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WEEKLY PUBLICATION DEADLINE: 12 pm GMT Sunday. ISSUE NO 399 Mauritius’ Nomad: Voice and Internet combine in the coming Wi-MAX business modelThere are those who dream of a converged future where voice and data are combined, using significantly cheaper wireless technology. A number of those who see the future this way have bet on Wi-MAX being the technology to do it. A good many of Africa’s mobile operators have taken a side bet on it to see what happens. The doubters were no doubt heartened by a very public spat in which the CEO of Australia’s Buzz Broadband dropped Wi-MAX and went over to TD-CDMA. As an insurgent challenger in Mauritius to the new, vertically integrated mobile operators, Nomad, is looking to do both voice and data on Wi-MAX and wants to become a Pan-African player. Russell Southwood looks at how the dream is shaping up. Nomad was started in 2005, taking over from Network access. Its backer is a Dubai-headquartered petroleum company called Galana which has invested “hundreds of millions of (Mauritian) rupees in the company”. It installed its first base stations in 2005, covering about 65% of the island in 2007. The plan is now to cover a further 20% of the population. Unlike the mobile networks, it does not have contiguous coverage. The first network rolled out came from Navini and the current network expansion is based on Telsima equipment. The latter is providing equipment to both Reliance and VSNL in India, two of the largest networks in the world. The two technologies work alongside each other, being used in different areas. The company uses its Wi-MAX network for all of its national backhaul traffic. According to Nomad CEO Anil Jayant (formerly with VSNL) who has been in post for 10 months:”Wi-MAX is a great technology which works very effectively.” Like a lot of the early wireless broadband pioneers, the company has had a bad reputation for bandwidth speed. However Jayant says the issues were largely to do with network maintenance and monitoring and more effective ways of dealing with customers.:”We’ve spent a lot of time getting these things in place. We’ve put in place a strict maintenance schedule and we’ve replanned the network using a more standard base station methodology. It’s a service assurance issue.” Nomad operates in the 2.5 ghz spectrum and according to Jayant:”This is very good spectrum and you can move to mobility on it.” Nomad’s future business model is only really restricted by the licensing framework. For as Jayant says:”It depends on what we are allowed.” He anticipates that good Wi-MAX/GSM compatible handsets will be available in Q4 2009 and that licensing willing, they will move into offering mobile voice services. He thinks that this newer generation of Wi-MAX/GSM handsets will meet the expectation of younger users who are already beginning to think differently about the mobile phone as a device:”For the youth, it’s not a telephony-based device. It’s also a camera and can be used for online chat and music. This will change the device from what it is now. The GSM handset will not cut it.” It currently has around 10,000 subscribers and is readying itself to roll out new packages aimed at different segments of its market. For example, it will soon offer a Midnight Special package for Peer-to-Peer downloaders. Its current broadband offers are in the MR300-400 range but because it is completely reliant on incumbent Mauritius Telecom for international bandwidth through the SAFE cable. According to Jayant:”There is lots of growth potential in the hospitality and ICT sectors and connectivity requirements are escalating. But there has to be lower international bandwidth prices so needs to be a better equilibrium between price and profit. Lower bandwidth prices will help the market expand.” He believes that Mauritius Telecom (MT) is making significant profits from what he sees as over-priced bandwidth:”If I look at the SAFE consortium costs, (rates charged) should not be more than the US$00s. These guys are taking a huge profit premium from everybody.” Not surprisingly, MT denies the charge and says it will be making more reductions over the next 12 months. The company has pan-African ambitions and is looking at three countries: Madagascar, Rwanda and Tanzania. He sees a future business model based on the convergence of the mobile and broadband market:”The technology will allow you to do that and all you will need is the licence. When we enter a new country we will obtain all the necessary licences to provide voice and Internet.” But vertically integrated mobile operators Nomad is challenging are not standing still. The second largest mobile operator Emtel (jointly owned by a local company and Millicom) was the first African company to install a 3G network and is now putting in HSDPA into several areas (like CyberCity and Port Louis) that will offer speeds of up to 1.8 mbps compared to 384 kbps on 3G. As with Nomad, Emtel’s speed problems come from its Mauritius Telecom international link. For as Roy told us:”The bottleneck remains the connection to the outside world.” It has announced that it wants to buy into a second international cable if the opportunity arises. The Government is keen to see a second cable independent of Mauritius Telecom but has said the private sector must find the US$60 million to finance it. Currently there are around 50,000 subscribers with 3G handsets but CEO Shyam Roy expects this number to go up as handsets fall in price: they are currently between US$150 at the cheap to about US$300 in the middle range. Of all 3G services, data is the most widely used. Prices are relatively cheap: a 1 gig package costs US$12 a month and 2 gig costs US$25 a month. There are around 2-3,000 USB card holders for lap-tops which gives full mobility within the coverage area. Emtel currently has a microwave backbone but will have a fibre backbone between the main population centres by October of this year. Interestingly Emtel also started installing a Wi-MAX network at the end of last year with Alvarion equipment to provide a data service island-wide: Roy says that he can guarantee bandwidth levels locally but because of the Mauritius Telecom link cannot do the same internationally. But overall he seems happy with the performance of the network and sees it converging with LTE in the long-term. The dominant market player, Cellplus (owned by Mauritius Telecom) is offering 3G services and shortly plans to introduce mobile TV, which currently in the test phase. It also offers Blackberries to its customers that works on GPRS and 3G. There are currently around 1,000 customers. But