Broadband deployment: Stakeholders canvass bail-out for ICT sector

Core stakeholders in the nation’s Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) sector have canvassed for a bail-out for the industry, particularly in deployment of broadband.

Those leading this call include the chairman of pioneer Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the country, Linkserve Limited, Chief Chima Onyekwere, president of ATCON and his counterpart in the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, among others.

They made this call at the weekend during a breakfast with the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) organized by the Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) in Lagos.

For Chief Onyekwere, the ICT regulator, NCC, should have a bail-out fund for various operators within the ICT sector in the country.

He noted that even if today Nigeria deploys broadband nationwide, there is still challenges of compatible user premises equipment for it to be put to use.

“Though if you have developed broadband nationwide, it may not be well accepted due to lack of user premises equipment,” he said, stressing that operators in the industry need subsidy.

“A subsidy from NCC will help a great deal,” he declared.

Onyekwere pointed out that in South Korea and America, governments have assisted immensely in deployment of broadband in their various countries and urged the Nigerian government to queue into this process to move the ICT industry in the country forward, especially if the nation is still desirous of meeting her Vision 20-2020.

In his goodwill message at the occasion, the chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, noted that voice only and scratch card companies are no longer in business, so much so most of the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are no longer operational.

He lamented the fact that in addressing issues of national importance like the kind of meeting President Goodluck Jonathan, held last week in Lagos, without an ICT agenda, simply because those at leadership of this country likewise most Nigerians think that all is well with telecommunications or ICT sector.

“We started early to celebrate the revolution of telecommunications, especially with the advent of GSM,” he said.

He proposed that his group and ATCON would join hands to come up with guidelines to help the government and its agencies to understand what is going on within the ICT, which would expose them to some of the challenges.

He however, listed some of these challenges to include lack of right of way, electricity, vandalisation of telecom infrastructure, multiple taxation by various second and third tiers of government respectively, whom he alleged see telecommunications as a cash-cow.

Adebayo also suggested that EVC of NCC may have to go cap-in hand to the relevant authorities of government to enlighten them and show factors depicting that all is not well with the industry, especially the operators.

He went on to urge NCC to probably secure right of way from the Federal Ministry of Works and Environment and offer that as part of the Federal Government’s Broadband initiative like WIRE Nigeria, in order to save the operators the trouble of leaving their competence and be chasing one local government and ministries from the other.

Corroborating the chairman of ALTON, his counterpart in the Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria, Mr. Titi Omo-Ettu, declared that it has not been too rosy for the sector as Nigerians were made to believe.

He said that they saw it as a challenge that would be faced, Omo-Ettu assured that ATCON would partner ALTON in detailing challenges facing the industry and channel it to the industry regulatory, who in turn has the liberty to send it to the Federal Ministry of Information and Communication for onward presentation to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) which is the apex FG implementation organ in the country.

In his remarks, the EVC of NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah advised various industry interest groups in the sector to come together so as to encourage the government and its agencies and ministries to take them more seriously, especially on their position in moving the industry forward.

He pledged that appropriate recommendations made to his commission would be channeled to the relevant quarters such as the ministry for actions.

Though, he doubted the interest of the government to come up with a bail out, Juwah did not dismiss the plea for bail-out by the stakeholders.

“We believe government can intervene and should not be seen in a competitive manner,” he said.

Remmy Nweke:
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

AfTLD v. DCA: The battle for dot Africa

The duo of Mauritius-based African Top Level Domains (AfTLD) and Dot Connect Africa (DCA) are currently bidding for Dot Africa (.africa), Remmy Nweke reports that utmost decorum is required to make the process litigation free exercise.
Preamble:
The 5th annual African country code Top Level Domain (AfTLD) meeting ended in the city of Accra, Ghana, with controversies surrounding the management of the dot Africa domain name.

Report has that while the organizers of the meeting AfTLD said that the event was successful based on the support the group got from the Ghana government with regards to who manages dot Africa or better disposed to win the heart of African Union (AU) on the issue, observers from Dot Connect Africa (DCA), said the event was far from being successful, whereas contending the likely upper hand that AfTLD purportedly gained against its quest to manage the dot Africa.

AfTLD was established in 2002 to act as a focal point for African Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) managers in coordinating, formulating, developing and presenting a unified approach to issues related to the Domain Name System. Just as AfTLD presents a forum for sharing ideas between the regions Internet community with an aim of promoting the utilization of national country’s Top Level Domains.

Equally, DCA is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organisation incorporated in Mauritius Africa with intension to primarily sponsor, establish and operate a TLD registry with global recognition and regional significance dedicated to the needs of pan-African and African community.

The ‘successful ‘Accra Meeting:
However, the Accra event, which held from 18 to 22 April, comprised of a three day Attack Contingency Response Planning (ACRP) workshop for African ccTLD managers, and a 2 day Policy meeting and Annual General Meeting (AGM).

With over 50 attending the AGM, the majority of whom came from 19 ccTLD managers for the event hosted by Ghana’s National Information Technology Agency (NITA) with the support of the Ministry of Communications.

Addressing participants, Ghanaian Communications Minister, Mr. Haruna Iddrissu, appreciated AfTLD for choosing Ghana for this crucial Internet security event, adding that ACRP training came at a right time when Internet access has increased tremendously and cyber attacks are the new generation warfare.

Ghana endorses AfTLD for dot Africa:
According to him, the Ghana Government attaches great significance to online privacy, and plans to pass into a law the Data Protection Bill by July this year, maintaining that Ghana supports the Africa Union Commission (AUC)-led process of endorsing a suitable bidder that will apply to Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for the delegation of the dot Africa new Generic Top Level Domain (gTLD).

AfTLD, he said, is the foremost TLD association in Africa, representing sufficient African Internet community interests to manage the dot Africa new gTLD on behalf of the AUC.

Equally speaking, veteran of Internet development and governance in Africa and globally and the current dot GH (.gh) chairman, Dr. Nii Quaynor, while welcoming participations to the occasion, reminded the meeting how Ghana was instrumental in establishing AfTLD about a decade ago.

Imploring African TLD managers, Dr. Quaynor, noted the imminent changes in the domain name policy environment globally, underscoring the fact that African TLD operators, needed to be strengthened to meet the challenges that ICANN’s new gTLDs will bring as many capacity challenges still faced African TLDs, including higher level governance interventions.

He also added that there was a need to continue strengthening African ccTLD capacity to overcome the challenges on security, and affirmed the ACRP as a step in the right direction. He echoed the Minister’s support for an AUC endorsement of a suitable bidder to apply to ICANN for the operation of .africa.

Vote of confidence for AfTLD:
Chairman, AfTLD, Mr. Vika Mpisane told participants that the case of the AfTLD .africa project was an illustration of the commitment of the AfTLD to help African TLDs grow, expressing the believe that AfTLD had a good opportunity to win the endorsement of the African Union (AU) and the approval by ICANN.

“We will do our utmost best to see to it that AfTLD wins the .africa bid,” he assured, stressing that after the presentation of AfTLD’s .africa bid strategy, it was remarkable that all the ccTLDs present expressed their support of AfTLD’s .africa bid.

It was gathered that their unanimous view was that only AfTLD in the African Internet community had the collective experience and know-how of setting up a successful operation of a dot Africa registry, even as some of the ccTLDs promised to lobby their governments to support AfTLD’s bid.

This step was described by industry observers as huge vote of confidence, which goes right against some of the recent malicious views claiming AfTLD was not best suited to operate dot Africa.

