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The much publicized August 1, 2008 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Yahoo! stockholders ended at the weekend without any headway for the Microsoft proposal to buy into the leading global Internet company.
This development came in the wake of reports that billionaire proponent for Microsoft take over of Yahoo! search engine, Mr. Carl Icahn, was absent at the Yahoo! AGM.
Even as Yahoo! incumbent nine-man board of directors were returned ‘unopposed’ in addition to the AGM approving additional three vacancies in the board to bring the figure to 11. The remaining three new members would be announced in August 15, this year.
A press statement from Yahoo! headquarters in California, at the end of company’s AGM held Friday, stockholders re-elected all of Yahoo!’s nominees to the Board of Directors.
Additionally, stockholders voted to approve the ratification of the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company’s independent registered public accounting firm, just as they rejected proposals relating to a pay-for-superior-performance principle for executive compensation, the establishment of policies on Internet censorship and the creation of a board committee on human rights.
Re-elected chairman of Yahoo! Mr. Roy Bostock, said they are now more than ever before looking forward to execute the strategy and continued to build a great company.
Last year, Bostock noted that Yahoo!’s board of directors and management took steps to thoroughly reexamine the Internet company’s direction and improve the performance.
“Since then Yahoo! has made significant strides in executing on its strategy, performing particularly well in light of the challenging circumstances of the past six months. Our Board looks forward to continuing to work with management to maximize value for all stockholders,” he said.
The chief executive officer, Yahoo!, Mr. Jerry Yang, pointed out that the company is at a unique point in its history with the eyes of the world focused on Yahoo! and tracking its performance.
He reiterated the commitment of the management in sustaining profitable growth for Yahoo! stockholders.
“The value inherent in Yahoo!’s unique collection of assets is truly extraordinary, and the progress we’ve made on our initiatives this year signals our ability to capitalize on the underlying potential of these assets,” Yang said.
Following the resignation of one of its board of directors, Mr. Robert Kotick, Yahoo! board appointed Microsoft advocate, Mr. Carl Icahn to the board to fill the seat vacated with immediate effect.
The board further voted to expand the board from nine (9) members to 11 while August 15, 2008 has been slated for the board to announce the names of the new three directors, which report said are likely to be anointed by Mr. Icahn.
Currently, Yahoo! board is made up of Roy J. Bostock, chairman, Ronald W. Burkle, Eric Hippeau, Vyomesh Joshi, Arthur H. Kern, Robert A. Kotick (replaced by Mr. Icahn), Mary Agnes Wilderotter, Gary L. Wilson and Jerry Yang.
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Wednesday, August 06, 2008
MTN rolls out fixed lines tomorrow
Leading telecommunications company MTN Nigeria, has concluded plans to roll out its fixed services in the ancient city of Ibadan, capital of Oyo State, tomorrow, just as the telco weekend launched an online customer care centre in the commercial nerve centre of the nation, Lagos.
The coming of its fixed lines, the telco said, would enable subscribers to have true fixed services running on fibre optic technology in their homes and offices.
Dubbed MTN HyConnect, the telco said is bundled with the internet at broadband speeds of between 64 kilobytes per seconds (kbps) and 2 megabytes per second (mbps).
Affirming this, the Corporate Services Executive, MTN Nigeria, Mrs. Amina Oyagbola, said that the official launch of the service in Ibadan has been scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday, August 7, and is expected to be available in every part of Ibadan.
The lines, according to a press statement from the telco, quoted her as saying that it would also offer superior quality of voice calls and call rates as low as N5 for intra network calls.
“It is however currently available at the three launch locations of Bodija, Ring Road and Dugbe,” she said, adding that MTN HyConnect is already running in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt while efforts are ongoing to take the service to Aba, Kano, Calabar, Kaduna, Warri, Ilorin, Onitsha, Benin, Jos Maiduguri among many other cities nationwide.
Meanwhile, MTN has launched state-of-the-art Online Customer Assistance Centre at its Ojota Network Monitoring Centre in Lagos.
Announcing this at a press briefing weekend, the Customer Relations Executive, Mr. Akin Braithwaite, said it is a next generation customer care service facility with cutting-edge technology intended to serve its subscribers through the telephone, short messaging service (SMS), internet and other means by which customers could communicate with them in the online world.
He also said this is a major feat for the telco because the centre is anchored on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), through which they could communicate anywhere through VoIP, stating that this gives the telco a lot of dynamic ability to handle customer call coming from anywhere.
Mr. Braithwaite also said the implication is that it gives customers opportunity to service additional 3.5 million customers, and that this would ease a lot of traffic congestion that is currently facing the telco at the friendship shops.
He added that this is just a step in a series of programmes that would be costing the MTN hundreds of millions of dollars in building additional online customers’ assistance centres.
According to him, “this is just to show the importance that MTN places on serving the customer. We are on a journey and we are going to see more and more improvement on the way we serve our customers, as we are providing next generation customer care.”
Also speaking, the Chief Information Officer of the centre, Mr. Chris Coetzee said, the planning took three years to accomplish and the facility is also the main data centre that hosts all of the applications that supports its customers, both from the billing perspective, provisioning as well as the technology in use in the call centres.
“What we did was that we moved the customer phasing and customer servicing organizations closest to the heart of information technology (IT),” he said.
He further said co-locating these facilities is a major step in the telco’s ability to serve customers better, stressing that the centre is one of the largest in Africa, outside South Africa and that in the next few weeks another bigger one would be launched.
Subscribers on the network who are experiencing any difficulty recharging or any other problem could call 182 and 188 or visit its website.
Some other members of MTN at the briefing were the human resources executive, Mutari Wada, Andrew Esemezie, Ibrahim Abba Gana, Ibrahim Umar, Patience Alumba as well as Temiloye Okudipe.
