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WEEKLY PUBLICATION DEADLINE: 12 pm GMT Sunday. ISSUE NO 312 Cable theft – the cancer eating at the heart of the fixed networkThis week Cote d’Ivoire’s Union nationale des entreprises des télécommunications (UNETEL) called a press conference to protest against a rash of cable thefts. Vandalism is a constant problem for Africa’s fixed network operators. Like a cancer, it eats away both at the physical state of the network but also at traffic revenues and customer confidence. Usually this problem is generated by people stealing cables in the hope of reselling the copper obtained. Russell Southwood looks at the financial impact of this cancer on Africa’s fixed network operators. UNETEL’S President . Loukou Kouadio Michel called for security to be reinforced around telecoms installations. He complained that since the beginning of the year there had been no less than 19 thefts of buried copper cable. He made the appeal in order to underline the importance of not allowing these thefts to compromise the running of the communications network of the country. He also emphasised that this kind of theft endangered investment coming to the country in this strategic sector that employs more than 10,000 people. Over 2005 and 2006 a number of companies have begun to quantify the cost of these thefts: - In early 2005 Zambian incumbent Zamtel reported that it had lost $1.5 million through acts of vandalism and theft. The most persistent of these were the loss of both overhead and buried copper cables. Ironically most of this theft was carried out in the Copperbelt in Kitwe and Chingola where primary cables were repeatedly cut. The shut-downs caused by the thefts caused an estimated $1.7 million loss of customer revenues. - In mid-2005 Tanzania’s incumbent announced that it had lost $152,380 in the first three months of that year. If vandalism continued at that rate, it would have lost just under a $1 million by the end of 2005. Again it was able to identify where the majority of incidents took place, apparently in Kinondoni. The theft of manhole covers over interconnecting cables cost it $40,000 alone in three months. It did not attempt to estimate lost revenues. - In April 2006 Telkom Kenya announced that theft of this kind was costing it $6.1 million a year and that it was introducing wireless CDMA phones in part to try and combat the theft of hanging cables. It claimed that CDMA would be introduced country-wide by September 2008. Incidents have included its fibre ring in Nairobi being dug up in the mistaken belief that it was a copper cable and the thieves stealing part of it anyway. As far as we know, no privately-owned operator – mobile or fixed – has identified losses due to thefts of this kind. Base stations tend to be better protected than fixed networks. The primary motivation for this kind of theft is people seeking to raise money from selling copper cables. Similar incidents have occurred in South Africa leading to widespread system failure. However, as the Kenya example shows, there is little or no way of them knowing that cables are copper and whether fibre has the same resale value. People in poor areas have long been known to steal power and in Nigeria, people tap into oil pipelines, often with tragic consequences. There are few easy solutions to the problem. Greater use of wireless technologies are both cheaper and remove some of the easier temptations. However there have been occasional reports of wireless equipment itself being stolen. But with backhaul infrastructure there are few ways of either substituting it or indeed protecting it effectively. The difficulty is that as African countries come increasingly to rely on things that need telephone networks then a solution will need to be found. The obvious solution is to increase the amount of redundancy in the networks available. This might be achieved by having more than one infrastructure provider (particularly in urban areas) with agreed emergency procedures between operators. If your company has had problems with theft or vandalism and you want to share the problem or possible solutions, e-mail us on info@balancingact-africa.com
SAT3 COUNTRY REGULATORS AND POLICY-MAKERS COME TOGETHER TO DISCUSS END OF NATIONAL MONOPOLIESOn 24-25 July 2006 regulators and policy-makers will come together to discuss what happens when the national monopolies granted to African SAT3 consortium members comes to an end in June 2007. Up to this point, its incumbent teleco members have had the sole right to sell fibre capacity on the system from their country to SAT3’s European landing point in Portugal. Telkom South Africa as the managing agent of SAT3 has been invited to brief the participants. The meeting is being organised by APC (Association for Progressive Communications), AFRISPA (African Internet Service Providers’ Association), CATIA (Catalysing Access to ICT in Africa), CRASA (Communications Regulators Association of Southern Africa) and Balancing Act with support from OSI and OSIWA (Open Society Institute and OSI West Africa). The idea for the workshop emerged from the regulators who attended a meeting organised in Senegal at the end of 2005 by OSIWA to address ways of getting cheaper international connectivity in the region. It is also informed by issues raised during the evolution of the EASSy fibre project that will connect East African countries in 2008. The event is invitation-only but if you are a regulator or policy-maker and believe you should be at this event, send an e-mail stating the reasons why to: fbhyat@sn.apc.org SWITCH TO NETWORK MIGRATIONS SETS STAGE FOR ALL-OUT CELLPHONE RIVALRY IN SOUTH AFRICAMidnight on September 18 will be a traumatic time for SA's cellular network operators. For the first time in Africa customers can expect their existing phone number to be moved to another network without any dead time, dropped calls or messages that the number you have dialled is not available. They will be entitled to go to sleep as an MTN customer and wake up as a Cell C customer without anybody noticing. They can expect a bill to arrive from their new network, and will feel rightly aggrieved if the abandoned operator messes up and bills them too. And anyone who switches on that first day can ask to move across in the hour beginning at 11.30pm. That is some technical feat. Making it more complicated is the fact that the operators are utterly clueless about how many disgruntled customers want to defect and take their number with them. It may be hundreds. It may be millions. Research house Synovate expects about 21% to switch -- a massive workload, given that SA has about 27-million cellphone users. Mobile number portability is being introduced under pressure from the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) to give