nigeria customs ict the long walk to...
TRANSCRIPT
AFRICA
Vol. 2 No. 15
The long walk to switchover
Innovation is key to job creation, says NCC
AFRICAStarTimes begin Africa DTH expansion
Nigeria Customs ICT
C O N T E N T SVol. 2, No. 15
Editor in-chief Aliyu BelloExecutive Manager Tonia GerraldSA to the editor in-Chief Ngozi OkeyHead, Application Services M. YakubuEditorial/ICT Services John Daniel
Usman BelloAlozie NwankwoJuliet Nnamdi
Client Relations Sunday TacheLookman BelloSafiya Thani
Marketing Offy PatTunde NathanielWasiu Olatunde
Media Relations Favour MaduKhadijat YakubuZacheous Felicia
Finance Folarin Tunde
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Beyond the new auto policy
StarTimes begin Africa DTH expansion
Africa expands ICT access
StarTimes’ humble beginning
Nigeria Customs Modernisation Driven by ICT
History of Nigeria Customs Modernisation
Evolution of IT for cargo clearance
ICT remains a distant but desirable goal
Innovation is key to job creation, says NCC
NigComSat embraces Newtec
Ka, Ku Bands go tit for tat in aviation market
Internet on board – hit or hype
ICT in the Middle East
Why SMEs look to the Cloud
How innovation will stimulate telecom industry
E d i t o r i a l
Beyond the new auto policy
In West Africa, the upwardly mobile segment of the population cannot continue to keep up with the need for improved mobility and progress without cheap vehicles from Europe. From Germany alone approx. 220,000 used vehicles are exported annually to West Africa via the two harbours in Hamburg and Antwerp.
According to the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) of Nigeria, the total number of vehicles registered in Nigeria between 1999 and July 2004 was 5,828,900. Based on this figure, the total number of vehicles registered by the end of the year 2004 was estimated to be 6.0 million – it was assumed that 70 per cent of all vehicles would be used cars. The new auto policy soon to take charge seeks to change all this within few years. It's premised on the domestic manufacturing of cars to satisfy the need for mobility in Nigeria.
Like Tata's cheap Indian car which shows that inexpensive passenger cars can also be produced for customers with less spending power for around Euro 1,700, the regulation will introduce special production of inexpensive, fuel-saving passenger cars for the Nigerian market as a better alternative. However, the question on the lip of keen observer is that, “Would that model succeed if transferred to Nigeria? A roadworthy used passenger car for the West African market costs at least Euro 1,500”. Can a factory in Nigeria manufacture a simple and safe low-emission and economical passenger car for the domestic market which has a price magnitude of around Euro 2,000? When look upon differently, could the further use of used passenger cars from Europe and other industrial countries with high fuel consumption, the better alternative or a worse one compared to the option of an inexpensive passenger car which will be produced in Nigeria for its own domestic market? Above all, when the used passenger cars imported from European market cost on the
average 1000 Euros below the domestic car, the scourge of border smuggling is not likely to abate.
It would seem appropriate to first of all address the question of used vehicles. On the one hand, the export of used passenger cars to Nigeria has been common practice for years; on t h e o t h e r h a n d , e c o n o m i c development without an equally increasing motorisation can hardly be imagined from today's perspective. In other words: the disposal or utilisation of used vehicles will have to be addressed if the new policy is to see the light of the day.
Generally speaking, Nigeria is not exactly known as a stronghold of the recycling industry. So it has remained a preferred destination for dumping. In Europe, used cars are recycled. But poor implementation of recycling policy implies that export of used cars has continued unabated in recent times. Therefore, Nigeria government still need to wait for better days when recycling of used vehicles will become a familiar practice across E u r o p e . F o r n o w c u s t o m s administration in Nigeria will continue to battle dare-devil smugglers bent on importing used cars that seems cheaper than locally manufactured cars.
According to industry watchers, the setting up of closed-loop materials management is urgently needed to initiate recycling of used cars Europe-wide. The path of secondary raw materials back to Europe in the empty freight ships that transported the used vehicles to Nigeria would seem to be the most obvious path. The commodity market prices for many metals such as platinum or steel are high enough to serve as an incentive system for the re-circulation of reusable materials back to Europe. There is also a chance for a recycling industry to be set up locally, which would realise parts of the value chain directly in Nigeria.
Precious metals are very valuable and the recycling of them – particularly in the case of platinum
and the related metals palladium and rhodium – involves a considerable reduction in environmental effects compared to primary production. The first consideration is given to the prominent role of platinum group metals (PGM): in the recycling of end-of-life vehicles, these metals are found in comparatively high concentration, particularly in the catalytic converter.
However, with regard to the 220,000 used vehicles, approx. 114,000 tonnes of steel scrap as well as around 16,000 tonnes of aluminium scrap and a further 10,000 tonnes of non-ferrous metal scrap bypass the German recycling paths as a result of their export to West Africa. A structure for the collection of steel scrap and other metals (such as aluminium or copper) that is sufficient in comparison to the European standard does not currently exist in West Africa. It can however be basically assumed that approaches for a corresponding infrastructure for collection and utilisation are in place. The Ghana example shows that at least three electric steel furnaces (CDM 2008) are available for the utilisation of steel scrap. Wahome Steel Ltd, which is said to be West Africa's largest steel manufacturing plant in Ghana, can process 200 tonnes of steel scrap daily.
This would correspond to an annual processing capacity of around 70,000 tonnes. The capacities are not fully tapped because Ghana's scrap dealers export 600 to 1,000 tonnes of steel scrap daily. If we make projections on the basis of these export data, this corresponds in turn to a quantity of around 280,000 tonnes per year. Taking into consideration steel scrap from end-of-life vehicles, these quantities would definitely be considerable. However, this consideration relates to the total steel scrap and not only the end-of life vehicles.
StarTimes Communication Network Technology, a technology provider and network operator in China, has signed a 10-year contract on SES' SES 5 satellite at 5 degrees east to expand its media footprint in Africa and deliver direct-to-home (DTH) broadcast services across the continent.
StarTimes, which is the fastest-growing digital TV operator Africa and has over 2.6 million digital terrestrial television (DTT) subscribers, also acquired SES's 20% shareholding in South African pay-TV operator Top TV.
The contract will see StarTimes use four transponders from October 2013 and a fifth transponder from February 2014 to grow their DTH subscribers in Africa. The Chinese broadcaster will continue to broadcast TopTV on SES-5 by using three of the newly- c o n t r a c t e d S E S transponders that were formerly leased by ODM (owner of Top TV). The other two out of the five SES transponders c o n t r a c t e d b y StarTimes will b e u s e d t o complement their DTT offering in r e mote and non-urban areas and grow their pay-TV business.
“The recent success of StarTimes's s t r a t e g i c investment in ODM will allow us to reach n e w audiences in South Africa. The partnership with SES enables StarTimes to have a D T H platform in addition to the existing DTT and mobile TV (CMMB) platforms in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, the high-powered SES-5 at the prime orbital l o c a t i o n o f 5 degrees East is ideal in overcoming the c h a l l e n g e s o f terrestrial coverage to reach large audiences. This will allow us to extend our broadcast reach across the continent and ensure excellent service and picture quality for our viewers,” said StarTimes Group chairman and president Pang Xinxing.
“We are honoured that StarTimes has chosen to work with us to complement their DTT business across Africa and to deliver more exciting content to Africa's dynamic markets,” said Ferdinand Kayser, chief commercial officer of SES.“The new partnership with StarTimes will illustrate how the combination of DTH and DTT is a key enabler in Africa's migration to digital TV and also help set the pace in the continent's digital migration race.”
Almost everywhere in Africa the demand for satellite services is expanding. Broadcast is being driven by increasing numbers of HD channels as well as the growth of local or regional broadcasters. With more regions outside of urban areas requesting and receiving the capabilities to receive broadcast channels, the market continues to surge forward.Spacecom is currently seeing a great
deal of activity in East Africa. Migration to digital from analogue broadcast services is one of the drivers alongside a great thirst for more content – both international and local/regional. AMOS-5 at 17°E is supplying both DTH and DTT
markets as operators m o v e t o m e e t t h e n e e d s o f rural and u r b a n r e g i o n s . East Africa is adding D T T infrastructure to serve rural areas a n d o u t l y i n g r e g i o n s t h e r e b y
answering theneed to reach as much population as possible.
Broadband is also growing primarily due to mobile phone data usage and an i n c r e a s e i n c o r p o r a t e V S AT applications.Not only in urban areas but also outside, citizens are becoming accustomed to mobile telephony service and thus are using more and more applications requiring broadband. Backhaul is an important element for these services and thus AMOS-5 is seeing greater interest and business on this level.
Spacecom has always posited that more fibre is good for satellites. With additional services reaching more of the population thanks to fibre, and as these people become accustomed to improved and various services, the demand for these services will increase in areas only reached by satellite.Demand created by fibre pushes the entire industry up and AMOS-5's position at 17°E with capacity to serve all of Africa creates excellent conditions for us.
AMOS-5 has pan African Cband and three regional Kuband beams providing capacity to satisfy the continent's needs and meet its increasing demand. We are excited by the future.
Eyal Copitt, SVP sales Africa Asia, marketing at Spacecom
StarTimes begin Africa DTH expansion Spacecom in Africa digital migration
MultiChoice opposes state STB scheme
MultiChoice chief executive Imtiaz Patel has called into question government plans to install conditional access control into the set-top boxes, which it will supply to about five million South African homes, suggesting that it would set back the country many years technologically.The government is looking to appoint set-top boxes manufacturers for its digital terrestrial television migration project, with a planned move to digital signal broadcasting from analogue from 2015.
The state plans to subscribe up subscribe up to 70 per cent of the cost of a set-top box in homes that qualify for its subsidy programme. The launch of the project has been held up by an ongoing impasse between free-to-air broadcasters SABC and e.tv and the government over the move to include conditional access control in the set-top boxes.
Patel contends that the set-top cost of including CA would require maintenance teams including call centres, which were costly. DStv parent MultiChoice spends about R1 billion annually to subscribe set-top boxes to its paying subscribers. Patel's issue is that technology is moving towards integrated television sets.“It's complete nonsense. In some ways it's a bit of an arm deal situation where there are people who want to make money off the back of the government. e.tv, who in particular have got pay-TV plans, do not want to incur the massive cost of this decoder subsidy; of paying for their own conditional access. They've got a plan to make the government pay for it,” he stated.
Naspers is a leading multinational media group, incorporated in 1915 as a public limited liability company and listed on the Johannesburg Stock exchange (JSE) in September 1994. the company also has an ADR listing on the London Stick Exchange (LSE)
Its leading pay-TV operation is MultiChoice. The MultiChoice African business provides multi-channel pay t e l e v i s i o n a n d s u b s c r i b e r management services in 48 countries in Sub-Sahara Africa and the adjacent Indian Ocean islands. The group has ownership interests through MultiChoice Africa in joint ventures operating in Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, Namibia and Botswana. In other Sub-S a h a r a n A f r i c a n c o u n t r i e s , MultiChoice Africa operates through agents or franchisees. MultiChoice Africa believes it has played an important role in making information and entertainment more accessible, and as an African business, investments have brought both social and economic benefits to the communities in which they operate through access to information, job opportunities, partnerships and training.
MultiChoice Africa's digital DStv service features over 70 video channels (including numerous customised M-Net and SuperSport c h a n n e l s a n d m a n y m a j o r international network channels), and up to 65 audio channels. A dynamic technology inf rastructure is constantly upgraded to enable subscribers to enjoy the latest television innovations while keeping in touch with upto- the-minute news, information and entertainment. The following table sets out the subscriber numbers for sub-Sahara Africa's paytelevision services as at the end of March 2012 and March 2013.
The net subscriber base grew by 40% since March 2013 to over 2.2m homes. Lower-priced bouquets addressing a broader market
s e g m e n t g r e w s t r o n g l y t o a p p r o x i m a t e l y 6 6 0 , 0 0 0 n e t subscribers. MultiChoice Africa's digital service is transmitted direct-to-home, on the Eutelsat 36B KUband and Is7 KU-band transponders.
Gotv, a product of MultiChoice Africa, is a new digital pay television offering on Digital Terrestrial Television platforms established in a number of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. This new mass market offering provides digital home television for the whole family at an affordable pr ice. Current ly, terrestr ia l broadcasting in most African countries is in an analogue format, however each country is in the process of migrat ing f rom analogue to digital and through partnerships and working in collaboration with governments and state broadcasters, GOtv is contributing to this digital migration process. GOtv was first launched in Zambia in June 2011, and since then has also been launched in Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria. These DTT networks have required significant investments by MultiChoice Africa and its partners to ensure the latest technology is deployed in each country. GOtv is delivered using the latest next generation Digital Video Broadcast standard - DVBT2 technology which enables the offering to be regionalised - thus delivering a different channel line-up per country in order to truly suit the viewing needs of subscribers, DVB-T2 also allows for far more efficiency for the spectrum allocation as each frequency can carry upto 20 channels. The GOtv brand was specially created to make available an affordable digital te lev is ion product for a l l . Television viewers in Sub-Saharan Africa are now set to benefit from easy access to an increased number o f channe ls , w i th enhanced picture and sound quality synonymous with digital television.
Satellite is a leading broadcast infrastructure in the African market and there are significant opportunities for growth to support new digital platforms, increased adoption of HD and to accelerate analogue switch-off. These markets will continue principally to be served by satellite and over-the air networks, with cable and IPTV representing marginal platforms serving a small number of urban areas. As far as sub-Saharan Africa is concerned, there are almost 60m TV homes today, representing one in three homes. This should be closer to 80m by 2020. Only 10 million are receiving digital TV, either by satellite or a t e r r e s t r i a l n e t w o r k . S o t h e opportunities we see cover both new homes to TV and new homes to multi-channel TV.
Our broadcast satellites deliver over 750 of the estimated 1,300 satellite TV channels available today in Africa, with the bulk of our activity concentrated at two positions: 36° East selected by MultiChoice Africa and ZAP and 16° East which serves Francophone platforms in Indian Ocean islands, StarTimes from China and a platform of French-language channels targeting West Africa.
New satellites and technologies serving Africa are a core part of our investment strategy to offer stronger transmission, back-up and security.
The big development over the next five years will be analogue switch-off, a transition now completed in most European countries and at different stages of development in Africa. While DTT is making progress in some countries, notably Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Kenya, the investment needed to deploy it nat ionwide through terrestr ia l platforms is expensive, particularly for sparsely populated regions. Satellites are already well proven in Europe as a complement for ensuring geographic coverage, quickly and cost-effectively and our objective is to leverage our experience in other regions.
Our objective is to offer resources and experience to support ASO schemes in order to ensure a seamless transition by feeding DTT transmitters and e n a b l i n g D T H r e c e p t i o n f o r communities not receiving terrestrial. Beyond DTT, we believe the scale of the African market is such that there is room for new pay-TV platforms as a complement to free digital TV.
Christoph Limmer, Eutelsat's director of video and broadcastdevelopment,
PROFILE
Africa's emerging DTH business
Official Airline Partner
OFFICIAL PARTNER
F e a t u r e
Africa expands ICT accesshe Internet is changing. From
narrowband to broadband,
from kilobits to Gigabits, from Tconnected people to connected things –
our networked world is changing in
speed, size, scale, and scope. Our ultra-
connected future wil l build on
converged Next-Generation Networks
(NGN), while embracing broader
concepts of embedded intelligence,
automated Machine to Machine (M2M)
traffic, and the 'Internet of Things'.
In ternet Protoco l ( IP) -enabled
broadband connections are not just
about economic empowerment,
however. Always-on connectivity can
improve our lives in a myriad of ways by
providing better access to health and
education, enabling financial inclusion,
facilitating m-payments, and creating
transparency in government, as just a
few examples. According to broadband
commission, Broadband will ultimately
also enable everyone to access data
easily in the cloud, use video
conferencing and Voice over IP, share
updates over social networks, and
outsource – or crowd-source –
everything f rom housework to
homework. With just 256 kilobit /
second connection, the internet has
continued to bridge, distance, space
and time for many people, allowing the
maintenance of relationships among
p e o p l e w h o h a v e b e c o m e
geographically separated.In 2011, the number of networked dev ices surpassed the g lobal population. By 2020, the number of connected devices may potentially outnumber connected people by six to one, transforming our concept of the Internet, and society, forever. This will be an interesting scenario for those of us able to access high-speed broadband connections to the Internet. Large swathes of the industrialized world can already access high-speed Internet connectivity at over 5 Mbps; however, the picture is not as bright for Africa, much of southern Asia, and Latin America. Though connectivity is improving, but there are large swath of
places without internet access and connectivity.
Given the prolific spread of mobile, in the future, the digital divide (or inequality in a c c e s s t o I n f o r m a t i o n a n d Communication Technologies or ICTs) may no longer describe disparities in access, but instead denote disparities in speed and functionality – or more specifically, what people can do with their mobile devices. Indeed, the handset may become relatively less important, as more and more people will use their mobile device as a portal to the content and apps available in the online world. A host of online services and apps are today making mobiles and smartphones even more powerful by combining several functions – for example, Instagram enables the fast sharing of photos and video over different devices or different social n e t w o r k s , w h i l e M i n i O p e r a 'compresses' data-heavy websites for easier access over lower speed mobile connections.
Besides assisting us to solidifying personal relationships, institutions too have also begin to rely on internet for service delivery. In 2008, the Nigerian government in coordination with the World Bank began implementing an integrated personnel and payroll information system (IPPIS) to decrease fraud and increase accountability in payroll administration and HR recording. Some estimates say the technological implementation has already saved 12 billion Naira (USD 120 million) by eliminating ghost workers' or fraudulent payees on the payroll. Nigeria has also recently partnered with Intel to increase access to rural healthcare and boost delivery systems via ICT related to health care providers. Mult iple stakeholders including tribal leaders, the Ministry of Health, Intel executives and participating hardware and software vendors have all come together to increase productivity and the IT presence in rural areas. However, African countries still have much work to do if they hope to become top global IT players. The recent emergence of Mexico and Latin America, the continued strength of India, China, and Malaysia, and continent wide i n f r a s t r u c t u r e a n d r e g u l a t o r y impediments are serious obstacles to
the growth and proliferation of the sector in Africa. With a concerted effort to intervene in the necessary areas and a willingness to commit the needed resources, African countries certainly have the raw materials needed to manufacture a world class BPO industry.
