Alcatel Main One extend undersea cable maintenance contract

Opeke

By Prince Osuagwu

Alcatel-Lucent and Main One Cable Company Limited, have renewed their marine maintenance contract for Main One’s submarine cable system connecting Portugal to Nigeria over 7,000 km and contributing to enhance overall African and international connectivity. Delivering high-speed bandwidth of 1.92 Tbit/s, the Main One cable enables cost-effective access to global information, data and markets in Western Africa.

As a member of the Atlantic Private Maintenance Agreement (APMA), Main One will continue to manage and maintain its network at the highest level of performance. Under the service level agreement, Alcatel-Lucent will make available its maintenance vessels, as well as experienced, fully trained, and certified specialist personnel for cable repairs.

 “To ensure the optimal network availability for continuity and quality of communications that our customers demand, we rely on world-class technical support including state-of-the-art cable ships capable of delivering rapid response repair services in any weather condition,” said Bernard Logan, Main One Chief Commercial Officer. “Alcatel-Lucent’s demonstrated capability and experience in all aspects of marine operations and maintenance assures and enhances the reliability of our network.”

 “This contract renewal further confirms Alcatel-Lucent’s leading role as marine service provider to help operators maintain their networks at the highest standards of service reliability for maximum end-user confidence,” said Philippe Dumont, head of Alcatel-Lucent’s submarine network activity. “Combined with the recent redistribution of our maintenance vessels in the Atlantic, our Cape Verde-based cable ship will offer the shortest possible mobilization time for any repair operations off West Africa.

 Alcatel-Lucent capitalizes on its unique experience as turnkey provider delivering a wide range of installation, maintenance and related services, which includes the Atlantic Private Maintenance Agreement (APMA).  Alcatel-Lucent private maintenance agreements offer a unique solution adapting to the particular maintenance philosophies of individual cable owners and their needs.  Alcatel-Lucent currently maintains over 300,000km of critical submarine cable infrastructure worldwide.

Etisalat Appointed First GSM Apple Authorised Reseller in Nigeria …Offers Customers 12 Months Free Data on iPad

By Prince Osuagwu

With the growing demand for Apple products
in Nigeria, especially the iPad and iPhone range of smartphones,
innovative telecommunications company, Etisalat Nigeria has entered
into a deal with Core Group Africa, the Apple authorized distributor
for Nigeria, to make its products readily available across the
country. The deal makes Etisalat the first mobile network operator to
become an authorised reseller of various Apple iPads and accessories
in Nigeria.

Wael Ammar

Announcing this in Lagos, Chief Commercial Officer, Etisalat Nigeria,
Mr Wael Ammar said that with the signing of the agreement between the
two companies, Etisalat will be the first telecommunications operator
permitted to sell Apple’s iPad in selected retail outlets spread
across the country, while offering  a two-year warranty cover on all
iPad devices sold. In addition, he announced, the company will also be
offering customers who purchase the products at its Experience Centres
with an unbeatable 12-month free internet data access on its easy blaze product.
According to Ammar, “as part of our promise to provide our customers with value added propositions, Etisalat as the first mobile network operator to be an
official Reseller for Apple in Nigeria, will also be offering our
customers 12 months free data on all iPads purchased at our Experience
Centres and sales outlets, and the products come with a two-year
warranty”.

He however pointed out that the two-year warranty will only apply once the subscriber registers the iPad purchased from Etisalat on www.isocietynigeria.com.
He assured that the company is ready and well positioned to provide its customers with best support services and support on iPad in Nigeria. He said that with the deal, Nigerians are now able to purchase authentic iPad products in Nigeria with the peace of mind that this will be fully supported locally. The new iPad which was officially launched in Nigeria by Core Group Africa, redefines the category which Apple created a few years ago, delivering the most amazing experience people have ever had with technology. 

 It has one of the highest resolution display ever seen on a mobile device with 2048 X 1536 pixels, giving razor sharp details on texts, videos and photos. It also supports dictation. Instead of typing, one simply taps the microphone on the key board and says what he wants.

NigComSat kicks off e-voting campaign with NSE online real time elections

By Prince Osuagwu

Rufai.....The man behind the success

The Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE) at the weekend successfully conducted its yearly general elections online real-time through an e-voting system manufactured locally by engineers at Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT).

The elections were monitored by participants and voters online either on their laptops or smartphones that are internet enabled.

Prior to the election, data of the members were captured electronically and biometric information taken.

At the venue of the election, the data was accessed electronically and accreditation was smooth.

NIGCOMSAT provided mobile internet via Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) for connectivity to broadcast events online real-time on the NigComSat-1R satellite.

By this means, participants and contestants monitored the procedures online real-time as voting was updated on the dedicated website for the election as each voter cast his or her ballot.

The elections were conducted at the Kwara Hotels, Ilorin and transmitted live on NTA Network. A visibly excited NSE President, Engr. Mustapha Shehu Balarabe said, the engineers have done it again, adding that “this innovation from our engineers at NIGCOMSAT is commendable. It is novel and we are the pioneers, and this has proved that so many good things could come out of Nigeria and we engineers are pioneers in this regard of e-voting.”

