World IPV6 Day 2011: Nigerians yearn for IPV6 Task Force

AS the World Internet Protocol version Six (IPV6) Day holds today, Wednesday, June 8, globally, participants at the first-ever Nigeria IPV6 Roundtable, held last weekend, called on the Federal Government to establish an IPV6 Task Force for the country to hasten the adaption and deployment.

Some of the participants who spoke at the event organized by DigitalSENSE Africa (DSA) in collaboration with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to commemorate the World IPV6 Day in Nigeria, included the Executive Director, Operations, DSA, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah and chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, Director-General of NITDA and President, Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), Mrs. Mary Uduma among others.

Welcoming participants to the event to commemorate World IPV6 Day in Nigeria tagged “IPV6-Join the Players,” Mrs. Nweke called on FG to establish a Task Force through its agencies to take immediate proactive actions that will ensure that Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as organisations in Nigeria to prepare their services for IPV6 migration.

This, she also said would encourage greater research and development investment in activities around the future internet, and increase support for the private sector participation.

She described awareness creation as key to the early adoption of the second internet, stressing that this is vital in order to avert being behind the times as far as IPV6 adoption and deployment are concerned.

Mrs. Nweke explained, that the aim of the roundtable was to provide a platform for all stakeholders in the country to share IPV6 knowledge and experience, chart a roadmap for early transition to IPV6 as IPV4 addresses currently in use run out.

“Its also to promote IPV6 enabled products and services in addition to providing a platform for networking,” she said, adding that the commemoration in Nigeria was in line with the calls by the Internet Society (ISOC) for greater participation on the World IPV6 Day, which is marked annually on June 8 (today) with a test-flight due to last for only 24 hours.

She said, this entails that most Internet-related service providers would offer their services on IPV6 platform today, June 8 to drum support for IPV6 migration.

Some of those enlisted for the test-flight, she said, includes Yahoo, Google, Facebook to name a few out of the over 200 IT companies participating in the exercise.

She disclosed that as at the end of March 2011, Nigeria has 16 allottees of IPV6, but none is offering internet-related services on this platform in the country.

EVC of NCC, Dr. Juwah in his keynote address presented by the Director, New Media and Information Security, Dr. Sylvanus Ehikioya, assured of the works on regulatory framework on the IPV6 platform as efforts have commenced to ensure that there is a regulation to support the deployment in the country and in enlightening the ICT consumer, which is evidence in this collaboration with DSA for this roundtable.

He enjoined stakeholders in the industry, and mostly the Internet community and services providers to join hands with NCC in ensuring that a viable policy on IPV6 is enthroned for the nation through offering vital contributions at public consultants like such as this event.

Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, declared at the roundtable the readiness of the telecom operators in the country to migrate to IPV6.

“Other than the challenges of our operating environment, Nigeria’s telecom industry is ready and fully prepared for the migration from IPV4 to IPV6. I am delighted to inform the audience today that operators have deployed and are deploying world most modern technologies and it has prepared us well ahead towards significant technology migration as we now face in the world today. Therefore, we do not foresee any impact on internet networks and users in the course of this migration,” he assured.

Although he noted that nobody is sure how much the transition could cost or how long it will take, but assured that it would be done to the highest standards in order for the web to function as it does today.

He also said that the foregoing underscores the need for government to further look into how to assist ailing service providers with ‘bail out’ interventions.

“Internet is not just for the big players, the last mile access for the internet is a solution best offered and provided by smaller enterprises to challenge the legacy operators and we hope that in the interest of competition and survival of our industry that Government will look critically at ways and means of assisting the current not so strong players to survive and give live to better competition in the Broadband internet space as we now prepare for the migration from IPV4 to IPV 6,” Adebayo said.

Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NiTDA), Prof. Cleopas Angaye in a joint paper with the Vice President, Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), Mr. Sunday Folayan, who were represented by the Executive Director, Marketing and Business Development at Skannet Limited, Mr. Jide Ogunmekun, noted that with the IPv4 at its end of life, the only real solution is a total migration to IPv6.

And to accelerate the deployment of IPv6 in Nigeria, NITDA is tinkering with a quick roundup of what has been done elsewhere in the world and localizing same for Nigeria beginning with proposition to set up an IPv6 task force to the government.

