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ISSUE NO 330

Satellite dominates cellular backhaul, says new study

A specially commissioned annexe study for Balancing Act’s African Satellite Markets shows that some 29 out of 55 African countries and territories get more than 80% of their total international Internet bandwidth by satellite, and many fixed and mobile operators in the region are also dependent on satellite for their domestic communications as well.

A large and increasing amount of the satellite capacity above Africa is being used for cellular backhaul, to provide mobile operators with the transmission capacity to connect switches (MSC) to base stations (BTS) beyond the reach of their terrestrial networks. Nearly a quarter of the total GSM coverage in sub-Saharan Africa as at December 2005 was served by transmission provided by satellite. Both satellite operators and service providers report that cellular backhaul is currently one of the fastest growing markets for satellite bandwidth. Over the last five years, the satellite-based cellular backhaul in sub-Saharan Africa has grown by a CAGR of 133.9% from an estimated 15.3 Mbps by the end of 2000 to an estimated 1,067.81 Mbps by the end of 2005.

Growth in the market for cellular backhaul services provided by satellite is being driven as a result of the rapid roll-out by mobile operators of coverage to secondary urban and rural areas beyond the reach of terrestrial networks. Mobile operators often have to build transmission networks spanning large distances over challenging terrain in order to reach major towns or cities, and in addition often also have to build their own transmission and associated infrastructure such as power and roads to service base stations.

Base stations are often deployed which connected by VSAT, then as the microwave network being built by the operator catches up, VSATs are then moved to new base stations and so on in a leap-frog fashion. VSAT is used to connect base stations in remote or hard to reach locations, where satellite-based backhaul remains the most practical and economically feasible means of connecting cell sites to the MSC. Safaricom in Kenya for example has deployed base stations at lodges in the Masai Mara game reserve, hundreds of miles beyond the reach of its transmission network. 

It is extremely difficult to quantify the size of the worldwide market for satellite-based cellular backhaul. Intelsat said in December 2005 that it provided cellular backhaul services either directly or through service providers including Gateway Communications to more than 60 mobile operators worldwide. Intelsat has notably won contracts with Vodacom to supply cellular backhaul to its operations in DRC, Tanzania and Mozambique on the IS-904 satellite, with Vee Networks (now Celtel Nigeria) to provide nine 36-MHz transponders, and with Millicom Chad to provide domestic backhaul on the IS-702 satellite.

This specially commissioned study by Gateway Communications will be sent free to all subscribers to Balancing Act’s News Update early next week. It includes detailed figures and a map identifying exactly where satellite backhaul is being used by mobile operators.

VOXTELECOM, TELKOM IN VOIP INTERCONNECT FIRST IN SOUTH AFRICA

DataPro-owned VoIP telephony provider, VoxTelecom, says that it has become the first VoIP provider to sign an interconnect agreement with Telkom, overcoming a major hurdle to the widespread adoption of VoIP telephony.

“It is a hugely significant and exciting achievement for us,” says VoxTelecom MD, Jaco Voigt. “We can now exchange calls directly with Telkom via local links, which means we can offer our customers much higher-quality VoIP calls at a very competitive price. This finally makes VoIP a no-brainer decision for a very wide range of organisations.”

  VoxTelecom can now offer its own range of 087 numbers, says Voigt: “which means that the range of services we can offer our customers increases ten-fold, from caller ID to detailed management information,” he adds.

  Voigt says the deal is testimony to VoxTelecom’s technical capability. “VoIP and traditional telephony are based on completely different technologies, so it is not a simple matter to connect a call from one medium to the other.”

  The agreement will have a big impact on the uptake of VoIP services in the local market, says Voigt. “The ability to get interconnection working properly is the biggest single influence on the success of VoIP,” he adds.

(SOURCE: ICT World)

WESTEL RECEIVES LICENCE TO OPERATE MOBILE SERVICE IN GHANA

The Ghanaian daily newspaper Graphic Ghana reports that Western Telesystems (WESTEL) Ghana Limited has been granted a licence by the regulator, the National Communications Authority (NCA), to operate a mobile service in the country. The award brings the number of companies licensed to provide mobile telephony services in Ghana to five. WESTEL is the second state-owned company – the other being Ghana Telecom – to receive a wireless concession. WESTEL was awarded the second national operator's licence in 1997 and granted a five-year duopoly on basic telecoms services alongside incumbent Ghana Telecom. However, it has been blighted by bureaucratic disagreements and a lack of investment, and has since not been able to meet its targets of rolling out up to 100,000 fixed lines across the country.

The granting of a mobile licence to Westel – if the report turns out to be accurate – is almost certainly a Government strategy to fatten up Westel before it is privatised. MTN has shown interest in Westel in the past but the absence of a mobile licence would almost certainly have been a stumbling block.

At the last count in June 2006 the number of mobile subscribers stood at over 3.34 million, up from around 2.65 million at the start of the year and a rise of 82.8% on the 1.45 million recorded at the end of 2004. By 1 July 2006 GSM operator Spacefon Areeba, backed by Lebanon-based Investcom Holdings, had 2.02 million subscribers, putting it ahead of Millicom International Cellular's (MIC's) Mobitel unit, the oldest of all the providers, which had 737,749 users to its Tigo-branded service. State-owned national PTO Ghana Telecom (GT) had an estimated 450,000 subscribers to its GT-OneTouch GSM network, while Kasapa Telecom, the country's sole CDMA operator, had around 135,300, up from 57,100 at the start of the year.

(SOURCE: Telegeography)

NETWORKS MIGHT BILL IN FOREX IN ZIMBABWE

A new law that came into effect last week giving state phone company Tel*One a complete monopoly over international traffic could force Zimbabwean mobile service providers to charge international outgoing calls in foreign currency, the head of the country's largest telecoms company has warned.

A statutory instrument gazetted in March, compelling mobile phone companies to route their international traffic through Tel*One, was due to come into effect last week. Douglas Mboweni, CEO of Econet Wireless, warns that this could see subscribers paying for international calls in forex.

"Currently, making an international call is a right enjoyed by every customer, and we need to keep it that way. If we allow this statutory instrument to proceed without amendments, then only a privileged few will have access to international calls," Mboweni said this week.

Operators are concerned that, because of termination rate arrangements with foreign operators, Zimbabwean operators will now no longer have access to foreign currency to pay overseas networks.

"There will be complete chaos and people will either face blackouts on international calls or have to pay in foreign currency. We will have the same problem in telecoms that we currently have in power," Econet spokesman Sure Kamhunga said.

He said that whenever a subscriber on a network in Zimbabwe makes an international call to a subscriber on an overseas network, the Zimbabwe subscriber pays the home network for the call in Zimbabwe dollars, but the home network still has to pay the international network to which the receiving subscriber overseas is connected, what is called a termination rate, and this is charged in US dollars between networks.

On the other hand, when a person in Zimbabwe receives an international call, their home network charges the operator that sent the call in US dollars. At the end of each month, the operators then exchange invoices for calls made between their customers.

The operator whose customers made the most calls pays out the difference to its counterpart. Operators generally try to get a balance in the flow of traffic between them to avoid any net payout. "If you divert traffic destined to our customers away from us to come through Tel*One, then we will be pushed out of the settlement system completely," Kamhunga cautioned.

