NCC says ‘No’ to new license on LTE

•To meet Ringim over killing

There is no hope in sight for those operators who may be expecting new operating licenses, mostly for the deployment of Long Term Evolution (LTE), even as national broadband strategy would soon be unveiled.

This is coming as the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) plans to meet the acting Inspector General of Police, Mr. Hafiz Abubakar Ringim, over the recent killing of about seven telecom maintenance personnel in Aba, Abia State.

Long Term Evolution is the project name of a new high performance air interface for cellular mobile communication systems, according to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).

Giving these indications at the Independence and 58th edition of the Telecom Consumer Parliament (TCP) which held in Lagos, weekend, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah made it clear that the Commission is not considering licensing of any new spectrum to drive home the emerging LTE into the nation’s market.

The 58th edition of TCP was held on the theme of “Broadband Availability in Nigeria: Prospects and Challenges.”

Dr. Juwah while responding to request by one of the operators that as a way of ensuring practical diffusion of the two marine cables already in the country, namely the Glo 1 and MainOne, that a new license should be introduced to accommodate LTE, noted that most of the mobile operators have not exhausted their licenses, thus there is no need to start worrying about new spectrum licensing.

According to him, LTE could still be integrated into 3G which is awash in the industry, stressing that asking for LTE licenses on another spectrum would amount to jumping the gun.

“There is no need for LTE now,” he declared.

Juwah said that it’s only MTN that has met its mobile penetration among all the operators since the evolution of Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication.

For Glo Mobile, he said, that it’s High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) which is an enhanced Third Generation (3G) mobile telephony communications protocol has not been optimised, even as HSDPA+ is still fallow, stressing that Globacom should take advantage of Glo 1 to push for market penetration of its already existing licenses more so as the Second National Operator (SNO).

As said by him, the likes of Zain are still much a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) based operator; a packet oriented mobile data service on the 2G and 3G cellular communication systems.

Speaking earlier, Glo’s Head, Network Operation, Mr. Aremu Olajide, said that with the landing of Glo-1 cable the cost of data would come down. He admonished Nigeria consumers of telecom to see the need to do more in terms of protecting telecom infrastructure, attributing most of the hiccups witness in quality of service delivery to intrusions like vandalisation and outright stealing of infrastructure or even damaging same.

While the General Counsel for MainOne, Mr. Kazeem Oladepo, said there is a huge market for broadband in the country, he noted that broadband market is beyond Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt.

Oladepo also pointed out that with MainOne’s 1.92 Terabyte and Glo’s 2 Terabytes, the consumers in the country would be best served and urged consumers to look forward to having exciting experience, especially with data.

Equally in his remarks at a session with the chief executive officers of operating companies, last Friday, Juwah noted that the issue of Quality of Service (QoS) across the networks has reached a disturbing rate.

“During my appointment, even during our screening at the Senate before confirmation, this issue was a recurring decimal and I have given my word to government that we are going to resolve it,” he said.

The NCC boss disclosed that the Commission has taken this matter seriously and within weeks of resumption, has set up a Task Force to evolve immediate solutions to address this matter.

While soliciting utmost cooperation of operators in addressing the issue of QoS, Juwah noted that as the season of celebrations draw nearer that movement of subscribers would increase.

“I hope that the service providers have taken adequate measures to handle the movement of subscribers,” he appealed.

Telecom consumers, he emphasised occupy a very important place in his administration, therefore, they occupy an important place majorly as the source of revenues to the operating companies but also because they deserve to be treated fairly.

“They form a very important stakeholder in the business. Our performance will be measured by the satisfaction of the average subscriber. We will continue with several of the Commission’s consumer related issues such as the Consumer Parliament and related outreach activities. We hope the operating companies will complement these efforts to empower the consumers,” he said.

Further, Juwah advised operators to consider improving their Short Messaging Service (SMS) by cutting down on the prices, mostly since it helps in decongesting the networks.