DCA reactions:
But reacting to the outcome of the Accra’s AfTLDs meeting, a contending interest, the Dot Connect Africa (DCA) Organization alleged a chameleonic exercise of shifting faces by AfTLD from previously seeking an “AU mandate” to now of seeking an “AU endorsement”.

DCA said it felt compelled to respond to the outcome of AfTLD meeting because of some innuendoes and veiled references to DCA made by some prominent participants.

DCA position made available to ITRealms Online by Mr. Thomas Kamanzi pointed out that at first, DCA’s concerted campaign against the “illegal proposal of awarding an unjustified mandate to AfTLD by the AU” has been again vindicated.

We got endorsement first!
He argued that this was against the backdrop that the DCA already received the same endorsement from the AU more than one year ago, adding that the position of AfTLD currently and its supporters is grossly untenable and very unjustified, insisting that such mandate could only be given by ICANN.

In addition, DCA said it was not taken unaware by the attendance and list of attendees of the Ghana meeting, since it has become increasingly clear by the day that the most vocal voices and viewpoints expressed are the same forces that have arrayed themselves in vehement opposition to the DCA on the issue of DotAfrica.

Equally, DCA group said, the meeting reinforced the widely shared belief that there is a dangerous nexus between a certain cabal within the AU Task Force on Dot Africa and the AfTLD - and this nexus has been established in order to disingenuously facilitate ‘insider’ help for AfTLD’s Expression of Interest to the AU and prospective bid to ICANN.

Unshakeable DCA?
“Therefore, before delving into particulars, the DCA hereby reiterates its unshakeable belief that AfTLD is not suited to operate DotAfrica,” stressing that it has no problem with any organization attempting to compete and win the DotAfrica gTLD mandate from ICANN based on rules of fair competition.

Kamanzi said DCA believes that any eligible organization is free to participate in an open and transparent bid process that is corruption-free, even as it refuses to accept a situation whereby double-dealing are being institutionalized to pave the way to enable AfTLD win an unfair endorsement from the AU on DotAfrica.

“AfTLD cannot maintain its credulity as a fair player whilst being an obvious beneficiary of illegality,” Kamanzi asserted in a press statement, while DCA frowned upon the fact that AU Task Force members on DotAfrica are also advisors and confederates of AfTLD. DCA believes that such affiliations are unwholesome and foster corruption, nepotism, abuse of office, and large-scale illegality.

AU Task Force must work independently
Further, DCA alleged AfTLD could work independently of AU Task Force members on DotAfrica who are in its midst, and are both advising, and influencing matters on behalf of AfTLD. Noting that with a certain amusement, that even though there is nothing materially new that was revealed as an outcome of the Ghana meeting, however, DCA insisted that sustained pressure based on truthful revelations by the group has made the handlers and advisors of AfTLD to change their position, in a rather chameleonic way, from one of previously seeking an AU mandate to that of now seeking an AU endorsement.

“All in all, the Ghana meeting could hardly be qualified as a successful outing, since nothing new came out of it. The meeting only exposes the fact that certain AU Task Force members connected to the Ghanaian government used it to garner dubious support of the Ghanaian Ministry of Communications for AfTLD to bid on DotAfrica,” DCA officer said.

ITRealms Online learnt that DCA alleged that this position is not only contradictory, but an unsolicited interference in the issue of the AU Commission endorsing a bidder to apply to ICANN for the DotAfrica registry mandate.

“It is already clear that the Ghanaian Minister of Communication is under the direct influence of, and is being controlled by, the same “special interest group” that has expressed a vested interest in assisting the AfTLD to win an illegal endorsement from the AU,” DCA claimed, insisting that the Ghanaian Ministry of Communications has lost a certain amount of credibility for allowing itself to be used as a willing tool to rubber-stamp an invidious scheme.

DCA, however, maintained that it will frontally challenge any acts of illegality that are orchestrated by any affiliated AU Task Force members who use insider privileges and access to facilitate an illegal scheme that would grant AfTLD an AU endorsement.

Investigations conducted by ITRealms Online showed that since the last meeting of AfTLD in Accra, DCA instead of lobbying relevant authorities directly involve in the dot Africa project to gain support has condescended to personality battle with some members of AU Task Force on Dot Africa.

AU yet to give dot Africa endorsement:
While AfTLD is still seeking the endorsement of AU, and DotConnect Africa (DCA) claiming it has already gotten the ‘AU mandate’, the African Union Commission (AUC) recently debunked the claims by DCA, saying it has not yet given any endorsement or mandate to any particular organisation on dot Africa, pending the decision of the commission which is currently accepting applications for the dot Africa bid until Friday, June 3, 2011.

“The AU Commission would like to hereby categorically state that it is not supporting any one individual or organization in this bid,” a communiqué made available to ITRealms Online May 12 read.

AU also said that its member states meeting within the framework of the Conference of African Union Ministers in Charge of Communications and Information Technologies had decided to allow competition from any African organization or entity that is interested in bidding for the domain name on behalf of and for the use of the African organizations and citizens at large.

This decision, AU confirmed was endorsed by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government in 2010 and was reiterated in 2011.

Lessons:
One lesson, though DCA may have to contend with is that despite the fact that AfTLD may have its affiliates lobbying for it, members of the AU Task Force do not usually condone antagonisation of its members.

Secondly, it is a clear fact that most countries, especially in Africa currently have their country code Top Level Domains which made up AfTLD managed by government partially alongside the Internet stakeholders in those countries, which makes it invariably difficult to draw a line between the government across Africa and their ccTLDs.

The aforementioned analogy thus paves the way for AfTLDs to receive the kind of lobbying or acceptance its bid which dot Africa supposedly got in Accra.

Conclusion:
The reality as gathered by ITRealms Online was that AU hitherto gave an endorsement to DCA without understanding the efficacy of dot Africa until it was updated, following which it now set up a task force.

An observer of Internet development on the continent when faced with the kind of propaganda going on dot Africa advised Africans and those in AU Task Force on dot Africa not to forget in a hurry the incidents which characterized the African ccTLDs, which in the case of Nigeria coursed the intervention of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to gave birth to the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA).

She maintained that Nigeria is not alone in such a situation and warned that such a thing cannot be allowed to happen again in the name of leaving dot Africa in the hands of private organisation not well constituted for that purpose, arguing that AfTLD, for instance represents all the ccTLDs, hence it is easier for them to manage dot Africa successfully.

Frankly, such errors of giving endorsement on subjects without expert consultations have occurred in the past and even cost governments across the continent very heavily, yet organisation of a continent like AUC could not do better now than opening up the space for bidding, hence all interested parties are enjoined to take advantage of the bid and concentrate on doing the vital lobbying devoid of corruption or molestation, pending when the deadline clicks this week Friday, June 3, 2011.

These steps if taken seriously could save the continent the undue quarrels over dot Africa, while efforts could be focused on making dot Africa acceptable to people of Africa.

For now, all eyes are on AU Task Force to ensure openness in the process in addition to ensuring a transparent exercise as far as dot Africa bidding is concerned.

Remmy Nweke:
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Abubakar seeks harmonious relationship @ NASRDA, NigCOMSAT

The Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Mohammed Kaoje Abubakar has urged agencies under the ministry to close ranks and work harmoniously.

Abubakar made this call while welcoming a team from the Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) Limited led by its board chairman, Prof. Turner Isoun.

