MTN, Etisalat, Visafone, MainOne declare interest in new licenses

By: Ben Uzor Jr

The race to meet the Federal Government’s target of 30 percent broadband penetration in Nigeria over the next four years, has begun in earnest. Four telecommunications operators, including underwater cable operator, MainOne, Visafone Communications, South Africa’s MTN, and United Arab Emirates (UAE’s) Etisalat, have declared interest in bidding for new licenses under the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) new broadband market structure. This development is coming on the heels of reports that the Federal Government, through the NCC had placed a minimum offer price of N3.6 billion on a license for the sole provider of wholesale broadband services in Nigeria, expected to be sold next year in a fresh round of spectrum auctions.

It was reported that a reserve price, which represents the minimum amount an item is on offer in an auction, has been fixed at N3,673,100,000 ($32million) for the 30MHz of 2.3Ghz frequency spectrum sale scheduled to be concluded by Q1 2014. The winner of the single 2.3 GHz spectrum will become the sole wholesale provider of broadband services to other service providers in Nigeria. Eugene Juwah, executive vice chairman, NCC, had told a telecoms forum in Lagos recently that the Information Memorandum (IM) for the race was billed to be released in no distant time. This fresh round of licensing, according to the regulator, would also give birth to seven regionally based InfraCos, in line with its proposed new broadband market structure.

Informed sources told BusinessDay, weekend, that Visafone, Etisalat and MTN Nigeria are interested in becoming wholesale wireless providers, whilst MainOne is setting its sights on the InfraCo license. For quite some time, Etisalat has been clamouring for additional spectrum to roll out innovative broadband services. "We want the regulator to award the license to the four large telcos, with the needed scale, who can engineer that spectrum in order to support the growth and the demand for mobile broadband service", Matthew Willsher, Acting CEO, Etisalat Nigeria, said at a telecoms forum in Lagos. Insiders say Etisalat is aware of the immense opportunities of the new market structure, considering that it is a late entrant in Nigeria’s telecoms market.

The boards of these companies, our sources say, have cut short their holiday break to strategise on the best possible way to approach this in view of the inherent complexities in the licensing requirement, specifically in the area of ownership structure. According to the NCC, "This broadband market structure will ensure vibrancy in the market and prevent dominance, as no company will be allowed to play in more than two of the service layers and the equity participation in bidding consortium for the licenses will be controlled." The InfraCos are firms that will assist in the deployment of critical Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructures in all the six-geopolitical zones of the country, towards accelerating broadband services deployment.

By virtue of the NCC’s new broadband market structure, which seeks to achieve the objective of a nationwide metropolitan and backbone fibre deployment on an open access, non-discriminatory, price regulated basis, the wholesale wireless provider will interconnect with the InfraCo at their Points of Access (PoA). This, according to the regulator, would create an integrated broadband service nationwide to home, hospitals, public and private institutions as well as businesses. "It is an option that would support our 4G rollout plans. Yes, we are interested but we is evaluating the option and when the time comes we will definitely take the right decision", Srinivasa KV, chief executive officer (CEO) of Visafone Communications Limited, told BusinessDay in an interview.

"We would look at getting licenses for InfraCos, perhaps more than one, depending on the scope of the eventual framework that the NCC decides to implement", Funke Opeke, CEO, MainOne, a local ICT firm, told BusinessDay in an interview. "We are interest in acquiring 30MHz spectrum but we implore the NCC to remain intensely focused on creating a friendly operational environment for ICT infrastructure in Nigeria", said a senior executive at MTN, who pleaded anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the issue. A copy of the IM obtained by Technology Times, revealed that interested bidders are expected to pay the sum of N367, 310,000 ($2.3m), which represents 10 percent of the reserve price for the license and also the Intention to Bid Document (IBD), the deposit payment required to be made by all applicants as part of the pre-qualification process, the rule stated.

"The IBD is a commitment from the Applicant to pay at least the Reserve Price for the license, as specified in this IM, and to participate in the Auction process", the NCC said, adding that the cleared funds must have reached the designated transaction account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) not later than 17.00 hours (NT) on February 7th, 2014. The planned auctions will be an all comers affair, as companies that are duly registered in Nigeria can participate once they can shell out the stipulated funds and meet other pre-qualification requirements. On the other hand, even though existing telecoms companies are not excluded from the auctions, they are expected to scale stiffer pre-qualification conditions.