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Galaxy launches digital inclusion projects @ Anambra

Galaxy Backbone Plc has launched its digital inclusion project in Anambra State, as part of the firm’s strategy to accommodate the underserved communities and rural locations in Nigeria in the burgeoning Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

Chief Education, States & Development department of Galaxy Backbone, Mr. Yusuf Kazaure, said these ICT projects were initiated as part of the company’s over-arching corporate objectives based on its mandate to create digital access for underserved communities and rural locations in Nigeria as a platform to leap-frog Nigeria into a 21st century knowledge society.

“Our focus on the bridging the digital divide is based on the realization that ICT is a modern tool for arresting the increasing poverty gap in an economy such as ours. As we commission the ICT centres in Anambra State this weekend, and the others across the country, it’s hoped that underserved communities and rural locations in Nigeria will in no distant time be positioned to compete in the knowledge economy through human capacity development and empowerment opportunities,” he said.

According to him, the three ICT centres commissioned last week in Anambra were in line with part of the activities for Galaxy Backbone ICT Road Show for South East zone.

He explained that they were located in Alor community, Girls Secondary School, Alor and the palace of Obi of Onitsha, all in Anambra State.

These centres, he said, were initiated as part of the National Information Communication and Education Programme (NICEP) network approved by the Federal Government in 2007 to provide accelerated connectivity for broadband internet, data, voice and video communications to rural and underserved communities including educational institutions in the country. The network could be leveraged to bring many sustainable developmental initiatives to Nigerians. Specifically, the network would assist government to facilitate the digital inclusion of underserved communities, assist in the area of human capacity development and deliver beneficial e-services to citizens.

In addition he said the services available at the centres include internet access, which is capable of supporting ICT based solutions targeted at universal access, health, education, poverty alleviation, wealth creation, as well as those focused on enhancing public sector efficiency.

“With so many public services going online such as JAMB, NECO registration and recruitment into some government agencies, the need to provide access to people in rural areas can never be overemphasized,” he said.

He urged State Governments and other developmental entities in the country to take advantage of the fact that the Federal Government had already funded the purchase of NICEP equipment while the States can reap the benefits and only incur recurrent bandwidth and support charges. “This proposition is superior to any other that will include hidden or visible equipment costs”.

The benefits of digital inclusion that can be leveraged through the NICEP infrastructure at the Federal, State and Local Government levels include providing digital access to citizens in rural locations; improve quality of education and healthcare; support growth of internally generated revenue; enhance government to citizen interaction; cost control and management as well as employment generation and poverty alleviation.

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MTN, Google lift UNN with wireless

MTN Nigeria and Google among others have lifted the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) with the commissioning of a jointly facilitated wireless infrastructure by President Goodluck Jonathan, at Ituku-Ozalla campus and Abah respectively.

Chief executive officer, MTN Nigeria, Ahmad Farroukh, said the facility is offering UNN the platform to provide first-rate e-learning services to students within and beyond the shores of the country.

He also said the infrastructure is an always-on, wired and wireless network that covers the entire geography of the four campuses of the university.

This consists of a fibre optics network provided by MTN, extending from Lagos to Nsukka and linking the four campuses of the institution in Enugu, Ituku- Ozalla Campus and Abah and carrying 50 mega bytes (MB) internet bandwidth traffic provided by Main One Cable.

According to him, the network offers Internet connectivity of 1-4mbps per 1000 students and staff, and has a central storage area network of at least 10-400 Terabytes on which students and faculty can store data.

“We are delighted to be part of this very ambitious project that is bound to positively project Nigeria to the rest of the world” he declared.

MTN he said, is convinced Nigeria has the human resources to lead the pursuit of knowledge in a wide array of fields.

“At MTN where 98 per cent of the staff strength are Nigerians, we see a strong demonstration of this fact. In the wider community, we also know that this capacity exists but for the paucity of requisite infrastructure. At MTN, we are committed to contributing our quota to efforts aimed at addressing this challenge and enabling Nigeria to take its deserved place in world reckoning” Mr. Farroukh said.

The Vice Chancellor (VC) University of Nigeria, Prof. Okolo in his remarks said “with the commissioning of this comprehensive ICT infrastructure, our students can stand up to any of their peers anywhere in the world. Not only this, with the platform that this network has availed us to provide real time e-learning services, we can virtually double the capacity of our classrooms and give more access to more Nigerians to acquire tertiary education through e-learning.”

