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The Board of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, chaired by Alhaji Ahmed Joda, met Thursday, August 20, 2009 in Abuja, to review the issues concerning the recent 2.3GHz frequency spectrum licensing process and the issues arising there from. The Commission notes the published directive to the Commission, by Mr. President, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua, to conduct a fresh bidding round for the licenses on this frequency band. Flowing from above, the programme for the fresh bidding round for licences in the 2.3GHz Band, and other frequency bands, has been initiated by the board of the Commission, and full details will be announced in due course. All stakeholders are advised to look out for public announcements in this regard. We plead with all interested parties, to forget the events of the past months and join the Commission in fostering a nation where telecom services are accessible and affordable to all. The Commission pledges its absolute commitment to due process, respect for ...

In line with the recent newspaper advertorial by the Central Bank of Nigeria, we will like to state that we (Omatek) DID NOT take any loan to the tune of N1,649,380,634.77 with Afribank or have facilities that are NON PERFORMING as stated in the said publication. OMATEK IS A 22 - YEAR OLD Venture that had worked hard to build its credibility over the Years. We have facilities with the Bank on Import Finance /Restocking basis. We Opened Form M’s, Bills for collection etc with the Bank to import raw materials. However, we have more than enough stock to match our exposure. These facilities were extended to the factory – Omatek Computers Limited (OCL), the production arm of the group. The OCL Products are being distributed to resellers and end-users by Omatek Ventures Distribution Limited (OVDL) On the other hand, Omatek had done a considerable amount of Consumer business with Afribank through the financing of our OMATEK e-Xpress factory initiative that had been launched in over EIGHT STA...

Jonah Iboma The Federal Government has realized a total of N56.78bn from spectrum sales made by the Nigerian Communications Commission between 2007 and May 2009. According to a document released by the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, a copy of which was made available to our correspondent on Tuesday, a breakdown shows that the commission paid N51,102,583,704.68 in 2007 into the Consolidated Revenue Fund ,while the sums of N2,375,138,083.00 and N3,279,350,270.78, were paid in 2008 and 2009 respectively. The document with reference number D(R&F)584/Vol.1/99 dated 22 June, 2009 and which was released by the AGF’s office following the contentious auction of 2.3GHz spectrum by the NCC in May 2009, was signed by the A.R. Ogah, the Director, Revenue and Investment at the AGF’s office. The document had been released by the AGF to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission following claims by the Ministry of Communications that it received petitions protesting the proc...

In what has been described as a clear statement on the overall value of the fledging Nigerian market for the information communication technology (ICT) sector, the top management hierarchy of the leading global wireless communication solution providers Harris Stratex Networks were on hand penultimate Monday the 1st of June to officially open the company’s first Technical Service Support and Test center in Lagos. The centre, which is the first of its kind in the sub – region, is meant to cater for a part of the existing customer base of Harris Stratex in Nigeria. Making this confirmation during the official opening ceremony of the Centre in Lagos , the President and CEO of Harris Stratex, Mr. Harald Braun explained that apart from the fact that the company presently operates in eleven African countries including Nigeria, his company is the only one with up to 30% of its profitable business coming out of Africa. Describing Africa in general and Nigeria in particular as the only place in ...

Meganet Nigeria Limited, a telecommunication value added services firm, has unveiled a platform for recharging mobile phones from the Internet. The Chief Executive Officer, Meganet, Mr. Oso Abiodun, while unveiling the platform, explained that it was designed to enable mobile phone users recharge their phones from the comfort of their homes, offices or wherever, provided they had access to the Internet. He explained that the service would ride on the Interswitch payment platform, thereby ensuring reliable security for users and also enabling a user to recharge his phone, using a debit card without visiting an automatic teller machine. He added that the firm designed the product to make the lives of Nigerians more comfortable. Abiodun said, “We are an information technology company with core interest in web development, software solution development wireless and enterprise solutions. “Since our mission is to develop products and resources that will offer convenience to people in the tec...