Prof. Abubakar called on officials of National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) and Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) Limited.

Specifically, he made reference to the recent altercations of top officials of the two agencies over supremacy question.

He noted that both agencies are bona-fide agencies of the federal government, just as he promised to ensure that NIGCOMSAT attains a full-fledged parastatal status under the Science and Technology Ministry ‘to erase doubts as to its legal status” by asking the permanent secretary Dr (Mrs) Dere Awosika to engage all concerned to ensure that “this is achieved” within the shortest possible time.

The minister said that it was out of place for NASRDA to create the impression “that it is the singular authority to launch satellites in Nigeria “adding that this could potentially prevent any smooth enterprise in the sector.”

He also said the proper thing to do is for NASRDA to seek ways of cooperating with NIGCOMSAT Limited to actualise the blueprint for space development and national growth.

The minister further said he was satisfied with the work of NIGCOMSAT’s Managing Director, Mr Ahmed Rufai, hence his recommendation for a fresh four- year term to the President in June last year.

The Minister enjoined the management of both agencies to cooperate and work in harmony, ensuring that peace reigns for the good of Nigeria, and asked the NIGCOMSAT board chairman, Prof. Isoun to see that through during his tenure, maintaining as Minister, he has good will towards all the agencies under his command.

Earlier, in his remarks, Prof. Isoun who led NIGCOMSAT team made up of the Managing Director, Mr. Rufai, Ms Abimbola Alale (Director) and Ms Irene Ekweozoh (Secretary) said the courtesy visit was to acknowledge the reality that NIGCOMSAT is and remains an entity under the Ministry of Science and Technology despite misconceived perception arising from the board’s inauguration by the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA).

Isoun who remains the longest serving Minister in the Ministry (seven years) and mid-wifed NIGCOMSAT during his tenure, said the company has done well and particularly praised the tenacity of its Chief Executive, Ahmed Rufai for putting together an assemblage of over 100 engineers trained in the field of satellite operations and his ability to engage these engineers in the production of various innovative products through an enabling environment to use skills for the greater benefits of the nation.

He listed some of these innovative products to include but not limited to Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Staff Attendance and Access Control System (SAACS), and electronic voting (e-voting) platform which was demonstrated to INEC in August 2010 among others.

ITRealms Online recalls that these came through the Know-How-Technology Transfer Programme initiated by Ahmed Rufai and his team, after NigcomSat 1 was de-orbited on November 10, 2008.

While canvassing that the minister uses his good office to ensure a harmonious relationship in order to bring about a meaningful advancement in space science and technology, Isoun sought the minister’s assistance in engaging the necessary resources and support for the new Science and Technology Innovation (STI) policy to become a benchmark for Nigeria’s transformation.

Remmy Nweke:
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

MTN unveils HyNet internet on WIMAX

MTN Nigeria has unveiled another Internet offering tagged HyNet in Lagos based on the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) technology.

The acting General Manager, Propositions & Marketing Relations at MTN Nigeria, Mr. Jacob Somoye noted that MTN slogan is about ‘everywhere you go’ which means that the telecom operator is determined to take its services to wherever its customers exist.

With the HyNet Internet offer based on WiMAX, Mr. Somoye explained that MTN is offering a new lease of internet access that is affordable and flexible plans which starts from N3,500.

MTN HyNet he said is a prepaid high speed internet service that offers you true multi-user capability at extra-ordinary speeds of up to 1 Mega byte per second (Mbps) with unlimited downloads, stressing that this means there is no restriction to the amount of data customer could download.

He highlighted that MTN HyNet provided over MTN’s WiMAX network offers coverage in some selected cities across the country.

This, he added is ideal for homes and offices that require high speed internet connectivity that could be shared.

“You don’t need to have your staff or family member clustering around a single PC in order to access the Internet. They can simply access the internet wirelessly from their own PCs,” he said.

Somoye listed some of the features of MTN HyNet to include wireless broadband internet service, Wi-Fi enabled modem routers, flexible packages, plug and play.

Equally, Somoye who was accompanied at the launch by the chief enterprise solution officer, MTN Business, Mr. Babatunde Osho, acting General Manager, Enterprise Sales, Onyinye Ikenna-Emeka, and General Manager, Corporate Communications, Funmi Omogbenigun, underscored the benefits of MTN HyNet to comprise combining the speed and reliability of fixed Internet with the flexibility and convenience of mobile internet, ability for customers to enjoy wireless connectivity.

Further, Somoye noted that some of the benefits include that no software installation is required for the MTN HyNet product to work, declaring that customers can actually do it themselves.

Customers, he also said could transfer credit from their GSM account to use the MTN HyNet service, while offering flexible packages which entails that customers could choose their speed and when they want internet access.

Remmy Nweke:
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Olufuye sets agenda for 21st century leadership

National President of the Information Technology (Industry) Association of Nigeria (ITAN), Dr. Jimson Olufuye, has highlighted three points that could transform the current state of Nigeria to the much expected leadership role in Africa.

Speaking at the just concluded forum on Economic Development and Innovation as part of the global business representatives to the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (UN-CSTD) working group on the Improvement to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Geneva, Olufuye listed three points agenda.

He stressed the importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICTs) and the Internet for economic growth and development for developing nations including Nigeria.

Olufuye said that developing nations should embrace ICT for a cheetarpolevault development which is beyond leapfrogging.

He outlined the three-point agenda to include “leadership 2.0, Open and Multi-stakeholder participation in governance and policy focus.”

On the Leadership 2.0, Dr. Olufuye said it involves humility in leadership, adding that leaders need to be humble as they lead by constantly serving and listening to the people with the view of taking action that is best for them.

The second point, he said, is about engaging the stakeholders and the people in an open, inclusive and multi-stakeholder participation in governance.

“This is the approach of the UN on the governance of the Internet where all stakeholders from developed and developing nations and across all geographic regions of the world and on equal
footing participate in open dialogue to shape the future of the Internet,” he said.

According to him, this approach to governance is highly recommended, thus suggesting that it is when there are many ideas that the best idea emanates and that is innovation, adding that President Obama administration is a leader in this approach to governance.

The third point, Dr. Olufuye said is on policy focus, emphasising that the critical policy or point of
innovation so attained must be focused upon in implementation to provide the economic cutting edge economy requires.

“Most decision makers in Nigeria know that when it comes to policy articulation, Nigeria is no way in want. What matters the most which we lack is policy focus,” he said.

While declaring that Nigeria already has an Information Technology (IT) Policy, Olufuye noted that the nation has the development of hardware, software and services with the underlining human capacity and capability development, the National IT Development Agency (NITDA).

For him, NITDA could be chasing shadows and wasting critical development time by trying to formulate a distinct software policy.

“There must be policy focus for development,” he asserted.

Dr Olufuye was at the WSIS Forum in Geneva as one of the five global business representatives to the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development Working Group on the Improvement to the Internet Governance Forum. He is also the Vice-Chairman of the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA).

The forum was attended by embassy personnel from India, China, Nigeria and Ghana to mention but a few, including members of UN-CSTD namely Ms Marilyn Cade, Chief Catalyst IGF USA and Mr. Patrik Falstrom, Distinguished Consulting Engineer, Cisco.

Other speakers were Mr. Vine Cerf, the Chief Internet Evangelist of Google and one of the fathers of the Internet who together with Bob Kahn invented the TCP/IP protocol on which the Internet is based. Speakers also came from the World Economic Forum, Diplo Foundation, eBay and Google.

