News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 224 on 17 September 2004
Top Story
ACT 2004 -TROUBLE IN PARADISE AS LIBERALISATION HURRICANE PASSES OVER
This year’s ACT conference took place in Mauritius in Le Meridien Hotel alongside a beautiful tropical beach, lending the proceedings something of a holiday atmosphere. Away from beaches, Mauritius has a clear “cyber-island” strategy designed to foster innovation and attract outsourcing work. It has also been in the vanguard of liberalising its telecoms sector but the transition is still being heavily contested. This week also saw the opening of AfriNIC’s office in the new Cyber-Tower. Russell Southwood reports on the swirl of issues in and around the conference. The Mauritian regulator ICTA brought its liberalisation plans forward a year, starting…
Telecoms
LIBYA SIGNS WITH NOKIA, ALCATEL TO BUILD USD242 MILLION MOBILE NETWORK
The state-run Libyan National Company for Post and Telecommunications is set to award a USD242 million) deal to build a mobile phone network to a joint venture (JV) of Finland's…
Telecoms
NIGERIA’S GLOMOBILE LAUNCHES GPRS SERVICE
GLO Mobile, a subsidiary of Globacom Limited, last week launched GPRS in Nigeria. At the launch Executive Director Mike Jituboh said Glo Mobile hit one-million-subscriber base in 10 months and…
Telecoms
KENYA’S REGULATOR CCK SETS COMPETITION FRAMEWORK
The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) last week announced that it had abolished the widely criticised auction system of awarding licenses in the telecom sector.CCK Director General Sammy Kirui said…
Telecoms
ITEX SIGNS R37m M-COMMERCE DEAL NIGERIA’S CAPITAL PARTNER
South African mobile commerce solution provider ITEX has signed an m-commerce deal worth around R37 million over the next five years with Capital Partner Limited (CPL), a Nigerian strategy practice.…
Telecoms
Telecoms News - In Brief
- The recent purchase of Econet by South Africa’s Altech clears the way for Econet to exercise its option to buy 51% of Papua New Guinea’s Telikom PNG.
Telecoms
TELECOMS RATES, OFFERS AND COVERAGE
* South African mobile operator Cell C announced it has selected Nokia's MMS solution, making it the first end-to-end MMS solution supplied by Nokia in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as…
Internet
AFRINIC SETS UP SHOP IN MAURITIUS
AfriNIC opened its offices in the Mauritius Cyber-Tower during the conference. It has been given a one year lease by Cyber-Tower Parks of Mauritius, a government-operated corporation. AfriNIC’s administrative staff…
Internet
KENYA’S KDN SET TO SPEND USD5 MILLION ON REGIONAL NETWORK
Data communications carrier, Kenya Data Network (KDN), has set aside US5 million (KSh400 million) for an ambitious expansion programme that will see it set up base stations in Uganda and…
Internet
AUSTRALIAN SAT CO SIGNS SUDATEL FOR BROADBAND SERVICES
An Australian company developing satellite-based broadband services across Asia, the Middle East and North Africa claims to be at least six months ahead of its business plan and expects a…
Internet
ZAMBIA SET TO PASS CYBERCRIME LAW
An Internet crime bill in Zambia, which includes provisions that could see convicted hackers facing sentences of up to 25 years in jail, has caused some controversy in the country's…
Internet
SKY2NET ORDERS SATELLITE HUB FROM SHIRON TO SERVE AFRICA
Sky 2 Net LTD announced last week that it ordered a Satellite Hub from Shiron Satellite Communication LTD. The Intersky Hub 3.0 is the most advanced Hub. The location of…
Internet
Internet News - In Brief
- Ghana Telecom has been told not to go ahead with its ADSL product offer by the regulator NCA while it looks at anti-competitive pricing issues. The same has also…
Computing
NIGERIA EXPORTS SOFTWARE TO UGANDA, SIERRA LEONE
Nigeria's non-oil export profile may have been boosted with the exportation of some softwares developed in the country now making waves in markets in Uganda and Sierra Leone. The President…
Computing
GOSSIP LAUNCHES AN ONLINE WHO'S WHO OF OPEN SOURCE DEVELOPERS
The Go Open Source campaign today launched GOSSIP, an online who's who of South African open source companies and companies. “Called GOSSIP – an abbreviation for Guide to Open Source…
Computing
CAPE TOWN SCORES FIRST OUTBOUND GERMAN CALL CENTRE
Cape Town’s burgeoning contact centre industry has chalked up another high-profile international client, with local company Sales Engine winning a contract to provide telesales services to two state lotteries in…
Computing
KENYA AIRWAYS TO START E-TICKETS
Kenya Airways (KA) is in the process of commencing electronic ticketing at its agencies.The airways country manager, Emmanuel Okware, said this during a press conference in Kampala last week."This is…
Mergers, Acquisitions and Financial Results
MTN NIGERIA TO LIST ON LAGOS STOCK EXCHANGE
Nigeria's largest mobile operator, MTN Nigeria, in a bid to increase local shareholding, is considering going to the capital market within the next one year. But the board of another…
Digital Content
WEBSITE LAUNCHED TO CELEBRATE KENYAN SPORTS SUCCESS
The Kenya Sports Hall of Fame site: www.KSHF.co.ke, will include information on Kenya's past and present sports heroes and a news section on latest developments featuring Kenya's sports celebrities, Sara…
Digital Content
KEEPING TRACK OF KIDS VIA CELL, WEB
A Cape Town-based black empowerment company, Mobile Locate Africa, has launched a location-based service, ChildLocate, on the MTN network. The service allows users to locate their children via cellphone or…
Digital Content
Web And Mobile Data News - In Brief
Uganda's Dehezi International Ltd has started an online job recruitment service to bridge the gap between job seekers and employers. The venture called e-jobsuganda.com will enable organisations to carry out…
More
PEOPLE AT ACT 2004
* On theme of the conference, partnership: Conference Sean Moroney, AITEC gave an example of how they can go wrong. Conference sponsor Intel had said it would provide a conference…
More
JOBS AND OPPORTUNITIES
- Bridges.org has launched a competition to support innovative ground level initiatives in South Africa that want to use handheld devices (handhelds) to improve people's lives. A total of 120…