If this happens, Zimbabwean operators would either be cut off, or forced to charge their local customers in foreign currency for international calls. The new law gives Tel*One sole access to the forex earned on the incoming calls to other networks, but will only pay them in Zimbabwe dollars. However, the mobile operators will not be able to pay other networks for international calls made by their customers to those other networks overseas.

Said Kamhunga: "There is no precedence for such an arrangement, and it is dangerous in a country where there is no foreign exchange." CEO Mboweni also said contrary to perceptions, Econet did not make a lot of its money from international calls, saying these only accounted for less than 10 percent of revenue.

"We are a public company and this information is available for anyone to see. The Reserve Bank knows exactly how much we make, and it's not that much. What is important about the income we get from international incoming calls is that it is used to offset the foreign currency obligations we get each time a customer makes an international call. If we did not have that off set mechanism our customers would have to pay for international calls in foreign currency," said Mboweni.

(SOURCE: Financial Gazette)

UGANDA OPENS UP TELECOMS SECTOR

Uganda's Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) on Wednesday completely liberalised its telecommunications infrastructure provisioning, effectively removing MTN Uganda and Uganda Telecom's exclusivity period.

Until Wednesday, only MTN and Uganda Telecom's could roll out infrastructure, while Celtel was only licensed to sell-provide. The change has made it possible for Celtel to compete more directly with MTN, as well as allowed several smaller players to make infrastructure available to other users.

The UCC said: "For purposes of providing a holistic licensing environment (services and infrastructure), the ministry of ICT has decided to open up the infrastructure market to full competition." The commission said that as part of the liberalising, all players would be issued the same licence.

(SOURCE: Business in Africa)

SAFARICOM TO ROLL OUT TRIAL 3.5G SERVICE IN NAIROBI

Nairobi residents will soon be able to enjoy faster downloads of music, video and email to their cell phones. Safaricom last week said it would roll out 3.5G services, the world's most advanced commercial wireless technology. The offering, bundled with a regular third-generation (3G) service, will be available for a 12-month trial period in parts of the city.

  The firm said it was introducing HSDPA - high speed downlink packet access or 3.5G - that would offer speeds of 1.8 megabits per second, five times faster than the first 3G networks. It is also offering a 3G UMTS - universal mobile telecommunication service - in a pilot to determine its economic viability.

"We first have to build a business case," said Michael Joseph, Safaricom's Chief Executive. "(When) we can see the justification of that business, we can apply for a permit. However, I don't believe at this point that we are going to have a national roll out. It will be to only selected areas where we think the business can be justified."

Safaricom initially plans to market the service as a data pipe (where users provide their own content) and it would then probably move to providing some content. Joseph said that the technology would be cheaper than VSAT, which many corporates operating in rural areas currently use. Installation of VSAT applications costs about $2,500 (Sh180,000) and monthly running costs of about $300 (Sh21,600), he added. For the new service, the firm has built seven base stations around its headquarters.

The UMTS/HSDPA equipment has been supplied by Siemens Communications. Minister for Information and Communications, Mutahi Kagwe said the new technology would revolutionise Internet service provision. Only South Africa has the services so far, but Tanzania and Nigeria are also gearing up to launch them.

  So far, Safaricom says it has spent Sh60 billion on its current 2.75G network but that it would cost even more to install infrastructure for the new technology. It has invested Sh12.4 billion to establish new base stations to accommodate the technology.

(SOURCE: The East African Standard)

"WE WILL NOT SHIELD STAFF WHO ARE CRIMINALS," GT MANAGEMENT WARNS

The management of Ghana Telecom (GT) company has made it clear that it will not shield its staff members found indulging in any criminal act such as stealing of cables or any other items belonging to the company. "Management will see to it that such staff member when arrested, will be put before court for prosecution to serve as a deterrent to other members of staff," he cautioned.

  The Head of Corporate Communication of GT, Major Albert Don Chebe (Rtd) issued this warning, when he briefed the Eastern Region press on the arrest of four GT staff who had stolen cables belonging to the company at Koforidua. Earlier, the Eastern Regional Police Commander, ACP Felix Asare Owusu, had briefed the press on the arrest of the four, at the Regional Police headquarters. He said the GT in Koforidua had of late been hit by the stealing of its cables and had informed the security agencies for help.

According to him, on October 26, the security agencies had information about a quantity of wires hidden in a sheep pen at the house of one Ebenezer Anim, age 55 and a GT staff member at Nsukwao near Koforidua. Security agents went to the house but did not meet Ebenezer Anim, where his wife Rosemary Tetteh told them that there was nothing in the pen. However when the sheep pen was forced opened, eight mini sacks containing drop wires were found, he disclosed.

ACP Asare Owusu said the following day, Ebenezer Anim was arrested and during interrogation mentioned Michael Acquaye, 28, Eric Opong, 34 and Moro Inusah, 34 all telephone technicians of the company as accomplices. The Regional Police Commander gave the total cost of GT cables stolen in the Region as 56 million cedis with those found with the suspects valued at 28 million cedis. On October 30, the four accused persons were put before Circuit Court A in Koforidua, presided over by His Honour, Mr. Ayime and were remanded for 24 hours, while investigation continues.

Given an overview of the cable theft issue, the Regional Head of GT, Nii Amaah Fleischer Brock, said within one year, the company had spent about four billion cedis in replacing cables that had been stolen by criminals.

Accordingly, since the company launched its campaign to clamp down on the cable thieves, the security and the public had been assisting the company resulting in the arrest of 11 thieves in Accra and Tema. He disclosed that the GT had instituted a reward scheme of five million cedis for persons who would give information that would lead to the arrest of a suspect and 10 million cedis for those who effect an arrest by themselves.

 (SOURCE: Ghanaian Chronicle)

IN BRIEF:

- According to the Nigerian local paper this Day, the Minister of Communications, Dr. Obafemi Anibaba said that the federal government will soon auction the fourth GSM licence under the open bidding system.

- State-run telecommunications operator Telkom Kenya could sack up to 10,000 employees by January. Information and Communications minister, Mutahi Kagwe has said the long-delayed retrenchment was being timed to coincide with the licensing of a second national telephone operator.

- The Botswana Telecommunications Authority (BTA) is to review the current telephone numbering practice. To come up with a new policy, the BTA has engaged the services of Adam Smith International from the United Kingdom as consultants from May 2006. The consultants were to assist in the telephone numbering Policy to address the country's current and future management challenges of administering telephone numbers.

- Econet Wireless, Zimbabwe's largest mobile phone operator, would offer 3G to its subscribers by February next year. Econet said the introduction of Third Generation technology to its network would enable it to add 800,000 new lines as well as help it fend off competition from external players.

- After putting off applying for a 3G licence due to unattractive terms, Mobinil in Egypt has set its sights on acquiring an advanced 3G licence that will provide it with higher bandwidth. According to reports in Al Mal, the financial weekly, the operator has begun negotiations with the NTRA to explore possible measures for bringing down the licensing costs.

