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WEEKLY PUBLICATION DEADLINE: 12 pm GMT Sunday. ISSUE NO 395 Altech Buys 51 Per Cent Stake in Sameer ICT LtdThis week saw South Africa’s Altech buy a 51% stake in three subsidiaries of the Sameer ICT Group for $85.2 million. Part of the deal is that on top of the purchase, both shareholders will commit another US$30 million to back KDN’s regional expansion plans. Russell Southwood spoke to Altech’s CEO Craig Venter about the deal and looks in detail at its Uganda operation Infocom. Altech will pay a total cash consideration of US $75 million for its 51% interest in KDN; Swift and Infocom. Of the total US $75 million, US $10 million will be held in escrow, pending achievement of an agreed combined profit after taxation of KDN, Swift and Infocom, for the twelve months ending 31 December 2008. In addition, Altech will put up US$10 million in working capital and the Sameer Group US$20 million. Altech says that the companies are making “substantial profits” and that the attraction of the deal is that there is already considerable sunk capital. Its expansion plans include continuing to roll out its fibre network in Kenya and extend it into Tanzania and Uganda over the next 12 months. It will continue with the existing KDN strategy of acting as a “carrier’s carrier” whilst seeking to build on and expand its two ISP operations Swift Global in Kenya and Infocom in Uganda. Both are said to be the largest players in the market but as ever with these kinds of claims, it depends which cake you’re slicing. According to Venter, at present, a large part of KDN’s traffic comes from Swift Global and it wants to expand further. This will involve rolling out more points of presence across Kenya. In terms of international fibre, KDN is known to be on the list of shareholders for TEAMS. It has been allocated a 10% shareholding costing US$11.1 million for 65.8 mbps. But according to Venter no formal commitments have yet been entered into. Venter sees the deal as part of a bigger strategy for Altech to capitalise on its three core areas of telecoms, IT and multimedia. It clearly has ambitious plans in its home country South Africa as it has been testing the mobile version of Wi-MAX across a wide range of sites. It also has Wi-Fi and Wi-MAX licences and an international gateway licence in Rwanda and is currently deploying a network in Kigali. Taken together, the ambition is to become a Pan-African data operator. Venter told us:”The deal with the Sameer Group will give us the number one position in East and Central Africa.” He estimates that the profits from the three companies will be around $11.7 million and that this will be about 10% of the group’s overall profits. Venter is looking to invest in Africa’s “fast-track” economies when they are at an early stage of growth. Altech’s new Ugandan operation Infocom has the largest number of subscribers in the Ugandan market. Its CEO Hans Haerdtle estimates that there are 10-12,000 Internet accounts and that his company has around 32% of them. The other big players are utl (with around 27% of the market), MTN (with its Wi-MAX offering), Afsat and Datanet. Its Metronet offering is based on Wi-MAX in its D version with potential to go somewhere towards 8 mbps: it has 14 sites outside Kampala. It will soon start rolling out the E version of Wi-MAX, giving mobile capability. It currently has 3,500 subscribers who pay between US$280 and US$850, depending on download capacity and contention rates. It has a voice offering using VoIP called Talkline which has 5,000 subscribers after being introduced at the end of last year. But Haerdtle, like other players in the market, is waiting for the arrival of cheap international fibre prices. He’s currently paying between US$4-6,000 duplex for satellite capacity and observes that “everything will change with the fibre link.” In preparation for that day, the company has already bought dark fibre capacity to the Ugandan border with Kenya from Uganda Electricity where it will connect with the KDN fibre link. According to Haerdtle:”In about a month and a half’s time, we’ll have a fibre link all the way from Kampala to Mombasa.” * What’s happening with Lap Green and Vodacom?After the story in issue 394 about Vodacom having plans to buy Lap Green’s Rwanda and Uganda operations, the company has denied reports that it was selling off its Ugandan and Rwandan operations to Vodacom. "That information isn't true at all because if we (Lap Green) had some thing big like that, I would have known about it," Elazzabi said. "We are expanding our operations. As I talk to you now, I am in Abuja where we intend to have a new network". But our source says that he has seen an unsigned copy of the contract and has had it confirmed to him by someone who is in a position to know. As ever, we leave you the readers to judge and wait to be proved either wrong or right.
NCC Threatens Stiffer Sanctions Against MTN and Celtel Nigeria after imposing N4.7 billion compensation to usersThe Nigerian regulator NCC has warned that it will impose sanctions on MTN and Celtel, by imposing a fine of N5,000,000 million naira and a further sum of N500,000 per day if they refuse or neglect to pay compensation to all active subscribers on their network. The NCC in an official statement signed by Dave Imoko, Head of Public Relations on the 4.7 billion naira compensation that MTN and Celtel have been ordered to pay subscribers disclosed that the two operators were being asked to pay subscribers because they failed to achieve Traffic Channel Congestion, TCH, below 10% levels in line with the Key Performance Indicators published by the Commission and issued to the operators on November 20, 2007. However, the statement did not make any reference to Globacom. NCC in the statement reiterated that " In the event that any of the operators refuses or neglects to pay compensation to all active subscribers on their network in accordance with this directive, the Commission shall in accordance with the provisions of the Nigerian Communications Regulations 205, impose further fines in the sum of N5,000,000 (Five Million Naira), and a further sum of N500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) per day that such penalty remains unpaid and for as long as the contravention persists". The Commission directed the operators to pay compensation to every active subscriber on its network for the month ended January 31, 2008 at the rate of N175.00 per active subscriber for the poor and unacceptable quality of services on their networks. The compensation according to the statement will be paid to active subscribers by way of airtime credit, while no time limitation will be placed by the affected operators on the utilization of the airtime credit. The NCC also reiterated that airtime credit of N175.00 should be paid to all active subscribers on the respective networks as at January 31, 2008, between March 1, 2008 and April 15, 2008. Imoko in the statement disclosed that the payment will be made in batches. "The payments are to be made by the respective operator in three batches. The first batch representing 40% of the total active subscriber base of the respective network should be credited between March 1, 2008 and March 15, 2008. The second batch representing 30% of the total subscriber base of the respective network will be paid between March 16, 2008 and March 30, 2008, while the third batch representing 30% of the subscriber base of each of the networks should be paid between April 1, 2008 and April 15, 2008." Imoko stressed that the NCC will continue to monitor the congestion levels in the networks for the next three months, adding that the commission will also measure the TCH levels again during the month of May, 2008. He expressed the hope that MTN and Celtel will take immediate steps to improve the quality of service in their networks in the over all interest of its subscribers and the telecoms industry, even as he promised stiffer sanctions should the TCH levels of the affected operators continue to be above the published Key Performance Indicator levels. (Source: This Day) ANC MPs Push Hard for Sentech Funding in South AfricaCommunications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri came under intense pressure from ruling party ANC MPs last week to secure a full funding package of US$122.4 million