Digital Migration: FG may soon release white paper

In the coming weeks, the Federal Government (FG) may release the white paper on digital migration for the country.

The white paper, ITRealms Online gathered would extract most of its contents from the supposed documents submitted by the Presidential Advisory Council (PAC) on Digital Migration over two year ago.

This indication was given at the weekend by the Zonal Director, National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Mr. Femi Ayeni in a chat with ITRealms Online in Lagos at the launch of Walka Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld.

While urging Nigerians to be patient with the Federal Government over the time it may have taken to get to this point, he said that the white paper would be released soon to justify their patience.

According to him, the white paper is expected to take lots of inputs on modalities for implementation of the nation’s digital migration plans from the outcome of the submissions of the Presidential Committee on Digital Migration.

These, he said, would not be limited to how to deploy the decoder boxes and eventual incentives for broadcast operators in the country in order to ease off any hardship that may come in the way of the migration.

As said by him, most Television houses in the country are already on digital channels, which means they have migrated their services and broadcasting.

When the white paper is released, he anticipates further discussions on the implementation processes.

In a related development, the Ministry of Communications Technology (CommTech) stated in the recently released draft of the national Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) policy that Nigeria should take advantage of the on-going transition from analogue to digital broadcasting.

This, the Ministry noted, is a current global trend towards conversion from analogue to digital broadcasting and Nigeria should take advantage of the opportunities inherent in this transformation.

They listed some of the benefits of  migration  to include  higher  quality  reception,  access  to  more  channels  and availability of a wider spectrum of Value Added Services (VAS).

Also, CommTech Ministry stated that the policy objectives would comprise to comply   with   International Telecommunication Union (ITU)   mandate   of   migrating   from   analogue   to   digital broadcasting; and to properly manage the benefit of digital dividends that will result from the migration.

According to a copy f the document available to ITRealms Online, section 7.13.2 which centres on strategies emphasized that the government plans to embark on a massive publicity campaign for the purpose of sensitizing the general public on the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting; ensure availability and cost effectiveness of set top boxes; and encourage the local manufacturing of set top boxes in Nigeria.

Additionally, the document proposed that the Federal Government, through the Ministry would develop a licensing regime for signal distributors and content providers; provide a clear roadmap for harvesting the “digital dividend” spectrum and ensure competitive allocation of the resource; and ensure compliance of migration by the ITU mandated dates of 2015 for Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) and 2020 for Very high frequency (VHF).

ITRealms Online recalls that mid-last year, a two-day media workshop on digital broadcasting migration was held at the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja (FCTA), with participants demanding for the official release of the white paper submitted by the Presidential Advisory Council (PAC) on Digital Migration in Nigeria over 25 months ago.

The workshop, which held at the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), Utako District, Abuja, saw participants arguing that the formal release of the white paper would enable the Nigerian public to know the contents, and for the media to x-ray the paper to spur immediate implementation by the federal government and private sector operators, especially in the broadcasting industry.

Participants noted that the commencement of the implementation process is crucial for charting the way forward for the country, mostly in fulfillment of the global agenda for countries of the world to migrate to digital platform by July 2015, of which Nigeria and some African countries have since brought their migration deadline to July 15, 2013 as a way of fast-tracking the process.

Also, participants at the forum mainly media practitioners lambasted the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) for not doing enough in leading the campaign for digital migration in the country.

“It is unfortunate that most people, especially media practitioners based in Abuja where NBC is based don’t know much about the issues around digital migration efforts by Nigeria,” one of the participants decried.

The workshop witnessed presentation of papers on “digital transition: behind the issues; digital migration in Africa and globally; digital migration in Nigeria; challenges of reporting digital migration in Nigeria; Research report on Nigeria Digital Migration,” among others.

The coordinator of the event of the Nigeria Digital Migration workshop, Mr. Emmanuel Edet disclosed the workshop was organized by the Association for Progressive Communication in collaboration with London-based online news medium, Balancing Act and Open Society Initiative.

Remmy Nweke

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NASS’ll soon pass cyber security bill – Gusau

Sunday Folayan, Hon. Ibrrahim Gusau, Ope Odusan

*Reassures NIRA

The chairman, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Committee at the House of Representatives, Hon. Ibrahim Shehu Gusau, has promised that the National Assembly is working at ensuring that the cyber security bill is passed into law before the end of this legislative session.

He gave this indication during a courtesy call by the Executive Board of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA) led by the Vice President, Mr. Sunday Folayan, in his office at the National Assembly complex Abuja on Monday.

He also said that the bill on cyber security has passed the first reading and the committee is working assiduously to make certain the bill scales through the relevant readings and processes to make it eventually a law that Nigerians would be proud of.

Hon. Gusau said that when the cyber security bill is signed into law it would assist the nation in changing the concept of Nigerian image online and globally.

“It has been read the first time and is on the second reading before it’s sent to the plenary session,” he said.

This, he said, would be of immense help to the Nigeria Internet Registration Association in creating the needed trust on its mandate to manage the nation’s country code Top Level Domain (TLD) name, .ng to Nigerians and to the world.

“We are going to pass the cyber security bill during the life of this session,” he said confidently.

While assuring NIRA board of his committee’s support, he implored them to step up the sensitization of Nigerians on the efficacy of .ng, stressing that NIRA should bank on the committee for support.

“You should expect to get more support from us,” he asserted, noting though that the publicity over .ng and NIRA has not been encouraging, hence he urged the organization to do more.

Advising that media campaign should be taken seriously for .ng, Hon. Gusau said that his office should be seen as an extension of NIRA’s office.

Earlier in his remarks, the leader of the delegation and NIRA’s Vice President, Mr. Sunday Folayan, said that NIRA is a stakeholder-based organization, which is made of three categories, namely the registry, registrars and registrants.

In the recent past, especially last year, he noted that NIRA had in efforts to sensitise and encourage Nigerians introduced a promotion tagged 50,000 in 50 days as part of events marking the nation’s 50 years independence anniversary.

“We have done some sensitization like 50,000 and corporate 1000 and now we are trying to sensitize MDAs on .ng hence we requested this meeting to intimate you and the committee on this,” he said.

Lately, he noted that NIRA held a campaign tagged Switchto.ng of which the second edition had been scheduled to hold in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

He urged the chairman of the committee on ICT to oblige the Switchto.ng workshop with his presence, mostly since the next session would be in Abuja.

NIRA, he further said was born out of the need to domesticate the hosting activities of .ng name space.

Also, he said that NIRA is building manpower around .ng and creating a framework to combat cybercrime.

“We have taken some of these head-on of which our server is now hosted locally at the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN),” he said.

Plans, Folayan said is under way to acquire the second server to give more space for operators within its domain name space, noting that during the last strike some of the websites in the country and privately owned were hacked.

“So, we work with government even though we’re private sector-led organization,” he said, adding that the board reports to the NIRA general house.

Equally speaking, the Chief Operating Officer, NIRA, Mr. Ope Odusan disclosed that currently the registry has over 40,000 domains and NIRA Registrars are collaborating with some international reputed organizations like Microsoft and Google to increase the usage of .ng.

“Right now we have over 40,000 domain names including ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs),” he said, enlightening that .gov.ng is for government and its agencies.

Some members of the Executive Board delegation included Mr. Biyi Oladipo, Mrs. Yetunde Johnson, Mr. Remmy Nweke, Mr. Muhammed Rudman, Mr. Temitope Fashedemi as well as the NIRA liaison officer, Ms. Uchechi Odo.

Remmy Nweke

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Etisalat wins Most Impactful Retail Design award’11

Etisalat Nigeria has emerged winner of the ‘Most Impactful Retail Design and Merchandising’ award at the MarketingWorld Awards (MWA) organized by Nigeria’s respected marketing magazine, MarketingWorld.

The award was presented at the maiden edition of MarketingWorld awards ceremony held recently at the External Ball Room of the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island Lagos.

Speaking, the Director, MarketingWorld awards and organizer of the event Mr. Akin Naphtal said, the aim is to recognize brand excellence at the national level as well as encourage and celebrate outstanding marketers, who have helped enhance the image of Nigeria and significantly contributed to its economy.

