70 countries yet to embrace liberalisation

The Global System for Mobile Association (GSMA) has said that liberalisation has facilitated reduction in the cost of international call tariffs in some African countries, including Nigeria, just as it decried lack of similar policies in 70 countries globally, while 21 of such nations are on the continent.

Nigeria was specifically mentioned as witnessing a slash in international calls by 90 per cent since liberalisation of telecommunications sector in 2001.

GSMA in a study released recently on “Gateway Liberalisation: Stimulating Economic Growth” noted that Kenyan mobile operator Safaricom, for example, received an international gateways license in 2006 and was able to cut international call prices by 70 per cent, whereas, “the price of international calls from Nigeria has fallen by more than 90 per cent since liberalisation.”

The association also said that consumers enjoy more reliable and cheaper services after the introduction of liberalisation of telecom market in any given country, thereby boosting competition.

According to the study, with liberalisation on stream, “the economy benefits from increased investment, job creation and export-led growth.”

The study noted that some of the 21 affected African countries are Benin; Botswana; Burkina Faso; Cameroon; Cape Verde Islands; Central African Republic; Chad; Djibouti; Equatorial Guinea; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Gambia; Libya; Namibia; Niger; Sierra Leone; Sudan; Swaziland; Tanzania; Tunisia; Zimbabwe.

The group pointed out that by contrast, monopolies hold markets back, citing an instance with Bangladesh, where it was discovered that an international gateway monopoly is maintained, telecoms investment as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) is 70 per cent lower and call prices are two to three times higher than the average for developing countries.

Chief Government & Regulatory Affairs Officer at GSMA, Mr. Tom Phillips, noted for “Bangladesh-based businesses, competing in the global market, the cost of communicating is substantially higher, putting them at a competitive disadvantage.”

He pointed out that since countries first began introduction of competition into the international gateways market more than 20 years ago, the trend has gathered pace and the benefits to consumers, business and governments in an increasingly global economy, are now beyond doubt.

He also said that the study showed that as many as 70 countries have yet to recognize the importance of competition in this vital gateway to international markets. In a mobile-centric world, and particularly in developing economies, monopolies throttle development and add significant costs.”

Equally, the study found that the old arguments used to sustain international gateway monopolies are simply no longer valid because, whether competition is outlawed or not, new technologies, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSATs), could bypass the monopoly, and account for up to 6 per cent of international call volumes, even though use of such technologies is often illegal.

“The incumbent international gateway monopoly business model is past its sell-by date; governments should liberalise this market immediately and all stakeholders will benefit,” he said.

Average calculated from the case study sample were driven from Kenya, Malta, Morocco, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Egypt and Bangladesh.GSMA noted that VoIP, a category of hardware and software enables people to use the Internet as the transmission medium for telephone calls, while VSAT an earthbound station used in satellite communications of data, voice and video signals, excluding broadcast television.

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UNESCO supports refurbishing PCs

The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), has given its support for refurbished Personal Computers (PCs).

UNESCO in its weekly Communication and Information (CI) bulletin made available to correspondent, said that in most countries of the world, PC refurbishing initiatives are now active, covering a whole range of tasks from mobilizing donors of second-hand PCs to procurement, refurbishment, transportation, distribution, installation, maintenance and training on the use of refurbished PCs.

The organisation said that shared experience in the past proved that there is a need for improvement of these overall programmes to make them holistic, sustainable and scalable.

“UNESCO strongly believes that much is to be gained from exchanging experiences, improving PC quality standard, sharing know-how, validated processes and tools to enhance access of local populations in the developing countries to low cost or free quality hardware,” the agency stated.

According to the bulletin, UNESCO is fostering international cooperation in this field to enhance impact and further sharpen economical models behind the PC refurbishment pipelines, saying “its at the core of UNESCO’s concern.”

The UN agency also pointed out that it has created a portal on PC refurbishment to enable further understanding on this issue.

It also that part of UNESCO's Observatory on the Information Society, is that this portal was meant to be a clearinghouse of activities, resources, best practices, research and open content in the field of PC refurbishment, between NGOs, associations, private industry and governments.

This UNESCO noted, enables emphasises to be focused on low cost of hardware solutions, open content for off-line PC, programmes, quality requirements for refurbished PC, research, training as well as volunteer services.

It would be recalled that governments at the end of electronic waste confab held last December agreed with the support of the United Nations to work toward minimising e-waste globally.

In particular it aims to foster international cooperation and facilitate collaboration and partnerships (logistics, funding, resource sharing, capacity building development) between NGOs, associations, private industry and governments.

The e-waste confab was an outcome of the first international meeting of PC refurbishment specialists on "New Synergies for Recycling Information Technology Equipment", which took place in UNESCO headquarters in Paris in March 2003.

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Kalam leads delegates to C’wealth ICT summit

Indian President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam is to lead delegates to this year’s Commonwealth Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) summit scheduled to take place in New Delhi in March.

According to Sunayna Sethi of Commonwealth Secretariat (CS) office in London, Dr. Kalam is expected to formally declare open the event with taunted the Commonwealth Connects International e-Partnership Summit.