He said engineers have done what could be adopted by government in future general elections that is likely to save the Country from incessant huge capital flights.

This, he said will free the Country from post-election rancour and litigations by those who lost and think that the elections have been rigged in favour of their opponents.

Chairman of the NSE Elections Committee, Engr. Charles Mbanefo said he was very happy with the outcome of the election “that it was online real-time made the committee’s job light because those who won and those who lost saw the transparency of the process. It was free and fair. Even people who were not at the venue monitored the election because it was web-based and results were updated real-time on the dedicated website for the election.” Mbanefo said that the NSE election which ran on the NIGCOMSAT developed e-voting system was a test-case and it was a very successful process.

e-Voting process in Nigeria

A total number of 1,313 voters registered while 1,033 were accredited to vote. The accreditation procedure was equally smooth.

President, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Dr. Chris Uwaje captured the situation this way: “It shows that indigenous technology is capable of meeting global competition. Now that NIGCOMSAT Limited has demonstrated this in very exemplary format, government should constitute a national e-voting committee. NIGCOMSAT should be commended.”

National Secretary, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Mr. Shuaibu Leman Usman in his reaction to the NIGCOMSAT breakthrough in NSE e-voting said “my view is that we should continue to look inward.  Satellite business is a very sensitive issue and Nigeria cannot continue to rely on foreign satellites.”

He described the e-voting election by NSE as a breakthrough for Nigeria. “I therefore commend NIGCOMSAT for this innovation and urge the company to partner with the media in this area for national development and for humanity.”

One of the candidates who eventually emerged as one of three Vice Presidents said he was overwhelmed by the e-voting system because it corrected several misgivings of the past.

Indeed, he said when he contested last year, he was sure of victory but something strange happened and he lost.

“But this e-voting system by NIGCOMSAT is comforting because every contestant knows his or her fate online real-time. This is very fantastic.”

NSE had earlier rejected manual voting hence the adoption of the e-voting which to most of them was fool-proof.

The e-voting platform was designed, developed and produced by the Micro Elections Centre (MEC) at NIGCOMSAT.

Akingbade retires from MTN services

By Prince Osuagwu

MTN Nigeria, has announced the retirement of its Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer Mr Bola Akingbade. The retirement, MTN says, would take effective June 30, 2012.
Akingbade has had about six years of meritorious service. An experienced Marketing strategist, he joined MTN after a distinguished career with Nigerian Breweries, where he rose to the position of Marketing Director.

MTN Nigeria and indeed the MTN Group have benefited immensely from Akingbade’s wealth of experience and his contributions to the growth and success of the business are well documented.

Under his leadership of the Marketing & Strategy Division, MTN Nigeria made significant strides. Key amongst the achievements of the Division includes playing a significant role in  growing the market share from 45 percent in 2006 to over 50 percent at the end of 2011 and  entrenching MTN’s position as the number one brand in Nigeria,.

Under Akingbade, the Marketing & Strategy Division, contributed to the growth of subscriber numbers from 12.3 million in 2006 to 41.6 million by the end of the 2011 financial year, in spite of steep competition driven by   frequent pricing changes and product innovation in the telecommunications industry. Undeniably, the success of all marketing initiatives during Akingbade’s tenure contributed to enhancing the MTN brand strength and sustaining the company’s leadership position in the Industry.

He is to be replaced by Larry Annetts, an accomplished professional with more than 16 years cognate experience gained in multinational organizations.

In 2004, Annetts served as MTN Nigeria’s General Manager, Products and Services Development in the Marketing & Strategy Division. In this role he designed, implemented and launched the first Mobile Virtual Private Network (VPN) platform in Africa. He also led the team that customised, implemented and launched GPRS and MMS technology for the first time in Nigeria. 

In 2005 as Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer, at MTN Irancell, he set up and developed the Marketing & Strategy Division there, launching the entire suite of products and services including 30 first-to-be-launched products that spearheaded MTN’s regional growth.

He contributed immensely to the accumulation of over 36.2 million customers for MTN Iran in slightly over 5 years of operations in that country, setting the MTN Group record for the highest number of activations per day.

MTN Nigeria clearly intends to maintain its leadership position and capacity to provide innovative products and services earmarked to enrich the lives of its esteemed customers. 

