Africa Telecoms - Issue 18

Q&A with Luvuyo Rani from Silulo Ulutho TechnologiesThought Leadership with Craig Holmes

ConneCtingrural communities

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AFRICA TELECOMS

ISSUE 18TELECOM

SUCCESS STORIES, COnnECTIng RURAL COMM

UnITIES, LTE-A yEAR In

Issue 18 AFRICA TELECOMS 3

50Google’s Android transforming the mobile marketSteven Ambrose reflects on the engine giants’ acquisition of Motorola Mobility.

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[ Contributors ] Bradley Shaw, Brett Haggard, Lesley Stones, Sarah Theron, Wayne Mallinson,

Steven Ambrose, Richard Smuts-Steyn and Elizabeth Migwalla.

44Red Herring or Knight in Shining Armour?

Cloud Computing

60Using 3G to improve healthcare in Africa

Elizabeth Migwalla, Senior Director for Qualcomm Government Affairs, discusses how wireless technologies are changing the face of healthcare in Africa

24 Thought Leadership

An exclusive interview with Craig Holmes, Communications and Industrial Executive for IBM.

32Connecting

Rural Communities

40

2 AFRICA TELECOMS Issue 18

Sarah Theron takes a look at Satellite’s crucial role in bridging the digital divide Australia.

Satellite’s role in connecting rural communities

Lesley Stones examines how

to reach 57% of Africa that needs

connectivity most.

Contents Issu

e 18Regulars

[ 04 ] guest edSimon Dingle, Technologist.

[ 06 ] newsThe latest local and global telecoms news.

[ 18 ] gadgetsWant the next big thing in portable devices? Our gadget review is here to help you choose.

[ 22 ] statsAfrica Telecoms presents statistics and data relating to the African telecoms market.

[ 66 ] calendarUpcoming events, shows and conferences which you can’t afford to miss.

[ 64 ] q&aWith Luvuyo Rani from Silulo Ulutho Technologies.

[ 70 ] jobsA list of the latest telecoms positions from across Africa.

[ 72 ] lastwordHistory Repeating?

Simon Dingle, Technologist

EditorialguEst


One of the most incredibly useful tools for tracking broadband quality and value around the world is the Net Index service run by Ookla Net Metrics. It very accurately compiles the results of internet speed tests into charts and lists that can be manipulated to reveal very telling stats – especially if we’re tracking the progress of telecommunications in Africa.

Updated in real time, the service reveals that the top three countries for broadband download speeds at time of writing are Lithuania in top spot with an average speed of 33.29Mbps. South Korea is second with 29.50, followed by Sweden with 25.94. The first time we find an African country on the list is at number 56 – Ghana with an average of 5.56Mbps.

Much further down is Rwanda at number 73. Kenya is 82 and South Africa is number 100.

But it isn’t all bad news. The average download speed in South Africa is just a scratch under 3Mbps. This is worlds apart from where it was at the beginning of 2010. Upload speeds have also dramatically increased and I have watched South Africa jump up 10 places on that list in the past year.

I am particularly focused on upload speeds because this is

The broadband crux leapfrogging that some predicted at the turn of the century, we are seeing Africa systematically catching up in pockets – and we still have a long way to go.

However, the real issue, for me, has more to do with value and less with performance.

The average global cost per 1Mbps of a home broadband connection is currently US$9.96. The EU, as a region, is well below this average at US$5.12 while the APEC region is at US$13.48.

The best value in the world, according to Ookla, can be found in Denmark for US$3.62 per megabit per second. South Africa is number 58 at a relatively staggering $39.02, followed by Egypt in 59th position.

No other African country makes it into the top 64 countries tracked for value by Ookla.

This is really the crux of the problem in Africa. Not speed, but price – and general availability.

If we really want to experience the economic benefits that we know internet connectivity can bring to the continent, then we must urgently develop better ways of getting connectivity into the hands of the masses.

Affordably, effectively – and speed is just an added bonus. ATwhere connectivity will enable the next major shift in cloud computing, with private clouds becoming a reality for individuals. It will also give Africa what it needs to express itself online for the first time, with regional content creation and software development progressing – not to mention citizen journalism.

And the interesting thing about connectivity in Africa is that while we are still very far down on global lists, our connectivity tends more towards synchronistic upload and download speeds – probably thanks to the latest switching technologies and fibre being deployed.

For example, Ghana might be at number 56 for downloads, but it is at 31 for uploads, with an average speed of 4.13Mbps. South Africa does less favourably at number 97 in the world but has come a long way from 108 last year.

So while we aren’t quite seeing the

I am particularly focused on upload speeds because this is where connectivity will enable the next major shift in cloud computing, with private clouds becoming a reality for individuals.


The global internet is far less centred on the United States than it was 10 years ago. According to new data from TeleGeography’s Global Internet Geography study, the development of rich regional networks, coupled with a need for diversification, has reduced the share of international capacity connected to the US for all regions except Latin America.

Operators have also diversified the array of city-to-city connections used in global backbones to create additional routing options and improve resiliency. For example, the London-New York route’s share of total transatlantic capacity has declined from 46% in 2005 to 30% in 2011 as ISPs have deployed more capacity on other routes across the Atlantic, such as Paris-Washington and Frankfurt-New York.

While operators will continue to introduce alternate routes into the major hub cities, the development of new hubs is also vital. Countries such as Turkey, the UAE, Kenya, and Brazil

GlobAl inTerneT is decenTrAlizinGare angling to leverage their favourable geography, physical infrastructure, and proximity to fast-growing markets to become regional internet hubs.

The shifting topology of the global internet is also tied to the desire to locate content nearer to end users and, ultimately, reduce latency. Several carriers reported that improved routing efficiencies, largely attributable to the caching and localization of content, have reduced traffic on their interregional links and led to more rapid growth on local and regional links. Traffic growth on intra-European routes exceeded growth on US-Europe routes between 2007 and 2011. A similar pattern is evident in Asia, where the pace of growth on intra-Asian links has surpassed that of transpacific links during the same time frame.

The strengthening of regional hubs and intraregional routes is a positive trend in the evolution of the internet, and should help to improve both network performance and reliability. AT

chAnGes in reGionAl connecTiviTy To The us, 2007-2011

Source: TeleGeography

Eaton Towers, has secured a major round of equity funding worth $150m from Capital International Private Equity Funds, a private equity investor that focuses on emerging markets.

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South Africa’s FNB mobile app processes 90 000 transactions to date with over an average of 500 app downloads per day.


“Every Kenyan regardless of their tribe, income or residence, has the right to access sustainable food”

Wireless broadband solution provider Alvarion South Africa recently appointed Namibian telecommunications system integrator RamPoint Communications as its new partner for the licence-exempt market. The two companies have been working together in the SADC region for more than five years now, focusing on providing wireless communications solutions to telecommunications providers, internet service providers, cellphone companies, large enterprises and private network operators.

“This new partnership seeks to extend our focus to servicing the Namibian unlicensed enterprise market, which includes government departments, NGOs, hospitals, municipalities, corporate clients and smaller ISPs,” explains Mathew Welthagen, of RamPoint Communications.

“Opportunities in the Namibian licence-exempt market are growing and this new partnership will enable us to take advantage of them,” says managing director of Alvarion SA and Nigeria, Winston Smith. Given RamPoint’s skills set, Smith says Alvarion views the partnership as very synergistic, benefiting both companies as they grow the business in the region.

“The enterprise and government market in Southern Africa as a whole is currently experiencing dramatic growth with many new offerings and market requirements,” says Smith. “New verticals such as smart cities, smart grid and video surveillance for public safety are all growing markets in Africa at the moment. Alvarion South Africa is focused on leveraging the opportunities within these new market segments and helping our customers to achieve their business goals within these markets.” AT

AlvArion And rAmPoinT TeAm uP

Kenyan mobile operators are expected to raise calling rates for customers on the back of a weak shilling against the dollar and persistently high inflation, according to a top official in the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK).

Calling rates have been falling for the past year after India’s Bharti Airtel, the No.2 operator in the market, slashed prices by more than half in a bid to gain subscribers from the biggest operator, Safaricom.

The shilling has in the same year to date lost 18% against the dollar, touching an all-time low of 95.65 on Monday, while inflation rose to 16.67% in August from less than 5% last December.

“Even (the operators) are hard-pressed like everybody else, so I’m almost certain there will be a slight increase in calling rates,” said Bitange Ndemo, permanent secretary of the CCK, told Reuters at an event hosted by Google. “It won’t be significant, but I think they may adjust to recover from the shocks they have had.”

Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore started the debate on whether firms should raise charges when he said recently that his firm did not have plans to do so, but added that higher costs of running the network pointed in that direction.

A spokesman for Airtel Kenya also told Reuters the firm had not made a decision on pricing despite higher fuel costs, rising inflation, a weaker shilling and higher network investment.

“All these increased costs are escalating the cost of running the network and putting a strain on our margins. We are yet to make a decision on the way forward, even though we are closely monitoring each of these elements,” said Dick Omondi. AT

KenyA exPecTs mobile TAriff rise

NewsAfrica Telecoms brings you all the latest telecoms news from Africa and around the world.


mtn makes E-commerce more Accessible by implementing payd, an e-commerce payment mechanism that allows consumers to buy products and services online with their debit cards.

GTuc And huAwei TechnoloGies siGn mouThe authorities of Ghana Telecom University College (GTUC) and the management of Huawei Technologies S.A. Ghana have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a formal relationship between the two institutions to promote capacity building and the exchange of best practices.

The MoU aims to enhance the professional skills of GTUC and Huawei staff through training, staff interactions and exchange of experience and information.

President of GTUC Dr Osei Darkwa and Dr Robert Baffuor, vice president of GTUC, signed on behalf of the university, while Daniel Guo, deputy managing director of Huawei, and Diana Ayen, special assistant to the deputy managing director, signed on behalf of Huawei.

Darkwa said the agreement would focus on selecting students from GTUC for placement with Huawei Technologies to undertake their internship, and expose them to best practices in the field of telecommunications, ICT and related areas.

In addition, it would assist in building capacity among GTUC students in Huawei operations, involve Huawei in all major activities organised by GTUC and provide competitive

pricing to GTUC in purchasing of equipment, communication, e-learning solutions and telecom service.

“In the globally connected world of the 21st century, you need a workforce with a global theoretical and technical knowledge who have a deep understanding of issues within the industry,” Darkwa added.

Guo said Ghana was fast becoming the preferred business and leisure destination in the sub-region and the expectation for excellence in the delivery of world class service could not be over-emphasised.

He said selected students for the internship programme would have the opportunity to learn from seasoned professionals in Huawei to build their confidence, broaden their horizon and help them acquire certain job skills exposure to be able to adjust quickly to the working environment after completing their education.

Guo noted that the collaboration would allow both institutions to improve on the already established relationship that had helped to produce excellent students, supported various institutions and provided an extremely skilled ICT workforce in Ghana. AT

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Airtel Sierra leone, has expanded coverage of its wireless network to the entire Tonkolili district, in the Northern Province of Sierra leone.

these services – whether owned or as an outsourced service. Many companies have resorted to utilising branch offices for

off-site data mirroring, and for use during emergencies, but this does not completely solve the company requirements, and often these plans fall short of the ideal DR planning scenario. Enter BSF Mobile Disaster Recovery services.

Backup Storage Facilities (BSF) recently launched Mobile Disaster Recovery services or MDR. “The premise of the MDR is that your disaster recovery site comes to you at your time of greatest need, fully configured for your requirements,” says June Welthagen, BSF group general manager.

She believes that the MDR is uniquely BSF: “Over a 20-year period we have evolved a culture of exceptional service to our clients. We are a niche, but critical, part of their DR planning and the MDR extends our forte by providing a cost effective DR site service to all types and sizes of business; larger corporations who need smaller DR sites for branches, as well smaller organisations that need a DR facility but don’t want to go the conventional route.”

Welthagen is particularly excited by the versatility of the approach to the MDR offering: “Although we have developed a

standard option that has built in fire prevention management and consists of an administrative section, a facilities section (power generation and air conditioning) and data centre, our clients can configure the units themselves to include satellite internet access, VoIP phone systems and solar power generation.”

The BSF MDR is available either as an outright purchase and self-operation, or as a full service offering that includes finance, maintenance, unit storage, bandwidth availability, site setup and operation when activated. Client units will be housed at BSF, which will provide power and internet access so that clients can update their data or use the site as a mirroring facility. Alternatively, the client will be able to house and manage the unit themselves. Also part of the package are crane, trailer and transport facilities on 24-hour stand by.

The option also exists for clients to purchase the unit outright to utilise the storage facilities at BSF. BSF Group Marketing Manager, Darren Stewien concludes: “BSF has the stated brand intent of ‘Always There’. This extends to all our services – whether digital imaging, physical or virtual paper and data storage, or data recovery – but none encapsulate this ideal more than the Mobile Disaster Recovery service.” AT

also delivers dual-band Wi-Fi®, Bluetooth and FM radio connectivity through Qualcomm Atheros’ WCN3660 combo chip. The WCN3660 is an integrated solution optimized to work with a broad range of mobile operating systems and will be the first in a series of 802.11n wireless LAN solutions to fully support Windows 8.

“Collaborating with Qualcomm to deliver Windows 8-based PCs will help deliver a high-performance and differentiated experience for customers,” said Mike Angiulo, corporate vice president of Windows planning, hardware and PC ecosystem, Microsoft. “Working closely with Qualcomm allows us to maximize performance while maintaining a high level of energy efficiency.” AT

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mTN in collaboration with Ecobank- liberia, formally launched the mobile money Product in the country.

dATA recovery services: AlwAys There for you‘Disaster recovery’ are two words that managing directors and business leaders have of late become all too familiar with. And fear.

Corporate governance legislation in South Africa and The King Commission have highlighted the need for disaster recovery (DR) and Business Continuity Planning and Provisioning, as well as the penalties for not having these in place. But this all comes at a high price. And much like insurance, it’s a cost that has a measure of resistance associated with it because of the low eventuality of a disaster. DR hot sites are the most costly of

Qualcomm and Microsoft are collaborating to enable Qualcomm’s Snapdragon™ next generation family of mobile processors to power the first generation of upcoming Windows 8-based PCs, becoming one of the only silicon providers to date positioned to support both Windows smartphones and PCs. In addition, Qualcomm’s Gobi™ mobile internet connectivity solutions will provide Windows 8-based PCs with wireless 3G/4G connectivity to deliver an always-connected experience.

Luis Pineda, senior vice president of product management, computing and consumer products at Qualcomm, said at the recent Microsoft BUILD conference: “We are excited to be at BUILD to show the Windows ecosystem and how we are working together towards commercialization of apps and hardware that will run Windows 8. It is a priority for Qualcomm to work with the developer community to optimize the Snapdragon and Gobi-powered platform for Windows 8 to provide an unparalleled mobile user experience.”

worK ToGeTherAs one of the largest providers of wireless chipset

and software technology in the industry, Qualcomm has one of the most diverse chipset and software product portfolios spanning multiple device classes. The next generation of Snapdragon processors is a family of all-in-one chipsets with the option for integrated multimode 3G/4G, differing numbers of CPU cores and the ability to support a range of device types.

