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Most innovative and fastest growing telecommunications company, Etisalat Nigeria, has been rated the best telecommunications service provider for good Quality of Service (QoS) by the Nigerian Telecommunications Company (NCC) based on the Quality of Service Key Performance Indicator audit report recently released by the regulator. The results of NCC’s December tests showed that of the four GSM operators, Etisalat was top in four of the five thresholds used in measuring quality of service.

The KPIs measured by the Commission included Call Set Up Success Rate (CSSR), Call Completion Rate (CCR), Stand Alone Dedicated Control Channel and Handover Success Rate (SDCCH), Call Data Rate (CDR) and Traffic Channel Congestion With or Without Handover (TCHcon).

In the report, Etisalat recorded 100 percent in the Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR) from January to November. In the Traffic Channel Congestion with or without hand over (TCH Con), Etisalat’s made a great improvement in November by achieving high percentages. In the Standalone Dedicated Control Channel (SDCCH) , Etisalat’s performance was far above the target set by the NCC in the eleven months under review and in the Drop Call Rate Target (CDR) it fared well, while in the Call Completion Rate segment (CCR), the Telco’s performance met the requirement set by the regulator  throughout the eleven-month period.

Speaking on the outcome of the results, Chief Executive Officer, Etisalat Nigeria, Steven Evans, said that the result is a further proof of the company’s commitment to offer the best quality of service to its customers. “Our mission is to add value to the lives of our customers and make their communication lives easier through our quality network. We will continue to offer innovative products and services in fulfillment of the promise we made to Nigeria a little over three years ago when we commenced operations in the country”.

THE INTERNET CHALLENGE

The form and function of modern communication are shifting and expanding at an ever-increasing rate. Thanks to the internet and mobile broadband, people are communicating more than ever and in more ways than ever. Person-to-person communication is spreading into any context that can benefit from it.

This whirlwind of transformation and innovation poses a potent challenge for telecom operators, as it threatens to weaken their relationships with consumers and diminish the revenue generated by their telephony businesses. It is indisputable that telecommunications is being fundamentally disrupted by services that have quickly adopted — and adapted — new internet technologies.

But disruption also means opportunity. In total, consumers are spending more money on telecom than ever. Communication and connectivity are indispensable in a wide range of new vertical solutions, from media to health, utilities to transportation, and agriculture to government. As internet-based communication services evolve, it will not be enough to offer appealing devices, service innovation and low prices. Reliability, availability and privacy will become more relevant for consumers and enterprises as they select a service provider.

This feature presents some insights into a future shaped by simultaneous paradigm shifts in technology, society and business. Possible future movements are described for three communication solutions market segments — consumer, enterprise and in-process.

The shifts described will have a profound impact on the way people communicate, the technologies they use, and how service offerings will evolve. Improving understanding of the needs in this future market will give all of its players a glimpse of the future of communication.

A CHANGING WORLD

Technology — openness spurs innovation

The common denominator for innovative technology in the digital age is openness. An open technology is one with the capability for constant improvement and evolution through community-based involvement and knowledge sharing. Open-source software, for example, makes source code available to everyone, rather than just the copyright holders.

The use of open and free-of-charge technologies lowers the threshold for innovation and speeds up time to market. Open, programmable devices can create mass-market uptake from day one, with the internet as a tailored and efficient market channel. With such a model, companies — whether big or small — no longer need the resources of large enterprises, such as global telecommunications companies, to construct a new communication service.

Taken together, openness, IP connectivity, the web platform and now, voice and video as inherent features of the web creates a technological paradigm-shift for how to design, implement and share new communication services. It is clear that this will, or has already started to, transform our industry.

Society — digital personas and contextual awareness

Increasingly powerful mobile devices have the ability to run several apps, where each one may represent a different communication service. The physical identity of a person can be represented online as multiple digital identities, or digital personas. The individual decides which persona he or she wants to use in a particular communication context. The digital persona allows the individual to tailor his or her appearance according to role and context — whether it is that of a patient in a health provider dialog, a customer in a support call, or an authority on 20th-century classical music in a forum for aficionados.

Giving individuals the ability to control the way they are represented in various communication scenarios should be seen as a shift in the balance of power, away from the larger units of society — corporate, government and social. Individuals can decide how to communicate in a given context by choosing a particular service, platform and digital persona. The era in which one communication solution could address all communication needs is already long gone.

The behaviour of younger people clearly reflects these trends. The younger generation is characterized by a strong emphasis on creativity, collaboration and entrepreneurship. Young people bring their need for communication that is unlimited, flexible in usage and multifaceted in function into both their private lives and workplaces. This generation uses the internet as a natural meeting place, communicating in a way that varies according to the digital persona use case and the context.

This shift of power toward the individual user has a significant consequence — the communication application logic to find and establish a connection to a particular digital persona is not automatically tied to one single representation of the physical person, such as a phone number or an e-mail address. In the future, there will be various ways to find people and connect with them — again, depending on the context in which the communication will take place.

Context should be understood in a very broad sense, incorporating both work processes and personal social interactions. Context may also take the device used into consideration, as well as alternate data sources — such as intelligent machines in an individual’s immediate surroundings. Contextual awareness is a core aspect in the design of future communication solutions.

