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WEEKLY PUBLICATION DEADLINE: 12 pm GMT Sunday. ISSUE NO 276 South Africa's Business Connexion finds new business growth from across the continentSouth Africa is increasingly becoming a platform for ICT growth across Africa. A number of South African companies have targeted acquiring high-value corporate and government contracts. Donor-funded ICT developments in the governance area are providing a rich but highly competitive seam of business. These export-oriented companies work with local partners but use their own skills and expertise to help them win the business. Russell Southwood interviews Peter Retief, Regional Chief Executive: Africa, one of this breed of companies spreading their wings across the continent. Where does Business Connexions come from as a company? It’s a South African company, listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. It grew out of series of mergers. The first of these mergers was between Persetel, a mainframe vendor and Qdata, a provider of development people, as well as a software developer. It became PQ Africa and it then ventured into Europe and the USA. As part of this strategic move, it bought Comparex in Germany and subsequently adopted Comparex as a group name. It then decided it should orient the business towards Africa rather than Europe. It looked at what it was doing and realised that a substantial part of its market was in South Africa and that it was losing ground in Government markets because of BEE. Business Connexion was a Black-owned company successful in the Microsoft market so we made a match between it and Comparex (as we were then named). Business Connexion shareholders got a 25% shareholding in the merged entity. So we now have about 4,500 employees, mainly in South Africa and have an annual turnover of around USD500 million a year. How did the decision to address the African market come about? We had been working in Africa for a while so it was looking at the profitability of our European operations versus our African operations. We made the decision just before the dot-bomb so maybe it was foresight! We’ve been growing in Africa since 1998. We had forays into Africa. For example we had a Namibian subsidiary with a 25% local shareholding. Then on the back of working with Global One, we went into Malawi, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. In 2000, we did a big upgrade of the internet backbone for the incumbent. We also built the Swaziland backbone for Global One and UNDP. And we then widened our field into Togo Eritrea and even Mauritania, where we did a consultancy contract. We did a fixed wireless project in Nigeria for Cyber Space with a backbone. Then France Telecom took over Global One and part went into France Telecom and the rest into Equant. At this point, we took over a lot of the contacts for this kind of work. You’ve done a lot of work in Ethiopia? We’ve been working in Ethiopia since 2000 and have won a lot of contracts with our local partner GCS including: ETC (the Broadband Multimedia Network), the Government (a videoconferencing system), the Federal Inland Revenue network, the network for the new African Union building and a number of consultancy contracts. So how many countries have you done work in? We’ve done business in 23 countries, although some of these it has been just a single contract. We have branches in Namibia (80 employees), Zimbabwe (45 employees), Tanzania and have just opened an office in Mozambique. The countries where we work intensively but don’t have branches include: Nigeria, Ghana and Ethiopia. How do you work in each country? We like to work with a local partner and seek to choose ‘best of breed’: there has to be a trust ‘fit’ and a cultural ‘fit’ and then we can work together. The local partners provide local knowledge and support. We provide: technical expertise beyond what any single country company could provide; the financial strengths for large contracts; and a portfolio of successfully completed work. Our starting point is not that we come to this thing as the big brother. What type of contracts are you looking to win? Large contracts. Typically these might include telecoms projects of any kind, Government networks and banking networks and applications. The number one criteria for a project in Africa should be: will it work? We represent Sun, IBM, HP, EMC and others and on the networking side we are a Cisco Gold Partner and represent Nortel, Avaya and Huawei. That all sounds a bit similar to Didata? The key difference is that 70% of our revenues are from services. In South Africa we’re predominantly an outsourcing company. We offer the full range of managed services including ‘back office’ and we’re much bigger in the sevice space, Major companies like SASOL and BHP Billiton are our customers. So how much of your income comes from outside South Africa? The rest of Africa is not as mature a market as South Africa and so it varies a bit. Last year was a bad year but the year before last it was 14%. That sounds quite a modest figure? Well put it in perspective. The South African economy is almost 50% of the total African economy. So the rest of Africa is 50%. Most networking and server companies are targeting 30%. So who are your competitors? It varies from tender to tender. We don’t find ourselves consistently up against particular companies. It’s people like Schlumberger, CFAO, Accenture and HP. In the telecoms sector, the competition is the Alcatel and Siemens of this world. Where do you think new growth will come from for you? There are two big markets: the mobile sector and Government software apps. The mobile operators are potentially significant clients. The incumbent telcos are largely Government-owned but there are some interesting changes in that sector. The second major market is around better governance with funding from donors like the World Bank and the European Union. We sell things like a local government application: around half of the South African municipalities use it. The app includes things like payroll and HR and we’ve sold it out into a number of countries, including Zimbabwe. Why have you bought Bidnet? We made the acquisition in order to be able to provide a more comprehensive service to existing clients.
POLICE PROBE USD4.1 MILLION A MONTH FRAUD AT TELKOM KENYADetectives are investigating alleged massive fraud at Telkom Kenya in which the corporation has been losing more than Sh300 million (USD4.1 million) every month. Police have confirmed that the investigation targets senior managers and a former top official of Telkom after it emerged that fraudsters within the corporation have been sending over Sh120 million monthly to an overseas account for non-existent international connectivity. The fraud, police say, has been made possible through illegal connections and transfer of international connectivity fees to foreign accounts. Sources close to the investigations said that the detectives would concentrate on a Sh420 million monthly loss the corporation incurred until early this year when the fraud was discovered. A team of officers from the CID headquarters visited Teleposta building along Kenyatta Avenue in Nairobi and began investigations into the fraud a week ago. The team, from the Economic and Commercial Crimes Unit, is led by the officer-in-charge, Iregi Ngatia. It has collected evidence implicating several senior managers, a police officer attached to the corporation and other junior employees. A source privy to the investigations said that, so far, the detectives have established that the corporation has been losing Sh300 million a month in illegal telephone connections through which callers make international calls at a fraction of the official cost. "This is a massive investigation and the detectives have a big job to do. We hope they will gather enough evidence to implicate those responsible for defrauding Kenyans of the millions of shillings lost by the corporation," a police officer who did not want to be named said. The Telkom managing director, Sammy Kirui, last week confirmed that detectives had started investigations into some transactions. But he could not tell the amount involved. "I know there is an ongoing investigation internally. It is not possible to put a figure to it but our internal investigations have been trying to find out what is happening. I can confirm that police are investigating. When I came in I tried to plug the revenue leakages and this we found is mostly through illegal connections. We have also been conducting an audit of our systems," Kirui said. (SOURCE: The Nation) SOUTH AFRICA'S DoC PROMISES ACTION ON TELKOM'S HIGH RATESConsumers should not fear that another workshop to discuss the high price of telecommunications will be a pointless exercise, as government is determined to impose some changes, the communications department says."Telecommunications costs in SA are exceptionally and unacceptably high," says Deputy Communications Minister Radhakrishna Padayachie. "We have to put in place a series of effective strategies to reduce the costs and contribute to providing universal services to our people." Padayachie was speaking ahead of a workshop on October 11 and 12, where a working group formed at a similar colloquium in July will present firm proposals to crack down on profiteering. The department will listen and it will act, Padayachie promises. He acknowledges a lot is at stake as the proposals could make a major contribution to cutting the cost of doing business in SA, boosting economic growth, and eventually reducing poverty and halving unemployment. He expects the working group to call for the Sat3 undersea cable to be declared a national asset. The Independent Communications Authority of SA could then cap how much Telkom charges other operators for access to it. Padayachie also expects a call for internet service providers to be allowed to build their own networks, instead of being forced to lease their lines from Telkom. The working group will demand an end to Telkom's monopoly over the local loop. That is crucial for others to compete without duplicating lines to users' premises. Policy directives will be presented to Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri. "There is a tendency to think there is too much talk and not enough action," Padayachie says. But this thorough consultation was needed to reach consensus.Asked if the department had the will to end Telkom's monopoly over Sat3 and the local loop, he said: "There is almost a deafening noise in the sector that we need some serious action, and unbundling the local loop has been identified as one of the most important suggestions." But he did not give a clear answer, saying the working group's research had raised other issues and other possible solutions. This week the South Africa Foundation issued firm proposals that could quickly cut telecoms costs by up to 50%. They include obligatory per-second billing, no minimum call fees and a reworking of the interconnection fees operators charge each other. The report also supports unbundling the local loop and declaring Sat3 a national asset. And the foundation is calling for a reduction in the hefty licence fees paid by operators. "Most of these measures are not dramatic and are well-aligned with international practices," said executive director Michael Spicer. Slashing the costs by 50% was a "stretch target" but it was probably achievable given costs in comparable countries, he said. Mark Shuttleworth, a member of President Thabo Mbeki's international technology advisory task force, believes the colloquium could finally result in real action. The task force has been telling government for years that the cost of voice and data services is hampering growth, he says. Now the trade and industry department is demanding an end to high prices, as they are hurting foreign investment and competitiveness. That added clout could help speed up regulatory changes, Shuttleworth believes. (SOURCE: Business Day) ZAMBIA ENDS ITS INTERNATIONAL GATEWAY MONOPOLYZambia is now on an extended countdown to the end of the international gateway monopoly after its President Levy Mwanamwasa issued a 90-day ultimatum to the two ministries involved to come up with cabinet memorandum to end the monopoly. The ultimatum expires at the end of November this year. The Zambia Competition Commission commented that it should be left up to individual investors whether they invested in their own international gateway. The move was prompted by complaints from the Zambia Association of Manufacturers which expressed its frustration that the issue of liberalising the international gateway was taking too long to resolve and that the current monopoly was keeping calling costs high. It currently costs between USD1.5-2 a minute to make a call compared to US20-40 cents a minute in the DRC. Mobile operators were also complaining that they had to give 80% of their international call revenue to Zamtel for the use of the monopoly gateway. If the monopoly is ended as looks likely, the incumbent Zamtel will lose this high-margin revenue. Plans to privatise Zamtel are currently on hold. MTN NIGERIA UPGRADES PRE-PAID PLATFORM TO ADDRESS COMPLAINTSMTN Nigeria has embarked on the upgrade of its pre-paid platform to address the difficulties that its subscribers experienced in recharging their phones. This is even as subscribers on the network continue to complain about increasing cases of call drops and uncompleted calls on its network. In fact, there is general anger about the freakiness of the MTN network. Addressing the media in Lagos at the weekend, John Krige, Acting Chief Technical Officer of MTN, said that the pre-paid platform upgrade is in fulfillment of MTN's pledge to always ensure the provision of world-class telecommunications services in Nigeria. According to Krige, the new system would ensure that customers experience smooth and uninterrupted recharge transactions on the network. The improvements to the prepaid platform should also result in flawless accessibility to credit balances by subscribers all over the country. But commenting on the crucial problem of call drops, Krige said that it had to do with the transmission problem that the network is currently experiencing. He said that MTN currently uses Microwave transmission links, which is not very adequate for a network of its size, stressing that with the nature of Microwave, the network was bound to have some problems of call drops. He, however, said that the company was already addressing the problem with the laying of fibre optic for its transmission across the country. He explained that the fibre optic links, which the company is building, would provide a permanent solution to the present problems of dropped calls on the network. Krige said that according to the plan of MTN, the laying of fibre optic links in the East would be completed by the end of the year, while the West/East link would be completed by the second quarter of next year. Once these fibre optic links are completed, MTN would have unlimited capacity. He, however, said that in the medium term, the company would provide extra capacity to the Microwave links to solve the immediate problems of subscribers. Krige said that MTN is employing the best of technology in the pre-paid platform upgrade stressing that the CS three platform it is installing is the second to be installed anywhere in the world after Turkey.However, whilst the upgrade process continues, MTN Nigeria is taking all possible precautions to ensure a flawless service to all its customers. The company therefore executes all upgrade activities after midnight, in order to minimize the effect of any unintentional disruption of service to customers. "It is pertinent to add that hundreds of upgrades take place as a matter of normal business, of which customers are usually completely unaware. In spite of all our efforts to minimize disruptions, it is possible that customers may experience some challenges within the period that this exercise will last," the company said. The effect of the upgrade exercise can affect pre-paid customers in any geographic area where the system is centralized. (SOURCE: http://allafrica.com/stories/200510030322.html) TELECOM NAMIBIA SUED BY BOTSWANA'S AFRITEL - SUIT COULD BE AS HIGH AS USD23 MILLIONTelecom Namibia is embroiled in a multi-million-dollar international law Suit involving a Botswana registered telecommunications company - Africa Telecommunications (Afritel). Telecom is Namibia's only landline operated Company and a shareholder in the country's only mobile communications company, MTC. Afritel has declared a dispute with Telecom involving millions of US dollars For breach of contract. The amount, according to some sources has been put at USD23 million. Both companies last week confirmed the dispute between them but could not disclose any details. Other sources have it that the two declared a dispute after the two companies entered into an agreement for the purchase of some equipment, including voice and data transmitters. The two parties signed a contract to this effect in 2003. A source at the Botswana company told New Era yesterday on inquiry that the dispute involved "a large amount of money. Many, many millions of US dollars." Telecom Namibia's legal advisor Liezel van Wyk also confirmed that there was a dispute between the two telecommunication companies, but would not disclose any more information as this might jeopardise the case. But when contacted for comment, Telecom's managing director Frans Ndoroma said the case was not in the public interest and in addition to this, the board had made a decision not to make information about the dispute public at this stage. Without acknowledging that his company was indeed involved in the dispute, Ndoroma said the matter was sub judice because both sides have legal representation working on the case. New Era has it on good authority that Telecom offered USD3 million as settlement but the Botswana company reportedly turned down the offer. The dispute has not gone to a civil court and instead legal arbitration has been instituted. According to the Botswana official, the hearing has now been postponed to next year either end of January or early February, after a session to settle the dispute, which was held in July this year. The dispute is said to have been declared in 2004. (source: New Era) WEST AFRICAN REGULATORS AGREE ON COMMON REGULATORY FRAMEWORK FOR ICTIn a landmark agreement aimed at creating a harmonized information and communication technology (ICT) market, regulators from fifteen West African nations have agreed to a common regulatory framework for their national ICT markets. The agreement marks a significant step forward for West Africa, which is seeking to create a single market based on the European Union model. Regulators hammered out the new framework during a three-day validation workshop in September, 2005 chaired by Major John Tandoh, Acting Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the National Communications Authority (NCA) of Ghana. More than 100 participants took part in the event, including representatives from the regulatory authorities of Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, the Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo as well as regional organizations including CATIA, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the European Commission, the FCC, the West African Monetary Union (UEMOA), USAID and members of the private sector. The new harmonized regional framework, which covers interconnection, licensing, numbering, spectrum management, universal access and ICT policy and legislation, was formally approved by the 3rd Ordinary General Meeting (OGM) of the West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly (WATRA), which was chaired by Daniel Seck, WATRA chairman and Director General of Senegal’s Agence de Régulation des Télécommunications (ART). "I am delighted that WATRA has played such an important role in bringing the region together to achieve its goal of creating a harmonized ICT market," said Seck, after the meeting. ZTE BEGINS SALE OF LOCALLY ASSEMBLED HANDSETS IN NIGERIAChinese company, ZTE Nigeria, currently assembling mobile handsets in the country, has fixed the price of its first two products at N13,000 and N13,700. Some buyers, who were at the ZTE factory in Abuja, however, said the phones were expensive as the company had promised to assemble phones for low income earners. "It is good and it is in a class of its own, but there are different buyers for every category of phone," a buyer, who left the factory disappointed said. Asked if it was affordable, the buyer, who preferred anonymity said "it is affordable for some people". Officials of the company who spoke to correspondents of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said the company would produce more variety of phones for all types of users. Logistics Manager of the factory Aisha Sadiq said the company had not fixed a particular date for launching of the product as more phones were being assembled at the factory for the market. Sadiq in a previous interview with NAN had said that the first phase of local handsets would be for "low end users" as part of efforts to spread the benefits of the telecom revolution to low income earners. "I thought the handsets would be much cheaper considering the fact that the price of handsets in the market has been dropping overtime," another buyer Comfort Adebola said. "Right now you can buy new phones for as low as N4,000 so I was expecting a lower price since they said it was for low end users," she added. Sadiq said the company would also produce more complex handsets with various facilities for the rich, pointing out that the first priority was to connect those that could afford SIM packs and cheap handsets. She said the company started with assembling handsets, but would later expand its operations to include manufacturing by using local raw materials and producing for the larger African markets. NAN reports that the two flip phones, A80 and A88, unveiled to some individuals at the ZTE factory had polyphonic tones, a 250 memory capacity for storing names and coloured screens. (source: Daily Trust) IN BRIEF- Virgin is already recruiting staff for its new operation in South Africa. - Telkom South Africa's DRC acquisition seems to have fallen through. - There are a number of interesting indicators from Ghana that seem to indicate that VoIP will be legalised shortly. Certainly some companies are already making preparations. - The Botswana Telecommunication Authority (BTA) is working on a framework for Telecommunications Technical Specifications and Type Approval procedures for the country.The project has been going on for the past nine months with the help of a UK-based consulting company, Interconnect Communications. - According to Boubah.com, Senegalse incumbent Sonatel was the loser to Investcom in getting the Guinean 4th licence, having assumed that it would be the winner. Sonatel wanted to make an offer of 21 million euros and asked to speak to the Ministerial commission. - Botswana's mobile operator Mascom is upgrading to GPRS. What will it do with this new capacity? See the article below in Web and Mobile Data News. TELECOMS, RATES, OFFERS AND COVERAGE* MTN recently announced an overall decrease in pricing that will be applicable to both contract and MTN Pay as you Go customers. The overall reduction is a combination of decreases on subscription fees, voice rates and SMS rates.Icasa approved MTN's tariffs for 2005/06 last Thursday. MTN's pricing for contract customers decreases on average by 2,4% and 0,9% for MTN Pay as you Go customers. The new rates are effective from 1 November. Ashraff Paruk, GM, Products and Innovation, MTN SA, says: "MTN aims to partner with customers for life, and our price adjustments endorse our commitment to provide them with products that meet their needs." MTN's annual tariff adjustment includes a 12% reduction in contract SMS rates from 86c to 75c, applicable during peak and off-peak times. MTN Pay as you Go PayBack customers will pay 75c for their 1st SMS of the day, 60c for their 2nd SMS of the day and 40c for the 3rd or more SMSs per day. MTN's ProCall 300 customers will now benefit from per second billing from the first second giving customers extended value for money together with traditional contract benefits. The new prices together with per second billing results in a decrease of 16,1% for the average ProCall 300 customer. * In Uganda MTN has opened a service centre in Mbarara to provide improved fixed and mobile telephone services to customers in western Uganda. The centre, the first of its kind in the region, will also function as the regional MTN offices. The centre will offer support services including buying airtime vouchers, starter-up packs, simcard replacements, phone repairs and payphone bills.Noel Meier, the CEO opened the centre on Mbarara High Street recently. "Everybody's interest is that we extend to other areas. This is our first step in regionalising our services."Our engineers will be based here to offer support services in western Uganda."Our dealers can now buy stock and other basic services will be provided here," Meier said during the launch. * In Angola the private mobile phone company Unitel, as from this month, will start implementing a plan aimed at extending the communication network in the main inter-provincial roads. In a interview to Angop, Unitel director, Nicolau Jorge Netto, revealed that communication Towers-posts are being installed on the sides of the roads Luanda / Kwanza-Sul / Benguela. "It is fundamental that whoever has a mobile-phone has a guaranteed communication, mainly in roads, for their own safety, in case of car breakdown or other situations for drivers and passengers, as well as for the local community", he stressed. According to the source, this plan is part of an investment package, which started last January, and by the end of year will amount to about 120 million US dollars, to improve assistance for its customers. This sum of money is also being used in the extension of the network, opening of agencies and construction of offices for the technical area in the province capital. Jorge Netto said that, during this year 240 network tower-posts were installed in the country, being expected the opening of agencies and shops to assist customers in the provinces' chief towns, as well as in municipalities with a large population, already to be installed next week in Andulo, Bié Province, and Luau, Moxico. He further added that by 2007, the investment will be higher than 300 million dollars, to fulfil the aim of setting up about 380 stations. * Ugandan mobile operator Uganda Telecom (UTL), which markets its service under the brand name Mango, says it has signed up 4,000 subscribers to its network during its re-launch in the north of the country. The company’s regional marketing manager James Mutebi said the new additions had come in just two weeks and the company was enticing users by offering prizes such as bicycles, radios, stoves, mattresses and school bags.
ISPA MEETING TO DECIDE POSITION ON TELKOM'S PER GIG BILLING AND 'HARD CAP' ON ADSLThe Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) is holding a workshop to formulate a position on Telkom's decision to introduce a per gigabyte billing system and ‘hard cap' for its ADSL offerings from 1 November, says an ISPA official. The move will affect South African Internet Exchange (SAIX) Internet service providers (ISPs) that have, until now, been reselling ADSL products under a self-regulation agreement with Telkom. This has allowed SAIX ISPs to sell products with 30GB caps at 3GB cap prices – ranging from R200 to R500 a month. However, Telkom recently announced it would put mechanisms in place to control the cap for ADSL services, prompting many industry observers to slam the move as uncompetitive and bad for the country's economy. Such a move is expected to dramatically drive up ADSL prices, which will now be subject to per gigabyte billing from Telkom. Elaine Zinn, a member of ISPA's operations division, says the organisation cannot comment before formulating an official stance at today's workshop. Zinn says a statement will be made on Monday. MyADSL founder Rudolph Muller describes the situation as “tricky”. He explains that Telkom has been offering the 30GB product to ISPs with a certain user base. In terms of the self-regulation agreement, these ISPs would be billed for a second account should a user exceed the 30GB cap. Muller says Telkom's subsequent announcement that it would introduce a hard cap would mean that users exceeding this would be denied local and international Internet access. “This is strange, as there is ample bandwidth in SA,” Muller points out, adding that the proposed hard cap also goes against recommendations made by the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA). “ICASA's findings, which form part of its draft regulations that have already been tabled before Cabinet, state that a cap should be introduced above 3GB a month, in line with international standards, and that local traffic should not count towards the cap.” Muller also says the per billing system would lead to “exorbitant” ADSL prices, with a suggested price of R1 600, excluding VAT, for 30GB products being announced by Telkom** **SAIX ISP Web Africa is one of the service providers that will be affected by the hard cap. MD Matthew Tagg says the group is in talks with various parties to determine the best course of action, and adds that Telkom did not provide sufficient clarity on the proposed hard cap issue. “Telkom has not communicated what it intends to do to its customers and is still advertising ADSL products without a hard cap.” Tagg points out that, whereas Telkom's move may go against the spirit of ICASA's suggestions, the ISP portion of an ADSL service is not regulated and can thus not be influenced by the regulator. “I believe Telkom is doing this for technical reasons, as it can't differentiate between local and international traffic, which makes billing difficult.” Lulu Letlape, Telkom group executive of corporate communications, responds that Telkom never sold a 30GB account. “Wholesalers purchase a 3GB account and then sell it as a 30GB account and end-users are put under the impression that they are buying 30GB accounts. Abuse is also committed in another area, where a 3GB account is bought from an ISP and deliberately abused. One such instance is a TelkomInternet end-user using 296GB, in September, effectively 97 times more than what she paid for,” Letlape says. The solution that will be put in place on 1 November, she says, is “very simple”, and resellers will have two options: resellers can purchase from a standard set of products, ranging from 2GB to 30GB, which will be hard capped, or resellers can make use of usage-based billing and the reseller will be responsible for the total consumption of their end-users. Resellers will determine and manage capping of each user individually. “The introduction of usage-based billing will enable each ISP to make the decision on the size of each account and when, how and why to cap or not to cap a services, directly in line with wishes from the industry and ICASA.” (SOURCE: http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/telecoms/2005/ SA'S BROADBAND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES OFFERS WIFI VOIP ON CONVERGED LANSouth Africa's Broadband Communications Technologies has set up a converged LAN offering Wi-VoIP to one of South Africa's leading casino operators. The installation has 74 base stations and offers coverage over 50,000 sq metres. Business Communications Technologies' Sadiq Malik told News Update:"It's a large campus and many people are never at their desks. So they can make free phone calls over the LAN using a Wi-Fi enabled, portable phone or a PDA." All employees are given either a handset or a PDA. The VoIP-enabled handsets cost R2000 each and the PDAs R5,000 each. The network has a Quality of Service traffic management system. Whilst the network is currently targeted at corporates with mobile workforces on a single premises, it gives a clear illustration of the potential of the technology to create "micro-cells" for places like towns if regulations were eased. TUNISIA'S GLOBALNET CUTS WEEKEND ACCESS PRICES FOR 256 KBPSGlobalNet, one of Tunisia's major internet providers has launched a special offer providing unlimited 256 Kbps internet access. The offer extends from 6pm to 7pm during weekdays and is valid 24 hours a day during weekends and holidays. The offer makes it possible for families to take advantage of broadband connections at a cost of 15 Tunisian dinars a month (about 12 US dollars), representing a cut of 66% of the initial offer made in December 2004. GlobalNet, one of five private Internet Service Providers in Tunisia, was created in 1997. Aside from the five private service providers, there are seven public service ISPs in Tunisia. BIOMETRICS MAY BE THE KEY TO STOPPING CYBER-FRAUD, ACCORDING TO ACT SPEAKERPeople will not buy goods from Africa if they fear they will become the victim of a cyber-crime. Matthew White, the Chief Executive Officer of Iona Press Services, said Africa needed to develop a strong biometrics system to deal with the menace. He was addressing the ACT 2005 Summit in Johannesburg last week."We are very cautious with countries like Nigeria, Kenya and Indonesia when it comes to placement of orders and making payments over the Internet," he said. White said the three countries had bad track records with regard to use of credit cards and honouring transactions made over the Internet. He said many banks had lost millions of dollars through fraud and interception of transactions on the Internet."You can send products to Nigeria, Kenya or Indonesia for an order made through the Internet and never get paid for it," he said. He warned businesses and banks to watch out for cybercrime to avoid losses to fraudsters. Biometrics is a system that measures the physical properties of individuals such as finger prints, hand geometry or voice patterns. White said technology market research group Gartner had predicted that 60 per cent of security breach costs incurred by businesses are perpetrated by company insiders - working alone or in conspiracy with outsiders."The Gartner reports indicates that businesses must take steps to guard themselves against insiders or resign to suffering significant losses," White said. He said online credit card fraud had become a "growth industry" that could cost businesses as much as US$60 billion by the end of the year. "These are areas where biometrics could be employed to protect business from such losses," White said. He, however, regretted that such a system was unlikely to be developed since the cost of online fraud to credit card companies such as Visa and Mastercard remains negligible. "This situation is likely to improve only when one of the major card companies suffers major losses," he said. He urged businesses with sensitive information on their networks to be pro-active in combating cyber crime. Biometrics has several benefits over other identification technologies, 'they cannot be lost, stolen or forgotten, and also cannot easily be shared. Meanwhile, US Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the indictment of 19 individuals who are alleged to have founded, moderated and operated "www.shadowcrew.com" - one of the largest illegal online centers for trafficking in stolen identity information and documents, as well as stolen credit and debit card numbers. The 62-count indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Newark, New Jersey today, alleges that the 19 individuals from across the United States and in several foreign countries conspired with others to operate "Shadowcrew," a website with approximately 4,000 members that was dedicated to facilitating malicious computer hacking and the dissemination of stolen credit card, debit card and bank account numbers and counterfeit identification documents, such as drivers' licenses, passports and Social Security cards. The indictment alleges a conspiracy to commit activity often referred to as "carding" - the use of account numbers and counterfeit identity documents to complete identity theft and defraud banks and retailers. (SOURCE: The East African Standard) NUMBER OF ALGERIAN CYBER-CAFES HAS ROCKETED OVER 5 YEARSThe number of internet cafes in Algeria has multiplied tenfold in the past five years moving from 500 in 1999 to 6,000 in 2005, according to the recent statistics published by the Vocational Distance Learning Establishment (EEPAD). This progress, achieved mainly through the liberalisation of the telecom field since 2000, resulted in one million internet users in 2005 nationwide in a country of 32 million inhabitants, EEPAD's Communication Manager Abderrahmane Bedjaoui said. According to /APS/, he was speaking on the sidelines of a seminar organised in Algiers by the Confederation of Finance and Accounting Executives (CCFC). IN BRIEF- SAT3 price watch: We hear that SAT3 capacity from a West African country to Portugal is available at USD4,500 per mbps per month (non-restorable) and restorable for an extra USD400 per month. These prices are obtainable from developed country consortium members. Whilst the worst of the consortium members are selling the same capacity for somewhere north of USD20,000. * Eric Osiakwan of AfrISPA told ACT 2005 that the next two IXPs to open would be Angola and Mauritius and the African Internet Exchange Task Force (headed by Congelese Didier Kasole) was looking to open another 12 IXPs by the end of the programme. * The Nigerian IXP in Lagos is scheduled to go live this week. Five ISPs are already physically connected. Lanray Ajaye of Pinet told ACT 2005 that it had been difficult to get the IXP off the ground because of the widespread use of VSATs by ISPs for connecting to each other. ISPAN, the Nigerian ISP Association is about to sign a deal with Nitel to buy SAT3 capacity as a consortium. It is also negotiating with the incumbent for its members to act as retailers of ADSL capacity. According to Ajaye:"This may help regenerate a largely stagnant market."
AMD WILL MARKET A USD300 PC FOR EMERGING MARKETS WITH RADIOSHACKA host of high-tech giants -from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD ) to Yahoo! - this week have unveiled plans for creating low cost products aimed at emerging markets. AMD on Oct. 3 said it will partner with RadioShack (RSH ) to bring low-priced computers to the developing world. The device, called the Personal Internet Communicator, was originally developed for markets underserved by the computer industry and is widely available in Mexico, India, Brazil, and the Caribbean. The idea was to make something simple, durable and reliable. At USD300, it's only USD100 cheaper than a barebones PC. It can be used for simple PC-like chores, like surfing the Web and checking e-mail. Such simplicity appealed to RadioShack, which sees the device as a way to market to the technophobic. AMD says it's all part of Chief Executive Hector Ruiz's "50x15" initiative, which aims to get 50% of the world connected to the Internet by 2015. Ruiz, an immigrant from Mexico, says it's by no means charity, but a for-profit venture. AMD donated about 400 of the computers to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, and has seen increasing demand for them in the U.S. "Even our own employees were asking how they could get one for their own homes," says Billy Edwards, AMD's chief innovation officer. The company has sold more than 1,000 of them and will market them in China and Turkey in the coming quarter. (SOURCE: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/ MICROSOFT CEO MAKES FREE-SOFTWARE PLEDGEMicrosoft is making an effort to get its technologies into the hands of a new segment of society by pledging free software for all 284 government-backed community technology centres. CEO Steve Ballmer said at a press conference at Gallagher Estate last week that the move was a sustainable way to take the latest technologies to rural outposts, since training would form a major part of Microsoft's commitment to ensure the computer centres were used effectively. "We hope to reach perhaps 500000 or more people who don't today have access to information technology," he said. Microsoft announcement yesterday comes just three weeks after the State Information Technology Agency issued a tender for free open source software. This poses a major threat to Microsoft, which charges substantial licence fees for using its products. But Ballmer denied that the pledge to provide free software was a direct response to the threat from open source. The announcement was timed to coincide with his visit to SA -- his first in a decade -- and not to get Microsoft products more entrenched before competition heats up, he said.Government had a duty to assess open source software if it could meet its needs better than proprietary programmes. "We will compete with any challenger because for overall value we think we can beat anybody," Ballmer said. Microsoft did not say how much the initiative was costing, but it said it would supply desktop software to each of the 284 centres, which have an average of 10 computers. It would also train a core of people in 12 areas who would tour the technology centres to pass on their skills. The centres provide entrepreneurs and school learners with facilities including PCs, printers and the internet. The project is being conducted in partnership with Universal Services Agency, a government body formed to take information technology to every citizen. Microsoft has already set up 48 centres in SA where rural communities have access to computers, the internet and other business technologies. The initiative with the Universal Services Agency was "a fantastic way" to participate in a broader and more significant project, Ballmer said. "We are serious about enabling all people in all parts of the world to realise their full potential. There is a digital divide in all countries, though it is perhaps bigger and needs even more help and attention to be properly bridged here in SA," he said. The Universal Services Agency's CEO Sam Gulube said studies of the success of the 284 centres showed that a lack of training was the main reason some of them had failed. (SOURCE: Business Day) SAP CLAIMS TO BE MOPPING CLIENTS IN WAKE OF ORACLE TAKEOVERSSoftware company SAP expects to win many more clients in the coming months as the fallout from the relentless merger activity of rival Oracle filters through to customers. Oracle and SAP supply complex and wide-ranging software that automates the business activities of large corporations.SAP CEO Henning Kagermann says the disruption Oracle has created by buying out numerous rivals and taking over developers of complementary software could play in SAP's favour. Oracle spent $18bn in a spree that included the $11,1bn hostile takeover of PeopleSoft, which had just bought JD Edwards. Its latest move is a $5,85bn absorption of Siebel Systems. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison says the strategy will grow its sales and more than double its annual revenue to $30bn. His goal is to oust SAP as the world's largest supplier of business applications. Kagermann's job is to thwart him. The two have entirely different strategies for conquering exactly the same market, but Kagermann believes Oracle's aggressive acquisitions will backfire. "You have to look not at what people are buying, but at their success in the market. SAP has gained market share and Oracle has lost market share," he says. "Some companies need to acquire companies in order to grow. We have enough creativity to grow by ourselves. We outperform the market every year." Kagermann was gleefully exhibiting his favourite charts to existing and potential customers in SA this week to illustrate the effects of the different strategies. SAP claims 59% of all the sales fought over by SAP, Oracle and Microsoft, up from 55% last year, when Oracle was taking over PeopleSoft. In theory, the combined figures of Oracle and PeopleSoft should have given Oracle more than 30% but it has only 28% -- evidence, says Kagermann, that one plus one equals less than two. The same will apply to its other acquisitions, he argues. "They have a lot of overlapping products, like three different customer relationship management applications, so they have to consolidate and give answers about which ones they will maintain and how they will integrate them. There is still uncertainty for their customers." As the takeover of PeopleSoft dragged on, SAP sought to steal customers by highlighting its stability. That is continuing, Kagermann says. "We have a pipeline of several hundred customers, who were PeopleSoft and JD Edwards customers."SAP also aims to grow its market by scaling down its applications for small businesses. That is particularly apt for SA. Its software can now be used by a company with just five staff and costs from $10000 instead of $100000. SAP wants to shift its revenue mix from 70% big business deals and 30% small to a 60:40 split within five years. That is ambitious, says Kagermann, as sales of its smaller suite must grow twice as quickly as the high-end sales. (SOURCE: Business Day) WINDOWS WILL COME IN THREE MAJOR NIGERIAN LANGUAGES SHORTLYMicrosoft Nigeria, which marked its fifth anniversary in grand style in Lagos weekend, has disclosed that it is embarking on a language initiative whereby the basic essentials of Windows are presented in major Nigerian languages of Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa. In a documentary on the company at the occasion, Microsoft Nigeria said with the initiative, many more Nigerians are expected to be able to use the Microsoft Windows operating system. The Corporation's vice president, Europe Middle East & Africa, Mr. Ali Faramawy, has also expressed the intention of the corporation to make its Nigeria subsidiary a 100 percent local company. (SOURCE: This Day Online)
EMPERION BOUGHT BY ANDERSEN ADVISORY GROUP - EXPECTS TO INVEST MORE IN AFRICAAndersen Advisory Group (AAG) has bought all the shares in Emperion and injected several million USD to fast track the continued growth of the company. Emperion has in the past few years obtained a substantial market share in Africa and the Middle East, but high growth rates require liquidity. This is now made available by AAG followed by execution of an aggressive strategy expanding Emperion´s market presence and product range. In 2004 Emperion established the largest VSAT based network in Africa operated from its subsidiary in Nigeria. Emperion is also operating a number of networks for domestic and international banks and is presently servicing 6 out of the 10 largest banks in Nigeria including United Bank for Africa. Several Fortune 500 companies are also using Emperion´s IP network services to support their increasing activities in Africa/Middle East. In addition to the NOC in Copenhagen, the Emperion Group also owns 99% of the subsidiary Emperion West Africa Ltd. in Lagos Nigeria and furthermore operates a branch office in Dubai, UAE. In total, Emperion today employs more than 70 people. In addition to Emperion, AAG already has investments in the telecommunications companies’ v2tel, Mobilethink and Telecom Scandinavia. Mr. Michael Moesgaard Andersen expects that there will be substantial synergy benefits between these companies and Emperion. Commenting on the deal while at ACT 2005, Niels Hyllested Andersen, Project Co-ordinator said:"With the new owner and capital, we can continue the strategy we have. We intend to invest in local teleports and domestic service networks to places like banks, government organisations and schools. The roll-out will be a combination of fibre and VSAT." It is understood that the deal has paid out all of the company's creditors and bought out all of its existing shareholders. The company had been experiencing financial issues from rapid growth but the new deal leaves it free to pursue a strategy aimed at expanding its market. It now feels that it has reached a "critical mass" in terms of customers and that this will enable it to price-competitive. NIGERIA, NITEL/MTEL PRIVATISATION: PROSPECTIVE INVESTORS IDENTIFIEDThe path towards eventual privatisation of NITEL/MTEL has, perhaps proved to be the most cumbersome of any such exercise undertaken by the BPE, the agency charged with the responsibility of auctioning government owned enterprises. But the recent short listing of six bidders as prospective core investors marks the renewal of hope that the limping giant will soon leave the shelves. Ken Nwogbo reports. Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has fixed this month for the financial bid for Nigeria's first telecom carrier - Nigerian Telecommunication Limited (NITEL) and its mobile arm Nigeria Mobile Telecommunication Limited (Mtel).Six companies were approved and short-listed as prospective investors by the federal government for the acquisition of 51 per cent equity stake. The shortlisted bidders are Telkom and Vodacom consortium, consortium of Huawei others include: Jacuz, Orascom, Celtel, Newtel and MTN. The companies will be jostling for 51per cent stake in the beleaguered National Carrier (NITEL) and its fledgling mobile arm Mtel. The latest attempt to offload shares in NITEL will also include the flotation of a 20 per cent stake to the general public. The renewed move to sell the companies followed the cancellation of the management contract signed with Pentascope of the Netherlands over alleged incompetence leading to its failure to achieve pre-agreed goals. BPE had despite opposition engaged the Dutch company in March 2003 and the result was to say the least, catastrophic In April the previous year, the same, then Mallam Nasir el-Rufai-led Bureau of Public Enterprises failed in its 2002 televised privatization adventure of NITEL. (SOURCE: The Daily Champion) IN BRIEF- South African technology firm Datatec expects to post first-half headline earnings per share of 11-12 U.S. cents, compared with 0.1 cents in the year-ago period, the company said on Tuesday. Datatec said in a statement it expected attributable earnings per share in the six months to end August to fall to between 9 and 10 U.S. cents compared with 39.98 U.S. cents previously, when profits were inflated by a one-off gain linked to a disposal. Headline earnings - the main measure of profitability in South Africa - strip out capital, non-trading and certain one-off items. Datatec has slashed a third of its workforce to recover from two years of losses and is now on the prowl for acquisitions to bolster its business in the United States and Europe. The company said its overall financial performance improved in the six-month period on a sequential and year-ago basis and said trading in all its major business units improved. Datatec expects to release interim results on October 26. Shares in Datatec edged up 0.63 percent to 17.39 rand on Tuesday, slightly ahead of the all-share index. - Spain's Telefonica has applied to take part in the purchase of Tunisia's 35 percent stake in Tunisie Telecom, a senior source at Telefonica said on Wednesday. Tunisian officials said last week 14 Middle Eastern and European telecoms operators were lining up in an auction battle for the stake. Tunisia has said it hopes to take in as much as $1.7 billion. "This is a very early stage. We've submitted our application alone, although if we are short-listed we may join forces with Portugal Telecom", the source told Reuters. Telefonica already operates in North Africa via Meditel, a joint-venture with PT. Amongst companies interested in Tunisie Telecom are Etisalat , the main operator in the United Arab Emirates, and another smaller rival. Industry sources have named Bahrain Telecommunications (Batelco) and operators in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, as well as France Telecom and Telecom Italia. Vivendi Universal and Bouygues Telecom have also expressed interest.
BOTSWANA'S MASCOM PLANS TO BUILD VALUE-ADDED SERVICES WITH GPRSAccording to Bill Hearmon, Red Chillies Enterprises, speaking at ACT 2005, Mascom has set up a system of selling services to churches. They can send out their Sunday sermon free to start with and get low-cost rates thereafter. Apparently company executives discussing likely services were somewhat shocked when external consultants mentioned the kinds of things that are popular in other countries: both of them are illegal in Botswana. Instead the operator will concentrate on church-endorsed dating services and news on football with pictures and video clips. It will also offer used car sales services as the country has 10,000 expatriates whose coming and going provide a steady stream of new sales. It will also offer house sale information that can be searched by value. According to Hearmon:"GPRS with EDGE is almost as good as 3G but cheaper." SOUTH AFRICA WEBSITE IS ANSWER TO TEACHERS DREAMSTeachers unable to include exciting activities in their curriculum due to limited resources can now rely on a new website to help them liven up learning. The Teachers Dream website, an initiative by the non-profit web-based organisation GreaterGood South Africa, connects schools to individuals and businesses who want to contribute to the improvement of education.The proposals, referred to as "teachers' dreams" to be submitted to the organisation by teachers, will be posted on the website, where individuals and businesses can choose a dream they would like to support.Director of GreaterGood South Africa, Tamzin Ractliffe, said many activities outside the classroom could benefit children's learning experience. "We know that teachers have brilliant ideas of how to make maths and science come alive, how best to demonstrate life skills and how to explore the metaphors of the arts. "Many of these big ideas could easily come to fruition with the support of small grants," she said. Taking pupils to the planetarium or to an exhibition is just one of the activities that could benefit pupils. Teachers are asked to submit a proposal according to the Teachers Dream criteria, which they will find online. Once a dream has been funded and fulfilled, a feedback report from the teacher and the pupils will be posted on the site. (SOURCE: http://allafrica.com/stories/200510060361.html) ACT 2005 - SCENE AND HEARD IN JOHANNESBURG* Call centre consultant Rod Jones told us that Botswana now has 8 call centres with 256 seats and has got to the point of having sufficient capacity to be an interesting call centre market. * Terry Sanderson from VoIP manufacturer Verso told delegates:"SIP will become king. Everybody's using SIP for everything." He also spoke about using IVR streaming to create services with VoIP. Apparently Panama has a service which you can ring up and order an automatic call that will sing Happy Birthday to the person celebrating. * According to Lanraye Ajayi of Nigerian ISP Pinet in one session:"Cyber-cafes are closing down on a daily basis. He claimed that numbers had gone from 5,000 to 2,600. A Nigerian cyber-café owner with several cafes told us he had been hit by the crackdown on fraudsters who had been heavy users. His current users were now school kids and university students who do not have much money. And the fraudsters? They have gone off to other West African countries. * Dr Sam Gulube of South Africa's Universal Service Agency said that 40% of public internet access points were profit-making and 60% were subsidised. * Word reaches of a case where an incumbent telco is suing an equipment manufacturer for selling it analogue equipment. The complaint against the manufacturer? That there was no upgrade path and that the manufacturer was going to discontinue selling the equipment. * Florence Etta of IDRC gave some interesting insights into the Kenyan ICT policy process. She said it was important that the policy process to "remove lethargy at the middle level, change attitudes and overcome the fear of redundancies". It took 9 months to get agreement on presenting the ICT policy process to Cabinet because of the need to get consensus across different ministries. Apparently:"It is said that the Kenyan ICT policy has been 12 years in the making." It's a good job that no-one decided to wait for it before doing anything.
PEOPLE- Tayo Ajakaye, e-business Editor of This Day, has emerged the winner of Microsoft IT Reporter of the Year Award. The Award, which was presented with Ajakaye in Lagos, was for the year 2005. In presenting him the award, Microsoft Nigeria said Ajakaye was voted the most outstanding reporter on the beat by his colleagues who report the IT beat for Nigerian media. - Get wells to Jose Ferreira, CEO of Mascom, one of Botswana's two mobile operators who recently broke his arm. EVENTSNEWCOM WAFSAT CONFERENCE, ABUJA, 23-25 NOVEMBER 2005 High-level official endorsement of the NewCom WAFSAT Satellite Communications Conference & Exhibition – organised by the GVF, AITEC Africa and UK Event Management Partners – has been confirmed from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the West African Telecommunication Regulators Assembly (WATRA). A highly detailed and focused conference programme will examine mission critical issues in the global satellite telecommunications product and service marketplace as they impact the deployment of satellite and satellite hybrid-based communications solutions across the West Africa region, together with key trends in the policy and regulatory arena within individual national administrations, and across the administrations which collaborate and coordinate within WATRA. Speakers will address the all important question of the moment: Does broadband satellite make sense for West Africa? The further objectives of the conference include detailed exploration of the application of satellite-based solutions to meet the communications needs of a range of commercial vertical markets, as well as those of the development sector. The two-day conference takes place in Abuja on 23-24 November, and will be followed on 25 November by a number of training course(s)/workshop(s) on the practical implementation of satellite technologies and strategies. For more information, contact martin.jarrold@gvf.org, telephone + 44 1727 884513 or go to www.gvf.org. WIRELESS IS THE FUTURE OF YOUR ENTERPRISE! 20 October 2005 - InterContinental Sandton Sun, Johannesburg South Africa From wireless LANs, 3G, WiFi, WiMAX and beyond 802.11b to m-commerce, application development and broadband technologies, ITWeb’s Wireless 2005 Conference will put things into perspective! For more information visit: http://www.itweb.co.za/events/Wirelessevent/2005 WIRING UP CITIES FOR A BETTER FUTURE 3-4 November - Gallagher Estate, Johannesburg, South Africa Theme of the upcoming inaugural BMI-TechKnowledge Digital Cities Forum More information surrounding the Digital Cities Forum may be obtained from the BMI-T Web site: www.bmi-t.co.za
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