ICT sector: Waxing stronger with regulation, policy

The year 2011 could be said to have commenced on a shaky note for the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, especially as the election, every industry wanted to show how much or how well they have contributed to the growth of the economy with potential for further growth in the future, that is after the elections.

Very interestingly President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) has shown that he is ICT savvy when he opened a social media account on Facebook, which at a time growth to multiple Facebook accounts despite the fact that one was designated the official GEJ Facebook page.

Then come a time the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) led by Prof. Attahiru Jega as chairman, insisted on ICT-driven general election processes, starting with the dusting of the Direct Data Capture (DDC) machines agenda, which began his predecessor, Prof. Maurice Iwu, thus paving the way for the acquisition of some 132,000 DDC machines to be used in the registration of voters nationwide.

This step by INEC was obviously seen as giving credibility to elections in the country through data in spite of the controversy that trialed the exercise with the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) and Computer Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN) disagreeing with INEC on the modalities of engagement of supposed experts not registered with them as stipulated by laws of the land, even with court action treats.

ITRealms Online recalls that INEC awarded three firms the contract to supply the 132,000 DDC machines, namely Zinox Technologies Limited - 80,000 units at $1,771.73 per unit. While Messrs Haier Electrical Appliances Corp Ltd was awarded 30,000 units at $1,699.60 per unit and Avante International Technology Incorporated got 22,000 units at $1,699.60 per unit; which brings the total figure to about N34.5 billion when matched with the exchange of 1 United States Dollar to N150, which precisely amounts to about N34,517,640,000 billion.

The bottom line is that Zinox, a Nigerian firm with global aspiration saved the day. And for the Chief Press Secretary to INEC chairman, Mr. Kayode Idowu, the award of the contract, included all taxes and charges, while the machines were to be delivered in 35 days from the date of award, which became public on November 7, 2010 of which duration elapsed on December 12, 2010. Although some instances of public holidays in both Nigeria and China culminated in moving this date forward before December 20.

Zinox he noted eventually met the deadline while Haier reportedly made some supply, whereas Avante’s supplies were missing till after the election. He explained that the reason for Zinox’s contract sum to be slightly higher was because the company being a Nigerian firm is expected to pay the Value Added Tax (VAT) to the government.

The Group Corporate Communication Advisor, Zinox Technologies, Mr. Echika Ezuka told ITRealms Online then that the deployment of 74 supporting staff to aid INEC was simply an act of patriotism as that was not part of the contract to supply 80,000 DDC machines, which was completed almost a week before the registration commenced.

Zinox, he said, had deployed two (2) Information Technology (IT) engineers for each of the 36 States and Abuja, stressing that Zinox published full page color advertisements in all national dailies designed to give vital tips, with graphic details on the DDC machines beginning from, Monday, January 17, 2011, just two days into the voters’ registration exercise.

Ezuka noted that the exercise started nationwide with INEC assuring Nigerians that it had the capacity for an effective voters’ registration, even as he highlighted the fact that the DDC machines, the technology backbone for the exercise had a shaky start in some areas due to the inability of INEC personnel (NYSC ad-hoc staff) to install the machines appropriately.

With assumption of office last quarter of 2010 by the second Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah, the commenced his new year with a message for the operators in the industry, mostly mobile, to brace up for better service delivery as NCC would not tolerate business as usual attitude and unveiled his six point agenda.

He told newsmen that the agenda forms leadership strategies to guide major focus of short, medium and long term actions, programmes and projects during his tenure, noting that NCC in the last 10 years was directed at growing teledensity with the massive deployment of mobile telephony, which resulted in an impressive statistics of over 80 million active lines and more than 110 million connected lines.

The next five years, under his leadership, Juwah said, will focus on six key areas, namely consolidation and integration of mobile wireless services; fixed line and broadband deployment for national development; and enhanced competitive market as well as choice for the consumers.

Also, he listed three other areas of focus to include vigorous compliance monitoring and enforcement of regulations and directions, national connectivity for accelerated growth, enhanced international relations. Hence it was not surprising to many industry watchers when NCC sanctioned Glo for non-compliance over the sale of fully activated new SIM cards and guidelines on technical specification for installation of masts and towers, therefore, Globacom was expected to pay a fine of N1 million within 21 days of receipt of the notice or face further sanctions by the regulatory agency, which claimed that non-compliance and monitoring section had received reports nationwide which indicated that most of the SIM cards sold by Globacom were already fully activated.
 

After several correspondences conveying the findings to Globacom and a directive to fully comply by 17 February, NCC alleged that the company failed to comply, NCC said that further compliance monitoring indicated that Globacom Ltd was, no doubt, in contravention of the directive on the ban on sales of fully activated SIM cards in Anambra, Borno, Kano, Katsina and Plateau states as Globacom SIM cards purchased in April 2011 in these states were fully activated as calls were made unrestricted from the new SIM cards.
 

The Commission thereby issued notice of sanction on Globacom, having failed to comply with the said directive in accordance with the provisions of Section 55 of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003, and the Nigerian Communications (Enforcements Processes etc) Regulation 2005, therefore, liable resulting in Globacom mandated to payment penalty in the sum of N5,000,000 within seven( 7) days from the date of the notice and that additional sum of N500,000 shall be paid by Globacom Ltd every additional day as long as the contravention persists.
 

According to the Head, Media and Public Relations at NCC, Mr. Reuben Muoka, that upon continuous failure to comply with the directive, the Commission may deny Globacom Ltd other regulatory services or invoke its powers under section 45 (a,b & d) of NCA 2003.

May be in living up to his word, Dr. Juwah’s led NCC went further to sound a note of warning to three operators in the last quarter to ensure that  Quality of Service on their networks improves. Thus in October, NCC warned the trio of MTN, Glo and Airtel to improve the quality of services on their respective networks or face sanction, stating that it may stop the three major mobile operators, from further sell of SIM Cards by end of November 2011, if they fail to meet with the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) set by NCC to improve quality of service with immediate effect.

Affirming this Mr. Muoka said that the three operators have been issued a 30-day deadline, effective from November 1, 2011, to reverse the trend, even as the this deadline follows a dismal performance by the three operators on quality of service from the result of an independent monitoring exercise carried out by the Commission across the country which showed that all the three operators failed to meet with four key performance indicators that are crucial for quality of service improvements as set by the Commission.

“Consequently, the Commission has notified the three operators of its intention to issue a direction that with effect from November 30, 2011, any of the operators that fail to meet the targets will be barred from further sale of its SIM Cards or addition of any new subscriber to its network,” he said.

Muoka also informed that any new SIM card sold or additional subscriber added to the network in contravention of the direction, will attract a penalty of N1,000,000 (One Million Naira) per subscriber added. Insisting in a notice of intention to issue the direction to the operators, made available to them that after the expiration of the 30-day deadline, it will strictly enforce the impending direction whose contravention will attract a penalty of N5,000,000 (Five Million Naira), and additional N500,000( Five Hundred Thousand Naira) per day that such contravention persists.

In addition to the above, failure of any of the operators to meet the quality of service targets from November 30, 2011 will attract a fine of N500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) for every month of failure.

Part of the direction read: “It is not in doubt that the customer experience on your network has been far from satisfactory, especially as the Commission has been inundated with complaints from various subscribers on this matter,” it said in the correspondence to the three respective operators in which it expressed concerns that the operators are not doing enough to reverse the trend of unacceptable quality of service which has persisted for too long.

Muoka underscored the fact that the Key Performance indicators measured by the Commission included Call Set Up Success Rate, Call Completion Rate, Stand Alone Dedicated Control Channel and Handover Success Rate.

This no doubt must have necessitated some of the affected operators to oil their efforts, especially MTN and Airtel to ensure that they met the guidelines as it was gathered that they acquired more base stations as at first week of December 2011.