Remmy Nweke:
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Future of CDMA is in 3G data – Dadson

The Managing Director, Qualcomm West Africa, Mr. Alex Dadson has declared that the future of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) is in data anchored on Third Generation (3G) networks.

This is coming as he said Nigeria telecommunications market serves as 50 per cent of the total West African telecom market and has even grown by 18 per cent in 2010.

Disclosing these at an exclusive chat with ITRealms Online at the just concluded 2011 Africa Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) summit in Lagos, Dadson asserted that the future of CDMA is in data, Mr. Dadson noted that the availability of Third Generation (3G) licenses in the country have helped the operators in developing data-centric networks.

“The trend looks quite good. 3G looks promising and has to be accelerated,” he declared.

Dadson also said that since inception of the Qualcomm office in the West Africa, they have been working successfully with operators in enthroning 3G environment, especially with the CDMA network operators.

Equally, he said that Qualcomm has vigorously being canvassing for a data-centric environment derived by CDMA technologies by assisting operators with the maintenance of CDMA networks in West Africa.

In addition, he said they have offered training whereas marketing the company’s chip cell to the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), who use them to make mobile phones and other electronic devices.

“We intend to add training to distributors’ scheme on how to sell 3G devices,” he said, while plans are up to open liaison in many West African countries as soon as possible.

He pointed out that given that the telecom market in the country rose to 18 per cent in 2010, adding that with the current status about 55 per cent of the telecom market in the country has been covered, while 45 per cent remain untapped.

Dadson advised CDMA operators in the country to desist from competing with GSM operators, but rather they should be innovative in capturing the better part of the remaining 45 per cent of the telecom market.

Equally speaking the Vice President, Business Development for Southern Africa at Qualcomm, Mr. James Munn said that their next of expansion is to open an office Nairobi, Kenya, which has been targeted for 2012.

Mr. Munn added that though Nigeria has connectivity over 40 per cent, its data usage is still below 10 per cent and urged CDMA operators to focus on this so as to make market difference.

On interconnectivity between operators across various networks, Munn noted that interconnection is a problem across the continent of Africa and could be better handled by African regulators.

On the role of Qualcomm at the CDMA summit, he said that the event which has about 15 operators traversing the continent in attendance is to bring the eco-system together and proffer the ground for solution.

Meanwhile, Visafone said it has made immediate availability for Motorola Milestone XT800.

The XT800 is an Android smartphone developed by Motorola as part of the CDG’s Open Market Handset (OMH) initiative to increase device availability, operator flexibility and consumer choice in CDMA2000 devices.

Currently enjoying commercial success on the open market in India, this high-end smartphone is now exclusively available to Visafone’s customers in Nigeria as the flagship device in its CDMA2000 product portfolio.

Executive director, CDMA Development Group (CDG), Mr. Perry LaForge, said that Visafone’s launch of the Motorola Milestone XT800 is an example of what the OMH programme is intended to accomplish by creating greater device variety and flexible distribution channels for operators.

“We hope this smartphone launch will encourage other CDMA operators to benefit from the OMH program when looking to bring high-end devices with proven success to Africa,” he said.

OMH devices move operator-specific network configuration, service provisioning and subscriber-identity data onto an OMH SIM card rather than in the handset’s internal memory.

A device developed to the OMH standard is therefore designed independent of the operator, since it will work with any operator’s OMH SIM.

This results in devices, experts said, that could be sold on the “open market” and used by multiple operators, and provides consumers with a greater selection of CDMA2000 devices and the mobile data services they desire.

Remmy Nweke:
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

NITEX’11 to hold in Lagos

President, Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) Professor Charles Uwadia has said that the group’s Nigeria Information Technology Exhibition NITEX 2011 would hold in Lagos later this month.

Briefing newsmen at the NCS secretariat Alausa, Uwadia said that NITEX 2011 would be holding between June 15 and 17, 2011 at the Lagoon, Victoria Island Lagos.

He said that NITEX 2011 is a consolidation of earlier editions that commenced in 1997 up till the 2010 edition.

“NITEX as an exhibition platform to demonstrate and showcase the innate brilliance, strength of character, and resilience of the typical Nigerian entrepreneur,” he said.

Prof. Uwadia also said that NITEX creates a forum for creativity, innovation and healthy competition among industry players, thus an avenue for promoting and encouraging indigenous, local entrepreneurs, and emerging markets to showcase their products and services.

“Through these efforts, it is hoped that the menace of unemployment in our country will be redressed,” he said.

This year’s event, Uwadia said would hold on the theme ‘Deployment of IT tools for Sustainable Economic Growth’ for the three-day event.

He emphasised that NITEX 2011 would be an all inclusive exhibition, bringing together IT hardware and software manufacturers, developers, vendors and resellers; service and solution providers will also be in attendance.

“We also expect prospective buyers from government and the industry, policy makers, students and members of the public,” he said.

Uwadia disclosed that NCS is partnering some industry groups comprising Information Technology (Industry) Association (ITAN), Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), and National Association of Computer Science Students (NACOSS).

Additionally, he said, NCS is partnering National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN), Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN), National Export Promotion Council (NEPC), National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), as well as Computers and Allied Products Distributors Association of Nigeria (CAPDAN).

Further, he urged the ICT media to continue on its role and contributions in propagating the vision and mission of NCS.

“We urge you to continue playing this role by giving all activities related to NITEX 2011 the widest possible coverage,” he said.

Remmy Nweke:
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Sani faults Odinma on congestion

The Director, Technical Standards and Network Integrity at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Balarabe Mohammed Sani has disagreed with the position of Prof. Augustine Odinma on the congestion in mobile networks in the country.

Reacting to a recent publication attributed to Prof. Odinma, Dr. Sani said that it is a widely acknowledged fact that there are serious issues of quality of services on Nigerian telecommunications networks and the NCC has taken up the challenge by daily interfacing with the operators on these issues.

The Commission, he noted that recently introduced new Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure the quality of service offered by the operators and is sanctioning those who fail to meet the quality threshold.

Prof. Odinma was quoted as saying that on congestion “in mobile networks is subjective, unprofessional and baseless because of lack of the use of conventional techniques of testing quality of service (QoS) on mobile networks.”

According to Dr. Sani a trained engineer, any statistical method as the Prof. knows, the data sample size is very important in ascertaining the correct result. “The more we increase the number of data samples, the more correct the statistical result,” he said.

He disagreed with Odinma’s claim to have enough samples for the evaluation, Sani noted that Odinma had claimed that about 72,334 calls were made during the test within six days period from three fixed locations in Lagos, Yola and Abuja. That was an average of 12,000 calls a day.

“If we study the modern network performance testing methods, we find out it will not be possible to make 12,000 calls in a day in the manual testing method claimed by the professor,” he said.

Sani recalled that automated equipment test several GSM networks at the same time in one time slot.

“A manual testing can only test one handset at a time and therefore would be impractical to have up to 12,000 samples per day even if the test will be extended to 24 hours,” he said.

On the lack of considering mobility management function of mobile network, Dr. Sani pointed out that Odinma and his co-researchers had forgotten a major aspect of mobile technology in their experimental research, that is, mobility management.

“Mobility management is an important phenomenon that distinguishes mobile technology from fixed network,” he declared, saying that a network has the capability of seamlessly handing over an ongoing call by a mobile user to a neighboring cell in a process called handover.

