GVG-SGS stages workshop for West African telecoms regulators and fiscal authorities

Global Voice Group (GVG) reports that the first regional workshop on new telecoms regulation tools and electronic  fiscal solutions for West African telecoms regulators and tax administrations, staged in Abidjan, was a great success. The event was a joint initiative of GVG and Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS).

The organisers said the event attracted representatives from the Telecoms Regulatory Agencies and Tax Administrations of Ivory Coast, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Niger, and Togo.

For this first workshop of its kind in West Africa, GVG and SGS decided to invite both telecoms regulatory agencies and tax administrations in order to gain a deeper understanding of their common challenges, including control and protection of the telecoms sector's revenue. Issues more specific to each authority were also addressed in details, such as quality of service monitoring tools, telecommunications fraud management, new regulatory tools in the context of IP convergence, and new electronic fiscal systems.

Many of the technological tools presented by GVG and SGS were also demonstrated in order to allow participants to appreciate their potential and effectiveness.

According to M. François Dugué, Senior VP at GVG and one of the workshop's principal organizers and presenters: "Telecommunications are a key growth sector in Africa, strong in some respects and vulnerable in some others, particularly in the context of IP convergence. These workshops give us a great opportunity to take stock of the latest improvements in terms of governance technologies. GVG is an active participant to the ITU's Study Groups and our company also sponsors major events such as the African Telecom People.

source: www.biztechafrica.com

The Asia-Africa Link Is IT

Only 16 percent of Africa’s population of over a billion is online. But as Internet and mobile phone connectivity grows rapidly, the continent wants to join forces with Asian powerhouses to change its digital landscape.

While offering its vast market, Africa hopes to leverage Asia’s information and communication technology (ICT) prowess to develop sectors as diverse as banking, telemedicine, education and cyber security.

“There is a lot of opportunity for collaboration,” says Safroadu Yeboah-Amankwah, director and leader, McKinsey’s Business Technology Practice, South Africa.

Ghanaian engineer-turned-telecom strategist told IPS.

He was here to attend Telecom World 2013 organised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) last month.

A large contingent of African countries led by Nigeria mounted a big roadshow at the event, both to display their growing mobile and broadband communication-oriented economies and to attract Asian investment.

“North America, to be honest, is not relevant to our markets. There are very interesting opportunities in terms of South-South collaboration, especially around banking, education and so forth, where collaborations will allow for bigger markets and therefore more innovation availability,” Yeboah-Amankwah said.

“Larger Asian and African e-commerce players could collaborate to make the opportunities even bigger. For us, integration between large African and Asian players is an exciting idea,” he added.

According to ITU statistics, more than 720 million Africans have mobile phones and some 167 million already use the Internet. And the figures are rising fast as mobile networks are built up and the cost of Internet-enabled devices falls.

But Asia is far ahead. Comparative figures show that a total of 3.5 billion out of the global 6.8 billion mobile subscriptions are from the Asia-Pacific region.

source: www.ipsnews.net

the Asia - Africa link is IT

Only 16 percent of Africa’s population of over a billion is online. But as Internet and mobile phone connectivity grows rapidly, the continent wants to join forces with Asian powerhouses to change its digital landscape.

While offering its vast market, Africa hopes to leverage Asia’s information and communication technology (ICT) prowess to develop sectors as diverse as banking, telemedicine, education and cyber security.

“There is a lot of opportunity for collaboration,” says Safroadu Yeboah-Amankwah, director and leader, McKinsey’s Business Technology Practice, South Africa.

lot of the talent, skill and technology available (in Asia) may be of great use,” the Ghanaian engineer-turned-telecom strategist told IPS.

He was here to attend Telecom World 2013 organised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) last month.

A large contingent of African countries led by Nigeria mounted a big roadshow at the event, both to display their growing mobile and broadband communication-oriented economies and to attract Asian investment.

“North America, to be honest, is not relevant to our markets. There are very interesting opportunities in terms of South-South collaboration, especially around banking, education and so forth, where collaborations will allow for bigger markets and therefore more innovation availability,” Yeboah-Amankwah said.

“Larger Asian and African e-commerce players could collaborate to make the opportunities even bigger. For us, integration between large African and Asian players is an exciting idea,” he added.

According to ITU statistics, more than 720 million Africans have mobile phones and some 167 million already use the Internet. And the figures are rising fast as mobile networks are built up and the cost of Internet-enabled devices falls.

soure:ipsnews.com

Nigeria truly gaint of Africa

Telecommunication is adjudged one of the major drivers in the economic development of any nation. It plays a key role in the development of every sector of the economy. It is vital in the development of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT), health, agriculture, works, education, commerce, industry as well as science and technology sectors among others.