Ericsson believes that these insights will shape the communication strategies of the future.

 Business — opportunity out of change

The business of communication services is evolving rapidly. Revenue generated by telephony is stagnating and the transition to IP-based telecom service environments continues. When it comes to pure telephony services, this evolution is happening fairly quickly, but still not quite fast enough to be labeled as a clear multimedia service innovation.

Users, rather than those offering communication services, are increasingly driving innovation. Such innovation drivers include the search for new social interactions, improvement of a given business process or enrichment of a media experience ““ as in the case of voice in gaming. Today, basically all of the innovation involved in creating the communication services of the future is happening outside the telecom domain. While communication services still contribute the majority of the total revenue in the telecom industry, the trend is clear: the ability to charge for basic telephony is declining, at various rates from one market to the next. With this in mind, the question arises: what are the growth opportunities in the area of communication services ““ is their inherent value being diminished?

 The answer to this question is probably both yes and no:

“¢ yes — weakening telephony revenues and growth through new subscriptions alone are clear indicators of a mature market that is experiencing margin pressure. Smartphone technology, open software, democratization of knowledge and proliferation of both mobile and fixed broadband all enable anyone with good enough programming skills to create a basic communication service. While such a service cannot replace a highly efficient telephony service with global reach, it can provide users with an alternative means of communicating in certain contexts ““ resulting in a new competitive situation for the individual operator as well as for the industry as a whole;

“¢ no — the same paradigm shifts that enable the small developer to create a basic communication service also create new ways to evolve communication solutions far beyond traditional telephony. The ability to integrate communication within the business process to increase efficiency, customize cost-saving solutions or tailor services to meet individual needs in a range of different contexts — all of these opportunities, and many more, can be addressed in new ways.

WHERE THE FUTURE LIES

Looking ahead, the scope of communication services will be much broader. The norm will be to communicate using a range of devices and connections where applications will be decoupled from access. Traditional communication verticals such as telephony and video conferencing will continue to exist as profitable businesses, but it is probable that growth will come in the area of customized communication solutions for the non-traditional communication needs of enterprises and government agencies. This growth is more likely to come from communication as an application or as a feature within applications developed for a specific social or business need, rather than from vertically integrated solutions.

To maximize these opportunities, the context in which a communication solution will operate needs to be understood. The demands on future solutions will stem from their context ““ including characteristics such as the task they are designed to do, the communication modes required to make them work, and the security model and deployment characteristics required. This implies that operator offerings need to be flexible enough to adapt to various contexts and that operators will need to provide platforms for communication solutions, rather than individual communication services.

Consumers

For the consumer market, the key criteria for any communications infrastructure will most likely be low cost, ease of use and the bundling of access offerings. Communication will be seen as a valueadded service over mobile broadband rather than a core service. The ability to charge for consumeroriented communication services is likely to decline gradually over time. So, solutions must be cost-efficient, and communications technologies must provide the right platform for a service without overshooting market needs or consumer willingness to pay.

Selected enhancements, such as high-quality video and audio communication, sold with customized billing plans, may help to maintain and even drive usage. However, any such enhancements need to be extremely market-oriented and must be developed and deployed quickly. Any enhancements beyond telephony will compete with internet-based services, and as such will need to provide clear added value if more money is to be charged for them.

 Enterprise

The future of enterprise communication — defined for the purposes of this paper as internal enterprise communication within professional office environments — will be intimately connected with sustainability, increased workforce efficiency and the new communication requirements of a younger, more-connected workforce.

Large enterprises with in-house technology competence may consider designing customized communication solutions together with a communications provider. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME s) may find it more beneficial to use pre-packaged standardized communication-services solutions, possibly enhanced with generic collaboration add-ons.

To succeed with both large and small businesses, communication providers will need to focus on innovation, sell services before systems, and be able to manage change and customization effortlessly.

From an enterprise perspective, communication will no longer be a cost, but rather a tool for increased efficiency.

The line between work and personal communication, driven partly by the massive uptake of — and love for — smartphones, is becoming blurred. Already, people use and want to be able to use the same communication tools at all times — during and outside of normal working hours — where social networks are not limited to the private sphere.

Opportunities in the enterprise segment will continue to include traditional vertical services such as video conferencing, but the major enterprise opportunity most likely lies in integrating customized communication solutions within enterprise information systems and extending solutions to increase efficiency.

 In-process communication

The third area for review is relevant to both consumers and businesses. When looking for growth opportunities beyond the traditional communication services, it will be necessary to expand into verticals beyond the telecommunications and ICT industries ““potential candidates include utilities, transportation and health services.

In-process oriented communication will add new communication enablers to services offered by the ICT industry. The greatest opportunities for telecom companies will likely be in service integration and service-component provision. Simplicity, speed and performance will be the key aspects of the value proposition.