Shown for the first time, at BUILD, Qualcomm’s Gobi solution provided the 3G/4G LTE connectivity of a Windows 8-based prototype PC. Qualcomm’s Gobi mobile internet connectivity solution is a pre-certified multi-mode 3G/4G LTE module that makes it easy for OEMs to certify the connectivity of any Windows 8-based PC. By integrating a Gobi-based module into Windows 8-based PCs, Qualcomm will provide a fast, easy-to-use global connectivity solution for an untethered, productive user experience.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon family of mobile processors

QuAlcomm And microsofT windows

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There was a predictably negative response when South African operator Vodacom announced that it intended to throttle data speeds on BlackBerry Internet Subscribers (BIS) usage from 3G to 2G speeds. Research in Motion (RIM) offers the BIS service in conjunction with operators worldwide as an “all you can eat” data package at a set monthly cost. Vodacom stated that the reason for this throttling was that 5% of BIS users were consuming 95% of data used by BIS users in South Africa.

However, after the uproar caused by the announcement, Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys backtracked immediately upon his return from overseas travel via a tweet (@uyspj): “I hear your concern on BB. Not throttling anything now – working with BlackBerry to find solution to manage the massive bulk file downloads.”

The usage claims explained by Vodacom relate to BIS users using their BlackBerries as modems to connect either laptops or desktops to the internet and then downloading large files using the BIS service. As justification for the initial announcement, Vodacom’s CTO Andries Delport stated: “We need to ensure that all BlackBerry users are able to enjoy the service that they pay for. When we realised that such a small minority was using the bulk of the capacity, we decided to implement measures that will ensure that BlackBerry users will enjoy a better browsing experience overall.”

Overall this was a very poorly handled endeavour by Vodacom itself and will surely have repercussions. For now – and this is good news for BIS users – Vodacom will not be throttling any service of BlackBerry devices in South Africa. AT

The latest data from analyst firm Point Topic reveals that the current affordability of broadband around the world highlights a stark contrast in broadband prices that will challenge the industry as it looks to increase global penetration.

“Broadband prices can be over a thousand times higher in real terms in the poorer countries,” says Oliver Johnson, CEO at Point Topic, a consultancy specialising in broadband and

producer of the quarterly global broadband statistics. Analysing tariff data from the middle of 2011, Point Topic

has compared the cost of 12 months of subscription

to the cheapest, and usually slowest, fixed

broadband service. Converting prices to purchasing power parity (PPP) equivalents for over 2,000 tariffs from around the world and then combining the results with the gross national income per capita

vodAcom feels blAcKberry subscribers’ wrATh

AffordAbiliTy is ‘nexT chAllenGe for broAdbAnd’

Intel demonstrated a CPU at their Intel developer Forum conference that can run on the energy generated by a small solar cell.

(GNI/capita) – again at PPP rates for the relevant country – allows direct comparison between the markets. The analysis is based on data from 64 countries.

“The analysis allows us to see how much of an average yearly income in each country would be needed to pay a year’s subscription for the cheapest option available. The results gap between rich and poor, the haves and have nots in broadband terms is revealing,” says Johnson.

According to Point Topic, over the past decade broadband has been shifting from a luxury to a necessity and, in some markets, a human right. For consumers there have been a number of barriers to entry – including education, literacy and access to equipment – but increasingly these are minimal compared with the cost of a subscription.

“It’s in everyone’s interest that broadband penetration keeps increasing globally. Governments gain revenue, businesses gain competitiveness and individuals get access to a wealth of benefits online. At a time when economic growth is a major challenge, broadband is a great mechanism to add a percentage point or two to GDP,” says Johnson.

He concludes: “How this is achieved is the big question. Mobile and satellite are great and offer access quickly and easily where other options cannot. However, data caps and high overage costs mean they have their limits; but given the high cost of fixed infrastructure deployment, particularly outside urban areas, they are going to be part of the mix. There really is no option but central subsidy for many markets when it comes to broadband, and even the richest nations are going to have to dig deep to allow access to broadband for 100% of their population.” AT

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CEo of dark Fibre Africa Gustav Smit said recently: “Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should take the lead on projects to get fibre rolled out to homes within communities in South Africa.”

Following the recent successful launch of Star Alliance’s Navigator iPhone app, the Star Alliance network has now become the first airline alliance to introduce an easy and simple-to-use fare finder mobile application.

Christopher Korenke, vice president commercial at Star Alliance, said: “With the Star Alliance FareFinder we have responded to our customers’ requests for a mobile app which allows them access to our member airlines’ fares. Alongside our existing popular Star Alliance Navigator iPhone app, it places us in pole position in terms of providing customers mobile access to essential alliance travel information.”

Using the new FareFinder app, customers can search for either one-way or return fares for flights between any two airports on the Star Alliance network. In order to obtain the information that best matches the customers’ wishes, the app allows for additional search criteria like number of passengers, arrival or departure times, class of service, number of stops, transfer airports and point of sale. The app also displays availability so the customers can then select the airline(s) they wish to travel on. Guided by the FareFinder app, customers can then book via the appropriate airline call centre or website.

The Star Alliance FareFinder app was developed and is powered by ITA Software. David Peller, GM for EMEA/India at ITA, said: “Having been selected by Star Alliance for this project underscores the fact that we are one of the leading providers for innovative solutions in the travel industry. We are pleased that this technology can now be used by Star Alliance in order to enhance the global Alliance travel experience.” AT

Alcatel-Lucent Foundation donation was a big boost to the Kenyans for Kenya initiative.

Alcatel-Lucent’s donation will support KRCS in its emergency interventions and activities designed to meet the immediate needs of the affected, including provision of relief food, clean water and urgent healthcare. This complements one of the Alcatel-Lucent Foundation’s primary focus areas, which is to help disadvantaged children acquire life skills that will lead to a healthier and more prosperous life.

The funds donated are for both short term solutions – emergency food relief and water trucking – and medium term solutions such as rehabilitating or sinking boreholes, and setting up greenhouse farming operations to improve food security.

“We have been shocked and saddened by the crisis devastating the Horn of Africa. But we are heartened by the efforts of international humanitarian organizations such as the Kenya Red Cross Society and individuals, including our own employees, to help the people of this region,” said Tony Wood, country senior officer of Alcatel-Lucent in East Africa.

“Alcatel-Lucent employees and the Alcatel-Lucent Foundation are taking steps to ease the East Africa crisis. We are committed to improve and transform these peoples’ lives, and we hope that individuals and organizations will continue donating to the relief efforts. Donating funds is the most efficient way to show solidarity and make a difference in supporting the effort to lessen the suffering and enable access to water, food and basic sanitation.”

The KRCS’s superior response capacity enables it to rapidly deploy aid to the affected areas. The organization is also implementing medium- to long- term interventions aimed at rebuilding the communities’ resilience to future disasters through early recovery initiatives like school feeding programmes and opening the way to more agricultural innovation. AT

South African budget airline 1time was the first company to implement the system and has been using it for a month for online ticket sales. However, Mkhondo said MTN has been testing the mechanism extensively with 1time for over six months.

He said that currently over 80 e-commerce merchants are live on the system – they include leisure operator Holiday Tours and electronics supplier The Gadget Shop.

Currently, Standard Bank and Nedbank are the only two financial institutions operational on the system but Mkhondo expects the rest of the local banking industry to follow suit.

He added that MTN will look to take payD beyond South Africa’s borders soon. AT

sTAr AlliAnce fArefinder APP

Provides fAre deTAils

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wIkileaks, leaked cable dated the 23 october 2009 and described as ‘sensitive but unclassified’ goes on to say: “leadership shortfalls at the South African department of Communications (doC) have hurt the sector because other ministries have jumped in, confused the issues, and created more bureaucracy.”

The Alcatel-Lucent Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Alcatel-Lucent, has donated KSh13.9 million ($146,836) to the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) in aid of the humanitarian crisis devastating the entire East African region. The donation is part of a Global Matching Gift Program launched by the Alcatel-Lucent Foundation.

Speaking while receiving the cheque, KRCS secretary general Abbas Gullet thanked Alcatel-Lucent employees worldwide for their generous donation, noting that the money would go a long way in providing food and medicines for thousands of Kenyans who are currently in dire need as a result of the drought. “Kenya, and indeed the Horn of Africa, is facing the worst drought in over 60 years, which has caused a grave humanitarian crisis – with lactating and expectant

Pan-African mobile operator MTN is looking to make shopping easier for its South African customers by implementing payD, an e-commerce payment mechanism that allows consumers to buy products and services online with their debit cards.

According to Rich Mkhondo, MTN’s head of corporate affairs, consumers will use their existing MasterCard or Visa debit cards for transactions and subsequently use their mobile phone to enter the pin to approve their purchases.

“This means that e-commerce is now available to millions

mothers, schoolgoing children and the elderly being the most affected.”

More than three million people in Kenya are in need of food aid. The situation is likely to continue if the rains fail again in the next season. According to the United Nations, more than 12.4 million people, including two million children, are at risk of starvation in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia.

The KRCS has been leading the effort to alleviate suffering across the country with some 1.8 million of the most vulnerable people receiving direct aid. Kenyans for Kenya, an initiative of the private sector in partnership with KRCS, has mobilised close to KSh700 million, with a significant fraction coming from ordinary Kenyans sending monies through money transfer systems like M-Pesa, a service run by Safaricom. Gullet said the

of South Africans that until now have not been able to make payments as they did not have a credit card,” said Mkhondo.

PayD’s authenticated mobile transaction technology was developed by MTN MobileMoney. It uses SIM cards and pin technology to turn mobile phones into secure encrypted point-of-sale terminals.

Mkhondo said payD is unlike existing online payment mechanisms, as customers do not have to top up their account beforehand. Instead, they purchase items online with funds in their accounts, just as if they were using a credit card.

AlcATel-lucenT foundATion Aids emerGency relief in KenyA

mTn eAses e-commerce PAymenTsNNews

The managing director of mobile operator Airtel Kenya, Rene Meza, has resigned. In Kenya’s highly competitive telecom sector that has only four players, Meza’s exit was big news.

Even more intriguing was Meza’s departure to join Vodacom Tanzania, a subsidiary company of Vodafone, the single largest shareholder (40%) in Safaricom, Kenya’s leading mobile operator and Airtel’s competitor.

In 2010, newly rebranded Indian-owned Airtel arrived in Kenya and unleashed a fierce price war that saw mobile call prices in Kenya tumble. According to the Communications Commission of Kenya’s second quarter statistics report in May 2011, the average tariff for on-net calls declined to KSh2.67 per minute from KSh3.92 per minute in the previous quarter; while the average tariff for off-net calls during the quarter was KSh3.47, down from KSh5.10 per minute in the previous quarter.

The objective of lowering the price was to increase Airtel’s subscriber numbers and target the mass market. The then new Safaricom CEO, Bob Collymore, said the price war was “morally reprehensible”, noting that the prices were not sustainable. The other player in the industry, Mickael Ghossein, CEO of Telkom Kenya (partly government owned), said that the price reductions were eating into company profits and that cannibalisation of other players’ market share could not be considered as industry growth. AT

AirTel KenyA’s ceo resiGnsNNews


‘sociAl mediA fATiGue’ idenTified

There are signs of maturity in the social media market, as some users in certain segments are showing “social media fatigue”, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc. The survey reveals continued localization of usage, whereby certain country-specific social characteristics dictate preferences. However, large global brands such as Facebook are making headway in countries where they have not historically been strong.

Gartner surveyed 6,295 respondents, between the ages of 13 and 74, in 11 developed and developing markets in December 2010 and January 2011. Consumers were asked about their use of and opinions about social media sites with the aim of examining usage trends and assessing how enthusiastic users were about social media in general across a range of countries.

“Overall, our survey underlined respondents’ continued enthusiasm for social media,” said Charlotte Patrick, principal research analyst at Gartner. “Teenagers and those in their twenties were significantly more likely to say that they had increased their usage, while at the other end of the ‘enthusiasm spectrum’, the age-related differences were much less marked, with fairly consistent percentages saying that they were using social media less.”

Of the respondents, 24% said they use their favourite social media site less than when they first signed up. These respondents tended to be in segments that have a more practical view of technology. But 37% of respondents, particularly those in younger age groups and more tech-savvy segments, said they were using their favourite site more.

“The trend shows some social media fatigue among early adopters, and the fact that 31% of Aspirers (younger, more mobile, brand-conscious consumers) indicated that they were getting bored with their social network is a situation that social media providers should monitor, as they will need to innovate and diversify to keep consumer attention,” said Brian Blau, research director at Gartner.

“Branded content needs to be kept fresh and must be able to capture people’s attention instantly. The new generation of consumers is restless and short on attention span, and a lot of creativity is needed to make a meaningful impact,” Blau added. AT

The leading global supplier of messaging, call completion and mobile advertising solutions to wireless carriers, Jinny Software, has received the Frost & Sullivan 2011 Global Mobile Messaging Infrastructure Competitive Strategy Award. Frost & Sullivan ranks the company as “a key solution provider for both legacy and next-generation mobile messaging markets”.

Best Practices research examines the key industry challenges facing operators and assesses how Jinny addresses the software needs that arise. Analyst Vikrant Gandhi concludes that Jinny is best-in-class for competitive strategy, and offers “the best set of solutions and services to its customers and partners worldwide”.

“We are delighted to receive this award,” says Max Wilkie, Jinny CEO. “Our market strategy at Jinny is focused on two things: our customers’ return on investment and constant innovation. Network convergence, mobile broadband, and the evolution of social media all present unique challenges and opportunities for mobile carriers. With the right technology solutions, carriers can add value to their services and turn these trends to their advantage. This award is a great recognition of our commitment to our customers and to mobile innovation.” AT

Jinny sofTwAre receives frosT & sullivAn AwArd

mTN in collaboration with Ecobank- liberia, formally launched the mobile money Product in the country.

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>>Social media is the buzzword on everybody’s lips – or should

that be fingertips? – and there’s no escaping its ubiquitous influence. Whether it’s contacting friends, finding jobs, advertising your business or just keeping track of happenings, the many social media services all have redeeming qualities.

But for those who consider themselves Facebook addicts, and lean more to the “social” in social media, the HTC Cha Cha is definitely a lifestyle phone. It’s not your BlackBerry with business email – even though it’ll happily fetch and deliver important messages – or an app-infested iPhone – again, it’ll happily run apps from the Android Marketplace. Instead, this QWERTY keyboard-equipped phone is your live link to Facebook. Its Facebook button glows each time you’re busy with something that can be shared with your friends, and pressing said button drops you into Facebook where you can let others see the photo you just snapped, or read the website you’ve just seen.

It does have a slightly cramped display, which still retains its touch sensitivity, but you’re never left to feel like you’re

missing out on any info.Unlike regular smart devices, this boasts a

semi-acceptable 2-day+ battery life with light use – and that’s more time than a

Facebooker will dare spend away from an electric outlet, we’re betting.


Price: R 3 000

Rating: HHHHH

Need to know:• Social media integration• Physical QWERTY keyboard• Android 2.3.3 installe

HTC Cha Cha

Just when everybody thought that Samsung had one-upped Apple, by having its Series 9 available with more RAM and better processors, the Cupertino-based manufacturer hit back with another Designed in California winner.

The new Macbook Air addresses the few complaints we had about the one introduced late last year: gone is the Core 2 Duo processor, measly amount of memory and regular ol’ keyboard. In their stead Apple has slapped in a choice of either a dual-core Intel Core i5 or i7 processor, 4GB as RAM on all but the base 11” model (which has 2GB), and the backlit keyboard you’ll find on the Macbook Pro notebooks.

Thankfully the upgraded hardware hasn’t really impacted battery life. The 11” model still gets 5 hours on a charge, while the 13.3” model retains its 7 hours stamina. And of course, Mac OS X Lion is pre-installed on all new Macs.

Making the best of the new OS is the large trackpad, which makes it easy to perform all those multi-finger gestures to navigate around Lion.

With this hardware refresh the Air, with its already superslim design, just edged ahead of the only competition from a regular PC. The coming months will be interesting, as Acer and other manufacturers all release ultrathin notebooks…

Macbook Air

Price: From R 12 000

Rating: HHHHH

Need to know:• New Core i5 and Core i7 processors• Backlit keyboard• Solid-state hard drives

GadgetsAfrica Telecoms is always in the know when it comes to the hottest gadgets and devices.

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A good set of headphones – or cans, the colloquial term among audiophiles – is a great way to liven up your music, or keep it to yourself. More importantly, if you’re in a household with little ones your gaming and other forms of electronic entertainment are the first casualties.

With a name like Earpollution you’re probabably right not to expect much in the way of sound quality, but the Ronins perform admirably for both gaming and heavy music. More classical numbers and nuanced tracks might not sound as good as they do on a set of Grados or Sennheisers, but for R399 these are a great deal – more so if you’re not particular about hi-fi quality audio.

Helping make their case is the really comfortable padding on both the earcups and the headband. Wearing these for an extended period of time won’t cause any headaches or discomfort.

And finally, just because they’re affordable doesn’t make them disposable. They’re well-constructed, with a thick cord that’ll take a beating and is secured properly at both ends.

iFrogz Earpollution Ronin

Price: R 400

Rating: HHHHH

Need to know:• Stylish design• Thick and sturdy cord• Padded earcups and headband

In a world where almost every Android device is the same, manufacturers find themselves using hardware and physical design to differentiate themselves from the crowd. Sony Ericsson’s chosen to wow potential buyers with a gorgeous 4.2” Bravia-powered display, all neatly packaged in a sexy, ultraslim chassis, rather than pack the Xperia arc with a supercomputer-matching dual-core processor. Instead, it boasts a (more than capable) 1GHz Qualcomm chip and 512MB of memory – perfect for almost any mobile task you can think of.

Battery life takes a bit of a hit, especially with a few applications running, as is bound to be the case with modern smartphones. Sony Ericsson’s also not shy when it comes to loading its phones with social features that update in the background.

It’s got a great camera, too. The 8.1-megapixel snapper records HD video and captures crisp stills that look decent even when printed.

If you’re not looking for an Android smartphone that has the fastest hardware, but want a large screen and good camera, this is right up your alley.

Price: R 5 000

Rating: HHHH

Need to know:• Stylish design• 4.2” Bravia display• Customisable interface

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc

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>>Issue 18 AFRICA TELECOMS 21

Price: R 1 300

Rating: HHH

Need to know:• USB 3.0 interface• 1TB capacity• Backup software included

There are many reasons to get a high-capacity external hard drive, and in almost all of those cases you’ll want it to be something speedy. Verbatim’s newest line of Store ‘n Go drives now support the latest connection standard, USB 3.0. It’s backwards compatible with 2.0, where you’ll be limited to around 50MB/s transfer speeds, but plug this into a 3.0 port and… well, things are a lot faster. Expect to see upwards of 70MB/s transfer speeds – that’s quick enough to get a 1GB file copied in 15 seconds or so.

Improved speed means that you’re no longer left waiting for copies to finish. That backup you’ve been putting off for ages? No longer do you have an excuse to not get it done. And with 1TB of storage - along with using the included Nero backup software – you’ll be able to speedily complete your weekly archives without worrying about complicated solutions.

A few years ago a local company called Tevo introduced the Shox portable speaker to the market. The device, with its patented concertina design, was a simple micro driver inside a clever enclosure. It was battery powered, so using it with a mobile phone or laptop meant no additional battery drain. It was unique and innovative.

Unfortunately, the Headphonies portable speaker isn’t innovative. Where the technology used by Shox was actually to enhance the audio, the Headphonies’ design is purely aesthetical. They look similar to the popular Dunny dolls, with the speaker embedded in their heads. The audio jack (which also doubles up as a charging jack – but both can’t take place at the same time) is awkwardly positioned. Not functionally, but more a “did they really put it there?” point of view.

Being that it’s all about the design, the sound quality from these speakers isn’t all that great. It’s loud, but with distortion. It’s better than the built-in speaker on a tablet or netbook, but nothing worth hankering over if you’ve got a notebook with semi-decent speakers. In fact, for the same money you can get an original Shox, or double your budget an get the properly usable Shox Duo – the two-speaker, stereo version of the mini speaker that started it all.

Price: R 200

Rating: HH

Need to know:• External speaker• Battery powered• Rechargeable

Headphonies

Verbatim Store ‘n Go 1TB hard drive

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>>20 AFRICA TELECOMS Issue 18

Price: R 1 200

Rating: HHHH

Need to know:• Simplified interface• 3.5” touch screen• Slimline windscreen mount

When it comes to navigational guidance a lot of people are sometimes suckered into getting pricier units with a lot of bells and whistles they might ultimately not end up using. Bluetooth, for pairing with your phone? Pfft. FM music playback? That’s why we have car radios. Big screens? No thanks, our eyes need to be on the road.

Granted, each of those features can be justified but they also cost a lot of money. The difference between the TomTom Start and its high-end cousins is more than double the asking price for this entry-level unit. Some people want something that “just gets them from A to B” and this fills that role perfectly.

It’s got a perfectly usable 3.5” touch screen that’ll show you all the information you need. It’s not as responsive as the glass displays on the high-end models, but that’s not a big deal. What is, though, is the general responsiveness of the unit. It takes a bit of patience when it comes to programming the Start, but at the price it’s hard to complain. It’s a no-frills unit, after all.

If you can live without live traffic info, this is all you’ll need for getting spoken instructions while on the road.

TomTom Start

Alienware M14x notebook

Price: R 18 000

Rating: HHHHH

Need to know:• Gaming notebook• Intel Core i7 processor• Dual graphics cards

With hardware as affordable as it is these days it can be hard justifying a lick under eighteen grand for a bespoke, high-end gaming machine. Alienware does make a mighty fine, and desirable piece of kit, so what would make us recommend this over a gaming PC for R5 000 less?

Well, portability goes a long way. Instead of lugging around a big desktop to go play games at your mate’s house, you can just pop this in a backpack. That, and it has a battery backup for when the power goes out.

You’re not going to the get the 5- or 7-hour battery life you would with a business machine, but 2.5 hours on a charge is fair going when you’ve got the electronic equivalent of a turbo V8 engine under the hood.

In this case, it’s a quad-core Intel Core i7 2730QM running at 2GHz. It’s mated to 4GB of RAM – upgradeable to 8GB – and an nVIDIA GeForce GT555M graphics card. If that alphabet soup sounds intimidating, let us break it down for you: awesome performance, in all the games you’ll find on the shelves. We tried out out in Battlefield: Bad Company 2, at high quality settings, and everything was just hunky dory. We like it a lot, and if you want a bit of style with your gaming, you’ll like it too.


Should you have comments on this page the Africa Telecoms team would appreciate an e-mail to [email protected]

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in Africaby brett haggard

Working smarter to uplift communities, grow industries and strengthen economies

Looking at the progress that’s been made in the mobile communications market over the past decade and the ease with which business can be done and content consumed today, one can’t help but marvel at what the technology world has done to improve quality of life.

But it’s not just what the current state of technology is doing to improve life in the more developed world that’s impressive. Projects that connect rural communities to basic voice amenities, give people within these communities access to their first internet experience and render better healthcare services are equally impressive to witness.

With its equal footing in the developed and developing economies of the world, IBM is a test case for the change technology can affect on a worldwide basis. A good place to start is work being done to revolutionize the developing economies of the world and, most notable amongst them, Africa.

Global success story

tlthought leadership


craig holmes communications and industrial executive for ibm



Bridging the gapIBM has been around long enough in the technology industry to have forgotten a number of the lessons its peers are only now learning. And one of the key lessons the company seems to have learned over the years is how to build sustainability.

IBM knows that sustainability is only possible – regardless of whether it pertains to a commercial project or one that centres on sustainability – if buy-in exists at every level.

For this reason, unlike many of its peers in the industry IBM doesn’t just donate money to some arbitrary causes and charities, or even drop some technology off in a rural community. Instead, Big Blue is insistent that its staff members participate in any socially responsible project it undertakes.

By ensuring its staff members commit time and effort to projects, something tangible and sustainable is created.

Craig Holmes, MEA communications and industrial sectors executive at IBM, says that there are two projects where this approach is being employed with great success. The first he describes as a rather innovative solution called ‘SMS for Life’ in Tanzania, and sees IBM collaborating with the rural health authority to optimize the supply of medicine to rural distribution centres.

To keep costs to a minimum and ensure budgets stretch as far as possible, Holmes says that open source technologies are used and infrastructure is recycled as much as possible. In the context of this project that has meant using existing mapping data resident in Google Maps and employing existing SMS capabilities to deliver communications.

The second project is taking place in Nigeria, where IBM is engaging with the Cross River State to improve access to medical expertise.

The project, which is designed to provide free healthcare and education to pregnant mothers and their infants, has benefited hugely from the involvement of IBM’s employees. “We’re not just talking about donating ‘hands’ to a project,” Holmes says.

And this is the second lesson IBM has learnt.“It’s about being able to leverage your knowledge and

expertise as an IBM employee to improve the success of projects,” he says. “We see somewhere in the region of 500 IBM employees a year stepping forward to help with these kinds of projects.”

And it’s not just about the task at hand either.Holmes says these projects deliver internet access and, more

importantly, access to educational materials for local communities. “This not only improves the quality of life for community members – it has a direct effect on the health of communities, since education drives healthier living,” Holmes says.

There are many other instances of IBM’s staff commitment to effecting change. “For example, the 16th of June this year was IBM’s centennial and instead of spending money on celebrating the event throughout the world, the company encouraged its employees to donate a day to community service.

throughout the world, the company encouraged its employees to donate a day to community service.

the 16th of June this year was IBM’s centennial and instead of spending money on celebrating the event “



customer experience and improve customer satisfaction. “When it comes to the first of these, namely leveraging our

unique assets to offer value to adjacent industries, IBM is working on mobile and internet banking,” Holmes says. This takes the form of it extending money transfer solutions that already exist in Africa into the realm of mobile payments.

“We see a future where Africans can pay for their basic services and utilities using a mobile phone and in doing so bring simplicity to the payment space. But we’re not experts in this realm, so we’re bringing our expertise to bear in the data centre designs that will power these solutions.”

With the cost of electricity on the increase and cooling representing one of the largest portions of a data centre’s power consumption, IBM is working on building ‘African-style’ data centres. “We’ve already seen some great examples of this, where new airflow techniques are contributing to cooling and reducing the cost associated with data centre power.”

A second area IBM is putting time and effort into, but this time as a veritable expert, is the implementation of cloud technology to increase revenue through the delivery of new services quickly.

“We’ve refined our cloud model and launched a telco-specific cloud service provider, which draws on the benefits of co-location of resources to provide a single, standardized middleware layer which in turn connects to commodity functionality each telco needs, like a shared billing back end,” Holmes says.

“This work is being done with a company called Jamcracker and outside of just providing commodity software and services, we’re beginning to help telcos with tasks such as the segmentation of subscribers and some heavy analytics.”

IBM’s third and final technique, growing out of the above point, is to deploy analytics to differentiate the customer experience and improve customer satisfaction. In pursuit of this, Holmes says that IBM has spent a small fortune acquiring companies in the analytics space and today considers itself a leader in this market segment.

new opportunitiesTrue to form, IBM also tries to capitalize on market trends.

And right now, one of the most significant trends worldwide – and to a growing extent in Africa – is the sharp increase in internet data traffic (and consumption) associated with entertainment and media. Where most companies see this as a bandwidth, networking and provisioning opportunity, IBM is focusing on providing storage solutions for this industry.

“For a company such as SuperSport, who’s responsible for the vast majority of sporting content on the African continent, the two biggest infrastructural challenges are managing its storage systems and the rising network traffic,” he says.

“So we’re helping these kinds of companies to tier their storage and reduce the instances of duplicate content in their environment,” Holmes says. “Some companies have as many as 20 duplicates of a file or piece of data in their business.”

As for the second challenge, namely reducing network

For a company such as SuperSport, who’s responsible for the vast majority of sporting content on the African continent, the two biggest infrastructural challenges are managing its storage systems and the rising network traffic, so we’re helping these kinds of companies.“



“So, my team fixed classrooms, painted buildings and built a garden at a nearby school in Soweto, Johannesburg,” Holmes says. “Others worked with a charity to build nine new homes in low-cost developments across the country.”

growing entrepreneurshipHe says IBM’s view of social responsibility goes beyond the norm. For example, IBM is doing work in Africa to create more favourable business environments for small, start-up businesses and trying to encourage a culture of entrepreneurship.

A great example of this, Holmes says, is a project the company is engaged in with the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia to modernize the country’s banking infrastructure. “IBM is investing quite a bit of money and effort in this project with the aim of increasing digitizing and allowing bank users to perform more of their financial transactions in real time.”

“Hand in hand with this, IBM is working with the telecoms sector to enable a number of these services, as well as new services such as M-Pesa, to dovetail perfectly with the massive proliferation of mobile technology in the country and on the continent in general,” he says.

One of the key performance indicators for this project is increasing the number of ATM kiosks in the country by 200 over the next five years and enabling 500 new branches to spring up within the same time frame.

An internet banking solution is also slated within the same time frame, meaning that there will be a substantial amount of relief afforded to the roughly 400 branches that are required to deal with more than two million account holders.

The obvious question is: how will improving the banking infrastructure drive entrepreneurship in Ethiopia?

The answer, Holmes says, lies in the fact that more economic activity will undoubtedly create more opportunity for business and by increasing the number of ways entrepreneurs can be paid – such as M-Pesa – the environment is more conducive to business taking place.

innovation and analysisA great deal of what IBM has been doing with regards to its social responsibility initiatives ties in with where Holmes says the company’s real strength lies at the moment.

“IBM’s real differentiator is innovation,” Holmes says. “And I feel that our current theme of working towards a ‘Smarter Planet’ epitomizes this perfectly.”

Holmes says IBM spends about US$6 billion on research and development each year and the most exciting findings are coming out of the work the company is doing with community initiatives.

This ‘community approach’ applies not only to IBM’s practice of embedding some of its resources with clients, but also to the research that’s going into social dynamics within communities. “A great example of this is the trends prediction model we’re working on with one of larger mobile telecoms operators in South Africa,” he says.

