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WEEKLY PUBLICATION DEADLINE: 12 pm GMT Sunday. ISSUE NO 193 TELECENTRES SPECIAL: REACHING THOSE PARTS THE MARKET CANNOT YET REACHSomwhere beyond where the market can deliver a phone and internet service are telecentres. Although recently these have been souped up with multimedia and suitcase radio, they remain essentially the same concept as when first launched in the mid 1990s. The central idea is that the public sector with donor support provides an at cost or low cost service for communities that are too poor to pay more. When they work well, they become a vital part of the community and are well used. When they don’t work, they are an usually stark example of supply-led failure, the development equivalent of one hand clapping in an empty room. The problem they set out to solve is central to closing the digital divide: how do you connect people who are outside what the market can deliver? With UNESCO planning to set up 150 new telecentres in Africa, perhaps now is the time to begin thinking about how to answer this question. Since no-one on the funding side of the table can envisage funding these in the long term they have generated a rhetoric about telecentres becoming sustainable. The best part of this rhetoric is that attention to driving up business and income will inevitably put you in the arms of your users. The worst part is the fuzzy thinking about how and what financial sustainability might mean. Telecentres might return 10-25% of their running costs but it is unlikely that they will ever fully cover them. In these circumstances, who will pick up the balance of their costs? Hard-press African Governments? Local Universal Access Funds? The answers are none too clear. This special issue opens with a look at a telecentre in southwestern Sudan from Ben Parker. Sarah Parkinson, a researcher with IDRC then reflects on the good and bad parts of the telecentres in Southern Africa. Polly Gaster, one of the early pioneers from Mozambique remembers how it started and thinks about what might happen in the future. It closes with Russell Southwood reporting on a trip to Kafanchan in Nigeria to meet John Dada of the Fantsuam Foundation and its experiences in delivering connectivity. YAMBIO - TELEPHONE AND INTERNET IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR ZONE The video-shows were too successful. The neighbours complained about the noise, so martial arts movies won’t be playing any time soon at the Yambio information centre, southwestern Sudan. But Hanan Richard, the young manageress of this remote outpost of the internet has another scheme Anyway, a photocopy service and a library. Ms Richard and her colleagues at the Equatoria United Youth Development Association. (EUYDA) manage the only Internet access point for several hundred kilometres in any direction in the southwest of war-ravaged Sudan. Yambio, the main town of the southwest, is calm these days, huge mango trees plopping their fruit onto the roofs with a clang. But only a couple of years ago it was bombed by government of Sudan Antonov aircraft in a futile attempt to dislodge rebels from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army who have held the town for much of the 20-year civil war. The nearest public telephone or internet service is in Arua, 350 km away in neighbouring Uganda. To the west are the vast forests of the DRC and Central African Republic. Years of war have left Yambio at the end of some spectacularly bad roads and with a society and economy as tattered as the pungent, disintegrating Sudanese pound banknotes that are one of many currencies accepted in the rebel areas. With a couple of computers, a TV, video and satellite dish and a VSAT internet connection, the Yambio information centre is opening up previously inconceivable horizons for people in this remote and long-neglected area. To begin with, computers are a novelty in this vast region which lacks any public electrical power, water, sewage and telecommunications services at all. "When they see things moving on the screen? some even want to touch with their hands" Richard explains, adding "Something wonderful is happening here". For most office workers, the joy of communication is long forgotten in a deathmarch of e-mails, spam and voicemail. In southern Sudan, an e-mail can still be life-changing. "There was information that I was killed", says John Noel Jubek, 38. He had just received a mail from his brother in Canada after being out of touch for 15 years. His brother was overjoyed to find him alive and astonished his long lost brother was sending mail from the war zone. The Yambio information centre raises most of its revenue from internet access (100 Uganda Shillings per minute), although the African Cup of Nations on TV should be a money-spinner too. The PCs are always busy. It also provides free services like video shows on AIDS to children and youth. A cheap scanner will serve as the pilot photocopy service and as the original building is now overflowing with people watching TV and using the Internet, EUYDA is hoping to raise capital to build a separate, quieter library unit. The spending power of the people of Yambio is not high, but with more well-chosen schemes they can keep the all-important generator running and plan for the next level. Ben Parker, Communication Officer, UNICEF Southern Sudan (bparker@unicef.org). UNICEF has provided financial and advisory support to the Yambio Information Centre and two other centres in southern Sudan since 2002. THE ROAD TO TELECENTRE SUCCESS REMAINS MYSTERIOUS Telecentres are a one of life’s good ideas. They aggregate demand so that providing ICT-related services in areas outside of the main urban centres is more economic. They provide support and often training so that those unfamiliar with ICTs can also use them and apply them in their own lives. They attempt to go beyond mere access towards developing applications of ICTs relevant to people’s lives. That, in a nutshell is the idea. In Africa, the idea has had about six years to incubate, with the first telecentres opening in 1998 or thereabouts. The results to-date have generally been disappointing. The evidence for this is not very subtle. The real reasons are less obvious and more complex, but certainly bear echoes of development’s past experiences with technology transfer, which has rarely been a roaring success on the continent. Firstly, it appears that telecentres have generally done poorly in using demand aggregation to lower prices to either themselves or their customers. Take for example a telecentre in Mozambique which was plagued by huge telephone bills it was unable to recover. These bills were due to the repeated failed attempts to connect to the Internet via long-distance dial-up. The attempts hung or the connection, if made, was so slow as to be unusable. The telecentre did not and could not charge its customers for these "services." However, the telephone monopoly, TDM, billed the telecentre for a three-minute "set up charge" for each attempt plus long-distance charges to the POP in Maputo. The most amazing thing about this unfortunate situation was that the telecentre had never complained to TDM. This, despite the fact that the telecentre was one of TDM’s largest clients in the small town where it was located and might reasonably expect some response from the company. The manager was unaware of the notion of consumer rights, or