Use of IPv4 declines – Report

Cover of the week:
Despite the intentions of some stakeholders to accommodate the Internet Protocol version six (IPv6), reports disclosed that version four (IPv4) is on the decline curve in terms of usage.

Internet Protocol version 4 is the current common version of the Internet Protocol, the “IP” portion of Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol ((TCP/IP), which assumes the position of dominant protocol suite in the worldwide Internet. TCP is Layer 4, otherwise known as the transport layer (TCP/IP) in IPv4, which allows for approximately four billion IP numbers.

Also, IPv4 is the most widely used version of IP nowadays, which uses a system of unique 32-bit identifiers to address data to computers (or hosts) on the Internet, according to Wikipedia.com, just as experts said it has 128 Class A addresses but only about 64 have been used.

This may bring a lull in the acceptance and enthronement of IPv6 full time either by relevant authorities managing IP addresses or the global coordinating agency, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Before now the fear has been that IPv4 would soon run out of IP addresses hence the move to introduce IPv6 to contain more Internet users growing desire.

This came as ICANN weekend announced the global policy proposal for the remaining IPv4 address space.

According to the 2007 IPv4 address use report, made available to Champion Infotel, the number of available IPv4 addresses went down from 1300.65 million to 1122.85 million, thus leaving a difference of 177.8 million addresses.

The report released by protocol routing entity, the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), indicated that the number of usable addresses is 3706.65 million as at end of December 2007, therefore showing that on January 1, 2007 global utilization recorded 64.9 per cent and by the last quarter of the same year it was at 69.7 per cent.

These figures, the report said were derived from the records published on the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) servers of the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), namely AfriNIC, which offers address space exclusively for Africa, APNIC for Asia-Pacific region, ARIN for North America, LACNIC for Latin America and the Caribbean and RIPE NCC for Europe, the former Soviet Union and the Middle East.

As stated by the report, there are two other ways to interpret the same data; first by way of simply adding up all the address space with a date indicating that it was given out in year 2007, which is 186.93 million addresses.

While the second in this order is to compensate four ARIN’s record keeping peculiarities which tends to bring the total for 2007 to no less than 196.77 million, presumably the highest number ever.

However, the second highest was 1991 with 189 million addresses, whereas the 196.77 million figure is approximated at 19 per cent higher than the 2005 and 2006 numbers and were largely the same.

For instance, the report noted that in 2007 one of the old Class A blocks – 46.0.0.0/8, was returned to the Internet Assigned Name Authority (IANA), which is the first time in many years.

This returned blocks represent 16.78 million addresses in size and is now part of the global pool of free address space, thereby accounting for the difference between the 177.8 and 196.77 numbers.

BGP report outlined the status of 221 usable blocks of 16.78 million addresses with AfriNIC delegated two blocks amounting to 33.55 million addresses, APNIC 26 blocks with 436.21 million addresses, ARIN 27 blocks with 452.98 addresses and LACNIC got six with 100.66.

Also the report stated that RIPE NCC has 26 with 436.21 million addresses, while various got 49 with 822.08, end-user 42 with 704.64 and available blocks were fixed at 43 with 721.42.

Additionally, the 43 unused blocks of 721.42 million addresses currently in custody of IANA was reported to be free space in the form of addresses delegated from IANA to the regional Internet registries, but not yet further delegated by the RIR in question to an Internet Service Providers (ISPs) or end-users.

In a related development, ICANN announced the final call for comments on the proposed global policy for allocation of IPv6 address space.

Champion Infotel recalls that on July 13, 2006, the Secretary of the Address Supporting Organization Address Council forwarded to ICANN a proposed global policy for allocation of IPv6 address space.

This proposed global policy had been submitted to the ASO AC by the Executive Council of the Number Resource Organization on June 6, 2006 and adopted by the ASO AC on 12 July 2006.

The development of global Internet Number Resource Policies is the subject of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between ASO/NRO and ICANN.

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Observing packet spoofing by ISPs (8)

Performing these tests from behind NAT could produce valid results but creates some uncertainty about whether unexpected network behaviour is due to an ISP or a local NAT router.

A public IP address is one that another party can use directly to communicate with you without the need to configure a tunnel or firewall rule or use a proxy to connect. 6

If you are using an institutional network connection, such as at a school or business, that has a firewall that you are not permitted to disable, you may still be able to perform these tests, but any packet spoofing you detect may be a result of your institution’s firewall rather than its upstream ISP connection.