A number of key points should be taken into account when planning to address opportunities in this area: technology choices should be based on scale, ease-of-integration, time-to-market and adaptability to customer needs and prerequisites; one size does not fit all. One solution might incorporate screens from other verticals, as is the case for a car dashboard. Another solution might be machine-to-person or machine-to-machine. And a third could become a smartphone icon. Some of the basic technology components will be reused in many solutions, but generally solutions are likely to be quite specialized, regional and even local, adapted to each customer’s specific — and evolving — communication needs; communication service providers are well positioned to understand the pain points of a consumer or an enterprise when it comes to service integration, which should enable them to lead the market in delivering efficient end-to-end solutions, including devices and clients; trust, security and reliability will be a competitive advantage for offerings from access owners. But solutions will need to be secured all the way to the end point.

To address opportunities in the area of in-process communication, operators will likely need to change their traditional development and standardization processes. Instead of scrupulously following telecom system standards developed for planned mass-market services, operators should focus on their enterprise branches and adapt de facto ways of working. Communication services will evolve into a means or a tool for conducting business, stretching well beyond what they have historically been. Just like consumers, businesses will have a range of competitive solutions to choose from. The solution that best meets the customer’s requirements and best fits the customer’s context will be the one that is selected.

CASE FOR BETTER SOLUTIONS

The need for more efficient solutions for health care, as well as welfare and education, has been clearly identified. In the future, an aging population will place significantly higher demands on health-care providers. New technologies and communication services will play an important role in meeting these requirements.

Consider a scenario in which a person suffering symptoms related to some disease or illness calls a health-care support line — be it private, provided by the government or even an international consortium. The health-care professional who first receives the call — made using a regular telephone or mobile or via a website enabled with real-time communication — enters the caller’s information and symptoms into a system that matches them against a medical database, with the possible addition of information from previous consultations and other medical history. The customized find-and-connect mechanism will route the voice call to the most suitable specialist for the consultation. Upon receiving the call, the assigned health-care specialist can upgrade the voice call to a video session to — literally — get a better view of the patient and his or her symptoms and recommend a course of action: a face to- face consultation, a referral to a specialist clinic, or an x-ray. A specialist could open the call up to other specialists for a second opinion or even hand off the consultation to another specialist. Subsequently, a customized health app could support the patient by enabling remote consultations, enriched with sensor data — weight, heart rate, and glucose and oxygen levels in the patient’s bloodstream. The health app would create a secure, trusted, remote session whenever required, reducing the number of face-to-face consultations, the spread of contagious illnesses and the need for sick people to travel. Such an app could be customized to meet the needs of the particular patient’s context, and would become the channel for subsequent communication between the patient and the health-care provider.

In this simple example, the communication solution would have to meet the requirements of the process owner at the health-care provider as well as the participants: the patient and the heath-care professionals. The communication solution would need to be reliable and secure, as the find-and connect mechanism would have access to patient records, medical-specialist competence profiles, as well as other confidential information — including the patient’s identity.

Depending on the technological maturity of the health-care system and regulatory requirements, a cloud solution or a delivered software license might be required. As the communication solution would need to be contextually aware, it would also need to be flexible, easily integrated and support a range of deployment alternatives.

MEET THE NETWORKED SOCIETY

Over the past two decades, multiple shifts in society and technological developments have taken place. Society has witnessed individualization, globalization and the evolution, or almost revolution, of the web — particularly in relation to how people communicate.

This rate of change can be daunting, to say the least. However, radical change often creates opportunities as well as risks. Now is the time to try out new things and develop the ability to adapt to a radically new business environment. In this context, all operators in the communication market need to develop a strategy to manage these changes and embrace the Networked Society — in which everything that could benefit from being connected will be connected.

Meeting future communication needs — both broad and highly specialized — will require solutions that can evolve and adapt to customer requirements. Future communication strategies must take into account the likely impact of this paradigm shift on telecom operators’ brands, finance, competences and technologies. Broadly speaking, a future communication strategy might propose that operators: innovate with functional enhancements such as HD-quality video services, within traditional communications services, while at the same time rationalizing and cutting service-delivery costs; explore the possibility of innovation through better utilization of internet technologies by leveraging existing network capabilities and business relationships; tailor enhancements to communication services toward customer requirements using technology that can integrate in a flexible manner with new delivery and business models; focus business development on a set of enterprise segments, business processes or functional areas, the choice of which depends on market structure, business and partner relationships, and go-to-market model; leverage assets from traditional telecom — such as scale, benefits in transport and computing, and relationships between carriers — to create new partnerships.

In short, the strategy should focus on providing customized solutions that solve problems and meet enterprise and society’s needs for increased efficiency. When communication becomes integrated as an essential tool for efficiency, its value will be determined by the problem it is helping to solve — for example, a security system in relation to the value it safeguards.

One of the greatest challenges facing operators is determining the optimum rate of transformation — one that allows them to maintain and maximize profitable business sectors while reinvigorating sectors that are languishing. This optimum rate will vary from one operator to the next and will depend on a variety of factors. This is a challenge that must be considered carefully, yet without delay.

Moving into the Networked Society will require a transformation in many of the core telecom areas. Connecting everything that can benefit from being connected — including by enabling person-to-person communication in any context that will benefit from it — holds great promise for the telecom industry. The companies best suited to grasp these new opportunities will be those that embrace change as an opportunity and shape their technologies, offerings and delivery models to meet future needs.