for state-owned signal carrier Sentech, as resolved at the Polokwane conference. The issue seems to rest with the Presidency. If this is not possible, MPs say the parastatal’s status needs to be changed so that it can to the market to raise the money. South Africa is currently in the strange position of having existing or planned Government investments in three different entities: Infraco, Sentech and Telkom. Sentech has been tasked with rolling out infrastructure for digital broadcasting for the 2010 Soccer World Cup as well as a high-speed national wireless network, but has complained about lack of funding. Matsepe-Casaburri raised her frustration about the lack of state funding for Sentech this week, but reassured Parliament's communications portfolio committee yesterday that "most" members of the cabinet had been brought around, and the Presidency was seized with the matter. " Funding for Sentech is very important. We have requested the funds. We really cannot continue like this," she said. ANC MP Khotso Khumalo insisted that if state funding was not forthcoming Sentech's listing under the Public Finance Management Act should be changed, enabling it to raise funds. Sentech needs US$122.4 m to roll out the digital broadcasting infrastructure, but treasury undertakings fall US$38.4m short of this. Matsepe-Casaburri said banks had indicated they were willing to lend Sentech about US$102.5m, but this would be impossible until Sentech's listing under the act was changed. It was important the transfer took place, she said, but not everyone agreed. Matsepe-Casaburri referred obliquely to people in government, officials advising ministers, who believed the private sector should be doing the things for which Sentech was responsible. They believed Sentech should not be given funding that would squeeze out the private sector. However, the minister was clear that the private sector would not get involved in certain areas, and it could not be forced to do so. "There is a role for the private sector to play, but the realities of SA tell us you can't expect it to do so everywhere. It will not, and you will be living in a fool's paradise if you think it will go there," she said. (Source: Business Day) Sasktel lays out its plans for TTCLThe CEO of the new management contractors for Tanzania’s incumbents TTCL gave some idea of its plans for the company in a report in The Citizen. The company’s new CEO Bill Beckam said he hopes to attract more customers and enable the firm's turnaround. "When we took over, we found that the company had good ideas but they lacked planning to support those ideas," he told The Citizen in Dar es Salaam. Beckam's Sasktel of Canada won a three-year contract to manage TTCL last year. TTCL had over the last few years been making losses. However, Beckam is optimistic that the company's subscriber base will increase from the current 300,000 to one million by the end of the contract. "I see a huge opportunity of TTCL to Tanzania in terms of data and voice communication," he said. By any measure, this would be a staggering increase against a general continental pattern of little or no growth and more generally of decline. It will focus on improving its network and customer service, explore post-paid customers' defaults and compensate retrenched employees. A TTCL employee says there have been some changes in operations since the new management took over the firm but more needs to be done. The working environment and technology have been improved and the morale boosted. "I think they are still studying the environment," said the employee. Communications, Science and Technology deputy minister Maua Daftari said that since the new management took over the management of TTCL, there has been an expansion in broadband Internet services. Telkom Kenya's Retrenchment Plan Hit By Cash Shortage in KenyaGovernment delays in paying its contribution to the agreed retrenchment package seem to be at the root of the non-payment of salaries to workers who have been made redundant. The 3,200 former employees, whose last working day was February 8, had been scheduled to receive their pay cheques from this week after clearance. But this has not happened. "We can't pay the whole amount now since the Government is yet to hand in the cash for the dues as earlier agreed ," said Dr Meshak Nyambati, a member of the company's board. Under the agreed compensation package, each worker was to get two months salary, two and half month's salary for every year worked, a golden hand shake of Sh150,000 and a transport allowance of Sh40,000. The payment, amounting to Sh3.8 billion was to be shouldered by the Government in a deal struck ahead of the company's privatisation in December. Under the deal, the Government was to settle the lay off costs among other debts totalling Sh69 billion in exchange for Telkom Kenya's 60 per cent shareholding in Safaricom. Telkom Kenya's management insists they can only pay Sh1.5 billion for the retrenchment costs, promising to clear the deficit once the money is available. The Government, according to Telkom Kenya, has promised to settle the bill by June. (Source: Business Daily)
In brief:- The on-off privatisation of Algerie Telecom is scheduled for the first quarter of 2008, according to Post and Information and Communication Technologies Minister Boudjemaâ Haïchour."Whether it is for the launch of the third generation 3G of the cellular telephones or the opening of Algerie Telecom’s capital, everything should be finished before the end of the first semester of the current year," the minister told the media. - Nitel’s General Manager for the Enugu Zone, Engr. Christopher Ogwugwuam said that cables estimated to cost N35 million have been destroyed by suspected vandals in Imo state while The Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) reported loosing more than P2 million in materials and repairs between May 2006 and February last year because of vandalism and cable theft. - A national supervision establishment in charge of real time detecting all anomalies on the national transmission network has been inaugurated in Algeria. Based in Algerie Telecom (AT)’s control and maintenance centre, in Algiers Sidi M'Hamed commune, this establishment equipped with the latest technologies will allow to detect in real time all the anomalies or problems on the national optical fiber networks and microwave radio systems. - DRC is planning to introduce measures to identify pre-paid mobile phone subscribers. The announcement has raised some doubts and concerns about how the a task of this scale would be carried out fairly and efficiently. - According to the “Diplomate Guinéen”, the Council of Ministers dated February 20th decided to send the Minister of Communications to Malaysia to discuss with Malaysia Telecom what price that the Government has to pay for the former strategic investor to exit Sotelgui. - Sudatel which won a third global telecommunications licence in Senegal last year has announced that it will launch its activities in May at the latest. Any person interested to apply for a job with the company can send their CV to the Sudanese Embassy in Dakar. Telecoms, Rates, Offers and Coverage- Starcomms, Nigeria largest CDMA 3G mobile network has commenced an aggressive expansion drive that will see the network taking its services to more cities in the country, with a target of five million subscribers. Starcomms recently hit the one million subscriber mark. - Warid Telecom in Uganda will offer to people the option of contacting the police through the use of the short message service (SMS) to report emergencies. With the phones, the deaf and incapacitated persons who may not be in position to talk will simply text their requests to 112 or 999, the traditional police emergency numbers. - Glo BroadAccess, a subsidiary of Glomobile is set to roll out 60,000 lines of its fixed wireless services throughout the country within the next few weeks. The fixed (BroadAccess) brings innovative, cost-effective solutions to cater for customers' needs. Unlike the CDMA operators, Glo says it will use fibre bandwidth to avoid network congestion and enhance reliability and quality. - Nigeria’s third largest mobile carrier, Celtel Nigeria, teamed up with Canada's Research In Motion (RIM) and Emitac Mobile Solutions LLC (EMS) to launch the BlackBerry wireless solution in the country.