As we describe below, observing packet-spoofing shows that someone is doing it, but does not directly reveal who. We want to reduce the number of possible responsible parties.

Therefore, before beginning the test, disable any firewalls and NATs located between your computer and the Internet - including both software or “personal” firewalls running on your computer and firewall appliances or firewall functionality in routers.

As an alternative, connect your computer to a point on the network located outside of any firewalls or NAT routers (for example, by directly connecting it to a cable modem or Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) modem). Some network designs and documentation refer to this location as a DMZ.

Step 3. If possible, disable TCP and UDP checksum offloading and TCP segmentation offloading.

Checksum offloading (sometimes called “TCP checksum offloading”, although UDP checksums may also be offloaded) is a feature of some recent Ethernet cards, particularly Gigabit Ethernet-capable cards, that allows the Ethernet card to construct portions of some network packets in hardware, saving load on the CPU.

courtesy: EFF

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Zinox, USAID, others lift UNILAG with 362 Pcs

The pride of the nation in computer manufacturing, Zinox Technologies Limited in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), British American Tobacco, Microsoft Nigeria, Ocean Energy Nigeria Limited has lifted the University of Lagos (UNILAG) with 362 computers under University Strengthening for Improved Employability Project partnership.

These PCs deployed in two computer laboratories within the UNILAG at both the faculty of Business Administration and Department of Computer Sciences are meant to reposition the mindset of graduates from these departments for the contemporary business society, thus becoming employable and competitive globally.

Speaking at the occasion, Executive Director, Zinox Technologies, Mrs. Vivian Abii, noted that the failing educational system in the country, especially in the university sector worries her organisation, hence it showed concern through the Computerize Nigeria Project (CNP) on how to remedy the situation.

She described the project as an idea whose time has come and which brings extra value to the school system aimed at identifying and rectifying the incongruence between the educational system and the private sector.

According to her the target is to ultimately develop a curricular that would adequately deliver the manpower needs of the private sector.

The success of this initiative, she said, would put the issue of unemployable graduates from Nigerian universities to rest.

Assuring that the partners have put everything in place from the computer labs to the modern lecture theatres to the technical support from an American University to the hands-on experience as promised.

“This initiative ideally should serve as the springboard to overhaul the educational system in Nigeria,” Mrs. Abii asserted.

In her message, the United States ambassador to Nigeria, Ms Robin R. Sanders represented by the Consul General, Mrs Donna Blair, pointed out that most universities in developing countries face a common challenge in accessing the tremendous resources necessary to provide modern technology to their students.

“But without this technology, students move on to face an even greater problem in finding employment without the skills necessary to perform the jobs for which companies are hiring,” she declared, stressing that US government and her partners in this project recognise this difficulty and the long term consequences of failing to address it.

She also noted that the 362 Zinox Pcs have been installed with Microsoft business and computer science software to prepare today’s students for gainful employment tomorrow.

Ms. Sander explained that under the partnership collaborating organisations would join forces to align key curricular of the university with the skills demanded by the nation’s private sector, foster a sense of obligation in tomorrow’s leaders to play an active role in Nigeria’s development, provide valuable and challenging internships to talented, high performing students and increase employment, incomes as well as productivity of UNILAG graduates through strengthened technological skills.

“The partnership will provide graduates not only with the tools they need to better provide for themselves and their families, but also to contribute to a stronger Nigeria,” she noted.

Affirming the support of the US government to the project, she looks forward to continued cooperation among them.

In his response, Vice Chancellor, UNILAG, Prof. Tolu Odugbemi, expressed happiness over the choice of his school for the take off of this laudable project and assured that the school authorities would ensure maximum usage of the labs.

All the partners in the project were fully represented including the Director USAID, Ms. Latanya Mapp-Frett, Career Specialist for the UNILAG/USAID/Kansas State University Partnership project, Mr. Danesi Jafar, Head, Human Resources, British American Tobacco, Mrs. Mrs. Funmi Ogbue, President, Nigeria Computer Society and Director, Computer Information Technology Systems (CITS), UNILAG, Prof. Charles Uwadia among others.

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Nigerians need discipline on device usage – Nwaoshai

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) expert in electrical power conditioning, Mr. Emmanuel Nwaoshai, has said that apart from the clamour for improved power situation in the country, Nigerians need discipline in their usage of the available power supply in the system.

He gave this counselling in a chat with newsmen in Lagos at the weekend and said that it’s lamentable to see a mini conference room in the country being lit with over 20 bulbs.

Mr. Nwaoshai who also is the Managing Director, Power Systems Technology Limited, said that Nigerians should learn how to switch any electrical appliance off when not in use and mostly when they are going out of the house or offices.

To this end, he said, that Power System Technologies Limited is concerned about adequate usage of the available power in the country, stressing that this facilitated the recent appointment by the latest owners of APC/MGE merger, Schneider Electric of France, as silver partner to distribute, install, maintain and repair APC full range of products and manage existing large installations in the country.

Mr. Nwaoshai added that Power Systems Technology is involved in structured power cabling, management of Local Area Network and Wide Area Network (LAN/WAN) based on Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS).

Presently, he said, that the firm is concluding plans to set up a unit dedicated for the provision of Data Centre solutions to a diverse clientele.

With offices strategically located in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, Mr. Nwaoshai, said his firm is well equipped with dedicated workforce made up of well-trained engineers to attend to customers’ needs.

According to him, the 12-year old Power Systems Technology core value is offering affordable pricing, integrity, responsiveness, innovation, timeliness, expertise, quality and performance.

“Telecommunications and other ICT environments require clean, reliable and uninterrupted power for their operations to avoid equipment malfunction, process downtime and loss of revenue,” he said.

He further revealed that his firm is ready to partner with government and other agencies toward creating awareness of how best to optimise power usage in their environment.

This, he said, would be realised through collaboration for awareness workshops where alternatives would be made public to help reduce inadequacy in usage of power supply.

He noted that over the years, Power Systems Technology has distinguished itself in various aspects of sales, installations and maintenance of power cum electronics systems.

“We have also carved a niche in various aspects of cabling and computer site preparation,” he said, listing some of its clientele to include MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, Shell Corporation among other blue-chip companies nationwide.

While assuring of deployment of genuine spare parts coupled with requisite technical expertise, Power Systems Technologies also provides after sales service back-up, through various means including maintenance agreements, routine checks, preventive maintenance and close monitoring of the performance of their equipment.

Mr. Nwaoshai was accompanied at the briefing by the Head, Engineering of the company, Mrs. Beverly Mortune and the Marketing Manager, Mr. Sunny Agu.

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APC advocates gender balance in IGF

As members of the Internet community warm up for the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) due to open soon in Hyderabad, the Association of Progressive Communications (APC) has advocated for a balanced gender participation in the affairs of IGF.

The IG forum was initiated in fulfilment of the outcome of the two-phased World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which ended in 2005, in continuation of the stakeholders’ participation in fine-tuning the global policies on Internet Governance.

APC in a public statement made available to Champion Infotel at the weekend, said that though it supports the regionalisation of IGF activities globally, gender balance should be given greater attention in the composition of panels within the forum.

The group gave its support on the need to restructure IGF, emphasising that recycling of the core themes in plenary sessions during the forum required revisiting.

“There is no need to convene a plenary session on each of these themes,” APC stated, adding that they would rather suggest the use of plenary sessions to address cross-cutting areas and emerging issues such as gender balancing, especially in the composition of panels.

Regarding the IGF meeting slated for Hyderabad, APC said it supports the proposals for key themes made by the Swiss delegation, and by the Civil Society Internet Governance (CSIG) caucus.

“We also support the proposal from the International Institute for Sustainable Development that sustainable development be included as a key theme,” a part of the press statement read.

This theme, APC pointed out, cuts across most of the existing themes and complements the proposed focus on development, adding that sustainable development concerns are integral to many core IGF themes.

APC cited an instance that relates to how individual and society deal with the access theme.

“Policy makers as well as implementers are in the position to make choices about what technologies are used to expand infrastructure,” APC said.

These choices, the group explained have long-term implications for the environment, particularly on climate change, thus choices also impacted on the sustainability of the infrastructure itself, wondering if it makes sense to build internet backbone using technology that requires huge amounts of energy in parts of the world where electricity supplies are unstable, limited, and very expensive?

