- KICTANet - KICTANet

Safaricom Challenges on M-Pesa after Upgrade
by Preston Odera 18 Dec '10

18 Dec '10

The current challenges consumers are going thru on the M-Pesa after upgrade seem not to have been shared with the consumers. Can the CEO of Safaricom explain what is going on. There are delays on money sent. I sent money and only received the message after six hours. The recepient never received any message. There are cases where the recipient does not receive a message although the money is there they cannot withdraw. Can Safaricom explain how many cases of this nature have been experienced and what are the security implications? Preston Odera Executive Director K-Ninety East Africa Limited Tel +254 20 3544352

1 0

Safaricom data bundles
by robert yawe 17 Dec '10

17 Dec '10

Hi, I am like many of you a peculiar Kenyan in that I can quickly find 10 new ways to use a product that the provider/manufacture could never have though about. When Safaricom introduced the monthly data bundles I quickly took advantage of the service to roll out remote data capture terminals as I had a new that the 999/- unlimited monthly bundle would meet my requirements without any problems and at a predictable cost. So after rolling out the device somewhere in the middle of nowhere, its a security device so I will not give you the GPS coordinates, where no man need go again. I loaded the initial 999/- and off went the device, little did I know that the place that no man needed to go would need to be visited at least once a month. Why, because safaricom's unlimited monthly bundle cannot be purchased remotely, one needs to physically get to the sim card, my device is credit card sized and runs some proprietary software. I appreciate the fact that I am doing with the service what Safaricom did not think could or even would be done. I have talked to the customer service persons, they are now more script driven than before, and all I got was ". . the 450 service cannot be activated from another line, please put the sim card in a phone and send a sms message to 450 with the bundle size, thank you for calling Safaricom and have a good day". This what I had asked for in a call centre operator but suddenly my needs have now surpassed the standard script can Safaricom please implement an escalation procedure in the script so that when peculiar Kenyans like myself call with peculiar requirements we can get assistance. For now there goes my weekend as I need to travel to the top of a hill somewhere in Kenya, report to the local police station to avoid being shot down, climb up a 12 meter mast, remove a sim card, insert it into my phone, send an sms to 450, remove the sim card, place it back into the device, climb down the mast then drive back to Nairobi. Regards Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696

