Quality data for African progress

Ghana’s Statistical Services will stage African Statistics Day this week to draw attention to the importance of basing development on accurate data.

Under the theme “Quality Data to Support African Progress”, the day, on 20 November, will highlight the importance of quality statistics for evidence-based decision-making for socio-economic development, said the government.

A statement issued in Accra by David Yenukwa Kombat, Chief Statistician, the Ghana Statistical Service would use the occasion to disseminate monographs that had been prepared from 2010 Population and Housing Census data. 

source: biztechafrica.com

Vodacom data usage soars

Data usage on Vodacom South Africa's network grew 79% in the past year‚ driven by lower handset prices and data costs.As a result of the demand Vodacom is investing in increasing network capacity‚ providing innovative solutions and improving customer service. The group plans to increase its data coverage on its 3G network from 88,9% to 100% in South Africa in near future.

According to Frost & Sullivan the growing demand for data services, triggered by the proliferation of smartphones with innovative‚ value-added services and customer demand for converged voice and data services‚ is driving the broadband market in southern Africa.

Vodacom reported a 29% rise in data revenue to R6.1bn for the six months to September driven by bundle sales and integrated offers. In South Africa‚ Vodacom has 15-million active data customers up 13.4% from 2012. 

"Mobile data is one of the biggest opportunities facing us‚ with smartphone and tablet penetration still at low levels in all our markets‚" says Vodacom's chief executive Shameel Joosub.

Research by Informa Telecoms and Media found that smartphone users in South Africa spend on average US$31 per month on their mobile phone. Of the 12 countries surveyed‚ South Africans are the fourth biggest spenders‚ behind consumers in the US‚ Saudi Arabia and the UK.

Mobile data usage rising sharply

Africa's mobile data business is worth US$8.5bn a year and will rise to more than US$23bn in 2018‚ according to the report. 

"It is consumer demand that is driving this growth‚" says principal analyst at Informa Telecoms and Media‚ Nick Jotischky. "But retail prices are still too high‚ smartphones are too expensive and there is a lack of investment in connecting parts of rural Africa. These are barriers restraining greater consumer demand."

Vodacom has been providing finance for consumers who cannot afford to buy smartphones upfront. The company says in South Africa‚ handset financing underpins its strategy of putting data capable devices into customers' hands.
source : bizcommunity.com

UMTS services

The best known new feature of UMTS is higher user bit rates: on circuit-switched con-nections 384 kbps, and on packet-switched connections up to 2 Mbps, can be reached. Higher bit rates naturally facilitate some new services, such as video telephony and quick downloading of data. If there is to be a killer application, it is most likely to be quick access to information and its filtering appropriate to the location of a user. Often the requested information is on the Internet, which calls for effective handling of TCP/UDP/IP traffic in the UMTS network. At the start of the UMTS era almost all traffic will be voice, but later the share of data will increase. It is, however, difficult to predict the pace at which the share of data will start to dominate the overall traffic volume. At the same time that transition from voice to data occurs, traffic will move from circuit-switched connections to packet-switched connections. At the start of UMTS service not all of the Quality of Service (QoS) functions will be implemented, and therefore delay-critical applications such as speech and video telephony will be carried on circuit-switched bearers. Later, it will be possible to support delay-critical services as packet data with QoS functions.