SA behind other African states in Internet access

Internet penetration in South Africa, the continent's economic powerhouse, is low compared to other leading economies in Africa due to high broadband cost and a lack of infrastructure, a study has said.

According to the study commissioned by Google South Africa, the country had 8.5 million internet users in 2011, compared to 6.8 million people in 2010.

"This growth brings internet penetration in South Africa to approximately 17 percent," said the report.

"Despite rapid growth, however, it lags significantly behind the biggest internet user bases in Africa".

Oil-rich Nigeria, which is also Africa's most populous nation, has the highest internet penetration at 29 percent, followed by Egypt, Morocco and Kenya.

Growth in South Africa, the continent's largest economy was attributed to the propagation of smartphones to access the internet, which took off in 2008.

"It should also be borne in mind that access and cost remains the biggest obstacle to internet connectivity, particularly in less developed areas," said Luke Mckend, Google SA country manager.

This year's arrival of an undersea fibre-optic cable, which connects large parts of Africa with the world was expected to improve broadband connectivity across the continent.

The cable has landing points in 10 other countries along Africa's western coast and its arrival promises an Internet boost for Africa, where only 9.6 percent of people are web users, compared to 65 percent of Europeans.

By AFP

Payment platform to boost online buys

Paysure Ltd has unveiled a payment platform that could see increased options for online shopping, as it cuts down on time retailers have to wait to access payments made by buyers.

The firm in partnership with Kenswitch and Chase Bank has launched the first locally administered online payments platform.

The new platform will allow merchants to access funds within a span of two days after the initial online transaction.

According to the Kenya Bank Association (KBA), online transactions usually take up to a week to conclude.
"With many of the products in the market, merchants have to wait up to a week to access their money… Reducing this time to a day is a positive development," said KBA CEO, Mr Habil Olaka.

The week delays normally translate to extra costs for retailers as they need more money to finance restocking.

The platform will cater to Kenswitch member bank card holders making online purchases using their debit or prepaid cards. Chase Bank will process the payments.

Kenswitch has a network of 30 financial institutions including 26 banks. Merchants using the platform will have to open accounts with Chase Bank.

Through Paysure's structure, merchants without websites will also be able to use the payment platform for online transactions.

Large merchants

The charges for using the platform will be Sh5,000 to Sh15,000 for  large merchants, a maximum of five per cent of the transaction for small merchants and free of charge for individual users.

Speaking in Nairobi during the launch of the service, Kenswitch MD, George Wainaina, said the model will provide an opportunity for businesses to receive payment for their goods and services from anywhere across the country.

Website for voters to check status unveiled

An online platform for voters to check their registration status with political parties has been established by the Registrar of Political Parties.

Voters can now confirm the party they are registered with by visiting http://www.iebc.or.ke/rpp/ and entering their ID numbers.

Plans are underway to provide an SMS query channel for the convenience of voters.

The move follows complaints by people of having been registered without their consent into the different parties.

The Registrar of Political Parties, Ms Lucy Ndung'u, said it is an offence punishable by law for any political party to register a member without his or her knowledge. Any party doing so could be de-registered and penalised.

In a letter to the parties, Ms Ndung'u, warned those who may have registered members in a fraudulent manner or have falsified information presented to her to remedy the breach immediately or be de-registered and fined not less than Sh1 million.

"We urge anybody with complaints regarding their registration status to write to the political party they have been registered with and forward a copy to the RPP on registrar@iebc.or.ke," said Ms Ndung'u.

"We had some complaints that some parties enlisted members from mobile money transfer records and various other sources, RPP only checked if all names submitted were indeed those of registered voters, our mandate was not to check whether they were registered with their consent," said the registrar.

By NATION REPORTER

Strathmore MBA classes go virtual with tablets

The student who diligently cleans the chalkboard at Nairobi's Strathmore Business School's lecture theatre is looking forward to a future without this daily task.

Once more technology has come to the rescue.

Kenya's top ranked business school has signed a deal with Samsung Electronics that enables the university's executive MBA students to attend lectures through their Samsung Galaxy 10.1 tablets.

Under the partnership agreement signed mid last month, the Korean electronics giant is to supply every executive MBA student with a tablet that is loaded with e-books and lecture time schedules.

The tablets also give students access to an online portal where they can access live videos of lecture sessions they may have missed.

The videos are transmitted from an electronic board to the tablets through a Wi-Fi connection – creating virtual lecture halls that can be accessed from any corner of the world.

Paul Ouma, the director of MBA programmes at Strathmore Business School says use of technology to deliver quality education is one of the many actions that the university is taking as it deepens its leadership position in Kenya.

Strathmore is convinced that use of electronic platforms to deliver knowledge will free its students from the burden of dealing with huge amounts of paperwork during the lectures, increase interactivity among them as well as revisit lecture sessions they may have missed.

Ability to retrieve and attend live sessions of missed lectures is particularly critical for many of Strathmore Business School's part time students who juggle between classes and strenuous work demands that often make it difficult for them to attend all classes.

"The tablets enable one to enjoy flexibility in terms of when and where you have access to class material," says Ms Vivian Ogutu, the president of the first year MBA students who started their classes in January.

"Students in these courses usually do not have so much time in their hands so on-demand access to lectures is very critical," she says.

Besides, the e-learning platform enables the students to have their semester notes in advance meaning they attend classes with some good understanding of the subject matter.

To deepen use of technology in its teaching, Strathmore is training its lecturers on use of Classroom Management (CRM) functionality that enables them to send what's on the e-board to students' tablets and its use.

The e-learning platform designed by Samsung also comes with a Mobile Learning Management System (m-LMS) that is backed by multiple learning features such as facilitation of resource sharing among students and an application that facilitates remote submission of assignments.

"Our aim is to raise coursework delivery efficiencies for better use of learning time," said Robert Ngeru, the Samsung Electronics East Africa Business Leader.

Samsung's plan is to offer Strathmore Business School students the tablets and digital learning materials at a discounted price.

All these costs are included in the MBA fees structure – meaning everyone who gets admission to the MBA programme will own a Samsung tablet.

Strathmore has picked on technology as one of the pillars that will set it apart from its rivals in the higher education market.

MBA courses have become exceptionally popular with working Kenyans partly because of the premium that many corporations have placed on especially in the hiring of new top managers as well as in promotions.

Executive MBAs have been a preserve of foreign universities with local branches but Kenyan schools have recently jumped onto the bandwagon opening a new front in the battle for control of the booming market.

"E-learning should also give us regional reach as well as support our drive to transform leadership in Africa through a world class learning environment," Mr Ouma, said adding that Strathmore intends to extend the module to other business courses.

Samsung is looking at selling the idea to other universities as it seeks to grow the sales of its tablet computers in the Kenyan market where Apple — through its iPad brand — and Huawei are also fighting to grow market share.

Kenyan universities including JKUAT, KCA and Moi have been growing their MBA programmes, opening huge opportunity for the global e-device companies to compete.

Thousands of Kenyans in active employment have gone back to school in the past decade to sharpen their knowledge and skills with business courses as the most popular.

Over the past three years, they have been churning out an average of 2,500 MBA graduates annually up from an average of 400 in 2003, statistics from the institutions show.

With corporate governance issues facing many companies, the executive MBA emphasises integrity among these business leaders.

By MUGAMBI MUTEGI

Kenya leads Africa in mobile pay technology: report

Kenya leads the developing world in readiness to adopt mobile payment technology, according to a survey conducted by MasterCard.

The country's standing in the index published on Monday will enhance Kenya's global reputation as a leader in technological innovation.

"The success of M-Pesa has created an alternative payment network in Kenya, making it, in terms of sheer usage, one of the most advanced markets in the world," says a report accompanying the MasterCard index.

"The success of mobile payments in Kenya is remarkable and can serve as a blueprint for payments adoption in the rest of the emerging world."

