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WEEKLY PUBLICATION DEADLINE: 12 pm GMT Sunday. ISSUE NO 251 AND THEY'RE OFF: AFRICA'S FIRST LEGAL VOIP SERVICES SET A CRACKING PACELegalised VoIP services are slowly creeping on to the mainland continent of Africa. South Africa has legalised them and Kenya was due to follow before the Kenyan Government sacked its regulator. Last week the Egyptian regulator, NTRA announced significant changes to its attitude to VOIP including legalising PC to PC telephony, a significant move in a country with many computer users. Until now VoIP services have existed in the grey margins but they will now have to compete in the cold light of public competition. Before February 1st, regulatory restrictions had prevented South African companies from reaping the benefits of converged voice and data networks through VoIP applications. In the past two months since the deregulation of the telecoms industry came into force, South Africa has witnessed a number of VoIP offerings enter the market as telecommunication service providers capitalise on the legalisation of this voice service. Although the provision of VoIP services existed before liberalisation companies are now introducing "above-board" VoIP products. The first offerings have came from Datapro, Internet Solutions and Storm who have been rolling out their different VoIP services since February 1st while MWEB has recently launched the first product in its range of VoIP solutions. Despite the different features of each package, all four service providers claim to offer the most cost-effective and reliable solution. Mapara Syed compares the different offerings and looks at what each service has to offer as well as what VoIP developments are occurring across the continent. Over the past week MWEB Business, the division of MWEB that focuses on the specialised needs of businesses, has been heavily marketing its initial VoIP offering. OfficeCall has been designed to reduce the inter-branch call charges for businesses with offices operating from two or more locations. MWEB claim that OfficeCall will realise substantial cost savings on customers' inter-branch telephone calls by converging voice and data onto a single network. "The calls are free so all they pay is the fixed monthly rental which starts from R200 plus an extra charge of R30 for itemised billing," says Barry Collins, the Product Manager at MWEB Business. The fixed monthly charges increase with the different variations of the OfficeCall product, from which customers can choose between analogue and ISDN access options. Both the analogue and ISDN range require an installation fee of R1,800. OfficeCall is also intended to integrate seamlessly with existing telecommunication equipment, negating the need for large capital outlays. "We may not be the cheapest in comparison to other services but we are the most cost-effective as our customers do not have to replace their existing equipment. We just come and attach our VoIP box to their exchange and off they go," Collins added. The OfficeCall range is furthermore supplied with bandwidth saving and compression features to ensure the quality and speed of an existing data network is not compromised when voice is added, while on the other hand, a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) network ensures priority is always given to voice traffic. In addition, should the call quality deteriorate below a predetermined standard, the call will automatically switch to public switched telephone network (PSTN) lines, which means that call quality is never impaired as a result of the unavailability or deterioration of VOIP data lines. Although MWEB have made the assertion that their first VOIP offering has been designed with the needs of various sized businesses in mind, in fact they are targeting a very niche market at the moment. "It’s a small market at present because you have to bear in mind that we can only attract companies with more than 3 or 4 branches," says Collins. "We have a couple of clients already (since roll-out on 25th February) but once we break out with our international and cellular services in mid-June, that’s when our VoIP product will boom and really take off." According to Collins, MWEB will be offering 30-40% savings on international calls and calls to mobiles when these VoIP services are introduced in the summer. Everyone is currently rolling out their services in phases, including new entrant Internet Solutions: "We’ve started with a certain suite of services but the message we are going to market with is very much a migration service so the offering we have available now is a fraction of what we are going to have available come mid-year, year-end, next year and a continual evolution," says Greg Hatfield, General Manager of Voice Solutions at IS. "The VoIP market in South Africa is still very immature so people are not likely to go for the big bang approach. We’ve offered our customers the ability to let them walk before they runs so it’s very much an evolutionary process." The stage-by-stage rollout of VoIS has been implemented with an initial four services. The first product is VoIS branch-to-branch and is limited to their VPN clients whose wide area network IS run. "For them the transition is a very easy step. They literally just have to reconfigure their PBX to send some calls over IS as opposed to the national carrier Telkom," says Hatfield. Technically, the service is delivered by essentially segmenting a layer on the network, which serves as the transmission infrastructure, and allocating it to voice traffic as opposed to data. "These types of traffic do share each others capacity so if no calls are being made the data bursts into that additional capacity therefore it’s good utilisation of the infrastructure," claims Hatfield. "On the back of our VPN logically we have always had a voice plane so because it is a MPLS network we have got various classes of traffic in terms of priority. Voice is the highest priority." In terms of the raw circuits, the MPLS VPN network is leased from the incumbent Telkom who serves as the only facilities provider in the country but IS manage this network entirely extending across South Africa into Hong Kong, New York and London and various links between there. This service is charged on a voice channel basis. The channel is purchased for a fixed R1100 a month (R2000 for an international channel) and depending on how well the customer utilises that channel, their effective price per minute fluctuates. "If flatlined the cost per min averages out to 10c a call, which is a substantial saving on Telkom’s 80c a call," says Hatfield. "Realistically, if the customer only gets 50% utilisation out of the channel they are still paying effectively 20c a call, which is still a quarter of Telkom’s rate. So even if the customer doesn’t use the channel particularly well, they still have quite a lot of money to save." The second cost-saving product from the VoIS range is the outbound global service. Unlike the inter-branch service, which requires the different branches to be connected to the network, customers of the global service just need one leased circuit into the IS node. "Again it’s a simple implementation task as the PBX just has to be reconfigured to decide that anything with a 09 prefix is routed to IS instead of Telkom," claims Hatfield. "Through our interconnect with AT&T in New York and Teleglobe in London, we carry it on to them who have onward connections and can terminate the call for us anywhere in the world." At R1.04 the price of these international calls save 30-40% when Telkom’s rate of R1.50 (excluding VAT) is used as a benchmark. The third and fourth products of the VoIS suite are also delivered using this global network and IS’s nodes abroad. VoIS Contact is especially designed for contact centres, established by foreign companies in South Africa, where IS acts as the carrier instead of Telkom. "We receive calls into our international nodes, carry them down to South Africa and then pass the call on to wherever the call centre may be," says Hatfield. Similarly, the Voice National service is delivered through international re-filing. "We use a more cost-effective route rather than a direct route so we take the international calls to AT&T or Telegllobe in London and they bring them back into South Africa with their existing interconnect agreement with Telkom," adds Hatfield. The reason being is that currently IS do not have interconnect with Telkom so have to dial-out into their network, which is more expensive. "With interconnect we can handle wholesale minutes to Telkom at 10c/min as opposed to 56c/min, which we are currently paying to dial into their network," says Hatfield. "At 70c/min through the re-filing method, customers only make 10-15% saving, which is not enough to motivate a customer to move operators. Using interconnect, a national service then becomes a lot more sustainable and feasible. The service at present is just an interim solution until the regulator obligates Telkom to interconnect with us. We make less of a saving and virtually no margin as a service provider but we are willing to incur risks to ensure we have something on offer nationally to compliment the other more cost-saving products and complete the whole range." Greg Hatfield believes that Telkom’s recent tariff changes are actually a tactical approach to make it more difficult for VoIP operators to sustain a cost-effective national service using the present dial-out system. "By lowering the national rate we now have less room to play with after we pay the dial-out cost of 56c, which now leaves us 24c to try and make a saving with," he adds. If the interconnect framework is published and promulgated into law by the end of the year, IS intend to rollout the remaining VoIP products. "Future services will include allowing customers to call each other on the IS network, which is the On-Net call scenario. Once interconnect is in place and we have access to the Number Plan, which ICASA are also resolving, we can terminate cellular traffic and receive inbound calls," explains Hatfield. At present, all the services from IS are virtually no risk because if the IS network goes down or they have under-provisioned capacity, voice calls will overflow and dynamically route back to Telkom, as with a lot of the other VoIP offerings. "We are not saying to our customers to sever their link with Telkom but just saying to make a decision to route some of the calls to IS. However, once we reach a stage when we can offer every kind of service, IS will be able to be a complete telco and have full telco capability so customers can then dispose their link to Telkom." At the moment, IS’s strategy is corporate and channel as opposed to consumer. "Our target is corporate because due to the low penetration of broadband in South Africa, everybody in the corporate space can benefit from VoIP whereas only a few people in the consumer space can benefit. The opportunity for the consumers in the VoIP space is limited to those that have DSL connectivity," says Hatfield. Hatfield went on to say that "IS is positioning itself in the VoIP market as not the cheapest provider but a toll quality operator with corporate focused voice quality with some cost savings. But we are acutely aware of the demand particularly coming from consumer, SOHO and SME markets for a much more price competitive and be it, a somewhat prejudiced quality service. With this in mind, we are going to be to be differentiating downwards and offering a more competitive pricing perspective, potentially an internet telephony type service like Skype. So come mid-year, around May or June, we absolutely fully intend to have a consumer broadband VoIP service available in South Africa." With regard to the rest of