Nigeria missing @ affordable bandwidth

Given the position Nigeria occupies in the burgeoning SAT 3, the issue of achieving affordable bandwidth for her citizens should be upper most in the minds of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) among government agencies clamouring for reduction of poverty and digital divide:

Bandwidth is a measurement of frequency ranges that is central concept to many fields including information theory, radio communications, signal processing, and spectroscopy.

It is closely related to two capacities of a communications channel namely radio and optics.

In radio communications, bandwidth is the range of frequencies occupied by a modulated carrier wave, while in optics it is the width of a spectral line or spectral range.

On the other hand, SAT 3 is the marine fibre optics laid across West African countries onto South Africa to enable the availability to the citizenry.

But reverse was the case at the first ever workshop organised by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa on affordable bandwidth, which ended recently in the city of Sally, Senegal.

Tagged, “Achieving affordable bandwidth” the workshop aimed at the development and opening up of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure in West and Central Africa.

ICT programme officer at OSIWA, Mr Ben Akoh informed that Nigeria is not participating because his office did not get responses from, NCC.

This is despite all the entreaties and overtures, made to the organisation through telephone calls and electronic mails.

“I don’t know why they refused to respond to our mails or even return calls,” he declared.

OSIWA is part of the global network of autonomous Soros Foundations and serves all Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), members as well as Cameroon, Chad and Mauritania.

Meanwhile, representatives from other African nations like Mauritania and Ghana, he said, came with not less than two with some coming from either regulatory organs or the national telecom operator with substantial share residing with the government.

Oba Akinolu unveils WCLD-05

OBA of Lagos, Alaiyeluwa Riliwanu Babatunde Akinolu, has unveiled this year NIIT’s World Computer Literacy Day (WCLD) movement in the country.WCLD is a campaign launched in December 2001 in support of the agitation to declare December 2, a World Computer Literacy Day.

This is championed by an Indian international computer institute,
NIIT.The institute uses the annual launch of the campaign to offer special
training discounts to citizens in over 31 countries globally, which usually last
for month.

Declaring the event open, Oba Akinolu told newsmen at his palace in Lagos that he accepted to endorse this programme because of its immense benefit to the populace, especially Lagosians.

He also said that the decision was accelerated by the long time standing conviction that Indian NIIT is one of the best Information Technology (IT) training organization.

He enjoined Nigerians to embrace the programme so as to acquire relevant knowledge needed at this era.“I hope the initiative inspires Nigerians from all walks of life to cross the digital divide by taking advantage of the computer learning being provided by NIIT,” he said.

Statistics available to him, he said, shows that estimated 130,000
Nigerians have either completed the programme, or registered for it since the
inception of WCLD in 2002.

He emphasised that the 2005 edition, which began since October this year would close by the end of this year.

He described the unveiling as an epoch making and a day to remember.Chief executive, International Data Management (IDM) Services Limited, Dr. Chris Bolu, whose office manages the NIIT Nigeria franchise, said that the target before the end of this year is 10,000 Nigerians to be migrated into the IT fold.

“We hope to make this into the most powerful computer literacy movement in the country,” he said.

NATCOMS battle ready with AMOPHTI, lauds MTN, Vmobile

National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS) has resolved to fight the increasing mobile phone theft in the country with a new scheme, called Anti-Mobile Phone Theft Initiative (AMOPHTI).

The association also lauded MTN Nigeria and Vmobile Nigeria for the recent introduction of N100 and N200 virtual charge system.

National President of NATCOMS, Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, disclosed this at the joint October, November and December sitting of the Telecom Consumers Parliament held in Lagos.

He said that since the introduction of commercial operations of the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) products and services in the country in 2001, which eventually turned out to be the fastest growing mobile communications market in the world, that theft of mobile phones, have constituted a big problem for the subscribers.

“Regularly, thieves steal and rob subscribers of their mobile
phones,” he decried.

Chief Ogunbanjo estimated that mobile phones are involved in about 80 per cent of robbery cases in the country as of today, of which in some cases lives have been lost.

It was against that backdrop that NATCOMS has volunteered to consult with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the GSM service operators on the new scheme, AMOPHTI.

He explained that the initiative would not only try to control and eventually stop the stealing of mobile phones, “it would also make the stealing of mobile phones worthless and unattractive to the thieves”.

The NATCOMS president also said that the scheme would ensure that 100 per cent cost of the stolen mobile phone is given to the owner.

Other complaints NATCOMS took to the floor of the parliament includes the call on all GSM operators to rescind from recent increases in tariffs and related cost of other products and services.

He said, this step has dealt a very, very serious blow to consumerism in the country and all telecom subscribers to the extent that it is done with impunity without any reason or explanation to consumers.

“What is the justification of any increase in tariffs when the
subscriber base of the four GSM operators keep increasing by the day. From about 1 million in 2001 to the phenomenal growth of over 10 million in 2005,” he questioned.

He argued that if the operators are getting the volume as it were, why not the subscribers, stressing that consumers should also get the value and pocket-friendly tariffs.

Warning that in no distance time, subscribers and consumers of GSM
services in the country particularly, would be reacting against these
unfriendly, pocket-leaking and anti-consumer tariffs early next
year.

NATCOMS also lauded MTN Nigeria and Vmobile Nigeria for the recent introduction of N100 and N200 virtual charge system, just as it expressed dismay over the access or validity days, saying that the least is too short.

“We would appreciate a one week validity period for the minimum of V-charge,” Chief Ogunbanjo asserted as he wished parliamentarians a merry Christmas and prosperous New Year.

MTS increases validity days, waives dormancy

PIONEER private wireless operator,MTS First Wireless, weekend announced offer of additional validity days for all its customers.

With this, subscribers on MTS network whose services have expired or have entered dormancy periods, would also enjoy a blanket waiver.

With this development, subscribers who recharge their phones with N500 recharge cards will continue to receive calls for up to 120 days while subscribers whose services have expired can simply recharge their phones and begin to make calls.

New Chief Marketing Officer of MTS, Ms. Uche Ofodile, said this gesture is to further make MTS services friendlier and more affordable.

“As we refocus and expand our services, we shall continue to offer
more incentives to our customers. This offer is one of the many offers that will be coming the way of our subscribers”, she said.

Ms. Ofodile also said this would be good news for subscribers on the newly launched Abeokuta network who could now enjoy a long validity on their MTS phones.

She said the gesture was in line with the new aspiration of the company to make MTS customers the centre-point of all its operations.

ITREALMS recalls that MTS First Wireless is a multi-services national telecoms operator in Nigeria was licensed in Nigeria to provide wireless telephony services, National Long Distance Communications Services, International Data Gateway services and Internet Services.

3GSM congress moves to Barcelona

For the first time in the his-tory of 3GSM World Congress organized by the Global System for Mobile (GSM) Association, the congress would next year move to the city of Barcelona, Spain, from its usual host Cannes in France.

A press statement from the organizers said that another world class line-up of keynote speakers including the chief executive of LG Electronics Mobile Communications, Mr. Mun Hwa Park, would take the stage at the congress, holding February 13 through 16, 2006.

Other confirmed CEOs, the association said, consists of Arun Sarin
of Vodafone Group, Antonio Viana-Baptista of Telefónica Móviles, Sanjiv Ahuja of Orange, Peter Erskine of 02, Steve Ballmer from Microsoft and Mr. Bill Roedy from MTV.

Also confirmed participant are Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo of Nokia, Carl-Henric Svanberg, Ericsson
Ed Zander of Motorola, Wang Jianzhou from China Mobile and Steve Tiley of McDonalds.

The organizers also noted that the outstanding key speaker line up for next year covers the full spectrum of the mobile ecosystem.

Mobile Innovation Forum, the association said, has grown in importance for the year ending 2005, and brings together small start up companies with the investment community, mobile operators and vendors.

Directly allied to this event is the new Mobile Innovation Award, a unique and prestigious addition to the GSM Association’s Awards categories.

Further, the Mobile Entertainment Summit (MES) it noted has become the global forum for entertainment and content brands to assemble with the mobile industry as the two worlds converge at breakneck speed.

Featuring some of the world’s most recognisable brands and addressing the key issues, an unprecedented line up of experts speakers would include Mr. Thomas Hesse of SonyBMG, Cedric Ponsot of Universal Mobile International, Attila Gazdag from Walt Disney, Eric Mika of Variety, Angel Gambino from MTV, Justin Richardson from Warner Bros Online and Ted Cohen of EMI Music as well as Stephen Nutall of BSkyB and Frank Sagnier of Electronic Arts.

The congress organizing team also said that next year’s event promises the biggest and best ever, bringing together industry leaders and visionaries from around the world and across the mobile value chain to explore the top strategic, commercial and technology challenges ahead of the global industry.

