Telco Week Flash, 3.10.06

Bandwidth – Africa

Will EASSy make African bandwidth affordable?
Africa currently pays for some of the most expensive bandwidth in the world. The region has only one major international fibre cable (SAT3) that connects countries in West and Southern Africa but East Africa has no fibre connection. Fibre connections usually mean cheaper prices than satellite for volume traffic but because of the monopoly structure of the SAT3 consortium, its operators have kept prices high.

Many in Africa are pinning hopes of a change in the status quo on the proposed East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) cable which will connect countries on the eastern side of the continent. The hope is that the EASSy cable will offer new capacity and drive down prices for bandwidth in Africa.

There are many observers, however, that have expressed doubt that the EASSy cable will deliver on the objective of affordable bandwidth. Weeks ago at the FOSSFA meeting in Kenya EASSy cable looked likely to head down the same road as the SAT3 'cartel'.

Now the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) has launched a new website - Fibre-for-Africa - to promote understanding of bandwidth issues in Africa. APC will also be hosting a consultative meeting on March 10 in Kenya with 80 key stakeholders from all over Eastern and Southern Africa to ensure that access to EASSy - which will serve eight coastal and eleven land-locked countries - is 'easy', affordable and open. The one-day event is convened by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), Balancing Act, Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) and Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANET).

Barrier
The price of international bandwidth is still a significant barrier to the region's development because it makes it more expensive to do business on the continent.
For example, it is harder for new call centers to compete with their global competitors and there are many areas where cheap international access would give East African citizens, professionals, students and decision-makers access to knowledge, expertise and involvement in regional and global discussions.

The cost of international bandwidth almost certainly directly affects how Africa works; whether through the high cost of international calls - particularly to other African countries - or through the cost and speed of the continent's internet connection.

EASSy
The EASSy consortium has been set up to build a fibre route that will connect countries on the east coast of Africa its governance and the terms under which access to the new capacity will be available have not yet been set. The project is now at a crossroads: it can either follow the monopoly practices of its predecessor SAT3 or offer an open access regime that will increase competition and lower prices, and give consideration to development needs.

The aim of the Mombasa meeting and the Fibre-for-Africa website is to promote transparency and the notion that internet backbone needs to be regulated as a public good. To date, the investors in the cable have been less than open about how they are going to run it.

If SAT3 and the EASSy cable carry on being run as a club consortium the cost of international bandwidth will be kept high. This approach would continue to deprive Africa of the advantages of being cheaply connected to the international internet - a platform for multiple forms of collaboration, cultural, economic and political.

Inflated costs, the high costs of the SAT3 cable have set a bad precedent for the EASSy project to follow. Rates on SAT3 have been as high as US$25.000 per mbps per month but are now around US$10-15.000. The actual cost to the operator is around US$2.000. These are very large margins.

High prices mean that there are a significant number of countries where the full capacity of the cable has not been used. Fiber cables last for 25 years and are therefore a wasting asset from day one unless a large part of their capacity is used. EASSy needs to produce prices and terms of access that will ensure this.

Time has come for Africa's internet community to take their futures -and livelihoods- into their own hands. For too long Africa has been dependent on overseas infrastructure and facilities to provide inter-country -and sometimes intra-country- connectivity.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Unified Communications – Alerting

MessageOne sets to notifying people in emergencies
Among the many lessons that Sept. 11 taught us was the absolutely critical need for an ability to notify people in an emergency situation. For example, being able to notify employees quickly about emergency situations can get them out of harm's way, or keep them from getting in a difficult situation in the first place.

MessageOne has just announced AlertFind, a system designed to notify large numbers of people quickly during an emergency situation and to solicit information from them if necessary. AlertFind's database of contacts is built through a regular synchronization with a variety of external sources, including enterprise directories, human resources directories and other sources.

When an emergency situation arises, authorized users can send a communication to any group of contacts in the database via the predetermined communications devices that have been specified, which includes cell phones, BlackBerries, home telephones, etc.
AlertFind will continue to attempt contact with each person on all of the devices specified in the database until each contact has been reached. AlertFind can also request responses from recipients, set up live audio conference bridges between them and conduct polls. The system also allows administrators to obtain real-time reports on who has been contacted and other information.

AlertFind is already in use by organizations charged with emergency management tasks. For example, the Town of Vernon in Connecticut has deployed AlertFind to replace its unreliable and time-consuming call-tree system for emergency notification.
While AlertFind will be used to notify responders quickly during an emergency situation, the system can also be used to warn school administrators of school closures due to snow, for example. The Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System (ILEAS) has also deployed AlertFind. Shortly after deploying the system, ILEAS was able to mobilize 150 volunteers in one day to respond to the State of Louisiana's call for assistance following Hurricane Katrina.

Emergency notification is an increasingly important component of a good messaging management system, particularly for geographically distributed organizations and in places that are susceptible to hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, terrorist attacks, riots or other emergencies. AlertFind is among several products in this category, with others offered by 3n Online and WiredRed and deserves a look if you need to notify people quickly and efficiently.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Telecommunications – Brazil

Brazil no starting 3G until 2008
Brazilian mobile operators are expected to launch true 3G services in 2008. Suppliers do have 3G equipment developed and in some parts of the world 3G services are a reality, but there is no market for it in Brazil yet. In Europe, 3G is only now becoming a mass-market service, some five years after first appearing.
Nevertheless, rival supplier Ericsson chose this week, the week of Brazil's Telexpo trade show, to present its Capacity Growth solution, which helps GSM network operators prepare for migration to WCDMA or true 3G. It is an incentive for operators to migrate to 3G sooner, however, migration to 3G depends on the go-ahead from Brazil's telecoms regulator Anatel.

In the meantime, the suppliers still have their work cut out; Siemens Brasil aims to grow exports to 20% of revenues this year compared to 10% before.
Siemens will have to focus on exporting equipment for switching gear, radio base stations, ADSL modems and software, since it is no longer in the handset production business, which it sold off to Taiwan's BenQ. At its height handset sales represented 40% of Siemens Brasil's telecoms revenues, pulling in 1.4bn reais (US$642mn). The 3.5bn reais that Siemens Brasil's telecoms unit generated in 2005 represented roughly 50% of the group's entire Brazilian revenues.

Siemens used to be Brazil's number one telecoms supplier, ahead of Motorola and Ericsson, but with the sale of its handset unit it is likely to fall to second or third place. Another big area in Siemens Brasil's telecoms business is services, which accounted for 35% of telecoms revenues. Byrro expects this area to grow at 25% a year, eventually topping out at 50% of Siemens Brasil's telecoms revenues. Siemens does not plan to be absent as telcos introduce triple play services, and is working on IPTV and WiMax solutions to facilitate this. Carriers Embratel and Brasil Telecom are testing Siemens solutions for triple play.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Financial – Singapore

Vodafone Australia no Due Diligence From Optus
Singapore Telecommunications's Australian unit, Optus, hasn't conducted due diligence on Vodafone Group's Australian network assets, a spokesman for Vodafone said Thursday.
His comments came after the Australian newspaper said that Optus was in talks to buy Vodafone's Australian infrastructure and had due diligence teams looking at the assets.
“There is no truth to (the) assertion that due diligence teams are in Vodafone doing any investigation into the network assets. That is not happening," the Vodafone spokesman said.
"As far as the sentiments about due diligence and network sell-up, that's not the case," he said. The unsourced report in the Australian said Optus Chief Executive Paul O'Sullivan wanted to buy Vodafone's network assets to strip cost out of his business and take out a competitor.
The newspaper said the talks cover wider issues, with the pair in the midst of deploying Australia's 3G mobile network at a cost of about A$700 million. An Optus spokeswoman wasn't immediately available for comment.
Source: Reuter
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Financial - Tunisia

Six companies bid to acquire 35% stake in Tunisie Telecom
Six companies have placed a bid to acquire a 35% stake in Tunisia's largest telecommunications carrier Tunisie Telecom, the Tunisian Communication Ministry said Wednesday evening. The partial privatisation of Tunisie Telecom estimated at around EUR1.5 billion has attracted bids from French companies France Telecom and Vivendi Universal; South African group Mobil Telephone Networks; United Arab Emirates' Etisalat and Tecom Co. - all of whom have put in separate offers. Telecom Italia and Saudi Oger Ltd. have made a common offer. Financial offers will be examined in the second half of March in the presence of all the bidders but the name of the winner will only be known in about three months. There could also be an auction if the offers are within 10% of each other.
The Tunisian government was originally planning to seal a deal by Dec. 13 but has constantly delayed the bidding deadline.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Headsets – Russia

Sales of cell phones in Russia seen slowing down in 2006
In all likelihood, 2005 was the last boom year for mobile handset sales in Russia. The government crackdown on illegal imports of handsets and lower demand are likely to result in slower sales although the average price of phones is likely to increase, analysts said.

Mobile handset sales in Russia rose to 33.5 million units in 2005 from 30 million units in 2004 and are expected to increase to 36.1 million units in 2006, according to J'son & Partners' estimates. Analysts at Mobile Research Group (MRG) expect sales to increase to 36-39 million units this year.

The average price of sold handsets rose to U.S. $165 in 2005 from $146 in 2004. Analysts expect that the average price will grow further in 2006 as credit becomes available to more consumers.

Russia’s largest mobile handset retailer Euroset estimated the average price of handsets bought on credit to be about $70 higher than the price of handsets bought for cash. About 15% of phones sold in 2005 were purchased on credit, Euroset said in its research in late January.

In 2005, Samsung accounted for 23.58% of total handset supplies on the Russian market, while Nokia accounted for 21.79%, according to MRG. Motorola accounted for 19.80%, Siemens for 12.6% and Sony Ericsson for 11.11%. Smaller producers accounted for the rest of the market. Analysts said that the market leaders are likely to continue fighting for the top market position in 2006.

