Latest IT news in Africa

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Kenya

Licensing of gateways to lower internet costs
Story by Geoffrey Irungu
Publication Date: 09/21/2004

With the end of Telkom Kenya's monopoly, there may follow immediate
benefits for this country's long-suffering consumers.

Already, tariffs for cellular phone services are forecast to come
down as the two operators – Safaricom and KenCell – no longer have to
route international calls through the State-owned telco.

Also expected to come down are the costs for internet connections as
new international gateways are licensed to compete with Telkom's
affiliate, Jambonet, whose services occasionally collapse, and are
considered expensive.

Before the opening up of the telecommunications market on June 30,
the two mobile phone service operators had to use Telkom
infrastructure to link their customers for roaming services overseas,
which in turn made the service expensive.

The two firms had to pay for the inter-connection. The reduction in
tariffs would begin with international tariffs which are directly
affected by opening up of the international gateway operations.

Once the international tariffs are substantially down, this is
expected to affect the local tariffs, as the companies pass the lower
costs of communication to their customers.

What should also lower the tariffs is possible migration to cheaper
internet connections, as new internet gateways, besides Telkom-owned
Jambonet, are licensed. Jambonet has for long had limited capacity
and unreliable services while internet service providers (ISPs)
contend that its services would be cheaper with competition.

Already, the Government has invited bids for new internet and data
gateway providers, and gazetted the firms that are interested in the
business. In fact, ISPs and cellular phone firms are now free to have
their own internet gateways.

"We expect the cost of international mobile telecommunication
services to come down in the long run," Christopher Wambua, a
communications officer with the Communications Commission of Kenya
(CCK) Communication told BusinessWeek.

International gateway operators will be required to only file tariffs
with the CCK, which is required to monitor anti-competitive
practices.

"In view of the fact that the international gateway market segment
has been opened up to full competition, tariffs will be determined by
competitive forces," Mr Wambua said.

The Commission will only intervene in cases where it feels that the
tariffs are not justified, relative to the cost of service provision,
or for a particular operator who has market dominance.

With competition, the licensed international gateway operators will
have to compete for customers, and this should result in improvement
in the quality of service and enhance diversity in international
links and reliability of service. CCK is expected to set minimum
standards of internet service provision to ensure that past Jambonet-
type of erratic services are minimised.

"CCK will set basic quality of service that operators will be
expected to meet. The Commission will also encourage the licensed
operators to enter into Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with their
customers," Mr Wambua said.

CCK is convinced that international gateway operators that will be
unable to provide quality services will have difficulty attracting
and retaining clients in the face of choice.

The regulator feels that instead of new telecoms licencees spelling
doom for Jambonet and other Telkom services, it may, on the contrary,
enhance their services, and hence their business prospects.

Experience elsewhere has shown that with competition, the incumbent
more often not adjusts itself to become more customer-
driven. "Whether this will happen here, only time will tell," said Mr
Wambua.

There is the question of whether the country has the kind of human
resources needed in a fast-growing telecoms sector. However, CCK says
that Kenya has more than adequate human resource capacity to the
extent that some of its information and communication technology
(ICT) professionals are working overseas.

It is appreciated that the country has a number of institutions
providing specialised training in ICTs, including the African
Advanced Level Telecommunications Institute (AFRALTI) in Nairobi, the
Kenya College of Communications Technology and the local
universities.

CCK had entered into partnership with the University of Nairobi and
Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, with a view
to enhancing the training of ICT professionals.

In addition, the privatisation of Telkom Kenya is expected to offload
a sizeable number of qualified technical personnel to the new
entrants, ensuring that there is no scarcity of ICT personnel in the
country.

CCK also says that despite the recent abolition of the auction system
for awarding various telecom licences, some ICT areas will still be
subject to the old system – areas such as frequency spectrum and
numbers, which CCK says are scarce resources.

"CCK had not done away with the auction process in toto.
Tenders/licence auctions will be used in awarding licences that
require use of scarce resources (such as frequency spectrum and
numbers) for deployment of services," Mr Wambua said following
enquiries.

