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Mobility,
Key Factor For Internet Service Subscription
-ISPAN President |
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Engr.
Sam Adeleke is the President of the Internet Service
Providers Association of Nigeria (ISPAN). He recently
spoke to our correspondent, IFEANYI OSUEKE on a wide
range of issues affecting Internet and its growth in
the country. He also disclosed his Association's position
on the reported missing NigComSat-1 |
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On
ISPAN's quietude
It is true that we may not have been in the media in
recent times but there are still some things that we
have been doing. ISPAN members have quite reduced compared
to what it used to be. There was a time NCC licensed
over 300 ISPs but presently we are operating under 100
ISPs in the country.
Internet service which is the primary
domain of our members is also being covered by pirate
telecom services providers as well as the |
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GSM
operators. So the traditional radio distribution by ISPAN
members has reduced by the fact that mobility is the core
factor that people look into in Internet service. Though there
are still quite a number of cyber cafés that one can
go to but, most of the cyber cafes are now being connected
by VSAT. There is a reduction in wireless radio connection
and an increase in VSAT connection.
ISPAN members will certainly not go out of business.
Operation is dynamic and it is only the people who restrict
themselves to the traditional service provision to users that
will be out of market.
For instance, content is an area that many ISPs
are going into in addition to the registration of domain name,
that is, the NIRA top level domain registration. There are
so many areas that ISPs can find their business. To face reality
there is no way you can compare the bandwidth provided by
the PTOs to those of the Internet service providers.
Their bandwidth is not good enough. There is
need for broadband service, mark that what they call broadband
is definitely not as such. The traditional voice service that
they provide cannot allow them to provide service at the broadband
rate that is really required.
ISPs can also find their businesses in the massive
rural service provision that NCC is embarking upon through
the SABI project- State Accelerated Broadband initiative.
The high penetration we have in voice telephony is not the
same in terms of the Internet because the cost is a bit high
and usage is low hence the high cost.
Presently what the people require the Internet
for is just to check their mail that does not require much
speed, so they seem to be contended with what the PTOs are
offering. But when usage gets to the peak; when a lot of content
is downloadable, when people use it for research, business,
government transactions; when we fully depend on IT for operation
then, they will go for what is fast and that is when the Internet
Service Providers will really come on board.
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The major problem
of the radio distribution service is its fixed nature.
By the time the SABI project finally come on board,
it means I can use my account in Port Harcourt when
I travel down there because the SABI project runs across
the states.
It is at that stage that people will drop the slow,
snail speed to the broadband speed. So ISPs should not
loose focus or concentration to allow these PTOs take
over their job.
ISPAN and unethical
business services
I have been the President of ISPAN for four years |
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running
and I can assure you that it takes two to tango. Nigerians
want the cheapest; they don't care what it is. When you and
I give them a quotation they go for the bottom-line. If somebody
gives a quotation of 64/266 at N6.000 and another person provides
the same quotation at N15.000, the truth is that the person
has not told you whether it is a shared, dedicated or burstible.
And you have not bothered to find out.
It is only when A and B get from two different
sources that he discovers that his own is slower than that
of A; then he begins to raise an eye brow. So it is a marketing
strategy not deceit. People should ask questions to determine
what they want. It is not that the ISPs are cheating people
but it is because people are asking for the cheapest without
asking what it entails.
If for instance I give you a bandwidth
for two systems and you are in the contention ratio of 1 to
16, if all the systems are busy at the same time then, everything
will be slow. But if the 15 are sleeping at the time you are
using it, everything will be fast.
However, where there is a specific case
of ISP trying to play a smart game, it should be brought to
us. I must also clarify an issue here, ISPAN is not a regulatory
body, it is an association of licensed ISPs.
When you subscribe to be a member, you
subscribe to be bound by the rules and regulations and by
the constitution that bind us together. So when such case
comes up, there is a committee that will look into it and
adjudicate through self regulation because NCC is the regulatory
authority for all ISPs.
