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African ICT News

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#1 ·


Africa's ICT sector is in an exciting phase. Several governments around the continent have made commitments to the development of ICT in their country. Some countries are planning to build ICT Technology Parks to help carry out these commitments.

This thread can be used to post and discuss news in this rapidly growing sector! In the following posts, I will detail the plans that some countries have drawn-up.

I'll start the thread by posting the continent's current top 10 ICT leaders:

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Africa's ICT Leaders

1. Tunisia

2. South Africa

3. Mauritius

4. Botswana

5. Ghana

6. Egypt

7. Morocco

8. Namibia

9. Uganda

10. Tanzania

Data collected by the World Economic Forum and other economic organisations shows that Tunisia was Africa's information communication and technology leader.

Tunisia was afforded this based on the level of competition, number of fixed and mobile lines per 1000 people, mobile telephony coverage and cost for handsets, number of broadband and narrowband Internet users, and school connectivity rates.

Tunisia had 120 fixed lines, 373 mobile connections and 83 Internet users per 1000. Ninety-five percent of the population was covered with mobile telecoms with 25 percent of schools connected.

South Africa, which came in second, had 104 fixed lines, 471 mobile connections and 81 Internet users per 1000. Population and school connections were slightly higher at 96 percent and 27 percent respectively.

School connectivity should probably be higher in South Africa, but Telkom, the country's effective fixed line monopoly, has failed to provide school Internet connections at the required 50 percent discount. Similarly, high fixed line and broadband costs have slowed growth.
 
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#136 ·
African ICT ministers get organised
BY STAFF WRITER , ITWEB

[ Johannesburg, 17 July 2009 ] - The Department of Communications (DOC) is set to take part in meetings which will discuss the harmonisation of ICT policy and regulatory frameworks in Africa.

Deputy communications minister Dina Pule will take part in the bureau and steering committee meetings at the upcoming African Union (AU) Communications Information Technology Ministerial conference.

The meetings will take place from 20 to 21 July, in Addis Abba, Ethiopia, and reports will be sent to the country ministers responsible for ICT.

The meetings will identify priority ICT programmes and projects, which will be harmonised for implementation across the continent. They will also consider recommendations by the AU infrastructure development programme for Africa for ICT and the preparations for the 2010 January summit on ICT.

SA was one of two countries which served on the technical team that reviewed ICT policy and regulatory frameworks for the African continent. These committee meetings will also act as follow-up sessions, which will discuss the programme of action to implement the outcomes and recommendations of the study.

Some of the other countries that will also attend the meetings and participate in the workshop are Kenya, Uganda, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt and Tunisia.

The deputy minister will also travel with a delegation from the DOC, which includes deputy director-general Dr Keith Shongwe and chief directors Themba Phiri and Nonkqubela Jordan.

Talking it through

Representatives at the meetings will discuss issues relating to the work of the AU Commission. One of the key concerns will be the need to improve AU member states' national telecommunications and ICT policies. The committee will also look at ways of aligning national policies with those proposed by the AU Commission in its reference framework.

Postal policies will also be discussed. Member states and regional economic communities will be required to improve their national postal policy and align them with those proposals made by the African Union Commission. Of urgency will be the establishment of an autonomous regulator that standardises postal services in countries.

The need to mobilise resources to accelerate the implementation of the selected flagship projects will also feature on the agenda. Initiatives, such as the African Regional Action Plan for Knowledge Economy, are considered priority and are seen as key contributors to infrastructure and capacity building. The meeting will also discuss the establishment of an ICT fund to foster the implementation of these flagship projects.
Link: http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/business/2009/0907171032.asp?O=FPTOP&S=IT in Government&A=ITG
 
#137 ·
DR Congo: France Telecom plans to bring its expertise in telecommunications sector. Saturday 18th July 2009

A delegation of the French company "France Telecom", led by its Director for Africa and Middle East, Mr. Bruno Bourgur, met with the Minister of Posts, Telephones, Telecommunications (PTT), Louise Munga, on opportunities to bring his expertise in the development of telecommunications sector in the DRC.


Speaking to the press after the meeting, Mr. Bourgur stated they have discussed with the Minister, issues relating to the rehabilitation of the Office Congolais des Postes et Télécommunications (OCPT) in its role as public operator and the possible granting of a license to France Telecom to operate in the DRC."

“We are interested to bring the best of our technology and our expertise to advance the market in the DRC”, he hammered, adding that his company is able, as a global operator to intervene successfully in the Congolese market.

The France Telecom group operates in at least 32 countries, including 16 countries in Africa and uses the brand "orange" as its trade identity in the countries where it operates.
 
#138 ·
‘SEACOM is turning on the switch for you to enjoy true broadband!’



The long awaited SEACOM cable is officially ready for service after eighteen months of feasibility studies and shareholder agreements, a nine month marine survey and a nineteen month cable construction period.

The $600-million, 17 000 km submarine fibre-optic cable system has a design capacity of 1.28 Tbps and will effectively link Cape Town and Johannesburg with London using Neotel as a partner.

“From today, the 1.28Tbps 15,000km undersea fibre-optic cable system will provide African retail carriers with equal and open access to affordable bandwidth, removing national backhaul and international infrastructure bottlenecks, thereby enhancing the competitiveness of east and southern African economies,” SEACOM said in its official blog.
Commenting on the finalisation of the Project, Brian Herlihy, SEACOM CEO, said: “Today is a historic day for Africa and marks the dawn of a new era for communications between the continent and the rest of the world. Our tireless efforts of the past 24 months have come to fruition, and we are proud to be the first to provide affordable, high quality broadband capacity and experience to east African economies. Turning the switch ‘on’ creates a huge anticipation but ultimately, SEACOM will be judged on the changes that take place on the continent over the coming years.”

In South Africa Neotel is SEACOM’s landing party, and will have a Johannesburg PoP and Cape Town PoP which are connected to the Mtunzini cable station where the SEACOM cable landed in late May.

To celebrate the launch of SEACOM, Neotel and CISCO have invited stakeholders and the media to a live demonstration of the fibre optic cable. Delegates will also be given the opportunity to test drive the SEACOM cable through provided Internet connections.

“SEACOM is turning on the switch for you to enjoy true broadband!” the companies said in a joint statement.


SEACOM switch-on discussion
 
#140 ·
East Africa fibre-optic will save 90 pct cost: Seacom
Thu Jul 30, 2009 12:12pm GMT

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Fibre-optic cables for internet service in East Africa are 90 percent cheaper than satellite and will underpin the region's economic development, a SEACOM executive said on Thursday.

The telecommunications firm last week launched services in South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique using its undersea cable.