Solar powered telecom network set to debut in Nigeria

A mobile solar telecom network

By Prince Osuagwu

Nigeria would soon experience a solar powered telecommunications network tagged WorldGSM through a company under the Shyam Group, VNL. Shyan Group is a West African and Middle East based Operator.
According to VNL, WorldGSM will be the first solar powered broadband network in Nigeria and has been designed to serve rural populations in developing economies. It will also help to bring mobile infrastructure to billions of people yearning for it in the rural and remote areas.
The network draws no power from the electricity grid. The hardware, software, towers and network architecture have been designed from the ground up, to extend existing GSM networks into areas that were difficult to serve.
Chairman of Shyam Geoup, Mr. Rajiv Mehrotra,  described WorldGSM as a completely solar powered broadband network solution for rural and remote locations with a clear cut agenda to cater for rural consumers who don’t live in cities and have ARPU of 3 dollars or less. He said that the fact that the rural dweller needed services that would cope with their low ARPU and also be profitable, necessitated the innovation of this solution which does not run on diesel.
 “The general purpose network of GSM is entirely unsuited to the unique challenges of serving rural and remote communities. As operators continue to expand their networks into these areas, these challenges can escalate to a point where any further expansion is no longer viable. As a result, vast portions of the developing world are denied telecommunication access. Power was clearly not an issue when GSM was conceived. A conventional base station site alone requires about 3,000 to 5,000 watts to run  and this is outside of any Base Station Controller (BSC) or Mobile Switching Center (MSC),” Mehrotra said.

Solar network antennae

He observed that in remote areas in Nigeria, there is either no electricity grid or it’s only available for a few hours each day. Diesel generators are used to fill the gap times, resulting in several billion litres of diesel fuel being burned every single year and that diesel prices are just one part of the story.
He added that “poor fuel quality, cost and time to transport it to remote locations, storage costs, pilferage and theft made this power source unsustainable for rural GSM deployments. The generators themselves are typically overworked and poorly maintained, resulting in replacement every two or three years and also result into  more waste and more greenhouse gas emissions”.
Another veteran in the Nigerian telecommunication industry, Tushar Maheshwari who also doubles as the Chief Commercial Officer –West Africa and Middle East, Shyam Group, noted  that VNL was committed to improving the rural connectivity in Nigeria and will work with all stakeholders to ensure that the rural communications get the desired thrust.

telecom solar network site

Nigeria's explosive ICT market comes with cyber threat price, says Symantec

Symantec Channel Manager, Nigeria & Ghana, Adeyemi Adeleke; Finance Director, JSP Communications Consultancy, Joseph Adeboyejo and Symantec Territory Manager, IWECA (Indian Islands, West, East and Central Africa), Sheldon Hand during the Company's Media Roundtable at Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Ikeja, Lagos recently

By Prince Osuagwu

You cant fault World renowned cyber Security company, Symantec, when it makes pronouncements. This is so because its projections and forecasts in world internet security environment has always stand the test of time.
Moreover, its popular global internet security report has been extremely reliable, providing industry practitioners with the opportunity of knowing what next attack looks like and what to do to stay afloat.
Ofcourse, for a company which investment in R&D alone is far bigger than the revenue of its closest competitor, you stand no chance to argue its authority in this business.
Last week,Symantec gathered the top ICT reporters in Nigeria at a roundtable discussion. The alarming outcome of that encounter is the pronouncement that Nigeria  now occupies the 59th position among countries of the world with alarming internet security risks. to be in that position, we moved six steps upward - a forward movement that only tells how closer we are to losing major businesses due to internet attack. The unfortunate thing is that this is when Nigeria is gearing towards joining other developed countries of the world to entrench the cashless way of transaction in the country. Symantec, through its Territory Manager, Indian Ocean Islands , West, East and Central Africa , Mr Sheldon Hand, fingered Nigeria’s explosive ICT growth as one of the reasons the country keeps soaring in cyber threats.  He however noted that the price the country would have to pay in the kind of growth experienced in ICT in the last decade would also be a commensurate threat growth.
He said that the worst hit would be the small and medium businesses which, up to 50 percent worldwide, do not have recovery plans. This is even when reports have shown that 71 per cent of SMBs that suffered a cyber attack never recovered.
Hand however, said that enterprises and consumers needed to be wary about four key trends in the security landscape which it discovered in its Global Internet security threat reports volume 17.
The report released recently identified four key trends in cyber threat, including malware atta cks, targeted attacks, mobile threats and data breaches.
It could be recalled that the same report indicated that Nigeria stepped up six positions to rank 59^th in global internet threat, a case Hand said was partly due to major developments in the ICT landscape including growth in internet subscription and penetration, adoption and use of modern gadgets and applications like smart phones, PCs and tablets as well as Nigeria’s in roads in submarine broadband cables.
Hand even predicted that the threats targeted at mobile devices would be on the increase in 2012, particularly as the sale of smartphones and mobile money transfers continued to gain ground. Meanwhile, in the same way was mobile malware said to be poised for tangible threat to enterprises and consumers if they failed to take measures at safeguarding their systems and devices.
Now, look at how Hand summed it all up: “While profits remain lucrative in the Personal Computer space, mobile offers new opportunities to cybercriminals that potentially are more profitable. Mobile growth also creates an urgent concern to organisations around the possibility of breaches. Given the intertwining of work and personal information on mobile devices the loss of confidential information presents a real risk to businesses. Unlike a desktop computer, or even a laptop, mobile devices are easily lost.”
He advocated best practice guidelines, including developing and enforcing IT policies, protection of information, authentication of identities, efficient management of systems and adequate protection of key infrastructures.
But Hand was also on hand to unveil some of Symantec’s products meant to help businesses out of the cyber threat quagmire. They include the Backup Exec 2012, which is a cloud-based disaster recovery solution with simplified user interface and NetBackup 7.5 that simplifies management and recovery of storage level snapshot from a single console.