The two-day global ICT meeting, Sethi informed is aimed at fostering partnerships between the public and private sectors in addition to civil society is planned to enhance the capacity of the Commonwealth nations in the use ICTs as tools for development.

It was further gathered that the summit would be graced by ICT ministers from across the Commonwealth and key players from organisations such as the World Bank, Intel, Cisco and Vodafone.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon and Malta’s Minister for External Affairs Michael Frendo, who also chairs the Commonwealth Connects steering committee, are slated to address the event.

Sethi equally said that the meetings, jointly organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Commonwealth Business Council and the Government of India, intended to bridge the deepening digital divide across the 53 countries of the Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth Connects Programme was formally launched last year, just as India, Malta, Mozambique, and Trinidad and Tobago, which are members of its Steering Committee, have begun funding the programme to the tune of about £1 million (1,957,038.19) spread over three years.

The first project launched under the programme in August 2006, ‘Rebuilding After the Tsunami: Using ICTs for Change,’ offers web development, e-communication services and training to organisations working on tsunami rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts in Sri Lanka and India.

The programme is coordinated by the Commonwealth Connects secretariat within the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Governance and Institutional Development Division.

The Commonwealth Connects Programme is helping to bridge the deepening Digital Divide across the 53 countries of the Commonwealth.

In an attempt to mitigate this increasing digital fragmentation, a collaborative effort of the Commonwealth Secretariat, Commonwealth partner agencies and member countries has formed the Commonwealth Connects Programme.

It is a multi-stakeholder partnership whose aim is to facilitate strategic action by governments, the private sector and civil society organisations to fast track positive change. It is a unique initiative that enables the transfer of technology and expertise across the whole Commonwealth.
In 2005, the 53 Heads of Government met under the theme “Networking the Commonwealth for Development”.

At a previous CHOGM, Heads of Government had endorsed what was previously the 'Commonwealth Action Programme for the Digital Divide', now known as the 'Commonwealth Connects Programme', which identified broad programme areas where the Commonwealth had a comparative advantage, in the context of international collaboration, due to a shared legacy of institutional and regulatory development.

The Programme further tends to building on policy and regulatory capacity, modernising education and skills development entrepreneurship for poverty reduction, promoting local access and connectivity, regional networking, local content and knowledge, focussing on these well-defined areas, the commonwealth connects programme will enhance and support the global effort of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The summit aims to foster effective global partnerships between the public and private sectors to help develop and deliver the objectives of the Commonwealth Connects programme.

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12,500 jobs to go @ Lucent-Alcatel

Indications that recent subtle merger between Lucent Technologies and Alcatel would leave 12,500 employees out of job.

This job cut, according to company sources, was in response to business setback the merger suffered in the last quarter.

Lucent-Alcatel is touted as the largest network infrastructure supplier,, but instead boosting its net in the last quarter, it was awful.

The figure of 12,500, it was also gathered as being in excess of earlier projections with 3,500.

CNN reports that while presenting its provisional figures Alcatel-Lucent had already talked of implementing cost cutting measures in excess of those already planned.

Presenting the group's final balance sheet for the fourth quarter, the company announced weekend, that instead of only 9,000 it will during the next three years slash as many as 12,500 jobs.

These measures, according to the company's chief executive, Ms Patricia Russo, would help the group to save 1.7 in place of 1.4 billion euros.

Alcatel-Lucent employs some 80,000 people in 130 countries.

The group is the world's largest supplier of fixed-network technology and the world's second-largest supplier of mobile-network and Internet technology.

Alcatel-Lucent was focused "on supporting the overall transformation occurring in our industry," the group's CEO said.

"This includes the transformation of networks to all-IP, video and multimedia content to enhance communication services, broadband mobility as well as high value services," she added.

Sales of Alcatel-Lucent, which for the first time since the merger of the French company Alcatel and the United States (US)-based telecoms supplier, Lucent presented a quarterly balance sheet for the joint company, saw sales in the fourth quarter of the previous fiscal year drop quarter-on-quarter to 4.421 billion euros from 5.249 billion euros.

Additionally, sales revenue for fiscal 2006 as a whole dipped slightly in year-on-year terms to 18.254 billion euros from 18.574 billion euros.

The telco said that its operating profit in the fourth quarter plummeted quarter-on-quarter (q-on-q) from 566 to 21 million euros; instead of a net income of 381 million euros, this time around the company in the fourth fiscal quarter posted losses of 618 million euros.

In fiscal year, 2006, as a whole operating profit dropped y-on-y from 1.411 billion euros to 1.025 billion euros; net income shrank to 522 million euros from 1.674 billion euros.

In the fourth quarter Alcatel-Lucent reported an EPS loss of 27 eurocents, whereas in the same quarter of the year before there had been an EPS profit of 14 eurocents.

For the year as a whole Alcatel-Lucent posted earnings per share of 23 eurocents; for fiscal 2005 the equivalent figure had been 72 eurocents.

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