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WEEKLY PUBLICATION DEADLINE: 12 pm GMT Sunday. ISSUE NO 396 Sharing infrastructure to speed up roll-out – reaching the parts you can’t reach by yourselvesThis week saw the ITU’s 8th Global Symposium for Regulators take as its theme infrastructure sharing as a means of speeding up broadband roll-out in developing countries. Sharing is one those warm, fuzzy words and as one delegate said:”My mother always told me to share.” But as those at the event discovered, some parts of sharing are fairly easy, whereas others require a greater understanding of the potential pitfalls. Somehow competition and sharing don’t seem to fit in the same sentence but competitors have been sharing for years. Russell Southwood looks at what is at issue. With the exception of high-cost countries (like Angola, Cameroon and Gabon), soon Africa will have relatively cheap international fibre all around its coast. Not every country’s connected yet but they might easily do so in the not-too-distant future. But what good is cheap bandwidth if you have not got a high-capacity national backbone that can deliver to the main population areas within a country? Without these kinds of backbones, there will be less customers for cheap broadband Internet and the services it brings, whether individuals, the Government or the corporate sector. But say the sceptics, why not let the mobile companies invest in a 3G backbone as there is not that much demand? Africans only really use mobiles and not PCs, so why over-build at this scale? But this assumes Africa will remain as it is now with its relatively low economic potential, not the Africa that it might become in five to ten years time. There are “fast-track” countries (for example, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa) that are already on the cusp of significant economic changes: the middle classes in these countries have grown significantly over the last three years. Furthermore, bandwidth demand has more than tripled over a five-year period in some countries. In these circumstances, to argue that 3G alone will be “good enough for Africa” and for keeping supply stuck well behind potential demand is not really going to give those countries that might succeed anything like the entrance ticket to the new global economy they require. Tourism, outsourcing and the logistics of exporting high-value goods all require bandwidth to be available in places that most networks either do not reach or do not yet reach with sufficient capacity and a relatively cheap price. If margins are everything, then the supplier that has to run its business using satellite is at a disadvantage over those who have broadband access over fibre. Future services and applications will not be built if developers have to build everything around the mobile phone: you will develop repetitive strain injuries and a squint before that happens. Broadband use in Africa needs a “critical mass” if it is to be able to deliver the “people networking” effect that mobiles so obviously already do. In key countries, the growth curve is moving in that direction and it will increase with cheaper prices. Any African country that is likely to succeed has a Government that is worrying about how it can provide its country with a broadband infrastructure that will: drive some aspect of its economic development, help Government itself communicate across large distances and deliver simple services close to where need is found. Yes, roads and schools and health clinics are all as urgent but they cannot change the pace and style of the economy in the same way as having a connected country can. But more taxes from a more successful economy can pay for a greater range of social goods of the kind that are urgently needed. The issue is then how can this become a realistic national priority that can be achieved in a short number of years? Left to the market alone, the process will be relatively slow as operators will tend to build out behind demand rather than ahead of it in order to guarantee returns. The operators will tend to confine themselves to building metro rings and links between major urban centres. In the old days, the responsibility for addressing this kind of national priority lay with Government and it was expressed through the incumbent telco. Nobody wants to return to that position but there are a number of “chicken-and-egg” problems where Government needs to play a facilitating role. In a West African regulatory forum, I sat on a panel with two of the continent’s major mobile operators. They were asked: why won’t you build inter-country network links? (The question could as easily have been: why don’t you build a high-capacity, national backbone?) Each one said that there was not enough demand and that therefore this kind of project was the responsibility of Government. Less public conversations with mobile operators (indeed most operators) make clear that where possible they would prefer to carry their own traffic as they do not trust the incumbent. In the main, the latter still treats wholesale and retail as mutually interchangeable arms of the same body and competes at the retail level with its own customers. As high-capacity infrastructure is a near monopoly except in the larger countries, there is all the usual monopoly incompetence in service delivery. In effect, the incumbent’s assets and the way they operate them have become “bottleneck facilities” and this applies as much to their near-monopoly national networks as it does to the monopoly international fibre landing stations. There are two issues chasing each other round in a circle that needs to be broken. If there was sufficient trust in a wholesale, “carriers’ carrier”, then the operators would be able to buy this capacity from that company rather than investing significant sums of money into their own infrastructure. If the majority of them bought infrastructure in this way, the volume of traffic would be enough to finance fibre routes where none currently exist. In effect, infrastructure investment would be shared by it being financed through a third party. Money not invested in infrastructure could be spent competing vigorously at the service level with new services and applications. At the highest level, this is the key argument for infrastructure sharing and it is clear from the description of the dilemma that it is not one that will be easily unravelled. But not to seek to do so is probably to risk slowing down the development of key markets by ten years or more. So how to tackle this knotted cluster of issues and provide incentives for investment? Since the responsibility of Government has been invoked, let’s be clear what it should be doing. It is not a strategic role of Government to run infrastructure “forever and day”. However, it may need to make a tactical intervention in order to create the circumstances for solving some of these problems. In brief, it need to “get in, get it done and get out”. This is the Achilles’ heel of structures like South Africa’s Infraco where the Government has sought to solve a problem without announcing when it is going to “get out”. Worse still, if ANC MPs and the Minister have their way, then the Government will have investments in three entities, all of which are supposedly involved in providing some part of the services to solve the same problem. So what might be done to remove blockages to the development of the market?: Rights of way: If sharing is a tactic to “get it done” then the safest ground on which to start is the simplest. Government can help simplify the process of obtaining rights of way from all the different parts of