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Comparing
foreign and indigenous ISPs
There are different categories of ISPs. There are people
that are called upstream providers. Those are people
that have hubs that are connected to Tear 1. It is different
from an ISP that is serving a local community.
There are ISPs that are members of ISPAN and are also
upstream providers like Emperion; they have their main
hub in Denmark and a hub here in Lagos. They are not
better off than Linkserve who have their hub in US and
yet it is first indigenous provider. |
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Netcom
is a member and they have their hub outside. Gilat is purely
an upstream provider with hub in Israel. They have a lot of
ISPs connecting with them and taking broad bandwidth. NITEL
is providing SAT-3. These are various categories of ISPs;
some buy from the satellite owners and then, sell to ISPs
and they in turn distribute it.
On interconnection
issues
I am a member of the board of Internet Xchange Point of
Nigeria (IXPN), at the moment you cannot force everybody to
interconnect. Bear in mind that IXPN is the dream of ISPAN
which was bought and implemented by NCC and it is supposed
to be beneficial to both ISPAN, ATCON, GSM users and all of
us coming together to connect.
I think the issue of IXPN is one that we need to have a
clear picture of the vision as originally conceived, as it
is presently and the vision for the future.
We must also remember that IXPN will be useful
as everybody gets connected, when we all have different outgoing
sources. But many ISPs also have their upstream provider connected.
So if 5 ISPs are going through an upstream provider who is
connected, it is as good as all the five being connected.
That notwithstanding, we will do our best to
encourage members to connect because it is in the interest
of members. Remember we only have IXPN in Lagos; the concept
was to have it at seven locations across the country?
ISPAN's position
on missing NigComSat-1
Your question pointed to the confusion that surrounds the
whole thing. Is it missing? Is it mal-functioning? Has it
lost contact with the earth? In a society where truth is shrouded
in secrecy, it is difficult to have the import of the issue.
As an engineer, by all the information available to me, what
I think really happened is that there is a lost of communication
link between the satellite and the earth station. If that
judgment is right, I believe that there must have been a failure
of one of the components which has to be rectified.
A single change in frequency can cause that;
a single change in position can cause that even change of
language because the satellite communicates its position to
the earth station, because the whole thing is software driven.
I think the whole issue is teaching one big lesson; we should
go into a technology with full knowledge of it, not with full
knowledge by foreigners who design and build. |
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I am confident
that we have competent personnel who could handle satellite
technology or any technology that you think of; the
issue is that we must gather them together and have
confidence in them.
Not the way things are at the moment,
where we have no sense of commitment to our nation probably
because the nation has no sense of responsibility to
her citizens. We need to gather people, get the best
brain and repose our confidence in them and charge them
with responsibility; they will do better than the Chinese,
they will do better than the Americans. Even if by the
virtue of our technology we cannot put such a thing
together, somebody should be able to know the intricacies
of what is being put there. When we do like we |
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have
just done, we would have given license to them to monitor
every inch of Nigeria
without problem; there is earth station in Nigeria
and there is one in China, whichever one that has high priority,
of course it will be the one in China because they built it.
They can prevent you from seeing what they did
not want you to see. So many surveillance equipment can be
put there without our knowledge because we are dependent on
them 100 percent. And that is what I am against; otherwise
there is nothing wrong in having our own satellite.
Assessing Internet
penetration in Nigeria
The exact penetration rate depends on the yardstick you are
using to measure. But it is unlike the GSM where the rate
is so fast. |
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But
I tell you it is better than what we used to have in
the past. For instance, there are some villages you
go to and you see VSAT, somebody is doing Internet café
and people patronize those cafés.
You should know that the Internet is
not like the telephone where each building can carry
box which is not more than N5000.
It goes beyond a telephone box to be
able to do Internet services; you need your computer,
you know the cost and there is the issue of power. |
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People
now have VSAT on top of their roof. So to measure the penetration
rate, we really need to have a good statistics. I know one
of our members that have about 4000 VSATs installed in this
country.
So penetration is not actually measured my number
of VSAT but number of people that are benefiting from it.
A school that put one VSAT covers 5000 students in that campus
and virtually wherever there is a tertiary institution in
this country, you can be rest assured that there is a VSAT
or Internet café. Every company wants to have their
staff to be Internet literate. So it becomes difficult to
measure how many Nigerians are Internet literate.
But you also know that now you cannot
write JAMB, SSCE or go into university without going through
the Internet. You will be surprised that many parents in attempt
to ensure that they register their wards properly they also
become Internet literate. I believe that Internet penetration
has come a long way; we still have a long way to go.
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| Anabel
Enters With Innovative Smartphones |
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Nigeria is witnessing another
milestone in its telecommunications history as Anabel Mobile,
an information technology services and marketing company enters
the industry with a drive to revolutionalize the sector through
the provision of scintillating local content in its products.
Speaking during a media briefing recently, president and
chief executive officer of the company, Nicholas Okoye said
that the company is coming to |
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make
a permanent mark in the telecommunication landscape of Nigeria
and Africa in general.
The CEO who observed that convergence which
is the way telecom sector the world over is moving, has brought
about a single firm now serving as telecom, entertainment
and IT company by making available the infrastructure that
allows convergence of three industries to take place.
Hence, Anabel Mobile is coming out with four
strategic business units in its offering which include Anabel
Mobile, Anabel Entertainment, Anabel Technology and Anabel
Capital.
He explained that the company chose Nigeria as a take off
ground beginning with the smart phones because Anabel Group
believes that Nigeria and Africa as emerging markets are the
future of telecom.
Okoye maintained that Anabel Mobile, as mobile
communication supplier, will ensure local entertainment content
which will first be licensed to Anabel Mobile for embedding
and streaming on Anabel Mobile devices. Such content he said
will include Nigeria music and video, stock market report
and other critical information.
Meanwhile, to give Anabel Mobile the national
and international outlook, a world star and Hollywood actress,
Meagan Good and Nigerian born singer and entertainer, Sasha
have been signed on as Anabel brand ambassadors.
Speaking at their presentation, Meagan Good the African American
who is visiting Africa for the first time expressed her commitment
to Anabel Mobile and for being part of the Anabel success
story.
In the same vein, Sasha popularly known as the
queen of Africa hippop explained that her choice for Anabel
technology was hinged on the fact that it allows her to engage
in all manner of operations on her Anabel phone as in a computer
while she is on the move. The CEO of Anabel Mobile explained
that the choice of Smart phones is simply because of its functionalities
which make it function as computers.
Anabel is producing some of the most stylish,
leading edge, technologically rich communications devices/smart
phones with a primary focus on the emerging markets of the
World. The Smart Phones are manufactured by the very best
and has embedded “best in class” technology from
some of the World's leading brands such as Microsoft which
is providing the operating system, Samsung, the Central Processing
Unit (CPU) and Infineon, the Chip set.
Anabel products are giving a whole new meaning
to the Smartphone technology, carrying customized applications
and localized features which have been tailored in line with
Africa's environmental challenges.
Okoye remarked that those who are using Anabel
Mobile phones would have no wasted time in the traffic or
other waiting places as one can work on a document, power
point presentation, upload videos and watch TV while waiting
adding that the product price is competitive and comes with
manufacturer's warranty of one year.
The brand ambassadors who visited the motherless
baby's homes in furtherance of Anabel Mobile social responsibility
also thrilled the audience at the formal launching and demonstrations
of Anabel technology.
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| Mobile
Handset Market To Shrink In 2009 –Report |
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The
global cell phone handset market will drop next year as consumers
hang on to their handsets longer amid tough economic times,
market-research company iSuppli had said. PC World reports
that the company revised down its outlook for the worldwide
cell phone market and said it expects handset shipments next
year to be 1.22 billion phones, which represents a 6 percent
drop from its 2008 forecast of 1.29 billion units. The 2008
forecast is also lower than iSuppli's original prediction
of 1.31 billion phones.
In revising down its figures iSuppli joins fellow market
researcher, Gartner and handset maker, Nokia in expecting
a weaker market in 2009.
From 2010, the market is expected to resume its growth but
shipments aren't predicted to surpass the levels of this year
until 2011, iSuppli said. Of course such mid-term predictions
are difficult to make at the best of times and in the current
economic climate forecasting the state of the market next
year is itself a challenge.
Until a couple of months ago iSuppli had been forecasting
nothing but steady growth for the market for at least the
next several years but then the credit crisis hit, stock markets
fell and consumers began thinking a little more carefully
about their purchases.
In total, iSuppli now expects 5.5 billion handsets to be
shipped from 2009 to 2012, a drop of 753 million phones over
the four-year period from its previous prediction. The economic
slowdown won't stop roughly 500 million consumers signing-up
to mobile services for the first time in 2009 but much of
that growth is expected to come from emerging markets where
wages are lower and low-cost, entry-level handsets are likely
to sell better than the latest feature-rich smartphone.
“The pricier feature-phone and smart-phone market segments
are driven by existing subscribers who are upgrading their
mobile devices to take advantage of new features and advanced
data services. As the economic climate deteriorates, these
customers are delaying their purchases,” iSuppli said
in a statement.
Gartner has noted that current users in the Asia Pacific
region waited an average of eight months to buy a new handset
in the third quarter, compared to four months previously.
Nokia, the world's largest cell-phone maker, last month revised
down its projection for the global handset market in 2009
to 1.22 billion but said it sees smartphone sales holding
up.
“The volume impact is primarily in the mass market
but people still desire smartphones and they will continue
to,” said Rick Simonson, Nokia's chief financial officer
in a conference call on Nov. 14. “It is a growing part
of the market so where we see devices that really do add something
different and add value, people still have a lot of demand
for that.”
Nokia is already cutting back and recently decided to lay
off 600 staff and stop supplying phones to major Japanese
carriers. During the third quarter of this year the company
saw earnings fall 28 percent and revenue drop 5 percent while
it lost market share.
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| Brazil's
WxBR Ready For WiMAX Service |
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wireless broadband solutions provider WxBR, which is headquartered
in Campinas, Sao Paulo state, says it is ready to launch,
having completed the set up of its full operating portfolio,
BNamericas reports citing a statement from its president Carlos
Gunter Klemz.
“In a very short period we structured
our operations in pre-sales, post-sales, industrialization
and technological partnerships and now we are fully operational
with the complete WiMAX portfolio: customer premises equipment
(CPE), base stations, gateways and management. We have an
integrated portfolio to start in the market,” he said.
WxBR was created six months ago by way of an
initiative between the Brazilian communications ministry and
the national development bank BNDES, which together form a
joint venture made up of five national telecoms solutions
providers and equipment manufacturers: Asga, Icatel, PadTec,
Parks and Tropico.
WxBR is looking to provide local WiMAX technology
development, with Klemz adding that the technology WxBR is
using is being developed by local telecoms research company
CPqD, which is financially supported by the federal government
telecoms investment fund Funttel.
Klemz says that although the start-up is currently
focusing on WiMAX and some Wi-Fi deployments, it could look
to develop other advanced wireless broadband technologies
as they emerge. WxBR is anxiously awaiting the auction of
WiMAX spectrum in Brazil, which is yet to take place, in order
to find out which companies intend to enter the market there.
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| MTN
Cameroon Launches WiMAX Services |
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Cameroon has launched WiMAX services in 18 cities, according
to Telecompaper citing Le Quotidien Mutations.
A range of plans are on offer for both consumers and business
users. The cellco has also launched MTN Virtual, a pre-paid
card for customers without a handset of their own.
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