Malawi Telecom to spend US$25 million on fibre projectMalawi Telecom says it plans to spend about $25 million (about K3.5b) in the next two years on the optical fibre project to improve its services. It has given the contract to Chinese vendor Huawei to construct the fibre that would connect Mulanje, Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Karonga. The plan is partly aimed at improving network quality and speeds but is also aimed at curbing vandalism. The company believes that the fibre will help increase its customer base. (Source: The Daily Times) Wi-MAX impact dampened by licensing delays in South AfricaDelays in the awarding of licences for providing the new WiMAX high-speed wireless broadband service to businesses and consumers has resulted in dampening of its potential impact. This is the core conclusion of the first study on the impact of the technology in South Africa, conducted by World Wide Worx. The report, WiMAX in SA 2008: Year Zero, released Tuesday, 4 March 2008 says that those companies that have already deployed are all using Telkom's scaled-down version of WiMAX, which is provided only where its ADSL fixed line service is not available, and only at ADSL-type speeds. Wi-MAX can theoretically offer speeds of up to 70Mbps, as opposed to ADSL's fastest option in South Africa of 4Mbps. Even at far lower speeds, however, the potential offered by Wi-MAX is not yet on the horizon, since no serious competition exists to spur its roll-out, says Arthur Goldstuck, MD of World Wide Worx. The Wi-MAX in SA 2008 study reveals that a mere 8% of corporations had adopted Wi-MAX options as part of their connectivity mix in 2007. However, they did not use Wi-MAX as a preferred or only form of connectivity, but deployed it where no other options were available, such as in rural areas or areas with rough terrain that made fixed line connectivity impossible or uneconomical. A number of factors, such as lower cost, smaller base stations and easier deployment, mean that WiMAX is an ideal solution for providing broadband data and even telephone services to rural and remote areas. It is also seen as a powerful technology for bringing affordable yet quality Internet access to isolated communities. In addition, it is regarded as an ideal technology for connecting corporate networks at high speed, and it is already playing a small role in this regard. Projections for 2008 indicate a significant increase in WiMAX deployment, with 20% of corporations deploying it as an element of their connectivity solutions. Once again, it is not yet a primary form of connectivity, but rather being deployed where fixed line and digital line options are not available. The WiMAX in South Africa 2008 study comprised face-to-face interviews with network and IT decision-makers in 100 South African corporations. A summary of the results will be available at www.theworx.biz. (Source: Biz-Community) Tanzanian Government detains two website editorsThe Tanzanian Government has arrested two online editors without charge. The two were detained and interrogated for 24 hours in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on February 18, in what observers of the case say was a politically motivated attempt to shut down the site. The two young editors, Maxence Mello and Mike Mushi, aged 21 and 18 respectively, host the extremely popular Jambo Forums, a public discussion site with more than 2,000 members and 6 million hits in February alone. Topics on the site cover everything from politics to culture to entertainment. Police confiscated three computers used to host their Web site, shutting down the site for five days while the equipment remained under police custody, Mello said. According to Mello's defense lawyer, Tundu Lissu, the police had no official charges against the editors and said the orders to arrest them had come from the President's office. The Inspector General of Police Mwema, said in a press conference on February 20 in Dar es Salaam that they were arrested because they were suspected of criminal activity-which may include the "dissemination of wrong information" through the Jambo Forums Web site. "The Tanzanian government must refrain from arresting journalists in an attempt to silence public dialogue," said the Committee to Protect Journalist's Executive Director Joel Simon. "Such arbitrary arrests set a dangerous precedent for the free dissemination of information online." Maxence Mello told CPJ that police arrested him at his college, the Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology, at 4 p.m. and then took him to his house where they lured, then arrested his colleague, Mike Mushi. They were interrogated throughout the night over several postings on the site that criticized the government, and released at 5 p.m. the following day. Local journalists said the forum had played a major role in exposing a suspect energy contract the former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa made with an American energy firm. The contract was published in full on the Jambo Forums site, Mello said. The former minister resigned on February 7 after a parliamentary probe into the incident. Four other suspected fraudulent contracts between the government and foreign companies are also currently posted on the Web site, Mello told CPJ. Lissu said the two moderators were questioned specifically on this matter, and he as well as local journalists say they suspect the detention was directly tied to the posting of the contested energy contract. This kind of interrogation of journalists is part of a pattern of ongoing harassment of the local media, Lissu added. (Source: Committee to Protect Journalists) In brief:- Orange Madagascar is investing in a submarine fibre cable dubbed “Lion” which will link the city of Toamasina on the main island to the existing SAFE cable. The project which is a joint-venture between Orange Madagascar, France Telecom SA and Mauritius Teleom should be completed by the end of July 2009. - Discussions have resumed last week in Bangui regarding a terrestrial fibre optic cable linking Chad to the Centre Afrique Republique via Cameroon. - A 25.1% stake in ITWeb has been acquired by Ummango Investment Holdings, a women's broad-based BEE consortium financed by Mvelaphanda Holdings (Mvela Holdings). The technology media company publishes a technology news website, four magazines and a series of annual publications, and owns related businesses in its chosen space. - At least 440 secondary schools are to benefit from two projects from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) with Internet Centers before end of this year, said the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Engineer Ernest Ndukwe. It is planned that in 2008 about 80 schools will benefit from this program. This is in addition to the 360 schools being targeted in the School Access Program of the universal Service Fund Secretariat”. - According to MyBroadband, South African wireless broadband operator iBurst has cut the price of its voice calls by up to 50%. iBurst has lowered the cost of national peak time calls by 18%, national off-peak calls by 10%, peak-time cellular calls by 19% and off-peak calls to mobiles by 11%. Tariffs for international calls have also been cut, with savings of over 50% available on calls to countries such as the UK, US, China, Australia and France. - The Arusha Municipal Council (AMC) has finally launched it's own website which will provide a two way traffic. Arusha residents will be able to surf important information about the municipal council and also contribute their views. The website address is http:// www.arushamunicipal.go.tz - MWeb Namibia this week formally launched its VSAT technology. Its general country manager Marc Gregan pointed out that MWEB Namibia's VSAT sidestepped the fibre-optic line to South Africa and transmitted and received data to and from the the USA and Germany. Clearly satellite prices are still cheaper than their fibre equivalent transiting through South Africa to SAT3. - Satlynx, a provider of satellite telecommunications, announced today the introduction of a range of broadband services in the Middle East and African markets though its partner Lunasat. Services from Lunasat are targeted at governmental institutions and corporate enterprises as well as larger SMEs. The coverage area provided by the Satlynx Direct platform include Africa and the Middle East as defined by the footprints of NSS-10 and BADR-4 satellites.
