ICANN opens BTRWG report for comments

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has opened for comments the final report of the Board Technical Relations Working Group (BTRWG) with a deadline slated for December 30, this year.

A press statement made available to ITRealms Online by Olof Nordling, the contact person for the report, indicated that this action of ICANN is in line with the Board’s recent resolution which was adopted in Dakar public meeting last October.

“The final report delivered by the Board Technical Relations Working Group is now open for public comment,” part the press statement read.

Nordling also said that the public comment period will close on 30 December 2011, urged those Internet stakeholders with to provide input on this report, while advising them to send their to: btrwg-final-report@icann.org.

ITRealms Online recalls that ICANN had appointed JAS Communications in August 2010 to carry out an external and independent review of the Technical Liaison Group and the consultants delivered their final report in December 2010.

And as recommended by ICANN’s Structural Improvements Committee (SIC), the ICANN Board of Directors resolved to accept the TLG Review Final Report and to establish a Board Technical Relations Working Group (BTRWG) to consider measures to enhance the coordination and cooperation between ICANN and other members of the Internet technical community with the intent of, among other things, dissolving the TLG by the 2011 annual meeting.

The board further requested that the BTRWG engage the ICANN community in a fully consultative process;  five members of this working group be nominated; and the SIC develop a charter for this Working Group based upon the report of the TLG review.

Nordling pointed out that the Board adopted the BTRWG Charter in April 2011, while on August this year, the BTRWG submitted its final report to the Board for consideration which, in turn, recommended that the SIC propose a course of action.

The contact person on this report informed that in consideration of the BTRWG final report, the SIC recommended to have the Final Report posted for public comments to provide further basis for actions, hence the Board directed that the BTRWG final report be posted for public comment and a summary of contributions received be delivered to the SIC. 

Remmy Nweke

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Nigeria set to launch NigcomSAT-1R in December

VP, China GWIC, Mr. He Xing, MD NIGCOMSAT, Timasaniyu Ahmed-Rufai, 

DG, NBC, Mr. Yomi Bolarinwa, Chief of Defence, Communication,

AVM Osmond Amu at the event.

The managing director and chief executive officer, Nigerian Communication Satellite (NigComSAT) Limited, Mr. Timasaniyu Ahmed-Rufai has said that all is set for the launch for the replacement of Nigeria’s communication satellite, NigComSAT-1R, on December 19, 2011, just as he assures on availability of bandwidth.

Mr. Timasaniyu Ahmed-Rufai gave this insight in Lagos at the stakeholders’ conference on NigComSAT-1R by his firm, saying that it’s an improvement on NigComSAT-1.

According to him, the launch of NigComSat-1R is symbolic on different levels.

For his team at NIGCOMSAT Ltd, it is the end-result of many years of hard work and sacrifice, and another step towards the fulfillment of the company’s vision to be the leading satellite operator on the continent of Africa.

And for the Federal Government of Nigeria, he said, the launch of NigComSAT is a prerequisite for a knowledge-based economy.

To the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry, he said, NigComSat-1R will serve as a critical infrastructure for development.

He expressed the hope that with the cooperation of the government and the ICT industry, the average Nigerian will reap the benefits of the launch of NigComSat-1R.

Based on the foregoing, he said that they brought this conference to Lagos, the Center of Excellence, which they consider to be the hub of ICT enterprise, and home to the drivers of this critical sector.

Though he decried the deorbiting of NigComSat-1, describing it as disappointing, Mr. Ahmed-Rufai noted that it paved the way for growth and improvement.

“The NigComSat-1R is an improvement on the de-orbited NigComSat-1,” he declared.

He said that the ECOWAS 1 now carries PEAK EIRP: 55dBW, ECOWAS II coverage of East Africa is now PEAK EIRP: 52dBW, while the coverage of West and Central Africa is PEAK EIRP: 46dBW.

The spot beam covering Europe, Nigeria and South Africa, he said, is also PEAK EIRP: 58dBW, and the global coverage for Space Based Augmentation System meant for Navigation has also change to (L1) =33.5dBW and PEAK EIRP (L5)=31.5dBW respectively.

These improved features, he said, would enable NigComSAT-1R meet its core mandate in covering the entire Africa continent, and parts of Europe and Asia with clear, clean and high-resolution signals on our footprints.

Further, he said, the NigComSat-1R satellite will bring the expected availability of bandwidth, not just to Nigeria, but the entire continent.