of the notion that in a monopoly environment, the regulator should help protect these rights. Thus, if demand aggregation is to serve telecentres, the managers must be sensitive to the concept of consumer culture and rights and be able to lobby effectively. Rodrigo Assumpção has been actively involved with telecentres in Brazil and with the Latin American network somos@telecentros. Upon hearing some of the VSAT rates in Africa, he remarked that they probably would not have been able to establish so many telecentres in Latin America had they to face similar cost barriers. He suggested that demand aggregation thus has to take place at a larger scale, with associations of telecentres banding together as consumers to negotiate with service providers. In Africa, this implies an organized critical mass of existing telecentres across the continent. Not only has demand aggregation failed to lower prices, it has often failed to deliver services, especially the Internet. In many other places where Internet connectivity purportedly exists but is of such poor quality as to be unusable, or was ceased because of high cost. It failed for many reasons - most often a combination of high cost and unresponsive bureaucracies. For example, in the province of KwaZuluNatal, as of June 2003 none of the ten original telecentres established about five years ago by the Universal Service Agency of South Africa had Internet and most were barely functioning. Issues around ownership and the culture of externally-funded development projects are also prime culprits in any plausible explanation of the gap between reality and intention. For example, one funded telecentre closed at 5pm, although the manager knew that peak demand was at 6pm! As a funded project, the telecentre kept government hours regardless of demand and accessibility. I have encountered other telecentres with "government hours" in Uganda and South Africa, while competing local private initiatives are open much longer. The striking difference between these projects, often languishing, and their entrepreneurial-driven counterparts is often noted by critics. Charles Musisi of Computer Frontiers, well-versed in the ins-and-outs of ICT for development initiatives in Uganda, believes that it’s too much to expect social development experts to take on the installment of internet connections and phone lines without greater support. Their jobs are often already complex enough. I have spoken with a number of such project managers. They are often intelligent and dedicated people who have watched projects languish due to a barrage of political and technical issues beyond their control and their area of expertise. In the meantime, telecentres still appear to be a good idea. Market-based mechanisms may be penetrating, but it questionable that they are sufficient to address social inequities and maximize the potential of ICTs for development. And while current research hasn’t produced any easy-to-follow instructions on how telecentres are done, it has found broad support and validation for the idea amongst rural and other disadvantaged populations. Amongst these communities, access to communication tools is highly valued, as is access to the new global information society symbolized by computers and the Internet. However, implementing telecentres successfully in Africa remains a rare art mastered to-date only by a very few skillful social entrepreneurs. Creating access for all through telecentres remains a distant goal and the passage to reach it, a mystery. Sarah Parkinson is a researcher with IDRC sparkinson@idrc.ca PILOTING TELECENTRES IN MOZAMBIQUE: LEARNING THE HARD-WON LESSONS In late 1998 an argument took place at Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) in Maputo ­ about telecentres. The occasion was an international sociology conference, and the lines of battle will be familiar to anyone who has been involved in what is now called ICTs for Development. Isn’t it ridiculous, in a country as poor as Mozambique, to invest in ICT access for rural peasants? Isn’t it the equivalent of providing a luxurious Rolls Royce for village transport? Have we learned any lessons from previous attempts at magic solutions for African development? The UEM team that had worked on a feasibility study for piloting Mozambique’s first telecentres recognised that a certain leap of faith was involved: for example, given that the rural communities had no idea what e-mail or Internet even were, or what they could do, nobody could argue that there was a spontaneous demand for them coming up from the base. However, the study did show a high priority placed on education and learning, a need for faster and cheaper communication channels and an interest in acquiring new skills and support for income-generating activities. Our view, based on our own study and experience and much other literature, was that we too rejected any notion that ICTs were a "magic solution", but saw them as one among various tools for development that would have to be introduced over time, prove their value through practical demonstrations, and win acceptance or not on their merits. We were also concerned that a digital divide within our own country would aggravate regional imbalances, and we believed that rural development doesn’t happen by itself, it requires investment and long term planning. What we were looking for, in brief, was not a Rolls Royce, but a practical, heavy-duty 4-wheel drive for muddy roads. This story is now old history. Five years later, telecentres or their equivalent have come to stay in Mozambique. In addition to the two initial pilots, another four have already been established in rural districts, and two in provincial capitals. A UNESCO-led initiative announced at WSIS expects to take the numbers up to fifty over the next few years, developing the telecentre concept into the notion of telecentre+community radio under the same roof, or community multimedia centres. In fact different names abound ­ multipurpose community telecentre, school-based telecentre, etc, etc ­ but that doesn’t matter. As Shakespeare said, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. As in most African countries, the majority of the population in Mozambique lives in the countryside, and some of the straightforward needs for a viable telecentre, such as good infrastructure and minimum population density, are lacking. We felt that this is where the major challenge lies, and that we should at least make a start on facing up to it. And challenge it is! The telecentres provide computer access and training courses, e-mail and Internet, CD-Rom libraries, fax, phone and photocopying. They also function as centres for information activities and other projects such as the CD-Rom on malaria currently being produced by a local team with CIUEM support. Two of the telecentres now have suitcase radios provided by UNESCO, and have turned themselves into CMCs. The first two telecentres were started from scratch by CIUEM, with the support of local committees. With the end of the pilot project, one has been handed over to the secondary school in which it was housed, which is full of ambitious schemes for it, while the local committee at the other is transforming into a legal local association that will take ownership of the telecentre. One of the committee’s immediate targets is to raise money for a new building (the telecentre is currently in a rented room between a café and a