Akinlabi explains Quiz Line

General Manager, Telemedia, promoters of Quiz Line, Mr. Olu Akinlabi, has adduced some reasons why Nigerians should embrace interactive phone-in programmes like Quiz Line, saying it has enhanced over 839 Nigerians.

He also said that Quiz Line, which is yet to clock one year, that on daily basis, a winner must emerge, just as he recalled that two main winners with over N1.2m, have since emerged.

He said that the programme designed for easy, quick and small wins was designed with the vision of carrying some bonus wins, which allow a winner to go beyond the N10,000 mark.

According to him, when played in different parts of the world as an interactive TV show, the drama to win is between the player at home and the presenter who would usually ask the interacting viewer some questions most times presented in form of a puzzle.

“The programme is highly cerebral and the player must have full concentration in order to get a win,” he said, describing it as a great game show that has continued to attract a large fellowship in the country.

“This is one of the reasons, the process of playing must always be explained to the players,” he said.

He added that interested public could call 345 on MTN network or 358555 on the other networks at the cost of N100 per call, which is a non-refundable registration fee.

“You will then receive an automatic response from the computer which qualifies you for participation,” he said, stressing that if a number is selected from the pool of numbers on the list, “you will receive a call from the presenter inviting you to play the interactive game. And if you successfully solve the puzzle, you could win as much as N1m,” Mr. Akinlabi explained.

He also noted that an electronic version of this message is available to those who call into the programme and are left with the choice to continue with the transaction.

Mr. Akinlabi pointed out that Telemedia has always given this explanation just for players to know that Quiz Line is a phone interaction between the presenter and the viewer at home whose indication to play would necessitate him to call the presenter.

He emphasised that such call is not an automatic qualification but until the request is processed by the computer, and a number gets through.

“All over the world where Quiz Line is played, it is billed on a premium rate and has become a major value added product to most telecom operators and Nigeria is no exception,” he said.

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Nweke, Isoun for ATCON franchise forum

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) minister, Mr. Frank Nweke and his counterpart in the Science and Technology Ministry, Prof. Turner Isoun, are billed to lead delegates to the Franchise forum being organised by the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON).

President, ATCON, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, who disclosed this said that minister of state for Communications, Dr. Obafemi Anibaba, Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Prof. Cleopas Officer Angaye and the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Ernest Chuka Ndukwe as well as the Director, Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF), Mrs. Lolia Emakpore and Director-General, Small & Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Mrs. Modupe Adelaja are among top government officials slated to grace the event.

Dr. Ekuwem who spoke through the Executive Secretary, ATCON, Mr. Godwin Morgan also said that other dignitaries have been invited from the private sector including chief executives of telecom companies, banks and non-bank financial institutions, oil & gas companies in addition to representatives of local and multinational funding agencies as well as high network personalities from all sectors including the mass media.

ATCON said the one-day forum is being organised in collaboration with the NCC, and USPF and would play host to telecommunications stakeholders at the event scheduled to hold on Friday, March 30, 2007 at the Golden Gate Paradise, Ikoyi, Lagos based on the theme: “Telecom Franchise and Virtual Operation: Accelerating Service Provisioning in Rural Nigeria.”

Also, ATCON reiterated the group’s support for the universal access policy of the government of Nigeria, currently being implemented by NCC and USPF.

By this forum, ATCON said its using the forum to complement the efforts of the government, NCC and USPF “by assembling telecom industry experts and their counterparts from other relevant economic sectors to brainstorm on the potentials of adopting the franchise system and virtual operation as strategic business models with great potentials for driving the rapid expansion of telecom and other ICT services to all parts of the country, especially in the unserved rural areas.

In line with this vision, ATCON said that recent studies have revealed that telecommunications development in Nigeria has its concentration mostly in the urban and commercial centres, stressing that the reasons are simple.

“Poor infrastructural development of our rural areas, low commercial activities, low purchasing power of rural dwellers, low population, hostilities in some local regions to name a few,” Ekuwem said.

