APC gets new board members

International network of civil society organisations (CSO) dedicated to empowering and supporting groups and individuals working for peace, human rights, development and protection of the environment, through the strategic use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) has named its new executive board members elected at the APC council meeting in Rio de Janeiro, for a three-year term with Argentina Danilo Lujambio leading the eight-man team.

The new executive board members elected last November 2007, according to a press statement from APC showed that vice chairman went to South African Jan Moolman, and Australian Andrew Garton became the secretary.

Also Uruguan Magela Sigillito took the position of the treasurer, while other members are Al Alegre – Philippines, James Nguo – Kenya, Michel Lambert – Canada and Valentina Pellizzer from Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Just as APC expressed appreciation to all the outgoing board members, namely, Olinca Marino, Mark Graham, Mihaly Bako, Danijela Babic, John Dada and Kong Sidaroth for their hard work since November 2005. We also thank former chair Natasha Primo who resigned in August 2007 in order to take a post with APC as national Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policy advocacy coordinator.

However, Mark Graham stepped in as acting chair from August to November, of which APC said his leadership throughout the process of revising APC’s bylaws and preparing for as well as chairing the council meeting “was indispensable.”

In addition, the eight-person APC executive board works with staff to produce APC’s action plan and oversees and monitors implementation.

Even as they will meet with staff in South Africa this month to draft the action plan for 2008-2012.

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8 winners emerge @ Starcomms’ BOYO

Acclaimed largest Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)-based Third Generation (3G) mobile network, Starcomms Limited, has compensated customers on the Telemax loyalty plan.

This is coming as the eighth millionaire has emerged in the initiative, known as Be- On- Your- Own (BOYO) which is aimed at giving confidence and empowerment to small business entrepreneurs to further achieve more.

Chief executive, Starcomms, Mr. Maher Qubain, said BOYO is targeted at the new tele-centre business operators as an ‘own, operate and grow’ model.

He recalled that at the first draw held last quarter produced four millionaires emerged including Miss Favour Lulobo with ticket number 17481764, Daniel Edoh – 98739910, Abass Salau and Ijeoma Iheakam from Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan and Kano in that order.

According to him, additional to the four millionaires were 40 other customers’ from different part of the country went home with 20 BOYO phones with N10,000 airtime, including Zik Ubeh, Bala Isiaku- Said, Oluwakemi Adedoyin, Ruth Nwogu and others.

He also recalled that preparatory to the commencement of the promo, Starcomms’ Telemax tariff plan and Bonuzee loyalty scheme will be specific to the subscriptions sold under the BOYO promo.

As said by him, specific models of handset were earmarked and sold for N3,000 with a one-year warranty.

He pointed out that Starcomms has been organising promos aimed at empowering both their dealers and customers.

Champion Infotel recalled that Starcomms Limited, last December unveiled a new promo known as surf ‘n’ save to afford subscribers seamless and cheap internet services during the festive season of Christmas and New Year.

While announcing the promo in Lagos, Mr. Qubain said it is aimed at ensuring that customers are not disengaged from communicating or denied access to data and up-to-date information on developments around the world while retiring to different parts of the world throughout the period of festivity.

He also said that the promo expected to last till the end of the year, would enable subscribers to enjoy lower rates on the various Evolution Data Optimised (EVDO) bundles.

The EVDO MDC activation packs, he noted, have been categorized into five packages and aptly dubbed Purples One to Five, with varying validity periods ranging from one to three months.

He explained that Purple One (Purple Always ), operates round the clock with a validity of 30 days for a price of N22,950, while Purple Two (Purple Business) runs from 9am to 9pm with a validity of one month at a cost of N15,500, even as Purple Three (Purple Night) also runs from 9am to 9pm with a validity of 30 days at a cost of N13, 500.

Whereas for the Purple Four (Purple 250 Hours) operates 24 hours with 90 days validity at the cost of N23,500 and Purple Five (Purple Always (3)) has a validity of three months (90) days ,as well as available 24 hours at the cost of N47,850, just as Purple Corporate also affords subscribers 24 hours with 30 days validity at a cost of N20,650.

The CDMA 1X internet services One is available in bundles, which are categorized as Purple Always, Purple Business and Purple Night have validities of 30 days and access periods of 24 hours for Purple Always and 9am – 9pm for Purple Business and Purple Night respectively, and cost N10, 000 and N8, 000 correspondingly.

