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Editions 171
- 200
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 200
Clearing House for Telecom Firms Emerges
Nigeria's first clearing house for telecoms operators
has been commissioned. Interconnect Clearing House
Nigeria Limited, an innovation in this parts, is set to
help put an end to the various interconnection and
bill-settlement crises that have characterized the
telecoms sector of the economy for years now.
The company will monitor all traffic between operators
and help reconcile accounts for settlement on a monthly
cycle. Six Interconnect Exchange licenses were known to
have been issued by NCC and two are already on the way
to playing in the field.
NITEL:
Continues service roll out; Investors jostle
As the six companies short listed to compete for the
purchase of 51% stock of the carrier jostle for the
juicy offer, NITEL continues to roll out its services
around the country.
Alongside its fixed wireless lines, NITEL's IP-wholesale
service and its dialup Internet services are hot cakes
in the market. In a strategic move to rebuild interest
in its dialup service, NITEL has fixed tariff at N3.25
per minute during peak periods.
National ID
Card for e-commerce?
The Federal Government is proposing to transform the
country's National ID card into an e-commerce tool. In
an innovative thrust to empower Nigerians, the
government has raised two committees to work out the
technicalities for achieving this objective.
Nigerians
wake up to blogging
Years ago, only writers and pressmen published anything.
But with the advent of the Internet came an amazing
potential for anyone to publish virtually anything that
catches his or her fancy for next to nothing - but on
the Net. Blogging is the name. Online publishing is the
game.
While blogging has been going on around the world for
quite a while, the practice is fast catching on her in
Nigeria with various blogs springing up. Usually, these
blogs are maintained by intelligent young Nigerians.
Some of them are just general blogs with posts on the
author's personal life, while others narrow down to
specific issues such as mobile phones, relationships,
and financial intelligence.
If you have something worthwhile to say, now you have a
platform that knows little or no restrictions. Blog!
Nigerians in
Diaspora Pick Development Challenge
The recent Abuja conference on forging partnerships with
and among Nigerians in the Diaspora as a component of
bridging the digital and scientific divides rose with
Nigerian scientists who live abroad bracing to take up
the challenge of reversing perceived downward trends in
national development. A 21-point communiqué, which
emerged out of the conference picks on several issues
most of which are not entirely singing new tunes. In
particular, the papers presented by Nigerians who live
abroad point to the need for many of the authors to seek
better touch with home as many of them were proposing
solution to problems which have since been solved or
which no longer exist.
Ironically many Nigerian ‘Diasporans’ have made more
fundamental contributions in their individual capacities
than they collectively diagnosed at the talkshop. More
than 400 delegates participated in the Conference. A
quarter of that figure might have come home for the epoc
meeting.
Hopefully future editions of the Conference, which
appears to have been decreed by President Obasanjo’s
expressed opinion to include July 25 as annual Diaspora
Day, will have better focus.
The Limits of
Deregulation
In the following essay which is culled from THIS DAY,
Tayo Ajakaiye [ taykaye@yahoo.com ] a leading writer of
telecommunications discusses the disadvantages of
concentrating too many licenses in the hands of a few
individuals
Since the beginning of the present deregulation in the
telecommunications sector of the Nigerian economy, it
has been all applause. The Nigerian Communications
Commission has enjoyed the praise. The Ministry of
Communications has savoured the glory. The federal
government has taken the credit.
Along the line, Nigerians have found life a bit easier.
Telecom access has made life easier. Fewer Nigerians
still, and foreigners too, have been making millions and
millions.
In all these, not many people are looking critically at
our deregulation process. Like who gets what licence. In
Nigeria today, many people rush to the NCC to get
licence. It is only after getting the licence that they
sit down to decide what to do with the licence. The NCC
does not have problems giving anybody the licence
required. The Commission's chief executive, Ernest
Ndukwe had always stated that at NCC they expected the
applicants as businessmen to do their feasibility
studies before applying for licences. Many of them do
not. So, they hang the licences in their offices after
getting them and forfeiting the licence fees. A few
others waste some more millions before deciding that
they have bought the wrong product. Once upon a time,
the NCC insists on a foreign technical partner before
granting a licence. They did for the GSM people. But not
anymore.
It was this policy that partly accounted for the
successful launch of GSM services in Nigeria. Since this
requirement was stopped by the NCC, more licences have
ended up in the cooler than those operated.
Take the FWA licences for instance, a more experienced
foreign technical partner may have been able to advise
some of the licence winners from going ahead to procure
those licences they so excitedly won but so regretfully
abandon. Out of the list of 22, only about two and a
half have launched service. Even Oduatel with all the
millions expended have not made success of its licence.
It had to buy a CDMA licence long after that. A
technical partner may have spotted the uselessness of
its FWA licence in the first instance.
Were the NCC to do a licence audit today, it would
realise that there are so many licences out there lying
idle.
Since the time it has been awarded a fixed wireless
licence, NITEL has not operated that licence once. It
won't operate it till next year when the unified licence
regime takes off.
An operator who spoke with THISDAY Tuesday observed that
it might be okay issuing licences the way NCC does since
the Commission wont be in a position to know which of
the applicants were unserious. He however insisted that
there should be a regular audit of licences so that
those who have nothing on the ground to show for the
length of time they have being in possession of their
licences should be withdrawn and the licences re-awarded
to other serious operators. In any case, what happens to
the kind of rollout conditions given the GSM operators?
The new concern in the industry today is the seeming
willingness of the authorities in allowing the same set
of people who operate core telecom services to provide
telecom support services. The same telecom operator
wants to provide interconnect services and manufacture
recharge cards. Soon, he would also set up a company to
manufacture SIM cards.
If this is allowed, an MTN, for example, could as well
establish a recharge card manufacturing plant in
Nigeria. It has the money. It could then establish a
company and fund it to provide interconnect service. MTN
would then also register another company and get it
ready to take advantage of such a time when the
government would place a ban on the importation of SIM
cards. How would that sound?
That is why there should be a limit to deregulation.
There is something called specialisation. Let there be
specialisation in the telecom industry. Core telecom
operators should be asked to face core service
provisioning. Value-added service providers and support
services providers should also be approved to provide
such services. It goes beyond the issue of expertise.
For that would be the next argument: that if it is the
same set of shareholders that have the capability to
provide the next service, they should be allowed. There
is nothing extraordinary in a value added services that
others cannot provide.
If there is telecom boom in Nigeria, the benefits should
not be enjoyed by only a few people. Let the boom
spread. It doesn't make sense making the same set of
people millionaires and billionaires. Or what is
empowerment all about? Properly defined, it shouldn't be
for just a few. But definitions do change, when greed
sets in. Don't they?
EDUCATION FOR ALL (EFA) IN NIGERIA
BY YEAR 2015?: “E-LEARNING IS THE ANSWER”.[3]
A contribution to CYBERSCHUULNEWS by Adejare Amoo
..contd from CYBERSCHUULSHOUT 25
ADVANTAGES OF E-LEARNING
Cost Effectiveness
It has been discovered that traditional training and
education, as organized at present by both the public
and private sectors, is less cost effective. It is
established that about 40% of the training cost is
currently spent on travels and transportation,
accommodation and lodging, and other non-training
related expenses either on the trainer or on the
trainees. E-learning technology has cut off such cost.
It makes it possible to train so many people within the
same budget through effective cost control. While the
employees’ performance is enhanced, their productivity
consistently improves, resulting in global national
productivity and economic growth.
Flexibility Of Implementation Of Training Programmes
This technology provides flexibility of implementation
of training programmes to cover individual needs while
at work, home or play. It provides for a speedy
implementation of training programmes. Training
programme application is democratized such that the
trainees can work at their own pace , time and place.
The courses include technical training relating to the
workers’ activities, foreign language training, and
knowledge acquisition training. A real time performance
evaluation and assessment is attained. Currently, the
traditional training involves much of mobility of
personnel causing disruption of work flow. The time for
such training is fixed. E-learning technology provides
for learning any where and at any time, such that the
training can be customized to suit the trainees, the
trainer and the employers, which includes the
government. Trainers prepare and control their course
contents without much external specialist intervention.
It simplifies the development of courses with possible
input from all stakeholders.
The World As A Single E-Classroom
Through virtual technology, the world is currently being
reduced to a single classroom Training values are
maximized through customization, flexibility, personal
coaching, regular tracking, and course accreditation as
well as certification by the universities. It provides
for all ages, colour, creed, and gender worldwide. This
technology has the advantage of interactive solutions.
The wealth of benefits associated with it include
exciting, active learning environment, self confidence,
real time evaluation, personalised test and self
assessment, immediate feedback, no paper marking,
multimedia application, customized course control,
accurate statistics on students’, trainers’ and platform
activities, more effective communication, efficient
travel cost reduction, robust technological support,
simple, fast and complete training, and modular forms.
Corporate Optimization Of Human Performance Through
E-Learning
Technology Application
The ethical objectives of corporate bodies today is to
know more, do more and spend less through their work
force at all levels. This can only be achieved through
the optimization of human performance in all their
business processes. They need to tie learning directly
to core business activities. This is possible only
through e-learning technology which provides for wider
audience outreach. The stakeholders are trained online,
covering the employees, shareholders, suppliers,
customers, host communities, and government agencies
among others. The technology provides for corporate
application which includes corporate induction
programmes with virtual interviews and platforms.
Animated and dynamic 3D words and imageries could be
used to launch new range of products while CD’s are used
to disseminate information and educational instructions.
Training programmes cover all aspects of the
organization.
Extending e-learning technology application to all
stakeholders is a competitive strategy with achievable
advantage. Extensible and configurable e-learning
technology application enables organizations to
personalise the user interface at the levels of
function, location, site, organization, responsibility,
and user. The technology enables organizations to share
unified information across the company to facilitate
smarter decisions with better information while
promoting effective and efficient scheduling and
resource management..
Effective Learning Management System
...to be continued
Engr. Adejare AMOO ceemind@excite.com is a Lagos based
Energy and IT Education Consultant .
RE: TODAY'S MOBILE EXECUTIVES
Prof. Augustine odinma raised a number of points in
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 250705-198 with respect to an earlier
contribution I made [TODAY'S MOBILE EXECUTIVES ] and a
report of a mobile data survey conducted on my site
www.gosmartmobile.com
Indeed the professor is 100% correct when he wrote that
"GPRS can be charged as a flat rate as well and it is
not necessarily true that CDMA charges are flat. That
depends on who is doing the charges or the operator's
method of billing. The charges are a billing issue and a
technology issue. Whether the operator is a GSM or CDMA
operator that does not determine whether it should be
flat rate or not".
Unfortunately, the reality on ground is that the
majority of CDMA networks around the world and all of
them here in Nigeria chose (whether by a deliberate
consensus or by simply going with the Joneses) to bill a
flat monthly rate.
In a similar vein, the majority of GPRS networks around
the world, again including Nigeria, also for whatever
reasons chose to bill per data transferred.
My tips were given with these existing realities in
view. In the end, that's all it boils down to with the
man on the street: the realities on ground. There was no
point giving tips based on what can be rather than what
is.
Prof. Odinma also wrote concerning the results of the
survey on data tariffs, "If you had a national CDMA
operator in Nigeria, the operator is likely to charge
the N42 or so that other operators charge per minute...
I do agree with assertion that the GSM services are over
priced in Nigeria, but you do not have a national CDMA
operator in Nigeria to compare with".
I quote from the report he refers to:
"In a recent survey by GoSmartMobile.com, 90% of
respondents on GSM networks also say that GSM data
services are over-priced and that they would be willing
to cross over to a CDMA network offering better data
tariffs. While CDMA subscribers were firm in their
conviction that they preferred their network's data
charges to those of GSM networks, they also indicated
that they were still not very comfortable with the
tariffs".
For the records, the survey in question was about mobile
data services, and specifically a comparison between
data services based on CDMA and GPRS platforms. Prof.
Odinma seems to have missed this vital point. Were the
survey had been about a comparison between GSM and CDMA
voice, the Professor's position would be water-tight.
Having said that, I respect, commend and appreciate
Prof. Odinma's efforts at bringing further clarity to
the issues in question for the benefit of all
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 199
ICT SOLUTIONS: HOW AFFORDABLE IS AFFORDABLE?
Almost on a daily basis, the media is flushed with one
advert or the other offering "affordable" Information
and Communications Technology services and solutions.
The increase in interest in ICT is a welcome
development, as is the initiative of enterprising
individuals and businesses who are rising up to the
challenge of providing these much-needed services.
What can be a little amusing is how often those services
tagged "affordable" are not quite as pocket-friendly as
they have been touted.
Take the PC and internet access. These two are vital to
the successful implementation of ICT in today's world.
The average "affordable" basic Pentium 233 PC in the
market costs around N40,000. In a country where over 80%
of the population earn well below N10,000 monthly, the
affordability of the PC is suspect.
The most affordable internet access solutions are
arguably those offered by PTOs and advanced GSM
networks. But even these can be afforded by only a tiny
section of the population. The cheapest internet access
plan on any of the PTOs costs N3,000 per month. Again, a
not-so-affordable fee to a majority of the populace.
Several factors are responsible for this "restricted
affordability". On the list are: epileptic power supply,
alongside other inadequate infrastructure; high
government taxes; steep interest rates on loans; and a
couple other factors. At the bottom of the list will be
found the lack of foresight by service providers.
Many times, ICT is a game of numbers. There are
situations where providers can drop their fees/tariffs
in order to amass a critical mass of subscribers or
users that will generate the kind of profitability that
will see the providers smiling to the banks.
Whatever the arguments, it is obvious that the high-end
of the ICT market is well saturated. Those service
providers who want to create new sources of revenue will
need to find innovative ways of harnessing the untapped
potentials of the lower end of the market by introducing
real affordability in the pricing of their services.
Reform of US Telecom Act now real, Nigeria's reform
stalled
Going by recent maneuvers in the US Senate, the push to
further deregulate the U.S. telecommunications market
may soon sail through. It has been long awaited that the
new bill which shall replace the 1966 Act will strip
some of the current federal and state rules for the
delivery of voice, video and data services. Analysts say
it is expected to further level the playing field
between telephone, cable and satellite companies while
opening the door for the delivery of emerging broadband
services. Arrowhead of the reform bill, Senator John
Ensign, believes "Technology is moving forward but
current laws are not."
In Nigeria, the lower house was where the murmuring was
first heard that the new and relatively popular National
Communications Act 2003 was to be reviewed. That was
almost as soon as the current assembly came into life
but the proponents now appear quiet over the issue
especially as they detoured into combing the 'Pentascope'
deal.
Hacker Stops Spammers
An Israeli hacker who got tired of the unsolicited mails
from the Israeli National Institute of standards decided
to put an end to the endless SPAM that was flooding his
mailbox and hacked into the server where the email
database was stored. He then proceeded to delete data,
including access usernames and passwords to the
database. The cheeky fellow finally also changed the
database’s administrative password, locking out the very
owners!
That's one hacker who put his skills to interesting use,
isn't it?
Boost for Nigerian Software Developers
In a concerted effort at developing local content
creation in ICT, software programmers and writers are
being given due recognition and support under the
Nigeria Software Development Initiative, a programme
that seeks to lift the software development industry in
Nigeria. Part of the objectives of NSDI is to ensure
compliance with documentation and standards, as well as
generate greater demand for the services of Nigerians in
software development market.
meanwhile
NITDA'S DG ANNOUNCES VISION
Prof. Cleopas Angaye, Director-General of Nigeria's
National Information Technology Development Agency,
NITDA, has been speaking about his vision for the IT
Industry in Nigeria. He says there would be deliberate
priority attention to standards and regulations,
software development, and development of domestic and
external markets. He also reeled out a list of populist
objectives which are usual components of government
policy statements. These include the development of
State IT Policies, acceleration of e-government,
interconnection of networks [didn't say which networks]
and a facilitation of rural IT penetration and
popularization[ boy, some big words there!!]. He also
said the Agency would facilitate the establishment of
Information Technology Access centers in all the 774
local government areas of the country. Whaoh!!!
Portable 3G Internet Access Service debuts
An ICT firm, Netcom, has launched a portable Internet
access service on a 3G platform in Nigeria. The service
will allow subscribers to connect to the Internet
anywhere within the Netcom network. Named MyNetcom, this
3G service is being rolled out with limited service
coverage in Lagos, and will be extended over time.
States in ICT Development drive
More than 25 states in Nigeria said they have been
building structures and motivating their citizens in the
applications of ICT. Six of them Osun, Plateau, Oyo,
Kano, Kaduna and Delta were at the recent eNigeria
Summit in Abuja where they all reported notable degrees
of success in their IT development efforts. Others who
have also been reported to be doing a few things in this
regard include Ogun, Lagos, and Akwa Ibom States.
V-Mobile declares Sim Pack Free
'....Dear customer, from 1 August, Sim Packs will cost
N0.00. You pay N500, you activate and get N500 FREE
airtime. That's value, because its all about you.....Vmobile,
31 July-2005, 09:35:21...'
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 198
AT STARCOMMS: SMET OUT; BURKE IN
After an excellent 3-year term at Starcomms, Mr Dirk
Smet has resigned his appointment as CEO of Nigeria's
foremost Private Telephone Operator (PTO). he joined
Starcomms in 2002 at the company's humble beginning and
successfully turned around its fortunes skywards. Today
Starcomms is head and shoulder above other PTOs with an
active subscriber base of about 145,000.
He is being replaced by Mr Graham Burke who has been
designated Chief Operating Officer (COO). Burke has very
rich experience with telecoms operators in Asia, the
middle East and Africa. In Africa specifically, he has
consulted for Intercellular, another PTO and is coming
in on the eve of Starcomm's rollout of services in oil
rich Port Harcourt.
ICT TOOLS HELP POLICE
The British police are making progress in their
investigations of the recent bombings in London with the
aid of ICT tools. Closed Circuit Television (CCTV)
cameras at strategic locations around the city recorded
footages that the police are currently reviewing.
Already, a number of suspects have been identified and
are being hunted.
A major demonstration of how 3G CDMA technology can be
used to provide real-time surveillance of the society is
being accomplished in South Africa by a company called
Cueincident, and has helped bring down crime by 80% in
the Johannesburg Central Business District (CBD). With
the help of surveillance cameras linked to a central
monitoring station by CDMA technology, the police are
able to provide amazing quick response to criminal
activities. This has drastically reduced crime in the
area.
E-COMMERCE TAKING OFF IN NIGERIA?
Finally, true e-commerce seems to be finding its roots
in Nigeria. First, it was the laudable attempts of a few
innovative banks and organisations at providing
e-payment services to Nigerians. The off-shoots of those
efforts include: Valucard, SmartCard, FlashMe Cash and
some others. However, these where limited in many ways.
ValuCard depended on physically carrying a card. FlashMe
Cash was a little bit more e , in the sense that you
could pay remotely. however, its limitations lay in the
fact that it was operated on only one bank.
Sometime last year, SmartPay (one of the apostles of
e-payment solutions in the country) also introduced
Naira2u, an online service that enables Nigerians to
make remote payments. The service was welcomed by those
who had longed for an e-payment solution that would open
them up to the international market with enthusiasm.
Naira2u met this need, as all e-payment solutions before
it where strictly limited to transactions within
Nigeria.
Then came news that MasterCard and VISA were showing
interest in Nigeria. At about the same time, GloMobile
announced a mobile-commerce service, Glo m-banking, run
in conjunction with InterSwitch and all the banks
operating on that platform. More universality! But Glo
m-banking is yet to allow for true e-commerce, as the
ability to pay 3rd parties is yet to be launched.
While we await that, MasterCard is finally live and
active in Nigeria, with at least 4 banks issuing real,
universally-accepted cards. Blazing the trail was
Ecobank, and then followed by Standard Trust, and
Zenith. Cards from each of these institutions are
already being used by individuals across the country,
making payments online and also when on trips abroad. It
is expected that more banks will join the fray in
providing not only MasterCard but also VISA and other
global payment solutions in the months ahead.
Finally, e-commerce in the real sense of the word is
beginning to flourish here.
Needed: A New Approach to Customer Support 2
In the first part of this article, Yomi Adegboye
examined the role of Customer Support as provided by
telcos in the emerging data era that Nigeria is
witnessing. In this follow-up by popular demand, he
further drives on the need for operators to do more in
the area of Customer Care.
I was approached online by a gentleman last week. He had
purchased a top-range smartphone, the Sony Ericsson
P910i in order to be able to take advantage of certain
services as advertised by his network operator. As such
one of the first things he did was to take a trip to his
operator's customer care centre to have his new gadget
configured for GPRS usage. However he was in for a
shocker. He was told by the representatives who attended
to him at the Opebi centre he visited that the P910i was
not a PDA and so would not work on their GPRS network.
His protests of disbelief achieved nothing, as one after
another representative affirmed that under no conditions
could the P910i be used for full GPRS Internet access on
the network.
It was a real nightmare to him, but it sounded like a
comedy as he narrated the story to me. I found it
difficult to believe my ears. To put things in
perspective, I had used a Sony Ericsson P800, an older
and less-sophisticated device, in the manner he had been
told was impossible for over 6 months last year.
Anyway, I fixed an appointment with him and we met a few
days later at a restaurant around Ikeja. I had the phone
fully configured under 5 minutes and he was browsing
full websites (not WAP), downloading his office mails
via the built-in mail client and downloading
applications for his phone, all via GPRS Internet.
In near disbelief, he asked, "Is that all to it?"
That scenario has been repeated many times over in the
last few years across different networks, irrespective
of platform.
Most subscribers may never get the opportunity to have a
discussion with the public relations officers of network
operators. But they do interact with Customer Care (CC)
staff everyday. As such, it is imperative that CC staff
represent the company well. That is where adequate
training comes in. CC staff must be trained and
re-trained as much as technical and PR staff are.
Network operators owe this to the teeming subscribers
who put down their hard-earned money to pay for services
the operators have advertised.
On the part of CC staff as individuals, personal
interest must be developed in what they do. For example,
anyone can mention the name of almost any mobile handset
and I can tell them off the bat whether it is GPRS, EDGE
or 3G-enabled. That's the result of personal interest. I
have called my network's customer care line a couple of
times and mentioned my handset to them (I use an average
of 7 different handsets a year, by the way), and the
staff have to place me on hold to find out whether or
not the phone I named was GPRS-enabled or had certain
functionality.
I spoke with a CCS once and she asked to know what
notebook PC I used my Nokia 9500 communicator with for
GPRS Internet service. I told her that I used it as a
standalone device, and in amazement in her voice she
asked to know how that was possible. This was not just
the general Customer Care unit. She belonged to a
specialized unit handling GPRS issues, yet had no idea.
The fast-growing level of competition in the industry
will result in a scenario where reliable customer
support is everything. The operators that can provide
that will stand tall. Already, some subscribers are
learning the art of voting with their money, especially
seeing that it costs next to nothing to get activated on
any rival network these days.
Contributed by 'Yomi Adegboye, CEO of DomainStandard
Networks; editor of GoSmartMobile and a valued friend of
CYBERSCHUULNEWS
RIGHT OF REPLY
RE: TODAY'S MOBILE EXECUTIVES
Nice tips from Yomi Adegboye [CYBERSCHUULNEWS
170705-197]. But, the item 2 is not necessarily true.
GPRS can be charged as a flat rate as well and it is not
necessarily true that CDMA charges are flat. That
depends on who is doing the charges or the operator's
method of billing. The charges are a billing issue and a
technology issue. Whether the operator is a GSM or CDMA
operator that does not determine whether it should be
flat rate or not. I noticed that I read (browed)
something earlier on this issue which suggests that most
of the customers could move to CDMA because of the cost
... That is a misrepresentation!
I found it, the conclusions of the survey. Find it
below:
"In a recent survey by GoSmartMobile.com, 90% of
respondents on GSM networks also say that GSM data
services are over-priced and that they would be willing
to cross over to a CDMA network offering better data
tariffs. While CDMA subscribers were firm in their
conviction that they preferred their network's data
charges to those of GSM networks, they also indicated
that they were still not very comfortable with the
tariffs"
The billing is not a function of the technology. I can
still recall all the hypes about data charges few years
ago and it had nothing to do with technology. In fact,
it was a GSM operator in the US who first offered a flat
rate charge. That was why I said that the technology is
being confused to the way an operator chose to charge
for data or calls. If you had a national CDMA operator
in Nigeria, the operator is likely to charge the N42 or
so that other operators charge per minute.
I do agree with assertion that the GSM services are over
priced in Nigeria, but you do not have a national CDMA
operator in Nigeria to compare with. The survey would
have given the respodees the impression that CDMA
tarrifs are better and hence that conclusion. But, that
is predicated on false premise!
Augustine Odinma
aodinma@yahoo.com
EDUCATION FOR ALL (EFA) IN NIGERIA
BY YEAR 2015?: “E-LEARNING IS THE ANSWER”.
A contribution to CYBERSCHUULNEWS by Adejare Amoo
INTRODUCTION
“Education For All (EFA)” forms part of the “Millennium
Development Goals (MDG’s)” set for African countries to
be accomplished by year 2015. E-learning technology
enables one to acquire complete knowledge, education and
professional competence, using information and
communications technology facilities, without traveling
out of one’s place of living or work. Through the
worldwide embrace of e-learning technology, access to
knowledge now remains permanently available in the
office and other work places, institutions of learning
at all levels and the home.
E-learning involves mixed training, integrating the
online teaching, with the sharing of the available time
between the teacher (trainer) and the students
(trainees). It could be conducted through the in-house
intranet or the open internet, apart from the movable
storage training devices, such as diskette, flash drive
and compact discs (CD), as complements. Though long
established in the 18th century, in principle, as
learning by correspondence, it is a newly developed
learning (training) technology for multi-locational
institutions and organizations, both in the public and
private sectors.
This presentation is therefore made to highlight the
importance of the e-learning technology as the only tool
to make the “Education For All (EFA)” of the African
“Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s)” a reality in
Nigeria, even before the target year 2015.
THE E-LEARN EXPO PARIS 2005
The E-learn Expo Paris 2005 was held on 25th and 26th
January, 2005 in the prestigious Palais des Congres in
Paris, France. It was the fifth in the series of annual
conferences with exhibitions held in Europe and Asia so
far. The slogan for the expo was identified as “see
more, learn more, know more.” This can be associated
with the popular saying about Paris but modified by this
author to read “see Paris and learn”. However, on a more
serious note, the theme for this year’s event was most
appropriately quoted as “e-learning for all.” Sewabeats,
a Swiss-based organization which specialises in running
traditional African drums sessions, colourfully
activated both the opening and closing ceremonies. They
showed that, when managed properly, drumming as a group
activity, and most especially African drumming, is an
insightful and beneficial vehicle of learning.
Participants
There were about 100 different e-learning companies,
about 300 conference delegates, about 5,000 visitors to
the exhibitions and about 40 sponsors. Participants came
from as many as about 50 different countries from all
the continents of the world. Some of the sponsors for
this year’s event included Oracle, Thomas-Netg,
Macromedia, HyperOffice, Global English, Sanako, Eifel,
SchoolMaster and Questionmark, among others.
Mr. Sam Juwe, Executive Director of Computers and Allied
Products Nigeria Limited, supported by Hitachi France,
packaged the event for the Nigerian delegates. Given
that e-learning technology application is at its infancy
stage in Nigeria compared to Europe, Asia and other
developed nations, the response to the call for
participation by the Nigerians was quite functional and
impressive. The nine-member (9) Nigerian delegates
included National Electric Power Authority - NEPA (2),
National University Commission - NUC (1), Ministry of
Science & Technology (1), University of Nigeria Nsukka -
UNN (1), Plateau State Commissioner for Education (1),
Digital Bridge Institute (1), private sector (2 which
include this author).
Contents Of The Expo
The exhibitions covered the platform for e-learning
inputs which include hardware and software. These are
for managing e-learning technology application from
students’ course selection, registration for courses,
courses delivery, tests and quiz, correction and
grading, quality assurance and others. In the
application, provision is made for payments and other
financial transactions and management. The support
materials such as interactive e-learning CD, multimedia
material presentation, e-zines and e-books were on
display.
The interactive lecture sessions were really educative.
The emphasis was on “life-long and life-wide education”
as the cardinal objective of e-learning. Development and
promotion of formal certificate related education and
training, language training, corporate training,
vocational and apprenticeship training, and training to
solve problems associated with end-of-career inactivity
were brought to limelight.
The expo demonstrated that e-learning provides for
people of all ages, race, creed, and gender, making it
possible for them to learn any where and at any time.
