Connecting Africa via ICT diffusion

The need to continuously develop policies to engender easy connection among African States will be a plus for the continent, reports REMMY NWEKE.

Recently there was a tale of a palm wine tapper in Pendembu locality in Sierra Leone, who in the course of his daily activities, inadvertently climbed a palm wine tree only for his mobile phone to begin to ring.

The palm wine tapper had no choice than to pick his call atop the tree, which came from one of his customers in the nearby city of Kailahun District, Eastern Province of Sierra Leone.

And as soon as he finished that call, another call came through from a relative in a refugee camp in Nigeria.

Interestingly, this kind of scenario has continue to evolve due to increasing number of acceptance by countries in the sub-Saharan Africa, especially in the West African sub-region in Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

This assertion was expounded by the recent World Bank report on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) strategy for sub-Saharan Africa, which identified some critical issues for the growth of ICT to include reform that would engender access to voice services, expands internet access and reduces the cost of doing business.

Equally, the World Bank report showed that such reform should strengthen regulatory frameworks, support telecom ministries, and promote competition through pragmatic liberalization and approach to privatise incumbents or government-owned telecom operators.

Hence, the need to address market failures by building national backbones and supporting broadband access, designing rural access strategies and supporting countries in their post-conflict activities, so as to promote ICT for development (ICT4D) through facilitating e-Commerce, support electronic government (e-Government) applications and fostering civil society applications.

The acceleration of regional integration and connectivity through promoting regional harmonization, World Bank report noted, would increase regional connectivity, develop regional fibre cable projects, backed up with roaming initiatives and building a network of national exchange points.

Presiding over the 5th Telecom Awards lecture in Lagos, former Sierra Leonean leader, Dr. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, noted that telecommunications has become a natural unifier and a platform on which countries and providers of equipment and services must collaborate for purposes of complementarities across borders and even within borders among operating parties.

“When we speak about the world being a global village, we are simply talking about how much the world has contracted both in time and space through developments in telecommunications,” he said.

Kabbah pointed out that the need to communicate has become a basic human need and in fact a ‘human right,’ underlining the fact that telecommunications or long-distance communication has been with us for a very long time.

“As a former United Nations system functionary, I had always wondered why the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) did not move fast enough to do what Nigerian telecom regulator has accomplished within a short time,” he said, recalling that it was until when the then Organisation of African Unity (OAU) took up the challenge, that a Sierra Leonean, for instance, who wanted to talk to a relative in neighbouring Conakry, Guinea, would have his call routed first to London, then to Paris and finally to Conakry.

“The coverage was limited to a few hours a day. I also came to realize that communication over long distances especially across national frontiers required a lot of joint effort and collaboration between partner countries and entities engaged in providing such services,” he asserted, noting that of great importance was and still is the need to ensure uniform standards of service through the spectrum, thereby giving rise to bilateral and multi-lateral cooperation and agreements.

In his keynote paper at the occasion, entitled: Telecom in the service of the modern society, the Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, concurred that major advances in ICTs and the rapid growth of global Digital Technology networks, the Internet and broadband services have transformed business and markets as well as generated significant wealth and economic growth in many countries.

“They have also empowered individuals and communities with new ways of doing things, as well as transformed our ways of learning and sharing knowledge,” he declared.

Similarly, he said, that digital revolution has progressed to usher in an advanced phase of the information age with computer networking solutions that enable resources and information sharing even on a worldwide basis, just as the interconnection of computers, based on the internet protocol (IP), has brought about greater efficiency and better information sharing and management.

“This revolution also means that constraints of time and distance have been virtually eliminated. Clearly, ICT is driving the global economy as people, businesses and communities with ready access to information technologies are better equipped to participate actively in the global economy,” Dr. Ndukwe said.

However, he said, connectivity in Nigeria like in most African countries is heavily biased towards wireless networks, even as fast broadband deployment must therefore necessarily be on a mobile platform and this has been the reasons why Nigeria was ahead of many countries of the world like India and China in issuing licenses for Third Generation (3G) services. He pointed out that when fully deployed nationally, 3G networks together with other networks based on the wide band Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology will drive the nation’s broadband penetration into the future.

At present, the seven-member West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly (WATRA) was formally established in November 2002 on ratification and signing of the Constitution by its member states.

WATRA membership has since grown to 14 as at April 2005, consists of the established independent National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) and departments for the regulation of telecommunications services established by governments of member states in the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS) sub-region and Mauritania.

And in recognition of the poor state of telecommunications in the sub-region, WATRA, began to thinker on critical role of telecommunications in the socio-economic development and growth of nations in its domain, thus a consensus was reached to establish a forum to facilitate the harmonization process towards an integrated telecoms market in West Africa, thereby providing an avenue to share experiences and information, proffer solutions to common problems and chart a way forward for the development and advancement of telecommunications in West Africa.

Today, WATRA has encouraged some African countries to work toward own telecommunications regulatory agencies, while strengthening the African Telecommunication Union (ATU) which was at the verge of obscurity.

African regulators organizations have since emerged in other parts of the continent to include Autorite Nationale de Regulation des Telecommunications du Burkina Faso (ARTEL) under the Office National des Telecommunications (ONATEL), Agence des Telecommunication de Cote d’Ivoire (ATCI), Instituto das Comunicacoes da Guine-Bissau (ICGB), Communications Commission of Kenya, Office Malagasy d’Etudes et de Regulation des Telecommunications, Mauritania Regulatory Authority, Moroccan Agence Nationale de Reglementation des Telecommunications (ANRT) Senegalese Agence de Regulation des Telecommunications (ART), South Africa Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) and Togolese Autorite de Reglementation des Secteurs de Postes et Telecommunications (ART&P) to name a few.