He expressed appreciation to MTN, Google and other corporate bodies which all contributed to making the dream of the university come true.

“Without MTN, Main One, Google and all the other corporate bodies, we would not have been able to accomplish this. We owe you all a debt of gratitude,” he said.

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Samsung places N1m prize on developers’ contest

Mobile phone and consumer electronics manufacturer, Samsung Electronics West Africa (SEWA) is offering N1 million prize for the winner of its inaugural applications developers’ contest.

Tagged Samsung Apps Developers’ Contest, the competition, according to a press statement made available to ITRealms Online, is borne out of company’s recognition that indigenous talent must be developed and harnessed for growth.

“The contest is a Samsung Electronics West Africa initiative designed to motivate and reward participants who develop innovative, creative, functional and original applications for Samsung mobile phones that would be adopted for the local market use.”

The Samsung Apps Developers’ Contest is open only to applications that have not been made publicly available to the Market prior to the beginning of the contest and it would run from September 27, 2010 to November 25, 2010, where the grand winner will take home the one million naira prize.

The statement also disclosed that in the first round, the first place winners in each category would receive a prize of N150, 000, the first runner up would receive a prize of N100, 000, while the second runner up will receive a prize of N50, 000, for each of the categories.

The first runner-up at the grand finale would receive the prize of N500,000, while the second runner-up will receive the prize of N 250,000.

The statement said the Contest is geared towards encouraging the development of local IT talent and is part of the drive to continually empower the youths and harness their potentials and inherent skills for the growth of the individual, industry and the nations.

Interested local developers will have the opportunity to design apps in seven categories: Education-Reference; Games: Casual-Puzzle; Games: Arcade-Action; Social Networking + Lifestyle; Productivity-Tools; Entertainment + Media as well as Miscellaneous.

The contest is open to individuals, teams of individuals and business entities. Individuals or teams interested in entering the Samsung Apps Developers’ Contest would register using their email addresses and other information considered necessary for the challenge on the specially created Samsung Apps Developers’ Contest portal.
 
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SWIFT Networks tests 4G WiMAX service

Leading provider of wireless broadband services in the country, SWIFT Networks Limited, said it has tested its 4G-based Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WIMAX) broadband network and backend systems in Lagos. These tests will be conducted with 500 participants from different parts of the city, selected for their very heavy usage and dependence on broadband internet for their business and lifestyle.

Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Chuma Okoye said that the aim of these trials is to demonstrate the ultrafast 4G Broadband download speeds significantly faster than what is offered by any other operator in Nigeria.

The participants, he said, would also test SWIFT’s multiple services namely the internet, telephony, fax and video as well as the new and revolutionary multiple user modem that creates a Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) cloud for every user’s office or home without the need of an external router.

Some of SWIFT’s 18 bank customers, he said, are participating in the test-drive as their branches are being interconnected with the ‘Virtual Links’ running on SWIFT’s Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS) mechanism on the new 4G WIMAX core infrastructure.

According to Okoye, Swift Network has incorporated results of various market researches conducted during the design for the new 4G WiMAX network.

On completion, he said, the network will be ten times bigger than it is currently.

“We will continue the expansion in tandem with the demand for our services to sustain the speed advantage our brand seeks to bring to the market. We have also commissioned a new and more robust multi-service billing platform that will ensure that our customers are billed accurately and timely. This upgrade is specifically for speed but has incorporated other very important elements required for a totally improved customer experience” he said.

Okoye explained that the tests would not only stress SWIFT’s new billing, customer relationship management and accounting systems accuracy as well as user friendliness, “but will also showcase the unique advantages of Swift’s new revolutionary multiple service and multiple simultaneous user wireless modem, while highlighting the benefits of improved international bandwidth availability in Nigeria to Business and Residential users.”

In addition, the assistant general manager (AGM), Consumer Sales and Marketing at Swift Networks, Mr. Philip Sonibare, noted that lack of broadband speed internet access remains the number one pain for internet customers in the country.

“We believe that we have cracked this problem with our new 4G WiMAX broadband service which will provide our customers with a very fast, reliable and affordable Internet service that works where and when they want,” he said.

