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WEEKLY PUBLICATION DEADLINE: 12 pm GMT Sunday. ISSUE NO 272 Ethiopia puts off privatising ETC but rolls out nationwide fibre networkSometimes dubbed the “North Korea” of regulatory change, Ethiopia stands out as the country resisting the tides of change that have begun to engulf the rest of the continent. Occupied but never really colonised, it has always gone its own way. In the modern period it has been governed in succession by a monarch and a communist regime, the defining feature of both has been the secretive culture of authoritarian government. The existing Government has inherited many of the same tendencies and has recently claimed to have won a disputed election, writes Russell Southwood. The Government has gone from being more or less completely uninterested in the use of ICT to making a complete commitment to it. However as an authoritarian Government it wishes to retain control of all parts of the economy and is only reluctantly allowing market openings at the margins. Its considerable diaspora runs e-commerce web sites outside of the country but is not really allowed to invest in its own country. For outsiders, it is hard to understand why the Government does not create a more fully liberalised economy, particularly in the field of internet and telecoms. If liberalised, the market would almost certainly be 2-3 times its current size. The Government’s ambitious broadband plans which it says need to be in place before it will consider privatising again, will be impressive if delivered but on one level are simply delaying the inevitable day. Direct delivery by Government is not the only route for delivering wider access. But there is no opportunity for Ethiopians to discuss these issues. Decisions are taken behind closed doors and rarely debated. Privately policy-makers and key players take the rather patrician view that Ethiopians would be incapable of running the private sector companies that might emerge and that the private sector would rip everybody off. On the rare occasions when there is a discussion about the nationwide broadband plan, those involved seem reluctant to answer searching questions or to monitor the success of the initiative as it is rolled out. ETC has recently introduced a broadband service as part of its grand strategy. A 512K download speed service costs USD1511 a month after a USD176 set-up fee. This is still expensive even by continental standards and is aimed at corporate customers and cyber-cafes. However, its main advantage is that it is cheaper than a leased line and a number of “low-end” leased line users have migrated downwards. Initial user reports are positive and it seems to be reliable. ETC has also computerised its internal service processes, including the 97 call system and billing. Despite these improvements, it is proving a massive task turning around the organisation’s culture. Fault response times can often be calculated in months rather than weeks and there is still an extremely long waiting time for new fixed lines. ETC's plan to build out a national fibre infrastructure (see interview with its CEO, Tesfaye Biru below) has seen 4000 laid already. The new CEO is the former Vice President of Addis Ababa University and is widely acknowledged to be energetic and ambitious. It is supporting the Government’s introduction of Wiridanet and Schoolnet. Wiridanet will connect 550 Wiridas, the administrative unit for local government. It has already been used for video conferencing during the recently disputed elections. Schoolnet will eventually connect 550 high schools. It is being used to deliver classroom content like maths teaching. This development is being funded out of the dividend ETC would have paid to Government and from World Bank funding. It is also connecting up 15,000 villages across the country, a task it says will complete in just over two years time. Separately (but linked to this plan), the Ethiopian ICT Development Authority will call for tenders to supply content and services to make use of the broadband network and will put public funding alongside private investment for the tenders it accepts. In other words, ETC will offer opportunities at the services and applications layer but remain in control of the physical infrastructure. This approach seems part of a broader strategy to open up at the retail level whilst retaining overall control. In the recent past, Ethiopia has been unique in having long queues of people waiting to obtain mobiles and apparently there is some depth of popular feeling about this issue. ETC’s response has been to appoint five mobile retailers who will compete with each other to provide mobile services. But since they all obtain service from the same supplier (ETC), this is unlikely to produce much price competition, even though it may improve service. ETC’s attempts to meet the high level of mobile demand has clearly caused its problems at the equipment procurement end of the process. It has recently cancelled a contract with Chinese-owned ZTE who were meant to be supplying an capacity for an extra 200,000 subscribers. The equipment was incompatible with previous equipment supplied by Ericsson. Whilst the national broadband plan is admirable, it means that ETC has difficulty meeting market demand. In newly built areas near to the capital Addis Ababa, they are not putting in phone connections when new houses are built. As a result, new householders have to wait 6 months to a year to get a line installed. But where infrastructure is in place, service is provided very quickly. As one observer of the company’s performance told us:”It’s a matter of priorities. The company can’t expand into the rural areas and the city as well.” And there are also a number of troubling questions about the long-term viability of the national broadband plan. If it does not lower current broadband access rates, how will those in low incomes in the villages be able to afford services, whether voice or data-based? And the company has 8,000 employees which means it has to generate sufficient income to pay all their salaries. In order to offer a low-price service that lots of people will use, you need to have a low cost base. Given the current scale of its fixed lines and mobile subscribers, it could probably operate with about half this number of employees. On my visit to ETC, the lift was not working and as I walked up seven flights of stairs, I noted that their was a women on each landing employed to sweep one flight of stairs. Privatisation has been put on hold and looks like being a long way away. Its CEO implies in the interview below that it may start in just over two years but sceptics think it may take a change of Government which makes it look more like five years. The opposition parties advocated liberalisation of the telecopms sector and were clearly more in favour of liberal democracy. ETC is in the process of separating out the different parts of the business into profit centres with a clear distinction between the transport and service access layers. However, you get the feeling that ETC’s CEO is tackling the task of changing the company with “two hands tied behind his back” by the Government: he can't introduce external expertise and capital and reducing the workforce is a political "no-go" area. The regulator has the strangest task of any regulator in Africa. It really only has one company to regulate and all the decisions it might take are actually taken by Government through its relationship with ETC. As one local observer told us:”What is there for them to do? The numbering plan and frequency monitoring?” A small number of large international organisations have been given permission to use VSATs. In the meantime, The regulator has recently issued guidelines anticipating the legalisation of ISPs. But beyond that, ETC faces competition in almost no significant area of its business and there is almost no private sector ICT business except in the computing sector. The latter includes solutions providers and cabling companies. A typical example is Microsan Solutions which has worked with Cisco and Business Connexions on the ETC broadband contract. Siemens also has a presence locally for the same contract. After initial hostility to cyber-cafes and telecentres, the Government changed the law to allow them. The change of heart seems to have largely come from pressure from stakeholders and donors pushing access to ICTs. It was also beginning to happen and the businesses were run “underground”. Now they pay a small registration fee to the regulator, the Ethiopian Telecommunications Authority. They are not allowed to offer VoIP calling services but there are still grey market providers but they do not advertise their presence. There are estimated to be between 100 cyber-cafes in Addis Ababa and they charge between 10 cents and 25-75 cents a minute, the more expensive rates being found in international hotels. Users seem to consist largely of university students, high school students and civil servants who do not have access in their own offices. There are are a small number of cyber-cafes in larger towns outside the capital. Few universities or government organisations have such access but this is all about to change. As part of a World Bank-funded programme (Public Sector Capacity Building), there is an ICT element. This involves computerising areas of government like tax collection (Asycouda, part of the tax reform programme) and customs. The latter has already completed the process and satisfied users were interviewed recently on Ethiopian TV saying that things that used to take 1-2 months now take just a day and that they can make requests online rather than going in person. It also includes Wiradanet and Schoolnet mentioned above. The British Council is involved in ICT through 4 telecentres including Axum and Gondar. They offer basic cyber-café services including e-mail, fax, internet, photocopying and computer training. The centres are apparently well used although there have been issues with management due to staff turnover and local government re-organisation. The telecentres are funded by the British Council and the British Embassy. The Ethiopan Science and Technology Commission provides technical support and local government provides office space (in public libraries) and human resources. These telecentres have encouraged the opening of private cyber-cafes in several places including Axum. UNESCO is offering a slightly wider range of services at the five centres it supports in places like Hara and Lalibello. The centre in the latter is run by CDRE which is an umbrella for 200 NGOs and is currently the most heavily used of the centres. The centre in Modro combines internet access with community radio. It has also funded E-FOSSNET, the Ethiopian Open Source organisation for one year. In addition, it is funding the Institute of Ethiopian Studies to digitise their collection of historic photographs. One obstacle to greater use of ICT is the difficulties posed by creating Amharic (the script used by Ethiopians) versions of keyboards. Unfortunately there are several versions in existence and they are not compatible which sometimes makes transferring work from one machine to another a “hit-and-miss” affair. INTERVIEW WITH ETC'S CEO TESFAYE BIRU:"WE ARE STRUGGLING WITH SERVICE QUALITY IN TERMS OF COVERAGE AND DELIVERY."When did you start at ETC and what were you employed to do? I joined ETC in January 2003. The objective I was set was to sort the company out. The Ethiopian telecoms sector was not in good shape. There were lots of illegal operators bypassing the network using VoIP and VSAT. There were also initiatives that were part of the National Development Plan to deploy infrastructure nationally with a high level of urgency. In addition, I was employed as part of the search for a private equity partner. By then the process was in a state of limbo because of the lack of interest from a good partner. The Government made the decision to overhaul the company and wanted someone from outside the company to do it. What did you do before you joined ETC? I was at Addis Ababa teaching information science and information technology. I was also appointed Vice-President of the University and in that capacity was responsible for rolling out a network there. What did you find at ETC when you arrived? I found the technology deployed was not following the trend. We may not be ready for a Next Generation Network but we should make use of readily available technologies. All the systems were manual and extremely backward. We did not respond to best practice. There was a low level of staff motivation. We are still struggling with service quality in terms of coverage and delivery. And it was right that the Government wanted to address all these issues. We have got to provide a world class level of service. We’re now introducing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and service management provision. We’re working towards an ISO standard. What has happened to the privatisation process? We looked at why it failed in the time required. The decision to privatise was taken to bring in technology and management capability and to move the sector forward aggressively. All the candidates who expressed an interest did not bring these qualities. But there was a genuine desire to go for it. We concluded that unless you’re strategic yourself, you won’t find that kind of partner. We did a SWOT analysis and identified many weaknesses in ourselves and this was the main one. A broader question needed to be addressed: was it privatisation or competition that was the issue? We need to give customers a choice and respond to needs. Therefore we need to bring in competition to have a strong telecoms sector. Therefore what did we need to do to prepare for that? Two things stood out as important: the need for a strong regulatory framework and basic infrastructure. As ETC, we took responsibility for deploying infrastructure. There were roles needed: the Government as policy-maker; the regulator to regulate; and ourselves to deliver infrastructure. The three roles were there but they were not active enough. So who will compete with ETC? The regulator has just published the regulations covering ISPs and call centres. ISPs can do anything except offer an international gateway. They can either rent infrastructure from us or build it for themselves. We are liberalising the lower levels of the value chain. Transport infrastructure will be held by the Government for some time to come because of the heavy investment in infrastructure. The Government takes the view that access to infrastructure is a basic human right. It’s as basic a need as roads. Wherever there are people, they must have access within a short period of time. How much have you been investing? For the last two years we’ve been spending USD3-4 million per year. We’re a profitable company but just not as much as we should be. What you need to understand is that we’re a separate company from Government and behave like one. We use our dividend to re-invest in the basic infrastructure roll-out. The Government pays us for services and we pay taxes to Government. What’s happening with mobiles? Ethiopia’s quite unusual in African terms because mobile still lags behind fixed lines. Mobile is overtaking fixed lines in subscription terms. We have introduced a restructuring of the business. We’ve separated out the transport layer and mobiles and the ISP are service and access layers. We now have separate business units that trade within the company. Each business unit is a profit centre. We’re working with consultants to sort out these things. Our retail shops compete with each other. Also our fixed business unit competes with our mobile unit. We want to have a model of inter-company competition. So when will there be an open market? A full-blown open market is predicated on two things: the existence of a basic national infrastructure and the readiness of the regulatory framework. To achieve a basic national infrastructure, the Government has asked us to provide services to 15,000 rural villages and this will complete the Universal Access task. Then the company will be left on its own. When will that task be complete? This year we plan to connect up 5,000 villages and at that rate it will take us another two years. We’ve converted much of what microwave to fibre. The backbone is now fibre and we’ve laid 4,000 kms of it in the last 4-5 months. The local community does the trenching in their own area. With all this fibre you must be ready to introduce a Next Generation Network? We’re moving in that direction. In Addis Ababa we now have a network in place that offers access and transport. We’ve also a school with a graduate programme where we are teaching IP skills and about an IP-related future. What’s the volume of calls going via IP? I don’t have the exact figure but the proportion is increasing. Even mobile traffic is using the fibre backbone so the proportion will grow much larger in the future. What about international fibre connections? ETC is a member of EASSy. At present we have a high-capacity microwave link to Sudan but by October or November this we will have installed fibre to join up with the fibre in Sudan and this goes all the way through to Jeddah. We’re working with Djibouti and have laid fibre to the border. We’ve not managed to complete yet because we need to agree the business model with them. We’re looking a Special Purpose Vehicle to achieve a dedicated line out to the FLAG international fibre. What’s your contribution to EASSy? We’re studying that at the moment. We started at USD2.5 million. The issue is one of backhaul countries and the landing point countries. There must be affordable prices. We don’t want the landing station countries to become rent collectors. If we can achieve open access, we might raise our investment. Who’s your current satellite provider? Intelsat. We were one of the original shareholder consortium and we have a special rate. What impact will fibre have on your prices? According to our strategy, we want to be able to offer a no-downtime network so we’ll need a high level of redundancy. Obviously it represents a great deal more capacity at a low price. What’s the length of your current satellite contracts? Our original satellite contract was for 15 years but as we add new needs we have rolling contracts. Who will use all this new connectivity capacity? Applications and services need to come. We’re working with Government on a number of roll-outs including Wiradanet and Schoolnet. This will involve bundling a set of services for those users. So why not use it for digital cinema? As an agricultural extension information service? A news gathering network? So you’re quite close to “triple-play”? More or less (laughs).
SURGING DEMAND FORCES SAT3 CABLE TO UPGRADEGrowing demand for bandwidth hungry applications and services in Africa has forced the SAT-3/WASC/SAFE Consortium to upgrade its 28,000km cable network linking the continent with Europe and Asia. Four years since its launch, Consortium Chairman Johan Meyer said that it now has a strong foothold in the global connectivity market and was looking to increase its ability to meet surging demand. The group has extended an agreement with Alcatel to upgrade the system and deliver what he termed a "quantum leap in available capacity" over the next two years. Originally built at a cost of USD600 million, SAT-3/WASC/SAFE is comprised of two main network segments connecting 15 countries in Europe, Africa and Asia. The SAT-3/WASC link between Europe to South Africa was initially built with a total capacity of 120 Gigabits while the SAFE network, linking South Africa to Malaysia via India, runs 130 Gigabits. The network provides vital links to several West African countries as well as providing redundancy for the Sea-Me-We 3 cable. According to Meyer, "this proposed upgrade is testimony to the fact that SAT-3/WASC is indeed a success story which has facilitated economic and communications growth in the region and will continue to do so for many years in the future as made possible by the upgrade. Alcatel's advanced optical networking technology will help address the escalating demand for faster and more cost-effective communications in the African continent." Global carriers and network suppliers are increasingly looking at Africa as a major emerging market. The uptake of telephony and the internet is already having an impact and efforts to bridge the global digital dive are expect to put further pressure on supplies. In addition to the SAT-3/WASC/SAFE upgrade, Alcatel is also working on the Sea-Me-We 4 project linking Asia and Europe via the Middle East and North Africa and FLAG Telecom's new Falcon link. Alcatel submarine networks president Jean Godeluck said, "four years after delivering the initial service to the consortium, this upgrade confirms that SAT-3/WASC/SAFE is an integral part of the global network that Alcatel is proud of having contributed to build. The project will give easier and more efficient access to the internet, while fuelling the adoption of innovative broadband applications." (SOURCE: http://www.telecomtv.com/news.asp?cd_id=5772) KUWAIT'S MTC SET TO ENTER EGYPTIAN MARKET AS THIRD OPERATORA leading executive of the Kuwaiti MTC Group said on Tuesday last week the Mobile Telecommunication Company (MTC) is planning to compete in the Egyptian market. Executive President of the Networks and Technologies Sector in MTC, Engineer Khalid Al-Hajeri made his statement on sidelines of the 5th Arab Conference for Information Technology and Communications. Al-Hajeri announced MTC's intention to compete in the Egyptian market amid the ongoing preparations to establish a third network for mobile telecommunication there. He noted that the company has always been concerned about the social role of the private sector, noting that MTC has positive contributions in social, educational, medical, and development fields. He added that MTC established a hospital in Kuwait at the cost of $17 million, and established several hospitals and contributed to improving education in Jordan. He touched on MTC's concern for training and developing human resources, noting that MTC's subscribers reached 11 million around the world and is considered among the top mobile telecommunication service providers in the region. MTC was established 22 years ago in 1983 and currently provides coverage in 18 countries in the Middle East and Africa. The agenda of the technology conference, which ends on Wednesday, would discuss investment in the fields of communications and information technologies in the Arab region and the world. The conference is expected to produce a number of recommendations that would enhance the information technology and communications sector and reinforce cooperation between governments and the private sector. (SOURCE: http://www.arabtimesonline.com/arabtimes/business/Viewdet.asp?ID=4534&cat=a) SA'S SNO TO BE LICENSED BY NOVEMBER, SAYS ICASA CHIEFSouth Africa’s second national operator (SNO) will receive its operating licence in November, according to the head of the Independent Communications Authority South Africa (ICASA). ‘The licence will be issued by the end of November at the outside. We are hoping to get it done before then,’ ICASA chief Peter Hlapolosa told Reuters. SNO shareholders have already stated that the company is ready for launch as soon as it receives the concession and Eskom Enterprise Division, one of six investors, says it is confident that the telco will have customers making calls over its network by Christmas. South Africa’s fixed line market it currently dominated by Telkom SA and the government is keen to introduce a competitor, but its attempts to launch an SNO have dragged on for years. It eventually approved the operator’s shareholders in January, but it was not until March that the six parties finally sat down to formulate a business plan after black empowerment group Nexus Connexion, which owns a 19% stake in the venture, withdrew its application for a judicial review into the licensing process. Nexus had applied for the injunction over concerns that the Telecoms Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri had exceeded her authority in awarding shares in the SNO to Two Consortium and CommuniTel. Both groups had come up short in their applications for a controlling stake in the new operator but were nonetheless awarded 12.5% each in the SNO. India’s Tata Group is a strategic equity partner in the business. (SOURCE: http://www.telegeography.com/cu/article.php?article_id=8915&email=text) NIGERIA PLANS TO LAUNCH OWN SATELLITE IN 2025Nigeria will launch its first indigenously built satellite by 2025, it was reported last Sunday. Robert Borofice, director general of the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), was quoted as saying. It had prepared a road map that would facilitate the process of designing, building and launching of an indigenous satellite, Xinhua, a Chinese news agency reported. "We have a 20 year development programme and with the backing of government within the next 18 years. We should be able to design, build and launch our own satellite within the country," he said. "In terms of the design of software and hardware, we have trained engineers who have the basic ideas in designing, fabricating, integrating and launching of a satellite." Nigeria sent its first and only satellite, NigeriaSat-1, to the orbit last year in Russia, the third on the poorest continent, after South Africa and Algeria. (SOURCE: http://allafrica.com/stories/200509060657.html) ZIMBABWE'S TEL*ONE FACES USD350M DEBT BY TRYING TO SPEED UP BILLINGThe state-owned fixed telephony network company, Tel*One (Pvt) Ltd's huge debt profile poses a serious threat to its central role in the telecommunication system, sources have said. Information obtained this week showed Tel*One's debt situation in May amounted to ZD1.3 trillion. In foreign currency, the principal debt was about USD216 million. However, when interest and inter-administrative charges were added it rose to almost USD350 million. A confidential financial report dated May 31 showed that Tel*One was heavily indebted to British Telecom (USD14 million), South Africa's Telkom (USD18,9 million), Belgium's ING-Bank (euro 10 million), France's Banque Nationale de Paris (euro 5,9 million, Kredittanstalt fur Wiederaufbau of Germany (e26 million), Norway's Eksportfinans (k14,4 million), Overseas Economic Cooperation, Itochu-D and Eximbank of Japan (Yen 11 billion), the Bank of China (USD2.7 million), African Development Bank (USD32.9 million) and the African Banking Corporation (USD2.6 million). Sources said the debt profile made Tel*One technically insolvent, but the company denied this. It said its debt was USD100 million, while its asset base was ZD4,5 trillion, meaning the debt was equal to its assets. But a USD350 million debt amounts to about ZD8.4 trillion at the official exchange rate and ZD15.8 trillion on the parallel market. The debt and foreign currency situation have largely paralysed Tel*One, causing chaos in the telephone system. The cutting of direct links with South Africa over a USD7 million debt and restrictions by the United Kingdom have worsened the situation. Sources said Tel*One had been struggling to boost revenue collection by coming up with new debt management measures. The firm banks 80% of collected telephone revenue on the same day. This ensures it reaps all possible interest from the banked money. It now bills all new customers within a month following connection. The company has committed itself to produce and send telephone bills within seven days of the end of the month. It has also said it will ensure the bills contain the latest meter readings. "Collection of 80% of new debt within a month," a Tel*One financial document says. "This reduces business dependence on borrowing. Customer service managers shall operate a target focused debt collection strategy. Performance shall be reviewed against set targets for commercially billed and bulk billed customers. "If revenue leakages are plugged, it reduces incidences of customers contesting bills and instigates early cash inflows to the business." (SOURCE: http://allafrica.com/stories/200509090036.html) MOTOROLA LOOKING TO LAUNCH ITUNES IN SOUTH AFRICAOn the back of Motorola and Apple's launch of the world's first iTunes phone in Australia, Singapore, Philippines and Israel, Motorola Southern Africa has announced that it is considering a local launch this year with a potential partner. The company believes the long-awaited launch of the Motorola ROKR E1 handset is expected to revolutionise the way the consumers around the world experience mobile self-expression and entertainment. "The Motorola ROKR represents the ultimate convergence of mobile communications and music " says Stephen Nolan, Country Manager of Motorola Southern Africa. "With the inclusion of the iTunes interface on the Motorola handset, consumers will not only discover and acquire new music and multimedia on-the-go but begin to realise the promise of content "rich" mobile broadband." Motorola claims the ROKR E1's "easy-to-use menus, simple navigation and playback", and the ability to simply switch from listening to music to talking on the phone and back again - with the push of a dedicated music key - will also make the experience "completely compelling" for the consumer. "Motorola's leadership in delivering unique mobile experiences is driven by a relentless pursuit of understanding consumer needs and creating solutions to drive our operator partners' businesses," says Nolan. Global mobile users' trends have overwhelmingly identified music as a significant lifestyle influence and as an outlet for entertainment. More importantly, says the company, mobile users want to listen to music on their phones. "Beyond simply enjoying your collection while on the go, Motorola believes our connected devices are the ideal platform for enabling users to discover and acquire music. Motorola is uniquely positioned to deliver convergence devices with no-compromise audio capabilities, " concludes Nolan. Motorola claims that it has focused on providing consumers with an easy way to take their music and multimedia collection with them by leveraging the operator available value added services (VAS), namely MMS, Video Mail, WAP, PTT, music related services and mp3 playback via handsets offerings like the V360 and V1050. ROKR E1 Key Features include: - Apple iTunes mobile music player with dedicated one-touch music key
(SOURCE: http://www.litmags.co.za/articles.asp?id=2039) IN BRIEF- Egyptian mobile operator MobiNil claimed 5.165 million active subscribers at the end of June 2005, up from 4.43 million three months earlier. The company has exceeded analyst expectations of 5.12 million, and has attributed the high growth to a new service for low income mobile phone users. - Operators in Kenya are urging telecoms regulator, the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK), to speed up its international gateway licensing procedure, claiming that customers will continue paying higher rates for international calls until it does so. As well as cutting costs, the government hopes that direct access to the international gateway will also improve business in the region. - Telecom Namibia has cut its workforce by 163 over the last four months, as part of the ‘Voluntary Separation Programme’ announced in May. 221 applications to resign were received, but only 163 were approved, reducing staff numbers from 1,406 to 1,243. The operator said that the scheme will help it to operate more efficiently, streamline the organisation and align the skills base. - Telkom has dropped a R5-million damages action against Gregg Stirton's website hellkom.co.za, which he launched in response to the telecomms giant's "incredibly high prices". - South Africa must find ways to cut the cost of communications and catch up with emerging market peers like India, President Thabo Mbeki said last Sunday. Mbeki was quoted on SABC radio as saying it was worrying that a fixed-line phone call in India cost less than in South Africa but said a planned second national operator, which has been delayed due to shareholder wrangling, would help cut prices. TELECOMS, RATES, OFFERS AND COVERAGE* Kenyan mobile operator Safaricom has begun a nationwide rural network expansion programme, aimed at facilitating rural development. The project is being funded by the cellco’s KES14 billion network expansion and upgrade budget for 2005. Safaricom hopes to register its network presence in over 100 rural locations across the country, and has already erected 26 new base transceiver sites (BTSs) in the west of the country at a cost of KES690 million. * Celtel Kenya on Thursday launched new tariffs for users of its services in East Africa. Announcing what the company termed "preferred tariffs", chief executive Gerhard May said the new tariffs will cost Sh32 during peak hours. The new tariffs reduce the cost of calling across the region. Mr May said that customers in Kenya will pay Sh23 to call anywhere in the region during off peak time. "Today we witness a major milestone not only for Celtel Kenya customers and potential ones in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. I am delighted to announce the launch of preferred tariffs across all three Celtel Networks in East Africa. The preferred rates within Celtel East Africa apply to both pre-paid and post paid customers." Mr May said. "The new tariff rates for subscribers in Tanzania calling Celtel customers in either Kenya or Uganda will be TSh390 during peak hours, and TSh272 off-peak, while to Uganda it will be UGSh610 and UGSh425 respectively," the CEO said.' Celtel chairman Naushad Merali said that the launch of the new tariffs are part of the firm's strategy to reduce calls on its network across Africa. "The private sector is keen to support the three governments in the East African Community, and the new preferential rates for Celtel to Celtel will ensure that businesses are able to communicate cost effectively , efficiently and reliably." he added. * The Nigeria Communications Commission, NCC , says new guidelines for the erection of telecommunication masts by telecom service providers in the country will soon be out. The new guidelines, according to the regulatory authority, will spell out many things as regards erection of masts in the country including the exact proximity to residential buildings. This is to allay growing fears that such equipment when sited very close to buildings could pose health hazards. The Executive Vice Chairman of the telecom regulatory agency, Engr. Ernest Ndukwe who spoke on this issue during the second year anniversary of the NCC telecom Consumer Parliament held last month in Lagos, noted that though the citing f masts close to a building does not impose a hazzad except for the noise, it may however not be too good if telecom masts were erected near windows where people reside. “There should be minimum distance from residential buildings for the convenience of people,” Ndukwe told the parliamentarians, adding that what applies in the developed economies of the world should also apply here in Nigeria which is now the toast of international community in telecom investment.
UUNET KENYA UPGRADES ITS INTERNET NETWORK ADDING MPLSUunet Kenya has completed the first phase of its nationwide system upgade. The company that provides business communication solutions announced last week it had introduced a new feature known as Multi Protocol Switching (MPLS) as part of its system enhancement programme. "This feature guarantees bandwidth, which is a value-added enhancement to traditional traffic engineering mechanisms," Wilfred Waithaka, the firm' Service Delivery Manager, said in Nairobi. "MPLS lets service providers deliver guaranteed pipes and bandwidth allocations," he said. Waithaka said the extra features are being implemented at a cost of Sh30 million though the first phase had just been completed at a cost of Sh15 million. He said the MPLS is a network support feature that will enable customers to efficiently use their current data network for voice calls, video and data applications with higher levels of quality. The system will initially be available in Mombasa, Nairobi and Kisumu to ensure wide network management is achieved and maintained. Customers expected to benefit from the new feature are organisations that have two or more branch offices running on Intranet online applications such as Citrix, SAP, Sun Systems, Baan, Pastel, Oracle among others. Companies that require real-time applications such as VOIP, Video conferencing, CCTV, Email and Internet communications and File transfers will also benefit. Through UUNET's MPLS enabled network, businesses with a national presence can be assured of an uninterrupted flow of service. Waithaka said the revamped network gives companies access to a provider that has dedicated resources and infrastructure as well as an understanding of how to manage a company's bandwidth with a full quality of service guarantee. "The solution is inherently cost-effective for customers as they are able to take advantage of economies of scale intrinsic in our network, management and support structure," he said. "This means companies will have the benefits of a flexible outsourced solution that preserves the privacy and content control delivered by a private Wan," he said. (SOURCE: http://allafrica.com/stories/200509070864.html) MAURITIUS: GOVT WANTS ADSL TO BE MORE DEMOCRATIC BY REDUCING COSTSThe new government is reviewing a number of measures that could bring down the cost of Internet access and extend the use of high-speed ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) connections even if this means reining in certain monopolies. The main measure being looked at would in fact involve bringing an end to state control over the South Africa Far East (SAFE) intercontinental fiber optic cable. The public operator Mauritius Telecom (MT) holds the exclusive right to operate the under-water cable until 2007, a situation that it exploits by charging high fees. Removing this right from MT would almost certainly lead to a lowering of prices for high-speed Internet access. However, this possibility is currently causing something of a legal-financial headache as MT has invested a billion rupees (almost 18 billion CFA francs) in its capacity as a member of the consortium that manages SAFE. So as a first step MT would have to be compensated. There are only 70,000 Internet users in Mauritius and only 3,000 of these have an ADSL connection, the reason being that a high-speed connection costs about 1,000 rupees. (SOURCE: http://www.lexpress.mu/display_article.php?news_id=48675) SA'S NETWORK OPERATORS SAY THAT BROADBAND AS CHEAP AS ELSEWHERE IS 'UNREALISTIC'It is unrealistic for South Africans to expect broadband services to become as cheap as they are in other countries, networking companies have warned. For once MTN, Telkom and other service providers agree -- saying it is not feasible to offer fast internet access at the bargain prices other countries enjoy. The comments were made at a Broadband Shootout event hosted by the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers last week, to let users compare the various options available. "While broadband is used by millions of people around the world, SA has lagged behind in the adoption of fixed broadband technology," said the institute's president, Bea Lacquet. "However, this is speeding up now with wireless, wireline, 3G (third generation) and other mobile services on offer." SA has already seen some tremendous cost cutting, although the cuts affected relatively few people as the initial prices are simply too extreme for most people to sign up. Vodacom, for example, has cut the cost of its data downloads from R40000 for a gigabit of data eight months ago to 50c today. The geographic nature of SA and its distance from the main internet lines of the US and Europe are major cost barriers, the players said. SA would not see the low prices enjoyed in Korea, where everyone lives in easy-to-connect high rise buildings, said Telkom's technical product development executive, Steve Lewis. "At the end of Africa putting in undersea cables costs money, which has to be recovered," he said. Telkom understood the need to make broadband available to everyone to boost the economy and improve education, the company said, and would continue to cut costs. "We are not going to see the low 'all-you-can-eat' prices in SA that you see in the northern hemisphere," said Brian Seligmann, MTN's manager for 3G services. "The size of the country we have to cover is vastly bigger than any European country, yet they have more subscribers. But the more subscribers we get the more economies of scale work in favour for lower prices," he said. Next year MTN and Vodacom aim to introduce "Super 3G", or high-speed download packet access technology, to transmit data at 2Mb per second. "That will start to give South African consumers the affordable bandwidth they require," Seligmann said. MTN has slashed its data prices and now carries more than 1000 times the volume of data it did four months ago, he said. When lower prices, increased geographic coverage and faster speeds of new technologies were taken into consideration, broadband internet access was now 17000 times more accessible in SA than it had been 18 months ago, Seligmann said. Sentech used the event to point the finger directly back at Telkom for keeping SA's broadband prices high. About 62% of the cost of providing a broadband service was soaked up in paying Telkom for access to international bandwidth, said Winston Smith of Sentech's My Wireless service. What would really encourage the use of broadband internet was for the communications department to force Telkom to slash the cost of access to its undersea cables, he said. (SOURCE: Business Day) ALGERIAN GOVERNMENT ORDERS CYBER-CAFES TO SHUT BY MIDNIGHTThe Algerian Government has ordered all Algerian cyber-cafes to close by midnight. This is despite the fact that a great deal of cyber-café use happens after this time. This follows the issuance of Executive Decree n°05-268 of 25 July this year which specifies opening hours of between 8am-midnight. Cyber-cafes are classified as "places of entertainment". Those disobeying the decree would face a suspension of activity of not more than six months. It is unclear why cyber-cafes should be regarded as "places of entertainment" or why the Government has taken it upon itself to micro-manage Algeria's 5,000 cyber-cafes in this way. (source: La Tribune) SHARP INCREASE IN SOUTH AFRICAN INTERNET COURT CASESSince the start of 2005 there has been a significant increase in the number of Internet related judgments from South African courts. In the past, fear of our courts not being well equipped to handle such disputes has caused many IT businesses submit their disputes to arbitration. The recent increase in technology related litigation shows a growing trust in our justice system and relatively young technology laws such as the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act. Since 2000, the vast majority of Internet disputes resulted from wrongful domain name use. Companies such as Nandos, Sanlam and Truworths had to fight for their domain names in international arbitration proceedings based on local trademark rights. Since trademark rights form the basis of domain name rights, cities and regions throughout South Africa have no remedies against other who use domain names such as southafrica.com, capetown.com and kalahari.com. In 2001 a disgruntled SAA passenger registered the domain neverflysaa.com and hosted a website describing his bad experiences during a London to Cape Town flight. The public was also encouraged to post their experiences with SAA to the site. SAA responded by referring a dispute to arbitration. The judgment, widely regarded as a test case for so-called criticism websites, was handed down in May 2002 and held that free speech rights weigh stronger than trademark rights if the website in question is actually used for legitimate criticism. Although not directly related to the Internet, the unexpected judgment of the Constitutional Court in Laugh It Off v SAB will undoubtedly have a huge effect on freedom of speech on the Internet. Laugh It Off produced t-shirts mocking certain famous South African trademarks. The court ruled that free speech rights outweigh trademark rights if the trademark owner cannot prove actual financial loss. Recent unhappiness with the pricing and services of Telkom resulted in the registration and use of hellkom.co.za and telkomsucks.co.za. Telkom responded by threatening website owner Andrew von Hoesslin with litigation. But recent judgements do not bode well for Telkom’s case. The current development of the law seems to favour free speech rights and not traditional trademark rights in most circumstances. Another local judgment on Internet free speech resulted from litigation initiated by a manager of the Sundownds Soccer Club, against Touch Line Media because of an anonymous and allegedly defamatory posting on the Kick Off website’s discussion forum. In 2003 the High Court ruled in favour of Touchline Media based on, amongst others, the fact that online free speech would be severely restricted if bulletin board operators had a duty to monitor all postings for potential defamatory content. As early as 1998 the Supreme Court balanced free speech rights and reputation rights with the National Media v Bogoshi judgment. The court held that the media had a central role in any democracy and may even publish untrue words if such publication was reasonable in the circumstances. The vast majority of local Internet defamation disputes result from anonymous postings to chat rooms or discussion forums. The question whether or not a bulletin board operator must disclose the identity of a person who made a defamatory anonymous posting was not yet dealt with by the courts. People are more confident to call a spade a spade when they talk anonymously and can do so without fear of later harassment by employers and others. Anonymous tip offs form a corner stone of our criminal justice system and the identities of those providing useful information about criminals are strongly protected. The same argument should apply to anonymous speech on the Internet. (SOURCE: Media Toolbox) AMERICAN EXPRESS, DIDATA AIM TO OPTIMISE NETWORK PERFORMANCEAmerican Express has selected Dimension Data (DiData) for a bandwidth optimisation solution, aiming to enable it to prioritise business-critical traffic across its existing WAN. DiData's bandwidth optimisation solution is designed to consolidate best-of-breed caching, quality of service, compression and network monitoring/compression technologies, into a single solution that looks at bandwidth usage in its entirety and makes recommendations on how best to optimise bandwidth. Prior to the upgrade, American Express deployed Expand Networks' Accelerator 2700 units at four sites across SA. The downtime of the Accelerator units, which had no maintenance contracts or software licence cover, would result in insufficient WAN bandwidth to carry data, resulting in extreme network congestion that would necessitate manual operations between the branches. "In addition to our concerns regarding downtime, we also experienced increased traffic from our Cape Town branch, which intensified our requirement for guaranteed quality of service and the prioritisation of business-related traffic," says Jose Rodrigues, IT manager, American Express. The technology migration plan involved removing legacy equipment and replacing it with the Accelerator 4820, which is covered by a maintenance and support agreement. The Accelerator aims to provide American Express with bandwidth expansion capabilities, various features that improve the response time of applications, as well as tools that allow enterprises to align network resources with business priorities. In addition, the upgrade will ensure quality of service across the American Express WAN and allow for mission-critical Citrix traffic to be prioritised, the company says. "We are already seeing improved operational performance since the completion of the implementation. DiData's bandwidth optimisation solution enabled us to utilise our existing infrastructure, negating the need for a costly network upgrade to cope with increased business and user demands," adds Rodrigues. Users have also acknowledged visible improvements in terms of system performance and functioning. (SOURCE: http://www.ictworld.co.za/EditorialEdit.asp?EditorialID=24244) IN BRIEF- Sunday Folayan of Nigeria's Skannet has just rung in to demonstrate the impact of connecting to the SAT3 fibre connection. Skannet is based in Ibadan, Nigeria's second city and connects to the fibre via a microwave link. Nevertheless we have perfectly clear phone calls using Skype and a separate IP phone service. Broadband fibre connections are making IP calling a present reality in those countries with proper connections to SAT3.
BANK OF UGANDA INSTALLS SH1.8B SOFTWAREThe Bank of Uganda (BOU) has signed up for Richmond Software worth sh1.8b for its foreign reserve management operations. "There was a need for a pro-active financial management system to keep our operations funded at the lowest costs, minimise financial risks associated with foreign exchange transactions and interest rate movements," Juma Walusimbi, the central bank's spokesman, said. The new technology streamlines central bank processes by effectively handling reserve management and monetary policy execution in a single system. The Trema suite is accurate and helps to track reserves. BOU will be the third African central bank to adopt the technology following the Central Bank of Morocco and the South African Reserve Bank. "The ability to keep technical issues at arms length is the main advantage. Security, which is the major issue for corporate treasuries, is guaranteed. The Application Service Provision offers treasury systems providers a way to access their market segment," Walusimbi said. The new system also handles a range of high value money market and foreign exchange transactions as well as swaps and bonds. Terry Beadle, the Trema head of the government sector, said, "Our mid-tier central bank offer is specifically designed to cater for the increased regulatory and performance challenges faced by mid-sized central banks working with limited budgets and resources." The technology was bought from Trema, a London-based treasury management software vendor. (SOURCE: http://allafrica.com/stories/200509080233.html) YOUNG LEADERS SIERRA LEONE LAUNCHES COMPUTER CENTREYoung Leaders Sierra Leone Chapter, unveiled on Monday two Computers, Scanner, and a Printer at the National Museum Conference Hall, Cotton Tree donated to them by United Kingdom branch. Spokesman for the Sierra Leone Chapter, Abubakar Meseh Kamara said the equipments, which cost Le10million, were donated by Mohamed Ishmael Kebbay of the UK branch. He called on his colleagues to make good use of the items. Cecelia Nicole who chaired the occasion said the briefing was to inform the public about Sierra Leone's participation in the global network of Young Leaders forum at the University of West Ministers, in the United Kingdom. She said the Young Leaders would be selling the good image of the country abroad, on issues surrounding the Children's Right, the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, and Concerns of Students at home. (SOURCE: http://allafrica.com/stories/200509070433.html) MEDSCHEME MIGRATES INFRASTRUCTURE TO LINUX WITH UNISYSMedscheme, the largest medical aid administrator in southern Africa, recently made history, saved money and substantially improved its performance by upgrading its IT infrastructure. The project saw Medscheme upgrading its hardware, operating systems, storage arrays and database all at once, without disrupting its business processes or taking its operational systems offline. Founded in 1971, Medscheme is a black-empowered, South African-owned business operating in South Africa, Mauritius, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. As a long-time partner, Unisys Africa has been providing IT consulting and implementation services to Medscheme, which has built its mission-critical business processes on ES7000 multi-processor servers. In 2004, the administrator decided to upgrade its infrastructure to replace its five-year-old ES7000 servers with newer, more powerful (and lower cost) models. The upgrade would also ensure it would be able to cope with the increased pressures facing the medical insurance market in South Africa, and its own growth. "The decision to continue with Unisys as our IT partner was never in doubt," says Kevin Wright, CIO of Medscheme. "We have enjoyed premium service and support from Unisys over the years and were not about to risk a trusted relationship that worked well for all parties concerned. What we needed to determine was what technologies we would use." Medscheme's existing ES7000s ran either the SCO UnixWare operating system with an Oracle database, or Windows Server with Microsoft's SQL Server database. With Oracle ending support for the SCO platform, Medscheme had to find a new operating system platform for its Oracle systems - moving its operational data from Oracle was not an option Wright was prepared to consider. "With the help of Unisys, we decided to go the Novell SuSE Linux route, a platform supported by Oracle and Unisys. Moreover, by adopting an open source system such as Linux, we could be sure we would be able to run our systems on any Intel-based hardware as we expand our operations into Africa. And we saved substantially on our software licensing costs." So how was the environment architected? Steven Grundlingh, Medscheme account manager at Unisys Africa, reports: "The server infrastructure is based on two 16 CPU ES7000 520s. These servers are partitioned to run production, development and disaster recovery and are located in two physically separate locations. The storage is provided by EMC DMX, Symmetrix and CLARiiON systems, supported by StorageTek L700 and L180 tape libraries for backup. The total data under management is 20 Terabytes." Medscheme is also in the process of moving its primary Microsoft systems to the ES7000 environment to ensure the same level of support, performance and business continuity as is enjoyed by the Linux systems. All SQL databases already run on ES7000 technology and systems such as MediServe, a system for authorising chronic medication, and Microsoft Exchange are currently being migrated. Not only does Medscheme support the IT requirements of its own employees, but it also runs realtime transactions to authorise and pay providers. Around 45% of its transactions are now run in realtime. This means that when a pharmacy is authorised to provide medication, for example, the transaction is completed in its entirety, with the transfer of funds taking place at a time as determined by rules in the systems. Grundlingh reports that the migration was done over the Easter long weekend. "The disaster recovery systems were used to provide continuous service to the business while, on the primary production systems, the Oracle 9i database was installed and the data migrated and converted to the Linux file format. By the time normal work resumed after the weekend, everything was running on the new systems without hitches. All users experienced was better performance." Specifically, Grundlingh notes that jobs that previously required 24 hours to complete are now finished in less than three; realtime claims that used to take five seconds per transaction now take 2,5 seconds. Additionally, using EMC's TimeFinder data replication software to copy the company's data to a section of the storage array for testing and development purposes now only requires three hours whereas it used to take 15. "There's no single product or service that delivered these brilliant results," Grundlingh says. "It is the combination and configuration of the combined solution that has made the impact on Medscheme's business processes. Further improvements can be expected as the company makes further upgrades to its older hardware and installs Oracle Database 10g as its centralised database in 2006." "Our database is critical to the success of the company," says Wright. "To meet the legal requirements of our industry and to ensure we deal with all claims - realtime or not - as fast as possible, we store everything on the central Oracle database. All transactions and their related communications are stored, whether scanned documents, SMS or e-mail messages. Our call centre agents can track any correspondence linked to any record in a second with the click of a button. Via an Avaya switch, voice calls will also be stored and accessible in the same manner." Through Unisys's understanding of Medscheme's business requirements, it was able to ensure that Linux was and is able to meet all of Medscheme's enterprise computing requirements. Grundlingh concludes: "On its own, few companies will be able to ensure Linux, at its current maturity level, delivers on the real needs of the enterprise, integrates successfully and runs reliably. With the assistance of an experienced partner, however, Linux can, right now, meet and exceed all enterprise needs reliably and at a lower cost than any other Unix platform on the market." LOW COST, LOW ENERGY COMPUTER FINDS WAY TO DEVELOPING MARKETSA group in Sweden have quietly developed a new, low cost computer, specially designed for use in developing countries. Features include sturdy case, low energy consumption as it runs on 12 V, free and Open Source software, and all plug-ins necessary. The computer is available in a range of models, from a basic thin client up to an advanced server for running labs and office equipment. The main target group is the educational sector. Says Luis Abascal, initiator and chair: "We had a vision of developing a computer accessible for all, and possible to use without extensive technical knowledge, and now we have succeeded." The first units have been tested in rough and live conditions, and have found their way to the end user. "The basic models can be obtained for under USD200, but it all depends on the features. We do however anticipate a further drop in prices", adds Mats Brunell, another of the core members. "We have based the technology on open standards, so the computer is compatible to existing hardware and software used in different environments. It is also easy to use and maintain, which makes it ideal for deployment in developing countries", concludes Johan Holmberg, responsible for developing markets. IN BRIEF- A Liberian women and children NGO, the Volunteers for the Care of Abused and Abandoned Children- (VOCAAC) has donated a set of computers to the Center of Media Studies and Peace Building (CEMESP) in Monrovia.
NITEL SIX PREPARING BIDS; SALE DUE BY YEAR ENDThe sale of a controlling stake in state-run Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) will be completed by the end of the year, according to Nigeria’s Minister of Communications Cornelius Adebayo. ‘It is going very well, we expect by the end of this year the privatisation will be completed and the new buyer will take over early next year,’ Adebayo said. In July the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) pre-qualified six companies for the 51% in debt-ridden NITEL and, with it, the telco’s wholly owned mobile subsidiary NITEL GSM, from a list of 22 prospective investors. The BPE originally hoped to conclude a deal this month, but Adebayo now says the bidders are conducting due diligence and will submit their offers in the coming months. The companies are South African cellco Vodacom, Chinese equipment vendor Huawei Technologies, Orascom Telecom of Egypt, pan-African operator Celtel International, South Africa-based MTN Group and the relatively unknown Newtel consortium – thought to feature a number of prominent African businessmen, including Nelson Mandela’s son-in-law Kwame Amuah. (SOURCE: http://www.telegeography.com/cu/article.php?article_id=8913&email=text) KENYAN GOVT SEEKS SH25B TO FUND TELKOM KENYA REDUNDANCY PACKAGEThe Government is sourcing for funds to finance retrenchment exercise at the Telkom Kenya, Information Minister Raphael Tuju said last week. He gave no clues as to where the money would come from. Tuju said the Chinese government had expressed interest to assist Telkom Kenya undertake local connection of wireless telephone service to subscribers to boost the company's revenue base ahead of the proposed retrenchment. Tuju, who was fielding questions from journalists at his office, said the company had a bloated staff of over 17,000, and the revenue collected on monthly basis could not sustain the wage bill. He said Sh25 billion is required to turnaround the corporation. 'A report on Telkom touched on a lot of things but the most important is the restructuring that is necessary for it to become much more viable business because at the moment it is loss making,' said the minister. The minister said the Government was putting systems in place to boost the company's performance ahead of restructuring exercise. Tuju said over 100,000 subscribers had applied to be connected, but were kept in the waiting list as Telkom could not cope with the demand. 'Right now if you apply for a line, it would take you months or even years to get one. We have to make a paradigm shift in the way we do business at Telkom,' said the minister. He said the Government was working on a programme to assist Telkom Kenya adopt new technology to enable it connect subscribers with a wireless telephone. 'My recent trip with the President to China has put all this matter into perspective. The CDMA technology should enable as many people as possible to be connected without having to physically connect them with copper wires, so to speak,' he said. He said the proposed project would boost revenue base for Telkom Kenya and make the company viable institution. He said the Government was keen on assisting Telkom carry out the restructuring exercise with a human face by offering golden handshake packages. He said the proposed exercise will be staggered to make it manageable, adding the Government was talking to various to secure financing for the exercise. Tuju said Telkom Kenya turnaround required Sh25 billion that must be raised by the Government. (source: The East African Standard)
KENYA: PARLIAMENT WEBSITE SHUT AFTER MEDIA REPORTSThe Kenyan Parliament has shut down its website amid reports that the The Standard’s exclusive report of well-guarded secrets embarrassed some MPs. Last weekend, http://www.parliament.go.ke was blank after the two-day serialisation of what reads like an A-Z of some of Kenya's MPs’ hitherto unknown — and perhaps best kept — career and educational details. Instead of the profiles that have captivated readers and triggered animated discussions in public and private, was a terse notice: "Thank you for visiting the Parliament website. We are currently updating the site. Please bookmark the site and visit us shortly." There were no further details. A source at Parliament’s Information Technology department confirmed that the site had been shut down. "Its true the site has been closed," said the source, who said a lot of work was still being done on it, including updating the profiles already posted. The closure elicited surprise, even anger among dozens of Internet surfers in Nairobi, who were keen to access the site and sample the secret lives of the MPs for themselves. The MPs said they had no idea the information was available on the web but admitted it was mandatory to submit the information once one was elected MP. The website contains brief profiles of MPs, including President Kibaki. It gives the age, marital status, religion, career history, education and MPs’ hobbies. Reports said the website’s official launch by House Speaker Francis Kaparo set for later this month could be delayed until early next year. It also emerged that the expose "ambushed and embarrassed" some high-profile parliamentarians, according to a source. It was not immediately clear who was embarrassed by the publication of the material posted on the web or serialised by The Standard. But MPs, including Trade and Industry minister Mukhisa Kituyi, Kanu nominated MP Ruth Oniang’o, Karachuonyo MP, former Planning minister Adhu Awiti and Assistant Transport minister Andrew Ligale praised the site. They said Kenyans had the right to have first-hand information about their leaders. Kituyi, who is also the MP for Kimilili, said it was a legitimate right for Kenyans to know about their representatives. He was surprised that the website was shut, saying people need not be ashamed of who they are and what they had or had not achieved. "My experience both in and out of Parliament is enormous and cannot be summarised in a few paragraphs. If anybody wanted more information then my ministry’s website has all the details," said Kituyi, who holds a PhD and stands out as one of the best educated in President Kibaki’s Cabinet. Awiti, who is also the Rachuonyo MP, said public figures should not hide personal details relating to their academic background, career, religion or marital status. He said the website was "a huge step" towards Government’s dream of achieving accountability and transparency in its ranks. (SOURCE: http://africa.rights.apc.org/index.shtml?apc=21860ne_1&x=1218523) BA INTRODUCES ON-LINE PAYMENT IN KENYAKenyans can now buy British Airways tickets on a secure on-line booking and payment website, the ba.com. The on-line payment is available to anyone with an international credit card and operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When the payment has been made through a secure on-line process, an electronic ticket is sent by email. This saves passengers the hassle of collecting conventional travel documents. This is the latest addition to ba.com services available in Kenya. Using the "manage my booking" function customers can check-in on line up to 24 hours before departure, reserve their seats and make special meal requests. In addition they can check details of their booking, book hotels and car hire. (SOURCE: http://allafrica.com/stories/200509080822.html)
VODAFONE LAUNCHES SOLAR CHARGER FOR MOBILE PHONES IN NIGERIAVodafone launched a solar charger for mobile phones enabling users to recharge batteries anywhere where the sun is shining. This is another important addition to the independence and mobility offered by mobile communications, and something that will be especially appreciated in the present holiday period, with long hours spent outside, far from a power socket but within reach of the sun's power. Apart from mobile phones and PDAs, this flexible charging technology can also be used to power a range of other devices such as handheld games, MP3 players and digital cameras. The solar charger can be bought at all Vodafone shops. Its internal battery captures the solar energy and stores it, from where it can be transferred to mobile devices. It will still be possible, however, to recharge these devices from the electrical mains supply. Portugal is the third country in the world - after Holland and Greece - to offer this exclusive Vodafone product. The charger's mobility makes it not just a useful device for the summer holidays, but also an extremely practical accessory for those who travel frequently on business or for pleasure. The Vodafone solar charger also has the advantage of being an environment-friendly product. To illustrate that, 10,000 customers using the charger for a year on solar energy alone would prevent the atmospheric discharge of 8 tonnes of carbon dioxide, which is accepted as one of the main causes of global warming. (SOURCE: http://allafrica.com/stories/200509080327.html)
PEOPLE-South Africa's fixed-line phone carrier Telkom has appointed Thami Msimango as Chief Technical Officer after a management shake-up, the company said on Thursday. Msimango replaces Reuben September, who was named Chief Operating Officer earlier this month when the appointment of new Chief Executive Officer Papi Molotsane was announced. The move comes after a management rejig sparked by the departure of former CEO Sizwe Nxasana, which media reports say has angered several Telkom executives. Telkom said in a statement Msimango has worked in the department of communications and then state-controlled Telkom since 1984 and has worked as head of network infrastructure provisioning since 2003. The appointment was effective September 6. EVENTSE-LEARNING AFRICA ELA conference, an annual event for building eLearning capacities in Africa UNCC, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, May 24 - 26, 2006 eLearning is high on the agenda in Africa. eLearning Africa, a conference to be held annually, intends to become the eLearning capacity building event and - at the same time - a forum for all stakeholders engaged in the planning and implementation of technology supported learning and training on the African continent. For more information visit http://www.elearning-africa.com JOBS AND OPPORTUNITIESMICROSOFT ENGAGEMENT MANAGER Location: Nairobi, Kenya Description:
Purpose of the job:
Qualifications:
Contact Details to apply
Reference: FJA-Mic-EMK MICROSOFT INFRASTRUCTURE ARCHITECTLocation: Johannesburg, South Africa Description:
Responsibilities include:
Qualifications:
Contact Details to apply
Reference: FJA-Mic-SLA MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY SPECIALIST Location: Cameroon Description: The Technology Specialist serves as a technical member that in a pre sales role supports the account and product sales teams in identifying key solutions, and communicating and integrating Microsoft’s strategy. Key Area of Responsibility: 1. Communicates, integrates and implements Microsoft’s technology strategy among strategically targeted accounts/partners. 2. Principal Internal Technology Group liaison in the local subsidiary. 3. Develops custom presentations and conducts onsite pre sales technical presentations to aid the sales process. 4. Provides training to sales force and acts as technical mentor to less experienced technical staff members and partners. 5. Provides technical architectural sales/support of large-scale solutions at strategic enterprise accounts 6. Assists with proof of concept installation and provides beta and preview programme support. 7. Articulates Microsoft’s vision, systems and application strategies in order to educate customers about their usefulness within the customers’ environments. 8. Develops comprehensive technical account strategies for Microsoft corporate accounts. 9. Monitors competitor programmes/activities and market trends to demonstrate and communicate the advantages and superiority of Microsoft systems and applications, and products. 10. Manages the local Developer Community. 11. Mentoring other Technical Specialists in the West & Central Africa region Qualifications: MCSE Certification essential, Relevant degree preferred Contact Details to apply
Reference: FJA-Mic-1432
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