Internet Governance to dominate agenda at PrepCom-3

News:
Internet Governance (IG) issues will dominate the agenda of the forthcoming third Preparatory Committee Meeting (PrepCom-3) on the World Summit on the Information Society, scheduled to hold in Geneva in September.

Communication Officer, at the WSIS secretariat, Sanjay Acharya revealed this much and said that it is expected to be the main focus of attention for the PrepCom-3 to be held from 19 to 30 September 2005.

PrepCom-3 is also billed to complete the output document on financing, continued negotiations on the political part of the Tunis document as well as look at implementation and follow-up mechanisms on the road ahead.

According to Acharya, other issues slated for discussion at the meeting, include the chapter containing the political component of the Tunis document, as it stood at the conclusion of PrepCom-2, together with a compilation of all written comments and proposals made during PrepCom-2 and contributions received from all stakeholders since PrepCom-2.

Other proposals from the group of the Friends of the Chair for implementation and follow-up mechanisms for the WSIS Action Plan and post-Summit phase, together with a compilation of all written comments and proposals made during PrepCom-2 and contributions received from all stakeholders since PrepCom-2.

WSIS secretariat also said the report of the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) together with a compilation of all written comments and proposals to be submitted by governments and other stakeholders following the release of the WGIG report up to the deadline of mid-August would equally receive attention.

While the revised chapter on financial mechanisms which contains some outstanding text that needs to be agreed upon, whereas the reports from regional conferences and WSIS-related thematic meetings held in the period between PrepCom-2 and PrepCom-3 will feed into the WSIS process at PrepCom-3.

These include the WSIS regional conferences held in Tehran, 31 May - 2 June 2005, in Rio de Janeiro, 8-10 June 2005 and several thematic meetings.

Organizers said, that in keeping with multi-stakeholder participation in the WSIS process, observers from international organizations, civil society and the private sector would also have the opportunity to speak and provide inputs at PrepCom-3.

NCC holds Telecom Parliament Monday

LIVING up to its words, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) would Monday, July 25, take the 22nd session of the Telecom Consumer Parliament to Excellence Hotel and Conference Center, Ijaye – Isheri Road, Ogba in Lagos State.

Daily Champion, recalls that the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, had two months ago informed the parliamentarians that the next session in Lagos would go to Ikeja due to its predominant of the location, which have high, middle and low class subscribers of almost all telcos in the country.

Head, Public Affairs at NCC, Mr. Dave Imoko, informed that the session to be held in the state outside its Old Senate building at the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS), would commence at 2.00 p.m. prompt.

He noted that the monthly Telecom Consumer Parliament puts telecoms operators and the industry regulator on the spotlight of the consumers.

This edition, he said, would deal with the services of both fixed line and mobile operators.

Other issues such as those pertaining to Quality of Service (QoS), consumer rights protection, environmental impact assessment, interconnection, tariffs and universal service provision would also be discussed.

He said that audience would be drawn from major stakeholders in the industry, opinion leaders, public affairs and policy analysts, government officials and students.

Mr. Imoko therefore urged all telecoms services consumers as well as the public to attend this interactive programme, which he explained would be recorded for a network broadcast on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and other television stations.

The parliament, it would be recalled, began in 2003 and has been held monthly in Lagos until last quarter of 2004 when NCC in conjunction with the house, recognized the need to take it closer to the people by holding it among the six geopolitical zones in the country.

Ministers laud MTN Nigeria, tasks corporate bodies

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai and his Education counterpart, Mrs Chinwe Obaji, have commended MTN Nigeria for its corporate social responsibility initiatives and called on other corporate entities to emulate the telecommunications company.

The Ministers made these remarks during the launch of the second phase of the MTN Foundation/SchoolNet joint programme, SchoolsConnect, held in Abuja.

Mallam El-Rufai described the initiative as “a shinning example of effective corporate social responsibility and is a demonstration of MTN’s commitment to sustainable development in the education sector.”

He expressed gratitude to MTN Nigeria for selecting the FCT as one
of the benefiting areas in the second phase of the project and promised to support the sites with alternative power generation and the maintenance of the laboratories.

On her part, Mrs Obaji said that the launch was a celebration of partnership that would enable the country’s education system to serve the nation’s children well.

“I want to congratulate the MTN Foundation and their partners, SchoolNet, for bringing the benefits of Information Communication Technology to thousands of young people who would not have had this opportunity,” she said.

Also, speaking during the launch, the Secretary of the Education Trust Fund, Mallam Mustapha Jaji, commended MTN for transforming the MTN BookAid programme into a full-fledged foundation, which confirms the company’s commitment to real contribution to human development in Nigeria.

He promised to work towards the sustainability of the project, and called on the beneficiary state governments and school communities to reciprocate MTN’s gesture by making good use of the facilities and ensuring that the support and sustainability agreements are implemented.

Earlier, in his welcome address, the Chairman of the MTN Foundation, Ambassador Hamzat Ahmadu, said that the SchoolsConnect project is significant as it demonstrates the power and potential of public/private sectors partnerships in the development of the country, and a stellar example of corporate social responsibility that is hinged on sustainability.

He described ICT as one of the most effective tools of rapid distribution of knowledge and information to the nation’s youth.

The Foundation’s Executive Director, Mrs Amina Oyagbola reiterated the commitment of the telecommunications company in making heavy financial investments in order to improve the quality of learning in the nation’s schools and enhance the quality of teaching in ICT.

Mrs. Oyagbola, who is also MTNN Corporate Services Executive, said: “Working in the areas of education, health and economic empowerment, we are determined that our people and our technology will make a vital difference. We will do so not only by facilitating effective communications, but also by ensuring that communities and ordinary Nigerians will have access to better education, good health and be economically empowered,” she said.

The SchoolsConnect project is the MTN Foundation initiative towards the enhancement of ICT in schools by providing computer laboratories in four schools in each state that falls into a particular phase of the project. Each laboratory has 21-networked computers, VSAT Internet connectivity, a server and a printer. It also entails the training of teachers in ICT.

The initiative will be extended to other states, starting with Kwara, and Rivers States.

Saint Gery decries lack of Africa’s presence @ GNSO

NEWS:
SENIOR official of the Ge-neric Names Supporting Organisation (GNSO), a supporting organisation within the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Ms Glen van Oudenhove de Saint Gery, has decried lack of Africa’s presence at GNSO.

Speaking to the Highway Africa News Agency (HANA), at the ICANN meeting in Luxembourg, Ms Saint Gery was quoted as saying, “there are no Africans at all on the Generic Names Supporting Organisation (GNSO)”.