MobileMoney

Nigeria’s long awaited foray into the Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) terrain has begun. As many as two thirds of mobile phone users in Nigeria who do not currently access formal financial services, with majority of them living in rural communities and fringe urban areas  may now have a new time with the introduction of mobile cash . While this may create more jobs, it is also safe and fast!       KEHINDE OLESIN reports

  The idea is not new. Even in Africa, MPesa has reached out to millions of people. M-PESA is a branchless banking service, meaning that it is designed to enable users to complete basic banking transactions without the need to visit a bank branch. The continuing success of M-PESA, especially, in Kenya, has been due to the creation of a highly popular, affordable payment service with only limited involvement of a bank. The system was developed and ran by Sagentia from initial development to the 6 million customer mark. The service has now been transitioned to be operationally run by IBM Global Services on behalf of Vodafone, the initial 3 markets (Kenya, Tanzania & Afghanistan) are hosted between Rackspace and Vodafone.

In September 2010, Vodacom and Nedbank announced the launch of the service in South Africa where it is estimated that there are more than 13 million “economically active” people without a bank account.

However, the success of the mobile cash wave which has just got to Nigeria will be determined by existing fundamentals.

Many financial and telco companies are already involved in the business. For example,  GTBank Plc  entered into a strategic partnership with MTN Nigeria and Fortis Microfinance Bank , to launch Mobile Money. Mobile Money is targeted at the over 65% unbanked population of the county.

Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, GTBank Plc, Mr. Segun Agbaje, said that Mobile Money will help mobilise funds from the unbanked and channel the funds to productive sectors of the economy where the funds are needed. Mobile Money, he said, will afford subscribers the opportunity to transfer money, pay bills, top up on airtime and shop from their mobile phones, among others.

According to him, financial inclusion is what the product is about, especially as it will help bring the unbanked into the banking system, through simple technological inputs and devices. Financial inclusion will help drive the growth and development of the Nigerian economy, as funds will be made available to critical sectors in need of funding. Nigerian mobile money model according to Agbaje is different from others around the world and is designed to provide immense benefits for the economy.

He optimized that the partnership of the novel idea will dominate the country’s financial landscape, especially given the necessary support and promotion by all the parties involved.

He continued, “Mobile Money is the fast, safe, easy, convenient and affordable way to send and receive money across the country and pay for your goods and services using the MTN mobile phone.

“The benefits of Mobile Money, include immediate money transfer and payment from the comfort their MTN mobile phone, while every transaction is secured by a PIN, which even when stolen, the money is secure.

‘Other benefits are that it is very easy to use, convenient and cheaper compared to other alternatives, especially as there is no COT or any hidden charges; every transaction is done directly on the MTN line.”

Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, Mr. Brett Goschen, said Mobile Money will not only take banking to the previously unbanked, but it will also open up a wide range of benefits and value added services to the banked sector, including corporate, small and medium sized enterprises, SMEs and individual users.

Also, the launch of  Glo Txtcash by Globacom, Nigeria’s second national operator in Lagos is bringing the new found business to a competitive ground sooner than expected.

The initiative which is the first by any company  licenced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will enable mobile subscribers use their mobile numbers to store Electronic Value (E- Value) of money easily and send to friends, family and associates without the need to visit a bank.

With this service, subscribers can transfer money to any mobile number, spend the money directly from their mobile money account to pay for goods as well  as buy airtime top-up for themselves and others.

The company’s Executive Director, Human Resources, Mr. Adewale Sangowawa, said that Glo TxtCash would ensure that people would no longer carry a wallet and a mobile phone at the same time, anymore. “Your mobile phone now becomes your wallet, underscoring the convenience and safety of the service,’’ he said.

A partnership of  UBA(Afripay) and IBTC,Glo TxtCash is easily availabile, even in the most remote part of the country, in line with the CBN’s objective of enhancing financial inclusion through a secured, convenient and reliable mobile money account.

Sangowawa said that the objective of partnering with UBA and IBTC was to join hands with the foremost banks for their mobile money initiatives, and to cater to subscribers across Glo mobile network with the widest geographical coverage in the country.  “This initiative shall bring facilities similar to banking to the unbanked population through their mobile phones and would redefine their ways of life,’’ he added.

Nigerians have begun to accept Mobile Money Transfer which obviously provides the environment for the mobile phone to become the key enabler for sending remittances.

In most places access to facilities to receive money is often limited, particularly for the poorest people in more rural areas, where the banking sector is under-represented and the economy is largely cash-based. Those who would benefit most are therefore the least likely to be able to receive remittances from migrant workers. They are locked out of the market due to their social, economic and geographical position.

The high  costs of remittances and transactions limit the ability of individual workers to distribute funds to a larger number of people and penalise the poor who can only afford to send small amounts of money.

Mobile phones now significantly outnumber ATMs, giving mobile operators a level of reach far greater than money transfer providers and banks. Mobile operators are therefore uniquely positioned to solve the access problem and drive costs down to levels that open the formal remittance channel to users that would otherwise seek informal methods of remittance. In the developed world, the availability of smart phones, a demand for an integrated lifestyle and a desire for greater convenience is driving increasing interest in mobile money and mobile enabled remittance.