The task force, they said, would develop a national policy on IPv6 adoption, which should cover the Federal government and the critical infrastructure industry sectors.

This initiative, they foresee as leading to an increased government effort to migrate to Ipv6, spur interest on IPv6 within the country and help its understanding as well as adopting the new protocol.

They emphasised that a group of concerned Information Technology (IT) experts across the continent of Africa who have canvassed for the setting up of Internet Protocol version Six (IPv6) Task Force in the various countries of Africa.

“NITDA is very concerned that Nigeria does not at this time have a task force on IPv6 and insists that Nigeria must not be left behind,” part of paper read.

They said it is imperative that an IPv6 Task Force be set up and should consist of a wide range of stakeholders, outlining the likely means of communication for the proposed Task force to include website, mailing list, resource portal, online discussion forum to name a few.

“There must be a study to understand the scope of the problem associated with the lack of, or slow adoption of the IPV6 protocol, viz-a-viz Nigeria. We must identify the key players in Nigeria and the continent, such as AfriNIC, IXPN and ISOC, to further deepen our involvement in the transition to IPv6,” they stated.

Nigeria, they further said, needs to determine the size of traffic for both IPv4 and IPv6, accompanied with assessment of the national readiness for Ipv6, which must include infrastructure, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) and Local Internet Registrars (LIRs), Size of the Internet Consumer market.

“We need to know the current depth of the IPv6 penetration in Nigeria, comprising know-how, equipment, and regulation” they said, in addition to raising awareness on the exhaustion of IPv4 and impact of IPv6 on the proliferation of the Internet and adoption of broadband in the country among others.

Stating the imperative of IPV6 to the public sector, especially in Nigeria, the managing director and chief executive officer, Galaxy Backbone Plc, Mr. Gerald Ilukwe who was represented at the occasion by the Head, Communications, Mr. Franklyn Ginger-Eke listed the implications of being blacklisted for not migrating to IPV6, declaring that the time to plan for IPV6 starts now.

According to him, Nigeria may lose an average of 20 per cent of the current Internet Protocol (IP) addresses in the public sector, coupled with the poor network of security infrastructure.

Additionally, lack of prompt migration could affect the business future now that IPV4 address pool is depleted.

For the president of NiRA, Mrs. Mary Uduma in a paper entitled ‘NiRA’s view on IPV6’ and read by a member of the NIRA Executive Board, Mr. Muhammed Rudman said that actions have started on its part as the association though not a Local Internet Registry (LIR), thus it does not assign IP address to its customers.

NIRA, Mrs. Uduma revealed, has applied for IPV6 address block from the African Network Information Center (AfriNIC), even as NIRA is one of the secondary Domain Name Systems (DNS) on IPv6 which has a local Anycast.

She also said that NIRA is working towards IPv6 awareness campaign to all the registrars, so that Nigerian sites could be reachable via IPv6.

As said by her, the good news is that Nigeria has moved from the 6th position in 2009 to the 3rd in 2010, based on the number of allocated IPv6 within the AfriNIC region, although the bad news is that IPV6 is not yet visible in the Internet, especially from this part of the world.

Remmy Nweke:
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Multi-Links: Lagos court says deal is valid … It’ll not affect sale to Visafone - Telkom

A Lagos High Court yesterday, Tuesday in Lagos, ruled that the disputed lease agreement between Multi-Links Nigeria Limited and Helios Towers before the telecom operator ceded its Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) arm to Visafone Communications remain valid.

This is coming as Telkom South Africa and owners of Multi-Links Nigeria said that the court case would not jeopadise the sale of the CDMA arm to Visafone.

Although experts have opined that Telkom South Africa goofed by not embarking on full-disclosure to Visafore prior to the purchase of its CDMA, some other interest experts have blamed Telkom South Africa for mismanaging Multi-Links Nigeria investment.

Reuters reported that the decision by the Lagos High Court could delay the effort by Telkom, South Africa's largest fixed-line operator, to sell its struggling Nigerian business, Multi-Links to Visafone,

But Telkom South in anticipated response to the outcome of the court case, said recently that the deal with Helios Investment Partners, would not affect the sale of Multi Links, which includes its CDMA subsidiary.