the continent, Hatfield is keen to express the importance of Africa to IS. "Whenever IS places a node in say, Nigeria, it is always voice reading so fully fitted with gateways to dial into and receive calls from the PSTN and any of those sorts of services," he explains. "There is a large enterprise market in Africa where lots of American, European and Asian businesses are setting up shop so to speak. Therefore, we will absolutely be able to provide all VoIP services, bar the call centre option as it may not be applicable, to wherever the client may be." However, with 250 corporates and around 2500 branches connected to IS as well as an online community of around 4000, only about nine of these clients have signed on to VoIS. "We have been planning and testing our product since September 2004 when the liberalisation announcement was made but we are still starting from scratch. We have invested a lot of money like installing a billing engine and we are currently busy implementing our Broad Soft solution in regards to IS’s soft switch, says Hatfield. "We have 4000 customers with leased line connectivity so it’s just a matter of converting them from data customers to VoIP customers. Through our channel and various dial-up ISP resellers like MWEB and Tiscali, about 60-70% of dial-up customers dial into an IS node so we intend to deliver our VoIP strategy through them as well. Our perception though is that the market will take some time convincing to mass migrate, even when we do become a full telco, which we are aiming to achieve legally and technically by 2006 if the interconnect and Number Plan issues are resolved." One company that seems to be attracting a much larger customer base so far is Storm. Currently, the business voice and internet service provider has a total number of customers in the region of hundreds and is signing up dozens of customers a week to the service, according to joint CEO, Tim Parsonson. Storm’s VoIP solution has officially been in the market since the beginning of February but has been in operation on a trial basis since September 2004. Storm believes that their service is appealing not only because of the cost savings but as a result of the manageable solution they have come up with through years of voice telecoms expertise. "In terms of the packaging of the product, one of the big issues about VoIP is that to date it’s a new technology obviously and a lot of people are uncertain about it. Therefore, people will go and buy expensive new equipment and then they will upgrade their existing fixed capacity or they’ll get new fixed capacity to cater for voice because they need a certain amount of fixed capacity. So the fixed cost increases quite a lot. Now they do that on the basis that they expect to capture all the calls and lower their variable cost so that they can make a return," explains Parsonson. "What we find is that a lot of customers don’t know how to manage this so they’ll put it in and find that things go wrong, equipment goes down and then a couple of months later they realise that actually they haven’t been capturing as many of the calls. As a result, the calls will be going all over the PSTN at normal rate and they have this additional fixed cost to add. So what Storm is doing is putting in a service where basically we don’t charge for the gateway, we don’t charge for any of the bandwidth so there’s no ISP cost. We put the gateway in at our cost and we put all the bandwidth in. We manage that and we give a service delivery agreement to say that we guarantee that we’ll capture your traffic as well providing quality, and then we just charge a per minute rate. So essentially our customers are just paying for the calls they use, which differentiates us from the other VoIP operators." He went on to say that "the bottom line is once you’re sitting in front of it nobody’s actually really interested in VoIP, everybody’s just interested in saving money so the more they get into the technology aspect the more loss they’re going to encounter. The problem with other such solutions that we found is that the customers take quite a lot of risk on that technology and it doesn’t work so they actually lose money. So what we try and do is just take all of that risk out of the equation." The VoIP service is delivered through a permanent internet connection into the company, which is not dial-up nor wireless nor ADSL and is not provided over other existing ISP connections. "What we at Storm are doing is that we will sell our VoIP solution to a customer/company and on the back of that we will then put in a permanent connection using Telkom’s diginet service so it’s a leased line. That connects the company to Storm and then what we do is we put a VoIP gateway on the back of their existing PABX so they don’t have to change it. We will then interconnect all or some of the ports coming out of the PABX into that gateway and then that gateway converts it into VoIP and it goes into the IP connection," described Parsonson. "We also monitor the IP network so if for some reason the IP quality goes down and the diginet service breaks at Telkom’s end, all the calls will automatically transfer to Telkom’s PSTN. So it gives total peace of mind." However, by using a diginet service Storm have encountered a problem. Most businesses in South Africa are turning from diginet connections to broadband and leased line solutions of broadband, which is an issue for Storm as more money is saved with when using broadband connections. Nevertheless, Tim Parsonson is not phased by this factor. "A lot of have businesses have been coming back to a diginet service because Telkom have put in lots of restrictions into its DSL offer, by capping bandwidth and not providing fixed IP addresses, which is not very good for a corporate environment. Because of all of these features that Telkom has built into the offer at the moment, which they have done purely because they don’t want to cannibalise their diginet network, it’s not really a great service. For small businesses it’s quite good but it doesn’t really work with VoIP." Storm’s VoIP customers pay 30-55c/min to any number in South Africa, resulting in a 30-60% saving when compared to Telkom’s national rate, and R1.05 from a fixed line to a mobile. "If you call any other Storm customer, which will be obviously if you’re a multi-branch company, it will be any one of your other branches or in fact any other Storm VoIP customer, then there’s an on-net charge, which is about 60-70% cheaper than Telkom’s national service," adds Parsonson. Aimed at business customers making over 5000 minutes of international calls a month, overseas charges vary depending on the destination but a typical rate is 80c/min to somewhere like the UK, which is just over half of what Telkom’s global calling rate is. In terms of the quality of the calls Storm customers can expect when using VoIP, Tim Parsonson claims that the quality is "genuinely indistinguishable." He compares the quality of Storm’s VoIP solution to services like Skype. "If you put it in and you do it right, you don’t notice a difference. If my customers look at using VoIP they can look easy things like Skype, it’s an amazing product but sometimes it can work great and sometimes it won’t work at all. This is because if you do voice over the free for all internet then nobody’s managing the quality of that data bandwidth. If that IP bandwidth fluctuates this will affect the quality by upsetting the bit speeds of which the data packets can go through and affect how consistent it all is. VoIP is very sensitive to those quality effects so in South Africa where we have much less internet bandwidth and businesses are working on very thin connections in comparison to somewhere like the UK, you’ve got to manage that quality of service very tightly. So for consumers Skype is great because it’s a free service but for businesses, where making quality voice calls is essential for the day-to-day operations, it’s terrible." Although Storm is a corporate focused provider, they do have consumer offerings and aim to take their VoIP service to the consumer market. "We do pre-pay cards for consumers but we don’t operate as Storm. We offer it to resellers and they re-brand it and then offer it on to their customers. When the DSL issue is resolved and the SNO gets its act together so there’s some competition and a bit more of an ADSL market out there, then I think we will combine voice with ADSL and take our VoIP service to the consumer market," says Parsonson. "It’s actually a killer application because if people get tonnes of bandwidth for their internet and they get very cheap or free phone calls, they can eradicate their monthly charges for their phone rental. So when broadband really comes to South Africa, domestic VoIP is going to be a massive thing," he adds. Along with Storm, Datapro has been also offering a full range of VoIP services since the liberalisation of the market. "We started dabbling in voice services around two to three years ago but only implemented these services in South Africa when VoIP became legal essentially," says Datapro Managing Director, Douglas Reid. It is because of this past experience that Reid believes that Datapro have the upper hand in the VoIP market. "Other VoIP providers don’t have the experience with voice like us and providers of voice don’t have experience in relation to the internet. We already had our gateways and switches and interconnect and so forth in place so we had an advantage over the other local providers to begin with and that is why we are quite ahead." With around 40 VoIP customers to date, Reid believes the service is growing fairly fast as Datapro sell into their corporate base of 3000-4000. The cost of the service varies depending on product category. At the moment customers who normally expect to pay R30,000 or more in telephone bills can appreciate a 35% saving on their entire bill, according to Reid, who adds that there also exists a service for SMEs. The 35% economising incorporates roughly a 70% saving on international calls, 35% on cellular calls and 10% on local calls. "On net charges are lower obviously so the savings are 70-80% on local calls and 65-80% on international calls depending on the destination of the call," says Reid. In contrast to the SA market, those planning VoIP services in Kenya at the moment have been largely focusing on the consumer space in addition to the corporates. A number of VoIP services are planned in Kenya offering competitive rates and quality voice calls. At present, these VoIP offerings cannot be divulged due to recent developments in Kenya with the dissolution of the regulatory body, which has left VoIP provision and other breakthrough services very much in limbo. Elsewhere in Africa, Egypt has announced its intention to legalise VoIP. In a report released by the country’s National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority, the general regulations for the provision of this service are outlined. Although many of the policies adopt a cautious line the most notable inclusion is that PC-to-PC services, like Skype, will be permissible and do not necessitate licensing from NTRA. In a country with a large proportion of PC users this regulation will have a significant impact. In regards to VoIP for internal usage in organisations, these services will be provided on networks established by companies and authorities for private purposes and these private networks will be monitored by the main networks according to the license issued to the latter (Egypt Telecom and data companies). Licenses for VPN services will be issued to data companies and will be restricted to clients of such companies. Other limitations include not being able to obtain a number plan and connecting a mobile or fixed telecommunications network.