last week, the world of Wi-MAX was rocked by the CEO of Australia’s Buzz Broadband calling it a “disaster” that has “failed miserably” and saying that his company has gone over to TD-CDMA (on 1.9 ghz), the technology used extensively by Sentech and whose South African owner and promoter of the technology has a minority shareholding in it from Vodacom. Buzz Broadband CEO Garth Freeman slammed the technology, saying its non-line of sight performance was “non-existent” beyond two kilometres from the base station, that indoor performance decayed at a mere 400 metres and that latency rates reached as high as 1000 milliseconds. Elsewhere, other early WiMAX adopters have also reported issues with indoor coverage. Late last year VSNL of India (which is a heavy investor in Wi-MAX) said at an IEEE conference that indoor signal loss occurs just 200 metres from a base station. Freeman said poor latency and jitter made the technology unsuitable and unacceptable for many Internet applications in general and for VoIP in particular. Buzz used the benefits of the latter, heavily promoting it as a main selling point as it sought to persuade people to sign-up for the new service and dump old ones supplied by the incumbent . The unlucky vendor faced with this rather unhappy customer was Airspan. It hit back by saying Buzz’s focus on cost-cutting had effectively killed-off the network’s chances of ever functioning properly and the company's chief marketing officer, Declan Byrne, claimed Buzz had refused the vendor's help in improving its network and had consistently and deliberately chosen low-cost equipment unsuited to the company’s requirements and which therefore affected range and service quality. Byrne said among other things: “We regret the distress caused by Buzz’ poor network architecture decisions to the customers in need of Broadband Internet access and VoIP services.” Continuing the “he says, she says” argument, Buzz Broadband’s CEO posted a retort on the Internet that said:” …the WiMAX part of the network was deployed precisely as detailed in a presentation made to Buzz in August 2006.” And in that statement, it’s perhaps possible to guess at the distance between the idea sold to its customers and the reality of the network it put in place to deliver it, whoever was to blame.
Telkom South Africa ditches Pay-TV Plan and Oger’s OfferTelkom stock fell yesterday after the company said it was slashing its proposed investment in a pay-TV division and rejecting an investment proposition by UAE operator Oger Telecoms. Instead of pumping R7,5bn into the highly speculative field of pay-TV, Telkom will invest heavily in boosting its voice and data networks, and may also buy into a foreign cellular operator. The market has waited months for clarity on Telkom's future direction as it reviews how best it can combine both fixed and mobile voice and data services to shore up its traditional income. But yesterday's announcement lacked the excitement that analysts had expected, and its share price fell 10,14% to close at R131,20. Plans that have been assessed and dismissed during the review included selling a stake to the Saudis, selling its entire fixed line infrastructure to MTN and selling its 50% stake in Vodacom. "The share price is down because people were expecting bigger news, like they were selling Vodacom or had decided to list it," said one analyst. Instead, the most dramatic move is to "substantially reduce" its investment in Telkom Media, which won a licence to enter the pay-TV market last year. Three other firms also won licences, raising concerns that the audience was too small for them all in an arena already dominated by MultiChoice. Telkom owns 66% of Telkom Media and earmarked R7,5bn for the venture, but it is now trying to sell most of its stake. "It looks like they will sell the majority of Telkom Media and that's positive because a lot of people were questioning that investment," the analyst said. "That business will continue, but I'd guess they will retain less than 10%. The question is who is gong to buy it." Telkom's CEO, Reuben September, told analysts yesterday that media companies had long pay-back periods, and alternatives offered faster returns. Telkom must focus on its strengths as competition increases, and so it would retain the smallest possible stake. Strengthening its core business of voice and data services will see it invest heavily in new networks using both fixed and wireless technologies, but September did not specify how much would be spent. He said an offer from Oger Telecoms to buy into its business had been declined as not in the interests of shareholders. None of its operations would be sold without "a compelling strategic rationale," he said. Yet Telkom implied it would disinvest from Vodacom if it could sell for a decent profit and invest the cash more profitably in a mobile operator in another emerging market. Last year Telkom was prepared to end its ties with Vodacom only if it could team up with MTN or Cell C. "Now it may sell Vodacom if it can find another mobile asset, which doesn't have to be in SA," the analyst said. "They said they had identified a number of attractive opportunities." That would not help Telkom bulk up its local network, but it could work with any cellular player in SA to offer a combination of fixed and cellular services, the analyst said. In the meantime, Dubai-based Oger Telecom announced that it will renew its offer to South Africa's largest telecoms operator Telkom said Oger CEO Paul Doany. Telkom turned down an undisclosed first proposal for a ‘substantial minority stake with management control’ on Monday on the grounds that it was not in the shareholders' interest. (Source: Business Day) Glo Sets for Commercial Launch in Benin RepublicThree (Cargoes) Boeng 747 Jumbo Jets arrived Cotonou , Benin Republic, within the last one week, each carrying 100 tons of various pieces of equipment for Telecommunications giant, Globacom. They include transmission equipment flown in from South Africa and Europe. The generators in particular are to secure constant and adequate power back up for the company's operations when it takes off in a few days. Expressing Globacom's delight on the development, the company's project coordinator, Mr Lawrence Ezigbo, who received the Cargoes at the Cotonou International Airport , said that the launch of the network was now imminent. "The arrival of these latest items signifies the countdown to our launch... and this should be in a matter of days", he said. Significantly, the materials will be deployed nationwide, particularly to areas hitherto, bereft of telecoms services. "We have taken sufficient