consumers more choice. Many customers grumble about their network, but stay put because of the hassle factor of losing their number. "The process is highly technical," said Icasa councillor Nadia Bulbulia. "Although all parties en-visage a seamless process, experience in Europe shows that a big bang approach could have uninten-ded consequences and dash consumer confidence in the process." Even now there is some muttering from the operators that they have too little time to test the system. And other questions remain. One is how much it will cost consumers. Cell C wants it to be free. With fewer subscribers than MTN or Vodacom, it has fewer customers to lose and hopes its prices will encourage people to join its network. SA's newest operator Virgin Mobile will also gain. Its debut last week was perfect timing, as consumers assessing its offerings and giving it time to prove itself may sign up once their number can move with them. The receiving operator can charge a consumer for joining its network, but it may prove economically foolish to do so. The losing operator cannot charge a customer for defecting but it may ask the winning operator to cover its costs. The scale of those fees is one point the operators are still fighting over, says Cell C's senior manager of carrier relations, Mike Falconer. There would be no collusion on whether to charge consumers, he says, and Cell C may offer the service for free. The fact that Vodacom and MTN have more customers to lose and fewer to gain has made them reluctant to hurry the process along, according to industry sources. Falconer declined to comment on whether any artificial hurdles were raised and diplomatically replied: "It's an area where we have worked very well together." The delay was partly caused in choosing a technology company to set up the porting centre. Grintek won the tender and the cost has already topped R300m. "We operators don't discuss the kind of figures involved," says Vodacom's Mthobi Tyamzashe. One issue worrying the industry is that porting will make it difficult to force customers to honour their contracts or meet all the payments on long-term deals that cover the cost of a "free" handset. At the moment, an operator can block a number to prevent users making calls if they have not paid their bill. Under the new rules, they cannot prevent a customer from reneging on a contract or block a number while they recover debts. To avoid the predicted loss of customers, the networks may begin a price war and should certainly improve their customer care. "It is difficult to identify an overall winner once number portability is introduced," says Synovate MD Jon Salters. Vodacom should gain more prepaid users than it loses, with the majority coming from MTN. For contract customers MTN's gains should exceed its losses by 2% as it wins customers from Vodacom. (SOURCE: Business Day)
KENYA: MOBILE OPERATORS GRANTED INTERNATIONAL GATEWAY LICENCESMobile phone users may soon pay lower rates for international calls following the granting of international voice gateway licences to the two mobile operators. Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) - the industry regulator – last week awarded Celtel and Safaricom the licences paving the way for the two operators to route all their international calls through their own gateways. Previously, close to six million mobile phone subscribers had to be connected through the state-owned Telkom Kenya international gateway. Both Safaricom and Celtel noted that the licences were long overdue, adding that it would translate to lower costs and improved quality offering to its subscribers."The licence means we can offer reduced intentional call charges to our subscribers by up to 50 per cent of the current rates," said Michael Joseph, the chief executive officer of Safaricom, during the occasion to award the two operators the licences in Nairobi. He added that its subscribers should expect the discounted prices in a month's time as Safaricom has already put up a facility to handle the new traffic. Gerhard May, Celtel chief executive officer, expressed similar sentiments. "I am not revealing our tariff structure but the market should be rest assured they will come down substantially," he said. (source: The East African Standard) TELECOMS DISTRIBUTORS ACCUSE NIGERIAN GSM OPERATORS OF IRREGULARITIESPresident of Association of Licensed Telecoms Distributors of Nigeria, Dr. Ayo Ojo last week called on the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to rise to its responsibility of checking the excesses of operators of Global System for Mobile Telecommunications (GSM) services in the country. Ojo who spoke in Enugu on the occasion of the formal inauguration of the South East Zone of the Association expressed disappointment that the GSM operators were in the habit of taking Nigerians for granted by violating rules guiding telecoms services. For instance, Ojo said the Nigerian GSM users are being over-charged, and also deceived by various promotions by the operators. Ojo said that all over the world, minutes were equal, but regretted that in Nigeria GSM operators have made a minute to be less than 60 seconds. "We appeal, once again, to NCC to rise up in the defence of the principle of equity and play the role of a truthful, concerned and even-handed umpire. And order a market place does everyone good, keeps business interests open and challenging. This is the wisdom of antitrust law of the United States of America", he said. The Association's President maintained that except the NCC intervenes, Nigerian GSM users will continue to suffer huge financial loss for which GSM operators were beneficiaries. He also accused the GSM operators of violating agreements which they entered with telecoms distributors. Ojo lamented that while the dealers were restricted to the sale of products of the networks that appointed them, they never enjoyed any corresponding patronage from the GSM operators. "Agreements were drawn up by the networks and forced on the dealers, months after money had been committed to the project. All these were faithfully complied with, as the dealers perceived themselves in a partnership that was designed to last forever, with a guarantee of some protection, just as the NCC did for them, and of course with every hope of good returns over their investments in years to come", he said. He expressed dismay that anticipated dawn of profitability has since become the dealers' nightmare. "planned, executed and nurtured by the waywardness of the networks", He added, "Yet the irony is that all the networks are daily declaring billions as profits." Ojo said that the profits being declared by the GSM operators were made possible through deception and devious gimmicks, adding, "They claim to make millionaires by the hour yet their faithful