"Already licensed operators participating in the process must fulfill all existing obligations to the Commission including payments of Annual Operational Levy, Spectrum and National Numbering Plan fees, prior to prequalification", according to the telecoms umpire. The NCC is issuing the last 2.3GHz in the upcoming bids as three other companies have hitherto been awarded similar spectrum to deliver Internet service to end users, the auction plans states. "There are three operators providing data services on the 2.3GHz band. The operators are Spectranet, Direct on PC (DoPC) and Mobitel. They currently operate with a 20MHz bandwidth. These licenses were awarded in 2009 except for DoPC that was awarded in 2006, the regulator said, underscoring that despite these, the Nigerian broadband market stakes remain attractive for a new wholesale service provider.

Source: Businessday

2014: Why global IT companies in Nigeria may not grow - unless

 

Uwaje

By: Chris Uwaje

The global IT battlefield in 2014 will revolve between triangular dimensions of: IT Policy, e-Government, and e-Security. These triangular parameters will dictate the development and market growth directions of the Information and Communications Technology sector.

And unless massive local skill capacities are urgently developed in the Nigerian IT Ecosystem, the expected market growth by global IT companies will result into a diminishing mirage. The reason is simple: Technology diffusion has overgrown its support (skill) capacities for continued growth in Nigeria and by extension, in most of African upbeat nations. This phenomenon is due to two critical factors: The Telecommunications-centric IT vision of the nation and the gross neglect of addressing indigenous IT capacity building during the early bubble of the initial telecommunications growth era of 2003-2011.

As we migrate into the midstream of the second decade of 21^st century Technology frontier, new conditions will be required to ensure and accelerate national IT development. The most critical of those conditions is ‘indigenous capacity’. Currently, Nigeria ranks 131 of 143 in global ICT e-Readiness development status – mainly due to her inability to build commensurate local skill capacities to support and sustain the development of her IT ecosystem.

This lack of skill capacities has stressed the variables for accelerated growth – earlier built on hardware and will further distress user demand, constructive investment, employment and real development as we engage 2014, unless the nation re-focuses her absolute telecoms –centric direction strategy and move into constructive knowledge and innovative solutions – championed by knowledge ware/software, where massive investment is critically required.

To attain the national Software capacity building, we must first of all consciously do the following:

·         Bring back IT knowhow currently incubating at the Industry Domain to Education.

·         Retool the Education System and by extension, retrain our IT lecturers– ensuring that we abandon the teaching of ICT-User competence and move onto Computer Science Education at all levels.

·         Adopt a national IT Skill-Conversion Strategy to accelerate our capacity building goal.

·         Furthermore, it also means that we must establish special Information Technology Institutions – such as national Software Engineering Development Institutes at Federal, Private Domain and State levels.

·         Connect with our Diaspora Brain Drain and convert them to IT brain gain.

Airtel reaffirms commitment to human capital development

Airtel Nigeria will continue to invest in education and human capital development in Nigeria, as the core of its corporate social responsibility commitment, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Segun Ogunsanya, has said.

He said this at the Lagos Business School, Pan Atlantic University.

The Airtel Nigeria Chief Executive was Guest Speaker at the dinner for the 17^{th graduating class of the Executive Masters in Business Administration programme of Lagos Business School.}

At the event, which held at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos and themed Soaring To Greatness, Ogunsanya said Airtel recognises that "Education is the bedrock of any thriving society and today, we are leading a quiet revolution in the delivery of quality primary education across the country.

"We have partnered with state governments to adopt primary schools in underserved communities so that we can offer the children the best opportunity in life to realise their dreams and become the leaders of tomorrow."

He noted that the telecom operator has also collaborated with the Lagos Business School to develop young, exceptionally talented Nigerians.

"Early last year, we announced a major human capital development programme that would involve the recruitment of the brightest students from the Master of Business Administration (MBA) programme of the Lagos Business School (LBS).

"Recently, we also inaugurated the Airtel’s Leadership Development Programme in conjunction with the LBS and other leading management development consultancy partners. At Airtel, we place a high premium on education and we will continue to invest in the development of the human capital in Nigeria," Ogunsanya said.

He also shared important leadership and management tips with the graduates, encouraging them to "Keep an open mind (do not limit your thinking); always share your knowledge or else you will get smaller.

"Don’t just plan to participate; plan to win as people only remember the winner. Also, plan to win small battles so that the war is won – nothing is too big to surmount and always remember that whatever you set your mind on, you will succeed."

Also speaking at the occasion, Nnamdi Ezeigbo, President of the EMBA 17 class, thanked the Airtel CEO and congratulated all members of the outgoing class saying "there is joy at having successfully concluded the arduous task of passing through an institution as great as this with endless list of great men and women."

