NCC withholds 440 Glo cars

Cover of the week:

Subsequent upon the last weekend blanket ban on any kind of promo whether existing and upcoming due to declining quality of service by the telecommunications regulatory in the country, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), thereby putting on hold 440 cars remaining in the Globacom’s 500 cars Win and Rule promo, which began last December.

This came as the 60th cars were drawn last Tuesday in Lagos, with 50 emerging new winners while presentation commenced for eight of the 10 winners in the initial draw that took place on Thursday, January 10, at the Mike Adenuga Towers (MAT) Victoria Island, Lagos.

These cars include BMW, Mercedes Benz, Peugeot and Kia.

Announcing the ban, NCC hinged its position on poor Quality of Service (QoS) across the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) operators.

Reacting to our inquiries on what would become of the remaining 440 cars in the Glo Win and Rule promo, sources close to NCC unequivocal said that it does not matter which of the promos now, but the most important thing is that every promo stand banned until further notice, probably when the quality of service improves considerably to an acceptable level and obviously in line with the Key Performance Indicators (KPI).

Officials of Globacom were mute on the ban and it effects on the Win and Rule promo, as efforts to get responses from them were not successful.

Champion Infotel recalls that for the second time in less than eight months, NCC had banned telecom operators from promos over the failing QoS, even as on July 6, 2007, the commission issued a directive to operators, with this one dated Thursday, February 7, specifically on GSM operators.

Our investigations revealed that out of the three GSM operators, only Glo is the one running a promo otherwise described as ‘grandfather of all promotions’ worth N2 billion.

Industry analysts said that the ban was reclaiming of its position as a transparent regulator by NCC and was not meant to witch-hunt any body or an operator but to salvage the consumers.

They added that its ‘criminal’ to embark on any kind of promo when the quality of service is nothing to write home about by the GSM operators, even as they strongly opined that NCC was not being biased in its judgment especially with the latest QoS equipment on ground to prove the state of KPI.

Industry observers further urged NCC to ensure publication of the result of the QoS to exonerate itself from any form of attack from any quarters.

According to NCC its position was further strengthened by the results generated by the latest tests with the newly acquired GSM QoS testing equipment, the Commission found it very crucial to slam another ban on operators due to ‘unsatisfactory’ results available to the agency, which it described as ‘unacceptable.’

Confirming the most recent ban, Head, Public Affairs at NCC, Mr. Dave Imoko said the commission had issued a fresh directive to GSM operators, stopping them from embarking on promotions of any kind and any form until further notice.

“NCC, hereby issues fresh directives stopping the GSM operators from embarking on promotions of any kind,” he declared in a press statement made available to Champion Infotel.

This directive, he said, affected on-going promotions or any new one yet to be embarked upon by any of the operators as the results of the tests carried out in some parts of the country has been very ‘unsatisfactory.’

“The Commission wishes to state that the level of performance of the GSM networks in some parts of the country where tests have been already completed were poor and unacceptable,” he asserted.

With the directive, he said, all the major GSM operators were grossly in default on several key performance indicators (KPI) for ascertaining quality of service.

“The key parameters on which the GSM networks were being tested include traffic channel congestion, call completion rates, call set-up success rates, call drop rates, percentage of failed calls, call set up time, speech quality index, and handover success rates,” he explained.

GSM operators, he said, were expected to attain or exceed threshold performance levels for these key indicators with respect to what NCC had benchmarked for each parameter previously.

Equally he explained that the Commission’s technical team had recently carried out QoS tests in Kano, Bauchi and Kaduna States which result were not upto the minimum standards, adding that in Bauchi State, for instance, some members of the Senate Committee on Communications witnessed the test being carried out by a technical team of the NCC.

And in accordance with NCC 2008 strategy, Mr. Imoko said the newly obtained GSM QoS test equipment has been fully deployed to regularly monitor the performance of operators in all states of the federation.

In a related development, Globacom last Tuesday fulfilled its promise by presenting some of the winners in the first draw with their cars and consequently held another batch of draw which brought the number of winners in the Win and Rule promo to 60.

