|
CyberschuulNews
355
"Africa can: Nigeria can"
In some guise and from a plethora of ‘we can’
clichés, Kenneth Ugbechie, Executive Secretary
of Africa Telecommunications Development
Initiative in his address welcoming delegates to
the recent summit on Africa Telecom Development
held in Abuja, used the word ‘Africa can’
several times in making the case that based on a
multitude of indices of telecom development, the
African continent was indeed the place to watch.
By
concentrating solely on telecommunication
indices, he did not explain them in the context
of an overarching socio-political and economic
environment such as the promising political
stability in Ghana or indeed the ICT revolution
which is a catalyst for growth and development
in Rwanda. More than any other thing, Nigeria
was his trump card.
Security
(‘citizens, food and cyber’) was a major issue
raised at the Summit but all attention shifted
naturally, to the internet where there was
consensus on the issue that Broadband internet
access has become very serious and fuelling the
possibility and danger of cyber terrorism,
hunger and democracy on which delegates visited
the prognosis for Nigeria, the test case.
Broadband
will not feed the nation but it would be
required to support Raising Agricultural Income
with Sustainable Environment, RAISE, which
Minister for agriculture Dr Ruma said government
has been championing. Many insisted that
information technology is the tool which RAISE
needs to make a deserving impact.
Dr
Shamsuddeen Usman, Minister of National Planning
spoke on behalf of the Federal government. He
threw down a ‘challenge’ to the regulator to
make a reality the Federal Government’s ambition
of achieving 100 telephones per 100 inhabitants
by, wait for it, 2020. Delegates were aghast
looking at one another with surprise. If that
epitomised the ambition of government, it was no
surprise it drew a frosty reception. Put another
way, delegates were not impressed.
It fell to
Dr. Hamadoun Toure, Secretary General of the ITU
to impress on the government and its
representatives that its stipulated target was
not exactly stretching given that its ambition
is reasonably achievable by 2015 but with the
added caveat – only if existing policy
initiatives were sustained.
The reality
however is that the government had not sustained
such policy if the past 24 months are anything
to go by. There has been negligible progress in
the way of policy direction and development in
telecommunications. The only noticeable
initiative in recent times was in relation to
the independence of regulation under which the
operating act guaranteed and which the
government recently curtailed.
NEWS
Experts say Cyber warfare is real for the future
If the premonition that the next ‘world war’
(customarily a war amongst developed nations
rather than the whole world) actually becomes a
reality, then the need for a cyber rapid
response force may become a necessity rather
than some utopian idea
Last week in Abuja, Prof Nii Quaynor Chairman of
the Ghanaian company, Network Computer Systems,
and recipient of the renowned Jon Postel Service
Award said prospects of a future warfare in
cyberspace is real and what is required to
contain it are global cooperation, collaboration
and coordination. CNN also reported about the
same time that in Washington, an independent
research group predicts that cyber warfare will
accompany future military conflicts and it is
recommending international action to confront
its impact.
Nii Quaynor, speaking at the Africa Telecom
Development Summit argued that technical
response to combat cyber-terrorism is the
simplest of all the problems posed by the issue.
More complex are issues of user-education, the
establishment and implementation of universal
security techniques and laws, He said cyber
miscreants may have been building their
technical knowledge and skills, gaining leverage
through automation and exploitation of network
interconnections, easier access to
infrastructure and becoming more skillful at
circumventing detection.
Distinguished speakers who admonish governments
for not strengthening the legal framework for
cyber security include Prof Raymond Akwule,
President of Digital Bridge Institute and Mr.
Basil Udotai, an expert on internet crime.
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
It
is a mergers’ jamboree!
Mergers are like buses. You wait for so long for
one and three come at the same time. Having
reported on a monster merger between mobile
operators T-Mobile and Orange (see edition 354),
there appears to be an avalanche. Here are
‘three of the best’ that have been ‘talk of the
town’ since we last reported. All with varying
levels of cleanliness in their bills of health
and probability of fruition.
Suspect: Microsoft and Yahoo
US anti-monopoly investigators have asked
Microsoft and Yahoo for more details of their
proposed online search partnership to challenge
market leader, Google.
Neither company has revealed the nature of the
request, but observers said it is likely to be
around the impact the deal will have on the
pricing of online advertising. Advertisers are
hoping that a stronger competitor to Google will
accelerate the fall in prices for search terms
initiated by the downturn.
The request for more information leads logical
minds to conclude there is a deepening of the
investigation, but Yahoo said it did not expect
closure of the deal to be delayed, according to
the FT Both companies had declared they
anticipated a lengthy review and said from the
start that they did not expect the deal to close
before the end of the year. This means Microsoft
may have to put up a fight, as Oracle did to
acquire PeopleSoft to boost competition with
SAP.
European anti-monopoly authorities are not
reviewing the proposed deal because Microsoft
and Yahoo would have a combined share of only
10% of the European search advertising market.
Yes: ST Telemedia and Eircom
ST Telemedia,
the Singapore state-owned telecoms group is
poised to make its first acquisition outside
Asia after agreeing a deal to buy Eircom, the
debt-laden Irish telecoms group. Eircom
Holdings, the Irish company’s Australia-based
parent, said on Monday it had recommended to
shareholders then offer made by STT in June
which gives the Irish group an equity valuation
of about A$67m ($57m). This follows STT
submitting a revised bid for Irish operator
Eircom in August in which The Australian holding
company Eircom Holdings (ERC) issued details on
the offer of cash or shares in the new company,
Under that proposal,. The ERC board said it was
not recommending the offer to shareholders due
to certain terms and conditions tied to the
proposal, and as a result it will continue to
negotiate with STT. The company still planned to
go ahead with the capital return, pending a
shareholders meeting which took place on 15
September.
With Eircom nearly €4bn in debt, having to cut
15 per cent of staff in the next two years as
part of €130m of savings and facing its fifth
change of ownership in the 10 years, since it
was privatised by the Irish government, the
acquisition deal puts a total enterprise value
of €4.4bn ($6.4bn) on the Irish group.
The Singapore government has identified telecoms
as a growth area and for the past decade has
made investments into local Asian markets
through its investment arm, Temasek Kerry
Roxburgh, chairman of Eircom said it had been
looking to maximise shareholder value for 18
months. “This process has resulted in the
termination of the management arrangements with
Babcock & Brown along with proposals to return
surplus capital to Eircom shareholders,” he
said.
Definitely Maybe: Bharti Airtel and MTN
However a
merger that is floundering is that one between
MTN, of South Africa, and Bharti Airtel, of
India two telecoms groups that aim to exploit
markets in Africa and the Middle East. Back in
May, Airtel, which runs cell-phone networks
across India, and South Africa's MTN, the
largest cell-phone operator in Africa, made a
brief statement to shareholders on that they
were hammering out a complex deal which would
merge the companies. If successful, the deal
would likely give Sunil Mittal control of a
telecom behemoth that would have the
third-largest number of subscribers in the
world, after U.K.-based Vodafone and China
Mobile, with annual revenues in excess of $20
billion.
After last
year's merger talks between Bharti and MTN ended
last summer, rival Indian mobile phone group
Relliance started its own merger talks with MTN,
but they also ultimately came to nothing. Of
course there is always the issue of money. Even
though in August, Bhatia Airtel successfully
asked bankers to commit to a multi-billion
dollar syndicated loan at short notice, merger
talks were extended in what appears to be
another twist in this long drawn takeover.