The two companies (Samsung and Nokia) will compete for the first place on the Russian market in 2006, with Nokia having advantages in the struggle, Samsung has a poorer range of models, especially of smart phone models.

Nokia gained leadership in October-December 2005, mostly thanks to the position of Euroset, which had, and still has, a directive to primarily sell Nokia before all other brands. Euroset said in its recent report that in December 2005 Nokia accounted for 33% of Euroset's total sales, while Samsung accounted for only 5%, attributing the fact to Samsung's distribution policy, which "neglects the market reality”.

Euroset is Russia's largest mobile handset retailer with 2,854 outlets in Russia as of January 1 and 2005 sales revenue standing at U.S. $2.574 billion.

The relationship between mobile handset producers and retailers may play an even more important role in the future, as the largest retailers continue to expand their market share. According to Sotovik research agency, the top 10 Russian mobile handset retailers accounted for 20% of the market in December 2003, 45% in December 2004, and for 72% in December 2005. In December, 48% of the market was controlled by the top three companies.

In 2006 the top 10 companies will control 83%-85% of the market by the end of the year.
Analysts said that the police and custom service’s attacks on illegal importers of handsets last year had a positive impact on the market. The retail market has consolidated in the last few months as many small regional companies were unable to import merchandise on their own and were bought out or signed franchise agreements with larger market players.

The customs service has eliminated all channels of illegal imports through Moscow terminals, where companies set too low a price for imported merchandise. However, the same channels remained untouched in St. Petersburg,

Most mobile handsets were imported illegally in the previous years but the trend was broken by police in mid-2005. Now major retailers sell more phones imported legally, analysts said adding that this has pushed the average price further up.

Analysts said that the consolidation of the mobile handset retail market is likely to continue.
The customs service said in late 2005 that 3.1 million mobile handsets were imported to Russia in October 2005, up from 1.8 million units in August 2005. The total value of mobile handsets declared at customs rose to $436 million in October from $43 million in August, the service said, adding that the average price of a mobile handset at customs clearance rose to $135 in October from $24 in August.

That continuing gray imports include a wide range of models produced specifically for the Russian market but also models produced for other markets or those that were introduced on other markets earlier than in Russia. As many Russians are ready to pay a higher price to get new models that are not yet sold in Russia, this becomes a major factor in increased demand for illegal imports. But this year producers may start importing phones themselves, market sources said adding that this will help decrease illegal imports and push prices up.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Zapping TechBizz

Wireless & Voice

AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corporation announced that AT&T will acquire BellSouth. The merger will streamline the ownership and operations of Cingular Wireless, which is jointly owned by AT&T and BellSouth. The new company will provide benefits to customers by combining the Cingular, BellSouth and AT&T networks into a single fully integrated wireless and wireline Internet Protocol network offering a full range of advanced solutions.

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

Unified Communications

Avaya and Microsoft Corp. announced the intent to develop open standards, SIP-based interoperability between Avaya MultiVantage Communications Applications and Microsoft Office Communicator, the UC client for Microsoft Office LCS 2005.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Cisco Systems and Microsoft Corp. announced they are working together to provide collaborative real-time capabilities for businesses through the integration of Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 and the open SIP-based Microsoft Office LCS 2005 with the new SIP-based Cisco Unified Communications system.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Cisco Systems, Inc. announced the Cisco Unified Communications system, a new suite of voice, data and video products and applications specifically designed to help organizations of all sizes to communicate more effectively.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Vantis Credit Union has deployed the Expert Anywhere Contact Solution from Nortel, to allow members to interact with service representatives through video kiosks at ATM sites.
IKEA in the UK has deployed technology from Nortel to speed the resolution of customer requests across telephone, email and Web multimedia applications.
Instant messaging
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

AOL announced the creation of a new Open AIM initiative. AOL is inviting developers, and online communities, sites and services of every kind to build new plugins and custom communications clients based on the popular AIM platform
Security
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Cloudmark Inc. has upgraded its Server Edition solution for corporate environments that use Microsoft's Exchange Server, adding new mobile e-mail messaging protection against spam, phishing and virus attacks as well as actionable data reporting.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Senforce Technologies Inc. launched Senforce intelligent Network Access Control (iNAC), an extension of its endpoint security products, Senforce iNAC adds critical network protections that ensure all PCs are policy-compliant and threat-free before they can obtain access to the network.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Elemental Security, Inc. announced the general availability of the Elemental Security Platform (ESP) v2.0, the next-generation release of its policy and risk management solution.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Mix

Cisco Systems announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held SyPixx Networks, Inc., which offers network-centric video surveillance software and hardware that enable existing analog video surveillance systems to operate as part of an open IP network.


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

Novell announced its next-generation enterprise Linux desktop, delivering technology and design improvements that establish the Linux desktop as a benchmark for basic office productivity and usability.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Beceem Communications, a provider of chipsets for Mobile WiMAX technology, announced that it has received a substantial investment from Intel Capital, the venture capital investment arm for Intel Corporation.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Atempo Inc. announced that it has acquired privately-held Storactive Inc. a provider of continuous data protection (CDP) software.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -