Industry News

Qatar-based Ooredoo claimed it had become the world’s first operator to deploy a commercial 5G network, representing a “breakthrough” for the industry.

In a statement, the company said it had now launched a live 5G network on the 3.5GHz spectrum band and, in effect, beat rival global operators to the punch.

The first stage of Ooredoo’s 5G Supernet deployment covers an area from The Pearl Qatar island to the Hamad International Airport, with a number of parts of the country also covered as part of the initial commercial launch.

5G devices
However, while the company claimed 5G had now launched in the country, it added in its statement that access to the network “will require a 5G compatible device from Ooredoo”, which are yet to launch.

Presumably, until this happens, Ooredoo’s 5G network will not be accessible by consumers.

When it is usable, Ooredoo’s 5G service will offer New Radio capabilities to provide high speed, capacity and better latency compared to “existing cellular systems”, said the company.

Waleed Al Sayed, Ooredoo Qatar CEO, said the operator and country had made history by becoming the “first company in the world to offer access to 5G technology and services”.

The development follows the activation of Ooredoo’s new 5G Commercial Core Network, occurring “days ago”.

Ooredoo said it had been working on 5G deployment since 2016, and tipped the technology to provide the foundations for new innovations including driverless cars and smart roads, a national fleet of service drones and VR/AR deployment.

Deployments of 5G in the US (from AT&T and Verizon) are also expected at the end of this year, and Qualcomm recently said a handful of smartphone vendors were also aiming to launch 5G-ready devices at the end of this year.

Source: Mobile World Live

The Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications together with the Government of Ghana, Central Bank, GhIPSS and commercial banks on Thursday 10^th May 2018 launched the mobile money interoperability system at the Marriot hotel in Accra.

The Mobile Money Payment Interoperability is the service, which allows direct and seamless transfer of funds from one mobile money wallet to another mobile money wallet across networks, which was developed by Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) with active collaboration of the Mobile Industry.

It creates convenience for mobile money users to transact business and drives financial inclusion, lowers cost of transaction, increases service reach and reduces reliance on cash for payments. It also provides a financial transaction engine that is versatile, efficient and robust and enhances patronage by both banked and unbanked segment of the population.

Ing. Kenneth Ashigbey, CEO of the Telecoms Chamber in his speech at the event said “our customers would benefit from network effects and from reduced transaction costs. Governments can also be optimistic that interoperability can help advance financial inclusion due to the ubiquitous nature of mobile and reduced transaction costs as well as can also lower the cost of printing and managing cash.

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who launched the system in Accra, acknowledged the contribution and co-operation of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), GhIPSS, the telcos and financial institutions for ensuring the realization of the system.

This is the Phase One of two phases of the interoperability payments system. Under the Phase One, customers will be able to move monies freely from mobile money accounts across different networks and from their mobile money accounts to bank accounts without any hassle.

The second phase, which will be completed in the next two months, will allow the movement of monies between and among telecommunication operators, banks and e-zwitch accounts in a seamless manner –and the flow is vice versa, to complete the Financial Inclusion Triangle.

Vice President Bawumia noted that after 60 years of the country’s independence, about 60 per cent of the population did not have bank accounts, and had no access to payment instruments aside cash for transactions.

This, he said, necessitated low level of savings in the financial system and the reason for the high interest rates on loans in most developing countries like Ghana.

It was against that backdrop, he said, the Government decided to have a platform that would rope in both banked and unbanked segments of the population to improve domestic resource mobilization and reduce the interest rates on loans.

He said the mobile revolution had provided a major opportunity to cover about 70 per cent of the bankable population since there were 37 million connected to mobile phones in Ghana, which would rope-in a majority of the population into the financial space.

He noted that it was the fastest way of formalising the economy and would improve the efficiency of the country’s tax collections efforts and stem capital flight.

Vice President Bawumia said: ‘If done on a comprehensive scale, financial resources locked up in non-financial assets would be brought into the banking system for intermediation and this could be a significant source of resources (representing potentially three-two times what is being currently intermediated in financial system.’’

He described the launch as a historic day for the nation, noting that the singular achievement reinforced President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s belief that with the right conditions and leadership, there was nothing Ghanaians could not achieve as a people.

The Vice President noted that a cash-lite economy would not only bring about efficiency and convenience, but would also save the nation a lot of money that was spent for maintaining the currency notes.

He urged the various public institutions to be ready to accept electronic payments to give meaning to the various efforts at introducing different electronic payment channels.

Vice President Bawumia said the government next step would be to focus on cross-border arena to ensure efficient payment system among the countries in the sub-region to promote intra-African trade.

The event attracted key stakeholders including; Dr Ernest Addison, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Maxwell Opoku Afare, First Deputy Governor of the BoG, Mr Achie Hesse, the CEO of GhIPSS, executives of the Ghana Bankers Association, CEOs of financial institutions, CEOs of telecommunication companies and captains of industries.

Source: GNA

Vodafone’s Chief Executive, Yolanda Cuba was heading off to a meeting when she stopped to assist a customer into the Vodafone building.

Continue reading

Imposing any form of tax on mobile money transactions will be a major drawback to the financial inclusion agenda championed by governments, Akinwale Goodluck, Head of sub Saharan Africa at GSMA, the global body that represents the interest of mobile operators worldwide, has said.

“I am very concerned anytime there is any indication that government or anybody wants to take any step that may inhibit the growth of mobile money. When you tax mobile money, you are taxing the people who are probably the most excluded in mainstream financial service.

These are people who have found a financial niche in mobile money and taxing it will raise the cost of such a service. There is a strong likelihood that this will be a disincentive for people to use mobile money and it could reduce mobile money adoption and increase the divide in terms of financial inclusion,” he told the B&FT at the GSMA Mobile 360 Series West Africa which came off in Abidjan last week.The idea of taxing mobile money transactions was suggested by the Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu Ekuful, during her vetting by the Parliament’s Appointments Committee in February 2017.

She told the Committee that it may not be a bad option as it will generate revenue for government; though she said government was yet to consider the decision.

Later in the year, the minority in Parliament cautioned the government about the introduction of a tax on mobile money.

Even though the government refuted the claims, industry watchers are wary that the issue is still on government’s mind as it seeks avenues to bridge the budget deficit of about 6.3percent of GDP.

Ghana’s mobile money space has seen consistent growth since it began almost a decade ago. In 2017, the total value of transactions stood at GH¢156billion–representing a 98.5 percent increase from the 2016 value of GH¢78.5billion.

With almost a billion transactions in volume, representing a 78.4 percent rise from 550 million in 2016, the total balance on float has increased by 84.6 percent from GH¢1.3billion in 2016 to GH¢2.3billion in 2017.

With mobile money transactions rising rapidly, government sees it as an easy platform to tax and collect revenue. But Mr. Goodluck sees it as “punitive” and “counterproductive” to the plan to deepen financial inclusion.

“Mobile money is an enabler. It helps financial and social inclusivity. It would be particularly burdensome for anybody to impose a tax on mobile money transactions. The ability of mobile money to impact lives and make a paradigm shift in the way we live in sub-Saharan Africa and in Ghana is unimaginable,” he said.

He instead urged government to take steps to increase the volume and value of mobile money transactions because increasing the depth of mobile money draws millions into the financial ecosystem which broadens the tax base for government.

He believes that government needs to look at the advantage of using mobile money instead of cash.

“Do the traditional means of banking have the same levels of penetration? No. This should be about encouraging the alternative channels, rather than punishing these channels.

Government should continue to look at the mobile system as an enabler and see how to develop the digital economy and use it to create jobs and opportunities. These are the things that should be the focus of attention for governments. Then we can create jobs and happiness for the people,” he said.

Source: www.thebftonline.com

 

Google is set to release its Android Google Go app in Africa, targeted at internet users dealing with issues such as low connectivity speeds, high data costs and smartphones with small memories, media reports stated.

The company first launched Google Go in India in December 2017. The app is the search giant’s latest attempt to expand into emerging markets including sub-Saharan Africa and takes up 5MB of storage, reduces the amount of data needed to display search results by 40 per cent and allows previous searches to be accessed offline.

Google estimates there are some 230 million smartphones in sub-Saharan Africa and this figure will almost double by 2020. Many of the devices have less than 1GB of RAM and very little storage.

The search company partnered with operators MTN Group and Vodacom Group to ensure the app works on 2G networks, and modified its voice function to work better on slow connections.

Google Africa CMO Mzamo Masito said: “Weak data connectivity, high data costs and low storage space often make it hard for people to get the most out of the internet. Google Go is built to handle these challenges.”