Adobe Set for Relaunch in NigeriaAdobe, one of the world's renowned computer software firms is set to re-establish its presence in Nigeria. This follows the recent appointment of Licence to Learn WECA Limited as Adobe's regional distributor for West, East and Central Africa (WECA). Licence to Learn, according to Martin Edenweze, WECA Sales Manager for the company, was granted sole right in 2006 to market both the Contractual Licensing Programme (CLP) and the Adobe Student shrink-wrap Product options. This was born out of the need for a better and more cost effective method of purchasing Adobe products through a specialist technology distributor. An official re-launch of Adobe will however, hold in Lagos in less than a fortnight. (Source: This Day) Middle East and Africa IT spending set to boomIT spending continues to increase in the emerging regions including the Middle East and Africa, at a pace far outstripping that of the industrialized world, according to Gartner, Inc. The emerging regions will generate IT spending of $1.1 trillion in 2008, and will grow to $1.3 trillion in 2011, becoming a major force of IT growth worldwide. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for IT spending in emerging regions for 2006 through 2011 will be 8.5 percent versus 4.3 percent for mature markets. Gartner predicts that IT will become more of a catalyst for gross domestic product (GDP) increases in the years to come via more-efficient private organizations and competitiveness among countries. “Current GDP growth is impacting IT spending because it offers larger financial resources promoting, in many cases, more-balanced development within nations with significant consumer middle-class growth, stronger business base expansion and larger demand for IT products and services beyond Tier 1 cities,” said Luis Anavitarte, research vice president at Gartner. “This growing ecosystem of economics and IT also provides credibility for countries to international lenders, boosting financial resources and investments that are so critical for IT expansion.” The forecast for 2011 IT spending in Africa and the Middle East is $259 billion, up from $182 billion in 2007. Africa and the Middle East are strongly advancing in all IT areas and are narrowing the gap in IT spending with Latin America, the U.S. company said. The large size of the region, with its relatively lower IT penetration and its engagement in major telecommunication deployments, is making a strong IT trend. This region shows a forecast CAGR from 2006 through 2011 of 77 percent, which is the strongest of all the emerging regions. (Source: Mena) Digital Project Heralds New Dawn for African LibrariesFor Jennifer, a Kenyan student of cultural heritage, accessing scholarly resources for her academic projects always presents an anxious moment. To conduct research, she must travel far to locate libraries with relevant content. Even when she locates one, the library is either crowded; lacks adequate, updated or broad materials; and the data is hardly well organised - taking her weeks to access, read and extract useful information. It is a frustrating exercise that slows learning, compromises performance and even forces her to regret having chosen to study the subject! And Jennifer is not alone. Many students in African universities are also faced with similar agonising experiences. This is because for decades, many institutions have operated traditional libraries that fail to satisfy the expectations of modern learners. Indeed, the thought of venturing into quality research is a daunting one. Hopefully, this depressing situation is now set to change with the arrival of an ambitious new ICT idea that is billed as offering the possibility to revolutionalise research radically, improve learning and place Africa on the digital path. The concept, known as the digital or electronic library, was introduced in Africa last year by Aluka, a non-profit making entity. Aluka has its roots in the United States and is a project of Ithaca, an organisation that also runs two online resources - JSTOR and ArtStor. Aluka is a Zulu word that means “to weave”, reflecting Aluka’s mission to connect resources and scholars from around the world. This digital library is designed to be an international collaborative initiative that establishes an online digital library of scholarly resources from and about Africa. It is funded by a consortium led by the Mellon Foundation, which supports higher education institutions to deal with the emerging technologies. The library involves collections stored in digital formats - as opposed to print or microform - and is accessible by computers. According to Dr. Siro Masinde, the Regional Coordinator for Aluka in Africa, the arrival of the digital library marks a major turning point for the learning community, and its quick growth reflects how more people are viewing its importance. “Its introduction has drastically changed our way of thinking, and a great deal of information can now be accessed at the click of a button – making academic and research work easy and more exciting”, he says. Dr. Masinde, 43, indicates that the library project is currently working with over 100 contributing archives, libraries, museums, herbaria and universities. He explains that by aggregating the widely dispersed and difficult-to-access materials online, Aluka opens up new opportunities for research, teaching and broader public discussion. He hopes that more people will join the web platform and enjoy its potentials and benefits. At this initial phase, the Aluka’s digital library boasts over 300,000 digital objects on Africa plants, the struggle for freedom in southern Africa, cultural heritage sites and landscapes. This is set to grow as it focuses on more topics and disciplines. “Africa’s historical materials are widely dispersed; others are in physical nature or poorly documented. Unless they are digitalised, we stand to lose great heritage that would otherwise benefit both the current and future generations”, Dr. Masinde told the eLearning Africa Newsletter recently at the National Museum of Kenya in Nairobi, where he spearheaded Internet infrastructure development and digitisation of the vast plant collection. He says they are focusing on primary source materials that are very crucial so that local researchers and scholars can easily access them, help to stimulate creativity and