Apathy, confusion trail SIM card registration

Apathy on the side of telecommunications consumers in the country may forestall the six months deadline given to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) last weekend by the House Committee on Communications to complete registration of over 78 million Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards.

This is coming as confusion may have set in at various customer care centres of telecom operators following uncohesive module for the registration and kind of questions consumers tend to respond to during the exercise.

Even as some touts are already taking advantage of lack of awareness on the SIM registration to charge unassuming telecom subscribers between N50 and N500, collecting passport photo and filling of form with the hope of going to register them.

Above all, the operators seem to be missing a key question for tracking individuals as they stop at asking for local government areas without home town, or place of birth, just as it was gathered that most communities are very far away from their local government headquarters.

Investigations by ITRealms Online last weekend showed that most of the operators, especially the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) have commenced the registration of SIM cards as directed by NCC, but there is no cohesive module as each operator may have created own templates of questionnaire to be administered to customers by service personnel.

At MTN Friendship centres, there are two personnel manning each box and capturing data both manually and electronically via filling of form which contains phone lines from the network, alternative phone line, full names, next of kin and phone line, date of birth, local government area, state of origin, residential address, ID, photo capture and two fingers’ biometric scan from each hand in addition to a free gift for those who complete their registration.

Except for the manual recording, Zain also insisted in showing of SIM cards by customers, while Etisalat accepts registration on proxy by spouse only, even as the number of subscribers are trickling.

At Glo World, it was more of an ‘academic’ exercise with all your fingers scanned, mothers’ maiden name, average income per month, average airtime usage per month, office and residential addresses, religion, preferred language, concluding with webcam photo capture.

Above all, one other thing discovered by ITRealms Online was that none of the computer notebooks in use for this exercise is of local brand but foreign, mostly from the Asian continent.

Speaking on the seeming lack of interest in SIM registration among Nigerians, the president, Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Mr. Titi Omo-Ettu urged telecom consumers in the country to ensure they register their SIMs, and called on NCC to adhere to the directive given by the House Committee on Communications, that six months is enough for the exercise.

Noteworthy is that House of Representatives, last week Thursday, mandated NCC to complete registration of SIM cards in the country within six months, according to the Chairman, House Committee on Communication, Hon. Dave Salako.

The mandate was given to NCC during budget defense, imploring the regulatory body to fasten the process so as to curb the crime rates being perpetuated with SIM cards nationwide.

Responding, the acting Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Dr. Bashir Gwandu said registration of the old SIM cards would be handled by the NCC while that of new SIM cards would be managed by the service providers, revealing that the budget for SIM registration is N6.1billion.

He pointed out that SIM registration has commenced since May 1, 2010 by the service providers, stressing that there is need to do more on the technical aspect of registration.

Gwandu reiterated that efforts are in top gear to develop secure database that is reliably and widely accepted and continuous SIM card database.

Equally, experts have warned telecom consumers over the use of touts for registration, saying that anybody without the registration box is ‘fake’.

Meanwhile, ATCON recently reassured that the exercise is in progress and commended the federal legislature for backing the efforts to have the Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards of telecom users in the country registered by putting same into law.

ITRealms Online recalls that ATCON had before now canvassed for a 24 month implementation period, so as to make the SIM registration a success.

Briefing newsmen in Lagos recently, ATCON’s president, Mr. Titi Omo-Ettu said that the recent order by the telecom regulator, the NCC for operators to make certain registration of all subscribers within three months is not realistic though desirable.

He noted that the intervention of the federal legislator’s by way of proposing a parliamentary Bill on SIM registration is a welcome development, stressing that ATCON, as an interested party has made some input too.

“We have already made contribution to the draft,” he said, but insisted that the campaign for SIM registration was started by ATCON members’ who are already making efforts to ensure its success.

ATCON also wants NCC to engage Nigerians on the public enlightenment campaign, saying that it’s only NCC that could persuade subscribers in the country to adhere to SIM registration which is ongoing.

They noted that the campaign should not be left alone to the telecom operators, because Nigerians would perceive it as another means of ‘milking’ them.

On number portability, ATCON said that it is an acceptable industry management tool by which the service delivery could be improved.

“The benefits of number portability is however not as dramatic as to let it be handled in a hurry,” he warned, maintaining that while accepting its desirability a longer implementation period is equally desirable.