Where other mobile telcos are performing heavy analytics on their transactional data to gauge customer satisfaction and ascertain when and how they will churn, IBM is helping its mobile telco clients identify those clients among them with the most influence and, more importantly, the impact of their behaviour on the group.

The know-how that fuels this model comes straight out of previous IBM acquisitions and the research it is doing at its facility in Haifa, Israel.

“We’re finding out who the dominant users are in a group and what the impact could be if they decide to churn,” he says. “The result of doing this is the ability to target the people with influence and make sure that they’re kept up to date with changes in service, as well as with new offers that might appeal to them.”

Holmes says that in ways like this the mobile telco is spending more on retaining customers than on acquiring new ones – a sound business strategy in any book.

Although the market’s perception of IBM’s Smarter Planet initiative is that it’s a new marketing spin, it’s so much more, he says. “It’s a definitive industry focus on making things work better.”

“So, in the public sector it’s about helping to put congestion charging systems in place to reduce traffic issues, doing innovative analytics in the telecoms sector, smoothing out supply chains with RFID and clever scheduling,” he says.

Holmes says that IBM also has vertical solutions, such as smarter cities, smarter utilities and more, to effect a real change in the world.

smarter industriesHolmes says that ‘Smarter Planet’ also goes a long way towards IBM’s efforts to address the challenges industries of all kinds are encountering today.

“At the Smarter Industries Symposium held in Barcelona, Spain last year, attendees identified three very important goals the technology industry should work towards over the coming years,” Holmes says.

And IBM feels it can go a long way towards dealing with those challenges by leveraging organizations’ unique assets to offer value to adjacent industries; implementing cloud technology to increase revenue through the delivery of new services quickly; and deploying analytics to differentiate the



congestion, Holmes says IBM has been working for some time on data compression and media caching technologies for the worldwide media and entertainment market.

“We see huge merit in this, especially in Africa where infrastructure can be a challenge. So, we’re actively looking at ways to learn from what’s happening in the developed world and move it to the emerging world,” he explains.

IBM has seen so much potential in this market space, Holmes says it has soft-launched a new entertainment and media focused business in Africa for the express reason of assisting its operator clients figure out how best to license content, digitize content and, most importantly, monetize it as a distributor.

In forming this business unit, Holmes says IBM has realized that even more areas of expertise can bring benefits to bear on the media market. “With superior content becoming a strong differentiator, it’s important for media and entertainment companies, as well as telcos, to know what customers like and dislike in the media world.

“To this end, we’re employing analytics,” he says, “and we’re looking forward to fine-tuning the models that give us the answers that we as an industry need.”

what the future holdsLooking ahead, Holmes says Africa will follow a fair share of market trends, but also buck a number of them. “I think that, to some extent, Africa will follow the global trend in telecoms, where voice becomes commoditized and data traffic – as well as the revenue opportunities around vertical applications and content – becomes huge.”

“At the same time, however, I see applications we thought would always be free, such as e-health, turning into revenue spinners,” he says.

The reason Holmes raises this is a case study in India where people have become confortable with paying for e-health if it is a more convenient, efficient alternative to more traditional healthcare.

“In India, people are paying for remote health services, such as having online access to a doctor 24 hours a day, or being able to carry a completely digitized version of their personal medical history around with them,” he says.

While Holmes admits the prices are low, e-health is turning into a revenue spinner. “The next big thing will be m-health and similarly, I think there’s an encouraging market for it.”

Rounding his predictions out, Holmes says some problems never seem to go away. “In order to deliver on most of what I’ve mentioned, we as a continent need more infrastructure. And while that’s in the process of being solved, as always, we need to be more patient.” at

In order to deliver on most of what I’ve mentioned, we as a continent need more infrastructure. And while that’s in the process of being solved, as always, we need to be more patient.“



When you live in a pulsating business hub like Lagos, Nairobi or Johannesburg, it’s easy to forget that an estimated 57% of Africans still don’t have any teleconnectivity.

Yet the vast tracts of land that cellular signals have failed to reach are a concern – not only to the operators chasing fresh revenue or obliged to meet universal service obligations to cover unprofitable rural areas. They also worry governments and organisations concerned with economic and social development. Imagine the good it would do those unreached individuals and their local economies if they had the power of communication in their pockets.

With Africa’s teledensity standing at 43%, according to Delta Partners, operators can expect significant subscriber growth over the next few years. But the cost of reaching and serving those new subscribers amid impending price wars will put tremendous pressure on their margins.

As ever, it’s very obvious that new tactics and cheaper technologies are needed to reach rural communities.

Share and pareWe’re finally seeing some progress. KPMG recently released a report recommending infrastructure sharing as a way to establish networks in far-flung areas without too much expense. Although operators fight fiercely for subscribers, they are finally recognising that they can slash their costs by sharing some basic infrastructure.

The need to trim both capex and opex is persuading operators to treat tower sharing as a viable option, says Johan Smith, director of KPMG’s African Telecoms Group. The move can cut infrastructure costs by 16% to 20%, and the accumulated savings run into billions of dollars.

As well as expanding their coverage, operators must also upgrade older networks to take data services to rural areas. Sharing towers – or outsourcing the whole task to a third party tower specialist – cuts their costs and allows them to reach new users. Savings come not only from avoiding erecting separate towers, but by splitting the site rental and fuel bills too.

Operators in Africa have been slow to wake up to the potential, but some multi-billion dollar deals are now being discussed, Smith says.

Several tower specialists are eagerly bidding to acquire the base stations owned by African operators. In December 2010, American Tower Corporation (ATC) agreed to acquire a stake in almost 2,000 of MTN Ghana’s transmission towers, and to take responsibility for managing those assets. ATC has also acquired 1,400 towers from Cell C in South Africa.

Vodafone Ghana has outsourced 750 towers to Eaton Telecom to cut costs and improve coverage. Eaton will also lease spare capacity to other operators to broaden their coverage too. Nigeria’s Helios Towers Africa has signed similar deals with Millicom Ghana and Tigo DRC.

BY LeSLeY StoneS


RuralConneCting

Communities

These deals are the start of an unstoppable trend, Smith says. It’s partly driven by regulatory pressure and social responsibility obligations to cover unprofitable areas, which may make tower sharing crucial by allowing operators to jointly enter remote regions without punitive rollout costs.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) stressed that infrastructure sharing was sensible for Africa way back in 2008. Yet progress so far has been limited, with Bharti Airtel, Millicom, MTN and Vodacom the most active co-operators. Airtel’s cost-cutting strategy relies heavily on outsourcing, so its tower division, Bharti Infratel, is expected to make some aggressive inroads.

SimpLY effectiveOn the technology front, several innovations are boosting rural connectivity. One is power line communications (PLC), which adapts existing power lines to carry broadband data packets. This system can quickly cover any region served by the main electricity grid.

Wireless mesh technology is another innovation bringing more outlying areas online. That technology creates ad hoc chains of normal Wi-Fi routers to multiply the reach of the signal. Mesh networks require each router in the chain to see the next, and some communities are ingeniously using mirrors to reflect signals when line of sight is impossible.

In Botswana, Orange is installing Ericsson’s Expander cells that have a range four to five times greater than traditional transmitters, allowing Orange to reach rural users previously too remote for cost-efficient coverage.

Village Phone initiatives are also becoming commonplace, and are supported by many operators in many countries. The idea is simple, as successful ideas often are. Rural entrepreneurs buy a phone and act as the local operator by letting people make calls for an affordable but slightly marked-up fee. Often the entrepreneurs can buy the phones with a small loan from one of the charities involved, such as the Grameen Foundation in Uganda.

The owner quickly pays off the loan and then has a profitable business. It’s been recognised as a sustainable development tool by numerous governments and agencies such as the World Bank and the United Nations.

In Ghana, a more ambitious scheme called the eCare initiative will grant loans of up to 90% for rural entrepreneurs to buy small ICT centres. The kit in a modified cargo container has three fixed cellular phones, a solar panel system, a computer, printer and a desk. The proposed site must have Ghana Telecom coverage, but does not require electricity as the centres are solar powered. Partners in the project include the United Nations Foundation, Ghana Telecom and Kumasi Institute of Technology and Environment.

Towers have also become cheaper to run, thanks to newer technologies. MTN recently installed a mast to take connectivity to Riemvasmaak, a remote community in South Africa’s Northern Cape. There is no mains electricity, so the tower uses wind and solar power, and stores the energy in maintenance-free batteries.

pioneering SoLutionS MTN has spent R18 billion in the past two years to take 3G broadband to rural South Africa, and has built a 900Mhz network to do so. It also upgraded its existing network with UMTS for wireless broadband in rural areas. The 2.1GHz technology it had used didn’t give it the footprint to reach the furthest rural areas, but 900MHz technology does, and negates the need for building more towers in those regions.

Wireless broadband is the most effective way to take data services to rural Africa, says Karel Pienaar, MD of MTN SA, and the development of pioneering solutions and technologies will enhance that progress. “It has been a long-term vision for us to develop a data network that extends into the rural communities.” Delivering broadband data would really help bridge the digital divide, he says.

Many communities are not being reached through commercial efforts, but through charitable initiatives.

Intel and MTN have jointly agreed to accelerate broadband access by supporting WiMAX rollouts, affordable PC bundles for consumers and entrepreneurs, and by developing cost-effective internet browsing devices. The companies are also collaborating to equip students and teachers with technology skills. Moreover, they are investing in emerging innovative technology companies that are developing products to resolve rural Africa’s business and social problems.

Meanwhile Airtel has rebranded the operations in 16 African countries that it acquired from Zain last year and has promised to improve their infrastructure. It will extend into more rural communities, says Manoj Kohli, CEO of its international operations.

“We remain committed to offering affordable services, deepening our network coverage to include the rural population and enhancing the digital experience through 3G across the continent,” he says. “We want to be a partner in Africa’s growth and will work closely with governments and regulators to enable the telecom networks to touch all parts of society.”


partnerShipSRival operators are watching to see how and where Airtel begins to play more strongly. Its strategy of outsourcing some operations to gain economies of scale and expansion has already seen Airtel award a contract to IBM to manage its computing technology and services. Part of the aim is to make services more affordable for rural communities by installing advanced technologies created by IBM Research.

Breakthroughs include Spoken Web, a voice-enabled internet technology that lets users access and share information simply by talking over the existing telephone network. This initiative is particularly compelling for illiterate populations or people with no access to computers.

Airtel also says partnerships with Ericsson, Huawei and NSN will dramatically improve the quality of its networks and expand its 3G footprint. “The partnerships take us closer to our vision of making telephony available and affordable for everyone across Africa, even in the most remote areas which are at present disconnected from the world,” says Kohli.

“We are also laying the foundation for the introduction of 3G HSPA wireless broadband as access to content is the right of every African citizen. Many of our new customers will have an online experience for the first time in their lives.”

The company is also launching Airtel Money, which lets unbanked customers use their handsets for person-to-person money transfers, bill payments, point of sale purchases in supermarkets and to pay utility bills.

Airtel also contributes to rural development through social responsibility initiatives to provide schools with equipment and broadband access.

In July, members of South Africa’s ICT industry and the Department of Communications pledged to work together to accelerate economic growth and job creation by setting some specific targets. They include achieving 100% broadband internet coverage for the entire population by 2020 and creating at least one million new jobs.

Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys said getting a decent connection speed to everyone demanded mobile technology, which could cost hundreds of billions of rands. Given the limited radio spectrum available with which to do that, the operators must collaborate, he said. There also needed to be a coherent policy framework on spectrum allocation and broadband rollout, which does not currently exist.

conSumer weLfareTwo months earlier, Vodacom had emphasised the important role mobile technology could play in Africa’s development in its 2011 SIM Report, researched in conjunction with the World Wide Web Foundation. “Access to telecommunications and relevant content will significantly help in crossing the digital divide in South Africa and Africa, furthering education and creating jobs,” said Uys.


regulations and broadband strategies, and encourages the use of appropriate software applications, low-cost technologies and cloud services.

“Access to telecommunications has enormous benefits, both socially and economically, to rural communities,” said GBI programme manager Joe Duncan. “This is a great opportunity to bring what we know about universal service to the men and women working so hard to provide rural connectivity in their countries.”

Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, CEO of the CTO, has said one factor accounting for Africa’s lower economic growth is the weak uptake of e-progress. Africa needed new e-leaders capable of transforming their country by taking full advantage of all the e-tools available, he urged.

And yet, he pointed out, many nations were bogged down by leaders who did not know how to send an sms or e-mail, had not heard of MySpace, and until some counterparts were overthrown by popular uprisings, had not taken seriously social media like Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.

“Now that social media have shown their power and capacity to overthrow governments, let us hope that African leaders are listening, and will take prompter action in their own interest,” Spio-Garbrah said.

He then announced that the CTO would raise US$300 million over the next few years to invest in a Commonwealth Telecom Development Fund to make member countries more capable of e-transformation. The CTO has also created a commercial subsidiary, CTO Ventures, to make equity investments in small companies that aim to expand in emerging markets, but lack the capacity to do so.

africa’S unreSoLved chaLLengeIn 2008 a CTO report confirmed that rural connectivity remained an unresolved challenge in Africa. Problems included the lack of electricity, the low income in rural areas, high opex and capex costs of infrastructure, and low skills levels.

The research also reiterated that affordable connectivity is critical to improve the delivery of government and business services to isolated communities and to empower people through education, employable skills and wealth creation. “Nowhere is access to and effective use of ICTs less pervasive and more needed than in the rural and isolated areas of sub-Saharan Africa,” the report said.

It recommended liberalising and privatising the telecoms sector, and having independent regulatory authorities capable of establishing and enforcing impartial rules. Several regulatory authorities in Africa were still subject to direct government oversight, which could be detrimental to competition and to achieving rural connectivity. That was a particular risk when the state still had a financial stake in the incumbent operator, the report warned.

The economic viability of telecoms in rural regions depends on

pledged to spend US$40 million on rural expansion this year.Network expansion in Rwanda and Zimbabwe is being aided by

US$40 million in loans from the Export-Import Bank of China. A loan of US $60 million will be used by Zimbabwe’s state-owned NetOne to develop its broadband infrastructure and connect to the EASSY submarine cable to boost its ability to compete with private operators.

China is the largest single investor in Africa’s telecom sector, and in return, Chinese companies including Huawei and ZTE have won more contracts than any of their rivals, as the loans stipulate that supply and installation contracts go to Chinese firms. That condition naturally causes controversy, since no other player can hope to win the tenders. The Ugandan government has blocked a loan from China after complaints about unfair business practices.

Still, the biased loans are allowing Africa’s telecoms players to expand into rural areas, and most governments accept the Chinese dictum as a fair price to pay.

roLe of governmentSFurther help is coming from the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) and USAID’s Global Broadband and Innovations (GBI) programme. They recently ran a training workshop for Africa’s Universal Access policy makers and other rural communications stakeholders.

The GBI programme advises governments on best practice

Issue 18 AFRICA TELECOMS 3938 AFRICA TELECOMS Issue 18

The report urged regulators to focus on consumer welfare when allocating spectrum to service providers. Treating spectrum as a source of short-term government revenue by auctioning it to the highest bidder could cost the economy billions more in lost economic value compared to allocating it to the most compelling service offerings.

“Affordability for low income users will require innovation that does not place most of the burden of access costs on the user,” said Steve Bratt, CEO of the Foundation. “We hope regulators allow innovations in this area to flourish and not inhibit them by preconceived notions of the right model or pricing.”

In May, Vodacom introduced Airtime Advance, a service that lets customers use voice and data services even if they run out of airtime. Prepaid customers with a proven track record can request R10 worth of advance airtime, and Vodacom will deduct the amount from the customer’s next recharge.

Another innovation Vodacom launched this year is the Web Box, which provides affordable and easy internet access using an ordinary television set.

That innovation could change the face of internet connectivity said Romeo Kumalo, executive commercial director at Vodacom South Africa. “Just over 10% of the population has access to the internet; this device will ensure that internet access is available to many more who previously had limited or no access.”

The Web Box at R749 was developed specifically for low-income emerging markets. It is a keyboard with a SIM card and inbuilt modem, and a simple user interface that lets users navigate easily between services including internet browsing, SMS and email, an FM radio, online photo album, games, videos and music players. It uses the Opera Mini browser that compresses data by up to 90% for faster and more affordable browsing.

“The value that this product will add to schools, homes and small businesses is potentially dramatic. The wealth of knowledge that is available on the internet can now be accessed by millions of South Africans, which will add greater value to the economy,” said Kumalo.

redreSSing ruraL negLectYet despite efforts by operators to expand their footprint, and efforts by socially aware companies to play their part, rural Africa remains neglected.

In August the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) staged its annual Connecting Rural Communities Africa Forum in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

As usual, the conference featured discussions on innovative strategies, business models, financing mechanisms and technologies for improving ICT access and realising the socio-economic benefits.

Speakers reported that governments were stepping up efforts to roll out mobile and internet connectivity to rural areas.

Representatives from Zambia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe said they were making a push to establish telecentres with internet

access. Zimbabwe’s Post and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said it had earmarked US$10 million from its Universal Access Fund (UAF) for rural connectivity.

Tanzania has also established a UAF to connect rural and underserved areas. “Tanzania is making steps to address a rural connectivity backlog, but Africa still faces challenges in its policy frameworks, power and skills,” said Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete. Access to electricity hinders the rollout of cellular services in many countries, but this is changing as most governments have started electrification projects to connect rural areas to the power grid.

Zambia’s government is being particularly inventive. It has pledged US$10 million for national cellular connectivity and is distributing internet-ready computers to rural areas. The Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) is using cash from its UAF to erect telecoms towers in rural areas to help operators quickly roll out their networks. Cleverly, those towers are a shared facility, and ZICTA will earn revenue from the operators that use them.

Zambian operators already have infrastructure sharing agreements to help them cover some rural regions. Even so, they have been unwilling to enter rural areas as there would be no return on investment. So the Zambian government introduced tax breaks in August to companies that import telecoms equipment for rural areas. The tax break has already seen Airtel Zambia extend its network to 88 more communities. Its rival, MTN Zambia, has

favourable interconnection terms with the fixed-line operators, the report found. So it suggested that regulators might need to enforce skewed interconnection fees to reflect the higher operation and maintenance costs of rural networks. Operators should also be encouraged to share infrastructure to reduce capital expenditure, and be given preferential access to universal service funds and tax breaks.

The CTO report also encouraged the authorities to allocate licence-free spectrum to operators willing to set up wireless local area networks.

It then warned that universal service obligations imposed with each licence must be accurate and flexible to be achievable.

Universal service funds may be more effective if operators can bid for the cash to subsidise their work in rural regions, the study suggested. The Ghana Investment Fund for Telecommunications (GIFTEL) awards grants on a competitive basis to operators providing public telephony kiosks or telecentres in neglected areas.

Another problem still not addressed since the CTO report highlighted it in 2008 is that operators struggle to expand into rural areas if there are insufficient skilled people to install and maintain their equipment. “There is a sizeable gap between the existing ICT skills and those necessary to accelerate rural connectivity,” the report said, recommending that governments urgently address the skills gap.

cto report reviSitedThree years later, little has changed. Many African universities still lack adequate ICT laboratories and affordable high-speed internet access. Many pupils leave school without having used a computer. Rural schools are even more ill equipped, making ICT lessons impossible.

The strategies to overcome all these challenges remain the same, yet African citizens are still waiting. Solutions include implementing simultaneous rural electrification and connectivity programmes, infrastructure sharing and skills building.

There is no single best path for all countries to follow, and each national rural connectivity plan must be tailored to that country’s circumstances. That said, the CTO recommended tactics that have proven successful in comparative countries.

It is worth repeating them now:Its recommendations to governments are: • To establish an independent regulator able to establish and

enforce impartial rules, and with jurisdiction over both telecoms and broadcasting as these technologies converge.

• Implement technology-neutral licensing to promote competition and the provision of services by the most cost-effective means.

• Encourage local participation when installing ICT infrastructure to enhance local skills.

• Equip universities and tertiary educational institutions with modern ICT hardware and high-speed internet to create skilled ICT graduates.

It urged regulatory authorities to: • Put regulations in place to ensure affordable services in

rural areas.• Encourage favourable interconnection terms that reflect the

higher costs of rural networks.• Provide incentives for infrastructure sharing to reduce

duplication and increase cost-efficiency.• Allocate unlicensed spectrum to encourage the use of

innovative technologies. • Ensure that licence obligations are feasible, flexible and

technology-neutral.It urged the body responsible for universal service funds to: • Disburse funds by competitive tenders, and ensure funds go

where they are needed most.• Prioritise funds for bidders offering rural solutions such as

public kiosks and telecentres.Operators should: • Strive to meet the rural connectivity targets in their licence

conditions. • Provide reliable, high-quality services with the most cost-

effective technology available. • Cooperate to share their infrastructure. • Establish employee training programmes to build skills. • Prioritise services to rural government headquarters,

educational institutions, hospitals, post offices and other public access points, including kiosks, telecentres and payphones.

• Negotiate interconnection terms that reflect the higher costs of rural networks

Technology manufacturers should strive to: • Step up research and development in technologies for rural

connectivity, including solutions suitable for rough terrains.• Focus on renewable energy, such as solar, wind or

hydroelectric power. at


It’s a matter of concern that 80% of the African continent still has no access to electricity for personal use, let alone access to ‘luxuries’ such as television and the Internet, which for most urban dwellers in the developed world are essentials.

Nevertheless, this has certainly not curtailed the growth of ICT in Africa. Wireless subscriptions in Africa have increased by 2,000% in the past seven years. It’s predicted that by 2012 there will be over 420 million mobile telephone subscribers across the continent, according to the IBM Research report, Building a Smarter Planet. As populations become more dispersed, so the necessity for communications increases. The rapid growth of technology is fundamentally changing the planet. Simple ways of living are being relegated to the past, even in rural communities.

Farmers in far-flung areas can now benefit from access to Internet weather forecasts via their mobile phones. Children in remote schools can be educated by a teacher in a different country, and patients in hospitals and clinics can be diagnosed by a doctor on the other side of the world – all through live video stream. A pregnant woman in a small village can be scanned for abnormalities without having to walk hundreds of miles to the nearest clinic.

However, there are still many challenges to overcome on the road to connecting rural communities. With the heavy demand on them to roll out infrastructure projects, governments usually require contributions from the private sector in the form of finance and specific skills sets. There is an ongoing pursuit of foreign investment and much encouragement for international public private people partnerships. This is where many satellite operators are stepping in and filling the void.

Satellite connectivity plays a crucial role in bridging the digital divide and linking disadvantaged communities: it is often the easiest way to connect some parts of Africa. The demand on electricity is low as it needs only a generator to run the equipment on site. Satellite is also important, as it can be used as a back-up if for example an undersea cable is cut, as well as for point-to-multipoint applications. As the high demand for data and the delivery of local content increases across the continent, satellite operators are preparing to meet these demands by launching new satellites into orbit to offer further capacity.

The most commercially used satellite frequency over Africa is C-band and Ku-Band. A single C-band beam is able to cover the whole of Africa. As the beam spreads out, however, it loses its intensity and is therefore used for large turnkey applications such as point-to-point applications for voice and data services.


“Satellite connectivity plays a crucial role in bridging the digital divide and linking disadvantaged communities: it is often the easiest way to connect some parts of Africa.

Sarah theron writeS excluSively for AfricA telecomS

Satellite’s role in

connectingrural communities

Ku-Band offers point-to-multipoint applications and is used for direct to home television, and banking, corporate and VSAT networks. Lower frequency bands at C/Ku are becoming increasingly depleted or congested. While the satellite operators plan to deploy more C-Band and Ku-Band capacity, there is another option, Ka-Band.

Ka-Band is slowly being used more by satellite operators across the world – for many reasons. According to founder and CEO of NewSat, Adrian Ballintine, Ka-Band provides a higher frequency at already occupied satellite positions. Other benefits include the use of spot beam technology, smaller and more economical antennas, and less expensive equipment.

Given the economic model needed to be successful in rural Africa, Ka-Band based services can offer service providers a cost effective, high throughput solution for transferring data intensive applications such as VoIP, two way broadband Internet, broadcasting applications, e-learning and more.

Currently some of the main Ka-Band players in MENA are NileSat, EutelSat, Avanti Communications, Arabsat, YahSat and Turksat. In Africa, NileSat, Avanti and EutelSat are already servicing certain regions and NewSat is also scheduled to launch multiple satellites over this high demand region in the near future. By the end of 2011 YahSat will be one of the biggest Ka-Band players servicing many parts of Africa.

Private African organisations within the telecoms industry are working hard at bridging the digital divide, as set out by the ITU’s Millennium Development Goals. With the further assistance of international investment and partnerships, both terrestrial and satellite providers can confidently face the ongoing and challenging task of connecting millions of digitally disadvantaged people across Africa. AT

remote AUStrAliA AS moDel for AfricAAnother soon to be satellite operator offering Ka-Band over North Africa is a company called NewSat, an established service provider based in Australia and led by ceo Adrian Ballintine. the NewSat Jabiru Satellite Program’s fleet of Ka-band satellites will position them to become a fully integrated satellite operator to meet the increasing demand for satellite capacity over Africa, Asia, europe and the middle east. Jabiru-1 and Jabiru-3 in particular will provide high-powered Ka-band coverage over Africa.

like Africa, Australia is a massive continent. the Kimberley region is in the remote northern part of Western Australia, with little infrastructure and few facilities and in many ways not connected with the rest of the country.

NewSat was chosen by the Australian government, to deliver satellite broadband to 16 remote towns across the region. the company was required to design, develop and deploy satellite broadband through infrastructure in NewSat’s Perth (Western Australian) teleport and a satellite and wireless installation in each town. the company deliver broadband and VoiP services and provide internet access for corporate, government and casual “hot-spot” users.

‘’the Kimberley project continues to deliver broadband services to communities that have previously been unable to access high bandwidth services, enabling them to connect to the rest of the world and benefit on many levels,” explains Ballintine.

this is the kind of experience and expertise the African market can look forward to receiving from one such satellite provider.

“many private African organisations within the telecoms industry are working hard at bridging the digital divide, as set out by the itU’s millennium Development Goals.



by Wayne Mallinson froM ilab

The quesTion in conTexT The IT centres of most successful organisations have had to constantly meet growing or changing business needs. As IT systems evolve, they typically become more interconnected, resulting in a complex system-of-systems that must be maintained, enhanced and tested to address the new business needs. These needs are often linked to taking advantage of newer technologies, meeting fresh regulatory requirements, or adapting to competitive shifts in the market and product drift.

With a growing assortment of hardware, databases, data, operating systems, software applications, licences and even business processes, companies’ infrastructure, platform and software needs can become a bottleneck. Significant capital, insurance, floor space, maintenance and other related costs continue to grow, and often these cost and other constraints obstruct the appropriate provisioning of hosting environments, including software testing.

This can lead to one-too-many testing environment-related shortcuts, with an undesirable increase in organisational risk. IT centres try to address this risk by using virtualisation technologies and by attempting to reduce platform complexity. These approaches work to some degree, but have often not been sufficient to meet growing business demands for new functionalities and their testing needs.

In extreme cases new hardware may be purchased for a business product that does not succeed, and so equipment and capital are wasted. Alternatively, new hardware might well be bought for a testing environment, only to be underutilised between release cycles. Worse still, workarounds, shortcuts and irresponsible inaction with respect to testing environments might put the organisation and its clients at unacceptably high levels of risk from inadequate testing. The limited testing environments in place are often double-booked with emergency fixes and more routine tests clashing. The operationally imperative emergency fixes are always prioritised over routine testing, and this leads to a vicious circle of scant testing, involving more emergency fixes.

If some of the above sounds familiar, Cloud testing might well be a knight in shining armour.

red herring or knight in shining armour? Cloud Computing:


in little more than a user interface, e.g. an order-to-cash process for manufacturing, or for a parcel delivery service.

managemenT and adminisTraTion of cloud soluTionsManagement and administration of solutions by Cloud providers benefit from economies of scale. With multiple users of the same Cloud infrastructure, more efficient energy solutions may be deployed for cooling and maintenance of hardware. Cloud providers can custom build or select buildings with cheaper floor rates and better physical security than their customers’ structures. Licence agreements for operating systems and various applications might also be favourably negotiated. Bandwidth, storage space, and hardware can be bought at wholesale prices by Cloud providers, who then pass some of these benefits on to the users of their services.

Application monitoring, performance testing, security, load balancing, business continuity and disaster recovery needs can be consistently applied across many tenants. Provision of platform stacks might not only benefit from lower costs, but might be more professionally done or largely automated, based on the grown experience and the focus of Cloud providers.

Efficiencies in operational provisioning processes and automated request fulfilment and billing activities can further drive down costs. Many of the usage-scaling processes are totally automated based on variable demand and driven by self-service requests within defined parameters. ‘Select Your Server → Select Your Operating System and → Your Server Will be Up in Just a few Minutes!’

cloud TrendsUse of Cloud services is rapidly catching on. A variety of polls suggest a growing interest in, and demand for, Cloud services over the past few years with the lure of lower costs and a way to provide for business recovery after a disaster.

red herring?Despite many risks related to the Cloud, not entering the Cloud market could mean even greater risks. With a hybrid approach to the Cloud, companies would be well advised to take some small steps and at least put a toe into the water. Today you might call it research and development. Tomorrow you might call it survival. Cloud is no red herring.

KnighT in shining armour?Not for older large corporates that have inherited a colourful if somewhat change-resistant, expensive legacy. They have been straining to standardise infrastructure, simplify architecture and processes, and move toward best practice, but have not always moved fast enough to migrate easily to Cloud solutions. In many cases, their past successes may now be a hindrance to making some difficult, but key, strategic decisions with respect to the Cloud.

Smaller and younger companies could be in a relatively advantaged position to use Cloud services. Many of them may not yet have invested heavily in their own infrastructure, platforms and software applications, nor committed themselves to lengthy outsourced support deals. This makes them well positioned to enter the Cloud.

