Issue no 242
Top Story
The great African telecoms equipment giveaway - who stands to benefit?
Within the last month several African telecom incumbents have received sizable donations of telecommunications equipment from a number of foreign companies and governments. The most generous of these offerings have come from the Chinese giants Huawei and ZTE, while the Government of Iran recently signed a telecommunications agreement with Zimbabwe and TelOne. Many of the recipients are cash-strapped incumbents whose buying choices have become somewhat curtailed by their trading position. Mapara Syed looks at whether it is better to give or to receive. Equipment giveaways are the latest front in the fierce battle for dominance of Africa's telecommunications equipment market…
Telecoms
SENEGAL ANNOUNCES SNO AND UGANDA TNO AS OTHERS MOVE TO WIDER SERVICE COMPETITION
Senegal and Uganda have both announced that further competition will take the form of licences to vertically-integrated large-scale operators rather than opening competition across a wide range of markets. This…
Telecoms
KENYA TELKOM SEARCHES FOR COMPANY DOCTOR TO GIVE IT THE RIGHT MEDICINE
Kenya Telkom is looking for a consultant to carry out a 90 day assignment that will provide answers as to how the near-bankrupt company can be restructured. Cynics might argue…
Telecoms
SA'S COMPETITION BATTLE HOTS UP: TELKOM & IS CLASH OVER VANS LICENCES
Last week's hearings into the value-added network service (VANS) licences saw much argument over what a VANS provider should or should not be allowed to do, with Telkom leading the…
Telecoms
VSAT HELPS WEST AFRICAN MOBILE OPERATORS GAIN NEW REVENUE-GENERATING SERVICES
Ghana's Spacefon and Spacetel-Benin will use NMS Communications' AccessGate wireless backhaul optimizer to reduce backhaul expense and bandwidth requirements. It is claimed only will AccessGate help Spacefon and Spacetel-Benin significantly…
Telecoms
SA's USALS FINALLY GET TO BE SHOWN THE MONEY WITH R5M BOOST
The Minister of Communications, Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, this morning attended a networking breakfast meeting with the members of the boards of the recently licensed Under-Serviced Areas Licensees (USALs), where the…
Telecoms
DUBIOUS DEAL SUSPECTED IN LIBERIAN TELECOM BIDDING PROCESS
It seems that the transparency and fair play previously assured in bidding process of the now dormant Liberia Telecommunications Corporation (LTC) has been undermined, according to a report in The…
Telecoms
Telecoms News - In Brief
- The National Association of Telecoms Subscribers of Nigeria (NATCOMS) claims it will challenge the country’s four main GSM operators over mounting dissatisfaction with the poor service received by subscribers.…
Telecoms
TELECOM RATES, OFFERS AND COVERAGE
- Nigeria's Second National Operator, Globacom, has commenced commercial deployment of its fibre network in Nigeria. The first route to come on is the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano axis. The Lagos - Epe…
Internet
NEARLY 50% OF HOUSEHOLDS IN CAIRO USE THE INTERNET
The Arab Advisors Group conducted a major comprehensive survey of the media and telecom usage habits of the population of Greater Cairo between November 2004 and Jan 2005. On the…
Internet
SA's IS READY TO ‘PUNCH ABOVE ITS WEIGHT' IN NEW COMPETITION ERA
Although the issue of value-added network service (VANS) licences remains in the regulator's hands, some players are nonetheless ready to capitalise on the deregulation that will come into effect at…
Internet
LAGOS JUDICIARY CONNECTS COURTS TO INTERNET
FOR greater efficiency and productivity, the Lagos State Judiciary has connected its courts to the internet through Court Automated Information System (CAIS). Through this development, lawyers, litigants and the entire…
Internet
NIGERIAN INTERNET 419 SCAM: SENIOR FBI AGENT TESTIFIES ON CREDIT-CARD FRAUD
An Ikeja High Court judge, Justice Morenike Obadina, was yesterday told how an Advanced Fee Fraud a.k.a. 419 scam allegedly involving Internet-based payment for some cameras, using bad credit cards,…
Internet
Internet News - In Brief
- The Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and the US National Library of Medicine have committed five million Swedish Kronor (sh1.2b) to link malaria research centres in Africa on the…
Computing
PC POWERS UP ON DAY-LONG BATTERIES FOR NO ELECTRICITY ENVIRONMENTS
A South African information access solutions company, ez-IT, has launched a battery-powered PC to take Internet access to environments where there is no electricity. "The EZ-Power solution is underpinned by…
Computing
UDI OPENS DEDICATED SOFTWARE FACILITY IN MAURITIUS
UDI Group (Pty) Ltd, the holding company for Ulwazi Digital Information, has expanded its network into the Indian Ocean Islands with a dedicated software development facility in Mauritius called UDI…
Computing
LARGEST MULTI-COUNTRYT ICT EDUCATION PROJECT LAUNCHED BY NEPAD
Nepad's e-Schools initiative, described as the largest multi-country ICT education project attempted in Africa, has been launched in Pretoria. The Nepad e-Schools Initiative comes after the World Economic Forum's Africa…
Computing
Computer News - In Brief
- Ethiopia's Admas College was inaugurated last Wednesday as a Cisco Systems local academy.
Mergers, Acquisitions and Financial Results
BOTSWANA TELCO INCUMBENT HOPES FOR SELL-OFF PLAN APPROVAL
Botswana's state-owned telephone monopoly hopes the southern African country will approve plans next month to privatise the business, which could happen within three years, its head said on Thursday. Vincent…
Mergers, Acquisitions and Financial Results
On The Money - In Brief
- JSE-listed Spescom says the unpredictability of the telecommunications sector is likely to cause it to incur a headline loss of between R10 million and R14 million for the six…
Digital Content
MEDICATION REMINDERS VIA SMS
Cape Town-based company SIMpill and telecoms partner Tellumat Communications have developed a solution for the wireless monitoring and support of patients on chronic medication. With 60% of South African patients…
Digital Content
3FIFTEEN GOES LIVE WITH LEGIT
3fifteen - the Microsoft applications solutions division in the Dimension Data group - developed a funky Web site that effectively reflects the positioning of Legit - the latest brand in…
Digital Content
SA GOVT CREATES EDUCATION PORTAL
www.thutong.org.za The minister launched the site during a tour of schools in the George area yesterday. She said Thutong, which means “place of learning” in seTswana, was intended to serve…
Digital Content
Web And Mobile Data News - In Brief
- Macromedia's Contribute underpins the operational success of the Web portal of the Botswana government's Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP) (www.finance.gov.bw). Contribute, available through Macromedia distributor, Dax Data,…
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PEOPLE
The President of the Association of Ghana Industries, Prince Kofi Kludjeson, has been banned by an Accra High Court, presided over by His Lordship Justice Baffoe-Bonnie, from being a director…
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EVENTS
AWARDS CEREMONY OF DIGITAL PEERS INTERNATIONAL Tuesday, February 1 2005, 11:00am Rockview Hotel, Wuse II, Abuja There will also be launch of a 20-mins documentary that summarises DIGITEST 2004 and…
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JOBS AND OPPORTUNITIES
COMMUNITY WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY TRAINING WORKSHOP FOR EAST AND SOUTHERN AFRICA The workshop is aimed at non-profit and public sector workers, as well as people from small businesses running community-style telecentre…