The 17,000 km cable, operated by a Mauritius-registered private equity venture, links Africa to Europe and Asia and provides broadband speeds of up to 1.28 terabits per second.

"We are providing economic growth to the region at a very affordable price. Submarine cables are 90 percent cheaper than satellite," SEACOM Senior Vice-President Jean-Pierre de Leu told a regional investment conference in Nairobi.

De Leu said it was important for the cable, which has been connected via ports along the East African coast, to be extended inland as quickly as possible.

"If we didn't bring the fibre-optic cable all the way inside the continent, it would be very difficult for those countries to develop a network," he said.

The company has said that Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo will be using the service within the next two months.

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
Link: http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE56T0CM20090730
 
#142 · (Edited)
SEACOM fibre optic goes regional

I liked this article though some of what's said here is also stated in Xuseins link.


Written by EDRIS KISAMBIRA
Saturday, 25 July 2009
KAMPALA, UGANDA - The first of three under-sea fibre optic cables being laid on the eastern seaboard of Africa has gone live in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa.

It is widely believed that the cheap bandwidth that the sea cable is coming with will open up opportunities for governments and business community to compete globally and drive economic growth.
The US$650 million, 1.28 terabytes per second (Tb/s) 1,700 kilometre cable system links southern and eastern Africa to global networks via India and Europe. Backhauls linking Johannesburg, Nairobi and Kampala with the coastal landing stations have been established and SEACOM is also working with its national partners to commission the final links to Kigali, Rwanda and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia shortly.

Brian Herlihy, the Chief Executive Officer SEACOM said the cable opens up unprecedented opportunities, at a fraction of the current cost. Today, one megabyte per second (Mbps) connection per month costs between $2,500 and $5,000 but SEACOM plans to sell a megabyte at between $50 and $150.

Today, supply of bandwidth is constricted - a factor that explains the slow Internet speeds and high prices, but SEACOM expects internet service providers (ISPs) to buy more bandwidth given the price will reduce by about 80% what a megabit costs today.

SEACOM management marked the launch of the cable with a 1G bps live international connection and live high-definition video feed over an IP network to interconnect the other member countries with the launch ceremony, which was held in Dar es Salaam.

But what does SEACOM going live mean to the ordinary East African? President Jakaya Kikwete who officially switched on the cable system couldn't have put it in a better way as he delivered the launch speech.

"With this technology in place, a doctor at Johns Hopkins Hospital in New York will be able to supervise and direct a doctor at Muhimbili Hospital through a complex operation that today requires one to travel to the USA," Kikwete said.

With the broadband connection, Kikwete said, someone will be able to download an application form when they apply for a passport from any part of the country, fill it out and send it back to the immigration department.

Within a few days, they will pick up their passport from their local post office. "It will reduce unnecessary movement of people, contact with people and above all corruption," Kikwete said.

For rural Tanzania, Kikwete said, a farmer will be able to sell their beans as far as President Hugo Chavez's (Venezuela) kitchen easily when they link-up with a buyer on the other end.

Herlihy called the day historic for Africa as it marked the dawn of a new era for communications between the continent and the rest of the world.

The unprecedented capacity, quality of bandwidth and connectivity brought to Africa by the SEACOM network was demonstrated at simultaneous events in South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique.

Mr. Fred Moturi, the SEACOM Uganda representative said the cable is intended to provide equal and open access to affordable bandwidth which encourages volume discounts and large bandwidth growth unlike the expensive satellite connections we currently rely on.

With this enormous capacity, the cable will enable high definition TV, peer networks, IPTV and surging internet demand.

"Plentiful and readily available bandwidth will result in lower telecommunications costs and new opportunities across many sectors that will include the call centre business process outsourcing industries," Moturi said.

Today, Uganda uses between 400 and 600 Mbps of bandwidth but according to Herlihy, when SEACOM launches, the Uganda market will have between two and three gigabytes of bandwidth.

SEACOM will provide some 80 gigabytes (10% of the cable's capacity) initially and that is expected to be sufficient.

Africa, like the rest of the world, is experiencing enormous growth in capacity demand due to the Internet's ability as a medium for communication, providing information and entertainment.

In an earlier meeting, Herlihy said SEACOM's business philosophy will be low cost, high volume supply of bandwidth.

There will be two options to purchase capacity from SEACOM including what is called the IRU (Indefeasible Right of Use) as well as lease of capacity.

IRU is an upfront direct payment for an STM1, the standard telecommunications unit for a 155 megabytes per second (Mbps) chunk of bandwidth, rising to STM-4, through to STM64, amounting to 10 gigabytes per second (Gbps).

Under this arrangement, the purchaser owns the allocated capacity for 20 years and can resell it to whoever they want. Operators will pay $3.5 million for an STM1, $11.6 million for an STM4 and $34.7 million for an STM16.

Currently, an STM1 (155 Mbps) lease from a satellite broadband provider costs $387,500 per month. Over 20 years (240 months), this amounts to $93 million.

The second arrangement is through lease and is more expensive. SEACOM will also allow small Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to group together to buy capacity.

Herlihy said SEACOM has created an artificial ceiling that will work well to prevent wholesalers from charging the end-user high bandwidth fees.

SEACOM, privately funded and three-quarters African owned, is expected to provide bandwidth on an open access basis, allowing all operators to have equal access to the cable. African countries currently rely on expensive and slow satellite connection for telephones and the Internet.


http://www.busiweek.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1921&Itemid=2
 
#143 ·
President Banda launches the new Zain building in Lusaka

President Banda launches the new Zain building in Lusaka

Republican President Rupiah Banda says government is determined to ensure that the Information Communications Technology (ICT) sector performs well.

Mr. Banda said the contribution of the ICT sector to the national treasury has continued to grow over the years.


He said this in a speech read for him by Communications and Transport Minister Geoffrey Lungwangwa when he officially launched the new US$ 8 million Zain Zambia building in Lusaka today.

The President said because of the ICT’s growth, government has developed a futuristic policy for the sector.

He said the sector has embarked on the development of an appropriate legal and regulatory framework.

Mr. Banda said parliament is currently discussing three ICT’s bills, namely the Electronic Communications Bill, the Transactions Bill and the Postal Services Bill.

He said the bills are designed to align the Zambian ICT sector with the regional, continental and global best practices.

He said the ICT sector has continued to remain resilient to the international financial shocks.

Meanwhile, Mr. Banda has said government will continue to engage the private sector in the development of the ICT sector in the country.

The President further said government appreciates the investment made by the private sector, which is resulting in the growth of the national treasury through tax and non-tax contributions.

He said these are some of the benefits the government is realizing from increased investment in the country.

President Banda also urged Zain Zambia not to down-size on its labour force, as that would negatively affect some of the company’s employees but instead to put in place measures that could make Zain’s operations more vibrant in the country.

