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

Mandela's Passion for Telecoms Growth in Africa

As the world celebrates the life and times of late President Nelson Mandela of South Africa, the icon of anti-apartheid, it is noteworthy to also remember him for his contributions to telecoms development in Africa.

Today, the world celebrates late Nelson Mandela for his political struggle and achievements in bringing peace to South Africa and the rest of the world. Yes, it is worthy to remember him for his political struggles, but there is also need to remember him for his passion and contributions to telecoms development in Africa, and this could be best captured from his speech at the opening ceremony of Telecom 95, the 7th World Telecommunications Forum and Exhibition in Geneva, on October 3, 1995.

The Value of Telecommunications According to Mandela at the opening ceremony of the Telecom 95, "As prisoners on Robben Island, when we were deprived of newspapers we searched the refuse bins for the discarded sheets of newspapers which warders had used to wrap their sandwiches. We communicated with prisoners in other sections by gathering matchboxes thrown away by warders, concealing messages in false bottoms in the boxes and leaving them for other prisoners to find. We communicated with the outside world by smuggling messages in the clothing of released prisoners. Not even the most repressive regime can stop human beings from finding ways of communicating and obtaining access to information."

This, he said, applied in equal measure to the information revolution sweeping the globe. No one can roll it back. It has the potential to open communications across all geographical and cultural divides.

Nevertheless, one gulf will not be easily bridged - that is the division between the information rich and the information poor. Justice and equity demand that we find ways of overcoming it. If more than half the world is denied access to the means of communication, the people of developing countries will not be fully part of the modern world. For in the 21st century, the capacity to communicate will almost certainly be a key human right, he said.

source: www.allafrica.com

SA ranks for internet affordability

South Africa ranks highly for Internet affordability in Africa, according to the first annual Affordability Report, compiled by the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI).

In the report, A4AI indexes 46 emerging and developing countries across the world in terms of communication infrastructure and Internet access and affordability (equally-weighted).

Out of the 46 countries, South Africa is ranked as the 12th most affordable country for Internet access – 3rd in Africa, behind Mauritius (1st) and Morocco (2nd).

Malaysia is ranked the most affordable, overall, with and index score of 68.6, while Yemen is ranked as the least affordable market, with an Index score of 0.0 – below Malawi (45th at 3.1) and Zimbabwe (44th at 3.6).

According to the report, top-ranked Malaysia launched a National Broadband Initiative in 2010, with the aim to increase both supply and demand for broadband.

source: www.mybroadband.co

Alcatel lucent betting up IP networking and LTE

Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) is planning to sell its enterprise segment consisting of switches and communication gear. This is the second time in the span of three years that the company is trying to sell its enterprise unit. In 2011, the company tried to sell its enterprise unit but succeeded in selling call center unit, Genesys, for $1.5 billion. The reason the company wasn't able to sell its enterprise unit was the heavy cost requirement to restructure the unit, as it involves the labor union and associated pension obligations. Apart from pension obligations, the company's service offerings under the enterprise unit are outdated. Alcatel-Lucent's competitors, such as RingCentral and 8x8, provide an upgraded version of cloud based phone services. The company is planning to divest around $1.36 billion worth of assets and dispose non-core assets in order to increase its investment in IP networking. It plans to increase its investment in IP networking and ultra-broadband services to 85% of its total R&D investment by 2015. By 2017 data traffic on metropolitan access and aggregation networks may increase to 75% from the current 57%. The growth in data traffic provides Alcatel-Lucent with a great opportunity. Alcatel-Lucent recently entered into a partnershipwith Qualcomm (QCOM) to develop small cells for ultra-broadband wireless access.

In the third quarter, revenue from IP routing, terrestrial optics, and ultra-broadband access solutions increased 7% to $777.95 million. I expect the revenue from IP networking and ultra-broadband will increase in 2014 due to growing data traffic.

Expanding 4G network

Alcatel-Lucent is also looking to expand its reach in the 4G LTE network. The company signed a deal with YooMee in November to deploy an end-to-end TDD LTE solution including wireless backhaul and evolved packet 

source: seelinglfa.com

could pre paid internet be Africa's broadband saviour

Depending on where you live in the world, it might be hard to imagine going about your life without easy access to the internet. For many, it has become more than a source of entertainment and information. From doing business, to keeping in contact with others, to participating in the news and conversation on a global scale, the internet has become an integral part of modern society.

In South Africa, access to reliable, affordable internet isn’t always a given. That’s why companies like Telkom Mobile have launched pre-paid internet programs. Like pre-paid options in the mobile phone market (you pay a fee up front to gain access to cellular service), Telkom’s pre-paid internet offers affordable internet access to areas that typically have to go without.

At its core, the Telkom program provides users with a SIM card to get started and 2.4GB of data usage per year, broken down to about 200 MB per month. And the cost? Just R49. For those without a modem, a 3G USB modem can also be rolled into the bundle, making it a one-time fee of R399.

