The Nation Newspaper

Category: Infotech

  • MainOne, Microsoft partner

    Undersea cable firm, MainOne Cable Company is partnering with Microsoft Imagine Cup competition, a premier student technology challenge, where student innovators compete to produce various application ideas and implement them from concept to marketplace with Microsoft’s resources.

    Imagine Cup is part of Microsoft’s YouthSpark initiative, a way for young entrepreneurs, innovators and developers to have the opportunity to develop an idea, create a product, set a clear business plan and take their product to market. All Imagine Cup Worldwide finalist teams are eligible to apply for Imagine Cup grants, a three-year $3million investment by Microsoft to help students turn their ideas into reality. Microsoft BizSpark, another YouthSpark initiative, enables Imagine Cup participants to launch star-tup businesses in their communities and across the web.

    Head of Marketing, Main One Cable, Mrs. Jumoke Akande, said: “New technologies are rapidly changing businesses, socio-political landscapes and the lives of consumers in Nigeria, Africa as a whole, and other parts of the world, and the speed of adoption is inspiring.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Oracle to increase investment in manpower training

    ORACLE Corporation plans to invest more in manpower training by increasing the number of beneficiaries of its programmes in tertiary institutions in the country.

    Senior Vice President, Eastern Europe, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Middle East & Africa, Alfonso Di Ianni, said the firm is doing this because of the resources and population of the country.

    “We have a lot of programmes for the development of Nigeria in the future.We believe in developing the people (youth) because the people (youth segement) make the country. We will encourage the creation of more Nigerian solutions, more Nigerian innovations. To achieve this, we have several programmes with some universities in the country. We have programmes with eight universities, which allow us to equip them and ensure they are given instruction using the appropriate technology. We believe that if we can equip the universities with the right technologies, that will open a lot of employment opportunities and with the knowledge acquired, they can contribute to value creation in the country,” he told The Nation in Lagos.

    Shedding more light on the programme, the firm’s Country Manager, Layo Ajayi, said it has opened what she called the Oracle Academy where it offers the training that will make them ICT compliant after graduation.

    “What we are doing is that we opened Oracle Academy. We ensure that modern technologies are used by these students and they actually add it to their curriculum so that by tiime, they are graduating from the university, they are not looking for jobs, they are not inundated with the pains of asking what they are going to do to earn a living. We make sure that skills required by SMBs are taught in schools. We are not only encouraging them to obtain the certificate, but equipping them with hand on about how to deploy the skill acquired to work in any organisation whether it is in Oracle or not. The Oracle Academy supports 268,000 students in 1,800 education institutions across Africa. The software, curriculum and other resources provided during our 2012 fiscal year by the Oracle Academy to education institutions in Africa were valued at $557million,” she said, adding that the firm is having partnership with eight universities, but hopes to have done 13 before the year runs to an end.

  • MTN denies ‘cold calling’

    Telecom giant MTN Nigeria has denied calling its customers to advertise its products amid subscribers complaints of cold, intrusive and provocative calls and text messages.

    Cold calls are calls that are unsolicited and are therefore considered a provocative intrusion into the privacy of people.

    Its General Manager, Public Affairs, Funmi Omogbenigun, also said the telco had made provision for subscribers to choose not to get ‘service notifications.’

    “MTN does not cold call customers for advertising purposes. For service notifications, there are facilities for customers to opt out. With respect to product or service- related messages, MTN follows NCC directives, which stipulates the frequency and scheduling of such messages. However, in some instances, network factors may cause late delivery which is unintended and always regrettable. This is the (an) exception,” she explained in a response to an electronic mail or email sent by The Nation.

    On what the telco is doing to check the excesses of its customers that buy bulk short message services (SMS) and resell to their customers because that has also been identified as part of the problem, she said the telco does its best to filter spam messages.

    “We do our best to filter spam SMS from identified spammers. There are genuine SMS delivery requests to large groups of subscriber numbers which we are obliged to deliver (e.g. corporate clients with large employee base). However, in an era of ‘net neutrality’, where spammers abuse internet protocols, it is difficult to intervene,” she explained.

    Director, Public Affairs, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Ojobo said the commission has been inundated with complaints from subscribers over unsolicited SMS and calls.