church), and the town council has already given some land. These developments suggest that at least one goal of the pilot has been met ­ that the telecentre doesn’t die when the donor moves on. And this can only be because the local communities find that it serves real needs. In the light of experience, the next round of telecentres - in Manica province (bordering on Zimbabwe) and Gaza in the south ­ were mainly established in partnership with existing local institutions, which took ownership from day one but have been supported by the CIUEM. The partners are a local NGO, a community radio station and a national NGO working on land and peasant issues respectively. They are now in their second year of activity. Too many lessons have been learned to fit in the space of this piece, but many will be familiar to readers as they confirm experiences elsewhere. Here are a few to be going on with: - Every telecentre will be different, according to its immediate local context ­ socio-economic base, local dynamics, etc; - Human resources is a key issue in our districts, so management and technical training and ongoing backup need to be built in somehow ­ if your young manager with 10th grade doesn’t have the imagination or skills to search the Internet s/he (but probably he) won’t be able to transmit them to others, but we demand even more, that s/he should be able to handle money, organise, plan, mobilise, teach; at the same time s/he may spend half the day producing photocopies or waiting for the power to come on; - Connectivity in our districts is an unresolved problem ­ both quality and cost have worsened since 1999 ­ and though we have a national ICT policy in place that promotes community access, in practice national trends are moving inexorably towards "market-led" solutions that do little to meet the needs of the rural areas However, none of these are reasons for saying that telecentres don’t work. As an engineer from Radio Mozambique told me: "No energy supply anywhere in the country ­ urban or rural - meets international standards for powering radio stations, but we still broadcast in every provinceS". Since 1999 Mozambique has been battered by major floods, cyclones and now a 2-year drought, with increasingly adverse effects on power and telephone lines, not to mention purchasing power in the rural areas. But if we wait for adequate conditions to be created we will never do anything ­ rather move ambitiously but cautiously forward, and fight for better conditions on the basis of proven experience. Are the telecentres "successful"? If that means are they economically viable on the basis of selling services, the answer is probably No. If it means are they providing a useful and valued service to individuals and institutions in the area, are they even to a small degree centres of development activity, do they provide access to information and education, are they open to women and men, are they a source of local pride, then the answer is Yes. And the corollary of that answer is that we have to go on learning and sharing our knowledge and partnering and campaigning and adapting ­ and the telecentre movement will continue to grow. The author of this article is Polly Gaster, CIUEM. FANTSUAM FOUNDATION, KAFANCHAN - USING THURAYA AND REGIONAL BGAN Based in the railway town of Kafanchan, the Fantsuam Foundation initially focused its efforts on providing micro-credit and a savings facility, primarily for women. It started out with 20 women taking loans of N500 each. Membership of the loan scheme covers the chiefdoms of rural communities in Kagoro, Kagoma, Zonkwa, Fantsuam, Zangon-Kataf, Kaninkon, Maro’a and Tyap. Once the microfinance is up-and-running it suggests the setting up of a Community Learning Centre. In each community it has sough to introduce basic computer literacy and in three of them it has set what it calls Community Learning Centres. In equipment terms, these consist of: 1 desktop, 1 laptop and a WorldSpace radio receiver. Trainees pay their instructors and one of the Centres is self-sustaining in terms of its direct costs. Although they work closely with the local community, they seek to identify an entrepreneurial and responsible individual respected by the community who will take on the development of the Centre and its activities. Initially they had started them by setting up a Committee but whilst this gave the Centre legitimacy, it was much harder to identify the responsible individual. It belonged to everyone but no one took responsibility. As they come to the point of being profitable, Fantsuam Foundation will encourage them to incorporate and apply for a micro-finance asset loan. They provide mobile phone calls in this area that currently has no GSM coverage using a Thuraya satellite phone paid for by infoDev. The handset cost GBP545 and it came with GBP140 worth of calls. Selling it at N250 a minute makes this a viable service. It is largely used for getting emergency messages to family in the cities or the diaspora about bereavements or the need for finance. It also used by Ibo traders who find it cheaper than the alternative of getting messages hand-delivered. It also bought an Inmarsat Regional BGAN, a satellite powered laptop that has coverage over large parts of the continent except parts of South Africa. It cost US$1600 and there was a USD50 activation fee. There was then a monthly fee of USD35 per month plus connectivity at USD 12 mbps. It was for a period of time the only Internet connection for the 35,000 people in the district. It charged N150 for people to open an e-mail account and then N100 for 15 minutes and N400 per hour. The latter was a cost comparable to the nearest Internet access at a high-quality cyber-café in Jos, two hours away from Kafanchan. It was largely used for e-mails but as many of those using it were using browser based services, they had not realised how costly it would be to download the advertisements that come with these browsers. In two months they had run up a bill of USD3000 and had to suspend the service. It now has ambitious plans to open its own VSAT connection and open a cyber-café that will be able to offer Internet and telephony. It wants to create wireless connections to its Community Learning Centres, as with a tower it will be able to reach out to places within a 25-mile radius. It is seeking to become the a Cisco Networking Academy (in collaboration with the University of Jos who will supply the instructors) and for this it needs an Internet connection. It imported refurbished computers from UK-based organisation Computer Aid: all 252 went out to health and educations organisations, SMEs community-based organisations and individuals. When Computer Aid was first approached it was cautious, as it had never attempted to export to Nigeria before. To overcome this caution, the Fantsuam Foundation raised a loan of GBP1100 to pay for the container-load of computers. Using a Board member based in Lagos, it was able to clear the computer through customs in 6 weeks. It is now talking to Computer Aid about setting up a computer refurbishment workshop as a complement to its Cisco Academy plans. All this is being done in a place where electricity is always at less than full power. At night the reduced wattage lit looks almost like candle light in the darkness. It’s possible to run laptops off this strength of current but not desktop machines. John Dada has built up Fantsuam Foundation through a combination of: user fees, his own money, donor grants and locally raised funds. He has a strong belief in the potential of Kafanchan and the surrounding area: "Kafanchan has a big potential. It’s the biggest town in the area and serves a large number of nearby rural areas. It had the earliest exposure to western education and therefore has high levels of literacy. The nearest Internet access is two hours away and we will break new ground and set the pace for others to follow." If you have telecentre experiences - good or bad - please e-mail them to info@balancingact-africa.com
