Dr. Yonah,
I will certainly start the discourse around this in the next two
conferences I attend. I shall be in India next week for their
e-government conference then next month I will be in South Africa to
discuss their Broadband Strategy and in December again in SA for the ICTD
conference in Cape Town.

Regards.

Ndemo.

Dear Dr. Ndemo and Walu,

Having participated in driving the reduction of prices of broadband

connectivity in Tanzania (core/transport Backhaul) by over 99% compared to

2009 prices; it is now time to agree on what we mean "Broadband". Further,

I suggest we seriously agree on what it means to connect xxxxxx to ICTs,

to

help/guide all researchers in reporting about meeting the WSIS targets by

2015. Please recall...the first six targets are about connecting xxxx to

ICTs. Here they are:

1.To connect villages with ICTs and establish community access points.

2.To connect universities, colleges, secondary schools and primary schools

with ICTs.

3.To connect scientific and research centers with ICTs

4.To connect public libraries, cultural centers, museums, post offices and

archives with ICTs.

5.To connect health centers and hospitals with ICTs.

6.To connect all local and central government departments and establish

websites and email addresses.

Dr. Ndemo, comming up with a harmonised definition certainly will help

data

collectors to give our region a fair reporting. I request your thoughts on

this.

Regards

__________________________________

*Eng. Dr. Zaipuna O. Yonah, PhD*

*Consulting Engineer in ICTs*

*P. O. Box 32736*

*Dar es Salaam*

*Tanzania*

*Tel: +255-784-786429*

*Fax: +255--732-920133*

*Email: **engzaipuna@ieee.org* <engzaipuna@ieee.org>

===============================

*It is About Engineering People's Lives! **& *

*Advancing Technology for Humanity!*

*===============================*

On Sat, Oct 19, 2013 at 12:37 PM, Hassan Wekesa <hwekesa@gmail.com> wrote:

Walu,

The same argument also applies to the measure economists use to gauge

growing economies in Africa. When they say country A has the fastest

growing economy, you wonder what parameters have been used. You cannot

compare a country that has just gained stability after maybe civil

unrest

and a country that has been stable in terms of economic stability.

It is apparent that the latter will have a higher GDP than the former

and

thus cannot be used as a benchmark for comparison. Having said that, I

guess the same analogy can be used in comparing the cost of verifying

where

the cost of broadband is cheaper.

Hassan

On Sat, Oct 19, 2013 at 9:30 AM, Zaipuna Yonah

<zaipuna.yonah@gmail.com>wrote:

**

Dr. Ndemo,

I salute you! Thanks for the additional insights.

Regards

__________________________________

*Eng. Dr. Zaipuna O. Yonah, PhD*

*Consulting Engineer in ICTs*

*P. O. Box 32736*

*Dar es Salaam*

*Tanzania*

*Tel: +255-784-786429*

*Fax: +255--732-920133*

*Email: **engzaipuna@ieee.org* <engzaipuna@ieee.org>

===============================

*It is About Engineering People's Lives! **& *

*Advancing Technology for Humanity!*

*===============================*

On Fri, Oct 18, 2013 at 6:58 PM, Bitange Ndemo

<bitange@jambo.co.ke>wrote:

Eng. Dr. Yonah,

The average is one of the measures of central tendency. It is not

used

without looking at other measures in order to give you a clear

picture.

You always should know the range and the standard deviation. We

usually

use the average or the mean to get you the rough estimate. In a

population the mean is closer to the truth but in a sample collected

randomly, it can vary but not too much. There is always a problem

with

data gathering where some people may not understand the ethics behind

authentic data. There are numerous occasions when people lie with

statistics.

In essence we should not blindly dismiss any numbers unless we have

looked

at the methodology which is always not given although it is a

requirement

in such data.

Ndemo.

Thanks Walu! Very helpful indeed. But it reminded me of a book I

once

read

called: "The Enemy called Average" by John Mason! It is always

misleading

when you report by numerical rankings instead of group rankings

especially

using averages!

In my early years of learning signal processing, I learnt that the

mathematical operator called average is really a FILTER that only

extracts

the DC value from the noisy signal (data). It throws out ALL THE

NOISE

if

indeed you have a very very large (infinity) data sample. Else the

average

is very noisy! This is the catchy 22 in the integrity of the

reported

figures!

Once again, thanks Walu.

Regards

__________________________________

*Eng. Dr. Zaipuna O. Yonah, PhD*

*Consulting Engineer in ICTs*

*P. O. Box 32736*

*Dar es Salaam*

*Tanzania*

*Tel: +255-784-786429*

*Fax: +255--732-920133*

*Email: **engzaipuna@ieee.org* <engzaipuna@ieee.org>

===============================

*It is About Engineering People's Lives! **& *

*Advancing Technology for Humanity!*

*===============================*

On Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 10:34 AM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com>

wrote:

**

Far from it...this is not "dollarization" of our economies.

It is just that researchers have to find a way of defining

"affordability"

across different economic domains in order to eventually provide an

objective ranking.

ITU defines affordability as a function of average incomes.

Consider

the

following:

If average incomes in country A = 100Euros (just to avoid the

dollar

focus

:-), while in country B it is = 200Euros. And If in BOTH countries

a

1mbs

Internet link goes for 50Euros per month, which of these two

countries

enjoys cheaper internet services?