Corporate rates remain at N12, 500 per month for EVDO renewals as applicable only on the Surf Always package with minimum of five lines purchased and activated simultaneously. Bulk corporate orders will be accepted although deliveries will be made at such time the customer wishes to activate the card and subscription.

Further, he said that the 1x MDC Purple Always activation packages will be available in all Starcomms coverage areas, whereas the Purple Business and Purple Night will be available only in non-EVDO regions and cities.

“All Purple bundles will have to be sold and activated as bundle packages on all MDCs sold,” he declared.

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Registrars must submit to NiRA dispute resolution mechanism – Kalu

POTENTIAL registrars for the nation’s Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLD), .ng, must get ready to submit themselves to the dispute resolution strategies of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA).

President, NiRA, Mr. Ndukwe Kalu, disclosed this last Friday in Lagos, while briefing the media on the way forward for the boosting of the nation’s ccTLD, dot ng, by Nigerians, especially now its seeking inputs on the 14-policy documents already up on NiRA website, www.nira.org.ng.

According to him a level of trust is needed from the registrars by the registrants on their ability to resolve disputes, whenever it any occurs and this means registrars must submit to NiRA’s mechanism for peaceful resolution of issues which is in line with global practices as outlined by ICANN and localised by the association.

Hence, NiRA must be satisfied with potential registrar ability to adequately adhere to this dispute mechanism without bias.

He described the recent Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between NiRA and the National Information Technology IT Development Agency (NITDA) as a new dawn in the annals of the Internet community in the country.

“This is truly a new dawn for the Nigerian Internet Community as we enter the last stretch of putting in place the structures to support a world-class registry,” he said.

Mr. Kalu also noted that it was based on ensuring globally accepted registry that NiRA board has given full attention to four-key institutional elements, namely the NiRA secretariat, policies and procedures as well as technical infrastructure and the service provider partners including registrars and dispute resolution mechanism.

He explained that on the NiRA secretariat, plans have commenced to engage the services of a consultant to help structure the proposed secretariat and recruit the required personnel.

“Our desire is to have a structure and manpower that would highly affect all sense of professionalism,” he declared.

Mr. Kalu equally said, that the board has released the first batch of policies and procedures for public input towards the determination of the final policies.

“These would guide the operations of NiRA and its primary function of .ng ccTLD management,” he noted, adding that the policies would be available for public inputs till February 29, 2008.

As said by him, it is after this period that all inputs would be collated and presented to the executive board for final amendments and approval.

“We expect that the final approved policies would be posted by March 10, this year, at the least,” he informed.

While urging Nigerians to embrace the call for comments by NiRA, he said, contributions could be forwarded through hard copy to NiRA office or electronic mail (email) to: policy@nira.org.ng

He went on to outline these domain policies to include NiRA policy development process, domain name policy, special domain name policy, fees policy, privacy policy, complaint policy and dispute resolution policy.

In addition, he listed the policies on general registration rules, registrant agreement, registrar agreement, registrar accreditation process and glossary as contained in the policy documents.

Further, he said there are four-policy documents specifically for good corporate governance in management of NiRA activities, namely the directors’ conflict of interest, meeting and information policies, technical infrastructure and service provider partners.

He emphasised that when all this would be in place, they would help in solidifying the foundation for NiRA to function and take the nation to the desired destination.

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Reltelwireless introduces N200 recharge cards

Leading telecommunications solutions provider, ReltelWireless, has introduced a new top-up platform of N200 for its teeming subscribers in the country.

This is coming as the telco also switched on its services in the ancient cities of Kaduna and Zaria, in continuation of nationwide rollout.

Chief Commercial Officer, Reltelwireless, Mr. Fabian Uzor, informed that the telco has concluded strategies to make Kaduna the hub of its northern Nigeria operations, by extending its indisputable voice, data, Internet, and Short Messaging Services (SMS).

He also said that with ReltelWireless now in Kaduna and Zaria, the face of the telecommunication landscape in northern part of the country is billed for a better change with high-quality, ultra-fast and affordable telecommunications solutions to all.

“With the addition of these two cities; Kaduna and Zaria, we now cover 14 cities in Nigeria including Lagos, Onitsha, Awka, Asaba, Nnewi, Aba, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Owerri, Umuahia, Enugu and Ibadan,” he said.

He stressed that the plan is equally to be in all major cities and towns in Nigeria before the third quarter of 2008.

“So that our teeming subscribers can enjoy seamless voice, data, Internet and SMS pan Nigeria,” Mr. Uzor declared.