TELECOMS, RATES, OFFERS AND COVERAGE

- In Ethiopia activities are under way to make 200 rural kebeles in three states become beneficiaries of telephone services in the budget year, the Southeast Region of the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) reported Region Manager Teferi Zewde told WIC that ETC has been making rural kebeles in Oromia, Amhara, and Afar states beneficiaries of telephone services since last July.

- Celtel in Nigeria has been testing Mobile Push E-Mail with T3 Communications. Mobile subscribers will soon have access to their corporate and personal email, calendar, contacts/Personal Information Management (PIM) and other corporate data directly to their mobile handsets and in most cases without having to change their current handsets.

- State-owned Telkom Kenya is preparing to roll out its own mobile telephone service to compete with Safaricom and Celtel in a market that is supposed to witness the entry of at least two other players in the next 10 months.

- South Africa’s MTN Group has reported a 37% jump in subscriber numbers for the three months to the end of September thanks to its acquisition of Investcom. Even without the Investcom deal, MTN says, customer numbers grew a healthy 8%. In its domestic market MTN saw its customer base grow 7% over the quarter to 11.16 million. In Nigeria, user numbers were up 8% to 10.38 million, while in Ghana there was 21% growth to reach a total of 2.44 million. Other high-growth markets included Syria and Uganda.

- Libya is set to get its first 3G network, with the country’s second largest cellular operator Libyana rolling out a W-CDMA and HSDPA network covering 14 cities. Libyana has contracted ZTE of China to supply its 3G infrastructure.

- Malawi Telecommunications Ltd (MTL), the country’s sole fixed line operator, has introduced a toll-free service whereby any company can set up a line for its customers to call, and the charge will be borne by the company not the customer. The company will be free to set the maximum number of calls that can be received over a specified time.

WIRELESS VOIP A REALITY WITH STORM AND SENTECH IN SOUTH AFRICA

A commercially installed wireless VoIP solution based on Sentech's BizNet Xpress has gone live thanks to the collaboration between VoIP supplier, Storm, and telecommunications company, Sentech, the companies say. A Gauteng-based advertising agency has been successfully running its voice over Sentech’s enterprise grade wireless access product since the middle of October, they claim.

“The significance of this announcement is that it officially marks the first genuine alternative to Telkom’s fixed-line Diginet product,” says Dave Gale, Business Development Director at Storm. “The tests that Storm has conducted over the past few weeks have shown that BizNet Xpress meets, if not at times, exceeds the quality parameters of Diginet.”

BizNet Xpress offers a constant bit rate, making it the one of very few wireless products stable enough to efficiently carry enterprise-grade VoIP traffic, says Georg Wenhold, Biznet product manager at Sentech. He adds: “Unlike other wireless alternatives, it is not a contended service. This means that users and service providers know exactly how much bandwidth they have available, and can shape and modify the services they run on this pipe to suit their needs.”

“So, BizNet Xpress’ reliability is guaranteed. This is step one to creating a successful product. But, to be honest, quality has never been an issue with Diginet,” says Gale. “So, while it is vital that Biznet Xpress’ quality equals that of the Telkom product, this alone is not going attract customers.”

“Price and lead time however, are issues. This moves us onto step two: getting the operational implementation side of the technology right. BizNet Xpress definitely has better pricing, and, in terms of a faster install time, Sentech management has committed to getting this right.”

Currently Telkom is taking up to 13 weeks to install a Diginet line. Sentech has agreed to technical installations within just two weeks. “This, combined with cost-effective pricing, makes BizNet Xpress a serious competitor to the Telkom product,” says Wenhold.

(SOURCE: ICT World)

 ANGOLA TO INVEST IN ‘ADONIS’ SUBMARINE CABLE TO BOOST CONNECTIVITY

Angola’s Savings and Credits Bank (BPC) is set to provide USD70 million towards the rollout of a new submarine fibre-optic cable network which will connect the country’s coastal provinces, according to a statement by incumbent fixed line operator Angola Telecom.

The provinces are Cabinda, Zaire, Luanda, Cuanza Sur, Benguela and Namibe. Angola’s Council of Ministers has approved the project, which aims to improve telephone and TV services in the six provinces. Angola Telecom will operate the new system, while Ericsson South Africa will construct the network, which is to be known as Adonis.

(SOURCE: Telegeography)

INTERNET BODY GRAPPLES WITH MULTILINGUAL WEB ADDRESSES

  The organisation that manages the Internet's technical core on Wednesday said it was running tests to determine whether countries can register web addresses in their own language, an option expected to further boost the Internet's global appeal.

  But the move was not without risk, as misapplication of the feature could result in the web breaking up into unlinked components, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) said.

An increasing number of users from different countries have been requesting the right to register domain names and online addresses such as .uk and .fr - in their native languages, in order to open up access to the Internet to users who cannot write in English, said participants in a four-day UN forum on Internet governance, held in the southern Athens suburb of Vouliagmeni.

ICANN on Wednesday said it was conducting laboratory tests to see whether it would be possible to accept internationalised domain names (IDNs), and was expecting to reach a resolution by the end of 2007.

"The Net is now expanding in countries where people are not familiar with the Latin alphabet," Nitin Desai, special advisor to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Internet governance, said.  "There is a lot of pressure for the internationalisation of domain names from countries such as China," he said.

"We are now in the final stages of a very complex process," said Paul Twomey, president and CEO of ICANN, a non-profit corporation that has managed the Internet’s domain names since 1998.  "If we get this wrong, we could very easily and permanently break the Internet," Twomey said in a statement.

Were this to happen, users typing the address of a website would get a different result depending on their geographical location, experts at the forum warned.

Even if successful, the project will require more debate to determine whether ICANN or the countries themselves should manage these new adddresses, said Patrik Faelstroem, a senior consulting engineer at Cisco Systems and a member of the Swedish government's IT policy and strategy group.  "We have to find a standard that makes people as little unhappy as possible," he said.

(SOURCE: Sapa-AFP)

 ERWIN COMES TO THE RESCUE ON THE BROADBAND WAGON IN SOUTH AFRICA

Details are still sketchy about what government intends to do with Infraco, a new company it unveiled last week to lower the cost of broadband.

Which assets are in the company, who will be allowed to buy its bandwidth, what plans there are to extend its reach, and when it will start operating are among the great unknowns.

The hard facts are few: its core asset is a national telecoms backbone built by Eskom, and R627m has been budgeted to develop the new state-owned entity.

Anyone craving further details must wait until the end of the month, when Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin will clarify his plans. What Erwin has said is that Infraco is essential to make SA's hi-tech sector globally competitive by rapidly increasing the availability of broadband and decreasing its cost to introduce "a genuinely competitive" supply of bandwidth.

It is not surprising Erwin deems it necessary to step into the telecoms arena, given the failure of his colleague, Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, to usher in better and cheaper services. Despite her years in office, telecoms remain extraordinarily expensive, and President Thabo Mbeki's repeated calls for cost reductions have washed over her.

In May, Matsepe-Casaburri surprised everyone, including Sentech, by saying the state-owned signal carrier would become the core of a national wireless broadband network to provide voice and data services, especially to rural areas. Little has happened since then.