SHORTAGE OF INTERCONNECTION ENGINEERS WORRIES NCC VICE CHAIRExecutive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Ernest Ndukwe, has decried shortage of interconnection engineers in the country, just as he dismissed hope of licensing more GSM operators in the near future. "There is shortage of interconnect engineers in the country," he declared. He said that there was only one interconnect engineer doing all the work for GSM operators and telcos. The NCC boss attributed congestions to non-availability of infrastructure to carry the demand of subscribers. "Today, if they (operators) reduce SIM card price to about N1,000, the networks would crash," he declared. Although, he agreed that the operators of telecommunications in the country are not communicating to their subscribers enough on infrastructural problems, saying it should not be so. "Operators are not talking to subscribers enough to explain infrastructure problems," he acknowledged, adding that at times, and even now, "To call within networks - Econet and MTN is even difficult because of congestion of capacity. And until this is soughted out, the problem would persist". NCC, on the other hand, he believes was not either more open on issues in the last years, but assured that this year, 2004, "NCC has resolved to be more open with its processes" by making more information available for the people to understand what they are doing. He cited an instance of interconnection, and said that its not like a switch awaiting to be turned on, but has a dual contribution of necessary lines for interconnect and there is a period of three months within which to conclude this processes. (SOURCE: Daily Champion) THOUSANDS OF SOUTH AFRICAN MATRICS GET RESULTS VIA SMSDespite a few hiccups, more than 14 000 of last year’s matriculants received their results by SMS. The service, previously offered only in Gauteng, was extended to all provinces but the Western Cape last year. Business Centric Information Technology (BCIT), the company that provided the service, says it supplied results to about 14 000 of the 17 000 students on its database. The 17 000 consisted of 8 000 who pre-registered via the Web site, some via their schools, and the rest were via an SMS querying service. The query service, at R1 per query, involved students sending their exam and identity numbers via SMS to the BCIT system and it responded with their results. This method seemed to be the most popular of the three, says the company. BCIT says various factors hindered the process, such as a bug in the system caused by Web site registrations, and about 3,000 students providing incorrect details. "Systems are in place now to avoid that happening in the future," says Maite Nathaniel Sebolai, one of the directors at BCIT. Another glitch was caused by the fact that messages were also queued on the cellphone network BCIT uses, the short message service centre (SMSC). "We were unaware that the network was using a number of SMSCs in a load-balanced manner, as they were expecting a lot of traffic, and we continued to use just the one system," Sebolai says. "This caused a delay in releasing some of the results on 30 December." For 2004, BCIT aims to supply matric supplementary and technical college exam results in May, and the matric and technical college final exam results in December. (SOURCE: IT Web) TELECOM NAMIBIA ORDERS USD1 MILLION OF ALVARION WIRELESS SOLUTIONSAlvarion, wireless broadband solutions provider , announced last week that Telecom Namibia has placed a follow-on order worth over USD1M for Alvarion MGW systems operating in the 3.5GHz band. Telecom Namibia first chose MGW in 2000 to bring affordable Toll Quality Voice and Voice-Band Data to many of its service areas. Delighted with its performance throughout Namibia’s capital city, Windhoek, Mariental, and other urban and rural areas, it is now expanding the deployment to 3 additional sites in Northern Namibia. Commenting on the news, Mr. Heinrich Bader, General Manager, Network Development, Implementation & Technology Operations of Telecom Namibia said, "Our choice of Alvarion’s excellent technology was based on three factors: its suitability for supporting both telephony and data services, its attractive performance, and Alvarion’s reputation for excellent professional services. Our experience over the last two years has exceeded our expectations in each of these realms. The network has proven to be quick and affordable to set up, performs flawlessly, and the dedicated support has made all the difference. As we extend our toll-quality services to new regions, we have also begun to investigate Alvarion’s entire product portfolio with an eye towards bringing wireless broadband access services to Namibia." For more information, visit Telecom Namibia’s website at http://www.telecom.na ALGERIA’S SITEL WILL LAUNCH NEW PRODUCT (WITH ERICSSON) IN FEBRUARYAlgerian mobile manufacturer SITEL, sited in Tlemcen, will manufacture in partnership with Ericsson (certified ISO 9002) with a new product to be launched in February. A prototype of the new product was shown to the press last week. Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on his last visit to the plant in Tlemcen said the new product would compete with imported mobiles. The price of the new phone is likely to be between 10,000-12,000 dirhams and the factory can make up to 150,000 units a year. (SOURCE: Algerie Presse Service) LIRE EN FRANCAIS APRES 15.00 GMT, 2 FEVRIER: IN BRIEF- SA’s Telkom has been slammed for continued anti-competitive behaviour after it lodged an appeal against a Competition Tribunal order compelling it to hand over copies of disputed client agreements to a rival operator. Orion Cellular says the appeal is another attempt to hold up Orion’s litigation against Telkom by withholding what it claims are public documents. Orion has accused Telkom of abusing its monopoly position to unfairly target Orion’s clients and lure them away. - The CEO of Vodacom South Africa, Alan Knott-Craig, has projected that the potential for total subscribers in Nigeria could be more than double the current estimate of 20m. - The inhabitants of Ambositra in Madagascar have used 60,000 pre-paid cards in the nine public phones in the town and there are now 16 pre-paid card resellers in the town. - The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) at the weekend scrapped the multiple charges by fixed line operators. The development followed a limited mobility service dispute between telephone operators. Limited mobility allows operators to provide a form of mobile telephony to subscribers only within the local circle.The NCC said private Telecommunications Operators (PTOs) were not licensed to provide mobile telephone service (limited mobile service) and therefore do not have the right to charge subscribers different rates for their mobile and fixed lines.
TELECOM RATES, OFFERS AND COVERAGE- Kenyan mobile telephone service provider Safaricom will extend its services to Garissa, Mandera and Wajir in the next three months. - Celtel Uganda has promised subscribers more value added services this year. The Managing Director, Mr Lars Anderson, told The Monitor, January 15, that the company would "expand the market by opening up services for a broader audience. That is one of the reasons we decided to design a new promotion to last for a month," he said. The promotion that ends February 29, will have Celtel sim packs being sold as low as Shs 12,000 inclusive of Shs 5,000 worth of airtime. Also, customers who get connected before January 31, will make calls to other Celtel subscribers free of charge - between 9.00 pm to 8.00 am till February 29. - As past of its USD50 million expansion Celtel Zambia Ltd is seeking to link up with other operators in Malawi, Tanzania and Democratic Republic of Congo. It also hopes to snare more than 3,000 new subscribers from both Western and North-Western provinces when it launches its network before the end of March. - Angola’s cellphone operator Movicel Telecommunication Limited last week in Luanda pledged to put an end this week to the problems that appeared in the system, such as communication disturbances, account losses and hikings and mailbox interference. - MTC is planning an upgrade of the Windhoek switch at a cost of N$23 million. The switch will be upgraded from a Siemens SR8 to a Siemens SR10. MTC will also have their IN platform upgraded to handle 300 000 Tango customers.
MOROCCO’S MTDS WOOS ADSL CUSTOMERS FOR SERVICE LAUNCH IN FEBRUARYThere are currently three ADSL service providersin Morocco, Menara (subsidiary of Maroc Telecom/Vivendi), Wanadoo (subsidiary of France Telecom), and us, MTDS. We all pay Maroc Telecom the same prices for Internet access, ADSL access, etc, so there is a virtual "level playing field" among the ADSL providers in Morocco, as long as Menara is not too favorably treated by its generous parent. All provide broadband ADSL access throughout the entire Kingdom and the prices are very similar. There are two outstanding issues which are likely to be resolved in the coming weeks.At the present time, both Wanadoo and MTDS must ask our customers to sign a Maroc Telecom (MT) ADSL access contract as well as our own contract for providing Internet. MTDS has been informed by MT and the regulator ANRT that in the coming weeks it will be permitted to integrate the MT monthly ADSL charges and present our customers with a single bill. For those of you that are already subscribed to ADSL, it will be able to eliminate this clumsy "double bill" arrangement soon. The other issue is the issue of monthly traffic limits. The existing MT rules put a "cap" on the monthly amount of data transferred during business hours (8:00 - 20:00) depending on the products you buy, i.e. 128, 256, 512 and charge a per Mo surplus. As MTDS’s MD Karl Stanzick told us:"This is unique in the world market and I strongly believe that this is not a sustainable policy and that it will be changed in the coming months. The issue has been put to the ANRT and we are awaiting their decision". "We are very impressed with the response to this new product and are shooting for 1,000 ADSL subscribers by the end of the year. On average, it is taking between 5 and 10 days for installation and technically things are all working very well". For more information about MTDS’ offer, please check www.mtds.com/prodserv or call us at 037674861. ECOBAND & IP PLANET PROVIDE CONNECTIVITY TO KOFI ANNAN CENTREEcoband Networks and IP Planet are the Internet connectivity providers for the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) inaugurated by the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on January 24 th 2004 in the presence of his Excellency President J.A. Kufuor. Ecoband Networks Ltd. has been selected as the local Internet supplier to the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC). The centre will educate both civilians and soldiers, from various West African countries for peacekeeping missions and is equipped with the latest multimedia and information technology classroom environment. Besides the Internet backbone connectivity via the IP Planet VipSAT VSAT platform, Ecoband provides hosting service for the Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Center accessible on the Internet at www.kaiptc.org. Ecoband Networks’ strategic partnership in West Africa with IP Planet Network Ltd. IN BRIEF- Standard Bank’s aggressive marketing of its online banking services seems to be paying off, with the value of transactions surging by 164% to R11 billion last year. The bank says that growth in online applications for the bank’s products and services was up 120% and on average 126 000 unique users visited the site every month, representing an almost 40% growth from the previous year. The site served up just over 27 million page impressions. - The Tanzania Internet Exchange has 4 ISPs attached and is at around 100 kbps during daylight hours. For more info: http://www.tix.or.tz/ - Three Regional Communication organizations in Africa have signed an agreement to link up the African Postal Space through satellite communication in order to usher in electronic postal services. The Regional African Satellite Communication Organization (RAPCOM), the Pan-African Postal Union (PAPU) and the African Telecommunication Union (ATU) on Saturday, January 16, 2004 jointly signed the agreement in Addis Ababa at a ceremony chaired by Prof. Alpha Oumar Konaré, the Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union.The Secretary General of the Pan-African Postal Union (PAPU), Mr. Jilani BEN Haddada, disclosed that the African Satellite project will be launched in 2006 to link up 30,000 post offices within the African continent.
MICROSOFT TO INVEST USD1 BILLION IN EGYPT, MOROCCO AND MOZAMBIQUEA USD1 billion package of investments may soon be injected by Microsoft into the information technology (IT) sectors of three African countries, Egypt, Morocco and Mozambique. The initiative is a fall-out of Microsoft chairman, Bill Gates’ visit to Egypt, which began last Saturday. Highlights of the initiative, according to Egypt’s Communication Minister, Ahmed Nazif include a focus "on efforts of development through creating awareness on the importance of technology in these societies." The agreement with the Microsoft chief, he said, was concluded at Davos Economic Forum late last year. For the first time, Microsoft is holding its regional meeting in Egypt in acknowledgement of the giant strides the country has made in the usage of IT as an instrument of developmental activities. (SOURCE: The Guardian) SA’S NEWEST BUDGET AIRLINE FLIES WITH ORACLE AND PORTAUNIVERSEPortal Universe today launched PortalUniverse ARDCS, aimed at the local and international low-cost/low-fare airline market, and confirmed that 1time, SA’s newest low-fare airline, is the first airline to purchase the system. 1time starts operations on Wednesday, 25 February, with three return flights a day on the Johannesburg - Cape Town route. A passenger will pay R581 or less for any seat, on any flight and on any day. Built on Oracle9i Database and Oracle’s latest Application Server 10g, PortalUniversARDCS consists of four components: a booking engine for public, call centre and airport office staff users; an airport operations system for check-in, boarding gate and baggage control; a financial function to maximise yield and revenue, and a corporate portal interface for authorised corporate clients to book at a pre-negotiated price per ticket. "1time is privately owned and in a position to take advantage of unique opportunities to achieve operating costs materially lower than its competitors," says Rodney James, marketing and operations director at 1time. "As a result, passengers benefit from flying with an airline of world-class standard at low fares." A unique feature of PortalUniverse ARDCS is the way in which it pre-seats passengers at check-in, says Leonard Harley, MD at Portal Universe. "When a passenger checks in with their ID and proof of payment, our ARDCS pre-seats them according to the loading pattern of the aircraft, and then, within these parameters, they have a seating choice. We also cater for the management and payment of excess baggage in real-time at the check-in counter." (SOURCE: ICT World) IN BRIEF- Lechabile Storage Solutions has announced that they have successfully completed testing of a cost-effective computer-based storage system for video surveillance applications.The high cost of storing video on computer-based storage systems has inhibited the broad acceptance of this technology to date. However, the rapidly falling costs of data storage over the past year have enabled Lechabile Storage Solutions to develop a video surveillance solution suitable for the most demanding surveillance applications. The video surveillance solution is based on the latest industry standard MPEG-4 encoding technique (similar to the encoding technique used on commercial DVD’s). - SA’s World Computer Systems (WCS) has opened a new depot in Linbro Business Park in Johannesburg, part of a broad expansion strategy that will see the components distributor open new branches in major cities countrywide. - Sun Microsystems’ aggressive push into the entry-level server market has been well received in South Africa, with its reseller partner ICL announcing the sale of the first Intel-based Sun Fire V65x in Cape Town. According to ICL Cape account manager Ivar Kilian, Medway, a health insurance organisation, selected the V65x over branded and ‘white-box’ competitors. The competing branded solution was significantly more expensive than the V65x, while the white box was marginally cheaper. - The Eduplex Primary School in Pretoria, South Africa, has
become the first school in Africa, and one of the first schools
in the world, to be equipped with Automatic Frequency Synchronisation
(AFS) technological devices, fixed into classrooms and assembly
centres to assist learners with hearing problems.
