to says there has to be some black ownership."

Sun's director for sub-Saharan Africa, Vito Bonafede, had done a good job in complying with most of the requirements, said Beveridge, but a decision on equity had to come from the highest echelon.

The move is a change of attitude by Sun, which along with most multinationals seemed likely to opt for the "equity equivalent" thrashed out in the painful process of drafting an empowerment charter for the hi-tech sector. However, the equity equivalents may prove so onerous that selling shares is a more sensible and easier option.

The charter for the information and communications technology (ICT) sector expects companies to be 30% black-owned, or to have at least R7,5bn of their equity in black hands. Yet many of the multinationals that make up 48,9% of SA's IT sector complain that they cannot sell shares in a subsidiary because of their corporate structures.

A compromise was reached so any company able to prove that selling equity would inflict commercial harm could apply for exemption. It could make up the lost points by partnering black businesses to conduct joint research and development, run local manufacturing plants, or jointly invest in SA or in global markets. It could also set up a venture capital fund to invest in black companies, but it would be a full-time job looking for entrepreneurs to support, mentoring them and managing the cash.

"Many companies are talking about equity equivalents but I'm very sceptical," said Beveridge.

Sun believes share sales can be done -- if the company actually wants to. Problems will include calculating the value of a subsidiary and finding partners able to afford such a hefty stake, and who are able to enhance the business rather than passively hold its shares, or attempt to steer it in a way the global parent does not support.

Sun may also find potential partners try to bargain down its value, as the company is losing money. It suffered a net loss of $301m for the fourth quarter of financial 2006 on revenue of $3,8bn, up 29% from $2,9bn in the fourth quarter of last year.

Sun went through painful years when its products lagged behind the technology curve. It shed 12,000 staff, but invested in research and development to bring its products back to world-class standards.

Another 4,000 staff had been ditched, and profits were now on the horizon, Beveridge said.

Its business in SA accounts for about 1% of its revenue, and Bonafede said it had enjoyed "exceptionally good growth" in the past two years. "We are gaining market share for our servers, storage and identity management products, so business has been incredibly healthy."

Despite a recent spurt from hi-tech companies to sign up black partners, Bonafede said it was not too late to find a good investor. "There are some fantastic black business people out there who are not necessarily in the IT market who could be very good partners."

The ICT charter has stalled until government promulgates its codes of empowerment practice.

(SOURCE: Business Day)

ALL BTG’S OPERATIONS IMPROVE PERFORMANCES

Bytes Technology Group (BTG) announced its interim results for the six months ended 31 August 2006 with improved performances by all its operations compared to the prior period.

Headline earnings improved by 25% per share at 58.1 cents compared to the comparable period’s figure of 46.5 cents. Basic earnings per share moved from 44.7 cents to 58.1 cents, which represents an increase of 30%. Operating profit increased by 23% from R128 million to R157 million. The margin movement from 7.3% to 8.0% was largely due to rationalisation of operating expenses.

“Overall revenues increased by 15% and in the light of continuing low inflation and margin pressures, combined with a relatively strong rand during the period under review, an organic increase of over 11% is encouraging,” said Chief Executive Officer, David Redshaw.

“Our net borrowing position at the half year was R83 million, which is R88 million lower than that of a year ago. However, during the period under review, significant cash of outlays were incurred on dividend and tax payments, increased working capital requirements and acquisitions. We expect the second half will, as usual, show a much improved position,” said Redshaw.

He warned that the Information Technology market continues to present many challenges and said that further consolidation in the sector is essential if economies of scale are to be accessed.

Redshaw commented on the BTG’s United Kingdom (UK) operations and said that the disappointing results from IT Solutions (Plato) operation required the implementation of a further radical restructuring of this business incurring one-off costs of over R2 million. “In contrast, our other two UK operations produced excellent results to improve the overall operating income from these operations by 33% to R12 million.

Operating profit from the rest of Africa is now sustainable although the completion of a large, non-recurring contract in Botswana impacted operating profit when compared to the prior period. “Distribution of Xerox and Alcatel products in many African countries yielded profits of some R10 million in aggregate,” he said.

”Our acquisitions during the first half of the year amounted to approximately R50 million. The major portion of this expenditure was the purchase of Xclusive Solutions Limited, a Xerox dealer in the UK, for £3.16 million. Further payments of up to R2.5 million locally and £1.24 million in the UK may be incurred on these acquisitions if certain earn out targets are achieved,” said Redshaw.

Other acquisitions included a further “Xerox” business in the UK, Vantage Business Systems Limited, which was acquired for an effective £1.5 million.