In a related development, ReltelWireless has introduced N200 recharge voucher into the market, according to the Head, Corporate Communications, Mr. Oge Udeagha.

He said that the introduction was in a move to response to the yearnings and demands of Reltel subscribers.

“As a customer-centric and customer-friendly company, Reltelwireless would stop at nothing in ensuring that the yearnings of our subscribers are met,” he said, adding that the introduction is meant to serve the specific needs of segments of the market that would ordinarily find it difficult to access the higher denomination cards.

Mr. Udeagha further said that the introduction of the low denomination vouchers re-enforces the telco’s long term positioning as the network that provides affordable telephony to all, irrespective of social or economic standing.

Champion Infotel recalls that Reltelwireless founded in 1998 prides itself as one of the foremost telecos in the country that offers fixed wireless, mobile telephony in addition to high-speed Internet and data services.

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Nokia unveils two new music-phones

World leader in telecommunications mobility, Nokia has unveils two new music and entertainment phones into the nation’s market.

The two new products are Nokia 5310 XpressMusic and Nokia 5310 XpressMusic.

General Manager, Nokia Nigeria, Mr. Fady Khatib, said that the two new mobile devices specifically built to optimised music and entertainment.

He explained that each device offers dedicated music keys, expanded memory and extended battery performance to provide quick and easy access to entertainment content, adding that the devices, which commenced shipment in the last quarter of 2007, are currently available in the Nigerian market.

According to him, the striking slim Nokia 5310 XpressMusic music phone and the iconic-designed Nokia 5610 Xpressmusic phone both offer a range of entertainment-enabled features for consumers who want their music and favourite media with them wherever they go.

“We believe these full-featured, well-designed devices will be very popular and will help bring Nokia’s music services to life,” he said.

Nokia 5310 XpressMusic , he said, comes in small size but big on music and is a sleek aluminium finish.

“The Nokia 5310 XpressMusic phone blends an array of features with an iconic design. At only 9.9 millimetre (mm) thick and weighing less than 71 grammes, the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic fits comfortably in a pocket or purse and can serve as a mini music powerhouse,” Mr. Khatib said.

Additionally, the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic, he pointed out offers up to 18 hours of music playback, memory for up to 3,000 songs on an optional 4 Gega Bytes (GB) microSD card and dedicated music keys.

“Expands listening options to music headphones or speakers with a built-in 3.5mm jack. The Nokia 5310 has a 2 mega pixel camera and a bright 2.0” QVGA screen with up to 16 million colours,” he said.

On the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic, Mr. Khatib described it as an edgy design with sharp sound.

The Nokia 5610 XpressMusic comes ready to rock with an iconic music slider key making music easy to access with a flick of the thumb.

He further said that Nokia 5610 comes with aluminium side panels accenting to the all black high gloss finish and large 2.2”, 16 million-colour display of the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic.

“The Nokia 5610 XpressMusic offers crystal clear sound and up to 22 hours of music playback and memory with capacity for 3,000 songs on an optional 4GB microSD card,” he added, noting that it’s more than just a phone and music player.

“The Nokia 5610 XpressMusic features a high quality 3.2 mega pixel camera with auto focus and dual LED flash. The Nokia 5610 XpressMusic uses Third Generation (3G) technology, and with preloaded web applications, downloads, web browsing and video calls can be made faster and easier,” Mr. Khatib asserted.

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Aptness of .ng MoU heralds new beginning

Features of the week:

Recently National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) entered an agreement with the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) to herald a new beginning for the Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD), name .ng, reports REMMY NWEKE.

Penultimate Wednesday at the conference room of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) located at Port Harcourt Crescent, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, history was made in the nation’s core IT sub-sector as the agency and the stakeholders’ led organisation, the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the management of the nation’s Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD), .ng.

The endorsement of the MoU, have attracted commendations from stakeholders and the Internet community precisely, with most of them describing it as a positive chapter in the annals of Internet development in the country and heralds the formal handover of the management of the ccTLD after a long years of controversy that surrounded the evolution of dot ng.

Obasanjo’s legacy:

Noteworthy is that following the controversies that enveloped the hitherto management of the nation’s ccTLD among stakeholders, which saw the immediate past President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo showing interest in the development of Internet and particularly the ccTLD, hence he directed the federal government agency, NITDA to take over the administrative contact portfolio and come up with a structure that would involve all members of the Internet community in the country.