This, however, brought to the fore, the concern of Panos Institute West Africa (PIWA) under its Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Programme of CIPACO to collaborate with the Senegalese Consortium pour la Recherche Economique et Sociale (CRES), in unveiling a project on the international liberalization of trade in ICT services in sub-region.

Labeled LICOM, the project funded by International Development Research Center (IDRC), with the term of office including scrutinizing of the challenges facing private operators in the ICT sector and likely implications for the implementation of public policies in four members of the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS), namely, Senegal, Benin, Nigeria and Ghana, according to then programme coordinator, Mr. Ken Lohento.

What this entails is that with more and more countries in the sub-region and beyond but across Africa continue to attach itself with the principle of ICT liberalization by working towards its success, more and unprecedented benefits awaits the continent.

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Internet Governance 2009: IP blocking unacceptable to Nigeria – Stakeholders

Nigeria Internet community would canvass for the appropriate security regulation and application, mostly on Internet Protocol (IP) blocking at the on-going Internet Governance Forum (IGF) holding in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

Participants at the recently concluded one-day Nigeria Digital Sense forum in a communiqué made available to ITRealms Online by the organizers, Digital Sense Africa (DSA) in collaboration with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on the theme: “Internet Governance:
Creating Opportunities for All Nigerians” agreed that issues of Internet Protocol (IP) blocking on Nigeria IP addresses is not acceptable.

Thus, there is need to revisit the issue so as to avoid blocking of every IP address with link to Nigeria.

This is coming as the Swiss delegates have concluded strategies to advocate for online human rights and freedom of expression.

The Nigeria Digital Sense forum communiqué dated November 10, according to the DSA Executive Director, Operations, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, was in preparation of every Nigerian Internet stakeholder who may be participating at the five-day event on Internet Governance, insisting that all Nigerians are not criminally minded.

She pointed that a harmonized voice within the Nigerian Internet community has become critical to the development of Internet in the country and the sub-region as well as the African continent in its entirety.

As stated in the communiqué, stakeholders called to mind that harmonized voice among Nigerian Internet community will provide the opportunity to have a united front before confronting the world at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).

The Nigeria Digital Sense forum, therefore, identified security as a major issue of concern for the Nigerian Internet community to adequately canvass at the global assembly, thereby affording the nation to come together with other communities from around the world to ensure optimization of access, openness, security, diversity and internet governance.

“Equally, we call to mind that the release recently by the United States Affirmation of Commitment to the global internet community via the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN); is a welcome development that could endear the trust of those hitherto not comfortable with the arrangement which began with the US Department of Commerce (DoC),” part of the communiqué read.

Stressing that stakeholders at DSA forum 2009, aligned themselves with the outcome of the West African Internet Governance forum, held in Accra-Ghana recently, especially in the areas of encouraging African countries to take the issues of Internet Governance more seriously by ensuring engagement of stakeholders at IGF level.

Therefore, stakeholders urged for increased participation of Nigeria Internet community at the on-going IGF, which has been reportedly stalled by the Egyptian government over the demand and insistence that visitors to the country must have, at least, $3,000 cash before entry visa could be granted.

However, participants were urged to make pronouncements in respect to the security of the Internet and discrimination thereof, especially meted out on honest and God-fearing Nigerians who are more interested in engaging positively with the world on the Internet.

The discrimination against Nigerian-based Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, they said, should stop because it is negatively affecting the majority of Nigerians who are honestly engaged on the Internet.

“Both the government of Nigeria and Internet community in the country should strive in enlightening the populace and the world over on the keenness of the majority of Nigerians in deploying Internet for ICT for Development (ICT4D) growth,” part of the communiqué also read.

Equally, Nigeria’s Internet Service Providers (ISPs), especially members of the ISP Association of Nigeria (ISPAN), Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) and Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), should connect without further delay with the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), so as to encourage local internet to remain local, which has multiplier effect, including saving money for both the ISPs and customers – the end-users.

“Nigeria should canvass for a root server to be located in the country to further push and retain local traffic locally,” it read, even as ISPAN member in addition to ALTON, ATCON to name a few to should comply by ensuring registration of their domains within the country code Top Level Domains (ccTLD), .ng system.

“This will make the .ng commercially viable and eventually give the ccTLD the popularity it needed to be feasible among equals,” the communique further read, maintaining that Nigerians participating at the IGF 2009 must ensure that alienation of Nigeria’s IP addresses (IP blocking) is stopped and that Nigeria has the population to push its desire and voice to be heard in Egypt and at all conferences in relation to Internet and its governance even beyond IGF.

“There is need to refocus Nigerian youths engaged in online fraud (cybercrime) otherwise known as ‘Yahoo, Yahoo’ by way of granting them amnesty followed with skilled training and adoption into the mainstream, in order to positively utilize their talents.

While urging a strengthened partnership of the forum in the future through collaboration with relevant Ministries, Departments and Agency of government, mostly at the federal level including the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) among other public private partnership, DSA was supported by Galaxy Backbone Plc, MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, iWayAfrica Nigeria, New Horizons Ltd, Teledom Group, Omatek Plc, Telecom Answers Associates (TAA) and endorsed by Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), Nigeria Internet Group (NIG), Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) to name a few.