They have little to lose and potentially much to gain. This makes the ‘knight in shining armour’ idiom for Cloud more plausible.

conclusionThe Cloud is growing. All IT stakeholders need to become more aware of it. It is no red herring. It is going to influence our work contexts. Neither is the Cloud a knight in shining armour: as always, we have to put in the work. For some, it may save costs. For others, it might even be much more than a knight in shining armour. aT


“

water and electricity: users can use high or low volumes of the service according to their specific needs, simply paying for usage of the given utility against agreed usage, cost and payment interval terms. Prepaid water and electricity further the analogy, in that users of the Cloud can digitally ‘help themselves’ to ad hoc volumes of the services. These services are all metered and billed.

infrasTrucTure as a service IaaS makes available access to servers, storage, networking technology, operating systems, virtualisation capabilities and data centre space. Central Processing Unit cycles (CPU cycles), memory and disk space are included.

PlaTform as a service PaaS offers a solution stack to developers and testers with Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) management. Developers can get access to development and runtime environments and testers can get to apply their craft. Want a LAMP stack? Get one from a Cloud provider. LAMP is an acronym for a solution stack for free open source software. (To see what the acronym means, go to your favourite search engine!).

sofTware as a serviceSaaS provides the use of applications to individuals and companies. Besides e-mail, think of social sites like Facebook® and LinkedIn® for individuals. Companies already benefit from Communications (for example, Skype®), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Human Resource (HR) and other relevant functions for which Cloud providers host the software.

Business Process as a service BPaaS provides whole business processes, often encapsulated

whaT is red herring comPuTing?Cloud computing makes available the provision of a range of shared services to businesses through the Internet. It offers the opportunity to rent infrastructure, platform, software and business processes according to a business’s particular needs and timing. Because these services are often shared by many, in what is known as multi-tenanting, economies of scale are achieved and more efficient usage of Cloud service provisioning items becomes possible.

Sharing a service with other users or businesses does not however mean that you are sharing your data. Think of a shared Internet email service where your emails are your own, but you cannot access the emails of users outside your chosen contacts. Some organisations using a Cloud service may request a private Cloud solution for security and privacy, or because they may need specialised configurations.

With Cloud computing, you do not have to buy new hardware or software to run a test or service a temporary business need. You can merely pay for the computing cycles, memory disk space used, data volumes stored or business transaction volumes. This saves money, time, space, set-up, clean-up, maintenance and insurance costs. With lower costs and reduced efforts, more testing or business experiments can be conducted, making increased innovation possible.

cloud servicesCloud solutions include Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS) or Business Process as a Service (BPaaS).

Companies should move to Cloud services in a phased manner. This hybrid Cloud solution approach allows for the migration of IT centre resources as each service and its costs, risks, benefits, and company effort to engage are understood and accepted.

Cloud services have been likened to utility services such as

The Cloud is growing. All IT stakeholders need to become more aware of it. It is no red herring. It is going to influence our work contexts.

““In terms of the Creating Sustainable Businesses in the Knowledge Economy Programme, Nokia has committed to supporting the establishment of an mLab in South Africa and local universities, incubators and developer communities to improve their mobile business skills and provide technical assistance to future entrepreneurs

linked CSI initiatives that our parent company, Nokia, is driving,” continues Andrew. These programmes are part of the group’s long-term commitment to South Africa and support government’s socio-economic development goals through mobile technology. To this end, Nokia has signed a memorandum of understanding to define the Positive Impacts of Mobility (PIM) programme that forms the basis of all CSI initiatives in this country.

There are several components to this PIM programme: Mobile Learning for Mathematics, Nokia Education Delivery, a Research Ambassador Programme, a Creating Sustainable Businesses in the Knowledge Economy Programme, the sponsorship of the annual Open Innovation Africa Summit in Kenya, the Universal Access to Mobile Technologies and Services Programme, Nokia Data Gathering, the Graduate Trainee Programme, and the SKA Project.

Most of the programmes centre on the use of mobile technology in the upliftment, development and empowerment of South Africans from all walks of life. Examples of the integration of mobile technology include the use of MixIt in the Nokia Education Delivery and Mobile Learning for Mathematics programmes to create a platform for peer interaction in educational topics.

About Nokia Siemens Networks: Nokia Siemens Networks is a leading global enabler of telecommunications services. With its focus on innovation and sustainability, the company provides a complete portfolio of mobile, fixed and converged network technology, as well as professional services including consultancy and systems integration, deployment, maintenance and managed services. It is one of the largest telecommunications hardware, software and professional services companies in the world. Operating in 150 countries, its headquarters are in Espoo, Finland. www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com Talk about Nokia Siemens Networks’ news at http://blogs.nokiasiemensnetworks.com and find out if your country is exploiting the full potential of connectivity at www.connectivityscorecard.org.

In terms of the Creating Sustainable Businesses in the Knowledge Economy Programme, Nokia has committed to supporting the establishment of an mLab in South Africa and local universities, incubators and developer communities to improve their mobile business skills and provide technical assistance to future entrepreneurs; while the Nokia Data Gathering programme aims to assist government in improving public services.

Outside of the role mobile technology is playing in these CSI programmes, the other core focus is on education and providing talented South Africans with the opportunity to improve their technical skills and capacity.

In 2010, NSN, in partnership with Isett Seta, developed an internship programme that focused on creating talent and improving the telecommunications skills in South Africa through providing education. Last year, 174 Interns graduated from the NSN Internship Programme. Of these interns, 60 were placed with NSN sub-contractors, 20 were placed within

the financial and control department at NSN for a further 10 months of workplace training and four were placed with NSN Mozambique. A further 90 interns were placed with the various NSN business units and customers.

Since its inception, the programme has fed 1,400 graduate trainees to the broader industry, including NSN, its customers, competitors and suppliers.

Africa is still facing a lack of accessible and affordable broadband services and NSN is working closely with Communications Service Providers (CSPs) to provide solutions that will allow for broader access to telecommunications infrastructure at more affordable prices.

“As part of our commitment to providing high-quality and affordable broadband services, we will continue working with our partners to ensure that our skills development programmes continue injecting relevant skills into the market, providing these individuals with a solid future in the industry,” concludes Andrew. AT


growinggrowing

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) South Africa recently announced its support and involvement in the revolutionary Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Project. “As a global leader in telecommunications, NSN is fulfilling the technical role of primary connectivity service provider to the SKA project bid teams, both from a local and international perspective,” says Rufus Andrew, managing director and country manager for NSN South Africa. Together with the Department of Science and Technology (DST), NSN will be implementing a wide range of exciting technology projects in South Africa.

NSN has put in place a multi-tiered CSI programme that is playing an important role in enriching the peripheral communities linked to the SKA project. This includes various upliftment projects, such as computer training and skills

development. NSN and the DST are working on a graduate programme to train technicians, who can then possibly work on the SKA project. The other CSI projects are aimed at uplifting the local community of Kenavon, the town that will host the SKA project should South Africa win the bid.

“There will be a need for this community to have better technical skills, so NSN is providing the town with computers, hardware and connectivity. In addition, NSN is assisting with training the educators and teachers in the town, so that they can use the hardware and technology, which will benefit the children and uplift the community on a more basic level,” states Andrew.

“The CSI initiatives NSN is involved in through the SKA project also complement the various other science and technology-

Nokia Siemens Networks’ commitment to

for Africa’s development

“As a global leader in telecommunications, NSN is fulfilling the technical role of primary connectivity service provider to the SKA project bid teams, both from a local and international perspective

by Rufus AndRew MAnAging diRectoR foR nokiA sieMens netwoRks south AfRicA


The rollercoaster world of communications and technology is never boring. The latest big deal, in which Google has made an offer to buy Motorola Mobility for the huge sum of US$12.5 billion in cash, underlines this. Eric Schmidt, the previous CEO and now executive chairman of Google, clearly indicated in his Barcelona World Mobile Congress keynote address in 2010 that mobile is where Google sees the future. He assured the industry that Google would put increasing resources into the Android ecosystem, and continue with the optimising of Google for mobility. Coincidentally, at the same event there was much talk of the decline of Motorola as a mobile phone manufacturer. Who would have thought that just over 18 months later Google would make the bold move of actually buying a hardware manufacturer, and that that manufacturer would be Motorola.

Motorola has been a pioneer in the mobile space for more than 80 years. Motorola created the world’s first portable cellular phone, amongst other groundbreaking technology based inventions. Motorola’s mobile dominance came to an abrupt end after its best-selling RAZR phone lacked a successor: this was partially due its lack of foresight, and upheavals in the smartphone industry which Nokia had dominated with Symbian, and by Apple’s introduction of the iPhone in 2007.

By 2011 Motorola mobility was spun off and reorganised into a separate division, with all mobile products as well as, crucially, all the home IP based video products – two way radio products included. Motorola had already put all its eggs into the Android basket in 2010; this was seen as a major turnaround strategy. Motorola managed, through its production prowess and deep

understanding of the mobile market, to launch 23 Android based smartphones globally. As a result, Motorola based Android phones succeeded in taking a huge chunk of new smartphone sales in the USA. The turnaround seems to be working.

Ironically, it was probably the above success that motivated Google to approach Motorola with a view to buying the Mobility division. The implications and effects of this acquisition will be long felt in the mobile world. Android has become the fastest growing and in fact the dominant smartphone platform globally. A large number of manufactures, developers, and operators have thrown their weight behind a platform. Android has proven to be innovative and cost effective, as well as an effective competitor to BlackBerry and the iPhone.

It may seem that the purchase of Motorola by Google came out of the blue, but there were plenty of warning signs. The first and biggest of these was the increasingly acrimonious patent wars that recently erupted between Apple and Google – not to mention Microsoft and Nokia. At present it is difficult to figure out who is suing who in this industry. As the smartphone market developed and evolved, the big ecosystems from Google, Microsoft, BlackBerry, and Apple were going to war, on all levels. The patent issues were playing out in a big way – and will continue to do so – and the nominally free platform, Android, was the most vulnerable.

Google in purchasing Motorola has in one fell swoop rectified a major vulnerability in its armour, which was the patent arena. This was a critical reason – but by no means the only one – for Google to acquire Motorola. The patents that Google will acquire from Motorola cover everything to do

Googlethe mobile markettransforminG

by steven ambrose


“Google will also acquire the huge resource of Motorola skills and expertise, thus bringing enormous maturity and depth to the Android team. This will benefit the entire Android ecosystem, and enhance the Android product for all its partners going forward.


with mobile communications, including a patent on the actual mobile phone. In one acquisition, Google will increase its war chest of patents from around 3,000 to over 20,000, putting Google on the same footing in this respect as the other mobile heavyweights such as Nokia. Motorola also has substantial blocking patents around the actual GSM system, which are vital in any mobile ecosystem. These patent assets will prove vital in the defence not only of partners such as HTC, who are being sued currently by Apple, but also for Google and Android itself.

Android had been built in part by borrowing heavily from Java, and incorporating lots of nominally free open source GPL licensed code – some of which Microsoft has long contented breached their deep patent portfolio. As an open source platform, Android was particularly vulnerable. It is clear than a real motivation for the purchase was to rectify a shaky and deficient IP strategy on Google’s part which was threatening to undermine five successful years of hard work on Android.

Apart from simply buying some insurance in terms of patent rights, Google will also acquire the huge resource of Motorola skills and expertise, thus bringing enormous maturity and depth to the Android team. This will benefit the entire Android ecosystem, and enhance the Android product for all its partners going forward. Of great importance is that the recent Microsoft and Nokia tie-up over Windows Phone 7 had very similar goals. The strength that Google now has in patents also has one final but fundamental implication. Android as a platform is offered free of charge by Google and under an open source licence. Google has realised that fragmentation and lack of standards will ultimately fundamentally threaten the Android business case.

Fragmentation and lack of consistency is something that Microsoft learned to its detriment a long time ago, and is also something that Apple deeply understands. The new arrangement will allow Google to extend a type of insurance policy over its product, but will in all probability only offer this to standards and software compliant partners. This level of insurance and security from patent wars will make it untenable for these manufactures to bypass Google certification of their offerings. Certification and standards compliance will immeasurably benefit users of the platform by guaranteeing consistency and software and hardware functionality.

Another motivation for the purchase of Motorola by Google is that despite the huge growth of Android globally and in fact the dominance of Android in the smartphone market, Apple remains number one with essentially only one device. Apple has complete control of the ecosystem from hardware to services down to the actual device. The benefit of Apple’s tight integration on the iPhone, iPad, and iTunes is unrivalled user experience and a very clearly defined approach to the market.

Google on the other hand is still trying to get OEMs such

“There will be two immediate benefits for Google. The first will be that these Premier devices will allow Google to compete with Apple and Nokia when dealing with the various operators around the globe.

as HTC to update their early and even some current devices from older and essentially obsolete versions of Android. The effect of this operating system fragmentation is poor support of applications in the market and a very poorly defined user experience. Application developers also lament the complexity of developing for Android due to these factors.

Essentially Google has to change its business model substantially, in order to become what has been called an “Experience Licensing” business with the Android platform, as opposed to simply a software vendor. The Motorola acquisition will help them do this. The current rampant growth of Android has been largely as a result of low price commodity devices being sold in huge quantities around the globe.

The Motorola experience in North America with the operator based flagship Droid devices has indicated another option. Google needs to offer a top level or Premier style device to the market – partly to counter fragmentation and partly to fight off the Apple and Nokia threats at the high end of the market. Motorola already operates at this end of the market and its experience and operator relationships will help Android and by extension Google immeasurably in this regard.

There will be two immediate benefits for Google. The first will be that these Premier devices will allow Google to compete with Apple and Nokia when dealing with the various operators around the globe. These devices will offer cutting edge features not available on other lower end devices and will also be offered exclusively to operators. Apple, Nokia, and other manufacturers such as Samsung, have built very good relationships directly with operators where Google had none. Google’s various licensees, such as HTC and Samsung, owned that particular relationship. Motorola historically has exceptional operator insight and relationships, which it will bring to the party.

One other factor that sweetened the deal for Google in the purchase of Motorola was the home video Internet based product. This aspect of Motorola’s business is little known outside of North America but is in fact a significant player in the Video over IP market. Motorola manufactures set top boxes and devices for multiple vendors in the United States. Google on the other hand, through the Google TV initiative, has been trying to popularise its internet TV software platform. Google has not had much traction from hardware vendors so far in this competitive and challenging market.

One aspect for this lacklustre performance was the shortage of blockbuster content as well as poorly defined inked DRM and content security. Apple TV, via iTunes and even Amazon, has been playing here with some success. Motorola’s experience and technology will give Google a huge boost in this emerging but significant market. The indications are that the Android platform and the Google TV platform will become one and the same, and this acquisition will have the effect of boosting both businesses. Google now has the ability to control both the hardware and software aspects of the offering and judging by Apple’s success in this regard, that will be no bad thing.

The combination of Google and Motorola will fundamentally shift the technology landscape. The most immediate effect will be on the mobile device ecosystem, with cutting edge Motorola based devices coming thick and fast, along with similar products based on Android from other manufacturers.