Globacom maintained that the special promo was put together in the true spirit of empowering Nigerians and in accordance with its tradition of expressing gratitude to esteemed subscribers.

“Its also our unique way of thanking Nigerians for their loyalty and patronage, and for believing in us,” Executive Director, Human Resources at Globacom, Mr. Adewale Sangowawa said at the last draw.

Insisting that for Globacom, the customer is indeed the king and as a truly Nigerian company, is ploughing back its proceeds into building a first class network in the country and investing heavily in valued customers.

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A note on privacy

Market intelligence:

Using a packet sniffer could capture all of the traffic passing by your computer including all of the communications, and potentially communications of other users on the same network; if your computer is connected to a wireless network, for example, the packet sniffer may record everything you do and everything everyone else on the wireless network does on-line.

Please do not record other people’s communications without their consent. Doing so is impolite and, under some circumstances, may be prohibited by law. One way to avoid recording third parties’ communications is to avoid using promiscuous mode for your packet capture, unless you specifically need it.

If you produce a capture file (packet trace) with evidence of the results of your experiment, please be aware that the capture file will reveal your IP address, the IP address of the other person involved, and a complete record of everything you did on-line during the course of the experiment.

For example, if you downloaded a file, the packet trace will typically reveal which file (and even include the full contents of that file).

If you browsed the web or checked your e-mail while the packet sniffer was running, the identities and contents of web pages you visited and e-mail messages you downloaded may appear in the packet trace.

In addition, any HTTP cookies sent by your browser, which might include your username and password for web sites you visited, would be included in the trace. You should exercise caution when publishing or sharing a packet capture file to ensure that you don’t reveal more information than you intended.

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Visafone launches dual SIM phones

Fast emerging mobile telecommunication service provider, Visafone, has launched its branded dual Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) phones into the market.

Chief executive, Visafone, Mr. Ninan Thomas informed that the customised dual SIM phone afford subscribers to call and receive voice calls on both the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) networks simultaneously.

This, he said, underlines Visafone’s promise to revolutionise the telecom industry and bring the joy of communication to Nigerians, adding that with the dual SIM phone, subscribers could also send and receive Short Messaging Service (SMS) from both networks.

He noted that this special effect SIM phones were produced for Visafone, as a compact, state-of-the-art, multi-functional and technologically advanced mobile device with 2.0 mega pixel camera, video and voice recorder.

“ It also boasts Bluetooth connectivity, a video and music player with MP3 capabilities,” he said.

He said that this comes in two colour variants, white and black, the phones are aesthetically pleasing and would assist Visafone to carve a chunk of the CDMA market for itself.

The phone’s Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) he explained has the capability to allow the user to browse the internet directly on the phone while its mini Universal Serial Bus (USB) function, thus positioning the phone as a modem for providing internet access on a desktop or laptop.

“The phone is also multi-compliant on 800 Mega Hertz (MHz) and 1900MHz on the CDMA and 900MHz and 1800MHz on the GSM band,” he said.

The phones, which are competitively priced in comparison to other phones in the range have the same functionalities, are also expected to be a big hit with the youth market that are in love with multifunctional phones that could take pictures, play music and games as well as a host of other multi-media applications.

According to him, Visafone’s introduction of the dual SIM phone would provide a convenient alternative for a large slice of GSM subscribers who may not want to give up their GSM phones or carry two phones.

Visafone, a wholly owned Nigerian telecommunications company has renowned banker Jim Ovia as Founder and promoter and industry analysts believe that the consummate and trend setting banker will replicate his legendary business savvy and entrepreneurial magic in telecoms.

The company received its Unified Access Service licence as a telecom operator from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on August 1, 2007 and was incorporated in Nigeria on June 20, 2007 following its acquisition of Cellcom.

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Anya commends TD, Toshiba partnership

Astute economic strategist, Prof. Anya O. Anya has described the recent partnership deal sealed in Lagos between Technology Distribution (TD) West Africa and Toshiba as well as certification of TD for ISO 9001:2000, as the best affirmation for the penetration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) distribution in the region.

This is coming as the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has presented the prestigious NIS ISO 9001: 2000 quality management systems certificate to TD.