Redshaw indicated that BTG continues to pursue an ongoing acquisition strategy but warned that the requirement to amortise intangible assets, which in the IT industry are an essential part of the business value being acquired, will however continue to adversely affect earnings.

In looking ahead, he said he is confident that a satisfactory level of headline earnings will be achieved in the second half, ensuring an acceptable overall increase for the full year but cautioned that an environment of increasing interest rates along with increasing competition in many areas will progressively challenge double digit organic growth.

ESKOM ENTERPRISES AND TRANSNET REVIEW HOLDINGS IN ARIVIA.KOM

Eskom Enterprises and Transnet are reviewing their shareholdings in state-owned information technology company Arivia.kom, says the group's latest annual report.

Arivia.kom was formed through the merger of Transnet's IT division, Eskom's IT department and another state-owned IT company, Ariel Technologies.

Last year it repurchased for R130m the 22,98% shareholding that state-owned arms manufacturer Denel held in the company.

This resulted in Eskom Enterprises' and Transnet's shareholding in Arivia.kom rising to 58,5% and 41,5%, respectively, and left the company with a cash balance of R128m, Arivia.kom's chairwoman, Nonkululeko Nyembezi-Heita, said in the report.

The group's annual report, tabled in Parliament yesterday, showed a 7,1% decline in revenue to R1,5bn (R1,6bn) for the year to March. This was attributed to the downward pressure on prices of IT products and services.

After-tax profit fell from R67,6m to R20m, due mainly to significant losses at foreign subsidiaries.

"Competitive market conditions and downward pressure from key clients on costs resulted in lower revenue for the year," said Nyembezi-Heita.

"Gross margins remained in line with those of 2005 as the cost-reduction initiatives of previous years have borne fruit on a sustainable basis."

"The significant losses from foreign subsidiaries resulted in a marked reduction in net profit for the year," she said. But Nyembezi-Heita believed the domestic and foreign prospects for the company looked brighter this year. She said Arivia.kom would benefit over the next five years from the $100m contract awarded by the Ugandan government for the roll-out of a new population database register.

Government was likely to be the highest potential information and communications technology spender over the next five years as it updated its systems while the foreign division was looking to develop market opportunities in central Europe and southeast Asia, the report said.

"After a number of false starts, demand from large technology users is finally recovering to healthier levels, suggesting that the sector is coming out of the doldrums," the report said.

Nyembezi-Heita said that while private companies strove for differentiation and effectiveness to remain globally competitive, the public sector was being challenged with improving service delivery to its citizens with technology as the enabler.

"Pricing pressure on technology suppliers has become the norm with fierce competitive pressure in an overtraded market.

"These pressures are forcing service providers across the industry to review their delivery models with increasing focus on partnerships and industry relationships," said Nyembezi-Heita.

Arivia.kom CEO Zeth Malele said that high-end users of technology had entered a new investment cycle that would benefit the company.

"We are involved in a number of significant opportunities which should bear fruit going forward," he said. However, he cautioned that public-sector projects still had to be finalised.

Government and the public sector were under pressure to improve service delivery through e-government initiatives while the revision by African countries of their population databases could also generate contracts.

"Government continues to be criticised for its drawn-out tender processes on a number of significant information communication technology tenders, which have been delayed following considerable investment by contenders in collating proposals," Malele said.

"Pressure is mounting to achieve readiness for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, which includes systems to regulate the movement of tourists during the tournament."

Government's economic growth strategy would also bring a host of opportunities associated with infrastructure investments, Malele said.

(SOURCE: Business Day)

IN BRIEF:

- Vodafone Egypt has agreed to buy a 51% stake in Egyptian ISP Raya Telecom from Raya Holding for EGP104 million (USD18 million), with an option to acquire the outstanding shares for a further USD18 million within two years. Raya Telecom provides residential and corporate Internet access and data services over its own infrastructure. The new partners have agreed to invest EGP50 million in the ISP to strengthen its range of services and to ‘explore synergies’ between the two companies.

- Durban-headquartered software developer InfoWave has reported a 46,8% growth in revenue for the six months ended 31 August, 2006. Revenue has grown to R26 million, compared with R17 million in the comparable period a year ago, with March acquisition ApplyIT contributing R4,1 million, or 50%, to the revenue growth.

UGANDA GETS SMS, INTERNET BANKING

Ducont, a Dubai-based information technology service provider, has teamed up with Uganda's Solutions For Business to support financial institutions in the country.

Officials said during a presentation on October 4 that the partnership would reduce on the costs of banking services and eventually eliminate long queues at the commercial banks.

