We'll run NITEL efficiently, if - Globacom

In spite of the determination of the Second National Operator (SNO) Globacom to have a bite of the first National Operator, the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), currently being unbundled by the Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE), experts have insisted that Glo can’t bid for NITEL.

Their arguments have been that it’s morally unjustifiable for Glo to bid for NITEL.
They also said that the attempt will make mess of NCC’s position in terms of providing and entrenching fair competitive environment for investors in the nation’s telecom sector.

ITRealms Online recalls that Globacom, last weekend, reiterated its plans to bid for the moribund NITEL, whenever the bid opens and promises to revitalize the organization, according to Head, Network Operations at Globacom, Mr. Aremu Olajide.

“Glo will bring NITEL back to life I can assure you,” he asserted.

But reacting to media reports on the issue, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) experts, who commented on anonymity, insisted that Globacom as matter of fact, cannot bid, let alone buy NITEL.

They argued that it is anti-competition for the SNO to embark on such journey knowing fully well that the end-result will be negative for the company.

Highly placed sources close to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), told ITRealms Online that the regulator is clear about this and the likelihood is that Globacom may not be allowed to even start the process, except if it really wants to waste its money.

Equally, another close source at the Ministry of Information and Communication (FMIC) who spoke in tandem with the position of these experts, said that Globacom should focus on execution of its current licenses 100 per cent.

But despite the legally-linked opposition to Globacom’s desire to acquire NITEL, the SNO said, it’s determined to make its dreams come through and is keenly waiting for the whistle blower, BPE, to call the shots.

BPE’s planned break up of NITEL into five separate units is to attract more interest from investors in the ailing telecom operator.

Noteworthy is that the federal government on June 1, 2009, regained full control of the first national operator and its mobile subsidiary, Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTel), citing breach of post-sale service agreement as reasons for retrieving NITEL from Transnational Corporation (TRANSCORP) Plc.

BPE’s plan is to split NITEL into South Atlantic 3 (SAT-3) undersea cable, the analogue cellular phone STAC and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) to be separated from the fixed line operation, as said by BPE spokesman, Mr. Joe Anichebe,

He also said that already each of these five entities have operating license attached to it, which would be renewed as soon as the sale is concluded.

However, SAT-3 is Nigeria’s main gateway for international calls and Internet connections, though experts have postulated that since Glo-1 is about to be delivered on Nigerian soil, the SNO has no need of bidding for NITEL, since its original licenses encompassed all the license of NITEL, just as another Nigerian bound cable - MainOne Cable, is expected to land in the country in October this year.

ITRealms Online recollects that following the pricing by Orascom Consortium of Egypt for the organization at $256.5 million recently, which did not reach the price paid by MTel, a subsidiary of NITEL to obtain its Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), President of Nigeria Internet Group (NIG), Mr. Lanre Ajayi, had predicted that as much as it is important to deregulate the telecoms sector by finally privatizing NITEL, the group bemoans the attitude to sell at all cost and called for unbundling of the telco.

Mr. Ajayi, who is a former NITEL’s employee, said the objective of massive rollout which the sale was anticipated to achieve would be defeated if it is disposed at a give-away price.

On the way forward, he noted that unbundling NITEL into many components, would pave the way for it to be sold one-by-one.

Expressing optimism on SAT-3 cable, he said, it would attract good pricing from one of the existing operators and the mobile service (MTel) is likely to attract good attention from international operators, who may be interested in just the mobile service.

NITEL is the nation’s first telecom carrier embodied with fixed line and mobile telecommunications company, MTel and is owned 100 per cent by the Federal Government (FG) with the sack of TRANSCORP.

It was incorporated as a limited liability company in December 1984, which was a product of the merger between the telecommunications arm of the defunct Posts and Telecommunications Department (P&T) of the then Ministry of Communications, and Nigerian External Communications Limited (NET) and commenced operations on January 1, 1985.

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e-payment and Nigeria’s public sector

It is high time Nigerians especially those in the public sector realise the importance of the recent introduction of e-payment system, writes REMMY NWEKE.