In his address to the occasion, Prof. Anya, who also is the chairman of TD, said that truly the partnership is between Toshiba and TD’s esteemed resellers.

He also said that TD depends largely on the commitment and experience of its resellers to move the numbers that would make the difference in the market and effectively equip the populace.

“The challenges would be enormous as we increase the number of brands in your bouquet,” he said, urging the resellers to remain innovative, aggressive, resourceful and proactive because it is imperative for a new market to emerge with the partnership.

According to him, the Toshiba brand does not just enable them to present quality choices to customers, “it also demands an increase of our marketing activities.”

He reassured that TD would provide the generous trade incentives to add substantially to their turnover and profitability.

“The pricing would be competitive, the goods would be available, our selling terms and conditions would remain flexible and favourable,” he asserted.

TD, he said would continue to assist the resellers in their capacity building efforts, advertising and promotions.

“We would stand by you and support your marketing efforts anywhere in West Africa,” he said.

Commenting on the formal presentation of TD with the ISO 9001:2000 certification, he said, its an affirmation that TD puts in place the best processes, technologies and people amongst competitors on the continent.

“It’s a reassurance that we have not and will never abandon the dreams of the founding fathers,” he said.

Prof. Anya further described the certification as a reassuring that TD is on the right track.

“We’re not failing in our duties to provide leadership for the IT market in Africa,” he declared, stressing that the partnership between TD and Toshiba coupled with the certification offer the opportunity for an inward reflection to enable perfection of the processes in delivering quality products.

“From importation, logistics, warehousing, marketing and support,” he said, adding that the firm does not see the certification precisely as an end in itself, but it’s the means to remain No. 1 in ICT distribution.

Director General of SON, Prof. John Akanya later presented the ISO certificate to the managing director of TD, Mrs. Chioma Ekeh.

The event, which attracted who-is-who in the industry included chairman Zinox Technologies, Dr. Leo-Stan Ekeh, former Vice chairman of University of Lagos (UNILAG), Prof. Oye Ibidapo Obe, chief executive of Connect Technologies, Chief Chris Uwaje to name a few.

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HP introduces energy-saving PCs

Hewlett Packard (HP) West Africa, has announced the availability of its two new energy-efficient business desktop Personal Computers (PCs) in the nation’s market, including the industry’s first to feature Solid-State Hard Drive (SSD), which offers improved reliability.

Marketing Manager, HP West Africa, Ms Ijeoma Onyiuke, informed in a press statement made available to Champion Infotel that both the HP Compaq dc7800 Ultra-slim Desktop PC with SSD and the HP Compaq dc5800 Business PC provide the power and flexibility to meet the needs of most any business.

Additionally, she said that they include a variety of environmental features that allow them to meet the most stringent requirements of the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEA) Gold registry.

She enlightened that the two PCs add to HP’s industry-topping number of Gold-listed products in the EPEAT registry helps businesses to evaluate and select technology products based on their environmental attributes, such as meeting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s latest ENERGY STAR energy-efficiency requirements.

According to her, while using more power-efficient PCs could help any business save on energy costs and reduce the environmental impact of their technology, the effect across an enterprise environment could be immense.

She cited an instance with the recent International Data Corporation (IDC) Go Green PC Power Play Study, which revealed that the U.S. federal government could save more than $82.4 million in energy costs, the equivalent to conserving more than 1.3 million barrels of oil in just one year.

“If its more than 10 million existing ENERGY STAR 3.0 PCs were updated to the new 4.0 standard,” she said.

The research study was underwritten by HP to help quantify the savings opportunities energy-efficient PCs could provide the federal government.

“HP’s ongoing efforts to design for the environment have spanned decades,” said the vice president and general manager, Personal Systems Group, HP, Alan Reed, adding that HP leverages this expertise to continually develop smart ideas for its PC product lines that not only help business customers be more productive, but also reduce operating costs and effect on the environment.

The HP Compaq dc7800 Ultra-slim Desktop PC’s solid-state hard drive provides many performance and durability improvements, including near instantaneous access to data and the elimination of moving parts, which are the main cause of electro-mechanical wear out. Additional benefits include a faster system start, better reliability, improved power efficiency, shock improvement and a smaller overall footprint.