SAT3/SAFE FIBRE MONOPOLY: NOW MAURITIUS TELECOM COMES UNDER FIREAfter brewing challenges to the SAT3/SAFE fibre monopoly in Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa, Mauritius Telecom is now being challenged to give up its stranglehold on the SAFE cable. The Government has asked the Information and Communications Technologies Authority to appoint a consultant to look at the best options for ending Mauritius Telecom's monopoly on the fibre. Mauritius is almost wholly dependent upon this fibre route for its connections to the rest of the world. The goal of the study is to find a way of compensating Mauritius Telecom for loss of income. It invested a billion MR in the project and has monopoly rights over its use. The current tariff is USD11,800 for a 2 mbps link which is more expensive than current global prices; particularly in comparison with Reunion and India. The former is an interesting case because as a French "department" it has bandwidth prices that are low, reflecting those found in France. The consultant has been set the task of calculating what loss of revenue there would be if it lost its monopoly. As a 60% shareholder in Mauritius Telecom, the Government will be in a curious position. Does it compensate itself or defend its own asset value? (source: L'Express) LIRE EN FRANCAIS APRES 15.00 HRS GMT, 3 AVRIL: http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/french.html
CAMTEL SET TO TAKE ON MTN AND ORANGE IN THE MOBILE MARKETThe new D-G of the beleagured Cameroonian incumbent Camtel David Nkoto Emane announced last week that it would fight back by setting up a mobile operation in competition with MTN and Orange. He announced last week that "everything is now in place for the imminent exploitation of our network for mobile usres." He said the feasibility study for this development had been validated by the ITU. He said that Camtel had a three-part plan to address the technical, financial and commercial aspects of the business. He said that he wanted to make the minimum investment needed to address the various delays the network was experiencing. This further level of competition is likely to benefit users in two ways: prices will fall and service should also improve. (source: Cameroon Tribune) LIRE EN FRANCAIS APRES 15.00 HRS GMT, 3 AVRIL: http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/french.html TESPOK DEMANDS ANSWERS FROM KENYAN GOVT OVER CCK DEBACLEThe Kenya internet and telecoms sector lobby has written to the Secretary of the Cabinet of the Kenyan Government to ask what the Government proposes to do about its regulator CCK to restore investor confidence. The letter reads: "We have raised a public outcry over this action, which has brought development of the Kenyan ICT sector to an abrupt halt. The ICT sector is one of the most dynamic sectors in the economy. The action taken by the government has caused great panic and alarm in the minds and the hearts of investors, both local and foreign. It is generally understood that any regulator of any sector is meant to be independent and free from interference from any quarter. It is also generally understood that the executives and board of such regulators are accorded tenure of office to ensure stability, predictability and confidence towards those operating within the sector. It is also understood actions taken by the government contravene the Kenya Communications Act 1998 and are therefore illegal". "We hereby urgently request that the action taken by the government be rescinded and the entire Board and officers of the CCK be reinstated and any allegations of impropriety be properly investigated on an individual basis. We also humbly request that the cabinet and ministers be cautioned against sudden, hurried and intrusive actions, which are continuing to erode the confidence that H. E. The President Hon Mwai Kibaki has engendered amongst the business community". It is clear that the Government hopes that this row will go away but it currently shows few signs of doing so. The Government has yet to address how it will proceed and what the substance of the allegations are against those that it has asked to step down at CCK. Without answers to both of these questions, the row is set to rumble on, undermining investor confidence in Kenya. NOKIA LOOKS TO INCREASE EARNINGS FROM AFRICAHandset manufacturer Nokia says it remains committed to the African continent because it views it as one of the most critical, exciting and promising emerging markets, together with Asia and Latin America. Speaking this morning in Sandton, Mika Niemi, Nokia's senior marketing manager of customer and market operations Africa, said that although he could not give exact figures, the company expects Africa to substantially contribute to the company's earnings. "Whereas SA is in its second phase of cellular phone adoption, which is the replacement stage, most of the rest of the continent is in the initial adoption stages and is experiencing the handsets for the first time," he said. Niemi added that although the continent is somewhat segmented, having both advanced users and first time users, Nokia is in a position to satisfy consumers' needs with products that range from youth-targeted handsets to more business-oriented smart devices. "Nokia also recognises that handsets are no longer just a communication tool, but also an important part of an individual's lifestyle." The company has identified aspects of African lifestyles, such as the love of music and fashion, added with the need to personalise aspects of individual handsets and has a number of marketing initiatives under way for specific consumer segments. "In the future, music will be a key feature for Nokia's mobile phones and consumption of music is huge among our target audience. This can already be seen through ringtones, video clips and a host of exciting musical technologies," he explained. Niemi concluded that Nokia views Africa as a dynamic and fast-growing continent and its marketing initiatives, such as Face of Africa and another with MTV Base, have been implemented to nurture the continent's natural talent, passion and energy for both fashion and music. (SOURCE: www.itweb.co.za) SA TELKOM'S TARIFFS STILL 'AMONGST THE HIGHEST IN THE WORLD'Last week, NUS Consulting released its latest survey, which says Telkom's high tariffs "continue to hamper South African organisations in their efforts to compete in the world's major markets". According to the study, an international call made from SA to New York costs $0.74 (R4.44) per minute, compared to a New York to London call of $0.7 (R4.20) per minute. The study cites SA and the US as having the highest international call rates among the 14 countries in which most of South African telecommunications transactions take place. These countries are the UK, US, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. NUS Consulting MD George Rahr says while Telkom should be applauded for its 49% and 10% rate cuts for international and long distance calls, these cuts are insignificant when compared with the reductions in other countries. Telkom media liaison officer Xolasi Vapi says Telkom's tariffs compare favourably with other Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development countries."For a long time Telkom has been using international calls and long distance national calls to subsidise the local call rate. We also have the problem of the cost of managing the local loop," he says.Vapi says Telkom's 28% price reduction in January for international calls was well received and the company has since seen an increase in the use of its network. (SOURCE: www.itweb.co.za) INTERCONNECT EXCHANGE NIGERIA BEGINS OPERATION NEXT MONTH TO ADDRESS INTERCONNECT AND INTER-BILLING PROBLEMSInadequate interconnect capacity and inter-carrier billing are the main areas of dispute between Nigeria's telecom operators. This is because a new organisation, Interconnect Exchange Nigeria Limited (ICN), is to roll out its services next month with the aim of solving these problems and others in the industry. Chief Operating Officer, Engineer Francis Chikelu, said: "Interconnection is one of the most serious problems that is emerging with the multi-operator, multi service scenario and open market conditions of the Nigerian telecom industry," noting that "with the increase in the number of operators in different services, the number of interconnect links between operators will increase in multiples and very soon, will become unmanageable." Chikelu said the combination of interconnect exchange cum inter-carrier billing being implemented by ICN will nip this problems in the bud by crating