ICANN Approves Historic Change to Internet's Domain Name System

ICANN's Board of Directors has approved a plan to usher in one of the biggest changes ever to the Internet's Domain Name System.

During a special meeting, the Board approved a plan to dramatically increase the number of Internet domain name endings -- called generic top-level domains (gTLDs) -- from the current 22, which includes such familiar domains as .com, .org and .net.

"ICANN has opened the Internet's naming system to unleash the global human imagination. Today's decision respects the rights of groups to create new Top Level Domains in any language or script. We hope this allows the domain name system to better serve all of mankind," said Rod Beckstrom, President and Chief Executive Officer of ICANN.

New gTLDs will change the way people find information on the Internet and how businesses plan and structure their online presence. Internet address names will be able to end with almost any word in any language, offering organizations around the world the opportunity to market their brand, products, community or cause in new and innovative ways.

The decision to proceed with the gTLD program follows many years of discussion, debate and deliberation with the Internet community, business groups and governments. The Applicant Guidebook, a rulebook explaining how to apply for a new gTLD, went through seven significant revisions to incorporate more than 1,000 comments from the public. Strong efforts were made to address the concerns of all interested parties, and to ensure that the security, stability and resiliency of the Internet are not compromised.

ICANN will soon begin a global campaign to tell the world about this dramatic change in Internet names and to raise awareness of the opportunities afforded by new gTLDs. Applications for new gTLDs will be accepted from 12 January 2012 to 12 April 2012.

It will cost $185,000 to apply for the suffixes, and companies would need to show they have a legitimate claim to the name they are buying.

Analysts say it is a price that global giants might be willing to pay - in order to maximise their internet presence.

The money will be used to cover costs incurred by Icann in developing the new gTLDs and employing experts to scrutinise the many thousands of expected applications.

A portion will be set-aside to deal with potential legal actions, raised by parties who fail to get the domains they want.

Vodacom South Africa low uptake of MPESA

I was quite surprised to read elsewhere that Vodacom SA has had such a poor uptake of MPESA unlike its sister companies in East Africa.

So far it had only registered about 100,000 MPESA users since August 2010, whereas it had expected to registered 10 million MPESA users within the next three years. Compare this with 8.6 million registered users in Tanzania and 12 million registered users in Kenya.

Guess that is due to the level of economic development and sophistication of the banking sector in SA compared to what we have in Eastern and Central Africa, where a majority of the populace was unbanked till the other day when banking responded to the needs of the mass and low income segment, which supported by Safaricom’s MPESA, has seen it moving close to Ksh 600 million monthly.

Mobile phones and the link to cancer

Though at this stage a WHO study says that mobile phones are possibly carcinogenic, it just confirms what has been fears of the estimated five billion mobile phone users globally.

The link seems to point at a type of brain tumour especially for the mobile phone addicts who cannot help put down their phones from their ears. Advise now is text more and text less especially in this era where talking over the mobile phone is far cheaper than texting.

So next time you want to chase after those free calls all night long, think twice, you never know!

Is it worth it, mobile number portability in Kenya?

Barely two weeks after CCK launched the mobile number portability, latest statistics released by the regulator indicates that only 8,000 subscribers have migrated their numbers as of April 13, 2o11.

This amidst the claims from the mobile phone companies accusing each other of sabotaging the process and frustrating outbound subscribers in a bid to lock them in within their network, and which CCK has gone public to deny that this is not the case.

The reasons for the low uptake in porting requests have been attributed to two major aspects that define the unique Kenyan calling habits.

Firstly, quite a number of the subscribers have at least two SIM cards, enabling them enjoy services of two or more networks (I have to admit I am one of them, and frankly, not bothered at all with migrating when I can still enjoy the benefits of the two networks subscribed to).

Secondly, the issue of long delays before porting and the porting fee which locally has been capped at KES 200 is also another factor. The cost is way above that of purchasing a new SIM card that can cost anywhere from KES 10 to KES 50, and besides providing more than two hours of talk time in this era of KES 1 per minute call.

Porting Access Kenya Co Ltd targets at least 300,000 ports a year, for it to break even. To meet this (impossible), the firm must process over 25,000 ports a month (so far they might get 16,000 porting requests in April if the momentum is sustained). This casts doubts whether Porting Access Kenya Co Ltd might return any profits.

The firm’s local partner has spent € 2.5 million (KES 300 million) on the MNP platform and operations. The firm currently has 15 employees on its payroll.

Mobile phone firms have introduced a number of offers to tempt subscribers  to port.

Safaricom says it invested KES 800 million (USD $10 million) in new equipment and service awareness.

Telkom Kenya's Orange says it has spent KES 360 million (USD $ 4.5 million) .

Analysts say the service came four to five years late into the Kenyan market.

And this was confirmed by a study conducted by TNS RMS, which indicated that in Kenya, multi-SIM holding is a common practice with 40% of the mobile phone subscribers holding more than one SIM. The results of the study by TNS Mobile Life study is quite interesting and looks at other aspects of mobile telephony across the world. You can access at www.discovermobilelife.com.