S a t e l l i t e t e c h n o l o g i e s o f f e r
opportunities for achieving universal
broadband coverage through the large
coverage achievable via a single
footprint, and the fact that satellite
technologies can be deployed as soon
as the satellite is operational,
regardless of terrain, distance or 'last
mile' infrastructure. Satellite has a
major role to play in achieving universal
broadband coverage either in its own
r ight or as a complementary
technology, following these best
p rac t i ces , I nc l ud i ng sa te l l i t e
technologies in National Broadband
Plans; adopting an 'open skies' policy
approach to facilitate competition and
choice for end-users, promoting
competition and investment in satellite
services; avoiding discrimination
between foreign and national satellite
systems, and ensuring that licensing
procedures are equi table and
transparent. Also, ensuring full
t ransparency in l icensing and
oversight, harmonizing licensing
frameworks at the regional and global
levels, while regularly reviewing
spectrum availability to service the
needs of satellite communications.
By addressing these, costs of service
could be significantly reduced in future,
with further reductions as new
technologies are brought into use.
Capacity-building for policy-makers,
regulators, and operators is also helpful
in building awareness about satellite
technologies.
ccording to Pang Xinxing, Chairman of Star Times Media, his company's ambition is for A
every African household to be able to afford to watch a good quality digital TV service.” Though, originally a part of the Audio Visual Department of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television in the development zone of Qinhuangdao, Star Times has grown from a basic technology company into a provider of digital TV and Internet service in almost ten years. Today, it has a large presence in ten African countries such as Nigeria and Tanzania.
Before Star Times arrived in the African market, South African company DSTV had always been the leading provider in the market. “DSTV has a huge competitive advantage in that it monopolizes many of the best TV shows,” Li Weizhong explained. He said the only strategy they could adopt in order to break this monopoly was to offer cheaper services. “Star Times' aim is for every African household to be able to afford to watch a good quality digital TV service.”
Having a noble desire such as this is all very well, but a company will undoubtedly have to confront and overcome all kinds of obstacles, especially when dealing with many different countries and their own specific regulations. In the majority of African countries, freedom of speech is encouraged. This contrast with China's own ideology is one of the main reasons that Star Times' presence in Africa came under attack.Zhang Weiying, former vice-president of the Guanghua Business School at Beijing's prestigious Peking University, has previously said that China's image may be an obstacle for these private entrepreneurs when they attempt overseas mergers, acquisitions and investments. This is obviously true. This means they are still seen as companies from Red China, standing behind the Communist Party and the government, unlike in the West where companies are created by individuals, relying entirely upon market rules and entrepreneurial spirit to gain the advantage.
But when they try to expand their ambitions into the outside world as businessmen, they are met with hesitance and a lack of awareness. Therefore, when they face a world that knows nothing of them in their identities as entrepreneurs, they begin to discover that from now on, they must pay attention to the wider world, and let the world understand them.
Chinese entrepreneurs, including Liu, understand that when they appear in the Western world, if there is no prior communication and preparation, others find it difficult to distinguish between them and Chinese state-owned enterprises. They know that when Westerners think of Chinese companies, their first thought is still of large state-owned companies that become invincible with the support of government po l icy suppor t and resources.
Even in 2011, when Star Times finally made a breakthrough in Kenya, they still had many problems to overcome. Kenya is one of the most influential countries in Africa and as such, gaining a licence to provide digital TV there was identified by the company as being a key to their future development. Kenya has an extremely complicated political structure with competition and conflict between over 40 political parties and 47 local tribes. As such, gaining a broadcasting licence in such a volatile political environment is extremely difficult.
Even in 2009, Star Times had already waited for a painfully long time but could still not see the light at the end of the tunnel. Li Weizhong said, “Strategic decisions in many African countries can be long and complicated. At times they bow to public pressure, often giving complete preferential treatment to local enterprises.”
At that time, Kenya's government declared that all of the country's digital TV should be provided by the state television
channel. As they had no experience of providing Internet service, this was clearly an unreasonable decision. Within two years, the process of building the country's digital television infrastructure had not even begun. Given that the government had promised to complete their digital turnover by 2012, something clearly had to change.
“As a foreign enterprise, even when it seems like there is no hope and no opportunities, all we can do is keep searching and waiting for our chance,” said Li Weizhong. “At the beginning, television transmission was limited to the state broadcasters, so we adopted a strategy of cooperation with them. After signing many agreements, the state broadcasters had still not done anything, so all we could do was continue and push on. Even then, we didn't know whether or not there would be an opportunity for us.”
Bottomless pit
In their most desperate times in Africa, the chairman of the board, Pang Xinxing, once even had to mortgage his own house.
However, for a privately run company like Star Times, finding sufficient funding is a never-ending worry. In their most desperate times in Africa, the chairman of the board, Pang Xinxing, once even had to mortgage his own house. His only concern at the time was to ensure the survival of the company.
Even after many years, the prospect of a
StarTimes:
StarTimes’ humble beginning
shortage of funds weighs heavily on Pang Xinxing. Due to this, Star Times has never dared to expand their business too quickly. In some countries where they have a licence to broadcast, they have not been able to start putting together the infrastructure due to a lack of funds.
Potential problems do not end there though. Li Weizhong tells us, “There are some countries where the customs duties are extremely debilitating. Once you add in VAT, the tax can come to 41%, meaning that the taxes on a $140 million project can come to $50-60 million. One of the main investment characteristics of digital TV is that the initial investment is very large and the returns are generated over a long period. If you don't factor these special circumstances into your planning then you are destined to hit big problems further down the line.” Since the beginning of 2009, several international companies involved in African digital TV transmission such as GTV and NGB have been declared bankrupt. Li continues, “These companies had all developed over many years, with business in many different countries. In the case of Sweden's NGB, they even had social insurance funds to support them. Still, in this industry, all can be lost with one careless move.”
Having seen Pang Xinxing's efforts and the progress he has made in Africa, many potential investors have paid him a visit. Yet, Pang has looked each of them in the eye and politely turned them down. His reasoning is that companies should aim for long-term development and that Star Times is still hoping for a more strategic investment partner.
Pang's plan for Star Times in the next three to five years is for them to provide coverage for 70% of Africa's population, as well as expanding their digital TV customers by 10 million and their mobile media subscribers by 16 million, in the process becoming Africa's strongest and most influential media group.
Such a grand aim is not so easily achievable. As such, Star Times has had to develop many forms of income from their one business. First they receive the installation fee, and then they sell the set-top boxes, TV aerials and smart cards to their customers. These products are all produced in China and then exported to Africa. They can earn money from the sale of these products and from the installation fees, but it is the monthly subscriptions that will bring them more long-term income.
Since 2011, the China Development Bank and the China-Africa Development Fund have been in partnership with Star Times, both offering the company loans and through direct investment. Yet, Pang still believes, “The funding gap is still too large.”
Under fire from the president
If the frail production line at home crumbles, then all of their investment will have been in vain. For a company with finances as stretched as Star Times', this is undoubtedly a huge gamble.
As a Chinese company doing business abroad, Star Times still has yet another problem to worry them: the spread of Chinese standards abroad. In 2010, Star Times began building Africa's first multimedia system based on the China Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting (CMMB) intellectual property standard. In fact, since the standard was published in 2009, the development of a clear and defined supply chain has suffered from the infighting between various departments as to who gains the benefits. Due to the constant problems that have arisen in getting CMMB accepted as the general standard even in China, the expected increase in customers has yet to appear.
Under these circumstances, Star Times are taking many risks by pushing CMMB abroad. If the frail production line at home crumbles, then all of their investment will have been in vain. For a company with finances as stretched as Star Times', this is undoubtedly a huge gamble.
This situation with the legal standards has been a real struggle. “Because of the small purchasing power of African consumers and the difference in standard practice in the different countries, it is difficult for companies to produce products on a large scale. Therefore if you can get your country's standards accepted first, it will undoubtedly drive exports of your company's products as well as those of other domestic companies. For example, Star Times has developed a set-top box which meets the standards of 8 countries. The research and development costs of this product can now be shared across the users from eight different countries. Now that a larger, more uniform market is beginning to emerge, costs will begin to reduce dramatically,” says Li Weizhong. “In the same vein, when foreign companies want to enter this market, they will have to follow Chinese standards, giving Chinese enterprises a natural advantage.”
The thinking behind Pang's gamble is based upon his previous experience in digital TV intellectual property rights. American, European, Japanese and Chinese transmission standards have all been accepted by the International Telecommunicat ion Union ( ITU). However, only China's standards have not been internationalized, meaning they can only be implemented in China and Hong Kong, harming their exports.
With this complicated and difficult to navigate background, Star Times has been expanding their digital television business in Africa. In 2010, Brazil decided to adopt Japanese standards in their manufacturing. When the Brazilian president visited African countries such as Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania, she made it clear that her wish was for these countries to adopt the same legislation. When she saw the development of Star Times in Kenya, Li Weizhong says that she even went so far as to “immediately seek discussion with the government authorities, telling them that they could reimburse Star Times the money they had invested in the country and allow Brazilian companies to provide the infrastructure for free.” He added, “All countries do not hesitate to expend their resources in getting their own standards accepted by developing countries. Everyone even up to the president will be involved in actively making their case, whereas China doesn't have this kind of awareness when it comes to public relations so we do not have as many opportunities to promote ourselves. It is becoming harder than ever for private companies to do business abroad.”
Signa lhorn Manages Offshore NetworkSignalhorn has been selected for the operation and management of a pan-African network for one of the world's leading providers of offshore service vessels to the global energy industry. Under the terms of the three-year contract extension, Signalhorn will provide a mission-critical, multi-megabit communications network to its customer's key African locations in Angola, Nigeria and Cameroon. The contract renewal builds upon Signalhorn's four-year relationship delivering satellite and terrestrial links for this customer, and reinforces S igna lhorn 's commi tment to customer care, quality assurance and delivering trusted networks.
ncreas ing ly, e lec t ron ica l l y facilitated international trade is becoming indispensable due to I
i n c r e a s i n g v o l u m e o f t r a d e transactions and heightened global security needs. As a result, the Nigeria customs service NCS, has increased its modernisation efforts in the last few years in the area of information and communication technology related trade facil i tation and security programmes. During the period, the NCS has dedicated efforts in adopting innovations in modern technology beginning with supply and installation of new computers and software which culminated in ICT driven services for e f f i c i e n c y , i m p r o v e d telecommunications infrastructure networking all its formations and other critical stakeholders across the country, and consequently reduced cost of doing business with traders and the government and increased security controls.
So far, implementing ICT related measures and systems, however, necessitated complementary and adequate focus on human resources development, processes, policy and legal framework aspects of the worming environment. In this regard, the NCS has embarked on rigorous training of personnel, standardisation and simplification of processes, establishment of new policies and amendment of the existing laws in line with international conventions for effective ICT services, says Azarema Abdulkadir.
NCS ICT infrastructure/services
According to Azarema Abdulkadir, the ICT infrastructure and services that
Information and Communication Technology ICT, has become one bright spot in the Nigeria Customs Service reforms' story since 2006. Azarema Abdulkadir, says the Nigeria Customs Service has established a one-stop-shop portal of comprehensive accurate and up-to-date information for trade facilitation.
have been put in place by the NCS include: telecommunications system for networking all customs formations across the country, and of critical stakeholders in the trade supply chains particularly, fibre optics lines, VSAT and radio links with a central server at the headquarters, Abuja for data interchange and collaboration, as well as the provision of adequate computer units for field operations in the cargo clearance process for faster processing and release of cargo.
In line with this, we have also facilitated the development of software named Nigerian Integrated Customs Information System (NICIS) that provides services for e-form M, e-manifest transmission, e-declarations, e-payments, e- remi t tance, e-reconciliation and e-release of goods to facilitate cargo clearance. Currently, the NICIS serves as a driver for the National Single Window for the integration of all stakeholders, he said. In addition, the establishment of private and public DTI services has enabled imports/agents to make their declaration and payment without coming to customs office.
National Single Window for trade
NCS has established a National Single Window (NSW) environment to allow partners in trade and transport s u b m i t s t a n d a r d i s e d information/documents at a single entry point that satisfied all import, exports and transit regulatory requirements for single processing and release by customs and all other government agencies. The NSW being a trade facilitation concept initiated by Customs across the World has advanced the efficacy of pubic
authorities and offers greater prospect for faster cargo clearance. Apart from faster cargo clearance and release times, the new portal enables both the public and private sectors to deploy resources more efficiently thereby improving competitiveness at the organisational level and that of the economy with significant cost saving benefits.
Before the implementation of the National Single Window System, a comprehensive feasibility study was conducted across the international trade supply chain in Nigeria in 2012, involving all relevant public and private stakeholders to simpli fy their processes and procedures, integrate them on one platform for single processing of all trade documents.
The feasibility study has taken into consideration the needs of all stakeholders as well as business process and data harmonisation of all trading partners. So far, the Nigeria Customs Service has evolved an architectural framework of the national
Nigeria Customs Modernisation Driven by ICT
By Azarema Abdulkadir
single window environment, change management and capacity building.
Risk management controlsAt the NCS, risk management best practices are designed to keep customs physical inspection and controls to the minimum level necessary to ensure compliance with the law. Such controls though deemed necessary are applied selectively on the basis of risk of non-compliance by agents and traders. Based on the timely evaluation of data, the effective deployment of risk management techniques is best achieved by the use of appropriate ICT. As it were, controls exercised on the basis of this practice gives results with little or no intervention by Customs in the international supply chain, usually in the area of document checks and/or cargo examination, leading to quicker cargo clearance and release. In this regard, for example, all cargo on fast track for manufacturers are taken out of the port without examination until at the owners' premises by the PCA and other government agencies, while those on the regulations are scanned or physically examined.
NCS PAAR ApplicationIn order to effectively incorporate risk elements in cargo clearance process, the NCS has further developed a risk based application named Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR), an intelligence documents that would determine the valuation, classification, origin and risk level of any goods before their arrival. In this case, all goods coming into Nigeria has been categorised into one of different clearance lanes of green for compliant importers that require no examination at all; blue for manufacturers' raw materials that also requires no examination at the port but at the owners' premises; yellow lane for diplomatic goods and government concessions; light red lane for scanning and deep red lane for physical examination. When the PAAR application is fully deployed at the end of the contract period of the current scanning service providers who issue the Risk Assessment Report (RAR), the RAR will be replaced with PAAR.
With PAAR application therefore, the NCS will be able to determine which containers would be selected for scanning, even before arrival and their
list would hence be forwarded to the port operator for scanning from the ship side immediately on arrival, and to be staked separately. On declaration by the owners of such containers, stored images from the scanner system would be retrieved for analysis and release if there are no discrepancies, while those with discrepancies will be further examined physically. This practice would save time for both the importers and the port operators, thereby reducing costs of doing business.
Nigerian Trade HubThe NCS has established a national information repository – the Nigeria Trade Hub, says Azarema. A. It is a single source of all trade regulatory information, providing comprehensive accurate and up-to-data information which can result in tangible benefits in terms of trade facilitation. Such benefits include substantial cost saving to the trading community which relevant guidance is obtained online without the need to seek advice in person from several locations. This would enable traders make sound decisions about doing business in N i g e r i a . T h e p o r t a l i s www.nigeriatradehub.gov.ng offering online-line accessibility 24/7, mobile applications including access on smart phones; interactive and intuitive features, classification/valuation tool, document library, currency converter, duty and other taxes calculator and up-to-date news.
It is of interest to note that currently the Nigeria Customs Service operates a paperless business climate where form M are processed electronically by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN and commercial banks, while trade manifests are transmitted to the Customs server online by shipping /airlines, in addition to declaration made from importers ' /agents, Customs offices or at DTI cafes' without visiting Customs offices. The reforms ensured that payments of duty to the banks by importers/agent is currently online, and these revenues are routinely remitted to CBN electronically. At the Customs ICT, reconciliation of remitted revenue between the banks and the CBN is done by the NCS online, while the release of goods on green and blue lanes can be done automatically by the NICIS system, just as the rest are
either scanned or physically examined due to other government agencies regulations.
From the foregoing, it is manifest that the NCS modernisation driven by ICT system has provided an integrated env i ronment fo r a l l re levant stakeholders to operate on a single platform for efficient processing and timely release of cargo, thereby facilitating trade and improving Nigeria's business environment as one of the key objectives of the current Jonathan administration.
AMOS-5 wins Five-Year Deal
from East African Spacecom announced that AMOS-5 has won a five-year deal worth $5.9 million for providingbroadcast services to an East African video service provider. The customer will use capacity on AMOS-5 to provide both Digital Terrestrial Transmission (DTT) and Direct-to-Home (DTH) operations for a digital migration project taking place in the region. Transmitting on an AMOS-5 Ku-band, the broadcaster will provide both local and international content including news, sports, entertainment and family programming to the region. AMOS-5 was designed and built specifically for the African market with a pan-African C-band beam, three Ku-bands that cover the continent and provide connectivity to Europe and the Middle East. The satellite envelops every point in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Thuraya step up services in
AfricaThuraya Te lecommun ica t ions announced that the Thuraya S a t S l e e v e , a v e r s a t i l e a n d userfriendly device which brings satellite connectivity to the Apple iPhone is now available in Africa. Thuraya also announced the availability of the Thuraya IP+, the latest addition to its portfolio of mobile satel l i te broadband terminals. According to a recent report by KPMG on business continuity, IT and data disruptions are African business leaders' main concern and IT disaster recovery is the most implemented business continuity management component. Thuraya's reliable satellite network provides seamless connectivity for both enterprises and individuals when they need it most.
For over 20 years, the NCS had employed a Pre-Shipment Inspection ( P S I ) r e g i m e — i n w h i c h consignments to be imported to Nigeria underwent inspections in the country from which they were being shipped. This had resulted in a lack of expertise in NCS with regard to basic Customs knowledge and skills. During much of this period, the N i g e r i a C u s t o m s c l e a r a n c e procedure was done manual, person-to-person mainly by preventive units, while the technical units provided the needed support. In effect, officers were expected to move from different government agencies to another to certify all the people within the trade chain who have something to do with the clearance of cargo. However driving this system contact entails filling lot of forms, certificate approvals, permits, and this is tasking.
This was la ter rep laced by Destination Inspection regime that placed the onus for inspection and enforcement back on the shoulders of NCS. To meet the growing volumes of trade and increasingly diverse threats to compliance, the NCS in the 1990s, began to introduce the Automated S y s t e m f o r C u s t o m s D a t a (ASYCUDA), an electronic system devised under the auspices of UNCTAD - the United Nations C o n f e r e n c e f o r T r a d e a n d Development. By the early years of the new century, the ASYCUDA 2.7 version of the system was in place. In 2006, an upgrade began to a significantly more advanced version, known as “ASYCUDA 3.0” or “ASYCUDA++”. The upgrade was completed in 2010, and the procedures associated with the resultant system provide NCS with an efficient, integrated and automated control platform to monitor cargo travelling across borders within a
framework of Customs clearance laws, regulations and processing.