a modern and efficient telecommunication infrastructure for interconnecting telecom operators in the country. Other advantages of the Interconnect Exchange which next will serve as clearinghouse for all telecommunication service providers according to Chikelu, include: "optimization of number of interconnect links, simplicity in digit analysis/route selection, efficient handling of new and traditional interconnects, among others." More importantly, Chikelu said the new Interconnect Exchange by ensuring more efficient use of existing resources should provide consumers better value for their money. Interconnect Clearinghouse Nigeria Limited was granted a 10-year license in February 2004 by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to provide interconnect transit exchange services throughout Nigeria. According to Chikelu, a contract for the supply and installation equipment needed for the Lagos interconnect exchange has been signed with Siemens, which is already installing the equipment at the NECVOM House, Marina, Lagos. Also ICN has signed a two-year renewable operation and maintenance contract with Siemens for the interconnect Exchange. In addition, the contract for the supply and commissioning of the inter-carrier billing platform has been signed with INTEC Telecom systems, UK and work has also commenced on it's implementation, said Chikelu. He said additional interconnect exchanges will be established in Abuja and Port Harcourt by the middle of the year, as part of the second phase while the third phase will cover Interconnect Exchanges in eight other locations across the country. (SOURCE: This Day) ORASCOM TO BUILD ALGERIA-MARSEILLES FIBRE LINKOrascom Telecom Holding ("OTH") has formed two fully funded subsidiaries to build and operate undersea fiber optic cables to further expand its non-GSM Telecom Services segment. Telecom Services is an increasingly important contributor to OTH’s scale, growth and capabilities; consolidated revenue represents 8% of total OTH consolidated revenue in 2004. Telecom Services comprises a range of complementary businesses encompassing international communication services, handset procurement and retail distribution, bill presentment and collection services, value added services, and cell site construction services among others. The undersea cables will connect Algeria and Pakistan with international telecommunications hubs. OTH has selected Alcatel Submarine Networks and Tyco Telecommunications to supply infrastructure for the two new subsidiaries. An OTH company will install a 1,300 kilometer 10 Gigabit per second undersea cable system to connect Algiers and Annaba in Algeria with Marseilles in France to provide high quality, reliable connectivity between North Africa and Europe. The cable system will include a branching unit for optional extension of service to Tunisia. The Mediterranean cable project is expected to cost roughly € 26.0 million and has secured € 16.2 million in committed credit facilities. The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of OTH, plans to commence commercial operations in the second half of 2005. A separate OTH subsidiary will deploy a 1,200 kilometer 20 Gigabit per second undersea cable system to connect Karachi to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. The new company holds a 25 year non-exclusive license, granted in 2002, to establish, maintain and operate a private fiber optic landing station and sell capacity to licensed operators in Pakistan. The project, estimated to cost USD 34.3 million, is funded through a US$ 22.3 million seven year syndicated credit facility. The operation of this system is to commence in the second half of 2005. OTH owns 51.0% of the project, a joint venture with a regional investor. Naguib Sawiris, Chairman & CEO, of OTH stated, "The undersea cable systems will give Orascom Telecom an edge in our most significant markets, Algeria & Pakistan, and enhance our leading position as a full service telecommunications company providing all customers in these markets with quality international voice and data communications services. The projects also underscore our confidence in and commitment to the development of the telecommunications markets in Algeria and Pakistan." IN BRIEF- Algeria Telecom (AT), the incumbent operator in Algeria, has officially announced that Huawei won the Algeria National CDMA Network contract. Under the contract, Huawei Technologies will provide AT with CDMA network equipment to serve 430 thousand subscribers in the whole country. This is another cooperation with AT after Huawei CDMA was deployed in six eastern provinces in Algeria and CDMA EV DO commercially served Capital Alger. Now Huawei is the biggest CDMA supplier for AT. - As the ban on the importation of recharge cards by telecom companies took effect midnight Thursday, it has been revealed that about N12 billion revenue was made on recharge cards last year. A telecom operator and CEO of Startech Connections, Abuja, Ms. Anne Bresnahan, revealed that the Nigerian recharge cards market is worth about N11.7 billion annually. Bresnahan also said that profitability in the sector is about N7 billion or USD52 million. Basing her calculations on profit per card which he put at N7.00 per unit, the Startech Boss said a total of one billion cards were used in Nigeria in 2004. Revenue generated per card was approximately N11.7 per card for a total of one billion cards. This adds up to N11.7 billion naira in revenue generation or USD88 million. - The number of mobile subscribers in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and East African Community (EAC) regions will grow to 55 million by 2009, says African ICT analyst firm BMI-TechKnowledge. There are currently around 30 million mobile users in the regions. Brian Neilson, research director at BMI-T, says although SA has the most subscribers, it is expected that in future, an equal amount of new investment in telecoms infrastructure will come from other southern African countries. Neilson says SA alone has about 22 million mobile subscribers. By 2009, this could increase to around 30 million to 35 million subscribers, if one counts gross subscriber numbers.He says the EAC region, which includes Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, has a relatively untapped telecommunications market, giving it the next largest mobile sector growth potential after SA. - Kenyan cellco Safaricom has predicted that it will have 3.5 million customers by March 2006, thanks to rapid growth in the country’s cellular market as competition in the sector heats up. Safaricom recently integrated a new intelligent network (IN) platform into its network, with the help of Chinese equipment supplier Huawei Technologies, and has allocated over KES6 billion for the construction of over 300 new base transceiver (BTS) sites. - Members of the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force in Eritrea have been charged with ringing up more than USD500,000 in unpaid international calls in the country. According to the BBC, the fraud was unearthed in 2004 after officials found a huge discrepancy in the 2003 audit. The ‘irregularities’ include illegal practises such as stealing pin codes and flaunting the one-minute grace period allowed before being charged for a connection. The UN Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea says the task of unravelling the fraud is ‘painstaking and complex’, requiring the manual checking of more than 1.4 million lines of computer billing data.
- Telkom Kenya is modernising its public service payphones in an initiative that could see rates fall to as low as Sh3. The public telephony brand manager, Clifford Wazome, said last week in Nairobi the initiative is designed to complement existing payphones with the launch of community service dubbed "Mzalendo". - Uganda Telecom has launched a new payphone product, Simu 4 U, designed to offer telecommunication services to people financially constrained. Simu 4 U officially launched at Sheraton Hotel last week charges sh100 per unit for national calls, sh200 for calls in East Africa and sh500 to the rest of the world. A unit goes for only 15 seconds. "For instance, if a customer makes a one-minute call, the total call cost will be sh400. Wim Vanhelleputte, the managing director of Imaginepartners, said they had deployed 1,000 phone booths, adding that 3,000 would be set out in the next three months. He said by December, there would be about 6,000 booths in the country. Imaginepartners is a French-based company out-sourced by Uganda Telecom to install, operate and maintain the network of public payphones.
