Telkom Appoints Jeffrey Hedberg as the CEO of Multi-Links
The Press Release issued by Multi-Links Telkom in Lagos on July 8, 2009:

DATELINE: LAGOS, WEDNESDAY, 8TH JULY, 2009 - The Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Telkom SA, Mr. Reuben September has announced the appointment of Mr. Jeffrey Hedberg as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Multi-Links. This appointment was announced Tuesday, 7th July 2009 at the headquarters of Telkom SA in Pretoria, South Africa.

In making the announcement, Mr. September said, “I am elated to welcome Jeffrey to the Executive Leadership team, especially because Jeffrey has built up a distinguished record for turning companies around.”

The Group CEO stated that by this appointment, Jeffrey’s experience and undeniable skills will greatly contribute to Telkom overcoming the challenges of the African ICT landscape, and exploiting the opportunities offered by the fast growing and lucrative market.

Mr. September recalled that Telkom’s annual results had clearly stated that “turning around Multi-Links’ performance is vital to Telkom given the extent of the Group’s investment and enormous opportunity the Nigerian market provides.”

Alluding to his expertise, the Group CEO said that Jeffrey is best known as the former Group CEO of Cell C; a mobile cellular operator in South Africa. He added as well that the new CEO has also gained extensive global experience in the USA, Europe and Asia that will stand him in good stead as he tackles the challenge of turning Multi-Links around.

In recognition of his high flying profile, the Fortune Magazine in May 2001 cited Jeffrey as one of the Top 25 Global Executives under the age of 40. And since then, he stated that Jeffrey has repeatedly distinguished himself by crafting and implementing innovative business strategies and realising growth and profitability in the telecommunications industry.

“He has become known as an expert in growing companies by improving processes and reducing costs, as well as executing joint ventures and profitable acquisitions,” he said. Listed as some of the companies that have benefitted from Jeffrey’s expertise were Deutsche Telecom, Swisscom, Bern (a leading telecom provider in Switzerland), Swisscom International and, most recently, Cell C.

Mr. September reiterated the desire of the Group to maintain its leadership position in South Africa while growing its footprint in Africa. According to him, with Jeffrey on board as the new CEO of Multi-Links “we can pursue this ideal with even greater focus. Jeffrey’s expertise will undoubtedly enhance our ability to reap the rewards on offer across the continent.”

Jeffrey is designated to report to Mr. Thami Msimango, Managing Director of the Telkom International Business Unit, who until this fresh appointment also doubled as the managing director of Multi-Links.

For: Management
Ijeoma Abazie
Chief Corporate Affairs Officer

Jeffrey Hedberg, Briefly…
Born in 1961, and raised in suburban Boston, Jeffrey studied Business at Northeastern University and International Relations and Management at the University of Denver.


He started his career as an intern at U.S West in 1990, before moving to London to work in the company's international division. In 1992, he took a job advising telecom clients of Coopers & Lybrand.

In 1994, Jeffrey was named head of international operations at Swiss national phone company, Swisscom, becoming the youngest member of the management board. In January, 1999, he was named chief of international operations at Deutsche Telekom.

In 2006 Jeffrey replaced Talaat Laham as the CEO of South Africa’s third cell phone operator, joining the company when Cell-C was in R300 million in losses. In less than three years Hedberg is reputed to have influenced Cell-C to make an operating profit of R320 million, which amounts to over a R600 million turnaround.

It was probably those credentials that convinced Telkom SA this was their man for the Nigerian company. But his likeable personality, his can-do attitude and his hands-on disposition are features that will lend themselves quite readily as he sets about the challenge before him, which could also become the best note on his profile if he succeeds.


In the August 2009 edition of IT & Telecom Digest, this article, written by Mkpe Abang, was published in his Column: Fast-forward, in expectation of Jeffrey. We reprint it for the relevance of the comments:

Jeffrey Hedberg on his Mission to Nigeria:
‘We won’t have congestion problems; I can assure you’

For the fainthearted, challenges such as this one, are simply to be avoided. For, after very high expectations, anything other than an excellent result can push an actor’s reputation to the mire not just the abyss. JEFFREY HEDBERG finds himself in that same position thrust on him by a curious twist of fate: his successes and the lack of successes where he must now prove himself. This is his first official interview since setting foot on Nigeria; he seems every inch prepared and was not held back by any misgivings about his assignment, when he spoke to MKPE ABANG and ABAYOMI OLUSILE in his office in Lagos:

Question: Let us begin by welcoming you to Nigeria. You have heard a lot about the challenges and the tough competition running a telecom company in Nigeria; weren’t you worried that you might be going into a lion’s den when you were approached to come and work here?

Answer: No; I wasn’t. In anything, I was honoured. I see Nigeria as a tremendous opportunity for me to learn; the scale of the market, the growth potential of the market, the opportunities within this market are all very interesting for me and I have pretty large sample sets of information; I’ve lived and worked in many different countries – US, UK, Germany, Switzerland, South Africa; and now Nigeria. And I’ve spent at least three years in each of those countries and many times more and I see this as an opportunity to focus on a market where I think there is considerable potential in telecommunications, with wireless and particularly on the fixed side. So, I was pleased and honoured to be asked to come and participate in the opportunities here. The company itself I think, which is no surprise, needs to do a lot of work in order to reposition itself successfully. And so there is also not only the opportunity but the challenge of turning around the company. I have had some experience in turning around companies but I’m very pleased and honoured to be here in Nigeria because I think there is not only a great sense of opportunity but there is a great challenge here in order to respond to that opportunity.

I’m glad you talked about the challenge. Your profile says you are a turn-around expert and when one hears that, everyone expects a magic wand. What surprises do you have to turn things around within the shortest time possible?
I think one of my advantages is I like to under promise and over deliver. Unfortunately I think telecom has put me in a tricky situation by heralding me as the turnaround expert or the guru. I don’t have superman’s cape or Pixie Dust magic wand as you suggest. All I have is an opportunity and I have a team; because this isn’t just about me, it is about the team and what we need to do to align our initiatives and to take advantage of these opportunities. So, while I’m pleased with the opportunities, while I respect very much the challenge this is not something that is going to be done quickly; it needs to be done in coherence with the team’s fashion, and it needs to be something that we take step by step, quick wins in order to turn around the company. Because I think this company needs momentum; we need to now have some momentum that will allow us to step by step be in a position to respond very well to our customers’ requirements. So, I am just an ordinary guy in a big market, and in a company that I think has a lot of challenges.

Your appointment was originally announced in July 2009; the market was expectant, yet you have only just resumed. Could you explain to the public and your company’s teeming subscribers why it took so long before you resumed?
My contract with my old company didn’t run out until November and I needed to fulfil the obligation of that contract before being able to come here, with the hope that I will be able to get out a little earlier but I was not able to. So I need to wait until I had that obligation fulfilled and get my Visa and all those types of things put in place that one needs. But I was able to get here on the 25th of January (2010).

Good, finally you are here so what would you see as your number one priority for really moving this company to the next level?
I think given the nature of the challenges of the company one priority wouldn’t be enough. We have as a team, we have five areas that we need to focus on within the new organisation. Every CEO has a five-point plan; and the first is leadership and organisation ensuring there is clarity in strategy, that there is clarity in structure and particularly clarity in execution. And I call that leadership and organisation. The second area is profitable revenue growth. I think in the past there has been a lot of customer growth, churns; but when it comes to profitable revenue growth I think we need to look at our top line and how we are segmenting the market, the types of offers we’re putting into those respective segments and also to reduce our costs as required. Because it’s not just about customer growth, it’s not just about revenue growth; it’s about profitable growth. So there will be a number of things we need to do internally and externally to position that second piece of the five-point plan. The third is network optimisation, responsiveness to those customer requirements, whether that’s the network or the operating support system, either billing, recharges, whether that’s the BSS, the business intelligence that we glean from our customers in order to find new services; we need to have all these optimised and more responsive. That is the third area. The fourth is the supplier chain, to have a much more efficient process, or set of processes in terms of ordering the right type of handset, giving customer requirements, ensuring that those forecasts are constantly updated because we all know that the life circle of the hand set is a very quick life circle and making sure that we have very good relationships and the account managed with different handsets providers, and that we don’t bring it into our warehouse, get it out into the channel very quickly. So that whole process in terms of time-to-market efficiency, just-in-time inventory or however you want to call it; is another area that we need to focus on as number four. And the final area is the risk management and risk minimisation. And whether that’s getting the right people in the right places at the right time or succession planning; this is a Nigerian company, I think over time it needs to be driven by a Nigerian management team; so getting the right people in the right places that’s the lot about succession planning, and if we don’t do that we might just be at risk; revenue assurance, fraud management, a lot more resiliency in those systems to stop any leakage that may be here. The third primary area in terms of managing resources is the facilities; making sure that we have the right facilities in order to house a lot of the equipment that we spend a lot of money on. So those are the five priority areas that we focus on. Again leadership and organisation; profitable revenue growth network; optimisation; system optimisation and responsiveness, that we’re not just building a network hoping that customer will come but that network responds to real customer requirements; efficiency in the supply chain and finally managing our risk environment a lot more fully.

With the roadmap you have drawn here, are you going to employ more people to broaden your scope or are you going to keep to the way it is for a long time to come?
I think we also have not only the five-point plan but also five philosophies that are driving the company with. The first is focus; I think we need to focus more fully on the things that are contributing to the business and stop doing the things that are not contributing to the business. So, that requires me at the top making sure there is clarity backed with leadership and organisation, what we focus on. The second is simplicity; we have a lot of complexity in this company still. We have different suppliers and when you have different suppliers you have a lot of requirements to manage all of those different suppliers and I think I’ll much rather that we focus on the customer and not the supplier. So simplicity driving out all of this complexity within the new organisation. I think the third area that’s very important for us is the responsiveness; so that we both internally and externally respond more quickly to, whether it’s an internal customer requirement or external customer requirement; that we don’t spend a lot of our time on internal issues but we become far more externally oriented and responsive to the changes in the market. You know better than I do how quickly this market changes and if you don’t have an internal responsiveness you can’t expect to have an external responsiveness. And so making sure that something comes in as a request we have a culture within this company to respond at a certain amount of time. The fourth is delivery; so you say when you’re going to do it and you do it; and not just say that we are thinking about it or only do it half way; deliver it. And the only way to enforce delivery is number five, it’s measure, measure, measure; how we’re doing, are doing well and what else we need to do in order to improve the focus on that area or taking out the complexity in that area or driving more responsiveness in those areas. So those are sort of the philosophies that we are driving, which suggests an answer to your question of what we are doing; right now it’s about fixing the basics of what we have; it’s about focusing on what we have and ensuring that we have that working well so that we can scale from a strong base rather than having a fragmented base and trying to grow on top of that. So that is a very, very important thing because I think to a certain extent this company might have tried to be a little bit of everything to everyone, everywhere and when you do that you divert resources everywhere with everything and with everyone and then you create complexities, and you lose focus and if you don’t have a lot of resources to invest then you need to make sure that those resources are allocated to the right areas of the organisation. And so, that’s more now about the fixing, consolidating and allowing a base to grow from.

Everyone seems to be talking about broadband or so much else. Is there any particular product or technology aspect that you will be interested in pushing to be like the arrowhead of your proposition for the company to the customer?
Yes; but I’m not going to be in position to reveal all of these strategic plans that we have. But I do know, if I can just talk about basic micro economics, is that a company with three per cent market share should not be competing on price. I think micro economics suggest if you’re the small guy don’t compete on price, because you will quickly be even smaller. So I think we need to differentiate around quality and so of the areas I think we do have the basics to do that is on the broadband side, the wireless broadband, the EVDO product, I’m much happy with it; it’s a great product that we have here. Secondly we’ve built a fixed network around South Africa, and I think there is a lot of opportunity in the enterprise market as well and that leverages more effectively the capabilities that we have back in Telkom; because Telkom is grown up to being not necessarily a wireless provider – we had an investment in Vodacom – it’s now building its own wireless capability; but it’s largely been around providing IVPN (International Virtual Private Networking), VPN (Virtual Private Networks), MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) services to the enterprise market, to the government markets, to certain closed user groups whether they be universities or they be gated communities. And I think there is great opportunity for this company in that space; there is a great opportunity for us in the mobile space but I think giving our relative size as compared particularly to the GSM operators, we need to do things differently and we need to differentiate because we are not going to have the scale to go toe-to-toe on basic voice with some of those operators. So those will be the two focus areas that we are looking at; what do we need to do on the mobile side to manage our existing customer base, but really starting to differentiate to go round the EVDO products, the wireless broadband products and then similarly on the fixed side looking at the enterprise markets, government markets, the closed communities markets and see what we can do on the data, the fixed network side and I think there is great opportunity in this market.

Having been here for some weeks now, what would you say as the greatest potential that Multi-Links Telkom has in this market?
I think it’s on the enterprise side as I just noted, I think that allows us to leverage the capabilities that Telkom has, whether that’s account management, key account management systems, whether that is the provision of data network management services, whether that’s the capability to service South African companies that look to seeing the great potential I talked about earlier, here in Nigeria or Nigerian companies that need to be serviced and supported back in south Africa. And I think that’s just starting now because I am a big believer in don’t start to do too many things at once; there is a power in simplicity and focus. So I think that’s an advantage where Telkom is well positioned around and it’s something we want to take advantage of.

There are some people who would at first not be so excited about coming over to work in Nigeria for whatever reasons. What was your first reaction when you were approached and how do you feel about the people now that you’re finally here?
I found the people very warm, very welcoming, and very open; they take initiative, they have a bounce on their step; people who are leaping forward; there is not a sense of entitlement here, very hard working; so I’ve been very pleased. I have a sample set of data that not many people have; having lived in five or six different countries, and not just visited those countries. I’ve lived and worked in those different countries. So I’m very pleased. I think the people are one of the greatest assets; not just to say it that people are the greatest asset or that kind of thing. I really believe that if this country can get its people mobilised and get focused, the potential is amazing. And that’s again back to the opportunity, that’s what really drives me about being here. I think there is a lot that I still need to learn. One thing is if you have lived in many different countries you don’t learn about the countries in five weeks; you learn about the country as time goes on. But I have done a lot, I am a big believer in management by walking around with people and I keep them very busy because I am going to Abuja, I’m going to Ikeja to meet with the people in the CSP or the point of sales; I have been to Gbagada to deal with the call centre; I walk around here and so I have gotten to know the people and some of their problems and I think that is the best way to get a real feel of the company, the smell, the feel of the company; it’s by going and speaking with the people. That’s why I have been very engaged with the people, which allows me to have a better sense than if I was sitting here in my air-conditioned ivory tower.

So let’s look at the sector generally this is a CDMA company more or less basically and we are just beginning to end the first quarter of 2010, what do you think will be the greatest issue within the CDMA spectrum in the whole of this year globally.
If I start with this market because, this market is a particular one. You have CDMA operators responsible for 10 per cent of the market the other 90 per cent is GSM and there are four or five operators within that space. So it’s very competitive and as I noted earlier, if you’re small you don’t want to compete on price. However if you are small it’s difficult to differentiate yourself against the big ones particularly on price and scale and handsets, advertising and all of those things. So I think there need to be a lot more discipline within the CDMA operators around. Let’s not start price wars; let’s focus on how to leverage what is a very good technology, CDMA, particularly on the broadband side. But I believe and know that we are more as Multi-Links Telkom a CDMA operator; and while a large amount of our revenue is derived from mobile air time sales the potential for us, I think we are bigger when we can differentiate on the basis of scale; the experience in South Africa is on the enterprise side. So one of the advantages that I see here is not just the sector of the CDMA or the sector of airtime but it is the whole sector that you talked about in this publication (IT & Telecom Digest) because in many countries around the world you have a very strong incumbent operator. I’ve worked with Deutsche Telekom; I was on the board there, responsible for the international activities. Before that I was in Swisscom, same position on the board. I’ve been in the US, I’ve been in the UK, I’ve been in South Africa in the number three mobile operator. Usually in all of those markets you have a very strong incumbent operator that used to be the 100 per cent ministry of post and telecommunications it was a monopoly. And the result of that is it had access to network, it had access to customers; it maybe didn’t have the biggest marketing flair, but it had power and it had scale. And in this country you don’t have that with NITEL, great respect for NITEL but you don’t have that same level of strength that you have with the Deutsche Telekom or France Telecom or AT&T or Telecom Malaysia or NTT in Japan. And there are a lot of enterprises here, be it the banking or the financial services, be it the manufacturers, be it the oil companies, they want to have bandwidth, connectivity, security and they are screaming for a solution and there isn’t an incumbent operator that is able to do that. So for us while we like the CDMA and the wireless business we see a great potential on the enterprise side as I said earlier, to meet the requirements of those enterprise customers, to provide that capability to the government and its entities, to do things with universities, with schools, to start to connect; because if we can do that well then I think we can position ourselves far more sustainably both from a strategic as well as a financial perspective than trying to compete as a three per cent owner of market within the CDMA space. And I think that often times it’s very difficult for new entrants to come in to compete against the Deutsche Telekom or the France Telecom because they have that natural monopoly, almost. Here, I think there is great opportunity which is very unusual, and back to your first question, and that’s why I think it is a great opportunity not just for me personally to grow but also for Multi-Links Telkom to position itself in a relevant way in this market.

We have been talking about opportunities, there must also be challenges you have seen; can you tell us about them?
The challenge is largely what I have seen as far, how do we execute. I mean it’s nice to talk about opportunity and strategy and margin; but it’s all about execution and a lot of that is just simply about aligning the people around five key goals, measuring the people around achieving the things that we will identify within those five key goals, giving people the opportunity to be not only measured but rewarded on achievement around those goals and that all comes down to execution. It’s quite simple; if you have a reasonable clear strategy and you have a good team that takes initiatives and you have a capability to reward that team, that is, it sounds easy and it is; if you can get those things right and a lot of that is my responsibility, the leadership and organisation we call it; to get that mentality within the company. But the big challenge now is to stop talking and start doing. I think that’s one. I also think a lot of money has been invested by Telkom in this market and the good news is that we have a strong network, but I think we all now need to show that we can deliver returns on that investment, and until we start to show that we are able to deliver strong returns on their investment they are going to ask the question show me you can deliver. So back to your question about we are going to be expanding; no! We are going to be focusing, we’re going to be driving complexity out of the business, we’re going to be doing what we said we are going to do; and through that we are going to generate internal and external credibility that will then not only provide us a base to grow from what is most sustainable, but also to get the confidence back that this money is being well invested. You publish in the press; this has been noted to be number one strategic priority for Telkom, and so one of the challenges is to not only be the turnaround expert but to start to do the things that will provide credibility both within the company, within the market here but also with the shareholders that we’re on the right path.  And that’s not about talk, that’s about clear execution, and the ability to show. But this doesn’t happen immediately; it doesn’t happen in one year, it doesn’t happen in two years. It happens in three to five years that you start to generate the returns that shareholders are looking for because we are not an NGO; we are a publicly traded company, not Multi-Links Telkom but our parents and we need to demonstrate to the people that have invested into the company that this is a good thing for Telkom, not news around telecom. It’s all about execution.

So, speaking in figures, what numbers are you targeting for profit one year or two down the line for Multi-Links Telkom?
I think we’ve communicated already, in telecommunication because it’s very capital intensive industry it takes a while to make profit. If I can just take you through the line items, our revenue of course, and we want to grow our revenue back to profitable, number two in the five-point plan; we want to reduce our operating costs so that we are allocating resources to the areas that are contributing to the business. If you take your revenue minus your operating cost you get what is called EBIDTA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation). We will like to be EBIDTA positive in this coming year. Multi-Links Telkom has a fiscal year from the 1st of April to the end of March; and that’s been a commitment that we made, that become EBIDTA positive. After your EBIDTA you have your capital expenditure; you need to invest in the network. The good news is that there’s been a lot of investment in the network; maybe in some cases over investment in the network in terms of real customer requirements. And so looking at where we’re investing and how we’re investing, looking at only where there is a real commercial return, customer requirement for that. And that gives you a free cash flow and we would like to be free cash flow positive in the following fiscal year. So that gives you a sense. The good news that we have is if I am the CFO I will look at the network and say why do we have so much network out there if we are only filling only a certain amount of it. That’s not what I’m thinking about now as a CFO. But we have as Multi-Links Telkom a network that allows us to do things around quality that I don’t think that our competitors can, because I think they have so many customers that there is congestion. What I’ve heard through discussions with customers, because that’s important in management not only by walking around with employees but customers, is that there is a lot of congestion. The quality is not great; people are doing things but have not really improved it. And similarly if you are big it’s hard to respond quickly maybe because it will overwhelm your network or it will hurt you financially. We have a network that we can feel and so we are going to look at what we can do to differentiate around quality and what we can do that will be difficult for the other competitors to follow just because we have that. We won’t have congestion problem I can assure you. We are going to have a lot of opportunity to fill the network and do it in a way that customers will find better than what they are able to find elsewhere. But again it’s not really about the network; it’s about what are the offers that we’re putting in the market, how do we support those offers, whether it’s an assistance perspective, a call centre perspective, a network perspective; and then, and only then are we going to be able to have a sustainable growth on our network.

Are you going to spread into virtually every state in Nigeria to offer your subscriber the opportunity to make on-network calls thereby keeping their costs low?
I think we need to be very, very conservative on how we roll out our network, and that’s on the basis of commercial requirement. And so if we see that there is a commercial requirement to roll out our network, then we will do that. We will not roll out the network just like a flag that we are active in this state or this region if we don’t have any customer requirement there, because it’s all going to be about how do we get returns for our shareholders. That means if we see that there is a very interesting strategic and commercial opportunity to have, let’s say, an intra region tariff and we have coverage within that tariff and we see that as going to have a very good potential, and we need to build more base stations in order to support that tariff we will do it. However we are not just going to listen to the suppliers saying we need to roll out all over Nigeria if we don’t see a clear commercial or customer requirement for that.

You probably have a contract for five years, two years; perhaps more. At the end of your contract here eventually, what is that special legacy you want to leave behind for this company?
I think there will be three things; one that we have, who knows in my career, I know that there is never a five-year plan, I took through it. So, I don’t want to again over promise and under deliver. But with that caveat I like to have a strong team because that is ultimately the important thing; and largely a Nigerian team. This is a company that is in Nigeria that should be led and operated by Nigerians, it doesn’t mean that, I am from Boston originally, I have been a foreigner, whether it was with Swisscom, in the UK, in Deutsche Telekom, in South Africa, I’m almost a little like a mercenary. But I think that prominently, the Nigerian team understands the market, understands the dynamics and understands what needs to get done within those dynamics in the market. That’s one. Two, I would like to have positioned Telkom in a very relevant way on the enterprise side of things; whether it’s servicing other carriers, be it even competition, MTN carrying their traffic, they’re a mobile operator primarily, whether it’s servicing banks, oil companies, small and medium businesses, universities to have not done everything there but to have start linking up some of those different opportunities because if you can start linking them up by traffic, like water flows to the lowest point, and you can like a lot of the other incumbents have done, you can create a very strong position. I won’t say a natural monopoly but a very strong position. So I would like at least for Nigeria as well making sure that we position ourselves in that space quite well. And again broadband connectivity and security and a lot of things that I think this country needs in order to be able to develop other areas of its industry. And finally, this is maybe a little self-serving but I would I think, profit a lot through fulfilling myself personally by being in this market, meeting the people and being part of the growth in the scale. And when I’m an old man sitting in front of my roaring fire no matter which country it is I can think back about what I have learnt and the things I have been part of because for me it will be self serving but it will be personally great and quite fulfilling. Those will be three of the things I will like to take away and I don’t think that I will hit home runs on all of them; but if I can at least do reasonably well on the team here, then that team will drive other things. And that also will be personally fulfilling.

With all this pressures how do you relax? Any specific hobby?
I am a big family man which is the biggest challenge I have because my family, my children are in schools back in South Africa, my wife is German; we are sort of a family world citizens. I relax with my family and I play golf not very well but I play some golf. I do a lot of sports back in South Africa; I haven’t had time to understand all of the opportunities here but those are the types of things I would like to do.

Well, thank you very much and wishing you good luck.
Thank you too; I need the luck.

NCC Communicates - April 2010

Number Portability: Panacea to Quality of Telecom Services

In the last couple of years, the telecommunications industry in Nigeria has witnessed growth that completely beats the imagination of even the most optimistic of Nigerians. At no time did the country anticipate that in 10 years that there would be a total 76 million subscribers and 54 per cent teledensity in the country.

These figures continue to rise as more and more Nigerians appreciate the values in the use of telecommunications facilities and observe the whole new world that it brings to them and the opportunities available.

But, like every good thing; these gains needed to be guided with caution and jealously, too. And that is why midway into the boom the operators in the country became overwhelmed by the demand for telephone services and in the process, the rate of deployment of infrastructure could not match the demand for services.

The implication of this was obvious: the networks got jammed and call could hardly be completed neither could subscribers enjoy the services for which they paid money. This chaos reached its peak from 2007 prompting the government through the regulator to make series of interventions to ameliorate the situation.

Although the situation has since seen improvement and operators have invested in networks upgrades and customer services departments are upgraded to attend to complaints from the public. This is however far from adequate and from time to time, subscribers are faced with frustrations while trying to make or receive a call on the phone.

As a regulator with a statutory function to protect the consumer in line with government's mandate, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has continually sought for ways of ensuring that the consumers in Nigeria derive maximum benefits from their money.

One of these ways to ensure that the entire telecoms industry especially telephone services are within levels acceptable to the country and within global standards is the adoption of a fair and liberal system that will guarantee value to the subscriber at all time and provide a level playing field for operators, whether big or small, hence the adoption of Number Portability by the NCC.  
 
Planned for commencement before end of year, Number Portability allows a subscriber to switch service provider without necessarily changing his/her telephone number(s). And to make the programme effective, the NCC has commenced the process leading to the implementation of the programme.

In an environment like Nigeria where people constantly need to remain in touch with offices, home and loved ones, NP is a system that guarantees that subscribers can more easily change service providers without going through the pains and rigours of notifying friends, relatives and contacts of a number change.

Given the astronomic growth in the number of mobile telephony, businesses in Nigeria have also adopted mobile numbers in the conduct of their businesses, hence Number Portability is particularly important to business subscribers and organisations who cannot afford to always change their contact details.

This flexibility, the regulator believes would further entrench a sense of discipline and consciousness to service quality in operators as the customer's choice of where he/she moves her loyalty at any moment is informed by network efficiency.

For the above reasons and to avoid a repeat of the sad moments that network failures might have caused subscribers, the NCC sought and got the approval of the Federal Government to go on and implement this policy consequently, the Commission has set up a machinery to ensure that NP is implemented by all telecommunications operators in Nigeria before the end of year.

Upon full implementation, NP shall serve to:

*        remove barriers to the free choice of service provider by a subscriber 
*        ensure further increase in the level of open competition among network operators
*        act as an incentive for service providers to improve Quality of Service and Consumer Satisfaction.

And for the realisation of this objective, the NCC has retained the services of KPMG Consultancy Services as consultants for the development of Regulatory and Technical Framework for implementation of NP in Nigeria.

The Consultant recently met with the regulator and industry representatives to show the amount of work done so far and the Commission has enjoined all licensees, particularly mobile operators to accord maximum cooperation to the Consultant both in terms of information and data requests to ensure a successful implementation of the project.

It must be stated that NP is not novel to Nigeria as it has been adopted in other countries of the world where similar growth in number of subscribers has threatened the very essence of the industry. It could only be wise that a regulator adopts measures to safeguard not only the industry but the reputation and integrity of the nation.

To do otherwise will amount to closing our eyes and allow the gains of the past ten years fritter away and lose a future that promises even better results.

SATELLITE

Globaltouch Makes Aircraft Tracking Easy
One of the most harrowing experiences of missing aircrafts is the long days that it takes in locating such aircrafts, especially locating scenes of air accidents in Nigeria has been quite a challenge and in some instances, weeks passed before wreckage of missing crafts and their pilots, crew members and passengers, are located.

Various reasons have been adduced for these long time in locating scenes of plane crashes ranging from marshy and swampy regions, poor visibility, loss of contact with control towers, among other reasons.

Yet, this has not provided a solution to prompt and accurate tracking of aircraft movements within the airspace of the country. However, Nigeria’s foremost satellite communications services provider, Globaltouch West Africa Limited has introduced into the Nigerian market best of the range aircraft and other vehicle and assets tracking devices.

At a recent meeting with aviation stakeholders, the company formally introduced these high range products and services to the industry players as a way of encouraging better security and management of aircrafts and other assets movement.

According to the chief executive of Globaltouch, Engr. Isaiah Abdullai Mohammed, the benefits and cost effectiveness of his company’s products makes them irresistible and very appropriate at this time for the Nigerian market.

Some of the products introduced at the one-day event held in Lagos include the Skytrax 3, a complete solution that provides situational awareness and promotes pilot safety by reliably monitoring the aircraft movement in near real time. Easy to deploy and efficient, Skytrax 3, automatically detects and transmits the critical transition points at which an aircraft begins its taxi run and (or) initiates takeoff and landing.

With its superb functional GPS, it is possible to configure the Skytrax 3 in such a way that it collects and transmits data only when the aircraft is moving and therefore reduce transmission costs; similarly, this unique product has the capability of intelligently collecting only those GPS (Global Positioning System) locations that best define the aircraft track, among other advantages.

Measuring at 174x116x46mm for Skytrax 3 and 200x130x25mm for Skytrax 3X, the product comes with the benefits of being the lowest in cost for any aircraft tracking solution available in the market and Globaltouch offers operators and interested parties a minimum monthly service plan.

Small, portable and weighing less than a pound, the Skytrax 3 saves more cost since one device can serve for several aircrafts and it includes all its needed electronics and antenna in one unit; and can store and forward as much as 12 data points per 144 byte transmission.

The company also seized the opportunity of the meeting to introduce some of its Asset Management tools. Simply named Globaltrakker, according to the company, “is our premier service for monitoring and tracking your assets anywhere in West Africa. A satellite tracking unit is secured to your asset. The self contained, self powered satellite tracking unit sends location and alarm information across the Globalstar satellite network which enables you to: Locate, map and track mobile assets throughout West Africa and its surrounding waters.”

Other advantages of the satellite enabled product include: “Collect and deliver telemetry data from your remote monitoring solution - with or without mapping. View and manage assets online through the secure, feature rich, simple to configure Web based application. Always stay in touch through sophisticated schedule or event driven alerting functionality delivered via email or SMS (where available).”

Launched a few years ago as a satellite services company, Globaltouch (West Africa) Limited (GWAL) is a Nigerian company licensed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to offer Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite (GMPCS) in partnership with Globalstar Inc.

Promoted by a group of private Nigerian investors, Globaltouch is poised to become a market leader in satellite based telecommunications services in the Nigerian telecom market described by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) as the fastest growing market in the world.

The company with offices in Lagos and Kaduna, presently; Globaltouch will offer mobile and fixed satellite telephone services, simplex and duplex data modems and flexible service packages. With a primary goal of providing reliable, cost effective communications for organisations and people no matter where they are located in the region.

As an extension of the already available services in Nigeria, Globaltouch promises to provide communications services in remote areas where there are little or no cellular services currently and which are limited by terrain and other geographic natural barriers.

The Globaltouch satellite gateway which is located near Kaduna, Nigeria will provide full service coverage to Nigeria and neighbouring West African countries as well as parts of the coastal Atlantic and Gulf of Guinea maritime region.

NigeriaSat-2: Endless Shift in date
First it was planned for 2007, then 2009 now the NigeriaSat-2 is billed for third quarter 2010. Will this be the last date for this much expected technology?

The announcement by Dr. Seidu Mohammed, Director General of National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), that the NigeriaSat-2 project is nearing completion, indeed it has reached 90 per cent completion, ordinarily should have come as a thing of joy and celebration, but it was not.
This will mark the third time that the date of launch for Nigeria’s Second Earth Observation Satellite, date for launch of the satellite into orbit would be changed. According to Dr. Seidu, the new date is now the third quarter of this year.

Speaking on that last day in February in Abuja, Mohammed announced that NASRDA had conducted several tests to ascertain the readiness of the satellite for space flight and said that the spacecraft was fully ready in the laboratory also that the Nigerian Engineers, 27 in number who were trained abroad for this purpose are back home.
 
 NigeriaSat-2 with a strength of 2.5 metres and 5 metres panchromatic and multi-spectral resolution could capture the smallest area of the earth surface thus dwarfing the capacity of the earlier NigeriaSat-1 which was a medium resolution satellite with a strength of 32 metres.

“We are now identifying an appropriate launcher and getting all the necessary insurance policies in place. Our partners are working round the clock to make sure that we go according to schedule. I hope with all this, we should be able to launch it this year,” was the best assurance that the NASRDA boss could give an expectant nation.

Part of the advantages that NigeriaSat-2 will offer the country is the ability of the country to be able to plan better for its cities, support land reforms by delineating farm lands for farmers to have titles to plots and secure loans from banks, and monitor agriculture and embark on a detailed soil map of Nigeria, among other advantages.

In spite of how laudable this project is to the nation’s economic and scientific development, this new date is still considered with doubts given the past dates that were never upheld and in those past instances, no specific reasons were given for the delay. Dr. Seidu in this recent announcement failed to give any reason why the earlier proposed 2009 date for launch was not feasible.

At an earlier ceremony in 2007, Nigeria signed a contract with a British firm, Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), for the construction of NigeriaSat-2 with the assurance from former minister of Science and Technology, Professor Turner Isoun that the space craft which is expected to replace NigeriaSat-1 will be launched in 2009.

Among dignitaries who graced the ceremony was the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Richard Gozney, former Director General, National Space Research and Development Agency (NARSDA), Professor Robert Borrofice who endorsed the contract on behalf of Nigeria. It was Borrofice that disclosed that twenty-five Nigerian engineers and scientists would undergo both academic and know-how technology training on satellite technology for a period of two and half years in the United Kingdom to enable them acquire the capacity and capability in the field in line with the objectives of the 25 Year Roadmap for the Nigeria Space Programme.

Ironically in 2004, the same Professor Turner Isoun had announced to Nigerians that NigeriaSat-2 would be launched in 2007.

The former minister at that occasion was optimistic that, “The NigeriaSat-2, a 2.5-metre high resolution satellite is presently at the design stage and is expected to be launched by the grace of  God in 2007,’’ Isoun said.

The programme was part of  African Resources and Environmental Management Constellation (AREMAC) satellite and it was being  developed in the interest and in line with the objective of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) for the  sustainable development of the continent.

As part of the original plans for the satellite, the former minister said NigeriaSat-2 would also cater for the wider interests of geo-information stakeholders and as sources of geo-information data acquisition for both core and thematic data sets for the National Geospatial Data Infrastructure (NGDI) project.

During this time, it was confirmed that the country would also launch NIGCOMSAT-1 in 2006. The communication satellite was designed to improve telecommunication services in the country and address  a broad array of communication needs in the areas of telephony, broadcasting, broadband and Internet services. NIGCOMSAT-1 unfortunately failed to live up to expectation as it was short-lived lasting a mere 18 months in space.

The NigeriaSat-1 was launched in 2003 with a life expectancy of five years. It was a low earth-orbit micro satellite disaster-monitoring spacecraft.

While no specific date has been given for the third quarter 2010 time, it is hoped that there would not be another shift in date for reasons that would not be explained to Nigerians.

27-03

‘Access to Communication is a Basic Human Right’

In November 2006, at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Antalya, Turkey, Malian-born DR. HAMMADOUN TOURE won election to become the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union, the UN’s body in charge of global affairs in communications, taking up office on January 1, 2007. Overseeing any UN agency at all is a massive assignment and lifelong challenge; but sitting atop the ITU is even more challenging, especially at a time when communication has become both the socio-political and economic driver as well as the peace and security lever. At the recently concluded Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, DR. TOURE granted special audience to IT & Telecom Digest for a one-on-one interview; and on hand to interview him was MKPE ABANG, Editor-in-Chief. Here are excerpts from the interview:

Question: Your Excellency, thank you very much for welcoming me to Barcelona. Being the Sec Gen of ITU, and carrying the whole world of telecom on your head, how does it feel?

Answer: Well, as you know this sector has really several opportunities; so I feel very much blessed for having the opportunity to be in a sector that is really leading the world today. The ICT sector has had a tremendous growth over the past 10 years. We’ve seen markets like Nigeria, and also some other countries; we see that the ICT is helping the key drivers for the big themes of the last five years, climate change, ICT is part of the solution, not part of the problems; the food crisis, ICT was seen as part of the solution. Food crisis was not because of lack of food but poor management chain. ICT has played a big role in that. The current financial crisis, the ICT sector has shown to be not only resilient in the financial crisis; but also the solution because it’s been an alternative for excess travels and has saved money for many companies in many countries and also giving opportunities to do business more efficiently and therefore make more profits. It has also created new jobs. The climate change as I said is one of the main problems of this decade and it’s one of the main problems that humanity is facing and ICT has a key role to play in it. So, all of the major issues that we’re facing have had their solutions through the use of ICT. We’re talking today about the Millennium Development Goals; these will not be met if we don’t have broadband access for the health sector to meet MDGs; e-health; for education, e-education. And therefore it is very reassuring to be in this sector that is still growing. We’ve had a tremendous growth over the past decade and there is still room to grow. The world will reach this year the five billion mobile subscription mark; it’s a success story. But there is still 1.5 billion people to be connected and connecting them will not be enough; you have to make sure they make use of the communication of their information; that they create information; that they share information; those are the pre-requisites for us to enter the knowledge society where every citizen of this planet will benefit from that. And therefore we’ve got a real opportunity here so being in charge of the ITU today is a rare opportunity to actually make a real deal between governance and private sector, which is another strong point for the ITU being the only UN agency, being the oldest UN agency also the only one with 191 member states and over 700 private companies that are members working hand in hand. That’s tremendous achievement and I look forward to even more collaboration between the government and the private sector in order to reach our goals.

