Expect Indian handsets in Nigeria soon – Sachdev

Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Mahesh Sachdev, has urged Nigeria to leverage on the success story of Indian’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, disclosing that sooner than expected, there would be Indian handsets vendors in the country.

The high commissioner, made this call at the 2011 edition of the West African ICT Congress which ended in Lagos at the weekend, declaring “Soon in Nigeria; Indian Handsets Vendors.”

He also said in his paper entitled ‘Leveraging India ICT for Nigeria’ that India which has a population of 1.21 billion and assumed the second largest nation has a landmass of 3.2 mn sq kms, which tagged the 7th largest in the world.

He noted that currently the Nigeria-India relationship has resulted in India being the second largest trading partner worth $13.0bn, about N2,065 trillion in 2010 till date, stressing that India is the largest investor in Nigeria in 2010 with over $5 bn, an estimated N794.4 billion.

Sachdev further said that India ranks second largest employer  with over 100 Indian companies operating in the country across pole spot in Information Technology (IT), health, steel, power X-mission.

India’s ICT Sector, he said, has telecom as number 1 with current status of 850 million phones and ranks the second largest network in addition to being the world’s fastest growing subscriber base with 15 operators taunted as the world’s lowest call tariffs.

He pointed out that with the 2011 National Telecom Policy, there is an anticipation broadband-on-demand will reach 175 million by year 2017.

According to him, with raising of Rural Teledensity to 60 per cent by 2017, which is driven by  indigenise telecom equipment, and consolidation among telecom operators.

He noted that Nigeria-India ICT ties could be tracked down from, Multi-links to Airtel, lowering thresholds in the nation’s telecom sector, adding that wide presence of Indian telecom experts, while offering training of IT personnel in the country through NIIT and ApTech.

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) delegation, he said, visited Nigeria in 2009 and 2011 to partner and mentor some local IT stakeholders.

Remmy Nweke

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Working Group on IDN outlines framework

Members of the Country Code Names Supporting Organisation (ccNSO) would soon be voting on the recommendations made by the Working Group on Internationalised Domain Name (IDN) for country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) within the framework of the country code-based Policy Development Process (ccPDP).

A press statement from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) informed that the purpose of the IDN country code policy development process Working Group 2 (IDN ccPDP WG 2) is to report on and identify feasible recommendations for the inclusion of IDN ccTLDs.

The Working Group (WG) identified some clusters of issues including membership definition.

Accordingly the Working Group stated that the roles of members, eligibility and selection of councilors to the ccNSO Council, initiation of PDP, voting on policy development process, selection of councilors, quorum for voting and scope of PDP as defined in Annex C.

On the recommendation on membership definition, the Working Group stated that the definition in Article IX section 4.1 should be updated to maintain the one-to-one correspondence between the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Root Zone Database and membership in the ccNSO.

Additionally, the group recommended on eligibility and nomination of councilors as well as no changes in Bylaws needed.

On the recommendation on initiation of ccPDP, the group said that in order to maintain the envisioned balance and taking into account the leading principles.

They suggested that all members of the ccNSO should be entitled to call for the creation of an Issue Report; These members need to be from different Territories; The current minimum of 10 members to request the creation of an Issue Report should be maintained.

The majority of the WG members are of the view that with the inclusion of IDN ccTLD in the ccNSO the voting in the ccNSO should be based on the principle of one vote per Territory should be applied.

While minority of the WG members is of the view the voting should be based on the principle of one member one vote.

On one vote per territory with multiple members, the Working Group noted that if there are two or more ccTLD managers in a Territory who have become members of the ccNSO, for purposes of voting in the ccNSO an emissary for that Territory has to be appointed by all members from that Territory.

“It is a matter for the ccNSO members in the Territory how to designate such an emissary,” he said.

During the period, the group suggested that the emissary has not been appointed, the incumbent member of the ccNSO from that Territory is deemed to vote for that Territory, until such time the ccNSO Council is informed by all members from that Territory of the appointment of an emissary for the Territory.

Remmy Nweke

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Nokia lifts App developers with smart phones

Nokia West Africa, at the weekend rewarded some five application developers in Nigeria.

They include Ajibola Aiyedogbon, Seyi Eluwole, Oyewole Oyediran, Adesoye Gbolahan and Oluwarotimi Akintewe.

Speaking at the prize presentation ceremony in Lagos, the head, Nokia’s Ecosystem Developer Experience (EDX), Mr. Teemu Kiijarvi, said the move was one of the ways Nokia of demonstrating its commitment to support local developers in building innovative applications on its proprietary platform – the Nokia store.

He said, Nokia’s decision to support developers was based on the need to have a rich ecosystem of exciting locally-built applications to suit the needs of Nigerians, adding that two months ago, Nokia organized a free three-day training for over 200 Nigerian developers before the emergence of the selected winners.