AFRICAN MOBILE BATTLE HEATS UP AS MTN AND VODAFONE SNIFFING AT KENYAAs the African mobile market is now almost completely licensed, attention is now shifting to the competition for existing mobile companies in major markets. A major pan-continental fight is shaping up between MTN and Vodacom and it is difficult to predict who will win. MTN is still talking top Kencell and the Government’s need to fundraise for Telkom Kenya include selling part of its share to the UK’s Vodafone, who are also minority shareholders in Vodacom. According to a report in the East African Standard, the chief executive of Kencell, part-owned by France’s Vivendi Universal, has dismissed as "rumours" reports that South Africa’s MTN was about to buy a stake in the unit.Vivendi officials had said back in early 2002 that the company intended to sell shares in some of its companies, including Kencell, to cut its heavy debt. South Africa’s MTN, Mauritius Telecom and Netherlands-based MSI are some of the companies said to be interested in the 60 per cent stake. "Nothing has been done. Any noise coming from anybody is just rumours," Kencell Communications CEO Philippe Vandebrouck told Reuters. "MTN is one of the companies. They’re still interested, but there’s nothing new as far as I know," he said. Incumbent telco Telkom Kenya may off-load 11 per cent of shares in its mobile phone subsidiary, Safaricom, to Vodafone of the United Kingdom Such a move is being considered as a way for Telkom to raise funds for capital expenditure and pay off some of its debt. The proposal is contained in a new confidential government report that provides specific details on how the government intends approach privatisation of parastatals. Telkom and Vodafone are joint partners in Safaricom , with Telkom being the majority shareholder with a 60 per cent stake. If the proposal by the government is implemented, Vodafone will assume 51 per cent shareholding of the company, giving it majority ownership and control of Kenya’s first and largest mobile phone service provider. Under the arrangement 49 per cent of the remaining stake will be reduced further by floatation of 25 per cent of the shares on the Nairobi Stock Exchange. The remainder will strategically be retained by Telkom to be sold later. However, for the transaction to kick off, the parties have to come up with ways of lifting charges which lenders have on Safaricom shares. Firm to waive pre-emptive rights Both Telkom and Vodafone have charged their shareholding to Law Debenture Trust Corporation Plc to secure medium term notes for Sh4 billion and a five-year loan facility of 25 million euros. This charge extends to any new shares issued by Safaricom, hence the suggestion that Telkom sell 11 per cent of its shares in Safaricom to the British Company, to enable them to negotiate the lifting of the charge and thereby facilitate the sale of shares. Although Vodafone presently holds pre-emptive rights, it is expected to waive the rights to facilitate the transaction. An attempt by the government to sell 49 per cent of Telkom’s shares to a strategic investor two years ago came a cropper. In that transaction, the 49 per cent shares which were to be sold was to comprised of 23 per cent of the existing shares of the government and 26 per cent of new shares. Under the arrangement, part of the proceeds from the sale were to accrue to the government with the remaining going to Telkom for for expansion. With the deal having collapsed, Telkom was denied the expected financing. With no other sources of funds, Telkom has had to rely on internally generated funds and short-term supplier credit to finance its roll-out plans. The upshot is that the state-owned company has been unable to meet roll-out licence obligations to the Communications Commission of Kenya(CCK) -causing it to be penalised by the market regulator. (sources: East African Standard and The Nation) IN BRIEF- Econet was commended by Kingdom Stockbrokers for being the first company to release its interim results for the period ended 31st December 2004:"Even allowing for the fact that these are unaudited interim results, getting them into the market within 19 days of the reporting period shows excellent efficiency. The results were excellent. Turnover grew by 760%, well above the average inflation rate for the period to $61,974.5 million from the same period last year while operating profit grew by an impressive 1190% to $30,761.6 million. Improvement in operating profit is due to management’s strategy to contain costs and improve productivity. The gains in turnover translated into a significant jump in pre-tax profit, which went up significantly by 1640% to $34,908.5 million. Attributable profit amounted to $23,584.4 million, an increase of 1878% resulting in an increase in basic earnings per share of 965% to $14.71. An interim dividend of $7.35 was declared". - SA’s Infowave Holdings expects to report a decline in earnings of between 10% and 30% for the year to end-February. The group issued a trading statement last night, saying that this is despite the fact that turnover and operating profit levels are expected to be maintained. - SA’s Telkom shareholders last week approved an employee share incentive scheme allowing the fixed-line phone operator and its subsidiaries to purchase up to 4% of its shares, estimated to be worth R1,6bn.
VOODOO GOES ONLINE AS PART OF BENINOIS TRADITIONAL RELIGIOUS FESTIVALLIRE EN FRANCAIS APRES 15.00 GMT, 2 FEVRIER: US ONLINE STORE IN PACT WITH KENYA’S UCHUMI FOR DIASPORA BUYSA US virtual on-line store has entered into a pact with Uchumi Supermarkets to allow Kenyans abroad to shop for their friends at home. US-based MamaMike.com makes shopping easy through monthly vouchers. "Our agreement allows people to send assistance back home through shopping vouchers instead of hard cash," Mr Segeni Ng’ethe, a pioneer of MamaMike.com said. Families in Kenya have in the last six months received vouchers worth between Sh2,500 and Sh4,000 from the store’s Nairobi office at Kenwood House, Kimathi Street, he said, adding that the vouchers are valid at any Uchumi store countrywide. "Uchumi vouchers can be used to provide for your loved ones at home every month, or surprise them on occasions like birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and such holidays as Valentine, Easter and Christmas," said Mr Ng’ethe. The procedure was automated and subscribers received regular updates on the status of their vouchers by e-mail, he said. MamaMike.com was started in 2000 by Mr Ng’ethe and Ms Wachuka Kebuchi. Customers usually pay by credit cards or international money orders for those living outside the US. (SOURCE: Daily Nation) IN BRIEF- Microsoft founder Bill Gates has inaugurated the Egyptian government’s first web portal. He said Microsoft was involved in providing low-cost computers in Egypt and working on e-government to create more openness and efficiency. There is a lot of potential here, he added.
