Tag Archive for ‘South Africa’ at LIRNEasia

Tag Archive for 'South Africa'

LIRNEasia’s Mobile Benchmarks (South Asia and Southeast Asia) and Broadband Benchmarks Report for October 2008 has been released. Click HERE for more information.

GSMA urges Bangladesh to licence 3G to expand broadband

Chanuka Wattegama

on November 13, 2008

GSMA, the global trade body representing the mobile industry, called on Bangladesh to issue 3G licences soon to make broadband services more widely available.

Licensing the 2100 MHz spectrum band for 3G services would enable Bangladeshi operators to launch mobile broadband services, which their customers can use to gain fast and easy access to the Internet and online services, it said on Wednesday.

Bangladesh’s mobile sector has grown rapidly, with user numbers reaching more than 45 million at end-September from 200,000 in 2001, while the country has only 1.32 million fixed-line phones.

“Laying new fixed-line connections is expensive and inefficient, so high-speed mobile networks are Bangladesh’s best bet to realise the many social and economic benefits that arise from widespread access to broadband services,” said Ricardo Tavares, senior…

1 Comment
Tags: 3G, 3G services, Bangladesh, Broadband, broadband services, high-speed mobile networks, Kenya, Malaysia, mobile broadband services, Reuters, Reuters Group PLC, Ricardo Tavares, South Africa, Sri Lanka.

India’s Bharti Airtel may buy South Africa’s MTN

Chanuka Wattegama

on May 7, 2008

It would be the biggest thing to pass between India and South Africa since Mahatma Gandhi moved from one country to the other. This week it emerged that Bharti Airtel, the largest mobile-phone operator in India, is holding “exploratory” talks to buy South Africa’s MTN, the biggest operator in Africa.

According to the Financial Times, Bharti has indicated it would be willing to pay about $19 billion for 51% of the company. That would make it the heftiest overseas acquisition ever made by an Indian firm, more than Tata Steel paid for Corus, a British steelmaker, and seven times the amount India invested in the whole of Africa over the ten years to 2004.

The deal would unite the leading companies in the world’s two most promising…

1 Comment
Tags: Acquisition, Africa, Bharti Airtel, Corus, Gartner, India, mobile-phone operator, MTN, South Africa, Tata Steel, the Financial Times, USD.

Wi-Fi losing out to 3G in South Africa

Abu Saeed Khan

on November 28, 2007

Commercial WiFi hotspots face a dim future in South Africa - at least among corporate workers on the move, a new research study by World Wide Worx reveals. The report shows that the corporate use of WiFi - small networks that allow wireless access to the Internet - has fallen back after a steady rise in the previous three years. By contrast, the use of 3G - wireless broadband provided by the mobile networks - has rocketed.

“We have been warning for several years that commercial WiFi hotspots, especially in hotels and conference centres, are in danger of pricing themselves out of the market,” says World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck, who led the research. “And, now that a monthly subscription to a basic 3G service…

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Tags: 3G, Arthur Goldstuck, South Africa, Wi-Fi, Wide Worx, wireless access, wireless broadband.

Seacom laying Africa undersea cable

Abu Saeed Khan

on November 22, 2007

Mauritius-based private equity venture Seacom has started the construction of a fibre optic cable that will link southern and east Africa with India and Europe.

The $650 million project covers more than 15,000 kilometres to link South Africa to India and France through Mozambique, Madagascar, Kenya and Tanzania. It is expected to provide first broadband access to countries in East Africa, which are currently using satellite connections.

In a similar project, NEPAD e-Africa Commission signed a deal with an American firm 5-P Holdings in November 2007 for the construction of an undersea submarine cable to link every country in Africa with the outside world.

This is a joint project between African investors and US telecommunications development company Herakles Telecom. The cable will be ready to…

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Tags: Africa, Alcatel-Lucent, broadband access, East Africa, Europe, fibre optic, France, Herakles Telecom, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, satellite connections, South Africa, Tanzania, telecommunications development, United States, USD.

Diversifying Participation in Network Development

Ayesha Zainudeen

on October 5, 2007

The final report from the World Dialogue on Regulation (WDR) 3rd research cycle has been released and can now be downloaded or ordered in hardcopy. Edited by Amy Mahan and William H. Melody, this most recent collection of the network’s research and case studies elaborates on inclusive and propoor strategies for extending network development.

Title: Diversifying Participation in Network Development: Case studies and research from WDR Research Cycle 3
Editors: Amy Mahan and William H. Melody

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Tags: 978-9974-8067, Abu-Saeed Khan, African Mobile, Albania, Ali Ndiwalana, Amy Mahan, Andrew Barendse, Argentina, Asia-Pacific, Ayesha Zainudeen, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bruce Girard, Caribbean, Christoph Stork, Claire Milne, Colombia, Erik Skouby, Ewan Sutherland, Foundation Partners, Ghana, Gustavo Gómez, Guyana, Harsha de Silva, Latin America, Malathy Knight-John, Mariama Deen-Swarray, Melody Document, Mexico, Nepal, Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, Peru, Reza Tadayoni, Samuel Braithwaite, Sebastian Ureta, South Africa, Steve Esselaar, Telecom, Uruguay, William H. Melody.

Cell Phones Double as e-wallets in RP

Lorraine Salazar

on October 4, 2007

Cell phones double as electronic wallets in RP
By Oliver Teves
Associated Press
Last updated 10:42am (Mla time) 09/30/2007
Philippine Daily Inquirer

SAN MIGUEL, Philippines–It’s Thursday, so 18-year-old Dennis Tiangco is off to a bank to collect his weekly allowance, zapped by his mother–who’s working in Hong Kong–to his electronic wallet: his cell phone.

Sauntering into a branch of GM Bank in the town of San Miguel, Dennis fills out a form, sends a text message via his phone to a bank line dedicated to the service.

In a matter of seconds, the transaction is approved and the teller gives him P2,500 (US$54), minus a 1-percent fee. He doesn’t need a bank account to retrieve the money.

More than 5.5 million Filipinos now use their cell phones as virtual wallets, making the Philippines…

1 Comment
Tags: Ahli United Bank, Anna Tiangco, Associated Press, ATM, Bahrain, bank, bank account, bank accounts, bank line, bank products, bank wire transfer, cell phones, cellular telephone, computer chip, Dennis Tiangco, e - commerce, e-wallets, Etisalat, EUR, financial transactions over mobile networks, G-Xchange, Globe Telecom, GM Bank, HKD, Hong Kong, Hong Kong CSL Ltd., Joseph Estrada, Kenya, Middle East, Mobile banking, Mobile banking services, mobile phones, money transfer service, MTC, Peso, Philippines, Ramon Isberto, Rizza Maniego Eala, SAN, San Miguel, Smart, Smart Communications, South Africa, telecommunications operator, the Philippines, UAE, United States, USD, Vodafone.

Mobile money in the Philippines

Rohan Samarajiva

on October 2, 2007

Cell phones double as electronic wallets - Yahoo! News

Mobile banking services, which are also catching on in Kenya and South Africa, enable people who don’t have bank accounts to transfer money easily, quickly and safely. It’s spreading in the developing world because mobile phones are much more common than bank accounts.

The system is particularly useful for the 8 million Filipinos — 10 percent of the country’s citizens — who work overseas and send money home, like Dennis’ mother, Anna Tiangco. Previously, she sent money via a bank wire transfer, which costs $2.50 and takes two days to clear. The cell phone method costs only 13 cents and is nearly instantaneous.

2 Comments
Tags: Anna Tiangco, bank, bank accounts, bank wire transfer, cell phones, cellular telephone, cents, Dennis, Kenya, Mobile banking, Mobile banking services, mobile phones, South Africa, the Philippines, USD, Yahoo!.

Reflections on the response to the false tsunami warnings on September 12, 2007

Rohan Samarajiva

on September 23, 2007

Chanuka Wattegama who authored the primer on the use of ICTs in disaster mitigation for the UNDP looks at the responses of littoral nations from South Africa to Thailand to the Bengkulu event.

Nation special

If the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was a disaster marked by inaction, what happened on September 12, 2007 was marked by plenty of action, but a dearth of right action. It was certainly not an exemplary implementation of pre-determined and meticulously planned disaster avoidance activities. Did it make the vulnerable communities feel more secure? Or did it merely add to the confusion and chaos? Wasn’t what happened on that crucial evening another good lesson on how not to react to a disaster? Does this mean we still have lot to learn?Risk mitigation through…

4 Comments
Tags: Bengkulu, Chanuka Wattegama, Indian Ocean, South Africa, Thailand.

Telkom Kenya attracts 7 bidders

Abu Saeed Khan

on August 15, 2007

India’s MTNL, Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications along with France Telecom, South Africa’s Telkom, British Telecom and Kuwait’s Alkazar are vying for a 51 per cent controlling share of Kenya’s sole provider of fixed line services.

In Nairobi last week the plan to privatise Telkom Kenya was presented in detail at a two-day government-inspired and sponsored conference. It was very successful and the proposed sell-off of the the East African country’s state-run incumbent has now attracted seven potential bidders. Read more.

1 Comment
Tags: British Telecom, fixed line services, France Telecom, India, Kenya, Kuwait, Kuwait\'s Alkazar, Nairobi, South Africa, Telkom Kenya.

Senegal telecenters going out of business

Rohan Samarajiva

on June 17, 2007

For World Telecom and Information Society Day, I wrote a column on the wrong-headed telecenter policy being implemented by the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka with World Bank funds, where I referred to lessons from South Africa that were taken into account in the design, but ignored in the implementation. Here are some more lessons from Africa:

Creative destruction: izi killed the public phones « abaporu project on technology appropriation

All of a sudden, users don’t need the ‘public phones’ any more. In Senegal most of these télécentres have gone out of business. Bassirou Cissé, the general secretary of Unetts(*) says that “In 2000, there were 18,000 télécentres in Sénégal, accounting for 33% of the Senegalese operators’ revenues and 30,000 jobs. Today, most of them have closed down.”

