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WEEKLY PUBLICATION DEADLINE: 12 pm GMT Sunday. ISSUE NO 354 Kenya special: market gets ready for cheaper bandwidthThe Kenyan Internet market is set for a big change as the players transform their strategies to take advantage of new opportunities. With legal VoIP, they are now no longer looking at just offering Internet access. Once the long-delayed interconnect agreements are sorted out, these newcomers will start making inroads into the voice market. With the arrival of cheaper, plentiful international bandwidth in 2008, those who will flourish in a competitive market will no longer primarily sell bandwidth. With cheaper broadband offers, the number of their customers will increase and they will look to services and applications that they can sell their customers. The market is going through a major period of re-alignment and investment. Access Kenya’s IPO was four times over-subscribed, showing the level of interest there is in the market and it has plans to expand (see On the Money) . Telkom South Africa is now the proud owner of Africa Online and is devising its strategy for both the pan-African and local markets. ATC is now firmly at the helm of Wananchi and has ambitious expansion plans. There are also losers as we understand that there are at least two ISPs that are not in the best of financial health. Last week five governments signed a communiqué in Kigali saying that the East Africa Community “should adopt an open access policy for backbone networks”. TEAMS will be fast-tracked, promising to start in Q1 2008 and it will seek input from regional partners within 4-6 weeks. (see Internet News below). Meanwhile, a large team from the private sector competitor project, Sithe’s Seacom, was in Nairobi last week talking to potential customers. The heat is on to see who will be the first to market with cheaper international fibre. In this Kenya special, Russell Southwood interviews John Joseph, the new CEO of Africa Online who gives some pointers about its future direction and to Kai Wulff, CEO of KDN whose recent “free access” experiment provides a fascinating insight into the potential size of the market. After the flattening out of dial-up demand, the market’s on the move again with strategies to attract new customers in what looks set to become a much bigger market. AFRICA ONLINE’S NEW CEO LAYS OUT HIS STALLIn an interview last Friday, Africa Online’s new CEO talked to Russell Southwood about his strategy to revive the company and renew faith in its pan-continental brand. He spoke frankly about how he sees competitive markets and the kind of opportunities the company will pursue. Q: Why did Telkom buy Africa Online? It links immediately with the pan-African acquisition target Telkom has set itself and its desire to create a presence across the continent. It’s been looking right across the IT scale (at potential acquisitions), including fixed and mobile service providers. Africa Online gives us the opportunity to immediately get into eight countries and the ability to opportunity to expand in each of them. It gives us immediate access to the existing licences and the potential to acquire new licences in these territories. In addition, we have affiliates in 20 countries where they are resellers of our corporate connectivity services. We’re searching for affiliates in those countries where we currently don’t have a presence. There’s a also number of carriers in South Africa and the Far East who want to be able to deal with one service operator. We’re also talking to major European carriers who we will be pursuing to set up agreements to provide corporate connectivity and obviously similarly with Telkom SA. It’s always had difficulties with a number of corporates about creating a presence across Africa to meet their needs, companies like retailers and banking organisations, to provide reliable connectivity in their branches. Q: What about the competitors in that market? There’s very few competitors in that space and that’s what makes it attractive. We’ve also had discussions with providers in Hong Kong. Q: What’s the current subscriber base across the eight countries? There’s around 15,000 subscribers. Q: So where are you starting from? We’re offering dial-up and broadband access. The broadband we’re rolling out is using iBurst which is already set up in Kenya and Ghana. We’re currently sorting out spectrum licences to roll that out elsewhere. Our main business will become broadband. We want to significantly grow existing services and add growth in new markets. There’s currently limited iBurst coverage in Kenya with only Nairobi and Mombasa but we’re looking to expand. Q: What kinds of things will you be investing in? There’s currently a limitation on operations that we need to address to increase the top line. The way we do our business is limiting the number of orders per month we can handle. We need to invest in IT systems for process flow. There are limitations on connectivity and bandwidth. We need to increase in-country connectivity and international connectivity and get subscriber numbers up. We need to look at our initial technology choices – iBurst – and then have a wireless base station roll-out. We need to expand services like good quality VoIP services. We’re trialling these within African Online at the moment but we have to do a lot more to improve them. We need to invest in products like VoIP and video calling. Q: What about investment in the brand? I’ve picked up on the history of pride with the brand but this has faded over time. We need to create a passion for the brand in Kenya and other countries but also outside of the continent. Customers need to know what they might get so it’s the brand plus the quality of the product. The brand association should be quality and price. I see a lot of other ISPs advertising here in Kenya and elsewhere and we need to create our own external profile. But we also need to do create that profile internally within the company so that Africa Online is the employee of choice. Q: You mentioned the need for more plentiful, cheaper bandwidth. What’s your attitude to SAT3 and the new East coast fibre projects? My opinion is that there’s a real urgency to get an undersea fibre cable landed on the East coast. It will change the whole ICT marketplace in East Africa. It changes the capacity of price per consumer that would be possible and provides quality connectivity. I believe that the prices we now see on SAT3 and other projects are coming down. I’m flying to the west coast later this month to discuss this. We have to have more investment in fibre projects because it’s a supply and demand issue. Q: Will you be focusing only on services or will you also look at infrastructure? There’s some discussion on the West coast of Africa about looking at providing some infrastructure. Specifically we’re looking at bandwidth provision to other ISPs in some countries. There’s discussions about facilitating that so investment is focused on the service layer but progressing infrastructure and connectivity. Q: Will demand increase if prices come down? Even without price reductions, demand is not being met. We’re moving forward on broadband in Kenya and it’s going to be very competitive. We need to remove the bottlenecks and offer more cost effective offerings. There’s a great deal of demand there but it’s not being fulfilled because of the limitations of current coverage. Q: How does it feel being in a competitive market? I’ve seen greater liberalisation in East Africa than down in South Africa. Regulators in the region have moved more quickly towards competition and deregulating the marketplace. Within the South African marketplace, there’s great competition but there’s a need from the regulatory point of view to change the landscape more. The reality’s there but there’s the need for more implementation. Q: Telkom SA has expressed interest in buying Telkom Kenya. How would it work? Do you buy it or does the parent company? Africa Online is looking to expand. We’re looking at ISP operations, new markets and new licences to grow. However, we would not look at buying into Telkom Kenya as Africa Online. Telkom SA’s expansion plans are looking at all operations throughout Africa and that’s what they’re really pursuing. We are operating as an arms length subsidiary but generating synergies between the two operations. KDN’S FREE ACCESS OFFER UNCOVERS EXTENT OF WI-FI DEVICESKDN’s Wi-Fi service called Butterfly has been offered for free with no login page on the basis of a word-of-mouth “whispering” campaign and the results have thrown up some potential surprises about the shape and size of the Kenyan market and what the users really want. The free trial took place over a public holiday when there would be plenty of bandwidth available. According to KDN’s CEO Kai Wulff:”We wanted to see where our traffic threshold was. It got up to 22,000 users and then we were smoked away. There were things like corrupted config files occurring.” When it crashed, it was provisioned for 40 megs up and 40 megs down. The significance of the test is that there are 22,000 users with separate MAC addresses using Wi-Fi-enabled devices, purely on the basis of spreading news about the offer on a word-of-mouth basis. It guesses that the figure may actually be double or triple that number. KDN itself has sold around 2,000 Wi-Fi cards in the last few months. At present, Wulff says that:”A broadband service costs on average around KS30,000 a month and I’m confident that by the end of the year there will be 20-30,000 users on a pay-for basis.” Interestingly, customer expectations have gone up considerably with the provision of the Wi-Fi service. Wulff says:”Customers expect the service to be like a leased line. When they see the Wi-Fi indicator going from 48 meg to 36 meg, I start to get customers ringing me on my mobile.” So what was the demand from customers over the free period? Lots were browsing international content. There was a lot of VoIP usage, particularly Skype, where users were phoning each other both within the country and outside it. The network was offered without bandwidth restrictions and it enabled peer-to-peer services like Skype to work well. Apparently lots of students found out about the offer and went out and bought Wi-Fi cards to take advantage of it. Peak use period was after-office hours between 7-9 pm. On a pay for basis, VoIP use (by traffic) on the KDN network is between 10-15% but rises to 20% on the Butterfly service. It’s possible to have a Skype conversation between two people without delays. Unfortunately users are not as security conscious with Skype and viruses are now being spread by users. KDN is now offering all its ADSL 2 customers (unless they specifically request otherwise) Funkwerk modems with Wi-Fi capability. Out of the 24 meg capacity, 4 meg is devoted to Wi-Fi, in effect creating lots of little base stations and thus rolling out coverage to an ever wider number of places. It has tested IP-TV over Wi-Fi and although this is not yet commercially available, it is talking to KTN about offering content.