You mentioned broadband earlier; and ITU is doing a lot on driving Broadband penetration. But there is a challenge between technology and policy in various countries; how can we bring these to a fusion whereby there is no gap between technology and policy direction in order to deliver broadband especially in developing economies?
We are launching an initiative called Building on Broadband this year because we believe in the power of broadband to help us meet the Millennium Development Goals. This year is an important year because it’s midyear between the WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society) and the goals of the WSIS; WSIS was in 2003 and 2005 and the targets of the WSIS are 2010, so that we can review and see where we are and fine tune our strategies and policies and make sure we meet the goals. But also it’s five years from the MDGs, and we need to be sure that broadband is there, in order to help the MDGs to be met. Some people are already pessimistic, saying we may not be able to meet the MDGs. I’m saying why can’t we put everything possible in place in order to meet the MDGs; we can, five more years to come. It’s a challenge for all of us. So, I’m putting broadband as a key priority for us to meet these goals. The world has reached a very high point in mobile penetration; we were so far 4.6 billion at the end of last year and we will reach the five billion mark as I said, at the end of this year, in mobile connection. But broadband is still very low; internet is still low and it’s still expensive in some developing countries, therefore we need to put things right. That is the challenge we are facing, therefore we need to see how best we can put this public private partnership in defining the roles of each other in a complementary manner which has been the case so far. This is why the mobile sector has evolved actually to reach the level where we are now; government playing the role in putting the right policy and regulatory framework; and the right capacity building framework, and private sector to come in and invest to implement services and applications. Government also putting in place some new services and applications that will help drive the market; some e-applications like e-education, e-health; that will help actually, the private sector to get their first revenues out of these and they will be selling to the large public. Those are necessary and therefore you are right in saying that policy and regulation will be important. That was the key to the success of the mobile boom in Nigeria. The Nigerian Communications Commission was able to put the right regulatory framework in place in order for Nigeria to reach the 75 million users this year. No one could think about that, could even believe that 10 years ago. Now it’s a done deal; but half of the population still needs to be connected. But we’ve proven over the past five to 10 years, that it is doable; and with a good regulation you can have a real good implementation. This is based on the fact that this sector is still a profit-making sector with good regulatory environment, the player will invest and will of course get profit out of it, but they will also give people the right to communicate which is a basic common right.

I am happy you mentioned Broadband. Connectivity remains a challenge; in Nigeria for instance where you have 75 million subscription in mobile; people carry two or three mobile phones and then you probably find out that the real people that carry mobile in their hand might be just about 35 million, which means we still have a big gap. Now, what are those real things that the ITU can push for governments across the world and I keep saying especially in Third World countries to ensure that connectivity for rural dwellers become a reality not just a buzzword?
That’s a very good question and a very good point for Africa. This was addressed just some weeks ago in Addis-Ababa. As you know at this year’s Heads of State summit of the AU (African Union) was devoted to ICT; it was the main theme. This was the first time that the heads of state were meeting and agreeing on an economic programme that they would be debating, rather than debating on crisis as we’ve seen in the past. It’s a very good step forward. We have a very good chemistry between the heads of state today and because of the democratic advances in the continent, there are some heads of state that are dreaming, and dreaming big for this continent; that’s what we need. Our job is to help them, to make their dreams come true and they were very much convinced on the fact that not only broadband access is important but also at the lowest cost possible; it’s very important to have broadband at the lowest cost that will help them meet their goals in other sectors. We have e-education, e-commerce, e-tourism, e-agriculture, e-government; those are the pre-requisites. And governments need to understand that role of putting in place a good regulatory framework and second, of capacity building because in the past, when you had monopoly telcos, those monopoly telcos were training the people. Now they don’t do this anymore because the best people they train go through the competition. So, it will be up to the government and the regulatory authorities to design those programmes, to make sure that there’s capacity building; and they work with organisations like the ITU to design the programmes that will help create the right training programmes that will be right when they come out of school for the right applications and services that will be coming. That’s what you need to plan; this is what is done in the U.S and all other countries that have been successful. Then you need to co-ordinate academia and industries and have them work together. Those are things we are putting in place now in the continent. Next year we’ll have the global symposium of regulators in Africa; it takes place in Senegal. And we have many African regulators that are contributing in the debate at the world stage today. The Nigerian Communications Commission is one of them; the CEO of NCC, Ernest Ndukwe is a very well respected member of the global regulators arena; that is key. And the Chairman of NCC (Alhaji Ahmed Joda) is very well respected in this arena. They were able to show the transparency, the fairness and the dynamism necessary in inject that real strength and confidence in the sector. You know, investors will invest only when there is peace and stability. They will only invest if there are rules in the game; well defined rules and predictability in those rules. And we have that in many countries in Africa today. So the stage is set for a real chain reaction, I would say. We need to spend more on capacity building for our people; and this is one area where the only natural resource that is required is human brain; and it is equally distributed everywhere in the globe. No country or nation has more or stet has than others. But we have to be trained and some governments are putting in a lot of emphasis on it. I’m pleased that many governments are attracting many international universities; they are putting centres of excellence all over the place and they are really doing the right thing, putting the right strategic tools that will help the countries to move forward. And broadband, and mobile broadband, is the key. As you know by 2013, there will be more internet users accessing internet through mobile than through fixed. So that is the key area in terms of the mobile and that’s why we talk about mobile broadband as well. Of course that comes with challenges; greater challenges such as managing the spectrum. But of course, as we are giving communications to people, access to people, we have to also keep the service space a safe one; therefore cyber security becomes even more important.

I was coming to the issue of cyber security. Given the ubiquitous nature of the internet how is it possible to secure the cyberspace?
Well, it is a big challenge; it is a great challenge that we are facing because we are giving internet to our children in the safety of their bedrooms, to the classrooms and we are in a connected world and we have a whole lot of mobile devices that have been connected now, it has become more and more a challenge. An international framework is necessary. We need to watch out. First of all crime is crime; criminalised everywhere. So, we need to have first a good legal and regulatory framework in place in every country, we have to have cyber laws in every country in the world. We need to harmonise those laws. It is very important to harmonise them because a crime should be a crime in a place where it is perpetrated as well as in the place where the criminal is living so that they can be arrested. But of course, there are cultural differences in that what you take as crime in some countries may not be a crime in some other countries; pornography for instance, if the person is an adult, it may not be a crime in some areas. It may be freedom of behaviour. But there are some types of crimes that everyone condemns, like child pornography. There are some common denominators in order for us to move forward in this field. So I’m talking about the need to have liberal regulatory framework first; second, you need to have an organisational framework at the national level, because cyber crime is not an issue for ministry of communications only. It’s also for the ministry of health, ministry of interior, of justice. So, they all have to get together to have a national co-ordination.

When you have a country like China for instance, that doesn’t allow certain aspect of the internet to its people, is that a challenge to the ITU?
The access to communication is a basic human right. Everyone has a right to access to communication. So we are encouraging all countries to ensure this; and also that in protecting their citizens as well, they should make sure – because there is a very thin line between privacy and security. So, let’s ensure that we are debating worldwide and sensitising members and that is why when we engage in cyber security, we also talk about capacity building in order to train the law enforcement agencies on the same level to approach those issues at the same level. Of course, you won’t be able to arrest a criminal; we’re all seeing the content of what he sent, so that’s a big problem. And in the course of investigating on a criminal you may find something that is not criminal; some information that is not of criminal nature. So, those are serious challenges that we are facing; and we are debating on how we can resolve it. At our last standardisation assembly we decided that ITU will raise a study group to try and standardise the trace bar which enables you to identify the IP address, the origin of a (cyber) criminal. If you are in country A, you can call country B saying there is a criminal activity from this IP address, so that country will continue searching, you cannot evade it. But the host country will not enter into the details of the information. Now, those are the type of things, which exist anywhere, and we are debating it. There is no perfect solution to it.  But we have to be very much sensible going about it so that people’s identities and people’s privacy can be respected.

Sir, some of us were at the ITU Telecom World last October and you are planning one for 2011; is there a remarkable difference we are to expect?
Yes, 2011 is 40th anniversary for the ITU Telecom; it’s been very successful so far. The last ITU Telecom in 2009, which happened in the middle of a financial crisis, nobody expected it to be a success. In fact I was advised by many experts to cancel the event. We kept organising it because we thought it would be a rare opportunity for industries to actually bounce back. And we did succeed in that. We succeeded because we were able to rebrand telecom as a platform for collaboration and co-ordination. And, the theme for next year’s event is connect, collaborate and celebrate. The important thing here is that we were able to use our convening power at the ITU of bringing governments and at the heads of state, ministers and private sector at CEO level together to discuss and to brainstorm on the key global issues and that’s what we are going to do in 2011. In 2011, we’ll also recognise some of the companies who have been with us in this journey and we also hope that we continue together in this journey which has been fun so far. So I am expecting a very big telecom event in 2011. But we are emphasising more on the forum because there will be a fusion of ideas rather than just showcasing.

ICTs seem to be at the heart of resolving any crisis. When the earthquake happened in Haiti, what role did ITU play in deploying ICT to assist?
You mentioned the Haiti earthquake which is a real tragedy and on the same day of course the ITU reacted by sending satellite terminals, up to 100 satellite terminals there and launched an appeal on the web. And some companies responded quickly. For instance, Qualcomm; I mention their name because they were the first to come with a mobile base station, same type they used in Katrina and they were very fast to react. Many other companies joined us. We have Inmarsat, with a long standing MoU for the use of space segment and the use of the terminals that they provided to us. Like Iridium; they provided satellite terminals that we used.  ITU is paying in all case, the full airtime, and so the country where the catastrophe happened will not have to pay anything. We’re looking at Haiti now, to be on the emergency phase now for long term, the reconstruction phase and I’m launching an appeal to our members so that we can help to work together to help Haiti to come back on its feet and to have a state of the art communication system. We want to be sure that after this earthquake, we demonstrate our ability to come together and work together. And there are some companies and countries that are already very positively responding. For instance a company in Singapore has provided 100 hotspots for internet use which has already been rolled out in the country. I just received last week a donation of 220,000 Canadian dollars from the government of Canada. ITU put $1 million itself as a seed fund to attract other funding; and we are moving ahead. Our aim is that the communications system which was put in place back in 2007 was just to come into operations when catastrophes like this happen; and we are continuously working with our member states to ensure that we do that.

When discussing communication sir bandwidth is very important. Between satellite and fibre, which of them do you think really holds the key to communications going forward?
Very good question! In fact, they are complementary. I’m a satellite engineer and you are asking me this question, perhaps expecting that I will favour one. But I am in charge of ITU, so I will defend both. In fact they all have their strengths and weaknesses, and they are complementary. When you talk about rural and isolated areas, satellite is much faster and easy to implement; it has its own weaknesses in some areas, and fibre comes to the rescue. So, they complement each other. There is no country where you use only one type of communication; they will always complement each other. In Nigeria, you have fibre national backbone; the challenge now all over Africa actually is to interconnect the national backbones. There are countries that are not far from each other; that is very important to interconnect, so that we can have direct links with the countries. Nigeria has its own satellite that was launched about five years ago; we hope that NIGCOMSAT 2 will be launched soon, it’s on the way. It was a big pride for all of us when we saw the launch of the first satellite. There are microwave systems, and other wireless systems, such as WiMAX, they are all complementary. They will always have their roles. But of course, wireless is taking very big importance; over the past few years we have seen that; and wireless broadband will put even more pressure on the demand on spectrum. And as you know ITU is allocating spectrum and coordinating the management of spectrum; and it has done it very successfully. The last radio conference we held in 2007 was a very successful one; personally, it was my first world radio conference as Secretary General and I was very proud of that, it was the largest conference ever in terms of the number of re-allocation of spectrum that was needed to be done; and we achieved it in one month. Since 1947, we didn’t have such big reallocation of spectrum; and I can say that the stage is set for the next 30 years at least. From 2007, the next world radio conference will just do some fine-tuning as we move along to correct any small issues that will arise from the test use of the spectrum. But we will be able to survive with that.

Why is it more expensive to call Nigeria from Togo or Togo from Nigeria, for instance, than to call from these countries to London or Geneva and vice versa?
That’s a very good question; and that comes down to the interconnection of the national backbones that I’m saying. You will find out that most of the time the national backbones are just 20 kilometres away from each other and yet you transit it to London and the call to London will be more expensive.
How do we resolve that problem?
Well, there are some key regulatory decisions that need to be taken at the continental level in order to move forward and that was brought to the attention of the heads of state at the conference in Addis Ababa at the AU summit where ICT was the main issue. And I hope that some key decisions will be coming soon that will help regulators to enforce that and that will help the operators to put in motion the real investments to interconnect the national backbones. If roaming cost goes down to a reasonable level, if it’s imposed on some of the operators, they will cut their cost; and the best way to cut their cost is to interconnect, have direct links, so that calls will be at the least possible. And that requires very minimal investment; and some operators have started doing that in their own networks. Zain, you can see in Africa has a free roaming to show that their costs are very low. It means that they have also invested in interconnecting the national backbones so that they could have very low costs. Other operators will come to that. And interconnection between operators need to be done in a fair and responsible manner. If not, the regulators will need to jump in to ensure that they enforce it. It’s a free market policy. As a regulator, you don’t intervene in issues like this with operators, you let them agree among themselves. You only intervene when you see lack of agreement; and if it is against the interest of the public, because the regulators are there to defend the consumers’ rights and consumers have the right to access at the lowest cost possible and that’s something that we need to drive in the continent. We’ve seen some EU decisions taken at the European Commission level where they decided on the roaming cost level; to force operators to go forward. Let’s hope that we don’t have to have a forcing at that level.

There’s a point about security, SIM registration. It has happened in Europe and now it is being introduced to places like Nigeria. The NCC has said as from May 2010, we’re going to register every SIM. Operators have said that will slow our growth. Let’s balance security and the social aspect of what needs to be done. What will be your advice?
Unfortunately, criminals are using this anonymity to invade our children’s safety. You don’t have any control to who is calling you or your children and that is a very dangerous thing. And it can be criminals. If anyone has any very genuine reasons to subscribe, there is no reason to give out that information; so we say that that information is kept confidential. It should only be used in case of criminal activities and that is very important.

I think the challenge really there is that there are situations where there are no data or any means of identification; no international passports, no national ID cards; government has not succeeded in making this possible. So, how do we go about that?
It goes both ways. You have ICTs to help them get ID cards. If you don’t have ID card you don’t exist. You have to have an ID; that’s the difference between people and animals. The difference is that we have an identity and we are communicating. It goes back to governments to ensure security. Unfortunately as we become more connected, the security challenges become greater and greater. In other words, Government must ensure there are policies that people are identified. The more we get connected the more our security challenges are becoming greater and greater. And as we become more mobile, you certainly don’t want a criminal or a terrorist to be using the power of communication tools to make the world a difficult place. The right to communicate is a way to make the world a better place; make the world a smaller place. And of course, it’s a big challenge for us to make it a safer place as well. But it is our responsibility. Criminals are using all sorts of innovative ideas; we need to combat that with the same or better types of ideas. But we need to get organised; it requires a global framework, it requires a commitment from all countries. Because criminals no longer have to be on the crime scene; in cyberspace a criminal can perpetrate crime at the same time in many places without even having been there. So, international framework of operation; some international common, what I call the five Cs: code of conducts for cyber crime for us to get the full benefits of ICTs. And the advances we have seen so far is nothing compared to what is in the pipeline; what is coming up.

You mentioned Nigeria and Ernest Ndukwe earlier. He will soon be leaving after 10 years, how will you describe him as a person and what he has done in NCC as a regulator?
First of all, Ernest Ndukwe has been a person of very high integrity and visionary leader. He has proved that Africa can now prove itself in the world stage. Before he came to NCC, people were portraying Nigeria as a sleeping giant. I think his time there has made the giant wake up and we are very proud of him;  as an African we are looking for leadership from Nigeria being the most populated country in the continent; and progress from Nigeria will mean a lot for the rest of the continent. And therefore his contribution has been very, very much appreciated not only for Nigeria, but he has also contributed at the world stage. So, we very much appreciate him.

When you do bow out of ITU someday, what legacy would you want to be remembered for?
I want to be sure that the world is a connected place, that’s one thing. The same goals that I set in 2006 at my election, bridging the digital divide, which is no longer for telephony but for broadband; avoiding new divides, and making cyber security a priority; these have been my priority areas, and they are still alive and I’m still fighting for them. I put the build on broadband initiative this year, I put the global cyber security agenda in place, I put China online protection in place, and I will be pushing for a global framework of cooperation for cyber security and I want to avoid the war we’re facing; what I call the cyber war, which will be a catastrophe. As you know, in any war there is no winner. So, I always say that the best way to win a war is to avoid it in the first place. And when I’m talking about this, the cyber peace concept is one of its kind; it’s a new concept; it’s coming before the war itself. That is we are preventing the war by making peace. And it requires not only collaboration or agreement between member states; it requires private sector to sit around the same table with member states. So, it needs a mentality change to avoid this potentially big catastrophe that the world will be facing. I’m saying there is a new world order, when a few weeks ago, you see the headlines China against Google. The use is no longer or was not China against another country; or another country against China. It’s a company against a country; that change means that there is a change in this world. We need to take that seriously; and we need to be realistic.

The Man, Toure
Dr. Hamadoun Touré was elected Secretary-General at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Antalya, Turkey, in November 2006 and took office on 1 January 2007.

He served as Director BDT from 1998 until 2006.

Born on 3 September 1953, Hamadoun Touré holds a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications of Leningrad (LEIS, USSR) and Doctor of Philosophy Degree (PhD) from the University of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics of Moscow (MTUCI, Russia).

Dr Touré is committed to make ITU an innovative, forward looking organisation adapted to meeting the challenges created by the new ICT environment and to spearhead the Union towards implementing the resolutions of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). As Director BDT from 1999 until 2006, he played a significant role in the WSIS process by launching numerous projects based on partnership building with International Organisations, Governments, Civil Society and the Private Sector.

He is married with four children and two granddaughters.

Prior to his election as Director of BDT in 1998, Dr Hamadoun Touré was Africa's Regional General Manager for ICO Global Communications (1996–1998). He spearheaded the company's activities from its Africa Regional Office in South Africa, where he laid the foundation to ensure the successful introduction and operation of ICO's regional operations: marketing and network distribution, coordination with service partners, regulators and operators of fixed, mobile and special services.

He joined the International Telecommunications Satellite Organiation (INTELSAT) in December 1985 where he occupied several important positions. From 1986 to 1990, he was Telecommunications Officer of INTELSAT Assistance and Development Programme (IADP). In this capacity he participated in several IADP projects including the design of earth stations, feasibility studies for domestic satellite communication systems and the implementation of technologies such as time division multiple access (TDMA) and demand assignment multiple access (DAMA) in several developing countries.

From 1990 to 1994, he was INTELSAT's Director for the Africa Region and later served as the Group Director for Africa and the Middle East from 1994 to 1996. During this time, he took an active part in the continental initiative launched by the Regional African Satellite Communications Organisation (RASCOM) to pool trans¬ponders on the INTELSAT system. He pioneered studies for regional interconnectivity and worked closely with all African and the Middle East countries to enhance the development of their telecommunication infrastructure. In these positions he managed annual revenue budgets of more than USD 115 million.

He is well known for his steadfast commitment to projects such as AFROSAT, AFSAT, PANAFTEL (Pan-African Telecommunications Network), as well as for his contributions to numerous conferences and meetings of ITU, INTELSAT, RASCOM, PATU (Pan-African Telecommunications Union), PANAFTEL and CAPTAC (Conference of Post and Telecommunication Administrations of Central Africa).

On the national scene, he was Manager of the Sulymanbougou II earth station in Bamako, Mali, where he coordinated activities between the country's national Office des postes et télécommunications (OPT) and TELEMALI in 1985. Later that year, he headed OPT's Satellite Communications Section.

From 1981 to 1984, he was Engineer in charge of operation and maintenance of the International Satellite earth station in Bamako, Mali. He interfaced with the International Switching Centre in Bamako in 1980 and with the PANAFTEL microwave terminal from October 1979.

His sound operation and maintenance of satellite communications earth stations earned him the reputation of a committed manager.

Dr Touré's language and negotiating skills help him to efficiently broker agreements in several international arenas. He is proficient in three official languages of the Union: English, French and Russian.

Decorations and honorary titles
Knight of the National Order of Mali; Officer of the National Order of Côte d’Ivoire; Doctorate honoris causa from the Odessa National Academy of Telecommunications (Ukraine); Honorary Citizen of the city of Grecia (Costa Rica).

Courtesy: ITU

Banigo charges Nigeria to take IT more seriously

Former Minister of Science and Technology, Chief Ebitimi Banigo has said that Nigeria can no longer afford to tag along in the Information Technology industry, but rather must take the centre stage so as not to be enslaved in the unfolding knowledge world.

The former chairman of the now defunct All States Trust Bank, who is now Chairman of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, exhibiting rare candour and courage of a public office holder, took a swipe at the government when he spoke at the book launch by one of Africa’s leading IT experts, Dr. Chris Uwaje in Lagos, said successive efforts on the ICT turf appeared to have been more of speaking than doing and called on the government to take the topic more seriously if the country is to reap benefits from technology.

Banigo, who chaired the occasion said: “We should energise our efforts more to policy foundation and should avoid coming to a grinding halt.” He advised that in order for the country not to lag behind, Nigeria should invest more in education so as to keep up the momentum of the little effort already being put in. He noted that Nigeria has come this far but still retrogressing whereas Nigerian villages should be given a common platform.

The book titled, e-Knowledge- Time is Running Out is written by Chris Uwajei, an It specialist popularly referred to as the ‘Oracle.’ The book is a compendium of several articles in the IT sector written by the author and published in several newspapers, magazines, journalists and on the internet. The book stands for Uwaje’s views and opinion on the subject of Information Technology as it relates to Nigeria, and indeed Africa. The book presents a wakeup call on the laid back attitude of policy makers regarding critical issues on the role of Information Technology in Nigeria.

Engr. Titi Omo-Ettu said that for e- knowledge time is running out and unless robust political will is presented our IT developmental circle will nowhere to be found. A chief knowledge officer

Omo-Ettu who reviewed the 470- page book with 30 chapters said the book which was written by a chief knowledge officer in Information technology sector is an appropriately researched book.
The unveiling of the book at the epoch making event was done by Engineer Alfred Okoigun of Arco Petrochemical Engineering, while Dr. Leo Stan Ekeh, Chairman, Zinox Systems led other stakeholders, friends, professional colleagues and well wishers of Dr. Uwaje to launch the book.

Banigo charges Nigeria to take IT more seriously

Former Minister of Science and Technology, Chief Ebitimi Banigo has said that Nigeria can no longer afford to tag along in the Information Technology industry, but rather must take the centre stage so as not to be enslaved in the unfolding knowledge world.

The former chairman of the now defunct All States Trust Bank, who is now Chairman of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, exhibiting rare candour and courage of a public office holder, took a swipe at the government when he spoke at the book launch by one of Africa’s leading IT experts, Dr. Chris Uwaje in Lagos, said successive efforts on the ICT turf appeared to have been more of speaking than doing and called on the government to take the topic more seriously if the country is to reap benefits from technology.

Banigo, who chaired the occasion said: “We should energise our efforts more to policy foundation and should avoid coming to a grinding halt.” He advised that in order for the country not to lag behind, Nigeria should invest more in education so as to keep up the momentum of the little effort already being put in. He noted that Nigeria has come this far but still retrogressing whereas Nigerian villages should be given a common platform.

The book titled, e-Knowledge- Time is Running Out is written by Chris Uwajei, an It specialist popularly referred to as the ‘Oracle.’ The book is a compendium of several articles in the IT sector written by the author and published in several newspapers, magazines, journalists and on the internet. The book stands for Uwaje’s views and opinion on the subject of Information Technology as it relates to Nigeria, and indeed Africa. The book presents a wakeup call on the laid back attitude of policy makers regarding critical issues on the role of Information Technology in Nigeria.

Engr. Titi Omo-Ettu said that for e- knowledge time is running out and unless robust political will is presented our IT developmental circle will nowhere to be found. A chief knowledge officer

Omo-Ettu who reviewed the 470- page book with 30 chapters said the book which was written by a chief knowledge officer in Information technology sector is an appropriately researched book.
The unveiling of the book at the epoch making event was done by Engineer Alfred Okoigun of Arco Petrochemical Engineering, while Dr. Leo Stan Ekeh, Chairman, Zinox Systems led other stakeholders, friends, professional colleagues and well wishers of Dr. Uwaje to launch the book.

TELECOMS

Goodbye Zain, Welcome Bharti
A deal made in India, sealed in Kuwait and berthed in Africa is what the just concluded transaction between Zain International and Bharti spells. The days ahead is about wait and see what becomes of one of Africa’s leading telecoms operations. By DENNIS ONWUEGBU

At last, Bharti, India’s leading operator with 125 million subscribers has added another 42 million subscribers in 15 African countries to its number to become one of the world’s leading operators by number. This opportunity finally settles the raging spirit of Sunil Mittal who as chairman of Bharti has attempted twice in the past to bring his company into the African arena without success.

The Indian market with 13 mobile operators (the latest two being Telenor and Sestema which operates as MTS), is facing cut-rate competition which has witnessed a squeezing margin and is clouding growth for the number one operator. Thus, from Burkina Faso to Zambia, Bharti will aspire to make up for the losses back home and for Zain, what it gains from the $10.7 billion transaction it will lose in subscriber number as it shrinks from 72 million subscribers to 30 million.

For the Kuwaiti company, Zain, its journey into Africa began some five years ago when it made first investments in Africa acquiring the African assets of Celtel International a company founded by billionaire telecoms investor, Dr. Mo Ibrahim. Five years after, Zain is expecting to post a return of up to five billion dollars from the Bharti deal.

Although March 25, 2010 was fixed as date when transaction would be concluded by the two companies, it was obvious before then that it was a done deal, the same title many news articles used to headline the stories of the transaction days before its conclusion.

By Wednesday, March 24, 2010; Board of Zain had ratified the transaction and by the morning of the D-Day, early news from India and elsewhere indicated that due to diligence on the African operation of Zain was concluded and all that was remaining was signing of the necessary documents and instant payment of the initial $8.3 billion. The remaining $700 million will come one year later while the sum of $1.7 billion will go into payment of debts owed by the operation.

“The (Zain) board is pleased to report that the due diligence process has been completed and that the parties are finalising definitive agreements, which are expected to be signed in the coming days,” a Zain statement announced a few hours before March 25.

“Upon signing, the parties will move towards getting any required approvals,” the Kuwaiti company said following a meeting of its board late on Wednesday.  The sale of the African operations does not include Zain's operation in Sudan or its investment in Morocco, the company had specified from the onset.

And with this, Mittal’s penance is now worth all its while and he is in Africa for real. The Bharti chairman is a devotee who abstains from eating meat while awaiting positive outcome from a big deal and here is one. And with that comes the real challenge and test of Bharti’s staying power as it will be transformed into a major global operating group becoming the world’s fifth largest operator by customer footprint.

Familiar Terrain?
In the days ahead, the Indian in Bharti will confront the African spirit that is hungry for talk and passionate with communications generally. India shares many things in common with Africa ranging from their categorisation as emerging markets, a population size that is hungry for the telephone but a scary low ARPU that is one of the reasons for Bharti’s search for new markets, in the first place.

For Mittal, Africa is not so strange a place for him and his management team, they have known all that needs to be known since last year when they were close to clinching the MTN deal and which later collapsed at the last minutes over patriotic interest of the South African government in MTN.

The Bharti chairman had said earlier last February that he has held some form of consultation with ministers in charge of communications in virtually all the 15 countries which operations of Zain it is taking over and he has an impression that they are looking forward to having his company in their market.

A peep into the operational method of Bharti in India seem to give it an advantage coming into Africa as it adopts low cost methods and targets the mass audience who though with low ARPU make up the majority of the African market with a few number of post-paid subscribers in the continent just as it is in India.

Bharti has a heritage in making network sharing and outsourcing deals work and will not be afraid of being aggressive on per minute pricing. The company is also well versed in addressing the difficulties of serving a largely rural, high-churn, low-revenue market.

The company’s profit margins have fallen to their lowest in three years in the quarter that just ended December 2009. ARPU has fallen drastically to around Rs 24, which is a further confirmation of the increased mobile subscription rates.

India has the world’s largest growing mobile markets - the number of cell phone connections stood at 525 million in December 2009.

Stiff competition has swamped the call charges in the country. Further, to boost the rural penetration of cell phones, the government not long ago, lowered the mobile termination charge (MTC) - the charge one mobile operator pays to another for each call made to it. Bharti stands to lose the greatest from this move.

The Indian operator is 32-percent owned by Singapore Telecom, and Zain, Kuwait's biggest mobile phone company, agreed last month to hold exclusive talks until March 25 to conclude the deal. Coming at a time when the industry is agog with talks of mergers and acquisitions, the takeover is one of India’s biggest cross-border deals and will give Bharti a significant foothold in the African cellular market, where just 36 out of every 100 people own a mobile phone.

Zain became desperate to sell its Africa operations, which turned out a drain on its resources, last year. It was no surprise it was keen to lock in what many regard as a high price offered by Bharti. The Kuwaiti group pulled back from an expansion spree last year and rejected an offer from France's Vivendi for its African assets. The deal with Bharti represents a retrenchment of the company’s strategy as well as good value. The company may have succeeded in transforming its brand and building up an impressive customer base across sub-Saharan Africa, but it has struggled to operate profitably.

In Africa, the company has average revenue per user (ARPU) of about $6 per month compared to South Africa-based MTN’s ARPU of $8 and this may have prompted some analysts expression of reservation on the huge loan to finance the deal which they fear would be a drag on Bharti's earnings since no immediate return is expected from the target African assets, which are currently loss-making.

Funding
Earlier in 2009, Bharti was determined to part with so much money to have a share of the African pie through the MTN Group. The deal then valued at $24 billion has been described as an ambitious one. If it sailed through, it would have surpassed an earlier acquisition by another Indian firm, Tata of Corus by almost double.

With Indian markets showing early signs of saturation, Bharti has few options but to look overseas. According to market analysts, the Indian telecom giant’s operations in Seychelles, Jersey and Guernsey (Channel Island), Sri Lanka and the recent acquisition of Warid Telecom in Bangladesh are just not good enough to increase profits. It needs bigger geographies, like that of the MTN or Zain with growth potential.

Facts emerged in the Zain transaction that the Indian company raised the required $8.3 billion from mainly international banks.

Bharti Airtel, issued a term sheet to banks to raise up to $8.5 billion in offshore loans to fund the deal, banking sources said. The six-year offshore facility has four tranches and carries a blended average life of 4.75 years, with a margin ranging from 176 basis points (bps) to 179 bps over Libor, our sources said.

Previously, Bharti was said to be looking for a $9-billion facility, which also included an onshore rupee tranche. Bankers familiar with the deal said that the all-in pricing is below all expectations, which ranged from 200 bps to 250 bps above Libor.

A banker familiar with the deal said that Bharti opted to drop the onshore tranche of its loan due to the strong response from offshore lenders. By raising the facility all in US dollars, the borrower also minimises execution risks and the time needed to complete the financing, the banker said. Barclays Capital, Citigroup, Standard Chartered Bank and State Bank of India are underwriting larger amounts than other banks.

Around 11 other shortlisted banks also received the term sheet, including: ANZ, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, BNP Paribas, DBS Bank, HSBC, JPMorgan and Royal Bank of Scotland.

The State Bank of India (SBI) has committed $1.5 billion as part of a $7.5 billion being arranged by mandated lead arrangers including those of Standard Chartered Bank ($1.3 billion), Barclays ($0.9 billion) and others of Citi, JP Morgan  completes the rest.

Out of the committed $1.5 billion, State Bank would provide $500 million as dollar loan and the rest will be rupee loan. The bank-syndicate has priced the loan at 195 basis points above Libor (London interbank offered rate). Global investment house KSCC is serving as the regional financial advisor for the transaction.

Challenge of Africa
But while Africa provides tremendous growth opportunity, entering 15 countries with very different market dynamics at once could create a number of challenges. The markets vary from one country to another and there cannot be a one form of style or conducting operations in the continent.

There is no doubt that an operator with Bharti’s experience in India and cost saving methods, coming to Africa will provide it another virgin ground to display this proficiency. But, it certainly goes beyond that in the continent especially where Zain is concerned.

One of the things that the new player would work fast at creating is its brand equity which must be characterised by reliability, innovativeness, and a passion for Africanness which must set it apart in an already competitive marketplace.

According to an analyst, Zain in one of its numerous struggles in the continent, turned to managed services model which may have come rather late in the day. Even though there are pointers that Zain may still enter new markets within the North African and Middle East regions, especially as it retains operations in Sudan and Morocco; these regions it still sees as more lucrative in the longer term.

Africa is presently under the careful control of the likes of MTN, Orange, Vodafone, new entrant Globacom, Telkom and Millicom. Thus, the entrance of Bharti will spin off a transformation in Africa’s competitive and operational landscape and is likely to attract more players from markets that are already nearing saturation.

Zain Africa, which generated revenues of around $2.8 billion in the nine months ending in September 2009, is reportedly a loss-making operation. Its fifteen markets reported a cumulative net loss of around $112 million in that nine-month period, though eight of those 15 markets generated a net profit.

However, there is a lot of potential for growth, as the 15 markets have an average mobile penetration level of around 35 percent. Only three of Zain Africa's markets (Ghana, Congo Brazzaville, and Gabon) having a mobile penetration rate higher than 50 percent, while six have a rate lower than 25 percent.

And, in general, the markets are less competitive than in India (which has 13 mobile operators and more to come). Most of the Zain Africa markets have two, three, or four operators, with only three markets (Congo, Ghana, and Niger) having five.

Zain Nigeria
No doubt, Bharti’s biggest challenge will come in Nigeria, the largest of the Zain Africa market. A highly competitive market yet with unmatched potentials compared with other countries in the continent, Zain Nigeria generated revenues and a net loss in the first nine months of 2009 of $986 million and $88 million respectively from its more than 15 million customers.

It is strongly believed that Bharti’s success in Nigeria will not be because only of a stringent cost cutting measure, that could cause a fight that it may not win easily; rather the Indian giant should sustain earlier works started by the company in expanding its network into rural Nigeria from where it could generate subscription growth, roll out targeted services across segments to retain and attract clients, target the youth and enterprise segments to generate value, and develop data services in the form of mobile broadband that the government has supported in the last couple of years as a way to mitigate decline in voice revenue.

Identity Change
The new operator must be aware that Zain Nigeria has undergone management and name change perhaps more than any other operator in the world in its nearly ten years as a telecommunications services provider. The operation was launched in 2001 as Econet Wireless Nigeria and a few years after it became known as Vmobile, that was after a failed attempt by Vodacom to acquire the company. In another two years, Vmobile was to change its identity to Celtel and this was followed up quickly as Zain. That too is under threat of change to Bharti except if the management of the Indian company hearkens to certain clamour by corporate image experts that too many identity changes could cause more confusion for the subscriber.

In Nigeria, many subscribers have a confused identity for the operator as they refer to it as Econet, some Celtel and among the younger generation who only grew up to owning phones when the Zain fever was unfolding, they could identify the operator as Zain.

Media experts as usual are anticipating another change in name, and this they agree will require a re-branding exercise, which for the Nigerian network alone could cost as much as N1 billion. And when this eventually happens, the company would have become a global reference point in corporate re-branding.

This does not exclude rebranding that might involve various forms of media and which costs several millions of dollars and rebranding that affect official items like complimentary cards, cars, letterheads, buildings, promotional, and the list is in-exhaustive.

Psyche of Nigerian workforce
Bharti would also have extensive work to do with its remaining Nigerian workforce many of whom have witnessed too many changes to have implicit confidence in the future of the company. Ironically, most of the changes in the operation have come with the injection of a large dose of foreigners which has often created the impression that the Nigerians working in the company are not wanted or are incompetent.

This is in sharp contrast to the other operators, both GSM and CDMA who have kept a good number of Nigerians in top management positions for fairly long enough time to begin to assume responsibilities that they hitherto could not. Ironically, until recently Zain was the only one among the first five leading operators that had a Nigerian as chief executive, Mr. Bayo Ligali until he was forced out of that office by foreign interests in the company.

In the last restructuring exercise conducted by most operators as fall-out of the threat caused by the global financial meltdown, Zain Nigeria drew the ire of its workforce as more than a thousand staff were affected and their protest to the government must have been a source of embarrassment to its management.

Best Customer Care...
Right from its inception as Econet Wireless Nigeria, Zain Nigeria consistently shone as the operator with best customer care service in the country. This position was sustained for nearly seven years until recently when its fortunes began to decline in the form of a large turn over of mid-management staff of the company.

Before other operators began building robust customer care centres and units in their operations, Zain was way ahead and it was a delight to its subscribers to make inquiries on the network and the pleasant experience they were often left with sustained their loyalty to the brand. The series of awards the company has won in this area speaks volume of this unmatched customer care service delivery.All that has since declined and restoring this may be another winning pill for Bharti
   
Old Wounds
Also, a potential stumbling block is a dispute over ownership that has lingered between Econet Wireless Holdings and the operator. This ownership dispute that was between Zain Nigeria as represented by MTC of Kuwait and Econet Wireless Holdings is simply transferred to Bharti as one of its inheritances from the transaction.

Econet, which owns a five per cent stake in Zain Nigeria, claims that its right of first refusal over the ownership of the operator was breached in May 2006, when its Nigerian partners sold their shares to Zain and in October 2009, Econet applied for interim measures to prevent Zain from selling, transferring, disposing of, dealing with or otherwise encumbering the disputed stake until the matter is resolved.

Future
In spite of what it has gone through as a company, Zain Nigeria has a rare resilience that also calls for closer attention. It remains amazing that each time when it moves into new owners that it often comes back even stronger than it was.

Although Zain Nigeria accounts for 65 per cent of the size of Zain Africa, it contributed only 10 per cent of its profit in 2008 and by 2009, this has declined to a loss of $88million out of the total $112 million loss recorded by the operator in Africa.

Yet, by every indices in the Nigerian market and with right funding, the telco has the potential of tilting the market in its favour and compete for the number one slot in the Nigerian market.

In the days ahead, the operator would have to count extensively on its customer loyalty that has seen it return stronger each time it has fallen. It remains to be seen if Bharti would be able to endure and bring in more investment into the operation that will make the company compete effectively with two other market leaders – MTN Nigeria and Globacom.

And this it must do fast as returnee NITEL and its mobile subsidiary, M-Tel is set to alter the trend in the Nigerian market.

China Mobile eyes Asia, Africa Market
With continued drop in revenue in the older and larger markets across the world, the attractiveness of the African and certain of the Asian market becomes obvious.
Latest addition to the growing number of operators seeking to come into the African market is China Mobile the world's biggest mobile operator by subscribers, and it is looking at acquisition and investment targets in Asia and Africa specifically as profit growth slows at home, its chairman said recently.

In order not to rock the company’s stability, any expansion through acquisitions would be balanced with continued investments in its home market because there is still huge growth potential in mainland China, Chairman and Chief Executive Wang Jianzhou informed recently.

China is home to more than 730 million mobile subscribers with the country's mobile penetration rate at close to 60 per cent. That is still pretty low compared to developed markets like Japan and South Korea where penetration rates are around 100 per cent and more.

China Mobile is the biggest player, but its profit growth has been slowing because of rising competition after a government mandated restructuring in late 2008 merged China's six telecom operators into three nationwide full-service operators, bringing in China Telecom Corp. into the mobile market.

The mobile giant reported recently that its net profit last year rose by a mere 2.3 per cent to CNY115.20 billion (US$16.87 billion) from CNY112.63 billion a year earlier, sharply lower than the 30 percent growth it saw in 2008.