Matsepe-Casaburri also decreed that bandwidth on the crucial Sat-3 undersea cable linking Africa to Europe should be sold to all operators at a cost-based price. The industry is still waiting.

Cue Erwin, with plans of his own. His department's direct intervention should significantly lower the cost of broadband by supplying long-distance and international networks, he said. What the communication department's policy of "managed liberalisation" may achieve in a few years, Infraco would achieve by early next year, he claimed.

The creation of Infraco should bring much-needed competition to a market still shackled by Telkom's dominance, although industry players are concerned that it is yet another government-owned entity.

The lack of detail makes it difficult for the current players to comment. Telkom issued its usual bland statement that it welcomed competition and the expansion of broadband access to a broader section of society.

Telkom's new rival, Neotel, was also taciturn, saying the news "does not affect Neotel's business and strategy model". Neotel would continue to provide connectivity to internet service providers and other suppliers of voice and data services. If providing connectivity to its customers required Neotel to lean on the high-capacity network of Infraco, it would do so as it had full access to it, its statement said.

Democratic Alliance spokeswoman Dene Smuts believes the plans for Infraco must be debated at public hearings.

"I do not blame minister Erwin for setting up as telephone minister number two, given communication minister number one's shortcomings," she said. But the sector needed certainty, and it was unclear how Infraco related to government's earlier move to budget R1bn for Sentech to roll out a broadband network.

"Is Erwin taking us back to a giant state telco or does he just want to offer cheap wholesale capacity to all players?" Smuts asked.

Clearly, one of Erwin's aims is to help Neotel become a successful rival to Telkom. But that will demand careful regulations, otherwise Infraco could destroy Neotel's business by stealing its customers. If SA's hundred-or-so internet service providers can buy bandwidth from Infraco, Neotel's plan to serve those customers itself will be scuttled.

Erwin said Infraco would make the necessary investments to serve the needs of Neotel and speed up the introduction of Neotel's services. That would have a positive effect on the availability and cost of broadband, he said.

Infraco will house the national fibre-optic networks built by Eskom and Transnet. It is not clear if that means reversing a deal that saw Neotel buy Transnet's inner-city fibre-optic network for R256m. However, the inner-city networks may remain within Neotel, with only the national networks folded into Infraco.

Neotel uses the network it bought from Sentech as the basis for its connectivity services, and also leases capacity on Eskom's network. Government initially planned to sell Eskom's R748m network to Neotel but changed its mind, apparently to save Neotel from having to inflate its fees to recoup an initial heavy outlay. Now Neotel will access Eskom's backbone through the new network wholesaler.

(SOURCE: Business Day)

IN BRIEF:

- SPI (Sanlam Private Investments) launched Sanlam iTrade, an online trading portal, giving investors who thrive on the adrenaline rush of trading on the Internet a new outlet for playing the market. According to Daniël Kriel, chief executive officer of SPI, Sanlam iTrade aims to capture 20% of the online trading market share within three years – thereby proving to be a worthy competitor to other players in the industry and one of which they should take note. This venture also makes Sanlam the first financial services group in the South African life insurance industry to create such a portal.

RWANDA FIRM STARTS PHONE BANKING

The advent of a mobile phone took the modern world by storm. The concept of a palm-size gadget that one can use to call, SMS or even beep anyone anywhere on the globe is, a decade down the road, still mind-boggling for some.

And now, it turns out, wireless technology has another trick up its sleeves that would relegate the aforementioned core functions of a mobile phone to being just the periphery basics.

Mobile Payments (MoPay) International and Publicell, a Rwandan ICT company, have clinched a partnership deal that would see them provide a mobile payment system that would enable banks, telecom operators, bill issuing companies and various merchants allow their customers to use mobile phones or computers to order and pay for goods and services.

The partnership agreement was signed recently by Dr. Cobus Potgieter, the owner of MoPay International, and Mr. Jean de la Croix Gashakamba, the CEO of Publicell. It was followed by the actual incorporation of MoPay East Africa Ltd.

In the deal, Publicell will own 60% and MoPay International the remaining 40% shares in the company. Dr. Cobus Potgieter said the pilot phase will begin in Rwanda but the company plans to extend its network into Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania and Congo within six months.

MoPay International currently operates in more than 40 countries allover the world.

Gashakamba explained to Business Week that to use the MoPay system, subscribers are simply required to have a bank account, a mobile phone or laptop to settle bills from anywhere within the network. Any mobile phone having SMS function can be used to access the service.

Using the system, any kind of transactions can be completed with just 3 SMS: A user who wishes to effect a payment for a good or service sends an SMS to MoPay stating their request.

The customer is then asked by the MoPay system to send back their password and the system identifies them by crosschecking their mobile number and related information stored during the registration process.

If all is OK, the MoPay system connects wirelessly with the customer's bank and asks for payment. If the customer's account has enough funds for the transaction, the account is debited and the seller's account is credited.

The system concludes the transaction by sending an SMS to the parties confirming the success of the transaction.

In order to ensure that the mobile payment system is not restricted to only those with mobile phones and Bank accounts who number about 300,000 in Rwanda, the company plans to introduce what Gashakamba called Mobile Point of Service (M-POS).

Here, he explains, an interested customer can be able to register and have an account using the M-POS's address.

(SOURCE: East African Business Week)

NIGERIA'S MULTIMILLION DOLLAR E-GOVT PROJECT CLAIMS SUCCESS

  An e-government project in Nigeria's Delta state, an oil producing region and one of the nation's most developed micro-economies, has reaped rewards, according to a government spokesman.

Charles Nenyiaba, a special assistant to the commissioner for finance within the Delta state, spoke about the project, named e-Delta, this morning at the State IT Agency's GovTech conference, at Sun City.

More than 20 service providers showed an interest in the implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, with SAP winning over PeopleSoft and Magic, added Nenyiaba. "Deloitte and Touche were consulted, and in 2002 the state government began a phased computerisation approach," he explained.

"We had many problems," he explained. "It used to take three to four months to prepare a one-year budget, for instance." Government utilities and service delivery was very poor, he noted. "Through our efforts of improving ICT through the e-Delta project, government is able to get quick access that is crucial for decision-making and policy formulation – and thus helps service delivery," he added.

The project – which cost about one billion naira (US$7.9 million)  – faced challenges in its various phases, mainly change management, a fear among many users that they would become redundant, technological illiteracy, and a variety of business process issues, Nenyiaba noted. However, today there are 22 university graduates with MySAP certifications managing e-Delta, and the systems are running smoothly, he said. The most obvious benefits, highlighted Nenyiaba, are Internet facilities, and the greater accuracy and timeliness of system-based payroll processing.

(SOURCE: ITWeb)

ZYBACAFE ALPHA VERSION OUT

  After nearly a year of design and months of coding, developer A.J. Venter was proud and happy to announce that the first alpha release of ZybaCafe is available. Venter said, "this release should be good to go in nearly any situation, but before I declare it stable I am giving users a chance to test it and try it out for themselves. Please send any requests for changes or contributions to me as we move into a test-phase."