COURT RESUMES CELTEL HEARING IN NIGERIAA Federal High Court presided over by Justice Abdulahi Mustapha, will today resume hearing in suit by Oba Otudeko, Foluke Otudeko and Broad Communications Ltd, against Jubril Adewale Tinubu and Henry Efe Imasekha, over the sale of their Vee Network Ltd shares to some organisations without first offering them (plaintiffs) the right to buy the said shares. Plaintiffs in the suit are contending that Tinubu and Imasekha, sold their shares in Vee Network, contrary to the shareholders agreement of April 30, 2002 and are asking the court to declare that the sale was in breach of the said shareholder agreement. Defendants in the suit are Vee Networks Ltd (formerly Econet Wireless Nigeria Ltd, EWNL), Celtel Nigeria BV, Jubril Adewale Tinubu, O and O Networks Ltd, Henry Efe Imasekha, DSTG Econshares Ltd (formerly Bromley Investments Ltd), Delta State Ministry of Finance Inc, Delta State Government and Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). At the last hearing in the matter, Celtel Nigeria Ltd asked the court to allow oral evidence to resolve the issue of whether shareholders Econet Wireless Nigeria Ltd, now Vee-Network Ltd, agreed on an oral agreement, which the plaintiffs are claiming, gave existing shareholders (of Vee-Network) the right of first purchase/refusal, in the event any shareholder want to sell of his share, before it is offered to an outsider. Celtel counsel contended that "the claim of the plaintiffs was that there were two attempts by the respondents to sale their shares, which breached their (plaintiffs) rights of first purchase or refusal. The plaintiffs are seeking to establish a case that this was a breach of the agreement". According to him, "counsel to the 3rd to 8th respondents had argued that the share transfer occurred before the shareholders agreement of April 30, 2002 was entered, but the first share transfer took place in 2001, so it cant be argued that the sale did not breached the shareholders agreement, because the plaintiffs were citing oral agreement that occurred between the shareholders, which made the first sale subject to the shareholders agreement". "This agreement has been controverted by the averment of the 3rd to 8th respondents. It is impossible to resolve this issue of whether there was an oral agreement made subject to the shareholders agreement, which will make the respondents liable if there was one, without hearing oral evidence", he added. Counsel to Econet Wireless Ltd (EWL), Prof Alfred Kasumu (SAN), while opposing the application, contended that "Celtel's counsel had summarised the issue in this case. It is that shares were transferred by shareholders to the shareholders agreement, in breach of the pre-emptive right contained in the shareholders agreement, that in summery is what the court is being asked to decide in the originating summons". "The court has before it, the shareholders agreement and the court will see the parties to the shareholders agreement. The court will find in the exhibits before the court the list of the subscribers of the shares, which was signed on April 30, 2002. The court will find there, that O and O Networks Ltd signed the agreement and the number of shares held by it. It is the transfer of this share in breach of the agreement that is the subject matter of this suit, as they did not comply with the pre-emptive right of the other shareholders". "The question I ask is, can’t this court looking at the questions raised in the originating summons by looking at the shareholders agreement, the parties to the agreement and the documentary evidence in support of the originating summon to prove that this shares have in fact been transferred. The plaintiffs have exhibited document to show the transfer of the shares by some of the shareholders listed as shareholders in the shareholders list. Whether or not they have a good defence for so doing, that I submit is not a disputed fact. If the plaintiffs in this suit show the list of the shareholders and the documents are correct and that the shares have been paid for, that is not a disputed fact. The dispute as to facts or that the shares were transferred to another company, that is not the issue. The issue raised by counsel to 3rd to 8th respondents that the court can covert the originating summon into a writ is not the issue before this court. Respondents contention has nothing to do with the main issues raised before the court". "What the court should decide is whether there has been a breach and if there has been a breach, what is the remedy. The issue of fraud raised by counsel to the second respondent has no relevance to the application before this court. Fraud is not being raised before the shareholders agreement. I don't see how this has any impact on the matter before the court. It is not fraud in respect of shareholders agreement. The shareholders who signed the agreement have not disputed the agreement and non of the party is saying that it is not his signature that is on the document. I don't see how fraud will effect the issue of breach of the shareholders agreement. I urge the court to refuse the application", Prof Kasumu contended. Plaintiffs in the suit are contending that the purported sale of O and O Networks Ltd shares on July 15, 2003 and Bromley Investments Ltd (now DTSG Ecoshares Ltd) on July 21, 2001 respectively to Delta State Ministry of Finance Incorporated and the Delta Government, is an unlawful sale, transfer, encumbrance or disposal of all the 9,906,250 ordinary shares and 5,000,000 held by Tinubu and Imasekha respectively in Vee Networks Ltd. They are further contending that the acquisition by the Delta State Ministry of Finance Inc and Delta State Government of the additional membership rights accruing upon the 9.90-6.250 ordinary shares of 5,000,000 shares held by Tinubu and Imasekha respectively in Vee Networks Ltd, was unlawfully acquired by way of right issues and bonuses. Plaintiffs also want the court to declare that the purported sale of O and O Networks and DTSG Ecoshares Ltd are each a "triggering event" within the meaning of clause 17.4 of the Shareholders Agreement (SA) dated April 30, 2002 which are automatically subject to legal consequences prescribed in SA. (SOURCE: Vanguard) POWERTEL IN US$11 MILLION EXPANSION DRIVE IN ZIMBABWETelecommunications company PowerTel will soon roll out a project worth US$11 million involving the installation of 3G network services to subscribers from Beitbridge to Victoria Falls. The telecommunication company is also seeking to expand the national optical fibre backbone and broadband networks while simultaneously providing Internet connection points to Zimbabwe's neighbouring countries. PowerTel acting managing director Engineer Edwin Sanyanga told the Herald Business that his company was seeking to expand its coverage by embarking on the installation of fibre cables from Beitbridge to Victoria Falls which will cost US$11 million. This is in line with the country's efforts to increase connectivity ahead of the World Cup soccer extravaganza to be hosted by South Africa in 2010. "Currently, the company is making frantic efforts to make sure that the project will become a success by negotiating with two Chinese companies for cheaper resources," noted Sanyanga. Since Beitbridge and Victoria Falls are major tourist attractions there was need to improve access and the flow of information through seamless Internet services. "We are going to offer Internet Hotspot in hotels to generate more revenue for the country," noted Sanyanga. (SOURCE: The Herald) GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP OF ETC A STUMBLING BLOCK TO WTO MEMBERSHIPEthiopia is unlikely to gain entry to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) without making meaningful commitments to telecommunications liberalisation, according to an assessment of the service sector presented by the United States (U.S.) company, Nathan Associates Inc. The assessment was made with respect to the General Agreement of Trade and Services (GATS) and presented