Although, experts were not happy with the Federal Government for her inability to deploy ICT in combating crimes, especially the menace of Boko Haram, even as this school of thought led by former president of Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) and Group Managing Director, Teledom Group, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem.

They urged FG to optimize ICT and save the lives of Nigerians and their properties as well as creating an enabling environment for businesses to thrive by making security top of his agenda.

Another interesting thing that happened in the year 2011 was the creation of Ministry of Communications Technology with Mrs. Omobola Johnson to be the pioneer minister. In her maiden outing in Lagos, Mrs. Johnson outlined the mandate of her ministry and assuring that President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is keen on bridging the digital divide in the country.

She listed some mandates of the Ministry to include promoting and facilitating the development of the ICT industry and in so doing increase the contribution of the ICT industry to GDP. Also by deploying information and communication technologies to drive transparency in governance and improve, she expected the quality and cost effectiveness of public service delivery to improve.

Speaking at her maiden interactive session with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) editors in Lagos, Mrs. Johnson said that this is evident with the creation of the ICT Ministry under her care, which is in response to the calls by stakeholders, simply because he is acutely aware of the strategic and important role ICT plays not only in national development, but in national competitiveness.

Mrs. Johnson maintained that her Ministry was birthed out of years of canvassing by key stakeholders for a supervising Ministry to co-ordinate, facilitate and drive the development of the ICT sector. Even as she recalled that Nigeria had tremendous success in the telecoms sector as a result of the liberalization of the sector.

“Today, we have one of the fastest growing telecoms markets in the world as well as the largest mobile subscriber base in Sub-Saharan Africa,” she said, stressing that unfortunately the Information Technology (IT) sub-sector for a variety of reasons has not been as successful.

“In fact, despite the success of our telecoms industry the ICT sector accounted for only 3.5 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), compared with 10 per cent for South Africa,” she said.

As said by Johnson, the opportunity for Nigerians as a country now comes in how to take the telecoms sector to the next level, namely the data, internet and electronic business as well as how to build a more robust and successful IT industry.

“This is the charge from Mr. President to the Ministry of Communication Technology,” she said, adding that the mandate of the Ministry could be summarized in four key areas, comprising facilitating universal, ubiquitous and cost effective access to communications infrastructure that of course includes a national fibre optic backbone.

Additionally, she said, the ministry is to promote the utilization of ICT in all spheres of life to optimize the communications infrastructure; digital content, domestic software applications, the delivery of private and public services, that is, e-business and e-government.

She further listed some of the implementing agencies within the ICT ministry to consist of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT), the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Galaxy Backbone and the Nigerian Postal service (NIPOST).

Equally, with the launch of the replacement Nigerian Communication Satellite (NigComSAT 1-R) in China, today, Monday, December 2011, the chief executive officer of NigComSAT Limited, Timasaniyu Ahmed Rufai, reassured that it would rewrite the history of the country in the space industry, recollecting that NigComSAT 1-R  was launched by 5pm local time.

Pointing out the potentials for the country, Ahmed-Rufai, noted that Nigcomsat 1R is a replacement satellite of Nigcomsat 1 which was deorbited on November 10,2008 due to solar array problem. He said that NigComSAT1-R built by China Great Wall Industries Corporation{CGWIC}, thus a replacement satellite at no cost to Nigeria. As said by him, the launch was to boost Nigeria’s Global Competitive Index (GDI) ranking as the services will offer telecommunications, broadcast, broadband internet among other customers to greatly enhance the country’s race to achieve the Vision 20:2020 goals of President Goodluck Jonathan’s transformation agenda.

He also said that NIGCOMSAT Limited was incorporated as a limited liability company in April 2006 and charged with the  responsibility to operate and manage NigComSAT starting with NigComSat-1 which was launched May 2007 and de-orbited after 18 months.

A replacement satellite, NigComSat-1R, he pointed out, has the same features but with a few modifications as NigComSat-1. NigComSat-1R, according to him is the second Nigerian Communication satellite, placed into a geosynchronous orbit and positioned at 42.5oE, with a launch mass of 5,100 kg, and has an expected service life of 15 years. Meaning that by 2026 Nigeria will have to launch a new satellite in the same orbital slot.

On a happy note, NCS elected the Group Managing Director of Chams Plc, Sir Demola Aladekomo, as its president while his counterpart at Omatek plc, Mrs. Florence Seriki was elected president of Information Technology Development (Industry) Association of Nigeria (ITAN).

Remmy Nweke

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2010: SIM card registration intrigues top issues (1)

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector may have start the year 2010, but top on the list of stakeholders was the SIM card registration writes REMMY NWEKE.
THE year 2010 must have ended with some intrigues topped by the blues emanating from the processes of making Nigerians to see reason for the registration of their Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards.

Although some considerable progress may have been made, there were some challenges, especially in getting the political class, especially at the National Assembly to initially approve the Federal Government’s nominee for the post of the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the telecommunications regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

Despite this, the year 2010 could be said to have began on a good note with the report coming in from Anambra State that its partnering with the public sector-based Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure provider, Galaxy Backbone Plc, for the provision of internet connectivity with video conferencing capabilities to 110 secondary schools in the state.

This was soon followed with the launch at Awka, the Anambra State capital with the Executive Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi endorsing the contract papers alongside the Managing Director, Galaxy Backbone Plc, Mr. Gerald Ilukwe.

Mr. Obi had noted that the initiative was aligned with his drive to develop human capital and turn the state into a 21st century knowledge society through the provision of network connectivity that is accessible to students and teachers at a fast speed in the Anambra State secondary education system.

His administration, Obi said, has demonstrated the commitment to lift the standard of education in the state with this project.

“You may be familiar with our chequerred recent past in this state, but we are making sure that we will bring the state back to its lost glory, restore hope and move education forward to achieve the desired change in this state,” he said.

He further said that his government has commenced the building of 4,000 classrooms across the state, which he described as the largest anywhere in the country, stressing that not long ago, his administration provided 108 schools with generating sets, and now the internet connectivity to 110 secondary schools in the first phase and actualized the plans to move on to Microsoft Academy for the state.

In his comments, Managing Director, Galaxy Backbone Plc, Mr. Ilukwe exhibited confidence that the deal is a demonstration of the governor’s promise and commitment to raise the standard of education in the state, thus affirming that Anambra people would get the best out of the partnership.

Equally in his remark, the Corporate Executive in-charge of States, Education & Development department of the Galaxy, Mr. Yusuf Kazaure commended Gov. Obi for his efforts at upgrading the standard of education in his domain, stressing that it is a revolution in the annals of the nation’s education sector.

The ICT initiative, he said, would foster collaborative relationships between teachers and students in the development, mostly in sharing of content applications and other resources as well as stimulating capacity building among educational institutions in the state.

“We are committed to the Gov. Obi’s vision for the state and when we are able to succeed at this level, the state will be better for it because the governor’s mission is to turn the state into a 21st century knowledge society,” Kazaure asserted.

He explained that the network connectivity initiative would enhance the development of human capital in the state, maintaining that human capital development is the hope of the world, and that the initiative of the governor would ensure growth in the state in the future.

… As UNILAG graduates 6,134, 87 in computer engineering
Messrs Aladesawe, Adeyemi Omololu and Ndukaife, Justus Chukwunonso were on top of their game last year with their emergence as the best graduating students in Computer Engineering from the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Faculty of the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

The duo clinched first class honours out of the 87 students that graduated and passed out in First Class division out of the 6,134 that graduated between 2007 and year 2009, whereas in the 2007 and 2008 class in the faculty, there was no first class, while four recorded second class upper credit, two in the second class lower, whereas six were successful in the third class.

Master Ndukaife told correspondent at the graduation ground that he remain grateful to God almighty for making it possible, just as he gave kudos to the school authorities in UNILAG in addition to his parents for standing behind him all through the time.

The duo of Aladesawe and Ndukaife led 40 others in their session to emerge, including nine in second class upper, 17 in second class lower, 13 in third class and one emerging pass in the 2009 set.