ZybaCafe is a complete, multiplatform tool for managing internet-cafes and cybercafe's. The core program is free software under the GNU GPL version 2.0 or later. Venter explained that ZybaCafe builds on the success of it's parent-project direqcafe with many new enhancements that will greatly reduce the overhead in managing a cybercafe, while also being significantly easier to use.

"The use of a complete postgresql RDBMS in the backend ensures data-integrity and simple network independence. This has allowed ZybaCafe to go beyond the limitations of direqcafe as a true next generation cybercafe admin tool," explained Venter.

ZybaCafe also uses powerful and integrated plugin tools which allow ZybaCafe to focus on it's core task of cybercafe management while making it easy to let it integrate with other tools such as accounting or CRM packages.

"The alpha release has proven quite stable and very low on resources in our internal testing and as we move into external testing now, we look forward to seeing how it can grow."

Venter concluded, "my personal thanks to my employers OpenLab International for adopting the project. ZybaCafe long went past the limitations of what a little one-man hobbyist project can achieve. As of this version it became a company project with the full development team involved. My sincere thanks - I couldn't have done it without you guys."

ZybaCafe technical details, downloads and other documentation are meant to be available at http://zybacafe.silentcoder.co.za. (Please note that at the time of this story going online, the link was not working, but it has been included anyway.)

(SOURCE: Tectonic)

UGANDA GOVERNMENT FAILS TO FUND ICT INCUBATOR

The long-awaited Information Communication Technologies incubation centre will not be set up after government failed to avail $600,000 (about Shs10.8 million) for the venture. The incubation centre, which was due for set up four years ago, was meant assist ICT businesses penetrate new regional and international markets.

  The incubator was meant to link Uganda ICT businesses to the international market, which would attract experienced entrepreneurs and make the ICT sector more commercially viable. However, recently John Mussajakawa, the Director ICT division, Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), told an I-network seminar that there were no funds available for the incubation centre.

UIA is the principal custodian and driver of Uganda's investment roadmap. UIA's investment promotion campaign since its inception has identified nine priority investment sectors among them 'creating centres of excellence in ICTs'. These included the incubation centre in the ICT sector.

Incubation centres are avenues that support the creation and development of technology-oriented companies involved in developing, realising and selling new products and services-after elaborate market research.

If it was developed successfully the idea was to be replicated to other sectors in the country. The communications sector has been growing at an average of 25 per cent in the last five years and government has taken various policy measures to encourage investments in ICT.

(SOURCE: The Monitor)

PIRACY CREATES JOBS, FOSS CREATES OPPORTUNITIES

"Piracy creates jobs but free and open source software and open standards create opportunity and entrepreneurs." That was the word from Johannesburg-based Anriette Esterhuysen, executive director of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC). Esterhuysen was speaking at a session during the Internet Governance Forum that ends in Athens, Greece, November 2.

Esterhuysen's comments came as the world of free and open source software (FOSS) is winning new converts in the world of non-governmental organisations.  Over the past few months there has been a growing interest among NGOs in the potential of FOSS.

The Netherlands-based TacticalTech.org, after holding two 'source' camps in Africa -- meant to build links between FOSS geeks and non-profit organisations -- has just announced its second such camp in Indonesia in January 2007. The first was held in early 2005 in Bangalore, India.

Others in the non-profit world are also looking at this field. Social Source Commons is an initiative that aims to zero-in on the tools used by NGO campaigners. While this list includes a number of proprietary products for the Windows and Mac platforms, there are a significant number of GNU/Linux tools listed there as well.

Speaking at the IGF this week, Esterhuysen said campaigners and activists increasingly recognise that "alternative" software not only works, but has a lot of potential in terms for organisations because it allows them to share software.

"I think that is a challenge for the IGF as well," said Esterhuysen. "The Internet is a public space and how can we facilitate maximum sharing, maximum creativity, peer production, new models and innovation."

Esterhuysen said that while she had a "lot of respect" for Microsoft's efforts to provide educational content in developing countries, "as long as they copyright and limit the right of teachers and learners in those countries to re-use and change and share that information, then there's very limited value to that. So I think, yes, sharing and openness is absolutely essential if we're going to use the Internet for development," Esterhuysen said.

"As a South African living in South Africa I resent the fact that my government, that has a huge crime-fighting burden, has to spend time and money, my taxpayer money, in prosecuting people who pirate Microsoft software licences." Esterhuysen also challenged the public sector to rethink what the "commons" is about, and what the public domain is in "the world of the internet".

She compared cyberspace to public libraries of the past, saying the internet presents an opportunity where, for example, all scientific research that's publicly funded can be made freely available.

She lent her support to concepts like rethinking copyright, looking for alternatives like the CreativeCommons approach, and more.

(SOURCE: Tectonic)

IN BRIEF:

- The Francophonie University Agency, AUF, run by the Paris-based International Francophonie Organisation, OIF, has opened a digital camp in Algiers, to assist Algerian researchers and students, OIF sources said here.

- The Ounongo Technology Centre at Gobabis in Namibia wants to construct a business complex fitted with accommodation facilities, conference halls and an amphitheatre. The OTC started operations in the Omaheke region in 2004 and has largely been funded by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA).

MAROC TELECOM’S REVENUE UP BY 11.8%

Maroc Telecom first nine months revenues amounted to 17,083 MAD million, up 11.8% due to the strong momentum of all its activities. Third quarter consolidated revenues reached 6,195 MAD million, up 12.1%.

Abdeslam Ahizoune,Chairman of the Management Board, declared: « During the third quarter, Maroc Telecom scored once again very satisfactory results, in particular in its Mobile and Internet activities that strengthen our market leadership and let us feel highly confident in our annual forecasts. »

In the first nine months, Fixed-line and Internet gross revenues amounted to 9,414 MAD million, up 6.3%. This gain is mainly due to public telephony (revenues up 12%), international incoming traffic growth (+12%), advance of broadband Internet activity and data services to corporate customers and telecom operators with strong revenues growth (+22%), stimulated by price cuts since the beginning of the year. The average voice bill per customer remained stable.

The fixed-line customer base stands at nearly 1.27 million of lines, down 5.8% compared to September 2005, while the ADSL customer base is still soaring, standing at nearly 342,000 lines (+163,000 lines i.e, +91% year-on-year).

To build customer loyalty and to attract new clients, Maroc Telecom launched new fixed telephony unlimited offers, named Phony, which allow customers to give such local and national calls to Maroc Telecom fixed-line numbers.

During the first nine months, the Mobile business accounted 11,121 MAD million gross revenues up 16.7% year-on-year. This revenues increase is the result of the sustained customer base growth, that reached 10.496 million, i.e. a 30.5% surge year-on-year and net adds of nearly 2.5 million customers. Therefore, Maroc Telecom market share soared by 3 points to 70.45% at September 30, 2006.

Nine first months blended ARPU amounted to 116.7 MAD, down 8% compared to 2005, in the context of customer base growth and average call price decrease. Third

quarter ARPU remained stable compared to the previous one. The churn rate(2) reached 20.4% (+8.5 points year on year) due to customer base growth and access fees decrease.

In Mauritania Maroc Telecom results are as follows. The first nine months revenues of Mauritel Fixed-line business amounted to 232 MAD million, down 4.9%, with a customer base of 36,508 lines, down 8,8%. During the same period, Mauritel Mobiles revenues reached 506 MAD million, up 20.5%, with a customer base of 558,203 customers, up 23,5%.