Meanwhile, the forum may have witnessed low attendance from African countries despite being held on the continent among other Least Developing Countries (LDCs) due to stakeholders inability to get visa with ease following insistence by Egyptian embassy officials that participants must have, at least, $3000 cash about N450,000, in their custody before they could be allowed entry into Egypt.

ITRealms Online also gathered that in some instances, the condition was between $3000 and $5000, depending on whether the applicant is of business delegates or mere stakeholders.

IGF was initiative in 2005 as the outcome of the two-phased World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which held in Tunisia in 2005 after the first phase in Geneva was held in 2003, with mandate to convening a new forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue on the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).

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We’re committed to quality after-sales service – Rachapudi

The National Service Manager, Panabiz international Limited, Mr. Phanidhar Rachapudi, has said that quality after-sales service is top on the company’s commitment to the Nigerian market.

Speaking in Lagos at a seminar on ‘Customer Service and Skill sets improvement’ organized for the customer service engineers and customer care executives of the company, Mr. Rachapudi said that the company is strongly committed to building on its core competencies, particularly in after-sales service.

This, he also said, has enhanced the capability of the company to pursue its mission of providing customized solutions that adds value to the businesses in Nigeria.

According to him, in the past years, by adhering to the corporate philosophy of customer satisfaction through high quality service, the company has grown steadily.

“Our response time has been a critical factor in our success story. Today Panabiz has become a reliable solution provider for photocopying, printing and telecommunication requirements of all our customers because they can count on us,” he declared.

Rachapudi pointed out that it is very critical to keep up with the targeted response time as the photocopying and the printing equipments occasionally experience downtime due to wear and tear, thereby leading to decline in productivity levels of customer’s business.

“It has to be ensured that all the equipments are backed up by the monthly preventive maintenance schedules to maintain the service quality standards to all the customers,” he said.

Further, he explained that as part of its continuous endeavor to maintain customer satisfaction, the company banks on customer service objectives of the company, mainly on the three R’s, that is reach, reliability and responsive.

On reach, for instance, he noted that Panabiz help desk could be reached on their dedicated numbers in all the three regions for customer support and troubleshooting, stressing that the company is setting up a call centre in the near future to receive the customer calls and ensure proper monitoring and response.

Additionally, he said that reliability appreciates the efforts of the service personnel attending to the customers for ensuring a timely service delivery and suggested that they should keep up with the good work.

While the responsive entails the customer help desk ensures that all customer complaints are attended to within four hours with call logging within the city limits.

“Standby equipments are provided as a backup to the customers as and when needed,” he said.

Also speaking, Diwakar Yadavalli, the National Sales Manager lauded the efforts and the contribution of the customer service engineers towards the enhancement of the relationships with various organizations.

He reminded participants that the company believes in product excellence, operational excellence and relationship excellence.

“It is important for any organization to be successful. Panabiz always strives to give the latest technology and world class product solutions to the Nigerian customers. We have the best of the processes and procedures in place in our organization. In this competitive environment, it is very important that we distinguish ourselves with excellent service offerings to our customers. This alone is helping us retain our prestigious clientele,” he asserted.

Yadavalli affirmed that the company has experienced profitable relationship with the clients owing to its value-based after-sales-services which include following the monthly preventive maintenance schedules, periodical user training programs provided to maximize the capacity of the equipment, quarterly service report of performance analysis, customer feedback surveys to evaluate and review deliverability in terms of service rendered.

Hence, he concluded that the customers can rest assured that any product offered by Panabiz will be backed by an efficient after-sales-service.

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Winners emerge @ TD’s Laptopmania

The first set of two winners have emerged in the Lagos edition of Technology Distributions (TD)’s Laptopmania promo, the star event of the firm’s 10th anniversary celebrations.
The event which held at Kez Auditorium, Technology House, Gbagada, Lagos, saw laptops being given out to winners, namely Joan Isemede, a student, and Ifeyinwa Umeh, a worker in Lagos.

Making the presentation, TD’s Executive Director, Marketing, Mrs. Chioma Chimere said that both winners were the first to win from the Lagos area and there would be winnings every week from all parts of the country.

She also said that Laptopmania was conceptualized to reward Nigerians in the six geo-political zones of the country by doling out 1,000 laptops in 10 weeks to mark the 10th anniversary of the firm.

“Laptopmania is proudly supported by the following international Information Technology (IT) brands, including Hewlett Packard (HP), Zinox, Toshiba, Acer, and Dell.

A press statement from TD, made available to ITRealms Online informed that this entails that laptops could be won from any of these international brands.

To qualify, Mrs. Chimere was quoted as saying that all a participant needs to do is simply text TD plus his or her name to 35056.

The Executive Director, Marketing, pointed out that the anniversary celebrations of Technology Distributions, has been deliberately launched on the platform of a decade of distinctive leadership, in the last quarter of 2009.

This, she said, would ensure that consumers have a digital Christmas and New Year celebrations.

“Characteristically the celebrations have been built around the customer with a view to give back to society in appreciation for the remarkable progress; rising quickly to number one that TD has made in 10 years of operations in Nigeria and the West African sub region,” Chimere said.

She further said that the anniversary celebrations have been planned to span a period of 10 weeks and three main events have been packaged to ensure that the consumer and trade benefits get to the agreed targets.

“These events include Laptopmania, TD Maths Quiz and a Gala Nite,” she declared.