Another
contributory factor that might suggest a merger
is unlikely at least for the time being could be
logistics. The ‘Financial Times’ citing
unidentified bankers reported that Pretoria said
it would never allow South Africa’s “strategic
corporations” to be domiciled offshore. Those in
the know said both parties reached a preliminary
accord worth $24billion. This may result in a
net inflow of $6.3billion. That may be why
Pretoria is digging in its heel.Another sticky
point according to market economists is that the
South African Reserve Bank is likely to absorb
most of the money. The South African Rand had
drawn sharp rise in support and anticipation of
the deal back in May. There is the possibility
that once the deal is closed, it weaken fairly
quickly as long term positions taken back in May
will be reversed
With only
two weeks to go before talks are due to expire
on September 30, we wait with bated breadth
FEATURE ON DEVELOPMENT
A
Phoenix Rises: Rwanda Leading Africa in ICT
Revolution (Part 2)
Point is: good governance along with blue sky
thinking and a ‘can do’ mentality are changing
real lives and how Rwanda is a beacon for other
developing economies around the world to
emulate.
Access for all citizens is what underpins
Rwanda's ICT policy. But the government is
matching this aspiration with tangible and
comprehensive investment. Like the availability
of the Rwf4.5 billion WiBro technology will give
users uninterrupted access to high speed
wireless internet using an access card at a
reasonable price from any part of the city. This
will in turn give rise to "mobile offices" for
people whose work duties will no longer be
confined to an office block thus also meaning
more home offices and increase in the internet
user base. There are also results matching
policy, aspiration and investment as reports
confirm that Kigali City will go wireless by the
end of October.
There is
also the Rwf5 million National Data Centre (NDC).
With its construction already commenced, the
centre will synchronize public information and
allows authorized access to different
beneficiaries from both public and private
sector institutions in need of data storage
facilities. The national ID project system will
be one of the major beneficiaries of this one
stop shop for data services. "The data centre
will serve as a central data storage facility
but also provide access to applications used by
government institutions such as unified
communications and travel approval," said Didier
Nkurikiyimfura, of the NDC.
Also like most other places there is still a
substantial rural-urban gap, with the majority
of mobile phone, landline and internet access
concentrated in Rwanda's capital Kigali and
surrounding areas. But with 1 billion dollar
investment in 2006, the government embarked on a
program to building nationwide tele-centres with
Internet and telephone access points, allowing
for increased connectivity and mobility in rural
areas. Simultaneously a related "village phone"
endeavor undertaken by Nokia and the Grameen
Foundation USA in 2006 sought to bring
affordable mobile communications access to rural
villages in Rwanda, as well as the creation of
over 3,000 related small businesses throughout
the country in the next three years.
Following the decimation of human capital due to
the troubles in 1994, there is also a positive
story for citizens of war-torn Rwanda.
Twenty-five recently demobilised soldiers, for
example, were awarded one-year hardware
maintenance and software development
certificates in 2006 by the Washington DC-based
Development Gateway Foundation. "The aim of the
training was to help demobilised soldiers get
jobs as technical consultants in ICT. Some have
started partnering with computer hardware and
maintenance companies," Jerome Gasana, project
manager of the Regional ICT Training Centre (RITC)
in Kigali told IPS.
All of the above have immeasurably improved
Rwanda socio-politically and economically.
Rwanda was chosen as the geographical
headquarters of the new East African Submarine
Cable project - a mammoth fibre optic venture
designed to bring telecommunications to rural
villages from Sudan to South Africa along East
Africa's coast. The Economist magazine recently
reported that Rwanda is well on its way to
achieving its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
as a result of its ICT-based poverty reduction
strategies.
Manzi Bakuramutsa, Rwanda’s Ambassador to the UN
said, "The government will facilitate the laying
down of the infrastructure and hopes that the
project can be transferred to the private
sector."
That might have consequences but we say ‘hear,
hear’, nevertheless because slowly the dream of
becoming a knowledge-based economy and the
projected vision of having more users who can
access internet is imminent. As a result, by the
year 2020, - the once imaginary dreams of
development through ICT are much closer to a
reality.
EXECUTIVE MOVEMENT
‘Bayo
Ligali quits Zain Nigeria
Zain in Nigeria, has announced that Mr. Adebayo
Ligali its CEO for 3 years has moved on to
pursue other interests and handed over to Alain
Sainte-Marie, who, before his appointment,
headed the Gabon operation of the Zain Group. Zain
in Nigeria is the most traded among Nigeria’s
mobile operators having changed name 5 times for
reasons of acquisition of major interest in it
by different interests at different times.
OBITUARY
Ndukwe Kalu, may the Good Lord welcome you home,
by
Segun Olugbile <segun@cybersolutionafrica.org>
I received this sad news with great shock! My
most recent meeting with him was during the
House of Rep Public Hearing on Cybercrime
legislation. My sympathy and condolence go to
his immediate family, close business associates
and ICT industry in general.
We have lost such a promising and brilliant
Nigerian whose contribution to the motherland
will be positively judged by providence.
Honestly, he fought for a good cause. He is so
patriotic and loyal to this nation as
demonstrated in his pioneering contribution to
NIRA.
Our country leaders must have a rethink on the
success of this nation. Kalu has contributed
immeasurably within and beyond his capacity
toward ensuring online visibility and presence
of our nation within the cyberspace. One thing I
surely know, Kalu has left behind a sustainable
Nigeria domain legacy that will impact this
generation and the generation to come. He left
behind a strong footprint in our generation that
cannot be easily eroded by every wind of
unstable government policies.
Kalu is bigger, better and must be celebrated
more than our corrupt leaders at the corridors
of powers and parastatals who deserved nothing
more than a curse. But we plead with Almighty
God to continually forgive our leaders for
mismanaging and misleading this nation or what
else can we say.
Kalu, you have come, you have seen, and honestly
you have fought a good fight and conquered!
Adieu Engr. Kalu Ndukwe. May the Good Lord
welcome you home.
CyberschuulNews 354
"Africa’s good story is telecommunications" says
ITU Secretary-General.
Dr. Hamadoun Toure, Secretary General of the
International Telecommunications Union, ITU,
reviewed the past ten years of
telecommunications development in Africa and
concluded that the continent has got a good
story to report. He said this in a keynote
address in Abuja. He reeled out very encouraging
data of performance in telecommunications and
used them to show that Nigeria has been a true
leader in this economic sector. Specifically,
although South Africa accounted for 75% of
Africa’s mobile telephone lines in year 2000,
the figure reduced to 20% in 2008 with a very
high portion of available lines (about 25%
really) being accounted for by Nigeria. He
argued that Nigerian government’s projection of
teledensity of 100 telephone lines per 100
inhabitants by year 2020 is achievable by 2015
if the current tempo of development and vibrant
telecommunication policy initiatives in the
country are sustained.
TECHNOBUSINESS
Multichoice latches on Intelsat 20 due for
launch in 2012
South Africa’s Multichoice, renown for its
Direct to Home television services is reported
to have reserved space in Intelsat’s IS-20 which
is scheduled for launch in first quarter of
2012. The IS-20 satellite, which will also
replace the Intelsat 10 satellite, will provide
services to Africa, Europe, the Middle East,
Asia and India. The satellite's Ku-band payload
is specifically designed to provide enterprise
network and DTH services into Asia, Africa and
the Middle East.
Enter, Internet access in cars
KIA Motors
of South Korea recently announced that it will,
3 years from now, launch cars that are equipped
with internet access. It will work in synergy
with Intel’s WiBro a name in internet services
provision for vehicles.
Spotify launches on mobile phones
Spotify - The Swedish music streaming service
that allows music to be browsed by specified
categories as well as direct searches with
instant listening and almost no buffering delay,
has expanded its service to mobiles.
Phones using
Google's mobile operating system Android, and
iPhone users, can access the firms four million
tracks. The application will also allow users to
save more than 3,000 songs to play while
offline. Mobile users will have to pay a
subscription charge to download and save music.
Spotify is
viewed in the music industry as a rival to
Apple's iTunes which currently dominates the
digital music market, but also as a credible
business model for an industry which has had
difficulty adapting to the online world. This is
thought to be one of the reasons Spotify was so
keen to break into the mobile market as well as
the subscription charge of which only about 2%
currently pay with the rest using the firm's
free streaming services.
Spotify, which launched in 2008, now has more
than six million across Europe. It has not yet
launched in the United States, but says it
intends to do so by the end of the year.
T-Mobile and Orange in UK merger
The UK mobile phone landscape was irrevocably
changed this week after exclusive merger talks
were revealed between two telecoms groups,
Deutsche Telekom - the owner of T-Mobile known
to be considering an outright sale of the
business, and France Telecom which owns Orange.
Timing must have been an integral part of the
deal clencher for the monster merger coming at a
time when Deutsche Telekom had been considering
its options for its UK business where it holds a
15% share in the highly competitive market and
struggling to win customers and for France
Telecom seeking to strengthen its position in
the UK market with 22% share without paying cash
or taking on vastly more debt.
Orange and
T-Mobile mobile phone giant said their deal -
due to be signed by November - would "bring
substantial benefits to UK customers", and
promised expanded network coverage, better
network quality and improved customer services
but perhaps more importantly will see a business
with sales of 9.4bn euros (£8.2bn; $13.5bn) with
28.4 million customers and holding about 37% of
the mobile market it will be the UK's largest
provider, overtaking Telefonica's O2
'Efficiencies' a.k.a cost savings always lurk in
the motives behind these mergers. Integrating
the businesses will cost between £600m and
£800m. Orange has UK workforce of 12,500 while
T-Mobile has 6,500. This bill would also include
decommissioning mobile phone masts, cutting back
the network of stores and streamlining other
operations. Over time, savings should reach
about £3.5bn, they added.
ICT
does it bit for the environment
The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA)
EIATRACK, a subscription-based web service that
tracks global environmental regulations,
released the long-awaited Regulation for the
Management of the Recycling and Disposal of
Waste Electrical and Electronic Products, also
known as China Waste from Electrical and
Electronic Equipment or China WEEE has just been
released for publication. EIATRACK subscribers
received an alert back in March about the
landmark regulatory development, with key facts
and legal analysts’ preliminary observations
concerning China WEEE – remarkable given the
nature of public disclosure in China.
Premier Wen
Jiabao signed China WEEE into law on February
25, 2009. It reflects the Chinese government’s
highest-level step to date toward the
development of a national regulatory program and
addresses the nature of the "waste electrical
and electronic product fund" as well as the
responsibilities of manufacturers and other
stakeholders with respect to this fund.
Enforcement is planned for January 1, 2011.
FEATURE REPORT
A
Phoenix Rises: Rwanda Leading Africa in ICT
Revolution (Part1)
Less than fifteen years after the genocide that
destroyed much of Rwanda's human capital,
infrastructure, and socio-economic fabric, the
country is set to become sub-Saharan Africa's
hub for information and communications
technology (ICT).
The atrocity in 1994 meant Rwanda was faced with
a shattered economy. It launched its "Vision
2020" strategy in 2000 in order to vigorously
rebuild and reinvent the Rwandan economy
focusing on agricultural, industrial, and social
elements as well, Rwanda's lack of port access
but the Rwandan government then shifted
investment to a knowledge-based economy with ICT
as its cornerstone with the objective of
achieving middle-income economic status as well
produce highly-skilled scientists and
technicians through launching programmes in
scientific research and education, technological
innovation and telecommunications distribution
by the year 2020.
As part of an ambitious government initiative to
develop Rwanda's telecommunications
infrastructure, the country's ICT sector -
including mobile phone and fibre optic networks
as well as PC and Internet access, the
Government of Rwanda has committed itself to
creating four five-year plans (2000-2020) to
develop and expand all sectors of society
through the use, and domestic development and
production, of information and communication
technologies (ICTs). The belief by the Rwandan
government that that ICT for development will
allow for a rapid developmental process that
will propel Rwanda past industrialization and
into an information rich society has become
matched by investment from both international
public and private sectors in recent years.
These efforts have been rewarded as Rwanda has
benefited from ICT-based investments by
lucrative international players such as
Microsoft, Nokia, and Terracom and consequently
named East Africa's number one ICT nation by the
United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD) which said the country's
current ICT sector budget is on par with nations
of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD), a grouping of 30 rich
nations, at 1.6 percent, far above the African
average.
The Rwanda Development Gateway, a government-run
portal for Rwanda's development sector, sees ICT
as "a window of opportunity to leap-frog the
industrialisation stage and transform the
economy into information and knowledge-based
economies" in order to effectively combat
development challenges in the country while
ushering in new economic and social
opportunities.
Rwanda also
boasts an Internet Exchange Point, ICT Park,
National Computing Centre, and Telemedecine
Network, which connects Rwandan hospitals and
universities in an attempt to transform and
expand health services to underserved areas. The
government continues to supply and invest in
technology at both the primary and university
school levels, as over 1,200 primary schools are
equipped with computers and at least 10 percent
of Rwanda's secondary schools have wireless
Internet.
The effort
has yielded dividends. Donor governments are
scrambling to get on Rwanda’s ICT bandwagon. In
July, the British Department for International
Development (DFID) announced it would launch a
£700,000 project in conjunction with the Rwandan
government and World Bank to "explore innovation
in science and technology and economic growth"
in the country.
Group mounts "Broadband for all" initiative in
Nigeria
A group of
concerned ICT professionals under the name of
Nigeria National Broadband Strategy Project
Committee, is known to have planned a Forum to
facilitate the development of a National
Broadband Framework for Nigeria (BB4NG)
Coordinator
John Dada last week proposed a 9-point agenda
which revolves around preparing a draft National
Broadband Framework (for Nigeria) which can be
presented for discussion at a stakeholders
meeting scheduled for November in Abuja.
The
Committee is known to have gone far in
identifying key stakeholders whose input into
making broadband internet access universally
entrenched in Nigeria is critical for the
purpose of the forum. Mr. Omo Oaiya who is
anchoring the technical wing of the plans says
the committee is anxious to review all available
resources, infrastructure, human, and financial
to tap into the widely know emerging initiatives
such as SAT-3, Glo-1, MainOne cable, and also
Nigeriasat1 which is said to be on its return to
business in 2010.
OBITUARY
Ndukwe Kalu, President NiRA, passes on
The Nigerian ICT industry was, during the week,
struck with the bad story that it lost one of
its best and most promising young men to the
cold hands of death. Mr. Ndukwe Kalu, an
engineer, suddenly dropped dead in his office.
Mr Kalu was at the time of his passage incumbent
President of the Nigeria Internet Registration
Association, NiRA, and Managing Director of
Amsco Telecoms Ltd.
He put in over ten years of industry development
activism, playing different roles within
committees and study groups especially on
developmental issues of broadband internet
access and universal service.
Africa Telecom review
A
Phoenix Rises: Rwanda Leading Africa in ICT
Revolution (Part1)
Less than fifteen years after the genocide that
destroyed much of Rwanda's human capital,
infrastructure, and socio-economic fabric, the
country is set to become sub-Saharan Africa's
hub for information and communications
technology (ICT).