VODAFONE BUYS 51% OF RAYA TELECOM

Mobile phone operator Vodafone Egypt and telecommunications group Raya Holding are in the process of handing over company shares, after a contract sale agreement, says Jihan Mahmoud, senior marketing executive at Raya Holding.

The agreement is for a 51% takeover of Raya Telecom by Vodafone Egypt, he says. Raya Telecom is the Internet arm of Raya Holding.

The deal is worth $18 million, amounting to 823 140 shares, Mahmoud says. The agreement grants Raya Holding the right to sell its remaining shares, being 45.9% of Raya Telecom, to Vodafone Egypt within the next two years with the same agreed value per share, according to a company press release.

Raya Holdings sold the Raya Telecom share as it was looking for a strong partner to help it grow in market strength, says Mahmoud.

“We needed a strong partner to improve the standard of the company.”

Raya Telecom is one of the eight subsidiaries under Raya Holding and was showing poor growth. “The company needs a boost, which can be achieved through a combination of Internet and telecommunication strength,” he says.

Raya Holding was looking for a company specialising in the telecommunications field and Vodafone was the obvious choice, Mahmoud notes. He adds that Vodafone is injecting around $9 million into the company, which will bring the total paid capital to around $37 million to help build up the firm.

It is too early to say how the partnership is going, says Mahmoud. “The companies are still implementing their business strategies and will only start to see results in about six months.”

(SOURCE: ITWeb)

SAFARICOM MAKES $12.77 MILLION PROFIT, A RECORD FOR REGION

Mobile company Safaricom has posted the biggest profit ever in East Africa - Ksh 12.77 billion ($174 million) - edging out listed company East African Breweries Ltd from the position of the biggest profit maker in the region.

The star performance is likely to impact on the negotiations going on between the government and Vodafone Plc of the UK over the impending sale of a 9 per cent government stake in the company to Vodafone.

Analysts say that the government is likely to demand more money for the shares.

Currently, the government owns 60 per cent of the company through Telkom Kenya with the remaining shares being held by Vodafone. Last year, Vodafone made an offer of $100 million for 11 per cent shares of the company.

The International Finance Corporation of the World Bank which was appointed by the government to value the company, is said to have valued 11 per cent of the company at around $165 million. But it is understood that during negotiations with Vodafone in London, both sides started the negotiations by quoting much higher figures than the IFC's valuation.

Safaricom, with a subscriber base of about 4.5 million, has derived most of its growth from airtime sales, especially the introduction of the lower denomination top-up cards. It has constantly expanded its network and presently has in excess of 880 live sites at any one time. The company plans to introduce new products, including a money transfer service which is to be known as M-Pesa.

With its market share estimated at between 65 per cent and 70 per cent - according to June figures by the market regulator, the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) - Safaricom continues to consolidate its position by maintaining the largest number of base stations and constantly monitoring revenue and traffic volumes.

The subscriber base has increased from 2.512 million to 3.944 million, an increase of 57 per cent over the previous year. Net connections in the year were 1.432 million, an increase of 43 per cent over the same period.

(SOURCE:  East African Standard)

IN BRIEF:

- EMP Africa Management LP (“EMP Africa”) announced today that as of September 30, 2006 one of the Africa focused private equity funds it manages, the West Africa Growth Sicar (“WAGS”), had returned over 100% of shareholders’ invested capital with five remaining positions to sell. The continued strong performance of WAGS further solidifies EMP Africa’s position as a leading private equity investor in Africa with a demonstrated track record of success.

- Algérie Télécom has revealed plans to invest at least USD4 billion over the next three years to meet its self-imposed customer targets. Telecompaper quotes the telco’s CEO Slimane Khireddine, who says the firm is aiming to have signed up three million broadband internet users, six million fixed line customers and eight million cellular subscribers by 2009.

ONE PERSON’S VIEW: ERIC OSIAKWAN ON OPEN ACCESS TO SAT

Since publishing the Open Access EASSy paper @ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/eric/ (you must read it to understand the article below), I have been challenged on the viability of Open Access to SAT3 and questioned on the need to institute the same standards for both cables though we all know that SAT3 is already established and EASSy is yet to be. In this thesis I make an attempt at upholding the same Open Access structure and principles of EASSy to SAT3 – this is possible because both cables lie in the same realm but the context of their execusion are different. This is ONLY possible because of the window of opportunity presented by the end of exclusivity by the historic operators on SAT3 in April 2007 so I also suggest a process approach.

For the records, SAT3 was established with an exclusivity period to recoup investment by the historic operators and this is due in April 2007 at which the SAT3 country governments can either entrench the exclusivity of the historic operators or consider other mechanisms such as what an proposing. SAT3 stands both as a pillar of hope and despair for the African continent; hope because it was a the first cable and there is an opportunity for it to significantly change bandwidth prices based on it’s non-performance, despair because we may decide to keep things the way they are currently and continue with the incumbency and high bandwidth prices.

The reasons for the non-renewal of the exclusivity range from, the historic operators haven recouped their investment in the cable at high cost and yet made fiber bandwdith more expensive than satellite capacity. Secondly we know that the loan granted by the WorldBank to the historic operators for their contribution to the SAT3 cable was guaranteed by their respective governments hence the onus lies with the government after supporting the private interest of the historic operators to now consider the public interest of providing cheap and affordable bandwidth for socio-economic development.  

If the SAT3 goverrnments collectively or individually decide to end the exclusivity in April 2007 then the question to me is, what steps should they take towards Open Accessing SAT3? I don’t hold monopoly on the steps and process because national and or regional relationships coupled with on the ground details must be taken into consideration but I would proceed to outline what I see as the larger framework of what is possible in terms of structure, principles and processes – same as for the EASSy cable. Hopefully other cables or subsequent ones would adopt or follow the same strucure, principles and process to have the desired impact.

Declaring SAT3 an “essential facility” would mean that it holds much in the public interest so must be treated with the public good as primary and other consideration as secondary. Private consideration would be first on the secondary ladder because that is important for the running of the public entity. Am not for once suggesting a move from an extreme private position to an extreme public consideration, but rather my suggestion is to use minimal public holding as a temporal measure to move from an exteme private interest to a balance between the private and public consideration. Open Access is about balance and consideration of the various interests.

The governments holding the essential facility in trust after declaring it so is only a temporary measure which must be seeded quickly to a multi-stakeholder institution which would work in the interest of the various constituency and ensure that there is a clear reflection of equity. Regulatory and public policy must recognise the establishment of the essenttial facility which in this case would be “infrastructure provider” – providing infrastructure for the other service providers wthin the value chain.

In some cases the regulatory and public policy must creat the structural change from a vertical to a horizontal layering communication system and that enables the change process. Whatever the case may be, the first fundamental step is the re-alignment of the communication paradigm where there is a distinction between infrastructure and other service providers. The essential facility in this case the SAT3 cuntry segment would constitute the infrastructure provider which DOES NOT provide services on the value chain. Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Senegal has hinted that they are going to adopt this approach post April 2007. In the case of Ghana, the government has also contracted the Chinese to finalise the nationwide fiber network which was owned by the Volta River Authority called Voltacom. Voltacom would be merged with the SAT3 country segment to form an “infrastructure provider” which would provider international and national bandwidth infrastructure.  