According to Reuters, Telkom was quoted as saying in a statement that the court had ruled the lease agreements between Multi-Links and local firm Helios Towers Nigeria were valid.

Helios, which is backed by private equity group Helios Investment Partners and South Africa's Shanduka Group, has sued Telkom for estimated sum of $252 million, about N390.06m, claiming the South African firm walked out on a 10-year lease agreement barely three years into the deal.

The report stated that Telkom had argued that the contracts were not valid, but court documents showed otherwise.

"The Lagos High Court in Nigeria found in favour of Helios Towers Nigeria in the matter regarding the validity of ... site lease agreements between Multi-Links and Helios," Telkom said.

It also said that Helios' damages claim for more than $250 million had not yet been set down for a hearing.

Telkom plans to sell Multi-Links for $52 million to Visafone Communications, to focus on improving its business in South Africa, where it has been hurt by fierce competition.

Equally, Telkom officials were reported as saying it would need to resolve the dispute before it could complete the transaction with Visafone.

Reassuring that the court case would not put at risk the sale of Multi Links to Visafone, Telkom official said that it was going ahead with the sale despite the $252 million law suit brought against the firm by Helios in Lagos.

Before its acquisition by Visafone, Multi-links Telkom had exited its CDMA operations due to failure to make profit despite reported turnaround programmes embarked upon by Telkom, which some stakeholders are now claiming was a conduit for siphoning fund hinged on mismanagement.

According to Telkom SA, Multi-Links had continued to operate at a loss motivating Telkom Group to declare its intension as at March 2010 to write down $1.2 billion in losses for Multi-links Nigeria.

Remmy Nweke with agency reports:
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Ticknor takes on quality control @ NITPPF’11

The Chief Operating Officer of QAI Global, Mr. Tom Ticknor would be speaking to participants at the forthcoming National IT Public-Private Partnership (NITPPF 2011) on quality control awareness.

Programme officer at the organizing interesting group, the Information Technology Industry Association of Nigeria (ITAN), Marho Atumu said that Mr. Ticknor would address the IT Industry Quality Awareness & Improvement workshop in Benin, even as he would be supported by an Assistant Vice-President at QAI Global, Mr. Ashish Sehdev.

Atumu in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online said the purpose of the workshop targeted at high level personnel in the various State IT Directorates and IT CEOs, is to create awareness on the importance of quality control as a means to improve operations and develop practices that boost regional competitive advantages which ultimately contribute positively to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

In addition, the workshop tends to showcase how good quality products and services are one of the primary distinguishing factors that impart a competitive edge to any organization.

The team from QAI, Atumu said, would be covering a variety of topics including quality and process concepts, software testing and reviews, metric and introduction to quality models like CMMI, ISO and Six Sigma.

“The Quality Awareness/Improvement workshop will hold on the first and third day of NITPPF 2011,” Atumu said.

ITRealms Online recalls that QAI is a leading global consulting and workforce development organization addressing ‘’Operational Excellence’’ in knowledge intensive service organizations.

They also work with majority of the top IT/ BPO companies, including about 2/3rd of the top IT/ ITES-BPO companies in India, by providing benchmarking, certifications, assessments and other Operational Excellence enabling services in the areas of CMMI, PM, Six Sigma, COPC and Performance Improvement. Some of their clients worldwide include companies like Motorola, IBM Global Services, Accenture, British Telecom, Bharati Airtel, Dell International Services, Vodafone, among others.

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Symantec, ITU sign MoU on safer cyberscape

Symantec and International Telecommunications Union (ITU) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to use Symantec’s security intelligence, in form of its quarterly Internet Security Threat Reports, to increase understanding of cyber security risks.

The partnership, which requires that the quarterly report is distributed to interested member states of ITU, aims to help prepare governments in developing and developed nations to respond to the ever-growing risk of malware, cyber attackers and information thieves.

Speaking to Pressmen on the partnership, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Symantec, Enrique Salem stated that, researchers that make up Symantec’s Global Intelligence Network have noted a dramatic increase in the number of cyber attacks, as well as the growing sophistication and impact of threats in past one and half years.