Closing the divide in media

Features of the week:

The desire to cut the gap between media practice in developed countries and its counterparts in developing nations may have motivated the International Institute for Journalism, Berlin, to introduce Multimedia Online Journalism course in its fold. REMMY NWEKE, who was part of the third session recently, reports that media in developing countries have to brace up.

WHETHER we believe it or not, digital divide exists, and moreso it exists at various levels of the society which we all live in. From poverty to knowledge down to information disparity, the divide in the society has continued to widen day after day.

The role of the media in building a reliable bridge across all these spheres of the society could not be over-looked, as the media has since acknowledged the ‘fourth estate of the realm’ position.

This position enables the media to act as intermediary between the government and the governed, the rich and poor, advanced and the less advanced nations among other social strata.

Recognising import of multimedia
Obviously in recognition of this fact and role of the media, the German government through InWent Capacity Building International, an agency of the Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development (BMZ) assembled a group of 15 young media professionals from basically developing countries in Berlin for Multimedia and Online course.

The group made up of journalists selected from nine countries including Nigeria 1, Ghana 3, Kenya 1, Zimbabwe 1, India 1, Laos 1, Moldova 3, Tanzania 1 and Vietnam 3; put into gender equation of seven males to eight females.

Titled ‘Multimedia and Online Journalism III’ the course brought
together in Berlin, Germany people from various backgrounds in the practice of journalism, radio, print and prospective online editors.

The third session organized by InWent Germany through its subsidiary, the International Institute for Journalism (IIJ) Berlin, had lasted between September 8 through November 12, one week internship was also put together for the team at the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) 2005, which held in Tunisia, between November 16 – 18.

Prufert’s message
Welcoming this set of students, Head IIJ division, Mr. Peter Prufert, said in a message that the institute has trained over 600 journalists in 30 selected courses since the beginning of last year alone.

He declared, “They are now part of a worldwide network of some 6,000 alumni of IIJ in more than 230 countries.”

Mr. Prufert who was represented by the Course Director, Mr. Warner Eggert, said that for over 40 years, IIJ has been active in the training of newspaper and news agency journalists from developing and nations in transition.

The most recent of these courses, Mr. Prufert pointed out was the introduction of Multimedia and Online Journalists, stressing that with this, “the institute is adapting to the needs of a rapidly changing media world and the growing importance of the Internet”.

He emphasised that although independent and critical reporting helps to democratically monitor the state but only well groomed journalists working to the highest core value of professional standards could facilitate this critical role of ‘watch dog’, in order to assist in creating transparency by holding government and business accountable.

In addition, Mr. Prufert said this basic philosophy fits seamlessly into the media development concept of the Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development (BMZ), the main stakeholder of InWent.

“Together with other international organizations the BMZ considers democracy, good governance and an active civil society as a precondition for development,” he said. All programmes organized by IIJ, whether in Berlin or abroad, he said, are geared towards the practical requirements of journalism.

“We hope that you would find the working conditions conducive, the learning atmosphere and the exchange of experiences stimulating,” he urged.

Top staff of IIJ who were present at the brief ceremony includes the administrator, Mrs. Melanie Bolik, lead facilitator, Mr. Peter Berger and his assistant, Ms Birgit Heitfeld, as well as seminar assistants led by Mrs. Sabine Lager, and made up of Mrs. Rita Kurzbach, Ms. Carol Starr and Ms. Larissa Klatt.

Back to classroom
Afterwards, the outline of the course was reeled out for the participants with a copy deposited beside their name tags at the class room and soon after the welcome dinner, Mr. Berger and Ms Heitfeld took charge by explaining the mission, readers and future of the media to the students.

Then come the time for participants to introduce their publications; analysis and outlook as well as participants country presentations.

The class took off with two-day lectures on ‘photos for the web’ presided over by Mr. Ulf Dahl who made the introduction of software for photo production, students workshop before the recap and evaluation of exercises by the instructor.

Usability of the contents for the online medium was soon unveiled by Mr. Jan Persiel, who took the class on ‘How to design the perfect website’, its usability comprising introduction, graphic design, technical questions, analysis of sites of participant’s publications.

For the web
Later it was on how to improve on these websites and usability sum up, followed by ‘Graphics for the web’ broken into introduction, software pro and cons, as well as how to produce graphics such as Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), and Shockwave Flash (SWF) formats among others.

GIF format is the most popular on the Internet, mainly because of its small file size, JPEG is a lossy compression method regularised by International Standards Organisation (ISO). SWF format which is pronounced ‘swiff’ is ideal for presenting vector-based interactive and animated graphics with sound for the web, among others.

By Friday of that week, two spokespersons were elected by the class; one from Ghana and another from Moldova, to assist course facilitators by acting as middle men for the group and the school administration.

Then come ‘How to use sound’ by Carsten Behrendt; ‘Online Investigation’ by Messrs Peter Berger and Matthias Spielkamp; ‘Writing for the web’ by Daryl Lindsey from Spiegel de and Ms Sabina Casagrande of Dutch Welle which focused on writing skills and practice.

Apapa Expressway in ‘Hamburg’
By fourth week of the course, Ms Heitfeld came up with the planning of the excursion to Hamburg, the home of media houses in Germany, just like Fleet Street of London and Apapa-Oshodi Expressway and Acme-Ogba in Lagos.

This gave participants the opportunity of exploring the city of Hamburg, its neighbourhood as well as its media savoured with history of individual media houses visited which have at least two in daily schedule.

The visit to Hamburg was saddled with a lot of exposures, publishable research by individuals, interviews and meeting people in the media with differing journalistic backgrounds.

The journey saw members of the class smiling to Hamburg through the ICE high speed train after about three hours trip with attendant ‘culture shock’ for all participants.

Literally described by one of the students, thus, “It was like crying that you don’t have a shoe until you find someone without a foot.” As such captured the culture difference between Berlin and Hamburg.

Transforming media era
From editorial visitation to tagesshau.de which survives only on radio and television taxes to the Media Analyzer, the German news agency known as dpa-info.com (MINDS) and its interesting evolution from traditional news agency to modern and ‘mobile’ news agency. Spiegel.de, Zeit.de (The Tide) and Morning Post, Mopo.de also hosted participants before they jetted out of the city but not without visiting Autobild, an evolving online market place for cars.

One thing worth taking away from Media Analyzer Inc, where the Project Manager, Mr. Sebastian Grandt, took time to give a pass mark to the Champion Newspapers website, www.champion-newspapers.com, after assessment of the site by the global number one media analyzer based in Hamburg.

Website assessment
While evaluating the website ‘unofficially’ at a session with course participants, he said, the www.champion-newspapers.com, is attractive.

He explained that the white spaces in between the categories in the website’s home page and news display, makes champion-newspapers.com online striking.

“I don’t have quarrels with the white spaces,” he declared in response to students’ enquiry, stressing he does not have any problem with the white spaces used in fashioning the website.

This was due to some critic’s view that the white spaces were indication of lack of content.

Although he was uncomfortable with three animations on the website, namely on the motto of the company, stock exchange reports and underlined invitation urging visitors to visit again.

The expert also said these animations should have been reduced to one, especially on the stock report and described the one on the motto and underlining invitation as ‘compounding animation’.

Impacts on readers
He further said websites must be kept simple with big headline points to attract readers to leading page stories, even as images have become imperative in media analysis due to impact it has on readers.

Mr. Grandt pointed out that his organization is concerned with visibility and usability of media online contents.

Warning however, that some media houses allow the online version to be over-loaded with adverts or contents, he pointed out that opening every media website, readers are faced with some questions such as ‘which website is this, what can I do here and what’s the interest’.

“The bigger the image the more time people are attracted to the subject aside,” he asserted.
Disclosing that online readers spend approximated 10 to 25 seconds per media website, stressing that in the actual sense, online visitors to media website do not read immediately, but scan over the page contents first before deciding on what to read.

Making money
Participants also developed ideas, topics for individual projects and worked in groups to evaluate protocols of the excursion, putted and discussed results thereof with presentation at the end of the day by groups usually five, given the number of class members.

Mr. Kornelius Furst’s lead topic on ‘How to make money’ in journalism left participants literally disappointed but thinking inwardly across marketing, advertising, advertorials, cross-media co-operations, development of models for individual websites as well as budget - concepts and solutions for projects from launch to breaking even and putting ideas into practice for individual websites.

Came then, the ‘Future of Online Journalism’ focusing on web logs with Mr. Nils G. Indahl, who marshalled out the state-of-the-art on the ideas behind mobile Internet and how to use it.

Sooner than later, the time for website projects took the stage beginning with collection of topics, presentation and summary, structuring story board to development with software for online editing entrenched in WedEdition.

72 days after
As soon as these projects were over, followed by presentation of certificates to members of the class, it was time to head to the northern African country of Tunisia, where the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS-05) was hosted for three keen days, definitely not as observers but to do justice to our profession of reporting the event, deploying the methodology garnered over the 72 days spent in Berlin and its environ.

Looking back, one conclusion was made by participants that developing countries’ media need to transform their websites or web editions from mere conversion of just contents so as to not only make it viable for business opportunities which are going in roves online but to keep pace as the technologies transform media from its traditional position to multimedia.

Challenges
This is not to forget the challenges the likes of weblog; online relay of thoughts by people with or without journalistic background and iPod, which is online or Internet broadcasting amidst others pose to today’s media.

The earlier media organizations in developing countries begin to rethink about migration to the 21st century medium, by ensuring distinct management structure for their online version, like the Mail & Guardian of South Africa; the better, especially newspapering, due to what experts foresee as increasing online reading generation.

Angaye, Ndukwe for NIG convention-05

CHIEF executives of the National Information Technology Development (NITDA) and Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Cleopas Angaye and Dr. Ernest Ndukwe respectively, are to speak at the third convention annual general meeting (AGM) of the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) slated to hold in Lagos.

President, NIG and chief executive, Teledom Group International, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, said that the duo would dwell on “A Leapfrogging Strategy to establish an Internet Exchange Point for Nigeria,” and “The Internet Governance as Nigeria sees IT” in that order, would form part of the two-day convention cum AGM.

To hold at Golden Gate Paradise, Ikoyi Lagos, between Friday and Saturday with the theme: “Youth Restiveness: ICT to the rescue”.

Dr. Ekuwem also said that chairman, board of NIG, Chief Olawale Ige,
would give a goodwill message to the occasion.

He also said that there would be two sessions per day, namely morning and afternoon with sub-themes including ‘Youth Empowerment in the digital revolution, becoming employable using Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Job opportunities in ICT- Starting with N15,000 capital, tele-education, tele-training for point-of-need skills acquisition, a click to hope and wealth and ICT for food security and poverty alleviation.

The sub-themes include “Enabling infrastructure, ePayment, human capacity development, legal and regulatory framework, security, Internet content development, .ng ccTLD and Internet Governance”.

On the second day of the convention, he said, that youth empowerment using ICT as tool which is sponsored Zenith International Limited would take place at the morning session while the annual general meeting AGM to follow soon after.

He said, that at the AGM, there would be NIG’s presidential annual
report, financial report by the audit, update of .ng ccTLD, in addition to election of the new executive for 2005-2007, and composition of new board of trustees as well as any other business (AOB).

Interested members willing to serve in the NIG executive, namely president, vice president, publicity secretary and treasurer, should pick their nomination forms which are available at NIG’s new secretariat in Ikeja, Lagos.

NIG is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation promoting internet access and awareness in the country.

VIA’s CN700 chipset on prowl

Leading entrant into the -nation’s Information Technology (IT) market, VIA Technologies Inc of Taiwan has announced its CN700 IGP chipset, featuring leading digital media technologies and advanced low power design to enable system design innovation across a wide range of VIA C7 processor-powered devices.

Some of the processor-powered devices capable of using this include
mini Personal Computers (PCs), fanless embedded commercial systems and stylish,
quiet home entertainment centers for the living room.

Public relations contact at VIA, Mr. Richard Brown, said the integrated S3 Graphics UniChrome Pro IGP core ensures exceptional second and third dimension (2D/3D) graphics performance and a truly High Definition (HD) experience.

This is in addition to its flexible display outputs for Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) and Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), as well as standard definition and High Definition Television (HDTV) up to 1080 pixel resolution with a compatible Digital Visual Interface (DVI) or TV encoder, while the signature hardware The MPEG Home Page.

This is the home page of the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG-2) decoding and the intelligent video rendering techniques of the Chromotion CE Video Display Engine deliver smooth video playback.

Supporting the VIA version four bus up to 533 Mega Hertz (MHz), the VIA CN700 IGP chipset leverages support for both DDR2 and DDR memory modules with built-in system and graphics power management, to deliver a highly flexible solution for developers looking to design powerful and feature-rich yet compact and quiet desktop and embedded devices.