Overall, Kenya ranks fourth among 34 countries surveyed.

It is "in the company of big, developed and integrated markets like the United States and Canada, and city-state powerhouses like Singapore," the report says.

Kenya finishes ahead of such tech-focused countries as South Korea, Japan, China and India.

Ironically, the MasterCard report observes, Kenya's success with mobile money transfers is attributable in part to "a lack of traditional infrastructure and alternative conventional payment media."

"Mobile suggested itself as a solution to a population deeply in need of a fast and secure method of payment," MasterCard says.

Noting that "M-Pesa is a closed loop," the report adds that there is considerable room for expansion of mobile payment technology in Kenya.

"They've shown the way globally, but the country itself is also ripe for a more flexible and accessible payments structure that leverages all types of payments and permits multilateral entry into a broader-based financial services and telecommunications infrastructure," the report says.

By KEVIN J KELLEY, NATION CORRESPONDENT

Shoe technology to charge cell phones

You can now charge your mobile phone from the sole of your shoe.

This will be good news for herdsmen, joggers and gym enthusiasts, since the more you walk or run, the more electricity your shoe will generate.

On Tuesday, this technology was among the innovations on show at the Science and Innovation Week taking place at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi.

Mr Anthony Mutua, 24, has developed an ultra-thin chip of crystals that generate electricity when put under pressure.

Through a process he has patented with the Kenya Industrial Property Institute, he is able to harvest this energy and turn it into electricity as one walks.

Mr Mutua, a graduate of Mombasa Polytechnic University College, explains that the chip is inserted inside the sole of any shoe, apart from bathroom slippers.

"The electricity is generated by the act of walking and running, and can be harvested in two ways."

One way is to charge the phone while still in motion through a thin extension cable that runs from the shoe to the pocket. 

"The other alternative, is to charge the phone immediately after a walk because the crystals have the capacity to store the electric energy," Mr Mutua explained.

The second option through a technology that is just about to go into mass production, he says, is likely to prove quite popular with people who want to charge a mobile phone for others as a commercial activity, since it can service several phones simultaneously.

To have your shoe fitted by Mr Mutua who operates within Nairobi's Central Business District, costs Sh3,800 and the technology comes with a two and a half year guarantee — but not if the shoe is stolen or lost.

"In case the shoe is worn out you can always transfer it to the new one."

Mr Mutua says the National Council of Science and Technology is in the process of funding his project for mass production of the chips.

"This and the possibility of a bigger market could eventually bring down the purchase price."

The development of Mr Mutua's prototype was funded to the tune of Sh500,000 by the science council.

According to Mr David Ngigi, a senior science secretary with the National Council for Science and Technology, the council is now planning to finance Mr Mutua so that he can commercialise his product.

"We have been financing the development of ideas to prototype levels, but because most innovators lack funds for commercialisation, this innovations never reach the market. So we are changing this," says Mr Ngigi.

By GATONYE GATHURA

Internet security system introduced

Access Kenya has introduced an authentication system to boost security of emails.

The firm's MD Kris Senanu said the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Authentication is intended to address rising internet security concerns.

"Email hacking is a global problem and this technology protects our clients and other users on our network," he said.

Email account holders will be provided with unique usernames and passwords to access servers through the authentication system.

By Nation Media

Kenyan app that helps you confess to paying a bribe

Would you publicly come clean that you paid a bribe to get a service? Probably not. But a phone application customised for Kenya is making it easier for citizens to report bribery incidences across the country, anonymously.

I Paid a Bribe (IPaB) is a desktop, mobile web and SMS app that gives Kenyans a platform to share their experiences with bribery. Through a user-friendly interface, a user can post an incident where they had to pay a bribe because a public officer expressly asked for it or a situation where the officer asked for it but they refused to pay the bribe.

The app also allows users to report an incidence where no bribe was asked, and the service was delivered on time.

Since the launch of the website in December 2011, 630 bribery incidences worth Sh20 million have been posted on the website.

The police, municipal services, immigration and registration of persons and lands departments are the leading bribery hotspots as reported by citizens.

Interestingly, there are quite a high number of witness reports showing high bribery prevalence in the private sector, according to IPaB.

"Once a user files a bribe report on the site, the system takes it up automatically and edits out any names. IPaB does not target individuals but seeks to expose weaknesses in the system and advocate for them to be rectified," says Anthony Ragui, developer of IPaB.

After users send their experience, either through the IPaB website, mobile site or SMS, the story is published on the website after a 10 minute lag. Specific data from the story (county, amount paid and department) is logged in and added to the analytics.

"I paid a Bribe Kenya as a platform aims to get Kenyans to report and talk about the problem of corruption," says Ragui, who came up with idea after seeing a similar initiative in India.

A Transparency International (TI) report on East African Bribery Index revealed while a vast majority of Kenyans perceived Kenya as a corrupt county, only seven percent reported corruption incidences, probably for fear of victimisation.

Written by Ken Macharia for Capital Business

Mobile phones to be used to buy bonds

Kenyans will soon be able to buy government debt including Treasury Bills and bonds using their mobile phones, according to a project dubbed, 'Treasury Mobile Direct', launched by the World Bank and Central Bank.

The scheme aims to capitalise on the popularity and success of mobile money transfer services in the country.

According to data released by the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK), the number of mobile money subscribers in the country stood at 18.9 million by April 2012, with money deposited through mobile phones amounting to Sh177 billion.

The project, still at pilot phase, will require potential investors to be registered as mobile money subscribers with the various operators in the country, who will open Central Depository System accounts for them.

"Today, any Kenyan can pay their electricity bill with the phone, and so will they be able to pay for bonds bought," said Mr Yira Mascaro, who leads the World Bank's financial and private sector development group in Nairobi, which is behind the initiative.

The scheme will help individuals cultivate a culture of savings and increase participation in the bond market, which is currently less than 3 per cent. 

The first phase will be rolled out to bank holders before being integrated with the unbanked.

By NATION CORRESPONDENT

Safaricom cuts sale of unlimited Internet

Safaricom has cut unlimited mobile data services to the detriment of heavy Internet users on its network.

The mobile service provider on Monday announced that it will discontinue the sale of unlimited mobile data bundles. However, the firm announced that it may focus its energies on fixed data.

"It has always been our position that unlimited Internet offerings are better suited for a fixed broadband service," said Safaricom CEO Mr Bob Collymore in a press statement.

Unlimited data bundles allow users of 3G-enabled handsets and modems to access the Internet for a set duration of time at a fixed price.

Safaricom has seen the service turn into a loss-making venture as subscribers download heavy volumes of data degrading services across the network. Service degradation is not as evident on fixed network.

Telecoms are positioning themselves to take advantage of the data market as voice revenues begin to decline. In February, Telkom Orange launched unlimited data while Airtel reintroduced its unlimited monthly data package.

Analysts say that users may move from Safaricom into these networks or look into cheaper offerings in fixed data.

"We might see movement of heavy data users to companies that offer fixed data services," said telecom market analyst Mr Eric Musau.

By offering high customers high volume packages, Safaricom will be countering this migration. Data released by the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) indicates fixed Internet subscriptions grew by 67 per cent in the second quarter 2011/2012.

By NATION CORRESPONDENT

From analogue to digital television broadcasting

Television viewers are tuning to digital signals purveyed by DVB-T2 technology.

The implementation of the new system will radically change the broadcast media landscape, from the sources of the signal to the recipients.

As we scale this migration from analogue to digital, let us have a look at the new DVB-T2 technology.

What is DVB-T2?

Let us start with the basics. The main difference between digital TV and analogue is the way the signal is carried from the transmitters to a television set.

The analogue signal is in the form of waves. Digital broadcasting involves discrete bits of information which can be encoded and compressed to allow more channels to be relayed.