“Our footprints shall also cover parts of Europe and Asia. We shall ensure that bandwidth is available for customers at competitive prices,” he assured.

Additionally, he expressed the home that those in broadcast industry will take advantage of this glowing opportunity to meet the challenges of global migration in the industry.

He explained that the three-day conference which ends today is intended to provide an opportunity for NigComSAT to showcase the features of the satellite and the services and applications that will be derived from it.

“We have knowledgeable speakers who will dwell on topical issues such as broadcasting, direct-to-home (DTH), satellite applications, national security and much more,” he asserted.

He commended the engineers and marketers at NIGCOMSAT Ltd for active participation and endurance for seeing NigComSAT-1R to this stage.

Remmy Nweke
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Visa Entree Xpress debuts, dangles 5GB on EV-DO

Leading Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operator in the country, Visafone has unveiled a new product known as Visa entrée xpress, just as it dangles 5 GigaBytes on Evolution Data Optimised (EV-DO).

Head Corporate Communication, Visafone, Mr. Joseph Ushigiale, made these disclosures in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online, at the weekend, saying that CDMA operator is determined to enhance the value and customer experience of communication on its network, hence, it introduced the new prepaid package tagged Visa Entrée Xpress.

According to him, the new package enables customers to call other network at 50k/sec for the first minute of the day and thereafter 30k/sec with the sole aim of giving customers who talk more to enjoy tariffs as low as 15k/sec.

Mr. Ushigiale described this new innovative package as “another platform Visafone is applying to enrich customers’ experiences, make communication affordable and accessible to majority of customers.”

He also said that Visafone does not only offer the lowest tariffs but it also gives clear voice and data quality with a wider reach.

Further, he quoted the managing director, Visafone, Mr. Sailesh Iyer as saying that apart from the low tariff customers would enjoy on Visa Entrée Xpress package, customers would enjoy Short Messaging Service (SMS) rate at N5/SMS for Visafone to Visafone, N10/SMS to any other network in Nigeria and N15 to international networks.

He explained that subscribers would receive 60 free on-net SMS valid for 60 days with 1 free on-net minute every time they make an off-net call with a duration of 60 seconds or more.

Iyer said, the company is reputed for its customer friendly and rewarding programmes, apart from giving them value for money through attractive tariffs and excellent voice and data quality.

He pointed out that Visafone has displayed considerable leadership in the mobile sub-sector of the Nigerian telecoms landscape, therefore, the operator is constantly seeking to revolutionize the customer service delivery thereby lowering churn and continuing the exponential growth trajectory in customer experience.

In a related development, he said that recently Visafone was certified by the CDG as the first Open Market Handsets (OMH) compliant network in Africa.

In its quest for addressing the ever growing needs and demands of its customer, he said, Visafone has introduced one more customer friendly data plan of 5GB,  this is to upgrade the current data users whose monthly usage exceeds 3GB but is less than 10GB,enabling the customer to optimize their data usage as per his usage pattern.

Mr. Iyer expressed confidence that the new data plan would continue to give subscribers consistently high speed experience to the internet at a competitive rate of N7, 499 and with a validity period of 30 days.

“This new package will no doubt be useful to those who have been yearning for a data plan that exceeds the current 3GB threshold and need around 5GB,” he said.

Visafone recently slashed the prices of its hardware as well as data bundles besides revamping its existing data plans, thus providing a whole new world of internet access and experience for both existing and new subscribers with high speed broadband internet services via CDMA 1x and 3G EVDO on the Visafone-pioneered EVDO Rev A network.

Iyer pointed out that “given the superb experience in terms of access, surfing and fast download speeds that Visafone data subscribers enjoy, this creates irresistible value for data devotees across the spectrum of corporate users, travelling businessmen, students, dedicated downloaders or casual browsers and email enthusiasts.”

Remmy Nweke

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HIP takes-over @ Multi-Links, names Eleso, CEO

New owners of Multi-Links Telecommunications Limited, the Helios Investment Partners (HIP) has proclaimed the formal 100 per cent acquisition of the company with the naming of citizen telecom expert, Mr. Demola Eleso as the new chief executive officer.

Ijeoma Abazie, Martin Dirks, chair; Dem Eleso, CEO speaking, Gab Olaruwaju

Chairman of Multi-Links’ Board of Directors, Mr. Martin Dirks, who made this disclosure in Lagos, said that they have successfully acquired Multi-Links by a 100 per cent equity interest since October 3, 2011 from its previous shareholder, Telkom South Africa.

He noted that the acquisition of Multi-Links by HIP began in August 2011 following the agreement reached between HIP Oils, an affiliate of Helios Towers Nigeria with Multi-Links, which has now been brought to a successful end.

With investment in excess of $1.9 billion, about N301,245,011,878.26 billion worth of assets, Mr. Dirks said there exist some investors.

He listed some of these investors in the funds to include the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), International Finance Corporation (IFC), African Development Bank (AfDB), Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a United States’ Washington-based government agency that assets businesses looking to invest abroad and the University of Texas among others.

Mr. Dirks also used the opportunity unveil the new chief executive officer of Multi-Links, Mr. Eleso, whom he said, would be assisted and supported by Mr. Gabriel Olaruwaju as the chief marketing officer, Mrs. Ijeoma Abazie, the chief corporate communication officer as well as the chief finance officer, Mr. Simon Poole.

According to him, HIP has communication market operating experiences in Angola, Namibia, Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau- GSM; whereas having fixed line operations in Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau; Internet service providers in Angola and Mozambique; and printed directories business in Kenya, Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde.

While its affiliate operations comprised of Helios Towers Nigeria (HTN), Africatel and Helios Towers Africa.

He explained that HTN, a pioneer specialist on building and maintaining telecommunications towers and leasing spaces on those towers to wireless telecommunications services providers across Nigeria, enables operators to outsource non-core activities and passive infrastructure and focus resources on improving their core products and services.

He pointed out that the long transition leading to HIP’s acquisition of Multi-Links caused uncertainty about the brand that impacted Multi-Links’ brand and resulted in churn on Multi-Links’ network, hence the appointment of new management team.

In his comment, the new CEO, Mr. Eleso assured Nigerian customers on Multi-Links and investment on focused reclaiming of its former glory based on improved quality of service and return on investment.

His team, Eleso noted, is not unaware of the churn witnessed by the brand, therefore, they would not encourage investors to throw money at the network, rather they have to join forces with the management to make certain that Multi-Links returns on its heels and stand firm.

This, he said, would encourage the anticipated expansion programme of the network and its services beyond the 22 states of the federation currently along other communities.

He plans to explore data and capacity carrier market of the Multi-Links fibre optic, enjoining potential dealers and carriers of telecom capacity to approach them for good offering.

Remmy Nweke
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eTranzact introduces Operation Cashless Lagos

The eTranzact International plc has disclosed its readiness for the proposed enthronement of ‘Cashless Society’ by the Central Bank of Nigeria by introducing ‘Operation Cashless Lagos.’

The Director Business Development, eTranzact, Mr. Sullivan Akala, said it’s in line with the January 1, 2012 commencement guidelines by CBN through the deployment of Automated Teller Machines (ATM) across Lagos.

He also said, eTranzact is geared towards facilitating the initiative of CBN with ‘Operation Cashless Lagos’ from January 1, 2012.

The Operation Cashless Lagos, Akala further said, entails full scale deployment of Automated Teller Machines (ATM), the use of Point-of-Sale (POS) terminals by merchants, Web payment and Mobile Money service.

“eTranzact is at the forefront in ensuring that the CBN cashless policy becomes a huge success,” he said, stressing that over the years, eTranzact has built an e-payment services platform that provides secure, convenient and cost effective ways for customers to carry out their transaction either through ATM, POS, Web and the Mobile phones.

All these solutions, he said, are possible with eTranzact’s Genesis Chip+Pin card.

He explained that the Genesis Chip+Pin card comes with access to Web, Mobile Money, Mobile banking, ATM and POS payment features.

“With any Genesis card (Debit, Prepaid or Credit cards), cardholders are entitled to purchase airline tickets, book hotels at discounted rates, make online payments pay DSTV/HiTV bills, POSTPAID and Airtime TopUp of major telecom networks, etc through all channels,” Mr.Akala said.

He pointed out that since inception, eTranzact has focused on deploying secure services that provide cardholders convenient ways to process transactions including ATM Cardlex Cash, eRemit, Corporate Pay solutions, WebAccess service, Mobile Money etc. eTranzact has over 300 merchants both from public and private sector on its platform.

Remmy Nweke
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VConnect wins award @ RIMA’11

Acclaimed Nigeria’s largest local search engine and leading information service provider, VConnect Global Services Ltd, has won the ‘Personalized Information Product of the Year’ by RIMA Foundation Award at 2011 edition.