Besides, Hand said that his company not only protects systems but also protect peoples and their businesses as they use technology. “We are not just a technology company but also provide synergy to a whole lot of information out there for people to manage their lives and businesses. We take care of security risks and threats arising from cyber breaches, consumerization of IT due to different surge of IT tools, devices and gadgets and management of information explosion due to data growth”.

Symantec, according to Hand, backs up 50 percent of the world businesses even as it prides itself as having investment in R&D that is bigger than the revenue of its closest competitor

.An honest evaluation of what Hand wanted everybody to know at that meeting that security is an issue that needed to be tackled before an attempt to ;aunch cashless policy full scale in Nigeria. I actually seem to agree with that!

3Good Facts about Airtel's 2Good Time

Airtel Top Guns at the event

Just last week, Airtel Nigeria, reloaded its flagship package tagged 2Good. This reloaded package is called 2Good Time. The new package helps Airtel take services to subscribers in traffic, lunch table  and party ground. All these at just only  10 kobo per second to connect family, friends and business associates.

Specifically, the operator said that 2Good Time, has three special time bands : Traffic Time - 5am to 7am; Lunch Time - 1pm to 4pm and Party Time - 10pm to 12.00am. During these time bands, subscribers will enjoy special on net call rate of 10k/sec.

Subscribers to the 2Good time service will also enjoy midnight on net call rate of 10k/sec as well as 20 free SMS on their first N100 recharge of the month.

Airtel Nigeria's Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director, Mr Deepak Srivastava even went further to say that his company will continue to offer innovative, flexible and affordable value offerings that will meet the growing demands and needs of all its customers.  

On a lighter mood, however. there are below the line dangers which perhaps, Airtel forgot to  warn its teeming customers against, ahead of time. A careless look at those three time bands would expose one to grave dangers
 1.Traffic Time: If you live in a city like Lagos, for instance, where the fear of LASTMA is the beginning of wisdom, I doubt if it wouldn't amount to penny wise pound foolish to pay up to fifteen thousand Naira fine as the case may be, to LASTMA officials who would quickly arrest you for using the phone while driving, just because one wants to enjoy a lower tariff. Don't even remind me of the hands free, because, obviously an  average Nigerian abhors making use of  hands free mobile devices while driving. For the benefit of our readers outside Lagos, LASTMA is the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority. Its functions criss crosses that of Police, Road Safety and even Vehicle Inspection Officers, VIO.
2. Lunch Time: I don't know who would argue with me out there that Pepper Soup  is one of the most preferred delicacies among Nigerians and Oh my God, is it so spicy? Now imagine making call while taking pepper soup or even after. A disturbing cough! shout for water and a waste of the 10k/sec eventually!
3. Party Time: Oh, there we go again! which club in Lagos would one make calls conveniently with all the loud noise coming from the giant speakers displayed everywhere? definitely, not Club 10-10, 11.45, The Jam Base, The Coliseum. And the list is endless!
Meanwhile, everywhere now, the big boys are watching. the next dancer away might just be one and after making the call, a deep hoarse voice says hand it over! it happens every day here.
Maybe what Airtel should have done is to copy tobacco makers, dropping off such warnings like... For Traffic  Time... please beware of LASTMA, for Lunch Time... don't call while taking pepper soup, for Party Time....please mind the next man on the dance floor if your smart phone is important to you...
...And that was truly on a lighter mood!

Telecom operators, Value added service providers set to clash over revenue formula

Juwah.....NCC EVC

By Prince Osuagwu

The Nigerian labour market may soon get massively bloated, if the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, does not quickly wade into the looming battle about to break out between the telecom operators in the country and their counterparts who provide value added services.
The brewing battle is following a disagreement between the operators and VAS providers on a revenue sharing formula proposed by the operators, which the VAS providers say is exploitative.

Unfair revenue formula?
Vanguard gathered that trouble started when one of the telecom operators, Airtel Nigeria, penultimate week, wrote the Value added service operators, proposing to change the running VAS revenue sharing formula of 60:40 percent to 75:25 percent between operators and VAS companies respectively.
This proposed formula had angered the umbrella body of the VAS providers, the Wireless Application Service Providers of Nigeria, WASPAN, which not only vowed to resist the move but described it as not being in the best interest of the growth of Nigerian telecom industry.

The Indian connection
The group alleged that Airtel may have come up with the alleged biassed sharing formula to tactically push them out of the agreement so it could bring in the Indian VAS providers to ensure that its economy continued to circulate within. The group cautioned that if Airtel is allowed  to have its way, other operators would follow suit and the local content providers and thousands of Nigerians they employed, would be out of jobs and further stress the Nigerian labour market.
The VAS operators further argued that the plan by Airtel represented yet another strategy by mobile network operators to run down the businesses of VAS companies due to perceived weak regulation of VAS services and called on NCC to step into the matter to prevent crisis in the telecommunications sector.