time to assess the needs of the country and we have put in place a modern, efficient and adequate technological back up for the smooth running of our operations ", he affirmed to airport correspondents. Globacom, since the acquisition of a mobile (GSM) license in Benin late in 2007, has consistently assured the government and people of Benin of world class operations, when it takes off. With virtually all the sites in place nationwide, and Switches/Base stations confirmed ready, it is only a matter of time before Beninoise begin to enjoy the proven technological niche and service quality of Globacom. "We are here for the long haul", Ezigbo said, noting that Globacom as an African company, with a vision to build the continent's biggest and best network is poised to delight and empower the people of Benin. (Source: Leadership) Egypt’s Mobinil Delays 3G Launch to JulyEgypt's Mobinil has announced plans to delay the launch of its 3G network due to delays in allocating the necessary radio spectrum by the regulator. The company is also delaying the paying of its EGP750 million installment for the license by ten weeks due to the regulatory delay. The company says that it had expected to receive access to the radio spectrum on 17th January, but the radio frequencies were not released until March 27th. The delay prevented the company from testing its network prior to the planned launch which had been expected at the beginning of of May. The service will now launch around the middle of July. The regulator has not commented on Mobinil's allegations. Mobinil is listed on the Cairo stock exchange (29%) - and has two main shareholders, Orascom Telecom (33.1%) and France Telecom (36.3%). The company is the largest operator in the market, and according to figures from the Mobile World database, ended last year with some 15.1 million subscribers and a market share of 51%. (Source: Cellular News) Nigeria’s MTEL Workers Shut Down 200,000 Lines Over Unpaid SalariesWorkers of the Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTEL) shut the entire 200,000 existing mobile lines of the company and all its call centres in the country over unpaid salary arrears owed them by Trans National Corporation (Transcorp) - the owners of MTEL. But, Transcorp said it has reached a truce with striking workers of Nigerian Telecommunication Limited (NITEL) who had threatened to also shut down NITEL central Exchange if their five months salary arrears were not paid by yesterday. Angry MTEL workers sealed up the company's headquarters of MTEL located at Monrovia Street, Wuse II carrying placards and chanting solidarity songs, saying that there is no room for any negotiation until the salary of February and March was paid. The President of the Senior Staff Association of Communication, Transport and Corporations, MTEL Branch, Auwalu Sulaiman said they have no regret on the action because the management didn't fulfil their promises. He said they met earlier with Transcorp officials but the meeting ended in deadlock. Management of MTEL and the Transcorp are not forthcoming in matters related to workers, that is why we have no other option then to embark on the strike action", said Suleiman. On Monday, their counterparts at the Nigerian Telecommunication Limited have threaten to closed down Abuja Exchange of the company if their five months salary arrears has not been paid by the Transcorp But a stattment signed by Adedayo Ojo, Vice President Corporate relations of Transcorp sent to Vanguard in Abuja said Transcorp, representatives of labour unions have reached an agreement over payment of outstanding salaries to Nigerian Telecommunications Plc (NITEL ) workers, thus ending the threat to industrial dispute at NITEL. (Source: Vanguard)
In brief:- Morocco’s regulator, the ANRT has approved incumbent Maroc Telecom’s offer of a flat fee wholesale interconnect price to its fixed line network. This new pricing will enable Meditel and Wana to in turn introduce unlimited service plans to their customers. - Orange is planning to extend its inter-country roaming scheme beyond Senegal and Mali to its other francophone West African operations and has longer-term plans to extend it to its latest country operation in Kenya. - Mobile operator MTN Nigeria will add 1,000 base stations and 20 switching centres to its network by the end of 2008. The additions will bring MTN’s network total to 4,422 base stations and 78 switching centres. - Algeria’s mobile handset market has witnessed a growth of 13% in 2007. 5.2 million mobile phones have been sold last year. Algeria is ahead of Tunisia (1.8 million handsets) and Morocco (3.8 million handsets). The overall value of the Algerian handsets market was US$600 million with the average price of a handset that increased from $109 in 2006 to $115 in 2007. - According to local newspaper Foroyaa of Gambia, mobile phone dealers at the Serrekunda have been arrested by the police. The local paper reports futher that some of the arrestees bribed the police before they were released - The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has said that the stakeholders' summit on Nigerian Content Development in the ICT Sector will hold on Friday, April 11, 2008. - Africa is projected to experience a 22 per cent jump in its mobile phone subscriber base during 2008, with the number of people owning a phone increasing from the current 270 million to 330 million. Telecoms, Rates, Offers and Coverage- In Tanzania, Zantel has launched its SIM SWOP service for mobile phone users of all networks in Tanzania. The service will enable customers to have the same number on various networks and will not bother to change numbers or stop using one. - Following the successful completion of tests in Nairobi, Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph said the mobile operator plans to launch a 3G service by the end of April. The HSPDA-enabled network will allow the company to target corporate customers with high speed mobile internet and voice services. In the meantime, Safaricom has also signed distribution agreement with the Postal Corporation of Kenya which will be selling airtime in its outlets across the country. - Tanzanian mobile operator Vodacom Tanzania has launched a loyalty programme for its four million customers, reports Telecompaper. Under the scheme the cellco will offer users ‘Tuzo Points’’ and Tuzo Draws’ as part of the programme. Customers can earn a point for every TZS100 (USD0.08) they spend on the operator’s services, for every minute of call time used and for every week they are ‘actively’ connected to the network. The accumulated points can then be exchanged for rewards.