“If signal strength degrades to some level in the serving cell, six neighbouring cells are tested by the network and the one with better signal strength is selected. A stationary user as claimed by the Professor in his research does not consider the mobility aspect of the mobile network,” Sani said.

He argued that a stationary user as in the case of professor’s testing methodology may experience congestion because he is hooked to only one cell called serving cell that may have weaker signal or traffic congestion at some instant.

Odinma’s team, he further said, could have been testing from only single cell from the three different locations, which does not test the performance of mobile network as a whole, because large number (thousands cells precisely) of cells make the complete network. For the professor’s test to be meaningful he must move to test as many more cells as possible.

As said by him, another thing the professor failed to take into consideration is the bouncing busy hour on a mobile network, which he said, is unlike a fixed telephone network.

“… In a mobile network the busy hour is not fixed, it is dynamic over time,” he said.

Dr. Sani cited an instance by saying that the mobile user who lives in Victoria Island (VI) in Lagos may experience high congestion during working hours and less congestion in the evening and weekends.

This, he explained, is because in the evening and weekends more people have moved out of VI.

“The people who live near market places may also experience similar phenomenon,” he said.

The failure by Odinma’s team to consider the bouncing busy hour phenomenon in a mobile network environment by conducting test from three fixed locations, Dr. Sani said, led to erroneous results since mobile environment was regarded in the experiment to be similar to a fixed network environment.

“Lack of inclusion of the mobility management aspect of the mobile network technology in his test leads us to believe that the Professor has a limited knowledge of the mobile network QoS testing methodology,” he submitted.

Remmy Nweke:
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Galaxy backs IPV6 roundtable

Galaxy Backbone plc has thrown its support behind the first-ever Nigeria Internet Protocol version Six (IPV6) Roundtable slated to hold in Lagos, the centre of excellence.

Head of Communications at Galaxy Backbone plc, Mr. Franklyn Ginger-Eke, confirmed this at the week, saying that Galaxy’s interest on the roundtable is based on the fact that the company manages the federal government infrastructure for the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

Commending DigitalSENSE Africa for the roundtable on this technology innovation, Eke said, Galaxy Backbone Plc is a public enterprise of the Federal Government incorporated in 2006 with the primary mandate of setting up and operating a unified Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure platform that addresses the connectivity, transversal and other technology imperatives for MDAs.

According to him, Galaxy was also charged with operating a nationwide network backbone to help facilitate the digital inclusion of underserved areas and rural communities towards the realization of the MDG goals.

And to fully achieve its mission and business objectives, he said, Galaxy is committed to operate as a commercial entity by leveraging its existing assets to extend products and service offerings to the market place.

Eke pointed out that Galaxy would use the IPV6 roundtable slated for PlanetOne, Maryland Lagos on Thursday this week, to explore its readiness to offer full range and enhanced quality of services designed to meet the challenges facing the various sectors – public & private- of the Nigerian economy.

This would enable e-Government, e-Education, e-Health Care, e-Communities and e-Payment to name a few.

Responding, DigitalSENSE Africa, the organizers, through its Executive Director, Operations, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, said all is now set for the Nigeria IPV6 Roundtable slated for Thursday, June 2.

“We have put necessary machineries in place to ensure a successful Nigeria IPV6 Roundtable,” she declared.

Speaking on the readiness of her organisation to hosting a successful Nigeria IPV6 Roundtable, Mrs. Nweke noted that the one-day roundtable has received massive support from the industry including endorsement of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), and Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) to name a few.

While appreciating the endorsements so far received by the Nigeria IPV6 Roundtable, she pointed out that the event holding at Planet One, Maryland Lagos would be presided over by the former Communications Minister, Chief Olawale Ige.

Also, she said that the event scheduled for this week’s Thursday would witness a keynote address by the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah and a lead paper by the chairman, ALTON, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo.

She said that Adebayo’s paper would focus on the stand of his group in IPv6 migration, just as NIRA president, Mrs. Mary Uduma would present the position of her group on the theme as it affects the Internet users in the country.

She said that though the World IPV6 2011 comes up on Wednesday June 8, her organizers alongside interested stakeholders to host the Nigeria IPV6 Roundtable on Thursday, June 2, 2011; ahead of the global date for the commemoration of IPV6 to put Nigerians on notice of the impeding ‘test flight’ migration.

This, she explained would mean that on Wednesday, June 8 most of the global Internet service providers like Google and Yahoo among others would only offer services on IPV6 platform.

Participants to the forthcoming Nigeria IPV6 Roundtable, she further said, would have a lot to learn as various experts have been lined up for the roundtable to exchange ideas as well as network.

She recalled that following the allocation of the last batch of the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) it became imperative for the deployment of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).

In addition, she said, the Internet has become a global communication network and to join this evolution and Nigerian stakeholders needed to integrate IPv6 in all areas.

She emphasised that the Internet Society (ISOC), the managerial home for the groups responsible for Internet infrastructure standards, including the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) came up with the World IPV6 Day, which this year would be commemorated on Wednesday, June 8, 2011.

The goal of the Test Flight Day, she said, would be to motivate organizations across the industry – regulators, operators, Internet service providers, hardware makers, operating system vendors, content providers, manufacturers, web companies and key stakeholders; to ensure a successful transition as IPv4 addresses run out.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

9ja free credit SIM promo debuts on Etisalat

In order to drum support for the on-going Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card registration in the country, Etisalat has proved yet another innovative aspect of the company by introducing 9ja free credit promo for participants on its network.

Etisalat Nigeria today in Lagos said the introduction of a SIM registration promotion tagged 9ja Free Credit Promo, specifically designed to reward new and existing customers who register or have registered their SIMs with 30 per cent bonus credit to call any network in Nigeria.

The promo which commences on June 1st, 2011 offers all customers on the Etisalat network the opportunity to benefit from the promo regardless of their subscription plan, according to Etisalat Chief Commercial Officer, Mr. Wael Ammar.

He said that to enjoy this offer, new and existing subscribers must have their Etisalat SIM card registered in the month of June. However, new subscribers to the Etisalat network are also required to dial 200 to activate their new SIMs before registration.

All registered customers, he said, would have all their recharges in the month of June monitored and they will be rewarded with 30 per cent of total recharges made during June as free airtime up to a maximum of N10,000. The reward will apply in the month of July and can be used to call and send SMS to all networks in Nigeria.

He explained that for newly registered subscribers during the month of June, the first recharge made after SIM registration kicks-off a 30 day monitoring cycle for recharges.

He cited an instance, saying that if a customer register his or her SIM on the 15th of June, all recharges between 15th of June till 15th of July will be monitored and 30 per cent bonus will be given on the 16th of July.

“The bonus is open to all Etisalat prepaid and postpaid subscribers on easy starter, easycliq, elite world, classic post paid and enuff yarn+. Customers who have already registered their SIMs will instantly begin to accumulate the bonus on their recharge from June 1st, 2011,” he said.

Ammar further said the promo aims to encourage subscribers to register their SIMs before the deadline set by NCC and continue enjoying the benefits of being on the Etisalat network.

“The 9ja free credit promo is our way of supporting the NCC’S drive to register all lines in Nigeria by motivating our customers to go and get their SIMs registered and get 30 per cent bonus of their total recharges to call all networks. What this simply means is that if you recharge a total of N200 in 30 days, you get N60, for N500 you get N150 up to a maximum of N10,000," he said.

Upon registration, Ammar pointed out that all recharges from first recharge are monitored for the next 30 days and the day after their 30th day, a 30 epr cent bonus of all your recharges will be credited to your account as bonus. The excitement is even heightened as the bonus can be used to call other networks within a 30 day window.

The Etisalat SIM registration promo is geared towards making sure all its customers are registered before the NCC’s deadline of September, 2011 in order to avoid the mandated disconnection of all unregistered SIMs from the innovative 0809ja network. While duly registered subscribers who recharge during the month qualify for the bonus, SIM registration is an ongoing process.

Etisalat currently has 1595 SIM registration points in all its experience centres nationwide, distribution partners’ outlets and designated Oceanic Bank branches. Etisalat customers can visit www.etisalat.com.ng or call 200 to check the SIM registration outlet nearest to them.

Remmy Nweke:
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Obazee leads speakers to e-Accounting confab

The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Accounting Standards Board, Mr. Jim Obazee, will next month deliver a paper as keynote speaker on the theme of the first annual Accounting & Audit Technology Conference and exhibition slated to hold at the Lagos Sheraton.

The theme of the conference is ‘Technology in Accounting & Auditing’, according to the host and Chief Executive Officer, EDP Audit and Security Associates, Mr. Chris Ekeigwe was chosen to highlight the importance of technology in the accounting and auditing professions.

He also said his firm has advanced plans to hold e-Accounting Technowledge conference 2011 in the month of July between 25 and 27.

Apart from Obazee, Mr. Ekeigwe said there are 12 other speakers to made presentations at the three-day event, including himself, chief executive officer of SystemSpecs Limited, Mr. John Obaro, Head, Risk and Compliance Services at KPMG Nigeria, Mr. Olumide Olayinka, Group Head, Information Technology, First City Monument Bank plc, Mr. Emeka Eboegbune, Presales Manager for Applications at Oracle Africa operations, Mr. Olumide Biyi and Senior Consultant cum Head, Data Quality-Integrity Assurance Group at EDP, Ms Amarachi Lois Ukaegbu among others.

Briefing Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) reporters at the weekend in Lagos, Mr. Ekeigwe said that the e-Accounting conference, seeks to bridge a gap in accounting and audit technology vision in the profession.

He noted that as the digital economy was developing, the finance, accounting and audit professions in Africa were skittish to confront the challenges of technology.

“Consequently, the professions are largely blindsided by technology developments in business,” he said, stressing that looking at the industry today, one could see that these professions are at the margin of information technology issues in organisations.

He described this as a shame because these professions were prepared by history to lead in business management and the information systems used in running the business.

Ekeigwe added that because the irresolute and cavalier attitude towards technology, finance, accounting and audit professionals have been relegated to the background in technology matters in the organisaton.

He attributed the observed levity to both individual and institutional, which is worsened by the absence of leadership initiatives aimed at reversing the on-going decline to obscurity of the profession in the information age.

“The absence of vision and strategy to capture a greater future for the profession in the digital economy will result in blinkered economic and technology decisions by members and institutions in the profession. This is a dangerous position to be in,” he lamented.

Therefore, he said, that this industry conference has compelling motivation and message for finance, accounting and audit professionals.

“The professions must reverse their technology incompetence, take their rightful position in information systems ecology and lead technology in organisations or risk being relegated to tawdry professions or to obscurity at the margin of society,” he said.

Ekeigwe said this is a serious concern to be addressed with a sense of urgency, elucidating that Biology teaches that ‘adaptation’ is necessary for competition and survival in nature.

He stressed that if the world has changed technologically, then nature dictates that finance, accounting and audit professionals must adapt in order to survive and prosper.

“We need behavioral adaptation to survive technology epochs of our time,” he submitted, stressing that the aforementioned professions must adopt new skills developments behaviours that will help them catch up with the curve of technology change.

Remmy Nweke:
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

W.Afri.Tel, WAFICT’11 move to October

The 2011 edition of the West Africa IT exhibition and conference, W.Afri.Tel and the WAFICT Congress, originally scheduled to hold June 14-16, 2011 have been moved to October 18-20, this year.

The organizers in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online, blamed the rather slow pace of activity in the country, in the build up to, and the general elections proper, claiming that many exhibitors and delegates, wary of the outcome of the elections only became reassured just as the presidential inauguration was about to take place, thereby leaving them with little or no time to make travel plans.

This, the organizers noted has become imperative given the fact that Nigerian missions and embassies require six weeks to process visas in many countries.

In a joint statement titled ‘W.Afri.Tel/WAIFCT 2011: Urgent Notice to all Participants,’ the organisers of the two-in-one events, Mr. John Thompson, Managing Director of Exhibition Management Services, Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, CEO of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation and Mr. Mkpe Abang, Editor-in-Chief of IT & Telecom Digest, adduced some reasons for the postponement.

“After 10 years of unblemished delivery to West Africa’s telecom industry W.Afri.Tel 2011 has in its 11th year suffered at the hands of politics – not industry politics but government politics.
With our local business caught up in Election Fever and international exhibitors wary of possible disruptions resulting from the outcome of the elections, firm commitments to exhibit this year were put on ice while events played out.

“Despite entreaties from many in the industry to delay the exhibition due to all the uncertainties surrounding the business environment in Nigeria the organisers felt professionally bound to the originally announced dates of June 14-16.

“It has now become apparent that if we were to proceed at these times W.Afri.Tel 2011 would suffer in terms of exhibition representation. International participants are unable to obtain visas in time; the Nigerian Embassy and High Commission abroad currently require six to eight weeks to process visas. Having upheld such high standards over its 10 year history it would be irresponsible to all stakeholders to continue to stage an event that we know would not be delivering its full potential.”

The organisers noted that although “WAFICT has not been affected in the same way with speakers and delegates ready to meet the original dates; however WAFICT has become such an integral part of the mix that holding these two events separately would destroy the synergy achieved by this co-location; again to the detriment of the participants.”

According to them, “In light of the above and following discussions with the relevant industry role players we have reluctantly taken the decision that it is in everyone’s interest to re-schedule the 2011 event.”

W.Afri.Tel, they explained, was not the only event to suffer such a disruption, and “the clamour for new dates from other organisers has left us fighting for space at the New Eko Expo Centre. Our longstanding relationship with the venue owners, the Eko Hotel, has allowed us to secure the dates of 18-20 October.

“Whilst some months beyond our traditional time slot of midyear, October will give everyone time to get their plans back on track and to plan a meaningful exhibition.

PR:
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

ALAC to G8: Examine Internet’s economy, challenges

The At Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has recommended the examination of the Internet's economic and technical challenges to the just concluded meeting of the Presidency of the Group of Eight (G8) in Paris.

At-Large is the ICANN’s community representing Internet end users, other than the commercial or technical communities and has been an essential driving force, maintaining openness, ensuring accountability and transparency in ICANN's role in the naming and addressing of the Internet. ALAC in a public statement issued at the end of G8 meeting, said they have taken note of the objectives of the Presidency of the Group of Eight (G8, French presidency) regarding the development of the Internet through the eG8 Forum, which held in Paris between May 24 and 25, 2011.

“We support some aspects of this initiative and wish to record our strong reservations regarding other aspects, notably the partial and biased participation in this event,” ALAC stated.

ALAC, however, listed four-key areas of its support to G8 objectives comprising the need to “improve everyone's access to the Internet; Enable everyone to participate in global networks and promote respect for freedom of expression and opinion; Improve security of the Internet and protection of individuals; and Recommend examination of the Internet's economic and technical challenges.”

The group also noted that several Internet organizations including ICANN, W3C, IAB and the Internet Society have been invited to be present in the eG8 Forum and that the outcome of the eG8 Forum may be submitted to the G8 Summit.

“However, we are surprised and concerned that G8 governments, who have already committed themselves, in the WSIS and elsewhere, to the development of Internet policy placing all Internet stakeholders on an equal footing, omitted to ensure that all stakeholders, including representatives of end users and civil society, such as the ICANN At-Large community, among others, would be invited,” they decried.

They alleged that on the contrary, participation at the eG8 aspect has been weighted more heavily towards commercial interests through sponsorship requirements.

ALAC pointed out that G8 will only comprehend fully and include the perspectives of all Internet stakeholders if Internet end users and consumers are effectively represented and able to participate in discussions such as the eG8 meeting.

According to the press statement made available Business Champion, At-Large is the name for the community of individual Internet users who participate in the policy development work of ICANN.

More than 120 At-Large Structures representing the views of individual Internet users are active throughout the world.

Remmy Nweke:
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

21 Days of Y’ello Care focuses on environment

MTN Nigeria has joined other members of the MTN Group in focus its 21 Days of Y’ello Care on environment.

The initiative which kicked off across the mobile operator’s on June 1 across its footprints in Africa and the Middle East, would see thousands of MTN staff volunteers taking part in various environmental projects, the major one of which is tree-planting initiatives for the next 21 days.

This year’s campaign theme is Making a Positive Difference to the Environment, which is in keeping with the United Nation’s declaration of 2011 as the International Year of Forests.

“We at MTN have applied our minds to the theme and found it worthy of the support of approximately 30 000 of our employees spread across our markets - from Afghanistan in the Middle East to Zambia in Africa,” says MTN Corporate Affairs Executive, Rich Mkhondo.

The staff volunteers will be joined by their executives, who will swop their suits for overalls and shovels, in an all-out tree planting exercise.

Additionally, MTN operations will roll out other environmental projects, such as environmental sanitation exercises, tree-planting, sinking of boreholes and provision of manual or solar-paneled water pumps for the purpose of watering the planted trees, and various other initiatives aimed at preserving the planet’s resources.

The overall target over the next three weeks is to plant a minimum of 21 000 trees across all the MTN operations. This translates to 1 000 trees per MTN country. However, there will be operations which will exceed this target due to the number of volunteers participating, said Mkhondo.

But MTN Nigeria CEO, Brett Goschen said the Nigerian operation plans to plant about 2,900 trees across the country in the course of the programme. According to him, each of the clusters of trees will benefit from a borehole in order to ensure their sustainability.

MTN Nigeria staff will officially kick off the programme in Lagos on June 1 with a walk aimed at drawing attention to the environment. The ‘Earth Walk’, as the initiative is tagged, will commence from the company’s Golden Plaza head office at Falomo through Alfred Rewane Road and back.

21 Days of Y’ello Care was instituted by the MTN Group President and CEO in 2007 to give all MTN employees an opportunity to contribute towards improving the welfare of their communities.

It has now become a prominent feature in MTN’s calendar, and is also one of MTN’s flagship Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes driven by MTN Foundations in the mobile operator’s markets.

“It is through interventions like 21 Days of Y’ello Care that MTN is the most admired brand and leading corporate organization in the vast majority our markets,” Mkhondo said.

Remmy Nweke:
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Juwah stresses security need for SIM registration

The Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah, has stressed the security importance of the ongoing SIM Card registration across the country.

He also reaffirmed determination of the Commission to conclude the exercise within six months to assist security agencies to curb mobile phone related crimes.

While receiving the leadership of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Maitama Branch, Abuja in his office, led by its Chairman, Engr. Paulinus Ogu, Dr. Juwah proclaimed that the Commission now has over 2,000 SIM Registration centres across the country, in addition to those of the telecom operators.

The Commission, he said, is currently doing registration alongside telecom operators, noting that those who are already registered with the telecom operators need not register with the NCC registration centres, even as SIM registration in the country will end on September 28, 2011.

“The story is that the government is intent on knowing who owns mobile phones and they have mandated us to lead this operation together with the operators so there is no duplication,” indicating that perhaps why it is easier to register with the NCC centres is because of the fact that you can register all your phones in one location as the Commission registers across all networks,” he said.

Juwah pointed out in a press statement made available to Daily Champion by the Head, Media and Public Relations at NCC, Mr. Reuben Muoka, that by the initial arrangements, the operators were to register only the new subscribers from May 1, 2010 while the Commission was to register only existing subscribers, stressing that with the urge by the operators, who already have the equipment, to know their subscribers, to utilize this equipment; they began to register both new and old subscribers.

He said that when NCC got ready to start registration, the Commission and the operators met with the National Security Adviser, and it was discovered that the operators had only registered eight million out of 89 Million SIM Cards leaving a balance of 80 million.

He said it was at this stage that it was decided that the operators and the operators should begin to register existing SIM cards that are yet to be registered.

“There were about 80million SIM cards that were not registered and the government has given us six months to jointly conclude the registration of these numbers as this will enable us conclude the registration within this time frame”, he said.

“We (NCC) do not register new subscribers but if you have registered before with your operator, you don’t have to register again. It is the same data base so we are trying to cover the balance that the operators haven’t registered and we are doing this together with the operators”, he said.

The NCC boss said the Commission has mobilized and are in the six geographical zones of Nigerian including Abuja and Lagos. “We have mobilized and established more than 2000 NCC registration centres across Nigeria while the operators are carrying out their own. So that is the real story and it was a very controversial issue at the National Assembly but anybody who knows the real story knows that this is an important national security issue and the government recognizes it as such”, he said.

On a general note, Dr. Juwah invited Nigerian engineers to assist in resolving the power supply need of the telecommunications industry. “Power is really an issue now, and we are always ready to discuss and partner in such issues which can lead to decreasing the cost of power as operators use independently produced power today”.

“We are always ready to discuss alternate power sources and wherever they are practical we are prepared to partner in ventures of that sort. I am sure we have always collaborated with Nigerian Society of Engineers, and will continue to partner in this direction”, he said.

He informed his guests that the Commission is not basically and engineering firm but has a sizeable engineering department with a lot of engineering work to do in terms of standards, monitoring, quality of service, integrity of networks, frequency management and other activities as dictated by the existing laws and regulations.

Engr. Ogu commended the Commission on the ways it has been handling its duties to the nation, especially the ongoing SIM registration which will enhance the security and lives of the citizens.

He pledged the support of the Society in all the aspirations of the Commission and invited the Commission to continue to monitor and assist the progress of the engineers under its employ to enable them to improve with modern techniques of the profession.

Remmy Nweke:
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

ATCON, BusinessWorld partner on broadband summit

The latest industry collaboration with the Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) and a Lagos-based Business World is targeted at connecting the next 50 million telecommunication users in the country.

ATCON president, Mr. Titi Omo-Ettu told newsmen in Lagos to proclaim the collaboration, said that the whole effort at connecting 50 million telecom users in the coming years would be anchored on a Nigeria Broadband Summit 2011.

According to Omo-Ettu, who was accompanied at the briefing by the deputy editor, BusinessWorld newspaper, Mr. Abimbola Toki, the essence of the collaboration is to provide relevant information for any potential investor in the country, especially in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to know exactly where to plug-in.

