Ajayi wants NITEL unbundled

Following the unresolved sale of the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), President of the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) and Managing Director, PiNet Informatics, Mr. Lanre Ajayi, has advocated for the unbundling of the national carrier, to make it more viable.

ITREALMS recalls that last week, the Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE) announced the failure of another auction to sell the corporation due to the under pricing of NITEL by Orascom Consortium of Egypt, which priced $256.5 million.

NITEL is the nation’s first telecom carrier embodied in fixed line and mobile telecommunications company, MTel and is owned 100 per cent by the Federal Government (FG).It was incorporated as a limited liability company in December 1984, which was a product of the merger between the telecommunications arm of the defunct Posts and Telecommunications Department (P&T) of the then Ministry of Communications, and Nigerian External Communications Limited (NET) and commenced operations on January 1, 1985.As at June 2004, the organization claims it has installed fixed telephone network of about 720,000 lines, while approximated 500,000 was activated.Due to the under pricing of the corporation, BPE has said it would report back to the National Council on Privatization (NCP) under the office of vice president before making its decision known.

Reacting to the Orascom’s pricing which did not reach the price paid by MTel, a subsidiary of NITEL to obtain its Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Mr. Ajayi, said that as much as it is important to deregulate the telecoms sector by finally privatizing NITEL, he did not support the sell at all cost.

“I do not think it is right to sell it at a give away price,” he declared, stressing that doing so would be counter productive.

NIG President, who is a former NITEL’s employee, also said the objective of massive rollout which the sale was anticipated to achieve would be defeated.

He noted that this would degrade the corporation, hence, “the buyer
may simply be complacent after recouping the very low price at which the company
was bought with some profits”.

The way forward, he said, is to unbundle NITEL into many components which may be sold separately.

“I am positive that the SAT-3 cable would attract good pricing from one of the existing operators and the mobile service (MTel) would attract good attention from international operators, who may be interested in just the mobile service,” he said.

Undercurrents of selling NITEL

Features of the week:

As Nigerians await the decision of the National Council on Privatization (NCP) on the last week’s purported sale of NITEL to Orascom, the auction has been described as adding insult to an injury, writes REMMY NWEKE.

“THe world has moved from the reliance on natural resources to a new knowledge-based foundation, where the wealth and powers of a nation are directly dependent on the strength of their information technology”, according to the Commissioner for Science and Technology in Akwa-Ibom State, Dr. Linus Asuquo, in a speech at the launch of the Victor Attah Digital Opportunity Center (VADOC) a year ago.

He stressed that successful economies and economic development “in this fast moving world faced with globalisation, depends on knowledge and technology”; generated and disseminated accordingly.

This idea seems to have received the blessing of the vice chairman, West African Information Technology Professionals Association (WAITPA), and chief executive of Connect Technologies, Mr. Chris Uwaje, who opined that lack of database is the bane of Nigeria’s economic quagmire, while lamenting the economic downturn of the country and inability of the country to optimize its human capacity due to lack of vision by the few, who probably find themselves making policies for the government.

Knowledge economy
Defined by the Development Gateway (DG) as a situation where knowledge is more important as a product than it has been, with another school saying, ‘codified knowledge’ is now more significant as a component of economic relations and finally, some other school of thought argues that knowledge economy rests on changes that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have brought to the world.

A database, therefore, is a collection of information stored in a computer in a systematic way, such that a computer programme could consult it to answer questions, electronically, in accordance with en.wikipedia.org/wiki/database.

Whereas information in line with ‘WordNet’, a lexical database for the English language coordinated by the Cognitive Science Laboratory, Princeton University New Jersey, United States, led by Prof. George Miller, defined it thus: “a message received and understood; data, as a collection of facts from which conclusions may be drawn; “statistical data” and knowledge acquired through study or experience or instruction seen in communication theory as a numerical measure of the uncertainty of an outcome; “the signal contained thousands of bits of information” and finally as a formal accusation of a crime.

51 per cent stake
Drivable conclusion in the aforementioned definition is that information made available by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and the National Council on Privatization (NCP) should be accurate and current for people and especially potential investors in the privatization of over 50 corporations left in its care to take a good business decision.

Unfortunately, the reverse is the case, especially in the bid to sell the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL’s) 51 per cent stake by the Federal Government (FG) on behalf of the Nigerian people.

Outdated information
Investigations by Champion Infotel revealed that most of the information provided for investors date back to December 31, 2002, which on itself is outrageous. Also discovered was that all the current listing on the BPE website, www.bpeng.org, do not have current financial summaries. But the bureau went on to state with guts a note of caution, which reads “This ‘Investors’ guide’ is based on information provided by the enterprises (since 2002) and other sources. However, it is not a substitute for due diligence into the enterprises which must be undertaken by any prospective investor”.

First impression, they say matters and could win or mar a relationship, hence the question now is, where would one get the first information as an investor so as to be attracted by the so-called ‘due diligence,’ as to invest into an enterprise that the funeral literally was witnessed four years ago, for an investment in 2006.

Therefore, it was very clear that from the outset, somebody was undermining the sell of these enterprises listed for privatization and the first accused is BPE, followed by those who probably are managing these corporations in relation with the privatisation. It also showed that what is left of BPE is what Malam El-Rufai left the place with.

Potential investors
As a potential investor, there is no magic in optimizing the price tag for such entity, let alone NITEL which customers have since taken flight to the Private Telecommunication Operators’ (PTOs) services.

Another instance is that even the hullabaloos exhibited by the management contractors, Pentascope International of Netherlands; it was not on record for a serious investor to even assess first hand information from BPE’s website, wherever they may be coming from at this time of economic reform.

This was not the only finding of the investigations as the press briefing session of the web indicated that it was last updated 2002 as well as the financial summary.

Undercurrents
The under current tones here, is that, either these entities have since seized to exist, and that the federal government was merely shopping for somebody to take their corpses to the morgue for deposit or something yet undisclosed.

For instance, the weekly press briefings were held May 14, 2002.doc 8/24/2003 11:12:09 PM, April 16, 2002.doc 8/24/2003 11:12:16 PM, 21 May 2002.doc 8/24/2003 11:12:22 PM, 22nd July 2003.doc 3/16/2004 4:58:30 AM, May 28, 2002.doc 8/24/2003 11:12:28 PM, July 29 2003.doc 3/16/2004 4:59:34 AM, April 2, 2002.doc 8/24/2003 11:12:36 PM, April 30, 2002.doc 8/24/2003 11:12:42 PM, and June 4, 2002.doc 8/24/2003 11:12:52 PM, as stated by www.bpen.org.

Another instance from NITEL aspect was that only a 21-word letter was used to add something to those in charge as an update, in terms of stating thus: “As at June 2004, NITEL had an installed fixed telephone network of 720,000 lines, of which approximately 500,000 had been activated”. And even with this, those who packaged NITEL thought they have done enough update to attract an international investor.

No wonder it was being speculated that they have once again sold NITEL to themselves as had previously been the case of privatization in this country. This is not withstanding the fact that it was purportedly under-priced by the Egyptian telecom giant, Orascom Consortium after playing a fast one by buying stakes in the supposed two other keen bidders in NITEL deal, namely the NewTel and Hutchison Telecom.

Indications therefore emerge that there is serious undercurrent to under price at all cost. Although NITEL may have ‘rot’ but not to the extent that Orascom becomes the sole interested bidder.

Disposing NITEL at all cost
Though the comments by the former BPE boss and current chairman of Federal Capital Territory Development Authority (FCTDA), Mallam Nasir El-Rufai’s fear of NITEL nose diving like the former Nigerian Airways is not far fetched, some Nigerians and telecom industry players may differ with him that it must be sold at all cost.

His argument is that since inception of NITEL, government has invested over $7 billion in the organization and for its bidding to decline from $1.317 billion to $256.5 million is bizarre and may continue to decline in the coming year.

President General, Trade Union Congress (TUC), Mrs. Peace Obiageli Obiajulu, while reacting to the ridiculous bid of $256.5 million, which is less than the $285 million for the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) license in 2001, said that full autonomy would give NITEL another life line as the best option.

Emphasising that the price was not enough to buy the mobile arm of NITEL, Mtel, she explained that full autonomy would solve the problem of the corporation under a team of management without interference from any quarter. She said, TUC expected that the last bid should have surpassed that of the London-based Investors International Limited (IIL) in 2001.

NITEL’s brief
NITEL is Nigeria’s national fixed line and mobile telecommunications company, owned 100 per cent by Federal Government. It was incorporated as a limited liability company in December 1984, which was a product of the merger between the telecommunications arm of the defunct Posts and Telecommunications Department (P&T) of the Ministry of Communications, and Nigerian External Communications Limited (NET). NITEL commenced operations on January 1, 1985 and as at June 2004, claims to have installed fixed telephone network of about 720,000 lines, with approximated 500,000 activated.

December jinx
The bid for NITEL has a history of December mishap which in the last five years has been consistent and awful, having failed lately by the under pricing by Orascom Consortium. It follows that the assuming sealed lip on the outright auction result until after consultation between BPE and NCP due to the $256.5 million bidded by the company, may not be different from El-Rufai’s position.

ITREALMS recollects that the first failure to privatize NITEL was February 11, 2002 by the withdrawal of the London-based Investors International Limited (IIL) on its inability to pay up its 90 per cent after bidding N1.317 billion and paying $131.7 million which was 10 per cent of the initial bid.

Other reasons given then was that the sudden demise of the custodian of justice in the country and Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige, who was murdered, on December 23, 2001, did not make room for investment environment, among others. Efforts was made to take NITEL to the Stock Exchange which did not materialize, then came the Dutch management contractors, Pentascope International, which left NITEL nearer to the grave than its reference to increase its roll out targets of fixed lines by 600,000 and mobile, by one million. This is against 500,000 fixed and 118,000 mobile lines respectively at the time of the deal.

This contract was stalled soon after December 2004, due to inexplicable reasons and mismanagement resulting in overhead expenses incurred by the Pentascope managers, and by January of 2005, it was made official.

Now, this Orascom drama also happened in December 2005, hence it seems NITEL has a date with December of every year. This was after being incorporated in December 1984.

Way forward

Proffering the way forward for NITEL, President, Nigeria Internet Group (NIG), Mr. Lanre Ajayi said that while it is important that deregulation of the telecoms industry is brought to a conclusion by privatising NITEL, “I do not think it is right to sell it at a give away price. Doing so will be counter-productive. The objective of massive rollout which the sale is meant to achieve may not be achieved. The buyer may simply become complacent after recouping the very low price at which the company was bought with some profit,” he said.

However, he pointed out that a way forward in this circumstance would be to unbundle NITEL into many components, which may be sold separately.

“I am positive that the SAT3 cable will attract good pricing from one of the existing operators and the mobile service (MTEL) will attract good attention from international operators who may be interested in just the mobile service” he opined.

For the chief executive of Telecom Answers Associates, Mr. Titi Omo-Ettu, obviously unhappy with the situation, said he has years ago turned his back on anything that have to do with the sale of NITEL and BPE, until they finish with the entity called Nigeria.

He painted a picture of why the some of the bidders left when they discovered the travail in the presidency culminating in their probable withdrawal completely. Describing the state of the current NITEL as post mortem which may not be useful after all.

Nigerian Bloggers Network makes a debut

INFORMATION and Communications Technology (ICT) enthusiasts in the country have come up with a network of its own group of bloggers, known as the Nigerian Bloggers Network (NBN) meant to increase and sustain blogs from this part of the globe.

A weblog, usually shortened to blog, but occasionally spelled web log is a web-based publication consisting primarily of individual thoughts streamlined into periodic articles normally in reverse chronological order and could be accessed by a much larger population freely online.

The network being propelled by the first Nigerian Information Technology Youth Ambassador, Mr. Gbenga Sesan, says the network, http://www.nigerianblogers.com, is to act as the nation’s blog aggregator with different categories including technology.

He explained that the network was primarily developed as a venue to unite all Nigerian bloggers around the globe via syndicating their content and discussions through its forum.

“We’re really impressed by some Nigerian blogs and we decided to invite them to join our forum at http://forum.nigerianbloggers.com,” he said.

Stressing that the network encourages bloggers to invite the Nigerian friends too to join the network, even as the membership is free, bloggers must be over or exactly the age of 13 years of age at the time of joining the network.

“Our main aim is to encourage Nigerians to start blogging about topics that interest them,” he asserted, emphasizing that this plan is expected to be achieved through aggregating and online forum, which offers the creation of an environment for everybody to read.

“This entails saving Nigerian blogs from isolation, which has been
one of the main reason why Nigerians are discouraged to blog,” he
noted.

Currently, he said, the network is open to suggestions and also volunteers as he looks forward to seeing Nigeria join the forum and to help encourage more Nigerians to start blogging.

“We need more Nigerian bloggers especially in the technology, culture, and arts department,” he said.

Membership of NBN as at the time of going to the press is over 50 as indicated in the forum which cut across all professions globally.

JACITAD advocates expansion of NITDA board

JOINT Action Commit-tee on Information and Communications Technology Awareness and Development (JACITAD), has advocated for the expansion of the proposed National Information Technology Development Agency Fund (NITDAF), as contained in the NITDA draft bill before the National Assembly.

JACITAD is a non-government organization founded in 2003 and ever since then has been active in the ICT sector, even as its membership cuts across media professional and corporate industry players.

The NGO noted at a presentation on public hearing organised by the Senate Committee on Science and Technology in Abuja recently, that the expansion of NITDAF board has become necessary to accommodate a larger interest such as the media among others.

The Committee also noted that though funding for the agency is a critical one, it strongly recommended that a certain percentage be set aside for NITDA in the nation’s annual budget allocation, rather than waiting for mere subvention from the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology (FMST).

This, JACITAD emphasized would speed up government’s involvement in the funding of the agency, considering the security implications of some of NITDA’s functions which require large capital to meet.

Current board set up for NITDAF as stated in the bill approve of membership of a chairman to be appointed by the FMST minister on the recommendation of the Director-General (DG) of the agency.

In addition, it would have representative each from the FMST, Federal Ministry of Finance, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA).

NITDAF membership as presently arranged would also include one
person from the academia to be nominated by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and their tenure would last for three years.

JACITAD also made case for the larger Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the country, by soliciting a nominee into the board of NITDA, saying that the Committee could effectively play the role of representing CSOs on the board.

It further asked for the creation of specific department to coordinate the publicity and awareness campaigns in all the directorate of the agency, so as to boost the ICT awareness and development in the country.

New year streaming on M-Net

Digital Satellite (DStv) content provider, MultiChoice through its M-Net streaming would in this new year offer spectacular shows through featuring of some Hollywood’s greatest stars.

MultiChoice Nigeria informed that subscribers should look out to see the favourites every Sunday at 7pm such as “Anchorman; The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban”.

Others are the showing of “Around the world in Eighty Days, The Chronicles of Riddick and King Arthur”.

Public Relations and Communications Officer at MultiChoice Nigeria, Mr. Segun Fayose, told correspondent that leading the line-up would be Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy on Monday, January 9.

He explained that in this true life comedy drama Will Ferrell teams up with Paul Rudd and Steve Carell on stand-up comedy. Will Ferrell, who co-author this film, pokes fun at the male chauvinism that ruled American newsrooms in the 1970s.

The film, set in San Diego’s male-dominated Channel 4 newsroom, revolves around Ron Burgundy, a likeable, shallow and popular news anchor with a huge ego.

He has no clue that he’s a male chauvinist, until the beautiful,
bright and ambitious Veronica Corningstone joined the team and showed them how things should be done.

“It is anyone’s guess where this battle of the sexes will end!” he declared.

Mr. Fayose also said that, aerobatics professor, Jackie Chan teams up with Steve Coogan and Jim Broadbent in the action packed movie, Around the world in eight days would be aired on Sunday January 8.

Taken from a Jules Verne’s novel, he said that Around the world in eighty days follows as eccentric inventor Phineas Fogg who, in the late 1800s, bets his rival, Lord Kelvin, that he could circle the globe in 80 days.

Fogg and his acrobatic assistant, Passepartout, set off on their journey, hotly pursued by both the English police and a gang of Asian warlords, led by a woman.

This he said turned out that Passepartout is really Lau Xing, a wanted criminal who has stolen
a rare jade statue from the Bank of England, and now several people want it back! But Xing is no thief – he’s just trying to return the statue to its rightful owners, from whom it was stolen in the first place. Tune in and find out how the duo will try to fight off the bad guys and still make it in 80 days.

Then on Sunday January 15, the wizard boy from JK Rowling’s hugely popular series for kids is back in another adventure. This time his fans could tune in for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

In this part of the series, Harry Potter isn’t the shy, insecure boy he used to be, which means villains and foes, including his mean adopted relatives, had better watch their step.

CTO connects rural communities

LONDON-based Common-wealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) has concluded arrangement to host a four-day conference on Connecting Rural Communities in India.

Information contact at CTO, Mr. Bhavna Kerai said the conference slated to hold between January 30 and February 2, 2006, would focus on the best practices of doing business in the rural communities and to meet face-to-face with stakeholders.

This conference, he said, would provide participants with the opportunity to meet the crucial decision makers from across the region and establish relationships that would benefit them for years to come.

He said that the conference would be officially hosted by the department of Telecommunications, India with the Indian Minister of Communications and Information, Mr. Dayanidhi Maran, is slated to grace the occasion.

Delegates at the international event, he said, would be able to interact with keynote speakers dwelling on regulatory strategies for expanding rural communications, how Information and Communications Technology (ICT) could be made more accessible to the rural customer, the role of ICT in realizing ‘Mission 2007’.

Some sub-themes for the conference include cost-effectively extending the reach of ICT through Wireless Broadband Technology, Telkom SA on trailing WiMax, how to ensure benefit from technologies that have accelerated development in advanced countries with the latest operator in the region, Vodafone to speak at the conference.

He advised potential participants to register online by logging on to the CTO website, www.cto.int/rural06 and register or email 1.wright@cto.int as well as booking through the hotline available on CTO website, quoting the code of IE009MAR002E1 in order to benefit from some incentives.

The conference is sponsored by Intel, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, and WorldSpace Satellite Radio.

Call operator praises Glo, MTN

RURAL Commercial Tele-phone Operator (CTO), Mr. Samuel Okechi, has applauded the Second National Operator (SNO), Globacom and a Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) licensee, MTN Nigeria, on their efforts at providing coverage to several rural communities in the country.

Mr. Okechi, who made his views known while speaking to Champion Infotel at his kiosk based in Awba-Ofemili, Awka-North local government area in Anambra State, said that the steps taken so far by these telecom operators were encouraging.

“ I thank God for Globacom and MTN for covering this part of the country, at least, in the main time,” he declared.

He noted, however, that the services of these two were not at full reception at Awba-Ofemili, Mr. Okechi pointed out that they are the most nearest services received in the town among the existing telecom networks.

He said that lack of base stations of these networks near to the town has caused the likes of him to patronize booster antennas mounted on very long bambo tree branches to facilitate stable reception.

“We’re connected to antennas because there is no service here,” he said.

Additionally, he said, the call tariffs at these localities are still very high and even higher than is paid in the cities.

Mr. Okechi also pointed out that non-availability of electricity too is not helping matters either as he uses generating set fueled daily to charge the mobile phone batteries, used in the call services.

He also said purchasing of oil for the generating set and recharge cards could only be bought at Awka, the capital of Anambra State.

Even as it takes longer days for him to finish an MTN Booster or Glo ProfitMax Plus, for instance, he said.

He further enjoined the two operators to come quick to the community’s aid by installing more base stations around Awba-Ofemili, just as he invited other operators such as Vmobile Nigeria and Mobile Telecommunications (Mtel) of the Nigerian Communications Limited (NITEL), too, to the community.

Omatek brand is better than foreign – Soyinka

GENERAL Manager, Omatek Computers Limited, Mr. Yomi Soyinka has declared that his firm’s brands could now compete favourablly with foreign brands, even as the brand in most cases surpasses foreign products among competition.

Omatek is an emerging leader in the assembling of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) products in the country.

Its products include Personal Computers (PCs), laptops, speakers, Digital Video Display (DVD), Plasma Television Sets and monitors, among others.

Speaking in Lagos recently, Mr. Soyinka declared, “We have products that could match foreign brands and even better”.

According to him, Omatek has met all the standards requirement in turning out good and quality ICT products from its factory.

He emphasised that Omatek at all levels have undergone relevant tests at the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), an agency of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology (FMST).

Mr. Soyinka also said that Omatek brands have achieved acceptability both in the public and private sectors of the economy in the country.

Highlighting that Omatek series of brands in the public sector,
which is the major patroniser of Personal Computers (PCs) currently in the country, for example, is very high.

“Our acceptability in public sector is very, very high,” he affirmed.

Noting that by engaging public sector, the firm has to conform with certain ideals in accordance with government’s standardization processes.

This, Mr. Soyinka said, has been accomplished by Omatek Computers Limited and pointed out that the firm’s dream has been to be able to offer quality products to customers generally and that was why the firm’s winning of the Microsoft’s West and Central African award recently was timely.

Entry-level power protection from APC

The American Power Conversion (APC) has announced a new addition to its Smart-UPS line of uninterruptible power supplies (UPS’), the Smart-UPS SC line of products.

APC said that this family of entry-level server UPS’ include 1U and 2U rack-mountable models, as well as dedicated tower models ranging in capacity from 250VA to 1500VA.

Country General Manager for Africa at APC, Mr. Carl Kleynhans, said the introduction was precipitated by the projected increase in the number of small and medium businesses around the world deploying entry-level servers for critical applications.

He cited an instance with the market research conducted by the International Data Corporation (IDC) which projected that entry priced servers would grow from nearly 2,3 million units in 2004 to over 4,8 million units in 2008.