foot soldiers (dealers) who toil day and night in all crannies and corners of he country, remain impoverished". Ojo disclosed that many telecoms distributors working for GSM operators were groaning under huge debts, while those who could not cope were suspected to have committed suicide. He declared that his Association was committed to reverse this trend, by aligning forces to confront the operators who they called "slave masters". "We are not demanding from them anything beyond their capabilities. If they can make many millionaires, lavish people with trips to overseas countries, give away cars as well as spending billions on other self seeking projects so called societal responsibilities, we demand that their charity should begin at home, good deals for their dealers". (SOURCE: This Day) IN BRIEF:- The Ministry of Communications, Science and Technology of Botswana which has issued a draft of its rural telecommunications strategy, has invited the public to make written submissions. The significance of the public input in formulating a forward looking agreed strategy for Botswana cannot be overemphasised particularly as this strategy is one of the initiatives that will implement the recently announced further liberalisation of the telecommunications sector. Further information can be found at http://www.ruraltelecoms.gov.bw/ - According to Ugandan website The New Vision officials from Telkom South Africa are expected to visit the country in the next fortnight to begin due diligence on Uganda Telecom. Last week Uganda Telecom’s outgoing Managing Director Aimable Mpore revealed that the South African company was interested in buying into UCom, a consortium comprising Telecel, The Gloria Trust and Detecon, which owns a 51% stake in Uganda Telecom. The remainder of the company is owned by the state. - Nigerian Communications Minister Cornelius Adebayo has revealed that the number of telephone users in Nigeria stood at 22.9 million in March 2006, almost double the figure a year earlier. Adebayo stated that fixed line users account for 1.4 million of the total, while wireless subscribers make up the remaining 21.5 million. At the end of 2001 the country had only half a million telephone users, but market liberalisation, the introduction of GSM technology, and investment of over USD10 billion in the last three years have helped spur rapid development. Nevertheless, wireline teledensity of approximately 1% and wireless penetration of 16.7% indicate there is plenty of scope for further growth. TELECOMS, RATES, OFFERS AND COVERAGE- Ghanaian GSM network operator ONEtouch has launched a new value added service, OneChat, which allows customers to send and receive SMS messages anonymously in chat rooms. SMS messages are charged to the receiving party and are priced at GHC500 (USD0.06) each. - Vodacom has launched thirteen base stations in the Ndwedwe community, a rural area north of Durban, thereby aiming to bring mobile communication to over 167,404 people. Vodacom is the first cellular operator to launch base stations in this area, which is 1153 sq km in extent and community members are expected to reap the benefits, including the opportunity to sell airtime - Celtel Gabon has launched “Savoir Tout” a real time information service that will provide to its mobile subscribers national and international news. Each click through to the service will be billed at 50 CFA francs.
FIBRE UNDER-SEA CABLE TO LINK MOROCCO AND FRANCEMoroccan incumbent Maroc Telecom has announced the launching of an under-sea optical fiber cable, worth about $34.3m, that will link north-west of Morocco and southern France. The cable is dubbed 'Atlas Offshore'. According to the company, the link is meant to meet the needs, in terms of international capacity, of offshoring activities in Morocco, as well as the needs for Internet through broadband ADSL. The 1,634-km long cable has a capacity of 40 Gb/sec, that can be expanded to reach 320 Gb. Atlas Offshore is due to allow the connection of more than 500,000 simultaneous calls, which will meet the growing needs of the call centers. The work is scheduled to start operating in March 2007, and the construction works will be totally funded by Maroc Telecom, while it will be insured by French company, Alcatel Submarine Network. (SOURCE: MAP) SOUTH AFRICA CELL C TRIALS WIMAX FOR BROADBANDMobile operator Cell C revealed it is conducting tests to determine the feasibility of rolling out a WiMax network in SA. “A WiMax network could rival [Telkom's] ADSL both in terms of performance and price,” said base station subsystems engineering manager at Cell C Jitesh Huri. He spoke to ITWeb on the sidelines of AMC's Broadband Strategies for the Mobile Market conference, in Sandton yesterday. There are no firm intentions to roll-out the technology just yet, Huri cautioned. The trials (which have been conducted at Cell C's Johannesburg offices since early in the year) are to determine the viability of WiMax from a technological and business perspective, he said. “At the moment, the trial is done with pre-WiMax equipment, but it gives us a good indication of what WiMax could deliver – each radio we're using can deliver [theoretical downlink speeds of] 14Mbps.” Cell C is preparing to expand the scope of the trial by inviting participants in the business district of Sandton to test the technology, though Huri was hesitant to reveal further details. He noted the IEEE 802.16e version of WiMax will offer non-line of sight coverage, essential for an effective network. He declined to comment on whether WiMax will complement or compete with existing cellular 3G services, saying both have advantages. 3G offers great mobility, he said, but it is limited in terms of the capacity (and thus ineffective when there are a number of simultaneous subscribers) and connection speeds. “However, any WiMax deployment, wherever it is, will be limited to the customer premises equipment capabilities.” During tests, Cell C has recorded speeds better than ADSL, Huri said. Huri is unable to predict how long the trials may last, or discuss the possibility of roll-outs, citing corporate communication policies. “We have not yet presented any proposals to the Cell C board.” Earlier this month, Cell C made a belated entrance into the wireless broadband market with the commercial roll-out of an EDGE service, designed – it says – to target the home-PC user market. (SOURCE: http://www.itweb.co.za) COURT UPHOLDS EGYPTIAN GOVERNMENT'S RIGHT TO BLOCK OPPOSITION WEBSITESReporters Without Borders has condemned a ruling by an administrative court attached to Egypt's council of state upholding an information and communication ministry decision in mid June 2006 that the authorities can block, suspend or shut down any website liable to pose a threat to national security. The judge who issued