Solutions For Business Executive Director Saddiq Mwai said: "Working with Ducont is an opportunity for Ugandans to access over 25 multi media banking services via their mobile phones and this will reduce on the costs of transaction." Talks with various commercial banks are going on to enable their customers access the services, Mwai added. Rajesh Krishnamurthi Ducont Director Sales and Marketing said that Uganda still has a lot of opportunities in telecom and mobile banking, which is not yet exploited.

The officials said a bank customer would be able to know his/her bank account balances and clear salaries, as long as one owns a mobile phone. Nile Bank is one of the banks into SMS and Internet banking.

(SOURCE: The Monitor)

CELL PHONES ENTER CYBERSPACE WITH .MOBI

The mobile web is about to receive a major shake-up with the start of open registration for cell phone-specific website addresses.

The general public can now register websites ending with .mobi as the backers of the mobile net hope to overturn consumer apathy.

Only 10 percent of cell owners use their phones to surf the net due to concerns over cost, speed and poor content.

Sites ending dotmobi are designed for phones and must meet agreed standards.

The organisation charged with overseeing the domain name registration, Mobile Top Level Domain, expects 200,000 mobile sites to be registered in the next year.

Almost 13,000 companies have already registered dotmobi addresses as part of a pre-registration process open to trademark holders.

Neil Edwards, chief executive of MTLD, said: "The mobile web from the standpoint of content is in its absolute infancy.

"In terms of the number of sites and the content; it is not very good. If you try your favourite websites on a mobile phone, the chances are they are not going to work."

.Net Magazine Editor Dan Oliver agreed. "A lot of people would say now that the mobile web experience is not a particularly rich one"

MTLD is promising that websites with a registered dotmobi address will be optimised for mobile phones, guaranteeing users a consistent experience.

It costs about P150 to register a dotmobi site for a minimum two-year period.

Oliver said that while he agreed with the need to improve the mobile web experience, promises of a "consistent experience" did not always equate with reality.

"There are standards laid down for websites now for computers, but that does not always mean they are met."

But Edwards said MTLD would be "actively enforcing standards."

Thomas Husson, a mobile analyst with Jupiter Research, said it was too early to say if dotmobi would have an impact.

"I don't see any structural reasons why dotmobi would be anymore successful than .tv or anything else.

"Having said that, it is good that a common set of guidelines for the mobile experience is being laid down."

Husson said issues of cost and bandwidth were the big barriers to a mobile web.

"If you really want to create a mobile broadband experience, you need broadband speeds like High-Speed Downlink Packet Access which is not available to consumers yet. You also need 'all you can eat' tariffs so people don't need to worry about cost."

  But Edwards said: "Consumers will see costs come dramatically down due to optimisation of web pages. It will be like SMS, costing 20 cents (P1.20) to download a page of data."

Oliver said the incentive for a dotmobi domain name was clear - with more than two billion mobile phone users around the world, the market for mobile web use is still untapped.

More people currently have a mobile phone capable of accessing the internet than have a PC with net access, reported MTLD.

(SOURCE: The Voice)

IN BRIEF:

- Algerian news agency "Algérie Presse Service" has launched Sunday its photo website where users can find a wide range of photos on national political, economic, cultural and social events. The photo application, designed and perfected by the agency's technical department, allows users to download photos with sizes and resolutions of their choice to be published on the internet, papers or magazines.

PEOPLE

South Africa Dimension Data has appointed on its board chartered accountant Peter John Liddiard as a non-executive director.  Liddiard is a member of the boards of Idion Technology Holdings and the Sail Group.

PIC a software solutions provider has expanded its board of directors to include Shereen La Fleur as Director of Business Support Services.

EVENTS

- ACHIEVING BEST VALUE IN HUMAN RESOURCE AND SKILLS MANAGEMENT USING INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT)

23rd-24th October 2006, Johannesburg South Africa.

ICT enables Human Resource Practitioners in Africa access to information, best practices, concepts and processes such as streamlining their recruitment and selection process which is of added value in building and retaining skills in Africa, it also drives down the cost of HR services delivery.

For further details visit www.africarecruit.com

- WEST AFRICAN SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS SUMMIT

31 October - 2 November 2006, Le Meridien Hotel, Abuja, Nigeria

The summit is dedicated to the deployment of satellite and satellite hybrid-based communications solutions across the region of West Africa and will provide an unparalleled networking opportunity for global and regional satellite communications providers to meet with ever-expanding communities of vertical market communications end-users.

For further information visit http://www.gvf.org/gvf/events/index.cfm

- GSM-3G WORLD SERIES - NORTH AFRICA

8-9 November 2006, Sheraton Tunis Hotel, Tunis, Tunisia

"What are the market impacts of additional competition and 3G licensing in North Africa? How can you attract new users to drive forward penetration? And more importantly what plans do your suppliers, clients and competitors have for this region? The 5th GSM>3G North Africa is the one forum in the region vital to manufacturers, application developers, operators and regulators who are active, or seeking to be active, in the North African market.

For further information visit www.gsm-3gworldseries.com/northafrica"

- 1ST INTERNATIONAL ICT INVESTMENT CONFERENCE FOR AFRICA

14th – 15th November 2006, Tunis, Tunisia.

Under the auspices of Secretary General United Nations Conference on Trade & Development (UNCTAD)

Regarding sponsorship or delegate attendance, please contact Dan Morrissy in London on +44 207 2871326 or at dmorrissy@i-ep.com

- SMB ROADSHOW 2007 -  MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

26th March 2007, Nile Hilton, Cairo, Egypt.

IDC's SMB Roadshow provides a comprehensive and trustworthy platform for discussing strategic IT issues directly impacting the SMB sector. Debate led by recognised experts and based on best practices and sound technology analysis provide objective and critical insights required by leaders in this sector. This event will target IT decision makers - by vertical industry sector - within SMBs across the region.

For further information visit http://www.idc-cema.com/events/smbeg07

- eLEARNING AFRICA 2007

28-30th May 2007, Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Nairobi, Kenya

The subject is Building Infrastructures and Capacities to Reach out to the Whole of Africa, reflecting the significant efforts of African countries to set up their national and regional ICT infrastructures to create access to education, training and services for all.

For further information visit www.icwe.net or call +49-30-327 6140

CALLS FOR TENDERS

STATE ACCELERATED BROADBAND INITIATIVES (SABI)

Expression of Interest to Build and Run Broadband Infrastructure in all State Capitals and Selected major Commercial Cities in the Country

In a bid to address the lack of a robust and resilient telecommunications infrastructure in the country as well as government determination to realize a knowledge based economy and social, enrich the lives and living conditions of Nigerians in areas such as healthcare, e-learning, e-commerce and e-governance, and in general accelerate productivity and economic growth, the government is desirous of urgent deployment of Broadband infrastructure in the coountry in a public-private partnership arrangement.

Accordingly, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) hereby invites proposals from qualified and competent Telecommunications operators and Internet Service Providers to build and run a broadband infrastructure with Government support and incentives in all state capitals and selected major commercial cities in the country.

Interested qualified companies should submit expression of interest in sealed envelope clearly marked "Expression of Interest to build and run a broadband infrastructure in the country" and delivered not later than 1700hours Nigerian time on the 13th day of October, 2006 to the address below

For further information visit the NCC visit at www.ncc.gov.ng

JOBS AND OPPORTUNITIES

SI TECHNICAL PROJECT MANAGER - ZAMBIA

The company is currently looking for a Senior SI Technical Project Manager with the following skills: He must have Ericsson Charging System/Intelligent Networks competence and the ability to speak English.

For further information contact advertising@balancingact-africa.com

CALL FOR SUBMISSION OF VIDEO PODCAST - UNESCO

Within the framework of its international project, (Harnessing ICTs for the audiovisual industry and public service broadcasting in developing countries), UNESCO is launching a call for submissions of video podcast proposals for a series of production grants.

For further information contact creativecontent@unesco.org

ACCESS TO LEARNING AWARD

We invite you to apply for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s annual Access to Learning Award.This award recognizes excellence in providing access toinformation by utilizing new information and communication technologies in an innovative way,at no cost to the user.

The recipient will receive an award of up to US $1 million. The award is administered by the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP).

Completed applications should be sent to INASP and must be postmarked or Emailed by 31 December 2006. A PDF version of the application will be available for downloading to your computer from www.inasp.info/ldp/awards.

CONTRACTS: WHO'S SELLING WHAT TO WHOM?

- MOBITEL AND SIEMENS - SUDAN

Siemens Communications, one of the world’s largest communications providers announced that it has signed a global frame agreement with MobiTel Sudan, part of Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC) Group, to supply 2.5G radio wireless infrastructure in a deal worth 20 million Euros. The products are equipped with the latest GSM as well as eGRPS (EDGE) features, which provide the consumer with high quality voice and high speed data on the latest Siemens platform of 2.5 G, BSS products including HC BSC/TRAU and BS240XL.

- STANDARD TRUST BANK AND ACCELON - GHANA

Accelon Ghana, a broadband via satellite service provider in Africa, is partnering with Standard Trust Bank Ghana Limited, one of the latest financial institutions in the country, to provide internet connectivity to basic and secondary schools in Ghana.

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