CCK also says that the second national operator (SNO) licence is
still subject to the auction as had earlier been decided, as the
stoppage of the system does not apply retrospectively.

The SNO licence is a subject of litigation in the High Court and CCK
says it will determine the next step once the matter is heard and
determined.

The same case applies to Econet Wireless, which has to pay some $27
million in licence fees, after it won the auction for third mobile
phone operator.

Source: http:/www.allafrica.com

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Nigeria:

Microsoft Plans Academy for Nigeria
By Okechukwu Kanu

Microsoft has announced plans to establish an Information Technology
academy in Nigeria. The annoucement made at the just concluded
Digital Festival organised by Broadband Technologies Limited in the
University of Benin (Uniben), will also see another African country,
South Africa, benefitting from the Microsoft Information Technology
Academy, MSIT.

MSITs are used by Microsoft to help IT growth and Microsoft
representative, Ahmed Kassam, said the Nigeria and South Africa
academies would benefit IT on the African continent. Kassam said that
Microsoft has reached advanced stages of discussions with the Federal
Ministry of Education on the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) on e-learning and that the MSIT was part of the e-learning
programme which Microsoft had for Nigeria. He said that apart from
the high level of professionalism attached to the MSIT certification,
the academy would help in the development of content that would be
crucial in driving the IT sector in the days ahead.

According to Kassam, the MOU with government would, besides the MSIT,
bring other levels of IT training, including basic IT instructions.
from which Nigerians would gain.

He said Microsoft would rely on local resource to develop content for
IT training in Nigerian Institutions of higher learning,. Microsoft,
he said, would provide the tools and the technology which would
empower them.

In pursuit of this course, Kassam said Microsoft had experienced
major challenges in the provision of hardware, training, software,
content as well as certification. He however said the company was
determined to overcome these challenges.

With this in mind, Microsoft has embarked on a partners-in-learning
programme with about seven countries on the continent to provide
computers at reasonable costs including opportunities like the MSIT
training.

Speaking on the festival earlier, Microsoft's Manager, West East and
Central Africa, Richard Edet, said that the Microsoft's commitment to
the educational sector in Nigeria was total. He said that apart from
working with Broadband Technologies on the Uniben project, Microsoft
was holding discussions already with the National Universities
Commission to see how they could partner with other companies to
showcase their educational services solutions. He said that Microsoft
already had Educational licensing for which institutions of learning
paid next to nothing.

Source: THISDAY NEWS, Nigeria

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India to E-Connect Project Africa Commended
Highway Africa News Agency
http://www.highwayafrica.org.za/hana/
Contact Information:
+27 46 636 1590
highwayafrica@r...

Jonah Iboma
Geneva

The plan by India to provide a 50 million dollar assistance to
connect 53 African countries through satellite and fibre optic
network has received wide commendation from members of the African
technology development community.

Mkpe Abang, Editor-in-Chief of IT and Telecoms Digest noted that the
gesture is a positive step for the overall development of Africa but
advised that individual member countries should take advantage of it
in the quest to bridge the digital divide. He added however, that
African countries must put the money into good use, stating
that "India had always been a good friend of Africa."

Also Vincent Maher, New Media lecturer of the Journalism Department,
Rhodes University and a keen follower of events on access issues in
the continent said if the plan by Indian government was true, then it
is a great boost to the efforts at helping African continent to
bridge the digital divide.

The Indian government had on Thursday, in Johannesburg, announced a
50 million dollar assistance to connect 53 African countries through
satellite and fibre optic network as part of its 'Focus Africa'
policy implementation programme.

India's President APJ Abdul Kalam said in an address to Pan-African
Parliament session of African Union said in honour of Indo-Pan
African partnership, "our Government has decided to provide seamless
and integrated satellite fibre optics and wireless network connecting
53 African countries for tele-education, tele-medicine and e-
services."

The planned network would connect five universities, 53 learning
centres, ten specialists hospitals and 53 patient-end locations in
rural areas. The $50 million assistance would also involve the
installation, initial opening and maintenance of the projects for
three years.