the ruling, Farouq Abdul-Qader, even urged parliament to pass a law to this effect as soon as possible. "Empowering government officials to shut down a website on their own initiative is unacceptable," Reporters Without Borders said. "We hold that only a judge should be able take this kind of action. The council of state ruling could set a dangerous judicial precedent. This complicity between courts and government bodes ill for online free expression in Egypt and we would oppose any law endorsing the judge's decision." The ruling was issued in response to a complaint by the journalist in charge of the Al-Methaq Al-Araby website ( http://www.almethaqalaraby.net/ ) accusing the information ministry of pressuring the company that hosts the site to close it down on the grounds that it jeopardised national security. No existing law says a government department may demand that an Internet company block, suspend or close down a website. Al-Methaq Al-Araby posted essays that were very critical of the government, especially corrupt officials. Judge Abdul-Qader ruled that the authorities should "do their duty" when they think national security is threatened. He ordered Al-Methaq Al-Araby's immediate closure and asked parliamentarians to adopt a law that would give officials a free hand to close any website they deem to be dangerous. Meanwhile two bloggers, Mohamed Sharkawy and Karim El-Shaer, are currently detained in Egypt (see IFEX alerts of 23 and 16 June, 31 and 26 May 2006). A third, Alaa Abd El-Fatah, the co-author of Manal and Alaa's Bit Bucket ( http://www.manalaa.net/ ), was released on 22 June after being held for 45 days (see alerts of 23 June and 10 May 2006). (SOURCE: International Freedom of Expression Exchange Clearing House) RWANDA TO GET INTERNET DOMAIN NAME BACKRwanda is going to be among the few countries in the world that will be offering free registration for an Internet Domain name to her citizens, The New Times has established. According to Dr. Raphael Mmasi, the Director of National Computing Centre in the Rwanda Information Technology Authority (RITA), the Country Code Top Level Domain (CCTLD) is still managed by an individual, Fredrick Gregory, based in Belgium. Mmasi however, disclosed that the UNDP in conjunction with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) would assist the country to manage its internet resources. He further said that RITA is in its advanced stages of the re-delegation process of (.rw) domain name. "The United Nations Development Programme's support enabled RITA to acquire the necessary equipment for managing .rw registry," Dr. Mmasi told The New Times on phone. He added that the package would among other accessories include Servers and Routers. The domain name servers that are now running under Linux Platform (Fedora Core 5.0) have already been set up and running at RITA premises Kacyiru, he added. Mmasi also said that in a bid to manage the new domain, RITA sent two network specialists, Issa Nkusi and Claude Hakizimana, for a two week intensive training programme at Kenya Information Centre (KENIC) in May last year in order to acquire technical skills required for managing the .rw registry. He said the new domain name registry has been designed and configured with two uplinks connection through two different local Internet Service Providers. To date, there are also secondary name servers in Butare town and outside Rwanda for a backup system in case of fast disaster recovery. Dr Mmasi also disclosed that currently the registry system, mail system and website for registry are under development at RITA. Governmental institutions will have a sub domain of go.rw, while individuals will have id.rw. ne.rw will stand for network infrastructure and providers and as.rw will stand for association "Through .rw, the management of the Country Code Top Level Domain will play an important role in politics and governance, by enhancing a government's ability to provide internet security for its citizens, free and fast domain name registration, protect its borders and more efficiently, handle civil emergencies and national disasters," Dr Mmasi said. (SOURCE: The New Times) METROPOLITAN NETWORK SET TO COMMENCE OPERATION IN ABUJABackbone Connectivity Network (BCN), a high band rate service provider with its headquarters in Abuja, has announced its network operation to commence in August. In a statement by its Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Kwame Boakye stated that BCN has a metro licence and long distance licence to operate its network business in Nigeria. Boakye said he came to Nigeria from the United States in February last year to join the management team in running the operation of the company. According to him "the companys business module was to enable operators of GSM, ISPs, PTOs to have high capacity interconnectivity within their own networks and interconnectivity with other networks". He, however, noted that the company has started laying fibres in the metro areas in Abuja to Kano through Kaduna and Zaria as their first phase of the project, adding that the second phase is expected to take off soon to cover the Eastern and Western part of the country. The CEO made it clear that the company is fully owned by Nigerians and they have so far injected over a hundred million US dollars in the smooth running of the first phase of the project. (SOURCE: This Day) IN BRIEF:- MTN Cameroon, the country’s largest mobile operator, has announced that it has been awarded a licence to offer internet access services by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. At the same time the company confirmed its acquisition of local ISP GlobalNet is ongoing; a unified company will operate under the banner MTN Network Solutions (MTN NS). The new subsidiary, which will be 100% owned by MTN Cameroon, hopes to rollout services to ten provincial capitals before the end of 2006, a figure which it expects to have doubled by the end of the first quarter of 2007. - A national free platform of photoblog (web photo diary) and moblog (photo messages diary from a mobile or portable device) will be launched next 5 July under the sign of "new technologies at the service of tourism promotion," according to a release of provider "Actions Technologiques." Named Djilnet.com "generation multimedia," this initiative which is part of development and mastering of new technologies, aims at granting Algerian internet users the possibility to issue and share online and for free their albums of holidays photos, their houses or districts album as well as activities and skills of their associations through MMS (message photo) or email. - Flag Telecom, a Reliance Infocomm company, has signed up with Oman Telecommunications Company (OmanTel) for providing an Internet transit point between West Asia and Africa.
USAID PUSHES FOR RURAL MOBILE BANKS IN UGANDABanking institutions have been urged to start rural mobile banking services to attract more people into the banking industry and help the country instil a savings culture; much lacking in Uganda. The service that involves making banking transactions through a combination of banking technologies such as Point of Sales Services, Automated Teller Machines, Mini-ATMs (Movable ATMs) and mobile phones does not necessarily require bankers to visit banks. During a half-day discussion at Hotel Africana on June 21, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through its affiliate; Rural Savings Promotion & Enhancement of Enterprise Development (Rural SPEED), called on local banks to adopt mobile banking technology especially in rural areas to ease money access. The discussion was facilitated by Mr Richard Ketley, the Director of Genesis Analytics, a South African-based consultancy specialising in payments systems for emerging markets. The discussions focused on the use of available technology to bring affordable banking services to Ugandans in rural areas. The agency believes the development will help rural Ugandans by instilling a savings culture but importantly, help the country to raise investment funds accessible by the private sector, mobilised by the several banks in the country. According to a recent Usaid-sponsored study on the possible strategies for an increase in rural access to the formal banking system using ICT solutions, it was found that customers in Uganda pay less to use an ATM than it costs banks to run them. The study however, reveals that ATM charges are still too high for the majority of Ugandans and even more so, when factoring in the additional charges for using one bank's ATM card on another bank's ATM. "Running an ATM is a lot cheaper than running a branch, but they are still too expensive for many people to use them regularly. We think the answer is to deploy smaller cheaper machines - so called mini-ATMs in many more locations". Ketley said. The study sought to identify the demand for financial services in urban and rural, and key constraints to banks in meeting this demand. A review of the existing situation revealed that Uganda's current transactions banking environment is restricted to higher income consumers in major urban areas, mainly Kampala and that about 74 percent of the 6.3 million monetised working population do not have transactional bank accounts. The study concludes that the above is a result of the high cost of infrastructure used by banks to acquire transactions as well as a lack of inter-operable bank networks, which reduces the volume of transactions, increasing transactions costs. It suggests that banks could change this situation, increasing access to a further 2.6 million individuals (41 percent of the monetised workforce) by reducing cost of account opening by issuing standardized 'starter pack' bank accounts through a range of low cost distribution channels, providing clients with debit cards to transact across all bank and non-bank infrastructure, deploying low cost acquiring infrastructure (POS device/Mobile phone) and intermediating cash into accounts through Mini-ATMs located at cash rich wholesalers. (SOURCE: The Monitor) IT FIRMS QUEUE FOR PATIENTS' DATA SYSTEM TENDERLeading IT and health-care firms are gearing up to bid for a government contract to provide an electronic record system for patients using public hospitals and clinics. Insiders say the deal is worth upwards of R500m. Most patient records are paper-based and hospitals that do use electronic records have implemented systems that are not integrated with other facilities, making it difficult to share information on patients. The result is unnecessary duplication and increased risk of misdiagnosis and other errors. It also makes it difficult for government to monitor health trends and allocate resources accordingly. Government issued a call for proposals for an electronic health record system (EHRS) earlier this month. The briefing meeting was attended by SA's big IT players, including local firms Dimension Data and Business Connexion, as well as foreign owned companies Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, SAP, and Sun Microsoft. According to documents on the State Information Technology Agency's website, the EHRS will capture a massive amount of patient data, including ID number, blood group, medical diagnoses, medications prescribed and dispensed, and procedures performed. The data would most likely be stored at facility level, rather than in a national database. Consultancy firm Accenture, which is among the firms wanting the contract, said patients in the public and private sector saw value in having electronic records. A recent Accenture survey among urban adults found that half of those who belonged to medical schemes were prepared to pay extra for electronic health records, said one of the firm's senior managers, Roze Phillips. A fifth of the medical scheme members said they would be prepared to pay up to R100 a month for the privilege. Most respondents said they would trust electronic records more than handwritten ones. Hospital company Delta 9, which has installed IT systems in three provinces, said an electronic health record system would have to be phased in, rather than be introduced in one fell swoop. The company's MD, Chris Stevenson, said the EHRS would need to be integrated with systems used by the private sector. "We hope government will buy 'proudly South African', as the costs of foreign solutions are huge," he said. (SOURCE: Business Day) NATIONAL LIBRARY IN ETHIOPIA LAUNCHES DIGITAL INFORMATION CENTREThe National Archives and Library Agency (NALE) launched a development information service center with the support it received from the World Bank. Then agency said the development of the information service was implemented in 2004 with the Bank's donation of US 30,000. Since then the Agency started and continued the dissemination of information to various groups of users especially the youth, the agency said. The centre is hoped to create access to information through printed materials and the Internet by providing a fulltime service for university students, researchers. During the launching ceremony World Bank representative Abebaw Alemayehu said the Bank's assistance to the National Library was extended in different forms intended to help the library enhance its services to the Ethiopian clientele The Agency also said it was on the way to launch its new building believed to help meet its vision of providing diversified service to the utmost satisfaction of the public. After the launching ceremony, invited guests visited the Agency's Library and Archive rooms in which ancient written documents including those 13 registered by UNESCO are found. (SOURCE: The Daily Monitor) INTERNET SOLUTIONS FIRST IN THE WORLD TO ROLL OUT MICROSOFT HMC 3.5Software as a Service (SaaS), is defined as the delivery of fully functional, outsourced and centrally hosted applications through the web. SaaS offers the availability of feature rich applications at lower cost allowing enterprises to leverage off a "pay-for-use-only" cost model. Internet Solutions (IS), a leading converged communications services provider, offers their clients the latest SaaS solutions, and has recently upgraded to Microsoft Hosted Messaging and Collaboration 3.5 – the first Microsoft Partner worldwide to do so. “There is an increasing demand, growing acceptance and recognition within South Africa of the benefits of SaaS,” says Hayden Lamberti, manager, IS Applications Solutions. “More and more businesses today are in the market for hosted messaging solutions. IS Application Solution division has been providing HMC as a business tool to its client base for more than five years so we have a good track record and extensive skills in-house for our clients to utilise – from large enterprises to SMEs.” Industry analyst firm IDC forecasts that by 2007 the number of hosted business e-mail mailboxes worldwide will surpass the number of in-house operated e-mail mailboxes for the first time.* The Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration (HMC) enables SaaS service providers, such as IS, to roll out an enhanced hosted messaging offering that includes seamless and transparent delivery of: - Hosted Exchange – an anywhere, anytime enterprise quality e-mail service including calendaring, tasks, global address lists and mobile device synchronization - SharePoint Services - a solution that enables centralised document and knowledge collaboration, version tracking and intranet functionality “Specifically, IS Hosted Exchange offers breakthrough advances in performance, stability, productivity and reduction in Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) along with providing the highest return on investment through its mobility offering. The solution offers a robust, hosted, outsourced and fully managed implementation of Microsoft Hosted Exchange. Located within the IS Data Centre, the service incorporates a range of security, content and management features in addition to a redundant network infrastructure system and the best engineering staff in the country,” says Lamberti. IN BRIEF:- Air Botswana is introducing electronic tickets or e-tickets. The move is part of cost control, and an attempt to align AB ticketing with international standards. Under the new arrangement, passengers will be issued with receipts when purchasing tickets. - The Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE - www.jcse.org.za) at Wits University has launched a software engineering research project to determine the state of software engineering in SA.
