Benefits of call forwarding

Features of the week:

At the inception, it was in vogue to have more mobile handsets around, but these days, call forwarding, a Value Added Service (VAS) feature across mobile operators reduces the burden of carrying several phones around all the time, reports REMMY NWEKE.

IN the first six years of liberalizing the nation’s telecom sector, one thing that has assumed a fashionable daily feature of most Nigerians, is adorning themselves with as many mobile phones as possible in order not to miss any call except where they are ready to call back.

This attitude was attributed to the inability of the first national carrier, Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) to meet the demands of the people due to monopoly for over 40 years. Thus, the advent of the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), over eight years ago, propelled most Nigerians now to have several mobile phones from different networks, simply because they want to keep in touch at all times and invariably save their own call credits as well as due to unreliability of networks.

Another significant aspect of the GSM advent has been the gradual unbecoming to carry all or more than two phones at once, and because they were already known with the different mobile numbers, as they found succour in call forwarding, which is in-built on their mobile handsets.

Call forwarding or call diverting as mostly used in various and modern handsets is a telephone feature on almost all telephone networks in the country today, which when activated permits any incoming call to a called party, which could be otherwise unavailable, not reachable, busy or even switched off in some instances, to be redirected to a given mobile or telephone number where the desired called party, that is the call recipient, is situated.

Today in Nigeria, the forwarded line could ring as many times as three times or as set time of one to five minutes, depending on handset manufacturer, before initiating call forwarding thereby re-routing the call, even as some inform the caller that his call is being forwarded through voice prompt or screen display.

Therefore, experts and mobile phone users agreed that diverting calls could increase one’s availability to a caller. The main alternative is an answering machine or voicemail, unfortunately, most callers do not like to leave a recorded message, suspecting that the party will delay in returning their messages, even as they would not have immediate access to the called party, in addition that retrieving such voice messages at times prove difficult.

Equally, it has been discovered that human touch could improve contacts, moreso personalized, hence, sales experts, for instance, believe that personal contact makes a relationship better, especially in a developing economies like Nigeria, no thanks to the current wave of economic meltdown sweeping across the globe.

Nevertheless, the traditional wired answering services were reportedly expensive, hence, people have their calls forwarded to a call center, so the client could reach an operator instead of an answering machine or voice mail.

Some services offer international call forwarding by allocating the customer a local virtual phone number which is forwarded to any other international destination, especially when the offices are closed on weekends or holidays.

A virtual telephone number or “virtual number” is a telephone number without a directly-associated phone line. Usually, these numbers are programmed to be forwarded to either a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service, or to a different phone line, fixed or mobile.

Virtual numbers are sometimes used in conjunction with mail forwarding services to create a “virtual office” in a remote location. For instance, a company may purchase a virtual phone number with area code 01234, together with a mail forwarding service in Lagos, to give the impression that the company is located in Nigeria, when in fact it may be located in an entirely different country or continent. Toll-free phone numbers often are virtual phone numbers.

Consequently, virtual numbers are principally appealing to technology companies due to technical support for their services, which gives the feeling that the company is local and service companies such as call centers. Often, calls to toll-free support numbers in most countries of the world are actually connected to somewhere in India, especially from the United States, as a means of outsourcing.

Before now, the Universal Personal Telecommunications (UPT) numbers, Personal Numbering and Non-geographical telephone numbers in the United Kingdom (UK) are probably good instances of Virtual Numbers. Also, Vonage, SkypeIn (worldwide), Grandcentral of United States (US) and Flextel (UK) were prominent implementations based on significantly different business models of Virtual Centres, according to experts at Wikipedia Online, an open source encyclopedia.

However, with the present state of economic downturn, it has tremendously forced a lot more people to cut down on certain expenses including telephone bills by looking inward. While some still very much use their answering features, most telecom consumers in a poor country like Nigeria, have since turned home telephone numbers into liability which could be avoided by using one of those mobiles to connect other ones, that could still be left at home, after all, if a subscriber with multiple phones is attacked by robbers, tendency is that they would first of all take away all the handsets no matter how cheap they could be in the market.

But with call forwarding features, telecom consumers could without doubt forward all incoming calls to another phone, with definition of how they would want them to be forwarded. Take for instance, with most phones one could get to the tools’ settings from where you can choose phone with an outline of call, call divert, call barring and network.

By clicking on call divert, another options of voice calls, data and video calls as well as fax calls await you, but because most people would prefer to divert voice calls, it is advised that voice calls be picked, followed by the display of “all voice calls, if busy, if not answered, if not of reach or if not available.”

Thus, depending on the needs of individual telecom consumers, industry observers advised that if the need is to leave the phone at home, “you can pick on all voice calls” so as to forward every call to the mobile that is handy, basically the primary line.

Whichever that is chosen from the displayed option, the next step is either to activate, cancel or check status. And if the choice happens to be ‘all voice calls,’ another option of channeling the diverted calls to voice mailbox or to other numbers is available. To ‘other number’ is mostly useful for those who wish to have a given number permanently forwarded to another or precisely to primary line.

Hence, it was not surprising that an international businessman, Ogbuefi Stan, once found this as a solution to his challenges of carrying about five mobile phones, for the five GSM networks in the country, namely Zain, MTN, Glo, MTel which he replaced with ZOOMmobile and lately Etisalat, especially across the borders, but ready to pay the roaming charges. This is apart from other Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators existing in the country presently.

Ogbuefi Stan, was exposed to the benefits embedded in call forwarding when he traveled home last Xmas break and wanted to travel light, for fear of misplacing his expensive handsets. So, he was advised to make sure that there are credits on each one to be left behind in the city of Onitsha, the commercial nerve centre of South-East and then divert all voice calls to the one he prefers, especially the network that has optimal service at Ideato, his home town in Imo State.

Luckily, he recently bought a dual Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) mobile phone, so he had the option of inserting his most anticipated networks available at Ideato on the phone after diverting the other three – Glo, MTN and Etisalat, thereby traveling with Zain and ZOOMmobile.

All through the duration he spent in the East, his phone was always on and he never missed any call until his return to Onitsha. That done, he soon was expected to travel to South Africa and having been there last quarter, where he even bought an MTN’s SIM, Ogbuefi Stan did not bother to approach any network operator for roaming purposes and repeated the call forwarding experiment on the international leg by embarking on the journey with his South African MTN’s SIM and Glo.

Generally defined as a term in wireless telecommunications, roaming refers to the extending of connectivity service in a location that is different from the home location where the service was registered with its origin traced to GSM and CDMA technologies.

So, according to Ogbuefi Stan, every other phone number belonging to him was forwarded to the MTN South Africa including the Glo he was traveling with; having remembered that the last time he was in Cape Town, late last year, the South African MTN was helpful in reaching his family members. The accompanying Glo was useful to reach out while still at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport Lagos and even on arrival back home to arrange for his pick-up.

Before departing via Lagos, Ogbuefi Stan, had once again loaded all his numbers with approximated N2,000 credits each and by the time he came back there were still some good amount of airtime left of the one week sojourn abroad. Remarkably, he received nothing less than 20 calls with pretty minutes on voice calls, 10 of which were diverted from his local phone numbers left back home in Nigeria.

For most of his callers, they never believed that he was not in the country except when Ogbuefi decided to announce his location and that he forwarded the local phone numbers to the one in use in South Africa and from then onward, he never again worried about roaming charges by some network operators and attendant registration hiccups, which runs into thousands of Naira.

May be, next time when you travel outside your immediate environment, you can give call forwarding a trial and avoid the risk of carrying several mobile phones around all the time.

Although one major fear that needed to be allayed here is that most calls forwarded is billed to the individual who forwarded his calls in most networks in the country and not the caller. So, when next you call and see ‘calling forwarding’ please do not terminate the call.


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e-Learning: Africa still @ infancy – Survey

A survey supported by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO’s) chair in Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) at the Royal Holloway University of London, has said that electronic learning (e-Learning) on the continent of Africa is still at infancy.

The survey which began in 2007 was conducted by a German-based organization, specializing on e-learning, alongside ICT4D Collective in cooperation with the Swedish Programme for ICT in Developing Regions (SPIDER), was concluded in 2008.

Outcome of the latest survey made available to Champion Infotel indicated that 42 African countries including Nigeria took part in the study, while Kenyans leading in the number of 316 total respondents with 46, followed by South Africa with 38, Nigeria - 35 and Uganda 25 through a questionnaire circulated in 2007 to the e-Learning Africa database.

The figure of participants, the report said, represented 4 per cent of the people on the database and reflected most committed populace in the use of e-Learning within Africa.

The study also said that respondents provided a wide variety of information about their e-learning practices, which formed its three main conclusions, including that there is a wide variety of different e-learning practices in Africa; e-learning is still very much in its infancy across most of the continent; and there is much enthusiasm amongst respondents for developing e-learning potentials in their countries.

