Retirement of Michael Joseph
The year 2010 was marked with numerous historical events in the ICT industry. Perhaps most historical in the mind of most Kenyans was the retirement of Mr. Michael Joseph, former CEO of Safaricom Ltd. Robert Collymore, who until 1st November, 2010 was sitting on Safaricom board as a non-executive director, would replace Mr Joseph as CEO. Micheal Joseph, MJ, as he is popularly known, landed in Kenya in the year 2000 to lead a team of five from Vodafone and start Kenya’s first mobile service provider. In a decade, he has transformed a small department in the then Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (KP&TC) into a multi-billion shilling company. Apart from making billions of shillings in profits, the company was declared the best in the East African region. Mr. Joseph is a US citizen, holds a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cape Town and is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and the Institute of Electronic Engineers (IEE), UK. His single greatest legacy would be the rollout of a mobile money transfer service, M-Pesa, which has revolutionized the way Kenyans conduct business. MJ has now has been appointed the Chairman of Kenya Tourism Board (KTB), where he will serve for a three-year term.
Reduction of 3G license fees
After months of an unending tussle between the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) and mobile phone operators Zain,YU and Telkom Orange, CCK has reviewed its 3G upfront license fees downwards by 60% from $25 million to $10 million. This paved a way for mobile phone operators to roll out the 3G networks which allowing subscribers to access mobile high speed data. Advancement to 4G network would not require upfront license fees. Despite registering 50 percent mobile phone penetration in Kenya, the number of people with access to broadband Internet is still much lower, a situation that was expected to change with the more players using 3G. By June 2010, Kenya had 7.8 million internet users, accounting for 19% of the population. 99.9% of these users were on mobile operator data networks. Mobile penetration stood at 51.2% then.
There had been controversy over the fees for 3G spectrum after Safaricom had challenged the downward review from $25 million it had paid in 2007. The CCK however revised the figure making it possible for other operators to acquire the license.
On 25th June, 2010, Zain become the second mobile operator after Safaricom to acquire a 3G license, owning 10megahertz on the 3G spectrum. Orange acquired the 3G license barely two days after another Zain, re-branded to Airtel, and indicated plans to roll out its own network in the first quarter of 2011. Orange will spend between 2 to 5 billion shillings to roll out the 3G network which guarantees customers access to faster internet speeds. Orange has previously offered "3G+" services on an Evolution-Data Optimized (EVDO) on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology.
Low Calling Rates
The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) lowered the calling rates from Sh4.42 to Sh2.21 across networks. On 18th August, 2010 Zain, re-branded Airtel, launched a Sh3 flat call rate from Zain to all other networks is a clear testimony that the Indian mobile communications giant was aggressively targeting to recruit more subscribers to its network. The drastic price cuts triggered a price war among the mobile service providers leading to the inevitable reduction of calling rates by all service providers to between Kshs.4 and Kshs.2 per minute. Airtel had already curved a name for itself in India where it operates a mass-market model that is expected to be replicated in Kenya. Safaricom had to cut its international calling rates by nearly 90 per cent in an effort to defend its market share. Among Safaricom, Zain and Orange, international call tariffs to USA, China and India were reduced to merely Kshs. 3 per minute. On 5th October, Essar’s Yu reduced it’s by 98 per cent to Sh2.50 a minute.
Mobile Number Portability Postponed
Initially, the implementation of mobile number portability (MNP) was scheduled to start December 31. This has, however, been moved to April 1 when subscribers will change networks and retain their cell phone numbers. Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) has already contracted Porting Access BV, a Dutch firm, to up the MNP platform. The company will maintain and manage the Central data base which will facilitate the porting process. The long awaited mobile number portability (MNP) enables GSM mobile telephone users to retain their mobile telephone numbers when changing from one mobile network operator to another. The CCK announced in 2010 that all four operators should support Mobile Number Portability. Mobile number portability (MNP) has now been implemented across western European markets as several major markets outside Europe including Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and the USA. South Africa and Egypt have also implemented MNP.
Kenya Wins Nokia Award
During the Nokia Developer Summit 2010, held in London, Virtual City Ltd, a home-grown Kenyan company won the global Growth Economy Venture Challenge. The award was won in recognition to the company’s Mobile Distributor Solution designed to improve the distribution efficiencies for small and micro enterprises in the fast moving consumer goods market. The summit aims to boost the profitability of small and micro-businesses by increasing the number of transactions as well as improving inventory management, the accuracy of records, and reporting from the field. John Waibochi of Virtual City Ltd received Kshs. 80 Million ($ 1 million) in venture capital investment and a commitment of support from Nokia to help turn the idea into reality.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Internet of Things
During the ITEX 2010 Symposium, ‘Internet of Things’ was highlighted as one of the emerging revolutionary concepts. ‘Internet of Things’ is the theme of objects, services and individuals networked with one another that is important. Imagine an executive director who is woken up by an alarm synchronized to his calendar entailing the day’s meetings, finds the bathing water already warm and the lights on as he heads to the bathroom. On his way out, the car is already started with the navigation screen indicates an alternate route to the airport due to a traffic snarl up. The traffic takes longer than expected to ease and the director will be late for his flight. The flight is changed; payment made via the credit card and the director is alerted via his smart phone. Finally, the director boards the plane but his is late for the meeting, a notification is sent to all participants, the smart phone’s GPS detects his location. As soon as he lands, he joins the meeting via a conference call or web conference. He seamlessly joins the meeting on arrival to his office. The idea is a self-configuring wireless network of sensors whose purpose would be to interconnect all things.
The advent of IP Version 6 (IP v6) addressing scheme is vital in the development of this concept. The scheme utilizes of a 128-bit address space, supporting 2128 (about 3.4×1038) addresses. If all objects of daily life were equipped with radio sensors, they could be identified and inventoried by computers. The next generation of Internet applications using Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) would be able to communicate with devices attached to virtually all human-made objects because of the extremely large address space of IPv6. This system would therefore be able to identify any kind of object. Smart objects and their connected networks could regulate electrical grids, monitor the weather, check water levels in rivers and dams, traffic lights, petroleum pipelines, smart buildings or most any man-made or natural object. In an Internet of Things, the precise geographic location of a thing—and also the precise geographic dimensions of a thing—will are critical. In the recent past, more devices have been integrated to human nature. Most electronic entertainment devices now allow users to interact with that content just as they do on their hand held devices – using multi-touch technology. Another emerging trend is the disappearance of the screen, with the screens growing smaller, thinner and more interactive on smart phones.
On this theme of the disappearance, or transformation, of the screen, various companies are working on glasses – and even contact lenses – capable of superimposing a digital display over the wearer’s vision. An example of the disappearing screen technology is the Pranav Mistry’s “SixthSense”. The device Rather than a screen, the SixthSense device projects visual information onto the user’s immediate environment e.g. a table, wall or paper. An interactive projector transforms flat surfaces into a touch screen. The Internet is a vital component of the concepts and many companies all over the globe are working on ways to use tracking and internet connectivity to give new digital life to physical objects and locations. For instance, ‘Violet’, a French company, sells special stamps that trigger email alerts and messages when you move items around your house. Probably, this can be used to prevent burglary and alert the police. ‘IoBridge’ gives you the hardware and software to hack together devices that let your Twitter Feed control your TV, or allow your garage door to have a Facebook Status.
The Internet of Things, which will include connections over the public Internet as well as an unlimited number of private networks, using IP as the global language. New types of wireless technologies will make many of these connections to tiny, battery-powered sensors, while the tangle of electrical lines that already blanket the earth offers another promising means for connecting millions of sensors and controllers. Millions of sensors or mini-controller devices of the Internet of Things, commonly referred to as smart objects, will go places the Internet never dreamed of. All this call for standardization and ways to manage the forthcoming host of challenges that don't exist with today's networks. Current networks are designed with the assumption of unlimited power for driving ever bigger and faster digital machines for massive, fiber optic-based broadband links. Unlike the high-powered broadband lines running today's Internet, much of the Internet of Things will need connections over low-power, low-speed, and often unstable connections in harsh or unpredictable environments.