APPLICATIONS OF E-LEARNING IN EUROPE
Mass Development of the Citizens
The exhibitions and lectures showed that, at present in
the developed countries , e-learning technology has been
used to develop their citizens at all levels. Primarily,
e-learning was applied to enhance formal education from
the nursery to primary and through secondary schools up
to university level. It covered various subjects with
more emphasis on foreign languages. English has been
recognized as the universal lingua franca and it has
been given a prominent recognition and attention under
e-learning scheme. Practical experience of e-learning
application to education in most European countries such
as Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and
United Kingdom among others, were cited. Facilities used
were demonstrated to the participants.
Government - Private Sector Partnership Initiative in
France
The experience from the French initiative whereby the
private sector has been involved in their e-learning
technology policy delivery was shared with the
participants The participants were informed that since
1971 the French government made it mandatory for
companies to train their employees throughout their
career. This has been stretched further by the Law no.
2004-391 of 4th May 2004 (DIF – Droit Individuel a la
Formation), which provides for individual’s right to
training for life. The law provides for companies with
more than 50 employees to spend 3% of their payroll on
training. It also provides for each employer to give 20
hours of training annually to each employee as a right,
regardless of their categories. Such training could be
outside the place and time of work. This mandatory
20-hour period of training could be accumulated over a
period of six years. There is also a provision which
makes e-learning a valid item in the tax deduction law
on employee training. In 2000, France was reported to
have spent 21.65 billion Euros (about 4 trillion naira)
on vocational and apprenticeship education, representing
1.55% of their GDP. This excludes investment
expenditure. Out of this national expenditure, the
private sector companies spent 9.3 billion Euros (about
1.8 trillion naira) which is about 45%. For the previous
ten years, the companies’ expenditure for this purpose
had been increasing by 4% per annum and leading the
public sector by 12.5% annually.. Both the employers and
the employees are complying with this new law to the
advantage of all the stakeholders. With the
implementation of this law, employees’ performance is
enhanced, while productivity consistently improves,
resulting in increase in multi-dimensional national
productivity and growth for France.
France Applies E-Learning Technology To Prepare The
Citizens For Post Active Life
Realising that the nation’s sportsmen and women had no
adequate time to develop their intellect during their
youthful active national and international sport
programmes, the French government has produced
e-learning programmes for their sportsmen and women,
while in active life. The objective is to make them more
productive at the end of their sports career. This has
been well acclaimed by their sportsmen and women. The
French government has extended this e-learning programme
to their armed forces and police, custom and other field
work personnel. The objective is to promote their career
progressively and provide for their life after loyal and
dedicated active service to their nation.
Private Sector Corporate E-Learning Technology
Application
Most organizations in the developed countries currently
use e-learning technology to disseminate information,
educate and train all their stakeholders on-line. These
beneficiaries include the employees, shareholders,
customers, suppliers, host communities, government
agencies personnel and others. The e-learning programmes
use text, imagery and narration to explain the huge
range and functionality of the companies’ products and
services, as well as their missions, visions and values.
They also provide their staff with desktop reference on
many human resources and career development topics. For
example, Nestle has invested a fortune on their
Corporate Induction e-learning programme. It covers a
virtual library with images and videos of the company’s
product advertisements over the years, while major
sections are devoted to the organisation’s culture, core
values and behaviours. Numerous (editable) links are
provided to the company’s intranet pages and to the web
sites of associate companies. The company has designed
the programme to serve both as an upbeat welcome and as
a continuing source of useful information, education and
training to the entire world. Similarly Dnata, a sister
company to Emirate Airlines has produced a 2-hour module
on ‘Ramp Safety’ covering topics such as personal safety
equipment, lifting techniques, dealing with fires and
working safely around aircrafts. The programme is
produced in well animated Macromedia Flash in six
languages with all content held externally. Experiences
and case studies from Air France, La Poste, the Naval
Forces, Fire Services, and Mega-Plaza Shopping Complex
were shared with the participants.
E-Learning Technology Application To E-Governance
Examples of various initiatives taken by most
governments of the developed countries to inform,
educate and train their citizens at all levels on
government policies, using e-learning technology, were
highlighted during the lecture sessions and exhibitions.
ADVANTAGES OF E-LEARNING
Cost Effectiveness
It has been discovered that traditional training and
education, as organized at present by both the public
and private sectors, is less cost effective. It is
established that about 40% of the training cost is
currently spent on travels and transportation,
accommodation and lodging, and other non-training
related expenses either on the trainer or on the
trainees. E-learning technology has cut off such cost.
It makes it possible to train so many people within the
same budget through effective cost control. While the
employees’ performance is enhanced, their productivity
consistently improves, resulting in global national
productivity and economic growth.
Flexibility Of Implementation Of Training Programmes
This technology provides flexibility of implementation
of training programmes to cover individual needs while
at work, home or play. It provides for a speedy
implementation of training programmes. Training
programme application is democratized such that the
trainees can work at their own pace , time and place.
The courses include technical training relating to the
workers’ activities, foreign language training, and
knowledge acquisition training. A real time performance
evaluation and assessment is attained. Currently, the
traditional training involves much of mobility of
personnel causing disruption of work flow. The time for
such training is fixed. E-learning technology provides
for learning any where and at any time, such that the
training can be customized to suit the trainees, the
trainer and the employers, which includes the
government. Trainers prepare and control their course
contents without much external specialist intervention.
It simplifies the development of courses with possible
input from all stakeholders.
The World As A Single E-Classroom
Through virtual technology, the world is currently being
reduced to a single classroom Training values are
maximized through customization, flexibility, personal
coaching, regular tracking, and course accreditation as
well as certification by the universities. It provides
for all ages, colour, creed, and gender worldwide. This
technology has the advantage of interactive solutions.
The wealth of benefits associated with it include
exciting, active learning environment, self confidence,
real time evaluation, personalised test and self
assessment, immediate feedback, no paper marking,
multimedia application, customized course control,
accurate statistics on students’, trainers’ and platform
activities, more effective communication, efficient
travel cost reduction, robust technological support,
simple, fast and complete training, and modular forms.
Corporate Optimization Of Human Performance Through
E-Learning Technology Application
The ethical objectives of corporate bodies today is to
know more, do more and spend less through their work
force at all levels. This can only be achieved through
the optimization of human performance in all their
business processes. They need to tie learning directly
to core business activities. This is possible only
through e-learning technology which provides for wider
audience outreach. The stakeholders are trained online,
covering the employees, shareholders, suppliers,
customers, host communities, and government agencies
among others. The technology provides for corporate
application which includes corporate induction
programmes with virtual interviews and platforms.
Animated and dynamic 3D words and imageries could be
used to launch new range of products while CD’s are used
to disseminate information and educational instructions.
Training programmes cover all aspects of the
organization. Extending e-learning technology
application to all stakeholders is a competitive
strategy with achievable advantage. Extensible and
configurable e-learning technology application enables
organizations to personalise the user interface at the
levels of function, location, site, organization,
responsibility, and user. The technology enables
organizations to share unified information across the
company to facilitate smarter decisions with better
information while promoting effective and efficient
scheduling and resource management..
Effective Learning Management System
With online continuum, it is established that people
remember 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear,
30% of what they see, 50% of what they hear and see, 70%
of what they say and write, while they remember 90% of
what they do. Hence, since e-learning technology
involves “doing”, through interactive multimedia
environment, all the gates of learning are utilized,
making the student (trainee) achieve more than 90% of
his learning task. The e-learning platform structure
covers the student, the tutor, and the administrator.
With this structure, competency management is
established by setting objectives to cater for
competency inadequacy, corrective course, path,
assessment, and record keeping. Learning path is agreed
through catalogue, learner defined, and tutor (manager)
defined. The programme content is efficiently managed
for reuse, applying unified catalogue through tracks and
multiple ways. Simultaneously, single course with a set
of learning objectives can be offered in multiple ways,
languages, places, and times. Assessment of the learner
and the curriculum can help to validate and tailor the
material to merge more effectively to those company
goals and objectives.
E-Learning Technology Application To Develop Rural
Communities
Building and adequate equipment of e-centers in the
rural community will bring public information, education
and training to the grass root. Some people express the
fear that there would be inadequate power supply to
drive the e-learning project to success in the rural
areas. The national power supply system has been
reorganized with more fund made available to improve its
service delivery performance. Since this system can not
cover all the crannies of Nigeria in its power delivery
programme to meet the e-learning technology
requirements, alternative sources of energy, through
renewable sources of energy, have to be developed to
provide power for e-learning projects implementation.
Life More Abundant For Teachers
The fear that teachers might lose their job is baseless.
The teachers will be trained and retrained in
information and communication technology, while the
teaching profession will be modernized. With appropriate
remuneration policy and practice, more people will be
motivated to join and embrace teaching as its
traditional noble profession.
Urban Migration Reduction
Urban migration will be reduced , since courses relevant
to the locality could be developed for professional,
vocational and apprenticeship competence. For example,
aquaculture courses could be designed for the marine
environment, land related agricultural programmes can be
designed for the landlocked inhabitants, while
diversified textile making technologies could be
introduced in cotton growing area. Vocational and
apprenticeship institutions graduates will be encouraged
to be self employed.
CHALLENGES OF E-LEARNING
It has been identified that much as e-learning
technology is full of promises to all stakeholders, it
has its own inherent challenges. The platform evolution,
in terms of hardware and software development
technology, frequently changes with time and will
require adequate monitoring and updating by all
stakeholders. The course contents have to be adequately
controlled to meet the required norms and standards as
well as the stakeholders’ aspirations. Teachers and
trainers themselves have to be trained and retrained
regularly in the application of e-learning technology.
Appropriate and functional infrastructures have to be
provided to support the application of e-learning
technology. These include computer hardware, software as
well as adequate and regular power supply among others.
Above all, funding is one of the scarce resources which
has to be sourced and made available for e-learning
projects to be successfully delivered. All the
stakeholders in the traditional learning management
system have to accept the need for a change to
complement their effort and gainfully improve their
productivity. The targeted beneficiaries must
voluntarily make themselves available to absorb the new
e-learning technology.
THE FUTURE OF E-LEARNING APPLICATION IN NIGERIA
Continuity Of E-Learning With Prosperous Future
The future of e-learning to cover all facet of learning
activity has been identified. Apart from its positive
contribution to the formal learning environment, it has
been emphasized that the demand for e-learning will
continue to increase. Since learning stops at death,
e-learning is the only provider of “education for life”.
E-learning technology is an apparent cash cow for
investors. E-learning carries a prosperous future for
all through platform development, course content
development, programming, multimedia application, and
other job creation opportunities. It is private sector
investment friendly.
E-Learning Technology Application Solves Inadequate
Supply Of Education Delivery
For Nigeria, the prospective e-learning application
covers the formal education sector, embracing nursery,
primary, and secondary schools, polytechnics and
universities as well as the vocational and
apprenticeship educational institutions. Professor
Jubril Aminu, one time Minister of Education in Nigeria
, recently asserted on a TV interview (vide NTA 7th
March, 2005) that the demand for education in Nigeria is
much in excess of supply. He suggested the adoption of
modern technology as part of the possible solutions.
Definitely, e-learning technology is what the professor
could be considering as the answer to solving such
under-supply of education delivery. Some universities
have already installed computer centers on their
campuses. Microsoft has initiated action in this
direction by providing some secondary schools with
facilities for computer education. Other companies
should take a queue form this. Some state governors such
as Jigawa, Ogun and Lagos have taken the initiative in
this direction. Lagos State Government has computerized
about 140 secondary schools. Some non-governmental and
voluntary organizations such as Rotary Club as well as
some individuals have also embarked on establishment of
computer centers in their communities. More are
required.
E-Learning Technology Application As Panacea To Distance
Leaning Projects
The recently inaugurated open university is a
prospective beneficiary of e-learning technology. The
multi-campus law schools provide positive venue for
e-learning application. This technology is the best
solution for the nomadic education system. The recent
provision of radio facilities to assist in the Normadic
education delivery in Kano state by the Japaneese Agency
is laudable, but it has only 20% efficiency as
established above, e-learning infrastructure will assist
more. This e-learning technology is what the
educationally disadvantaged communities should embrace
to accelerate their sincere effort to fulfill the
nation’s “Education For All” (EFA) by 2015 policy.
Inadequate public enlightenment and relevant education
from the government and the multinational investors form
part of the challenges confronting the vibrant and
energetic youths of most host communities in Nigeria.
Both the government agencies at all levels and the
multinational investors, as well as other employers of
all categories, can individually and/or collectively
build e-learning centers in these communities both for
information dissemination, with feedback, as well as
education and training. All the tertiary levels of
government in Nigeria should spend about 50% of their
portion of the surplus petro - dollar on e-learning
project in their communities. This will successfully
deliver the poverty alleviation programmes, with
physical evidence to the populace.
E-Learning Technology Applied To Health And Social Work
Delivery Programmes
Reduction of child mortality rate, improvement of
maternal health, and combating of HIV/AIDS, malaria,
polio, tuberculusis, cerebral meningitis and other
killer diseases are the health related areas in the
African “Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s)” to be
achieved by 2015. HIV/AIDS and malaria have been
identified as diseases of mass destruction with very
little cure possibilities. The two most important stages
for the development of these diseases are the infection
and transmission. Infection may be through individuals’
act of commission or omission, while transmission is
through mass action. While the cure for these diseases
is limited, their prevention is the most desired and
most readily available to informed citizens. These
preventive actions require adequate information,
training and education for the populace. This is where
e-learning technology comes into play. Through the
animated text and imageries as well as its interactive
display, this technology provides the most efficient and
effective tool of mass instruction to inform, train and
educate citizens on the development and the prevention
of these diseases of mass destruction.
Social vices have been identified as one of the ills of
the Nigerian society, though it has been found not to be
peculiar to the country. Such undesirable activities
include human trafficking, child labour, fraud, social
insecurity, corruption, unsafe behaviours, ethnic and
religious intolerance, social injustice etc. Voluntary
and non-profit as well as non-governmental organizations
have taken the bull by the horn to complement the
various actions by the governments at all levels, to
reduce and even eradicate these vices. With e-learning
technology application, most of these vices will be
reduced and/or eradicated more effectively within a
short while. E-learning simultaneously promotes
individual self-sacrifice and collective interests along
with development of globalization culture. Thus, only
one peaceful virtual world will emerge, which is one of
the key objectives of e-learning technology.
E-Learning Technology Is Local Content Friendly
E-learning technology is about 90% local content
guaranteed in Nigeria. The required hardware could be
sourced locally from such companies as Zinox, Omatek,
Chams, and others. While Zinox has successfully launched
its “Computerise Nigeria Initiative” through its
personal computer (PC) use promotion, Omatek has just
launched its e-Youth Initiative programme. This e-Youth
Initiative programme is spread into e-School Initiative,
e-Home Initiative, e-Teacher Initiative and e-Youth Fun
Initiative. All these are e-learning initiatives
covering all stakeholders and which Omatek will possibly
extend to e-Office, e-Farm, e-Factory and other e-Work
Space Initiative in future. The main thrust of Omatek’s
Initiatives is to partner with other stakeholders in
Nigeria to make computer systems available to an
increasing number of Nigerian youths anywhere and at any
time, thus providing the required platform for
e-learning. Access to internet has evolved from the
initial telephone dial-up technology to VSAT with
companies such as Accellon, Danisat, Junisat, and some
others as pioneers. The VSAT is a big asset to
e-learning technology and should be used to its maximum
advantage. Internet Service Providers (ISP) will have a
herculean task in meeting the demand for their quality
services with e-learning evolution in Nigeria. Such
service providers include Linkserve, Cyberspace, 21st
Century Technology, Spacenet, Atmosphere and others.
E-learning technology involves software programming,
using various tools such as HTML, C++, Java, Visual
Basic and other programming languages, duly enhanced
with Multimedia software such as Flash, Activex, etc.
The Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON)
and the National Software Development Initiative (NSDI)
are on site to provide the much required software for
e-learning in Nigeria. Above all, the recently launched
SAT-3 satellite by the Federal Government of Nigeria is
targeted at facilitating e-learning culture propagation.
E-Learning Technology Contents Development
Learning support materials are abundant in Nigeria but
have to be sourced, analysed and developed for their
suitability for e-learning development. These will
include photographs, video clips, music, and others. The
trained teachers, who will also be computer literate are
at hand to partner with the programmers to provide this
service. Mr Jim Ovia, President of Institute of Software
Producers of Nigeria (ISPON), recently affirmed to
President Obasanjo that the nation could generate half a
trillion naira equivalent annually from exportation of
software developed locally. Such software development
revenue could be realized more from e-learning projects.
Cyberschuul.com is an indigenous private sector
sponsored website that provides training on line with
courses approved by the Nigerian Society of Engineers.
The website also provides facilities to enable their
visitors take external international professional as
well as vocational training and examinations online.
Indirectly, this website has already commenced the
“education–for–life campaign” since most of the
international examinations are progressive in stages and
could be taken anywhere and at anytime. In the recent
past the constraint to e-learning came with the dollar
as the only currency for financial transaction on the
internet. This has been resolved whereby payment could
be made through the internet either using the Nigerian
currency (Naira) or hard currency. This fact is
evidenced by Cyberschuul.com which accepts payment in
naira currency online. Some Nigerian banks have formed a
company called Interwatch to promote payment online
using smart cards. All the above confirm that the
contents required for promotion of e-learning at all
stages and levels in Nigeria are here with us, while the
initiative and the opportunities await optimum
application.
More Judicious Management Of Financial Resources
The huge sum of money currently being disbursed on
physical infrastructure such as buildings, furniture,
exercise books, text and reference books, vehicles,
electric generators and others will be more judiciously
spent on promoting e-learning projects through the
development and purchase of hardware and software as
well as support materials such as e-books, e-journals,
etc. It has been reported that in 2004, about 400
billion pages of books and other copy-righted works were
infringed upon by users through photo-copying globally.
It was further reported that Nigerians made 4 billion
pages of such photocopying (10% WOW!!!!). At the rate of
5 naira per page when there is public power supply and
10 naira per page when electric generator is used, this
translates to 5 to 10 billion naira per annum as
additional cost of education delivery in Nigeria. With
e-learning technology application, such cost is removed
and saved for more productive purposes.
Alternative Renewable Power Supply For E-Learning
Technology Services Delivery
Alternative sources of energy such as solar, wind, coal,
mini-hydro and mini-thermal plants will be developed to
power the e-learning centres and equipments in the rural
areas. This facility could be extended to the
inhabitants to make life more comfortable and abundant
for them. Such new energy source initiative will
generate viable technology–backed employment for
technicians. This view is supported by the recent widely
reported initiative from Jigawa State governor, Alhaji
Ibrahim Siminu Turaki, whereby the Jigawa Alternative
Energy Fund (a local NGO) partnered with Solar Energy
Light Fund (a US-based NGO) and supported by USAID
(United States Agency for International Development),
pioneered solar projects in some communities in Jigawa
state. The project has improved the life of some 7,500
rural homes through electricity generated from solar
technology. This renewable alternative energy now
replaces local power supply in the communities, lighting
up schools, hospitals, commercial centres and religious
buildings. In these communities, the village primary
schools have at least two classrooms illuminated per
school, Teachers are reported to be using the solar
energy electricity to organize adult education in the
communities and also to assist the students in doing
their home works. The schools have been provided with
computers which will be linked to the internet provided
by the state government. This will open the communities
to the rest of the world for healthcare, education and
commerce. It is the foundation for e-learning. Kudos to
Governor Turaki who has taken the fundamental bold step
to alleviate poverty in his domain through e-learning
infrastructure powered by solar energy.
E-Commerce And Tourism Opportunities
The e-commerce aspect of this technology is awaiting
exploitation whereby products and services could be sold
online. Computerport.com has taken the initiative to
sell computers and accessories online. More private
investors should brace up and grab the opportunities and
challenges offered by this lucrative e-learning
technology, as their own contribution to our national
development. The initiative taken by the current
administration in Nigeria to develop and promote tourism
is commendable. Such exercise requires a wealth of
information, education and training for the tourists,
the tourism agents personnel and the host community.
South Africa plans for 7 million visitors to their
country in 2005 with one million expected from Nigeria.
This translates to 100 billion naira expenditure for
2005 by Nigerians at a cost 100, 000 naira per visitor
for travels plus about one week stay in South Africa.
With efficient and effective e-learning technology
application, Nigeria can generate greater revenue from
tourism.
Government – Private Sector Partnership Initiative
The Federal Government could join in the French
government initiative by enacting a law similar to the
French DIF Law no. 2004-391 of 4th May, 2004 whereby the
employers will be requested to spend a certain
percentage of their turnover, profit before or after
tax, or payroll on the training of their employees and
possibly their host communities, through e-learning
technology, with a tax relief advantage to these
employers. Possibly, the absence of such law in Nigeria
could explain why the private sector was not adequately
represented in the Nigerian delegates to E-Learn Expo
2005 in France. The current political reform in
progress, provides the much awaited opportunity
available to enact such law, since it will promote
information and communication technology and knowledge
acquisition to the much desired level in the country.
The beneficiaries will be better equipped for better
productivity and self empowerment through self
employment. This will promote self actualization and
better standard of living. Definitely, e-learning
technology application provides one of the most
efficient and effective means of poverty eradication
nationwide.
CONCLUSION
E-learning cost reduction advantage covers big
implementation and organization flexibility, time
optimization, big flexibility for the trainee to follow
his own schedule and programmme, availability without
time or venue constraints, individualization of learning
path, communication between the tutor (trainer) and the
student (trainee), and simplicity as well as convenience
of utilization. E-learning technology can be applied in
both the formal and informal learning setup of the
nation’s education system and at all levels. This
technology is age, colour, creed, and gender friendly.
The prospective beneficiaries of e-learning have to take
up the inherent benefits and challenges and make
themselves more available to acquire maximum knowledge
and professional competence through this all embracing
technology. The various ministries of education should
establish e-learning departments to monitor, control and
enforce government rules and regulations on e-learning
application in the institutions of learning. The private
sector has a lot to contribute to the development and
application of this new technology, while the benefits
are there for them in abundance. The services of e-
experts should be retained for appropriate
implementation of e-learning projects both in the
institutions of learning and work places. The decision
to adopt distance learning policy through e-learning
technology is, above all, to adopt a solution which
permits a rapid, effective and efficient return on
investment both in cash and in kind, with its numerous
advantages.
Meanwhile, the current set objective in the developed
countries is “Education-For-Life”, since most of them
have attained the 100% literacy level. The EFA
Commission in Nigeria headed by the indefatigable
Special Adviser to the President and the Minister of
State for Education, Dr.(Mrs) Amina J. Ibrahim will have
success stories for the rest of the world at their
annual meetings through UNESCO, if and only if the
various governments, through the ministries of education
and in partnership with the private sector, adopt this
e-learning technology in all its ramifications.
E-learning technology is the only tool currently
available to promote education democracy i.e. “the
education of the people by the people and for the
people” in Africa in general and in Nigeria in
particular. I take this opportunity to congratulate the
EFA Commission and all their sponsor organizations for a
very successful outing during their recently concluded
“EFA WEEK 2005”. However, for Nigeria to be counted
among the nations that achieve “EDUCATION FOR ALL (EFA)”,
however basic, by year 2015 and even before, “E-LEARNING
IS THE ANSWER”.
Engr. Adejare AMOO ceemind@excite.com is a Lagos based
Energy and IT Education Consultant .
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 197
Final Report:
WSIS Regional Preparatory Meeting 5-7 July 2005 (Abuja,
Nigeria)
1 Introduction
The Africa Regional Preparatory Meeting for the 2006
World Telecommunication Development Conference was
organized by the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT)
of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in
Abuja, from 5 to 7 July 2005, at the kind invitation of
the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The aim of the meeting was to examine the evolution of
ICTs in the Africa region, take stock of the progress
made in implementing the Istanbul Action Plan, recommend
possible adjustments corresponding to the region's
priorities and identify regional initiatives for
submission to the World Telecommunication Development
Conference (WTDC) to be held from 7 to 15 March 2006 in
Doha, Qatar.
This report gives an account of the work and results of
the meeting.
2 Opening ceremony
The ceremony took place under the chairmanship of H.E.
Chief Cornelius O. ADEBAYO, Minister of Communications
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He was accompanied
by H.E. Chief Chukwuemeka Chikelu, Minister of
Information and National Orientation, H.E. Professor
Turner Isoun, Minister of Science and Technology,
Senator Baba Tella, Chairman of the Senate
Communications Committee, Engineer Ernest Ndukwe, Chief
Executive of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC),
Mr Hamadoun Touré, Director of ITU-BDT, and Mr Brahima
Sanou, Head of the ITU Regional Office for Africa.
In his address, Mr Hamadoun Touré, the Director of BDT,
thanked the Government and people of Nigeria for having
invited ITU and its members from the African continent
to meet in Abuja for the purpose of sharing and
coordinating their priorities in regard to the themes
and methods they wished to see ITU's Development Sector
implementing during the next development period
(2007?2010).
His Excellency the Minister of Communications, after
welcoming the delegates on behalf of the Nigerian
Government, underlined the importance of the meeting,
which constituted an ideal platform from which to
identify the main problems facing the countries of the
Africa region with a view to reducing the digital
divide. It was his wish that the conclusions of the
meeting should result in recommendations reflecting the
aspirations of African peoples and shaping, in the
latters' interests, the decisions to be taken by
WTDC-06.
3 Agenda
The agenda as adopted by the meeting is contained in
Annex 2.
4 Participants
The meeting was attended by .208 participants, of which
there were 175 delegates from 43 countries, by 25 ITU-D
Sector Members and observers and 8 subregional and
regional organizations. The list of participants is
contained in Annex 3.
5 Bureau of the meeting
In accordance with ITU tradition, it was the host
country that chaired the meeting.
His Excellency Chief Cornelius O. Adebayo was elected
Chairman. The participants elected the following
countries to serve as vice-chairmen: Congo, Egypt,
Ethiopia, Mali and Tanzania.
6 Preliminary statements by countries
Before announcing the commencement of work, the Chairman
invited those delegations wishing to make a preliminary
statement to take the floor. Statements were made by the
following countries:
Cape Verde, Tanzania, Uganda, Botswana, Gabon, Cameroon,
South Africa, Burkina Faso and Ghana.
7 Implementation of the Action Plans
7.1 Implementation of the Istanbul Action Plan adopted
by WTDC-02
The BDT secretariat introduced Document 6, containing a
general overview of ITU activities relating to
implementation of the Istanbul Action Plan (IsAP). The
introduction comprised:
• a general overview of the telecommunication sector;
• the implementation status of the IsAP for the period
2003-2005, particularly in regard to:
– the six programmes;
– the initiatives and activities;
– the resolutions;
– financial execution.
The Director of BDT explained that the report was a
"mid-term" one since the Bureau was currently in the
third year of implementation.
The participants congratulated BDT on the quality of the
work accomplished and urged it to continue in that
direction.
7.2 ITU contributions to achievement of the WSIS
objectives
7.2.1 Presentation by BDT
The BDT secretariat introduced Document 3, relating to
its contribution to achieving the objectives of the
World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The
document highlighted ITU's contributions towards
achieving the WSIS objectives, in particular:
– Through the implementation of Resolution 30 (Istanbul,
2002), ITU-D had regularly initiated and participated in
regional events designed to prepare players for
participation in WSIS.
– Implementation of the Istanbul Action Plan (IsAP) had
contributed to the establishment of an infrastructure
for the information society, particularly in regard to
mobile services, Internet and broadband.
– The active participation of BDT in the first phase of
WSIS, held in Geneva in December 2003, through the
signature of partnership arrangements with international
financial institutions, private companies, governments,
training institutions, etc.
In addition, attention was drawn to the important link
that exists between the action lines of the WSIS Action
Plan and those of WTDC-02.
7.2.2 Country contributions:
1 Senegal
Senegal presented a contribution covering the following
aspects:
a) ITU's contribution to achieving the WSIS objectives
ITU's contribution to achieving the WSIS objectives
should essentially focus on two avenues:
i) assisting countries in the elaboration of national
strategies and appropriate policies for the development
of ICT;
ii) assisting countries in the elaboration of national
e-strategies and e-applications.
ITU must play a central role in the implementation of
the WSIS Action Plan, particularly in regard to the
developing countries, through increased assistance in
the definition, elaboration and implementation of
national strategies for the development of
telecommunications and ICT (definition of a general
framework, training and upgrading workshops,
fundraising, provision of experts, etc.).