Mobile technology can lower the cost of remittances as it removes the need for physical points of presence and ensures a timely and secure method of transaction. This concept of ‘e-cash’ is extremely attractive to low income users in particular.

The World Bank estimates that reducing remittance commission charges by 2-5% could increase the flow of formal remittances by 50-70%, which would boost local economies. Reducing the cost of sending each individual remittance encourages the delivery of lower value remittances, at values far less than today’s average transfer of US$200.

The ubiquity and high penetration rates of mobile technology around the world provide mobile operators with the potential to vastly improve and transform access to remittance funds for people in developing countries like Nigeria. The GSMA forecasts that the ‘formal’ global remittance market could be grown from around US$300 billion today to over US$1 trillion in five years with the help of mobile communications

Peter Karaszi

Africa is plagued by unreliable, intermittent and often non-existent access to electricity, especially in rural areas. This is a huge inconvenience and a big obstacle to economic development. Can mobile operators be the unlikely saviors, bringing power to the people in rural Africa?

Lack of power, inhospitable terrain, electricity thefts, shoddy and neglected infrastructure, mismanaged power companies, dirty coal fired stations, expensive power and frequent power cuts at best… the list of Africa’s power problems is long. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the overall electrification rate in Africa is less than 42 percent. In rural sub-Saharan Africa it is a shocking 14 percent.

To quote the IEA: “Energy alone is not sufficient for creating the conditions for economic growth, but it is certainly necessary. It is impossible to operate a factory, run a shop, grow crops or deliver goods to consumers without using some form of energy. Access to electricity is particularly crucial to human development as electricity is, in practice, indispensable for certain basic activities, such as lighting, refrigeration and the running of household appliances.”

Government-run electrification projects are painstakingly slow, for a variety of reasons. Some countries are actually moving backwards. In South Africa, as an example, Eskom lacks capacity and has been forced to introduce “load-shedding” (a nicer word for planned blackouts). However, there are some very promising new developments in power production coming from an unlikely source: the mobile operators.

Mobile operators are used to operate in rural Africa. They have base stations off-grid that need a lot of power, which has so far been provided by diesel-fueled generators. However, this is a very expensive (and dirty) way to power base stations. So mobile operators have started to introduce “green” power solutions for base stations, based on renewable energy sources (sun and wind).

There has in just the last two years been impressive technological progress in the efficiency of green power management solutions for the telecom industry. Better batteries for storage of energy and more sophisticated control systems for e.g. more energy efficient battery charging and usage of the various energy sources are two examples.

One clear indication that these solutions are taking off, is the recent announcement from Airtel in Nigeria that it will upgrade an initial batch of 250 diesel powered base stations in Nigeria with E-site, a “green” energy solution from Sweden’s Flexenclosure.

Taking the E-site solution as an example, it has proven to be able to power base stations by more than 90 percent using renewable energy sources, over an entire year and considering all weather factors. Over long periods, there is actually more green power produced than is needed to power the base stations.

So power management companies, network suppliers and mobile operators are now contemplating what to do with the excess power produced, and whether more power can be generated for a small additional cost. The most obvious answer is to share it with the surrounding local communities.

From a government point of view there should also be considerable interests in alternative ways of providing power for rural areas. It would be much cheaper to sponsor additional infrastructure, e.g. solar panels, at a telecom site for community applications like street lights and water pumps, than to expand the grid to remote locations.

At the longest running test site, in Dertu in Kenya, the excess power produced by E-site has for two years powered a cold-storage room for vaccines and other medicines that to date has helped more than 5,000 people in the area with snake anti-venom and vaccines for newborn babies.

A new initiative by Flexenclosure and Ericsson, the world’s largest mobile telecommunications equipment vendor, is called Community Power. As a system it provides the possibility to share the power produced by E-site with the surrounding local communities to power e.g. mobile and battery chargers street lights, clinics etc – in effect turning the site solution into a power station as well.

The Community Power solution in itself strengthens the business case for off-grid deployments for mobile operators. The handset charging dock eliminates the villagers’ need to walk for hours in order to charge their handsets, while on the other hand the operator benefits due to higher utilization of the network which increases revenues.

There are many alternative uses and social benefits for the excess power. Extending mobile communications and power to even more remote areas in developing countries will have a profound impact on the communities giving them the means to get information, communicate with their families, starting and running businesses, and getting access to banking services.

It will be the next step in the empowerment of people, and a mean for providing clean water, lighting, battery charging and power for private or business applications. A tool for self-uplifting is far better than passive handouts.

The blistering African sun and the strong desert and savannah winds are free. Africa is on the threshold to finally be able to harvest these clean and constantly renewable energy sources, not only for communications but also to bring power to its people.

Author: Peter Karaszi.

Peter Karaszi is a communications expert in intelligent telecom solutions based in Cape Town, South Africa.

France Telecom’s Orange service provider announced that the social network will soon available on any phone within its footprint across the continent, potentially giving Facebook’s mobile user count a huge boost.