be able to produce original ideas, write papers or books. “The inaccessibility of certain aspects of these materials is what we are dealing with”, he points out, saying the progress is quite encouraging despite numerous difficulties. Besides the content development and web hosting service, the digital library team is also investing in capacity building of partner institutions by providing them with relevant skills and funds to acquire new software and equipment to promote their digitalisation projects. The scientist says that unlike traditional libraries, the digital ones have the potential to store much more information, have no physical boundaries and offer round-the-clock availability, multiple accesses, a structured approach through catalogues, easy information retrieval and secure and rapid exposure to a global audience. Copies of the original items can also be duplicated or preserved without affecting quality. Dr. Masinde says they are eagerly waiting for completion of the ongoing under-the-sea optical cable project to bring the power of high-speed broadband connectivity to Africa. (Source: e-Learning Africa) In brief:- Rwanda has been selected to host the Third Annual African e-Government Forum scheduled to take place between 14-16 April, next year. - Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has said that the slowness or difficulties in registering companies online is due to Internet congestion in the country. According to CAC Public Relations Officer, Williams Churchill, "The slowness in the computers is not only peculiar to CAC but to other companies and banks that normally operate online. The problem has been as a result of congestion in the Internet servers which can occur any time”. - The Global Digital Solidarity Fund (DFS) is to launch a new project to enable 1,000 African district hospitals to update their knowledge and practice telemedicine. Each hospital will receive a telemedicine unit and be given training in its use, in addition to electronic equipment for a satellite connection. Town councils and local authorities in the North will be invited to finance one telemedicine unit per hospital in Africa. For further information visit www.dsf-fsn.org
Portugal Telecom Reports Strong African Growth During 2007Portugal Telecom's subsidiaries in sub-Saharan Africa have announced an annual increase of 19.9% to 842.5 million euro, underpinned by a 52.3% increase in subscribers to 4.37 million. Africa Holding, a subsidiary of Portugal Telecom created last year, contains all the operator's assets in sub-Saharan Africa: three fixed-line operators, five mobile operators (plus a management contract for Mascom in Botswana), and a number of other assets. Africa Holding had an implied enterprise value of US$1.225 billion in August 2007 when a 22% stake in the unit was sold to Helios Investments. It is seeing strong organic growth from the GSM operations within the unit. Portugal Telecom's assets in Africa, Asia, and Latin America stem from its legacy investments as a former colonial power, but the operator has expanded its portfolio beyond lusophone countries over the last few years. The Portugal Telecom (PT) group reported 6.6% increase in consolidated revenues to 6.148 billion euro (US$9.245 billion) as at 31 December 2007, up from 5.765.3 billion euro the year previously. Revenues from the operator's Portuguese wireline business decreased because of increased competition in the voice market and pricing pressure on broadband services, but growth was driven primarily by PT's international operations, in particular Vivo in Brazil and Medi Telecom in Morocco. Wireline revenues decreased by 5.3% to 1.962.4 billion euro, domestic mobile (TMN) revenues increased by 2.7% to 1.502.4 billion euro, revenue from Brazilian mobile (Vivo) increased by 17% to 2.463 billion euro, and revenue from other group operations increased by 108.4% to 180.1 billion euro. Group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 5.4% to 2.357 billion euro. Portugal Telecom's subsidiaries in sub-Saharan Africa represent a relatively small proportion of the total, but are a rapidly growing business. As a proportion of total revenues, the four largest operators' revenue grew from 12.2% as at 31 December 2006 to 13.7% as at 31 December 2007. The group's two largest operators in sub-Saharan Africa, Unitel and MTC, reported combined revenue of more than 750 million euro and more than 4.2 million GSM subscribers by 31 December 2007. (Medi Telecom in Morocco reported annual revenues of 438.4 million euro and 6.7 million subscribers as at 31 December 2007). Unitel, the Angolan GSM operator, reported a 61.4% increase in subscribers to 3.307 million underpinned by strong customer growth both in Luanda (the capital) and the main districts of the country. Unitel is rolling out GPRS nationwide, has started the deployment of EDGE in selected areas, and in June 2007 awarded a US$45-million contract to Ericsson to deploy W-CDMA in the capital, Luanda. Unitel competes with Movicel, which operates a CDMA network and has rolled out both CDMA 2000 1X and CDMA 2000 1X EV-DO networks. In Namibia, MTC reported an overall growth of 31.3% to reach 800,300 subscribers by the year-end. Post-paid subscribers increased by 38.5% to some 71,200, representing 8.9% of the total customer base. This uptake of post-paid subscribers is driven by uptake of mobile data services; MTC launched GPRS, EDGE and HSDPA in December 2006. In March 2007, Namibia's second mobile operator Cell One launched services. Cabo Verde Telecom reported a 21.6% increase in total subscribers to 221,200. Of this, it reported a 35.9% increase in mobile subscribers, which reached 148,000 by 31 December. Companhia Santomense de Telecomunicações (CST), the incumbent in Sao Tome and Principe, meanwhile reported a 45.4% increase in total subscribers to 37,800. Of this, 30,000 were mobile subscribers, a 63.4% increase over the 18,000 subscribers a year previously. (Source: Global Insight) What's in It for Nitel’s future Core Investor?The Nigerian Government confirmed that Transcorp will stay in place as the managers and owners of Nitel until a new strategic investor can be found. But a report in This Day rightly asks why any strategic investor would this kind of commitment. The telecommunications market in Nigeria is approaching saturation - at least within urban areas. There are already three active mobile operators sharing some 41 million subscribers, and a handful of fixed wireless access providers. Some of the players are formidable with Globacom and MTN at the top of the heavyweight division. New entrants are on their way and two stand out. Jim Ovia's Visafone, from all indications will be a formidable communications solutions provider. Whilst Mubadala / Etisalat seem to be relatively quiet abut their plans, they will no doubt have to commence operations soon to avoid risk of license forfeiture. Against this backdrop and ARPUs of around US$10 per subscriber per month (down from the lofty US$50 heights of 2002), it is clear that any new investor will need to be clear where the opportunity lies before investing million. Also factor in a rural population of over 50 per cent, who remain generally underserved or unserved, and the picture may start to become clearer. Without true expansion of wealth, people will simply practice substitution economics to survive. Increased spending on communications will mean a corresponding