Notwithstanding efforts at clarifying issues by experts around the reported confusion that trailed the recent directive by the Accountant-General (AG) of the Federation over the introduction of electronic payment (e-payment) system in the nation’s public sector, some uninformed members of the workforce are still attributing hiccups associated to payments in the sector to ‘e-payment’.

This has become obvious following the promise to deliver on what exactly is electronic payment by the government of the present administration.
Experts have defined electronic payment as the ability to pay suppliers, contractors, vendors and even staff electronically at the touch of a button and affords electronic users to equally send all payments’ instructions electronically and receive the feed backs electronically.
ITRealms Online learn t that lately some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) were discovered to have misunderstood the directive of total end-to-end electronic payment system to the temporary solution, which is a mixture of partly electronic and partly manual, otherwise tagged e-manual among stakeholders. Equally, it was gathered that most of the MDAs instead of standing up to be counted in the real execution of the e-payment project of the government, which is the end-to-end electronic payment, tacitly adopted a temporary solution, christened ‘e-manual.’

The Federal Government (FG), ITRealms Online recalled, had in the last quarter of 2008, declared war against all cash and cheque payments with the mandate to commence e-payment in the country from January 1, 2009, in all transactions in the public sector across all the MDAs.

Elucidating this position, the Accountant-General of Federation, Mr. Ibrahim Dankwanmbo, during a recent seminar in Abuja, pointed out that payment should from January 1, 2009, be conducted electronically to the beneficiary’s account and not with cash or cheque instruments. Stressing, this was part of strategies to enthrone a cashless public service and discourage corruption, while boosting accountability and transparency.

Decrying the amount of confusion that has pervaded the nation’s public sector in the wake of the electronic payment regime, renowned e-payment expert and chief executive of Nigeria’s leading software-based solution provider, Systemspecs Limited, Mr. John Obaro, warned that if this chaos is not immediately checked, the nation may be heading deep into backwardness.

He attributed the confusion to the avalanche of current payment systems in the country, top of which is the issuing of cheques and manually delivering the schedules to the likes of Pension Fund Administrators (PFA), cooperatives societies, National Housing Fund (NHF), National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), trade unions, and banks to mention but a few. Obaro noted that multiple payment portals with wrong impression about e-payment from banks, often constrain customers to one bank, and have not been helpful in understanding what constitutes true e-payment.

Obaro explained that what it entails is that there is an automated end-to-end electronic payment, which could be initiated from an office, thereby reducing work and not increase it, leading to a pleasant experience.

According to him, e-payment does not mean what obtains in most of the MDAs, including manual delivery of payment instructions to banks through Compact Diskettes (CDs), flash drives or even email attachment. He maintained that once a customer hops from one bank’s internet site to another, it is no longer e-payment, just as he decried the attitude of restricting customers to one bank or even making payments on one platform, and submitting schedules on another. This, he said, negates the notion of e-payment.“Once a customer surfaces at a bank branch, it is no longer e-payment,” Obaro insisted.

He advised that in order to surmount these challenges, SystemSpecs, for instance, three years ago introduced Remita, one of its web-based versatile electronic payment solutions, which affords customers either individual or corporate to pay or receive salaries or payments directly in their accounts and issue e-cheques to any person or contractors.

“All from the comfort of your home or office, as long as there is Internet linked Personal Computer (PC),” he asserted, outlining the relevant parties in e-payment sphere to include the end users, which cut across MDAs, corporate entities and individuals, then application service providers, switches and settlement houses, banks and finally the regulators.

Warning the government to ensure that the internal processes were got right for enthronement of real end-to-end e-payment structure, and urged those who want to remain manual to be manual instead of the half-baked e-manual, which is at the root of the e-payment confusion presently.

A member of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Think Tank on e-payment, Dr. Hakeem Bakare, told ITRealms Online that the nation has even shifted its attainment date earlier than scheduled, that is, instead of 2011, it would now be before end of 2009, based on the FG’s latest mandate on e-payment. The committee made up of stakeholders drawn from both financial and banking institutions, he said, has been having regular interactions with the CBN officials and strongly believes in end-to-end e-payment solution for the country.