Underscoring the fact that about 83 per cent of current test participants already see a service that is faster than anything else they have experienced so far.

“And this is before the final network optimization that will be undertaken before we go live and commercial. Accordingly, services like Youtube, Skype video calling and similar services have a network built specifically for them” he said.

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Glo is most responsible company – NCDF

Globacom has been recognised as the Most Socially Responsible Company at the 2010 National Economic Development Awards (NACODA 2010) by the Nigerian Capital Development Fund in Abuja, last week.

The award ceremony which held in Abuja, had Globacom honoured because of what the organisers said was its contributions to social, political and economic development of the country.

The organisers also said the awards honoured individuals and establishments that have contributed significantly to social, political and economic development of the country, thereby encouraging leaders to take part in improving efficiency and effectiveness of economic systems.

“Corporate Social Responsibility is essentially about doing good and doing well. The award is for companies that have integrated social values and mission within business decision-making process to achieve positive and sustainable outcomes towards the business, environment and community at large. Globacom has over the years shown that it has this responsibility to give back to society,” NCDF said during the citation.

In a letter conveying the award signed by its chairman, His Royal Majesty, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, NCDF explained that the choice of Globacom for the award was arrived at after collating entries received from public and private sector respondents. They noted that Glo’s commitment to developing innovative products and poverty-reduction schemes have helped in promoting social and economic development of less privileged Nigerians over the years among the citizens.

“We also identify with your series of social, economic and political responsibility programmes that have positively touched the lives of the entire Nigerians,” the Oba added. ITRealms Online recalls that NCDF was set up to support the cause of micro and rural entrepreneurs, with a shift from the supply-led approach to a demand-driven strategy.

This the fund does by collaborating with organizations and developmental projects in an effort to build capacity in both public and private sectors and contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and the Nigeria Vision 20-2020.

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UITH commends Multi-Links over N6m lifeline

Pioneer licensed private telephone operator (PTO), Multi-Links Telkom Nigeria has been commended by the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) for donating medical equipment worth about N6 million to the Paediatrics Department of the hospital.

Receiving the equipment, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital, Dr. A. W. O. Olatinwo and board members of the UITH as well as representatives of the Kwara State Government, commended the telecom operator for the donation described the exercise as life saving medical equipment.

He urged other stakeholders to emulate the gesture of Multi-Links Telkom by investing in critical areas of health challenges without waiting for government to meet all the needs of the people as amply demonstrated by the telecom operator.

He also applauded Multi-Links Telkom for the focus on an area of intervention which focuses on the critical needs of the children because the equipment donated are life saving and critically needed in the Paediatrics Department of the hospital.

“I wish to say that Multi-Links Telecommunications’ concept of good corporate citizenship must, and should encapsulate empathy from us, with a view to identifying with your products,” he said.

The Chief Corporate Affairs Officer (CCAO), Multi-Links, Mrs. Ijeoma Abazie, who led the delegate was accompanied by Chief Sales and Marketing Officer (CSMO), Chris Bannister, disclosed that the donation include Oxygen Concentrator, Oxygen concentrator controlled type only, Laryngoscopes with endotracheal tubes, Pulse Oximeter, Pulse Oximeter (Disk stand charger), Ventilator, Haematocrit Centrifuge (Hawsley) and Nebuliser machine.

Mrs. Abazie reiterated that Multi-Links Telkom’s strong dedication to its investments in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

She recalled the promise made to the UITH management by Multi-Links Telkom has come to fruition, stressing that though the firm is relatively small and still growing as a company, Multi-Links would not shy away from adding to societal needs via its principle of touching lives in line with the pay off line.

Abazie also gave a brief of the recent investments in the lives of the less privileged people in Nigeria when the company successfully intervened in the health challenge of the residents of Enugu in Enugu State and Onitsha in Anambra State; who individually received free wheelchairs and mobile phones preloaded with one thousand Naira free airtime at the Enugu State University Teaching Hospital (ESUTH), National Orthopaedic Hospital Enugu and General Hospital, Onitsha from Multi-Links Telkom.