Government that have control over them. It can either give them away at a very low cost as an investment incentive or it can accept fibre capacity for its own operations in exchange for the value of the rights of way. Duct sharing: Governments and the regulators can insist that all ducts built must be shared and that “dark fibre” will be made available to other operators on the same terms as it is used by the company investing in the infrastructure. Alongside duct sharing comes rights to connect to the network through co-location points where other operators have the physical space and access to be able to deploy their own servers. In much the same way, mast sharing can be imposed, particularly in areas where there is currently no coverage. This means sharing physical space on the tower and in the cabinet and sharing generator costs. Wi-MAX backbones may also share these same masts. A number of countries have mast operating companies that mediate this process in ways that allow competitors to trust each other in doing this. National infracos and joint venture companies: African Goverments often have more fibre than they know what to do with. The power utilities, railways, gas and oil pipeline companies and water utilities all have fibre to manage their operations and build in surplus capacity. These assets can be drawn together in a National Infraco to speed up roll-out. Furthermore the costs of stringing fibre on power towers or in sewers is almost marginal compared to trenching. The key issue as ever is trust. The Ghanaian Government is about to create such a vehicle using the fibre assets of power utility Voltacom. The National Communications Company will remain a wholly Government-owned entity with a Government-appointed Chief Executive and it will inherit the existing staff. Does this create trust in the market? Probably not. The Kenyan Government will either appoint a private company to run the “infraco” or give the contract to the former incumbent (now the newly privatised) Telkom Kenya. With the former, the right appointment might well create the kind of market trust needed. With the latter, there is the risk of simply recreating the old incumbent vs competition dynamic of old. The Nigerian and Ugandan backbone projects seem to have retreated from the broader national priority and to be focusing on Government traffic alone with any other sales as marginal activity. Extracting Government traffic from the market in this way is hardly likely to contribute to market development, even if there is sound economic logic to Government buying capacity in bulk. Joint ventures: One way to overcome these issues is to look at how operators might be encouraged to become investors in jointly-owned vehicles involving the private sector. At an international level, this is the basis of the TEAMS fibre project. The logic of a national joint venture is therefore broadly speaking the same. Government’s involvement can be to get everyone to work together and to take the project forward at a cracking pace. It can also invest with the operators and the public money can be used to reach more marginal rather than market-ready areas. The difficulty here is getting the “lion and the lamb” to lie down together and Government having the subtlety and skills to provide both trust and speed of action. If the market for infrastructure investment is buoyant and many routes are in the process of being built out, the Government might focus on un-serviced or under-serviced areas by creating smaller scale “greenfield operators” that receive a capital kick-start (using universal access funds) for providing wholesale capacity. This new network will attract existing operators to extend their coverage at the service level and/or drive the creation of local service operators. Functional separation: In a small but growing number of developed countries, regulators have insisted on a considerable degree of functional separation between the wholesale and retail elements of the incumbents. Vincent Affleck of the UK’s Ofcom told the conference that after BT Open Reach was created the number of complaints about BT has gone down dramatically but that there was an increase in complaints from BT’s retail services side. The dream ticket of hardline sharing would be to bring the incumbent’s fibre assets together with all the Government’s utility fibre assets. The challenge is that functional separation is by no means a simple task but as experience builds elsewhere, then maybe so will the relevant expertise to achieve it. The dilemma for the vertically-integrated mobile operators who have become the new incumbents is whether they wish to replace the old incumbent in the infrastructure business. At least two of the major mobile operators on the continent have convinced themselves that they will. But it is not clear if the position is tactical or strategic. As one of them told me, “We’ll keep building out national fibre routes until the incumbent starts bringing its prices down.” But whatever attitude the vertical integrators take, they will not be embarking any time soon on connecting the more marginal areas of a country. So Governments in a hurry to see their economies develop need to consider which of the “levers” suggested above that that they might pull to “get things done.”
Telecom Egypt Profits Rise Despite Algeria ImpairmentTelecom Egypt reported a rise in 2007 profits, driven by higher Internet, data and wholesale revenue, and an increased contribution from Vodafone Egypt Telecommunications Company which offset an impairment for its investment in Algeria. Net profit for the 12 months to Dec. 31 was 2.53 billion Egyptian pounds ($466.3 million), up over 4% from EGP2.43 billion in 2006. Sales revenue rose 5% to EGP9.99 billion, from EGP9.52 billion. The company said it booked a EGP1.1 billion positive contribution from its stake in Vodafone Egypt Telecommunications Company , up from EGP710 million in 2006. "2007 was a year of focused growth in our subscriber base. The fourth quarter was particularly strong in terms of net additions, resulting from the market's positive response to our promotional activities," said Akil Beshir, Chairman and CEO of Telecom Egypt. The U.K.-listed Egyptian telecommunications provider is also the largest provider of fixed-line services in the Middle East with more than 10.8 million customers as of December-end 2006. Its fixed-line subscriber base reached 11.23 million, up 4% on the year, while its share of the ADSL retail market was 52% after subscriber growth of 141%. The profit rise came despite a EGP59 million impairment for an operating loss at Consortium Algerian De Tele- Communications, in which it holds a stake. The impairment meant earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, Ebitda, was down 2% on the year at EGP5.22 billion. Ebitda before the charge was up 2%. Analysts said the results had exceeded expectations. "We expected a flat net profit because the results for the first nine months were not significant but the Vodafone addition pushed the net profit up," said Walaa Hazem, telecom analyst at HC Brokerage in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt has a population of more than 70 million residents and tele-density of 14.88% as at December 2006, a reflection of the company's future growth potential. (Source: Dow Jones Newswires) Only one cable allowed says South Africa’s TreasuryNational Treasury's decision to decline funding for Infraco's West Coast undersea cable project has forced the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) to throw its lot in with the Nepad Broadband Infrastructure project, Uhurunet. In a presentation to Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises, the department revealed it had requested R2.09 billion over the next three years to fund Infraco's national long-distance and West Coast undersea cable project. However, National Treasury only allocated R727 million towards the initiative, leaving Infraco with a deficit of R1.368 billion. “The further funds requested, mainly for purposes of investing and constructing a state-initiated undersea cable, were not approved by National Treasury,” the DPE revealed. “The National Treasury raised major concerns about the extent of private sector participation in the cable.” “In Infraco's original business plan, an international company was to help with the funding of the project. However, this company withdrew from that arrangement. Government does not want to build a cable alone; we believe there is opportunity for partnership with local, African and international players,” she says. If private sector participation is again secured, National Treasury will reconsider its decision to decline funding, she comments. “However, we are aware of talk of many cables. Government only wants to fund one department on a cable initiative, not two departments for two competing cables.” DPE spokesman Lulu Bam says the West Coast cable has a mandate to cater for the 2010 FIFA World Cup Soccer Tournament, the Square Kilometre Array and the South African Women Entrepreneurs' Network. “There is no way the West Coast cable is going to be canned,” she says. However, indications are that the project is to be incorporated into the $2 billion Uhurunet. The Nepad broadband infrastructure project will see 12 countries partner to build a 3.84Tbps undersea cable and provide a terrestrial broadband network. According to a Department of Communications spokesman, talks between the two departments began last year. The move ensures there is no duplication of resources and makes it cheaper for SA to provide large amounts of bandwidth capacity, he says. While Uhurunet is expected to be commercially available by 2010, Edmund Katiti, head of policy and regulatory affairs for the Nepad e-Africa Commission, concedes that the project is lagging and some of the deadlines were not met. Additionally, the organisers hope that a shareholder meeting, which will take place on 28 March in Johannesburg, will help speed up the planning process. The meeting should accelerate the formalisation and registration of Baharicom, the company that will manage the broadband infrastructure on behalf of the investors, he explains. The meeting is open to all parties that initially expressed interest in investing in Uhurunet, says Katiti, including private sector entities that operate in the countries that signed the Kigali protocol. Countries that did not sign the protocol will also have the opportunity to join the project through the special purpose vehicle investment, he says. There are no special privileges on the undersea cable between those countries that signed the Kigali protocol, and those that did not, Katiti notes. The only difference is that when establishing the terrestrial network, the builders will have to decide which countries they go to first, he adds. (Source: ITWeb) Angola to Expand International ConnectionsAngola might expand the national submarine cable network in optical fibre to neighbouring countries, under the contract for the implementation of the Multi-Services Network - Phase II and of the Project of International Connections, recently approved by the government. The contract was signed between Angola Telecom and H.O.M.T. Ldt., a company of Cyprus. An official source of ANGOP states that the project will enable a fibre connection between the Angolan city of Namibe, one of the submarine mooring centres of the Adones Cable, and its Namibian counterpart of Swakopmund. The system shall consist of two branching units that can be later installed in two more regions of Namibia, namely Cape Fria and Terrance Bay. A land connection in optical fibre shall be carried out from the Angolan region of Tomboco (Zaire province) to Matadi (Democratic Republic of Congo), and another between the districts of Quibala-Sumbe and Porto-Amboim (Kwanza Sul province), which is one of the mooring centres of the Adones Cable. Nzeto and Tomboco districts (Zaire) shall also be interlinked by the "backbone", according to the project approved by the Government. (Source: Angola Press Agency) Botswana Telecom’s privatisation back on the agendaPresenting the 2008/09 budget proposals for her ministry, Minister Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi said after the transformation, BTC would become an ordinary company governed by the Companies Act. This bill will enable government to sell shares in the company to investors and the public, she said. Mrs Venson-Moitoi said the bill would be brought to Parliament in the coming winter meeting. She said BTC was engaged in a right-sizing exercise whose objective is to increase the competitiveness and efficiency of the company so that it could compete with other players in the same market segment. Mrs Venson-Moitoi said despite the completion of BTC tariff rebalancing in October last year, the cost of service provision remains a challenge to the ministry. We expect that the completion of the East Africa undersea optical fibre project of which we are a shareholder, will have a positive effect on the price of telecommunications as well as availability of bandwidth to the country, she said. She further said the second phase of the Rural Telecommunications programme, which is designed to deliver telephony services to the identified 197 villages, is yet to start. The project commencement date has now been rescheduled for the beginning of June 2008. (Source: BOPA)
In brief:- Engineer Ahmad A. Nahuche who last week resigned from the direction of Nitel said to local newspaper the Daily Trust that "If they (Transcorp) continue like this, I don't think in the next six months NITEL will be anywhere in the telecommunications map of Nigeria. I suggest if they (government) want to sell it, they should sell it to telecommunications companies that have the financial muscle. This is better, but I am not convinced that Transcorp can do it." - Moroccan mobile operator Meditel and wireless services provider Wana have agreed to share passive network infrastructure. The agreement includes sites, engineering works, access rights and towers. The deal is expected to lead to significant cost savings and better environmental protection. The first phase of the agreement involves more than 400 infrastructure sites. - The King of Swaziland is currently considering whether or not to set up an independent regulatory body in his country. Observers of the process say it is impossible to know which way his decision will go. - Econet Wireless Kenya has set the end of June as the tentative date for its delayed roll-out as Kenya's third mobile phone operator. - CEO of Celtel Nigeria, Mr Bayo Ligali has called on the Federal Government to urgently license new Independent Power Plants, IPPs through a transparent bidding process like what the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC did with GSM licences in 2001, to combat the energy menace in the country. Celtel Nigeria which currently has 3100 base stations has 6,200 generating stations in its operations because of the inefficiency characterised by the failure of the public power system. - Ghana Telecom has embarked on an expansion project to make available more lines for its customers in Kintampo and Nkoranza areas. Due to the expansion work. there shall be a change in the telephone numbers in the districts. The area code of 061 remains the same for both districts while the telephone numbers changes. - Senegalese national incumbent, Sonatel will soon launch a 3G+ mobile service based on HSDPA (High Speed Dowlink Packet Access). - The CDMA Development Group (CDG) announced that Africa and the Middle East are the fastest growing in terms of the number of 3G CDMA networks and subscribers, with 65 operators in 38 countries and more than 12 million subscribers in the region. Telecoms, Rates, Offers and Coverage- Celtel Nigeria has installed a new switch in Abuja. The addition of the new $6 million (about N702 million) switch to Celtel network will boost the company's ability to process more calls and SMS in the framework of its service quality improvement projects which are expected to cost about $1 billion (N117 billion) in 2008. Celtel also plans to build 1,000 additional base stations and to construct a 4,000km fibre optic backbone. - Kenya’s mobile operators Safaricom and Celtel have signed agreements with Research in Motion, the maker of Blackberry devices to enable other mobile devices (like the Nokia E series) to access Blackberry services. Industry estimates that there are least 20,000 users are hooked to the service in Kenya. - In partnership with local bank, Bicici, Orange Côte D’Ivoire has launched “Orange Money”, a mobile payment system that enables users to make money transfers and pay their utilities bills. - Uganda telecom’s utl has introduced a new “Flat Rate” product where by customers spend a flat rate of sh2,000 and get 50 free minutes of calls from utl to utl and 25 free short messages (sms). The normal call charge is sh260 and 50 minute is over sh2,000. Using the normal call tariffs, 50 minutes and 25 sms will cost about sh18,000. - Nokia has announced the release of special models allowing phone sharing for the low-end market. The move comes after a survey that found that 50 per cent of mobile phone users in emerging markets buy a phone to share with relatives. Besides, the survey found that digital cameras have become an important item in most families. - Nigerian mobile telco Globacom has launched Afri-Chat, an instant messaging-powered service which enables users to chat with people who share their interests. - Namibia’s mobile operator Cell One announced that it had reduced rates for international calls by 33 per cent. - Uganda telecom (utl) has launched 3G services. The service will initially be available in Greater Kampala, Entebbe and Jinja and will roll out to other districts like Mbarara by the end of the second quarter of the year. A video call will only cost sh400, sh1 per kilobyte (kb) when accessing the Internet and sh1 per kb when watching television. all the local free to air television stations can be accessed on the service and negotiations were on going with pay television stations GTV and DStv. - Interweb Satcom Limited, a Nigerian Internet calling card firm, is set to launch sets of N1000, N500 and N200 denominations cards. Local calls will attract seven naira (N7.00) per minute while international calls will go for only Five Naira (N5.00) per minute. - Mauritius Telecoms mobile and Internet arms will soon be rebranded under the “Orange” label. - Celtel Malawi says with effective from March 13, all their tariff names would adopt Chichewa names to make them unique and relevant to the people in the country.
Kenya’s PS Ndemo confirms Fibre Optic Project to Begin in 2009Work on an undersea optic fibre communication system will begin in January 2009 and should be complete by June of the same year. Information permanent secretary, Bitange Ndemo told envoys that the project, known as the East Africa Marine Systems (Teams), would be completed on schedule. Already, he said Alcatel, which won the tender to make the cable, had begun work, and the government had paid it the first instalment. In the current budget which ends on June 30 the project was allocated Sh1 billion. Other funding is supposed to come from a consortium of local and international investors who are partners in the project. Dr Ndemo denied media reports saying that Teams had stalled, after failing to attract sufficient funding. He said some of the foreign firms had been dropped to pave way for local participation in the project. The PS blamed the 'erroneous' information on the firms that had been dropped from Teams, claiming they were out to create doubts about the feasibility of the project. He added that the terrestrial cable being laid under the National Fibre Optic Project, that covers all districts, will be completed this year. "The national terrestrial cable will be completed by August and by next year we will be hooked to the undersea fibre optic cable," he said. (Source: The Nation) South African websites attract more and more visitorsWith nearly one million broadband users in South Africa the Internet is fast becoming the medium of choice for information and news. While many people still think of the Internet as a place for email and Internet banking, a growing group of more sophisticated users are doing everything from shopping to share trading online. This raises the question as to where local users spend their time in the vast landscape we have come to know as the World Wide Web. The latest information from the Website Association of South Africa sheds some light on which local websites are the most popular. According to the latest statistics and market intelligence, international websites like Google, Facebook, Youtube and Wikipedia remain very popular among South African Internet users. If we narrow the search to South African only websites news and email services rule the roost. News24 holds the top spot as the premier local website with over 1 Million unique local visitors. In second place is another news website IOL with MSN ZA in third place. The rest of the top 10 is completed by Hotmail ZA, MWEB, 24.com, Webmail, Health 24, MyBroadband and Mail & Guardian Online. For online news News24, Independent Online (IOL), Mail & Guardian Online, The Times and Fin24 are the preferred sources of information among local netizens. When it comes to technology MyBroadband remains the premier online destination, followed by Engineeringnews, ITWeb, My Digital Life and IOL Technology. In the eCommerce space BidorBuy is the most popular South African website, with Career Junction, Autotrader, Junkmail and Property 24 also proving popular amoung local Internet users. eCommerce websites are becoming a popular way of doing business, and unsurprisingly these businesses are showing healthy revenue growth. The same goes for online advertising where more and more companies are realizing the advantage of marketing their products and services on the Net. Local investors are also beginning to wake up to the potential of online publishing and eCommerce, with Mvela taking the lead in buying a stake in both ITWeb and Moneyweb through its subsidiaries. (Source: MyBroadband) Website Director Detained in Latest Wave of Media Repression in Egypt"The systematic campaign launched by the Egyptian government against opposition candidates and the Muslim Brotherhood to prevent them from running in the next local elections in Egypt should not divert attention from the increase in the number of prisoners of conscience," as stated on 9 March 2008 by HRinfo. Dr. Ayamn Nour who is being tried on unfair charges, and the secular blogger Kareem Amer, who is also sentenced to a four-year imprisonment, because of his writings on the internet, are not the only prisoners of conscience; the list also includes the novelist and political activist Musaad Abu Fagr, who was arrested despite the fact that