Though more details of the projects were not disclosed in the
address, but Kalam said Indo-Pan African joint team would make
comprehensive proposals and prepare a roadmap for speedy and smooth
implementation of the project.

Source: All Africa News

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Africa Must Pursue Its Case for Community Media
Highway Africa News Agency
http://www.highwayafrica.org.za/hana/
Contact Information:
+27 46 636 1590
highwayafrica@r...

Jonah Iboma
Geneva

Despite the rejection of a proposal to include the recognition for
community media in the World Summit on Information Society
agreements, Africa must continue to emphasise a position that would
accord such media forms due accepted because of their importance to
the overall development of the continent.

Alain Modoux, President of ORBICOM, the International Network of
UNESCO Chairs in Communication, who stressed this point at the
Highway Africa Conference, said community media, especially community
radio, has proven to be important to the achievement of efforts
towards developing the African continent and as a result of this, it
would not do the countries in the continent any good if WSIS fails to
accord recognition to such a successful idea.

He noted that one of the major reasons why the WSIS Conference in
Geneva failed to recognise community media was due to the fact that
rebels often use community radio as part of their campaign against
government in South America and also because it is employed by a few
persons seeking monetary compensation to compete against commercial
broadcasters in countries in this region and as such, the idea does
not enjoy much support from governments in this part of the world.

Modoux noted that the failure of most South American countries to
regulate the use of broadcast frequencies led to this problem but
added that African countries must still find a way round the problem.

But in order to accomplish a recognition of community media, he
advised African countries to be careful not to ask for additional
changes to the either the WSIS Plan of Action or the Declaration of
Principles as towing this line could lead to the reopening of others
issues on these documents, especially cases where compromises had
been made.

He advocated an approach whereby community media would be brought
into programmes that would be designed towards the implementation of
Section 9 of the Declaration of Principles which notes
that "traditional media in all their forms have an important role in
the Information society and ICTs should play a supportive role in
this regard."

*************************

Unfavourable Internet Traffic: a Commercial Question
Highway Africa News Agency
http://www.highwayafrica.org.za/hana/
Contact Information:
+27 46 636 1590
highwayafrica@r...

Jonah Iboma
Geneva

The persistent complaints by Internet Service Providers in the
African continent that they are unfairly treated by current Internet
traffic routing methods that make them to pay for inbound and
outbound internet traffic would not change except African ISPs
decided to a solution to it.

According to President of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers, David Twomey, the solution to this problem lies with
ISPs in the continent figuring out away to go round the problem and
not just keep complaining as is the case right now.

He noted that the perception in some circles that ICANN was
responsible for the situations was not true as the body has no
control over that issue, which he described "as a commercial
question." He said ICANN did not set the rules but rather the current
telecommunications agreements in place were responsible for the
problem.

Mohamet Diop, a board member of ICANN, agrees with Twomey but added
that the situation would remain as it is now until African ISPs were
sufficiently-strong enough to effect a change of the situation
through negotiations with telecommunications operators in Europe and
other parts of the world. According to him the issue is basically a
commercial one and solutions to it rests with ISPs and not ICANN, as
the body have no control over such issues.

It is generally estimated that ISPs on the African continent lose
about $500million annually due to the unfavourable routing systems
that current governs internet traffic. The situation is believed to
be partly responsible for the high cost of access in the continent
with the attendant effect of slowing down the pace of growth of the
industry on the continent. Several solutions have been proffered to
the problem including the setting up of Internet exchange points
across the continent to ensure that local traffic is kept local
rather than being routed through systems outside the continent.

Ashraf Patel from Open Society Institute for Southern Africa believes
the establishment of Internet Exchange Points must be pursued by ISPs
if the continent is to address its disadvantage in this area.

Twomey however suggested that ISPs must find a way of carrying
traffic to their last mile so that "they would not have to pay
anybody," a method he said was already being practiced by ISPs from
Asia.

Source: All Africa News