Orange, which operates in 20 countries in Africa, with some 70 million subscribers, launched a technology known as unstructured supplementary service data (USSD), which requires low enough bandwidth to allow feature phones, even those without Internet service or data plans, to access a scaled-down, text version of Facebook.

The company said accessing Facebook via USSD does not require an application, and its customers only need to type a specific code to start sessions, followed by PIN codes to access the service securely.

After an initial activation, upon which they must provide their Facebook login information, Orange customers will be able to search for friends, invite friends, accept or deny friend requests, update their status, and comment on or like status updates from their friends.

Orange will offer four pricing options: per session (10 minutes to 20 minutes), daily, weekly, and monthly, with more details to be revealed as the service is rolled out.

The mobile carrier launched the USSD service in Egypt at the end of last year, and more than 350,000 customers of Egyptian service provider Mobinil used it to connect to the social network within its first month.

Orange Côte d’Ivoire will be the first Orange unit in Africa to launch the service, in Ivory Coast later this month, and other regions in the continent will be added throughout the year.

Orange Vice President of Strategic Partnerships Xavier Perret said: Social networks such as Facebook have completely changed how people stay in contact with their family and friends, and it’s important that our customers, regardless of the phone they have, are able to access and participate in these services. We feel that it is our role to help our customers enjoy a digitally rich, connected life, and services such as Facebook via USSD make that possible for even more of our customers.

VODAFONE CELEBRATES VALENTINE’S DAY WITH AN ACT OF KINDNESS TO HOSPITAL PATIENTS

Vodafone Ghana paid the outstanding medical bills of over two hundred and thirty insolvent patients in hospitals around the country, allowing hospitals to release them to go home to spend Valentine’s Day with their loved ones.  In a repeat of last year’s hugely successful exercise, Vodafone this year also included the registration of one hundred HIV positive patients on the NHIS scheme.

Speaking at Korle Bu Hospital in Accra where some Vodafone employees had volunteered to distribute handsets and other souvenirs to the insolvent patients being released, Head of Corporate Communications, Carmen Bruce-Annan, explained why the telecommunications giant decided to repeat the initiative.  ‘The impact of what we did last year on the patients and the hospitals cannot be underestimated.  Being admitted to hospital is tough enough, some of these patients have undergone traumatic surgery, but they also have to worry about where to find the money to pay the bill for their treatment.  This worry will invariably affect their recovery as they are kept away from the most important support system – their families.  The hospital administration does a great job in trying to accommodate individuals in this situation but they also need the bills paid in order to treat the next patient.  It feels good that Vodafone can step in again and offer relief for both the patients and the hospital, especially on Valentine’s Day.’

Overall, one hundred Vodafone employees visited Tamale West Hospital and Walewale Hospital in the Northern Region, Atonsu Agogo Hospital and KNUST Hospital in the Ashanti Region, Takoradi Hospital in the Western Region and Ridge Hospital, Tema General Hospital, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and Lekma General Hospital in Greater Accra to extend a feeling of love and kindness to the patients.

Indeed, Vodafone employees have been busy in this month of love with a fundraising challenge to raise GHC 50,000 within the company to help victims of Obstetric Fistula.  The condition results from a severe or failed childbirth where victims are also subject to severe social stigma due to odour, perceptions of uncleanliness, a mistaken assumption of venereal disease and, in some cases, the inability to have children.  Employees donated items which were auctioned among themselves to raise as much funds as possible.  One Vodafone employee remarked ‘It’s really up to you; how you interpret the concept of love on Valentine’s Day and how you celebrate it.  We have chosen to think of the people who will not feel the significance of a day like this.  We want to show our love by changing their circumstances and giving them a reason to smile.  Not only do these women have to go through the trauma of having a difficult childbirth or worse, losing their child, they are often ostracised by society.  It only costs GHC 500 to give these women their lives back and we will do our best to help as many of these women as possible.’

Vodafone Ghana has made a great contribution to the health sector in the last year and continues to do so with impactful initiatives such as these.

Rajan Swaroop, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Nigeria and Bisi Onasanya, Group Managing Director, First Bank Nigeria during the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on mobile money service today in Lagos, Nigeria

The landscape of e-banking services in Nigeria is set to witness a major shift as two leading companies in banking and telecom sectors of the economy, FirstBank of Nigeria Plc (FirstBank) and Airtel Networks Limited have agreed to combine their strengths to provide seamless mobile money services to millions of Nigerians.

Speaking at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two companies recently in Lagos, the two companies promised to combine their strengths to provide secure, convenient and user-friendly mobile banking services to unbanked people throughout via mobile phones.

Mobile banking is the use of mobile phones to remotely access bank accounts, primarily for account inquiry, mobile transfer, retail payments, micro insurance, savings remittances, mobile top-up, utility bill payments and government collections among others.

In his speech, The Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Rajan Swaroop, said, “Partnering First Bank to bring mobile financial services to all corners of country further demonstrates Airtel’s commitment to Nigeria and supports the concept of borderless mobile telecoms services across the country.

“Indeed, we are excited to partner with one of the biggest financial institutions in the country. This partnership will, without a doubt, assist us in realizing our vision of empowering more Nigerians with innovative and affordable mobile financial services. At Airtel Nigeria, we are committed to creating value propositions that will delight, enrich and benefit our customers regardless of their income level and location.”