PNN Limited, a telecom turnkey and infrastructure firm with operations in several Africa countries, has announced an agreement with Independent Towers Limited to deploy and operate 750 base stations sites. The project, according to the firms, is expected to cover six African countries and will be implemented between now and June 2010. ITL is a firm with specialisation in building telecom towers and base stations. Our correspondent gathered in Lagos on Monday that in the first phase of the project worth N7bn, 200 co-location sites would be built in Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda while the rest would follow suit immediately. The Managing Director of PNN, Alhaji AbdulRahman Abiola-Odunowo, said that the firm intended to deploy the sites innovatively to help reduce the capital and operational expenditure for these sites. He stated, “To achieve a reduction in the operational expenses of our client, ITL has approved that all the sites would be deployed utilising alternative power solutions. We ar...

Leading Information Technology Professional training institutions firm, New Horizons, is to organise job fair and IT seminar, which will focus on tapping contemporary job opportunities for people in Africa The event will feature the major technology firms including Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Sun Microsystems, EC-Council and New Horizons coming together to discuss the latest trends in IT and how it affects Africans as a whole, but more importantly, how individuals can benefit optimally from the numerous IT opportunities. The epoch making event will take place at three locations across the country: namely Lagos, Ogun and The firm said the event which will take place on the 18th of October 2008 would teach participants about actionable steps to take towards improving their professional skills thereby making it easier to get the jobs of their dreams. It added that as a result of this, top recruitment companies such as People Prime, IRIS Consulting, Michael Stevens, and Clement Ashley Cons...

MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, has signed a five year deal for the provision of a Wide Area Network solution to support 89 up-country branches of First City Monument Bank The wide area network solution provided by MTN will assist FCMB to enhance its customer experience, product and human capital development. In a statement on Friday, Head of Information Technology, FCMB, Mr. Olayinka Oni, said the Wide Area Network solution would improve the quality of services rendered by the bank through the prompt provision of banking services and, reduction on the time customers spend in the banking halls. “The solution which is the first of its kind to be adopted by any bank in Nigeria will reduce turn around time, improve transaction speed, and enhance customer satisfaction. It will also impact on long term increase in customer base and long term profit,” Oni stated. He said further, “This is an exciting development, and we look forward to leveraging on the cutting edge ICT facilities provid...

Tavia Technologies Limited, a leading Applications Solutions Provider has been honoured with three awards at the Microsoft Nigeria's Partner Award ceremony. The awards are in recognition of Tavia’s efforts in delivering and enhancing value to the numerous members of Microsoft’s clientele across the three main areas of its operations; Web, Wireless & Applications and Business Intelligence. Tavia, formed in 1999, won Rookie of the year award, Customer Experience Award and the Country Managers Award which are the results of the company's strong focus to consistently provide first class services to its clients. The firm, which has over the years carved a niche for itself in the industry took a strategic decision to further deepen and leverage its relationship with Microsoft through skills acquisition partnerships which have enhanced its service delivery to its clients. The Chief Executive Officer, Tavia Technologies, Mr. Ayo Olasoju, said the company had invested in human cap...

Jonah Iboma IN its quest to take Internet and video conferencing facilities to the grassroots, Emperion West Africa has completed a one-day seminar on its franchise programme in Lagos. The franchise programme is a nationwide scheme designed at providing ordinary folks affordable Internet, which allows individual, small and medium businesses the opportunity to offer services through the franchise programme. The scheme is also designed to provide also a national stock and service support to achieve the objectives. According to the firm the seminar, gave officials of Emperion the opportunity to explain the franchise programme to its existing and potential dealers. The Managing Director, Mr. Sandeep Jayaswal, who led the Emperion team, said the scheme was designed to transform internet access in the country “Services will be standardised,” Jayaswal told his audience that came from far and near. “The programme will revive cyber café businesses, use of online payment, offer financial help a...

Etisalat has today announced the introduction of Homezone, yet another dimension of choice in the suite of choices it is offering potential subscribers to the Etisalat network in its ongoing 0809uchoose campaign. Homezone is an innovative feature from Etisalat that will empower customers with the power to choose and register any area of their choice nationwide in the launch cities, and in other cities subsequently, as their Homezone. On this highly unique plan, calls within the registered Homezone attract discounted costs compared to calls made in other areas. This means that customers can register any area they spend most of their time as their Homezone and thus enjoy discounted call rates every time they make calls from this zone. Speaking about the new initiative, Etisalat Nigeria’s Vice President Marketing, Wael Ammar, stated that with Homezone, Etisalat is further demonstrating to Nigerians that it is entering the Nigerian market with the sole intention of ensuring that Nigerian ...

Jonah Iboma Grahamstown, South Africa Leading African mobile telecommunications operators have signed a $400m pact to build an undersea fibre optic cable infrastructure that would complement the current but insufficient SAT3 in operation. The new cable will run from the West Africa coast through the rest of Africa.Leading operators in the pact which include Vodacom, Telkom, MTN, Broadband Infraco and Neotel said on Sunday that they signed a deal worth more than $400 million (about R3.12 billion) to build a 5.1Tb cable to land in as many African countries on the West Coast as possible. The new venture is expected to increase the already emerging competition in the undersea cable business. Due to dissatisfaction with SAT-3, the only undersea cable serving most of the countries in West coast of Africa, a number of new ventures had started to provide alternative services. Among these ventures are Infinity Cable promoted by Infinity Worldwide Group based in Granada; MainOne Cable promoted b...

Jonah Iboma The fastest growing telecommunications company in the world, Etisalat, has today 08.09, announced that it has entered the final leg of its journey towards the commencement of commercial operations in Nigeria. Etisalat, Nigeria's fifth GSM operator had paid 400 million USD to obtain the Unified Access Service License.Etisalat had made the first official call on its network on 13 March 2008 and progressively set in motion the process of rolling out a robust and stable network that will traverse Nigeria, starting with several cities. Making the announcement today in Lagos, the Chairman of Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Hakeem Bello-Osagie said 'Today, 08.09, I am happy to announce that Etisalat Nigeria is indeed on track in its quest to build and deliver a truly robust and stable network, one in keeping with Etisalat's reputation as a world class telecommunications service provider.' Mr. Bello-Osagie further stated that 'it has been crucial for Etisalat Nigeria to...

Jonah Iboma In the light of the current epileptic services and high price regime by Telecom Operators in the country, experts have advocated the use of internet telephony as the only succour available for now. One of their strong points is that Internet telephony forms more than 75 per cent of calls in developed countries while Nigerians still depend largely on GSM and landlines for both local and international calls. A Nigerian communication expert based in the United States of America, Dom Francis, lamented the cost and quality of services Nigerians are made to endure in the name of telephone services. He noted that the unfortunate thing was that the cost of calls was not commensurate with the services received by subscribers. He advised Nigerians to wake up to the realities of evolving technology stressing that Nigerians seem to have been left far too behind. "Out there internet calls is the main thing and it doesn't cost more than N5 per minute whether local or internati...

Jonah Iboma Grahamstown, South Africa MTN Group on Sunday admitted quality challenges in a number of countries where it operates stating however that it was set to address the problems.Already in a number of countries the telecoms firm has spent huge sums of money on quality improvement.The Executive Director, Corporate Affairs, MTN Group, Ms. Nozipho January-Bardill Who disclosed this at the ongoing 12th Highway Africa conference at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, stated that strong growth was expected across the regions and that additional investments infrastructure would be required to meet demand and improve network quality.She said this decision reflected the determination of the Group to be the leading provider of telecommunications services across the globe and especially in emerging markets.Speaking further, she said the group has always been a leader in the provision of quality telecom services to its subscribers and therefore would not relent in this direction....