Online Applications for Safaricom in Kenya Hit 400,000Local and foreign investors are responding favourably to the use of the internet as a purchasing channel in the highly anticipated Safaricom Initial Public Offering (IPO) according to data collected from independent website monitors. Nearly 400,000 internet surfers have visited kenyaipos.co.ke, the official website for the IPO, which has for the first time in the region allowed electronic buying of shares. According to internet monitor Alexa, the overwhelming majority of visitors to the website are from Kenya. However, it has captured the attention of investors in countries as diverse as US, Australia, South Africa, UAE and Zambia, who all feature in the top 10 of visitors to the website. Still, a spot check at most city stock brokerage firms revealed long queues as customers waited their turn to buy a part of the country's most profitable company. "Despite the website being available, people still feel comfortable buying their shares in person, actually handling the papers themselves. We have also seen a lot of new applicants for CDS accounts, which makes it necessary for them to come here in person," said a dealer at NIC Capital. Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph hoped the website would allow investors to sample a purchase of shares electronically, avoiding the long queues witnessed at stock brokerage firms during recent IPOs. Analysts expect over one million local applications for the share offer, representing the largest ever pool of investors to take part in such an offering. The e-IPO solution is an Internet-based system that automates the application process. Users can access it from anywhere in the world, and are able to make their applications for shares as long as they have a CDS account. Previously, IPOs have been executed manually, leading in some cases to slow processing, duplication and inaccuracies in allocations and refunds. The shortcomings are expected to be addressed by the online share application system being used in the Safaricom IPO. "The high number of anticipated applications made it necessary to have a provision for online applications. If successful, the internet format will be used in subsequent IPOs," said Mr Mohammed Hassan, CEO of Dyer and Blair in a previous interview. (Source: Business Daily) iBurst launches ADSL, HSDPA Broadband service offer in South AfricaiBurst has started to offer ADSL and HSDPA services with the advantage of ADSL bandwidth rollover. iBurst stated that they were going to become a network agnostic provider of fixed and wireless broadband services and their announcement that they will now resell ADSL and HSDPA services falls in line with their future plans. “We have always looked at the needs of potential broadband subscribers and made unbiased recommendations as to which access technologies would suit them best. The difference today is that we can recommend and sell iBurst Wireless, iBurst ADSL and iBurst HSDPA,” said Thami Mtshali, CEO of iBurst. iBurst says that its repositioning recognises that telecommunications is rapidly becoming a generic utility similar to water and electricity. “Broadband consumers are primarily interested in their needs being met and not in which technology meets those needs,” said Mr Mtshali. iBurst’s ADSL prices are higher than most ‘independent’ ISPs like Axxess, but compare favourably with larger players like Telkom Internet and MWEB. Axxess charges R 59.00 for a 1 GB month-to-month account while its 10 GB accounts retail for at R 599.00. This is significantly lower than iBurst’s R 89.00 and R 719.00 respectively. For HSDPA, iBurst’s prices are in line with other offerings in the market. Mr Mtshali concluded: “Being able to offer three different broadband access options is ultimately an extension of iBurst’s commitment to customer service.” (Source: MyBroadband) Ghana’s School Authorities Asked to Regulate Children's Usage of InternetPresident John Agyekum Kufuor has called on school authorities and teachers to be cautious in exposing children to the internet. He said the internet did not discriminate in information transmitted and asked managers of the facility to do the differentiation. The President said it was gratifying to note that the first phase of a project in the town comprised the provision of nursery, primary schools, and an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) as well as staff accommodation was funded through resources provided by Naachia Plant Pool, the Methodist Church, philanthropists and the people of Hemang community. President Kufuor said "it is only when our children have access to relevant quality education that the momentum of development will truly keep pace with national aspirations and progress. Quality education also impacts positively on the health, welfare and general well-being of all", (Source: Accra Mail) In brief:- According to MTN Nigeria’s CEO, the company had started work on the next phase of its fibre-optic network. Since 2006, more than 3,800km of the fibre have been deployed, with a further 1,393km planned for 2008. The work is being funded by a USD2 billion loan arranged by IBTC Standard Bank last year. ‘We will build metropolitan fibre rings around important commercial cities. To date, we have completed Lagos, while Abuja, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Kano, Aba and Warri are nearing completion,’ said Farroukh. - The Zambia Telecommunications company (Zamtel) has completed the construction of a fibre-optic network that will allow the country to become connected to the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). Zamtel Managing Director Simon Tembo said construction of the USD48 million Lusaka Metropolitan Fibre Optic Cable is complete, and is expected to go into service next month. - MWEB will be forced to end its WiMAX trial on 29 April as its application for a trial licence extension was turned down by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). The company’s WiMAX network in Cape Town and Gauteng and has been serving around 1,000 trial users since early 2007. - Uganda’s Government and stakeholders in information and communications technology (ICT) are to set up a team of experts to develop a position paper on the building of the African submarine cable. The Cabinet had not yet endorsed the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) protocol because it needs clarification on various issues. - A Forrester Research survey has shown that Firefox is continuing to increase its share of the web browser market, which increased from 9.8% to 18% in 2007. Internet Explorer’s market share dropped 10% in the same period. - In Nigeria, men of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) stormed in Cyber Cafés in Akure, Ondo State capital and arrested some suspects and the operator, for allegedly engaging in cyber-related crimes. The EFCC men also took with them some of the equipment of the operator. The arrest scared many users of cyber cafes, as many places were virtually empty, leaving only those with serious business.