Commenting on the initiative, FirstBank’s Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Bisi Onasanya said mobile banking is hinged on three planks which are defined in terms of financial inclusion for the unbanked and the underbanked, person to person transaction in terms of sending and receiving money as well as retail payment for the purchase of goods and services. He added that “With over 600 branches and thousands of business partner outlets in strategic proximity to the people, coupled with over 1,500 ATMs including cash deposit ATMs, cardless and biometric ATMs, over 5million active accounts and more than 1,200 Point of Sale terminals, FirstBank has always been at the forefront of innovative financial services solutions.

In addition to the mobile money services, Onasanya said FirstBank has in place a world-class IT infrastructure to drive its e-payment services across transaction touch points. These services, according to him, include: Internet banking services, FirstOnline, FirstBank Visa Gold Credit Card, Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), Point of Sale Terminals (POS) FirstBank MasterCard, FirstBank Classic Card, FirstBank Naira MasterCard and Cash Deposit ATMs amongst others.

The Group Managing Director further assured that FirstBank will continue to lead the innovation drive in mobile banking through progressive and robust upgrades that will enable mobile money customers perform actions such as salary lodgement, pension and other types of payments and disbursements. Onasanya further affirmed that with a rich heritage, dependability and innovative dynamism, FirstBank is naturally the best partner for any telecom company to provide this novel initiative.

The mobile money initiative, an integral part of the broad objectives of the FSS 20:2020 was conceived by the Central Bank of Nigeria because of its critical nature to achieving a “cashless society which is fundamental to the nation’s goal of becoming one of the top 20 largest economies in the world by the year 2020.

goal.com

PERFORM the international digital sports media business has today announced its intention to launch the Nigerian edition of Goal.com, the world’s biggest football website. The move signifies a strategic focus on the territory for PERFORM, as it also unveils a number of commercial partners.

Advertising sales for the mobile site and website will be represented by InMobi and ByteSize respectively, whilst Goal.com owners PERFORM have also partnered with 70th Precinct who are assisting with the strategic distribution of Goal.com content across various OEM and Telco partners. Goal.com mobile services are already available via Airtel and Etisalat in Nigeria.

The Nigerian edition of Goal.com will launch at the end of February 2012 and will provide a local  and global perspective on football through the coverage of the local Nigerian professional league, Nigerian players who play abroad and extensive coverage of the Super Eagles. The local content will supplement Goal’s already strong international football coverage to provide a unique and relevant content offering for Nigerian football fans. Goal.com is already a leading football website in Nigeria reaching millions of fans every month across both PC and mobile and in December 2011, Goal.com reached 22m unique users globally (Google Analytics).

Daryn Wober, Managing Director Business Development at PERFORM commented: ‘Football is the leading sport in Nigeria and the launch of a Nigerian edition of Goal.com alongside our various commercial partnerships shows how serious we are about this market. Goal.com provides brands with a fantastic opportunity to reach and engage with millions of Nigerian football fans and provides distribution partners with great content that really enhances their service offering.’

Osamede Umweni, Chief Executive Officer, 70TH Precinct Nigeria also added: ‘ The face of football reporting and coverage in Nigeria will never be the same again after this launch Already, Nigerian subscribers in the two leading mobile networks Etisalat and Airtel have been enjoying the rich bouquet of Goal.Com mobile content services. We are also pleased that the Nigerian edition of the website will help to further grow the types of mobile services we are able to offer in the market.’

Wim Sweldens

LightRadio™ Wi-Fi®makes it easy for smartphones, tablets and other connected devices to move seamlessly between cellular networks and hotspots at home, in coffee shops and other locations

Alcatel-Lucent is making it simpler for people to access the Internet – whether on smartphones, tablets or laptops – over secure Wi-Fi connections in homes or hotspot locations such as coffee shops and shopping centers. lightRadio™ Wi-Fi® sorts through the confusion of hotspots and cellular networks to find and connect with the best available wireless broadband network, while helping communications service providers extend their reach by integrating Wi-Fi directly into their service offerings.

People like to be able to switch from 3G or 4G networks to Wi-Fi to access the Internet, particularly with the growing interest in Cloud-based applications to store music, video, photos and multimedia content. However, switching from a cellular service to a Wi-Fi network is not always seamless, particularly when it requires first finding a network and then getting through complex log-in and password procedures.

lightRadio™ Wi-Fi® simplifies this process by allowing people to switch automatically from a cellular service to residential or public Wi-Fi networks and hotspots without having to login, worry about payments schemes, or even be aware of the shift. This is done in three ways: by using software that identifies and connects people to a ‘trusted’ network automatically; by introducing new capabilities into service provider networks to manage the transition between Wi-Fi and cellular networks; and by integrating Wi-Fi directly into small-cell base stations and cellular networks.

lightRadio Wi-Fi addresses another big concern – security. Many people prefer to connect to hotspots that they know they can trust, especially when accessing services and streamed content from the Cloud, or when they need uninterrupted connections for video streaming or video phone calls.  lightRadio Wi-Fi always finds the most ‘trusted’ network.

lightRadio Wi-Fi represents a radical departure from the traditional way that mobile operators apply Wi-Fi: today it is often used to ‘offload’ traffic from congested cellular networks. By enabling cellular subscribers to stay within their network and service plan, it will allow service providers to maintain use of their services, creating revenue, independent of how the customer is connected.