All this at the same time that Microsoft launches with Windows Phone 7 Mango, and Apple, with the iPhone and iOS 5, is charging into the market. Whatever the reasons, the acquisition of Motorola by Google may prove to be a step shift in the technology industry, solidifying the Android ecosystem and making Google a significant and perhaps dominant force in the high tech world we live in. AT

The second key benefit to Android will be that Google will be able to lead and essentially dominate the relationship with its licensees and OEM manufacturers, without giving any special privileges or knowledge to any one of them. The Premier high end products will be priced and positioned to allow brief dominance, before the new technology and features trickle down to other companies



In reality, profitable trade opportunities and advanced social developments can only truly be fostered by better communications. With Africa now poised to realise the promise of its burgeoning communications market and embrace a digital continent, AfricaCom 2011 will proffer working solutions and opportunities for continued economic growth.

The keynotes will bring together operators who are transforming their businesses, suppliers delivering more profitable solutions, and alternative players with a fresh approach to delivering attractive services to consumers.

Beyond voiceThe past year has seen an explosion in innovative developments in data conveyed messaging platforms, which is why the event includes sessions to cover mobile value-added services (with a panel discussion on content and apps), social media services, TV services (a new co-located event, AfricaCast) and enterprise ICT services.

Unlocking the potential of african tv throUgh digital transformationIn his 2011 budget speech, the Honourable Minister of Communications for South Africa, Mr Roy Padayachie, focused much of his effort on discussing the rollout of television services to a broader South African audience. This echoes throughout the continent, with broadcasting continuing to be a hotly contested and competitive environment powered by multiple platform offerings – terrestrial, satellite and now DTT, online and mobile broadcast.

maximising competitive advantage and delivering cost savingsEnterprise ICT Africa, a second co-located event making its debut at AfricaCom 2011, is aimed at enterprise CIOs and IT directors.

This will no doubt be well attended as it is geared towards delivering critical information to improve business efficiencies through the most advanced and appropriate ICT strategies. Some of the hot topics under discussion will include: cloud hosted services; data centres; mobile as an engine for economic development; and new models for integrating technology, business process engineering and project management.

opening the portal to lead the wayAfricaCom continues to grow and draw support from across the globe, as it is well positioned to bring together in one key location all manner of representatives from across the entire spectrum of communications. AfricaCom is a dynamic place where the transfer of knowledge and the sharing of information happen at a rate and with consequences unparalleled in the industry. But perhaps the single most important and potent effect of this annual conference is that lessons from these two days will assist the delegates and others in growing, profiting and prospering – to the benefit of all Africans.

key speakers• Christian de Faria, Group Chief Commercial Officer, • MTN Group• Johan Dennelind, CEO: International, Vodacom Group• Marc Rennard, EVP Africa, Middle East and Asia,

Orange Group • Nagi Abboud, CEO, Atlantique Telecom Group• Lior Tal, Business Development, Facebook • Neil Ahlsten, New Business Development – Africa, Google • Hennie Visser, Chief Operator Officer, MXit• Segun Oyebanji, Head of IT, Chevron Nigeria• Nancy Matimu, Head of VAS, Airtel Africa• Saiful Alam, Chief Commercial Officer, Expresso Telecom

Group at

Now in its 14th year, AfricaCom is undeniably the largest and most influential telecoms, media and ICT gathering on the African continent. Here – on 9-10 November 2011 at the CTICC in Cape Town, South Africa – industry shapers, experts and decision makers will share their knowledge, experiences and prospects with an expected multinational audience of over 5,000 delegates eager to learn how Africa would benefit from becoming fully digital.

2011 AfricAcomAdvancing Innovation and Profitability for a Digital Divide



3rd Generation (WCDMA) mobile phone networks has reached barriers in terms of the channel sizes they can accommodate as well as the amount of data that can be transferred across the channels, explains Smuts-Steyn. 3GPP has stipulated that LTE will be the evolution roadmap or technology for cellular operators’ deployments.

Brian Burns, Business Development Director at Samsung, explains that there are a number of advantages that LTE will be able to provide over the current 2G (GSM) and 3G (WCDMA) technologies. LTE will in essence be better, faster and a lot smarter than anything deployed in the market today. Burns says the top 10 advantages that LTE will offer the mobile operators, or wireless ISPs, are the following: • PEAKRATES: Peak download rates up to 300 Mbit/s

and upload rates up to 75 Mbit/s, depending on the user equipment category

• LATENCIES: Low data transfer latencies < 10ms allowing real time mission critical traffic

• MOBILITY:Support for mobility with handover at up to 350 km/h

• FLEXABILEBANDWIDTHS: Support for flexible bandwidths (1.4 MHz / 3 MHz / 5 MHz / 10 MHz / 20 MHz)

• FREQUENCYBANDS: Support for the technology to be deployed in multiple frequency bands from 800 MHz – 3600 MHz

• MULTIMODE: Support for the technology to be used as either FDD or TDD depending on the operator’s spectrum

• FLEXABLECELLSIZES: Ranging from tens of meters (Femto) to hundreds of meters (Pico) to tens of kilometres (Macros)

• SIMPLIFIEDARCHITECTURE: Simplified all-IP architecture

• INTEROPERATION: Support for interoperation with all major 2G and 3G technologies

• QoS: Ability for the operators to define, prioritise and enforce end to end QoS, depending on traffic type

Multisource has partnered with Samsung to be able to offer an end to end LTE ecosystem to African customers, explains Smuts-Steyn. Burns explains that Samsung is currently the world leader in providing cellular wireless solutions based on the OFDMA technology and is proud to be associated with Multisource to bring LTE to the African market. Samsung currently has 40% market share in the mobile WiMAX space worldwide and has deployed large 4G networks for customers in the Americas, Europe, Japan and Asia. Burns explains that LTE and WiMAX are essentially part of the same family, both derived on an OFDMA basis.

Samsung has developed a Software Defined Radio (SDR) which allows the operators to run either of the OFDMA technologies on the same infrastructure.

In September 2010, Samsung supplied MetroPCS America’s first LTE commercial network with a Samsung end-to-end LTE solution. Samsung was able to provide a turnkey end-to-end solution comprising LTE handsets and data dongles, eNBs (enhanced NodeBs), the base stations defined for LTE, and the EPC (Evolved Packet Core), the core network infrastructure for an LTE network. Since that time there have been over 100 commitments from cellular operators to launch LTE networks.

Samsung LTE solution is the significant part of MetroPCS LTE service, which is dedicated to providing rich multimedia service at affordable prices. Samsung’s advanced equipment and device allow the service subscribers to enjoy real-time video streaming, music and application downloading, and 4G enhanced web browsing.

Smuts-Steyn explains that the local operators are seriously considering deploying LTE in Africa with some actively running trials in the market. He explains that due to the increase in the channel sizes that are available with LTE, the operators are requesting more spectrum from the regulatory authorities in the different countries before making the capex investments necessary to roll out the new networks. The majority of the capex will be in the radio access network and operators need to be 100% sure of the spectrum they will have available.

Burns explains that one of the other reasons for the delay has been the non-availability of multimode LTE devices, but we are starting to see a very healthy ecosystem develop in this respect. Before the end of 2011 Samsung will have launched various LTE dongles, hotspots, netbooks, notebooks, smartphones and smart tablets. AT

“Samsung LTE solution is the significant part of MetroPCS LTE service, which is dedicated to providing rich multimedia service at affordable prices.


LTELong Term Evolution (LTE) is a leading 4G technology all-IP wireless architecture that is taking the world by storm, says Richard Smuts-Steyn, Chief Executive Officer at Multisource Telecoms. LTE is based on a digital modulation technique called OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) which has been used for some time by competing technologies such as WiFi and WiMAX. Now leading cellular operators around the world are scrambling to launch the new technology to a data hungry mobile population used to having the latest smartphones and all their applications on the go.

Today’s new smartphones are consuming 10 to 15 times the amount of data consumed by the average feature phone in the market. Operators have realized that their current infrastructure just won’t be able to support both the growing demands and requirements from consumers and the projected growth in the

mobile data traffic. The LTE technology has been standardized by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), the organization tasked with developing the standards for equipment and devices used by the cellular mobile networks worldwide. The current technology choice used on 2nd Generation (GSM) and then on

INFORMATION


by ElizabEth Migwalla, SEnior DirEctor for QualcoMM govErnMEnt affairS

With countries such as Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and Ethiopia leading the way, the growing number and scale of 3G mobile broadband deployments in Africa is bringing new opportunities to meet socio-economic challenges across the continent.

telecommunications capabilities are limited to VHF radios. The lack of telephone lines and internet access hampers health workers in their ability to communicate with the Kenya Medical supplies Agency (KEMsA), their source for the ARV drugs, and to consult with pharmacists at district and provincial offices.

Health workers provisioning the drugs must adhere to a rigorous reporting and ordering system. Without computers, internet access, email or phones, they prepare handwritten inventories and reports; calculate orders monthly; and hand-deliver the paperwork to KEMsA. This administrative process weighs heavily on the already short-staffed health centres.

Can eHealth applications improve efficiencies in the supply management of ARV medicines and the delivery of ART services, allowing health workers to spend less time on paperwork and more time with patients?

in november 2008, Wireless Reach – in cooperation with RTI International, the Nairobi Provincial Medical Office, part of the Ministry of Medical services, and the Communications Commission of Kenya – launched a pilot project to find out. sixteen health centres in nairobi that receive their ARVs exclusively from KEMsA were provided with computers, software and support equipment for wireless connectivity on Telkom Kenya’s 3g CDMA EV-DO Rev. A network. The project linked the health care sites with district and provincial medical health offices and the logistics management unit of KEMsA, facilitating communication and online reporting.

The Zcore-DAR software developed by RTi international for this ongoing project is an integrated, ART patient medication and pharmaceutical management tool modelled on the Kenyan government’s paper-based ART management tools. The software allows real-time collection of drug dispensation data and automated reporting. it provides reliable information for monitoring stocks of ART pharmaceutical supplies and facilitates quick reference to patient records. The electronic reports and orders reach KEMSA quickly and efficiently via email, providing a more accurate inventory of ARVs in clinics and pharmacies. The reduced administrative burden allows pharmacists to spend more of their time directly caring for patients.

Among the project’s measures of success after one year are: • Data entry time fell from 7.5 to 2.8 minutes per patient• Time spent compiling three monthly ART reports fell

from 11.6 hours to 29 minutes • ART report delivery dropped from eight hours to five

minutes• Provincial pharmacists now have full access to ART

reports• Percentage of facilities completing ART records during

dispensing rose from 30% to 100%• Total elimination of hand-delivery and related

transportation costs“This project demonstrates how 3g technologies can be

applied to create workable, sustainable solutions that help

3g solutions are particularly effective in delivering quality health care to underserved communities. The technology instantly brings skilled medical experts to patients in need, using wireless connectivity. small clinics can connect to main hospitals, ensuring health care workers have the latest

information and access to specialists. With wireless internet connectivity, more health care providers can

enjoy better access to health information, resulting in better patient care.

Qualcomm, a leading developer of advanced wireless technologies and data solutions

for the global telecom market, believes access to 3g and next-generation mobile technologies can improve people’s lives. Qualcomm’s Wireless Reach™ initiative is a strategic programme that brings wireless technology to underserved communities globally. By working with partners, Wireless

Reach invests in projects that foster entrepreneurship; aid in public safety; enrich

teaching and learning; improve environmental sustainability; and enhance the delivery of health care.

Here’s a closer look at how Wireless Reach projects in Kenya and south Africa are leveraging 3g technologies to enhance the reach of quality health care to underserved communities and address critical health issues common to all African nations.

DElivEring tiMEly MEDicinE to KEnyanS with hiv/aiDSin Kenya, 1.5 million people, including an estimated 6.3 percent of the country’s population aged 15-49, are living with HiV/Aids. Providing antiretroviral (ARV) drugs through public health facilities is an important part of the government’s strategy to reduce HiV/Aids-related deaths. Once patients begin a course of antiretroviral therapy (ART), they must continue taking the ARV drugs for the rest of their lives. Thus, it is imperative that the health centres maintain constant supplies of these medicines.

in the capital city of nairobi, many public health centres are in disadvantaged areas where information and


to improve

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• ThefirstfullyintegratedmonthlypublicationaimedatallstakeholderswithintheAfricanITCenvironment.

• TheAfricaTelecomswebsiteprovidesfurthercoverageandextendedreach.ThesiteisupdateddailyandfeaturesallthelatestnewsontheAfricanTelecomslandscape.

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technology to overcome access-to-information challenges and provide better care for patients.

The Mobile Health information system (MHis) provided the nurses with locally relevant, reliable and accurate clinical information at the point of care through the deployment of commercially available, internet-capable smartphones pre-loaded with a library of pertinent resources. The smartphones enabled nurses to access dynamic internet content through wireless broadband connectivity provided by MTn-south Africa.

AED-sATELLiFE Centre for Health information and Technology (now FHi-sATELLiFE), created the mobile library and trained nurses in how to use their smartphones to access information, add to the library and share information with peers around the world.

From January 2009 to February 2010, the nurses integrated the smartphones into their daily activities. nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s Department of nursing science surveyed participants at the conclusion of the project’s pilot phase. Evaluators found that the nurses embraced the mobile technology and used the information accessible on the device to update their own clinical knowledge, for diagnosis and treatment of patients; to provide accurate information to patients; to teach students; and to share information with colleagues.

Among the nurses’ responses are:• 100 percent reported that they would continue using the

mobile computing device upon programme completion• 97 percent found the mobile device useful as it enabled

easy access to information• 92 percent cited the portability of the device as an asset• 89 percent indicated that nursing practice was enhanced

by making information accessible at the point of careRochelle gelandt, a nurse at Livingstone Hospital ARV

Wellness Clinic, told evaluators: “since i was introduced to the device in January 2009, i have been using it on a daily basis – the device as well as the mobile library loaded on it. i love that i can access health information at the point of care, as i do not always have the time to go to the library. The device is loaded with so much relevant and interesting content that it is hard not to want to read more. it has kept me up-to-date with other health information that i rarely come to deal with.”

allowing pEoplE to rEalizE thEir potEntialThe projects in Kenya and south Africa are just two examples of the 64 projects in 27 countries that Qualcomm’s Wireless Reach™ initiative has implemented in collaboration with operators and other partners since 2006 to bring the benefits of wireless technology to underserved communities around the world. As these case stories show, few technologies allow people to realize their potential more effectively than mobile broadband. at

improve the delivery of health care,” said Dr sarah Chuchu, deputy chief pharmacist for the Kenyan Ministry of Medical services and the lead for this project. “Automating the process enhances record-keeping and reporting processes and helps us provide more efficient care to those affected by HIV/Aids.”

Sa nurSES accESS hEalth inforMation at point of carEin south Africa, as in all other African countries, health care providers are challenged to deliver adequate care to large populations living with chronic diseases. And, with the continuing migration of nurses out of the public health sector, the burden of providing health care to the poorest populations increasingly falls on the nurses who remain.

Many nurses in south Africa do not have internet access, precluding them from sharing information with the global health community on rare and complex cases; keeping abreast of the latest information on epidemics; and looking up information in real-time for patient evaluation.

The Eastern Cape Department of Health (ECDoH) serves 1.4 million people through its Port Elizabeth Hospital Complex (PEHC). Wireless Reach has been collaborating with the ECDoH to provide 50 nurses at the PEHC with 3g wireless

“The smartphones enabled nurses to access dynamic Internet content through wireless broadband connectivity provided by MTN-South Africa.


customers are able to buy the computers. Because of the way we price our computers and training we make it affordable for everyone. Our price is designed for people to come in large numbers.

Silulo recently signed a partnership with Vodacom. How did this partnership come about? And what is Vodacom supplying to Silulo?We have been approaching Vodacom for some time. We decided to partner with Vodacom because we realised that otherwise it would be our future competitor. We are making it easier for people in townships to access mobile technology and our partnership with Vodacom enables us to add Vodacom products and services. As part of the partnership, Vodacom has refurbished two Silulo stores in Khayelitsha and has provided its own in-store products to supplement Silulo’s current ICT offerings. This will be rolled out to Silulo’s other stores as well.Vodacom will also provide product and mobile technology training support to all of Silulo’s staff. Besides the essential mobile technology training that the staff will receive, they will also have access to Vodacom’s management and customer service training.

How has this partnership with Vodacom affected the operations of Silulo?There is so much change now in Silulo through our partnership with Vodacom that 90% of our sales involve data, like laptops,

3G modems and smartphones. We have employed 80 Silulo and Vodacom traders to sell airtime, starter packs, M-pesa and electricity. All of them are former students who were looking for employment.

If you had a crystal ball and could see Silulo in five years’ time, how do you think it would differ from now? And do you think the focus of the business would be different?In five years from now we see Silulo in all South African provinces and beyond. We are going to be bringing information technology close to the townships and rural areas. We can do that through franchising the concept; and through offering computer and mobile training.

What would your advice be to entrepreneurs looking at opening businesses in the type of township setting that Silulo operates in?If you want to open a business in a township it has to have an element of social investment so that you can address the social skills through business. The four essential requirements are passion, focus, commitment and energy. AT

“We have trained more than 5,000 students so far, and there are many of our students who have opened their own businesses. Some are studying further in tertiary institutions, but most of them are working for different businesses.

Q a&


with Luvuyo Rani, founder and MD, Silulo Ulutho Technologies

Please tell us how this business started and what inspired you to take the route you did?I was working as a teacher at Kwamfundo High School in Khayelitsha when the Department of Education introduced the new outcomes-based education curriculum that required teachers to use computers as tools in the classroom. I saw a need to sell refurbished computers to the teachers so that they could use them to do their jobs more easily. What inspired me in the beginning was to see teachers using computers in their classrooms.

Leaving your teaching post in Khayelitsha to start Silulo was a brave decision, because ICT is a capital-intensive area to do business in. How did you overcome the usual problems of access to capital that many small entrepreneurs in Africa face?I started to organise stokvels, or savings clubs, for teachers where they contribute R400 every month until everyone has a computer. It was very difficult to get the finance through the bank because I was blacklisted, with no track record or profile at the bank. My partners and I began to enter business competitions like the SAB KickStart and we won first prize as the Best Entrepreneur in the Western Cape and also won nationally. The grant that came with the prize allowed us to open more branches and expand quickly.

By all accounts Silulo has been an incredibly successful business thus far. Personally, how has the opening of this business changed your life?It has made me much more mature and made me realise that we have so much responsibility towards the employees, stakeholders, suppliers and competitors. As the leader of Silulo I have to create a good culture. Sometimes it is difficult to manage my family as well as the business because of the rapid expansion.

This issue of Africa Telecoms is focusing on Connecting Rural Technologies and Telecoms Success Stories. Silulo is a great combination of both of these, having started from humble beginnings out of the boot of Luvuyo Rani’s car.

What is the current extent of Silulo, including how many branches Silulo now operates, and how many centres Silulo foresees opening in the short term?We have 17 branches at the moment: 10 internet cafés and seven computer training centres. These are six centres in Khayelitsha; two in Du Noon and one each in The Strand, Blue Downs, Philippi, Westlake, Montana and Paarl.We will open two more centres in the Eastern Cape by the end of this year, in Mthatha and Queenstown.

Computer training in townships in South Africa is certainly a new concept. How has your experience been with training people who have never had the opportunity to work digitally? What feedback have you had from them and what are they using these skills for?It’s a great experience working with people who have never touched a computer. People come to us for computer training and graduate to find employment. After that they buy computers from us for using at home; and after a while come back for internet connection or to use our internet café. I normally receive compliments from our former students because they are now employed as data capturers, or are working

for retail shops, for the City of Cape Town or for government departments.

Silulo also offers SETA (Skills Education Training Authority) accredited courses that at times cost as little as a quarter of those offered by other colleges in South Africa. How many people have you trained since the inception of your business? And have you had any notable success stories from this programme?We have trained more than 5,000 students so far, and there are many of our students who have opened their own businesses. Some are studying further in tertiary institutions, but most of them are working for different businesses.

In areas like Khayelitsha where the majority of the population is financially constrained, how have you managed to give people access to computers and connectivity?Through training in computer skills our


drivers of the VSAT industry are all market related and, as one would expect, cost related. But the driving force behind Nigeria’s move to close the classic “digital divide” stems from the government. The Nigerian government has been proactive in its quest to provide its citizens with equivalent telecommunications services regardless of their geographical location. Further, large corporations now on the rise in Nigeria are intent on deploying redundant and alternative networks, independent of terrestrial infrastructure.

To that end, connectivity in Africa is now in high demand, with an increasing need for high-speed services and multimedia connectivity in the home, the workplace, point-of-sale, and public institutions such as government offices, universities and banks. End-users derive value from satellite networks through improved network performance, lower overall per unit connectivity costs, and loss mitigation under network failure conditions. Improved connectivity translates into faster response times to major business failures, improved provision of essential services by governments – particularly in remote areas – and improved quality of life for all citizens as a result of increased economic activity.

A satellite communication system does “go the extra mile” and its advantages for providing connectivity in rural areas have deemed it the ultimate solution. Coupled with flexibility and upgradeability, satellite connectivity costs are insensitive to distance. Fast deployment, reliable service for data and voice and unrestricted ubiquitous coverage of large geographical areas by single systems, make satellite connectivity a viable choice for Nigeria’s rural communities.

crucial connecTiviTy requireMenTs for business successAs experts in connecting rural communities, SkyVision’s VPN

solutions allow many of Nigeria’s oil and gas, mining, airline, retail and financial organizations to improve productivity and efficiency for increased profitability.

A professionally managed private corporate network completely managed by SkyVision, SkyVision VPN provides remote locations or end-users with secure access to their organization’s network.

One example of this occurred when a leading financial institution in Nigeria committed itself to providing its customers with convenient, reliable banking services, rolling out its ATM network to parts of the country that had previously had no ATMs. The financial institution needed a provider it could trust, while keeping costs to a minimum in order to connect 90 ATM sites with seamless, reliable communications to bank headquarters. SkyVision provided a customized VPN solution that resulted in a scalable, all-inclusive monthly package for a private ATM network. With a transaction platform coupled with remote site data backup, the bank now boasts 90 new ATM sites, with each ATM connected to its headquarters and SkyVision VSAT equipment deployed at each site.

With a host of customers in remote areas now able to access convenient banking, point-of-sale, government and other public institutions’ services, SkyVision pursues its quest to meet and exceed new rural connectivity challenges in ever-evolving Nigeria.

It continues to meet the increasing demand throughout Africa with an extensive range of solutions based on satellite connectivity designed especially for enterprises in emerging countries like Nigeria. By doing so, SkyVision is playing an important role in Africa’s exciting new future. aT

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Local telcos and ISPs in Africa are driven by their corporate customers’ growing demands. The race is on! The demand for telecommunications services and Internet connectivity, for example, has swelled beyond any market expectations. In recent years, while the number of Internet users in North America increased by 100%, the number of users in Africa increased by an overwhelming 600%. The facts speak for themselves. In Nigeria both the government and corporate sectors have opened the floodgates, ushering in new economies, generating revenue and connecting rural communities.

The challenge beyond The disTanceSatellite connectivity has been and remains at the forefront of Africa’s telecommunications solutions and is the preferred solution in rural Africa. VSATs (Very Small Aperture Terminals) have gained popularity through the remote regions of Africa, as they provide

The challenge and the journey

reliable and cost-effective satellite systems and applications. VSAT technologies have evolved to the point where VSATs

are able to effectively address all of the connectivity needs of remote users, from the residential market through to the corporate market. VSAT systems have traditionally seen application only within government or corporate sectors because of the costs involved. But all that has changed since satellite connectivity has proven to be the ideal solution for vast rural areas that require fast installation and easy deployment, and where fibre and other terrestrial options cannot withstand long term deployment. In short, any requirement for connectivity in remote areas, or areas where other technologies cannot provide services, is a prime target for the use of VSAT technologies.

MeeTing end-user needsSatellite connectivity is not just a viable alternative. The main

“Reliable satellite connectivity, broader coverage, bridging the digital divide.” These very familiar terms are vitally important for Africa, whose size makes it impossible to cover the entire continent by fibre optics alone. As Africa continues to enhance its nations’ economies, telcos and ISPs are moving faster than ever to keep up with the rest of the world. Nigeria is a frontrunner in its quest to connect its rural areas to its cities, with the rapid deployment of telecommunications solutions nationwide.

Taking connectivity to

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If you would like Africa Telecoms to add an event to the calendar, please contact Mr. Bradley Shaw at [email protected]


future events

february

singapore Katie Seifert: +1 973 944 510 www.tmforum.org

07-08 mAnAgement worLD AsIA 2012

Johannesburg, sOUTh AfrICA Rumana Bukht: +44 208 600 3800 www.cto.int

07-09 7th AnnuAL DIgItAL broADcAstIng swItchover forum

www.mobileworldcongress.com

27-01 mobILe worLD congress

nairobi, KEnYA Helen Moroney: +44 148 088 0774 www.aitecafrica.com

07-08 AItec bAnkIng & mobILe money comesA 2012

nAMIBIA Rumana Bukht: +44 208 600 3800 www.cto.int

13-15 6th AnnuAL e-gov AfrIcA forum 2012

march

april

nairobi, KEnYA Louisa Rogers: +44 (0)20 7017 5157 www.comworldseries.com

17-18 eAst AfrIcA com

may

Tunis, TUnIsIA Louisa Rogers: +44 (0)20 7017 5157 www.comworldseries.com

14-15 north AfrIcA com

Johannesburg, sOUTh AfrICA Tarryn Volkwyn: +27 (0)11 516 4000 www.terrapinn.com

21-24 teLecoms worLD AfrIcA

Johannesburg, sOUTh AfrICA Tarryn Volkwyn: +27 (0)11 516 4000 www.terrapinn.com

21-24 sAtcom AfrIcA

the tv show AfrIcA

submArIne networks worLD AfrIcA

AItec bAnkIng & mobILe money west AfrIcA 2012

west & centrAL AfrIcA com

vAs AfrIcA

CalendarAfrica Telecoms events calendar October 2011 - May 2012


october

Maputo, MOZAMBIQUE Helen Moroney: +44 148 088 077 www.aitecafrica.com

05-06 AItec mozAmbIque Ict congress 2011

Tunis, TUnIsIA Caroline Wiezien: +44 (0)20 7017 5605 www.comworldseries.com

11-12 north AfrIcA com

Luanda, AngOLA Marcella Caciolato: +34 91 700 49 57 www.iirangola.com

18-19 Ict LeADers summIt

Chicago, ILLInOIs Kate Mitchell: +1 617 259 2320 www.4gworld.com

24-27 4g worLD

geneva, swITZErLAnd Ledia Ariza: +41 22 730 52 07 www.itu.int/world2011

24-27 Itu teLecom worLD


02-03 AItec eAst AfrIcA Ict summIt 2011

Cape Town, sOUTh AfrICA Caroline Wiezien: +44 (0) 207 017 5605 www.comworldseries.com

09-10 AfrIcA com

hong Kong, ChInA www.mobileasiacongress.com

16-17 mobILe AsIA congress


30-01 AfrIheALth

november

Déjà vu and bon appétit

Last Word


Bradley Shaw writes exclusively for Africa Telecoms

OK. So history has a funny way of repeating itself. In March 2010, before the launch of the iPhone 4, Africa Telecoms covered the ‘loss’ of a prototype by Apple when an employee reportedly left the device at the Gourmet Haus Staudt beer garden in Redwood City, California.

Now, in a seemingly unrelated incident, another prototype, either an iPhone 5 or the 8GB budget iPhone 4, has gone missing. The device apparently went AWOL in San Francisco in late July, apparently dematerialising in Cava 22, a Mexican restaurant in San Francisco’s Mission District.

A copy-cat coincidence or a devious dodge to drum up dollars? A cunning conundrum crafted by Apple or a great punt for a ‘tequila lounge’ that we all now know serves a zesty appetiser: lime-marinated shrimp ceviche. Raw fish soaked in citrus juices and spiced with chilli peppers and onion. Served with sweet potato, lettuce, corn or avocado. Sorry, I digress.

In the 2010 incident, the prototype was bought by Gizmodo for $5,000; and that sequence of events triggered a criminal investigation. The second time around, an errant individual allegedly sold the device on Craigslist for a mere $200.

The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) apparently searched a house with Apple ‘security agents’ after the loss of the device. Quoting ‘a source close to the investigation’, CNET reported: “Apple electronically traced the phone to a two-floor, single-family home in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighbourhood.

“When San Francisco police and Apple’s investigators visited the house, they spoke with a man in his twenties who acknowledged being at Cava 22 on the night the device went

missing. But he denied knowing anything about the phone. The man gave police permission to search the house, and they found nothing.”

Later, after much public outcry about the alleged intrusion of Apple employees into a private citizen’s house, SFPD spokesperson Officer Albie Esparza (or was it Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau?) said: “I talked to CNET reporter Declan McCullagh, and I don’t know who his source is, but we don’t have any record of any such an investigation going on at this point.”

This is a most curious situation for both the SFPD and Apple, but Africa Telecoms predicts that we have not seen the last publicity antic by the world’s most valuable company. The first ‘loss’ certainly seemed to benefit the iPhone 4, which was released with much fanfare and acclaim, winning numerous awards. Time will tell whether the iPhone 5 / iPhone 4S is released with the same vigour and is received by the public in the same manner.

The second ‘loss’ was either a once-bitten twice-bitten absurdity or a memorable marketing ploy by one of the parties, which might have backfired slightly with some negative PR for Apple. Another possible alternative is that Apple has adopted an inverted AA hiring policy for its tech department, with preference given to drunkards. An unlikely scenario, given that Apple products have not noticeably deteriorated; nor do the designers and technicians appear to be drunk 24/7.

Oh, one last question: Does anyone know where I can find an authentic shrimp ceviche, served with sweet potato, lettuce, corn or avocado? AT

Q&A with Luvuyo Rani from Silulo Ulutho TechnologiesThought Leadership with Craig Holmes

ConneCtingrural communities

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