“Sustainable development as it relates to the development and governance of the Internet is a global issue, like climate change. It belongs in the IGF. It is an area of common concern for developing and developed countries as it impacts on everyone, even if in different ways,” the group said, just as APC acknowledged the input of those speakers who feel that the issue is too broad, and outside of the mandate of the IGF.

“We’re convinced that the IGF can find a way of including sustainable development in a focused manner that is consistent with the mandate of the IGF,” APC said.

Further, the group advised that most proposals made at the recent IGF held in Brazil, could help define regional or national priorities and facilitate participation in the IGF process.

“They can be a powerful mechanism for learning, problem solving and collaborative action,” APC submitted.

APC equally recommended that IGF uses the format of the Working Groups to assist in ensuring that the primary IGF themes, cross cutting areas, and suggested topics for main sessions, are addressed as effectively as possible before, during and after a forum as well as in between fora.

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Internet community upholds honour on Onyekwere

The Internet community in the country has upheld the recent national award bestowed on the chairman, pioneer Internet Service Provision (ISP) company, Linkserve Limited, Chief Chima Apugo Onyekwere.

Champion Infotel recalls that recently, Chief Onyekwere was honoured with the Order of the Niger (OON) by the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

Speaking on behalf of the Internet community, Presidents of the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) and Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), Messrs Lanre Ajayi and Ndukwe Kalu respectively commended the Federal Government (FG) for recognising Chief Onyekwere at this time, adding that it was long overdue.

NiRA president, Mr. Kalu, said it is an honour that is long over due given the importance of Internet in this century, especially by FG.

“Chief Onyekwere has done a lot for the industry and deserve this kind of national honour long time ago,” he said, stressing that personally he was expecting that whenever the honour would come it would be something higher than was given to him.

This, he said is crucial given the importance of Internet in this era and the key role its playing in every economy.

He recalled that for pioneering Internet Service Provision in the country, Chief Onyekwere was imprisoned unduly.

Congratulating Chief Onyekwere, he applauded government for recognising him eventually.

In a congratulatory message by NIG, the group’s president, Mr. Ajayi, said that in the beginning there was no dedicated access to the Internet in Nigeria and Chief Onyekwere said ‘let there be Internet and there was Internet.’

Eulogising Onyekwere on this honour, NIG said it’s a great privilege to have him in the group’s Board of Trustees (BoT).

He emphasised that Chief Onyekwere has contributed immensely to the development of Internet in Nigeria, therefore NIG is heartily proud of him.

“We are proud of his contribution to his motherland. We wish him more success in his endeavours,” he declared.

Linkserve Limited and its subsidiaries were established principally for the provision of Internet solutions amongst other information technology business. As a wholly owned Nigerian company incorporated in 1996, Linkserve commenced operation in 1997 with an IP connection to the Internet offering full services to the public on real time.

It’s clientele cut across financial institutions, foreign missions, NGOs, the oil sector, government establishments, manufacturing sector and trading concerns and is recognised as industry leader.

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Weco Group gets new complex

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) integration company, Weco Systems Group, has gone into a new complex to further accommodate its teeming customers in a more conducive location.

A press statement from the company at the weekend, informed that the latest Weco corporate headquarters is now at Grace House, an ultra modern building at Maruwa Area of Lekki Scheme One.

According to the company, the new office complex boasts of state-of-the-art equipment and facilities including Internet Protocol (IP) telephony solution for office and external communications.

Weco Systems Group, a fully owned and managed Nigerian firm has since inception in 1992 and incorporation in 1994, positioned itself as the ICT of choice by providing professional and quality service delivery on enterprise networking solutions that are reliable, timely and cost effective to its esteemed clients through its highly skilled and dedicated workforce.

Composed of Renna Telecoms, Connectworks Limited and Weco Systems International Limited, it is now poised than ever with its new location to serve customers better.

Connectworks is a systems integration company with skills in the designing, building, securing, supporting and managing enterprise networks for all sectors of the economy.

As Cisco Tier-1 partner with advanced specializations in unified communications, wireless and security, Connectworks recently won the first Cisco IP Contact Centre across the emerging Africa market.

Also Connectworks won the Cisco Systems Premier partner of the year award, 2006 for Emerging Africa in 2007 during the Cisco world’s partner conference in Las Vegas, United States.