It further identified some key constraints in seeking to implement and developing e-learning strategies and practices, which comprised the lack of infrastructure, particularly connectivity and especially in the rural areas as well as the need to appropriately train and provide capacity development, lack of relevant digital content and the cost of implementation.

Out of the 316 respondents, the study revealed that 25 per cent were women while 75 per cent were men with 118 represented.

It was gathered from the survey that African countries offer various courses addressed by e-learning, comprising higher education which amounted to 53 per cent, continuing education -37 per cent, vocational - 23 per cent, secondary school - 22 per cent, informal/non-formal - 22 per cent, technical education 21 per cent, primary school – 10 per cent and special education - 9 per cent.

Meanwhile, because, many respondents were unable to say which Learning Management Systems (LMS) they were using, the management of ICWE has decided to conduct another survey on LMS.

Beate Kleessen of ICWE GmbH, said that the study highlighted rather low use of formal Learning Management Systems (LMSs) in universities, colleges and schools across most part of the continent, but another survey is underway to focus on exploration of LMS.

“We’re therefore conducting a more detailed survey to explore how LMS are currently being used, and what users would like to see in them,” Kleessen said.

The survey which has taken off, Kleessen said, has 15 questions about LMS and nine (9) questions about the characteristics of respondents.

“It should take less than 10 minutes to complete,” Kleessen declared, encouraging interested online enthusiasts to fill in the word document version which could be sent back to survey-lms@elearning-africa.com or use the online form at http://survey.rhul.ac.uk/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=m6K3l95.

Promising that all information given in the survey would be treated anonymously, unless respondents explicitly asked to be mentioned by name. The current survey would be open until February 28th.

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Microsoft, ICANN fights against Conficker virus

OBVIOUSLY disturbed by the security lapses surrounding the evolution of Conficker worm, otherwise, known as Downadup computer virus, software gaint, Microsoft Corporation, and coordinating agency for the Internet globally, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), have joined forces with other industry notables in leading an online armoury to upstage the virus.

This is coming as Microsoft, last weekend, dangled a reward of $250,000 (about N362,500) for any valuable information that could result in the arrest and conviction of those responsible for illegal and malicious Conficker.

In association with security researchers, ICANN and operators within the Domain Name System (DNS), as well as Microsoft, have concluded arrangement to coordinate a response designed to disable domains targeted by Conficker.

A press statement from Microsoft said that the $250,000 reward for information that results in the arrest and conviction of those responsible for illegally launching of Conficker malicious code on the Internet, was part of its ongoing security efforts.

General Manager, Trustworthy Computing Group at Microsoft, Mr. George Stathakopoulos, was quoted as saying that his company had always been on the vanguard of constantly looking for ways to use a diverse set of tools and develop methodologies to protect the customers.

"By combining our expertise with that of the broader community we can expand the boundaries of defense to better protect people worldwide," he said.

He pointed out that as cyberthreats score raises astronomically, a greater level of industry coordination and new tactics for communication and threat mitigation are required.

To achieve this, he said, multiple initiatives are being employed across the security industry and within academia, with Microsoft helping to unify these broad efforts to implement a community-based defense to disrupt the spread of Conficker.

Stathakopoulos stressed that Microsoft's approach combines technology innovation and effective cross-sector partnerships to help protect people from cybercriminals.

"We hope these efforts help to contain the threat posed by Conficker, as well as hold those who illegally launch malware accountable," he said.

Also commenting, the chief Internet security advisor at ICANN, Mr. Greg Rattray, was quoted as saying that the best way to defeat potential botnets like Conficker/Downadup is by the security and Domain Name System communities working together.

"ICANN represents a community that's all about coordinating those kinds of efforts to keep the Internet globally secure and stable," he said.

Along with Microsoft, organizations involved in this collaborative effort include
ICANN, NeuStar, VeriSign, CNNIC, Afilias, Public Internet Registry, Global Domains International Inc., M1D Global, AOL, Symantec, F-Secure, ISC, researchers from Georgia Tech, the Shadowserver Foundation, Arbor Networks and Support Intelligence.

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Etisalat’s Adopt-a-School Initiative kicks off

AS part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) the fifth Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) operator, Etisalat Nigeria has kicked off its Adopt-a-School Initiative (ASI) with the renovation of Akande Dahunsi Junior and Senior Secondary School Osborne Road, Ikoyi, Lagos State.

