Issue no 578 28th October 2011

Worried by the increasing and persistent cases of poor service delivery, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has again, threatened to sanction the three major telecoms operators - MTN Nigeria, Globacom and Airtel Nigeria - if at the end of next month, the quality of service does not improve on their various networks.

The NCC, in a statement last Tuesday, also threatened to stop the three major operators from further sale of subscriber identification module (SIM) cards by the end of November this year, if they fail to measure up to  the key performance indicators (KPI) set by the NCC to improve quality of service.

The three operators have been issued a 30-day deadline, effective from November 1, 2011, to reverse the ugly trend. Any new SIM card sold, or additional subscriber added to the network in contravention of the directive, will attract a penalty of N1million per subscriber. The commission also said that after the expiration of the 30-day ultimatum, it would strictly enforce the impending directive, which if contravened, would attract a penalty of N5 million and additional N500, 000 per day that such contravention persists.

The warning and deadline notices are sequel to a dismal performance by the three operators on quality of service from the result of an independent monitoring exercise carried out by the commission across the country.
The exercise showed that all the three operators failed to measure up to four key performance indicators that are crucial for quality of service improvements as set by the commission.

Consequently, the commission has notified the three operators of its intention to issue a directive that with effect from November 30, 2011, any of the operators that fail to meet the targets would be barred from further sale of its SIM cards or addition of any new subscriber to its network.
According to NCC’s Head, Media and Public Relations, Mr. Reuben Muoka, failure of any of the operators to meet the quality of service targets from November 30, 2011 would attract a fine of N500, 000 for every month of failure.

“It is not in doubt that the customer experience on your network has been far from satisfactory, especially as the commission has been inundated with complaints from various subscribers on this matter,” the commission said in the correspondence to the three respective operators.

It expressed concerns that the operators were not doing enough to reverse the trend of unacceptable quality of service which had persisted for too long. The KPI measured by the commission included Call Set Up Success Rate, Call Completion Rate, Stand Alone Dedicated Control Channel and Handover Success Rate.

Telecoms subscribers have over the years, suffered from poor quality of service ranging from incessant drop calls, poor voice clarity, inability to make successful calls, to inability to recharge phones, among others.

The issue of poor quality of service cuts across the networks, and the NCC had warned the operators to improve. But the warning did not cut any ice among the operators.
Although the telecoms operators have been blamed for poor quality of service, they have in some form, exonerated themselves from blame, shifting it to wilful destruction of their facilities by persons within and outside the sector.

The government of Swaziland is to hold talks with the local subsidiary of MTN regarding the transfer of the government's indirect stake in the company to the government's Ministry of Finance.

Swazi MTN is a joint-venture between South Africa's MTN and the state-owned Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications Corp. Under the terms of the venture, SPTC is barred from offering mobile services as it is a shareholder in MTN. The government is now looking to unlock the market by taking SPTC's shares in MTN so that there is no longer a conflict of interest.

However, MTN has some rights of first refusal if the shares are "sold" by SPTC, and is holding out for its long desired international carrier license from the government before agreeing to its request.
Countering that request is a proposal currently being considered that would grant Sptc a five-year monopoly on landline services in the country - which could affect MTN's own backhaul plans.

All ministries, government departments and institutions are to be connected to the National Backbone Infrastructure and e-Government Infrastructure cable (NBI/EGI) which was launched on October 7.

This follows completion of the first and second phase of laying the government's fibre optic cable, being managed by the National Information Technology Authority (NITA-U) at Statistics House in Kampala.

President Yoweri Museveni has directed that for the investment in the NBI to be harnessed fully, all government data and voice services must use the infrastructure as their primary vehicle.

This means that all government internet bandwidth will be centrally procured, distributed and managed by NITA-U, which will significantly reduce expenditure on internet bandwidth both for government and other public priority users such as schools, universities and hospitals which use them for health and education services, as well as research.

It also means increased communication efficiency, as the NBI claims to be stronger and more reliable than the ISPs.However, the move has been met with anxiety from private Internet Service Providers (ISPs), for which government departments and public institutions have been the biggest client.

However, NITA-U says the concern is uncalled for, as the Internet market in Uganda still has high potential for growth, having one of the lowest penetration levels in the world. The NBI so far scales almost 2,000 km of fibre optic cable, covering more than 20 districts countrywide.

In addition, the NBI's large capacity presents opportunity for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) service providers to grow business across the country. Government last month awarded contracts to three companies from India and Kenya - Dhanush, Raps-Spanco and TechnoBrain - to run Uganda's first BPO call centre. According to NITA-U Executive Director James Saaka, the firms will start with a start with a three-year pilot scheme in December 2011.

Uganda is several years behind Kenya in the BPO industry, and is apparently living up to its reputation as a late adopter. Kenya's KenCall, which employs hundreds of Kenyans, pioneered BPOs in East Africa six years ago.

Additionally, Uganda's Digital Migration Project is way behind schedule, while regional counterparts Kenya and Rwanda have already switched on.

Even the NBI, which was funded by a controversial US$ 103 million loan from Chinese bank Exim, is two years behind schedule and is now a subject of a forensic audit to address value-for-money queries and allegations of inflated costs and poor quality cables.
NITA-U ICT Ministry are themselves only recent creations, with lots of work to do to catch up with the region.

According to Saaka, the NBI will function as a commercial project to generate money and repay the Chinese loan. Additional revenue will be raised by leasing excess capacity to telecoms and other institutional users.

MIH Internet has announced it is to close down its e-commerce Web sites, Kalahari Kenya and Kalahari Nigeria, due to their lack of profitability.
The digital arm of South African media giant Naspers launched the sites in October 2009 and January 2010, respectively, but has now admitted defeat.

“Performance of the service has been below expectation since launch, and reaching profitability was not a reasonable near-term prospect,” said Stefan Magdalinski, GM of E-commerce in Sub-Saharan Africa for MIH.

"Following a strategic review of investment priorities, we will be closing down the Kalahari Kenya and Nigeria operations with immediate effect.”
Operations in both countries ceased on 19 October, with no more orders being taken. The sites hope to complete delivery of current open orders. A notice of closure has been sent to all employees of the two sites.

As recently as April, Kalahari appointed Joseck Luminzu Mudiri, former business development manager of M-Pesa at Safaricom, as its new country manager in Kenya. It remains unclear whether he and other high-level staff will be retained by MIH Internet.

Kalahari was an inventory-based e-commerce site based on the successful Amazon models in the US and UK. With products listed at set prices, it is differentiated from auction and classified sites, such as Dealfish and Mocality, also owned by MIH, which have just been joined in the market by Google Trader. MIH said Dealfish and Mocality will remain open, suggesting the issues that have forced Kalahari to close do not extend to the auction sites.

The failure of the Kalahari sites, which were branches of the mother site in South Africa, has been attributed by analysts to high operational and marketing costs. It is reported that advertising in the two markets alone cost the company around $50 000.

Though the site boasted 14 million users and three million products, costs of pan-African delivery and advertising have clearly taken their toll. Platforms for small advertisements, such as Dealfish, can also face high costs in promotion, but have no need to carry any inventory or incur distribution costs.

There have also been difficulties with persuading Kenyans to trust online shopping, with many preferring to use sites for products they have been unable to physically buy. Finding an efficient and trustworthy payment gateway has also been a challenge, with credit card uptake in Kenya still low and mobile-to-Web payment systems, like PesaPal, yet to gain mass adoption and trust.

Safaricom has entered the data storage business as it seeks to diversify its product portfolio from the voice market that has witnessed decline in revenues following a price war in the telecoms industry started last year.

The firm on Tuesday launched the business line branded as SafaricomCloud targeting provision off data storage and backup services to companies and small businesses.

Fast gaining currency, cloud computing involves storage of data in a similar way to how e-mail and social network data are stored only that in cloud computing this is in large scale.

Safaricom's chief executive officer Mr Bob Collymore said the firm has invested an initial Sh2 billion in putting up the necessary infrastructure, while a further Sh1.5 billion will be deployed in the venture within the next two years.

"Cloud computing allows a company to seek a number of IT services relevant to its operations, under a cost-efficient, money-saving, pay-for-what-you-use model. Such services may include a data centre, disaster recovery, back-up, software applications, among others," said Collymore.

Cloud computing has been gaining traction in companies in Kenya seeking for ways to cut the rising technology costs and operators.It is estimated that firms can cut their IT expenditure by 30 per cent.

Currently banks and telecoms with sensitive digital data use offshore servers, while many small and medium enterprises rely on disaster recovery. The post-election violence also saw businesses lose vital documents, rousing interest in secure data storage.

Safaricom's entry is set to increase competition for the archive business with firms like Kenya Data Networks, security firm G4S and Internet Solutions firms as well as companies in Europe and US who were providing the services to local firms from offshore servers.

Exim Bank Tanzania has now moved on to a new state-of-the-art Information Technology (IT) platform for its Core Banking applications.

Speaking in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday, the Bank's Group-Head, Operations, Mr Eugen Massawe, said:"It has been a landmark achievement having migrated to the new state-of-the-art solution, with much ease, since October 17.

The new solution has been sourced from M/s Polaris Software Labs Limited, one of the leading IT enabled Banking solution provider in the world. Massawe said: "Exim Bank has always been distinctive in its approach towards customer satisfaction, be it in introducing innovative products or using technology for faster and effective delivery". The new solution shall be a delight for our customers", he added.

Mr Massawe said that it has been a meticulous and well coordinated effort from the bank and the software vendors that has resulted in achieving the success.Highlighting features of the solution, he said that customers shall now be able to benefit with value added services including Internet Banking from the comfort of their homes or offices. It will facilitate more efficient transfers of funds within the bank, outside the bank, request for issuance of Letters of Credit, Application for Credit Facilities shall have several other value added features.

The bank has been providing down load of statement of accounts, balance enquiries.
On cash management services -- Business houses would now be able to manage their funds effectively with the help of Bank's Cash Management solution.

The bank shall be at a distinct advantage with 21 branches across major centres in the country, providing Corporates a One Stop Solution for all their banking needs.
All payments to TRA would be system-enabled with relevant information available for the remitter for future references.

Educational institutions such as schools, colleges, universities have been facing perennial problems in collection and management of fees from Students.

The bank has launched an ideal solution that shall not only facilitate students, parents with a wide option to choose the place of deposit, but shall be a boon for the institutions as it will eliminate lot of human effort and facilitate reconciliation of fees collection electronically.

There is instant credit of inward remittances, straight through credit of both local and foreign remittances is yet another feature which shall help the customers in getting their remittances into their account, seamlessly.

With the new facility, customers would be able to request for instant opening of Letters of credit, Guarantees and collection Import & export bills over net itself and shall be advised with the confirmations electronically. Having pioneered in inculcating the habit of savings amongst the masses through its FAIDA, an innovate savings account, the bank is embarking to launch yet another innovative product.

The product, enabled by the new solution, is aimed to inculcate the habit of regular savings amongst people, to plan and secure their future. An Innovative product for would be millionaires & billionaires of the economy!! After-all, little drops make an ocean !!

Institutions and corporates can now relax and ensure payment of salaries of their employees on time and without hassle through Exim's salary account-facility. Customers can also utilise the safe locker facility of Exim for safe-keeping of their valuables, without fear of theft and live a tension-free life.

Customers can henceforth give standing instructions for any regular payment to be made on specified dates, without the botheration of getting reminded and being penalized for delayed payments.

Exim's Master Card and Visa Cards can be very effectively used in the ATMs and POS machines of other Banks.Exim Bank with a balance sheet size of over 800bn/- is the sixth largest bank in the country in terms of total assets, deposits and advances. The bank has 21 branches and 48 ATMs across the country. With the new solution in place, the bank has plans to expand its network aggressively.Exim holds to its credit being the 1st Tanzanian bank to establish footprints overseas. The bank has two overseas banking subsidiaries in Comoros (2 branches) and Djibouti.

Democracy activists in some repressive countries are protecting themselves from harassment with technology training they received from the U.S. Department of State. The U.S. assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor offered a few insights into the programs in a speech October 24.

Speaking at the University of Southern California's Annenberg Center in Los Angeles, Assistant Secretary Michael Posner said, "We've funded a wide range of programs and trainings aimed at keeping activists in the most repressive environments safe, including a number of Syrians who tell us they are using what they learned in the current struggle for political freedom."
Posner said Congress has allocated $70 million to support Internet freedom through technology and training for groups overseas. One nongovernmental organization that received a State Department grant developed a mobile phone application that Posner called a "panic button," for use by democracy activists anticipating ugly encounters with government authorities.

"If [activists] are being arrested, they can push a button that sends text messages to people to let [their associates] know they're in trouble," Posner told the California audience. "And it wipes the contacts in their phone, which we've been told has already proven useful."

In a speech earlier this year, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke strongly about the U.S. intent to provide support for people struggling to assert their right of free expression.

"The United States continues to help people in oppressive Internet environments get around filters, stay one step ahead of the censors, the hackers and the thugs who beat them up or imprison them for what they say online," Clinton said in a major address on Internet policy.

Amid recent successes in the cause of human rights in North Africa, Posner said Obama administration officials remain concerned about three likely threats against Internet freedom and human rights.

U.S. officials are watchful of some repressive governments' actions inhibiting citizens engaged in peaceful online activities. Posner said any government action of this type is a violation of international human rights law.

Some governments are adapting the most sophisticated new information technology tools, Posner said, "to spy on their own citizens for the purpose of quashing peaceful political dissent or even information that would allow citizens to know what is happening in their communities." That too is a trend the United States is monitoring.
A third trend, which Posner said has not received the scrutiny it deserves, is the attempt by some nations to convince the international community to adopt an international code of conduct for information security. Despite that innocuous name, Posner said, such a code, now proposed by China and Russia, would surely undermine media and individual freedoms.

"And it would shift cyberspace away from being people-driven to a system dominated by centralized government control," Posner said. "Not a good idea."

In her February speech on the issue, Clinton urged all nations to support an open Internet in the belief that it will lead to stronger and more prosperous countries. She expressed the view "that open societies give rise to the most lasting progress, that the rule of law is the firmest foundation for justice and peace, and that innovation thrives where ideas of all kinds are aired and explored."

Senior Huawei 3G Planning and Optimisation Team Leader
Posted by: emiliosrize

Posted date: Fri, 28th Oct

Location: Zambia

I am currently looking for a senior Huawei 3G Radio network Planning and Optimsation consutlant who has team leader experience to work on a 6 month extendable for a market leading client of mine in Zambia.

My client are looking for a 3G expert in planning and optimisation who will also have the presence and knowledge to be able to provide mentoring, skills and knowledge transfer to the rest of the teams.

* All applicants MUST have at least 4-5 years experience with detailed 3G design, planning and optimisation.

It would be beneficial to have someone who has a good knowledge of the 3G/Data aspects of the Core network and can clearly map 3G access capacity with core network design.

All applicants must be available to start within the next 2 weeks.

Huawei UMTS planning and optimization experience are strongly preferred.

To Apply online please click here: