The Nation Newspaper

Category: Infotech

  • Cisco to train one million Africans on digital skills

    Technology firm, Cisco, says it will train one million students in Nigeria and Africa on digital skills, through its Networking Academy (NetAcad) by year 2025.

    Olakunle Oloruntimehin, Cisco General Manager for Nigeria and West Africa, said in a statement on Monday in Lagos that close to 700,000 students had participated in the company’s NetAcad courses since its launch in 1998.

    ‘This year, the company has set an ambitious goal to train an additional one million students in Africa, including Nigeria by 2025.

    ”The students will be trained during the next three years, followed by re-skilling initiatives for active workforce and job seekers, based on content from Cisco NetAcad.

    ”Through NetAcad, Cisco intends to support the creation of Digital Learning Hubs in public libraries, accessible by the local population.

    ”Cisco also plans to actively engage with employers to identify job opportunities that align to the skills of NetAcad students and alumni,” he said.

    Oloruntimehin said that the technology company would continue to help society securely connect and seize tomorrow’s digital opportunity today.

    He said that in November 2018, Cisco opened the first Cisco EDGE Incubation Center in Pretoria, South Africa.

    EDGE stands for Experience, Design, GTM (Go to Market) and Earn.

    According to him, in the coming months, Cisco plans to establish a similar centre in Nigeria.

    ”The objective is to share business knowledge, help develop small and medium businesses in the digital age, speed up their entry to market and, as a result, create new jobs for the local economy.

    ”EDGE centres function as incubators, as they provide small and medium businesses with state-of-the-art Cisco communication and collaboration technology, alongside training and enablement programmes.

    ”They specialise in topics that are relevant to the local economy, such as smart ports, IoT in agriculture and smart cities.

    ”In addition, small and medium businesses are able to connect with global Cisco experts, who can support them with developing business ideas and concepts,” he said.

    Oloruntimehin said that for more than 20 years, Cisco had invested in educating and upskilling students, graduates and unemployed youth through its NetAcad.

    He said that NetAcad provided students hands-on digital skills to prepare them for careers in the digital economy.

  • Ericsson Clears Four Myths about 5G Technology

    Ericsson has released a ConsumerLab report, 5G Consumer Potential, which it claims busts a number of industry myths surrounding the value of 5G for consumers. These include the idea that 5G offers consumers no short-term benefits; that there are no real use cases for 5G, nor is there a price premium on 5G; that smartphones will be the ‘silver bullet’ for 5G: the magical single solution to delivering fifth-generation services; and that current usage patterns can be used to predict future 5G demand.

    This study is based on 35,000 interviews with smartphone users aged 15 to 69, carried out in 22 countries. To gain a perspective on industry sentiment regarding the consumer value of 5G, a further 22 interviews were conducted with experts, including academics and senior executives working for telecom operators, handset and chip manufacturers, start-ups and think tanks.

    The key findings of the study include the fact that consumers expect 5G to provide relief from urban network congestion in the near term, especially in so-called megacities, where six in 10 smartphone users report facing network issues in crowded areas. The respondents also anticipate more home broadband choices to be available with the launch of 5G.

    The report also found that smartphone users are willing to pay 20 per cent more for fifth-generation services, and half of early adopters as much as 32 per cent more. However, four in 10 of these high spenders expect new use cases and payment models, as well as a secure 5G network, in addition to consistently high internet speeds.

    Another key finding is that current 4G usage patterns are not indicative of future usage behaviours. Video consumption is set to rise with 5G. Consumers expect to not only stream video in higher resolutions but also use immersive video formats such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), resulting in an additional three hours of video content being watched weekly on mobile devices by users on the move in the 5G future, including one hour wearing AR glasses or VR headsets. The study also reveals that one in five smartphone users’ data usage could reach more than 200GB per month on a 5G device by 2025.

    From these insights and others, Ericsson ConsumerLab has drawn up a consumer roadmap of use cases involving 31 different applications and services. The roadmap is divided into six use-case categories: entertainment and media; enhanced mobile broadband; gaming and AR/VR applications; smart home and fixed wireless access; automotive and transportation; and shopping and immersive communications.