The initial days of ASYCUDAFrom the first week of its operation,
ASYCUDA has had its share of
problems, not with its installation but
on effectiveness. In Nigeria, customs
revenues is second to oil and gas,
representing 30% of national
revenues. In the first days, goods did
not go out as expected, containers
piled up and, according to its
operator, the container terminal
risked blockage. This challenges,
posed a big threat to the extent that
the some interested stakeholders
tinkered with the idea of establishing
inland cargo terminal, popularly
called dry ports.
With this, customs authorities have
explained that no duties or taxes had
been lost since, if the goods did not
leave the port, their presence shows
that revenues to government are still
intact.
There were problems from within the
customs system as well, particularly;
the simplification of procedures had
distanced customs officials from
use rs comp le te l y. W i th t he
introduction of ASYCUDA, all
customs procedures have been
automated. Th is process o f
automation abolished the 'release
note', which obliged customs brokers
or importers to return to the customs
inspector once they had paid their
customs debt in order to obtain that
document. This refocused customs
officials on their job.Unlike in the past, fewer staff are now required at the front end of the clearance process, especially checking and rechecking import, transit and export documents; checking bond security; gate control; and data entry. Instead, new or
retrained staff will be needed for the more highly skilled activities at the back-end especially post release verification, intelligence, audit, and investigations.
With this system, the majority of t r a n s a c t i o n s f r o m importers/exporters and their agents, shippers, transporters and licensees are received and responded to electronically. Likewise, banks and other government departments are linked to ASYCUDA++ and other government departments also have online access to its data.
As a result, Customs officers don't take cash or any receipt. The receipt is electronic receipt directly done and sent to the bank. The payment is done in the system, the remittance and reconciliation with the CBN is online. In effect, IT staff of NCS now stages live and monitoring the stream of operations and they alone can actually see for a second as payment is being due and the amount of money being collected, within hours.
The treatment an individual client receives from customs is based on the risk associated with their transactions and their past levels of compliance.
A senior Customs Officer explained had explained to this magazine that based on new developments and a d v a n c e m e n t s i n s o f t w a r e applications with regard to customs processing, “We used ASYCUDA++ for a time and found out that ASYCUDA++ has limitations”. It could not give us certain functions that is necessary for us to move proper and do general public efficient and precise service delivery.
“So what do we do, we went back to the drawing board and re-appraised the utilization of ASYCUDA++ and came up with a newer software which is the Trade World Manager to build á robust system that is web based and has the capacity to enhance data exchange w i t h o the r s i s t e r
Special report
History of Nigeria Customs Modernisation
organizations particularly regulatory agencies that necessarily have a stake in this processes”. So with N ige r ia In teg ra ted Cus toms Information System, NCS have been able to interchanged and interface with other organizations, like the NAFDAC, SON, and have been able to have what is called e-trade and e-payment.
Despite its challenges, there are some reasons why ASYCUDA holds sways at the initial stages. Its key feature includes its selectivity to direct the customs entry to one of four lanes- green, where the entry is automatically assessed and released - blue, the entry is automatically assessed and released but selected for post-clearance verification - yellow, entry is selected for documentary check prior to release, and red, entry is selected for physical inspection. Also, the software permits document tracking system allowing traders/agents to identify documents within the clearance process from a monitor. Besides, it offers direct trader input (DTI) of entries using various o p t i o n s f o r e x a m p l e d i r e c t transmission, data entry kiosk in the customs offices. And finally, it provides the platform for shipping agents to key in, tal ly, and deconsolidates the manifest; and post-clearance accounting.
B u i l d i n g i n f o r m a t i o n powerhouse
As electronic commerce has developed in line with use of the internet as a communications m e d i u m a n d s u p p o r t e d b y improvements in telecommunications infrastructure such as broadband networks, the impetus for a fully
electronic customs environment has also grown, culminating in the vision for globally networked Customs articulated by the WCO and outlined previously.
Concomitantly, the Nigeria Customs Service has established a robust telecommunications backbone at all points nationally, in all border areas, in all presence of customs. The VSAT system is part of NCS network telecommunications backbone and h a s b e e n f a c i l i t a t i n g i t s communications with all regional offices and area commands, not only that within the customs, but it has in addition, provide the link to other government agencies that are involved with the issue of custom clearance, says a senior Customs Officer. As at now, NCS uses this system to do what is called eCustoms t h a t i s e l e c t r o n i c c u s t o m s proceedings.
Consequently, the NCS now operates a central Server system (NCS network) at the Headquarters, which enables the warehousing of all Import, Export, Excise, Transit and Transshipment data as well as interconnectivity with Federal Ministry Finance, Central Bank of Nigeria, National Bureau of Statistics, National Agency for Food Drug Admin is t ra t i on and Con t ro l , NAFDAC, Federal Inland Revenue S e r v i c e , F I R S , S t a n d a r d Organization of Nigeria, SON, Scanning Service Providers, Terminal Operators. In addition, all Designated Banks, Declarants, Cargo Carriers, DTI Café operators can now also connect to the central server. The Wi-Fi technology has further enhanced the declaration processing and connectivity.
The implementation of scanning technology has also become part of the NCS destination inspection. It non-intrusive technology. Instead of conducting a physical examination of goods, the container boxes are passed through the scanning machines to determine their content, according to a senior Custom Officer. This practice is done world wide and it is a technology that comes handy when there are challenges of security, or in recent times, when there are lots of suspected explosives coming in. These equipment are capable of what
is called scanning organic or inorganic substances and they can a c t u a l l y d e t e c t e x p l o s i v e s , ammunitions, and all these things. It provides quick examination of cargoes. Instead of physical examination, that takes hours, NCS run this and system analyst go through it and check and, however, if at the end of the day, NCS needs to physically examine the containers, it knows what part of the container boxes, which locations, what precisely its ought to check. By not looking at the whole, or uploading the whole consignment, it reduces the time of examination and speed up clearance. Actually, the data generated at scan is also good for continuous profiling of risk elements in the system.
Another key part of Customs
information infrastructure is the
electronic monitoring of transit goods
through the use of t racking
technology. The advantages of
tracking technology in managing
transit trade across the borders along
with a centralised video monitoring
system are enormous.
An effective tracking unit is portable, easy to install and remove in minimum time (less than two minutes), have a rechargeable long-life battery, sufficient to complete a trip from the entry border to the exit border taking into consideration the time allowed to be spent in country, and have a tampering alarm. The seals should communicate by wireless with the tracking unit and send an alarm when tampering occurs. The system should be fast, reliable, secure, fully supported and incorporate hot standby with reliable GSM and Wi-Fi communications.
In addition, the system can report, on
a real time basis, any predetermined
events when they occur. The position
and status of the truck can also be
monitored on real time bases, based
on predetermined time intervals or
distances. As the trucks will be
allowed to travel separately without
physical escorts on predetermined
routes, electronic geo fences will be
established around these routes and
around the areas that have some
potential to be used for smuggling. An
alarm should be sent to the control
room in case any of the trucks divert
from the pre-assigned route. As
initiating a transit trip by the system
starts at the entry border crossing by
installing the tracking unit and the
electronic seals, assigning a transit
route and determining the exit border
crossing point at which the tracking
unit and the seals will be removed and
the transit trip terminated, a trip report
must be produced electronically at
the control room. This report must
include all violations committed
during the transit trip.
According to IT experts, electronic
transit monitoring and facilitation
system uses GPS technology to
locate the position of the trucks being
monitored. GPRS/SMS technology is
used for communication between the
tracking units and the control room.
RFID technology is used for
communication between the tracking
unit and the electronic seals to secure
the shipment's door and to avoid
separating the tractor from the trailer.
Digital maps (vector and raster) are
used to provide graphical interface to
the user to enable the operator to
follow up truck movements. The
MIS/CIS is used to provide statistics
and reporting, and to interface with
o ther ex is t ing computer ised
applications to avoid duplication in
data entry, wireless networks and
PDAs are used at the customs
houses to initiate and terminate
transit trips.
The tracking operation starts at the customs entrance centre. After the transit truck completes all customs procedures, the truck moves to an electronic tracking yard located just before the exit gate; a tracking unit and electronic seals are configured and installed on the truck and the transit route which the truck will follow is assigned. The unit is identified by the system at the control room and the truck appears on the main monitoring screen.
During the transit trip, the truck's position is updated at pre-assigned way points based on a computerised risk analysis system – the duration can be short for high risk shipments and longer for low risk shipments. Any violation committed during the trip is reported immediately to the control room.
When the truck reaches the customs
exit centre, a trip report is issued by
the system that shows the route that
has been followed and any violation
that may have been identified during
the trip. The report is analysed by a
customs officer who will terminate the
transit trip and remove the tracking
unit and electronic seals. The tracking
unit is then recharged for use on
another trip in the opposite direction.
Assisting the SMEs First and foremost, customs laws permit self clearance of goods and this is one of the reasons why customs are automating its systems. Accordingly, DTI, otherwise called Direct Trader Input have also made it possible for people who cannot afford to have private DTI equipment and the network into their own private offices to participate in clearance of their cargos. In order to make trade amenable to all categories of business people, the Nigeria Cus toms has app roved the establishment of DTI cafes. These DTI cafes are also established by interested parties for traders who don't have internet access to come and do their business by inputting their own declaration to the customs system. It is just like going to the cyber café to sent email, download certain documents. With DTI, individuals who might not be rich enough to have their own private DTI can benefit from the public DTI cafes that are licensed by the Nigeria Customs Service. At the moment, they are located in places where there is Customs Command, particularly at the airport, borders posts and seaport. Currently, there are WiFi access. So traders who possess a laptop, may bring them laptop to Customs office, then apply and will be given access. However, in situation where traders don't want to go to the public DTI or without connectivity in their respective offices, and they may visit any
customs vicinity where there is WiFi services and once the system is powered, it is possible to conclude imports or export declaration while in the comfort of their cars with the laptop.
T h e f u t u r e o f e - b o r d e r managementIn countries with multiple borders, exception has become the rule in transit trade. In some cases, movement of goods across borders usually occur with duty unpaid and in most cases, without physical inspection. This raises the danger of smuggling the goods to the internal market, and the possibility of smuggling dangerous materials such as small arms or explosives during the transit trip. in effect, Customs are confronted with the challenges of implementing proactive measures to a v o i d t h e s e d a n g e r o u s consequences of transit cargo trade and to achieve better control of customs duties. However, in some jurisdiction, the inclusion of electronic monitoring system has further boost eborder management, while assisting customs agencies to manage all international transit moving through borders.
The concept of eborder management
via electronic monitoring have ensure
that customs duties are paid and
somet imes inc lude phys i ca l
inspection of the cargo before
allowing it to cross the country.
However, if a violation is committed
by the truck driver during transit trips,
such as diverting from the pre-
assigned route or tampering with the
goods or stopping in prohibited
places, an alarm is initiated in the
main control room and the nearest
available patrol car along the transit
route moves to investigate the
violation and report to the control
room.
An effective tracking system will assist in improving control over the transit shipments as well as preserve the integrity of the goods sealed in the shipment, without affecting trade facilitation and sacrificing security.
The Nigeria Customs Service is in the middle of a long and challenging modernisation process, according to the agency's report. In the 2006, it introduced various trade facilitation measures, including efforts to improve cargo clearance, through the introduction of automation-related initiatives and has gradually upgraded the ICT-based clearing system. This has led to a paperless clearing system. It automated manifest and payment systems to facilitate all imports and exports. This process initiated a new beginning in automation of customs functions.
The process has enabled exporters and importers to operate from their offices and to track down the entry process to ascertain the stage – held up or being processed. The system will ensure efficiency and it will be time-saving for the benefit of the end-user. The most important features of these developments were based on the priorities of the cargo clearance and accounting system. “We have now come to a stage that the total package of Customs imports and e x p o r t s c l e a r a n c e including the various controls and facilitation action could be perform through one sys tem effectively and timely manner”.
Following the introduction o f t h e I n f o r m a t i o n Technology Act in 2000, w h i c h p r o p o s e d institutional support to ensure commitment for e-governance, the NCS lead
the way ahead of other agencies in Nigeria in respect of information and communications technology. The po l i cy o f l i bera l i sa t ion and privatisation has opened up the Nigerian economy to multiple channels with more goods coming to Nigeria and therefore efforts to streamline, simplify and facilitate trade became a necessity. In addition, the establishment of Galaxy Backbone in Nigeria further scale-up the institutional capacity building amongst sister agencies such as the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), which are all partners in the common struggle facilitate trade and protect Nigeria's population from the purveyors of illegal drugs, and
substandard products f rom smuggling activities.
At the moment, its maintain a comprehensive website that contains detailed information on all the acts, rules, regulations, circulars and notifications issued from time to time. More than 80,000 pages covering these details are posted on the website, says Valentina Minta, Consultant to the Nigeria Customs Service Modernisation project. In addition, the site possesses a dynamic search fac i l i ty for extracting relevant information on the site.
Adoption and application of i n fo rma t i on commun ica t i on technology (ICT) is the hallmark of the Nigeria Customs' initiatives to expedite the clearance of import
Special report
Evolution of IT for cargo clearanceIn Nigeria, the Nigeria Customs Service has been able to establish a pre-arrival assessment scheme where all traders can initiate cargo clearance before onward destination in Nigeria thereby facilitating clearance of goods by reducing the dwell time at the ports.
and export cargo, and to provide a fool-proof paperless system of assessment and clearance. Nigeria has launched trade enabling policy reform with the migration to destination inspection.
Initiatives by Nigeria Customs Beginning with adoption, design and development of the electronic system, the Federal Government of Nigeria initiated the creation of a computing infrastructure for customs, central excise and service tax applications, leading to the establishment of a centralized s e r v e r a t t h e c u s t o m s h e a d q u a r t e r s , instead of separate servers for each of t h e c u s t o m s c e n t r e s . T h e p r o g r a m m e e n v i s a g e s t h e establishment of central servers and s t o r a g e a r e a networks together w i t h d i s a s t e r r e c o v e r y infrastructure, with the capacity to h a n d l e a l l t r a n s a c t i o n s related to customs, cent ra l exc ise , service tax and a data warehouse. T h e e n a b l e s Warehousing of all Import, Export, Excise, Transit and Transshipment data as well as Interconnectivity with Federal Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, National Bureau of Statistics, NAFDAC, FIRS, SON, Scanning Service Providers, Terminal Operators among others. The benefits of the scheme include better service levels to trade and will assist NCS in maintaining a more comprehensive information system.
Following the establishment of the Electronic Data Interchange EDI System, the Nigeria Customs further took the initiative to improve connectivity by linking up all the area commands electronically to central server and the powering of this
equipment is done by generators 24/7. They are up, our servers do not sleep and has been not switched off at any particular time since it was established and has been running 24/7, says a Customs IT specialist. This facilitates remote filing of import and export declarations by importers, exporters, and Customs agents through the NCS web portal. All the airlines file their import and export manifests using this system. Mani fests are also f i led by forwarders. In addition, there are also options for a document tracking system, which enables users to
check the latest status of their documents on the Internet.
Apart from automation of customs, other agencies involved in the trade process should also participate in the automation initiatives. In that context, the Nigeria Customs spearheaded the etrade initiative, which is a special project for coordinating various trade-related automation programmes. The initiative focused on trade partners of the NCS that have in the past populated the port community system. The objective is to provide an electronic interface between various trade regulatory and facilitating agencies and the trading community to ensure delivery of better services.
The three main categories of services covered under the project include electronic fi l ing and c lea rance o f expor t / impor t documents by par t ic ipat ing agencies particularly customs, ports, airports, forwarders, the Central Bank of Nigeria, exporters, importers and agents; e-payment of duties and charges and the electronic exchange of documents between ports community partners, such as customs, ports, airports, the Central Bank of Nigeria, commercial b a n k s , a g e n t s , e x p o r t e r s , importers.
Initially, coordination between the Nigeria Customs Service with that of other agencies remains a major hurdle for the trading community. There are several agencies involved at the border and each one of them is at a different level of automation. In addition, at times a completely different format for information filing is required. Moreover, adding to the prevailing confusion, conversion packages were also unavailable for most of the transactions. The digital divide between publ ic and private operators is highly visible. It is also important to have e- compatibility of banks; otherwise major challenges may be created for the trading community in the cargo clearance process, says a UN analyst.
Beside, the mismatch of software programmes between the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, and the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has also created many problems for traders. The Bill of Entry, also called form M for any goods imported requires details of licences issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria. At the beginning, the CBN does not issue electronic form M, and has remains a major limitation of the customs automation facility.
The Nigeria Customs Service, the Federal Inland Revenue Service, and the Central Bank of Nigeria have recent ly produced an electronic format that integrates form M with the Customs platforms in which the FIRS' tax identification number is also a part, according to Valentian Mintah, Consultant, Nigeria Customs ICT.
In Nigeria, before a trader conveys the consignment, he must complete Form 'M' in conjunction with his Authorised Dealer Bank. Form 'M' – and the var ious documents accompanying it – is designed to give the Scanning and Risk Management Service Provider (SP) the information needed to make a price analysis, perform Customs classification, and generate a Risk Assessment Report (RAR). Form 'M' is also the basis for procurement of the foreign currency needed to finance the imports in question and serves as a declaration of the shipment's total value. As part of the NCS scheme, now defunct, once the Form 'M' submitted has been approved by the Service Provider, the goods can be shipped. Having done so, the exporter then submits final documents via his ADB for SP approval: what these are depends on the consignment, but they include NAFDAC and NEPA licences, SONCAP paperwork,
Insurance Certificates, and similar documents. If the Service Provider rejects these final documents, they are returned to the Authorised Dealer Bank for rectification. The onus is then on the Authorised Dealer Bank to notify the exporter
and arrange for rectification.
Risk management systemSince 2006, the Nigeria Customs Service NCS partnered with private firms to achieve a balance between trade facilitation and compliance through voluntary compliance. As part of the programme, the service p rov ide rs l aunched a R i sk Assessment Report System to enable self-assessment of low-risk consignments. The system is fully operational for imports at all major customs locations; it was also operational for exports. This initiative offers a greater measure of facilitation to credible traders and will contribute towards reduction in the dwell time of cargo and thus transaction costs.
With the introduction of Risk Assessment scheme, the practice of routine assessment, and concurrent audit and examination of almost all Bills of Entry was discontinued and the focus is now on quality assessment, examination and post-clearance audit of the selected bills. This is helping the Customs Department to utilize its resources more effectively. The purpose of Risk Assessment scheme is to facilitate a large number of Bills of Entry that are considered compliant with the customs laws and regulations. The self-assessed bills will be processed by the system to evaluate the risk, if any.