The Adopt–a-School Initiative (ASI) is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) between Lagos State Government and business organizations in the state. ASI is designed to improve the deplorable state of public schools in Lagos by urging corporate bodies to get involved in upgrading public schools through strategic support in whatever area they choose.

The public relations manager, Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Yinka Ijabiyi made this disclosure, last weekend, and said that the programme, avails Etisalat to help alleviate the infrastructural challenges being faced in the nation’s education sector.

The company, he also said, begun the total renovation of the schools’ infrastructure which includes the re-tiling of walls and floors, borehole reconstruction, upgrading and renovation of toilet facilities with state of the art plumbing system.

“Etisalat also intends to build and stock a new comprehensive library as well as upgrade the schools’ science laboratory and music studio amongst other facilities,” he said.

Equally speaking, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Wael Ammar noted that as a responsible corporate citizen, the telecom operator is committed to educational development in the country.

“We believe that our contribution will go a long way in ensuring that children learn in a conducive environment thereby enhancing the quality of education obtainable in public schools. Etisalat is proud to be part of this laudable initiative,” he asserted.

In addition, he revealed that Etisalat has advanced plans to undertake the refurbishment of Rabiatu Thompson and Edward Blyden Primary Schools.

“Our plan is to upgrade the facilities within all the schools we have adopted,” he said.

Just recently, Etisalat gave support to the 4th annual Student Trade Fair, which held at the University of Lagos as the major sponsor of the fair.

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CITAD’s ICT incubator opens

THE Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has announced the commencement of its Information and Communication Technology (ICT) business incubator programme.

The programme, which commenced Monday, February 2, 2009 is to take the 16 pioneer youth to the next level in their lives, according to the Executive Director, CITAD, Y. Z. Ya’u.

He disclosed this in a press statement made available to Champion Infotel, saying that the 16-youth were selected from the best of the 300 people who participated last year in the Microsoft cum United States’ Government supported Employability Programme that CITAD and LEAP Africa are implementing in Kano.

He said that the ICT business incubator initiative as conceived by CITAD is aimed at nurturing the young people to become ICT businesses entrepreneurs.

“The Incubator programme consists of three components,” he said, stressing that the first batch is a training programme on ICT entrepreneurship, which would last for three months.

He explained that during the period participants would in addition to deepening their ICT skills, gain training in such skills as website design, video/film editing, ICT equipment maintenance among others.

“They are also to be couched in Small Scale business management and marketing as well as in communication and negotiation skills,” he said.

During this period, Ya’u said participants would be encouraged to sit for relevant professional examinations such as those organized by the Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN).

Stressing that at the end of the three months, “they will undergo a 3-month business internship during which they are expected to produce business plans.”

He emphasized that these business plans would be discussed with a team of CITAD business advisers and once agreed upon, his organization would then provide the needed business support on grantorship.

At the end of the business internship, he said, the successful participants are expected to set up their own businesses.

“At this stage CITAD would provide business mentoring support, networking, professional upgrading and virtual office space for the participants,” he said.

Equally, he said that six months preceding the establishment of own businesses, they would be used to incubate and it is expected that at the end of the year the participants would graduate to full business entrepreneurs.

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New Horizons takes X-project to FCT

REPUTED Information and Communications Technology (ICT) training firm, New Horizons Systems Solutions Limited, has finalized plans to host another round of X-project also tagged Infotainment, at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja.

Managing Director, New Horizons, Mr. Tim Akano said all is now set for the Abuja version of the event bill for Friday, February 20, 2009, at the Veledrome Centre, Abuja National Stadium beginning by 4p.m.

According to him, the musical jamboree cum information technology concert is expected to have all the glitz, glamour and quality entertainment synonymous with Musical Rave of the moment X-Project.

"The event will feature a one-of-a-kind performance by the host of the day and multi-talented radio presenter Steve Onu a.k.a. YAW of WAZOBIA FM, " he said.

Akano also noted that the programme would attract over 10,000 young Nigerians from across the country and will give these teeming youths the much needed information that will help them take the right steps towards self fulfillment and actualize their dreams.

Major highlight of the event will be the award of 500 tuition free scholarships to first to register candidates.

Other events at the programme, he said, would be the delivery of various topics one of which is “The Seven IT Skills of Fortune.”

“Our goal, each year, is to surprise ourselves and others by the creativity, distinctiveness, and reach of those we identify and support, in this case the Nigerian Youths and the young at heart in general and our Century Nigeria project, "he said.