Commenting on the receipt of the award, Chief Commercial Officer, Etisalat, Nigeria, Mr. Wael Ammar said the award is a direct reflection of Etisalat company values, which centers on customer satisfaction, innovation, quality of service and operational efficiency.

“We are constantly working to improve our service and customer experience in all our operations. This award is yet another testimony to Etisalat’s pioneering status among other operators and the success of our business strategy in meeting customer needs and exceeding their expectations,” he said.

Equally speaking, the Etisalat’s Director of Retail Sales, Mr. Charles Ogunwuyi, noted that Etisalat Nigeria offers the highest levels of convenience for customers through all of its retail and customer care operations.

He outlined some of these to include state-of-the-art shops across the country and other mobile point of sales activities interfacing with customers at their various locations.

The Etisalat ‘Experience Centres’, he pointed out were designed with its signature green colors contrasted against a black background to give a clean and crisp look. The nature themed designs which are major components of the Etisalat Experience Centres are also introduced to accentuate the general look and feel of the shops.

These designs and unique features enhance Etisalat’s offerings of the latest products and services in the market and give customers an unparallel retail experience.

MarketingWorld Award aims to highlight brands that deliver a full spectrum of maintaining the highest standard of quality, exemplify creativeness, developing a corporate culture and providing positive benefits that exceeds customers and stakeholders’ expectations.

The award organized in three categories included; Organization Awards, Award for Brand Excellence, and Individual Awards highlighting the importance of each key player in the marketing arena in Nigeria. Up to 25 winning brands were recognized and awarded prizes, plaques and certificates.

The MarketingWorld award also boasts of judging panels consisting of top-level industry, professionals specific to the brand, marketing and communication industry.

The ‘Most Impactful Retail Design and Merchandising’ award complements other titles that Etisalat Nigeria has won in just three years of operations in the country. Awards which include ‘Brand of the Year’, ‘Best Telecom Customer Service’ Telecom Innovations Company of the Year, ‘Most Innovative Corporate Social Responsibility Company’, ‘Catalyst for change’ among others.

Etisalat Nigeria with a subscriber base of over 10 million customers is one of the 18 operations of the Etisalat Group that spans across Africa, Middle East and Asia serving over 135 million subscribers; and it is committed to delivering innovative and quality services to its growing subscribers.

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DSTv introduces digital video with Walka

DSTv Mobile, a subsidiary of MultiChoice has introduced a new Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld (DVB-H) called Walka, into the nation’s mobile market.

Speaking at the event in Lagos, the General Manager of Digital Mobile Television (Nigeria) (DMTV) Limited, Mr. Mayo Okunola, said that with the new Walka device, subscribers within DStv Mobile network coverage areas in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, Ibadan, Enugu, Benin, Onitsha, Aba and Asaba would have access to the channels on the DStv Mobile DVB-H network.

He also said that DStv Mobile was proud to once again be at the fore-front on the cutting edge of mobile technology and in responding to Nigerians’ increasingly mobile culture.

“A new technology such as the Walka requires significant amounts of investment, however, it is an investment that we are committed to make to ensure that Nigerians and DStv subscribers have access to the latest media and technology available in the market,” he said.

Okunola further said that DStv Mobile’s launch is one of the most innovative products in the Nigerian market of today, describing the Walka as a DVB-H handheld TV device which enables DSTv subscribers to watch television on the go and at anytime.

He recalled that the launch of the Walka follows a long line of technology innovations associated with the DStv brand - including the Drifta, DStv Mobile (access to DStv channels via mobile phone), High Definition personal video recorder (PVR) decoders and integrated customer service tools. 

Additionally, the Managing Director of MultiChoice Nigeria, Mr. John Ugbe, who was represented at the occasion by the Head, Corporate Communications at MultiChoice, Mr. Segun Fayose, said that the launch of Walka underlines the vision of the company to surround television viewers with compelling content anywhere they may find themselves.

“Whether at home, at work, at play or while sitting in traffic, we are determined to provide the avid TV viewer with varied options to catch up with breaking news, sports, current affairs and other programmes,” he said.

Remmy Nweke
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