Mrs. Chimere explained that Laptopmania, for instance, puts up 1,000 laptops for grabs by resellers and end users in interactive “Short Message Service (SMS) texts to a short code 35056.” The TD Maths quiz, she enlightened, is a bi-annual Maths competition designed to enhance the teaching and learning of Mathematics for pupils in Primary 4.

“TD considers Primary 4 as the class where a good foundation can be laid tor cognitive development. While the TD Gala Nite is an annual get together that unwinds pent up energies at the end of every year for the Management and Staff of TD and her resellers nationwide,” she said.

These events, according to her, would come with additional incentives, funfair and glamour to make the decade anniversary celebrations of TD a rewarding experience to Nigerians.

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PMM holds InTech-09 on e-Insurance

Lagos-based Private Media Mart (PMM) Limited, has concluded arrangement for this year’s edition of its Insurance Technology Expo (InTech) 2009, on “e-Insurance: Issues and expectation in a growing economy.”

The industry specific event is meant to examine and review the current standards as well as encourage the adoption of technology tools in the insurance industry locally with global best practices as reference point.

Disclosing this to newsmen in Lagos, the chief executive officer, PMM, Mr. Ejiofor Agada, noted that across the globe, insurance industry has undergone considerable consolidation over the past decade through deployment of Information Technology (IT) in retooling core processes and systems to increase efficiency, flexibility, reduce costs and better manage risks.

“Our idea is to showcase the technologies suitable for the insurance sector and have the proponents explain the inherent advantages and features of their solutions to their target market, as well as using the avenue to discuss and ascertain the future direction of the sector, ICT-wise,” he said.

Agada also said InTech 2009 serves as the only credible bridging channel between players in the insurance sector and technology service providers to review and learn all about insurance-based Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions in today’s technology space.

He equally said that participating firms would need to redefine the way business is conducted so far, stressing that traditional methods would have to be done away with and assimilation of newer technologies to pave the way for improved efficiency and cost reduction.

“More transparency in operations and flexibility to change according to innovations in technology will be the key factors for success in this industry. It is in the realization of these facts that InTech is forming the bedrock upon which the modern insurance sector in Nigeria will flourish,” Agada said.

The role of PMM in this equation, he said, is strictly that of technology-match-makers with the zeal towards ensuring rapid adoption of technology in all facets of Nigeria’s economy.

“This is the driving force behind our efforts with InTech,” Agada declared, assuring that the PMM has re-enforced to ensure that the objectives of InTech are actualised.

Agada said, although it is evident that the Insurance and related sector stakeholders are gradually coming to terms with the reality that technology holds the key to their success, InTech has been designed to help leverage and instill that realization.

This year’s edition, he said, is a two-day event with the theme “E-Insurance: issues and expectations in a growing economy” and has been scheduled to take place between November 26 and 27, at the Golden Gate Paradise, Ikoyi–Lagos.

According to him, the first day and part of the second day, would be used for the conference; panel discussion of industry issues and a mini-exhibition, while the evening of the second day would witness a gala night for CEOs and special guests to the event.

Apart from the expected marketing presentations from supporting companies, he said, there would be presentations, lectures and private business meetings on industry ICT insights by some respected resource persons from around the world including experts from the Nigerian insurance sector as well as IT solution providers.

“The event will also mark the first time in the history of this country that an insurer will be presented with a technology advancement and recognition award. This recognition, which is quite different from the plethora of marketing awards around, is directly based on a research carried out by Private Media Mart’s research department, to ascertain the level of technology adoption in the sector,” he said.

PMM, he emphasized, is using this recognition exercise to encourage the management of technology-driven insurance companies and brokers, to continue to improve on the usage of tools of ICT to further propel their companies to higher heights.

Expected at the event are top-hierarchy in the insurance sector, including chief executive officers, chief information officers, heads of Information Technology (IT), representatives from the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other financial institutions, major players in enterprise technology solutions, senior media personalities and other stakeholders in both the IT and Insurance sectors.

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MTN SA to reduce workforce by 7%

MTN South Africa, has advanced strategies to reduce its permanent and temporary workforce as a result of the decline in the economic environment.

Ms Bridget Bhengu of MTN SA Communications department, confirmed this on Monday in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online.

She said that approximately 403 permanent employees may be affected towards the end of March next year, which comprises about 7 per cent of MTN SA’s 4,679 permanent employees.

Equally, she disclosed that MTN SA would reduce the number of temporary employees in its service during 2010, stressing that MTN SA would try to limit the number of jobs affected.

She explained that in order to mitigate the effects of possible job losses, a proper consultative route has been initiated, firstly to avoid retrenchments and redundancies and secondly to mitigate its adverse effects to be followed in line with legal requirements.

According to her, severance of two weeks’ pay for each completed year of service is payable and if retrenchments are inevitable, affected staff will be given time off to seek alternative employment well in advance of working their notice periods.

Counseling, staff support and assistance will be made available by the Human Resources Department through ICAS, registered with the company for such a purpose, while re-employment agreements will be entered into for a period of six months.

She further said that in light of greater efficiencies that are being achieved, together with the decline in the customer base, MTN has foreseen fewer resources will be required in the near future.

“Since approximately 3,000 people are supplied to MTN by temporary employment services, these numbers would also be reduced during 2010,” she said.

Additionally, the reductions of workforce, MTN SA said, is re-engineering its business in response to an outlook of lower growth due to the negative impact of the global recession on consumer spending and RICA compliance issues.

ITRealms Online recalls that MTN SA launched service in 1994 as part of the MTN Group, a multinational telecommunications group, operating in 21 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

The MTN Group is listed on the JSE Securities Exchange in South Africa under the share code: “MTN”.

As at 30 September 2009, MTN recorded 108,4 million subscribers across its operations in Afghanistan, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Republic, Iran, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of Congo (Congo Brazzaville), Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia.

The MTN Group is a global sponsor of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa and has exclusive mobile content rights for Africa and the Middle East.

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Govt must embrace enlightened policies – ICT Regulators

At the wake of broadband becoming the new baseline, the global Information and Communication Technology (ICT) regulators under the aegis of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), has enjoined governments to engage in enlightened policies that could drive roll-out, innovation and affordable pricing.

A draft of the Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR) on the 2009 Best Practice Guidelines made available to ITRealms Online, weekend at the conference, highlighted the need for the government to take up policies that could engender cheaper broadband services.

A press statement endorsed by ITU Media Relations officer, Ms Sarah Parkes, and spokesman of the host, Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of Lebanon, Nathalie Boustany, indicated that delegates to ITU’s 9th GSR held between November 10 and12 deliberated on the pressing need for governments to open markets to greater competition and use incentives to stimulate investment in the broadband networks that are fast becoming the lifeblood of the knowledge economy.

The over 648 participants from 89 countries expressed resolve to forge a shared vision and understanding of the many challenges currently facing ICT regulators in increasingly complex converged markets.

ITU Secretary-General, Dr Hamadoun Toure, was quoted as saying that GSR has been the most successful event, in terms of number of participants and the quality as well as relevance of the discussions at the event.

“This testifies to the critical role regulators are now playing in defining the future shape of markets characterized by fast-changing technologies and a rapidly evolving, increasingly complex competitive landscape,” he said.

“With the tough current economic climate prompting some operators to rein-in network development plans, the meeting placed special emphasis on the need for the public and private sectors to better understand one another’s needs and work more cooperatively to support demand for ICT services,’ Toure said

The ICT industry played a central role in the one-day Global Industry Leaders Forum (GILF), chaired by Dr. Saad Al Barrak, the chief executive of Zain Group, the forum encouraged frank, interactive discussion among participants representing operators, ICT manufacturers and application developers, service providers, infrastructure specialists and consultancies.

According to the press statement, those discussions went on to form the core of the GILF Chairman’s report, which was presented to the GSR at its opening session on Tuesday, November 10, for in-depth consideration by delegates representing the global ICT regulatory community.

GILF participants stressed the need for predictable, stable regulation, improved regional harmonization of regulatory frameworks, more efficient management of radiofrequency spectrum, and a ‘light touch’ by regulators to allow markets to evolve naturally.

Further, they advocated technology-neutral regulation, and urged regulators to make provision for the ongoing development of converged services by ensuring sufficient spectrum is available to support future growth.

ITU, which plays a critical role in global spectrum allocation through its Radiocommunication Sector, was asked to continue to work actively to help companies and governments alike create an enabling environment to support new services, cheaper pricing, and faster network roll-out to underserved areas.

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Akunyili, Zaku for ‘09 Cyber Nigeria

The Information and Communications Minister, Prof. Dora Akunyili and her counterpart in the Science and Technology Ministry, Dr. Alhassan Bako Zaku, would on Sunday, lead dignitaries to the Africa Information Society Merit Award (AISMA) and Cyber Nigeria 2009.

The award, according to the organizers, would recognize about 18 individuals and organisations, which have impacted positively on the Nigeria’s burgeoning Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector in the last 10 years as part of the celebration of 10 years of AIT InfoTech Network.

A press statement endorsed by Mr. Bayero Agabi, informed that the event’s chief host would be High Chief Aleogho Raymond Dokpesi, Chairman Daar Communications Plc, owners of AIT, Raypower and Daarsat.

Dokpesi would be joined by the Deputy Governor, Lagos State, Her Excellency, Princess Adebisi Sarah Sosan and the former Minister of State for Information and Communications Alhaji Dasuki Nakade and Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, the chief executive of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and his colleague in the National IT Development Agency (NITDA), Prof. Cleopas Angaye.

“This event would be a celebration of excellence and professionalism by AIT and the people that have helped to sustain growth in the ICT sector,” said Nakade who spoke in Jos.

The event is featuring the Cyber Nigeria 2009 Forum designed to discuss Nigeria’s continuous relevance in the global knowledge economy.

Speakers include Anayo Agu, the Senior Business Specialist at the US Embassy Nigeria, and Dr Tunde Adegbola, Executive Director of African Languages Technology Initiative. Adegbola is also a lecturer at the University of Ibadan.

The interactive forum will be discussing the future of Nigeria and the potentials of the internet as the nation marches towards 202020.

It will also throw light on internet content, technology trend, regulation in an IT-based world and internet products and services. The event theme is ‘Internet as a catalyst for configuring a new Nigeria.

Whereas the sub-themes comprised “Innovations and Initiatives; Internet-based Products and services; role of legislation in meeting the challenges of cyber laws and applications; attitude, refocus and IT-based products and services.”

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NIG plans e-business seminar in Lagos

The Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) has finalized plans for the 2009 electronic business (e-business) seminar scheduled to hold in the commercial nerve centre of the nation, Lagos, on Thursday, December 10, this year.

President, NIG, Mr. Lanre Ajayi, made this disclosure in Lagos, weekend, saying that the seminar would focus on “Enabling e-Business in Nigeria for Accelerated Economic Growth“ and would take place at Golden Gate Paradise, Ikoyi, Lagos.

According to him, e-Business is the Internet technology driven business which has continued to be a catalyst that accelerate economic growth in many countries around the world.

”With recent developments in the Nigeria Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector,” he said, noting the country is set to join the rest of the world in driving its economy with e-Business,“ he said.

Some of the most significant development, he noted, include the re-delegation of .ng Top Level Domain (TLD), the budding e-payment services and the emerging international fiber cables from Globacom and MainOne.

Hence, he said, NIG is excited about these developments and has decided to make e-Business the focus of this year annual conference of the group.

This conference, which is being organized in collaboration with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) would examine the critical success factors to e-business adoption in Nigeria.

In addition, he said, this comprised improved broadband penetration, pervasive e-payment services, skilled manpower, appropriate legal and regulatory framework as well as political will from government to implement the right policies.

NIG is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) dedicated to the promotion and growth of the Internet in Nigeria, with open membership spread across all those interested in the growth of the Internet technology, irrespective of educational background and current field of employment, including the academia, non-governmental organizations, government parastatals, Internet Service Providers, private organizations and individuals.

NIG is reputed to have contributed immensely, especially in the hosting of the country’s Top level Domain locally, rural Internet penetration, Internet infrastructure development, Internet content development, open source platform development and e-Governance.

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ICANN seeks applications to board, GNSO, ccNSO, ALAC

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), is seeking competent and capable candidates from the global Internet community for key leadership positions to fulfill its technical and policy coordination role. Interested individuals are invited to submit a Statement of Interest to the 2010 Nom Com for the seven available positions, reports CHARLES OKOH.

Three of these would be members of the Board of Directors of ICANN, while two go to At Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) representatives (one each from the European and North American regions); one member of the Council of the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO); one member of the Council of the Country-Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO)

The Nominating Committee (Nom Com) is an independent committee tasked with selecting a majority of the members of the Board of Directors and other key positions within ICANN’s structure.

ICANN is an internationally organized, public benefit, non-profit corporation dedicated to: preserving the operational security and stability of the Internet; promoting competition; achieving broad representation of global Internet communities; and supporting the development of policies appropriate to its mission through bottom-up, consensus-based processes.

A press statement available to ITRealms Online indicated that individuals selected by Nom Com will have a unique opportunity to work with accomplished colleagues from around the globe, address the Internet’s intriguing technical coordination problems and policy development challenges with diverse functional, cultural, and geographic dimensions, and gain valuable insights and experience from working across boundaries of knowledge, responsibility and perspective.

Those selected will gain the satisfaction of making a valuable public service contribution towards the continued function and evolution of an essential global resource. Considering the broad public interest, those selected will work to achieve the goals towards which ICANN is dedicated in order to facilitate the Internet’s critically important societal functions.

Current Board members who have been selected by the Nominating Committee include Harald Tveit Alvestrand, Steve Crocker, Dennis Jennings, Gonzalo Navarro, Rajasekhar Ramaraj, George Sadowsky, Jean-Jacques Subrenat and Katim Touray.

Statements of Interest for the positions described above can be submitted through an on-line application form at http://forms.icann.org/cgi/soi.cgi or by contacting nomcom2010@icann.org.

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IGF 2009: Confusion trails Egypt’s $3000 caveat on visa

As the world is expected to gather at the city of Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt, for the global Internet Governance Forum (IGF), stakeholders are facing as hard times in not only getting Egyptian visa, but for meeting up with the caveat that participants must have, at least, $3000 cash, about N450,000, in their custody before they could be allowed entry into Egypt.

ITRealms Online also gathered that in some instances, the caveat was between $3000 and $5000, depending on whether the applicants are business delegates or mere stakeholders.

IGF was initiative in 2005 as the aftermath of the two-phased World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) which held in Tunisia in 2005 after the first phase in Geneva was held in 2003, with regard to convening a new forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue on the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), thus becoming a platform for interactive, and collaborative space where all stakeholders could air their views and exchange ideas, on the premise that promote the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) so as to enthrone the highest standards set by the W3C.

This is coming as the Egypt’s Prime Minister, Dr. Ahmed Nazif today, Monday, inaugurated the fourth meeting of the Internet Governance Forum taking place in Sharm El Sheikh from 15 to 18 November, amidst low turnout of stakeholders except a few from government agencies.

Dr. Tarek Kamel, Minister of Communications and Information Technology and Ministers of Education, Higher Education, Social Solidarity and Administrative Development equally participated in the opening ceremony, which has as its theme “Internet Governance – Creating Opportunities for All.”

However, our investigations showed that many stakeholders from Nigeria’s Internet community and the world over, especially those from the developing countries are complaining bitterly due to the stipulation by the Egyptian government attached to its visa.

Just as the $3000 condition cash is separate from the visa fee, which cost N9000, about $62.

Additionally, ITRealms Online gathered that preference was being given to government representatives or delegates, while other stakeholders from the private sector were made to face this challenge of having this amount of cash before the immigration could allow them into Egypt.

The Lagos Consulate of the Egyptian Embassy at the Club Road, Ikoyi-Lagos, confirmed this condition to our correspondent at the weekend, saying it is the position of the government.

