| ||||||||||
 |
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
WEEKLY PUBLICATION DEADLINE: 12 pm GMT Sunday. ISSUE NO 325 Industry’s dirty little secret - cross-country transit prices keep SAT3 international bandwidth prices highCountries that are landlocked or have no landing stations of their own are finding that having access to fibre does not reduce their SAT3 international bandwidth prices. At present few countries have more than one international access route at present. The result is that these countries are still paying the same or more than equivalent satellite prices and some are using satellite in preference to their fibre access. Worst of all, the stretch to get them to the SAT3 landing station is costing them several times more than for the stretch from the SAT3 landing station to Sessimbra in Portugal. So much for distance-based pricing, reports Russell Southwood. Mauritania’s Mauritel recently announced that it had rolled out a second data link on SAT3 with a bandwidth capacity of 45Mbps. The second link was in part intended to provide redundancy capability. Mauritel’s fibre capacity now stands now at 79Mbps: a 34 Mbps link with Telefonica and this new 45Mbps link with France Telecom. What Mauritel will not talk about is what it is currently paying for SAT3 capacity, particularly the cross-country transit stretch from the Mauritanian border to Dakar. Sources close to the company would only say that this bandwidth was “expensive”. However our investigations have uncovered a Mauritanian customer paying OUM6 million for 1 mbps annually. As an education sector customer it gets a 50% discount so the actual full price is actually OUM12 million per month. Translated in US dollars this works out at US$45,476 for months or US$3790 for 1 mbps per month. According to data obtained in our pricing survey for African Satellite Markets, a Senegalese ISP buys one mbps per month from Sonatel for just US$1316 and that is probably the cheapest rate on the route. But if you take the amount paid by the Senegalese ISP for the Dakar-Sessimbra route from the amount charged by Mauritel (both are retail customer prices), the section of the route from Nouakchott to Dakar is costing US$2474. In other words, it costs data twice as much to get from Nouakchott to Dakar as it does from Dakar to Sessimbra. Can that make sense? A Malian ISP in our pricing survey was paying US$6500 per mbps per month and says that fibre prices were only “a bit lower”. The Malian ISP is not a large-scale customer so it is not getting highly discounted prices. So let us assume generously that Malian incumbent Sotelma or its competitor France Telecom-owned Ikatel is offering Bamako to Sessimbra at $6,000. This means that the overland transit portion costs $4684, almost three times the Dakar-Sessimbra portion. Any reasonable person might be asking themselves at this point why it costs more to get bandwidth from Bamako to Dakar than it does from Dakar to Europe? Cross-country transit rates are the industry’s dirty little secret and as we will see later this is not purely an African phenomenon. The reason those who have these cross-country transit routes (in both of these cases, Sonatel) charge so highly is er…because they can. In the case of Mali, the situation is made more complicated by the fact that Sonatel is in a grudge match with the Malian incumbent Sotelma through the Malian SNO Ikatel. Mauritania’s Mauritel has no such complicating factors and the net result is that its retail broadband prices are four times higher than its controlling company in Morocco. Both Namibia (which is a SAT3 member but has no landing station) and Lesotho’s are still using a significant proportion of satellite capacity because the cross-country transit rates make fibre international bandwidth prices more expensive than satellite. How can this be? Well although soon Telkom South Africa will face satellite competition, it has until recently not had to face competition of any kind on its monopoly access to the SAT3 cable. As a result if it gives cheaper rates to these kinds of countries it will undercut the high, uncompetitive prices it is charging its South African customers. The only way out of this market distortion madness is for each country ultimately to have at least two or three international access routes (two fibres and access to satellite) in order to create some semblance of competition. If this was a country in the European Union, the EU would conduct a costs and pricing investigation and have the means to impose a fair price on monopoly suppliers. But wait a minute, this kind of market distortion is already there in the European Union. Those buying international fibre onwards from Sessimbra complain that it is cheaper to get from Portugal to Goonhilly (in the UK) than it is to get from Goonhilly to London. Same problem looking for a solution. Perhaps African carriers ought to mount a joint complaint to the European Union? But maybe they ought to clean up their own act first. Interested in the pricing survey results? Details of African Satellite Markets can be found at: http://www.balancingact-africa.com/publications.html
TANZANIAN REGULATOR SETS UP A FREE HELPLINE SERVICE TO RESCUE CHILDRENTo rescue children from abuse, Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) has introduced ”Child Help Line”, a free service line, which minors in distress can call to ask for help. TCRA Director General Professor John Nkoma said on Tuesday the service will be used to save children from abuse. The proposed helpline number will be 116, he said. Counsellors will be at hand when children being bullied, feeling suicidal or suffering from unwanted pregnancies as well as other problems will be calling, he said. Professor Nkoma said children will be free to call the help line when they feel lonely and need emotional support. The move, he said, was a part of implementation of Tunis 2005 Heads of State World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) Article 92 for mobilising resources for the plight of children world-wide. ”We encourage countries, including all other interested parties, to make available child help lines, taking into account the need for mobilisation of appropriate resources. For this purpose, easy-to-remember numbers, accessible from all phones and free of charge, should be made available,” says part of WSIS Article 92. Also as one way towards that end, he said the Child Help-line International (CHI), which has a global network of telephone help lines and outreach services for children and young people signed a memorandum of understanding with International Telecommunication Union (ITU) at the WSIS in Tunisia resulting in the CHI requesting for a global toll free, easy to remember 3-4 digit number for children from ITU. (SOURCE: Guardian ) SIERRA LEONE: ATTEMPT TO HAVE INTERNATIONAL GATEWAY TRANSFERRED TO LEBANESE COMPANY BACKFIRESThe unfolding saga of a neatly woven conspiracy to fast track the award of the implementation of the National Communications gateway to a Lebanese owned company may backfire, sources close to the National Commission for Privatisation disclosed last. Quite recently, President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in a rescue move decided to have the gateway restored to Sierratel. Following that decision, the Management of the moribund company went on a shopping spree for partners but rather than going about it in a very decent manner succumbed to the wheeler dealer tactics of a former Board member who, for the company he favoured in a bid to make according to inside sources, allegedly got management to submit to the National procurement office only proposals it appear that no other companies are interested. Our sources further revealed that the Acting Chairman of the Board of Directors, a Fourah Bay College lecturer, Alex Bockarie has not helped the situation either by his preference for the abnormal. The situation is further worsened, Concord Times' investigations reveal, by the frequency with which Bockarie and Managing Director Alpha Sesay allegedly patronise the office of Umaru Barrie, the firm of solicitors for the new company revealed owned by Sharara. Legal analysts speaking to Concord Times frowned at the morality of Sharara using Barrie's firm of solicitors given the situation of the lawyer being a member of the tribunal set up to look into complaints of unfair treatment at the National Procurement Authority. Barrie's membership of the tripartite tribunal of the National Procurement Authority and his capacity as a key figure in the legal firm handling Sharara's commercial activities has raised eyebrows as many fear that it is unacceptable foundation for conflict of interest. (SOURCE: Concord Times) LIBYA TO INSTALL 500,000 NEW FIXED WIRELESS PHONE LINESThe Libyan General Posts and Telecommunications Company, Sunday, signed a contract with the Chinese telecommunication company Huawei to implement a wireless phone project involving 500,000 lines using CDMA technology, an official source announced here. The signing of this contract, witnessed by the secretary of the people's committee of the Libyan general posts and telecommunications company, Dr Mohamed Moammar Kadhafi, is part of celebrations marking the 37th anniversary of the Libyan Revolution. The project will cover rural and mountainous regions which are difficult to reach by fixed phone lines. On 21 September, the Libyan General Posts and Telecommunications Company signed a similar contract with another Chinese company, ZTE for a similar CDMA implementation for another 300,000 lines. (SOURCE: Pana Press) TARIFF READJUSTMENTS IN THE NIGERIAN TELECOMS SECTOR BRING MOBILE AND FIXED INTO NEAR PARITYNigeria’s tariff re-adjustments look set to be a mixed bag for Nigerian phone users. Just when MTN, the nations largest GSM operator was unveiling a tariff regime that would put a smile on the faces of subscribers, some private telephone operators PTOs decided on an upward review of their tariffs by as much as a 100 per cent. This upward review will have taken some subscribers by surprise. Now there is a near parity between GSM networks and fixed wired or wireless networks. The MTN tariff slash comes with incentives which include free late night calls that gives value to all categories of subscribers on the MTN network. Its becoming obvious that the recent step taken by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to introduce the unified licencing regime in the telecommunications sector and the determination of interconnect rate is now paying off. MTN has set the ball rolling and it is expected that Globacom and Celtel may follow suit. However, to understand the upward rates readjustment by the PTOs, one may have to look at the role played by the NCC in the interconnect rate determination which came into effect on September 22, 2006. The NCC had directed that henceforth interconnect for fixed call Termination using Near-end Handover shall be 10.80 kobo up from the former rate of N5.52 kobo in 2004. NCC also stipulates N9.10 kobo as interconnection rate for fixed call Terminal using Far-end Handover. The subsisting rate fixed in 2004 was also N5.52 kobo. Interconnection rate for Mobile Call Termination was fixed by the NCC at N11.40 kobo against the current rate of N11.52. Before this directive, the NCC had given operators room to agree on a determined price amongst them. The NCC had stated that interconnect rates should ideally be cost based and the new rates were arrived at following months of cost study and consultations with the industry. It disclosed that the result of the Industry Cost Study revealed that the major fixed services operator, NITEL, which has the largest number of fixed lines in the country, might have been providing services below cost, which was responsible for some of the financial problems that have been associated with the company over the years. NCC had in a press statement on the new rates made available last week, stated that the reality now is that mobile rate must come down while fixed rate must go up. "It is being anticipated that the new interconnect rates will lead to substantial reduction in mobile retail tariffs in Nigeria while the fixed tariffs will experience some increase", the statement signed by Dave Imoko,Head of Corporate communications had stressed. NCC stated that the rates will optimally "be to the overall benefit of subscribers and the industry". Justifying the rates, NCC added that "about 95 per cent of telephone users in the country are on mobile lines which implies that only a small percentage use fixed lines, most of which are in offices and in a few homes of high net-worth individuals. A substantial drop in mobile rates therefore has the effect of impacting on more subscribers and the bulk of users of telecom services in Nigeria". NCC had stated that it considers "it important that efforts should not be spared in making sure that mobile call rates continue to drop to enable more Nigerian subscribers enjoy the benefits of the growing subscriber base in the country. This is already happening with recent publications of rate cuts by certain mobile networks. The Commission also believes that the coming weeks will witness tariff adjustments that will be to the overall interest of the subscribers". (SOURCE: This Day) ECONET CLEARS KENYA HURDLEA Kenyan court decision last Friday dismissing a lawsuit against Econet Wireless grants the cellular company access to one of Africa's most potentially lucrative mobile phone markets. The High Court in Kenya rejected an application by the Kenya National Federation of Cooperatives (KNFC) in its bid to stop the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) from granting Econet the necessary frequencies required under its licence. By entering the Kenyan market, Econet will have a slice of a market seen as largely untapped by the two existing operators, Dutch-based Celtel and Safaricom, owned by Britain's Vodafone and state-owned Telkom Kenya. Celtel and Safaricom had combined subscriptions of 6.5 million in June. Fixed-line subscribers number only 300 000 in a population of 35 million. Econet Wireless executive director of operations, Zachary Wazara, welcomed the decision, but said it was too early to say when construction of the network would begin or how much the company would invest. "We are confident that we will be able to resume work on our network rollout and build a network that will change the face of the telecommunications market in Kenya," said Wazara. Wazara said a process had been put in place to allow new Kenyan investors to invest in the company. So now all Econet has to do is raise the money to start investing… (SOURCE: Financial Gazette) POWERTEL SET TO EXPAND COVERAGE IN ZIMBABWETelecommunications company PowerTel Communications is set to embark on a multi-million-dollar expansion programme of its optic fibre connection, a development which would see the company going into regional markets. The telecommunications company seeks to expand the national optical fibre backbone and broadband networks at the same time providing connection points to all neighbouring countries. "PowerTel's countrywide expansion project will revolutionise the country's telecommunications landscape by unleashing unlimited telecoms capacity for the country's needs. "The interconnection to the outside world will also lead to savings in foreign currency as satellite space segment rentals are expensive," said the company. In addition, the company is set to pioneer this revolution through investment into wireless data technologies that will appeal to the corporate world and individuals. "PowerTel has secured a financial package for the first phase of the expansion programme and will soon be commencing installation for the route from Harare to Mutare and Bulawayo to Beitbridge," said the company. The link to Mutare would enable connectivity to Mozambique through Beira and ultimately to the EASSY submarine cable project thereby linking Zimbabwe with the rest of the world through a high capacity fibre link. The link to Beitbridge will provide a high-speed link to South Africa and this move will provide capacity of STM 16 (2.4 gigabits) which is upgradeable to STM64 (10 gigabits) when required. The company currently operates a high capacity fibre optic cable network linking the country's largest cities, stretching from Chitungwiza, Harare to Bulawayo then Plumtree and covering all the towns in between. This latest development comes shortly after Africom has invested US$50 million in installing an underground optic fibre link which connect Harare and Mutare. Formerly, a telecommunications division of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa), Powertel was weaned off in 1999 to operate as a stand-alone entity when Government unbundled the power utility into five strategic business units. PowerTel was licensed by the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) in 2002. (SOURCE: The Herald)
IN BRIEF:- In keeping with the ICASA mandatory dialling, Telkom South Africa is implementing dialling procedures for international as well as local calls. The legal requirement prescribes mandatory 10-digit dialling and the replacement of 09 with 00 as the international dialling prefix. Local callers will have to dial 10 digits when making calls. Presently, when fixed line to fixed line calls are made within the same area (e.g. the Pretoria area), the caller does not have to dial Pretoria’s area code (namely, 012). Such changes take effect from 16 January 2007. - The Nigerian Communcations Commission (NCC) has dismissed concerns over the safety of emissions from Base Stations (BTS) of GSM operators in Nigeria. - Fixed phone operator TelOne was re-plugged into the global satellite system after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe paid off the outstanding US$700,000 debt to Intelsat. TELECOMS, RATES, OFFERS AND COVERAGE- Celtel International announced the launch of One Network, the first ever borderless mobile network in the world. This allows customers to move freely across geographic borders without roaming call surcharges and without having to pay to receive incoming calls. All Celtel's East African customers, both prepaid and post paid, will be able to use this service whether in Kenya, Tanzania or Uganda. - Telecom Namibia has announced a new tariff structure effective October 1, 2006 which will include reductions in international tariffs and the introduction of 'Per Second Billing'. Among the many reductions announced, rates for fixed-to-fixed calls to Angola, South Africa and neighbouring countries will be reduced on average by 20%, 6% and 5% respectively, both during peak and off-peak hours. The cost of calls to most international fixed-line destinations outside Southern Africa will be lowered by an average of 15%. - South African mobile operator Cell C is considering offering a third-generation (3G) service (which it has been testing) to compete with bigger rivals MTN and Vodacom, and to complement its EDGE service, but the move will depend on the feasibility of such an offering.
BATTLE OF THE ISPS IN SOUTH AFRICA: IS VS VERIZONThe legal stand-off between Internet service providers Internet Solutions (IS, a subsidiary of Dimension Data) and Verizon Business SA (a division of the US-based telecoms giant Verizon group) is unprecedented, says Mike Silber, an ICT attorney at Michalsons Attorneys. Though there have been such wrangles in the past, Silber says none has involved ISP heavyweights of the calibre of IS and Verizon. Werksmans Attorneys, acting for IS, recently served an Anton Piller order on Verizon. An Anton Piller allows a party to search and seize evidence that it requires for further contemplated proceedings that, if advance notice is given, will in all probability be concealed or destroyed. On being granted the order, ICT experts retained by IS swooped on Verizon's office in Gallo Manor, north of Johannesburg, and took documents from the premises. Explaining the circumstance under which an Anton Piller order is granted - but steering clear of the IS/Verizon spat - Bernard Hotz, a specialist in unlawful competition at Werksmans, says that courts are reluctant to grant orders of that nature unless there are compelling grounds. Hotz's explanation is an inference that the industry should brace itself for a long, drawn-out legal battle between IS and Verizon. Anonymous industry sources claim that IS's legal route was prompted by Verizon's alleged infringement of IS's intellectual property. Says the source: "Key IS staff who have defected to the Verizon stable are alleged to have passed on vital information to Verizon management, including IS's client database. What perhaps corroborates IS's suspicion is that it has lost a couple of high-value clients and staff to Verizon." Since rebranding from UUNet to Verizon Business SA following Verizon's acquisition of MCI-UUNet's ex-parent company, Verizon Business has been aggressive in its growth strategy. Having recently sold 25% of its SA equity to the J&J group - an empowerment consortium headed by former Communications Minister Jay Naidoo - Verizon has over the past eight months grown its business portfolio in SA by as much as 16%, something analysts say is daunting given the competitive nature of SA's ICT terrain. Verizon's well-oiled recruitment drive is claimed to have attracted staff from competing ISPs, including IS. Pressed for comment on the subject, Hillel Schrock - IS's Business Development Manager - declined to answer. Though Verizon SA's country manager Angela Gahagan was equally guarded, she confirmed that the company had recently gained considerable market share. "In as much as we've gained new clients, over the same period we've lost a number of clients, including high value M-Web and Sita accounts. There's no basis in insinuations that Verizon is involved in unethical business practices. In fact, I'm still shocked at the raid," says Gahagan. Verizon lost its M-Web and Sita accounts to IS. Says Silber: "The fact that industry stakeholders aren't privy to the details contained in the search and seizure makes it the more difficult to give a balanced opinion on the issue." With the market opening up following liberalisation and the entry of Neotel - the operator now challenging former fixed line monopoly Telkom - Silber anticipates a radical landscape overhaul. "Given the well-documented skills deficit and the high tariff structure plaguing the ICT industry, we are likely to observe a cross movement of staff from one company to the other." (SOURCE: MyADSL) 31 TELECOMS COMPANIES THREATEN TO PULL OUT OF EASSY PROJECTThis is a psychological blow to the initiative, which has already received a big body blow when 16 of the 23 member countries behind the initiative snubbed the signing of the implementation plan in Kigali three weeks ago. On top of that, the Kenya government has pulled out of the EASSy project and is instead planning to build a submarine cable of its own. Kenya's lone fibre optic cable is expected to cost $110m and would run from Mombasa to Fujairah in the Gulf of Oman. A press statement issued by John Sihra, the co-ordinator of the EASSy project on said that the protocol, as presented in the Rwandan capital, Kigali does not reflect the consensus that was reached by the partners of the EASSy project in a meeting that was held in Nairobi in July 2006. "The protocol in its current form is unacceptable to the EASSy parties/ promoters," the statement reads in part. "It will delay the implementation of the EASSy cable to the extent of it being abandoned. It cannot be overstressed that any protocol must have the support and buy-in of all stakeholders." Sihra's communiqué was meant to dispel the belief that the operators and those governments that chose not to support the signing of the protocol in Kigali three weeks ago were being unreasonable and against the development of the EASSy cable system. The protocol according to Sihra's statement proposes a regional government structure that will own, implement, control and operate the EASSy system that was rejected as being inappropriate, unworkable and in direct conflict with the deregulated telecom environment and national regulations. The promoters say the protocol does not have the buy-in of all the stakeholders, most notably, the region's telecommunications operators and certain governments. Sihra said this seriously undermines the commercial viability of future regional ICT infrastructures and most importantly, the EASSy system being developed by the EASSy parties. As it is now, it appears that the seven governments that put pen to paper to sign the protocol together with NEPAD's e-Africa commission and the EASSy developers and implementers are on a collision course. "The EASSy parties clearly appreciate the governments' legitimate policy concerns about the development of the ICT infrastructures in the region. "The EASSy hybrid special purpose vehicle (SPV) ownership and operational structure as was discussed and agreed - incorporates public policy interests that ensure the region's development objectives are being met." While the EASSy members (telecom companies drawn from all 23 countries) say they are open to any meaningful suggestions, they add that any policy solutions must respect the roles accorded to operators, policy makers and regulators. The statement said all concerned must respect the intellectual and property rights with regard to the progress made to date by the EASSy parties. Sihra said members want the protocol to promote an enabling regulatory and operating environment. "If it does not have the endorsement of all stakeholders, it would be counterproductive. The EASSy parties therefore reserve the right to accept or reject any terms and conditions of such a protocol," Sihra's statement said. EASSy brings together countries in southern and eastern Africa with the objective of launching the cable to cut telecommunication costs. The 9,900 km cable will link Durban in South Africa and Port Sudan in Sudan, with six landing points along the way. Speaking at the Highway Africa Conference that ended last week, Nepad's executive deputy chairperson at the e-Africa Commission, Dr Henry Chasia, said though Kenya's decision to pull out of EASSy was regrettable, the project will go on as scheduled. (SOURCE: Highway Africa News Agency) UGANDA GOVERNMENT HAS COMMISSIONED FEASIBILITY STUDY FOR A FIBER-OPTIC BACKBONEA team of technical experts from the Chinese government are doing a parallel study of their own following the signing of an e-government memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a Chinese technology company, Huawei Technologies Limited. The other study is being conducted by a Ministry team. Dr. Ham Mulira, the minister for communication and ICT said that when the two teams are done with their independent studies, they will come together to draw up a map that will show the government where the optic-fibre cable will pass. The minister also said that the Uganda government and their Chinese counterparts came to an understanding, which should lead to the development of this infrastructure. Mulira said: "Government because of financial arrangements got a willing partner who wanted to support developments in different sectors and one of the sectors was Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Because we felt it was an operation priority, we made a decision and asked China to assist." Mulira pointed out that the government wants to come up with a national ICT backbone to spur new economic activity in the country, and give the population the ability to communicate with the rest of the world easily and boost trade. He said that the government realises the need for a much faster communication link because fibre optics, though expensive initially, help reduce telecommunication prices given that satellite communication, which is predominantly in use today is expensive. Mulira said government's move to partner with a development partner to set up a national backbone is not to get a return on investment but to deliver social-economic benefits to the country. "Just like governments build roads, building of a national ICT backbone is the responsibility of government," Mulira said. While mobile telephone companies MTN and uganda telecom have partnered to build a fibre-optic link from the Kenya-Uganda border at Malaba to the Uganda-Rwanda border at Katuna, the feeder links off that highway into the countryside will not be considered as economically viable by the private sector. "That is why government has got to come in and extend this infrastructure where the private players will not reach," Mulira said. The national backbone Mulira said would feed into the fibre-optic link that will be operated by MTN and uganda telecom, connecting all the districts with fast Internet connectivity. Ambrose Ruyooka, principal communications officer of the ICT ministry, said the ministry has recently constituted a technical task force to draw up technical and financial feasibility reports on the project whose cost is being finalised. The task force that was appointed by the ministry under the direction of president Yoweri Museveni is composed of experts in telecoms, Information Technology (IT), regulatory affairs, macroeconomics and financial analysis. Ruyooka was recently speaking at an I-network organised seminar. He said the backbone would provide for a unified open standard inter-governmental platform. He said the government would seek a loan for its equity contribution in the project from a yet to be disclosed Chinese financial institution after the completion of the feasibility studies that are ongoing. However, the government is yet to decide on the project's implementation and management model and a decision is still to be taken on whether the government should outsource the implementation and management of the company to run the infrastructure that will also involve defining connectivity to global information infrastructure. (SOURCE: Highway Africa News Agency) CYBER-TERRORISM THREAT IS GETTING WORSE, SAY EXPERTSWhen bombs exploded on the London underground last year killing 52 commuters, medical and emergency services were caught off guard. Many of the 700 wounded had to make their own way to hospital or went home without receiving treatment, and were stranded by transport systems reduced to chaos. The systems collapsed without any outside intervention. Future attacks could be even more devastating if a terrorist group inflicting the carnage followed up by attacking the computer networks that co-ordinate emergency services. If they brought down the networks linking the police, ambulances and fire services, put the traffic lights out of action, congested the cellular networks or sabotaged the air traffic control system during a hijacking, panic would multiply beyond comprehension. That is the horrific image computer experts have in mind when they talk about the growing threat of cyber-terrorism. Research house IDC says it is highly possible some kind of cyber-terrorism will occur this year or next. Nobody is sure what that may involve, which means they will battle to prevent it. "The ethos of terrorists is to create terror and panic so they prefer blood and bombs and machine guns, but a cyber-terrorist attack could be launched just before or just after a physical attack to disrupt communications and slow down the physical response," says Craig Rosewarne, founder of the Information Security Group of Southern Africa. Analyst Roy Blume, of BMI-TechKnowledge, says terrorists could use the internet to show the effect of their atrocities to hundreds of millions of people, using it as a means of spreading panic. Terrorists use the internet to communicate with and manage splinter cells around the world. They also use the internet to transfer money without being detected, says former Israeli intelligence operative Ofer Akerman. Akerman, who runs a cyber-security firm, says there are daily incidents where terrorists try to attack a country's national infrastructure by using the massive computing power harnessed by hijacking hundreds of thousands of machines around the world. Those "bot" networks -- short for robot -- are used to launch denial-of-service attacks that cause a target network to fail by overloading it with traffic. A denial-of-service attack on the police or ambulance call centre during the London bombings would have increased the panic and confusion. While such cyber-terrorism is still the stuff of nightmares, cyber-crime has become a constant reality. Gartner estimates that by 2008 about 40% of organisations will be targeted by financially motivated cyber-crime. Industrial espionage is a common occurrence. In one case in Israel, two cellphone networks were infected with Trojans, a computer program that steals information and sends it to the person who planted the code. The thieves stole marketing information vital to the operators' business plans, says Akerman. For $150 criminals can buy ready-made Trojan software to infiltrate corporate networks. "You don't have to be very sophisticated to start industrial espionage with a Trojan. They will even tell you which antivirus systems can't detect them, and if you are detected you get your money back," Akerman says. "Cyber-crime is one of the better run industries on the planet," agrees Patrick Evans, the director of Symantec Africa. "Today's attacks are targeted at specific companies to steal information, and the impact on organisations is unclear -- some people don't know the information has been stolen because their systems remain operational." Security-lax home users are the weakest link, and provide an entry door to organisations that target consumers, he says. As attacks proliferate, corporate attention is switching to proactive intrusion detection and prevention rather than antivirus protection that only kicks in once a threat arrives. That demands better user authentication, constantly scanning a network and software to ensure the latest security patches are installed, and behavioural analysis. One technique is a "virus throttle" to rein in any computer trying to connect to other machines at a greater pace than usual. The throttle spots such unusual behaviour and slows it down, preventing a virus from propagating so rapidly. The machine can then be quarantined and cleaned. An infected machine can also be used to retaliate, by identifying what an infection does. New code can be written to undo its actions, and sent back to the source of the infection as a virtual vaccine. In SA, the amount spent on IT security is growing 17% a year, from R1,5bn in 2005 to a projected R3,5bn by 2010. Security absorbs 6% of the IT budget, but will climb to 9% by 2010, says Blume. When 500 local business were asked about their single biggest security risk, 41,7% cited their own employees. "Information leakage" is increasing as people leave a company and take information with them on a CD or a memory stick. "Never underestimate the damage that authorised users can inflict," says Blume. Source: Symantec (SOURCE: Business Day) NIGERIA’S IXP SET TO COME ON STREAM SHORTLYNigeria’s IXP project was unveiled during the 5th International Nigeria Telecommunications Forum in Abuja in September 2006 and President Olusegun Obasanjo is expected to formally commission the project before the end of September 2006. Meanwhile, the President of the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) of Nigeria, Samuel Adeleke, said that the project by keeping local internet within the shores of the country, would lead to a reduction of investment operators commit to international bandwidth, especially Internet service providers and telecommunications operators. IXPs reduce the portion of an ISP's traffic which must be delivered via their upstream transit providers. President Obasanjo had directed the establishment of the point in 2005 during the second phase of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis. It is common knowledge that the absence of IXPs on the African continent is responsible for the high cost of internet access in many African countries. Adeleke also noted that telecommunications operators would particularly benefit from the project as many of them can carry their local traffic through the internet using voice over internet protocol (IP) and subsequently spend less on transmission of local calls. Accordingly, he stated that the cost of local calls could come down to about the same level as we have in the international arena."As you know, it costs more for calls to be made within Nigeria than when the call is made to the United States. This is because operators are using voice over internet protocol and with the IXP, we should see the cost of local calls falling down as well. Adeleke said that as a national project, the IXP will have seven branches located namely in Lagos, Ibadan, Enugu, Port-Harcourt, Abuja, Maiduguri and Kano. He said within each of these branches there would also be local connection points, which would all be connected to together. According to Adeleke about four firms were already connected to the exchange and that live tests of data transmission was currently being carried out, and advising that firms who need the service, especially internet Service providers need not wait for the commissioning before coming forward to be connected to it. (SOURCE: Highway Africa News Agency) NEW SECURITY PROTOCOLS MAKE THE INTERNET A SAFER PLACE TO SHOPAdoption of new security protocols means liability for fraud shifts from merchants to issuing banks. New security measures are expected to help grow the number of South Africans shopping online, as well as the number of merchants turning to the internet to sell their goods. While the number of South Africans with access to the internet grew 5% last year to about 3,6-million, or one in every 12 people, Mark Schech, CEO of SA Encode Corporation, says many South Africans are still reluctant to shop on the net. This is a global phenomenon, he says, brought on by perceptions that shopping online is not as secure as shopping in the real world. SA Encode Corporation is one of the companies instrumental in introducing the new security measures to SA. Investec, First National Bank and Standard Bank have already adopted the new protocols, while Nedbank and Absa will go live over the next couple of months. They include an additional layer of security in transactions by requiring pin codes and passwords from those using their credit cards online. Card issuers Visa and MasterCard have included this in their Visa 3D Secure and MasterCard SecureCode security measures. Schech says some of the benefits of the new measures include fewer fraudulent transactions and chargebacks to merchants; increased cardholder confidence; improved payment guarantees; and more profit for retailers due to higher sales and reduced costs. Merchants authenticating transactions using 3D Secure and SecureCode will be free of liability if the transaction is fraudulent, with liability passing to the issuing bank. Research by technology research company World Wide Worx shows the value of internet transactions made by South Africans at South African retailers grew 25%-30% last year to R540m, excluding air tickets, accommodation and car rentals booked over the internet. Similar growth is expected this year, MD Arthur Goldstuck says. Including purchases made at global sites such as Amazon.com would add a couple of percentage points to that growth, Goldstuck says. South African retailers leading the way in internet sales include Pick ’n Pay Online, Kalahari.net, Woolworths and NetFlorist, while Digital Planet, Edgars, Exclusive Books and Musica are not far behind. While the new measures will give consumers more peace of mind about shopping online, Goldstuck says the propensity to shop online is directly related to people’s experience on the internet. He says there is a direct correlation between the length of time people have been using the internet and when they start using online banking. “Once they are comfortable with online banking, they would move on to online retail,” he says. “For the leap from online banking to online shopping, there have to be certain elements in place to give people peace of mind and one of those is the perception of the security of transactions.” It will also encourage the growth of e-tailers (retailers doing business online), he says. Anton Gaylard, chairman of the South African Forum of e-Tailers, says online shopping in its current state is still safer than physical shopping as each step of a transaction is tracked and recorded. However, the new measures will encourage growth in the number of online retailers, as they will no longer be responsible for repudiated transactions if they follow the new security authentication measures. (SOURCE: Business Day) IN BRIEF:- Interweb Satcom Limited, an information communication technology firm licensed by the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) has launched mobile VSAT technology into the Nigerian market. The technology known as Broadband Global Area Network (Bgan) provides seamless broadband coverage and is the world's first voice and broadband data mobile communications service accessible anywhere on the planet. - Algérie Télécom is testing a fibre-optic local loop FTTH (Fiber to the home) network located in Hydra with the technical support of Chinese company ZTE. The project for estimated cost of 10bn DA, will allows high-speed internet connection, watching different TV channels and making simultaneously phone calls via a modem.
GOVERNMENT KICK STARTS COMPUTER FOR ALL NIGERIANS INITIATIVECANi is designed to increase PC penetration in Nigeria by making the cost of purchase more affordable and also ease payment costs. CANi's programme director, Soji Romeo, said in a media briefing in Lagos on Monday that the government order would only be for the first phase of the scheme, adding that it represented a formal take-off of the scheme. He said about 30,000 units are expected to be delivered to the FG noting that besides the government order, several organizations and state governments had also showed interests in purchasing for their staff. He stated that given the enthusiasm that preceded the scheme, it is bound to fulfill its aims of achieving "a PC penetration drive into sections of the Nigerian Community which are currently underserved." Romeo also explained that after careful consideration of the objectives of the scheme, it was agreed that prices for the local brands would be less expensive than those of the two foreign brands that have been shortlisted to take part in the scheme. Zinox, Brian, Omatek and Speedstar are the four local brands participating in the scheme while the two foreign ones are HP and IBM. Besides organizations that have been participating in the project, Romeo added that individuals were also free to take part, noting that the entry price for the local computers would be N45,000:00. In all, Romeo said about 500,000 PCs are planned to be shipped under the scheme over the next two years with 100,000 to be distributed in the first year. He said even though there was desire for more computers to be shipped, the capacity constraints in the industry means that they may not go beyond such a number. Besides delivery of computers, CANi is also expected to give internet access to willing individuals and Romeo said two Internet Service Partners: Suburban and Netcom would be delivering services in Abuja and Lagos respectively. For those intending to participate in the scheme but intend to spread payment, UBA, Fidelity Bank, and Skye Bank would be acting as financial partners and would give loans to such individuals at concessionary rates. Meanwhile an awareness campaign involving newspapers, radio, TV and billboard advertising is being planned to promote the CANi programme. (SOURCE: Highway Africa News Agency) KNOWLEDGE TREE LAUNCHES OSS DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT FOR SMALL BUSINESSESSouth Africa-developed KnowledgeTree, an open source document management application, is now available in two additional versions catering to enterprise and small business users. "KnowledgeTree SMB and KnowledgeTree Enterprise editions tailor the KnowledgeTree document management offering to specific ends of the market, providing each with extremely attractive price performance," says Daniel Chalef of KnowledgeTree developers Jam Warehouse. "The two editions are based on version 1.1 of our commercial KnowledgeTree platform, adding significantly enhanced internationalisation support and Windows integration capabilities." Chalef also says the team has added a number of new features to the new releases. These include an extensible workflow trigger system that allows custom actions to be executed from within workflows. "It's a significant extension to the developer API of our commercial offering and provides a powerful new addition to our workflow capabilities," says Chalef. Other new features include the ability to make documents immutable, providing enhanced security and ease of use in records management environments. KnowledgeTree, built on the popular open source LAMP (Apache/MySQL/PHP) stack, has been downloaded more than 200 000 times to date. The application is available in three additions: KnowledgeTree Enterprise, KnowledgeTree SMB and KnowledgeTree Open Source. The commercial editions provide all the functionality of the open source edition and offers additional functionality including a WebDAV Integration Server and Client Tools for Windows, providing a familiar Windows Explorer and Microsoft Office interface into the document repository and direct-to-repository scanning capability. (SOURCE: Tectonic) MAURITIUS CYBER ISLAND AS INFINITY BPO THINKS BIGIn spite of recent rumours to the contrary, Infinity BPO is doing very well. Actually so well that it intends to double its number of employees by the end of next year. From the 520 people now working in the company, the general manager, Jean Suzanne, wants to reach 1,200 jobs within one year. But this development might need a few changes and Infinity might have to move out from the cyber tower where it is starting to feel cramped. The main obstacle Infinity BPO may have to face in its development process is the lack of trained staff. From the 2,400 people interviewed for jobs last year, only a few hundreds were employed. Even though the minimum required for a job is the Higher School Certificate (HSC), it does not mean that all HSC holders will be taken on. "It is a real job and not everyone has the skills to do it," explains Jean Suzanne. At the moment, the company is already forced to subcontract the equivalent of 350 jobs in Morocco. This is due to the fact that "15% of the staff do not stay. This is why call-centres always have to employ new people". They either realise that they are not fit for the job - unless the company realises it for them - or they want to carry on with their studies. And this problem will become even more serious when the company needs to employ more people. As he suggested in the strategic plan he prepared, as the Prime minister's senior adviser in ICT development, at the end of last year, the solution may be to "drain off the best competencies of the region to make it a centre of excellence". Jean Suzanne believes that the capacity of Mauritius in terms of job creation is limited to 3,000 - "5,000 if we reduce the level". As it strives to become the world leader on the French-speaking market with its call centres, Infinity BPO may soon have to move from the cyber tower. With its growing number of employees, the present office will soon prove too small to conduct all the operations. Even though the second cyber tower is ready to accomodate new companies, the manager of Infinity made it clear he did not want to move there. "As it was in the cyber tower, Infinity was the subject of all kinds of attacks." He does not want the story to repeat itself but would like to remain in Ebène, which is in a way part of the company's identity. The second cyber tower was ready hardly a week ago and only 30% of the tower space remains to be filled. The chairman of Business Parks of Mauritius Ltd (BPML), Chand Bhadain, thinks the main asset of the country is the "quality of Mauritian employees in the ICT sector. Moreover, the latter are very loyal to their company. Mobility is about 10% in Mauritius while it can reach up to 40% or 60% elsewhere". Even though he is very satisfied with the reservations at the second cyber tower so far - the more so as he is expecting negotiations to achieve a successful end - he can't help being disappointed with the lack of motivation of the private sector to contribute to ICT development. He regrets that the private sector does not have the same determination as for the development of the export processing zone when the sector built a lot of amenities. "There should be more joint-ventures between Mauritian and foreign investors," he commented. (SOURCE: L'Express) UBUNTU EDGY EFT BETA OUTThe next version of the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution was released today. As the name suggests, Edgy Eft will include bleeding-edge Linux technologies, with many of the packages expected in Edgy to be beta themselves. Here we look at what you can expect from Ubuntu 6.10. The first thing you're likely to spot is a new init system called Upstart, along with a slicker bootup splash screen that scales better than the Dapper Drake version. While Upstart should boot a little faster, the biggest advantages are highly technical, dealing with removable hardware at boot time. For an in-depth discussion of the new init system, have a look here. A system called Readahead, which is in deep development, should speed up boot times further. The login screen and login splash have also been updated, and from initial screenshots it all fits in well with the new wallpaper and icons that the team has produced. The now-famous Ubuntu brown has taken a turn towards chocolate, mercifully moving away from its sharky beginnings. Windows now have rounded edges, and you can expect a fresher look with Edgy. Ubuntu has taken a note (pun intended) out of Suse's book, and you'll now have yellow post-its on your desktop thanks to Tomboy. We should really thank the Gnome folks for this -- Gnome 2.16 includes Tomboy, and that's the Gnome version you'll see in Edgy Eft. Another big Suse favourite is F-Spot, now included in Edgy. Manage your photo album like a pro with this powerful photo management utility. Evolution has been spruced up, with a new vertical pane look, as well as a slicker calender thanks to graphics engine Cairo. Two notable betas, Firefox 2.0 "Bon Echo" beta 2 and Gaim 2.0, make a debut in Edgy. The inclusion of betas states firmly that this is a bleeding edge distro, not for rolling out in the office. There's also Python 2.5, which is a welcome addition for us Python fans. Good news for Compiz fans: you'll now get AIGLX natively with Xorg 7.1, so you'll be able to pimp your ride with Compiz with less hassle. A beefed-up OpenOffice 2.0.4 release candidate 2 should secure you from viruses thanks to better Java sandboxing. With