TELEGLOBE LAUNCHES PLATFORM TO ACCOMMODATE INTERNET GROWTH IN AFRICATeleglobe International has announced plans to launch a new Internet Digital Video Broadcast/Internet Protocol (DVB/IP) satellite platform covering the African continent to accommodate Internet traffic growth. Teleglobe already has a footprint covering over 190 countries. The DVB/IP technology enables the transport of multiple IP streams through a single carrier using the MPEG2 encoding.Teleglobe DVB/IP Service uses state-of-the-art technology to deliver IP traffic from its global IP backbone network to a low-cost, receive-only antenna located at the customer's premise, and is supported by a 24-hour manned network control centre. "As demand for our Internet access services continues to rapidly increase, it is important that we can rely on a Tier 1 ISP, like Teleglobe, to provide global Internet reach to our customers as well as quick responses as we grow," said Jonathan Somen, Managing Director of AccessKenya. "Due to our customers' growing demand for Teleglobe's Internet service in Africa, we have expanded our capacity to meet their IP connectivity needs," said Christian Michaud, Vice President of Marketing at Teleglobe. (SOURCE: www.spacedaily.com)
SITA SC ADDS AFRICA ONLINE TO LIST OF MANAGED LOCAL ISPSSITA SC, the only global Communication Services Integrator committed to the travel and transportation industry (TTI), today announced that Africa Online has added its name to SITA's expanding list of managed Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The deal with Africa Online brings managed Internet access to nine African countries, including Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe - keeping SITA SC on track with its target of an ISP presence in 150 countries by 2006. 'Airlines are deploying low-cost Internet access to remote offices to drive down their costs,' said Brijdeep Sahi, Vice President of Marketing, SITA SC. 'Through SITA SC's Internet Solutions, customers can leverage our buying power and benefit from managed and secure end-to-end solutions. The partnership with Africa Online is another step forward in enhancing our ISP footprint.' 'By partnering with Africa Online, SITA SC is not only adding to its portfolio of local ISPs, it is also opening a gateway for customers to managed Internet access in a region of the world which has traditionally been under-served by IT and telecommunications,' said Lesley Davey, CEO of Africa Online. 'Consistent with our commitment of reducing the cost of communication for the Travel and Transportation Industry (TTI), we have availed a low cost alternative for customers who want to migrate their small offices and General Sales Agents (GSAs) to Internet Protocol (IP). The solution which is being provided in partnership with the Pan-African Internet Service Provider - Africa Online - is expected to not only reduce communication costs but expand the proliferation of the Internet Protocol in Africa,' said Hani El-Assaad, Vice President, Business Management, Middle East & Africa, SITA SC. (SOURCE: www.ameinfo.com) SA'S HOTELS GET WIRED TO KEEP THE GUESTS SURFINGMajor hotel groups are installing high-speed internet access points in rooms and public areas to deal with growing demand from business travellers for connectivity comparable to what is offered by European and UShotels. Until recently, business travellers in SA have struggled with slow, erratic and expensive internet access at hotels - a major weakness in a country that has made efforts to grow its share of the international meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions market. City Lodge Hotels CE Clifford Ross says when the group first installed internet cafés three or four years ago, integrated services digital network (ISDN) technology was not available and internet connectivity was far slower than guests experienced at their homes or offices because of bandwidth problems. But the group has since installed ISDN lines, which has increased connectivity speed significantly.The group introduced wireless access points or "hot spots" in public areas six months ago at all its City Lodge-branded hotels. Except for the City Lodge in Katherine Street, Sandton, where there are wireless access points in some rooms that face the hotel's transmitter, there is no wireless access from hotel rooms because of structural issues. Ross says the technology is available and "fairly soon" it will be possible to offer wireless connectivity in all rooms. "I believe high-speed connectivity is a vital service, and since our launch two months ago we have had a good response from the market, so it is certainly something people are using more and more," he says. Protea Hotels has a similar strategy. Group and sales marketing director Danny Bryer says ISDN lines have been installed at a number of hotels to facilitate internet usage and there are plans to make ISDN lines a standard within the group, in SA and elsewhere in Africa. Protea Hotels has also installed wireless hot spots at its hotels, such as Melrose Arch, Protea Hotel Wanderers near Sandton and Victoria Junction in Cape Town, where the clients are largely business travellers, Bryer says about 70% of the group's business travellers use internet-access services and their availability helps to attract guests. In the past two weeks the Southern Sun group has extensively advertised its high- speed internet access roll-out across all its hotels, from standard to luxury, with an offering tailored to be affordable to each market. The services will range from hot spots in public areas to fixed and wireless high-speed access in hotel rooms, business centres or self-service workstations for guests without laptops. All Southern Sun hotels will offer wireless hot spots in public areas by the end of this year. "What becomes even more interesting though, is the possibility of delivering 'on demand' movie and entertainment content to hotel guests via this infrastructure in the future," Southern Sun Hotels MD Helder Pereira says. "We are already working on further enhancing our guest experience as a result of technology developments." The hotel groups intend to charge little or no mark-up on the service, they say. In some hotels guests will pay only the basic cost and at some top-of-the-range hotels, such as the Protea group's Melrose Arch, the service will be free. (SOURCE: allafrica.com) CYBER-DISSIDENT REPORTEDLY ARRESTED IN LIBYAPress freedom organisation RSF has called for the release of cyber-dissident Abdel Razak Al Mansouri, whose arrest on 12 January 2005 has just been reported. He criticised the Libyan government on a United Kingdom (UK)-based website. There has been no word of him since his detention. "The authorities already control all the traditional media and now they are trying to gag the Internet, the last window on the outside world still accessible to Libyan citizens. This is a major blow for human rights activists who have found the Internet to be an effective tool for gathering and disseminating information," RSF said. Al Mansouri's arrest has not been confirmed by the authorities. It reportedly took place on the evening of 12 January in the eastern city of Tobruk. He is believed to have been transferred to a prison in Tripoli two days later. His family has had no news of him since his arrest. Al Mansouri began posting articles on the UK-based website www.akhbar-libya.com in 2004. A 52-year-old bookseller, he wrote about social issues and criticised human rights violations by the Libyan authorities. Libya, which is ranked 154th in RSF's classification of 167 countries according to their respect for press freedom, has developed Internet services quickly in the past five years. The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (www.hrinfo.net) estimates that the country now has about one million Internet users. NIGERIAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TO GET BILL ON CYBER CRIMEThe Presidency will next week present to the National Assembly, a Bill seeking to curb financial crimes involving the use of information and communication technology. Co-ordinator of the National Cyber Crime Working Group, Basil Udotai, disclosed this at the Forum of Insurance Industry's Chief Executives of Nigeria (FIICEN), a quarterly interactive session between the National Insurance Commission (NAIC-OM), and the insurance industry's leadership in Lagos, last week. (source: This Day) IN BRIEF- Ghana Telecom is currently not sending bills out to its ADSL customers as the service has not proved itself very stable yet. One customer reports that the service went down for two weeks. - Official South African distributor, Duxbury Networking has introduced the NETGEAR WGE111 54 Mbps Wireless Game Adapter that adheres to today’s evolving wireless home networking needs. The wireless game adapter allows for Internet gaming as it can be attached to a game console’s Ethernet port, which then links it to the wireless network. And for LAN gaming, two WGE111 or more units can be used to link two game consoles to each other, without the need for a wireless router. An external switch also enables users to easily select between Internet and AdHoc modes, plus the WGE111 is interoperable with 802.11b and 802.11g devices. "The NETGEAR WGE111 Wireless Game Adapter is the perfect gaming accessory as it enables gamers to link easily to the Internet, without the tangle of unsightly cables or even hold a big LAN party," comments Andy Robb, a technology specialist at Duxbury Networking.