The aforementioned, he said, are enough reasons to discourage big investors from investing in the rural areas, as economic viability is the watch word of any profit oriented business,” Ekuwem said.

He emphasised that there are some local entrepreneurs who may be interested in investing in telecom and other ICT businesses in the remote areas but do not have the prerequisite for obtaining the relevant operating licences from NCC.

“With a well tailored franchise systems and appropriate virtual operation model, these set of investors could participate as franchisees of big licensed network operators in bringing ICT services closer to the grassroots,” he said.

Therefore, he said, the forum would examine telecom franchise and virtual operation as business models that could attract more investors to participate in further expanding telecommunications and ICT services to such areas that have not been served, without necessarily obtaining licences of their own from the NCC.

He said that discussants at the forum would dwell on what would be the format of contractual agreements between the franchisor and franchisee? What would be the guarantees and safeguards between a franchisor and a franchisee? What policy and regulatory framework would the NCC provide to strengthen franchising agreements? What level of funding could the banks and non-bank financial institutions provide to promote telecom franchising? What kind of investment incentives and support could States and Local Governments give to small and medium entrepreneurs to encourage their participation in telecom services franchising?

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Celtel embarks on aggressive coverage

... Opens viewing centres for Idols

Celtel Nigeria has said that its embarking on aggressive coverage expansion of the network in pursuit of its 2007 goals of providing significant coverage for portions of Nigeria’s over 150m population.

This is coming as the telco has given a boost to Idols West Africa, which it’s a major sponsor by establishing viewing centres across the country.

Celtel also said this would offer more Nigerians the opportunity to watch the popular reality television (TV) talent show, Idols West Africa.

Public Relations, Specialist at Celtel Nigeria, Mr. Emmanuel Otokhine said, that by rolling out an average of 100 base stations monthly across the six geo-political zones of the country, and is speeding up the completion of it North-south microwave transmission backbone.

He quoted the Chief Executive Officer, Celtel Nigeria, Mr. Bayo Ligali, as confirming in a press statement made available to Champion Infotel while addressing key functionaries of the business at a management strategy meeting in Lagos, weekend.

Mr. Ligali noted that the objective is to cover 95 per cent of the total population of the country by mid-next year.

He explained that the investment by the MTC/Celtel Group in Celtel Nigeria has begun to yield fruits with the completion of numerous equipment supply contracts and roll-out agreements.

He pointed out to one of this plans as being the $50 million contract the telco recently signed with Motorola to expand its GSM network within the South-East and South-South regions of the country.

Under the turnkey arrangement, he said, Motorola would deploy its latest Motorola Reach Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) solutions and provide comprehensive services. Whereas the expansion would afford Celtel to increase its subscriber capacity, extend its coverage into new areas and improve network quality.

Meanwhile, Celtel has advanced plans to establish viewing centres across the nation for the Idols West Africa.

According to the Head, Public Relations, Events and Sponsorship at Celtel, Mr. Emeka Oparah, several viewing centres have began to emerge in various cities, mostly in university campuses, nationwide to serve the populace the chance to watch their idols perform in the on-going reality TV show, Idols West Africa.

Champion Infotel recalls that Celtel Nigeria is headline sponsor of the Idols West Africa project, which commenced in February this year.

Presently over 40 university campuses across the country have been designated to host the viewing centres.

The centres will be equipped with Plasma television sets, Digital Satellite Tv (DSTV) decoders and satellite dish and 6KVA power generating sets.He also said that viewing centres were introduced to boost public engagement in and association with the talent hunt project, which offers Nigerian youths a shot at fame and fortune.

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Executive networking @ W.Afri.Tel-07

Organisers of the West Africa Telecommunications (W.Afri.Tel) 2007, the Exhibition Management Services (EMS) of South Africa, has said that they expect the high level conference to set the ground for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) executives in the country to network.

They also said that all is now set for the three-day exhibition scheduled between June 5 and 7 this year in Lagos.

“W.Afri.Tel is set to heighten the growth through high level participation and attendance,” a press statement from the organisers and signed by the management of its local partner, IT & Telecom Digest said.

“There really is no other way to meet and interact with the region’s telecom decision-makers, all in one place, at the same time,” Ms Gillian Pope, who is the Exhibitions Manager at EMS said, emphasising that over 40 per cent of visitors to the expo were either managing directors or company chief executives.

“We’re confident that, with the last edition of a high-level conference, this number will grow even further,” she said.

The event which is on its seventh year, is scheduled to hold at the Expo Centre, Eko Hotel, Lagos, the organisers also said is promising and has began to make some progress for this year’s event.

“We’re already receiving phenomenal endorsements, with several leading Nigerian and foreign companies already signed up,” says Editor-in-chief of IT & Telecom digest, Mr. Mkpe Abang.
He noted that like the previous editions, the show would be sold out as early as possible, with a higher scale of rush from active participants of the nations ICT sector and the economy in general.

In addition, Ms Pope, said that the last three exhibitions in particular have been completely sold out, stressing that as participation opens for the event, she said the management is ready for, “A high level conference to support the expo we expect to post the ‘sold-out’ signs up much earlier this year.”

Ms Pope pointed out that the world’s major telecom companies and suppliers are being expected at the event.

“But in addition, together with our local partner, IT & Telecom Digest, we will run a cutting-edge conference at the same time as the exhibition,” she said.

The introduction of the technical conference this year, at the request of W.Afri.Tel participants – exhibitors and visitors alike, she said, would reflect the ongoing interest from the region in acquiring the latest technologies.

“Whereas Africa is now the world’s leading area for cellular expansion, Nigeria is largely regarded as the world’s fastest growing mobile phone market,” she noted.

A statement issued in Lagos by IT & Telecom Digest, the Nigerian Sole Agent for W.Afri.Tel said the event was already “almost fully booked” and advised prospective exhibitors to confirm their booking early once they received provisional booking to avoid missing out on the show.

“Space is limited. Last year we had over 15 companies that we could not find space for despite their interest. And already, we are almost 80 per cent booked, so chances are that companies confirming late risk the chance of missing the event,” said Mr. Abang.

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ALTON tasks FG on NITEL training school

The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has tasked the Federal Government on the need to upgrade the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) Training School, Oshodi-Lagos.

ALTON made this call during a courtesy visit of its executive to the Minister of State for Communications, Dr. Obafemi Anibaba, at the weekend in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja.

The executive led by its chairman, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, while lamenting the dearth of manpower in the core telecommunications engineering segment of the industry, said that the nation’s educational institutions have not measured up to the manpower needs of the this specialised area.

He noted that most of the networks in the country today, are new and as such currently require less maintenance, stressing that it would amount to economic slavery if the nation fails to produce graduates to take up the maintenance of these infrastructure.

“If we do not produce graduates trained to take up maintenance of these infrastructure the nation will continue to depend on foreign manpower in this regard,” he observed. Mr. Adebayo also said that the nation’s tertiary institutions should be encouraged to carry out specialised training in telecommunications engineering as well as in other related courses in the interest of the country. “We kindly request that the NITEL training school be revisited. ALTON is of the view that this institute in Oshodi-Lagos, and a campus of know-how, should be upgraded and equipped with modern training facilities in order to assist in the area of the much needed local manpower in the telecoms industry,” he said. Mr. Adebayo equally assured the minister of his association’s readiness to assist in bringing the training school back to life. “Operators will be ready to assist with the provision of training equipment and also support with resource persons,” he declared. He pointed out that there is need for the government to address the upgrading of this institution because of the much-needed human capital development in the Nigeria telecommunications. ALTON further requested the upgrading of the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) Abuja, to specialised degree awarding institution. This, ALTON said, would boost the development of highly skilled personnel and high level manpower development for the evolving telecommunications sector.