The lightRadio Wi-Fi approach is also highly applicable for fixed-line and cable service providers, allowing them to extend wireless coverage to existing subscribers without investing in expensive spectrum or wireless infrastructure.

Ken Rehbehn, a principal analyst at Yankee Group said: “Delivering secure, seamless access to Wi-Fi networks is a key requirement in the market right now. Alcatel-Lucent’s lightRadio Wi-Fi provides operators with a comprehensive solution that smartly draws from the company’s strengths in radio access technology and IP routing. The result is an offer that lets operators leverage existing network assets while delivering demanding smartphone users an outstanding customer experience.”

Wim Sweldens, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s Wireless division said: “With lightRadio Wi-Fi, Alcatel-Lucent gives service providers new options to meet consumers’ fast-growing broadband requirements. Extending our groundbreaking lightRadio portfolio, service providers will be able to build closer relationships with their customers by delivering seamless high-speed broadband connections, wherever they are, using LTE and Wi-Fi networks. For subscribers, this approach provides the peace of mind they want when accessing the Internet wherever they go.”

Alcatel-Lucent is extending the lightRadio ecosystem to allow service providers access to the widest range of Wi-Fi networks.  Alcatel-Lucent is collaborating with several major Wi-Fi access point companies to ensure interoperability and is integrating Motorola Solutions’ high-performance Wi-Fi solution and Qualcomm Atheros Wi-Fi technology into its multi-standard Metrocells to ensure that lightRadio Wi-Fi provides our customers with the best Wi-Fi solution, at a competitive price.

“The massive influx of connected wireless devices is creating a huge opportunity for 3G/4G alternatives.  Motorola Solutions has the ideal WLAN solution powered by our WiNG 5 architecture to deliver carrier- class scalability and management,” said Imran Akbar, vice president and general manager,Enterprise Networks & Communications,Motorola Solutions. “We look forward to working with Alcatel-Lucent to provide a quality experience for 3G/4G users.”

About Alcatel-Lucent’s lightRadio Wi-Fi solution (lightRadio):

Alcatel-Lucent is combining its leadership in wireless and Internet Protocol (IP) technology to extend their broadband networks – mobile or fixed – with high-capacity, seamless and secure Wi-Fi. The solution has several key components, including:

Secure Wi-Fi gateway functionality has been introduced into Alcatel-Lucent’s IP portfolio on the market-leading 7750 Service Router. This enables service providers to offer large-scale Wi-Fi services in conjunction with fixed and mobile broadband services from a single platform, reducing cost and complexity.

New software called the Automatic Network Discovery and Selection Function (ANDSF) has been added to Alcatel-Lucent’s policy manager, the 5780 Dynamic Services Controller. This allows the automatic selection of the ‘best’ network connection based on criteria such as service type, subscription type and network congestion levels, helping to improve the overall customer experience.

Integrated Wi-Fi as an option on Alcatel-Lucent’s lightRadio multi-standard Femtocell and Metrocell systems. Metrocells provide additional network capacity and coverage in dense urban centers, airports or busy shopping malls, and Femtocells are ‘personal base stations’ for increasing coverage and capacity in homes or offices. Integrating Wi-Fi into Alcatel-Lucent’s already comprehensive Femtocell portfolio will further increase Alcatel-Lucent’s global leadership in this technology.

To complete the solution, Alcatel-Lucent offers highly specialized services for the planning, design and seamless integration of lightRadio Wi-Fi into existing networks simplifying the deployment and speeding time to market.

Between June and November 2011, Ericsson ConsumerLab carried out research into what those implications will be.

“Behaviors are dynamic, and shift as people enter different life stages. Teenagers start to use communication tools in the same way as adults do as they get older. They will continue to use “their” tools such as texting, Facebook and video chat, but at the same time, they understand the need to use voice and e-mail as they move into the next stage of their lives,” said Ann-Charlotte Kornblad, Senior advisor at Ericsson ConsumerLab.

The survey shows that the common usage of texting and Facebook has changed the dynamics of teenage dating. The biggest changes can be seen in the courting process, where the goal is to ask the other person out on a date. However teenagers still meet potential romantic partners face-to-face.

Another clear shift is the fact that changing your Facebook relationship status to “in a relationship” or “single” is now seen by friends as the official declaration.

Texting remains the teenager’s tool of choice when face time isn’t an option.  It is a tool that does not interrupt the flow of their lives. Voice calls, on the other hand, are considered by teenagers to be more suitable for adults.

The report finds that the ownership level for smartphones and regular mobile phones are the same for 17-year-olds, but 13-year-olds are much more interested in getting a smartphone, if they don’t already have one.

The study consisted of almost 2,000 respondents and involved a representative sample of 20 million people between 13 and 17 years of age, representative of the entire US. The behavior reported is similar to that in many other countries. The study also consisted of 44 qualitative interviews.