This was the outcome of the petition by the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) led then by Dr. Chris Nwannenna, consequent upon the ‘forced’ redelegation from the pioneer Point of Contact (PoC), Mrs. Ibukun Odusote to the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG), a non-governmental organisation by the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, in addition to the interventions by the Nigerian IT Professionals in the Americas (NITPA) led by Prof. Manny Aniebonam.

However, this gave birth to stakeholders’ formation of NiRA, which was inaugurated last year under the leadership of Mr. Ndukwe Kalu, the chief executive of Amsco Telecom, while the board of trustees is led by Dr. Adeola Odeyemi.

Commenting on this development, NiRA President, Mr. Kalu described it as a good development and in furtherance of the steps to boost the stakeholders’ trust in NiRA as well as in accordance with the global Internet regulator, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) guidelines.

He also said that plans have been advanced to ensure the success of the signing ceremony in Abuja, becomes a regular progressive phase in the Internet community.

Champion Infotel recalls that for over 10 years, Nigeria recorded less than 600 registrations on the .ng after it was created in 1995 due to controversies.

First 1 million domains:

This came as NiRA recently said its targeting 1 million registrants in the nation’s ccTLD by 2009, even as NiRA currently has achieved over 3000 domain names registration since coming on board in the first quarter of last year, stressing that registration exercise, which is on-going is expected to attract 1 million before the next 24 months.

“Our hope is to move this figure to 1 million within the next 24 months,” he asserted, adding that before the birth of the current NiRA management team in May last year, the number of registered domain names in the country was less than a 1000.

He also said that NiRA was aware that several Nigerian domains exist but were hitherto registered mostly with the international domain names, stressing that NiRA, is a child of circumstance given birth to by the former administration of Chief Obasanjo.

NiRA, he pointed out also faces some challenges mostly in curtailing advances by some disgruntled Nigerians who tried to register phoney company domain names.

“But NiRA has put some measures in place to safeguard against such attempts. We have to verify every application before registering any name,” Mr. Kalu said.

Collaborating with EFCC:

He further said that the main function of NiRA is to administer the nation’s Top Level Domain (TLD) .ng, as seen in other countries, emphasizing that a domain is like an address that facilitates a location of a given name on the Internet.

Hence, it is an address to locate an organisation or individual online, just as he equally disclosed that NiRA is collaborating with the directorate of Cyber crime and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in order to teem down the rise of Internet fraud emanating from the Nigerian-based Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.

He added that NiRA is in communication with the newly created directorate of Cybercrime, and EFCC to ensure reduction and involvement of Nigerians on Internet fraud.

“The collaboration, he said, has resulted in the introduction of due diligence initiative among the service providers,” Mr. Kalu said, emphasising that NiRA supports 100 per cent trial of any fraudulent process, maintaining that technically, there are room to trace fraudulent electronic mail scams and his association is not relenting.

NiRA in history:

NIRA was founded on March 23, 2005 as stakeholders-led organization, charged with the management of the nation’s Country Top Level Domain Name (ccTLD), dot ng, and brought to an end the long years of .ng controversy.

Hitherto the .ng was being managed by NITDA on behalf of the federal government, even as NIRA’s constitution was adopted by stakeholders, at a meeting held on March 28, 2006 at the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON) Centre, Onikan-Lagos.

Also, NiRA’s Board of Trustees (BoT) were selected among the stakeholders including, Dr. Odeyemi as chairman has the immediate past President, Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) Dr. Chris Nwannenna, President, Computer Professional Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN), Dr. (Mrs) Adenike Osofisan, Dr. Y. Z. Yau, Director, Information Technology (IT) unit, Ministry of Information, Mrs. Ibukun Odusote, Mr. Olaleye Alao, Editor, Technology Times, Mr. Shina Badaru, Mr. Akinbo A.A., Prof. I.S. Diso and chairman, Linkserve Limited, Chief Chima Apugo Onyekwere, even as the domain registration is currently open to individuals and organizations for free.

Positive Reactions:

Reacting to the signing of MoU, the pioneer IT Youth Ambassador and Executive Director, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN), Mr. Gbenga Sesan said that the endorsement signifies the importance of Internet business to stakeholders in the country, especially by the government, emphasizing that all the while the nation’s Internet community seems to be playing so to speak.

“But now we really mean business of .ng and the ultimate decision now is for Nigerians to embrace .ng and reclaim our position on the Internet,” he declared.

Mr. Sesan added that dot ng is as good as any other ccTLDs in the world and is expected to propel local contents on the Internet.