Equally speaking, the Chief Sales and Marketing Officer urged the Management of the hospital to make good use of the equipment for sustaining lives.

He called on the hospital management to ensure the donated equipment serve the good purpose of keeping Multi-Links Telkom’s customers and prospects healthy through proper management of the health of the children who are the leaders and the future of Nigeria.

Mr. Bannister noted that Multi-Links Telkom’s core business is in providing telecommunications services, explaining that the investment in the CSR is the little extra that the company loves to do in order to actualize its pay off line message of touching lives.

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Nigeria, a major mobile broadband market – GSMA

The Global System for Mobile Association (GSMA) has said that Nigeria is a major mobile broadband market in Africa.

GSMA made this observation at the just concluded NigeriaCom organised by Informa Telecom, through its spokesperson, Mr. Ross Bateson, in a presentation titled: “Delivering on the vast potential - Mobile Broadband in Nigeria.”

He said mobile Broadband has built good momentum across Africa, with over 7 million High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) connections and an additional 440,000 being added every month through Wireless Intelligence.

Mr. Bateson also said that there are currently 29 HSPA networks across the continent with a further five being planned, and there are four planned Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks, namely by Safaricom in Kenya, and MTN, Cell-C and Vodacom in South Africa.

Mobile Broadband, he said, has proved most successful in Africa where transparent, non-intrusive regulation has been put in place to allow competition between operators.

“It is vital in an area where fixed broadband infrastructure is generally low; that governments and regulators provide mobile operators sufficient access to spectrum to meet demand,” he said.

Mobile Broadband deployment in Africa, according to him, has Nigeria on top of the scale with over 75 million mobile subscribers, the path from Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) through to HSPA, HSPA+ and LTE provides the potential to give mobile broadband connectivity to millions of Nigerians.

“Less than 100,000 have access to broadband,” he declared, stressing that HSPA+ for instance, could be deployed using the same 2.1 Gega Hertz (GHz) spectrum required for HSPA.

“Three Nigerian carriers have 2.1GHz spectrum currently and are rolling out HSPA,” he disclosed.

Explaining that HSPA+ is capable of peak download speeds of between 21 mega bytes per second (Mbps) and 42 Mbps; providing Nigerians with a better user experience and faster access to rich and critical content.

As said by him, combining the GSM family technologies such as HSPA, HSPA+ and LTE followed by the logical upgrade path, Nigerian mobile operators could leverage the vast global GSM ecosystem.

In doing so, Bateson said, Nigeria would have at its disposal a cost-effective broadband network providing much needed, high-performance connectivity, with broad roaming capabilities, to the vast majority of the population.

“Mobile Broadband will connect Nigeria,” he asserted, saying that the benefits of mobile broadband is enormous, underlining the fact that it is a key social and economic development lever, driving Internet connectivity and bridging the existing digital divide.

The rapid rise in mobile data usage in Nigeria, he said, would yield major social and economic benefits as long as there is sufficient spectrum available to meet demand.

These benefits, he said, includes the connectivity for businesses and consumers not reached by fixed-line broadband networks; provision of new services, particularly in rural areas, such as education, mHealth, financial services and mobile banking, eGovernment and mCommerce to mention a few.

The GSMA spokesman emphasised that in the global mobile broadband spectrum, African population coverage has spectrum harmonisation for 2.5GHz, noting that 2500-2690MHz band is globally allocated to International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) Services.

For him, the 2.5GHz represents a rare example of a truly harmonised band which paves the way for huge economies of scale, which could be realised if planned properly.

“This is the first band being commercially used for LTE,” he said, pointing out that TeliaSonera’s network opened in Stockholm and Oslo in December 2009, while regulators must plan carefully to open 2.5GHz to mobile operators.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) ‘Option 1’ indicates far superior to other options in terms of spectrum efficiency, interference, cost and other issues.

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Johnson retains seat, RDB elects new directors @ ITU

As part of the on-going repositioning going on in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) some new Directors were elected at the Radiocommunication and Telecommunication Development Bureaux, while Mr. Malcolm Johnson was retained as the director of Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) at the Plenipotentiary Conference taking place in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The new directors include François Rancy of France and Brahima Sanou of Burkina Faso. While Rancy was elected with 90 votes from 157 countries present while Sanou got 81 votes.