50Euros in Country A happens to be 50% of the average income while

50%

Euros in Country B is only 25% of the average incomes. Would you

like

to

live in a country where internet costs 50% of your salary or where

its

25%

of your salary? Country A is considered to be twices as expensive

as

Country B.

Country B is therefore considered to have cheaper internet services

(even

though internet does costs the SAME in Euro terms across both

countries).

not sure if its clearer or worse :-)

walu.

--------------------------------------------

On Wed, 10/16/13, Zaipuna Yonah <zaipuna.yonah@gmail.com> wrote:

Subject: Re: [kictanet] [eThinkTankTz] Uganda has the cheapest

Broadband

Internet in E-Africa.

To: "Walubengo J" <jwalu@yahoo.com>

Cc: "Brian Munyao Longwe" <blongwe@gmail.com>, "I-Network Uganda" <

i-network@dgroups.org>, "eThinkers" <ethinktanktz@yahoogroups.com>,

"KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>

Date: Wednesday, October 16, 2013, 10:04 AM

Dear Walu,

Are you suggesting we approve with open arms the

mammon called dollarization? I am just

curious!

http://clknet.or.tz/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/PB1-Dollarization-of-the-Tanzanian-Economy.pdf/

We surely have a long way to go in creating our

own information even though we have our own knowledge about

issues like this.

Keep thinking and discussing...

Regards

__________________________________

Eng. Dr. Zaipuna O. Yonah, PhD

Consulting Engineer in ICTs

P. O. Box

32736

Dar es

Salaam

Tanzania

Tel:

+255-784-786429

Fax:

+255--732-920133

Email: engzaipuna@ieee.org

===============================

It is About Engineering People's Lives! & Advancing

Technology for

Humanity!===============================

On Wed, Oct 16, 2013

at 9:36 AM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com>

wrote:

@Brian,

this is where we go wrong. We (East Africans) pay top-dollar

to be members of ITU and then we consistently ignore their

research output for various reasons - including lying :-).

In which case we should at least stop being members and save

the money for something else. Incidentally, ITU has been

around for donkey years doing policy research in telecomms

and we should at least give their report some little respect

and attention.

But if we doubt them, we should produce alternate research

like what Eng. Dr. Zaipuna O. Yonah, PhD has done with

Research ICT Africa report- whic shows that actually .TZ has

the most affordable internet services. From the quick

reading of that I can see that perhaps what Research ICT

Africa failed to do was that they did not

"normalize" their figures.

What this means is that if a coke or any product is 1USD in

the US and it is also 1USD in Kenya, that coke is still

considered more expensive in Kenya because of differentials

in national income levels i.e. they are not equally

affordable . Put differently an American finds it easier to

spend the 1USD than the Kenyan would.

So if one was to "normalize" the Research ICT

report against national income levels, we would most likely

arrive at the same (ITU) conclusion.

walu.

--------------------------------------------

On Tue, 10/15/13, Brian Munyao Longwe <blongwe@gmail.com>

wrote:

Subject: Re: [kictanet] [eThinkTankTz] Uganda has the

cheapest Broadband Internet in E-Africa.

To: jwalu@yahoo.com

Cc: "I-Network Uganda" <i-network@dgroups.org>,

"eThinkers" <ethinktanktz@yahoogroups.com>,

"KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>

Date: Tuesday, October 15, 2013, 11:29 PM

It's a lie, I am here and

frustrated with high costs of broadband...

On Tue, Oct 15, 2013 at

9:15 PM, Zaipuna Yonah <zaipuna.yonah@gmail.com>

wrote:

How about the attached report? Sometimes, you got

to find a comparative approach to make sense out of these

studies. Sometimes it matters who reports.....But the

customer knows the truth!

Regards

__________________________________

Eng. Dr. Zaipuna O. Yonah, PhD

Consulting Engineer in ICTs

P. O. Box

32736

Dar es

Salaam

Tanzania

Tel: +255-784-786429

Fax: +255--732-920133

Email: engzaipuna@ieee.org

===============================

It is About Engineering People's

Lives! & Advancing

Technology for

Humanity!===============================

On Tue, Oct 15, 2013 at 8:16 PM,

Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com>

wrote:

Folks,(apologies for cross-posting)

This comes as a suprise. One would have thought Kenya and

TZ

by virtue of "owning" the International Internet

conne Submarine connectivity/Gatewyas at Mombasa and Dar

respectively, they would offer the cheapest Internet

costs.

But according to the latest 2013 ITU report that has been

tracking and measuring affordability of internet, UG is

ranked no 139, TZ at no 143 and Kenya at no 149 globally

in

terms of affordability.

Cost of broadband internet in Kenya is put at 49% of the

Gross National Income(GNI) compared to .UG at 32%. Put

differently it costs an average Kenyan half(50%) his

salary

to connect to a broadband internet link. In SA it is about

4% of their GNI.

Those who can withstand the statistics/readings can pull

the

Executive Report at

http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents/publications/mis2013/MIS2013-exec-sum_E.pdf

@ CS Matiang'i - this could be part of your bedtime

reading collection :-)

walu.

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