On the other hand, Renna Telecommunications Limited is a service provider focused company that provides bundled, value-added wireless and backhaul solutions like WIMAX and Microwave among others designed for maximum performance and minimum downtime.

As the hardware arm of the group, Weco Systems International Limited has also invested heavily in developing the skills and methodologies appropriate for storage area network and enterprise hardware solutions.

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Digital Jewels organises fora on value chain

Information Technology (IT) driven project management stakeholders would be hosted to a forum organised by Digital Jewels in Ikoyi-Lagos, with the theme: Value Chain.

Chief executive, Digital Jewels, Mrs. Adedoyin Odunfa, informed Champion Infotel that plans have been advanced to ensure successful hosting of the forum, which she said, is a monthly engagement.

She also said that it is a unique opportunity to share and exchange value adding ideas with selected industry thought leaders, consultants and practitioners.

Mrs. Odunfa went on to say that the monthly forum is the company’s strategy of adding value to the business community and raising the stakes.

She explained that the March edition of the sessions, holds at Digital Jewels’ office facility situated in Osborne Foreshore Estate, Ikoyi-Lagos.

She added that these value-packed sessions have been designed as “a solution to the ever present challenge of staying sharp in topical issues, which would help to develop and enhance attendants’ professional network.”

Emphasising that attendance at the two-hour free sessions is through pre-registration, while participants would receive confirmation beforehand.

The topic for discussion at the March edition is “Recruiting, Training & Developing Your Technical Specialists: the key to Achieving Real Returns on your Technology Investments.”

She further said that the April’s session will focus on “Project Management Best Practice: Making it Work for you”. The session would change gear in May and expose attendants to “ISO27001: Understanding this Global Standard & Why your company needs it”.

Stressing however, that the June edition would address “IT Competitive Advantage: Navigating the Crucial Junction Where Infrastructure Meets Process. In July, it’s about “E-business in Developing Economies: a Review of Recent Trends, Spectacular Successes and Eminent Failures.”

The month of August would be for “Achieving a Quantum Leap in the Productivity of Technical specialists and Translating this to Bottom line Impact” while September would centre on “Governing the Information Value Chain: Coming of Age and Attaining Maturity”.

Whereas the October version would be “Research Insights: Juxtaposing the Security Profile of Nigerian Banks with the Regional Regulatory Banks: Cause for Alarm or Commendation? Where Does your Bank Rank?”

November’s meeting, she said, would take the business community through “Project HealthCheck: Recognising Early Warning Signs… Never Underestimate an Iceberg… the Consequences Are Titanic”. And in December, the session would gather to engage in “e-learning: Old Wine in New Skins or a Revolutionary Approach to Learning.”

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Senate commends Celtel on FCT switch centre

Celtel Nigeria was at the weekend commended for striving to improve the Quality of Service (QoS) on the network, especially for commissioning a new switching centre in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

The commendations came from the upper chamber of the National Assembly, the Senate and the Consumers Rights Protection Council for what was portrayed as a bold step toward meeting the yearnings and expectations of Nigerians.

Champion Infotel recalls that the new centre gulped $6 million about N702 million and is most likely to boost the telco’s ability to process more calls, Short Messaging Service (SMS) and conference calls as well as compliment the operator’s several capacity enhancing and service quality improvement projects, of which $1 billion about N117 billion has already been budgeted for this year alone.

In their remark at the commissioning, members of the Senate Committee on Communications, led by their Chairman, Senator Sylvester N. Anyanwu, who was the special guest at the occasion said the switching centre is worthy of celebration and praised Celtel for adhering to the voice of the people.

“I am here today with my committee members to celebrate with Celtel because it is now doing what we want it to do in the area of improved Quality of Service,” he declared.

Chief Anyanwu also tasked the telco to extend this gesture to other parts of the country rather than concentrating effort in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and other big cities but also in rural communities, where the quality of service is still very much below standards.

He described the Senate and Celtel Nigeria relationship as partners in progress and promised the support of his committee for the company in its quest to raise the standards of its operations.

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Agrovision to boost agriculture – Ekuwem

National President of Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, has commended the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) initiative of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Agrovision, saying that it would help the country to boost agricultural and allied food production, reports CHARLES OKOH.