The group further called for lawful interception, especially for public security related issues, saying that this would ensure checks and balances to avoid abuse, even as the rollout cost should be borne by the government, while an administrative review panel should be put in place to oversee the interception regulation and processes.

He maintained that at this era of convergence, there is need also to converge the regulatory organs of the government as far as the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is concerned, asserting that it is not only NCC and the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) as there are other agencies within the sector that would be brought to bear on convergence of regulation.

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Idlelo 4: Exploring FOSS options for Africa

Ghana recently played host to a weeklong Free and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) and Digital Commons conference tagged Idlelo 4. REMMY NWEKE who was there reports that various FOSS options were put on the table at the event.

The fourth conference of the Free and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) and Digital Commons, recently ended at its Idlelo 4, at the Advanced Information Technology Institute (AITI) also known as Kofi Annan Centre for Excellent in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Accra, Ghana, with the theme “Development with ownership.”

The event declared open by the vice president, Republic of Ghana, Mr. John Dramani Mahama, who was represented by the Minister of Communications, Mr. Haruna Idrisu, enjoining participants to come up with how African governments could resolve the challenges between the proprietary and open source software to its own advantage.

“Find out how we can use open source to drive electronic learning (e-learning),” he said, urging African states to increase investment in ICT and mostly in development of Open Source (OS) application in fighting cybercrime.

Also, Mr. Idrisu said that the government’s plan is to leapfrog by using ICT advantage, asserting, “… We want to own our application. We cherish the passion of young people to take their place to position Africa to assume its rightful place in the world.” Pointing out that nowadays, Open Source has grown to become a key in mission critical applications, hence, Africa must recognise FOSS as a veritable option for accelerated development and maintenance in addition to advancing capacity.

In his address, the chairman of the occasion and Director, ICT at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Dr. Sola Afolabi, who stood in for the President, ECOWAS Commission, Amb. James Victor Gbeho, said, they were excited that Ghana, a member state is hosting the Idlelo 4 meeting, this year.

“Ghana is proud member of ECOWAS and ECOWAS is proud to be here,” he said, noting that ECOWAS is implementing some regional projects to transform the community from community of things to Ghanaian government has advanced plans to leapfrog its ICT industry with FOSS.

Therefore, Afolabi said that ECOWAS is interested in partnering with FOSSFA in implementing the outcome of the conference.

According to the chairperson, FOSSFA, Ms Nnenna Nwakanma, prior to the conference, her organisation put together pre-conference workshops for some selected media practitioners and stakeholders on the continent on Campware, FOSS business model and Internet Governance policy framework, which was in partnership with Diplo Foundation based in Malta.

With the theme ‘Development with ownership,’ Nwakanma said Idlelo 4, explored the use of open source technologies in all domains of African economy, and provided an in-depth assessment of FOSS investments and use in the education sector on the continent.

As said by her, specialized tracks discussed included, but not limited to FOSS in governance, business, health, media innovation, civil society, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and open education resources to name a few. Recalling that the knowledge creation and sharing event leveraged on the outcome of the 14th African Summit of Heads of State on ICT for Development of January 2010, to provide a forum for a ministerial roundtable on e-government practices, policies and trends.

The conference, she said, was planned for a community summit of users, especially women and the youth, and the software developer community, stressing this community forum will allow for an open consultation of global open source engineers, coders, geeks, and community managers with the end users of technology, while integrating user concerns and issues to the broader technological innovations, plans, strategies and trends.

Idlelo, she explained, is a Southern Africa word that means ‘a common grazing ground’ with technical hands-on trainings, a community summit, plenaries, panels, workshops, professional examinations, awards and high level roundtables.

The first edition (2004) of Idlelo held at the University of Western Cape in South Africa, the second (2006) at the Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya and the third (2008) at the Universite Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar Senegal.

She said that the first-ever African FOSS Reporter Award Competition 2010, introduced a few months ago was unveiled to recognizing outstanding reporting for a general audience and honours individuals for their coverage of FOSS, of which Remmy Nweke of Champion Newspapers emerged top in the prize. While Mr. George Yao of AI3L, won the Guido Sohne Fellowship and Mr. Modeste Messou, became the winner in logo design category.