The app will be available in 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and will be pre-installed on all Android Oreo devices. The company also plans to target other markets, including Brazil and Indonesia.

Earlier this year a light version of Google-owned YouTube’s standard app, designed for emerging markets, was given a full global rollout in 130 countries.

Source: Mobile World Live

Photo-sharing social media app Instagram is developing a new data portability tool allowing users to download a copy of the data they’ve posted.

A company representative told Reuters the new feature will allow users to backup data including photos, videos and messages from their accounts. The representative did not provide a release date for the tool.

Implementation of the feature marks a stark turnaround for Instagram, which historically blocked users from dragging or tapping posted images to save them and forced users to turn to third party export apps to secure a copy of their data. However, the move will bring it more in line with parent company Facebook, which has offered a Download Your Information feature since 2010.

The change comes as users look to gain more insight into, and control over, the data platforms collect from them in the wake of Facebook’s disclosure the data from some 87 million user profiles was misused by political data mining company Cambridge Analytica. During testimony before the US Congress, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his personal data was among the information exposed in the breach.

Cambridge Analytica denies any wrongdoing.

Source: Mobile World Live

Mark Zuckerberg (pictured) denied Facebook had established a monopoly position and dismissed theories it uses smartphone microphones to spy on users, as he faced questions from US senators in the wake of a recent data scandal.

Zuckerberg was speaking in a US Senate hearing regarding Facebook’s dealings with Cambridge Analytica, after the data mining company was accused of accessing hordes of user information for political gain (an accusation the company strenuously denies).

The scandal rocked the social media giant, as it faced online campaigns for users to delete Facebook and saw its share price plummet.

During the testimony, Zuckerberg was quizzed on a range of topics including whether Facebook now had a monopoly status, and questions on the company’s competitors.

Zuckerberg said “it certainly doesn’t feel like that to me”, when asked by Senator Lindsey Graham if Facebook had a monopoly.

He, however, appeared to struggle to name a single direct rival, instead stating there were three “categories” of companies which Facebook competes with: “Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, we overlap with them in different ways.”

Graham also asked Zuckerberg to name a service which users could turn to, should they want an alternative to Facebook, to which he replied: “The average American uses eight different apps to communicate with their friends and stay in touch with people ranging from text to email.”

Spying
During the hearing, Zuckerberg also dismissed a long-running theory Facebook and its associated apps like Instagram secretly record user conversations through smartphone microphones and use the information to provide better targeted adverts.

Facebook officially denied the claims in 2016, but the issue was again raised by US Senator Gary Peters.

Zuckerberg responded by clarifying that while Facebook does have access to audio when users record videos to post on Facebook from their devices, it does not have access to microphones in any other instance.

Source: Mobile World Live

A woman farmer in West Africa using her mobile device

Strong mobile subscriber growth and greater access to 3G and 4G data services will increase the mobile industry’s contribution to the West African economy to $51 billion annually in 2022, the GSMA forecast.

The Association’s The Mobile Economy: West Africa 2018 report tipped the industry to increase its contribution to the region’s economy from $37 billion in 2017 – equivalent to 6.5 per cent of GDP – to 7.7 per cent of GDP in 2022.

Its figures for 2017 reveal a mobile penetration rate of 47 per cent across the 15 countries in the Economic Community of West African States, up from 28 per cent in 2010.

Penetration is tipped to rise to 54 per cent in 2025, driven by the region’s large youth population reaching adulthood and taking mobile subscriptions. The report also points to the positive impact of continued investment from local operators in constructing 3G and 4G networks.

By 2025, the GSMA said 94 per cent of the regions’ connections will be on 3G or 4G services, compared to 36 per cent in 2017. The increased access and performance of data networks, it added, will also drive business efficiencies across a number of industries including health and finance.

GSMA chief regulatory officer John Giusti said growth in the region also relied on the support of authorities.

“Connecting a new generation of mobile subscribers across West Africa requires a new era of collaboration between industry and governments in order to implement policies that encourage network expansion, innovation and affordability,” Giusti said.

“In addition to the work of operators to expand and improve networks, significant effort from governments at all levels is needed to create the right conditions for continued investment.”

The Economic Community of West African States comprises: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

Source: Mobile World Live

Huawei unveiled its latest premium smartphone, P20, which sees further adoption of the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) technology, accompanied by a Pro version which made the headlines for its triple camera set-up.

Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group (pictured), said the reason for the use of P20 brand rather than P11 was because of the “big jump and new technologies”, although in many ways the device is a fairly standard upgrade over 2017’s P10.

The larger device has also become Pro rather than Plus, he said, because “this time we are introducing professional camera technologies” into the smartphone. Yu pointed out the Huawei brand on the rear of the device is now vertical rather than horizontal, so it is the right way around when used in landscape mode – the orientation for traditional cameras.

Camera and AI
Dual camera smartphones have fallen into one of two camps: RGB paired with monochrome sensor, as Huawei has used, or standard and telephoto lenses, as supported by Apple’s iPhone X.

P20 Pro mixes this up, with a 40MP RGB sensor, 20MP monochrome sensor, and 8MP sensor with telephoto lens.

Developed in partnership again with Leica, the smartphone features an “exclusive Leica colour temperature sensor for better colour reproduction” and a new Leica 3x telephoto lens for long-range photography.

The standard P20 continues the model used with Huawei’s earlier dual-camera smartphones, with 12MP colour and 20MP monochrome sensors.

Huawei said the devices achieve DxOMark scores of 109 (P20 Pro) and 102 (P20), putting them ahead of Xiaomi’s Mi Mix 2S – announced earlier on the same day.

The devices are powered by Huawei’s Kirin 970 chip, which includes an AI-focused neural processing unit. As with earlier devices, such as the Mate 10 and Honor View 10, this enables automatic scene selection, with the addition of AI image stabilisation, to steady night shots without a tripod.

New to the camera is 4D predictive focus, calculating moving objects and focusing on them to capture detail, and P20 also features AI-assisted composition, providing intelligent suggestions to frame group shots and landscapes.

Both P20 and P20 Pro feature a 24MP selfie camera, with “AI beautification” and 3D portrait lighting.

Design and performance
The P20 sees the screen size creeping up: while the P10 had a 5.1-inch display, P20 offers a 5.8-inch full HD+ display. Similarly, the P10 Plus featured a 5.5-inch screen, which compares with the 6.1-inch P20 Pro.

Huawei also adopted a “notch” similar to Apple’s iPhone X, although Yu pointed out it is smaller, so more space is available for on-screen notifications.

The AI features have also been extended to the audio: in partnership with Dolby, the device detects the type of audio being listened to in order to optimize performance, and the AI can also distinguish between voice and background sound to cancel out unnecessary noise.

And the smartphone also features AI-driven power management.

The device has ultra-thin bezels and “impressive screen-to-body ratios” for better viewing experiences. The smartphone comes in black, midnight blue, and “two all-new gradient colors”, twilight and pink gold, which create “vivid, yet gradual” changes of hue.

A front-mounted fingerprint scanner can also be used to fill the same role as the three on-screen buttons on Android devices, and are designed to simplify unlock and navigation while freeing-up space on the display.

Pricing for P20 starts at €649 in 4GB RAM, 128GB storage configuration, with P20 Pro at €899 with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

Porsche Design
Also announced was Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS, designed in partnership with the “exclusive luxury brand”, with pricing starting at €1,695.

This device shares many of the technologies of P20 Pro, including the triple camera, but features an in-display fingerprint sensor on the front (in addition to rear-mounted scanner) and 6-inch curved 2K display.

Source: Mobile World Live

Huawei is a giant in the smartphone world. They are in the same conversation as Samsung and Apple in terms of sales and market share. One thing Apple and Samsung have that Huawei doesn’t is a proprietary app store. Apple, of course, has the App Store and Samsung has the Galaxy Apps store. Huawei is launching their own app store called AppGallery and it will be on the Huawei P20.

                   

AppGallery will be available to all existing Huawei smartphones, but the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro will be the first to have it pre-installed. The app store is primarily geared towards the Asian markets with apps like Amap and WeChat. Common apps like Facebook and YouTube will also be available. The store is organized into five tabs: Featured, Category, Top, Manager, and Me. Users can rate and leave reviews in the store as well.

If you own a Huawei device, you can download AppGallery right now. Make sure you have 3rd-party app downloads enabled and visit this page on your phone. The app store will automatically start downloading. The app store should be a great addition to Huawei devices, especially those in the Asian market. Users in some areas of the world don’t have access to nearly as many apps on the Play Store. The AppGallery can help to fill that gap.

Source: xda Forum