He encouraged the Zain shareholders to focus on Zambia as the country is now among the top investment destinations in Africa.

Speaking earlier, Zain Zambia Managing Director David Holiday said Zain is determined to bring in innovative products and services that would help create a healthy business environment to make Zambia a more attractive investment destination.

Mr. Holiday further commended the government for granting Zain a license to operate in Zambia, through the Communications Authority of Zambia (CAZ).
 
#144 ·
New Africa broadband 'ready'
Rory Cellan-Jones
BBC technology correspondent

Almost two months after the first high-speed cable made landfall, the highest residential internet speed offered by Kenya's largest ISP remains capped at one megabit per second (Mbps).

That speed is available only at night and at weekends, for an annual cost of $1,440 (£860). The average Kenyan annual wage is about $800, the UN estimates.

Dongle dilemmas

Until late July, East African internet users were forced to pay for connections routed through expensive satellite connections.

Uptake was slowed by costs and business competitiveness was hampered by the delay in sending data from one point to another via satellite.

But with the imminent availability of the 1.28 terabits per second Teams connectivity, business figures, ISPs and the Kenyan government now insist that high-speed, low-cost internet is just around the corner.

Links are being completed to other East African nations, "digital villages" are being built in rural areas, and the speeds on offer are increasing, albeit slowly.

"The cable is here, it is functional, and they are selling capacity," Bitange Ndemo told the BBC.

However, some in Nairobi feel that the cables themselves were over-hyped.

"I thought the cable would land and the next week we would have fast internet at home," said Ken Kasima, a developer for the successful crowdsourcing service Ushahidi.

Speaking at a cafe in the basement of a Nairobi shopping centre where fellow developers and programmers meet to use a free wi-fi connection, Mr Kasima said the price of his 512kbps internet connection was preventing him working effectively at home.

Rory Cellan-Jones visits St Charles Lwanga Secondary in Mombasa which cannot afford a web connection.

His connection, like much of Kenya's personal internet in a country without a significant landline telephone network, is delivered by a mobile phone operator via a 3G dongle connected by USB. A top-up card gives him 1GB of data use for a fee of 2,500 Kenyan shillings (£20; $33).

At that price, Mr Kasima insists he needs to carefully control what he does online in an effort not to waste his credit and his money. Even if the connection allowed it - which it barely does - listening to music or watching video online is not sensible.

"When you take it in comparison to what you're doing, it's a lot (of money), trust me. It's like spending a million to buy a wheelbarrow," Mr Kasima said.

Slow process

Perhaps surprisingly, the managing director of one of Kenya's most prominent ISPs agrees with part of Mr Kasima's analysis.

Jonathan Somen of Access Kenya told the BBC that some in the communications industry were guilty of making unwise pronouncements before the cables landed.

Kenyans talk about their hopes for high speed broadband

But Mr Somen - whose company is a shareholder in Teams - freely admitted that his products were aimed at business users and "high-end" residential customers, pointing out that Kenya needs major and costly investment to build a modern telecoms infrastructure.

"A lot of companies, ourselves included, have made significant investments in international and local infrastructure to deliver the new bandwidth," Mr Somen said.

"The more people get connected the more the economies of scale will kick in and prices will come down, but you can't expect fibre to land and that's the answer to all of our prayers.

"You have got to go through the stages to build up the infrastructure and the content."

His attitude is at odds with the approach of Bitange Ndemo, who called for those companies with investments to pay off to lower their prices to attract new customers.

"In Africa the argument is always that there are fewer customers so there is a need to charge a high premium," he said.

"That is what annoys me, because you need to have low prices to get more people."

Market forces

On the outskirts of Nairobi, though, one place where prices have fallen is KenCall, an outsourcing company which says data costs have shrunk by 90% since Seacom went online.

Where the company previously paid $3,000 for a one megabit per second (Mbps) connection via satellite, it now pays just $300, operations director Eric Nesbitt said.

As a firm which routinely deals with foreign clients and tries to offer Africa as a viable business alternative to clients in Europe, the US and beyond, that cost reduction is critical.

"We are now on equal terms with the rest of the world," Mr Nesbitt said, predicting that Kenya would now be just three years behind a country like the UK in adopting the latest technology.

Adverts around Nairobi seem to back Mr Nesbitt's analysis. Billboards promoting digital TV packages and internet bundles loom large over the city. Internet TV is on the way.

For Bitange Ndemo, the opportunities offered by the new connections are virtually unlimited.

"We have just opened our market from 37 million to six billion," he said. "We can become players if we work with a purpose. Africa can only succeed if we think that way."
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8257038.stm
 
#145 ·
Riding the digital express
VIEWPOINT
By Calestous Juma



The first undersea fibre optic cable, Seacom, reached the east African coast in July 2009.

This "Digital Express" is the most important infrastructure investment in eastern Africa since the construction of the Uganda Railway which integrate colonial east Africa into the British Empire.

Unlike the railway, dubbed the "Lunatic Express" by its critics, the Seacom network will integrate the region with the rest of the world and provide a crucial gateway to the global knowledge economy.

The $700m (£426m) project - largely funded by African investors - will reduce business costs, create an e-commerce sector and open up the region to foreign direct investment.

New industries will emerge to create content and software, new markets for access devices will grow, and research centres will flourish. Its impact will be unparalleled in contemporary African economic history.

The closest comparison is Africa's runaway adoption of mobile telephony but at scale previously unimaginable.



Speaking at Seacom's launch on 23 July, Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete visualised a future in which Africans would truly become part of the global economy.

They could find markets for their beans in Mexico; overcome shortage of science teachers through distant learning; improve access to health care by using telemedicine; reduce corruption by enhanced transparency; and foster regional cooperation through terrestrial fibre optic cables that are currently being laid in the region, he said.

But all these benefits will not be realised without a strong combination of entrepreneurship, education, policy and investment in regional networks.

Infrastructure projects such as this have never been easy. The region has a complex mix of countries including warring and failed states.

This has been complicated by costs. A decade ago it cost over $5,000 (£3,000) to per one kilometre of standard fibre optic cable, now it is just $300. There are some advantages to being a latecomer.

As a result, the necessary infrastructure is beginning to be rolled out. Rwanda and Uganda are now linked through Kenya, and are poised to take advantage of the digital express.

But to do this fully, their governments must be grander in their aims. Much of the work has so far focused on adopting policies to attract outsourced businesses in basic areas such as data processing and call centres. These developments are just a small proportion of what is possible.

Africa could benefit from this new infrastructure if it can focus on four critical areas: lowering the cost of access to bandwidth; expanding training opportunities in multimedia technology; stimulating enterprise development and liberalizing the market for devices to access the net.