Pointing out that the “Century Nigeria” is aimed at reaching and empowering the Nigerian youth through Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in a bid to develop the future workforce of the country.

“The goal is to make the Nigerian youth understand the challenges underlining poverty and provide them with skills on how they can use ICT to solve those challenges, thereby making Nigeria a better country to live in,” he said.

Akano recalled that in 2008 alone, New Horizons conducted five seminars on ICT and attracted a crowd of more than 120,000 participants in 10 locations across the nation.

The company which began operation locally about four years ago, prides itself as the first and only training institution in Nigeria to integrate ICT Certification based training with academic training in the universities and secondary schools.

Currently, he said, his firm partners with some institutions including University of Ibadan, Lagos State University, Babcock, Covenant, Crawford, Crescent, and Lead City Universities.

“As a result of this initiative, New Horizons trains over 20,000 students annually in several universities and secondary schools in Nigeria,” he said.

New Horizons also provides comprehensive and cost-effective training for individuals and corporate bodies that want to expand their IT skills in their current professions or to take the first step towards new careers.

The company equally has partnership with Microsoft, Oracle WDP Programme, Cisco Academy, Sun Java Academy, EC-Council University, and EC-council and has won many awards in recent times.

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Ejoh wins jackpot @ MTN Treasure Hunt promo

MOBILE telecom provider, MTN Nigeria, has rounded off its suspense filled Treasure Hunt promo with a presentation of N10 million jackpot winner.

The jackpot marked the full course of the 100 day promo, with Mrs. Taiwo Temitayo Ejoh, a civil servant, emerged the star winner in the MTN Treasure Hunt promotion which ended last week Tuesday February 3, 2009.

She was pronounced the winner of the N10 million jackpot prize at the final presentation ceremony, which took place penultimate Wednesday, February 11 2009 in Victoria Island, Lagos.

Reacting to the prize, Ejoh said, she had expected to win because she played with the aim of winning the ten million naira as she believed strongly in MTN.

“It took a lot of time, money, psychology, luck and prayers, because winning the MTN Treasure Hunt promo was business for me,” she said.

She appreciated her family and friends whom she had deployed to play for her while she was at work.

Other winners who emerged at the final prize presentation ceremony include Ezekiel Adebo and Pieston Ikogho, who won N2m each and five other people who won consolation prizes of handsets, Television set and Digital Video Display [DVD] .

Presenting the cheques to respective winners, General Manager, Consumer Marketing at MTN, Mr. Kolawole Oyeyemi, said that MTN prides itself as a brand that impacts people and that the objective is to better the lives of Nigerians.

He reiterated that the short messaging service [sms] -based consumer promotion which begun on the 27, October 2008 and ended on February 3, 2009 has produced over 325 winners and that selection of winners was done randomly until the emergence of the N10m winner.

Mr. Oyeyemi noted that the MTN promo was a promo that defied fraudsters who tried to manipulate participants in the promo. He said “subscribers were advised to visit the authentic MTN website for information – www.mtnonline.com. Only a big brand like MTN could promise and deliver on it.”

In all, 100 people emerged N1 million winners, 14 people emerged N2m winners and 1 person emerged the jackpot winner of N10m.

He further said MTN spent a total of N145 million in running the MTN Treasure Hunt promotion, the 100 days promo aimed at making a millionaire a day for 100 days. The company spent that amount of money because it believed in keeping its promises.

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Senate, NCC to host telecom forum

SENATE Committee on Communication in collaboration with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and Ministry of Information and Communication, have concluded plans to host stakeholders forum at the nation’ Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja next month.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Communications, Senator Sylvester Anyanwu, gave this indication in a chat with newsmen in Lagos, last weekend.

He said that the proposed two-day telecom stakeholders’ forum has been scheduled to hold between March 26 and 27, this year, at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.

This, he said, became paramount to usher in a new wave of development in the nation’s telecommunications sector, also assured on the positive efforts of his committee in ensuring that the on-going review of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 is improved upon to uplift the socio-political situation of the citizenry.

Anyanwu said the forum is expected to attract who-is-who in the telecommunications industry including sub-sector individuals to brainstorm on the way forward for the nation.

Stressing that the standardized review of the Act would pave the way for both political and economic co-existence and development for the country.

“Since Nigeria is the largest growing telecommunications country in Africa, it makes it necessary for the country orchestrate the review of the Communications Act 2003, in order to comfortably lay claim to our behemoth position,” he declared.

According to him, the forum promises to buttress the promises to further encourage development in the country.