Owership of the infrastructure provider is the next consideration, enjoining a multi-stakeholder ownership model ensures that there is a balance of power, money and interest. It is in the interest of the government to ensure that this happens so that they are labeled as “corrupting” the entity. The mechanism is for the government through an initial private and or public offering to invite the private sector, educational institutions, civil society, investors, PTTs and the consumer to own a part of this entity. Enlisting the infrastructure provider on the stock exchange would ensure that it is subject to the dictates of that platform ensuring access and commonality on the ownership.

SAT3 at this point would have adhered to Open Access in terms of the structural change below;

1. Within the structural framework, the cable would have differentiated “Infrastructure” from “Services” where Infrastructure is seen more in the “Ownership” realm whiles Service is seen in “Access to capacity”.

The most distinguishing feature of the Open Access approach is that, ownership of the infrastructure DOES NOT GUARANTEE any access (discriminatory or not) to capacity on the value chain for the provision of service to the market. The respective country capacity would be on the money here.

A set of principles would hold for the ownership of the cable and those principles would be different from those for access to capacity.

Infrastructure ownership principles for the SAT3 cable would include;

1. The ownership of the cable must be in a public private partnership involving Government, PTTs, ISPs, Educational Institutions, Civil Society and Consumers.

2. A fair distribution of these constituencies from the member countries in an equal sub-regional distribution leading up to the Board of Directors of the enterprise in case a regional approach is adopted like EASSy.

3. The same set of rules must be established to identifying the various shareholders from the various countries in the different constituencies, again this applies to regional.

4. For the purposes of this exercise a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) or a legal entity with an African wide structure and majority Africa ownership should be considered

5. The essential facility must have a public interest combined with a private sector approach in it’s business model in order to ensure cheap and affordable bandwidth to the end-user.

Value Chain access to capacity for service delivery principles are;

1. The essential facility must sell capacity to all entities who meet the legal and regulatory requirements in each country directly and non-discriminatorily.

2. Service Providers shall be offered Transport Infrastructure Layer access to different capacities depending on their requirements.

3. End Users shall be free to choose any local Service Provider connected to the National and or Regional Network.

4. The essential facility shall not compete with Service Providers (its customers) by offering services at the Service Layers directly to End Users.

5. All countries must create a regulatory structure that recognizes the essential facility.

6. The essential facility shall be formed, owned and operated in such a way as to facilitate competition and to foster innovation at the Services Layer, and where practical and commercially viable at all levels, with a view to maximizing usage of the network and benefits to the End Users.

This sets out the framework for Open Access as it relates to the SAT3 cable but I must admit that this is not the ONLY approach in terms of process but structurally and principles wise, the above is not far from wrong. The devil as they say is always in the details though.

NB: These principles and structure are drawn from the Open Access study conducted by Anders Comstedt, Eric Osiakwan and Russell Southwood for InfoDEV @ the WorldBank – http://www.infodev.org/en/Project.80.html

Eric M.K.Osiakwan is a Visiting Fellow and Scholar, DV Program, Stanford University: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/eric/

SOUTH AFRICAN B&BS NEED A WEB-LIFT FOR 2010

Last year, in addition to the already buzzing internal tourism industry, 7,3-million foreigners visited South Africa. For the most part, our tourism industry operates efficiently, with the result that a large percentage of our foreign visitors return home happy with their holiday and ready to recommend our country to other potential visitors.

Through this referral-type system, South Africa’s tourism industry has had the luxury of developing at a slow and steady pace, creating infrastructure if and when the need arises. However, it may be in for a bit of a shock in 2010, when 2-million people arrive at its airports for the World Cup. Luckily South Africa has four years to prepare.

Hotels absorb a large percentage of tourists. Stats SA reported in 2004 that its hotels had a national capacity of 221,000 beds. Although more will certainly be built in the next few years, a large percentage of 2010 visitors will, out of necessity, turn to the smaller accommodation facilities for their accommodation needs. In fact, a 2005 South African Tourism study revealed that the average amount of money spent per tourist has increased since 2003, despite the decreased number of nights spent in hotels. According to the report, the increased spend was largely driven by more tourists staying at guesthouses and bed and breakfasts. Additionally, it is increasingly the trend among travellers to be a bit more intrepid and move away from the cities into the more rural and picturesque areas. These regions are largely serviced by the smaller accommodation facilities like guesthouses and B&Bs.

Testament to this trend, which is apparent in both the internal and external tourism industry, is that the guesthouse industry has expanded to offer 11,100 stay units and now generates over R58m worth of income. This is one area of our tourism industry which has the potential to play a substantial role in future tourism, but in order to do so, it needs a little more attention.

On the whole, the standard of service and infrastructure in these smaller accommodation facilities is good. However, this sector of the industry is still lagging, with most proprietors running their businesses in the technological dark ages. The B&B industry must aim to operate on a global standard, specifically in terms of the internet and even more specifically in terms of secure internet-based payment systems.

Research shows that 40% of foreign visitors plan their overseas trips on the internet, with the figure rising rapidly. South Africans are also increasingly planning their holidays and weekend getaways using the internet. A web presence, however small, offers owners of these smaller accommodation sites direct access to the internet-using market. There is no doubt that a slick and efficient website implies a certain level of infrastructure, efficiency, service and credibility. Guests are also able to visually connect with the establishment, seeing the rooms, the views and the facilities. This is a great selling point for those who want a clear idea of where they are staying.

But only a small percentage of our guesthouses and B&Bs have websites. Of these, many say that their website or web presence has positively affected business. However, even those with a website are not maximising the convenience it can offer. It is vital that the potential guests experience this convenience in terms of making queries, bookings and payments, without ever having to pick up the phone. By offering this kind of convenience -- using the website as a point of communication where people can request quotes, make inquiries, make a payment and generally interact with the proprietor -- a guesthouse is effectively elevating their game. Not only are they putting themselves on the map, but by offering such quick and efficient service, potential guests will be encouraged to follow their requests through with a booking.

In addition to having an Internet presence, foreigners are accustomed to high levels of security when making payments from a remote point. Guesthouse owners often ask potential guests to fax, e-mail or phone through their credit card details. Being asked to divulge this information in such a haphazard way often leads to guesthouse owners losing the booking. Additionally, trying to ascertain swift numbers for international banking and paying the massive fees of international electronic funds transfers may also be offputting.

Ultimately, there are options for these guesthouse owners and the onus is now on them to raise their game and provide first-class facilities, beyond a great breakfast and a comfortable bed, using their websites to reflect the quality of their facility.