This last point will need careful attention. African governments will be tempted to see the rise in demand for access devices as a source of tax revenue.


White elephants

However, such taxes will most likely dampen the prospects of benefiting from the fibre optic infrastructure. Liberalising the market for access devices and removing all types of duty would serve as a major stimulus for the growth of new industries.

In addition, governments should think twice before seeking to assemble conventional desktops and laptops locally. If they do, they will make the same mistakes that were made by countries hoping to assemble mobile handsets in the early days of the cell phone revolution.

Those factories will quickly become white elephants as the rest of the world goes mobile through new generations of access devices.

Instead, governments should instead adopt policies that encourage the use of netbooks and the creation of cloud computing industries.

Under this new regime, software and data will be stored on large-scale servers leaving users to work from smaller, less-powerful computers.

Education


Use of netbooks should be encouraged

However, in order for these changes to take place, the cost of bandwidth must decline.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are already offering more bandwidth for the same cost. For example, MTN Business in South Africa has cut the cost of bandwidth by up to 50%.

In east Africa, the arrival of other cables over the coming months is expected to create competition that will help to keep down prices and provide the critical redundancy needed to maintain reliable access.

Governments could also help expand economic opportunities by underwriting the costs of access, especially for start-up firms and universities.

And it is in these institutions that the government should focus. The most critical limiting factor in the expansion of digital industries may be education.

Countries such as Egypt, Kenya and Ghana are leading the way in meeting this challenge by creating universities that are dedicated to training young people in telecoms-related fields.

East Africa must do more. The newly-created Victoria Institute of Science and Technology (VIST) in Kisumu, on the Kenyan shores of Lake Victoria, is one such project of which I am a part.

Instead of preparing students to go look for jobs, VIST seeks to train young people to create enterprises. It will mentor young innovators and connect them to its network of investors. This should help to foster the creation of technology venture capital industry in the region.

Digital light

Safaricom's M-Pesa service was a radical innovation

Yet, the drivers of change are not just government. Firms such as Seacom have an opportunity to help complement their infrastructure investment by nurturing business incubators.

One way to do this is to give prizes and awards to young innovators that have found creative ways to use broadband internet to foster economic growth.

Kenyans have already shown that they can innovate on the mobile phone networks. The triumph of Safaricom's M-Pesa service - a radically new way of transmitting money by phone - is a harbinger of great prospects that lie ahead of the arrival of broadband Internet in Africa.

Seacom's investment is challenging Africa's youth to demonstrate their creativity and the leaders to provide a vision on the role of infrastructure in economic transformation.

Fibre optic cables are poised to impact Africans in the 21st century in more positive ways than colonial railroads did the continent in the 20th century.

For a continent that has been in economic darkness for so long, finally there is digital light at the end of the tunnel.

Calestous Juma teaches at Harvard Kennedy School and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. He is a co-founder of the Victoria Institute of Science and Technology (VIST) in Kenya.
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8256940.stm
 
#147 ·
Tip of the iceberg, my friends! :cheers:

$8 Billion Invested in Africa's ICT in 2008

Chibuzor Emejor
14 September 2009

Abuja — SECRETARY-General of International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Hamadoun Toure, said at the weekend that $8 billion was invested in the development of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Africa in 2008.

Toure disclosed this at a world press conference to mark the end of the African Telecom Development Summit 2009 held in Abuja.

He commended the giant strides made in the telecommunications industry in the last decade, adding that there are currently about 250 million subscribers in Sub-Saharan Africa.

According to him, "It has been an extra-ordinary decade for Africa and it gives me great personal pleasure to see how the continent has taken huge steps forward in bringing connectivity to African people.

"Just ten years ago, virtually nobody in Africa had a mobile phone; today across the continent mobile cellular subscription teledensity has reached 32.6 per cent, with some 250 million subscriptions in Sub-Saharan Africa.

He noted that Nigeria is currently the continent's largest market, with over a quarter of all subscriptions.

Toure, who is the first African elected as the Secretary-General of ITU, said Africa has equally made appreciable progress in the internet access when compared with "a tiny handful of wealthy people who used internet about ten years ago."

He added that more than 30 million people in Africa now have access to the web, adding that between 2000 to 2008, Nigeria alone has added 11million new internet users, a figure which represents 40 per cent of the total additions in Africa.

However, Toure stated that the continent still lags behind in broad band access, adding that there are only 635,000 fixed broadband subscribers in Africa.

He called for policy and regulatory framework as well as political will on the part of African Governments to promote the roll-out of ICTs.

The Secretary-General further stated that ITU, which is the umbrella body of more than 700 telecommunications organisations in the world, is to embark on "harmonisation of ICT polices in Sub-Saharan Africa," aimed at developing and promoting harmonised policies and guidelines for the ICT market, as well as building human and institutional capacity in the field of ICT through a range of targeted training and knowledge-sharing measures.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/200909140463.html

I believe that the # of broadband suscriptions will multiply by several times in the next 2-3 years as more undersea cables are implemented, which will make costs plummet further.
 
#148 ·
Kenya hosts first East African fibre-optic technology summit

Updated 10 hr(s) 3 min(s) ago
By Fredrick Obura

Nairobi will be the venue of the first East African Fibre Summit starting today.

The two day summit to be addressed by Information and Communication PS Dr Bitange Ndemo comes on the eve of communication revolution to be witnessed in the region as a result of the landing of undersea cable.

"The East African Fibre Summit will provide a platform for all stakeholders to assess the exciting developments, the impact they will have on their organizations and the optimum technical implementation strategies to gain maximum benefit from the opportunities they represent," said Grace Gathoni of AITEC East Africa.

The undersea cable is expected to spur different developments in region once it goes live currently different Internet Service Providers are involved in testing the faster Internet and laying cables within different towns.

Governments and corporate users in the region need to prepare for the transition from a predominantly satellite-based communications infrastructure to a fibre cable-based communications infrastructure.

"By providing a platform for regulators, policy-makers, vendors, service providers and users to network and share knowledge, the Conference will act as a catalyst to stimulate take-up of the right technologies to multiply connectivity across East Africa," she noted.

There is also an urgent need for new approaches to financing and building out information and communication infrastructure.

The event is sponsored by among other organizations Kenya’s ICT board and communications regulator CCK. The event has attracted IT experts from across the world.
Seacom enters into partnership with Uganda Telecom, Rwandatel SA

Published on 26/08/2009
By John Oyuke

Seacom, a submarine fibre-optic cable operator has entered into partnership with operators in Uganda and Rwanda to extend its reach across Eastern Africa.

The firm said Uganda Telecom and Rwandatel SA, have both purchased international broadband capacity from it.

In turn, it said, it has struck a deal to make use of the two regional players’ terrestrial networks between Kampala, Uganda and Kigali, Rwanda.

Seacom Chief Executive Brian Herlihy said under the terms of the partnership, both entities would have immediate access to the Seacom network. He said while Uganda has been connected to the Seacom network since its commercial launch on July 23, the agreement means Rwanda will benefit from the newly available broadband capacity as soon as next month.

Firm’s objective

"From the outset of this project, we realised the importance of connecting inland countries to our international network," Herlihy, noted in a statement.

He said the development is in line with Seacom’s objective to provide connectivity solutions to landlocked countries across the east and southern Africa.

Many countries had deployed massive terrestrial networks in anticipation of the arrival of affordable international bandwidth connectivity.
:cheers::cheers:
 
#150 ·
^^So true!:cheers:

ECP invests Sh1.9bn in Kenyan ISP Wananchi

Posted Tuesday, September 22 2009 at 17:44

U.S.based private equity group Emerging Capital Partners (ECP) said on Tuesday it had invested Sh1.87 billion in East African telecommunications and media firm Wananchi to expand its network infrastructure.

ECP, which has already invested heavily in Africa's fast-growing telecoms sector, said the upgrade would allow the firm to offer digital pay television, high-speed Internet and Internet telephony services.

Unquoted Wananchi is one of the region's larger Internet companies, offering retail and commercial web services in Kenya and Tanzania. It is thought to be lining up a stock market listing.

"Following on the tremendous growth in African mobile penetration over the last 10 years, we view broadband and related services as the next 'game changer' in African telecoms," ECP chief executive Tom Gibian said in a statement.

The capital injection should allow Wananchi to compete with bigger rivals such as Telkom Kenya, a unit of France Telecom, and Safaricom.
 
#151 ·
Altech increases stake in Kenya's KDN

Posted Tuesday, September 22 2009 at 12:02

South Africa's technology group Allied Technologies (Altech) said on Tuesday it would increase its economic stake in its East Africa unit, Kenya Data Networks (KDN), to 60.8 per cent from 51 per cent.

Altech, one of Africa's biggest connectivity providers, added that it would invest a further $39.5 million to build KDN's fibre optic network.

Altech, which expects 500 million rand cash flow by year-end, said it would invest a further $7.5 million in KDN to build a data centre in Nairobi, Kenya, with its co-shareholder in KDN, the Sameer Group.

The group said the data centre would offer disaster recovery, virtual application hosting, data and application backup, and an ethical hacking centre and data archiving facility to clients in the areas that will be connected by the planned undersea cables.

"KDN is central to our strategy and our gateway to East Africa. Our further investment in this business, is evidence of our confidence that the continent and in particular East Africa is poised for massive growth," Altech's CEO Craig Venter said.

Altech's East Africa operations made about 114 million rand and about 20 per cent of group earnings in the year to end February 2008.

Shares in Altech were 1.55 per cent lower at 63.05 rand by 0808 GMT, lagging a firmer JSE All-share index.

Workers lay a KDN fibre optic cable in Nairobi. The firm has a 3,000km network in the city.

Soliton secures Sh4bn cable deal

By NATION Reporter

Soliton Telmec, a fibre optic design company has secured a Sh4 billion contract with Kenya Data Networks (KDN) to lay backup cables.

KDN has also reduced its fibre optic network connection fee from Sh480,000 to Sh40,000.

KDN undertook the first fibre optic project in 2005 at a cost of Sh27 billion that covered most of Nairobi's office premises, universities, colleges and residential areas.

The backup cable laying slated for completion by year-end will cover Mombasa, Garissa, Thika, Nakuru, Kericho, Kisumu, Malaba and Busia.

It is the second time that KDN has contracted Soliton Telmec, which successfully completed the first 3,000 kilometre cable laying.

Soliton’s chief executive, Eng. Abdirahman Omar Sheikh observed: “This is yet another vote of confidence in our capacity to deliver and support large scale optical fiber projects, having built major networks in the country for the past five years’’

KDN managing director, Kai Wulff said the firm intends to provide low cost bandwidth that will guarantee affordable and reliable high speed broadband service in the region and Africa as a whole.

“We want to improve education and healthcare but also realise that the price of bandwidth is a significant barrier to such improvements not only in the country but the region as a whole’’, observed Mr. Wulff.

Kenya is among countries with one of the highest internet and phone costs regimes in the world.

Phone calls to South Africa or Rwanda from Kenya have to be routed through Europe via satellite making it expensive for consumers.
 
#152 ·
Dell opens big business center in Morocco, who will profide jobs for 2000 people in 2010:


The project of Dell in Morocco is the most important of the world at this moment for Dell”, Olivier Verger and Otmane Serraj, which share the head office of Dell Morocco. , Casanearshore Park accomodates the greatest center in the world for this American firm. Thus, one of the pioneers of the offshoring in Morocco, “the Dell site of Casablanca takes, according to its management, a true world scale”. Such sign that it ensures the coordination of the performances of service The center, which asserts the second place in Morocco behind HP, thus seeks to show a greater commercial aggressiveness. One speaks about some 2.000 places, that is to say as much of occupied employment. By type of profile, one quotes hundreds the commercial ones, technicians, the financial ones, managers of orders… The company is determined to support more than ever the internal development and mobility. The whole on bottom of productivity, performance and effectiveness of the first blow. On the whole, the personnel of Dell Morocco counts more than 17 nationalities different with a rate from feminization of more than 45%. “This year, we intend to recruit more than 400 people, in all the fields”, announces one near the head office. The ambitions of Dell Morocco are not limited to manpower. The availability of space to answer the growth of its personnel, the considerations related to notoriety as well as the quality of the infrastructures justify the important investments of the new business center. The HQ will have to also translate the appetites of the subsidiary company, the standards of seats and the ecological values: “We want to do of this building one of greenest of Dell in the world”, announces management. Moreover, of many solutions of operation and energy saving to solar energy were adopted. Thus, lightings of the Dell building are natural thanks to 8 patios. The building also has a showroom for the products Dell high-tech, sports a hall, a staff canteen to the standards of the firm… “We work with the persons in charge of Casanearshore to concretize the project of crib, as well as projects plus long run of residences on site