Also, the dc7800 Ultra Slim Desktop is one of the industry’s smallest, enterprise-ready desktops – 46 percent smaller than previous models – and also features HP’s lowest power consuming, 85 per cent efficient power supply, without compromising performance.

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Celtel commits N116.5trn on QoS

Management of Global System for Mobile Operator, Celtel Nigeria has committed $1 billion (about N 116,505,000,000 trillion) for this year alone to improve the quality of service (QoS) on the network.

This is coming as the telco has invested in excess of $100 million on extensive private generator swapping and dualisation, which is on going nationwide on the network.

Managing Director, Celtel Nigeria, Mr. Bayo Ligali, made this disclosure in Lagos, adding that this is the second time the telco is voting $1 billion to improve network quality, having taken a similar step in year 2007.

“We are committing another $1b this year and we are optimistic that by the end of this year, the hue and cry over Quality of Service will almost disappear,” he said.

He also expressed optimism that based on the fact that other operators are also investing in network expansion, the result will be significant.

Although he lamented that some of these investments would have been unnecessary, if the first national carrier, the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) had provided the needed capacity as envisaged in every country, especially at inception of the liberalisation of the telecom market in the country.

“The huge investments in transmission capacity are distracting the operators from channelling their energies and resources into providing core GSM services,” he bemoaned.

In order to have network resilience, he said that Celtel is creating a right topology throughout the microwave and fire optic backbones to ensure dual routing for all traffic to counter fibre cuts and site outages.

“We’re building pools where capacity is shared allowing autonomous redundancy,” he said, noting that on-going addition of satellite hubs in all major capacity centres is to improve resilience and increased use of SAT-3.

According to him, the network reliability embarked upon by Celtel would bring to the fore the implementation of network Key Performance Indicator (KPI) automation to report and routinely intervene in quality impacting issues.

Celtel, he further revealed, has commenced outsourcing of monthly and quarterly network quality measurements and benchmarking so as to ensure comprehensive reporting tools and audits to proactively manage network quality.

Equally, Celtel has added leading edge monitoring and auditing tools with routine external audits to validate network quality and has invested massively on generator swap, dualisation and transformers installation programme.

This, he said, has been completed 100 per cent in Lagos and now being implemented nationwide, stressing that these new generators come with extended service interval, improved reliability and integrated anti-theft features.

Mr. Ligali added that it is important to note that the telco has embarked on a new national network-monitoring centre, which will be completed this year with world-class facilities to proactively monitor and intervene in network issues.

“Investment value approx $10m,” he declared.

Power generation, he said, is one major challenge militating immensely against the acceptable levels of quality of service. But instead of cursing the darkness, we have literally lighted a candle to help us provide our customers with efficient service.

“Here are few steps we have taken in addition to the extensive generator swap and dualisation valued at over $100m and is currently going on in the network,” he said.

Even as the telco has introduced a new model of generators designed specifically for the country, with extended service interval from 250 to 2000 hours, reduced fuel consumption by 20 per cent, in addition to integral self-destruct to counter theft, unique spare parts to limit serviceability and accurate fuel management and reporting.

In addition, he said that Celtel has deployed nationwide some Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) transformers by installing the remote fillable pre-pay meters, even as all sites have been equipped ready for PHCN availability.

Just as new power management system has been introduced in house to control sites’ power to reduce generator running time and automatically reports problems.

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Usman, 49 others win Glo cars

Employee of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Abubakar Usman, has emerged the star-prize winner in the last draw of Globacom’s Win and Rule promo, which also saw 49 others coming on stream as winners.

Usman won the only Mercedes Benz S-350 car on offer in the second draw of the promo, which took place in Lagos at the weekend.

Fifty cars were won in all at the draw: three Glo subscribers won BMW 318i cars, eight won Peugeot 307 saloon cars, 16 won Nissan Sunny cars while 22 were luckily picked for Kia Rio saloon cars in the same draw.

