MTN named 'Brand of the year'

MTN Nigeria has been adjudged the best brand in the telecom category by the National Institute of Marketing, a professional body for the Marketing profession in Nigeria.

Corporate Services Executive at MTN Nigeria, Mrs. Amina Oyagbola, disclosing this in a press statement made available to ITRealms, and said “we are humbled by this significant endorsement of confidence in our operations by these reputable institutions, considering that MTN is just a little over four years in Nigeria”.

She also said, the award recognizes the commitment to excellence and innovation and long-term contribution to the development of Nigeria’s economy.

“It also challenges us to continue to provide the best levels of service everywhere you go” she declared.

Mrs. Oyagbola noted that this endorsement by the apex marketing body is the fourth time MTN would receive from different institutions in Nigeria and it confirms the company’s leadership status in the Nigerian telecommunications industry.

It would be recalled that last weekend, MTN Nigeria was also pronounced the second “Nigeria’s Most Respected Company” in an award ceremony organized by PricewaterhouseCoopers and BusinessDay Newspapers at an event held at the Eko Hotel & Suites, Lagos.

This award is a global initiative instituted by PricewaterhouseCoopers and this is the first time it is being organized in the country.

Managing Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Mr. Ken Igbokwe, said MTN met the parameters for selection, which included, “good corporate citizenship, social responsibility and adherence to high ethical standards; unique and excellent leadership style coupled with strong management principles and structure.”

He also said that the most respected company is “a visionary and revolutionary company with strong focus, an innovative company, with good corporate governance practice, high shareholder interest and value, with an excellent/creative marketing programme and customer service/focus.”

Mrs. Oyagbola further pointed out that MTN has won a number of awards from inception including, THISDAY Newspaper award of “Brand of the Year”, 2002 and 2004.

This, she said, has been sustained by the winning of the position of “Brand of the Year” at the 2005 Nigerian Telecoms award and the City People Award for Excellence.

MTN also won a Gold Award for creativity and Quality of Service delivery at the Nigerian Information Technology & Telecom Awards NITTA 2002 and a Microsoft awards for doing the most to drive up the standards of IT services delivery in Nigeria.

She recalled that in 2004, MTN was voted the “Best Voice Calling Marketer of the Year at the Marketing Leaders Awards, and a “Leadership Awards 2004” from Card Technology Africa.

Expert hails www.champion-newspapers.com

Champion Newspapers website, www.champion-newspapers.com, has passed an assessment of the site by the global number one media analyzer based in Hamburg-Germany.

According to the Project Manager, Media Analyzer, Mr. Sebastian Grandt, while evaluating the company’s website ‘unofficially’ at a session with members of the third Multimedia and Online course for international journalists in Hamburg, the website is attractive.

He lauded the white spaces in between the categories in the website’s home page and news display, saying it makes champion-newspapers.com online attractive.

“I don’t have quarrels with the white spaces,” he declared in response to students’ enquiry.

The course is organized by the International Institute for Journalism based in Berlin, Germany.

Addressing the students who paid a visit to Media Analyzer’s Hamburg office, Mr. Grandt said, he does not have any problem with the white spaces used in fashioning the website.

This was due to some critic’s view that the white spaces were indication of lack of content.

Although he was uncomfortable with three animations on the website, namely on the motto of the company, stock exchange reports and underlined invitation urging visitors to visit again.

The expert also said these animations should have been reduced to one, especially on the stock report and referring to the one on the motto and underlining invitation as ‘compounding animation’.

However, the Media Analyzer’s expert further said websites must be kept simple with big headline points to attract readers to leading page stories, even as images have become imperative in media analysis due to impact it has on readers.

Mr. Grandt pointed out that his organization is concerned with visibility and usability of media online contents.

He warned of media houses allowing the online version to be over-loaded with adverts or contents, pointing out that opening every media website, readers are faced with some questions such as ‘which website is this, what can I do here and what’s the interest’.

“The bigger the image the more time people are attracted to the subject aside,” he declared.

Presently, Mr. Grandt noted that Media Analyzer’s top customers include Siemens, Yahoo, The Economists, T-Mobile among others.

He further disclosed that online readers spend approximated 10 to 25 seconds per media website, stressing that in the actual sense, online visitors to media website do not read immediately, but scan over the page contents first before deciding on what to read.

Media Analyzer, he said, has offices in Hamburg, United States among other offices, while its operations have been divided into sales, software and project management.

Mobile growth rises to 374m in Latin America

FIFTH regional International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecom Americas and weekend with revealation that mobile growth in the region has grown from 128 million subscribers to 374 million, within the last five years.

ITU said that the evetn held at the Bahia Convention Center in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil with theme: “Moving to a Latin Beat’, was broad and pan-regional on focus and commitment.

Indicator released at the conclusion of the event by ITU showed that the growth of mobile telecommunication has been very impressive, especially in the last half a decade.

“From 1999 to 2004, the number of mobile subscribers have grown from 128 million to 374m, a more than three fold increase in five years,” according to ITU indicator for the region released during the event.

It also stated that demand for other services is equally strong — especially in the area of broadband, which is emerging as a key element of new digital solutions such as Voice over IP (VoIP).

ITU noted that while most mobile growth has so far been due to prepaid voice services, advanced mobile data solutions such as Triple Play and mobile multimedia are ready to further spur uptake of new services, as converged technologies become a reality.

In addition, fixed-line network growth, the global regulatory body said, has remained virtually flat across the region, creating an important impediment to bridging the Digital Divide in the area of online connectivity.

Even continued spectacular growth in mobile will not solve this problem until wireless networks are able to provide reliable broadband services.

The regulator further said that average annual growth rate of fixed-line was just 0.7 per cent from 2000-2004.

Deputy Secretary-General of the ITU, Mr. Roberto Blois, said in an address to the occasion that TELECOM AMERICAS 2005 has served to frame the critical issues that needed to be addressed to reach the next level of growth in the region.

"… We have seen the coming together of regulatory, standardization and product development discussions concerning broadband, mobile, multimedia, and other emerging technologies. The industry is poised for new growth, but this will need to be well-coordinated in order to ensure true digital inclusion throughout the Americas,” he asserted.

Obviously referring to the advent of fast-moving technologies such as third generation (3G), Internet Protoco TV (IPTV) and Triple Play, Mr. Blois declared, "Powerful technologies such as these require interoperable standards and an enabling regulatory environment, so they could be brought to market successfully."

The high-level executives and officials from across the region, including regulators from Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Jordan, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Tanzania, Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela attended the convention and were led by President of Anatel, the National Regulatory Agency of Brazil, Mr Elifas Gurgel do Amaral.

Iyanam returns to Globacom as COO, New Markets

*As Ndukwe lauds promo

PIONEER top marketing executive of the Second National Carrier (SNO), Globacom, Mr. Okon Iyanam, has returned to the telecom company as Chief Operating Officer (COO), New Markets and Special Assignments.

This came as the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Ernest Ndukwe has lauded Globacom on its Double Slam promotion.

ITrealms recalls that Mr. Iyanam last weekend, resigned his appointment with Vmobile Nigeria as the Chief Marketing Officer.

The return of Mr. Iyanam, who has served previously at various capacities at Globacom before leaving in 2003, was described as a home coming by the Public Relations Manager of Globacom, Mr. Bode Opesietan.

According to the SNO’s Executive Director, Human Resources, Mr. Adewale Sangowawa, Mr. Iyanam, who has since assumed duties would take charge of emerging business opportunities and other special responsibilities assigned by the management of the company.

In a move regarded as home coming, Iyanam resigned from Vmobile a couple of days back as the Chief Marketing Officer to re-join Globacom, a company he served in various capacities as pioneer staff before he left in 2003.

Mr. Sangowawa also noted that Globacom since inception commercially on August 29, 2003, has been an equal-opportunity company, giving thousands of bright, young Nigerians an enabling environment to reach their fullest potentials.

Meanwhile, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Ndukwe, and Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Media, Ms. Abike Dabiri, have urged other corporate organizations to emulate Globacom’s on-going double slam promotion.

They spoke at the first Abuja draw of the promotion held last week and commended the development of promotions in the telecommunications sector.

“This is very interesting. It is not always that operators put up events of this magnitude to reward subscribers. Globacom, therefore, deserves to be commended and I want to thank them for recognizing and rewarding their subscribers,” said Ndukwe.

Dr. Ndukwe who was special guest of honour at the draw also urged Globacom to extend its services to other African countries, noting that the Second National Operator had the capability to accomplish this.

“The network has the capacity and the muscle to extend its services beyond the shores of Nigeria. It has done well in the country and should look beyond Nigeria,” Ndukwe said.

For Ms Dabiri, who drew one of the winning numbers, 0805-5957584, belonging to a 26-year-old Mobile Police Constable, Mr. Sunday Atulukwu, winning one of the four cars on offer, a Kia Sorento jeep, “This is the grand father of all promotions”.

She pointed out that Globacom has shown that it is really a Nigerian company that has lived up to its social responsibility role.

“It is commendable and I hope others will emulate Glo,” Dabiri stated.

Other winning numbers were 0805-4645126 which won a Kia Picanto car, 0805-3027119 (Honda City) and 0805-8548727 (Mercedes Benz E240).

The draw is the fifth Globacom has held so far. Two have been held in Lagos and one each in Enugu and Kano.

The draws have produced winners of twenty cars, five Mercedes E240, five Kia Sorento jeeps, five Honda City and five Kia Picanto cars.

HR managers to meet @ CTO-05

COMMONWEALTH Telecommunication Organisation (CTO), has finalized plans to host Human Resources managers to a three-day conference on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Toronto, Canada.

This is the first time in the history of CTO that such a specialized meeting is being organized for Human Resources experts.

Slated to hold in November, CTO said, over 40 HR experts globally have confirmed participation.

CTO’s Bharma Kerai, said participants are expected from Europe, Carribbean, Africa and to deliberate on best practices in the HR industry in relation to ICT.

The organizers said despite the rapid innovation and adoption of new technologies in HR management, the need for efficient HR management strategies and best practice in the ICT sector in emerging and deregulating markets, particularly in the telecom sector has remained largely unanswered.

Operators in these increasingly competitive markets, CTO noted, must rapidly migrate to more efficient profiling, recruitment, development retention techniques in order to remain competitive.

Director, Business Development at CTO, Mr. Nick Cabrera was quoted as saying, “With the rapid projected development of Human Resources there has never been a more crucial time to learn new adapting HR strategies within the changing ICT industry than now.”

He explained that even though there is extensive expertise available, “many businesses are still faced with the challenge of sometimes long transition periods from a deep legacy of HR practice in non-competitive environments to quickly adapt and respond to new technologies and competition”.

He stressed that CTO is convinced that this event would be an eye-opener to every one interested in discovering from others or sharing their experience or advice.

The organizers said that the event titled ‘HR for ICT’ is the must-attend event for any HR professional involved in the ICT industry globally, just as it would feature presentations and case studies from high-level industry gurus.

CTO also pledge in-depth panel discussions as the agenda cover several topics essential to enhancing understanding of the critical issues and how HR professionals could expand their company’s HR strategies.

CTO is an international development partnership between Commonwealth and non-commonwealth governments, businesses and civil society organizations focused on ICT.

tagesschau.de survives on E16m without adverts

The online edition of the Germany public-owned television, tagesschau.de, depends annually on about 16 million Euro subvention generated from the nation’s radio and television tax fund.

Editorial Manager at tagesschau.de online, Mr. Jorg Sadrozinski, disclosed this to newsmen from 11 countries on tour to the station, under the InWent’s Capacity Building Development for media, the International Institute for Journalism (IIJ), who were in Hamburg at the weekend.

He said the total sum is part of the E17 monthly tax paid by users of radio and television in the country.

This, he explained, was the reason behind non-advertisement in the media especially the online edition.

“We’re financed by licensing fees of about E17 monthly paid by the citizens of Germany,” he said.

Mr. Sadrozinski also noted that this amount collected by the revenue authorities and remitted to the organization is enough for the annual sustenance of the media outfit.

The medium which has bureaus at various parts of the world including Africa, he said, offers its services free.

Emphasizing that his office deployed a content management system that enables it to offer Short Messaging Service (SMS), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) based Value Added Service (VAS) to the citizens.

In offering this VAS, he said, tagesschua.de is partnering with Vodafone and e-plus among other telecom operators in the country to ensure the popularity of the services continue to grow.

He later showed the visitors round the premises of the organisation’s newsroom and how they source and provide editorial contents mostly for those who wish to subscribe specifically for particular interest.