April 1 it is for the number portability

Further to my earlier post on the forthcoming number portability that is due to start starts in 10 days, it is now official that subscribers will have to pay to switch operators at a one-off fee of KES. 173 (USD 2.03). 

The four mobile phone operators in the country — Safaricom, Airtel Kenya, Telkom Kenya and Essar Telecom Kenya Ltd, trading as yu — started technical trials on Friday last week.

The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) said the operators were ready for the launch.

Porting Access Kenya Ltd, the firm carrying out the project, is targeting 300,000 ports (number of subscribers switching operators) a year.

The first step is to inform your current and new operator of the intention to switch. The next move would be to surrender your SIM card to the current provider and acquire another SIM card from the new network.

The service will be activated within two working days after paying the porting fee to the provider facilitating the transfer. However, it would take at least 60 days before switching networks again.

For instance, those leaving Safaricom would lose the value added services subscribed for earlier such as M-Pesa. However, they would tap into the services in the new network.

Already Safaricom is on the warpath in a bid to retain its customers, and is offering the cheapest post paid options such as PostPay100 where a subscriber paying KES 1,000 (approx. USD 11.83) is entitles to 900 minutes in-network calls, 100 minutes out-of-network calls, 100 smses in-network and 100 MB data bundle; to the PostPay2500 that entitles you to 2,200 minutes in-network calls, 300 minutes out-of-network calls, 250 smses in-network and 100 MB data.

Do not forget too that Safaricom now is charging Blackberry subscribers only KES. 999 for usage per month!

Over to you Airtel and others for your better options!

Mobile number portability ON in Kenya

Come April 1, 2011 Kenyan mobile subscribers will start changing their mobile phone service providers without having to surrender their numbers as early as next year at a charge of Ksh. 200 (USD $ 2.35).

Telecoms market regulator, the Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK), initiated the process in 2010 through newspaper advertisements asking the public to submit their views on the number portability service.

Though CCK had given the mobile phone service providers a deadline of December 31, 2010, this passed as they failed to start implementing the service. CCK had identified number portability as one of the necessary interventions required to further enhance a competitive environment. Benchmark studies carried out by CCK indicates that Service Provider Number Portability (SPNP) offers effective intervention in markets that are dominated by single players.

In Africa, number portability has been implemented by three countries so far: South Africa in 2006, Nigeria in 2007 and Egypt in 2008. The process of switching will not be automatic for first users—it will take a maximum of three days from the time of request for the service to be able to use the feature.   Compare with other countries already on number portability, prior to March 2008 it took a minimum of 5 working days to port a number in the UK compared to 2 hours only in USA, as low as 20 minutes in the Republic of Ireland, 3 minutes in Australia and even a matter of seconds in New Zealand. By end of 2009, UK had reduced the period to not more than 2 hours through the  recipient led porting  implemented on 1 September 2009.

Airtel Kenya has taken to aggressive advertising of the number portability and is hoping to persuade more subscribers, especially from Safaricom migrate to Airtel due to its low cost calls and service support. However, it seems that mobile money transfer services such as MPESA are excluded from the portability service, ensuring that Safaricom retains its army of 18 million users, ensuring that its major revenue line is still intact.

Time will tell us if the recent price wars will bring rewards to the telecoms that have been viciously involved in the fight to attract new subscribers.

Kenya’s mobile telephony and Internet review for 2010-2011

                  

In brief

The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) recent quarterly report for 2010/2011 confirms what we have known so far, that the recent price wars between Safaricom and Airtel have led to increased mobile line subscribers and reduced revenues for the telcos. Click here to access the report.

Overall teledensity rose to 56.9 per cent from 53.3 per cent in June 2010, with mobile services accounting for 55.9 per cent.

Mobile traffic and usage patterns

A total of 6.63 billion minutes of local calls were made on the mobile networks against 6.05 billion in the previous quarter, representing 9.6 per cent increase. Similarly, the number of voice minutes received on all mobile networks was 6.63 billion minutes, representing 97.5 per cent increase from the same period of the previous year. The number of SMS recorded during the quarter was 740 million text messages compared to 769.6 million text messages sent the previous quarter. This is attributed to the recent price wars between Safaricom and Airtel Networks, and which have featured recently in the Kenyan parliament where the government was concerned at the projected drop in tax revenues from the telcos amounting to KES. 5 billion (USD $ 62,500,000).

Internet traffic and usage patterns

The total number of internet subscriptions registered 4.3 per cent growth from 3.09 million in the previous quarter, Jun 2010, to 3.2 million in the quarter under review. The number of internet users was estimated at 8.69 million from 7.8 million users in the previous quarter. Broadband subscriptions increased from 18,626 subscribers in the previous quarter to 84,726 representing 0.97 per cent of the total internet subscriptions in the country, and is the primary driver towards the internet subscriptions.