Dell s’offre son plus grand business center au Maroc



· Plus de 2.000 emplois dès 2010

«LE projet de Dell au Maroc est le plus important du monde à l’heure actuelle», confient à L’Economiste Olivier Verger et Otmane Serraj, qui se partagent la direction générale de Dell Maroc. En effet, le Casanearshore Park accueille le plus grand centre au monde de la firme américaine.
Ainsi, l’un des pionniers de l’offshoring au Maroc, «le site Dell de Casablanca prend, selon son management, une véritable envergure mondiale». A telle enseigne qu’il assure la coordination des prestations de services, désormais centralisée à Casablanca pour le monde entier. D’ailleurs, sans préciser le montant exact, le management affirme que plusieurs millions de dollars ont été investis dans les installations de Casablanca. Une décision qui vise à renforcer la stratégie de développement du groupe au Maroc.
A l’origine de cet intérêt pour la filiale marocaine, «les positionnements horaire GMT et géographique de Casablanca qui en font un atout important pour les activités mondiales. Le site est idéal en termes de décalage horaire pour travailler aussi bien avec le continent américain que les pays asiatiques», précisent les deux DG, basés à Casablanca. D’ailleurs, les activités de support au Canada se développent fortement. «Les prestations délivrées par la capitale économique étant de qualité exceptionnelle», poursuit le management.
Autre argument de taille invoqué: «la qualité des ressources humaines et des infrastructures télécoms à Casablanca, l’accessibilité à l’aéroport, le rapport qualité/coûts…». Le Maroc devient ainsi le marché où le groupe possède le plus grand nombre de partenaires. Dell affirme y avoir triplé son chiffre d’affaires en deux ans de présence sans en divulguer le montant. Au niveau international, le groupe a réalisé 50 milliards de dollars lors du dernier exercice fiscal.
Pour booster les activités du site de Casablanca qui s’étend sur 20.000 m2, Dell Maroc renforce ses équipes. Le centre, qui revendique la deuxième place au Maroc derrière HP, cherche ainsi à faire preuve d’une plus grande agressivité commerciale.
L’on parle de quelque 2.000 places, soit autant d’emplois occupés. Par type de profil, l’on cite des centaines de commerciaux, de techniciens, de financiers, de gestionnaires de commandes… L’entreprise est résolue à favoriser plus que jamais le développement interne et la mobilité. Le tout sur fond de productivité, performance et efficacité du premier coup.
Au total, le personnel de Dell Maroc compte plus de 17 nationalités différentes avec un taux de féminisation de plus de 45%. «Cette année, nous comptons recruter plus de 400 personnes, dans tous les domaines», signale-t-on auprès de la direction générale.
Les ambitions de Dell Maroc ne se limitent pas aux effectifs. La disponibilité d’espace pour répondre à la croissance de son personnel, les considérations liées à la notoriété ainsi que la qualité des infrastructures motivent les importants investissements du nouveau business center.
Le QG devra aussi traduire les appétits de la filiale, des standards de sièges et des valeurs écologiques: «Nous voulons faire de ce building l’un des plus verts de Dell au monde», annonce le management. D’ailleurs, de nombreuses solutions d’économie d’énergie et de fonctionnement à l’énergie solaire ont été adoptées. Ainsi, les éclairages du bâtiment Dell sont naturels grâce à 8 patios. Le building dispose également d’un showroom pour les produits Dell high-tech, une salle de sport, un restaurant d’entreprise aux standards de la firme…
«Nous travaillons avec les responsables de Casanearshore pour concrétiser le projet de crèche, ainsi que des projets plus long terme de logements sur site ou à proximité», termine le management.




Source: L'Économiste
 
#153 ·
Orange in wireless internet market

Walter Wafula

Kampala

Orange Uganda has introduced mobile internet services in the market.
The telecommunications firm is expected to officially unveil its wireless broadband and mobile internet services to customers today at the Uganda Manufactures Association (UMA) Show Ground in Kampala.

Orange will introduce the service powered by its Third Generation (3G) platform and a wireless mobile modem for Shs350, 000. The modem will come in handy with three months of unlimited internet access, according to information from Terp, the firm’s external communications partner.

Customers who opt for the telecom’s “Data Only Sim Card” will be charged Shs250,000, which will enable them to access three months of unlimited Internet access.

Currently, MTN Uganda offers the most affordable mobile broadband option for first time consumers. Its new second generation (2G) modem retails for Shs180,000 with a monthly charge of Shs90,000.

Warid Telecom’s wireless internet device costs Shs238,000 with a monthly charge of Shs85, 000 while Uganda Telecom’s 3G modem goes for Shs250,000 at start with a monthly charge of Shs130, 000.

But as more players - including newly launched I-Telecom - join the market, prices of internet services are expected to dive.

“Orange is billed as the number one provider of broadband internet services in Europe and is out to replicate its success in Africa,” Mr Phillipe Luxcey, the company’s chief executive, last month told the Daily Monitor in an interview.

Besides the mobile broadband offer, some of its 200,000 subscribers will also be able to surf the internet via mobile phones with 3G and EDGE enhancements.
........................................................................................................
 
#154 ·
With abundant capacity, Internet firms now in fierce market battle

Published on 15/09/2009
Related Stories
Undersea cables open new opportunities for online firms
Instaconnect hooks to Seacom but Internet costs unchanged
Seacom enters into partnership with Uganda Telecom, Rwandatel SA
ISPs uneasy with pricing of fibre-optic
Internet providers say they have more to offer users than low prices
By James Anyanzwa

Stiff competition is taking shape in the Internet market with service providers re-positioning to control the corporate segment, while extending tentacles to the residential broadband niche.

Internet business and access in the country had been a corporate affair for many years with 80 per cent of the three million users concentrated in Nairobi.

A few Internet Service Providers such as AccessKenya, Kenya Data Network (KDN) and Wananchi Online are making huge inroads into the residential Internet market but their presence is yet to be felt.

"Residential broadband is a profitable segment for our business. There is a great potential for growth because the segment is under penetrated," said Mr Jonathan Somen, group managing director, AccessKenya.


Workers haul part of the Teams fibre optic cable onto the Mombasa shoreline in June. The country’s connection to the global undersea cables ushers in competition among Internet service providers. Photo: File

AccessKenya says it has connected 2,000 residential customers in addition to its corporate clients.

Mobile phone operators — Safaricom, Telkom Kenya and Zain Kenya — are also eyeing the same market niche.

"The market has been receptive. We have seen a lot of interest," says Ms Angela Mumo, head of corporate communications at Telkom Kenya.

Telkom Kenya says it is connecting between 150 and 200 cus tomers every week. Instaconnect is another entrant into the Internet market with plans of consolidating its position in the corporate market.

The company expects to give its peers a run for their money by hooking corporates on the Internet via the fibre optic within the next three months.

Various buildings

"We are planning to start rolling out a fibre optic network to connect various buildings in Nairobi," Mr Amirali Merali, the company’s Chief Operating Officer told Financial Journal Last week.

The company says the move is part of its strategy aimed at creating value addition to clients and allowing increased usage of bandwidth owing to excess capacity in the market. Instaconnect specialises in providing customised solutions, which help improve corporate efficiency.