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The coming of its fixed lines, the telco said, would enable subscribers to have true fixed services running on fibre optic technology in their homes and offices.
Dubbed MTN HyConnect, the telco said is bundled with the internet at broadband speeds of between 64 kilobytes per seconds (kbps) and 2 megabytes per second (mbps).
Affirming this, the Corporate Services Executive, MTN Nigeria, Mrs. Amina Oyagbola, said that the official launch of the service in Ibadan has been scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday, August 7, and is expected to be available in every part of Ibadan.
The lines, according to a press statement from the telco, quoted her as saying that it would also offer superior quality of voice calls and call rates as low as N5 for intra network calls.
“It is however currently available at the three launch locations of Bodija, Ring Road and Dugbe,” she said, adding that MTN HyConnect is already running in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt while efforts are ongoing to take the service to Aba, Kano, Calabar, Kaduna, Warri, Ilorin, Onitsha, Benin, Jos Maiduguri among many other cities nationwide.
Meanwhile, MTN has launched state-of-the-art Online Customer Assistance Centre at its Ojota Network Monitoring Centre in Lagos.
Announcing this at a press briefing weekend, the Customer Relations Executive, Mr. Akin Braithwaite, said it is a next generation customer care service facility with cutting-edge technology intended to serve its subscribers through the telephone, short messaging service (SMS), internet and other means by which customers could communicate with them in the online world.
He also said this is a major feat for the telco because the centre is anchored on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), through which they could communicate anywhere through VoIP, stating that this gives the telco a lot of dynamic ability to handle customer call coming from anywhere.
Mr. Braithwaite also said the implication is that it gives customers opportunity to service additional 3.5 million customers, and that this would ease a lot of traffic congestion that is currently facing the telco at the friendship shops.
He added that this is just a step in a series of programmes that would be costing the MTN hundreds of millions of dollars in building additional online customers’ assistance centres.
According to him, “this is just to show the importance that MTN places on serving the customer. We are on a journey and we are going to see more and more improvement on the way we serve our customers, as we are providing next generation customer care.”
Also speaking, the Chief Information Officer of the centre, Mr. Chris Coetzee said, the planning took three years to accomplish and the facility is also the main data centre that hosts all of the applications that supports its customers, both from the billing perspective, provisioning as well as the technology in use in the call centres.
“What we did was that we moved the customer phasing and customer servicing organizations closest to the heart of information technology (IT),” he said.
He further said co-locating these facilities is a major step in the telco’s ability to serve customers better, stressing that the centre is one of the largest in Africa, outside South Africa and that in the next few weeks another bigger one would be launched.
Subscribers on the network who are experiencing any difficulty recharging or any other problem could call 182 and 188 or visit its website.
Some other members of MTN at the briefing were the human resources executive, Mutari Wada, Andrew Esemezie, Ibrahim Abba Gana, Ibrahim Umar, Patience Alumba as well as Temiloye Okudipe.
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
Rating agencies confirm Etisalat competitive edge
Recent studies by Standard & Poor’s (A +), Moody’s (Aa2) and Fitch Rating (AA-) have confirmed the fastest growing telecommunications company in the world, Etisalat, as having a very strong competitive edge.
The studies in their inaugural international corporate credit ratings affirmed that Etisalat is a company to beat among telecommunications operators.
The strong credit ratings are among the highest of all globally rated telecommunications companies and reflect Etisalat’s strong competitive position, superior profitability and a proven ability to deliver strong and growing cash flows.
ITRealms Online also recalls that last month, the global rating of the fifth Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) operator, Etisalat, continued to soar ahead of its commercial launch in the country by Financial Times rankings (FT500).
Commenting on the outstanding ratings, Chairman, Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Hakeem Belo-Osagie, said the ratings are fitting testimonials to Etisalat’s high standards of performance.
“These coming just as we fine-tune plans to deliver commercial services to Nigerians, strengthens our commitment to replicating the prudent financial strategy in order to build a network that is stable and offers Nigerians access to world class telecommunications,” he said.
Belo-Osagie added that this confirms that the telco has the right caliber of personnel even in its operations in the country.
“We are capable of maintaining Etisalat’s track record in quality services, stable growth, as well as in other areas of our operations,” he assured.
He pointed out that Etisalat, is the leading telecom provider in the United Arab Emirate (UAE) and has a solid track record in the UAE over the past 30 years.
Emphasizing, this is evident in robust operating and financial position of the telco which has resulted in superior market share across its businesses in 15 other countries, serving an aggregate of 63 million subscribers.
In a related development, according to the Financial Times rankings (FT500) released recently, Etisalat rose from 444 in the year 2007 to 219 in 2008, in what the ranking described as the equivalent to 14th position in the telecoms sector globally, that is, when compared with fixed and mobile operators, especially within the Middle East and Africa (MEA).
This, officials of the telco said was an indication aligned to the vision of becoming one of the top 10 global telecom operators in the world in terms of market capitalization by 2010.
Equally, this ranking FT stated placed Etisalat as the largest telecommunications company in both the Middle East and Africa, forward against all other regional and international operators in the two regions.
Reacting to the ranking result at the weekend in Lagos, Chairman, Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Hakeem Belo-Osagie, expressed delight at Etisalat’s new global ranking.
“Etisalat entered Nigeria undisputedly as a leader in Africa. Etisalat Nigeria is therefore in a unique position to leverage on this global strength on all fronts,” he said.
He said that access to this rich pool of knowledge, skills and excellence would ensure that Nigerians have access to the world-class telecommunications services that Etisalat subscribers enjoy everywhere the telco operates.