Licence Fees Prohibitive, Say ICT Service Providers in KenyaOngoing changes in the licensing regime are holding back Kenya's potential to become a regional e-commerce hub, industry players said. Entrepreneurs say most of the changes are making it harder for them to compete and are tilting the market in favour of their rivals. The operators are particularly pointing at high licensing fees as the country moves to a comprehensive licensing regime that was aimed at creating a level playing field for investors. Marcel Warner, an official of the Kenya ICT Federation describes the new licensing process as restrictive because of the high fees it proposes. The uptake of e-Commerce has been sluggish in Kenya with operators blaming the licensing regime and high cost of entering the market. In September, 2004, the industry regulator, the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) put up a notice of intention to change the licensing framework in tandem with the ongoing changes in the telecommunications industry. Under the new framework that comes into force on July 1 this year, all players will fall under three loose categories - network, service and content providers - and will be expected to provide services according to the specifications of their licences. This move is expected to reduce the range of licences available from 40 to three. Under this regime e-commerce and related activities will attract a Sh100,000 licensing fee. Mr Werner reckons that this amount of fees will make it harder for the majority of local e-commerce solution providers to remain in the market. The Government has since clarified that the new licensing structure is not final but still open to debate. "This is an area of concern to us and we are looking into it," said Dr Bitange Ndemo, the Information permanent secretary. He said the regulator had recently responded to similar concerns from business process operators and revised the licensing fees from Sh100,000 to Sh10,000 to stimulate interest in the sub-sector and ease entry. "There is no reason why we cant do the same to promote e-commerce entrepreneurs," the PS said. Apart from high licensing fees, potential entrants into the e-commerce world have to contend with high Internet and telephony costs and an unclear legislative environment. Internet and telephony costs are expected to fall significantly with the arrival of international fibre optic connectivity later in the year, a move expected to create increased demand for Kenyan e-commerce initiatives. Mr Joshua Chepkwony, the chairman of the Telecommunications Network Operators Forum (TNOF), says policies that ensure legal certainty, security and consumer protection for online transactions and interactions will need to be enacted before the cables arrive. "These include the resolution of issues such as transactional security, electronic contract enforceability and the authentication of individuals and documentation," said Mr Chepkwony. (Source: Business Daily) Laptops for Civil Servants Scheme On in UgandaCivil servants' computer based work as well as personal computer needs, have been eased , following the arrival of more than 10,000 laptop computers, for this effect. Civil servants unable to raise $700 (1.2m) but earn more than Shs120,000 a month can acquire the computers through an arrangement between the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Stanbic Bank. The Stanbic Bank loan scheme enables the civil servants to purchase the personal computers, and pay in instalments to up to four years at 20% interest. The move by the ICT ministry is expected to prepare ground for the e-governance era, where government activities will be powered by technology services like videoconference, information sharing and cheaper telephony. "The government is going e-governance. If we have hardware in place, e-governance is going to be a walkover when we rollout," said Mr Alintuma Nsambu, the State Minister for ICT, at the launch of the scheme at Sheraton Hotel in Kampala. "The civil servants who cannot purchase the computer at once can as well as get a loan from Stanbic bank payable in four years," Mr Nsambu said of the plan to make the project affordable. Mr Nsambu announced that there were about 10,000 laptops at Parliament waiting to be distributed under this arrangement. "We have liased with district Chief Accounting Officers (CAOs) and district chairpersons all the country to mobilize their workers to join the bandwagon," Mr Nsambu said of the plan aimed at going national. "We created a special product to cater for salaried civil servants earning more than Shs1.2m a month to have ICT tools like computers at a reasonable cost," said Mr Philip Odera, the managing director of Stanbic bank, he added that the bank was ready to finance as many as 100,000 laptops. The Vice president Gilbert Bukenya said while launching the scheme that the government cannot wait to cut costs and decongest offices of papers in ministries and government departments. He said that the cost of stationery, telephony and time wasting, were partly to blame for the inefficiency in the civil service. "Technology is here to reduce costs and inefficiency in government departments," Mr Bukenya said, adding that his office alone spends more than shs200 million a year on telephone, papers and pens. "These will reduce enormously when all the entire civil service is networked on e-governance," the VP said. "The government wants to ease the working environment for civil servants where they can even take their work at home," he added. (Source: The Monitor) Government Launches Electronic Trade Information Centre in RwandaIn a move to boost trade and reduce doing business costs in the country, an online trade information centre with vital trade information about Rwanda has been launched. The centre will have all the country's trade related information on single window system accessible worldwide, linking national and international investors. Francis Gatare, the Director General of Rwanda Investment and Export Promotion Agency (Riepa) said that the centre called 'trade point Rwanda' will facilitate the internal and international business community with trade-related information. "The new gateway to global networking will also promote trade of Rwanda's products as it has an on-line promotional service that will boost the country's export revenues," Gatare added. He continued that they will generate more trade-related information and publish it in many different languages; English, French and Kinyarwanda, to ease communication among the business community. "Any person globally who will be in need of doing business, trade related information will be provided on the network. They can browse and get it," the director general revealed. Tony Roberto Nsanganira, the Trade point Rwanda manager said the information centre is a trade facilitator where business people are linked virtually to a single portal. State minister for Industry and Investment Promotion, Vincent Karega was upbeat about the development saying Rwanda has a fast growing economy which needed such up-to-date initiatives to make Vision 2020 a reality. Prisca Mujawayezu, Private Sector Federation (PSF) deputy Secretary General, was optimistic that SMEs in the country will be promoted as they constitute the biggest percentage of the country's economy. (Source: The New Times) In brief:- Although e-commerce has increased by 83% last year in Tunisia with 115,993 transactions against 63,700 a year before, 76% of the transactions are international e-purchases made by foreigners. - Software developer SAP has appointed Satyam Computer Services as its strategic services partner for the Middle East and North Africa region, extending their existing relationship. Under the agreement, Satyam will manage over 20 per cent of SAP's Mena business as its strategic services' partner. - Prestigious IT training institution, Makau Polaris has opened its doors to IT students and other professionals in Lagos. Designed to be the first of its kind in Nigeria , the institute with a fully installed array of state-of-the-art IT equipment admits both first level students and highly skilled professionals with its wide range of courses. - International standards body ISO is expected to announce the formal adoption of the Microsoft-backed OOXML document standard today but already the news of Microsoft’s victory is filtering through.
Kasapa For Sale in Ghana?Hutchison Telecommunications, owners of Kasapa Telecom in Ghana, have entered into an agreement to sell their ownership in Ghana to EGH International Limited for 584 million Hong Kong Dollars. Presently pending regulatory approval, the sale was agreed-on on January 17, 2008. The agreement is taking the form of the sale of Kuwata Limited, which holds the Hutchison group’s indirect interests in the Ghana business. In the group’s 2007 annual report, it said with the conversion to a GSM business in Vietnam, the re-organization of the group’s operations in Thailand and the impending sale of the operations in Ghana, it has taken positive action to address the most pressing challenges facing the group. The sale of Hutchison’s shares in the company could serve to expand the operations of Kasapa Telecom in the country and lift it up to its rightful place in the Ghanaian Telecommunications sector. The company also believes the move will help it to compete favorably with competitors such as Onetouch, Tigo and MTN. When City & Business Guide sought the reaction of Bob Palitz, Managing Director of Kasapa on the intended sale yesterday, he did not comment on the issue but said the paper should take everything in the report as true. (Source: Daily Guide) AccessKenya Group invests in TEAMS sub-marine cableAccessKenya Group, Kenya’s only publicly listed ICT Company and Kenya’s leading Corporate ISP announced that they have signed the documentation committing to an investment into TEAMS, The East African Marine System. The TEAMS project will lay a fibre optic cable from the Middle East to East Africa, bringing improved connectivity to Kenya. AccessKenya announced that they have taken a 1.25% stake in the company. Projects such as TEAMS require significant investment but given the importance of international submarine fibre for the future growth of our Group, we felt it was important to make an investment in TEAMS in line with our future growth projections. This also fits our corporate policy of owning our own infrastructure as far as possible and where it is financially viable. By owning a share of the TEAMS cable, we will ensure that we have 2500 megabits of international capacity. Given the timescale of the cable and given that our current bandwidth is 250 megabits, we felt that the correct stake in the company was 1.25% to give us 10 times the capacity we have today.” said Jonathan Somen, Managing Director of Access Kenya. “In addition, with two other fibre optic cables coming to Kenya in the next 18 to 24 months, and given that our policy is to ensure that we always provide redundancy on our services to clients, we are already in discussions with other parties to secure additional capacity on one of the other cables for when they too land in Kenya. Offering alternative routes for internet traffic is key to us to ensure we always deliver top quality connectivity to our clients” continued Somen. "With the arrival of the fibre in 2009, we believe the capacity purchased by clients will be higher and while we already have significant local capacity to deliver services to our clients today, we are in the advanced stages of development of several other local and national network expansions to ensure that when the submarine fibres arrive in Kenya the AccessKenya Group will have more than enough local capacity to deliver the high speed services and capacities required by our clients.” concluded Somen. Neotel scores R1bn revenue in South AfricaSouth Africa's second national operator Neotel has exceeded its R1 billion revenue target for the 2007/8 financial year. Speaking yesterday, Neotel MD Ajay Pandey revealed Neotel's own efforts and those of newly approved acquisition Transtel had contributed equally to the revenue. “We have had an exceptional 12 to 18 months. We are seeing daily progress in the roll-out of our network and our customers are seeing real savings in their telecoms costs. Importantly, we are seeing repeat orders from our customers,” he explained. Pandey would not disclose when the company expects to hit profitability. However, he said Neotel would most likely follow the international trend of taking three years before producing respectable earnings. “Our objectives for the 2007/8 financial year were to build the Neotel team, continue with our network deployment, launch our service offerings for enterprise customers, conclude our consumer pilot, grow our revenue base and complete the Transtel acquisition. On these fronts we have been very successful,” said Pandey. Since April last year, Neotel's staff complement has “more than doubled” to 327 employees. An additional 530 staffers have been acquired through the Transtel deal. Pandey also announced the appointments of Mukul Sharma as executive head of the consumer business unit and Calvin Theko as executive head of legal and company secretary. Looking forward, Pandey said he had targeted a doubling in revenue and organisational size for the upcoming year. “We have much we want to do this year. We will launch our consumer offerings, bring new products and services to the market and continue building our strategic alliances. Also, we are launching a brand advertising campaign which will grow our profile in the market,” he disclosed. (Source: ITWeb) CBK Set to Allow Mobile Banking in Rural Areas in KenyaThe Central Bank has pledged to review its requirements for bank branch premises to allow further penetration of banking services in the rural areas. The CBK Governor, Prof Njuguna Ndung'u, says the regulator would relax its rules to facilitate the establishment of "branchless banking". Branchless banking entails the provision of banking services in an area without necessarily putting up physical banking facilities. This will take the form of mobile vans taking banking services to remote areas and telephone based solutions. Central Bank has stringent prudential guidelines that impose detailed specifications for financial institutions intending to open deposit-taking banking facilities anywhere in the country. Although most of these requirements are meant to protect depositors' money, the attendant high compliance costs have been cited as an impediment to the penetration of banking services in remote areas and have forced most banks to shun locations perceived to have low potential to repay the bankers' investments. All bank branches must get Central Bank's approval with regard to adequacy of its premises, insurances, alarm systems and must meet specified minimum security standards. Prof Ndung'u, however, says CBK will review some of these regulations to ensure the rules are not unduly stringent and do not add, unnecessarily, to the cost of doing business. "We will be reviewing our prudential requirements for bank branch premises to ensure they play a facilitative role in extending banks' outreach," the Governor said during the opening of a new NIC Bank branch in Mombasa recently. He said the regulatory requirements must remain relevant to industry dynamics and overall economic objectives. Some of the amendments have been necessitated by advancements in information technology that have seen the emergence of electronic banking and other services that, to a large extent, have not been accommodated in existing statutes. An example of such technology- enabled services including Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), mobile banking which is already being offered by banks such as Equity and the mobile phone company Safaricom's M-Pesa money transfer service have proved to be popular alternative media for sending money locally. These advancements could now necessitate the revision of some of the prudential guidelines that still require banks to maintain detailed operational manuals for all its branches. Prof Ndung'u says the savings accrued from branchless banking should then be passed on to banking clients in form of lower bank charges, fees and lending rates. He says branchless banking could take the form of strategic alliances between banks and other financial and non-financial players, with extensive networks and the tapping of technology enabling services such as those offered by mobile telephony companies. Safaricom has recently entered into agreements with several banks that have a wide reach to facilitate its M-Pesa services. Most banks have also entered into partnerships with Pesa Point, an independent ATM backbone provider that has increased their penetration even into areas that such banks do not have physical facilities. The technology enabled services have however seen the emergence of "technology fraudsters" who can only be reigned in by new laws. But the review of bank branch prudential guidelines is just one in a host of other financial sector legislations lined up in the current financial year and which are likely to be introduced through the finance minister's budget in June. Finance minister Amos Kimunya announced last Friday that the Companies Act would also be reviewed to allow for online participation of shareholders at annual general meetings. Mr Kimunya said with at least one million investors expected to apply for the Safaricom shares, the physical attendance of the company's annual general meeting (AGM) could prove to be a logistical nightmare and hence the need for an urgent appeal of the law. "We will amend the law to allow for online participation in time for Safaricom's first AGM," said Mr Kimunya. Energy generating company KenGen, with up to 200,000 shareholders in its register, has faced similar logistical nightmares since going public in 2006 and has been forced to hold its AGMs at the Kasarani stadium. The company has also decried the huge printing costs incurred in printing and sending of shareholder notices, annual accounts and other statutory information. Another legislation that appears to be long overdue is the anti money-laundering Act that is expected to provide a legal framework for countering the now internationally recognised financial crime. (Source: Business Daily) In brief:- According to the Ghanaian newspaper Daily Guide, the board of national fixed line operator Ghana Telecom (GT) has secured a USD200 million bond facility from UK-based Iroko Securities to refinance its debt and fund improvement works to its fixed and mobile networks. - Omnium Nord Africain (ONA), the Moroccan largest private holding, netted a USD 4.8Bn turnover in 2007, i.e. a 14.9% increase compared to 2006. ONA which also owns Wana (Morocco’s third telco operator) announced that its telecommunication subsidiary realised a USD 90.8 Mn turnover last year. - East African Tea Trade Association is working on plans to introduce electronic tea auctions. The chairman, Francis Kiragu argues that "the world has become a global village, and we cannot continue transacting business as we did in the 60's or 70's. Business is now moving to the internet, and we want to be there also." The move would also reduce the negative influence of the Dubai Tea Trade Centre on Mombasa.
New Website Offers Career Advice to Young AfricansAfricacareerguidance.com was set up with support from the Commonwealth Connects Programme and the Commonwealth Business Council A new website aimed at providing career guidance to African youth and helping to link them up with prospective employers has been launched. The website, Africacareerguidance.com, was set up by AfricaRecruit, with support from the Commonwealth Connects Programme and the Commonwealth Business Council. AfricaRecruit is a human resources organisation that provides skills training for African professionals in the diaspora and on the continent. According to its Director, Dr T A Banjoko, setting up the career guidance portal was motivated by the urgent need to improve the capability of African youth - especially university graduates - to join the job market in Africa. A report published by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in 2005 estimated youth unemployment in Africa at 21 per cent, compared with the world average of 14.4 per cent. Between June and August 2006, AfricaRecruit conducted a study of university students in Africa that indicated a serious mismatch between the skills being demanded by the labour market and the skills offered by the young people. "One of the significant challenges of enhancing youth employment in Africa is to develop a more effective matching and linking mechanism between skills of current and prospective African university graduates and job opportunities in the marketplace," Dr Banjoko explains. The website has an inbuilt email subscriber list for all its users and offers a searchable database of career profiles for job seekers and prospective employers. It also offers skills and interest assessments and advice on CV and résumé preparation. It provides tips about interviewing techniques, as well as information on internship and volunteer opportunities, and entrepreneurial skills. According to Dr Banjoko, the website hopes to register at least 20,000 graduates on its database in 12 months. Another target for the website is to find at least 100 work experience placements and internships for students each year. Although still in the early stages of development, the site has received several hits and enquiries from users and human resource career counsellors suggesting a real need for its services. Below are some of their testimonies (names are left out for privacy purposes). "I have recently completed Ashesi University and have had enormous experience developing the 'perfect' CV for myself as well as colleagues. It would be interesting to share what I have learned with others." "I received your newsletter and was immediately attracted to the page on Africa Career Guidance. I think it's a lofty idea that would, if well executed, help refine the raw talents in Africa to ensure sustainable talent supply for now and the future. Please count me in on this one as it aligns strongly with my passion." "I read your recent newsletter regarding Africa Career Guidance and I would be interested in contributing to this. My background has been in HR and Recruitment for the last 18 years and in my role I've been career counsellor for recruitment agencies in Melbourne, Australia, and a qualified Coach (Executive & Leadership). Please let me know what information you require to assist." (Source: Commonwealth News and Information Service) KenTV Unveils Online Shopping Network in KenyaInternet broadcaster, KenTV has launched an on-line shopping network for local and international shoppers visiting its website. Company executives said the service not only targets the growing number of Kenyans using the Internet but also opens a new window for Kenyans in the diaspora to buy goods for their relatives back home. "We believe that a guide on the net that gives consumers a hassle-free view of the best offers in town adds value to our website," said Kimaita Magiri, the managing director of the online television network. KenTV is banking on the lure of local content for Kenyans living abroad to develop an on-line consumer market that incorporates an e-commerce element to the website. "The number of visits to our site has risen from 25,000 hits a day to 90,000 since its launch," said Mr Magiri. The television station broadcasts solely on the web. Its programmes range from daily news broadcasts to music shows, highlights of popular sports events and even religious services. A number of companies with an interest in selling to the global consumer market are on the network. They include Nakumatt, Uchumi and Bata. KenTV's Shopping Network hopes to take on the more established players such as Mamamikes.com that launched over seven years ago and has built a solid client base on the Internet. KenTV has also announced an extension of its programming line-up to meet rising demand. Mr Magiri attributes the rising number of visitors to the website to the signing of a partnership with international broadcast firm SKY in November. The move has allowed KenTV to attract more European viewers and advertisers such as Moneyline UK that promotes its money transfer services on the website. KenTV's is the first Kenyan-based dedicated Internet television station but the format promises to draw a large number of traditional broadcasters to web transmissions. In September ,2007, NTV went online, in a partnership with Internet social sharing website Youtube, the first part of a comprehensive plan to develop a digital broadcasting division. Within the first month, NTV's website received over 325,000 views, three honours and an average of 4,000 views for every video uploaded, and can boast solid viewership figures from all over the world. "Preliminary surveys indicate that the site is increasingly becoming popular with Kenyans and other citizens abroad," said Joseph Mucheru of Google, who own the YouTube site. (Source: Business Daily)
People* Acting managing director of Botswana Technology Centre (BOTEC) Nick Ndaba has been dismissed. * Khaled Kamel has joined Lenovo as new general manager for Middle East, Egypt and Pakistan Events* SATCOM AFRICA 2008 7-10 April 2008, Johannesburg, South Africa For further information visit their website at http://www.terrapinn.com/2008/satcomza/ * 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/ * VoIP WORLD AFRICA 12-15 May 2008, Johannesburg, South Africa The world of VoIP is rapidly changing - costs are coming down; more applications are coming into play and new forms of revenue generation are being exploited. For further information visit the website http://www.terrapinn.com/2008/voipza/ * 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 * ITU REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT FORUM 2008 "Bridging the ICT standardization gap in developing countries" for the African Region 26-28 May 2008, Accra, Ghana The Forums are intended for executives from National Regulatory Bodies, Telecommunication Operators and Service Providers in the regions who need to be kept abreast of the latest development in telecommunications and who need to be familiar with the future challenges ITU is facing and, therefore, be able to draw up strategies to achieve greater participation in ITU activities, in particular ITU Study Group activities. For further information visit http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/tech/indexDevelopmentForum.html * 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 * FRAUD PREVENTION AND REVENUE ASSURANCE MEA 1-2 July 2008,Dubai UAE ViB events’ Fraud Prevention and Revenue Assurance MENA will bring together telecoms operators and industry experts to discuss the critical issues, which are faced by revenue assurance and fraud personnel today. For further information visit website
* 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* VOLUNTEER PROGRAM OFFICER - TANZANIA Tanzanian NGO Terrawatu is conducting a search for a new voluntary Project Officer. The organisation is looking for someone with an interest in development work, initiative, creativity and no less than a one year commitment. Experience with sub-Saharan Africa desirable. For further information visit their website at www.terrawatu.org Contracts* TransCore and Skygistics – South Africa TransCore has recently installed and commissioned new earth station equipment to support the addition of a second satellite communications channel by its regional partner Skygistics, a South African company that specializes in wireless systems to track, monitor, and, control trucks and other mobile assets throughout Africa. * Mitec Telecom - Africa Mitec Telecom announced today that it has received a third order from a major cellular network operator in Africa to provide its Very Small Aperture Satellite Terminal component, known as the VSAT Block Upconverter.
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