ITRealms Online recalls that these awards were in tandem with the University of Lagos Act of 1967, which empowered the university to grant degrees, diplomas, certificates and other distinctions as well as to award medals, prizes and other titles. It also provided that the chancellor shall preside at all meetings of the congregation held for conferring degrees.

As said by the Vice Chancellor of UNILAG then, Prof. Tolu Odugbemi in his address titled “A Dream Come True – Not A Nightmare” noting there were 3,525 graduating students for the 2009 convocation. Even as he explained that in the faculty of Arts for instance, there were 316, Education 470, Environmental Sciences 226, Science 329, Social Science 444 and Distance Learning Institute (DLI) recording 1,740.

The occasion was the conferment of honourary doctorate degrees on eminent Africans, scholars, researchers and seasoned diplomats within and outside the country by the university authorities. Some of the beneficiaries included Dr. Kofi Annan with Doctor of Laws, Prof. C.O. Taiwo, and Prof. Umaru Shehu got Doctor of Science respectively while Chief Emeka Anayoku was decorated with Doctor of Literature.

The year under review also witnessed the chairmanship of the President, Internet Service Providers Association of Nigeria (ISPAN), Chief Samuel Adeleke at the 2010 edition of annual Nigeria DigitalSENSE forum, which focuses on the evolutions on the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).

The organizers through the Executive Director, Operations, DigitalSENSE Africa, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, said the best person to take over the chairmanship of the event from Chief Chima Onyekwere, was Adeleke and called to mind that the chairman of Linkserve Group, the pioneer ISP firm in the country, Chief Onyekwere presided over the forum in 2009, while Adeleke is the chairman and chief executive officer, Steineng Limited since January 1999.

She expressed belief that the exploit will be repeated when the 2010 edition of the forum held on Friday, April 16 opened on the ‘Five years of IGF: The way forward for Nigeria’ as part of efforts at preparing Nigeria for the global Internet Governance Forum which held in Vilnius, Lithuania between September 14 and 17, 2010.

In his acceptance speech to preside over the annual Nigeria DigitalSENSE forum, Chief Adeleke regretted not being available during the last year’s forum physically which he said, was followed religiously through the internet.

He also said that there is no doubt the feat of last edition of the forum would be repeated this year given the quality of speakers and attendance as well as the arrangements on ground to make it a success.

Adeleke further commended the organizers of the forum, DSA, for their foresight in finding value in putting such a forum together for the education and enlightenment of Nigerians, especially the internet community in the country, more so on the growing relevance of Internet Governance Forum.

He stressed the need to consistently keep Nigeria and its internet community on their toes at this era where information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have continuously been identified as veritable tool for development.

“We need to mobilize and participate in this forum for our own good and good of our customers using a global best bench mark,” he said.

e-Tax solution:
As the year 2010 gains moment, the Signals Mega Concept (SMC) Limited, an information and communication (ICT) marketing company, introduced Point-of-Sales electronic tax (POS e-TAX) into the Nigerian market. This the Managing Director of SMC, Mr. Benjamin Onigbinde, said POS e-Tax is an electronic tax payment solution that runs on Point of Sales Terminals with designated tax card.

He noted that the proportion of the population that pay tax is very small, insisting that most of them fall under the Pay As You Earn (PAYEE) system; where tax is deducted directly from income, just as the logistics of this tax collection has not made it easy for would-be tax payers to meet this constitutional obligation.

He highlighted some of the challenges to include handling at payment points, security, accountability, and long queues, stressing that for the government’s revenue drive to achieve a maximum to have impact, a system that will make the tax payment easy and convenient needs to be introduced.

Also, Onigbinde said the scope of the solution covers deployment of statewide online Point of Sales (POS) Terminals, production of a special designed tax card, explaining that the solution runs an online sophisticated network system linking tax offices, and other revenue collection agencies to the participating banks.

“POS e-TAX will not only solve the problem of tax collection but will create a database of information that will be valuable to the government,” he said, outlining the benefits to include improving revenue collection, remove cash leakage because there will be no cash payment, improve service delivery and standard, better reach to tax payers and easy to dispense, administrative convenience (easier reconciliation) and more information to assist decision making.

NATCOMS wants a place @ NCC board
The year 2010 saw one of the consumer rights groups in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, the National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS) wanting a consumer representative in the board of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The national president of NATCOMS, Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, made this call while evaluating ‘A Decade of NCC’s Telecommunications Consumerism,’ just as he solicited voice call tariff reduction to N20.00.

This, he said, has become vital because it was provided for in the Nigeria Communications Act, arguing that if the operators pay their dues to NCC as stipulated by the Act based on subscribers’ patronage of these operators, it is imperative to have a consumer representation in the board of NCC.

He also cited an instance, with the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), where the President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is represented in the board, saying there are several other government agencies, councils, commissions, parastatals that have relevant industry non-governmental organizations on the board.

Another instance, according to him, is the inclusion in the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) a representative of the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN) in the board and wanted to know who is representing “the Consumer in the board of NCC as provided for in the Nigerian Communications Commission Act?”

*Continues next week.

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How DOREGOS produced youngest MCP students

TITUS ELEWEKE reports in Daily Champion on the upsets made in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) by two pupils at Doregos Private Academy.

WHEN we read about young people making break-through and achievements in various fields such as medicine and Information and Communications Technology (ICT), most times we feel that such feat can only come from outside the shores of Nigeria.

However, this notion is fast changing gradually. When you talk about achievement in the field of Information Technology, the name Bill Gates is a household name considering the fact that he started at a very tender age of 13 and today owes the biggest computer corporation in the world, Microsoft.

Many Nigerians would like to know when a young Nigerian comes up with such an outstanding achievement considering the myriad of challenges facing the Nigerian child and the country’s level of involvement and development in ICT. For us, Nigerians, it would seem impossible at least for some years to come, but with the recent development, we do not need to wait for so long as the much awaited ICT revolution in Nigeria has began to take place from the Doregos Private Academy, Lagos.

On Friday 13th February, Davidson Oseremen and Alade Oluwaseun, aged between 12 and 13 respectively, emerged as the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) in the country.

The two students are in Senior Secondary one (SS1), Science students from Doregos Private Academy. In its bids to make in-road in ICT the school is one of the first to embrace ICT training for her students as introduced by New Horizons Systems Solutions Limited, the initiator and brain behind training of Information Technology courses in Nigerian schools; from primary to tertiary institutions.

The school, thus, started the ICT partnership programme with New Horizons Systems Solutions Limited in 2005, thereby making her one of the first schools in Nigeria to integrate ICT training into her academic curriculum from JSS 1.

It could be recalled that the proprietress of the school, Mrs. C.A. Doregos made a statement that “as a result of our ICT partnership with New Horizons Systems Solutions Limited, we stand a greater chance of retaining all the trophies and medals we have won in various ICT competitions in the past ...., our students also have a professional touch to computer training.”

The decision to embrace ICT by the school has endeared it to the hearts of many parents and guardians as records have shown that for some parents who came late to enroll their children in the school it was a case of being first come first serve as many were turned back because most of the classes were already filled to capacity.

This development is traceable to the disciplined, leadership and excellent management style of the management and staff of the school coupled with the partnership with New Horizons.

According to the proprietor of the school, Mrs. C.O. Doregos, since it started partnership with New Horizon, the school has won several awards both at the state and international levels. In 2008, the school won the best ICT students award in Lagos State.

She said Agu Agatha and Davidson Oseremen have assembled Personal Computer System at Sheraton Hotel and Towel in 2007. The school came first in the Young Science Technology Association competition held in Ibadan and later represented Nigeria in Brazil for the International Science EXPO where Nigeria won five medals and two trophies.

The school won three medals out of the five carted home by Nigeria and it came first in the National Secondary Schools Intellectual Capacity Building competition, and Nigerian Science Fair.