Allegation is laughable — Airtel
However, when contacted, Airtel denied that it had even imagined bringing in Indian VAS operators to take over the services provided by Nigerians, describing the allegation as laughable. It stressed that the decision to review the sharing formula was strictly on business grounds, devoid of any ulterior motive, adding that the fact that top owners of the company are Indians does not make Airtel Nigeria an Indian company.
According to a senior official in Airtel Nigeria who didn’t want his name in prints, “is it not laughable that Airtel Nigeria would just ferry in Indian VAS operators to come and provide the services that the Nigerian VAS operators have been providing? This is a pure business decision and every company has a different business agreement. The business we have with the VAS operators is a business of numbers. As we keep growing, the revenue formula will keep changing. We may not have the same agreement with them like some of the operators that are bigger than us in subscriber base. Neither would our agreement with them be the same with the operators we have greater number of subscribers than.
You, see, this is business, if you like my terms you do business with me but if you don’t, you take your business elsewhere. I don’t think this is a big issue. In any case, some of their members have signed the agreement and we are doing business with them. I don’t know why a few of them are making issue of a simple business matter”

We may go to court— WASPAN
Meanwhile, Head, Business Development, WASPAN, Eunice Benjamin-Ade, had told Vanguard that companies that are affected by the proposal have already contacted their lawyers to seek possible legal redress of the matter if other steps taken to redress the matter failed.
She said, “We want to state our outright rejection of this plan by Airtel, as we believe that it is an unacceptable imposition that threatens the very existence of the businesses of VAS companies in Nigeria and it is one that is not based on any prior consultation with any member of WASPAN.
“We have already communicated our rejection of this advice by Airtel to the Nigerian Communications Commission, the regulator of the telecommunications industry and intend to do more, including going to court, if necessary.  We call upon NCC to intervene in this matter urgently to forestall an unnecessary industrial dispute in the telecommunications industry.”
Benjamin- Ade said Wireless Application Service Providers are legally-registered businesses in Nigeria that operate based on laid down business laws and have helped develop various offerings in the telecommunications sector since inception until now, noting that the move by Airtel could destroy gains that have been made over the years.
She added that VAS providers have consistently allowed a change of revenue share over the years in favour of operators and will not agree to any further shift that will reduce revenue that accrue to VAS companies.
“We believe that the recent moves by various operators to continue to change the revenue sharing ratio in their favour will not only set the stage to run down businesses of many wireless providers, but one that could eventually destroy the entire industry,” she said.
The new development represents yet another twist in the battle between mobile network operators and Value Added service providers over the sharing of revenue generated in wireless application services.
WASPAN only recently dragged one of the leading GSM companies to the Nigerian communications Commission over its refusal to pay accumulated VAS revenue for over 12 months.

NCC may wade in
However, NCC told Vanguard that the report has not come to it officially and promised to take action when it is officially briefed on the issue.
Executive Vice Chairman of the commission, Dr Eugene Juwah when confronted with the matter, admitted that Value added service was part of a licensable set of services that run on mobile networks but added that NCC was yet to develop requisite regulation for such services.
He said that if settlement of disputes on this area becomes problematic, the commission could event go the extra mile to convey a stakeholder conference to trash out the dispute.

Ericsson boss, Vestberg says two tech revolutions’ll change the world in 2016

By Prince Osuagwu

Vestberg fields questions from this reporter in Ghana recently

President and CEO of Ericsson, Mr Hans Vestberg has peeped through the Ericsson crystal ball, and predicted that two technological revolutions would change the world between now and 2016.
However, Vesteberg was not just predicting. He has statistics which he has followed religiously and if their antecedents are to be relied upon, the future could hardly do without them— the technology deployment and installation revolutions. For him, these two systems would change the way telecommunications services are delivered in the near future.
Vestberg made the disclosures exclusively to Vanguard in Ghana recently when he visited the Sub-Saharan Africa to preach preparedness for  new ways of delivering services in line with new and emerging technologies.
From his explanation, the deployment phase looks at what kind of infrastructure could be deployed in the near future, while the installation phase, deals with a period when consumers would naturally use technology in different ways than they are used to.
The implication of these revolutions is that only those who understood their dynamics, tailor services towards them would be in business within the period under review.
Vestberg was so emphatic on these revolutions perhaps on the back of his company’s long history of shaping the future of world telecommunications industry through research and development, R&D. Ericsson has distinguished itself as a clear leader in the telecommunications infrastructure business not only for the efficiency and reliability of its equipment and services but also due to its ability to predict the future and prepare operators ahead of time.
According to Vestberg, Ericsson spends a whopping 8 billion dollars every year in Research and Development, R&D, to clearly understand the dynamic and change pattern of technologies that govern the telecommunications industry. He threw up some statistics which have ruled the dynamics of the industry for over a century and painted a picture of why Ericsson recently rolled out the multi-million dollar project tagged Networked Society.
The project is aimed at ushering in a new era where technology would enable more people to interact, innovate and share knowledge in whole new ways and creating a dynamic shift in mindset. Ericsson would like to see a world where more people are empowered, more businesses liberated and the society more connected than ever.

