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WEEKLY PUBLICATION DEADLINE: 12 pm GMT Sunday. ISSUE NO 179 IXPS DRAFT REQUEST FOR SERVICE THAT WILL KICK-START THE AFRICAN INTERNET EXCHANGEThe prospect of a continent-wide regional internet exchange took another step forward with circulation of a draft Request for Service (RFS) from existing local IXPs. This draft RFS will be discussed by a Steering Committee set up after initial agreement was reached at a meeting held during iWeek in Johannesburg in September. There are now nine IXPs in Africa: South Africa, Mozambique (opened May last year), Zimbabwe, Egypt (also May last year), Kenya, Nigeria (Ibadan with only 2 ISPs), Tanzania, Uganda and the DRC (set up December last year). An IXP in Lagos is due to open shortly. Local internet exchange points were set up to cut down on the costs of local traffic going all the way to North America or Europe just to make its journey across one country. In some countries, their existence has already begun to encourage local internet services that would not simply be possible without the traffic exchanging more rapidly locally. The next logical step is to try and find a way to address keeping inter-continental traffic within the region rather than paying hard-earned money for its transfer. A study carried out by Balancing Act (with Brian Longwe and William Stucke) and funded by Connectivity Africa presented a range of options to a meeting of IXPs, regulators, carriers and government representatives at iWeek in Johannesburg in September. The participants were presented with two broad options: PAVIX or a regional carrier. The aim was to create a "proof of concept" that would all involved to test the level of demand and address the regulatory issues. In the absence of widespread linking fibre on the continent, both options were based on the use of a VSAT hub. The "proof of concept" idea was rejected in favour of asking for regional carriers to respond to a Request For Service. There were heated discussions about the different satellite options that were available in the short to medium-term. Each of the options was discussed in detail with all participants wanting to know what each might mean in practical terms. There was some scepticism expressed about the level of inter-African traffic by some participants but a separate research exercise is being conducted by AfrISPA that will produce figures based on monitoring ISP traffic (with their agreement). Also a number of individual ISPs stood and gave estimates of their own inter-African traffic. The participants agreed that the regional carrier option should be pursued and agreed: "Participants in the Regional Exchange Workshop recognise that the solution to the problem of regional connectivity in Africa lies in having one or more Regional Carriers. To this end, the workshop participants have proposed that AfrISPA and the existing African IXPs will issue a Request For Service (RFS) to potential Regional Carriers for their consideration. The first draft of the RFS is to be released for comment by 15 October, with the final document published on 15 November. The launch of the this service, to be known as the African Internet Exchange is planned for January 2004. In order for such an African Internet Exchange to function the IXPs concerned will have to ensure that their policies allow third parties to peer for the purposes of transiting traffic between ISPs peering at IXPs." The draft RFS "is to be circulated to all network operators who are interested in providing this service within Africa. With this RFS, we intend to obtain innovative and cost-effective proposals that meet the requirements of the African Internet community. Since this is a new opportunity opening up in Africa’s communications, it will provide the successful party (or parties) entry into a market that has huge suppressed demand with plenty of growth potential." The RFS lays out the bandwidth and technical requirements to be met. The bandwidth requirements are focused on IXPs in six countries: South Africa. Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique and Nigeria. Carriers interested in responding should obtain a copy of the draft RFS from RFS@afrispa.org The final RFS will be issued on 15 November.
