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Zain to boost rural communications
under deal with Motorola
Zain
in Nigeria announced during the week
that it has gone into a network
expansion contract with Motorola Inc
of USA to expand the coverage,
capacity and service quality of its
existing GSM network. The company
holds 25% share of the mobile
market.
A million download Nokia’s navigation software
It would appear that the premonition that in 2010 mobile operators will make small steps towards a de facto functional separation in order to position themselves to address the demand for third party connected devices and applications is running true to form. Operators understand that unless they give full autonomy to wholesale units, they will be too slow to fully address the undeniable and sizeable opportunities that exist in the market.
Just over a fortnight ago, Nokia launched its free global walk and drive satellite navigation for Nokia smartphones - Ovi maps - which includes voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation and a bunch of other smart sat-nav talents, initially covering 74 countries in 46 languages.
No sooner had Nokia pulled the dust sheet off development, it reported that an astonishing 1.4m people have downloaded Ovi Maps since the application became available on January 21 2010 and has been most popular in China, Italy, the UK, Germany and Spain.
‘We're averaging a download a second, 24 hours a day,’ said Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia's executive vice president. He said that the demand for location-based software was growing more quickly than the company had anticipated with research analysts suggesting that Nokia has 39% of the global smartphone market.
Nokia has also announced it was making free sat-nav immediately available to heaps of existing devices and a staple ingredient in all top-end Nokia handsets from here on in.
It is not all good as this development from both Nokia and Google offering free-to-download navigation services, is putting pressure on the sat-nav industry.
Dutch satellite company Nav4All announced that it is shutting down after its contract with Nokia subsidiary Navteq, a digital mapping company, was not renewed.
GOOGLE forges alliance with NSA on cyber-security
On the heels of Google’s announcement in January that its systems had been hacked, the Company is reported to be negotiating an agreement with America’s National Security Agency, admitted by observers to be the body with the most competent experts and resources on information security, to investigate the recent attacks on it originating from China, and help design better security for its network. Sources say the deal intends to fashion out a way to obtain the best security for its network without compromising its users’ privacy agreements. The NSA is America’s primary communications surveillance, intelligence and spy agency.
Predictably the NSA is said to be keeping mum on the negotiations, only reiterating its broader role in protecting both public and commercial ICT infrastructure in the US via its “Information Assurance” mandate.
Calls have of recent gone out on the need to protect critical and commercial infrastructure from increasing hacker threats. The Google-NSA deal will raise concern among privacy groups, but most analysts believe Google is not likely to permit state security snoopers to get more access to its servers than they need to secure them.
NAFDAC exploits ICT to check fake drugs
National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) is taking advantage of mobile text-messaging technology in the fight against fake drugs, and has introduced a drug verification system, that allows users to text product codes to an SMS short code, and receive instant verification of the products authenticity, or an alert if it is fake.
Branded the Mobile Anti-Counterfeit System (MAS), the system permits users to enquire right from the point of sale, by texting a product-specific twelve-digit code which will soon be included in the packaging of pharmaceuticals sold in Nigeria, to “38353”, via their mobile phones. They would immediately receive a confirmatory response from the System. The service is presently available on the MTN, Glo and Zain networks.
The verification service does not yet extend to all drugs in the market, but the DG of the regulatory agency, Dr Paul Orhii, has pledged that with the success of a pilot test of the system, it will soon incorporate all drugs on sale in Nigeria, and go a long way in empowering the public in the fight against drug counterfeiters
Campaign for the unsung heroes of ‘The Computer’
The names Bill Gates or Steve Jobs have become synonymous with IT and huge success. The names Larry Page and Sergey may not register with most but the name Google certainly does. The name ‘Sir Tim Berners-Lee’ may even mean less even though he invented the World Wide Web.
The works of these men was pre-dated by two equally colossal names Bill Tutte and Tommy Flowers, who for reasons of Official secrecy, had been denied due recognition as pioneers of the modern computer according to Captain f Jerry Roberts, the last surviving member of the Testery, part of Station X, Bletchley Park's code-breaking operation of the Second World War.
Bletchley Park is internationally renowned for the work done on cracking the German codes and helping to bring World War II to an end sooner than it might otherwise have. Most of this work was attributable to the ‘Colossus’ the machine that arguably had the greatest influence in those early days of computing.
The Colossus was made by Tommy Flowers – a Post Office engineer and he could not have built his machine without the astonishing work of Cambridge mathematician Bill Tutte.
Roberts, now in his 90th year, has embarked on a publicity campaign in anticipation that the two men are given their rightful place not just in the history of computers but in history full stop.
‘Bill Tutte was a most astonishingly brilliant man,’ says Roberts. ‘He was a 24-year-old mathematician, and by sheer iron logic he worked out how the [German high command's Lorenz cipher] system worked.’
On their both men’s contribution, he said, ‘When you consider there were three levels of encryption, it was an extraordinary performance. It has even been called the outstanding mental feat of the last century.’
On both men’s place in history – specifically computer history, Roberts said, ‘If there had not been Bill Tutte, there would not have been any need for Tommy Flowers. The computer would have happened later. Much later.’
Perish the thought.
Windows 7 delivers for Microsoft
After much scepticism and with rumours aplenty about its demise, Windows7 seems to have restored the fortunes and reputation of Microsft who announced a 60% increase in profits in its second financial quarter as a result of strong consumer demand.
The news comes on the back of a torrid 2009 for Microsoft who had spent a considerable amount of time fighting one legal battle or another and a far cry from complaints and comments on internet forums about the "black screen of death" as well as an acknowledgement downloading problems associated with Windows7 at its inception.
In its latest financial quarter Microsoft Corp. made a $6.6bn profit with a 14% rise in revenues, which reached $19bn compared with 11% shrink in profits and a redundancy programme – it’s first ever - the same quarter last year.
Regardless of the encouraging figures, Microsoft announced that businesses are still holding back investment perhaps reflecting the fragility of the global economic recovery.
Microsoft’s CFO Peter Klein said ‘These results were driven in large part by strong consumer demand for Windows 7 in PCs.’ He went on to say ‘While consumer demand remains healthy, we have not seen a return to enterprise spending growth.’
Are telephone operators heading for the courts?
By the account of a section of the media, mobile telephone operators who deploy GSM standard may head for the courts, if they have not done so already, to prevent the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC from implementing recent directive on SIM Card registration. It is also reported that the NCC has remained resolute on implementing the directive as earlier given.
It is not clear how a process that manifestly went through a wide consultation process ended up in such a near show down.
Though not entirely unexpected, telephone operators would normally rise against any intervention that is capable of reducing their margin or market claim. And this particular intervention is capable of doing just that especially to those whose service quality has been unimpressive but who relied on hype to sustain their status within the market. Their resort to court will not be a new matter either since they have always risen against almost all interventions but have also serially lost such cases in court.
There is truly an indication of insufficient public information (public, not operator) on the process of this particular intervention of SIM card registration and a few of the implementation modalities may deserve either a review or an explanation from the regulator how the process, as designed, would produce the best results.
Operators argue that the time allocated to completion of the SIM card registration is inadequate just as they do not feel comfortable with the third party arrangement by which the regulatory authorities desire to document subscribers’ information. Even the registration requirement on the intending registrant is asking for a leg and an arm.
It will be expected that NCC may have to either explain things better or review some of the announced processes for successful implementation of this otherwise desirable intervention if its objectives are to be quickly realized. Failure to do that may encourage both the operators and the consumers to cooperate and that will not help implementation.
The recourse to court of course does not promise a good end for the operators since as history would show, they are still dealing with a regulator that is strong on adhering to the law and against whom court cases will not be any meaningful threat.
It is also understood that the operators are on their way to the Presidency to file a protest.
That may help them since they will be dealing with folks that are low on keeping to the law. They may get a waver of the directive but will meet their waterloo after they would have poisoned the water in which they are fishing. A government that has no head is the one they will be dealing with at this moment.
Is Microsoft taking the smartphone challenge?
The rumours are building that Microsoft is set to launch a smart phone at next month’s Mobile World Congress in San Francisco. Katherine Egbert, a financial analyst at Jefferies had earlier predicted the possibility mid-January, and now a technology analyst has revealed that he found set-up and driver files within his newly updated Zune MP3 software, that indicated possible phone call capabilities. Zune is Microsoft’s answer to the iPod. Microsoft has kept mum on the speculation.
Egbert had predicted a high definition screen and built-in camera for the device, which most certainly will retain MP3 and mobile app capabilities. Microsoft is soon to launch Windows Mobile 7, with better touch screen interface, to reverse its downward falling share of the smartphone OS market (7.9%, 3rd Qrt, 2009, 20% down from Qrt 1 figure). A Zune phone should give it a platform to demonstrate the new systems capabilities, as well as a foothold in the growing smartphone market, of which Google has been the latest high profile entrant, with the Nexus One.
Apple unveil its tablet, calls it iPad
Apple has unveiled the iPad – its new 9.7inch multi touch display device that allows users to type, manipulate pictures and control the action in games with their fingers.
At the launch event in San Francisco, Apple CEO Steve Jobs described the iPad which looks like a large iphone as a ‘third category’ device – a cross between smartphones and laptops. The device which according to Jobs is extraordinary and allows you to ‘hold the web in your hands’ is available in 16-gigabyte, 32-gigabyte and 64-gigabyte versions costing 499, 599 and 699 respectively in the US.
