Africa remains in ITU focus – Sec-Gen Zhao

ITRealms:

The newly elected Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Mr. Houlin Zhao has reassured on the Union’s focus on African continent, reports ITRealms.

Mr. Zhao in his initial Tweet Chat with ITRealms said he would like to see the Africa’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry innovate for further development.

He told ITRealms that ITU is strongly committed to stepping up ITU plans from previous strategies by coming up with new ones to engender its #Connect2020 vision,within which Africa remains a focus.

“Africa remains a focus,” he asserted, stressing that ITU is working on future and emerging technology standards so as to encourage the academia, Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) to join hands and bring about new ideas.

ITU, he told ITRealms would take proactive steps to better gender equality, declaring that stakeholders should expect a minimum two (2) women to be on every Statutory Committee.

He pointed out that following success of ITU’s first-ever #GEMtechAwards which took place as part of the activities at the 2014 Plenipotentiary, maintaining that its instructive that ITU establish an annual #GenderEquality prize.

On his plans for the global youth, Mr. Zhao said an exciting part of the Plenipotentiary was the adoption of ITU’s first Resolution on empowering youth through ICTs.

Mr. Zhao emphasised that he had great meeting with Busan Mayor Suh, insisting that ITU is committed to closely develop youth initiatives, just as he urged global participation in the Child Online Protection initiative, for the sake of “our children.”

@Remmy Nweke @ITRealms

#SME #GenderEquality @ITU #Connect2020 #Plenipot14 #Busan #OnlineSafety COP

 

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Cisco forecasts cloud growth in Middle East, Africa by 2018

ITRealms:

Cisco in its latest fourth annual Global Cloud Index (2013 – 2018) forecast growth in cloud traffic, workloads and storage in the Middle East and Africa (MEA), reports ITRealms.

The Cisco Index also showed to ITRealms that with private cloud significantly outpacing public cloud, experts foresee that in the next five years, data center traffic will nearly triple, with cloud representing 76 per cent of total data center traffic.

“By 2018, half of the world’s population will have residential Internet access and more than half of those users’ (53 per cent) content will be supported by personal cloud storage services,” the study revealed.

ITRealms recalls the United Nations disclosed recently that the world’s projected population by 2018 will be 7.6 billion people.

Equally, the project study indicated that African enterprises are steadily embracing cloud computing as the next big step in the advancement of the Internet. 

This trend, ITRealms gathered is definitely being witnessed on the continent as more and more individuals as well as companies are embracing cloud-based solutions.

Further, ITRealms notes some key highlights from the study for the region to include that from 2013 through 2018, Middle East and Africa is expected to have the second highest cloud workload growth rate. 

Even as Asia Pacific (45% CAGR); Middle East and Africa (39% CAGR); and Latin America (34% CAGR). 

Just as in the Middle East and Africa, data center traffic will reach 366 exabytes per year (30 exabytes per month) by 2018, up from 68 exabytes per year (5.7 exabytes per month) in 2013, a CAGR of 40% from 2013 to 2018.

+Remmy Nweke +Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) +Cisco
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NCC has nothing to hide says Juwah

DigitalSENSE Business News: 

The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah has declared that the Commission has nothing to hide, reports DigitalSENSE Business News.

Welcoming a delegation led by the Chairman, Daily Trust Newspapers, Alhaji Kabiru Yusuf who paid him a courtesy visit, Juwah made this declaration.

Juwah who was making reference to a recent story which appeared in Daily Trust “we at NCC are very receptive to the press who report what we do. We always tell the truth because we have nothing to hide.” Stressing journalists should always seek opinion from various stakeholders including NCC, especially if they have to publish contentious issues. 

Director, Public Affairs at NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo in a press statement made available to DigitalSENSE Business News quoted the EVC as saying that misconceptions come from reporters who do not crosscheck with the Commission, advising that such situation does not augur well for the newspaper, those who read it and those reported.

The EVC further said that “we are always available to work with the media, so please always seek our own side before you publish.” 

According to him, NCC is a key government agency but “we do a lot of things not only for government but Nigerians and investors, “adding that now that we have an interface, we can always discuss issues and come to a reality.”

He explained that on the issue of some of the problems in service provision by operators, that there are drop calls which affect quality of service and this has come about because operators mostly in Abuja have had the misfortune of not expanding their infrastructure particularly the Base Transceiver Stations (BTS)  in the last five or more years, because they have been denied permit by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to do so, apart from the high cost of acquiring land in Abuja.

“But the NCC has intervened on their behalf and in a question of months, the situation will improve significantly,” he said, pointing out that without adequate site permit, it will be difficult to have robust services.

Earlier, the Daily Trust Chairman, Alhaji Kabiru Yusuf, said the visit was to strengthen friendship, asserting “it is not enough to just get reports and publish same. We have to come and see things ourselves.” He later invited the EVC to come over to Daily Trust and field questions from members of the editorial Board for further public enlightenment.

He was accompanied by Alhaji Umar S. Abdullahi, Alhaji Aliyu Akoche, Alhaji Abdullahi Ahnaibu. While members of NCC include Mr. Tony Ojobo, Director, Public Affairs, Mr. Okoh Aihe, Special Assistant on Media to the EVC, Mr. Reuben Muoka, Head Public Relations Unit and Mr. Sonny Aragba-Akpore, Head Media Management Unit.

+Remmy Nweke +Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) @Tony Ojobo @NGRCommTech @NgComCommission #Nigeria

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The Coming Digital TV Revolution

Opinion: DigitalSENSE Business News:

Except something unexpected happens, by July 31 next year, all analogue TV transmission in Nigeria will cease. Essentially all our existing TV stations - Channels, NTA, State TV stations and several others will cease to broadcast signals that can be directly received on our television sets. The world is transiting to digital TV broadcasting and July 31, 2015 has been set as Nigeria’s cut over date. Every television signal will have to pass through a set top box or decoder before being received by a television set.

The most obvious impact is that Nigeria will have to spend an estimated 700 billion naira to purchase decoders if they plan to continue watching television! The big question is how will this come about? Can Nigerian families really afford this, should they spend that much and what can anyone do to ameliorate the expenditure. The elephant in the room question is will it all be worth it?

To answer this question, let us look at the digital satellite TV service currently in the works from CWG and SES. SES is one of the leading communication satellite operators in the world. Her fleet of satellites include the Astra 2G craft whose foot print on the ku-band covers Nigeria and the rest of West Africa with high fidelity signals. SES also has considerable expertise in digital broadcast including operating the HD+ high definition service in Germany as well as being the partner of choice for a variety of other operators. SES’ expertise extends beyond satellites to also include content management and integration into worldwide content distribution networks. CWG has been SES partner in data communications for the past 20 years. CWG operates both a teleport for the upload of signals to SES satellites as well as a Tier 3 Data Centre that provide hosting services for storage and management of content and signals.

CWG and SES have introduced a service that allows any broadcaster to broadcast digital satellite signals that will be received using a variety of standard decoders. These signals will be received all over Nigeria and West Africa. The broadcasters will not need to change their existing equipment but will only need to make minor investment in digital encoders and they are good to go. This means for instance that Zamfara state TV can be received all over Nigeria as well as Osun State TV or Channels TV. IT means State TV broadcasting stations will no longer need to invest in expensive repeater stations in order to cover their states. The Enugu man in Lagos will happily see Enugu State TV in Lagos as well as the Enugu State man can easily see Lagos State TV. 

This is a staggering saving and expansion of reach for the regional or local broadcasters without the attendant significant cost outlay. For this alone, the television viewer will have received the value of digital television. Consider that as at today, it is impossible to keep up with local news if you leave the locality.

The CWG and SES service introduces a totally new dimension to television broadcasting. They are making it possible for any content owner - say a movie producer or a journalist or entertainer or school or church or consultant or government entity - to be able to broadcast 24 hour television which is viewable anywhere in Nigeria. We could be watching National Assembly TV as easily as we could be watching Open University TV or Catholic TV or NAFSAT TV. This is achievable because the CWG/SES system can accept live content as well as recorded content. It can also broadcast standard definition as well as high definition picture quality. We should be expecting an explosion of content of various forms.

TV can be used for not only entertainment but also for education. China’s education system utilizes TV heavily to reach remote locations with standard curricula. This can also be the case in Nigeria. Our falling standard of education can benefit a lot from standard curricula delivered by properly equipped teachers to all school classrooms. This immediately reduces variation in the quality of teaching and also improves the quality of the teachers.

The coming digital television revolution will bring incredible value and opportunities for both viewers, broadcasters and other content owners. CWG and SES aim to be at the centre of this revolution, working with other stakeholders to make the switch to digital TV worth every effort and expense.

*This piece was contributed by the Chief Technology Officer, Computer Warehouse Group Plc, Mr. James Agada.

 

+james agada +Ejiofor Agada
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Pix: @James Agada