The atrocity in 1994 meant Rwanda was faced with
a shattered economy. It launched its "Vision
2020" strategy in 2000 in order to vigorously
rebuild and reinvent the Rwandan economy
focusing on agricultural, industrial, and social
elements as well, Rwanda's lack of port access
but the Rwandan government then shifted
investment to a knowledge-based economy with ICT
as its cornerstone with the objective of
achieving middle-income economic status as well
produce highly-skilled scientists and
technicians through launching programmes in
scientific research and education, technological
innovation and telecommunications distribution
by the year 2020.
As part of an ambitious government initiative to
develop Rwanda's telecommunications
infrastructure, the country's ICT sector -
including mobile phone and fibre optic networks
as well as PC and Internet access, the
Government of Rwanda has committed itself to
creating four five-year plans (2000-2020) to
develop and expand all sectors of society
through the use, and domestic development and
production, of information and communication
technologies (ICTs). The belief by the Rwandan
government that that ICT for development will
allow for a rapid developmental process that
will propel Rwanda past industrialization and
into an information rich society has become
matched by investment from both international
public and private sectors in recent years.
These efforts have been rewarded as Rwanda has
benefited from ICT-based investments by
lucrative international players such as
Microsoft, Nokia, and Terracom and consequently
named East Africa's number one ICT nation by the
United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD) which said the country's
current ICT sector budget is on par with nations
of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD), a grouping of 30 rich
nations, at 1.6 percent, far above the African
average.
The Rwanda Development Gateway, a government-run
portal for Rwanda's development sector, sees ICT
as "a window of opportunity to leap-frog the
industrialisation stage and transform the
economy into information and knowledge-based
economies" in order to effectively combat
development challenges in the country while
ushering in new economic and social
opportunities.
Rwanda also
boasts an Internet Exchange Point, ICT Park,
National Computing Centre, and Telemedecine
Network, which connects Rwandan hospitals and
universities in an attempt to transform and
expand health services to underserved areas. The
government continues to supply and invest in
technology at both the primary and university
school levels, as over 1,200 primary schools are
equipped with computers and at least 10 percent
of Rwanda's secondary schools have wireless
Internet.
The effort
has yielded dividends. Donor governments are
scrambling to get on Rwanda’s ICT bandwagon. In
July, the British Department for International
Development (DFID) announced it would launch a
£700,000 project in conjunction with the Rwandan
government and World Bank to "explore innovation
in science and technology and economic growth"
in the country.
CyberschuulNews 353
ESSAY
2.3 GHz verdict: It was Them not Us
by
titi omo-ettu
The image that President Barrack Obama may not
be a happy man after all is etched in my
consciousness. Something keeps telling me that
the fellow would have wished that Nigeria lives
up to reputation as the world’s most populous
black country and worthy of the title, ‘centre
of the world’ for all black people.
In this
episode of ‘The West Wing’ that is playing in my
mind, El Presidente has assembled his inner
caucus of the ruling class and asked them ‘how
can I tell the folks in Nigeria to shape up
without causing unnecessary offence’. Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton perks up to say ‘I do,
Mr. President’ to which he responds, ‘Great,
don’t tell me. I think you should go tell them
in person’. And so came Hillary.
Suffice to
say that she came at a time when listening and
doing good was not a high point of those who are
on the cockpit in these parts. One even went as
far as telling her to mind her own business.
Or how do we explain it. Mrs. Clinton’s plane
had barely left the tarmac at the airport when
what clearly was an executive intervention in a
purely judicial logjam was announced from the
office of President Yar Adua.
For those of
us in the awkward squad who argue and believe we
should put the controversy surrounding the 2.3
GHz spectrum licenses behind us and face the
future, there is yet an explanation to make so
future generation does not ask us what the hell
a whole lot of 140 million of us were doing when
rule of law was being murdered.
The
objective here is not to revisit the controversy
all over but to appraise the validity of the
decision both in law and practice so as to
ensure that an inadequate framework is neither
the template nor precedent to which current and
future generations will have to adhere. It is
vitally important in a participatory democracy
that legislative and executive decisions are
subject to scrutiny to avoid any potential ugly
precedent before it sets in stone. It is what
makes us citizens rather than mere bystanders in
the democratic process.
For
starters, it is going to be difficult for
rational minds to agree to using the President's
decision as a precedent for future if and
whenever all facts present themselves again as
they did in the 2.3Ghz instance. It is a failure
of our democracy that our laws in this instance
are not allowed rigorous scrutiny and
intellectual dialysis.
In the
ensuing ‘presentation-over-substance’ scenario,
the commercial imperatives of using the story by
the local media dictated that this very public
spat was personalised and drawn out thus making
it an issue of 'who' was right (which meant that
the other was wrong) when the issue should have
been of 'what' was right or what was wrong.
So what was
wrong?
It was wrong
for our system to create and perpetuate a
climate in which the decision of a Commission be
reduced to and regarded as the decision of a
person. It makes an institutional failure a
personal one and consequently remedy is thought
of and applied in the context of personnel
rather than of systems or institutions. That the
person singled out for criticism is not the
Chairman of the Commission (where ideally the
buck stops) does not help but rather makes it
messier.
It was wrong
for a complaint to be fabricated as it
eventually emerged from records and facts from
AO3 Company’s strong rebuttal, which
categorically stated that it did not participate
in an auction and therefore could not have
written a petition about a process it was not
party to.
It was wrong that the advice given by the
Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice
to Mr. President was allowed to leak to the
press or blatantly published in the media to the
effect that the minister’s (of Communications
that is) intervention was impolite to the law.
With so much
wrong, it is difficult to catalogue what was
right in the whole milieu except the perfect
opportunity for us to test our Communications
Act within the purview of the executive.
Unfortunately it is an opportunity we have
missed.
We are in a
nightmare, somebody wake us up.
NEWS
Standout and be counted
OAU Alumni and the ICT Industry
Three generations of the Alumni of Obafemi
Awolowo University, OAU, Ile-Ife, stood out to
be counted in a recent event where those who
were accomplished as front liners of the ICT
industry came out for mentioning. The old
University of Ife generation to which Cleopas
Angaye, a professor and Director-General of
NITDA, Ernest Ndukwe, a telecommunications
engineer and EVC of NCC, Emmanuel Ekuwem, a
physicist and President of ATCON, Florence
Seriki, a chemical engineer and Chairman Omatek
Holdings, and ‘Demola Aladekomo, an electronics
engineer and chief executive of Chams Ltd as
well as two subsequent generations of the OAU,
one lead by Aaron Ukodie, renowned telecom/ICT
journalist and the third lead by ‘Gbenga Sesan,
pioneer Nigeria’s IT Ambassador were recognised
in Lagos.
The Event
also doubled as a launch for e-World, a new ICT
monthly, published by Mr. Aaron Ukodie.
The event
was witnessed by Michael Faborode, A professor
of Agricultural engineering and current
Vice-Chancellor of the University, himself an
alumnus.
Professor
Michael Faborode announced that the University
will, at its next convocation, confer the
Honourary Doctor of Technology on the Executive
Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications
Commission, Engr. Ernest Ndukwe.
"GLO-1" Lands in Lagos
Globacom's fibre that links Lagos through West
African imprints to the UK landed in Lagos
Saturday September 5, 2009. It is a solo effort
of Nigeria's Globalcom Ltd which says it will
enhance the delivery of broadband access at
significantly reduced cost to consumers in
Nigeria.