He added that during the last quarter, Etisalat Group received recognition for its commitment to transparency with regards to financial data and relationship with investors.
ITRealms Online recalls that the prestigious United Arab Emirate (UAE) Securities and Commodities Authority was recently presented to Etisalat with the SCA Diamond Standard for Financial Transparency for the year 2007.
On the verge of commercial launch in Nigeria, Etisalat serves over 63 million subscribers across 16 countries in two continents.
Meanwhile, Etisalat has reiterated its commitment to provide Nigerians with its trademark quality of service, assuring would-be subscribers that the network was undergoing its final stages of testing prior to its commercial roll out.
Speaking at the just concluded West and Central Africa Communications Congress in Abuja, Vice President Marketing, Mr. Wael Ammar, said Nigeria fits into Etisalat’s vision to offer world-class services to the citizens because of the country’s enormous potentials.
Mr. Ammar said this in a presentation titled: ‘Etisalat’s strategies for maximizing growth in West and Central Africa Communications market,’ said the telco’s commitment to raise the quality of services available to Nigerians underlines its $1.4 billion initial investment in the Nigerian economy.
He explained that as a caring operator, Etisalat recognizes the importance and responsibility of balancing profitability and growth along side long term sustainability, stating that its expansion strategy in the West and Central African region is driven not only by market potential but also by the opportunity for Etisalat to add value to lives of the people.
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
The studies in their inaugural international corporate credit ratings affirmed that Etisalat is a company to beat among telecommunications operators.
The strong credit ratings are among the highest of all globally rated telecommunications companies and reflect Etisalat’s strong competitive position, superior profitability and a proven ability to deliver strong and growing cash flows.
ITRealms Online also recalls that last month, the global rating of the fifth Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) operator, Etisalat, continued to soar ahead of its commercial launch in the country by Financial Times rankings (FT500).
Commenting on the outstanding ratings, Chairman, Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Hakeem Belo-Osagie, said the ratings are fitting testimonials to Etisalat’s high standards of performance.
“These coming just as we fine-tune plans to deliver commercial services to Nigerians, strengthens our commitment to replicating the prudent financial strategy in order to build a network that is stable and offers Nigerians access to world class telecommunications,” he said.
Belo-Osagie added that this confirms that the telco has the right caliber of personnel even in its operations in the country.
“We are capable of maintaining Etisalat’s track record in quality services, stable growth, as well as in other areas of our operations,” he assured.
He pointed out that Etisalat, is the leading telecom provider in the United Arab Emirate (UAE) and has a solid track record in the UAE over the past 30 years.
Emphasizing, this is evident in robust operating and financial position of the telco which has resulted in superior market share across its businesses in 15 other countries, serving an aggregate of 63 million subscribers.
In a related development, according to the Financial Times rankings (FT500) released recently, Etisalat rose from 444 in the year 2007 to 219 in 2008, in what the ranking described as the equivalent to 14th position in the telecoms sector globally, that is, when compared with fixed and mobile operators, especially within the Middle East and Africa (MEA).
This, officials of the telco said was an indication aligned to the vision of becoming one of the top 10 global telecom operators in the world in terms of market capitalization by 2010.
Equally, this ranking FT stated placed Etisalat as the largest telecommunications company in both the Middle East and Africa, forward against all other regional and international operators in the two regions.
Reacting to the ranking result at the weekend in Lagos, Chairman, Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Hakeem Belo-Osagie, expressed delight at Etisalat’s new global ranking.
“Etisalat entered Nigeria undisputedly as a leader in Africa. Etisalat Nigeria is therefore in a unique position to leverage on this global strength on all fronts,” he said.
He said that access to this rich pool of knowledge, skills and excellence would ensure that Nigerians have access to the world-class telecommunications services that Etisalat subscribers enjoy everywhere the telco operates.
He added that during the last quarter, Etisalat Group received recognition for its commitment to transparency with regards to financial data and relationship with investors.
ITRealms Online recalls that the prestigious United Arab Emirate (UAE) Securities and Commodities Authority was recently presented to Etisalat with the SCA Diamond Standard for Financial Transparency for the year 2007.
On the verge of commercial launch in Nigeria, Etisalat serves over 63 million subscribers across 16 countries in two continents.
Meanwhile, Etisalat has reiterated its commitment to provide Nigerians with its trademark quality of service, assuring would-be subscribers that the network was undergoing its final stages of testing prior to its commercial roll out.
Speaking at the just concluded West and Central Africa Communications Congress in Abuja, Vice President Marketing, Mr. Wael Ammar, said Nigeria fits into Etisalat’s vision to offer world-class services to the citizens because of the country’s enormous potentials.
Mr. Ammar said this in a presentation titled: ‘Etisalat’s strategies for maximizing growth in West and Central Africa Communications market,’ said the telco’s commitment to raise the quality of services available to Nigerians underlines its $1.4 billion initial investment in the Nigerian economy.
He explained that as a caring operator, Etisalat recognizes the importance and responsibility of balancing profitability and growth along side long term sustainability, stating that its expansion strategy in the West and Central African region is driven not only by market potential but also by the opportunity for Etisalat to add value to lives of the people.
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
Egypt to host Internet community
The Government of Egypt has advanced plans to host the Internet community in Cairo, during the next meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), from November 2 to 7, 2008, at Intercontinental CityStars Hotel.
A press statement from ICANN said, the event previously hosted in Cairo in March 2000, would be now in collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Communications, the Cabinet Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC) and the Internet Society of Egypt.
According to the official website of the Egyptian meeting, Internet has always been a priority for the Egyptian government, as it is considered the platform for socio-economic development.
In addition, Egyptian government sees Internet as a service that aids innovation in education, engendering better health and government services.
Stressing that several efforts and initiatives exerted in a public-private context, facilitated the Internet in Egypt that is witnessing a tremendous growth rate, demonstrating a strong potential in one of the most active Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sectors in the region.
“It is hence no coincidence that Cairo, on behalf of Africa, welcomes back the ICANN community on the ICANN’s 10th anniversary, to host its 33rd International Public Meeting and its annual meeting for 2008,” official of the hosting country said.
Meanwhile, ICANN has conducted three registrar contractual compliance audits and one registry contractual compliance audit between October 2007 and June 2008.
As said by ICANN report on its compliance audit report released recently by the Contractual Compliance Department, indicated that its second semi-annual Registrar and Registry Contractual Compliance Audit Report summarizes ICANN’s audit activities within the period under review as aforementioned.
During this period, the report said, ICANN conducted three registrar contractual compliance audits.
“ICANN conducted each audit by following consistent audit procedures established
before each audit commenced,” Media Advisor to ICANN said in a press statement.
This report contains details regarding the audit methodology, findings, observations and conclusions.
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
A press statement from ICANN said, the event previously hosted in Cairo in March 2000, would be now in collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Communications, the Cabinet Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC) and the Internet Society of Egypt.
According to the official website of the Egyptian meeting, Internet has always been a priority for the Egyptian government, as it is considered the platform for socio-economic development.
In addition, Egyptian government sees Internet as a service that aids innovation in education, engendering better health and government services.
Stressing that several efforts and initiatives exerted in a public-private context, facilitated the Internet in Egypt that is witnessing a tremendous growth rate, demonstrating a strong potential in one of the most active Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sectors in the region.
“It is hence no coincidence that Cairo, on behalf of Africa, welcomes back the ICANN community on the ICANN’s 10th anniversary, to host its 33rd International Public Meeting and its annual meeting for 2008,” official of the hosting country said.
Meanwhile, ICANN has conducted three registrar contractual compliance audits and one registry contractual compliance audit between October 2007 and June 2008.
As said by ICANN report on its compliance audit report released recently by the Contractual Compliance Department, indicated that its second semi-annual Registrar and Registry Contractual Compliance Audit Report summarizes ICANN’s audit activities within the period under review as aforementioned.
During this period, the report said, ICANN conducted three registrar contractual compliance audits.
“ICANN conducted each audit by following consistent audit procedures established
before each audit commenced,” Media Advisor to ICANN said in a press statement.
This report contains details regarding the audit methodology, findings, observations and conclusions.
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
Security agents to seize laptops, phones
For those traveling to the United States (US), the government of George Bush has given federal security agents new powers to seize travelers’ laptops and other electronic devices at the border and hold them for unspecified periods, reports Washington Post.
Under recently disclosed Department of Homeland Security policies, such seizures may be carried out without suspicion of wrongdoing, the newspaper said, quoting policies issued on July 16 by two DHS agencies.
According to the report, security agents are empowered to share the contents of seized computers with other agencies and private entities for data decryption and other reasons, the newspaper said.
DHS officials said the policies applied to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens, and were needed to prevent terrorism.
The measures have long been in place but were only disclosed in July, under pressure from civil liberties and business travel groups acting on reports that increasing numbers of international travelers had had their laptops, cell phones and other digital devices removed and examined.
The policies cover hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes -- as well as books, pamphlets and other written materials, the report said.
The policies require federal agents to take measures to protect business information and attorney-client privileged material.
They stipulate that any copies of the data must be destroyed when a review is completed and no probable cause exists to keep the information.
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
Under recently disclosed Department of Homeland Security policies, such seizures may be carried out without suspicion of wrongdoing, the newspaper said, quoting policies issued on July 16 by two DHS agencies.
According to the report, security agents are empowered to share the contents of seized computers with other agencies and private entities for data decryption and other reasons, the newspaper said.
DHS officials said the policies applied to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens, and were needed to prevent terrorism.
The measures have long been in place but were only disclosed in July, under pressure from civil liberties and business travel groups acting on reports that increasing numbers of international travelers had had their laptops, cell phones and other digital devices removed and examined.
The policies cover hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes -- as well as books, pamphlets and other written materials, the report said.
The policies require federal agents to take measures to protect business information and attorney-client privileged material.
They stipulate that any copies of the data must be destroyed when a review is completed and no probable cause exists to keep the information.
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
Actualizing sustainable Internet society (1)
Comment:
The Internet is always growing. It has become a vast, global ecosystem embracing stakeholders from all sectors — the public, industry and business, academia, governments and civil society. It lies in the hands of a remarkable confederation of parties. All of these stakeholders own portions of the Internet — from individual devices to huge, complex infrastructure systems.
Some players own physical communication resources such as optical fiber, satellite, cable systems and wireless networks and others provide software and network-based applications.
Still others provide services that promote and support electronic commerce, social networking, electronic messaging of all kinds, content distribution and delivery, education, and many, many more online applications. All these owners of the Internet represent one of the most diverse groupings of entities in the history of telecommunications.
What gets us up in the morning — and often keeps us up at night — are the innovations and technological advances that are about to become part of that ecosystem. They represent the greatest change in the Internet since its beginnings nearly 40 years ago. They are opening the way for the next billion users to enjoy all that the global Internet has to offer.
Right now, there are about 20 generic top-level domains and 252 country-code TLDs supporting more than 153 million registered names in the domain name space.
Internet users are demanding more. When the global Internet community talks about the next billion users coming on line, they are talking about Asia and the Middle East region. Japan, with its population of 127 million, leads in Internet penetration at 68.7 per cent. And Korea’s population of 34 million has a penetration of 47.6 per cent.
