Africa: 'Microsoft is Imperialistic' Says Open Source Advocates

Microsoft Corporation's products have been locked out of the on-going World Social Forum (WSF) in Nairobi Kenya.

With over 300 computers provided for participants and the press, organizers of the WSF have preferred to provide open source software products and blocked all Microsoft related products for the forum's usage and its related activities.

Participants attending WSF, which for the first time is entirely taking place in an African country say that this was a gesture done as a way of promoting the free social movement at the same time also as a way of fighting Microsoft's 'imperialistic tendencies.' read more

MTN Nigeria raises the stakes, acquires VGC Comms

THE year 2007 forecast by industry analysts predicted great hope for the telecom sector in Nigeria based on growth trends and urban-rural penetration expectation. And with only few weeks into the year, surprise is the one word to describe renewed investment flow into the sector, first with the Middle Eastern firm Mobadala, expending a princely 400 million dollars for a unified telecom licence and now, the country’s leading telecom provider MTN Nigeria Communications’ successful acquisition of a 100 per cent shareholding of VGC Telecommunications Limited, from erstwhile owners, Modern Communication Technologies Inc. (MCT) Gilbratar, Tele- communication arm of Globe International Holdings S.A. Read more

NCC confirms 30m subscribers, as Mubadala pays $400m

MIDDLE Eastern telecommunications provider, Mubadala Development Company of the United Arab Emirates, UAE has made good its promise to be part of the telecom revolution in Nigeria as it paid 400 million dollars last week to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for a Unified Access Service Liscence operation. read more

Thieves Destroy 400 Phone Lines In Kumasi

About 400 telephone lines belonging to Ghana Telecom customers in some parts of Kumasi and its environs have been disrupted since the beginning of this year due to the stealing of underground and overhead telephones cables. read more ..

Nigeria set to displace SA as Africa’s largest mobile market

Nigeria is on course to be Africa’s largest mobile market. With a mobile subscriber base of some 25 million at the end of September, it is closing in on its biggest rival for the title, South Africa according to a survey by GSM World Focus Online. read more .

IT-ROADMAP: ICT development trend and forecast for 2007: Challenges and opportunities for Nigeria

Data centre is often a candidate for outsourcing-20% of this activity is outsourced, with 22% planned for 2007 - but much less frequently for offshoring..
Lean principles also apply to the IT organization most of all, leading to an increased uptake of outsourcing and offshoring. Third-party services and internal head count account for 11% and 24% of the total, respectively. Over a third of respondents plan to increase their spending in both categories next year. For respondents that plan to decrease spending in these areas, 25% said they’d reduce internal head count, while only 19% said they’d reduce the use of third-party services.Even though budgets for 2007 are growing by 3% on average, doing more with less is a fact of life for enterprise IT departments. Save for the 5% increase in the amount of application management that will migrate offshore in 2007. read more

NITC Bill, a sore after taste

The recent passage of the National Information Technology Commission (NITC) Bill 2006 appears to have left a sore after taste in the mouths of investors in the nation’s telecommunications industry. read more .

With Mubadala, NCC serves notice for a great 2007

For the regulator of the telecoms industry, the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, reinventing the industry comes quite easy. Just when you think the industry has got to its wits end then another thing comes up to keep the fire of hope alive and give some real good feeling that we are capable of doing something good and match the speed of the world in any field. read more .

Internet Users warned against circulating virus e-mails

Government on Thursday warned the general public, especially Internet users, to beware of opening any attachment or document sent to them through the Internet with the heading "Invitation".

"Opening any such e-mail immediately unleashes a virus that can totally damage the hard drive of your computer", a statement said in Accra. Read more .

Graft to sabotage Areeba's Ghanaian shareholder

THE MOST dramatic highpoint in the legal row rocking the corporate suites of telecoms giant MTN/AREEBA is the revelation that, the former Managing Director of Areeba Ghana, Mr. Ahmad Farrouk, now on a two-year contract in Nigeria, gave the company’s first director/ Company Secretary, Mr. Andreas Hesse, a brand new Mitsubishi Pajero four-wheel drive with registration number GW 3330 X, as inducement to help Areeba undermine and destroy the legal recourse of the Ghanaian shareholder’s to the Ghanaian courts for help against the Lebanese plunderers. Continue reading .

NGO to establish 30 ICT Centres for schools

An international Non-Governmental Organisation working to promote education and child welfare, is to establish 30 Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Resource Centres in selected second cycle schools in the country.

Poverty Concern Ghana/Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisation will also provide infrastructure for selected schools in Northern Ghana and sponsor more than 500 brilliant needy students in second cycle schools and tertiary institutions under its five year development programme. Continue reading .