Globacom storms Cotonou

Determined to build an African telecommunications network, the Second National Operator (SNO), Globacom Limited, has finalised plans to launch its first oversea’s operation since obtaining the license third quarter of last year, and precisely in August.

This move has hitherto received applause from stakeholders in the nation’s Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) including the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) among other telecom experts.

Close sources at Globacom, hinted that the Benin Republic official launch has been slated to take place tomorrow, Thursday, at the Hotel Marina in Cotonou by 6.30pm.

The launch, which would be performed by top government officials in Benin Republic is billed to set the city of Cotonou agog for many days to come as the subscribers would not only adorn the lemon green and white colour of Globacom, but accompanied with the all the avalanche of services available on the network in Nigeria also on offer for Beninose.

Some of the services expected in Benin cut across core service packages, value added services, corporate solutions, business solutions and customer care.

Commenting on the launch, ALTON president, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo told Champion Infotel that his group is very delight that Nigerian operators are following the successful performance keenly by extending their network to the subregion, which Glo is championing.

“We are delighted and we look forward to more players covering more miles across the subregion and beyond,” he asserted in a Short Messaging Service (SMS) in response to Itrealms online query.

Meanwhile, this development came as Globacom recently in Cairo, Egypt announced fresh deal with a global leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, Internet Protocol (IP) technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent, to expand its network.

President, Alcatel-Lucent’s business in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) Mr. Vincenzo Nesci, disclosed this at the just concluded ITU Telecom Africa held in Cairo.

According to him, a new contract was signed with Globacom Limited to extend the network capacity and performance of Globacom’s mobile and fixed networks and is part of the operator’s IP network transformation to deliver sophisticated mobile and triple play services with enhanced quality of service (QoS).

He also said that the project would enable Globacom to increase its mobile network capacity including GSM/EDGE and W-CDMA/HSPA technologies to support up to 35 million subscribers, and to raise its fixed network capacity.

A press statement made available to Champion Infotel by Alcatel quoted the Globacom chairman, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jnr as saying that his firm is poised to offer subscribers in the region an unparalleled user experience.

“Delivering the highest quality services to end-users is our top priority. With Alcatel-Lucent’s advanced mobile and fixed network solutions, we will increase our network capacity and provide the best services to meet the rapidly increasing demand from our customers,” he said.

Proudly Nigerian brand, Glo as the telco trading name has since its introduction of Per Second Billing (PSB) based on 2.5G technology, 3G Plus technology, blackberry solutions, extensive coverage, Prepaid Roaming, M-Banking, MMS, Voice SMS, unique Caller Tunes and even its promotional activities to redefine the telecoms value proposition for Nigerians.

Champion Infotel recalls that in January 2003, Globacom secured the Second National Carrier bouquet of licences from the Nigerian communications Commission (NCC), to operate Digital Mobile, National Carrier, International Gateway and Online services; founded on a vision of being the largest, most successful entertainment, information and telecommunications solutions provider, both in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.Historically, the telco launched commercial mobile service on the Per Second Billing platform, which Nigerians had been made to believe was impossible, on August 29, 2003.

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Steps to observe packet spoofing by ISPs (8)

Each IP packet is typically captured wrapped inside a link-layer header (often referred to as an Ethernet frame header or Ethernet packet header on an Ethernet-style network, including a wired Ethernet or wifi network).

Link-layer headers are used to communicate between computers on the same local Ethernet network and are discarded and regenerated whenever a packet is forwarded through any router.

Thus, there is no reason to expect link-layer headers to correspond between two packet traces unless those packet traces were captured on the same physical local-area network.

When manually performing a detailed packet comparison, packets should be considered “the same” if the Internet Protocol headers and payload match up; the link-layer headers can simply be ignored because they were never forwarded over the Internet.

Even some discrepancies between IP headers are to be expected; for example, the Time-To-Live (TTL) field is supposed to be decremented by each router that forwards a packet, so the TTL value when a packet is received should always be smaller than the original TTL value when it was transmitted.