The iPad represents the second coming of the tablet computer. Microsoft introduced it unsuccessfully back in 2001 but analysts say with advancement in touch screen and wireless technologies, Apple has produced a ‘winning’ product which could potentially reverse the fortunes of the tablet PC industry.
Apple has already done a deal with the top publishing houses to allow e-books to be directly downloaded to the device.
However some industry analysts have given the iPad a cautious welcome questioning the need for another category of device and how it fits into a saturated and cut-throat competitive market of laptops, smartphones and notebooks.
In the Philippines,
Broadband may go 10 times faster in five years
Internet service providers in the Philippines have said that the demand for high speed broadband by Philipinos has been so encouraging that they expect to record speed in excess of ten times current speed in the next five years.
The growth pattern of broadband internet access is comparable to what has been happening to telephone growth of the late 90’s and early 2000. One service provider is reported to have emphatically said he ‘wouldn’t be surprised if, in five to ten years from now, broadband connection speeds would be at 5- to 10 megabytes per second (mbps) for every user.”
All these are happening at a time when several emerging economies are yet to define the lower threshold of broadband internet speed let alone their governments making investment that can bring high sped internet to all citizens.
ITAN appoints Oluwole Owolabi as COO
ITAN, the Information Technology Association of Nigeria announced recently the appointment of Mr. Oluwole Owolabi as its Chief Operating Officer and Head of World Information Technology Service Alliance’s Africa Regional Secretariat.
Mr. Owolabi a certified technical solution architect with very strong systems management background comes into his present position with vast proven technical experience and a reputation as an astute administrator and visionary.Ericsson ‘smarting’ from the effect of Smartphones
Amidst various reports of success in the launch of touch-screen smartphones , it is easy to overlook the casualties of this development.. One such giant feeling the pinch is Ericsson who will sack 600 workers at its chip-making unit in addition to 2,500 cuts to its mobile phone division following combined losses of almost €1.4bn for 2009.
Sales by the beleaguered company - Sony Ericsson, the 50:50 mobile phone joint venture, collapsed 40% precipitated by faster-than-expected sales of smartphones according to the firm's president, Bert Nordberg. It posted a loss of €837m compared to a loss of €73m in 2008. He forecast tough times ahead saying "2010 will still be challenging as the full benefit of cost improvements will not impact results until the second half of the year. However, we are confident that our business is on the right track,"
In another joint venture with STMicroelectronics - ST-Ericsson - Ericsson, lost €539m for the year despite becoming the market leader by selling more than 6.5 million chip sets to China. In recognition of the changing landscape in the realm of handset manufacturing, ST-Ericsson president and CEO Gilles Delfassy said ‘The mobile platform has now become the convergence point for most consumer electronics, changing consumers' lives and opening up new opportunities even outside the traditional handset market,’
While Sony Ericsson hopes to return to profitability by establishing an entertainment brand based on a portfolio of mid- and high-end products, such as the recently announced Android-based phone, the Xperia X10, ST-Ericsson hopes to deploy its expertise in modems and multimedia processing to achieve the same objective.
Clinton Fires at China on web censorship
Mrs. Hilary Clinton derided Chinese authorities last Friday when she told the officials there who have been at censorship war with Google that those who terrorize on the web must be made to face the music.
Chinese officials responded saying what they demanded from web users is respect for their own tradition and culture and it is not America’s business to constitute itself into the world’s teachers of its own genre of development.
Microsoft makes amends on Explorer
Having reported last week that the German government had issued a warning against Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE), and with reports that France has echoed calls for web users to find an alternative to protect security, Microsoft has released a fix for a hole in Internet Explorer that was the weak link in a "sophisticated and targeted" cyber attack on Google.
Certa, a French government agency that oversees cyber threats, following the German’s Federal Office for Information Security’s announcement also warned against using all versions of the web browser.
Microsoft recommended the patch - MS10-002 – which was released worldwide at 1000 PST (1800 GMT) saying that once installed, will protect customers against the widely publicised attacks. Microsoft normally issues patches monthly but the high-profile nature of the attacks has led to a prompt response.
The action curiously comes on the back of Microsoft’s protestation that calls to change browsers were "not very helpful" and its defence offered by its head of security and privacy Cliff Evans told BBC News that the risk is that sparked this warning was minimal asserting IE8 was the "most secure browser on the market".
Who has copied who?
Kodak goes for serial litigation
Buoyed by its victory over Samsung, camera maker Kodak has now filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging that Apple and Research in Motion (RIM) makers of the i-phone and blackberry infringed on its patented technologies for previewing pictures on their handsets.
By taking action, Kodak hopes the ITC will rule that Apple and RIM desist from shipping the phones and pay them royalties for the use of the technology.