The entry of the undersea fibre optic cables—Teams, Seacom and Eassy— is expected to increase the number of Internet users to more than 10 million in the next five years.

The cables will link Kenya to the rest of the world at cheaper rates compared to the current satellite connectivity.

Bandwith speeds

Instaconnect has signed up to Seacom cable enabling it offer its customers a 300 per cent increase in bandwidth speeds at the same price. AccessKenya has bought 2,500mb of capacity on the Seacom fibre optic cable together with a similar capacity on the Teams cable.

"Our clients will be offered 128kbps to 2mb business class link capacity," said Merali.

The country uses just 1,200mb of satellite capacity. Instaconnect hopes to buy enough capacity from both Teams and Seacom with a view of offering high-speed and reliable Internet connectivity to its clients.

Broadband and Internet penetration and availability of bandwidth is still very low in Kenya mainly due to lack of infrastructure and relevant local content.
 
#155 ·
Telecom Investment in Nigeria Hits $18bn

Chinwe Ochu

10 October 2009

Abuja — Within the last eight years, telecom investments in Nigeria have exceeded, the $18 billion mark "on account of a predictive regulatory environment and supportive government for a deregulated telecom industry."

A statement made available to THISDAY by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said the chief executive of the Commission, Engr. Ernest Ndukwe, disclosed this at the ongoing ITU World 2009 Forum and Exhibition in Geneva, Switzerland.

According to the statement, the country is keen on attracting more investments so as to expand the needed services in the areas of Internet and broadband services across the country, having made a remarkable inroad into voice telephony services."

It quoted Ndukwe as saying that the current investment figure was made up of about US$12 billon from foreign direct investments while the balance was from investments made from and within the country since 2001.

According to him, the Federal Government's invitation to the private sector for participation in the industry has paid handsomely and led to the current success indices in the sector. "This tells me that the decision by government to liberalise was a very good one," he said, indicating that this was why the current 68 million active subscriber lines recorded in the industry over just eight years in Nigeria have been variously described as a revolution.
Relevant Links

* West Africa
* Investment
* Nigeria
* Capital Flows
* Sustainable Development
* Business

Ndukwe said that the decision by Nigeria to implement a technologically neutral regulation has resulted in investments in both the GSM and CDMA based services and made diverse services available in Nigeria with investors attacking services from different points thereby providing choices for the Nigerian consumer.

The statement stated that Ndukwe also told the world that Nigeria is shifting regulatory emphasis from licensing operators to monitoring and improving quality of services and attending to the needs of the consumer. Henceforth, issues of quality of service and affordability, and the like are becoming the focus of the regulator in line with the dynamics of the market and we are trying to refocus on this in terms of structural repositioning of the regulator to deliver within the dictates of these dynamicsî, he said.
 
#156 ·
Nigeria’s Telecommunications Market has Overtaken South Africa’s, According to Research and Markets Report (Nigeria – Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband, and Forecasts)

Research and MarketsResearch and Markets has announced the addition of the “Nigeria – Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband and Forecasts” report to their offering.

Nigeria has overtaken South Africa to become the continent’s largest mobile market with over 65 million subscribers, and yet market penetration stood at only around 45% in mid-2009. Far reaching regulatory reform has led to hundreds of companies providing virtually all kinds of telecom and value-added services in an independently regulated market. Billions of US dollars are being invested in network infrastructure each year.

Competition has increased under a new unified licensing regime, and declining average revenue per user levels are forcing the operators to streamline their businesses, introduce new services, and transform themselves into converged broadband service providers in order to maintain market share.

Mobile PhoneSignificant consolidation has already occurred in Nigeria’s Internet and broadband sector, from over 400 ISPs two years ago to around 150. Powerful new players from the fixed-wireless and mobile network operator camps have entered the market with third generation mobile and advanced wireless broadband services such as WiMAX. Mergers and acquisitions, which have attracted record prices in recent years, are expected to continue.

The arrival of two new international submarine fibre optic cables in 2009 will break the current monopoly in this sub-sector and revolutionize the market by reducing the cost of bandwidth by up to 90%. Several national fibre backbone networks are being rolled out to transport this bandwidth to the end-users.

However, due to the vast expanse of the country and decades of neglect of infrastructure prior to market liberalization, satellite-based services will continue to play an important role in Nigeria’s telecoms sector.

After failing three times in the past, privatization of the incumbent national telco NITEL is scheduled to be finally completed in 2009. The government is looking for a new strategic investor and new business models to turn the ailing company around.

Report Highlights:
- Forecasts for fixed-line, mobile, and Internet markets to 2010 and 2015
- CDMA-based 3G networks are outpacing their GSM rivals with triple digit growth rates
- Profiles of major players, including financial results
- Average Revenue per User (ARPU) is expected to continue falling before turning around on the back of broadband services
- Competition in international fibre bandwidth set to arrive in 2009 will revolutionize the market
- IP-based next-generation networks are enabling converged voice, data, and video services
- Sub-Saharan Africa’s first Fibre-to-the-Home (FttH) network rollout
- privatization of NITEL scheduled for 2009 after three unsuccessful attempts in the past
 
#157 ·
Telkom in plans to revamp landline

Telkom in plans to revamp landline

Telkom Kenya chief executive, Mickael Ghossein. Photo/FILE
By JEVANS NYABIAGEPosted Wednesday, October 14 2009 at 18:15

Telkom Kenya is planning to launch a triple play service that supports voice, data and television, as it repositions itself in the increasingly competitive telecoms environment.

With this, subscribers will be able to access internet, make calls and watch television all from the same platform
.

To revamp its landline network, which has in the past faced vandalism for its copper wires and dwindling subscriber numbers, the firm puts its hopes on the converged platform.

Ms Angela Ng’ang’a-Mumo, head of corporate communications, Telkom Kenya says, “We will be rolling out a revamped Telkom fixed service that will enable residential and small SME customers have access to voice, data and internet without interruptions. The platform will also allow for other services among them cable TV,” she told the Daily Nation on Wednesday.

As its launching pad, the company rolled out a double-play service, broadband Nyumbani, earlier in the year and will now upgrade it to triple play and thereafter quadruple play that will include video.

Wananchi Group has a similar product under the brand name Zuku.

Broadband Nyumbani’s ADSL technology uses the unused capacity in copper wires by receiving data through a different frequency than that of voice or fax, making it the ultimate choice in data transfer and processing.

The product’s equipment known as Livebox comes fitted with a Wi-Fi component that allows wireless internet access within 100 metres of the access point, commonly known as hot spots.

With this, customers can set up multiple computers or other Wi-Fi enabled devices in their homes, enabling them to connect to the internet simultaneously without blocking the phone line for voice calls.