several release judgments were issued, engineer Ali Abdul-Fattah, the director of the Egyptian Media Center and a member of the Committee for Supporting the Palestinian People, and Khaled Hamza the director of "Ikhwan-web" ( http://www.ikhwanweb.com ), who was arrested in February 2008. Most of them lie behind bars, either because of Emergency Law detention decisions or military tribunals and investigations, none of which reflect the essence of justice. HRinfo also stated that "the severe deterioration of general freedoms and bad economic situations should not make us forget the prisoners of conscience in Egypt, as we shall all be ashamed if we kept silent while the Egyptian prisons are harbouring all these numbers of prisoners arrested for no crime but their calling for democracy." Musaad Abu Fagr was arrested following release judgments, which denies the Egyptian government allegations of using the Emergency Law only against drug traffickers and those involved in terrorist attacks. While Egyptian citizens were occupied with the unspeakable economic crisis and opposition powers were inflicted with violations aiming to prevent them from running in the local elections, the Egyptian government was muffling more free voices by detaining the director of the Ikhwan website Khaled Hamza more than two weeks ago. (Source: Arabic Network for Human Rights Information) In brief:- Regular connection failures on Togo Telecom’s fibre link with Côte d’Ivoire (via Burkina-Faso) is causing mayhem among Internet users. Sam Bikassam, a representative of Togo Telecom said that the company has reached last week an agreement with Benin Telecom to roll out a fibre connection between the two countries that would significantly reduce the access distance to SAT3. - According to Keith Shongwe, communications department deputy director-general for ICT international affairs in South Africa, discussions are under way to combine the government’s initiative to develop a submarine cable along the West Coast of Africa with a continental project of the New Partnership for African Development (Nepad) to prevent duplication. - Uunet Kenya has entered a partnership with Akamai Technologies to offer local customers faster download speeds of popular international sites. A five to 10-fold performance boost can be achieved through Akamai’ acceleration and applications online. - Afsat Communications Africa has been presented with a Certificate of Appreciation by the White House Communications Agency (WHCA) for the outstanding support by the company provided to US President George Bush during his visit to Tanzania. - Moneyweb.co.za announced a five-year joint venture agreement with ITWeb to launch and operate a number of new web-based services. The two initiatives are targeted at Moneyweb's growing audience and are powered by ITWeb's business model, technology and service delivery methodology. - Travelwires, in association with FutureBlue, will be holding the first Online Travel Summit in Cape Town, 8 April 2008. The summit is aimed at all players in the travel sector and will include sessions on search engine optimisation (SEO), PPC, email marketing and online brand building from leading experts. - A common interest group for promoting the Internet dubbed "GIC-Touiza Telecom" has been created in Algeria. Made up of eleven Internet service providers (ISP), Touiza Telecom's main objective is to create a technical and economical excellence centre in a position to undertake substantial actions in relation to Internet and its applications in Algeria. - Presented at the 9th International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries, this 14-page document looks at the digital divide within Tanzania. Based on a survey among Tanzanian internet café users in rural, semi-urban, and central regions of the country, authors find that the divide is mainly a question of finding venues with technology to access the internet. The internet users and usage at the different sites are more uniform than anticipated, with, however, a few significant differences. To download the document click on the following link http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?r=http://
Ghana soon to have an ICT Policy in placeThe Minister for Communications, Dr. Benjamin Aggrey-Ntim has assured the nation that it would soon set a policy that would ensure the smooth penetration of Information Communication Technology (ICT) into the country to boost the nation's economy. According to him, access to personal computers is pre-requisite to new sources of information and described the commissioning ceremony of the factory as a milestone in the country's drive towards achieving ICT density and use. Aggrey-Ntim described the recent establishment of Omatek Ghana as a product of resilience, vision and tenacity of purpose. He said that " Early 2007, I paid a visit to Omatek factory and was more than convinced that our people are ready for the quantum leap in technology", stating that the visit was what culminated in the emergence of the Omatek Computers ( GH) Limited. Welcoming the company to the Ghanaian market, the Minister urged the new firm to be competitive and make its PCs available locally at affordable prices. "I further urge that all Ghanaians should take the advantage of the availability of the Omatek products either as end user or business partner." He said. (Source: Ghanaian Chronicle) KDN to Embark on a Countrywide Digital Villages Roll Out in KenyaThe Kenya Data Networks (KDN) is embarking on a major roll out of a KShs. 210 million initiative to expand the reach of ICT and its benefits to the rural people in Kenya. “We want to embark on a countrywide set up of one digital cluster for each constituency by the end of 2008. Our aim is to ensure that while we help Kenyans harness the untapped potential in the rural areas, the Kenyans themselves also get an opportunity to be part and parcel of the quest to impart relevant ICT skills for the sake of development’’, said Mr. Kai Wulff, Managing Director, Kenya Data Networks Through the project dubbed the Digital Village Constituency Cluster, the telecommunications infrastructure provider will set up a VSAT base station in each constituency. KDN will use its butterfly product to broaden distribution of local content in what will be a watershed in the quest to bridge the rural-urban digital divide. Each constituency cluster will consist of a minimum eight (8) digital units serving commercial, developmental and educational activities within a 15km radius in the rural areas. They will access the Internet through a dedicated wireless infrastructure guaranteeing reliable single hop connectivity. Mr. Wulff observed that KDN will kick-start the initiative from March 17th through a pilot project connecting 40 constituencies in collaboration with ICTvillage.com and other organizations such as the Youth Enterprise Development Fund amongst others. “We are providing the infrastructure needed to ensure the success of connecting the people and our collaboration with the Youth Fund will ensure that the digital villages receive the much needed funding going forward”, noted Mr. Wulff. Is Microsoft Swahili Version Failing?When Microsoft announced in 2003 that it had launched a Kiswahili version of their Microsoft Office applications, linguists saw it as a big triumph for the language - and a chance to make its speakers have a feel of the emerging technology and in their own language. However, five years later, the roar has turned into a whimper. Microsoft is not forthcoming with answers, but a debate is shaping up on what may have gone wrong. "It failed miserably on the roll out process because Microsoft never pushed the product," says Mr Patrick Opiyo, managing director of Rivotex Kenya, a consulting dealer for Microsoft Technologies, who was then Microsoft's localisation manager. Mr Isaiah Okoth, who was at the time the general manager of Microsoft East Africa, said the new Kiswahili office application, if marketed well, would have allowed many Kiswahili speakers to experience personal computing in their home language. It had taken close to two years to develop the programme at a cost of Sh8 million, drawing linguistic experts from East and Central Africa. The programme was headed by Prof Kulikoyela Kahigi of the University of Dar- es- Salaam. Kiswahili experts translated over 700,000 words in Windows and Office software while close to 70,000 words were translated in the help manuals. The final product was targeted at about 150 million speakers of the language in the world. "Technology should find itself into the language. Microsoft invented words that did not exist to fit the technology, and the problem with this is that people don't understand the Kiswahili used in the Microsoft Office applications," explains Mr Alex Gakuru, director of ICT Consumer Association. Another major issue was the methodology used to develop the application. Peter Mugambi, Dean of Humanities at Kenyatta University, says the project was more of a 'private affair' than an institutional one. Although the process of changing to Kiswahili version is simple , the software has not been utilised in Kiswahili departments in major universities including Kenyatta University and the University of Nairobi. By simply downloading a Language Interface Pack ( LIP), from the Internet, free of charge, users of genuine versions of Microsoft Office 2003, can localize their interface by installing the LIP. It then turns Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint from English into Kiswahili. The beauty of the product is that one can switch back to the language of choice with ease. "With the Kiswahili LIP, computer users are able to instal a Kiswahili desktop version as a 'skin' on top of existing installations of Windows and standard Microsoft Office applications," said the consulting dealer for Microsoft Technologies. Currently, the Kiswahili LIP is also available to Windows XP. Analysts say the biggest issue that made the hefty exercise a major fiasco was the lack of promotion for the product. University of Nairobi linguist and prolific author, Prof Kithaka wa Mberia, doubts whether he would have known about the project had he not been part of it; casting more doubt if the programme was marketed well. There was also a conflict of policy between open source and proprietorship. Mr Gakuru says the approach Microsoft took was academic instead of looking at the programme as a community based issue, a move that would have resulted to community ownership of the product. (Source: Business Daily) In brief:- Dakar in Senegal will host next week the third annual conference on open source software with the support of the African Foundation for open source software. - PC-BSD, an open source OS based on the stable FreeBSD OS and iXsystems announced the release of PC-BSD Edison, or version 1.5. - Computing products manufacturer Hewlett-Packard (HP) has placed a high premium on its Africa growth prospects driven by government contracts which pushed its continental business revenue to US$12 billion, company officials said. - Firefox 3.0 beta version has been released in Afrikaans.
Sell-Offs At NSE As Market Eyes Safaricom IPO in KenyaWhispers that the landmark Safaricom IPOs offer date is expected sometime towards the end of March is already causing quiet ripples at the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) with dealers noting an increase in sell-offs by retail investors in readiness for the offer. "There has been a substantial amount of supply of shares at the stock market since trading commenced this week," says Eric Ruenji, chief dealer at Sterling Securities Ltd. He added that individual investors in particular were taking profits or selling shares at lower prices on rumours that Safaricom's offer date will be at the end of the month. Last week the number of deals struck rose by 31.17 per cent from 18,927 to 24,826, while, the level of market capitalization rose by 3.64 per cent from Sh830 billion to Sh860 billion. The pricing of the Sh55 billion sale is expected to be discussed as soon as the actual date is known. Offer prices ranging from Sh3.50 to Sh5.00 per share have been mentioned and are seen as increasingly likely as the country seeks to restore investor confidence following the political crisis. One reason for heavily discounting the Safaricom share offer was to ensure nationwide take-up of the offer by an expected 2 million local investors. Stanbic Investment Management Services says in quarterly report that the key factor to success would be the capacity of local stock investors to put recent events behind them and take up Safaricom like they did KenGen in 2006. (Source: Business Daily) A Solution to Sentech Funding Crisis gets a political push in South AfricaParliament's communications committee is determined to end the long-standing stalemate between the treasury and state-owned signal carrier Sentech over funding for its broadband wireless strategy. The committee has demanded that Sentech, treasury and communications department officials report back by May on progress made in dealing with the hurdles which have prevented the treasury from approving funds for the project. Sentech aims to provide affordable and high-speed telecommunications access for schools, clinics and hospitals in rural areas. Key to the treasury's reservations on this project has been its dissatisfaction with Sentech's business plan, which it says lacks detail. The communications committee called on the parties to explain the standoff last Friday, after a week in which both Sentech and Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri bemoaned the lack of state funding for the enterprise. Sentech chief financial officer Siddique Cassim told the committee that the total capital requirement for the broadband wireless strategy was R4,4bn. Of this, the treasury was asked to fund R3,1bn -- in tranches of R912m in the 2007-08 fiscal year, R666m in the next fiscal year and more in subsequent years. However, only R500m has been allocated in the current year, with no commitments for the future . The R500m was granted on condition that Sentech exit the retail market and focus on wholesale activities; that its business plan was sustainable and that it raise additional funding from the market. Communications committee chairman Ismail Vadi said it was impossible for a business to operate with such uncertainty over its future funding. The treasury's head of public finance, Andrew Donaldson, explained that the business plan for the broadband wireless strategy had insufficient detail on whether its services would be used, and whether the initiative would be sustainable. Donaldson was worried that Sentech was spreading itself too thin. It should concentrate on its core responsibility of signal distribution and the implementation of a "very ambitious" plan to convert from analogue to digital broadcasting by November 2011. Donaldson said while Sentech was wanting to roll out a broadband wireless network, it had neglected investment in maintaining and renewing broadcasting infrastructure, its core mandate. About R500m derived from tariffs on broadcasters over the past five years had been "depleted" Donaldson said, through Sentech's investment in the loss-making broadband wireless initiative. (Source: Business Day) R2bn GautengOnline tender questionedA R2 billion GautengOnline education project is shrouded in controversy, amid speculation of irregularities during the evaluation and awarding of the tender. A source close to the process, who asked to remain anonymous, says: “The whole thing was done quick, quick, quick. “If you look at the magnitude of the tender and the timeframe within which it was awarded, there have to be questions about the decision.” The tender to deliver this project has been awarded to the SMMT Online consortium, but it is not known which companies are involved in this group. GautengOnline is a provincial initiative to build a province-wide school computer network to bridge the digital divide. The project will see 25-seat computer labs, with full Internet and e-mail capabilities, being created at all Gauteng schools, to be used for curriculum delivery. According to the source, written submissions for the GautengOnline tender were dealt with in only 14 days. Since the project migrated from the provincial Department of Education to the Gauteng Shared Services Centre (GSSC), its budget ballooned by more than a billion rand. Emmanuel Mdawu, spokesman for the GSSC, confirmed the allocation of the tender to SMMT Online, but was unable to immediately provide details about the consortium, tendering process, or scope of the project. He says the GSSC would have to look into the allegations that have been levelled with regard to the tender and would comment later. This is not the first time that allegations of improprieties surfaced at the GSSC. In 2005, former GSSC CEO Mike Roussos was linked to alleged fraudulent activities involving R4.6 million, with a company contracted by the GSSC. He was also exposed as a major shareholder in another company, which was awarded a R52 million GSSC contract. (Source: ITWeb) Zain okays 125 percent capital increase to support expansionShareholders in Zain (Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications) gave their approval to a 125 percent increase in the group's capital to fund future global expansion. Zain will raise about 1.2 billion dinars (4.4 billion dollars) by selling 1.42 billion shares to its current shareholders at 0.85 dinars (3.1 dollars) per share. Chairman Asaad al-Banwan said the funds will assist the group in its "future acquisitions" on the basis of a plan set by the board of directors. He said the sale of shares will take place in May. CEO Saad al-Barrak said the company is also exploring several investment opportunities in Syria, Turkey and Yemen, in addition to Africa where the company already operates in 15 countries. "Our ambition is to become one of the top 10 global telecom companies by 2011," he said. (Source: Turkish Press) In brief:- In South Africa, TeleMasters, announced that it has acquired Marketel with a view to expand in the communications management sector. Marketel has a licence to provide value-added network services and is a Wasp -- wireless application service provider -- supplying mobile content to Vodacom and Cell C. - Zimbabwe’s Lonzim investment company has acquired Paynet, a technology firm, which mainly develops electronic payments solution to banks to move payment transactions more efficiently from corporate end users into the banking system. The group said the deal for Paynet had been concluded on March 5 for US$3.187 million. - BusyInternet, an ISP and a member of the infoDev Global Network of Business Incubators, will host the Toolkit in Ghana. The project will be launched in the firsrt half of 2008. Estelle Sowah, BusyInternet’s Managing Director, said, “Small businesses account for the bulk of the private sector in Ghana, yet their success rates are not as high as they should be because of poor access to good business management practices. The SME Toolkit will provide Ghanaian businesses with information and the new collaborative technologies they need to help them grow and prosper.”
Bicycle Phone Charger Launched in UgandaThe locally designed charging system is aimed at mostly helping people in villages, where there is no electricity, to have easy access to charging services. This is another innovation that has seen the bicycle take on more roles than just being ridden. Eng. Asasira Buga, the Chief Engineer of Bugatech, a mobile phone repairing company and Mr Goddie Odongkara, a city businessman, unveiled the system in Kampala. They said the system named 'Mobile power' comprises of a dynamo (power source for the light of a bicycle), power accumulator and circuits where car chargers of 'any type of phone' are plugged to charge. "After moving throughout the country, I discovered that many people in rural areas do not buy mobile telephones due to lack of charging systems. But the idea will increase mobile telephone use among people," Mr Odongkara, who initiated the idea said. He said the system that can charge eight phones per hour of riding a bicycle would cost bicycle owners Shs65,000. "The mobile power stores energy in its power accumulator that can charge more phones for another 30 minutes. This is business to phone chargers and telecommunication companies in terms of airtime and connections," Eng Asasira said. Eng. Asasira and Mr Odongkara have appealed for support and partners to enable them fund the production of more machines for market. "We want telecommunication companies and other development partners both local and international to join us to develop this work to an advanced level for the good of our country," Eng. Asasira said. (Source: The Monitor) Mobile advertising in Africa: a threat or an opportunity!We carry it around with us wherever we go, it holds some of our most crucial and valuable information, it is our lifeline to the conveniences of constant connectivity -- but the cellphone is also becoming an effective advertising platform, introducing issues around privacy and consumer willingness. Bluetooth technology is here to stay and with it comes a prime opportunity for speaking directly to consumers, but in an industry in which trust and perception are everything, how open are consumers to being targeted on such a personal device as a cellphone? Media company Mobiblitz announced it would be rolling out Bluetooth hotspots at 72 major malls across the country. The technology is fantastic for advertisers and for stores within the mall, but being spammed by multiple messages every time one goes to a mall could heighten a consumer's irritation. Mobiblitz claims it is aware of this and its co-founder, Stan Katz, insists that the technology is permission-based and does not invade consumers' privacy. "We don't interact without permission," Katz says. "If we did, this could end up going horribly wrong for us and for advertisers." The promise is not to send more than two messages to a consumer on any given visit to the mall, and if consumers deny permission to receive an advert or content of some sort, they will not be prompted again. Another growing concern is that viruses could be sent to phones that have their Bluetooth activated. While Mobiblitz claims there is no way a virus could be sent to one of its users, it has already received viruses from users, which are immediately quarantined. "We've considered sending them back to the people who sent them, but that is not the way we work," Katz says jokingly. Mediashop director Virginia Hollis says consumers are becoming increasingly wary of picking up viruses from unsolicited Bluetooth messages sent to their phones, which poses a threat to the future of Bluetooth as a medium. There are, however, pros to using the technology and other mobile advertising mediums such as SMSs in that the campaigns are measurable and, in Mediashop's experience, have been well received, especially when they are done in tandem with other campaigns. Most important , Hollis says, they have to be creative and should probably offer some form of a real incentive. "If I am just receiving rubbish from an advertiser, with no real incentive to buy their product, I will just become peeved," she says, adding that retailers are going to be fighting a substantial battle in the future and are going to have to offer "real value" to consumers. "Money is tight due to increased interest rates, and the outlook for retailers such as those selling furniture or clothing is going to get tough," she says. Bluetooth could be a good point-of-sale opportunity to communicate offers. It also appears there is a growing market in Bluetooth consumers. Mobiblitz found that over a period of one week, in 72 malls, there were 250000 customers with Bluetooth switched on and ready to receive content: a vast increase compared with when the technology was first introduced to SA three years ago. An added bonus is that because most in-mall advertising research measures only how many customers have entered the mall , it is difficult to tell whether they are new customers or whether it is the same person walking back and forth. Katz says the technology does not allow the mall or Mobiblitz to see consumers' cellphone numbers, nor can it extract personal information without the owners' permission. Rather, he says, the Bluetooth system builds a relationship with the phone. The signal first "sniffs" for Bluetooth handsets. It can see what type of handset is being used and its capabilities and can reformat content specifically for that phone. It then tracks the handset to gain understanding of what adverts are chosen or how often content is downloaded. (Source: Business Day)
People* Telkom Kenya has appointed Internet expert Njeri Rionge as chief marketing manager. * Hits Telecom Group has announced the appointment of Talaat El Lahham as the CEO of Hits Africa. Events* THE AFRICAN BANKING TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE – “New dates” 28th March – 4th April 2008, Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Nairobi, Kenya The conference theme is “sharing knowledge and best practices in banking across Africa”. For further information click on www.aitecafricac.com * SATCOM AFRICA 2008 7-10 April 2008, Johannesburg, South Africa For further information visit their website at http://www.terrapinn.com/2008/satcomza/ * ICT IN AFRICA: NEW TRENDS AND OPPORTUNITIES IN AN EMERGING MARKET A Breakfast Briefing by Russell Southwood 11 April 2008, Time: 7.30am for 8am, Sandton Sun Hotel, South Africa Attendance is free of charge, by invitation. If you would like to attend, please email: info@aitecafrica.com * EURO-AFRICA ICT AWARENESS WORKSHOP Supporting sub-Saharan African organisations in FP7/ICT 16-17 April 2008, Peacock Hotel, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania For further information visiter their website at http://www.euroafrica-ict.org/awareness_workshops.html * MED-IT@ALGER 2008 22- 23 April 2008, Algier, Algeria The fifth edition of this B2B exhibition will provide plenty of opportunities to develop contacts and relationship with local companies in the IT and Telecoms sectors. The exhibition main topics are: new mobile services, call centre solutions and equipment, VoIP, IT security, banking software, CRM, ERP and storage solutions. For further information please http://www.medit.eu.org/2008/algerie/presentation.htm * AFRICA MOBILE MARKETING FORUM 23-24th April 2008, Lagos, Nigeria Up until recently the only mechanism for delivering advertising messages to mobile devices was via SMS and WAP Push. However, now that 3G phones, with their multimedia capabilities, are reaching critical mass, the opportunities for advertising and brand extension, primarily via mobile video, are greatly increased. For further information visit http://www.mobilemarketingafrica.com/ * VoIP WORLD AFRICA 12-15 May 2008, Johannesburg, South Africa The world of VoIP is rapidly changing - costs are coming down; more applications are coming into play and new forms of revenue generation are being exploited. For further information visit the website http://www.terrapinn.com/2008/voipza/ * ITU TELECOM AFRICA 2008 12 - 15 May, Cairo, Egypt, Cairo International Convention and Exhibition Centre (CICC) Comprising a high-calibre Exhibition, a Forum and a whole lot more, ITU TELECOM AFRICA 2008 will provide a major networking platform for Africa's top ICT names to come together to focus on the core issues relating to ICT expansion across the region. For further information visit http://www.itu.int/AFRICA2008/?050707 * TELECOMS FRAUD AFRICA 2008 26-29 May 2008, Cape Town, South Africa IIR's Telecoms Fraud Africa conference 2008 brings you case studies, networking, advice and analysis from expects in detecting and managing telecoms fraud. With special attention to roaming frauds and internal frauds, operational issues and the impact of new technologies. For more information please visit, http://www.iir-events.com/IIR-Conf/page.aspx?id=11306 * E-LEARNING AFRICA 29-30 May 2008, Accra, Ghana eLearning Africa 2008 is a conference organised by ICWE GmbH and Hoffmann & Reif that focuses on ICT for development, education and training in Africa. The event establishes and links a Pan-African network of decision makers from governments and administrations with universities, schools, governmental and private training providers, industry, and important partners in development cooperation. For further visit www.eLearning-Africa.com * SEMINAR ON E-GOVERNMENT FOR DEVELOPMENT: STRATEGIES AND POLICIES 13-27 June 2008, Washington DC, USA This intensive face-to-face seminar includes lectures, panel discussions, and interactive workshops presented by leading e-Government experts from USAID, USTTI Board member corporations, private sector firms, universities, NGOs, and multinational organizations. For additional information about the content of the course, how to apply, as well as funding, visit the USTTI website at http://ustti.org * FRAUD PREVENTION AND REVENUE ASSURANCE MEA 1-2 July 2008,Dubai UAE ViB events’ Fraud Prevention and Revenue Assurance MENA will bring together telecoms operators and industry experts to discuss the critical issues, which are faced by revenue assurance and fraud personnel today. For further information visit website http://www.revenueassurance.info/mena2008/index.html * UNLOCKING THE POTENTIAL OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGY FOR SOCIAL IMPAC August 2008, Johannesburg, South Africa he fourth annual SANGONeT “ICTs for Civil Society” conference and exhibition will be held in August 2008 in Johannesburg. This year’s event will be co-hosted with MobileActive.org and branded as “MobileActive08”. For further information visit www.sangonet.org.za Jobs and Opportunities* Google is recruiting Account Managers, Account Strategists, Industry Leaders, Strategic Partner Business Development Managers, Associate Product Marketing, Office Leads, etc… in the following countries South Africa, Kenya, Senegal, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Ghana. For further information on the jobs visit Google’s website at http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/static.py?page=intl.html&jobslc=africa Contracts* KDN and Alvarion - Kenya Kenya Data Networks has announced the expansion of its nationwide WiMAX Network with Alvarion. It will be an integral part of the current KDN Butterfly network using Alvarion’s BreezeMAX equipment.
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