Mr. Kleynhans noted that this phenomenon has significantly crashed the cost of computing for many businesses, it has not eliminated the need for power protection on servers.

He stressed that as the market looks at low-cost, value servers to fulfill its needs it is also looking for an affordable, and complementary UPS solution.

“Increasingly, these solutions require network manageability, integrated data-line surge protection and high levels of availability. APC’s Smart-UPS SC line offers businesses a cost-effective power protection solution for today’s entry-level server applications,” he said, just as the Smart-UPS family of products has long been an industry benchmark for highly-available, manageable power protection for server applications.

The manager also said that low-end servers are one of the fastest growing segments of the worldwide server business and represent a core component of APC traditional market.

“The new Smart-UPS SC line of rack and tower units offers the same core attributes of our Smart-UPS family, while offering a value server UPS for the many small and medium sized businesses,” he said.

The country general manager listed some benefits of the Smart-UPS SC units, which include manageability offered by the unit’s first line of protection in the event of a power outage through its easily configured automatic server shutdown capability.

The same software environment, he said, found on the Smart-UPS SC could be used to seamlessly manage other Smart-UPS models, allowing users to grow their Information Technology (IT) infrastructure.

On availability, he said, Smart-UPS protects critical information
and provides surge protection of data lines that can increase the lifetime of network equipment.

“Hot-swappable batteries decrease server downtime by allowing UPS service to occur without interrupting power to IT equipment” he declared, stressing that economically, the UPS provides the basic features needed to protect entry-level servers and networks at an affordable price.

Most models, he said, are configurable for tower and rack, enabling businesses to lower costs by standardising on a specific unit for more than one application.

Geniac receives commendation @ PH trade fair

Just concluded International Trade Fair in the south-south Nigeria and oil city of Port Harcourt, was a jolly outing for the newly introduced Geniac 320 computer, as the brand received commendations for entering the nation’s Information and Communication Technology market.

The Geniac 320, which is assembled in the country by Juniper Solutions Limited (JSL), a wireless solutions provider that has been in business rendering value added services in the emerging markets of Information and Communication Technology for more than ten years.

Manager Director of JSL, country partner of VIA Technologies, Mr. Gboyega Ojuri, disclosed this, and noted that they had a good experience at the fair, stressing that people were more interested in the value prepositions that the product offers, which made them to admire Geniac 320 in view of the functionalities while using the computer.

“Geniac comes with a C3 processor that has VIA strongbox security features. So far, it has been certified as the best in area of security solution. Apart from that, the system has an in-built supercool processing that was specifically designed for system that does not need unnecessary heat” he said

Mr. Ojuri said, Geniac has a lot of features that gives it an edge among others, thus it was designed for the generation next which he described as an understatement.

According to him, the partnership with frontline core chipset cum complete platform provider, VIA Technologies Inc., is to lay more emphasis at providing Personal Computer (PC) connectivity and penetration outside the cosmopolitan cities.

He further said that with the readily available technology on JSL stable, his firm is capable of extending services to remote and hinterland areas.

In a related development, VIA Technologies has introduced Dual PCI Express chipset, which supports two displays function from a motherboard for various functions enabled in the Central Processing Unit (CPU) of computers. Described as a number of integrated circuits designed to perform one or more related functions.

For instance, one chipset may provide the basic functions of a modem while another provides the CPU functions for a computer.

Latest chipsets generally include functions provided by two or more older chipsets and in some cases, older chipsets that required two or more physical chips could be replaced with a chipset on one chip, whereas this term is often used to refer to the core functionality of a motherboard.

VIA Technologies, through Mr. Richard Brown informed that the firm’s Dual PCI chipset is an express buses, which enable system builders to offer high-performance desktops that support two displays.

He said that K8T;900, has been on sampling since late November, and would be made available for market volume by January 2006.

This, he said, supports two x8 PCI Express graphics connections.

Mr. Brown also noted that through the systems of dual graphics support more than one monitor and have been available for years now, VIA’s dual PCI express optimizes new technology for better performance for today’s robust video requirements.

He explained that older systems with dual displays must squeeze graphics instructions for two displays through one bus and limiting throughput.

“The new technology, however, opens up two graphics buses that could support either multiple video streams or more robust graphics for high-end games,” he said.

Mr. Brown further disclosed that VIA is currently working with S3 Graphics to ensure the graphics chip manufacturer’s new chrome graphics cards will work with its new chipset.