Is Telepresence The Future Of Global Business?

From the recent trends in the industry, the answer is definitely a ‘yes’. Telepresence offers more than simply a hassle-free alternative to delayed flights and security checks. As companies become increasingly global in scale, and gas prices reach unprecedented highs, telepresence promises to drastically cut travel costs while greatly improving productivity and reducing harmful gas emissions. 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.

Telepresence, which integrates life-size High Definition (HD) video with high-quality sound in a room setup, creates 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. Establishing a virtual meeting place, however, isn’t the only application of telepresence technology. With its high definition cameras and huge projection screens, systems are also able to illustrate physical characteristics and cues, such as a sweaty brow, in great detail. Communication is mostly non-verbal than verbal and this renders telepresence an ideal vehicle for business negotiations and sales pitches. Then there is telepresence’s potential for allowing human resource executives to interview job candidates from afar while still getting a feeling for an applicant’s personality. The technology is also employed in other sectors such as education, health, military and government. In the not-so-far future, it’s likely that telepresence will aid geographically scattered engineers and product managers in the product development process.

In technical terms 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.

Is Kenya Becoming A Virtual Money Economy?

Mobile Money Transfer and Mobile Banking have become very popular products in the Kenyan market. In fact, approximately over 12 million mobile phone subscribers make mobile payments and as mobile phone penetration continues to grow, these products are becoming more relevant to the market. Once a mobile subscriber registers for either of the products, a virtual wallet enabled for them on their phone. The subscriber can then use the mobile phone for various transactions. Person-to-person money transfer has boosted incomes of rural recipients through the ease, security, and affordability that allow their relatives or friends in urban centers to send money home more frequently. Another important consideration is that Kenya is one of several countries in sub-Saharan Africa where remittances from members of the diaspora living in Europe, the Middle East and the US form a crucial source of foreign currency. Mobile phone-based money transfer and banking solutions have been recognised as the avenue to take banking services to people outside the formal financial industry. The services are cheaper than conventional banking, which comes with expenses the poor could not afford. The informal sector of the economy thus has the potential to save money formally and to do so in a safe and productive way, earning interest, and not sitting idle and vulnerable under mattresses or at the bottom of dustbins.

In essence, “Mobile Money” is cash converted to electronic form, stored in a virtual account in the SIM card. Mobile Money solutions such as M-PESA, ZAP, YU Cash and Orange Money run on a SIM Application Toolkit, commonly referred to as STK. STK is a standard of the GSM system which enables the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) to initiate actions which can be used for various value-added services. The SIM Application Toolkit consists of a set of commands programmed into the SIM which define how the SIM should interact directly with the outside world and initiates commands independently of the handset and the network. This enables the SIM to build up an interactive exchange between a network application and the end user and access, or control access to, the network. The SIM also gives commands to the handset such as displaying menus and/or asking for user input. Designed as a single application environment, the STK can be started during the initial power up of the SIM card and is especially suited to low level applications with simple user interfaces. Mobile money transfer systems are already being used to allow bulk disbursement of payments from organizations to employees, and have been used to allow the disbursement and repayment of micro loans.

On the other hand, Mobile Banking such as KCB Connect, Hello Money and Easy24, utilizes a unique platform known as Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD). USSD is a protocol used by GSM cellular telephones to communicate with the service provider's computers. USSD can be used for WAP browsing, prepaid callback service, location-based content services, menu-based information services, and as part of configuring the phone on the network. USSD messages are up to 182 alphanumeric characters in length. Unlike Short Message Service (SMS) messages, USSD messages create a real-time connection during a USSD session. The connection remains open, allowing a two-way exchange of a sequence of data. This makes USSD more responsive than services that use SMS. It is highly user-friendly, and provides an extremely convenient system for customers to access virtual account in real time. Services available with mobile banking include: Check their bank balance; View a mini bank statement; Change PIN; Request Bank Statements; Transfer of Funds in-between personal accounts and nominated accounts; Pay utility bills – Pay your Power/ Water /Satellite TV; Enquire on FX rates; Top-up their mobile phone balance; and Request a cheque book. Mobile banking services have various benefits to the population, including increased productivity and capital flows, helping to manage cashflow as well as enhancing management of erratic incomes.

Another growing trend in the Kenyan market is development of e-commerce and Internet banking solutions such as Rupu, Jambopay, PesaPal, Straight 2 Bank and Barclays Integrator. These solutions increase efficiency since the merchant is a technology solution rather than a physical person or premises, allowing exchange of goods or services in a virtual environment. Services available through the Internet Banking solution include: Inter Account transfers; EFT payments; Local EFT payments to other banks; Cross Currency payments; Direct Debit Payments; Recurring Payments; Urgent Payments (RTGS); and Electronic Cheque Payments. Commercial banks that have already deployed Internet banking are; Barclays Bank, Kenya Commercial Bank, African Banking Corporation, Bank of India, Chase Bank, Commercial Bank of Africa, Consolidated Bank, Cooperative Bank of Kenya, Diamond Trust Bank, Oriental Commercial Bank, Paramount Universal Bank, Prime Bank, Standard Chartered, Trans National Bank, CFC Stanbic Bank, Ecobank Kenya Ltd, Equatorial Commercial Bank Ltd, Equity Bank Ltd, Family Bank, Fidelity Bank, I & M Bank, Middle East Bank (K) Ltd, National Bank of Kenya and NIC Bank. Judging by the enthusiasm in the market, Kenya may be heading to an economy where less tangible money is in circulation.

Looking back at 2010

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.

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.

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.