Raising stake for subscribers

Increasingly, the environment is getting better for the telecommunications consumers, mostly with the plans to set up Consumer Negotiating Panel by the regulator, reports REMMY NWEKE.

20m subscribers target

AT the first anniversary of the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) held on Thursday, May 26, 2005 at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, the nation’s Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, had projected that by end of this year, 2005, the number of telephone lines in the country would have reached 20 million.

"We are expecting that by the end of this year (2005) the number of telephone lines would have risen to twenty million and the saying that ‘telephone lines is not for the poor’ will finally be laid to rest," he declared.

Also, ITREALMS recalls that in early 2004, Telecom Answers Associates, led by astute expert, Mr. Titi
Omo-Ettu, had proclaimed that the market growth recorded over 140 per cent between August 2001 when the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) went commercial and year ended December 2004.

Consumer Parliment

It was perhaps this increasing subscriber base that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) foresaw that gave birth to the monthly Telecoms Consumer Parliament under its Consumer Affairs Bureau (CAB) in September 2001 to inform, educate and protect all the consumers of telecommunications services in the country.

CAB has as its mission, to serve as the industry’s watchdog by protecting consumers in a professional and courteous manner.

At first, CAB started as a Lagos based forum with its Telecom Consumers Parliament, due to the number of subscribers and operators located in the state, but later, it was extended to the six geographic zones.

End of year edition

Although the last three months of this year saw this forum shifted since October till Wednesday, December 7, which left some industry watchers wondering what has become of the parliament.

The edition which is the last for the year 2005, no doubt, showed the influence this consumer-service providers’ forum has on Nigerians, mostly telecom subscribers, once the information is passed or announcement is made of a date, the old Senate Chamber, at the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) Lagos, is always full with participants.

With some coming to complain, others came to know what is happening in the telecom consumerism aspect of the industry, yet another set of subscribers satisfied with one service or another came to give testimonies, at least, to show that efforts of Parliamentarians are not taken for granted.

Reaffirmed support

The fact is that over time, NCC has increasingly reaffirmed its support for the consumers and trying to eschew being seen as telecom operators’ motivated agency but an independent regulator.

Before now, NCC has asserted its authority severally including by insisting that operators take decision that would make consumers of telecom services feel belonged to the Nigerianness of the commission.

One of these assertions was the recent declaration by NCC to set up a Consumer Negotiating Panel (CNP) to face a leading GSM operator, Vmobile Nigeria, for unilaterally withdrawing accumulated subscribers’ validity, recently.

The indication for the panel follows a complaint tendered before the Telecom Consumers Parliament held penultimate Wednesday in Lagos by consumer rights organization.

The organization reported that Vmobile had on inception made its validity open entailing that subscribers could accumulate validity as long as they recharge their Subscriber Identity Module (SIM).

But recently, the operator reduced it to about 90 days without any recourse to the feeling of the subscribers, aside from sending notice through Short Messaging Service (SMS).

Contract is contract

Responding to the issues in his closing remark at the last monthly Parliament for the year 2005, the Executive Vice Chairman and chief executive, NCC, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe decried the decision of the GSM operator, stressing that some of the subscribers must have bought their lines based on that premise.

He said that his office would set up a Consumer Negotiating Panel to discuss with the operator the compensation to be given to the subscribers.

This, he said, could be in the neighbourhood of N5,000 to N10,000 free airtime, depending on the level of validity accumulated by various customers in order for Vmobile to bail itself out of the disrupted contract.

He counselled Vmobile to warm up for the panel by putting its solicitors in place because NCC would soon assemble a group of solicitors from its side to represent consumers at the panel.

"A contract is a contract. If you want to make a change there exists plans including buying your way out and giving enough time for them (customers) to adjust," he said.

According to him, Vmobile would explain to the panel the worth of the cancelled validity to consumers for backing out of the contract without regards.