INTERNATIONALLY BRANDED PCS EVERY BIT AS LOCAL AS LOCALLY BRANDED PCS, SAYS TARSUSThere has been some controversy in the South African ICT market surrounding the investment, skills development and overall economic impact international computer brands have on the South African market and whether it is better for corporates to support brands originating in South Africa or those originating abroad. "In reality several international PC brands, beyond being represented here, are assembled here, offering the same benefits to the local IT industry as locally manufactured brands in terms of job creation, skills development and stimulation of the our economy," says Guy Whitcroft, managing director of Tarsus Technologies. Besides these benefits, internationally branded PCs that are locally assembled bring additional benefits to the corporate market in terms of stability, performance and build quality. "The leading international brands are well known for their close relationships with the hardware component manufacturers and software vendors, a factor which contributes towards the overall stability of these systems," he says. "Add to this the capital these vendors generally spend on research and development as well as the effort they put into building finely tuned assembly facilities and you have a more stable, performance centric product," he says. "With these same quality standards applied to local assembly facilities, customers are guaranteed of high-quality products that benefit from extensive international research and development efforts, while at the same time supporting the local IT industry, creating jobs and providing for skills transfer." Whitcroft says that another benefit for the corporate market is that as a result of the international vendors’ close relationship with the leading hardware manufacturers, the components used in internationally branded PCs tend to be standardised and procured from a single component manufacturer. This is something that ensures that software images can successfully be rolled out across an entire fleet of workstations without problems arising from driver incompatibilities from changeable hardware components. Worldwide warranties are another important consideration for corporate buyers, especially considering the move towards a mobile workforce and the increase in international travel at an executive level. "With an international warranty, executives are assured of support and the availability of repair facilities regardless of where they are in the world. This means that should something go wrong, the executive need not be without a working notebook for the duration of their trip," Whitcroft says. Whitcroft says the local assembly of internationally branded hardware is very much a best of both worlds scenario. "And it’s encouraging to see international vendors stepping up to the plate and localising their assembly facilities on a country-by-country basis. This means corporates not only benefit from the peace of mind that their IT acquisitions are backed by a successful and internationally recognised brand, but that they are doing their bit for the country, too: something that is imperative to transforming the local economy," he concludes. EGYPT'S FORWARD-MINDED ICT STRATEGY 'SHOWING RESULTS' CLAIMS INTEL CEOFocusing on Egypt's burgeoning technology evolution, Intel Corporation Chief Executive Officer Craig Barrett recognized the country's efforts to achieve sustainable economic growth and be competitive in the emerging digital economy. Barrett, in a speech to government and business leaders in Egypt last week, cited the tremendous strides the country has made over the past several years to modernize its information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure. Egypt's forward-minded and business-friendly government policies, education programs and other initiatives are attracting major IT companies to come and invest, proving to the local market and the rest of the world that the nation's technology strategy is starting to show results, according to Barrett. 'Egypt is transforming into an information society,' said Barrett. 'Intel is committed to working hand in hand with the government and public sector, along with other key private companies, to accelerate Egypt's ICT transformation.' An example of Intel's commitment is the opening of the Platform Definition Centre in Cairo, which will define and develop platforms designed specifically for the needs of Intel's customers in Egypt, other Middle East countries and Africa. 'These new platforms will complement Intel's existing platform portfolio and will help people improve their lives through access to technology,' said Barrett. In addition, Intel today opened the Intel Software Enablement Lab. The lab provides software products to help regional independent software vendors bring their products to the market faster through technical training and market development support. Intel chose Cairo as the location for its Platform Definition Centre and Software Enablement Lab due to its central location in the Middle East, the skilled workforce and strong government support for ICT. To create a competitive advantage for Egypt, the country is already taking key steps to intensify technology education in public schools. With the cooperation of Egypt's Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Intel is helping Egypt become a pioneer in establishing new 'e-education' initiatives through the implementation of such programs as Intel Teach to the Future. Since the program was launched in Egypt in April 2004, thousands of teachers have been trained to integrate technology into instruction and enhance student learning. By year's end, an estimated 15,000 teachers will have gone through the program. During his visit, Barrett also visited Om Abtal Smart School, one of 50 public 'Smart' schools in the Greater Cairo area where four PC labs are in operation and where he inaugurated the first wireless PC lab in an Egyptian school. In a further show of commitment to the local market's growth, Intel will bring the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) to Egypt in the coming academic year. ISEF is the largest pre-college science competition showcasing the world's most promising young inventors and scientists as they compete for more than USD3 million in awards and scholarships. Intel is sponsoring Mohammed Zohair, nominated by Egypt's Ministry of Education, for the U.S. event in May. Mohammed is a student at the Modern Education School and his project is an aerial transportation vehicle for providing emergency services in traffic-congested Cairo. Intel also supports accelerating digital government efforts such as the Government Assisted PC Purchase Programs, and is actively helping with the Egyptian government PC-for-every-citizen initiative that enables increased number of Egyptian citizens to afford a PC. The initiative helps nations develop their information societies, bridge the digital divide and build personal computer skills to enable countries to compete in the global economy. (SOURCE: www.ameinfo.com) CHANNEL DATA INTRODUCES THIRD-GENERATION TAPE TECHNOLOGYSouth Africa's Channel Data has announced that it will, with immediate effect, offer its customers third-generation LTO-3 Ultrium tape drive technology within its Quantum branded data backup tape library and autoloader range of products. "The availability of LTO-3 technology gives our channel partners a broader range of tape drive options with which to target small and medium businesses as well as larger enterprises," says Amit Parbhucharan, technology marketing director at Channel Data. "Pioneered by Quantum Corp, LTO-3 increases the flexibility and storage density of tape libraries providing scalability advantages to users with escalating data storage requirements. "LTO-3 doubles the native capacity previously offered with LTO-2 from 200GB to 400GB giving users the optimal combination of performance and capacity to meet a broader range of backup, recovery and archive needs," he says. "The performance in LTO-3 is also stepped up to achieve write speeds of up to 490GB/hr." Adds Parbhucharan: "Quantum's LTO-3 enabled offerings can be added quickly and easily to any installation without the need for onsite tear down, library swap-outs or a visit from a technical representative to perform a rebuild. "Third-generation technology - with backward read and write compatibility with LTO-2 media and read compatibility with LTO-1 media - helps customers protect investments made in Quantum automation products leading to their greater adoption and lower total cost of ownership." DATACENTRIX DEMONSTRATES COMMITMENT TO SMME DEVELOPMENT IN BLOEMIT infrastructure and solutions provider, Datacentrix, recently joined forces with Free State-based SMME, Africa Business Solutions (ABS), to fulfil a server roll-out to the Department of Education. The project forms part of a larger server contract with the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), which will help drive business into the regions using black-empowered SMME companies. The Department of Education project involved the supply of 35 HP servers to schools and district offices across the Free State, where the department has launched e-learning-based computer schools for students and teachers. According to Themba Gezane, account manager at Datacentrix, ABS has actively contributed to the project. "Not only has ABS played a key account management role in the supply of the servers, the company is also providing training to users. This initiative is part of the sector education training authority for the local ICT sector, Information Services, Electronics and Telecommunications Technologies Sector Education Training Authority's (ISETT SETA) drive for skills development." Gezane believes the project highlights the extent of work still to be done locally in terms of skills development for smaller businesses as well as the importance of the accreditation of regional SMME partners through vendors such as HP and IBM. "Datacentrix has pledged its commitment to assist smaller businesses like ABS wherever it can. In this case, as HP's largest value partner with a direct contract with the company across its entire range of hardware products, we have a wealth of information and expertise to pass on to ABS," he says. According to Bruce Middleton, MD of ABS, the skills transfer between Datacentrix and ABS is being done in stages whereby ABS technicians will assist in Datacentrix installations within the Free-State province. "The project with the Department of Education marks one of the most significant milestones in ABS's partnership with Datacentrix," he says. (SOURCE: www.itweb.co.za) IN BRIEF- Co-ordinator of Angola's Comissão Nacional de Tecnologias de Informação Pedro Teta announced that it will buy recycled computers costing around USD100 from Canada for use in Government - Uganda's Stanbic Bank handed over a new computer to Abbey Isabirye, one of the four winners in the bank's sh31m promotion. The bank's country sales manager, Paul Omara, handed over the computer to Isabirye at the bank's city branch recently. "The other three customers who won the computers are Delta High School in Iganga, Orungatuny sub-county in Soroti and Uganda Red Cross Society in Hoima," Omara said. He said upcountry winners would receive their computers from business managers of their respective branches. - Second Republic President, Shehu Shagari, has called on the Federal Government to ensure that all Nigerians acquire computer education. Shagari, speaking at the weekend in Sokoto, at the second graduation ceremony of Jedo Computer Institute, said computer education has become necessary in all educational pursuits, and commended proprietor of the institution for bringing development to the doorsteps of the people. Also speaking, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Maccido, said computer technology had made the world a global village and appealed to the people of the state to strive to acquire computer education, so that they would not be left behind.
KUWAIT'S MTC BUYS AFRICAN CELTEL FOR USD3.3 BILLIONKuwaiti mobile phone operator MTC said on Tuesday it has snapped up Celtel, the African cell phone group that had been poised for a London flotation, for about USD3.32 billion in cash. Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Co (MTC), which said it was keen to expand into fast-growing Africa from the Middle East, is buying 85 percent of the Dutch-based group immediately and the remaining 15 percent within two years. "The company (MTC) has informed the bourse of the signing of an agreement to purchase 100 percent of Celtel Mobile Telecom Co," MTC said in a statement. "The deal states the purchase of 85 percent of Celtel shares for USD2.8 billion with a commitment to buy the remaining 15 percent for USD520 million within 24 months from the date of finalising the deal," it added. MTC said it would fund the acquisition through a combination of existing cash and newly raised debt, with financing arranged by four international financial institutions. Celtel will operate as a separate legal entity within the MTC Group and the existing management would "continue to execute their ambitious growth plans for the business", MTC said. Celtel, which doubled net profits to USD147 million on strong revenues last year, had been planning a stockmarket listing in London and possibly Johannesburg in the first half of the year. Celtel, which has 5.2 million customers in 13 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, is owned by investors including Anglo-Sudanese businessman Mohamed Ibrahim -- who will stay on as a director -- the Africa Infrastructure Fund and U.S. venture capital firms. Its subscriber base lags larger African rivals Vodacom and MTN. But Celtel says it provides a unique growth opportunity as less than 5 percent of the population own mobile phones in 10 of the 13 countries in which it operates -- such as Chad, Niger, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. "Celtel provides high quality mobile telephone services to countries with high growth potential, covering a total population of over 250 million," MTC Vice Chairman and Managing Director Saad al-Barrak said in the statement. Barrak added that the deal would help propel the group from a regional operator into the international league. The acquisition puts MTC well ahead of smaller local rival National Mobile Telecom Co, which has about 2.65 million subscribers in the Middle East and North Africa but has also signalled its intention to expand. (SOURCE: www.reuters.co.za) ADC LISTS ON JSEAlliance Data Corporation (ADC), an open source software developer focused on the mining industry, debuted on the JSE's AltX exchange on Wednesday and was trading at 120c by late morning, 20c up on its placement price. Although he did not have precise details, CEO Eugene de Kok says the private placement of 2.5 million shares at 100c each was oversubscribed. The placement closed last week. De Kok says the group listed to raise cash "but also to raise awareness and attract the right kind of partnerships going forward". According to the group's prospectus, one of the reasons for raising cash is to allow the company to "take advantage of acquisitive growth opportunities". De Kok says he cannot comment in detail, but ADC has identified a synergistic acquisition opportunity and an announcement is expected soon. ADC is also eyeing business opportunities in Africa and De Kok says the company will make a big push into the continent. Future plans include expanding the customer base to include other vertical markets, gradually reducing exposure to the mining sector. ADC, which trades under the JSE code ACD, achieved revenue of R17.6 million for the year to 28 February 2004, up from R15.65 million the previous year. A pre-tax profit of R3.83 million compared with a year-earlier profit of R3.17 million. The group is forecasting gross revenue of R20.59 million for the year to February 2005 and R24.09 million for the following year. It expects pre-tax profit of R5.33 million and R7.11 million for the 2005 and 2006 financial years respectively. ADC also expects to achieve earnings and headline earnings per share of 18.5c for the 2005 financial year and 22.1c for the following year. By late Wdenesday morning, 6 000 shares had changed hands in four deals, leaving the share price at 120c, having touched 130c earlier in the day. (SOURCE: www.itweb.co.za) IN BRIEF- South African shares nudged north on Tuesday as a weaker rand buoyed mining and industrial stocks and cell phone company MTN rose amid speculation it could become a takeover target. Africa's biggest cell phone operator by sales, MTN, jumped 1.23 percent after Kuwaiti mobile firm MTC snapped up third-ranked Celtel for about USD3.32 billion, fuelling bid hopes for its larger rival. "MTN is definitely becoming a takeover target as it becomes increasingly clear that the Europeans and Arabs are interested in Africa," said one Johannesburg-based telecoms analyst. - Telecom Namibia has paid out dividends of NAD24 million to shareholder the Namibia Post and Telecom Holdings Group for the financial year ended 30 September 2004, from profits of NAD121 million. The figure is double the amount paid to the company for the previous financial year. Telecom Namibia has pledged to invest NAD216 million in new infrastructure and network upgrades during the year to the end of September 2005. - Aviation e-solutions provider Galileo Kenya yesterday has invested $1 million (Sh75 million) on a new digital network. The technology is expected to allow local clients to connect to Galileo International servers in Denver, USA. The technology, which improves the speed of transaction on the Galileo network, is expected to improve efficiency of service and value added service to Kenyan clients. The technology will also make it possible for customers with branches to run a virtual private network for inter-branch communication on the same infrastructure. It also supports a triple play convergence of data, video and voice to enable branch offices make calls to each other without incurring extra costs. Unlike the old analogue network, the new one is digital with faster and clearer connection speeds. As a result of the installation, customers will automatically enjoy bandwidth access of up to two megabits per second. The technology will also offer customers value added services, including browsing the Internet and access to electronic mail over the link.