any luck, its spell checker will even work for those of us who use South African English. The final release of Edgy Eft is expected on October 26. (SOURCE: Tectonic) IN BRIEF:- International insurance group Axa is to create 1,500 jobs in call centres and outsourced administrative positions in Morocco by 2012. - With the financial support of the international organisation promoting French, journalists from Sidwaya in Burkina-Faso and Cameroon Tribune in Cameroon are following a training course that will enable them start digitalising the archives of both newspapers. - Oracle, the software company, announced at its Public Sector conference in Nairobi that it has created a dedicated sales consulting team to service African national, regional and local governments. Taroon Japal, Regional Manager for Oracle’s operations in East Africa, said that the business unit was formed to help governments in their efforts to accelerate delivery of services and infrastructure. Currently Oracle has more than 30 African government customers, including the governments of Botswana, Uganda, Kenya and Mauritius, as well as numerous customers in local government and government agencies. - Indian President Abdul Kalam has re-invited South Africa to participate in the creation of an internet-based "world knowledge platform" to promote science, technology, and economic development. The proposal follows an initiative launched by Kalam in an address in South Africa two years ago for the creation of a pan-African e-network for the use of Indian satellites for tele-medicine and tele-education between African countries and India. - The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) is to undertake a capacity building in Information Communication Technology (ICT) for Journalists in the country. To this end, upgrading and renovation works have been completed at a new Internet café at the Ghana International Press Centre in preparation for the basic ICT training for selected Journalists throughout the country. - Zambia faces a litmus test on 28 September when it rolls out a computerised voter registration system and assesses its compliance with regional electoral principles and guidelines.
TELKOM SOUTH AFRICA SHARE SALE CREATES UPROARStakeholders in the controversial purchase of a chunk of Telkom shares have instructed lawyers to unmask secret shareholders and investigate if anyone who scored from the R9-billion deal has cashed in their shares.When it was announced, the Elephant empowerment consortium's purchase sparked an outcry. This was because key consortium players Smuts Ngonyama, ANC head of the presidency, and Andile Ngcaba, the government's former telecommunications director general, asked the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) to warehouse the shares until they had raised the money to buy 15.1% of the parastatal from US-based group Thintana. Law firm Modise Routledge Moss Morris has been instructed by some members of the Elephant consortium to conduct an assessment of the shares and shareholders, mainly held via trusts registered with the Master of the High Court in Pretoria. The move has been sparked by a fear among some stakeholders that other members of the Elephant consortium have ceded a portion of the group's Telkom shares to raise cash. The concerned stakeholders claim the right to know who their fellow beneficiaries are, and believe they have pre-emptive rights on any shares sold. The consortium's stake in Telkom is split three ways between the Ngcaba-led Lion group; women's empowerment group Wiphold's Leopard, headed by Gloria Serobe; and a third, broad-based empowerment group, managed by the PIC. Other than Ngcaba, the stakeholders in the Lion group are not known. The information sought via the law firm includes: • Names of all the beneficiaries represented by the trusts; • Whether anyone has ceded or disposed of their shares; and • The current status of the entire empowerment deal. Wiphold recently resigned as administrator of the Leopard group, shortly after some beneficiaries demanded information on mystery stakeholders within the group. By law, trusts are required to have an administrator -- and the position has been vacant for about five months. Besides Wiphold, other stakeholders in the Leopard group include US businessman Jim Myers, local businessmen Dali Mpofu and Barend Hendricks, former government adviser Rafique Bagus, Ngonyama and Blue Label Investments. Hendricks refused to comment, but said a meeting of stakeholders had been scheduled to "resolve" issues. The Leopard shareholders also include two companies, previously registered as Clidet 531 and Clidet 532. It is understood that Ngonyama has an estimated 18% stake in the Leopard group via one of the Clidet companies -- his reward for having facilitated the entire deal. The names of the other Clidet shareholders will be investigated by the lawyers. Clidet 531 and Clidet 532 have since changed names and the sole director of both companies is Alan Norman -- a former banker with Absa bank, one of the funders of the Telkom deal. On Friday, Norman said he had no dealings with the Elephant consortium and said he was only ever involved in the deal as an employee of the bank. Although he is no longer in the employ of the bank it has been established that he has been attending meetings of the Elephant consortium for several months. His presence at one of these meetings prompted stakeholders to ask who he represented and how he had switched from being a banker to a stakeholder representative. It is understood Norman refused to reveal who he represented. On Friday, Serobe refused to answer questions about Norman's involvement in the deal. She said: "I'm not keen to talk to you over the phone ... you would not call Johann Rupert and ask him about shareholders in Rembrandt in this fashion. Phone GT Ferreira today and ask him for the shareholders of FirstRand. It is rude and so impolite." Ngonyama, when asked if he had sold any of his Telkom shares, said: "I am due to be compensated ... and very soon I'll be in a position to know what flows to me. But as of now I'm not a beneficiary." He declined to comment on developments within the Elephant consortium. Ngonyama denied the transaction was an empowerment deal -- despite Telkom claiming it as such. When Ngcaba was asked if he had ceded any Telkom shares he is managing, he said: "I am out of the office; I am actually out of town. I don't know what you are talking about." When Business Times first broke the story of the Telkom empowerment deal in October 2004, Ngcaba denied any knowledge of the expected sale of Thintana's shares. The sale of 15.1% of Telkom's shares stirred controversy and allegations of enrichment of a few ANC-connected individuals. The Congress of South African Trade Unions criticised it as "empowerment of the worst kind". (SOURCE: Sunday Times) IS ARPU A VALID PERFORMANCE METRIC?, ASKS GARTNERWhen mobile operators were rolling out their mobile networks, it was fairly easy to measure how well they were doing. You simply looked at the size of its subscriber base, compared it with other operators, and, roughly speaking, you were able to work out the level of its performance. But as mobile markets hit saturation point and subscriber acquisition slowed down, another metric came to the fore as a way of measuring performance - ARPU (average revenue per user). It wasn't the number of subscribers that was considered paramount but how much revenue you could squeeze out of individual customers. Such has been the desire by operators across the world to increase ARPU and impress the financial markets, they have willingly reduced the size of their subscriber base by churning off 'inactive' users (usually prepaid) - this, of course, has the happy side effect of ramping up those average revenue per user figures. But despite its growing use by financial analysts, how valid is ARPU as a barometer of a mobile operator's health? Nigel Deighton, vice president and research director for Gartner, a telecoms consultancy, believes there's a danger of attaching too much importance to it. "ARPU has passed its sell by date as there's no real link between it and the margins of a mobile operator's business," he argues. "We need to get back-to-basics and look at raw profitability and ROI because they are far better indicators as to whether an operator is doing well or not." Deighton rightly points out that an operator with a comparatively high ARPU might not have a successful business because it may only have a small amount of subscribers."And having a low ARPU doesn't necessarily mean that an operator is generating negative margins as it could have a large number of users," he says. 'We shouldn't write ARPU off' Robert Grindle, a telecoms analyst at Dresdner Kleinwork Wasserstein, still believes, however, that we shouldn't write ARPU off as a way of measuring performance. For one thing, it can indicate how well an operator is doing with mobile data services. "Any sign of revenue generation that's revealed through ARPU will be looked upon very positively (by analysts) because it indicates what users are prepared to spend on their mobile phones," he says. Safaricom chief executive, Michael Joseph, argues that looking at ARPU margins gives you the best of both world's, letting you know how much users are spending as well as how much mobile operators are deriving profits off them. (SOURCE: The East African Standard) GIJIMAAST BOUNCES BACK INTO PROFITTechnology company GijimaAst has defied analysts' expectations, returning to profitability for the first time in four years after a string of losses and crippling liabilities of R765m. Once SA's fourth largest information technology (IT) company, the group looked beyond salvation when its empire collapsed. Last week, CEO John Miller -- brought in to save the business four years ago -- reported a profit of R38m, reversing last year's loss of R49,3m. "The return to profitability was enabled by our disciplined approach to running our business. We successfully halted the revenue and margin declines, recording 24,4% revenue growth to R1,95bn," he said. Revenue for the year to June 30 was up from R1,5bn a year ago, although headline earnings a share of 2,93c were down from 15,66c last year. Amortisation and impair-ments of R9,3m hit its headline earnings, along with reduced foreign currency translation profits and a loss of R12,5m from its Namibian subsidiary. Steps had been taken to address those problems, Miller said. A tax rate of 43,7% was also far higher than expected, as a result of deferred tax asset balances. Its operating cash flow of R94,1m was massively up from R2,5m and net cash rose by R117,2m to R174m. Other signs of success were the recruitment of some experienced industry players and the winning of a five-year R960m deal to run Absa's IT infrastructure. On the downside, revenue growth was dampened by pricing pressure from its clients and by delays in the awarding of some public sector contracts that GijimaAst hoped to win. Current liabilities still remain a burdensome R463m. Since the ill-fated AST merged with the black group Gijima as part of its recovery plan, it had become the most empowered player in the hi-tech services industry, said Miller, with an AA rating from Empowerdex. It has also become SA's second-largest supplier of outsourced technol-ogy services. "We have made enormous progress in changing the demographics of our workforce from 15% black in 2005 to 30%," Miller said. "Two of the top three operational management jobs are now held by black professionals." It is also 45% black owned, making the directors confident of winning more government work. The South African Revenue Service cancelled some tenders that it had expected to win, but those tenders had now been re-issued, Miller said. The merger of Gijima and AST was almost compete, with a few areas remaining where more efficiencies could be achieved. "Our balance sheet is healthy and we have good cash balances to fund profitable revenue growth and deliver positive returns to shareholders," he said. Since the financial year-end, the securitisation of its debtors book allowed R256m to be raised by issuing five-year debentures, to repay interest-bearing debts and gain R133m in cash. Miller said the market for IT equipment and services was looking perkier after several years of low growth. (SOURCE: Business Day) IN BRIEF:- Quadrem Africa, an online trading hub for the mining industry, had merged with TradeWorld, creating a bigger and black-owned trading hub. The merged entity would create the largest marketing entity in Africa, "with a potential for future growth". "Quadrem Africa plans to be a premier service provider to connect global and local buying organisations with (the) SME community," the company said. It said it had plans to expand to other African countries. - Pan African telecommunications group, Celtel International is investing over US$700 million (about Ush1.29 trillion) into its Nigeria operations to improve network coverage through the erection of 1,000 new base stations and to bring the latest mobile network products to their customers. - Six companies have been pre-qualified in the sale of the Gilgil Telecommunications Industries (GTI). They are the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC), locally based Timber Treatment International and Muringa Holdings. Others are Electronic Tech Company of Egypt, South Africa's Treated Timber Products, and Tanzania's Sao Hill Industries.
NATA WEBSITE MAKES A DIFFERENCE IN BOTSWANAA website initiative that started off introducing Nata village to the rest of the world has made a difference in the lives of the ordinary residents. Nata made history this year by becoming the first village in Botswana to have its own website. The low number of literate people and little access to the Internet did not deter residents from welcoming the website. Melody Jenkins, the technical adviser for the Nata website says that since the launch, visitors to the website have made generous contributions that have helped residents of the village. He said that so far they have raised more than P45,000 through the website. Some of the money will be used to fund projects aimed at improving the lives of those infected by HIV/AIDS in the village. In order to manage the money efficiently, Jenkins said that there is a board of trustees that oversees that every project is financed properly. She said that currently Nata village does not have an ARV clinic and patients have to go to Gweta to get medication. Part of the money raised helps people living with HIV/AIDS to travel to Gweta for ARV medicine. "Sometimes the clinic does not have enough to transport all the patients and that is where we chip in. We pay for their transportation because most of these people cannot afford P18 which is transport fare to Gweta and back," Jenkins pointed out. The money is also used to help local support groups like Ntwa Kgolo which has been bought uniforms. Another local drama group called Mabogo Art and Culture is benefiting from the money and Jenkins said that they will soon buy them sound equipment. She revealed that the website acts as a cultural exchange platform and they always put up pictures that reflect the traditional Setswana activities in the village. "We want to show people the things that they only read about in books, that they can view them at the click of the mouse at natavillage.org. Recently we put up pictures of two families negotiating bogadi or lobola and that showed people what marriage means here," said Jenkins. Seloma Tiro the chairman of the board of trustees said that the establishment of the website is significantly contributing to the lives of the residents. He added that people's lives are changing everyday and they are confident that the website will continue making a positive contribution. He pointed out that they do not only help HIV/AIDS patients with the money donated but any resident that is in need of financial assistance. He said money raised from the website has been used to buy food for children and the destitute. (SOURCE: Mmegi/The Reporter) UGANDA'S ONLINE SHOPPING STAGGERSComputer illiteracy coupled with inadequate Internet connectivity is a major roadblock to web-based business, where consumers purchase products or services over the Internet. Websites that are involved in online purchasing include Amazon, eBay, and Buy.com among others. However low Internet connectivity has increased the cost of doing this type of business in Uganda. According to the 2005 annual African e-business survey, conducted by Pan African Consulting Group (PACG), a leading Management, Systems and technology consulting firm, entitled: "The African Establishment of E-shopping Habits Among Consumers" confirms that online shopping in Africa and Uganda in particular, is still a growing channel, with lack of access to internet and lack of computer knowledge making online advertising a nightmare. "Ugandan consumers like to shop in stores, touch the merchandise and take it with them right at that moment," according to PACG findings. "The Internet has not yet developed and has barriers to immediate consumer gratification." PACG estimates that more than 80 per cent of Ugandan consumers have no computer knowledge and therefore, prefer street shopping to online purchasing. According to the report the figure cuts across the entire business community with a large number of merchants still hooked to the old habits. However, lack of mutual trust among trading parties is the other reason online business has not developed. "I can't trust Internet business; I prefer face-to-face business and there is no bureaucracy at all," said Musa Kasiita, the Managing Director of Basiita enterprise Ltd, a local company dealing in imported fabrics along Ben Kiwanuka Street. Gad Murungi, the Materials and Logistics officer at Uchumi supermarket, says: "We don't offer online purchasing here and we haven't got customers asking for it." PACG 's analysis, drawn from more than 10,000 professional respondents from 30 African countries including Uganda, says that although e-advertising is increasingly becoming a popular practice, online shopping in developing countries has not taken shape because of lack of knowledge and access to new information technology. However, one of the main concerns associated with online purchasing is piracy. According to Amos Ahimbisibwe, a Researcher at Uganda Consumer Protection Service Ltd (UCPS), a private company offering products and consumer information, many stories revolve around fears of credit card numbers being stolen online and often clients lose money to pirates involved in online scam. (SOURCE: The Monitor) IN BRIEF:- The Egyptian Tourism Authority has revealed that its official Web site www.egypt.travel has attracted 1, 596, 096 visits since its launch in March 2006. Created to provide travellers with a one-stop resource for finding out more about the country, Egypt was also the first international tourist board to pioneer the new '.travel' domain name. - The Algerian Police has launched its official website. At www.dgsn.dz Algerian citizens can find detailed information on the institution. The police hopes to re-establish a climate of trust.
MAURITANIA GETS NEW MEDIA REGULATORY AUTHORITYMauritania has announced the creation of a media regulatory body, the High Authority for Press and Audio-visual, HAPA. Communications Minister and Government`s spokesman Cheikh Ould Ebbe, said the authority, recommended by the National Consultative Commission on media reforms would regulate public and private media as well as advertisements. It will comprise six members, three, including its chair to be appointed by the Head of State, while two would be chosen by the Speaker of the parliament. The members will be appointed for a non-renewable five-year mandate. (SOURCE: AGOP)
PEOPLE* Following the merger between Quadrem and Tradeworld it has been announced that Danny Mackay will become Quadrem Africa's chairman, Mike Kersten will become MD and TradeWorld CEO Francois Naude will be commercial director. * According to local newspaper The Daily Monitor, four senior officials of the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) have been suspended from their official duties. The officials ordered to quit are Deputy CEO Abdulsemed (name of father not known), Telecom Business Department Head Abayneh Abebe, Senior Advisor Asfaw Hailemariam, and the Chief Information Officer Badege (name of father not known). * Erna Solomon, COO of South Africa's Central Securities Depository (Strate) has resigned. She joined the electronic settlement company in July 2003. EVENTS- WORKSHOP ON BROADBAND OVER POWERLINE 3-4 October 2006, Dakar, Senegal The African Telecommunications Union (ATU) is holding a workshop on Powerline Communications (PLC), the alternative last mile platform utilizing the electricity network. The workshop will address key issues such as technology, invest and business case, standardisation, hybrid platforms (Satellite, Wireless, Fibre & PLC) and others. For further information visit the ATU website at www.atu-uat.org. - 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. For further information visit www.ipad-africa.com - ACHIEVING BEST VALUE IN HUMAN RESOURCE AND SKILLS MANAGEMENT USING INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) 23rd-24th October 2006, Johannesburg South Africa. ICT enables Human Resource Practitioners in Africa access to information, best practices, concepts and processes such as streamlining their recruitment and selection process which is of added value in building and retaining skills in Africa, it also drives down the cost of HR services delivery. For further details visit www.africarecruit.com - WEST AFRICAN SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS SUMMIT 31 October - 2 November 2006, Le Meridien Hotel, Abuja, Nigeria The summit is dedicated to the deployment of satellite and satellite hybrid-based communications solutions across the region of West Africa and will provide an unparalleled networking opportunity for global and regional satellite communications providers to meet with ever-expanding communities of vertical market communications end-users. For further information visit http://www.gvf.org/gvf/events/index.cfm - GSM-3G WORLD SERIES - NORTH AFRICA 8-9 November 2006, Sheraton Tunis Hotel, Tunis, Tunisia "What are the market impacts of additional competition and 3G licensing in North Africa? How can you attract new users to drive forward penetration? And more importantly what plans do your suppliers, clients and competitors have for this region? The 5th GSM 3G North Africa is the one forum in the region vital to manufacturers, application developers, operators and regulators who are active, or seeking to be active, in the North African market. For further information visit www.gsm-3gworldseries.com/northafrica" - 1ST INTERNATIONAL ICT INVESTMENT CONFERENCE FOR AFRICA 14th – 15th November 2006, Tunis, Tunisia. Under the auspices of Secretary General United Nations Conference on Trade & Development (UNCTAD)
- eLEARNING AFRICA 2007 28-30th May 2007, Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Nairobi, Kenya The subject is Building Infrastructures and Capacities to Reach out to the Whole of Africa, reflecting the significant efforts of African countries to set up their national and regional ICT infrastructures to create access to education, training and services for all. For further information visit www.icwe.net or call +49-30-327 6140 JOBS AND OPPORTUNITIES* CFO - EAST AFRICA This telecommunication group is looking for a candidate that will act as the business partner in all areas of operations. As the key member of the management team, he/she will help to create value by developing the appropriate environment for all financial decisions and ensure the finance staff is recognised as supportive, helpful and innovative. The key tasks include Financial Strategic Planning, Performance Monitoring & Financial Reporting and Financial Operations. For further information contact advertising@balancingact-africa.com * ICT JOURNALIST – SOUTH AFRICA The core purpose of the job includes: source and write stories and features for Computing SA and ICT World; work closely with the editor in researching market trends and following events and trends within the South African ICT industry; maintain a good relationship with industry players as well as readers and clients; meet all deadlines dictated by responsibilities; understand the news and technology sectors of the industry and ICT World; identify new opportunities for potential leads. For further information contact Lulama Sibiya on +27 11 28 05 830 * CALL FOR SUBMISSION OF VIDEO PODCAST - UNESCO Within the framework of its international project, (Harnessing ICTs for the audiovisual industry and public service broadcasting in developing countries), UNESCO is launching a call for submissions of video podcast proposals for a series of production grants. For further information contact creativecontent@unesco.org * ACCESS TO LEARNING AWARD We invite you to apply for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Annual Access to Learning Award.This award recognizes excellence in providing access to information by utilizing new information and communication technologies in an innovative way, at no cost to the user. The recipient will receive an award of up to US $1 million. The award is administered by the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP). Completed applications should be sent to INASP and must be postmarked or Emailed by 31 December 2006. A PDF version of the application will be available for downloading to your computer from www.inasp.info/ldp/awards. CONTRACTS: WHO'S SELLING WHAT TO WHOM?TPDF AND MINCOM - TANZANIA Mincom Africa has secured a contract to provide an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution to the Tanzanian People’s Defence Force (TPDF). The multi-million Rand contract - which includes software, services and training. According to Mike Evans, managing director of Mincom Africa, “African defence budget is typically dedicated to major hardware such as ships, tanks and planes, but changing modes and theatres of operation and the need for rapid deployment has made logistics systems increasingly critical”.
If our correspondent is "off the mark" or you have
factual amendments, mail them to us and we will include them
in subsequent News Updates. If you'd like to contribute, write
and let us know. |
|
      |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
This page last updated on October 09 2006.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