HIGH SPEED WIRELESS BROADBAND INTERNET ACCESS A REALITYWith the recent announcement of Motorola’s new fixed wireless access system, Canopy, residential and small business customers can now look forward to affordable access to the Internet at Broadband speeds of up to 6 Mbps (aggregate data rate). ISPs also look set to benefit with new business opportunities and an extended customer base. Already being widely implemented across the U.S. and emerging economies in Eastern Europe, the Canopy system uses the 5GHz frequency spectrum and is licence-free in the countries where it is being deployed. It is the ideal solution for geographic areas where cable and DSL services are unavailable or system deployment is not feasible due to infrastructure costs. According to Nik Patel, business manager at Motorola’s Commercial, Government & Industrial Solutions Sector (CGISS): Middle East and Africa (MEA), access requirements and Internet usage needs vary widely across different communities, business and individual households, and the company is beginning to see more diversity emerge in the delivery of telecommunications. "As a leader in end-to-end systems for the delivery of interactive digital video, voice and high-speed data solutions for broadband operators, Motorola’s Canopy system will support additional delivery options for community networks, wireless and community service providers and small- to medium-sized private networks," he says. The system consists of three core components: a subscriber module (which connects via Ethernet to a user’s computer or network), an access point with integrated antennae (interfaces via Ethernet to serve the subscriber modules) and a backhaul module (for serving greater distances). Canopy is scalable for meeting user needs with each access point capable of serving up to 200 subscriber modules. "Each access point has a reach of approximately 5 kilometres but can be extended up to 15 kilometres using the Canopy reflector kit. However, should greater distances be required, 20Mb/s backhaul units can be linked together to reach distances of up to 50 kilometres and they can even be daisy-chained to create numerous links of up to 50 kilometres each," adds Patel. Canopy’s simple network design makes it easy to install and there is no need to run overhead or in-ground wire, install microwave links or software. Intelligent protocols also make the deployment and operation of a large wireless network easy and cost-effective. The access point modules also feature all the network management and diagnostic capabilities needed to control and monitor the network remotely. Patel notes the inherent flexibility of the system, indicating how easily it can be adapted to serve the needs of many customer communities and specific configurations. "The point-to-multipoint application is ideal for providing high-speed Internet access in cluster villages and small business parks, while the backhaul application could be used as a dedicated data link - well suited for small business enterprises. In addition, security companies could use Canopy to interconnect CCTV equipment and relay images to a central control station," he says. The Canopy solution is highly scalable to accommodate changing needs, wider geographic areas, larger populations and higher traffic volumes. And with its high tolerance for interference and directional antennas, adding new transmitters creates more capacity ­ not more interference. "Apart from delivering superior performance using a modulation scheme that improves the quality of data delivery and mitigating interference from other systems, Canopy also offers security with over-the-air encryption that scrambles data bits and helps prevent interception," concludes Patel.
PEOPLE* US e-learning company Skills2Learn has invested R6m in SA to tap into the demand for skills development.Chairman Frank Keery said the company had decided to open a branch in SA because there was a huge market potential here for training."Unfortunately the market has not evolved the way it should, given the massive amount of skills development that is necessary here," he said."Companies whose employees do not have skills that are competitive worldwide will have difficulty playing in the first world markets. * Managing Director Michel Fayeaux of Côte d’Ivoire Télécom told journalist last week:"Côte d’Ivoire Télécom is ready to confront competition. But regulation must be done in a way that is clearly defined. He said that everybody could see what the companyt had done during the civil war. It had invested 300 billion FCFAs, installed fibre networks and launched 15 new products, including Fidelis. He said customers could now access a website-offered VOIP service that gave them lower cost calls. * On the move: SA’s Telkom has appointed a chief financial officer (CFO) to replace Anthony Lewis, who returned to the US last year. Kaushik Patel, who was named acting CFO in August, has been appointed to the post on a permanent basis. Patel joined Telkom as deputy CFO in 2000, before which he served as financial director at Teba Bank from 1999 and finance executive at The African Bank from 1997...Following the recent resignation of Dan van der Westhuizen, Computer Associates (CA) has appointed Gary Lawrence to take over as the company’s SA country manager... Sun Microsystems has appointed Vito Bonafede as the new regional director for the sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region...Rob Hewitt has left Ametelco to return to the UK.
EVENTSAfNOG WORKSHOP IN MAY IN WEST AFRICA In conjunction with the fifth meeting of African Network Operators Group (AfNOG) in May 2004 (http://www.afnog.org), AfNOG is holding a Network Technology Workshop prior to the meeting. The workshop will be held in facilities of the Novotel Hotel, Dakar, Senegal, during May 16 - May 21, 2004. (see http://www.accorhotels.com/accorhotels/fichehotel/gb/nov/0529/ fiche_hotel.shtml). The workshop will offer advanced training to operators of existing African Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who are participants in the process of developing and enhancing a national Internet with regional and international connectivity.Attendance at the workshop includes attendance at the AfNOG 2004 meeting, and planned AfriNIC meeting sessions (http://www.afrinic.org), which will be held in Dakar on May 23rd - 24th, following the workshop. FIRST NATIONAL RWANDA ICT CONVENTION The first national computing & telecommunications exhibition
and conference ICT IN GOVERNMENT INTERNATIONAL SUMMIT The ICT in Government Programme has become the most comprehensive industry reference of information and communications technology (ICT) in government for the Sub Saharan region and an essential tool for all stakeholders, including those interested in doing business with the government. This year, Forge Ahead is hosting the ICT in Government International Summit which is anticipated to attract more than 250 delegates South African as well as Sub Saharan governments. A strong seminar programme augments this event programme with each seminar covering a specific topic pertinent to the current market, such as Anti-Corruption, Public Private Partnerships and e-Government. Venue: Sandton Convention Centre For details phone: Kgomotso Komati (011 540 8200)
JOBS AND OPPORTUNITIES- Nigeria’s Starcomms is looking for an Events and Promotion Executive to provide execute and direction of all events and promitonal activities of the company. For details contact: Ms. Phyllis Molokwu on 234-1-8049791
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