Similarly, the IP checksum field that indicates whether a packet’s IP headers were transmitted without error has to be recalculated each time the packet is forwarded, because the TTL value has changed.

There are also other circumstances in which an ISP’s routers may, consistent with Internet protocol standards, legitimately alter other fields in the IP headers. 12.On the modern Internet, there are usually several ISPs involved in forwarding packets from their source to their destination.

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Progress has been made since WSIS-05 – Toure

The Secretary General, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Dr. Hamadoun Toure, has declared that much progress have been made since the second phase of the two-phased World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

ITrealms Online recalled that the summit was held in two phases namely in Geneva 2003 and Tunis 2005.

According to Toure, who spoke at the recent meeting on Global forum on Access and Connectivity as part of the Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development (GAID) and United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) jointly organized Steering Committee Meeting held in Kuala Lumpur recently, pointed out that though the population of the world’s mobile phone users have continued to rise, there is no corresponding enthusiasm in increasing the broadband internet on those handsets.

Toure noted that as the outcome of the WSIS a clear vision to harness the vast potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to achieve the development aspirations of all the world’s inhabitants was set.

He stressed that in recognition of the importance of ICT as valuable assets for economic growth, “world leaders expressed their strong political commitment towards building an inclusive, people-centered and development-oriented information society.”

The ITU scribe also said that the summit was an important landmark in the global effort to eradicate poverty and achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015.

“Since the Tunis Phase of WSIS, much progress has been made,” he declared, adding for instance that the Connect Africa Summit, the first of ITU’s Connect the World series, held in Kigali in 2007 has shown the extent of commitment to achieving the WSIS goals.

He described the Kigali meeting as a huge step towards achieving an all-inclusive information society, just as he stated that more are still yearning for action and inclusion.

“We need to keep in mind that there is much more to be done and there are only seven years remaining to 2015,” he asserted.

Stressing that in order to have an all-inclusive society all WSIS stakeholders must recognize the capability of ICTs to act as a key enabler for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

“We may need to be more ambitious in many domains, for instance aiming to connect the unconnected by 2012,” he said.

Emphasizing that by way of building on the existing multi-stakeholder spirit, all hands must continue to be on the deck.

“WSIS stakeholders need to continue working together, focusing on concrete actions and projects in the field of ICTs, supporting the development of the inclusive information society, spurring investment, employment and broader human, social and economic development,” Toure said.

Hence, ITU welcomes the progress report listing growing number of activities, carried out in year 2007, which act as an excellent result of collaborative efforts of all stakeholders involved in the work with UNDESA-GAID.

“We are confident that this would not be possible without deep involvement of the Mr. Craig Barret, Chairmen of Intel Corp. and UNDESA-GAID as well as dedication and continuous support to the activities of Mr. Sha Zukang, Under-secretary-General of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA),” he said.

As said by him, several activities carried out in 2007/2008 have shown that the UNDESA-GAID is becoming an efficient multi-stakeholder platform continuously attracting new partners in joining the forces in work on the ICT issues.

We note that many of them are coming from the civil society and we strongly believe that it will be possible to maintain this tendency in the future.

Affirming that WSIS organized by the ITU, for the first time in the history gave to the civil society the possibility to be involved in the process almost at the same level as the governments.
Therefore, he expressed confident that civil society would build upon this by leveraging on it.

“I am confident that the civil society has an important role in building all inclusive Information Society and more visible and tangible involvement of the civil society in the global initiatives, which mainstream the ICT issues into the global development agenda, might be with advantage for all parties involved. It is our role, as the members of the steering committee, to give the proper directions to this multi-stakeholder platform. In order to avoid any possible duplication of on-going efforts, we should be very clear in determining the goals and scope of activities,” he submitted.

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CNP excites market with e-Knowledge promo

Computerize Nigeria Project (CNP) has created excitement in the market place with its e-Knowledge promotion recently launched in Lagos.

This excitement is surrounded by the innovative modules CNP is offering on its brand to the market, which includes free training for every purchase under the scheme.

CNP a brain child of Zinox Technologies, said its offering every customer who buys a laptop an immediate free computer training.

Stressing that any educational institutions and cooperative societies could enjoy flexible payment terms, just as states and local governments who sign on the project would get, in addition to free training for their participating staff, six-month free internet facility at the state or local government secretariat, and a free computer laboratory.

Chief executive, Computerize Nigeria Project, Mrs. Vivian Abii, said, these benefits come wrapped around other Computerize Nigeria standard incentives like original Microsoft licenses, same price nationwide, and the unparalleled support package hinged on the record making13 service centers nationwide.

CNP e-Knowledge promo, she said, would run for five weeks in the first instance and followed by the review before another batch could be announced.

Mrs. Abii, explained that the promo was a further demonstration of the commitment of CNP to IT penetration in Nigeria, adding that understanding how to use computers has become as important as deploying them because only the optimal use of these tools can bring about technological advancement and prosperity.

She also said that the CNP has achieved awareness and appreciation for the computer through numerous training programmes for students, workers, professionals, and training the trainer programmes and the time has come for all stakeholders to pay more than lip service to the IT needs of the nation.

Mrs. Abii further said that from inception Computerize Nigeria has sustained her determination to promote the development of a knowledge and intelligent society.

The CNP, she said, has made significant donations of systems to primary schools, secondary schools and tertiary institutions.

The CNP has developed and donated digital centers to enhance accessibility in some schools including Lagos State Polytechnic, LASPOTECH, University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Imo State University among others.

Recently, the CNP donated a digital center to the Katsina State Government.CNP is a Zinox Computers initiative, set up in 2001, to promote understanding for, and adoption of the computer as a major tool of work and play.

Currently, the Computerize Nigeria Project, in partnership with the National Universities Commission and the Federal Ministry of Education is involved in the provision of computers for knowledge workers in the educational sector including students and lecturers.

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Becks searches for a blogger

Due to rise in the blogsphere, German beer manufacturer, Beck’s, is searching for a reputable blogger to write on its lager brand over a six months contract.

A blogger is an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enthusiast with specialty in using the Internet interactively and dwelling on a given subject (s) deploying push-button publishing method.

Wikipedia online, an online encyclopaedia described a blogger as a person who writes blogs or weblogs. The word was initially used in the name of a website, launched in 1999 from Pyra Labs, San Francisco called “www.blogger.com.”

This website provides the tools for creating blogs (weblogs). After users select a pre-designed template or create one with their look and feel, every posting entered on Blogger is published to the Blogger page on their website automatically.

Nowadays, there are other weblog sites including WordPad and TypeWord to name a few.
According to official information on Beck’s website, the brand, is on the look out for a full time blogger to communicate with its online audience.

Stressing that the brand is looking for someone that has plenty of online experience to work with them on a six-month contract, with the aim of starting real conversations with its audience.

“The successful blogger will need to prove its dedication to the Beck’s brand and would work as part of Beck’s creative team in Amsterdam, contributing to online research projects and branding projects,” the official website stated.

Global marketing manager for Beck’s, Jorge Inda Meza, informed that the brand’s consumers actively seek out links to new trends and genuine material from around the globe, which gave rise to the need to have a blogger.

“The new Beck’s columnist will help uncover and highlight relevant and exciting topics for our consumers, enabling us to better connect with them, “ Meza said.

At Becks website, it was also gathered that an online advertorial reads: “A great job offer you can’t write off: We’re on the hunt for a charismatic columnist with a nose for offbeat news and everything about our brand point of view: Different by choice.”

Presently, visitors to the Beck’s online could watch its online TV for some nature essence as “for those who refused to saya no to pop-culture, the car that said no to sleep and painter who says no to nature’s beauty. “

Enjoining bloggers that it pays to write.

Further, the website said that for bloggers to apply as a columnist, Beck invites potential beer blogger as to play-up fan’s imagination.

“Our recruitment process is anything but ordinary. We’ll begin with a checklist of questions, to ensure that you really make the cut. After all, we are dead serious about finding that one great columnist. If you make the checklist, take the writing test and feel free to spill everything about yourself to us.”

Such columnist, they said must be a Beck’s beer lover, a plucky, spirited and people-loving person with a great sense of humour, just as the columnist must be quick-thinker and an independent self-starter.

Equally, Beck is looking for someone with a great understanding of the web, with published online work, for instance, blogs, sites,, even as he or she must be proficient in English and authorized to work in the European Union (EU) for any employer.

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‘Nigeria is witnessing upsurge in ICT’

THE first eight years of the 21st century have continued to witness an upsurge in the application and use of telecommunications infrastructure technologies in nearly all aspects of human endeavour.

Making this assertion recently is the Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe at the 2nd edition of the Stanford Africa Business Forum, held at the University of Stanford.

He said, the avalanche of wireless revolution; the internet phenomenon, the broadband capabilities and the massive deployment of national and intercontinental optic fibre highways have accelerated global access to information resources and changed the way people live and transact business.

Dr. Ndukwe also said a few years ago, the African continent represented a region of major concern to the international community because of its inability to industrialize and embrace essential technologies that are required to facilitate economic development of the region, stating that infrastructural facilities such as roads, transportation systems, public power supply, communications and information technologies were inadequate in most of the 52 countries in the continent.

He identified efficient and reliable public electric power supply and pervasive, reliable and modern and information and communication technology as pivotal for African renaissance, saying that if the continent could get these two infrastructure components right, the rest will fall in line and the continent would firmly be on the path of major economic growth.

He warned that ICT will not solve all the problems of sustainable development or social economic challenges but that nations that fail to take great opportunities offered by ICTs are likely to be left far behind in the global economy.

The NCC boss told the gathering that President Umaru Yar’Adua has this at the core of the seven point agenda of his presidency and advised Africans in the diaspora to consider coming home and join in the task of developing the continent.

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Ekpiwhre, Anyanwu, Ekeh to grace D-Link summit

The Minister for Science & Technology, Mrs. Grace Ekpiwhre and Minister of State for Information and Communications, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki Nakande, as well as the chairman, Senate Committee on Communications, Senator Sylvester Anyanwu and chairman, Zinox Technologies, Dr. Leo Stan Ekeh are expected to lead delegates to the D-Link seminar slated to hold in Lagos, tomorrow, Thursday.

Equally, founder of Visafone, Mr. Jim Ovia, Director General of the National IT Development Agency (NITDA), Prof Cleopas Angaye, among others are being expected.

Affirming this development, consultant to D-Link in Nigeria, Mr. Chris Uwaje, said D-Link Nigeria has lined up a series of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) programmes to usher in its global position as the first among manufacturer of SMB networking products.

According to Uwaje, “DLINK Intelligent Network products and solutions” seminar promises to transform Nigeria’s ICT sector into efficient, productive and secured Knowledge Networks (KN).

He said, the firm tends to increase its market share in the enterprise market for industrial scale network solutions and services, stressing that seminar has been specifically planned for players in the key sectors of the Nigerian economy such as the financial sector, oil and gas, telecommunications, and educational institutions.

Uwaje added that the objective is to engage these sectors in the use of D-Link worldwide solutions that has great influence in the sectoral and national development in several countries, especially in developing nations.

“The great potential and the emerging nature of Nigeria demands for the best and most experienced players from all parts of the globe,” he declared.

Also, President, Nigeria Computer Society, Prof. Charles Uwadia, chief executive, Telecom Answers Associate, Mr. Titi Omo Ettu, President, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, President Nigeria Internet Group (NIG), Mr. Lanre Ajayi and other captains of industry have accepted to honour the seminar.

The seminar will showcase new and emerging technologies with respect to network infrastructure, storage and data management solutions, WiFi WiMax, broadband, electronic IP digital surveillance security cameras solutions and others.

“The mission of D-Link International with more than 600 ICT-based high-tech products and solutions is to transform Nigeria’s network framework into knowledge supper-highway.

Resource persons according to the country manager, DLINK Networks, Nigeria, Mayokun Ogedengbe, would include the chief executive, Connect Technologies, Chis Uwaje, DLINK Regional Director for Africa and Middle East, Mr. Jacky Chang, DLINK Global Technical Product and Solutions Manager, Mr. Robin Than, and Senior Accounts Manager – projects, Ericsson Technologies, Mr. Anthony Ikemefuna.

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NCC worries over operator, distributor rapport

Apex telecommunications regulator in the country, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has expressed dismay over the treatment being meted out to distributors of telecom accessories by various operators.

NCC which described the current relationship between the two as “unhealthy” advised that relationship should exist between telecom operators and their various distributors where operators have to treat their service vendors as partners and not subordinates or parasites.

Chief Executive, NCC Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, who expressed the commission’s disappointments at the weekend, said that prevalent reports of soured relationships between many of the operators and their service vendors, leading to many of the distributors loosing out, is worrisome.

He said, the operators ought to take advantage of distributors to deepen their reach to their customers.

Ndukwe also said convergence in telecom and information technology convergence offers ample opportunity for the operators to give more integrated roles to their service vendors and reap more advantages.

Speaking through his Special Assistant, Mr. Ayo Oke, at the Afritex Exhibitions and Forum which ended at the International Conference Centre, Abuja at the weekend, the NCC boss said there is need to draw the attention of the operators to various options offered by telecom and information technology convergence to enable them create business models that would provide more effective, efficient and economically vibrant marketing of telecommunications services.

He said these options will no doubt facilitate market entry and clear pathway for growth of smaller players in the distribution channel, who will also serve the vital role of being a feedback channel to the operators as they, retailers, relate directly with the consumers of the product.

“Operators need to see distributors, particularly the smaller ones, as necessary facilitators of the spread and growth of their network brands and therefore should benefit from the success stories of the operators as partners and contributors to that success.

The relationship ought to be a win-win relationship,” he said.

Dr. Ndukwe added with effective deployment of necessary hardware and software over existing networks, operators could outsource some of their current activities to service vendors and enable the vendor’s share and manage network information from remote locations.

“The more advantage is that it gives the channel players the potentials and capacities to carry out more services at greater degree of independence on behalf of the network operators”, he said.

In his address entitled, “Creating Innovative Partnering and Low Cost Business Model: Win-Win Solutions for Operators and Service Vendors”, Dr. Ndukwe identified many options available to the operators to include but not limited to low cost networking, low cost retailing and virtual operator retailing.

In low cost networking, operators, he said, can support surrogate operators or partners to extend their networks to rural locations by riding on their existing infrastructure to rural locations where such operators are not likely to reach soon.

This model, according to him, is supported by section 101- 102 of the National Telecommunications Act.

He said there are is low cost retailing which allows the operators to take advantage of e-transaction possibilities to reach out directly to retailers, including the small ones to offer top up services on demand.

He said one may allow retailers to serve full independent network service marketers, or provide franchise for the distributors to run customer care centres and call centre operations among others.

In conclusion, Dr. Ndukwe said, network operators need to encourage smaller players so that they can add value to their services to enable them concentrate in building, optimizing and maintaining their networks.

He said these are achievable though partnering with these service vendors and embracing technological advantages to enhance brand value, product marketing and product distribution.

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Transcorp resolves to make progress in NITEL

Indications have emerged that majority stake owners in the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp) is determined to prove skeptics wrong with the steady progress in the telco.

Transcorp also said that it has made progress since taking firm control of NITEL.

