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WEEKLY PUBLICATION DEADLINE: 12 pm GMT Sunday. ISSUE NO 327 Walls come tumbling down: Uganda licences VoIP service providerThe Ugandan regulator UCC has granted a telecoms services licence to local operator TalkTelecom to be able to provide services to both residential and corporate customers. This is the first legal opening for a VoIP service provider in the country that does not operate its own network. It’s a small start but the walls on legal VoIP are beginning to come tumbling down. TalkTelecom is planning to offer VoIP telephony and international calling cards at prices that will shake the three major operators up. On average, Uganda Telecom for example currently charges Shs771 (US42 cents) for an East African call and Shs819 (US45 cents) for other international calls. MTN charges Shs685 (US37 cents) to East Africa and Shs770 (US42 cents) for other international calls. Rates include a combined 30 per cent VAT and Excise duty. TalkTelecom is now offering the same calls for as little as Shs500 (US27 cents). These rates are lower than current operator prices but have not come down to the US20 cents level found in Kenya and offered by all three of the major operators there. But local industry insiders in Uganda are already talking about “all you can eat” deals for unlimited phone calls for around US$27 a month. Several interesting will happen as VoIP is made legal across an increasing number of African markets: 1. International retail charges drop quickly to the US20 cents mark for international calls to popular destinations like the parts of Europe and the USA. Since wholesale rates are only 2-3 cents a minute, the question is really whether they will go down to US10-15 cents a minute as more competition comes to market. 2. As rates fall below the US20 cents a minute point, the extensive grey markets that exist in several countries will cease to exist and some of these operators will come into the light of day or go out of business. 3. The price arbitrage that used to exist at the international level will shift to the national level. For example, if it is cheaper to phone from a national capital to London than from a national capital to another major city, a national price arbitrage exists. And so whilst there has been much pious talk for years about “rebalancing” international and national rates, the truth is that the pressure will be on to lower national rates. And the consequence of that will be that the incumbent telcos will need to address their cost base. But what many remain confused about what legal VoIP means, especially those in Government and regulatory agencies who would like the whole issue to go away quietly. Recently an investor spoke to a Minister in an African country and said that if they were to invest, VoIP would need to be legal. The Minister assured him that it was but of course this was not really the case. One-off permissions had been granted but there was no clear position for everyone in the market. VoIP the technology and its impact on the market get mixed up. African regulators are now fairly skilled with the line “Our regulation is technology-neutral so it doesn’t matter what technology operators use.” This is really a smoke-screen to protect existing operators and/or to avoid discussing the issue. Those looking to see whether VoIP is legal in African countries (particularly) need to look for three things: - The number of international gateway licences for both voice and data. In Kenya, there are now over 10 of these licences, meaning that there is now some realistic level of competition at the international level. Similar levels will exist shortly in Algeria. - The ability to operate VoIP voice services is given to smaller niche operators, outside of the major operators (usually the incumbent and the mobile operators). These are usually the local VoIP service providers that provide much needed niche competition and incentivise local operators to upgrade their networks to IP and cut their cost base. These will not “briefcase” operators but legitimate, locally-funded service providers. - The interconnect rates between these new service providers and the majors are relatively swiftly resolved. The majors need to be assured that the new service providers will cover the cost of paying for their networks. And the VoIP service providers need to get realistic prices that will allow them to compete. The funereal pace of South African discussions on this issue is an example of how not to do it. Then it’s only a question of how the number of minutes and demand for bandwidth increases as prices come down. Watch this space….
EASSY DEAL TO BE SIGNED IN NAIROBI SOONPressure is building on the parties to the EASSy project as the telcos involved have announced they will sign off on their MOU shortly. Whilst this has been described in the local press as an ownership deal, no details of exactly what form this ownership will take or how it will operate. The shareholding plan for the $200 million (Sh14.6 billion) Eastern Africa Submarine System cable project has been finalised and is set for signing soon. The head of the Eassy Project Secretariat, Simon Olawo said 15 out 28 companies participating in the project are expected to sign the agreement after getting approvals from their boards of directors. The remaining 13 companies are to sign the agreement within a 60-day window that begins on October 12. "We expect that by December 12 we should be able to determine how much money is available to allow us to sign a construction agreement with the cable contractor and for the project to take-off," he said on the sidelines of a meeting on the project in Nairobi yesterday. Telkom managing director Sammy Kirui, who is also the chairman of the Eassy project management committee, attended the meeting. Donor countries have already pledged to make available a maximum of $170 million to finance the project. Most of the East and South African regions are represented. Olawo explained that the funds, mainly from the World Bank, African Development Bank, Development Bank of South Africa, European Development Bank and KfW of Germany, will be available to the parties to the project who are unable to raise enough money internally. The EASSy project was created with the objective of connecting countries from the tip of southern Africa to the Sudan to other countries of the world through the installation of a submarine optical cable. The agreement set for signing tomorrow defines shareholding structure, rights and obligations and also how the system would be constructed and maintained over its estimated 25-year life cycle. Olawo said ongoing disagreement over terms of involvement of the New Partnership for Africa's Development in the project would not affect the project's progress. The Government has previously said it would opt out of Eassy in favour of The East Africa Marine system (Teams), a parallel cable system. Since it is also the majority owner of Telkom Kenya whose Managing Director Chairs the Project Management Committee, it is unclear what it hopes to achieve. (SOURCE: The East African Standard) MTN UNVEILS FIBRE OPTIC NETWORK FOR ABUJAPlans have been concluded by MTN Nigeria to unveil its newly completed Fibre Optic network in the nation's Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. This, the operator said, was encouraged by the spirit to redefine service delivery in the nation's telecommunication sector. The Daily Champion gathered that the event would see to the commissioning of both the first and the second phases of MTN's ultra-modern Fibre Optic Transmission Network (FOTN) across 2,500km nationwide. Disclosing this in a press statement made available to Daily Champion, the Chief executive of MTN Nigeria, Ahmad Farroukh, said the event slated to hold for Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Abuja will cover over 3,500 kilometres on completion. "The new fibre optics network on full completion will cover over 3,500 km, spanning the length and breadth of the country and will ensure a dramatic improvement of quality of service, he explained. MTN Nigeria boss further said that an estimated 2,500 kilometres of the project has been completed. The complete Fibre Optic ring cut across Lagos-Benin-Asaba-Port Harcourt-Enugu-Abuja-Ibadan-Lagos has been completed and is already carrying live traffic. (SOURCE: Daily Champion) ETC IS EXPANDING TELECOM SERVICES IN 22 ETHIOPIAN TOWNSThe Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) said it has launched expansion works with over 132 million birr (USD15.7 million) to improve telephone services in 22 towns of eastern Ethiopia. ETC East Region Manager Wondawik Abeze told WIC that the corporation is carrying out expansion and cable installation activities in rural towns located in Oromia, Somali and Harari states as well as Dire Dawa Administration. The projects include expansion and installation activities that will help improve telephone services for 22 towns and stretching of cables to extend modern digital telephone services for 12 towns, building construction and upgrading works. The manager said the region will carry out activities to make most of the rural kebeles beneficiaries of wireless and expand mobile telephone services. The corporation will also undertake expansion of new digital automatic exchange, regular, wireless and mobile telephone services, he stated. Installation of public phones in the towns and stretching of optical fiber cables from Dire Dawa to Harar and Dire Dawa to Djibouti will be carried out, according to Wondawik. Most of the projects are being executed in areas that had no access to telephone services, he said, adding that the construction and expansion works will be finalized until the coming June. The corporation has allocated 132,467,000 birr for the execution of the programmes in the four states and the budget exceeds the amount allotted for same purpose last year by over 66 million birr, according to the manager. ETC has reportedly accessed 18 towns under the region to modern digital services and carried out expansion of wireless and mobile telephone services with 65.4 million birr last budget year, Wondawik recalled. (SOURCE: The Ethiopian Herald) SAFARICOM IN TALKS WITH NEIGHBOURING MOBILE OPERATORSKenya’s biggest mobile operator, Safaricom, is in talks with MTN Uganda and Vodacom of Tanzania to help it launch borderless services in order to facilitate regional expansion. This comes barely two weeks since Celtel, the only operator with a presence in the three East African countries, launched a common service for the region in what the Daily Nation described as a "coup on Safaricom" in the race for regional clients. "We are not going to sit still and watch. We are in advanced negotiations with our partners in Uganda and Tanzania," Michael Joseph, the Safaricom chief executive officer, told the Daily Nation last week. Last month, Celtel unveiled a seamless service called One Network, which allows subscribers in the region to make calls at local rates and receive calls free of charge while in another country in the region. Subscribers can also top up while in any of the three countries. MTN Uganda's chief commercial officer, Eric van Veen, said the companies have been in talks for sometime, but did not say when the plans will be implemented. 'It is true. We have been talking for two months now, even before Celtel launched One Network. We have not finalised the deal, so I am not at liberty to say when it will kick off," he said. Safaricom has about 4.7 million subscribers in Kenya, while MTN Uganda has about 1.3 million. Celtel has bigger numbers in Tanzania. Industry sources said that since the launch of One Network, Celtel has already realised about 10% growth. (SOURCE: New Vision) TELCOMS SECTOR INCREASES TARIFFS IN ZIMBABWEThe communications sector has increased local, regional and international tariffs with immediate effect, a move that has caught subscribers off guard. Among the communication firms are Zimbabwe Posts (Zimpost), TelOne, NetOne and Econet. This comes at a time when the Post and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) has increased termination rates to US20c for mobile calls and US15c for mobile via fixed network calls. TelOne which is the gateway of the telecommunications and broadcasting companies has reviewed its tariffs to local calls now costing $31,37 per unit which is equivalent to three minutes during peak period and four minutes off peak. It is the conviction of communication firms that tariffs had become too cheap, a situation that compromised profitability. Generally, a call to Econet line is now costing $36,80, to NetOne $39,15 and to Telecel $43,05 during peak period. Trunk calls per minute are now ranging between $13,20 and $26,58 during peak periods and between $11,85 and $23,88 off peak depending on the distance between exchanges. The tariff increases have also affected Internet cost with the charges being composed of a minute local charge plus 20 percent to be at $12,55 during peak and $9,41 off peak. The phone shop tariff to Econet is now $51,52, Telecel $60,27 and to NetOne $54,79 while trunk calls now range between $18,48 to $37,21 during peak period. Inmarsat calls are now $1, 827 during peak and $2,539 in phone shops. NetOne has increased its tariffs exclusive of Value Added Tax with Easycall to Econet at $69, to TelOne $51, Telecel at $75 and NetOne at $58. Local text message now cost $20, cross network $25, international $35, Premium $100 and Immarsat at $1,834 while voicemail retrieval now cost $8. Econet has also announced its tariffs exclusive of VAT with charges from Econet to Econet ranging between $51 and $55 during peak and $48 to $51 off peak. Local text message is now $15, international $31 and premium $100 during peak while $14,$29 and $95 off peak respectively. Buddie access simpack and sim card replacement fee is now $3 330 inclusive of $2 500 airtime. Econet, which is looking forward to releasing new lines, at least 300 000 this month, is currently working on its network expansion. "We expect to commence releasing new lines in the third week of October and to have issued all the 300 000 lines by the end of February 2007, "We are unable to release all the lines at once because of the need to ensure network stability," said Econet in a statement. (SOURCE: The Herald)
IN BRIEF:- Moroccan Council of Ministers has adopted this week three decrees related to the issuance of the 3G licences granted to Maroc Telecom, Maroc Connect and Medi Telecom earlier this year. The companies have been granted a licence for 25 years (which be renewed) and will benefit from an exclusivity period of three years starting from the publication date of the decrees. Each company has paid 360 millions dirhams (US$41 millions) and they have 24 months from the publication date to roll out their new services. It is worth noting that these licences don’t allow routing of international traffic which will have to be routed by the national operators. The ANRT, the Moroccan regulator has also announced the calendar for the introduction of number portability: it will be 01/01/07 for mobile number and 31/03/07 for fixed numbers. - At least 3,200 telephone lines in Nairobi have been rendered useless after the theft of cables. The hardest hit areas are Kasarani, Zimmerman, Ngong, Karen, Waithaka, Kawangware and Dagoretti. Telkom Kenya managing director Sammy Kirui visited Dagoretti area yesterday to assess the damage.Telkom Kenya aknowledges that it is spending about half a billion shillings annually on the costs of vandalised cables besides the loss in revenue and opportunity cost. - According to the Hindu Business Line, Tata managed VSNL and the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) are in discussions to merge their respective under sea cables linking India and Africa to Europe. The move will make the proposed under sea cable the second largest joint under sea cable after AT&T. VSNL sources said that the discussions are in initial stages - The Nigerian Commission (NCC) has set up a 113-member body, made up of arbitrators and mediators. The body was established as part of the mandate of the commission to resolve disputes as an alternative mechanism to the court of law. - Venance Gnigla, the minister in charge of the communications sector in Benin met with the main telco operators. They agreed that by December 06 they will have improved the quality of their mobile service as well as reduced their rates. This new schedule follows the availability of cross-network SMS service at CFA F50 since 1st August. TELECOMS, RATES, OFFERS AND COVERAGE- Vodacom South Africa has announced the arrival of Vodafone Passport - the roaming option which aims to allow Vodacom Contract customers to take their home tariff with them, when making or receiving calls while travelling overseas. Once Vodafone Passport has been activated, customers travelling overseas will only be charged a once-off connection fee when receiving a call. The once-off connection fee plus their home tariff call rate will apply when making calls to SA and within the visited country. Calls made to other countries will be charged at the once-off connection fee plus their home tariff international call rate. - MOOV, the last mobile operator to roll out its network in Côte d’Ivoire has announced that it has signed up over half a million subscribers for its mobile services since the launch of operations in July this year. MOOV Côte d'Ivoire is a subsidiary of Atlantique Telecom, which in turns is held at 50% by the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat). - MTN in South Africa said that they are in the process of a massive upgrade to their network, both in coverage and with its core data network. The company is now moving into the second phase of its 3G deployment, where the number of 3G base stations will be tripled. This rollout will significantly expand MTN’s current footprint in major cities, as well as add new areas to their current inventory. MTN will also be increasing its EDGE footprint countrywide with nearly 1000 new sites being added to its already extensive coverage. -Ericsson, MTN and the GSM Association are setting up a pilot biodiesel-powered base station in Lagos. The project will show the potential of biofuels -- an alternative to diesel -- as a source of power for mobile base stations located far from the country's electricity grid. The move is expected to enhance the telecommunication companies' penetration of new, and mostly rural, markets.