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Task Systems becomes biggest HP partner in Africa

The foremost Information Technology (IT) solutions provider, Task Systems Limited, has pronounced Task Systems Limited, the 2006 Best and Biggest Hewlett Packard (HP) Preferred Partner Award winner for West Africa and Africa.

The latest is the ninth in a row, according to sources at Task System.

Presenting both Awards, the General Manager SPO for Africa at HP, Mr. Foad Afilal said, that he was very proud of Task as a committed and professional Information Technology (IT) company that has continued to show strength and growth year after year for over a decade.

Mr. Foad wished the Task team continued success in their hunger for IT Solutions Excellence in Africa.

Responding after receiving the wards, Managing Director, Task Systems, Mr. Dave Ibelegbu, expressed thanks to HP for recognizing and rewarding commitment to professionalism and loyalty.

Mr. Ibelegbu dedicated the first award, the best in West Africa to their numerous satisfied customers all over the country while he dedicated the second award, the best in Africa to all staff of Task Systems for being a winning team.

Mr. Ibelegbu said that the award was a welcome tonic that would make the Task team to work even harder.

He also said that winning the awards for a record ninth time showed the depth, focus, and tenacity of the Task management and staff in the industry where they operate.

“It wasn’t as if competition was sleeping. It was just that at Task we keep setting higher customer satisfaction levels for ourselves. This ninth award would, like the other awards, translate to smarter and faster responses to ensure that Task customers consolidate their winning edge in the market,” he said.

“I felt very proud as a Nigerian dominating this award,” he asserted, pointed out that it was another proof that Nigerians were capable of providing high tech solutions and match the best anywhere in the world.

“Awards like this one, won consistently in international platforms, would help re-write the image of the Nigerian,” he said.

Mr. Ibelegbu also said that these awards came at the right time to provide the reassurances that the Task Service Manager (TSM), is appreciated and recognized worldwide.

He said that IT deployment and administration was getting more and more specialized and discerning corporate persons were relying more on IT Solutions companies. Task Systems Limited, established in 1987 by the Nigerian IT Visionary, Dr. Leo Stan Ekeh, operates from Abuja, Port Harcourt, Warri and Lagos, and recently launched the Task Service Manager, TSM, an engine that enables companies to entirely outsource their IT needs to Task.

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IBM, Cisco take GAS to 46 new countries

The International Business Machines (IBM) and Cisco Systems Nigeria, have announced the collaboration in the bid to expand their Global Services Alliance (GAS) in providing product maintenance services for mutual enterprise customers in 46 new countries.

A joint press statement from both Information Technology (IT) companies, signed by Jeena Gable of IBM and Owen Nwelih of Cisco Nigeria, said that the collaboration is built on the success that IBM and Cisco have seen within the United States.

This, they said means that IBM customers who purchase Cisco networking technology solutions would now get a globally consistent level of IT infrastructure support.

The collaboration includes IBM’s extensive service-delivery capabilities and Cisco’s technical expertise in one integrated support offering.

Vice President, Cisco Services Marketing and Channels, Mr. Karl Meulema described the collaboration as significant evolution in global services alliance, stressing that by providing a concerted maintenance service offering means mutual customers would no longer need to choose between Cisco networking skills or IBM multivendor systems integrator capabilities.

“Instead, customers get the collective expertise of both companies, combining the best of both worlds,” he said.

On his part, the vice president, IBM-Cisco Strategic Alliance, IBM Global Technology Services, Mr. Robert Kritzer, said that the partnership have existed for over three years on these service offerings especially in the United States and they were excited to offer a broader global customer experience by expanding the frontier into additional markets around the world.

“Our relationship with Cisco allows us to provide our customers with a single resource to seamlessly and rapidly integrate business processes, industry knowledge, information technologies and the intelligence of the network,” Mr. Kritzer said.

The deal, it was gathered involves that IBM would market and sell this services offering under the name “IBM managed maintenance solution for Cisco products,” while collaboratively delivering the service with Cisco.