Under the old scheme, the RAR are generated within five days for sea shipments and within two days for air or land shipments. Each of the three Service Providers is in charge of its own particular RARs, having no contractual obligation to share them with other Service Providers. This can present problems if cargo is diverted from one terminal to another where scanning is performed by a different Service Providers. The RAR includes the Service Provider's ruling on the proper Customs classification for the consignment, on its valuation a n d o n t h e r e c o m m e n d e d i n t e r v e n t i o n l e v e l f o r t h e consignment. There are four such levels, each corresponding to a “channel”.
Huawei and O3b Expand 3G over
Satellite
Huawei and O3b Networks announced
that Huawei and O3b are to enable full
3G voice, data and video over satellite.
This follows rigorous testing of O3b's
system in the Huawei Interoperability
Lab in Shanghai, China. Furthermore,
Huawe i ' s te lep resence , v ideo
surveillance, unified communication
and datacom solutions are also
compatible with O3b's medium-earth
orbit (MEO) satellites based on
corresponding test results. Huawei will
partner with O3b to establish MEO
satellite backhaul for 2G/3G/4G (LTE)
systems for Malaysian service provider
Maju Nusa. O3b has a major long-term
3G capacity deal, awarded under the
a u s p i c e s o f t h e M i n i s t r y o f
Communications, to provide 3G mobile
broadband based on Huawei's high
performance solut ions to rural
communities in Malaysia.
StarTimes to Expand TV Reach
in Africa
SES announced that StarTimes
Communication Network Technology,
China's most influential system
integrator, technology provider and
network operator, has signed a 10-year
contract on SES-5 at 5 degrees East to
expand its media footprint in Africa and
deliver direct-to-home (DTH) broadcast
services across the cont inent.
StarTimes, which is the fastest-growing
digital TV operator Africa and has over
2.6 million digital terrestrial television
(DTT) subscribers, also acquired SES'
20% shareholding in South African pay-
TV operator Top TV. The contract will
see StarTimes utilize four transponders
as of October 2013 and a fifth
transponder from February 2014 to
grow their DTH subscribers in Africa.
The Chinese broadcaster will continue
to broadcast TopTV on SES-5 by using
three of the newly-contracted SES
transponders that were formerly leased
by ODM. The other two out of the five
SES transponders contracted by
StarTimes will be used to complement
their DTT offering in remote and non-
urban areas and grow their pay-TV
business.
n a bid to universalise the use of
DTI cafes, the Nigeria Customs Iapproved the establishment of
DTI cafes by interested parties for
people who don't have access to
come and do their business by
inputting their own declaration to the
Customs database. “It is just like
going to the cyber café to sent email,
download certain documents”.
According to a senior Customs
officer, “We take it into consideration
that some people might not be rich
enough to have their own private DTI;
we open up public DTI cafes and
licensed a lot of them as well”. At the
moment, these DTI cafes' populated
every where there is Customs
Command, especially at the airport,
seaport and border posts. The
Nigeria Customs have also provided
WiFi access.
However, stakeholders in the
maritime industry have remarked
that businesses have benefited
tremendously from a significant
reduction of fees and savings of
labour hours when they switched to
the e-trade system. Small and
Medium Enterprises, SMEs were
especially impressed with the
savings associated with opening
trade documents and purchase
certificate. The reduction of labour
costs was particularly significant.
Previously, many man-hours were
lost because employees physically
had to go to banks, other firms,
customs brokers or insurers and wait
to receive forms. Also, much time
was lost in organizing the forms. Now
there is no need to wait since the
documents are sent through the
Internet, and the e-trade programmes
organize the forms for the interested
parties.
Despite the introduction of IT in cargo
clearance together with the various
regulatory and procedural reforms,
customs agents still do the bulk of
c u s t o m s c l e a r a n c e - r e l a t e d
paperwork. In an interview with a
representative of the Customs
brokers, “It was found that customs
brokers still process about 98 per cent
of import shipments, and 93 per cent
of export shipments”. “The Nigeria
trade law does not require the use of
customs brokers for cargo processing
and paperwork”. Filing export
clearances or import clearances is
inexpensive.
According to SMEs, “Customs
clearance still requires specialized
knowledge due to the technical and
arcane nature of customs laws and
regulations”. Problems with tariff
classification were often given as
examples. They argued that
personnel involved in customs
clearance would need to spend much
time and resources keeping up with
changes in the laws and regulations;
however, most firms said there would
not be enough work for these
employees to be retained on a full-
time basis. Also, according to an
operator, “If SMEs decided to carried
out their own customs and cargo
clearance work, they would have to
maintain employees at ports where
the firms exported or imported their
goods”. However, it was doubtful that
there would be enough work to justify
a full-time employee at each port.
“By outsourcing the cargo clearance
work to customs brokers, the SMEs
can save costs since they do not
need to hire personnel, as well as
gain efficiency since customs
brokers already have considerable
expertise in cargo clearance and
keep pace with changes in laws and
regulations”. The interviewees
argued that the incentive to
outsource had been strengthened by
the introduction of IT in cargo
clearance, which reduced the need
for full-time employees devoted to
customs clearance and lowered the
cost of customs brokers.
According to a maritime operator, the
extensive use of brokers can be
seen as a form of outsourcing.
“While reforms and introduction of IT
allow processing paperwork for
export or import clearance within
mere minutes, it is very difficult for a
firm to have a staff member work
part-time on such processing since
this sometimes requires specialized
knowledge about trade laws and
regulations”. Further, once in a while,
a representative from the company
must travel to the port when the
Customs and other regulatory
agencies decide to inspect a
shipment, or to government offices
when there is an irregularity.
However, normally there is not
enough work in these areas to justify
hiring full-time employees ng their
Small and Medium Enterprises, SMEs
ICT remains a distant but desirable goal
In Nigeria, Customs authorities have established a platform for self clearance of goods by importers at the airport,
border post and the sea port so as to boost compliance and have recently explained that empowerment of traders is one
of the reasons the Nigeria Customs Service is automating its systems. Recently, the Nigeria Customs established DTI,
otherwise called Direct Trader Input and made it possible for individual traders who cannot afford to have private DTI
equipment and the network in their own private offices to file their trade declarations.
n a bid to universalise the use of
DTI cafes, the Nigeria Customs Iapproved the establishment of
DTI cafes by interested parties for
people who don't have access to
come and do their business by
inputting their own declaration to the
Customs database. “It is just like
going to the cyber café to sent email,
download certain documents”.
According to a senior Customs
officer, “We take it into consideration
that some people might not be rich
enough to have their own private DTI;
we open up public DTI cafes and
licensed a lot of them as well”. At the
moment, these DTI cafes' populated
every where there is Customs
Command, especially at the airport,
seaport and border posts. The
Nigeria Customs have also provided
WiFi access.
However, stakeholders in the
maritime industry have remarked
that businesses have benefited
tremendously from a significant
reduction of fees and savings of
labour hours when they switched to
the e-trade system. Small and
Medium Enterprises, SMEs were
especially impressed with the
savings associated with opening
trade documents and purchase
certificate. The reduction of labour
costs was particularly significant.
Previously, many man-hours were
lost because employees physically
had to go to banks, other firms,
customs brokers or insurers and wait
to receive forms. Also, much time
was lost in organizing the forms. Now
there is no need to wait since the
documents are sent through the
I n t e r n e t , a n d t h e e - t r a d e
programmes organize the forms for
the interested parties.
Despite the introduction of IT in cargo
clearance together with the various
regulatory and procedural reforms,
will replace Space Communication's
Amos-2 and cover markets in
Central and Eastern Europe and the
Middle East. The satellite will also
provide pan-European coverage
and broadband services in Europe
and Africa.
Gilat Sell off SpacenetGilat Satellite Networks Ltd. has
entered into a definitive agreement
to sell its Spacenet Inc. subsidiary to
Tulsa, Oklahoma-based SageNet.
The aggregate consideration for the
sale is approximately $16 million,
subject to certain post-closing
adjustments and expenses. The
transaction is subject to regulatory
approval and the satisfaction of
customary closing conditions and is
expected to be completed within the
next three (3) months.
The transaction is expected to result
in a capital loss of $1 million to $3
million, which includes banker's
fees, legal fees and other transaction
related expenses. The sale of
Spacenet, which currently operates
as part of Gilat's Services Division, is
expected to strengthen Gilat's
strategic focus as a satellite
commun ica t i ons techno logy
c o m p a n y w i t h i n n o v a t i v e
commercial and defense products
and solutions for internet access and
on-the- move applications.
Sudan TV and Arabsat now on
Badr 5Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabsat) and the Sudanese television have signed a contract to add the Nileen sports channel to Arabsat bouquet on Badr 5 exclusively and to be broadcasted from Arabsat platform in Khartoum. Nileen channel has the exclusive rights to broadcast the Sudanese Premier League, as it's considered the most popular watched sports channel in Sudan. Arabsat also signed with Sudan Television a contract to broadcast the Sudanese TV channels on Arabsat bouquet on Badr 5.
Yahsat has further strengthened the availability of its flagship service YahClick, an affordable, high-speed satellite broadband Internet service, in the Republic of Angola through a new partnership with Global Telesat, the country's established satellite telecoms provider. Experts in satell ite communications within the Republic and the wider African market, Global Telesat will distribute YahClick across the country via two main distribution channels, namely Electrix to target home users and Multitel to targeting businesses. Global Telesat will offer cost effective YahClick service plans to suit both home and business users in urban, rural and remote locations to boost their access to a high speed and reliable Internet connection.
US Ex-Im Bank funds
SpaceX Continuing its support of the space
industry in America, the Export-
Import Bank of the United States
(Ex-Im Bank) has authorized a
$105.4 million loan to Space
Communication Ltd. of Ramat Gan,
Israel, to finance the Space
Exploration Technologies (SpaceX)
l a u n c h o f t h e A m o s - 6
communications satellite, the
purchase of American made-solar
arrays, and insurance brokered by
Marsh USA (Marsh). The transaction
is Ex- Im Bank's third in support of a
SpaceX launch, and it will support
approximately 600 U.S. jobs in
California and elsewhere, according
to bank estimates derived from
Departments of Commerce and
Labor data and methodology. In
June of 2013, Ex- Im Bank
announced that it had approved
financing for the launches of two
satellites manufactured by Space
Sys tems/Lora l LLC, and in
November of 2012 the Bank
announced that it had approved
financing for the launches of two
Boeing-manufactured satellites.
Amos-6, a geosynchronous satellite,
Yahsat Expands “Yahclick” in Angola
Q . T h e N i g e r i a n Communications Commission recently observed that telecom innovation remain the key dr iver toward economic g rowth , p rosper i t y and problem solv ing in the industry. Could you please outline the Nigerian telecom innovation roadmaps, scope as well as the timeline?
A. World-over, telecommunication services has been recognized the as a powerful tool of development, employment generation, gender equity, regional development and special protection for vulnerable sections of the society and poverty reduction through empowerment of masses. Telecom innovation is certainly the key driver towards economic growth, prosperity and problem solving in the country.
In terms of economic growth, the implication of ICT are far reaching; mobi le te lephones, sate l l i te television and automatic teller machines are just a few examples of the ways in which ICT is changing how people communicate, become informed or do business.
The opening of the sector has not only led to rapid growth but also benefited the consumers through low tariffs as a result of intense competition. These benefits include social interactions. Keeping in touch with friends and relations is one of the major social benefits of ICT. ICT has changed the way transactions are conducted, the way in which information is circulated and the way in which we educate and inform ourselves.
ICT has also reduced inequalities of opportunity between rural areas and urban centres with the introduction of internet services, which delivers educational programmes to remote locations. Educational institutions are becoming are becoming more dependant on telecommunications to access super computers and broadcast instructions. This has paved the way for the introduction of distance learning, which can improve educational achievement in rural areas. Significantly, ICT policy which has given birth to Open University in
Nigeria has led to population declines in cities and demographic shifts and pressure on rural libraries.
ICT policies and implementation has also helped to reduce cost and improve efficiency in health care delivery. Patients' records can also be s to red and t r ansm i t t ed electronically so that doctors can call upon specialists as the case may be. Other telemedicine applications include connecting remote supper computers to lasers for precision, focusing, transmission of digitized X-
Innovation is key to job creation, says NCC
Innovation, in today's globalized economy, is recognized as a great, perhaps greater, a contributor to a country's wealth as the natural resources. In this interview, Dr. B.M. Sani, Director, Technical Standard and Network Security says innovation in ICT industry has change the way transactions are conducted, information is circulated and how we educate and inform ourselves. Here are excerpts.
Dr. Eugene Juwah, Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission.
ray photographs, etc.
In terms of problem solving in the industry, innovation is a key driver of economic growth, prosperity and problem solving the world over. Innovations are the key to inclusive growth of any society. Innovation economies have overcome their traditional handicaps, e.g. lack of natural resources, difficult terrain, climate etc. to register phenomenal growths and creation of wealth.Information and communication technology (ICT) network is the basic facility through which information needs of industry, commerce, and agriculture can be satisf ied. Industrial development requires the coordination of a series of operation, including the acquisition of supplies, recruitment of labor, control stocks, processing of materials, and delivery of goods to buyers, as well as billing and record keeping. Information technology is vital to the effective development and control of many of these operations. Commerce is e s s e n t i a l l y o n i n f o r m a t i o n processing activity; effective buying, selling and brokerage rely on the continual supply of up-to-date information regarding the availability of prices of goods and services. Farmers on the other hand, must not only grow food but they must sell effectively and buy seeds and fertiliser. They also need information on weather conditions, diseases outbreaks and new agricultural.
Q. In addition, could you briefly comment on the metrics for assessing innovation in the industry?
Innovation is much more than technology and encompasses many other activities and processes for market success. There cannot be a s i ng le measu re t o cap tu re adequately the innovation impact in an organization. However, the key metrics for assessing innovation in the industry includes percentage of GDP allocated for R & D, quality of the engineers involves in the R & D in both academia and the industry, amount of local solution in terms of hardware and software available in the market as a result of all the efforts, quality and cost of a local ICT
product when compared to foreign similar product as well as competition in production.
Q. Some institutions and firms in the ICT industry have been generating lots of products and services. In your opinion, how many of these products represent good ideas?
A. The ICT production industry can be classified in soft ware and hard ware Software: the software does not r equ i re eno rmous f i nanc ia l commitment in order to achieve certain level of production and there is some success in this direction.
However, the hardware component requires a large capital investment of which not so many foreign firms are wiling to provide and this is where the challenges are. At the moment, there are some companies that assemble certain IT devices and some simple support facilities. This is not much when you compare Nigerian with some countries like Malaysia, Pakistan and even Egypt.
At the moment, we virtually depend on foreign manufacturers for the production of our networks and facilities. We only assemble few IT devices and there is an enormous difference between production and assembling of ICT networks and systems.
Q. Many local Telecom Service Providers are not very keen on having R&D of their own unlike their large Managed Network Services MNC counterparts like MTN. How can the NCC assist these local companies to break out of the box and access innovation Funds being floated by some entities including the NCC?
A. The Nigerian communication Commission is a regulatory body and like other regulators all over the world, its function is to assure efficient service provision by stakeholders companies in the ICT industry. Our role is to support any effort that will enhance the service provision. In addition, telecoms
policy in the ICT industry is the role of governments, industries in the country and the international Telecommunications Union. Funding in the ICT industry depend on a lot of numerous factors.The private sector is most likely to invest in ICTs in an environment that provide meaningful protection for propriety rights (including rights in intangible property), promotes competition and trade, and protects consumers, and create incentives for firms to invest in developing innovative new products and services.
Q. In Nigeria, the licensing of BWA technologies has raised the issue of interference among some operators in the industry. Do you consider the establishment of wireless monitoring entities to enhance interference-free wireless services in these crowded radio environments a way out?
A. The Nigerian communications commission is the regulator of t e l ecommun ica t i ons se rv i ce provision in the country. The commission is given the mandate of assuring transparency and level playing field in its efforts to regulate the industry. The commission has open policy in its attempt top regulate the industry and, any effort by any groups or individual to interfere with the regulation will not succeed.
Q. So far, Mobile Number Portability has taken off in Niger ia , how would the Nigerian Communications Commission evaluate its progress and ensure that the benefit of number portability percolating down to the grass root and prevent end users from paying higher cost per port.
Mobile Number Portability (MNP) allows subscribers to retain their existing telephone number when they switch from one access service provider to another irrespective of mobile technology or from one
technology to another of the same or any other access service provider. So far, the evaluation of the progress in porting services can be measured in terms of high porting/churning rate, improved competit ion among operators, lower tariff and better services
Q. It has been suggested that the Telecom Innovation body r e c e n t l y p r o p o s e d b y regulatory bodies should be in public, private partnership, PPP mode and be made more effective. What is the position of the NCC in this regard?
Innovation in the ICT sector involves providing ICT educational programs, p r o m o t e c r o s s d i s c i p l i n a r y programmes, international training, R & D, skills in the ICT, creation of small and medium ICT firms and international collaboration.However, the establishment of the telecom innovation body can help strengthen best practices in the industry. The body need to be made up of group of core experts' telecoms engineers, business leaders in the industry, academia, te lecom operators, telecom manufacturers, standards organisat ions and research organisations that will encourage and give direction to both government and private companies on the investment in the various sectors of the ICT industry.
Q. In view of existing and planned satellite networks, do you share the view that African regulators should evolve measures to protect its Space, Te r r e s t r i a l a n d R a d i o Astronomy Services from the Satellite Networks of other c o u n t r i e s f o r m u t u a l coexistence and interference free operations of these networks?
A. Every country has a place in geostationary orbit, at least one slot. No country could afford to shut itself off from the operations of other satellites networks. This is what is called open sky policy, OSP. It implies
the provision of non-discriminatory market access for both domestic and n o n - d o m e s t i c s a t e l l i t e a n d t e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s s e r v i c e providers. As it stands, international coordination of satellite systems is required to be undertaken as per the provisions of the International Radio Regulations of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). In this regard, coordination of frequency assignments for the individual satellite networks is necessary with s a t e l l i t e n e t w o r k s o f o t h e r a d m i n i s t r a t i o n s f o r m u t u a l coexistence and interference free operations of these networks.
As a regulator, we have the right to r egu la te sa te l l i t e ne two rks , especially, if they have footprint over our country. In addition, we can ask them for details of their activities. At the moment, foreign satell i te operators with foot print over Nigeria are required to consult the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC on coordination issues and the result communicated to was communicated to ITU.