“The partnership between Symantec and ITU will facilitate an increased understanding of cyber security risks and how they can be reduced; increase confidence in new and emerging technologies; thereby facilitate the evolution of digital world. This will also help create a safer, more secured cyberspace for consumers, businesses, and – most crucially – children and youth,” he said.

According to Symantec boss, the collaboration will raise global awareness about emerging and existing cyber threats using data gathered from its Quarterly Reports. This will in turn compliment ITU’s effectiveness as a global forum for governments and private sector to build confidence and security in the use of ICT.

He further revealed that Symantec has been working with ITU as one of its IMPACT coalition partners - private sector firms that provide assistance to the ITU on cyber security - and with the signing of the MoU, Symantec will be using its network tools to provide detailed reports that can be passed on to members.

ITU-IMPACT is the first cooperative global venture to make available cyber security expertise and resources to enable interested member states detect, analyze and respond effectively to cyber threats. This benefitted developing countries and smaller states without the capacity and resources to develop their own sophisticated cyber response centres.

The coalition also benefitted technically advanced nations by providing them with a global snapshot of potential and real online threats.

Symantec Quarterly Internet Security Threats Reports under the new partnership will provide governments and cyberspace users around the world with insights into the threats that they should be looking out for to help raise awareness.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is an international organization within the United Nations (UN) system where governments and the private sector coordinate global telecom networks and services.

Founded in 1865, it is the oldest specialized agency of the UN system with 189 member states and over 700 private sector members. Nigeria joined the global organization in 1960.

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Awuff-plus tariff excites Starcomms’ cusstomers

Subscribers on Starcomms network are currently enjoying the Awuff-Plus Tariff.

Chief Operating Officer (COO), Starcomms, Mr. Logan Pather, said that the Awuff Plus is a tariff plan which allows the network’s customers to call free on-net all day and 20 kobo per second to other networks within Nigeria, noting that its still making waves.

“Our customers’ response to the plan has been tremendous,” he said, stressing that the plan could be used by all Starcomms customers everywhere within the network’s coverage.

He explained that to get on this plan, customers would need to dial 151*PIN*Number of Days#.

“This will put them on the plan for the number of days they subscribe for. Awuff Plus also attract a daily 100 subscription fee, The customers who subscribe for several days at once will get a discount on the fee in accordance with the number of days. The option of number of days for the plan includes 1, 3, 5, 7, 15 & 30 days,” he said.

The discounts on the subscription plan, he said, are available for only 5, 7, 15 or 30 days and they range between N10 and N500.

This, he said, means those who subscribe for 5 days plan will pay N490 while a thirty-day subscription will cost N2500.

“Regardless of the time of the day that the customer activates Awuff Plus the charging expires 12 midnight of everyday and reverts to the user’s default plan except in the case of multiple days’ subscription. Awuff Plus allows more talk time and saves the customer money,” he said.Equally, he said, Awuff Plus is the follow up on Starcomms’ Awuff, another plan that can also be enjoyed by Starcomms users, which the company announced a few weeks ago.

“Awuff tariff plan offers the network’s customers discount on-net (Starcomms to Starcomms) and off-net (Starcomms to other networks) rates on both their mobile and fixed prepaid phones. With the plan anybody using Starcomms phone can make on-net calls for 15 kobo per second and call any network outside Starcomms for 20 kobo per second,” Logan said.

Emphasising that the first call of every day under the Awuff voice tariff plan would be charged at N30 per minute with per minute billing whether it is on-net or off-net, while subsequent calls of the day will be at the discounted rates and billed on per second basis.

“These rates apply only to calls within Nigeria and are available to only prepaid customers in all towns and cities under the coverage of the Starcomms network,” he said.

Starcomms, he said, introduced the plan in response to its customers, even as Awuff was launched on March 15, 2011, when Starcomms joined the rest of the world to commemorate the World Consumer Rights Day as a one-off bonus to the customers.

“On that day Starcomms customers were offered the opportunity to call their friends and loved ones at only N2 per minute on-net between the hours of 6pm to 8pm,” he said, assuring consumers that with Starcomms they are king and they would keep listening to them.

Remmy Nweke
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2015: Computer Warehouse targets IT utility provider status in Africa

With offices across the map of the continent, the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Computer Warehouse Group (CWG), Mr. Austin Okere has said they are growing fast as a pan-Africa Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) company.