    He said the build-up to the implementation of MNP may have accounted for the surge in the volume of intrusive calls in the country.

    “The operators probably want to get across to as many subscribers as possible now that MNP implementation is round the corner,” he said, adding that with the kick off of MNP, the situation would be normalised.

  • Firm in Top 50 list

    Signal Alliance has been declared as among the top 50 fastest growing (non-listed) companies in Nigeria known as Nigeria50.

    Announcing this in Lagos, organisers of the awards, Allworld Network and The Tony Elumelu Foundation said a winner must have increased its revenues of $9million by 100 per cent, and also, must have created 6,600 jobs.

    Companies were invited to compete for a spot on the Nigeria50, and those with the fastest revenue growth between 2009 and 2011 made the inaugural ranking. Thousands of emails were sent to companies around the country inviting them to apply. Each company had to provide audited statements to confirm their revenues and each applicant’s business practises and ethics were strenuously vetted by AllWorld. The fastest growing and most transparent became the Nigeria50.

    The winners were announced at the Nigeria50 Awards and Summit in Lagos, which was attended by 350 entrepreneurs and business and government leaders, including the Minister of Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga;Tony O. Elumelu, Chairman of Heirs Holdings and Michael Porter of Harvard Business School and Chairman of AllWorld Network.

    Signal Alliance Ltd’s Chief Executive Officer, Collins Onuegbu, said: “This award belongs to our people who have committed themselves to building a company that we are all proud of. We will continue to invest in local talent and continue our philosophy of providing the best education for staff that show capacity to learn. This is important to keep the company growing year to year as the industry we play in constantly evolves.”

     

     

     

     

     

  • We’re set for MNP, says Airtel chief

    AIRTEL Nigeria is ready to implement the Mobile Number Portability (MNP), its Managing Director/Chief Exeutive Officer Segun Ogunsanya has said.

    Ogunsanya, said with Airtel’s robust and expanded 3.75G network coverage, many subscribers who had waited so long to join the “best friends network” could exploit the window offered by the MNP to realise their dreams.

    He said Airtel was the first telecoms operator in the country to call for the implementation of MNP during its brand launch on November, 19, 2010 at the Hilton Hotel in Abuja.

    “I am happy to inform you that we have done all our homework and we are fully ready for the MNP go-live date. Airtel has transformed its network, investing over $1.5billion to improve network efficiency and quality.

    ‘’Airtel was the first telecoms operator to complete 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) trial in Nigeria and also the first service provider to roll out HD (High Definition) voice in the country,” he said.

    He added that the telco has altered the nation’s telecoms landscape with its tariff and value offerings with the launch of several groundbreaking tariff and service platforms, including 2Good Offers, MAMO (My Airtel My Offer) and a bouquet of data offerings, pointing out that with such an impressive record, he had no doubt that Airtel was the network of choice to Nigerians.

    Director, Regulatory Affairs and Special Projects of the firm, Osondu Nwokoro, who spoke on how the MNP works, he said Airtel had a history of being customer-centric as evident in the numerous customer service awards it had won.

     

     

     

  • How mobile number portability will work

    Six years after the idea was mooted, the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) took off on Monday. Its implementation holds a lot of promises for subscribers, the regulator and operators, reports LUCAS AJANAKU

     

    History was made on Monday when the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) was launched at the Muson Centre, Onikan, Lagos.

    At the historic event, stakeholders listed the benefits MNP to global system for mobile (GSM) communication subscribers.

    Director, Regulatroy Affairs and Special Projects, Airtel Nigeria, Osondu Nwokoro, said the MNP would “enable a mobile subscriber to migrate from one service provider to another while retaining the phone number allocated to him by his original/former service provider.” He added that the mobile number is a unique means of identification, such as the Social Security and National ID Numbers in other organised jurisdictions.

    He listed four major stakeholder groups that would benefit from MNP. They are subscribers, operators, Federal Government and the NCC.

    Experts say subscribers will have the opportunity to retain their numbers and have the freedom to choose and benefit from high quality service, tariffs, coverage and product range which will be induced by competition.