“And it is the ultimate for Nigeria,” he declared, criticizing some MDAs for thinking that e-manual, which is a temporary measure pending when they would migrate holistically to pure end-to-end remedy to have overtaken the actual e-payment.

“It is a misconception of AG – Accountant General’s – directive,” he said and called for caution, noting that a situation whereby every Tom, Dick and Harry now carries one solution or another claiming to be offering electronic payment to the MDAs, which eventually leaves them half-way may not be the best for the country.

It was gathered on good authority that few months after the new system was pronounced, several civil servants could not access their salaries on time and those who eventually did were either reportedly short-paid or given someone else pay-pack, and remained largely uncorrected as any delay in whatever payment now among the MDAs are being tagged ‘e-payment is at work.’

Although it is being debated among stakeholders that it’s not yet Uhuru, as the perfect environment for the novel system is eluding the country with top on the list being that without power – energy – the e-payment initiative may hit the rock and the political will to pursue it to the letter.

Obviously accepted as a subtle of the larger e-government project; which encompasses the engagement of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to improve the activities of public sector organizations, according to experts at eGovernance for Development (egov4dev) and mostly availing opportunities for interaction between government and citizens as well as the business community.

For some school of thought the implementation of e-payment should run concurrently with e-government so as to optimize the added value it tends to offer. Even as others advocated that for it to be a success, ICT infrastructure must be put in place, including well-organized telecom within the public sector based on robust network, which the government seems to have got right in establishment of Galaxy Backbone Plc.

Thus, it was very apt for FG to warn banks and MDAs recently against breaching its policy on e-payment, maintaining that all commercial banks must dishonour any cheque instrument drawn by the MDAs.

Making this clear through the Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Remi Babalola, at the 9th edition of the annual international conference and exhibition of CardExpo in Lagos, the government noted all its transactions requiring huge payments were required to be done electronically to the beneficiary’s account and not with cash or cheque instruments.

The minister represented at the occasion by his Special Assistant (Technical), Dr. Felix Ogbera, said that in this regard, “all commercial banks have also been directed to dishonour any cheque instrument drawn by MDAs from January 1, 2009, because they (MDAs) have since been warned to desist from the practice.”

The Federal Government, through the Central Bank of Nigeria, had in January 2009 issued a policy that all government payments must be done electronically, insisting that the policy was adopted as part of measures to enhance accountability and transparency and to check corruption.

Expressing optimism about the future of e-payment in Nigeria, he noted that an effective oversight of the payments system landscape was crucial to achieving an efficient, safe, reliable and dependable system, emphasizing that the government is aware of the enormous requirements for effective implementation of the payment system and fully committed to providing the right policy and the enabling environment for the system to grow and thrive.

“At the same time, experts in information technology and the financial sector must endeavour to find solutions to some of the serious challenges that had arisen from the usage of the electronic payment system in the country. Without question, the issue of data security is very important and efforts must be made by the experts to come up with a very formidable application to secure the data in the system to avoid fraud and build confidence in the payment platforms,” he counseled, assuring that the government would continue to facilitate financial reporting system, computerization of accounts and the electronic payment system across all MDAs.

It is therefore significant for the government to get it right by living up to its billing since it claimed to be aware of impending obstacles and commence implementation as soon as possible, which must include capacity building of civil servants at all levels, otherwise the e-payment initiative may worsen the level of corruption in the country if not well-managed.

Hence, it is appropriate for stakeholders to key into the recent draft bill on electronic transactions (e-transaction) presented last week in Abuja by the drafting committee to the National IT Development Agency (NITDA) led by its Director-General, Prof. Cleopas Angaye.

More so, collaborating with the like of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) and serious individual companies if it is proved that ISPON has gone comatose as it were.

The draft bill on electronic transaction is thus critical to the implementation of the Vision 2020 of the Federal Government and comes handy; when efforts at improving the nation’s e-commerce via cyber security law is seeking public comment.

The bill, when passed into law by the National Assembly, seeks to regulate electronic transactions and payment systems in the country.

The time to start to see the reality is now for every public servant who wants to remain relevant in the system.