Also speaking, President, Nigeria Internet Group (NIG), Mr. Lanre Ajayi, told Champion Infotel that it’s most appropriate for NITDA to redelegate .ng to private organisation, which was the purpose of forming NiRA in the first place.

According to him, the process of redelegation is within the ambit of the law for the agency to redelegate that authority as stipulated in the NITDA Act, describing it as a step in the right direction.

Uptill now, he noted, a lot of Nigerians have been thrown into confusion due to the long time it took for the redelegation through the MoU to come to fruition.

“For a long time, people were not very sure who is incharge and since NIRA has been founded with some officials elected, its just appropriate for it to take over the management,” he pointed out.

As said by him, its only when NiRA takes full charge that the right information could be passed, maintaining that generally speaking, “its something that has to be done and by signing the MoU, they are doing what the law asked of them to do.”

Issues in motion:

Subsequent to the signing of the MoU, NiRA, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) set up to manage the ccTLD since June 23, 2005, has the mandate to replace the late Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Prof. Gabriel Olalere Ajayi.

Champion Infotel recalls that till date, late Prof. Ajayi is still the administrative referred to as POC for the nation’s Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) name, .ng, over three years after his demise.

Investigations by Champion Infotel revealed that late Prof. Ajayi’s name is conspicuous in the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) database on .ng, which was created on March 15, 1995 and last updated on September 22, 2005, that is, about seven months after the decease of Prof. Ajayi on December 16, 2004 at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja.

The PoC is the individual or organisation supposedly in-charge of the country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) name, which in this case is .ng administration.

Affront:

Although NITDA remained the sponsoring organisation on behalf of the federal government and the technical contact person is still Mr. Randy Bush, a United States-based Internet expert, late Prof. Ajayi’s appearance on IANA database as the POC is an affront on the nation and specifically NITDA for the inability to appropriately communicate with the IANA, the administrative arm of the global Internet coordinating agency, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

The initial excuse given was that a decision taken by some ‘stakeholders’ elites after the conclusion of the meeting on the formation of NiRA allowed for the change to be made once and for all, meaning pending the eventual endorsement and handover by NITDA.

This ‘stakeholders’ meeting was online and based on the instance of the IANA on June 2005; that is, instead of using the current NITDA Director-General, Prof. Cleopas Officer Angaye to replace late Prof. Ajayi as PoC, the status-quo should remain, pending the registration of NiRA to take over.

Unfortunately, it took some good months for this to be achieved due to bureaucratic bottlenecks. Although NiRA has since first quarter of last year, 2007, be in possession of an issued certificate of incorporation of its trustees and dated February 9, 2007 by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

Speaking after the signing of MoU, NiRA President, Mr. Kalu, assured that before the end of this quarter, the group would take full control of .ng management including the replacement of late Prof. Ajayi as POC and Mr. Randy Bush as the technical contact person.

For. Prof. Angaye, all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government have no excuse now to still be using inadequate TLD, adding that a memo to that effect would soon reach all the MDAs for actions and violators would be sanctioned accordingly.

Waiting for NITDA letter:

He also explained that as the outcome of the MoU endorsed with the Federal Government’s IT agency, NITDA is expected before this week runs out to detail a letter to the changes in the management of .ng to ICANN on behalf of government with a copy made available to NiRA, even as they too is expected to write ICANN based on government’s letter of authorisation, stating their readiness to take over the management of .ng as specified in the guidelines with global best practices.

ICANN, he said, would in turn forward these letters to its administrative wing, IANA, to set up a committee for the verification and when this is certified, “An agreement would be signed between NITDA cum NiRA and IANA.”

This process, Mr. Kalu noted, would take up to three months to accomplish and to give time for due process to be followed.

Personalised POC bane of .ng crisis:

He decried the use of individual names in registration of a national project like .ng, describing personalisation of the ccTLD as its major and basic challenge since inception.

He pointed out that with the MoU endorsed, lots of things would change, such as POC would be changed and technical contact to either the President of NiRA or administration department of NiRA, while the technical department of the association would take over the position of the technical contact respectively.

“Either the President or admin department of NiRA and technical department will be used this time and not a name,” he said.

Mr. Kalu further explained that President’s of NiRA would always come and go and there must be somebody in that position or even the administrative department would at all times be there despite who is occupying the position.

This, he said, is what is obtainable in other countries of the world and not personalisation of issues and administration of the .ng as reflected in the current database, stressing that the present steps will boost the penetration of .ng among Nigerians both at home and abroad even as he urged the Internet community to embrace the .ng.

Also, sources close to IANA informed that changing the details on PoC for .ng, for instance, is not a difficult task once the Internet community in Nigeria agreed to a specific name.

According to IANA’s procedures concerning ccTLD database information in order to effect a change on ccTLD managers, a request must be made to IANA which is responsible for receiving and acting on requests by the designated ccTLD managers to change contact information about the ccTLD’s designated sponsoring organization, administrative contact, and technical contact.

This request, IANA said, should be made by filling-out the root-zone modification template and sending it to root-mgmt@iana.org.

Conclusion:

The responsibility now rests on the members of the Internet community in the country to tap into this development by ensuring that from banks to government institutions and other private sector entities, down to individuals should ensure that they relocate or rename their domain names to include .ng.

The ball, no doubt, is now in the public domain, after all, domain name registration in the country is still free-of-charge. So, be on the queue now.

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NATCOMS backs GSMA on free AMOPHT

National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS) has insisted on free Anti-Mobile Phone Theft (AMOPHT) services in the country, appealing to the industry regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and telecommunications operators not to ignore its plea.

This is coming as the global umbrella body of the mobile telecommunications and Third Generation (3G) operators, the Global System for Mobile Association (GSMA), reiterated its position on the services being free, even as it equally disagreed with NCC over the management of the International Mobile Equipment Identify DataBase (IMEI-DB) in the country.

NATCOMS also threatened to drag NCC and operators to the law court, if eventually all entreaties fail on deaf hears, just as the group plans to take its case to the Presidency and National Assembly.

Sounding this New Year warning, NATCOMS national president, Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, said that the onus is on both NCC and telecoms operators to provide free anti-mobile phone theft service to the nation’s teeming subscribers as it is free in any other part of the world where such initiative exists.

“NATCOMS plead with NCC and telecomms operators to provide free anti-mobile phone theft service to subscribers as it is free everywhere in the world and in line with international best practices,” he asserted.

According to NATCOMS all the telecoms operating companies including MTN, Celtel, Glo, MTel, Starcomms, MultiLinks to name a few should join forces in providing free anti-mobile phone theft services to subscribers.

Chief Ogunbanjo recalled that NATCOMS had commenced an Anti-Mobile Phone Theft Initiative tagged Anti-MOPHTI project since December 2005 at the monthly edition of NCC-organised Telecomms Consumer Parliament.

“Everyone present then agreed that something should be done to stop the criminal menace,” he asserted, adding that as a follow up, NATCOMS wrote an Anti-MOPHTI proposal through the Presidency to NCC as at March 20, 2006, which was acknowledged by April 19 of the same year.

NCC, he pointed out went on to invite NATCOMS for a meeting on the details of Anti-MOPHTI alongside the representatives of Newstream Technologies Limited.

As said by him, during the month of August 2006, at NCC organised consultation on a national scheme to curtail theft of mobile handset, the group reiterated its position with a detailed presentation and submitted an updated proposal on Anti-MOPHTI, emphasizing that the service must be free.

Fee-paying service, he said, is not acceptable to subscribers as it is against the norm and with international best practices, hence, NATCOMS insisted that NCC and the telcos in the country must understand that Nigeria is a leading player in the telecommunications world.

“We should always do things according to and in line international best practices, which in this case must be free of any charges to Nigerian subscribers as supported by the GSM Association – International,” he said.

He enjoined NCC to stop forthwith any motive for telcos to charge subscribers for this service, even as he said that telcos should show some pity, concern and care for subscribers on their networks by ensuring that they make the Anti-MOPHT free of any charges.

NATCOMS further warned that any attempt by telcos based in the country to charge fees, would amount to a total rip-off on subscribers and unpardonable before the populace.

“Telcos should for God’s sake make the anti-mobile theft service free to every Nigerian subscriber and work in concert with NCC to stop this assault that is about to happen on the subscribers,” he decried.

Stressing that NATCOMS plans to drag NCC and telcos before the presidency and the National Assembly, if they ignore this appeal.

“If Mr. President and the National Assembly also ignore Nigerian Subscribers, which we doubt, NATCOMS will go to court,” he warned.

However, responding to enquiry recently, Director, Fraud and Security at GSMA, Mr. James Moran, told Champion Infotel that GSMA discourages operators from developing their own national databases for a number of reasons, which is what is happening in the case of Nigeria.