Prior to this withdrawal amongst others, some validity accumulation on the network was not specified, and in most cases it was a selling point for the network because some subscribers, would not like to be cut-off the network on the excuse of forgetting to recharge or even travelling out of the country for a long period of time.

This follows the reduction of most validity accumulated to just 90 days, approximately three months, became inappropriate while some subscribers have actually accumulated up to 2014 and above, especially for the prepaid consumers.

Standing panel

In the past, NCC has succeeded in making sure that telcos do not advertise what they are not capable of offering to the market, and using very tiny words to inscribe conditions on promotion was abolished; which may not even be readable to the consumers.

Above all, what NCC has achieved with its current steps and more is to reclaim and stamp its authority which in the earlier years of GSM advent purportedly resided with the operators, just as they smile to the banks and Nigerian subscribers groan unchecked.

This move to set up CNP, hopefully would not stop with ‘incursion’ into Vmobile action against the subscribers, but should be made a standing panel to address such similar cases as indiscriminate removal of credits and arbitrary tariff deduction even without making calls on some other networks, in order to continuously determine some of these issues that receive good representation from the subscribers to the operators especially at the negotiating table.

CTOs concern

Top of these anomalies seems to be that the operators change call tariffs indiscriminately without concern to the Commercial Telephone Operators (CTOs), who most of the time load huge sum of credits, only to be informed that the tariff has been altered upwards.

Apart from aiding their customers to literarily run away, recovery
of business fiscal flow becomes extremely difficult.

It also goes that in some of the networks, subscribers have raised the issue of topping credit, with say a N1000 in the night with the hope of making urgent morning calls the following day just to discover this amount has been wrongly deducted either in part or in whole, in the name of access charges on networks which upposedly should not have reduced any kobo.

Consistency on the part of NCC will not only place the agency aright but adorn it with the trust of both the consumers and service providers alike.

Internet has affected courier positively - RedStar boss

MANAGING Director, RedStar Express, a licensee of the Federal Express Corporation (FedEx) in the country, Mr. Isaac Orolugbagbe, has said that the growth of Internet globally, have affected courier business positively, just as the firm has plans to aggressively market its RedStar Ground.

Mr. Orolugbagbe in a chat with newsmen at an end of year engagement in Lagos, said that less people now send letter or parcel through the courier.

He also noted that people doing online purchases still use the
courier companies to ship such goods, which means more income for courier
companies, even as most of them are now adjusting to the reality call of
Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

He stated that, you could order everything on display on the web, but the Internet would not bring such goods at your door step, but courier firms’ especially FedEx/RedStar can.

RedStar Express, Mr. Orolugbagbe said, has equally concluded plans to aggressively market its latest addition, the RedStar Ground.

He further said that apart from the readiness to market the product aggressively, infrastructure is being put on the ground to ensure the success of the grand entry of RedStar Ground, such as more fleets of vehicles and more Nigerians would be engaged.

RedStar Ground, Mr. Orolugbagbe pointed out is top on the list of the company’s several initiatives introduced this year.

To this end, he said an Assistant General Manager (AGM) for RedStar
Ground has been appointed in the person of Mr. Desola Odediran.

Also, the firm’s Information Technology (IT) unit, he said, has changed for the better, but would be officially launched next year.

He maintained that cost of maintaining ground courier service such as in land transport have not been easy but very expensive due to poor nationwide road network.

InterSwitch, ISOs, 3 others partner on 50,000 POS

Premier transaction switching and processing company, InterSwitch, along with its Electronic Fund Transfer Point of Sale (E-POS), the Independence Service Organisations (ISOs), have sealed deal with Verifone, Lipman and Ingenico for the purchasing of 50,000 Point-of-Sale (POS) terminals.

The selection of Verifone, Lipman and Ingenico, according to the Group Head, Service Delivery at InterSwitch, Mr. Akeem Lawal, was based on their positions as leading suppliers of wireless point-of-sale terminals for the operation of cashless project after a review of various E-POS terminal manufacturers.