Responding to questions, Anyanwu noted that telecom sector has been one of the most active, and most talked about sector of the economy in the country for the past eight years.

“I guess, and I know remarkably well that by 1999 we had just 250,000 telephone lines working and today, I can assure you that we have over 60 million people using telephone in this country and so that growth is very remarkable within a stretch of eight years or less,” he said.

Pointing out that the sector has also a lot of challenges that could be surely corrected if the will and the commitment are there.

One of such challenges, he said, is the issue of power supply which the federal government is working seriously to address, “because power constitute almost 50 per cent of the running cost of all the business here in Nigeria, including telecom and secondly the issue of providers with their very high tariff and that of dropped calls and incomplete calls, that has bothered the committee a lot.”

He recalled that in 2007 there were a stakeholders meetings and public hearings where these issues were discussed, we have had series of meeting with all the providers both the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) and fixed operators on this issue.

“And that Nigerians are getting worried about the level of service delivery and we need to get the valve of money in whatever we spend, so we decided to talk to them, and in 2007, you remember the 2007 December – January 2008, it was terrible so we had to come out with a blue print of 12.7 million dollars sent to subscribers by air time,” he submitted.

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Bizman tasks FG on substandard CDMA phones

A concerned Nigerian and international businessman, Mr. Christopher Chukwurah, has raised alarm over substandard phones being flooded in the markets by Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators. He also warned that the Federal Government should take drastic action so as to save the lives of its citizenry.

The businessman, who trades on mobile phones told newsmen recently in Lagos that those phones do not have anti-radiation devices and can cause brain cancer to their users in the long run.

“When you use these phones to make call for about two to three minutes it would start getting very hot, showing that the phone doesn’t have anti-radiation. And that carries radiation directly into someone’s ear, which can in future cause a lot of brain complications, resulting in brain cancer in the country.

“They sell these phones as cheap as N1,500 in the name of bonanza, while competing among themselves. I have dismantled the phones and found out that they don’t contain a lot of ICs mobile phones are supposed to have.

“Federal Government should act quickly by stopping these companies from bringing these phones into the country for the safety of lives of its citizenry, since the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) is not doing its job,” he said.

Chukwurah further urged the government to lift the ban on some contraband, especially vehicles, adding that such ban encourages high level corruption among Custom officials.

“I cannot understand why government should place a ban on importation of vehicles that are above eight years whereas vehicles that are as old as 30 years are still being used in the country.

“You can only put such embargo when you are producing your own, but here in Nigeria, we are not producing. So, what alternative has government provided?,” he wondered.

He advised Customs officials to shun feeding fat from contraband goods and extorting huge amount of money from importers while the government and its citizens lose.

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Vision Tech introduces WydeVoice

VISION Telecommunication Technologies (VTT) Limited has introduced WydeVoice, a seamless conferencing facility which accommodates about 10,000 callers at the same time into the market place.

This, the company said was in the move to expand the front line of individual and corporate communications, trainings and other information sharing needs nationwide.

Managing Director, VTT Limited, Mr. Michael Adesola Dada said at the launch in Lagos, that the WydeVoice is available presently in two sizes, namely the VM1000 and the VM3000 with audio conferencing bridges and web conferencing with voice biometric security and real time audio ad insertion.

“With 16 bit 16 kilohertz (khz) voice quality and carrier grade reliability, WydeVoice allows easy integration with third party web applications and accesses conference calls via headphone, softphone, Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) and by its design facilitates flexible call flow,” he said.

Also, he said, unique features and capabilities of that WydeVoice is the first of its kind in Africa and that its introduction into the Nigerian market was borne out of the determination to contribute to the growth of the telecommunications industry by creating a more robust, reliable, qualitative voice communication and audio conferencing technology to end users at the cheapest cost.

Noting though that there had been some conferencing products in the market already, he said that WydeVoice offers a broader, multifunctional and secured communication option to users with its unique features of voice biometric security, thousands of Virtual Meeting Rooms on a single appliance enabling it to deliver qualitative services at minimal cost.

“The coming of this product will usher in a new vista of information sharing and business opportunities to individuals and corporate organizations in such a way that would enable them to leverage their market competitiveness, strategic collaboration and training at all levels of their operations,” he said.

Additionally, he pointed out that the product could generate income for investors who use it for commercial purposes.

“This is a new technology that is coming to Africa and Nigeria is the first point of entry. We should be proud as Nigerians for having the product delivered to us with full technical support and after sales services,” he declared.