EVENTS
Abuja to host Africa Telecommunications
Development Summit
Secretary-General of the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU), Dr Hamadoun
Toure will on Thursday September 10, 2009 review
the past ten years of telecommunications
development in Africa when Nigeria hosts the
world to the Africa Telecommunications
Development Summit.
Theme of the summit is TELECOM IN THE SERVICE OF
HUMANITY and it is being organised by the Africa
Telecom Development Initiative in partnership
with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC),
with the West Africa Telecommunications
Regulators Assembly (WATRA) and Africa Business
Round Table as collaborators. There will be
three session papers on cyber security, food
security and citizen security.
Venue: Congress Hall of Transcorp Hilton, Abuja
at 10.00am.
"Ex Africa semper aliquid novi" (There's always
something new coming out of Africa!)
London hosts the first BarCampAfrica UK event on
Nov. 7, 2009. This Free event is expected to
attract technologically inspired African
Diaspora from diverse fields - entrepreneurs,
technologist, charities, engineers, designers,
bloggers and artists bound by their passion to
bring about further development in Africa.
Events, content and format will be driven by the
participants who will have the opportunity to
share ideas, collaborate and network with
similarly minded people, or simply to express
their interest in African development within the
context of technology.
Intel boss sees light at the end of the tunnel
The PC
industry emerging out of the recession, the boss
of the world's biggest chipmaker has told the
BBC. Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel said the
industry was likely to sell as many computers in
2009 as it had in 2008.
"Considering
the depth and breadth of the recession [that] is
a pretty good result,"
Analysts had
predicted a big fall in PC sales this year to
mirroring the slump in the consumer electronics
where prices fell by an unprecedented 30 per
cent over the past year according to sales
figures released by large retailers. Mr.
Otellini said consumers were still buying them
because they were now "indispensable". "If it
breaks you don't wait for the end of the
recession to replace it," he added.
In May the
EU imposed a record fine of 1.06bn euros (£920m)
on Intel, charging the firm with
anti-competitive practices but last week Intel's
shares rose sharply after the company told the
market that its third quarter revenues would be
higher than expected - the latest signal that
the worst of the recession is over for the
technology industry. On the imposition of the EU
fine, he said he was confident that an EU fine
for anti- competitive practices would be
overturned because he said he believed the
process was did not look at all the evidence and
did not balance all the facts. In an interview
including a Q&A with BBC News website readers,
Mr. Otellini attacked EU regulators and said
policy mistakes had contributed to the depth of
the recession. He said the lesson learned from
the recession was that the best technology still
sells. "You can't take a break - recessionary or
other - from deploying new technology. When
recessions end, as we've seen, people want the
latest technology - they don't want the
technology that existed when the recession
started two years ago," he said
Asked how he
saw technology changing over the next 25 years,
Mr. Otellini said computing would become far
more personal. "Machines you carry with you will
be cognisant of what your needs are and where
you are. They will bring the information to you
without you having to ask a search engine for
it." He went on to say, ‘Intel was fundamental
in establishing wi-fi. For wide area
connectivity, Wimax is a very viable
fourth-generation technology. It's proven, it's
up and running in countries like Japan, the
United States, Russia, parts of Europe. It's
coming, I'm not sure when, city-by-city’He said
the intention of provider Clearwire is to
blanket all the major cities in the US by the
end of 2010 with rival systems promoted by
mobile phone companies gaining ground in the
hunt for so-called 4G connectivity.
If
India’s future is bright, then so should ours
by
Abi Bilesanmi
India is the world's largest democracy. We are
the world largest black democracy. Since gaining
independence 62 years ago, its economy has come
a long way and it remains one of the fastest
growing in the world. Since we gained
independence almost 50 years ago, our economy
once the largest in Africa, is in decline.
Recent elections in India marked another
milestone for the country, creating some
economic and political stability after months of
uncertainty. Elections in Nigeria is a different
proposition exemplified by US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton, who recently talking to an
audience of activists in Abuja, drew a parallel
between political corruption in Nigeria and
George W Bush's contested election win in
Florida in 2000. India's election was the
largest in world history with 420 million
voters, ours was 'business as usual' - tales of
missing ballot boxes, inflated voter counts and
even of voters being shot at polling stations.
Back in 1991 India embarked on a program of free
market reforms, moving away from the
Soviet-style, centrally planned economy. These
reforms were led by the finance minister
Manmohan Singh, well regarded for his pro
business instincts, who subsequently became
Prime Minister. His reforms have arguably led to
the Indian economy quadrupling in size in the
last 20 years.
India
euphoric rise economically is a clear
demonstration that there is link between
democracy (of which elections is an integral
part) and economic development. The Indian
market has reacted positively to the outcome of
the elections shooting up 17% triggering an
automatic shutdown. This is largely because the
government won with a larger than expected
majority, giving them a strong voice over the
other coalitions. This in turn should help them
push through new policies quickly. Now that the
euphoria has subsided it can revert back to
focusing on India's future growth prospects.
India is now in a position to push forward the
reforms India needs to keep its expansion plans
on track. It can, at its own pace, increase the
voting rights of foreign investors in banks,
making these more attractive for overseas
investors. Additionally, there are plans to
privatise some of the state-run companies which
should encourage them to streamline and improve
efficiency - something we are unable to do
successfully (see NITEL).
Like Nigeria, there is little doubt that India
still requires significant domestic investment.
Power, roads, ports, airports, housing (there is
a supply shortfall of over 30 million homes) and
urban infrastructure are massively
undersupplied. But economic advancement has
meant that the government can plan to spend $500
billion over the next five years on these areas
which should be a key driver of growth. Our
total GDP, according to 2007 figures, is a mere
$127.95bn.
India is not immune to external events like the
global credit crunch which initially led to a
flight of foreign capital out of the country as
investors became risk averse. However their
banking system is arguably more robust. A cloud
on the horizon could be the oil price as India
is a huge importer of oil which is where Nigeria
could possibly have the upper hand. But to
mitigate any potential crisis, India has begun a
charm offensive The Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh, announced duty-free access to
Indian markets for the world’s 50 “least
developed countries”, 34 of which are in Africa,
as part of a package of measures designed to
highlight New Delhi's commitment to deepening
relations with the continent. Inaugurating the
first India-Africa Forum, a two-day summit in
New Delhi in April this year he declared India’s
intent to become “a close partner in Africa’s
resurgence” and called for a “new architecture”
in relations. The first step came with the
signature of an Africa-India Framework for
Co-operation and a “Delhi Declaration”.
There is a multitude of reasons we believe the
future is so bright for India some demographic
(60% of the population is of working age and
this is likely to rise leading to greater
productivity and less of a pension drain on
public finances) others economic (currently,
economic growth is predicted to be in the region
of 5-6% and the flow of foreign investment is
strengthening Indian rupee having depreciated
19% relative to the US dollar in 2008). The
lesson we have to learn is that after
under-performing most of Asia last year, the
Indian market has leapt to life in recent months
with the Bombay Sensex Index up 60% in the last
six months (Source: Lipper, 9/12/08 to 9/06/09).
Though this is not an indication of future
performance but in the short term, the market
looks fully valued with the long term growth
story remains compelling. India's business
climate is likely to improve rapidly and private
investment should accelerate as a direct
consequence of the election victory. It also
provides a stable government for the next five
years. This means reforms will be pushed through
more smoothly and the implications for the stock
market should be extremely positive.
This is a
lesson we must learn and replicate. If it works
for India, it surely can work for us.
OPINION
Big tree, small axe
by
titi omo-ettu
With the warped entertainment content of the
CBN’s act of last week, there is an overwhelming
temptation to get carried away such that we
forget to import whatever lessons it offers our
industry.
The week's sacking of five CEOs for ‘winning’
banks produced a drought of news in the
telecommunications sector. It suggested that
ceteris paribus, events in our industry pale
into insignificance due to the axe falling on
the supremo’s of our banking industry. The guys
who produce CyberschuulNews told us that unless
we wrote an opinion column this week, there was
no news for them to report or to analyse. Very
true as I found out when week drew to an end.
Nothing inspires newshounds more than 'How hath
the mighty fallen' especially when the 'mighty'
in question belong to the class that readers
love to hate. If as they say 'a week is a long
time in politics', two months must therefore be
eternity. Given that not quite two months ago
the 'mighty' were collecting awards, buying jets
for pastors and distributing religious tracts as
part of bank product leaflets (talk about a
conflict of interest), is it not a tad strange
how jubilant we are about their fall from grace?
Yet we all pretended to be ignorant of the fact
the front (and middle) pages of our newspapers
have been taken over by bank adverts while we
were treated as if we actually pay to buy
adverts rather than content in our newspapers.
If we must profit from all this, then we must
quickly identify two lessons which the telecom
industry can learn from the finance industry’s
recent experience.
We should remind ourselves that if and when
services providers merit sanction, they should
be dealt with. Our laws must provide for those
who evoke such sanctions to think of how the
decision will affect the common consumers and to
take action to mitigate their losses. Of course
our experience is that many service providers
had, on their own, folded up and closed shop.
Many of them in recent memory - MTS of old, EMIS,
Mobitel of old, to name but a few. In the
ensuing wreckage, no one cared about what
happened to the real stakeholders - the
subscribers who had made investment in such
networks. It is time our law thought in this
direction. There is something for our
legislature to keep in mind as they attempt to
edit the existing Act.
The other is the treating awards and laurels
like confetti at a wedding - conferred on
everyone and anyone which, to be brutally frank,
is somewhat suffocating. It is not as if we
believe these awards or that they mean little
more than businesses and organisations
disingenuously ingratiating themselves with
their sponsors. In this era of reciprocal back
scratching among the undeserving, a modicum of
modesty and a reality check is both required and
necessary.
It is time we demanded an arrest of this culture
of roguery, hate and moral indecency that is
like a parasite feasting on the soul of our
society.
CyberschuulNews 352
NEWS
Privatisation of NITEL gets 60 days challenge
Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan was quoted to
have told a team of civil servants constituted
by government to manage NITEL from now on that
they should produce a way out in 60 days by
identifying a core investor. It is not entirely
clear where the line is drawn between the new
handlers of the insolvent First National
Operators and The Bureau for Public Enterprises,
BPE, the actual privatization managers.
NCC indicates a future date for new auction
Nigerian
Communications Commission, NCC announced during
the week that it is about to reassemble its
apparatus to revisit the auction of 2.3Ghz slot
of frequencies which recent process was
cancelled by authority of President Yar’ Adua.
Sounds like it would take a while for those who
plan on the slot to roll out business.
Ghana stops licensing operators
Ghana’s
Communications Minister, Haruna Iddrisu said
during the week that in order to ensure that the
integrity of the market is not compromised, the
government has no intentions of adding a new
telecom player to the six players in the
Ghanaian market.
$10 laptop, training in mother tongue is India’s
new dream
India’s minister of state for higher education,
Mrs. D Purandareswari, told technology
institutes in India recently that they should
work to develop laptops that will cost not more
than $10, for students. She dropped the
challenge in her speech at e-India 2009 which
began in Hyderabad last Tuesday.
She asserted she was not daydreaming when she
quickly added "It is a challenge but we have the
potential and the capacity to overcome
challenges. Who would have thought Ratan Tata
would develop a car for Rs 1 lakh?" The minister
also reminded India’s scientists that they
should know that power supply is a problem and
in spite of it they should ensure that schools
use laptops and bring technology closer to
children.
She said ‘Some people have suggested that a
laptop be provided to every student. The
government needs to provide subsidy for laptops
which cost $100-200, but given the huge
challenges the country faces, it can't afford
such huge subsidies’
Mrs. Purandareswari said developing content for
children in their mother tongue would be another
major challenge just as making teachers
e-compliant also must be addressed. According to
her "Many of our teachers are first generation
graduates, who are scared of failing in front of
a computer in a class room. They also fear that
technology will replace them and there is a need
to take them into confidence,"
EIB promotes R&D with EUR 250 million in various
EU countries
The European
Investment Bank has granted a EUR 250 million
loan to Nokia Siemens Networks to promote R&D
activity in Finland with for the next
development of Radio Access Network technology.
The European
Investment Bank is the EU's long-term financing
institution with a mission to support through
its activities the development of EU policies.
Its modus operandi is borrowing its funds on the
capital markets in order to finance projects
that are in line with EU strategies. The bank's
financing contributes primarily towards economic
and social cohesion, environmental protection,
as well as research and innovation. This last
objective is a priority to which the EIB devoted
EUR 12.4bn in 2008, of which EUR 7.1bn for R&D.
The Bank supported such investment in most EU
countries projects representing a commitment
that has tripled over the past two years.
The loan is
for investment in R&D to develop the hardware as
well as the software platform for the
implementation of Radio Access Network (RAN)
technology for mobile communication systems. The
project aims at developing technology which will
allow mobile telecommunication operators to use
a single Base Station platform for their second
Generation (2G), third Generation (3G) and Long
Term Evolution LTE networks (see Cyberschuulnews
351). The R&D activity under this project will
take place in Finland, Poland, Germany and
Italy.
The
development of a multi-mode platform will allow
the cost-efficient roll-out of mobile broadband
telecommunication services. The move towards
such a cost-efficient multi-mode platform
(Single RAN) that can be used to provide
existing services today and can also be easily
upgraded to the next development of mobile
telecommunication technologies - a necessity for
mobile broadband operators. Multi-mode Radio
Access Equipment is also a key requirement for
developments in the field of mobile
telecommunications, the so-called frequency
re-farming. Frequency re-farming relates to the
use of new technologies in GSM frequencies, such
as UMTS today and LTE in the future. Regulatory
framework in which this will be undertaken to
allow this in the near future is being put
together now.
In the
five-year period 2004-2008, the European
Investment Bank provided a total of EUR 3.6bn
for projects in Finland. Industry and services,
with 30% of EIB total lending in Finland over
the last five years, mainly for the knowledge
economy, and in particular research and
development activities, accounted for the lion’s
share of EIB activity in the period.
The bank's
Vice-President Eva Srejber said: ‘The EIB
attaches particular importance to the
development of a knowledge-based economy in the
Union, which assures the long-term growth of
European economies. We are happy to assist such
promising initiatives.'
SPECIAL REVIEW
Fighting Cybercrime and its causes
Following
the Federal Ministry of Justice's invitation to
stakeholders for consultation to consider
accession and ratification of the International
Convention on Cybercrime, adopted in 2001 by the
Treaty of Budapest back in July, the need for a
global framework to guide cross border
enforcements; reciprocal technical exchanges;
legal developments and spreading best practices
in respect of all cybercrime issues around the
world, has become even more imperative.
In the US, a serial hacker has been charged with
carrying out the largest theft of credit card
identities ever recorded, in a sophisticated
scam in which he and accomplices allegedly stole
at least 130m accounts from big retail
companies.