TELKOM SA TO UNVEIL ITS REGIONAL VOIP CALLING HUB AT WORLD TELECOMTelkom is profiling its capability to provide a telecommunications hub to carry voice traffic into and out of Africa at the ITU World Telecom Forum 2003, staged by the International Telecommunication Union in Geneva this week.Telkom deployed internet protocol (IP) on its international links in 2001 to compete with international operators carrying voice traffic in and out of Africa. It has also implemented voice-over IP (VoIP) services on its international network infrastructure. The VoIP network co-exists with Telkom’s traditional switched-circuit networks, says Moholi. She says international crossborder voice traffic volumes are low in Africa compared with the European and US markets. In many cases, it will therefore pay the overseas operators to use Telkom as a communications gateway instead of investing in direct links with the African telcos. Telkom is already providing many African telcos with telecommunications links to overseas destinations, and for cross-border traffic. "We have direct links to 95 countries, as well as indirect connectivity to places where the traffic warrants this." African operators can link to the service using either satellite or the SAT-3/WASC/SAFE undersea cable system, if they have access to these. (SOURCE: Business Day) KENYAN OPPOSITION MPs DEMAND ECONET LICENCE BE CANCELLEDThe licence given to Econet, the third mobile phone service operator should be immediately revoked, 48 MPs demanded last week.The MPs, drawn from Kanu, Narc, and Ford People, want the licence awarded to the consortium, Econet Wireless (K), suspended until the financial status of its mother company, Econet Wireless International, is made public. They said the South Africa-based company was in serious financial problems and on the verge of being bought out by other companies.Further, the MPs said, the award of the licence was not done in a transparent manner and was far below the expected budget target of Sh3.7 billion. Econet is expected to pay Sh2.1 billion. Last week, five MPs addressed a news conference in Parliament and asked the telecommunications regulator, the Communications Commission of Kenya, to also make public who the "shadow" shareholders of the company were. Messrs Charles Keter, Nick Salat, Moses Cheboi, David Koros and Joseph Lagat said they had good reason to believe that the identities of some shareholders had not been disclosed. (see People column below for interesting background on the MPs involved.) (SOURCE: Daily Nation) NITEL INTRODUCES PILOT CDMA IN SOUTH-EAST ZONENITEL says it is planning to introduce Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) into its network as a way of improving telecoms infrastructure in the South-east zone, under a pilot programme. Chairman, NITEL Board of Directors, Dr. Aneze Chinwuba, who made the disclosure in Awka, while inspecting facilities of NITEL in the zone, also said that the CDMA facilities would be extended to other parts of the country. (SOURCE: This Day) MOBILE OPERATOR CORA QUITS COTE D’IVOIRE, ORANGE CLOSES MARCORYMobile operator Cora has decided to pull out of Cote D’Ivoire after an incident last Thursday "following the aggression that we were victims of by M Galley and around 20 armed police under the orders of the Commandant of the Gendarmerie, we have been forced to quit Cote D’Ivoire until there is order. This aggression (the third time this year) has taken place again despite us having received assurances from the highest level of Government that it would not happen again. Our employees are being abused and physically menaced, certain of them have been obliged to remain in their posts under the guns of the police forcing them to send our customers’ money to them." "M Galley and his accomplices have pillaged our offices and stolen several million francs. This was money paid by our customers that has disappeared into the hands of M Galley and his accomplices despite the assurances on security that we received from the Government." It has cut its service to its subscribers. And perhaps this is a contagious phenomenen. Cellular company Orange has closed for business in certain locations, particularly Marcory Boulevard Giscard D’Estaing. This was after a similar incident to that suffered by Cora. (So when will the Ivorian Government take action against M Galley and his "policemen"?) (SOURCE:Abidjan.net) FEDERAL HIGH COURT ADJOURNS HEARING IN ECONET SUITThe Federal High Court sitting in Lagos last week adjourned the suit filed by ECONET Wireless Nigeria Limited (EWNL) against ECONET wireless international (EWI) for further hearing on the 23rd, 24th and 29th of October 2003. Announcing the adjournment at the resumed sitting of the court, the Chief Judge who doubles as the trial judge, Justice Roseline Ukeje explained that the decision was taken to enable the counsels in the matter react to the preliminary objection. She stated that it was therefore that the court would deliver its ruling, urging the counsel to assist in speeding of the hearing before November, when the court would expectedly be much more busier. (SOURCE: Daily Trust) TELECOM RATES, OFFERS AND COVERAGE- Nigeria’s Kebbi State will soon be connected to the country’s GSM networks. - Ghana’s Kasapa Telecommunications has extended its Kasapa Dash incentive plan to include calls that their customers receive. Kasapa customers who receive at least 100 minutes of calls in a month will be dashed ¢100 per minute, which will be credited to their account the following month. - The costs of international communications in Mauritius are likely to come down soon. The ten operators whose bids have been accepted by ICTA are likely to start operating soon once the regulator has finalised the conditions of their licence.
CAMEROONIAN CABLE TV OPERATOR TO OFFER HOME INTERNET SERVICEA Cameroonian TV cable operator is making its customers a new offer: access to the internet with a modem, no computer and no telephone line. The service will be launched next month. The service will be offered by local company Vision, one of the leading cable operators based in Douala. Through a partnership with Num Net that specialises in internet access, the customer can get the service by paying CFAF 80,000 to buy the modem and CFAF40,000 to buy the service and then a monthly bill of CFAF60,000 a month. The service is currently available in some but not all parts of Douala but is constantly extending its network to new areas. It has already laid five kilometres of cable in the capital. (SOURCE:Le Quotidien Mutations) NUMBER OF BLACK INTERNET USERS IN SA HAS GONE UP 30%, SAYS ANANZISearch portal Ananzi says browsing by SA’s black online users has grown sharply, to 30%. Ananzi, which records over 10 million page impressions per month, bases its finding on an informal, voluntary users’ survey posted on the site recently. "The Ananzi survey was put online as a purely voluntary exercise, with no rewards or incentives, yet yielded more than 6,000 responses," says Ananzi MD Mark Buwalda. "We are running this survey on Ananzi continuously over a period of one year, and chose to collate the survey results over three separate time frames to check on reliability. We found the feedback remarkably consistent each time." Buwalda says the most startling statistic was in the optional ‘ethnic origin’ category, where 30% of those who opted to answer, selected "African", indicating a "huge and rapid growth" in South African black Internet users. The Caucasian response in this category was still largest at 51%. Other statistics revealed that on Ananzi, male users are in the majority by 60% to 40%; average age group responses show 42% aged 22 to 31 and 30% aged 32 to 45, with very little response from the teenage bracket. Another point of interest was Ananzi’s business/personal user split of 59% personal to 41% business. "We’re very happy with these results," says Buwalda, "not only because they show we are catering for a larger public, but also because we are seeing an improved spread across the different ethnic groups, making the Internet a more representative medium in SA." (SOURCE: IT Web) ADVERTISEMENT Bypass network congestion, reach new markets and offer top quality, high-speed Internet access with one provider: Intelsat. Our Internet Trunking Service is a turnkey, end-to-end solution providing direct, high-speed Internet access to small and medium-sized ISPs. We offer fully redundant, multi-homed connectivity to the Internet backbone with rapid, responsive deployment to terrestrially underserved areas. With our diverse and scalable solutions you can capture more market share and give customers the access and bandwidth they want. Go further with Intelsat. Connect with us at +27 11 535-4700 or visit www.intelsat.com
MADAGASCAR: MONTHLY COMPUTER SALES RISE TO 1000 AFTER TAX IS LIFTEDBefore taxes were taken off, Madagascar sold 700 computers a month. This has risen to 1000 a month since the tax was removed according to a report by a local consultant at a local workshop organised by the Ministry of Telecommunications. It was claimed that the recent investment in telecommunications infrastructure had allowed this growth in computers to take place as the cost of connecting came down. The workshop was called to look at a draft of a national ICT policy. Operators in the ICT sector - Blueline, DTS, Madacom, Orange - said that the level of taxes charged by Omert remained high and these were what were causing the high cost of communication. There will be a second workshop on 21 October to look at the final draft of the policy. (SOURCE:Midi Madagasikara) US PLANS N390M COMPUTER CENTRE FOR OGUNThe United States government is to spend N390 million to establish a Computer Resource Centre (CRC) in Ogun State. The State Commissioenr for Information, Niran Malaolu, who made the disclosure at the weekend in Abeokuta explained that the CRC programme which will be based in Abeokuta, the State capital would serve the entire people of the South West geo-political zone of the Federation. The commissioner added that the state had made available the State Women Development Centre, on Kobape Road Abeokuta for the programme. (SOURCE: This Day)
