Balancing Act's News Update 285 (11th December 2005)

________________________________________________________________________ Coming soon: Apple in Africa and Nigeria's Omatek on computer assembly ________________________________________________________________________ IN THIS ISSUE:

Top Story: Kenya special

- THE OPENING OF THE MARKET KICKSTARTS A STAGNANT INTERNET SECTOR

- TELKOM KENYA CLOSE TO THE FINANCIAL BRINK IF REDUNDANCY PACKAGE NOT SORTED

- KENYA�S SKYWEB TECHNOLOGIES STARTS UP CALL CENTRE USING VOIP

Telecom News

- SOUTH AFRICA - SNO GETS ITS LICENCE AT LAST

- NIGERIA:NITEL EMPLOYEES GO TO COURT TO TRY AND STOP SAT3 SPIN-OFF

- VIRGIN MOBILE INKS LONG-AWAITED DEAL WITH SOUTH AFRICA�S CELL-C

- GHANA: GHANA TELECOM AND AREEBA SETTLE INTERCONNECT DISPUTE

- ZIMBABWE: GOVT MAY CANCEL TELECEL'S LICENCE, OUST ITS CHAIRMAN

- CABO VERDE TELECOM'S MONOPOLY ENDS JANUARY 2006 AS CAPE VERDE UNILATERALLY LIBERALIZES

Internet News

- SOUTH AFRICA: ADSL GAME UP FOR TELKOM

- TANZANIA: FBME BANK TRAINS 69 ON INTERNET BANKING

- AFRICAN BUSINESSES SHOULD BUY LOCAL DOMAINS, SAYS MUTI

- MTN RWANDA TO PROVIDE INTERNET AND VOIP

Computer News

- ORACLE GLOBAL SUPPORT CENTER IN EGYPT NOW OPEN FOR BUSINESS

- GHANAIAN COMPANY RELEASES FIRST LOCALLY PRODUCED CHILDREN'S EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE

- CISCO SYSTEMS SEES MASSIVE POTENTIAL IN AFRICA

- SOUTH AFRICA: CUTTING PIRACY WOULD BOOST ECONOMY

On the Money

- EGYPT TELECOM IPO LOOKS LIKE BEING HEAVILY OVERSUBSCRIBED

- KENYA�S CELTEL RAISES KS4.5 BILLION FROM BOND MARKET

- KENYA�S WANANCHI TO GO FOR IPO IN MID 2006

- SA�S CYBERHOST BUYS COMPANIES TO ACQUIRE WEB-BASED SOFTWARE

- BPO INVESTMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA HITS RECORD HIGH

Web and Mobile Data News

- DIRECTOR OF EGYPTIAN OPPOSITION SITE DETAINED BY STATE SECURITY

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- Tel: +972 3 9255050 __________________________________________________________________________ TOP STORY: THE OPENING OF THE MARKET KICKSTARTS A STAGNANT INTERNET SECTOR __________________________________________________________________________

The opening up of competition in Kenya has re-ignited interest in what might otherwise have been a slowing market and it offers clues to what might happen when wider competition is introduced in other markets in Africa. Just back from a recent trip there, Russell Southwood seeks to highlight significant emerging trends.

Three things seem to be having a strong impact on the Kenyan Internet market: the vigorous promotion of the local call internet number 9444 by Telkom Kenya�s new subsidiary Jambo Telecom; the opening shots in the new broadband service war; and the inclusion of VoIP services in the revised ISP licences.

These three things seem to be causing the market to separate out more clearly into corporate and residential players and to be bringing about the much anticipated consolidation. Wananchi�s merger with ISPKenya may be just the start of the process. One sign of the mood of the market is that the merged company has been approached by several other players wishing to join the nuptials.

If Wananchi can hold on to the subscribers of ISPKenya, it will have a 38% share of the market, making it along with Africa Online the largest residential player in the market. Both NairobiNet and SkyWeb Technologies (see story below) have been looking at the call centre market and the latter has started work in that area. The reason? The stagnation of the dial-up market and the coming impact of broadband and VoIP on the shape of the market.

The corporate market is somewhere between 1500 and 2000 leased line customers. About 30% of these customers are large national companies or multinationals with the balance being small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). There are three main private players in this space: AccessKenya, Swift Kenya (owned by the Murali Group which also owns KDN) and UUNet Kenya. For example, at last count UUNet Kenya had around 700 leased line customers, while a smaller player like Interconnect has 250 customers. All the residential players have some element of corporate business but the numbers are in the tens: for example, SkyWeb Technologies has 40 leased line customers.

The move to include VoIP in the revised ISP licences give some idea of the consolidation taking place. Last week we reported that eight licences had been issued and the regulator expects to see that total go up to around 20. Previously, there were 79 licence-holders for the old-style licence. The new licence gives the regulator the right to inspect the equipment being used by the ISP for VoIP and the industry harbours suspicions that this may be used to block some players. The legalisation of VoIP has left a number of ISPs floundering in strategic terms. Many simply do not have the skills to get into the IP voice business and as a result will either need to find a clear niche for themselves or get left behind.

The impact of VoIP has begun to transform international call rates and will continue to do so. As one industry player told us:�It will revolutionise how people do business in Kenya. Why should a customer spend 90 cents a minute to call Europe or the USA when Telkom Kenya is making 75-80 cents from that call? If you�re a bigger corporate spending US$5,000 a month on telecoms, this will come down to US$7-800 a month. It will be a big shot in the arm for our struggling export industries in terms of competitiveness.� ISPs calculate that they will come into the market with both corporate and individual user voice products that will offer international calls to major destinations at between KS7-10 a minute.

Seeking to fight fire with fire, Telkom Kenya is using its Huawei VoIP gateway to offer a pre-paid, calling card service at US0.15 cents a minute to most major international destinations. This service is aimed at the individual customer who has largely deserted the incumbent for grey market cyber-cafes. However, the grey market has responded by offering prices as low as KS5 (US0.03.75 cents) a minute so the price pressure on the incumbent is unlikely to relent. Also the mobile companies are themselves likely to offer a similar VoIP service for international calls but interconnect rates are making such a prospect rather slow-moving. As ever in these discussions, Telkom Kenya holds most of the strategic �high-ground�.

Safaricom has been placing large ads pointing out to people that if they receive international calls from local numbers or with no identifier that these are �illegal� grey market calls and they should report them to the company. Apparently there has been an increased volume of very low quality calls going through the grey market to mobile users.