Mobile operators continue to dominate the internet market with more than 98 per cent of the Internet market share being through mobile services

The international internet connectivity bandwidth recorded marginal decline from 20,384.12Mbps in the previous quarter to 20,209.56Mbps during the quarter under review. This was as a result of decline in VSAT connectivity.

Mobile tariffs

Mobile tariffs reduced significantly over the quarter registering an average of KES 2.65 (USD $ 0.033) for on-net calls per minute from KES 4.78 (USD $ 0.059) per minute in the previous period and KES 2.5 (USD $ 0.03) for post-paid subscribers at the end of the quarter under review.

This represents 33.4 per cent reduction on pre-paid tariffs and 55.5 per cent on post-paid tariffs from the previous period.

The tariff decline is attributed to an interconnection determination by the Commission during the period that saw mobile termination rates reduced to KES 2.21 (USD $ 0.028) from KES 4.42 (USD $ 0.055).

People Power! Internet Power and African Revolutions

 

 

 

 

 

The events in the last few weeks in Tunisia and Egypt have been very interesting to follow. Who would have thought that one day an African government would be overthrown in a revolution (Dignity Revolution) largely attributed to an Internet savvy generation.

Looking more closely at the events unfolding, one would not have failed to have noticed that this youthful chunk of the population has been exposed to modern cultures – hip hop, Facebook, YouTube, urbanization, technology etc. Now try and compare them against the old generation of leaders that are  deeply steeped towards spiritualism, corruption and short sighted policies that can be considered ultra conservative, and what you have is a time bomb waiting to explore. In this case modernity is viewed as as a self-liberating process, with technology that provides an opportunity to other cultures and worlds not previously accessible to them. To them the old generation is a major stumbling block to all that they aspire for, wish for and dream of attaining in their lifetime. At stake was a dictatorship so typical of Africa countries that had an overdue date stamp and had lost touch with its citizenry in the 21st century.

According to the 2010 CIA World Factbook, Tunisia’s estimated population in July 2010 was 10,589,025, with an age structure as shown below:

0-14 years: 22.7% (male 1,227,238/female 1,149,796)
15-64 years: 70.1% (male 3,701,661/female 3,652,322)
65 years and over: 7.2% (male 352,003/female 403,319) (2010 est.)

the total total median age is 29.7 years, representative of a country with a large population of its citizenry in the below 35 years that is evidently been Internet fed.

This is supported by statistics provided by Internet World Stats site that shows that there are were 3,600,000 Internet users as of June 10,  a 34.0% of the population penetration rate that places among the top African countries with the largest proportion of its citizenry on the net.

Further analysis of its social networking behaviourism of this youth by Socialbakers, a marketing consulting firm that specializes on Facebook usage, shows that there were a total of 2,066,340  Facebook users this month, which is 57.40% penetration of its Internet users! Interesting aspects of the age structure is revealed by analysis of the Socialbakers site as illustrated below:

As can be seen, 80% of these users are between 16-34 years, and you can begin now to understand what the so called “Generation Y” is capable of doing!

It will be even more interesting to watch the cascading effect of Tunisia’s revolution in Jordan and Kuwait, and any other Arab countries in the Middle East. Egyptians, under 30-years rule of Mubarak is undergoing cataclysmic changes in political spheres, and will perhaps make one day a fine reading on history of how modern or contemporary technologies revolutionize the world we live in.

facecrook

Whilst still on Malaysia, the crooks here are going to the book, Facebook, that is. A common story all over the world with the new social networking era.

Most of the cases are identity thefts, with telephone numbers, even photographs being lifted off for crimes ranging from drug trafficking to blackmail and sexual harassment.

In Malaysia alone, some 400 crimes involving Facebook were reported to a cyber security group. According to an international survey of 2010, Malaysians are at the top with the most number of friends on social networking websites like Facebook with an average of 233, and spending up to nine hours each week logged on! Malaysia is ranked 15 with 9 899 460Facebook users (37.75% of its population), with US at the top of the list with 146 591 880users, according to the Socialbakers site. Kenya surprisingly has 999 700 users, Uganda 253 620 users and Tanzania 220 560 users.

Facebook users the world over have been posting on many occasions personal details such as birth dates, addresses and telephone numbers on the website and which has been a boon for identity fraudsters.

Hackers operating on social networks can easily create fake profiles and send friendship requests to unsuspecting users within their target groups.

Many users have become victims of identity frauds, harassment, blackmail and lost money through various scams operated via the website.

Kenyan TV commercials

One of those things I could wish for is access to a site or sites that would have this great collection of TV commercials ever aired on Kenyan TV. In mind this would have commercials aired in the 1980s when Kenya had the only TV station that was State owned-the Voice of Kenya (VoK). Growing up in the 1970s I still recall with nostalgia the black-and-white commercials while growing up in the suburbs of Nairobi such advertisements such as Blueband, Kimbo, Omo, Cowboy, Lifebuoy, Rexona, Lady Gay among others.

The 1970s were the days TV station came on at 6 p.m. and closed 3 hours later on at 9 p.m. with the mandatory national anthem playing.