UK’S VODAFONE TO INVEST USD250M IN ECONET WIRELESS NIGERIAUK mobile phone firm Vodafone will invest USD250 million in a subsidiary of South Africa’s Vodacom with the aim of jointly buying the Nigerian cellphone group EWN, sources at EWN said. Vodacom International Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vodafone’s 35-percent held Vodacom, was given board approval last week to take a majority stake in Econet Wireless Nigeria (EWN) for USD230 million in cash. However, under a shareholders’ agreement made at the time Vodacom was formed, Vodacom cannot pursue business opportunities north of the equator, a Nigerian telecommunications official told Reuters. Vodacom International, incorporated in Mauritius, was set up by Vodacom in 2001 to spearhead its drive into Africa. It has interests in Lesotho, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania and Mozambique. "When the opportunity in Nigeria emerged, Vodacom asked Vodafone to waive the provision and they refused, saying they would like to pursue the opportunity directly," the official said, adding that Vodafone then agreed to pursue the EWN purchase jointly with Vodacom International. He said the USD250 million injection would also give Vodafone a greater say in Vodacom International’s interests elsewhere on the continent. "Vodafone will invest USD250 million in Vodacom International, becoming a significant shareholder," a senior EWN source from Nigeria’s commercial city Lagos told Reuters. It was not immediately clear whether Vodafone’s investment was direct equity and what it percentage of Vodacom International it would hand Vodafone. A Vodacom spokesman in Johannesburg told Reuters he was not aware of such a deal. Vodafone was not immediately available for comment. When asked about the shareholder agreement last week, a spokesperson for the firm declined comment. Vodafone has previously said it was not in the market for new acquisitions and the latest move would therefore appear to signal a change in strategy, telecoms analysts said. Even with the Vodafone support, Vodacom’s bid still faces challenges. The deal has been opposed by two of EWN key shareholders who say the meeting at which approval was given was not properly constituted. The shareholders, Johannesburg-based Econet Wireless International and First Bank of Nigeria are seeking a court sanction to halt the takeover. Vodacom’s main shareholder is South Africa fixed-line operator Telkom, which has a 50-percent stake in the firm. Vodacom posted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of 6.7 billion rand ($965.4 million) in the year to the end of March, 2003 -- an increase of 17.8 percent compared to the previous year. (SOURCE: Liquid Africa) TELECOM EGYPT TO ACQUIRE AN ADDITIONAL 8% STAKE IN VODAFONE EGYPTTelecom Egypt is currently in negotiations to acquire an additional 8% stake in Vodafone Egypt, potentially raising its ownership up to 25%. This latest development comes following news earlier this month that Telecom Egypt and Vodafone Egypt have signed an initial agreement by which Telecom Egypt will acquire a 16.9% stake of Vodafone Egypt’s outstanding shares, for a total consideration of between LE810 ­ LE850 million. Within the context of the associated agreement, Telecom Egypt forfeits its right to establish a third mobile network for a period of four years, in return for a LE2 billion fee, to be paid jointly by the existing mobile operators, namely Egyptian Company for Mobile Services ­ECMS (EMOB.CA) and Vodafone Egypt over the associated four year time frame. The contract further allows both operators to expand respective frequencies to 1,800 bandwidth, versus the current 900 bandwidth frequency, in turn improving the quality of services on offer. It should be noted, the new agreement does not provide for any definitive exclusivity period for the current duoploy. (SOURCE: Prime Securities) IN BRIEF- Egyptian cellular telephone company MobiNil said on last week it would pay a special dividend of 4.88 Egyptian pounds ($0.79) per share from retained earnings. - Econet’s market price has declined by some 40% since the approval from shareholders to acquire the 14% stake in Mascom. According to Kingdom Stockbrokers, this downgrading appears to be based on sentiment rather than fundamentals, and whilst acknowledging that Zimbabwe dollar tariffs are very low compared to regional telecomms operators, a historic PE ratio of approximately 5 would seem to significantly underrate Econet in this hyperinflationary environment. - A new IT firm, Virus Support Network (VSN) Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd could be listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) sometime next year.