Albert Gonzalez, 28, of Miami, who once worked
with the US secret service, is accused of
working with two unidentified Russian
conspirators to hack into the databases of
retail chains having studied checkout machines
deployed by one of their victims, using that
information to break into the company's computer
systems and upload information on to servers set
up in three locations in the US, as well as
Latvia, Ukraine and the Netherlands His
comprehensive 14-page indictment reveal that
Gonzalez and his co-conspirators are said to
have set up a sophisticated system for hacking
into and downloading credit card numbers from
retail chains. They then turned their focus to
Fortune 500 companies, scouring corporate
websites for security weaknesses using 'malware'
— malicious software that attacks computer
systems and systematically steals data,
installing "sniffer" programmes that look for
financial information.
Federal investigators and policy makers have
become increasingly focused on identity theft as
a criminal growth area culminating in President
Barrack Obama recently creating the post of
"cyber tsar" to combat threats to government and
private computer networks. His appointee to the
aforementioned post Melissa Hathaway, left the
post a few weeks ago for 'personal reasons'(see
CyberschuulNews 349)
Gonzalez is already being held in jail in New
York, accused with others of stealing the credit
identities of about 40 million people worldwide.
He faces 20 years in prison if convicted of the
latest charges.
ESSAY
Can the Digital economy lift us out of crisis?
by
Abi Bilesanmi
In Titi Omo-Ettu's lecture 'Politics and reality
of telephone subscriber registration in emerging
markets', he highlighted the success of mobile
telephony from a socio-political and economic
perspective, based on the subscription figures
as well as being at the centre of the efficacy
of the new social media as a news distribution
tool and its usefulness as an agent of political
change. He articulated challenges and made
recommendation of a shift in cultural attitudes
which elevate ICT to a level where it is
perceived as a public good. In addition to the
merits of improved accountability and
governance, there is an overwhelming case for
economic development.
If we still
need to ask the question 'what is in this
digital economy for us?' The answer is that the
digital economy has tremendous potential to
generate huge revenues across all sectors. The
big challenge is to turn this advantage into
sustainable growth and create new jobs. It is
therefore incumbent on governments to show
leadership by adopting coordinated policies that
dismantle existing barriers to new services.
They should seize the opportunity of a new
generation of Nigerians who will soon be calling
the shots in the African market place. These
young people are intensive internet users and
are also highly demanding consumers. To release
the economic potential of this sector of the
populace - the 'internet cafe natives', we must
make access to ICT and digital content an easy
and universal.
With Seacom
international cable fully operational from July
2009, the fibre project due in 2010 and France
Telecoms LION project that will connect various
of the Indian Ocean islands to mainland East
African countries, we see ample evidence that in
that part of Africa the digital sector has made
strong progress with more Africans now regularly
using the internet, many of them via a
high-speed connection making South and East
Africa a true and emerging force in broadband
internet. With the proliferation of mobile
telephony and digital technology in parts of
Africa, we can ill afford to be left behind. The
digital economy can advance even further as a
generation of "digitally savvy" young Nigerians
becomes a strong market driver for growth and
innovation. Building on the potential of the
digital economy is essential for Africa's
sustainable recovery from the economic crisis
simply because of the scope for development.
Today we need to ask the public what future
strategy the governments should adopt to make
the digital economy run at full speed.
Where is the
link between the digital economy and economic
advancement? People of working age are the most
active internet users. They will regularly use
advanced services to create and share online
content almost on a daily basis. By extension
they will have more advanced internet skills
than the rest of the population. They will
download or view online content like videos or
music. And even if they begrudge paying for
these services, many of them will do so compared
to the rest of the population and many will pay
more for offers of better service and quality.
As a result, internet use will soar as these
"digital natives" begin their professional
lives, increasingly shaping and dominating
market trends. As traditional business models
stall, companies will have to offer services
attractive to the next generation of users. It
is therefore incumbent on legislators that they
create the right conditions to facilitate access
to new online content while also ensuring
remuneration for the creators.
The
Blueprint
Indonesia (a
country of similar geographical size and
population) embarked on a preparatory Assistance
Project on Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) for Human Development. This
is a one-year project aimed at forming a
broad-based national partnership, develop a
national strategy for using ICT for human
development, especially poverty reduction and
convert the national strategy into future
projects. The project is focusing on future
initiatives that serve the poor directly with
information required to improve their lives by
most appropriate technology. Examples include
the promotion of radio backed by strong
information service in rural communities, farmer
access to the Internet for national and
international market information, and web-based
eco-tourism promotion for remote villages. Its
achievements include a national dialogue and
strategy on ICT for human development and
poverty reduction; a programme document to
implement the strategy and short term pilot
projects.
While those
in the industry bemoan the nation's leadership
on its snail's pace (or ignorance to be precise)
in getting to grips with the revolution of ICT
that appears to be passing the nation by, one is
forced to make a comparative analysis with what
is going on in another emerging market -
Malaysia. In 1994, a National IT Council (NITC)
was established. Though we have the National
Information Technology Development Agency, the
Malaysian equivalent is chaired by its President
Mahathir and made up primarily of government
ministers and a number of top company
executives. This indicates the government is
taking a lead on the objectives of enhancing the
development and utilization of ICT as a
strategic technology for national development.
While in Nigeria it appears there is a power
struggle between the government and players in
the telecoms industry (e.g. the sale of NITEL or
not), in Malaysia the telecoms industry acts as
a think-tank at the highest level and advising
the government on matters pertaining to the
development of ICT.
This essay recommends that upcoming challenges
for digital economy should be raised in a public
consultation launched by a Commission as the
first step towards a new ICT strategy which the
Commission should aim to present within a
reasonable timeframe within a context of
establishing the role and potential of the
digital economy for economic modernisation and
in generating sustainable growth and jobs by
delving into the potential benefits of
developing high speed broadband Internet
infrastructures and outline plans for best
stimulating the demand side of digital economy.
What is the proof of the sustainability of a
digital economy in the face of an economic
downturn? Well there are several signs that the
IT job market in the UK is beginning to improve,
with fewer high profile, large scale lay-offs
and more job market surveys producing reasons to
be positive. Figures for the second quarter of
the year, while still painful, show the number
of IT jobs on offer is increasing and The
Chartered Institute of Personnel and KPMG say in
their quarterly report that IT vacancies are set
to increase in the third quarter as IT is no
longer seen in the majority of companies as a
service that can be cut - it is recognised as a
way to reduce costs and provide businesses with
a competitive advantage.
There is an overwhelming sense that other
emerging markets have stolen a march on the ICT/Digital
revolution and it is 'catch up' time. The
digital economy is here and here to stay. Ready
or not
CyberschuulNews 351
NEWS
Eviction: FCDA rattles Mtel
There was report during the week that the
Federal Capital Development Authority, FCDA,
forcibly evicted Mtel from its head office in
Maitama, Abuja and gave it a respite only when
the presidency intervened.
NITEL,
Nigeria’s First National Operator and its Mobile
subsidiary, Mtel have, over the years, suffered
neglect and institutional indecision as
government shows that it is confused on what to
do with the companies.
NewsReview
Internet
draught occasioned by economic downturn
While the
telecommunications industry remains relentless
in harnessing the power and opportunities of
information technology in the face of a global
economic downturn, the picture is not so rosy in
other sectors. As the economic downturn
continues to bite and businesses feel its teeth
marks, they are moving to restrict when users
can browse the Internet on their notebooks on
their premises.
The Wall
Street Journal reported this week that in New
York, coffee outlets which hitherto offered free
Wi-Fi but now feeling the icy grip of the
economic downturn, had signs put up back in the
spring of 2008 (when the crunch was most acute)
warning that laptops are not allowed at certain
hours unless the customer is eating as well as
surfing or otherwise using their notebooks.