Laura G. Quatela, Chief Intellectual Property Officer, and Vice President, Eastman Kodak Company. said "In the case of Apple and RIM, we've had discussions for years with both companies in an attempt to resolve this issue amicably, and we have not been able to reach a satisfactory agreement. In light of that, we are taking this action to ensure that we protect the interests of our shareholders and the existing licensees of our technology",
The ball is now in the ITC’s court to decide who has copied who.
MTN Hails SIM Card Registration
The Chief Executive Officer of MTN, Mr. Ahmad Farroukh, is quoted by newspapers to have hailed the planned SIM card registration which NCC directed to take effect from March 2010.
According to a report in Daily Independent newspaper, Farrouk said “With SIM registration, operators will be able to know their customers better. We will know with more exactitude the demographic distribution of our customers. That will help us to plan better and serve them better; it will aid the implementation of the much expected mobile money, for instance”.
That is also amidst fears of MTN officials that few other details about the new directive need a rework. A short implementation time, involvement of a third party in the registration process, inadequate public education and review of subscriber identification requirements are some issues that spokesmen for operators and consumer advocates have brought to the public domain.
Apple is out with new SLATE computer
Apple Inc., the Cupertino, California company has created a new touch screen SLATE computer and invited the world to its launch on January 27, 2010 at San Francisco.
NCC revokes two licenses
For failing to commence operations in contravention of the provision of the conditions attached to their licenses, the Nigerian Communications Commission has revoked the Interconnect Exchange Licenses awarded to two licensees with effect from January 7, 2010. They are:
- Integrated Wireless Technologies Nigeria Limited
- Telexchange Services Limited
Germany warns against Internet Explorer
A few weeks into the new year, Microsoft’s problems have already begun. In an unprecedented move that will undoubtedly rile those wary of government intervention in business, the German government has warned web users to find an alternative browser to Internet Explorer to protect security.
Following a somewhat astonishing admission from Microsoft that the weakness of Internet Explorer might have been a contributing factor to spate of recent attacks on Google’s systems, the Federal Office for Information Security decided to go public and issue the warning.
Unsurprisingly Microsoft plays down the threat. In its rejection of the warning, Thomas Baumgaertner, a spokesman for Microsoft in Germany said that while they acknowledged it, they did not agree with it. He said that the attacks were not against general users or consumers on Google and were by ‘highly motivated people with a very specific agenda’. He added that the risk to users was low and that the browsers' increased security setting would prevent any serious risk as the security hole can be shut by setting the browser's security zone to "high", although this limits functionality and blocks many websites.
Some disagree. Graham Cluley of anti-virus firm Sophos, told BBC News that not only did the warning apply to 6, 7 and 8 of the browser, but the instructions on how to exploit the flaw had been posted on the internet.
"This is a vulnerability that was announced in the last couple of days. Microsoft have no patch yet and the implication is that this is the same one that exploited on the attacks on Google earlier this week," he said.
Microsoft customarily releases a security update once a month - the next scheduled patch is the 9th of February. However, a spokesman for Microsoft told BBC News that developers for the firm were trying to fix the problem.
We all await the outcome. Firefox and Chrome perhaps more so than the rest of us.
Technology tools lend a helping hand in Haiti
Following the catastrophic Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti which precipitated the collapse of traditional channels of communication, technology tools are playing a significant role in helping the people in the worst-affected areas of Haiti desperate for information about their loved ones with some familiar tools at their disposal.
The very first images of the scale and devastating effect of the earthquake came from citizens who captured them with mobile phones. Though traditional relief agencies media outlets are compiling missing persons databases, Facebook, via the group "Earthquake Haiti", has been a very effective mode of gathering and disseminating information with more than 160,000 members.
Twitter, via group tagged "#relativesinhaiti", is reported has been flooded with traffic from relatives trying to find out about their loved ones from abroad, while "#rescumehaiti" is being used to direct rescue efforts where trapped survivors have been located.
Contrary to criticisms of its transient nature and the threat it poses to established journalism, new social media is proving its worth in Haiti exemplified by the role of Pierre Cote, a journalist based in Haiti, who has been contacted by a number of news organisations in the wake of the disaster, and who is broadcasting from a studio over the web.
Speaking about his role in communicating the disaster he said, "If I'm not doing it, no one will do it - the traditional media won't do it," he said. "The community need it so for me it's a service to the community to bring it all together."
Satellite networks are diverting resources to provide communications to aid agencies and the military with Inmarsat, a UK-based firm that operates a network of satellites has begun re-allocating satellite time to the region.
Another web-based tool deployed is Ushahidi which provides an open-source, free service which can overlay maps of affected regions with data gathered from a multitude of sources. Such maps are useful in, for instance, where assistance is required or where infrastructure has been destroyed and in particular instance, where there is a high probability of an occurrence of aftershocks.
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