He noted that the project launched in conjunction with a leading indigenous ICT solutions provider, Teledom Group International, is a unique programme.

Dr. Ekuwem who also is the Executive Vice Chairman, Teledom Group said in a chat with Information For Development (I4D) publication recently, that under this programme, farmers would have easy access to vital planting, harvesting, storage and transportation information.

“Agrovision is a programme we have developed in Teledom in collaboration with relevant government agencies in order to help farmers boost agricultural and food production,” he said.

Equally, he said that Agrovision is an ICT-driven programme that provides farmers with the agro-ecological mappings of the crops and soil types in Nigeria.

“In every farm, there will be an automatic weather station that captures the relevant meteorological data such as the intensity of rainfall, soil moisture, radiation, wind direction, atmospheric pressure, temperature and other agro-meteorological data,” he explained.

Dr. Ekuwem further said that these data would be collated and then transmitted to a central collation facility in the National Weather Centre.

“There is a super data base and server that will relate the captured data from the farm and use it for computation at the central location of Agrovision at the National Weather Centre,” he said, stressing that all these would be accomplished online-real time.

Teledom group prides itself as an award-winning ICT solution provider both within and outside Nigeria and has in its basket WebInn Limited and Technology Development Company Limited, both of which offer other specialized ICT-based services.

The company promises to deploy Broadband based infrastructure and multimedia facilities with appropriate content solutions to boost national economic productivity and prosperity.

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MTS rewards dealers

MTS First Wireless Limited, a pioneer wireless telecommunications operator has rewarded its dealers, even as it promised to improve on the current quality of service on the network in its coverage areas, reports NNAMDI OJIEGO.

This promise was made by the company’s secretary and manager, legal services Ms. Jane Edu, while speaking at an interactive MTS-dealers business partnership forum held at the company’s corporate headquarters in Ikoyi, Lagos.

While reaffirming MTS readiness to claim its leadership position in Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) segment of the Nigeria telecommunications sector, Ms. Edu said that the telco has despite its many challenges, continued to deliver superior, durable, dependable and affordable telecomms services to its numerous subscribers.

She also said the telco would soon embark on a new roll out plans to further enhance its current capabilities and performance.

Speaking further, the secretary added that African telecoms market remains lucrative for prospective foreign investors.

She stressed that MTS is poised to turn around its fortunes by continually seeking newer ways to fine-tune exiting business relations with various stakeholders, pointing out that cardinal to its current business strategy is a robust dealer-partnership relations.

Meanwhile, the company rewarded its dealers with luxurious gifts like TV sets, and recognition awards as a sign of appreciation to their supports and commitments.

“We sincerely appreciate your supports, dedication and commitment to the MTS brand. Through the years, you have shown a tremendous sense of loyalty and confidence needed to underscore and harness the potentials of MTS First Wireless Limited, particularly in the face of daunting challenges”, she said.

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Microsoft to launch Windows Server-08 in 38 countries

Software giant, Microsoft Corporation, at the weekend launched its latest in shelf solution, the Windows Server 2008 in the city of Lagos, just as it plans to spread the launch across 38 countries within the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region.

Speaking to newsmen at the event, Core Infrastructure Server Products and Solutions Lead for MEA, Mr. Goksel Topbas, said that already, the launch has taken off in some African countries including Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe to name a few while Ghana comes up Wednesday.

In addition, he said, that there would be launching of the product through the firm’s Most Valuable Professional (MVP) scheme to further boost the market sensitisation and usage.

Describing the Windows Server 2008 as the first-ever most customer friendly product, Mr. Topbas, noted that some Nigerian stakeholders have been trained since last year, who are expected to take this to the customers nationwide.

According to him, the launch expected to come in various forms including specific launch for the Small and Medium Business Enterprises (SMEs) would continue for the next four months.

“It would continue in the next four months with community launches,” he declared.

He stressed that the SME aspect of the launch is very crucial to Nigeria market among other developing markets globally so as to expand awareness.

Microsoft, he said, is targeting estimated 80,000 professionals to optimise the new solution within the MEA region, which has about 79 countries.

He further said that Windows Server 2008 comes with in-built web and virtualisation technologies that afford users to increase their reliability and flexibility of their server infrastructure.

These features, he pointed, help to enhance security in any organisation where it is deployed and save time, reduce costs and provide a platform for a dynamic and optimised data centre.