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African countries tasked on e-payment gateway

Director-General of South African Department of Communications (DoC) and one of the Executive Committee members of NEPAD e-Africa Commission, Mrs. Lyndall  Shope-Mafole has tasked African countries to explore the e-Payment Gateway of the commission worth USD 100 million, about N14.7 billion.

The NEPAD Africa e-Payment Gateway is an e-tourism project intended to benefit the African continent by reducing the costs of doing tourism business. 

Also, the project is to facilitate African citizens and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to receive direct payments from anywhere in the world at a more cost effective and efficient method akin to that used in developed economies.

The objective, according to NEPAD’s official, is to bring revenue directly into Africa using an African owned and operated infrastructure that will directly impact the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of African economies.

Speaking after a session of the Executive Committee attended by representatives including Nigeria, recently in South Africa, Ms. Shope-Mafole emphasized the importance of the project to the continent and precisely the South African government in its efforts to ensure that all African countries participate in, and benefit from the FIFA World Cup 2010, which will be hosted by South Africa.

Also speaking, the NEPAD e-Africa Commission Executive Deputy Chairperson, Dr Henry Chasia, said that while engaging in this project, his organisation will seek to enhance policy and regulatory reforms intended to facilitate and accelerate electronic commerce (e-commence).

The Project Manager for e-Payment Gateway, Mr. Ahmed Kassam said the project is intended to provide African businesses, citizens as well as governments with efficient and affordable access to electronic commerce platforms.

“… And provide each country with the ability to increase tourism and SME sector revenues without incurring the high costs charged by existing third party platforms residing outside of Africa,” he said.

In addition, he said, the project could secure e-Tourism transactions by creating an Escrow account that would hold the payment until the customer was satisfied.

He explained that the project is a joint partnership between African and international investors initially targeting the tourism sector but broad in scope to cater for the SMEs in other non-tourism sectors that do not have the resources to market and conduct electronic commerce through the Internet independently.

He stressed that it is intended that African entities would hold the majority of shares in the venture, noting that NEPAD e-Africa Commission has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) to support the design, development and roll-out of the gateway. 

As said by him, the cost of deploying this payment gateway is about USD 100 million, and is estimated  to be more economical than if each country was to design and implement its own gateway.

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African countries tasked on e-payment gateway

Director-General of South African Department of Communications (DoC) and one of the Executive Committee members of NEPAD e-Africa Commission, Mrs. Lyndall  Shope-Mafole has tasked African countries to explore the e-Payment Gateway of the commission worth USD 100 million, about N14.7 billion.

The NEPAD Africa e-Payment Gateway is an e-tourism project intended to benefit the African continent by reducing the costs of doing tourism business. 

Also, the project is to facilitate African citizens and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to receive direct payments from anywhere in the world at a more cost effective and efficient method akin to that used in developed economies.

The objective, according to NEPAD’s official, is to bring revenue directly into Africa using an African owned and operated infrastructure that will directly impact the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of African economies.

Speaking after a session of the Executive Committee attended by representatives including Nigeria, recently in South Africa, Ms. Shope-Mafole emphasized the importance of the project to the continent and precisely the South African government in its efforts to ensure that all African countries participate in, and benefit from the FIFA World Cup 2010, which will be hosted by South Africa.

Also speaking, the NEPAD e-Africa Commission Executive Deputy Chairperson, Dr Henry Chasia, said that while engaging in this project, his organisation will seek to enhance policy and regulatory reforms intended to facilitate and accelerate electronic commerce (e-commence).

The Project Manager for e-Payment Gateway, Mr. Ahmed Kassam said the project is intended to provide African businesses, citizens as well as governments with efficient and affordable access to electronic commerce platforms.

“… And provide each country with the ability to increase tourism and SME sector revenues without incurring the high costs charged by existing third party platforms residing outside of Africa,” he said.

In addition, he said, the project could secure e-Tourism transactions by creating an Escrow account that would hold the payment until the customer was satisfied.

He explained that the project is a joint partnership between African and international investors initially targeting the tourism sector but broad in scope to cater for the SMEs in other non-tourism sectors that do not have the resources to market and conduct electronic commerce through the Internet independently.