The competition, she added is run in partnership with Deutsche Welle and supported by Open Source Institute for West Africa (OSIWA) as part of an initiative to raise public awareness on FOSS. The vice president through Minister Idrisu later unveiled the new FOSSFA logo.

Enlightening further, she said, Diplo Foundation’s capacity building programme for over 20 Africans under its ICT Policy and Internet Governance for Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) initiative, underscored the plans to train over 300 ACP officials and other specialists of various professional backgrounds including engineering, economy, law, social sciences, languages and culture and media under the project.

The ACP-ICT programme is financed by the European Development Fund (EDF) with the aim of assisting ACP governments and institutions to design, implement and evaluate their national and regional ICT cum internet policies in addition to addressing intra-ACP needs in developing good practices in ICT policies as well as promoting greater stakeholder awareness.

During the weeklong Idlelo 4 in Accra, FOSSFA members seized the opportunity to visit Omatek factory in the city and to seek where they could plug-in to boost this African computer brand.

FOSSFA commended the management of Omatek Computer Plc during the visit for its effort in building capacity for the citizens of the continent, expressing delight on what they saw at Omatek and enlightenment gained thereof.

Nwakanma who led participants to the factory, appealed to Africans, mostly the government to look inward by patronize the likes of Omatek who provide employment for the citizens of Africa and help the continent to grow, economically. She advised Africans to forego the mentality of thinking that Africa and Africans because the only nation that can strive in this century are those who have something upstairs, that is intelligence.

Nwakanma further appealed to African women and youths to explore the advantages offered by open source and get exposed in Information Technology (IT), because according to her, it is only those who have knowledge that would survive in the coming centuries.

Welcoming FOSSFA members to the Accra Omatek factory, the General Manager, Mr. Nana Benneh, expressed delight for the opportunity by them to know what the company is doing and where the two could partner in advancing the African course in ICT.

Taking the group round the factory, the Production Manager, Omatek Ghana, Mr. Saied Onifade, revealed that they currently assemble about 200 Personal Computers (PCs) per day and has plans to delve into solar inverter in Accra, even as they do commercial assembling for people or companies who wish to have branded that are different from Omatek.

He explained that Omatek computers are tropically made to comply with the weather situation in this part of the world, thus, stands Omatek out among the foreign brands which do not conform to these additional features. He maintained that every PC after being assembled is sent into the burning room for several hours followed by a system report that would show the composition so as to ensure that every system complies with the Omatek standards.

He revealed that Omatek originated from Nigeria and has been in the market for over 20 years, although it has just been in Accra for about three years, noting that the Accra factory was set up to serve the Ghana market and other West Africa states.

Onifade further said that Omatek usually load both Microsoft and Open Source (OS) operating systems in every PC so as to give customers the choice, disclosing that Omatek has partnership with Madriva, an Open Source distributor to load its elearning package in some of the PCs meant for educational institutions in the bid to bridge the gap between the cities and rural communities in Africa.

Equally speaking, a member of FOSSFA council and director-general, Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence in ICT, Mrs. Dorothy Gordon, applauded participants for creating the time to visit Omatek. She called for the evaluation of FOSSFA members on the continent and to encourage new membership and grow awareness, saying “We need to find out where the user groups are in Africa and who are their contact points and keep in touch with them to drive the open source home,” she asserted.

Uniquely, part of Idlelo 4 was the election of new executive board for FOSSFA which preceded its Annual General Meeting (AGM) with the Nigerian-born Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) consultant based in Cote D’Ivoire, Ms Nnenna Nwakanma, retaining her position as the chairperson for the next two years.

Her election came unopposed followed the nomination of 21 council members from all regions in Africa, who constituted the electoral-college for the Executive Committee to emerge in line with the FOSSFA constitution.

These include Gambian Katim Touray as vice chairman, while Egyptian Samer Azmy of Geek2Live was elected secretary general, and Ugandan Milton Aineruhanga, Treasurer.
Nwakanma nomination came from a council member, Mr. Fred and seconded by Mrs. Dorothy Gordon for her to lead FOSSFA till Idlelo 5 in 2012, which Nigeria just won the hosting right.

The council also agreed to amend its constitution, especially in increasing the number of the exco members to accommodate the post of assistant secretary general and publicity secretary in the next election.

FOSSFA has its origin in the ICT Policy and Civil Society workshop held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in November 2002, convened by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, on the mandate of the Bamako Bureau established by the African Council of ICT ministers in the continent’s preparation towards the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), where it was unanimously resolved to create an interim civil society task force on open source tagged “Open Source Task Force for Africa (OSTA).”

The task force has since transformed into FOSSFA with the consent of its members to advocate for the use and implementation of open source solutions at the regional, national and local levels; urge donor governments that have already embraced open source at national levels such as Germany, Sweden, Norway and France to support Africa in this regard.

In addition, FOSSFA has the mandate to create a clearinghouse or knowledge factory - resources, database of local expertise on ‘Who is doing What’, website, CD-ROM, brochures among others and then define minimum standards, guidelines and advisory parameters for the foundation; building localized cum African capacity to work on software development; ensuring a discourse on open source during the National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) policy processes and addendum for the NICI processes that have already been completed.

The bottom line of Idlelo 4 was that it provided opportunity for communities and rural people required for Africa to grow.


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WAIGF to promote multi-stakeholder model

The West Africa Internet Governance Forum (WAIGF) slated for next month in Dakar, Senegal, has chosen a theme to deliberate during the preparatory meeting for the global Internet Governance Forum in Lithuania, in September.

According to the WAIGF local organizing team in a public statement made available to ITRealms Online, the theme for the Dakar meeting is: “Promoting the Multi-stakeholder Model for further Internet Development in Africa.”

The team also said that a voting structure was created to enable members of the West African Internet community to exercise their franchise.

But at the close of the voting session, which ended on Wednesday, July 14, 2010, majority of the list members voted for ‘Promoting the Multi-stakeholder Model for further Internet Developmentin Africa’ while the alternative suggestion, ‘Developing the Future Internet in West Africa’ could not make a vote.

Chairperson of one of the organizing team member, the Free and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA), Ms Nnenna Nwakanma, confirmed this, saying “West Africa has spoken. The theme for WA-IGF 2010 is ‘Promoting the Multi-stakeholder Model for further Internet Development in Africa’ and thank you all for your time.”

Meanwhile, FOSSFA recently opened call for Internet Governance Forum core team in West Africa to be hosted in Dakar before the end of August this year. Nwakanma noted that her organisation, the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and other partners, with support from the Open Society Institute of West Africa (OSIWA) launched a call for West Africa Internet Governance Forum preparation.

The terms of reference for West African IGF consortium group, she said, include for the formation of the core team entails background for the key members of the consortium group of organizations who would be contributing to the development and organization of the 2010 West African Regional Internet Governance Forum.

She further said, the Consortium comprised of members and organizations from the seven target countries, namely Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire and Cameroon; as well as the convening organizations.

Interest members of the Internet community in the sub-region, she said, especially those countries in West Africa but not listed above were free to apply.

She outlined the objectives of the WAIGF to include the facilitation of Internet policy discussions on a multi-stakeholder platform for issues relating to the development and the governance of the Internet in West Africa.

In addition to increasing awareness of Internet governance issues in the sub-region and encourage participation of a broad range of stakeholders in the IGF process within West Africa.

WAIGF, Nwakanma said, tends to create an opportunity for West Africans to engage in, contribute towards discussions regarding spam, Internet and security, and other IGF related issues at the global Internet Governance Forum.


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Computer Warehouse plans industrial park for UNILAG

Leading Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), company in the country, Computer Warehouse Group, has advanced plans to construct a building dedicated for the appreciation and development of Information Technology at the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

Disclosing this recently after a visit to the university’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Adetokunbo B. Sofoluwe, the Group Managing Director, CWG, Mr. Austin Okere, accompanied by Simon Agi, General Manager, Operations, Olapeju Ayo- Fisher Assistant General Manager, Human Resource and his counterpart at the Computer Warehouse Limited (CWL) Dayo Abegunde, AGM, said his firm would provide internet hotspots for UNILAG and institute the Austin Okere Annual Lecture, in response to the VC dream.

“CWG will construct a building here in the University of Lagos to be dedicated for the development of opportunities in the vast areas of ICT for the younger generation” he declared.

Okere also intimated the VC on some of the strengths of CWG in the areas of skills development and human capital development with the company’s present initiation of an academy, which young individuals are trained in various areas of Information Technology and after their course, some of them are absorbed into the company as members of staff.

Responding, elated Prof. Sofoluwe said he was proud that an ex-student of the university could build a great company today like Computer Warehouse.

While expressing thanks to Okere and his team for consenting to expand internet hotspots around the institution and the Austin Okere Annual Lecture, the VC said it would encourage the younger generation of students in their pursuit of academic excellence.

He, however, asked that CWG leads the path in the construction of an industrial park in UNILAG.

“It is my dream to build an industrial park within the university. One that can be compared to what we have in advanced countries,” he said.


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LG partners YouTube on ‘Life in a day’ project

LG Electronics has joined forces with YouTube on the ‘Life in a day’ project which holds on Saturday, July 24, 2010, globally.

YouTube is a video-sharing website which enables users to upload, share, and view videos. It was founded by three former personnel of PayPal in February 2005, which has since been acquired by Google. YouTube has changed the culture of video uploads and exchange, migrating to one of the most popular web portals worldwide.

The Life in a Day project is about self-shooting of one’s activities by YouTube users’ in a day, which has been scheduled for this week’s Saturday.

This, the partnership announced would form the final film to make the world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, next year.

Affirming this, Chief Marketing Officer of LG Electronics, Dermot J. M. Boden, said they belief in enriching people’s lives through technology and saw complementary objectives in the Life in a Day project

“For LG, this project is a fantastic opportunity to engage with YouTube users on a personal and emotional level that’s both rewarding and enjoyable. This initiative is perfectly consistent with our brand promise of “Life’s Good,” Boden said.

Reiterating this, famous filmmakers, Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald urged YouTube users to assist them in creating the first user-generated feature-length documentary film shot on a single day on July 24, 2010.

“Life in a Day” is a historic global film experiment that enlists the global community to capture a moment of their lives on Saturday, July 24 and to upload that footage to www.youtube.com/lifeinaday,” they said.

The Academy award-winning director of State of Play, Last King of Scotland, Touching the Void films, Mr. Macdonald would direct and bring together the most compelling footage into a feature-length documentary film.

It was also gathered that the project would be produced by Ridley Scott and his company Scott Free Productions.

“Individuals whose footage makes it into the finished film will be credited as co-directors and 20 of these contributors will be flown to the 2011 Sundance Film Festival for the film’s world premiere,” he said.

Life in a Day is one of several efforts by YouTube to push the boundaries of music, art, and now film. YouTube Symphony Orchestra and the recently announced YouTube Play partnership with the Guggenheim are examples of the convergence of online video with traditional arts and Life in a Day takes this effort into the cinematic realm.

LG Electronics is supporting Life in a Day as a key part of its long-standing Life’s Good campaign and to enhance the creation of quality online content that can be shared and enjoyed by all.

“Life in a Day is a time capsule that will tell future generations what it was like to be alive on the 24th of July, 2010. It is a unique experiment in social filmmaking, and what better way to gather a limitless array of footage than to engage the world’s online community,” Macdonald said.

And for the Chief Executive Officer, Google, YouTube’s parent company, Mr. Eric Schmidt, over the past five years, You Tube has changed the way media is created and consumed.

“We’re thrilled to give our community the opportunity to work with Kevin Macdonald and Ridley Scott and are grateful to our long-term partner, the Sundance Institute, for their support of this global initiative. I can think of no better place to premiere Life in a Day than at next year’s festival.”

Equally, Director of the Sundance Film Festival, Mr. John Cooper, said it’s a vital part of the mission to support individual storytelling around the globe and to provide a platform for expression and experimentation.

“This is a great way to engage the You Tube community and to also provide Festival audiences with something new and unexpected,” Cooper said.

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Winners emerge in UNESCO-IPDC prize on rural communication

The International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) prize for rural communication being hosted jointly with the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has been won by Egyptian and Mexican media entities; Wahed Men El-Nas and La voz de los campesinos respectively.

The UNESCO-IPDC prize for rural communication is intended to recognize a meritorious and innovative activity in improving communication in rural communities, chiefly in the developing countries. It was established in 1985 by the Executive Board of UNESCO in pursuance of a decision of the 5th session of the Intergovernmental Council of IPDC.

The UNESCO-IPDC Prize, consisting of a sum of US$20,000, is awarded every other year.
The 2010 edition saw the radio station La voz de los campesinos (The Voice of the Peasants), founded 32 years ago in the eastern state of Veracruz; the first indigenous community radio in Mexico, emerging as top finalist.

The station promotes interactive radio communication with communities, encouraging them to share their history, customs and music. It also helps reinforce the collective rights of the indigenous populations of Veracruz. Programmes are transmitted in three local languages in addition to Spanish.

Also, transmission covers 400 communities, approximately 100,000 people. La voz de los campesinos is part of the Latin American Association of Radio Education (ALER) and the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC).

On the other hand, Amr Mamdouh Ellissy, who is Editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper ElKhamis and Editor and presenter of both the documentary programme Ekhterak on Egyptian State Television and Dream TV’s weekly social programme Wahed Men El-Nas (One from the Public), which informs rural populations on issues directly concerning them, in particular in the fields of education and health.

Mr Ellissy seeks to work with governmental authorities and civil society organizations to find solutions to social problems in rural areas. He also carries out fundraising and public campaigns through his television programmes.

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Omo-Ettu canvasses support for broadband

Chief executive officer, Telecom Answers Associates (TAA), Mr. Titi Omo-Ettu has canvassed support for broadband adoption in the country, especially in alleviating poverty.

Speaking weekend, Omo-Ettu, noted there is need to support the campaign to encourage both the government and private sector to embrace broadband.

“We encourage our governments to appreciate the advantages of and invest in promotion of broadband access to our people no matter their location, status or station,” he said.

He noted though it is by no means an easy task, “but if it were easy it would not count as a task.”

Omo-Ettu, who also is the president, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) emphasized the ability of broadband diffusion to combat poverty at this age.

Maintaining that broadband could be applied to solve poverty issues.

“Broadband is no longer a luxury…it is a core infrastructure of the modern economy. Those who have it will prosper, those who don’t will fall further behind,” he declared.

ITRealms Online recalls that recently the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) noted that poverty entails individuals and communities cut off from resources, which could dramatically improve their standards of livelihood, that is, because communications connectivity is absent, limited or expensive.

ITU also said that whether these communities have been denied access to knowhow, or even market price data to sell their produce, they are stymied and trapped in deprivation, but all these could change with availability of broadband.

In developing countries, ITU said, information poverty rapidly becomes actual poverty, insisting that poverty reduction is the first, and arguably, most urgent, Millennium Development Goal of the United Nations.

Pointing out that an MDG snapshot revealed why as at late 2005, some 1.4 billion people still lived on USD 1.25 or less per day.

ITU further said that figures fluctuate but around 10 million people still die annually of hunger, and present trends in rising food prices and the global economic crisis may have pushed at least 90 million more back into poverty, according to the latest United Nations (UN) commentaries on progress for MDG-1.

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Satellite: Nigeria benefits from $100m Indian Pan Africa e-Network

Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Mahesh Sachdev, has said that his country has over 22 foreign satellites in the past 48 years.

Just as Nigeria is benefitting from the Indian satellite largesse for the continent worth $100 million through the Pan Africa e-Network.

According to IndiaPage, a public enlightenment weekly newsletter from the embassy in Abuja, although Indian space programme was founded in 1962, it was only in 1969 that the first Indian weather sounding rocket was launched.

In 48-years since its inception, he said, Indian space programme has had a number of successes, including a lunar mission last year that found water on moon.

“Today India has 10 remote sensing satellites orbiting the earth. India also has 11 communication satellites rendering valuable services,” he said.

Stressing that the Indian Space Programme is under the Department of Space and is implemented by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Pointing out that ISRO collaborates heavily with Antrix Corporation which provides space related services, such as fabricating satellites and launching them, putting up hardware, selling data from existing satellites, training on commercial basis.

Equally, he said, that since 1999, Antrix has successfully launched 22 foreign satellites, noting that India had always shared its space knowledge with its friends including Pan African e-Network, which he said, India gave out a $100 million gift to the continent and has remained operational since last year, thus providing tele-education and tele-medicine facilities in over 35 Africa countries, including Nigeria, Benin & Cameroon.

Recalling that experts estimated that India’s space economy is worth $ 125 billion – or nearly a tenth of total Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“India’s space programme is not only very cost effective, it is highly relevant to India’s developmental needs, especially in such important sectors as agriculture, healthcare, banking, education, communication, broadcasting, town-planning, monitoring climate change and disaster management,” he said.