BDT should likewise bring forth its expertise in regard
to:
• the identification of structure-building community
projects and programmes to facilitate low-cost access to
ICTs;
• participation in the digital solidarity fund, by
exercising its role as a catalyst.
b) ITU's role and position in the mechanics of WSIS
implementation
ITU, as the organizer of the Summit and Chairman of
HLSOC, has fully proven that it has the competence and
experience to carry through the work of follow-up and
implementation.
ITU should be responsible for overall coordination of
the various action lines, while each major thematic
action line should be supervised and coordinated by an
international organization from the United Nations
system (WHO, UNESCO, FAO, ITU,).
Senegal therefore strongly supports a strengthening of
the role to be played by ITU in the follow-up and
coordination of the WSIS Action Plan.
2 Uganda
a) ITU's contribution to achievement of the WSIS
objectives
Uganda considers ITU to have played a major role in the
coordination of and preparations for the first and
second phases of WSIS. It therefore sees it as logical
that the preparation of the Doha Action Plan should take
account of the WSIS Action Plan as approved in Geneva
during Phase 1, together with any amendments or
modifications arising from the Tunis Summit.
b) ITU's role and position in the United Nations system
Bearing in mind ITU's role as mentioned above and its
capacity in the ICT sector, Uganda considers it
desirable that ITU should be designated as the United
Nations lead agency for coordinating and following up
the actions necessary in order to implement the WSIS
Action Plans.
7.2.3 Discussions and adoption of a resolution
The above statements were followed by a number of
interventions, in the course of which the delegates
unanimously:
• congratulated BDT on its well-documented presentation
and the multifaceted assistance provided to countries,
while at the same time calling on it to accord special
significance to the areas of e-health, the regulation of
voice over IP, and the management of scarce resources;
• congratulated and supported Senegal and Uganda on
their important contributions;
• endorsed the proposals made in the contributions by
Senegal and Uganda to the effect that ITU be entrusted
with the roles specified therein;
• decided to adopt a resolution (see Annex 4) urging ITU
Member States from the African region to promote these
decisions during Precom-3 and on the occasion of the
Summit in Tunis, and requesting the ITU Secretary
General to transmit the spirit of the resolution to the
forthcoming ITU Council meeting;
• emphasized the importance of the Doha Action Plan for
strengthening the WSIS objectives.
The Director of BDT thanked the countries for their
recognition of the role that ITU plays in the
preparation and coordination of the WSIS actions.
On the question of development prospects, delegates
acknowledged that the issues raised in the report by the
BDT secretariat called for in-depth consideration within
the framework of a plenipotentiary conference.
8 ICT development trends: constraints and prospects
The BDT secretariat presented Document 5(Rev.1)
concerning telecommunication and ICT markets and trends
in Africa, which emphasized the following topics in
particular:
• market structure;
• fixed-line networks;
• the main characteristics of the mobile communication
sector in Africa;
• constraints on the development of the Internet,
particularly the low level of penetration of broadband
technology, fixed telephone service and ADSL service.
The meeting took note of the report with interest.
9 Working topics and other matters to be included in BDT
programmes and activities
The objective was to give participants an opportunity to
review the programmes and activities defined as forming
the framework for elaborating ITU?D's various four-year
action plans. To that end, Document 2 and Information
Document INF/3 were presented by the BDT secretariat.
Those documents recalled the structure of the action
plan approved in Istanbul, consisting of programmes,
activities and initiatives, and invited members to
propose any adjustments that might be necessary for the
next cycle.
The contributions from Ethiopia (Document 7), Mali
(Document 8), Senegal (Document 9), Uganda (Document
10), Malawi (Document 11) and Guinea (Document 14) on
the matters in question were presented.
The delegates took note of the presentations and
expressed their support overall for the existing
programmes, while stressing the importance of
adjustments being made as the region's needs evolve.
10 Presentation of regional initiatives and BDT lines of
action
On the basis of the contributions by the Member States
and Sector Members and the statement by the ministerial
symposium (Abuja, 4 July 2005), the BDT secretariat
presented a table containing a classification of all the
regional initiatives distributed among four categories,
namely infrastructure, environment, capacity building
and partnerships.
In all, 40 proposals were presented.
An ad hoc committee was appointed to analyse the
contributions, sort them into groups and suggest the
regional initiatives having high priority. That
committee, chaired by Mr Patrick Masambu (Uganda),
presented its conclusions to the plenary, which approved
them. The table below summarizes the regional
initiatives that were agreed upon:
References to DT/5(Rev.1) Regional initiatives Focal
point Beneficiary countries Enabling environment
Infrastructure Capacity Building Cooperation and
partnerships
2, 19 Strengthening and harmonizing Regulatory
Frameworks X
3, 30 Regional Telecommunication market observatory X
4 Regional roaming initiative X X
5, 10, 16, 17, 20 Development of ICT enabling policies,
strategies and action plans both at Regional and
National levels X X
6, 24 Introduction of digital technologies especially
for broadcasting X
7 Promotion of the development of broadband
infrastructure in Africa, including the development of a
sub regional connectivity backbone X
8, 13, 31, 32 Strengthen the Centre of Excellence
project and expand it into a Network of Excellence, as
well as reinforce the Sub-Regional Maintenance centres X
1, 11, 12, 18 Formulation/review of new or existing
policies aiming at fostering sustainable investment in
rural areas, promoting private/public partnerships X
21 Establishment of a part time regional ICT Think Tank
X
26 East African Submarine Cable System project X
27 NEPAD e-schools project X X
28 Establishment and interconnection of national
internet exchange points X
29 RASCOM project X
33 COMTEL project X
36 Creation of a Centre of Excellence for Portuguese
speaking countries X
37 SADC Region Information Infrastructure (SRII) Project
X
38 e-Post Africa Project X
39 African Telecommunications Numbering Space X
40 ICT Project for Youth and Women X X
11 Study groups
Document 9 was presented once again by Senegal, with
reference to the section on the work of the study
groups. It recommended that ITU?D Study Groups 1 and 2
be retained, inasmuch as they responded to members'
needs and took proper account of the developing
countries' issues and concerns.
Several countries took the floor to underscore the need
for greater awareness on the part of Member States with
a view to their participation in the work of the study
groups.
The meeting decided to support the principle of the
revision of Resolution 9.
12 Consideration of resolutions and recommendations of
the Istanbul Action Plan
Senegal proposed that Resolutions 5, 11, 13, 17, 18, 20,
21, 22, 29 and 30 adopted in Istanbul be retained (see
Document 9).
The proposal was supported, with the clarification that
the resolutions in question could be adapted or reworked
if need be, prior to being presented to WTDC?06.
13 Strategic development issues
Nigeria presented Document 12, which asked BDT to
continue to give priority to initiatives relating to
young people and gender issues, with a view to
facilitating access to ICTs for the people in question.
It also stressed the importance of continuing to promote
partnerships with the private sector in order to
maximize the implementation of ICT projects in
developing countries.
14 Regional presence
Mali (Document 8), Senegal (Document 9) and Uganda
(Document 10) presented contributions concerned with
strengthening the regional presence of ITU so as to make
it more effective in carrying out its mission,
particularly in the area of development. The meeting
supported these proposals.
15 Miscellaneous
Several delegations announced information about future
events that were to take place in their countries.
Gambia informed the meeting of the results of the work
of the African Civil Society Forum, in order that BDT
might take that information into account in its future
activities.
The participants thank the host country and its
authorities for their excellent organization of the
meeting and their wonderful hospitality. They especially
thanked H. E. Philippe Mvouo the Minister of Post and
Telecommunication responsible for new Technology for
Information of Congo for his valuable contribution
whilst chairing the meeting.
REGIONAL LICENCEES TARGET NATIONAL MARKET
Telecoms operators issued regional licencees are also
looking to get a larger bite of the telecoms cake from
next year. This is all in a bid to take advantage of the
Unified Licencing Scheme being proposed to take off
early 2006.
Whereas inadequate funding has been a problem faced by
most PTOs, it is heartening to find that there are a few
that are kicking hard to step up to the plate. Already,
there are talks of mergers and acquisitions in the
sector, and experts say that Nigeria will end up with
fewer but much capable PTOs by the time the dust is
cleared.
MTN PROPOSES 3G NETWORK
Only a few weeks ago, MTN announced that it was testing
GPRS (2.5) capabilities on its network with a view to
completing the tests within 3 months, the GSM operator
has come up to say that it will build a UMTS (3G)
network next year. This brings to two (2) the number of
GSM operators looking to deploy 3G in the country. Mtel
had earlier announced that it planned to set up a 3G
network.
GPRS is an advanced data service that is made possible
by simply enhancing the basic 2nd Generation GSM network
on ground, and as such is referred to as a 2.5G
platform. UMTS, however, is a 3rd Generation technology
that requires the deployment of a parallel network to
the existing.
GSM TARIFFS TOO HIGH, SAY SUBSCRIBERS
Mobile subscribers in Nigeria are still convinced that
the current charges for both voice and data by GSM
operators are too high. In a country where the majority
of citizens earn well below N5,000 per month, it does
not seem reasonable to expect individuals to expend a
minimum of N3,000 monthly on servicing their phones.
GSM voice tariffs on prepaid hover around 80kobo per
second (N48 per minute), and with operator-imposed
validity periods, subscribers are compelled to spend
more money to enjoy basic communications. But it does
not end with voice services only.
In a recent survey by GoSmartMobile.com, 90% of
respondents on GSM networks also say that GSM data
services are over-priced and that they would be willing
to cross over to a CDMA network offering better data
tariffs. While CDMA subscribers were firm in their
conviction that they preferred their network's data
charges to those of GSM networks, they also indicated
that they were still not very comfortable with the
tariffs.
Telecoms analysts are generally of the opinion that CDMA
networks' prevailing tariffs give them an excellent
opportunity to turn their lots around by attracting the
mass market when the proposed Unified licencing Scheme
takes off.
ARE YOU TODAY'S MOBILE EXECUTIVE?
Setting Up for Mobile Data
by
Yomi Adegboye
If you are a Road Warrior, you will need to run some
kind of mobile office so you stay productive where you
spend a lot of your time - on the road. Here are a few
tips for setting up your mobile office:
1. Evaluate your peculiar hardware needs
Do you settle for a smartphone, a PDA-phone combo, or a
laptop-phone combo? It all depends on your needs. If you
have no need for complex programmes like graphics
editors and the like, you may not need to lug a laptop
around. Are you simply in need of a convenient way to
access your mails on the go? Maybe all you need is a
Symbian, Windows or Palm-based smartphone. Then, again,
there are smartphones and there are smartphones. Not all
will meet your peculiar needs. If you do a lot of text
input on the go, you might want to have a look at the
Communicator series with full QWERTY keyboards.
2. What data platform?
There has been a lot of noise about GPRS, and rightly
so. But what a lot of people do not know is that GPRS
can be expensive! Oh, yes. If you move a lot of large
files, say you download music, games and all that
regularly, you may want to keep away from GPRS and take
a look at some of the mobile internet plans from CDMA
networks. Usually on the CDMA networks, all you pay is a
flat monthly rate and you can download (and upload)
heaven and earth!
3. Your location and mobility
Well, of course there is no point signing up for a data
plan with a provider that has poor network service at
your location. Plus, it is equally useless using a
provider that is unavailable at the various locations
you frequent.
Bottomline: Do your research. Ask questions, forget
sentiments, and make workable choices.
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 196
Leveraging on ICT
All over the world, individuals, organisations and
nations have turned their lots around through the
application of Information and Communications
Technology. In recent times, there has been a deluge of
new technologies into Nigeria, opening a new vista of
opportunities for the innovative minds. VSAT, CDMA 200
1x, GSM, and much more.
Never before has Nigerians had so many options for
staying in touch with the world. Never before has there
been as many opportunities for Small and Medium
Enterprises (SMEs) - the real drivers of the economy -
to play catch-up and become more vibrant.
Granted, the appalling infrastructure of our environment
places daunting obstacles before every enterpreneur, but
the opportunities stand out nevertheless. We submit that
unreliable power supply is the single greatest
impediment to ICT and its applications in the country.
Any nation desiring to move forward with the rest of the
world cannot afford to play around with power supply.
That is why we urge the Federal Government to deal
decisively with this hydra-headed monster that has kept
many a dreams down.
MTEL BUILDS 3G GSM NETWORK; MTN TEST-RUNS 2.5G
M-tel, Nigeria's premier mobileservices provider, has
announced that it will build a 3G network in the next
few months. The operator's ambitious plans also include
expanding its subscriber base from the present 1.2
million to 6 million, as it adds an extra 1,500 base
stations to its infrastructure.
MTN, the only GSM network left on the 2G platform, also
announced recently that it was testing GPRS capabilities
on its network. MTN Nigeria currently has a subscriber
base of 6 million lines.
ZENITH JOINS MASTERCARD TRAIN
Coming on the heels of Ecobank and Standard Trust Bank,
Zenith Bank is also introducing MasterCard services in
the country.
Nigerians had over the years suffered inability to make
purchases online and remotely because of the lack of
credit/debit card services in the country. That may have
changed dramatically in the last few months as they can
now obtain international debit/credit cards in their own
names for use.
INTERNET AND MOBILITY CONVERGENCE: KEY TO SURVIVAL OF
OPERATORS
As the telecoms sector of the country evolves in
dynamism and delivery of services, Mr. Dirk Smet, CEO of
Starcomms says that the operators that will survive are
those with proven implementation of technologies that
feature the marriage of internet and mobility.
In the last few months, there has been a rise in the
awareness and uptake of both fixed and mobile data
services in the country. Analysts argue that the
relatively lower entry cost of mobile data is a strong
deciding factor for people. In agreement with Mr Smet's
assertions, CEO of DomainStandard Networks and mobile
office consultant Yomi Adegboye, is of the opinion that
people are beginning to wake up to the advantages of
being able to be connected and work anywhere, anytime.
Mr Adegboye says that the unique situation on ground in
the country makes mobile data more promising than fixed
access. He lists entry and operating costs, power
supply, and increased productivity as "factors that will
continue to drive the increasing uptake of mobile data".
He foresees a situation where subscriber base will be
relegated to 2nd place in determining profitability, as
mobile data subscription begin to result in higher
Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).
AFRICAN YOUTHS ARGUE FOR THE DISABLED
Youths of Africa who were hosted by their Nigerian
counterparts ended their pre-WSIS meeting in Abuja last
week by prevailing on African Governments to compel
telecommunication operators in the continent to offer
minimum employment places to people with disability.
They noted that Nigeria which has such a provision in
its laws has has not been implementing it.
Troubleshooting Interconnection:
may debts not lead to deaths.
When our Institute [THE EXECUTIVE CYBERSCHUUL] commenced
the Enhanced Induction Training early in 2003,
interconnection of networks was one subject to which
part of the content was devoted. The syllabus envisaged
that interconnect issue in all its ramifications: the
technical, the commercial and the regulatory dimensions
would be taught to our trainees.
That program eventually converted to Advanced
Telecommunications Course and the place of Networks and
Their Interconnection was deliberately pushed up another
notch. The most interesting part; the technical, was to
be thought not as in academics but as in business.
Trainees were to relate Networks as big computers, which
they really are, and see that they exist essentially to
connect one phone user, anywhere to another, anywhere.
They would be made to see the topologies of
interconnections and be reminded of the versed academic
treatment of the subject way back in school and then put
all these onto a traffic analysis platform to appreciate
how its aggregate topology could make a deference in
quality of service, tariff, customer satisfaction,
debts, its management, buy-overs, take-overs, death etc
etc.
The commercial, potentially the most popular and
possibly that which operators are likely to devote more
attention than the others was also to be treated using
Nigeria as the subject market for class analysis.
The regulatory, a very exciting matter, was also to look
at the existing and emerging policies, the actions and
inactions of the regulator and how the prevailing
policies, reaction speed and good governance in its
operations and in the system could and would affect the
entirety of service delivery.
By October of 2004 all our three courses, namely:
Telecommunications for non-engineers, Basic
Telecommunications, and Advanced Telecommunications were
all to devote various degrees of attention to
Interconnections. The audience would dictate where
emphasis of treatment of each of the sub-topics would be
placed.
A session of Advanced Telecommunications Course, which
held about November 2004, ended forecasting that by June
2005, using the kind of data we were playing around
with, two PTO’s might have gone under. Indeed by June
2005, no PTO had gone under but a few had defaulted in
payment of salaries for upwards of six months while
interconnect debts had forced some players in the
industry to adopt arbitrariness in getting their bills
settled. We used all those facts and forecasts as news
and their review in several editions of CYBERSCHUULNEWS.
In particular we criticised arbitrariness and argued
that respect for the Regulator, good governance on the
part of all concerned, and general discipline in the
industry was a better modus operandi.
June 2005 the loud murmurings in the industry had turned
to uneasy noise and it needed one additional
arbitrariness for everybody to go burst.
EFCC supplied that inertia. The report was that the
Commission’s goons picked up a few CEO’s of PTO’s and
drilled them on their indebtedness, especially to NITEL.
Everybody got jolted asking whether debts resulting from
mutual business agreement had suddenly become a crime.
But who would question EFCC?
Julde Mashi, CEO of NITEL, swore he never formally
brought his indebtedness woes to the attention of EFCC.
He said it to the press and also repeated it to his
fellow CEO’s and players when NCC hosted and industry
stakeholders mini-summit on the subject. That meeting
coincided with one session of our Advanced
Telecommunications Training and we released participants
in the afternoon of June 28 to enable them spread into
the meeting and listen to industry players discuss the
issues.
Apart from NITEL’s CEO who used the chance to bare his
mind on that and a few other issues, the meeting also
held many things in stock for the future and it was good
the regulator held it. Operators on the platform of
ALTON. Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of
Nigeria, had parleyed earlier and they had chosen to
present a common front which, practically, did not
produce a solution but something similar to begging the
issues. Naturally, one would say!
The GSM guys who have tried, so far unsuccessfully, to
form a cartel, virtually dissociated themselves from the
ALTON’s position and asked for quick unconditional
payment. The underdogs, those PTO’s who actually owe
huge amounts to several bigger players, and who in such
circumstances should have shouted loudest, kept mum
leaving ALTON to talk for them.
The regulator’s team supervised the summit. Big guy
Ernest Ndukwe expressed worries but looked quite
confident. He opened the discussion, listened and ended
up giving all players some time to resolve the issues.
Using body talk as forecast indicator, we should not be
surprised if the regulator comes up with a ruling before
long.
Interconnect Exchange upstarts [six were licensed in
2004]; represented by two such licensees, seized the
chance to make the only new presentation. One said their
facility would be a one-stop solution to the impasse and
he asked that they be given a chance. His submission,
which he hinged on commercial guarantee was truly
rubbished by another contributor who cautioned that the
vocabulary of Clearing House should be used with
caution. Clearing house as in business relationships or
interconnect carriers as in traffic movement? The two
are not the same and one-stop solution was not next-door
by the implication of what was presented.
At the end of it all, analysts who reviewed the meeting
almost concluded that the regulator may well come up
with an insistence on provision of adequate guarantee as
part of interconnect relationship and push for a
modified topology which the introduction of the
interconnect carriers promise.
[The analysis was contributed to CYBERSCHUULNEWS by Mr.
Titi Omo-Ettu, a Lagos based telecommunications
engineer]
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 195
DEBT; DISCONNECT; SANCTION; NOW 'ARREST'!
Nigeria's bubbling telecom industry which almost went
asleep as a result of interconnect debts suddenly jerked
into a boiling point last week with the news that CEO's
of a few Telcos were visited by men of the EFCC. EFCC is
Nigeria's anti-graft Agency known appropriately as
Economic and Financial Crime Commission. The story which
went round was that NITEL must have made an appeal [to
do what?] to the Commission which probably went into
action. It was not known which criminal aspects of the
debts the Commission must have pursued. Meanwhile, the
Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC has announced a
brisk plan to moderate an industrywide discussion on the
interconnect debt impasse so it could announce a game
plan in due course. Tuesday, June 28, at Golden Gate
restaurant in Ikoyi, Lagos will be the meeting point.
Time: 2.00pm
EXPERTS PUSH FOR LOCALIZATION OF ICT
African localisation experts met in Casablanca in a
workshop organised by the Kabissa NGO under IDRC
funding, in collaboration with the Technopark centre.
The event benefited from contributions from the Moroccan
Minister for Information Technology, the Canadian
Ambassador and experts from other continents. After
three days of work, the participants in the meeting
reached the following conclusions:
Limiting people to the use of information and
communication technology (ICT) in a foreign language
tends to exacerbate the digital divide; makes ICT
adoption long, difficult, and expensive; and
impoverishes local culture.
Localisation makes ICT more accessible to everybody,
including users from rural areas and young students,
reinforcing the importance of our culture and helping us
preserve our identity.
Localisation of ICT into indigenous African languages is
therefore key to rapid and fair development in Africa.
For localisation to succeed and have its maximum impact
in society, collaboration among governments, civil
society, educators, linguists, computer professionals,
standards organisations and donor agencies is necessary.
The participants further commited themselves to
promoting this vision and working towards social
development in Africa through ICT localisation.
Participants at the events included Nigeria's Tunde
Adegbola of ALT-I, Mrs Comfort Kanzaka of Fantsuam
Foundation and Uchenna Agbim of IgboNLinuz.
SURVEY ON SUBSCRIBER PERCEPTION OF MOBILE DATA
GoSmartMobile, an online resource providing news,
reviews, useful information and comments on mobile data
technology in Nigeria, is carrying out a survey on
mobile data tariffs and hopes to have a report ready for
public consumption shortly. Among other things, the
study seeks to measure what tariffs subscribers are
willing to pay for access to the internet on/via their
mobiles and current uptake and use of mobile data by
subscribers, as well as gauge customer's willingness to
switch networks based on data services and pricing. You
can participate in this survey here.
NEW D-G NAMED FOR NITDA
Prof. Cleopas Angayen has been named as the new
Director- General of the National Information Technology
Development Agency to fill the vacancy created by the
death of the agency's pioneer Chief Executive, Prof.
Gabriel Ajayi in December last year.
He holds academic degrees in mathematics, physics, and
computer science. Among other professional affiliations,
he is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautic
and of Astronautics, the Nigerian Computer Society, and
holds several patents in the areas of software
development and communications technology.
He was Director of Software Development at the agency
until his elevation.
VMOBILE JOINS GLOMOBILE, MTEL ON GPRS PLATFORM
Vmobile (formerly ECONET WIRELESS) has quietly switched
on its GPRS-based services. In an update of its website,
Vmobile discloses that they are offering access to the
internet and corporate intranet, as well as email, and
mobile data synchronization over GPRS (General Packet
Radio Service), a 2.5G standard. This makes Vmobile the
3rd of the 4 GSM operators in Nigeria to activate GPRS
on its network.
Trailblazer GloMobile set the pace when months after
launch it began offering Multi-media messaging, WAP and
full internet access on a GPRS platform. Before then,
all GSM operators in the country had run 2G networks and
offered just Circuit Switched Data, a slow dial-up
standard. Mtel followed suit just a little over a month
ago. This leaves MTN as the only GSM network on the old
2G platform, but there are indications that Nigeria's
largest GSM network is already being upgraded to offer
some form of advanced data services.
At the time of writing however, neither Vmobile nor Mtel
has officially announced tariffs for their GPRS
services.
OSOFISAN NOW PRESIDENT OF CPN
The 8th international conference and annual general
meeting of the Nigeria Computer Society, NCS, which held
in Port Harcourt from June 14 through 17, 2005, produced
a new President/Chairman for the Computer Professional
Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN). She is Dr. Mrs.
Adenike Osofisan an academic and Fellow of the Nigerian
Institute of Management and Fellow Nigerian Computer
Society. She takes over from Dr Gabriel Obi, a highly
regarded tactician of the professional body and becomes
the first female to occupy the position of President of
the Council which was first inaugurated in 1995.
A CASE FOR THE WORTH OF ICT PROFESSIONALS
Telecommunications and ICT specialists have been advised
to place values on themselves and reject the low
estimation which society is attempting to place on them.
A Lagos based telecommunications engineer, Mr Titi
Omo-Ettu told the Lagos State University community’s
Gateway Initiative last week that the chances are very
high in developing economies to undervalue the skills of
otherwise valuable professionals and that counts as one
reason why technological progress is slow in such
economies.
Mr. Omo-Ettu said that while democratic politics may be
the most acceptable in leadership selection it does not
necessarily throw up the best materials for leadership
positions. He expressed worries about how the on-going
National Political Reform Conference dissolved its
reform work into 19 committees, none of which includes a
Committee on Reform of Science and Technology
development strategy, let alone Information and
Communications Technology, ICT. He listed the 19
committees of the NPRC as Reform Committees on:
The Economy
Human Rights & Social Security
National Security
Social Infrastructure For National Development
Models & Structures Of Government
Power Sharing Reforms
Revenue Allocation And Fiscal Federalism
Legislature
The Executive
Traditional Institutions And Culture Reforms
.Public Service
Judiciary And Legal Reforms
Political Parties And The Electoral Process
Environment And Natural Resources Reforms
Civil Society, Labor, Trade Union And National Media
Reforms
Local Government Reforms
Foreign Policy, International Development Policy Reforms
New Sustainable Democratic Order
Anticorruption Reforms
Mr Omo-Ettu wondered which of the existing Committees
would review say a memo on reform in Science and
technology development. He confessed that the recent
memorandum which the ICT G-22, an international team of
Nigerian ICT professionals, to which he belongs and
which contributed a memo to the Conference, did not do
the memo because it had any faith in the Conference but
because ‘we shall say what we should say - even to the
devil’. He urged young ICT professionals to train hard,
acquire impeccable world class skills and dictate their
terms within the polity, noting however that ‘to whom
much is given, much more is expected’. He asked Nigerian
youths not to follow the path of current political
reform conferees whose only objective is to share the
booty of what they are incapable of producing.
Needed: A New Approach to Customer Support
A vital part of any business venture is customer care,
also referred to in various circles as after-sales
support. The idea is that while almost anyone can sell a
product and then take the next bus out of town,
effective customer support can make a world of a
difference in the operations of any organisation,
especially telecoms operations.
The challenges of providing effective customer support
become even more daunting as we see an increse of uptake
in data services. Here are a few real-life scenarios:
Scene 1: A small business enterprise purchases a
Multilinks line for voice and internet services. Voice
works fine but internet does not. After a couple of
trips with the phone box to Multilinks, customer support
assures that their engineers have been notified and will
pay a visit to the subscriber's location to sort things
out. Two (2) years down the road and several calls
later, the engineers are yet to show up. And the
subscriber's problems are yet to be solved.
Scene 2: A young man has signed up for full internet
access via GPRS on the same network. He has put in all
settings, yet the service does not work. From the error
message his Sony Ericsson P800 is giving (Service not
activated), it is clear that GloMobile is yet to do
something at their end. After weeks of calling customer
care without succour, he is finally asked to come over
to their office half-way across the city of Lagos from
his location.
Insisting that the trip was not necessary to resolve the
issue, he is told that was the only thing to do. So he
drives down, and after customer care has taken a look at
the settings on his phone, they comment that everything
was in order and then
take another look at their systems. It is then it is
discovered that the young man's line had not been
activated on the "switch". Another unnecessary and
wasteful trip that would have been avoided if Customer
Care was in better shape.
Scene 3: A young lady takes a handset to the nearest MTN
Friendship Centre to have it configured for WAP. She is
told that the server was down and so the handset could
not be configured. She was asked to return at a later
date. In less than an hour she narrates the story to a
friend, who promptly takes the handset, inputs the
settings and starts browsing with it. Whether or not the
server was actually down had nothing to do with
configuring WAP on a phone, and Customer Care did not
know that.
Scene 4: Wale calls Customer Care on Vmobile to enquire
whether it was true that the network now had a GPRS
service. The representative replies in the affirmative
and proceeds to tell Wale to send a specified text to a
dedicated number to receive the service configuration
OTA (Over-the-air). Wale sends the text and is surprised
to discover that the settings sent to him are for plain
old Circuit-switched data, a slow dial-up protocol.
Customer Care apparently did not know the difference
between Circuit Switched Data and GPRS.
Scene 5: DK purchases one of the newer Sendo phones for
use on GloMobile. Customer Care informs him that the
handset cannot work on its GPRS network. Wondering why,
since it was not locked to another network and was both
WAP and GPRS-enabled, DK stumbles on to http://www.gosmartmobile.com
where he finds WAP settings for his network. He puts in
the settings, - and months after he is still browsing.