“Rising competition has already hurt our profitability. The company wants to look for additional growth and opportunities overseas,” Wang announced.

Wang's comments suggest China Mobile is taking a more aggressive acquisition approach after the industry restructuring as it seeks to generate further growth. Its only acquisition was in 2006 when it completed the HK$3.38 billion ($436 million) purchase of Hong Kong mobile carrier China Resources Peoples Telephone Co.

Earlier in March, the company agreed to take a 20 per cent stake in Shanghai Pudong Development Bank for $5.83 billion as it seeks to expand into mobile payment services. Last year, China Mobile also agreed to invest NT$17.7 billion in Taiwan's Far EasTone Communications Co. but the plan remains in limbo as the island keeps its phone-services providers off-limits to Chinese investment.

“We are still awaiting approval from the Taiwan government,” said Wang.”We hope the Taiwan government will relax investment rules.”

The executive cautioned that despite its hefty cash reserve from last year, (the company had $34 billion in cash), it would not chase “high-priced assets.”

 
India calls for quake-proof towers
In a bid to ensure that essential services like telecommunication do not break down during natural calamities, the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has brought out a draft policy on mobile towers and has asked cellular service providers to adhere to certain norms while constructing new towers. Saying that the towers would have to be earthquake resistant, DoT has specified that the design, fabrication and use of material should conform to the standards set by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

Since there was large-scale damage when the cyclone struck Orissa and even during the Bhuj earthquake, the draft telecom policy paper states that there is an urgent need to ensure that telecommunication services are not disrupted in such disasters.

“The towers are erected in residential areas and on lease-rented buildings that are spread all over towns and cities. The buildings over which the towers are erected are not analysed for the associated risk of earthquake and appropriate retrofit measures are not taken.” Officials analysed alleging that, “in some cases the towers are constructed even without taking requisite permission from the concerned authority,” a trend that is often the case in mots emerging markets.

Addressing health issues, the draft tower policy has asked telcos to follow international standards to cut down on radiation. In a bid to check radiation from mobile towers, telcos have been asked to provide certification of antenna emission levels.

“Cellular service providers shall ensure compliance of the International Commission for Non-ionising Radiation Protection and other environmental standards,” notes the draft tower policy. It has also outlined ways to encourage alternate sources of energy for telecom towers to reduce pollution. 

TELECOMS

At Last, Justice Comes to Mobitel
It took nearly one year of waiting and pain for justice to come the way of returning Mobitel; but it is sweet justice especially for an industry that has known so many successes in the past decade. It is a warning to politicians in the country to be careful of how they misuse executive power in flagrant abuse of office, policy and due process; lest history judges them on the negative side of the trial balance – as would now be the case with this landmark judgement.

History of Troubles
It sounds much like a well worn record; but this record does play very well, indeed! For Mobitel Nigeria Limited, returning from behind when all seems lost with hopelessness hanging over it, has become a terrain the company must have gotten used to by now. Its entire history as a telecoms company which started operation since 1998 has been one of challenges and tedious effort at survival; yet on each occasion, the operator has always bounced back.

This trend was set to re-enact itself when in 2008, a consortium led by Omni Ventures acquired the beleaguered operator and commenced plans to roll-out services in its core area of fixed and wireless voice, data and value-added services focusing on small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) and high-end consumers across Nigeria. The company is not oblivious of the fact that its nationwide frequency spectrum allocations and a set of licenses in its kitty can be converted into a unified access service license.

However, it is not sure whether the new management of the operator led by Mr. Johnson Salako was prepared for the avalanche of troubles that was awaiting its bold attempt to come back.

The original Mobitel is among the first private telephone operators that were licensed to provide telecommunications services to the starved Nigerian population in late 1990s and the company enjoyed a high profile management and board that further increased the expectations that it would excel in its chosen area of business.

And in the thick of the company’s plan for restructuring and with a debt overhang, disaster struck when in September 2005, the company’s founding chief executive and managing director, Engr. Charles Alaba Joseph was killed in mysterious circumstances on a day Intercontinental bank Plc which the company owed millions of naira moved in with a receiver/manager, Oluwakemi Pinheiro to take over Mobitel. That incident appeared to have shut off daylight off Mobitel until the 2008 acquisition by the consortium led by Omni Ventures.

Anticipation that with the new owners in place and after they had settled the indebtedness of the company, peace would prevail and the operator would return into the mainstream of the telecommunications industry in Nigeria; become an illusion in 2009.

Returns A Jaded Past
A boisterous and confident Johnson Salako by early 2009, announced a cork and sealed plan by Mobitel to return into prominence and national reckoning with what he described as a world class service to Nigerians.

In one of such plans, Mobitel entered into a $7 million contract for the roll-out of WiMAX services across the country in the first phase of the programme. The contract with Alvarion to build a broadband network in Nigeria using WiMAX technology according to the Nigerian operator was part of its scheduled commencement of operation in October 2009 and this was based on its anticipation to clinch one of the licenses in the 2.3GHz spectrum. 

Using the Alvarion BreezeMAX solution in the 2.0 GHz, 2.2 GHz and 2.3 GHz frequency bands, Mobitel planned to offer voice and high-bandwidth data services to thousands of residences and businesses nationwide, with key cities of Lagos, Port-Harcourt, Warri and Abuja as start points.

“This is a great opportunity for Mobitel to bring broadband services to remote parts of the country. The use of WiMAX technology together with our existing fixed line network allows us the possibility to offer converged services to our customers.” An elated Johnson Salako announced indicating that at least 20,000 subscribers would be covered at the initial launch.

According to the operator, the second phase of the project will see an expansion into additional 18 states in the country that will include Kano, Kaduna, Oyo and Edo. And with this plan, the Nigerian market was eagerly looking forward to the licenses for the 2.3GHz spectrum which the regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) promised to make available to four companies that qualified in the auction sales.

On the road leading to the exercise, 40 companies expressed interest in the license and on the last count, only three succeeded in paying the license fee of N1.368 billion in one week. A fourth winner was unable to meet the deadline and the regulator went on to announce the winners – Mobitel Nigeria Limited, Multi-Links Telkom and Spectranet Nigeria Limited.

This was the end of the jolly ride. A few hours after this announcement, the ministry of information and communications caused to be announced in major Nigerian newspapers and broadcast media the cancellation of the exercise and then honourable minister of information and communications, Dr. Dora Akunyili soon after followed this up with a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) claiming that the process leading to the emergence of the three winners was fraught with irregularities and therefore could not be considered to be transparent.

For an agency like the NCC that has ridden on the crest of past license auctions that had attracted global acclaim for its transparency, this particular incidence will turn out to be the biggest dent it ever suffered. A flurry of claims and counter claims by the minister and the regulator soon followed and between May 8, 2009 when the process was concluded and winners announced, and August 11, 2009 when President Musa Yar’Adua finally endorsed the cancellation; the telecommunications sector in the country suffered a hiccup.

It would appear that the series of accusations most of which would turn out suspect in themselves, were aimed at either frustrating the new owners of Mobitel or the existing structure of NCC which has enjoyed a smooth run then in its ninth year as a regulator of note.

Part of the allegations levelled against the company was that it is still indebted to the Federal Government for the waiver it was granted by the regulator which was not in line with due diligence and is without the competence of the NCC to do so.

In a swift reaction, the ant-graft agency invited the executive vice chairman of the NCC Engr. Ndukwe to explain the role of the Commission in granting the so-called waiver of more than N200 million to the operator allowing it to pay N500 million instead  of an estimated N727, 945, 463.

Despite the explanation of the NCC that the amount paid by Mobitel’s management in spite of it coming while the company has not been operating its license, was in order; the EFCC went on to arrest Mr. Johnson Salako on June 25, 2010 accusing him and the operators of indebtedness to the Federal Government.
 
For eight days, the chief executive was guest of the EFCC until a Federal High Court Abuja ordered his immediate release. Naturally, the operator went to court demanding among other things that the waiver and or concession granted it by NCC was in respect of fees that had not accrued, in the first place.

Also investigated in the cause of the crisis is the head of the Universal Services Provision Fund (USPF) which is part of the gains of a proactive regulator. The USPF is headed by Mr. Funsho Fayemi who before his appointment into that position, headed the NCC Enforcement Unit that was in charge of debt collection and closure of businesses that failed to comply with the laws guiding their operations.
 
The former information and communications minister who had enjoyed a good run as the director general of the National Agency for Foods, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), come under criticism by industry players when it became clear that she had acted based on a petition written by a non-participant in the 2.3GHz licensing process and to date, the character and identity of the petitioner remained shrouded in secrecy. To, some industry operators the petitioner may not be real.

While this lasted, the management of Mobitel pressed on with its planned launch in October of 2009 as it awarded an additional contract to VocalTel bringing to over $15 million the value of the contracts it awarded for its smooth take-off. The earlier one was to Alvarion and these companies were to provide cutting edge VoIP platform and 50 base stations in four main Nigerian cities, respectively for the first phase of its roll-out.

It had also entered into agreements with infrastructure maintenance/management companies like IHS Plc and Helios Towers to prepare the operator for collocation in its infrastructure and another plan with Phase3 telecom on the provision of national transmission network, multi-million dollar contracts with Gateway Communications and MainOne cable company for a five-year provision of 2.3Gbit fibre optic access.

These and other plans by the company were under threat of going extinct if the company did not get justice and fast, too. But in the midst of all these, one man remained fully rooted in his conviction that Mobitel will not only roll-out, but that it would emerge one of the industry leaders the chief executive officer of the company, Mr. Salako.
  
This conviction and total trust in the judicial system paid off with the judgement last March 18, 2010 by Justice Mohammed Garba Umar of the Federal High Court Abuja who ruled that the licence seized by the National Communications Commission be released to Mobitel forthwith and barred the Commission from selling the national frequencies in the 2.3 GHz Band, which the government had earlier awarded to Mobitel.

“I hereby grant all the reliefs sought by the applicant in this case and order the defendant to release the licence it seized from the company,” Mr. Umar declared.

A few hours after the judgement, the NCC announced the issuance of the license to Mobitel after an approval by chairman of the Commission’s Board, Dr. Ahmed Joda.

Implications of Judgement
It is obvious from the interpretation of the justice of the Federal High Court that autonomy of the NCC with regards to frequency allocation and management is not in dispute of any kind. And as it was argued in various newspaper articles in the course of the dispute between the regulator and the minister, the industry can only thrive where the regulator is unencumbered in the discharge of the functions of its office.

Thus, in the judgement of March 18, 2010; Justice Mohammed Garba gave a clear and unambiguous interpretation to the various sections of the Communications Act from whence the NCC draws its powers. According to the judge, “The Nigerian Communications Act 2003 is the law providing for the allocation of frequency. The law conferred on the Nigerian Communications Commission, the sole and exclusive powers to manage and administer the frequency spectrum for the communications sector to its end users by grants of license for the use of the said frequencies. See section 121, (1) &( 2) of the Act which provides and I quote:
‘Notwithstanding the provisions of any other written law or subject to the provision of this Act, the Commission shall have the sole and exclusive power to manage and administer the frequency spectrum for the communications sector and in that regard to grant licenses for and to regulate the use of the said frequency spectrum.”

The judge further interpreted the supporting sections of the Act, thus: “Section 121, (2) states and I quote: ‘The Power of the Minister under the Wireless Telegraphy Act as far as they relate to the Communications are hereby vested in the Commission.’

Based on this the judge once more confirmed the position that was canvassed in the heat of the controversy by insisting that the provisions of the NCA of 2003 clearly establishes the independence of the Commission and is therefore insulated from any interference in the course of the performance of its statutory duties. “The purpose is to insulate the Commission in the performance of this crucial and highly sensitive function of regulating the Communications sector.”

The judgement furthermore clarified the relationship between the NCC and the operators in this matter. “The end user for the purpose of the function of the Commission is the operators in the communications sector. Section 157 of the interpretation clause in the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 defines the Communications Sector in the following words and I quote: ‘An economic sector or market for network service, for an application service or for goods and services used in conjunction with network service or an application or service for or access to facility used in conjunction within either a network service or an application service.’

In order to remove any form of ambiguity that may arise in the interpretation of the NCA, the presiding judge went on to define the role of the honourable minister and any other persons mentioned in the Nigeria Communications Act of 2003.

“Other government bodies recognised by the NCA 2003 are the Minister of Communications and National Frequency Management Council who are not provided for in Part 1 of the Nigerian Communication Act 2003 regarding the frequency spectrum of the Communications sector within the provisions of the Act.

“From the foregoing, it is my holding that the Act confers NO power in the first respondent (Minister of Communications) to impose any directive or instruction on the Commission, or any of its officers or intervene in the performance of the Commissions functions. It is clear that the express intentions of the Act regarding the role of the first respondent is to limit its powers to only board matters on policy  and issues that affect treaties in view of section 23 of the Nigerian Communications Act.

“Section 25, sub-section 2 goes further to impose on the Minister of Communications the statutory obligation of ensuring the sanctity of the independence guaranteed to the Commission by the Act.

“The first respondent’s (Minister of Communications) purported cancellation of the Auction is absolutory and totally arbitrary as it relates to section 123 of the Nigerian Communication Act 2003 which provides for as follows and I quote: ‘Section 123 (1) - the Commission may make regulations in any matter under this chapter. Section 123 (2), the regulation may include procedure for assignment of spectrum such as but not limited to the following a) Auctions; b) Tender; c) Fixed price to be determined by the  Commission. The above provision gives the Commission the exclusive powers regarding the sale of frequency and makes absolutely no mention of the first respondent (Minister of Communications).

“Therefore action of the first respondent (Minister of Communications) in cancelling the auction is a violation of due operation of the law which everyone is bound by.”

This judgement will further increase the confidence in the Nigerian market that has suffered a setback since the cancellation of the licenses last year part of which has been a slowing down in the growth rate in the industry as reflected by the reduced growth dimension in subscribers and obviously in investment as fortified by the inclusion of its Nigerian operation by Zain International of sales of Zain Africa to Indian operator, Bharti Airtel.

As has been expressed in several forums that the strength of a regulator is a principal factor in determining confidence and growth in any telecommunications industry; the NCC has showcased this agility in the past nine years until the infringement last year. This judgement will go a long way in fortifying that trust in the regulator and by extension in the Nigerian market.

And while the country is adopting a similar programme for the restoration of the power sector, a landmark judgement as this, in the case of Mobitel and the government will create a better guidance for the government in dealing with the newly licensed private operators in the power sector.

Perhaps most important is the fact that this judgement finally paves way for the unleashing of the country’s potential in the mobile broadband segment of the telecommunications industry, an area that has been anticipated for so long.

It is important to recall that without the allocation of these frequency to respective winners, the countryl was losing millions of dollars in foreign direct investment from interested investors and by implication, other billions of naira in revenue generation in the form of taxes and other duties.

This does not include the employment that this would generate both in the short and long term for the economy.

Future Prospects
It must be noted that for the avoidance of a repeat of the incidence under discussion, government must as a duty engage only men and women of genuine patriotic disposition to occupy public offices, and they must be people who would be willing to learn from professionals and technocrats in various offices. Otherwise, unnecessary wastage and loss in revenue would be attracted to the country.

While in certain quarters it would appear that the ministry of information and communications had attempted to safeguard the nation’s interest if bigger companies with deeper pockets would have been preferred with the spectrum fee set at far above the N1.368 billion paid by each of the three winners of the 2.3GHz spectrums; informed knowledge which must have guided the NCC shows that elsewhere in the world where fees for licenses had been upped so high as to attract more revenue for the state, the citizens who should be the ultimate beneficiary of the entire exercise were denied this all-important services.

Companies that won such highly priced bids eventually found it difficult to roll-out speedily and when they did, because of the huge cost in acquiring the licenses, their pricing mechanism made their services beyond the reach of the common man that they were supposed to serve.

Nigeria therefore would only have been naïve to fall into the same trap thinking that because frequency is a scarce commodity that must be maximised, it should be sold at the highest price possible and only to companies that have big size to reach the people. Contrary to this, big operators are usually most reluctant to go into the rural regions because of business plans that does not show good margins on investment for such areas.
 
And as way of avoiding such unnecessary conflicts in the future, government should hasten to complete the merger of the NCC and the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), to avoid duplication of resources and friction which could arise in the aftermath of the digitisation of broadcasting across the world by the year 2015.

For Johnson Salako and his team at Mobitel, it would be too early for celebration. The ultimate celebration would come only when they have been able to deliver the world class WiMAX broadband services that they promised Nigerians. Otherwise, the license would have been put into the wrong hands and they would have posterity to contend with.   

                                       
See full details of judgement below:

(BOX)

The Judgement that restored hope in the industry

Suit Number FHC/ABJ/M/312/2009
Mobitel
Vs

1. Hon. Minister of Information and Communications
2. Federal Ministry of Information and Communications
3. Attorney General Of the Federation and Minister of Justice
4. Nigerian Communications Commission

Judgment  delivered by Justice Umar Garba of the Federal High Court Abuja today March 18, 2009 in the case instituted by Mobitel against the Minister of Information and Communications, the NFMC, NCC.   In the case of purported cancellation of the 2.3GHZ sale

I hold therefore that the respondent’s objections have no merit and it must fail. Consequently, all objections of the first and second defendants have no merit and are hereby dismissed.

Having seen all the preliminary objections, I now proceed to consider the sustentative application of the matter before this court.

Pursuant to leave granted to the applicant by this court on the 27th of May 2009 to apply for an order for a judicial review, the applicant filed an originating motion on the 1st of June 2009 and same was supported by a written address. The first second and third respondents filed written addresses. The third respondent initially appeared at the proceedings and subsequently disappeared. I hereby treat all processes filed by the third respondent as being abandoned and I do hold.

Having looked then at all the preliminary applications now, I proceed to consider the substantive application of this matter before the court.

I have adopted all the written addresses on the 25th of January 2010. I have read all the submissions of the Counsels and I have equally gone through the statements of facts filled by the applicants the relief sought and all the exhibits attached to the application, I hereby adopt the single and sole issue formulated by the applicant in this case for determination which is a follows:
-Whether it is within the powers of the first and second Respondents to cancel an auction conducted by the 4th Respondent for the issuance of license in the communications sector.
-The applicant’s case as taken clearly from the facts in the statements and supporting affidavits is that the applicant participated in the auction of the 2.3GHz spectrum licensing by the fourth respondent (NCC) and met all the  criteria as advertised, awaiting the issuance of the license to operate.
When the first and second respondent issued a letter on the 25th of May 2009 ‘ Exhibit NCC’ and Exhibit ‘N’, the contents of these exhibits state as follows and I quote”
“ Following the resolution of the Ministerial management Meeting on Friday the 22nd of May 2009 on the above subject matter, I am directed to formerly convey the resolution of the meeting that the process of the sale of the 2.3GHz Band has been cancelled, it should start all over again. As a result of that, you are to await the formal release of the band by the National Frequency Management Council. The meeting of which was expected to hold on Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 12.00 noon. Signed for the Honourable Minister”.

Aggrieved by the above decision the applicant ran to this court and applied for judicial review.

The Nigerian Communications Act 2003 is the law providing for the allocation of frequency. The law conferred on the Nigerian Communications Commission, the sole and exclusive powers to manage and administer the frequency spectrum for the communications sector to its end users by grants of license for the use of the said frequencies. See section 121, (1) &( 2) of the Act which provides and I quote:
“Notwithstanding the provisions of any other written law or subject to the provision of this Act, the Commission shall have the sole and exclusive power  to manage and administer the frequency spectrum for the communications sector and in that regard to grant licenses for and to regulate the use of the said frequency
Spectrum

Section 121, (2) states and I quote”
“The Power of the Minister under the Wireless Telegraphy Act as far as they relate to the Communications are hereby vested in the Commission”

By the Provisions of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003, the Commission is independent of any interference in the performance of its statutory duties. The purpose is to insulate the Commission in the performance of this crucial a highly sensitive function of regulating the Communications sector.
The end user for the purpose of the function of the Commission is the operators in the communications sector. Section 157 of the interpretation clause in the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 defines the Communications Sector in the following words and I quote
“ An economic sector or market for network service, for an application service or for goods and services used in conjunction with network service or an application or service for or access to facility used in conjunction within either a network service or an application service.”

Other government bodies recognized by the NCA 2003 are the Minister of Communications and National Frequency Management Council who are not provided for in Part 1 of the Nigerian Communication Act 2003 regarding the frequency spectrum of the Communications sector within the provisions of the Act.
From the foregoing, it is my holding that the Act confers NO power in the first respondent (Minister of Communications) to impose any directive or instruction on the Commission, or any of its officers or intervene in the performance of the Commissions functions. It is clear that the express intentions of the Act regarding the role of the first respondent is to limit its powers to only board matters on policy  and issues that affect treaties in view of section 23 of the Nigerian Communications Act.

Section 25, sub-section 2 goes further to impose on the Minister of Communications the statutory obligation of ensuring the sanctity of the independence guaranteed to the Commission by the Act.

The first respondent’s (Minister of Communications) purported cancellation of the Auction is absolutory and totally arbitrary as it relates to section 123 of the Nigerian Communication Act 2003 which provides for as follows and I quote:
‘Section 123 (1)
“the Commission may make regulations in any matter under this chapter. Section 123 (2), the regulation may include procedure for assignment of spectrum such as but not limited to the following a) Auctions; b) Tender; c) Fixed price to be determined by the  Commission
The above provision gives the Commission the exclusive powers regarding the sale of frequency and makes absolutely no mention of the first respondent (Minister of Communications)

Therefore action of the first respondent ( Minister of Communications) in cancelling the auction is a violation of due operation of the law which everyone is bound by.

See the case of Ogboru Vs Ibori in 2005 where it was held by the courts that in the construction of statutory provision where a statute mentions specific things or persons, the intention are that those not mentioned are not intended to be included.
This is the ‘esperatio unius’  rule which means  the expression, mention of one of the things in a statutory provision automatically excludes any other which otherwise will have been included by implications.

The first respondent is the Chairman of the National Frequency Management Council created by section 26 of the NCC Act 2003. The body is comprised of 8 Members. No member is accorded with a prerogative to any unilateral action regarding the actions of the Commission as was exercised by the first and second respondent in the letter dated the 25th of May 2009 (Exhibit NCC 5 and Exhibit N to the first respondent.

The Courts being a creation of the law are saddled with the constitutional duty and responsibility to enforce and guard against the vice by ensuring adherence to the tenets of the law. The courts will therefore continue to function to constrain any government department through the instrument of prerogative writs where such department exceeds the limits of the powers conferred on them by the law.

Where the law provides for the ways and methods of doing an act, only that method will be allowed in doing such an act. Anything done otherwise is ultra vires.

Having procured and obtained bids, that is in accordance with the terms advertised; the first respondent cannot stop and cancel same by a letter dated the 25th of May 2009 without a valid reason.

The Act is an Act from the National Assembly which must be accorded respect. The applicant which has complied with all the requirements in the exercise of the auctions and bids and acquired publicly and advertised right cannot be disregarded by a mere administrative directive without the backing of the law. See the Case of M.H Wun Vs Minister of Labour and Productivity recorded in 2005 17 Nigerian Weekly report 953.

Furthermore, by the provisions of the NCA 2003, it is not open to anyone and not even the Minister of Communications, the first respondent in this case, to question the assigning of frequencies to the third parties by the Commission where the Commission is performing its functions under Chapter 8 part 1 of the Act.

The Commission is hereby deemed by the Act to perform this function for and on behalf of the National Frequency Management Council. The Act does not contemplate otherwise to the extent that no authority will void an auction of frequency by the Commission.

The only remedy for the Act of  the first and Second respondent which is not backed by law is to declare same ultra vires. See the Case of UNTHME Vs Nolly recorded in 1992. C-i-C of Armed Forces Vs Public Service of Mid Western region of Nigeria and another recorded in 1974.

And the Case of LagosState Vs Eko Hotels recorded in 2005.

The first respondent like any other citizen of this country had the opportunity to comment on the auction sale before the applicant herein and others expended a very huge sum of money in the acquisition of the license (a colossal sum of N1,378,000) on the basis of the first pay first serve for the issuance of the license for the national frequencies in the 2.3Ghz to acquire the license.

Therefore the first defendant having stood by and allowed the Commission and the users to participate in the auction of the 2.3GHz Wimax spectrum frequencies in accordance with the law and due process, it is too late in the day for the NFMC or even the first respondent who has no powers to do so under the Act to truncate the application of the Chapter 8, Part 1 of the Act dealing with assignment of frequencies.
The respondents are stopped from denying the absolute validity of the auction exercise by which the applicant acquired the right of a slot in the 2.3GHz Wimax frequency spectrum.
Before I conclude, it is pertinent to mention that it is not in dispute that the body of the applicants case is that letter dated 25th May 2009 by the first and second respondents. The argument by the first and second respondent that this is not a proper case for the application for an order is untenable from all the reasons I have advanced above. I hold that Exhibit NCC5 and Exhibit N which is the letter of the 25th May 2009 and Exhibit N which si the decision of same having been exhibited by the applicant and th first and second defendants.
T…………………………………..
Consequently, judgment is hereby entered to the applicant and I hereby grant all the relief sought by the applicant in the case. This is the judgment of this court.
- All the relief sought by the plaintiff are hereby granted, and to the applicant in this case, the respondent should release for the applicant the 2.3GHz license.

Mobitel’s Press Statement on the Court Ruling:
Mobitel Pleased with 2.3GHz License Issuance

The board of directors, management and staff of Mobitel are obviously pleased with the recent release and issuance of the 2.3GHz licence to the company by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The telecommunications company reaffirmed their belief in due process and appreciate that the rule of law guides commercial transactions and regulatory proceedings in Nigeria, especially as Nigeria seeks to attract both domestic and international investments.

The cancellation of Mobitel’s 2.3GHz licence last year delayed the roll out plans. Mobitel is pro-business and eager to contribute to the country’s advancement. The company is therefore gearing up for a commercial launch  of its bouquet of services, which will see Nigerians and residents of Nigeria enjoying the benefits of the most current technology and increased competition in the telecommunications service landscape of Africa’s largest market.

It was issued by and on behalf of the company, by its President/CEO, Mr. Johnson Salako

CTO’s Rural Connectivity Workshop focuses on 4Ps
The Commonwealth African Rural Connectivity Initiative (COMARCI) took another step towards achieving real and felt results in connecting unconnected rural communities in Africa, when a two-day in-country COMARCI workshop for Sierra Leone, hosted by the National Communications Commission of Sierra Leone, was held in Makeni.

With focus on promoting rural access and leveraging ICTs for broader development in Africa, the workshop is coming at a time when the need to establish a workable partnership between the private, public and people has become imperative.

COMARCI was initiated in 2007 as a Pan-Commonwealth response to the perennial challenge of asymmetric connectivity that tends to marginalise rural areas. Having studied the status of Commonwealth Africa in terms of connectivity, policies, regulation and adoption of technology in the context of comparative policies and regulation of five countries - Australia, Canada, India, Malaysia and the US, together with innovative technologies and novel business models, the CTO issued the African Rural Connectivity Report in December 2008.

Realising that to bring connectivity to marginalised communities require a more active role by stakeholders, the CTO is conducting a series of in-country workshops to facilitate the building of Public Private Peoples partnerships. The resulting partnerships are expected to bring new connectivity and new services to rural communities.

The workshop in Makeni was attended by some 300 delegates representing all the ICT operators, some manufacturers, donors and importantly, community representatives, who examined and debated issues impacting rural connectivity. National Communications Commission facilitated these consultations with the help of the CTO and helped in identifying potential partnerships for nurturing. These partnerships will be anchored on local needs as community representatives will be involved in the process from an early stage.

On behalf of President Ernest Bai Koroma, the workshop was officially launched by the Minister of Presidential Affairs Hon Joseph Koroma, who drew the attention of delegates to the need to empower local people and communities through ICT connectivity by using Public Private Peoples partnerships.

Speaking at the opening of the workshop attended by several Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Parliamentarians, operators, civil society organisations and other stakeholders, the Hon Minister of Information and Communications, Mr I. B. Kargbo referred to the importance the Government of Sierra Leone attaches to ICTs.

“Sierra Leone is the second country on the African continent to have its President as the head of the ICT Council, after Rwanda. We understand and appreciate the role played by various stakeholders in improving ICT access and services in order to leverage the full potentials of ICTs for broader development goals. In that sense it is encouraging to note that COMARCI focuses on not only the Public and Private sectors, but has extended the engagement to the Peoples sector as well.”

Adding his words of encouragement, Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, the Chief Executive Officer of the CTO said that “these COMARCI workshops are not an end in themselves. They are rather a means to an end, one that we all have been pursuing for a long time – connecting unconnected rural communities so they can have access to knowledge. Our aim is not simply to connect all but to provide appropriate connectivity for all, without which the vast majority of the people of our member countries will not be able to benefit from the marvels of modern ICTs”.

EVENT

CTO, IT & Telecom Digest partnership raises hope for West Africa
For the first time in the West Africa sub-region, the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation partners with IT & Telecom Digest to set new tones for the sub-region’s industry which promises a future of greater growth

West Africa is home to over a 100 million telephone subscribers and other millions of Internet users. Studies indicate that the sub-region has the potential to reach at least 300 million phone users by the year 2014 with Nigeria leading the pack at over 120 million users. These projections could be child’s play if the sub-region fully come into the potentiality of the mobile broadband in the years ahead.

This growth potential is in spite of the numerous challenges that confront operators in the sub-region with shortage of power supply in the uppermost; and endemic low infrastructure development in the sub-region in the last 40 decades or more.

Taking a more holistic look at the challenges of telecoms development in the African continent, recently while delivering the second African Telecom Hall of Fame Lectures, outgoing Nigerian Communications Commission chief executive, Engr. Ernest Ndukwe says of the infrastructure status in Africa: “Infrastructural facilities such as roads, transportation systems, public power supply, Communications and Information Technologies were inadequate in most of the 52 countries in the continent. Since modern infrastructure is required for sustainable economic growth, the essential infrastructure inadequacy and insufficiency over the centuries may explain the reason why Africa hosts the highest number of the least developed countries of the world, in comparison to other regions.”

While the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) put the number of Internet users in Africa at a mere eight per cent, the continent’s teledensity is put at 42 per cent showing one of the fastest growth in the world.

In spite of the seeming backwardness of Africa and by extension West Africa, the region and the continent holds one of the world’s greatest growth potentials.

It is in recognition of these immense yet untapped potentials in West Africa that the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) is fully persuaded to join forces with Africa's foremost ICT Magazine, IT & Telecom Digest, to organise the 2nd Annual West African ICT Congress 2010 (WAFICT 2010) as a way of further bringing to the global attention the untapped opportunities in the sub-region.

The event, scheduled to take place from June 1-3, 2010 at the ultra-modern Eko Hotel Expo Centre in Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria, will bring together telecom experts, policy makers, regulatory agencies, investors, operators, technology and equipment manufacturers and other key stakeholders from the West African sub-region to deliberate on strategies to promote the development and sustenance of ICTs in West Africa.

The conference, initiated in 2009 by IT & Telecom Digest, will run alongside the West African International Telecommunications and Information Technology exhibition (W.Afri.Tel), now in its 10th year. Following the collaborative agreement between CTO and IT & Telecom Digest, West Africa, a region whose telecom industry has been the centre of attention across the world in the past decade, will benefit from the rich knowledge, expert resources and an array of international speaker line up, rarely seen in the sub-region.

Speaking on the partnership, the Chief Executive of the CTO, Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, who was the keynote speaker at the WAFICT Congress 2009, described the collaboration as timely. He stated that "West Africa, and indeed, many other developing countries in Africa and within the Commonwealth, need the expertise and knowledge that the CTO can bring to the table. Collaborating with IT & Telecom Digest, a magazine that has for the past decade been an effective player in helping promote the growth of the sub-region's telecom sector, will provide additional benefits to the governments, operators, and people alike."

Commenting on the partnership, Editor-in-Chief of IT & Telecom Digest, Mr. Mkpe Abang said, "When we initiated this congress last year, our mission was to bring the best from both worlds, the developed and the developing, which would benefit the ICT sector and thereby our people. Collaborating with the CTO is more than just a dream come true, because the organisation brings with it extensive experience within the telecom/ICT sector, a global footprint and widespread reach in the entire Commonwealth, and a unique database of ICT professionals and expertise that we can tap into for the growth of West Africa as a whole."

The collaboration will allow CTO to live up to its mandate, that of providing socio-economic capacity building services to developing Commonwealth countries and being a key player in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United Nations.
 
Last year, the Congress dwelt on the topic of harnessing new technologies for telecom/ICT growth in the sub-region and it attracted speakers and participants from within and outside the region including experts from Europe and the Americas.

Issues in the 2010 edition has the potential of creating a new wave of growth in the sub-region as participants are expected to dwell more on the future of the gains already made by the sub-region’s operators and what influence the global scene would have on the region, among others.

IT & Telecom Digest commenced publishing in January 2000. In May 2003, the monthly magazine won the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa first prize Award on Reporting ICT Research and Innovation in the first African Information Society Initiative (AISI) Media Awards by the UN ECA.

Besides being official media partner for several events across the world, IT & Telecom Digest is the Sole Nigeria Agent to Exhibition Management Services (Pty) of South Africa, organisers of the West African International Telecommunications and Information Communications Technology Exhibition (W.Afri.Tel). The magazine recently initiated a landmark programme, the African Telecom Hall of Fame Lecture Series as an addition to the series of events and programmes it organises yearly. (www.ittelecomdigest.com); (www.westafricanictcongress.com)
 
With a history dating back to 1901, the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) is an international development partnership between the Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth governments, businesses and civil society organisations. CTO provides the international community with effective means to help bridge the digital divide and achieve social and economic development, by delivering to developing countries unique knowledge-sharing
programmes in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

With its headquarters in London and recipient members based in Europe, the Caribbean, Americas, Africa and Asia-Pacific regions, the CTO has been at the centre of continuous and extensive international communications development funding, co-operation and assistance programmes. CTO's mission is to reduce global poverty through the more efficient utilisation of ICTs, and its development agenda reflects the priorities set in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

 
…As MTN picks choice spot at W.Afri.Tel
For leading corporate organisations, proper planning holds the key to their success at events which promotes their industry; thus nothing is spared to ensure adequate and proper participation in such events. This need to adequately represent what leading Nigeria mobile telecoms services provider, MTN represents must have informed the early move for choice spots at the 10th edition of West Africa's leading Information and Communications Technology (ICT) show, the West African International Telecommunications and Information Technology Exhibition (W.Afri.Tel).

For event organisers, MTN Nigeria in early last month became one of the early birds to book, and secure a prime spot to showcase its products and services at the expo. Thus, the company became the first among Nigeria’s leading ICT operators to make its intention known this is apart from the companies that had already signed on since last year at the close of the ninth edition of W.Afri.Tel.

Scheduled to take place at the $44 million new ultramodern, purpose built Eko Expo Hall, from June 1-3, W.Afri.Tel 2010 will provide a platform for the sub-region's leading mobile, telecom and ICT operators as well as equipment manufacturers, networks solutions providers, computers and computing companies, among others, to put their best and latest products and services on display.

For MTN Nigeria, the company will be showcasing its latest and best in market value added services along with its top of the range products which are at the cutting edge of technologies backed by unequalled service delivery. For a company that has over 27 million subscribers on its network, prime presence is of utmost importance at an event as large as W.Afri.Tel and one where it has displayed strong presence in the past.

For the past decade, W.Afri.Tel exhibition and conference, organised in Lagos by South African based Exhibition Management Services (EMS) in conjunction with its Sole Nigeria Agent, IT & Telecom Digest, has been a yearly technology attraction in Lagos, Nigeria. Now, with the introduction of a brand new $44 million purpose built venue, the 2010 event can co-host the Nigeria ICT Business Solutions Expo (NISE) as well as the West Africa ICT (WAFICT) congress from June 1-3, 2010.

Explaining the special attraction for W.Afri.Tel 2010, the organisers said the new venue consists of 8000m2 floor space, which is substantially larger than the 1370m2 previously available for W.Afri.Tel in the past editions; and can accommodate up to 2000 visitors at any time.

Nigeria has emerged as the African leader in telecommunications services, with an average yearly growth rate of 125 per cent recorded in 2008/2009 and over 75 million active subscribers recorded by year end 2009 for mobile and landline subscriptions. The Telecommunications sector contributed 3.5 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product in 2009, with vast growth potential.

Nigeria also boasts the most internet usage in Africa and being sub-Sahara Africa's most populated country, with 150 million inhabitants, it offers a huge prospect for exhibitors and participants at the three events, and also for less known brands which are making en route into the sub-region. This qualifies Lagos, Nigeria's commercial nerve centre, as the perfect host city for this event.

According to EMS Managing Director, John Thomson: “Feedback from previous years has always been very positive and the 2010 exhibition and conference promises to exceed expectations. Visitors to the exhibition will include a wide variety of players from industries, ranging from banking, manufacturing and building to oil and gas. This, combined with the larger venue, provides a platform for the integration of NISE and the WAFICT Congress with the W.Afri.Tel exhibition.

“Although there has always been an ICT component to the W.Afri.Tel exhibition, this will be the first time that it will be incorporated into the same venue, running alongside each other. This will allow exhibitors to present their solutions either in stand-alone mode or integrated.”

ICTs have been identified as crucial elements for developing countries, by integrating them into the international economy, it therefore makes the global market more accessible. With the changing face of the ICT market and its expansion worldwide, in the last couple of years, the number of new players and technologies has increased significantly.

New advancements include Greening technologies such as power saving desktops, netbooks and economical video display units. Another advancement is the smartphone, which now has increased functionality of both hardware and software; and is becoming more popular even as more and more companies that were hitherto not involved in the mobile phone business are now rolling out products and services in this area.

Multi-Links Telkom distributes wheelchairs in Enugu, Anambra
In the pursuit of its Corporate Social Responsibility investments (CSRi), the management of Multi-Links Telkom has distributed wheelchairs to the physically challenged in Enugu and Onitsha, Anambra State at three separate ceremonies witnessed by the wives of the Governor and Deputy Governor of Enugu State, the representative of the Obi of Onitsha, the Chief Medical Directors (CMDs) of Enugu State University Teaching Hospital, National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu and the General Hospital, Onitsha amongst other dignitaries.

The First Lady of Enugu State, Mrs. Clara Chibuzor Chime commended Multi-Links Telkom for its passionate commitment to enhancing the quality of lives of the less privileged members of the society. She made this remark in Enugu last March during the presentation of Wheelchairs by the management of Multi-Links Telkom to the physically challenged at the Enugu State University Teaching Hospital, Parklane, Enugu.

Accompanied by the Wife of the Deputy Governor, Mrs. Nneka Onyebuchi and a host of other dignitaries, she expressed her joy at the opportunity to witness Multi-Links’ very laudable efforts to restore hope to the physically challenged through the presentations of the wheelchairs provided by Multi-Links Telkom.