Vestberg

Statistics that shaped technology revolution
In Vestberg’s statistics, “it took some 100 years to get 1 billion fixed lines but it took 24 years to get 5 billion mobile subscriptions. Last year end, there was about 6 billion mobile subscriptions in the world. 85% of that population are on mobile coverage.
“If you take that and think about what will happen in the next five years, then you will have mobile subscription in the world, come up to about 8 billion. Now the most important point in these figures is that considering that about 500 million people on earth today are on fixed broad band while that of mobile broadband is 1 billion, in 2016, if the fixed broadband will grow, it would not be much, but in line with trend of growth, the mobile broadband will grow tremendously”.
What to expect in 2016
Between now and 2016 is just about 4 years away, yet, Vestberg was also confident to posit that about three times of people that have access to internet today would be broadband users. “We expect 25 billion broadband users by 2016 which is a huge leap. Today, about1.8billion people have access to internet and 92 percent of population will have mobile coverage.
“Lets also remember that the networks that are carrying these services were based on voice. Apps, data, smart phones were not intended when these networks were built, but in 2016, the network will be in total change and that is what we call technology revolution. It has two phases. First is the deployment phase, where infrastructure is deployed and the other is installation phase, when consumers would use technology in different ways”.

Ericsson CEO, Hans Vestberg

Benefits of the revolution
Every revolution brings with it a change and the two revolutions Vestberg predicted would also introduce a couple of changes in service delivery and consumption from what is obtainable at the moment. For instance, the consumers will change in the way they use phones. 26 percent of time used on phone would be for voice call while 74 percent will be for data related usages. This is in sharp contrast to, for instance, the past three years, where 90% of time spent on phone was voice call and 10% was for SMS and data.
The Ericsson boss said that the revolution would transform education in a way that in the next ten years from now, printing books will no longer be in vogue. Also giving the broad spectrum of coverage, speed and data possibilities, digital healthcare would be possible and this would transform healthcare and make it affordable to more people.
The place of Networked Society in the new revolution
Networked society is  important in every bit of the revolution because it would enable anything that will benefit from connection, to be connected. We took from 400 different studies in 2010 from universities, academia, business, to look at what the impact of broadband is, and came up with two things that are common.
For every 10% of broadband penetration, 1% goes to GDP and for every 100 connections you get 80% new jobs. Then, if you have 1000 penetration, you have higher impact and this applies to all countries.
You can now see how important Networked society is in the need to transform our people’s behavioural pattern, transform enterprises in the society, using the technology infrastructure. That possibility is what we foresee. It fuels our belief that if by 2020, there is going to be about 60 billion connected devices in the world, then anything that will benefit people, needs to be connected. Of course, when the society is connected, the ICT industry lives up to its name. That is what we call a networked society.
What preparations for this new networked world
Ericsson is building more infrastructure and more networks around the world. Majority are based on latest technologies to accommodate the new order.
Already, roughly, 40% of mobile infrastructure in the world is on Ericsson traffic and still we are building more and upgrading those others that need latest standardization.
Don’t forget, we spend 8 billion dollars in Research and Development, R&D, every year to understand all the networks that will be used in the future.
We designed technologies that help operators offer services on health care, the connected calls, online gaming, big time information management among others.
The place of emerging markets in all these
We use the same standard of technology in the whole world. We sale the same technology in Africa in US and the unique thing is that we can bring down the cost where we think is important to the world. So, Ericsson has 2G, 3G patterns in the world. That means that we are relevant. First we have to maintain standards so that we can continue to supply the world. We are the biggest mobile infrastructure providers for operators in the world.
Another area we are relevant is that we also run network services. Roughly 80% of Ericsson turnover is from installation, integration, consultation, running mobile networks, fixed networks for operators. We are providing the back- up tools for operators to carry on what they do.
We are consultants to operators. We have 900 million subscribers in the network we are responsible for, out of 6billion on the network. Our responsibility is important because we know what consumers care about and understand what happen in the network.
Also, we build and sell software that enable billing system, operating system, so that operators can bill in different ways, prepaid, post paid real-time charging, have different data plans. All of that we have products for.

Vestberg......Truly a technology entertainer

Of course, we must take emerging market standard. In taking emerging market standard, we see two things, the penetration for mobile services is lowered in this region. If you go back to five years in Africa, you will see how quick the mobile technology has developed. We see the region leapfrogging in five years.
Effects of networked society on Africa’s new mobile entrants
The next billions of subscribers coming on networked society will be subscribers who never have phones, tablets, PCs and smart phones.
Now, we are going to see a lot of innovation. The next step is to get mobile broadband for every one in this region, get connectivity to the internet, connectivity for different services. It can be connectivity to start doing business, can be simple infrastructure that can be useful for people in healthcare, education etc.
Our view on Africa is that, having stayed 50 years in Nigeria, this region represents a very important place. We are working on different initiatives on Africa and very much engaged in millions of villages where we connect rural areas with health institutions, where they have millennium Development Goals. It is the toughest challenge on earth, doing all these in education, health care etc. We believe ICT will play a vital role and we will do everything to grow the region.

Teledom smartens learning in Nigeria with Smart Classroom Technology

Smart Classroom

By Prince Osuagwu
The Nigerian education sector is set to receive a boost as one of Nigeria’s technology companies, Teledom International Limited, introduces Smart Classroom teaching system. The technology was exhibited at the recently concluded West African ICT conference, WAFICT Expo 2012 in Lagos Nigeria.
Chief Executive Officer, of the company, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, described the technology as an to the teachers in thinking smart, teaching smart, creating smart and innovating smart. He said that for the students, it makes learning is smart, exciting and great fun.
The systems involves the networking of  students’ desktop or laptop systems in the class to the touch-screen sympodium which transfers whatever the teacher writes to an interactive whiteboard in front of the class. What the teacher writes is recorded centrally in the sympodium server as well as in each of the students’ desktop or laptop computers.
In the past couple of years, the education sector in Nigeria had been described as experiencing declining standards. Teachers have complained about the lack of basic infrastructure and conducive or enabling environment for effective teaching amongst other challenges.
However, experts have noted that an average Nigerian child, if exposed to the type of learning environment his counterparts in developed countries have access to else, would perform better that what obtains today. Apart from the incessant breaks in the school system due to industrial disputes between teachers and the government, the classrooms in an average Nigerian school lack modern equipment and teaching aids to make learning a pleasure and excitement.
Ekuwem maintains that with the introduction of the smart classroom, a large part of the challenges has been dealt with. He said; “With the smart classroom system, the teacher fully engages the students’ attention as the multi-media equipment bombards the students’ senses for higher stimulation”.
He continued; “It allows the teacher to produce and modify resources quickly and easily, permits real times access to internet-based information and resources and allows access to a wide range of information in different formats”.
 The technology enables easy revision through recorded lectures for date-and-time-specific playback on laptops, PCs, and DVD players. With the recorded class sessions for future playback, complacency on the part of teachers is eradicated, resulting in reasonable improvements in the method of teaching and quality of what is taught.
“Besides, the automation of the learning process which smart classroom brings makes the model teacher to keep teaching forever as the recorded materials can be relied upon even in the absence of the teacher”.

Learning Curve storms Nigeria with Digital Classroom

A Digital Classroom

By Prince Osuagwu

In what appears another endorsement of Nigeria as the West African hub for intellectual information and communication technology, Learning Curve, has introduced the celebrated and highly commended digital teaching aid, Door to the Digital classroom which has recorded tremendous success in countries like South Africa, Botswana, Senegal and Zambia, among other southern African countries.
The company, an Adobe Platinum Partner also established an office in Lagos to take care of the entire sub-region.
The innovative software designed for educational institutions is coming into the country after a long negotiated agreement with Adobe, which now allows it to present the very cost-effective new licensing programme into Nigeria and by extension to the rest of West Africa.
Managing Director of Learning Curve Mr. Tim Smith, who is also in Nigeria for a demonstration of the of the training product said that, “our high school programme called the Door to the Digital classroom is very extensive and works on the basis of a consolidated range of products from Adobe who have the vision of what can happen when you give children the opportunity to go wild and create.”
Tested and proven over the years, these applications according to Smith who is instrumental to the development of the concepts can be used in the industry to help teach vocational skills and are used extensively in art, design and IT web authoring.
Designed to run on either a mac or windows environments, the Adobe Learning Curve Kit contains among other things total training DVDs for all applications.
Considering the range of students which the product aims at training – late primary to secondary school, the Learning Curve package has in it the quite popular Academia Skills builder which is a range of flash games that help learning of subjects like Mathematics, English language and Geography.
There are also locally developed lesson plans for Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Acrobat with a promise of including the Illustrator to complete the quite didactic nature of the bundle.
And for parents who are desirous of bringing up their children to join the global league of highly competent ICT users, the product helps the schools become accredited testing centres for the Adobe Certified Associate examinations which will give the children an internationally accepted qualification of competence.
According to the company’s Country Director, Mr. Michael Oseji ,“it has become imperative that this country joins the rest of the world in adopting 21st Century skills in classroom learning, otherwise the world would leave us behind and we would be forced to catch up again,” Oseji said.