Previously Mr. Malcolm Johnson of the United Kingdom was re-elected as Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) after contesting unopposed for the position.

ITU’s Radiocommunication Bureau (BR) plays a key role in global communications managing the distribution of international frequency spectrum and the allocation of satellite orbits. Rancy will face challenges including the major World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) scheduled for 2012.

WRC 2012 tend to tackle issues including a review of the international framework for radiocomunication, the identification of appropriate mechanisms to address the so-called digital dividend of radio spectrum freed up by the switch to digital TV, the identification of spectrum resources for maritime, aeronautical, meteorological and climatology.

In his acceptance speech Rancy commended member states for their support and pledged to tackle the challenges of the next four years.

“Rest assured that I’ll do my best to meet your expectations in electing me today. I know that many of our countries will have very difficult choices in the field of radiocommunications and you can be sure that I will do my best, in particular with the transition to digital television and next generation mobile. These are not only technical challenges but social and economic and the Union has a strong role to play in this,” he said.

BDT’s activities aim at extending the right to communicate to all inhabitants of the planet through access to infrastructure and information and communication services.

It focuses on capacity building, promoting the use of ICTs as a tool for development and promoting activities aimed at reducing the digital divide.

Equally speaking on his election, Sanou promised to maintain the team spirit that has characterized the operation of BDT and underlined his commitment to implement the Hyderabad Action Plan adopted recently by the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC).

“The expansion of ICT access and an emphasis on developing affordable broadband Internet infrastructure and services is needed to bring the wonders of the digital revolution to the whole world. I am committed to working with ITU members to meet this lofty aim. We will connect the world,” he said.

On the other hand, Johnson, who has led the TSB for four successful years, said on his re-election the vote of confidence in his continued leadership of the standardization sector of ITU was an encouraging one.

“I look forward to building on the initiatives of the past four years and maintaining ITU-T’s role as the leading global organization for ICT standardization. As technologies evolve we will meet the demand to quickly produce the global standards that the ICT market needs. I am confident that with the new initiatives to increase participation of researchers and developing countries we will strengthen ITU-T’s position and its major initiatives on broadband, ICTs and climate change, accessibility, cybersecurity and interoperability,” he said.

Speaking after the election the Secretary-General, Dr. Hamadoun Touré expressed his happiness with the results and welcomed the new members of his team, saying that they look forward to working together over the next four years.

He lauded the outgoing Directors of the Radiocommunication Bureau, Valery Timofeev and the Telecommunication Development Bureau, Sami Al Basheer and thanked them for their assistance and support over their time served as ITU Directors.

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Rufai reassures on NigComSat-1R

Managing Director, Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) Limited, Mr. Ahmed T. Rufai, has reassured on the replacement of NigComSat-1, saying that it would meet the demands of Nigeria technologically.

Speaking at the fifth Quarterly Management Review (QMR) session for the NigComSat1R project, in Beijing China recently, Mr. Rufai said the programme leading to the actualization of Nigeria’s replacement satellite was on course.

Rufai who was part of a high powered official delegation to the QMR reassured that the project will be completed ahead of the target date of November 2011.

NigComSat1R spacecraft, he said, is a replacement for the NigComSat 1 designed and manufactured by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), a subsidiary of the China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC).

The overall design and manufacture of NigComSat1R, he said, is identical to that of NigComSat1 with necessary adaptations to address the local market needs.

Highlighting that NigComSat1R spacecraft can meet Nigeria’s requirements on communication, broadcast, navigation and broadband access and also provide services for Africa, Europe and Asian Continents.

Newly introduced beam over China is to realize a direct link between Africa and Asia. The spacecraft will be operated on geo-stationary orbit at 42.5`E. It will provide 14-Ku band active channels, 4-C band active channels, 8-Ka band active channels and 2 navigation active channels.

The antenna subsystems of the satellite include 2-Ku band deployable antennas, 2 -ka band fixed antennas, 1-C band navigation antenna, 1-L band navigation antenna.