    Jasmeet Singh Sethi, head of ConsumerLab, Ericsson Research, said: “Through our research, we have busted four myths about consumers’ views on 5G and answered questions such as whether 5G features will require new types of devices, or whether smartphones will be the silver bullet for 5G. Consumers clearly state that they think smartphones are unlikely to be the sole solution for 5G.”

  • Over 30million users to enjoy new opera ad

    Over 30 million Nigerian users will from today enjoy the newly launched Opera ad according to Opera Limited, one of the world’s major browser developers, and leader on the development of AI driven digital content.

    Opera, today, announced the launch of Opera Ads in Nigeria.

    The new advertising platform which serves the needs of digital local marketers and gives advertisers a unique opportunity to reach and engage with more than 320 million Opera users worldwide with an innovative content- based ad experience within Opera’s global inventory across its portfolio of products.

    “With Opera Ads, we open the Opera ecosystem to advertisers allowing them to do more precisely targeted campaigns and improve the control of their media buy,” says Per Wetterdal, VP Global Business Development, Opera.

    “We secure your ads will be served with a premium placement in connection to an engaging content experience”.

    Based on user intent and contextual relevance, Opera Ads offers an intelligent advertising solution to Nigerian digital agencies, publishers and brands to connect and engage with the Opera audiences at a global scale with geo-targeting capabilities.

    The platform offers transparency, unique and controllable ad placements, reach and budget management based on the support of fixed and dynamic pricing models.

    Opera Ads is available in both traditional and programmatic buying models. In this way, Opera Ads provides a trusted and relevant environment for users, advertisers and simplifies the campaign performance evaluation.

    It was also revealed that Opera holds 47 percent of the browser market share in Nigeria with more than 30 million monthly active users across its mobile products.

    The company has decided to make a roadshow with local publishers, businesses, and media agencies giving them early access to the platform.

  • IT firm launches Tucana to solve web host difficulties

    An IT company, IPI Solutions Nigeria Limited, has launched a new web hosting platform – Tucana, aimed at solving difficulties and simplifying the processes associated with a web host.

    Tucana NG is a domain sales and web hosting platform, first of it kind in Nigeria.

    It was launched primarily to drive businesses and encourage people to have an online presence.

    The company with expertise in digital transformation, cyber security and advisory consulting revealed that Tucana was built as a result of the observation in the tech industry in Nigeria.

    “Tucana was built as a result of the observation in the tech industry in Nigeria. It is so disorganised that people host in different places, especially outside the country and users’ complaints usually on constant down-time and poor customer support” says CEO of IPI Solutions Nigeria Limited, Adamu Garba.
    He added: “IPI Solutions Nigeria Limited is a 1-Tier CSP Microsoft Partner, over a long period of time has built an industry practice around data center solutions which entails hosting for different applications at the enterprise level. We then saw the need to develop a product that will give this enterprise experience to small businesses,” he stated.
    “In Nigeria, one of the major challenges users encounter is lack of effective 24/7 technical support. IPI Solutions has a proven track record of more than 10 years in delivering enterprise level support to customers, which will extend to Tucana users

    “Therefore, users will have 24/7×365 billing and technical support via live chat, emails and telephone calls. Tucana is designed to be the fastest, reliable and most secure web host in Africa, Nigeria particularly. The replication site, Microsoft Azure is the largest server in the world with more than 140 data centers globally and a presence in each continent of the world. Hence, websites hosted on Tucana have 99.9% uptime. In a bid to resolve the traffic within the Nigerian airspace, Tucana has chosen its primary extension to be .NG.

    “This is because we want the traffic to be regulated in Nigeria. One of the ways we want to accomplish this is by hosting DNS server ourselves. We also have accreditation with NIRA as one of the .NG premium providers which as a result, makes our domain cheaper” he says.

    Although, the host of the entire platform is Azure, the traffic and all the information that traverses over the network is resolving the DNS, the domain host and the content in given pool. This is to give a uniquely Nigerian experience to the global and globally experience back to Nigeria with a standard industry practice,” he further explained.

  • It’s time to break up Facebook, says co-founder

    Facebook Inc co-founder and former Mark Zuckerberg roommate, Chris Hughes, has called for the break-up of the social network in an opinion piece in the New York Times.

    “We are a nation with a tradition of reining in monopolies, no matter how well intentioned the leaders of these companies may be.

    “Mark’s power is unprecedented and un-American,” Hughes wrote on Thursday.

    Facebook owns the largest social network with more than two billion users across the world.

    It also owns WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram, each used by more than one billion people.

    Hughes co-founded Facebook in 2004 at Harvard with the company’s Chief Executive Officer Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz.

    He quit Facebook in 2007 and later said in a LinkedIn post that he made half a billion dollars for his three years of work.

    “It’s been 15 years since I co-founded Facebook at Harvard, and I haven’t worked at the company in a decade.

    “But I feel a sense of anger and responsibility,” said Hughes, who later was an online strategist for Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign.

    The company did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

    In one of a number of security and privacy scandals to hit the company, Facebook is accused of inappropriately sharing information belonging to 87 million users with the now-defunct British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.

    Hughes said he last met with Zuckerberg in the summer of 2017, several months before the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke.

    “Mark is a good, kind person. But I’m angry that his focus on growth led him to sacrifice security and civility for clicks,” Hughes said.

    “And I’m worried that Mark has surrounded himself with a team that reinforces his beliefs instead of challenging them.”

    Hughes is not alone in asking for break-up of Facebook.

    Some lawmakers have called for federal privacy regulation and anti-trust action to break up big tech companies.

    Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Elizabeth Warren in March vowed to break up Facebook, Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google if elected U.S. president to promote competition in the tech sector.

    Reuters/NAN

  • 82% Women in Tech Suffer Discrimination, says Tek Experts

    Nigerian women are being discriminated in the tech industry; a recent white paper published by Tek Experts has brought this to the fore.

    Not unless than 82% of women in the professional industry are treated with bias at their place of work and have to cope with some form of gender discrimination protocols helplessly.
    The white paper titled; ‘Achieving Gender Balance: Views from Across the IT Industry’ has been published online, on wide streaming platforms as part of effort create awareness to fight bias treatments and gender related discrimination.

    The report highlighted pay gap, lack of career growth opportunities, recruitment bias, general lack of inclusion and displacements among many others, as the some of the ways women suffer discrimination in the ecosystem.

    The white paper which is a free download online, was completed by over 2,000 women worldwide, and was conducted in 5 countries where the information technology company operates in – Bulgaria, Nigeria, Costa Rica, USA and Vietnam.

    Over 300 Nigerian women were selected across the country for the white paper survey, and 82% of the respondents agreed to being discriminated to during their recruitment process for an IT organisation, and 31% of women do not get same training opportunities as men and 76% of women felt that policies promoting gender diversity in the IT industry should be strongly implemented by the industry regulator to ensure compliance by private companies.

     

     The white paper     https://www.questioningdiversity.com/en-us/

    Tek Experts Chief Executive Officer, Naama Saar who shed light on the focus of the white paper said and how the company dealt with discrimination said, “At Tek Experts we are deeply passionate about inclusion and diversity in the workplace and we’ve worked tirelessly to ensure we are a reflection of what we preach.

    “We have implemented recruitment policies to achieve gender balance so we not only talk the talk; we also walk the walk. Our leadership team is almost entirely composed of women who have proven through their amazing track record in the industry that they deserve a seat at the table.”

    “Also, the IT industry’s customer base is diverse, so I think this is something that should be reflected within companies themselves. Women definitely have a place and a value in this industry and there is a lot of added value to be gained by having women on your team. Tek Experts is certainly proof of that.”

    Also speaking on the need to achieve gender balance in the workplace and in particular the IT industry, Tek Experts Nigeria Country Manager, Ashim Egunjobi said: “There is an absolute need to encourage women to take on more IT roles. Diversity is very important in every sector more so the IT sector because we develop lifestyle products, software and services that are essential for everyday living. Having both male and female perspectives helps to holistically understand what the end user needs and presents more than one way to solve a problem.”