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) will need to develop a common approach for making IP routing protocols lightweight and flexible enough for smart objects networks. Just as standards play a key role in the Internet and the Web, geospatial standards will play a key role in the Internet of Things. If in the Internet of Things, things are able to take actions on their own initiative, this human-centric mediation role is eliminated, and the time-space context that we as humans take for granted must be given a central role in this information ecosystem.
The advent of IP Version 6 (IP v6) addressing scheme is vital in the development of this concept. The scheme utilizes of a 128-bit address space, supporting 2128 (about 3.4×1038) addresses. If all objects of daily life were equipped with radio sensors, they could be identified and inventoried by computers. The next generation of Internet applications using Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) would be able to communicate with devices attached to virtually all human-made objects because of the extremely large address space of IPv6. This system would therefore be able to identify any kind of object. Smart objects and their connected networks could regulate electrical grids, monitor the weather, check water levels in rivers and dams, traffic lights, petroleum pipelines, smart buildings or most any man-made or natural object. In an Internet of Things, the precise geographic location of a thing—and also the precise geographic dimensions of a thing—will are critical. In the recent past, more devices have been integrated to human nature. Most electronic entertainment devices now allow users to interact with that content just as they do on their hand held devices – using multi-touch technology. Another emerging trend is the disappearance of the screen, with the screens growing smaller, thinner and more interactive on smart phones.
On this theme of the disappearance, or transformation, of the screen, various companies are working on glasses – and even contact lenses – capable of superimposing a digital display over the wearer’s vision. An example of the disappearing screen technology is the Pranav Mistry’s “SixthSense”. The device Rather than a screen, the SixthSense device projects visual information onto the user’s immediate environment e.g. a table, wall or paper. An interactive projector transforms flat surfaces into a touch screen. The Internet is a vital component of the concepts and many companies all over the globe are working on ways to use tracking and internet connectivity to give new digital life to physical objects and locations. For instance, ‘Violet’, a French company, sells special stamps that trigger email alerts and messages when you move items around your house. Probably, this can be used to prevent burglary and alert the police. ‘IoBridge’ gives you the hardware and software to hack together devices that let your Twitter Feed control your TV, or allow your garage door to have a Facebook Status.
The Internet of Things, which will include connections over the public Internet as well as an unlimited number of private networks, using IP as the global language. New types of wireless technologies will make many of these connections to tiny, battery-powered sensors, while the tangle of electrical lines that already blanket the earth offers another promising means for connecting millions of sensors and controllers. Millions of sensors or mini-controller devices of the Internet of Things, commonly referred to as smart objects, will go places the Internet never dreamed of. All this call for standardization and ways to manage the forthcoming host of challenges that don't exist with today's networks. Current networks are designed with the assumption of unlimited power for driving ever bigger and faster digital machines for massive, fiber optic-based broadband links. Unlike the high-powered broadband lines running today's Internet, much of the Internet of Things will need connections over low-power, low-speed, and often unstable connections in harsh or unpredictable environments.
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) will need to develop a common approach for making IP routing protocols lightweight and flexible enough for smart objects networks. Just as standards play a key role in the Internet and the Web, geospatial standards will play a key role in the Internet of Things. If in the Internet of Things, things are able to take actions on their own initiative, this human-centric mediation role is eliminated, and the time-space context that we as humans take for granted must be given a central role in this information ecosystem.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
BlackBerry Security Concerns
BlackBerry is a line of mobile e-mail and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM) since 1996. Subscribers who purchased one wanted constant access to e-mail, a calendar and a phone. The device provides a great way to get things done while on the move. The BlackBerry's manufacturer, Research in Motion (RIM), reported only 25,000 subscribers in their first year. But since then, its popularity has skyrocketed. By September 2005, RIM reported 3.65 million subscribers, and users describe being addicted to the devices. In June 2010, according to RIM, they had sold up to 100 million devices. BlackBerry Internet Service, or BIS is available in 91 countries internationally. BlackBerry Internet Service allows up to 10 email accounts to be accessed, including many popular email accounts such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL. BlackBerry Internet Service also allows for the function of the push capabilities in various other BlackBerry Applications. Various applications developed by RIM for Blackberry utilize the push capabilities of BIS, such as the Instant Messaging clients, Google Talk, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. Social Networks Facebook, Myspace and Twitter's notification system is accessed through BIS, allowing for push notifications for them.
RIM is now in an unusual position of having to deal with government requests to monitor its clients because it is the only smartphone maker which manages the traffic of messages sent using its equipment. The major security concern raised by different governments is the high level of encryption of data by RIM, fearing that terrorist may take advantage of this technology. The BlackBerry server uses hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) and transmission control protocol (TCP) to communicate with the handhelds. It encrypts the data with triple data encryption standard (DES) or advanced encryption standard (AES). These encrypted data are sent to the servers located in Canada and this means that governments can't access to these encrypted data. BlackBerry uses a highly secured and proprietary data transmission mechanism. Every piece of information that leaves a BlackBerry phone is encrypted and it can only be decrypted by the BlackBerry network data center in Canada. This means that no one can actually understand the encrypted message that travel through the wireless networks and internet.
As there is no way for the Government Agencies to intercept the communication that happens through BlackBerry devices, they are considering this as a threat to their national security. In particular, the United Arab Emirates had complained about the way RIM handled data making the government unable to monitor BlackBerry services, threatening the U.A.E.'s security. Governments like the U.A.E. don't have jurisdiction over RIM servers, located in places such as Canada, and the information that flows through them. There are few questions that arouse from the situation. Is there a better way of averting terrorist attacks? What about subscriber privacy, will it be guaranteed? Can cooperates trust their government with sensitive data? In market sense, 'consumer privacy' is the most important value proposition of owning a BlackBerry, even President Obama has one. Several countries were of the view that BlackBerry services are a risk because of the potential use by militant forces or terrorists. A possibility of resolving the issue would be to install RIM servers in the individual countries, removing the concern over data traveling abroad, and providing access to encrypted data streams.
Governments in several countries including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and India had already indicated that they will shut down BlackBerry e-mail and Web browsing services in their countries if these concerns are not addressed. Fortunately, The United Arab Emirates said it would not go ahead with the suspension of BlackBerry mobile communication services starting 11th October 10, 2010, saying the provider now complied with the Gulf’s state’s regulatory framework. There are approximately 500,000 BlackBerry subscribers in the UAE and the ban would also have applied to roaming services, affecting business executives visiting the country. The prospect of a suspension had raised concerns among subscribers as well as suggestions a ban would tarnish the UAE’s image as a business-friendly trading and tourism centre. Saudi Arabia lifted the threat of a similar ban on BlackBerry instant-messaging services in August. India at the end of August extended the deadline for its proposed BlackBerry ban for two months, so it could test some solutions' RIM had proposed for monitoring e-mail and instant messaging. For the time being, the concerns seem resolved, a sigh of relief for RIM.
RIM is now in an unusual position of having to deal with government requests to monitor its clients because it is the only smartphone maker which manages the traffic of messages sent using its equipment. The major security concern raised by different governments is the high level of encryption of data by RIM, fearing that terrorist may take advantage of this technology. The BlackBerry server uses hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) and transmission control protocol (TCP) to communicate with the handhelds. It encrypts the data with triple data encryption standard (DES) or advanced encryption standard (AES). These encrypted data are sent to the servers located in Canada and this means that governments can't access to these encrypted data. BlackBerry uses a highly secured and proprietary data transmission mechanism. Every piece of information that leaves a BlackBerry phone is encrypted and it can only be decrypted by the BlackBerry network data center in Canada. This means that no one can actually understand the encrypted message that travel through the wireless networks and internet.
As there is no way for the Government Agencies to intercept the communication that happens through BlackBerry devices, they are considering this as a threat to their national security. In particular, the United Arab Emirates had complained about the way RIM handled data making the government unable to monitor BlackBerry services, threatening the U.A.E.'s security. Governments like the U.A.E. don't have jurisdiction over RIM servers, located in places such as Canada, and the information that flows through them. There are few questions that arouse from the situation. Is there a better way of averting terrorist attacks? What about subscriber privacy, will it be guaranteed? Can cooperates trust their government with sensitive data? In market sense, 'consumer privacy' is the most important value proposition of owning a BlackBerry, even President Obama has one. Several countries were of the view that BlackBerry services are a risk because of the potential use by militant forces or terrorists. A possibility of resolving the issue would be to install RIM servers in the individual countries, removing the concern over data traveling abroad, and providing access to encrypted data streams.
Governments in several countries including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and India had already indicated that they will shut down BlackBerry e-mail and Web browsing services in their countries if these concerns are not addressed. Fortunately, The United Arab Emirates said it would not go ahead with the suspension of BlackBerry mobile communication services starting 11th October 10, 2010, saying the provider now complied with the Gulf’s state’s regulatory framework. There are approximately 500,000 BlackBerry subscribers in the UAE and the ban would also have applied to roaming services, affecting business executives visiting the country. The prospect of a suspension had raised concerns among subscribers as well as suggestions a ban would tarnish the UAE’s image as a business-friendly trading and tourism centre. Saudi Arabia lifted the threat of a similar ban on BlackBerry instant-messaging services in August. India at the end of August extended the deadline for its proposed BlackBerry ban for two months, so it could test some solutions' RIM had proposed for monitoring e-mail and instant messaging. For the time being, the concerns seem resolved, a sigh of relief for RIM.
Monday, September 13, 2010
The Economics of Crowdsourcing
The new constitution has brought about an optimistic attitude and a conducive business environment. With vigorous competition in various sectors, many large companies are now outsourcing jobs such as call center services, e-mail services, and payroll, services that might otherwise be performed by in-house employees. The media industry, for instance, has been utilizing citizen journalism to cut down on costs of covering the remote areas. The business environment has also been enhanced by the tremendous growth in the ICT sector; with the recent launch of the second Internet Exchange Point (IXP) in Mombasa. Moreover, mobile phones are now the most-dominant modern technology in the developing world, majority of cellphone subscribers live outside developed countries. Kenya has nearly 20 million mobile phone subscribers.
One form of outsourcing is crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing is a process in which tasks usually done by employees in an organization, such as developing software, are outsourced to the public. By definition, a crowd is a large number of persons gathered together. In this context, we can consider a crowd as a large number of talented and intuitive technologists in the public. The idea behind crowdsourcing is to involve the public in running activities of an organization. This could be for two purposes; to reduce operational costs or to create public ownership. What makes crowdsourcing economical is the broad participation that takes place at relatively no costs. Solutions and ideas are generated from volunteers or professionals in public who get paid only if you use their ideas. Sourcing tools, such as the Internet and mobile phones, gives an opportunity for the populace to participate.
The most prosperous crowdsourcing venture in Kenya has been the mobile crowdsourcing. Typically, mobile phones are easy to use while uses text messages or Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) require low bandwidth. In particular, the Ushahidi Engine is a platform that has allowed anyone to gather distributed data via SMS, aggregating information from the public for use in crisis response. The platform is probably the most popular crowdsourcing project. A similar project is ‘Txteagle’, founded by Nathan Eagle, a visiting assistant Professor at the MIT Media Lab. Txteagle is a service that enables mobile phone subscribers to earn money and accumulate savings by completing simple micro-tasks for large corporate clients. This is how it works: a client sends txteagle a task; the task is deconstructed into micro-tasks which are matched to users; the micro-tasks are sent to users using SMS; txteagle tracks responses until confidence is reached; the task is reconstructed and send to the client; finally, the users are paid in airtime or mobile money.
Mocality, a mobile-based and crowd-sourced business directory, is another illustration of mobile crowdsourcing in Kenya. Mocality operates out of Cape Town in South Africa but was recently launched in Kenya with over 10,000 businesses listed at this time. Using the Mocality website agents sign-up, enlist a business premises and are remunerated for entering new business listings once they are verified. The agents, over 60 agents working in Nairobi, are using paid via mobile money. Ways of enlisting a business premises include via the mobile web, email, a J2ME app, an iPhone app, SMS and web browser. Listed businesses in the Mocality database are then provided with 400 free SMSs per month for sending promotional messages to their customers.
Idea Bounty is also a platform for crowdsourcing based in South Africa. Creative ideas are shared in exchange for a reward, or Bounty. Idea Bounty is a social think tank that provides a secure channel for the world wide creative community to offer solutions to creative briefs. Clients are able to post creative briefs detailing their requirements. Only the creative (the person who submits the idea) and the client can see the idea. Idea Bounty reviews ideas to ensure they meet the briefs requirements. The clients review the submissions and select the best idea as the Bounty winner. A reward or 'Bounty' is offered for the idea that best answers the brief and the contributor of the winning idea gets the cash. Clients can only use Ideas that they pay the creative a Bounty for.
Another example from South Africa is IS (Internet Solutions) Labs. Internet Solutions (IS) Ltd a converged communications service provider based in South Africa. IS Labs provides a platform for individuals to submit their ideas on how to improve the internet in South Africa. The ideas are rated, discussed and reviewed. The best ideas receive support from IS Labs and are developed. This ensures the innovative ideas for provision of Internet services are harnessed from the general public. Crowdsourcing has proven to be one of the economical ways of harnessing talent and provides employment to thousands of young people.
One form of outsourcing is crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing is a process in which tasks usually done by employees in an organization, such as developing software, are outsourced to the public. By definition, a crowd is a large number of persons gathered together. In this context, we can consider a crowd as a large number of talented and intuitive technologists in the public. The idea behind crowdsourcing is to involve the public in running activities of an organization. This could be for two purposes; to reduce operational costs or to create public ownership. What makes crowdsourcing economical is the broad participation that takes place at relatively no costs. Solutions and ideas are generated from volunteers or professionals in public who get paid only if you use their ideas. Sourcing tools, such as the Internet and mobile phones, gives an opportunity for the populace to participate.
The most prosperous crowdsourcing venture in Kenya has been the mobile crowdsourcing. Typically, mobile phones are easy to use while uses text messages or Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) require low bandwidth. In particular, the Ushahidi Engine is a platform that has allowed anyone to gather distributed data via SMS, aggregating information from the public for use in crisis response. The platform is probably the most popular crowdsourcing project. A similar project is ‘Txteagle’, founded by Nathan Eagle, a visiting assistant Professor at the MIT Media Lab. Txteagle is a service that enables mobile phone subscribers to earn money and accumulate savings by completing simple micro-tasks for large corporate clients. This is how it works: a client sends txteagle a task; the task is deconstructed into micro-tasks which are matched to users; the micro-tasks are sent to users using SMS; txteagle tracks responses until confidence is reached; the task is reconstructed and send to the client; finally, the users are paid in airtime or mobile money.
Mocality, a mobile-based and crowd-sourced business directory, is another illustration of mobile crowdsourcing in Kenya. Mocality operates out of Cape Town in South Africa but was recently launched in Kenya with over 10,000 businesses listed at this time. Using the Mocality website agents sign-up, enlist a business premises and are remunerated for entering new business listings once they are verified. The agents, over 60 agents working in Nairobi, are using paid via mobile money. Ways of enlisting a business premises include via the mobile web, email, a J2ME app, an iPhone app, SMS and web browser. Listed businesses in the Mocality database are then provided with 400 free SMSs per month for sending promotional messages to their customers.
Idea Bounty is also a platform for crowdsourcing based in South Africa. Creative ideas are shared in exchange for a reward, or Bounty. Idea Bounty is a social think tank that provides a secure channel for the world wide creative community to offer solutions to creative briefs. Clients are able to post creative briefs detailing their requirements. Only the creative (the person who submits the idea) and the client can see the idea. Idea Bounty reviews ideas to ensure they meet the briefs requirements. The clients review the submissions and select the best idea as the Bounty winner. A reward or 'Bounty' is offered for the idea that best answers the brief and the contributor of the winning idea gets the cash. Clients can only use Ideas that they pay the creative a Bounty for.
Another example from South Africa is IS (Internet Solutions) Labs. Internet Solutions (IS) Ltd a converged communications service provider based in South Africa. IS Labs provides a platform for individuals to submit their ideas on how to improve the internet in South Africa. The ideas are rated, discussed and reviewed. The best ideas receive support from IS Labs and are developed. This ensures the innovative ideas for provision of Internet services are harnessed from the general public. Crowdsourcing has proven to be one of the economical ways of harnessing talent and provides employment to thousands of young people.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Mobile Broadband Revolution in Kenya
Recently, the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) director general Mr. Charles Njoroge announced the reduction of the 3G license fee from $ 25 million to $10 million, a 60 percent decline. What did not occur to most people is the fact that CCK will allow telecom operators to upgrade to 4G technology without additional license fee charges. This presents an opportunity to the telecom operators to migrate to higher bandwidth data service on high-end mobile devices or suitable customer premises equipment (CPEs). The 4G technology would provide a suitable platform to IP based solutions such as web conference, IP telephony, high speed Internet access, gaming services and streamed multimedia.
4G refers to the fourth generation of cellular wireless standards. It is a successor to 3G and 2G families of standards. The nomenclature of the generations generally refers to a change in the fundamental nature of the service, non-backwards compatible transmission technology and new frequency bands. The first was the move from 1981 analog (1G) to digital (2G) transmission in 1992. This was followed, in 2002, by 3G multi-media support, spread spectrum transmission and at least 200 kbit/s, soon expected to be followed by 4G, which refers to all-IP packet-switched networks, mobile ultra-broadband (gigabit speed) access and multi-carrier transmission. Currently, Pre-4G technologies, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) and Mobile Wimax, exist in the global market. In October 2010, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is scheduled to release the 4G International Standard after a further test and evaluation of the proposals for 4G Standardization.
Looking at the history of mobile telephony, digital wireless and cellular networks go back to the1940s when commercial mobile telephony began. The first invention of the cellular phone is referred to as 0G. Since there were no telephone networks at this time, callers had to connect these phones to a base station, which connected them to an operator, then connecting their calls. In 1946, AT&T and Southwestern Bell introduced the first American commercial mobile radio-telephone service. Mobiles used newly issued vehicle radio-telephone licenses which operated on six channels in the 150 MHz band with a 60 kHz channel spacing. In the early 1980s, 1G Technology debuted, featuring large cellular phones, sometimes referred to as cellular radios, connected to limited networks of stations. A conspicuous icon of the 1G was the large car phones of the 80s, fitted in executive limousines.
In the 1990s, the 'second generation' (2G) mobile phone systems emerged, primarily using the GSM standard. This marked the first time that the general public began widespread use of this type of technology, introducing the public to portable phones. Networks were still somewhat limited at this time, with many cellular phones subject to roaming charges when their users wandered outside of a specified geographic area, and the vast majority of these devices were used solely for phone calls. These 2G phone systems differed from the previous generation in their use of digital transmission instead of analog transmission.
The first pre-commercial 3G network was launched by NTT DoCoMo in Japan in May 2001. 3G Technology marked the first time that cellular phones could directly connect to the internet, transforming the technology from a phone-based technology to a technology used in a wide array of devices. 3G allows simultaneous use of speech and data services, and provide peak data rates of at least 200 kbit/s for internet access, email, instant messaging and a host of other functions. Additionally, this technology allows laptop computer users to connect to the internet wirelessly.
With us now is the 4G Technology. This technology aims to provide users with much faster connections capable of transmitted much larger amounts of data. The peak data rates of up to approximately 100 Mbit/s for high mobility such as mobile access and up to approximately 1 Gbit/s for fixed wireless access units. Smart devices will be able to stream high-definition television and radio, and allow users to walk from one network to the next without an interruption in reception. One of the major differences between the 4G and 3G technology is the elimination of circuit switching technique and replacing it with an all-IP network. This means that voice calls are processed just like any other type of streaming audio media, utilizing the features of a packet switched network.
Safaricom is the only network operating the 3G technology on GSM commercially, with Telkom Kenya operating on EVDO/CDMA2000. Zain, Yu and Telkom Kenya are yet to introduce 3G on GSM commercially. Zain Kenya has already indicated that it will be rolling out 3G services by December, after both Telkom Kenya and Zain paid $10 million each for their 3G licences. These operators have the advantage of upgrade to 4G at no additional license cost in the future. Safaricom has already started testing fourth generation (4G) services on its network, planning on a release later this year. The challenge for the introduction of this technology by the telcom service providers is the availability of a frequency spectrum. Digital TV will probably assist to free up some of the frequencies occupied by commercial television.
4G refers to the fourth generation of cellular wireless standards. It is a successor to 3G and 2G families of standards. The nomenclature of the generations generally refers to a change in the fundamental nature of the service, non-backwards compatible transmission technology and new frequency bands. The first was the move from 1981 analog (1G) to digital (2G) transmission in 1992. This was followed, in 2002, by 3G multi-media support, spread spectrum transmission and at least 200 kbit/s, soon expected to be followed by 4G, which refers to all-IP packet-switched networks, mobile ultra-broadband (gigabit speed) access and multi-carrier transmission. Currently, Pre-4G technologies, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) and Mobile Wimax, exist in the global market. In October 2010, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is scheduled to release the 4G International Standard after a further test and evaluation of the proposals for 4G Standardization.
Looking at the history of mobile telephony, digital wireless and cellular networks go back to the1940s when commercial mobile telephony began. The first invention of the cellular phone is referred to as 0G. Since there were no telephone networks at this time, callers had to connect these phones to a base station, which connected them to an operator, then connecting their calls. In 1946, AT&T and Southwestern Bell introduced the first American commercial mobile radio-telephone service. Mobiles used newly issued vehicle radio-telephone licenses which operated on six channels in the 150 MHz band with a 60 kHz channel spacing. In the early 1980s, 1G Technology debuted, featuring large cellular phones, sometimes referred to as cellular radios, connected to limited networks of stations. A conspicuous icon of the 1G was the large car phones of the 80s, fitted in executive limousines.
In the 1990s, the 'second generation' (2G) mobile phone systems emerged, primarily using the GSM standard. This marked the first time that the general public began widespread use of this type of technology, introducing the public to portable phones. Networks were still somewhat limited at this time, with many cellular phones subject to roaming charges when their users wandered outside of a specified geographic area, and the vast majority of these devices were used solely for phone calls. These 2G phone systems differed from the previous generation in their use of digital transmission instead of analog transmission.
The first pre-commercial 3G network was launched by NTT DoCoMo in Japan in May 2001. 3G Technology marked the first time that cellular phones could directly connect to the internet, transforming the technology from a phone-based technology to a technology used in a wide array of devices. 3G allows simultaneous use of speech and data services, and provide peak data rates of at least 200 kbit/s for internet access, email, instant messaging and a host of other functions. Additionally, this technology allows laptop computer users to connect to the internet wirelessly.
With us now is the 4G Technology. This technology aims to provide users with much faster connections capable of transmitted much larger amounts of data. The peak data rates of up to approximately 100 Mbit/s for high mobility such as mobile access and up to approximately 1 Gbit/s for fixed wireless access units. Smart devices will be able to stream high-definition television and radio, and allow users to walk from one network to the next without an interruption in reception. One of the major differences between the 4G and 3G technology is the elimination of circuit switching technique and replacing it with an all-IP network. This means that voice calls are processed just like any other type of streaming audio media, utilizing the features of a packet switched network.
