News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 208 on 23 April 2004
Top Story
THURAYA OFFERS A REAL ‘ANYWHERE’ PHONE FOR AFRICA BUT CAN THE PRICE DROP ANYTIME SOON?
Real "anywhere" remote location technologies like Thuraya and Regional BGAN are currently expensive, niche market applications. But didn’t the mobile phone itself start out that way? The Thuraya is already becoming the phone to have for the ever mobile Yoruba trader so is it too hard to imagine a cheaper, more widely distributed product costing less to use? As ever the incumbent telcos who are agents for it in Africa are often the first to keep prices high. But the company reckons prices will come down in five years time as the subscriber base grows and it has various telcos…
Telecoms
LIBERIA’S PRESIDENT AND MINISTER AT ODDS OVER CELL PHONE LICENCES
Liberia’s President and the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications are at odds regarding over telecoms policy. Post and Telecom Minister Eugene Nagbe said the decision to review the telecommunication industry…
Telecoms
FIRST HOME-PRODUCED ALGERIAN MOBILE PHONE LAUNCHED
The first Algerian mobile, produced by National Telecommunications Company SITEL, has been put on sale on the national market for DA9,000, SITEL General Manager Amine Baghli announced Monday. "The creation…
Telecoms
CALL CENTRES SET TO BE GRADUATE CAREER OF CHOICE
Cape Town’s call centre industry is set to create at least 1,000 new jobs this year, according to Luke Mills, Executive Director of specialist development agency Calling the Cape. There…
Telecoms
ZIMBABWE’S POTRAZ TO CRACK DOWN ON USE OF ISM BAND
Defiant companies operating on the Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM) band have been ordered to abandon the practice forthwith, with some facing prosecution.Sources told The Financial Gazette this week that…
Telecoms
Telecoms News - In Brief
- The Angolan Council of Ministers has approved the regulatory framework for interconnection between networks and services and the publicly owned telco. The regulatory framework establishes an interconnect regime in…
Telecoms
TELECOM RATES, OFFERS AND COVERAGE
* Burkina Faso’s Onatel is reducing its local rates. It will now cost FCFA50 for 2 minutes instead of FCFA 60 for 3 minutes. Inter-urban calls will be reduced by…
Internet
AFRINIC MEETING LAUNCHES AFRICA’S IP SPACE REGISTRY
This week sees the launch of Africa’s own IP space and AS numbers registry AfriNIC. Meetings taking place today and Monday will almost certainly approve a policy for the organisation…
Internet
ISPA - DRC’S PRESIDENT KASHOBA CALLS ON ICANN TO HELP BRING .CD HOME
ISPA-DRC is beginning the process that should lead to the ccTLD.CD being based in DRC. A letter from ISPA-DRC President Aubin Kashoba wrote a letter this week to members explaining…
Internet
DATAPRO TO BECOME FIRST ISP TO WHOLESALE BANDWIDTH ON VARIABLE TIME BASIS
Following the installation of a 1MB Internet line at the Protea Hotel Victoria, Internet service provider, DataPro, has announced it will offer wholesale bandwidth on a variable time basis to…
Internet
Internet News - In Brief
- The Ghanaian internet exchange point (GIXA) has set itself up as a separate company from GISPA with Charles Lomu of CIS as Chair. It now has 20 ISP and…
Computing
WIRELESS DEVICES INCREASE HACKER RISK, SAYS SECURITY SPECIALIST
‘Friendly attacks’ show most of corporate South Africa is vulnerable to potentially devastating network invasions. Banks, financial institutions and other large businesses are running a continual risk of confidential data…
Computing
SOUTH AFRICAN PC MARKET MAINTAINS YEAR ON YEAR GROWTH, SAYS BMI
ICT market analyst, BMI-TechKnowledge, has released the latest PC quarterly figures for the period January to March 2004. This quarterly PC update research report reveals a year-on-year growth in units…
Computing
Computer News - In Brief
www.openresearch.co.za www.openresearch.co.za/refurbq.html www.openresearch.co.za - ICT market analyst BMI-TechKnowledge has announced the release of its latest publication, the South African Banking Technology Report 2004, which reveals that the local banking industry…
Mergers, Acquisitions and Financial Results
TELEKOM MALAYSIA OFFERS TO STEP BACK FROM INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION
Telekom Malaysia Bhd will not write off its soured investment of over UD$38 million (RM144.4 million) in Ghana Telecom. Its chairman Tan Sri Muhammad Radzi Mansor said Telekom still hoped…
Mergers, Acquisitions and Financial Results
ERICSSON’S SOUTH AFRICAN OPERATION IS STAR OF ITS STABLE
Ericsson’s South African subsidiary has achieved a year-onyear increase of 148% in sales, making it the star performer among Ericsson’s 25 global marketing units.In a traditionally quiet quarter, Ericsson had…
Mergers, Acquisitions and Financial Results
On The Money - In Brief
- Groupe Atlantique finally bought Afripa Telecom back in March. It claims to have had offers to buy its consolidated holdings (see issue 187). However it’s not yet out of…
Mergers, Acquisitions and Financial Results
LETTER FROM SENEGAL – WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN THE MONOPOLY ENDS? – "ONLY GOD KNOWS."
After what seems like an interminable wait, the end of Senegal’s monopoly with Sonatel is almost in sight, ending at the end of July this year. So what will happen…
Digital Content
SIERRE LEONE - WEB SITE TO TRACK LOCAL GOVT ELECTIONS
www.elections-sl.org "These elections are the first to be held in Sierra Leone in over thirty years. Many Sierra Leoneans both at home and abroad are eagerly looking forward to the…
Digital Content
Digital Content
SEEN AND HEARD AT AFNOG 2004
Sign of the times: Nigerian Sunday Folayan of Skannet making a mammoth four-hour presentation on IP telephony. While explaining the sizes of different CODECs:"GSM uses 13K. We discovered that the…
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PEOPLE IN SENEGAL
* Sengal’s Felix Weyerstahl, CEO launched Connecteo Senegal in March of this year after a "management buy-out" of Afripa Telecom Senegal backed by two local Senegalese investors. The new company…
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EVENTS
ICT AFRICA INVESTMENT SUMMIT 2004 (29 JUNE - 1 JULY 2004)register on line www.kemilinks.com/online_registrationCrowne Plaza, Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa 29 June -1 July 2004 ¨ Forum to discuss the key…