He stressed that it is intended that African entities would hold the majority of shares in the venture, noting that NEPAD e-Africa Commission has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) to support the design, development and roll-out of the gateway. 

As said by him, the cost of deploying this payment gateway is about USD 100 million, and is estimated  to be more economical than if each country was to design and implement its own gateway.

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Beckstrom appointed ICANN’s president

FORMER United States’ cybersecurity official, Mr. Rod Beckstrom, is to replace Dr Paul Twomey, as the president and chief executive officer of the global internet coordinating agency, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), reports REMMY NWEKE & CHARLES OKOH.

ITRealms Online recalls that it was at ICANN’s 34th International Public Meeting in Mexico City, last March that Dr. Twomey state publicly he advised ICANN’s Board of Directors of his intension of not seeking renewal of the contract at the end of 2009.

Twomey was named CEO and President in 2003, after serving for four years as the Chairman of ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC).

Announcing the latest appointment last weekend at the Australian meeting of ICANN, board chairman, Mr. Peter Dengate Thrush, said Mr. Beckstrom has strong personal and technical background that ICANN needs.

Beckstrom, who received his MBA from Stanford University, has served on the boards of several nonprofit groups and written four books, but was notable for his role as the director of U.S. National Cybersecurity Center (NCSC) where his impact was reported to have been massively felt.

As head of the federal center, Mr. Beckstrom oversaw a large, disparate agency spanning civilian, military and intelligence communities. He resigned his government role in March after complaining of meddlesomeness from the National Security Agency (NSA) and refused to subjugate NCSC under NSA.

However, Beckstrom’s emergence as a replacement for ICANN’s Paul Twomey has been receiving favorable statements from Information and Communication Technology (ICT) stakeholders.

Vint Cert, who is considered to be the “father” of the Internet, said in a statement “Rod Beckstrom is strikingly well-prepared to undertake a new role as CEO of ICANN.

His experience in industry and government equip him for this global and very challenging job.”

Beckstrom is an “outstanding choice to head ICANN. He understands people, institutions, and technology.”

The executive director, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), Marc Rotenberg, said Beckstrom recognizes both the potential and the challenges of ICANN.

“And has stood up for the civil liberties of Internet users with courage and foresight,” he said.

ICANN has been criticized over the years for a host of reasons, including internal squabbles, the fees it levies, and the perceived shroud of secrecy under which it operates.

Last year, ICANN proposed new rules for Internet names that would expand suffixes beyond the familiar .com, .net, and .org domains. The proposal worried many who thought it would lead to confusion on the Internet.

But Beckstrom’s comments upon his appointment reflected faith in the organization.

“The Internet has changed the way the world communicates and conducts commerce,” Beckstrom said at a press conference in Sydney, stressing that in no small way, the multi-stakeholder, bottom-up organization will continue to be at the core of the Internet’s ongoing evolution.

“Quite simply, the proof that ICANN works, is that the Internet works,” he asserted.

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CNP road show to storm 15 cities

Computerize Nigeria Project (CNP) has commenced a nationwide road show of its 750,000 Laptops project, slated to storm 15 cities and designed to bring immediate and permanent relief to computer users across the country.

Head of Special Projects, Computerize Nigeria Project, Mrs. Loretta Agbakoba said that the road show which comes in two phases, would ensure a truly national participation in the recently launched 750,000 Laptops Project for Nigerians.

As said by her, most state capitals are on the route of this road show but in particular the road show is storming Uyo, Yenagoa, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, Calabar, Abuja, Owerri, Enugu, Ibadan and Akure. Other cities include Jos, Kano, Benin, Asaba, and Lagos.

Mrs. Agbakoba also said that the road show was a direct response to the numerous enquiries that the CNP has received since the launch of the 750,000 Laptops Project.

She described the road show as patriotic in its reach and comprehensive in offer, stressing that CNP was reaching out to the working class and small businesses in the country, in a way that has never been done before, mostly with the 750,000 laptops promo.

“This road show is loaded with computer ownership incentives to empower civil servants; federal, state and local governments, staff of organized private sector, military and para-military organizations, students as well as staff of educational institutions and cooperatives.