GNSO is a supporting organisation within ICANN tasked with developing policy for generic domain names. A generic top level domain name is an internet address that is not directly linked to a specific country, such as the .com and .org domain names, while .ng or .za are country code top level domain (ccTLD) names, as .ng is for Nigeria and .za for South Africa.

“Africans are missing an important opportunity to participate in the policy making process of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN),” said Saint Géry.

The GNSO responds to six constituencies, which represent all stakeholder groups on the internet, including registrars, generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) registries, business and commercial community, non-commercial users, international service and connectivity providers and intellectual property.

According to her, since the continent has no representatives on the GNSO council, it is very difficult for Africa to influence any policy decision affecting the way gTLDs are managed.

The report also said that the absence is ironic as African governments are campaigning to move control of the internet from ICANN to an international organisation so that they could exert greater influence over the current system.

There is widespread dissatisfaction among Africans with the considerable US domination of ICANN and all its functions, but when there is an open forum, such as the GNSO, Africans do not appear to be interested in the policy making process, the report said.
Van Oudenhove de Saint Géry believes that Africa is missing out by not participating in the activities of the GNSO, and at the same time, ICANN is also missing the opportunities to understand the requirements of African users.

Part of this perceived apathy, she said, could be attributed to the high cost of participating in the GNSO. Many meetings are held in North America or Europe, which are usually expensive destinations for most African businesses.

Van Oudenhove de Saint Géry pointed out however, that the GNSO council holds regular teleconferences, and uses the internet to contain costs.

Lamenting that while effective use of technology could certainly keep expenses down, it is also true that the costs of teleconferencing in Africa are far higher than in most other parts of the world.

In an effort to address the lack of communication between ICANN and the vast majority of African internet users and potential users, the GNSO is about to hire a liaison officer. HANA also reports that this post will be used to forge greater links with Africa and to find out what Africans want in terms of internet policies.

APC InfraStruXure increases availability, supports NCS

American Power Con-version (APC) District Manager for Nigeria and Ghana, Mr. Charles Iyo, has said that one of the firm’s product, InfraStruXure, offers increased availability of power to organizations, just as the firm supports the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS)

He made this known while speaking at this year’s international conference of NCS held in Port Harcourt, recently, with the theme “Information Technology Capacity Building: The Future of Nigeria’s Economic Growth” (ICABUILD) 2005.

He also said that InfraStruXure enables organizations to improve on their adaptability and reduces time for deployment.

Mr. Iyo, further said that the product offers lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), mostly within the Information Technology (IT) environment.

InfraStruXure, he said, is an on-demand architecture for Network-Critical Physical Infrastructure (NCPI). This, the expert said means in essence that the InfraStruXure design, which integrates power, cooling, rack, management and services, allows the selection of standardised, modular components to create a customised solution.

According to him, businesses across Africa are adopting APC’s InfraStruXure offering to flexibly add capacity as the company grows; allowing organisations to purchase only what is needed at present while still permitting future growth.

Stressing that InfraStruXure affords IT managers to choose from a number of standardised components to create a customised solution.

This approach, he said, provides the needed reliability, affordability and predictability of standardised solutions, which is completely customised to meet client’s specific needs.

APC’s comprehensive products and services offering are designed for both home and corporate environments to improve the availability, manageability and performance of sensitive electronic, network, communication and industrial equipment of all sizes.

Politics of Internet Governance

Features:

Internet Governance may have different meanings but the trust embedded in the technology of networks may be eroded by undue political desire, reports REMMY NWEKE.

FOLLOWING the June 30, 2005 announcement by the United States Department of Commerce (DOC) with intent to retain authority on Internet root servers, the global Internet community has been thrown into confusion once again.

Internet, defined as an interconnected system of networks that connects computers around the world via the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or Internet Protocol (IP) in line with the Internet Technology Dictionary.com.

The Internet root servers, on the hand, according to the www.domainsarefree.com, is a Domain Name System (DNS) servers that respond to requests for the root name space domain, and redirect requests for a particular Top-Level Domain (TLD) to the required name servers.

Hence, final dot is usually applied, although not all modern DNS software do actually require that the final dot be included nowadays when attempting to translate a domain name to an IP address. The final dot is known as the root domain and all other domains, such as .com, org, .net, .ng, .uk and so on, are contained within the root domain.

The root name servers have the duties for the domain’s where- about and which servers are responsible for the TLDs. Furthermore, each TLD such as .com or .org, has its own set of servers which in turn delegate to the name servers for individual domain request to be solved. In other words, it would answer queries for IP address of sub-domains such as www.ITRealms.blogspot.com.

Currently, there are 12 entities managing the 13 root name servers, specifically: A - VeriSign Global Registry Services; B - Information Sciences Institute; C - Cogent Communications; D - University of Maryland; E - NASA Ames Research Center; F - Internet Systems Consortium, Inc.; G - U.S. DOD Network Information Center; H - U.S. Army Research Lab; I - Autonomica/NORDUnet; J - VeriSign Global Registry Services; K - RIPE NCC; L - ICANN; and M - WIDE Project.

Out of these numbers, five servers namely the C, F, I, J and K, exist in multiple locations on different continents of the world. Thus, most of the physical, rather than nominal root servers are now outside the United States.

Champion Infotel recalls that the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) based in Aberdeen Proving Ground, has a long history of leadership role in the computing and networking field. Today, ARL has continued to operate a root name server as a service to the Internet community.

However, in what has left the Internet community divided, the remarks at the Wireless Communications Association (WCA) on June 30, 2005 by the Assistant Secretary to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Mr. Michael D. Gallagher, announcing U.S. principles on the Internet’s Domain Name and Addressing System, jolted the industry globally.

It read in part thus:

“The United States Government intends to preserve the security and stability of the Internet’s Domain Name and Addressing System (DNS). Given the Internet’s importance to the world’s economy, it is essential that the underlying DNS of the Internet remain stable and secure. As such, the United States is committed to taking no action that would have the potential to adversely impact the effective and efficient operation of the DNS and will therefore maintain its historic role in authorizing changes or modifications to the authoritative root zone file.

“Governments have legitimate interest in the management of their country code top level domains (ccTLD). The United States recognizes that governments have legitimate public policy and sovereignty concerns with respect to the management of their ccTLD. As such, the United States is committed to working with the international community to address these concerns, bearing in mind the fundamental need to ensure stability and security of the Internet’s DNS.

“Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the appropriate technical manager of the Internet DNS. The United States continues to support the ongoing work of ICANN as the technical manager of the DNS and related technical operations and recognizes the progress it has made to date. The United States will continue to provide oversight so that ICANN maintains its focus and meets its core technical mission. “Dialogue related to Internet governance should continue in relevant multiple fora. Given the breadth of topics potentially encompassed under the rubric of Internet governance there is no one venue to appropriately address the subject in its entirety.