RESPONSESIssue 178: Satellite and fibre: Good friends or the best
of enemies?
KENYA’S AFRIPAY OFFERS PREPAID CARDS FOR E-COMMERCEwww.AfriPay.com, a website running out of Kenya offers Prepaid Credit cards for online use. It is aimed at the African market - Caroline Cherotich, Afripay’s General Manager, talks about their service to Balancing Act’s e-commerce correspondent Cordelia Salter-Nour. Q: We all know that it’s difficult - or impossible - for people in Africa to get credit cards. Tell us how your system works, how much it costs and how long your cards are valid for. Afripay acts as an interface between the credit card companies and consumers wishing to buy online. Our service is a prepaid Internet purchase system. Afripay enables cash transactions over the Internet, with no limitation to age, credit status, or geographical location. Afripay facilitates this without compromising the confidentiality, security, or privacy of the end user. We offer two solutions namely: i) Online Purchase Assistance: This is where a client would select an item online, advise us to price it, determine shipping and customs if applicable then prepay for the item and Afripay repesentatives would buy the item and arrange shipping and eventual delivery to the client. ii) Afripay Virtual Visa: This is a valid Visa International Debit card that can be used for online transactions anywhere Visa is accepted. In this case, a client would apply for the accuont, once the account was setup, the Client would then "load" funds onto the account and transaction at their convenience. Q: You have offices in Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania. Can only people living in those countries use your services? We are not limited by geographical boundaries. If potential clients from other regions can wire account setup and load fees to us we can create and provide them with the virtual Visa account. We look at delivery on a case by case basis if the purchase of the item is outside our reach. Q: The world of banking these days is full of restrictions. What proof of identity do you require before issuing your cards? A copy of the National ID or passport is needed. Q: Can your cards be used for purchasing anything on the Internet? Yes, anywhere Visa cards are accepted Q: You also offer a forward shipping service from your billing/delivery address in the US. How much does this service cost? The shipping address comes as the default address on the Visa card at no extra cost. However our repackaging and forwarding service from our Baltimore office to the destination is done on a case to case basis. Q: What has the rate of uptake been of your cards in the three countries that you operate in so far? Both services have been hailed upon by IT experts and novices as something very timely and needed within the region. However the more we market ourselves the more we realize that our clients would like to go beyond browsing and actually want to purchase items online- Books, perfumes, domains, services, etc.. even the simple service like expanding a Yahoo or msn email account to a permanent account for $19.95 is proving to be a highly demanded service. Q: Do you have plans to operate in any other African countries? Yes we would like to do that. However our present limitation is capital to expand our reach as well as market the service. We are currenlty actively seeking investors to assist in this. Interested parties should send requests to Investor@level36.com Q: On your website you also offer merchant accounts for ecommerce sites in Kenya. Can you tell us more details about this service and how much it costs? The merchant account program is still in development. We expect to complete agreements with our gateway provider and bank soon. We are working on getting a solid product out as we have observed that this is a service that is long overdue for most vendors in Kenya: many would like to begin selling their wares on the Internet but have limitations. CRDI/TRADE POINT DEAL LAUNCHES FIRST SENEGALSES E-COMMERCE SITESA partnership between Trade Point Sénégal and CRDI has launched what is claimed to be a site generator for e-commerce sites. After the implementation of Orbus at Senegalese customs for dealing electronically with all international customs procedures, it was a natural development that Senegal should be the place that such a site generator would be launched. The second stage was to promote this kind of e-commerce through the deal between CRDI (Centre de recherche pour le développement) and