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.