“While the United States recognizes that the current Internet system is working, we encourage an ongoing dialogue with all stakeholders around the world in the various fora as a way to facilitate discussion and to advance our shared interest in the ongoing robustness and dynamism of the Internet. In these fora, the United States will continue to support market-based approaches and private sector leadership in Internet development broadly.”

It also follows that the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS-2003) held in Geneva, Switzerland in December, ended with a resolve that the United Nations’ Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan should set up a Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) and as at July 14, the group’s report which is due to be presented at the forthcoming second phase of WSIS this November, has been released to Mr. Annan.

Even as its expected to wet the ground for negotiations among the Internet community on modus operandi of governing the electronic network of networks.

The WGIG mandate started from the Geneva summit, during which heads of state and governments recognized the importance of the Internet, by way of acknowledging that the Internet is a central element of infrastructure of the emerging information society, whereas recognizing that there are different views on the suitability of current institutions and mechanisms for managing processes and developing policies for the global Internet.

The WSIS Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action adopted in Geneva, set the limitation for the WGIG according to its terms of reference, which include to “investigate and make proposals for action, as appropriate, on the governance of the Internet by 2005”.

This exercise was useful to identify guiding principles and factors that have facilitated the successful development of Internet, including the open, decentralised nature of its architecture and the underlying technological development of its core standards, as well as the management of names and numbers.

WGIG also recognized that while there is a common understanding of the Internet, there is not yet a shared view of Internet governance, hence, the mandate from the WSIS for the group to develop a working definition of Internet governance.

The WGIG first considered five criteria, namely that the working definition should be adequate, generalizable, descriptive, concise and process-oriented.

Secondly, the WGIG analysed a wide range of public-sector, private-sector and multi-stakeholder governance mechanisms that currently exist with respect to different Internet issues and functions.

Finally, the WGIG assessed a number of alternative definitions proposed by various parties in the course of the WSIS process and related international discussions.

As at December 12, 2004, The Internet Society (ISOC) said there were 258 TLDs and 773 different authoritative servers for those TLDs listed.

However, reacting to the recent US resolve to retain its control over the Internet despite the efforts of the UN to deregulate this or even find a more democratic set up for Internet Governance, chief executive of Internet Service Provider (ISP), Equinox Technologies, Mr. Mba Nwakanma, said he was not surprised by the declaration.

“I doubt it if the U. S. would give up on their position. But why would
anyone think they (U. S.) would invest so much in technology and easily toss its control over to other people?” he declared.

Stressing that like most other things in the world, be it international politics and diplomacy, peace and security, US would continue to seek leading roles in everything, including internet governance.

“If it is controlled more democratically by the UN, it would be great. But quite sincerely, I do not fault US for seeking to continue to control internet governance,” he insisted.

Executive Director of another ISP firm, Nigeria Online Limited and Treasurer, Nigeria Internet Group (NIG), Mr. Oleleye Alao, said that what matters most is the security of the internet and he doubts too if another nation could put in so much security measures as US have done so far, moreso in safe-guiding the Internet, even as he would love to see the Internet Governance issues resolved for the greater good of the Internet community.

“As you know the internet itself began from the US and US, probably for security reasons especially the aftermath of September 11 would want to retain its control of the internet. The main reason for the US control is because of its concern for security and stability of the internet,” he asserted.

Moreso, since US said it is committed and willing to continuously preserve the security and stability of the internet’s domain name and address system (DNS).

“Any decision that would have an adverse effect on the operation of
DNS will not be accepted such as relinquishing the authority to some other body,” he endorsed.

Also reacting, the Vice Chairman, African Internet Service Providers Association (AfrISPA) and chief executive of a leading ISP in the country, PiNet Limited, Mr. Lanre Ajayi, said the way the Internet is being governed now could not be said to be controlled absolutely by the US.

He cited an example of ICANN, which though is a US-based and registered Non Profit Organisation, but is made up of people from various parts of the world and policies are formulated based on bottom up approach, so as to ensure that various shades of opinion are reflected in final output of their policies.

Emphasizing that, a number of arguments have been raised on the need for a more properly constituted body like an agency of the UN, such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to take over this responsibility.

Noting however, that there are merits and demerits of this, but he is of the opinion that since the Internet was built to this great height without the direct input of these bodies, maybe it would be nice to allow US that developed it up to this stage to continue, at least, for now.

In the main time, it seems the US policy has continued to shape the globe as most worried were operators in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and how this worry or fear to an extent, would be allayed, will definitely influence on the thrust during the WSIS-05 and growth of Internet after wards, mostly when the current Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between US government and ICANN ends in September 2006.

Gender digital divide still high – ORBICOM

UNITED Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has disclosed that gender digital divide "is still large and exists both in developing and developed countries".

ORBICOM, the International Network of UNESCO Chairs in Communications made this disclosure in a press statement, just as it gears up for the release of a new report on measuring the "infostate" of 192 countries in the world come September this year.

UNESCO said that a brand new component of the report is the inclusion of a section which quantifies the gender digital divide by constructing a pilot statistical database on the Information and Communications Technology (ICTs) and gender.

According to Iskra Panevska of Communication Development Division, a number of serious difficulties were encountered in the course of the work, including lack of consistent gender statistics in a large number of countries, lack of common definitions and concepts and a mixture of both public and private sources.

"The findings of the report show that the gender divide is large and exists both in developing and developed countries – it is generally larger in developing countries," the statement said.

There is statistical evidence on gender gaps by location of use, showing that even in countries where access to ICTs is fairly equitable from home women are disadvantaged from workplaces and other locations.

The report provides also information on patterns of use with differences in frequency, intensity and type of use, making a clear recognition that in order to address gender disparities in the context of Information Society more than statistical data is needed.

The report to be released in September is the second in series produced in the framework of ORBICOM’s project "From the Digital Divide to Digital Opportunities: Measuring Infostates for Development".

UNESCO said that for the last ten years, the term ‘digital divide’ has become a familiar way of expressing the wide variations in access to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) across the world.

The ORBICOM project being supported by UNESCO, UNCTAD, ITU, CIDA and IDRC was initiated in the aftermath of the 2003 Geneva World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS-03), to build on the enthusiastic reception by the international community of the "Monitoring the Digital Divide…and Beyond" report.

Infostate, UNESCO explained is an aggregated index of information networks, education and skills, and uptake and intensity of the use of ICT.

Pointing out that the phase two of the project is an attempt to explore the worldwide interest in the role of ICTs for development and how it is disadvantaged by a scarcity of quantitative information to guide informed decision making.

"Is it narrowing or widening the digital divide over time? Which countries are making progress, how fast, when and what ICTs are driving the evolution?," these were some of the issues which phase two is taking up and exploring through comparative analysis, UNESCO said.

The report explains that the Digital Divide is a relative concept and it matters who is compared with whom, in what and when.

Some of the findings of the report indicated that on the whole the digital divide is closing but the digital divide between the group of countries with the lowest infostates, mostly African countries, and all other groups except for the very top one is widening.

UNESCO also cited an instance that many countries on the continent have devised information strategies, by taking for granted the relationship between ICT diffusion and economic development, in an attempt to close the gap.

"These have generally focused on infrastructural improvements: policies in education, for example, have concentrated on hardware provision with much less attention paid to the issues of how new technologies are used," the agency pointed out.

The report attempts to observe the relative movements of individual countries over the reference period in order to understand which countries are making progress, how fast and through what technologies. A few cases, such as Cote d’Ivoire and the Central African Republic, are of particular interest since they had similar Infostates in 1995.

And by 2003, Cote d’Ivoire was reported to have an Infostate more than three times that of the Central African Republic, according to the statement.

HP fetes partners with Madagascar

HEWLETT Packard (HP)Nigeria, at the weekend fete its partners made up of distributors and resellers to what was described as "Madagascar, Challenges to Technology" at the popular Silverbird Gallery Cinema in Victoria Island, Lagos.

Starting with a blank screen … Champion Infotel gathered that it was a task for crew of 240 for four years to create the two complete jungles, namely New York City and Madagascar.

The team created realistic jungle foliage, large crowds of animals and people, characterized with new cartoon style and extreme body flexibility.

The new types of animated interaction between characters and environment, HP said, comprises hair and fur, sand, wind and wave.

However, the foliage challenges saw the 66 per cent of film taking place in the jungles of Madagascar.

HP noted that animators needed lots of realistic jungle plants that move and interact with characters, hence the jungle effects team created seven baobab trees, 12 flower/fruit trees, 43 miscellaneous jungle plants

The New York City in the film saw different plants with unique vegetation motion system, automate plant animation, creating range of plant motions, characters that had to interact with plants, allowing the jungle to reveal series of 14,000 plants and 4 million leaves sway in wind.

Chief Technology Officer of the DreamWorks Animation SKG at HP, Mr. Ed Leonard said that what the film depicts was that HP technology brings animal magic with Madagascar.

"Together we are redefining the future of entertainment and we are having a lot of fun doing it," he declared.

He however, said that there were some crowd challenges, which include that there were more crowd scenes than any other "DreamWorks’ film".

Crowds, he explained were 20 per cent of the entire film while animators needed a simplified method of handling characters in crowds and crowd lemurs were all related to the generic lemur character rig, whereas 425 unique looking lemurs; with same single lemur in 425 different disguises.

The team also met the Fossa sequence, in addition to the biggest crowd of animals in a coloured film with 1,100 lemurs, representing children at the Central Park Zoo, 10,400 possible geometric combinations of body and face shapes, clothes, hats, hair and shoes

Further, he said that character challenges include the Madagascar unique animation style, which appeared very cartoony with extreme poses, squash and stretch, tail systems, balloon volumes, stunt body parts with 61 different characters.

Explaining that the DreamWork’s needed to enhance their racial animation and wig systems with Melman having 20 bones in his neck, Gloria, volume preserving techniques

And Alex coming along with massive hair and fur challenge, which brought about 354 guided hairs driven motions of 50,342 mane hairs with 500 curves and six control points each, even as Marty’s tail and mane both "act" with 1,200 controls.

Starcomms oils machine for Port Harcourt

Fixed Wireless Operator, Starcomms Limited has said that it is now ready for a successful roll out of its services in Port Harcourt.

Marketing Director of Starcomms, Mr. Omar Lababidi, made this known in a chat with newsmen in Lagos.

He said that already, the installation of necessary facilities to support its Intelligent Network, which refers to the architecture of the network that is a pre-paid platform and combines the strengths of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems in this city is in high progress.

Starcomms, Mr. Lababidi said, is also preparing to launch in two other major cities, namely in Ibadan and Abuja in the near future.

The Marketing Director, further gave that Starcomms’ vision to be a major Fixed Wireless telecom operator in the world, is still on course and described the Nigerian telecoms market as "very vibrant and buoyant, filled with potentials".

He noted that only a well-planned and structured company like Starcomms, that is fully committed to delivering value added services and unique products, can fully reap the fruits thereof.

Champion Infotel recalls that Starcomms, launched its data service in August last year, and currently has over 180,000 subscribers on its network covering Lagos, Kano and Maiduguri.

It was named the first PTO in Nigeria to hit the 100,000 subscriber line and was voted the PTO of the year 2003 at the City People Awards for Excellence and the "Best telephone Company of the Year 2004 (Fixed Wireless)" at last year’s edition of the Nigerian IT & Telecoms Awards (NITTA 2004).

Other awards won by the company are: The Best Wireless Telephone Marketer of the year 2005 at the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria Awards, Best Fixed Operator of the year 2004 at the Nigerian Telecoms Awards and the PTO of the year 2004 at the City People Awards for Excellence, 2005 edition.

3 ministers for FINTEX-05

Three ministers are to jointly open the two-day Financial Internet Technology conference and exhibition (FINTEX) 2005 in Lagos.

This is coming as the preparation for this year’s event scheduled to hold August 8 to 9 at the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON) Center Onikan-Lagos, has reached advance stage.

FINTEX is an annual conference and exhibition organized by the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) with this year’s theme as "Mainstreaming IT in Banking and Finance".

President, NIG, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, told Champion Infotel, that three federal ministers, namely Prof. Turner Isoun of Science and Technology, Chief Cornelius Adebayo of Communications and Mrs. Ngozi Okoji-Iwuala of Finance are scheduled jointly to open the event.

He also said that the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Charles Soludo, chairmen of science and technology, communications and finance committees at the National Assembly (NA), state commissioners of science and technology and finance, are expected to grace the two-day event.

Dr. Ekuwem, noted that NIG as an advocate of best practices in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) service delivery try to find how to raise the nation to an enviable height in the use of Internet and other ICT tools.

This, he said, would boost productivity in every sector of the Nigerian economy.

He pointed out that efficiency, starts by knowing what to do and doing it right at the right time.

"With FINTEX-05 as conceptualized, NIG seeks to provide an enduring legacy by assembling those who are professionals in different ICT sub-disciplines with evolving practical experience to do it right and share expertise with others," he asserted.
Stressing that it would tend towards enhancing productivity and sustainable economic development.

Dr. Ekuwem explained that select group of stakeholders would meet at FINTEX-05 to brainstorm and forge a common front as a way to give the nation a positive lift.

"It is expected that at the end of the day, both the government and the organized private sector (OPS) would have learnt how to deploy Internet and other ICT tools appropriately," he said.

Besides the brainstorming sessions, he said, there would be an exhibition of finance hi-tech solutions by manufacturers, vendors, software engineers, finance automation system integrators, cyber security providers, data center/warehousing service providers, Internet Service Providers, telecom operators, banks, insurance companies among others.

He assured that come August that captains of industries, bursars of universities, polytechnics, and directors of finance of specialized agencies and leaders of professional bodies, would be meeting at the event, thereby positioning the economy to have a competitive advantage in the global knowledge-based economy.

200 IT experts for scientific digital divide confab

ABOUT 200 Nigerian science and technology experts in diaspora, are expected to grace the first-ever conference on ‘Bridging the Digital and Scientific Divides: Forging Partnerships with the Nigerian Diaspora,’ in Abuja.

The four-day event being organized by the Nigerian National Volunteer Service (NNVS) in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, is scheduled to hold July 25 to 28 at the Nicon Hilton.

President, Nigerian Information Technology Professionals in the Americas (NIPTA), Prof. Manny Aniebonam, made this disclosure.

He said that over 200 science and technology professionals would be coming from the United States (US), Europe and Asia for the event.

Prof. Aniebonam noted that NITPA participation is in the group’s continuous quest "to building a nation we will all be proud of’.

He would also be presenting a paper, entitled "Improving Human Capacity Building in Nigeria Through Effective Distance Education".

Stressing that the paper would examine how emerging technologies could accelerate the Nigerian capacity building efforts.

According to the organizers, the issue of third world diasporans and the contributions could make some transformation to their original homelands and this has of recent generated considerable global interest.

"Nigeria is among the countries, that is, determined to forge a constructive relationship with its huge number of diasporan nationals scattered around the world" the organizers declared.

They also noted that it was for this reason that President Olusegun Obasanjo, in recognition of the huge and diverse resources of the Nigerian Diaspora in 2000, initiated the Presidential Dialogue with the Nigerians in the Diaspora.

Explaining further, the organizers said, the conference on Bridging the Digital and Scientific Divides: Forging Partnerships with the Nigerian Diaspora is the first major effort to lay the groundwork for concrete and sustained interaction between Nigeria and her diasporans, facilitate the establishment of networks and partnerships between the Nigerian Diaspora and their counterparts at home for the benefit of the country.

It further emphasised that it is an opportunity to put to effect the transfer of skills, experiences and resources from the diaspora.

Experts back US to retain Internet root servers

MEMBERS of the Internet Service Providers (ISP) community in the country have endorsed the United States’ recent declaration of intention to retain the root servers of the Internet, based on security reasons.

The root name servers have the responsibilities for the domain’s where about and which servers are responsible for the TLDs that could be requested on the invent of Internet user’s querry of any sort.

Presently, there are 13 of such servers located at various centers globally, most of which are in the United States.

Some of the ISPs who spoke to Business Champion at the weekend, said the US action or intention is not far fetched, because the nation has invested so much money and expertise to the development of Internet.

Other reasons adduced by these ISPs was that since the root servers, for instance, have been in the US without any technical hitch, that it would be better if the country is allowed to retain it for the main time, with the hope that the processes of governing the Internet would also mature as time tickles.

Business Champion recalls that penultimate week, the United States’ Assistant Secretary at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), in the Department of Commerce,

Mr. Michael Gallagher, announced what analysts tagged the “new US principles on the internet”.

Although the announcement came as a shock to most stakeholders, but information gathered at the weekend by our correspondent, indicated otherwise, especially from the ISPs in the country.

They noted that though in the past, the US has said it would allow the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) responsible for maintaining the root file.

They also noted that the US position may not likely go down well with the United Nations, through which many poorer states have been requesting more input into how the internet is managed.

Leading respondents to the implications or otherwise of the declaration by the US, was the Executive Director of Nigeria Online Limited, Mr. Olaleye Alao, who is the Treasurer of the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG).

He pointed out that the internet itself started in the US, hence it could amount to security reasons especially following the September 11 incident in which many people died.

“The main reason for the US control is because of its concern for security and stability of the internet,” he said, stressing that the kind of control or governance depend largely on technical, political and internet aspects.

He pointed out that internet has evolved from a research and academic facility into a global facility available to the public for over 10 years now.

“This is why many different points of view have emerged about the scope and mechanism of internet governance. It is more than internet names and address and includes internet resources, security, development and the use of the internet,” he explained.

Managing Director of PiNet Limited, Mr. Lanre Ajayi, stated that as far as US started the process of deploying Internet, it would be difficult to release the root servers to other bodies considering the amount of financial commitment that have gone into the project.

He would prefer US to continue being in position of the root servers until the appropriate time, mostly based on the security.

For the chief executive of Equinox Technologies, Mr. Mba Nwakanma, he never thinks that US would relinquish the root servers, since the government knows the implication.

United Nations had at the end of the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva, Switzerland, set up a Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) to look into ways of deregulating the current strong hold of the United States on Internet, so as to make its processes more democratic.

There’s no fire incident in V.I. exchange – NITEL

MANAGEMENT of the national carrier, the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) Lagos zone, has denied some media reports that its Victoria Island exchange was gutted by fire.

The management team led by the Deputy General Manager (DGM) Operations, Mr. Akin Olufade and the Territorial Manager for Lagos Island Territory, Mr. Gbenga Odumosu, Wednesday, dispelled the stories in a chat with newsmen in Lagos.

“There was not even a spark at Victoria Island Exchange,” Mr. Olufade declared.

He explained that what happened was that the power supply to the exchange’s switching equipment was shut off, “because of the failure of the Rectifier Unit which, of course, regulates power supply to the exchange switch”.

Mr. Olufade also said that it was due to this failure that the exchange was shut down at about 2.30am Tuesday and by 3.15am on Wednesday, it was restored.

“We have been able to put the whole system back on line,” he asserted.

Explaining further, he said that NITEL Victoria Island Exchange has seven rectifiers units out of which five went off at the same time, therefore creating the bottleneck in the exchange transmission, which also affected all redundancy units, but “there was not even a single spark” at the exchange.

According to him, all efforts to tackle the problem by the limited corps of maintenance personnel on night duty proved unavailing and the team was enlarged later on Tuesday.

Pointing out that NITEL Lagos zone deployed the quickest possible means of informing the customers and the general public through radio announcements, where explanation was given about the fault, and efforts being made to repair it and the company’s regrets over the inconvenience the fault may have caused NITEL customers.

He stressed that the team worked through the day and night and was able to complete the repair and restore full service on the exchange in the early hours of Wednesday.

Mr. Olufade further explained that only the some Private Telecom Operators (PTOs) connected to the Victoria Island exchange were affected, others connected to Ikeja or Apapa were not affected either as NITEL subscriber, operator.

“If you are connected to V.I. you cannot make calls locally and internationally,” he said.

Emphasizing that the Rectifier units were Siemens GR 10 and 12, come with the line cards among other conductors.

While the step down occurred when they were on the public
electricity network, otherwise refer to as ‘NEPA’ in the local parlance.

NCS should engage IT pros in diaspora – Ogunneye

Managing Director of Data Sciences Nigeria Limited, Alhaji Ladi Moshood Ogunneye, is a founding member of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), and the immediate past president of the society. He speaks to Senior Reporter, REMMY NWEKE, on a number of issues in the Information Technology (IT) industry.
Excerpts:

Please review the industry for us since you left office as the President of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), about two years ago.

Thank you. We want to say that the Information Technology (IT) community has been moving on very well. There have been good emphases on software, not even from us in the private sector but also from the government. So, we now begin to see the collaboration between the society and government. And there are also other parties that are just coming in now and they all have been doing very well. We all now seem to be heading in the same direction.

But since you left office, has NCS been living up to your expectation?

In fact, let me say one thing about NCS. NCS has formed a long tradition of good continuity and good support of the past presidents. So, whatever that has been before I came, means that when I was there, I got the support of the past presidents. This is because we usually build on what was on the ground and in the same way, the present executive is tapping from the past presidents, including myself. Hence what you see at NCS today was what was on before. NCS can only move forward because there is this continuity and collaboration.

Then, what of the environment, would you say it is getting better or worse?

No doubt, whatever is the environment then, whether better or worse would never be the same now. But for now, it is better, because we now have a ceertain level or semblance of peace and mutual understanding or cooporation between us and the quasi-government institutions, which are really having the same concern like some of us in the private sector. I would say that the tune of collaboration now, is more meaningful.

What is your perception of government policies for the industry as of today?

Of course, if we are to assess by what is their action, and now talking about their action you would see today that the president of our country has come out in support of the software industry to grow. We have seen some input in our hardware area in, that one, two, three of our colleagues in the hardware industry and producing computers specifically. They have thrown the challenge to the industry to come up with the same kind of enthusiasm in the software industry. You can now see that this tallies with the objective of NCS, who had close to 10 years, said that Nigerians should go in the area of software and start software exhibition. So government’s position now is in tandem with that kind of thinking and we are very happy about that.

Nigeria can only be the beneficiary of such two endeavours that are merging; I am talking about the private sector and the government; government putting software in line with what the society is doing.
Tell us about Data Sciences’ involvement, especially in the area of hardware?

You probably know that Data Sciences Nigeria Limited is the first indigenous computer company in the country. We are into hardware vendoring, software and have been in the forefront of IT crusade in the country. If you look at the Nigeria Computer Society for example, Data Sciences has played a major role in getting it to where it is today and in the growth of that society over the years.

With all sense of humility, we have two past presidents of that society emerging from Data Sciences, so we have been quite supportive of the society and strong player too from the IT community.

With regards to Data Sciences, you know, IT is evolving on a daily basis and the good all days, traditional branded computer dealership is beginning to wean and that is because most of those computers are yielding to the general purpose Personal Computer systems, we too are trying to work around the changing market and at the same time trying to sustain our market share in the industry.

Then, what is your company’s relationship with UNITEC?
Data Sciences is one of the consortium that set up UNITEC, so we are one of the shareholders in the consortium.

How far has this translated to the growth of UNITEC?

UNITEC is one of the companies that are producing computers locally. Data Sciences and some other companies; IMS, Informatics, Microproducts, Chams, just to mention a few members of the consortium. So we are the companies that set up UNITEC. Like I told you earlier, the general purpose computing is evolving and for it to meet relevant niche in the market place and that is what UNITEC is trying to do now. I think the other computer producing companies are doing the same too.

Recently, there was a replacement for the late Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in the appointment of Prof. Cleopas Officer Angaye. First I would like to get your reaction on the appointment and then your expectations and advice for him?

One thing is that I think the position was advertised. Two, in the last few months, there have been some efforts at better understanding and better collaboration between NITDA, NCS and the Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN). We expect him to continue that, mostly as a member of NCS personally.

So, what we wish him is to continue with the kind of collaboration that we have had in the last few months.

Looking back, you would realize we have not gotten the IT Act yet, I would like to know your position on this now? Don’t you think it’s affecting the industry on the way forward?

Yes, the IT bill we understand is still going through some reading at the National Assembly and I am not sure it was the same bill that was initially sent to the House at the inception of this administration and in the format that it is now.

The fact is that on the first bill, there was no consensus on whether that was the proper thing to be pushed. And when you don’t have a consensus of what would be good for every body, the pushing would not be easy and successful and from all sections.

What is there now, I believe, is that it’s being pushed by everybody and we are told it would soon become a signed bill,that is an Act. So we are hoping it would soon happen and we shall all get there faster when all efforts are going in the same direction. I think we are beginning to witness that now.

Being the immediate past president of NCS, what would be your advice to the current executive of the society, as some of them were returned to their offices at the recent international conference of the society in Port Harcourt?

It is a fact that some where returned unopposed and some others elected unopposed and I think that was good especially for NCS which is the umbrella body of other interest groups. That is very good and it made the job of some of us who were adopted as electoral officers easier. (Laughs). I think that was good to have a consensus over a candidate.

With regards to advice for the current executive, you must not forget that the immediate past president of the society is also a member of the executive. That is number one and two, as the elder in the society, if I may say, most of our input would not be for show and they would be passed to the president and members. It would be in a more productive way and not playing to the gallery.

So, I would say the president is doing very well especially in the area of pushing software development and re-engaging with the Nigeria Information Technology Professionals in the Americas (NITPA) to create a window for all those products that we may produce locally, especially software, a window of exposing and selling them.

We are looking forward to more of such engagement with our colleagues in diaspora. For all the noise we have been making for Nigeria would not only be for Nigerians, but for the world and I believe that we have the capability and expertise to compete with the Indians and the world generally.

And for us to achieve that, we need all our colleagues in diaspora, not only in the United States (US). Although the US organ is very active, but we should now look at other areas like United Kingdom (UK) and Europe generally, so that whatever the capability we have would be opened to the rest of the world.

At Port Harcourt few weeks ago, Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Turner Isoun, challenged NCS on the capacity building in the area of biotechnology and how do you think the private sector would collaborate with the government to achieve this?

Now, most of the jobs that needed to be done, have to be done by the government in a way, it is not just glamour projects. But projects that are endearing and that would take time for them to yield fruits.

For instance, some 50 years ago, India started the process of building their country graduates in the sciences as much as possible. It is the fruit of such endeavour that now made it easy for India to now tap into IT in such a big way as they are doing.

So, Nigeria need to put emphasize on science education, IT education as much as possible. Even if it is only the five per cent of those who are trained that emerged to be players in IT, they will be just enough to carry the country along.

Then, we need to go into putting emphases on science education, IT education from primary school level to secondary and not even to talk about the universities. But as it is now, we don’t see that happening. Of course, at the level of the society, that is NCS, we are at the level of dealing with our members who are already graduates. So, somebody needs to do all that before becoming a graduate or creating more graduates in IT. That is the job of the government.

Of course, we do advise and do some accreditations to the universities, the polytechnics and all that. We helped with the syllabus for secondary schools and will do same for primary. Those areas we can help but for the actual job of making it happen, to make it possible for us to have IT education, science education in secondary schools, primary schools and universities, especially it has to be done by the government and in a very big way too.

It is that major job of educating that would make the job of having a few of them coming out to become skillful experts.
The brains are there for Nigerians, no doubt about that because they excel abroad. The country is even a big country, therefore, a big market for whatever we may produce. So the earlier we get into that, the earlier we begin to import less, and export more.

NIG introduces ‘Internet Consumers’ Parliament’

THE Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) has advanced plans to commence the nation’s ‘Internet Consumers’ Parliament’.

President of NIG and Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of Teledom International Limited, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, disclosed this to ITRealms in Lagos.

He said the Internet consumers’ parliament year, which first sitting would be between the first and second week of December this year in Lagos, would comprise all stakeholders in attendance.

According to him, from the members of the Internet Service Providers Association of Nigeria (ISPAN), Association of Tele-Centre and Café Operators of Nigeria (ATCON), Private Telephone Operators (PTO’s) and other members of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), who offer Internet-related services as well as Internet users and value added services companies, are billed to grace the inaugural parliament.

Some of the issues expected to be on top of the agenda at the first sitting would include the recent proposal on adoption of convergence licensing regime by the global telecommunication regulator, International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Others, ITRealms was informed would be the proliferation of visiting pornographic sites by Internet users in the country.

Also, the usage of Internet cafes as a launching ground for scam mail otherwise known as online 419- operators, among other online dubious activities.

Dr. Ekuwem said that the aim of introducing Internet Consumers’ Parliament is to further enthrone what he called “positive Internet usage culture” into the country and to live up to one of the objectives of NIG through awareness creation.

Equally, to be area of concern for the new parliament is the non-depositing of adequate or equivalent bandwidth after due payment has been made by consumers.

NIG, he reiterated, is for Internet advocacy, awareness, stressing that if the group have all the PTOs offering or even potential Internet service providers, to boost Internet penetration under one roof to hold discussions pertaining to problems, solutions and growth in the country.

“All would be for good of all Nigerian Internet consumers,” he asserted.

Emphasising that banks and other corporate organisations and institutions of higher learning offering Internet services to the end-users would also be invited.

In addition, Dr. Ekuwem said the Internet and telecom regulator in the country, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Information Technology policy executor, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Computer Professional (Registration) Council of Nigeria (CPN), ISPAN, to name a few, would be at the parliament expected to hold either monthly or quarter, depending on the decision reached at the first meet, this December.

“All these groups and consumers would use the platform to have an interactive sessions to identify problems in the industry and profer solutions,” he said.

As at the time of filling this report the venue, was yet to be disclosed, but our correspondent gathered that it may be at the old Senate Chamber at the Tafewa Balewa Square (TBS), Lagos-Island, in Lagos State.

The old Senate Chamber is currently where NCC is hosting its monthly Telecom Consumers Parliament which began last quarter of 2003.

Empowerment to reduce poverty in Africa – Mbeki

Deputy Chairman of the South African Institute for International Affairs at the Witwatersrand University, Mr. Moeletsi Mbeki, has blamed avalanche of poverty in the continent to lack of empowerment by the governments and elites.

He stated this in his observation in a study publication by the International Policy Network, made available to Business Champion.

He said in the study, "solution to Africa’s poverty is empowerment through property ownership and free trade".

Mr. Mbeki, who is brother to the South African president, pointed out that there have been recent discussions of the harm to Africa’s development done by corruption, but lamented, "little discussion about how to promote prosperity for all Africans".

He argued in the new study, that corruption and poverty in Africa are consequence of the invasive control over the African countries’ economies exerted by some predatory political elites.

"Development in sub-Saharan Africa requires a new type of democracy – one that empowers not just the political elite but private producers," said Mbeki.

He further argued that since the end of colonialism, most countries in Africa have been besetted by political elites who see the state as a means to acquire personal wealth through taxation and regulation.

"The history of Africa since the 1960s is the history of groups of elites seeking the ‘political kingdom’ with the primary purpose of enriching themselves," he asserted.

As a result, he said, they have siphoned much of the continent’s wealth and undermined the generation of new wealth.

To rectify this situation, therefore, he was of the belief that Africa’s poorest people must be empowered through the institutions of the free society encompassing property rights and markets.

"It is necessary that peasants, who constitute the core of the private sector in sub-Saharan Africa become the real owners of their primary asset – land," he said.

To enable such ownership, Mr. Mbeki said, freehold must be introduced and the so-called communal land tenure system, which is really state ownership of land, should be abolished.

He also emphasised the importance of removing internal and external restrictions on the ability of Africans to engage in trade.

"Africa’s peasants must gain access to world markets. The producers must be able to auction their own cash crops, including coffee, tea, cotton, sugar, cocoa and rubber, rather than be forced to sell them to state-controlled marketing boards," he declared.

African CSOs demand 2% VAT to boost ICT dev

THE continental Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), ended its session on African Regional Preparatory Meeting (ARPM) for the World Telecommunication Development (WTDC), slated for 2006 in Qatar, at the recently in Abuja, with a call on African governments to devote two per cent of their Value Added Tax (VAT) to boost their involvement in bridging the digital divide.

The support if approved would enable CSOs specializing on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) improve on their work in closing the gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have not’ on the continent.

Presenting the CSOs’ synthesized recommendations to the multi-stakeholders meeting Sunday evening at the Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja, Mr. George Christensen of the World Conference of Community Radio Broadcasters otherwise known as AMARC, said that this would immensely helpful to specialized CSOs.

He also said that CSOs demanded for 10 per cent of this total vote to be channeled to ICT-based civil groups.

This, he explained would facilitate their activities in contributing to ICT for development initiative.

Speaking earlier, the Coordinator, Action Aid International Nigeria and Association Progressive Communication (APC) policy animator for the country, Hajia Jummai Umar, lamented that VAT being collected all over the continent is yet to be accounted for by the leading class and government.

She further told the joint session on harmonising its recommendation to ARPM for onward inclusion into WTDC working document to also form partnership among them.

This, she said, would equally form the basis of networking among civil societies working on similar projects to share information and experiences.

Leader, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN) and immediate past President, Nigerian Information Technology (IT) Youth Ambassador, Mr. Gbenga Sesan, in his presentation, lamented the poor budget allocation to the youth in most African nations.

“They are usually less than 20 per cent of the annual budget,” he declared.

He also called for the establishment of youth office in the ministries in-charge of ICT across the continent.

Building human capacity, he said, should be focused on the youth, if the challenges facing future leadership are expected to witness a change for the 21 century development on the continent.

He maintained that there is need for the establishment of Youth Technology Fund (YTF).

This, he said, should be bank-rolled by ICT operators in Africa.
Additionally, Mr. Gbenga Sesan, who currently manages the Lagos Digital Village (LDV), said that by investing some of their profits to the fund, operators would be reinvesting on the youth.

Hence, promoting positive peer pressure through evolving training of the trainers’ scheme.

Pointing out that it would make them responsive to the needs of different able and physically challenged persons among the youth.

Mr. Gbenga further called for establishment of youth regional exchange programme, mostly on research induced projects.

Stressing that consideration for youth empowerment should revolve around harnessing the creative energies, matching investments on development and maintenance.

Experts back US to retain Internet root servers

MEMBERS of the Internet Service Providers (ISP) community in the country have endorsed the United States’ recent declaration of intention to retain the root servers of the Internet, based on security reasons.

The root name servers have the responsibilities for the domain’s where about and which servers are responsible for the TLDs that could be requested on the invent of Internet user’s querry of any sort. Presently, there are 13 of such servers located at various centers globally, most of which are in the United States.

Some of the ISPs who spoke to ITRealms at the weekend, said the US action or intention is not far fetched, because the nation has invested so much money and expertise to the development of Internet.

Other reasons adduced by these ISPs was that since the root servers, for instance, have been in the US without any technical hitch, that it would be better if the country is allowed to retain it for the main time, with the hope that the processes of governing the Internet would also mature as time tickles.

ITRealms recalls that penultimate week, the United States’ Assistant Secretary at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), in the Department of Commerce, Mr. Michael Gallagher, announced what analysts tagged the “new US principles on the internet”.

Although the announcement came as a shock to most stakeholders, but information gathered at the weekend by our correspondent, indicated otherwise, especially from the ISPs in the country.

They noted that though in the past, the US has said it would allow the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) responsible for maintaining the root file.

They also noted that the US position may not likely go down well with the United Nations, through which many poorer states have been requesting more input into how the internet is managed.

Leading respondents to the implications or otherwise of the declaration by the US, was the Executive Director of Nigeria Online Limited, Mr. Olaleye Alao, who is the Treasurer of the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG).

He pointed out that the internet itself started in the US, hence it could amount to security reasons especially following the September 11 incident in which many people died.

“The main reason for the US control is because of its concern for security and stability of the internet,” he said, stressing that the kind of control or governance depend largely on technical, political and internet aspects.

He pointed out that internet has evolved from a research and academic facility into a global facility available to the public for over 10 years now.

“This is why many different points of view have emerged about the scope and mechanism of internet governance. It is more than internet names and address and includes internet resources, security, development and the use of the internet,” he explained.

Managing Director of PiNet Limited, Mr. Lanre Ajayi, stated that as far as US started the process of deploying Internet, it would be difficult to release the root servers to other bodies considering the amount of financial commitment that have gone into the project.

He would prefer US to continue being in position of the root servers until the appropriate time, mostly based on the security.
For the chief executive of Equinox Technologies, Mr. Mba Nwakanma, he never thinks that US would relinquish the root servers, since the government knows the implication.

United Nations had at the end of the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva, Switzerland, set up a Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) to look into ways of deregulating the current strong hold of the United States on Internet, so as to make its processes more democratic.

SNO gets Udenwa’s applause, presents 30,000 free SIMs to Imo workers

Imo State Governor, Chief Achike Udenwa has a lauded the Second National Operator (SNO), Globacom, for making its lines affordable even as it has propelled a revolution in the communication industry.

This is coming as the SNO gave away 30,000 Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards free to the Imo State servants. 

Speaking at the presentation of 30,000 free Glo Mobile SIMs to all the employees of the Imo State Government in Owerri, Chief Udenwa commended the commitment of Globacom’s chairman, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jnr, to increase the access of Nigerians to effective communication.

The governor also launched the Call Telephone Operators’ (CTO) scheme for the state, a joint project between Globacom and the Imo State government to eradicate poverty in the state.

He said that about 1000 youths of the state will initially be involved in selling recharge cards and running call centers. 

“This will not only boost employment in the state but also spread the gospel of telecommunication throughout the 27 local government areas of our state”, he said.

Noting that he had been assured by Dr. Adenuga that Globacom services will be extended to all the local government areas in the state within the next six months.

The Director of Communications of Globacom, Mr. Joachim Atunwa, said the CTO scheme was a major initiative by Globacom to create jobs for hundreds of thousands of unemployed Nigerian youths.

“Under the first phase of this joint project with the Imo State Government, we shall handover 1,000 Profit Max Plus lines, 1000 handsets, 1000 Glo branded tables, 2000 chairs, 1000 parasols and N4 million worth of recharge cards to the state government for distribution to the beneficiaries.

Mr. Atunwa also commended the state government for fulfilling its financial obligation to the first phase of the project.
Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Globacom, Mr. Mohammed Jameel, later presented a copy of the telephone directory and a SIM pack to the governor.

The ceremony was attended by the chairman of the state Civil Service Commission, the Head of the State Civil Service, the Ozuruigbo of Owerri, Eze Emmanuel Njemanze, council chairmen, permanent secretaries, directors and other civil servants.

ITRealms recalls that the launch of the free access SIM in Imo state is the second by Globacom, having launched a similar scheme in Bauchi State last month.

The SNO which launched its operations in August 2003, has also commenced the CTO scheme in over 10 states and formed partnerships with the NDDC, NAPEP and SDPC in an elaborate effort to eradicate poverty from Nigeria.