Those 2.4 GB might not seem like a lot for folks who are used to downloading and streaming movies, music and cat videos every day of their life but, to the people of South Africa, it means finally being able to connect to the world in a whole new way, officially joining the 21st century in terms of technology, communication and information exchange. Depending on usage, those 200MB a month could go a long way.

Telkom isn’t the only company providing such a service, of course. Vodacom, for instance, also offers pre-paid Internet with no contract required. Its program, by comparison, offers 100MB of data per month, the SIM card and an optional 3G modem for R399. Without a modem, the price drops to R149.

And then there’s Afrihost, which offers its own take on prepaid internet. Its package offers 1GB of bandwidth with data validity of up to 12 months for R24. Up to 2GB is available at R48. The plan is adjustable, though, going all the way up to 50GB for R1200.

source: memeburn.com

LIBTECH launches private sector fiber optic window

The Liberia Telecommunication Corporation (LIBTECO) Tuesday opened the Lynch Street Sales Center and private sector fiber optic window for public subscription.

Speaking at the ceremony, the LIBTELCO Board Chairman Francis Horton said the fiber optic cable will put Liberia on the map for faster internet services.

He recalled that the Liberia Telecommunication Corporation, the predecessor of LIBTELCO, provided quality communication services to the Liberian people from the 1960s until the civil war which affected every fabric of the Liberian society.

Chairman Horton lamented that LIBTELCO is today saddled with several problems, including financial constraints.He said with competition from communication companies in Liberia, LIBTELCO must strive to provide services that would gain the public trust and woo them back to it.

Before the Liberian civil conflict, LIBTELCO's predecessor Liberia Telecommunications Corporation had a monopoly of the telecommunication industry.

source: allafrica.com

Tanzania tower firm make telecoms cut costs

THE emergence of independent communication towers has made telecoms reduce operational costs and consequently charges passed to the ultimate consumer, it was said in Dar es Salaam recently.

Previously, each operator was building and managing its own towers which need heavy investment and high operational costs for running a generator, providing security and management of other activities. In many places there were many towers in one area or a hill targeting to serve the same population.

"That is where independent tower companies come in. They own, manage and operate the towers, which can be leased to multiple telecom companies and other uses such as TV and radio stations and meteorological agencies.

"With the removal of the burden of a high infrastructure investment plus site management, telecom companies can focus their energy on what they do best to provide voice and data services to Tanzanians," said Helios Towers Tanzania (HTT) Sales and Marketing Director, Mr Michael Magambo.

He was speaking during an exclusive interview in Dar es Salaam to introduce HTT along with the importance of its contribution to the communication industry in Tanzania and across Africa. HTT is the largest independent tower company in Tanzania, having acquired Milicom Tanzania's 1,000-plus towers in 2010.

It has since built 300 more sites and expects to add more soon. "Many people are not aware of the role that we play in driving the telecom industry though they understand how telecommunications has transformed Africa, connected it to the world, enabled economic activity that has lifted people out of poverty and introduced products such as 'M-Pesa' that foster financial transactions amongst people that were previously impossible.

"The explosion of the telecommunications industry has had a profound impact on many aspects of life in sub-Saharan Africa beyond the obvious benefit of allowing people to talk to each other," he said.

He said the emergence of independent tower companies has played a significant role in expanding coverage, especially into rural areas, creating a more competitive playing field amongst operators.

Vodafone Ghana awards its digital compaign winners

The Vodafone Ghana has awarded winners of its maiden digital campaign dubbed DO More Gh campaign. At a ceremony held in Accra, Lorna Tetteh, Ricky Ansong and Percy Osei-Appiah received GHS 3,000 each and Vodafone souvenirs after sharing their dreams and aspirations on Vodafone Ghana’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.

Vodafone Ghana in July this year introduced an online campaign to empower young Ghanaians on social media platforms to achieve more with their lives. Themed #DoMoreGh, several people shared their aspirations and dreams on Vodafone Ghana’s social media pages.

Out of hundreds of entries 5 outstanding ambitions were shortlisted and put forward for Ghanaians to vote for the best 3.

Second runner up, Percy Osei-Appiah tweeted that he had written a ‘spoken word’ song on bridging the gap between online and offline communication and needed support to shoot the video.

Ricky Ansong, the first runner up posted on Facebook that he had written a book about children in James Town-Accra and needed support to publish the book so he could distribute to the children.

The ultimate winner Lorna Tetteh, posted on Facebook that she needed financial support for her orphanage ‘Give them Hope’, which she runs with a group of friends.

Speaking at ceremony held on the University of Ghana campus, the Chief Marketing Officer of Vodafone Ghana, Uche Ofodile, reiterated Vodafone Ghana’s commitment in providing Ghanaians with a reliable network that empowers everyone to stay confidently connected. This according to her is done by offering the best experience on our network.