IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Nic Rudnick, CEO of The Liquid Telecom Group, has outlined the company’s expansion of its fibre network in South Africa and announced that CrashPlan, its backup and restore service, is now available to businesses across Africa.

Liquid Telecom will be investing around R250 million (US$ 17.5 million) in laying new fibre in South Africa’s northern provinces, providing connectivity to the major cities and towns. Wholesale capacity will be available to mobile and fixed-line operators, other service providers and businesses of all sizes.

This technological and indeed digital revolution is increasingly leaving no area uninfluenced by its radical transformation.

"From health to education, mobile technology is changing the way all sectors of society do business," Pule said at the Second e-Skills Summit 2012 and Global ICT Forum on Human Capital Development in Cape Town this week.

Pule said a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers survey indicated that South Africa and Kenya were leading in mobile health deployments on the continent.

Having built an ecosystem to provide voice calls, cellular networks are ideally suited to provide the next wave of digital services and financial inclusion. "Mobile will be at the center of driving digital inclusion and connectivity," says Rob Shuter, Group CEO of MTN, the largest mobile operator in Africa.

It seems like a logical thing for the chief executive of a network to say but his point is well made that the vast ecosystem created by mobile operators is arguably better suited to financial inclusion than any other service provider.

Mobile communications help create virtuous circle in Africa Closing the digital divide in Africa is a primary goal for stakeholders from operators to governments to NGOs. Ensuring its more than 1 billion citizens can participate in the global economy and raise living standards across the region will require commitment and time, but can create a virtuous circle that will benefit all.

On the supply side, public/private partnerships and the many national broadband plans have help spur investment, and dramatically increase the availability of telecom services in Africa. This access is helping to bring many out of the informal or shadow economy. Business benefits from this access by becoming more productive, while governments benefit from the additional tax revenues—which can help fund additional infrastructure investment. For example, if a farmer can get a text to tell him which location will give him the best price for his goods, can save valuable time and increase his income. Given that large swaths of Africans make their living in agriculture, the multiplier effect can be profound.

Experts gathered for Africa's first mobile health summit on Tuesday hailed the use of phone technology as a new frontier in improving patient care in poor countries. But a government minister in South Africa, which is hosting the summit, called for caution over issues of regulation, confidentiality and cost to patients.

The debate came as the World Health Organisation released a major report (pdf) charting the worldwide use of mobile phone technology in healthcare. It finds that 83% out of 122 countries surveyed use mobile phone technology for services that include free emergency calls, text messaging with pill reminders and health information and transmission of tests and lab results.

It is said that passengers who travel on Ethiopian Airlines often ask airline staff if there will be any food available on the flight because of the lingering images of Live Aid and the 1985 drought.

The reality is that Ethiopia is a country full of food and while the threat of famine is only one failed harvest away, the story underscores how little Africa is understood by people who have never been there and are unlikely ever to go.

There’s a more specific area called M-health, which employs mobile technology to provide medical services.

For example, patient data can now be accessed remotely by doctors. But m-health also encompasses mobile apps and interactive mobile sites for patients to follow a diet or fitness regimen.

Traditional definitions of broadband have a narrow focus on bandwidth and speed. This paper uses a wider definition, as broadband policy needs to consider the entire ‘eco-system’ of internet and data services from both a demand and supply-side perspective.

Over the past six years, we have seen a great deal of activity in Africa's telecom market as providers have invested in infrastructure such as carrier-neutral data centers, open peering internet exchange points, national and regional fibre links and submarine cables. The next step will be to host more content within Africa, rather than in Europe and the U.S. - 90% of African internet content is hosted outside the continent today. We'd like to see that figure reversed so that 80 or 90% of content is hosted within Africa.

Hausiku said this during a recent speech at a workshop titled?"Leadership Capacity-Development for Improved Delivery of Public Services in Africa Using ICT" held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from July 23 to 25, Namibia Press Agency reported.

The workshop was aimed at seeking ways in which African Union's Public or Civil Services Ministers could apply modern technologies to reinvent and re-engineer the service delivery systems to meet the expectations of citizens.

The programme would involve using VSATs, which are “very small aperture terminals.” These are earthbound stations used in satellite communications.

After failing to secure support for a US$2 billion broadband project to connect all African countries, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) is now setting up an Internet service linking parliaments on the continent.

The African Union Pan-African parliament network was officially opened last week by South African President Jacob Zuma, with the aim of speeding up regional integration to enhance scientific development and technological innovation across the continent.

Das erste von insgesamt vier auf dem Meeresboden verlegten Unterseekabeln, das schnelle Internet-Verbindungen in Ostafrika ermöglichen soll, ist am Donnerstag in der kenianischen Hafenstadt Mombasa angeschlossen worden. Zeitgleich wurde auch im tansanischen Daressalam das Kabel der Firma Seacom angeschlossen.

Ein 10.000 Kilometer langes Unterwasserkabel soll rechtzeitig zur Fußball-Weltmeisterschaft 2010 den Südafrikanern eine schnellere und günstigere Internet-Nutzung ermöglichen.

aDrop SmartCity Ride app, Africa’s first transportation “Super” app for rides, delivery, interstate travels and rentals has entered Nigeria’s logistics space.

aDrop SmartCity Ride app, functions as a marketplace where people seek transportation for themselves or goods to certain destinations can be matched with drivers travelling to those destinations.

Mr Zeb Uzoukwu, chairman of Adrop Lagos, stated that aDrop SmartCity Ride app is designed specifically with the driver and rider in mind, to empower our partner drivers technologically and financially.

Nigeria and Turkey are now best buddies on satellite communications

A deal that would allow the Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd (Nigcomsat) to deploy telecoms services via satellite has been signed by the company and its Turkish counterpart, the Turkish Satellite Company (Turksat).

The agreement was signed in Ankara, Turkey, by Kazeem Kolawole Raji, executive director of NigComSat and Hasan Huseyin Ertok, vice-president of the Turkish company.

“Internet Exchange Points (IXP) are critical to improving internet access and lowering connectivity costs in the continent," the report states.

Nigeria has the third most developed Internet ecosystem in Africa, a new report has shown.

The report by Internet society, a global nonprofit organisation promoting the development and use of the Internet, said Nigeria ranks just below South Africa and Kenya.

Biometric voting, and the registration required, are once again proving problematic in several African countries. Somalia will miss its target of a November election as it has been unable to put into place election infrastructure or register its people. In Ghana, the plan to populate a new biometric register is continuing to spark controversy with legal challenges and observers deployed to registration centers. Meanwhile Lagos is attempting video conferencing to verify identity and perform liveness checks on its pensioners, and Gambia releases a progress report on its ID issuance.