In driving telecommunications, Nigeria through the regulatory body in the sector, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has made giant strides which have set the country apart as truly the giant of Africa.

The executive vice chairman of the NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, at a forum held recently in Abuja, declared that Nigeria would remain a telecom investment haven as long as foreign and local investments into the booming telecommunications sector were duly protected by existing telecom laws.

The country's telecom laws, he explained, had remained the strength of the sector in the past 12 years of its liberalisation. He noted that the Nigerian Communication Act (NCA) 2003 has been the major source of the industry's success.

The NCA is largely regarded as one of the most progressive laws in the country. It gives the regulator absolute power, devoid of government or other external interferences to regulate the industry according to best global practices as enunciated by the ITU and other regional telecoms regulatory bodies.

According to Juwah, the power of the NCA guarantees a safe market for investors such that they can bring their money into Nigeria and be sure that the law is there to protect their investment.

source: www. allafrica.com

Intel joins ITU telecom to explore educational transformation

ITU has announced that Intel Corporation, the global leader in silicon chip innovation, will join  ITU Telecom World 2013 as a partner, co-hosting sessions on leveraging the power of information and communication technologies (ICT) to transform education.

The leading networking, knowledge-sharing and innovation showcasing platform for the global ICT community, ITU Telecom World 2013 will be held in Bangkok, Thailand, 19-22 November, bringing together an influential audience of private and public sector leaders from across the world.

Intel Education Solutions, created in recognition of the need for quality education to prepare tomorrow's workforce in an increasingly global economy, will host three interactive panel sessions and a ministerial round table at the event, focused on harnessing investment in ICT to accelerate technology adoption, transform education and advance economies and societies:

Education Transformation: Content that Matters – how traditional educational material must evolve to make the most of broadband delivery and help students acquire 21st century skills

Education Transformation: Financing e-Learning Programmes – exploring the role of governments and public private partnerships in funding technology and multidisciplinary education projects

Education Transformation: From Vision to Action – learning lessons from current national and regional education transformation projects

Ministerial Roundtable on The Importance of ICT in 21st Century Education – bringing together the experiences, best practices and e-education initiatives of ministers from around the world

source : biztechafrica.com

telecoms industry an investment haven

The Broadband Commission (a joint initiative of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) postulates that the Internet and other Information Communications Technology (ICT) platforms now constitute critical modern resources and are vital prerequisites for participation in today’s growing digital economy.

Eugene Juwah, executive vice chairman of NCC, had said the contribution of the Information and Communication Technology sector to the GDP was anticipated to rise to about 15 percent by 2015. He said this would be achieved by the government’s structured investment and regulatory intervention.

Since the introduction of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) in Nigeria, it has significantly impacted the economy in a variety of ways, enhanced personal and corporate communications and generally improved the quality of life across the country.

Nigeria’s teledensity

Latest data by regulator of the nation’s telecommunications industry says tele-density has increased from less than 63.11 percent by end of year 2010 to 85.25 percent in June 2013, which represents a 22.14 percent increase. In addition, active mobile subscriptions in Nigeria has grown to over 120 million in the last 12 years.

Teledensity is the percentage of connected lines in relation to the population in a given period of time, and its growth is proportional to the growth in telephone subscriber base.

The Commission said active telecoms subscriber base in the country peaked at 114.1 million as at the end of January 2013, an increase of 18.3 million lines or 19.1 percent, compared with the figure in the correspondent period of last year. According to the NCC, in 2012, the industry ended the year with combined subscriber base of 113.1 million up from 95.8 million in January, 2012.

Highlights of the latest industry data also reveals that telecoms firms continue to spend more on network upgrades to accommodate more subscribers and reduce teething challenges associated with quality of service.

Growing FDI

New Pyramid Research Report on Nigeria taking a five-year look at the country’s communications sector believes the fast-paced growth and the huge population, which exceeds 170.1million, will continue to make the country one of the most attractive markets in Africa and the Middle East.

The study, ‘Pyramid Perspective 2013: Top Trends in the Global Communications Industry’ provides information on top trends in telecoms landscape in Africa and Middle East (AME), Asian Pacific, Europe and Americas.

According to the study, eco nomic growth in emerging markets is expected to nearly quadruple the economic growth in developed markets. Telecom service revenue in emerging markets will increase five times faster than in developed markets.