New Horizons, one of the world leading IT company and the first to fully integrate professional ICT certification courses into Nigerian universities and schools academic curricula has expressed happiness to be associated with these achievements, particularly the success of Alade Oluwaseun and Davidson Oseremen, for being the youngest MCPs’ in Nigeria.

New Horizon company implements world class-standard ICT curriculum using certified IT instructors with original courseware certified by IT vendors for training both primary and secondary students.

This achievement is in fulfillment of the vision of Bill Gates who desired that Information Technology be taught to young people across the world at a very early stage in life would bring about the sharpening of young Nigerians’ minds in IT related issues.

According to the principal of the academy, Mr. J.O. Adebayo ‘New Horizons no doubt packages World class ICT curriculum for our students and we are enjoying it’.

Also, the proprietress stated that she is happy and excited that her school has produced the youngest Microsoft Certified Professionals (MCPs) in the country.

She said her students are doing well in ICT and other areas of education, because New Horizons has been a blessing to the school in terms of developing the ICT skills of the students

She advised school owners and administrators to allow professionals to handle their ICT training rather than allowing all comers to continue to teach their students, adding that this will have a great effect in developing technology in Nigeria by providing the right skills, knowledge and tools for the students.

She recommended New Horizons ICT Partnership programme to all schools, so that they can breed world class students that would be innovative in technology to change face Nigeria.


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Experiencing Nokia N96 excitement

Review:

Preamble:
Yes, the expectation was high and African continent was not excluded and it came to pass that last quarter saw the continental launch of Nokia N96 in the region.

For Nigeria, a continuously growing telecommunications and precisely the fastest mobile market cannot be over-emphasized.

As a mobile device, Nokia N96 is a tool never to regret having it around, especially when one finds him or her self in the ever changing mobile world like we live in today.

Although the first attempt was to go to the preloaded demo to showcase the values embedded in the device, which ended up being cranky, making it imperfect to run, hence discouraging. But determined to see it all, it was easy to understand that the demo came with good intention, though the cracks could be from the number of copies conducted at a given time, according to experts.

Optimizing PIM:
Nevertheless, it was easy to switch between another compatible phone, mostly of Nokia model with N96, culminating that in less than three minutes after connection was paired, it switched 873 contacts, 58 calendar entries, 114 text messages, 23 Multimedia Service (MMS), 2 notes, 17 bookmarks without any hassles or further prompts. This gave credence to the claim of its data transfer application ability for the transmission of Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) information from other compatible Nokia devices.

PIM is a collection of multicast routing protocols, each optimized for a different environment. There are two main PIM protocols, namely the PIM Sparse Mode and PIM Dense Mode. A third PIM protocol, Bi-directional PIM, is less widely used.

However, this PIM innovation is a plus, as it made it comfortable to transfer details from an old phone, for instance, to a new one; which most of the time is the challenge and majorly why most people are very adamant to change their mobile handsets, unless it got bad eventually and become technically unrepairable or stolen.

Local synchronization:
These much was actualized via local synchronization of the two phones for contacts and calendar among other data, even as it is viable with a compatible Personal Computer (PC) using compatible connection. But one must be wary of where the information is emanating, whether from the old phone to the new one or vice versa, but it is advisable to dwell more in terms of exercising with the new phone than the old one, so as not to loose data due to erroneous attempt.

N96, therefore, was able to notify on the number of contacts switched, as nothing was changed in the contacts, thus encouraging and could be a marketing instrument for the model.

Basically, on inserting of any new Subscriber Identification Module (SIM), the N96 handset would ask if you would like the new SIM contact to be displayed in the contact and if the user decided on the negative, the choice becomes no.

The camera:
For the N96 camera, it seems difficult to find and operate compared to N82. In N96 you have to press the camera button and hold; hence overriding every thing about the phone, which initially takes the user to the camera mode and another press and hold then amounts to capturing of images. This, to an extent of someone who wants an easy and quick capture, is unarguably slow.

But for quicker actions, users have to navigate through the standard depending on individual settings, may be from the front displayed menu; discover the camera and then capture, which still entails press and hold until it snaps.

N96 dangles 5 megapixel with 2 pixels of the secondary camera based on Carl Zeiss Optics: Tessar lens, the auto-focus, and exposure pave the way for dual-Light-Emitting Diode (LED) camera flash, video light, recording indicator, auto-focus assist light and so on.

Multimedia:
Interestingly, from the front row button of multimedia; television (tv), video, live, my videos, video feeds, directory, last watched are simply enticing and therefore could be easily accessed.

With the C drive reflecting the phone memory worth 56.2 Megabytes (Mb), the E drive which is the removable Mass memory is valued to be 13.7 Gigabyte (Gb), N96 offers rotatory screens like most high-end NSeries, especially the popular Nigerian check-check phone, the N82.

Although the mobile TV could have been exciting as well, but due to most Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) operators are yet to make such service available, it thereby proved difficult currently to connect, especially when operators are not at home with the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB).

But then, individual could watch video on it very clearly and is exciting to have the inbuilt video clips otherwise known as Video on Demand (VoD), which in fact could be self recorded when busy to be watched later either at home or still on the move.

Car charger:
The car charger refer to in Nokia parlance as Mobile Charger DC-4 is handy in a situation like Lagos-Nigeria where power supply is still epileptic and as a mobile executive, getting home late to discover there was no electricity supply could be a hard stress.

Typically, when you realize one has to be on the move the following morning and there is no hope for the public power to be restored before then and even if, how long would you charge the battery before returning to traffic once again.

So, with your N96 car charger compatible, one could easily put it on and connected to the handy while on the move, so that by the time you get to the destination, your phone must have charged enough in a daily traffic that spans not less than four hours.

Bluetooth Speakers:
The Nokia Bluetooth Speakers MD-7W, are compatible with N96 and offer the room for users to enjoy high-quality stereo sound wirelessly. They also deliver optimized Third Dimension (3D) sound, thus providing a stereo-wide experience, and dynamic bass control for a strong bass performance.

To enjoy this feature, one has to attach the speakers magnetically for convenient portability of which power and battery life could be viewed through the LED indicator.

Additionally, its Bluetooth connection was one hand. Although, it’s transfer of data to a laptop appeared slower than that of N82; That is, if the Bluetooth transfer of data could complete in thirty (30) seconds on N82, it takes N96 about 50 seconds to accomplish.

While the headset connection creates some difficulties in linking up, making it vulnerable to compete with like of other high-end Bluetooth results among competition, like Sony Ericsson.

Voice command:
One thing that distinguishes Nokia Nseries, especially the N96 is the quality of its voice command. Although at first, one has to really undergo checks on the voice recognition otherwise it could always ask you ‘if you mean Kem’ when you asked for ‘Nkem’.

Therefore it is relevant to note that the voice command needs a neutral English speaker to conducted the voice over that is finally inputted into the models, otherwise it would become endless ‘if you mean …” Or, may be, engaging voice experts from various regions of the world to encourage and stimulate the use of Voice command, which is very important for those who prefer hands-free usage most of the times.

Easy WLAN:
There was a hot debate going on and yours sincerely was at the highbrow Victoria Island in Lagos, precisely at the Civic Centre, and needed to be online while waiting for a meeting to take off, it was not difficult to discover the Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) in that vicinity, as it propelled the move to sign-on and was part of the debate. Hence encouraging for mobile people and for those who still want to be connected to the global village no matter where they are.

Last line:
Above all, it is a tool to buy, if you really need to be mobile.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

2008: A year of convergence

Broadcasters, NCC spoil for war over 2.5G


Broadcasters under the aegis of Microwave Multi-channels Distribution Systems (MMDS) operators in the country are spoiling for war with the telecommunications regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), over the declaration of commercial frequency bands available for licensing by NCC, especially on 2.5G spectrum.
Even as NCC has announced plans to audit the frequency spectrum already occupied in the 2.5-2.7 Gega Hertz (GHz) and 2.3 GHz bands.
This is coming as MMDS operators, penultimate week raised alarm over NCC’s plans to auction the Enhanced Second Generation (2.5G) spectrum being occupied by most of its members nationwide.
According to the Director, Public Affairs at NCC, Mr. Dave Imoko, the commission intends to assign portions of the 2.5 – 2.7 and 2.3 GHz bands for commercial telecommunications use in the near future, following the formal release of the bands to the commission by the National Frequency Management Council (NFMC).
Consequently, he said, this authorization paves the way for authentication and obtaining of an accurate data on all service providers or users already licensed by both the NCC, National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) or any other competent authority empowered by NFMC.
He, therefore, implored every operator on the affected frequency to provide details of their authorization to the commission for authentication and update.
“All operators or users of spectrum in the frequency range 2500-2690 MHz and 2300-2400 MHz are hereby directed to supply the following information in respect of their authorizations,” he stated in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online.
Mr. Imoko, also outlined relevant documents required for the current authentication exercise to include a photocopy of the letter of assignment, of which the originals could be sighted on demand; photocopy of receipts for payment of spectrum renewal fees for the past three years.
“Photocopy of receipts for payment of spectrum renewal fees for 2006, 2007 and 2008 or from the date of assignment if less than 3 years,” he declared, which could be sighted on demand as well.
Current occupants are further required to provide information on their operational status and states in operation in addition to the detailed contact address of head office or operational base.
These, must include the name of the company, street address, city and state, telephone numbers (fixed & mobile) as well as the electronic mailing (e-mail) address.
Equally, NCC demanded for the name, contact address, e-mail and telephone number(s) of official representative or contact person.
As said by him, the above information should be forwarded to the chief executive officer of the commission in Abuja on or before January 16, 2009.
Additionally, NCC declared its intention to commercialize the frequency bands that are available to prospective companies and investors in the industry nationwide.
Imoko gave the list of some available frequency bands which NCC plans to offer for auction to qualified investors to include the core Third Generation (3G) Time Division Duplex (TDD) spectrum band, namely in block B: 1912.5-1917.5 Mega Hertz (MHz) TDD, block D: 2010-2025MHz TDD and block F: 2155-2175MHz TDD.
He pointed out that on 2.3 GHz band, NCC intends to offer 2300 – 2320 MHz bands available nationwide, except in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt.
The contentious 2.5-2.7GHz Band in TDD cum Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) would be offered in the 2500-2690 Mega Hertz (MHz) available nationwide and presently being re-farmed from other services to telecommunications.
Equally, the 5.4 GHz band, that is 5470-5725 TDD, that are available nationwide, would be auctioned alongside the 1800 MHz band in the 1785-1805 TDD spectrum.
Imoko pointed out that the announcement is, in the mean time, mainly for the information of the public as more details about the qualifying conditions for participation in the assignment process will soon be published.
ITRealms Online recalls that NCC had in the past auctioned some spectrum including three carriers in the 3.75 MHz within the 800 MHz spectrum band, 3G licensing, Digital Mobile Licensing (DML) popular known as the Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications, Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and Second National Operator (SNO)
However, preempting the possible conflict that may accompany the latest proposal by NCC, the MMDS operators, two weeks ago, warned on any attempt to recoup its members existing frequencies which are dominantly in the 2.5G.
Sounding the note of caution, MMDS operators, through the Vice president of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) and chief executive, Disc Communications Limited, Chief Bayo Banjo, said that 2.5G range of spectrum, have been designed for use of digital television broadcast as well as broadband provisioning, through deployment of various formats like the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) among other broadband deliveries.
MMDS operators who are predominantly providers of broadcasting services using the 2.5G licensed spectrum, also said relevant consultations were not carried out by NCC before the announcement, although ITRealms Online gathered that last weekend saw series of meetings in camera among stakeholders.
According to Banjo, non-consultation prior to the proclamation brings about illegality and detrimental to the growth of the nation, noting that 2.5G spectrum has been in use by them in the past 15 years, after dully licensed by NBC and approved by the National Frequency Management Commission.
He made it clear that same licenses were renewed early 2008 for another five years and fully paid for as required by law.
“We would like to take this seriously because some of us have seen officials of NCC snooping around licensed MMDS operators with their spectrum analyzers, to determine what spectrum is in use,” he said, stressing that over the years, MMDS operators had invested over $40 million on expansion programme and for ordering of equipment, explaining that the NBC had in the last two years, forced all operators to scrap their analogue systems and go digital.
“Across the nation, all MMDS operators have scraped their equipment, lost all subscribers and have had to start from scratch. We are presently building up our subscriber base and have ordered thousand of digital decoders which have been paid for. We have also ordered WIMAX equipment in order to migrate simultaneously to broadband Internet Protocol Tv (IPTV) broadcast,” Banjo noted.
The operators further wondered if MMDS operators are lesser Nigerians that they cannot provide bandwidth and do triple play to merit such action from NCC.
He explained that the 2.5G spectrum, is currently regarded as a medium that allows operators to bridge the gap among all the diverse ethnic groups in the country, insisting that it should not auctioned.
Noting that NCC has lots of telecommunication spectrums to play with including the 3.2G, 2.3G, which is the most developed WiMAX frequency with the highest penetration of broadband.
According to him, the MMDS operators find it strange that NCC is considering auctioning of the 2.5G spectrum.
He called on NCC to have a rethink, while calling on government to intervene as quickly as possible.

What You should know about Twitter (1)

W
here did the idea for Twitter come from?
Jack Dorsey had grown interested in the simple idea of being able to know what his friends were doing.
Specifically, Jack wondered if there might be an opportunity to build something compelling around this simple status concept.
When he brought the idea up to his colleagues, it was decided that a prototype should be built.
Twitter was funded initially by Obvious, a creative environment in San Francisco, CA.
The first prototype was built in two weeks in March 2006 and launched publicly in August of 2006.
The service grew popular very quickly and it soon made sense for Twitter to move outside of Obvious. In May 2007, Twitter Incorporated was founded.

Why do so many people seem to like Twitter?
Simplicity has played an important role in Twitter’s success. People are eager to connect with other people and Twitter makes that simple.
Twitter asks one question, “What are you doing?”
Answers must be under 140 characters in length and can be sent via mobile texting, instant message, or the web.
Twitter’s core technology is a device agnostic message routing system with rudimentary social networking features.

The year 2008 largely witnessed the understanding that convergence of technologies, is the way to grow the industry, reports REMMY NWEKE.

Preamble:
Though it was proclaimed by the telecommunications regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to be the nation’s year of broadband, 2008 turned out to be the year of convergence for the industry.
This, industry observers said, is not far from the outline by NCC because broadband tends to be the oil with which convergence is delivered to the populace and entails that no expert discusses convergence without the need to delve into essentials of broadband.

.ng MoU, a new beginning:
The year 2008 commenced in the sector with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) entering an agreement with the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) to herald a new beginning for the Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD), name .ng.
Although the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the management of the nation’s Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD), .ng, attracted commendations from stakeholders and the Internet community precisely, most of them described it as a positive chapter in the annals of Internet development in the country, which heralded the formal handover of the management of the ccTLD after long years of controversy that surrounded the evolution of dot ng.
This much was regarded as a key legacy of the former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, based on his willingliness to see the transformation of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) industry in Nigeria.
Thus the responsibility now rests on the members of the Internet community under the aegis NiRA in the country to tap into this development by ensuring that from banks to government institutions and other private sector entities, down to individuals should ensure that they relocate or rename their domain names to include .ng, mostly since domain name registration on .ng is still largely the cheapest in the world as of today.