Company sources informed that IBM will provide the customer with consolidated call management for all networking devices and will retain responsibility for resolving customer issues.

Also, technical support would be provided via IBM Technical Support Centres by highly experienced network specialists, trained by Cisco, who have access to IBM’s technical support resource base.

Speaking on the development, Cisco’s Managing Director for Nigeria and Ghana, Mr. Maduka Emelife, said that his firm would provide, through IBM, such benefits as worldwide escalation to the Cisco Technical Assistance Centre at any time of the day, access to cisco.com, on-going operating system updates, advance hardware replacement, and tools and best practices to address network issues.

He noted that the collaboration has been in place for three years and is intended to increase customer success with Cisco networking technology.

“The programme promotes greater collaboration and alignment between Cisco and its Global Service Alliance partners in order to deliver a consistent level of IT infrastructure support across the network lifecycle,” he said.

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Starcomms introduces 07028

Acclaimed largest Third Generation (3G) Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) mobile network, Starcomms Limited, has introduced a new numbering plan for its mobile to be known as 07028.

Commercial Director at Starcomms, Mr. Prakash Pantham, said that the step is a major in fulfillment of its newly acquired national unified license by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

He said that with the introduction and activation of its new code numbers, which the telco has been test-running since last month, February, that plans are up for its formal launch this month.

He explained that the unified license affords Starcomms to offer a wide range of telecommunications options to its subscribers, which include the operation of fixed wireless, fax, data, mobile telephony, long distance, national, international mobile and high speed internet services.

This, he said, would enable subscribers on the network to enjoy the roaming mobility that was once the exclusivity of the Global System for Mobile Communications lines.

Mr. Pantham pointed out that other features in the unified license deployment as planned by Starcomms, would consist of offering superior voice clarity, flexibility and mobility.

“We have planned for this for about three years because we realized long ago that this day will come; we are set to match our pedigree in the business. We are excited to pull this through,” he said.

As a result, he said, Starcomms is closing in on the half million mark subscription base, even as it is ready to replicate the feat by deploying its world-class mobile broadband internet access service, a CDMA 2000 1X EV-DO powered technology.

With this development, Starcomms seems to affirm industry views that the kind of influence, power and money which the GSM networks enjoyed since the introduction of GSM six years ago will be significantly go down with the entry of an aggressive player like Starcomms with its robust financial clout and array of value-adding products and services.

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Nokia connects media pros with mobile

World leading mobile communications manufacturer, Nokia has introduced platforms to connect media professionals with their mobile accessories.

Top beneficiaries of these platforms are those in advertising and publishing industries.

Communications Manager at Nokia West Africa, Dana Adnani, said that the platform known as ‘Nokia Ad Service and Nokia Advertising Connector would enable delivery of the right ad to the right mobile consumer.

Adnani explained that the Ad Service is a fully managed service for advertisers to conduct targeted advertising on mobile services and applications, adding that Nokia also introduced Nokia Advertising Connector, a private label service for third party publishers and advertising aggregators that want to extend to relevant mobile advertising.

“Nokia Advertising Connector operates as an intelligent switch, selecting between text, visual, audio and video ads - depending on the user’s context - and feeding the ad to the device,” Adnani.

Director, Nokia Ad Service at Nokia Emerging Business Unit, Mr. Tom Henriksson was quoted in a press statement made available to Champion Infotel as saying that Ad Service consists of a group of mobile publishers forming a mobile ad network and a platform to deploy, manage and optimize mobile advertising campaigns.

“As advertisers struggle to reach personalized targeting with traditional media such as print and TV, mobile advertising is becoming an increasingly attractive channel for brands,” he said, stressing that Nokia has completed a number of pilot campaigns with advertisers and mobile publishers for testing the ad serving technology and consumer experience, even as the feedback has been very positive from all parties.

Nokia Ad Service, he said, fulfills different types of advertising needs such as advertisers deploying global mobile campaigns, agencies offering mobile advertising to complement traditional media initiatives, and publishers seeking new business models and a larger consumer audience.