DVB-T2 is the second generation of digital video broadcasting terrestrial. The superior standard has the capability of increasing the capacity using existing antennas and spectrum, hence making it possible to sustain new broadcast services that require intensive frequency capacity.

In essence, the development of DVB-T2 has been associated mainly with the broadcast industry's need to offer more content and new services on the digital terrestrial TV.

Digital broadcast technology comes with spectrum efficiency and flexibility, therefore allowing the compression of several programme transmissions, as opposed to analogue, which heavily depends on individual frequencies.

DVB-T2 technology has an improved forward error correction and an increase in the number of bits carried per data cell, which in the end increases overall system capacity and further enhances better spectrum efficiency.

The standard has an optimised performance, with improved signal robustness. 

This implies that the picture quality on a DVB-T2 might not be affected by external influences like weather, buildings, or geographical location.

This brings out the better side of digital TV, namely quality sound, crystal clear picture, and large data broadcast.

Benefits

As a matter of fact, the switch over from analogue to digital broadcast has opportunities and benefits for broadcasters and TV viewers as well.

Notably, viewers will have a wide variety of television content. To broadcast companies and country at large, this transition creates digital dividend.

It will free up spectrum and enhance an optimal utility of existing frequencies. Spectrum is a valuable commodity in today's digital world.

Broadcasters will also be able to transmit more TV content with fewer spectrum. The digital systems can be a good avenue for content improvement and provision of a wide range of services to television viewers.

Depending on market demands, the digital platform is good for services that include pay-TV, video-on-demand, 3D TV, and SDTV.

DVB-T2 can deliver 4-HD (high definition) channels in a single 8MHz multiplex. There are more channels in SD (standard definition) on this platform with the MPEG-4 compression.

Set-Top Boxes

In order to access DVB-T2, consumers are advised to switch to digital TVs or alternatively purchase compatible gadgets from vendors with valid authorisation from the Communications Commission of Kenya.

Speaking of set-top boxes, it is in such times of transition that consumers should be wary of unscrupulous traders.

Technically, the set-top box is a receiver that decodes the digital signal into a format that can be displayed on the analogue TV.

The digital switch in Kenya comes at a time when several other African nations are also fine-tuning to the new DVB-T2 platform. 

Member states of the SADC (Southern African Development Group) have chosen the deployment of DVB-T2 at the expense of DVB-T.

The bloc comprises 15 countries that include Tanzania and the inhabitants of the entire lower portion of the African continent.

For member states, the ambitious plan is to switch to DVB-T2 by December 2013. South Africa has so far performed some successful trials in DVB-T2 digital broadcasting.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has set 17 June 2015 as the deadline for migration from analogue to digital terrestrial television.

A self-set deadline by Kenya was June this year. The DVB-T2 signal is currently available in parts of Nairobi, with gradual roll-out expected to eventually cover the rest of the country.

The television signal currently available to most TV viewers in the country is analogue. Viewers will have to tune to something new as DVB-T2 takes over the air waves.

The government recently announced that by July this year, the DVB-T2 digital broadcast signal will be available in 70 per cent of the country.

By ESMOND SHAHONYA

Locally-developed software cuts accounting costs for SMEs

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can now eliminate the cost of buying computer servers and employing ICT personnel by tapping into a locally developed web-based business management system — Biashara Cloud.

Biashara Cloud is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software developed for SMEs.

It can be accessed remotely through cloud computing technology through laptops, personal computers, and mobile phones.

The system offers applications that support everyday company activities such as sales, stock management, banking, and purchasing — meaning a business owner who subscribes to Biashara Cloud only needs to enter business transactions into the software to automatically generate a balance sheet or profit and loss account.

It costs SMEs between Sh800,000 and Sh2 million to acquire computer servers.

This has made it difficult for most businesses to leverage on technology, cut costs, and improve efficiency.

Tony Mutonga, the commercial director of Biashara Cloud Ltd, said that at a monthly fee of Sh1,500 per user, SMEs can access the system from wherever they are so long as the area has Internet connectivity.

"The system is able to manage and co-ordinate all business transactions.

Therefore one can keep track of all their records from anywhere, and since it does not require one to buy physical servers it reduces the number of IT support," said Mr Mutonga.

Through the system, business records can be shared in real time between the office and field officers. Since its launch two months ago, Biashara Cloud has attracted 21,000 users.

Mr Mutonga said that they were working with financial institutions, such as Family Bank, who have roped in their SME clients to enable them conduct their businesses efficiently. Biashara Cloud has joined a number of firms such as Safaricom, Kenya Data Networks, and Flexus which are battling it out to offer cloud computing technology to corporates, government departments, and SMEs.
To secure data, Mr Mutonga said, the firm has encrypted information. Encryption is the process of transforming information (referred to as plaintext) using an algorithm (called a cipher) to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key.

Cloud computing involves using multiple server computers via a digital network to store data and allow clients secure access to a variety of applications and data from any network device.

It also provides an easy to use, cost efficient, flexible, dynamic, and secure environment for modern business transactions.

Gaining traction

The practice is gaining traction among corporate organisations that want to cut down on capital and operational expenses.
Other than Biashara Cloud, other firms targeting SMEs with similar services include Flexus Technology.

Mr Oscar Ahere, a product development manager at Flexus Technology, said that while some Saccos had started embracing the use of money transfer services such as M-pesa, Zap, Orange Money, and YuCash, they were yet to link them with their back office financial databases.
"With technology such as cloud computing, Saccos can cut their operation costs by embracing the latest technologies which will help them trim the number of their field officers, reduce fraud, and increase efficiency," said Mr Ahere.
Flexus Technology's Kopesha web-based application aims at helping microfinance field officers to minimise errors associated with manual entries.

Sacco field officers can use Kopesha to register members, manage savings, make loan applications, disburse loans, and receive loan repayments.

The software can be used on simple mobile phones that cost as low as Sh4,000.
As a result, Saccos may no longer require data entry clerks to update and reconcile information that field officers or their members submit.

National Co-operative Housing Union chairman Francis Kamande said most co-operative societies use internal servers which are not only expensive to buy, but also mean that they must employ ICT staff.

This not only adds to their operational costs, but also makes it hard to retain the professionals making the investment not fully utilised.
However, by adopting new technologies such as cloud computing they would be able to cut such costs.

It costs a co-operative society about Sh200,000 to buy a server, while the cost of maintaining cloud computing could be as low as Sh30,000.

"This is a new method of storing huge amounts of data using the Internet and outside the physical premises of the parties involved, the server is no longer necessary," Mr Kamande said.

"Cost saving in harsh economic times rationalises the need for cloud computing by eliminating the need for costly infrastructure purchases every year," he added.

Kenya has 14,000 co-operative societies with 10 million members who have mobilised about Sh230 billion or 30 per cent of national savings.

By Okuttah Mark

Recruiters cast net online to catch tech-savvy talent

For jobseekers, social media has become the place to cast the net as it is where recruiters post opportunities while friends spread the word.

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are becoming important tools for job seekers looking for opportunities as well as for recruiters searching for talent.

With a critical mass of job seekers and organisations now using these platforms, searching for jobs and talent online has become a global trend, with more Kenyan companies catching on.

"It is an effective way to reach people, especially younger people," said Sheila Mwihia, the Pedersen & Partners country manager.

"You create awareness about the job without having to take out advert space."

Deloitte East Africa is the latest recruiter to run a social media campaign behind this year's graduate recruitment drive.

Through the campaign launched last month, the auditing firm is using Twitter, YouTube and Facebook to reach young graduates looking to join the firm.

"We thought to use social media to reach out to as many graduates as possible," said Ann Muraya, the Talent and Audit partner.

"We will not be going to the universities this year, but will send a letter notifying them and mainly use social media."

To raise awareness on its social media efforts, the company held an open day at the University of Nairobi, the first of three to be held in the region as part of attracting talent.