The 1980s saw the shift to more interesting advertisements and programmes such as the “The Six Million Dollar Man”, “The Little House on the Prairie”, “Dallas”, “Bionic Woman”, “Hart and Hart”, “Kojak” and “Dempsey”.

Anyone out there who can take the challenge of sourcing some of these commercials from 1970s to 2010 and having them all in one website where they can be downloaded for the walk down the memory lane?

Africa Internet Facebook Usage

Africa, the second largest continent on earth after Asia, with an estimated human population of 1,013,779,050 in 2010; has a total of 110,948,420 Internet users in as at 31/10, a 10.9% penetration rate. Interestingly, 17,607,440 of these approximately 111 million African Internet users are Facebook users as at August 31/10, a 1.7% penetration rate.
As can be seen from the table below, statistics can be quite revealing, depending on how you want to look at the data.

Country	Population (2010 est.)	Internet Users (Dec/2000)	Internet Users (Aug/2010)	Penetration (% of Population)	User Growth (2000-2010)	% Users in Africa
Western Sahara	491,519	---	---	---	---	0.00%
Mayotte (FR)	231,139	---	---	---	---	0.00%
Seychelles	88,340	6,000	33,900	38.40%	465.00%	0.00%
Reunion (FR)	822,986	130,000	300,000	36.50%	130.80%	0.30%
Tunisia	10,589,025	100,000	3,600,000	34.00%	3500.00%	3.20%
Morocco	31,627,428	100,000	10,442,500	33.00%	10342.50%	9.40%
Cape Verde	508,659	8,000	150,000	29.50%	1775.00%	0.10%
Nigeria	152,217,341	200,000	43,982,200	28.90%	21891.10%	39.60%
Mauritius	1,294,104	87,000	290,000	22.40%	233.30%	0.30%
Egypt	80,471,869	450,000	17,060,000	21.20%	3691.10%	15.40%
Sao Tome & Principe	175,808	6,500	26,700	15.20%	310.80%	0.00%
Algeria	34,586,184	50,000	4,700,000	13.60%	9300.00%	4.30%
Zimbabwe	11,651,858	50,000	1,422,000	12.20%	2744.00%	1.30%
South Africa	49,109,107	2,400,000	5,300,000	10.80%	120.80%	4.80%
Saint Helena (UK)	7,670	n/a	800	10.40%	n/a	0.00%
Kenya	40,046,566	200,000	3,995,500	10.00%	1897.80%	3.60%
Sudan	41,980,182	30,000	4,200,000	10.00%	13900.00%	3.80%
Uganda	33,398,682	40,000	3,200,000	9.60%	7900.00%	2.90%
Gambia	1,824,158	4,000	130,100	7.10%	3152.50%	0.10%
Zambia	12,056,923	20,000	816,700	6.80%	3983.50%	0.70%
Senegal	14,086,103	40,000	923,000	6.60%	2207.50%	0.80%
Swaziland	1,354,051	10,000	90,000	6.60%	800.00%	0.10%
Gabon	1,545,255	15,000	98,800	6.40%	558.70%	0.10%
Namibia	2,128,471	30,000	127,500	6.00%	325.00%	0.10%
Botswana	2,029,307	15,000	120,000	5.90%	700.00%	0.10%
Congo	4,125,916	500	245,200	5.90%	48940.00%	0.20%
Togo	6,199,841	100,000	356,300	5.70%	256.30%	0.30%
Libya	6,461,454	10,000	353,900	5.50%	3439.00%	0.30%
Ghana	24,339,838	30,000	1,297,000	5.30%	4223.30%	1.20%
Angola	13,068,161	30,000	607,400	4.60%	1924.70%	0.50%
Cote d'Ivoire	21,058,798	40,000	968,000	4.60%	2320.00%	0.90%
Malawi	15,447,500	15,000	716,400	4.60%	4676.00%	0.60%
Eritrea	5,792,984	5,000	250,000	4.30%	4900.00%	0.20%
Rwanda	11,055,976	5,000	450,000	4.10%	8900.00%	0.40%
Lesotho	1,919,552	4,000	76,800	4.00%	1820.00%	0.10%
Cameroon	19,294,149	20,000	750,000	3.90%	3650.00%	0.70%
Djibouti	740,528	1,400	25,900	3.50%	1750.00%	0.00%
Comoros	773,407	1,500	24,300	3.10%	1520.00%	0.00%
Mozambique	22,061,451	30,000	612,500	2.80%	1941.70%	0.60%
Guinea-Bissau	1,565,126	1,500	37,100	2.40%	2373.30%	0.00%
Mauritania	3,205,060	5,000	75,000	2.30%	1400.00%	0.10%
Benin	9,056,010	15,000	200,000	2.20%	1233.30%	0.20%
Equatorial Guinea	650,702	500	14,400	2.20%	2780.00%	0.00%
Chad	10,543,464	1,000	187,800	1.80%	18680.00%	0.20%
Mali	13,796,354	18,800	250,000	1.80%	1229.80%	0.20%
Tanzania	41,892,895	115,000	676,000	1.60%	487.80%	0.60%
Madagascar	21,281,844	30,000	320,000	1.50%	966.70%	0.30%
Burkina Faso	16,241,811	10,000	178,200	1.10%	1682.00%	0.20%
Somalia	10,112,453	200	106,000	1.00%	52900.00%	0.10%
Guinea	10,324,025	8,000	95,000	0.90%	1087.50%	0.10%
Burundi	9,863,117	3,000	65,000	0.70%	2066.70%	0.10%
Niger	15,878,271	5,000	115,900	0.70%	2218.00%	0.10%
Central African Rep.	4,844,927	1,500	22,600	0.50%	1406.70%	0.00%
Congo, Dem. Rep.	70,916,439	500	365,000	0.50%	72900.00%	0.30%
Ethiopia	88,013,491	10,000	445,400	0.50%	4354.00%	0.40%
Liberia	3,685,076	500	20,000	0.50%	3900.00%	0.00%
Sierra Leone	5,245,695	5,000	14,900	0.30%	198.00%	0.00%
TOTAL AFRICA	1,013,779,050	4,514,400	110,931,700	10.90%	2357.30%	100.00%