The satellite design life is 15 years and will be launched at Xichang satellite centre by a launch March 3B vehicle in November 2011. Great attentions were paid by both the Chinese and Nigerian Governments in the manufacturing of the spacecraft.

March 24 2009, the replacement contract was signed in Beijing, China and on May 22 2009 the kick off meeting was accomplished in China where the design for spacecraft and ground segment were defined.

The first Quarterly Management Review was held in China September, and secondly on October 12, 2009 the central cylinder static test was carried out in China and was certified normal.

In March 2010, the Critical Design Review was held in China and during the meeting the Nigerian delegation visited CAST to check the onsite assembly of the satellite; after the third QMR.

On June 17 2010 the structure and thermal assembly was finished and by June 18 2010 the space craft was shipped to the Assembly Integration and Test (AIT) centre of CAST.

The Triple model separation was accomplished in June after the propellant tanks were integrated successfully.

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WD partner Redington on hard-drive market

The management of a Lagos-based Western Digital (WD) and Redington has concluded partnership plans to push for hard-drive penetration in the country.

Director of Sales for Middle East and Africa at Western Digital, Mr. Mohammed Owais, gave this indication in Lagos, stressing the hard-drive market potentials.

"To further unlock the immense potential that the Nigerian ICT market posses, there is a need to explore the hard drive market" he said.

Owais also said that with 40 years of technology innovations under its belt and more than 800 million hard drives shipped since it started hard drive manufacturing in 1988, WD has developed a wealth of industry knowledge and gained mass market recognition, a success story that continues to make WD a winning brand today.

"We want to establish our winning hard drive brand in Nigeria, as we have done successfully in other countries in Africa, and grow along with its flourishing ICT market", Owais said.

General Manager IT Volume Business, Redington, Mr. Santosh Sansare, said they recognized the potential of the Nigerian market, and started servicing the region since 2003 with a dream to focus on growing economies.

"We see Nigeria championing that in Africa. I think we have understood Africa better through Nigeria because the Nigerian market is in the top three, leaving countries like South Africa, Algeria and Morocco behind", he said.

Senior Public Relations Specialist, EMEA at WDC, Ms Juliet Lawal in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online noted that RITA is a Redington IT Africa initiative to reach, relate, reward and recognize channel business and performance while allowing vendors to promote their brands and products.

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SkyVision opens new office

Leading provider of Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity over satellite and fiber optic systems, SkyVision, has opened a new office in Nigeria.

Through its gateways in Europe, North America and the Middle East, SkyVision said it provides IP connectivity with access to the global Internet backbone, as well as an extensive suite of both customized end-to-end solutions and industry-standard services.

Regional Sales Director for SkyVision, Mr. Eitan Mesika, said that a connectivity network spanning 100 countries, enable SkyVision’s solutions to combine global reach with active local presence and support.

According to Mesika, SkyVision’s customers including the incumbent telecoms, Internet service providers (ISPs), cellular operators, global and local enterprises, government entities and non-governmental organisation (NGOs).

The establishment of the company’s new branch office in Nigeria, Mesika said would facilitate significant expansion of the company’s services in Nigeria, including a local hub to support the company’s single-hop Virtual Private Network (VPN) services.

This, he said, would enhance presence in Nigeria by bringing SkyVision closer to the market, allowing the company to offer local customers superior service and on-site support.

SkyVision, he said, has reputation for reliability which now extends to an expanded range of fiber connectivity services for carriers and corporate customers in the country.

As said by him, the company is building a new Point of Presence (POP) in Lagos, giving customers access to international submarine cables and connecting them to SkyVision’s POPs in Europe or the United States.

Additionally, he said, SkyVision would continue to offer its high quality IP trucking services along with C-Band Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) solutions.

“With more than a decade of experience in the Nigerian market, SkyVision already has a proven track record of providing cost-effective turnkey solutions to a wide range of customers, including governments, national telcos, global enterprises, cellular operators, and NGOs,” he said.

Stressing that the firm is well-positioned to support the country’s most demanding customer requirements, and they are excited to establish a stronger local presence in the country that will allow us to meet the growing connectivity demands of the Nigerian people via the country’s leading Nigerian service providers.

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