| ||||||||||
 |
|
STUDY ABROAD OPTIONS
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
WEEKLY PUBLICATION DEADLINE: 12 pm GMT Sunday. ISSUE NO 438 23rd January 2009 West Africa: New international fibre entrants playing a dangerous game of pokerOne’s a monopoly, two’s competition, three’s intense competition and four or five is suicide. This should be the mantra that the new international cable entrants repeat to themselves as they enter what will become one of the most difficult poker games over the next three years. Russell Southwood assesses how the new entrants are likely to fare as the continent enters more uncertain economic times. When I spoke in the middle of last year to the country CTO of one of the continent’s largest mobile operators about an independent fibre operator asking him to invest in a project, he said that the company was fed up with being asked to put up all the money for new projects (through promising its traffic) and preferred the idea of building and controlling these all important fibre routes. This was before the full extent of the credit crunch had become visible and so any discussion in this context of availability of capital and opportunity cost seemed to be largely irrelevant. Of course, things do not look quite the same now… West Africa has only really got three international bandwidth markets of any size: Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal. Whoever wins significant share in at least two of these markets has perhaps the making of a business plan. With the arrival of Expresso in Senegal then perhaps Sonatel will lose 10-30% of its share. All the other West African country markets are relatively small and getting traffic from them is intricately entwined with attitudes to competition and geographic position. In order of their likelihood and operational start date, the following players are in the game of poker: 1. Globacom: Nigeria’s SNO Globacom has a cable that it promises will land in Lagos this year and in Accra at a slightly later date. If it misses these dates, its credibility will sink even lower for the existence of the cable was part of its advertising campaign in 2008 and it just did not arrive. It appears that Globacom decided to hold off on the building of the cable (which got as far as Dakar) and lost its place in the queue with its contractor. Work has now resumed on the Dakar-Lagos stretch. Globacom has captive traffic for its cable from its own operations in Nigeria, Benin and Ghana and has announced its intention to create more mobile operations along the route of the cable. But this traffic by itself will not justify building the cable so it has to persuade others to become its customers. Unfortunately its existing national fibre backbone in Nigeria is both expensive and not always of great quality so it has a second credibility hurdle to jump (See: http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/back/balancing-act_420.html ) 2. Mainstreet Technologies: The second contender is the independently financed Nigerian project Mainstreet Technologies which has publicly announced that it will land in Accra and Lagos and would like to land in a number of other destinations including South Africa. Its planned completion date is May 2010 and it has gone from being a rank outsider to a more likely player. It has already signed a contract with its contractor Tyco and has publicly promised an E1 for US$4000 to large volume buyers. Will others be able to match that kind of lower end price? But it somehow has to weave its way through the obstacles posed by the increase of potential cable players from four to five and more if you count projects that have not publicly announced. As most of the international traffic comes from voice operators, it has to attract the carriers whose names are currently unattached to any of the existing projects: Etisalat and Zain are the most obvious big players absent from all of the lists so far. 3. West African Cable System: It has all of the big beasts of the telecoms sector in South Africa involved (MTN, Neotel, Telkom and Vodacom/Vodafone) and the mixed blessing of the South African Government’s backing. Seacom made a partnership with Neotel to get into the market but now all of these players have their own cable they are unlikely to partner with another entrant like Mainstreet to allow it into the market. Furthermore, they represent the majority of the bandwidth in the market. MTN now has operations all along the West African seaboard except in Togo. MTN and Telkom are a substantial part of the traffic in Nigeria. Vodacom/Vodafone has announced that it would like to buy Nigeria’s most celebrated “car crash” of a company, Nitel. However, their cable is only planned (so far) to land in Accra and Lagos because these are the only two places on the route that are sufficiently competitive to allow a second landing station. No final timetable has been set but it looks likely to miss being available for the World Cup in South Africa in 2010. 4. France Telecom/ACE: At the end of November, France Telecom/Orange put out a press release that went largely unnoticed announcing that it was going to build an international cable with 14 other operators. Those publicly announced are: France Telecom itself; Vivendi-owned Maroc Telecom (with operations in Burkina Faso, Gabon, Mauritania and Morocco); Benin Telecom, Togo Telecom, Gamtel and Cabo Verde Telecom. The identity of the remaining players can be deduced from looking at the list of proposed landing stations. France Telecom will only say that they include “mobile operators and new global players.” This 12,000 km cable, called ACE (Africa Coast to Europe), will extend from Gabon to France, and from 2011 will connect Gabon, Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Senegal, Gambia, Cape Verde, Mauritania, Morocco, Spain, Portugal and France. An extension to South Africa is also being studied. The cable is to be run as a shareholders’ consortium with France Telecom as the managing agent, a structure that more or less mirrors that of the existing controversial SAT3/SAFE cable. France Telecom are under an NDA so are rather tight-lipped about the details. On finance, understandably they say the budget will be similar to other cables and do want to name a figure as they go into negotiations with suppliers. On the financial side, each party will buy according to their anticipated demand and it will be this that will determine the level of each party’s investment contribution. So for example how will Gamtel that is currently almost bankrupt and has not made a great success of its link to Senegal raise this money? There are also almost certainly other companies on the list who do not look terribly “bankable”. But whether the landing stations built in countries like Gabon (where Maroc Telecom would operate both landing stations) and Sierra Leone are monopolies will depend as much on the regulation in the country as on the shareholders’ agreement. But it will potentially make competition more difficult in those countries with only one landing station or two that are controlled by the same company. A study authored by Balancing Act late last year also highlighted the potential market dominance of France Telecom and Vivendi in international traffic over a large part of the region. So if you count country links with a single country link counting twice (once for each country it connects), then out of the 32 existing and planned inter-country links identified, ownership is as follows: Government-owned national telcos (10); France Telecom (10); Vivendi (5); and independent “carriers’ carriers” (2). And Vivendi (through Maroc Telecom) looks set to buy Mali’s Sotelma….