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Showing posts from October, 2013

'Coalition of the willing' isolates Tanzania and Burundi

Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya tripartite partnership that has been branded as the ‘coalition of the willing’ will push for more intensive cooperation to ensure sufficient provision of financing for infrastructure development. During a regional meeting in Kigali, Rwanda on Monday, Presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda agreed to launch of a single tourist at the next infrastructure summit which could take place in Juba, South Sudan early 2014. The three countries want to push for more financing mobilization from private public agreements and also by inviting investors to actively invest in proposed infrastructure projects in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. They are pushing ahead without Burundi and Tanzania in formulating infrastructure projects funding as soon as possible, launch joint tourist VISA and facilitate movement of people using national identity cards within their countries. They agreed that Ugandans will use their voter’s ca

We Are Anonymous by Parmy Olson

Hector Xavier Monsegur was 18 years old teenager when he was arrested after his group Lulzsec hackers fell prey to the dreaded Federal Bureau of Investigation infiltration although the Investigators were hugely assisted by one of LulzSec’s own hackers. Parmy Olson who is a reporter with Forbes has authoritatively describes how Anonymous became a global brand after it graduated from hoaxing paedophiles, hotel managers and leading online protest against the Church of Scientology to engineering attacks on behalf of WikiLeaks to those who terminated online payments to the site that stirred global controversy after releasing US diplomatic cables. This is just of the cases Olson’s investigation unearthed about secretive group of hackers using interviews with key figures. I vividly recall how before Christmas 2010 the International media carried stories of how Anonymous hacking group has attacked PayPal, an online bill-paying business in retaliation of PayPal cutting off donatio

ICT is a catalyst for innovation in Africa

Africa is fast becoming an increasingly competitive region and such development are being accelerated through information and communications technology sector that has seen double-digit growth over the past fifteen years. Having traveled to more than a dozen countries in continent, there are exciting things happening in Africa with almost all countries implementing the projects under the ICT. Studies show that Government are continuing to support their country’s innovative spirit through their multiple programmes and initiatives aimed at transforming lives, businesses, and the education sector. As a result, the software vendors have launched various initiatives, such as organizing the Innovation competitions. One of them is Google’s funded ‘Africa connected’ competition where five successful entrants will win $25,000 each and Google hopes to find the most inspiring stories in Africa about how the web has transformed the lives and business ventures of its users in Technolog

4G is benefiting students and renters

 Long Term Evolution is the fourth generation of mobile technology that offers the industry and consumers a first chance to see how the relatively new technology would mature in the mobile markets on the long run. Recently, a mobile industry analyst asked me how do prices compare to own fixed broadband offerings and if customers could find it attractive to replace their technologies with LTE. I was a bit hesitant to respond but frankly speaking continuing to account for fixed-line rental along with LTE broadband in a total bundle remains important to realizing the true cost of a home phone and broadband plan. According to data that I was analyzing before that question from the analyst, I found out that around 20 percent of households in western countries would be mobile-only for voice and broadband services in the long term. Mobile only refers to the households that will not take fixed services of any kind. This means Long Term evolution will take couple of years befo

Africa mobile operators strategy shifts to subscribers

Officially, Africa has the second largest mobile phone usage in the world after Asia and the growth seem unstoppable bearing in mind only 30% of continent population owns mobile phones. Over the past two years, mobile network operators in sub Saharan Africa immediate focus is to improve customer service that has been in dire state.This has become the mantra in telecommunications industry in Africa although there is plenty of room for improvement. Complaints to the telecommunications regulators have ballooned in recent years as the complexity of products has grown and at the same time customer expectations have risen. In Tanzania two years ago, Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority came under heavy criticism due to poor network coverage and congestion.Luckily that public ire has bore fruits as the situation has dramatically improved. In some west Africa and Southern African countries governments have been forced to intervene. Major operators, hands on hearts, have swo