According to him, that is why it has become necessary for him to table it before potential IGF participants and other applicants prior to offering them visa, of which this caveat would be included in their visa to be observed strictly by Egyptian immigration at the point of entry.

“It is not necessary whether you would spend it or not, but you must have it. I mean, show it to the immigration officials before they can stamp your passport at the entry point, otherwise you will be deported,” he told correspondent during the chat.

At the time of filing this report, over five other IGF participants could not continue with their visa processes due to the $3000 condition, including some Nigerian ICT-media practitioners.

Reacting to this development, the Executive Director, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN) and the first Nigeria’s Information Technology (IT) Youth Ambassador, Mr. Gbenga Sesan, described it as unhelpful to the drive by African community to actively participate at the Egyptian IGF meeting.

As such, he said, it is uncalled for, noting that IGF has been held in the past four years at various parts of the world and none made this kind of demand or condition, admitting that definitely it would affect the number of participation from developing countries globally, and mostly in the African continent.

Wondering who actually advised the Egyptian government on using this platform to ‘make money rather than encouraging participation.’

Hence this would spell doom for the continent as well as her input into the African hosted IGF forum.

International participation at the event has been billed to include Sha Zukang, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, and key personalities from the Internet technical world such as Bob Khan, one of the pioneers who invented the Internet, Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, and Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo! Inc.
The forum was billed to be an assembly of key figures such as Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce, European Commissioner of ICT & Media and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) chief executive, Mr. Beckstrom.

Over the four days, the few forum participants will discuss issues related to the future of the Internet and its impact globally and locally. Topics under discussion will include means of increasing accessibility to the Network, the development of local content and the encouragement of cultural and language diversity; the promotion of safe use of the Internet, means of combating cybercrime; and managing critical Internet resources.

The meeting aims also to explore the impact of social networks on the daily life of many people; allowing experts to look at emerging governance issues placing importance on the need to develop new approaches, policies, and regulations for privacy and data protection, user-generated content, copyrighted material, and illegal content.

A number of panel discussions and workshops will be held during the Forum on related issues such as, promoting freedom of information and freedom of expression on the Internet; principles in Internet governance; legal issues related to social media; privacy and social networking; the challenges of cybercrime; Internet governance and climatic change; child online safety; open standards; and managing Internet addresses.

The theme, expects said, reflected the basic purpose of the IGF to develop a common understanding of how to maximize the opportunities the Internet offers for all nations and peoples, and how to address the risks and challenges, while also raising awareness of the development dimension of Internet governance.

Unfortunately, the forum comprising about 10 main sessions in addition to the opening ceremony, and 105 workshops over four days, would be marred by low participation, although it was scheduled as a venue for multi-stakeholder dialogue on public policy related to internet governance issues, such as the Internet’s sustainability, robustness, security, stability and development.

The Internet Governance Forum was a recommendation of World Summit on Information Society of Tunis 2005. The first meeting was in Athens in 2006, second in Rio de Janeiro in 2007 and the third in Hyderabad in 2008.

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N245m 9ijilion prize money was internally generated – Etisalat CEO

The just concluded 9ijilion promo, which cost the fifth Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) operator, Etisalat Nigeria, over N245 million was internally generated.

The promo which saw a medical student from University of Jos (UNIJOS) emerging the star prize winner of $1 million, according to the chief executive officer of Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Steven Evans, was generated within the Etisalat operations in Nigeria.

ITRealms Online recalls that a fourth-year medical student of University of Jos, Mr. Kizito Eguonu emerged the star winner of the 2009 Etisalat’s 9jillion promo, which ended in Lagos, carting away the sum of $1 million, about N151,006,412.80.

Disclosing this at the 2009 edition of the AfricaCom, which ended in Cape Town, South Africa, on Thursday, Mr. Evans reiterated the determination of the operator to co-locate infrastructure with other operators in the Nigerian market.

Speaking to newsmen at the International Convention Centre venue of the two-day conferences and exhibition, Mr. Steven Evans, said Etisalat is disposed to the concept of co-location because of its numerous advantages, including maximizing infrastructure deployment where mostly needed, and saving cost of deployment, as well as being ideal for network expansion.

Mr. Evans who had earlier in the day participated actively in the Chief Executive officer (CEO) Roundtable on Investing in initiatives to reach new customers in Africa, noted that achieving this goal requires the sharing of infrastructure, because it is not economically viable to allow every operator to over load a given area rather than extending services to the greater number of the populace.

He also called on the Nigerian operators to embrace co-location as a way of cutting down on their CAPEX, which could be transferred to the customers.

Equally, he urged regulators across Africa and Nigeria particularly to be consistent in its position to propagate this ideology and at the same time expanding the network coverage on the continent.

According to him, Etisalat Nigeria does not have problems, embarking on its own infrastructure deployment, financially but that may not be the best for the sector and country.

Mr. Evans, further said, that the 9ijilion promo was an instant success and every prize used during the month-long promotion was internally generated in Nigeria.

He emphasized that Etisalat has made some inroad with the promo, which has endeared the people of Nigeria more to the network.

He expressed optimism that Etisalat may likely repeat the promo next year, but said that presently they are concerned with the programme mapped out for the winner and would soon unveil to Nigerians the next plan of action concerning the 9ijilion promo for 2010.

With the end of the Etisalat’s 9jillion promo, Mr. Eguonu, already a millionaire in the Etisalat promo has become a $1 million richer.

His cheque was presented at the grand finale in Lagos, by the Chief executive of Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Steven Evans was accompanied by the Chief executive, First Bank Plc, Mr. Olabisi Onasanya, and Senator Solomon Ganiyu.