ANGOLA GOVERNMENT APPROVES DEAL ON SUBMARINE CABLEA contract on a Domestic Submarine Optic Fibre Cable Project covering six coastal provinces of the country, signed by Angola-Telecom and Ericsson-South Africa, was approved by the Cabinet Council. The information is contained in the September 15 edition of the State Gazette that says that the project will be implemented in the provinces of Cabinda, Zaire, Luanda, Kwanza-Sul, Benguela and Namibe. On the other hand, the Cabinet Council also approved the said project's financing accord estimated at USD 70.3 million and authorised the Finance minister to sign the protocol between the Government of Angola and the country's Savings and Credits Bank (BPC). (SOURCE: Angola Press Agency) FIRMS DISCUSS THE OVERLAND EASTERN AFRICA BACKHAUL SYSTEMChief executives of nine telecom companies involved in the setting up of an overland Eastern Africa Backhaul System (EABs) meet this week in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, to decide on final steps of the projet's implementation. The 4,000km EABs project is an overland loop that will link up cities in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania to the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy), running through Mombasa, Nairobi, Malaba, Kampala, Mbarara, Katuna, Kigali, Bujumbura and Dar es Salaam port. It is seen as the most significant of all planned overland backhauls expected to link up to the multi-million EASSy project, with a sizeable amount of traffic flowing through the region. Technical representatives from the companies who form the EABs Project Management Team, met in Kigali last week to review a report submitted by IFC, a financial and investment arm of the World Bank. Donald Nyakairu, the project head and Uganda Telecom company secretary, told Business Week in an interview that they would recommend to the respective CEOs, 'ringing' rather than 'leasing' of cables for linkage to the main EASSy cable, options given in the report. "We have agreed that instead of leasing, all partner telecom firms involved should offer two of the 24-bundle fibres found in a cable, dedicated to carrying traffic for EASSy," he said. Already, some sections of the project have been completed while others are expected to be complete by end of the year. Others however, particularly in Burundi and Western Tanzania are yet to be started. It is expected that progress on the EABs will help fuel the development of the EASSy project, which has had a series of setbacks in progress in recent months. IFC, which is supportive of the interests of smaller EASSy parties, early this year undertook to conduct a technical feasibility study and legal framework of the project and later released a transaction structuring report for the project. EASSy is a project meant to establish a 9,900km undersea cable system along the Eastern Africa coastline. The firms involved in the EABs include TTCL of Tanzania, Kenya Data Networks, which is also developing another undersea cable linking to the north east Arab countries, MTN Uganda and Uganda Telecom. Others are MTN Rwandacell, Terracom Rwandatel, Telekom Kenya, Onatel and Telecel, both from Burundi. (SOURCE: East African Business Week) KENYAN POSTA FIGHTS INTERNET LINK SUITPostal Corporation of Kenya wants a suit filed by a US-based Internet and satellite technology company blocking it from inviting fresh tenders struck out. The State firm says the suit had made it impossible for it to appoint a new company to provide the multi-million-shilling Internet and satellite services to its offices countrywide. In a preliminary objection filed by lawyer Kenneth Kiplagat, the parastatal told Mr Justice Matthew Emukule that the suit filed by Universal Satspace (North America) stopping it from inviting fresh tenders for licensed service providers was an abuse of the court process. "The suit filed by Universal Satspace is a gross abuse of the court process and this court should throw out the entire suit on this account," Dr Kiplagat submitted when the case was mentioned yesterday. He told the court that the preliminary objection filed and slated for hearing this week, should dispose of the entire suit. At the same time, he said the company could not award the tender to a new bidder due to an existing court order issued by Mr Justice Leonard Njagi on December 22, 2005. "My lord this case has to be heard and determined urgently as PCK is unable to award tender for the provision of the Internet and satellite services owing to earlier court orders issued by this court," Dr Kiplagat said. The North American company had moved to court and secured orders stopping the Minister for Information and PCK from awarding the tender for the provision of Internet and satellite services. Last month, the company disconnected its Internet gateway, paralysing operation in all the 980 post offices countrywide. So far the link has been restored after the corporation entered into deal with Safaricom. It had entered into an agreement with Posta for the provision of the services in 2002. But in December 2005, the Information ministry allowed the corporation to proceed and invite fresh tenders after its board established that the contract for the provision of the services was flawed, highly inflated and would lead to a substantial loss. The Vsat project is among contracts under probe by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission. The corporation told the judge that the case was of national importance and should be disposed of urgently. Apart from the suit in Kenya, Universal Satspace has filed a case in London seeking to have the Kenya Government compelled to pay the company Sh903 million as outstanding balance. The Government has been paying the company Sh82 million every quarter since August 2002. (SOURCE: The Nation) AERO LAUNCHES ONLINE PAYMENT PRODUCT IN NIGERIAAero has launched an innovative online payment product for its customers in Nigeria , through a Reloadable Travel Card powered by eTranzact, setting a benchmark as the first private airline to introduce a branded payment card. Customers can now book and pay on the aero website; www.flyaero.com. The Aero Reloadable Travel Card, licensed by eTranzact affords customers to book and pay online without having to leave the comfort of their homes or offices to queue at booking centres or airport sale counters. Customers are able to access and check their reloadable card account balance from their computer or mobile phone within seconds of payment. This is an added advantage for busy business executives. The new innovation is secure, safe, convenient and flexible for customers who can now have a stress free travel arrangement with just a click. The cards and reloading can be obtained from all Aero stations, and 18 designated Banks who are on eTranzact platforms, and sales points. Aero has been expanding its services over the last year with 3 brand new Dash 8-300s, the first to introduce 737-300s in Nigeria and with plans to introduce a 737-400 later this month; the first by any Nigerian carrier. Aero flies to Lagos, Abuja, Calabar, Enugu, Port Harcourt, Obudu Ranch - Bebi airstrip, Benin , Bamako , Accra , Malabo and Warri. Aero's Business Development Manager, Mr. Mark Snoxell , said: "We are determined to continue investing in innovative products that will enhance the convenience for our customers and make traveling with us simple and secure. "We are proud to launch eTranzact Reloadable Travel Card. It is simple, secure, easy, flexible and convenient to use. Our priority is to ensure that our customers have a seamless travel arrangement and comfortable trip. (SOURCE: This Day) THE STEADY GROWTH OF MUNICIPAL NETWORKS IN SOUTH AFRICAForget about Neotel, Telkom’s nationwide rival. The next 18 months will see SA municipalities providing perhaps a more formidable challenge to Telkom by offering cheaper, wireless and, crucially, local telecom services. And it is the Cape tourism mecca of Knysna that is leading its larger urban rivals in the race to provide wireless telecoms and Internet facilities to residents and visitors. Municipal officials are ambitious. Knysna’s director of finance, Grant Easton, even speaks of residents watching the 2010 soccer World Cup over their cellphones using the town’s network. Knysna is creating a Wi-Fi network that provides free Internet access to residents. The service will not be free for long but Knysna plans to charge only after the first 45 minutes’ usage. SA’s larger cities are starting to catch up. Cape Town is planning to offer a free telephony service for local calls before the end of 2008. The mother city is already providing free Internet access through its libraries. The telephony service will initially run between Cape Town’s libraries and clinics but Douglas Gelderbloem, the city’s infrastructure manager, wants to connect residents directly to each other. eThekwini (Durban) is thinking about offering a similar service to its residents and is testing an Internet based voice service. Tshwane (Pretoria) has an entrepreneur in one of its townships, Soshanguve, using its network to offer an Internet service. There are even talks between Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni (East Rand) to form a “Gauteng-wide” integrated network, says Herklaas du Plessis, Johannesburg’s deputy director of IT. Municipalities insist, however, that their activities in the telecom arena are not meant to challenge telecom operators. “This is not about IT, it’s about local economic development,” says Easton. He explains that Knysna’s limited resources forced it to embrace technology and cut the costs of telecom services. Easton says Knysna’s network also creates a platform for entrepreneurs to run Internet-based businesses. “It’s irresponsible for cities not to invest in providing some kind of broadband service for their residents,” says Denis Smit, MD of technology analysts BMI-TechKnowledge. Smit points to a PricewaterhouseCoopers study of EU countries which showed that for every E1 invested in broadband, there was a return of E 1,70 in urban and E 1,30 in rural areas. Despite the evidence of economic benefits, SA municipalities have not exactly rushed to provide broadband services.Telkom's insistence that the act allows local governments to operate networks only on "one piece of private land" has led municipalities to be cautious about setting up their own infrastructure. The exception is Knysna, which decided to provide its own network anyway. Easton points out that Knysna has the backing of telecom regulator Icasa and the parliamentary committee on communications. Despite a few murmurs from Telkom, it took no action. Knysna’s boldness has since been vindicated, with Johannesburg getting Icasa to rule that a municipal area is “one piece” of land. Municipalities already enjoy substantial savings on their phone bills as they have since set up their own internal telephone networks. Cape Town says it expects to save about R40m/year once its network is installed, while savings in eThekwini and Johannesburg enabled these cities to recoup the costs of building their own networks within four months. Telkom has softened its stance. At a recent conference on digital cities, which it sponsored, it indicated it would work with municipalities. “We could eventually partner Telkom,” Du Plessis says. Smit say the biggest obstacle for these municipal networks is a “lack of political will”. So far, it has been municipal officials rather than politicians who have driven the process. Du Plessis says this is changing as mayors and councillors are backing the development of local networks. “The political buy-in is there,” he says. The urban initiatives will complement the increasing number of commercial hotspots offered by individual businesses such as hotels, conference centres and even restaurants. (SOURCE: MyADSL)
NIGERIAN ZINOX TO PRODUCE 2000 COMPUTERS PER DAYLeo Stan Eke, the CEO Zinox Technologies limited, manufacturers of Nigeria's first branded and internationally certified computers has stated that Zinox computers will in the next one year expand its production facility to hit the target of 2,000 systems per day in order to meet the high increasing demand of the Zinox brand. Ekeh stated that Zinox has kept to it's pledge of producing world-class PCs, Servers, Laptops and UPS that will help bridge the digital divide in Nigeria. Stan Ekeh who stated this at a media interaction with newsmen in Lagos to commemorate the fifth year of the establishment of the Zinox brand reiterated that its goal at inception was to build a brand that will be acknowledged as a Nigerian identity. He stated that Zinox for the past five years has maintained a three pronged communications strategy that has made it the number one brand in Nigeria.He stated that " It was our manifest duty as pioneers to continually inform Governments in Nigeria and their operatives on the need for interventionist policies, in the sector, to ensure the overall development of the country. We had to mobilize IT professionals and stake holders into a conscious pressure group so that IT would remain on the front burner of the national discourse. We also had to create awareness to ensure that the general public is receptive of the new ways of doing things as ushered in by the computer" He stated. According to Ekeh, Zinox, Computers over the years has overcome local skepticism for Made in Nigeria goods with multinationals standardizing on its products. He added that the quality of the Zinox Systems is made outstanding by the Zinox no-story warranty support policy, which is administered from 10 support centers from 10 branches across Nigeria. He further reiterated that "It is on record today that no other IT brand in Nigeria is supported by the vast network of branches like Zinox Computers". According to him, "the quality of our products described by Microsoft as "surpassing international quality standards", at inception, has continued to grow, earning respect for Nigeria in the process. (SOURCE: This Day) INTEL AUDIT ANGERS EGYPTIAN PC ASSEMBLY PARTNERSMohamed Mohsen, managing director at Moonstone Integration and Essam Adel (bottom), VP at Better Business have both been paid a visit by Intel's audit team Chip giant Intel’s recent audit of Egyptian PC assemblers has resulted in a number of partners being suspended from its Intel Inside programme. After the audit, which occurred during July and August 2006, Intel informed some assemblers that they were achieving CPU integration rates below set targets, prompting the vendor to freeze their status on the programme. At least three Egyptian assemblers confirmed to Channel Middle East that Intel has stopped some of their payments — and in some cases backdated this freeze — costing them hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost marketing funds. Leading Egyptian assemblers including Moonstone, IBS, Better Business, ETE and Emak are all understood to have received visits from Intel’s audit team. One assembler confirmed that prior to a visit by an inspection team consisting of up to seven members of Intel’s EMEA and local management it had received a letter informing the company that the audit would take place. Intel suggested to the assembler that it wanted to validate the integration rates to ensure the CPUs being purchased were being used for PC assembly and not re-distributed into the market. While the reasons for the specific timing of the visits still remains uncertain, Intel’s approach has left a bad taste in the mouth of some partners. Rola Zaarour, communications manager at Intel Middle East, Turkey and Africa, issued the following statement: “Intel conducts regular audits of all Intel Inside Programme licensees as part of our normal business procedure. These audits are part of the terms and conditions of the programme.” “The Intel Inside Programme is one of the world’s largest branding and cooperative marketing programmes. Intel and its customers have invested billions of dollars in the programme to create a recognisable mark of quality, and, as such, inherent value for our customers. The company has an obligation to both customers and shareholders to protect that investment,” the statement concluded. During the audit, assemblers say that Intel checked a range of documents, including payroll details, certification records and purchasing invoices. They also spent time on the manufacturing floor assessing the production process. Hazem El Zorkany, CEO at Boraq, which was visited by the Intel team on August 6th and 7th, said: “The outcome of the audit was an unfair judgment from Intel’s side. They came over for just one and a half days and figured out that my integration rate was 40% for the past year. If my integration rate today is 40% then how come it is also 40% for the past year? They came in August, which is the holidays when there are no orders, no commitments or no government fulfillments — nothing.” He added: “How can those guys say, ‘we counted the PCs you integrate for 60 minutes on the manufacturing floor ground’. It’s ridiculous. They came with no professional manufacturing people — they were all financial analysts or auditors and they just counted the number of PCs passing through the manufacturing line in one half day, in one hour, in August. Every year by the end of August we usually have ten days mandatory vacation for the 125 employees in labour and we do the regular maintenance for the machinery line.” “I told them that if they came at the end of August my integration rate would be zero. And if they came in December when I have a lot of fulfilment my integration rate would be 500%. It’s insane to just drop by for one hour and figure out the integration rate.” Essam Adel, VP at Egyptian assembly outfit Better Business, added: “The Intel sales team in Egypt knew that this action would cause problems because the people that came in were not sales people — they were auditors and accountants who care only about numbers and regulations, despite the fact that the market itself is not controlled by these factors alone.” Following the audit, Boraq claims to have received e-mail correspondence from Intel stating that it will not pay the marketing funds the assembler believes it is owed for the past year — approximately US$400,000 according to El Zorkany. The e-mail also asked him to acknowledge that the company’s integration