This came as he disclosed that CWG is targeting to become the first among equals as the Information Technology (IT) utility provider on the continent in the next four years.

Briefing media recently at CWG office in Accra, Ghana, Mr. Okere who is the founder of CWG, one of Africa’s leading ICT conglomerates and a fast rising African Multinational Company (MNC), shared the company’s vision to become the number one IT Utility Provider in Africa by 2015.

Okere noted that with regional offices in Accra, Kampala, Lagos, Abuja and Port-Harcourt, CWG is positioned to attaining this status before the end of 2015.

Group head, Communications and Marketing at CWG, Mr. Chidi Okpala, explained in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online that the African market is a strategic path for the company on its match towards the 2015 goal.

“The growth of CWG and its success so far serves as a rallying point for other African companies and a model for re-writing some of the unpleasant stories that have for too long been associated with the African continent,” he said.

Introducing the new country manager for CWG Ghana, Mr. Tony Dadzie, to the business community, Mr. Okere was quoted as saying that Dadzie has over a decade experience in ICT industry handling different senior executive positions until taking up this assignment at CWG Ghana.

According to Okere, Dadzie is a fully fledged Ghanaian, with some maternal inclinations to Nigeria, and would bring to the table a wealth of experience as he takes over from Mr. Femi Ibine, who will now head the Group’s Software business.

Okere also explained that CWG has a plan in the short term, to see Ghanaians play an integral role in the company as owners of the company, hence its plan to soon list CWG Ghana on the Ghana Stock Exchange market.

“We are really planning to do this in the next three to five years as part of our broad strategy to serve the African continent,” he said.

CWG, Okere pointed out, is currently a US$120m (about N18.6 billion) company in turnover that plans to have a physical presence in 10 African countries by the year 2015.

Further, he said, the company’s renewed vision to become the number one IT utility provider on the continent by the year 2015, will CWG to build a platform that will to deliver world class business solutions around Cloud computing which will in turn help respond to global trends and the current needs of customers.

On the strengths of African companies and the perception being created right now about what should actually determine who global companies are, Okere decried the fact that African companies that have done very well overtime, even internationally are still looked down at as local companies, when in actual sense should be looked at as being global.

“What the African continent needs is the creation of an enabling environment and a level playing field for entrepreneurs to transform their dreams to build big companies’.

CWG, he said, is determined against all odds to become an internationally recognised company living strictly by strict corporate governance that would make Africa proud.

“In doing so we are partnering with higher institutions to develop and grow skills that would drive the growth of technology in Africa,” he said.

Remmy Nweke
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ATM robbery: 2 men 52-yr sentence

Two men who were involved in last year’s $6.6 million robbery of the St. Louis office and warehouse of ATM Solutions Incorporated have been sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to the crime, reports ATM Market Place.

U.S. District Court Judge Carol Jackson has sentenced Ryechine Money to 19 ½ years in prison for his involvement in the August 2, 2010, robbery.

The 32-year-old Money pleaded guilty March 3 to federal armed robbery charges and possession of a firearm in the furtherance of a crime of violence.

A resident of St. Louis, Money attempted to withdraw his guilty plea, saying he was pressured by his lawyer Lawrence J. Fleming to admit to the crime. Judge Jackson, however, refused to allow Money to change his plea. She also ordered Money to pay $3.67 million in restitution.

On May 12, Judge Jackson sentenced John Wesley Jones to 32 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to his involvement in the robbery and his November 15, 2010, escape from the Lincoln County Detention Center in Troy, Mo., where he was being held for the robbery.

Law enforcement officials arrested Jones several days later in Illinois.

In March, the 38-year-old Jones, a resident of Florissant, Mo., pleaded guilty to armed robbery, possession of a firearm in furtherance of that crime of violence, being a previously convicted felon in possession of a firearm and escape.

The robbery of ATM Solutions occurred last summer when four gunmen forced their way into the independent ATM deployer’s warehouse and tied up two employees. The gunmen escaped with more than $6.6 million inside an ATM Solutions van.

The St. Louis office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said Larry Newman,20, another alleged accomplice, is awaiting trial, and a fourth unnamed accomplice is still being sought.

ATM Solutions, which is based in Cincinnati, services ATMs in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.

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