5 4

BBC Article on Kenya Outsourcing
by Paul Kukubo 17 Dec '10

17 Dec '10

Listers <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12004815 <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/>[image: BBC News]OLOGY<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/> 16 December 2010 Last updated at 23:40 GMT Kenya's ambitions for an outsourced futureBy Jonathan FildesTechnology reporter, BBC News Stare out of the office windows at Park Towers and - if you are lucky - you may spot a zebra or a giraffe. The sleek, glass building on the edge of Nairobi National park belongs to Horizon Contact Centers, one of a handful of emerging Kenyan firms that hope to grab a large slice of the global outsourcing market and establish the country as a leading provider of the call centres and back offices of the world. Inside, there is little time for safaris. The sleek offices are packed with rows and rows of blue cubicles staffed by young graduates, all calmly talking into headsets and typing into identical PCs. The rhythmical conversations are polite and familiar to anyone who has called a customer support line or has picked up a cold call from an insurance firm. "Kenya is very well known for its runners and wildlife, but when people talk about IT services there is a question mark," says Sanjay Sikka, chief executive of the year-and-a-half-old firm. Now that is all set to change, he says. Net effect Four years ago, the Kenyan government unveiled its Vision 2030 plan to develop the country<http://www.nesc.go.ke/News&Events/KenyaVision2030Intro.htm> . Central to its goals were the use of technology and a desire to emulate the success of countries such as India, South Africa and the Philippines. "It is not about taking India's business away from them," explains Paul Kukubo of the government's ICT board, in charge of promoting Kenya as an outsourcing destination for foreign firms. "The market is so big globally that the issue isn't about competition. The source markets - the US and the UK - are still looking for high quality, low cost destinations to do business." Until recently, Kenya was not in a position to go after the business. Its digital infrastructure - and particularly its satellite communications links with other countries - was prohibitively expensive for firms that rely on instant communication. That changed in 2009, when the first of three undersea internet cables arrived in the country. "I travel around the world trying to make the case for international investment in outsourcing," says Mr Kukubo. "Before the cables came it wasn't even a discussion. Now we have seen a huge interest with companies saying 'you have the basic ingredients'." Mr Sikka, who's firm initially used a grant from the World Bank to help pay for the expensive satellite links, agrees. "It's had a huge impact on cost," he says. "It's made Kenya competitive with the rest of the world." Perception problem Down the road from Horizon's sleek headquarters is Kencall, Kenya's first outsourcing firm, started in 2005. Before the cables arrived it had to use voice compression technology to ensure that customers did not pick up on the lags in conversations as the calls were beamed thousands of miles up via the satellite "When you calculate that distance to go up to that satellite and back down again at the speed of light, it would mean that for a word to be heard in England it would take about 6-700 milliseconds," says its founder Nik Nesbitt. "That delay makes calls horrible." Now, there is no need for the technology. This has brought other benefits, says Mr Nesbitt. "Our bandwidth costs have dropped about 90%. However, the part that is most exciting to us is that we are able to go out and get higher value more attractive work because we have the fibre optic capability, which pays us more." He says the cables "offer a perception of reliability" to potential customers. "Previously, the satellites offered that reliability, but not the perception," he says. But reliable cheap bandwidth is not the only selling points for Kenya, says Mr Sikka. He highlights the country's "abundant talent pool" and its "neutral accent". "India invests a lot in so-called accent neutralisation, where the agents are taken through a course," says Mr Sikka, himself a veteran of the Indian outsourcing scene. Kenya, he says, does not have that problem. It's a mantra repeated by everyone pushing Kenya as an outsourcing destination. Mr Sikka also emphasises the population's "cultural affinity" with countries such as the US and the UK. "Cultural affinity to the UK is very important," he says. "It is very important to show an empathy and understanding of the culture. It can't be someone calling up from an alien world with no understanding about what it means to live there." He says young Kenyans consume the same TV shows and music as their counterparts in the US and the UK, and they follow the same sports teams. The legacy of the British schooling system in Kenya is also an advantage, he says. "The main thing when you are talking on the phone is getting into the customer's shoes." Price point Kenya is not just targeting call centre work. Horizon offers data processing. Nearby, in a conspicuous four-storey red building, Ken-Tech data offers other services such as image tagging. For example, the firm does processing work for an unnamed smartphone application that allows users to take a picture of a product to find the best prices online. The pictures are sent to a team of people in their offices, who analyse the images and tag them with descriptive words that can be used to find the best prices on the web. "The results are sent back to the phone within 30 seconds," says Lakshmanan Manickam, general manager of the firm, and another person who has moved from India to kick-start the industry. This work requires a "highly-skilled workforce", he says, who are able to describe objects accurately. The firm also creates content for websites and audits transcriptions and translations for US companies. He says it is much easier - and cheaper - to set up these projects in Kenya; factors that will make it "the next outsourcing destination". But not everyone is so optimistic about Kenya's chances. "I'm more conservative about what it can do," says Erik Hersman, an entrepreneur and a major figure in the local technology start-up community. "If you are just trying to bid against your Indian counterparts, I think it is a hard thing to do, particularly when they have so much experience." He believes that rather than offering similar services to other countries, Kenya needs to find its own niche if it is to be successful. "I think it is a little bit more of a difficult space than people make it out to be." In addition, he says, the country should not try to compete with other countries on price. 'Lone voice' It is a view echoed by Mark Hillary, author of Who Moved my Job. "If your basic offering is, 'it is cheaper to work here than India', than that is a pretty poor sales pitch," he says. Instead, he says, firms and government should look at the kinds of graduates that are coming out of the country's universities and offer services based on their skills. This has worked for countries such as Bangladesh, he says, which has developed a concentration of animation firms. He says Kenya's historical ties with the UK, which means it has similar accountancy and legal systems, offers opportunities for outsourcing firms. However, Mr Hillary says his studies conducted with the United Nations suggest the country may face other challenges. "We found the biggest inhibitor was people's sense of corruption," he says. "But, it's more about the perception of doing business than the reality." A spate of violence following the disputed 2007 presidential elections also damaged the country's reputation. But the government's Mr Kukubo remains optimistic. "One has to be candid about these things," he says. "[The 2007 violence] was one of those things that was incidental and rare in Kenya's history. "Out of that crisis was born a new Kenya, really. Bad as it may have been, I think we learnt out lessons." In the next year, he says, there will be an "explosion of interest" from firms wanting to set up in Kenya. It has already invested in a new business park on the Mombasa Road, a stone's throw from Kencall, Horizon and Ken-Tech data. The 500,000sq ft (46,450sq m) of empty office space, primed for an influx of local and India firms, is an indication of its conviction. And it is a validation for Kencall's Mr Nesbitt. "When we started Kencall, we were really a voice in the wilderness talking about outsourcing. I think everyone sat there with one raised eyebrow waiting to see what could happen. "But people have now begun to see that this can actually work in Kenya." [image: BBC] BBC © MMX The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/help/web/links/> Paul Kukubo Chief Executive Officer, Kenya ICT Board PO Box 27150 - 00100 Nairobi, Kenya 12th Floor, Teleposta Towers Koinange Street Tel +254 20 2089061, +254 20 2211960 Fax: +254 20 2211962 website: www.ict.go.ke local content project: www.tandaa.co.ke, www.facebook.com/tandaakenya twitter:@tandaaKENYA BPO Project: www. doitinkenya.co.ke Digital Villages Project: www.pasha.co.ke personal contacts _______________ Cell: + 254 717 180001 skype: kukubopaul googletalk: pkukubo personal blog: www.paulkukubo.co.ke personal twitter: @pkukubo ____________________ Vision: Kenya becomes a top ten global ICT hub Mission: To champion and actively enable Kenya to adopt and exploit ICT, through promotion of partnerships, investments and infrastructure growth for socio economic enrichment

1 0

Re: [kictanet] Safaricom data bundles
by Betty Mwangi 17 Dec '10

17 Dec '10

Thanks Washington On your iSsue with Bonga I believe a member of my team is in touch to investigate the problem you are experiencing so that we can sort this out Rgds BlackBerry® powered by Safaricom ________________________________ From: Odhiambo Washington To: Betty Mwangi Cc: kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke Sent: Fri Dec 17 09:04:18 2010 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Safaricom data bundles On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 8:34 AM, Betty Mwangi <bmwangi1(a)safaricom.co.ke> wrote: Robert Thanks for your comments and the inconvenience is highly regretted. I assure you you are not peculiar in any way and as a matter of fact Safaricom will be availing an on line top up service for data early in the New Year that Will assist with situations similar to yours. We assure you of our committment to continue to ensure that we meet customers needs. Hi Betty, Such a solution will be very welcome, especially in the face of the many "sonkos" brandishing iPads. At the moment the process of buying a bundle for an iPad user is hell, thanks to the microsim. That you have to face a process of powering down the iPad, removing the microsim, place on a holder, get some phone to be powered down to take the "sim", load credit, buy data via sms, wait for confirmation, then follow the reverse of this process.... You just see the hassle that product will save many from! PS: In the meantime, would you be kind enough to mobilize "the team" to revive Bonga points query/redemption system? It's been down for a while. -- Best regards, Odhiambo WASHINGTON, Nairobi,KE +254733744121/+254722743223 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Damn!! ##################################################################################### NOTE: All emails sent from Safaricom Limited are subject to Safaricom�s Email Terms & Conditions. Please click here to read the policy. #####################################################################################