But China is booming. Its population of 1.3 billion has a penetration of 12.3 per cent. India has a population of 1.13 billion and penetration of 5.3 per cent. The Middle East shows similar numbers. Compare that with Europe and Australia, each with around 70 per cent penetration.
So, the Asian countries and the Middle East will be the new face of the Internet — the next generation of Internet users.
I find that prospect very exciting. But at the same time I realize that as the Internet grows in functionality, it also presents more challenges — to the diverse stakeholder communities and to the sustainability of the Internet itself.
For the ICANN community, sustainability means implementing these innovations and technologies — all of which are intended to improve openness, accessibility, diversity, and security — without placing the Internet’s security, stability and interoperability at risk.
So I had like to talk to you about a sustainable Internet society in terms of —
• Multi-stakeholder participation through ICANN’s bottom-up consensus-building model in creating and maintaining the technologies and policies that ensure a single, globally interoperable Internet; and
• How the business community could enhance their business models — and at the same time strengthen the Internet’s sustainability —by implementing Internet Protocol version Six (IPv6).
ICANN’s mission and operating principles
First, let me remind you of ICANN’s mission, which is —• To coordinate, overall, the global Internet’s system of unique identifiers, and to ensure stable and secure operation of the Internet’s unique identifier systems. In particular, ICANN coordinates:
1. Allocation and assignment of the three sets of unique identifiers for the Internet:
• Domain names (a system called the DNS)
• Internet protocol (IP) addresses and autonomous system (AS) numbers
• Protocol port and parameter numbers;
2. Operation and evolution of the DNS root name server system; and
3. Policy development reasonably and appropriately related to these technical functions;
In fulfilling its mission, ICANN is guided by four founding principles. They are to —
1. Contribute to stability and security of the Internet
2. Promote competition and choice for registrants and other users;
3. Forum for multi-stakeholder, consensus-based bottom-up development of related policy, and
4. Ensure an opportunity for participation by all interested parties on a global basis
It is within this framework that I talk to you.
ICANN’s multi-stakeholder model
Although only ten years old, ICANN is the flagship for multi-stakeholderism. The ICANN model represents the insight that a truly global resource like the Internet’s addressing system cannot and should not be influenced by one country or region alone, or by one organization or individual. This multi-stakeholder consensus-building model enables the ICANN community and the global Internet community to develop policies that influence the way the Internet and the domain name system work.
Participation by the entire Internet community — by governments, the business community, the academic community, the technology community, the private sector, and civil society alike — is essential to ensuring that the continuing progress and achievements of the global Internet community benefit us all.
How to participate in ICANN:
The ICANN community’s process for multi-stakeholder decision-making is very open. Debate is a crucial a feature. Often there are divergent positions that take time to work through. There are complex technical and legal issues behind most of the discussions about the creation of policies. We have seen this in the many policy issues ICANN has coordinated.
ICANN’s work and its processes are also transparent. The entire process is available online so individuals can review policy as it is developed and comment on it as they feel necessary. All substantive work is put out to public comment and those comments that are relevant are incorporated into the decision-making process. Your informed comments are one way in which you can participate in policy-making.
You can also join one of ICANN’s Supporting Organizations or Advisory Committees, a more formal route into ICANN’s policy-making processes. One of the main policy-making bodies of ICANN is the Generic Names Supporting Organization, which is made up of a number of constituencies:
• Commercial and Business
• gTLD Registries
• Internet Service and Connection Providers
• Non-Commercial users
• Registrars
• Intellectual Property experts
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
The Internet is always growing. It has become a vast, global ecosystem embracing stakeholders from all sectors — the public, industry and business, academia, governments and civil society. It lies in the hands of a remarkable confederation of parties. All of these stakeholders own portions of the Internet — from individual devices to huge, complex infrastructure systems.
Some players own physical communication resources such as optical fiber, satellite, cable systems and wireless networks and others provide software and network-based applications.
Still others provide services that promote and support electronic commerce, social networking, electronic messaging of all kinds, content distribution and delivery, education, and many, many more online applications. All these owners of the Internet represent one of the most diverse groupings of entities in the history of telecommunications.
What gets us up in the morning — and often keeps us up at night — are the innovations and technological advances that are about to become part of that ecosystem. They represent the greatest change in the Internet since its beginnings nearly 40 years ago. They are opening the way for the next billion users to enjoy all that the global Internet has to offer.
Right now, there are about 20 generic top-level domains and 252 country-code TLDs supporting more than 153 million registered names in the domain name space.
Internet users are demanding more. When the global Internet community talks about the next billion users coming on line, they are talking about Asia and the Middle East region. Japan, with its population of 127 million, leads in Internet penetration at 68.7 per cent. And Korea’s population of 34 million has a penetration of 47.6 per cent.
But China is booming. Its population of 1.3 billion has a penetration of 12.3 per cent. India has a population of 1.13 billion and penetration of 5.3 per cent. The Middle East shows similar numbers. Compare that with Europe and Australia, each with around 70 per cent penetration.
So, the Asian countries and the Middle East will be the new face of the Internet — the next generation of Internet users.
I find that prospect very exciting. But at the same time I realize that as the Internet grows in functionality, it also presents more challenges — to the diverse stakeholder communities and to the sustainability of the Internet itself.
For the ICANN community, sustainability means implementing these innovations and technologies — all of which are intended to improve openness, accessibility, diversity, and security — without placing the Internet’s security, stability and interoperability at risk.
So I had like to talk to you about a sustainable Internet society in terms of —
• Multi-stakeholder participation through ICANN’s bottom-up consensus-building model in creating and maintaining the technologies and policies that ensure a single, globally interoperable Internet; and
• How the business community could enhance their business models — and at the same time strengthen the Internet’s sustainability —by implementing Internet Protocol version Six (IPv6).