Mr. Kiijarvi also denied speculations that Nokia was on the verge of facing out phones built on the Symbian platform, stressing that the mobile phone manufacturer has actually developed new Symbian updates, which have greatly improved the user-interface of most Nokia phones.

He explained that Nokia’s new monetization opportunities for developers, mostly in the region is tailored for local markets and include integrated operator billing with 112 operators in 36 markets, more than 25 times more operator billing integrations than Nokia’s nearest competitor. Nokia Store has seen integrated operator billing increase consumer transactions by up to four times and this, coupled with Nokia’s beta programs for in-app billing and in-app advertising, means more revenue opportunities for developers on Symbian.

Commenting on behalf of his colleagues, Mr. Ajibola Aiyedogbon whose application (My Cash) on expense tracking is already enjoying downloads on Nokia store commended Nokia for providing him with its platform to reach people with his application.

Also, he expressed delight that these downloads would ultimately be financially rewarding, calling on other developers to embrace the Nokia platform.

Remmy Nweke

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

GoTv debuts in Ibadan

GOTv, a low cost digital television service using the next generation Digital Video Broadcast, a standard (DVB-T2) has debut in Ibadan.

Proponents of GOTv, Details Nigeria, said it would offer the greatest selection of local channels made in Africa for Africa as well as great international channels.

General Manager of GOtv, Mayo Okunola, said that the launch represents one of the most advanced Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) broadcast system and infrastructure established in Africa and the rest of the world till date.

“GOTv will deliver digital television to everyone and will enable them experience the digital television revolution in their homes. It supports the Nigerian government’s commitment to migrating from an analogue to digital by 2012” he said.

He added that the launch of GOtv will play a pivotal role towards contributing to this technological transformation and in the process will help the country to achieve its set target towards the migration to digital TV transmission.

He explained that GOtv is on the DVB-T2 technology standard which allows for up to 20 channels per frequency, this is different from DVB-T1 technology which only allows for 12 channels per frequency. 

Hence, he said, there is a dramatic improvement on the dividend of terrestrial frequencies available to countries when DVB-T2 is deployed.

“The new service is an exciting pay television service which delivers great value and will give television lovers access to news, children’s programming, documentaries, series and movies – opening up a world of new and exciting family entertainment at a price everyone can afford,” he said.

GOtv bouquets, he said, offer great family entertainment channels and viewers will be able to enjoy fantastic selection of local and international channels at a very pocket friendly price.

Some of the channels that will be available to subscribers include Discovery World, Super sports select, E! Entertainment, Channel O, Magic World, Africa magic +, eTV Africa, amongst others.

Equally speaking, the Marketing Manager, GOtv, Mr. Akin Salu said that the channels were carefully selected to meet different users’ needs and that subscribers would enjoy improved pictures and sound quality synonymous with digital television.

“GOtv is uniquely placed to become the home of African television. We firmly believe that there is enough rich content created here on the continent to make a case for packaging great African entertainment and we have committed ourselves to making this a reality thus, offering channels made in Africa for Africa,” said Akin.

For a special price of N9, 000, subscribers will have a digital TV-decoder, 3 months subscription at no charge, and enjoy a total of 33 channels for GOtv plus and 26 channels for GOtv.

He maintained that the new GOtv does not require a satellite dish and there is no installation cost, stressing that all it requires is a GOtv decoder and a stub or grid antenna.

Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

eBusiness holds BTS confab

Lagos-based Information and Communication Technology (ICT) publication, eBusiness Life Communication has advanced plans to host a Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) conference in November.

Chief Executive Officer of eBusiness Life, Mrs. Ufuoma Emuophedaro, who disclosed this said that the environmental and health implications of Base Transceiver Stations (BTS), otherwise called Base Stations, have been a source of debate in the past and would be the topic of a conference.

The conference, she said, would hold on Thursday, November 17, 2011 in Lagos, would throw more light on the environmental implications of siting telecommunication base stations.

She noted that there is a need to bring to fore the contentions surrounding BTS siting, adding that the forum would be an opportunity to bring all stakeholders to a roundtable on the impacts on the health and psyche of Nigerians.

“With over 10,000 base stations around the country and more coming up, also with the issue of infrastructure co-location heating up in the industry, the need to find ways of reducing cost and improving services without necessarily endangering or compromising the health of Nigerians or environmental friendliness of the country should be our focus,” she said.

The forum which has as its theme, “BTS and Our Health and Environment” she said, would draw speakers from the Ministry of the Environment, telecom operators, regulatory agencies, engineering sector, service providers and health professionals among others.

According to Mrs. Emuopedaro, the main objective of the event is to demystify the effect of Base Stations and educate Nigerians about the BTS as regards the environment.

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