decrease in other lifestyle aspects. So why should anybody bother to invest against this gloomy backdrop ? Nitel can be leveraged to deliver niche services. An investor in Nitel will need to focus the telecoms firm on the corporate sector with the single aim of saving the billion of dollars currently expended on satellite communications. This will require investment in fibre optic backbone capacity but Nitel claims to have an extensive fibre network. Naturally, the core investor will need to trigger an entire re-branding exercise to reposition Nitel’s image in the minds of the population. It must also be understood that getting the corporate market to leave their trusted - if expensive VSAT based infrastructure, will require a lot of market activity and confidence building. But the demand exists. Banks and other multisided organisations still require significant bandwidth to build proper multimedia private networks VPNs upon. These organisations can then be used as low cost vehicles to offer employees unified voice, data and Internet services at their homes, possibly on a corporate payment scheme. The future of MTEL is more uncertain. This is probably one portfolio element that needs to be critically assessed in light of the trends in mobile telephony across the country. Speed is therefore of the essence if this company is to survive and return yield to its investors. (Source: This Day) AccessKenya Maintains Positive Outlook of Year's TargetsTechnology services company, AccessKenya, is braving turmoil in the economy from the recent post-election turmoil with a growth projection of more than 50 per cent. Jonathan Somen, the company's managing director, said though the ICT sector, like all other businesses, has had to contend with disruption of its programmes, it had been spared the physical damage and human resource dislocation that many firms are grappling with. "We still expect our 2008 growth to be in excess of 50 per cent in spite of the crisis," he said. Last week AccessKenya announced that it has opened acquisition talks with four companies, Mr Somen reckons should be concluded in the next four months. The four candidates are engaged in ICT business segments that are complementary to AccessKenya's current product range. A statement from AccessKenya said 50 per cent of the 2008 sales growth is expected to come from organic growth - representing increased turnover from current business, and acquisitions. Last week, AccessKenya announced the launch of OutSource IT, a new product that offers IT support and services to small and mid-sized firms. "We launched this new stream of business earlier than anticipated because of speed and efficiency of OpenView in building the infrastructure," Somen said. Also planned for this year is the launch of AccessKenya's own residential broadband service that will take Internet services to more Kenyan homes. In the meantime, the group's core business as a corporate ISP continues to grow ahead of target, with new sign-ups continuing in a market that remains largely under-served. "We set ourselves targets as a matter of public record, and we then achieve those targets as a minimum. Our own aim is to surpass these growth targets, and we remain on track to deliver this," said Somen. AccessKenya Group last month unveiled end-year results for 2007, which showed it had surpassed the projections it gave for that year, both at the time of the group's IPO, and later. "We reached the Sh1 billion mark in revenue a year earlier than initially projected," said Somen. (Source: Business Daily) Gamtel close to bankruptcy, according to newspaper reportBarely less than one year, after Gambia's incumbent Gamtel was privatized, the Company is close to bankruptcy, according to highly placed company officials, who spoke to the local Freedom Newspaper. In view of Gamtel's unpredictable future, the company has announces that Government office phones will no longer be "accessible to mobile phones." The move, according Gamtel officials, was intended to cut down expenditure and also to bail out the company from the current budgetary problems it's faced with. A spokesperson for the Company told the Freedom Newspaper that most Government institutions, "do not pay their bills in time and are currently owing the company millions of Dalasis." The Company said the spokesman, " is in the brink of total collapse" due to unpaid bills from the Government and some private clients. Incumbent Gamtel was privatized last year due to what Information Minister Neneh Macdowl Gaye described as "a financial crisis." facing the company. Concerned by the state of affairs, Government invited Spectrum Group, a Lebanese investment firm to purchase 50 percent of Gamtel's shares. Its Chief Executive Muhammed Bazzi is of Lebanese origin and also owns Spectrum Gambia. As Gamtel’s new owners, Spectrum an increase in phone rate charges, with immediate effect. All Gamtel call rates has been increased from one dalasi per unit to seven dalasis per unit. Many telecenters have closed due to Gamtel's tariff increase. Gamtel’s new Manager is Michael Ten, a Lebanese National. Ten has been accused by his colleagues of "incompetence and carelessness." For instance, they said, Ten does not have good managerial skills and was engaged in misplaced project priorities. The new Gamtel boss, according to insiders " is a liability" to the company. Spectrum Group, is a Lebanon based company, which engaged in telecommunication, energy and petroleum management. The Company is currently helping to oversee the construction of the Government new petroleum site, situated in Kombo Mandinering. A senior official of Gamtel told the Freedom Newspaper that the recent hikes in phone charges were as a result of a "serious economic crisis" facing the company. The official said Gamtel’s new owners have failed in their bid to restore financial sanity to the company. (Source: Freedom Newspaper) In brief:- Eygpt based, Orascom Telecom has agreed to refinance a tranche of its debt with a new US$2.5 billion five-year debt facility with 12 Egyptian and international banks. The company said that the Facility will be used to refinance the outstanding amounts under the company’s existing US$ 2.5bn jumbo facilities and for general corporate purposes. - The Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) said last week that investment in the mobile phone sector has grown from US$50m in 1999 to US$11.5b in 2007. - Emerging Capital Partners (ECP), an international private equity firm focused on investing in the African continent, has announced a USD20 million investment in Cellcom Telecommunications (Cellcom), a wireless network operator with operations in West Africa. The funds will be used to expand Cellcom's existing network in Liberia and allow it to launch services in Guinea and Sierra Leone. - South Africa’s Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri has published proposed guidelines to compel a 51% African shareholding in any company that lands a submarine cable in the country. South African partnership is secured by the requirement that the operator must have an electronic communications network service licence registered in terms of South African law. These requirements will not apply retrospectively to the consortium that operates the existing Sat-3 international submarine cable, and which includes Telkom. However, it will apply to any new cable that will connect with Sat-3.