But as one industry insider told us:�Everybody knows the large grey market VoIP operations are being run by �influential� people and (the regulator) CCK is not stopping them.� So who are these �influential� people? �People who have connections to the politicians.� The regulator�s response is that Telkom Kenya has an Anti-Fraud Department and this deals with �illegal� operations of this kind.

The 9444 service which offers internet access for the cost of a local call is now being promoted heavily by Jambo Telecom, a newly created Telkom Kenya subsidiary, which it is claimed will have a separate board and be an unsubsidised, separate profit centre. It will combine the 9444 dial-up, the broadband offering and the VoIP service described above. It is clearly a strategy to retrieve something workable from the somewhat �competition shell-shocked� JamboNet.

In a market as price conscious as Kenya, a more widely promoted 9444 service is bound to hit the dial-up market. Customers may not be aware that they will get little service support but may trade lack of support for the cost of a local call. Sadly the negotiations to make this service available to all ISPs equally broke down. So Jambo Telecom is almost certainly offering predatory pricing and this and the recent broadband pricing have both been challenged by the industry association, TESPOK.

Luckily for Kenyan ISPs, the current broadband pricing � predatory or not � is so high that it is currently a corporate niche product for SOHO users. The US$170 entry level product would only really be of interest to a very affluent individual customer but it will eat into the SME end of the corporate market once download capacities are increased, as they surely will be.

Current broadband speeds � although an improvement on dial-up � would not be recognised as broadband elsewhere. However capacity increases may not also be accompanied by significant price falls until the EASSy fibre cable is in place in 2007/8. Numbers of DSL subscriptions sold are in the hundreds: for example, Interconnect has 150 subscribers. As elsewhere in the world, the service has been plagued by installation problems as there have not been enough trained installers.

Furthermore the company has not been publishing its contention ratios: it is probably in the region of 10/15:1 although it can go considerably above that during busy parts of the day. Also it was providing less bandwidth when it launched than it currently is. Although when challenged on the lack of published contention ratios during a meeting on research on consumers in the Internet and telecoms sectors held by IDRC last week, Jambo Telecom�s newly appointed Head of Marketing Ahmed Musa assured us that it would do so before too long. An industry player told us:�We have a 32k downlink customer who tested the service and found it slower than his existing service.�

Those ISPs not able to resell the Telkom Kenya broadband service are suspicious that the company is pursuing a �divide-and-rule� approach to the ISP sector. Those who have been appointed � Interconnect and Wananchi � feel that the company was simply trying to limit the fall-out from its initial lack of installer skills and say that all will get a chance to resell once these issues are resolved.

For the newly legalised VoIP market to work effectively, there will need to be equitable, cost-based interconnection agreements and easy access to numbers. One player told us that it had applied to the Telkom Kenya 90 days ago for interconnection but had received no reply. It had also had a similar discussion with mobile operators but had been told that discussions could not begin until its licence had received final approval. The regulator is receiving applications for numbers but the issuing of them depends on judgements made about network size after the mandatory inspection. So there will be plenty of grounds for time-consuming arguments that allow Telkom Kenya to continue to exercise dominant market power in key markets.

Furthermore the whole interconnect issue may get caught up in �study stasis�.One has recently received CCK board approval to look at mobile and fixed prices. Whilst this is being dressed up by CCK as a look at whether consumers are getting good value, it is actually simply an interconnect study. Some operators claim that they are being �punished� by the current interconnect regime.

The most notable of these victims is Telkom Kenya which has large, outstanding interconnect debts but it is not the only unhappy party. CCK CEO John Waweru says:�We want to run the current interconnection regime against international benchmarks and see whether we are out of line�.

An equitable interconnection agreement will begin to put price pressure on the national backhaul and local loop segments of the traffic in much the same way that competition at the international level has done so.

But CCK CEO Waweru noted:�Since the mobile companies came into being, there have been no price reductions and there are high charges for calling outside the user�s chosen network. It forces people to keep two cell phones.�

There has been talk of licensing a fourth mobile operator as the third, Econet is still in the courts a year after its licence was awarded. But Waweru maintains:�There is nothing I can do until the case is resolved. I have no power to cancel the licence. It was a board decision. But there are conditions and if you find the licence holder does not meet those conditions, it can be cancelled.�

The regulator has seen that many companies have sought to operate a series of different licences concurrently through separate but linked companies and has announced its intention to consolidate these different licences into a single licence. These include: the Public Data Network Operator licence, the local loop licence, the Internet backbone gateway operator and the commercial VSAT licence. Broadly speaking, the industry is happy with these changes and as the 60 day notice period expired a week ago, the regulator will make the change once it has completed the terms and conditions of the new licence.

* TELKOM KENYA CLOSE TO THE FINANCIAL BRINK IF REDUNDANCY PACKAGE NOT SORTED

The redundancy package at Telkom Kenya continues to be one bullet the politicians do not seem willing to bite. One source told us:�People are sensitive to employment issues. The Government doesn�t want to be seen as insensitive.� The difficulty is that as Telkom Kenya continues to pay salaries as they fall due, the employees cannot see why they should be sacked.

One well-informed source said that the Government might adopt the approach taken with Kenya Airways employees where it stopped paying the salaries of those to be made redundant. After a few months of non-payment, the employees, realising the vulnerability of their position, settled for less than the full redundancy entitlement. But such a strategy requires strong political nerves and the Government does not have much of a track record on that score. Indeed the President and his new cabinet face choppy rather than calmer waters ahead, a strong incentive to avoid difficult issues.

So what options are there for paying for the redundancy package? Apparently the company approached the World Bank who (not surprisingly) told them to sell some of their assets. Vodafone has made an offer to the Government for the company�s shares in Safaricom which it considers too low: for which in part read that it�s too low to cover the redundancy package. Although it has not yet responded, the Government is expecting a higher offer or it will authorise sale of part of the shareholding on the Nairobi Stock Exchange. Things will only really get sorted out once a new Cabinet sits down to business and will be one of the first major decisions for the new Minister, Mutahi Kagwe (see People below).

But everyone is treading on very thin ice. Telkom Kenya has borrowed up to the hilt and we understand the Treasury has forbidden further borrowing. Although Huawei injected some working capital with its equipment package, the company has stopped investing in capital re-equipment which can only have disastrous consequences if things go on too long. There is date by which the company will be heading for insolvency but for understandable reasons those in the know are reluctant to name it. However, those close to the issue maintain that the company has stabilised at KS16 billion turnover and once the redundancy issue is sorted out is fundamentally sound.