NiRA’s 13-policy documents:
Following the MoU NiRA signed with NITDA, the Internet association invited comments on 13-policy documents to guide its operations.
NiRA President, Mr. Ndukwe Kalu, noted that the group called for comments on the 13-policy documents to facilitate the formal commencement of activities after the MoU was signed.
“These policies are finally out for comments, debates and inputs,” he declared, adding that the first sets of policies are domain related which are 11 in number, including, policy development process, domain name policy, special domain name policy, fees policy, privacy policy and dispute resolution policy.
He listed others to comprise policies on general registration rules, registrant agreement, registrar agreement, registrar accreditation process and glossary as contained in the policy documents.
Additionally, Mr. Kalu pointed that apart from the above 11 named documents, there were two policy documents specifically mapped out to ensure good corporate governance in management of affairs of NiRA, thus aligning its procedure with international best practices.

NATCOMS backs GSMA on free anti phone theft:
Before the month of January 2008 could end, the National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS) voiced its insistence on free Anti-Mobile Phone Theft (AMOPHT) services in the country, appealing to the industry regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and telecommunications operators not to ignore its plea.
A few days earlier, the global umbrella body of the mobile telecommunications and Third Generation (3G) operators, the Global System for Mobile Association (GSMA), had reiterated its position on the services being free, even as it equally disagreed with NCC over the management of the International Mobile Equipment Identify DataBase (IMEI-DB) in the country.
NATCOMS also threatened to drag NCC and operators to the law court, if eventually all entreaties fell on deaf hears, just as the group planned to take its case to the Presidency and National Assembly.
Sounding this New Year warning, NATCOMS national president, Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, said that the onus is on both NCC and telecoms operators to provide free anti-mobile phone theft service to the nation’s teeming subscribers as it is free in any other part of the world where such initiative exists.
Recalling that NATCOMS in 2005 commenced an Anti-Mobile Phone Theft Initiative tagged Anti-MOPHTI project at the monthly edition of NCC-organised Telecoms Consumer Parliament. “Everyone present then agreed that something should be done to stop the criminal menace,” he asserted, stressing that as a follow up, NATCOMS wrote an Anti-MOPHTI proposal through the Presidency to NCC as at March 20, 2006, which was acknowledged by April 19 of the same year.
NCC went on to invite NATCOMS for a meeting on the details of Anti-MOPHTI alongside the representatives of Newstream Technologies Limited, the company being touted to be behind regulator’s motive to introduce charges over the battle against phone theft.
“We should always do things according to and in line with international best practices, which in this case must be free of any charges to Nigerian subscribers as supported by the GSM Association – International,” he said.

Stakeholders meet on draft ICT4D:
In the first quarter of 2008, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) supported the gathering of stakeholders in ICT in Lagos to brainstorm on the nation’s ICT for Development (ICT4D) draft organised by the National IT Development Agency (NITDA).
In his message to the occasion, Director-General, NITDA, Prof. Cleopas Angaye represented by Director, Technical Services, Dr. Moses Ubaru, said that the workshop has become imperative to ensure that Nigeria achieved the set goals.
“It is important to note that the direct relevance and usefulness of the Nigeria ICT4D plan in achieving the present administration’s Seven-Point agenda and positioning Nigeria amongst the 20 leading economies by year 2020,” he said, pointing out that the final document, which formed the outcome of the workshop was presented to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for approval.
He noted that in sub-Sahara Africa, only South Africa made substantial progress in leapfrogging its economy through ICT with heavy investment made in the last 10 years to build robust ICT infrastructure and developed sufficient human capacity to manage same, as at January 31, 2008.

Transcorp insists NITEL is on course:
Also the first quarter of 2008, saw the owners of Nigeria Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and its mobile arm, Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTel), the Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (TRANSCORP), insisting that the transformation, which commenced six months earlier is on course.
Then Group Managing Director, Transcorp, Mr. Tom Iseghohi, said that contrary to insinuations, Transcorp is making progress in working with other stakeholders to restore NITEL and MTel to enviable positions.
“We’re following a rigorous but disciplined process in working with the management of NITEL and MTel as well as other stakeholders to ensure that these organisations return to efficiency and profitability. In doing this, we must avoid the mistakes of the past,” he said.
On the revocation of the sale of NITEL, he said that such calls are mischievous. “Such calls are not only mischievous but illogical. Those making such calls are the beneficiaries of the misfortune of NITEL, the perpetrators or their agents,” he alleged and planned to retrench workers was not in the agenda of the organisation as at the early part of 2008.
Transcorp later in the year appointed American, Mr. Kevin Caruso as the new managing director of NITEL, while Iseghohi was elevated to chairman, NITEL board.

NCC worried over unavailable emergency numbers:
Worried by the unavailability of emergency numbering system NCC, assembled telecommunications operators to a one-day session to deliberate on this matter and chart a way forward.
The meeting was attended by stakeholders in emergency-related entities, like the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and a consultant as well as all the key three Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) operators, namely Glo, MTN and Zain then Celtel.
Executive Commissioner at NCC, Mr. Stephen Bello, informed participants that the commission was very concerned, hence, it’s championing the meeting, noting that various categories of gathering have been scheduled with relevant stakeholders to enable adequate inputs from the generality of the nation’s interest parties. Also, Mr. Bello said that NCC was contemplating introduction of some emergency numbers, namely 999, 111, 123 and 555.

Operators decry incessant summons:
GSM operators in 2008, decried constant invitation to attend a meeting by the National Assembly. Noteworthy, was that between the last quarter of 2007 and first quarter of 2008, there was no fortnight without operators being summoned to Abuja by members in the name of trying to find a solution to the lingering poor quality of service (QoS) in the land.
The operators, also indicated that they planned formal protest to President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, over the effect of the weekly summons, which had become irritating, through its umbrella body, the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON).
They expressed dismay over the insistence by the National Assembly for only chief executives to lead the team each time such a meeting was called. “What we asked is an enabling environment to do our business. Our business is not conducted at the National Assembly, and we need to deploy our executive time to our businesses,” one of the operators fumed, after the public hearing at the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
“We have the telecommunications laws and regulations that guide our operations in this country, and we have not defaulted in any one of them, and if we did, we expect the NCC to give sanctions as provided by law and not the National Assembly,” our source lamented.

Chams takes 3 subsidiaries to capital market:
Leading indigenous Information Technology (IT) firm specializing in plastic card technologies and electronic payment solutions, Chams Nigeria Limited, in the year under review advanced plans to list its three subsidiaries in the capital market this year, 2009.
Managing Director, Chams, Mr. Demola Aladekomo, who disclosed this, said that it’s in line with the aspiration of the company to make the firm an enlarged player in the nation’s economy in the coming years.
Chams group has as its subsidiaries four firms, namely Chams Nigeria Limited, Card Centre Nigeria Limited, Paymaster Limited and Supercard Nigeria Limited.

Omatek exits SME scheme
Local manufacturer of computers and allied Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Omatek Computers Limited, successfully exited the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Scheme, even as it headed to the capital market by mid-year 2008.
Group Managing Director, Omatek Computers, Mrs. Florence Seriki said that the announcement brought to conclusion the SME synergy between her company and two leading banks in the country, GTBank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc.
Equally, she said that a new subsidiary has been formed; Omatek Power & Engineering Services Limited (OPESL), which manages the back-up support for all Omatek brands from the resource centres to 600 VA Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) to 100KVA as well as batteries and inverters among others.

Zinox commences 5,000 PC daily outputs:
Zinox Computers in April last year, commenced daily commercial output of 5,000 personal computers from its modern factory in Lagos.
Chairman, Zinox Technologies, owners of Zinox brand, Dr. Leo Stan Ekeh, disclosed this while conducting the former President, Information Technology Association of Nigeria (ITAN), Chief Chris Uwaje round the new factory, which was commissioned in April 2008 to raise installed capacity of the brand to 5,000 systems daily.
Thus, a perfect answer for those who are wondering on the capacity of the local Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to deliver on numbers. Additionally, he said that the new factory tend to address the aspiration of Nigerians that the IT sector should lead the trade expansion into West Africa, thereby providing employment for Nigerians and citizens of the sub region.