The report sees massive growth and opportunities in the country’s telecom sector, particularly with the 2012 end subscription base of 113.1 million, which places Nigeria ahead of Egypt’s 95.5 million; and South Africa’s 71.8 million. Giving credence to the report’s assertion, the latest data published by the NCC puts the telecom subscriber base at over 120 million.

source: businesstodayonline.com

ITU telecom world 2013 sets agenda for change in ICT sector

ITU Telecom World 2013 wrapped up this week following a packed programme of networking, knowledge sharing and industry showcasing. The event featured an impressive global line up of showfloor participants, sponsors and partners, including Ooredoo, China Mobile, Huawei, Intel, Alcatel-Lucent, ABS, AT&T, Microsoft Lync, NTT Group, AIS Group, True, DTAC, Telkom South Africa, Rohde & Schwarz & LS Telecom. 

Pavilions from around the world highlighted opportunities for dynamic ICT investments to a global audience, featuring Angola, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, China, Gabon, Ghana, Japan, Kenya, Republic of Korea, Lao P.D.R, Malaysia,  Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand (including supporting partners MICT, NBTC and TCEB), Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

“We have enjoyed four busy days of conversations, showcasing and networking at ITU Telecom World 2013,” said ITU Secretary General, Dr Hamadoun Touré. “We welcomed the world’s youngest country, South Sudan, organizations at the cutting edge of our ICT ecosystem as well as young innovators who are already helping shape the future. It has been my privilege to join such a truly broad global debate. As we prepare to return home to different corners of the globe, my overarching hope is that we can take the lessons learnt from our debates here and apply them directly in our lives. Let’s become true agents of change, working to change the world for the better.”

Hosted by the Kingdom of Thailand, ITU Telecom World 2013 convened over 6000 participants from 153 countries worldwide.

“It has been an honour to host ITU Telecom World 2013 and welcome its global participants, showcasing our ICT industry to the world, via all our many activities within the Thai pavilion,” said Group Captain Anudith Nakornthap, Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Thailand. “Utilizing the platform that ITU Telecom World 2013 provides has helped us demonstrate and strengthen Thailand’s position as an ICT hub in the ASEAN region.’’

the connect Asia pacific summit

Pakistan is on an extensive shuttle diplomacy. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attended the Commonwealth moot in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo on November 15-17. Later, on the invitation of Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, he paid an official visit to Thailand on November 17-19. The other purpose of the visit was to attend the Connect Asia-Pacific Summit (CAPS) in Bangkok on November 18 where he made the key-note address.

The conference was being jointly organized by the Thai Ministry of Information and Communication Technology and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in close partnership with the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT), Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD), World Health Organization (WHO), the UN system, and other stakeholders. This was the fifth in a series of regional Summits.

By bringing together the key global and regional players in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector, the Connect Asia-Pacific Summit, inter alia, sought to provide a platform for mobilizing human, financial, and technical resources needed to support sustainable ICT growth, which is widely recognized as the key engine and enabler for future economic prosperity and sustainable development.

The ICT will in return contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and beyond. The Summit addressed the need for robust infrastructure to improve access to ICTs and discuss the critical role of digitization and broadband in socio-economic development.

The ICT tends to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, and promote gender equality and empowerment of women. It also aims to reduce child mortality, combat malaria, HIV/AIDS and other diseases. Ensuring environmental sustainability, public safety, and development of global partnerships for sustainable development are other goals of the ICT. 

pakistantoday.com

ITU Telecom world 2013 sets agenda for far reaching changes in ICT sector

ITU Telecom World 2013 closed its doors following a packed programme of networking, knowledge sharing and industry showcasing.

The event featured an impressive global line up of showfloor participants, sponsors and partners, including Ooredoo, China Mobile, Huawei, Intel, Alcatel-Lucent, ABS, AT&T, Microsoft Lync, NTT Group, AIS Group, True, DTAC, Telkom South Africa, Rohde & Schwarz & LS Telecom.

Pavilions from around the world highlighted opportunities for dynamic ICT investments to a global audience, featuring Angola, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, China, Gabon, Ghana, Japan, Kenya, Republic of Korea, Lao P.D.R, Malaysia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand (including supporting partners MICT, NBTC and TCEB), Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

"We have enjoyed four busy days of conversations, showcasing and networking at ITU Telecom World 2013," said ITU secretary general, Dr Hamadoun Touré. "We welcomed the world's youngest country, South Sudan, organizations at the cutting edge of our ICT ecosystem as well as young innovators who are already helping shape the future. It has been my privilege to join such a truly broad global debate.

"As we prepare to return home to different corners of the globe, my overarching hope is that we can take the lessons learnt from our debates here and apply them directly in our lives. Let's become true agents of change, working to change the world for the better."

Hosted by the Kingdom of Thailand, ITU Telecom World 2013 convened over 6000 participants from 153 countries worldwide.

"It has been an honour to host ITU Telecom World 2013 and welcome its global participants, showcasing our ICT industry to the world, via all our many activities within the Thai pavilion," said Group Captain Anudith Nakornthap, Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Thailand. "Utilizing the platform that ITU Telecom World 2013 provides has helped us demonstrate and strengthen Thailand's position as an ICT hub in the ASEAN region.'