However, although there is then talk of a strategic partner and the sale of up to 20% of its shares, full sale of the company is only talked about over a ten year timescale. But until the politicians and the company part, it will not be able to operate efficiently and make a real, positive contribution. Because �influential people� will always remain interested in drawing upon its resources informally.

For in reality, even with some growth in the market, the company could probably comfortably operate with less than 2000 employees and its core infrastructure business can probably function with as few as 500 employees. So even if the politicians steel themselves for the big �difficult� decision, there is still an unfinished agenda. No-one has yet elaborated a business strategy for Telkom Kenya that positions it in the new competitive environment. It appears too often to continue to rely on its friends to continue to protect those aspects of its operations where it continues to exercise �dominant market power�. CCK CEO John Waweru would not be human if he did not stoutly defend those parts of his legacy that he so recently put in place.

Nevertheless Telkom Kenya stands to lose business on all sides. There are a number of licensed international data gateway providers and the regulator is talking of having another international gateway for �switched� traffic. The mobile operators are understandably frustrated by the slow speed with which the international gateway issue is being dealt with and blame Telkom Kenya for the international congestion problems that exists. International VoIP traffic will erode its international business and once an agreed interconnect settlement is in place, there will be further pressure on both its local loop and backbone costs. That said, if it can reduce its staffing costs, it has a considerable asset in its infrastructure business. And perhaps the combination of this and the selling of broadband and associated service will be its saving in the long-term. Meanwhile it accumulates debt and it waits on the politicians for resolution of the redundancy issue.

* KENYA�S SKYWEB TECHNOLOGIES STARTS UP CALL CENTRE USING VOIP

Although Kenyan ISP SkyWeb Technologies has 2200 dial-up customers, its CEO Gilda Odera told us last week that:�The market is getting tougher and this has forced us to look for other �value-adds� so that we can use the ISP as a platform to do other things.� So its first new business has been the introduction of a call-centre business:�We want to focus on this area and grow it locally.�

It has 20 seats and has won a contract to carry out market research for a company based in Canada. It is also hoping to sign a telemarketing contract with a publisher to carry out subscription renewals.

The biggest nightmare has been finding, training and retaining good people. When it advertised, it got an enormous number of responses but found that in person, many applicants did not have �the voice� needed for phone work. To overcome this problem, it now asks applicants to leave a voice message which enables them to carry out a preliminary sort of applicants. The best kind of applicants are those that have had some level of international exposure (often through education abroad) that allows them to understand particular words and contexts.

It pays between KS15-20,000 a month, with really skilled operators able to earn KS25,000. It groups employees into three categories: Entry level, intermediate and advanced. It takes 3-4 months to go from entry level to advanced.

Its calling is done using VoIP and it uses the services of a call centre it works with in Canada. Calls cost US0.22 cents a minute. The call centre bills them for these costs and the client has an Asterisk box that handles the calls. However Odera believes that once SkyWeb gets other clients it will look for its own provider.

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* SOUTH AFRICA - SNO GETS ITS LICENCE AT LAST

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) says it has high expectations of the second national operator (SNO). ICASA councillors officially handed over the Public Switched Telecommunications Service (PSTS) licence to the SNO.

ICASA's SNO committee chairperson Lumko Mtimde said he trusts and hopes the SNO will deliver the quality services that it promised at the beginning of the licensing process despite �doomsday prophecies�.

Programme Director Councillor Zolisa Masiza likened the SNO to the fairytale fox that woke up one morning, looked at its shadow and said �I am going to eat a zebra today�. However, as the day progressed and there was no zebra on the horizon, the fox looked at its shadow and said �I think a mouse will do'.

Mtimde said that he was aware of the Optis lawsuit, but ICASA had not been presented with anything that would stop it from issuing the licence last week. Mtimde said the case was between the Minister of Communications and Optis. He added that ICASA had received a letter from the Optis legal representative last week, but the letter did not suggest that they stop the process.

Optis, a failed bidder for the SNO licence, is demanding a 4.5% stake in SepCo. Optis' case against the Minister of Communications states that if it had known that the 51% controlling stake in the SNO was to be split up, it would bid for the second round. Judgement on the case has been deferred for January 2006 by the Pretoria High Court. (SOURCE:http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/telecoms/2005/0512091038.asp?S=IT%20in%20Government&A=ITG&O=FPLEAD)

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* NIGERIA:NITEL EMPLOYEES GO TO COURT TO TRY AND STOP SAT3 SPIN-OFF

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja last week gave an interim order stopping the Federal Government from going ahead with the privatisation of the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL). Bidding exercise for the national carrier by prospective buyers was expected to commence last week but for the order of the high court.

Employees of NITEL had approached the court asking it to halt the move by the Federal Government to remove SAT-3 fibre assets from NITEL before privatizing it.

The NITEL staff who approached the court through their associations are contending that the removal of SAT-3 will deprive NITEL of its carrier status and will pose negative implication in the telecommunications industry. They also contended that the privatisation of the national carrier would hit a brick- wall if SAT-3 was detached from the asset of NITEL, pointing out that "SAT-3 is a major feature that makes NITEL the first National carrier. The case has yet to be heard on its merits. A hearing will commence on 15 December.

The unions used by NITEL staff as platform to invoke the jurisdiction of the court are the National Union of Postal and Telecommunication Employees (NUPTE) and Senior Staff Association of Utilities, Statutory Corporations and Government Companies (SSAUCGOC). Enterprise (BPE), Nigeria Cabling and Telecoms Networks Ltd (NCNL) and the Federation Attorney General were named as respondents. The Chief Executive of NITEL, Mr A. J. Mashi has described SAT3 as the company�s �cash cow�. (SOURCE: The Vanguard)

* VIRGIN MOBILE INKS LONG-AWAITED DEAL WITH SOUTH AFRICA�S CELL-C

The Virgin Group and South Africa�s Cell C network announced the long-awaited formation of a joint venture last week. The company is expected to be launched during the first half of 2006. �Our partnership with Cell C will bring a new approach to the mobile market and will be a refreshing alternative from the bland offerings of other players,� said Virgin founder Richard Branson.

Branson said that the joint venture with Saudi-backed Cell-C would cost about US$79 million to set up and that Virgin would probably price its services aggressively to undercut the big players, MTN and Vodacom. Both parties were keen to say that the new joint venture is unaffected by British cable firm NTL�s bid to buy Virgin Mobile Holdings (UK) which is 72% owned by Branson�s Virgin Group. (source: Daily Nation)

* GHANA: GHANA TELECOM AND AREEBA SETTLE INTERCONNECT DISPUTE

The Acting Director of the National Communications Authority (NCA), Major John Ray Tandoh (Rtd.), has disclosed that the interconnectivity problem between Ghana Telecom (GT) and Areeba has been resolved.