Jonah Iboma There were indications on Friday that Globacom is in talks about forming a partnership with South African mobile phone operator, Vodacom. According to reports by Reuters, an unnamed spokesman for Globacom said both Telkom South Africa, which owns 50 per cent of Vodacom, and the Nigerian company were partnership talks. The spokesman said, “There is a discussion going on between Vodacom and Globacom ... The discussion is about building a business partnership between the two organisations.” It added that a spokeswoman for Vodacom, however, said that she was unaware of any such talks. A South African newspaper had earlier reported that the Chairman of Globacom, Dr. Mike Adenuga, had proposed merging Telkom’s 50 percent stake in Vodacom with Globacom to create a pan-African telecom firm “Vodaglo” worth $18 billion Vodacom provides GSM service to more than 23 million customers in South Africa, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho and Mozambique. Industry experts in...

As NCC plans price cap Mobile phone operators on Tuesday agreed to commence steps to reduce the price short message service across their networks considering the potential of increased SMS use to reduce network congestion and in line with practice elsewhere. Operators expressed this position at a consultative forum held on Tuesday in Lagos by the Nigerian Communications Commission on reduction of SMS tariffs. The NCC had argued that current SMS tariff in Nigeria was too high against the backdrop of the fact that SMS utilises an almost insignificant network resource. According to the Executive Vice-Chairman, NCC, Mr. Ernest Ndukwe, operators were not doing their networks good by keeping prices of SMS high as increased use of SMS could help reduce the congestion on networks and improve services generally. He added that complaints about current tariff were increasing. He said, “As you well know, SMS serves as alternative platform of communications to voice to the teeming consumers in Nige...

Nigeria’s locally owned pay television platform, Hi-TV, has recorded over 100,000 subscriber base, the company said in a statement on Monday. The station, owned by Entertainment Highway Limited, commenced operations on February 1, 2007 with a pledge to provide qualitative, informative and entertaining content to Nigerians at affordable rates. with a further promise to give customers value for money through compelling content and technical quality The Chief Operating Officer of HiTV, Mr. Olumide Amore, was quoted as saying that an unprecedented patronage has propelled the subscriber base from 25,000 in August last year to 47,000 in December, over 70,000 in February 2008 and 122,000 at the end of July 2008. Amore said having overcome initial start-up challenges as freezing of satellite signals and late kick off of live matches, the platform was poised to offer subscribers quality services having invested heavily in equipment and infrastructure, as well as the recruitment of tested hands....

By Jonah Iboma Mobile phone operators on Tuesday agreed to commence steps to reduce the price of short message service across their networks. This is considering the potential of increased use of SMS in reducing network congestion in line with the practice elsewhere. The operators came up with this position at a consultative forum held on Tuesday in Lagos, by the Nigerian Communications Commission on reduction of SMS tariffs. The NCC had argued that the current SMS tariff in Nigeria was too high against the backdrop of the fact that SMS utilises an almost insignificant network resource. According to the Executive Vice-Chairman, NCC, Mr. Ernest Ndukwe, the operators are not doing their networks any good by keeping prices of SMS high as increased use of SMS could help reduce the congestion on the networks and improve services generally. He added that complaints about current tariff were increasing. He said, “As you well know, SMS serves as alternative platform of communications to voice ...

Seek biometric authentication for e-commerce Jonah Iboma The Nigerian Computer Society has asked the Federal Government to license more telecommunication operators to offer third generation mobile services in the country. According to the body, issuing more licences was important as 3G services offered the country a window for increased job creation. The President of NCS, Prof. Charles Uwadia, who stated this on Wednesday during a media conference on its recently-concluded national convention, noted that 3G technology offered a very quick means of fast-tracking internet access and improving businesses in Nigeria. He said, “3G mobile communications services provide a window of opportunities for job creation in Nigeria. The Federal Government is thus urged through the Nigerian Communications Commission to grant additional licenses to increase the diffusion and deployment of GSM and Internet access in Nigeria.” Currently Nigeria has issued four 3G licences to namely; Glo Mobile, MTN Niger...