News update Telecoms and ICT in Africa - Issue no 341 on 5 January 2007
Top Story
Tradenet launches market intel platform for buying and selling agricultural goods
Last Tuesday saw the launch of an initiative that will combine lessons learned from the success of peer-to-peer sites with agricultural market intelligence in Africa. And perhaps most interestingly of all, the goal is to leverage the mobile networks and their extensive reach into rural areas to do this. ‘There’s been lots of coverage about farmers using mobiles to get prices. Lots of it was hype. We’ve learned a lot from the early mistakes and have developed what we would consider a market intelligence platform 2.0’ says Mark Davies, the investor behind Tradenet. ‘The point is not just to deliver…
Telecoms
NIGER ISSUES CALL FOR INTEREST AS IT GOES FOR MARKET LIBERALISATION
A week ago, the Multi-sector Regulatory Authority of Niger (ARM) published a call for interest for the provision of various telecommunication services in the country. Rémy Fekete from the French…
Telecoms
SONATEL FINED OVER US$0.5M BY REGULATOR FOR MOBILE NETWORK OUTAGES
The Senegalese regualator, the ARTP has issued a decision on January 26th in which it fined, Sonatel, the national incumbent for an amount of 3.4 billion CFA francs ($631,779) for…
Telecoms
NIGERIAN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO MERGE NBC, NCC SOON
Nigerian Minister of Information and Communications, Mr. Frank Nweke Jnr said that the Federal Government may soon merge the country’s National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)…
Telecoms
WILL COMPETITION IN FIXED LINE REVERSE ITS DECLINE IN SUDAN?
The Sudanese fixed line market is in decline. The penetration level stood at a mere 1.6% by end of 2005. Meanwhile, the cellular market reflected a completely different growth pattern.…
Telecoms
CELTEL ANNOUNCES $1.4BN NETWORK EXPANSION PLAN IN NIGERIA
MTC Group has announced plans to inject $1.4 billion (N325 billion) in Celtel Nigeria within the next 19 months to expand its network. The MTC Group Chief Executive Officer and…
Telecoms
SOUTH AFRICA CELL OPERATORS FACE ICASA BID TO CUT COSTS OF ROUTING CALLS
A fresh attempt to force down the cost of phone calls is being made by the industry regulator, with a move to slash the fees local operators charge to route…
Telecoms
Telecoms News - In Brief
- Econet Wireless has written to the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) demanding that the regulator reverses the award of the second national operator (SNO) tender to Reliance Consortium. Econet…
Internet
KENYAN GOVERNMENT SIGNS US2.7M CONTRACT WITH TYCO
Last Wednesday the Kenyan Government signed a $2.7 million (Sh191 million) contract with Tyco Telecommunications to fund a survey on the construction of a fibre-optic link to Fujairah in the…
Internet
EGYPT BLOGGERS REVEAL NEW TORTURE CASE
Egypt's politically active blogger community has brought to light another torture case against the regime's security services amid a rising tide of outrage over police brutality. On Saturday, lawyers…
Internet
SOUTH AFRICAN BANK MUM ON INTERNET TROUBLES
Standard Bank has still not formally explained glitches with its recent upgrade of its Internet banking interface. Consumers complain the site does not work with Firefox and Safari browsers. Others…
Internet
Internet News - In Brief
- New Skies Satellite says it will continue to serve existing customers without interruption despite losing its NSS-9 satellite in a spectacular fireball as it was launched in the Pacific…
Computing
TECHNOLOGY KEY TO SUCCESS AT DISCOVERY HEALTH IN SOUTH AFRICA
The operations at Discovery Health, which is said to be the largest medical scheme in SA, with about 1,9m lives, depend to a large extent on the effectiveness and…
Computing
RWANDA TO OFFER REGIONAL ICT SCHOLARSHIPS
Rwanda intends to offer Information and Communication Technology (ICT) scholarships to students from Eastern and Central African states. The disclosure was made by Prof Romain Murenzi, the Minister in the…
Computing
GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHES CENTRALISED DATA BASE IN TANZANIA
The government, through the National Statistics Bureau has launched a comprehensive and centralised public statistical database. Speaking during the launch of the Tanzania Integrated Statistical Database (TISD), Permanent Secretary, Ministry…
Computing
LINUX PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTE LAUNCHES LPIC-3
The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) last week announced the new LPIC-3 certification programme. The LPIC-3 is the organisation's highest level distribution-neutral Linux certification and is targeted at Linux professionals providing…
Computing
Computer News - In Brief
- The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has pledged to support the Mozambican Institute of Information and Communications Technologies (MICTI) in training its middle-level technical staff, according to Mozambique's news…
Telecoms, Rates, Offers and Coverage
TELECOMS, RATES, OFFERS AND COVERAGE
- Latest statistics released by the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) show that the country's telecom sector now boasts of about 34 million telephone lines, made up of 32,265,827 mobile lines…
Mergers, Acquisitions and Financial Results
VODACOM LOOKS AT R7.5BN BLACK CAP
Vodacom is planning to use an agreement thrashed out by the hi-tech sector to sell shares worth R7.5bn and still be considered sufficiently black-owned. The company said last week that…
Mergers, Acquisitions and Financial Results
TRANSPARENCY ISSUES DOG $400M GSM DEAL IN NIGERIA
The recent announcement by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) that Mubadala Development of United Arab Emirates has been offered Nigeria’s fifth GSM slot for $400million has raised issues about how…
Mergers, Acquisitions and Financial Results
VODAFONE SAYS MYSTERY MOBITELEA STAKE IN SAFARICOM OWNED BY “CHANNEL ISLANDS COMPANY”
The mystery over the owners of the company deepened last week when Vodafone (UK) Ltd declined to reveal the local shareholders of Mobitelea, said to own a five per cent…
Mergers, Acquisitions and Financial Results
ONLINE AUCTIONEERS BUY INTO JUMP TECHNOLOGIES
Global internet auction company bidorbuy.com has bought 22% of Jump Internet Technologies, the brains behind the local online shopping comparison website, Jump Shopping. The size of the deal was not…
Mergers, Acquisitions and Financial Results
MPS QUESTION UTL PHONE DEAL WITH SUDAN FIRM
MPS have questioned the deal between uganda telecom (utl) and a Sudanese company called Gemtel. The legislators want the information and communication technology minister, Ham Muliira, to explain the contract…
Mergers, Acquisitions and Financial Results
On The Money - In Brief
- Mincom, a software and service provider will be acquired by Francisco Partners in an all cash transaction valued at AUS$315m (R1.85bn). Francisco Partners proposes to acquire all shares and…
Digital Content
LAUNCH OF A FREE ONLINE MARKET PLACE FOR SECOND-HAND TELECOM EQUIPMENTS
Allforsite has recently launched a market place where telecom operators and contractors can buy and sell second-hand telecom equipment (products that have already been used and dismantled, but that are…
Digital Content
CAREERJUNCTION LAUNCHES CV2RESUME ONLINE
CareerJunction says that it has launched a technology that will transform the face of local online recruitment. CV2Resume is designed to convert CVs from a variety of formats into a…
Web and Mobile Data_old
HITV BREAKS DSTV MONOPOLY, BEGINS OPERATION - EXPLOITATION OF NIGERIANS UNACCEPTABLE, SAYS NWEKE
Monopoly in Nigeria's pay-television industry hitherto enjoyed by South Africa's Multic-hoice, owners of DSTV, was finally broken yesterday when an indigenous firm, Entertainment Highway Limited (HITV), began commercial broadcast in…
Web and Mobile Data_old
NTV BACK ON AIR IN UGANDA
NTV Uganda is back on air. The Nation Media Group station had been switched off on Saturday by the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation at the direction of the Uganda Broadcasting Council.…
Web and Mobile Data_old
BROADCAST DIGITAL UPGRADE WILL BOOST JOBS AND SKILLS IN SOUTH AFRICA
Upgrading the national broadcasting infrastructure from analogue to digital at a likely cost of R2bn is an opportunity to create more hi-tech jobs, boost IT skills and invigorate local television…
Web and Mobile Data_old
Convergence News - In Brief
- South African customers may soon be able to upgrade to digital television viewing with financial help from the state as the communications department debates whether to subsidise the purchase…
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PEOPLE
Mike Frayne, co-founder and former executive Chairman of Intec Telecom Systems, joins VoluBill as a non -executive Director.
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EVENTS
MEETING AFRICA’S BANKING NEEDS: WORLD-CLASS OR ALL-CLASS BANKING SYSTEMS?” 5-8 February 2007, Nairobi, Kenya The African Banking Technology Conference will provide the region’s banking community with in-depth briefings from African…
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JOBS AND OPPORTUNITIES
SENIOR LEVEL OPPORTUNITIES IN ICT – EAST AFRICA The company is a key player in the Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) sector within the East Africa region and has interests…
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CONTRACTS: WHO'S SELLING WHAT TO WHOM?
GLOBACOM AND ALCATEL - NIGERIA Nigeria's second national operator (SNO) in telecommunication Globacom and global solutions provider Alcatel-Lucent have entered into a $600 million (about N78 billion) network expansion deal.…