Each Rupee invested in ISRO, he said, has returned two Rupees worth of benefits, even as ISRO is planning bigger projects such as Chandrayaan-2 to moon in 2013 and sending an Indian astronaut on Indian rocket, this debate will continue.

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Facebook unveils panic button for kids

Facebook, ever growing social network platform, has finally unveiled its much-anticipated ‘panic button’ on its site, as it looks to increase protection of its young users, reports Nomensa.com.

The ‘ClickCEOP’ button lets Facebook users, especially those aged between 13 and 17 to report suspicious online behaviour and access internet safety advice with the launch of the new application.

They can report any abuse to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and Facebook.

Access to the ClickCEOP button will be provided via an application that users could add or bookmark so that it appears on their homepage as not only a constant source of help and reassurance for them but also as a strong visual signal to their friends, family and others that they are in control online.

The application would be backed by a new CEOP page that, when ‘liked’, will look to engage with young people to help raise the profile of online safety.

The move is also being supported by extensive wide spread advertising on Facebook that will encourage take up of the application.

This will include an automatic advert-message appearing on every homepage of users aged between 13-18 years inviting them to add the application.

Meanwhile, collaboration between parent, teachers association and Facebook would strengthen commitment to educating kids, parents and teachers about responsible and safe Internet use.

Announcing a formal collaboration, they said it would promote responsible and safe Internet use to kids, parents and teachers.

Together, National PTA and Facebook said they would establish a comprehensive programme that would provide information, support and news to encourage citizenship online, reduce cyber bullying and advance Internet safety and security.

The partnership is founded on the belief that awareness is essential to supporting safe and responsible Internet use. Thus, in addition to creating comprehensive and engaging resources, PTA and Facebook are committing to aggressively promoting Internet safety information to their respective audiences.

National PTA will use its Website (www.pta.org), and actively reach out to the 24,000 local PTAs across the country with a goal of reaching every American public school. Facebook will raise awareness of the resources among the hundreds of millions of parents, teachers and children using its service through an in-kind
Facebook commitment equivalent to $1 million and promotion on other parts of the site, including the safety center.


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Netsize launches Payforit in UK

The Payforit Accredited Payment Intermediary in the United Kingdom, Netsize, has launched an offer which affords merchants a full implementation of the Payforit version 3 payment scheme.

The Netsize mPayment enables Payforit on web, Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) and web lite transactions.

A press statement made available to ITRealms Online informed that for the first time, UK consumers would have a simple, straightforward and trustworthy route to buy digital as well as physical goods and services.

Chief Executive Officer, Netsize, Stanislas Chesnais, said, consumers could make transactions online and via WAP using any mobile phone.

Merchants benefit via a simplified route to market that accelerates Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).

He explained that Payforit v3 offers trust, convenience and ease of use and is supported by all mobile network operators in the UK.

“Payforit enables consumers to make online purchases from their PC or mobile phone and securely charge the payment amounts to their phone bill. Payforit v3 supports payments from all mobile devices, including WiFi-connected phones,” Netsize boss said.

Equally, he said, Netsize mPayment enables Payforit on Web, WAP and Web Lite transactions and also supports single click purchases and subscription services billing with Payforit.

“Netsize mPayment with Payforit v3 provides merchants with a ‘country on a plate’” Chesnais said, noting that now merchants could easily start with mobile payments in the UK and focus on promoting their offer, while mPayment with Payforit handles the technical complexities and helps ensure regulatory compliance.

Emphasizing that mPayment with Payforit offers merchants increased pricing flexibility, thus the easy check-out process significantly improves the rate of successful transactions.

“The number of clicks and keystrokes needed to make a payment is reduced by more than 50 percent compared to credit cards,” Chesnais declared.

As SMS payment for web based transactions is now not allowed in the UK cross-network, Payforit v3 is the single mobile payment alternative available to merchants, offering a superior user experience.

“For the first time, merchants can take advantage of a mobile payment product in the UK that is secure, easy to use and offers payout rates similar to cards. mPayment with Payforit v3 enables them to do business online with consumers who have no credit card, debit card or PayPal account,” Stanislas Chesnais adds. “Payforit v3 has the potential to expand the UK market. It marks an important step towards an m-commerce economy.”

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