According to her, “the need for mobility aids for persons disabled by accident cannot be overemphasised. Some accident victims have been confined to a place due to the absence of mobility aids. However, with the donation of wheelchairs by Multi-Links Telecommunications Ltd, there is no doubt that this group of people will be able to move around, participate in day-to-day activities, and thus, contribute effectively to society notwithstanding their disabilities.”

She also commended the management of Multi-Links Telkom for also providing free mobile phones to each of the beneficiaries of the wheelchairs. “It is therefore laudable that Multi-Links has deemed it necessary to also provide phones for this vulnerable group of people.

“This gesture will definitely go a long way towards improving the lives of the beneficiaries. Armed with their phones and wheelchairs I am sure the sky will be their limit,” she said.

Multi-Links Telkom has continued to provide wheelchairs, mobile phones and free airtime to the beneficiaries of its Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives.

The wife of the Governor urged all the beneficiaries to make use of the facilities provided by Multi-Links Telkom creditably.

The Chief Medical Director of ESUTH called on other corporate organisations to emulate the good spirited initiative of Multi-Links Telkom. According to him, it is not often that organisations remember the downtrodden for such health interventions at the level of investments by Multi-Links Telkom. Similar comments were made by the CMDs of the National Orthopaedic Hospital (Dr C.B.Eze), Enugu and the General Hospital, Onitsha.

In her welcome message, Multi-Links Telkom’s Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Mrs. Ijeoma Abazie said that the company is committed to spreading its goodwill throughout the country where its services are currently available. She said that apart from providing integrated telecommunications solutions, Multi-Links Telkom would identify and seek as much as possible to address areas of need in Nigeria’s communities.

Also speaking at the event, the Chief Operations Officer, Multi-Links Telkom, Dr. Setumo Mohapi stated that the company is committed to helping less privileged members of the society. According to him, Multi-Links Telkom has made it a business decision to always partner with the communities in Nigeria for development. He stressed that Multi-Links Telkom is committed to living its pay off line of Touching Lives by ensuring that the lives of the people in the communities of its operations are positively touched.

It was carnival like at Parklane Hospital as the women in the entourage of the First Lady of Enugu sang, danced and praised the brand for bringing relief to the downtrodden in the state. Some of the beneficiaries could not hold back tears of joy as they were helped to the wheel chairs by the First Lady, relatives, health workers and Multi-Links Telkom staff. Some of them said that Multi-Links Telkom has brought them unquantifiable relief, peace of mind and made them proud owners of their first wheelchairs and in some cases, mobile phones.

From ESUTH, Parklane, to Orthopaedic Enugu and General Hospital, Onitsha it was an overflow of prayers and praises by the beneficiaries who thronged the venues for the free wheelchairs and mobile phones.

ITU comes to the aid of Chile quake and tsunami victims

It must have been a handful coming so early in the year, but global regulator of telecommunications activities, International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in quick response deployed 25 satellite terminals to help restore vital communication links in the aftermath of the massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that hit Chile on 27 February, killing over 700 people and cutting communications links in the city of Concepción and towns along the coast.

The equipment was airlifted out of Geneva last March, and has been deployed on the ground as scheduled. ITU is working with emergency communications partner Iridium Communications Inc. to ensure connectivity for satellite handsets, which were being used by local authorities to facilitate humanitarian assistance to disaster victims. ITU is also striving to source additional equipment from El Salvador and Nicaragua, where it had been deployed last year to help those countries restore communications after their own natural disasters.

“Our hearts go out to the government and the people of Chile, who find themselves having to deal with a tragedy similar to that which so recently devastated Haiti,” said ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré. “We are proud to be a long-standing leader in coordinating the provision of emergency telecommunications and will continue to actively contribute assistance in partnership with ITU membership.”

ITU’s Area Office in Santiago, Chile, is already providing expert on-the-ground support to local authorities, as well as to the local UN Operations Centre, to coordinate the restoration of damaged communication systems and manage spectrum requirements for the wireless systems used by humanitarian agencies.

Sami Al Basheer Al Morshid, Director, ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau, said: “I would like to thank Iridium for supporting ITU on this sad occasion. Communications networks were disrupted by this massive earthquake, hampering rescue operations and the delivery of essential logistics and services. Our assistance will contribute towards the bridging of the current communication gap.”

ITU is providing Iridium satellite phones which can use both satellite and GSM networks, as well as delivering accurate GPS positioning coordinates to aid relief and rescue. ITU covers all expenses relating to transportation, deployment and use of equipment, which will be at the disposal of the authorities in Chile for as long as they require it.

SkyVision secures capacity to expand cellular backhaul service in Africa
Adjusting products and plans to survive the global financial meltdown has become one of the strategies by companies to move on in business and this perhaps influenced the move by one of the Africa region leading IP services provider, SkyVision Global Networks LLC.

A leading global provider of IP connectivity over satellite and fiber optic systems, SkyVision recently announced that it has signed a multi-year, multi-transponder contract for C-band capacity on the recently-launched Intelsat 14 satellite (IS-14), operated by Intelsat S.A., the world’s leading provider of fixed satellite services. The capacity will allow SkyVision to expand its satellite cellular backhaul offerings for the growing cellular services market in Africa.

“With Cellular operators planning service rollouts to more extensive rural areas throughout Africa, SkyVision is experiencing increasing demand for its recently launched satellite cellular backhaul services,” said Mark Gazit, CEO of SkyVision. “We have always been delighted with Intelsat’s superior service and technical reliability. With the powerful transponders on IS-14 we can offer our customers unprecedented backhaul quality to support their cellular networks in regions that were previously unreachable.”

“Our customers use our capacity as an essential component of their network infrastructure to deliver content and connectivity with efficiency and reliability,” said Kurt Riegelman, Intelsat’s Senior Vice President, Global Sales. “SkyVision successfully delivers broadband services in Africa via the Intelsat network. We look forward to expanding our relationship with the company as SkyVision increases its cellular backhaul services throughout one of the world’s fastest-growing telecom regions.”

SkyVision Satellite Cellular Backhaul service enables both greater reach across challenging terrain and more rapid service rollout. Designed for the highest levels of scalability and reliability, SkyVision’s cellular backhaul solution includes optimisation tools that calculate the operator’s current and future needs, to ensure uninterrupted connectivity. Each solution is tailored to and integrated with the operator’s network infrastructure, seamlessly expanding or backing up the current terrestrial network.

SkyVision is a leading global IP telecommunication service provider to emerging markets, offering solutions that combine satellite service platforms with high-capacity fiber optic connections. Via its gateways in Europe, North America and the Middle East, the company provides IP connectivity with access to the global internet backbone, as well as an extensive suite of both customised end-to-end solutions and industry-standard services. With a connectivity network spanning 100 countries, SkyVision’s solutions combine global reach with active local presence and support. SkyVision’s customers include incumbent telecoms, ISPs, cellular operators, global and local enterprises, government entities and NGOs.

Intelsat is the leading provider of fixed satellite services worldwide. For over 45 years, Intelsat has been delivering information and entertainment for many of the world’s leading media and network companies, multinational corporations, Internet service providers and governmental agencies. Intelsat’s satellite, teleport and fiber infrastructure is unmatched in the industry, setting the standard for transmissions of video, data and voice services. From the globalisation of content and the proliferation of HD, to the expansion of cellular networks and broadband access, with Intelsat, advanced communications anywhere in the world are closer, by far.

India’s BSNL to support CTO programmes
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL), India’s leading fixed-line telecommunications company, has agreed to make available its technical and human resources to support the CTO’s capacity building programmes. With both organisations focused on bridging the digital divide through improved ICT connectivity in emerging markets, this partnership will help enhance the CTO’s delivery of cost-effective access to ICT knowledge by mid to high-level professionals in its member countries. Under the agreement, BSNL staff will be deployed globally by the CTO to offer various forms of training and technical assistance to CTO member institutions upon their request.

The CTO’s PDT has delivered over 3,600 bilateral technical cooperation projects and training workshops to benefit more than 30,000 ICT professionals in some thirty countries in the Asia-Pacific, African, Mediterranean and the Caribbean regions. Operating as a corporate membership programme, it is a flexible and effective means for CTO member entities to source and acquire high-value expertise from a wider group of countries and organisations.

Membership of the PDT is open to network operators, equipment manufacturers, communications regulatory, government agencies as well as professional service firms in the Commonwealth and other countries. As the programme was designed as a partnership for collaboration between its members, it provides a range of annual in-house bespoke training and consulting programmes, a regional programme of workshops and seminars led by industry experts, and an international programme of high-level conferences focused on key developments in ICTs.

Commenting on the collaboration, the CTO’s CEO, Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, said, “Partnerships are key to the development of the ICT sector in developing countries.  BSNL is one of the world's leading telecommunications companies and their knowledge and technical know-how will enable us to transfer the latest innovations in ICT to human capital development in Commonwealth countries. We are truly pleased to welcome BSNL to our network of Sector Members, and expect that our membership network of thousands of ICT professionals within the Commonwealth will benefit tremendously by this new important addition from India.”

Expressing his desire and commitment for the empowerment of developing countries through capacity building in the ICT sector, BSNL’s Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Kuldeep Goyal was enthusiastic about BSNL playing a crucial role in this area through this alliance with the CTO.

“Sharing BSNL’s long-term expertise in the ICT sector, and with its presence at the center of the world’s most dynamic telecom market, this collaboration brings in great opportunities for other players”, he said. The BSNL and CTO partnership would go a long way in helping telecom experts in developing countries to learn and appreciate the latest developments in the sector, as these unfold in the Indian telecom market. He emphasised that the extensive training infrastructure of BSNL puts it into a unique position as compared to any other telecom operator, by helping in the dissemination of telecom expertise for capacity enhancement across global boundaries.

As a leader and the only service provider in India that is dominantly focused to bettering the telecom facilities in rural India, BNSL provides an array of telecommunications services to remote regions of the Indian sub-continent. With a fixed phone subscription of 35.1 million customers, the company covers 85 per cent share of the subscriber base and 92 percent share in revenue terms. The company has vast experience in planning, installation, network integration and maintenance of switching and transmission networks and also has a world class ISO 9000 certified telecom training institute.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is a state-owned telecommunications company in India. BSNL is the sixth largest cellular service provider, with over 57.22 million customers (as of December 2009) and the largest land line telephone provider in India. Formed in October 2000, BSNL  provides comprehensive range of telecom services in India, including Wireline, CDMA mobile, GSM Mobile, Internet, Broadband, Carrier service, MPLS-VPN, VSAT, VoIP services, IN Services, etc.

BSNL has installed Quality Telecom Network in the country and is now focusing on expanding the network by introducing new telecom services with ICT applications in villages. Today, it has about 46 million line basic telephone capacity, eight million WLL capacity, 52 Million GSM Capacity, more than 38302 fixed exchanges, 46565 BTS, 3895 Node B ( 3G BTS), 287 Satellite Stations, 614755 Rkm of OFC Cable, 50430 Rkm of Microwave Network connecting 602 Districts, 7330 cities/towns and 5.6 Lakhs villages.

With a history dating back to 1901, the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) is an international development partnership between the Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth governments, businesses and civil society organisations. CTO provides the international community with effective means to help bridge the digital divide and achieve social and economic development, by delivering to developing countries unique knowledge-sharing programmes in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

With its headquarters in London and recipient members based in Europe, the Caribbean, Americas, Africa and Asia-Pacific regions, the CTO has been at the centre of continuous and extensive international communications development funding, co-operation and assistance programmes. CTO’s mission is to reduce global poverty through the more efficient utilisation of ICTs, and its development agenda reflects the priorities set in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

ITU insists enlightened ICT regulation can drive growth
While demand for information and communication (ICT) services like mobile telephony and broadband Internet remains strong, the global economic crisis is jeopardising ongoing investment in network rollouts and technology upgrades, a new ITU report finds.
The 10th edition of Trends in Telecommunication Reform, ITU’s flagship annual report on the state of ICT regulation worldwide, argues that enlightened ICT regulation can effectively play the role of a ‘stimulus plan’, driving network investment, growth and development. The report draws on the discussions held during ITU’s annual Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR), which was held last November in Beirut, Lebanon and welcomed over 600 regulators from around the world.
The economic crisis has served as a wake-up call on the importance of effective regulation and raised questions about the role of government and the laissez-faire approach that had prevailed — especially in the financial sector. Government and industry are now being forced to reassess their roles and the need for state intervention to ensure, among other things, the development of a new ‘broadband economy’.
ITU argues that regulators and policymakers can proactively address the risk of under-investment in tomorrow’s networks through a two-pronged approach that looks at how governments lend money to the private sector through Public-Private Partnerships, ICT stimulus plans and other funding programmes; and how effective regulatory strategies and policies — both financial and non-financial — can play their part in maintaining the momentum. But to be effective, these strategies must be underpinned by strong regulatory institutions and transparent policies and procedures — the bedrocks of effective regulation.
"With technological convergence now blurring the lines between telephony, broadcasting, and online services, ICT regulators play a key role in fostering ongoing innovation and competition, enabling operators to adopt the latest, most powerful technologies, and ensuring consumers enjoy the very best range of services at the lowest possible prices," said ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré.
The ITU report maintains that, regardless of changes in investment appetite, negative capital market conditions, and financial crises, the size of the investor universe and the diversity of investor objectives will ensure that ICT sector investment remains robust and varied.
“Although the global ICT industry has seen reduced sales in equipment and manufacturing, lower demand and curtailed investment, the sector confronted the crisis more successfully than did many other sectors,” said Sami Al Basheer Al Morshid, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau. “Certain markets — namely mobile cellular and Internet — have been buoyant. And because of the business opportunities they represent, developing countries remain attractive — especially those that have embarked on regulatory reform initiatives. But the answers to many of the complex regulatory questions now facing the industry are still far from clear — which is why the GSR has become such a key global event.”
Mobile growth continued unabated in 2009, with global mobile subscriptions expected to reach five billion in 2010. At the same time, mobile broadband subscriptions topped 600 million, having overtaken fixed broadband subscriptions in 2008, highlighting the huge potential for the mobile broadband Internet industry. The number of Internet users also grew steadily, with some 1.8 billion users worldwide by the end of 2009.
The creation of independent ICT regulators has been one of the main building blocks of regulatory reform. The number of separate telecom/ICT regulatory authorities in markets around the world increased from just 12 in 1990 to 153 at the end of 2009. Regulators have gradually opened fixed line services to competition, so that at end 2009 65 per cent of countries now have competitive markets for basic fixed-line services, and 90 per cent for mobile cellular services. In addition, 124 national fixed-line incumbents have been privatised along the way.
New challenges in a converging world
The report also confirms that converged technologies are boosting competition. Voice over IP (VoIP) services allow broadband, cable modem and wireless service providers to compete directly with one another, as well as promoting competition by enabling new service providers to compete without owning their own network infrastructure.

But changes in technologies and market conditions also raise new consumer protection issues. From a consumer’s perspective, more competition may lead to a bombardment of marketing material, masquerading as information. This is especially the case where access to high-speed broadband connections makes consumers easily accessible, day and night, as advertising targets.
In the ‘always-on’ environment, consumers may also be unaware of how to protect themselves and their families from harmful or offensive content. Meeting the needs of the connected consumer therefore needs to look at potential gaps in current regulatory practices that should be addressed to protect consumers more fully.
This year’s edition of Trends in Telecommunication Reform comprises ten chapters focusing on new market expectations, and identifying the different regulatory approaches taken around the world to stimulate ICT.

Me& My Phone

The busy company executive is turning out to be a mobile office; whether in the air, on the land or at sea, contact with the office and the home must be maintained. MRS. UCHE BIOSA is the head of Human Relation and Administration of Pension Alliance Limited (PAL), one of the pensions administrators in Nigeria, she is always on the move but she has to strike a balance between the home front and the office. What mobile phones make this possible for the very busy executive? We caught up with her recently and these are her preferred phones. Excerpts:

Question: Madam, what make of phones do you use?
Answer: I use the BlackBerry Bold and Sony Ericsson P990i.
Has it always been these two or there were others before them?
Not exactly; before now, I used to be in love with Nokia. Even though I have replaced my old Nokia with another one but I have discovered that the keypads are stiffer compared with, say the Blackberry bold and I no longer fancy it as such. But again, the Blackberry, which is my favourite comes with the company’s contract arrangement and that makes it my partner, all the time.

What features do you use most on the Blackberry, apart from regular phone calls?
I use it a lot for my emails essentially because of the standard keyboard which makes it quite easy to use, and sometimes I use it for MMS. Apart from these, I hardly make effort to discover new things on it.

What influences your choice of phones to buy?
I like strong and fairly big phones. I detest tiny keys on a phone.

If you were to lose any of the phones, what would you miss most about them?
That would be the contact list because I don’t have back-up for them. But, for the Blackberry bold, I delete my emails on the handheld but I am still left with those in the inbox.

STC selects Alcatel-Lucent for LTE trial in Saudi Arabia
After much talk about the appropriate time for its launch, LTE has finally entered the market and the excitement is already catching on with some operators and only recently, Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) announced that it has been selected by STC (Saudi Telecom Company), the main telecommunications carrier in Saudi Arabia, to conduct an end-to-end Long Term Evolution (LTE) trial, to begin in the second half of 2010. This trial will enable STC to test the performance of LTE-based services and assess the related business models.

Reacting to the development, Dr. Zeyad Al-Otaibi, STC’s vice president Networks said: “As a major operator, STC is committed to providing its customers superior service. It is clear to us that LTE has evolved to being more than just a promising technology.”

He is optimistic of the outcome of the exercise pointing out that, “As STC and Alcatel-Lucent are both on the edge of innovation, we are confident that this trial will help us fulfill our customers’ needs for innovative mobile broadband services.”

Alcatel-Lucent will be leveraging its industry-leading LTE expertise to provide an end-to-end integrated solution including LTE base stations (eNodeBs), the Evolved Packet Core (EPC), IP service routing network elements as well as operation, administration and maintenance (OAM) systems. Alcatel-Lucent will also provide a range of professional services including project management, planning, installation, integration and commissioning, and testing.

“This trial is a major step in the adoption of LTE technology in the Middle-East. STC can count on our technical leadership and transformation expertise to unleash LTE’s full business potential,” said Amr El Leithy, head of Alcatel-Lucent’s activities in Africa and the Middle East. “We consider this agreement to be a strong endorsement of Alcatel-Lucent’s innovation and forward-looking strategy in the area of mobile broadband solutions and efficient high-performance IP-based network.”

Alcatel-Lucent’s LTE solution and services are leveraged in the majority of LTE projects being pursued by Tier 1 operators around the globe, including in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Orange UK gets three new MVNO partners
Orange’s partnership with pan European Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE) Transatel has borne its first fruit. The carrier recently said it has secured three MVNO deals in the UK, with Unicom, Catalyst and Axis Telecom.

UK mobile operator Orange partnered with Transatel at the end of 2009, targeting the SME market through telecom resellers and community-based brands looking to introduce mobile services.  The platform caters to both prepaid and postpaid segments and claims to be able to bring new MVNO brands to the Orange network in just six weeks.

The three new MVNO’s are expected to launch in the first half of this year. Unicom, the fixed line service provider, will launch as a B2B MVNO selling mobile services, initially to its existing base of some 80,000 customers, and will provide billing for both fixed and mobile services on the same invoice. Catalyst will target niche groups such as students, ethnic minorities and SMEs. And Axis Telecom will provide a mobile offering to its current customer base of over 14,000 businesses and residential customers through a number of SIM only deals.

Marc Overton, vice president of wholesale, business development and partnerships at Orange UK, said: “Orange has very ambitious plans to become the network partner of choice for new and existing MVNOs. This latest news shows that we are well on our way to achieving this and our ambition to have twenty new MVNO’s on the Orange network by the end of the year.

... Backs Intel, Nokia Linux platform
Mobile operator Orange got behind the Nokia-Intel founded Linux initiative MeeGo recently, anticipating the creation of a new channel for the delivery of consumer multimedia services.

MeeGo was unveiled at Barcelona last February as a merger of Intel and Nokia’s respective Linux initiatives, to create a software platform spanning a range of consumer electronics from mobile phones to netbooks.

Intel is contributing its Moblin platform, which will be merged with Nokia’s Maemo platform and the Nokia-owned cross platform application environment, Qt.

With the operator’s backing, Intel and Orange will work to increase the availability of Orange Signature Services, such as Orange TV and Orange Maps, to be supported by the MeeGo and Intel Atom environment.

“Seventy-five per cent of our customer base has yet to embrace the mobile internet. With the increasing number of phones and operating systems for customers to choose from, it is our role to make sure our customer’s journey into this richer mobile multimedia environment is simple and easy,” said Yves Maitre, SVP of devices at Orange. “Our collaboration with Intel on the MeeGo software platform will not only ensure a broader choice in terms of screens and devices, but that customers continue to benefit from a consistent user experience delivered through Orange Signature services, including a customised home-screen they trust and recognise, the highest quality network and secure and simplified billing.”

The companies aim to establish a common software framework across multiple devices, ranging from smartphones and tablets to netbooks. An ambitious initiative, but as Ovum analyst Tony Cripps at Barcelona, the real win is in tying developers to the MeeGo platform.

“Turning MeeGo into a mainstream platform for CE will be no mean achievement in its own right. However, it will ultimately be largely meaningless how many devices it is deployed on if the consistency provided by the underlying OS is not matched by its ability to provide a true multi-screen application platform for developers.
“For that to happen, several things need to occur. First, Nokia needs to prove that Qt development really can scale across different categories of device. Second, it needs to prove the benefits of that scalability to developers. Third, it needs to persuade developers that Qt is a better cross-platform, cross-device application and UX platform than alternatives such as Adobe Flash/AIR, Microsoft Silverlight and HTML5,” Cripps said.

But given that Qt’s rivals – like Microsoft Foundation Class and wxWidgets - are either already widely deployed or likely to become more so and already have sizable developer communities, MeeGo may have its work cut out for it.

Ofcom to investigate net neutrality
The chief of UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has said the authority will investigate web traffic control measures later this year as the net neutrality debate rumbles on.

Ed Richards, who gave a keynote speech at the Cable Congress conference in Brussels recently, said that in light of Europe’s move to adopt region-wide telecoms legislation, national regulators needed to assess the ‘openness’ of the internet and decide whether action needed to be taken to preserve it.

Traffic management measures are now commonly used by service providers to prevent bandwidth
hogging by heavy users of services. But there is great concern that bandwidth throttling could be used ant competitively to restrict rival services.

Richards also said that service providers need to be more transparent in explaining what measures they use to their customers.

UK ISP Virgin Media, which is a vocal opponent of net neutrality (in fact CEO Neil Berkett once referred to the concept of net neutrality as “a load of bollocks”) just recently implemented web traffic management software from Zeus to ensure its customers receive a decent web experience even during spikes in demand.

Alex Brown, senior product manager for internet products at Virgin Media, said: “We wanted to offer customers better email and web services but at the same time ensure we can deliver them without impacting service levels or compromising security. Since we are dealing with massive volumes of traffic, reliability and performance is of paramount importance.”

When asked if Virgin was introducing throttling – one of the functions of the Zeus implementation – by stealth, we received no reply.

Google, as one of the world’s biggest generators of web traffic, often pops up in conversations about net neutrality, and Vodafone and Telefonica have recently made statements that suggest they are thinking of charging search engines to use their networks.

Both Telefonica CEO Cesar Alierta and Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao have said that they are thinking about charging Google and other search engines to use their networks.

Alierta implied that it was unfair that search engines were using mobile bandwidth for free while Telefonica’s operations provided the network, product sales, customer care, installation and maintenance for them.

Alierta said that he was sure this situation would change and that search-engine companies would need to start paying for some of the infrastructure, possibly through the introduction of monthly fees in accordance with the amount of data generated by each site. Colao used his keynote speech at Mobile World Congress to say that search engines such as Google and Yahoo should pay for preferential access to the company’s networks.

However, Informa analyst Paul Lambert asserts that for now, the arguments are unsound, and in strategic terms they point to a misreading by the operators of the balance of power between Google and them.
“Why? Let’s take the “wrong in principle” argument first: Why should Google pay operators to allow mobile users to access its services? And why should Google – but not the BBC, Spotify, The New York Times, Facebook, HSBC or any other content/service provider – be required to pay operators for access to networks?” Lambert said.

“At the moment, Vodafone and Telefonica need the big search engines more than these companies need them. People expect to use Google and other popular Web sites on their mobile phones. The balance of power lies with Google and co., not any individual mobile operator. Unless Vodafone and Telefonica actually block Google and other Web sites from their networks, the majority of their customers will find a way to use them, because that’s exactly why they signed up to data plans in the first place – to use these Web sites while on the go.”

Starhome Awarded European Patent for Mobile Home Short Code
Starhome, the leading provider and acknowledged driving force of roaming services for mobile network operators, recently announced that it has received a long-awaited patent for its Home Short Code solution.

In 1999, Starhome applied for a patent for the Home Short Code solution, one of the first and most basic solutions of the VHE (Virtual Home Environment) concept. The Home Short Code is a seamless, feature-rich solution that converts unrecognised home short codes into valid international formatted numbers and provides the mobile operator with a basis to increase its revenue potential from both the inbound and outbound roaming markets. In addition, the Starhome Home Short Code™ solution supports CLI delivery for both inbound and outbound roamers and is not bound to a specific international carrier.

Shai Ophir, Starhome’s Intellectual Property Manager added: “It has taken 10 years for Starhome to receive a patent for the Home Short Code solution. The prolonged process involved extensive examination before the patent could be granted.”

More than 100 of Starhome’s customers have already deployed the Home Short Code solution that allows both inbound and outbound roamers seamless access their home VAS (Value Added Services). Mobile network operators can quickly expand their earning potential by continuing to serve their subscribers whenever and wherever they travel and also by attracting inbound travellers for the duration of their visits and encouraging the use of further Value Added Services and international airtime.

When an inbound international traveller dials a short code that has not been defined as a valid local short code in the mobile operator’s MSC (mobile switching centre), the call is transferred to the visited Starhome IntelliGate platform for processing. The IntelliGate analyses the validity of the short code in relation to the caller’s home country and HPMN (Home Public Mobile Network) and with respect to the roaming network short codes and dialling rules. Finally the IntelliGate converts the dialled short code into an internationally formatted number and routes it back to the visited network MSC.

The Home Short Code is a complete service that supports postpaid and prepaid market segments for both CAMEL and Non CAMEL. The solution can also be used for one roaming segment only.

Starhome is a field proven leader in roaming whose cumulative knowledge and expertise has made it the roaming partner of choice for mobile operators. Since its establishment in 1999, Starhome manages and monitors over 900 roaming solutions for over 178 mobile operators in 118 countries worldwide.

Starhome’s solutions address all key roaming requirements and specifically target three distinct areas of activity at the mobile operator. For Retail, Starhome offers seamless solutions to stimulate and increase roaming traffic and usability. For Wholesale, our powerful solutions enable teams to meet their wholesale targets and IOT discount agreements. For Operations, our mission-critical solutions optimise network efficiency and reduce cost of ownership.

Toure commends IT & Telecom Digest at 10, Launches Mobile Africa

For Africa’s foremost ICT magazine, IT & Telecom Digest, commendation has come from the highest level of the telecom world as it celebrates its tenth year of unmatched and sustained reportage of activities, operations and policy issues in the continent.

The Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Dr. Hamadoun Toure who commended the magazine, said he was pleased by the pioneering and informative role that IT & Telecom Digest has been playing by keeping events in the telecom sector in Africa and Nigeria in particular, on the front burner for global attention.

“I like to commend you for this quality magazine that you have been producing with such high standard, informative and incisive reports and articles, which consistently tell the world about potentials, opportunities and operations in the ICT sector in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general,” Dr. Toure said when he received the Editor-in-Chief of IT & Telecom Digest, Mr. Mkpe Abang, in audience at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Spain.

It was double honour for the publication as Dr. Toure also launched Mobile Africa newspaper, the new publication recently introduced by the magazine.

“I am proud of your work and I am especially excited that you have even now introduced this newspaper specifically for mobile in Africa; it shows that you are moving with the times, and sometimes even ahead of the events. I do wish you well,” Dr. Toure further stated.

Mobile Africa newspaper, according to Abang, will focus “just on mobile; from mobile telephony to mobile internet, value added services on mobile telephony, and so on. It will also focus on what mobile operators are doing, what is in vogue, the fashion in mobile telephony, the youth and mobile phones, among other areas,” he added, saying the newspaper will also devote special attention to impact of mobile telephone on youths in tertiary institutions, because “these are the leaders of tomorrow.”

According to Abang, Mobile Africa starts out as a bi-weekly; it will however quickly stabilise as a weekly because, as he put it “mobile deserves special attention because of what it has done in our lives as a nation and as a continent.”

If the economic, socio-political and private lives as well as the business landscape of Nigeria and Africa have changed in the last one decade, Abang added, “the credit goes to mobile telephony, its operators and the regulators who have ensured that Africans are not denied the special freedom and the limitless life changing opportunities that mobile telephony brings to a people; and which it has brought to Nigeria and Africa.”

Wilson’s Café
Let’s spread the ‘revolution’ – or should we?

It came as a shock to many South Africans when Traditional Affairs and Cooperative Governance Minister, Mr. Sicelo Shiceka, revealed last month that although the lackluster performance of many municipalities had several causes, one little known cause stood out for him as particularly worrisome.

“Over 280 (associations of) ratepayers,” he said, systematically undermined their municipal governments by not paying their taxes to government as required by law. They instead put such money in trust accounts, the Minister revealed.

He argued that by withholding their taxes, the ratepayers associations had unwittingly set themselves up as “a parallel government.”

The “shocking” aspect of this revelation was not the proliferation of “ratepayers associations” in recent years in South Africa, but the particular form of agency exercised by this segment of civil society to extract “serious governance” from municipal authorities. I return to this later.

There are hundreds of “ratepayers associations” in South Africa, a country where civic organisations and the media play a very strong role in influencing government and public discourse. These are associations of mainly affluent or middle-class individuals – but particularly owners of land or landed property in the country’s leafy suburbs and countryside estates.

Although the Minister describes the ratepayers associations as “unfortunately… white organisations,” their constitutions generally do not have racially exclusive clauses. Membership is open to owners of “registered” land and/or landed property within defined jurisdictions, or people processing property purchase following the signing of a deed. Long-term tenants (those holding leases of one year and above, for example) were equally free to become members.

The “whiteness” of the associations is to a very large extent “accidental”: most residents in South Africa’s “first world” locales continue to be white (clearly a throwback to the defunct era of segregated human ecologies). However, almost all South African suburbs today are mixed-race settlements.

But let’s not digress into demography. Let’s keep our focus on the debates about how “withholding taxes instead of paying them to government” could impact on the performance of municipal governance. Let’s also factor in the angle of whether this form of citizen “revolution” is worth replicating in countries where government at all levels is about everything but governing.

Besides remaining true to the capitalist imperative of doing whatever it takes to keep house and land prices high, ratepayers associations in South Africa are driven by imperatives that are in every sense mundane and entirely within the mandate of local government.

Their “activism”, at least going by the constitution of one such association in the Cape Town area, focuses on the provision, maintenance, and improvement of “water supply, electricity, health services, roads, streets, open spaces, parking grounds, playing fields, sporting amenities, (and) camping and picnicking sites.”

Other areas of focus include the “prevention and fighting of bush fires…, control of beaches…, and enforcement of applicable local laws and regulations.”

The associations’ rationalisation of society-state relations puts all this in perspective: the relationship between the state and citizens is simply a “contract”. The core obligation of local government is to provide, among other things, the services enumerated above, while the “rate-payer” must ensure timeous payment of his or her rate to government.

Now what happens when the state fails in its obligation?

Here lies the crux of the emerging suburban citizen “revolution” in South Africa.

Governance-related civic protests (very often quite violent) in black townships and informal settlements are all too familiar and have led the South African government (national, provincial and local) into accepting the fact that "anger has been boiling up across the land”.

Everywhere these days, there is general tardiness in the collection of municipal refuse, there are glaring signs of urban decay especially in inner city areas (a problem that has been exacerbated by rural-urban, and conflict-triggered inter-African migration), and there is uncontrolled street trading and begging at traffic lights. Potholes are not filled in time, and some towns have become shadows of their former selves. Rural-urban migration in a country where home ownership (rather than rental accommodation) is the norm, has led to unprecedented growth in the number of informal settlements.

Despite remaining a stunningly beautiful and well-run African country – a jewel in Africa’s crown, as tourists like to refer to it - post-Apartheid South Africa faces socio-economic and ecological challenges that could seriously undermine its pride on these very parameters.

Suburban ratepayer “activism” is ostensibly about preventing the rot from spreading into areas where it was hitherto unknown.

Many suburbs and towns (represented by their ratepayers associations, or the National Taxpayers Union) have already declared formal “disputes” with their municipal governments. In some cases, the disputes have already degenerated into the withholding of rates, due to alleged inability of government to satisfactorily perform the duties enumerated earlier.

Government insists that no citizen or citizen collective should withhold taxes, pay taxes into trust accounts, or hire private contractors to “play the role of government”.

As Minister Shiceka puts it: “if you are unhappy about potholes, about lack of service delivery, let us discuss that. That is what municipal service turnaround is all about. It must be driven by all the people."

Some commentators, however, believe that withholding taxes and hiring private providers to render services, though illegal and politically insensitive, is the middle class equivalent of burning tyres on the streets, burning down government buildings and cars, or taking municipal officials hostage. Each is a distinct form of protest – and each is about getting government to wake up to its role.  Whichever method works best for a given social class and sends the strongest message to government should be used – so the argument goes.

Previously in this column, we have argued that Africa is gradually, but surely, moving away from the era of “government power”, to the era of “the power of the governed”.  We argued that “governance successes and failures must be theorised in terms of both the “inability to govern effectively” and the inability to “demand” effective governance” (“Whoever diggeth a pit…” September 2009).
 
The ability to “demand effective governance” will, without doubt, take different forms in different African communities. One only hopes that the “ability to govern effectively” will dawn before illegality and criminality replace genuine citizen “activism.”

Samsung makes globally available HD 3D LED TV and offers Dreamworks’ Shrek collection in 3D

First available offerings include LED TVs, Blu-ray Players and 3D Active Glasses
First-Ever Release of Most Successful Animated Film Series of All Time in 3D From DreamWorks Animation

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a market leader and award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, recently made another stride toward redefining the home entertainment experience by officially announcing the world’s first-available Full HD 3D LED TV and full lineup of 3D home entertainment products to consumers worldwide.  Samsung also announced the expansion of its strategic alliance with DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. (Nasdaq: DWA) to feature an exclusive offering of the Company’s beloved Shrek film series – which to date has grossed over $2 billion in worldwide box office – in its entirety in 3D for the first time ever.

To make 3D TV more accessible for consumers globally, Samsung unveiled a promotional programme where everyone who purchases a 2010 Samsung 3D TV and 3D Blu-ray Player or Home Theater System will receive a 3D starter kit that includes two pairs of Samsung 3D active glasses and a first time, feature-length 3D Blu-ray version of DreamWorks Animation’s 2009 release, Monsters vs. Aliens (exclusive to Samsung products).

Additionally, during the second half of 2010, the most successful animated film franchise of all time – DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek film series – will be available in 3D Blu-ray for Samsung home solutions.

“Samsung has been the number one company in the global TV market for four straight years, and we remain committed to leading the market by deploying new categories of entertainment like Full HD 3D LED TVs, on which consumers around the world will be able to enjoy their favourite content, including DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek franchise, in their homes,” said Boo-Keun Yoon, President of Visual Display Business Unit at Samsung Electronics. “With the widest range of options for 3D home solutions ever, Samsung continues to lead the home entertainment industry by liberating 2D content to 3D, and creating new, immersive experiences for consumers.”

“It is an incredibly exciting time for the industry at large, as we continue to see the proliferation of 3D in theaters globally at unprecedented rates and now – thanks to Samsung’s innovation leading the charge – the capability to deliver a truly premium 3D experience for consumers in their homes. We are thrilled to be able to offer audiences the exciting opportunity to bring the world and characters of all of our Shrek movies home with them this year in 3D,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, Chief Executive Officer of DreamWorks Animation.

The news was delivered at Samsung’s Full HD 3D LED TV global launch press conference held in New York City, one of several global events created by the company to invite influencers and consumers to enjoy all the capabilities of Samsung’s 3D technology leadership.

Global Product Availability
Samsung will launch the broadest line of 3D home entertainment products in 2010. Its 3D TV lineup includes the LED 7000/8000/9000 Series, LCD 750 Series, and the Plasma 7000/8000 Series.  Available from last month are the 3D capable 46” and 55” LED C7000, with the remaining 3D TVs rolling out over the next several months.  Samsung is delivering 3D the way it was meant to be watched, combining the Samsung BD-C6900 3D Blu-ray player or the Samsung HT-C6930W 3D Blu-ray integrated home theater system, stylish 3D active glasses and movie in Blu-ray 3D.  The result: Full HD with lifelike depth and colour clarity at home. 

First to Market Full HD 3D LED TV Raises Bar for TV Excellence
This year’s premium LED TV models, the C7000, C8000 and C9000, feature Samsung’s Real240Hz™ refresh rate technology and Samsung’s proprietary built-in 3D processor that is compatible with major 3D format standards.  Samsung’s 3D technology and a faster panel optimised for 3D work together to deliver an immersive viewing experience.  When not in the 3D mode, you’re back to watching one of the best performing HDTVs on the market with the push of a button. 

The LED TVs come with Internet@TV connectivity which includes the world’s first HDTV app store, Samsung Apps, allowing users to download and view applications on their TV screens. The 3D LED TVs are also the highest performing and most eco-conscious HDTV products Samsung has ever released, all exceeding the more stringent EnergyStar 4.0 guidelines.

Taking the Wonder of 3D to people’s home
In the US, Samsung is launching a holistic marketing campaign under the name “Dedicated to Wonder,” a high-profile marketing effort that includes television advertising and the first 3D Cinema advertising (Spot?) for a consumer electronics brand.  Samsung assembled an elite production crew, including the Oscar-winning director of photography, Mauro Fiore, and is bringing the wonder of the 3D experience to life with this new marketing campaign.  New commercials began hitting the air last month, highlighting Samsung’s 3D technology and the wonder it brings to the home entertainment experience. 

Samsung’s in-store display plan is also key to exposing consumers to the technology and educating them on the value of 3D.  Samsung’s internal research shows that while awareness of 3D technology is high, less than a third of consumers have had any experience with it.  For this reason, Samsung is strengthening marketing activities in an effort to make it easier for consumers to experience 3D.  In 2010, consumers can expect to experience this immersive experience in more than 5,000 stores across the nation. Displays will start being deployed later in the month. 