It would be recalled that last year, GT complained of Areeba interconnection rates, saying it has incurred big losses because of the former.

He said a new interconnectivity rate of G�600 per minute to take effect from January 1, 2006 has been agreed upon. "I assure all operators in the telecommunications sector that the NCA would continue to exercise its jurisdiction to resolve disputes among competing operators in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner," he said.

According to him, the telecommunication sector is further liberalized as the NCA prepares itself to roll out fix line network and backbone infrastructure regulations to license the provision of their services.

As part of government's aim to provide telecommunication facilities to rural and underserved areas, the NCA has proposed that the country focuses on service providers for fix wireless network.

At a consultative forum with stakeholders last week, under the theme, "National telecommunication policy towards further liberalization of the telecom sector", Tandoh told participants: "From next year, the NCA will license more fixed line operators in the telecommunication sector. We have more potential operators who want to come on our market," he said. (SOURCE: Ghanaian Chronicle)

* ZIMBABWE: GOVT MAY CANCEL TELECEL'S LICENCE, OUST ITS CHAIRMAN

After withdrawing a licence for the country�s second fixed telephone network, TeleAccess, the Zimbabwean government has turned the spotlight on third cellular operator Telecel Zimbabwe.

The state is mulling a plan that involves either cancelling the operator�s licence or changing the ownership structure of the company, and possibly ousting its non-executive chairman, James Makamba. The move to withdraw Telecel�s licence could further disrupt Zimbabwe�s struggling telecommunications sector.

Zimbabwe�s state-run fixed line company, TelOne, has been cut off by SA�s Telkom over an unpaid debt. Zimbabweans are now forced to call SA via Canada on an internet-based system. TelOne is said to be technically insolvent because of huge debts to foreign creditors.

Sources said last week that the authorities were determined to oust prominent businessman Makamba from Telecel. Makamba is facing allegations of breaching the Foreign Exchange Control Act by allegedly trading on the black market. Government is currently taking steps against Telecel over the Makamba issue. A letter to Telecel has been drafted and warns the company�s licence will be withdrawn unless it changes its shareholding structure and removes Makamba, an official source said.

Action against Telecel could be taken anytime now. The Telecel issue had been the subject of cabinet debates since August. Makamba is a major shareholder in Telecel, which is 60% held by Telecel International and 40% held by the Empowerment Corporation of Zimbabwe, a local business consortium dominated by Makamba.

Telecel International is in turn fully owned by Orascom Telecom, an Egyptian conglomerate listed on the Cairo and London stock exchanges.

Makamba, who has already lost his farms and other properties due to seizures by state agents, failed to appear before the court on August 31 after fleeing the country in July. He has been to SA several times. Efforts to contact him before close of business on Friday failed.

It will come as no surprise that President Robert Mugabe�s nephew, Leo Mugabe, a shareholder in Telecel, is said to be seeking more equity in the company.

Transport Minister Chris Mushowe and the Post and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe officials have been to Egypt in a bid to persuade Orascom to kick out Makamba. (SOURCE: Business Day)

Cape Verde sets on a fast-track process to telecommunications market liberalisation

* CABO VERDE TELECOM'S MONOPOLY ENDS JANUARY 2006 AS CAPE VERDE UNILATERALLY LIBERALIZES

Cape Verde telecommunications market is about to witness a revolution. The monopoly of incumbent Cabo Verde Telecom on international communications will end on 1st January 2006. Following four months of unsuccessful negotiations between the government and CV Telecom, Cape Verde has decided to unilaterally implement the liberalisation of its telecommunication market. A legislative decree which reflects this new position has been published this week in the Official Bulletin of the country. This document also sets 1st January 2007 as the date when CV Telecom will lose its monopoly on fixed lines services.

These steps towards opening the fixed line telecommunication market are likely to lead to a fierce legal battle between the Cape Verde Government and CV Telecom. When privatised in 1996, CV Telecom was granted an exclusive concession contract until 2021. CV Telecom which is in majority owned by Portugal Telecom, the national fixed line incumbent in Portugal is decided to fight the Government�s decision on the basis of the rights that came from its exclusive concession agreement. Talks are also going on about CV Telecom seeking heavy financial compensations for the loss of potential revenue.

At the same time a North-American Consortium ASG Telecommunications has been selected as the second mobile operator. The licence should be issued very shortly. Meanwhile the company will invest US$6 millions to set up its operations in the country. The Minister Manuel Inocencio explained that a second mobile operator will not only introduce competition in the mobile market but will also help to improve the quality of the service and will reduce the cost of making calls from mobile phones in the country. This announcement is a second blow for CV Telecom who runs also the only mobile network covering the 10 islands.

How quickly these decisions will reshape the telecommunication market is difficult to predict. However it is sure that CV Telecom will do all that is possible to retain its monopoly on telecommunications in Cape Verde.

IN BRIEF

- In Cameroon work is being carried out by the Committee on Production and Trade will be to amend and supplement some provisions of Law N� 98/14 of 14 July 1998 governing telecommunications in Cameroon. The proposed amendment to this law seeks to stamp out quarrels and restore consistency to ensure the smooth set up of the special telecommunications fund and also the conduct of activities to revive telecommunications development in the country. The Law of 14 July 1998 is said to have set up the Special Telecommunications Fund under the Telecommunications Regulatory Board (TRB) intended to finance the telecommunications universal service and promote its development. Consequently, the TRB was to manage the fund, while its work was to be financed by the fund were left under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications.

- Libya�s General Company for Post and Telecommunications has contracted Swedish equipment supplier Ericsson to build a 3G network in the country. Under the EUR58 million deal, Ericsson will roll out a 3G network with capacity for 2.5 million subscribers, as well as offering support and training services. At the end of September 2005 there were around a million subscribers to LibyaGO.

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- Uganda telecom has completed a technical project under Northern Uganda Reconstruction Programme (NURP II). The about $7.1m (sh13b) project was funded by Nordic Development Fund.

- Both Cell C and MTN have beefed up their cellular networks to offer faster data downloads. Cell C has opted for Edge (enhanced data rates for global evolution), which carries data three times faster than its existing network. Cell C will cover 90% of the metropolitan areas with Edge for internet access, multimedia messaging, video and audio downloads at speeds of up to 240kB a second. The fees range from R2 for 1MB of data with no monthly fee, or R1,55 for 1MB of data with a monthly fee of R60.

Meanwhile, its rival, MTN, has begun testing a different technology, high-speed downlink packet access, also known as 3G Evolved. Trials are being conducted with some corporate customers to see if it lives up to expectations of better speed and bandwidth. The technology is designed for mobile and interactive television, enhanced video telephony, multiplayer gaming and the sharing of information. A 3MB file should take 12 seconds to download, compared with 68 seconds using a normal 3G (third generation) network. However data still accounts for less than 6% of the cellular networks' revenue.

- Telecommunication companies Econet Wireless and Zimpost this week entered into a strategic partnership that will see the postal company becoming a trade channel of the mobile phone operator. The multi-million-dollar deal was signed in Harare in which Zimpost will purchase Econet recharge cards and lines and distribute them across the country, taking advantage of their widespread branch network. The agreement will also see the introduction of electronic airtime distribution in all Zimpost branches.

- Telkom Kenya has applied to regulator CCK for approval to change its billing method for local voice services from per three minute billing to per minute billing from 1 July 2006. The CCK notice points out:�The migration to the per minute billing method is also in preparation to move into per second billing in the near future as is currently the practice in the mobile telecommunications industry.�

- MTN Rwanda has introduced a product called Tel'mbere aimed at rural areas without direct connections to the MTN network. Grameen International has been contracted to supply the kit and promote the product. It costs Frw150, 000 for a full kit of handset, battery, Antenna and charger. Calling on MTN network using the product will cost Frw20/unit, Frw25 to Rwandatel fixed lines, Frw50 to Great lakes and Frw76 for international calls, Frw55 for short message services and Frw65 for MTN information request. MTN Rwandacell's network so far covers 78 per cent of the country.

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* SOUTH AFRICA: ADSL GAME UP FOR TELKOM

Internet users have welcomed new draft regulations that aim to dramatically increase the speed and lower the cost of Telkom's broadband ADSL services.

Draft rules published by the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) propose to scrap the controversial monthly fees of between R270 and R680 Telkom charges for using ADSL. The monthly fee is levied in addition to an installation fee and the normal line rental, even though the cost of converting a regular copper line to ADSL technology is a one-off event.

Users also pay an additional fee for the volume of bandwidth they consume. Since Telkom serves almost 100000 ADSL customers, the monthly rental is earning it an absolute minimum of R27m a month.

Icasa says Telkom should charge a one-off connection fee, the normal line rental and a fee for the volume of bandwidth that is used, with no monthly ADSL rental fee. However, the regulations are bound to be challenged by Telkom, which has already threatened legal action if Icasa attempts to prevent it charging a monthly fee for high-speed lines.

During public hearings to investigate the ADSL services recently, Telkom argued that the monthly fee was crucial. Telkom product development executive Steven White criticised the proposal to scrap the monthly fee as "a decision by people who don't understand how these things work".

The equipment and maintenance needed to supply ADSL was so costly and complex that Telkom could not cover its costs with the installation fee or by the R89 a month charged for renting a normal line, he said.

Other elements of Icasa's draft regulations may also invoke Telkom's ire. One is a proposal that a cap to prevent users from downloading more than 3GB of data a month be increased to 10GB. The cap will only apply to the use of international bandwidth, and not to local sites.

Icasa also calls for internet service providers (ISPs) to guarantee minimum speeds in line with International Telecommunications Union guidelines, which define broadband as having a minimum download speed of 256kB a second. At the moment, Telkom's services begin with as little as 192kB a second.

Icasa also wants the right to intervene in any disputes over the wholesale fees that Telkom charges other ISPs for its bandwidth. If that clause goes through, Icasa will be kept busy, as many ISPs object to Telkom's recently altered wholesale fees.

One company, Dotco, is challenging the new fee structure in court, claiming that it makes the service far too expensive to offer consumers data downloads.

Cara Christian of MyADSL, a website for the broadband community, said the draft regulations looked good. That local bandwidth would not be capped is very positive and should stimulate companies into providing more local content, she said.

"The draft regulations lead the way to ensure more affordable and internationally comparable ADSL services." If these regulations take effect in their current form without litigation, "we should see mass uptake of broadband and the increased penetration needed to stimulate the local information technology industry and the economy in general", Christian said.

Other contributors to the MyADSL website describe the raising of the monthly cap to 10GB as a step in the right direction, and praise a clause calling for service providers to install an ADSL service within 14 days of a customer request. Icasa has asked for comments on the draft regulations and has given a January 3 deadline for people to do so.

Last week, research by MyADSL and the University of Johannesburg found that Telkom's services were the best high-speed internet access Its services scored 76% when criteria including speed, cost and quality were assessed. Sentech's MyWireless scored 64% and MTN's 3G wireless service scored 30%. (SOURCE: Business Day)

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* TANZANIA: FBME BANK TRAINS 69 ON INTERNET BANKING

Sixty-nine staff members of FBME Bank Ltd have been trained on FBME direct Internet banking in order to train customers on how to use FBME direct services. The Project Manager of the FBME Bank Ltd, Devota Mkwawa, has told The Guardian that the training was carried out it in Mwanza, Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam.

�We have decided to train them because this is a new product and is a real time online banking services available any time, anywhere in the world. It is a term used for performing transactions, payments over the internet through a bank�s secure website, and at the same time it allows customers to be in control of their bank accounts,� she said.

FBME is providing the ability to view account balances in whatever currency, to view and download all account statements, view loan schedules and loan repayments, view and download VISA and Master Card statements. (SOURCE: Guardian)

* AFRICAN BUSINESSES SHOULD BUY LOCAL DOMAINS, SAYS MUTI

African businesses and agencies operating on the internet should promote their country code Top Level Domains (ccTLD) instead of paying foreign companies for .com, .net or .org addresses, said registry managers attending the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) meeting in Vancouver.

"The money is needed in Africa and we may have no business buying the .com or .net when our .co.tz domain is undersubscribed," said Jacob Mtui, of the University of Dar es Salaam. .com, .org and .net are known as Top Level Domains (TLDs). Their registries are maintained by US based organisations.

Mtui argued that though the .co.tz, .go.tz and .ac.tz subscriptions are free, they have only registered 1,200 addresses in a country with a population of 34 million. He could not access the figures for the international addresses, but Mtui said the ccTLD has not been adequately promoted.

Sample this: the central bank of Tanzania's address is http://www.bot-tz.org and according to Mtui, it would have been a perfect promotion exercise if the central bank used its .go.tz domain name.

But according to Njeri Rionge, ICANN board member, the use of a Top Level Domain Name is a question of personal choice and preference. In her opinion, the choice of .com, .net or .org gives an organisation the global appeal.

Whereas the use of a ccTLD denotes the location of specific companies, Rionge said that some companies use TLDs and still maintain a ccTLD address for brand protection.

For example a well-known retail shop like www.uchumi.com can still maintain www.uchumi.co.ke to protect its brand from other people who may want to use the brand for other reasons.

Calvin Browne, director of UNIFORUM, the not-for-profit company that manages the .co.za domain agrees that a decision to use ccTLD or TLD will be based on marketing criteria because technically there is no difference between accessing a ccTLD or TLD website.

In the same breath, Browne said that companies or organisations can choose to either develop their own countries by providing income or take the income to other countries.

"Using .co.za will definitely increase local resources and increase employment. There is need to develop a sense of national pride. The more money stays home, the wider the opportunities for re-investment," added Browne.

Browne singled out giant corporations such as Liberty Life and Old Mutual in South Africa that have maintained co.za addresses yet their businesses are international.

However, Ann-Rachel Inne, Policy Analyst at ICANN argued that African registries have to ensure they have the technical ability to sustain businesses and that connection is not erratic.

"The infrastructure has to be favorable to business growth in case of business entities. For instance electricity has to be available and in case of power cuts, the registries have to have some back-up to guarantee continued internet operations," added Inne. (SOURCE: Highway Africa News Agency)

* MTN RWANDA TO PROVIDE INTERNET AND VOIP

MTN Rwanda has announced last week that the company will become an internet service provider (ISP) by February next year. It will offer VoIP, domain registration, Broadband Wireless Access (BWA), Corporate Wireless Access Networks, web hosting and Wi-Fi. Subscribers will be able to access internet services on their mobile phones and also use mobiles with `blue tooth' to access wireless internet connectivity on laptops provided they had a WAP or GPRS phone. (SOURCE: http://www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2500&Itemid=63)

IN BRIEF

- After an extensive free trial offer, Kenya�s Safaricom now has 15,000 regular users of its data service, 6000 of which have bought a card for their laptops. However the service will be relaunched as the company believes that it can achieve a higher user base than it currently has.

- The Postal Corporation of Kenya now has VSAT terminals in 33 offices, enabling it to offer internet services.

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* ORACLE GLOBAL SUPPORT CENTER IN EGYPT NOW OPEN FOR BUSINESS

Oracle has officially opened its Global Product Support center based within Egypt�s Xceed contact center, the largest of its kind in the southern Mediterranean region. OracleThe facility, one of only eight Global Product Support centers across the world, will provide support services to Oracle customers around the globe as a key unit within Oracle�s international support network.

The new Oracle center, located within Egypt�s burgeoning Smart Village business park, is staffed by multilingual software experts with core competencies in the areas of enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications and Oracle�s technology platform, including middleware and database software. (SOURCE: Al Bawaba)

* GHANAIAN COMPANY RELEASES FIRST LOCALLY PRODUCED CHILDREN'S EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE

ChildNet Electronic Publishing, Ghana's first local educational software developer and producer will be launching its first product, Squirrel's Compututor. ChildNet Electronic Publishing was formed in 2003 by four University and Polytechnic graduates to develop their own range of software for children.

Squirrel's Compututor was entirely developed in Ghana to help children learn about computers. It uses animated tutorials, games, puzzles and quizzes to engage and help with knowledge reinforcement. The program works on any computer. (SOURCE: Accra Mail)

* CISCO SYSTEMS SEES MASSIVE POTENTIAL IN AFRICA

Networking company Cisco Systems expects to sustain annual growth of 10%-15% for the next few years as the volume of traffic carried on global networks surges as much as 500% a year. Much of Cisco's growth is expected to come from emerging markets, including Africa, where its business is growing 30% a year. "That's where we are making our investments for growth," CEO John Chambers told analysts in Santa Clara on Tuesday.

Twelve percent of all new employees are being hired in emerging markets, and its investment focus on the region will continue for the next several quarters.

So far the 129 countries classed as emerging markets account for just 10% of the Nasdaq-listed company's revenue, which hit $24,8bn in financial 2005. Chambers believes emerging markets could generate up to 40% of Cisco's potential growth in the coming years.

Cisco's vice-president for emerging markets, Paul Mountford, thinks Chambers is under-estimating the potential, and predicts growth of up to 47% a year in his territories. "There is an absolutely huge opportunity," he said.

The 129 countries cover 37% of the world's population, yet only 1% of the people have broadband internet access. "It's all about land-grab. That's why these countries are so important to us. First-mover advantage is critical in these markets, and there's not really a comprehensive first mover in any of the top 20 countries which generate 80% of the business volumes today," he said.

SA is among the top 20 performers of his 129 countries. Many African governments were beginning to spend heavily on telecommunications networks, seeing them as a platform through which to connect communities and start to challenge poverty, he said. (SOURCE: Business Day)

* SOUTH AFRICA - CUTTING PIRACY WOULD BOOST ECONOMY

A 10 % points drop in South Africa's piracy rate could create jobs, increase tax revenues and provide major benefits to the local economy, according to a study by Business Software Alliance (BSA).

The study found that cutting the software piracy rate of 37% in SA by 10% over a four-year period could generate 2 400 new jobs, $1.7 billion (about R10.8 billion) in economic growth and $1.31 million (about R8.3 million) in tax revenues.

The independent global research, conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC), also found that reductions in the domestic software piracy rate could jumpstart growth in the IT sector.

IDC finds that the local IT sector currently includes 12 082 IT businesses, employs 68 250 people.

DC currently projects the $6.6 billion (about R42 billion) local domestic IT sector will grow 42% by 2009. A 10-point reduction in software piracy could increase that growth to 49% by 2009 to create a $10billion (about R63.5 billion) industry.

BSA chairman Stephan le Roux says although the software industry is a great driver of economic benefits, the current impact represents a fraction of the potential economic gains.

"More needs to be done to protect the value of intellectual property in terms of education, legislation and enforcement, if South Africa is to realise the potential benefits the IT industry can bring," says le Roux.

He says at this stage we have a 37% software piracy rate, which is an increase from last year's 36%. The one percent increase is due to ‘certain' additional calculations, added by the IDC during their research.

�Compared to other countries like China and Thailand who are standing at about 80% piracy rate, we are average. That means we are not doing badly, nonetheless we can always focus better and achieve the 10% reduction rate so as to improve the economy.�

The Government also needs to look at the current copyright law and make amendments to it, so as to ensure the ongoing fight against software piracy, says le Roux.

He says already as part of the ongoing fight against software piracy, prosecutors are educated on how to pick up small things that show when software has been pirated.

�Through education, private public partnerships, using corporate software and asset management as a guide to reducing software piracy, even with a person sitting at home, we can achieve that 10% decrease.�

The BSA study provides a five-step formula for the government to protect intellectual property: - Update national copyright laws to implement World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) obligations; - Create strong enforcement mechanisms, as required by the World Trade Organisation, including tough anti-piracy laws; - Dedicate government resources to the problem, including national IP enforcement units, cross-border cooperation, and more training for law enforcement; - Improve public education and awareness; and - Lead by example by requiring public sector to use only legitimate software.

The study that assesses the IT sector's economic impact in 70 countries worldwide is available online at www.bsa.org/idcstudy (SOURCE: http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/computing/2005/0512091036.asp?A=COM&S=Computing&T=News&O=ST)

IN BRIEF

- Apparently Blackberry will not enter the Kenyan market because its minimum licence agreement is 50,000 users and therefore the market is too small. However those who have investigated selling them believe that the margins offered by RIM are too small to be worth the candle.

- The Postal Corporation of Kenya plans to launch an electronic money order service early next year. A pilot project is already under way in a number of centres. The service will enable customers to send money orders electronically to all post offices countrywide. ___________________________________________________________________________ ON THE MONEY ___________________________________________________________________________

* EGYPT TELECOM IPO LOOKS LIKE BEING HEAVILY OVERSUBSCRIBED

Retail investors bidding for shares in the Telecom Egypt (TE) IPO received 10.6 percent of the number of shares they asked for, Egypt's stock exchange said in a statement on Thursday, a day after bidding closed.

Retail bidders could buy a maximum of 10,000 of the 154 million shares available to the public. Demand hit 1.45 billion shares, a source close to the IPO said.

About 340 million shares in total were on offer in the IPO. Half were reserved for investment institutions, and after the deduction of shares sold to retail investors, the remainder was set aside for TE employees.

Shares were priced at 15.56 Egyptian pounds ($2.71) for investment institutions and 14.80 pounds for retail investors.

The partial privatisation of TE, which has a landline monopoly in the Arab world's most populous nation, was one of the largest since a cabinet of economic liberals took office in July 2004. The offering was worth about 5.2 billion pounds. (SOURCE: Reuters)

* KENYA�S CELTEL RAISES KS4.5 BILLION FROM BOND MARKET

Celtel Kenya has raised KS4.5 billion from the Kenyan bond market. This comes on top of the KS6 billion that it raised from a group of banks and institutional lenders last year. The funds raised are to allow the company to continue its expansion programme. The bond issue was 75% gauranteed by FMO, the Dutch Government�s development finance arm but in the event the issue was oversubscribed. The issue was the largest ever bond issue on the Nairobi Stock Exchange and 30% of the issue was taken up by overseas investors.

Fifteen Kenyan investors took up the issue, including banks, investment managers and insurance companies. Celtel Kenya was advised by Standard Bank PLC, the London-based sister bank of Stanbic Bank Kenya and the capital was raised by Barclays Bank, Kenya Commercial Bank and Stanbic Bank Kenya as co-lead arrangers. (source: Daily Nation)

* KENYA�S WANANCHI TO GO FOR IPO IN MID 2006

Wananchi�s recent merger with ISPKenya has led it to seek a private placement to help it expand further. The merged company has a 38% market share and the deal has to be cleared with the Monopolies Commission (CHECK). Once the merger has been completed, the company will be seeking an IPO in the middle of next year. Subject to a successful completion of the merger, the company will be looking for further acquisitions. In what areas? That would be telling.

* SA�S CYBERHOST BUYS COMPANIES TO ACQUIRE WEB-BASED SOFTWARE

Software and information technology group Cyberhost is to acquire 100% effective shareholding in hospitality group Top Restaurants and Intranet from Queensgate Leisure Holdings.

Cyberhost said last week the purchase would provide it with access to web-based software specific to the restaurant industry through Intranet's management information system, which allows management to access restaurant information through the internet.

The simultaneous purchase of Top Restaurants, a holding company for 21 restaurants and four franchised operations, will provide an initial client base.

Management information and control over the operations are exercised through the Intranet information technology platform.

Brands owned by Top Restaurants include the Famous Butchers Grill, Upstairs Asian Fusion, Amici's, The Cape Fish Company and RJ's.

The purchase consideration for Top Restaurants is R60,3m and Intranet is R950000.

Cyberhost said the rationale for the purchase was to create a captive client base for the group's internet and web-hosting products and to diversify its operations into the leisure industry.

The company announced the acquisition along with its financial results for the year to June.

Cyberhost has regained its solvent position after completing a formal settlement with its creditors.

It reported revenue of R70m, from R2m for the 18 months ended June 2004. Headline earnings a share were 0,10c a share, up from last year's headline loss of 0.26c a share. No dividend was declared. (SOURCE: Business Day)

* BPO INVESTMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA HITS RECORD HIGH

The contact centre and business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in South Africa has enjoyed unprecedented growth during 2005.

According to new research conducted by Deloitte, there are now 167 contact centre and BPO operations in just one Province, the Western Cape, employing a total of 14,345 people. This represents growth in 2005 of 39% in the number of agent positions and 43% in the number of staff.

Calling the Cape, the Western Cape�s inward investment agency, has also attracted new investment in 2005 worth GBP45m, up 19% from the GBP38m secured in 2004. 76% of this investment originated from the UK. New BPO investors in 2005 in Cape Town include Asda, Amazon.com, and STA Travel.

Other provinces are also reporting strong levels of inward investment and growth. Recent investors into Gauteng, South Africa�s commercial heartland, reported by local agency ContactinGauteng include IBM, FujitsuSiemens, and Sykes. A recent deal between involving ABN Amro to outsource a significant percentage of its global call centre business to IBM worldwide, including IBM South Africa�s Integrated Delivery Centre based in Johannesburg, is testimony to the growth in complex services being offshored to South Africa.

Mfanu Mfayela, CEO of SACCCOM, the national industry body which includes CallingtheCape, ContactinGauteng, KZNonSOURCE, says South Africa�s attrition rate of 14% remains well below international norms, and is particularly impressive in an industry that has grown in some areas by as much as 70% in two years.