The draws were conducted by eminent Nigerians, including a former Deputy Governor of Ogun State, Alhaji Gbenga Kaka; President Nigerian Institute of Marketing, Chief Silva Emeokpere, Chairman of SATCOM Limited, Chief Alabi Isamah and Mrs. Titilayo Ajayi of the United Bank for Africa.

This is coming as presentations were made to some of the winners in the first draw and some of the winners were called from the venue of the draw.

When Usman who described himself as a civil servant was informed of his good fortunes, he exclaimed “wow!” and congratulated himself. Others expressed surprise, excitement and disbelief.

Commenting on the draw, Chief. Emeokpere, noted that Globacom has broken records in promotions in the country, by drawing 50 cars for its subscribers in one swoop.

At the second draw event, the company also presented eight out of the 10 cars won earlier to the winners who were present.

Speaking at the event, Globacom’s Executive Director, (Human Resources) Mr. Adewale Sangowawa said that the current promo was put in place to specially empower Nigerians and in accordance with Globacom’s tradition of expressing gratitude to its esteemed subscribers.

“It is our unique way of thanking Nigerians for their loyalty and patronage and for believing in us” he said.

He also cautioned subscribers against fraudsters, saying, “it has come to our knowledge that some fraudsters are desperately trying to use fake “promos” to defraud innocent people.

While urging Nigerians not to abuse the generosity of Globacom, he implored them to be vigilant and careful.

“Any promo that requires your sending recharge PIN numbers to a certain Glo telephone number is not genuine! You can always crosscheck the veracity of the information that you receive from any of our offices. For the avoidance of doubt, winners of our promos are usually contacted by telephone and the draws are shown on national television. Our promos are very transparently done as you are witnessing today,” he explained.

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Ericsson demos latest in multimedia

Renowned telecommunications equipment supplier, LM Ericsson is demonstrating its latest in broadband and multimedia at the on-going Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain.

Head, Marketing & Communications, LM Ericsson West Africa, Mr. Olabode Sowunmi said that the display at the congress which commenced on Monday, February 11 adds to the unveiling of the telco’s latest developments in television, mobile broadband and energy efficiency.

According to him, visitors would be able to experience the technology and learn about the services’ capabilities at Ericsson’s main conference stand, located in Hall 8, La Fira, and in the TV pavilion and outdoor area.

He also informed that Ericsson will employ interactive storytelling, using three personas to demonstrate how technology could be used in different market segments: Jessica, a “digital native;” Tom, who is juggling career, family and hobbies; and Mosi, a carpenter in Africa.

In the demo, Mosi is a carpenter in Nigeria whose life is changing dramatically following the introduction of mobile telephony. Through him, Ericsson will highlight how mobile telephony could improve socio-economic conditions, while offering operators a sustainable business model in emerging markets.

He highlighted that visitors could see how technology such as Voice Short Messaging Service (SMS), together with innovative solutions such as complete solar-powered radio sites, supporting profitable network expansion while helping in bridging the digital divide.

As said by him, Ericsson would also showcase its innovative energy efficient solutions, which tends to optimize energy efficiency in addition to not only reducing environmental impact.

“It will also cut network costs and help make communications more affordable for everyone,” he said.

Mr. Sowunmi pointed out that mobile network efficiency starts with good design and continues with excellent individual core and radio site performance.

This, he said is achievable by utilizing alternative sources of energy such as solar, wind and bio-fuels will make communication more accessible and will reduce reliance on fossil fuels and further reduce environmental impact.

He emphasised that visitors to Ericsson’s TV Pavilion, located outside Hall 8, would be able to experience the whole process of producing, managing, distributing and consuming the TV content.

“Ericsson’s end-to-end TV capabilities - across multimedia, network and services domains are on display,” he said.

Ericsson pride itself as the world’s leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators as well as market leader in Second Generation (2G) and Third Generation (3G) mobile technologies, even as Ericsson manages networks that serve over 185 million subscribers globally.

The company’s portfolio comprises mobile and fixed network infrastructure, and broadband and multimedia solutions for operators, enterprises and developers. The Sony Ericsson joint venture provides consumers with feature-rich personal mobile devices.

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