Election Campaigns Go Hi-Tech in ZimbabweSavvy text messaging and cheeky ring tones are the new face of cost-effective political campaigning in Zimbabwe in the run up to the 29 March election, despite the creakiness of country's cell phone networks. "Call it an SMS [short message service] craze if you like ... It's a simple, inexpensive and effortless way of campaigning for candidates of one's choice," Aleck Ndlovu, a political activist, told IRIN. "We need change in our country and what we are doing is to encourage each other [via text messages] to use our right to vote to achieve that change," said Nobuhle Dube, a resident of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city. Simba Makoni, an independent candidate who broke ranks with the ruling ZANU-PF party in February by declaring his presidential bid, and Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main group of the splintered Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), are President Robert Mugabe's chief opponents. The fourth presidential hopeful is another independent, Langton Towungana. "Vote for Simba", Makoni's supporters SMS, while Tsvangirai's faithful ask, "Have you not suffered enough? Morgan is the solution." Picture messages with Mugabe cartoons are a huge draw, but the most captivating novelty is an anti-Mugabe ringtone based on a local song, which asks in Shona: "How long will you vote for ZANU-PF?". The ringtone has become a hit, according to Alfred Sibanda, who runs a small electronic services café in Bulawayo. "Alongside my main business, I burn music ... [write music to CDs] and we get at least 15 people per day who want the ringtone uploaded to their phones," he said. However, this may not always be wise. "Some people have returned to us, requesting that we remove it after clashing with government sympathisers," Sibanda commented. In ZANU-PF circles, messages extolling the party and Mugabe are doing the rounds. "Land to the people. Vote for president Mugabe", says one. "Down with the opposition", suggests another. Political blogs are another popular campaign communications mode. "My blog's feedback section is always brimming with responses from those sympathetic to Mugabe, Tsvangirai or Makoni, and some have sent me links to their blogs ... The network cuts across the political divide," said Busani Moyo, another Bulawayo resident. The polls are crucial to Zimbabweans, as the almost dysfunctional economy has left them with an inflation rate of around 100,000 percent and widespread food shortages. The recent endorsement of Makoni by ZANU-PF heavyweight Dumiso Dabengwa and two other former cabinet ministers has given the elections an interesting turn. John Makumbe, an anti-ZANU-PF political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe, said it had improved Makoni's chances, and "was a major blow for Mugabe". (Source: IRIN) Songs of Web 2.0 Collaboration in South AfricaIBM is inviting professional and amateur musicians from all over the world to use its Internet collaboration tools to compose songs about South Africa. The initiative, called Songs of Good Hope, is being officially announced at CeBIT 2008 in Hannover, Germany, currently taking place. With this venture, IBM intends to demonstrate the advantages of a connected and global world without borders, as well as to familiarise the public and show the potential inherent in 3D Internet and Web 2.0 technologies. IBM sees these collaboration technologies as the future of the internet. Lucky Thobela, a South African musician with the band 6Mabone, says: "The project affords young people an opportunity to be creative using collaboration technologies. Music is a great way of bringing cultures together and breaking barriers. We have had a good experience working together with the Germans, singing together in harmony." The IT giant has developed collaboration tools for musicians within Second Life, the three-dimensional Internet world, as well as in the two-dimensional Internet using Web 2.0 collaboration. Through this use of modern IT technologies, musicians will be able to come together to jointly compose 17 world-class songs and to give their creativity free rein across multiple country and culture boundaries. Musicians can upload and download audio samples or single notes hits, mix them with samples or overlay them with other rhythms. After completion of the music jam session early in 2009, the best songs will be recorded and released on a CD. Profits from this initiative will be donated to township projects in line with IBM South Africa's Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives. The initiative is hosted on a new IBM System z server, a mainframe for "gameframe", at IBM's "Web 2.0 & Virtual World" Research Centre in Boeblingen (near Stuttgart), and is facilitated by the web agency T4 Media in Stuttgart. Explains IBM SA communications executive Mathula Mphande, "Innovation is one of the core values of IBM. The 'Songs of Good Hope' is an excellent example of this value at work, enabling South African musicians to collaborate with musicians in other parts of the world to produce what we expect to be a world class CD." Erwin Staudt, president of the German soccer club VfB Stuttgart (German Bundesliga Champions 2007) and Martin Jetter, IBM Germany MD, are patrons of this initiative. "Through this project, IBM demonstrates the immense possibilities that modern collaboration technology presents - reaching beyond the work and business world: We create a bridge between globalisation and global responsibility, in that we bring together people from around the world for this exciting, entertaining and in particular socially responsible initiative," explains Jetter. Participating partners include German Telekom and Volkswagen, the web agency T4Media, Universal Music Classics & Jazz, City of Stuttgart, University of the Media and instructors of the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart, the Mannheim Pop Academy, Bauer Studios, Ludwigsburg as well as the South African Consulate. The initiative is an experiment with various aspects: modern technology, globalisation and social responsibility as well as global collaboration. It is divided into five phases as follows: Phase 1 - "Unplugged" runs March - August 2008. During this time, music will be composed, based on the 17 existing lyrics of the Songs of Good Hope. Phase 2 - "Plug-in" will take place August - December 2008 and the best "unplugged" songs will be refined with additional instruments and vocalist. Phase 3 - "Vote", which runs December 2008 - January 2009, involves all participants (musicians, public and a panel of music experts) voting for the best songs. Phase 4 - "Session" will run February - April 2009 where the best musicians will meet to produce the CD in a studio in either Germany or South Africa. Phase 5 - "Global Band" marks the end of the initiative with the selection of a band that will tour South Africa from mid 2009 up to the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Further information on the initiative is available on www.sawubona2010.de. CeBIT, one of the world's largest trade fairs for digital solutions, takes place 4 - 9 March 2008. (Source: Biz-Community)