Stressing that when GSM technology came at the wake of liberalizing the sector, a few years back, many people said it is not going to work.

“From our observation, a lot of companies came in and are now reaping the benefits while those that doubted are now left in the cold,” he said, advising that Nigerians, particularly the network providers, legislators, bankers, oil and gas operators, and those at the helm of affairs at tertiary institutions to take advantage of the immense benefits associated with this product in areas of information sharing, learning, training and other areas of our national endeavours as a means of achieving sustainable development in the country.

“As we all know, information is power and it is only those who have access to it and manage it efficiently that will continue to determine the fate of others who have no access. Our appeal therefore goes to all Nigerians to work together with us and make us reap the immense socio-economic benefits of the technology”, he said.

Dada further explained that Vision Telecommunications Technologies Limited is a non-exclusive representative of the United States (US)-based WydeVoice, the manufacturers of the product, in the African continent.

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MainOne Cable acquires landing sites in Lagos, Accra

Telecommunications infrastructure provider, MainOne Cable Company, has acquired landing sites in both Nigeria and Ghana where it has requisite rights from the regulatory organs in these countries.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO), MainOne Cable Company, Ms. Funke Opeke, made this disclosure in Lagos, at the weekend, saying that work has commenced on the project with initiation of survey in Portugal and surveys of the landing sites in both countries.

"We had an engineering team working with us in Accra last week and this week the team has been busy conducting detailed surveys and design reviews at our sites in Lekki-Lagos, where we will land the cable and build our cable station to house the equipment to power the cable and interconnect our network with those of other operators," she said.

Opeke also said that work on site has gone well and her company will finalise the designs on schedule, so as to apply for necessary approvals and plans for construction.

Stressing that the actual cable to be deployed in the project would be manufactured according to laid down engineering specifications before the end of the year.

In addition, she said that between Nigeria and Ghana, the regulatory environment is relatively the same with regards to the granting of pioneer license in the two West African countries.

"The fees were not onerous in Nigeria and Ghana in terms of obtaining pioneer licenses and its more or less and there is a high degree of responsibility," he said.

Ms Opeke further said that her firm has a vision to build the first private sector led and funded international telecommunications highway between West Africa and the rest of the world.

"We have established a group holding company across several countries in Africa and Europe to make this happen," she said.

Emphasizing that the operational headquarters will be based in Nigeria, highlighting the fact that MainOne has secured pioneer international fibre optic cable landing licenses in Nigeria and Ghana.

"We’re well positioned to be the premier and preferred wholesale international bandwidth provider in these markets," she said.

Assuring that the make up of the combination of the firm’s team of highly experienced professionals and selection of world class companies to work with, makes the company confident about successful delivery of the network.

The mission of the company, she said, is to bridge Africa’s digital divide by providing telecommunications infrastructure that enables cost effective access to global information, while its goal centres on building the most trusted, scalable and professionally managed international fibre optic network on the continent.

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Intercontinental Verve card debuts

Intercontinental Bank Plc has launched a multiple chip and Personal Identification Number (PIN)-based electronic card, known as ‘Intercontinental Verve Card,’ thus making it the first bank in the country to introduce such a card.

Speaking during the launch at the bank’s corporate headquarters in Lagos, the Group Chief Executive, Intercontinental Bank Plc, Dr. Erastus Akingbola, said his bank is the first to officially launch the Verve chip and PIN loyalty card, which is created by Nigerians for the global market.

Describing the occasion as a feat for the bank, Akingbola commended the electronic banking cum card services group of the bank for their spirited efforts at ensuring that Intercontinental remain a trail blazer in the deployment of Verve cards.

“Today’s ceremony is another celebration of another feat as Intercontinental Bank through today’s event becomes the first Nigerian bank to issue the Verve chip and PIN with loyalty card created in Nigeria for the world,” he said.

Stressing that with this development, a new symbol of technological progress is making headlines in the Nigerian e-banking industry.

Recalling that last year, the apex bank in the country, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had mandated all banks to comply with the issuance of chip and PIN based and Europay MasterCard Visa (EMV) compliant cards, before the end of second quarter of 2009.

In line with this, he said, Intercontinental Bank Plc has upgraded all its channels to honour transactions initiated from these kinds of cards.

“Our staff from relevant departments were also trained on different aspects bordering on card operations, card issuance, business and product development dynamics set around the functionalities of these cards,” he said.