Close sources at Transcorp hinted last weekend that a lot of progress have been recorded, especially in shoring up revenue inflow through improved processes and debt collection. “If the trend of revenue collection is sustained, NITEL may indeed by in apposition to pay its staff salaries without subvention within the next 60 days,” our source declared.

This is more evident as a result of the joint efforts of NITEL staff and a team of accountants sent by Transcorp to manage the process.

This development is coming as Transcorp sources said the firm is on the verge of injecting some fund to execute the interim resuscitation strategy for NITEL.

The interim strategy will restore the NITEL backbone and provide data services to critical sectors of the economy including financial service, oil & gas and security.

Meanwhile, Transcorp has reiterated commitment to revitalise NITEL and its mobile unit, the Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTEL).

Sources close to the firm, who pleaded anonymity, disclosed on penultimate Monday said that Transcorp might have felt disappointed with the financial irregularities discovered in NITEL recently; it is working out modalities to ensure the loopholes are blocked and that such occurrences do not repeat itself in the future.

Transcorp had, fortnight ago, alleged that its team of accountants which had been examining financial records of NITEL, discovered what it referred to as a major fraud. The team, according to Transcorp, had identified a huge leak in the billing system of NITEL through which revenue generation was unaccounted for.

As a result of this, Transcorp threatened to suspend further investments in NITEL until corrective steps were taken to block leakages in the financial system of the first national telephone network operator.

However, the source disclosed, Transcorp is committed to its plans for NITEL and MTEL; adding that the management is currently reviewing its blueprint meant for revival of the subsidiaries. ‘Transcorp still believes NITEL has enormous potential to return to the path of profitability.

Despite the challenges, Transcorp has a huge potential to pay huge returns to shareholders,’ he said.

Reacting to the position of the National Union of Postal and Telecommunications Employees (NUPTE) on the issue, the source said the body only needed to gain access to the various steps Transcorp is taking to address the pending issues.

NUPTE is calling on the Federal Government to take over the management of NITEL due to what it called incapability in managing the crisis in the first national carrier.

The source however was not satisfied with the NUPTE’s judgment of the prevailing crisis, asking whether the government would give thumps up for the financialirregularities just discovered in NITEL. I

nstead of pointing accusing fingers at Transcorp, the source advised the union to sanction any of its members involved in the alleged fraud, even if it would pitch another tent with the conglomerate.

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Odey leads speakers to 3G confab

Minister for Information and Communications, Mr. John Odey, would later this month lead speakers to this year’s 3G West Africa telecom conference scheduled for 18 and 19 June, 2008 in Abuja .

The conference would showcase Africa ’s network, which evolved from the highly successful GSM now 3G World series to deliver an expanded Programme and geographical focus.

A press statement made available to Champion Infotel said, it is the first time this congress is taking place in the country adding that telecommunications is a unique tool for economic growth and development in the region and that the nation is fully aware of the great opportunities that telecommunications can bring to a country.

The statement further said that the nation has taken the lead in creating a dynamic, high growth communications market and is inviting other participants to share their experiences, challenges and best practices.

Notable among the speakers expected at the conference are; Vice President, West Central Africa, MTN Group, Christian de Faria; Chairman Vodacom Congo, Alieu Conteh; Chief Executive Officer MTN Nigeria, Mr. Ahmad Farroukh; Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Dr. Ernest Ndukwe and a host of other experts from central and West Africa.

With the theme 5th Annual Event West and Central Africa Com: Optimizing business models and networks in West and Central Africa’s converging market, participants are expected to get a clear picture of the telecommunications market and its future direction, with forecasts.

The conference is also expected to review the latest developments in telecoms technology and best practice, discover how proven leadership techniques can be used within the telecoms industry, meet peers and network with 900 of Africa ’s foremost leaders in the region’s largest telecoms event and share best practice with colleagues experiencing similar market conditions in the region.

Expected as the conferences are senior managers, middle managers aspiring for senior roles and directors from all functions within the telecommunications sector and all those whose time is limited and who work in critical roles or situations, where a lengthy period away for study is not possible are expected at this conference.

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