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STUDY ABROAD OPTIONS
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 GUINEA’S STATE TELCO MISSES A COMPETITIVE TRICK According to one of our sources, Guinea’s ISPs have bullied their way into putting up VSATs on their roofs. What started out with receive only, then went to going symmetrical in order to terminate voice calls instead of selling internet. Guinea’s regulator has been heard describing the whole situation as a complete mess. The state telco Sotelgui is right in complaining that it has a monopoly on international voice traffic but who do they complain to? How can the Guinean courtsjudge a technical case like this especially when the law isn’t even there? The GSM operators are terminating international voice too through their interconnection and by virtue of the fact that they know what is going on and have newer, better, cleverer people and equipment. And calls to Guinea are better than ever and no hard currency is coming in any more to the Government via Sotelgui. The state telco has sorely neglected its international gateway and is paying the price. Perhaps it will need to cut a deal with the private companies that now run more traffic through their network than they do. Maybe Sotelgui could put together its own VOIP gateway and become the best ISP in Guinea? Here is the nightmare scenario for Africa’s smaller states... TELECOM EGYPT TO PAY FEES, NOT BUY A LICENCE State-owned fixed line monopoly Telecom Egypt said it would pay fees to become Egypt’s third mobile operator, but reiterated it would not buy a new licence—a sore point for its rivals. "We will have to pay fees for our mobile network but they will not be for a licence," Telecom Egypt’s chairman Akil Beshir told Reuters. Telecom Egypt’s potential mobile telephone rivals say they want a level playing field, and the state-owned operator should pay fees and purchase a licence like everyone else. Telecom Egypt sold its mobile operations to the Egyptian Company for Mobile Services (MobiNil) in 1997, but says it retained an operating licence. (source: Reuters) SENEGAL’S METISSACANA HELPS DEVELOP SCHOOLS CYBER-TWINNING The Mendes France Grammar School of Ris Orangis is leading a North/South Cooperation Plan on cyber-development. It will twin with two Cyber Grammar Schools in Africa El Hadj Baba Ndiongue of Podor, in Fouta, Senegal (see People below) This development’work is part of the parnership between "Educations Sans Frontieres", a French NGO and Oumou Sy’s ISP Metissacana, supported by Jack Lang, Education’s Ministry, Rgion Ile de France, Conseil Gnral de l’Essonne, Afrique Initiative, Comit Immigration Dveloppement Sahel, Fondation Nationale d’Action Sociale du Sngal, Ong de Lyon, Une Ecole pour l’Afrique. FREE INTERNET HERE TO STAY, SAYS ABSA The warfare between South Africa’s ISP giants continued , with banking group ABSA firing a broadside at M-Web, which has alleged that ABSA is misleading the public about free Internet access. (source: http://commtech.b2bafrica.com/industry_news/296903.htm ) SHIPMENT OF COMPUTERS SAILS TO CAMEROON A container filled with 380 computers and monitors for schools in Cameroon has just sailed from Boston.It is expected to arrive in the port of Douala, Cameroon on June 12th.The computers were donated by 15 businesses and other organizations to the World Computer Exchange.The computers will be arranged in networks of computers in 34 schools with over 17,000 students in the region around Yaounde, Cameroon. The schools in Cameroon were
recruited, trained, and prepared by the Exchange’s partner,
the Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) Cameroon
as part of its SchoolNet Cameroon Initiative. SDNP Cameroon became
a partner of the Exchange in October of 2000.SDNP is led in Cameroon
by their National Coordinator Dr. Wawa Ngenge For more information visit
about the project: UGANDA’S MTN LAUNCHES INTERNET EXCHANGE LINK FACILITY MTN Uganda has established a local Internet exchange point (IXP) which will make local Internet connection cheaper and faster, MTN’s Sales and Marketing General Manager Erik Van Veen has said. The IXP is a point through which all local Internet traffic will be routed locally instead of via the valuable and expensive international bandwidth where one first accesses a national satellite and the World Wide Web (WWW) for connection. Van Veen said it would act as a hub, stimulate web hosting, present an opportunity to grow local traffic thus reducing operational costs in the market and in turn reducing costs to the customers. This would increase subscriber/user penetration in Uganda. Twelve of MTN’s clients that have already been using their Internet Service Provider (ISP), like some Internet cafes, Bushnet and Africa Online have automatically been connected onto the IXP for some months although they are yet to receive formal notifications. He said the service connection fee to be charged is sh 2m and sh75,000 as monthly subscription "Local connection will be free if a customer takes international Internet Bandwidth from us," he said. There are currently four ISPs; Bushnet, Infocom, AfricaOnline and MTN. which is only accessed by corporate clients and not dial up customers. They are licensed by Uganda Communication Commission. (source: New Vision via DigAfrica) NEW GROUP FORMED FOR UNOFFICIAL INTERNET TOP-LEVEL DOMAIN OWNERS A new association has been created to bring together Internet top-level domain holders in an effort to prevent conflicting TLDs and bottlenecks online. http://www.idg.net/go.cgi?id=477277 Meanwhile, the U.S. Commerce Department said it has almost finished a review of a proposal that would extend VeriSign’s right to manage the .com Internet domain name registry through 2007. http://www.idg.net/go.cgi?id=476892
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This page last updated on January 28 2004.
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