    Operators would profit from the upgrade of their infrastructure for optimal use, showcase innovative product offerings and services and increase their market share, they added.

    With the MNP, the Federal Government would boost its contributions to social overhead capital and increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and foreign direct investment (FDI). This, analysts said, would lead to improvement in national communications infrastructure, described as one of the cardinal objectives of the government.

    For the NCC, it would take the burden of regulation off its shoulders as the industry would self-regulatory in terms of quality, coverage, competition and tariffs. It would also lessen the resources allocated to address industry concerns while the resources saved can beused for other industry issues even as there will be less enforcement actions.

    To ensure a seamless operation of MNP, the NCC engaged the services of Interconnect Clearing House Nigeria Limited (ICN), also a licencee of the NCC, to handle the porting in (migration of a subscriber into a new networ) and porting out (migration of subscribers form its old network) process. The firm also partnered Telcordia and Saab Grintek to implement the scheme.

    ICN Chief Operating Officer, Uche Onwudiwe, described the porting process as simple. He said all a willing subscriber that is dissatisfied with his/her service provider needs to do is walk into the shop of the recipient operator (the network service provider into which a subscriber ports in) and request for form which is filled. After the completion of that formalty and presentation evidence to prove that the owner of the SIM is actually the person requesting for porting, an SMS in which port will be sent to 3232 from where it will be picked for action by the ICN which will begin the process of completing the process by contacting the recipient (the network service provider into which a subscriber ports in). Upon the completion of the process, a new SIM card would be given to the subcriber by the recipient network operator while the subscribers would be required to register the new SIM again.

    According to him, the process will take a about 48 hours to complete, adding that no operator has the right to stop the process from going on.

    MTN Nigeria Cief Executive Officer Brett Goshen said the telco would leverage on the experience it has gained in its operations in other climes where MNP had been introduced, adding that customer care officials had been trained in all the telcos’ shops to attend to subscribers who want to join the network.

    His Airtel counterpart, Segun Ogunsanya, said its network is prepared to accommodate new subscribers. Also, Olayinka Olafimihan of Glo and Ndidi of Etisalat said their companies were prepared for MNP.

    Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Eugene Juwah, said the commission has developed guidelines for the process. “It is pertinent to mention that there are rules governing the process of customers porting from one network to another and regulating the implementation by network providers. These rules are contained in the Mobiel Number Portability Business Rules already published and available on the commisssion’s website. In addition, the commission has also developed Regulations for Mobile Number Portability,” Juwah said, adding that the documents would provide guidance, promote transparency and healthy competition among service providers.

    ICN Chairman, Admiral Allison Madueke (retd), said the firm has its main data centre in Lagos and a disaster recovery centre in Abuja where subscribers’ porting information would be stored.

    He said the data centres are secured against cyber attacks. “The number of fireworks we have created is adequate to protect everybody that is porting and the process of porting needs a lot of screening. When you go to the porting centre, you will be given a from to fill,” he said, adding that the attendants will have to check the authenticity of the information that has been provided.

    Director, Regulatory Affairs and chair, Implementation Committee, MNP, Ms Josephine Amuwa, said subscribers intending to port must first exhaust the airtime on their phones. On the requirement that a subscriber would have to remain on the network, once ported, for 90 days, she said. It is for the ICN to recover the cost of doing the porting, she said, adding that porting is free.

    Chairman House of Representatives Communication Committee, Hon Oyetunde Ojo and his Senate counterpart, Senator Gilbert Nnaji, described the introduction of MNP as marking a new dawn in annals of the country’s telecoms sector. They pledged to continue to work with the regulator to ensure that the subscribers get vaue for the money they spend on making calls.

    Chairman, NCC board, Peter Igho, said MNP is a scheme on which the Nigerians are in agreement, adding that the commission embarked on extensive consultation before implementing the project.

    Originally conceived by the former executive vice chairman of the NCC, Ernest Ndukwe in 2007, it could not be implemented because there was no data base as subscribers bought SIM cards without registering them before use.