She further said that the road show was comprehensive in its offer because for the first time in the history of IT marketing in Nigeria, major IT brands Zinox, Acer, HP and Toshiba, embark on direct marketing of single promo to ease out the problems of computer acquisition.

She pointed out that all the bottlenecks, administrative and financial have been deleted and that under the umbrella of the Computerize Nigeria Project, ACER, HP, Toshiba, and Zinox are offering to computer users, prices hitherto unmatched for high quality and durable laptops, beginning from N55,000.00, listing other consumer benefits to include no bank guarantees, thus bringing an end to the tedious documentation and rigmarole that have frustrated many citizens.

Laptop users, she said, would easily enjoy value for money whether they pay in cash or take advantage of the flexible payment terms, with interests below bank prevailing rates. “The major objective of this road show is to bring IT equipment with favourable terms of purchase and juicy ownership benefits to the doorsteps of our target – this time workers at all levels of human endeavour in Nigeria,” she said.

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Second Life gets virtual guide dog

Online virtual world otherwise known as ‘Second Life’ has introduced its own virtual guide dog in order to help the blind and partially sighted people use the site, reports Nomensa.

Second Life is a free online virtual world imagined and created by its residents; from the moment one enters Second Life, it is possible to discover a fast-growing digital world filled with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity.

A free Third Dimension (3D) virtual world imagined and created by way of downloading and installing the Second Life viewer. Once installed, users will be able to walk, “teleport” or even fly to thousands of exciting 3D locations. Usage of voice and text chat to communicate with other real people from around the world is viable.

The virtual dog is a German Shepherd called Max and will assist users with visual impairment to navigate the global community.

The chief executive of Guide Dogs, Bridget Warr, said the dog is keyboard controlled and simulates the experience of the ‘real world’, listening to sound and other messages to find its bearings, thus making users who are unable to see the screen to still be able to interact in the virtual world.

Max, according to Warr, is a complete problem solver designed to help people with sight loss navigate by giving the user constant feedback about the surrounding area hence, like a real guide dog, it helps users to avoid crashing into other people and objects.

Equally, she said, that the guide dog assists in navigating through the virtual world by reading messages and information using text to speech technology.

“This is a significant technological development, meaning blind and partially sighted people now have greater mobility and enhanced vision in the virtual world.
Max is one clever dog, opening up new opportunities for those with sight loss,” Warr said.

Emphasizing that Max is free to use, and was launched on Second Life on June 20, 2009, with a ‘Vision Quest’, which was designed to help participants experience what it’s like to work with a guide dog and to write stories about those experiences.

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Know your Skype end user license (14)

SendING of any unsolicited commercial communication not permitted by applicable law; (d) expose any third party to material which is offensive, harmful to minors, indecent or otherwise objectionable in any way; (e) use the Skype Software to cause or intend to cause embarrassment or distress to, or to threaten, harass or invade the privacy of, any third party; or (f) use any material or content that is subject to any third party proprietary rights, unless you have a license or permission from the owner of such rights.

4.2 Representations: You represent and warrant that You are authorized to enter into and comply with the Terms.

Furthermore, You represent and warrant that You will at any and all times meet with Your obligations under the Terms, as well as any and all laws, regulations and policies that may apply to the use of the Skype Software and/or the Skype Services.

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Glo-1 to induce internet revolution – Olajide

The landing of the much-awaited Glo-1 submarine cable in the country is expected to crash cost of bandwidth and induce a new wave of internet revolution.

Head, Network Operations at the Globacom Limited, Mr. Aremu Olajide, gave this insight in a parley with newsmen, last weekend in Lagos.

He said that beginning from September through October, when Glo-1 must have gone commercial, and its fibre optic cable fully completed that it would encourage diffusion of internet in the country.

Olajide also predicted that the landing of the Glo-1 in Lagos shore in August will spur a crash in cost of bandwidth from its present price of about $72,000 to about $7000.

According to him, provision of infrastructure like the submarine cable, Glo-1, and other fibre links nationwide is mainly because the operator is determined to reposition Nigeria in terms of telecommunications development and services.

“As Nigerians, Glo is doing it and we believe we can do it,” he declared.
Equally he foresee that collaboration between Fixed wireline operators in the country, could boost internet at homes, noting however, that fixed wireline is a very difficult aspect of investment in telecom sector.

“Fixed line when activated will pave way for internet revolution,” he asserted.

Olajide explained that 15 to 16 million subscribers are currently making calls on the network, while its present active subscriber-base is in the neighbourhood of 20 million whereas the network has capacity for 35 million subscribers.

“… They are those making calls daily and we have capacity for 35 million,” he said.
Maintaining that Glo is resolute on crashing tariff further, having initiated the same step a few years back through its international call rates and even gateway services abroad.

Speaking on its recent cable cut in Lekki by the Lekki Construction Company, he said that although some of Glo cables were affected, but a self-healing fibre optic.

This is coming as Glo has restated its interest in the first national operator and moribund Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), whenever the bid opens.

Despite the fact that Globacom was initially licensed as SNO to checkmate the inability of NITEL and thus spur activities in the organization, which has so far failed culminating in various attempts to dispose NITEL at all cost.

Reaffirming its disposition to bid for NITEL in spite of the plans by the Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE) to unbundle the organization into about five subsidiaries, Globacom said that if given the opportunity to buy NITEL, it is ready to turn it around.

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Jinny boosts Zain’s ROI with ringback tones

Leading supplier of personalised messaging and media processing platforms to mobile network operators, Jinny Software, has delivered to Zain Africa a ringback tone server that boosted is Return on Investment (ROI) within 10 days of completion, even as eight per cent of subscribers hooked to ringback tones within one month.

ITRealms Online recalls that Third Generation (3G) mobile operator, Zain Nigeria, in early 2008 sealed a deal with Dublin-based Jinny Software Limited to deliver ringback tones and Voice Short Messaging Services (VSMS) to its teeming subscribers, according to the regional director, Middle East, Africa and Asia (MEAA) at Jinny Software Limited, Mr. Aniket Deuskar, who disclosed this at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona-Spain to our correspondent.

A press statement made available to ITRealms Online by Jinny Software indicated that the initial 8 per cent uptake by the 4.5-million subscriber base on the continent, meant the operator was able to re-coup initial capital outlay, rapidly, within a 10-day period, through additional revenues generated from Ringback Tone subscriptions and tones purchased from its stable.

Officials of Jinny also said that the service allows mobile subscribers to reflect their personality by setting a preferred Ringback Tone for callers to hear before their call is answered.

“It replaces the normal ringtone heard when placing a call to someone, with a popular ringtone, a sound-clip, or a self-recorded message,” part of the statement read.

Navigation through the system, the official said, is guided by a free-to-access interactive voice response (IVR) system, which allows subscribers to subscribe, unsubscribe, dedicate, replace, record, personalise and manage their music box and assign different ring tones to different caller identity, even as it could be effect through Short Messaging Service (SMS). 

After only one year from service launch, the Zain Group operator currently has 450,000 active subscribers to the Ringback Tone service, representing 10 per cent of its total subscriber base.

“Subscription to the service is charged on a monthly basis and costs approximately US$0.45 per month. Each song or tone purchased costs US$0.45 and lasts for 60 days and renewal cost per song/tone is US$0.45,” Jinny official said.

While content is organised into eight different categories of ringback tones, including top ten, local language tones, Middle East-specific tones such as Islamic, Arabic and Khaliji tones, English tones, as well as a variety of other content.

“The availability of local language and Arabic content is of crucial importance to the success of this service and drives Ringback Tone content sales. The operator sells, on average, 300,000 tones each month,” they said.

Additionally, Jinny official said that the Ringback Tone solution was initially set up to support a small subscriber base, but quickly grew to support the rapidly increased service demand.

“The modular structure of Jinny’s Ringback Tone solution means that any additional capacity requirement can be supported by adding additional media gateways, as and when required,” he said.

ITRealms Online recalls that Jinny Software signed a framework agreement earlier in 2008 to become the preferred supplier of Ringback Tone Servers to the Zain Group in Africa and across the Middle East, following a very detailed technical and commercial evaluation.

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