He emphasized that one critical factor in the vendor selection was the commitment of these vendors to have a long term view of the market as well as provide local support in the country to the ISO community.

"As part of this deal, the manufacturers via their authorized resellers, have offered discounted pricing for these terminals to the ISO community in their bid to support the introduction and launch of the first ever online real-time transactions using POS terminals in Nigeria," he explained.

Mr. Lawal said, the first batch of terminals for the pilot has been delivered and is currently being rolled out to selected merchant locations.

A press statement from InterSwitch made available to Champion Infotel, quoted Verifone representative as saying, "The evolving payment market in Nigeria represents a significant opportunity for Verifone to provide its solutions not only to the banking sector, but also to other value-driven projects in government, health, transportation and telecommunications."

Also, according to Lipman’s representative, "This order from the ISOs represents the success of our continuing strategic efforts to achieve growth in new market segments. We are pleased to have been selected as one of the preferred POS vendor for Nigeria and are confident that the Lipman POS solution will be an integral part of success of the planned Operation Cashless Initiative."

Mr. Lawal, further said, "InterSwitch is pleased to have Lipman, Ingenico and Verifone as its preferred POS solution providers.

In addition to the quality and reliability advantages of these terminals over solutions we tested, we were extremely impressed by Lipman and Verifone’s service and support capabilities".

APC’s UPS enables Nortel data, IP convergence

Increasing demand for Internet Protocol (IP)-based solutions with built-in power availability capabilities from the American Power Conversion (APC) solutions is facilitating additional feature for Nortel Business Communications Manager (BCM) 50, now on offer, according to the Country General Manager for Africa at APC, Mr. Carl Kleynhans.

The Intelligent APC UPS interface, he said, has the feature to provide battery health which allows for power quality monitoring and graceful shutdown of the BCM in the event of an extended power outage.

The BCM 50 provides advanced capabilities such as telephony, voice messaging and unified messaging, IP networking, Internet access, contact centres with skills-based routing and IP telephony.

The BCM 50 also has a highly-scalable solution that enables small enterprises to benefit from convergence capabilities that were previously only available to much larger organisations, offering hundreds of features and a full suite of integrated applications.

"The market for Voice over IP continues to increase as companies discover that this technology could help them grow and compete more effectively," said Mr. Kleynhans, stressing that by using Nortel Network’s Business Communications Manager, companies now could adopt IP-based solutions at their own pace and gain a strategic edge by reducing operating costs, improving customer service and expanding their market reach.

Product Manager at Nortel BCM, Mr. Jacek Jarmoc, said Nortel Network’s decision to add the Intelligent APC UPS interface feature to the BCM 50, is to ensure uninterruptible power for IP-based telephony and data resources is critical in avoiding dropped calls and lost information in the event of a power outage.

More importantly, he said, this capability ensures the communications infrastructure will be available when a steady power supply is unavailable.

"Of equal importance is the automatic shutdown capability, which
ensures BCM 50 users will not lose data and that communications will be
operational as soon as the power returns. Nortel is pleased to work with APC to
support the BCM 50 solution because of APC’s leadership in the power
availability industry and their reputation for quality, innovation and support,"
Mr. Jarmoc said.

Founded in 1981, APC is a leading provider of global, end-to-end solutions for real-time infrastructure.

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

MTSFirst presents ‘Jaara’ to subscribers

MTS First Wireless, has announced a new promotion for the Christmas and New Year celebrations, with a variety of offers to old and intending subscribers who could now buy one desktop phone and get a mobile line free.

The promotion tagged ‘Jaara Mathematics’, as said by the Chief Marketing Officers at MTS, Ms. Uche Ofodile, said, customers could now buy a Dowtel desktop phone for N15,000 and get a ZTE X100 mobile phone for free.