Mr. Henriksson said that Nokia Ad Service serves mobile operators as a solution provider bringing the mobile advertising model to operator services, driving new and sustainable revenue streams. Nokia Ad Service simplifies the mobile advertising process by supporting and managing the full campaign lifecycle for advertisers including planning, deploying, optimizing, and reporting.

He explained that typical mediums of experience for mobile advertisements are in the form of interactive content like banner ads in browsing services, ads in applications, and videos.

“Nokia Ad Service began its operations in Europe with a kick-off at ad:tech, an interactive marketing event in Paris, France on March this year and globally in the second half of 2007,” he disclosed.

On Nokia Advertising Connector, Head, Business Development, Nokia Multimedia, Advertising Business Programme, Mr. Matthew Snyder, said that with this platform precisely, Nokia is partnering with newspaper publishers, other traditional media companies, aggregators, platform companies, operators and internet companies to help them serve their current advertisers by offering easy access to a mobile audience.

“We have an aggregator interface for plugging partners’ platforms into the Connector - Nokia being in the role of platform service provider. Think of the Connector as a one-stop delivery point with intelligence,” he said.

Mr. Snyder added that the Connector enables delivery of targeted ads to mobile devices, even as Ads would be closely tied and optimised to specific multimedia applications, such as reading digital newspaper content, watching TV, listening to music or looking at directions on maps.

Nokia offers access to the platform for third parties and enables their ad sales teams to sell for the mobile channel. Nokia Advertising Connector supports so called Cost Per Action (CPA) model and it provides usage data from mobile devices for facilitating targeted ad selection and delivery to users’ devices.

“A key part of the platform will be the easy-to-use reporting and analytics tools for Publishers to manage their advertisers Return-on-Investment (ROI),” he said, just as it will be commercially available by December 2007.

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SystemSpecs, 21st Century lead support @ Titans of Tech

Emerging software giant in West Africa, SystemSpecs Limited and 21st Century Limited are leading Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) firms in the country to provide support to the Titans of Tech nite.

Also, ICT training institution, New Horizons is warming up in support of the event billed to take place on April 6, this year.

According to the organisers of Titans of Tech nite, New Horizons, SystemSpecs, 21st Century are among companies that have indicated support for the programme through sponsorship.

A press statement from ICT Africa, organizers of the event, said the sponsors indicated their willingness to be a part of the programme because of the immense benefit it holds for the Nigerian ICT sector in particular and the nation in general.

Managing Director, New Horizon, Mr. Tim Akano, applauded the organizers of the programme for the efforts in packaging it. He expressed willingness to be part of the success of the “Titans of Tech.”

Equally commenting, Managing Director of SystemSpecs, Mr. John Tani Obaro, while confirming support for the event noted that ICT Africa has contributed greatly to the development of IT in Nigeria.

In addition, the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), 21st Century Limited, Chief Wale Ajesibutu, said that his firm is biased to the event because of the avenue its expected to open up in promoting the country’s image abroad.

‘Titans of Tech refers to individual Nigerians who by dint of hard work, foresight and commitment to purpose have become the reason for the tremendous leap the nation has experienced in the deployment and use of technology in the country,” he said.

Africa’s leading ICT TV producer of the year courtesy of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and co-ordinator of the Titans of Tech, Mr. Don Pedro Aganbi said that the project was instituted to honour Nigerians who have contributed to taking the country from the dark ages to the light of the 21st century.

“Titans of Tech night is an opportunity to celebrate these titans; men and women who’re the driving force of the tremendous wind of technological change that has engulfed our nation, Nigeria,” he said.

Mr. Aganbi who also is the vice president of the Joint Action Committee for ICT Awareness and Development (JACITAD) in Nigeria, explained that the country has become a major beneficiary of the technology revolution that has marked the world over the last decade with technology increasingly altering the way people live, work and communicate.

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