The company has also put out a video on YouTube with staff members talking about the company, the environment, the opportunities available and why one would want to launch their career at Deloitte.

The three minute video, launched late March, is part of the company's strategy to reach the modern job seeker.

Deloitte is also using two twitter accounts as well as its official Facebook page. "It is part of attracting top talent in the region and using technology to do so," Ms Muraya said.

The social networking scene is growing with different websites offering different options. Some are viewed to work best for younger talent while others are more suitable for executives.

Facebook and Twitter are viewed as ideal for spreading the word about an opportunity but not necessarily for recruiting.

Ms Mwihia, who mainly recruits executives, said Facebook and Twitter are not ideal for some job positions; however LinkedIn is gaining popularity as a talent search site.

"For executive positions sometimes social media is not an effective way, it's more effective with younger people," she said. "LinkedIn has been accepted as a professional network."

LinkedIn is a social networking site mainly used for professional networking.

With more than 150 million registered users, according to the site, recruiters are able to read the professional profiles, recommendations and even see their network.

Recruiters use the website to research, engage and eventually hire people.

Companies are using the professional Website to advertise jobs and users can save jobs they are interested in as well as follow different companies to get notifications on any opportunities.

It also allows people to join different communities, mainly professional, linking one to people with similar professional interests.

Google+, the social networking site by Google, makes it easy for an individual to distinguish contacts into discreet groups like friends, family and professional contacts.

Initially social media was frowned upon with companies blocking the sites for their staff. Ms Mwihia said this is "gradually" changing.

"Social media is now seen as an opportunity to get information. Companies can't run away from social media," she said, adducing that the sites have also become reference checking points for recruiters.

A survey carried last year in the US by Jobvite, a leading recruiting platform for the social Web, showed that there has been a steady increase by employers in the use of social media.

The survey showed that at least 90 per cent, of the more than 800 US-based human resources and recruitment professionals polled, planned to use social networks to find job candidates, while 64 per cent of those surveyed hired through social medial last year, compared to 58 per cent in 2010.

Visual Unity targets Africa in deal with Nairobi firm

Visual Unity system integrator and multi-screen platform provider has entered into a joint venture with Telemedia Africa to establish Visual Unity Africa.

The company, based in Nairobi, offers system integration and professional services to the local broadcast, information technology and telecommunications industry, along with specialist research and development to develop innovative mobile applications.

Visual Unity Africa is headed by Baiju Shah, Ali Hussein and Ken Kariuki, all of whom have extensive management experience in the broadcast and technology sectors.

Mr Hussein and Mr Kariuki will be based at the company's Nairobi offices from where they will initially develop the east and central African market, with a view to expanding into other areas in the future.

The firm is eyeing the growing middle-class in Kenya and Africa in general.

The region is recognised as a hub of innovation in the broadcast and mobile applications, thanks to the high penetration of mobile devices and cheap tablet computers.

As countries switch from analogue to digital broadcasting, it is expected that a price war between main providers would result in low Internet costs.

Visual Unity managing director Tomas Petru said that Africa is ripe for expansion of broadcast and there are significant changes with a proliferation of new television stations to meet demand for local content.

"With our rich set of video and broadcast products, our extensive research and development expertise and knowledge of the linear and multi-screen systems integration, Visual Unity Africa is well placed to bridge this gap by providing high quality services and products to the emerging market," said Mr Petru.

However, he said that what the market lacks are specialist systems integration and professional services organisations that could help broadcasters in their choice of equipment as they switch to digital television and enable them to monetising content as they embrace the growing multi-screen environment.

Mr Hussein adds that Visual Unity Africa's combination of local links and business development expertise will give the firm an enviable lead in the market.

"Visual Unity Africa's view of integration, along with its acquired mobile applications capability, will enable us to sell products and services to media, Telco and broadcaster organisations," he said.

"Visual Unity Africa also has an important role to play in influencing regulatory issues and setting new regional standards."

By OKUTTAH MARK

Safaricom tariff rise reduced industry's voice traffic

Mobile operator Safaricom's move to increase call tariffs in October led to an 18 per cent drop in voice traffic within its network in the three months to December, contributing to a significant decline in the industry's traffic.

Data from the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) show that mobile traffic declined to 6.70 billion minutes in the quarter to December compared to 7.09 billion minutes in the same period a year earlier.

This emerged despite a six per cent growth in the mobile phone subscriptions in the country to 20.08 million—pushing the penetration rate to 71.2 per cent from 67.2 per cent in the same quarter in 2010.

"This was as a result of increase in tariffs by a key mobile operator that led to the reduction in local mobile traffic," said CCK in response to the drop in voice traffic.

Safaricom lost share of the voice traffic market by 10 percentage points to 77 per cent, giving room to its subscribers whose calling rates are lower to grow their stakes.

Airtel gained 6.24 percentage points to record 12.79 per cent market share from 6.55 per cent recorded during the previous period.

Essar Telecom (yuMobile) grew its share to 8.53 per cent market from 4.58 per cent while Orange gained 0.22 percentage points to record 0.82 per cent market share from 0.60 per cent

Orange currently charges Sh2 for calls within its network and Sh4 to its rivals. Both Airtel and Yu are charging Sh3 within and out of their network.
Safaricom charges sh4 within its network and Sh5 to other networks—and it revised its charges by about 25 per cent in October after it reported a 47.4 per cent drop in profits in the six months to September.

Safaricom's market share of subscribers dropped to 66.6 per cent down from 67.7 per cent recorded during the previous period. Airtel's stood at 15.2 per cent down from 15.7 while Orange recorded 10.3 per cent from 10.4 per cent. Essar's increased to 7.9 per cent from 6.2 per cent.

During the quarter under review, the four mobile operators experienced gains in subscriptions with Safaricom recording the highest gains with 741,560 new subscriptions from 593,177 recorded in the previous period.

Essar Telecom (yuMobile) followed with 600,285 new subscriptions up from 46,742 recorded during the previous period.

Mobile money transfer subscriptions rose by 3.08 per cent from 18.4 million in the previous period to 18.9 million.

Meanwhile, Internet service continued to rise steadily during the quarter to stand at 6,152,687 Internet subscriptions from 5,422,009 during the previous period, representing a 13.48 per cent increase.
The estimated number of Internet users rose by 21.55 per cent from 14.30 million users in the previous period to 17.38 million during the period under review.
By MUTAHI BASSE

Airtel promotes Bhargava to Kenya MD

Bharti Airtel has announced the appointment of Shivan Bhargava as Managing Director for its Kenyan operation. Shivan was earlier the Chief Operating Officer and in his new role he will be responsible for leading Airtel's aggressive growth plans in the country.

Jayant Khosla, the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Africa Anglophone Region, said: "Kenya has always been a key market with great potential for growth within the region. Our leadership and management team in Kenya is made up of exceptionally talented, experienced, passionate and committed individuals. Shivan's experience and qualifications will add value to the team and Airtel's future plans to deliver innovative and best-in-class mobile services. I wish him success in his new assignment."

Shivan has been with Bharti Airtel since 2003 and has significantly contributed to growth of the business.

Shivan has experience in both technical and marketing and has an Engineering degree specializing in Telecommunications. Shivan also has a post graduate qualification in Business Management, specialized in Marketing and has a proven track record in commercial operations for more than 16 years with Coca-Cola and Airtel.

East Africa Com tech conference opens in Nairobi

The 7th annual technology conference, East Africa Com, opens in Nairobi on Tuesday, 17th April.

The Information Technology summit runs from 17- 18 of April in Nairobi where the Exhibition aims to give delegates an overview of all the latest "need to know" topics on the world's foremost technology and solution providers.

About 600 decision makers from across the entire Digital Ecosystem such as service providers, social media players, apps developers, content providers, digital media brands and mobile advertisers have confirmed participation.