The event also featured a motivating presentation from the Managing Director, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), George Uriesi who challenged the graduates to take very seriously the matter of self-mastery, describing it as an important factor that defines very successful people.

The event was attended by Airtel’s Customer Services Delivery Director, Ajay Bakshi; Human Resources Director, Jubril Saba; MBA Director, Lagos Business School, Dr Nubi Achebo; Managing Director of SLOT, Nnamdi Ezeigbo, and friends and spouses of graduating members of the EMBA class, among others.

Microsoft disrupts ZeroAccess web fraud botnet

ZeroAccess, one of the world's largest botnets - a network of computers infected with malware to trigger online fraud - has been disrupted by Microsoft and law enforcement agencies.

ZeroAccess hijacks web search results and redirects users to potentially dangerous sites to steal their details.

It also generates fraudulent ad clicks on infected computers then claims payouts from duped advertisers.

Also called Sirefef botnet, ZeroAccess, has infected two million computers.

The botnet targets search results on Google, Bing and Yahoo search engines and is estimated to cost online advertisers $2.7m (£1.7m) per month.

Microsoft said it had been authorised by US regulators to "block incoming and outgoing communications between computers located in the US and the 18 identified Internet Protocol (IP) addresses being used to commit the fraudulent schemes".

In addition, the firm has also taken control of 49 domains associated with ZeroAccess.

David Finn, executive director of Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit, said the disruption "will stop victims' computers from being used for fraud and help us identify the computers that need to be cleaned of the infection".

'Most robust'

The ZeroAccess botnet relies on waves of communication between groups of infected computers, instead of being controlled by a few servers.

This allows cyber criminals to control the botnet remotely from a range of computers, making it difficult to tackle.

According to Microsoft, more than 800,000 ZeroAccess-infected computers were active on the internet on any given day as of October this year.

"Due to its botnet architecture, ZeroAccess is one of the most robust and durable botnets in operation today and was built to be resilient to disruption efforts," Microsoft said.

However, the firm said its latest action is "expected to significantly disrupt the botnet's operation, increasing the cost and risk for cyber criminals to continue doing business and preventing victims' computers from committing fraudulent schemes".

Microsoft said its Digital Crimes Unit collaborated with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Europol's European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) to disrupt the operations.

Earlier this year, security firm Symantec said it had disabled nearly 500,000 computers infected by ZeroAccess and taken them out of the botnet.




Source: BBC

NSA 'tracking' hundreds of millions of mobile phones

Almost five billion mobile phone location records are logged by the NSA every day, reports the Washington Post.

The data is said to help the NSA track individuals, and map who they know, to aid the agency's anti-terror work.

The "dragnet surveillance" was condemned by digital rights groups who called for the NSA's snooping efforts to be reined in.

The news comes as Microsoft plans to use more encryption to thwart NSA spying on it and its customers.

Wrong target

The huge database built up by the NSA (National Security Agency) keeps an eye on "hundreds of millions" of mobile phones, said the Post, adding that it let the agency map movements and relationships in ways that were "previously unimaginable".

It added that the vast programme potentially surpassed any other NSA project in terms of its impact on privacy. Information about the programme was in papers released to the Post by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The spying agency is said to have accumulated so much data, about 27 terabytes according to leaked papers seen by the Post, that it was "outpacing" the NSA's ability to analyse the information in a timely fashion.

The analysis, via a computer system called Co-Traveler, was necessary as only a tiny fraction of 1% of the data gathered was actually useful in its anti-terror work, said the paper. The analysis is so detailed that it can be used to thwart attempts to hide from scrutiny by people who use disposable phones or only use a handset briefly before switching it off.

The vast majority of the information gathered is said to come from taps installed on mobile phone networks and used the basic location-information that networks log as people move around. Analysing this data helps the NSA work out which devices are regularly in close proximity and, by implication, exposes a potential connection between the owners of those handsets.

The American Civil Liberties Union said it was "staggering" that the NSA could mount such a vast location-logging system without any public debate. The "dragnet surveillance" broke US obligations that require it to respect the privacy of foreigners and Americans.

"The government should be targeting its surveillance at those suspected of wrong-doing, not assembling massive associational databases that, by their very nature, record the movements of a huge number of innocent people," it added.

The steady flow of information about the NSA's surveillance work has led Microsoft to take steps to protect itself and its customers from unwarranted scrutiny, it said in a blogpost.

Brad Smith, Microsoft legal counsel, said government snooping was now as much of a security problem as computer viruses and other cyber-attacks.

In response, Mr Smith said, Microsoft was expanding its use of encryption; would fight legal orders that stop it telling customers when their data is being sought and would allow a closer look at the code it develops to show there were no backdoors built in.




Source: BBC

Data haul by Android Flashlight app 'deceives' millions

Tens of millions of Android users have been "deceived" by a developer who covertly gathered personal data, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said.

GoldenShores Technologies took ID and location data from the millions using its Brightest Flashlight app.

The developer shared the data with ad networks but did not tell users about this practice, an FTC statement said.

To settle the charges, GoldenShores has agreed to give users more control over what happens to their data.

In its statement, the FTC criticised GoldenShores for its poor privacy policy, which did not let people know that the app was logging their precise location and a unique identifier for their phone and was then sharing that information with advertisers.

'Left in the dark'

Although the free app offered people an opt-out clause, the FTC said this was "meaningless" because data from all users of the Brightest Flashlight app was shared whether they agreed or not.

"When consumers are given a real, informed choice, they can decide for themselves whether the benefit of a service is worth the information they must share to use it," said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC bureau of consumer protection, in a statement.

"But this Flashlight app left them in the dark about how their information was going to be used," she added.

A settlement deal signed by GoldenShores tightens up its privacy policy and demands that the company change how it handles data. In particular, it must no longer misrepresent how it gathers data and whom it is shared with, and must give consumers meaningful control over what is done with the information.

In addition, it must delete all the data it previously gathered from those who downloaded the Flashlight app.




Source: BBC

Samsung and Philips among tech firms raided by EU

Samsung and Philips have revealed that they were among several consumer electronics companies raided recently by European Commission inspectors.

Thursday's raid focused on companies making and selling consumer electronics products and small domestic appliances.

The Commission said it was concerned these firms had colluded in restricting online availability of some products in a bid to restrict competition.

Media-Saturn, the European consumer electronics retailer, was also raided.

Both Samsung and Philips said they were co-operating with the authorities.

"The Commission has concerns that the companies concerned may have violated EU antitrust rules that prohibit anticompetitive agreements or concerted practices," it said in a statement.

Restricting supply "may lead to higher consumer prices or the unavailability of products through certain online sales channels", it said.

The Commission did not give details of the companies it had visited.

Exclusive appeal

If found guilty, the companies could face fines equivalent to 10% of global annual turnover.

In Samsung's case, this could amount to £17bn, although a fine of this size would be unprecedented and extremely unlikely.

Sources familiar with the case told the BBC that agreements between manufacturers and retailers are not necessarily illegal.

Luxury goods brands, for example, often want to restrict the supply and distribution of their products to safeguard their exclusive appeal.

Whether such a defence would apply to low-cost electronic products is for the lawyers to decide.

"The fact that the Commission carries out such inspections does not mean that the companies are guilty of anticompetitive behaviour," the Commission said, "nor does it prejudge the outcome of the investigation itself."

EU competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia has been stepping up antitrust investigations under his watch.

This week the Commission fined eight banks - including Royal Bank of Scotland - a total of 1.7bn euros (£1.4bn) for forming illegal cartels to rig interest rates in the financial derivatives markets.

And in May, Commission inspectors raided several oil companies suspected of price-fixing.




Source: BBC

Airtel Nigeria may lose subscribers over BIS stoppage

Airtel’s decision to stop its BlackBerry plans on non BlackBerry devices may cause some of its subscribers to find solace among rivals.

These are some responses on the firm’s Facebook page.

 Prince Sunday Johnson Obot
It has been brought to my notice that you guys are planning to block BIS on Non-BB access Devices. Well, i want to tell you guys that you are on course for a wreckage of your business and whosoever that advised you guys to do that probably by following your other competitors - MTN, Glo and etisalat is such an unrealistic and deluded fellow with respect to the standard of your service. May i also bring to your notice that i have been a loyal customer from the Vmobile era and interestingly my sim is still Vmobile Sim card. Airtel has been my primary line from the beginning as it was my first sim i aquired but due to the terrible nature of your service in terms of standard, your lack of appreciation for your customers, i bought an etisalat sim with a new phone and since then, eti9ja has been my primary line and even when one of my phones got damaged and i had to forego one sim for the other, i dropped your sim card in favor of my etisalat line until recently i started using it for internet surfing on non-bb access device. Now, you may wonder why all this long story. well, its to tell you that, like me, other subscribers dont buy in to your voice services cos its rubbish and many of us out there put up with your crap internet cos the only edge you have over other network operators is the use of BIS on non- BIS access devices hence thats the ONLY thing that keeps you people alive per say airtel otherwise your fate would be like Visafone. yeah, that's the only life line you have left in my opinion. this is no threat but dare block the service and see yourself die a natural death cos those who advice you to block the service are only looking for your ruination cos they are giving you a FALSE impression of yourself. They're apparently hallucinating or even illusioned.how? i'll tell you.

From a reality check, truth be told, Airtel is of no match to MTN, Etisalat and not to mention glo in many aspect. Granted, these operators have all blocked BIS on non-BIS devices but then they have other services and freebies that would still balance their subscriber base. but what about you? what do you have to offer? poor service, exorbitant call charges and the likes. MTN and etisalat has the best internet service at the moment but you dont! you claim to have 3.75G which's equivalent to HSPA but over 80% of your subscribers are still complaining of poor internet service. I dont browse with your sim on day time cos its whacked! etisalat does it better. i find your service good to managed as from 12AM in the morning till 4AM. So tell me what's your pride huh? Just tell me one thing that makes you stand out amongst your competitors if should block BIS on non-bb device? MTN and etisalat's Edge or 3G is 100times better than your 4G(thats if you have one). etisalat gives me 1 minute for every 3mins calls from other networks.. i get 30% bonus on all recharge i make in 30days. MTN gives me double of my credit recharge and guess what? i use this airtime to call other networks too.. what can you really boost of doing for your subscribers airtel? the only one you ever did is the one you are now about to abolish. you are heading for a serious skyfall airtel.

So if you like, go ahead and block BIS on no Bis device i dont care! i will rather go spend my money and subscribe for MTN fastlink or etisalat easyblaze data plans than spend even 100 naira on your non-bis data plan.

 

Kayode Oluwarotimi Joshua To say d truth, I don't use my airtel line for calling. I only use it to browse on my android phone wit d BIS. If truly u guys r going to block d use use of BIS on non bb phones, u've gotta make available a smartphone plan dat will be as good as d BIS. We r d ones dat preaches d gospel of d use airtel BIS on android but if u block it without a vice versa plan, we will surely be dia to repreach d gospel n u'll lose all d soul we've ever won for you. Be wise...

 

Airtel customers to watch Arsenal at the Emirates

From left: Ms Sunmisola Osi-Efa, Project Coordinator, Skye Bank and Mrs. Chinenye Chima, Principal Maritime Labour Officer, NIMASA, both members of Airtel Premier Club and winners of round trip (business class) tickets to watch Arsenal’s home game against Everton on Sunday, at the Emirate Stadium, United Kingdom, in the Airtel’s Rewardz Loyalty Surprise Campaign. Both winners were presented with their tickets at Airtel HQ, Banana Island, Ikoyi Lagos.

Airtel Nigeria has demonstrated its commitment to continually reward loyalty by offering four customers tickets to watch Arsenal FC clash with Everton at the Emirates Stadium, this Sunday.

The leading telecommunications service provider is rewarding these customers, who were selected in the on-going Airtel Loyalty Surprise campaign, with an all-expense trip to the Emirates, based on their allegiance to the network.

Two of the winners, Sunmisola Osi-Efa, Project Coordinator, Skye Bank and Mrs. Chinenye Chima, Principal Maritime Labour Officer at NIMASA were formally handed their tickets by the Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, Segun Ogunsanya, on Wednesday during a brief ceremony held at Airtel Head Office in Banana Island, Lagos.

The winners are expected to depart Lagos on Saturday morning for London.

Speaking at the occasion, Ogunsanya thanked the winners for their loyalty to the company, pledging to continually reward customers for staying true to the Airtel brand.

He reiterated the company’s commitment to provide customers with impactful products and services matched with excellent customer services in pursuit of its vision of becoming the most loved brand in the lives of Nigerians.

"I must congratulate you for your patronage and belief in the Airtel brand for these past years. It is your support and the useful consumer insights that you consistently provide, that has contributed great value to our business as we push the frontier of telecoms services further to delight our customers. We wish you a safe trip as you share quality time at the Emirates with our partners, Arsenal FC in London", the CEO stated.

Last year, Airtel and Arsenal FC signed a partnership that provides Airtel with the opportunity to utilize the club's merchandising, hospitality and content rights in five countries, Nigeria, Zambia, Ghana, Uganda and Rwanda.

The Airtel Premier Club is a dedicated reward programme for high value customers.