Trade Point to promote electronic transactions with the rest of the world. The site will be previewed at the Chamber of Commerce between 20-24 October. (SOURCE: Le Soleil) IN BRIEF- SA’s Innovation Hub has upgraded its Web site to integrate into its customer relationship management (CRM) system, as part of its philosophy of being Web-based and accessible from anywhere, says CEO Neville Comins. - The Abuja 2003 website covering the All Africa Games has apparently improved its response times.Information flow, which was initially slow at the beginning of the All Africa Games has improved as results and reports now come up fast on the Games’ website. Live results as well as live coverage of the chess events are some of the innovations now on the website. The website is being marketed by Digital Publishing Network Limited (dpNet). - Two new Malian websites to look out for: La Malienne de l’Automobile (concession automobile) : www.malienne-automobile.com and Foire Internationale de Bamako : www.febak.org Advertisment: Sky 2 Net LTD providing A-Z solution for Internet & VOIP via satellite (C-Band) that covers all Africa and Asia. The solutions including end-to-end Equipment of V-sat, wireless, VOIP, Bandwidth Management and Anti-Spam (outgoing). Sky 2 Net provide Internet and International call termination and generation for prepaid cards and regular operators. - Web Site: www.sky2net.net - E-Mail: wilan@sky2net.net - Tel: +972-54-233261
PEOPLE* According to the Daily Nation, some of the MPs challenging the third mobile operator licence have been under investigation by the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) for alleged involvement in illegal termination of international traffic. According to the Nation:"...one of the MPs is even suspected to have links with Ms Data Global Ltd, the mysterious multi-million illegal operation whose operations at Nairobi’s Lonrho House were dismantled by CCK officials two months ago. It has emerged that one of the employees of the company who is presently in court facing charge running the illegal operation, is a relation of one of the organisers of the Tuesday press conference. Also telling is the fact that the MPs are people whose names had come up in connection with the so called tier-2 carriers - the outfits which are under investigations for having committed Telkom Kenya into lopsided agreements and which caused the State company to lose billions in international traffic revenue. As the nation commented:"Thus, although the evidence is anecdotal, the undercurrents in the whole controversy show that there is more than meets the eye in the whole saga. That press conference was clearly an opportunity for some of the MPs who have had a tiff with the CCK to hit back. A local company which participated in the tender has also been lobbying to have the contract cancelled". * After three months in an acting role, Kevin Wright has been appointed to the key strategic role of CIO of Medscheme - SA’s largest healthcare administrator. Medscheme group CEO, André Meyer, says, "We are demonstrating the growing trend among companies to appoint a business professional to head ICT, as opposed to a career ICT professional." Wright has a 10-year line management track record with Medscheme, and was formerly director of operations for the healthcare giant, overseeing the collection and payment of over R12bn annually by 2 000 staff. Wright reflects on his change of sides: "I went from being ICT’s biggest client to leading the team that has to serve all these demanding users. However, it really is an exciting challenge, and I am loving it." * Zimbabwean, Zachary Wazara, has been nominated to become Econet Wireless Kenya’s (EWK), Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Sources at Econet Wireless International (EWI) disclosed that Wazara, the former CEO of Econet Wireless Nigeria, was nominated for the post in September having been removed from his post in the fall-out between the company’s Nigerian shareholders.
EVENTSNTIC et Entreprenariat - l’Art de concrétiser ses projets Balancing Act et Afribone en partenariat avec l’IICD organisent
le 05 Novembre à l’hôtel Salam à partir
de 8H00, un atelier sur le thème : · Présentation d’un réseau de commerce électronique. · Comment élaborer un business plan pour une nouvelle société ou une entreprise en phase d’expansion utilisant les NTIC? · Groupe de travail sur des cas pratiques L’inscription à cet atelier est gratuite.
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