Okay. Enough examples. All scenarios above are real
events. None were made up. Of course, there are more,
but what's the use going on and on?
The question we should be asking include:
How much training do Customer Care representatives get?
Did these guys apply for those jobs just to put some
money in their pockets every month or do they really
have an interest in what they do?
We may not have all the answers straight up, but we do
know that what we observe in subscribers' interaction
with Customer Care officers on our networks leaves much
to be desired. These operators should stop caring about
us in word alone. They may need to cut down on those ad
budgets and put more funds in ensuring that the customer
gets the kind of support he deserves.
Contributed by 'Yomi Adegboye, editor of GoSmartMobile
and a valued friend of CYBERSCHUULNEWS
KNOW YOUR CPN
The Computer Professional Registration Council of
Nigeria (CPN) was established by Decree No 49, 1993;
with the objective to advance the knowledge of Computer
Science and the use of computational machinery and
techniques related thereto. The council has the
responsibility to control and supervise the profession,
and is to perform the following duties:
(1) To determine what standards of knowledge and skills
that are to be attained by persons seeking to be members
of the profession and improving those standards from
time to time as circumstances may permit;
(2) To secure in accordance with provisions of the
Decree, the establishment and maintenance of a register
of persons seeking to be registered under the Decree to
practice the profession and the publication from time to
time, of the list of those persons.
(3) To perform any other functions conferred on it by
the Decree.
In respect of (3), other functions conferred on the
Council include, inter alia:
(a) To accredit institutions for the purpose of offering
courses approved by council as meeting standards set by
council.
(b) To approve courses or programme of courses deemed by
Council to meet its standards, and which are designed to
confer on persons successfully completing them
sufficient knowledge and skills for admission into the
profession.
(c) To supervise instructions in institutions accredited
by the Council.
(d) To conduct professional examinations and award
certificates thereof.
(e) To conduct and maintain a library comprising of
books and publications for the promotion and advancement
of the knowledge of the profession.
(f) To encourage research into Computer Science, allied
subjects, and computational machinery to the extent that
Council may from time to time, consider necessary.
(g) To receive each year from the person in charge of
each University or other institution of higher learning
in Nigerian having a faculty by whatever name called, at
which there is held a course(s) of training Computer
Science or Computer Technology for persons who are
seeking to become registered under the Decree, a list of
names and such other particulars as the Council may
specify, of all persons who attended any such courses at
the institution at any time during the last preceding
year.
(h) To set standards of behaviour for members of the
profession and ensure compliance therewith, discipline
erring members, including removing their names from the
register, if in the opinion of Council the offence of
such members warrant it.
The Decree makes it illegal for any person (individual
or corporate) who is not registered by Council and does
not hold a valid current license:
. To engage himself in the practice of computing and
hold himself out to the public as a member of the
professions; or
. To render professional service or assistance in or
about matters of principles or detail relating to the
use of computational machinery and the techniques
related thereto;
. To render any other service, within the regulations
made by the council, with the approval of the secretary;
be designated as service constituting practice as a
registered member of the profession.
. It is equally illegal for any person (individual or
corporate) to hire such a person or employ his services.
The council was inaugurated on Friday, March 31st, 1995.
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 194
STARCOMMS, OTHERS GET READY FOR NEW TELECOMS REGIME
Nigeria's leading PTO, Starcomms says it is fully
prepared to take full advantage of the proposed unified
licensing regime expected to come into force next year.
Starcomms runs advanced voice, data, fax and internet
services over both fixed wireless and mobile platforms,
and has continued to be innovative in packaging its
services.
There are indications that other national and regional
PTOs, as well as the GSM operators, are also
strategising in order to stay relevant after the
post-exclusivity period given to the latter.
Industry analysts already predict that GSM voice and
data rates will crash, as PTOs leverage the capabilities
of CDMA in delivering a wide range of services. They
point to India, where a similar move has led to that
country having the world's lowest mobile tariffs.
This development is certainly what the average Nigerian
on the streets has prayed for over the years.
Subscribers stand to benefit immensely, as not only will
they be able to talk with more convenience, but will
also have affordable internet/data services at their
fingertips. Invariably, it is expected that this will
also boost Nigeria's internet penetration and ultimately
boost economic performance.
On the part of the telecoms operators, we see an
opportunity for them to increase revenue through
excellent service delivery and create stronger customer
loyalty to their brands. At the end of the day, it is
sure to be a win-win situation.
OAU TO OFFER NetTeL@AFRICA COURSES
The Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile-Ife, Nigeria,
has announced that it will run two courses: Master of
Science in ICT Policy and Regulations and Postgraduate
Diploma in ICT Policy and Regulations under the netTel@Africa
sponsored programs.
In recognition of the need for capacity building in
telecommunications policy and regulations, the
Telecommunications Regulations of Southern Africa (TRASA)
was prompted to forge a collaborative alliance among
regulators, operators, and academic institutions for the
purposes of instituting training at the postgraduate
level in ICT policy and regulation. That initiative of
TRASA led to the institution of NetTel@Africa,
continent-wide network of some seven Southern African
Universities, four US Universities, a number of
regulatory bodies in the US and Southern Africa, with
funding and resource support from CTO, DFID, SIDA, ITU,
and the NTIA. The network which has expanded to
accommodate universities from other parts of Africa,
including four Universities in Nigeria is pioneered in
Nigeria by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC.
Obafemi Awolowo University is one of the four pioneering
universities in Nigeria to partner in the network.
The Program aims to train local talents towards
expertise in the policy, regulatory, managerial, legal,
and technical aspects of ICT and to produce manpower
able to engage in research at the highest levels of the
frontiers of knowledge in all aspects of ICT policy and
regulation, and consequently keep abreast of
developments in technology, and global and regional
standards and procedures.
For more information: paina@oauife.edu.ng
Email Anywhere, Anytime
If your work schedule keeps you out of the office a lot,
you don't have to miss out on your urgent mails anymore.
Simply purchase any mobile phone with an email client
built-in. Working very much after the same lines
Outlook/outlook Express on your PC does, your phone's
built-in email client will help you stay on top of your
messages anywhere and anytime.
If you are on a CDMA platform, ask your operator for a
phone with this capability and subscribe to an internet
access plan of your choice. On GSM, subscribe to your
network's data services, either GPRS or CSD.
Ditch Yahoo!, Hotmail and other Web-based emails, and go
get a free POP3 email account from providers like
SwissInfo or HotPOP. Better still, use your corporate
email address.
Now, you are ready, simply configure your phone's email
client with your POP email details and you can always
grab your email anywhere you are, provided your network
operator covers the area.
contributed by 'Yomi Adegboye, editor of GoSmartMobile
and a valued friend of CYBERSCHUULNEWS
W.A.S.P.
WASP stands for 'Wireless Application Service Provider'.
A WASP could be a provider of music or video clips, etc.
for the wireless operator customers. Football News via
your mobile phones, is an example of such applications.
CNN breaking News sent to some mobile subscribers who
subscribe for that service is another application
example. Note that wireless could be a mobile operator
or fixed wireless operator. WASP is concerned with value
added services for wireless users. WASP billing system
is no different from any other billing system for
telecom operators; you may get charged for the size of
what you downloaded or there may be a standard charge
for having that value added services. It really depends
on the wireless operator and how it wants to charge for
a particular service.
contributed by Augustine Chiedu Odinma Telecom/Internet
Consultant and a valued friend of CYBERSCHUULNEWS
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 193
HOUSE RULES ON INVESTIGATORS' FINDINGS ON PENTASCOPE
The Lower House recently reviewed a report of the House
Committee on Communications, which investigated the
Pentascope Management Contract of NITEL.
The report shoots down the core-investor approach to
NITEL's privatization and suggests that the company [51%
of the company really] should not be sold for less than
the IILL price of US$1.317Billion. It appropriates blame
to BPE and its consultants and advisers for the major
defects in the failed contract and suggests finding
answers to seven critical questions which it posed.
Most worrisome of the investigators' findings may be the
letter of confirmation of an agreement on technical
support which Pentascope claimed was between it and
KPN[Netherlands] and on which the management contract
was purported to have been largely based. The letter was
found to have been a forgery, through and thorough.
The Lower House evoked very harsh sanctions on all those
found culpable and asks that money be recovered from the
consultants who did shoddy jobs.
The report, apart from coming as a good reference
document for students of management, is probably a good
footnote for those who write history as the subject
under reference is a bad case of an insulting fraud.
Harsh sanctions, of course, are known in these parts to
be mere pronouncements which serve the immediate need to
soothe agitated nerves.
TALKING GETS CHEAPER... AND CHEAPER
All over the world, it continues to get cheaper to talk.
The most recent sensation has been SKYPE, a VoIP service
that allows subscribers to make calls to regular phone
lines for next to nothing. On the home front, VOIP has
helped drive down the costs of calls, especially
international calls. Quite a number of operators now
deploy the technology for carrying both international
and long-distance calls.
But that seems to be just the tip of the iceberg.
Already, a major PTO has deployed a mobile internet
access service that in addition to regular Web browsing
allows the subscriber to make calls for - you guessed
right - next to nothing. All the subscriber needs is a
PC card-enabled laptop/PC, a headset and the network's
wireless PC card.
Events in other parts of the world indicate that the
same feat will soon be commonplace on GPRS and EDGE
networks. The world is fast moving into the era of
completely unified communications and Nigeria, it seems,
is catching up fast. This has been in part possible
because of the reforms instituted by the NCC in the last
couple of years.
AGENDA SET FOR NEPA, WOBBLING COMMENCES
Going by newspaper reports, Mrs. Irene Chigbue, boss at
Bureau for Public Enterprises, BPE, has announced an
agenda for the appointment of a Regulator for the
emerging energy sector. She says the appointment would
be in place by December 2005. Analysts are worried stiff
how come it became one and the same thing to privatize
and to also appoint the sector regulator. Looks like BPE
is taking off on the usual cruise to nowhere again going
by its antecedent.
Not much of Chigbue’s profile is known to analysts
beyond the record of her zigzag postings in the hands of
her former bosses at BPE, so forecasts are difficult to
make of her game-plan. If the woman has views of her own
however, it is yet to manifest.
The energy sector is fundamentally different and more
difficult to sort out than the telecom sector. Indeed
industry activists in telecommunications sector were all
working to have a better NITEL so they could sell
better. In the energy sector industry activists would
rather see NEPA fail so they could continue selling
their generators. If Chigbue does not know this, she may
just have to. Why should she be bugged down with
regulation when she is not done with privatization? Her
predecessor spent all his time fighting the shadow of
his own predecessor who also spent all time fighting
everybody in sight as if privatization is nothing but
warfare. Good war it would have been if the flight did
not land us at Pentascope Airport.
In 2001, BPE had acted as if NCC did not exist until the
Commission showed in a newspaper advert that it was in
charge of regulation and not BPE. Lest our telecom story
would have been different. Somebody should call BPE to
order this time around. We do not deserve to be in
darkness for ever.
Hello friends.
I have received some e-mails in the last few days
claiming to have identified some unusual activities in
my e-mail and PayPal accounts, and advising me that
access to my account has been limited as a result. The
e-mail then proceeds to ask me to click a link in the
e-mail, in order to update my account.
This link DOES NOT take you to PayPal or eBay, but
rather to another site, and if you were to make the
mistake of clicking it (I didn't), it will run a program
which will, at best, present you a form that will ask
you for your account information, including your PayPal/eBay
password, etc. Worse, it could install a program on your
computer which will steal your data, or worse still,
scramble your data and demand a ransom to unscramble
them.
If you don't have a PayPal or eBay account, you
obviously know that the e-mail is a scam, and hopefully
you will ignore it and delete it. If you have a eBay /
PayPal account, go through the normal way of accessing
your account, and DO NOT CLICK THE LINK IN THE E-MAIL!
Whatever you do, forward the e-mail to your ISP (usually
at support@your-isp-name.com), and ask them to track it
down, so that the originating ISP can shut down the
offending e-mail account, or track down the owner and
hand them over to law enforcement agencies.
I hope this has been useful.
Muyiwa
Muyiwa is a valued friend of CYBERSCHUULNEWS and he
contributed the above from muyiwataiwo@tetovastics.com
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 192
CONSUMERS/GSM OPERATORS SET FOR ANOTHER ROUND OF OPEN
BATTLE
Going by a recent late-May 2005 opinion poll, the
Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, has received
tremendous support and goodwill from telephone consumers
as it is set to push ahead with a plan to allow fixed
wireless access (FWA) providers to migrate to mobile
services if they possess the technology. Many of them
do.
The radical move has not gone down well with GSM
operators whose charges have been six times higher and
whose services are generally regarded as poor by
consumers. Industry analysts believe that the NCC's move
is capable of reducing overall telephone tariff which
GSM providers hate to hear. It may also set a new
competition agenda as the Fixed wireless operators
appear to care more for their subscribers than GSM
operators who possess the advantage of spread and
subscriber base.
While hiding their main motive, GSM operators are
arguing that the new legislation could discourage
investment in a sector that is already under-funded and
may further weaken the industry, which it claims is
already blighted by outdated facilities and high taxes.
Of course the argument is bunkum and Nigerians know it.
VODACOM COMES AGAIN
In business, there are never permanent friends nor
enemies. What is permanent is motive. Profit motive.
South Africa’s Vodacom which made several overtures to
the Nigerian market, each time turning its nose against
it, and for various reasons, was recently in a photo
finish with Virgin Mobile of UK to buy into VeeNetwork
[Operating as Vmobile]. There is no doubt that
Veenetwork has improved its showing in the Nigerian
market and the published intension of NCC not to grant
new mobile licenses come February 2006, favours
concerted buy-in’s and buy-over’s. Chances are that
Vodacom acquires 56% of Veenetwork while state
governments [Akwa-Ibom, Delta and Lagos] which bought
shares when the Nigerian Company started off in 2001 as
Econet Wireles Nigeria, may release all their shares for
others to pick up.
UNILAG COMMENCES NetTel COURSES @ POST GRADUATE
The University of Lagos has invited applications from
qualified and interested candidates for admission into
the NetTel@Africa M. Sc. and PGD courses to start
running in July 2005.
Information about NetTel@Africa, a continent-wide
network for capacity building and knowledge exchange in
ICT policy and regulations can be obtained from the
network's website www.nettelafrica.org
The overall goal of the NetTel@Africa is to make the
provision of ICT more efficient and ubiquitous to the
citizens of targeted countries. Achievement of the goal
will require improved policy and regulatory reform and
increased private sector investment in ICT
(telecommunications sector). To this end, NetTel@Africa
seeks to strengthen the capabilities of policy making
and regulatory bodies, private sector operators,
consumer advocacy groups and academic institutions that
can assist with sustained capacity building in the ICT
sector.
The Center to Bridge the Digital Divide (CBDD) works in
partnership with the Leland Initiative and the Regional
Center for Southern Africa of the United States Agency
for International Development (USAID). As an associate
of Internews under DOTGOV, CBDD serves as a catalyst to
mobilize the ideas, efforts, and resources of the public
sector, corporate America, the higher education
community, telecommunications associations and other
knowledge resource partners to reach shared goals and
objectives. Additional resource partners include,
Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), DFID
(U.K.), Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA),
International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the
UNDP Asia Pacific Development Information Programme (APDIP)
and the Telecommunications Research Project, Centre for
Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong.
For more information mowete@hotmail.com
HOUSE RULES ON INVESTIGATORS' FINDINGS
ON PENTASCOPE
The Lower House recently reviewed a report of the House
Committee on Communications, which investigated the
Pentascope Management Contract of NITEL.
The report shoots down the core-investor approach to
NITEL's privatization and suggests that the company [51%
of the company really] should not be sold for less than
the IILL price of US$1.317Billion. It appropriates blame
to BPE and its consultants and advisers for the major
defects in the failed contract and suggests finding
answers to seven critical questions which it posed.
Most worrisome of the investigators' findings may be the
letter of confirmation of an agreement on technical
support which Pentascope claimed was between it and
KPN[Netherlands] and on which the management contract
was purported to have been largely based. The letter was
found to have been a forgery, through and thorough.
The Lower House evoked very harsh sanctions on all those
found culpable and asks that money be recovered from the
consultants who did shoddy jobs.
The report, apart from coming as a good reference
document for students of management, is probably a good
footnote for those who write history as the subject
under reference is a bad case of an insulting fraud.
Harsh sanctions, of course, are known in these parts to
be mere pronouncements which serve the immediate need to
soothe agitated nerves.
Telecom Investment market & NITEL Privatisation
By Augustine Chiedu Odinma
One of the reasons that militated against NITEL
privatisation was that the investment market was very
unfriendly. Indeed, this was the reason advanced by BPE
for not finding an operator to be interested in the
privatisation process in 2002. There is currently
unprecedented enthusiasm from many quarters with regards
to the fact that many operators have applied as core
investors for NITEL privatisation. I have heard people
say that this is because the investment market have
changed or improved. We examined this assertion by using
a key indicator, stock price to see how the markets are
performing. Our analyses show that the Telecom market
has not necessarily improved, but tends to be stable.
Has the Investment Market Improved?
In Table 1, it can be observed that the stock prices
fell sharply in 2001 after the Dot Com or Telecom Bust.
Observe that in 2002 that the stock price of the five
highest ranked operators in the world fell to between
$15 and $40. In Table 2, we observe that from January
2003 up until March 3, 2005, the same stock of the same
operators still hovers between $15 and $40. In other
words there is no significant improvement in the
investment market, other than that in Table 2, we can
see that for each the operators their respective since
2002 seem to be close to each other, thereby suggestine
some level of stability in the prices for the last two
years.
Table 1: Stock Prices of the Five Top Operators (2000
–2002)
DATE
NTT
VERIZON
SBC
BT
1-Mar-00
77.66
57.12
39.98
181.97
1-Aug-01
22.37
48.85
40.13
62.61
1-May-02
22.6
43
34.29
40.79
Table 2: Stock Prices for Five Top Operators (2003 –
2005)
DATE
NTT
VERIZON
SBC
BT
May-03
18.06
34.58
25.46
32.09
Feb-04
23.28
36.86
24.01
33.66
Feb-05
21.67
35.97
24.06
40.27
Specifically, in the Table 1, BT, the giant operator in
EU fell from about $181 in 2000 to about $40 by May of
2002. But up until March 3, 2005 when this sample was
taken, BT stock was still about $40 as can be seen in
Figure 2 and Table 2. NTT, the most formidable operator
in Japan and in Asia fell from about $78 in 2000 to $23
in 2002, and since that time to March 2003, the stock of
NTT hover around $18 and $23. Similarly, Verizon and
SBC, the US top operators fell from $57 to $43 and from
$40 to $34 respectively from 2000 to 2002. As at March
3, 2005, Verizon and SBC are trading at about $36 and
$24 respectively, which are much less than the 2002
values. Thus, one can safely infer that there seem to be
stability in the telecom stock market, but not
necessarily improved, so also is the investment market.
In conclusion, since the investment market cannot be
demonstrated to have changed significantly, the current
enthusiasm and comments that many operators are showing
interest as a result of improvements in the investment
market is misplaced and must be carefully examined. The
interest shown to my mind is based on the fact that most
of the operators felt that NITEL would probably be sold
for a very devalued price. I stand corrected, but if
NITEL is sold for a price less than what IILL could not
pay, then my assessment of why some of the operators
have shown interest stands. We must always remember,
particularly those charged with privatisation must
always remember that NITEL is a national treasure.
Prof. Augustine Chiedu Odinma is a Telecom/Internet
Technologies Consultant. He can be reached on
aodinma@yahoo.com
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 191
CHEAPER PHONES IN 10 MONTHS
Cheaper mobile phone services may become the lot of
Nigerians in ten months time when the recent expression
of intention by NCC to allow current CDMA telcos to
migrate to mobile services would have become a reality.
This is the view of four consultant-analysts who
recently diagnosed the Nigerian telecom industry in a
midnight forum facilitated by THE EXECUTIVE CYBERSCHUUL
in Abuja. The experts, 2 Nigerians, a Ghanaian and a
South African were in Abuja for the recent ICT Africa
Investment Summit and they were cornered for a synthesis
of the Nigerian telecom industry. The group commended
the various initiatives of NCC, which, apart from
forging a healthy industry, is also noted for its
loyalty to Nigerian consumers without hurting its
fairness to service providers. The group sees NCC's
moves as capable of keeping the per-second charge of
mobile service to not more than 26 Kobo, come February
2006.
On the recent dislocation of senior executives within
the industry, it was the consensus that the sack of the
highest paid Nigerian in MTN is a minus for the
industry. Details of the sack were not exactly known but
it was nonetheless a bad omen for development regardless
that some of the experts concerned are, strictly
speaking, expatriates in their country.
No significantly high opinion was made of Nigeria's
recent dive for a Chinese funded rural telephony scheme
under a $200 million investment which was the meat of an
MOU signed recently in Beijing between Nigeria and
Huawei. The group considers Nigeria as capable of
developing with her resources without going into such
mortgages. Why should a country sign such an MOU? What
are private companies available in the industry to do?
On the worries about antitrust behaviour within the
industry, the group feels that it is a normal fallout in
any emerging market. No fuss about Nigeria's case
because 'the umpire is right on top of the issues' and
it is there to put all players under the command of its
whistle".
THE NEW DATA-DRIVEN ECONOMY AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
It is obvious that telecoms in Nigeria is undergoing a
major shift as consumers are demanding for not just
plain voice services but also internet/data services. In
recent times there has been a spirited drive by PTOs and
GSM operators to provide data services to customers as
more people begin to appreciate the value of data.
At first it was the PTOs, migrating their systems to the
robust CDMA 1x 2000 platform. Of recent, the GSM
operators have stepped to the plate with GPRS services.
Without doubt, this is a welcome development, as the
implication is that we will see greater internet
penetration in the country. However, the salient
question is, are the operators delivering on their
claims or this is just another marketing-driven gimmick?
Do these services deliver the goods and are there
effective channels for customer support?
For example, the CEO of a fast growing consulting firm
reports that he signed up for internet/fax services on
XPT, but had to terminate the service some months down
the road after it began to consistently fail to deliver.
An ICT firm has a similar story to tell about
Multi-Links internet services. After working fine for a
few months, the connection simply failed to work any
longer. The CEO of the company says that Multi-Links
kept billing them for a services that wasn't working.
After a number of fruitless calls to Multi-Links the
company simply gave up the phone box.
In a more recent instance, an ICT consultant who uses
GloMobile's GPRS internet services says that GPRS
service suddenly went dead at his location over four
weeks ago. According to him, he has made several calls
to GloMobile customer care and inspite of this, the
service is still non-functional at his location.
Customer Support
It is instructive to note that in all cited cases - as
in others - speaking with a customer care representative
brought no results. In many instances, customer care
representatives do not even quite understand the
problems the subscribers are reporting, further
complicating an already difficult situation.
It is expected that the NCC will begin to pay more
attention to putting structures in place to prevent
cunsumers from being defrauded by operators who make
claims they do not deliver on. The Executive
Vice-Chairman of the NCC, Mr Ernest Ndukwe put it right
when at a recent Telecoms Consumer Parliament, he said,
"Operators are engaged in marketing-driven competition,
but the truth of the matter is that the company that
will win at the end of the day is the one that will
offer quality service and customer satisfaction
efficiently and consistently".
Meanwhile, a poll commissioned by Netonomy, a UK-based
organisation reveals that customers are no longer
content with speaking with a company representative on
phone but now expect to be able to manage their
telephone account - top up airtime, modify tariff, and
analyse their bill - online by themselves.
A statement by the Executive Vice-President of Netonomy
says, "It seems... self-service will now become the
primary channel for customer sales and service".
For operators keen on generating revenue from
value-added services such as Web and WAP, the survey
indicates that implementing self-service facilities will
make a significant difference in customer service and
satisfaction.
This should provide further food for thought for
Nigerian telecoms operators, as most of them do not even
have a channel for customers to interact with them
online.
At the end of the day, it all boils down to the fact
that telcos may need to invest more in delivering on the
services they advertise, on training support staff, on
implementing effective and customer-friendly support
systems, and spend a lesser share of their budget on
marketing and publicity, as the case seems to be at the
moment.
THE LIFE I USED TO DREAM OF
by Yomi Adegboye
It is a bright Wednesday afternoon, and here I am at my
favourite eatery in Lagos. I am enjoying a quiet meal
all by myself - and I am really taking my time at it.
Under normal circumstances, I should be in a hurry to
get back to the office, but I am not.
In the last 30 minutes I have been sitting here, I have
published webpages, responded to customer support issues
via e-mail, managed webhosting accounts, executed secure
online transactions, made some posts on my favourite
online discussion forums and kept in touch with friends
via Yahoo Messenger.
No, my favourite eatery does not have an Internet Cafe
section. I am taking advantage of my mobile network's
GPRS service. I know of others who use a laptop and
phone connection to do those things I have listed, but I
consider a laptop cumbersome, so I use my Nokia 9500
Communicator as a stand-alone device. But I digress.
The point is, I was able to do this only in my dreams a
few years ago, as there were no networks offering mobile
data services. Now, it is a different story. I expect
that in another 6 months, more networks - GSM and CDMA -
will roll out similar data services enabling more and
more Nigerians to stay connected to the world wherever
and whenever - and at a comfortable price (how could I
have forgotten that bit?).
My network's GPRS service is not [yet] as reliable as I
would want it to be (for example, I barely ever get a
smooth connection at my office, and it recently stopped
working at my residence), but at least it works at my
favourite eatery...
Ah... This is the life - the life I used to dream of.
'Yomi Adegboye is editor of GoSmartMobile.com, a site
that provides useful information about mobile data
technology in Nigeria , industry news, as well as
reviews of phones, and mobile data services.
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 190
CONFAB GETS MEMORANDUM ON ICT AS REFORM TOOL
A memorandum, which draws attention of the on-going
National Political Reform Conference to the need to
reform Nigeria's InfoTech infrastructure along with a
reform of Nigeria's political structure was submitted to
the Confab secretariat in Abuja last week. It is
produced by a group of 22 Nigerians, accomplished ICT
pro's, interrelated related in cyberspace and whose
normal residence scatter across 3 continents.
The 2,212 word memorandum invites attention of the
conferees to also examine key challenges and proffer
functional ICT intervention and constructive sectoral
engagement in science & technology, infotech
infrastructure, education & health, governance &
legislation, industry & commerce, research &
development, public-private partnership, global
competitiveness, and rural community development as an
instrument of socio-political reform in Nigeria.
For a full-length of the memorandum, please take the
link to
http://www.nigerianmuse.com/important_documents/ict_g22_memo_to_nprc.htm
NITEL SPREADS IP
The Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd made good the
promise to present its Wholesale IP services to the
Nigerian market via a launch in Lagos during the week,
two weeks after a similar show in Abuja. A ride on its
SAT 3 investment, a fundamentally strong 3-tier POP and
8-ring self healing fibre optic architecture, a
consciousness of its strong institutional capacity and
the prospects of a body undergoing fundamental
transformation appear to the basis, BPE permitting, for
which high hopes in its professed network optimization
are placed.
The First National Operator may, after all, be the
provider to watch in these days when it appears there is
a rebirth and a promise for high quality, cost effective
widespread of access to the internet.
FRONT BURNER ISSUES:
'ANTI-COMPETITION' PRACTICES
The academics of anti-competition practices and its
implication for the telecommunications sector was
discussed, at ATCON's one day seminar on the subject at
the weekend. Top lawyers from several telcos except from
a few, notably the National Operators, were present at
the seminar.
Conscious of its central responsibility to its members,
ATCON says it is anxious that the stresses which have
begun to manifest in the industry are better discussed
at such seminar levels than to allow it to be a subject
for consumer adjudication.
There is no doubt stresses have begun to manifest in
interrelationship of all players arising largely from a
lack of uniform interpretation of agreements. Unarguably
at the center of strained interrelationships is the SNO
which is slugging it out virtually on all fronts: with
NITEL on 'SAT 3', with the Regulator on 'flagrant
disobedience', with other telcos on 'unilateral
disconnection' and with itself on 'tariff imposition'.
the reach is amazing CYBERSCHUULNEWS : NOW YOUR
REACH-OUT PLATFORM
Limited advert places are now available in
CYBERSCHUULNEWS and the following gives a guide to using
them.