ICANN’s mission and operating principles
First, let me remind you of ICANN’s mission, which is —• To coordinate, overall, the global Internet’s system of unique identifiers, and to ensure stable and secure operation of the Internet’s unique identifier systems. In particular, ICANN coordinates:
1. Allocation and assignment of the three sets of unique identifiers for the Internet:
• Domain names (a system called the DNS)
• Internet protocol (IP) addresses and autonomous system (AS) numbers
• Protocol port and parameter numbers;
2. Operation and evolution of the DNS root name server system; and
3. Policy development reasonably and appropriately related to these technical functions;
In fulfilling its mission, ICANN is guided by four founding principles. They are to —
1. Contribute to stability and security of the Internet
2. Promote competition and choice for registrants and other users;
3. Forum for multi-stakeholder, consensus-based bottom-up development of related policy, and
4. Ensure an opportunity for participation by all interested parties on a global basis
It is within this framework that I talk to you.
ICANN’s multi-stakeholder model
Although only ten years old, ICANN is the flagship for multi-stakeholderism. The ICANN model represents the insight that a truly global resource like the Internet’s addressing system cannot and should not be influenced by one country or region alone, or by one organization or individual. This multi-stakeholder consensus-building model enables the ICANN community and the global Internet community to develop policies that influence the way the Internet and the domain name system work.
Participation by the entire Internet community — by governments, the business community, the academic community, the technology community, the private sector, and civil society alike — is essential to ensuring that the continuing progress and achievements of the global Internet community benefit us all.
How to participate in ICANN:
The ICANN community’s process for multi-stakeholder decision-making is very open. Debate is a crucial a feature. Often there are divergent positions that take time to work through. There are complex technical and legal issues behind most of the discussions about the creation of policies. We have seen this in the many policy issues ICANN has coordinated.
ICANN’s work and its processes are also transparent. The entire process is available online so individuals can review policy as it is developed and comment on it as they feel necessary. All substantive work is put out to public comment and those comments that are relevant are incorporated into the decision-making process. Your informed comments are one way in which you can participate in policy-making.
You can also join one of ICANN’s Supporting Organizations or Advisory Committees, a more formal route into ICANN’s policy-making processes. One of the main policy-making bodies of ICANN is the Generic Names Supporting Organization, which is made up of a number of constituencies:
• Commercial and Business
• gTLD Registries
• Internet Service and Connection Providers
• Non-Commercial users
• Registrars
• Intellectual Property experts
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
Monday, August 04, 2008
NCC tasks operators on disability desk
Telecommunications regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has tasked operators in the country to set up disability desk at their customer care centres.
This, NCC said, would assist greatly in improving the kind of service being offered the challenge group, namely the persons with disability and the elderly.
Giving this charge at the first Consultative Forum on Challenged Group (CG) organized by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau (CAB) at NCC, Mrs. Lolia Emakpore said it would improve the kind of services this kind of group receive at all times.
She said that operators need to develop services that would encourage the challenged group to be part of the e-inclusion in the society and particularly in Nigeria, noting that over 25 per cent of the nation’s population fail under this group.
Mrs. Emakpore in her presentation at the occassion said that addressing the need of the challenged group in ICT services provision is critical to achieving the e-inclusion and Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
She also advocated for a billing platform that is favourable to the challenged group, citing for instance, that through the use of Short Messaging Service (SMS) is discriminatory for some members of the challenged group.
Equally, she asked for special voice call charges for challenged group, stressing that it could come down from about N25 to N20, pointing out the need to check balances through voice prompt by CG.
Industry promotions by operators, she highlighted are passing the CG by which they tagged discriminatory.
“Challenged group can not participate fully in most of these promos,” she said.
In addition, they complained of having difficulty in surfing the Internet and mostly websites of telecom operators as there are rarely voice prompts added to the sites.
She further lamented the non-supportive access platform at consumer care centres and the imperative to have a register of CG in the country to pave the way for special services.
“There is need to incorporate teletype systems into service provision by operators,” he said, adding that they do not want to be treated with pity, but like every other persons.
Educational sponsorship and employment opportunity for challenged group, she said, is another call for concern.
“Communication services should not be discriminatory,” she warned.
In his remark, the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, reiterated the need for operators to help out in developing services that would give rise to the challenged group usage of communications devices.
Ndukwe who was represented at the occasion by Director, Legal Services at NCC, Mr. Steve Andsenge said, NCC, has advanced plans to launch two state-of-the-art Consumer Centres in Lagos and Abuja to help in alleviating the challenges the group go through mostly at customer care centres.
He also said that these centres would assist in further stimulating awareness creation for telecom consumers.
He, therefore, urged telecom operators to re-organise their customer care centres to be accessible to the challenged group.
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
This, NCC said, would assist greatly in improving the kind of service being offered the challenge group, namely the persons with disability and the elderly.
Giving this charge at the first Consultative Forum on Challenged Group (CG) organized by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau (CAB) at NCC, Mrs. Lolia Emakpore said it would improve the kind of services this kind of group receive at all times.
She said that operators need to develop services that would encourage the challenged group to be part of the e-inclusion in the society and particularly in Nigeria, noting that over 25 per cent of the nation’s population fail under this group.
Mrs. Emakpore in her presentation at the occassion said that addressing the need of the challenged group in ICT services provision is critical to achieving the e-inclusion and Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
She also advocated for a billing platform that is favourable to the challenged group, citing for instance, that through the use of Short Messaging Service (SMS) is discriminatory for some members of the challenged group.