Businesses owners, facing rising costs and
falling revenue, argue they can no longer
accommodate clients who take up the space and
use electricity for hours on end while ordering
little to nothing else.
No Free Lunch
Small independent coffee shops are plugging up
their outlets to discourage surfers, and save
electricity. In San Francisco, some shops are
taking a similar but subtle approach with signs
that ask laptop users to share tables; some put
up a rule that does not allow notebook use
during busy business hours on Fridays and
Saturdays; others are making a more concerted
effort to restrict or ban portables. This is
likely to have an effect on notebooks and other
ultra portables whose small designs lend them to
being used at coffee shops and other public
areas.
However larger coffee or bookstore chains such
as Starbucks or Borders obviously enjoying
economies of scale and which often or always
charge for Wi-Fi hotspot access, are not
imposing such restrictions on notebooks and
their users.
While this does represent a death knell for
wi-fi users, the new rules can be hard on
professionals who do not have offices such as
independent film directors and freelance
journalists, used to interviewing people and
networking in coffee shops. The proliferation of
internet surfing while leisurely coffee-sipping
which characterised the dot.com years, it is
reported, may soon be distant memories.
Is this the end or the beginning of the end?
Neither - we hope.
SPECIAL REPORT
EU invests a fresh € 18 million in future ultra
high-speed mobile internet
As of 1 January 2010, the European Union will
invest € 18 million into research that will
underpin next generation 4G mobile networks. The
European Commission decided to start the process
of funding research on Long Term Evolution (LTE)
Advanced technology, that will offer mobile
internet speeds up to a hundred times faster
than current 3G networks.
LTE is a 4G
wireless broadband technology developed by the
Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), an
industry trade group. The technology is named
"Long Term Evolution" because it represents the
next step (4G) providing significantly increased
peak data rates. Its specification boasts a
potential for 100 Mbps downstream and 30 Mbps
upstream, reduced latency, scalable bandwidth
capacity, and backwards compatibility with
existing GSM and UMTS technology. Future
developments could yield peak throughput close
to 300 Mbps.
The EU's
investment represents a demonstration of its
foresight that LTE will boost the capacities of
network operators enabling them to provide
faster mobile broadband to more users at lower
prices and to less populated regions bridging
"digital divide" between rural and urban areas,
enabling mobile networks to benefit from the
"digital dividend" and use the frequencies freed
by the switchover from analogue to digital TV
thus revolutionising Europe's mobile telecoms
market. With the above listed benefits that LTE
can deliver, it is becoming the industry's first
choice for next generation mobile networks
Attesting
the potential of LTE technology, Viviane Reding,
the EU's Commissioner for Telecoms and Media
said, "LTE technologies will turn mobile phones
into powerful mobile computers. Millions of new
users will get ultra high-speed internet access
on their portable devices, wherever they are.
This will create tremendous opportunities and
plenty of space for growing the digital
economy."
EU funding
follows currently trials by mobile operators in
Finland, Germany, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the
UK and is expected to be commercially available
in Sweden and Norway in the first half of 2010.
. This led to the development of the first
concept for a LTE-based network infrastructure.
Last month, the European Commission decided to
invest in research on the enhanced version of
LTE, aptly called LTE Advanced. In September,
the Commission will start to negotiate the
details with project consortia, including the
flagship ARTIST4G that builds on the
achievements of the (WINNER) projects and unites
4G industry and researchers from Finland,
France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland,
Spain, Sweden and the UK. The new projects are
expected to start in January 2010.
Leading
mobile operators and manufacturers around the
world such as Orange, TeliaSonera, T-Mobile,
AT&T, NTT-DoCoMo, Verizon, Alcatel-Lucent,
Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia Siemens Networks have
already committed to using the LTE standard. By
2013, operators worldwide are expected to invest
nearly € 6 billion ($ 8.6 billion) in LTE
equipment, according to market analysts.
Overall,
between 2007 and 2013 the EU will invest more
than €700 million into research on future
networks, half of which will be allocated to
wireless technologies contributing to
development of 4G and beyond 4G networks.
ESSAY
Welcome to the Future. No sleepwalking
by
Abi Bilesanmi
Barely had we settled with the predominant role
of information and communication technologies -
the exchange of information and data as the
basis of human development and rebalancing the
distribution of power within societies and among
nations, the game appears to have moved on. The
current information revolution (IR) has morphed
into new bodies of knowledge such as Megatronics
Engineering, Bioinformatics, and Nano-technology.
As far back
as 1994, Professor Leonard Adleman at the
University of Southern California was looking at
DNA computing, commonly called biomolecular
computing then an emerging field that used DNA
and biochemistry instead of silicon-based
electronics. The original objective was to use
biomolecules to beat electronic computers at
solving large complex problems. Indeed there was
skepticism about biomolecular computing
surpassing electronic computers but 10 years
later, researchers showed a DNA computer so
small that roughly a trillion of them could fit
into a microlitre (a millionth of a litre) and
since then they have shown off new computational
systems that make use of enzymes that naturally
occur in a living cell.
Shapes of
DNA have been used to enhance the production of
circuits for next-generation computer chips.
Researchers reporting in Nature Nanotechnology
have now shown how to get engineered DNA to
self-organise on silicon. The arrangement or
‘origami’ can be designed to serve as a scaffold
for electronic components just six billionths of
a metre apart. Making chips with components
closer together leads to smaller devices and
faster computers - about eight times better than
the current industry produces.
DNA that had
hitherto been used to do simple number crunching
are now used to effectively solve classic logic
conundrums with strands of DNA designed to give
off a green light corresponding to "yes". In
nanotechnology, researchers are already working
on programs which bridge the gap between a
computer programming language and DNA computing
code. The talk is of computers that can diagnose
and treat cancers autonomously. Using more
sophisticated biochemistry, they are able to
implement simple logic programs, which are more
akin to the way people program electronic
computers.
The purpose of highlighting these advancements
in computer technology is that it serves a
riposte to those who argue that regardless of
the fact that the telecoms industry stands out
as a beacon and a symbol of hope that at least
something (or some thing) can work in Nigeria,
despite operators, regulators, vendors and even
network users all agree to the fact that Nigeria
is a real market for the telecoms business and
because we live in a country where years of
savage military rule that has pillaged the
country, we should place some sort of moratorium
on development. Whilst there may be arguments in
favour of this view, the technology industry (of
which telecoms is an integral part) industry is
one that uniquely lives or dies by results -
results which are specific, measurable and
visible. If these results in Nigeria are as
described i.e. specific, measurable and visible,
then we should them from the roof top with
pride. We should encourage, amplify support for
the industry and use it as a vehicle and a
blueprint for other industries.
Besides we
have no choice. Technology is like a conveyor
belt better still a rolling juggernaut. If you
can not keep up, you are fresh out of luck. You
simply can not stop the wheels of innovation and
progress or indeed jump off just because you can
not cope with its speed neither can it nor
should it wait for us to get our act together. I
share the sentiments that our infrastructure,
governance and economy do not indicate we are an
emerging market in the broader sense but
telecommunications has proved the exception to
the norm and that is no small measure down to
the dynamism and hard work of those in the
industry.
The point is that when educating a smarter
planet, its systems that may need schooling.
From a telecoms perspective, it appears that the
people are already signed up. Carping is not
exactly what is needed right now because while
we carp about what the fuss about third
generation network is, in Europe the EU and
operators are pouring money into fourth
generation broadband technology which is a
hundred times faster. We have got to shape up or
ship out
|
|