rate has been 40% during the last 12 months. “I sent a very severe e-mail with all documentations stating that I cannot accept that backwards retroactive integration rate,” continued El Zorkany. “According to terms and conditions Intel has the right to set future integration rates, but not previous integration rates. I’m their partner, I’m their client and I have rights that should be respected. But I have had no answer from their side for three days.” Adel added: “When dealing with a vendor you trust that there is a fair system in place to prevent any problems when you work under a programme. What has happened is that the people that put together these programmes have been isolated from this market and its development.” “Intel’s sales people have been monitoring the market and sending in regular reports,” he continued. “Let’s say that that they have been saying everything is fine for the last four years and now all of a sudden these problems have appeared. Intel’s people should be blamed for all the reports that claimed everything was OK when they were enjoying achieving their targets based on our business.” Not all Egyptian assemblers agree that the audit was handled badly by Intel. Mohamed Mohsen, managing director at Moonstone Integration, said: “Intel representatives came to Egypt and conducted the audit and the results were very fair in my opinion. We had a minor issue that they asked us to solve so that we could benefit more from Intel’s programmes. They gave us six months to solve this issue and we neither gained nor lost benefits. On the other side there were some companies that were conducting enormous violations of the programme.” “I have heard that the audit will happen every year to make sure that everyone follows the correct procedures. There are many rumours on why this audit occurred. Some say it is because Intel has been accused of overstuffing the Egyptian market but nothing is confirmed,” Mohsen added. Since the audit occurred Boraq has shifted much of its business to AMD and claims that other indigenous brands impacted by Intel’s actions plan a similar course of action. With local assemblers threatening to defect to Intel rival AMD, the implications for the rest of the channel are huge. Distributors that previously relied on these assemblers for Intel CPU sales will now need to find their volumes elsewhere. “AMD will try to benefit from the lack of emotion between Intel and its partners in Egypt and they will also try to benefit from the problems that these relationships are currently experiencing,” explained Adel at Better Business. Dr. Gaith Kadir, general manager Middle East and Africa at AMD, commented: “We have been really focusing on the Egyptian market and there is significant interest in AMD’s offerings and solutions. Assemblers are extremely dissatisfied with what Intel has done — first in Dubai, now in Egypt, who knows where next?” “We are holding a channel event in Egypt on October 15th to focus on education and training. Across the region AMD is now seeing great acceptance and momentum. We have expanded our headcount and we are increasing our market share,” Kadir added. However, one senior manager at an authorised Intel distributor with Egypt rights said it has received assurances from Intel that Egyptian partners would get paid. “I know that for some reason the partners in Egypt are very angry at Intel and it is to do with the payment of rebates. We have been receiving a clear message from Intel that the partners in Egypt will receive these payments and things will get back to normal. For now though, the Egyptian assemblers and integrators are not happy with the situation,” he said. Assemblers in Egypt claim that Intel plans to carry out similar audits in other countries around the Middle East, tipping both Saudi Arabia and the UAE as potential destinations for Intel’s crack audit team. Intel’s latest showdown with members of its Middle East partner community — coming so soon after the Dubai-based channel credit crisis earlier this year, which saw several high-profile Intel IPPs flee the market leaving behind huge unpaid credit lines with authorised distributors — once again raises serious concerns regarding the vendor’s overall channel engagement model in the region. “Intel does not have partners, it only has clients,” commented Adel. “Partnership means two parties talking about common benefits. Intel is only interested in looking after its own benefits.” “If Intel was treating us as partners they should have come and said, ‘listen, we have some problems and we want to solve them with a new programme’. They should have drawn a line under what happened before and paid any outstanding amounts. The problem now is that there are some companies with huge outstanding amounts and this will impact their financial status,” Adel concluded. Egyptian assemblers claim that Tim Whitrow, EMEA accounting manager for Intel, is playing an active role in the audit process and the subsequent action that the vendor has taken against in-country partners. (SOURCE: ITP) SOUTH AFRICAN LOCAL GOVERNMENT ICT BUDGETS SET TO GROWAccording to ForgeAhead's ICT in Local Government Research Report, the local government ICT budget is expected to grow by 22% this year and 13% in 2007/2008. This report was presented at ForgeAhead’s recent ICT in Local Government Summit, which was held in Mmabatho. “The main purpose of the ICT in Local Government programme is to identify the current status of strategies and policies relating to ICT. Successful implementation of ICTs requires strategy and policy documents,” says Adrian Schofield, ForgeAhead’s head of consulting. He says the purpose of ICT is to enable efficient function in other activities. Schofield notes: “Technology enables effective decision-making, hence the adoption of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and billing systems.” Schofield says: “The objective and validity of the ForgeAhead research is to create a more effective public service. This allows local municipalities and districts to share and learn best practices from each other’s successes or challenges. It creates an opportunity for private sector to understand the challenges of Local Government and tailor their solutions accordingly.” In his presentation he mentioned that it is apparent that the billing/finance system is critically important to municipalities to enhance service delivery. He also said that ForgeAhead research shows that SITA plays a limited role in Local Government when choosing vendors. When asked whether municipalities understand the importance of ICTs within Local Government he said: “Some municipalities see the vision of ICT as a tool and that is often the larger municipalities. Smaller municipalities still view ICT as a computer instead of seeing the bigger picture.” He claims that skills, staff shortage and budget are still key inhibitors of ICT implementation. “The trend is similar to that of 2005. Sixty six percent of our respondents say budget and staff shortage is their main challenge and 63% voted for skills shortage.” According to Schofield the trends have shifted from streamlining workflow as a key driver as reported in ForgeAhead’s study conducted in 2005. “More municipalities are moving toward information sharing. Our research shows that 67% of respondents are moving into shared services and 66% are integrating their systems,” he adds. While the ForgeAhead research shows roughly three in five municipalities use leased lines, Schofield says the trend is moving towards wireless broadband. He says it is exciting to see that 34% of municipalities are slowly being managed by the IT division, 32% by finance, 17% by corporate service and 6% by municipal managers. “Also critical to note is that nearly all senior personnel are expected to use laptops, this trend is reported by 82% of the municipalities. It is also evident that Internet access and e-mails are mostly limited to those personnel in senior positions. “About half of SA municipalities have no intranet, and, according to the research findings by 2009, 65% of municipalities will be using wireless technology,” he says. Schofield says it is disappointing that the majority of ICT personnel (70%) within the municipalities have no idea about the purpose and functions of IGR and that less than 20% of municipalities have implemented ICT strategies and master systems plans. “Those who are aware of the Sita believe that it is mandated to assist all three tiers of government with ICT solutions. The agency’s role is perceived to be a procurement partner, strategic consultant and ICT skills provider due to the perceived professionalism, skills and capacity the possess as mentioned by 40% of the municipalities,” he concludes. (SOURCE: ICT World) IN BRIEF:- The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative added Libya to its list of program participants when the nation's government placed a $250 million order for 1.2 million computers and the associated services. So far, Negroponte's program has signed on four countries in addition to Libya—Argentina, Brazil, Nigeria and Thailand—and it has inked an agreement with Taiwan’s Qantas Computer to build the machines.