    Nigeria is Africa’s largest mobile market with tremendous growth potential given that penetration was just 57.4 per cent at the end of 2010. With the rapidly improving mobile infrastructure and intense compettion among mobile operators, it is expected that the numbers of mobile subscribers will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 15 per cent during 2009-2014, with a penetration rate exceeding 88 per cent by the end of 2014. Latest figures from the NCC show that subscriber base has passed 113 million.

    Analysts say the success of MNP scheme may be undermined by the fact that many Nigerians have more than one mobile phone and SIM cards, which enable them to enjoy the services of two or more service providers.

    Aside Nigerians getting used to clutching more than one phone (as status symbol as well as a result of inefficient service), there is also the problem of long delays before porting. Forty-eight hours are certainly a long time to complete the exercise and the requirement that the subscriber will have to acquire the SIM of the recipient network, engage in another round of registration may too unwieldy for prospective porting subscribers.

    Added to this is the level of awareness. While it is true that virtually all mobile phone users in the country know about the problem of persistent poor service quality, it may not be true that they have been sufficiently informed about the new freedom being given to them through MNP.

    Against this background, the NCC, operators and the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS) would need to do more by creating public awareness. This could be through newspaper adverts, radio jingles and distribution of handbills written in all the major languages of the country.

    It is said of the about 62 countries that have introduced MNP, few have seen more than 30 per cent of subscribers in the market using the service.

    But sector analysts say the success rate should not be judged by the number of customers that port, but by the quality of infrastructure and competitiveness that will be generated in the telecoms sector.

  • Women group celebrates

    Women in Technology (WITIN) will today join the world in marking the International Girls in ICT Day.

    It is an initiative of the International Telecommuincations Union (ITU) to advance a universal environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women to pick up careers in the growing information and communication technology (ICT) sector.

    According to a statement by the group, WITIN is organising a one-day conference with the theme: Women and Girls in Technology-Expanding Horizons.

    This inaugural conference will bring together high school students and women in Nigeria to discuss how to foster women’s contributions and empowerment through ICT as well as to celebrate the feats of young girls in the just-concluded Technovation challenge.

    Chairman, Diaspora Committee, House of Representatives, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Ita Okon Bassey Ewa and Ann Mei Chang, Senior Advisor for Women and Technology, United States’ Department of State billed to be key speakers at the event while Executive Vice-President, Technical, Conoil Producing Ltd, Nigeria Chief Oma Eyewuoma, will chair the occasion.

    “Women and girls continue to be dramatically underrepresented in the ICT field around the world.  Not only is this an issue of opportunity for individual women and girls, but as the ICT sector continues its outsized growth it will increasingly contribute to a talent gap which leaves critical jobs unfilled.

    ‘’Girls often lack role models and may be discouraged from pursuing ICT by parents, teachers, or peers.  Girls in ICT Day is an important event to raise visibility of the many successful women who have pursued ICT careers,” Mei Chang said.

    Other speakers include Njideka Jack of MTN Nigeria, Folakemi Olawolu of Phase3 Telecoms, Chinyere Edward Azike of Signal Alliance Limited, Adedoyin Jaiyesimi of YNaija, Martha Omoekpen Alade of Women in Technology in Nigeria and Samuel Eyitayo of the US Consulate General, Lagos.

     

     

     

  • How to curb vandalism

    ONE way to stop the vandalism of metro terrestrial optic fibre cables in the country is the use of aerial optic fibre cables, the Head of Business Solutions and Sales, Phase 3 Telecom, Otuya Okecha, has said.

    Speaking on the sideline after receiving the ‘Best Telecommunication Broadband for Education Award’ at the Eighth Titans of Tech Conference and Expo Award in Lagos, he said embracing aerial fibre optic fibre cables is a bulwark against vandalism of cables and its attendant disruption to service delivery.

    He explained that with its strategic positioning of optic fibre cables over high tension power lines for broadband penetration with high speed and great connectivitity, it would be difficult to for vandals to wreak havoc on the cables.

    He said firm has made remarkable expansion in the provision of bandwiddth to companies and schools across the country, adding it is the first indigenous company to deploy fibre optic cables in the country.

    Okecha said the company has areial fibre optic cables covering over 4500km, adding that with the placement of the telecoms infrastructure, are not vulnerable to vandalism.