Equally, she asked for special voice call charges for challenged group, stressing that it could come down from about N25 to N20, pointing out the need to check balances through voice prompt by CG.
Industry promotions by operators, she highlighted are passing the CG by which they tagged discriminatory.
“Challenged group can not participate fully in most of these promos,” she said.
In addition, they complained of having difficulty in surfing the Internet and mostly websites of telecom operators as there are rarely voice prompts added to the sites.
She further lamented the non-supportive access platform at consumer care centres and the imperative to have a register of CG in the country to pave the way for special services.
“There is need to incorporate teletype systems into service provision by operators,” he said, adding that they do not want to be treated with pity, but like every other persons.
Educational sponsorship and employment opportunity for challenged group, she said, is another call for concern.
“Communication services should not be discriminatory,” she warned.
In his remark, the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, reiterated the need for operators to help out in developing services that would give rise to the challenged group usage of communications devices.
Ndukwe who was represented at the occasion by Director, Legal Services at NCC, Mr. Steve Andsenge said, NCC, has advanced plans to launch two state-of-the-art Consumer Centres in Lagos and Abuja to help in alleviating the challenges the group go through mostly at customer care centres.
He also said that these centres would assist in further stimulating awareness creation for telecom consumers.
He, therefore, urged telecom operators to re-organise their customer care centres to be accessible to the challenged group.
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
MTN launches online care centre
MTN Nigeria Limited has launched state-of-the-art Online Customer Assistance Centre at its Ojota Network Monitoring Centre in Lagos, reports CHARLES OKOH.
Announcing this at a press briefing weekend, the Customer Relations Executive, Mr. Akin Braithwaite, said it is a next generation customer care service facility with cutting-edge technology intended to serve its subscribers through the telephone, short messaging service (SMS), internet and other means by which customers could communicate with them in the online world.
He said this is a major feat for the telco because the centre is anchored on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) station through which they could communicate anywhere through VoIP, stating that this gives the telco a lot of dynamic ability to handle customer call coming from anywhere.
Mr. Braithwaite also said the implication is that it gives them opportunity to service additional 3.5 million customers, and that this would ease a lot of the traffic congestion that is currently facing the telco at the friendship shops.
He added that this is just a step in a series of programmes that would be costing the MTN hundreds of millions of dollars in building additional online customers’ assistance centres.
According to him, “this is just to show the importance that MTN places on serving the customer. We are on a journey and we are going to see more and more improvement on the way we serve our customers, as we are providing next generation customer care.”
Also speaking, the Chief Information Officer of the centre, Mr. Chris Coetzee said, the planning took three years to accomplish and the facility is also the main data centre that hosts all of the applications that supports its customers, both from the billing perspective, provisioning as well as the technology in use in the call centres.
“What we did was that we moved the customer phasing and customer servicing organizations closest to the heart of information technology (IT),” he said.
He further said co-locating these facilities is a major step in the telco’s ability to serve customers better, stressing that the centre is one of the largest in Africa, outside South Africa and that in the next few weeks another bigger one would be launched.
Subscribers on the network who are experiencing any difficulty recharging or any other problem could call 182 and 188 or visit its website.
Some other members of MTN at the briefing were the human resources executive, Mutari Wada, Andrew Esemezie, Ibrahim Abba Gana, Ibrahim Umar, Patience Alumba as well as Temiloye Okudipe.
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
Announcing this at a press briefing weekend, the Customer Relations Executive, Mr. Akin Braithwaite, said it is a next generation customer care service facility with cutting-edge technology intended to serve its subscribers through the telephone, short messaging service (SMS), internet and other means by which customers could communicate with them in the online world.
He said this is a major feat for the telco because the centre is anchored on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) station through which they could communicate anywhere through VoIP, stating that this gives the telco a lot of dynamic ability to handle customer call coming from anywhere.
Mr. Braithwaite also said the implication is that it gives them opportunity to service additional 3.5 million customers, and that this would ease a lot of the traffic congestion that is currently facing the telco at the friendship shops.
He added that this is just a step in a series of programmes that would be costing the MTN hundreds of millions of dollars in building additional online customers’ assistance centres.
According to him, “this is just to show the importance that MTN places on serving the customer. We are on a journey and we are going to see more and more improvement on the way we serve our customers, as we are providing next generation customer care.”
Also speaking, the Chief Information Officer of the centre, Mr. Chris Coetzee said, the planning took three years to accomplish and the facility is also the main data centre that hosts all of the applications that supports its customers, both from the billing perspective, provisioning as well as the technology in use in the call centres.
“What we did was that we moved the customer phasing and customer servicing organizations closest to the heart of information technology (IT),” he said.
He further said co-locating these facilities is a major step in the telco’s ability to serve customers better, stressing that the centre is one of the largest in Africa, outside South Africa and that in the next few weeks another bigger one would be launched.
Subscribers on the network who are experiencing any difficulty recharging or any other problem could call 182 and 188 or visit its website.
Some other members of MTN at the briefing were the human resources executive, Mutari Wada, Andrew Esemezie, Ibrahim Abba Gana, Ibrahim Umar, Patience Alumba as well as Temiloye Okudipe.
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
Siemens corruption probe: Ex-employee, Lamprecht named in dereliction of duty
The global vice chairman of Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) stands accused by Siemens, his former employer, of “dereliction of duty” as the German conglomerate and telecoms equipment manufacturer leaves no stone unturned in its ongoing investigation into alleged corruption, reports telecomtv.com.
Thus, NSN’s Rudi Lamprecht was named by Siemens as one of the eleven former executives its pursuing and from whom the company is seeking substantial damages.
The Siemens’ investigation became public knowledge back in late 2006 when, amidst allegations of bribery and other illegal payments valued at more than a billion euros, several senior Siemens staff were arrested in police raids.