CONNECTING THE POOR IS PROFITABLE, SAYS NASHUA MOBILE MDCellular providers stand to make a better profit margin from community service telephones (CSTs) than they do from other service offerings, says Nashua Mobile MD Mark Taylor. Taylor was speaking at ITWeb's Wireless and Mobility 2006 conference earlier this week. The reason CSTs offer larger profit margins per minute is because of the disparate interconnect regime between the cellular operations and Telkom, he said. The interconnect rate for CST calls is low at 6c per minute, while the rates between cellular network providers is R1.25 per minute and the rate between cellular providers and fixed-line providers is 27c per minute, he said. Another factor that makes CSTs more profitable per line is the call volume that is generated from each CST, says Richard Hurst, an analyst at BMI-TechKnowledge. Unlike the individually-held SIM card where the user may make one or two calls per day, CSTs are used by a number of people each day, he notes. As a result, CSTs have the highest average revenue per user. Hurst adds that Cell C has recognised the potential that CSTs offer. Giving Cell C's 2006 interim financial results in August, Cell C CEO Jeffrey Hedberg stated that CSTs were an important part of Cell C's business. At the time, Cell C had implemented 42 000 CST lines. Hedberg noted that Cell C had fulfilled its social responsibility mandate regarding CST, and that the company would enquire from the Independent Communications Authority of SA as to whether the third mobile operator can roll-out more lines. The challenge, however, lies in that CST calls are charged at prepaid rates, which are higher than postpaid rates, notes a source who prefers not to be named. This translates into the poor paying more than those who can afford contracts, even when they make these calls from services that were clearly intended for the poor, he says. Hurst notes that Vodacom and MTN have also played an important role in facilitating connectivity for the poor, as demonstrated by the high cellphone penetration levels in SA. “Perhaps they decided to take a step back from CSTs in order to allow new entrants to gain traction in the market,” he says. Meanwhile, the Independent Communications Authority of SA is close to finalising the findings of its mobile pricing investigation, which aims to find out if mobile phone charges in SA are too high. A spokesman for the regulator says the findings of the investigation will be published by the end of October. (SOURCE: ITWeb) SOUTH AFRICA DATATEC PLOTS ACQUISITIONS AFTER LISTINGDatatec directors are busy plotting how to spend the GBP29m they hope to raise through a London listing, with several acquisitions in a variety of countries already The technology group will issue up to 16,3-million new shares for a secondary listing on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM), giving institutional investors a 10% discount to its trading price on the JSE. Investors have already expressed interest in shares worth $10m, with up to 10% of its enlarged issued share capital up for grabs. CEO Jens Montanana said that he was excited by the London listing, where Datatec would be one of the larger technology- sector stocks. "A London listing will give us greater access to capital to support our strategy of organic growth and targeted acquisitions," he said. Most of the incoming £29m would be used to fund acquisitions, with several potential moves in different countries now under active consideration, Montanana said. Some of the cash would be set aside to refinance some debts and to provide working capital for organic growth. The details come in a "pathfinder" document issued last week to give potential investors more information. Datatec is capitalised at R4,4bn and operates in more than 20 countries. Only 2% of its revenue is earned in SA, with 50% of its income coming from the US and almost 36% from the UK. The London listing will capitalise on Datatec's return to health, after it posted its most impressive figures for five years for the year to February. An 18% rise in revenue to $2,98bn generated an operating profit increase from $10,9m to $69m. Most spectacular was a 650% leap in headline earnings a share from 3,6c to 26,92c, triggering the first shareholder payout in its 20-year history. Its main division is US-based Westcon, which resells networking technologies from global giants including Cisco and Nortel. Westcon operates in 16 countries, earning 77% of the group's revenue and 78% of its pre-tax profits. In recent years, Westcon suffered tough times with tiny profit margins and some of its country operations clocking up losses. Those operations were brought back into line by extensive management reshuffles and by closing some divisions. Its UK-based Logicalis division supplies technology equipment, and systems integration and security activities. It earns 18% of the group's revenue and 20% of its profits. The smaller Analysys Mason operation is a technology and telecommunications consultancy and call centre operator based in London. Its operations in seven countries earn just 2% of the overall revenue but the higher-margin nature of its services account for 7% of the profit. Far smaller divisions are its South African operations, Westcon AME and Rangegate, and a business in the Middle East called OnLine. Together they account for 3% of the revenue but lost $4,4m in the latest financial year. (SOURCE: Business Day) IS VODACOM EYING IBURST?Rumours are rife that Vodacom have their sights set on acquiring iBurst. Is this a feasible option for the cellular giant? The rumour mill has been hovering around Vodacom as a possible buyer for some time now, with talk that the cellular giant is seriously interested in purchasing iBurst. The fact that Vodacom CEO Alan Knott-Craig’s son is heading up iBurst is most likely purely coincidental and not really the ground for this rumour. Apart from a growing broadband user base, iBurst has some other strategic assets that Vodacom may be interested in. These assets include spectrum that can be used for WiMax and various sites around the country that could be of value to Vodacom. iBurst, who has already been granted access to the 2.6 GHz radio frequency band by ICASA, is looking at using this technology and spectrum to target the lucrative corporate leased line services. Rumours that Vodacom are interested in iBurst come as no real shock since the cellular providers are all looking at new opportunities in the telecoms arena. iBurst is an attractive package with their spectrum and other assets which could come in very handy to expand Vodacom’s current offerings. Neology co-founder and telecoms expert Regardt van de Vyver, said that an acquisition of this nature will make sense, especially since iBurst can provide Vodacom with another avenue to expand on its business offerings and target corporate clients. Vodacom did not want to deny or confirm these rumours, merely saying that: “It would not be prudent for Vodacom to comment on media speculation regarding possible acquisitions and partnerships in this regard.” Vodacom did however confirm that they are looking at spreading their wings in the telecoms arena. “Under the newly promulgated Electronic Communications Act, Vodacom - as an active player in the converging communications sector, will continuously investigate and evaluate new opportunities through which to deliver greater value for our customers,” Vodacom said. iBurst said that they were unable to comment at this stage. (SOURCE: MyADSL) DECISION ON TELKOM'S PURCHASE OF BUSINESS CONNEXION IS DELAYED AGAINBusiness Connexion is having to rethink the date of its potential acquisition by Telkom as under-staffing at the Competition Commission has led to another delay. Telkom and Business Connexion expected to have the R2,43bn deal approved -- or vetoed -- by December 15. Now the commission has been given a 15-day extension to say whether it approves or opposes the deal. This is the third extension the commission has been granted, and it now has until October 17 to present its recommendation to the Competition Tribunal. Its recommendation will then be considered by the tribunal, which is likely to hold public hearings on the controversial move. The tribunal granted the fresh delay after the commission's lead investigator resigned, so a new investigator must be brought up to speed with the complex case. The commission was also still waiting for some information from third parties and the merging parties, it said. Experts who are helping the commission reach a recommendation also need time to analyse the information, especially since new and untested legislation governing the hi-tech sector has been introduced by the Electronic Communications Act of 2005. The tribunal said that, "given the large number of parties to be consulted, the complexity of the issues and the need for possible follow-up requests", a delay was not unreasonable. The two companies initially hoped to have all the conditions met and the deal approved in August. Business Connexion CEO Peter Watt said this latest delay would not jeopardise the deal, but was frustrating as it left his company in limbo. "The time frame isn't going to be met so we have a meeting later this week to discuss the way forward. "The commission is completely understaffed. They don't have the people to do the job." Watt said both Telkom and Business Connexion had given the commission all the information it required, so any outstanding information had to involve potential opponents to the deal. "They sent out a questionnaire to potential objectors. "That went out on July 13 and the bulk haven't bothered to reply," said Watt. The Internet Service Providers' Association, representing more than 100 companies, and SA's largest internet service provider, Internet Solutions, want the deal to be vetoed. They say Telkom already has a monopoly over voice networks and high-speed internet access, and if it buys an information technology specialist it will be tougher for others to compete. (SOURCE: Business Day) IN BRIEF:- Three international firms are among bidders fighting for control of the Gilgil Telecommunications Complex, (GTI) - the ailing subsidiary of Telkom Kenya: Sao Hills Industries of Tanzania, a leading sawmiller ; Treated Timber Products of South Africa, a large-scale supplier of transmission and telephone poles ; Electro Tech Company of Egypt. - According to a draft of its 2007 budget plan, the Moroccan government may sell 4% of its 34% stake in former monopoly fixed line and mobile operator Maroc Télécom (a.k.a. Itissalat al Maghrib) next year, aiming to raise over USD450 million. It had previously said it intends to sell 25% of the telco, which is 51%-controlled by French media group Vivendi, but has not indicated when this is likely to happen. Moroccan Finance and Privatisation Minister Fathallah Oualalou told news agency Reuters that no decision had been made on a further sale of Télécom shares.
GOVERNMENT TENDERS TO GO ONLINE IN RWANDAThe government will start advertising public tenders on the internet beginning next year, Finance and Economic Planning minister, James Musoni, has said. Musoni said this was in line with the government's policy of transparency and faster services. He was speaking yesterday at Hotel Intercontinental, during an interactive meeting between several government officials and the visiting Chief Executive Officer of the Development Gateway Foundation (DGF), Mark Fleeton. In his presentation, Fleeton highlighted some of the new technological systems such as dgMarket (digital market) that eases transparence and saving for government procurements, Aid management platform which is a web-based information sharing system that captures and streamlines aid management processes between developing countries and donors "These systems enable knowledge-sharing and collaboration among development practitioners worldwide, which will also increase transparency and efficiency in government procurement and also improve financial management and aid coordination," presented Fleeton Other ministers present were Prof. Romain Murenzi for Scientific Research and Technology (President's Office), and Eng. Albert Butare (State minister, Energy and Communications). The ministers said Rwanda was benefiting from the DGF's technological programs, saying that ICT was an integral part of the country's development strategy. "Our ICT success lies in our partners, and we are honoured to have the Development Gateway as our partners," Musoni said. Under the support of DGF, the government established a Regional ICT Research and Training Regional Outreach Center (RITC) based at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), which has helped train various people in ICT skills. The firm has also helped create a Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing Regional Outreach Centre, and Rwanda Development Gateway based at the National University of Rwanda (UNR). DGF is currently operating in over 60 countries across the world with locally-owned entities that provide web-related services for local development needs including e-Government, e-Business, and e-Learning. (SOURCE: The New Times) NASHUA MOBILE'S MMS PORTAL GIVES COMPANIES MARKETING TOOLNashua Mobile has launched a multimedia messaging services (MMS) portal that aims to give companies of all sizes the ability to easily communicate with their customers using MMS as a tool. The MMS portal is designed to give companies the ability to send rich content, such as advertisements, invoices, or even short training messages out to their users at an affordable cost. The MMS functionality is offered through the Nashua Mobile Multi-Protocol Gateway (MPG), a commercial messaging hub that is designed to support the transmission and reception of Cell C, MTN and Vodacom SMS messages as well as faxes and e-mails. The MPG aims to allow companies to communicate easily with customers across a range of media through a single, user-friendly interface; SA companies ranging from SMEs to the largest blue-chips are already sending out millions of SMS messages a month through the MPG. Says Doug Mattheus, marketing director at Nashua Mobile: “With penetration of MMS-ready phones into the SA market increasing by the day, MMS is coming into its own as a communications medium. Most new phones support the technology, which means that companies can now reach customers with more interactive cellular content that rivals e-mail messaging for richness.” Companies can manage their own MMS campaigns through the portal, or they can commission Nashua Mobile to design and execute their MMS campaigns, he adds. Reporting functionality allows companies to track the delivery rates of the MMS messages, he continues. Concludes Mattheus: “MMS is suited for a range of branded communications, especially viral campaigns, and, when used wisely, produces outstanding response rates. It is more feature-rich than SMS, yet affordable and easy to use. We expect to see companies adopting it for more and more marketing and communication applications in the months to come.” (SOURCE: ICT World) IN BRIEF:- Rancard Solutions, a provider of mobile content delivery and service management software, has released Rancard Mobility Content Server version 2.1. The main features include content forward-lock protection (digital rights management), content adaptation, PIN-redemption, IP filtering, service aggregation and 3rd party billing integration. After successful tests of content delivery to mobile networks in Ghana and Nigeria, Rancard is ready to expand its mobile platform to providers and networks in other countries.
MULTICHOICE AND TELKOM GET SOME SERIOUS COMPETITION.Mike Rwayitare, the Rwandan-born billionaire and founder of pan-African cellphone group Telecel International, will invest billions of rand in a new venture to tackle Telkom and Multichoice head-on in telecommunications and pay-TV. Rwayitare’s company, Miko Investment Holdings, has acquired a 66% stake in Goal Technology Solutions (GTS), a company that wants to use municipal electricity infrastructure to deliver a “triple play” of broadband, TV programming and voice telephony to as many as 1,5m SA homes by 2010. GTS, which started life as part of Grintek Telecom before being spun off in 2004, will use powerline communication (PLC) technology to bypass Telkom’s so-called “last mile” of cables that connect consumers to its network. The company is promising price competition with the incumbents. “We have to be 25% cheaper that the comparative offerings today,” says GTS CEO Adrian Maguire. “We have to deliver more than what is available to consumers today and we have to do it more cost-effectively.” GTS is taking advantage of the new Electronic Communications Act, which allows municipalities to use their communications infrastructure to provide services to consumers in competition with Telkom. Macquire believes most municipalities will partner private companies, such as his, to provide these services to their residents. Rwayitare, who has extensive experience in building telecoms networks across Africa with Telecel, has been appointed chairman of GTS. In March 2000, Rwayitare sold 80% of Telecel, which at the time operated in GSM licenses in 11 territories in Africa, to Egypt’s Orascom Telecom for US$413m. He has since made investments in hotels – he owns the Hotel des Mille Collines in Rwanda, and the Mont Rochelle Hotel & Mountain Vineyards in Franschoek. Rwayitare, who is now South African, says his plan was to retire at Mont Rochelle but he admits that he loves a challenge and says there are big opportunities in the SA market. He will provide the bulk of the funding that GTS needs. “We plan to spend billions of rand,” says Maguire. HE says the company won’t need to go to the market to raise money. GTS has applied for a subscription TV license from the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) and hopes this will be awarded to it by mid-2007 – at the latest. Meanwhile, the company is in talks with a number of municipalities. It is already running test networks in parts of Durban and Tshwane, involving about 1 000 homes. Macguire says that when GTS begins offering services, it will deliver guaranteed minimum access speeds to subscribers of 90 Mbit/s. That’s 22 times faster than Telkom’s fastest broadband offering (4 Mbit/s) and is enough to deliver multiple high-definition television channels simultaneously while still providing broadband and telephony. Macguire says it’s logical for municipalities to play a central role in creating competition in the telecom industry. Their electricity infrastructure connects 80-90% of homes in SA and obviates the need for extensive investment in new wireless or wireline access networks. The municipalities also have extensive fibre infrastructure and the high sites, such as water towers, necessary to build a backhaul network, Macguire says. Though there were initially doubts about the feasibility of PLC technology, Macguire says initial challenges have been resolved. “PLC has been designed to work in wild environments,” he says. “It does not rely on the quality of the network. It’s stable and the bandwidth can be delivered. We are so confident [in the technology] that we will cover 100% of the cost of the networks. We won’t ask the municipalities to invest any money.” About 18 countries have PLC networks so far. Some of the biggest are in Tasmania in Australia and in Spain. Macguire hopes that consumers will see value in having one company supplying them with pay-TV, Internet and telephony on one network. He says that soon companies that can’t offer their subscribers this sort of tripl-play bundle won’t be competitive. Eric Nhlapo, Icasa’s former GM for broadcasting, has been hired to head GTV, GTS’s pay-TV arm. Gtv won’t emulate the Multichoice model. Rather than providing 60 or more channels to consumers, like DSTV does, the company will broadcast between 3 and 10 “high quality” channels. “We’d rather pay more money for quality content and have most of our channels watched,” Macguire says. “We will have pay-per-view channel and a video-on-demand facility, too.” Additional services that GTS intends to offer include Internet gaming and video surveillance systems. People will be able to monitor, using video streaming, what’s happening in the streets in their neighbourhood from their PCs or TVs. GTS is hiring. It has started an intern programme which it plans to grow. The company, which has only 35 employees, needs to build its workforce quickly, Macguire says. He doesn’t envisage GTS building a Telkom-sized network of technicians, however. He says GTS staff won’t need access to people’s homes. Consumers will buy a device that they simply plug into a wall socket. This device will automatically configure itself with the network. GTS will then specify which service should be available to that customer – whether they subscribe to everything or just one component, such as Internet access. Because GTS won’t need access to people’s homes, Macguire Is confident that the company will be able to sign up between 1,1m and 1,5m customers by 2010. Rwayitare says GTS wants to “prepare people to watch the 2010 soccer World Cup in high-definition.” (SOURCE: MyADSL)
PEOPLESlimane Khireddine has been appointed to the post of CEO of the group Algeria Telecom by Post and ICT Minister Boudjemaâ Haïchour. Khireddine was the acting general director of the company since August 2005 and prior to this position he was head of division of Algeria Telecom network's development. AT&T has announced he appointment of John Vladimir Slamecka as the new head of the company's Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) operations. He formerly was head of AT&T Business Services for Canada & Latin America. 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 JOBS AND OPPORTUNITIESERP CONSULTANTS – SOUTH AFRICA Mincom Africa is currently looking for three ERP consultants. They must be bilingual (French & English). Previous experience as a consultant on an ERP system (SAP/Ellipse/Oracle) will be considered and/or a formal I.T. related qualification. The three positions are permanent jobs. ne will be permanently based in Johannesburg. The other two will require travelling to Congo DRC but they will be Johannesburg based. For further information please contact freek.lotz@mincom.com DEVELOPMENT OF A NATIONAL ICT BILL IN BURUNDI. The Danish Management A/S (www.danishmanagement.dk) for the RICTSP/COMESA is looking for a person that will review all existing ICT related laws and legislation in Burundi and prepare a draft national ICT bill in line with the COMESA ICT Model Bill. The application deadline is 20th October 2006. Please contact Jane Moeller Larsen for further information at ictjobs@danishmanagement.dk or by phone on +45 35 250 655. BASELINE ON CONNECTIVITY IN THE RICTSP The Danish Management A/S (www.danishmanagement.dk) for the RICTSP/COMESA is looking for a person to prepare a report on the connectivity situation among stakeholders in order to identify solutions to improve broadband internet connectivity between Regional Organisations (COMESA; EAC; IGAD; IOC) and other stakeholders. The application deadline is 20th October 2006. Please contact Jane Moeller Larsen for further information at ictjobs@danishmanagement.dk or by phone on +45 35 250 655. 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 annualAccess to Learning Award.This award recognizes excellence in providing access to information 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?EMC AND UNHCR – AFRICA Emerging Markets Communications (EMC) has been awarded a contract to provide satellite communications and integrate UNHCR offices worldwide. After an 8 month bidding process, EMC was selected as the UNHCR’s provider of fixed satellite telecommunication services worldwide, providing the Organization with an end-to-end satellite communications solution including licensing, logistics, installations, trainings for UNHCR personnel and maintenance. SAFARICOM AND SUBEX AZURE - KENYA Subex Azure Ltd, the world's largest vendor of revenue maximization solutions for telecom operators, today announced that it has won a contract to provide its fraud management system to Safaricom Ltd, the Kenyan mobile services provider. After a nine-month thorough tendering process that included technical demonstrations and reference customer visits, the Subex Azure Fraud Management Solution (SAFMS) was chosen. to manage our growing subscriber base. We were very impressed with Subex.”
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