Presently, Akingbola pointed out that his bank has taken delivery of two brands of chip (Verve) cards and is working on the modalities involved in migrating all its customers to the new enhanced and more secured EMV chip and PIN Verve payment card on the InterSwitch platform.

Also speaking, Managing Director of pioneer electronic payment switching company, InterSwitch Limited, Mr. Mitchell Elegbe, explained that Verve is a chip based card that offers more security to the end-user than was ever available in the e-payment solution in the country.

“Verve was manufactured by Nigeria for the world,” he said, reiterating that the product debut was in compliance with the CBN directive to banks to migrate all card in the country to a truly global chip card.

“We want to ensure that Verve is used across Africa and I want to assure you that it could be used in any Intercontinental Bank Automated Teller Machines (ATMs),” he said.

According to him, the card has the ability to execute biometric functions, noting that Intercontinental cards could be identified with the bank’s name and logo, even as the reward system is built into the Verve card.

“Verve card is a step up from what currently existed,” he said, pointing out that there exist various reward formula including instant discount, coupon, point accumulation.

Equally, Divisional Head, e-banking at Intercontinental Bank Plc, Mrs. Chinyere Don Okofo, said that the bank is not likely to introduce any form of additional charge to migrate to Verve card.

“Our customers have been using their cards well discounted,” she said, assuring that Verve has a strong loyalty platform upon which the bank intends to reward customers who use it through Point of Sale (PoS), web purchases and ATM transactions very handsomely.

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Experts predict boom for Open Source

Experts at the just concluded Intellect Annual Regent Conference 2009, which held in London, have predicted that traditional technology vendors face tough times as the occasion calls for alternative technologies available in Open Source.

Chairman of analyst house TechMarketView, Mr. Richard Holway, was quoted as saying in a report by ZDNet that in a recession people would actually get an accelerated adoption of new technologies.

Chief research officer and senior vice president at IDC, Mr. John Gantz, concurred, saying that the economic crisis would force some companies to make technological changes they may not have made.

Some of these alternative technologies, experts listed to include software-as-a-service (SaaS), open-source software and cloud computing, all of which go against the business models of the tech old guard or at best the proprietary methods.

Holway also said some companies would find it increasingly difficult to remain relevant as businesses realize the benefits of this technology during and after the economic slump.

These emerging technologies will provide better value for money as businesses struggle with cash flow but could also prove to be better bets in the long term as well.

"Leading technology users will use the downturn to pull further ahead," Gantz said.
Holway noted that he thinks there are now bigger opportunities for change than ever before, warning "I believe the power of Microsoft over the next period will be severely weakened. The whole model that Microsoft has got is under severe threat."

Ian Smith, ex-regional senior vice president for Oracle UK and now managing partner at AndersonBick Consultants, said: "SAP, Oracle — if they're not prepared to change, potentially, they are dinosaurs. If these companies aren't smart, they could become dinosaurs."

Kate Craig-Wood, managing director of hosting company Memset, said open-source technology could also be a big winner as a result of the economic crisis.

She said: "I think the current period could be a catalyst for a large move to open source. Again, I think that's a big threat to Microsoft."

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Osuagwu leads JACITAD till 2011

A Lagos-based social commentator, Mr. Prince Osuagwu has emerged the new president of a non-governmental organization (NGO), Joint Action Committee on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Awareness and Development (JACITAD).

The election which held in Lagos, saw him scoring the highest votes against his closest opponents in the race.

Osuagwu, elected into his new position alongside Don Pedro Aganbi as vice president, Seun Ayotokun, Secretary General, Mrs Bisi Olaleye, Financial Secretary, Emeka Aginam as Director of Socials and Emma Okwuke, Treasurer, would lead JACITAD till 2011, when another general election would be held.

In his acceptance speech, excited Osuagwu promised to deliver on his electioneering campaigns including ensuring debt recovery of all JACITAD’s funds in some individual possessions.

He also called for continued support, saying that he cannot do it alone.

Earlier in his handover speech, the outgone president, Mr. Sola Fanawapo, said that he is personally happy because Mr. Osuagwu won, an indication that his administration did well, of which the incumbent served as the Secretary General.

He further urged members of JACITAD to give Osuagwu and his new team more support than was ever given to him during his tenure.

Osuagwu and his team were later sworn in by a notable member of the group, Mr. Shina Badaru of Technology Times, who equally canvassed support for the new administration.
JACITAD was inaugurated in June 2003 and ever since has been enjoying industry and stakeholders’ support.


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