"The East Africa Com conference agenda addresses the hottest topics facing the Digital ecosystem in East Africa.

"Each session is about stimulating discussion using a series of C-Level roundtables, interviews, presentations, case studies and question and answer panel sessions," reads the conference agenda sheet at a glance.

The meeting comes at a time when Africa is increasingly drawing global attention for its rapid growth in mobile telephony and associated sectors.

Across Africa, mobile technology is becoming a cornerstone for industries like health care and agriculture and for millions it is making banking truly accessible for the first time.

According to a GSMA report of 2011 "nearly 90 per cent of all phones in Africa are mobile phones" and by end of 2012 there would be 735 million mobile subscribers in Africa.

Latest statistics form Communication Commission of Kenya indicates that close to 18 million Kenyans use mobile phones as a bank account, depositing and transferring money remotely to avoid excessive travel and wait times.

By James Ratemo

Telkom’s LION2 lands in Kenya

Kenya has now gotten a fourth submarine fibre optic connection to the world, when the Lower Indian Ocean Network cable (LION2) operated by Telkom Kenya went live.

Telkom Kenya Chief Executive Officer Mickhael Ghossein said LION2, whose laying cost over Sh5.7 billion (57 million Euros), is now operational and will significantly boost Kenya's bandwidth capacity.
The cable lands in Kenya after The Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy), The East African Marine System (TEAMS) and SEACOM. It is a 2,700 kilometers long extension of the initial Lower Indian Ocean Network that connects Madagascar to the rest of the world, providing alternate onward connectivity from Kenya to Asia and Europe.

"Besides improving our services, LION2 will also play a great role in addressing redundancy, especially during outages like the ones experienced in March that impacted both TEAMs and EASSy, while in turn reassure the firm's customers of business continuity, network stability and reliability," said Ghossein.

LION2 extends from Mayotte, an island off the Indian Ocean Coast to Mombasa. It links East Africa to Madagascar, Mayotte and the Reunion Island, providing an opportunity for increased international traffic through Kenya which further strengthens the country's positioning as a regional communication hub.

LION2 uses advanced technology for submarine cables – wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and it will currently offer a maximum capacity of 1.28 terabytes per second (tbps) in future, this capacity can be increased without additional submarine work.

The construction of the LION2 cable represents a total investment of around Sh5.7 billion of which Sh3.8 billion comes from France Telecom and its subsidiaries.

The laying of LION2 cable began in the fourth quarter of 2010. Apart from LION2, Telkom Kenya has also invested heavily in other joint broadband infrastructure projects including TEAMS and EASSy submarine cables and terrestrial backbone and is currently expanding its high quality wireless network for both GSM and CDMA across the country.

by NDERITU NDEGWA

Govt to put up new data centre

The government is mulling putting up an upgraded National Data Center (NDC) to boost its internal efficiencies and compliment the current centre which is already operating at full capacity.

Information Permanent Secretary Bitange Ndemo said the government is seeking input from the private sector for the country's second data centre that will expand the current capacity of 30 terabytes.

"To do a good Level 4 National Data Center it's anything between $200 million and $250 million. We are looking at another one year before we can see a virtual environment," he said.

The NDC is part of the government's strategy to centralise the management of data from ministries and government agencies to cut operational costs, through the launch of three data centres.

Efforts to digitise various ministries have made headway although hitches at the Lands Ministry have slowed the process.

The PS said it will take almost $1 billion to fully digitise the ministry, but funding has been difficult to come by.

"If Lands (Ministry) were willing that we do their data, their revenue would move from Sh7 billion to almost Sh40 billion. When we went there, there were files all over, then we created the banking hall and revenue jumped to Sh7 billion from Sh3 billion," he said.

Making the move to e-procurement, Ndemo added, would save the government $1 billion annually.

The PS was speaking during an event hosted by storage and data management solutions company NetApp that explored opportunities for storage and data management in Kenya's IT industry.

NetApp is making an aggressive attempt to solidify its lead position as a storage and data management provider in the region, looking at setting up an office in another four to five months to complement its reseller network.

"Our model going forward is indirect. We started off with people coming in from other countries to support the East Africa region, but now we have local partners. The people that are delivering the solutions for NetApp are locally based," NetApp Channel Lead Prem Pather said.

In efforts to improve end-user support and service delivery NetApp partnered with Business Connexion to distribute NetApp products in the country.

Moving forward Pather said the company is looking to expand its offerings to the government as it continues to digitize ministry records and other solutions.

by VICTORIA RUBADIRI

Safaricom, Qualcomm set for a ‘3G Experiential Tour’

Safaricom and Qualcomm have announced the launch of an 'experiential tour' for 3G products and services in Kenya which will take place from April 14 to June 31.

The roadshow will allow consumers to test-drive 3G devices and experience rich content and faster internet access enabled by 3G-enabled mobile smartphones, PCs and laptops.

"We are passionate about growing our data services, especially with 3G.

The Safaricom 3G Experiential Tour showcases the latest generation of Safaricom's mobile services and the most advanced smartphones based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors," said Safaricom chief executive Bob Collymore.
The tour will take place throughout Nairobi, Mombasa, Thika, Nakuru and Kisumu and will visit areas with heavy human traffic including malls, sporting events and universities.

The roadshow will take the form of two vans custom-built as 'Mobile Experience Centres.'

The roadshow vans have been fitted with 32-inch screens and laptops with dongles for users to try out 3G services. There will also be a number of live demonstrations of smartphones using Qualcomm's 'Snapdragon' processors, enabling users to do everything from social networking, HD video, speedy Web browsing and run the latest apps seamlessly.

"About 95 percent of Kenya's Internet users access the Internet on mobile networks. Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors sharpen this experience by enabling users to do more and recharge less, so they can spend more time watching videos, downloading music, playing games and interacting with friends via social networks," said Qualcomm's East Africa operations director Billy Owino.

During the RoadShow, consumers will be able to experience mobile computing with smartphones based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor which combines elements of a PC, TV and gaming console to provide a quick and smooth mobile computing experience.

The 3G tour is aimed to leverage on the strengths of the two firms, with Safaricom having what is billed as Kenya's widest 3G network while 25-year-old Qualcomm is recognized as a leader in 3G and next-generation mobile technologies worldwide. 

By James Ratemo

Police target Internet cafes in war on cybercrime

Cyber café operators will soon be required to keep a register of all their customers if a proposal by the Police Department aimed at arresting crimes perpetrated through mobile phones and the Internet is adopted.

CID director Ndegwa Muhoro said Parliament should enact a law that would compel cyber cafés to adopt the know-your-customer rules already in place in the banking and mobile phone sectors.

"We are proposing to this committee to help us have a legal framework that will compel all cyber shops log in their users with their identity cards and time spent on the computers registered," he told members of the parliamentary committee on education, which is investigating the cancellation of examination results for nearly 1,700 Form Four candidates from North Eastern Province.

Mr Muhoro said cyber cafes remained a missing link in recent efforts aimed at containing crime by tracking Internet use to a particular computer.

"It is difficult to pin down criminals who use cyber cafe computers at any given time unless they are logged in," he said, adding that most of the cheating during last year's examinations involved SMS on mobile phones and e-mails.

Although a conviction had been secured on a criminal who used SMSs to leak the exams, he said failure to operationalise a law requiring all mobile phone SIM card holders to register with the Communications Commission of Kenya was posing a threat to national security.

President Kibaki last year ordered that all unregistered mobile phone SIM cards be switched off to rein in crime, but there was no legal basis to back up the directive.

"To safeguard the lives of many Kenyans using mobile phones, I once more direct the Ministry of Information and Communications to ensure that there is no phone number in use that is not registered," Mr Kibaki had said.

The Communications Commission of Kenya Amendment Act, 2011, eventually addressed this loophole, but is yet to be operationalised.