He also said the team has prepared the grounds for the gathering, which he called a high level investment summit on broadband as enabler for connecting the next 50 million telecommunications users.

This, he elucidated is within the context of how broadband deployment could serve as a general purpose service delivery and to expose the huge businesses there is available to do in the country.

Mr. Omo-Ettu said that the collaboration would assemble world-class speakers to examine how broadband could cement gains from the significant national expansion in access to telecommunications provided by both fixed and mobile telephones.

“The summit will also explore all business option available at this remarkable end of one decade of GSM and also for the future,” he said.

The two-day summit scheduled for July 26 and 27, this year in Lagos, would discuss the challenges facing telecom players in connecting the next 50 million telecommunications users in the country goes into the second decade of telecommunications revolution.

Omo-Ettu also revealed that the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC0, Dr. Eugene Juwah, has confirmed to give the keynote address.

Participants, he said, would include senior government officials and top players in the telecommunications industry.

Additionally, he said that both local and international telecom infrastructure providers, service providers, vendors and distributors of relevant products and services are expected to attend.

The event which he said, is merely by invitation is billed open for only chief executive officers (CEOs) and very senior executives of participating firms.

“It is a business event and not a talk-show,” he asserted.

According to him, participants from the banks and financial institutions are known to be high stakers in financing telecommunications.

He explained that this would enable ATCON to coordinate an industry plan of action for the realization of the benefits of broadband deployment as an enabler for connecting the next 50 million telecom users.

This, he said, could be achieved by pushing the major issues which arise from discussion at the summit to the appropriate authorities.

The summit, he said, have already gotten the endorsement of the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF).

He stressed that there would be four technical presentations and four commercial presentations of 20 minutes each.

The occasion, Omo-Ettu said would avail the unveiling of the Nigerian Telecom Investors Book, which would be a compendium of all participating firms, who at the minimum must take a page of advertorial in the book as well as their profiling.

Remmy Nweke:
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

DigitalSENSE says ‘we’re set for IPV6’

The organizers of the first-ever Nigeria Internet Protocol version Six (IPV6) Roundtable slated to hold in Lagos, the centre of excellence, has said that all is now set to make the event a success.

DigitalSENSE Africa, the organizers, made this disclosure through its Executive Director, Operations, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, at the weekend.

“We have put necessary machineries in place to ensure a successful Nigeria IPV6 Roundtable,” she declared.

Speaking on the readiness of her organisation to hosting a successful Nigeria IPV6 Roundtable, Mrs. Nweke noted that the one-day roundtable has received massive support from the industry including endorsement of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), and Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) to name a few.

While appreciating the endorsements so far received by the Nigeria IPV6 Roundtable, she pointed out that the event holding at Planet One, Maryland Lagos would be presided over by the former Communications Minister, Chief Olawale Ige.

Also, she said that the event scheduled for this week’s Thursday would witness a keynote address by the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah and a lead paper by the chairman, ALTON, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo.

She said that Adebayo’s paper would focus on the stand of his group in IPv6 migration, just as NIRA president, Mrs. Mary Uduma would present the position of her group on the theme as it affects the Internet users in the country.

She said that though the World IPV6 2011 comes up on Wednesday June 8, her organizers alongside interested stakeholders to host the Nigeria IPV6 Roundtable on Thursday, June 2, 2011; ahead of the global date for the commemoration of IPV6 to put Nigerians on notice of the impeding ‘test flight’ migration.

This, she explained would mean that on Wednesday, June 8 most of the global Internet service providers like Google and Yahoo among others would only offer services on IPV6 platform.

Participants to the forthcoming Nigeria IPV6 Roundtable, she further said, would have a lot to learn as various experts have been lined up for the roundtable to exchange ideas as well as network.

She recalled that following the allocation of the last batch of the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) it became imperative for the deployment of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).

In addition, she said, the Internet has become a global communication network and to join this evolution and Nigerian stakeholders needed to integrate IPv6 in all areas.

She emphasised that the Internet Society (ISOC), the managerial home for the groups responsible for Internet infrastructure standards, including the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) came up with the World IPV6 Day, which this year would be commemorated on Wednesday, June 8, 2011.

The goal of the Test Flight Day, she said, would be to motivate organizations across the industry – regulators, operators, Internet service providers, hardware makers, operating system vendors, content providers, manufacturers, web companies and key stakeholders; to ensure a successful transition as IPv4 addresses run out.

Remmy Nweke:
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

South Africa tops TIGA awards’11

South Africa has topped the 2011 edition of the Technology in Government Awards (TIGA) in the ‘Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Education’ category.

The awards announced at the just concluded eLearning Africa, at its 6th International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training, held in Mlimani City Conference Centre, Dares Salaam, Tanzania.

ITRealms Online recalls that for the first entries to the award in 2007, there were 36 TIGA entries from 17 countries. Two years later, there were 60 entries from 20 countries in 2009.

This year, 89 entries were received from 24 countries, with over 44 projects short-listed for the awards.

This, industry watchers said, that in general saw an increase of over 40 per cent in the number of entries received with every subsequent TIGA award.

In addition, they said, this suggests significant interest and increased use of ICT in delivery of innovative services to the people by African governments.

As stated by a press statement from the Information and Communication Service of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) made available to ITRealms Online; ECA, the co-organiser of the event and the Government of Finland in collaboration with the eLearning Africa Scholarship Trust, the organizer of the eLearning Africa annual event.

The awards are given in recognition of initiatives aimed at exploiting information and communication technologies (ICTs) for education and training in Africa.

It was also gathered that during the next TIGA process in 2013, ECA will be launching a G-Government category or Geospatial Government, which encompasses the use of the Internet and GIS in making the delivery of services more effective by governments.

This year’s 2011 awards in the ‘ICT in Education’ category saw The Speaking Book and Dr. Match both from South Africa topping the list of awardees, while eLimika and Plate-forme de formation from Angola followed.

The Speaking Book: This project aims to make education about critical issues accessible to all regardless of literacy or education level. This ‘world first’ is created by South Africans for Africans and focuses on rural, vulnerable and excluded people living in disadvantaged regions of Sub-Saharan Africa and communities around the world.

Improving health care is a top priority for Africa and through the Speaking Books (http://www.sadag.co.za, www.booksofhope.com), access to essential medical information for low literacy, rural, and vulnerable Africans is improved.

Dr Math, South Africa - Dr. Math (http://www.csir.co.za) is a mobile tutoring service that provides access to credible, personal, on-demand tutoring in the subject of Mathematics.

eLimika e-learning programme, KENYA ? eLimika (http://www.elimika.ac.ke), which is a Kiswahili word for “get educated”, is the vehicle through which Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) delivers its courses.

Plate-forme de formation à distance de l’Academia Aberta de Angola: Formation partout et à tout moment!, ANGOLA (www.academia-aberta.com) is the training platform of the Open Academy of Angola 2 and provides a distance training space and collaborative working environment.

In remarks, ECA’s Executive Secretary and UN Under-Secretary-General, Mr Abdoulie Janneh, who was represented at the event, said, “today we see signs that more and more ICT applications are being integrated in all sectors in Africa including in government, education, health and in the economic sectors.”

He, however, noted that whilst the adoption of ICTs in education in Africa is on the increase, “it is a fact that the continent still falls behind, which is why these awards are so important.” He added, “It is indeed necessary for the youth in Africa to gain acquainted with the 21st century skills in order to increase the competitive advantages of Africa.”

Remmy Nweke:
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D