at a workshop on the impact of Ethiopia's Accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Friday, May 4, 2007. The study indicates that the government must prepare to respond to demands from WTO Member countries to open its telecommunication sector for competition and develop a strategy to manage this critical aspect of its accession negotiations. It emphasises that the challenge is building up the regulatory and technical capacity of the country before liberalisation and introducing a regime that meets the technical challenges for allowing competition. The Ethiopian Telecommunication Agency (ETA) is the regulatory body of the sector, founded in 1996, and accordingly, the paper suggests empowering it with the capacity to license and regulate multiple operators and service providers, to regulate the economic, legal, and technical aspects of interconnection and pass decisions as a government body independent of political interference. The ETA is financed by the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) and the treasury of the country and bound by government rules and procedures on funding and employment. Its policy initiatives come from the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC), who has authority to prepare draft policies and laws concerning the sector and general targets and plans for the Ethiopian Telecommunication Cooperation (ETC). The Agency has high turnover of staff in part due to salary constraints, which are two to three times less than the industry norm, including at ETC. According to the current modus operandi of the Ethiopian government, investment in the sector is only public, or a joint venture with it. An investment proclamation sets a minimum investment capital of 100,000 dollars for a foreign investor and 60,000 dollars for joint venture investments with domestic investors. "If foreign private investments were to be permitted in the telecom sector they would focus on areas where there is a high demand for their services," Tadesse Haile, state minister of Trade and Industry told Fortune. "This would mean that the rural population would not get the same benefits, so until a conducive environment exists, the government will stay in the sector." According to the study paper, Ethiopia's strategy "should be one of drawing some line of acceptance on telecommunications liberalisation, but with the recognition that some form of market opening is necessary in this sector." Ethiopia's goal of joining the WTO will be postponed indefinitely over this sector alone if it is not liberalised. According to a sector expert, sector liberalisation should not be seen as a prerequisite of WTO accession, but something that should be done autonomously inline with the development objectives of the country to create a competitive environment with or without the WTO. "The liberalisation, if done on an international platform or under the context of WTO guidelines would give confidence to investors," said the expert. Sources close to the situation disclosed that the study will be an input when preparing the ACC5 document, a document indicating rules used in the service sector and also to answer questions forwarded by WTO member countries and as a starting point for negotiations. Ethiopia got approval for accession on January 13, 2003 after remaining a WTO observer for some time. On February 10, 2003 the general working party formed a country working party especially for Ethiopia. Once accession was approved, Ethiopia formed a task force responsible for preparing and presenting the Memorandum of the Foreign Trade Regime to its working party. After a two year delay the Council of Ministers finally Okayed the Memorandum on November 10, 2006. Two months after the document was sent, United States (U.S.) and Canada became the first countries to send clarification questions on the Ethiopian service sector focusing on telecoms and finance. (SOURCE: Addis Fortune) ORANGE SENEGAL CONTINUES GOOD RUN AFTER REBRANDSenegalese mobile customer numbers increased by 74% in the year to 31st March 2007, reaching 3.38m by the end of the period, giving the country a penetration rate of 27.7%. Q1 2007 was the second strongest quarter ever for net additions, as a net 397k new customers adopted mobile services in the West African market - 92.7% of these choosing France Telecom's Sonatel Mobiles. Sonatel Mobiles was recently rebranded as Orange in December 2006, having formerly operated as "Alize", but this does not seem to have made a great deal of difference to overall uptake rates, as 83% of new customers chose the operator anyway in the year prior to the rebranding. France Telecom's sole competitor in the market, Millicom-owned Sentel, itself rebranded at the end of 2005 from "hello" to the Millicom worldwide brand "Tigo". However, after a very strong year competitively in 2005, 2006 was a very poor year for Millicom. That bad run has continued into 2007, the glimmer of hope in mid-2006 that the Tigo brand was gaining traction relative to its competitor having well and truly faded. The share of net additions which France Telecom has gained in Senegal has outweighed its overall market share in each of the last six quarters. Mathematics dictates that France Telecom must have increased its market share over that period, which indeed it has from 59.8% to 72.7% between 30th September 2005 and 31st March 2007. The increase leaves Orange more than two and a half times the size of Tigo at the end of Q1 2007, having been just under one and a half times the size only 18 months earlier. This ever increasing discrepancy must trouble Millicom management: as the local operator loses scale relative to its competitor, so it loses the power it has to fight back, without drastic price cutting measures or considerable assistance from its parent company. (SOURCE: Cellular News)
IN BRIEF:- The newly privatised Gabon Telecom has been granted a ten year mobile and fixed line licence by the Ministry of Post, Telecommunications and ICT. - The Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators in Nigeria ALTON has expressed concern over worsening power supply situation in the country. Quite a number of the operators network sites were running mostly on local generators in some areas sometimes for a whole week without any respite. TELECOMS, RATES, OFFERS AND COVERAGE- Virgin mobile has signed up 100,000 customers during its first 11 months, giving it a minuscule share of SA's estimated 35-million cellphone users. - Celtel Nigeria has launched the first GSM Payphone called (Jembi Public Calling Office (PCO)) in Nigeria. The introduction of the phones by Celtel is the first commercial rollout of GSM payphones in Nigeria . - Mobile service provider Cell One launched its cellphone service in the North of Namibia. Cell One's network coverage now extends to all four north-central regions of Namibia. - To improve its high-speed wireless internet connectivity, Algerie Telecom has upgraded part of its network to CDMA EVDO. - Comium Liberia Ltd., one of the GSM companies in Liberia launched its internet service-ICom.net in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County with the view to expand to other counties. - One month after the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) awarded 3G liscences to four mobile operators in the country at a cost of $150 million each, GSM provider, MTN Nigeria Communications Limited has made a successful "voice and video" test call on its 3G UMTS technology platform. - In Tanzania, cellular phone company, Celtel Tanzania has introduced a new service that allows its customers text messages (sms) from the internet to mobile phones. - MTN South Africa has launched its new Push-to-Talk (PTT) product. It will allow companies to “get instant, seamless, secure and quick communication with individuals or groups within their company”. - Telma Mobile in Madagascar has recorded over 50,000 subscribers since its launch in December 2006. The company’s target is 150,000 subscribers by the end of 2007 which would represent 15% market share.
KENYA’S TEAMS FIBRE PROJECT LOOKS SET TO DRAW IN OTHER COUNTRIESAt the East African Broadband Workshop in Kigali on 8-9 May, five Governments signed a communiqué that may well be the first step on the road to the widening out of participation in the TEAMS fibre project to all East African Community countries: these now include: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Signatories included three Ministers (Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda) and two senior officials (Burundi and Tanzania). The event was organised by the Rwandan Ministry of Infrastructure and the US Digital Freedom Initiative. The communiqué noted that:”Progress must be made to bring undersea fibre optic cable systems and backbone connections to the region as quickly as possible.” In a diplomatically worded statement clearly aimed at the faltering NEPAD sponsored project it stated that all fibre projects “should aim to meet the requirements of all public and private stakeholders.” The Kenyan Government requested the nomination of technical teams from East African countries and said it would brief regional governments about the technical, legal and investment details in 4-6 weeks time. Furthermore, the signatories agreed that the EAC should adopt “an open access policy for backbone networks and agree that they should be operated on a non-discriminatory manner based on a cost model that is sustainable, which supports regional interconnectivity and allows for high end usage that is affordable to the end users within three months.” NIGERIA TARGETS $70MILLION ANNUAL REVENUE FROM NIGCOMSAT-1Ahead of the official launch of Nigeria's first communication satellite, it has been revealed that the country stands to generate an annual revenue of about USD70 million from the direct sales of slots. Also, the country will be saved some 100 million dollars spent annually on information traffic via other satellites while targeting to secure 10 percent in the short term, of the about USD 660 million spent by African countries on the provision of communication traffic outside the continent thereby curbing capital flight. Making these disclosures yesterday at a press briefing in Abuja, Managing Director of NIGCOMSAT Ltd, Engr. Ahmed Rufai, said a conservative 56 percent Return on Investment (ROI) rate has been targeted when the satellite is fully subscribed. He said a period of not later than six years will see the company breaking even on investment, explaining however, that it would be difficult to put a figure on the total amount spent to bring the project on stream. Rufai stated that it is estimated that revenue generation from NIGCOMSAT-1 would be more than what is generated from oil by 2010 as "Nigeria would have fully plugged into the global knowledge-based revolution opening a new dawn of digital opportunity for Africa." The MD said as part of the benefits to Nigerians, NIGCOMSAT will delve into the provision of end-user services in rural telephony which will bring call rates to as low as 10 naira per minute (US8 cents) when the company secures the appropriate license from the Nigerian Telecommunications Commission (NCC). (SOURCE: This Day) DOMAIN NAME DISPUTES MAY BECOME CHEAPER IN SOUTH AFRICAThe .za Domain Name Authority (.za DNA) has recently announced a formal, regulated process that aims to resolve domain name disputes without the need to employ a lawyer. This process came under fire for being too expensive, and may now be adjusted. The minimum cost for a ruling on a domain name using this new process is R 10 000-00, which drew sharp criticism from some sources who said that it opens the door for extortion by unscrupulous domain name squatters. Lodging a dispute with the Authority will cost between R10,000 for a one-adjudicator panel and R24 000 for a three-adjudicator panel which means that it may be cheaper and less cumbersome to offer a domain name squatter R 9500-00 for the domain name rather to go the formal route. Hasmukh Gajjar, chairman of the .za Domain Name Authority, said that the .za DNA, together with the accredited service providers, will monitor this issue and consider any alterations or adjustments that may need to be made. Gajjar is however still confident that the current system will benefit the industry. “We firmly believe that many rights holders will take a principled approach now that a quicker and relatively inexpensive mechanism is in place for domain name dispute resolution, rather than submitting to extortion by abusive registrants. We would encourage them to do this, in order to protect their rights. This will also allow the Authority, together with the accredited service providers, to assess the number and nature of complaints,” he said. “However, where there is not a clear cut case of an abusive registration, but rather of potentially competing rights, the introduction of the ADR process may have the benefit of helping establish the value of contended domain names at below R10 000. Secondly, the accredited dispute providers may (in terms of their supplemental rules) allow for multiple complaints by a single complainant. If this is allowed, an entity with 10 complaints could conceivably have them considered together (subject to such supplemental rules) thus paying R1 000 per domain alleged to be abusively registered,” Gajjar continued. “Unlike court cases, the arbitrators cannot make damages awards against registrants - so the cyber squatters get a free ride and the complainants must fork out the money, regardless of whether the dispute is decided in favour of the complainant or not,” said online law expert Reinhardt Buys from Buys Inc. (SOURCE: MyADSL) NEPAD LOOKS TO LINK AFRICA SCHOOLS TO INTERNETThe New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) hopes to use satellites to connect 600,000 schools in Africa -- which have no fibre-optic cables -- to the Internet using VSAT terminals. The second sitting of the Pan African Parliament heard in a report at its seventh ordinary session this week that the education network would also be linked to other functions, such as health services. "This satellite network has the potential to serve other projects, which need broadband connectivity in areas not served by fibre-optic networks," read the report. "The network is therefore designed to provide a platform for e-health, e-governance, election activities and so on." "At the completion of the preliminary definition of the space and ground segments, the e-Africa Commission will start planning for the full system specification of the network and its operations centre," read the report. "Thereafter, the e-Africa Commission will initiate the building of the operations centre and establishing national hubs and VSATs at schools." No figure was reported for the number of schools connected under the scheme over the last three years. (SOURCE: Sapa) BROADBAND WIRELESS TEST FOR 1000 IN SOUTH AFRICAA thousand internet users in Cape Town and Johannesburg are being roped in to test broadband wireless services by MWEB. The tests for WiMax technology will be fully operational within two months, after MWEB gained a test licence from the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa). The company hopes to win a commercial WiMax licence when Icasa finally allocates the remaining spectrum. So far only the partially state-owned Telkom, Neotel and Sentech and privately owned iBurst have been granted access to the scarce frequencies. The cellular operators MTN and Vodacom had their applications rejected. That did not deter MWEB from applying for a licence, as has Altech, which is also planning WiMax trials. WiMax can cover large and remote areas relatively cheaply with a coverage area of up to 20km from each base station, and can throw a wireless blanket over urban areas with less infrastructure than rival technologies. It is a relatively new technology and tests around the world are generating almost as much hype as hope. In February MWEB set up a WiMax network in Namibia, after winning a licence from the Namibian Communication Commission. In a barbed attack on Icasa, MWEB CEO Rudi Jansen said the Namibian government had shown incredible foresight in boldly licensing a commercial operator, rather than just supporting state-owned players. "It's important that WiMax licences are allocated to private enterprises, rather than just to state enterprises and telcos, if end users are to really benefit," he said. After winning the test licence in SA last week, Jansen said allocating WiMax spectrum was a perfect way for Icasa to open the industry to new players with a solid track record and empowerment credentials. "This will bring real competition into the broadband internet market for the benefit of consumers and businesses." The company is erecting three base stations in Cape Town and five in Johannesburg and aims to quickly roll out unlimited broadband internet access to a large number of users in different locations. If it was successful it would bring choice, reliability, accessibility and affordability to the market, Jansen said. Some of its existing home users and business clients in the catchment areas will have WiMax receivers fitted at their premises, and will not pay for the trial service. Altech won a test licence in February and is working with Samsung Electronics to set up five base stations in Gauteng to provide voice, data and high-speed internet access to computers and cellphones. The tests from June to September will involve only staff of the two companies. Altech CEO Craig Venter believes there is a strong chance of winning a full commercial licence if Icasa opts to create more competition by ending the monopoly of the traditional telecoms players. "I think some credit must go to Icasa in that they are starting to liberalise the market”. Telkom began a WiMax trial in March ready for a commercial launch later this month. Up to 400 customers in Pretoria and Centurion are taking part, with access speeds of up to 512KB a second. (SOURCE: Business Day)
SA’S ENATIS - 'SORT IT OUT OR WE SUE'The Transport Department is threatening to sue the contractor "as a last resort", if the company fails to sort out the chaos in the eNatis traffic information system. The department says the Tasima consortium delivering the system has called in its creators to tackle the problem. Meanwhile confusion reigns over the legal position of motorists unable to renew their licences because of eNatis crashes and slowdowns. The Cape Town Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry called for a moratorium on prosecutions relating to drivers or vehicles being driven on expired licences until the system was working properly. But although the Transport Department pledged to cancel any fines incurred by those driving with expired licences, Metro Police spokesman Kevin Maxwell warned they still risk charges. He said motorists whose licences had expired during the eNatis crisis would still be "technically" unlicensed. The Tasima consortium, which won the R408 million eNatis contract in 2001, is scheduled to hand over the operation to the department at the end of this month. But Tasima may have to work beyond the deadline to fix technical glitches that created confusion and long queues at licensing centres. Transport Minister Jeff Radebe - who apologised for the problems yesterday - and his director- general, Mpumi Mpofu, seemed confident that the crisis would be over soon. But they did not rule out the possibility of taking Tasima to court as a last resort if the problems continued after the handover to the Road Traffic Management Corporation, a department agency. (SOURCE: Cape Argus) IFC PARTNERS WITH NIGERIAN ICT FIRM TO DEVELOP HIGHER EDUCATIONIn partnership with the World Bank's private sector lending arm, a Nigerian based firm is deploying ICT to improve higher education on the continent. International Finance Corporation (IFC) working with different financial intermediaries to reach smaller institutions and supporting companies that provide essential services to the education sector entered into partnership with Socketworks Global in June 2002. Dubbed 'Digital Bridge Programme,' it facilitates the digitisation of universities and public institutions on the continent and has so far digitalised over 50 universities and polytechnics across West Africa. Founded in 2002, Socketworks Global with operations in Nigeria (has largest higher education system in sub- Saharan Africa), Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Kenya and Uganda is steering the use of ICT in African universities many of which are cash strapped and cannot procure expensive computer equipment and software systems. In East Africa, Uganda's Makerere University Business School (MUBS) has been Socketworks entry point after the roll out of its (MUBS) US$1.5 million (Ush2.56 billion) ICT system last week by Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni at the campus in the capital. Students and employees at MUBS are now enjoying the benefits of the new system through which several university activities can be done online with the customised integrated management information system portal application. The annual student user fee of Ush40,000 ($23.39) to access the service is incomparable to the benefits that await the over 8,000 MUBS student community who may no longer have to purchase the expensive text books. Although some students this reporter spoke to at the campus were fairly naïve of how the system would work, they (and the informed ones) were excited about the innovation that would make life easier for them both financially and physically. It now enables students to pay fees (still in talks with banks), register for classes, manage their coursework, check their assignments, do research in scholarly journals and data bases- all online from any internet connection point on or off campus. For example on the software side, students will pay using ATMs after which transaction he/she is allocated a personal identification number worth the money deposited. After verification is complete, logging into the system will send a report to the Academic Registrar's office for approval. The portal also allows lecturers to post assignments and other educational supplements customised to their specific needs. A similar project also based on the Build, Operate, and Transfer (BOT) model is expected to be replicated at other universities in the region and continent in general over the coming months. (SOURCE: East African Business Week) ICT EXAM POSTPONED THREE TIMES IN GHANAThe current power supply load shedding being experienced by Ghanaians is not only crippling the manufacturing industries but also having a negative effect on educational institutions in the country. One of such important institutions is Ho Polytechnic, which has been hit by the nationwide energy crisis as academic activities of the school have been affected. The Principal of the Ho Polytechnic, Dr. Komla Agbeko Dzisi who made this known to The Chronicle in an interview disclosed that the negative effect has rendered the Information Communication Technology (ICT) department of the institute ineffective. According to Dr. Dzisi, ICT training was a major programme being run at the Institute to equip students with the requisite skills and knowledge as well as train graduates to meet the challenges in the global market. The Principal who looked confident and proud of the Institute revealed that since the inception of the power rationing exercise, the students in the ICT department continue to reschedule programmes sometimes late in the night and worst of all, had to postpone exams on three occasions due to the energy crisis. Dr. Dzisi revealed that the Institute has a plant with a big capacity to supply power in times of need but could not use it as some components of the plant were not functioning adding that it would also not be cost effective to maintain it. He disclosed that steps were however being taken to purchase a smaller and modern plant about 200 or 250KVA, which would help address the current energy problem in the Institute. Another alternative the Principal said management was considering, was the provision of solar energy to power some key departments in order to improve academic work in the school. Some of the students who spoke to The Chronicle were unhappy about the effect of the energy crisis in relation to their studies and appealed to the government to help the school through the GETFund to buy a plant as a matter of urgency to address the problem. (SOURCE: Ghanaian Chronicle) OPEN SOURCE THINK TANK FINDINGS PUBLISHEDThe Second Open Source Think Tank was held in March in California. A report on the events findings has now been released. The event saw 100 key members of the open source software (OSS) industry collaborating, discussing, brainstorming and developing solutions to develop and mature commercial open source. Topics covered included business models, licensing and intellectual property issues as well as adoption and usage models. The findings can be downloaded in a 16 page report, 2007 Open Source Think Tank: The Future of Commercial Open Source. (Oddly the file name suggests the document was compiled using Microsoft Word rather than an open source application, showing a little less dedication to OSS than would have been hoped from an event of this nature.) The 100 attendees were drawn from a variety of fields interested in OSS including senior executives from large and small software vendors (both open source and proprietary), CIOs, venture capitalists, analysts and other industry experts. The key issues raised were those of financing of open source projects; confusion and incompatibility around licensing; the need for enterprise-level integration and support; and the need for an industry forum that represents the interest of commercial open source vendors and customers. The report came up with some interesting findings, with both agreement and disagreement amongst the attendees. Following are noteworthy excerpts taken from the report. Areas of Consensus - Open source and proprietary software models are converging, and virtually all proprietary software companies will adopt key elements of the open source model, including collaborative development, and the building of viral distribution channels. - A new open source branding or certification is not needed, beyond the established (Open Source Initiative) OSI definition and approved licences. - There are too many OSI-approved licences, and much confusion over licence terms in the most popular licences. - There needs to be a new OSI-approved open source licence that better meets the needs of commercial open source vendors and commercial customers then existing licences. - There is a need for a new industry body where the concerns and requirements of commercial open source vendors and customers are represented. Existing organisations such as the Linux Foundation (see previous Tectonic story) and OSI do not yet meet this need. Areas of Disagreement - GPLv3 (draft 2) is accepted by some but disliked by most. (see Tectonic story on the third draft's release) Many open source companies and customers had very strong negative opinions about GPLv3 (draft 2), and will manage their organisations to reduce their exposure to GPLv3. - The Microsoft-Novell deal remains controversial. While San Ramji and Justin Steinman did a good job explaining some of the reasons for the deal, some in the open source community remain skeptical. - The future of open source vendors is uncertain. Some were very bullish on open source vendors, but others noted the relatively small number of "successful" open source companies and that most of them were started and funded many years ago. There was also disagreement on what would happen to open source if the economic cycle turned and companies cut back spending on IT. Would open source accelerate due to lower licensing costs, or would it stagnate as companies revert to tried-and-true solutions? - Is open source good or bad for the software industry in the long run? Many cited the open source development model as the future of software development, producing better software faster. However, the difficulty in building strong open source business models could jeopardise the future as venture and other investment capital is redeployed, away from software startups. (SOURCE: Tectonic) IN BRIEF:- In order to implement the latest compensation directive, the Addis Abeba City Caretaker Administration (AACCA) is undertaking an upgrade of its existing IT compensation programme to include current estimated compensation that is given to homeowners and businesses that are relocated for development. - IBM has launched its ThinkPlace Challenge, an open forum for collaboration and innovation with a particular focus on African development. All are welcome to participate and offer their ideas, the best of which will be taken forward in a number of ventures. - InfoDev, in partnership with the Overseas Development Institute and the Institute for Development Studies, are currently compiling a "Knowledge Map" on the contribution made by ICT to the livelihoods of the rural poor. Donors and policy makers are encouraged to complete a brief survey. Responses will help to shape the next phase of infoDev's work in this area. Please visit http://apps.odi.org.uk/survey/survey.aspx?surveyid=37. - The desktop Linux distribution, Ubuntu has announced plans to develop a mobile version for Linux based smart phones and PDA's. The Ubuntu Project says that it will start more detailed planning at the Ubuntu Developer Summit and the first release of this edition will be in October with Ubuntu 7.10.
GATEWAY TO ACQUIRE GS TELECOM IN $37.5M TRANSACTIONGateway Communications, a leading provider of pan-African voice and data connectivity services, has agreed to acquire GS Telecom, provider of data connectivity services to corporate customers and telecommunications operators in Africa. The transaction was valued at approximately $37.5 million and is to be financed through a combination of cash and funds from a newly issued bond. The transaction is expected to complete mid-May subject to certain conditions. GS Telecom provides services in 27 African countries, with a major presence in Nigeria, the fastest growing communications market in Africa over the last five years. The transaction would strengthen Gateway’s position as the largest provider of voice and data connectivity services in sub-Saharan Africa, boosting Gateway’s customer base with an additional 200 customers to over 1,200 customers in over 37 countries in Africa (Gateway’s current network includes 30 African countries). The acquisition would bolster Gateway’s presence in the rapidly growing business communications market and provide access to local infrastructure and support capability. The transaction will also increase Gateway’s geographic footprint and provide greater access to the rapidly growing Nigerian market. The enlarged business will benefit from network economies of scale with access to the largest private satellite footprint on the continent consisting of 25 transponders of capacity and to the SAT-3 undersea cable. The combined proforma revenues for the year ended 31 December 2006 for Gateway and GS Telecom were $180.0 million and EBITDA was $28.3 million. CALL CENTRE BOOM IS SET TO CONTINUE IN SOUTH AFRICACapeTown's call centre and business process outsourcing industry has grown by 30% a year for the past three years and can probably sustain that momentum as more foreign firms award contracts to local players. The industry now employs 22000 people, up 41% from 2005, according to research by Deloittes and CallingtheCape, a body working to promote the region as a call centre hub. CallingtheCape believes the industry offers SA's greatest opportunity for large-scale job creation for young, previously disadvantaged people, as long as it is backed by efforts to encourage more investments and grow the talent pool. The sector's 200 active players already generate R2,5bn-R3,3bn a year, accounting for 2,4% of the Western Cape's income and creating 3% of the formal employment in Cape Town. The number of companies serving overseas clients has grown particularly rapidly, from 12 in 2004 to 26 today. Nearly 2500 agents, or 15% of the total, work exclusively for offshore customers. The report says SA is increasingly being seen as a viable alternative to India and the Philippines as a location for quality, offshore contact centre work, particularly in customer-intensive processes such as customer service, sales and technical support. CallingtheCape director Luke Mills said that since 2003 his organisation had helped to attract capital investment of almost R500m from 30 mainly offshore companies. They were spending R830m on their local operations every year, Mills said. Committed new investments and expansions planned for the next two years would add 7500 jobs. Starting salaries had remained fairly constant and a staff turnover of 14,8% a year was low by global standards. This year CallingtheCape's job training scheme will give 1000 unemployed matriculants training in life skills, IT skills and customer service and work experience. (SOURCE: Business Day) ACCESS KENYA SHARE OFFER ENDSInternet service provider AccessKenya has announced successful completion of its initial public offering (IPO), which it says was significantly oversubscribed. The firm said it would announce the exact amount of oversubscription and details of allocations on May 24 once all applications and payments have been fully reconciled. "Our processing of applications and reconciliation is proceeding very efficiently and we will definitely be in a position to make our definitive announcement on May 24, if not before," said AccessKenya managing director Jonathan Somen. He said the company was on track to make refunds by the end of May to ensure that investors' funds are not held for more than one month. Shares in the AccessKenya Group are expected to start trading on the Nairobi Stock Exchange on June 4. AccessKenya Group also owns Blue, one of Kenya's largest public data network operators. AccessKenya offered 80 million shares at a price of Sh10 a share and retail investors had to apply for a minimum of 5,000 shares. The firm, launched its share offer yesterday with a bold pledge to transform itself into an alternative telephone solutions company, competing against Telkom, Celtel and Safaricom. Speaking during the launch of the Initial Public Offer at the Norfolk hotel, AccessKenya's chief executive officer, David Somen had previously said the firm intended to raise capital for long term investments in the project. The bulk of the capital will go into buying an information technology (IT) firm to expand into IT-related services. The firm intends to raise Sh800 million through the sale of shares, with the difference of Sh300 million to be shared by the CEO, his brother Jonathan and their father Michael Somen, who is the chairman of the family-owned firm. AccessKenya had experienced strong growth in its core business as an internet service provider (ISP), and its expansion in scope and scale needed more capital. "We have been talking to several IT firms, and after the IPO we shall finalise talks with one of them," the CEO had said at the launch of the IPO. Somen had also noted that they had to balance between the retail and high net investors, and the institutional investors, to set the higher minimum of Sh50,000 that is needed to buy the minimum 5,000 shares on offer. Each share will cost Sh10. Other plans are to expand the sales team to grow the firm's core business. "The first thing that we will do after the IPO is to accelerate growth in our core corporate internet sector, by increasing the size of our sales team," Somen said. (SOURCE: The Nation) MAROC TELECOM ACHIEVES USD 739MN CONSOLIDATED TURNOVER AS OF JANUARY 07Moroccan telephony operator, Maroc Telecom, achieved a consolidated turnover of USD 739.1Mn as of January 2007, i.e. a 15.9% increase. The increase touched the consolidated operational result, which rose, up to March 2007, by 22.3% due to the good performance of the group, said Maroc Telecom. Compared to the fist quarter of 2006, the consolidated turnover growth amounted in 2007 to 10.6%, while the operational result flared up 19.1%, due to the operational performance in turnover, cost control and operational cost control, the release went on to say. This general upsurge enabled Maroc Telecom to achieve a 46.6% operating margin, the same source added, ascribing this positive result to the significant improvement of the operating margin of cell phone activity that stood at 52%. The company recorded in 2006 a turnover exceeding USD 2.67Bn, i.e. a 10.1% increase compared with 2005, while its net result stood at USD 79.61Mn. (SOURCE: MAP) IN BRIEF:- Mobile Telecommunications Group (MTC) said Monday that it has become the holder of 100 percent of the outstanding shares of Celtel International B.V. following the final payment of $467 million. The payment finalized a binding agreement entered into with the shareholders of Celtel in April 2005 to acquire the remaining 15 percent. - According to Zakes Mnisi of the Local Organising Committee, South Africa will spend between R2 billion to R5 billion on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastracture required to host a successful 2010 FIFA World Cup. - Econet Wireless Zimbabwe is seeking to float 10% of its shares to overseas investors in a bid to raise more than USD20 million in foreign currency for further network expansion. - Business Connexion has concluded an agreement with India's KPIT Cummins, which will see it working with a global partner to strengthen its delivery capability in the application services and business process outsourcing (BPO) fields.
WEB MARKETER HAS ITS CLIENTS QUEUING IN CAPE TOWNOne of South Africa's fastest-growing internet specialists will soon have to turn away business unless it can recruit at least 20 more website developers. Cape-based incuBeta has already recruited some German developers and relocated others from Johannesburg. Despite that, founder Vinny Lingham says there are so many positions to fill that customers are being given job completion dates far ahead. "We urgently need web developers. We could double our turnover but we are having a huge problem because we can't find enough staff. We are getting more deals than we can handle." IncuBeta is an online marketing company with branches in London and Los Angeles and about 110 staff. It helps companies to improve their presence on the Internet by making sure their websites are listed by search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Its technicians also make web pages easier to use, make sure they can be viewed by any browser or mobile device, and improve the processes for selling more goods or services online. One customer saw its monthly sales of R200,000 soar to R2m after incuBeta overhauled it and raised its profile. So far Lingham has not turned away any customers, but they have to be patient when they request its services. The skills crunch is about to intensify, as the demand in SA for online marketing and advice about e-commerce "is about to explode", he says. Lingham demonstrated in Johannesburg this week how badly local websites fare when people search for information. None of the 10 most popular websites in SA is South African, according to the traffic-ranking website alexa.com. The first local site to feature is M-Web in 12th place, in a field led by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and MySpace. Google alone handles 2,7- billion queries each month. Lingham says any company advertising online should concentrate on Google, which claims a 65% market share of all searches and close to 90% in SA. "Focus on Google and you will make money," he says. Working with other search engines, including local creations Ananzi or Search24, is not worth the effort, he says. IncuBeta spent more than R50m placing adverts on Google for its clients last year, but only 3% of that was for South African businesses. Its foreign clients have their websites so finely meshed into their systems that when incuBeta directs potential shoppers to their website, the buying process works smoothly. "In SA you have to teach them to build a site, and make the database work and interact with customers," he says. Companies can check how easy it is to find them online compared with their rivals by typing key words relating to their business into a search engine. "If you are not at the top of the first page you have a big problem," he says. Large companies will probably see smaller rivals appear far higher up as they are generally more flexible and more creative. Cellular service provider EliteMobile almost always appears far higher up the lists than Vodacom. One common flaw with local websites is the way they are designed with images and graphics, as search engines cannot read graphics and will not route traffic to those sites. Sites also have to be easily viewable by any browser. Designing a website specifically for Microsoft's Internet Explorer is like a bank telling customers they can only come in if they are wearing certain shoes, he says. Lingham says there will always be a variety of ways that companies advertising online can pay for traffic directed to their sites. They can pay for every person who sees their advert and clicks through to their site. They can pay for banner adverts without tracking how much response is generated, or they can pay a fee for every order that is finally placed by a customer. Lingham is considering listing incuBeta late next year, unless it is bought out before then. Although it is not actively for sale, several local and international media houses have made tentative moves to discuss a takeover. Its turnover will reach R100m this year, and its shareholders and financiers include Mark Shuttleworth's HBD Venture Capital. (SOURCE: Business Day) COMPANIES REWARDED IN CAMEROON FOR GOOD WEBSITE MANAGEMENT BUT MORE HAS TO BE DONECompanies that have websites and whose names do not appear on the result board of the WEB'AWARDS, 2007 should really be disturbed. The publication of the results is a wonderful initiative which among others, sets out to compensate companies of organisations for feeding their websites with up to date information. Up to 21 sectors are concerned. These include: embassies, training and research, telecommunication, sports and culture, big enterprises, small and medium sized enterprises, media, tourism, government organisations, trade and marketing, projects, insurance, associations, and microfinance. The United States, Italy, Germany, European Union delegation, Canada and UNDP feature prominently among the embassies with excellent websites while the Institue of Agricultural Research and Development (IRAD), the National Employment Fund, OHAD, and African Institute of Computer Training emerge as winners in the research and training sector. The major enterprises that have distinguished themselves include: CAMPOST, Brasseries du Cameroun, PMUC, National Investment Corporation and national Social Insurance Company. While congratulating the winners, it is important however to hail the effort of WEB'AWARDS, for it is going to make enterprises sit up. The lukewarm attitude of companies in updating their websites is however disturbing, especially as there has been a mad rush for them. In effect, enterprises and organisations had almost made it an obligation to create websites. In all their official documents, one finds their websites But just make the mistake of opening them on the net and you will get the greatest disappointment. You either find outdated information on their activities or you simply see the presentation of the structure. The latest information in many of these websites date as far back as 2002. Some are completely empty since creation. An empty website is as good as no website at all. A company website, webmasters wouldn't say the contrary, is its mirror. It should be able to tell the whole story about the company, about those working there, and about their activities. What is the need making calls for tender and spending on such projects when we know that it will be kept empty? Webmasters say, they are always ready to feed the website with information but that they are not the once to create information. The information given to them comes from the administration who usually fail in its duty. For this reason, many webmasters employed in organisations that do not care to update their websites end up doing little of nothing. The question now is, why do we accept to embrace new information and communication technology when we know that we are not ready for it? (SOURCE: Cameroon Tribune) IN BRIEF:- A website that will link the Ugandan community in the diaspora has been launched. Robert Kalugo, the executive director of Ugandanlink.com, said the website will bridge the information gap. - The Rwanda Youth Association, Nibyiza Group is developing a regional website to provide detailed firsthand online information about youths in eastern Africa.