The offer promotes the use of landlines by waiving the application fee of Telkom fixed line costs of Sh3,395 on application of the service within 30 days from payment of the fixed line.

The firm says it has a consolidated 1.8 million subscribers on the network and targets to meet and supersede 2 million subscribers on its GSM network by the end of the year.

Kenya Power and Lighting also has a diverse copper cable network and has recently announced that it will be joining the data market, while leasing part of its capacity to interested cable operators at the same time.
http://multimedia.marsgroupkenya.org/?StoryID=269772
 
#158 ·
Mitsumi-Toshiba deal to bring in $19m in sales annually

Toshiba, a world leader in high technology, has appointed Mitsumi as the official distributor of its products in the East African region.

The partnership seeks to enhance after-sales backup and support for Toshiba customers in the region.

The company has set up a sales and support office in Nairobi to run its operations in the region and improve market presence.

The partnership will also enable Mitsumi to have direct access to official Toshiba stock that is air freighted from Germany and South Africa, which will cut down on the waiting time between placing an order and having it delivered to retailers.

Toshiba says it settled on Mitsumi due to its large retail network and expects to net Ksh1.5 billion ($19 million) in sales per year.

In Africa, Toshiba operates in South Africa, Angola, Mozambique and Nigeria. “Territories outside of South Africa are relatively green markets for Toshiba,” said Donovan Scheepers, the business manager for Toshiba in Africa.

“To this extent, we are focussing a lot of our strength in establishing distribution channels in this new region. This is why the appointment of Mitsumi is so important — it will give us a solid base to begin distribution of products and delivering services to businesses and consumers across the country,” Mr Scheepers said.

Africa’s challenges and particularly Kenya is high competition as a number of resellers will enter the new market segment with cheap and quick imports from places like Dubai and the Far East.

According to Mr Scheepers, many of these grey marketers resort to selling illegal or unlicensed copies of popular software applications because they do not have access to official channels that sell and support these products thus aggravating the problem.

This is less than ideal because many of these products were not intended for the Kenyan market, which means that resellers would have a hard time ordering and keeping stock of spares in cases where products needed to be repaired,” said Mitesh Shah, Mitsumi’s sales director.

“In the past, even official Toshiba products that were brought in from Europe took a long time to reach retail shelves because resellers would have to wait up to four months while stock was sent via ship and then await Customs clearance after arrival in Kenya,” Mr Shah said.


http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/busi...z/-/index.html
 
#159 ·
Alvarion® Wins a Project with Safaricom to Deploy a Nationwide WiMAX™ Network in Kenya

Initial phase of over $12 Million for new infrastructure project to connect Kenya with high-speed broadband using 802.16e WiMAX technology, leveraging the new maritime fiber optic cable

Tel-Aviv, Israel, October 6, 2009 — Alvarion Ltd. (NASDAQ: ALVR), the world’s leading provider of WiMAX™ and wireless broadband solutions, today announced it was selected by leading Kenyan mobile services provider Safaricom for a three-year turnkey WiMAX project to deploy high-speed broadband services throughout Kenya. Using Alvarion’s BreezeMAX® solution at 3.5 GHz frequency band, the WiMAX network, will enable wireless broadband for residential and corporate users, rural areas, municipalities, banks, schools and universities.

Safaricom, the largest mobile carrier in Kenya and East Africa, provides integrated data and voice communication solutions. The Safaricom WiMAX project will augment the Kenyan undersea fiber optic cable that now connects East Africa to international communications networks. The buildout of this fiber network is aimed at improving the broadband infrastructure in the country. Safaricom is also among several companies participating in this government initiative to bring fiber connectivity to Kenya.
With the commercial implementation of WiMAX, Safaricom will be able to expand into new markets and offer enhanced broadband wireless services to enterprises, residential subscribers, community broadband initiatives, local government connectivity, and a multitude of other value added applications.

Alvarion’s WiMAX solution will give Safaricom the reach and network capacity to grow its subscriber base by connecting all of Kenya. Alvarion’s radio base stations are built with unique innovations in radios and power amplifiers that enable better coverage and capacity and provide significant reduction in power consumption while creating an environmentally friendly network.

“Our new WiMAX broadband network will enable us to offer high quality broadband services to our customers throughout the country, connecting all of Kenya, and creating new opportunities for business growth for multiple segments,” said Michael Joseph, CEO of Safaricom. “We will rely on Alvarion’s proven WiMAX solutions and unparalleled experience in deploying advanced wireless broadband networks of this kind to help us build the network that will establish Safaricom as a broadband leader in the country.”
Safaricom’s WiMAX network will be rolled out in both urban and rural markets throughout the country to provide equal opportunity to people by enabling various types of data applications including e-learning and e-government initiatives.

“We are proud to partner with Safaricom, one of the most advanced and innovative operators in East Africa. We look forward to create a state of the art network with Safaricom to bring new innovative services to Kenya,” said Tzvika Friedman, president and CEO of Alvarion. “Our WiMAX solutions are customized for emerging markets with capabilities that can help reduce operating costs and boost network capacity, and help deliver advanced voice and data services for a variety of applications.”

Alvarion has a strong presence in Africa and has deployed over 60 WiMAX networks in the continent.

http://www.alvarion.com/index.php/e...o-deploy-a-nationwide-wimax-network-in-kenya-
 
#160 ·
(Abuja)
Nigeria: World Bank Partners The Country On Devt of IT Parks

Jacob

15 October 2009

Abuja — Prof. Pater Materu, a Senior Education Specialist with World Bank, has said that the organisation would partner the Ministry of Science and Technology to establish Information Technology parks in Nigeria.

Materu disclosed this in Abuja on Wednesday when the delegation of the World Bank Education Sector Mission paid a courtesy visit on the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Alhassan Zaku.

The specialist said the organisation would fund the project within the limits of available resources to promote initial activities in the area of IT development.

He said that the idea of IT research and education network for post-basic science and technology parks, would enable the stakeholders to share information better and have access to a rich data base globally.

Materu added that the project would support some Nigerian institutions to become centres of excellence.

Also speaking, the Sector Manager of the Africa Regional Education of the Mission, Dr Chris Thomas, described science and technology as an important element for developing linkages in the education system.

He said that it would lead to the development of technology and its commercialisation to effectively drive economic growth..



Thomas said that during the second phase of the science and technology education programme, all the linkages between institutions, education and other parts of the economy would be captured.

Receiving the delegation, the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr.Alhassan Bako Zaku,commended the organisation for its intervention projects, saying that the country had achieved a lot from the assistance.

He called for more assistance in the area of incubation.

"We have various incubation centres in various parts of the country, which now take up these products and link up with small-scale industrialists to ensure that the products are used," he said. NAN.
 
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