    He reiterated the firm’s committment to services delivery, especially in the provision of excellent bandwidth for the development of the country’s educational sector to generate and harness the huge potentials inherent in technologically-driven education sector.

    “We will continue to champion the adoption of a very active and sustainable e-learning system that is at par with global standards. This informed the choice of we made in focusing on the promotion of e-learning in schools. We will also take active role in the development of sports which has a huge potential to engage the nation’s youthful population,” he said.

    “e-learning is key to the knowledge economy. We will continue to support the educational sector in the country through the provision of bandwidth to make teaching and learning more exciting for students not only to excel in their academic pursuits but to have the needed confidence and intelligence to compete with their counterpart on the global scene,” he added.

  • Nigeria gets first software incubation centre

    Nigeria gets first software incubation centre

    Nigeria has finally launched the first software incubation centre in Lagos.

    It is known as the Information Technology Developers Entrepreneurship Accelerator (iDEA) Software Incubation Centre.

    iDEA is a not-for-profit special purpose vehicle (SPV) constituted to ensure the successful implementation of the programme across the country.
    Speaking at the event, Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson, said the official launch of the project  marks a significant milestone in the country’s quest to grow the software development industry and grow young entrepreneurs too.
    The software incubation centre is located in the popular Herbert Macaulay Street, Yaba, a middle class business and residential area on the mainland of metropolitan Lagos.
    She recalled that the idea of the centre came shortly after she was appointed minister of the new ministry, adding that every consultation she had with stakeholders in the industry all pointed to the fact that the software industry has huge potential to support ongoing efforts at job and wealth creation for the youths of the country
    The consultation led to setting up of  a committee to provide a working template since it will be impossible to import wholesale what has been done in places like China and India.
    The committee worked assiduously to produce what has led to the establishment of the incubation centres.
    “There is a lot of work to be done. We will bring all the multinationals to this initiative,” she said.
    Mrs Johnson said the launch of the other incubation centres, first in Tinapa Knowledge City, Calabar, Cross Rivers State, and others will follow suit.
    Chairman, Governing Board of iDEA, Adedotun Suleiman, said the centre will offer all the technical and financial assistance needed by students, developers and start-ups to grow their ideas, adding that with the funding from the Federal Government, the coast was clear for youngsters with promising business plan to make them a reality.
    Project Manager, Helen Anatogu, said the centres will provide developers the opportunity to develop their skills and market it.

  • We’re ready for number portability, says MTN

    MTN has said it is ready to implement the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) later this month as directed by the industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

    Speaking at a forum, its Corporate Services Executive, Akinwale Goodluck, said the telecoms giant has put systems in place to make the scheme a reality for mobile phone users in Nigeria who are eager to join the country’s most expansive network.

    “We are confident that at the commencement date, we will be absolutely ready,” he said.

    Goodluck said a tests had been carried out on the company’s systems and infrastructure without any hitch.

    “We are excited that customers who wish to join the network with the most coverage of Nigeria will now be able to do so without worrying about losing their mobile numbers. As you know, we have made far more investment in our network than any other operator in Nigeria has done, with the result that we are today the clear leader with effective network coverage of more than 85 per cent of Nigeria’s land mass and population.

    “We have nearly 100 per cent coverage of most major highways in Nigeria and we are gradually moving towards the final laps of a massive, nationwide network modernisation and swap-out exercise that is bound to give the network unequalled capacity and much improved quality of service in the near future. We have no doubt in our minds that mobile phone users on other networks in Nigeria will be eager to port into MTN to avail themselves of these and other benefits they can only find on the MTN network,” he said.

    Apart from its massive investment in its core services, MTN was the first operator to create a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) vehicle, MTN Foundation, to implement life-impacting social projects across the length and breadth of Nigeria, Goodluck said.

    He added that the company through MTNF had invested over N5 billion in such social projects which have directly and indirectly impacted millions of lives in the areas of health, education and economic empowerment. The MTN Foundation is known internationally as a credible benchmark of project driven, sustainable corporate social investments in Nigeria.

    He affirmed the company’s commitment to continue to seek for ways of adding value to the lives of Nigerians both through the company’s core services and corporate social investment initiatives.