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2008 consolidated sales of US$96 billion. Employing approximately 164,600 people in 179 offices across 61 countries, the company consists of seven independently operated business units: Visual Display, Mobile Communications, Telecommunication Systems, Digital Appliances, IT Solutions, Semiconductor and LCD. Recognised as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs.

DreamWorks Animation creates high-quality entertainment, including CG animated feature films, television specials and series, live entertainment properties and online virtual worlds, meant for audiences around the world. The Company has world-class creative talent, a strong and experienced management team and advanced filmmaking technology and techniques.

DreamWorks Animation has been named one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” by FORTUNE Magazine for two consecutive years. In 2010, DreamWorks Animation ranks #6 on the list. All of DreamWorks Animation’s feature films are now being produced in 3D. The Company has theatrically released a total of 18 animated feature films, including the franchise properties, Shrek, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda. DreamWorks Animation’s three feature film releases in 2010 are How to Train Your Dragon, Shrek Forever After and Megamind.

AUTOMOBILE

Behold! The networked cars
The transformation is sporadic but the cars are pleasant to manoeuvre. Auto users have not had it so good as more cars are the reality of the once upon a time world of fiction on wheel.

A few years back, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) promotional for the 2010 Annual Geneva Motor Show could have passed for another imagination of a master scriptwriter from the movie industry represented by Hollywood.

It announces with an air of authority that very soon, “the vehicles on our roads will soon be as connected as our homes.” This speaks of the cars for the future and their relationship with technologies that plans to seamlessly link future vehicles with available communications infrastructure, “enabling vehicles to talk to road systems and one another. While giving us a greater safety and control over our driving environment,” and by these conducts, humans are able to enhance green technologies, reduce traffic in cities where several man hours are lost to traffic jams and for environmentalists, it would be the best opportunity to reduce emissions in cities.

A new synergy that has already been seen in certain cars, there is no doubt that auto makers are experimenting on developing a smooth connection between office, home and recreational place with the vehicle. Just as mobile technology is dictating the pace in the telecommunications industry forging an alliance with other forms of technologies, the vehicle is not to be left out in the new marriage.

Part of the future that automakers have to offer is electric cars where the organisers of the Geneva vehicle show envisages that communications technology is most likely to emerge as a facilitator for a more efficient realization of the features of the new less energy consuming vehicle.

Among the key areas of development in this new coalition is the e-call car which tends to seek solution to the incessant cases of crash victims who are unable to call for help. “Systems in development automatically notify emergency services when an airbag is activated, speeding emergency response times and increasing survival rates,” according to the ITU.

Second is the numerous hazards that weather and other natural causes throw up for road users, especially in countries and continents where these could be on the extreme. These include: “Ice, snow, diesel spill or an accident.” According to the ITU, “new technology will communicate this to surrounding vehicles so that they can take the necessary action.”

Perhaps most dramatic, if it becomes embedded in cars will be the reasonability of cars in clumsy situations like finding space to park a vehicle. According to the show, “in the future, cars will be directed to empty parking slots, saving time and cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The same technology could be used to create more efficient traffic flow on national highways,” among other things that these vehicles can do to ease life of its users.
Geneva based ITU, ISO and IEC host the annual Fully Networked Car@ Geneva Motor Show, bringing the developers of these technologies together with car manufacturers to discuss how best to bring them to market. The event hosts cutting edge technologies, high-level discussions
and technical sessions on issues such as international standardisation.

…As Kia opens $1 billion auto plant in USA
With an estimated 500 dignitaries coming together to witness a landmark event, world leading auto manufacturer, Kia could not have wished more asits officials were joined by these high profile guests from the State of Georgia, local city and county officials to celebrate the official grand opening of Kia's first-ever U.S. automobile manufacturing plant in West Point, Georgia with capacity to produce 300,000 cars annually for the North American and global markets.

The ceremony which was attended by Chairman of the Kia Automotive Group Mong-Koo Chung; Group President and CEO of KMMG and Kia Motors America (KMA) Byung-Mo Ahn;
Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue; and a number of other high-ranking Korean government and State of Georgia officials.

“Kia is proud to call West Point, Georgia home and we look forward to many years of growing together,” said Ahn. “Continued diligent work has helped elevate Kia to one of the fastest growing automobile brands around the globe. With the successful launch of Kia Sorento CUV and establishment of our first manufacturing plant in the United States, the Kia brand is well
positioned for further growth and to become a worldwide leader in quality and innovation.”

Representing a $1 billion investment by Kia Motors Corporation, the sprawling, new 2.2 million-square-foot (204,000 meter-squared) automobile manufacturing plant is situated on more than 2,200 acres of land.  MMG consists of four main shops: stamping, welding, paint and assembly.

The site also includes a transmission shop, module shop and a two-mile test track where every vehicle produced by KMMG will be thoroughly tested. KMMG's general assembly area is outfitted with more than a half mile of height-adjustable conveyors to achieve the most favourable installation position for each team member and reduce physical fatigue. It is outfitted
with wood flooring, which provides a more comfortable and forgiving work environment for team members.

KMMG's cutting-edge technology ensures high productivity and high efficiency for each process. The stamping press delivers 5,400 tonnes of pressure and an automatic panel loading system; the fully automated welding shop boasts 242 welding robots; the paint shop uses eco-friendly, water-soluble coatings; and various systems are in place to keep inventory to a minimum via timely parts delivery.

Another highlight is the real-time processing and control system (RPCS) which feeds parts to the production line. It includes a digital signboard enabling timely and appropriate supply of parts via connection to the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, which contains all production
data. RPCS also minimises inventory in the parts warehouse by matching the flow on the production line.

KMMG also features a railway system within the grounds to facilitate transportation. Parts and finished cars are transported into and out of the site via roads and railway in the vicinity.

Governor Perdue noted that the event meant the continuation of a mutually beneficial partnership between the State of Georgia and Kia that will mean many great things for the State in years to come.

“This is a momentous day for Georgia as Kia Motors has brought thousands of new jobs to this area, and is truly delivering as a tremendous corporate citizen,” said Governor Perdue. “We value our relationship with Kia and pledge to continue providing specialised training through the Kia Georgia Training Centre that will guarantee a quality workforce and the future success of this plant in Georgia.”

The massive Kia automobile manufacturing plant and its supplier companies have already provided thousands of jobs. KMMG currently employs more than 1,200 team members and is expected to nearly double that number by the end of the year, while onsite and nearby suppliers will create up to 7,500 additional jobs in the region.

Mass production of the Kia Sorento CUV began on Nov. 16, 2009 with the product officially going on sale in the U.S. in January of 2010. Selling 7,398 units in its first month, Sorento was Kia's best-selling vehicle in January.

“The outstanding early performance of the first vehicle produced from our West Point, Georgia plant is a significant achievement for KMMG, KMA and the Kia brand as a whole,” said Ahn. “As we grow we will continue to expand our line of vehicles here and abroad while staying true to the Kia brand tenets of value, quality, safety and technology; and KMMG will play a prominent role in achieving our goals.”

Despite the industry downturn amid the global recession, Kia Motors' car sales in the US grew by 9.8 per cent over the previous year to 300,063 units in 2009. Kia aims to increase sales by 15.6 per cent to 347,000 vehicles in 2010.

EVENT

Mirroring the future of African Telecom
For nearly one hour, the number one regulator in the continent kept his audience in a trance as they savoured the amazing world of Africa’s telecommunications industry through the ages from Ndukwe’s perspective.

Call it a valedictory session and you will not be wrong. The setting was right to make one last and enduring impression about the African situation in the telecommunications industry; and there could not be a better choice of a person to do this other than the one man who has turned upside down historic dogma that the African continent is a never do well when it comes to science and technology.

The choice of Engr. Ernest Ndukwe as the keynote speaker at the second edition of the Africa Telecom Hall of Fame Lecture series could not be contested in both the speaker’s academic erudition and his status as a telecommunications regulator of note since the last one decade when he has served as the Executive Vice Chairman and chief executive of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

He represents a bridge across the times of the Nigerian past, present and the future in telecommunications development and by extension of the African development. Born in 1950s when only government and large businesses were the only group that had access to telecommunications services because they were the only ones that could afford them, Ndukwue has seen it all.

And in mid 1980s, NITEL had been carved out from the old Post and Telecommunications department and the race for expansion of the industry to provide more services for the entire population of Nigerians had begun and by the 1990s this has reached an estimated 550,000 active telephone lines through NITEL.

This journey of a nation from the old colonial contraption to an attempt at modern telecommunications service development was witnessed by Engr. Ndukwe and for a man who did not come into telecommunications by any accident, it is clear that nothing of the success that he has made of the office of EVC and Chief Executive of NCC could have come to him as much a surprise.

So, March 19, 2010 presented another historic opportunity for a man at the centre of national and continental history to tell an august gathering what there is to know about an industry he has held so passionately to his heart and there was no better theme than the one that was chosen – Sustaining the Telecom Revolution: Socio-Political and Regulatory Imperatives for Nigeria as an African Example.

For as long as the presentation lasted, there was rapt attention and note taking by the guests that was predominantly made up constituted of chief executives of telecommunications companies and managers of other related services providers including umbrella associations and groups.

The EVC who would later in the day be guest to what would appear his last at the NCC Consumers Parliament held in Lagos; enjoyed a complimentary presence of commissioners of the NCC and head of units including the Commission’s secretary; among others.

From 10.45am when Master of Ceremony, accomplished columnist and chairman of the Guardian newspapers’ Editorial Board, Dr. Reuben Abati flagged off the event in his familiar and enchanting voice; it was obvious that there was not going to be a dull moment whatsoever.

After introduction formalities of the day’s chairman, another Engineer, Gbenga Adebayo an Alumnus of the Obafemi Awolowo University like Engr. Ndukwe and who is currently President, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) and other members of the high table which included another Alumnus of OAU, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem (currently President of Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria – ATCON); former chief executive of leading operator, MTN Nigeria Mr. Adrian Wood whose Brymedia was the third highest bidder for the just concluded NITEL/M-Tel sales; was also seated on the high table so was Mrs. Ijeoma Abazie, chief corporate communications officer of Multi-Links Telkom; it was time for the real reason for the gathering.

However, this was not until Dr. Abati had painstakingly read to the admiration of the guests the citation of the keynote speaker, Engr. Ndukwe; the outgoing NCC boss who would later commend the organisers of the event, IT& Telecom Digest magazine for what he described as one of its kind citation.

As soon as he mounted the podium, the atmosphere inside the Abora and Mazonia suites of the Eko Hotel and Suites took an electric dimension as his 16-page speech was intermittently broken by claps by a highly impressed audience.

For the man who has traversed the entire continent of Africa nd the rest of the world in his more than three decades as a telecoms engineer, the topic was one he was quite at home with and there was no doubt about this when he concluded his presentation that he interjected consistently.

By the time he took his seat among dignitaries on the high table, it was clear that a journey of a decade as a foremost telecommunications regulator for this rare African may have come to an end but there was still more he could offer an industry that is just about getting out of its infancy in Africa, as he identified in his presentation that lasted nearly an hour.

Only a standing ovation like the type that was witnessed that Friday afternoon could do and so masterfully was the address delivered that for close to two minutes the audience clapped and applauded one of the best summaries of the challenges, prospects and future of telecommunications in Africa.

To encapsulate the presentation was a panel of three – Mrs. Abazie, Mr. Wood and Dr. Ekuwem and in one voice, they saw the future of the continent’s telecom industry and all the promises that is available to players not forgetting the challenge of power and regulatory freedom, among others.

Discussions did not let go unnoticed the landmark judgement of the previous day by a Federal High Court Abuja which reversed the government voiding of the award of the 2.3GHz frequency license to Mobitel Nigeria Limited and two other companies by the regulator.

According to Mrs. Abazie whose company, Multi-Links Telkom was one of the companies that won the bid out of 40 companies that participated in the exercise; it is important that government realise that autonomy of the regulator is paramount to a conducive telecommunications industry.

Similarly, Engineer Lanre Ajayi who is the president of Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) reacted to the cancelled licenses and subsequent judgement delivered by Justice Moahmmed Umar Garba lamenting that the Nigerian people have lost one year of what would have become an internet explosion, and he described the development as unfortunate for the industry calling for non interference by government in future similar exercises.  

Other responses commended the outgoing regulator while it was the unanimous opinion of the speakers that there was a dire need to sustain the gains of the last couple of years and an urgent need to replicate the success in the telecom industry in the power sector since that sector has continued to serve as a major drain on the capital of operators in the telecom industry, as in other sectors of the nation’s economy.

The quiet arrival of the wife of the EVC in the course of the programme was an additional colour that the organisers did not let go by as she was identified for his support to her husband in the ten years he served as the NCC boss.

Earlier at the beginning of the programme, while making his welcome remarks, Editor-in-Chief and chief executive of IT& Telecom Digest magazine, Mr. Mkpe Abang had identified how it is that the destiny of Engr. Ernest Ndukwe and that of the magazine has been tied together. In the words of Abang, while the former NCC boss was on his way to heading the regulatory agency, the magazine was also at about the same time struggling to bring to Nigerians all that they needed to know about an industry that was in its infancy way back in 2000, the same year Engr. Ndukwe was first appointed EVC, a position that was confirmed for a second term on April 2, 2005 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Only a few months separated the magazine’s 10th year anniversary and the ten years of Engr. Ndukwe as the EVC of NCC. So, as a mark of honour for a wonderful magazine that has become the leading light in the industry not only in Nigeria but in Africa, the event that would not close until a beautiful 10th anniversary cake was cut by guests and the magazine’s management.

It was also the first public appearance of the magazine’s sister publication – Mobile Africa which was first unveiled earlier in the year in Barcelona, Spain at the Mobile World Congress by General Secretary of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Dr. Hamadoun Toure in the company of other global players in the industry.

And after the event at the Eko Hotel and Suites, attention shifted to the Multi-Purpose Hall of Eko FM Studios in Lagos where the NCC Consumers Parliament was scheduled to hold. As usual, the event was organised by the Consumer Affairs Unit of the Commission and is headed by Mrs. Lolia Emakpore. Once more, the EVC observed what would be his last Consumer Parliament in that capacity.

CTO’s Rural Connectivity Workshop focuses on 4Ps
The Commonwealth African Rural Connectivity Initiative (COMARCI) took another step towards achieving real and felt results in connecting unconnected rural communities in Africa, when a two-day in-country COMARCI workshop for Sierra Leone, hosted by the National Communications Commission of Sierra Leone, was held in Makeni.

With focus on promoting rural access and leveraging ICTs for broader development in Africa, the workshop is coming at a time when the need to establish a workable partnership between the private, public and people has become imperative.

COMARCI was initiated in 2007 as a Pan-Commonwealth response to the perennial challenge of asymmetric connectivity that tends to marginalise rural areas. Having studied the status of Commonwealth Africa in terms of connectivity, policies, regulation and adoption of technology in the context of comparative policies and regulation of five countries - Australia, Canada, India, Malaysia and the US, together with innovative technologies and novel business models, the CTO issued the African Rural Connectivity Report in December 2008.

Realising that to bring connectivity to marginalised communities require a more active role by stakeholders, the CTO is conducting a series of in-country workshops to facilitate the building of Public Private Peoples partnerships. The resulting partnerships are expected to bring new connectivity and new services to rural communities.

The workshop in Makeni was attended by some 300 delegates representing all the ICT operators, some manufacturers, donors and importantly, community representatives, who examined and debated issues impacting rural connectivity. National Communications Commission facilitated these consultations with the help of the CTO and helped in identifying potential partnerships for nurturing. These partnerships will be anchored on local needs as community representatives will be involved in the process from an early stage.

On behalf of President Ernest Bai Koroma, the workshop was officially launched by the Minister of Presidential Affairs Hon Joseph Koroma, who drew the attention of delegates to the need to empower local people and communities through ICT connectivity by using Public Private Peoples partnerships.

Speaking at the opening of the workshop attended by several Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Parliamentarians, operators, civil society organisations and other stakeholders, the Hon Minister of Information and Communications, Mr I. B. Kargbo referred to the importance the Government of Sierra Leone attaches to ICTs.

“Sierra Leone is the second country on the African continent to have its President as the head of the ICT Council, after Rwanda. We understand and appreciate the role played by various stakeholders in improving ICT access and services in order to leverage the full potentials of ICTs for broader development goals. In that sense it is encouraging to note that COMARCI focuses on not only the Public and Private sectors, but has extended the engagement to the Peoples sector as well.”

Adding his words of encouragement, Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, the Chief Executive Officer of the CTO said that “these COMARCI workshops are not an end in themselves. They are rather a means to an end, one that we all have been pursuing for a long time – connecting unconnected rural communities so they can have access to knowledge. Our aim is not simply to connect all but to provide appropriate connectivity for all, without which the vast majority of the people of our member countries will not be able to benefit from the marvels of modern ICTs”.

EVENT

CTO, IT & Telecom Digest partnership raises hope for West Africa
For the first time in the West Africa sub-region, the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation partners with IT & Telecom Digest to set new tones for the sub-region’s industry which promises a future of greater growth

West Africa is home to over a 100 million telephone subscribers and other millions of Internet users. Studies indicate that the sub-region has the potential to reach at least 300 million phone users by the year 2014 with Nigeria leading the pack at over 120 million users. These projections could be child’s play if the sub-region fully come into the potentiality of the mobile broadband in the years ahead.

This growth potential is in spite of the numerous challenges that confront operators in the sub-region with shortage of power supply in the uppermost; and endemic low infrastructure development in the sub-region in the last 40 decades or more.

Taking a more holistic look at the challenges of telecoms development in the African continent, recently while delivering the second African Telecom Hall of Fame Lectures, outgoing Nigerian Communications Commission chief executive, Engr. Ernest Ndukwe says of the infrastructure status in Africa: “Infrastructural facilities such as roads, transportation systems, public power supply, Communications and Information Technologies were inadequate in most of the 52 countries in the continent. Since modern infrastructure is required for sustainable economic growth, the essential infrastructure inadequacy and insufficiency over the centuries may explain the reason why Africa hosts the highest number of the least developed countries of the world, in comparison to other regions.”

While the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) put the number of Internet users in Africa at a mere eight per cent, the continent’s teledensity is put at 42 per cent showing one of the fastest growth in the world.

In spite of the seeming backwardness of Africa and by extension West Africa, the region and the continent holds one of the world’s greatest growth potentials.

It is in recognition of these immense yet untapped potentials in West Africa that the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) is fully persuaded to join forces with Africa's foremost ICT Magazine, IT & Telecom Digest, to organise the 2nd Annual West African ICT Congress 2010 (WAFICT 2010) as a way of further bringing to the global attention the untapped opportunities in the sub-region.

The event, scheduled to take place from June 1-3, 2010 at the ultra-modern Eko Hotel Expo Centre in Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria, will bring together telecom experts, policy makers, regulatory agencies, investors, operators, technology and equipment manufacturers and other key stakeholders from the West African sub-region to deliberate on strategies to promote the development and sustenance of ICTs in West Africa.

The conference, initiated in 2009 by IT & Telecom Digest, will run alongside the West African International Telecommunications and Information Technology exhibition (W.Afri.Tel), now in its 10th year. Following the collaborative agreement between CTO and IT & Telecom Digest, West Africa, a region whose telecom industry has been the centre of attention across the world in the past decade, will benefit from the rich knowledge, expert resources and an array of international speaker line up, rarely seen in the sub-region.

Speaking on the partnership, the Chief Executive of the CTO, Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, who was the keynote speaker at the WAFICT Congress 2009, described the collaboration as timely. He stated that "West Africa, and indeed, many other developing countries in Africa and within the Commonwealth, need the expertise and knowledge that the CTO can bring to the table. Collaborating with IT & Telecom Digest, a magazine that has for the past decade been an effective player in helping promote the growth of the sub-region's telecom sector, will provide additional benefits to the governments, operators, and people alike."

Commenting on the partnership, Editor-in-Chief of IT & Telecom Digest, Mr. Mkpe Abang said, "When we initiated this congress last year, our mission was to bring the best from both worlds, the developed and the developing, which would benefit the ICT sector and thereby our people. Collaborating with the CTO is more than just a dream come true, because the organisation brings with it extensive experience within the telecom/ICT sector, a global footprint and widespread reach in the entire Commonwealth, and a unique database of ICT professionals and expertise that we can tap into for the growth of West Africa as a whole."

The collaboration will allow CTO to live up to its mandate, that of providing socio-economic capacity building services to developing Commonwealth countries and being a key player in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United Nations.
 
Last year, the Congress dwelt on the topic of harnessing new technologies for telecom/ICT growth in the sub-region and it attracted speakers and participants from within and outside the region including experts from Europe and the Americas.

Issues in the 2010 edition has the potential of creating a new wave of growth in the sub-region as participants are expected to dwell more on the future of the gains already made by the sub-region’s operators and what influence the global scene would have on the region, among others.

IT & Telecom Digest commenced publishing in January 2000. In May 2003, the monthly magazine won the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa first prize Award on Reporting ICT Research and Innovation in the first African Information Society Initiative (AISI) Media Awards by the UN ECA.

Besides being official media partner for several events across the world, IT & Telecom Digest is the Sole Nigeria Agent to Exhibition Management Services (Pty) of South Africa, organisers of the West African International Telecommunications and Information Communications Technology Exhibition (W.Afri.Tel). The magazine recently initiated a landmark programme, the African Telecom Hall of Fame Lecture Series as an addition to the series of events and programmes it organises yearly. (www.ittelecomdigest.com); (www.westafricanictcongress.com)
 
With a history dating back to 1901, the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) is an international development partnership between the Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth governments, businesses and civil society organisations. CTO provides the international community with effective means to help bridge the digital divide and achieve social and economic development, by delivering to developing countries unique knowledge-sharing
programmes in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

With its headquarters in London and recipient members based in Europe, the Caribbean, Americas, Africa and Asia-Pacific regions, the CTO has been at the centre of continuous and extensive international communications development funding, co-operation and assistance programmes. CTO's mission is to reduce global poverty through the more efficient utilisation of ICTs, and its development agenda reflects the priorities set in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

 
…As MTN picks choice spot at W.Afri.Tel
For leading corporate organisations, proper planning holds the key to their success at events which promotes their industry; thus nothing is spared to ensure adequate and proper participation in such events. This need to adequately represent what leading Nigeria mobile telecoms services provider, MTN represents must have informed the early move for choice spots at the 10th edition of West Africa's leading Information and Communications Technology (ICT) show, the West African International Telecommunications and Information Technology Exhibition (W.Afri.Tel).

For event organisers, MTN Nigeria in early last month became one of the early birds to book, and secure a prime spot to showcase its products and services at the expo. Thus, the company became the first among Nigeria’s leading ICT operators to make its intention known this is apart from the companies that had already signed on since last year at the close of the ninth edition of W.Afri.Tel.

Scheduled to take place at the $44 million new ultramodern, purpose built Eko Expo Hall, from June 1-3, W.Afri.Tel 2010 will provide a platform for the sub-region's leading mobile, telecom and ICT operators as well as equipment manufacturers, networks solutions providers, computers and computing companies, among others, to put their best and latest products and services on display.

For MTN Nigeria, the company will be showcasing its latest and best in market value added services along with its top of the range products which are at the cutting edge of technologies backed by unequalled service delivery. For a company that has over 27 million subscribers on its network, prime presence is of utmost importance at an event as large as W.Afri.Tel and one where it has displayed strong presence in the past.

For the past decade, W.Afri.Tel exhibition and conference, organised in Lagos by South African based Exhibition Management Services (EMS) in conjunction with its Sole Nigeria Agent, IT & Telecom Digest, has been a yearly technology attraction in Lagos, Nigeria. Now, with the introduction of a brand new $44 million purpose built venue, the 2010 event can co-host the Nigeria ICT Business Solutions Expo (NISE) as well as the West Africa ICT (WAFICT) congress from June 1-3, 2010.

Explaining the special attraction for W.Afri.Tel 2010, the organisers said the new venue consists of 8000m2 floor space, which is substantially larger than the 1370m2 previously available for W.Afri.Tel in the past editions; and can accommodate up to 2000 visitors at any time.

Nigeria has emerged as the African leader in telecommunications services, with an average yearly growth rate of 125 per cent recorded in 2008/2009 and over 75 million active subscribers recorded by year end 2009 for mobile and landline subscriptions. The Telecommunications sector contributed 3.5 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product in 2009, with vast growth potential.

Nigeria also boasts the most internet usage in Africa and being sub-Sahara Africa's most populated country, with 150 million inhabitants, it offers a huge prospect for exhibitors and participants at the three events, and also for less known brands which are making en route into the sub-region. This qualifies Lagos, Nigeria's commercial nerve centre, as the perfect host city for this event.

According to EMS Managing Director, John Thomson: “Feedback from previous years has always been very positive and the 2010 exhibition and conference promises to exceed expectations. Visitors to the exhibition will include a wide variety of players from industries, ranging from banking, manufacturing and building to oil and gas. This, combined with the larger venue, provides a platform for the integration of NISE and the WAFICT Congress with the W.Afri.Tel exhibition.

“Although there has always been an ICT component to the W.Afri.Tel exhibition, this will be the first time that it will be incorporated into the same venue, running alongside each other. This will allow exhibitors to present their solutions either in stand-alone mode or integrated.”

ICTs have been identified as crucial elements for developing countries, by integrating them into the international economy, it therefore makes the global market more accessible. With the changing face of the ICT market and its expansion worldwide, in the last couple of years, the number of new players and technologies has increased significantly.

New advancements include Greening technologies such as power saving desktops, netbooks and economical video display units. Another advancement is the smartphone, which now has increased functionality of both hardware and software; and is becoming more popular even as more and more companies that were hitherto not involved in the mobile phone business are now rolling out products and services in this area.

Multi-Links Telkom distributes wheelchairs in Enugu, Anambra
In the pursuit of its Corporate Social Responsibility investments (CSRi), the management of Multi-Links Telkom has distributed wheelchairs to the physically challenged in Enugu and Onitsha, Anambra State at three separate ceremonies witnessed by the wives of the Governor and Deputy Governor of Enugu State, the representative of the Obi of Onitsha, the Chief Medical Directors (CMDs) of Enugu State University Teaching Hospital, National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu and the General Hospital, Onitsha amongst other dignitaries.

The First Lady of Enugu State, Mrs. Clara Chibuzor Chime commended Multi-Links Telkom for its passionate commitment to enhancing the quality of lives of the less privileged members of the society. She made this remark in Enugu last March during the presentation of Wheelchairs by the management of Multi-Links Telkom to the physically challenged at the Enugu State University Teaching Hospital, Parklane, Enugu.

Accompanied by the Wife of the Deputy Governor, Mrs. Nneka Onyebuchi and a host of other dignitaries, she expressed her joy at the opportunity to witness Multi-Links’ very laudable efforts to restore hope to the physically challenged through the presentations of the wheelchairs provided by Multi-Links Telkom.

According to her, “the need for mobility aids for persons disabled by accident cannot be overemphasised. Some accident victims have been confined to a place due to the absence of mobility aids. However, with the donation of wheelchairs by Multi-Links Telecommunications Ltd, there is no doubt that this group of people will be able to move around, participate in day-to-day activities, and thus, contribute effectively to society notwithstanding their disabilities.”

She also commended the management of Multi-Links Telkom for also providing free mobile phones to each of the beneficiaries of the wheelchairs. “It is therefore laudable that Multi-Links has deemed it necessary to also provide phones for this vulnerable group of people.

“This gesture will definitely go a long way towards improving the lives of the beneficiaries. Armed with their phones and wheelchairs I am sure the sky will be their limit,” she said.

Multi-Links Telkom has continued to provide wheelchairs, mobile phones and free airtime to the beneficiaries of its Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives.

The wife of the Governor urged all the beneficiaries to make use of the facilities provided by Multi-Links Telkom creditably.

The Chief Medical Director of ESUTH called on other corporate organisations to emulate the good spirited initiative of Multi-Links Telkom. According to him, it is not often that organisations remember the downtrodden for such health interventions at the level of investments by Multi-Links Telkom. Similar comments were made by the CMDs of the National Orthopaedic Hospital (Dr C.B.Eze), Enugu and the General Hospital, Onitsha.

In her welcome message, Multi-Links Telkom’s Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Mrs. Ijeoma Abazie said that the company is committed to spreading its goodwill throughout the country where its services are currently available. She said that apart from providing integrated telecommunications solutions, Multi-Links Telkom would identify and seek as much as possible to address areas of need in Nigeria’s communities.

Also speaking at the event, the Chief Operations Officer, Multi-Links Telkom, Dr. Setumo Mohapi stated that the company is committed to helping less privileged members of the society. According to him, Multi-Links Telkom has made it a business decision to always partner with the communities in Nigeria for development. He stressed that Multi-Links Telkom is committed to living its pay off line of Touching Lives by ensuring that the lives of the people in the communities of its operations are positively touched.

It was carnival like at Parklane Hospital as the women in the entourage of the First Lady of Enugu sang, danced and praised the brand for bringing relief to the downtrodden in the state. Some of the beneficiaries could not hold back tears of joy as they were helped to the wheel chairs by the First Lady, relatives, health workers and Multi-Links Telkom staff. Some of them said that Multi-Links Telkom has brought them unquantifiable relief, peace of mind and made them proud owners of their first wheelchairs and in some cases, mobile phones.

From ESUTH, Parklane, to Orthopaedic Enugu and General Hospital, Onitsha it was an overflow of prayers and praises by the beneficiaries who thronged the venues for the free wheelchairs and mobile phones.

ITU comes to the aid of Chile quake and tsunami victims

It must have been a handful coming so early in the year, but global regulator of telecommunications activities, International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in quick response deployed 25 satellite terminals to help restore vital communication links in the aftermath of the massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that hit Chile on 27 February, killing over 700 people and cutting communications links in the city of Concepción and towns along the coast.

The equipment was airlifted out of Geneva last March, and has been deployed on the ground as scheduled. ITU is working with emergency communications partner Iridium Communications Inc. to ensure connectivity for satellite handsets, which were being used by local authorities to facilitate humanitarian assistance to disaster victims. ITU is also striving to source additional equipment from El Salvador and Nicaragua, where it had been deployed last year to help those countries restore communications after their own natural disasters.

“Our hearts go out to the government and the people of Chile, who find themselves having to deal with a tragedy similar to that which so recently devastated Haiti,” said ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré. “We are proud to be a long-standing leader in coordinating the provision of emergency telecommunications and will continue to actively contribute assistance in partnership with ITU membership.”

ITU’s Area Office in Santiago, Chile, is already providing expert on-the-ground support to local authorities, as well as to the local UN Operations Centre, to coordinate the restoration of damaged communication systems and manage spectrum requirements for the wireless systems used by humanitarian agencies.

Sami Al Basheer Al Morshid, Director, ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau, said: “I would like to thank Iridium for supporting ITU on this sad occasion. Communications networks were disrupted by this massive earthquake, hampering rescue operations and the delivery of essential logistics and services. Our assistance will contribute towards the bridging of the current communication gap.”

ITU is providing Iridium satellite phones which can use both satellite and GSM networks, as well as delivering accurate GPS positioning coordinates to aid relief and rescue. ITU covers all expenses relating to transportation, deployment and use of equipment, which will be at the disposal of the authorities in Chile for as long as they require it.

SkyVision secures capacity to expand cellular backhaul service in Africa
Adjusting products and plans to survive the global financial meltdown has become one of the strategies by companies to move on in business and this perhaps influenced the move by one of the Africa region leading IP services provider, SkyVision Global Networks LLC.

A leading global provider of IP connectivity over satellite and fiber optic systems, SkyVision recently announced that it has signed a multi-year, multi-transponder contract for C-band capacity on the recently-launched Intelsat 14 satellite (IS-14), operated by Intelsat S.A., the world’s leading provider of fixed satellite services. The capacity will allow SkyVision to expand its satellite cellular backhaul offerings for the growing cellular services market in Africa.

“With Cellular operators planning service rollouts to more extensive rural areas throughout Africa, SkyVision is experiencing increasing demand for its recently launched satellite cellular backhaul services,” said Mark Gazit, CEO of SkyVision. “We have always been delighted with Intelsat’s superior service and technical reliability. With the powerful transponders on IS-14 we can offer our customers unprecedented backhaul quality to support their cellular networks in regions that were previously unreachable.”

“Our customers use our capacity as an essential component of their network infrastructure to deliver content and connectivity with efficiency and reliability,” said Kurt Riegelman, Intelsat’s Senior Vice President, Global Sales. “SkyVision successfully delivers broadband services in Africa via the Intelsat network. We look forward to expanding our relationship with the company as SkyVision increases its cellular backhaul services throughout one of the world’s fastest-growing telecom regions.”

SkyVision Satellite Cellular Backhaul service enables both greater reach across challenging terrain and more rapid service rollout. Designed for the highest levels of scalability and reliability, SkyVision’s cellular backhaul solution includes optimisation tools that calculate the operator’s current and future needs, to ensure uninterrupted connectivity. Each solution is tailored to and integrated with the operator’s network infrastructure, seamlessly expanding or backing up the current terrestrial network.

SkyVision is a leading global IP telecommunication service provider to emerging markets, offering solutions that combine satellite service platforms with high-capacity fiber optic connections. Via its gateways in Europe, North America and the Middle East, the company provides IP connectivity with access to the global internet backbone, as well as an extensive suite of both customised end-to-end solutions and industry-standard services. With a connectivity network spanning 100 countries, SkyVision’s solutions combine global reach with active local presence and support. SkyVision’s customers include incumbent telecoms, ISPs, cellular operators, global and local enterprises, government entities and NGOs.

Intelsat is the leading provider of fixed satellite services worldwide. For over 45 years, Intelsat has been delivering information and entertainment for many of the world’s leading media and network companies, multinational corporations, Internet service providers and governmental agencies. Intelsat’s satellite, teleport and fiber infrastructure is unmatched in the industry, setting the standard for transmissions of video, data and voice services. From the globalisation of content and the proliferation of HD, to the expansion of cellular networks and broadband access, with Intelsat, advanced communications anywhere in the world are closer, by far.

India’s BSNL to support CTO programmes
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL), India’s leading fixed-line telecommunications company, has agreed to make available its technical and human resources to support the CTO’s capacity building programmes. With both organisations focused on bridging the digital divide through improved ICT connectivity in emerging markets, this partnership will help enhance the CTO’s delivery of cost-effective access to ICT knowledge by mid to high-level professionals in its member countries. Under the agreement, BSNL staff will be deployed globally by the CTO to offer various forms of training and technical assistance to CTO member institutions upon their request.

The CTO’s PDT has delivered over 3,600 bilateral technical cooperation projects and training workshops to benefit more than 30,000 ICT professionals in some thirty countries in the Asia-Pacific, African, Mediterranean and the Caribbean regions. Operating as a corporate membership programme, it is a flexible and effective means for CTO member entities to source and acquire high-value expertise from a wider group of countries and organisations.

Membership of the PDT is open to network operators, equipment manufacturers, communications regulatory, government agencies as well as professional service firms in the Commonwealth and other countries. As the programme was designed as a partnership for collaboration between its members, it provides a range of annual in-house bespoke training and consulting programmes, a regional programme of workshops and seminars led by industry experts, and an international programme of high-level conferences focused on key developments in ICTs.

Commenting on the collaboration, the CTO’s CEO, Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, said, “Partnerships are key to the development of the ICT sector in developing countries.  BSNL is one of the world's leading telecommunications companies and their knowledge and technical know-how will enable us to transfer the latest innovations in ICT to human capital development in Commonwealth countries. We are truly pleased to welcome BSNL to our network of Sector Members, and expect that our membership network of thousands of ICT professionals within the Commonwealth will benefit tremendously by this new important addition from India.”

Expressing his desire and commitment for the empowerment of developing countries through capacity building in the ICT sector, BSNL’s Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Kuldeep Goyal was enthusiastic about BSNL playing a crucial role in this area through this alliance with the CTO.

“Sharing BSNL’s long-term expertise in the ICT sector, and with its presence at the center of the world’s most dynamic telecom market, this collaboration brings in great opportunities for other players”, he said. The BSNL and CTO partnership would go a long way in helping telecom experts in developing countries to learn and appreciate the latest developments in the sector, as these unfold in the Indian telecom market. He emphasised that the extensive training infrastructure of BSNL puts it into a unique position as compared to any other telecom operator, by helping in the dissemination of telecom expertise for capacity enhancement across global boundaries.

As a leader and the only service provider in India that is dominantly focused to bettering the telecom facilities in rural India, BNSL provides an array of telecommunications services to remote regions of the Indian sub-continent. With a fixed phone subscription of 35.1 million customers, the company covers 85 per cent share of the subscriber base and 92 percent share in revenue terms. The company has vast experience in planning, installation, network integration and maintenance of switching and transmission networks and also has a world class ISO 9000 certified telecom training institute.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is a state-owned telecommunications company in India. BSNL is the sixth largest cellular service provider, with over 57.22 million customers (as of December 2009) and the largest land line telephone provider in India. Formed in October 2000, BSNL  provides comprehensive range of telecom services in India, including Wireline, CDMA mobile, GSM Mobile, Internet, Broadband, Carrier service, MPLS-VPN, VSAT, VoIP services, IN Services, etc.

BSNL has installed Quality Telecom Network in the country and is now focusing on expanding the network by introducing new telecom services with ICT applications in villages. Today, it has about 46 million line basic telephone capacity, eight million WLL capacity, 52 Million GSM Capacity, more than 38302 fixed exchanges, 46565 BTS, 3895 Node B ( 3G BTS), 287 Satellite Stations, 614755 Rkm of OFC Cable, 50430 Rkm of Microwave Network connecting 602 Districts, 7330 cities/towns and 5.6 Lakhs villages.

With a history dating back to 1901, the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) is an international development partnership between the Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth governments, businesses and civil society organisations. CTO provides the international community with effective means to help bridge the digital divide and achieve social and economic development, by delivering to developing countries unique knowledge-sharing programmes in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

With its headquarters in London and recipient members based in Europe, the Caribbean, Americas, Africa and Asia-Pacific regions, the CTO has been at the centre of continuous and extensive international communications development funding, co-operation and assistance programmes. CTO’s mission is to reduce global poverty through the more efficient utilisation of ICTs, and its development agenda reflects the priorities set in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

ITU insists enlightened ICT regulation can drive growth
While demand for information and communication (ICT) services like mobile telephony and broadband Internet remains strong, the global economic crisis is jeopardising ongoing investment in network rollouts and technology upgrades, a new ITU report finds.
The 10th edition of Trends in Telecommunication Reform, ITU’s flagship annual report on the state of ICT regulation worldwide, argues that enlightened ICT regulation can effectively play the role of a ‘stimulus plan’, driving network investment, growth and development. The report draws on the discussions held during ITU’s annual Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR), which was held last November in Beirut, Lebanon and welcomed over 600 regulators from around the world.
The economic crisis has served as a wake-up call on the importance of effective regulation and raised questions about the role of government and the laissez-faire approach that had prevailed — especially in the financial sector. Government and industry are now being forced to reassess their roles and the need for state intervention to ensure, among other things, the development of a new ‘broadband economy’.
ITU argues that regulators and policymakers can proactively address the risk of under-investment in tomorrow’s networks through a two-pronged approach that looks at how governments lend money to the private sector through Public-Private Partnerships, ICT stimulus plans and other funding programmes; and how effective regulatory strategies and policies — both financial and non-financial — can play their part in maintaining the momentum. But to be effective, these strategies must be underpinned by strong regulatory institutions and transparent policies and procedures — the bedrocks of effective regulation.
"With technological convergence now blurring the lines between telephony, broadcasting, and online services, ICT regulators play a key role in fostering ongoing innovation and competition, enabling operators to adopt the latest, most powerful technologies, and ensuring consumers enjoy the very best range of services at the lowest possible prices," said ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré.
The ITU report maintains that, regardless of changes in investment appetite, negative capital market conditions, and financial crises, the size of the investor universe and the diversity of investor objectives will ensure that ICT sector investment remains robust and varied.
“Although the global ICT industry has seen reduced sales in equipment and manufacturing, lower demand and curtailed investment, the sector confronted the crisis more successfully than did many other sectors,” said Sami Al Basheer Al Morshid, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau. “Certain markets — namely mobile cellular and Internet — have been buoyant. And because of the business opportunities they represent, developing countries remain attractive — especially those that have embarked on regulatory reform initiatives. But the answers to many of the complex regulatory questions now facing the industry are still far from clear — which is why the GSR has become such a key global event.”
Mobile growth continued unabated in 2009, with global mobile subscriptions expected to reach five billion in 2010. At the same time, mobile broadband subscriptions topped 600 million, having overtaken fixed broadband subscriptions in 2008, highlighting the huge potential for the mobile broadband Internet industry. The number of Internet users also grew steadily, with some 1.8 billion users worldwide by the end of 2009.
The creation of independent ICT regulators has been one of the main building blocks of regulatory reform. The number of separate telecom/ICT regulatory authorities in markets around the world increased from just 12 in 1990 to 153 at the end of 2009. Regulators have gradually opened fixed line services to competition, so that at end 2009 65 per cent of countries now have competitive markets for basic fixed-line services, and 90 per cent for mobile cellular services. In addition, 124 national fixed-line incumbents have been privatised along the way.
New challenges in a converging world
The report also confirms that converged technologies are boosting competition. Voice over IP (VoIP) services allow broadband, cable modem and wireless service providers to compete directly with one another, as well as promoting competition by enabling new service providers to compete without owning their own network infrastructure.

But changes in technologies and market conditions also raise new consumer protection issues. From a consumer’s perspective, more competition may lead to a bombardment of marketing material, masquerading as information. This is especially the case where access to high-speed broadband connections makes consumers easily accessible, day and night, as advertising targets.
In the ‘always-on’ environment, consumers may also be unaware of how to protect themselves and their families from harmful or offensive content. Meeting the needs of the connected consumer therefore needs to look at potential gaps in current regulatory practices that should be addressed to protect consumers more fully.
This year’s edition of Trends in Telecommunication Reform comprises ten chapters focusing on new market expectations, and identifying the different regulatory approaches taken around the world to stimulate ICT.

Me& My Phone

The busy company executive is turning out to be a mobile office; whether in the air, on the land or at sea, contact with the office and the home must be maintained. MRS. UCHE BIOSA is the head of Human Relation and Administration of Pension Alliance Limited (PAL), one of the pensions administrators in Nigeria, she is always on the move but she has to strike a balance between the home front and the office. What mobile phones make this possible for the very busy executive? We caught up with her recently and these are her preferred phones. Excerpts:

Question: Madam, what make of phones do you use?
Answer: I use the BlackBerry Bold and Sony Ericsson P990i.
Has it always been these two or there were others before them?
Not exactly; before now, I used to be in love with Nokia. Even though I have replaced my old Nokia with another one but I have discovered that the keypads are stiffer compared with, say the Blackberry bold and I no longer fancy it as such. But again, the Blackberry, which is my favourite comes with the company’s contract arrangement and that makes it my partner, all the time.

What features do you use most on the Blackberry, apart from regular phone calls?
I use it a lot for my emails essentially because of the standard keyboard which makes it quite easy to use, and sometimes I use it for MMS. Apart from these, I hardly make effort to discover new things on it.

What influences your choice of phones to buy?
I like strong and fairly big phones. I detest tiny keys on a phone.

If you were to lose any of the phones, what would you miss most about them?
That would be the contact list because I don’t have back-up for them. But, for the Blackberry bold, I delete my emails on the handheld but I am still left with those in the inbox.

STC selects Alcatel-Lucent for LTE trial in Saudi Arabia
After much talk about the appropriate time for its launch, LTE has finally entered the market and the excitement is already catching on with some operators and only recently, Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) announced that it has been selected by STC (Saudi Telecom Company), the main telecommunications carrier in Saudi Arabia, to conduct an end-to-end Long Term Evolution (LTE) trial, to begin in the second half of 2010. This trial will enable STC to test the performance of LTE-based services and assess the related business models.

Reacting to the development, Dr. Zeyad Al-Otaibi, STC’s vice president Networks said: “As a major operator, STC is committed to providing its customers superior service. It is clear to us that LTE has evolved to being more than just a promising technology.”

He is optimistic of the outcome of the exercise pointing out that, “As STC and Alcatel-Lucent are both on the edge of innovation, we are confident that this trial will help us fulfill our customers’ needs for innovative mobile broadband services.”

Alcatel-Lucent will be leveraging its industry-leading LTE expertise to provide an end-to-end integrated solution including LTE base stations (eNodeBs), the Evolved Packet Core (EPC), IP service routing network elements as well as operation, administration and maintenance (OAM) systems. Alcatel-Lucent will also provide a range of professional services including project management, planning, installation, integration and commissioning, and testing.

“This trial is a major step in the adoption of LTE technology in the Middle-East. STC can count on our technical leadership and transformation expertise to unleash LTE’s full business potential,” said Amr El Leithy, head of Alcatel-Lucent’s activities in Africa and the Middle East. “We consider this agreement to be a strong endorsement of Alcatel-Lucent’s innovation and forward-looking strategy in the area of mobile broadband solutions and efficient high-performance IP-based network.”

Alcatel-Lucent’s LTE solution and services are leveraged in the majority of LTE projects being pursued by Tier 1 operators around the globe, including in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Orange UK gets three new MVNO partners
Orange’s partnership with pan European Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE) Transatel has borne its first fruit. The carrier recently said it has secured three MVNO deals in the UK, with Unicom, Catalyst and Axis Telecom.

UK mobile operator Orange partnered with Transatel at the end of 2009, targeting the SME market through telecom resellers and community-based brands looking to introduce mobile services.  The platform caters to both prepaid and postpaid segments and claims to be able to bring new MVNO brands to the Orange network in just six weeks.

The three new MVNO’s are expected to launch in the first half of this year. Unicom, the fixed line service provider, will launch as a B2B MVNO selling mobile services, initially to its existing base of some 80,000 customers, and will provide billing for both fixed and mobile services on the same invoice. Catalyst will target niche groups such as students, ethnic minorities and SMEs. And Axis Telecom will provide a mobile offering to its current customer base of over 14,000 businesses and residential customers through a number of SIM only deals.

Marc Overton, vice president of wholesale, business development and partnerships at Orange UK, said: “Orange has very ambitious plans to become the network partner of choice for new and existing MVNOs. This latest news shows that we are well on our way to achieving this and our ambition to have twenty new MVNO’s on the Orange network by the end of the year.

... Backs Intel, Nokia Linux platform
Mobile operator Orange got behind the Nokia-Intel founded Linux initiative MeeGo recently, anticipating the creation of a new channel for the delivery of consumer multimedia services.

MeeGo was unveiled at Barcelona last February as a merger of Intel and Nokia’s respective Linux initiatives, to create a software platform spanning a range of consumer electronics from mobile phones to netbooks.

Intel is contributing its Moblin platform, which will be merged with Nokia’s Maemo platform and the Nokia-owned cross platform application environment, Qt.

With the operator’s backing, Intel and Orange will work to increase the availability of Orange Signature Services, such as Orange TV and Orange Maps, to be supported by the MeeGo and Intel Atom environment.

“Seventy-five per cent of our customer base has yet to embrace the mobile internet. With the increasing number of phones and operating systems for customers to choose from, it is our role to make sure our customer’s journey into this richer mobile multimedia environment is simple and easy,” said Yves Maitre, SVP of devices at Orange. “Our collaboration with Intel on the MeeGo software platform will not only ensure a broader choice in terms of screens and devices, but that customers continue to benefit from a consistent user experience delivered through Orange Signature services, including a customised home-screen they trust and recognise, the highest quality network and secure and simplified billing.”

The companies aim to establish a common software framework across multiple devices, ranging from smartphones and tablets to netbooks. An ambitious initiative, but as Ovum analyst Tony Cripps at Barcelona, the real win is in tying developers to the MeeGo platform.

“Turning MeeGo into a mainstream platform for CE will be no mean achievement in its own right. However, it will ultimately be largely meaningless how many devices it is deployed on if the consistency provided by the underlying OS is not matched by its ability to provide a true multi-screen application platform for developers.
“For that to happen, several things need to occur. First, Nokia needs to prove that Qt development really can scale across different categories of device. Second, it needs to prove the benefits of that scalability to developers. Third, it needs to persuade developers that Qt is a better cross-platform, cross-device application and UX platform than alternatives such as Adobe Flash/AIR, Microsoft Silverlight and HTML5,” Cripps said.

But given that Qt’s rivals – like Microsoft Foundation Class and wxWidgets - are either already widely deployed or likely to become more so and already have sizable developer communities, MeeGo may have its work cut out for it.

Ofcom to investigate net neutrality
The chief of UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has said the authority will investigate web traffic control measures later this year as the net neutrality debate rumbles on.

Ed Richards, who gave a keynote speech at the Cable Congress conference in Brussels recently, said that in light of Europe’s move to adopt region-wide telecoms legislation, national regulators needed to assess the ‘openness’ of the internet and decide whether action needed to be taken to preserve it.

Traffic management measures are now commonly used by service providers to prevent bandwidth
hogging by heavy users of services. But there is great concern that bandwidth throttling could be used ant competitively to restrict rival services.

Richards also said that service providers need to be more transparent in explaining what measures they use to their customers.

UK ISP Virgin Media, which is a vocal opponent of net neutrality (in fact CEO Neil Berkett once referred to the concept of net neutrality as “a load of bollocks”) just recently implemented web traffic management software from Zeus to ensure its customers receive a decent web experience even during spikes in demand.

Alex Brown, senior product manager for internet products at Virgin Media, said: “We wanted to offer customers better email and web services but at the same time ensure we can deliver them without impacting service levels or compromising security. Since we are dealing with massive volumes of traffic, reliability and performance is of paramount importance.”

When asked if Virgin was introducing throttling – one of the functions of the Zeus implementation – by stealth, we received no reply.

Google, as one of the world’s biggest generators of web traffic, often pops up in conversations about net neutrality, and Vodafone and Telefonica have recently made statements that suggest they are thinking of charging search engines to use their networks.

Both Telefonica CEO Cesar Alierta and Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao have said that they are thinking about charging Google and other search engines to use their networks.

Alierta implied that it was unfair that search engines were using mobile bandwidth for free while Telefonica’s operations provided the network, product sales, customer care, installation and maintenance for them.

Alierta said that he was sure this situation would change and that search-engine companies would need to start paying for some of the infrastructure, possibly through the introduction of monthly fees in accordance with the amount of data generated by each site. Colao used his keynote speech at Mobile World Congress to say that search engines such as Google and Yahoo should pay for preferential access to the company’s networks.

However, Informa analyst Paul Lambert asserts that for now, the arguments are unsound, and in strategic terms they point to a misreading by the operators of the balance of power between Google and them.
“Why? Let’s take the “wrong in principle” argument first: Why should Google pay operators to allow mobile users to access its services? And why should Google – but not the BBC, Spotify, The New York Times, Facebook, HSBC or any other content/service provider – be required to pay operators for access to networks?” Lambert said.

“At the moment, Vodafone and Telefonica need the big search engines more than these companies need them. People expect to use Google and other popular Web sites on their mobile phones. The balance of power lies with Google and co., not any individual mobile operator. Unless Vodafone and Telefonica actually block Google and other Web sites from their networks, the majority of their customers will find a way to use them, because that’s exactly why they signed up to data plans in the first place – to use these Web sites while on the go.”

Starhome Awarded European Patent for Mobile Home Short Code
Starhome, the leading provider and acknowledged driving force of roaming services for mobile network operators, recently announced that it has received a long-awaited patent for its Home Short Code solution.

In 1999, Starhome applied for a patent for the Home Short Code solution, one of the first and most basic solutions of the VHE (Virtual Home Environment) concept. The Home Short Code is a seamless, feature-rich solution that converts unrecognised home short codes into valid international formatted numbers and provides the mobile operator with a basis to increase its revenue potential from both the inbound and outbound roaming markets. In addition, the Starhome Home Short Code™ solution supports CLI delivery for both inbound and outbound roamers and is not bound to a specific international carrier.

Shai Ophir, Starhome’s Intellectual Property Manager added: “It has taken 10 years for Starhome to receive a patent for the Home Short Code solution. The prolonged process involved extensive examination before the patent could be granted.”

More than 100 of Starhome’s customers have already deployed the Home Short Code solution that allows both inbound and outbound roamers seamless access their home VAS (Value Added Services). Mobile network operators can quickly expand their earning potential by continuing to serve their subscribers whenever and wherever they travel and also by attracting inbound travellers for the duration of their visits and encouraging the use of further Value Added Services and international airtime.

When an inbound international traveller dials a short code that has not been defined as a valid local short code in the mobile operator’s MSC (mobile switching centre), the call is transferred to the visited Starhome IntelliGate platform for processing. The IntelliGate analyses the validity of the short code in relation to the caller’s home country and HPMN (Home Public Mobile Network) and with respect to the roaming network short codes and dialling rules. Finally the IntelliGate converts the dialled short code into an internationally formatted number and routes it back to the visited network MSC.

The Home Short Code is a complete service that supports postpaid and prepaid market segments for both CAMEL and Non CAMEL. The solution can also be used for one roaming segment only.

Starhome is a field proven leader in roaming whose cumulative knowledge and expertise has made it the roaming partner of choice for mobile operators. Since its establishment in 1999, Starhome manages and monitors over 900 roaming solutions for over 178 mobile operators in 118 countries worldwide.

Starhome’s solutions address all key roaming requirements and specifically target three distinct areas of activity at the mobile operator. For Retail, Starhome offers seamless solutions to stimulate and increase roaming traffic and usability. For Wholesale, our powerful solutions enable teams to meet their wholesale targets and IOT discount agreements. For Operations, our mission-critical solutions optimise network efficiency and reduce cost of ownership.

Toure commends IT & Telecom Digest at 10, Launches Mobile Africa

For Africa’s foremost ICT magazine, IT & Telecom Digest, commendation has come from the highest level of the telecom world as it celebrates its tenth year of unmatched and sustained reportage of activities, operations and policy issues in the continent.

The Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Dr. Hamadoun Toure who commended the magazine, said he was pleased by the pioneering and informative role that IT & Telecom Digest has been playing by keeping events in the telecom sector in Africa and Nigeria in particular, on the front burner for global attention.

“I like to commend you for this quality magazine that you have been producing with such high standard, informative and incisive reports and articles, which consistently tell the world about potentials, opportunities and operations in the ICT sector in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general,” Dr. Toure said when he received the Editor-in-Chief of IT & Telecom Digest, Mr. Mkpe Abang, in audience at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Spain.

It was double honour for the publication as Dr. Toure also launched Mobile Africa newspaper, the new publication recently introduced by the magazine.

“I am proud of your work and I am especially excited that you have even now introduced this newspaper specifically for mobile in Africa; it shows that you are moving with the times, and sometimes even ahead of the events. I do wish you well,” Dr. Toure further stated.

Mobile Africa newspaper, according to Abang, will focus “just on mobile; from mobile telephony to mobile internet, value added services on mobile telephony, and so on. It will also focus on what mobile operators are doing, what is in vogue, the fashion in mobile telephony, the youth and mobile phones, among other areas,” he added, saying the newspaper will also devote special attention to impact of mobile telephone on youths in tertiary institutions, because “these are the leaders of tomorrow.”

According to Abang, Mobile Africa starts out as a bi-weekly; it will however quickly stabilise as a weekly because, as he put it “mobile deserves special attention because of what it has done in our lives as a nation and as a continent.”

If the economic, socio-political and private lives as well as the business landscape of Nigeria and Africa have changed in the last one decade, Abang added, “the credit goes to mobile telephony, its operators and the regulators who have ensured that Africans are not denied the special freedom and the limitless life changing opportunities that mobile telephony brings to a people; and which it has brought to Nigeria and Africa.”

Wilson’s Café
Let’s spread the ‘revolution’ – or should we?

It came as a shock to many South Africans when Traditional Affairs and Cooperative Governance Minister, Mr. Sicelo Shiceka, revealed last month that although the lackluster performance of many municipalities had several causes, one little known cause stood out for him as particularly worrisome.

“Over 280 (associations of) ratepayers,” he said, systematically undermined their municipal governments by not paying their taxes to government as required by law. They instead put such money in trust accounts, the Minister revealed.

He argued that by withholding their taxes, the ratepayers associations had unwittingly set themselves up as “a parallel government.”

The “shocking” aspect of this revelation was not the proliferation of “ratepayers associations” in recent years in South Africa, but the particular form of agency exercised by this segment of civil society to extract “serious governance” from municipal authorities. I return to this later.

There are hundreds of “ratepayers associations” in South Africa, a country where civic organisations and the media play a very strong role in influencing government and public discourse. These are associations of mainly affluent or middle-class individuals – but particularly owners of land or landed property in the country’s leafy suburbs and countryside estates.

Although the Minister describes the ratepayers associations as “unfortunately… white organisations,” their constitutions generally do not have racially exclusive clauses. Membership is open to owners of “registered” land and/or landed property within defined jurisdictions, or people processing property purchase following the signing of a deed. Long-term tenants (those holding leases of one year and above, for example) were equally free to become members.

The “whiteness” of the associations is to a very large extent “accidental”: most residents in South Africa’s “first world” locales continue to be white (clearly a throwback to the defunct era of segregated human ecologies). However, almost all South African suburbs today are mixed-race settlements.

But let’s not digress into demography. Let’s keep our focus on the debates about how “withholding taxes instead of paying them to government” could impact on the performance of municipal governance. Let’s also factor in the angle of whether this form of citizen “revolution” is worth replicating in countries where government at all levels is about everything but governing.

Besides remaining true to the capitalist imperative of doing whatever it takes to keep house and land prices high, ratepayers associations in South Africa are driven by imperatives that are in every sense mundane and entirely within the mandate of local government.

Their “activism”, at least going by the constitution of one such association in the Cape Town area, focuses on the provision, maintenance, and improvement of “water supply, electricity, health services, roads, streets, open spaces, parking grounds, playing fields, sporting amenities, (and) camping and picnicking sites.”

Other areas of focus include the “prevention and fighting of bush fires…, control of beaches…, and enforcement of applicable local laws and regulations.”

The associations’ rationalisation of society-state relations puts all this in perspective: the relationship between the state and citizens is simply a “contract”. The core obligation of local government is to provide, among other things, the services enumerated above, while the “rate-payer” must ensure timeous payment of his or her rate to government.

Now what happens when the state fails in its obligation?

Here lies the crux of the emerging suburban citizen “revolution” in South Africa.

Governance-related civic protests (very often quite violent) in black townships and informal settlements are all too familiar and have led the South African government (national, provincial and local) into accepting the fact that "anger has been boiling up across the land”.

Everywhere these days, there is general tardiness in the collection of municipal refuse, there are glaring signs of urban decay especially in inner city areas (a problem that has been exacerbated by rural-urban, and conflict-triggered inter-African migration), and there is uncontrolled street trading and begging at traffic lights. Potholes are not filled in time, and some towns have become shadows of their former selves. Rural-urban migration in a country where home ownership (rather than rental accommodation) is the norm, has led to unprecedented growth in the number of informal settlements.

Despite remaining a stunningly beautiful and well-run African country – a jewel in Africa’s crown, as tourists like to refer to it - post-Apartheid South Africa faces socio-economic and ecological challenges that could seriously undermine its pride on these very parameters.

Suburban ratepayer “activism” is ostensibly about preventing the rot from spreading into areas where it was hitherto unknown.

Many suburbs and towns (represented by their ratepayers associations, or the National Taxpayers Union) have already declared formal “disputes” with their municipal governments. In some cases, the disputes have already degenerated into the withholding of rates, due to alleged inability of government to satisfactorily perform the duties enumerated earlier.

Government insists that no citizen or citizen collective should withhold taxes, pay taxes into trust accounts, or hire private contractors to “play the role of government”.

As Minister Shiceka puts it: “if you are unhappy about potholes, about lack of service delivery, let us discuss that. That is what municipal service turnaround is all about. It must be driven by all the people."

Some commentators, however, believe that withholding taxes and hiring private providers to render services, though illegal and politically insensitive, is the middle class equivalent of burning tyres on the streets, burning down government buildings and cars, or taking municipal officials hostage. Each is a distinct form of protest – and each is about getting government to wake up to its role.  Whichever method works best for a given social class and sends the strongest message to government should be used – so the argument goes.

Previously in this column, we have argued that Africa is gradually, but surely, moving away from the era of “government power”, to the era of “the power of the governed”.  We argued that “governance successes and failures must be theorised in terms of both the “inability to govern effectively” and the inability to “demand” effective governance” (“Whoever diggeth a pit…” September 2009).
 
The ability to “demand effective governance” will, without doubt, take different forms in different African communities. One only hopes that the “ability to govern effectively” will dawn before illegality and criminality replace genuine citizen “activism.”

Samsung makes globally available HD 3D LED TV and offers Dreamworks’ Shrek collection in 3D

First available offerings include LED TVs, Blu-ray Players and 3D Active Glasses
First-Ever Release of Most Successful Animated Film Series of All Time in 3D From DreamWorks Animation

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a market leader and award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, recently made another stride toward redefining the home entertainment experience by officially announcing the world’s first-available Full HD 3D LED TV and full lineup of 3D home entertainment products to consumers worldwide.  Samsung also announced the expansion of its strategic alliance with DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. (Nasdaq: DWA) to feature an exclusive offering of the Company’s beloved Shrek film series – which to date has grossed over $2 billion in worldwide box office – in its entirety in 3D for the first time ever.

To make 3D TV more accessible for consumers globally, Samsung unveiled a promotional programme where everyone who purchases a 2010 Samsung 3D TV and 3D Blu-ray Player or Home Theater System will receive a 3D starter kit that includes two pairs of Samsung 3D active glasses and a first time, feature-length 3D Blu-ray version of DreamWorks Animation’s 2009 release, Monsters vs. Aliens (exclusive to Samsung products).

Additionally, during the second half of 2010, the most successful animated film franchise of all time – DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek film series – will be available in 3D Blu-ray for Samsung home solutions.

“Samsung has been the number one company in the global TV market for four straight years, and we remain committed to leading the market by deploying new categories of entertainment like Full HD 3D LED TVs, on which consumers around the world will be able to enjoy their favourite content, including DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek franchise, in their homes,” said Boo-Keun Yoon, President of Visual Display Business Unit at Samsung Electronics. “With the widest range of options for 3D home solutions ever, Samsung continues to lead the home entertainment industry by liberating 2D content to 3D, and creating new, immersive experiences for consumers.”

“It is an incredibly exciting time for the industry at large, as we continue to see the proliferation of 3D in theaters globally at unprecedented rates and now – thanks to Samsung’s innovation leading the charge – the capability to deliver a truly premium 3D experience for consumers in their homes. We are thrilled to be able to offer audiences the exciting opportunity to bring the world and characters of all of our Shrek movies home with them this year in 3D,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, Chief Executive Officer of DreamWorks Animation.

The news was delivered at Samsung’s Full HD 3D LED TV global launch press conference held in New York City, one of several global events created by the company to invite influencers and consumers to enjoy all the capabilities of Samsung’s 3D technology leadership.

Global Product Availability
Samsung will launch the broadest line of 3D home entertainment products in 2010. Its 3D TV lineup includes the LED 7000/8000/9000 Series, LCD 750 Series, and the Plasma 7000/8000 Series.  Available from last month are the 3D capable 46” and 55” LED C7000, with the remaining 3D TVs rolling out over the next several months.  Samsung is delivering 3D the way it was meant to be watched, combining the Samsung BD-C6900 3D Blu-ray player or the Samsung HT-C6930W 3D Blu-ray integrated home theater system, stylish 3D active glasses and movie in Blu-ray 3D.  The result: Full HD with lifelike depth and colour clarity at home. 

First to Market Full HD 3D LED TV Raises Bar for TV Excellence
This year’s premium LED TV models, the C7000, C8000 and C9000, feature Samsung’s Real240Hz™ refresh rate technology and Samsung’s proprietary built-in 3D processor that is compatible with major 3D format standards.  Samsung’s 3D technology and a faster panel optimised for 3D work together to deliver an immersive viewing experience.  When not in the 3D mode, you’re back to watching one of the best performing HDTVs on the market with the push of a button. 

The LED TVs come with Internet@TV connectivity which includes the world’s first HDTV app store, Samsung Apps, allowing users to download and view applications on their TV screens. The 3D LED TVs are also the highest performing and most eco-conscious HDTV products Samsung has ever released, all exceeding the more stringent EnergyStar 4.0 guidelines.

Taking the Wonder of 3D to people’s home
In the US, Samsung is launching a holistic marketing campaign under the name “Dedicated to Wonder,” a high-profile marketing effort that includes television advertising and the first 3D Cinema advertising (Spot?) for a consumer electronics brand.  Samsung assembled an elite production crew, including the Oscar-winning director of photography, Mauro Fiore, and is bringing the wonder of the 3D experience to life with this new marketing campaign.  New commercials began hitting the air last month, highlighting Samsung’s 3D technology and the wonder it brings to the home entertainment experience. 

Samsung’s in-store display plan is also key to exposing consumers to the technology and educating them on the value of 3D.  Samsung’s internal research shows that while awareness of 3D technology is high, less than a third of consumers have had any experience with it.  For this reason, Samsung is strengthening marketing activities in an effort to make it easier for consumers to experience 3D.  In 2010, consumers can expect to experience this immersive experience in more than 5,000 stores across the nation. Displays will start being deployed later in the month. 

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2008 consolidated sales of US$96 billion. Employing approximately 164,600 people in 179 offices across 61 countries, the company consists of seven independently operated business units: Visual Display, Mobile Communications, Telecommunication Systems, Digital Appliances, IT Solutions, Semiconductor and LCD. Recognised as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs.

DreamWorks Animation creates high-quality entertainment, including CG animated feature films, television specials and series, live entertainment properties and online virtual worlds, meant for audiences around the world. The Company has world-class creative talent, a strong and experienced management team and advanced filmmaking technology and techniques.

DreamWorks Animation has been named one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” by FORTUNE Magazine for two consecutive years. In 2010, DreamWorks Animation ranks #6 on the list. All of DreamWorks Animation’s feature films are now being produced in 3D. The Company has theatrically released a total of 18 animated feature films, including the franchise properties, Shrek, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda. DreamWorks Animation’s three feature film releases in 2010 are How to Train Your Dragon, Shrek Forever After and Megamind.

AUTOMOBILE

Behold! The networked cars
The transformation is sporadic but the cars are pleasant to manoeuvre. Auto users have not had it so good as more cars are the reality of the once upon a time world of fiction on wheel.

A few years back, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) promotional for the 2010 Annual Geneva Motor Show could have passed for another imagination of a master scriptwriter from the movie industry represented by Hollywood.

It announces with an air of authority that very soon, “the vehicles on our roads will soon be as connected as our homes.” This speaks of the cars for the future and their relationship with technologies that plans to seamlessly link future vehicles with available communications infrastructure, “enabling vehicles to talk to road systems and one another. While giving us a greater safety and control over our driving environment,” and by these conducts, humans are able to enhance green technologies, reduce traffic in cities where several man hours are lost to traffic jams and for environmentalists, it would be the best opportunity to reduce emissions in cities.

A new synergy that has already been seen in certain cars, there is no doubt that auto makers are experimenting on developing a smooth connection between office, home and recreational place with the vehicle. Just as mobile technology is dictating the pace in the telecommunications industry forging an alliance with other forms of technologies, the vehicle is not to be left out in the new marriage.

Part of the future that automakers have to offer is electric cars where the organisers of the Geneva vehicle show envisages that communications technology is most likely to emerge as a facilitator for a more efficient realization of the features of the new less energy consuming vehicle.

Among the key areas of development in this new coalition is the e-call car which tends to seek solution to the incessant cases of crash victims who are unable to call for help. “Systems in development automatically notify emergency services when an airbag is activated, speeding emergency response times and increasing survival rates,” according to the ITU.

Second is the numerous hazards that weather and other natural causes throw up for road users, especially in countries and continents where these could be on the extreme. These include: “Ice, snow, diesel spill or an accident.” According to the ITU, “new technology will communicate this to surrounding vehicles so that they can take the necessary action.”

Perhaps most dramatic, if it becomes embedded in cars will be the reasonability of cars in clumsy situations like finding space to park a vehicle. According to the show, “in the future, cars will be directed to empty parking slots, saving time and cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The same technology could be used to create more efficient traffic flow on national highways,” among other things that these vehicles can do to ease life of its users.
Geneva based ITU, ISO and IEC host the annual Fully Networked Car@ Geneva Motor Show, bringing the developers of these technologies together with car manufacturers to discuss how best to bring them to market. The event hosts cutting edge technologies, high-level discussions
and technical sessions on issues such as international standardisation.

…As Kia opens $1 billion auto plant in USA
With an estimated 500 dignitaries coming together to witness a landmark event, world leading auto manufacturer, Kia could not have wished more asits officials were joined by these high profile guests from the State of Georgia, local city and county officials to celebrate the official grand opening of Kia's first-ever U.S. automobile manufacturing plant in West Point, Georgia with capacity to produce 300,000 cars annually for the North American and global markets.

The ceremony which was attended by Chairman of the Kia Automotive Group Mong-Koo Chung; Group President and CEO of KMMG and Kia Motors America (KMA) Byung-Mo Ahn;
Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue; and a number of other high-ranking Korean government and State of Georgia officials.

“Kia is proud to call West Point, Georgia home and we look forward to many years of growing together,” said Ahn. “Continued diligent work has helped elevate Kia to one of the fastest growing automobile brands around the globe. With the successful launch of Kia Sorento CUV and establishment of our first manufacturing plant in the United States, the Kia brand is well
positioned for further growth and to become a worldwide leader in quality and innovation.”

Representing a $1 billion investment by Kia Motors Corporation, the sprawling, new 2.2 million-square-foot (204,000 meter-squared) automobile manufacturing plant is situated on more than 2,200 acres of land.  MMG consists of four main shops: stamping, welding, paint and assembly.

The site also includes a transmission shop, module shop and a two-mile test track where every vehicle produced by KMMG will be thoroughly tested. KMMG's general assembly area is outfitted with more than a half mile of height-adjustable conveyors to achieve the most favourable installation position for each team member and reduce physical fatigue. It is outfitted
with wood flooring, which provides a more comfortable and forgiving work environment for team members.

KMMG's cutting-edge technology ensures high productivity and high efficiency for each process. The stamping press delivers 5,400 tonnes of pressure and an automatic panel loading system; the fully automated welding shop boasts 242 welding robots; the paint shop uses eco-friendly, water-soluble coatings; and various systems are in place to keep inventory to a minimum via timely parts delivery.

Another highlight is the real-time processing and control system (RPCS) which feeds parts to the production line. It includes a digital signboard enabling timely and appropriate supply of parts via connection to the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, which contains all production
data. RPCS also minimises inventory in the parts warehouse by matching the flow on the production line.

KMMG also features a railway system within the grounds to facilitate transportation. Parts and finished cars are transported into and out of the site via roads and railway in the vicinity.

Governor Perdue noted that the event meant the continuation of a mutually beneficial partnership between the State of Georgia and Kia that will mean many great things for the State in years to come.

“This is a momentous day for Georgia as Kia Motors has brought thousands of new jobs to this area, and is truly delivering as a tremendous corporate citizen,” said Governor Perdue. “We value our relationship with Kia and pledge to continue providing specialised training through the Kia Georgia Training Centre that will guarantee a quality workforce and the future success of this plant in Georgia.”

The massive Kia automobile manufacturing plant and its supplier companies have already provided thousands of jobs. KMMG currently employs more than 1,200 team members and is expected to nearly double that number by the end of the year, while onsite and nearby suppliers will create up to 7,500 additional jobs in the region.

Mass production of the Kia Sorento CUV began on Nov. 16, 2009 with the product officially going on sale in the U.S. in January of 2010. Selling 7,398 units in its first month, Sorento was Kia's best-selling vehicle in January.

“The outstanding early performance of the first vehicle produced from our West Point, Georgia plant is a significant achievement for KMMG, KMA and the Kia brand as a whole,” said Ahn. “As we grow we will continue to expand our line of vehicles here and abroad while staying true to the Kia brand tenets of value, quality, safety and technology; and KMMG will play a prominent role in achieving our goals.”

Despite the industry downturn amid the global recession, Kia Motors' car sales in the US grew by 9.8 per cent over the previous year to 300,063 units in 2009. Kia aims to increase sales by 15.6 per cent to 347,000 vehicles in 2010.

EVENT

Mirroring the future of African Telecom
For nearly one hour, the number one regulator in the continent kept his audience in a trance as they savoured the amazing world of Africa’s telecommunications industry through the ages from Ndukwe’s perspective.

Call it a valedictory session and you will not be wrong. The setting was right to make one last and enduring impression about the African situation in the telecommunications industry; and there could not be a better choice of a person to do this other than the one man who has turned upside down historic dogma that the African continent is a never do well when it comes to science and technology.

The choice of Engr. Ernest Ndukwe as the keynote speaker at the second edition of the Africa Telecom Hall of Fame Lecture series could not be contested in both the speaker’s academic erudition and his status as a telecommunications regulator of note since the last one decade when he has served as the Executive Vice Chairman and chief executive of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

He represents a bridge across the times of the Nigerian past, present and the future in telecommunications development and by extension of the African development. Born in 1950s when only government and large businesses were the only group that had access to telecommunications services because they were the only ones that could afford them, Ndukwue has seen it all.

And in mid 1980s, NITEL had been carved out from the old Post and Telecommunications department and the race for expansion of the industry to provide more services for the entire population of Nigerians had begun and by the 1990s this has reached an estimated 550,000 active telephone lines through NITEL.

This journey of a nation from the old colonial contraption to an attempt at modern telecommunications service development was witnessed by Engr. Ndukwe and for a man who did not come into telecommunications by any accident, it is clear that nothing of the success that he has made of the office of EVC and Chief Executive of NCC could have come to him as much a surprise.

So, March 19, 2010 presented another historic opportunity for a man at the centre of national and continental history to tell an august gathering what there is to know about an industry he has held so passionately to his heart and there was no better theme than the one that was chosen – Sustaining the Telecom Revolution: Socio-Political and Regulatory Imperatives for Nigeria as an African Example.

For as long as the presentation lasted, there was rapt attention and note taking by the guests that was predominantly made up constituted of chief executives of telecommunications companies and managers of other related services providers including umbrella associations and groups.

The EVC who would later in the day be guest to what would appear his last at the NCC Consumers Parliament held in Lagos; enjoyed a complimentary presence of commissioners of the NCC and head of units including the Commission’s secretary; among others.

From 10.45am when Master of Ceremony, accomplished columnist and chairman of the Guardian newspapers’ Editorial Board, Dr. Reuben Abati flagged off the event in his familiar and enchanting voice; it was obvious that there was not going to be a dull moment whatsoever.

After introduction formalities of the day’s chairman, another Engineer, Gbenga Adebayo an Alumnus of the Obafemi Awolowo University like Engr. Ndukwe and who is currently President, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) and other members of the high table which included another Alumnus of OAU, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem (currently President of Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria – ATCON); former chief executive of leading operator, MTN Nigeria Mr. Adrian Wood whose Brymedia was the third highest bidder for the just concluded NITEL/M-Tel sales; was also seated on the high table so was Mrs. Ijeoma Abazie, chief corporate communications officer of Multi-Links Telkom; it was time for the real reason for the gathering.

However, this was not until Dr. Abati had painstakingly read to the admiration of the guests the citation of the keynote speaker, Engr. Ndukwe; the outgoing NCC boss who would later commend the organisers of the event, IT& Telecom Digest magazine for what he described as one of its kind citation.

As soon as he mounted the podium, the atmosphere inside the Abora and Mazonia suites of the Eko Hotel and Suites took an electric dimension as his 16-page speech was intermittently broken by claps by a highly impressed audience.

For the man who has traversed the entire continent of Africa nd the rest of the world in his more than three decades as a telecoms engineer, the topic was one he was quite at home with and there was no doubt about this when he concluded his presentation that he interjected consistently.

By the time he took his seat among dignitaries on the high table, it was clear that a journey of a decade as a foremost telecommunications regulator for this rare African may have come to an end but there was still more he could offer an industry that is just about getting out of its infancy in Africa, as he identified in his presentation that lasted nearly an hour.

Only a standing ovation like the type that was witnessed that Friday afternoon could do and so masterfully was the address delivered that for close to two minutes the audience clapped and applauded one of the best summaries of the challenges, prospects and future of telecommunications in Africa.

To encapsulate the presentation was a panel of three – Mrs. Abazie, Mr. Wood and Dr. Ekuwem and in one voice, they saw the future of the continent’s telecom industry and all the promises that is available to players not forgetting the challenge of power and regulatory freedom, among others.

Discussions did not let go unnoticed the landmark judgement of the previous day by a Federal High Court Abuja which reversed the government voiding of the award of the 2.3GHz frequency license to Mobitel Nigeria Limited and two other companies by the regulator.

According to Mrs. Abazie whose company, Multi-Links Telkom was one of the companies that won the bid out of 40 companies that participated in the exercise; it is important that government realise that autonomy of the regulator is paramount to a conducive telecommunications industry.

Similarly, Engineer Lanre Ajayi who is the president of Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) reacted to the cancelled licenses and subsequent judgement delivered by Justice Moahmmed Umar Garba lamenting that the Nigerian people have lost one year of what would have become an internet explosion, and he described the development as unfortunate for the industry calling for non interference by government in future similar exercises.  

Other responses commended the outgoing regulator while it was the unanimous opinion of the speakers that there was a dire need to sustain the gains of the last couple of years and an urgent need to replicate the success in the telecom industry in the power sector since that sector has continued to serve as a major drain on the capital of operators in the telecom industry, as in other sectors of the nation’s economy.