MTSfirst is also offering a massive reduction on the ZTE X100 mobile phone which sells for N10,000 for one, now being bundled for N13,000, for two mobile lines, giving subscribers a saving of N7,000.

She explained that there is N500 worth of free credit for both the new phone bought and the free line respectively.

Subscribers, according to her, could top their credits with any denomination of recharge card from Mtsfirst during the promo and receive an automatic 10 per cent of additional credit.

This promotion, Ms. Ofodile said, would last till January 31, 2006.

She further said dealers of Mtsfirst are not left out as any dealer
who activates 100 Dowtel Desktop phones with the associated free mobile phones,
or 200 ZTE X100, will get additional 10 ZTE mobile phones free.

Chief Marketing Officer said, Jaara Mathematics simply means getting more.

"We are giving more savings, more value and more credits," she asserted.

She also said MTSfirst subscribers, both old and new deserved a very special treat for the holiday season, even as the operator wants to encourage others to join the new Mtsfirst family of affordable services.

Meanwhile, MTSfirst at the weekend renewed its bond of friendship with the dealership community when it hosted its dealers in an interactive session at the Mtsfirst Care Center in Ikeja.

Chief Operating Officer of Mtsfirst, Mr. Damoye Oyesiku, said the operators’ pledge to keep to all its promises to the dealers, is currently expanding the network vigorously.

This, he said, is evident with the expansion to Abeokuta and
enormous progress in the expansion of the Lagos network to ensure robust network
coverage.

Emphasizing that the importance of the dealers in the Mtsfirst business case pledged to support the dealers in any way that would make their business profitable.

Vmobile collaborates Atos, Airwide to launch service

LEADING Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM), Vmobile Nigeria, in collaboration with Atos Origin and Airwide Solutions would soon commence interactive services to increase its revenue generation.

Public Relations specialist at Vmobile, Mr. Emma Otokhine informed that the collaboration would afford Vmobile with a simple and reliable Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD).

USSD, is a technology unique to GSM and is a capability built into the GSM standard for support of transmitting information over the signaling channels of the GSM network.

Atos Origin, a leading international information technology (IT) services company, and Airwide Solutions, a global leader in providing mobile infrastructure software to enhance and ensure mobile communications for wireless operators, were selected by Vee Networks Nigeria Limited (Vmobile Nigeria) to deploy a USSD to boost its Global Packet Radio Service (GPRS).

He said, that while Aircode makes it possible for Vmobile Nigeria to rapidly deploy interactive applications such as Vmobile’s Call-Me-Back service, Television (Tv) voting, or transactional services like m-banking that will significantly improve revenues.

Aircode works on the majority of legacy handsets and offers a
seamless end-user experience, to ensure mass-market penetration and rapid
increase in voice and data usage.

Further benefit of Aircode is the enhancement and simplification of customer care services such as account balance inquiry and account recharge which is currently performed using the Interactive Voice Response (IVR).

He also said Aircode would complement the existing IVR by offering an efficient and cost-effective self-care alternative to Vmobile subscribers, Atos Origin offered and integrated Airwide’s aircode solution to Vmobile Nigeria.

Managing Director of Atos Origin South Africa, Mr. Alain M. Michel, said "The high quality and reliable solutions from Airwide made it the obvious choice for Atos Origin to answer Vmobile’s new GPRS initiatives and we are delighted to be working with a flexible, dynamic and committed company like Airwide".

Acting Chief Engineering Officer for Vmobile Nigeria, Mr. Eric Valentine said the choice of Airwide and Atos Origin have supplied us with a solution that will enable Vmobile Nigeria to offer a whole range of new interactive services and more importantly, a significant increase in voice and data revenues.

"Aircode is a proven solution offered by a team of experienced and dedicated people. This combination convinced us to choose aircode," he said.