(see below in Telecom News) To be fair to France Telecom, it has been a “price-progressive” on SAT3 with amongst the lowest prices on the route in Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire and it has built competitive regional links to challenge Sotelma in Mali. 5. Infinity: It has to be the rank outsider in the game but is maintaining a confident stance that it will sign off on its financing before too long. However, like Mainstreet it will have to rely on attracting those not already on someone else’s team. 6. O3B: It is also in the market and concentrating heavily on international trunking. Its constellation of satellites will be launched in late 2010. It says that it has already sold 7 gbps of capacity, not large alongside the proposed capacities of the fibre operators (and likely demand at the right price) but a lot for something that won’t be available for over 18 months. (Please do not point out that we have missed out NEPAD’s Uhurunet. It is a project without committed backers and only keeps being taken seriously because of Department of Communications backing. That may all change after the elections this year.) But in terms of competition, things may not be so bleak because it is no longer so easy to protect less competitive markets. Nigeria’s Suburban Telecom already has a link to Benin that offers substantially cheaper and better-managed international bandwidth. It has well advanced plans to connect as far as Accra. Phase 3 also from Nigeria has plans to go from Lagos to Accra overland. For the incumbents in Benin and Togo, the attractions of getting paid for unimagined volumes of traffic from their neighbours is too good to pass up. Regional arbitrage will ensure that prices converge downwards. But there will be countries that will still be unwilling to allow terrestrial cables of this kind to cross their borders. From a wider West African perspective, this is madness as it incentives telcos to use international cables or often satellite to transfer traffic between countries in the region. Cheaper international gateway licences for regional transit traffic would an effective incentive to get more links built. To say that raising capital in today’s markets will not be easy as last year is an understatement. One operator who is just completing financing for an unrelated project told us that many of the more obvious funds have put a six month moratorium on investing just to get a grip on what their investment assets are worth in this strange new world. Some of these funds are the very people who might finance the more marginal operators in countries that have no landing stations. Seacom has its cable on the east coast that will complete in Q2 this year but has made no move in terms of the west coast. If it joins the party at this late stage, it would make logical sense for it to look at Mainstreet (the only independent) or the West African Cable System which has its South African partner Neotel as an investor. The key decision for all operators is whether it make sense to sink quite large sums of money into a capital project or should they simply buy from someone else who is prepared to invest on their behalf. There is a lurking suspicion that the operators would prefer to do the former in order to keep prices on the west coast from falling to the level promised on the east coast. However, in this particular poker game not everyone will have a winning hand. If you want to know the demand for international bandwidth across Africa, Balancing Act will be publishing the third edition of African Voice and Data Bandwidth Forecasts (2007 – 2012) which provides over ten spreadsheets of data breaking down voice and data demand for every country in Africa. There is a static version that provides just the data and an interactive version that gives the formulas use, allowing you to change the assumptions and to calculate your market share. For a detailed breakdown of contents see: http://www.balancingact-africa.com/broadcast_markets.html Reaction to Issue 437: Ethiopia’s ETC - The elephant in the room slows down ICT development from an Ethiopian correspondent who will remain anonymous:” Please receive my appreciation for the enlightening article you produced on ETC. Ten years have passed since Internet was introduced to Ethiopia and it will be the tenth year since the introduction of mobile phones. After reading your article, I felt we were still talking from the same page as 1998 and 1999. Thanks a lot for adding to our voices”.
Court move to halt Telkom South Africa tenderMaredi Telecom and Broadcasting has filed an urgent court application in the Pretoria High Court in a bid to stop Telkom awarding a multimillion-rand tender to Ericsson South Africa and Telsaf Data. Telkom’s tender to the two companies has been shrouded in controversy and claims of corruption since it was announced in December last year. The row has called into question Telkom CEO Reuben September’s close business relationship with Ericsson’s senior management. Parties crying foul over the tender include the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU), which has since called for a probe into alleged corruption. The union said it had evidence that senior directors at Telkom altered documents to influence the tender. Telkom has denied allegations of any wrongdoing. In court papers, Maredi Telecomms and Broadcasting CEO Takashi Utsunomiya claims Telkom violated the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, which deals with fair awarding of contracts by entities with a significant government shareholding. Utsunomiya said Telkom violated the Act because it acted capriciously and in bad faith and did not follow fair procedures. He said Ericsson did not comply with critical criteria as it twice failed physical tests in the tendering process performed in conjunction with a Telkom team led by technical manager Giel Laubscher. But it is understood that Marius Mostert, Telkom’s group executive for network infrastructure provisioning, overruled Laubscher’s critical report about the equipment and said Ericsson SA should get another chance because its equipment had been damaged while in transit from Sweden. Utsunomiya said the JSE-listed Telkom deliberately misrepresented the results of the technical testing that took place to ensure that the tender was not awarded to Maredi Telecomms. “We offered Telkom a technology that meets local and international standards, at very competitive commercial terms and within a model that advances black economic empowerment,” he said. “It is a matter of serious concern to us that we have not been given any reason why our bid was rejected.” The tender for a point-to-point microwave system was awarded to Telsaf Data and Ericsson in a 60:40 split. The microwave serves as the back-haul system for cellphone base stations and Telkom’s broadband wireless access network and will help the company improve its capacity to provide broadband services. Telkom spokesman Pynee Chetty said Maredi was unsuccessful because it achieved unsatisfactory scores in critical categories of the tender. (Source: Business Times) Foreign Currency Billing System Deprives many Zimbabwe people of phone accessThe government of Zimbabwe has granted cell phone networks permission to bill subscribers in foreign currency. Subscribers across the three networks Telecel, Econet Wireless and Net One will be paying US$0.28 cents per minute and US$0.26 cents per minute for pre-paid and contract lines, respectively. Telecom operators' tariffs are determined in close consultation with the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority in line with the internationally recognised models, approved by the International Telecommunications Union. This week Net One contract line subscribers received instructions to make due payments and warnings of being switched off after accumulating bills ranging between US$50 and US$20,000 within two weeks. Because of late notification of change in payment terms for users, some Net One subscribers accumulated high bills; now more than 20,000 Net One contract line subscribers are likely to be beleaguered by the introduction of the foreign currency billing system in effect since 1 January 2009. In a press release MISA-Zimbabwe noted the resultant easing of network congestion for the subscribers and the possibility of the cellular networks expanding their capacity and improving efficiency, it believess that the use of cellular phones is now out of reach for the ordinary Zimbabwean person. More than 80 percent of Zimbabwe's citizens live in abject poverty, ravaged by hunger, economic collapse, HIV-AIDS and recently, cholera, which has killed over 2000 people. Half of Zimbabwe's population - five million people - needs food assistance. (Source: MISA) The Top-10 Fastest Growing Mobile Operators in Africa and Middle EastThe ten fastest growing operators in the MEA region added over 12m new customers in aggregate over the last three months, implying an average gain of over 1.25m. In fact, all but three of the ten managed seven figure gains. Mobinil in Egypt produced by far the best result in the region, with 2.58m net adds - more than it connected in the first two quarters of the year and nearly one million more than second placed MTN Nigeria managed. The Egyptian market has been booming since the launch of the country’s third network, but as is so often the way, the incumbents have been the main beneficiaries. Vodafone Egypt was the fourth fastest growing company in the quarter, with 1.39m new customers, while Etisalat Egypt, the new entrant, only managed a gain of 310k, for 28th place overall. An increased competitive threat also lay behind the strong performance by third placed Irancell and fifth placed TCI Iran. These two added 1.55m and 1.15m connections respectively, but this week, a third national mobile licence has been awarded to a consortium led coincidentally (or perhaps not) by Etisalat. This will have exclusive rights to offer 3G services, at least for the moment. Experience shows that agreements of this kind are rarely honoured if there is a licence fee to be had. Kenyan companies take sixth and tenth. Safaricom, the Vodafone associate, added 1.12m new connections in the quarter to strengthen its lead over Zain Kenya. (We note with some amusement that the table on p54 of Safaricom’s March 08 IPO prospectus shows Telkom Kenya as having 2% of the mobile market as at Dec 07 – quite an achievement, given that its Orange mobile service did not launch until September 08!) Zain remains the main threat in Kenya, but its 0.65m net adds in Q3 do not fully offset the loss of 0.98m seen in Q4 07 and Q1 08 and the company’s base is still down, year on year. AsiaCell of Iraq and ScanCom Ghana (MTN) complete the top ten, with 0.76m and 0.72m respectively. A further 22 separate businesses added more than 0.25m new customers during the quarter, these representing some 19 different markets. (Source: Cellular News) Rural telephony, a step closer in CameroonA Buea-based NGO, Help Out Centre for Human Rights, has launched a new telecommunication network known as Thuraya Public Calling Office, PCO, in the Southwest Region. The telephone network was launched at Alliance Franco-Camerounaise, Buea, Thursday, January 15, by the Manager, Development and Operations of Fort Info Technology, Dubai, Jane Macbeth. To Help Out Executive Director, Clarkson Obase, Thuraya PCO is one of the activities of his organisation's Information and Communication Technology Programme, which is to facilitate communication within the rural and the urban areas. "Over the last ten years we have been working with various communities in the Southwest Region and we noticed that communication had been a serious problem in some rural areas, so we have come out with a solution to it." Obase assured that Thuraya PCO has come to stay."Thuraya PCO has come to stay. Any other innovation will come later," he said.He added that the amazing thing about Thuraya PCO is that it works where there is no electricity. "It can be powered by a car battery or solar panel," he said. In relation to the price of the gadget, he said he was still working out the costing with Fort Info Technology. He, however, reassured that the price would be affordable. Thuraya PCO telephone consists of a fixed and a mobile handset, facilitated by Fort Info Technology, Dubai.The fixed line (Thuraya PCO 2110), according to Jane Macbeth, offers Voice, Fax, Data, SMS and Internet services. It is designed to meter outgoing calls and produce a printout with call details and charges. As stated by the Fort Info Technology manager, the mobile handset, (Thuraya SG-2520), is a three-in-one integrated handset. The satellite, GSM Triband and GPS, is designed to expand the boundaries of communication, enabling subscribers to roam across nearly one third of the globe. Explained Macbeth: "Users of Thuraya PCO can monitor their call duration and charges; display booth, immediate billing upon completion of call session and make calls on credit. It has an embedded micro-browser that facilitates a convenient Internet access which downloading and uploading information can be done at a speed of 60/15 kb per seconds." Professor Enoh Tanjong, a communication expert and lecturer in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Buea, during the launching ceremony, stated that studies have shown that 85 percent of people living in urban areas use telephones while in the rural areas, it is only 15 percent. He added that in terms of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) like computers and Internet, 97 percent of the population in urban areas are exposed to the facility, while it is only about three percent in the rural areas. (Source: The Post Newsline) In brief:- According to the African Press Agency Maroc Telecom looks likely to win the bidding for a 51% stake in state-owned Malian telco Societe des Telecommunications du Mali (SOTELMA). Maroc Telecom is reported to have offered EUR250 million (USD332 million) for the stake, beating out bids from other operators including Portugal Telecom, Telecel Globe (part of Egypt’s Orascom Telecom) and Sudan’s Sudatel. - Vivacell has announced that it launched a commercial GSM 900/1800 network in Southern Sudan. Vivacell is one of four GSM operators licensed to operate in Southern Sudan but is the first to be headquartered in Southern Sudan. At launch, four states are covered including the capital city Juba. During the first half of 2009, Vivacell aims to extend its coverage footprint to all of the 10 States. - The government of Tunisia plans to announce the winner of fixed line and mobile service licences in June 2009 in a bid to end the monopoly of state-controlled Tunisie Telecom (TT) and to attract foreign investment into the fast-growing domestic telecoms market, the Associated Press reports. - In Ghana, mobile telecommunication giant, MTN, has been allotted an additional network code-054 to its existing 024 code by the industry regulator, National Communications Authority. - Algeria Telecom, Algeria's national incumbent, and Iristel Inc., a provider of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, announced an exclusive alliance to offer Algeria Connect, a new VoIP service that provides virtual Algerian phone numbers to Iristel subscribers worldwide. With Algeria Connect, phone calls from Algeria can be made to subscribers regardless of where they are located in the world, using an Algerian phone number and at the cost of a local call. - Cameroon’s Finance Minister, Essimi Menye, has announced that the call for tender for the privatisation of Camtel, the national incumbent has been unsuccessful. Two proposals (Essar and Reliance) had been submitted in response to the call but they didn’t match the Government’s expectations. The Minister further said that the Government will work out a new strategy for Camtel based on a public-private partnership to support the incumbent’s technical and financial development.
Sentech funding still pending for building national broadband network in South AfricaThe country's Dinaledi schools still have not been connected and there is no news on Sentech's funding to build the National Wholesale Broadband Network to be used for this purpose. The schools form part of the Department of Education's (DOE's) drive to improve maths and science pass rates across the country and boost the number of ICT graduates. The schools are supposed to be connected through the National Wholesale Broadband Network which Sentech is mandated to build with R500 million that government has given the state-owned institution. However, Sentech remains underfunded, as government initially allocated R3.8 billion for the completion of the network. It is not known if and when Sentech will receive the rest of this funding. Polly Modiko, spokesperson for Sentech, states: “The R500 million allocation for broadband is still not adequate to roll out the National Wholesale Broadband Network and the Dinaledi schools. The money has been ring-fenced until such time that Sentech is allocated total funding and/or given approval to pursue alternative sources of funding. At the same time, preliminary stages of the roll-out have been implemented – [such as] site surveys [and] training of e-cadres.” In the meantime, the DOE is looking at what it needs to do with underperforming schools – and says a decision will only be made at the end of the month. “We are currently doing some analysis on the schools, then we will decide what action we will take, if any. Only once schools have reopened and we have done our analysis will we decide whether to replace underperforming schools or provide them with extra resources,” says Penny van der Walt, deputy director-general for further education and training at the DOE. Van der Walt says that so far, 16 schools have been identified as failing to meet the minimum pass requirements set out for them – but no decisions have yet been taken about their fate. (Source: ITWeb) Uganda among the top 10 African countries for Internet UseUganda has been ranked seventh in terms of people who access the Internet in Africa. Nigeria leads the continent with 10 million people using the Internet, beating South Africa and Egypt. The statistics were released in Hyderabad, India during the Internet Governance Forum Meeting. Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation with over 140 million, is followed by Egypt and Morocco with 8.6 and 7.3 million users respectively. South Africa comes fourth with 5.1 million users followed by Algeria, Kenya, Uganda, Tunisia, Sudan and Zimbabwe, making up the top 10. Africa has 51,065,630 users and an Internet penetration of 5.3%, which is way below the world average of 21.9%. The US leads the world chart with 220 million Internet users followed by China (210 million) and Japan (88.1 million). Brazil has 81 million users, followed by India with 53.1 million. The UK has 40.2 million users, Germany 39.1 million, Republic of Korea 35.5 million, Italy 32 million and France 31.5 million. (Source: New Vision) South Africa turns to online mediaMore and more South Africans are using the Internet to gather news and do research, but it appears they are still stealing time to do so at work, although this could change as telecommunications prices fall. Yesterday, the Online Publishers' Association (OPA) released the results of the Nielsen Online annual survey of how the country's Internet use fared during 2008. It shows the number of unique browsers rose by 25%, to 4.7 million, and that page impressions rose by the same order of magnitude to 232 million. The number of sessions surged by 31%, to 28.1 million, and the time spent on the Internet climbed by 45%, to 3.8 million hours. However, the average time per session rose by a more modest 9%, to eight minutes and five seconds per session. “This tells me that more and more South Africans are using the Internet, but that they are largely doing it from the office by stealing a bit of time here and there,” says OPA chairman Adrian Hewlett Hewlett says that as the cost of connectivity is set to fall with the opening of new international connections and more competition in the telecommunications industry, consumers will spend more time at home using the Internet. “What a lot of people don't realise is that it is the amount of research an Internet user does before making a purchase and that is what eventually leads to the transactions,” he says. The survey shows men are inclined to use the Internet more, with their representation rising to 58% of the audience, from 55% in 2007, and that older people, those over 50 years of age, are also making more use of the Internet. Fifty-six percent of the audience use English as their language of choice. Helwett says that number may be slightly skewed by the fact that the survey is done in English and there are indications that many people, for whom English is not their first language, are increasingly using the Internet. Nielsen Online researcher Andrew Felbert says: “Changes in audience share over time tend to be subtle; however, they are important in indicating future trends in how the audience will look. SA's online population has become more male and English-language centric over the last year, as well as becoming slightly older.” Felbert says that, while the ageing element is natural, as a media becomes more mainstream, it is important that the online industry looks at becoming more encompassing and doesn't ignore women and non-English-speakers – areas crucial for major growth of the medium. Nielsen Online says newspaper-related sites dominated the fastest growing brands. Avusa's Sunday World (187%) and the Daily Dispatch (181%) newspapers were far and away the two fastest growing online brands, by unique browsers, during 2008. Moneyweb Holdings and Media24 both had two properties in the top 10 fastest growers. (Source: ITWeb) In brief:- The average costs for internet access through dominant operator Mauritius Telecom and its ISP Orange will be cut markedly once the telco starts benefiting from lower bandwidth pricing on the SAFE (South-African Far East) cable system. IDG News reports that Orange has filed a list of new tariff proposals with the Information & Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) which, if accepted, will result in price cuts from March 2009. It is believed the price reductions range from 22% to 36% depending on the bandwidth and destination. - Libyan internet service provider (ISP) Libya Telecom and Technology (LTT) plans to launch its first commercial WiMAX wireless network, and says it hopes to start with WiMAX coverage, including mobile WiMAX, in 18 cities. LTT hopes the deployment will provide Internet access via a USB dongle plugged into a laptop to anyone within 50km of one of its towers. The operator’s new system, which has initial capacity for 300,000 subscribers, will begin signing up business users from next week and residential customers the week after. Libya is home to around 51,000 broadband subscribers, while a further 170,000 of the population rely on slower dial-up internet access. The service is priced at USD30 per month and a one-off payment of USD400 to buy the USB device.
UK-Based Nigerian IT Experts Launch interactive street map of LagosA UK-based Nigerian company specialising in GIS applications Ajala has developed an online interactive street finder for Lagos. The website allows users to search for any street in Lagos, in addition to the location of any business by name and address. (Now all they need to do is cut the traffic levels…) The initiator of the project, Ireti Ajala, who has over 14 years industry experience said, "MapNTL.com can show the precise location of over 50,000 businesses in Lagos including banks, ATMs, restaurants, hotels, post offices, Shopping plazas, markets, etc. Ajalaadded that its database contained over 400,000 routable Lagos digital streets measuring over 5,400km in length equivalent to more than two-third of the earth's equatorial radius or twice the distance from Port-Hacourt to Sokoto. "Visitors can interactively zoom in/out, re-centre the map, e-mail the map to customers and friends, and click on a business symbol to get localised information about the particular business such as contact phone number, email, address, etc and other details to assist in the purchasing decision," he said. Ajala said further that businesses with location elements like banks, hotels and restaurants in Europe were all benefiting from increased footfalls and patronage simply because their customers could see where they were located on Google map, MapQuest, Yahoo map and other similar maps Ajala said "MapNTL.com recently unveiled an innovative map-based advertising platform called Mapvertising , which allows companies in Lagos to brand their business locations on an interactive street map using their corporate logos or symbols to improve their brand visibility. Google map made this concept popular and MapNTL.com had adapted it for the Nigerian environment. "Mapvertise is a radical new idea which brands your business location with your corporate logo on an interactive map of Lagos making it very easy for new customers to see where your business is located in Lagos. He added, "Mapvertising will definitely be useful to companies in Lagos to connect with their customers by showing where they are located. To illustrate marking the location of over 50 Mr Biggs' outlets using its distinct corporate logo on MapNTL.com for just N4,500 per location will ensure that over 100,000 visitors to the website can easily see the location of any Mr Biggs' outlet by looking for Mr Biggs' logo on the map" Some of the companies who have their business locations branded with their logos on MapNTL.com include Mr Biggs, Tantalizers, Tastee Fried Chicken, Zenith Bank, First Bank, Intercontinental Bank, Oceanic Bank, UBA, ETB, FCMB, Spring Bank, Skye Bank, GTB, etc (Source: Vanguard) Ministry Designs Draft ICT Policy on Education for RwandaThe Ministry of Education yesterday released the first draft on the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policy that will govern the use of ICT in the country's education sector. The draft was developed with assistance from the Jordanian Education Initiative (JEI) and was funded by Global Education Alliance (GEA). "The major aim for this draft is to guide ICT implementation in the education sector which will be promoted in schools from primary level up to institutions of higher learning," said Claver Yisa, the acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education. The draft whose design was launched last November outlines the ministry's ICT strategy from 2008-2020. According to Yisa, while they were preparing the draft, MINEDUC consulted different experts in the ICT industry. "ICT will provide a better option in preparing the education curriculum and other programmes needed in the education sector such as students accessing their results online," he added. Recently, the Rwanda National Education Council (RNEC) announced that results for the national examinations for 2008 which are expected to be out before the end of this month will be accessed electronically. Promoting and giving special attention to ICT is one of the main objectives of the global education sector policy which was launched officially in 2003 by the Global Education Alliance. According to the draft, MINEDUC's vision seeks to transform Rwanda into a middle-income country by the year 2020 but might not succeed unless Rwanda moves from being a subsistence agricultural economy to a knowledge-based one. The objective of the ICT sub-sector is to promote investment and the growth of the ICT industry. Efforts are being made to widen access to ICT among the population and to promote ICT for e-Governance, education and capacity building in the private sector. (Source: The New Times) Nigerian E-Payment company Invests N350 Million in DatacentreAt its inauguration of the board of directors of ChamsAccess Limted, a newly created subsidiary. of Chams Nigeria Plc last week in Lagos, one of the e- solutions company in Nigeria said that it has invested about N350 million in a world class data centre located at its offices in Lagos and Abuja respectively. The Chairman, Chams Nigeria Plc, Professor Adebayo Akinde, while speaking during the inauguration said that ChamsAccess Limited was born out of the need to bridge a perceived information gap in the country and to provide the public with the quality and convenience of service they deserve. ChamsAccess Limited, according to him, would be deploying and maintaining ChamsAccess Service Terminals (Cast) which is a 24/7 self-service, e-payment platform that allows the use of payment cards. According to Akinde, the terminals facilitate payment of bills, purchase of airtime recharge cards, telephony services and video emailing. "The company would also deploy as sell automated teller machines (ATMs). Thus, the ChamsAccess' vision is to be a world class company that provides the most convenient way to interactive solutions including bill payments, telephony, internet services, e-ticketing and boarding," he said. He also said to make this possible, Chams had built enabling infrastructure to support its key public sector projects. Akinde, while noting that among the public sector projects is the concession awarded the Chams Consortium by the Federal Government of Nigeria to issue the new national identity cards, said the chip-based identity cards, with full-fledged biometric data capture, would have payment capabilities that will ride on the trusted ChamsSwitch backbone on the back-end and would be given a front-end interface for usability through an array of infrastructure being deployed by ChamsAccess such as the e_booth consisting of three ChamsAccess terminals and an ATM. "Tens of millions of these payment-enabled identity cards would be issues in the coming months which will open a world of business opportunities for banks, government agencies, merchants as well as small and medium scale businesses," he said, adding that ChamsAccess is positioned to be the preferred medium for acceptance and transaction of these services. (Source: Vanguard) In Brief:- Algeria’s ministry of Post and ITC (Information and Communication Technologies) has presented proposals for the reduction of computer prices as part of the new version of "Ousratic'' campaign (one computer for each household). The campaign will remain a priority within the framework of the "e Algeria 2013" strategic plan. About 50 thousand computers have been marketed within the framework of "Ousratic" first version. - The OpenCourseWare Consortium is conducting an organizational effectiveness review, and would like to gather inputs of the OCW/OER community. The goal is to develop an organization that best serves the needs of current and potential members and most effectively furthers the mission of the Consortium to improve education and empower people worldwide through OpenCourseWare. You are encouraged to participate at www.ocwconsortium.org/planningsurveys
Intel Capital Targets African ContinentThe world's largest chip manufacturer, Intel, is bringing its venture capital company to Africa to identify and fund promising technology companies. The first move for Intel Capital is to appoint Sam Mensah as its director for SA and sub-Saharan Africa. Mensah is already familiar with the territory as he has initiated and led Intel's expansion into the region for the past six years in a bid to boost Intel's market share by promoting Africa's use of computers. "The move into Africa illustrates Intel's view that Africa as an emerging market will continue to unearth great business opportunities for us," he said. "Intel Capital will seek out and make strategic investments, allowing innovative and home-grown technology companies not just access to our capital but also to our technological expertise and global network." The organisation invests in innovative technology start-ups worldwide but it has not touched Africa before. At the end of last year it had an investment portfolio worth more than $2,1bn spanning hardware, software and services companies. Since 1992 it has invested $7,5bn in about 1000 companies in 45 countries. Of those, 168 have listed on stock exchanges while 212 have been acquired or took part in a merger. (Source: Business Day) Recession watch – Nokia’s market share down in Middle East & AfricaDue to loss of market share in Iran, Nigeria and South Africa, Nokia’s Middle East and Africa region experienced the largest percentage drop in market share for of any of its regions for Q4, 08. It sold 23.6 million units in Q4, 07 but this dropped to 18.2 million units in Q4, 08. This regional fall in sales contributed to an overall three percent loss of global market share. However, revenues rose from EUR541 in Q4, 07 to EUR615 in Q4,08. In 2008, Europe accounted for 37% (39%) of Nokia's net sales, Asia-Pacific 22% (22%), Greater China 13% (12%), North America 4% (5%), Latin America 10% (8%), and Middle East & Africa 14% (14%). The 10 markets in which Nokia generated the greatest net sales in 2008 were, in descending order of magnitude, China, India, the UK, Germany, Russia, Indonesia, the US, Brazil, Italy and Spain, together representing approximately 50% of total net sales in 2008. In comparison, the 10 markets in which Nokia generated the greatest net sales in 2007 were China, India, Germany, the UK, the US, Russia, Spain, Italy, Indonesia and Brazil, together representing approximately 50% of total net sales in 2007. In terms of units sold in the region over the full year, these actually went up from 75.6 million in 2007 to 81 million in 2008. Its loss of market share was caused by market share losses in Iran, Nigeria and South Africa. Neotel in Tata's Hands as South Africa’s State Sells StakeTelecoms operator Neotel is now officially majority-owned by an Indian company with the government finally sealing a deal to sell its 30% stake in the business to Bombay-listed Tata Communications. The shares were previously jointly held by state-owned enterprises Eskom and Transnet, and the move means Tata now owns 56% of Neotel. The value of the deal has not been disclosed -- Tata published a press release on the Bombay Stock Exchange last week but did not mention any financial figures. Tata first bought into Neotel in 2001 when the operator was being set up. It took the 26% stake earmarked for a foreign operator with the cash and the experience to build the business and to pull together the other diverse and largely incompatible shareholders. Plans for the government to pull out and allow Tata to increase its stake were first announced last June. "This reaffirms Tata Communications' commitment to its expansion and investment plans in the emerging regions of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. We will support Neotel's efforts to provide global quality telecom services in SA," said its CEO, Srinath Narasimhan. Neotel CEO Ajay Pandey said the move would strengthen its position as a stable player in the local market, and let Neotel capitalise more fully on Tata's global best practices and vast international network. Shedding the government as a shareholder should speed up Neotel's decision making and hone its operations by streamlining its ownership. The sale has already been beneficial, since a fresh cash injection of R3.1bn from all its shareholders in December saw Tata supply 56% of the money, in anticipation of owning 56% of the business. Neotel expects to invest a total of R11bn in infrastructure, and presumably the government's reluctance to contribute its share of that was one of the reasons for striking its exit deal. (Source: Business Day) Maroc Telecom annual revenues up 7.2%, growth slows to 3.9% in 4QMaroc Telecom has reported consolidated revenues of MAD29.52 billion (USD3.56 billion) in 2008, up 7.2%, thanks to the continuing growth of its domestic and international mobile businesses. In the fourth quarter of the year, consolidated sales grew 3.9% year-on-year to MAD7.48 billion. Gross mobile revenues in Morocco amounted to MAD18.53 billion in 2008, up 8.4%, with the customer base reaching 14.456 million at 31 December 2008, up 8.5% compared to the end of 2007. Mainly due to the huge customer growth in 2007 (+2.6 million), the annual churn rate in 2008 increased to 34.9%. Fixed line and internet activities in Morocco generated 2008 gross revenues of MAD9.68 billion, up 2.5% thanks to the continuing growth of data (+26%) and internet (+5%) revenues, and despite the 1.2% decrease in average monthly invoices. The fixed line subscriber base reached 1.299 million lines at end-December, down 2.8% year-on-year. Fixed internet access lines stood at 482,000 at end-2008 (99% ADSL), up 1.3% compared to 2007, to which the operator also added nearly 30,000 mobile ‘3G+’ broadband subscribers and 10,000 IPTV customers. Amongst Maroc Telecom’s subsidiaries, Mauritel in Mauritania ended the year with 1.142 million mobile users, up from 905,000 at end-2007; Onatel (Burkina Faso) increased its cellular base from 564,000 to 977,000; whilst Gabon Telecom had 447,000 mobile subscriptions at end-December, up 15.8% year-on-year. (Source: Telegeography) In brief:- South Africa’s telecoms equipment manufacturer Africa Cellular Towers (Actowers) has signed an empowerment deal to sell 25.1% of its business to Tiso Group. Tiso will buy 92,7-million Actowers shares at R1.25 each, paying R116m in cash. That could be followed by an extra payment of up to R22.5m if performance criteria are met for the 2009 and 2010 financial years. - Warid Telecom was over the weekend named the best investor in 2008 during the annual awards ceremony at Hotel Africana in Kampala. Warid was rewarded with the gold accolade after investing $185m (about sh367b) since it was licensed by the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) in 2006. Telecoms, Rates, Offers and Coverage (briefs)- Glo Gateway, Globacom's international gateway subsidiary, has announced a 70 per cent reduction on international calls to the United Kingdom, United States of America and Canada. Instead of the N39 per minute earlier charged for calls to these destinations, Glo will now charge 20 kobo per second and N12 (US8 cents) per minute for calls to all lines in the United States of America and Canada and calls to only landlines in the United Kingdom. - Three weeks after the launch of its GSM network, Rwandatel had already registered120,000 subscribers. The telco operator also plans to import more GSM-enabled mobile phones in response to growing demand in the local market. Rwandatel’s U120 handsets manufactured by Huawei sold-out a month after their introduction on the local market. - According to Nigeria’s Vanguard, Zain Nigeria “Ultra Low Cost Handsets” campaign has been successful. Launched eight months ago, the company has sold over 1 million of these new breed handsets. Supplied by ZTE, the handset sells at N1,700 and includes the SIM card and N50 airtime. On activation of the SIM card, and additional N200 airtime is credited to the phone, bringing the total value of free airtime to N250.00. - Zain Kenya says it is to continue investing in its cellular network during 2009 to improve coverage in rural areas. Kenya’s second largest mobile operator says that there is still a large untapped market in rural regions. The firm is also hoping to launch a new mobile payment service to compete alongside the M-Pesa offering from market leader Safaricom. - South Africa’s SNO, Neotel's consumer offerings are beginning to make inroads into the market and eat at Telkom's dominance in the fixed connectivity arena. Total Neotel subscriber numbers are kept confidential, but market talk is that they number over 5,000 since the launch in the second quarter of last year. The South African market broke through the 100% mobile penetration barrier during Q3,08 to finish the quarter on 101.8%. The total market reached 44.51m customers. Annual growth slowed from 24.2% for the 12 months ending 30th September 2007 to 10.7% for the subsequent 12 months, the lowest rate since Q2 02. However, this rate was the same as that recorded in Q2 08, and in real terms annual growth rose quarter-on-quarter, from 4.18m to 4.30m.
Safaricom to roll-out utilities payment service in KenyaKenyan operator Safaricom will launch a mobile service later this year to enable subscribers to pay for electricity and water bills. The company is in talks with Kenya Power and Lighting Company as well water service companies to search for methods for the launch of the service. In related news, Safaricom’s SMS-based mobile payments service M-Pesa has reached 5 million registered customers, with M-Pesa person-to-person transfers totalling EUR 135, 558 million (KES 14 billion) in December last year. Though M-Pesa is supposed to merely be a money transfer system, the service is also used by clients to store money, to settle bills and buy services. The success of M-Pesa has resulted in accusations made by the local banks. In December 2008, Finance minister John Michuki ordered an audit of Safaricom’s M-Pesa due to safety concerns regarding users’ money. Safaricom’s CEO Michael Joseph recently told a media briefing that the planned M-Pesa audit by the government is yet to take place a month after Finance Minister John Michuki instructed the Central Bank of Kenya to scrutinise the domestic money transfer service. Safaricom also plans to launch an international money transfer service to tap remittances flowing into the country from UK, which is still awaiting the approval from the banking regulators. (Source: The Paypers) AfricaNews.com launches mobile websiteAfricaNews.com has launched a mobile news website: http://m.africanews.com. This latest innovation follows an unprecedented mobile phone revolution in Africa in the past years. The mobile version of AfricaNews.com makes the company one of the few African media outlets to both source and publish content via mobile devices. The mobile website is unique as it is the only mobile service dedicated to broad news on Africa. As internet on mobile devices flourishes in Africa the company has again taken the lead to serve new and emerging audiences. This website is optimized for mobile devices and gives a clear overview of the latest news submitted by the more than 400 AfricaNews.com reporters who report from 35 African countries. Visitors of the mobile website can also send in their own news tips and contributions to the editorial team by using the ‘News Tip’ application. This mobile website is realised by GNR8, a student company of the Hogeschool Inholland, based in Haarlem, the Netherlands. The students work on different creative projects for companies in their region. (Source: Africa News)
People* Katim Touray, the former Managing Director of Gamtel, has been reinstated as the Managing Director of the company. Touray was remove early last year shortly after Spectrum Company took over the affairs of Gamtel. Events* REVENUE ASSURANCE FOR HIGH GROWTH MARKETS 18th-21st January Mövenpick Hotel, Dubai Revenue Assurance for High Growth Markets is the ideal place to meet the leaders who are developing and implementing solutions to the revenue management, assurance and billing challenges posed by the expansion of new services and proliferation of competition.For further information please visit http://www.iir-events.com/IIR-Conf/page.aspx?id=16215 * TELECOM FINANCE 2009 27th – 29th January 2009, Renaissance Chancery Court Hotel, London, UK Now in its fourth year, the TelecomFinance 2009 Conference and Awards Dinner will gather an exclusive group of the global telecom industry’s leading decision makers and visionaries to debate the challenges and opportunities we face in 2009. Featuring a who’s who of top-ranking investment bankers, corporate lawyers, C-level executives, consultants and private equity professionals, TelecomFinance 2009 is the year’s must-attend event.The conference will deliver insight from industry leaders, present challenging panels addressing the sector’s most significant questions and offer an opportunity to meet colleagues and competitors from across the globe.For further information please visit: www.telecomfinance.com/2009 * TELECOMS FRAUD AND RISK 23rd-26th March 2009 Hilton London Tower Bridge, London, UK Telecoms Fraud & Risk is the perfect place to learn about the developments in fraud prevention from the leading operators and solutions suppliers across Europe and beyond. Gain a greater understanding about how to manage the risks that the migration to NGNs is having, thereby securing your network and minimising fraud. Examine the enclosed brochure to see how attending Telecoms Fraud & Risk will enable you to cost-effectively enhance your fraud management strategy and make a measurable impact on your networks and service revenues. For further info http://www.iir-events.com/IIR-Conf/page.aspx?id=17135 * 3RD ANNUAL AFRICAN E-GOV FORUM 24-26 March 2009, Kigali, Rwanda The CTO is honoured that this year the Ministry of Science and Technology, Rwanda will be hosting the 3rd Annual African e-Gov Forum. Join key ICT stakeholders in the region, including Ministers of technology, heads of e-Gov projects, civil society leaders and representatives from IT organisations; mobile operators; infrastructure providers; foundations; development and donor agencies to discuss current issues and witness success stories on e-Gov in Africa. For further information visit www.cto.int * 1ST EURO-AFRICA COOPERATION FORUM ON ICT RESEARCH 25-26 March 2009, Brussels, Belgium For the first time in Europe, sub-Saharan African and European policy-makers and research organisations are being brought together to address the development of research collaborative projects in the ICT field. This 2-day event is co-organised by the European Commission (EC Directorate-General Information Society and Media) and the African Union Commission (AUC) with the support of the EuroAfriCa-ICT project, a FP7 coordination and support action aiming at enhancing ICT research cooperation between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. More information visit http://euroafrica-ict.org/events/forum.php or email at forum@euroafrica-ict.org * THE WORLD WIDE WEB CONSORTIUM 1-2 April 2009, Maputo, Mozambique Africa Perspective on the Role of Mobile Technologies in Fostering Social DevelopmentHosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Government of Mozambique. For further information please visit: http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/ Jobs and Opportunities* Experienced Software developer – Ghana BusyLab is looking for an experienced software developer interested in trying something different and sharing knowledge in Africa. You should be able to teach the processes and best practises of software development with our bright young team and contribute to a world-class innovative web and mobile application product. You should know: - html, javascript, ajax - php or java (J2SE/J2ME) - sql databases (postgres or other) - software development process - software testing and quality assurance practices The position would be for a minimum of six months. If you’re interested, then please contact Sarah Bartlett at jobs2009@busylab.com and she will be happy to give you more information about the team, the project and the logistics. Contracts* Ghana Telecom and Huawei - Ghana Ghanaian fixed line and mobile operator Ghana Telecom (GT) has signed a USD120 million contract with China’s Huawei Technologies to upgrade its existing 2G network with 3G technology. The project is expected to take 18 months to complete, at which date GT’s mobile service, which will soon be rebranded to Vodafone Ghana, will be able to offer high speed internet access, multimedia content and videocalling, amongst other advanced features.
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 January 31 2009.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
