Industry News

THE Director of the Vobiss Solutions, Mr Usen Antia, has called for collaboration between the government and telecommunication companies to meet the global technological communication standards.

That, he said, would bring an improvement in technology, thereby speeding the advancement of communication in the various sectors of the economy.

He added that although some telecommunication network providers were making progress in services, there were little interventions in the form of policy implementation which enabled telcos and investors to operate in the country.

Mr Antia said this at the 2018 Furukawa Broadband Systems training and showcase of products to the Ghanaian market which was held on July 6, 2018.

Recounting similar instances in some European countries, he said there were a lot of governmental support for broadband investment since technology was the future for education, governance, as well as huge investment into the future.Mr Antia said with government’s initiatives, moderate policy implementations and advice for both the already grown companies and growing companies could help them function well to meet international standards.

That, he said, would serve as source of employment for the citizenery, improve the standard of living, reduce poverty, generate revenue for the state through taxation and reduce over-dependence on government.

With this, he said the telecommunications operators should not compromise their activities but rather develop means of adopting the fibre network system which could reach the target customers at their various homes at a higher speed.

He added that with fibre network, “data is transferred using light sent down the cable. And Fibre Optic network is often used as an alternative to copper if the data is required to travel long distance at the higher speed.”

“Fibre network connection cannot be cut off from the industry so to bridge the technological gap, Ghana should increase connections to the fibre. Currently, the country has more than half a million connected to fibre,” he said.

Mr Antia stated that with current speed to meet the growing demand of the customers, it was necessary for the Vobiss Solution and Furukawa Electrical Group to collaborate to educate the participants on the need to understand how internet service providers could engage in the huge investment from this industry.

“Our clients, stakeholders and the industry players have to know a lot about fibre network since our companies are now introduced this into the market and help them alongside”, he indicated

Futurity
He said moving forward, it was estimated that the urban population would increase from five million to 10 million; hence, if strategic measures were not put in place, access to internet service would be scarce.

“We believe that internet access is a human right that citizens should enjoy without limitation or interruptions”, he indicated.

He, therefore, appealed to the government, stakeholders, industry players and the country as a whole to do everything necessary to get connected to the fibre network system. — GB

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MTN opened an IPO for 35 per cent of its Ghana business, while separate reports emerged dampening expectations for the company’s float of its Nigeria operation.

The operator group has long been expected to IPO both its Nigeria and Ghana businesses by the end of the year, a goal said to be on track by Group CEO Rob Shuter at the company’s earnings call in early May.

Its Ghana IPO was imposed by the country’s authorities as part of the terms of its 4G licence in a bid to increase local ownership of major companies operating in Ghana.

As a result the float has been marketed to appeal to investors from within the country and just five per cent of the new shares were available to international investors, MTN Group CFO Ralph Mupita confirmed at the launch event.

MTN Ghana CEO Ebenezer Asante added the ability to buy shares through its mobile money platform would increase the appeal of the IPO to citizens, noting: “people the length and breadth of the country do not need to know where the Ghana Stock Exchange is located, they have the Ghana Stock Exchange on their phones.”

In its prospectus, the company said it was the leading operator in Ghana with 17.83 million subscribers and a market share of 55 per cent as of the end of December 2017. It hopes to receive a total of GHS3.48 billion ($747 million) for the 35 per cent stake.

Nigeria progress
In the hours prior to the launch of the MTN Ghana IPO, a spokesperson from MTN Nigeria was quoted by the News Agency of Nigeria calming expectation on the progress of its IPO in that country.

The spokesperson reportedly said the company was still “perfecting” the details and quashed earlier reports it was expecting to receive $500 million from the float – stating no value or specific timeline had been confirmed.

Source: MobileWorldLive

Ursula Owusu-Ekuful (Communications Minister)

The Ministry of Communications is in collaboration with the Ministry of Education to review the curriculum of schools to institutionalize coding programming as a subject to be taught in all Junior High Schools in the country.

This is to enable children of school going age to be abreast of the development of software applications to boost the country’s Information Communication Technology (ICT) drive.
The Ministry says it is also ready to install a switch for internet exchange point in Kumasi Metropolis, the second in the country, by the close of May 2018 to facilitate the exchange of local internet traffic and to reduce cost of bandwidths and data prices.

Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful disclosed these at this year’s “International Girls in ICT Day” on Friday, under the theme, “Expand Horizons, Change Attitudes”. The day has been set aside to create a global environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women to consider careers in the growing field of ICT.
About 600 Junior High Schools students selected from various districts in the Ashanti Region, who have been trained in ICT programmes, were present at the Great Hall of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology to celebrate the day.

The celebration of the day was capped with awards, under the auspices of International Communication Union (ITU), for the best 10 performing students with Nora Akoto Tamakloe from Santa Maria School in the Atwima Kwanwoma District emerging as the overall best, as she took home a laptop computer, hard drive, power bank, modem and a certificate.
She was followed by Millicent Afrakomaa of Saint John’s School in the Bekwai Municipality while Elizabeth Quaicoo of Asokore Mampong Junior High School placed third. Both of them walked home with certificates, laptop computers and modems.

Among the best 10 was also a student from the Garden City Special School in Kumasi, Atta Ama Macleana, who took home a laptop computer and other accessories.
According to the Communications Minister, government would soon establish computer laboratories in the schools of the three best students for the benefit of all and sundry within the area but cautioned the children against cyber crime.

Mrs. Frema Osei-Opare, Chief of Staff on her part said the government would do all possible to change the face of ICT in Ghana for girls in particular to have access to skills training. She also reiterated government’s interest in girls’ skills training to fill the ICT gaps by encouraging the Ministry of Communications to establish more ICT clubs in the country.

Deputy Secretary General of ITU, Mr. Malcolm Johnson commended the government for the free Senior High School initiative and said his outfit would continue to collaborate with Ghana to make sure young girls choose careers in ICT.

Source: Ghanaian Times

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.

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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