Safaricom is the only network operating the 3G technology on GSM commercially, with Telkom Kenya operating on EVDO/CDMA2000. Zain, Yu and Telkom Kenya are yet to introduce 3G on GSM commercially. Zain Kenya has already indicated that it will be rolling out 3G services by December, after both Telkom Kenya and Zain paid $10 million each for their 3G licences. These operators have the advantage of upgrade to 4G at no additional license cost in the future. Safaricom has already started testing fourth generation (4G) services on its network, planning on a release later this year. The challenge for the introduction of this technology by the telcom service providers is the availability of a frequency spectrum. Digital TV will probably assist to free up some of the frequencies occupied by commercial television.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Nurturing Kenyan Talent
Usually, when one thinks of global ICT hubs for instance, the first images that pop up are those of US (Silicon Valley), India (Bangalore), Ireland, Korea and the Multimedia Corridor in Malaysia. Kenya has now set up a robust telecommunications infrastructure and high capacity International gateways, making Kenya a potential ICT hub of Africa. Kenya has made remarkable progress putting in place an ICT policy framework and implementation strategy, complete with measurable outcomes and time frames. In the frontline of pushing for this progress is the Kenya ICT Board. For the last three years, the Kenya ICT Board has been harping their mission of making the country a top 10 global technology hub, a mission that is not quickly understandable given the history and nature of the sector.
Since March 2010 this year, the Kenya ICT Board launched Tandaa, which brings together local content developers, IT professionals, entrepreneurs, business executives and civil society. The objective is to explore the challenges and opportunities in developing local digital content; and the consumption of the content via mobile phones, digital TV and the internet. The symposium sponsored by Google will also explore pressing issues like how to manage intellectual property, fight piracy and ensure privacy on the internet; available options and technology for reliable and secure storage of digital content; localization and mapping opportunities for civil society and businesses in Kenya; how to create social change through new media; and how to make the most of cloud computing to scale-up and offer leading services locally and internationally.
The first Tandaa symposium, held at the iHub in March 2010, focused on the history of online business in Kenya and opportunities for monetizing online initiatives. The Kenya ICT Board also hosted the second Tandaa Symposium on May 6 at the Kenya National Museum. The second symposium explored the opportunities the internet and new technology offer the film and animation industry. A panel of speakers who have used technology to reduce cost and increase quality of their products spoke about their experience and insights. The symposium featured speakers who have used the internet to distribute their work and maximize their profits. The creators of the 'Makmende' video were present at the Tandaa Symposium and spoke about how their video went viral and what it has meant for their band. Among other speakers at the symposium were Wanuri Kahiu, director of Kenya's first sci-fi film, 'Pumzi', which was screened at the Sundance Film Festival. Kahiu explained how she used visual effects to create her movie, illustrating the opportunities for animation artists in Kenya. Cartoonist Gado spoke about his TV show 'XYZ' and Alison Ngibuini showed how film can be used to have a positive social impact.
The iHub (innovation hub) offers an ideal environment to nurture Kenyan talent. It is located on 4th floor of the new Bishop Magua Centre on Ngong Road, is outfitted with the bare essentials: bean bag chairs, a football table and a giant server pumping out 20Mbps wireless internet. The idea behind hub is to bring together a larger group of brilliant techies under one roof, where bubbling ideas can be put into practice. Developers can exchange ideas and experiences to reduce the timeline to completion of projects, unlike where isolated developers work diligently to re-invent solutions to problems that already solved by others. The iHub provides a place for people to share ideas, where you can call copyright lawyers to talk to techies about their rights, where we can all learn ways to incorporate companies in cost effective ways, where techies can talk to their mentors and where techies can have video conference links from Silicon Valley or India.
A similar forum to Tandaa is the Skunkworks. The on-line forum was started simply as a creative outlet for wandering minds and has grown into an intuitive forum for, mostly, IT professionals. The Skunkworks mailing list brings together the technology community in Kenya and beyond. The subscribers to the list have diverse background and participation in the list, like participation in any community, requires a common basis for communication etiquette. On 20th August, 2008, the New York Times featured an article on Skunkworks Kenya Group. The caption read, “The distinctive digital experience in Nairobi inspires confidence in its youthful community of programmers, bloggers and Web enthusiasts. Over the past year, about 600 people in Nairobi — most under 25 — have coalesced into a group called Skunk Works, sharing ideas and encouraging new businesses.”
The group is organizing a Barcamp event to be held on 12th and 13th of June at the iHub. This year’s event will be a combination of BarCamp Nairobi and WhereCampAfrica. BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences - open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants. Barcamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. The event usually involves discussions, demos, and interaction from attendees.
Similar events are held all over the world; Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America and Oceania. The first Barcamp Nairobi was held in 2008 at the Jacaranda Hotel in Westlands. The event attracted 228 attendees who included bloggers, web and mobile developers, government officials and students. Three concurrent 30 minute sessions conducted in three rooms (Ushahidi Room, ICT Board room, and the Google Room) throughout the day. At the beginning of the sessions, in typical barcamp style, campers were asked to come forward and write down what they wanted to talk about, and then the topics and agenda selected based on what people wanted to listen to.
Google has also been promoting innovative ideas through the Google Technology User Groups (GTUGs). GTUGs are user groups for people who are interested in Google's developer technology; everything from the Android and App Engine platforms, to product APIs like the YouTube API and the Google Calendar API, to initiatives like OpenSocial. A GTUG can take many forms — from just a few people getting together to watch our latest video, to large gatherings with demos and lectures, to events like code sprints and hackathons. To join a GTUG visit the directory at http://www.gtugs.org/directory to see if there's a local meetup in your area; join the GTUG discussion forum and attend the meetup. During the meetups, the members share resources, skills & knowledge about Google technology and services such as; Google Data APIs, OpenSocia, Google AJAX APIs,Google Code, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Apps, iGoogle, YouTube, Google App Engine and Google Open Source projects.
Probably one of the greatest achievements of the Kenyan innovators is the Ushahidi project, sadly inspired by the 2008 post-election violence. In order to attract global attention Joshua Goldstein and Juliana Rotich, two of the founders and developers of the software, started an online system which would document incidents of violence using the mobile phone or a computer with Internet access. The incidents were then plotted on a map, allowing users to identify the exact location of the event or incident on a web interface. The initial deployment of Ushahidi had 45,000 users in Kenya, and was the catalyst for us realizing there was a need for a platform based on it, which could be use by others around the world. Since then, Ushahidi has grown in popularity to similar deployments during the Haiti and Chile earth quake disasters. Ushahidi was tested and deployed with 11 different organizations directly, including the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), Peace Heroes and the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights. Externally, there were 4 major alpha deployments, including Al Jazeera during the War on Gaza, Vote Report India (to monitor the recent local elections) and Pak Voices (to map incidents of violence).
Since March 2010 this year, the Kenya ICT Board launched Tandaa, which brings together local content developers, IT professionals, entrepreneurs, business executives and civil society. The objective is to explore the challenges and opportunities in developing local digital content; and the consumption of the content via mobile phones, digital TV and the internet. The symposium sponsored by Google will also explore pressing issues like how to manage intellectual property, fight piracy and ensure privacy on the internet; available options and technology for reliable and secure storage of digital content; localization and mapping opportunities for civil society and businesses in Kenya; how to create social change through new media; and how to make the most of cloud computing to scale-up and offer leading services locally and internationally.
The first Tandaa symposium, held at the iHub in March 2010, focused on the history of online business in Kenya and opportunities for monetizing online initiatives. The Kenya ICT Board also hosted the second Tandaa Symposium on May 6 at the Kenya National Museum. The second symposium explored the opportunities the internet and new technology offer the film and animation industry. A panel of speakers who have used technology to reduce cost and increase quality of their products spoke about their experience and insights. The symposium featured speakers who have used the internet to distribute their work and maximize their profits. The creators of the 'Makmende' video were present at the Tandaa Symposium and spoke about how their video went viral and what it has meant for their band. Among other speakers at the symposium were Wanuri Kahiu, director of Kenya's first sci-fi film, 'Pumzi', which was screened at the Sundance Film Festival. Kahiu explained how she used visual effects to create her movie, illustrating the opportunities for animation artists in Kenya. Cartoonist Gado spoke about his TV show 'XYZ' and Alison Ngibuini showed how film can be used to have a positive social impact.
The iHub (innovation hub) offers an ideal environment to nurture Kenyan talent. It is located on 4th floor of the new Bishop Magua Centre on Ngong Road, is outfitted with the bare essentials: bean bag chairs, a football table and a giant server pumping out 20Mbps wireless internet. The idea behind hub is to bring together a larger group of brilliant techies under one roof, where bubbling ideas can be put into practice. Developers can exchange ideas and experiences to reduce the timeline to completion of projects, unlike where isolated developers work diligently to re-invent solutions to problems that already solved by others. The iHub provides a place for people to share ideas, where you can call copyright lawyers to talk to techies about their rights, where we can all learn ways to incorporate companies in cost effective ways, where techies can talk to their mentors and where techies can have video conference links from Silicon Valley or India.
A similar forum to Tandaa is the Skunkworks. The on-line forum was started simply as a creative outlet for wandering minds and has grown into an intuitive forum for, mostly, IT professionals. The Skunkworks mailing list brings together the technology community in Kenya and beyond. The subscribers to the list have diverse background and participation in the list, like participation in any community, requires a common basis for communication etiquette. On 20th August, 2008, the New York Times featured an article on Skunkworks Kenya Group. The caption read, “The distinctive digital experience in Nairobi inspires confidence in its youthful community of programmers, bloggers and Web enthusiasts. Over the past year, about 600 people in Nairobi — most under 25 — have coalesced into a group called Skunk Works, sharing ideas and encouraging new businesses.”
The group is organizing a Barcamp event to be held on 12th and 13th of June at the iHub. This year’s event will be a combination of BarCamp Nairobi and WhereCampAfrica. BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences - open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants. Barcamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. The event usually involves discussions, demos, and interaction from attendees.
Similar events are held all over the world; Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America and Oceania. The first Barcamp Nairobi was held in 2008 at the Jacaranda Hotel in Westlands. The event attracted 228 attendees who included bloggers, web and mobile developers, government officials and students. Three concurrent 30 minute sessions conducted in three rooms (Ushahidi Room, ICT Board room, and the Google Room) throughout the day. At the beginning of the sessions, in typical barcamp style, campers were asked to come forward and write down what they wanted to talk about, and then the topics and agenda selected based on what people wanted to listen to.
Google has also been promoting innovative ideas through the Google Technology User Groups (GTUGs). GTUGs are user groups for people who are interested in Google's developer technology; everything from the Android and App Engine platforms, to product APIs like the YouTube API and the Google Calendar API, to initiatives like OpenSocial. A GTUG can take many forms — from just a few people getting together to watch our latest video, to large gatherings with demos and lectures, to events like code sprints and hackathons. To join a GTUG visit the directory at http://www.gtugs.org/directory to see if there's a local meetup in your area; join the GTUG discussion forum and attend the meetup. During the meetups, the members share resources, skills & knowledge about Google technology and services such as; Google Data APIs, OpenSocia, Google AJAX APIs,Google Code, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Apps, iGoogle, YouTube, Google App Engine and Google Open Source projects.
Probably one of the greatest achievements of the Kenyan innovators is the Ushahidi project, sadly inspired by the 2008 post-election violence. In order to attract global attention Joshua Goldstein and Juliana Rotich, two of the founders and developers of the software, started an online system which would document incidents of violence using the mobile phone or a computer with Internet access. The incidents were then plotted on a map, allowing users to identify the exact location of the event or incident on a web interface. The initial deployment of Ushahidi had 45,000 users in Kenya, and was the catalyst for us realizing there was a need for a platform based on it, which could be use by others around the world. Since then, Ushahidi has grown in popularity to similar deployments during the Haiti and Chile earth quake disasters. Ushahidi was tested and deployed with 11 different organizations directly, including the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), Peace Heroes and the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights. Externally, there were 4 major alpha deployments, including Al Jazeera during the War on Gaza, Vote Report India (to monitor the recent local elections) and Pak Voices (to map incidents of violence).
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Benefits of a Smartphone
According to a recent International Telecommunications Union (ITU) report, Kenya mobile telephony industry now accounts for 7% of mobile phone subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa. Kenya had 17.4 million mobile phone subscribers by end of June 2009, translating to 45.7% penetration. The report also indicates that Kenya has the third highest number of subscribers, after Nigeria and South Africa that respectively account for 26% and 19% of mobile cellular subscriptions in sub-Saharan Africa. This presents an apt environment to market value added services that run on mobile phone devices, the evidence being the introduction of money transfers, short codes, news alerts, SMS voting and other services introduced by various service providers in Kenya. However, a field that is lagging behind in the market is the deployment of services that run on high-end mobile devices, also know as smart phones. Despite the fact that they are pricy, the value proposition of smart phones way surpasses its price tag. Which begs the question; what are smart phones and what can they do for different market segments?
Generally, a smartphone is a mobile phone offering advanced capabilities, often with PC-like functionality (PC-mobile handset convergence). In other words, it is a miniature computer that runs on an Operating System (OS) and has phone capability. Operating systems that can be found on smartphones include Symbian OS, iPhone OS, Palm WebOS, BlackBerry OS, Samsung bada, Windows Mobile, Android and Maemo. WebOS, Android and Maemo are built on top of Linux, and the iPhone OS is derived from the BSD and NeXTSTEP operating systems, which all are related to Unix. The first smartphone was designed by IBM in 1992 and released to the market by 1993. The phone had integrated the functions of a mobile phone, calendar, address book, world clock, calculator, note pad, e-mail, send and receive fax, and games. This was a phenomenon in the mobile telephony industry, moving from individual devices for various functions to a single multifunctional high speed and robust device. It had no physical buttons but rather a touch-screen to select phone numbers with a finger or create facsimiles and memos with an optional stylus. A pop up keyboard would appear when the user wanted to type a message. By the year 2002, various mobile phone manufacturers had released their versions of smartphones, utilizing a full keyboard that combined wireless web browsing, email, calendar and contact organizer, with mobile third-party applications that could be downloaded or synced with a computer.
The essence of the smart phone is that it’s a versatile business tool, a phone having the latest business apps - mobile email, salesforce automation and supply chain management, for instance - and the ability for those apps to sync with the software at corporate intranet. It takes advantage of the skills, energy and innovation of numerous companies from a vast range of industries - means that smart phones extend the phenomenal track record of mobile phones by improving constantly and rapidly, year by year. Distinguishing most smart phones from a feature phone are their open operating systems and the ability to freely add and remove applications. Consider a scenario of a company with a distribution or collection chain, for example the Kenya Co-operative Creameries for collection or the East African Breweries Limited for distribution. Traditionally, a Point-of-Sale system (comprising of a computer installed with enterprise software - mostly proprietary software) and a local loop link to the head office or an Internet connection will be installed. This setup requires complex Wide Area Network (WAN) designs, a Service provider with national coverage, IT support staff at depots and expensive hardware like routers, wireless transceivers and satellite dishes.
In comparison to the traditional setup, provision of a smartphone to the depot manager at a remote location would serve the same purpose. The smartphone can run enterprise software and connect securely to the database at the head office for record entries. If the records are bulky or may require more than one person for entry, one or more computers can be used during business hours. At the close of business, the computers can be synchronized with the smartphone and the data sent to the head office. For some workers a smartphone may address all their communications, connectivity and applications requirements. At the scarcely populated such as North Eastern Kenya, one user can visit several depots and record the summary entries from the day’s sales or collection. In terms of infrastructure, all the user needs is national cell phone network coverage, which is available in Kenya at the moment. The smartphone can be configured and tested by an IT expert at the head office and sent to the user. This setup is not only for Cooperate companies, with the advent of e-banking, e-commerce, e-money transfer and so on, it can also be used by Small Scale Enterprises (SMEs) who wish to trade on-line and use applications such as worksheets to store business records. Additional functions important to a business person include; personal organisers, electronic diaries, contact lists, and automatic reminders. On some platforms such as 3G, smartphones can be used for video conferencing and document sharing.
The most fundamental challenge for using smartphones is security. A key danger with is that users do not bother to enter a password when using the phone. Smartphones should not be given access to company networks without extra security, even though the phones are individually owned by users. Smart phones are conspicuous and have become "easy pickings" for any opportunists trying to steal them or access information. They can also be accessed and synced by hackers on public networks, such as Wifi networks in a coffee shop, if proper security measures are not put in place. The other important challenge for smartphones is to show the market how their can provide a superior return on investment. Decision makers in cooperate companies may view a smartphone as a pricy fashionable device and not a business tool. IT managers need to convince them that smart phones are indispensable rather than indulgent. Possibly look at them as price-competitive replacements for laptops. Manufacturers may need to argue the case for their products not just with operators, but also the end users. Manufacturers should work closely with operators to create easy-to-use services based on specific functionality that users’ value.
Mobile operators in Kenya should increase smartphone discounts to improve their profit margins. Operators need data traffic growth to offset declining margins for voice and SMS services, bearing in mind that smart phones generate over 25 percent of mobile data traffic. They should work with handset makers to ensure that feature phones do not compromise data usage and probably customize the applications to the local market. The high price of smartphones, relative to average selling prices (ASPs), mean that many contracts for higher end phones are based on 18-month periods or longer. This makes them unaffordable to the majority of the population. Operators may take a different approach and stimulate the uptake of these devices, especially in the SME market.
Generally, a smartphone is a mobile phone offering advanced capabilities, often with PC-like functionality (PC-mobile handset convergence). In other words, it is a miniature computer that runs on an Operating System (OS) and has phone capability. Operating systems that can be found on smartphones include Symbian OS, iPhone OS, Palm WebOS, BlackBerry OS, Samsung bada, Windows Mobile, Android and Maemo. WebOS, Android and Maemo are built on top of Linux, and the iPhone OS is derived from the BSD and NeXTSTEP operating systems, which all are related to Unix. The first smartphone was designed by IBM in 1992 and released to the market by 1993. The phone had integrated the functions of a mobile phone, calendar, address book, world clock, calculator, note pad, e-mail, send and receive fax, and games. This was a phenomenon in the mobile telephony industry, moving from individual devices for various functions to a single multifunctional high speed and robust device. It had no physical buttons but rather a touch-screen to select phone numbers with a finger or create facsimiles and memos with an optional stylus. A pop up keyboard would appear when the user wanted to type a message. By the year 2002, various mobile phone manufacturers had released their versions of smartphones, utilizing a full keyboard that combined wireless web browsing, email, calendar and contact organizer, with mobile third-party applications that could be downloaded or synced with a computer.
The essence of the smart phone is that it’s a versatile business tool, a phone having the latest business apps - mobile email, salesforce automation and supply chain management, for instance - and the ability for those apps to sync with the software at corporate intranet. It takes advantage of the skills, energy and innovation of numerous companies from a vast range of industries - means that smart phones extend the phenomenal track record of mobile phones by improving constantly and rapidly, year by year. Distinguishing most smart phones from a feature phone are their open operating systems and the ability to freely add and remove applications. Consider a scenario of a company with a distribution or collection chain, for example the Kenya Co-operative Creameries for collection or the East African Breweries Limited for distribution. Traditionally, a Point-of-Sale system (comprising of a computer installed with enterprise software - mostly proprietary software) and a local loop link to the head office or an Internet connection will be installed. This setup requires complex Wide Area Network (WAN) designs, a Service provider with national coverage, IT support staff at depots and expensive hardware like routers, wireless transceivers and satellite dishes.
In comparison to the traditional setup, provision of a smartphone to the depot manager at a remote location would serve the same purpose. The smartphone can run enterprise software and connect securely to the database at the head office for record entries. If the records are bulky or may require more than one person for entry, one or more computers can be used during business hours. At the close of business, the computers can be synchronized with the smartphone and the data sent to the head office. For some workers a smartphone may address all their communications, connectivity and applications requirements. At the scarcely populated such as North Eastern Kenya, one user can visit several depots and record the summary entries from the day’s sales or collection. In terms of infrastructure, all the user needs is national cell phone network coverage, which is available in Kenya at the moment. The smartphone can be configured and tested by an IT expert at the head office and sent to the user. This setup is not only for Cooperate companies, with the advent of e-banking, e-commerce, e-money transfer and so on, it can also be used by Small Scale Enterprises (SMEs) who wish to trade on-line and use applications such as worksheets to store business records. Additional functions important to a business person include; personal organisers, electronic diaries, contact lists, and automatic reminders. On some platforms such as 3G, smartphones can be used for video conferencing and document sharing.
The most fundamental challenge for using smartphones is security. A key danger with is that users do not bother to enter a password when using the phone. Smartphones should not be given access to company networks without extra security, even though the phones are individually owned by users. Smart phones are conspicuous and have become "easy pickings" for any opportunists trying to steal them or access information. They can also be accessed and synced by hackers on public networks, such as Wifi networks in a coffee shop, if proper security measures are not put in place. The other important challenge for smartphones is to show the market how their can provide a superior return on investment. Decision makers in cooperate companies may view a smartphone as a pricy fashionable device and not a business tool. IT managers need to convince them that smart phones are indispensable rather than indulgent. Possibly look at them as price-competitive replacements for laptops. Manufacturers may need to argue the case for their products not just with operators, but also the end users. Manufacturers should work closely with operators to create easy-to-use services based on specific functionality that users’ value.
Mobile operators in Kenya should increase smartphone discounts to improve their profit margins. Operators need data traffic growth to offset declining margins for voice and SMS services, bearing in mind that smart phones generate over 25 percent of mobile data traffic. They should work with handset makers to ensure that feature phones do not compromise data usage and probably customize the applications to the local market. The high price of smartphones, relative to average selling prices (ASPs), mean that many contracts for higher end phones are based on 18-month periods or longer. This makes them unaffordable to the majority of the population. Operators may take a different approach and stimulate the uptake of these devices, especially in the SME market.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Going Green the Telecoms way
Last year, the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) was held at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark, between 7 December and 18 December. The aim of the conference was to review the Kyoto protocol and develop a framework for climate change mitigation. Delegates, Ministers and Heads of State from all over the world attended the conference. The most paramount issue was on reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by industrialized countries, which are the major contributors. There has been a sharp acceleration in carbon dioxide emissions since 2000 to more than a 3% increase per year from 1.1% per year during the 1990s is attributable to the lapse of formerly declining trends in carbon intensity of both developing and developed nations. The direct emissions from industry have declined due to a constant improvement in energy efficiency, but also to a high penetration of electricity. In concluding the conference, a Copenhagen Accord was drafted by the US, China, India, Brazil and South Africa on December 18, detailing the actions to be taken in order keep any temperature increases to below 2°C. One aspect that may have not been captured in the COP15 conference was the role of the Telecommunications industry in mitigating the effects of climate change.
Travel industry – air travel, marine travel and car travel - is one of the sectors that has high rate of carbon dioxide emissions. According to British Airways, a 747-400 plane cruises at 576 mph (927km/h), burns 12,788 liters of fuel per hour, and carries 409 passengers when full. This means that on average each passenger burns approximately 31 liters of fuel per hour. What if there was a way of averting the burning of thousands of liters of fuel by travelers? For instance, in business traveling, traders need to travel to source for commodities, meet potential clients, close deals and attend trade fairs. With modern telecommunications technology business persons can replace the hassle of travel and carry out their duties without causing damage to the environment. One such technology is telepresence which integrates life-size, High Definition (HD) video with high-quality sound in a room setup, creating the feel of actually being in the same room as participants at other locations. The technology can be implemented anywhere in the world utilizing the global Internet Protocol (IP) network, as simple as walking into the conference room next door. Telepresence is also employed in other sectors such as education, health, military and government.
Telepresence is similar to video conferencing, only that it gives an immersive experience. It provides stimuli such that the user perceives no differences from actual presence of the counterpart. As the screen size increases, so does the sense of immersion, as well as the range of subjective mental experiences available to viewers. The stimuli depends on the application and bandwidth used. Consider a person watching television, for example, the primary senses of vision and hearing are stimulated giving the impression that the watcher is no longer at home. Similar capabilities give telepresence a level of visual and acoustic realism that encourages active usage. The quality of experience also may be influenced by room customization. While high-end telepresence users might have many of these added services, other users may have simple rooms outfitted with plug-and- play, high definition technology. Indeed, any room can be a telepresence room.
The fundamental methodology used in a telepresence system is digital compression of audio and video streams in real time. The audio and video signal is sampled and quantized, a process called encoding. This process results in a digital stream of 1s and 0s is subdivided into labeled packets, which are then transmitted over the global IP network. The receiving telepresence system decodes the digital stream to display the visual and generate the audio. The hardware or software that performs this compression is called a codec (coder/decoder). To create a vivid, compelling and natural experience a resolution of between 720p and 1080p at 30 frames per second is deployed, giving a crystal clear video stream. For audio standards-based wideband codecs are implemented to improve the voice quality carried over IP networks. Wideband codecs provide clearer, more lifelike voice communications and markedly improved intelligibility because of the additional voice data included in the audio stream. They also double the voice signal range, in the range of 30 hertz to 7000 hertz or higher, while using the same network bandwidth as narrowband codecs.
In designing a telepresence system, first decision is to determine if the telepresence traffic will be carried on an overlay network or a converged network. An overlay network is a new set of connections that parallel the current network, whose purpose to provide links that are dedicated to the telepresence application. However, a converged network utilizes one network for voice, data and video applications. A network engineer needs to evaluate his requirements and decide whether to use an overlay or converged network. This decision (overlay versus converged) is driven by the sophistication of Quality of Service (QoS) in the current network and often by the deployment schedule. It is much faster to get an overlay network running correctly than to get all the details of additional bandwidth and QoS working on the converged network. I would advise enterprises to start with this approach and work their way back to a converged network when they are ready.
The next step is to determine bandwidth requirements. How much bandwidth will be required to support the proposed telepresence suites? Telepresence systems have a range of bandwidths over which they will operate, with varying degrees of quality as a result. Run some tests with the vendor to determine what quality level you really need. Then lay out the network map and determine which Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN) links will need to support that bandwidth. Telepresence systems usually consume about 5 Mbps per screen for today’s technology. So a 3-screen system requires 15 Mbps of continuous network bandwidth when in use. Next steps are to ensure that QoS is properly deployed to guarantee high-quality transport for the telepresence video and audio streams. Interactive video conferencing is a real-time application, so it uses UDP and requires low loss, low latency and low jitter. Getting this wrong means displaying your network loss on 60” plasma screens to your top level executives.
This technology is however not popular in Kenya because of a number of challenges. Namely; high cost of equipment, high cost of bandwidth and lack of expertise in this area. The key requirement of setting up a telepresence system is to put in place sufficient bandwidth for the telepresence traffic, above and beyond what was required by the business before telepresence was installed. First, Wide Area Network service providers need to give clear Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that address the requirement for video to have very low loss and jitter, and latency that is reasonable given the geographic distances involved. Secondly, the cost of this bandwidth can vary widely across geographic regions around the world. The first logical approach is to find a WAN service provider with a sufficiently large footprint to be able to supply service to all the enterprise locations of interest. Such service providers may offer partnering agreements with additional service providers, crossing from network to network, and getting a real guarantee on the traffic quality and QoS parameters. Additionally, young Kenyan engineers and technicians must venture into this area and learn how to design and implement telepresence solutions. Foreign expertise will always be more expensive, as it is now, but not to discourage our brethren from other parts of the globe from practicing in Kenya.
Travel industry – air travel, marine travel and car travel - is one of the sectors that has high rate of carbon dioxide emissions. According to British Airways, a 747-400 plane cruises at 576 mph (927km/h), burns 12,788 liters of fuel per hour, and carries 409 passengers when full. This means that on average each passenger burns approximately 31 liters of fuel per hour. What if there was a way of averting the burning of thousands of liters of fuel by travelers? For instance, in business traveling, traders need to travel to source for commodities, meet potential clients, close deals and attend trade fairs. With modern telecommunications technology business persons can replace the hassle of travel and carry out their duties without causing damage to the environment. One such technology is telepresence which integrates life-size, High Definition (HD) video with high-quality sound in a room setup, creating the feel of actually being in the same room as participants at other locations. The technology can be implemented anywhere in the world utilizing the global Internet Protocol (IP) network, as simple as walking into the conference room next door. Telepresence is also employed in other sectors such as education, health, military and government.
Telepresence is similar to video conferencing, only that it gives an immersive experience. It provides stimuli such that the user perceives no differences from actual presence of the counterpart. As the screen size increases, so does the sense of immersion, as well as the range of subjective mental experiences available to viewers. The stimuli depends on the application and bandwidth used. Consider a person watching television, for example, the primary senses of vision and hearing are stimulated giving the impression that the watcher is no longer at home. Similar capabilities give telepresence a level of visual and acoustic realism that encourages active usage. The quality of experience also may be influenced by room customization. While high-end telepresence users might have many of these added services, other users may have simple rooms outfitted with plug-and- play, high definition technology. Indeed, any room can be a telepresence room.
The fundamental methodology used in a telepresence system is digital compression of audio and video streams in real time. The audio and video signal is sampled and quantized, a process called encoding. This process results in a digital stream of 1s and 0s is subdivided into labeled packets, which are then transmitted over the global IP network. The receiving telepresence system decodes the digital stream to display the visual and generate the audio. The hardware or software that performs this compression is called a codec (coder/decoder). To create a vivid, compelling and natural experience a resolution of between 720p and 1080p at 30 frames per second is deployed, giving a crystal clear video stream. For audio standards-based wideband codecs are implemented to improve the voice quality carried over IP networks. Wideband codecs provide clearer, more lifelike voice communications and markedly improved intelligibility because of the additional voice data included in the audio stream. They also double the voice signal range, in the range of 30 hertz to 7000 hertz or higher, while using the same network bandwidth as narrowband codecs.
In designing a telepresence system, first decision is to determine if the telepresence traffic will be carried on an overlay network or a converged network. An overlay network is a new set of connections that parallel the current network, whose purpose to provide links that are dedicated to the telepresence application. However, a converged network utilizes one network for voice, data and video applications. A network engineer needs to evaluate his requirements and decide whether to use an overlay or converged network. This decision (overlay versus converged) is driven by the sophistication of Quality of Service (QoS) in the current network and often by the deployment schedule. It is much faster to get an overlay network running correctly than to get all the details of additional bandwidth and QoS working on the converged network. I would advise enterprises to start with this approach and work their way back to a converged network when they are ready.
The next step is to determine bandwidth requirements. How much bandwidth will be required to support the proposed telepresence suites? Telepresence systems have a range of bandwidths over which they will operate, with varying degrees of quality as a result. Run some tests with the vendor to determine what quality level you really need. Then lay out the network map and determine which Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN) links will need to support that bandwidth. Telepresence systems usually consume about 5 Mbps per screen for today’s technology. So a 3-screen system requires 15 Mbps of continuous network bandwidth when in use. Next steps are to ensure that QoS is properly deployed to guarantee high-quality transport for the telepresence video and audio streams. Interactive video conferencing is a real-time application, so it uses UDP and requires low loss, low latency and low jitter. Getting this wrong means displaying your network loss on 60” plasma screens to your top level executives.
This technology is however not popular in Kenya because of a number of challenges. Namely; high cost of equipment, high cost of bandwidth and lack of expertise in this area. The key requirement of setting up a telepresence system is to put in place sufficient bandwidth for the telepresence traffic, above and beyond what was required by the business before telepresence was installed. First, Wide Area Network service providers need to give clear Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that address the requirement for video to have very low loss and jitter, and latency that is reasonable given the geographic distances involved. Secondly, the cost of this bandwidth can vary widely across geographic regions around the world. The first logical approach is to find a WAN service provider with a sufficiently large footprint to be able to supply service to all the enterprise locations of interest. Such service providers may offer partnering agreements with additional service providers, crossing from network to network, and getting a real guarantee on the traffic quality and QoS parameters. Additionally, young Kenyan engineers and technicians must venture into this area and learn how to design and implement telepresence solutions. Foreign expertise will always be more expensive, as it is now, but not to discourage our brethren from other parts of the globe from practicing in Kenya.
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