IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Addressing the industry at the ASSOCHAM Focus conference in New Delhi, Planning Commission member secretary Raajeva Ratna Shah disclosed the 11th five year plan for 2008-2012. The plan is in keeping with digital content production and distribution in India.

Chaired by the Philippines’ Department of Science and Technology Secretary Mario Montejo, the two-day meetings were preceded by meetings with senior officials and regulators in charge of telecommunications and information technology in their respective countries to see to it that they were on track for implementing the Asean ICT Masterplan (AIM) targeted for completion in 2015.

Li Dafeng, Regional President for Huawei East and South Africa, said ICT is playing a critical role in sustainable development in the global economy.

“Today, people and organizations are more efficient and productive due to access to speed network, smart phones usage, numerous applications, and cloud computing systems, making our society more intelligent and energy-saving,” he said during the Broaderway Forum for Kenya held on the sidelines of the Cyber Security East Africa Conference.

"While absolute broadband penetration in the Arab World may seem low by industrial countries standards, the effective household broadband penetration is much higher. This is related to higher number of people per household as well as line sharing," said Jawad J. Abbassi, founder and general manager of Arab Advisors Group.

Chinese scientists have established the world’s first integrated quantum communication network, combining over 700 optical fibers on the ground with two ground-to-satellite links to achieve quantum key distribution over a total distance of 4,600 kilometers for users across the country. The team, led by Jianwei Pan, Yuao Chen, Chengzhi Peng from the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, reported in Nature their latest advances towards the global, practical application of such a network for future communications.

Unlike conventional encryption, quantum communication is considered unhackable and therefore the future of secure information transfer for banks, power grids and other sectors. The core of quantum communication is quantum key distribution (QKD), which uses the quantum states of particles — e.g. photons — to form a string of zeros and ones, while any eavesdropping between the sender and the receiver will change this string or key and be noticed immediately. So far, the most common QKD technology uses optical fibers for transmissions over several hundred kilometers, with high stability but considerable channel loss. Another major QKD technology uses the free space between satellites and ground stations for thousand-kilometer-level transmissions. In 2016, China launched the world’s first quantum communication satellite (QUESS, or Mozi/Micius) and achieved QKD with two ground stations which are 2,600 km apart. In 2017, an over 2,000-km-long optical fiber network was completed for QKD between Beijing and Shanghai.

The progress of Plan Vive Digital, which aims to bring ICT technologies to the whole country, was analysed at Andicom 2013, the international congress held in Cartagena, by the country's ICT Minister, Diego Molano.

During the past three years Colombia has increased its Internet point access from 2.2 million to 7.2 million, although the penetration percentage is still low (34% of houses are connected and 20% of SMEs). Molano praised the fast growth experienced lately, which is placing the country in a real digital environment.

Denmark has provisionally handed over the Eastern Corridor Fibre Optic Network Extension Project to the Ministry of Communications, which will be managed by the National Information Technology Agency (NITA).

The 165 kilometres, which connects the Eastern Corridor Optic Fibre from Ho to Accra, was financed with a grant of € 3,795, 017 from the Danish Government.

In today's world, information consumption is growing explosively, with large amounts of data being sent over the Internet. As smart home and smart city technologies develop, all equipment, from household appliances to industrial devices, will soon be able to exchange information with each other and efficiently control all processes. To achieve this, we need technologies that can collect a wide range of data about the state of devices and the environment in real-time.

Nikolay Khorkov, the founder of Fibertooland Optolex and a renowned expert in fiber optic technologies, suggested that utilizing fiber optic cables as sensors could be a viable solution to the problem at hand.

A range of government initiatives are driving ICT adoption in Oman, as the sultanate works to connect all homes and businesses to the national broadband network by 2040.

Sector growth is being driven in part by government efforts to promote connectivity, a key element of the broader Digital Oman Strategy (eOman) launched in 2003, which is focused on developing IT skills, digital literacy and e-government services.

Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) Director General Francis Wangusi said Tuesday that currently only 3 percent of the population has access to broadband, reported Xinhua.

"This has hindered many development objectives and so the government has set a target of 20 percent broadband access by the year 2017," Wangusi said during a workshop on the role of women in Information Communication Technology (ICT).

• KT Wins a $47 Million Contract to Build Optical Fiber Network in Luzon
• New Deal in Philippines to Provide Foothold into Southeast Asian Markets

KT signed a 53 billion won (US$ 47 million) contract last week with the Philippines's Converge ICT Solutions Inc. to build an optical fiber network along some 1,570 kilometers (975 miles) of main roads in the northern region of Luzon. The company hopes the contract will lead to more business partnerships with the top Philippines Internet provider in the future.

Qatar is ranked 23rd globally in “network readiness” while leading the entire Arab world, according to the 12th annual Global Information Technology Report (GITR) report.

The report - prepared by international business school, INSEAD, and the World Economic Forum with the help of Booz and Company and CISCO - notes that Qatar has climbed five places up in the global rankings, which reflects the government’s efforts at enhancing online services in the country.

A government plan to privatize its network of Telecommunications Offices (Telof) nationwide will no longer be pursued, as it is mulling the use of those facilities for a project aimed at connecting the national bureaucracy all the way down to the barangay level using broadband technology.

Documents obtained from the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) showed that the old equipment of Telof will no longer be sold, and instead will be used for the National Broadband Network (NBN) Project.

The Sultanate has made significant progress in rolling out faster and more efficient connection speeds, with growing demand for the services highlighted at a three-day awareness campaign held in early February when state telecoms operator TelBru notched up its 1000th connection to the country’s Fibre To The Home (FTTH) facility.

Despite what ICT and telecommunication professionals have described as an "articulate" broadband policy, Nigeria has struggled to achieve the 30% fixed internet penetration set for 2018. To address this and ensure rapid deployment of connectivity (especially to rural areas), satellite data communications services provider Avanti Communications has partnered with African connectivity and datacentre solutions company MainOne.

In early February 2019 at the annual IT conference Nerds Unite, hosted by MainOne, the companies announced their alliance and offered details of what the market could expect.