    “This whitepaper not only identifies the issues we have with diversity and inclusion in the IT industry, but it also recommends practicable solutions to ensure major IT companies, including ourselves and our clients, sufficiently tackle this issue of diversity and ultimately engender better futures for women in IT everywhere.”

  • MD Global: Nokia 4.2 smartphone design with class

    MD Global, the home of Nokia phones, has announced that Nokia 4.2 is in Nigeria.

    The Original Equipment Manufacturer made this known in a media statement on Tuesday.

    The first entry smartphone  is shelved by accredited dealers nationwide 22nd April, 2019.

    The Nokia 4.2 has been designed to offer the latest smartphone innovations at a truly accessible price.

    The classy, sculpted-glass design and selfie-notch display offer beauty on the outside and it’s not just skin-deep, as it packs in a dual-rear camera, biometric face unlock and the latest generation Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ chipset, all powered by the latest Android™ 9 Pie.

    The General Manager, West, East and Central Africa, HMD Global, Joseph Umunakwe said: ”Being on a budget doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have access to the best Android experience and the latest aspirational trends.

    “From cutting-edge experiences, beautiful craftsmanship, AI innovation and dual rear cameras, the Nokia 4.2 brings all the experiences you expect from the latest smartphone for a fraction of the price you’d expect to pay.

    “At HMD Global, we believe that being on a budget smartphone, should not deny you a good smartphone experiences and this is evident in all the amazing features the Nokia 4.2 comes with.”

    Nokia 4.2 Quick Review

    Nokia 4.2 carries a 5.71-inch screen with a resolution of 1520 x 720 pixels with a notch or water droplets and a glass-clad back design.

    There are two rear cameras, each of which has a resolution of 13MP (aperture f / 2.2) and 2MP which are specifically for taking portrait or bokeh photos. It sports an 8-megapixel camera on the front for selfies, with an f/2.0 aperture and a pixel size of 1.12-micron.

    For the performance section, the smartphone is equipped with Snapdragon 439 chipset which combines with a choice of 2GB or 3GB RAM and 16GB or 32GB of storage space.

    Nokia 4.2 has a dedicated button that functions to call the Google Assistant. This button is the first time that appears in the ranks of Nokia smartphones and is called non-functional.

    Also comes the power button that is integrated with the LED notification light. This means that the owner of Nokia 4.2 will be able to see lights that indicate message notifications or incoming calls, in an upright state.

    Armed with a battery capacity of 3000mAh, Nokia 4.2 running on Android 9 Pie operating system and equipped with a fingerprint scanner sensor (fingerprint) on the back.

  • Facebook confirms uploading 1.5 million users’ email contact without consent

    The social media giant, Facebook, uploaded the contact details of 1.5 million new users without their permission in the last three years, Facebook confirmed in a statement on Thursday.

    READ ALSO: Facebook partners MainOne on metro internet infrastructure expansion in Edo

    “The error was discovered amid a change to the sign-up process made in March,’’ Facebook stated in a publication by the U.S. news website Business Insider.

    The California-based company said the details were not shared with anyone and are now being deleted.

    “The mistake has been rectified and affected users are being informed,’’ Facebook added.

    The company has seen a string of gaffes involving users’ sensitive information in recent years.

    For example, posts from several million users who wanted them to be only view able to their Facebook friends were shared publicly, making them visible to the whole world.

    Business Insider broke the news about the mistake, reporting that in some cases, a new user’s email address was inadvertently uploaded during the password verification process.

    “Facebook removed the email password verification step from the sign-up process last month,’’ the company said in the statement.

  • EU lawmakers approve bill to remove online terrorism contents

    Internet hosting services that fail to promptly remove online terrorist content could face hefty fines under a bill
    approved by EU lawmakers on Wednesday.

    “Companies could be fined up to 4 per cent of their annual turnover if they `systematically and persistently’ violate a requirement that content is removed within an hour after national authorities give notice,’’ the parliament said in a statement.

    The bill was passed by 308 votes to 204, with 70 abstentions.

    However, negotiators will have to wait until the new European Parliament convenes in July, after EU elections, to hash out a final deal with member states, as this week is the last plenary session of the term.

    In a nod to concerns of civil liberties groups and other critics, the bill does not require providers to monitor the content that they transmit or store, or to actively seek out illegal posts.

    READ ALSO: EU lawmakers move to ban throw-away plastics

    It also does not require firms to set up a de facto filter to catch such content automatically, which the original European Commission proposal called for last year.

    In addition, the bill includes language aimed at small providers.

    It calls on national regulators to contact small platforms when they incur first-time notices, first giving them information and then allowing 12 hours before issuing the order.

    It also seeks to provide a clear definition of terrorist content, while noting that “the expression of polemic or controversial views on sensitive political questions” should not fall in that category.

    For providers who are repeat offenders, the legislation allows authorities to impose additional measures, such as requiring extra staff or regular reporting.

  • Active phone subscribers reduce in February – NCC

    The NCC) says there was a decrease of 342,101 active subscribers on the telecommunication networks in February 2019.

    NCC disclosed this in its Monthly Subscriber/Operator Data made available on its website on Monday.

    Active subscribers on the telecommunications networks reduced from 174,012,136 in January to 173,670,035 in February.

    According to the data, 173,276,528 of the 173,670,035 active numbers subscribe to the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network services.

    The GSM operators’ active customers’ figure decreased by 348,778 in February, against the 173,625,306 subscribers recorded in January.

    The report stated that out of the GSM operators, MTN had 65,565,878 users in February, showing a decrease of 99,480 from the 66,665,378 it recorded in January.

    “Globacom’s figure increased in February by 400,879 with 46,004,517 customers, as against 45,603,638 in January.

    “Airtel had 44,975,532 subscribers in the month under review, which showed an increase of 4,559 users, from the 44,970,973 recorded in January.

    “9mobile recorded 16,730,581 customers in February, having an increase of 345,264 subscribers, against 16,385,317 in January.

    “The Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators recorded 123,547 subscribers in the month under review, indicating a decrease of 710, from 124,257 users in January.

    “Visafone which is one of the two surviving CDMA operators had 119,087 customers in February, showing a decrease of 710 from the 119,797 recorded in January,” it said.

    The report added that Multi-Links had 4,460 in the month under review, same with the record of January.

    “The monthly subscriber/operator data showed that Fixed Wireless network (landline) consumers remained at 26,865 in February.

    “One of the two landline networks, Visafone had 26,437 subscribers, while Multi-Links maintained its record of 428 customers in the month under review.”

    It also revealed that the Fixed Wired operators (landline) subscriber base decreased by 154; reducing to 107,795 users in February, as against 107,949 recorded in January.

    “In the Fixed Wired arena, MTN Fixed moved from 5,480 users in January to 5,459 users in February, thereby decreasing by 21 customers.

    “Glo Fixed had 2,884 users in February, decreasing by 12 customers from the January record of 2,896.

    “IpNX network moved from 2,248 subscriber base in January to 2,233 in February, hence, its customers decreased by 15.”

    It said that 21st Century Network had 97,219 customers in February, recording a decrease of 106 users from its January record of 97,325 subscribers.

    The report also showed that the two Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) networks had 135,300 active users in February, as their customers increased by 7,541 from their January subscriber base of 127,759.

    “Of the VOIP networks, Smile Communication had 129,468 customers, giving an increase of 8,207 users to its January result of 121,261.

    “Ntel had 5,832 consumers subscribing to its products and services in February, showing a decrease of 666 users from the January record of 6,498,” it said.

    The regulatory body said that Section 89, Subsection 3(c) of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003 mandates it to monitor and report the state of the telecommunications industry.

    “The commission is mandated to provide statistical analyses and identify industry trends with regard to: services, tariffs, operators, technology, subscribers, issues of competition and dominance.

    “This is with a view to identifying areas where regulatory intervention will be needed.

    “The commission regularly conducts studies, surveys and produces reports on the telecommunications industry.

    “Therefore, telecommunications operators are obligated, under the terms of their licenses, to provide NCC with such data on a regular basis for analytical review and publishing,” it said.