Out of an estimated 28 million mobile phone users, three million are yet to register with their service providers: Safaricom, Airtel, yu and Telkom Orange.

Mr Muhoro Tuesday called for the quick operationalisation of the law to protect Kenyans from crimes associated with new technology.

"We have hit a brick wall many times where users of mobile phones are not registered or computers they used to commit crimes are in cyber cafes," he said, adding that the CID cannot block the mobile phones without attracting litigation.

The department has also recommended the setting up of secure examination storage centres with only supervisors having the keys to the vaults, which would be guarded by policemen, to curb examination fraud.

"This will certainly reduce cases of collusion between any unfaithful police officer and examinations supervisors or invigilator," Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere said.

According to him, no irregularities were detected when the method was piloted last year using containers.
He said 41 containers were used as storage centres in Coast, Eastern, Nairobi, Nyanza and Western provinces. The pilot by KNEC, however, did not cover North Eastern, Rift Valley and Central provinces.

The police also recommend that results should be released after the conclusion of investigations on irregularities, vetting of invigilators and supervisors and deterrent actions on offenders.

Mr Muhoro said all persons involved in examinations right from the setting and printing must be vetted by the CID and other security agencies.

By EDWIN MUTAI

Huawei betting on knowledge transfer, innovation to boost local ICT industry

With rapid growth in ICT infrastructure technology companies must now focus on innovation and generation of local content to grow the industry.

China technology company, Huawei, is now betting on nurturing local talent and inspiring innovation to make maximum impact locally.
Huawei regional president for East and Southern Africa, Li Dafeng, told Nation.co.ke the company has gone big on staff localization to ensure business continuity and faster growth.

"The Nairobi office has 400 employees with 60 per cent being local staff…local people Kenya's business culture which is very key for our success and there is assured business continuity," said Mr Dafeng.

The company which has operated in Kenya for the past 14 years believes Kenya is a market that cannot be ignored due to its quick growth in ICT infrastructure and expansion in mobile telephony sector.

Mr Dafeng believes Kenya's quest for industrialisation can be fast-tracked through increased innovation in ICT, especially mobile applications that have become the main drivers of business and life globally.

He said the Kenyans should get more innovative to benefit from the current technological revolution, adding that development of mobile applications has opened limitless opportunities for the tech-savvy.

"One of the key challenges we have faced is the retraining of fresh university graduates to orient them to the latest and emerging technologies not taught at the universities…the industry needs to work closely with training institutions to ensure churning out of relevant and demand-driven skills," he said.

We need to spur innovation in ICT thus we need our youth to be equipped with marketable skills…Huawei through its global ' telecom seed for the future' has partnered with Safaricom and three local Universities (Moi, Nairobi, and JKUAT) to ensure engineering students in Kenya are equipped with modern up to date skills to meet current need in telecom industry.

The MoU, signed in June 2011 entails agreement on Android Software application development, Internship/Industrial visit programs, academic curriculum reviews to meet current industry standards, training at Huawei HQ, universities and Training Center, offering expert trainers for the universities symposia and equipment donations.

Mr Dafeng said apart from partnering with the private sector to offer telecommunication solutions, it is working closely with the Kenyan government to expand ICT infrastructure in the rural areas.

Recently the company partnered with Mobicom to grow its retail outlets for its products including modems and mobile phones.

"Initially, Huawei focus was more on the telcos, but now we have more business groups such as carriers, enterprise and consumer.

As a change in our business strategy, we have therefore developed a channel targeting enterprise and consumer.

The partnership with Mobicom symbolizes a milestone of Huawei's new strategy, a shift from business-focused to customer-oriented and a march into open channels that entail operators, resellers, and retails, increasing the accessibility of Huawei-branded smart devices in the mass market," explained Mr Dafeng.

"We are in partnership with the Ministry of Information to impropve coverage of telco services in the rural areas. We have been deploying network equipment to ensure end users benefit from the latest mobile broadband trechnologies," said Dafeng.

"Globally Huawei posted $33bn in profits last year emerging as the world number two telecommunication services provider…we moved our regional headquarter to Kenya last year since Kenya is becoming an undisputed ICT hub and potential for growth is high," he said.

Mr Dafeng said Kenya now needs to encourage investors to concentrate more on local content and mobile apps development for maximum utilization of the existing Internet broadband.

"We must pay much attention to development of apps and local content…education and knowledge transfer is also very important to ensure a critical mass of skills to sustain the growing ICT industry," he advised.

He said Huawei has so far trained over 4500 students in relevant and latest technologies and is planning to expand the training programme to cater for more university graduates.

We are also focusing on supporting mobile application challenges among students to ensure development of apps relevant to Africa.

In order to mediate the software skills gap, the Kenya ICT Board also recently unveiled Chipuka software certification program in partnership with local and international universities to ensure companies have an easy and reliable way to identify skilled software developers in Kenya.

Chipuka will be the first "authentic" examination that would be attuned to the needs of the industry in general and incorporate a broad selection of professional tools.

A pilot exam will be ready by March 2013; the certification should be fully operational in Kenya by October 2013.

The move is informed by a study carried out in 2011 by the Kenya ICT Board and IDC which revealed a software skills gap in Kenya.

"Although there is a high demand for software development in Kenya, few companies source these skills locally. At least a quarter of companies surveyed said they were not satisfied with the quality of IT professionals in the local market…," partly reads a statement by the Kenya ICT Board.

In a past interview Vision 2030 director-general Mugo Kibati said ICT is a key pillar in the Vision 2030 and asked universities and software developers to think outside the box. "We cannot develop to a middle-level economy without innovation," he said. "And that innovation has to be original which means we must invest more in research and development."

He said innovation backed by research would solve the problem of commercializing service-oriented solutions.

He said projects like Konza City and Lamu Port-Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor (Lapsset) presented markets for app developers.

"As the old generation thinks about property around these areas, young people should be looking at how they can use technology to service these areas and create jobs."

Mobile usage has grown tremendously with over 70 per cent of Kenya covered by mobile networks and over 24 million people hooked to them. This makes mobile applications very critical in accessing services.

"Mobile phone is considered the computer of Africa and the de facto medium of communication," said Mr Kibati.

He noted that Kenya is ranked 56 out of 139 countries worldwide in terms of innovation by the World Competitiveness Report for 2010/11, putting the country at par with Asian tigers.

"Our problem in Kenya has always been that innovation is not turned into concrete products for the market soon enough. We need to close the innovation-implementation gap to increase our overall global competitiveness.

By James Ratemo

Safaricom to double broadband capacity

Mobile service provider Safaricom will double its broadband capacity next week opening a new battle front in the data market just weeks after its main rival Airtel launched a 3G network.

"The network will run at 42mega bits per second (mbps) from the current 21mbs and it will be the fastest network in the whole of East and Central Africa," Safaricom CEO Mr Bob Collymore said.

The firm has been under pressure to diversify its revenue streams away from voice following last years price wars. But its quest to control the data market has in the recent past witnessed increasing competition especially from Telkom Orange and Airtel as more telcoms invest in the service.

Airtel rolled out its 3G network in February putting it at par with Safaricom.

Safaricom's move to double its capacity can therefore be read as geared towards differentiating itself from rivals.

"We are already receiving the modems to support the new network," Mr Collynore said.

However the rollout will begin from Nairobi and its environs before going national.

Mr Collymore was speaking at the connected Kenya Summit 2012 in Mombasa that began on Tuesday.

The summit is in its fourth year and is the brainchild of the Kenya ICT Board in collaboration with industry players and government.

The annual forum is a platform for collaboration, capacity building and knowledge sharing between the government and the ICT stakeholders.

This year's summit--themed Knowldege and beyond--has attracted over 500 delegates including captains of the ICT industry, IT practitioners and officials from the vision 2030.

The four day conference will see players discuss how to build the knowledge economy, how to take advantage of the open data, linking innovation and trade.

Players will also discuss how to involve citizens in the growth of the sector, and the opportunities in e-commerce and retail trade. Companies will also showcase their latest products and services.

Information and communication permanent secretary Bitange Ndemo is expected to present the National ICT Masterplan 2017, which outlines the government's blue print for ICT on Thursday.

Companies attending this year's summit include Safaricom, HP, Ericsson, Huawei, IBM, Orange and Jamii Telcom. Others include Seven Seas Technologies, SAP, Accenture and EMC among others.

By PAUL WAFULA

State can spur growth of tech firms and innovation

Business model innovation is becoming increasingly important as we look at addressing real world needs using technology.

We have in the recent past seen discussions, both online and offline, about how government can play a better role in creating a conducive atmosphere for local technology companies to prosper.

This call for the government to rethink how it conducts its business when seeking solutions is not without its counter arguments — the strongest being that the local tech sector cannot cry for protection while wanting to compete in the global market place.

Technology ecosystem consists of different players but my desire is that we become net producers of exportable value.

This is the only way that information technology will match and even surpass agriculture and tourism as the highest revenue earner for the economy.

To drive this home, an example will suffice. The concept of co-government investing will look like one of those very obvious things, once its broken down.

Kenya has very real challenges that can be addressed using technology.

Africa has those same needs amplified by many factors.

This reads as an opportunity for us to build Kenya as the hub of innovation in Africa.

Pick a problem with a government component, say the Horticulture Crops Development Authority wants to deploy a system to better manage the farm to ensure alignment with new rules and regulations in export market.

In the current frame of mind, they would put out a tender and possibly make it international.

A foreign firm may get the deal, sit for months developing the platform, deliver on time, on budget and then leave.

Well apart from obvious capital flight, here is how it would work out differently.

The authority would do a local tender and engage the winning bidder within a commercial entity set up to develop the platform.

They would pay for the development but the intellectual property remains with the entity.

With the needs of the authority met, the entity would now look to export the solution to other markets with similar challenges, making them net exporters of technology and generate revenue.

What this does for the local tech firm is that it grows their portfolio and makes them even more attractive for venture capital investment whose caretakers are a rather picky lot.

The tech firm could eventually buy out HCDA in the entity and leave in its wake a local technology firm with an African footprint, revenues to support continued research and development and a war chest to spearhead entry to other global markets.

Public Private Partnerships are a great way to kick off the co-investing concept.

By MBUGUA NJIHIA

Tablet computers still out of reach for most Kenyans despite hype

Only one per cent of Kenyans own tablet computers — an indication that the latest gadgets in the field of consumer technology are still beyond the reach of the country's majority.

According to recent statistics from research firm TNS RMS East Africa, despite the availability of most of global leading brands in the country, 99 per cent of Kenyans are unable to access tablet computers while 95 per cent say they do not plan to buy them.

The findings that come barely a week after Apple launched its latest edition of the much-awaited new iPad in North American and Europe presents a marketing concern to vendors of tablet computers in the country who have been relying on the growing popularity of the gadgets to boost sales.

Despite the hype, however, tablets are still considered by many as a reserve of the tech savvy elite in society, with many believing that they are more of icons of stature, than a portable computing necessity.

Tablets made their debut in the Kenyan market in mid-2010 with Apple's iPad 1 leading the onslaught.

Since then, tablet-makers have scrambled to make inroads into the niche market segment even as new models roll off the conveyor belt each fortnight.

According to John Makenga, head of sales at Elite Technologies, a computer shop in Nairobi's central business district, most buyers of tablets fit a particular well-heeled user profile.

"Most of our orders come from corporate clients both in the government and the private sector," he said.

"We also have walk-ins and these are people who have had prior exposure to tablets either through ads or through handling the devices from a friend or at work."

"Such buyers know what they want to buy and how much it costs and will directly ask for an iPad2 or a Samsung Galaxy without asking many questions about the price or specifications".

Mr Makenga, however, said it is not correct to compare the adoption of tablet computers in developing markets to their sale in more advanced economies where penetration rates are above 65 per cent.

"Consumers in developing markets have leaner budgets and long priority lists and tablets come low in the list especially if the user already has a desktop computer or laptop," he says.

"A lot of my customers inquire about the devices and seem to want to make a purchase but confess that the price is a deal-breaker," he said.

"Most of them are thus adopting a wait-and-see attitude in the hope that the prices will come down with the release of new models".

He is supported by the TNS findings in regards to the adoption and acquisition of mobile handsets.

According to the findings, despite having higher GDP/capita, Kenyans expect to pay less for their next phone as compared to Tanzanians.

In addition to this, Kenyans also replace their handsets more quickly and utilise the features in their high end phones.

The findings further go on to state that upgrades in Kenya happen faster and although the price point is lower, phones have better capabilities and there is a higher smartphone penetration.

The slow uptake of tablets in the Kenyan market further mirrors the adoption of e-readers which is still relatively slow.

This has been largely attributed to the fact that most of the reading material in the country is yet to be digitised.

There is no incentive to purchase the e-readers due to a shortage of local content.

But the country still remains in the top seven adapters of the device in Africa together with South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Gabon, Nigeria and Ghana.

In these countries, widespread 3G network and GPRS have led to an early adoption of e-readers compared to other African countries.

In Kenya, e-readers have been popularised by non-governmental organisations which distribute e-books to rural schools to promote technology-aided learning.

One of these organisations is Worldreader which has distributed 500 e-readers to rural schools around the country in partnership with other players in the book publishing and education sectors.

The early results of the project dubbed "One Kindle Per Child" has seen children spending up to 50 per cent more time reading than before the introduction of e-readers, and fluency scores in the exercise increasing quickly.

Price drop

With increased digitisation of primary and secondary school syllabi, the uptake of e-readers is bound to increase as the demand from teachers and students increases.

For users of tablet computers, however, it will be some time before they can see a significant drop in prices to enable more of the middle class to obtain the high end toys.

But for those who desire to have the latest iPad ahead of their peers, they should be prepared to pay the price of being the top one per cent.

The new iPad costs between $499 for the 16GB model and $699 for the 64 GB one.

The prices can go to as high as $829 for some models that have both wi-fi and 4G capabilities.

By FRANKLINE SUNDAY

VoiP technology eats into Telkom Kenya’s fixed line call traffic

The use of Voice over Internet (VoiP) technologies such as Skype and Google is eating into Telkom Kenya's fixed line international call traffic.

A report by industry regulator, Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK), indicates that international traffic on fixed lines has been on a decline, particularly after the vicious price wars triggered by Zain in August 2010 that saw calling rates come down by more than 50 per cent.

International outgoing and incoming traffic through fixed lines dropped by 22 per cent to 11.45 million minutes and 17 per cent to 31.86 million minutes respectively between July 2010 and June last year. But traffic to mobile networks shot up by 91 per cent to 59.3 million minutes.

"The decline could be attributed to a decline in consumers' ability to pay for fixed international telephone calls.

It could also be ascribed to reduced mobile international voice calling charges and other competing alternatives such as Skype, Gizmo, and Google talk as well as video and instant messaging," CCK's report says.

Skype allows a user to communicate with another online using voice-over-internet technology at a very low cost and at times for free.

The users must set up an account and receive an online Skype number.

The users are even able to see each other as they communicate.

The low cost of calling using mobile phones has in the past been the biggest competition to fixed lines, but now other technologies are eating into international voice revenues that the fixed lines used to provide, threatening the old technology even further.

The price war between the four mobile phone operators; Airtel, Safaricom, Yu, and Orange which is owned by Telkom Kenya, has seen international calling rates drop to a low of Sh3 per minute from a high of Sh10.

While the low prices have played a big part in driving international traffic from fixed lines, cheaper online technologies have also seen the need to call abroad on fixed lines fall.