ALCATEL TO STRENGTHEN ITS MOBILE TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS IN AFRICAThe Wi-Fi Technology Forum/- Alcatel has announced the signature of a 3-year MOU with Manobi, the leading operator of Mobile and Internet services dedicated to the rural sector of developing and emerging countries. Already a long-term partner with Manobi, Alcatel will be involved in the running of several pilot projects that will improve the standard of living and infrastructure in these countries, but also strengthen Alcatel's presence in Africa and the Middle East. For three years, Alcatel has been working with Manobi on a mobile service project in rural areas in Senegal. This project address the needs of individual farmers in the Dakar neighbourhood and artisan fishermen in the area of Kayar, one of the largest fishing place in Senegal (Alcatel has provided the local mobile operator Sonatel with a long haul GSM antenna oriented toward the sea with a range up to 70 kms). The purpose of this innovative project is to enable producers, intermediaries and wholesalers to use a GSM mobile phone provided by Alcatel under a WAP protocol in order to know in real time the price of their products traded on the markets as well as sell their harvest by making proposals through SMS to all other Manobi's subscribers. Market data are gathered by Manobi's inspectors visiting agricultural and fish markets who enter data onto their PDAs and send them through the GSM network of Sonatel to a mobile carrier-class platform designed by Manobi. Thanks to this service, subscribers' revenues have strongly improved and largely cover the cost of the GSM utilisation. In addition, this service has already increased the ARPU of its users to higher than urban subscribers ones. Alcatel and Manobi are currently working on similar projects and in that respect a second concrete project in Africa will be materialized in the coming weeks. "Manobi's mission is to develop, operate and provide value-added services on GSM to address efficiently the local requirements of all economic worlds. Like in Senegal we are targeting to deploy our services within African rural areas to stimulate the development of telecom infrastructures, by offering an extensive telecom coverage and a vast improvement in the revenues and the standard of living of rural users," stated Mr Daniel Annerose, CEO of Manobi. "Alcatel shares our vision and was the ideal partner to Manobi due to its expertise, long standing presence in Africa and extensive local knowledge of the telecom environment in these countries." Thierry Albrand, Vice President of Digital Bridge for Alcatel in France, Africa, Middle East and South Asia, added "Alcatel is committed to bridging the digital divide in underserved regions, allowing local populations to access value-added services, which are useful for the improvement of their economic and social conditions. In that respect, we are glad to reinforce our successful partnership with Manobi thanks to their expertise in developing customized applications for farmers. This agreement will pave the way for many other projects within Africa and the Middle East, given the increasing demand for mobile applications and services in these regions." (SOURCE: www.wi-fitechnology.com) REGION SCIENTISTS LAUNCH WEBSITEWomen scientists, engineers and technologists from different African countries have launched a website to help them network. The networking was facilitated by Gender Advisory Board (GAB) East Africa sub-region. The Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Ms Bakoko Bakoru launched the website: www.gabafrica.org. Participants at the function included women scientists from Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda among others. The launch was at the close of a three-day Gender Advisory Board (GAB) East African Sub-regional workshop on Gender, Science and Technology held at the Imperial Resort Beach Hotel recently. "The site will be fed with up-to-date data on science and technological developments from different research groups. This information collected will help us in the region to gain more skills," Eng. Proscovia Njuki, the Acting Executive Director of GAB said. She said most economies in the region were being affected by the gender gaps in science, technical and technological courses. Bakoko said the government was ready to support women scientists in the developments. "Science and technology are critical factors in regional and national development. These play a major role in contributing to the Gross Domestic Product," she said (SOURCE: allafrica.com) ZIMBABWE INDEPENDENT DIGITAL EDITION GOES LIVEIn a landmark achievement in the media industry and a first in Zimbabwe , The Zimbabwe Independent's digital version system has taken the lead and now gone live and is available worldwide for subscription purchasing worldwide. Thanks to technology, Zimind Publishers have now made the nation's leading business weekly, accessible via the internet in a state-of -the-art solution availing it to international readers and our people in the Diaspora. The Zimbabwean newspaper went online at www.thezimbabwean.co.uk on March 21, 2005 and features the entire content of "The Zimbabwean" newspaper, which is available free on the website. "The website is very user friendly. We have purposely kept it simple, quick to download and easy to access - especially for people in Zimbabwe where there is limited bandwidth," Mbanga said. The edition is ready from 5:00 a.m. (Cape Town Time) every Friday morning and delivered as an Exact digital reproduction of the paper copy, downloaded directly to the subscriber's desktop, laptop, or tablet computer literally hot off the press and can be read anywhere at anytime. Publisher Wilf Mbanga said the newspaper strives to be a reliable source of information, and include news from Zimbabwe and items on life in exile. It covers politics, art and culture, business, sports, gender, human rights and social issues, news background and analysis. Single copy purchases options are available as well as past issues. All pictures, headlines and adverts in each weekly edition are now broadcast worldwide giving our advertising clientele maximum mileage and international exposure. Zimbabweans living abroad will never be starved of the paper's news content. With this new mode of delivery, locals and executives travelling by air on Friday mornings can leave with the edition in their in their laptops. (SOURCE: All Africa) RAIN: A NEW AFRICAN AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION INITIATIVE GETS OFF THE GROUNDOperational since 2003, the Regional Agricultural Information Network (RAIN) is one of the 17 regional network programmes and projects (NPPs) operating under the umbrella of the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) in 10 countries in eastern and central Africa (ECA) - Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. RAIN absorbed AfricaLink, whose main objective was to improve access to agricultural information by integrating new Internet technologies into the ICM (information and communication management) operations of research networks and systems in the ECA region. RAIN continues to support access to IT hardware and software to selected National Agricultural Research Institutes (NARIs). Beginning with a priority-setting exercise and consultations with stakeholders and experts, a 5-year strategic plan and work programme (2004-2008) has been published and a Regional Steering Committee (RSC) established to provide operational guidance to the network. It has representatives from all the ten NARIs and other experts in ICT/ICM. The focus of the Network's future activities include: strengthening capacity and influencing future targeted training; catalysing national agricultural information policies and strategies that should lead to regional policies and strategies; contributing to national ICT Policies; working with researchers (referring to ASARECA NPPs) to improve information dissemination; motivating (encouraging, inducing) generation of scientific information; developing information management standards; catalysing networking/partnerships among key information professionals and organisations to promote information sharing regionally and globally; marketing agricultural information products. As part of enhancing regional capacity in information and communication management RAIN has initiated several activities. The most noteworthy is a training needs' assessment in ICM/ICT. The study focuses on human capacities and training needs to elicit more investment in focused capacity building with a longer-term vision. RAIN has also been involved in conducting training workshops in ICT/ICM. In addition a baseline study has been undertaken, so that progress of the network will be measured. In order to ensure wide stakeholder participation at country level, RAIN has organised national workshops to identify and prioritise national strategies/activities that respond to RAIN regional priorities. Six country meetings have already been held in Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan, Rwanda and Uganda involving key stakeholders. RAIN undertakes public relations activities for itself as well as for ASARECA and the NPPs. These include publications - brochures, posters and the ASARECA InfoPack which describes ASARECA and its NPPs. The key documents are available in English and French. The RAIN web site (www.asareca.org) features both English and French interfaces. It includes a contacts database for ASARECA that focuses on individuals and institutions. Data are available over the Internet in a selective manner, depending on the access rights of the users. This facilitates wide access and at the same time maintains control over the sharing of sensitive information (e.g. email addresses, restricted reports, etc.). RAIN is also active in collaborating with other sub-regional organisations (SROs) namely CORAF (Conseil Ouest Africain Pour la Recherche et le Développement Agricole); SADCFANR (Southern African Development Community /Food Agriculture and Natural Resource Department), and FARA (Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa) which is the apex body for Africa's agricultural research. This has resulted in the formation of a Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Agricultural Information System (FARA-RAIS) which operates under the aegis of the GLOBal ALliance of the Regional Agricultural Information Systems (GLOBAL.RAIS) which is a project by GFAR.
IN BRIEF- The National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) has launched its website this week which is supposed to provide information to the public. Kemal Bedri Chairman of NEBE on the occasion said that the new website contains information about the upcoming election on May 15, general operations of the election, about the organization and the legal framework behind. The website, www.electionsethiopia.org - would be in the interest of transparency and accountability, Kemal said. But he has not said how the over 25 million number of voters was to have access to that information. In addition, most of the information posted on the site will benefit a few as it is mostly in English language. "In a country where there are more than 80 languages spoken it is not fair to post the information in English," one observer who attended the press conference that was held by NEBE to launch the website had said. - Djobouti has also launched an electoral web site: www.iog.dj - Senegal's DGCNET has launched a new website - Senjob - for those seeking work. The site has an interesting array of jobs and will be a useful addition for Senegalese job-seekers.
EVENTSICT FOR NATIONAL RECONSTRUCTION
Organizers: AITEC THIRD INTERNATIONAL OPEN ACCESS CONFERENCE
Organizers: SIDA, UNICTTF and ICTH CONTACT CENTRES WORLD AFRICA 2005
The annual conference, hosted by Terrapinn, will be held on 26 and 27 July with master classes taking place on 25, 28 and 29 July. It will be held at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg. There will be both local and international speakers at the event, including Paul Cooper, business development director at the Institute of Customer Service in the UK; Margie Middleton, manager at Emmanuel's Training and Consulting Division; Madhav Murti, VP of advisory services at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Canada; and Ivor Blumenthal, CEO of the Service Sector Education and Training Authority. 2ND ANNUAL POWER LINE COMMUNICATIONS IN AFRICA 2005
Venue: CSIR International Convention Centre - Tshwane, Pretoria, South Africa JOBS AND OPPORTUNITIESDIRECTOR OF COMPUTER CENTRE - NIGERIAThe University of Abuja, Abuja is seeking for a suitable candidate to fill the position of Director, Computer Centre of the University. The candidate must possess higher university degree in computer science plus at least ten years of post qualification experience in computer science and applications. The candidate must also have a minimum of administrative experience in the supervision of academic programmes in computer science, computer installation and in the design and implementation of large systems. Interested candidates should forward 10 copies of their typed application with photocopies of certificates and curriculum vitae to the Registrar, University of Abuja, P. M. B. Abuja, FCT not later than 23rd April 2005.
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