They are expected to explain to the NCC, whether it is a military satellite, weather satellite or telecom satellites. There are a lot of reasons for this. B e s i d e s t h e p o s s i b i l i t y o f interference, satellite can be used to spy on other countries, so this is done for security reasons.
Q. Could you briefly comment on other efforts being made by the commission to strengthen regulatory process in the telecom industry?
In spite of the challenges of infrastructure and operations, telecom operators have been good at innovation to reach the present level of network coverage, servicing a large clients' base in different geographies with different cultures. So far, the N i g e r i a n C o m m u n i c a t i o n s commission have able to strengthen the regulatory practices in the i ndus t r y t h rough regu la to r y enforcement, awareness campaign using all the available media, the use of Mobile Number Portability, MNP and above all transparency.
BBC Launches HD across
Middle East on Arabsat
BBC World News will be offered
as a High Definition (HD) feed
across the Middle East when it
launches its international HD
channel on Arabsat. Arabsat will
be the BBC's first distribution
partner in the Middle East to offer
the award winning news channel
in HD. This deal will give Middle
E a s t e r n a u d i e n c e s t h e
opportunity to watch in HD the
BBC's on-going coverage of key
global issues, as well as some of
its best international news,
documentaries, entertainment
and arts programming. In
January, BBC World News'
unveiled its new look, following a
re-launch from the heart of the
BBC Newsroom at Broadcasting
House in central London.
Israel Aerospace Launches
AMOS-4
A M O S - 4 , b u i l t b y I s r a e l
Aerospace Industries (IAI) for
Spacecom, was successfully
launchedfrom Baikonur, Kazakhstan,
aboard a ZENIT - 3SLB launcher.
The complete launch process will
take several hours until the
satellite reaches its initial
trajectory and separates from the
launcher's final stage. During the
coming three weeks, AMOS-4 will
continue its transfer orbit until
arriving at 67.25 degrees East,
where In Orbit Test will be
conducted before continuing to
its designated permanent service
location at 65.0 degrees East
where it will provide a full range of
satellite services for Russia, the
Middle East and additional
service areas. Amos 4 joins
Spacecom's Amos 2, Amos 3 and
Amos 5 satellites. Amos 6 is
scheduled for a 2014 launch.
n the quest to get more bits per hertz through the satellite link across Nigeria, I
mixed bag of services efficiently over satellite towards multiple customers
al low the combination of different services onto a single carrier without additional multiplexing. This feature is called Multistream and has the direct benefit of being able to saturate a transponder with a single multi-service carrier, adding an extra
Newtec, a global satellite communications company is offering state-of-the-art products and scalable, integrated solutions for broadcast, broadband access, including backbone and trunking appl icat ions to the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited, NigComSat in order to helps its achieve greater efficiency, increase performance and expand its market reach. Founded in 1985 in Belgium, Newtec is a recognized global market leader in the satellite communication industry, offering highly innovative products and solutions for the ground segment of television, telephony and data networks. The strength of the Newtec brand is made by its continued focus on innovation and product leadership, reflected in best of breed quality products, excellent customer support, and executed through a global workforce and a global network of certified partners.
The deal with NigComSat promised to unlock new potential in Nigeria's broadband market, by increasing the company's capabilities to deliver a
in the new era of convergence of broadcast, corporate, government or backhauling markets towards IP. The new a l l iance wi l l
12 percent efficiency to the satellite link.
he key For the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited, t question has been how to carry different services from one part of the country to another in the most efficient way, considering growing CAPEX and OPEX pressure, whilst still allowing for increased room to drive business. The deal was b r o k e r e d a f t e r a s e r i e s o f deliberations by Timasaniyu Ahmed-Rufai, chief executive of NigComSat, and Newtec head Serge Van Herck. In a statement signed by both chief executives, under the agreement Newtech would provide a Ka-band hub platform which includes terminals to offer business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) broadband services. The platform will support optimal and cost effective voice, data, video, and internet service solutions across Nigeria via the NigComSat-1R satellite that launched last year in China.
According to Ahmed-Rufai, "High speed and reliable Internet will transform the economy and lead to more and better opportunities for many individuals. In 2011, we successfully put our high throughput satellite in the sky and I am pleased to welcome now our new technology partner Newtec. “We decided to team-up with Newtec because of its track record of delivering reliable, fast and easy to use solutions at an affordable cost."In the opinion of Van Herck, “The new Ka-band technology will help to close the digital divide in Nigeria by using the latest broadband technologies to achieve the highest broadband experience and availability.” TV broadcasters, telecom service
providers, integrators and satellite operators from all over the world have been relying on the unequalled performance, flexibility and reliability of our equipment, systems and software. In 2012 Newtec started shipping its new high-speed Ka Band VSAT broadband technology. This new technology has already been selected by several customers, including Europe's most successful satellite broadband service. Whilst the GSS network will utilise Ku Band (via the NigComSat 1R, the terminals can be easily adapted to function with higher throughput Ka Band frequencies by a simple change of the interactive LNB and with no hardware adaptation to the modem and the antenna. Serge Van Herck, CEO of Newtec, said: “We have shipped well over 100,000 terminals worldwide. We are pleased to be partnering with Satellite service providers on this new exciting long-term project that will see choice and availability of broadband across their landscape increase.
Koen Willems, Product Marketing Director, Newtec
Closing the gap Continuous interaction with the market has revealed four major challenges that satellite service providers, teleports and satellite operators are facing, says
. The first challenge is that satellite services have become less competitive in comparison with terrestrial services in regions where they are already present or will become available. This challenge urges satellite service providers to offer differentiators in order to secure future revenues. These can be better Service Level Agreements (SLA), f as te r se rv i ce dep loymen t ,
NigComSat embraces Newtec
The Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited, NigComSat recently partnered Belgium based Newtec to address convergence towards IP in broadcasting, telecom, government and truncking markets. SpaceWatch reports.
additional flexibility in selling multiple S L A s , a d d r e s s i n g d i f f e r e n t applications or simply lowering prices. The second concern is pressure surrounding profitability of satellite services. As profitability is driven by the operational costs (OPEX), which is dominated by the cost of the satellite capacity, there is a definite demand for technology to reduce bandwidth needs or to allow operators to do more business with the same satellite capacity.The lack of satellite capacity to expand business in some areas is the third problem that needs to be tackled. How can companies in the IP trunking business find new additional capacity in these regions? One answer is to use transponders that are left by others because they cannot be used e f f i c i e n t l y o r r e l i a b l y w i t h conventional technology. The final challenge for satellite service operators comes in the form of Q u a l i t y o f S e r v i c e ( Q o S ) expectations. Real time services such as VoIP or real time video streaming demand a guaranteed QoS, constant data throughput, and minimum delay. Network congestion, rain fade and signal propagation delays are inherent factors of a satellite transmission system that make it tough for the operator to fulfil the QoS expectations of their customers while building efficient business models.
T e c h n i c a l ImplementationsSeveral technologies are have been used on the medium to high speed point-to-point and point-to-multipoint markets. According to Newtec, the most common implementations use different combinations of DVB-S, DVB-S2, proprietary Turbo and LDPC codes, signal cancellation,
Variable Coding and Modulation (VCM) and supports adaptive coding and modulation (ACM) technologies.Because they rarely need to interoperate with other systems, many Point-to-Point l inks are implemented with proprietary technologies such as Turbo or LDPC codes. Recently DVB-S2 has been
used more commonly on higher speed Point-to-Point links. Firstly, because DVB-S2 provides a more efficient error correction code than Turbo codes and, secondly, because DVB-S2 supports ACM, which allows dynamic opt imisat ion of the transmission parameters and guarantees the link availability against rain fade. In medium to higher speed Point-To-Multipoint networks, the forward links from the central location to the remote sites are often multiplexed and transported on a common forward carrier. Many of these systems were initially implemented with a DVB-S forward carrier. The main advantage here is that the forward link only requires one piece of modulation equipment at the uplink and is compatible with a wide range of cost effective IP receivers in the remote sites. The common carrier allows statistical multiplexing among the various services, allowingthe operator to overbook its satellite capacity.The DVB-S2 standard adds new ways to optimise networks with a shared forward carrier by allowing the
dynamic ad jus tment o f the modulation parameters. This feature can be used VCM or ACM modes. In the f irst mode, independent modulation parameters can be chosen for each remote site, allowing for the use of different antenna sizes in the remote sites and to smooth away differences in
EIRP coverage. The efficiency of the network is not dictatedby the weakest station in the network any longer. In the ACM mode, the modulation parameters a r e s e l e c t e d dynamically in order of t h e i n s t a n t a n e o u s receive conditions at each site, allowing it to operate with minimum rain (or other fading) margins and therefore o p t i m i s i n g t h e throughput at all times with average efficiency
gains of up to 100 percent.
ConclusionAs a market trend, we have identified the convergence of telecom, broadcast, government and trunking services towards IP. This puts a lot of pressure on service and teleport operators to bring this mixed bag of services efficiently over satellite towards mult ip le customers. Satellite capacity constraints, OPEX and CAPEX considerations all need to be taken into account whilst serving the customer with the best possible SLA offering.New ACM technologies are able to provide solutions for high and medium speed trunking networks over satellite. Moreover ACM is being used on multiple satellite links in rain fade sensitive areas, on inclined orbit satellites and in satellite networks to drive for optimal efficiency. On top of the bandwidth reduct ion provided by ACM techniques, innovative technologies are further improving the end-to-end efficiency of the satellite link.
The broadband Aeronautic Mobile Satellite System field is burgeoning today with multiple providers – Panasonic, ViaSat, Gogo, Row44, Tachyon, Boeing and others – going head to head in the commercial and government markets or carving out their own unique niches. AMSS is used to provide everything from passenger Internet connectivity, to voice services, to aircraft operational data, to situational awareness updates for in-route Special Forces, to back hauling reconnaissance data. Ku-band is the dominant means of provid ing broadband AMSS today using leased wide beams from FSS providers like Intelsat and Eutelsat. The availability of wide beams developed originally for fixed services like video distribution and VSAT services, along with a few purpose built wide beams over ocean regions, has allowed Ku-band AMSS to develop rapidly.These Ku-band systems are now being c h a l l e n g e d b y forthcoming Ka-band systems like Inmarsat-5. I n m a r s a t - 5 G l o b a l Xp ress uses th ree dedicated satellites, with more than 70 spot beams each, to provide near global coverage for land, m a r i t i m e a n d aeronaut ica l mobi le s a t e l l i t e s communications. Each beam is approximately 2.1 degrees in diameter. The performance of these Ka-band spot beams is better than that of conventional Ku-band wide beams because the smaller spot beams have higher EIRP and G/T.Ku-band p rov ide rs , h o w e v e r , a r e n o t standing still. Panasonic and Intelsat are collaborating to bring the first high throughput Ku-band Aeronautic Mobile Satellite System AMSS system to
market. Intelsat-29e, the first of Intelsat's EpicNG platform satellites, includes customized coverage to provide Ku-band AMSS over North America and the North Atlantic. Intelsat-29e uses a combination of spot beams for data service in dense regions and wide beams for video and data service in low density areas. Combining spot beams that are considerably smaller than Inmarsat-5 and wide beams tailored for the aero market allows Panasonic to achieve superior performance and economics.
Intelsat EpicNGIntelsat EpicNG is Intelsat's next-generation open-architecture satellite platform. EpicNG uses a combination of C-, Ku-, and Ka-bands along with a combination of spot beams and wide beams to provide high throughput communications for media, broadband, mobility and government service. The
first two satellites using the Epic platform are Intelsat-29e and Intelsat-33e, as shown in Fig. 1.
Panasonic and Inte lsat have collaborated to tailor Intelsat-29e for AMSS service over North America and the North Atlantic, which together represent the largest aviation market in the world and the densest long haul air corridor. Panasonic has committed to up to 1 Gbps of capacity on the Intelsat-29e. Intelsat has added spot beams over the North Atlantic air corridor and a wide beam that will carry rebroadcast TV as well as serve low traffic density regions.Intelsat-29e will support up to 200 Mbps of throughput in a single region (160 Mbps spot beam and 40 Mbps wide beam) and up to 80 Mbps to a single aircraft. The high throughputs supportable by Intelsat-29e exceed those of similar Ka-band systems, such as Inmarsat-5, as a direct result of using spot beams smaller than 2 degrees. The key to understanding why a Ku-band Aeronautic Mobile
Sa te l l i t e Sys tem AMSS system can equal or outperform s im i la r Ka band systems is the fact t h a t s p o t b e a m p e r f o r m a n c e i s largely independent of frequency band but strongly dependent on spot beam size.
P e r f o r m a n c e i s I n d e p e n d e n t o f FrequencyThe fact that Ku- and Ka-band satellites can offer simi lar performance may come as a surprise, given that Ka-band has been closely associated with high throughput satellite
architectures, while Ku-band is associated with existing wide beam satellites. These associations are
Aviation Market
Ka, Ku Bands go tit for tat in aviation market
In the Aviation market, the dominance of Ku-band will be challenged by Ka-band systems, such as Inmarsat-5, but operators currently plan Ku band spot beams satellite that equal or exceed the performance of Ka-band satellites. James Hetrick
more reflective of the progression of the satellite business rather than the suitability of either Ka- or Ku-band for high throughput applications. Existing Ku-band systems were developed for video distribution and widely dispersed VSAT networks, with mobile services evolving more recently. By the time high throughput direct-to-home (DTH) Internet services like SpaceWay and ViaSat-1 were envisioned, all of the prime Ku-band slots had been claimed by incumbent FSS operators, limiting new entrants to previously unused spectrum within the Ka-band. Since these services were designed for high throughput from the beginning, Ka-band is often associated with high throughput.
Performance is Inverse to Spot SizeThe previous sections derived equations showing the frequency dependence of link performance, or lack thereof, based on equal sized spot beams. In each case the C/N was proportional to 1/HPBW2, which means that the performance is inversely proportional to the area of the beam. As spot beam width decreases, performance increases as the square. The increasing performance can be taken advantage of by operating with higher C/N, which enables higher order modulations and codings and better spectral efficiencies, at least up to a point. Eventually, the downlink will hit power spectral density limits and the additional performance advantage will have to be taken as supporting a larger bandwidth at a fixed C/N. In either case, the path to increasing performance is decreasing beam size rather than increasing frequency.
The Right Spot Beam SizeThe right spot beam size is a critical question for AMSS system designers. While spot beam performance increases as spot beam area decreases, both the number and the size of spot beams are subject to multiple constraints. Most current high throughput satellites can support a maximum of 70 to 80 spot beams. It is certainly possible to have spot beams that are too small for a given service from an economic point of view. The smallest spot beams in service are the 0.4 deg on spots used on ViaSat-1 and Jupiter-1 for the DTH Internet service. Each of these satellites supports approximately 60 service beams and 15 feeder link beams and, as a result of the small spot beamsize, can support more than 100 Gbps
each. The service beams are so limited in area that they only support the populated portions of the Eastern US and the West coast. This might be well suited to the DTH Internet market but to cover the AMSS routes addressed by Intelsat-29e would require several hundred spots of the same size and multiple equivalent satellites.
The resulting capacity would exceed the AMSS market demand by orders of magnitude. Most of that expensive capacity would sit idle for the life of the satellites rendering such a solution uneconomical for the AMSS market.The authors believe that the right size spot beam is the one that is just large enough to operate at full capacity. Since space hardware is inherent ly expensive, building capacity that goes unused is difficult to justify. Given that A M S S t r a f f i c d e n s i t y v a r i e s considerably around the world, this leads naturally to the conclusion that different sized beams are appropriate for different regions: Wide beams for low-density regions like the South Atlantic and spot beams for high-density regions such as North America and the North Atlantic.
Tailoring the beam size to the traffic density is analogous to what is done in cellular networks. Rural areas with low traffic density use large cells that may be many km across, whereas dense suburban areas use smaller cells that are sectorized to match the higher traffic density. In very dense urban areas, microcells are deployed that may only cover a few square blocks. Large cells would saturate in a dense urban area while numerous small cells would be an expensive waste in a rural area.
Spot and Wide Beam OverlayPanasonic is pursuing a mixed system of spot beams for high traffic density regions and wide beams for low traffic density regions, as is done with Intelsat-29e. Matching the beam size to the traffic demand will help to minimize service costs. In addition, even where spot beams are used, Panasonic will overlay the spots with wide beams. This will allow efficient rebroadcast of video content to aircraft without replicating the video in each beam, will enable seamless handovers etween beams, and will also provide the flexibility to shift peak loads from one beam to the other. Each aircraft will ave two receivers to access the spot eam and the wide beam simultaneously, allowing the aircraft to maintain a continuous connection across spot beam boundaries for video
and data services.
A mixed system of Ku-band spots and wide beams also offers advantages in redundancy and availability. Almost all of the world's flight routes are currently covered by at least one Ku-band wide beam, and often are covered by several such beams. Land regions are often covered by a dozen or more wide beams and key ocean regions, like the North Atlantic, are already covered by more than one wide beam satellite. This provides an inherent back up to a spot beam satellite. This would not be the case in a system that uses three dedicated satellites to provide global coverage; the failure of one satellite will cause a lengthy outage.
While Intelsat EpicNG's combination of spot beams and wide beams is ideally suited to the AMSS market today, it is worth pointing out that high throughput Ku-band AMSS is also scalable into the foreseeable future. Current satell ites can support antennas of up to 2.6 m, which can generate a 12 Ghz beam of 0.8 deg in diameter. This would al low a quadrupling of beam capacity (because the spot beam area is 1/4 the size) over current Ku-band spot beams and a sixteen-fold increase in capacity density (because four beams will fit in the same area). Future satellites will likely be able to support even larger antennas, meaning high throughput Ku-band satellites can continue to scale to higher capacities as AMSS traffic grows.
ConclusionPanasonic and Inte lsat are collaborating to bring a new generation of high throughput Ku band AMSS service to market using the Intelsat EpicNG platform starting with the Intelsat-29e satellite. We have shown that Ku-band AMSS can equal or outperform currently planned Ka band AMSS systems. In fact, the governing link equations are largely frequency independent for equal sized spot beams and terminal antennas. The key to higher performance is using equal or smaller spot beams. A mixed architecture of spot beams for high-density traffic area and wide beams for low-density traffic areas will match capacity to demand. Finally, high throughput Ku band is scalable to meet demand growth in the aero market for many years to come.
ccording to a survey carried out in the US by market-research firm A
Harris Interactive last year, 98 per cent of people distrust the internet. The firm surveyed 1,900 A m e r i c a n s , y i e l d i n g t h e overwhelming statistic that they have little trust in the information we f ind and use on l ine . Thankfully, the Internet and Social Media Use in Shipping survey we carried out at the end of last year with 150 shipowners, managers and key suppliers wasn't quite as pessimistic and showed that companies are slowly but surely trusting the internet as a platform for business. But it did reinforce the fact that trust is vitally important in a n o n l i n e e n v i r o n m e n t . Tradit ional trade over the centuries has been shaped and standardised through a number of a s s o c i a t e d s e c t o r s a n d institutions that have acted as middlemen to help us trade on a global scale. Institutions such as banks, insurers and dealers have provided mechanisms to help us buy and sell and also provide information to help us to learn and most importantly TRUST our trading partners. Let's face it, trust always has been and always will be at the core of business relationships, whether online or offline.
Arguably it becomes more p r o m i n e n t i n t h e o n l i n e environment, especially if a transaction is carried out without any prior face-to-face contact. When the internet came along in the late 1990s there was talk about disintermediation, even in the shipping industry, but this didn't happen as fast as we all thought, as the trust mechanisms were missing from the new digital world that needed to be put in place first.
Changing erasFrom our perspective in shipping e-commerce, we can now see three clear eras/ages of e-commerce that have developed in t h e l a s t t h i r t e e n y e a r s : Connectivity, Information and Trust When ShipServ launched in 2000, we went through a period of five years of helping to connect both buyers and suppliers, which can now be described as the age
of connectivity. Once we had enough buyers (ship owners and ship managers) connecting with suppliers across the globe, came the age of sharing, curating and using information. Using the knowledge gained through the first five years of connectivity, we were able to begin to expose this information through the creation a supplier directory providing the ability to match buyers with relevant suppliers according to trading history. The information period and the duration of data aided by social media has gained growth and traction over the last five years, and we are now entering the age of trust – and this is where the technology provided by the internet can be really powerful.
Growing trustBut trust and the internet have not a l w a y s m a d e f o r e a s y
Maritime
Internet on board – hit or hype
A new survey reveals that shipping companies are slowly but surely trusting the internet as a platform for business, writes Mark Warne, business development director, ShipServ.
bedfellows. In the early days of the internet, users simply didn't understand it or failed to grasp its potential, and there are still many even now that prefer to ignore it. Even as its influence has grown, many business users have remained wary of embracing e-commerce and the internet as a staple means of doing business. If you were to place shipping's adoption of ecommerce on the classic technology bell curve, it would still only be in the early majority phase. But the internet has shaken off its growing pains a n d h a s emerged into something new, driven by the p h e n o m e n o n that is social media and the plain fact that business users are familiar with using Amazon and e-Bay, so are now more trusting in a B2B context.
Our survey last year showed that a lack of trust is still the biggest barrier to shipping companies using the internet to trade, but this has decreased dramatically from the previous surveys in 2010 and 2011. The same survey showed that the issue of lack of understanding of using the internet to trade has decreased substantially from the previous two years. This shows a very noticeable shift in attitude in the understanding of the benefits associated with e-commerce as people are no longer asking why they should use it but asking how they can use it to gain the biggest
advantage.This is a seismic change and was highlighted by the fact that 85 per cent of users felt that e-commerce in shipping would increase over the next 12 months. But as trust still continues to guide behaviour while users are online and using e-commerce, new trust mechanisms are helping to bridge the gap with tradit ional off l ine business relationships. The growth of eBay, Amazon and TripAdvisor has been
built on the ra t ings and rank ings o f t h e i r community of u s e r s a n d these are now c o m m o n i n B2B.
Reviews were only part of the t r u s t mechanisms t h a t w e implemented at ShipServ a l o n g s i d e
TradeRank and Verifications, enabling buyers to gauge each supplier by their activity and recommendations from peers. Now users not only know what suppliers say they do, but can see what they actually do through their trading history and also see what others say they do through reviews and brand verification – which ultimately means that they have three separate but important trust mechanisms to judge whether they are worth trading with. And as the Age of Trust continues, it will be vitally important to keep developing further tools and services that will increase the ease of trading with partners around the globe.
S E S - 6 N o w F u l l y
Operational
S E S - 6 s a t e l l i t e h a s
successfully completed its
extensive in-orbit testing and
is now fully operational and in
commercial service at the
orbital position of 40.5
degrees West. The 53rd SES
satellite was successfully
launched on board an ILS
Pro ton f rom Ba ikonur,
Kazakhstan, on June 4, 2013.
SES-6, bu i l t by EADS
Astrium, is equipped with 43
C-band and 48 Ku-band
transponders.
T h e s a t e l l i t e h a s
comprehensive coverage of
North America, Latin America,
Europe and the Atlantic
Ocean. SES-6 replaces SES'
NSS-806 satellite at the prime
orbital position of 40.5
degrees West, providing
continuity of service and
expansion capacity in the C-
b a n d f o r v i d e o
neighbourhoods in Latin
America and the Caribbean.
T h e l a r g e s t K u - b a n d
customer on SES-6 is
Brazilian telecommunication
group Oi. As a new anchor
customer, Oi s igned a
significant long-term capacity
agreement to provide Direct-
to-Home (DTH) services in
Brazil.
Q: What type of vertical solutions do you see leading the industry in the Gulf area?
Here there are common challenges across all industries, including f i n a n c i a l i n d u s t r y, e n e r g y, t r a n s p o r t a t i o n , government, and telecom. T h e s e c o m m o n challenges are mainly about business agility and how well business can quickly respond to market needs.The second challenge is the global recession, so businesses are looking for a cost-effective solution when it comes to ICT. They're not just going for a cheap solution, but they are expecting to maximize the values of their IT infrastructure do more with l e s s . I n a d d i t i o n , competition is very high, especially in the financial industry. There are many banks, so they have a challenge in coming up with innovative solutions that will add value in satisfying their customers, d is t ingu ish them f rom the i r competitors, and grow their customer base.
Another challenge is compliance with regulations, such as how we can bring in green ICT and how we can minimize risk in the financial industry. And of course, security is always a big challenge across all industries, though specific needs vary from industry to industry.All of this means, that when it comes
to solutions, we have to add value; solutions should be businessdriven rather than relying on technology alone. Middle Eastern business people need to see tangible benefits from these solutions.
Another important trend is the rise of government solutions: Here they are looking for ways to adopt e-government solutions and services in e-education, e-health, and e-city, which is actually part of the government's necessary services for the public.
We also see prospects for ICT in energy renewal. There are many oil and gas companies here who face an aging infrastructure, so they have to transform what they have. So, for instance in the energy sector, Huawei
offers digital pipeline, digital oil field, and emergency command center solutions. There's also a big need for ICT infrastructure solutions in transportation, mainly for railway and metro; there is a huge project
underway in Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries in the UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain, etc which is part of the Gulf Railway regional project which is supposed to connec t a l l t he GCC countries.
This is something new that most of the Gulf countries have initiated, and Huawei recently won a project in Abu Dhabi, which was for the first phase of an Etihad railway. The power utility companies in this region are currently facing many challenges which include compliance with global regulations to generate and to distribute clean electric power, to modernize their legacy ICT infrastructure, to cut the
operations and maintenance cost and to enhance the consumers satisfaction. This creates a lot of interest and necessity for smart grid solutions including Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). Also, the financial sector invests heavily in IT every year. We have a very good and competitive solution for the financial industry, banking mainly,
called Virtual Mini Branch (VMB). Since more than one year we have been talking about this potential solution to our customers here in the
ICT in the Middle East
As principal consultant for Huawei Enterprise in the Middle East region, Abdelrahman Abdellatif is taking charge of directing and positioning end-to-end ICT solutions in the vertical industries. He has more than two decades of IT experience and particularly focuses on the financial industry.
People in many industries
look at technology as a black
box, they don't focus much on
the technical details. So the
challenge is in understanding
customers' needs and the
common related industry
challenges and accordingly
positioning our solutions.
region and most, if not all, of them are really excited and interested in adopting our solution.
What type of customers are interested in Huawei's solutions?
Many corporations, including us, major telecom operators, and most of our competitors have begun to realize the importance of Small & Medium enterprise Businesses (SMBs), because the SMB sector forms about 75 percent of all businesses in the countries in this region. They have a big need for ICT solutions, because they believe that ICT solutions or infrastructure will effectively and rapidly help them to grow their business and enter new markets. Also, most of the customers, including government,have islands of data and solutions. Now the trend is to go for a consolidated, centralized solution. Governments like those in UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar want to centralize e-services through a c o m m o n o r c e n t r a l I C T infrastructure. Cloud computing, for instance, is a solution that has big potential to address the needs of this sector.
SMBs are actually relying on the
government to provide those
infrastructure services for them in
this region?Yes. Most SMBs need
basic integrated and secure
infrastructure when it comes to ICT,
and we know their business model is
very sensitive to cost. They can't
afford to invest a lot in ICT from day
one. So they expect a shared service
model. Many telecom operators can
really fill this gap by providing IT as a
service to this sector. They've started
approaching us about how they can
really target that sector. Some of the
SMBs actually have a fast growth
pace, but it slows them down if they
have to acquire and deploy a new
infrastructure themselves. But if
there is a service provider who can
provide that as a shared service, it
doesn't take a long time at all and it
Q:
Mr. Abdellatif:
Q:
Mr. Abdellatif:
will be a cost-effective service in line
with their business model. And they
can walk away if they have an issue
with their service or they can increase
or shrink the acquired services inline
with their business growth.
Is the telecom industry trying to
provide new cloud services and
SaaS services for SMBs?
Yeah. As the core
business of the telecom operators is
almost saturated through high
compet i t ion and due to the
convergence trends of IT & CT
technologies the telecom operators
are now trying their best to create new
business lines and to come up with
new business models in order to grow
their business and align with the
industry trends. So the telecom
operators are now the leaders trying
to offer effective cloud computing
services. They offer voice, WAN
outsourcing, data center & DR
hosting, email services, managed IT
services, website hosting, call center,
and videoconferencing.
Did you see anything
interesting or exciting in the
middle east Market? Last year, we were
a l ready ta lk ing about c loud
computing, but many customers,
mainly in financial industry, were
concerned about adopting cloud
computing solutions. This year, most
of the solutions are already mature,
and security and regulations issues
have been mostly settled. One big
new trend in the ICT industry is video
solutions. For example, video
banking is already here. We can see
video call centers going up, and that's
something really very attractive and
interesting for most industries.
Industries can come up with
innovative video-based solutions, like
remote advisor for the bank industry,
the Virtual Mini Branch (VMB) from
Huawei, similar to a video call center.
These solutions will really contribute
to the bottom line of the business and
Q:
Mr. Abdellatif:
Q:
Mr. Abdellatif:
are endto- end solutions from the
user device to the backend systems.
I have also noticed that Bring-Your-
Own Device (BYOD) solutions are
gaining more interest.
Compared with our competitors,
do you think Huawei's industry
solutions have any advantage?Although, we are a
newcomer to the enterprise field,
having entered it for only two or three
years, we are really doing very well in
the technology. As a global ICT
solutions provider we have many
competitive advantages including
provisioning of converged end-to-
end, being highly customizable and
cost-effective, and an aggressive
and innovative solutions and
products roadmap. Furthermore our
solutions span most, if not all, of the
vertical business industries. When
we compare the specifications of our
products and solutions to our
competitors, we surpass them in
many cases. For example, we now
have the CloudEngine, which is the
fastest data center switch fabric in
the world. Such feedback comes
from our customers and competitors
alike.But the challenge is in understanding
our customers' needs and the
common related industry challenges
and accordingly positioning our
solutions. We now know that people
in many industries look at technology
as a black box, without focusing
much on the technical details. What
they really want to see are the
functional and business values of
that solution – how to grow their
business, how to secure it, be more
competitive, and how to comply with
regulations. That's where our focus
has to be. The other challenge is to
increase the number of our partners
and train them so they can position
our products and solutions faster, as
direct sales to customers is not really
effective in the enterprise business;
the most effective way is to work
through partners.
Q:
Mr. Abdellatif:
Source: Huawei ICT Insight
For Sumeet Kapur, CEO of EmployWise opting for cloud computing was driven by the need to boost capacity. "Earlier, we used to take around three weeks to upgrade our hardware. Now, we take only around half an hour for this. Now the hardware is scalable on demand due to the use of cloud. Moreover, we never used to make aggressive bids with big-ticket clients due to the capex on servers that was required. This has been solved now."Dharanibalan Gurunathan, VP, O f f e r i n g s M a n a g e m e n t & Development, Global Technology Services, IBM, India/South Asia, believes that with increasing usage of IT in business among the SMEs there will further be a strong adoption. “In the tier II and III cities, where power availability continues to be a significant problem, smaller businesses are embracing cloud in a big way. Customers like Nawanagar Co-Operative Bank decided to run their core banking systems on IBMcloud," he said.
Cloud services are software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS). In simplest terms, SaaS refers to delivering a single piece of software such as CRM and ERP to many users. PaaS refers to a set of lower-level services such as operating system or computer language offered by a cloud provider, on which developers can build custom applications. IaaS refers to server, storage, and networking hardware delivered as a service.
With cloud-based computing, applications are run on centralised virtual servers managed by the cloud provider thereby eliminating the need for expensive equipments to be at company's site which could be
capital intensive for SMEs. “The range of cloud-based services now offered by vendors is growing simultaneously with the emergence of varying cloud service providers”. In general, SMEs can find cloudbased model of possibly everything from General-purpose applications such as office, email, and collaboration technologies to sales management and accounting software.
According to a recent study by Symantec: “Natural disasters and severe downtime during business hour is making small and medium enterprises (SMEs) look at cloud seriously”. In order to survive, SMEs need to implement new strategic ideas at a faster pace to gain a competitive advantage over their rivals within the global market. “The need to quickly respond to business demands is imperative in this new age. Waiting six to eight weeks for a n e w s e r v e r d e p l o y m e n t i s unacceptable.” A new strategy should enable SMEs to incorporate new technologies, reduce costs, develop process innovation, and enhance speed of implementation”.
Cloud computing holds a tremendous promise for small and medium-sized businesses. “The dramatic benefits of cloud computing offerings include lower and more predictable costs: pay as you go, avoidance of capital outlays: no hardware investments or s o f t w a r e l i c e n s e s , f a s t e r implementation, dynamic scalability and flexibility: the benefit of being able to access data and applications from a n y w h e r e w i t h a n i n t e r n e t connection”.
SMEs migration to cloud computingWith the current economic downturn, business agility has become essential
for enhancing commercial success. In order for SMEs to survive their businesses, it is significantly important to decrease time to market.In the case of Zenga Media, a company in the mobile television services space. The company has not only been able to manage cost better on hardware but has also been able to manage its human resources better. "We moved to cloud almost three years back. We initially started with 10 per cent cloud and 90 per cent data centre usage. Today, there is less than two per cent activity on ground. Due to adoption of cloud infrastructure, the team managing information technology infrastructure has come down from 35 people to only four. The additional staff is now used for more productive purposes," said Shabir Momin, CEO, Zenga Media.He also elaborates that during the IPL telecast, the company would have required a lot of upfront money to buy additional servers. But, due to the cloud infrastructure, they were able to do it in a cost-effective manner. Momin, who is using cloud serv ices f rom Amazon Web Services, is also of the view that the customer service quality has improved. "Due to cloud, our customer viewing has moved from less than 50,000 users to seven million users now. We have 55-60 million video views a month," he said. Momin is not the only one to shift to cloud. His company and a host of other SMEs have switched to the cloud platform to cut costs and increase the speed of their services. IT firms including IBM, Amazon, HP, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and others, including Amazon, have been at the forefront of providing this technology to the SMEs.T h e c l o u d c a n a u t o m a t e organisations' IT resources which
Africa
Why SMEs look to the Cloud
Despite the enormous advantages that the cloud can offer, adoption of cloud computing has been at a slower rate than expected. According to a Forrester research, security concerns are the most commonly cited reason why enterprises are not migrating to cloud computing platforms
allow them to adapt to changing demands of their business needs. Could computing customers also can conveniently access to business applications on the move, meaning staffs can work flexibly from anywhere. cloud computing can enable SMEs to focus on innovation and creation ofbusiness values, thereby enhancing staff productivity without requiring updating software, and other IT equipments. Further, by effectively utilising the current communication technology capabilities, SMEs can compete with anyone, anytime, anywhere, and of any size by using the cloud platform to deliver innovative services quickly, says IT analyst. The potential benefits of cloud computing have raised the IT expectations of SMEs beyond measure.
Challenges for SMEs Despite the enormous advantages that the cloud can offer, cloud computing adoption has been at a slower rate from what had been expected. Security and vender lock-in were raised by SMEs as major concerns of migration to cloud computing. These concerns have caused a major hindrance to cloud computing being adopted by SMEs, says an IT analyst.
The fact that before data can get into the cloud, it has to progress outside a company's firewall via an access network, that makes data vulnerable to attacks. For example, the most common way of accessing the cloud is through a web browser. Therefore, cloud services mayshare much vulnerability as any website, such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting (XSS). The cloud also relies on virtual machines especially hypervisors, which mean any compromises in the set up of the so f tware used cou ld cause unauthorised access to sensitive data. Additionally, cloud computing providers have multiple data centres at different geographical locations in order to optimally serve consumers' needs around the world. In most cloud service scenarios, consumers have no idea of where there data is stored. Therefore, legal and
regulatory issues arise which require careful considerations because the physical location of data centres determines the set of laws that can govern the management of data.
Thus, to guarantee the security of corporate data in the cloud is difficult, if not impossible. In Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model, for example, the security responsibility of the underly ing infrastructure and abstraction layers belong to the cloud service provider, while the remainder of the stack is the consumer's responsibility. IaaS cloud models are prone to attacks like XML Signature Element Wrapping – this is a well-known attack on protocols using XML Signature such as SOAP (that stands for Simple Object Access Protocol) messages. These protocols are used to provide authentication for messaging through the web. With Platform as a Service (PaaS) model, the security of the platform used for development is the service provider's responsibility, but the security of the applications developed is the responsibility of the consumers. Concerns about cloud service integrity and binding issues with PaaS' cloud models should be given further consideration. PaaS models are prone to cloud malware injection attacks and metadata spoofing attack as described by Jensen.In Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, the service provider is responsible for, not only providing physical and environmental security capabilities, but also addresses the security control on the infrastructure, applications and data. According to a Forrester research, security concerns are the most commonly cited reason why enterprises are not interested in SaaS. A major concern of SaaS is unauthorised access due to data being transferred to a remote server thought the internet. This might allow adversaries to obtain passwords, inspect data, and modify or damage the data. This would be more harmful in case of unauthorised access to sensitive information such as payments details and information on human resources. Denial of service attacks and network failure present the availability concern of SaaS. The lack of standards in cloud computing
also rise interoperability and manageability issues inside and between cloud providers, with possible economic impacts.
Interoperability is concerned with the migrat ion and integration of applications and data between different vendor's clouds. Whereas standardisation, strives to support applications by different service vendors to interoperate with one another, exchange traffic, and cooperatively interact with data as we l l as p ro toco ls fo r j o in t coordination and control.In the absence of standardisation, SMEs willing to outsource and combine the range of services from different cloud providers to achieve maximum efficiency, will experience difficulty when trying to get their inhouse (legacy) systems to interact with the cloud providers system. Likewise, the lack of standardization may also bring disadvantages, when migration, integration, or exchanges of resources are required. The main negative aspect is the necessity of factoring applications to comply with o t h e r c l o u d A p p l i c a t i o n Programming Interfaces (APIs), which can possibly lead to higher costs, delays and risks, thus opposing agility, efficiency, and low costs. In the aforementioned, reconfiguration of systems and a p p l i c a t i o n s t o a c h i e v e interoperability are time consuming and thus, require a considerable amount of expertise, which could be challenging for SMEs. Further, interoperability and portability will give rise to standard reusability, which in turn will lead to faster cloud deployment.Therefore, SMEs considering cloud-based services should be aware of t h e a s s o c i a t e d r i s k s a n d vulnerabilities before adopting them for critical applications or sensitive information. SMEs might be interested in migrating gradually by starting from some of the non-core b u s i n e s s / m i s s i o n - c r i t i c a l a p p l i c a t i o n s t o t h e c l o u d environment. But a common challenge associated with many cloud migration projects is on how effectively the migration risks are identified.
companies include Wireless access technologies based on GSM and other evolving technologies, Wi-Fi based Broad band systems and solutions, point to Point and PMP backhaul systems products in optical networking , IP Switching / routing , and multiplexers, antennas, IBS systems, power systems and software products, data products , surveillance products , satellite products, CPEs, SRDs, microwave radios, etc
Much as these achievements look impressive, they have been attained primarily with the help of imported technology and products. However, despite the impressive gains, the Indian Telecoms Manufacturers Association believes that India's influence in International telecom technology development/IPR is practically non-existent. Its presence in International telecom standards is also marginal. For example in the 2G/3G IPR scenario, 90% of the Intellectual Property Rights were held by US/Europe and the remaining is spread over different geographical regions including Asia.
During 2009-10, the indigenous telecom manufacturing industry contributed marginally, just 12-13%, t o t h e t e l e c o m o p e r a t o r s ' r equ i r emen ts o f ne two rk i ng equipment, solutions or consumers' requirements of terminal equipment. The net outflow of capital on account of telecom imports is staggering at USD 12 Billion in 2009-10, second only to country's oil import bill. It is projected to grow to USD 21 Billion in 2015 and USD 37 Billion by 2020. It is predicted that if the same situation continues, the telecom imports bill will soon overtake oil imports. The lack of
indigenous manufacturing in this sector also means that the country is deprived of a great number of jobs. In order to address the need for indigenous telecom innovation, India's Telecom Manufacturers Association, TEMA is of the opinion that the old paradigm of import substitution will not work in the new liberalized and globalized scenario. According to the association, the Indian telecom products need to have a “strong dose of innovation” to c r e a t e d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n s i n performance, price, features and adaptation to Indian conditions.
However, successful innovations in digitalization, computerization and TDM switching in nineties have been attributed to indigenization of the technologies which not only kept the prices of telecom imports low, as there was always a competing Indian product, but also gave the self-confidence to Indian R&D and manufacturing segments to forge ahead with a confidence that comes from the nation's ability to complete the development of a complex piece of hardware and software through its own efforts. This was well proved by C-DOT Switching products. Korea also experienced similar surge in national confidence and capabilities following indigenous development of switch TDX-11. However, the concept of technology transfer and reverse engineering has not deliver on its promise of innovation drive. It is important to have both the know-how as well as know-why. For existing products, local manufacturing with reverse engineering can be done, b u t t h i s w i l l o n l y c r e a t e “Manufactured in India” products, since the Intellectual Property Rights and profits will accrue to foreign
Special report
How innovation will stimulate telecom industry
Realising that several of its remarkable growth in tele-density has been achieved with the help of imported technology and products, India is seeking an overall approach to re-invent her telecoms industry.
India is a fast changing tech society
Telecom has been one bright spot in India's growth story of last two decades. This sector has performed admirably in registering outstanding growth rates consistently to achieve a tele-density which is over 74% now. The tariffs are the lowest in the world. The multiplier effect of the vastly e x p a n d e d a n d i m p r o v e d telecommunication services has been v is ib le and has con t r ibu ted handsomely to the GDP growth of the country. The India's Telecom Manufacturers Association, TEMA have led industry based telecoms innovation in the past decade. TEMA member companies are both R&D and manufacturing companies. Some of the products developed and manufactured by the member
high-in the globe with a recent GDP
growth recorded at over 9%. Its rising population, growing economic power and internal demand that could sustain itself even during global downturns make this nation and sub-continent one of the most attractive consumer markets in the globe, inc luding te lecommunicat ions services. Moreover, i ts large landmass and large rural population make service innovation a compelling proposition well into the next decade. One of the key markets lies in rural areas and although urbanization has been on the rise, the vast majority or some 70% of the population still resides in rural areas where basic telecommunication services and infrastructure are lacking. Telephones and tablet devices ownership is likewise one of the fastest in the globe and there is still room to grow. In terms of demographics, 70% of the population is below 35 and more than half are below 25 years.
companies. It will also create some expertise building, which if not refreshed will become obsolete soon. Consequently, India is focusing on is “Indian Products” where know-how and know-why exists in India.
Unlike Korea, however, the success of C-DOT in developing TDM switches did not result in a sustained growth of indigenous telecom manufactur ing industry. The indigenous R&D and manufacturing languished. Most of the remarkable growth in tele-density in the country has been achieved with the help of imported technology and products. India's highly successful IT sector has, through its services, helped others to develop innovative products and systems. However, the sector's product ownership and the penetration of IT, with its attendant efficiency benefits, in country's own enterprises and governance remains sub-optimal. Clearly, ICT innovations are needed to create generic technology to redesign and r a t i o n a l i z e p r o d u c t i o n , administration, and transaction processes and to create new processes and products to transform the society as a whole to an information society.
In state support for innovations, we have the example of o ther economies like China, Taiwan and Korea in the fast growing Asian region before us. China in particular, has placed the full force of the state behind the indigenous innovation. According to a report, they coined words like co-innovation and re-innovation to lay claims on the technology developed in the west. The lure of a huge market was used to invite transnational companies into the parlour and part with their technology. In the last 12 years, China has put considerable effort into pushing its technology in the International standards forum. A notable example of this is the home grown technology called TD-SCDMA which is existing in China since 1998. TD-SCDMA forum was formally established in December 2000 and in March 2001 TD-SCDMA was formally accepted by 3GPP. Moving on to 4G technologies the 3GPP
forum kicked off the LTE program in 2004. Europe favored FDD version of LTE. And in addition the Chinese TDMA it is also specified evolution of Chinese TD-SCDMA as TD-LTE. LTE has both versions- FDD and TDD. TD-LTE (evolution of Chinese TD-SCDMA) is likely to be deployed in China. China holds significant IPRs in this technology and is driving the future evolution (TD-LTE+) also. Today, TD-LTE is also being proposed as one of BW technology in India. In sharp contrast, the distribution of Intellectual Property Right in 4G is shifting to other geographical regions apart from US/Europe. Going forward by the projection, in next generation wireless significant amount of Intellectual Property Right will be held by Asia.
Another reason for greater advocacy of indigenous capabilities and manufacturing is from the angle of country's security. Telecom is a strategic infrastructure. The physical and financial security of the country relies ever more heavily on its telecom i n f r a s t r u c t u r e t h e s e d a y s . Adversaries can inflict huge damages on country's security, economy and social fabric by disrupting its network, destroy or tamper with databases and s tea l sens i t i ve i n f o rma t i on . Indigenous technologies and manufacturing are important not only to keep the malware and other security vulnerabilities out but also to develop our knowledge base and expertise to help us in security testing and cer t i f i ca t ion o f te lecom equipment.
Telecom operatorsIndia's telecom operators have played a commendable role in expanding the network to its present level where it is world's second largest network. At the moment, telecom tariffs are the lowest in the world, making it a truly affordable service. In spite of this, the challenge continues, as the next 400 million subscribers will come from rural areas where the tele-density is still poor compared to the urban areas. The ARPUs will be still lower while a poor infrastructure will add to the CAPEX and OPEX pressures. This certainly calls for innovations to register growth amidst such challenges. Operators have
been good practitioners of innovation to reach the present level of network coverage, servicing a large clients' base in different geographies with different cultures, use pattern and challenges of infrastructure and operations. Most of the innovations are internal and gives them competitive advantage over others and hence not readily shared with the industry as best practices. The good performance of the Telecom Operators indicates that the managements must be doing enough to motivate and reward innovations to retain their business edge.
While telecom operators are supportive of their own innovations, they are wary of using the results of R&D and manufacturing sectors' innovations. Operators want well proven products which will give trouble free service. This is not only important from customer satisfaction and operational revenues point of view but is also mandated by the regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India which stipulates pena l t i es fo r de f i c iency o r discontinuity of services. The indigenously developed and manufactured equipment, in all likelihood, follow an evolutionary path where experience derived from field deployment is used to improve the product and services. In fact field trial and initial deployments are almost a part of the development process. For this reason, many countries have, at some point of time, reserved part of their telecom markets and spectrum for the home companies. The operators oppose imposition of mandatory quotas for indigenously developed or manufactured products in their network. They are willing to adopt Indian products if they are of equivalent quality and prices as the imported ones. There are several compelling commercial reasons for telecom operators to prefer imported n e t w o r k e q u i p m e n t . T h e transnational corporations are able to offer very attractive financing terms, of deferred payments, very low rates of interest, revenue sharing model or a combination of some or all of these. Often, the equipment manufacturer is an equity participant
of the operator and has a say in the procurement decisions. Then, Managed Network Services are increasingly being used by the opera to rs . H igh ly ve r t i ca l l y integrated companied like Ericsson and Huawei have cornered a large share of Managed Network Services business. This leaves little scope for Indian products companies who do not have the scale and product range of these companies. Nevertheless, the Telecom Service Providers are using i n d i g e n o u s l y i n n o v a t e d a n d d e v e l o p e d VA S products, most ly from SMEs, where it m a k e s g o o d business sense to them. It shows that the Telecom Service Providers are not averse to us ing indigenous products so long as they are able to measure up to foreign technology products in price and performance. As of now Indian Telecom Service Providers are not very keen on having R&D of their own unlike their large Managed Network S e r v i c e s counterparts l ike Vodafone. As Indian Telecom Service P r o v i d e r s g r o w further in size and d i v e r s i f y t h e i r operations, which is already happening with Africa and Sri Lanka forays of Airtel, they will see value in R&D, whether of their own or in c o l l a b o r a t i o n w i t h R & D organizations, innovations and Intellectual Property for better value creation.
T e l e c o m E q u i p m e n t Manufacturers Today, market access is the major hurdle for the Indian telecom manufactur ing companies to become significant contributors to national economy. Some of the telecom manufacturing companies
have their in-house R&D setups. In that sense, they are both creators and consumers of intellectual property. The SMEs, in particular, rely heavily on i nc remen ta l and rad i ca l innovations of their own to come out with new products and solutions. However, the problems of market access have acted as a big dampener to their efforts and motivation to do R&D, product development and innovate. There have been several
cases where indigenously developed products, with Indian IP, have been kept out by commercial conditions of the tenders that favour imports. There have been cases where products developed in the country by Indian companies have fallen prey to predatory pr ic ing by fore ign companies, who often get all support from their governments. The telecom manufacturing industry in India had been quite vibrant in the nineties. With reference to C-DOT's example, a lot can be achieved with Government's support for indigenous development and access to the market as was evident in the case of
C-DOT's indigenously developed digital switching technology. There was political will to support the indigenous technology developed for local conditions. ITI's 3rd Switching factory was established solely to manufacture C-DOT developed switches for the expansion and digitalization of the telephony network. In post liberalization period, C-DOT continued to work on telecom projects but faced problems of
market access. Some private sector players also invested in R&D to come out with innovative products. B a r r i n g a f e w successes, they have also faced problems of market access.
Academia Academia has great dual responsibility of capacity building and leading R&D. It is from t h e s e n a t i o n a l t e c h n i c a l a n d m a n a g e m e n t institutes that the needed innovators, r e s e a r c h e r s , e n t r e p r e n e u r s , m a n a g e r s a n d bus iness leaders emerge. In developed w o r l d , g r a d u a t e students and research scholars form the b e d r o c k o f R & D community and there is also a healthy industry – academia i n te r f ace . I nd ian
academia is best suited to play a leading role in innovation and generation of Intellectual Property. For disruptive innovation, we must nurture universities and technical institutes. Innovation is often multi-disciplinary. Thus a healthy, vibrant university atmosphere where students / researchers working in different areas interact in many formal and informal settings can be a fertile ground for innovative ideas and technologies.
Satellite Backup
NigComSat eyes Amos 5
By Esther Usman
hy exactly should I consider deploying NigComSat 1R Wtransponders for my broadcast
and telecommunications services amidst competing operators with footprints over Africa? A question broadcast service providers across Africa and indeed the rest of the world quite rightly pose when looking at the emerging operators in the satellite market that will best meet its current and future communications needs.
Whilst it is true that that the Nigerian Communication Satellite programmes have had a shaky start, its new satellite NigComSat 1R still retain a number of key advantages and even offer new ones in terms of functionality, reliability and cost effectiveness. Indeed, there are a number of compelling reasons why the communication satellite programme survived and why it will continue to thrive in key market sectors, especially with new advances such as Ka band and high energy beams.
NigComSat, its familiar acronym, grew from the National Space Research & Development Agency, NASRDA that was set up in Nigeria in 1999 by the government of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. The Niger ian space programme gave birth to NigComSat-1 then as sub-Saharan Africa's first communications satellite, launched in May 2007 and located at 42.5°E. During its early stage, NigComSat used its first satellite NigComSat-1 to provide services via transponder lease and sales to private telecom operators and the broadcasting industry. By early 2008, NigComSat had leased over half of its C and Ku band transponders, which gave its customers expanded footprint over sub-Saharan Africa, according to its Managing Director, Ahmad Rufa'i.
With 40 transponders made up of 30 active and 10 redundant, the satellite's footprint extends over the Earth that ran across Africa, Europe and the Middle East. NigComSat–1 was designed to c a t e r f o r t e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n , broadcasting, Internet & multimedia services together with tele-education and tele-health services.
Designed to operate in the C-band (4 t r a n s p o n d e r s ) , K u b a n d ( 1 4 transponders), Ka band (8 transponders) and L band transponders, it was designed to provide voice, data, video, Internet, and global
positioning/navigational functions. NigComSat–1 has better look angles and shor te r la tency fo r in t ra -Af r i ca communication traffic and high fade margin compensation for attenuation losses due to rain.
However, this apparent high transponder filing was short lived after the satellite lost power from the southern solar array. It finally failed in November 2008 due to a technical error of the satellite's northern solar array and was sent to a graveyard orbit as it became apparent, that the satellite could not be recovered.
The replacement satelliteNigComSat 1R is the name of the replacement satellite launched by Nigerian Government in December, 2011 to extend support telecommunication and digital broadcasting services to public and private sector organisations in Africa.
Today, the replacement NigComSat 1R, launched in 2011 have had several modifications to its payload with enhanced power for Ka band to provide the most optimal and cost effective voice, data, video, Internet and application service/solutions, however, the absence of a dependable back-up satellite at the moment that can be relied upon in event of failure is causing upset in the space capacity market, says a market analysts.
With a new corporate sales strategy centred on the flexibility and advanced features of the NigComSat 1R system, the company is now viewed as the primary direct alternative to Intelsat 903 satellite in Africa. At the moment, the Ka-band on the NigComSat 1R satellite has now become one o f today 's fas tes t -g row ing technologies because of the growing demand for capacity and there are other Ka band satellite broadband services being offered in Africa.
Although the big 3 operators, intelsat, SES and Eutelsat, collectively control nearly 60% of commercially available C- and Ku-band FSS transponders, with Intelsat alone accounting for around one third of the total market. NigComSat 1R can possibly go head-to-head with the Intelsat 903, one of Africa's largest satellite providers in terms of uplink power and energy at the down link, says a broadcast analyst.
Addressing downtime and business continuity
NigComSat has chosen a backup solution from AMOS satellite for its strength in VSAT network to support services deployed in Africa and parts of Middle East. The powerful Ku and C-band beams and high elevation angle of the AMOS satellites over the Africa will enable the fledging satellite company to continue to provide its customers with a variety of services including, broadband internet, voice, private networks, cellular backhaul, broadcast and more, says a Telecom analyst.A l r e a d y , N i g e r i a ' s D A A R Communications launched its Nigerian Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite TV service DAARSAT on Spacecom's Amos-5 satellite at 17 degrees East. DAARSAT is the eighth Nigerian DTH service on the Amos-5, joining the Infinity and HiBand services among others, and is now available as a stand-alone digital TV service to all of Nigeria.
Launched in 2011 to the 17°E orbital position, a new orbital slot over Africa, the AMOS-5 satel l i te posi t ions Spacecom at the forefront of Africa's emerging satellite services market. The AMOS-5 satellite features a fixed pan-African C-band beam and three steerable Ku-band beams — all covering Africa with connectivity to Europe and the Middle East and supporting multiple transponders in both C-band and Ku-band. The AMOS-5 satellite supports Spacecom customers a wide range of satellite services, such as Direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting, VSAT communications and broadband Internet, Telephony services, Data trunking, Cellular backhaul and Video distribution.
AMOS promised to delivered service for NigComSat operations on AMOS-5 satellites, via its multiple high-p e r f o r m a n c e a n d h i g h p o w e r transponders. Using the AMOS DBS platform, NigComSat will continue to support digital TV and audio channels and a variety of value-added services, including interactive applications, in-house translated TV channels, radio channels and music channels “Music Select”. Together with the AMOS-2 and the AMOS-3 satellites co-located at Spacecom's 4°W orbital “hot spot,” the AMOS-5 satellite gives customers coverage over many of the world's fastest growing and highest-demand satellite markets in the Middle East and Africa.
aar digital services, Daarsat l aunched i t s commerc ia l m u l t i c h a n n e l s a t e l l i t e D
broadcasting services in 2008, and in the same year it began to broadcast signals to customers via transponder lease from Intelsat satellite. Its wide coverage eliminated poor TV reception in some remote areas. To attract subscribers, Daarsat stressed the high quality of its transmission and the greater number of its new channels it could provide compared to its competitors.Now, five years later, Daarsat has become a competitive player in the Niger ian broadcast ing industry. Developing digital broadcast service in Africa doesn't come easy. In Nigeria, Daarsat devote itself to developing satellite broadcasting system: satellites, set top boxes, broadcasting centres, customer centres, distribution channels, and lined up channels. Against all odds, Daarsat managed to organise its system in short period of time and launch its services.
In the year of launch, Daarsat initiates a relentless drive to acquire customers using cost reduction as a strategy to attract prospecting customers. The cost of acquitting customers was to be recovered from high profits once Daarsat achieved a critical mass of subscribers. The company is channelling a bulk of its resources into establishing a distribution channel and subsidising customers' purchases of set top boxes. At the moment, the company is planning to cross the million subscriber bar.
With the financial backing of local financial and international institutions, the company was set out to find the required technology. Their search led them to Norwegian security specialist Conax. And since 2008, Conex technology had remained an essential link in the Daar Communication family – the key to protecting all the content of this leading broadcasting group. Conax, a global provider of leading solutions for securing multi-device and digital TV services, recently reconfirmed its new relationship with Daarsat after it has agreed to an upgrade to the Conax Contego Broadcast(TM) content security solution.
Similarly, Daarsat worked to overcome programme deficiency by offering interactive services and adding a high definition channel to standard definition channels. At the same time, attempt was made to develop satellite specific channels.
In late last year, Daarsat continued building up its customer base with higher veracity than in 2008. A tough nut to crack was penetrating the multi-dwelling unit market such as apartments. As about 40 per cent of city dwellers lives in apartments. One feature of Daarsat pay TV business is its low subscription rates compared to those of its competitors.
Before the launch of its service, Daarsat had collected a long list of its customers, but it could not accommodate many of them because of shortage of set top boxes. As customers became tired of waiting for service, many of them drop off the list.
As of December 30, 2010, the number of individual subscribers to the multi-channel pay TV services has reached 700,000. But while the number of subscriptions has continued to increase, the speed of growth has unfortunately slowed significantly over the past several years. This spectacular result in such a short time was not achieved, however, without trials and tribulations. According to the, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, Chairman of Daar Communications Plc the business environment in Nigeria characterised by inadequate infrastructure for business operations, unstable exchange rate, security challenges and unstable power supply has continued to affect the fortune of the company. In 2010, Daarsat recorded a turn over of N4.825 billion as against N7.3 billion recorded in the previous year. Based on the release presented by the company's chairman, the result of 2010 shows a loss of N 1.6 billion. In the same year, interest and similar charges amounted to N1.953 billion representing 81 per cent of the gross profit for the year. This figure, according to the company was responsible for the loss recorded in the year under review. Although efforts were made to service the loan from the company's operations, the non-payment
of the outstanding debts owned the company has exacerbated its position. Compared to other pay TV operators, Daarsat is a late comer to the broadcasting business. It could be said that Daarsat should have been given preferential treatment in its programming because of its late arrival. The company however suffered from reverse discrimination. Dominant service operators of ten forced smal ler programme provider out of their line up. Daarsat inability to offer superior sport channels and top programming created a huge impediment to growth.
Attracting Viewers to Daarsat HDDaarsat's HD broadcasts began in October 2008, with the current 15-channel HD lineup. There are also plans in the works to eventually increase the channel line up. Use of the DVB-S2 transmission format and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video compression, both of which are in wide use worldwide, has enabled the t ransmiss ion o f more HD programming than ever before. SD broadcasts emerged as Nigeria's first full digital services in 1996, and consist of some 180 SD video channels and roughly 100 channels with voice-only broadcasts. The Daarsat HD service is the first ever of its kind in Nigeria, covering both HD and SD broadcasts, and is today the Company's core profit center. The set-top boxes (STBs) required to receive these services is offered for sale directly by Daarsat. The graphical user interface and remote control that come with both product varieties have been designed to make them easy for seniors and children to use by incorporating larger text and letters, cursors, icons and buttons. The STB can also be acquired with a 45-cm D class antenna compatible for reception from service satellites.
Nigeria
Daarsat is up and running
Nigeria's digital TV outfit, Daarsat, is keen to get its pay TV network up and running and has recently partnered Conax to secure its DTH and DTT platforms for digital migration. SpaceWatch reports.
O R O C C A N K I N G MOHAMMED VI huge M i n v e s t m e n t i n
Communications Technologies may have unlocked new potential in other sectors of the economy. In fact, when one speaks w i th Moroccan technology leaders the typical points of comparison are France, South Korea, Switzerland and the United States rather than other African countries. Morocco is the first country in North Africa to install 3G networks, and has invested heavily in ICT expenditure compared to its counterparts in the Middle East and North African region. According to World Bank, Morocco spent 12.5% of its GDP on ICT capital expenditure versus a MENA average of 5.8% in 2008. Its mobile penetration rose by over 20 percentage points to 101% in 2010, according to telecommunications regulator ANRT. At the moment, it offers a range of ICT services including infrastructure solutions, mobile computing, location based services, i n t e g r a t e d m a n a g e m e n t s o l u t i o n s / B P O , a n d I C T democratization services.
Another area where this impact felt is the level of ICT penetration and revenue per line across amongst the SMEs, corporate organisations, educat iona l ins t i tu t ions and households. Morocco's dedication to the ICT sector is most clearly apparent in the Government's creat ion o f the Casablanca Technopark , an in fo rmat ion technology business cluster complex located in Casablanca, Morocco. It is Morocco's first industrial park, built in 2006, and has been followed by at least 2 others in the country. Morocco is reaching a critical mass in terms of ICT penetration and the focus has sh i f ted f rom get t ing people connected to more advanced
endeavors such as localizing content and providing offshoring capabilities. In recent times, the country has become one of the leading suppliers of ICT services and is essential to businesses in the Middle East and Europe.
In Morocco, domestically developed ICT companies have benefited from high penetration of technology, and strong public-private sector alignment
o n technology. The success of our
N o r t h
African I T companie s a n d o t h e r M o r o c c a n h o l d i n g s has been hinged on t h e M o r o c c a n government's dedication to expanding the ICT i n d u s t r y v i a various i n i t i a t i v e s i n c l u d i n g launching incubators such as the Casablanca Technopark and Ifram University to host ICT companies and creating free trade zones with tax breaks and legal guarantees to encourage ICT development.
Opportunities in the ICT sector
The local ICT sector in Morocco is largely concentrated in the
outsourcing (BPO), advisory, and infrastructure space though there is a strong concentration of content and solutions developers. In fact, over two hundred technology and BPO focused companies are o p e r a t e d f r o m t e c h n o l o g y complexes in Casablanca and Rabat and four additional complexes a round the coun t ry a re in development stages.
According to the International Telecommunication Union, ITU in a report release in 2010, there are over five major telecommunications companies serving the domestic space in Morocco. This high level of competition has led to a high quality
of phone and internet service at affordable prices with internet
penetration nearing 50%, mobil e p e n e t r a t i o n
eclipsing 100%, and the average cost of
broadband ranging from USD 15 to USD
30 per month. Further, the Moroccan government's
ac t i on t o reduce t rade restriction for IT equipment has also helped to lower prices for enterprise grade networking hardware and retail devices. In
2009, Morocco joined the WTO Information Technology Agreement (ITA) that removed all tariff barriers to IT products. In addition to reduced hardware costs, the strong brick and mortar retail presence of telecoms providers has also helped to boost telecoms penetration by lowering the barriers to access. In fact, in most major travel hubs particularly train stations and airports, there are several providers offering affordable prepaid and subscription based telecoms services and mobile phone setup time takes less than five minutes as SIM registration is not required. The confluence of low cost, easy access, and relatively high GDP per capita of ~ USD 5,000 has led to a country with one of the
Morocco
Getting aheadMoroccan government has taken steps to create a fertile ICT environment, despite political unrest and increasing unemployment in the saturated IT sector.
Kenya is on the way to becoming the cornerstone community in Africa's ICT landscape, but its lack of reliable data centers and general infrastructure, which have led to higher costs for software-as-service (SaaS) or on-demand' offerings has continued to affect the development of ICT industry. So far, Kenya is the East Africa's technology gateway due to a mixture of innovative thinking and investment in the SEACOM, TEAMS, and EASSY submarine cables. On the overall assessment, Kenya's ICT infrastructure has improved dramatically. At the moment, the cost of a monthly broadband subscription had fallen to less than USD 39 due largely to the successful completion of the TEAMS and SEACOM undersea cable projects. Furthermore, with the launch of the Kenya Internet Exchange Point (KIXP), latency has declined dramatically. The Communications Commission of Kenya reports that as of 4Q 2010, mobile penetration stands at 61% and Internet penetration is at 22% both well above the continental average.
Although current mobile penetration rates are over 60% and growing rapidly, Kenya's Internet penetration rate remains low at approximately 15%, attributed to limited cable installation in rural areas. Also, constant power outages as well as hardware security r isks have constrained overal l productivity. In Kenya, content creators rather than just users are emerging from Kenya. Companies like Ushahidi, Pamoja, and Digital Villages are developing web-based solutions that are used around the globe. For example, Ushahidi (meaning ¯testimony in Swahili) fulfilled a local and international need when it developed a SMS based crowd-sourcing platform to highlight unrest after the 2007 election violence in Kenya. Ushahidi used anonymous tips to plot and publish hot spots for violence around the country. Due to its speed and accuracy, Ushahidi's technology was then leveraged in Haiti, Australia, and t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s t o i n f o r m stakeholders. The Ushahidi example proves three things, the first is that among Africa's billion people, there exist
both creators and users, second that there is a hunger for tech resources and a true place in society for them, and third, that the scalable ICT story lies with mobile technology. As ICT innovators develop the next generation of technology they do so with an eye towards cross capability between the PC as a programming platform and the mobile phone as a data gathering and dissemination platform.The success of Ushahidi, KenCall, Equity Bank's mobile payments offering were driven by the ingenuity of the innovators leading the company, but a hospitable business environment also catalyzed their development.
At the moment, it still has limited ability to create a pan-African enterprise and capitalize on opportunities for intra-regional trade. This constraint forces Kenyan companies to operate within local markets, even though these companies want to expand beyond their immediate region and enable products to be sold in other countries. The main deterrents to regional trade are poor and inadequate transportation networks, lack of trust, certification and compliance issues, and varying levels of connectivity and needs per country. This challenge is further aggravated by the fact that the existing policy frameworks may not be conducive to intra-regional trade
Additionally, government has made it a central mission to support ICT development, moving beyond words to action by creating an ICT Board. This body encourages ICT development by funding projects and promoting growth in Kenya's tax free zones for tech companies serving international customers. Furthermore, Kenya's highly educated population with adult literacy rate of 87%, according to UNICEF, as wel l as i ts proximity to ports, communication lines, and eastern markets, all has contributed to the growth of its ICT sector.
This body encourages ICT development by funding projects and promoting growth in Kenya's tax free zones for tech companies serving international customers. Furthermore, Kenya's highly educated population with adult literacy rate of 87%, according to UNICEF, as
well as its proximity to ports, communication lines, and eastern markets, all has contributed to the growth of its ICT sector.
Opportunities for ICTThe Kenyan tech space has benefited from strong environmental factors. These foundational drivers include an educated populace with access to broad based primary through graduate level institutions, a large diaspora who return to the country, and high exposure to international institutions due in part to its role as the African base for many Multinational Corporations (MNC) and multi-lateral organizations. Technology stakeholders have built on this foundation to develop a tech hub and are making positive strides up the ¯hierarchy of needs.
Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) are core pillars of Kenya's Vision 2030 plan. Through STI initiatives, the Kenyan government intends to raise productivity and efficiency through increased resource allocation to scientific research penetration. Through efforts by the Communications Commission of Kenya to appropriately regulate providers, and the Kenya ICT board to provide programmatic and financial support of ICT initiatives, the Kenyan government has put in place supportive bodies with teeth that have had a meaningful impact on the evolution of ICT in Kenya.
Kenya is unique in that a single, non-g o v e r n m e n t o w n e d o p e r a t o r, Safaricom, dominates the market, with a 70% and 92% share of mobile and Internet subscriptions respectively, according to the Communications Commission of Kenya. This market dominance has enabled Safaricom to launch initiatives that have rapidly changed the cadence of Kenyan ICT at a retail level. Most notable is the ubiquity of Safaricom's mobile payments platform, mPesa that has served as a foundation for e-commerce and mobile BPO companies like Virtual City and Seven Seas. With a widespread and common platform for sending and receiving payments, barriers for e-commerce have come down from both a vendor and purchaser perspective.
Kenya's ICT story is still developing and despite setbacks, this East African hub is poised to serve the needs of its people. SpaceWatch reports.
Kenya
Poised for growth
Kenya is on the way to becoming the cornerstone community in Africa's ICT landscape, but its lack of reliable data centers and general infrastructure, which have led to higher costs for software-as-service (SaaS) or on-demand' offerings has continued to affect the development of ICT industry. So far, Kenya is the East Africa's technology gateway due to a mixture of innovative thinking and investment in the SEACOM, TEAMS, and EASSY submarine cables. On the overall assessment, Kenya's ICT in f ras t ruc tu re has improved dramatically. At the moment, the cost of a monthly broadband subscription had fallen to less than USD 39 due largely to the successful completion of the TEAMS and SEACOM undersea cable projects. Furthermore, with the launch of the Kenya Internet Exchange Point (KIXP), latency has d e c l i n e d d r a m a t i c a l l y. T h e Communications Commission of Kenya reports that as of 4Q 2010, mobile penetration stands at 61% and Internet penetration is at 22% both well above the continental average.
Although current mobile penetration rates are over 60% and growing rapidly, Kenya's Internet penetration rate remains low at approximately 15%, attributed to limited cable installation in rural areas. Also, constant power outages as well as hardware security r isks have constrained overall productivity.
In Kenya, content creators rather than just users are emerging from Kenya. Companies like Ushahidi, Pamoja, and Digital Villages are developing web-based solutions that are used around the globe. For example, Ushahidi (meaning ¯testimony in Swahil i) fulf i l led a local and international need when it developed a SMS based crowd-sourcing platform to highlight unrest after the 2007 election violence in Kenya. Ushahidi used anonymous tips to plot and publish hot spots for violence around the country. Due to its speed and accuracy, Ushahidi's technology was then leveraged in Haiti, Australia, and the United States to inform stakeholders. The Ushahidi example proves three things, the first is that among Africa's billion people, there exist both creators and users, second that there is a hunger for tech
resources and a true place in society for them, and third, that the scalable ICT story lies with mobile technology. As ICT innovators develop the next generation of technology they do so with an eye towards cross capability between the PC as a programming platform and the mobile phone as a data gathering and dissemination platform.The success of Ushahidi, KenCall, Equity Bank's mobile payments offering were driven by the ingenuity of the innovators leading the company, but a hospitable business environment also catalyzed their development. At the moment, it still has limited ability to create a pan-African enterprise and capitalize on opportunities for intra-regional trade. This constraint forces Kenyan companies to operate within local markets, even though these companies want to expand beyond their immediate region and enable products to be sold in other countries. The main deterrents to regional trade are poor and inadequate transportation networks, lack of trust, certification and compliance issues, and varying levels of connectivity and needs per country. This challenge is further aggravated by the fact that the existing policy frameworks may not be conducive to intra-regional tradeAdditionally, government has made it a centra l miss ion to support ICT development, moving beyond words to action by creating an ICT Board. This body encourages ICT development by funding projects and promoting growth in Kenya's tax free zones for tech companies serving international customers. Furthermore, Kenya's highly educated population with adult literacy rate of 87%, according to UNICEF, as well as its proximity to ports, communication lines, and eastern markets, all has contributed to the growth of its ICT sector. Opportunities for ICTThe Kenyan tech space has benefited from strong environmental factors. These foundational drivers include an educated populace with access to broad based pr imary through graduate leve l institutions, a large diaspora who return to the country, and high exposure to international institutions due in part to its role as the African base for many Multinational Corporations (MNC) and multi-lateral organizations. Technology stakeholders have built on this foundation to develop a tech hub and are making positive strides up the ¯hierarchy of needs.
base for many Multinational Corporations (MNC) and multi-lateral organizations. Technology stakeholders have built on this foundation to develop a tech hub and are making positive strides up the ̄ hierarchy of needs. Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) are core pillars of Kenya's Vision 2030 plan. Through STI initiatives, the Kenyan government intends to raise productivity and efficiency through increased resource al locat ion to scient i f ic research penetration. Through efforts by the Communications Commission of Kenya to appropriately regulate providers, and the Kenya ICT board to provide programmatic and financial support of ICT initiatives, the Kenyan government has put in place supportive bodies with teeth that have had a meaningful impact on the evolution of ICT in Kenya. Kenya is unique in that a single, non-government owned operator, Safaricom, dominates the market, with a 70% and 92% share of mobile and Internet subscriptions respectively, according to the Communications Commission of Kenya. This market dominance has enabled Safaricom to launch initiatives that have rapidly changed the cadence of Kenyan ICT at a retail level. Most notable is the ubiquity of Safaricom's mobile payments platform, mPesa that has served as a foundation for e-commerce and mobile BPO companies like Virtual City and Seven Seas. With a widespread and common platform for sending and receiving payments, barriers for e-commerce have come down from both a vendor and purchaser perspective.Kenya's ICT landscape has also benefited from its large Diaspora population. Research conducted by the Institute for Public Policy Research in London indicated that Kenyans made up the second largest group of Africans in Britain in the early 2000s and a government working paper estimated that by the mid 2000s, the Kenyan Diaspora population included two million people. Alongside stabilization and reform in government, Kenya is seeing some of the Diaspora return with higher levels of education and work experience from top global institutions. Local leaders believes that these technology leaders of the Kenyan Diaspora are returning with international networks, capital, exposure to the benefits of automation, and a desire to use their assets to solve Kenya's problems. In fact, upon analyzing the Kenyan landscape most of the leaders of top technology companies like Ushahidi, Wananchi, KenCall, and Craft Silicon were educated and lived for at least a year outside of Kenya.
Satellite sector in gigabit era“The fibre guys talk a lot about bandwidth, but they have very little idea what we can bring to the table,” says ATCi CEO, Gary Hatch during his
keynote address at the recent Asia Pacific PTC' 13 conference.