Mfayela is confident that the industry will continue to grow through 2006. �South Africa is fast developing an international reputation for high quality of service and is attracting high calibre international investors, while offering increasingly complex and sophisticated BPO services. The labour market continues to be extremely accommodating of rapid growth and the industry has extraordinary potential to develop the South African economy. �

* In Brief

- The buzz rumour swirling round the GSM Conference in Cape Town last week? MTN is to be bought by Orange. Neither party would confirm when asked. The rumour has probably got going because MTN is the only large-scale African mobile operator that is currently �unattached�. Vodafone has announced its desire to purchase Vodacom and Celtel has only recently changed hands. And with the exception of MTN�s lucky break in Iran, it has had some difficulty breaking out of the continent. Is the sale rumour true? Maybe it will be a case of if not now, when? And who?

- Portugal Telecom and South Africa-based operator MTN have entered a joint bid for a 34% stake in state-owned Namibian cellco Mobile Telecommunications (MTC), the country�s sole mobile operator. According to local press reports there are five parties bidding for the stake, and the sale is expected to be completed in the first half of 2006. The government also plans to sell a further 15% of the company to domestic investors. MTC claimed 410,000 subscribers at the end of September.

- Kuwait�s Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC) says it is in talks tobuy an unspecified Madagascan mobile operator. Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas claims that the target cellco has around 250,000 subscribers, which would make market leader Madacom the most likely subject, but nodetails concerning the bid or the size of the stake were available. Madacom is 66%-owned by Hong Kong-based Distacom.

___________________________________________________________________________

WEB AND MOBILE DATA NEWS ___________________________________________________________________________

* DIRECTOR OF EGYPTIAN OPPOSITION SITE DETAINED BY STATE SECURITY

Ahmed Mahmoud Abdallah, Editor-in-Chief of Egyptian web site Al-Shaab which was suspended last week has been arrested in Cairo on the night of 5 December by state security agents from Amn-El-Dawla.

Reporters with Frontiers has asked for the journalist to be freed:"We are calling for online editors and bloggers to benefit from the same legal protection and respect as journalists from more traditional media. The arrest of a journalist or blogger is serious decision which must take place within the context of a framework of transparent judicial procedure. This has not been the case with the two arrests made in the last month." (Reports without Frontiers)

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* While interviewing Skyweb Technologies� Gilda Odera for the Kenya special above, her 16th floor office began to sway alarmingly. Both interviewer and interviewee assumed that it must be some personal sickness rather than last Monday�s earthquake. This is the first time we have had to flee from an interview and do so by running down 16 flights of stars.

* Former Kenyan MP Shem Ochuodho has been convicted and given a jail sentence by the Kenyan courts for a fraud committed during his time at the Kenya Pipeline Company. Ochuodho failed to appear for his court hearing and is currently working as the head of the Rwandan Information Technology Agency, a situation that has all the makings of diplomatic contretemps between Kenya and Rwanda if it continues. And we last spotted Ochuodho at the WSIS meeting in Tunis where his smiling demeanour betrayed none of the anxieties you might expect of a man with a jail sentence hanging over his head.

* Meanwhile currently in the Kenyan courts are Jan Mutai and Samuel Chepkonga, both formerly top managers with Telkom Kenya�s predecessor, Kenya Posts and Telecoms. Both have been indicted on alleged fraud charges. Jan Mutai is better known to readers with shorter memories as the Secretary-General of the African Telecommunications Union.

* Last week�s Kenyan cabinet reshuffle sees former Information and Communications Minister Raphael Tuju promoted to Foreign Affairs and replaced by PR man Mutahi Kagwe. Will Econet continue its court action against him now he�s no longer in post? Interestingly Kagwe has a link with a senior politician who previously was responsible for communications. He is married to the daughter of influential Internal Security Minister John Michuki who has the ear of the President. The Assistant Minister was David Were but he has already resigned on the issue if lack of consultation on the new cabinet. Widely respected Info and Communications Permanent Secretary John Rege has been replaced by Dr Bitange Ndemo. So Kenya�s ICT sector will have to start from scratch in educating the newcomers about the importance of ICT to Kenya�s future growth. ______________________________________________________________ EVENTS

-Telecoms conference 2006: Has Telecoms deregulation delivered on its promise? Tuesday January 31st 2006, Cape Town International Convention Centre For further information contact Nicky Floris, nicky@callingthecape.org.za or (021) 487 8655

- National ICT Workforce Conference, Nairobi, Tuesday January 31st, 2006. The conference will bring together stakeholders (industry, academia, government, users, etc) in the ICT Workforce sector for discussion and study/adoption of the Report of the National ICT Workforce Survey conducted by the Society. For further information contact csk@nbi.ispkenya.com

- Corporate Network Management Forum: LANs, WANs, VPNs, Multimedia, VoIP, Security: “Developing Strategies in Network Management and the Business Imperatives” 23-24 February 2006, Nairobi, Kenya For further information contact, Vincent Wambua, AITEC Kenya Website: www.aitecafrica.com

- Conference on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) 23rd to 25th February 2006, Nairobi Safari Park Hote, Kenya For further information call Tel/Fax + 254 20 374 9771.

- Second Annual SANGONeT "ICTs for Civil Society" Conference and Exhibition 1– 2, March 2006, Indaba Hotel, Fourways, Johannesburg, South Africa For more information, visit www. sangonet.org.za/conference2006

- AfNOG workshop on Network Technology 7 - 12 May 2006, Nairobi, Kenya. Further information and application forms are available at <http://www.afnog.org/afnog2006/workshop/>.

- Telecoms and Investments 2006' 4-6 July , 2006 at Sheraton Hotel & Towers, Abuja - Nigeria. For further information please telephone:+234 9 671 8799, Fax:+234 9 413 9293, Cell:+234 803 563 9927 Website:http//www.telecomsandinvestments.com Email:info@telecomsandinvestments.com __________________________________________________________________________ JOBS AND OPPORTUNITIES __________________________________________________________________________

* Botswana looks for telecom consultant

The Botswana Telecommunications Authority is advertising for a consultant who will develop a universal access and service policy for the country. This will span the telecommunications, broadcasting, media, post and ICT sectors. Bids are due by January 11 to pifelo@bta.org.bw.

* Regional Correspondent: West Africa, reporting to the Editor, Pambazuka News, part-time. Pambazuka News is the authoritative electronic weekly newsletter and platform for social justice in Africa providing cutting edge commentary and in-depth analysis on politics and current affairs, development, human rights, refugees, gender issues and culture in Africa. Pambazuka News offers a comprehensive weekly round-up of news on human rights, conflict, health, environment, social welfare, development, the internet, literature and arts in Africa. Pambazuka News is produced by Fahamu (www.fahamu.org), an organisation that uses information and communication technologies to serve the needs of organisations and social movements that aspire to progressive social change. Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=30579

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