He noted that though GSMA welcomes any initiatives that are designed to combat handset theft and is willing to work with the operators in any country to ensure the most effective and cost efficient solution is put in place, it does not believe it makes sense for operators to set up their own applications as one already exists that is free-of-charge.

“We do not believe it makes sense for operators to set up their own application as one already exists that is free to use and is capable of hosting any national or regional database requirements they may have. GSMA’s overriding objective is to help support operators to establish solutions that operate at maximum efficiency and minimum cost,” he said.

Mr. Moran noted that the IMEI Database (IMEIDB) provides the best facility to allow the Nigerian operators to exchange stolen handset data, emphasising that IMEIDB provides operators with the functionality they required because it was designed specifically by operators for operators.

This, he pointed out would avoid duplication of efforts at local or national levels in terms of building up database that would meet up with the standards of GSMA

“Avoids duplication of effort that the development of a local database involves by preserving the concept of a global database of stolen phones and avoids fragmentation as well as saves the Nigerian industry the significant costs associated with developing and maintaining a duplicate database,” he told our correspondent.

Mr. Moran explained that by deploying GSMA-based IMEIDB, operators in the country would ensure that handsets stolen in Nigeria are also excluded on the networks of other operators connected to IMEIDB.

“This ensures more effective barring than would be the case if the data were simply shared on a Nigerian database only,” he said.

Many operators around the world, he said, have already implemented initiatives to combat handsets theft that revolve around the IMEI database and having worked with those operators GSMA would also like to offer the same assistance and support to the Nigerian operators should they require it.

He agreed that local initiative against the global standard in combating mobile phone theft, invariably would not be helpful to telecom subscribers in the country.

Reassuring, “We’re of the firm view that it makes no sense for the Nigerian operator community to set up a national database as our IMEIDB is available to them free of charge and it is capable of hosting any national or regional database requirements they may have.

GSMA, he submitted, strongly encourages use of the IMEI DB and welcomes all of its members to connect to the system.

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NiRA relaxes guidelines on Diaspora registrants

President, Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), Mr. Ndukwe Kalu, has said that the group would relax the aspect of the policy guidelines that stipulated that domain registrants must be resident in the country.

Disclosing this in an exclusive chat with Champion Infotel in Lagos, Mr. Kalu said this decision was taken by the group to avail Nigerians in Diaspora the opportunity to adequately tap into the nation’s Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD).

According to him, Nigerians in Diaspora have domains running into millions and by insisting that they must reside in the country to be able to incorporate .ng in their domain names is practically asking them to stay away.

He pointed out that NiRA has concluded strategies to contain Nigerians in Diaspora as far as ownership of domain names are concerned.

Mr. Kalu underscored the fact that domain names are not owned by individuals but are licensed for use.

In a related development, NiRA has released the first batch of policies to guide its operations, thereby inviting comments on the proposed 13-policy documents to usher in its mandate.

Champion Infotel recalls that NiRA and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), an agency for the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology (FMST), fortnight ago signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the official handover of the management of the nation’s Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD).

Mr. Kalu explained that the group is seeking comments on the 13-policy documents to facilitate the formal commencement of activities after the MoU signing was completed.

He added that the first sets of policies are domain related which are 11 in number, including, policy development process, domain name policy, special domain name policy, fees policy, privacy policy and dispute resolution policy.

Others, he said, are policies on general registration rules, Registrant Agreement, registrar agreement, registrar accreditation process and glossary as contained in the policy documents.

Additionally, he said that there exist two policy documents explicitly structured to ensure good corporate governance in management of NiRA.

Meanwhile, Google, a global free-to-serve Internet Service Provider (ISP), has disagreed with the European Union (EU) view over the status of ownership concerning Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.

Whereas EU official was reported as raising the prospect that IP addresses could be counted as personal data, the Internet firm, Google is thinking the opposite, maintaining that it’s not a personal data.

Speaking at a hearing examining Google’s planned acquisition of DoubleClick, Peter Schaar, the German data protection commissioner and chairman of the Europe-wide privacy group, the Article 29 Committee, said that if a person could be identified by an IP address, then that address is private, reports Paul Meller of International Data Group (IDG) news service.

Also the report has it that the rule has been in existence in most countries in the EU for more than 10 years.

However, it is hard to set a clear-cut rule because some ISPs gave out fresh IP addresses to subscribers each time they go online and people also buy time online at Internet cafes.