The quiet arrival of the wife of the EVC in the course of the programme was an additional colour that the organisers did not let go by as she was identified for his support to her husband in the ten years he served as the NCC boss.

Earlier at the beginning of the programme, while making his welcome remarks, Editor-in-Chief and chief executive of IT& Telecom Digest magazine, Mr. Mkpe Abang had identified how it is that the destiny of Engr. Ernest Ndukwe and that of the magazine has been tied together. In the words of Abang, while the former NCC boss was on his way to heading the regulatory agency, the magazine was also at about the same time struggling to bring to Nigerians all that they needed to know about an industry that was in its infancy way back in 2000, the same year Engr. Ndukwe was first appointed EVC, a position that was confirmed for a second term on April 2, 2005 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Only a few months separated the magazine’s 10th year anniversary and the ten years of Engr. Ndukwe as the EVC of NCC. So, as a mark of honour for a wonderful magazine that has become the leading light in the industry not only in Nigeria but in Africa, the event that would not close until a beautiful 10th anniversary cake was cut by guests and the magazine’s management.

It was also the first public appearance of the magazine’s sister publication – Mobile Africa which was first unveiled earlier in the year in Barcelona, Spain at the Mobile World Congress by General Secretary of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Dr. Hamadoun Toure in the company of other global players in the industry.

And after the event at the Eko Hotel and Suites, attention shifted to the Multi-Purpose Hall of Eko FM Studios in Lagos where the NCC Consumers Parliament was scheduled to hold. As usual, the event was organised by the Consumer Affairs Unit of the Commission and is headed by Mrs. Lolia Emakpore. Once more, the EVC observed what would be his last Consumer Parliament in that capacity.

2nd African Telecom Hall of Fame Lecture:
The Keynote Speaker:

THE CITATION

Engineer Ernest Chukwuka Anene Ndukwe, OFR

For this great Nigerian of the 21st Century, fulfilling generational destiny is as important as living life itself. He trained as an Engineer; an astute telecommunications Engineer; and this has become his personal, indeed unique identity. Engineer (Dr.) Ernest Ndukwe is a technocrat of immense professional, economic and social – and one may add without offending common sense – political dimension and persuasion.

In 10 years, Engineer Ndukwe has accomplished the positive disposition to the words of psychiatrist, philosopher and revolutionary Frantz Fanon. Fanon perhaps had the likes of Engineer Ndukwe in mind when he commented in his famous book –The Wretched of the Earth: ‘Each generation must discover its mission, fulfil it or betray it, in relative opacity’.

As the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) since the year 2000, Dr. Ndukwe has placed national values above self; he has enthroned equity and fair play in public office, and above all, he has extolled for the world to see, the ingenuity and therefore upheld the dignity of the Blackman.

The journey that began in 2000, when Engineer Ndukwe was appointed to lead the NCC and bring about a much desired change in the telecommunications industry in Nigeria is today a befitting cenotaph to what difference a resolute and determined individual can make when challenged.
 
In ten years, the industry under the regulatory direction of Engineer Ernest Ndukwe witnessed – and continues to witness – a revolution that is taking place at a most auspicious time. From 400,000 telephone lines at political independence in 1960 up to 2000, to nearly 76 million lines in just a decade, from an Internet penetration of less than one per cent to over ten per cent; and a teledensity of minus one per cent to more than 54 per cent; there could be no better way of leading an African revolution than this. Nigeria may have gained political freedom on October 1, 1960; but it is now clear that Nigeria gained economic freedom when telecom became a basic product that can now be bought anywhere and everywhere, well anchored with the coming into office of Engr. Ndukwe in 2000 and the revolutionary activities that would follow almost immediately.

Today, there is more than 30,000-kilometre length of fibre optic cable implemented, initiated by operators running through the length and breadth of Nigeria and forming a national backbone to bring telecommunications services to Nigerians in different locations.

And as a measure of the economic benefits of having just one round peg in a round hole, the Nigerian nation has witnessed more than 18 billion dollars Foreign Direct Investment through this sector alone within this one decade, and this figure could just be history if the NITEL sale is finally consummated and endorsed.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen; Engineer Anene (which means let’s wait on the Lord), Chukwuka (another name for the mightiness of the Creator) Ernest Ndukwe, has a reputation for facing challenges and turning around complex situations.

In 1989, he became the first indigenous chief executive of GPT West Africa Limited the company that later became General Telecoms PLC. His predecessor was an expatriate and Ndukwe was faced with the tedious task of turning around the fortunes of that company. Few years later, this is what the former University of Ife now Obafemi Awolowo University-trained Engineer had to say:  “The challenge before me was to prove myself and demonstrate that I can do even better; that has been my greatest challenge ever since.”

At the NCC, the Ndukwe charm came into play as he turned around a onetime ministry-like work culture of the NCC to an independent regulator which has since become the regulator of regulators, not only in Africa but across the world.

Today’s NCC is run by professionals in every field – engineers, lawyers, economists, financial analysts, administrators, media experts, sociologists and human resources experts, amongst others. And these groups are adequately remunerated, thus they have been well insulated from the enticing wealth of telecoms services operators.
 
Highly religious, perhaps it could be said of this gift from Nigeria to the world, that Engineer Ernest Ndukwe is an inspired leader, a good listener and learner, who has schooled himself to always choose good over evil.

An alumnus of the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) where he graduated with Bachelor of Science degree, Electrical/Electronics Engineering; professional training in Satellite communications at the Harris Corporation School in Florida, United States of America and an Alumnus of the Lagos Business School; Engineer Ndukwe has a track record for learning.

Once a pupil at the Nigerian Railway Corporation during his National Youth Service Corps Programme, he joined Radio Communications Nigeria Limited as Communications Engineer from where he moved on to GPT West Africa, first as Engineering Manager (Radio). And by 1989, he became the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company.

With more than 30 years of world class exposure in telecommunications, Engineer Ndukwe has served in various government committees and international institutions to formulate policies for an industry he is very passionate about.

A Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Fellow of Nigerian Institute of Management, Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering, Engineer Ndukwe was president of the Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) at a time when the industry had little direction. His presidency of that body immediately gave both focus and direction to the association and the industry, as his vocal and insightful presentations became the signposts that government would follow; a silent yet determined activist of some sort, one would say. Little wonder former President Olusegun Obasanjo saw the fiery fire in him; and thought this could be useful for the benefit of the nation. How right that decision has proved to be!

As an international player, Engineer Ndukwe served as the Chairman of the Administrative Council of the African Telecommunications Union, initiated the formation of the West African Telecoms Regulators Assembly (WATRA) of which he was pioneer chairman.

One of the most prolific telecommunications resource persons at global telecommunications events including those organised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU); the NCC boss has continued to serve as a shining example to some African countries on regulatory and policy developments in the industry; and whose advice on telecom policy and regulation remains much sought after by sister African countries.
 
Many times winner of the regulator of the year awards, Man of the Year award, by the Nigerian Information Technology and Telecom Awards (NITTA); in 2005, the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) honoured him with the honorary Doctorate Degree in Technology (D-Tech, Honoris Causa). And only recently, in December 2009, his alma mater, the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, did him a similar honour with the same honorary Doctorate Degree in Technology.

In recognition of his outstanding contribution to national development, Engr Ndukwe was conferred with the National Award of Officer of the Federal Republic (OFR). Appointing Dr. Ndukwe for a second term of five years as EVC and CEO of NCC was another way for government to express recognition and appreciation of the good works of this rare Nigerian of the 21st Century.

And at this special occasion in the history of the telecommunications industry on the African continent, we present to this august gathering, the first inductee into the African Telecom Hall of Fame, Africa’s leading light in telecommunications regulation and development, the one who we were first to call Mr. Telecom, a fitting title the world has since taken to in reference to him; our Keynote Speaker for the 2nd African Telecom Hall of Fame Lecture, Engineer, Dr. Ernest Chukwuka-Anene Ndukwe, OFR.
 

Africa’s Best Telecom Regulator Speaks

What Must be Done to Sustain the Telecom Revolution

Keynote Lecture DELIVERED BY Engr. Ernest C.A. Ndukwe, Executive Vice Chairman/CEO, Nigerian Communications Commission at the 2nd African Telecom Hall Of Fame Lecture

It gives me, great pleasure to address this distinguished audience at the 2nd African Telecom Hall of Fame Lecture Series event. I will like to add my word of welcome to the delegates to this one day Meeting. I also wish to congratulate the organisers of this Lecture Series once again for their foresight in instituting this great event.

My presentation this morning is titled ‘Sustaining the Telecom Revolution: The Socio-Political Imperative for Nigeria as an example for Africa.’ The choice of the topic for this presentation today has been guided by the fact that Nigeria has taken the lead in the tremendous growth that Africa has achieved in the industry in the last decade and the need to sustain this pace of growth well into the future.

ICT Growth and African Renaissance
Only a few years ago, the African continent represented a region of major concern to the international community because of its inability to industrialise and embrace essential technologies that are required to facilitate economic development of the region.
Infrastructural facilities such as roads, transportation systems, public power supply, Communications and Information Technologies were inadequate in most of the 52 countries in the continent. Since modern infrastructure is required for sustainable economic growth, the essential infrastructure inadequacy and insufficiency over the centuries may explain the reason why Africa hosts the highest number of the least developed countries of the world, in comparison to other regions.

Two major infrastructure components I have identified as pivotal for Africa to improve its standing in the global reckoning are:

Efficient and reliable public electric power supply; and

Pervasive, reliable and modern and Information and

Communications Technology
I personally believe that any African country that can get these two infrastructure components right, would firmly be on the path of major economic growth and development.

With respect to the ICT infrastructure component, the wave of Market liberalisation that swept across the world in the last two decades has positively impacted the continent with several African countries opening up to private local and foreign investment in the sector. Such countries have embraced market reform and liberalisation resulting in several notable success stories in the region, thus providing useful examples for other developing nations to emulate.

In the last decade, several African countries have been part of this revolution that has been propelled mostly by digital Mobile Services. With the licensing of competitive operators across Africa, the growth of these services has been geometric. In Nigeria, for example, an average growth of eight million lines per annum has been recorded since 2001.

Information and Communications Technologies have been widely acknowledged as presenting opportunities for the creation of unprecedented economic growth for Africa. Thankfully, most African governments have demonstrated the political will necessary to foster an environment conducive for investment in this sector.

Indeed there has been a revival in the telecom industry and history has been made. A report by Wireless Intelligence had put the mobile subscriber base in Africa at 280 million users by the end of March 2008. The African continent has thus surpassed North America in terms of mobile subscribers by early 2008. By the end of 2009 the ITU stated that the mobile teledensity in Africa was 42percent. Wireless Intelligence also reported that Africa is the world's fastest growing mobile market today.

Within continent, the Republic of South Africa had over the years maintained a lead as Africa's largest telecom market by subscriber numbers until January 2008, when Nigeria took over the lead as Africa's largest telecom market in terms of subscriber base.

The Nigerian Example
The open market approach adopted by Nigeria has promoted rapid deployment of ICT services nationwide, resulting in exponential growth in the number of telephone lines. Though a lot has been achieved, there remains a lot more to be done. Government is also fully aware of the fact that economic development and sustenance of any modern nation is dependent on the adequacy of the nation's telecommunications and information technology infrastructure.

The progress made in this sector in Nigeria has made it possible for the nation to become the largest telecom market in Africa in term of subscriber telephone lines. The progress made in the last decade has presented Nigeria as an African example of how a well articulated and well executed Sector Reform programme can transform the fortunes of a nation. Within this period, subscriptions to telephone services have risen to the current level of about 76 Million active connected lines. This growth has been made possible by the injection of about 18 billion US Dollars private sector investment into building infrastructure, development on local manpower, empowerment of local companies that provide support services, employment creation as well as stimulating social interactions and economic activities. Advancement in telecommunications Sector within the last decade has improved the nation's ICT ranking in the world and has positively impacted all sectors of the nation's economy. Nigeria has also become Africa's largest telecom market.

Sustaining the Revolution
The achievements in the industry so far can be attributed largely to the foresight by government in initiating and implementing a successful sector reform and providing the enabling and conducive environment with respect to policies and regulatory regime. The Nigerian Government has proven its commitment to promoting a Policy regime that is purposeful and forward looking as well as a regulatory environment that is fair, transparent and predictable. This translated into the boom that is associated with the sector today. However, to sustain the revolution, certain key technology areas such as wireless systems, optic fibre transmission systems and Internet/Broadband have been identified for particular attention. Digital Wireless and Mobile Communications Systems have helped Nigeria leapfrog into the circle of the world's top ten countries recording highest mobile subscriber growth. It is also true that digital wireless and mobile systems will be the '''Last mile" vehicle to launch Nigeria and indeed Africa into the circle of countries with high internet and broadband penetration.

Nigeria no doubt has cause to celebrate ten years of tremendous growth in the information and communication technologies sector. The revolution however, will only be full when all citizens have access to the vital tool of the information age. We must therefore continue to be aware of the scores of villages and communities in Nigeria that do not still have connections of any sort. They must not be isolated and deprived of the benefits of ICTs. We must strive to include all and exclude none, reach the un-reached and provide for the have-nots in our country. A special intervention vehicle, the Universal Service Provision Fund has been set up to address the peculiar requirements of rural areas, educational institutions and other identified areas of special need and identified special group in the society.

While African countries may be celebrating increase in access to and the use of basic telephone services, the more advanced countries are increasing access to internet and broadband at such an exponential rate. Broadband is no doubt an accelerator of social and economic development in the modern world with its applications enabling and facilitating economic and social services such as Public Safety, National Security, Telemedicine, E-government, distance learning, utility applications etc.

According to a BBC World Service study released recently nearly four out of five people around the world believe that Internet access is a fundamental human right.

It was reported that the international broadcaster polled more than 27,000 adults in 26 countries and found that 50 per cent "strongly agree" and 30percent "somewhat agree" that access to the Internet should be a fundamental right.

BBC World Service commissioned GlobeScan Inc., a Canadian research and consulting company, to conduct the study.

"The right to communicate cannot be ignored," Hamadoun Toure, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union, told BBC News. "We have entered the knowledge society and everyone must have access to participate."

The study showed that respondents in South Korea, Mexico, Brazil and Turkey most strongly support the idea of Internet access as a right, according to the BBC. South Korea, which has widespread high-speed Internet access, showed the largest majority of people (96 per cent) who believed that net access was a fundamental right. More than 90 per cent of those surveyed in Turkey agreed, giving it the highest percentage among European countries.

The BBC also noted that about three-quarters of respondents in Japan, Mexico and Russia said they “could not cope" without Internet access.

While four in five people around the world said the Internet has given them greater freedom, about 32 percent said they are worried about online fraud and 27 percent said they are concerned about violent and explicit content.

The ITU recent figure for internet penetration for Africa is put at 8 percent. This no doubt is very low. There is therefore an urgent need to initiate national policies aimed at promoting ubiquitous broadband deployment. Major improvement in this area must be a major focus in our plan for sustaining the revolution.
To sustain the growth it will be critical for government to continue to:

1. Maintaining stability in the policy and regulatory space. The high investment levels have been attained in the sector, not just because Nigeria has become one of the most desired investment destinations for ICT in Africa and due to the potential of the market but largely because of the stable policy and regulatory regime.

2. Maintaining the operational and financial independence of the regulatory institution. Experience has shown that the independence of the Regulatory body is essential to the successful performance of its role in the sector. Regulators need to be isolated from political or administrative pressures to be able to regulate the market fairly and earn the confidence of investors, consumers and stakeholders.

3. Maintaining an operating environment that is conducive is essential for attracting investment and avoiding actions that can constitute a disincentive for investment or challenge the sustainability of returns on investment capital. The telecoms sector is very capital intensive and therefore, to continue network expansion, improve quality of service and increase coverage in Nigeria, emphasis must be on ensuring the attractive operating environment.

4. There is also need for efficient management of national spectrum resources including timely sale of available frequencies to support new technologies.

5. We must continue to emphasise on growing broadband infrastructure and catalysing adoption and usage of internet and broadband services by the citizens.

6. We need to continue and encourage the expansion of fibre optic cable transmission infrastructure nationally and internationally.

Conclusion
One of the essential tools of human development in the 21st century is the wide application of ICTs in all the sectors of the economy. The effects of ICTs on economic structures are very visible today in most development initiatives. The way people live and carry out their business, economic and social activities depend heavily on ICTs. Information and knowledge is greatly enhanced through timely and extensive dissemination without the limitations of national boundaries, race, social class or age group. An information economy can only be built on a modern, solid and dependable ICT infrastructure. Nigeria still needs to grow her teledensity figure from the current level of about 50 per cent to 100 per cent to achieve the vision 20-2020 targets. We must reach all parts of the country with both voice and data carrying infrastructure. It is instructive to note that today, over 70 countries in the world have passed the 100 per cent teledensity level.

Nigeria must therefore continue to build and update critical ICT infrastructure required to continue drive economic development and empower the citizens. Though some notable progress has been recorded in this area, we still need a pervasive fibre optic transmission infrastructure spanning across the whole of the country. We still need a much higher penetration of internet and broadband facilities at business premises, educational institutions and homes.

I will not end this address without drawing attention to the fact that though the growth recorded in the last decade in the ICT sector is commendable and must be sustained, what is perhaps more urgent is the need to work towards recording the same level of success in the Electric Power Sector. Availability of constant and reliable power supply to industries, businesses and homes is critical to Africa’s future growth. It is the next revolution that must happen to give Africa its rightful position in the global ecosystem.

Ladies and gentlemen, although ICT will not solve all the problems of sustainable development and socio-economic challenges, there is consensus that nations that fail to take the great opportunities offered by ICTs are likely to be left far behind in the global economy. The best evidence can be found in the widening gap between those Communities, cities, regions and countries that have embraced the information society and those that have not. We must therefore do all the needful to ensure that the revolution is sustained well into the future.

Dr Ernest C Ndukwe, OFR, CEO, NCC
March 19, 2010

21st Century Technologies to unveil new products, services at W.Afri.Tel 2010

One of Nigeria’s leading telecommunications companies, 21st Century Technologies Limited, has perfected plans to unveil a bouquet of new products and services, which it has packaged for the Nigeria market, at the 10th West African International Telecommunications and Information Technology exhibition (W.Afri.Tel 2010) to launch a new direction for the company.

21st Century Technologies, which just secured a vantage place at W.Afri.Tel, West Africa’s leading and most sought after exhibition, said it is set to take the African telecom market by storm going forward, and W.Afri.Tel provides it the ample opportunity to create the necessary awareness and showcase its products and services, which the company has taken some years to develop.

Scheduled to take place at the $44 million new ultramodern, purpose built Eko Expo Hall, from June 1-3, W.Afri.Tel 2010 will provide a platform for the sub-region’s leading mobile, telecom and ICT operators as well as equipment manufacturers, networks solutions providers, computers and computing companies, among others, to put their best and latest products and services on display.

Chief Executive Officer of 21st Century Technologies, Mr. Wale Ajisebutu said:

“We see W.Afri.Tel as the ultimate technology exhibition for the West African sub-region, for any leading telecom company to demonstrate its capabilities and showcase what it has for the market. This is why we are going to the event, with products and services that the public has never seen in this region before.”

According to Mr. Ajisebutu, 21st Century Technologies, which has a long and cherished history as a fixed line telephone operator and an international carrier of carriers, has been playing a crucial and key role serving the corporate market in Nigeria with cutting edge technological telephone services and now sees a great need to further its offerings, because the market is ready for new products and services.

“Some people think that the growth in the Nigerian telecom market is slowing down. But I tell you, with new and innovative ideas, there is hardly any limit to the growth in this market. And that is why we are storming W.Afri.Tel to showcase some of the most innovative and exciting products and services that we have packaged for this market,” he added.

Confirming 21st Century Technologies booking for W.Afri.Tel 2010, Mr. Mkpe Abang, Editor-in-Chief of IT & Telecom Digest, sole Nigeria agent to Exhibition Management Services, organisers of the event, said:

“We recognise 21st Century Technologies as a leading telecom powerhouse in Africa; and their participation in W.Afri.Tel means a great offering for the sub-region, which has great needs for new products, new technologies, new services and new ideas.

“As W.Afri.Tel celebrates 10 years of providing the ultimate platform for existing operators, new entrants and innovators to bring to the West African market the latest and the best available anywhere in the world, we are confident that 21st Century Technologies will bring to the event many exciting additions to what they already have, thereby also helping the exhibition to fulfil part of its aim, which is to help the sub-region’s telecom market to grow,” Abang stated.

He also noted that 21st Century Technologies is one of the first companies to not only book their participation at this year’s show, but one of the earliest to fully pay for their space.

“Because spaces are limited, it is quite competitive getting a space and having it confirmed. But 21st Century Technologies is one of the lucky companies, whose spaces have been fully confirmed because they have paid in full for it,” Abang added.

For the past decade W.Afri.Tel exhibition organised in Lagos by South African based Exhibition Management Services (EMS) in conjunction with its Sole Nigeria Agent, IT & Telecom Digest, has been an annual technology attraction in Lagos, Nigeria.  Now, with the introduction of a brand new $44 million purpose built venue, the 2010 event can co-host the Nigeria ICT Business Solutions Expo (NISE) as well as the West Africa ICT (WAFICT) congress from 1 to 3 June 2010.

Explaining the special attraction for W.Afri.Tel 2010, the organisers said the new venue consists of 8000m2 floor space, which is substantially larger than the 1370m2 previously available for WAfriTel in 2009 and can accommodate up to 2000 visitors at any time.

Me & My Phone

As an Executive Director with Fees Limited, a business solutions company with interests covering Nigeria and West Africa; MR. POPOOLA ADAMS is always on the move. He is not just a computer and office operations expert, his eyes is also on the business of earning money for his company. What kind of phone does this busy ICT company executive use to keep in touch with clients and office? He spoke with IT & Telecom Digest. Excerpts: 

Question: What make of phone do you use, sir?
Answer: Although I have more than one but the Blackberry Bold 9700 is my current choice.

What informed your choice of the Blackberry Bold?
At some point, I wanted a phone that could do more than just voice and data. I needed a phone that could enable me do push email, that could make it possible for me to do some of the office work on spreadsheet, Excel and all those things that comes with official duties.

Apart from some of the things you mentioned, what other features do you use on this phone?
I have not even gone deep into studying the numerous things the phone can do. But as I said, those things I mentioned are the key things that I needed a phone like this for and I am getting results.

If you have to get another phone, which would it be?
It would be another edition of the Blackberry.

Were you to lose this handset, what would you miss most on it?  
Eeeeh! Certainly it would be the push e-mail that it enables me do.

SHORT TAKE

US plans high-speed broadband for its citizens 

US regulator, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have unveiled plan to make available to every American super-fast broadband by 2020 and the agency has submitted its plan to Congress as it agreed that broadband was the "greatest infrastructure challenge" to Americans.

According to the Commission, it is estimated that one-third of Americans, which is about 100 million people, are without broadband at home.

Thus, the FCC's goal is to provide speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mbps), compared to an average 4Mbps now.

In an executive summary released ahead of the presentation to Congress, the FCC said: "Broadband is a foundation for economic growth, job creation, global competitiveness and a better way of life.” Stressing further that, "It is changing how we educate children, deliver healthcare, manage energy, ensure public safety, engage government, and access, organise and disseminate knowledge".

Months of hype and speculation has preceded the presentation of the country's first comprehensive broadband roadmap. The FCC has also held a series of briefings previewing its goals.

"It's an action plan, and action is necessary to meet the challenges of global competitiveness, and harness the power of broadband to help address so many vital national issues," said FCC chairman Julius Genachowski.

 The executive summary revealed that access to high-speed internet services had grown dramatically from eight million Americans 20 years ago to nearly 200 million today.

Estimates to implement the plan have been put at $350bn with no clear cut idea on how the bill will be split between private investment and tax dollars.

Indications are that the FCC will auction off some 500 megahertz of spectrum to pay for some of the expense. More than $7bn will come from President Obama's 2009 stimulus package, which targeted broadband-related initiatives.

Over the years, the technology industry has pushed for the US government to create a national broadband plan and this is obviously a direct response to the demand as several ICT companies have commended the FCC boss for the move.

One possible battleground is expected to be over the sale of spectrum that is mostly in the hands of television broadcasters and lots of money demand by owners of these spectrums could be a stumbling block to their release.

…As Cyber crime losses double in 2009 
Recording losses which totaled $560m in 2009, as against $265m in 2008; almost doubled itself as shown in the annual report by the American Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).

Complaints about online fraud grew 22 per cent during 2009 and the IC3 received more than 336,655 reports of high-tech crime incidents from victims.

The most popular scams involved requests for advanced fees and non-delivery of merchandise.

Non-delivery accounted for almost 20 per cent of all complaints with ID theft being the subject of 14.1 per cent of the total crimes reported.

"Internet crime is evolving in ways we couldn't have imagined just five years ago," said Donald Brackman, director of the National White Collar Crime Center which helped draw up the report.

One scam that proved popular in 2009 involved people receiving an e-mail from the "Ishmael Ghost Islamic Group". The sender claims he has been told to assassinate the recipient and their family. Only by giving a donation to a UK group that helps Islamic expatriates will the death threat be lifted.

While the average loss from online fraud during 2009 was $575 the total jumped significantly because some victims lost enormous sums to criminals, said the report. About one per cent of the crimes reported involved losses of more than $100,000.

More than half of those falling victim, 55 per cent, were aged 40 or older.

The report also tried to put figures on the character of the hi-tech crime population. Figures it gathered suggest that 76 per cent of criminals are male and more than 50 per cent of them live in six locations; California, Florida, New York, Texas, Washington and the District of Columbia.

The IC3 is backed by the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center and was set up so those who fall victim to scams can easily report the incident.

Nokia acquires mobile browser, Novarra

World leading mobile phone manufacturer Nokia has agreed to buy privately-held U.S. mobile browser firm Novarra to improve Web surfing on a wide range of its low-end and mid-range phones.

Wireless Internet usage is set to surge in 2010 and beyond as operators and phone makers continue to play catchup with Apple's iPhone, with many handset vendors pinning their faith on their own browsers.

Novarra's rivals, including Opera and Myriad are increasingly refocusing their efforts to sell browsers to telecoms operators, who have a key role in phone distribution on many large markets.

Nokia did not disclose the value of the deal for the company which employs more than 100 staff, adding it aims to close the deal in June quarter.

 
Nigeria’s GDP up 6.9% on telecom industry growth
The Nigerian economy grew by 6.9 per cent last year following the expansion of the telecommunications industry in the country, this is according to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics.

The figure is six per cent higher than that of the previous year according to the agency in a statement. According to the statistics, non-oil industries expanded 8.6 per cent, while oil and gas contracted 1.2 per cent.

Crude oil production, accounting for 80 per cent of national revenue, dropped due to various attacks by militans, cutting Nigeria’s output by more than 28 per cent between 2006 and 2009.

Acording to Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Lamido Sanusi, Nigeria’s economy will become the largest on the African continent next year, overtaking South Africa.

As a result, the country’s GDP will reach an estimated $308 billion next year, compared to South Africa’s $262 billion.

Telecom New Zealand sees opportunities in Nigeria

New Zealand’s largest operator and technical partner in Brymedia, one of the consortia bidding for state-owned operator NITEL, agreed that the deal might be the last gateway opportunity in Africa’s fast-growing phone market.

“We look for growth opportunities and we see Nigeria as a growth opportunity. This is probably the last gateway opportunity to become involved in the African continent”, commented Nicholas Batchelor, chief executive officer of Telecom New Zealand’s Europe, Asia and Africa unit.

He however, cited fuel shortages and power blackouts as his company’s only concerns about Nigeria.

Telecom New Zealand International is part of the Brymedia consortium, involved in the final bid for NITEL. Brymedia’s $551 million bid for Nitel was third highest behind New Generation and Omen International.

If accepted, Brymedia West Africa, one of the partners alongside the New Zealand operator in the consortium, would inject $1billion in NITEL’s infrastructure within 15 months of the conclusion of the deal, according to Brymedia CEO, Adrian Wood.

Brymedia’s expansion plans for NITEL include increasing the capacity of undersea cable SAT-3 and the modernisation of the company’s mobile and fixed-line units. NITEL currently has only 45,000 fixed lines and a reported $500 million debt, losing market share to competitors MTN Nigeria, Globacom and Zain Nigeria.

Starcomms Nigeria unveils LBS solution

Starcomms Nigeria has announced the launch of a location based family finder service in partnership with UK based Location Based Service (LBS) supplier, Creativity Software.

The LBS service, named StarTrack, enables users to locate their family and friends, through Starcomms CDMA network. The LBS solution uses real-time location of the users’ mobile phones, providing their location without making a call.

“The need to be in touch without necessarily interfering in each other’s activities makes StarTrack the service of choice. Lovers can catch up with each other without calling and parents can track children without any exchange of voice or SMS”, said Tushar Maheshwari, Chief Commerical Officer of Starcomms.

Maher Qubain, CEO of Starcomms, welcomed the innovative service in the country, the first solution to be deployed on a CDMA network in Africa, adding that the company will look further on expanding its portfolio of location based services.

To register for the service, Starcomms subscribers simply send a registration SMS containing their name to the operator. Subscribers can then add a person they wish to locate, by sending a further SMS containing the name and number of that person. When a subscribers request the location of another registered user, the location information is sent to them via an SMS containing a written description of their location with the time and date.

Creativity Software is a UK company that specialises in Location Based Services. The company provides Mobile Network Operators globally (GSM and CDMA, 2G and 3G) with Location Positioning Infrastructure, Middleware and Applications.

STAR FOCUS
This NCC means business… telephone now a leveller

Down Memory Lane
With a curious admixture of forlornness and classical frustration about the realities of the times, a former Communications Minister, told a bewildered nation that “telephone was not for the poor.”

Indeed, he was right; at least given the facts and prevailing situation at that time. Although many Nigerians called for his head at the time like they did for Pontius Pilate in the days of yore, perhaps rightly too because of their little understanding of the grim realities, the Minister meant well by his statement.

He too was frustrated by what he saw. He was privileged all right; but what about those others, in their millions who never had his status. He knew and understood the meaning of pains and anger, especially about those who had the means yet could hardly get telephone lines connected to their homes. And, indeed, he also knew, sadly, of the millions who, though they desired telephone could neither afford to pay unlike those who had the money and paid but could not get the phone; nor would they have made getting a phone at that time their priority where a meal was most urgent – given the economic indices of being a telephone subscriber at the time.

He also knew that no fewer than 10,000 people competed for just two lines and he equally knew that the average waiting time to get a line gravitated between six and nine years.

He knew too that Nigerians were impatient and could not wait for that long. And if they tried, how many of them were likely to pay the fees prescribed by buccaneering business office managers (BOMS) who indeed controlled the business offices of NITEL at that time?

The minister was right after all; telephones were not for the poor!

Today, the story has changed. The buccaneers have been contained. Profiteering, which was a way of life for many a NITEL official has also given way to a new reality. Those who knew the road and opted to take it in the words of Lerone Bennett are now in business. Those who hearkened to the call and had abiding faith in a system that no one gave a chance to work now smile to the banks per seconds, singing new songs; they are now in the happy class of the nouveau riche.

But Nigerians are not fooled by these profits. They can talk at least. Just anybody can now own a phone. Thank you, Mr. Minister.

Telephone is now a leveller. How?

And, suddenly.... a new dawn
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) came like a divine message from above to make a difference in the lives of Nigerians, to prove NITEL and the doubting Thomases, and the minister wrong, that deregulation if properly managed could work.

That there is a great thirst for services and that there will be market for those who dare. Ask C.K Ramani and his brother, P.A Dave whose Multilinks made the first call from any private network in Nigeria on December 8, 1997.

Ask Bashir El-Rufai who saw early in his premature retirement from NITEL the meaning of private sector participation in telecommunications.

Ask Charles Alaba Joseph if you see him how he prepared and packaged Mobitel and sold it to the world.

Ask David Ogbah Onuoha and his Bourdex Telecoms in the sleepy terrace of Aba, Abia state.

Ask Bayo Banjo who came out with his own version of telecommunications services via his Disc Communications. Those who saw Nigeria as a high risk country took their time and when the NCC began its business of deregulation from the 7th floor of the Ministry of Communications Building, in Lafiaji, Obalende, Lagos before moving to a rented apartment on Saka Tinubu Street, Victoria Island, which became the hub for telecoms activities, Decree 75 of 1992 at least came alive.

But the year 2001 was a watershed when investments in the sector took root shortly after the Digital Mobile Licence (DML) auction of January 17 to 19, 2001.

The NCC stood tall for what still remains a globally acknowledged transparent auction exercise. For each of those who took the risk, participated and won, MTN, Econet Wireless, and paid $285m fee, history beckoned to them. Not forgetting the M-Tel reserved licence, of course.

Those who doubted the system and chickened out no sooner or later began to look for the back route to join the train. MTN whose shares nose-dived on the floor of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, because of the Nigerian adventure bounced back within the shortest time imaginable and became the toast of investors.

The sector was a void or what Rotimi Williams once tagged a lacuna. But these new rave of investors had confidence in Nigeria especially about the transparency of the regulatory agency, far from the meddlesomeness of government.

A Nigerian institution enjoys independence for the first time!

Engr. Ernest Ndukwe was the third Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the NCC. He had worked and rose to the position of Group Managing Director (GMD) of a major multinational, private sector driven telecommunications outfit.

He knew the rules. But this was a different ball game. Like he said elsewhere, he wanted to face new challenges and try something different. So he accepted the NCC job when he was approached.

He was taking a risk if not a plunge. But he was ready. He was determined. He asked for freedom to work if they expected him to deliver on services and make a difference. He got this and many more. So he went to work and today the story is told everywhere in the global telecommunications community that the NCC, which Ndukwe managed is now primus inter pares.

Those who asked horrible questions about the Nigerian factor have swallowed their words.       

Nonetheless, successive Nigerian administrations had tried to stimulate the telecoms sector, but with little impact, until the military government of General Ibrahim Babangida decreed the creation of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in 1992.

It was a bold attempt to boost the sector's development through deregulation, but those who thought that the inauguration of the NCC and the appointment of its first board of directors in 1993 would benefit the country were sadly mistaken. Nigeria remained a case study in telecom underdevelopment.

The state-run Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd (NITEL) was perpetually embroiled in red tape and did little to meet Nigeria's quest or need for basic telephony services to serve Africa's most populous nation. Even with the advent of a mobile sister company, M-Tel, Nigeria's telecom sector failed to improve.

A few statistics would help illustrate the story more vividly. The country got its first telephone in 1896 when the British brought the technology to Nigeria as part of their administration's infrastructure. Yet, at Independence in 1960, over nine decades after the advent of the telephone, the country had barely 18,000 phone lines for its estimated 40m population. Between 1992 and 2000, the nation's telephone system grew to just 400,000 lines.

By April 3, 2000, when the democratic government of former President Olusegun Obasanjo inaugurated a new NCC board, signs of change appeared on the horizon. That new board included two Nigerians who had distinguished themselves in both the public and private sectors. Although this was amidst doubts and the usual let’s wait-and-see conclusion given the benefits of hindsight on how government institutions had been run till then. Yet, for the duo it was, observers remarked, a judicious combination of qualities to bring together the two men--Alhaji Ahmed Joda, a veteran journalist and consummate administrator, and the younger Ernest Ndukwe, an engineer drawn from the nation's telecom industry, where he had been chief executive of multinational telecom companies. The two were appointed chairman, and executive vice-chairman/chief executive, respectively, of the NCC.

Their appointment sparked a revolution in the industry. Whereas Ndukwe has a higher profile as the chief executive running the day-to-day affairs of the commission, Joda was an unseen hand guiding the commission's work. It was Joda who brought on board decades of experience of the public sector, belonging to an older generation of permanent secretaries--men and women whose service was invariably characterised by integrity.

Joda's early forays into the civil service gave him a vast knowledge of the challenges of running key institutions within Nigeria's public sector. Also a journalist of note, he is among a number of public servants renowned for their competence. Call him a stickler for excellence and you will be just right.

Even before the anti-corruption drive instigated by the Obasanjo government in 1999, Joda had played a leading role in the fight against profiteering from public office during his years in the civil service, a role which earned him a reputation as a ‘super permanent secretary’. Ndukwe, an electrical and electronics engineer, graduated in 1975 from the Obafemi Awolowo University. A firm believer in the policies of deregulation, he has built his academic and professional reputation at the prestigious Lagos Business School and the Harris Corporation in Florida, USA, where he also taught.

He was at various times the chairman of the Administrative Council of the African Telecommunications Union; chairman of the West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly and until recently vice-president of the Telecommunications Development Advisory Group at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Dr Bamanga Tukur, the president of the African Business Roundtable has described Ndukwe as the "Father of the Telecom Revolution" in Nigeria.

Although for several decades Nigerians and Nigeria's economy suffered from the underdevelopment of the country's telecom sector, Joda and Ndukwe have inspired new hope that this shortfall can be reversed. Together they have ushered in a new work ethic at the NCC, introducing fresh ideas and insisting on integrity. With a fresh management vision, they have steered the NCC towards a closer relationship with the ITU, the United States Agency for International Development and the World Bank, all of which have built a strong partnership with the Nigerian commission. The NCC has not only become a clear pacesetter with regard to telecoms regulatory matters in the West African sub region, but is also acknowledged as one of the continent's most capable bodies. That has been vital for Nigeria as one of the world's fastest-growing telecoms markets.

The two men oversaw the relocation of the NCC to a world-class headquarters, built without resorting to government funding. They have also established the important Digital Bridge Institute (DBI). The DBI is now serving as a capacity-building institution, not just for the Nigerian market but also for the entire continent, in a bid to solve the lack of skilled manpower in Africa's telecoms sector.

The success recorded by the NCC owes much to the creation of the commission's quality enhancing and monitoring divisions--the Standards, Consumer Affairs Bureau and Corporate Planning and Research departments. Yet, in spite of these achievements, Joda and Ndukwe remain somewhat self-effacing, and that trait has influenced the entire commission's staff.

Mega business, mega profit

The Nigerian telecom sector has presented a golden opportunity for international and domestic investors. Since 2001, when the NCC conducted the first digital mobile licence auction for Global System for Mobile (GSM) Communication companies, every successful bidder has seen its operation flourish. While Nigeria was, prior to the auction, viewed as a high-risk investment proposition, within five years of rolling out their networks, all the telecom companies in Nigeria have reported strong trading profits. The Nigerian government and the population at large have been direct beneficiaries of the telecoms revolution.

Private investment in the sector has grown from about $50m in 1999 to over $18bn in local and foreign direct investment by December 2009, and the sector has contributed over $2bn in revenues to the federal government.