2 1

AU Joins the .africa & .afrique Fray
by Muchiri Nyaggah 17 Dec '10

17 Dec '10

"The African Union (AU) has expressed interest in playing a key role in selecting the operator for the .africa and .afrique generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs)." See the rest of the story here http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=EFAAA1C0-1A64-6A71-CE3979187410031B Kind regards, *Muchiri* Nyaggah Director @muchiri +254 722 506400 Semacraft.com

1 0

Re: [kictanet] Safaricom data bundles
by Betty Mwangi 17 Dec '10

17 Dec '10

Robert Thanks for your comments and the inconvenience is highly regretted. I assure you you are not peculiar in any way and as a matter of fact Safaricom will be availing an on line top up service for data early in the New Year that Will assist with situations similar to yours. We assure you of our committment to continue to ensure that we meet customers needs. Best rgds Betty Chief officer - New Products Safaricom BlackBerry® powered by Safaricom ________________________________ From: kictanet-bounces+bmwangi1=safaricom.co.ke(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke To: Betty Mwangi Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Sent: Fri Dec 17 08:17:33 2010 Subject: [kictanet] Safaricom data bundles Hi, I am like many of you a peculiar Kenyan in that I can quickly find 10 new ways to use a product that the provider/manufacture could never have though about. When Safaricom introduced the monthly data bundles I quickly took advantage of the service to roll out remote data capture terminals as I had a new that the 999/- unlimited monthly bundle would meet my requirements without any problems and at a predictable cost. So after rolling out the device somewhere in the middle of nowhere, its a security device so I will not give you the GPS coordinates, where no man need go again. I loaded the initial 999/- and off went the device, little did I know that the place that no man needed to go would need to be visited at least once a month. Why, because safaricom's unlimited monthly bundle cannot be purchased remotely, one needs to physically get to the sim card, my device is credit card sized and runs some proprietary software. I appreciate the fact that I am doing with the service what Safaricom did not think could or even would be done. I have talked to the customer service persons, they are now more script driven than before, and all I got was ". . the 450 service cannot be activated from another line, please put the sim card in a phone and send a sms message to 450 with the bundle size, thank you for calling Safaricom and have a good day". This what I had asked for in a call centre operator but suddenly my needs have now surpassed the standard script can Safaricom please implement an escalation procedure in the script so that when peculiar Kenyans like myself call with peculiar requirements we can get assistance. For now there goes my weekend as I need to travel to the top of a hill somewhere in Kenya, report to the local police station to avoid being shot down, climb up a 12 meter mast, remove a sim card, insert it into my phone, send an sms to 450, remove the sim card, place it back into the device, climb down the mast then drive back to Nairobi. Regards Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ##################################################################################### NOTE: All emails sent from Safaricom Limited are subject to Safaricom�s Email Terms & Conditions. Please click here to read the policy. #####################################################################################

2 1

Re: [kictanet] [AfrICANN-discuss] NRO-NC appointment at AfriNIC
by Brian Munyao Longwe 16 Dec '10

16 Dec '10

Congratulations Alan! You are the right man for the job! On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 6:19 PM, Adiel A. Akplogan <adiel(a)afrinic.net>wrote: > Dear colleagues, > > We are please to announce that the AfriNIC Board has appointed Alan P. > Barrett as AfriNIC's region representative to the NRO Number Council > for one year (01-Jnauary-2011 to 31-December-2011). > > We would like to congratulate Alan for his appointment and wish him > success. > > Sincerely. > > ______________________________________________________________________ > Adiel A. Akplogan Tel. +230 403 51 00 > Chief Executive Officer, AfriNIC Fax: +230 466 67 58 > adiel(a)afrinic.net - www.afrinic.net sip: adiel(a)voip.afrinic.net > > _______________________________________________ > AfrICANN mailing list > AfrICANN(a)afrinic.net > https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo.cgi/africann > -- Brian Munyao Longwe e-mail: blongwe(a)gmail.com cell: + 254 722 518 744 blog : http://zinjlog.blogspot.com meta-blog: http://mashilingi.blogspot.com

1 0

Reloaded: Yawe for post master general
by Francis Hook 15 Dec '10

15 Dec '10

Maybe Robert Yawe will realise his dream seeing how the current PMG made it onto "the list" -- Francis Hook +254 733 504561

2 1

Fwd: Media Advisory: Silicon Valley entrepreneur visit Kenya
by Paul Kukubo ICT Board 15 Dec '10

15 Dec '10

Of interest. Sent from my iPad Begin forwarded message: > From: Kenya ICT Board <kkobia(a)ict.go.ke> > Date: 14 December 2010 10:10:06 GMT+03:00 > To: pkukubo(a)ict.go.ke > Subject: Media Advisory: Silicon Valley entrepreneur visit Kenya > Reply-To: kkobia(a)ict.go.ke > > > Paul > > The Kenya ICT Board will host a group of entrepreneur including Russel Simmons (co-founder of paypal) and Jawed Karim (co-founder of youtube) at an event at the iHub on Tuesday Decemeber 14 at 3:00pm. > > You are invited to cover the event, which will also feature some Kenya's top tech entrepreneur . > Tandaa Tech Talk > Featuring members of i/o ventures including co-founder of paypal, co-founder of youtube and co-founder of yelp.com > Venue > iHub, Bishop Magua Center, 4th Floor, Ngong Road, Opposite Uchumi Hyper > Date > December 14, 2010 > Time > 15:00 - 18:00 > Host > Kenya ICT Board > > Members of the media interested in booking interviews with special guests should contact Kaburo Kobia kkobia(a)ict.go.ke or call 0729466260 > > For more information: > Background > > Profiles for i/o ventures team > > About Kenya ICT Board > > Contact info > > Background > > i/o ventures is an early stage start up program that focuses heavily on mentorship. Their network of entrepreneurs have started multi-billion dollar internet companies including paypal, youtube, myspace, hi5 and yelp, many of which have over 100 million users visiting their websites monthly. > The mentors have visited a number of countries including Singapore, Brazil, Russia, and mostly recently Tanzania. During their visits the mentors travel participate in a variety of events which usually include speaking at top universities, meeting with upcoming entrepreneurs, top business leaders and a meeting or dinner with top government officials including the President or Prime Minister. The end goal is to spread ICT entrepreneurship, build a bridge into Silicon Valley and encourage the growth of the local "tech ecosystem". > > i/o ventures are making their first trip to Kenya from December 13 - 14. During their Kenya trip they would like to focus on mentorship based on their extensive experience in incubating start-up entrepreneurs. Their most recent graduating class included six companies in the internet space, they were exposed to 120 Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors and all got funded. Half are already profitable, one has been acquired. > Profiles > Russel Simmons: early employee/lead technical architect at paypal, former CTO and co-founder of Yelp.com > Jawed Karim: cofounder of Youtube, early employee at Paypal and angel investor > Paul Bragel: partner at i/o ventures, co-founder of Leforum (online forums), co-founder/CEO of Meetro (location based social networking) and former CEO of Paragon Five (game development > Mbwana Alliy: associate at i/o ventures, co-founder of Yellow Masai, Board Member at Envaya > About Kenya ICT Board > > The Kenya ICT Board was established by HE President Mwai Kibaki, as a state corporation under the State Corporations Act Cap. 446 on 19th February 2007. > > The Kenya ICT Board's mission is to champion and actively enable Kenya to adopt and exploit ICT, through promotion of partnerships, investments and infrastructure growth for socio economic enrichment. > > Its vision is that Kenya becomes a top ten global ICT hub by 2030. > > The Kenya ICT Board mandate is to: > Market: Positioning and promoting Kenya as an ICT destination (locally and internationally), especially promoting Business process Outsourcing (BPO) and Offshoring. > Advise: Advise the government on all relevant matters pertaining to the development and promotion of ICT industries in the country > Build Capacity: Providing government and other stakeholders with skills, capacity and funding for anchor implementation of ICT projects for development. > Manage Projects: Coordinating, directing and implementing anchor ICT projects in development. > > Contact > For more information or to book interviews please contact: > Kaburo Kobia > 0729466260 > > > Sincerely, > > > Kaburo Kobia > Project Manager, Local Digital Content > Kenya ICT Board > > This email was sent to pkukubo(a)ict.go.ke by kkobia(a)ict.go.ke. > Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. > Email Marketing by > > Kenya ICT Board | Telposta Towers, 12th Floor | Kenyatta Ave | P.o. box 27150-00100 | Nairobi | Kenya >

1 0

Cartagena Statement of the African ICANN community about the Support for new gTLD applicants
by Alice Munyua 14 Dec '10

14 Dec '10

Dear all, As you are aware ICANN is meant to introduce new gTLDs, however, during the just ended meeting in Cartegna, various stakeholders continued to raise a number of controversial aspects of the new gTLDs programme, which include but not limited to geographic names, root zone, scaling, economic analysis, malicious conduct, etc. The ICANN board resolved to provide more time to stakeholders to discuss and work through the remaining issues. Africa ICANN representatives remain very concerned about thehigh costs for applications/process, which is likely to exclude those without the level of financial resources required, e.g cultural and other non-commercial groups, among others from benefiting from the opportunities the new gTLDs will offer. Please see Draft Applicant Guide (DAG) book: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/draft-rfp-clean-12nov10-en.pdfand send in comments. See Africa ICANN statement below. best Alice ----------------------------------------------------------- Following ICANN Board's resolution 20 in Nairobi meeting whereby "The Board requests stakeholders to work through their SOs and ACs, and form a Working Group to develop a sustainable approach to providing support to applicants requiring assistance in applying and operating new gTLDs ." . We, members of the African Community, consisting of AFRALO and AfrICANN, at the ICANN meeting in Brussels, jointly welcomed the Board resolution 20 and expressed our gratitude to the Board members for their consideration of the community concerns about the cost of applying for new gTLDs that might hinder applicants, especially those from developing countries. . We adopted a statement in which we expressed the expectations of the African Community from the so-called resolution 20, which statement was sent to the ICANN Board and the JAS Working Group which was formed for the purpose. In its retreat in Trondheim (Norway), the ICANN Board decided late September 2010 that Support to applicants will generally include outreach and education to encourage participation across all regions, but any direct financial support for applicant fees must come from sources outside of ICANN. It also decided that the fee levels currently in the Applicant Guidebook will be maintained for all applicants. . While we welcome the decision of providing outreach and education support to applicants who require assistance, we, members of the African Community, in Cartagena express our deep concern regarding the non- consideration of the fee reduction that we, and the JAS Working Group, proposed. . We consider that without application cost reduction, the developing countries, and especially those of the African region, as well as the disadvantaged communities willing to apply for a cultural, linguistic or ethnic gTLD will be excluded from this new gTLD program, that the resolution 20 wanted it to be inclusive. . We strongly believe that assistance should be provided to the needy applicants at the upcoming first round of application, and not at some possible future round, because: o Without assistance for applicants needing support, all of the most obvious names, including IDNs, will be taken by rich investors, leaving little opportunity to local community institutions and developing country entrepreneurs o Even if it is intended to open a second round, its date is at best uncertain regarding the experience of the 2001's round. . We strongly support the milestone report of the JAS Working Group, and look forward to the consideration of its recommendations by the ICANN Board. . We are supportive of all on-going work as per the recommendations of the JAS WG Charter. --

1 0