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Stakeholders meet on ICT4D draft

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) stakeholders recently gathered in Lagos to brainstorm on the nation’s ICT for Development (ICT4D) draft plan at a workshop organised by the National IT Development Agency (NITDA) with the support of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

NITDA sources said that with the end of the workshop, the agency is now ready to see to its implementation to align the sector with the nation’s 2020 economic target of being among the 20 world leading economies.

In his message to the occasion, Director-General, NITDA, Prof. Cleopas Angaye represented by Director, Technical Services, Dr. Moses Ubaru, said that the workshop has become imperative to ensure that Nigeria achieved the set goals.

“It is important to note that the direct relevance and usefulness of the Nigeria ICT4D plan in achieving the present administration Seven-Point agenda and positioning Nigeria amongst the 20 leading economies by year 2020,” he said.

He pointed out that the final document, which forms the outcome of the workshop would soon be presented to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for approval.

He noted that in sub-Sahara Africa, only South Africa has made substantial progress in leapfrogging its economy through ICT with heavy investment made in the last 10 years to build robust ICT infrastructure and developed sufficient human capacity to manage same.

Equally, he said that in the last decade, based on World Bank sources, Philippines, Malaysia, Brazil, Vietnam and Eastern European nations including Hungary and Poland have made remarkable progress to join India and China in becoming part of the new economic order.

“We’re all aware that ICTs have been identified as major tools in achieving the Millennium Development Goals and other development agenda. The idea behind the Nigeria ICT4D plan is to set out a time-sensitive action plan with realistic targets and benchmarks for the sectoral applications of ICT for national development, which includes actions and programmes that cover various sectors of our National economy for short, medium and long term implementation by relevant stakeholders,” Prof. Angaye said.

For the President, Nigeria Internet Group (NIG), Mr. Lanre Ajayi, it’s exciting to note that ICT enthusiasts trooped out to be part of this making of a revolution.

“We must realise that full integration of ICT in achieving our development goals is crucial to getting anywhere near India or any of the newly emerging economies. I am glad that a meeting of this nature is holding to get everyone involved in drawing our common destiny,” he said.

Mr. Ajayi, who also is the chief executive, PiNet Informatics Limited, added that as the case in India and other countries with well defined ICT direction, the nation’s ICT4D is expected to enable government pay more focused attention on effective policy direction for the country’s IT industry, development of appropriate IT infrastructure, development of appropriate guidelines and standards as well as ICT curricula for the educational sector.

In addition, he said that capacity building for a globally competitive workforce would receive a boost when the ICT4D finally takes off as well as enhanced healthcare delivery, and effective law enforcement and judicial system.

Others are development of agricultural sector to enhance food security, and creation of the necessary enabling environment for the full integration of IT in the country’s national environment.

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HP renews Integrity Systems

Hewlett Packard (HP) has renewed its Integrity server line-up of products with the latest processor technology and software to enhance customers’ efficiency.

Enterprise Server and Storage Manager for HP West Africa, Mr. Chuks Okpaka, informed this at a customer forum in Lagos.

He also said that the renewed product would help customers reduce costs through enhanced automation and improved energy efficiency.

“Enterprise customers with the most demanding computing environments can now reap advantages from new system software innovations in power and remote management across HP Integrity and Integrity NonStop server systems running HP-UX 11i, Microsoft Windows Server, Linux OpenVMS and NonStop Kernel,” he said.

Mr. Okpaka equally said that the Integrity systems family of servers and server blades are now powered by the latest Intel Itanium processor 9100 series, code named ‘Montvale.’

He explained that with these enhancements, NonStop systems could function as the heart of a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) in the data centre, adding that SOA is an approach for managing computing environments that uses loosely coupled, reusable and standards-based services to address changing business needs.

“Customers can use an SOA implementation with Integrity NonStop alongside mainframes and banks of Linux machines so IT can act as a service to the business,” he said.

According to him, HP Integrity NonStop servers with Montvale processors also offer up to a 20 per cent price and increase performance over previous generations of the systems.

so commenting on the latest product, the vice president of marketing, Business Critical Systems, HP, Michelle Weiss, said the company is committed to providing enterprise customers with the most advanced, reliable and energy-efficient systems.

“By leveraging the latest in processor technology and ongoing enhancements and innovation in our software, HP provides customers with the balanced performance they need to achieve better business outcomes in real-world environments while still reducing costs,” he said.

HP Integrity revenue grew 71 per cent year over year in HP’s third fiscal quarter of 2007.

Currently, more than 13,000 software applications from independent software developers run on the HP Integrity platform.

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