DaarComms is the power house:
The month of February 2008, saw the pioneer private broadcasting entity, Daar Communications Plc, proclaiming it dreamt of a digitised media powerhouse to serve the needs of the continent and beyond, as the company said the bulk generated from its Initial Public Offer (IPO) would be for migration of its equipment from analogue to digital systems.
This dream became reality with DaarComms introducing a new digitised pay TV with 40 channels in October 2008, in a grand styled launch that attracted who is who in the nation’s political and broadcasting industry, with president Yar’Adua performing the official ceremony.
DaarComms’ IPO sold 960,000,000 ordinary shares, to raise N10 billion deal of 50 kobo each at N5 per share, which would lasted till the end of March, 2008, according to its Chairman, Dr. Raymond Dokpesi.

Microsoft Nigeria empowered 2500 youths:
Microsoft Corporation, during the year under review empowered 2500 Nigerian youths, as said by the Citizenship Manager, Microsoft West Africa, Mrs. Jummai Umar-Ajijola.
She said that Microsoft rates Nigeria top on its priority list while other countries of note include Senegal and Kenya to name a few, adducing that this was the reason for the commencement of its Youth Employability Programme (YEP) in the country in collaboration with the International Youth Foundation (IYF).
She also said that within the unlimited potential programme of Microsoft, that by November last year, 2,500 Nigerian youths were selected and trained nationwide to become employable with placement of at least 70 per cent of this figure in jobs would have been accomplished.
To this end, she said, Microsoft is partnering with local non-governmental organisation, Leadership Africa Programme (LEAP) and job placement agencies to accomplish these goals, with the youths, aged between 13 and 18 were involved in the programme.

ATCON summit on local content:
Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), hosted stakeholders to a summit on local content, as well as ComBIT, its reformed NICOMM exhibition and conference; opened by former Minister for Information and Communications, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki Nakande.
President, ATCON, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, who secured a second term, said that the one-day stakeholders summit on Local Content Development in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, focused on examining the challenges faced in developing local contents in the sector.
The summit, he said, equally enabled stakeholders to develop a position paper for a policy framework on local content development in the nation, even as ATCON feels strongly that local ICT infrastructure providers require some measure of protection against their multinational counterparts whose corporate strength could extinguish the local players.
Noting that local hardware and software developers must be given some kind of support to enable them grow, expand and continue to provide employment to millions of Nigerians.
“It is envisaged that if government and other relevant institutions, like the financial institutions, do not provide adequate protection and support to our local ICT industrialists, they would be heading towards economic doom,” he warned.

… Canvasses registration of SIM cards:
Worried by increasing crime rate within the GSM networks, the ATCON during its 2008 Annual General Meeting (AGM) listed top on its agenda the proposal for urgent accreditation of Subscriber Identification Modules (SIMs) nationwide, which was intended to automatically halt the hawking of SIM packs on the streets.
Eight months later, the concept received green light from stakeholders led by NCC, which formed part of essential steps in the right direction that were taken in the year just ended year, 2008.
SIM pack contains SIM card and other valuable information for customers or potential subscribers. SIM card is a small electronic card also called smart card used in mobile phones which carries the phone number, the operator’s serial numbers and used in identifying a telecom subscriber on a given network for billing and sundry services as well as a device for storing information in mobile phones for Security Information Management (SIM) purposes; a concept in data security which transfers from one mobile handset to another as far as the handsets in question have cellular modules.
ATCON national president, said it would aid national security greatly, and stressed that the call has become necessary due to the security repercussions, and requested for mandatory call data retention database of all telecom operators to boost cyber-security initiatives of the government, as well as advocating that this database be highly classified as confidential and passworded, and restricted to on-line access to subscriber bio-database by appropriate law enforcement agencies via a multilaterally agreed access due process.

Etisalat goes commercial with Easy Starter:

Several months after its media launch, the fifth GSM operator, Etisalat Nigeria, made its commercial launch with a prepaid platform known as Easy Starter, the first from Etisalat, according to the Vice President, Marketing, Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Wael Ammar.
Easy Starter uniqueness, he said, distinguishes Etisalat operations as a Nigerian brand of prepaid on the network and comes with a robust range of unique offering.
“The Easy Starter is the first prepaid package from Etisalat with a robust range of services geared towards giving subscribers value and optimized talk time,” he said.
Looking back at the commercial launch, Ammar said that eager subscribers have continued to throng the company’s designated centers to redeem their reserved numbers and take advantage of its unique service offerings. Noting that redemption centers, including Etisalat shops nationwide and selected branches of Oceanic Bank, Sweet Sensation and Big Treat Supermarket, have continued to play host to a large turn out of subscribers in a bid to redeem their Easy Starter prepaid packs, depending on their choice under the pre-commercial launch campaign, 0809uchoose.
The Unified Access Licensee (UAL), Etisalat Nigeria, further said it’s eyeing to become one among the global 10 mobile operators by 2010.
Remarkably too, was the pre-launch of Etisalat Nigeria’s 0809uchoose, with a promise to replicate what the operator did in Egypt, where it is on record that it achieved over a million of subscribers in 12 months after a commercial unveiling.
The 0809uchoose option which allowed subscribers to reserve special numbers and gain five minutes free airtime for life.

Numbering plan:
Subject of concern within the year under review was the planned adoption of portable numbering plan, which the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), NCC, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, said that apart from enthroning convergence in the polity would boost market evolution, when eventually it comes up stream.
Speaking at the four-day workshop organised by NCC in collaboration with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Lagos, Dr. Ndukwe, who was represented at the occasion by the former Communications Minister and NCC commissioner, Chief Olawale Ige, noted that Nigeria as a leading country on the continent in terms of mobile communications, has continued to record success, even as it has surpassed South Africa in terms of mobile subscriber base.
Described as a cornerstone for market evolution and growth, the EVC noted that introduction of portable numbering has become critical component towards provision of communications services that would impact on how operators conduct business, and services are rolled out as well as how subscribers would behave in the near future.

Empowering NCC:
Nigerian Senate within the year identified areas it could strengthen the regulator, NCC, in order to improve on the Quality of Service (QoS). Senate Committee chairman on Communications, Senator Sylvester Ndubuisi Anyanwu, pointed out at a recent one-day public hearing on QoS in Abuja, that his committee had advanced plans to introduce new laws into the regulation of the sector that would tackle complaints against poor telecommunications services by various operators.
He said, the proposal would empower NCC to make it mandatory for operators to refund subscribers on established cases of call drops and call terminations or in any established situation of poor service delivery.

GSM operators drag NCC to court:
By dragging the regulator to the law court over a directive to pay compensation for poor Quality of Service (QoS), the two major GSM operators, Celtel and MTN, invariably were not on the popular side, even as a federal high court while sitting in Lagos, March 2008, ruled that mobile operators; MTN Nigeria and Celtel Nigeria (now Zain) must compensate subscribers for poor quality of service, by crediting them with N175 each, according to NCC directive.
ITRealms Online recalled that in September 2007, NCC had issued a directive to three GSM operators, including Glo Mobile, MTN and Zain; to repay subscribers for services that were below average quality, claiming that it was inundated with complaints from subscribers about poor and unacceptable level of services. And instead of complying, MTN and Celtel took NCC to court to halt the directive.
Delivering judgment, the presiding judge at the Lagos Federal High Court, D.D. Abutu, who initially stopped NCC from implementing the directive, pending the determination of the case slated to take effect on October 6, 2007, ruled in favour of NCC.
However, NCC, insisted that the two operators failed to achieve required Traffic Channel Congestion (TCH) levels, as measured by the commission’s Key Performance Indicator (KPI). It also directed the operators to pay all of their active subscribers through airtime credit, and that no time limitation shall be placed by the operator on the utilization of such airtime credit.
“All the active subscribers are to be credited between March 1, 2008, and April 15, 2008,” NCC spokesman, Mr. Dave Imoko said.