NEWSreview
CONFAB GETS MEMORANDUM ON ICT AS REFORM TOOL
A memorandum, which draws attention of the on-going
National Political Reform Conference to the need to
reform Nigeria's InfoTech infrastructure along with a
reform of Nigeria's political structure was submitted to
the Confab secretariat in Abuja last week. It is
produced by a group of 22 Nigerians, accomplished ICT
pro's, interrelated related in cyberspace and whose
normal residence scatter across 3 continents.
The 2,212 word memorandum invites attention of the
conferees to also examine key challenges and proffer
functional ICT intervention and constructive sectoral
engagement in science & technology, infotech
infrastructure, education & health, governance &
legislation, industry & commerce, research &
development, public-private partnership, global
competitiveness, and rural community development as an
instrument of socio-political reform in Nigeria.
For a full-length of the memorandum, please take the
link to
http://www.nigerianmuse.com/important_documents/ict_g22_memo_to_nprc.htm
NITEL SPREADS IP
The Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd made good the
promise to present its Wholesale IP services to the
Nigerian market via a launch in Lagos during the week,
two weeks after a similar show in Abuja. A ride on its
SAT 3 investment, a fundamentally strong 3-tier POP and
8-ring self healing fibre optic architecture, a
consciousness of its strong institutional capacity and
the prospects of a body undergoing fundamental
transformation appear to the basis, BPE permitting, for
which high hopes in its professed network optimization
are placed.
The First National Operator may, after all, be the
provider to watch in these days when it appears there is
a rebirth and a promise for high quality, cost effective
widespread of access to the internet.
FRONT BURNER ISSUES:
'ANTI-COMPETITION' PRACTICES
The academics of anti-competition practices and its
implication for the telecommunications sector was
discussed, at ATCON's one day seminar on the subject at
the weekend. Top lawyers from several telcos except from
a few, notably the National Operators, were present at
the seminar.
Conscious of its central responsibility to its members,
ATCON says it is anxious that the stresses which have
begun to manifest in the industry are better discussed
at such seminar levels than to allow it to be a subject
for consumer adjudication.
There is no doubt stresses have begun to manifest in
interrelationship of all players arising largely from a
lack of uniform interpretation of agreements. Unarguably
at the center of strained interrelationships is the SNO
which is slugging it out virtually on all fronts: with
NITEL on 'SAT 3', with the Regulator on 'flagrant
disobedience', with other telcos on 'unilateral
disconnection' and with itself on 'tariff imposition'.
NEW TECHNOLOGY/PRODUCT
CITY-WIDE WIMAX DEBUTS IN BRIGHTON
The first fully developed and operational wireless
broadband service in the UK, code named The Brighton
Metranet, using the next-generation WiMAX technology was
launched last week in Brighton.
The Metranet is a massive wireless broadband
infrastructure that covers around 90 per cent of the
city, providing high-speed internet access to students
and schools in the area, thus giving it out as more of
an experiment than of a business investment.
ACCESS, INTERNET ACCESS PLEASE!!!
Incumbent IT Youth Ambassador, Mr Edward Popoola, 23,
whose passion for ICT applications has made him a wonder
to watch in his implementation of the CYBERSCHUUL's
youth development program recently circulated a record
of his pains and gains of internet access not only in
the course of discharging his community focused
responsibilities but also his own unique way of finding
mental relaxation. He went for trading his PC for
Internet Access and explains why, how and whither in the
following essay written by him.
Ambassador Trades PC for Access
By Edward Popoola
me@edwardpopoola.com www.edwardpopoola.com
In a world where information and knowledge drive the
economy, where the relevance of countries - and its
peoples - is measured, not by how much concrete wealth
they have, but by how much relevant information they
could use to aid development. One cannot rule out the
importance of the Internet as a medium for Information
creation and dissemination. The Internet has come a long
way and people the world over are today leveraging on
its power to connect with other people that have access
to it - for the purpose of knowledge sharing. The
importance of the Internet cannot be overemphasized in
our contemporary world.
The Internet is however expensive in Nigeria. Access
costing close to $1 per hour is relatively expensive
taking into consideration the "per capita" income of the
country. The cost implication is more pronounced when
you have to constantly keep in touch through emails,
when you hold online meetings as a substitute to
physical meetings, and when you have online content to
manage and keep up to date. Summing all that up could
cost up to an average of $10 per week!
Sometimes, sacrifices must be made for the greater good.
As much as accessing the Internet is taking a good chunk
of my finances and the effect telling on my expenses, I
find it hard to seperate myself from this newly found
love. Its a place where my career intersects with my
service to the young people of my country as Nigeria's
Information Technology Youth Ambassador. I find it
difficult to convince my parents on why I spend so much
of their hard earned money on the Internet and not on
food or clothes. As a matter of fact, an explanation
will do more harm then good - especially having
understood that they attended school when the "black and
white" television was the most popular representation of
telecommunications.
I have been living like this for the past two years,
prefering to spend my money on Internet access rather
than on food, clothes or girls! I like what I do and I
love when I don't have to explain the reason to anyone.
However, the more I work on the Internet - building
others and myself for the knowledge economy - the more
there is to do and I thought of a way of solving my
problem of access. I couldn't continue the way I used
to, otherwise, I would wake up one day to discover that
I am bankrupt… I needed a quick and fast alternative.
I sat down to think about my problem and how best I
could solve it. My mind after wandering far and near
came and settled like dew on my computer system. That
was my first PC and I have been using it for the past 3
years. No upgrade, nothing new! It has however been
serving me diligently except for the occasional noise
from the hard disk before its eventual "pack up". For 3
months, I had not been using my computer and had been
relying on my friends' PCs - and the Internet. It was
lying idle while the market value kept depreciating. The
only alternative was either to fix the hard disk or to
sell it off and add some money for a new and better one.
Then came the idea. In order to save my system from
complete deterioration and loss of its market value, the
best and wise alternative was to trade the system for
Internet time! Actually it was the cafe owner that first
suggested this idea. I compared the value of the system
with my paying an average of $10 per week for Access. I
thought I needed access more than my computer system in
the short and long run. This was not because I would not
be using one, but because I could still depend on my
friend's. It sounded reasonable then when I sealed the
deal that brought me unlimited Internet access in place
of my computer system. This was at a privately-owned
cybercafe in my school.
The good news is that I can now spend more time on the
Internet - as much as I want, without any financial
commitment. But the bad news is that while I save money
for a new laptop, I now fall among the millions of
Nigerian youths who do not own a computer system to
themselves.CYBERSCHUULNEWS 189
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 189
NIGERIA GETS RENEWED WORLD ATTENTION
Few hours after it published NITEL's wholesale IP
services, CYBERSCHUULNEWS received not a few
international references of note on the details of the
services, spread, and the investment potentials.
Investment is about availability of information and the
First National Operator may have turned the heat on to
correct past marketing deficiencies which sincere due
diligence would have revealed to whoever cared to find
out. Funding for the FNO's 8-ring fibre structure and
return of a stalled construction of the SNO's
trans-Nigeria fibre network may be all what will
reassure investors that Nigeria's network is truly on
its way up.
ATCON PROFESSIONALISES ITS SECRETARIAT
The Association of Telecommunications Companies of
Nigeria, ATCON, has restructured its secretariat.
Kola Olayebi-Edward, the Association's spokesman
announced recently that Abieyuwa Igbinovia [Mrs], a
barrister, ex-NCC, now heads the secretariat as
Executive Secretary while ATCON's erstwhile pointman,
Godwin Morgan now takes charge of Strategic Marketing.
In tow is a lineup of technical talkshows.
It is not unusual for Nigerian trade associations to get
jerked into a flurry of activities inspired by the need
to confront immediate common enemies. The association
has been sponsored by one of its own to put Anti-trust
and anti-competition practices on the front burner by
hearing out top lawyers and industry eggheads at an
April 29 talkshop on the subject.
Be Prepared for Cyberterrorism
Computerworld: Companies must prepare for terrorism in
all aspects of their businesses, experts say, and the
threat of cyberterrorism should be taken particularly
seriously. Networked systems are vulnerable because of
their accessibility by way of the Internet, the ready
availability of malicious tools, the increased exposure
of globalized infrastructures and the interdependence of
systems, which multiplies the consequences of an attack.
Companies should prepare incident management and
business continuity plans to guard against the loss and
disruption of data, confidentiality, system integrity
and the disruption or denial of availability
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 188
SNO GETS NCC'S SANCTION
FINE OF N34MILLION SLAMMED ON GLOBACOM
The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, has sunk
teeth into Globacom's skin for playing foul on
interconnection.
For some time, there had been loud murmuring within the
industry especially among service providers which
consider themselves small that the Second National
Operator was evoking disconnection sanction of its own
without going through the due process.
Matters reached a head in November 2004 when ATCON, the
umbrella body of telecommunications companies which
operate in Nigeria, complained openly through its
President, Charles Joseph, that NCC was standing by
observing Globacoms misdemeanor in this regard.
In matters like this, going through due process is the
law and it is now clear the regulator must have spent
time doing just that while various insinuations filled
the air. The most silly version is the argument that
glo's promoter being from Mr President's state is above
the law.
NCC must have had enough of the SNO's flagrant
disrespect to its rules and directives as it imposed a
fine totaling N34million against Globacom on March 7,
2005. Little fine alright, but it is symbolic.
“At the expense of repetition, the Commission wishes to
stress that the issue of unilateral disconnection of
operators without its approval is expressly prohibited
by law. A situation where an operator does not only
unilaterally disconnect other operators but also refuses
to heed a Direction from the Regulator to reconnect them
is inimical to the growth of the industry and must be
discouraged”, That's what NCC said to justify its
sanction on Globacom.
It is not unusual for telcos that feel conscious of
their 'big' size to do various things which amount to
intimidation of their competitors, consumers or even,
sometimes, the regulator. They have a field day in
regimes where the regulator is ignorant, corrupt, timid
or all of the above. Such overbearing however gets
curtailed where the regulator is vigilant, professional
and responsive. Nigeria could not have had a better
situation.
In the past, NITEL, later MTN, played such ostrich when
it got into their head that they were big. It takes a
regulatory bite to cut them to size.
Remember 1995, a new MD was announced for NITEL on NTA's
seven o'clock news on a Friday evening. Monday morning
9.00am, the MD resumed at NITEL's head office and called
a management meeting for 11.00am. By 12Noon several
links of the only fledging value-added provider, which
brought consumers into NITEL's network, had been yanked
off. Such arrogance continued until the First National
Operator found itself trailing behind other networks in
the game of numbers. Today, mute is the word from that
end, even before Pentascope finally came to diminish
NITEL's stature further.
In 2003, it took one-day of subscribers stay-off mobile
services for Mobile service providers to realize that
customers could also bite. Although that did not reduce
MTN's arrogance and disrespect to the directives of the
regulator, it took the coming of Globacom and its show
of size for the south African firm to come round softer
these days. It recently announced a latter-day
compliance with the regulator's directive that it should
credit customers who were made to pay N100 migration fee
into per-second billing against the regulator's
directive on the matter. It is a different matter if
infact it has done so in real terms beyond newspaper
adverts.
It is not surprising that the SNO is at it acting out
its size today. In due course, telcos, both big and
small, will realise that all networks are important and
it makes better sense to respect the referee's whistle
on this field of play.
NCC's maiden sanction on the SNO may well be the timely
signal to all concerned that if the regulator can bite
light, it can bite deep.
UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL ALLIANCE:
A Quick Overview and Call for Participation
by 'Gbenga Sesan
In a proposal dated 22 November 2004 and submitted to
the World Summit in the Information Society's Task Force
on Financial Mechanisms for Information and
Communication Technologies for Development, the
Association for Progressive Communications (APC)
discussed existing financial mechanisms -- which are
able to provide financial resources for infrastructure
development in highlighted instances.
The proposal argued that the voluntary Digital
Solidarity Fund's exact role in financing ICT is
unclear. APC also went ahead to state that:
"Many developing countries are hindered in their access
to the global economy by the inadequate state of their
ICT backbone infrastructure in a new global context,
where the global economy runs on global information
networks. There is a compelling argument that the
extension of network infrastructure in developing
countries is a global public good that benefits everyone
because of the value of network externalities. The value
of the global information network increases in value as
more national networks and individual users are added.
It is not simply a matter of ICT access being increased
within developing countries but also a matter of
increased access to the markets of developing countries
and of developing country access to global markets.
"In developed countries, it has been estimated that
during the telecoms boom of the 1990s, around $150
billion was spent building unnecessary telecoms networks
in America and another $50 billion elsewhere. Building
ICT networks in the developing world will not cost
anything like these figures. A recent DFID study has
shown that building regional ICT infrastructure backbone
networks in Africa will cost between $500-1000milion.
This is eminently achievable."
In detailing the core of its proposal, the APC stated
that, "what is needed is not a new fund but a mechanism
for mobilizing new financial resources to achieve a
finite goal - the extension of ICT backbone networks in
the developing world, where risk and reward are
uncertain. What is required is the deployment of
sufficient public finance to provide incentives for the
private sector to engage in public-private partnerships
to build the required infrastructure. At the same time,
a mechanism for providing incentives to developing
country governments to create enabling policy
environments for the use of the infrastructure in a
non-discriminatory and cost-effective manner is also
needed."
APC argued that the World Summit on the Information
Society's Declaration and Plan of Action provides a new
context for such a body to be established because it
recognizes the role of four constituencies that are
integral to the successful building of the Global
Information Society: governments, the private sector,
civil society and international institutions. The
proposal stated that, "the Association for Progressive
Communications proposes the establishment of a
multi-stakeholder body, a Global ICT Infrastructure
Alliance to undertake the tasks mentioned ..." APC also
stated that a, "global ICT Infrastructure Alliance will
be able to achieve greater collaboration between public
and private sector entities in a non-competitive
framework, which is not possible through FDI or most
public-private partnerships".
Five months after the proposal was made, it appears that
the attention of the world is being drawn in the
direction of the proposed Global Alliance. In a draft
paper titled, "Principles/elements for the establishment
of a Global Alliance for ICT and Development" and dated
April 1 2005, stakeholders have been invited to "provide
their inputs, comments, suggestions and ideas for the
further development of these initial elements that will
be taken up at the open consultations in Dublin to be
held on 13 April 2005 that will be held in conjunction
with the Eighth meeting of the United Nations ICT Task
Force". The paper also expresses a very strong linkage
between the Millennium Summit + 5 and the World Summit
on the Information Society. The Alliance would meet the
need and demand for an inclusive global forum and
platform for policy dialogue and consensus-building;
facilitate the creation and inter-linkage of networks;
will not have an operational role; and will catalyze
innovative, forward-looking multi-stakeholder
partnerships across the spectrum of ICT4D policy.
The Alliance would function under the patronage and
leadership of the Secretary-General of the United
Nations but will maintain administrative, budgetary and
thematic autonomy with support for establishment of the
Alliance (including the start-up phase which is being
spearheaded by the United Nations). The Working Document
reveals that "the Alliance would comprise a General
Forum, Executive Board, and Secretariat. Members of the
Executive Board would be elected for a period of 1-2
years by the General Forum with a view to a balanced
representation of all key stakeholders, with rotating
leadership and membership of the Executive Board. The
Alliance would have a ten-year term through 2015 and it
would be great for stakeholders (governments, civil
society, private sector, international organisations,
etc) to note the timeline for preparation, establishment
and launch of the Global Alliance, as quoted below (all
dates are for the year 2005).
29 March: Principles submitted to Task Force Bureau
1 April: Principles submitted to Task Force Members
6 April: Principles posted on the Task Force open
website for comment
15 April: Meeting of the ICT Task Force adopts:
o the key elements of the principles of the Alliance
o the timeline for its establishment
o the remit and composition of a balanced and
representative multi-stakeholder "start-up" group that
would lead the process of further
consultations aimed at ensuring broad buy-in and support
for the concept, and of the finalization of the Alliance
charter
Mid-May : Proposal submitted to the Secretary-General
for approval of the key elements, as well as the
establishment of the "start-up" group
13 September: The UN ICT Task Force organizes a
high-level multi-stakeholder round table immediately
prior to the MS+5 at the United Nations in
New York. The establishment of the Alliance will be
announced in the course of the round table
14-16 November : The Alliance is formally launched at a
special side event during the Tunis phase of WSIS
Your participation could help define the success-rate of
the alliance and the eventual gain for the global
Information Society -- especially those who are
presently underserved.
References:
(1) Global Alliance Principles (Working Document)
(2) Global ICT Infrastructure Alliance proposal
(Association for Progressive Communications)
[Mr 'Gbenga Sesan, pioneer Nigeria's IT Youth Ambassador
can be reached on me@gbengasesan.com website
www.gbengasesan.com ]
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 187
GLOBAL FAIRS /IT & TELECOM DIGEST
TO SYNERGISE
Global Fairs T-T Messe has entered into partnership with
IT & Telecom Digest as media Partner to host ICTe in May
2005.
Global Fairs T-T Messe is an ICT Media and Events agency
from Osnabrück, Germany while IT & Telecom Digest is
Nigeria's authoritative monthly magazine devoted to
Telecommunications and ICT. Global Fairs T-T Messe has
been involved in organising CeBIT, the world's biggest
ICT show while IT & Telecom Digest is known to have
pioneered several media initiatives within the telecom
industry especially the Nigerian Information Technology
and Telecom, NITTA, Awards. With a modest beginning in
2000, IT & Telecom Digest magazine has, unarguably, via
40 editions, taken Nigeria to a clearly new height in
specialised magazine journalism.
TECHNOLOGYTIMES NEWSPAPER DEBUTS
@ CTO 2005
Technology Times, Nigeria's first Internet news portal
on ICT, will commence its print edition at the CTO 2005,
May 16, 2005. The free daily newspaper will report the
five day CTO trade show which theme is "Using Technology
to Foster a Productive Domestic Economic Environment".
The news portal which went online in July 2004 and has
attracted a wide audience is the initiative of Nigeria's
Shina Badaru, a truly focused, award-winning journalist
who has traversed a few high flying newsmedia including
This Day, Business Day, National Interest, Daily
Independent, etc.
The news really is that the forthcoming newspaper will
be the precursor to the weekly Technology Times
newspaper due for launch in July 2005 when ICT reporting
in Nigeria would have taken a sure turn into the
revolution lane.
CYBERSCHUULNEWS HITS IT BIG
CYBERSCHUULNEWS is in a different world of its own. The
e-bulletin which started as an in-house e-journal for
alumni of THE EXECUTIVE CYBERSCHUUL, debuted in October
2001 with 86 subscribers, opened up eventually to
attract wider audience and ended up splitting into 3
e-bulletins, each focused 120 degrees from the other.
The publications focus on Telecom-ICT news with a bent
for facilitating telecommunication education and
investment in the Telecom sector and have witnessed a
rise in average daily subscription from 30 in recent
past to to 37 now. Today, 20,058 Telecom/ICT pro's,
executives and enthusiasts in all continents read it
weekly. In March alone 881 new subscribers, the highest
number ever in one month, signed on and the Institute's
alumni have indicated the desire to maintain a
link-column in one of the publications.
MTS' SUBSCRIBERS GET INCENTIVES
MTSFirstWireless in an apparent celebration of several
accolades and awards it has received in recent time has
announced a massive slash in the price of high-end
phones, including camera and slider phones, which are
now offered at less than 50 per cent of the previous
prices.
What is more, subscribers who were unable to recharge
their accounts within validity periods on the MTS First
Wireless network have received blanket waivers just as
amounts remaining on the subscriber's account when they
enter into the Reserve Period regime will now be added
up to their credits when they recharge their accounts.
Mr. Azuka Ndulewe, MTS Marketing Manager who announced
these incentives also said subscribers on the MTS First
Wireless network could now accumulate up to maximum of
360 days active validity if they recharge their accounts
appropriately, as against the former active validity
regime in which subscribers can only accumulate a
maximum validity period of 180 days at any given time.
Mr. Ndulewe said in addition to the blanket waivers on
thousands of subscriber lines that have ordinarily lost
their validity to continue enjoying the services, the
regime of sweeping of subscriber's account, a measure
introduced to check abuse of absolute no access charge
in the company's network, have also been waived.
Henceforth, amounts remaining on the subscriber's
account when they enter into the Reserve Period regime
will now be added up to their credits when they recharge
their accounts.
Amazing! Is n't it?
GLO GLOWS
Glomobile, Nigeria's leading telecommunications
network's mobile wing has been announcing new services
at dizzying speed. With little time to digest the rush
of information coming from there, it will take a while
to report them accurately. We shall in due course.
NSE CHARGES ENGINEERS TO LEARN TELECOM FOR BUSINESS
Vice President for professional development of the
Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE, Engr. Nkechi Isigwe
on April 5, 2005 asked engineers to use their knowledge
to build business rather than mastering technology for
its own sake. She was addressing a team of 12
telecommunication engineers, from seven companies, who
had just completed a two-weeks training at THE
CYBERSCHUUL under the NSE-CYBERSCHUUL symbiosis for
professional development of telecom engineers.
Coordinator of the program Engr. Titi Omo-Ettu told the
graduating engineers that CYBERSCHUUL's former Enhanced
Induction Training for Telecom Engineers has transformed
to the Advanced Telecommunications Training under the
recent partnership of the Nigerian Society of Engineers
and THE EXECUTIVE CYBERSCHUUL He said subjects such as
Base Station Engineering, VoIP Technology and
Applications and a one-day industry tour of
telecommunications Base Station infrastructure around
Lagos are new additions to the program which would even
enjoy new add-on's in the next editions. All the
trainees reported that the program added new skills and
knowledge to their content and given the opportunity,
they would come again to train at the CYBERSCHUUL.
PRIVITISATION HEADACHE
Privatization of NITEL is generating high decibels of
headache even at a time when it is being reported that
fresh interest to buy into the Nigeria's First National
Operator are being shown from several quarters. The
latest shift in the proposed date of the long awaited
exercise from first quarter to 3rd quarter is generating
new worries. If BPE has a clue to this nagging issue, it
is yet to show it.
But NITEL has to be privatized. Sorry, but it has to.
POWER LINE NOW CARRY BROADBAND
BPL, Broad Band Powerline, the technology that allows
high-speed Internet services via the electric power
outlet, is starting to gain serious interest among
consumers and potential providers in the Western
hemisphere. Obviously a big opportunity for electric
utilities to snatch Internet provider business from
cable, telcos and other companies, but the problems are
also daunting. A planned synergy between Nigeria's NEPA
and south Africa's ESKOM produced an allocated license
to NEPSKOM in 2002 for a power line carriage of
broadband in Nigeria but the license had to be withdrawn
in 2004 by NCC when the initiative appeared not flying.
A few guys in NEPA still tell you though that 'the dream
is not dead'.
AOL goes VoIP
Everybody is doing VoIP these days. America Online
launched its highly anticipated VoIP service last
Thursday April 7.
ICANN ENDORSES AFRiNIC
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN) has now granted full recognition to the African
Network Information Centre (AfriNIC) as the fifth
Regional Internet Registry to allocate numbering
resources for Africa.
The subject of full recognition for Afrinic what topical
at the recent Accra meeting on WSIS where an interest
group devoted time to the issue.
ICANN also announced last Thursday April 8 that it has
designated two new sponsored Top-Level Domains (sTLDs):
.jobs and .travel to be the unique identifiers of
players in the human resource and the travel trade
sectors.
Nigeria recently adopted the Name of NiRA, Nigeria
Internet Registration Association in Lagos when Internet
stakeholders met to agree on formation of an NGO to
administer the .ng Top level Domain [tlD]. A 9-member
Board of Trustees was immediately appointed at the
meeting to Register the adopted name, establish a
secretariat, source seed funding and commence operation
of the NGO.
Analysts however believe that the NGO will modify its
appointed composition of the BoT to make it truly
reflect a non-governmental organization as the BoT is
currently made of more government representatives than
those from the private sector.
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 186
MICROSOFT BRINGS TV TO PALM
For $20 a year, Microsoft Corp. now offers a paid
service that enables people download certain TV shows to
portable devices such as media players and advanced cell
phones. The product was launched last Friday. The
content include sports highlights, shows from Fox
Sports, news and business headlines from MSNBC.com
To hit at the content, users log on to a Web site using
a traditional laptop or desktop computer. Then, they can
download the shows from the computer to the portable
device.
CTO OFFERS ASSISTANCE TO ASIAN COUNTRIES
ON USING ICTs TO REDUCE HUMAN LOSS IN DISASTERS
The Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation (CTO),
has offered to
Asian and Pacific countries the organisation's technical
assistance in helping to minimise the impact of natural
disasters in the region through the more effective use
of ICTs. Although the details are still sketchy, the
point really is that all continents may need this
assistance as the disasters are hardly confined to Asia
these days.
The Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO)
is an international development partnership between
Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth governments,
businesses and civil society organisations focused on
information and communication technologies (ICT) and
development. The CTO supports the international
community's efforts to bridge the digital divide and
promote social and economic development, by delivering
to developing countries unique knowledge-sharing
programmes in the use of ICTs in the specific areas of
telecommunications, IT, broadcasting and the Internet.
Recently, the CTO has significantly reviewed its mandate
to reflect and respond more fully to today's global
development challenge as set in the United Nations
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Today, our mission
is to offer the highest quality programmes for capacity
development, knowledge-sharing and information services,
expand and diversify partnerships between governments,
businesses and other organisations to reduce global
poverty and fulfil the global development agenda for ICT
in the key sectors of food and agriculture, education,
health, e-government and e-commerce. The CTO also
facilitates the
successful development of telecommunications and other
businesses to support social and economic development
objectives of governments and civil society.
CYBERSCHUULNESW 185
NIGERIA INTERNET STAKEHOLDERS ADOPT NiRA
Resolution of the .ng imbroglio moved up a notch last
week when the stakeholders met in Lagos and ratified the
name NiRA [for Nigeria Internet Registration
Association] for the NGO which will manage the affairs.
Although attendance at the meeting was thin, it took a
sagacious handling by the distinguished Prof. I S Diso,
who chaired the proceeding, to make a meaningful
meeting.
The initial suggestion of Nigeria Internet Registration
Authority was modified to Nigeria Internet Registration
Association to respect Nigeria's restriction of the word
'Authority' to government entities. A few stakeholders
argued in favour of the more popular 'xxNIC type of
nomenclature around the world but they almost forgot
that Internet Registration Authority is also commonplace
across the world.[ eg Canada and IANA itself ]
The initial move to constitute the 22 members
representing Internet interest groups as Board of
Trustees, BoT, was modified when all the 'HighTable'
members only were constituted into the BoT. The BoT now
has as members :
Chris Nwannenna Dr.] NCS
Emmanuel Ekuwem [Dr.] NIG
Gabriel Obi [Dr.] CPN
Ibrahim Sehu Diso [Prof.] Kano Sate Government
Ibukun Odusote [Mrs.] Fed Min of Information
Mary Uduma [Mrs.] NCC
Moses Ubaru,[Dr.] NITDA
Tajudeen Oyawoye [Mr.] Presidency
Titi Omo-Ettu [Engr.] NSE
It is understood that that the BoT will drive the young
NGO to register the adopted name, establish a
secretariat, produce a constitution, raise initial
funding and register a Domain Name for the organization.
The first meeting of the Board is slated for April 6 in
Lagos. Chances are that the BoT's membership may
increase to 12 to enable the private sector membership
slightly dominate government appointees and to enable
ISPAN, Internet Services Providers Association of
Nigeria, have a nominee on the Board. It just makes
sense to do so.
MORE INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT FOR TELECOMMUNICATIONS
The Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO)
and the International Telecommunication Users Group
(INTUG) have agreed to collaborate on a number of
critical issues as part of the organisations' aim to
develop multi-stakeholder partnerships that will extend
their efforts in the development of telecommunications
and ICTs especially with regards to consumer broadband
and Internet access in developing countries as well as
in less obvious areas such as communications and
disaster prevention.
INTUG is a non-profit association of national
telecommunications user associations. It was founded in
1974 to act as a single voice for users of
telecommunications. Currently, the Group represents 21
national users associations and has, as Associate
Members, large corporations using telecommunications
services worldwide. With the new agreement with the CTO,
the Group will have access to some 50 governments around
the world.
On the other hand The Commonwealth Telecommunications
Organisation (CTO) is an international development
partnership between Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth
governments, businesses and civil society organisations
focused on information and communication technologies
(ICT) and development.
Please stay tuned to CYBERSCHUULNEWS for more on the
profile of the two collaborating organisations,
HUAWEI MAKES WIDER MOVES
One hell of a big move!. Huawei Technologies, unarguably
biggest Chinese telecom equipment vendor which is making
an impressive showing in the Nigerian market is also
pressing on to get alliances in the west especially with
Nortel. May be with lucent too.
