(UMCI News Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) One of the firms bidding to take-over NITEL and MTel is planning to build an overland cable from Katsina to Tunisia, Daily Trust learnt last week. A source said that Brymedia West Africa Limited intends to construct the overland cable with a 30 fibre pairs instead of the 2 pairs of SAT-3. The cable will pass through Niger.

The source said the overland cable would pass through two countries instead 13 countries. This will be achieved with the aid of tails to be laid into all the land-locked countries like Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali.

Sources close to the project said that Telecom Italia, one of the biggest operators in Europe, has already indicated interest to land the overland cable into mainland Europe. The sources further disclosed that the proposed cable would outperform existing services like SAT-3 and the upcoming Glo One cable many times over.

The source also said that the World Bank recently agreed to sponsor OFC cable in Chad, Central African Republic and that Brymedia Consortium is planning to connect to it. The overland cable is estimated to be half as expensive as SAT-3 or Glo 1, allowing savings to be passed on via lower tariffs to customers. The World Bank recently endorsed the $215 million Central African Backbone programme to bring reliable, high-speed, low-cost internet access to the region. Cameroon, Chad and the Central African Republic will take part in the initial $26.2 million phase.

Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Niger, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, and Sudan can also participate in the programme. The 10-year programme is being supported through a partnership between the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank (AfDB). The program also aims to leverage an additional $98 million from the private sector. In conjunction with the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa, the African Union Commission will play an important role in facilitating inter-governmental cooperation and policy harmonization.

Brymedia is the project coordinator, bid manager and consortium leader for bidding in the current privatization process for NITEL. Formed in mid-2008 to address the emerging national operator opportunity, the company has assembled a top flight executive team including six of the nine most senior MTN Nigeria leaders from 2001 to 2006.

(Source: Daily Trust) Telkom Kenya raises stakes in data market with Sh1 per MB planTelkom Kenya on Wednesday revised its Internet charges downwards, raising the stakes in the battle for control of the data market which is expected to be the next frontier of revenue growth for telecoms firms. Subscribers will pay Sh1 per megabyte (MB), one of the lowest Internet tariffs currently on offer from a telecom firm.

Previously, the company charged from Sh2 or more per MB depending on the Internet bundle a customer opted for. The Sh1 per MB rate will will apply for buyers of the 4 gigabyte (GB) bundle which will be priced at Sh3,900.

Other providers of low-cost Internet are Access Kenya, which charges Sh1 per MB for its home Internet services. Mickael Ghossein, CEO Telkom Kenya, said the price cut is meant to reposition the company in the data market in which it was a key player before the liberalisation of the ICT sector ushered in competition that has since eaten into the firm's market share.

Rival mobile operators have reacted to Telkom's move by acknowledging the increase in competition in the sector. "Of course we expect a lot of competition and tariffs will have to fall to reflect this. In the long run, however, you have to consider the issue of customer experience and you also need a critical subscriber base to create a sustainable business model," said Chris Tiffin, Safaricom's Chief Financial Officer.

Telkom is targeting both corporate and individual clients with the reduced prices.

The regulatory stance taken by the government recently may also lead to a reduction in revenues gleaned for the voice market. Last month, prime minister Raila Odinga ordered a review of mobile call charges saying they were too high and not a true reflection of international trends.

As Telkom was announcing its new charges, Safaricom and Equity bank were also unveiling a partnership in which the bank will offer loans to the public for the purchase of laptops while the mobile phone operator will supply Internet modems to the laptop owners.

(Source: Business Daily) Nigeria: EFCC Shuts 800 Scam Web SitesThe Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has shut down over 800 scam websites and busted 18 syndicates of email fraudsters in a drive to check cyber-crime that Nigeria is notorious for. "Over 800 fraudulent email addresses have been identified and shut down," EFCC chairman Farida Waziri said in Las Vegas, United States, last week.

"There have been 18 arrests of high profile syndicates operating cyber-crime organisations," she told a gathering of US mayors at the 35th Annual Convention of Black Mayors on Global Vision for Local Action: A paradigm of Connectivity in the African Diaspora.

On a daily basis, Internet users in Nigeria and around the world receive scam emails from fraudsters who impersonate businesses like banks and mobile phone companies. These web forgeries are designed to trick people into revealing personal or financial information by imitating different sources.

Some of the fraudsters hack into private email accounts of prominent personalities and send emails to their contacts claiming to be stranded and asking for emergency cash.

Farida said a latest anti-cyber crime technology called Project Eagle Claw has the capacity to shut down up to 5,000 fraudulent emails monthly when it is fully deployed.

"We expect that 'Eagle Claw' as conceived will be 100 per cent operational within six months. It will take Nigeria out of the top 10 list of countries with the highest incidence of fraudulent emails," Farida said.

"The EFCC is fine tuning security modalities with Microsoft and upon full deployment, the capacity to take down fraudulent emails will increase to 5,000 monthly. Further it is projected that advisory mails to be sent to victims and potential victims will be about 230,000 monthly," she added.

The schemes of Nigerian scammers range from advance fee fraud, lottery scams, phishing, identify theft, and employment and auction scams.

Some of the notorious scam emails Internet users receive from fraudsters include messages posing as if they were coming from online payment company Interswitch, Guaranty Trust Bank, Central Bank of Nigeria and mobile phone company MTN.

Most of these emails have links to fake websites and ask for personal details like account number, pin code and residential address. The companies being impersonated have alerted customers via the media of such scams and have adopted additional security measures to protect their users, but the scammers kept on at it.

(c) 2009 UMCI News Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]

Discussions: