Nigerian ccTLD suffers set back

Remmy Nweke

Fourteen months after the Internet community in Nigeria agreed to have the Nigerian Internet Registration Association (NiRA) as the manager of the nation’s Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) name .ng, has suffered another set back due to its inability to take off effectively, even as there was no follow-up meeting thereafter.

ITRealms Online recalls that following the resolution passed on June 23, 2005, at a stakeholders meeting in Lagos, NiRA was adopted as the chosen name among several other suggestions for a non-governmental organisation (NGO) to manage the ccTLD, the .ng.

Otherwise referred to as the adaption of nation’s flag on the cyberspace, ccTLD offers the opportunity of registering a name on the world wide web (www) and basically the Universal Resource Locator (URL) using .ng at the end like in the ‘Limited’ in incorporation of names.

Current set back came as a result of the inability of the stakeholders under NiRA, numbering 22 including the representative of the federal government, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Nigeria Internet Group (NIG), Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), Computer Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN) and the Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSEs) to name a few.

Pioneer Director-General (DG) of NITDA), late Prof. Gabriel Ajayi became the administrative Point-of-Contact (PoC) of the ccTLD on the orders of the Federal Government, as an aftermath of a lingering controversy on the domestication of the .ng, which culminated into the federal Ministry of Science and Technology instituting a forced redelegation to NIG.

This was vehemently opposed by the likes of NCS and CPN in support of the then incumbent, Mrs. Ibukun Odusote.

Although late Prof. Ajayi assumed this position few months before his death on December 16, 2004, NiRA came into being on June 23, last year and was expected to have expedited actions on its official registration as NGO with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in Nigeria, set up its own structure and then communicate appropriately to the administrative arm of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The administrative arm is known as the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).

Investigations disclosed that late Prof. Ajayi is still the PoC at IANA website and efforts to contact authorities at NITDA, showed that the idea of statusquo was reached by some stakeholders in NiRA, as at June this year, pending its proper take off which is yet to see the light of the day.

At the rise of .ng controversy in 2003, which gave birth to NiRA, Nigeria has only 576 .ng domains since it was registered at InterNIC on March 1995, which the head, corporate affairs at NITDA, Mr Inye Kem-Abonta described as "alarmingly dismal" for a nation of over 120 million Nigerians.

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Data recovery, open source to the rescue

Features of the week:

Nowadays, lots of people mistakenly delete their data, but with Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), they can overcome the fret, writes REMMY NWEKE.

IMAGINE being a media practitioner in a contemporary society like ours, where practitioners, akin to Ogbeni Ayoola are and, where everything is going digital.

He had travelled on a three-hour air trip to a north-east town, Yola, Adamawa State, for a conference with a digital camera, Maginon 5.0 mega pixels to cover the events.

And after two days of extensive coverage of the event attended by the deputy governor of the state, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) experts from across the country; he took another three-hour trip back to base in Lagos.

Whilst in the process of editing and preparing the photos taken before and at the event, totalling about 224 exposures, something unexpected happened and those images were deleted from the main source, a 256 data memory card he inserted into the digital camera.

Ayoola had the hope he had successfully copied the photos into his Personal Computer (PC) hard disk, which turned out not to be.

According to Wikipidia online, A 32 Mega Byte (MB) High Speed CompactFlash Type I card, for instance, has its memory card in a solid-state electronic flash memory data storage device.

Other types of smart card exist and include a synchronous card, with features as 256 bit or 32 byte memory and suitable for use as a token card or identification card, as outlined by www.duracard.com/glossary.

Data memory card to a layman is an insertable electronic chip that comes in various memory sizes for data storage, depending on the user’s choice.

However, two days later, when Ayoola wanted to access those pictures, he realized that the intended hard disk copy was nowhere to be seen and by then, he had confidently erased the ones in the camera’s memory card to pave way for other assignments.

Pondering on the next step of action for a solution, he adventurously logged on to the Internet, where a quest on Google and Yahoo search engines gave him almost the same sources, with a display of top results for ‘photo recovery’ of about 1,482,952.

These include Photo recovery digital, www.drivesolutions.com; photo recovery for digital media, www.lc-tech.com; data recovery download on www.pctools.com; card recovery – photo recovery software on www.photorescue.net; photo recovery fast, all card types on www.eprovided.com; software recovers lost images on media www.recover.com, which precisely asks instantly that lost or deleted digital photo and image recovery software cost $29.95, about N3,815.33. Others like recovery photo charge $9.95, about N1,267.53 and recover digital images cost at $19.99, about N2,546.53.

Mr. Ayoola’s further search for an open source data memory recovery, specifically brought him to Digital Photo Recovery software solution for digital picture etcetera at www.photosrecovery.com, among others.

Open source:

According to Open Source organization, www.opensource.org, it does not just mean access to the source code, but the distribution terms of open-source software must comply with certain criteria so as to reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

These criteria include free redistribution, source code, allow modifications, sustaining integrity of the author’s source code, and discrimination against persons or groups as well as field of endeavour and the rights attached to the programme redistribution must apply to all, even as it must stick to a product, thus not restrictive while maintaining technology neutrality.

Nevertheless, Photorecovery.com, promises to recover lost, deleted and formatted digital photos, audio and video files from all media types as well as recover digital images from camera’s memory card.

By clicking on the Universal Resource Locator (URL) otherwise known as website address link, Mr. Ayoola was taken to the home of photorecovery.com, where the URL takes you to Art Plus Digital Recovery 2.2. The solution site also initially displays other solutions available on the ArtPlus platform such as more programmes, which avails individual to run photography related business online.

So, Mr. Ayoola clicked on the sub-menu to behold a message, “You accidentally deleted some photos from your digital cameras, memory card? Or May be the card got corrupted? Don’t fret?”

Then he was invited to click ‘next’ button to select card reader or camera drive and another click took him to ‘select target folder’ indicating where possibly the images or files would be saved in a folder; displayed in options of desktop, my documents, my computer, my network places among other folders already existing with options to back, start or even cancel.

And with another click on start after selecting a folder, displayed one more “Working …” window frame imploring user to ‘please be patient! This process could take few minutes up to several hours, depending on memory card size, and velocity of PC in use.

Soon, found and restored images would appear as the process progresses with the view option offering details as well as total recovery are shown either successfully or otherwise, but often successful.

Noteworthy is that this programme recovered about 190 on the first instance but Ayoola knowing the number of images lost repeated the process and came up with 224 pictures. Given the number deleted, this was a great relief to a user as this usually cut across, Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPG) or Temporary Internet Files (TIF) application files extension respectively.

These were files ordinarily unrecognized by Windows and are a plus to Free and Open Source community.

Eventually, ArtPlus Digital Photo recovery notified him, that it’s a free software supported by donations, requesting therefore, “if the programme had helped you recover precious images, please consider supporting its development by donating $10.

What matters …

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) activist, Ms Folashade Wisdom, noted open source as an ideal backup solutions for stand-alone data-critical servers, and also include disaster recovery modules and hot backup application plug-ins.

As said by her, sooner or later, “every business will be faced with a system failure of some kind, and the subsequent loss of business critical data. It doesn’t matter what size the business is, what capabilities the Information Technology (IT) department has, or how the failure occurred.”

What matters, she said, is the data protection and recovery plans the business has in place in order to ensure that data loss is merely an inconvenience, rather than catastrophe.

Open source has heterogeneous network backup solutions based on a Linux or Unix backup server. So companies with heterogeneous networks and distributed systems can benefit from the expertise of these solutions as well as individuals.

These solutions provide enterprise-class technology at competitive prices, and have been certified on the leading Linux distributions, including those from SUSE Linux, RedHat and Mandriva, among others.

Wrapping up

The fact remains that if a good job is done, as experienced by Ayoola, it would not be difficult to donate $10, about N1,200, when juxtaposed with the cost of his air trip to and from Yola; which amounted to about N48,000 excluding other expenses, not to mention the embarrassment he would have suffered as a result of the loss of such vital visual image information, no person would refuse to donate even more than the free software proponents were asking for.

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Nigeria to benefit from RIAM project

Remmy Nweke

TELECOMMUNICATIONS users globally including Nigeria would soon begin to reap the benefits of using technologies, especially the mobile phones to access the web whether low or high-end, courtesy of RIAM.

It would be recalled that recently it was reported that over seven million mobile phones would be rendered useless if third generation (3G) technology takes root in the country. Nigeria has attained estimated 25 million subscriber base.

Reciprocal Interoperability between Accessible and Mobile webs (RIAM), a project of the University of Manchester in the United States, is working on how to connect disabled technologies such as deploying mobile phones to use web very easily.

The project is to facilitate the connection of some mobile phone technologies hitherto unable to connect to the web due to some embedded features.

Billed to gulp £205k, about N49,748,340.39, the project would be led by a web accessibility expert, Dr. Simon Harper of the school’s Computer Science department.

The fund is being provided by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, while Dr. Harper’s team would work together with semantic web expert, Professor Ian Horrocks and another web accessibility expert, Mr. Yeliz Yesilada.

Media Relations Officer, University of Manchester, Mr. Simon Hunter, who disclosed this to our correspondent, said that currently, websites have to be re-designed to work on mobile phones.

He also said that the aim of the three-year project will be to develop a host of new software with the potential to make the mobile web as simple to use as the internet.

He explained that this was due to the fact that many conventional websites can not be displayed on small screens.

Therefore, both the content and the choice of websites available on the mobile web are limited.

He quoted Dr Harper as saying, “Mobile web users are handicapped not by physiology but technology. Not only is the screen on the majority of phones very small, limiting the user’s vision, but the information displayed is difficult to navigate and read.”

He stressed the fact that the content displayed is determined by a service provider and not the user, hence users are left often with a web screen that is not very accessible or user friendly.

“Our aim is to change this by enabling web accessibility and mobile technologies to interoperate,” Dr. Harper declared.

A core part of the project, the leader enlightened, would be the development of a validation engine to screen websites so as to ensure they are accessible and mobile web compatible.

He emphasized, the validation engine would work in tandem with a transcoding programme which will de-clutter web pages and reorder them into a web mobile friendly format.

“Once transcoded the aim is to let the user determine how the pages are displayed on their mobile phone,” Dr. Harper said, pointing out that Screenreaders used by blind or visually impaired web users are very good at stripping web pages down into text only formats but what current project tends to achieve is content rich formats which is just as accessible.

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Staff turnover @ telcos

Market Intelligence:

Remmy Nweke

Penultimate Friday, was the 30th session of the monthly Telecom Consumers Parliament for June.

Some of the parliamentarians have the course to smile because one of the Private Telecom Operators located at Ikoyi, had promised to look into their plights come the following Monday.

The promise was made through the telcos Customer Care Manager during the aforementioned session.

Basically the consumers plights here have been that their Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) phone of Kyocera trimode 2255 mobile phones model, bought at the telcos’ roll out about two years ago, have gone bizarre with indefinite search for network.

Luckily for these consumers one of them had the chance of bringing the complaint to the floor of the house.

Consequently, a lady representative pleaded with the complainant to see her immediately after the session for an agreement to be reached on how to resolve it finally.

Eventually, the session ended and this complainant and others affected by the same problem approached the lady with complaints.

Further, she willingly distributed her business card with appointment for them to see her at the office come Monday. Still, disappointment was what follows as most of those consumers defied the down pour that morning to get to the operator’s office.

First they were told by a receptionist to wait or leave a note because the person who invited them had commenced on annual leave, therefore, would not be in office for the next one month.

On a second thought, the same receptionist directed that they take their case to the customer centre right in the premises, where it was learnt that the lady resigned that morning, hence stranding those consumers if not throwing them into more confusion.

However on inquiry, one of the consumer care officers after verifying the phones were up to date, except for the indefinite search for networks, informed who cares that the phones bought for about N13,000 could be replaced for N11,000 each, for what was not the fault of theirs.

Worrisome here is the sense behind some operators choosing to deploy their services on phone sets they do not have adequate human know-how to support or service. As explained by one of the victims, a Pastor, his has been in this comatose since February and had forced his purchasing of another CDMA phone, but this time from entirely a different network and could be a customer lost.

The questions begging for answers here are whether the lady was not aware of her plan to leave the telco finally as at Friday before making such a promise and dishing out her business cards? Was the invite to affected consumers to the office deliberate to mess-up the company? And finally, was the decision at the parliament to invite these people instrumental to the lady’s resignation?

Therefore, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), through its Consumer Affairs Bureau (CAB), should not take this laying low, because, apart from the episode being a slap on the parliament, it is disguising for the telco to lack technical skills to support its services, especially now Nigerians are increasingly dependent on phones for businesses, whether on warranty or not.

Just as most of these people preferred their Kyocera model than what is on offer now in the market by telcos, that is, Nokia 2115 services, either manufactured in China or Mexico, which as well have its own differences and is subject for another day.

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ISDConnect boss tasks practitioners on training

Remmy Nweke

CHIEF executive, ISDConnect, Mr. Inigh Okpo, has tasked Information and Communications Technology (ICT) practitioners to ensure they undergo periodic training, especially those at the helm of affairs.

He made this call while speaking in Lagos on the forthcoming two-day workshop on “Conceptualising a web-based system, its purpose, and expected outcome.”

He also said that the workshop slated for Lagos is scheduled between August 22 and 23 this year, would be focusing on top echelons of ICT industry.

He stressed, “they need to begin to take a project approach to implementing their corporate web system.”

This, he said, would avail them the chance of keeping pace with advancement in the Global Knowledge Economy (GKE).

According to him, the workshop’s expectation would be that eventually, participants would have an understanding that a web system project has specific purpose.

He emphasized that at the end participants would have been equipped with the needed techniques that they can apply practically.

“The major challenge going forward is how the present implementation of Web systems in place among corporate entities can exhibit a robust and enough set of core features that will make them leading edge among other direct competitors from around the world,” he asserted.

Mr. Okpo also pointed out that with the successful growth of the ICT sector within the Nigerian economy, there exists a growing need for businesses and corporate organizations to take full advantage of the Internet to adequately promote their goods and services.

He listed some of the benefits for participants to include learning the tools that will enable them improve their corporate sales while they save time and money, as well as learning how to manage products and services better.

He further explained that day one of the conference would have the Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), President, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem as key facilitator, focusing on overview on electronic business (e-business) application while day two would dwell on analytical strategies.

Throwing more light on the workshop, Mr. Okpo said the essence is to enhance participants’ organizational productivity by allowing office applications integrate with web-based systems thereby improving in-house corporate procedures.

“They will also learn how they can improve their corporate image and get better results,” he said.

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Lagos govt warns telcos on compliance

Remmy Nweke

THE Lagos State government has once again warned telecommunications operators over the laying of infrastructure, saying that compliance to the laws of the state, remain the only way for rewarding relationship between them.

“It is only this mutually rewarding relationship that would guarantee our pride of place as the beacon of excellence and the indisputable commercial nerve centre in the West African sub-region,” Governor Ahmed Bola Tinubu asserted.

He gave this warning at a one-day seminar on telecom investment and finance forum in Lagos, put together by the Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ATCON).

In a goodwill message delivered at the occasion on Gov. Tinubu’s behalf by the Senior Special Assistant on the Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Ms Bola Banire, he implored all telecom operators in the state to ensure compliance with the laws of the government.

While promising the administration’s continuous support to provide the enabling environment for the sector, he also called on all genuine investors to take advantage of the opportunities that have been thrown up by the sector and leverage on the state government’s readiness to accommodate more investors.

He insisted that as law abiding citizens, Nigerians and investors alike should be ready to encourage investors and play according to the rules.

Further, Gov Tinubu congratulated ATCON for the forum, expressing the hope that the outcome would be of immense benefit to the entirety of Nigerians.

“I hope the ideas and opportunities that would be generated from this forum would be accessible not only to the members of ATCON and policy makers, but to all Nigerians who would find them useful,” Gov. Tinubu concluded.

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Nwaoshai lauds FG on power reform

Remmy Nweke

Managing Director, Power Systems Technology (PST) Limited, Mr. Emmanuel Nwaoshai, has lauded the federal government (FG) over the on-going power sector reform in the country.

Briefing journalists in Lagos, Mr. Nwaoshai, said the step by the government to reform the sector is laudable, because it would ignite other economic activities.

He also said his firm, would not only play an active role in the reform, but would be aligning its vision to that of the government.

“We would be playing in the distribution so as to reach the customers,” he said.

He indicated that his firm’s goal is to penetrate the public sector, although they have office in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and would soon be in Port Harcourt.

The power solution company which partners with MGE UPS Systems of France and WatFord Control Stabilizers from United Kingdom, among others, he said, provides uninterrupted power supply (UPS) solution to a number of leading firms in Nigeria, including MTN Nigeria Communications, Vmobile, Shell Petroleum and is partnering with Glo and Alcatel in a tripartite arrangement.

Mr. Nwaoshai further said that PST is a major distributor of MGE UPS systems and WatFord Control stabilisers in the country.

Noting that support service is essential in the delivery of power solution.

“What matters to our company is the support service and that’s the kind of service we want to emphasise,” he declared.

Assuring on PST commitment towards maintaining a 24 by 7 support for its customers at all levels, just as the reform would enable further penetration of ICTs nationwide.

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NIG website’ll be most visited soon – Ajayi

Remmy Nweke

FLAGSHIP of the nation in the cyberspace, the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) has vowed to transform its newly relaunched www.nig.org.ng, the most visited website in the country in no distance future.

NIG president, Mr. Lanre Ajayi, gave this insight at the weekend while addressing committee chairmen’s forum of the group in Lagos, tasking them to streamline their programmes towards achieving this mileage with local content.

He said this was one of the reasons for reconstructing the website since he assumed office last December, in order to give it a face lift.

This, he also said, has been completed, up and running.

For instance, according to him, there would be a forum to enable members and visitors alike to raise pertinent issues of interest to them, which would be open for contribution.

Pointing out that currently people register online as guests on the website, in addition to having blogs and industry statistics to name a few.

He underscored the way visitors were flooding to the relaunched website, saying that it would soon be the most visited website in the country.

However, in order to further boost this desire, local content, he said, must be the tool of attraction.

Plans, he said, is underway to engage a full time Information expert with requisite knowledge to manage the website content and ensure it’s up-to-date, among others.

“It sounds amazing but if you know the number of Nigerians and foreigners out there searching for information on Nigeria, you would realize that local content is the king at this time of our development,” he affirmed.

Mr. Ajayi who doubles as the chief executive of an Internet Service company, PiNet Informatics, also enjoined the chairmen to also collaborate among themselves so as to share information that will benefit the teeming members of NIG eventually.

He pointed out, that in the past 11 years, NIG as a non-governmental organization (NGO) championed the penetration and adaptation of Internet in the lives of Nigerians.

“NIG has focused on access, now is the time to put content on these pipes locally,” he asserted.

Presently NIG has about 14 committees, which were inaugurated at the first quarter of this year.

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Transcorp, 18 banks route for Remita

Remmy Nweke

TRANSNATIONAL Corporation (Transcorp), the newly owners of the national carrier, Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), and 18 consolidated and recapitalised compliant banks, are currently deploying Remita, for salaries and pensions remittances.

Remita is a salaries and pensions remittances service delivered by Nigeria’s leading software house, SystemSpecs Limited.

The latest to join this fray of Remita enthusiasts is Transcorp, according to Managing Director, SystemSpecs, Mr. John Obaro, who disclosed this in a chat with selected media practitioners at the Executive Overview Training session on HumanManager, a human resource, payroll and pension management solution.

According to him, these organisations were responding to the recent federal executive council (FEC) directive that public and private sector in the country, should strive to search for local software solution that meet global standards before venturing to deploying foreign software.

He stressed that his firm’s HumanManager is a proven solution for payment solution, saying “It’s the only Nigerian software to be properly customised and has the capacity to handle all issues related to pension fund management.”

He revealed that in the last one month, SystemSpecs has made some in roads into corporations in the country, and the latest being the Transcorp deal, which he said, “we’re delighted about.”

In addition, 18 out of the 25 recently recapitalised and consolidating banks are now deploying one of its specialised pension and salaries service application, Remita, as a one stop solution.

While the General Agency Services (GAS), new owners of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NBA) and the three out of the four licensed Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), equally have chosen HumanManager.

He also said that SystemSpecs intends to market Remita aggressively, in the coming months, just as the firm’s customer relations portal, www.support.centa.com, has been concluded to avail customers the option of complaining where necessary whereas enabling the company to have some feed back, noting, it would be managed online.

He described Remita, as an electronic courier service that rides on secured electronic payment platforms to deliver funds to bank accounts and associated schedules to relevant bodies in pre-specified formats.

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IGF-06 gets final nod on dates, begins accreditation

Remmy Nweke

Following the end of a protracted meeting over the dates for the holding of the inaugural Internet Governance Forum (IGF-06) in Athens, Greece, final dates have now been announced.

This is coming as accreditation has commenced online for the forum.

The latest dates as announced is October 30 through November 2, 2006, therefore settling the dust over the exact dates which have been structure to ensure it did not coincide with any known major public anniversary.

This, according to the Greece Local Organising Committee (LOC), which is now ready to delve into more actions that would boost the hosting of the forum successfully.

The four-day forum is in line with the final commitment at the Tunis phase of the two-phased World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) last November.

It was initially slated for October 24, 25 and 26 as the best available dates which do not present a conflict for the organisation of the IGF meeting in Athens, as at first quarter of this year.

Official website of IGF in Greece, indicated that the resolution came after a long meeting between the LOC made up of Greece Transport and Communications and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and representative of the United Nations (UN) Secretary General on the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), Mr. Nitni Desai and the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) led by Dr. Markus Kummer.

The Secretariat of IGF in UN is headed by Dr. Kummer, who also has been the Executive Coordinator of the WGIG Secretariat, established by the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, at the request of the first phase of the Summit, in Geneva in 2003.

It would be recalled that at the end of two phased summit in Tunis, Greece Communications and Transport Minister, Mr. Michalis Liapis, had offered formally, his nation’s readiness to host the inaugural meeting of IGF this year, for continuous strengthening multi-stakeholder approach regarding administration of the Internet.

This was followed up with several consultative meetings in Geneva and New York.

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Globacom adds another innovation with BlackBerry

Remmy Nweke

GLOBACOM, the Second National Operator (SNO), has added another innovation into its basket of Value Added Services (VAS), introducing BlackBerry Enterprise Solution (BES) on the network.

BlackBerry, according to the Chief Operating Officer (COO), Mr. Mohammed Jameel, would create ripples in corporate Nigerians attitude to mobile communications.

BlackBerry comes with avalanche of VAS including the ability to provide secure, wireless access to electronic mail (e-mail), corporate data, phone, web and organizer features.

Professionals using BlackBerry, also have the chance of real-time access to email and other important information when away from the office and IT departments could centralize administration and management of all the handhelds.

Mr. Jameel noted that despite starting late in the nation’s telecom sector, Globacom has within a space of three years traversed the map of Nigeria with its infrastructure and roll out.

He also said that the operator has two missions, namely how to build the biggest network in Africa and how it would add value to the end-users.

The COO further disclosed that Glo has reached 9 million subscriber-base within this space of time.

With the introduction of BlackBerry, he said, Glo is transforming the enlarged voice market to data market, such as using Short Messaging Service (SMS) to e-mail and vice versa.

Endorsing the product as the chairman of the occasion, Chairman, Shell Nigeria, Mr. Basil Omiyi, said he was not taken aback by the advancement of the network, given their antecedent for innovation and development.

Pointing out that above all the benefits of BlackBerry, it gives in addition, peace of mind for busy executives.

He therefore, called on Nigerians especially corporate executives to exploit the product as he believed it would be a good business module.

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Commonwealth connects the divide

Remmy Nweke

Commonwealth Secretariat (CS) has began connecting the digitally divided members of the group with ‘Commonwealth Connects’.

Unveiling the initiative in London, Secretary General of Commonwealth, Mr. Don Mickinnon, said it is a programme aimed at harnessing Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for the benefit of member nations, specifically those in need.

According to communications officer at CS, Mr. Julius Mucunguzi, in a press statement available to our correspondent, Mr. McKinnon said the initiative would provide “concrete assistance for the development of ICTs in the least developed countries of the Commonwealth.

McKinnon noted that the initiative was in recognition of ICTs at the 2005 Heads of government meeting of Commonwealth in Malta, as a catalyst for development.

“ICTs offer opportunities to overcome the constraints of remoteness, small size, and other factors which have acted as obstacles to development. It was a very important landmark,” he said.

According to McKinnon, the launch was a “birth of a global web site for sharing best practice and best policy in ICT programmes and initiatives from right across the Commonwealth.”

The initial project tagged “Rebuilding After the Tsunami: Using ICTs for Change” was officially launched at the ceremony.

Special guest of honour at the event, the Maltese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chairman, Commonwealth Connects’ Steering Committee, Dr Michael Frendo, said the programme would enable countries to enter the information age fully equipped to compete effectively in the global marketplace.

“We have a historic opportunity to provide solutions to the digital divide and genuinely give contribution to sustainable development, generating new growth, jobs and productivity, and to push up the standard of living of people in the Commonwealth,” he said.

Pointing out that the programme would help in improving engagement and participation from across all sectors of communities, societies and governments.

Commonwealth Connects programme, the minister said would help in building a centre of expertise, share resources across the Commonwealth and facilitate the implementation of sustainable, replicable products and projects.

India, Malta, Mozambique and Trinidad and Tobago, which are members of the Steering Committee, plan to fund Commonwealth Connects to a little under £1 million over the next three years.

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ULR: Prestel secures numbering plan

Remmy Nweke

EDO State-based Unified License Operator (ULO), Prest Cable & TV Systems Limited (Prestel), has secured a numbering plan from the regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The numbering plan allocation is to facilitate the roll out plans of Prestel.

Director, Technical Research and Standards at NCC, Dr. Sylvanus Ehikioya made this disclosure in a letter to the management of Prestel at the weekend.

The letter, which copy was made available to ITRealms Online, confirms the payment of N70 million for the allocation of 1 million numbers, which begins with an area code of 07024.

Dr. Ehikioya also said that he was pleased to informed Prestel that its numbering area is national.

The access code and subscriber numbers, he said, would start with 000000 and end at 999999.

NCC, however, warned that the numbering plan is not transferable or re-assigned.

He emphasised that it should be strictly in accordance with the license terms and conditions.

The director also advised that it is renewable annually at the anniversary date, effective from the date of the letter conveying the numbering plan information.

He further urged the telco to comply with the nation’s Communications Act of 2003.

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APC integrates InfraStruXure with Smart UPS

Remmy Nweke

Leading global provider of end-to-end infrastructure, American Power Conversion (APC) has concluded the construction of full InfraStruXure system integrated with a Smart-Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) VT power module.

The integration comes with hot-swappable batteries and integrated power distribution, just as the new InfraStruXure system offers quick connect components and turnkey features to speed up deployment time.

APC’s Vice President, Enterprise Systems and Business Networks, Dwight Sperry, revealed this development and said the system also decreased total-cost-of-ownership by minimizing space and reducing operating, installation and expansion costs.

“Since the InfraStruXure with Smart-UPS VT architecture uses a modular and scalable design approach, users can expand the system by adding APC’s innovative in-row cooling, centralized management and security products for enhanced capabilities,” he said.

Noting that the legendary and award winning Smart-UPS line joined with innovative InfraStruXure architecture provide customers with highly agile and available solutions for their Information Technology (IT) environments.

“The system’s high power density, small form factor and modular architecture make it ideal for applications ranging from high density, disaster recovery and VoIP/IP telephony,” the VP said.

This new Network Critical Physical Infrastructure (NCPI) solution offers a fully-integrated system at a lower initial investment and incorporates several innovative features such as a single rack-based design for better utilization of floor space, higher power efficiency for lower operating costs and a new power distribution design for simplified installation and expansion.

“Finally, the system improves availability with additional internal battery capacity for runtime scalability,” Sperry said.

APC underscored that the new InfraStruXure with Smart-UPS VT is ideal for server rooms and small data centres as well as for remote locations including regional offices, even as it is available in 30KVA and 40KVA, 400V input and are now available in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

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1,000 visitors expected @ NIPEX-06

Remmy Nweke

Orgainsers of the Nigeria International Print Expo (NIPEX), Design Concept & System has assured that this year’s edition will add value to print business and the nation’s economy.

Speaking during a media chat in Lagos, President, Design Concept, Tunde Obokhai noted that the West Africa’s premier print expo will surpass the expectations of previous editions in terms of organization, quality of exhibitors and visitors.

According to Obokhai not less than 1000 quality visitors are expected to come daily for the event.

This he said is expected to add value to the print industry in Nigeria as latest print processes, equipment and consumables are to be showcased by the exhibitors fro around the world.

“Part of the innovations for this year’s NIPEX 2006 are regular free presentations, work shops by industry experts on modern trends in printing. There is also the All Nigeria Printers Conference holding from 14th to 15th September at the Agip Recital Hall of Muson Centre to address pertinent issues affecting the future of print in Nigeria” he said.

Obokhai added that this year’s expo is expected to bring together sellers and buyers of print products from prepress, press and post press of printing.

“It is also expected to accommodate office equipment and IT/Computer accessories, as they avail to the industry” he added.

Meanwhile, exhibitors already confirmed for the EXPO 2006 scheduled to hold from September 14-16 at the Muson centre, Onikan include Hewlett Packard, Premium Graphics, Production Point, Pomat Peters, Camelot, Dalewares.

ECRM, Agfa, Libra Global, Rain bowl Cards, Top Solutions, Sanoles Prints, Telegrapiqe and other exhibitors from South Africa, USA,UK and China.

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