People* Public Invest Corporation (PIC) CEO Brian Molefe has been removed from Telkom South Africa’s board of directors with immediate effect. * The Interim Chief Executive Officer of Nitel Abubakar Nahuche, has resigned. * Robert Lee has resigned from his position as CCO at Tunisie Telecom Events* THE AFRICAN BANKING TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE – “New dates” 28th March – 4th April 2008, Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Nairobi, Kenya The conference theme is “sharing knowledge and best practices in banking across Africa”. For further information click on www.aitecafrica.com * EAST AFRICA COM 8-9 April 2008, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Formerly GSM>3G East & Central Africa, this 4th annual event has broadened its scope to gather over 400 professionals from the whole telecoms value chain. Learn from over 30 speakers across a 2 day, streamed conference agenda innovative ways of adapting to new market conditions and ensure the success of your organisation Early booking discounts apply so book your place today www.comworldseries.com/eafrica * ICT IN AFRICA: NEW TRENDS AND OPPORTUNITIES IN AN EMERGING MARKET A Breakfast Briefing by Russell Southwood 11 April 2008, Time: 7.30am for 8am, Sandton Sun Hotel, South Africa Attendance is free of charge, by invitation. If you would like to attend, please email: info@aitecafrica.com * EURO-AFRICA ICT AWARENESS WORKSHOP Supporting sub-Saharan African organisations in FP7/ICT 16-17 April 2008, Peacock Hotel, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania For further information visiter their website at http://www.euroafrica-ict.org/awareness_workshops.html * MED-IT@ALGER 2008 22- 23 April 2008, Algier, Algeria The fifth edition of this B2B exhibition will provide plenty of opportunities to develop contacts and relationship with local companies in the IT and Telecoms sectors. The exhibition main topics are: new mobile services, call centre solutions and equipment, VoIP, IT security, banking software, CRM, ERP and storage solutions. For further information please http://www.medit.eu.org/2008/algerie/presentation.htm * AFRICA MOBILE MARKETING FORUM 23-24th April 2008, Lagos, Nigeria Up until recently the only mechanism for delivering advertising messages to mobile devices was via SMS and WAP Push. However, now that 3G phones, with their multimedia capabilities, are reaching critical mass, the opportunities for advertising and brand extension, primarily via mobile video, are greatly increased. For further information visit http://www.mobilemarketingafrica.com/ * ITU TELECOM AFRICA 2008 12 - 15 May, Cairo, Egypt, Cairo International Convention and Exhibition Centre (CICC) Comprising a high-calibre Exhibition, a Forum and a whole lot more, ITU TELECOM AFRICA 2008 will provide a major networking platform for Africa's top ICT names to come together to focus on the core issues relating to ICT expansion across the region. For further information visit http://www.itu.int/AFRICA2008/?050707 * TELECOMS FRAUD AFRICA 2008 26-29 May 2008, Cape Town, South Africa IIR's Telecoms Fraud Africa conference 2008 brings you case studies, networking, advice and analysis from expects in detecting and managing telecoms fraud. With special attention to roaming frauds and internal frauds, operational issues and the impact of new technologies. For more information please visit, http://www.iir-events.com/IIR-Conf/page.aspx?id=11306 * E-LEARNING AFRICA 29-30 May 2008, Accra, Ghana eLearning Africa 2008 is a conference organised by ICWE GmbH and Hoffmann & Reif that focuses on ICT for development, education and training in Africa. The event establishes and links a Pan-African network of decision makers from governments and administrations with universities, schools, governmental and private training providers, industry, and important partners in development cooperation. For further visit www.eLearning-Africa.com * SEMINAR ON E-GOVERNMENT FOR DEVELOPMENT: STRATEGIES AND POLICIES 13-27 June 2008, Washington DC, USA This intensive face-to-face seminar includes lectures, panel discussions, and interactive workshops presented by leading e-Government experts from USAID, USTTI Board member corporations, private sector firms, universities, NGOs, and multinational organizations. For additional information about the content of the course, how to apply, as well as funding, visit the USTTI website at http://ustti.org * WEST & CENTRAL AFRICA COM 18-19 June 2008, Abuja, Nigeria Formerly GSM>3G West Africa, this 5th annual event has broadened its scope and geographical focus to gather over 900 professionals from across whole telecoms value chain in 20 regional countries. Learn from and do business with over 100 operator companies across a 2 day, multi-streamed streamed conference agenda and 60 stand exhibition. Early booking discounts apply so book your place today www.comworldseries.com/wcafrica * UNLOCKING THE POTENTIAL OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGY FOR SOCIAL IMPAC August 2008, Johannesburg, South Africa he fourth annual SANGONeT “ICTs for Civil Society” conference and exhibition will be held in August 2008 in Johannesburg. This year’s event will be co-hosted with MobileActive.org and branded as “MobileActive08”. For further information visit www.sangonet.org.za Jobs and Opportunities* TSP/CCN OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE ASSISTANT The company is looking for a TSP/CCN Operation and Maintenance Assistant. The role is O&M assistance for Celtel in Malawi for their CCN on TSP. The resource will work in Celtel under the IT department handling O&M related task and perform competence transfer to Celtel Malawi. The role will require reporting to Celtel line manager and Ericsson Operations manager for Managed Services and Celtel Account. For further information contact advertising@balancingact-africa.com Contracts* Yahsat and EMC - MEA Al Yah Satellite Communications Company PrJsc (Yahsat), the UAE's first nationally-owned satellite communications company, today signed a contract worth approximately 400 million AED contract with Emerging Markets Communications, Inc. (EMC), operator of one of the largest teleports facilities in the world.
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