FOREX GENERATION IS A PRIORITY FOR ECONET IN ZIMBABWEZimbabwe’s largest telecommunications company, Econet Wireless, is pursuing various strategies to counter the negative effects of current economic challenges. Company chairman Mr Tawanda Nyambirai last week said the company also intended to preserve shareholder value and continue to grow the business to meet rising demand for its products. In remarks accompanying Econet Wireless Holdings Limited 2006 annual report, Mr Nyambirai said cost containment and the generation of foreign currency resources would be a major priority for the business. "Demand for the group's products and services is expected to remain firm. The business is actively pursuing various strategies to counter the negative factors in the economy in order to preserve shareholder value," he said. Econet would continue to expand its mobile cellular network and also engage the regulator on the adoption of a single international termination rate for the country that would impact positively on the company's performance and foreign currency generation if given the nod. Econet closed the year to February 28 2006 with a total of 457 228 subscribers, up from 258 268 in June 2005, making it the largest telecommunications provider in Zimbabwe, ahead of its two rival networks and the fixed-line operator TelOne. During the year under review, Econet commissioned 42 new base stations and upgraded a number of existing sites across Zimbabwe to further improve service, while new radio transmission links had also been commissioned to enhance network reliability. Other significant projects undertaken included upgrading the capacity of the pre-paid platform and the short text messaging system. "Acquisition and development work continues on a number of sites in anticipation of the next phase of the network upgrade. The business has adopted an infrastructure development strategy to secure all local currency based materials and civil works so as to minimise project cost escalations and delays associated with the erratic foreign currency market," said Mr Nyambirai. He said Econet had also invested in additional generators and other power back-up devices to reduce the impact of scheduled and unscheduled power outages. Meanwhile, Econet group chief executive Strive Masiyiwa said other companies in the Econet group had performed well despite the current economic challenges, citing the growth of the company's public payphone network trading through YourFone, as well as the expansion of Ecoweb, one of the country's leading Internet service providers which recorded a growth of 28 percent in terms of subscriber numbers. Mr Masiyiwa said Ecoweb's subscriber numbers were expected to grow significantly following the installation of a new broadband base station in Harare. Transaction Processing Systems, another Econet subsidiary, continued to make inroads into the local and regional markets through the sale and installation of point-of-sale systems, among other products. (SOURCE: The Herald) SHAREHOLDERS BACK MTN'S ACQUISITION OF INVESTCOMAfrica's largest mobile telephony company, MTN Group, said that most of its shareholders voted in favour of a $5.5bn acquisition of Lebanon-based Investcom. MTN's Chairman, Cyril Ramaphosa, said that almost all its shareholders had voted positively. Investcom, which is headquartered in Beirut, would give the group access to 10 new countries, including Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East and Sudan. MTN, which would need to borrow $3.85bn on top of using its cash pile, new shares and R8bn (about $1.1bn) in corporate bonds, would pay $1120 per customer, almost double what Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications paid last year for Celtel International. (SOURCE: Business in Africa) DIDATA OF SOUTH AFRICA BUY 51 PERCENT STAKE IN SAMEER'S ICLSouth Africa-based Dimension Data (Didata), a global information technology solutions and services company, has acquired a 51 per cent stake in ICL East Africa, the leading provider of end-to-end IT systems and services in the region. According to Didata, the acquisition of the controlling interest in ICL - for an undisclosed amount - also marks the change of name to Dimension Data Kenya, which will become the regional headquarters of Dimension Data's East African operations, which includes Dimension Data Tanzania and Dimension Data Uganda. According to Andile Ngcaba, chairman of Dimension Data Africa, the partnership with ICL (EA) and entry into East Africa, gives the company a launch pad to the rest of Africa. "With regional headquarters now established in the northern, southern, eastern and western regions of the continent, geographically we are now able to deliver our solutions and services more effectively and efficiently. The large population base and the predicted growth in terms of IT adoption for economic and social development of these regions, signals significant opportunities for us." ICL (EA), a member of the Sameer Group, is one of the region's largest corporations, with interests in various business sectors and over 30 years' experience in Kenya's industrial and commercial development. Naushad Merali, Sameer Group's executive chairman said, "The acquisition was made possible by the fact that Dimension Data and ICL (EA) were aligned in their IT services and solutions and in organisational structure. "As the largest IT supplier in Kenya, partnering with a global organisation such as Dimension Data will combine global best practice with local expertise and knowledge to deliver unmatched services to our clients," he added. ICL (EA), which has been in operation since 1930, has 60 employees in the region, and all will be retained by Dimension Data in their respective countries. ICL (EA), has among its client base, Barclays Kenya, Celtel, Telkom Kenya, Standard Chartered Bank Ltd, Nestle Foods and Coca Cola East and Central Africa. It also has partnerships with leading IT companies such as Fujitsu-Siemens, Sun Sytems, IBM hardware, Cisco, 3Com, Oracle, Microsoft and Cisco. The solutions offered by Dimension Data in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda include network integration, converged communications, operating environments and messaging, security and data centres and storage. Kenya's Assistant Minister for Communications David Were, right, with Naushad Merali, Sameer Group executive chairman at the launch of Dimension Data East Africa last week. (SOURCE: The East African) IN BRIEF:- President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered all ministries, parastatals and agencies to immediately commence the process of reconciliation of debts owed the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) to enable the full settlement of the backlog of salaries owed to the workers. - Malawi is to receive a grant from the World Bank worth US$40 million for the development of infrastructure services, including telecommunications. The project will provide core infrastructure services in about 30 market centres located within five economic corridors along the country`s main road system.
MOZAMBICAN MINISTRY LAUNCHES SINGLE COUNTER PORTALThe Mozambican Ministry of Industry and Trade launched in Maputo on Wednesday its Internet portal for the "Single Counters" (BAU) as a means to introduce new models of providing services to the public, in which information technologies play a fundamental role. BAUs were set up in all provincial capitals as places where citizens and businesses could collect all the information and documents they needed for licenses or authorisations without having to visit a string of different offices scattered over a wide area. Industry and Trade Minister Antonio Fernando said that "the virtual BAU" is an even more advanced model than the physical one, because besides providing information and services, it also allows the sharing of documents between workers in the various provincial BAUs and the institutions represented there, thus optimizing the entire process of service provision. Fernando stressed that with this portal, the Ministry is introducing a new model centered on the citizen in the public sector, which will reduce costs and waiting time, and increase efficiency, effectiveness and transparency in the relationship between the society and the public sector. "Both physical and virtual BAUs will only serve the public better when administrative divisions are completely scrapped", said Fernando. He justified the introduction of this portal saying "it was found to be difficult to start a business in Mozambique because of a shortage of information, which forces the applicants to go to the ministries". "This site is a good tool to facilitate access to information to those who want to start a business", he said. The objective of the portal is to facilitate the process of issuing licenses and registering both national and foreign businesses. Unlike physical premises, the Internet portal is available 24 hours a day. The site will also provide information on the existing physical Single Counters, on Mozambican tax law, and on procedures for hiring both national and foreign workers. Through the portal all the documents and forms required for applying for licenses are also available. (SOURCE: Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique) CITY SLUM SHARES ITS STORY ON THE WEBKorogocho, one of the lowliest of Nairobi's more than 200 informal settlements, is now in cyberspace. A website on the slum, http://www.korogocho.org , was launched by Comboni missionaries and the Catholic community there on Sunday. "On our web site you will find articles about life in slums, theses, comments, reflections, photos, projects, and letters from missionaries and young people living in Korogocho" Fr Daniele Moschetti said. Most of the material is in English and in Italian. He said the web site aims to enlighten people on the reality of slum life. "The aim of this website is to get in touch and make friends with many wonderful people who work hard in similar slums all over the world. It's a means to make this dreadful reality known outside the slum, throughout the planet; but you will be also surprised by a reality full of energy and life." An estimated one billion people live in slums worldwide. "That is to say that one person out of six lives in a social reality where day by day he has to fight poverty and social alienation without any support both from the government or local authorities, and under the threat of being left homeless overnight," the Comboni missionary said. According to the latest survey carried out by United Nations settlement agency, Habitat, 70 per cent of African town-dwellers live in slums. Nairobi is an example of "social, economic and political apartheid," Fr Moschetti said. (SOURCE: Catholic Information Service for Africa)
SENTECH ON TRACK FOR 2010 HD BROADCASTSNational signal distributor Sentech says that in the next two months it might be able to transmit high definition (HD) television to the country, four years before SA hosts the 2010 World Cup. Sentech, the state-owned operator of SA's broadcasting signal distribution network, was lashed by Parliament when it warned that the country would not be able to show the 2010 World Cup unless government pumped in more resources for infrastructure. One of world football governing body Fifa's demands for SA hosting the 2010 showpiece is that the country can handle HD transmission technology. However, Sentech CEO Sebiletso Mokone-Matabane said that, with or without the 2010 World Cup, the parastatal's 30-year-old transmission infrastructure was in grave need of being replaced. Mokone-Matabane said it would take Sentech close on two months to get the infrastructure in place for a satellite feed to the host cities for the World Cup games in 2010. Getting the offering to South Africans viewers would then depend on the roll-out of TV sets with digital receivers, she said. On Tuesday, the SABC broadcast the country's first live HD transmission with the help of Sentech. It screened the second- round World Cup match between Ghana and Brazil. The signal was beamed directly from the SABC's Air Time satellite dish in Germany to Johannesburg. The broadcaster said that next month it would receive its first HD outside broadcast unit and that it was also busy constructing a second unit, to be completed by year-end. The HD transmission system uses five to eight times the bandwidth of the 625PAL system that the SABC currently uses. The broadcaster said it was not possible to transmit the bandwidth over satellite and that the signal had to be compressed for satellite transmission. Mokone-Matabane said that, at a cost of R1bn, the group had a target of reaching 92% HD national coverage by 2010. (SOURCE: Business Day)
PEOPLEWojtek Skowronski, GM for engineering services at ICASA, tendered his resignation late last week. Skowronski was the last remaining Icasa GM after a string of resignations in the past few months. Skowronski’s departure leaves all five GM positions vacant at a critical time for the authority. The New Vision business journalist, David Muwanga, has won this year's Uganda Information Communication Technology (ICT) Journalism Award for being the best reporter on ICTs. Diane Radley, Chief Financial Officer of Altron, has been named as one of the three finalists in the corporate category of the Businesswoman of the Year Award. The award recognises South Africa’s leading corporate and entrepreneurial businesswomen. EVENTS- BANDWIDTH MANAGEMENT AND OPTIMISATION WORKSHOP 2-6 July 2006, South Africa The International Network for the availability of Scientific Publications ( INASP - http://www.inasp.info ), the Tertiary Education Network (TENET - http://www.tenet.ac.za ) and the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS - http://www.aims.ac.za ) invite you to participate in an intensive Web caching and associated technical bandwidth management tools workshop. - TELECOMS AND INVESTMENTS 2006 4-6 July , 2006 at Sheraton Hotel & Towers, Abuja - Nigeria.
- STORAGE CONTINUITY INFOSECURITY AFRICA 2006 10 - 14 July 2006 Sandton Convention Centre, Sandton, Johannesburg
- ICT GOVERNANCE AND POST WSIS STRATEGIES IN WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICA 13th-15th July, 2006, Saly, Senegal.
- EXPLOITING IT FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Conference on Information Technology and Economic Development (CITED2006)
- THIRD ANNUAL AFRICAN VOIP FORUM 21-23 August 2006, Muson Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria
- 10TH ANNUAL CONTACT CENTRES WORLD AFRICA 28th - 31st August 2006, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa
- THE 4TH ANNUAL CTO FORUM 2006 4th – 6th September 2006, London
- IWEEK 2006 4 - 7 September 2006, Castle, Kyalami in Midrand, Gauteng
- TELECOMS WORLD AFRICA 2006 4 - 8 September 2006, Cape Town, South Africa
- 2ND INFRASTRUCTURE PARTNERSHIPS FOR AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT (IPAD) CENTRAL AFRICA 3rd-5th October 2006, Grand Hotel, Kinshasa, Congo Democratic Republic 2nd Infrastructure Partnerships for African Development (iPAD) Central Africa will take place from the 3rd-5th October 2006 at the Grand Hotel, Kinshasa.
- 1ST INTERNATIONAL ICT INVESTMENT CONFERENCE FOR AFRICA 14th – 15th November 2006, Tunis, Tunisia.
JOBS AND OPPORTUNITIESCALL FOR INTEREST: 2ND PHASE OF CITI’S WOMEN IN ICT PROJECT The Cape IT Initiative is looking for Women owned ICT companies for the 2nd Phase of the Women in ICT project. This phase of the project is aimed at female ICT entrepreneurs who have their own ICT companies. One ICT company will be selected and be nurtured for one year in terms of business growth and promotion. The project will aim to encourage women to become IT entrepreneurs as well as facilitate their business growth by providing them with funding options, mentorship as well as business premises. For further information visit the CITI website at www.citi.org.za. CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR US$100,000 DEVELOPMENT GATEWAY AWARD The Development Gateway Foundation is calling for nominations for its US$100,000 prize for outstanding achievement in the use of information and communication technologies to improve lives in developing countries. Sponsored in part by Intel Corporation, this year’s Development Gateway Award is focusing on initiatives that empower or improve the conditions of youth. For full award criteria and to access an online application, please go to www.developmentgateway.org/award. The application deadline is August 11. GSM ACADEMY - BSS O&M TRAINING FOR AFRICAN PROFESSIONALS Starting October 2, 2006, TOP will provide a GSM curriculum for Expert Training on BSS Operation & Maintenance. The boot camp includes 3 months of lectures and hands-on labs and is completed by 6 months of apprenticeship at a European GSM network operator. This heavily sponsored program targets on African engineers / technicians to improve their job possibilities in their home countries. For further information visit http://www.topbusinessag.com/e/news/07-04-2006_gsmacademy.php CONTRACTS: WHO'S SELLING WHAT TO WHO?ALGÉRIE TELECOM AND ALCATEL - ALGERIA Alcatel announced the signing of a commercial partnership with Algérie Telecom to provide Algerian enterprises with advanced communication services aimed at improving productivity, enhancing business, and furthering enterprises adoption of IP services and managed communication services (MCS). MOBINYL AND BHARTI TELESOFT - EGYPT Bharti Telesoft, a provided of value added services infrastructure for wireless and wireline operators, has deployed PreTups, an electronic top up solution for the prepaid segment,at Mobinil Egypt. PROGENICS AND PMM VENTURES - NIGERIA As a result of its expansion and consolidations within the country and the sub region, one of the leading indigenous IT systems integration solutions providers, Progenics Corp Limited has signed-up for the services of PMM Ventures for its PR and Brand management needs.
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