The case against Rudi Lamprecht comes as Siemens focuses on former high-ranking staff that, the company says, should have done more to stamp out an insidious culture of corporate corruption that was infecting several of Siemens’ divisions.
Now Siemens is attempting to recover damages from Lamprecht and ten others.
The report said Siemens “bases its claims on breaches of their organisational and supervisory duties in view of the accusations of illegal business practices and extensive bribery that occurred in the course of international business transactions in the years 2003 to 2006 and the resulting financial burdens to the company.”
Lamprecht no longer sits on the Siemens AG board, but retained his directorship on joining Nokia Siemens Networks in October last year.
Back in 2006, German prosecutors said the corruption case involved at least €200 million after initial investigation showed that Siemens employees may have embezzled as much as €20 million euros by diverting the money into numerous illegal off-shore accounts.
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
Thus, NSN’s Rudi Lamprecht was named by Siemens as one of the eleven former executives its pursuing and from whom the company is seeking substantial damages.
The Siemens’ investigation became public knowledge back in late 2006 when, amidst allegations of bribery and other illegal payments valued at more than a billion euros, several senior Siemens staff were arrested in police raids.
The case against Rudi Lamprecht comes as Siemens focuses on former high-ranking staff that, the company says, should have done more to stamp out an insidious culture of corporate corruption that was infecting several of Siemens’ divisions.
Now Siemens is attempting to recover damages from Lamprecht and ten others.
The report said Siemens “bases its claims on breaches of their organisational and supervisory duties in view of the accusations of illegal business practices and extensive bribery that occurred in the course of international business transactions in the years 2003 to 2006 and the resulting financial burdens to the company.”
Lamprecht no longer sits on the Siemens AG board, but retained his directorship on joining Nokia Siemens Networks in October last year.
Back in 2006, German prosecutors said the corruption case involved at least €200 million after initial investigation showed that Siemens employees may have embezzled as much as €20 million euros by diverting the money into numerous illegal off-shore accounts.
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
Internet sector booms in Europe
Internet sector is booming in the European continent as connectivity continues to increase, reports, telecomtv.com.
According to the new figures recently published by the European Information Technology Observatory (EITO), which sounds as though its headquarters should be atop a Swiss Alp - will grow by some 10.8 per cent over the course of this year and that the sector will be worth €33.7 billion.
EITO’s chairman, Bruno Lamborgini, analysing the factors driving the continued expansion of Internet access across Europe comments, “Innovative additional services and falling prices are helping the connections business to achieve vigorous growth.
Fast Internet connections are being offered today in combination with low-priced telephone flat rates or on-line on-demand services for movies and music.”
Growth is also being driven by reduced tariffs for data transfer. The report says that by the end of the year there will be an estimated 114 million broadband Internet connections in Western Europe and high-speed access will be available 26 per cent of the entire population.
It turns out that Germany is far and away the biggest single Internet market in Europe, with estimated revenues of €8.4 billion over 2008.
This equates to a rate of growth of 8.5 per cent over 2007 and Germany now has a 25 per cent share of the Internet market in Europe.
Elsewhere, France has seen the strongest uptake of Internet services this year and is the fastest-growing market. Revenues from domestic French Internet connections have grown by 22.5 per cent to a value of €4.6 billion.
Uptake in the UK is steady if not particularly spectacular. The sector, like that in France, will be worth €4.6 billion this year, equal to a growth of 7.2 per cent. The UK and France also have identical market shares 13.6 per cent each.
Down in the Iberian peninsula, Internet growth in Spain is 7.6 per cent and the sector will be worth €3.2 billion this year. Spain has an EU market share of share of 9.5 per cent.
The observatory forecasts that Internet access and revenues from it will continue to rise over the course of 2009 at an overall EU rate of 9 per cent. This means that next year the Internet connectivity and services market in Europe will be worth some €36.9 billion.
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
According to the new figures recently published by the European Information Technology Observatory (EITO), which sounds as though its headquarters should be atop a Swiss Alp - will grow by some 10.8 per cent over the course of this year and that the sector will be worth €33.7 billion.
EITO’s chairman, Bruno Lamborgini, analysing the factors driving the continued expansion of Internet access across Europe comments, “Innovative additional services and falling prices are helping the connections business to achieve vigorous growth.
Fast Internet connections are being offered today in combination with low-priced telephone flat rates or on-line on-demand services for movies and music.”
Growth is also being driven by reduced tariffs for data transfer. The report says that by the end of the year there will be an estimated 114 million broadband Internet connections in Western Europe and high-speed access will be available 26 per cent of the entire population.
It turns out that Germany is far and away the biggest single Internet market in Europe, with estimated revenues of €8.4 billion over 2008.
This equates to a rate of growth of 8.5 per cent over 2007 and Germany now has a 25 per cent share of the Internet market in Europe.
Elsewhere, France has seen the strongest uptake of Internet services this year and is the fastest-growing market. Revenues from domestic French Internet connections have grown by 22.5 per cent to a value of €4.6 billion.
Uptake in the UK is steady if not particularly spectacular. The sector, like that in France, will be worth €4.6 billion this year, equal to a growth of 7.2 per cent. The UK and France also have identical market shares 13.6 per cent each.
Down in the Iberian peninsula, Internet growth in Spain is 7.6 per cent and the sector will be worth €3.2 billion this year. Spain has an EU market share of share of 9.5 per cent.
The observatory forecasts that Internet access and revenues from it will continue to rise over the course of 2009 at an overall EU rate of 9 per cent. This means that next year the Internet connectivity and services market in Europe will be worth some €36.9 billion.
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
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