Explaining, he said that the in-built web application in the Windows Server 2008 has a service-oriented architecture which gives users the ability to deliver rich web-based experiences efficiently and effectively.

Adding that with an improved administration and diagnostics, development and application tools, lower infrastructure costs is witnessed.

He emphasised that the release of Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS 7.0) as part of the solution, makes the application a complete modular with extensible web server that could be expanded in application hosting, whereas retaining excellent compatibility and solving key customer challenges.

On virtualisation aspect of the latest solution, Mr. Topbas said that Microsoft has a broader vision for the virtualisation input, underlining the fact that as built-in server technology, it enables Windows Server 2008 organisations to reduce costs, increase hardware utilisation, optimise their infrastructure and improve server availability.

He underscored the benefits of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 to include low maintenance costs, extremely high uptime, reduced administrative costs, improved collaboration and internal communication, improved identity management solution and enhanced security.

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NCS holds collaborative seminar

The Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) in conjunction with the London Metropolitan University (LondonMet), United Kingdom (UK) yesterday in Lagos, held a one-day Collaborative seminar, reports CHARLES OKOH.

The Acting Executive Secretary of NCS, Mr. Ejide F. Oladunmoye, informed that the one-day seminar was to boost the human capacity know-how of its members and Information Technology (IT) professionals, lecturers, computer science students and students of high schools in the country.

The seminar, which took place at the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON) Centre, Onikan-Lagos, he said, were in two sessions and meant to discuss and develop actions to improve co-ordination in networked enterprise field, elaborate on processes, organizational models and strategies.

This, Mr. Oladunmoye noted could radically improve the way businesses are networked and interoperate as well as enlighten students on computing and IT related courses.

According to him, the first session, was for IT professionals while the afternoon session was scheduled strictly for students.

A team of facilitators were selected globally including associate professor, Computer Science from London Metropolitan University, Dr. Farhi Marir, Managing Director, Jidaw, Mr. Jide Awe, as well as the managing director, Rippcon Nigeria Limited, Mr. Alfred Boye.

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MTN, Celtel to pay subscribers N4.7 bn compensation

Two major Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) operators, MTN Nigeria Communications and Celtel Nigeria, have been sanctioned by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to pay about N4,720,012,500 billion to active subscriber-base of 26,971,500 on their networks the sum of N175 each, as compensation for poor Quality of Service (QoS) as at December 31 2007.

ITRealms Online recalls that in the last quarter of 2007, apex telecom regulator in the country, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) issued a directive to the three major GSM operators in the land, including Globacom, MTN and Celtel.

NCC said, there would be N50 per subscriber monthly compensation where there was 2 to 5 per cent traffic channel congestion and 5 to 10 per cent would attract N100 per subscriber per month and congestion level over 10 per cent, would attract compensation of N175 per subscriber.

Its action, the regulator said, is in accordance with the provision of Section 53 of the Nigerian Communications Act of 2003, but was consequently dragged to court by the duo of MTN and Celtel.

This compensation, ITRealms Online also gathered would come inform of credits or top-ups for the affected subscribers, just as MTN is expected to pay 15,873,000 subscribers on the network as at December 2007, Celtel would tackle 11,098,500 customers amounting to N2,777,775,000 and N1,942,237,500 respectively.

Sources close to NCC affirmed that directive to this effect has been issued to the two affected GSM operators.

It was equally gathered that MTN and Celtel are tasked to pay this compensation as at the end of January 2008, stressing that the two failed short of the specified Key Performance Indicators (KPI) average by NCC for what was tagged ‘quality of service on the national coverage.’

Worried by the QoS, the national assembly through the Senate Committee on Communications, led by Chief Sylvester Ndubuisi Anyanwu recognised this fact and held a public hearing in Abuja as well as promised it would be extended to the six geo-political zones of the country.

Noteworthy is that a letter to this effect addressed to the GSM operators and dated September 19 and 20, 2007, respectively, signed by the commission’s secretary, Mr. Felix Odeoye, stated that NCC has been inundated with complaints from subscribers on the issue of poor and unacceptable level of quality of services across the telcos.

Responding to the notice, the two out of the three GSM operators had taken NCC to court on October 2, to restrain the proposed directive supposed to have taken effect as from October 7, 2007.

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