MTN denies fraud allegation against NITEL

By Prince Osuagwu

MTN Nigeria, yesterday, dismissed the allegation contained in the affidavit sworn by former NITEL General Manager, Mr Solomon Ogundele that it colluded with the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, to divert over N1 trillion belonging to NITEL by fraudulent means.
The company described the allegation as ‘patently untrue’
Reacting to the allegations, MTN’s Corporate Services Executive, Mr. Wale Goodluck, said that Ogundele’s accusations to MTN were odious and reprehensible.
“MTN Nigeria is not at liberty to comment on the details of the matter of PDP V MTN&NCC, as they are sub judice. However, we reject in no uncertain terms the allegations made by the plaintiffs in this case and their agents. Not only are they patently untrue, they have absolutely no bearing on the issues in this case. They are designed to distract and muddy the waters. MTN Nigeria will make a detailed response to these odious and reprehensible allegations through normal court processes,” he added.
Goodluck urged MTN’s customers and the general public to disregard the frivolous and mischievous allegations, stressing that the company remained committed to upholding the sanctity of the law of the land and would never infringe them under any circumstances.
Former General Manager in charge of Operations with the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), Engr Solomon Ogundele, had accused MTN Nigeria of colluding with the NCC to divert over N1 trillion belonging to NITEL by fraudulent means.
According to Ogundele, the NCC deliberately and in collusion with MTN and others, introduced a fraudulent interconnection agreement which allocated specific and excessive value to call termination as a tool for perpetrating massive fraud and money laundering.
His claim was contained in an affidavit in support of a suit brought on MTN and NCC by former Governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Osun and Ekiti State chapters for allegedly providing the National Judicial Council. NJC  probe panel with incomplete and inadequate call data records.
Oyinlola and the PDP filed a N150 billion suit on MTN for allegedly doctoring the call data records it provided to the probe panel. The suit also prayed that the court  revokes the operating licence of MTN Nigeria.
In a 62-paragraph affidavit deposed to by Ogundele and filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja on last Thursday, May 9, Ogundele alleged that there were very serious fraud contained in the interconnection agreement imposed on the telecommunications sector by NCC, in connivance with MTN.

QoS: Phase 3 roots for aerial fibre for telecom operators

Jegede

By Prince Osuagwu

Chief Executive of Phase3 Telecom, Mr Stanley Jegede, last week proffered his own solution to much talked about poor quality of service among telecom operators playing in the Nigerian market.

According to him, the hues and cries that are rife in the industry today over poor service provision among telecom operators would be a thing of the past if operators could just see the benefit in aerial optic fibre, particularly for their long distance communications.

For him, aerial fibre optic routes offer both cheaper and more reliable services than their terrestrial equivalent and in view of recent experiences facing operators, there is need for them to adopt this aerial services to keep their customers happy.

Jegede, who spoke in Abuja on Thursday stated that with the current challenges facing the deployment and use of underground optic fiber cables especially Right of Way issues, persistent vandalism and ecological problems, aerial optic fiber systems offer the needed and timely solution at this time in the country.

He said, "We are all aware about the problems of building and maintaining underground cables in Nigeria. It is one of the most difficult challenges that telecom firms face today in view of issues such as host community hostilities, persistent construction of roads and its attendant impact on underground cables. Besides, excessive and unlawful regulatory activities by various agencies of government at different levels and environmental and natural disasters such as erosion sometimes leaves underground cables exposed.

“We have also witnessed persistent vandalism and theft of underground cables all over the country all of which exacerbate the problem of poor quality of services as large numbers of subscribers are cut off when these problems occur. These problems also take a lot of time to identify and repair. However, the aforementioned issues and many more can easily be overcome by the use of aerial optic fibre system.”

Phase 3 Telecom according to him, currently runs West Africa’s only aerial optic fiber network with the focal point of operations in Nigeria. He added that in view of today’s reality in which the West Africa region including Nigeria is still a developing region, road construction and the building of other infrastructure would be very frequent, leading to underground cables often being cut. The situation, according to him, highlights the need for a backup network, adding that this is where the Phase3 aerial optic fiber network comes in especially as high-tension networks power often have dedicated routes by law.

He said, "In Nigeria today all the operators including those that have their own transmission networks have embraced Phase3's aerial optic services especially after they have seen the advantages that it offers them. We believe that even for those that may already have excess capacity, aerial optic fibre provides a very reliable backup and redundancy. Furthermore, he advised that all other mobile operators should stop building fiber network and collaborate with Phase3’s Open Access network to provide their immediate and future needs. This is also in addition to the fact that there are certain areas of coverage of the Phase3 aerial optic fibre system which other terrestrial network are not designed to reach currently due to the country’s road and highway network".

Besides, Jegede noted that most optic fiber cables follow the same predictable route, meaning that they are all likely to be affected at the same time in the event of anything catastrophic happening; such as fire, road construction and vandalism. This, he added, clearly defines an obvious need for a reliable alternative to the underground fiber that is used by operators.

He noted further that besides providing the best quality, aerial optic fiber provides many advantages over underground cables in the transmission business. Among them, he said, were the ease and speed of deployment, stating that aerial optic fiber is one backhaul means that can be quickly expanded to un-served and undeserved locations unlike underground optic fibre.