Eguonu was overwhelmed by excitement as he jumped into the crowd from the podium. It took the quick intervention of security personnel at the event to calm him down for actual presentation as soon as the grand finale was announced.

ITRealms Online recalls that in the second quarter of this year, Etisalat Nigeria made innovative entry into the nation’s telecommunications sector with estimated N245 million up for grabs in Etisalat’s “Win a Phone” and “9jillions” promos.

While announcing this exciting promotion, the CEO Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Evans had noted that the 3-in-1 promo offers hundreds of Etisalat subscribers the opportunity to win fantastic prizes on the network every hour for 90 days.

“This unique one of a kind promo offers our subscribers an opportunity to win a phone every hour of the day for 90 days beginning from 8 June. Also, 35 lucky Nigerians will be instant millionaires during this promo while one especially lucky Nigerian will win the grand prize of one million US dollars. This country has never seen the likes of the Win a Phone and 9jillions promo before. This further confirms our claim to market innovativeness and also demonstrates one of Etisalat’s core value propositions to its customers: caring,” he said.

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Gov. Chime opens Gloworld @ Coal City

The recently opened Gloworld shop at the Coal City, the capital of Enugu State, attracted lots of subscribers of the Second National Operator (SNO), Globacom at the event, declared open by the Governor of Enugu State. Mr. Sullivan Chime, represented by his Commissioner, Youth and Sports, Mr. Matthew Idu.

Speaking during the event, Mr. Chime noted that Globacom has done well in the area of service delivery within the telecommunications sector.

He told excited subscribers who flooded the newly opened Gloworld shop in Enugu that Globacom as a friendly network added the new Gloworld in the city, as another evidence of the telecom giant’s commitment to friendly interface with its customers.

Pointing out this would enable them to experience the promised one-on-one, hi-tech customer care services of Globacom.

Chime also expressed gratitude to Globacom for its support to the state, stressing that Enugu State has been, and will continue to be a great supporter of the telecom giant.

Other dignitaries at the ceremony, who were also the first to be served at the new Gloworld, included the Enugu State Commissioner for Information and Culture, Mr. Chuks Ugwoke and the Chief Executive Officer of Alhambra Resources, Mr. Chime Orji. Even as soon as the dignitaries were served, dozens of other customers besieged the Okpara Avenue location of the shop to have a feel of the shop.

The Managing Director, Gloworld, Mrs. Shade Olusope, said the new shop was built to bring services as close as possible to Nigerians.

“We do not want people to go far to solve their communication problems. We want everybody to have Gloworld in his or her domain,” Olusope declared.

She noted that Gloworld, the customer service cum retail arm of Globacom, currently has 45 outlets spread across all six geographical zones of the country.

According to her, Gloworld has the largest telecoms customer relations network in Nigeria and is still growing.

“We have a strategic plan to increase our customer service contact centers to 50 by the end of this year,” she said.

ITRealms Online learnt that the customers sought to obtain quick solutions to issues ranging from Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) replacements to making enquiries and recovering over-scratched recharge cards.

Other services immediately offered by the new Gloworld included refilling of airtime, unblocking, phone and laptop configuration, payment of bills and sales of Glo products in a comfortable and classy environment.

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Intel, AMD settle anti-trust disputes

Intel Corporation and Advanced Micro Devices, last weekend, announced a comprehensive agreement to end all outstanding legal disputes between the companies, including antitrust litigation and patent cross license disputes reports CHARLES OKOH.

In a joint press statement, from Intel Corporation, quoted the two companies as saying that while the relationship between the two companies has been difficult in the past, “this agreement ends the legal disputes and enables the companies to focus all of our efforts on product innovation and development.”

Under terms of the agreement, AMD and Intel obtain patent rights from a new 5-year cross license agreement.

With this, Intel and AMD would give up any claims of breach from the previous license agreement, and Intel is expected to pay AMD $1.25 billion, about (N189.6m).

Also, Intel has agreed to abide by a set of business practice provisions, as a result, AMD would drop all pending litigation including the case in United States (US) District Court in Delaware and two cases pending in Japan.

Additionally, AMD would withdraw all of its regulatory complaints worldwide, whereas the agreement would be made public in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

AMD is an innovative technology company dedicated to collaborating with customers and technology partners to ignite the next generation of computing and graphics solutions at work, home and play. While Intel, the acclaimed global leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live.

Meanwhile, Intel Corporation adjusted its fourth-quarter financial expectations to reflect the impact of the $1.25 billion settlement payment recently entered with AMD with its expected spending on Research and Development (R&D) plus Merger and Acquisition (MG&A) in the fourth quarter to be approximately $4.2 billion. This is up from $2.9 billion.

In addition, the effective tax rate, the company said in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online is expected to be approximately 20 per cent, down from 26 per cent. All other expectations are unchanged.

Intel’s fourth-quarter business outlook was originally published in the company’s third-quarter earnings release, available at www.intc.com. The company is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter financial results on January 14.

But through November 25, Intel’s corporate representatives may reiterate the business outlook during private meetings with investors, investment analysts, media and others.

From the close of business on the aforementioned date until publication of the company’s fourth-
quarter earnings release, Intel will observe a “Quiet Period” during which the business outlook disclosed in the company’s news releases and filings with the SEC should be considered to be historical, speaking as of prior to the quiet period only and not subject to an update by the company.

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