PEOPLEIn South Africa, Hein Engelbrecht takes the reigns at Mecer as Dean Barkhuizen exits Branislav Zivkovic has been appointed as the MD of Lexmark International South Africa, replacing Hans Horn, who recently resigned. Peter Ibbotson is re-joining the MB Technologies group after an absence of some 10 years. Internet Solutions’ (IS) CEO Angus MacRobert announced various new executive appointments: Greg Payne, previously IS Client Services Executive becomes the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of IS; Tony Walt, previously Sales Director at IS, takes on the role of Chief Customer Officer (CCO); Hillel Shrock, previously New Business Development Director replaces Ermano Quartero as the Business Solutions Director of IS; Siyabonga Madyibi is appointed to the IS Divisional Board, looking after the Regulatory affairs of IS; Tony Koutakis becomes the new Sales Director of IS, having spent many years as a Sales Manager. EVENTS- GVF OIL & GAS COMMUNICATIONS: NORTH AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST CONFERENCE 2007 30th & 31st May, Cairo, Egypt, plus pre-Conference Technology Open Day, 29th May. This second annual event, with an expanded programme, will extend oil and gas sector-focused dialogues to advance the provision of ICT applications for exploration and production. The Conference has attracted the support of companies which provide mission critical applications and communications solutions to the energy sector throughout the North Africa and Middle East regions. Key international, regional, national, and joint venture oil and gas exploration and production companies will also be in attendance. For more details contact martin.jarrold@gvf.org or paul.stahl@uk-emp.co.uk. Visit the Conference web site at www.gvf-events.org - TELECOM FINANCE MIDDLE EAST AFRICA ASIA 2007 23-24 May 2007, Madinat Jumeirah Hotel, Dubai Telecom Finance MEAI conference is the premier networking hub for senior executives at telecom operators and supplier organisations, private equity investors, investment bankers, legal advisers, and other financiers and professional intermediaries focused on the emerging markets. The 2-day event will feature more than 30 speakers Issues under discussion at the event will include: Expansion strategies for the Middle East, Africa and India; Accessing local and international capital markets: How to finance growth beyond the Gulf; Broadband provision for growth markets: Wireless versus fixed convergence strategies; Building a regional platform in the Middle East; Greenfield opportunities in Africa and India: and capturing market share in new growth markets. Early Bird Registrations close 27 April - 3 for 2 offers available - register now at www.tmtfinance.com/tfmeai07 - 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 -USING MOBILE PHONES FOR HRO IN AFRICA 28th May – 2nd June 2007, Nairobi, Kenya The conference is organised by Fahamu on the use of mobile phones by human rights organisations in Africa. For further information visit www.fahamu.org - ICTS FOR CIVIL SOCIETY CONFERENCE June 2007 – South Africa The conference and exhibition organised by SANGONeT will be aimed at increasing NGOs’ awareness of the strategic importance of their websites and the online environment in general. For further information visit http://sangonet.org.za HIGH SPEED ACCESS TECHNOLOGIES CONFERENCE 19-21 June 2007, Gallagher Estate, Johannesburg, South Africa IQPC's 2nd Annual High Speed Access Technologies conference is perfectly positioned giving you answers at a critical time offering an objective platform for you to hear case studies on current obstacles and successes of Broadband. You will also be able to join us for a Site Visit To the Eskom Test Site. This site visit will show you what progress has been made over the past few years and what MainNet is doing to promote broadband over Power Lines. For more information please contact Susan Theron on +27 (0) 11 669 5019 or visit our website http://www.iqpc.com/za/highspeed - TELECOMS WORLD AFRICA 31st July - 2nd August 2007, Johannesburg, South Africa Key decision-makers in South Africa and leading international players will share their expertise and forge invaluable business relationships in a highly interactive environment. For further information visit www.terrapinn.com/2007/telecomza - WI-WORLD AFRICA 2007 27 – 30 August 2007, Michelangelo Hotel, Johannesburg, South Africa. In Africa, fixed-line infrastructure is lacking and there is a major problem with copper wire theft. Wireless communication is therefore a great alternative. For further information visit www.terrapinn.com/2007/telecomza - ICT AFRICA 2007 October 1-5, 2007, Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Nairobi, Kenya ICT Africa is an annual continental information and communications technology conference addressing all aspects of ICT development in Africa. The conference is convened by NEPAD council in collaboration with the NEPAD Kenya secretariat. The 2007 event will be organized by Global Conferences, Cape Town, South Africa. For further information contact rjacobs@globalconf.co.za - INFRASTRUCTURE PARTNERSHIPS FOR AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT (IPAD) CENTRAL AFRICA 3rd - 5th October, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo iPAD Central Africa 2006 provides an opportunity to network directly with key partners. The event aims to facilitate regional planning and collaborations under one roof between government, the public sector and business. iPAD Central Africa 2006 is a one-stop-shop for investigating investment opportunities in DRC and the Central African region as a whole. For further information visit http://www.spintelligent-events.com/ipad-central2006/en/ JOBS AND OPPORTUNITIESCUSTOMER OPERATIONS DIRECTOR – ALGERIA The client is a large telecoms operator which operates in the Middle East and Africa The Customer Operations Director will be responsible for the overall performance of the call centre and training and the customer services management. Duties: To ensure quality and consistency of customer services. Responsible for developing, planning, organising and coordinating of the Customer Services Dept. Provide a high level of clients satisfaction and loyalty. Effectively drive the implementation of new and existing projects. You must have 10-15 years experience within the telecommunications field working in a similar position within customer service. For further information contact advertising@balancingact-africa.com ICANN NOMINATING COMMITTEE In order to provide additional time for candidates to submit Statements of Interest, the 2007 ICANN Nominating Committee has extended the deadline for Statements of Interest until 18 May 2007 23:59 UTC. Candidates should submit completed Statements of Interest to nomcom2007@icann.org. CONTRACTS: WHO'S SELLING WHAT TO WHOM?TELECOM EGYPT AND ERICSSON – EGYPT Ericsson has been selected by Telecom Egypt for the expansion of its transport network in the Nile Delta area. The Ericsson solution will provide significant capacity extensions in the telco’s backbone network, allowing Telecom Egypt to meet the rapidly growing demand for broadband capacity required for high-speed data, storage, video, and voice services. The contract includes the delivery of Marconi MHL 3000 for Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing transport and Marconi OMS 1600 for multi service aggregation solutions CELTEL AND CERAGON NETWORKS – CONGO Mobile telecommunications company Celtel International recently signed a contract with telecommunications technology provider Ceragon Networks to expand network operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ceragon is rolling out a next-generation long-haul, high-powered solution known as FibeAir 1500HP, in the DRC. The technology is the first split-mount radio to be truly optimised for long-haul applications, according to a Ceragon press release.
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