News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 171 on 22 August 2003
Top Story
KENYA SENDS OUT MIXED MESSAGES ON COMPETITION: VOIP IN CYBER-CAFES BUT NO JAMBONET COMPETITORS YET
Kenya’s new Government has made clear its intention to liberalise the telecoms and internet sector but the reality remains mixed. The good news? This week Telkom Kenya’s Managing Director John Waweru announced his intention to allow cyber-cafes to offer VOIP calling for as little as Sh5 per minute. We await further details with interest. The bad news? The internet sector is still waiting for Kenya’s rather elderly ICT Minister to clear the way for the licensing of competitors to Jambonet. In frustration at a recent two day shutdown by Jambonet, Joseph Mucheru, Technical Officer of Wananchi Online launched on online…
Telecoms
MAURITIUS PROVISIONALLY AWARDS SNO LICENCE AND 10 NEW ILDS
The Mauritius telecoms authority said on Monday it had approved 14 licences for companies to enter its domestic telecommunications market. "Last week, we began sending letters of intent approving the…
Telecoms
SOUTH AFRICAN REVENUE SERVICE SELECTS ACDT CONSORTIUM FOR CALL CENTRES
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has selected the ACDT Consortium to deploy call centre facilities in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng as part of an overall effort to…
Telecoms
ALGERIA’S MOBILE PHONE SUBSCRIBERS DOUBLED IN 2003
The number of mobile phone subscribers in Algeria has more than doubled since the end of last year and now tops one million for a population of 32 million, official…
Telecoms
NIGERIA’S SNO READIES ITSELF FOR BUSINESS BUT WHEN WILL IT START?
Globacom, Nigeria’s Second National Operator is set to launch but the question of when hangs in the air. Late May, the company announced the appointment of 350 dealers who will…
Telecoms
UGANDAN REGULATOR TO REVIEW OPERATORS’ PERFORMANCE BEFORE DUOPOLY ENDS IN 2005
An audit is being made to find out whether telephone operators have met their licence obligations. Uganda Communications Commission, the regulator of the communications sector, is reviewing the performance of…
Telecoms
Telecoms News - In Brief
- MTN and Vodacom look set to introduce PDA phones in South Africa for only R1500. - The Zambian government has decided not to privatise Zamtel but keep it as…
Internet
NIGERIA’S NCS TO RESOLVE NIGERIA’S .NG CONTROVERSY
The Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) has been saddled with the responsibility of spearheading the transfer of Nigeria’s Internet nomenclature, the .ng domain, to a representative of Internet community stakeholders in…
Internet
SA’S TELKOM PILOTS EIGHT FREE WIFI FOR ADSL USERS
Telkom has taken the wraps off eight WiFi hotspot pilot sites and says it will have 100 such sites by the end of the year, writes Carel Alberts of Itweb.…
Internet
Internet News - In Brief
- According to a speaker at the recent CINSA conference, the whole of the island of Mauritius is a wireless hot-spot. - Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) has launched its…
Computing
MALAYSIAN ICT FIRM IN DEAL TO DEVELOP SWAZI NATIONAL ICT BLUEPRINT
Malaysia’s information technology company, Applied Information Management Services, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Swaziland to develop a national blueprint for the Swazi ICT sector and develop the kingdom…
Computing
UGANDAN JUDICIARY LAUNCHES ELECTRONIC COURT RECORDING SYSTEM
The Ugandan judiciary has launched an electronic court recording system to replace the paper and pen method. The Principle Judge, Herbert Ntabgoba, who presided over the launch last Thursday, described…
Computing
Computer News - In Brief
- Concord Communications announced today that it has signed a worldwide partnership agreement with Dimension Data that expands on existing regional relationships between the companies.
Mergers, Acquisitions and Financial Results
ECONET WIRELESS SAYS ORASCOM, VODACOM EYE NIGERIA STAKE
Cairo-based mobile phone operator Orascom Telecom and South Africa’s Vodacom have both sent teams to look at buying a stake in Econet Wireless Nigeria, Nigerian telecoms officials said on Monday…
Mergers, Acquisitions and Financial Results
On The Money - In Brief
- SA’s IT services and solutions group AST’s 2003 financial year should go down as its worst ever. It was a set of numbers described by non-executive chairman Hans Smith…
Digital Content
MAURITIAN LIBRARIANS LAUNCH WEB SITE TO HELP CREATE INFO SOCIETY
http://ncb.intnet.mu/nlibrary/index.htm L’Express
Digital Content
African Web News - In Brief
http://www.gtz.de/fgm - South African-based Business Day’s small business supplement Real Business has launched a web site to give small business owners the opportunity to become part of its network for…
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PEOPLE
* The failure of the Nigerian presidency to pay N4.8 million debt on International Direct Dialing (IDD) telephone lines of Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Abudulsalami Abubukar has swollen the debt…
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EVENTS
SUN HOSTS WEB SERVICES SEMINARS To highlight its strategic roadmap towards a more service-oriented, streamlined, language-independent, Web services infrastructure, Sun Microsystems will host Web services seminars in association with SAP…