As can be seen from the table above, the top 3 countries in Africa in terms of Internet penetration are Seychelles (38.40%), Reunion (36.50%) and Tunisia (34.50%). The African countries with the least Internet penetration are Ethiopia (0.50%), Liberia (o.50%) and Siera Leone (0.30%); countries that have just emerged from a history of long civil war. Looking at member countries that comprise the East African Community in terms of Facebook usage are Kenya-864,760 Facebook users (2.2% penetration rate), Tanzania -141,580 Facebook users (0.3% penetration rate), Uganda-196,000 Facebook users ( 0.6% penetration rate), Rwanda-52,520 Facebook users (0.5% penetration rate) and Burundi-6,740 Facebook users (0.1% penetration rate).

Source: Internet World Stats

Global and African Internet Usage

According to the latest statistics as as 30 June 2010 by IWS the number of Internet users globally is almost hitting the 2 billion level! To be exact, there were 1,966,514,816 Internet users, representing 28.7% penetration rate of the world’s estimated 6,845,609,960 human beings.

Africa had 110,931,700 Internet users, a 5.6% penetration rate of its estimated 1,013,779,050 total population as at 2010. But worth noting, was the fact that when compared to 2000, when there were only 4,514,400 Internet users, the Internet usage uptake can be described as a phenomenal 2,357.3 % growth rate over the last decade!

But this will likely change even further with the liberalization of the ICT sector especially in a continent where states have always preferred to exert control on the information flow among its citizenry. And as the democratic space widens and African states open up to the global knowledge society, it is hoped that the cost of accessing the Internet bandwidth will come down, allowing for healthy inter-sectoral competition has witnessed in recent weeks in Kenya. Here, the price wars between the major mobile phone service providers such as Safaricom, Zain (now Bhatel), Yu and Orange has seen voice calling rates as low as zero at off-peak to Ksh.1 (USD 0.012) per minute; and broadband access charges at Ksh. 3 (USd 0.036) per MB using 3G platforms. Safaricom is now even testing on the 4G that promises faster access rates and supporting even more applications over the wire than was previously envisaged.

East Africa’s fibre link outage, in comes satellite

The past few days were a frustrating experience for users of the Internet in East Africa, particularly in Kenya due to intermittent outages in the fibre optic cable operated by Seacom and The East Africa Marine System (Teams) occasioned by repairs on the SEA-ME-WE 4 cable along the Mediterranean Sea.

This led to major ISPs reverting back to satellite services, recently abandoned in favour of the fibre optic cable, so as to cushion customers against total loss of communication. The satellite connection was the main link for East Africans as attempts were made to repair the fibre cables. This proves that despite its technological inefficiencies, satellite connectivity should and must be retained as a back up system in any economy, particularly for any developing economy at its nascent stages of information technology growth.

And as is becoming the norm in Kenya, cable vandalism has been increasing to such an extent, especially among the major players in the sector.

This has not gone well with the end users who had high expectations that costs of bandwidth would go down considerably, and in turn stimulate growth in other sectors.

The repair work on the SEA-ME-WE 4 cable was completed successfully on 29 April 2010, with the major regional and continentals ISPs, including SEACOM, being migrated .

SEACOM was the first cable to provide broadband to countries in East Africa. Within Africa, South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya are inter-connected via a protected ring structure. Additionally, a second express fibre pair is provided from South Africa to Kenya. The two fibre pairs have a combined capacity of 1.28Tbs. Express fibre pairs are also provided from Kenya to France into a PoP in Marseilles, and from Tanzania to India into the PoP in Mumbai. SEACOM has procured fibre capacity from Marseilles to London as part the SEACOM network.

Kenya Institute of Education: Coming of age

During the recently held inaugural Regional Education Conference on eLearning (RECE 2010) from 28-30 March 2010, the role that the Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) plays in the education sector came to light.

In many ways, KIE has transformed in such tremendous ways that most of us would not begin to understand the modernization and degree of metamorphosis in place.

For starters, KIE has truly embraced ICT and is fast changing the education landscape in the region. This is towards the realization of the Vision 2030, and during the Conference there were ample demonstrations of these new developments in the well equipped and manned labs, with digitalization of  primary and secondary school curriculum. The quality of the DVDs that are quite interactive, and rich in multimedia that are locally produced are simply put, quite innovative. They have covered subjects such as the languages (English and Swahili), sciences and arts that if put to good use, would help transform the way we teach and learn in the education system. The media are very good support tools, not meant to replace the teacher, but rather support the traditional classroom teaching and learning. The only challenges that I foresaw, were inadequate ICT facilities and lack  of power in the rural schools. But conversations with other researchers and CSO indicates that contrary to the norm, rural-based schools appear to have put good investment in ICT infrastructure.   KIE is now selling the DVDs to schools and teachers at Ksh. 3,000 (USD 40) that are being planned to be updateable online in the not so near future, but with revisions to content planned on annual basis. This is bound to be cheaper and faster compared to traditional book print, which as we know from lessons in developing countries, can be costly for such economies.

Of notable interest is the fact that KIE has acquired the terrestrial digital transmission technology, and is actually testing and transmitting its signal within a 100 kilometer, providing the only education content to a potential 1/3 of Kenya’s population. This was only possible with the national fiber optic project,  and is modeled along DSTV’s Mindset and BBC’s Knowledge pure educational channels. From what was said by the KIE, it is the only institution in the region that has this kind of technology in place, with NTV and KTN in the process of purchasing similar studio equipment. Worth noting, is that KIE is now in position to use the fiber optic to transit rich multimedia on the Internet as here lies idle capacity for such.

KIE are also trying to be innovative in generating additional income channels, considering the dwindling budget allocation to them. I was very impressed that KIE has a fully equipped mobile  out broadcasting van, which Multichoice among other media houses occasionally outsource!

This is to me is a fine good example of taxpayers funds being used effectively.

Safaricom now on 4G experimental stage.

Kenya’s biggest mobile phone service provider, Safaricom is now testing 4G under the radar. With Zain now being sold for the 4th (or is it 3rd) time to the Indian mobile phone giants, focus seems to be on Safaricom to lead the market in terms of innovative products and services.

So what is this 4G fuss all about? 4G refers to the fourth generation of cellular wireless standards. It is a successor to 3G and 2G standards. The nomenclature of the generations generally refers to a change in the fundamental nature of the service. The first was the move from analogue (1G) to digital (2G) transmission. This was followed by multi-media support, spread spectrum transmission and at least 200 kbit/s (3G) and now 4G, which refers to all IP packet switched networks, mobile ultra-broadband (gigabit speed) access and multi-carrier transmission. A 4G system is expected to provide a comprehensive and secure all-IP based solution where facilities such as IP telephony, ultra-broadband Internet access, gaming services and streamed multimedia may be provided to users. Now you can guess why government ministers are all of a sudden knowledgeable about BPOs, eLearning, eGovernment etc! A 4G cellular system must have target peak data rates of up to approximately 100 Mbit/s for high mobility such as mobile access and up to approximately 1 Gbit/s for low mobility such as nomadic/local wireless access, according to the ITU requirements. Scalable bandwidths up to at least 40 MHz should be provided (that is more than we will ever ask from the fibre optic operators, if Safaricom maintains the Ksh. 8 per megabit cost rate).

The world's first publicly available 4G service was opened in the two Scandinavian capitals Stockholm and Oslo on the 14 December 2009. Associated with this, the Mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e-2005) mobile wireless broadband access (MWBA) standard is sometimes branded 4G, and offers peak data rates of 128 Mbit/s downlink and 56 Mbit/s uplink over 20 MHz wide channels.

Source: Wikipedia

Testing ‘Digital Pens’ in Hospitals in Tanzania: Lessons for Kenya

Source: http://www.elearning-africa.com/newsportal/english/news213.php

In many hospitals throughout the world, it is still standard practice for doctors and nurses to keep handwritten patient files; this is also the case in Africa. However, these files can easily get lost, and if patient data have to be transferred from one medical institution to another, the files can take a long time to arrive. Digital documents that can be shared and stored easily could go a long way to combating such problems. To help remedy this situation, at the beginning of January 2010, the IT managers of several hospitals in Tanzania began gearing themselves up to test a new ‘digital pen’; one that can convert doctor’s handwriting into a compact, easy-to-archive digital file.

So why a digital pen and not a computer? “Using a computer and a keyboard to enter data could be a solution”, confirms Israel Pascal, technical project officer in Arusha. “Doctors are currently using normal keyboards for data input. But in many cases, doctors are reluctant to use a keyboard because they lack required skills: they type slowly and make frequent errors. It would be much more convenient if their handwriting could just be converted automatically into a digital file. The pen that we will experiment with can do that.”

First Results: End of January 2010

The digital pens are currently being tested at a number of hospitals in Arusha and Mwanza that are owned and managed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church Tanzania (ELCT), a body that manages around fifteen per cent of Tanzania’s national health services. After the first results have arrived from Arusha at the end of January 2010, the pen will be tested at various medical facilities in and around Mwanza. If successful, the hospitals will order more pens.

The Health Management Information System (HMIS) Project

The ‘digital pen test’ is only one aspect of a much wider health initiative in Tanzania called the Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) project, which is run by ELCT and supported by the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD). In fact, the ELCT hospitals and those in Mwanza that are taking part in the digital pen test are also part of the HMIS project.

Under this project, an automated HMIS has now been installed in four hospitals. Part of the project also involves developing a generic Tanzanian version of Care2X, an open source HMIS. ELCT programmers are, therefore, cooperating with the University Computer Centre (UCC) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s capital, to adapt the software to Mfumo wa Taarifa za Uendeshaji wa Huduma za Afya (the Swahili name for HMIS) – the government health registration system. Through the HMIS project, hospitals can quickly and easily collect, store and analyse data on patient registration, billing, laboratory tests, pharmaceutical issues, stock-taking, x-rays, and ward management by using digital tools. In addition, the effort also focuses on a wide range of other ICT issues, such as telemedicine.

The Benefits of a Well-Functioning HMIS

Health facility management often suffers from inefficient management practices due to chronic staff shortages, high staff turnover rates and a sub-optimal use of health data. The quality of information from many health facilities, particularly in Tanzania’s rural areas, does not meet the required standards and takes a lot of time for the staff to collect. Fortunately, the country’s ICT structure has now developed to a level where it is realistic to computerise some of the routine processes in hospital management. Through the HMIS project, there has been a marked benefit during the last four years for both hospital staff and patients as a result of digitising hospital data. First of all, the new system provides timely and accurate information, which in turn leads to better healthcare planning and improved hospital diagnoses. Furthermore, an increasing number of patients gain access to better healthcare services. It also boosts hospital finances through better revenue collection, better patient flows and a more efficient use of capacity.

For more information about the IICD-supported eHealth programme in Tanzania, which consists of seven eHealth projects and reaches over 6,000 health workers and hospital managers, contact: Nic Moens, Country Programme Manager for Tanzania at: nmoens@iicd.org or visit http://www.iicd.org/countries/tanzania.

Morgan Stanley predicts rosy future for Safaricom

Source: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/InsidePage.php?id=2000001135&catid=4&a=1

A global financial services firm is forecasting a rosy future for mobile services provider Safaricom over the next two years.

It has also ranked Safaricom stock as "overweight", a rating equivalent to a recommendation to investors to buy the share at this time, because of its value in relation to other stocks.

Morgan Stanley’s analysis is based on several planks, including the easing of price competition in the voice market, and the huge, and growing, demand for money transfer and Internet services in Kenya.

Based on these alone, Morgan Stanley forecast group revenue growth of 22 per cent for Safaricom this year, and a further 16 per cent in 2011, up from its previous estimate of 12 per cent, and 10 per cent, respectively.

“We forecast Safaricom will surpass one million mobile broadband subscribers by 2012," says the report.

The analysis, dated January 13, was not commissioned by Safaricom, but was part of Morgan Stanley’s latest outlook on leading telecommunication firms worldwide.

According to the analysis, Safaricom shares are likely to trade within a band of Sh4.80 to Sh6.40 as new revenue streams initiated by the company begin to have an impact.

While the higher share price of Sh6.40 is only likely during a bull run at the stock market, Safaricom accounts for at least 70 per cent of daily turnover at the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE).

As such, other equity counters tend to view any appreciation of its share price positively, as happened last week, when the share shot past Sh5, sparking recoveries in other key stocks.

The NSE is expected to recover significantly this year, buoyed by the influx foreign investors, a fall in interest rates, and optimism about an economic upturn.

"We could witness a sustained price rally in equities across all counters until May, when companies begin to release their half year results," Mr Fred Mweni, Managing Director of Tsavo Securities, told the Standard, on Sunday.

"Safaricom remains one of the top picks this year, and most global clients are being advised to buy it," he added.

Of particular interest, Morgan Stanley says, M-Pesa could account for up to 12 per cent of revenue for Safaricom by 2011.

"We also think it is interesting that Safaricom is looking at developing a full mobile banking solution, implying more revenue upside to our forecasts," notes Morgan Stanley.

But the investment firm has also drawn up alternative scenarios that could change its forecasts. Among them is Safaricom retaining its dominance, but losing some ground to the competition, with revenues staying flat over the next five years.

In the case of a renewed and extended bear run at the stock market, inflation would mean that lower tariffs would not be offset by sufficiently higher usage, once food prices rise.

In such a scenario, average revenues per user (ARPU) would drop by six per cent this year, and rise by just two per cent in 2011.

Included in the potential risks, are the uncertain political climate created by the divided coalition Government, and the search for a new constitution.

Others are higher selling and marketing costs, due to increased competition in the mobile phone services industry.

Last year, Safaricom paid its first dividend since its listing at the NSE. The report notes that as the firm’s dividend policy becomes clearer, its shares will be more attractive.

Morgan Stanley research estimates that Safaricom can pay a higher dividend in future, even if it has to raise capex (capital expenditure) to support further revenue growth.

The assumptions in this ratings assume that Safaricom retains its 80 per cent market share, and raises its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) above 50 per cent. This is as new competition proves ineffective.

But the game changer for Safaricom is M-Pesa, the money transfer service, with a fast-growing base, that the report notes "is gaining critical base".

The forecast is for 70 per cent of the firm’s subscribers to be registered M-Pesa users by 2013, an enviable base should the firm opt for full mobile banking.

On average, M-Pesa users send, or receive, money three times a month, with transactions hitting Sh23 billion in September last year, says the report.

Average transaction per user would increase to at least four times a month by 2011, which will in term boost ARPU.

And with the number of M-Pesa subscribers fast approaching a figure equivalent to the total bank accounts in the country, Safaricom is now in prime position to offer a full banking product.

The strengths of M-Pesa — it allows users to deposit, withdraw and transfer cash, pay remittances and bills, and is a safe haven for their money — makes it a strong brand that would give established banks a run for their money, notes the report.

Mobile phone market set for greater heights

Source: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/InsidePage.php?id=2000001228&catid=457&a=1

East African mobile communication markets are poised for more growth driven by cheaper handsets and network investments, a new study says.

An analysis from Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company says Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda markets earned revenues of Sh197 billion ($2.62 billion) in 2008, and estimates this to reach Sh679 billion ($9.03 billion) in 2015.

Kenya enjoyed the highest number of active subscribers and revenues among the four countries. Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda are, however, likely to witness significant growth over the next seven years due to increasing network investments, continuing product innovation and reduced handset costs, according to the US firm.

Technologies covered in the just released markets study are code division multiple access (CDMA), global system for mobile communications (GSM), general packet radio service (GPRS), high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) and wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA).

"The key drivers in these markets include strong gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates, increasing demand for mobile money transfer services and declining handset costs," says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Jiaqi Sun.

East African consumers, he adds, are spending more on mobile communications due to the low fixed-line network coverage, underdeveloped banking systems and limited availability of inexpensive handsets. Sun says there are 37.6 million mobile subscribers in East Africa, at a penetration rate of 30.8 per cent. The number of subscribers, according to the analysis, is expected to reach 99.5 million in 2015, at a compound annual growth rate of 14.9 per cent.

"The undersea cables are anticipated to reduce the cost of telecommunications by 60 per cent over the next seven years. This will boost demand for mobile Internet access," Sun says in the Analysis.

However, there are challenges faced by the market participants such as high tax rates on mobile services, lack of network rollout in rural areas and low demand for data services.

Cheating in Kenyan national exams goes high tech

The Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations kicked off nationally last week. Like in the past few years, the public was treated to media reports of examinations cheating by candidates and their proxies, despite feeble attempts by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC), the government body in charge of these matriculation exams.

The truth came out last week, with arrests of teachers allegedly with access to the exams, to cartels transmitting and selling the exams and to students who had proxies sitting the examinations on their behalf.  In one of these cases, an individual arrested turned out to be an “informer” working for KNEC, and who over the past few years has been working undercover and busting some of these cartels.

But the bit that was interesting were reports that corrupt individuals with access to the examination papers, were actually using high tech devices in the cheating. The individuals with access actually scan the pages with blue tooth enabled portable scanners, send the scanned pages to their smart phones, and through an elaborate scheme send via blue tooth, MMS and even emails the scanned examination pages to their agents, then pass on the same to the students who need who purchase them for ‘preview’ for between USD 5o and USD 100. This in a third world country, where 60% of its population lives below the poverty line!  According to the media, the government is now working closely with the mobile phone providers to track down the crooks messing up its education system and values.

That’s how competitive and cut throat the education system is in Kenya>

Power outage, now Internet outage!

Last week, in typical Kenyan style, we had a nationwide power outage that lasted from 2-7 hours depending on which part of the country. reportedly the government machinery went into a spin as it developed into a security issue. The cause was apparently a malfunction in the monopolized power utility firm, Kenya Power & Lighting Co. Ltd due to the large amount of diesel powered generators that we are using as a stop gap measure to avoid us being in perpetual darkness.

This was shortly followed by Safaricom’s cellular and Internet outage on Friday last week, due to 4 or 5 cuts on their main fibre optic ring network, either due to other Internet firms laying their fibre optic, and what was attributed to as sabotage at 2 of those points.

This was followed by Seacom’s claims that its main fibre optic line at Voi was sabotaged, resulting in downtime for its subscribers in the Coast area and Nairobi.

Now its sabotage of the country’s communication infrastructure due to the competitors’ hunger for domination of the market. This is extremely worrying and should be treated by the government as a threat to its nation security.