Huawei has remained notable ever since it appeared in
Jo'burg in 1998 ITU EXPO when it made initial contacts
with Nigeria.
With a rare combination of shrewdness and aggressive
marketing, Huawei is not only relying on its strong
political links in Nigeria but also on its technology
and pricing edge over equivalent brands. It is also
promising several attractive carrots which Nigerian
officials need tact to handle.
Huawei's 3G wireless equipment promises over $15billion
by 2007 to overseas markets. It did $2.2billion to
overseas market in 2004 alone and it may have doubled
that by end June 2005. At home in China, Huawei does
everything big.
"Creating an equitable Information Society: Time for
Action"
By ITU
World Telecommunication Day 2005 marks two important
anniversaries for ITU. It will be 140 years since we
began helping the world communicate. From the birth of
the telegraph, through radio and television broadcasting
to satellite communications and the Internet, the work
of ITU has helped harness the power of science and
technology to fulfill a basic human need for
communication. However, 20 years ago, we realized that
not all people were sharing in the social and economic
benefits that telecommunications creates. In 1985 ITU
released the landmark Maitland Report, known as the
‘Missing Link’, which was the first to clearly identify
the digital divide. Since its publication, ITU has been
working in earnest to bring the benefits of ICT to all
of humanity.
In 2003, ITU held the first ever World Summit on the
Information Society in Geneva. The first phase of the
Summit resulted in 175 countries endorsing a Declaration
of Principles and Plan of Action that embrace the idea
of universal and affordable access to ICTs. The second
phase of the Summit, to be held this November in Tunis,
will measure the progress we have made in fulfilling the
specific objectives of the Geneva phase and will call on
all stakeholders to transform the political will
expressed at the first phase into long-term commitments.
To help focus the world’s attention on the importance of
this mission, ITU members have selected the theme
Creating an Equitable Information Society: Time for
Action.
Looking ahead to Tunis, the true test of an engaged,
empowered and equitable Information Society will be the
extent to which today's powerful knowledge-based
communications tools are able to connect different
peoples across geographic, knowledge and information
divides, especially in the most impoverished countries.
The time for action is now.
CYBERSCHULLNEWS 184
NITDA, STAKEHOLDERS SET FOR NiRA
Going by popular web chats, the indications are that
stakeholders in the Nigerian Internet community who will
assemble at MUSON Centre, Lagos on Wednesday March 23
are set to face the major business of establishing the
long awaited NGO which will administer the .ng top level
Domain. Strategists of several professional groups have
filled the web with information which suggest that the
usually brilliant but hardly helpful posturing, and an
unnecessary dissipation of energy on discussing the good
and the bad of NITDA may give way to forging for a
three-point agenda on March 23. Chances are that the
NGO's name [Nigeria Internet Registration Agency, NiRA,
is the most touted of the three names being suggested]
will be adopted, it body will be formally established
and election will hold to appoint its pioneer
executives.
NITDA may soon be reporting to Mr. President that it has
accomplished its one year old mandate of midwifing an
NGO.
TALKED ABOUT THE GLOBAL VILLAGE?
ITS NOW GETTING SMALLER AS
INMARSAT LAUNCHES NEW SATELLITE
March 11, 2005, Inmarsat successfully launched its first
Inmarsat-4 (I-4) satellite on board an Atlas V rocket
from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The launch was carried out
by International Launch Services
Think of one of the biggest Ekene Dili Chukwu buses or
better still the London double-decker bus and weighing
about six tons, the I-4 will deliver a 3G-compatible
broadband data service to mobile users. The satellite is
60 times more powerful, and has 20 times more capacity
than its predecessors, the Inmarsat-3 satellites.
The satellite will now undergo a complex series of
post-launch tests and manoeuvres before being fully
deployed in geostationary orbit, 36,000km above the
Indian Ocean at 64 degrees east. The satellite footprint
will cover Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Indian
sub-continent, most of Asia Pacific, and Western
Australia. What remains of the world, you may ask me!.
What's more, Inmarsat plans to launch a second I-4
satellite in the third quarter of 2005, which will be
located over the Atlantic Ocean at 53 degrees west and
provide service for the Americas. The two I-4 satellites
will then cover 85 per cent of the world's land mass.
When the two satellites are fully operational, currently
expected in the fourth quarter of 2005, Inmarsat intends
to launch its new Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN)
service.
BGAN is an IP and circuit-switched service that will
offer voice telephony and a sophisticated range of
high-bandwidth services, including Internet access,
videoconferencing, LAN and other services, at speeds of
up to 432kbit/s.
Inmarsat's I-4 satellites are built by EADS Astrium and
are part of an eight-year, US$1.5 billion development of
Inmarsat's next-generation satellite network.
ESSAY
Telecoms in Nigeria: An Expert's Assessment
Our meeting this Friday evening had been pre-arranged by
phone. Before our two-phone-call contact, our only
communication had been via email and the periodical
analytical reports on telecoms across Africa, which he
churns out. The gentleman who sauntered into the hotel
lobby was much different from what I'd mentally
expected. Indeed so young did he look that my first
question was "how old are you?" 32, he replied. And to
my mild surprise that he is black and not white, he
replied that it was something he was used to. Many
people think I'm white, until they meet me. He is not a
black South African either. "I'm from Cameroon", he
said. He studied international business, starting off in
France and ending the course at a Tennessee University
in the United States.
The name Guy Zibi, would not ordinarily ring a bell to
people outside of the telecom industry. But for those in
telecom industry analysis, regulation and investment, it
is a name they are all familiar with, in connection with
telecoms in Africa. Zibi has been able to amass for
himself a reputation as a foremost analytical resource
on telecommunications in Africa.
Zibi's global acclaim at an age when many of his
age-mates who were unlucky to have schooled in Nigeria
are busy modifying the dates of birth on their CVs in
desperate bids to clinch elusive jobs, smacks of the
opportunities which western education lays bare. In many
ways it is a reminder to the waste to which Nigeria is
putting millions of its young people via its very
dysfunctional tertiary educational system.
Zibi, erstwhile research director for the international
telecom analyst organization, Pyramid Research is now
director for Pyramid's Europe, Middle East and Africa
Region, a job that gives him oversight of the company's
operations in several countries.
Pyramid Research is today, perhaps the most
authoritative source of information on
telecommunications in Africa and indeed emerging markets
globally. But this didn't happen by accident, says Zibi.
Pyramid has always had a strong focus on emerging
markets. The organization had taken a keen interest in
Nigeria, way before the dawn of what is now known as the
Nigerian telecommunications revolution, such that by the
time the revolution began in 2001, Pyramid already had
deep insight and information to guide its analysis of
the industry.
The initial issues with telecom in Nigeria, Zibi said,
were very fundamental ones. First was, when would the
market open up? The next question was the regulatory
environment. Was it conducive to telecom operations? And
third was the level of risk that would necessarily
attend investment in this sector.
He was not surprised at the amounts ($285million) that
were paid for mobile licenses. Meditel of Morocco (a
subsidiary of Telefonica of Spain) actually paid a
billion dollars for its license in Morocco. (Meditel
came in as a second entrant). What was however
surprising, was that not many foreign players were keen
to contest for the licenses at the time. "Any serious
player investing in Africa should have Nigeria as part
of its strategy. Nigeria has a combination of volume and
rapid growth". Strong demand and a very potent upper
class, are among Nigeria's big attractions, he added.
The tremendous pace of growth in the telecom sector in
the last three to four years, therefore is not
surprising, given the equally massive potential of the
Nigerian market. Vodacom, he says will have to find a
way into Nigeria. If they do not, his speculation is
that in two to three years, MTN may infact become twice
as big as Vodacom.
Could the mobile phone companies have succeeded so well
in Nigeria on account of their tariffs which have been
criticized as being too high? "Pricing is relative", he
said. "From a consumer standpoint, the concerns are
understandable". From a telecom operator standpoint,
however, "the cost of airtime has not appeared
outlandish in any way, given the operating conditions in
the country."
What was clear from the beginning was that tariffs were
not going to be sustainable in the long term, Zibi
explained further. At launch, mobile phone companies
have access to the wealthiest customer base. In
addition, because of the constraints of balancing
network capacity with subscriber demand, tariffs are
usually such as to help manage uptake by networks. So
tariffs within year one and year two of launch are
usually artificial and do not necessarily reflect what
the price levels would be in the future. It is when the
networks get to the fourth and fifth years of operation
that it becomes possible to discern the actual price
levels.
Profit margins by operators also go down with time. He
would be surprised if four years down the line,
operators in Nigeria maintained their profit margins.
Nigeria has done very well in the area of telecom
regulation, Zibi asserted. Five years ago, Nigeria fared
low on all critical indices of regulatory environment
appraisal. There was little or no independence for the
regulator, who in turn had very scant credibility with
the industry and the public at large. Thirdly the
regulator's activities couldn't have been said to be
transparent, while decision making could not have been
said to be robust and timely. The four indices of
independence, credibility, transparency and decision
making efficiency, Zibi said, are the guage by which
operators and investors assess the regulator.
The Nigerian Communications Commission has improved
substantially on all these indices over the last five
years, with the additional enactment of a
telecommunications act in 2003, he added.
One of his missions in Nigeria was to present a paper at
a symposium at e-NNOVATE 2005, an expo on innovation and
value added services in the telecom and technology
sectors, which was to hold on February 3 and 4, but will
now take place on March 21 and 22. What are his views on
the value added services industry?
Mobile value added services, he says are often
overlooked in Africa, because voice is very much at the
core of demand. And this is the case in most markets,
but even more so in Africa. Pyramid's view, however, he
says is that "there is a very strong potential for value
added services in Nigeria", and for good reason. One,
the user base in Nigeria is relatively more
sophisticated in terms of the combination of
sophistication of use of the mobile phone service, the
type of services that consumers like and huge potential
of Nigeria's oil and gas and banking sectors.
This strong potential of value added services is still
much unexploited, on account of focus by mobile phone
companies on voice and capacity building. But not having
value added services as part of a robust medium- to
long-term marketing strategy would be shortsighted of
any operator, he explained. Emphasis will remain on
voice for now, because of strong demand. However, soon
when ARPU (average revenue per user, a telecom index
that averages the revenues that operators amass on their
networks) begins to steeply decline then it will be a
signal to give more focus to value added services.
"Operators cannot afford to ignore value added services
as part of their intrinsic strategy. If you accept the
fact that the Nigerian user base is sophisticated, then
you must prime yourself to this reality. The middle and
upper markets are very ripe for value added services".
And focus on value added services pays, he says. In the
Phillipines, whose user base is just about as
sophisticated as Nigeria's for instance, operators are
already generating up to 40% of revenues from value
added services.
Are there any specific value added service applications
which in his view could do very well in Nigeria? Value
added service applications he says, tend to be country
specific. What has worked magic in one country may not
necessarily work the same magic in another, because
there are often several socio-economic elements at play
in determining success. What is most important is the
creativity of operators in evolving and promoting
applications that are of demonstrable benefit to
consumers.
In Kenya he says, there was a "killer application" that
enabled market women compare prices of goods in real
time (killer application in telecoms refers to a very
successful application, SMS for instance). Women could
see the practical value of being able to compare the
prices at which merchandise was sold at different
markets before setting out for any particular market,
and they adopted this value added service readily. The
market for value added services will come with the right
application.
What is his prognosis of Nigeria's telecom industry?
Traditionally, he says, operators with the strongest
financial muscle have always performed best. Funding is
therefore going to be key. The operator with the
strongest financial muscle to take care of its growth
and withstand competition stands the best chance of
leading the industry in the years to come. Market
saturation is still a few years away. So operator
strategy will soon shift from customer acquisition focus
to one of customer loyalty and retention. This will be
the true test of competitiveness and obviously "we will
find that some operators are better at optimizing than
others".
What are the prospects of another round of GSM licensing
in 2006, given that the market already has four players?
By 2006, the real industry profitability should become
clearer, and this will determine the feasibility of
another licensing. An additional license, however, will
make the market even more competitive than it currently
is.
The Pyramid Group for which Zibi works has its origins
in Boston, USA, where it is headquartered and offices in
London, Miami and Hong Kong. It is from London that Zibi
oversees the Europe, Middle East and Africa Region of
which he is in charge. Founded in 1986, it was acquired
by the Economist Intelligence Unit of London's Economist
Group in 1998. The EIU decided recently to focus on its
core area of expertise, which is economics and this
informed their decision to discontinue ownership of
Pyramid. Today, he says, the relationship of Pyramid
with The Economist is one of shared expertise. The
intellectual resources at The Economist help to support
Pyramid and vice versa. Pyramid is now owned by the
Monitor Group, an American consulting firm. Its 50
analysts around the globe, concern themselves with only
one subject: telecommunications.
But Pyramid lays claim to being the pre-eminent resource
on telecoms in emerging markets. How come it doesn't
have an office anywhere in Africa for instance? It is
more optimal to cover the Europe, Middle East and Africa
Region from London in terms of proximity to the client
base of Pyramid Research, and very importantly
availability of resources, says Zibi.
The Nigerian telecom industry will continue to generate
keen interest among investors and analysts for many
years to come on account, among other things, of the
sheer potential which the market portends, he concluded.
[The above essay was done for CYBERSCHUULNEWS by
Calixthus Okoruwa (an employee of XLR8 Consultancy)]
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 183
NSE RAISES THE BAR ON TRAINING OF ENGINEERS
Going by the level of discussion going on between the
Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE, and THE EXECUTIVE
CYBERSCHUUL, the stake of training and re-training
Nigerian engineers in telecommunications and IT related
disciplines has been raised to higher levels. The
Association has gone into collaboration with the Lagos
based training institute and appointed Chairman of The
CYBERSCHUUL, himself a Fellow of the association as
coordinator for several training programmes designed to
upgrade the training of engineers for the challenges
ahead. The collaboration is seen as Value-Added to the
existing and improving environment in the Nigerian
telecommunications sector.
NITDA ASSURES STAKEHOLDERS.
MARCH 23 MEETING CONFIRMED
After a messy moment when Nigerian Internet enthusiasts
went on rampage on the Internet, NITDA administrators
have confirmed that the stakeholders meeting scheduled
for March 23 at MUSON Centre, Lagos will go ahead to
appoint an NGO as contained in President Obasanjo's
directive on the subject. NITDA's acting D-G, Moses
Ubaru had initiated negotiation with the present foreign
Technical Point of Contact of the .ng top-level domain
prodding him to continue the job even at a fee. Several
stakeholders especially those in the Diaspora would not
hear of it and short of calling for Ubaru's head, they
made him to denounce the move. NITDA during the week
also posted the following reassuring words on the
Internet.
YOUTH DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
WSIS PREP COM 2 GHANA: NACOSS POSITION
By OLUGBOJI Tolulope
National Secretary General, NACOSS
Introduction:
The presence of the Nigerian Association of Computer
Science Students, NACOSS, at the just concluded Africa
Preparatory conference of the United Nations World
summit on the information society held at Ghana, and led
by her able National President Olusegun Cyrus Olutayo,
has brought to the fore some pertinent issues of
interest to those who have a concern for the sustainable
development of Nigeria as a nation in what has come to
be defined as the evolving information society.
Building an inclusive information society through access
was the defined focus of the conference, and this
adequately so as it describes the emerging focus of the
trend the information society is taking: that the use of
technology is not a goal in itself but just a means to
an end, this end being equal access to the benefits of
development through wealth creation, health, good
standards of living amongst other things. It is to this
use that information Technology is being targeted at.
It is important to therefore say, at this juncture, that
the battles that we have been fighting as a nation still
remain, although the terrain has changed. It is the
understanding we have of this terrain that will prepare
us adequately as a nation to face the challenges of
tomorrow. For the emerging professionals especially,
this understanding, and the preparation to face future
challenges have to be addressed and addressing it is the
first and most necessary step that we believe Nigeria as
a nation must take to ensure sustainable development
through ICTs.
The Student Challenge:
Students must be prepared for the future as they are
going to be playing an active role in the national life
of the society. They will be taking up positions of
leadership as mangers, engineers, technologists and
scientists. It is they that will provide the
intellectual capital that will guarantee the viability
of the nation's economy, use the emerging technologies
and respond to global trends and demands in order to
provide a qualitative level of life for future
populations.
However, in Nigerian universities today, going by the
current state of affairs, the level of use and even of
awareness to these global trends is minimal and in some
cases non existent. Particularly so, the quality of the
education expressed in the present curriculum is not
competitive enough to cope with the demands of the
immediate society, industry and the nation as a whole,
neither does it prepare the future professional to cope
with the challenges in terms of the need for e -
governance, e - administration, electronic commerce and
many more imperatives that the future demands.
In order to correct this state of affairs and ensure
global competitiveness of Nigerian graduates, we believe
the following have to be addressed as an issue of
National emergency:
o Overhaul of the antiquated modes of teaching and a
review of the relevance and quality of learning
expressed in the curriculum of study in Nigerian
tertiary institutions.
o Enhancement of the quality of staff, and their
awareness to global trends through the use of current
technologies and technology exchange visits of
international training organisations
o Vigorous National campaigns and definition of policies
that promote grassroots development as a priority. This
policies then translated into visible actions and used
as a means of ICT evangelism, and promoting the
understanding of the benefits of the same to national
growth and development.
o A renewed drive at sponsorship of youth initiatives
and activities that will promote intelligent discourse,
encourage deliberation on the challenges they face. E.g.
issues of national reform, privatisation, NEEDS
[National Economic Empowerment and development],
globalization, amongst other things.
The operating philosophy we reason is this: the level of
our future success can only be guaranteed by the level
of our preparedness and commitment to realising our
goals. We believe that the nation can achieve a state of
development with its human capacity, and that all that
is needed is planning and activity that represents this
desire.
Building A New Future, Today
Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa, rich in
resource, both human and material, possessing potential
for growth and development, if only she leverages on the
opportunities available in this third technology wave:
Information and Communication technology.
The Nigerian Association of computer science students,
is the umbrella body of the all computer science
students in Nigeria, with membership more than 80, 000
students, and forming the future base of Nigeria's IT
elite. We believe and are committed to this vision of
promoting an era of knowledge and skills, and call all
stakeholders of those who believe in the new Nigeria to
come on board, join hands to help build a student
population that will enable Nigeria to realise this
vision.
Today might not represent our present hopes, but with
clear goals, conscious effort and a courageous
disposition a new tomorrow is an inevitable destination.
VoIP ISSUES
Intro to Essay. With Nigeria's recent pronouncement on
liberalization of VoIP applications, the third and
unarguably Africa's most important market's position is
now known coming after South Africa and Kenya which had
earlier announced rulings on the subject. Nigeria's own
version of liberalization is clearly different from
others but it came unsung because where she stood on the
issue had never really been in doubt. Others were
actually shifting position but Nigeria is formalising
its own position.
Incumbents, especially in developing economies, have a
way of making their governments yield to placing a ban
on VoIP to save them from collapse. But not in Nigeria.
Except during the military when the rulers of the day
were the major beneficiary of NITEL's fortunes, the
incumbent since 1999 did not get a listening from
government on its bodytalk in asking for a ban. What
NITEL did was to go ahead, sluggishly you may say, and
face the reality of the day. That is, to exploit
Internet applications. While we admit that the
Pentascope detour was a monumental disaster, we cannot
take it away from those folks that they put NITEL on the
path of facing the reality of investing in IP rather
than waiting for government big stick to pamper them to
survival. Those who may want to shoot down that accolade
for the Dutchmen have to ask, 'in whose interest?'
While some administrations go ahead to issue licenses
which seek to permit VoIP usage, what Nigeria said is
that it is regulating services and not technology. Their
lies the difference. It is one thing to say it, it is
another to do it.
But the war is not over. In the following essay, which
is excerpted from Balancing Act Issue No 246, and part
of which was used in the previous week the incursion of
SKYPE into Africa is discussed. It is written by Mapara
Syed and Russell Southwood.
SKYPE: THE PROGRAMME THAT WILL EAT
THE LUNCH OF AFRICAN TELCOS
Over the past year and a half, Skype's popularity has
exploded with over 25 million users currently signed up
for the service worldwide. By 2008 that number is
expected to dramatically increase to between 140 and 245
million. Most of Skype's adherents use it for personal
calls although a growing number of them are also using
it to make calls for work. In addition, Skype have
secured a number of high profile deals highlighting
their product's increasing appeal. Recently, Motorola
joined Skype Technologies to co-market connectivity
options for Skype's growing base, an alliance designed
to advance mobile internet telephony, while consumers
will soon be able to purchase Skype-enabled PCs from
retailers thanks to a new agreement between the VoIP
provider and Xandros, which will bundle Skype with its
Xandros Desktop Operating System.
So what is Skype? As a VoIP service Skype technology
converts phone conversations into packets of data, which
are then transmitted down the self-same wires used to
surf the web. Subscribers to broadband internet
services, which allow a quicker transfer of information
and data, can use Skype to link their machines together
and talk to each other using a microphone and speakers.
Skype users can also send instant messages if voice
fails.
What attracts users to Skype is that essentially it
enables 'free speech' over the internet by offering
software to be downloaded, for free, that allows
unlimited worldwide voice calling, for free. What is the
catch?, I hear you say. Apparently, no catch. The
differentiation between Skype and other providers of
VoIP services is that it utilises P2P software, which
was first widely deployed and popularised by
file-sharing applications such as KaZaA and Napster.
With this innovative technology, Skype have been able to
virtually eliminate costs associated with traditional
client-server networks, as P2P networks scale
indefinitely without increasing search time and without
the need for costly centralised resources.
Therefore, Skype can afford to offer free global
telephony and enable people to communicate with each
other more flexibly and more cost-effectively. So how is
the company making money? It is connecting computers to
telephones via its SkypeOut service, offering calls to
landlines and mobile phones at low rates. To some of the
most popular destinations Skype have one unified rate,
the SkypeOut Global Rate, which is 1.7 Euro Cent
(approximately 2 US cents per minute). Unless it is
specifically mentioned, the SkypeOut Global Rate is only
for calling regular landline telephones. Calls to mobile
phones are more expensive. Other destinations have
individual rates but with Skype what matters is where
you are calling to not where you are calling from.
The advantages of using Skype are not only that it can
significantly reduce your phone bill but it is also
simple to install regardless of your PC environment.
Skype facilitates a user-built global phone directory
accessible to all users and is equipped with the
language editor, which allows users to easily select
their language of choice by translating Skype into their
own language. Skype also works behind most firewalls and
gateways with no special configuration needed and
without providing new security risks. Security is also
enhanced as Skype encrypts all calls and instant
messages end-to-end for unrivalled privacy.
Yet, the feature that Skype boasts about the most
(besides the service being free) is that it has raised
the call completion rate and offers superior quality
calling for broadband users - it is also available to
dial-up users - to levels exceeding that of the standard
telephony system. We asked a number of Skype users to
comment on the quality of calls made using Skype to
African countries and around the world.
South African-based Peter Benjamin of OKN, a local
knowledge-sharing project is an enthusiast:" " It's
basically a very good service. I frequently call from
South Africa to Senegal, Zimbabwe and Zambia using it.
It's wonderful. It's really the only way to manage an
Africa-wide project without expensive, low-quality
telephone calls. The connection to Zimbabwe is actually
better than making a phone call. If I make a telephone
call to Harare, the call usually drops 10-15 minutes
into the conversation. Obviously quality depends on
connectivity and to get the best quality you need a
leased line, adsl or a VSAT connection. If you're using
a dial-up connection, it's entirely dependent on the
quality of the phone network. Conference calls fall
apart in Africa and are enormously expensive. Skype
makes that kind of communication possible."
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 182
VoIP ISSUES
Intro to Essay. With Nigeria's recent pronouncement of
intension on liberalization of VoIP applications, the
third and unarguably Africa's most important market's
position is now known coming after South Africa and
Kenya which had earlier announced rulings on the
subject. Nigeria's own version of liberalization is
clearly different from others but it came unsung because
the attitude to where she stood on the issue had never
really been in doubt. Others were actually shifting
position but Nigeria is formalising its own.
Incumbents, especially in developing economies, have a
way of making their governments yield to placing a ban
on VoIP to save them from collapse. But not in Nigeria.
Except during the military when the rulers of the day
were the major beneficiary of NITEL's fortunes, the
incumbent since 1999 did not get a listening from
government on its bodytalk in asking for a ban. What
NITEL did was to go ahead, sluggishly you may say, and
face the reality of the day. That is, to exploit
Internet applications. While we admit that the
Pentascope detour was a monumental disaster, we cannot
take it away from those folks that they put NITEL on the
path of facing the reality of investing in IP rather
than waiting for government big stick to pamper them to
survival. Those who may want to shoot down that accolade
for the Dutchmen have to ask, 'in whose interest?'
While some administrations go ahead to issue licenses
which seek to permit VoIP usage, what Nigeria said is
that it is regulating services and not technology. Their
lies the difference. It is one thing to say it, it is
another to do it.And nigeria seems to have done it.
But the war is not over. In the following essay which is
excerpted from Balancing Act Issue No 246, the case is
made that incumbents in Africa either fall in or they
fallout.
VOIP wars -
Skype hits Africa and Telkom Kenya disconnects Sema
cards
Legal VoIP services are now becoming available in Kenya
and South Africa. Their existence can only speed up the
collapse of over-priced international services. If
wholesale minutes are available for US1 cent a minute
what is the justification for charging USD1 a minute? So
now real competition is beginning and it will put the
telco incumbents under pressure. This week's top story
from Kenya shows the near-bankrupt Telkom Kenya trying
all its old tricks and disconnecting its service
competitors. It has not yet understood the new world
it's in. It needs to provide equal access to all users
if it is not to find itself challenged as a monopoly
while there are currently no alternatives. The sensible
business strategy would be to stop trying to be a
service provider and seek to be the primary
infrastructure provider. It could trade the 80-90% of
service market income (which will be lost under the new
competition rules) for the majority of service users
paying it a proportion of revenues for access to its
infrastructure.
Meanwhile the water keeps rising around Africa's telco
incumbents. A recent consultation document from the
Kenya regulator CCK suggested making use of PCs to make
phone calls legal. The number of users across the
continent already doing this is not massive but they are
likely to be those that make a significant proportion of
international calls. Therefore the steady spread of the
Skype VoIP service is an incumbent nightmare that dare
not speak its name. As various ISPs are already doing in
Europe (for example, yahoo.fr), Skype is offering
international phone calls for just the cost of your
connection to other Skype users. Those using it in
Africa have told us that the quality varies from
crystal-clear to the frankly unusable. You can even buy
SkypeOut minutes that allow you to connect to non-skype
users with ordinary phones. Like all pioneer services,
they will be things that follow that are easier to use
(just as Napster was succeeded by iTunes) but the
tipping point will happen soon in Africa: a large
proportion of the continent's PC users will "get it"
soon.
[The above paragraph is taken from BALANCING ACT ISSUE
NO 246]
MTS RESOLVES IN-HOUSE CRISIS
Nigeria's pioneer wireless operator, MTS, has resolved
its squabbles and the directors one after the other
spent the past week making reassuring speeches to
employees of the firm. There was a peace meeting at
which it was resolved that some management processes
disrupted during the period of the crisis, should be
completely restored while Richmond Aggrey, the embattled
CEO, is mandated to reconstitute the management of the
company within the next four months. A new Chief Finance
Officer will be found and any allottee that is not
satisfied with his or her shares is now free to sell the
shares back to the company to be made available to new
investors.
Firstel Ltd, the Special Purpose Vehicle for Nigerian
investors in MTS First Wireless Ltd, in which some
stakeholders have been complaining over share
allocations, would no longer serve as the holder of the
interest of Nigerian investors in the company. The
Nigerian Group of investors will have its 22.52% of the
shareholding distributed in their names, while MTS Inc.,
including all persons who have acquired shares through
company, will retain its 44.1 % per cent.
The meeting stood by an earlier decision to dissolve the
erstwhile management board of the company.
Meanwhile there is a rev-up in the firm's drive as it
strategizes to raise $50million equity for service
upgrade.
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 181
NIGERIA ENDORSES COMMUNITY RADIO
There are hints that the Nigerian Ministry of
Information & National Orientation is in the process of
developing a framework for licensing community radio.
Community Radio provides one of the most cost-effective
media for explaining issues to, and mobilizing, the
populace towards democracy and social justice goals as
expressed in the constitution. Radio reaches people and
remote communities where there are no Telephones or
electricity, it is accessible to those who cannot read
or write.
Community Radios provide programming and services that
are not found on commercial and public radio stations.
Nigeria has maintained a strong leadership role in all
areas of
Information Communication Technology (ICT) in ECOWAS,
except in Community Radio. Compared to only one
community radio in Nigeria, Republic of Bénin has 22,
Burkina Faso has 27, Ghana has 8, Mali has 67, Senegal
44, and Niger Republic has 24 community radios.
The Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) encourages
people to obtain information about licenses for
broadcasting through its website at
http://www.nbcnig.org/apply_brad_licence.asp. However,
the licensing procedure does not differentiate classes
of licenses, resulting in a situation which requires a
rural community to pay =N=50,000 for the licence
application form and over =N=2 million for the license.
The consequence of this is that Nigeria so far has only
one community radio, which is based in the campus of the
University of Lagos.
NIGERIA'S INTERNET COMMUNITY GETS A JOLT
Widespread condemnation has trailed recent information
which is flying on the Net that NITDA has been making
unsuccessful moves to extend the tenure of the present
foreign technical administrator of the .ng top level
domain without reference to Stakeholders in the Internet
community. NITDA's game-plan to implement President
Obasanjo's directive on the .ng imbroglio remains
unclear. What is clear is that the Agency, in recent
time, has been consistently inconsistent.
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 180
NIGERIA MAY BE REPLACING GROWTH WITH DEVELOPMENT
The past week witnessed two 'foundation laying
ceremonies' for fundamental re-construction in Nigeria.
One was in politics, the other in telecommunications.
The proposed National Dialogue may appear to Nigerians
as the only major thing happening as its controversy
content dominates newspaper attention when in fact, a
very fundamental development is also going on, albeit
unnoticed, in telecommunication development.
NCC went out with a notice of intension to allow an
unfettered exploitation of VoIP and it also says it
would allow the current Telco's who are deploying CDMA
to migrate into mobile services if they choose to, in
2006. By a stroke of this maneuver, the
telecommunications market in Nigeria may be opening up
to a wider bandwidth as it will allow business
initiatives to germinate and exploitation of technology
to thrive. A few discussions have been flying on the
Internet regarding these developments and the one about
VoIP attracts two divergent opinions both coming from
persons whose presentation gave them away as Internet
Service Providers in Nigeria. The two views are used as
Essays in this edition ahead of a future analysis of the
new happening in telecommunications.
WHO WILL BUY NITEL? : WATCH THE CHINESE!
There is an upsurge of international interest in the
next attempt at privatizing NITEL. How come the NITEL
that was a no-go area a few years ago has suddenly
become the toast of many suitors? In the forefront of
these suitors are the Chinese who may just be the guys
that will eventually buy off NITEL if on going events
are anything like informed indicators.
During the week at Cannes in France, the Hon Minister of
Communications was virtually mobbed by several investors
who want a piece of the bite in NITEL. If the Minister
is not surprised, then he will surprise many.
For starters, the Chinese are happy that they have been
able to sink teeth into Nigeria through
telecommunications and they should gun for the nation's
bottom-line if the successes are to be consolidated.
Eight Telcos are currently using the Chinese version of
CDMA and two are currently in China almost signing
deals. The recent disclosure of intention by NCC to
allow a migration of current fixed licensees services
into mobiles without issuing fresh mobile licenses is a
plus for the Chinese ambition. On top of this is the
fact that they came in through high-wire political
network in the first place and in dollar terms, their
products must have been competitive. Mark you, it is not
government that is buying their switches.
Added to that, a lot of carrot has been thrown in the
way of Nigeria in recent times to swim deeper into the
waters. The Chinese have said they will build factories
to manufacture several things, phone terminals in
particular. They have also offered a myriad of rural
communications carrots and some other goodies here and
there. Nice things.
The Chinese, having done well at home, need another
large virgin market to make a showing and today, no
other country fits that bill better than Nigeria. In
fact although it is a distant second, the point is that
Nigeria runs second to China in growthrate index of
mobile phones. We are not talking of absolute numbers
here. Fortunately for them, no much contest is coming
from other markets, many of which stills see Nigeria as
a difficult environment when matters of corporate
behavior and true stability of investment are major
considerations.
These moments are indeed testing ones for Nigerian
officials. They probably know that all that glitters is
not gold and things are not as rosy as is being
presented by the new friendship.They should know having
had the Mtel experience in particular and the
pentascopedrawback in general. If a guy says he would
manufacture phones in an environment of galloping
epilepsy in public power and on which the host seems to
have thrown all hands up, the calculations are not many.
Once the telcom market is dominated, a manufacturing
endeavor can only be hinged on the wider objective of a
colonised power system as a logical fallout of the
foreseeable milieu. It will be magic not be so. No pains
if Nigerians and Chinese can work well. Or better still
if politics is just going as it is going. Can they and
will it? 2007 is close by and both of them are species
of 'smart peoples' with less than one notch apart. If
they can't, something must give and if it will not,
something must take. That may be what the issues will
revolve around.
DEATH THREATS REPORTED AT MTS
Less than two weeks after he narrowly escaped death from
attacks by hoodlums at the MTS switch house in Lagos,
Chief Executive Officer of MTS First Wireless, Engr.
Richmond Aggrey, have begun to receive death-threatening
calls from anonymous callers.
Engr. Aggrey who arrived Lagos on Wednesday after he was
discharged from a London hospital where he was treated
for injuries in his head after the attack, said he has
received more than 50 of such calls from restricted and
anonymous phone numbers in less than 24 hours.
Engr. Aggrey has already petitioned the Inspector
General of Police, over this development and had also
requested for police protection.
Engr. Aggrey, and MTS Chairman Lt. Gen. M.I Wushishi
rtd, with other directors, were on February 3, 2005,
attacked by hoodlums suspected to have been employed by
Lt. Gen. Alani Akinrinade rtd, who leads five other
stakeholders of the company to petition the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, against Engr. Aggrey
and Senior Vice President, Dr. Osarieme Bazuaye over the
management of the company.
Before the attack, Engr. Aggrey had visited the EFCC,
where he had debunked the allegations contained in the
petition, and visited the corporate office of IMB plaza
where he addressed the staff before proceeding to the
switch house.
No sooner did Gen. Wushishi and Engr. Aggrey arrived the
switch house than the team was attacked with guns,
cutlasses, hoes, and clubs. Engr. Aggrey, Gen. Wushishi,
Mr. Chris Wilmot,( a US-based director), Engr. Bob
Okonyia, Engr. Aggrey's driver and a lawyer from Chief
Afe Babalola's chamber, Mr. Uko Idongesit, were
attacked. But Engr. Aggrey appeared to be the main
target of the attackers.
Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, had already forwarded a
separate petition to the Lagos Police Command, against
Lt. Gen. Akinrinade rtd., on the incident, with
particular reference to the attack by the hoodlums.
In a petition forwarded yesterday to the Inspector
General of Police, Engr. Aggrey said "ordinarily, I
could have taken the threat for granted, but considering
the events that have taken place within a couple of
weeks ago, I am compelled to bring this threat to your
kind attention. This is not unconnected with the
petition written to the EFCC by the under listed: Lt.Gen
Alani Akinrinade rtd, Chief Obafemi Olopade, Mr. Bob
Okonyia, Col. Lawan Gwdabe rtd, Mrs Nike Adebayo-Makinde
and AVM Canice Umenwaliri rtd."
According to Engr. Aggrey " My fears have become
heightened considering the antecedent of Gen. Alani
Akinrinade rtd who organized hoodlums to attack me and
my entourage on Thursday, February 3, 2005 during my
visit to MTS First Wireless Corporate Headquarters at
IMB Plaza and subsequently, to the switch House at no
11, Eletu Ogabi Street, V.I, Lagos" where "guns,
machetes, sticks, hoes and other deadly weapons were
freely used at the instance and physical presence of
Gen. Akinrinade".
He wrote the IGP that "disappointed by the outcome of my
visit to the EFCC, he (Gen. Akinrinade) and his gang has
vowed to stop at nothing to eliminate me. Since I
survived the hoodlum's attack, they have now decided to
resort to threats to my life through anonymous phone
calls before the ultimate", he said."
[The above is the unedited text of what Mr. Reuben
Muoka, Deputy General Manager and Head, Corporate
Affairs Manager of MTS sent to CYBERSCHUULNEWS].
Come to think of it. Could it be that the shooting also
went into the switches and base stations?
1. NCC'S MOVE: GOOD NEWS FOR ISP'S
ByKalu Ndukwe
This is one of the best news I have heard this year. It
means that the NCC is actually listening, and that
Nigeria is set for a REAL Telco revolution come Feb
2006. Imagine Intercellar[sic] turning on roaming for
the about five states it covers. The biggest hit would
be the "VERY RIDICULOUS NATIONAL CALL RATES" which has
sustained the high GSM rates. Nigerians would definitely
have cause to smile very soon.
My only objection which I am sure the NCC would have to
look into is that more licenses needs to be given
especially on CDMA and on per state basis. This is the
only way to ensure that ALL of Nigeria feels the effect.
Except the PTOs merge we are not going to see a dominant
National play cover all of Nigeria like the GSM
operators have done. So the solution then lies it having
new CDMA licenses (2 to 3 per state) who would focus on
that state. They can now go into national roaming with
other CDMA operators to achieve national usage and
availability.
As for the IDA which the news article says would include
data and voice I think I have been vindicated on that,
my only addition is that licensing process to be
simplified.
2. NCC'S MOVE: GOOD TO PTO'S, BAD FOR ISP'S
By Tope Fashedemi
It is true that the NCC organised a Stakeholder
Conference on VoIP, sometime in February 2004,
purportedly to determine the direction to be taken by
the regulatory body for the benefit of Nigeria and
Nigerian consumers.
Some of us (especially ISPAN members) took time to
prepare for this forward-looking initiative, because we
believed that it would be an opportunity to get our
ideas across and to finally 'legitimise' a service area
that our Customers had always expected to enjoy along
with their regular Internet service.
However, anyone who was present at this so-called
'Consultative Workshop' would agree with me that the
event literally degenerated into a war of words between
the GSM Operators and the PTOs.
The PTOs basically used the platform to state that with
the possibilities of VoIP they don't need to have mobile
licenses to provide 'mobile' voice services to
discerning subscribers. While the GSM Operators would
have none of it and bemoaned their huge investments in
the GSM infrastructure... which they believed might go
to waste if the NCC liberalised the use of VoIP!
At some point the EVC had to clarify (and rightly so
too) that the NCC auctioned Digital Mobile Licenses
(DML) and NOT GSM Licenses; so all operators that got
the DML licenses and decided to operate GSM networks are
assumed to have done their due diligence on the future
of the technology before opting for it.
The workshop broke with the NCC deciding to put together
a committee to further look into the issue, we didn't
hear anything about the submissions of this committee
until now...
Now all these talk on IDA, Gateway and no new GSM
Licences basically tells me that the NCC must have
buckled to pressure from the 'BIG' players and decided
to follow the path of least resistance by fashioning out
a solution that is beneficial to both the current GSM
Operators and the PTOs to the detriment of the ISPs
(other small players) and ultimately the Nigerian
people.
Once again, our forefathers got it right in the age-old
adage that says -
"When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers
..."
At times like this, I bemoan the lack of record keeping
by our ancestors... (which I personally believe is one
of the fundamental reasons for our backwardness). More
and more, this lack of record keeping is also proving to
be the bane of our developmental plans - no continuity,
no transparency, no accountability!
- discussion for another day...
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 179
WEIGHING THE COSTS OF WIRELESS NETWORK MANAGEMENT
Prices for mobile technology are falling, but with
increasingly complex devices and applicationss, the
costs of managing a wireless network can easily go in
the other direction, especially in small organizations.
Careful planning and using enterprise-grade gear are
key. To find the right mobile carrier, consider which
applications will be used now and in the near future,
the coverage the carrier provides, and whether it
supports global communications standards. Ask about its
plans for emerging trends like hot spot roaming. Of
course, security precautions must be examined. Finally,
SMBs should consider managed WLAN services to cut costs.
…………………………Taken from SearchCIO.com
UPBEAT FOR GLOBACOM'S INTERNET SERVICES
Amidst the observation of general complaints over
irregular service, Glomobile's Internet services may be
on its upward drive especially as the company recently
claimed that almost 150,000 users have signed up since
its introduction in six months, making Nigeria the
fastest growing Mobile Data market in Africa. GloMobile
Internet which is available to all glomobile customers
provides high speed access to all popular WAP enabled
internet sites such as yahoo, msn, google, CNN and BBC.
Subscribers to the service are thus able to send emails
and access favourite internet sites at affordable rates.
They are not charged by the time they spend online, but
by the amount of data actually downloaded [Oh Boy!]. A
Glo Mobile Internet subscriber does not need to go to
the cybercafe to access the Internet, which is why it
is, in Glo's words 'extremely popular among university
students'.
On the international level, wireless communications
market has been witnessing tremendous growth in the
recent past and the emergence of the standards-based
wireless interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX)
is expected to further this popularity.
In fact, WiMAX may become the third most widely used
high-speed Internet access technology following digital
subscriber line (DSL) and cable modem, which are its
major competitors.
Lower costs, continuous product evolution, and
flexibility in switching suppliers are driving uptake of
WiMAX based products. Success in several mass markets,
coupled with the increase in the number of technology
providers, is also making this technology more
accessible and affordable.
WiMAX focuses on bringing about interoperability in
broadband wireless access (BWA) systems. This is
achieved through a unique subset of baseline features
known as system profiles that enables equipment from
multiple vendors to interoperate.
However, WiMAX still needs to prove its capabilities in
terms of quality of service (QoS). Interference within
the same frequency in particular needs immediate
attention.
Another challenge is competition from existing
technologies such as Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), cable,
and DSL in which customers have invested heavily.
STRATEGIC ROLE OF ICT
-ICT's are used for knowledge management
-Land, Labour & Capital have given way to knowledge and
its Management as the critical factors of Power
-Today, the person or Nation with knowledge holds the
key to Power, and ICT's are the tools that facilitate
Knowledge generation, sharing & utilisation
-There is a strong correlation between knowledge using
ICT's and Leadership & Power. Nations such as Finland
(the case of Nokia), USA, Japan & Singapore attest to
this, while the pervasive influence of MTV & CNN on our
views, thinking & culture are clear.
-Nigeria, though starting late is beginning to
appreciate the links between ICT and economic
empowerment. Initiatives like the 2001 IT Policy,
introduction of GSM, the proposed Abuja ICT Village &
the promotion of Micro, Small & Medium Scale Enterprises
(MSMSE's) are positive indicators, albeit the
capabilities of some initiatives to succeed is open to
debate.
.......Abdul-Hakeem B. D. Ajijola
CDMA :
STANDARD FOR TODAY AND TOMORROW?
By Nana Emewo
The world is getting more from wireless communication
technologies than ever before. Wireless services are
spreading very fast and phone users are wanting to use
it for the next thing they imagine. Point really is that
it can cook for you if only you ask for that service.
Add to that, exciting Third-Generation (3G) wireless
data services and applications - such as wireless email,
web, digital picture taking/sending and assisted-GPS
position location applications - and wireless networks
are asked to do much more than just a few years ago. And
these networks will be asked to do more tomorrow.
This is where CDMA technology comes in. CDMA
consistently provides better capacity for voice and data
communications than other commercial mobile
technologies, allowing more subscribers to connect at
any given time, and it is the common platform on which
3G technologies are built.
Originally known as IS-95, Code Division Multiple
Access, CDMA is a cellular technology. It was adopted by
the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) in
1993. It is characterized by high capacity and small
cell radius, employing spread-spectrum technology and a
special coding scheme and it competes with GSM
technology for dominance in the cellular markets. To the
extent that it was developed by Qualcom, it is an
American Standard although enhanced by Ericsson.
Although the original CDMA is now known as cdmaOne,
there are now different variations, namely cdma2000 and
its variants like 1X EV, 1XEV-DO, and MC 3X. They refer
to variants of usage of a 1.25Mhz channel. 3X uses a 5
Mhz channel.
In Nigeria, about 10 of the 26 service providers are
deploying CDMA while 4 do GSM.
By 1998, three years after the first commercial
deployment, there were more than 15 million subscribers
on cdmaOne systems worldwide. By May 2001 figures higher
than 35 million were reported to have been provided.
Today there are over 100 million lines.
Over 35 countries have either commercial or trial
activity ongoing. There are already 43 Wireless Local
Loop (WLL) systems in 22 countries using cdmaOne
technology. In Nigeria PTO's which are known to be
deploying CDMA incude Cellcom, Intercellular, Mobitel,
Multi-Links, RelTel, Starcomms, MTS, ITN, and 21st
Century Technologies. There may be a few other ones who
acquired the technology only recently.
[… Nana Emewo presented the above in answer to a
qualifying examination question when he attended the
Enhanced Induction Training For Telecom Engineers at the
CYBERSCHUUL. It was adjudged the best essay of the set
of trainees].
STRATEGIC ROLE OF ICT
ICT's are used for knowledge management
Land, Labour & Capital have given way to knowledge and
its Management as the critical factors of Power
Today, the person or Nation with knowledge holds the key
to Power, and ICT's are the tools that facilitate
Knowledge generation, sharing & utilisation
There is a strong correlation between knowledge using
ICT's and Leadership & Power. Nations such as Finland
(the case of Nokia), USA, Japan & Singapore attest to
this, while the pervasive influence of MTV & CNN on our
views, thinking & culture are clear Nigeria, though
starting late is beginning to appreciate the links
between ICT and economic empowerment. Initiatives like
the 2001 IT Policy, introduction of GSM, the proposed
Abuja ICT Village & the promotion of Micro, Small &
Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMSE's) are positive
indicators, albeit the capabilities of some initiatives
to suceed is open to debate.
......Abdul-Hakeem B. D. Ajijola
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 178
LINKSERVE BUYS INFOWEB
The recent buy-over of Infoweb by Linkserve may have
commenced the long overdue survival strategy which
Nigerian Internet Services Providers, ISPs, have ever
required but consistently ignored. TechnologyTimes, a
web-based Nigerian journal reported recently that
Linkserve paid N30million to take over the resources and
operation of Infoweb. The action is coming a few weeks
after NCC notified stakeholders that it would allow
holders of ISP licenses to now establish their own
independent networks. Incidentally, both Linkserve and
Infoweb are pioneers in their own rights; the former in
corporate Internet access while the latter in retail
services and they have both, in a way, survived the
market vicissitudes which remained unfavourable to ISP's
services.
Internet services have from day-one been an endangered
investment for various reasons among which are: a
notorious high cost of bandwidth which no one, apart
from market forces, had ever done anything about; a
generally poor culture of business and industry review
ahead of investment launch and a dearth of technical
skills within the economy. In the days when only NITEL
offered international link via satellite, it was magic
how ISP's survived in a market where internet literacy
was hardly above rudimentary level, a low income per
head index of the Nigerian economy and a pervasive
culture of cutting corners on the part of service
providers and consumers. Those who dared Internet
services soon found they had swallowed cyanide and one
after the other, they closed shop. The matter was
worsened by lack of a cohesive industry think tank under
which platform technical problems could be discussed and
resolved. Nigerian businesses form associations only to
respond to immediate problems and in any case to ask
what they would get, not what they would give.
Today, a few broadband access providers which have their
routes in other economies are beginning a renewed
slug-out in an environment which is only just slightly
better than yesterday's.
MICROSOFT'S INTERNET EXPLORER UNDER ATTACK
International conspiracy against Bill Gate's Microsoft
is not abating. If anything it is changing from the
general to the specific. A US based journal published a
story on January 28, 2005, claiming that Penn State
University has advised its over 80,000 students against
using Microsoft Internet Explorer, IE Browser for
security concerns. It uses 3 pages of text [4,578 words]
using result of opinion poll to paint IE black and
Firefox gold. Although the journal adds very quickly
that its has used an 'unscientific poll' to find out
that Microsoft's 93% of the Browsers market has dipped
to 90% while Firefox, which it is apparently, promoting
had gone up to 4.6% from 2.6%. The remaining is shared
between Netscape and other browsers according to its
poll. The journal also admits that its poll is not
foolproof as the time of poll was very early the year.
It is yet to be seen by how much its own readership will
dip for doing a bad job of an apparent sponsored
campaign against IE.
In its January/February 2005 Edition, ITEdge, Nigeria's
latest journal which specializes in Multi-channel
Technology Business New/Analysis, discusses VoIP as part
of its editorial commentary/interview on 'Covergence
means that there can be only one regulator'. The
following essay' VoIP is not Chaos' is taken from part
of the commentary.
"VoIP is not chaos"
West African regulators would readily tell you that he
fastest growing item in the sub-region is the mobile
network. But a more sober truth is that it is the VoIP.
In fact, in the entire continent, VoIP is gaining ground
faster than incumbents or the traditional operators of
the plain old telephone system (POTS) had anticipated.
There is a growing regulatory rumble over what to do
with a technology that is taking advantage of the steady
improvements in Internet bandwidth and the concomitant
increase in the number of VoIP service providers ever
more daring and ready to take on the regulators fair
field of liberalisation. Years ago you would not hear of
such companies like Deltathree, ITXC, iBasis, Net2Phone
and Veetone. Now, they are everywhere in pact with
several local partners.
Africa's regulatory framework may remain hesitant to
create a concrete legally operational environment for
VoIP, but its new brand operators are not waiting for
the laws to happen. So long before VoIP became an issue
for incumbents, the dial tone has been ringing for IP
operators even if it is some sort of under-the-counter
business as operated by scores of ISPs, cyber-cafes and
even SOHOs who want to make some extra income.
In a continent where the ability to talk is very
expensive and most people have neither phones nor
computers where they live or work, VoIP services appear
just the right stuff Ali Baba and the 40 thieves would
not resist. Open Sesame! In Accra as in Lagos, cotonou,
Conakry, and other cities across the sub-region, there
are several cafes and other
communication points where VoIP is the tool for cheap
talk.
Consider this estimate as provided by Pyramid Research
of London: In almost every nation on the continent up to
10% of the international call market uses VoIP
illegally. A number of African countries now place
restrictions on the use of VoIP, while others have yet
to formulate any specific regulations. A few now have
laws completely prohibiting its use; other countries
have legislated to restrict its provision to the
(usually state-owned monopoly) Public Telecom Operator
(PTO). The percentage of call traffic by VoIP is
significantly higher than 10%; other less conservative
sources give between 18% and 25%. These are more
realistic if you consider the size of the gray market
for international talk particularly with the increasing
number of pre-paid calling card operators most of which
rely heavily on VoIP.
But incumbent operators are waking up (as are
regulators), even if not fast enough, to cut deals
focused on VoIP. Ghana Telecom not too long struck a
VoIP calling deal with DN. Other ISPs have their eyes on
a similar deal and are not letting go of pressure to
have a taste of the juice. It is regulatory challenge
the NCA must address. The regulatory logic,
for now, is to make distinction between outgoing and
incoming calls but how far this would hold in the face
of technological possibilities is a matter of
conjectures. The Nigerian regulator Nigerian
Communications Commission (NCC) appears to want to be
more proactive. It has licensed VoIP operators provided
they drive their services on the backbone of incumbents
or licensed carriers. The NCC is drawing up numbering
plans for VoIP operators; how successful this would turn
out is already an industry debate.
But a recent report by the Commonwealth
Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) on the prospects
and challenges for growth of voice over Internet
protocol (VoIP) telephony in Africa is instructive. The
report identifies affordability and access as critical
factors that will determine the future of the
technology.
According to the report, ".affordability and access
still remain the two biggest interrelated factors to
increased teledensity in Africa. Yet, there is a
consistent failure at the policy level to seek out and
utilise a range of technologies and regulatory options
that combined, would greatly contribute to addressing
the disparities in access to telecom services and
vastly reduce the costs.
The report points specifically to policy failures to
liberalise the enhanced services markets and legalise
the provision of VoIP, a technology that enables
transmission of voice and data over packet switched,
IP-based networks, which remains illegal in many
African countries.
"With the decay of existing fixed lines, the growth of
mobile telephony in the region and the low entry costs
relative to traditional fixed networks, VoIP is becoming
an increasingly attractive option for the continent
though it has been closely linked with the
growing phenomenon of illegal or grey market talk
services which, according to some, contributes to
undercut incumbent long-distance rates and bypass
international settlement agreements."
However, the regulators are agreed on one fact: VoIP
must not be ignored in the desired goal to open up the
continent to dial tones. Just how to protect massive
investments of the incumbents and secure the interest of
the entire market is the dilemma regulators cannot
comprehend. And they hardly admit this.
EULOGY AT AJAYI'S INTERMENT
Dying at 63, Prof Gabriel Olaere Ajayi, must have done
so at young age especially going by the wailings and
mournful carriage of virtually everybody who was present
at his funeral. The Hon Minister of Science and
Technology, Prof Isoun looked as if he was expecting his
D-G NITDA, would just rise. The Vice-Chancellor, Obafemi
Awolowo University, Prof. Makanjuola looked
weatherbeaten throughout. Other academics, technocrats,
engineers, foreign guests, aides and students of Pro
Ajayi and the natives of Ilesha, all looked as if they
were hearing of what death is all about for the first
time. It was when a few persons were allowed a few
minutes each to say a few things that their record
showed that the Professor actually packed into 63 would
could have been achieved in a hundred years.
Some of the Eulogy:
NIGERIA INTERNET GROUP
Prof. Gabriel Olalere Ajayi, the Internet legend, who
dreamt digital dreams, lived his life nurturing ICT,
expounding on the benefits of Internet Access and good
use, advocating IT solutions as a leapfrogging platform
for effective participation in globalization and
extolling the power of a knowledge-based economy, goes
home an accomplished academic, professional and patriot.
We in the Nigeria Internet Group, NIG, know that Prof.
lives on!
NIGERIAN SOCIETY OF ENGINEERS
Prof Gabriel Olalere Ajayi, Council and Members of The
Nigerian Society of Engineers find it difficult, indeed
impossible, to talk of you in the past. As an engineer
and one of us, you are distinguished. As a teacher of
engineering, you are accomplished. As an academic, you
are primus inter pares. You are our eyes and our ears in
the ICT world and you represent us with distinguished
excellence. When you head an Agency of Government in
trust for us, you do so without blemish. We console
ourselves. We condole the family you left behind. We
condole the President and Commander-In-Chief of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria. We condole the Hon.
Minister of Science and Technology. We condole the
Obafemi Awolowo University community, we condole the ICT
world. Our loss is unquantifiable, that of these
distinguished communities is certainly indescribable.
The least we can do and we shall do, is to start from
where you have stopped. Sleep and Rest in peace.
AJAYI'S STUDENTS AND MENTEES
A teacher and mentor with a midas touch; Who knew how to
bring out the gold in us: Who knew how to challenge us
to towering heights: Whose passion for integrity and
competence re-echoes in our hearts and pushes us in the
direction of significance and success: And though he
sleeps, the passion for excellence he has awoken in us:
Burns hotter and brighter. Good nite Prof Gabriel
Olalere Ajayi!
www.profgoajayi.info
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 177
COMPETITION COMMENCES 2006
A recent industry-analysis from the stable of TELECOM
ANSWERS ASSOCIATES says competition in
telecommunications service delivery in Nigeria will
actively commence in 2006. Its Managing Partner, Titi
Omo-Ettu, says '...if competition is about a contest for
place in the market, then it is only in 2006 that we
should expect true competition. Reason: by that time,
exclusivity would have ended, the two prominent
technology standards present in the Nigerian market,
CDMA and GSM would have stayed long enough to make their
management truly purposeful and service providers would
have had sufficient experience to shift their emphasis
from reactionary market strategy to actual presentation
of quality service to command the respect and patronage
of the Nigerian phone consumer. An inflammatory price
abracadabra is not what true competition is about. What
is more, if NEPA has not improved by then it may never
do and something must give.., the face of things would
have sufficiently changed that the consumer would have
had a choice to make...."
Details of the analysis is in the maiden edition of
TELECOM eREVIEW an e-bulletin which is emerging from the
ribs of CYBERSCHUULNEWS.
BOOST IN NIGERIA'S TRANSMISSION BACKBONE
Nigeria's Second National Operator, Globacom, has
commenced commercial deployment of its fibre network in
Nigeria. The first route to come on is the
Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano axis.