Powered…

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Tags: Africa, Bassirou Cissé, For World Telecom, ICT Agency of Sri Lanka, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, technology appropriation.

South Africa’s intrusive new mobile legislation

Abu Saeed Khan

on June 13, 2007

Tourists, businessmen and other travellers that might want to use their GSM handsets to roam around South Africa will henceforth face some intrusive bureaucracy before they can call home to enthuse about the delights of Cape Town or send pictures of the elephants and lions they see on safari.

A new piece of legislation, the “Regulation of Interception of Communication Amendment Bill” now making its stately way through the South African parliament requires visitors to the country to go to a local services provider in person to register their name, address, passport number and a whole raft of other personal details before being allowed the privilege of using the GSM network. The new law will also require anyone who buys a mobile phone in South Africa…

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Tags: Cape Town, cellular telephone, GSM, South Africa, South African parliament.

Linux evolves for mobile devices

Chanuka Wattegama

on May 9, 2007

A version of the increasingly popular Linux operating system Ubuntu will be developed for use on net-enabled phones and devices.

The Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded project aims to create the open source platform for initial release in October 2007. The operating system will be developed by members of the Ubuntu community, along with staff from chip giant Intel. Its development was prompted by the growth of power hungry portable devices that place new demands on software.

“It is clear that new types of device - small, handheld, graphical tablets which are Internet-enabled - are going to change the way we communicate and collaborate,” said Ubuntu CTO Matt Zimmerman.

“These devices place new demands on open-source software and require innovative graphical interfaces, improved power management and better responsiveness.”

…

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Tags: Canonical, cellular telephone, conventional processors, Dell, energy efficiency, hungry portable devices, Intel, Linux, Mark Shuttleworth, Matt Zimmerman, Microsoft, open source software projects, open source technologies, open-source software, operating system, operating systems, Paul Otellini, portable devices, power-hungry applications, prototype device, Seville, South Africa, Spain, technology world, tiny low-energy chip, Ubuntu.

Following successful course, LIRNEasia plans regular offerings; next course in March 2008 in Singapore

Rohan Samarajiva

on March 19, 2007

Report on the 11th LIRNE.NET Executive Training Course on Regulation, 25 February – 3 March 2007, conducted by LIRNEasia and CONNECTasia Forum Pte.Ltd.

Rohan Samarajiva, Course Director

The 11th LIRNE.NET course on “Telecom Reform: Strategies to achieve connectivity and convergence,” was held February 25th - March 3rd, 2007 at the Changi Village Hotel, Singapore. It was attended by 33 persons from 13 countries, ranging from Mongolia to Congo and South Africa to Bhutan.

Among the participants were 13 persons from regulatory agencies, including three members of regulatory collegiums. Eleven persons from the management of telecom operators, and nine from research organizations, universities and civil society made up the balance. Twenty were men; and 13 women.

The course had two components: a conventional lecture and assignment based module of five…

3 Comments
Tags: Bhutan, Bill Melody, Broadband, Changi Village, Changi Village Hotel, China, Congo, CONNECTasia Forum Pte.Ltd, Dialog Telekom, Evan Due, Hans Wijayasuriya, Harsha de Silva, Hong Kong, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, ITU, M. H. Au, Mongolia, Rajendra Singh, Rohan Samarajiva, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Studies, The 11th LIRNE.NET, Tim Kelly, Universal Service Funds, VOIP.

2006 South African ICT Sector Performance Review

Ayesha Zainudeen

on February 12, 2007

LINK Public Policy Research Paper No. 8
January 2007 (pre-publication)
Steve Esselaar & Alison Gillwald

Despite the continued overall growth of the telecommunications sector in South Africa, the full potential of ICT to contribute to the growth and development of the country is not being realised. The fourth South African ICT Sector Performance Review (SPR) seeks to measure and assess some of the recent market developments in South Africa against national policy objectives such as access to services, cost of usage and competitiveness.

The full report can be downloaded in pdf format here: 2006 South African ICT SPR

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Tags: Alison Gillwald, South Africa, Steve Esselaar, telecommunications.

Uganda: Banking on Infrastructure

Abu Saeed Khan

on February 9, 2007

The Ugandan government gave full power to the country’s telecoms regulator, the Ugandan Communications Commission (UCC), to liberalize the infrastructure sector in October 2006.

Earlier in the year, the Ministry published guidelines defining the opening up of services to full competition. This was a result of the end of the five-year exclusivity period of the National Telecom Operators (NTO)—MTN Uganda and Uganda Telecom, and Cellular Telecom Operator (CTO)—Celtel Uganda.

With this new market structure, the Ugandan telecoms is set to become even more attractive as infrastructure rollout increases, new services and applications are deployed, and customers’ needs are meet in the greater context of convergence. In our view, despite current and upcoming challenges, Uganda is well positioned to become a very competitive and vibrant telecoms market and…

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Tags: access network, GSM, MTN Uganda, South Africa, telecommunications, Telkom SA, Uganda, Uganda Telecom, Ugandan Communications Commission, Ugandan government.

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