A further breakdown of the statistics shows that telecom penetration has risen from 400,000 landlines in 2000 to about 76m subscribers in nine years. This represents the highest quantum growth in Africa, surpassing both Egypt and South Africa, each with bigger economies. Today, Nigeria accounts for one out of every four telephone subscribers in Africa.

This telecom revolution has fostered new skills, enhanced technology transfer and produced a new generation of tech-savvy Nigerians, moving the country from the list of underdeveloped telecom nations to one of the top 10.

The lesson here is that if Nigeria can, in just nine years, move from having one of the lowest levels of teledensity in the world to being one of the fastest-growing markets in Africa and one of the top 10 in the world, then the Vision 20-2020 of President Umaru Yar'Adua's administration appears feasible.

Yar'Adua wants to make Nigeria one of the top 20 economies in the world by the year 2020. There is no doubt that this target is extremely ambitious; but to answer the doubters, many government officials point to the incredible achievements in the telecom sector. The country's former Minister of National Planning, Dr Shamsuddeen Usman, frequently used the Nigerian telecom success story to inculcate a national self-belief and patriotic pride in what has been achieved and what can be achieved. Nigeria is currently the 40th largest global economy. A raft of new telecom services has now become possible. Banking, stock transactions, e-payment, distance learning, e-health and a multitude of commercial transactions are now ICT-enabled, empowered by the telecom revolution.

The revolution is now so widespread that rural farmers, artisans, small shop owners and students are either already proud subscribers of a mobile phone line or they all aspire to mobile phone ownership – in a country where a public official once argued that the mobile phone was not for the poor as we pointed out above.

A bright future

When the ITU's Secretary-General, Dr Hamadoun Toure, visited Nigeria to attend the Africa Telecom Development Summit (ATDS) last year, he saw a bright future for the global telecom sector in general and Africa's telecom industry in particular. Issues of universal access, connecting schools and communities and broadband connectivity dominated his address to the ATDS.

Toure also said that he was happy at the high-profile reforms on the continent, with Nigeria leading the way by setting a clear example. According to Toure, Nigeria is poised to move to the next level in the telecom revolution's development with the deployment of broadband technology.

Delivery of broadband services to the country will require the extensive wiring of the country's many cities, linking them to other African nations via fibre-optic networks. Ndukwe has proposed the concept of "fibre without borders" that envisages fibre-optic cable backbone infrastructure being laid across the continent. Clearly, the NCC is intent on rapidly expanding the public's Internet access and has already made good progress. More than 30 million Internet connections were established in sub-Saharan Africa over the last decade, with Nigeria adding 11 million between 2000 and 2009.

Further Internet penetration will rest on the activities of the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) and the State Accelerated Broadband Initiative, two major NCC projects to reach out to the whole of the country, including the establishment of ICT laboratories in Nigerian secondary schools.

The commission is stimulating competition to meet these ambitious targets, ensuring the efficiency of networks, service delivery and cost-effective pricing. It has also stated its long-term vision to rapidly develop local ICT manufacturing and assembly.

Nigeria remains the fastest growing telecommunications market in Africa and third in the world behind China and Brazil. As a virgin market experiencing rapid growth, Nigeria has become a preferred destination for international technology investors from South Africa, Middle East, Europe, Asia and North America.

Since 2001, the Nigerian Communication Commission, NCC, has licensed various digital mobile operators, fixed wireless access operators, long distance operators, internet service providers, a second national operator and more recently, launched the unified access service licence, to promote competition in all segments of the market.

Some years ago, industry experts predicted the growth of telecommunication and ICT in Africa but never reckoned that Nigeria could grow astronomically from teledensity figures of 0.4 lines per 100 inhabitants in year 2000, to teledensity figures of 42 lines per 100 inhabitants in October 2008.

Nigeria’s mobile market gained more than 11.3 million new customers in the first half of 2008, expanding by 28 percent to reach 51.7 million mobile users. Nearly four million customers were added in the first quarter of 2008, while an impressive 7.3 million were added in the second quarter of 2008.

Instead of slowing down, the growth of Nigeria’s mobile market appears to have accelerated in previous quarters; by the end of June 2008, mobile penetration in Nigeria had exceeded 33 percent. In addition to strong second quarter performances from market leaders, a strong growth stimulus has come from the increasing number of service providers offering GSM and CDMA-based services.

From the paltry sum of $50 million direct investment into the sector by 1999, private sector investments in Nigeria’s telecoms industry today stand at more than $18 billion. The country now boasts five mobile networks and a good number of fixed wireless operators, with all 36 states covered by both voice and data services through GSM and CDMA technologies.

Out of Nigeria’s 76 million active phones, only about 15 million are in rural areas, where more than 70 percent of the population resides. To narrow this gap, the NCC plans to offer fixed wireless access telephony licences for populations in areas not serviced at the moment including underserved urban and rural areas in Nigeria.

In the ICT sector, Nigeria had 117 Internet service providers with 1.52 subscribers and 6.75 users per 100 inhabitants at the end of 2007. The growth of ICT has transformed business practices, making business more cost effective, developing financial markets and e-learning including open and distance learning. The NCC’s strategic focus is to actively pursue the provision of ICT access to all Nigerians within a five-kilometre radius by the end of 2010.

The advent of mobile telephony, also suggests that apart from increasing the number of those with access to and use of telephone service, it has created more jobs for Nigerians and limited the need to travel. Operators are faced with challenges such as interconnectivity, limited mobile coverage, and a shortage of trained and qualified personnel, poor financial capital, among other issues.

Regulator’s Contribution

Success as they say has its problems because it comes with fresh challenges. How they are managed would determine whether they would enhance or ruin the gains achieved.

The rapid growth in the telecoms industry brought by the revolutionary regulatory approach by the NCC to the industry has thrown up its own challenges. The NCC, in the early days of the deregulation of the telecommunications industry, was faced with the delicate and challenging task of balancing national interest with that of the investors in the country. Aware of the enormity of the task ahead, the then President Olusegun Obasanjo signed a new telecommunications law in 2003 specifying the powers and independence of the NCC as the nation’s telecoms regulator. The law strengthened the commission and increased its independence to be able to function effectively. Besides putting the law into practice, another thing that helped to stabilise and help it achieve phenomenal growth it has recorded was the will shown by the political leadership.

It is on record that the commission got the required amount of independence and autonomy that it required. It is on record that a former minister of Information and Communications under President Obasanjo was told to leave the NCC alone to allow it perform its functions well.

When the GSM operators started in 2001, subscribers complained of high tariff and the public opinion at the time seemed to suggest that Nigerians were paying the highest phone tariff in the world. But with the entry of Globacom into the market about two years later, Nigerians began to enjoy lower tariffs. Globacom was the first network to start the per-second billing and that changed the tariff regime in the sector.

The rapid expansion of the GSM networks also gave rise to problems of congestion. The operators, challenged by the sustained very high demand for their services and in a hurry to get returns on investments, rapidly rolled out more lines to meet the ever increasing demand without a commensurate plan for infrastructure expansion. This led to poor performance of the networks as a result of congestion.

The problem came to a head in 2008 when the press was flooded with reports of poor network performance. Nigerians were so enraged that the Senate and the House of Representatives were compelled to hold public hearing on the matter, and the NCC had to impose sanctions on the offending networks.

The telecoms landscape in the country is dominated by the mobile networks, which control 88.5 per cent of the market. Unlike the fixed-wire-line telephones, which have specific lines, dedicated to each user, thus securing the user’s access to the network, mobile phone networks share radio frequencies that could easily sign on a lot more subscribers than it can take.

Thus, it requires the regulatory intervention of the NCC to be able to discipline operators and make them offer services that would be in the interest of both the consumers and the operators.

Moreover, the dynamic nature of the telecoms industry where technologies of digital telephone, information and communication technologies are rapidly converging has broadened the regulatory horizon of NCC. Interconnectivity of the networks has to be carefully managed to safeguard the interests of both operators and consumers, and especially consumers, which are the focus of NCC.

The Commission had taken several regulatory measures, which have resulted in creating stability and industrial harmony in the telecoms sector. It has issued guidelines and regulations on interconnection rates. Through a collaborative approach with operators and consumers, the NCC has achieved landmark resolution of interconnection disputes. It has not also refrained from wielding the big stick; but only where absolutely necessary.

The focus on consumer interests also informed the recent adoption of the Unified Licensing regime, which allows a mobile phone company to operate fixed wireless lines.  According to the NCC’s boss, the NCC found that “as a result of the increasing pace of convergence, some products that could be used for pure mobile services can also offer fixed services.” Thus, he said, if licenses are rigidly compartmentalised, it could rob operators and consumers of the cost effective deployment of such services.

Also to ensure that operating companies maintain minimum performance levels, the NCC in 2009, came up with a Performance Management Programme (PMP) that would monitor compliance with standards. Under the programme, operators submitted periodic reports to the commission. The Commission also conducted its own assessment based on jointly agreed parameters.

The PMP is also designed to check a situation where the networks are in a constant mode of expansion but are barely able to keep up with the demand. This has led to poor performance of the networks as a result of congestion. The PMP is a regulatory intervention to ensure that operators better plan and manage their promotional activities to limit adverse impact on network performance and on the consumer.

Apart from managing commercial spectrum in the country, the NCC was also able to develop a new spectrum plan for the telecoms industry. This was geared towards ensuring a healthy competitive environment for operators and to give consumers satisfactory telecoms services.

Also, aside from direct regulations to Control the industry, the NCC has had regular engagements with consumers and other stakeholders in order to be on top of developments. It established a Consumer Affairs Bureau where complaints are investigated and necessary measures taken to protect subscribers. To make the process more transparent and serious, a Consumer Parliament was established where consumers, NCC and other stakeholders meet regularly to discuss problems and make recommendations.

The establishment of both the Consumer Affairs Bureau and the Consumer Parliament has received national and international commendation. It has considerably contributed to operators’ efficiency and the satisfaction of the consumers. This is one of the reasons why the commission places a lot of emphasis on building capacity and skills that would further equip it to serve the Nigerian consumer better.  

Also, the commission set out to create more security in the telecoms industry, stem the use of phones to commit crime and streamline operations, by issuing an ultimatum to all the operators to implement the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card starting from May 1, 2010. In a statement, the Commission explained that the SIM registration is aimed at tracking the identities of subscribers, following frequent complaints of the use of mobile phones for crime such as threat, blackmail and fraud. It will also make kidnapping very difficult as demand for ransom is usually made via unregistered SIM cards.

The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, managed at least 1863 licences of different categories as at February 2009. These include the over 800 licences for the installation of terminals and other equipment, over 400 companies licensed to carry out the business of sales and installation, more than 150 internet services providers, a first-of-its kind submarine cable license which was issued to MainOne Technologies, a submarine cable system company which is due to launch commercial operation in June 2010; and the various licenses for operation of the different categories of telephony which is in excess of 30, among others.

Attaining this huge number within a period of a decade speaks volume of the regulator. And managing the likely conflicts and overlap in the businesses of these categories prompts a great sense of challenge in the regulator and its systems.

There is no contest that this enormous task that has to be performed by the team which   Ndukwe and the board at NCC has painstakingly assembled, causes regulators from other countries to ponder what could be the driving force behind the NCC.

Presently, the NCC has a total of 429 handsets types that it has approved, even though some of them have since been phased out by their manufacturers and it is expected that more are likely to be approved as the Nigerian market becomes more attractive to various manufacturers from different parts of the world.

In spite of the strain that comes with these numbers of licences and handsets and other equipment types that the regulator has to manage, it continues to churn out more and more innovative programmes that could make telecommunications an affordable and enriching experience for Nigerians at various levels, especially those rural underserved population, that represent more than 60 per cent of the nation’s population.

Such programmes and projects that are the initiative of the regulator which is with the full support of the Federal Government and other state agencies and ministries include the Wire Nigeria (WIN) Project, the State Accelerated Broadband Initiative (SABI), Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF), the Digital Awareness Programme (DAP), Rural Broadband Initiative (RUBI) among several other collaborative efforts with NGOs and institutions.

While some of these programmes like the USPF and SABI are directly aimed to bring closer to the rural population of Nigeria the immense benefits and life-changing tools of telecommunications, others like DBI, are a direct way of creating a cache of industry professionals who are able to fill some of the manpower requirements of an emerging industry like Nigeria.

Indeed, the DBI like other innovations by the NCC since the coming into office of Ndukwe clearly points to the fact that the centre of focus of the regulator is to guarantee the best interest of Nigerians. For instance, most operators in the industry in the first few years of the revolution concentrated their plans in the cities and towns around with virtually all of them keeping a safe distance from the rural areas in the country.

This is obvious because operations in the rural areas are considered not lucrative and it would only amount to a waste of scarce resources trying to roll out in such communities. Wise business idea. But the NCC is aware that for telecommunications to serve as a life-changing catalyst, it must be within the reach of those who occupy the lowest rung of the society who because of their low earning power are not able to afford some of the services.

Thus, the regulator working with the government and in line with its statutory mandate provided the seed money for the commencement of the USPF, which encourages operators to venture into rural areas with government providing subventions on their investment such that they will not run their equipment at a loss to their investors.

Similarly the SABI project is one sure way in the thinking of the NCC to bring cheaper broadband services to the rural dwellers through a programme that involves the states and the operating companies in providing mostly shared facilities that will bring the benefits of Internet and its other attachments to the people in rural Nigeria.

Today, most Nigerian rural dwellers are able to communicate with rest of the world through affordable Internet and banking transactions are executed from the remotest parts of the country with headquarters of banks located in the major cities and towns. This system is made affordable as communities and villages can enter a kind of partnership with operators so as to own the tools of the services and in some cases it also provides them with employment and a veritable means of earning income.

Although some of these programme have not begun yielding results as the Commission and its CEO have anticipated. Ndukwe has declared that the last there or so years as years for action towards achieving another revolution in the nation’s drive to achieve mass deployment of mobile broadband.

Through its adoption of a liberal equipment adoption by operators, the regulator succeeded in encouraging the speedy launch of operation across the country and perhaps there is no other country in Africa with the capacity of Nigeria when it comes to deployment of fibre optics, for instance.

Virtually every of the operators have a fibre optic ring running around the country to enable them carry traffic with ease from one part of the country to another; and to a great extent, this has improved tremendously the quality of service in the country and making general habit of communication improve beyond the imagination of the worse critics of the country’s poor infrastructure development.

Beginning from late 2006, it was clear that the exponential growth in the sector, especially phone users; would sooner or later create a problem in the quality of service from the operators hence, the NCC began a deliberate sensitisation of the companies to adopt the policy of collocation in their operations.

And by 2007, the problem of quality of service had assumed a crisis dimension and operators did not need much persuasion to join the bandwagon of employing collocation in their activities and this has led to the regulator’s registration of at least 14 companies involved in building, maintaining and servicing sites that could collocate two or more operators at a time.

Although this has not completely obliterated the problem off poor quality of service, which is an integral part of the business, it has however become an exception instead of the norm among operators.

Still not satisfied that the Nigerian consumer getting adequate attention from operators especially from their customer services; the NCC early this year inaugurated the Industry Consumer Advisory Forum (ICAF) which is another platform to further seek ways of making sure that the consumer gets maximum value for his money and protect them against undue exploitation that may arise through marketing promotions and other strategies.

With the adoption of collocation into their company policies, most operators have drastically reduced the cost and speed of rollout, among other things. And the companies involved in collocation continue to improve on their services especially in the area of seeking more efficient alternative

The Nigerian Telecommunications Limited

NITEL, together with its mobile subsidiary, M-Tel, was until its sale owned wholly by the government. After trading off 75 per cent of its stake in NITEL, the Federal Government said it would soon return to the market to sell the remaining 25 per cent to Nigerians through Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Enter the GSM era

Mobile cellular services made their debut on the Nigerian market in 1993 with a “national” service operated by NITEL and a smaller Lagos service operated by Mobile Telecommunications Services (MTS). The two companies, with a joint subscriber base of 12 500, offered voice services over an analogue E-TACS network, as well as basic value-added services such as voicemail and paging, from three switches (in Lagos, Enugu, and Abuja). In 1995, MTS closed its operations due to failure to pay interconnection charges to NITEL. M-Tel subsequently emerged as NITEL’s mobile service provider.

The GSM licensing process was cancelled early in 2000 and the government of Nigeria reopened the process of auctioning four mobile cellular licences in December of that year, after soliciting credible bidders. The four winners who emerged out of this process agreed to pay a US$285 million licence fee each. Licence fees were settled within the mandatory 14-day period by Econet Wireless Nigeria, Mobile Telephone Networks (MTN) Communications Nigeria. Communications Investments Nigeria Limited (CIL) failed to make the deposit into NCC’s bank account, forfeiting its licence and being forbidden from participating in NCC-organised auctions for a period of five years. CIL contested the NCC’s verdict, but it is now effectively out of the game, its spectrum having been allocated to the forthcoming Second Network Operator.

Prior to the awarding of new licences, a host of licences granted to companies by previous regimes were revoked. One of those licences belonged to Motophone, the only other mobile cellular operator in the country at the time and more successful than M-Tel. While Motophone is involved in a court case with the government and the NCC over the cancelled operational rights, its network infrastructure lies fallow, the price demanded by the owner too high for other network operators to consider purchasing pieces of it.

The new GSM licences have been awarded for a period of five years (renewable) and all operators can operate in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz spectrum bands. Whereas they do provide for a potential upgrading of future networks to GPRS (general packet radio switching), they did not encompass third generation (3G) networks, which would later be auctioned off in the future. All licences permit operation of an international gateway.

Whilst definite targets have been set for the GSM operators in terms of network rollout (minimum of 100 000 subscribers each in first year of operations, 1.5 million subscribers in five years, and minimum five per cent geographical coverage in each of the country’s geopolitical states), the NCC has indicated that its primary interest lies in securing as comprehensive and efficient a mobile network as possible, even if that may mean slightly revised schedules. The operators were confident that the estimated pent up demand for mobile services will drive subscription rates much faster than the stipulated requirements dictate. Vigorous advertising of soon-to-come services and actual network rollout began soon after awarding of the licences.

Studies conducted in the Nigerian market indicate that simultaneous launching of three players in this market will create growth akin to the rapid growth normally witnessed in as many individual markets. Furthermore, this level of competition should see the expansion of packages offered at a greater rate and the introduction of value-added services to attract and retain clients. Cellular services market penetration is forecast to reach a level greater than five per 100 people by the year 2010 – an equivalent of some nine million subscribers, with roughly a 60 per cent 40 per cent split between rural and urban areas.

Nonetheless, at US$285 million in licence fees and an estimated further US$350 million investment in the network, sceptics are doubtful about the operators’ ability to recoup their capital outlay, given the very limited market (in their view) of individuals who will actually be able to afford mobile cellular services. They see such services as being used only by a select few large company employees, who will be able to justify the need for being within reach at all times. The price of a handset is calculated then at between $30 and US$40 during the take-off years and the operators plan no handset subsidies. The price per minute of airtime may hover around US$0.50.

The operators; their plans

Econet Wireless (Celtel, Zain, Bharti) Nigeria

Econet plans an aggressive campaign to win market share, counting on its provision of extensive value-added and e-commerce services (for which it is known in Southern Africa) to win the hearts and minds of Nigerians. The company foresees expansion in its local operations to roughly 1 000 personnel in the first year.

Econet will initially install its network as a triangle between the urban centres of Lagos, Port Harcourt, and Abuja, targeting not only the top corporate market, but also the middle-income mass market.

Econet was awarded the 0802 number prefix.

MTN Communications Nigeria

From its current base of 50 mostly South African staff at the Lagos office, MTN plans on creating about 1 500 jobs and purchasing over 100 operational vehicles in the first year of operations. It nominated Mr Pascal Dozie (chairman of the Diamond Bank) as its own chair of Nigerian operations to tap into local expertise and secure backing.

MTN intends to rollout an initial network covering the cities of Lagos (south-west), Port Harcourt (north-east), Abuja (central), and Kano (north-central), and spread out into other areas of the country in subsequent years. Given the current state of Nigeria’s telecommunications network, MTN is making provision to rely on that network as little as possible, preferring to install its own comprehensive network and use satellite connections. The company estimates that demand for mobile cellular services will far surpass minimum required capacity, and that up to 95 per cent of subscribers will be using these services on a prepaid basis. It also sees a fair market demand for data services from cellular providers and is considering the possibility of leasing bandwidth capacity to ISPs. MTN perceives Nigeria to be a key market to be in, as far as the company’s continental strategy is concerned.

MTN was awarded the 0803 number prefix.

Nigeria Mobile Telecommunications (M-Tel)

Until market entrance by the other two cellular operators, M-Tel has only offered voice services on its network.

M-Tel’s seeming advantage is its earlier presence in and knowledge of the market, with an existent subscriber base of 40 000 before even rolling out a GSM network. However, given the fact that its mother company – NITEL – will most likely undergo a process of privatisation before the end of 2001, M-Tel may experience delays in installation of its planned rollout. Such unfolding of events would, in turn, place it at a disadvantage vis-à-vis the other two competitors, as the first months of operation will prove crucial to securing of initial market share.

M-Tel was awarded the 0804 number prefix.

Glo Mobile
The only wholly privately owned indigenous mobile operator, Glo Mobile is the mobile arm of the second national operator, Globacom, which won the SNO licence and began operations two years after the others had gained a head start. Yet, it would be Glo Mobile that would introduce the per second billing tariff option that not only turned the heat on competition; it also opened up a whole new chapter for GSM operations in Nigeria.

Glo Mobile was awarded the 0805 number prefix.

Etisalat Nigeria
Who dares wins. This rather simplistic yet poignant saying is apt to describe the entry into the Nigerian mobile phone arena by Emerging Markets Telecommunications Services (EMTS) five years into the Nigerian telecom revolution or mobile phone boom. Trading as Etisalat Nigeria, EMTS’s winning of the fifth mobile licence in Nigeria at a time everyone else thought the market had become saturated with operators further confirmed Nigeria’s appropriateness as the destination for investment in telecom, thanks to clarity in the regulatory arena. Etisalat’s entry further increased competition in the sector, thereby giving the consumer greater choices.

Etisalat got the 0809 number prefix.

Market opportunities

The Nigerian government’s stated policy of sourcing 30 per cent 50 per cent of telecommunications equipment (e.g. switches and telephone handsets) from domestic suppliers by the year 2005 indicates a need of substantial investment into development of the equipment manufacturing industry. Current foreign equipment suppliers may be required to establish assembly plants in the country as part of their continued supply to the market.

With its domestic market of 127 million people and growing (the biggest in Africa), its prominent role as a trading hub in West Africa and beyond, and one of the poorest telecommunication networks on the continent, Nigeria presents a country of potentially vast opportunities in the communications sector.

The size of the local telecommunications market has been predicted to reach $3.7 billion by 2005, with 30-35 million users. The majority of cash generated in that market will be derived from provision of telephone services – some $500 million in the year 2001 and up to $2.5 billion by 2005. Three quarters of this revenue will accrue to mobile service providers. The size of the telecommunications equipment market is currently valued at $120 million a year. A particular area of likely future growth, and therefore significant investment potential, is the value-added services (VAS) market, riding the wave of liberalisation.

Initially, prices for services may continue to remain high as supply attempts to catch up with a demand generated by a couple of decades of stagnation.

A key aspect of this market potential – one on which growth levels depend – is the future growth of the economy and concomitant rise in people’s disposable income. The NCC created this benchmark.

TELECOMS REVOLUTION ENTERS YEAR 9
Footprints of a Life-Changing Telecoms Regulator
Introduction:
August this year marks the ninth year of the introduction of the Digital Mobile Communications services popularly referred to as GSM in Nigeria. Before then, access to telephone was the exclusive preserve of the rich and privileged few in the society. 
Today, GSM phones beep in almost every palm, pocket, handbags, offices, parties, school hostels, Beer parlours etc.  Just listen to the numerous ringing tones coming from different GSM phones when an aircraft comes to a halt and the engines turned off.  These and many more are happening with such ease today, that many people seem to have forgotten what communication was like before the advent of GSM in Nigeria.
Prior to 2001, the number of connected phone lines in the country before the introduction of GSM services was a mere 450,000 for an estimated population of 120 million at the time and the level of investment in the telecommunications sector was just about 50 million US dollars only. 
Nine years on, the growth of the telecommunications sector is unmatched by any other sector and it has recorded a phenomenal growth both in terms of subscriber base and infrastructural development in the country
Digital Mobile Licence (DML) Auction
In January 2001, the Commission conducted an auction for Digital Mobile Licenses. This auction was acclaimed locally and internationally as one of the best in the world due to the high level of transparency associated with the exercise.  The auction brought about the emergence of three mobile Operators; ECONET Wireless now (CELTEL, ZAIN), MTN and MTEL, a subsidiary of the incumbent operator. The Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), which was also awarded an operating license as a National Carrier. In 2002 a fourth Digital Mobile Licence (DML) was issued to Globacom (Glomobile) through another transparent auction process.
To further increase competition a fifth Mobile Licence (with GSM spectrum) was awarded to Emerging Market Telecommunications Services Limited in 2007.
The transparent manner in which the Commissions handled the DML gave the impetus to other licensing auctions that followed.  These include, the Second National Operator (SNO) granted to Globacom, Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) licences granted to 24 companies on Regional basis, the Unified Access Service Licences (UASL), 3G Licences granted to four companies.
Through the award of these licenses the NCC facilitated a phenomenal expansion of telephone lines in Nigeria, from about 450,000 connected lines in May 1999 to over 38 million lines by July 2007, boosting teledensity growth from 0.4 to 24.  The capacity for growth in the number of phone lines in the country over the next decade remains quite high, as some parts of the country are yet to be covered.

Internet Services Providers (ISP)
In order to facilitate the penetration of internet services the Commission has licensed several Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and has further encouraged the spread of internet access by initiating a class licensing regime to simplify authorisation processes for Cybercafés and Tele-centres. The Commission has also facilitated the establishment of an Internet Exchange Point for Nigeria which is now fully operational.
Investments in the Telecommunications Sector
Prior to the licensing of the Digital Mobile Operators, private investment in the telecommunications sector was just about 50 million US Dollars. Between 2001 and now, the sector has attracted over 18 Billion US Dollars, substantial part of which are direct foreign investment. With the rapid expansion plans by many of the major service providers, a lot more investment is expected to be injected into the sector and the economy in the coming years.
Nigeria has thus become one of the most desired investment destinations for ICT in Africa. This could not have been possible without a conducive and predictable regulatory environment.
Revenue To Federal Government
In addition to this, the Federal government earned over $2.5 Billion US Dollars from Spectrum licensing fees alone between 2001 and 2007 alone.  Import duties and taxes from the telecom industry have also contributed substantial revenue to the Federal Government.
Review of Tariff Rates
By the introduction of competition, telecommunication services are now easily available at affordable prices. Before the advent of digital mobile services in 2001, cost of subscription to M-Tel analogue mobile services was over N60,000. In 2001, GSM subscription started with a price of twenty thousand Naira (N20,000) per line and today, has fallen to almost zero. The introductory tariff was high at fifty Naira (N50.00) per minute but today, a minute call on GSM network can be as low as about twenty five Naira (N25.00) per minute on-net (mobile to mobile).
The Commission has consistently monitored what prices the operators are offering their services to the public, by approving all tariffs in line with the provisions of the Act and thereafter monitor implementation.
As a policy and in line with international best practices, the Commission has adopted a policy of ensuring maximum competition to drive down price.  This we have done by licensing competitive operators in all segments of the market.  Nigeria remains the most competitive ICT market in Africa, with service providers competing fiercely for market share and price of products.
Instead of intervention in retail call rates, the Commission has instead intervened in determining interconnect rates for the industry.  The combined effect of the two interconnect rate determinations in 2004 and 2006 was a reduction of the mobile termination rate from N18.00 per minute to N11.40 per minute.  This has enabled the fixed operators to reduce their retail tariffs for calls to mobile networks to as low as N20.00 per minute. The Commission will be initiating a process for reviewing the interconnect rates in the next few months in line with international best practice.
Consumer Protection
The Commission has been very active and innovative over the years in protecting and promoting the interests of consumers of communications services. The Commission remains the only agency of government to provide a regular platform to encourage the consumers to publicly voice their complaints in fulfilment of its mandate for consumer protection and empowerment through the following initiatives:
 The Telecom Consumer Parliament (TCP): - It is a platform created by the Commission to bring together stakeholders in the industry (i.e the Telecom Regulator, Operators and Consumers) to openly discuss problems affecting the Consumers of Telecommunication services. This novel approach in dealing with consumer issues has been acknowledged by the ITU as an innovative and effective mechanism for resolving the complaints of consumers. It is held every month across the six (6) geopolitical zones of the country.

• Consumer outreach program (COP): -Is an initiative of the Commission to address specific consumer issues, provide vital information, create awareness and bring operators face to face with consumers, thereby ensuring that telecom consumers are protected.

•  Customer Care Centre: - This centre is established within the Commission to collate and respond promptly to consumer enquiries and complaints through e-mails, formal letters, telephone calls, etc.  Many consumers have had their complaints resolved through this medium.

• Support for Consumer Advocacy Groups: - The Commission is supportive of the activities of several Consumer Advocacy Groups. This is novel approach in the history of consumer care in Nigeria.

• Collaboration with Consumer Protection Council (CPC): The Commission has signed an MoU with the CPC aimed at collaborating to further ensure protection of Consumers in relation to telecom service delivery.

At the NCC, we regard consumer protection as our prime focus area and will not spare any resources in ensuring that the Nigerian consumer of telecom services is well looked after.
Socio-Economic Impact
The great improvement in access to telecoms in the country has had a positive impact on virtually all facets of life in the country – political, social as well as economic. Government's interface with the citizens is now faster, people now contact their folks in most parts of the country from anywhere instantly whenever they wish and clients now easily reach their various service providers such as mechanics and tailors, all thanks to the telecommunications revolution!
Ownership of phones now cuts across the various social classes, opening good opportunities for the e-health, e-education, e-security, e-commerce and e-banking in the country.
The outstanding growth in the telecommunications sector has correspondingly created a significant number of new jobs in the economy. Also, other sectors such as advertising, real estate and finance have gained tremendously from the ripple effect of the growth in this sector. Today the telecom sector is a key contributor to the nation’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP).
Universal Service Provision
The revolution in the industry brought about by the rapid expansion of telecommunications services nationwide, led to the enacting of the Nigerian Communication Act 2003 repealing the 1992 Act. The Act established a Universal Service Provision Fund.
The objective of the Fund is to provide subsidy for service delivery in high cost areas especially the rural and under-served parts of the country. The Board of USPF was inaugurated in July 2006.
In order to ensure that telecommunication services are extended to rural/ underserved/unserved areas the Commission has supported and promoted a number of initiatives through the Universal Service Provision Fund.

• Community Communications Centre (CCC): The project is aimed at establishing Community Communications Centres that will extend voice. Internet, ICT training and other services to unserved communities on shared basis. Each centre will provide a public calling centre, cybercafé and ICT training courses, as well as serve as a platform from which to wirelessly extend Internet access to surrounding communities.

• Schools, Universities Access Programme to Digital Life Style (SUAP2DLS): The SUAP2DLS project is designed to provide Broadband connectivity to schools and universities and neighbouring communities with particular focus on the rural areas.

• Rural Broadband Internet (RUBI) Access: The project will award subsidies to successful proponents to provide wholesale Internet bandwidth to Community Communication Centres (CCC), Cybercafés, Rural Internet Service Providers (RISE), Institutions, etc, in rural communities in Nigeria.
• Accelerated Mobile Phone Expansion (AMPE) Project: To take advantage of the ease in deployment of mobile services the Accelerated Mobile Phone Expansion (AMPE) Project is designed to encourage network roll out in at least five unserved towns/villages in each of the 774 Local Government Areas (LGA).

• Backbone Transmission Infrastructures: The project will provide voice and data access points in LGA headquarters with backbone connectivity.

The Digital Bridge Institute
The growth of the number of skilled manpower in the telecom industry over the last six years has been remarkable. The NCC took certain timely initiatives to ensure that the dearth of skilled Nigerians to run the fast expanding telecom industry in the country was remedied.
A milestone was achieved on May 20, 2004 when Mr. President commissioned the ultra modern Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) in Utako, Abuja, established by the NCC as an international centre for advanced telecommunication studies.
Apart from training technical manpower, the DBI trains personnel in other specialist areas such as economic analysis, financial planning, law, arbitration, mediation, interconnection, e-commerce, business management, human resources and consultancy services.
The Telecommunications Training Schools in Kano and Oshodi have been recently transferred to the Commission by the Federal Government and are being resuscitated to become campuses of the DBI. It is planned that from next year the expanded DBI will be providing multifarious ICT training programs for over 2000 graduates annually to service both local and international markets.
Digital Appreciation Program
As its contribution to the development of computer appreciation among young Nigerians, the NCC started the Digital Awareness Program (DAP), which is aimed at encouraging the appreciation and use of ICT in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions all over the country. A total of 119 educational institutions have so far been provided with computers and internet facilities. At all the locations, the rooms housing the computer labs were refurbished and standby power supply provided.
 In collaboration with the DBI the commission has provided ICT training for several hundreds of students from the schools that benefited from the DAP.
Another program, the Advanced Digital Appreciation Program-Tertiary (ADAPT) is aimed at meeting the identified need of training lecturers in Nigerian universities to prepare them to use ICTs both for their work and as aid for web-based training and learning.
Institutional Strengthening of the NCC
In April 2000, a new Board of the NCC was constituted and inaugurated. At that time, the Commission’s workforce was small and in no position to adequately discharge its statutory functions as the regulatory agency of the telecommunications industry of Nigeria.
The challenge of building a strong, professional and independent regulatory agency was taken up by the Board. At the time the NCC operated from three small dwelling houses, totally inadequate for even the small staff complement at the time. Someone during those early days wrote that the NCC had “one and a half engineers, a Commission Secretary and some protocol officers”.
Since then, the Commission has developed a full structure and, today, it has all the professional skills necessary to function as the nation's Telecommunications Regulator including 41 engineers and technologists and a good number of lawyers, economists and administrators.
It has been the policy of NCC that it must at least maintain the same if not even better and higher levels of the skills possessed by those who work in the telecommunications industry. The Commission therefore devotes a lot of resources to Staff training and development. This has contributed to earning her the reputation as the foremost regulatory institution in Africa. The Commission also places a lot of emphasis on staff welfare and conducive working environment.
From a cluster of three detached dwelling houses in Garki area, the NCC relocated to the Benue Plaza, a more conducive building in the Central Business District of Abuja while the construction of its Head Office building was going on. Today, the NCC now has a permanent and very modern Head Office complex. The building was carefully designed and continually modified throughout the construction period to provide pleasant surroundings to those who will work in it and to all those who will have any business to conduct with the NCC.
International Reputation
The NCC is widely acknowledged to as a model Telecommunications Regulatory Institution in Africa and in the past few years has played host to representatives of telecommunications regulatory authorities in Africa on study tours. It is the Commission's intention to continue to partner with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and other development agencies in furthering exchange of experience and expertise in regulation in the region. NCC facilitated the establishment of the West African Telecommunications Regulators’ Assembly (WATRA) which it has continued to nurture and support. The NCC is also very active with the African Telecom Union (ATU) and the ITU.
The NCC remains committed to facilitating the growth of Nigeria's telecommunications sector to a leadership position in Africa.
Quality of Service Challenges
Though tremendous progress has been witnessed in the telecommunications sector, there remain numerous challenges. One of such challenges is the present poor quality of service being experienced in the network.
However, the Commission is working assiduously to ensure that the quality of service improves significantly within the shortest possible time.  The Commission is now working with operators to achieve network optimisation and speed up the rate of deployment of new base Stations, switches and transmission infrastructure.  In addition, the Commission has stopped all Service Providers from all promotional activities that will lead to increase in the volume of traffic until such a time that there is substantial improvement in the Quality of Service on the networks. We condemned in absolute terms the irresponsible action of major mobile operators in embarking on promos that their networks were ill equipped to carry.
NCC has further directed that as long as the poor Quality of Service persists, service providers should not place any restriction or time limitation on validity of airtime credits so that subscribers are not compelled to utilise their call minutes within restricted time frames. It is believed that these measures will further reduce the pressure on the networks of service providers and thus contribute to an improvement in the Quality of Service. 
The major contributor to the current QoS challenges is network capacity constraints. The operating companies have not been able to expand their networks fast enough to meet the ever growing demand by subscribers. This was further aggravated by a few factors such as the near total collapse of NITEL Long distance transmission infrastructure which a number of Service Providers depended on for their interstate links. With the fall of NITEl also came the collapse of M-Tel which depended heavily on NITEL for its transmission requirements. Thus several subscribers to the M-Tel service migrated to the other three networks with its attendant effect on aggregate network capacity generally.
Other issues such as major deterioration in the public power supply situation in the past twelve months; security challenges; theft; transmission cable cuts; delay in securing approval for building of new base stations; etc, have also contributed  in various degrees to the problem. 
At the NCC we maintain that the responsibility to ensure good and acceptable quality of service rests with the Service Provider. 
With the current rapid expansion programmes being implemented by all the service providers, and other measures the Commission has put in place, the QoS situation has started to record improvements. The recent intervention of the Ministers of Information/Communications and the FCT in the case of Abuja will also translate to major improvement in QoS in the Federal Capital Territory.
To ensure that this situation remains the focus of the industry stakeholders always, the Commission has constituted an industry working group on Quality of Service. Also, Guidelines on Infrastructure sharing which was published last year will be strictly enforced to encourage infrastructure sharing at all levels
THE FUTURE OUTLOOK
At the present rate of network growth it has been predicted that Nigeria will overtake South Africa to become the largest Telecom Market in Africa. A lot of emphasis is also being placed on growing Nigeria’s data capability by promoting large scale broadband internet and optic fibre rollout across the country.

• Wire Nigeria Project (WiN)

The objective of the Project is to provide a Nationwide Fibre Optic Transmission Infrastructure throughout the country; the ultimate goal being facilitating the upgrade of 1CT structures in the country. A number of companies have rolled out services in this regard with the addition of over 6500km of new optic fibre cable installed since 2003. The Commission is soon to award subsidy to a successful bidder for the building of a core, high capacity fibre optic layer and there are other on going projects for installing fibre cable over electric power lines which will further boost the capacity of transmission lines available to support the fast network growth. In the next two years, Nigeria will be fairly well served with transmission capacity to support anticipated large scale demand for broadband, voice and data services.

• State Accelerated Broadband Initiative (SABI)

The State Accelerated Broadband Initiative (SABI) is designed to encourage the private sector to build and run a broadband infrastructure with government support and incentives in all state capitals and selected major commercial cities in the country. It is hoped that before the end of 2008, this programme would have been completed.
CONCLUSION
The Commission is committed to the attainment of a robust, efficient, ubiquitous and high quality national network and will continue to provide the necessary regulatory oversight that will guarantee the attainment of this goal in the nearest future.