The Lagos - Epe - Ijebu /Ode - Ore - Benin; the
Lagos-Sagamu- Abeo-kuta-Owode- Ibadan rings are yet to
come on and the Ibadan - Ilorin - Minna-Abuja-Makurdi-
Port-Harcourt-Owerri-Enugu- Onitsha - Benin routes would
be completed later in the year. That is going by the
SNO's professed plans.
According to Globacom's marketers, '...calls originating
from and terminating on the Glo Network would not only
be crisp and clear by reason of the robust nature of the
fibre optic technology, but would also not suffer breaks
and drops..'
This is a boost to broadband transmission capacity of
the network which in addition to NITEL's 8 ring
structure, when implemented, will bring relief and true
development in telecommunications services.
The first National Operator, NITEL also flies a plan of
various fibre rings in the country some of which are
already in place.
The commencement of backbone carrier services by the SNO
opens a vista of monumental challenge to the Nigerian
Communications Commission, NCC, especially on antitrust
regulation. The quoted statement above is loaded, isn't
it?
POWEL TO RESIGN AS POWEL RETIRES
There are indications that Michael Powell, Chairman of
USA's FCC and son of retiring Secretary of Sate, Colin,
has resigned his chairmanship on a few months notice. If
he does, he would have spent only 4 years as Chairman
and a total of 7 in FCC. Of course it will set a new
thought process in recent beaurau-political permutations
in the US polity beyond telecommunications.
VMOBILE PAINTS NEWS RED WITH VNEWS
Nigeria's VMobile recently went out lighting a candle
with the release of its first quarterly in-house
journal, VNEWS. 72 pages of fun and information which
capture the glowing version of the Vmobile story. A good
information and entertainment journal, if you ask me.
MTS RESTRUCTURES TO FACE EXPANSION
Dissolution of an existing Board Management Committee,
Restructuring of both Board and Management, injection of
more equity, and expansion of shareholders base are the
strategies which MTS Firstwireless has embarked upon in
its quest to expand its subscriber base to 350,000
lines.
The company says it is embarking on such restructuring
in response to various private and institutional
investors who desire to invest in the company.
Chances are that the move sets up a chain of reaction
from several individuals who may be affected by the
frequent boardroom summersaults from IMB Plaza.
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 176
NCC TO AMEND ISP LICENSE
In a move which analysts believe may be the first step
towards a radical exploitation of the Internet to
facilitate universal access in Nigeria, The Nigerian
Communications Commission, NCC mid-December published
its intention to amend ISP's license in a manner that
may enable licensees to operate their networks.
In recent times, various initiatives have been taken in
leading African markets to legalize VoIP applications
and a continental campaign in favour of this has been on
the increase. Nigeria is regarded as a market to watch
in the whole of this and various bodytalk of the NCC in
Abuja has indicated it would adopt a unique approach.
For a regulator which is highly rated on issue of
consultation in policy maneuvers, it is not surprising
that the regulator is preparing a wide base for a total
VoIP.
Sections 34 and 35 of the Telecommunications Act 2003
requires that the Commission gives written notice of its
intention to amend a license together with a draft copy
of the intended declaration, to affected licensees.
ATCON SPEARHEADS RELIEF FUND
Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria, ATCON, has
requested all telecom companies, service providers and
consumers to donate to the Earthquake and Tidal Waves
Relief Fund which it has set up in Lagos. Apart from
suggesting minimum voluntary donation across various
classes of telecom service companies, it requests GSM
Network Operators and those with Short Messaging Service
(SMS), to facilitate subscribers' voluntary donation via
a code with which they could send a text to the
operators to deduct N10.00 each from their credit
balance. The operators on their own part would match
every N10.00 donated by subscribers with another N10.00
For Full Text of ATCON's Release on the subject, please
see next edition of CYBERSCHUULSHOUT
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 175
ONLY ADVERTS
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 174
AGGREY TASKS GOVT ON FUNDING
Richmond Aggrey, a telecommunications engineer, has
recommended the need for Government to facilitate
funding of the emerging telecommunications industry if
what has been achieved is to be sustained. He sees the
current tradition of non capital intensive short term
projects banking in Nigeria and a regime of high
interest rate as not conducive to telecommunications
growth and development.
Richmond should know having traversed the telecom
investment landscape in Nigeria for close to 17 years.
Arguably the first private investor to plunge into
telecommunications in Nigeria, Richmond Aggrey is the
Founder and CEO of MTS Firstwireless Ltd. In 1987, he
had attempted to launch mobile services in Nigeria but
was prevented by lack of enabling law. Ahead of
deregulation, he made do with going into joint venture
with NITEL when in 1992 his Digital Communication Inc
took 55% shareholding of Mobile Telecommunications
Services, [MTS] Ltd. The venture ran into turbulent
times, courtesy of an emerging NITEL whose temperament
was antithetical to private investment and competition
and MTS Ltd was forced to close shop after a while. He
came back smoking on the heels of Digital Mobile
licenses of 2001 and re-launched MTS Firstwireless Ltd
which has a basket of licenses to do nationwide fixed
telephone services, long distance communications, and
international data access.
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 173
SHAKEUP
IN THE NIGERIA TELECOM INDUSTRY
Turmoil may be a mild word to describe what analysts say
is expected within the Nigerian telecom industry if
subsisting attitude of major players is anything to go
by. Indiscipline and the desire to intimidate has
characterized the way major players and service
providers have carried on. This is not unusual in many
markets even in developed economies except that such
players may end up biting their fingers in the face of
vigilant regulation the type Nigeria has. Although there
are official denials, what is true is that GSM providers
are known to have been disconnecting other networks for
reasons related to debt settlement without reference to
or in clear disobedience to NCC's directives.
President of Association of Telecommunications Companies
of Nigeria, ATCON, Engr Charles Joseph complained
publicly last Monday that 'the particular case of
continued silence or seeming inaction [ of NCC] on the
Globacom flagrant abuse of due process is a major test
of its ability to restore sanity to the industry and
demonstrate that NCC is in charge'.
In another development, newspaper reporters described
Engr. Ernest Ndukwe, Chief Executive of NCC to have lost
his temper on MTN in a manner not known to his usual
self on the matter of MTN having been indulging in
unethical business practices. He was reacting at the
Consumer Parliament, where MTN was reported to have
continued charging N100 for each migration to the
per-second billing platform in disobedience to NCC's
ruling on the matter.
Meanwhile, Globacom has commenced major indoctrination
of the Press as it took newspaper reporters to its fibre
networks round the country apparently in preparation to
show teeth and assert size.
However in a Communiqué issued at the end of the
technical session of recent NICOMM 2004 industry players
warned that in interconnection relationships, no
operator is doing the other a favour and while there may
be large and small networks, there are no important and
unimportant networks.
Analysts believe that the NCC which has continued to
show vigilance and good corporate behavior is known to
be adequately courageous to make licensees fall in line
no matter their exaggerated references.
AGAIN, VODACOM TO COME
Dogs don't ignore bones and the Nigerian Market is
certainly too important to ignore. Words rolled out of
South Africa late last week that Vodacom has shown a
renewed interest in returning to the negotiating table
with VeeNetwork in Nigeria.
Vnetwork, trading as Vmobile, has been recording a
rising profile both in image building and in spread of
coverage.
U & ITU
[International Telecommunications Union]
The ITU Goal
To assist developing countries in harnessing the
potentials of ICTs to contribute towards reducing the
social divide, improving the quality life, promoting
universal access and facilitating entry into the
information society. In all actions, take into account
the needs of rural, isolated and poorly served areas and
people with special needs (Gender, Youths and Indigenous
People).
The WSIS Plan of Action shows strong synergies with
ITU-D's existing mandate as adopted by ITU Member States
at the ITU World Telecommunication Development
Conference (WTDC) in March 2002, ITU Plenipotentiary
Conference in October 2002 and ITU Administrative
Council Decisions.
ITU Strategy and Priorities
Providing assistance in technical and policy aspects of
Internet Protocol (IP).
Assisting in technical and policy aspects of
e-applications and e-services.
Enhancing security and trust in the use of public
networks.
Implementing projects on MCTs and multipurpose platforms
(MPPs) .
Enhancing ICT literacy and building awareness on the
potentials of ICTs.
Promoting the establishment of a favourable legal
environment for ICTs.
For more www.itu.int
Words do not die. Infact they hardly fade.
CYBERSCHUULNEWS recently stumbled on 'DIGITAL VACUUM' an
essay which came under the byline of Mr Gbenga Sesan
Pioneer IT Youth Ambassador and currently Project
Manager, Lagos Digital Village and he was requested to
kindly do a compressed CYBERSCHUULNEWS version of the
work. As it turned out, Gbenga had written the essay in
February 2001 several months before he competed in and
won CYBERSCHUUL's Most Promising WEB Developer
Competition, October 2001. He obliged all the same and
re-edited the work on a few days ago for
CYBERSCHUULNEWS.
DIGITIZED VACUUM
by 'Gbenga Sesan
(originally written February 14 2001, edited for
CyberschuulNews November 30 2004)
"Ol' boy, I wan' commot from this country o."
"But I thought you always claimed to be a patriot, why
don't you practice what you preach."
"What do you mean? I'm not changing camps, I'm only
being wise"
"Okay, let's stop dragging things, what informed your
decision?"
"Well, not one thing, it's been boiling on my mind for
some time. For example, I was in Ilupeju when the bomb
explosions began, and the events that followed were more
shocking than the terror of the balls of fire! That's
almost history anyway, what's more annoying is that I'm
supposed to be a graduate but the only proof is that my
classmates are now working in Lagos. See, there's no
dragging the issue, I'm leaving for God's own country."
"And where is that?"
"Where else?"
"Who told you that Uncle Osama's spirit is still not
haunting them there?"
"En . I will go to ... anywhere sha, so far I'm millions
of miles away from
Nigeria and I see mostly white-skinned people on the
streets"
"Anyway, I get your point. So, when are you moving?"
"Anytime from now."
"Interesting. Did you get multiple entry?"
"What does that mean?"
"If you're leaving anytime from now, it means you have
your travel requirements all sorted out, ticket, visa,
exact destination . do you have a school already, or are
you going to work?"
"Let me just get there first. I don't have any of your
fanciful listings but I
know that anyhow, I'm celebrating Independence with
God's own country this year. I'm not the first person
doing it and I'm willing to give whatever it takes..."
"You make me laugh. No visa, no money for ticket, and
you want to travel. Please let's forget that one and
face more important issues."
"And what may be more important than my trip."
"My money! Please today is the 13th, I need my money for
Val's day tomorrow."
"Em. please can you give me another week, my uncle lost
his job and things have been."
"And you want to travel. I don't know how you'll do it
but I need my money before 8:30pm."
If minds could be expressed on a canvas, that would be a
good painting of the Nigerian society (particularly as
it relates to the youth). An average young Nigerian is a
victim of a vicious cycle that has skillfully dug itself
into the fabric of the nation. The society keeps turning
out an annual army of unskilled young people. These
young men and women know that they need to succeed, and
peer pressure and precedence place them on a corrupt
path. Some of these youths have their way, become role
models and then the cycle continues: with an assured
production of corrupt people, and invariably, a corrupt
society.
As in the words of Sir Isaac Newton, an object will
always continue in a state of rest and constant uniform
motion unless otherwise acted upon by a force. Such is
the case of corruption, until a far-reaching solution is
proffered.
This essay seeks to establish the fact that the
prevalent corruption cycle can be considerably reduced
if young men are equipped with Information Technology
literacy and are taken from their jobless vacuum to a
digitized level where they are equipped with appropriate
Information Technology skills that will position them
for Personal Development, National Relevance, Regional
Co-operation and Global Participation.
Of the numerous definitions of corruption that I have
seen, one stands out. It comes from the online
dictionary, www.dictionary.com It defines corruption as
"The act of changing, or of being changed, for the
worse; departure from what is pure, simple, or correct".
Nigeria's present rating with respect to corruption
indices is no good news for any country, talk less the
giant of Africa.
It is wrong to conclude that one factor is responsible
for the present level of corruption we see in Nigeria,
but there are authentic angles one may view the total
picture from. This essay will look at corruption as a
produce of a societal vacuum. The indices of this viral
vacuum include unemployment, indecent precedence, and
unskilled people groups but emphasis will be placed on
the last.
Vacuums are not allowed in nature. It is natural that
when anything is absent, something else just has to
replace it. The lack of skills in young people, coupled
with the environment, promotes corrupt practices. This
essay may not be a one-stop solution to the issue at
hand but it sure presents one of the authentic angles
from which we may view any anti-corruption exercise.
The boundaries that mark the distinctive location of
nations are fast fading off as technological innovations
turn the whole world into a global village.
Administration, financial services, business, education,
governance, agriculture, automobiles, communications and
all other spheres of human endeavour are not left out in
this dynamic revolution.
One fact that stands out is that productivity is
increased and innovation is encouraged. Where these two
are present, young people in the society can then trace
a clean path through which they can acquire skills,
develop themselves, earn a living and thus short-circuit
the corruption flow. Information Technology will not
erase corruption but the fact that it provides an
opportunity to fill the existent vacuum will tell a lot
on the level of corruption that is prevalent among any
people group. This is the digitization of the prevalent
societal vacuum that this essay refers to.
Having considered the aforementioned, we can then go
ahead to look into the various steps that may aid the
actualization of the process. The following are
recommendations that should assist in digitizing the
existent vacuum in order to stage a successful
anti-corruption crusade:
Ø Ensuring a PARADIGM SHIFT among the Youth by making
them understand that
corruption will only put up false security, temporary
achievements and of course, debatable integrity Ø
Propagating Information Technology literacy by
encouraging delivery in LOCAL LANGUAGES
Ø Encouraging SYNERGY and networking among youths, that
are targeted towards virtuous ideals and creative
application of Information Technology in solving
prevalent problems
Ø INTEGRATING Information Technology in course delivery,
even to the elementary levels
Ø Providing a conducive atmosphere for Private
Sector-led initiatives that can help equip the Youth
Ø Exposing the Youth to incorrupt Role Models, which can
be done through the National Orientation Agency's
website, print and electronic media or through any other
private initiative
The prevalent corruption cycle can be considerably
reduced if young men are equipped with Information
Technology skills and are taken from their jobless
vacuum to a digitized level where they are equipped with
appropriate Information Technology skills that will
position them for Personal Development, National
Relevance, Regional Co-operation and Global
Participation.
This will require public sector, private sector and
civil society participation, but most importantly, is a
challenge to the Youth of this nation. Since the
strength of any nation cannot be isolated from its hope
for the future, the Youth of Nigeria must rise to the
challenge of catalyzing Nigeria's innovative and dynamic
participation in the global village. We might have been
misunderstood, and we might have spent our energies on
vices but we choose to turn around and take the bulls by
the horns in order to liberate our nation from the
shackles of obscurity and shame. I believe that a new
incorrupt nation will emerge, and its ideals will be
built on the foundation of the labours of our past
heroes, hewn out of the present waste and engineered by
tomorrow's leaders: the Youth!
[The author was Nigeria's IT youth Ambassador 2001 -
2003]
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 172
NEW TECHNOLOGY/PRODUCT
Paradigm International www.paradigmint.net is
collaborating with different interest groups to make
scriptures (of any religion) available on all kinds of
media. The objective is to make scripture available for
free, anywhere, anytime, in any language and on any
mobile internet accessing device. To be sure, Lingua® -a
word-processor and translator is a veritable tool
utilized in the process. Being the first multi-language
word-processor, the first recipient of the "Best
Commercially Viable Software Award" of NCS organized
Nigerian Software Exhibition (NISE) in 2001 and, as
recipient of several "Editor's Choice Award" and high
ratings on international software download sites and
magazines, Lingua is aptly suited for documenting
scripture in Nigerian, African and other Languages.
Another inspirational software from the Paradigm stable
is the free Screensaver. This intermittently displays
Pictures from desired folders or display Quotations from
a specified text file.
For more information and software downloads, please
visit www.paradigmint.net
ESSAY
[Flying on The internet]
www.itafrica.org
ITAfrica is a simple vision: provide a database of
expertise for growing African IT communities. With the
dramatic growth of services in the last five years, and
the fragmented nature of this sector, it seemed a
"no-brainer" to provide this resource to each community
-- with content provided by the community itself.
Highlighting local services, local companies, and local
solutions to specifically African opportunities is key.
Too often governments and CEOs have looked 'outside',
where in fact, help and expertise is either on their
doorstep, or can quickly be developed. ITAfrica is
designed to kill that 'excuse' of not knowing who does
what.
getting listed
go to your country (if it's currently available) see
information about setting up your country select "add my
listing" from the country home page
add your contact information, description, logo and more
click save!
It's done. A host will verify your content and publish
it.
how much does it cost?
it's free to be listed in ITAfrica. The goal is to be as
comprehensive as possible. ITAfrica will hope to attract
advertisers to support site development and any costs
the city hosts encounter.
do i qualify?
your primary business must be as an IT services
provider. Electronics and telephone stores do not
qualify. Designers and ad agencies do not qualify.
Please review the sections that are relevant for you. If
none of them fit, you probably don't belong in ITAfrica.
A host may contact you after your posting if your
company is not known to her or him, and you should be
prepared to support your listing. Putting a logo up and
a good description with the types of clients you have
help a lot.
what if my country or town isn't available?
we can not accept listings if your country is not
online. To bring a country online, we need a host
willing to do that for your town/country. If you know of
someone, or want to do it yourself, read our becoming a
host page. If your town isn't listed, then just email
your country host or info@itafrica.org and they will
arrange coverage for your town.
you would like to have ITAfrica for your country, it's
very easy to setup. The site is designed so that we can
simply "turn on" your country. You will get all the same
categories and sections as the other live countries. You
can even select the color system for your country and
you can set it in a 'primary language' of French,
English, Portuguese or Arabic. There is no cost to
getting ITAfrica in your country.
But the essential requirement to start a country is
finding a 'country host'. This person, or group of
people, will be responsible for collecting the initial
list of IT companies and services. They will promote the
site. They should be professional, reliable and
knowledgeable about the community. A set of simple
webtools included in the site will help them do this.
They are also responsible for vetting new listings, and
removing unhelpful user postings/ratings. There is no
payment for this, but in the event that a host can
generate sponsorships and advertising for the site, they
will keep 75% of those revenues.
The goal of ITAfrica is not to go wide and shallow, but
to go narrow and deep. Please don't think about setting
up a country unless the nominated host is willing to
commit significant time and energy to compiling a
comprehensive database.
visit www.itafrica.org Africa's own community-driven
database of IT experts, businesses, events and projects
and send a mail today to info@itafrica.com
[ CYBERSCHUUL is in no way connected with the above
project which we, however consider commendable
CYBERSCHUULNEWS 171
CTO’S REPORT COMMENDS VoIP TO AFRICA
A report which reviews the prospects and challenges for
growth of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) telephony
in Africa was launched last Monday by the Commonwealth
Telecommunications Organization, CTO. It identifies
affordability and access as critical factors that will
determine the future of the technology.
The report is critical about the failure of African
governments to radically change their environments and
fortunes but campaigns that they embrace VoIP. It does
evaluation of specific countries and argues for the
provision of a robust regulatory framework to protect
public policy concerns and enable the introduction of
new and innovative technologies for a successful
development of information and communication
technologies in the continent.
WIN ONE, LOOSE ONE
INDUSTRY REVIEWERS HAIL NCC
Two stroies dominated the industry last week.
Early in the month, The Nigerian Communications
Commission, NCC, threw up the challenge of increasing
the telephone availability in the next twelve months by
10 million and Pentascope, Contract Managers at NITEL,
went to town with information on their bailout work at
the ailing company. The two major stories became subject
of intense discussion by a quartet of senior analysts
whose 2-day brainstorming was facilitated by THE
EXECUTIVE CYBERSCHUUL.
The analysts view NCC’s projection as a plus for
regulation especially as the Commission has consistently
grown its thrust from an acclaimed auction, through a
pro-consumer strategy and now it is being ProACTIVE.
With such vision, it is considered a matter of time that
Nigeria recovers its position as Africa’s No 1 for
business and political leadership.
Analysts see the NCC’s initiative as a challenge to
business, to management, to the professions and
especially to Nigerian engineers. In terms of training,
investment, valu-added intiatives, the NCC’s vision is
seen as the result of well thought out projection which
is needed to chart a clear path for the industry.
Discussants note in particular that the Commission,
having attained high rating in corporate behaviour, is
in a good position to facilitate the projection it is
making.
On the other hand, a review of Pentascope’s 35 pages of
information which was released to the Press on November
10, 2004 clearly demonstrates that the
contract-management journey in NITEL is a bad
investment.
TRIBUTE
PATRICK, STEEVE, SLEEP AND MANAGE SPORTS YONDER
As I write, two persons that I love so much are about
being lowered six feet down into the ground. One in
Kokori, Niger Delta, the other in Katsina Ala, along the
Benue. Patrick Okpomo, sports administrator par
excellence and Steeve Akiga, former Hon Minister of
Sports and guru among football enthusiasts may just be
doing sporting things together wherever they may be.
Because we are human beings, we will be wanting to say
these fellows are not dead but that they have gone to be
at the bosom of the Lord. Yes, that is true. But the
truth really is that they are dead.
I know Patrick very well but I never met Steeve. Patrick
was my colleague in the Unilag athletics club where we
both shared several things together on occasions when we
went camping. Smooth, unassuming, perfectly gentleman.
He went ahead to prove himself in sports management and
while we did not see often, at most three times in 30
years, since we left school, I followed his profile in
newspaper reports. We spoke at length only once at a
chance meeting.
I never met Steeve Akiga. I only heard about him from
Dare, my friend with whom I shared a room at Unilag in
those days. Dare told us the story of his secondary
school days when a Peace Corps teacher who marked one
Steeve Akiga down for a misdemeanor and was searching
for him so he could impose penalty. The American teacher
[for those who may not know what ‘peace corps’ means],
went round the school asking everyone he met in a drowsy
typical American baritone saying ‘...I’m looking for
Steeve Akiga, who ever has seen Steeve Akiga should show
me Steeve Akiga. I’m going to punch Steeve Akiga..’ That
became a song in the dormitory. The fun in there was
that Steeve Akiga was one of the only few names that the
fellow could pronounce without blemish [there were
people whose names sounded like ejirooghene or the other
one which Ali Baba bears as his real name] and he was
enjoying the fun of having to use it as a song. Steeve
Akiga, a smart guy approached the teacher to tell him he
knew 'Steeve Akiga' and whenever he met with him he
would march Steeve Akiga to the staff room office of the
corper. For 3 days, Steeve Akiga kept telling the
Teacher he had not seen 'Steeve Akiga' and on Friday he
went to tell the teacher that 'Steeve Akiga' had gone on
EXEAT and would be back on Monday. That at least was to
keep the teacher quiet for the weekend, and it worked.
Contrary to Steeve’s expectation and forecast, however,
the teacher, still romancing his ability at pronouncing
Steeve Akiga excellently, did not forget to look for
'Steeve Akiga' on Monday. Promptly, Steeve still told
him 'Steeve Akiga' was yet to be in school. ‘..Certainly
I will march Steeve Akiga to you when he shows up in
school...’ Two days later the cat was let out of the bag
as another teacher it was who found that Steeve Akiga
was actually in school all along and he was the
informant who the teacher was relying on to find 'Steeve
Akiga'…’ The remaining was history.
With that kind of story, the name Steeve Akiga stuck in
my head and any time I saw an old boy of St Paul,
Wusasa, I remembered the 'Steeve Akiga' story.
Good and behold, Steeve Akiga came into public
consciousness a few decades later when he was appointed
Hon. Minister of sports and the description of his old
frame, kindness, and jolly-nice-guy mannerism was the
kind of things I read about him in newspapers and saw on
telly. I was still nursing the idea of visiting him
whenever I was in any town that he lived in Nigeria when
I suddenly heard that he died.
C’mon death, shame on you.
[Writer of the Tribute, Mr. Titi Omo-Ettu, is a
telecommunications engineer]
ABUSES IN ON-LINE TRANSACTIONS
by
M. Adeniji Kazeem Esq.
nkazeem@adenijikazeem.com
Domain names and the attendant intellectual property
implications are gradually being incorporated into the
legal framework of many countries such that with the
growth of e-commerce there is going to be an upsurge in
these forms of online abuse and owners must be prepared
to combat these crimes.
There are two broad acceptable headings under which
online abuse can be addressed viz:
Unlawful Selling /defamatory comments
Domain name Theft/Cybersquatting
I. Unlawful Selling/Defamatory comments
In some cases a company might find defamatory material
on a website or cases of unlawful selling of its
products or similar
A very important step is the investigation aspect which
every domain name owner must follow if there is
threatened online abuse
-Securing offending evidence
An offending internet site can be very “flighty” and can
be moved very quickly thereby depriving a party of
important evidence. The domain name owner will therefore
need to immediately secure the offending site by saving
it using Microsoft word or any other word processing
software. There is however other software which can
reveal the history of the offending website and show
pages for a specific day. In Nigeria because the
relative lack of ICT Law exposure among judicial
officers , it is advisable that a simple affidavit that
the offending website was seen on a particular day
supported by a print out of the web page should suffice
for purpose of seeking relief’s in Court.
-Alert Control
In most cases where there is an offending website it is
likely to generate a lot of interest within a company or
the particular individual domain name owner. This
interest normally translates into numerous visits to the
websites that might likely alert the wrongdoer and lead
to removal of key evidence.
It is therefore important that information on he
offending websites is carefully managed especially in
big companies so as not to alert the wrongdoers.
-Cease and desist
Where offending content is categorically linked to a
website, the services of a lawyer will be needed to
issue a cease and desist letter. In most cases the
letter should be addressed to the Internet Service
Provider (ISP) alerting it that it is hosting a website
that has defamatory content and that it faces a possible
lawsuit for dissemination. In most cases a responsible
ISP will takes steps to have it removed to avoid
problems and this has been enshrined into law in the EU
and the U.S where they can be liable for defamatory
content that they are aware of but have done nothing
about.
In Nigeria there has be no amendment to the law of
defamation to cater for electronic dissemination as is
the case in the U.S and the E.U. However this might not
be an immediate problem due the fact that majority of
the sites are hosted in jurisdictions with updated laws.
This will definitely change as the domain name .ng gains
prominence and widespread usage.
2. Domain name theft/Cybersquatting
The importance of trademarks on the Internet continues
to grow in leaps and bounds and protection is becoming
more and more imperative.
Cybersquatting involves the pre-emptive, bad faith
registration of trademarks as domain names by third
parties who do not possess rights in such names.
Cybersquatters exploit the first-come first served
nature of the domain name registration system to
register as domain names, third parties’ trademarks or
business names or names of famous people, as well as
variations thereof.
A common motive for cybersquatter is the intention to
sell the domain name back to the trademark owner or to
attract web traffic to unrelated commercial offers.
In event that a genuine trademark holder finds himself
at the receiving end of a cybersquatter he must again
contact an ICT attorney who will advise on available
options.
Most domain names are subject to WIPO’s Uniform Dispute
Resolution Policy or analogous policies. This policy was
designed to provide an effective alternative mechanism
to deal with what are frequently cross border disputes.
It was also designed to combat a situation of slow court
litigation that could produce a de-fact situation in
which it may be quicker and cheaper for a trademark
holder to buy back its rights to a domain name from the
cybersquatter rather that seek to retrieve those rights
through litigation.
The ICT attorney can lodge a complaint on your behalf
and the name will be transferred if the following
cumulative criteria are established:
i. the domain name registered by the domain name
registrant is identical or confusingly similar to a
trademark or service mark or service mark in which the
complainant has rights; and
ii. the domain name registrant has no rights or
legitimate interests in respect of the domain name in
question; and
iii. the domain name has been registered and is being
used in bad faith.
This procedure is going to get very relevant in Nigeria
as domain names assume the status of trademarks for many
Nigerian businesses. For instance the Nigerian financial
services and e-commerce companies are beginning to
experience the “Phishing” phenomenon. This is a practice
where criminals impersonate brands in spam e-mail that
lures unsuspecting customers to bogus websites that look
like those of reputable companies and are designed to
deceive consumers into divulging personal data. This
policy will enable the real owners of the marks that are
being “spoofed” to get the sites removed within a
relatively short time compared to traditional litigation
methods.
3. Conclusion
E-commerce is taking root in Nigeria and the above are
some of the issues that will have to be dealt with by
all the players that industry. Digital brand protection
will become a huge issue that has to be addressed by
companies intending to take advantage of e-commerce to
boost their sales and widen their reach.
[M. Adeniji Kazeem Esq. is a Lagos based ICT Attorney]
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