(SOURCE: Business Day)

CAMEROON NORTH WEST PROVINCE ARTISTS ON THE NET

"Art is all about seeing"was the opening sentence of Till Forster at the launching of the North West Province artists website at the German Cultural Center last Wednesday, October 25th .Present at the ceremony was Michael Friedrich, representative of the Goethe Institute, Prof Bole Butake a writer, Nelson Tawe,the web designer, among other artists. The project was conceived 18 months ago by a Swiss Agency for Development that works with minority groups. One of the criteria for such a project included a region which was marginalized. Another aim of the project was creating a forum for and among artists so as to help them sell their products abroad. The project, which was divided into two parts consisted of the documentary section and conception of the website. 45 artists gave their contribution to how and what the website should look like. Prof Bole Butake, in his explanations said artist were grouped into four categories; musicians, fine artists, writers and actors.

Before the launching of the website, North West Province artists had a workshop aimed at sealing relationship among artists. The meeting was on how to permit the artists communicate amongst themselves. The website was chosen as the best option. It is like a window that links a local community to the world. Nelson Tawe, the web designer said every artist has a profile, a collective website and a mini website. The miniwebsite consists of the profile of the artist photo gallery, contact page. Moreover, the website opens opportunity for artist to have a username, announce news about them and up coming product. At the bottom of every web page is the artist of the day. The selection is done at random from the data base to give equal opportunity to all artists.

The website has close to one hundred artists and if an artist out of the North West Province wishes to register, it will be require that he pays a fee considered as a token. It is interesting to note that a Super Administrator exist who can knock whosoever violate the norms of the website. Such artists will witness their web page suspended. "However the main problem face here is that most of the artists are not familiar with forums, but with time it will be interesting to know how this website has evolved" said Prof Bole Butake. Another difficulty was to meet the several categories of artists. Perpetual Chiangong, collaborator and artist said "fine artists were very suspicious; most thought we were going to sell their works". However, everything has been done in such a way that even if the painting is enlarged, it will not permit one to have a clear vision of what the painting looks like said Till Forster reassuring fine artists. During the launching, the artists were encouraged to register themselves under copyright co-operations so as to easily track down pirates. Being the first time artists have a website in Cameroon, they were given the challenge to always update information concerning them.

 (SOURCE: Cameroon Tribune)

IN BRIEF:

-   Dave Gale of South Africa’s Storm is writing a very informative blog called the Digital Pilgrim: http://www.hittingthewire.co.za/

-   Alkatek, Inc. has announced the launch of Phase 2 of its African eBusiness concept WENZE.COM. The site is offering a free basic account or users can register their business under the premium plan for US$129 a year.

NTV GOES TO UGANDA IN A MONTH'S TIME

Nation Television will be launched in Uganda at the end of November. Preparations for the launch were at an advanced stage and the company was keen to see the launch of the new station in the neighbouring country take off in style, said Nation marketing director Cyrille Nabutola.

"The company's aim is to ensure that her customers are given the necessary information, education and entertainment and this could not be effectively achieved without such a station being opened in Uganda," he said.

(SOURCE: The Nation)

M-NET UPGRADES EQUIPMENT IN R10M DEAL

M-Net says that it is putting in Avid ISIS technology for its Supersport production facilities. The deployment is expected to be completed by early December, and to go on air after staff training is completed.

Spescom Media IT is providing the equipment, installation and training for this extensive project, which will initially handle the Supersport channel's production, and then be extended to cover storage and post-production for other M-Net and Multichoice channels.

  M-Net has a relationship with Spescom Media IT, a specialist supplier of advanced TV equipment and systems, which has previously deployed solutions for flagship programming, such as Big Brother and Survivor SA.

  "To maintain the high quality of its productions, M-Net has chosen the Avid technology that we supply as the best way forward," says Sean du Toit, GM of Spescom Media IT. "Apart from the solution's capacity for handling live feeds and editing, it is also very cost-effective, and locally supported by our expert staff.

  "The new technology has exceptional scalability and it will be ready for use with high-definition TV (HDTV) transmissions which will be introduced to meet international standards for the 2010 World Cup soccer event in SA.”

(SOURCE; ICT World)

PEOPLE

* Logicalis has named Ian Cook as CEO, says international ICT company Datatec Group. Cook will head up Datatec's IT infrastructure solutions and network integration business from the beginning of March next year, while current CEO Jens Montanana will become chairman. Montanana is also Datatec group CEO.

* The sole African candidate for the post of Secretary General for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Dr Hamadoun Toure, has met President Paul Kagame in a bid to seek Rwanda's endorsement.

EVENTS

- 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

- WIRELESS BROADBAND AFRICA –EAST AFRICA

29 November –1 December 2006, Hilton Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya

AITEC Africa is hosting the first Wireless Broadband Forums in Nairobi. Leading developers and suppliers of wireless technology are sending top experts to share knowledge with telecommunication operators, ISPs, network engineers and regulators in East and West Africa.

For full details, log on to www.aitecafrica.com

- WIRELESS BROADBAND AFRICA –WEST AFRICA

4-6 December 2006, Eko Meridien Hotel, Lagos, Nigeria

The West African Wireless Broadband Forums will provide a marketing and education platform to promote effective roll-out of wireless technology throughout Africa.

For full details, log on to www.aitecafrica.com

- BROADBAND SUMMIT 2007

26-27 February 2007, Southern Sun, Grayston, South Africa

South Africa faces a huge broadband demand, from all sides. However, the broadband access media and business strategies in South Africa still do not resemble the international standards. In order to reach these standards you as ISPs, mobile and/or fixed operators, need to assess the current and future potential of the African broadband market.

For further information visit http://www.iir-conferences.co.za/eventInfo.php?e=1202

- 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 OPPORTUNITIES

3G RADIO NETWORK CONSULTANT – SOUTH AFRICA

The company is currently looking for a Senior 3G Radio Network Consultant with expertise in 3G Radio Network Design and Tuning. Applicants to be fluent in English and preferably French. The consultant will be required to travel throughout Africa.

For further information contact advertising@balancingact-africa.com

WSA EXPERT PANEL 2007 – CALL FOR NOMINATIONS!

Again this year and for the third time, the World Summit Award (WSA) is running a world wide call for nominations for the WSA ’07 Expert Panel – a selection of most eminent experts from each of the 191 United Nations’ member states. Only one expert per country will be selected to be responsible for the selection of the national best products and applications in quality e-Content for the WSA Global Contest 2007.

The World Summit Award is a global initiative to select and promote the world’s best e-Content, started in 2003 in the framework of the United Nations’ World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). This is done through national contests, a bi-annual global contest, and numerous content-focused national and international conferences and workshops. WSA is an invitation project and a global hub for everyone, who sees the crucial importance of excellent e-Content creation within the new Information Society. As of today, 168 countries are actively involved in the initiative. The project is officially supported by UNESCO, UNIDO and the GAID.

The main task of expert panel members is to select and propose the eight best practice examples in e-content & creativity from their country. The selection shall be made according to the eight WSA categories and guidelines. All nominated products will be evaluated by the WSA Grand Jury, held in September 07 in Dubrovnik, and the 40 best and most creative solutions will be selected.

The deadline for selecting the projects is July 2007.

For more detailed information on the World Summit Award please refer to www.wsis-award.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 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?

* ETHIOPIA AIRLINE AND SABRE IT

Ethiopian airline Thursday announced the upgrading of its passenger service management by switching from SITA to Sabre IT system with effect from midnight of 3 November 2006.

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