Politicking @ NCC & Glowing moment:
Politicking at NCC was not left out as it came to the forefront with the alleged plans to remove Ndukwe as the EVC, before the end of his tenure, even as the need to boost local content remain imperative, hence NCC among others are canvassing for broadband adaptation by all, especially in the 36 states of the federation. Obviously, the issue of EVC removal did not receive any support from the stakeholders both at home and abroad.
Globacom in June commenced its international operation with a launch in Benin, just as the Ghana network came live before the end of this quarter of 2009. Notable was that Glo’s move heralds the first of its kind that a home grown operator taking its trade offshore.

New comers and rebranding gallow:
Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Visafone Limited, made its entrance in the first quarter with commercial launch in 12 states and over 40 cities across the six geo-zones, on February 22, 2008.
Head, Corporate Communications, Visafone Limited, Mr. Toni Kan Onwordi, described it as “an unprecedented record in the history of Nigeria’s very vibrant and exciting telecoms sector.” He recalled that the record began on August 1, 2007 when the industry regulator, NCC, handed out a Unified Access License (UAL) to Visafone. The CDMA operator is known to have acquired some other regional operators like the Cellcom among others.
Onwordi revealed that Visafone’s coverage had grown within six months to 17 states in over 150 cities and had since crossed the 1 million subscribers mark.
While Celtel in a dramatic repositioning became Zain in August, alongside 14 other networks on the continent. The company said its plan is to become a strong number one brand in Nigeria, according the chief executive officer, Zain Nigeria, Mr. Adebayo Ligali. “We have to be the number 1 … Anything it would cost legitimately is what we would like to pursue,” he said.
He said that Zain as a group aims to be among 10 top telecom operators in the world in the next few years. Stressing that Zain has remained the fastest growing telecom operator among its peers for achieving from 5 million subscribers to 15.5 million. Insisting that Zain embodies peace, beautiful, joy and wonderful, explaining that the name was chosen out of 400 other names, even as the telco targets 110 million across its 22 networks globally.
Reltel was not left out of the rebranding gallow, as it became ZOOMmobile, while declaring attainment of over 1 million subscribers. Even as Multi-Links became Multi-Links-Telkom among others, dangling cars and free airtime on subscribers for receiving calls on the network.
Just as MTN followed Zain’s step by removing roaming charges on its network across the continent.

Arise CPN:
Invariably, the communications sub-sector has remained very active ahead of others within the sector like the core Information Technology (IT) sub-sector, just as the Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN), repackaged its professional examinations to accommodate online educational component, according to its Registrar and Chief executive, Mr. Sikiru Shehu.
He said that the repackaging was to offer Nigerians, especially the youths more options in being part of the 21st century revolution based on Information Technology (IT) literacy. “CPN has repackaged its professional examinations to make the graduates employment ready,” he said, emphasizing that Nigeria cannot forego IT at this time of development in the country’s quest to be part of the 20 most successful economies by 2020.
Shehu also said that the repackaging provides the exam with the purpose that it would always have recognition at every stage the candidate may decide to stop. “From kindergarten to primary it is now compulsory for pupils to be taken on English Language, Maths and Computer Science,” he said, noting that CPN was not ignorant of lack of teachers at this level thereby encouraging heads of kindergarten and primary schools to approach CPN for collaboration.
He, however, said that a big challenge here is non-availability of teachers to teach computer studies, just as there is now a window for those who could not gain admission into the universities due to their inability to either pass the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) exams or make their papers as well as those who could not scale through the post-JAMB entrance exams of various universities.
He listed the pre-professional levels to include Computer Literacy Certificate (CLC), Computer User/Proficiency Certificate (CUC) and Computer Affiliate Examination (CAE). Within the CUC level, he listed about 12 specialization candidates could take interest in consisting Computer Secretarial Practice, Computer Desktop Publishing, Computer Utilization, Computer Operation & Programming, Office Productivity Expert, Website Development Expert, CAD Expert, DeskTop Publishing (DTP) Expert, Programmers, system audit expert, PC Maintenance expert and network expert.
CPN for the first time in the history of the body, attended International Telecommunication Union (ITU)-organised summit in Egypt, with its President, Dr. Mrs. Nike Osofisan, accepting the need for convergence. According to her, the era of individualization of technology is over.
This step was commended by the EVC of NCC, who disclosed that about 4000 teachers have benefited from training offered by the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) since inception.
The Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) in efforts to showcase its reach nationwide took its Annual General Meeting (AGM) and international conference to Ogun State, which was described as a flop according to reports.
While the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) held an Annual General Meeting (AGM) which culminated in re-election of Mr. Lanre Ajayi as its President in addition to persistent on the need to promote local content via its pet-project, Internet for Job (I4J) initiative.

Toure visits Nigeria:
The year under review saw the Secretary General of ITU, Dr Hamadoun Touré in Nigeria for a three-day official visit from Thursday, April 10 to Saturday April 12, 2008. Dr Touré met with top government officials in the country to draw attention to the Connect Africa Initiative of ITU.
This was the first time the Secretary-General, ITU, the world telecommunications regulatory body, officially visited Nigeria since the establishment of the United Nations agency. Dr Touré met with President Umaru Yar’Adua, as well as other government officials including the Minister of Information and Communications, the board and management of NCC in Abuja.
Equally, he met Chief Executive Officers of leading Information and Communications Technology (ICT) companies at a dinner hosted in his honour in Lagos.
Touré also visited projects related to the ITU Connect Africa Initiative such as the Digital Bridge Institute, the Digital Awareness Projects of the NCC and some Universal Access Projects of the Nigerian civil society.
Noteworthy was that Toure’s visit coincided with the period Nigeria attained the position of the largest telecommunications market on the continent, overtaking South Africa in number of active connected lines, as at January 2008.

Emulating telecom engineers:
Given that power is one of the 7-point agenda of Yar’Adua, it was time for experts to look inwards, according to the Chief Executive Officer, Telecom Answers Associate, Mr. Titi Omo-Ettu, who said the engineers in the power and energy sector should emulate their counterparts in the telecommunications.
Addressing members of the Abuja branch of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) last quarter, 2008, as a guest speaker, at the opening of the Engineering Week and AGM, Omo-Ettu who dwelt on “Energy Crisis and Economic Development: the Nigerian Telecommunication Development as case study.” He urged them to take up their rightful place in positioning the nation’s power sector by canvassing for genuine liberalization in that sector, noting that the power challenge in the country has graduated from being a mere problem to crisis and now has deteriorated to the level of emergency. “Nigerian engineers should admit responsibility for the power situation in the country and go to government with a comprehensive blueprint, asking to be given whatever they require to solve the problem,” he advised, warning however that they should not claim “knowledge of the energy sector” in isolation.
In addition, he revealed that a total of 210 Internet Service Providers (ISP) licensees were yet to take off in the country, about two years after they were granted licenses, citing the Internet Access to all Report of ISP Audit of 2006.
Omo-Ettu whose firm championed the study said that about 96 ISP licensees had their businesses short down prematurely due to poor public power supply.
He attributed the stunted growth of the telecom industry to the power crises, noting that Nigeria should have had more feasible Internet Service Providers (ISP) than what it has today.

Wrap up:
Although the federal government announced the change of guard at the Ministry of Information and Communication with Prof. Mrs. Dora Akunyili at the helm of affairs in the last quarter of 2008, most observers see it as set back on professionalism, but yet another group opted that she would deliver based on her performance at the National Agency Foods, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
Above all, Nigerians and stakeholders in the ICT sector look forward to a change in attitude by the government of Yar’Adua, especially in ensuring that convergence takes its place amidst government ministries operation.
Like one of the industry experts said, Akunyili and her ministry are the icons to watch in the new year.

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