Starcomms cuts off 46 fraudsters, unveils anti-spam mechanism

Coming out of its anti-labour feud with the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), leading Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) operator, Starcomms Limited, has announced the shutting of about 46 suspected spammers and fraudsters on its Internet network, just as it has introduced anti-spam mechanism to reduce tariffic of fraudulent activities on its Internet service among subscribers.

With this, Starcomms assumed the first Private Telecommunication Operator (PTO) in the country to ever introduce such an online anti-fraud among the existing Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

ITREALMS recollects that the presidency in the determination to
fight this monster called online fraud, otherwise known as 419 scam, had earlier
set up a Presidential Committee on the subject, which paved the way for the
National Working Group on Cybercrime (NWGC) being co-ordinated by Mr. Basil
Udotia.

Marketing Director at Starcomms, Mr. Omar Lababidi, while introducting the mechanism in Lagos, said it would enhance the efforts aimed at reducing fraud on its internet service from this part of the world.

The mechanism, he said, has the co-operation of Huawei Technologies to monitor and tackle fraudulent use of the internet.

The efforts, he also said, include creation of database of fraudulent accounts which will be reported to the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) and other relevant law enforcement agencies.

In addition, he said, it would afford the operator the chance to
device ways of warning the customers that spammers and fraudesters will not be
tolerated on the network.

He cautioned that anybody found engaging in internet fraud will automatically forego all rights and privileges as a customer on the Starcomms.

Mr. Lababidi further said that his company has, so far, shut down 46 spam and fraud users on the Starcomms account, adding that the gesture is aimed at protecting the innocent and improving the nation’s image in the international community.

Starcomms, has steadily maintained market dominance in its FWA sector.

Changing hunger figure with biotech

Features of the week:

Inspired to change the world around him in Northern Nigeria and beyond, young award-winning Samuel Odofin, thinks the psyche of youth over biotechnology must change for good, REMMY NWEKE reports.

The second phase of the World Summit on the Informa-tion Society (WSIS-05) ended in the city of Tunis, with 18-year Nigerian, Samuel Oloyede Odofin, emerging the second prize winner for the development category of the World Summit Youth Award (WSYA).

The awards organised by the Salzburg, Austria-based coordinating team at the International Centre for New Media (ICNM), has its organizational framework within the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society in partnership with the WSIS Youth Caucus.

The WSYA is held under the patronage of Vivienne Reding, European Commissioner for the Information Society and media, whereas it enjoys sponsorships of Internet Society (ISOC), Logitech and Siemens AG.

Participants of the awards are youths under the age of 30 who are leading adopters of new technologies, as well as playing critical role in a global information society.

Images of youth in most developing countries look apathetic, distrustful and angry, but there is another world of youth; those who have technological expertise, dynamic energy and innovation according to ICNM.

Biotechnology, as said by Pamela Peters, author of ‘Biotechnology: A Guide To Genetic Engineering,’ published by Wm. C. Brown Inc., 1993, said that the term ‘biotechnology’ has flourished since prehistoric times and when the first human beings realized that they could plant their own crops and breed their own animals, they learned to use biotechnology.

He also said that the discovery that fruit juices fermented into wine, or that milk could be converted into cheese or yoghurt, or that beer could be made by fermenting solutions of malt and hops began the study of biotechnology.

Emphasizing that the term brings to mind many different things; some think of developing new types of animals, others dream of almost unlimited sources of human therapeutic drugs. Yet another group envisions the possibility of growing crops that are more nutritious and naturally pest-resistant to feed a rapidly growing world population.

Mr. Peters went on to say that in the purest form, "biotechnology"
term refers to the use of living organisms or their products to modify human
health and the human environment.

Probably, this is where our Samuel Odofin fits in when he began his Biotechnology: The Food Solution - at www.odofin.com, a campaign which began three years ago.

This online informative and educational gateway, he said, was set up to see to the creation of awareness on biotechnology and its relevance for agricultural products as well as food security in this era.

The campaign for biotechnology, Odofin noted, is evident of the compassion he has for the people who stay around him, at his base in the northern country side of Kaduna.

"And it has contributed to creating the ‘hunger’ figure that is internationally imposed on Africa as a continent. Moreso, we are faced with a fiscally tested solution but it’s still going under heavy criticism, that’s why I took the campaign as seriously as it is now and obviously to the international level involving big organizations," he informed.

In Nigeria, he said, the nation needs to re-orientate the psyche of the youths, and until this is done the youths would start thinking of how to better the live of others in every little way they could, in other words, the situation might not be significantly different.

This, he also said, is because one thing worthy of learning from the
project has been that, in the process of trying to help others "you find out
that you are helping yourself even more".

He cited an instance, which is the privilege he has to travel to about six countries with his biotech campaign and twice to the United kingdom and which has really exposed him as a person and of course, elevated his personality and yet still fighting for the African future in his own way.

Odofin, a member of the International Association of Webmasters and a certified Microsoft’s Application Developer (ASP) since 2003, started his internet multimedia production at the age of 15, and at that time has produced a web portal on Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) which was nominated and eventually won the golden web awards organised by the International Association of Webmasters.

Then in July 2003 Samuel Odofin began another project; the biotech project, in collaboration with a 16 year-old Egyptian friend named, Mohammed Abdel Raouf.

By September of that year, both produced the initial version of the website which was used to enter for the Microsoft motandao Afrika contest, of which Odofin was invited for project defense in Egypt in October 2003.

He used the chance to explain the idea of the project before professionals from various fields and international personalities, and at the end, the project was awarded the first place - platinum - award in the contest whereas he was given a crystal laurel.

Early 2004, he commenced the redesigning of the whole website alone to make it even more interactive and easy to use, based on the context that he was given a free server in the Netherlands by a friend which hosts the domain www.odofin.com.

Late in 2004, he entered another international contest for youth-led
action project; the Childnet Academy awards, which was co-hosted by the Cable
and Wireless Telecommunication Company and a London-based Childnet
International, while the award presentation was held in Montego Bay in
Jamaica.

He crowned it all this year by picking the WSIS WSYA award at the just concluded second phase in Tunis.

Odofin’s interactive website designed to raise awareness on the use of agricultural biotechnology in combating food shortages and insecurity in Africa was chosen as one of the best e-content projects, so odofin.com, on November 16, at a gala nite received the WSYA award amidst other notable young men and women.

Managed from the city of Kaduna, Odofin’s project scaled through amidst 299 others from over 70 countries of the world, and which leaves the young man excited.

Speaking to Champion Infotel on his Tunis experience, he said, it was an honour for him.

"I felt extremely honoured when I was informed that I was one of the best multimedia developers in the world and I looked at it first as a privilege and secondly as an opportunity to tell the world that good things still come out of the slum," he asserted.

Project manager of ICNM, Mr. Thomas Biebl, said that the award has availed them the opportunity to see online music communities, digital design training for slum youth, interactive gaming platforms, e-learning, flash applications and an HIV/AIDS information portal to name just a few.

The top three projects, he explained, in each WSYA category were
focused on development, creativity and culture as well as community
engagement.

He stressed, it is a global initiative to select and promote the world’s best in e-Content and creativity.

The Biotechnology: The Food Solution campaign shows is like what the organizers, ICNM rightly pointed out;
looking at the other side, there are some young men and women embarking on something positive that would not merely change their lives but that of others in the society.

Though Odofin may be unsung in the country, but his campaign speaks for itself and him as well, in addition to being worthy of encouragement.

Omatek targets merging banks with suite offer

LEADING Information and Communications Technology (ICT) company, Omatek Computers Limited is targeting merging banks in the country with special suite of solutions.

Chief executive, Omatek Computers, Mrs. Florence Seriki, disclosed this and said that her firm came up with the offer to enable merging banks cut cost at this time of transformation of the industry.

Key on the suite is the firm’s Citrix, Plasma large screen and Dura laptops among others.

Mrs. Seriki, said, for instance that Citrix is a robust solution that would allow merged banks with different Information Technology (IT) solutions to integrate such solutions seamlessly without resorting to acquire a new software platform.

She recalled that following the financial regulator, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) directive last year, all banks in the country would have re-capitalised to the tune of N25 billion before December 31, this year.

Majority of the banks in the industry, she noted have since re-capitalised through acquisition and consolidation bringing into their new organisation different software platforms that may be discarded to allow for smooth operations.

The Omatek boss pointed out that with Citrix, "banks need not do away with their huge investment in their various software solutions and they also need not create huge budget for training employees in a new software platform."

She explained that Citrix enables for integration of all existing solutions and offer a convergence window for banking processes to continue without hiccups.

According to her, banks procurement and maintenance of software solutions in the last few years was estimated at N4.8 billion, noting that consolidation could mean discarding these solutions without yet fully optimizing their value.

Citrix, she also said, permits banks to save the budget on new solutions and ease the expected problems in getting different merging banks to have their systems talk to each other.

"We believe banks could channel such savings into meeting their primary responsibility of funding enterprises in the manufacturing and other sectors to grow the economy," she declared, stressing that Omatek’s business is to facilitate banks to meet the challenges of allowing IT solutions to drive their operations effortlessly without having to invest all over again.

Mrs. Seriki, who recently was inducted into the Hall of Fame by the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) for Entrepreneurship and Promotion of ICT on the continent, said, by pushing its brain boxes and other hardware solutions to fully assist players in the emerging mega banking environment to meet their corporate targets.

Top on the suite is Omatek’s Dura book, a laptop acclaimed for its ruggedness and equated as ‘Hummer jeep’ in the computing business and is designed to be shock-resistant making it one of the world’s toughest notebooks, according to her.

Equipped with Intel Centrino processors, she said, Dura allows for fast multi-tasking to make job completion achievable at a very high speed.

Juniper Solutions repositions, moves

In continuation of its repositioning exercise, Juniper Solutions Limited (JSL), has moved into a new office block located at the popular Ikorodu Expressway, Ilupeju.

The firm said, this has become vital due to JSL’s increasing clientele which require spacious office to accommodate, as explained by the Managing Director, Mr. Gboyega Ojuri.

JSL which operates JuniSat Broadband Internet Service and proprietor of the Geniac Personal Computer (PC) brand, is a leading ICT firm with over fifteen years experience within the industry.

Mr. Ojuri said that with the company’s enhanced service delivery,
customers demands will be attained without problem at its new
location.

JSL, he also said, have repositioned to ensure seamless service to all, recalling that the firm was formerly situated along Gbagada Express road, by Charley Boy bus stop, but at present, its new corporate office is situated by Olabode House, Ikorodu road, Ilupeju.

"The company has really grown over the years and we need a spacious place to operate in most especially with our latest drive to boost personal computer penetration and connectivity in the country with the recent introduction of Geniac," he said.

Additionally, JSL recently engaged VIA Technologies Incorporated of Taiwan in a deal to boost Geniac brand of PCs in the nation’s market.

This plan stipulates the potential that Geniac PCs would have easier internet connectivity in an affordable way. The pact was what brought about the Geniac range of computers into the stables of JSL.

VIA Technologies Inc is the supplier of market-leading core logic chipsets, low power x86 processors, advanced connectivity, multimedia, networking and storage silicon, and complete platform solutions that are driving system innovation in the PC and embedded markets.

Kobian to appoint retail partners

KOBIAN, makers of Mercury brands of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) products, would next year, appoint retail partners nationwide.
Distribution Manager for Kobian Nigeria, Mr. Shahnawaz Khan disclosed this at a Valued Partners award ceremony in Lagos.
He said in a presentation on the plans of the company for its Nigerian market, that the retail partners’ appointment would accelerate distribution of Mercury brands in the country.
Mr. Khan expressed optimism that by increasing the presence of the company’s brand in more locations nationwide, the goal of the company would be achieved and subsequently emerge as market leader it rightly desired.
However, 10 dealers won several prizes based on their sales performances ranging from N100,000 to N1.5 million, topping it all with a Honda car prize.
The winners include Mojoy Computers represented by Mrs. A.K. Shitu, who went home with a cheque of N100,000. Others are Jasper Tech Limited, MacroMedia, Jenis Investment Limited, Vineyard Computers, WestGate Tech and Chuks P Limited.
Speaking earlier, Corporate Business Development Manager for Kobian Singapore, Mr. Sajid Shaikh, lauded Coscharis Technologies for popularizing the Mercury brand in the country since 1993.
He also announced that Kobian now has two major distributors, namely, Coscharis Technologies and Compuleb Limited.
Also commenting, chief executive Coscharis Technologies Limited, Mr. Emecheta Ofondu, said, the redemption being fulfilled with the presentation of prizes has now made the promotion among dealers, a realty.
"We have seen growth in the business and we hope it would continue in the coming years," he said.
He praised Kobian for keeping to its promise, saying, "They had given their words on introducing the promotion and today, it’s real".
Mr. Ofondu also assured those who participated in the event that their efforts added colour to the income generation of the brand.

Ajayi, three others emerge new NIG exco

Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) has elected new officers to lead the organisation for the next two years, just as the immediate past vice president, Mr. Lanre Ajayi, emerged the president.
Mr. Ajayi was elected along with three others including Mrs. Ufuma Daro, as the vice president while Mr. Bosu Arebuwa emerged Treasurer, Mr. Qasim Olalere Akinreti was elected into the office of the Publicity Secretary.

Mr. Ajayi, who is also the Chief executive of PiNet Limited, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) had previously served as the Vice President, Internet Service Providers Association of Nigeria (ISPAN) as well as the immediate past vice chairman, African Internet Service Providers Association (AfrISPA) and currently serves in the board of AfrISPA.

In his acceptance, he promised to continue strengthening the group from where his predecessor, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem stopped.

Dr. Ekuwem, who also is the Executive Vice chairman of Teledom Group of Companies made it clear that he would not recontest the position, even though he had only served one term in office.

Dr. Ekuwem had earlier served under the Mr. Jim Ovia presidency of NIG before taking over the mantle of leadership in late 2003.

Meanwhile, NIG has concluded its third annual convention cum annual general meeting which culminated into the election of new officers.

The convention held at Golden Gate Paradise, Ikoyi Lagos, with the theme: "Youth Restiveness: ICT to the rescue" was attended by NIG board chairman, and former Communications Minister, Chief Olawale Ige, President of Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), and chief executive, Condata Systems Limited, Dr. Chris Nwannenna, chief executive, Connect Technologies, Mr. Chris Uwaje as well as immediate past president, Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN), Dr. Gabriel Obi and chief executive of Linkserve, Mr. Chima Onyekwere among others.

Speaking at the occasion, President, National Association of Computer Science Students (NACOSS), Mr. Olutayo Olusegun, lamented the rate of decay in the nation’s tertiary institutions especially at the department of computer sciences.

He said that most higher institutions do not have computers in their laboratories and where available, it is limited in number and most of them are not working.

The two day, event have discussions centered on sub-themes such as ‘Youth Empowerment in the digital revolution, becoming employable using Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Job opportunities in ICT- Starting with N15,000 capital, tele-education, tele-training for point-of-need skills acquisition, a click to hope and wealth and ICT for food security and poverty alleviation.

Other sub-themes include "Enabling infrastructure, ePayment, human capacity development, legal and regulatory framework, security, Internet content development, .ng ccTLD and Internet Governance".

NIG is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation promoting internet access and awareness in the country and was very active in the battle to domestic the nation’s country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD).