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STUDY ABROAD OPTIONS
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 EAST AFRICA LAUNCHES DIGITAL TRANSMISSION PROJECT The East African Community (EAC) will launch a community digital transmission project aimed at introducing high technology to satisfy the growing demand in the region, the government-run Kenya Times reported. The US$60-million project is also expected to interconnect with international submarine cable network and enhance regional cooperation. The information was released at an African Telecommunication Union (ATU) workshop held recently in Kenya’s capital Nairobi. At the workshop, ATU secretary-general Jan Mutai told the participants that his organization will initiate a cross-border telecommunication project to facilitate connectivity in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) region. He noted that currently, for one COMESA country to call to another member state, it has to go through abroad before reaching its target audience due to small bundle width. Mutai said in addition to the connectivity among the COMESA states, the project will also be a full multimedia digital network that will serve the needs of telecommunication, television and corporate date networks. (source: Xinhua news agency) VODACOM, MTN STILL BIDDING FOR NAMIBIAN LICENCE Vodacom and MTN, South Africa’s cellular network operators have reaffirmed their interest in bidding for Namibia’s second cellular licence when the invitation for tender was released. Andrew Mthembu, the managing director of Vodacom, said the company would be bidding "very aggressively" to become Namibia’s second cellular operator. He said Vodacom would, in Namibia, as in three other southern African countries already identified, be driven by stability in the economic and political environment. Namibia would fit into newly created subsidiary Vodacom International’s Africa growth strategy, with a target of generating 30 percent of Vodacom’s operating profit by 2004. Vodacom’s Africa portfolio already included Vodacom Tanzania and Vodacom Lesotho. "We’ll be going into Africa very aggressively," Mthembu said. Felleng Molusi, the business development executive for MTN, said Namibia was a natural market for MTN, alongside others like Zimbabwe and Mozambique. MTN’s main focus was Nigeria, the continent’s biggest biggest market with 124 million people, where it clinched a digital cellular licence earlier this year for $285 million. MTN has begun network rollout in Nigeria and was expected to go live in the next two months. MTN already operates in Swaziland, Rwanda, Angola and Cameroon. Namibia Telecom has about 120 000 lines connected and Mobile Telecommunications has more than 25, 000 cellular connections. Minister Amweelo said although the country envisaged 2004 as the year for the telecoms industry liberalisation, industry protective measures would be lifted sooner. (source: New Africa http://www.newafrica.com ) TUNISIA HEADING FOR SECOND GSM LICENCE BY JULY Tunisia plans to issue its second GSM mobile phone licence by July. A tender for the sale was opened in March, and the government set a deadline of May 5th for offers. Senior officials at the telecoms ministry said there has been a lot of interest in the tender, which is open to single independent firms and consortia. Among the firms that have expressed interest in the tender are Portugal Telecom and Egypt’s Orascom. The licence will be for a 15-year period, with an option to extend it for another five years. (source: Business Africa) GHANA’S ZYTEC OFFERS WIMAN NETWORK FOR INTERNET ZYTEC Telecom Limited, telecommunications and electrical installations service provider, has introduced Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WIMAN), which would provide network with a carrier grade of Internet provider facilities to ministries, departments and agencies. Mr Michael Zormelo, Managing Director of the company, said the service would be introduced to private organisations and non-governmental organisations with multiple locations Speaking at the re-launch of AUWA computers during the South African Trade and Investment Week, Mr Zormelo said his company is to help institutions to build their own private networks for campus environment, for connections within the Accra-Tema Metropolis. the company assembles and distributes AUWA computers. It also specialises in the sale and offer of hardware and software. He explained that WIMAN will extend legacy of Local Area Network ( LAN) service throughout the metropolis and by integrating voice and video, the network would eliminate the need for public network access. Mr Zormelo noted that the company is aware that bandwidth demands are growing explosively at a rate that our current telecommunications infrastructure cannot cope with. It is against that background that the company entered into strategic partnership with experts in wireless communications and internet services from South Africa to provide a cutting edge wireless internet connectivity with value added services, Government institutions would be persuaded to rent bandwidth from the company’s network at a minimal cost and opt out when they so decide, he said. (Graphic Corporation News via New Africa http://www.newafrica.com) ZIM DEMOCRACY TRUST LAUNCHES NEW WEB SITE The Zimbabwe Democracy Trust (ZDT) today announces the launch of its new website on Zimbabwe: http://www.zwnews.com. The new site - an amalgamation of many different websites on Zimbabwe - has been built in order to assist the Trust’s efforts in restoring democracy and the rule of law to Zimbabwe. www.zwnews.com will provide extensive news coverage as well as pertinent information on all major issues currently facing Zimbabwe and its people. It will also carry regular exclusives commissioned from local Zimbabwean journalists on the ground. Additionally, the site will be host to numerous appeals for those who wish to donate funds, and will also have a bulletin board announcing local and international events. It will also provide a list of further reference material, including books, videos and other websites. "One day, when everything has settled down in Zimbabwe and the rule of law has returned, www.zwnews.com will be seen as the world’s leading archive on reference material about Zimbabwe; it has been created with this very much in mind. The people committing these crimes in Zimbabwe today must one day be accountable; www.zwnews.com will have all the evidence that is needed to eventually bring them to book," said a spokesperson for the Trust. For further information, please email ironhorse@zwnews.com UK’S DFID AND HOLLAND’S DGIS LAUNCH "BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE" The British government’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the Dutch development agency DGIS have launched a major new initiative on ICTs and development, called ‘Bridging the Digital Divide’. The new DFID/DGIS programme is initially funded at approximately £8,000,000 over the next three years.It has four main components - each led by selected partner agencies, although the programme as a whole will be coordinated and all five partner-agencies will be involved in other areas (in the CTO’s case, in particular, with work on national sectoral strategies).The areas concerned are: *policy-making and regulation - primarily undertaken by the the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO); *the development of national sectoral ICT strategies - primarily undertaken by the International Institute for Communications and Development (IICD); *development of community media, including community radio - primarily undertaken by the Panos Institute and by the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC); *provision of information resources on and using ICTs for development, oriented towards developing country users - primarily undertaken by OneWorld Online. The CTO’s work within ‘Bridging the Digital Divide’ includes an initial programme allocation of UK£2,000,000, focused on capacity-building in policy-making and regulation, and covering issues such as public access, internet policy, e-commerce and e-governance among other areas. This will be delivered during the next three years. An outline list of programme activity areas is attached. Detailed activities are currently being designed and delivery should begin in about three months time. Some design work is being undertaken in conjunction with other agencies such as UNCTAD and the ITU. For more information on the CTO’s work in this area, contact David Souter on d.souter@cto.int . NIGERIA DRAFTS IT POLICY AND SETS UP NEW BODY TO IMPLEMENT IT Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council approved a draft national IT policy for Nigeria early inMarch2001. The machinery is in motion for the draft policy to go through legislative procedures to the national assembly. The draft policy will be made public soon and an electronic copy will made available on the Government’s web site. A National IT Development Unit (NITDU)has been set up at the Ministry of Science and Tech, as the forerunner of the National IT Development Agency (NITDA). NITDA will implement the national IT policy and be the national coordinating body for IT development in Nigeria. Good luck to its new director (see People and Jobs)
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This page last updated on January 28 2004.
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