The Records and Information Management Awareness Foundation (RIMA Foundation), is a non-profit organisation that seeks to promote access to information, raise public consciousness on the need for proper management and security of information, and encourage the overall development of the information management community.

President, RIMA Foundation, Mr. Oyedokun A Oyewole, revealed that the award was presented to VConnect at the 2011 RIMA awards ceremony for individual and corporate organisations in the record and information management sector held at Sheraton hotels, Ikeja, Lagos recently.

He also said the award was given on VConnect having won a contest among other players in the category, noting that VConnect was voted top in the personalized information product for venturing into the local search engine business which is rather novel in this part of the world.

He applauded VConnect on the search engine initiative which is helping Nigerians access information anywhere, anytime and also establishing contact between suppliers and the consumers that require their services.

Responding after receiving the award on behalf of the General Manager of VConnect, the Marketing Coordinator, Mr. Albert Ogunmola, said the honour would propel them to serve the users better.

“VConnect has a vision to provide reliable and most exhaustive information about products and services & businesses in Nigeria. I believe we are receiving this award because we have applied professionalism in all our dealings, a demonstration of potential and high capacity for growth”, he said.

Ogunmola explained that currently, over 300,000 businesses are listed on the VConnect website while several thousands of people use the portal or call the customer care hotline 070 0000 8888 on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, VConnect was recently ranked the Nigeria’s largest local search engine and leading information service provider by Alexa.com.

Confirming this, the General Manager, VConnect Global Services Limited, Mr. Deepankar Rustagi had said that according to the ranking of top websitesa used in Nigeria and released by Alexa.com, the world’s most reliable source of website ranking, saw VConnect only launched six months ago emerging the fastest growing website in the country.

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Starcomms discounts data services

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) leader in the country, Starcomms plc is offering it’s upgraded data services at 50 per cent.

Chief executive officer of Starcomms, Mr. Logan Pather, said the operator introduced this offer to encourage its existing customers with non-functional 1x USB modems/PCIMCIA/Izap cards to upgrade to EVDO at a discount of 50 per cent of the cost of the hardware.

He said that customers EVDO, also known as Rev. B as well as Starcomms Izap-plus allows for  increased broadband data rates, improved network efficiencies reliability and high speed internet access for residential and business users.

He maintained that the offer when explained shows that the high speed EVDO modem goes for only N3, 000 as against N6, 500.

“Customers would have to subscribe to any of the plan that suits their pockets ranging from the Always On plan to the 50 hours plan,” he said.

Pather further noted that the offer would be valid while stock lasts and urged customers to appreciate the commitment of the company to ensure that the data subscribers were availed the  next generation internet modem that would facilitate super fast and amazing browsing experience.

Retaining existing customers, he said, is at the heart of the business as they are the true ambassadors that can tell Nigerians of the better browsing experience they enjoy with Starcomms IZAP.

He recalled that Starcomms is the leader in Nigeria in the provision of mobile data services and has received consistent recognitions and accolades for services in this since 2007.

The company, he noted, has been adjudged since 2007 as the CDMA network of the year by top telecommunication industry watchers group.

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Okpara promises to lift CWG brand

The newly appointed Head, Marketing Communications and Corporate Affairs at the Computer Warehouse Group (CWG), Mrs. Nkechi Okpara has promised to lift the image of the company beyond where she met it.

Speaking to journalists recently in Lagos in her inaugural media chat, Mrs. Okpara who took over Mr. Chidi Okpala, noted that no doubt Computer Warehouse Group has made some mark in the market place across Africa, her coming on stage would equally add expected value to the brand as head of the marketing communications.

In her new role, Okpara said, it comprises of establishing and managing the Group’s brand identity, mission and vision accurately and communicating same effectively internally and externally.

In addition, she said, her job entails developing effective and implementable marketing strategies that would meet the group’s wide corporate and brand objectives, even as will co-ordinate and manage all Marketing Communications activities across CWG branch network in Ghana, Uganda and Nigeria.

Introducing her earlier, the Marketing Communication executive at CWG, Mrs. Toyin Aderibigbe said that Mrs. Okpara brings with her to the latest position a wealth of experience from Information and Communication Technology (ICT) training as a coordinator, relationship management of Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and Business Development Manager Solution Sales among others.

According to her, Nkechi is highly regarded in the IT industry where she has spent over eight years in services and solutions sales.

Mrs. Okpara, she said, would oversee and coordinate the group’s marketing activities, describing her as a “catalyst of positive change.”

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