“The VIA CN700 chipset was specifically designed to enable the VIA C7 processor platform to deliver great system and digital media performance without compromise,” commented Chewei Lin, Vice President of Product Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc said,“With its integrated S3 Graphics UniChrome Pro core, and featuring support for the latest DDR2 memory and the high bandwidth V4 bus, the CN700 is equipped with all the right tools to enable a new generation of ultra low power, quiet, compact, stylish and ultra reliable devices.”

Combined with the VIA VT8237A South Bridge, the VIA CN700 offers a comprehensive range of integrated storage, multimedia and connectivity options, including native Serial ATA and multiple configuration V-RAID, support for VIA Vinyl High Definition Audio, and high-throughput Gigabit Ethernet with the VIA Velocity controller.

He noted that though pricing of this product is available upon request, the product is expected to be available in volume quantities in first quarter of 2006.

eClemo clicks on the rise

Electronic business-to-consumers (B2C) advertisement portal, www.eclemo.com, has continued to be on the rise, according to the vice president, eClemo Nigeria Limited, Mr. Clement Ekhator.

Speaking in Lagos, Mr. Ekhator said the portal traffic is on a breezy climb as the portal enters its fourth month since it was launched.

“eClemo has continuously seen a steady increase in the number of adverts and visitors on www.eclemo.com. This is great news for eClemo management team,” he said.

To expand its reach further, Mr. Ekhator, said it’s a window to help enterprises and private individuals optimize their businesses.

eClemo banner, he said, are now on display at strategic places all over Lagos, “to allow people to be aware of this opportunity to expand their reach for free,” explained Ekhator.

Mr. Ekhator also said that by design, eClemo has created a meeting point between consumers and providers of services with products.

The portal www.eclemo.com, he said, is a platform between sellers and buyers to either sell or buy legitimate goods on the Internet in Nigeria.

The portal provides an online window for sellers to advertise their goods at no fee to thousands of people across the globe seeking for such products or services.

“We have created a meeting place for sellers and buyers to meet online from the comfort of their offices or homes and make decision to sell or buy products or services advertised online,” said Ekhator.

The site is designed as an automated auction site where buyers or sellers could personally place products for sale online.

Besides creating a platform for free online advertisements, the vice president said, the site also provides a database on tourist site in Nigeria, business opportunities, and a chat room.

“It provides for contacts, advert placement and job search for those in the labour market seeking to get out of the labour queues and adventurous enough to search out job placements and opportunities in and outside of the country,” Mr. Ekhator said.

172,318 winners emerge @ Vmobile knockout promo

172,318 winners have emerged at the draw of Vmobile knockout promo held in Lagos, Monday, according to the Managing Director, Alexander Forbes Consulting Nigeria (AFCAN) Limited, Dr. Femi Oyetunji

He said that his firm was invited to partner with Vmobile to ensure transparency of the exercise which saw over 8 million subscribers qualifying for the promotion.


Dr. Oyetunji also said that they decided to automate the selection process instead of the traditional manual way which will take years to complete simply because we are in the technology age.

He pointed out that the role of the his company with its international headquarters in the United Kingdom, entails the verification of extraction process of identifying the qualifiers which confirms that the company did work with team of Vmobile.

Explaining the processes in the selection and participation, Dr. Oyetunji said that staff, family members and dealers of Vmobile were excluded form the promo to give room for the transparency.

Any winner who emerged and is found to be a member or relative to the staff of his firm, Vmobile family and dealers would automatically be disqualified.

He mentioned that multiple qualifiers were allowed but no single number will win more one prize and if a number previously selected comes up again, the next number selected takes the prize.

He also said that the star prize will be chosen first so as to give equal chance to every qualifier and more so for multiple entry qualifiers.

Each of the 866,322 qualifiers has been assigned a unique index number to bring the tally to about 434,731 unique numbers.

"Prepaid subscribers who loaded more than N15,000 between June 1 and November 30, 2005, and post-paid subscribers who used more than N15,000 and pay up all outstanding bills till 31st October 2005, as well as voters in first quarter of project ROSE Short Messaging Service ( SMS) competition are qualifiers for the promo," he explained.

Head of Division, Public Relations, Events and Sponsorship, Mr. Obinna Ariwodo said that every plan has been completed to ensure that winners open account and they would be paid in the Naira equivalent for those who won $100,000 prizes.

This, he said, would be after verification has been completed by end of Wednesday while presentation has been slated to hold on Thursday.