Asynchronous transfer mode in UMTS

It is a telecommunications concept defined by ANSI and ITU standards for carriage of a complete range of user traffic including voice , data and video signals.

ATM was developed to meet the needs of the Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network, as defined in the late 1980 s, and designed to unify telecommunication and computer networks. It was designed for a network that must handle both traditional high-throughput data traffic (e.g., file transfers), and real-time, low-latency content such as voice and video. The reference model for ATM approximately maps to the three lowest layers of the ISO-OSI reference model: network layer, data link layer and physical layer.  ATM is a core protocol used over the SONET/SDH backbone of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), but its use is declining in favour of all IP.

ATM provides functionality that is similar to both circuit switching and packet switching networks: ATM uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing,  and encodes data into small, fixed-sized packets (ISO-OSI frames) called cells. This differs from approaches such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet that use variable sized packets and frames. ATM uses a connection-oriented model in which a virtual circuit must be established between two endpoints before the actual data exchange begins. These virtual circuits may be “permanent”, i.e. dedicated connections that are usually pre configured by the service provider, or “switched”, i.e. set up on a per-call basis using signalling and disconnected when the call is terminated.

S.sudan to participate in global telecoms event

At the four-day event, South Sudan, led by its telecommunication and postal service minister, Rebecca Joshua Okwachi, will have the opportunity to highlight some of the investment potentials within its agricultural, forestry, mining and tourism sectors.

The conference will further avail the new nation a chance to tap partners willing to work with already existing players in the country’s information communication technology industry.

Started in 1865, the ITU is a United Nations agency whose purpose is to coordinate telecommunication operations and services throughout the world.

Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the union sets and publishes regulations and standards relevant to electronic communication and broadcasting technologies of all kinds including radio, television, satellite, telephone and the Internet.

A statement on the ITU website says its, “mission is to ensure the efficient and timely production of standards covering all fields of telecommunications on a worldwide basis, as well as defining tariff and accounting principles for international telecommunication services”.

source : sudantribune.com

Nigeria truly gaint of Africa in telecommunications

Telecommunication is adjudged one of the major drivers in the economic development of any nation. It plays a key role in the development of every sector of the economy. It is vital in the development of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT), health, agriculture, works, education, commerce, industry as well as science and technology sectors among others.

In driving telecommunications, Nigeria through the regulatory body in the sector, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has made giant 

strides which have set the country apart as truly the giant of Africa.

The executive vice chairman of the NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, at a forum held recently in Abuja, declared that Nigeria would remain a telecom investment haven as long as foreign and local investments into the booming telecommunications sector were duly protected by existing telecom laws.

The country’s telecom laws, he explained, had remained the strength of the sector in the past 12 years of its liberalisation. He noted that the Nigerian Communication Act (NCA) 2003 has been the major source of the industry’s success.

The NCA is largely regarded as one of the most progressive laws in the country. It gives the regulator absolute power, devoid of government or other external interferences to regulate the industry according to best global practices as enunciated by the ITU and other regional telecoms regulatory bodies.

According to Juwah, the power of the NCA guarantees a safe market for investors such that they can bring their money into Nigeria and be sure that the law is there to protect their investment.

source: leadership.ng

universal mobile telecommunications systems

 UMTS is an umbrella term for the third generation radio technologies developed within 3GPP.

The radio access specifications provide for Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) variants, and several chip rates are provided for in the TDD option, allowing UTRA technology to operate in a wide range of bands and co-exist with other radio access technologies.

UMTS includes the original W-CDMA scheme using paired or unpaired 5 MHz wide channels in globally agreed bandwidth around 2 GHz, though subsequently, further bandwidth has been allocated by the ITU on a regional basis.

                                                              

W-CDMA was specified in Release 99 and Release 4 of the specifications. High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) was introduced in Releases 5 (Downlink) and 6 (Uplink) giving substantially greater bit rates and improving packet-switched applications.

UMTS is not just about radio: the radio access network connects to the core network which is an evolution from the GSM core. 3GPP has expanded its capabilities, in principle allowing most services to be delivered over either 2G GERAN (GSM/EDGE) or 3G UTRAN.

The core network is becoming progressively access-agnostic, allowing home base stations serving pica-cells to connect directly to the core network via subscribers’ ASDL lines.

3GPP is now working on Long Term Evolution (LTE), which will build on UMTS, as the Industry looks beyond 3G.

Just as GSM has become synonymous with the whole mobile system for 2G, UMTS is 3G, which includes the whole of the W-CDMA and HSPA specifications catalogue.