CCK's report, for the period ended June last year, also notes that the total number of fixed line connections in the country declined to 379,201 from 460,114 in June the previous year. This further dropped by 28,167 to 351,134 lines in September.

Increased competition

The communications regulator attributed the reduction in fixed line services to increased competition from mobile service providers, the high cost of maintaining fixed lines, and the Internet.

The Internet has emerged as a threat to fixed lines, a sharp contrast from the days of Kenya Power and Telecommunication Company's dominance when fixed lines were the only ones in use.

In an earlier report, CCK said that mobile phone connections between June 2000 and June 2001 shot up from 20,000 to 334,146, surpassing the number of fixed lines at that time which stood at 321,482.

The regulator also started issuing licenses to Internet service providers whose number stood at 23 in 2000 though the Internet, which used satellite technology, was too slow and could not support the kind of applications that are in use today.

However, with the country having put in place three sub-marine fibre optic cables; The East African Marine System (TEAMS), the East African Sub-marine Cable System (EASSy), and the Sea Submarine Communications (SEACOM), Internet speeds have shot up making it easier for clients to use more sophisticated technology.

Kenya continues to witness a vibrant telecommunication sector with the number of mobile subscribers as well as those with access to Internet services growing phenomenally.

Internet use

According to CCK, the number of Internet users increased from 12.53 million in July 2011 to 14.3 million users in September.

"Internet user reached 14.3 million, meaning that 36.3 per cent of the country's total population has access to the Internet," the regulator said in its report on the sector's performance between July and September 2011.

The total number of subscriptions during the period also rose by 27.5 per cent to 5.42 million.

"The period under review witnessed 75 per cent of the total users accessing the service through their mobile handsets, leaving computer and other modes of access with only 25 per cent," the quarterly report says.

By DAVID MUGWE

The long and winding road to ICT success in Kenya

While there is still money to be made out of information technology, many young techpreneurs are acting against the wishes of parents who would like them to follow the traditional routes, leading to a career in either medicine or law.

And the parents have a good reason: Less than 20 years ago, the only "techpreneurs" doing the rounds were the guys who knew how to set up modems, network computers, and repair motherboards, and that was not really lucrative in the long run.

Analysts and programmers were a rare phenomenon, and those who really knew the business end of a mouse were employed by the big IT companies to work on complex systems.

Most were database analysts and worked on systems so ancient that it would take the better part of 10 minutes to get the computer into a running state — and even then, there were huge databases, so loading them would take another 10 minutes.

There were a handful of websites then, mostly run by internet service providers (ISPs) and non-govermental organisations (NGOs). The government was yet to know what an e-mail is and was still paying obeisance to letters and telegrams.

Fast-forward to the 20oos, an era during which techpreneurs face the daunting task of making their ideas and software turn into more than food on the table.

The business of making money out of ICT is not as straightforward as sending an e-mail, hence many people cannot understand the fixation some have on information technology.

Technology has produced the largest number of business casualties in the world's history. The success rate is extremely low, but once gold is struck, it remains as solid for as long as one can keeps their senses on point, provided the socio-economic environment remains favourable.

So, why is technology, this much-talked-about thing, not taking us to nirvana? There are a number of reasons, and we will deal with them one by one:

Hype

The only things that can "out-hype" technology with varying certainty are babies, politics, terrorism, war, and entertainment. As expected, these too produce a large number of casualties.

Technology built around hype is the new order, with ideas that should work not really working, and those that should not work actually doing so. Hype is necessary in technology, but under specific terms.

For instance, hype is cool when a service achieves above and beyond its expectations for a significant number of quarters and actually becomes profitable. Is it easy? Not quite. Creating the service is not even Step 1, but just one variable among many.

Before getting down to building a software application, one needs to understand the value expected by the audience. That value is not possessed in one person's mind, but should be perceived by the audience, which should then determine the hype you deserve.

However, in many cases, the techpreneur and friends create the hype without ever delivering value. The highest online value creates relevance and longevity.

Look at it this way, e-mail adds value to companies and individuals because it has hastened communication and requires very little overhead. It is easy to use and generally available to everyone at low cost. The value generated vastly outweighs the overheads.

Now, if most techpreneurs would look at their work that way, there would be a huge reduction in the number of casualties. Unfortunately, a large following of today's world believes in the hype created on social media, which is proving to be an extremely bad mistake. Value is far greater than hype.

Cloning

A Brazilian journalist who was in Kenya to do a story on local technology made a comment that made me realise two things.

First, I was the wrong person to be talking to, and second, there are just too many clones around. She stated that since she had arrived here, everyone she had met was doing some form of mobile payment system or cash transfer system.

There is a lot of truth in those sentiments and if you look around, there are many payment systems in Kenya, all trying to either dethrone Safaricom's M-Pesa or complement it, and few people have met success, especially without the M-Pesa application programming interface (API).

The question became, what was everyone else doing? More importantly, how were they surviving?

A market, depending on its size, should only have as many players as those that can actually survive being there. Sadly, there are probably no more than 10 money payment providers making any money.

There are many more players in the market, which makes understanding what they do difficult. Worse is the attempt to clone existing Western technology to fit this market, in the form of services and apps, among other peripheries.

The type of service in this case is irrelevant, considering the one key factor that glaringly exists — practicality.

As I have been taught, and now preach, just because it works in the West does not mean it will work here. It may, but it would be within limited degrees of success.

For instance, the local version of the group buying model was very touch-and-go in the beginning, but chances of a success story were worse than slim. It simply did not make any economic sense and the model they were trying to replicate was actually facing stiff challenges.

To this day, the whole theory feels weak, it makes sense from a promotional sense, but to imagine that this would be a daily beat reminds me of the dotcom bubble.

That said, you have to admire Kenyans for their innovation. They have managed to modify the plan and are now having a much easier time becoming a solid business.

The question of whether this is long-term success or just a way of stemming the bleeding is yet to be seen.

But the short of it is simple, we need to build things relevant and practical for this market. Just because a company in London has made a billion pounds does not mean that if you copy them, it will work. Some markets just do not work that way.

Management

"You will not make money unless you are having fun," goes a popular quote. I agree. When you are doing something, liking it is not enough commitment. Loving it is.

It is not a choice. It is a fact. A common problem is when deals are reached between startups and existing multinationals.

While the techpreneur loves this, the multinational sees a cash cow. It is the dream deal when you get a huge multinational to call you a partner. It is the road to success. If they are big, you will be big.

Right before signing away the intellectual property rights and a soul or two, there are two questions that are rarely confronted; what is in it for me in the long term?

And second, who will manage what? They may seem like two simple harmless questions, but believe me, if it does not work out, those will be the two questions plaguing your mind more than anything else.

The first question basically designates your soul to the deal. The thesis of it being a good or bad deal is detailed here, and there are offers that will leave you worse off, probably in debt and with a tattered reputation.

Let us face it, the multinationals were there way before the social media craze and will be there long after, unless we have Enron-like stories hanging around.

The same multinationals will be your friend in good times, but you will be their scapegoat when things go wrong, whether or not it was your fault. It is business.

Hence the second question: Who manages what? In this case, very unlikely it is the techpreneur. Put yourself in the position of the multinational, investing the money and equipment.

You just cannot afford to lose. Techpreneurs are simply considered contract workers, doing something for the multinational under extremely harsh terms.

They become true partners when they make a lot of money for the multinationals. This approach has left a very bad taste in almost everyone's mouth.

The person with the idea may not necessarily make the best manager, but biased management does not work either. Neither does co-leadership, as we have learned from Research In Motion.

The solution? Find someone else, an external person, whose duty is to maintain the relationship between both parties and whose main focus is to the interest of the business and not to either parties.

The only other solution is to get absorbed by the multinational, sign over your intellectual property and, just like the monopoly game, Go Back To Start.

By KAHENYA KAMUNYU